Harry and his party arrived in the main reception area of Ynys Môn Castle, not a second later twenty-five elves lined up fully kitted out in their new uniforms, the males all had black suits with burgundy lapels, gold beading and burgundy cummerbunds, they had the Potter crest on their left pocket. The female elves wore burgundy dresses with gold trim, they also had the Potter crest on their left pocket.
"Wow, you look great in your uniforms," Hermione exclaimed, "The burgundy really suits the ladies."
The male elves all bowed to Harry, while the females curtsied. The head elf stepped forward and bowed again to Harry, "Your Grace, my name is Cracka and I am the Head elf of Ynys Môn Castle, I pray our uniforms meet with your approval?"
A broad smile spread across Harry's face, "I agree with Hermione, you all look fantastic, thank you."
All the elves smiled in return, they were so proud that their master approved of them; it had been a long time since they had a master in residence and they missed the interaction, some had not even been born before the last wizard left the castle.
"Please though, don't call me Your Grace around anyone other than those that are here now, as my titles have to be kept secret."
"As you wish Your Grace, when others are present, we will call you Lord Potter, that is common enough not to be noticed and still be respectful."
Sirius suggested that they go outside first so they could get a good look at what the castle looked like, he asked Cracka to give them a tour and tell them some of the History of the place.
Harry dismissed the other elves so they could go about their business, then Cracka lead them out through the huge double oak doors into the garden. It was a nice warm day with plenty of sunshine and just a hint of a sea breeze, there were the sounds of gulls squawking and the buzzing of insects, the air was quite refreshing, with the smell of the flowers that were in the garden and an underlying saltiness.
Cracka stood proudly before his master and his friends and then started to explain the history of Ynys Môn. "Ynys Môn was the ancient home of the Druids and was known as the Isle of the Druids. This site has been in constant occupation, for about four-thousand years, and it is believed that the first Merlin and for that matter each subsequent Merlin has lived here. This particular castle was built by Godric Gryffindor in 1247 over the original building, it is the model on which Hogwarts was built."
Even Harry had heard of Merlin, although he thought he was a myth, "Excuse me Cracka, did you say that there was more than one Merlin?" he asked.
"Yes Your Grace, there have been five previous Merlins." He then continued with the story, "It is built on a bluff with sheer cliffs on three sides, although there are some nice beaches at the bottom. There are many hidden rooms and passageways in the castle as well as moving staircases, to confuse the unwary."
Hermione enjoyed swimming so she just had to ask, "Is there any way down to the beaches,"
Cracka turned to address Hermione directly "Yes Lady Ravenclaw, there are many passages from inside the castle that lead to the various coves."
"Ooh we will have to look for those Harry; I would love to go swimming from time to time."
"I've never been swimming, could you teach me?" Harry asked hopefully.
"I would love to," she replied smiling beautifully at him.
"Thanks Mione; we could have Neville over as well and go looking for the secret rooms and passages."
Hermione was really excited about coming over and spending time with Harry and Neville, exploring the old castle, as she imagined herself running all over the castle, finding rooms with hidden treasures in them.
Chris, Emma and Sirius were listening to the exchange between Harry and Hermione revelling in the joy on the children's faces.
"Sorry about that Cracka, please continue with the tour," Harry said to the elf that was waiting patiently for them to finish.
"Certainly Your Grace, The garden you are in at the moment covers an area of five hundred acres and beyond that, is a four thousand five hundred acre natural woodland, a home for a wide variety of magical and non magical creatures.
Harry was taking in the sounds, sights and smells of the garden. There was the smell of the sea of course; he could also smell freshly cut grass, flowers and something he did not recognise. He was taking this all in, when he noticed something chasing the gulls, he could have sworn he just saw a small burst of flame, just before the gull dropped and was snatched from the air, by whatever it was that was chasing it. He saw the same thing happen four more times and was wondering what it was that was hunting them, hoping it would be safe for Hedwig his wonderful snowy owl.
