Spinosaur

Chapter 3: John Hammond

I recently received word of a Spinosaurus bonding with a young wizard in Britain. Now this is interesting news, as that means Artemis is no longer the only bonded Spinosaurus. She still receives attention here in America, and my mom is now worried about the safety of nearby animals around me and for my health just by looking at Artemis's teeth and claws. Artemis has accepted my mom, but she DOES take advantage of my mom's fear in order to go fishing with me. A simple growl makes my mom unnerved and she walks with me to a nearby lake in my home town. Occasionally, she even lets me ride her neck.

As for the British Spinosaurus, apparently she bonded to the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, of all people! He unknowingly followed my example of naming her after a Greek Goddess. While I named mine after the Greek Goddess of the Hunt, he named her Eris, Greek Goddess of Chaos.

Fitting name.

There were those at InGen who wanted to "reclaim" the lost "asset" from him, but John Hammond shut them down. After all, he reminded them that the Spinosaurus is not on the list of dinosaurs that will be featured in Jurassic Park due to Artemis' sister...the first created Spinosaurus hatching minutes before Artemis and was made accidentally. So, He had me speak with the Goblins and from the Potter accounts, we "sold" him Eris...for one Galleon. Hey, the Spinosaurus is not ready to be featured in Jurassic Park in it's opening sometime in 1993, we'd rather not risk ANOTHER one rampaging! As of now, we sent a "muggle" certification of ownership via Hammond himself. For some reason, the Goblins detected something with magic intercepting his mail. The gold is just a formality and legality to a transfer of ownership, as Hammond was pleased to hear him caring for the Dinosaur with love instead of it being an "asset" or "weapon" to him. For his dream, Hammond is like a big kid with a love for the dinosaurs he has made.

INGN-S1 has been given a formal name at the "Jurassic Park Site B"; Isla Sorna Research station. There was an...incident where she snuck up people in a research boat watching the Pterosaur behavior and ate them. That's the main reason Hammond stonewalled InGen's attempt at getting the "tame" Eris...Good thing people working there were under a VERY tight contract that prevents lawsuits...that would cause even more problems.

She is now named Asesino by researchers there. It is a fitting name, as it is the Spanish word used for "killer", "cutthroat", "assassin", "murderer", and "slayer". Asesino unnerves even me, and I am bonded to a Spinosaurus. Her behavior is far more aggressive; killing other predators for their territory and eating anything she can sink her teeth into. Artemis's attempts to talk with her sister have led to Asesino attempting to attack her.

I can tell Artemis is taking it very badly. While we did see a few other Spinosaurus on Isla Sorna after the accidental creation of Artemis and Asesino, they put as much distance from Asesino and Artemis as they can, some bear scars from attacks by Asesino where she tried to kill them for territory. Even the multiple, mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex on Isla Sorna keep to other parts of the island, rather than risk injury. Boy were they NOT happy to see Artemis...

Due to these mishaps, I spend as much time with Artemis as I can, showering her with affection and love, but I can feel that it's not enough. She feels like her species is bad...

As soon as I can, I'll see if I can talk to John Hammond about bringing Mr. Potter and Eris to Isla Sorna so I can prove Artemis wrong. Though I do wonder...can other species of Dinosaurs bond with wizards? John Hammond has hired two other American Wizards, a married couple simply known as Wes and Jamie, and are keeping those two around the egg of an Irritator challengeri and Suchomimus tenerensis respectively - Journal of Andrew Stormchaser, wizard, former InGen employee, and bonded to the Spinosaurus Artemis.

Arriving at Privet Drive made Harry's stomach sink uncomfortably. Eris sensed his discomfort and growled loudly, her voice shaking the car she was in. Once at Number 4, Hermione gave Harry's hand a squeeze before he climbed out as Eris slunk out of the car as Vernon Dursley stormed out as Mr. Granger got Harry's luggage from the boot (trunk) of the car. "BOY!" He yelled as Harry flinched. Eris reared up in front of Harry and roared as loud as she could, making Vernon fall on his rear as the neighbors looked at the "strange lizard" by Harry. That roar made Petunia, who had been coming out, scramble into the house as Vernon crawled backwards and then ran as fast as he could into the house and locked it. Harry sighed as he patted Eris on her head.

"Want me to help you set up the tent?" Hermione asked. Harry glanced at her and nodded as he moved into the backyard with Eris following his every move. Pulling the folded tent from his trunk, he struggled to get it set up, often becoming tangled in the lines as Mrs. Granger giggled at the sight. Eris growled at the lines, occasionally snapping at one, but eventually the tent was successfully set up. Harry poked his head into the tent, and then reeled back in shock.

