Disclaimer – I solemnly swear that JKR owns everything Harry Potter. Whether or not I am up to no good with her characters is for you to decide.
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Harry Potter: Dragon Whisperer
Chapter 20 – What?
11:53pm
Wednesday, 17 August 1995
Australasian Dragon Preserve, Australia
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SPEAKER!
Harry bolted upright in bed, instantly wide awake. Not that he'd really been asleep.
SPEAKER!
He clapped his hands over his ears, even though the roar was as much in his head as an audible sound.
SPEAKER!
His eyes widened as realisation hit. It'd happened. The trap! The eggs! In an instant he was up and racing for the door.
The flicker of memory, one where this had happened before and he'd raced out in just his pyjamas pants in answer to a dragon call – even if this time he was wearing a shirt as well, it being winter here in Australia – prompted him to remember the slap over the back of the head that he'd received for his recklessness. Thus, Harry thrust his hand behind him even as he kept moving forward. The feel of his wand slapping into his palm gave him hope that this time, he wouldn't get in so much trouble.
A vicious, ice-cold wind had him flinging his arm up to shield his eyes, even as the door to the cabin was all-but ripped out of his hand. He blinked up at the black sky where the barest shapes of clouds swirled above.
No, he realised. Not clouds. And the sky wasn't starless. There were pinpricks of white up there; they were just overpowered by the multicoloured glow of gleaming points of light every which way he looked. Lights with a decidedly red tinge. Eyes. Dragon eyes. Hundreds of them. The sky was filled with dragons. Every Opaleye, it seemed, was hovering over the camp, their wings beating to keep them steady, the resulting downdraft rippling his clothes against him and whipping sand and every loose object into a frenzy.
SPEAKER!
The roar of the combined dragons was almost unbearably loud and Harry winced, clapping his hands over his ears once again, a futile effort that did nothing when the noise seemed to be coming from inside his mind just as loudly as from outside his body.
§I'm here!§ he yelled.
Vaguely, Harry recognised that there were others bursting from their own cabins, but he ignored them, his focus on the dragons above.
Concentrating, he caused a ball of light to appear directly in front of him. A narrowing of his eyes had it doubling, tripling in size and intensity before he banished it to hover a metre above and in front of him.
Now, he could see.
The ground around him burst into being as though it was daylight, not that Harry really noticed, his concentration fixed on dragons above him. Not that he could see much up there. Even squinting, it was hard to make out exactly which dragons were closest to him – the scales from their underbellies only enhanced and reflected the light that he'd projected.
§Cantrum! Dankrum! Where are you?§
A dragon descended in front of him, his long sinewy neck extended down, well past his lower legs to stare at Harry.
§Zanzyn!§ Harry said, recognising the scar that extended down from the dragon's lower jaw to his neck.
§Speaker! We need you!§ Zanzyn stated.
§I'm here!§ Harry reassured him. §What's happened? Is it the clutch?§
§The clutch remains safe and untouched,§ Zanzyn replied.
§Did the trap work?§ Harry asked excitedly.
§We followed the taste of the magic,§ was Zanzyn's only reply.
Harry didn't wait. He ran. Bright, glittering, swirling eyes followed him as he raced through the camp and to the clearing where everything had been set up, his ball of light keeping pace, lighting his way.
He was the first there. Well, first human, even though he was certain that the rest of the dragon keepers were on their way. The cage was surrounded, the flight of dragons swirling above it like a cyclone, keeping the cage as the eye of the storm.
The fact that the cage was still there surprised Harry – if, as he thought, that the culprit, the thief, had been caught, then it wouldn't have surprised him if the cage had been burnt to ash in dragon fire, and the thief along with it. But he'd asked then not to. Apparently, being the Speaker and bearing the Mark carried enough weight to stop dragon flame.
Harry skidded to a stop a couple of metres out from the cage. What he saw had him staring, his wand automatically coming up to point, training on … whatever it was. Soft thumps to either side of him told him that Cantrum and Dankrum had landed.