Cracka then led them back inside and showed them around the main areas of the castle, explaining all about the different rooms, He even took them down into the dungeons, where they found all sorts of medieval torture devices.
Hermione picked up one strange looking item, turning it around, "What's this for Cracka," she asked innocently.
"That's a chastity belt, Lady Ravenclaw, it was used to keep a lady's virtue intact," he answered.
Hermione furrowed her brow and thought for a few seconds, before turning scarlet, Harry who was following her thoughts also turned a bright crimson, much to the amusement of the adults present. Hermione then promptly replaced the offending object back on its peg, "Disgusting thing."
They then went and looked into the viewing room; this was on the first floor just above the main reception room. The floor, walls and ceiling were all enchanted to look like what was outside, it was as if the castle did not exist and they were standing on the bluff.
Harry walked up to the wall and looked down, he could see the beaches, he took an extra step but instead of moving forward, it was if he had dropped to the beach below. He looked over his shoulder and could see the others standing there mesmerised by what was happening. He took a step back and the image returned to bluff level again, "Hermione can you walk over to the forest please and try and step into it?" he asked.
Hermione did as she was asked and walked up to the wall toward the forest, it came closer and closer, when she reached the wall even though she couldn't go any further the image changed and it appeared as if she had entered it. She saw a unicorn and walked up to it, it stopped eating and looked straight at her, blinked a few times and then went back to eating. She tried to reach out and touch it but her hand just hit the wall, Hermione thought how strange it was that her feet never hit the wall but her hand did, it must be the magic and with that, she dismissed the thought and went back to the others.
Cracka took them back into the drawing room for a rest and some refreshments.
"This is an amazing place Harry" Emma said, "I didn't think much of the dungeons though."
"No" Dan added, "I mean, what was with all the torture devices, maybe you could give them to a museum or something."
"Ok, we could do that, Cracka please arrange for all the torture stuff in the dungeons to be given to a museum please."
"It will be done Your Grace," Cracka answered with a bow.
"Thank you Cracka, also everyone that is here now is to be allowed access to the castle at any time."
"Yes Your Grace."
Harry looked over to Mr and Mrs Granger, "Would you and Hermione like to stay for dinner?"
Dan and Emma looked at each other then Dan nodded, "Thank you Harry that would be nice."
Harry then looked to his godfather, "Could you set the floo thingy up for the Longbottoms, so we could ask them over as well please Sirius?" he asked.
"I've been thinking about that Harry, I'm not so keen on using a floo connection, they're not really all that secure, because people have to say the location out loud. I think it would be safer to have permanent portkeys that are keyed directly to the Longbottoms."
"Didn't Professor Dumbledore say that you should set up a floo connection?" asked Hermione.
"Yes but Professor Dumbledore doesn't know everything, we could get Griphook to add portkeys to your mum and dad's wedding rings just like he did to ours. He could do the same thing for the Longbottoms, after all not only is their family aligned to Harry's; they have also declared a life debt to you both, so can't betray you without killing their whole family."
"That sounds like a good idea and then we don't have to be at home to go to any of the estates, or be hanging on to Harry or Hermione," Emma added.
Harry agreed that they would go back to Gringotts and do as Sirius suggest, "That's fine but how are we going to invite Neville over tonight."
"I will apparate over, invite them, and then make them a one-off portkey to bring them back." He then went out the front door and apparated to the Longbottom's home; fifteen minutes later he was back.
"Harry we're here and have a couple of extras as well. I hope you don't mind?" Sirius asked as he entered the room and introduced Harry and the Grangers to Xenophilius and Luna Lovegood. He also explained that Mrs Lovegood had died just a few months ago and Luna had just gone over to Neville's place to stay for a few nights.
"Mrs Longbottom, Mr Lovegood would it be alright if everyone stays here with Hermione and me, instead?" asked a hopeful Harry.