Hermione noticed that and stuck her head into it as well. "No way..." She said as she sat back and stared at Harry, "It's like a small HOUSE in there!" Eris snorted and walked into the tent and, to the adult Granger's shock, completely disappeared into it with no sign of her sail extending the side or top of it. At that point Harry crawled into it and the adults knelt down and moved aside a flap. Inside the tent was fireplace, small kitchen, dining room table, and a couple beds with windows looking outside on wooden floors. The curtains were an emerald green with nice navy blue sheets on the beds. By the shelf in the kitchen there was what looked like a fridge to store food. In a corner was a walled off section with an ajar door revealing a bathroom.

"No wonder you said it was like a small house." Mr. Granger said, and Eris looked up and sniffed her new surroundings. She let out a huff and crawled into one of the beds and curled up. Harry gave a small chuckle watching his familiar curl up as he let Hedwig out, who promptly flew to a chair and perched on it and started preening herself. Eris's tail flopped off the bed as she let out a huff and lifted her head and glanced at Harry and Hedwig. Hermione stayed behind as her parents went to a nearby grocery store, watching Harry placed his trunk near his bed and sat down near Eris as Hedwig flew over to his shoulder so he could rub her feathers.

The Granger family had seen his Uncle's reaction to him being brought home, and were now VERY concerned for him. However, at the time they couldn't start a legal custody battle...but they could at least make sure he had enough to eat until he left for Hogwarts. As for why they couldn't start a legal battle, there wasn't any proof at the moment besides what they saw. They hadn't gone inside, and saw only one piece of evidence. No, it was better to lay in wait and gather evidence.

Father's outdoor nest feels similar to the cold nest, a strange ambiance tingled on my scales and senses, and it was much larger on the inside of the outdoor nest than on the outside. Fluffy-Beta is proving herself to be a good potential mate for Father, her parents helping take us to where prey-humans related to Father are. Now they are gathering food to provide for our pack of two.

This outdoor nest is nice and warm, a good environment to safely grow in. Flying Snow Hunter that helps Father has mentioned small rodent prey around the area, but they are her specialty.

Speaking of rodent prey, if that one with the mixed human-animal scent is back at the cold nest next time we're there, I'll have to have Father investigate it. Once Fluffy-Beta's parents returned with food, Father got to work storing it. Out of his pocket fell an oddly-shaped packet. This got my attention as I slunk out of the soft nest inside the outdoor nest. On it, there were the strange symbols father spoke in. I drew upon his memories to read...chocolate frog? What is a chocolate frog? I must know!

It took a little bit of working around it, but I pulled this object on the casing with my claws and a small, brown hopping prey jumped out of it. I gave a yelp of confusion and lumbered after it. It hopped under the table, and I stretched my neck after it and snapped at it, but the small hopping prey leaped to the other side of the table. This was...fun! I had to hunt!

It leaped at the opening to the outdoor nest and I snagged it in my mouth and bit down. Instead of blood, there was this sweet flavor in it. Was that, chocolate? How exciting! Humans invented a treat they had to hunt!

Oh chocolate frogs! Was everyone watching me? Sure enough, Fluffy-Beta and her parents were laughing. I snorted in embarrassment and moved to Father and curled up facing away from them. Father gave me a wonderful soothing scratch on my head between my crests, and I rumbled happily that my Father didn't think less of me going after sweet prey-treat.

We ended up in a routine for a couple weeks. Father would let me hunt any raccoon or wild creature in the backyard, or if nothing was there he would get me some stored meat. He would work on something called 'homework' for a while before doing some green work for prey-human's house. Large adult prey-human once threatened father, but ran back inside when I snapped at him. Good. He should be afraid, if Father wasn't here I would have feasted on him. Then, one day I smelled something in the bushes. I growled and my father saw it too... a pair of green eyes stared out of it, and it kind of smelled like rival-prey with cleaning supplies mixed with it. I rumbled thoughtfully as I weighed my options. On one claw, I could ignore it...but on the other claw, it had ties to rival-prey. I made my decision.

I lunged forward and snagged material in my teeth and pulled out a small wrinkly creature with green eyes and bat ears dressed in a pillow case. The pillow case ripped and letters to father fell out, and I saw red. This prey was stealing things belonging to father! Everything seemed to shrink, and I saw my feet completely cover the letters. My head easily looked over the fence and I was taller than outdoor nest. I snapped at the thief-prey and it disappeared in a soft pop. I stepped off the letters and gazed into the clear material, having to crouch down to do so.

My adolescent coloration had come in. Red was at the top of my back fin with tiger-like stripes of red going down the fin between the black tiger-like stripes across my body. The fin under the red was completely blue, and the blue went halfway down my body to above my shoulders. The upper half of my head, neck, and tail were even blue, and there were red markings around my eyes.

