Author's Note: THANKS FOR ALL THE FAVS AND FOLLOWS. APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT GUYS. FEEL FREE TO PM AND REVIEW. I AM AMENABLE TO SUGGESTIONS AND ADVICE
I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER.
Harry was certain that the dragon was going to kill him; not just kill but maul him into pieces and then gobble him up. He thought about offering the egg in exchange for his life. He realized how extremely stupid he sounded even inside his mind. The horntail won't be satisfied with anything less than his life.
But to his astonishment (and silent feverish relief) the dragon didn't attack him but stopped a short distance away. Transfixed, he watched its sibilant eyes and felt the telepathic connection intrude in his mind again. This time Harry felt a burning curiousity and suspicion but the hostility which he experienced earlier was absent.
Harry forced whatever energy he could muster and spoke out loud with his mind.
"It's not real . It's something they put there for us to retrieve. I don't want to hurt your eggs!"
Its mouth was still pulled back in a snarl it was still enraged, but Harry knew that it was not going to harm him.
The dragon keepers arrived and the horntail let herself be chivied to the other side of the enclosure while Harry was pulled away roughly.
"Hey!" he protested, his scraped elbow stinging as he was lifted to his legs not in a gentle manner. Hagrid and professor McGonagall rushed towards him. Mad-eye Moody was close behind them, hopping on his wooden leg, his magical eye going haywire. All of them looked like they had swallowed a bottle of skele-grow and was firing off questions about whether he was injured. Only then did Harry realize the intensity of the din the crowd was making. Tucked safely amidst the teachers, he let himself be escorted out of the enclosure.
Harry sat at the table in the library; across him were Hermione and Ron looking both horrified and amazed as Harry recounted what happened earlier at the enclosure. The golden egg that he risked life and limb for lay forgotten under his bed in his dormitory. Harry and Ron had reconciled almost comically, his horror at what Harry had to face quickly dispelled all his disbelief in his honesty,
Ron hesitantly asked "Are you sure that's what you heard? Maybe you mistook the noise from the crowd…"
"I didn't just hear it Ron. I could feel it. It was like I could feel it form its words before they even took place. I could feel its thoughts and when I tried communicating with it, it understood me."
Harry looked up to see Hermione gazing at him with a concerned look.
"What, Hermione?"
"Harry…Is your scar hurting again?"
"No this is different ok? It has nothing to do with my scar or Voldemort."
He looked up to his friends wondering if they thought him crazy, and felt his frustration rise.
"It happened ok? It's real; a great dirty fire breathing lizard talked to me and I understood every single word."
"It's ok mate, we believe you!" Ron replied quickly.
Hermione nodded in assent.
"I don't understand. It's so crazy, how could I know something without even being aware of it?"
Both Ron and Hermione fell silent.
Suddenly Ron blurted out, "Oh...Harry!", his eyes wide with realization.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"It's exactly like two years ago, when the chamber of secrets opened. When Harry started hearing voices when no one else did. Do you think someone's opening it again? Maybe that's why it is happening; someone must be speaking in parseltongue."
"Yes. Yes! That might be the reason." Hermione replied excitedly. "That's actually pretty smart Ron."
'Always the tone of surprise, huh?"
"No" Harry shook his head."It wasn't somebody else. It was the dragon who I was talking to. There wasn't anyone else. There couldn't be anyone else…." Harry drifted off.
"What is it?"
"God, I am stupid." Harry replied quietly."I think I understand now. The dragons. They speak in parseltongue. They are of the same family as reptiles are. That's why I understand them. They don't just speak in parseltongue. They think in it too. I can't explain it but I think that's the reason why …why I felt…so connected to them"
Ron looked flabbergasted. Hermione looked skeptical.
There was a moment's silence as the three of them tried to wrap their minds around something as fantastical as that.
"Harry I never heard of anything like this before. Ron, have you?"
"Well I don't know, but I don't think there's anybody famous in the wizarding world who is known for talking to dragons. Even talking to snakes is incredibly rare, look at yourself, Harry!"
'Exactly Harry I've never come across anything that says about talking to dragons in any book I've read. Even possessing the ability to converse with snakes is an extremely rare quality."
"There's one way to find out. Harry replied, getting up." We have to talk to Hagrid and see if he knows anything about it." He added "And we have to see the dragons before they send them off the grounds."
Harry spoke with a finality that silenced all incredulity about his intent.
Hermione gasped. Ron's expression looked terrified.
"What are you talking about"
"Are you out of your mind?"
"Look Hermione Hagrid might know about it alright. Even if he didn't know anything, he could take us to the dragons and maybe I could recreate what happened at the trial today. I can't just sit here not knowing what the hell happened out there. This happened for a reason and it means something to me." He cut her off when he saw her open her mouth to protest. "I know what you are going to say. That I should be preparing for the second task. Hermione that's months away. The dragons are going to be shipped out tonight; they can't risk keeping dangerous creatures in the grounds"
"How do you know that?"
"I just do!" Harry shot back.
"Harry that sounds really dangerous mate. I dunno I mean you barely got out alive today."Ron objected, looking extremely worried.
"Harry this is so foolish. Even if you did talk to a dragon, which no doubt is extremely bizarre and fantastic and all, what's the point of risking your neck for it? Especially after the risk you took today."
Harry looked at them silently. The desire to get to the bottom of the situation, to keep digging for answers was eating him alive. But looking at their terrified faces Harry realized he couldn't ask them to come along with him this time. Not at such risk to their lives.
Hermione leaned forward, looking anxious "You won't do anything stupid will you Harry?"
He sighed. "Alright then" he acquiesced. "I won't."
