To begin with, the Hogwarts rumor mill was very quickly abuzz with the fact that the care of magical creatures class was going to be much more exciting and dangerous for a while. No one knew how (except Harry, Hermione, Neville, and probably Dumbledore) but Hagrid had acquired a juvenile Norwegian ridgeback – apparently the terms of keeping it were that he take full care of and responsibility for it, and somehow teach it not to attack students. Naturally, Hagrid needed assistance with the latter half of that requirement, and Professor Kettleburn had volunteered his students for the job. Though Hermione and Neville (and really, the entire student body) were wary, Harry threw caution to the wind and visited as soon as he could find a spare moment.
"Harry, welcome back!"
"Hello Hagrid, how are things with Norberta?"
"Oh it's hard work, but it's like a dream come true too. I always wanted a dragon ever since I was a lad, an' now I got one o' me very own."
It sounded like Hagrid wanted to continue, but a loud bark caught his attention… a bark Harry noted as being much louder than Fang ought to be able to make. Hagrid started going around towards the back of his hut, and a roar rang out as well.
"Fluffy? Norberta? You two better be playing nice back there or there will be no belly or chin scratches till after dinner!"
Before Harry could even register what Hagrid had just said, he turned the corner and saw a dragon, much larger than the Norberta he'd seen hatching, staring down an even larger three-headed dog, who could only be Fluffy after a few more months of growth. There was a large slab of meat between the two of them.
Seeing that a battle was about to erupt, part of Harry wanted to sit back and watch, but remembering that they were really both Hagrid's children (in a way), he went into conflict resolution mode. He started grunting and softly growling in the language of kaiju. He knew from last year that Fluffy could understand, and Norberta had at least understood his intention when she was a hatchling, so he hoped they both understood him now.
Norberta's eye flicked over to him, and one of Fluffy's heads glanced over as well. Then both creatures sniffed the air and seemed to recognize him, but neither of them said anything or looked away from the other. Harry started explaining that they were both Hagrid's kids and that they needed to get along.
At that point both blurted that they could not possibly be siblings. Fluffy said that Norberta was horribly deformed, missing her other two heads; at the same time, Norberta said that Fluffy had some awful disfiguring disease that covered his skin in some fuzzy rash.
Barely able to stop himself from laughing, Harry said that even if those were true, it should not stop them from loving each other as family. He talked about his own family, explaining as best he could about the tiny fairies who were his aunts; the village of humans that had helped feed and bathe him; Godzilla and Minilla, his colossal, scaly, father and brother; and finally Jet Jaguar, who despite being made of metal was his uncle and just as much a part of the family as anyone else… even if he was almost certainly gone for good.
Communication among kaiju was more art than science, and so Harry had really needed to feel for and about his family while communicating about them. Apart from the simplest words and phrases, it could not be translated into English (or any other human language for that matter), but it translated well enough to both magical creatures. The dog looked ashamed and whined for forgiveness, even if it was still eyeing the meat, and the dragon managed to looked sheepish. Norberta nudged the slab towards Fluffy, rumbling something vaguely apologetic. Harry gathered that Fluffy's heads had all been fighting to eat the slab themselves and Norberta had just plucked it from their jaws.
Hagrid clapped him on the back with enough force to nearly knock him over. "Well done Harry! I don' know what yeh did, but yeh did it even better than I could have."
Harry was flustered by the sudden praise. "I just talked to them about family and how families are supposed to love each other. I hope I didn't go to far – I, er, kind of implied to them that they're your kids and need to learn to get along."
Hagrid's face took on several expressions in quick succession. There was something like mirth, then surprise, followed by awe, and finally joy, and Harry suddenly found himself in a bone-crushing hug.
"Oh bless yeh Harry, and thank yeh! Ever since me da passed on I always wanted a proper family!"
"You're welcome Hagrid," Harry squeaked out as his lungs struggled for oxygen. Realizing that the giant man might let him go if he had something else to talk about, he asked, "By the way how did you get to keep Fluffy?"