§What?§ he asked, barely registering that he'd spoken.
§The thief,§ Dankrum replied, disgust clear in her voice.
The thief, whatever the name of its species was, was simply ugly! There was no other word for it. Never before had Harry seen anything like it. Not in person. Not in a book. He hadn't even heard of anything like this ever described before.
Size wise, it was comparable to a Labrador and, while it did have four feet, a head and a tail, that was where the comparison ended. The thing was skeletal thin. As it passed the bars of the cage that confined it, it seemed to notice him, its black eyes boring into him. It shifted, allowing Harry to see that it had an incredibly thin front-on profile, despite its boxy head. Its front legs especially looked powerful, ending with webbed feet, just like its rear feet. Its skin was a dark reddish-brown, not unlike mud, with only the hair on the back of its neck and tip of its tail being slightly lighter in colour.
"What…?"
Not even Sirius' question, announcing his arrival, could turn Harry's head from the bizarre creature.
The creature's head moved, obviously taking in the newcomer, before shifting to look up through the bars to the hovering dragons. Its teeth – very long, very sharp teeth – were bared and a deep, guttural growl sent shivers down Harry's spine.
A heavy step that shook the ground had the creature backing up, its eyes now fixing on the approaching Dankrum.
Instantly, it dropped its head and its front paws began digging furiously at the ground. But they'd thought of that. This was a burrowing creature; it'd tunnelled in under the weyrs to reach the clutches. Thus, when this cage had been built, the floor was created using thick granite, something that only a dragon would have no trouble digging into.
"What …?"
The question was being repeated more and more now as each dragon handler appeared. The fact that they did so, knowing that they'd have to walk under the flight of dragons bare metres above them to get to the cage impressed Harry – there weren't many people on the planet who would have the courage to do that.
And then the creature did something that none of them expected.
Its body began to twist. Bones cracked. Sinews elongated. Its very shape began changing even as it pressed its snout up against the bars. The creature was contorting itself into something even thinner, a shape that would allow it to push itself through the gaps in the bars!
"Quick! We need to plug those holes! Completely seal the cage!" Remus shouted.
Instantly, men jumped forward, wands brandished. On one side, a stone wall was conjured. On another, the bars were transfigured, stretched and turned into a solid mass. A golden shield appeared on a third side, pressed right up against the bars allowing another to fill the gaps in the bars with sticks and stones and anything else that was handy.
But on the side that the creature was attempting to escape, they were hampered by the fact that the creature's snout was almost completely free.
Instantly, Harry thrust his wand forward, sending a series of stinging hexes to impact right between the creature's eyes. A grunt of pain and flaring of its eyes didn't mean that it retreated at all. A second set, these ones deliberately overpowered, had it jerking backwards. The instant that it had retreated to the 'right' side of the bars, Sirius conjured a glass wall.
"That won't hold it," Harry commented.
"Spelled unbreakable, It's not getting out of there in a hurry," Sirius replied.
§Let us flame the beast!§ Dankrum hissed.
Harry looked at her. Her eyes were swirling every shade of red, much of it so dark as to be almost unrecognisable as belonging to that colour spectrum.
§It deserves death!§ Cantrum agreed.
§To ash!§ another added. §It does not even deserve the dignity of being food.§
§I understand how you feel. How all of you feel. I feel exactly the same,§ Harry told the combined dragons, looking around at them. §But we need to wait. Give us time to study the creature, learn about it. To make sure that there are no others around so that your clutches will be safe.§
§The Speaker is wise,§ Dankrum allowed, the red in her eyes lessening the tiniest amount. §We must have patience, if only for our clutches yet to come.§
She swung her neck around then, her gaze switching from the caged creature to stare into Harry's.
