Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter
Remus sits at the teacher's table in the Great Hall, looking moodily at his food.
"You all right Lupin?" Remus looks up at Alastor and nods.
"Yes, everything's fine." Alastor doesn't seem convinced but lets it go. Remus looks out at Harry who is regarding Alastor with the same suspicion he's always regarded Snape with. Remus sighs, shaking his head and reaching for his cutlery to eat.
As soon as his hand comes into contact with his fork, he jerks it backwards with a hiss.
"Remus?" Remus looks at McGonagall beside him who watches him with concern. He looks down at his hand and sees a rather nasty burn. McGonagall gasps, looking between him and the fork as she realises what happened.
"Silver?" She asks quietly, "But we got rid of all the silverwares when Albus hired you, just in case." Remus frowns, reaching over slightly and touching hers in a hesitant manner. Only nothing happens.
"Only mine, it appears." He and McGonagall share a frown.
"I don't like what that implies Remus." Remus' brow furrows as he sees Snape looking amused.
"Nor do I."
"Dragons, Uncle Moony. Dragons!" Remus looks up blearily as Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Dean, Seamus, and Neville enter the room and take seats on various cupboards, seats, or in Ginny's case, literally on top of his desk.
"What about them?"
"That's the first task," Ron replies, "They're boody terrifying too."
"Some Gryffindor you are," Seamus comments, "Spiders, Dragons, is there anything you aren't afraid of?"
"Getting detention for punching you in the face, so watch it." They all snicker about this before looking back at Remus.
"We need to plan a strategy for when you face them," He tells them.
"Right, I'm not allowed to bring anything in but my wand," Harry says.
"And he can't exactly expelliarmus a Dragon, not helpfully anyway," Ginny says.
"Can too if it's holding a sword. The whole point of the spell is to disarm not remove the wand specifically."
"Why would a Dragon be holding a sword?"
"Well I don't know, I'm just saying It's a more useful spell than people give it credit for."
"Not on a Dragon!"
"Right, you're strongest point, aside from disarming spells, is flying, correct?" Remus asks, trying to get them back on track.
"Or eating all the treacle tart before anyone else has a chance," Dean offers.
"The Dragon isn't going to be hoarding treacle tart, Dean. Wait…it's not going to be hoarding Treacle Tart is it?" Harry asks.
"If it is, that Dragon better watch it's back."
"It's not hoarding treacle tart, can we stay on topic please, it's sort of an important one," Remus tells them, they all settle down, "Right, first thing you're going to want to do is call your broom to you. We bring it into the stands with us and when you summon it, it will already be close by."
"Isn't that cheating?" Hermione asks.
"How so? The rules state he can't bring it in to begin with." Hermione frowns.
"It feels sneaky."
"Sounds good to me," Harry states, Hermione pouts but doesn't protest again.
"All right, you've got the broom but you cant just fly around and hope for the best," Remus tells him.
"I can't? That's what I do in Quidditch." Everyone falls silent as they look at him.
"Way to ruin that for me," Seamus complains.
"I forget what Wood says, my memory is shite, all right? So he just gave up on giving me instructions and now just tells me to 'do my thing' and everyone else to 'not get in the way'."
"I wonder what Angelina will do," Hermione wonders aloud.
"If I can't just fly around, what am I supposed to do?"
"Move with purpose. There's going to be something you need to collect-"
"How do you know that?" Dean asks.
"That's what Dragons do, they hoard, and they guard. So, it's going to be protecting something that Harry is supposed to steal. It's going to be small because champions need to be able to carry it, and it's probably shiny as well. Now, for it to be protected properly it will be in a nest of some kind, and because wizards are all dramatic sons of…um…anyway," The kids all snicker again, "It'll probably be a shiny golden egg or something like that. You're going to have to get past the Dragon and steal it from it's nest. They will chain it up so that t can't escape, so if necessary, you should be able to climb high enough out of reach to view the whole stadium. Of course, they breathe fire, so don't stay in one place too long."
"What do I do once I know where it is?" Harry asks.
"I don't know, I know nothing about flying." They fall silent, then Remus' eyes light up, "But I know who does."
"All right, first rule of flying is, if you can't do it blind folded, don't do it at all," Minerva begins as they gather at the grass area by the castle, since the Quidditch pitch is being excavated. She's gotten the Quidditch team here along with any other Gryffindor who had been willing to help. Neville, Hermione, and Remus are watching from the sidelines.
"Um, Minerva-" Remus begins, looking concerned.
"Do you want my help or not Lupin?" Remus sighs and sits back down, "What I mean, of course, is that if you aren't completely confident in your ability to perform a manoeuvre, don't try. A mistake could cost you everything," She continues, "Stick to the basics if you must. It doesn't have to be fancy, it just has to work. Now, Mr Potter. As a seeker, you must be able to think quickly and move quickly, both traits that will help you in this competition. But on the pitch your job is to find the snitch and trust that the team has your back in case of bludgers and such. Now you're going to have to watch your own back, be aware of your surrounding, and be prepared to abandon a plan and make a new one at a moments notice."
"Well this is a comforting speech," He mutters.
"What was that Potter?"
"Nothing Professor."