Xenophilius asked his daughter if she would like to stay but she was non-committal, it was as if everything was just too much bother. Her father was very worried about her, she was a beautiful petite girl with long honey blond hair, she used to be so bubbly and outgoing, but since her mother had died, she had become withdrawn and lethargic. He then looked to Augusta in the hope that she would allow Neville to stay and so allowing him to let his daughter. Neville's grandmother understanding his problem, quickly said that Neville could stay for the week if it was ok with Harry and Sirius, who readily agreed.
Hermione started batting her eyes and looking wistfully at her father, her mum cracked up at this, "She has you wrapped around her little finger," she said.
"Of course you can stay, we will send Squeaky over in the morning with some clothes for you," her father chuckled. Goodness, he loved his daughter, she brought out the best in him and he knew it and it didn't hurt that letting her stay over gave him and his wife a week alone either.
"Cracka" Harry called.
"You called, My Lord"
"Yes thanks Cracka, there will be nine for dinner tonight and Hermione, Neville and Luna will be staying for a week, so can you have rooms prepared please."
Cracka bowed to Harry "I will see to it, My Lord," he answered and then popped out.
Neville's Gran was surprised at the way the elf was dressed. "Harry, why does your elf wear clothes?" she asked.
"I asked them to wear uniforms because I don't like my family looking like I used to."
Harry then turned to the other children and asked if they wanted to explore the castle until dinner was ready.
After the children had left, Xenophilius asked Sirius what Harry meant, when he said he did not want the elves dressed as he used to be. Sirius then explained all about Harry's treatment at the hands of the Dursleys; he asked them not to mention anything he spoke of, as it was of a sensitive nature and nothing good would come of the information becoming common knowledge.
Xeno then told them how his wife Selene had died in an explosion that destroyed their home and now they were living in a magical tent. He told them that construction on their new home would start next month and would take three months to complete, some things even magic couldn't hurry.
The Children were having a great time, poking into rooms to see what was there, well all except Luna she just plodded along after them. That is until she heard the singing, it was quite beautiful, like a choir doing scales some were very high notes, more like the high notes on a violin or flute. She stopped and got a dreamy look on her face, then started to sway to the music, it was somewhat halfway between an orchestra sound and that of a choir and then it just faded away.
"Harry, what was that singing?" Luna asked with a dreamy look on her face, "it was beautiful."
"I don't know, Luna it's the first time I've heard it and besides we only got here this afternoon ourselves."
"Oh well never mind," she said and then she went all quiet and lethargic again.
Hermione put her arm around the young blond, "Maybe we could try and find out where it came from tomorrow." This seemed to cheer her up a bit.
Cracka popped to them and told them that dinner would be ready in five minutes, so they made their way to the dining hall, where they had a lovely dinner and chatted about what they had found.
After dinner they all went to Harry's suite and sat on his bed to talk and play a muggle game called monopoly, as only Hermione had played the game before she had to explain the rules to them, in spite of this Neville won the game after about two hours of playing. Luna and Harry had been knocked out of the game early, so they sat and talked. Harry giving Luna comfort over the loss of her mother, seeing, as he was an orphan he could empathise with her and not just offer the usual platitudes. A couple of hours later, when the adults went looking for them, they found them all huddled together asleep on Harry's bed, one of the elves had set the fire going to keep them warm, as the nights got cold at Ynys Môn. As it was getting late, Sirius asked the others to stay the night and then they could say their goodbyes to the children on the morrow.
Luna's dad came into the room early in the morning to see how his little girl was, the sight before him brought a tear to his eyes, Neville was cuddled up to his daughter on one side, with Hermione on the other, with Harry's arm draped across Hermione and resting on Luna's waist. Hermione's Hair was stroking both Harry and Luna's cheek and Luna had a wonderful smile on her face, the first he had seen since her mother had died. He crept out of the room and went down to the dining room for breakfast.