§But mark my words, Speaker, this creature is marked for death and only our respect for you is staying our flame. When you have learned all you can, it will be flamed. We are watching and our patience is not endless.§
Harry nodded. §I understand. And agree.§
As one, Dankum and Cantrum leapt skywards their wings beating hard as they ascended through the gap left by their brethren. Then, as one, the dragons of the Australasian Dragon Preserve soared away towards their weyrs.
"What was that about?" Sirius asked.
Harry looked at him. "The dragons aren't happy. They want to flame that … that … whatever that is."
"Bunyip."
"What?" Harry asked, spinning about.
"Bunyip," Andy replied, stepping out of the shadows, the lines on his dark skin even more pronounced.
"You mentioned that creature before," Remus commented. "I thought that they weren't real?"
"They're real to my people," Andy replied grimly. "We've known about them for hundreds and hundreds of years. Just no one's seen them since long before white man came to this land."
Harry glanced back at the now-named bunyip, watching as it paced backwards and forwards in its cage.
"To be fair," Andy said, scratching the back of his neck, "I'd thought that they'd died out years ago. Seems I was wrong about that."
"Did you know that it could contort itself, change its body shape, like that?" Remus asked and Harry looked sharply at his adoptive uncle. There was something there, something in his voice.
"No. That's new," Andy replied. "And explains a lot."
"Like how it was able to burrow in under the weyrs in such a small hole to get the eggs," Charlie commented.
"What do you know about it? About bunyips?" Harry asked.
"Not as much as any of us would like," Andy replied. "I thought that they'd died out, remember? But one thing I do know is that I would never have expected a bunyip to be here. They're natural habitat is a billabong."
"A what?" Sirius asked.
"Billabong. Water hole," Andy replied. "Maybe a river or creek or a swamp. But the ocean? Never would have picked that."
"So, what do we do with it, now that we've caught the thing?" Charlie asked.
"We study it and learn as much about it as we can," Remus replied. "Before eventually finding somewhere safe to release it."
"Somewhere far from here," Sirius nodded.
"No," Harry countered forcefully, shaking his head. "That can't happen. Learn about it, yes. But release it? No. The dragons won't go for that. That thing took the eggs of three clutches and attempted to take the last clutch tonight. I've bought us some time to study the bunyip but not a lot. Before too long, the dragons will be back to flame the bunyip and nothing, not even I, will be able to stop them. Not that I really want to."
The other three stared at him with a mixture of understanding and disappointment on their faces.
"Harry …" Remus began.
"No," Harry said, putting up his hand to stop what he knew Remus was about to say. "I don't think any of us want to see what a flight of angry dragons can do if we try to defy them on this."
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9:15am
Thursday, 18 August 1995
Australasian Dragon Preserve, Australia
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"What do you have there, Pup?"
Without looking up, he raised a finger, bidding his godfather to wait.
…I really need you to come as quickly as you can. I don't know how long the dragons will wait. And even though this is the only Bunyip that's been seen in hundreds of years, you'd have to think that there are more of them around? If we can learn enough from this one… Well, you can see where I'm going with it. So, please, Newt, if you can, come and come quickly.
Your friend, Harry.
Satisfied, well mostly, considering that he'd rambled somewhat in his haste to get the letter written, Harry folded the parchment, sealed it and looked up and around. Thankfully, Sharon knew what he was doing and quickly caught his eye. Holding up the letter, she nodded and quick-stepped across to him.
"You think he'll come?" she asked, taking the letter from him.
Harry nodded grimly. "He'll come alright. There's no doubt about that. Whether he'll get here in time is another question entirely."
"Newt Scamander?" Sirius asked. "But isn't he back home in jolly old England? Albatrosses are good but even they're not fast enough to get to England that quickly. Won't the dragons have roasted that bunyip before the letter even gets to him?"
"If we were sending it by albatross, yeah," Sharon grinned.
Sirius stared between her and Harry.
"Well? Aren't you going to tell me? How are you sending it?" he near-exploded.
Harry considered making his godfather wait, after all, even old dogs needed to learn new tricks or in this case, patience. Sharon, though, seemed to have other ideas.