"Good. Now, we think the target will be a golden egg, but we can't be sure, as such we're going to be using something larger so that you are prepared for the worst. Your job will be to grab it, everyone else will be trying to stop you, however they have to move in the shape of a dragon, otherwise it's just unrealistic."
"Minerva-"
"So, I've charmed the broomsticks to follow that pattern," She concludes, ignoring Remus' doubts, "Miss Weasley, you're the dragon's mouth, as such if you wish to breathe fire, simply yell 'fire'. Miss Granger has calculated how long it will take for the blaze to hit you should you end up with fastest fire breathing dragon available. If you don't get out of range by the time she calls 'crisp' we start over. Is everyone clear?"
"Yes Professor," They all chant, Remus still looks dubious about this plan and mildly regretful for coming to her in the first place.
"Right then, let's begin."
Five minutes later…
"Well, I think we can all agree that went terribly," Minerva states, Harry on the ground and bleeding.
"You think?" Remus asks.
"Well if he hadn't flown directly into the wing-"
"I didn't see it, my glasses were knocked off my face!" Harry defends as Neville returns with Pomfrey. She fixes him up at which point Minerva nods.
"Right, let's try it again."
"Minerva!"
"Would you rather he go through all this now where we can help, or out there against an actual bloody dragon?" Minerva asks Remus, the students look at her, scandalised. Remus sighs, nodding.
"Let's put a sticking charm on your glasses first," Remus suggests, Harry nods.
"And an impervious charm, lest they get smashed," Hermione adds.
Eight minutes later…
"CRISP!" Harry sighs as everyone flies back to the ground. He rubs at his shoulder as Pomfrey walks over to see it.
"Did you fail to see the castle as well?" McGonagall asks.
"Yes, all right, I flew the wrong way."
"Right into the castle wall," Seamus reminds him, Harry glares at him.
"Again," Minerva orders.
Fifteen minutes later…
"PULL YOUR ELBOWS IN POTTER, THE BROOM FLIES, YOU DON'T NEED TO FLAP!" Neville and Hermione laugh at him as Minerva continues shouting advice and orders. Just as he's about to grab the boulder they're using as a target, the 'wing', being Angelina Johnson, Fred Weasley, and Dean Thomas, hits him and he is thrown off course leading him to spiral almost to the ground. He manages to pull up at the last moment, "Ah, there's the Quidditch skill, I was wondering where that had gone," McGonagall tells him.
"You have really rather foul personality sometimes Professor," Harry tells her as he continues to evade the dragon.
"All the better to teach you with, Mr Potter."
Twenty minutes later…
"CRISP!" Hermione yells, but Harry's out of the way, he goes to grab the boulder, dodging out of the way of the tail as it comes at him.
"FIRE!" Harry swings around to look at the head, but the tail nearly gets him and just as he ducks…
"CRISP!" Hermione yells again.
"GOD DAMMIT!" Harry yells in frustration as they all land.
"There there Potter, I'm reasonably sure you would have survived that one, if a little overdone," McGonagall tells him, Remus chuckles, wishing James were here to see this.
"You were a bloody nightmare of a Quidditch Captain weren't you?"
"My team never lost a game," She replies simply, "Well, once, but that's because of a dirty foul," McGonagall reveals with a scowl.
"Right, Slytherin, wasn't it? I think I recall you telling James that story when it came down to us or them in '78." She nods, "That was a fun game."
"You only think that because I made you commentate and you took the opportunity to shout obscenities at the entire school."
"In my defence, Barty Jr whacked Sirius in the head with his bat, was I supposed to say nothing?"
"My problem was less with that and more you spending a solid minute and a half remarking on Miss McKinnon's appearance." Remus looks fond as he chuckles. Harry sighs, shaking his head.
"In my defence, Marley looked fantastic in Quidditch robes."
"Yes, and as I recall she was in a relationship with Mr Black at the time?"
"Yep, he agreed with me." Minerva huffs at him and turns back to the students.
"Right, let's go again."
"I love how she says 'lets' as though she's actually joining in," Harry grumbles as he takes to the sky, Hermione doesn't think she's imagining the amused look on McGonagall's face.
Hours later, Remus is in his office, doing the work he should have been doing that afternoon but had instead been making sure Minerva didn't kill his nephew, when the floo activates and Tonks appears.
"Any news?" He asks, Tonks shakes her head.
"I'm sorry, Old Man. There's no sign of him anywhere, nor of Pettigrew. I'll keep looking but…" Remus nods.
"Thank you." Tonks smiles sadly.
"I'm sure he'll turn up."
"Oh I am too, I'm merely questioning if he'll be alive when he does or if I'll have the opportunity to kill him myself for breaking his promise." Tonks chuckles, nodding.
"I probably shouldn't say this, an an Auror, but I hope you get your chance to kill him." She says goodbye and goes back through the floo, Remus sits in silence for a time before he goes to find his nephew.
"Harry?" Remus calls as he walks into the Common Room, Harry looks up, Remus jerks his head for him to follow.
"Uncle Moony?" Remus hesitates for a moment before taking a deep breath.
"Harry, Sirius has disappeared." Harry's eyes widen.
"Oh."