Half an hour later the children came tromping into the dining room, all bright eyed and bushy tailed. The adults, who were all eating by then, looked up at the four children. Xenophilius noticed that the smile was still on Luna's face and she came over, gave him a kiss, and then sat down for breakfast. Neville did the same to his Gran, Harry and Hermione gave Chris, Emma and Sirius a kiss as well. They sat down and started dishing out breakfast, Harry putting things on both his and Hermione's plate and she did the same, without speaking a word to each other.
After breakfast, they went exploring the castle again, traipsing up the wide passages, tapping on walls with their wands, looking for secret corridors; Neville had suggested doing that, as any secret passages might be activated, by touching it with a wand. They went into various rooms and looked around; eventually they found themselves in a room with a rather large landscape painting on the wall. While the others were looking at the various items around the room, Harry stood on one of the chairs and was looking intently at the painting; it was an aerial view of Ynys Môn castle and grounds, including the forest. He called the others over, "Hey look at this picture, it shows the whole area including coves, and beaches." Harry then pointed to one of the coves with his wand, "This one, Pern Cove, has a picture of a swimmer on it," he then tapped the swimmer with his wand and a door appeared next to the painting. "Wow, you were right Neville, using our wands does show where the secret passages are."
Hermione, who was standing just next to where the door appeared, reached out and opened it. She scrunched her brow in concentration and was nibbling at her bottom lip, "You know that name sounds somewhat familiar."
As they went through the door, torches lit up the passage and staircase in front of them, it was a very long spiral staircase, which looked like it was carved out of the natural rock by hand. It took a good five to ten minutes for them to reach the bottom; they made their way onto the beach and froze in place, in front of them on the sand were about forty miniature dragons. They were feeding on fish and gulls, the strange thing was, they were breathing fire on them to cook them first.
The four youngsters sat down and watched in awe, "we could call them Pernese Miniature Dragons," Harry whispered.
"No Harry," Hermione remembering where she had read about Pern replied, "Anne McCaffery called them Fire Lizards, she wrote about them in her Pern series... I wonder... was she a witch? Hmm...Cracka told us that no one has been in residence here for quite some time, so either she came here when she was little or heard about them some other way. "
"Ok we will call them Pernese Fire Lizards, although they look more like miniature dragons to me."
When the fire lizards had finished eating, they picked up any scraps and dropped them into the sea.
"They clean up their mess after themselves too," Luna observed, "I wonder if they would make good pets?" she added.
"Well in the Pern books, if you fed the babies when they first hatched, talking to them all the time, they would bond with you, so maybe, if we did the same, we could bond with them.
The youngsters all raced outside to see where the fire lizards were going, and spotted them flying through a long horizontal window in the castle. "Cracka!" Harry called.
"Yes My Lord" the head elf, replied not a second later.
"That slotted window up there, what is it?"
"That's the hatchery My Lord."
"Can you take us all there please?"
"Certainly My Lord," when they had all hung on to him he popped them away to a hall on the basement level. "Just tap your wand to the picture of the dragon and the door will appear."
"Can any wizard do that Cracka?"
"No My Lord, only you can do it, if you want anyone else to be able to do it, just say House allow ... to access hidden rooms or whatever you want them to access."
"House, allow Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom access to all hidden rooms," Harry commanded. There was a golden glow around them, which quickly faded away as the magic took effect. "Sorry Luna but as you don't have a wand yet I can't give you access, when you get one though, then I will let you have access as well."
"Thanks Harry, I understand."
Harry thanked Cracka and asked him to bring Sirius and the others down there. He tapped the dragon with his wand, and a door appeared; this time Luna opened it, and the four of them stepped just inside. The room had a fireplace at each end, which were blazing away, keeping the room an even temperature. Sand covered the floor and in the middle of the room were at least sixty eggs. The fire lizards were perched on the window ledge and every now and again, one of them would swoop down and rotate them.