"It was Harry's idea. Bloody brilliant if you ask me. House elf and portkey," she laughed before giving a final nod to Harry and darting off to begin the process of letter delivery.
"Harry?" Sirius asked pointedly.
When Harry simply smiled up at him, Sirius placed a box on the table between them before deliberately trapping the box under his hand.
"I was going to give this to you. A present that's finally arrived. But if you're going to be a bad little pup, then maybe you don't deserve it," he said lightly.
Harry's eyes flicked from Sirius' face to the box. It was cubed and just a little longer than his godfather's hand on each side. A present? The concept was still a novelty for Harry and he wondered what it could be.
"Exactly how am I being a … how did you put it? A bad little pup?" Harry asked, his eyes still fixed on the box.
"You're withholding pranking information," Sirius replied.
Instantly Harry's eyes darted up, almost as high as his eyebrows. Pranking? He wasn't pranking anyone. At least not right then, although he could think of someone who needed a good prank. Maybe the dragons would like to help?
"You, my dear pup, are pranking the postal service of the world, getting around the tried and true, established method of sending mail," Sirius explained.
Harry hadn't considered it a prank but then, a Marauder could usually smell a prank a mile away. Smell … that gave Harry some more ideas, ideas the dragons would definitely be able to help with.
"Share or no present," Sirius stated, emphasising his point by lifting the box slightly and lightly bumping it back onto the table.
"We're sending the letter with a house elf by portkey," Harry shrugged. "The house elf – Skip – only needs to get close enough to England and then he can do his thing and pop straight to Newt and hand deliver it."
Sirius stared at him for a full thirty seconds before throwing back his head and giving a great big barking laugh. "Yep, that'd do it. Albatross would take too long. It's too far to Floo and even international portkeys need a couple of stops and are incredibly expensive. House elves would cut down on the time and cost. We'll make a Marauder out of you yet."
Suddenly, Sirius narrowed his eyes at his godson. "Maybe we need to start your Animagus training sooner rather than later."
"But I thought that Remus said…"
"Moony is an old worrywart and can be too cautious for his own good at times. But that's a discussion for another time," Sirius waved away. "Now, do you want your present or not?"
Harry nodded eagerly, his eyes instantly dropping back to the box. He watched excitedly as Sirius pushed it towards him.
"Thanks, Sirius," Harry said as he reached out and pulled the box towards him.
The lid was a snug fit and it took him a little bit of tugging before it finally parted with the rest of the box. His eyes bulged at the sight of the camera. It was an older style, bigger and boxier than its muggle counterpart. Slowly, carefully, he lifted it out, barely noticing that the white gel-like substance that it'd been sitting in lost its shape as he did so. It was mostly silver with black edging and three small buttons set at the top.
"There's an instruction book, if you want to bother with it," Sirius said, turning the lid of the box upside down so that Harry could see the small book tied with ribbon to it. "But really, all you need to know is look through that hole and press the button."
"There's three buttons, Sirius," Harry deadpanned.
"Right. Yes. Turn on the flash, take the picture and eject the film cartridge," Sirius replied, pointing to each one. "To make the picture move, you simply develop it in a special potion – the recipe's in the book or you can buy it from a shop."
"Thanks Sirius!" Harry beamed. "This is amazing!"
"Now you can take all kinds of photos. Maybe even take some and send them with your newspaper articles so everyone back home can see what you're describing," Sirius suggested.
"That's a brilliant idea!" Harry exclaimed.
He'd often had the thought that, while he was getting to see his dragon friends in real life, the best that his human friends would see would be the pictures that he'd either drawn or painted. Yes, Daphne had got to meet Ramaranth and the fledglings and the other dragons in Romania, but she'd never meet any of the dragons here or wherever else he ended up. And Neville, Hermione and Susan would never get to see any of them at all! Sirius' newspaper article idea was good too. Just so long as he didn't …
"And you can even add some into that book that you and Newt are writing," Sirius said, finishing Harry's thought. "I still say that it'll end up being a textbook one day."
