The Weasely house was bustling with activity. Bill's wedding was on the horizon, and the entire family was pitching in. Harry and Hermione were helping as well, when they weren't trying to prepare for their Horucrux-hunting trip. However, even Ron was worried. Charlie noticed and asked them what was wrong. After some extensive prodding and threat of Molly Weasley in full Howler mode, they revealed their plans to go horucrux hunting. Charlie looked worried.
"How are you going to destroy them?" he asked.
"We don't know," Ron replied. Charlie looked thoughtful and took out a dagger, about six inches long and very sturdy, and gave it to them.
"This might work." The dagger was steel, but the very center of it was a different color of the edges. The colored area was small and jagged, about a finger's length and width.
"What will this do?" Hermione asked.
"It kills rogue dragons." Charlie answered seriously.
Hermione, with all her animal rights grounding, was outraged.
"Why would you need to kill dragons? They're endangered! That's illegal!"
Charlie looked serious.
"What I am about to tell you, you can't tell anyone, OK?"
They nodded, and Charlie launched into his story.
"A long time ago, Dragons were actually a huge threat."
Hermione interrupted with, "But why would they be? They have reserves..."
Charlie sighed.
"Hermione? When was Hogwarts founded?"
"Around a thousand years ago." was the prompt answer.
"How did wizards get an education before that?"
"They learned from their family."
"When was the first dragon reserve founded?'
"At the same time as the Statute of Secrecy, in 1689."
"So there were no dragon reserves before then. Especially none before Hogwarts. Dragons are wild animals, wild, hungry animals that need a lot of food to be full. Some even liked the taste of human flesh. And they are almost impossible to kill." Charlie looked grave.
"Before Hogwarts, only the wealthy families learned more than about two dozen spells in their magical education. Most of those two dozen spells were to help chores. They didn't know the spells, didn't have the wards, so when a dragon settled near them and thought that their cattle, goats, sheep, or children made a good snack... They didn't have many options. Muggles didn't, especially. Many tried to kill them with pitchforks and other farm tools. Others tried with swords. Even a knight or three, sometimes. But nothing worked."
"But obviously something did, seeing as we have all of those legends."
"There was a son of a noble family, which has since been lost to time, called George. We think that a dragon took his sister. The accounts don't describe it very well, they just call it a Medusa. We don't know what that is, but we hypothesize it to be a dragon because it seems to share reptilian characteristics."
Hermione turned white.
"Medusa was a monster that turned people to stone, Charlie." Harry perked up and started to listen.
"Okay. I'll tell that to the reserve director. Anyway, he set out to kill it. He polished his shield, as he had heard about in some legend, and got his hands on the best sword he could- it had been kept in a church. The name of it was Clarent, and it was said to have killed King Arthur."
"Who was he?" Ron broke in.
"Very important muggle sovereign helped by Merlin." Harry summarized.
"Go on, Charlie."
"Long story short- he killed the thing. It was said to be a giant snake, but it already ate his sister."
"It was a basilisk, Charlie." Hermione was scribbling on a piece of paper.
"What?"
"Medusa turned people to stone. So does the basilisk. However, Medusa appeared in the form of a humanish woman with snakes for hair, so that wasn't her."
"I want you to please find us a book on this. We've been looking for answers to that for a while, but we had thought that it was a Chinese Fireball."
"His sword, after that, killed anything. It was a different color too, so we theorize that is was dipped in the creature's blood."
"Or venom." Harry remembered the diary and how it died from the venom.
"Or venom. George, being a heroic type, didn't want anyone else to go through what he did. He was a traveling dragon hunter for the rest of his days. After he died, Clarent went to a monastery in Nicomedia, but the monastery was destroyed in the war against Grindlewald. Grindlewald wanted the sword, you see, but it shattered at his very touch. It did not want to serve such an evil master, for even Mordred Arthur's Bane wanted good and not death. The monks gathered up each piece with care and sent them to the Romanian reserve where I work, to be protected by the dragons."
"They didn't think it through, did they?" Harry asked.
"On the contrary. Even Grindlewald wasn't thought to be crazy enough to attack a dragon reserve, so many valuable artifacs were sent to the various reserves around Europe. However, the dragons could smell the death on the pieces and refused to come near them. At that time, the reserve was under siege by Grindlewald's forces. There was one handler, a muggleborn, who knew the legend, and proposed a plan to the head of the reserve: the forces of Grindlewald had one dragon. Only one. He wanted to make an arrow from a shard and try to kill it with it. The handler saw absolutely nothing to lose in his plan, as the reserve was in a precarious position. The handler made the arrow, shot it, and the dragon fell dead. The rest of Grindlewald's forces fled in terror from the weapon that could kill even a dragon."
"So the handler made more weapons?"
"Yes. Rogue dragons are a problem, or they were. They no longer are. I cleared this with the head of the reserve- he doesn't want to be under siege again."
"Thank you, Charlie."
...
Three months later
"Got the locket, Harry!" Hermione tossed it to him. One stab, and the gold filigree was cut in two with a soul pouring out of it.
...
Six months later
"Did you hear what she said about her vault?" Harry said.
"Great!" Ron exclaimed."Why not break into Gringotts! And bring the moon on a chain to me while you're at it!"
Some close shaves and a dragon later...
A horucrux rose from the hole in an ornate cup.
...
Not much later
"Diadem? Does it look like a crown?" Ron yelled. "Toss me the knife!"
...
During the Battle of Hogwarts
"Where's that bloody dagger!?" Neville yelled as he fought off Nagini. Suddenly, he had a sword- and swung it.
"...Nevermind!"
...
Neville stood in front of Voldemort while Harry snuck up on him. In the middle of his monologue, Voldemort jerked once, gurgled, and exploded into ash. The Death Eaters, dismayed by the loss of their master, attacked, but between the students defending the castle, Neville with a three-foot sword, and Harry sneaking around with the knife, they were soon defeated.
...
Somewhere in the afterlife, Dumbledore looked disgruntled.
"That was too easy. There was no journey for Harry as a hero." Sirius and Severus, in a rare moment of accord, looked at him like he was insane.
"The Dark Lord is dead, and you COMPLAIN?"