Harry couldn't believe how quickly Eris had grown. Without her sail, she was now three meters tall (9.84 feet) and was five meters long (16.4 feet) and her coloration had become more blue with a red marking around her eyes. While he wondered what on Earth the strange creature was that Eris attacked, he quickly became angry when he saw what had fallen from it's possession; letters to HIM his friends had written. Eris looked at her coloration and was rumbling happily. But then, Eris glanced up and he soon heard the sound of propellers in the air as he saw a helicopter circle around the backyard of Number 4 Privet Drive before landing in the main road. The copter was mostly white with some blue, and had the words InGen on the side of it. A door opened and an old man in a white suit with a tan cane that had a piece of amber on the tip of it climbed out of the copter. He had a neatly trimmed white beard, blue eyes sparkling behind glasses, and a tan hat with a white stripe.

The man's eyes lit up when he saw Eris and Harry stroking her head as he moved over, using his cane to help walk. "My, she's beautiful!" He said, as he approached Harry and Eris eyed him warily, rumbling in warning, "Don't worry beautiful, I'm not here to hurt him." He said, holding his arms to the sides as Eris stared at the man's face. "Now where are my manners, I'm John Hammond, Director of InGen."

"Um...I'm Harry Potter, and this is Eris..." Harry said nervously, not used to the man's reaction to Eris. Most people were shocked or afraid of her.

"This is the second time I've seen a Spinosaurus bond to a wizard." John said, pulling out a laminated certificate, "And this should help you keep her in this side of the world, a transfer of ownership and certification to care for her. I've already had an employee talk to the Golbins, legally transferred for the cost of one galleon." Harry suddenly became afraid of the implications."

"Excuse me, but...you mean...you...made her?" Harry asked while holding the laminated certificate, and Eris lowered herself and placed her head against Harry.

"Well, one cannot make a park dedicated to sharing my love of dinosaurs without dinosaurs." John chuckled, "Barring any problems, Jurassic Park will open sometime next year." Harry's eyes lit up as he happily stroked Eris's head.

"My employee who bonded with a Spinosaurus, he named her Artemis by the way, said that Artemis is fiercely loyal, but you had to treat her right, is there anything different about her behavior I could add to my notes?" John asked as he stiffly sat down on the grass as Harry did the same.

"First, she started calling me Alpha soon after hatching, but it has recently changed to father." If anything, the excited look of Hammond became even more excited at that declaration. John reached out and stroked Eris's snout gently.

"A close bond, like Andrew and Artemis." John said, and Eris snorted in confusion as Harry tilted his head.

"Who?" Harry asked as Eris laid down and stared at this "John Hammond".

"Ah! Andrew Stormchaser is an American Wizard I hired who imprinted and then familiar bonded to an infant Spinosaurus he named Artemis. We recently had two more employees imprint on an Irritator and Suchomimus. " John said with a nostalgic smile as those species names made Harry pause.

Spinosaurus. Irritator. Suchomimus. Family Spinosaurdiae.

John had other species of Eris's family cloned!

"Ah yes! Artemis had a little trick she came with and...I thought maybe seeing it would help you with Eris." He said, walking back and rummaging through the side of a helicopter. He eventually came back with a black, bulky laptop with InGen written across the top of it. He opened it an scrolled a little until he pulled up a video and turned to show Harry and Eris. On it was a bulky brown haired man with brown eyes wearing blue pants, black boots, and a gray shirt with a red and black logo of a Tyrannosaurus skeleton with the words "Jurassic Park" on it on the back. In front of him was a gigantic Spinosaurus. She was beautiful.

She had a completely red sail and blood red eyes with veins of brown going from the iris to the pupil, Her body had blue scales going to her tan underbelly and lower jaw, and her black tiger-like stripes went from just beyond her eyes-over her nostrils-to her lower legs and stopping just before the tip of her tail. A stripe of red went from the top of her head between her crests, across her back and down across the top of her tail. She was 7 meters tall (22.9 feet) and 25 meters long (46 feet). Her jaw was long enough to snap up an adult man in a single bite. Eris stared at the adult female Spinosaurus in the video with interest. Then, to their shock, she just quickly and suddenly shrunk. She was growling something out while being filmed, and Harry caught the words "Suppress", "Size", and "Intent" in it. Eris stared at the video, and then suddenly shrunk to the same size she was in the Granger's car.

"This is amazing." Harry said, rubbing the top of Eris's head as she rumbled contentedly.

"If it were possible I'd invite you to the park I'm making, but my company board vetoed that idea since they don't want any non employee on that island until our test run." John said, muttering a few choice words under his breath after saying that, "However that DOESN'T mean I CAN'T take you to the research island we have...but I have to have everything set up."

"I have boarding school during the year, but would the day after Christmas suffice? And could I bring some friends?" Harry asked.