Harry packed his invisibility cloak with him when he and Ron went out to the great hall that evening. Under the pretext of going to the bathroom, Harry slipped out, ducking under excited first years who gesticulated wildly as Harry walked past them. Putting on his invisibility cloak around him, Harry noiselessly walked past the crowds making their way to dinner, evading Malfoy who was loudly explaining how Harry had cheated to get ahead in the first task to his cronies.
Harry walked out into the extensive lawns, now quiet and dark in the night. He ducked under a bush and pulled out his Firebolt that he had hidden underneath it. His first encounter with a dragon had armed him with the useful knowledge of how effective a broomstick was in evading dragon fire. It would be necessary to keep it with him for now. Satisfied that the damp had not spoiled the broom end Harry climbed on it and flew up, his cloak keeping him hidden from sight.
As Harry suspected the enclosure was teeming with wizards from the ministry preparing to take away the dragons. Harry circled overhead, unseen; he even thought he spotted Charlie Weasley among them, enchanting the dragon cages with reinforcing spells.
Harry at first had considered meeting with Hagrid and telling him everything that happened during the first trial, but he realized that Hagrid will probably see the situation in the same light as his two best friends did. If he got any wind of his harebrained scheme to contact the dragons on his own, the least bad thing that could happen was being reported to Dumbledore. Harry then realized he had to face the dragons alone.
Invisible to everyone, Harry alighted in the middle of the pit, his heart racing; only hours had he been there literally in a fight for his life. From the distance, it was not possible to recognize the breed, but from close up Harry could tell he was near the Chinese fireball. He walked tentatively towards it, hidden under the cloak and gripping his Firebolt tightly (his wand tucked inside his robes, knowing it'd be completely useless against the dragons).
Suddenly Harry froze. There it was, the presence of a vast alien body at the edge of his mind, looming threateningly. Even so, Harry inexplicably felt, distrustful though it was, it was not absolutely hostile. He slipped off his cloak and stuffed it inside his robes. He allowed himself to be overwhelmed by the presence instead of fighting it and he felt his thoughts develop questions that spilled out like a torrent.
"Why is this happening? Why can I understand you? What's going on?'
The dragon glared at him with a baleful eye.
A chill ran through him as the dragon spoke, his words deep and rumbling like a landslide on a distant mountain, moving irresistibly through him.
"You know the answers yourself, Dragon-Rider."
"Dragon-Rider? What's that? Why do you call me that?"
The other dragons have been alerted to his presence now. Harry could feel their consciousness looming at the edge of his, listening, waiting silently.
"How is this happening? How can I understand you while no one else can?"
"You speak the ancient language, Shurtugal. The language that binds all primordial magical creatures together."
"Ancient language? Do you mean parseltongue?...no.. I don't know your 'ancient language' or whatever it is. You must have mistaken me for someone else."
"Then why does Shurtugal speak in our tongue, the oldest of all there is? How can he not be a Rider and yet understand the most primal and powerful of all languages?"
Harry's bewilderment was increasing by tenfold, but he could also feel that time was running out.
"I was nearly killed today"
"You cannot blame her for protecting her eggs."
"I never meant them harm."
The Chinese fireball snarled "Wizards enslave us, they turn their magic on us and put us in cages. Neither is this world favorable nor generous to us. It saps us of our energy, it kills our fire within us, the very air, soil and water weakens us. How can we afford to show clemency to our enemies when they have none for us?"
"We long to go back home. Since you have been discovered a decision has been made, at a great peril." added the Welsh Green, calmly, which had been patiently listening to their conversation.
"What do you mean" asked Harry breathlessly. "What does any of it have to do with me?"
Harry could now feel a strange tingling in his veins; his heart pounded erratically which didn't have much to do anything to the tumult he felt inside him. It was something foreign, an unknown formidable power enveloping them, and judging from the uneasy clamor nearby, the wizards from the Ministry have felt it too.
"We could show you everything, Shurtugal."
"Everything? What do you mean 'show me'? How is that possible?"
"All your questions will be answered if you come with us."
"The air is changing. We cannot stay here any longer. We must act now!" hissed the Hungarian Horntail.
"Wait!" Harry pleaded "Go where? Just tell me what's going on!"
"No time, little one."
The four dragons burst out in one huge explosive roar, flames erupting from their jaws, torching the trees and vegetation around them. Harry shrieked in surprise and nearly jumped out of his skin. The wizards were now screaming and shooting spells at the dragons as they broke free of their restraints, magically; the Swedish Short-Snout swept its tail at the charging wizards knocking them over; silver red sparks flew over Harry's head and burst upon impact on the dragons hide.
Harry knelt down and cowered, tight gripping his Firebolt, his useless wand tucked inside his robes. Though by no means was he faint hearted, it was impossible not be overwhelmed by terror and chaos of the scene. Hell had broken loose. Spells crisscrossing the air around them at lightning speed, whistling by inches away into the dark leaves, briefly illuminating the scene in garish colors; the dragons surrounding Harry, roaring in rage and pain, the trees blazing with dragon fire; and the strange unknown tingling that had grown tremendously strong.
"Aldaroh its time now, do it."
The dragons bowed their heads and a light emitted, from the very air itself. Harry felt his strength drain and he gasped frantically for breath, and then his consciousness went black.
They reappeared amidst a cloud of dust on the top of a hill, in a land far away, separated from the Muggle and wizarding world by the barriers of magic unknown even to wizards. The oldest dragon among them, the Chinese fireball leaned its weary head down and nudged the unconscious boy's hand turning it over before recoiling in shock.
The Horntail who saw what transpired bellowed in outrage and betrayal.
"THE BOY DOES NOT POSSESS THE GEDWEY IGNASIA. HE IS NOT A RIDER!"