The adults arrived and looked into the room where Harry and the others were gathered; they were amazed at what they saw. Luna was wondering if these little dragons were what were singing last night, she decided that she would sing to them to see what would happen. She started to sing the scales and the fire lizards all raised themselves up to look at her, when she stopped; they started to sing in response. One of the gold ones swooped down, tapped her on the foot with its snout and looked at her as if to say, "Well, are you going to sing too?" Luna then started to sing one of the songs her mother had taught her; the little dragons listened for a couple of seconds then started to warble along with her.
After they had finished singing, Harry expressed his concerns to Cracka about them eating Hedwig or Crookshanks, Cracka then explained that they only ate non-magical and non-sentient creatures, usually gulls, fish, rodents and insects but they are quite partial to chickens if they can get them.
Sirius suggested that they leave the fire lizards in peace, as it was close to lunchtime they decided on having it early.
The conversation around the dining table did not stray much from the topic of the fire lizards during lunch. After which, Harry and Hermione asked if they could have a quiet word with Sirius and Hermione's parents, they went into the office, which was just off the main reception area. It had a huge desk and four comfortable looking leather chairs in front and one behind. There were pictures of all of his estates on the walls and one of Hogwarts behind the desk; they also had legends down the side with the names of the different areas next to them. Harry took all this in and decided that he would have a closer look later.
"Sirius, Mr and Mrs Granger, Hermione and I really like Luna, what do you think of her father?" Harry asked, "Can we trust him?"
"Yes we can that's why I brought them last night." The Lovegood and Longbottom families aligned themselves with the Potters a long time ago; your mum was even the Matron of Honour at Xeno, and Selene's wedding. Why do you ask?"
"Well, we were wondering if we could invite them to stay here, did you know that they are living in a tent. Luna really doesn't like it and we have plenty of room."
"That's a nice of you, I will ask them and if they agree we will get the castle added to their rings." Sirius was proud that Harry and Hermione were so considerate.
Dan Granger suggested that they add their place and Hermione's estate to the rings as well, that way they could visit any time they wanted. They also mentioned their concern over Hermione going back to "muggle" school, what with the way her hair was behaving. At that moment, it was wrapping itself around Harry's neck and stroking his cheek.
Emma then asked Sirius if they could advertise in the magical newspapers for a muggle born teacher who could continue their education at home, as well as them doing their magical training.
Sirius agreed that it was a good idea and they would talk to Xeno about it as well, seeing, as he owned a newspaper. They then all made their way out to where Xenophilius and Luna were waiting.
"Xeno, Harry wants me to ask if you and Luna would like to stay here until your home is rebuilt." Sirius asked.
Xenophilius was surprised, that after such a short time Harry would offer to put them up, "are you sure you want to do that, you really don't know us very well Harry," Xeno replied. "We don't want to be any bother."
"You won't be sir," Harry said looking Xenophilius in the eyes, "we like Luna and Sirius said we can trust you, so...will you stay here please?"
"Thank you Harry, yes, we would love to." Xeno hugged his daughter and she rewarded him with a huge smile and a kiss.
"Thanks daddy," she whispered in his ear, "Thank you Harry."
Dan Granger then had his say, "We would like you to have our homes added to your rings as portkeys, he really was getting a hang of this wizarding jargon, so you can come and go as often as you wish and that way Luna can visit our home and see what muggles live like."
"Th...Thank you, I really don't know what to say, it is very kind of you to open your homes to us," Xeno was quite humbled by their kindness and friendship.
They all made their way to Gringotts and after having the portkeys added to their rings they went to Ollivander's where Harry purchased a wand for Luna, that way it would come under the same authority as his previous one, no tracking charms. He explained to Mr Ollivander, it did say wands for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom, not A wand, so technically he could have as many as he wanted, just because he asked his friend to test it was neither here nor there. Ollivander was quite shocked at this but couldn't fault his logic, besides he wasn't a fan of the tracking charms being placed on the wands, considering most purebloods lived behind wards that stopped them from being detected, so the only people that it affected was the muggle born.
They then went to Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour for a treat and ran into Hagrid. Harry looked at the half giant intently, "Have I met you before?" he asked, "You seem familiar for some reason."