John's face was absolutely giddy "As long as there are no photographs, certainly. Should we meet at the London City airport?" Harry nodded and held his hand out for John to shake, which he eagerly did.

Days after John Hammond had departed, the Weasley family had gathered around the kitchen table...well, most of them. Bill, the oldest son, was off in another country working as a Curse Breaker for Gringotts, and Charlie, the second oldest, was in Romania working at a dragon reserve. Molly was dishing out some pancakes to Fred, George,Percy, Ron, and Ginny as her husband Arthur was reading the paper.

"You know Dumbledore said that Harry could be brought over tomorrow." Molly said, and Ginny turned red imagining being the famous wife of the "Boy-Who-Lived". However, her younger sons paled.

"NO!" Percy yelled as he jumped away from the table and ran into his room.

"What's his problem with the boy?" Arthur said.

"It's not so much the boy" Fred (or George) said.

"It's his familiar. You don't want it around unless you want it to fix our garden gnome problem." The other twin finished.

"What's bad about a lizard who's species name means 'spine lizard'?" Arthur asked.

"That thing's a carnivore." Ron gulped, "It had sharp teeth and claws even when hatched, and it always sizes you up, like you could be the next meal it had...and you didn't see it EAT Professor Quirrell after he attacked Harry!"

Molly blanched and Ginny paled as the last statement broke her from her daydream.

As Molly went to open her mouth to start one of her famous tirades, Arthur put a hand on her shoulder.

"Molly, the Ministry approved it being his familiar, but if it helps I can check in on him" Arthur said. After they finished breakfast and went to do some chores and Arthur exited the house and disappeared with a loud POP similar to a gunshot. He reappeared outside a house with a number 4 on the door of it He stepped onto the lawn but movement caught his eye as a snowy owl brought a rolled up Daily Prophet to the backyard. Following the owl, Arthur was surprised to see a Wizarding Tent in the backyard, with a young witch Ron talked about-Hermione-he reminded himself leaving it with her parents. Upon seeing him, the three grew wary.

"What are you doing here? And who are you?" Hermione asked, keeping a wary glance at the man.

"I'm Arthur Weasley, Ron's dad. We were just worried about Harry when Ron said how scary his familiar is." Arthur said, and Hermione relaxed. Her parents however, kept a close eye on him and watched as he stumbled back as he flipped open the flap of the tent and Eris's large head poked out and growled at him.

While she could control her size, she preferred her larger adolescent size as to better protect her father when not under scrutiny. Arthur fell flat on his rear as she scrambled for his wand. Once he found it he pointed it at the creature and stared at the head of the creature for a few seconds before he came to a startling realization.

THIS was Eris the Spinosaurus.

A pit formed in his stomach, but was lessened when Harry stuck his head out next to Eris's. "Ah...Hello! I'm Arthur Weasley, Ron's dad." He offered weakly. A growl came forth from Eris's throat as saliva strung from her teeth as she opened her mouth and leaned forward.

"She's upset about your wand being pointed towards me." Harry simply said, making Arthur blink and look at his wand before tucking it away. Once he did that, Eris's growling stopped and she closed her mouth. She stepped forward slightly, exposing part of her sail as her snout went up near Arthur's face and she inhaled before exhaling hot air from her nostrils and slinking backwards back into the tent. Harry smiled apologetically at him. "Sorry about that, she's rather protective about me."

"N-No problem." Arthur stammered, not believing his own words, "I was just wondering why Ron was so afraid of it." After that sentence, he heard growling from the tent.

"Her." Harry sternly corrected.

"Sorry. Her." Arthur added, and the growling stopped, "I...I won't keep you from your work, but tomorrow is Diagon Alley." He said.

"My family can drive us to the Leaky Cauldron." Hermione said, "So let's meet by Gringotts."

"That will work. Thank you." Arthur said, before quickly moving away from the yard and bringing a hand to his chest to still his pounding heart. "Eris would give Ginny nightmares!" He quietly said, before disappearing in a loud POP.

The next day saw Harry close up his tent and fold it back up before putting it in his trunk and the Granger family waiting in the car for him as a smaller Eris followed him as he put the trunk back into the boot. Living in the tent had been the BEST summer he ever had and he thanked every god and star for Eris. With the Grangers dropping off Hermione and food, and Eris scaring away the Dursleys, he actually felt...somewhat normal. Besides his gardening chore, and homework, he didn't have to worry about constant verbal vitriol from the Dursleys or "Harry Hunting". Polkiss learned that the hard way when Eris slammed into him. With posters and Telly advertisements of a "Jurassic Park" coming next year or two, the Dursley's couldn't blame Eris on magic either!

So here he was, talking to Hermione as he pet Eris's head as they drove to London...eager for the Christmas trip to the research island and wondering what that creature Eris scared off was.