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 25 – Whose Side Are We On?
12:10pm
Tuesday, 23 August 1995
Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, Romania
.
Ramaranth's arrival in the middle of the compound caused much less stir among the dragon handlers than it once would have. The fact that a human was riding the dragon – one of only two to have ever done so – also was becoming more common place. This was, after all, Harry Potter, and even after the short amount of time that he'd been with them (not to mention what they'd seen at the First Task of the TriWizard Tournament), what he could do, no matter how unthinkable, was becoming the norm.
Thus, his sliding down the great Hungarian Horntail's side and striding towards the Lodge, a hard, determined expression on his face simply brought waves and greetings from the few who saw him.
"Harry!" Charlie called, seeing him as he burst through the door. "You're back."
"Come join us, Lad," Alexander called.
Knowledge of where he'd been and why must have been fairly common knowledge for he wasn't the only one who made a beeline for the table. A plate of stew was quickly put in front of him as he sat, and he offered a quick 'thank you' to Sirius. Automatically, he picked up the spoon but promptly put it down again. It might have been hours since he'd last eaten but right then, he wasn't hungry in the slightest.
"What's the word?" Alexander asked.
In lieu of an answer, Harry turned to Charlie.
"Do you still have that letter from that woman who offered you the Head Dragon Handler position in England?" he asked.
"Yeah, I've got it," he replied, sounding confused. "I kept it to show the Boss."
"Could you get it?" Harry asked.
Charlie gave him a quizzical look before jumping up and racing from the room.
"Harry?" Alexander prompted.
"Can we wait until Charlie's back, please," Harry asked. "I want to check something, see if what I'm thinking is right before I give you whole story."
"Very well," Alexander frowned, and Harry knew that he'd not wait a minute longer than that to find out why a strange dragon had turned up in his Reserve.
The waiting was tense with the nearly one dozen dragon handlers shifting restlessly on the benches and tables surrounding his own. Even Sirius and Remus seemed intent. No one spoke and, despite himself and more to be doing something than anything else, Harry found himself digging into his stew. The bowl was nearly half-gone when Charlie came running back in.
"I've got it!" he called.
Quickly, Harry grabbed it from him before he'd even sat, unfolded it and began speed reading. Instantly, phrases jumped out at him. The Common Welch Green and the Hebridean Black … Committee was upgraded to sub-Department status … an island within the Shetland Islands … Dragon Reserve of Great Britain. We anticipate locating and moving all of the dragons within Great Britain to the Reserve …
"Damn!" he cursed. His fears had been right.
"Harry?" Alexander asked when he looked up.
Taking a breath, Harry composed himself and dropped the letter in the middle of the table.
"Firstly, the Green that arrived, her name is Farlys," he began. "She was one of the dragons brought in for the TriWiz last November."
"I remember her," Charlie said. "It was because of your name coming out of the Goblet that we needed to go and find an extra dragon; we'd only brought the three with us. We made sure that she went back to her home afterwards, her and her eggs."
Harry nodded. "Exactly. And because she was at Hogwarts, I spoke to her after the Task. When what's been happening in Britain began, she came to find me in hopes that I could help her get home again."
"Get home?" Delilah asked.
"Yeah," Harry replied quickly. "Here's the kicker and, if we'd thought to read this better," here he slapped the parchment letter, "we'd have known what's been going on and thought about how it's affecting the dragons."
"They're making a new Reserve," Alexander stated, and Harry could see that he didn't need to explain anything else to him.
For everyone else, though, he kept going. "It says it right here. The British Ministry of Magic bought up an island and warded it to make it into a new Reserve. Once they'd done that, they started going out and finding all of the Common Welsh Greens and Hebridean Blacks and have started transporting them to the island."
"But wards don't keep dragons in. They can get out if they want to," Antony pointed out.
"We know that," Charlie replied, "But I'm betting that the MoM doesn't. Or, at least, didn't until Farlys up and flew away on them."
"What is it that the dragons want, Harry?" Alexander asked.