Harry ignored him, instead wrapping his hands around the camera and bringing it up to look through the viewfinder. He was sure that he could think of dozens of better uses for a magical camera than that. Like getting a picture of Daphne the next time that he saw her. Or taking a photo of a prank going off!
Those ideas were really starting to flow and he couldn't wait to see the result. See, not smell.
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12:55
Thursday, 18 August 1995
Australasian Dragon Preserve, Australia
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The danger may have passed, the culprit captured and contained but that didn't mean that the dragons weren't still on watch. Most had returned to their weyr or had gone fishing in the ocean but there were still three full flights of dragons surrounding Shiklyn's weyr when Harry approached on his broom.
He'd been flying slowly, at a height that would not be seen as threatening. He'd even made sure that he'd taken a leisurely arc from the Handler Camp to the weyr, bypassing as many of the occupied weyrs as possible without seeming to look as though he was trying to sneak up on the single weyr that still contained the lone clutch of dragon eggs.
Harry knew that he would have been seen long before any of the dragons that were sitting on the lip of the sand hollow that made up the weyr took flight to join their brethren patrolling the skies above it.
§Speaker, what do you here at Shiklyn's weyr?§ Dankrum asked as she drew level with him, her head staying at the same height as him even as her body undulated with the flap of her wings.
§I wanted to make sure that all was well here,§ he replied. §May I land?§
Dankrum's answer was long in coming and Harry was forced to slow to a near-hover so that he didn't cross over the most precious of all the weyrs.
§You may,§ she finally replied.
The gentlest of leans forward had Harry's broom taking him to the ground. Below, he could see Shiklyn crouched protectively over her nest. Her wings were slightly unfurled, creating extra protection in an even wider circle around her eggs.
§The eggs are safe?§ Harry asked, even though he knew the answer. §The bunyip never touched them at all, did it?§
§The protections you placed were well-thought out. No harm or claw touched the fledglings-to-be,§ Dankrum replied.
§That's great!§ Harry grinned. §Those little dragons are going to be extremely special when they hatch.§
§It has been too long since fledglings flew these skies,§ Dankrum agreed.
§There will be more soon, won't there? The bunyip taking the other clutches won't stop your clan from having more babies, will it?§ Harry asked.
§No. There will be more fledglings in the next turn of the sun; many of the females are already looking to that future,§ Dankrum declared.
§That's great! I'm really happy to hear that,§ Harry said. §I'm glad that we could help.§
Dankrum looked away and Harry had the impression that what she was thinking wasn't something that she was comfortable with. The yellow tinge to her eye only reinforced that notion. Finally, she turned back and curved her long neck around so that she was snout to face with Harry.
§I thank you, Speaker for Dragons. You have taught us that not all two-legs are bad. And while we knew this, trust was not something that we were willing to give, even to the two-legs who look after this land where we weyr. Your Mark was well given. All Opaleyes stand with you and will aid you for all time, wherever and whenever it is required,§ she declared.
§You're welcome Dankrum,§ Harry replied, his ears feeling hot with the embarrassment of the compliment. §And thank you. I am deeply honoured just to have your friendship.§
§What of the thief?§ Dankrum asked.
§We're learning everything that we can about it as quickly as we can,§ Harry replied. §Hopefully in a couple more days we'll know enough to always be able to detect them if they get close to the weyrs again.§
§Agreed, Speaker,§ Dankrum said, her head swinging back to look down into Shiklyn's weyr. §A pair of days and then we will flame the thief as it deserves.§
Harry blinked. That wasn't what he meant. Not that he was going to argue. Two days wasn't anywhere near enough. It was simply his best guess for when Newt might arrive and be able to start finding the answers to the mystery of bunyip they were still looking for. The dragons, he knew, had already been more than generous with their patience as it was. Two days it was.