"Aw Arry, you remember me, I'm sorry Arry twas me tha took you to the Dursleys, can you forgive me Arry?" Hagrid then took a hanky the size of a tablecloth, from one of the many pockets of his coat and blew his nose with the sound of a foghorn going off.
"I'm sure you wouldn't have if you had known what they were like, so don't worry about it."
"Thanks Arry."
Sirius explained that Hagrid was an expert when it came to raising both magical and non-magical creatures and a favourite of his parents. They invited him to come with them to the castle, to see the miniature dragons; Harry usually referred to them as that while Hermione tended to call them fire lizards.
The little dragons were all lined up on the window ledge, there were seven gold ones, and at least ten bronzes the others were a smattering of blues, greens, reds, purples, blacks and one white one.
"Thar bootifull Arry," Hagrid exclaimed, he didn't say anything else for at least half an hour, then turned to the others, "supposed ya noticed tha bunch of eggs belongs to the Golden ones, while tha one is the Red an Purple." He then pointed to the others and told them to whom they belonged. When Harry asked how he knew he explained that, the shells were different colours and that different dragons attended to them. When Harry and the others looked closely, they noticed that in the Gold dragon's clutch there were four gold, six bronze and two or more of the others, all pure colours, whilst the greens clutch had blue and green speckles. The reds clutch had red and purple speckles and the black and whites were similar.
Hagrid then asked permission to come again on the weekend, he wanted to see how the little dragons were going, he also hoped to be there when they hatched, as Hermione had told him her theory about how to bond with them. Harry said it would be ok and that he would have one of the elves pick him up and had Cracka assign one of the other elves to that task, he had realised that he was taking up a lot of Cracka's time, taking him away from managing the other elves.
The four children had a wonderful time that week and since Luna received her wand, Harry had the house grant her, the same access as Neville and Hermione. They spent a lot of time on the beach where Hermione taught Harry and Luna how to swim; they went on picnics and could choose either the beach or the parkland around the castle to have them. They explored the castle quite a bit but due to its size, they still had a lot more to explore. At the end of the week, Hermione and Neville went to their respective homes, they visited every day just did not sleep over.
The next few weeks were quite busy, with Hagrid coming back at the weekends to check on the eggs. They had also hired a tutor to teach them the normal muggle subjects like Maths, English, Social Studies, Science and History. This was also around the time that Professor Dumbledore organised tutors for magical subjects, they were training in mind magic, charms, transfiguration, potions and defence. They particularly liked the old Chinese gentleman, Sonja Rom who taught them martial arts, this was real defence as far as they were concerned.
Luna was kept busy with the same tutoring as the others, so did not have time to brood and mope about, she was enjoying her time with Harry, Neville and particularly Hermione. She did not have any friends outside of them, as Ron and Ginny Weasley, had stopped playing with her, after her mother had died, not to mention the fact that even before this, Ron had always called her Loony Lovegood.
To the outsider it might look like they had a lot of schooling to do but in reality, it was less than if they were attending a muggle school, this was because they were getting more attention, one teacher for four children, rather than one teacher to thirty. This left them plenty of time to explore the castle, other than the library, Harry and Hermione liked the office the most, with its pictures and in particular the one of Hogwarts. They found out, that if they tapped on the legend down the side, they could see that particular part of the castle. They surmised that this must be how Godric kept track, of what was going on in the school, when he was not there. The antics of one of the professors were quite disturbing to both Harry and Hermione, so they asked Sirius to come into the office and have a look.
"Sirius, do you know who this professor is? He is really unfair to most of the students, taking points off them whenever something happens, even if he knows they didn't do it." Harry queried his godfather.
"Yes, I know him, his name is Severus Snape."
"Look, he just writes what to do on the black board, he doesn't explain what each ingredient does, or help in any way, just makes fun of those who get it wrong." Hermione exclaimed while gesturing at the picture. "Look, he just took twenty point off that boy, when it was blatantly obvious that he saw that other boy do it."