Harry sighed and shook his head. "They're confused and scared. Farlys came here as a last-ditch resort. Dragons seeking out men for help? Has that even ever happened before?"
"It's not unknown," Alexander replied slowly, "but incredibly rare and always only with dragons that have been in Reserves for a long, long time and only to dragon handlers who've worked with that particular dragon for decades."
"That's what I thought," Harry sighed. "This is a big deal. To the dragons, too. I think Memzath and the others are treading carefully with this, too. They'll be watching to see how we react."
"What is it that they want from you, Harry?" Remus asked.
"Speaker of Dragons, they call me," he said. "Their trusted Voice, someone who Speaks for Dragons and to their benefit. I think they're going to trust that I make things right and, however that looks, they'll abide by what I say."
"So, no pressure then," Sirius deadpanned, earning him a slap on the back of his head from Remus.
"What can you do, though, Harry?" Charlie asked.
"I don't know," Harry replied. "Yes, I can talk to dragons, but you are all dragon handlers. You've worked with dragons for years and know them better than anyone. What do you think should be done?"
"The dragons were happy enough in their own weyrs," Dimitri said. "I've never heard of any problems with the wild ones that lived in Britain."
"I don't know if they'd be allowed to go back to where they came from," Charlie replied. "Britain's Ministry of Magic can be pretty stubborn once it's made up its mind."
"Not to mention all of those galleons that they've just spent. Buying an island and getting it warded isn't cheap," Sirius stated. "They're going to want to see some kind of return for that investment."
"Is a new Reserve a bad thing?" Delilah asked.
"In theory, no," Alexander asked. "It may depend on who's running it. They asked Charlie, who turned them down. We don't know who is next in line."
"Did I do the wrong thing saying no?" Charlie asked.
"No, Lad, you did exactly the right thing," Alexander told him. "As good as you are, you don't even have your Mastery yet."
"They tried to recruit me last year after it became known that I could talk to dragons," Harry admitted.
"Talking to dragons is one thing; running a whole Reserve is a whole different bag of nifflers," Alexander assured him.
"What about the dragons on that island?" Antony asked. "How likely is it that they'll even stay there? I can see that, if they decided to go back to their weyrs, the British would simply track them down and transport them back. That could easily become a vicious cycle that could easily get out of hand, especially if the dragons became violent."
"There'd be too many losses on both sides," Delilah agreed.
"Just one death – human or dragon – would be one too many!" Harry stated forcefully.
"Easy there, Lad, we all agree with you," Alexander said.
"Sorry," Harry replied.
"Don't be!" Alexander said quickly. "Being passionate about dragons isn't just a Speaker thing, we all feel exactly the same."
Murmurs all around him reminded Harry that that was the case. And not just here in Romania, either. Andy and the other handlers in Australia felt exactly the same way.
"For now, if I'm reading what you've told us is right," Alexander said, nodding to Harry, "we've got some breathing room. What we need to do is find out more about this new Reserve, what's best for the dragons they've brought there and if there's a way for the dragons, the new Reserve and the British Ministry to work together."
Harry nodded, unsure exactly how they were supposed to accomplish that.
Abruptly, Alexander stood. "Right. Harry, once you've eaten, get back to the dragons, especially Farlys and see if you can buy us some time to find a solution. If this goes sidewards, it could affect not just those dragons and the new British Reserve, but all of us, including our dragons. The rest of you, you know your jobs."
"What about you, Boss?" Charlie asked.
Alexander picked up the parchment containing Charlie's offer of employment and scowled at it.
"Me? I've got some international Floo calls to make!" he stated.
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5:15am
Wednesday, 24 August 1995
Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, Romania
.
The bed under him felt familiar but in a distant way, as though he should know it, but that it'd been a while since he'd woken up in it. Eyes, still firmly closed in half-sleep, he frowned, trying to understand the conflicting feelings. But the mystery persisted and nothing in his sleep addled mind allowed him to solve it. Finally, he rolled over and opened his eyes.