Sure enough, Hagrid put him down to answer. Apparently Norwegian ridgebacks didn't necessarily imprint on the first thing they saw, but on their surroundings during their first months of life. By the time the ministry got wind of Norberta, removing her might cause fatal stress to her body. The ministry demanded that Hagrid find a way to control the dragon, and Dumbledore pulled a few strings while arguing that something else both large and magic resistant would be needed to keep a dragon in check, and just like that Hagrid was officially approved to keep both Norberta and Fluffy at his hut. As Hagrid ended just about every story about the headmaster, he added, "Great man, Dumbledore."
Harry was quiet for a moment, and then very softly asked, "Hagrid, why do you think the headmaster is nice to you, but seems to be so mean to me?"
"What? What's all this about?"
So Harry explained the facts as he knew them: that it had been Dumbledore who'd intended for him to be with the Dursleys, and who'd tried to get Harry to go with them over the summer even though they clearly seemed to hate him, and about how the headmaster and his bird had appeared on Monster Island to try to take him to the Dursleys yet again, only to take away his uncle Jet Jaguar instead.
"And the headmaster never sent an owl or a message, and he hasn't called me to his office. He just seems determined to pretend this didn't happen."
At the end of the story, Hagrid looked quite perturbed, but also confused. Dumbledore had always been good to him, but Harry's tale painted a portrait of a very different man. He'd never known Dumbledore to lie to him, but Harry had been honest since day one; a rule-breaker maybe, but not a liar. And Hagrid remembered Jet Jaguar from the island. Yes, he was a muggle golem, not a person, but Harry thought of him as such, and the golem seemed smarter than any that Hagrid had ever met, and had certainly seemed nice enough.
"There's some kind o' misunderstandin' here, there's gotta be. I need ter meet with Dumbledore in about a week to talk about how much food Norberta will need during the winter. I'll ask about yer uncle then, and this whole thing will get cleared right up, you'll see."
"I hope so Hagrid. I'll see you later – I think I'm going to take a nap before tonight's astronomy lesson."
Harry flung Ron's rat, Scabby or something like that, off of his bed and hopped in, only for his weariness to leave him. He sighed. He hated it when he was about to rest only to get an unexpected second wind. Still, the only way to get rid of the excess energy was to burn it off and now that he was at Hogwarts, that meant one thing: it was time to go exploring.
Donning the invisibility cloak he kept with him at all times, he began wandering the halls around Gryffindor tower with two goals in mind. First, he wanted to satiate his curiosity by finding Ravenclaw tower and second, he wanted to find some abandoned office or classroom where he could practice the spells in his new books, not to mention the one by Vindictus Viridian he'd bought last year.
Hogwarts was quite a large castle, but it often gave Harry the feeling that it was even bigger on the inside. He guessed that it probably had to be given all the rearranging stairs, doors that decided to lead elsewhere or nowhere at all, and mysteriously appearing rooms (although he hadn't found any more like that after the one on the seventh floor).
Harry's musings were interrupted by a sight that brought sudden rage to his heart, and a ferocity that startled even himself.
There was a circle of older Ravenclaws surrounding Luna, all holding one or more of her belongings and keeping them away from her as she tried to get them back. Harry thought he could see the beginnings of tears in her eyes.
Harry cast without thinking, only feeling, which may have been a mistake given the resulting smell. Since those Ravenclaws had been acting like scum, Harry figured he would make them look like it as well. The result was a loud bang and all of them fleeing, covered in constantly growing pond scum, dropping Luna's things as they did so.
"Luna… are you okay?"
Luna looked up, appearing confused. "Harry?" She couldn't seem to find him with her eyes… then Harry remembered.
"Oh, right." He removed the cloak and put it back into the pocket he reserved for it.
Once he was visible, he found himself in another of Luna's hugs, this one less friendly and more desperate. It made Harry angry simply because he knew why she was in that state, but he hugged her back. It was another lesson from Mothra and the Shobijin – to offer comfort and help before all else. Even Godzilla had agreed that unless enemies were still in the area, vengeance could wait.
"Who were those people Luna? I know they were Ravenclaws but do you know their names?"
"Only the leader. Marietta Edgecombe. I don't know why she's so mean…" she trailed off morosely.