"Ahh that's because the boy who did it is in Slytherin, his old house and the other lad is in Gryffindor."
"It's just so wrong what he is doing, is there anything we can do about it?" asked Harry.
"Well as you both own Hogwarts you could try asking her to intercede,"
Both Harry and Hermione looked at each other nodded and tapped their rings saying "Hogwarts. Ten minutes later they were back, big grins on their faces. "We told Hogwarts to only take points from the person who did wrong, and if any professor knew who was at fault for anything, but took points from someone else instead, it was to take the points from the guilty and add them to the person falsely accused."
Sirius cracked up at this, "A prank worthy of your father, true marauders both of you."
Not five minutes later, they saw Snape walking by the scoreboard and once again take twenty points this time from Hufflepuff, for something a Slytherin did. He looked at the scoreboard and scratched his head, then took the twenty points off again, only to see the points come off Slytherin and onto Hufflepuff, he stormed off ranting and raving to the headmasters office to complain. Harry, Hermione and Sirius, were clutching their sides in pain, they were laughing so much at the expression on his face.
Hagrid arrived early on Friday evening that same week, and had some wonderful tales to tell, of a rather frustrated Severus Snape, who was storming around the school, complaining about how unfair it was, that he could not take any points from whomever he wished.
They had just sat down for dinner, when the fire lizards swept in humming and swooping around them. Harry jumped up and activated the portkey in his ring and went to get Neville and his family, he was back not ten seconds later. "Cracka, their hatching," he shouted, a number of elves arrived and apparated them to the hatchery. Neville, his parents and grandmother arrived just after they left, but four elves were waiting for them and took them to the hatchery as well. Harry had put a lot of thought and planning into this, as he did not want to miss the hatching.
Mr and Mrs Granger and the senior Longbottoms stood in the doorway and watched, as their children, Sirius and Xeno sat not so patiently waiting for the eggs to hatch, there was a pile of chicken pieces beside each of them and two more piles on the other side of the eggs from where they were. The adult fire lizards were all lined up on the window ledge, humming faster and faster, as they waited for the hatching.
Suddenly, they stopped and there was a loud crack, followed by more and more, sounding like popcorn going off, only louder. Time sped up, one second they were watching eggs crack open, next second there were miniature dragons everywhere, scurrying to find food. Everyone there had the feeling of gnawing hunger, Hagrid scooped a heap of the hatchlings to him and started feeding them, his hands were a blur of activity stuffing food into the mouths of any near him. Sirius, Xenophilius and the children were the same, stuffing food into hungry dragons, all the while they were talking soothingly to the little creatures.
A fight broke out among four of the babies, they each wanted the same piece of chicken; fearing that they would hurt themselves Chris, Emma, Frank and Alice, stepped in and pulled them apart, grabbing a piece of chicken each and feeding them.
Ten frantic minutes later, the little feeding machines were finally sated. Harry had a bronze and two purples while Hermione had gold and two reds. Luna had three cradled in her lap, one gold, one blue with green spine ridges and one green with blue spine ridges, while Neville was hugging a bronze, a red with purple and a purple with red. Sirius had a black and one with black wings with white ridges, Xenophilius had a blue and a green. It turned out, that even though the Granger and Longbottom parents were not going to try, they managed to bond anyway. Frank a blue, Alice a Green, while Dan got a purple and Emma a red. Hagrid was the surprise though, he had a green, a blue, a green with blue ridges, a red, a purple and a purple with red ridges.
The elves appeared, with baskets that had blankets in the bottom for warmth, one for each of the people who had bonded with dragons. They made their way back to the dining room, to finish their own dinner and after eating, the children went to bed taking their baskets with them. All the adults decided to stay the night; Dan and Emma had a real problem though, as they could not go home with a little dragon each and had no idea what to do about it.
Please review; it is what keeps us going. If you have any suggestions about anything you would like to see in this story, please let us know.
Raven Spotter