The bed he was in was against a wall. Directly opposite him, across where the desk stood under the window, the early morning sunlight streaming in through curtains that did a poor job of blocking it out and illuminating the dust motes that evidently filled the room, were some built in cupboards with sliding doors.
More familiarity and he frowned. Suddenly, memory blossomed. His room! He was in his room in the little cabin that he, Sirius and Remus had been assigned at the Romanian Dragon Reserve. Not that he'd had much chance to be in this room – he'd barely gotten settled in before their emergency jaunt to Australia. But he was back now, and he relaxed into being home.
At least, he relaxed until the conversations from yesterday returned. Farlys. Her story of what was happening to her and to all the other dragons hidden across Great Britain. Alexander. The hard expression on his face when Harry retold Farlys' explanation of why she'd come. Harry's own anxiety began ratcheting up and the bed under him no longer felt comfortable. There were dragons confused, hurting, terrified. He couldn't let that stand. He had to do something!
Throwing the blankets off, he rolled out of bed. Dressing was done fast, as were his normal morning routines. The force that his Nimbus rocketed into his outstretched hand when he summoned it had him pausing, staring at it. Then, switching the broom to his other hand so that he could shake the sting out, he strode from the cabin.
The base was quiet, empty and Harry knew that he was the only one awake in the entire Reserve. Well, the only two-legged person awake.
Swinging his leg over the broom, he took off towards the top of the ridge. He lay low and brought his feet up behind him to create a smaller profile as he raced through the trees, zigging and zagging from side to side and up and down as he avoided branches that threatened to unseat him. Many tried, all failed.
And then he was up, over the crest of the ridge and looking down into the canyon. His eyes registered the sight even as he tipped the front of his broom over and straight down. He'd seen the dragons do it, fall from this height and flare their wings at just the right instant to catch themselves from smashing into the hard rock below and he was sure that he could replicate the flight on his broom.
His hands gripped the shaft, his eyes narrowed against the wind as he plummeted straight down. Faster and faster, closer and closer the ground came. It was exhilarating, freeing and he revelled in the speed and how fast his heart was hammering in his chest.
Now! he screamed at himself.
Pulling back hard on his broom and sitting up, his legs swinging from behind to in front of him in an instant, he levelled off his flight. For a fraction of a second, he thought that he'd misjudged it. He pulled harder, willing the broom to obey and then he was level, the very tips of his toes scraping against the ground before the broom was rocketing straight back up again.
"Woohoo!" he yelled with the thrill of the manoeuvre.
And then, all at once, he wasn't flying alone anymore. Dragons of every size and species in the weyr, including the green hue of Farlys which stood out in the early morning light, were surrounding him, flying alongside him, above and below and behind.
He laughed in joy, even as he greeted each of them.
The hatchlings were there, diving and tumbling about in the air, often times less than a broom length from him, daring him to fly harder, faster and to catch them. Harry, being the good 'uncle' that he was, obliged, pushing his broom to its limits as he flew rings and loops and spirals from one end of the great canyon to the other.
By the time that he pulled up to a hover somewhere above Ramaranth's cave, he was breathing hard, sported a grin from ear to ear and, most importantly of all, he'd bled off the tension and worry that he'd woken up with.
He knew that it wouldn't last, that the day would begin properly as soon as he set foot in the Lodge. Hopefully, Alexander would have some news or at least, ideas of what to do for the dragons of Great Britain.
He sighed as his mind fixed back on the problem.
§Sorry guys§, he said to the hatchlings who were still flying circles around him. §It's time for me to get back and to get some work done§.
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7:35am
Wednesday, 24 August 1995
Romanian Dragon Sanctuary, Romania
.
When Harry walked into the Lodge, it was to find that it was completely filled with every dragon handler in the Reserve, as well as the few others that lived there, including Sirius and Remus. He wasn't sure whether it was because it was time for the day to start or because everyone had the problem that had landed in their laps, or, more accurately, flown in on dragon wings, on their minds.