"Sh… it's not your fault Luna. Some people are just broken in that way. Come on, let's gather up your stuff. Did they take anything else?"
"No… not yet anyway."
They followed the stench of filth and algae and collected Luna's dropped belongings, Harry occasionally casting "reparo" on items that had been damaged.
"What were you doing under your invisibility cloak Harry?"
"I like to explore the castle, but I get tired of people gawking at me everywhere I go. One of the other first years, Colin Creevy, has been really creepy, always trying to take my picture no matter what I'm doing. Makes me feel like I'm the subject of a National Geographic article."
Luna giggled a little, the first sign of mirth since this encounter began, but then asked, "A what article?"
"Oh, sorry. It's a muggle magazine. They write and take pictures of a lot of things, but I mostly know about them from all the photographers that come to Monster Island. Speaking of magazines, how do I subscribe to the Quibbler? I meant to ask you on the train but I forgot."
That brought the smile back to Luna's face, and she explained to him how to owl order things in the wizarding world. Then, despite his pleas that it wasn't necessary (he tried not to bring up the size of his vault) she insisted that she'd get him a discount for his friendship.
They walked the halls together after Harry mentioned his other goal in exploring the castle – finding a place for practical study. Harry was under the invisibility cloak and Luna held his hand under it. Harry worried that people would think she was strange, seemingly holding hands with thin air, but she commented that people already thought she was strange. Harry had huffed at that, but Luna told him not to get worked up, so they walked around like that. Luna looked like she was walking and talking with thin air… but anyone close enough could hear that the thin air was talking back! Neither of them knew it, but this would counter some of the rumors about Luna's weirdness, replacing malice and gossip with honest curiosity.
Their walk eventually brought them to a place Harry couldn't believe he hadn't thought of earlier – the now not-so-forbidden corridor on the third floor. The traps were long gone, but the trap door was still there (although it now had a ladder), as were each of the chambers. It seemed that in changing schedules and locations to free up this area last year, the staff had simply decided that they did not need it at all, and it looked as if it were completely abandoned.
Harry and Luna went through every door into the very last chamber. The Mirror of… whatever it was that Dumbledore had placed here was gone as well, leaving nothing but a nice open area.
"This is the perfect place to cast spells without hurting anybody or getting in trouble!"
"What kind of spells are you practicing anyway Harry?"
Harry hesitated for only the briefest of moments, then showed her the three books he planned on working on most.
"These are all very advanced magic. You could hurt yourself if you're not careful."
"I know, but remember how I said that Vol- er, sorry, You-Know-Who was here last year? I figure that if he's still around and after me, I can't rely on ordinary schooling to protect me. I mean, even I can admit that last year I got a lucky shot and that's the only reason I'm alive."
Luna looked distressed at the idea of Harry's death and asked, "Harry… what exactly happened last year? It wasn't in the Daily Prophet, and you said that Daddy's guess of aquavirius maggots was wrong. Do you mind if I tell him your version of the story?"
"Well… I guess it can't hurt anyone. Are you sure that the Quibbler will want this story?"
"It's not a Crumple-Horned Snorkack sighting no, but I think I could convince Daddy to write an article. So what happened?" Luna brought out a quill and parchment to begin taking notes.
"Well, you see, it starts out with the announcements before the welcoming feast. Dumbledore said that the corridor we're in right now was forbidden to anybody who didn't want to die a horrible death…"
Author's Note: First off, you should all know that after a very long break from doing so, I'll be posting all my stories and chapters to DeviantArt as well. The saga of Harry, second son of Godzilla, will be posted sometime later today.
Second, I want to address something that some people might see as an unnecessary break from canon. In the books, Luna is nonchalant about her missing items, but here she's almost in tears. That's because I had a moment of what TVTropes calls Fridge Horror: we don't meet Luna until she's in her fourth year; she's gotten used to the bullying by that point, which is why she can be so cavalier about missing so many of her things. In the books we never saw poor Luna having to adjust to having everything stolen from her and not getting help from anyone...
Finally, like I said, second year is where the real madness begins. You're starting to see it now with Hagrid getting to keep Fluffy and Norberta, but just you wait. It only gets crazier from here.