"Morning, Pup. You have a good flight?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah, I did," Harry replied, running a hand through his wind-tossed hair that he knew would be a thousand times messier than it usually was.
"I don't suppose that you did a proper check on the dragons this morning when you were doing your aerial acrobatics?" Charlie asked, his eyes narrowed at Harry who was taking a seat near him.
"Well, considering that I had every dragon in the weyr flying with me at some point, then yes, I did," he replied.
"Good, man," Alexander said, as he came to sit opposite Harry. "Your methods are rather unorthodox compared to what we're used to, and definitely not something that we can replicate, but there is no denying that it gets the job done."
Harry gave him a nod of thanks and felt a slight heat to his cheeks. He still wasn't used to praise, even if he was getting better at receiving it.
"What's the word, Boss?" Charlie asked.
Alexander took a long sip of his coffee before sighing and sitting back in his chair.
"I spent hours talking with every other Head Dragon Handler from every other Reserve last night," he said, instantly gaining the attention of everyone in the room.
"And?" Harry prompted.
"Firstly, Harry, we want to reiterate this, even though we know you know. You are contracted to the five dragon reserves of the world who signed that contract. No matter what happens with the new British Reserve, they have no say over what you can or cannot do or where you go," Alexander stated.
"I know," Harry nodded. "But the dragons…"
"Yeah, we get that," Alexander replied, "and if it wasn't for the dragons and the bond that you share with them, then we'd tell the British Reserve to go to hell and to fend for themselves."
"But we're not going to do that, are we, Boss?" Charlie half-asked, half-stated.
"Yes and no," Alexander sighed. "The tricky bit is that, while we've been asked for help – or more specifically, Harry's been asked for help – it wasn't by the Reserve or even the British Ministry. It was by the dragons themselves. The other Head Handlers and I talked ourselves in circles trying to find the best way forward."
"What did you decide?" Harry asked.
"We have to step in," Alexander stated forcefully. "We know dragons best, we've been around them for years, not to mention Harry here who can talk to them. The consequences are too dire if we don't. We can easily see it spilling into a battle in Britain between wizards and dragons and that'll eventually affect all of us. The dragons in our own Reserves will hear about it some way or other and then what little trust we've built up with them will be instantly gone."
"Not to mention the Statute of Secrecy," Antony stated grimly. "If dragons start flying all over Britain, then it'll be blown out of the water."
"And if the wizards start hunting dragons, the dragons won't clutch, they'll be too afraid to lay eggs or raise their young. It's not like there are a lot of dragons in the world in the first place. The Catalonian Fireball and the Portuguese Longsnout are already close to being extinct, we don't want the Common Welsh Green or the Hibernian Black wiped out."
The memory of both Memzath and Dankrum mentioning the secret, hidden species of dragons crossed his mind and he wondered how many dragons there actually were left in the world. Probably more than the dragon handlers knew about. But that was a question for another day.
"Exactly," Alexander nodded. "So, after a long talk, we've come to a decision. Harry, as the dragons came to you and asked you for help, then we feel that we have no option but to send you to this new Reserve. Get a feel for it and the dragons there. Find out if it really can be a place for the dragons to be kept safe and cared for properly. Charlie, you'll go with him, of course. Assess it and report back to us. If it's up to scratch or, at least, looks like it's going to be, then all good, we'll offer some assistance. Most importantly, Harry, find out if the dragons are going to take to their new home."
"And if they don't?" Harry asked.
"Or if the Reserve doesn't measure up?" Charlie quickly added.
Alexander took a deep breath, his eyes scanning over every handler there. Every one gave a nod, telling him that, whatever was decided, that they'd back him.
"If it doesn't measure up and the dragons aren't going to accept it, then we're willing to take every British dragon into our own Reserves. I just hope it doesn't come to that. There's no telling exactly how the dragons would react to being uprooted from Britain. Our job has always been to look after dragons and to keep them safe and that's what we're going to do!"