Harry Potter/ Lord of the Rings

Chapter 5: The Breaking

Disclaimer: I'm not saying let's go kill all the stupid people…I'm just saying let's remove all the warning labels and let the problem sort itself out. Jk, stupid people make the best bloopers and without bloopers we wouldn't get brilliant ideas that resulted from others and our own mistakes. So just try to be responsible when you hear that I do not own the following known people and plots. Take care of yourselves and each other.

"You're immortal." Ron said stating it like a fact. "You are immortal and you didn't say anything you idiot. What if you had stopped aging altogether? Would you have even asked for helped or just gone into hiding like you did with Malfoy there? What would you have done when we died leaving you behind? That's what Luna said right, 'trapped between living and dead never to pass on'."

It was amazing how much the war had changed Ron's perspective that he could see what Harry had for the curse it was. It was also good to see that he knew Harry so well as to guess out his entire plan in those few accusing questions.

Harry couldn't meet there eyes as he wallowed in his guilt sure that his friends, and Draco, blamed him for their current situation. It was understandable that he jumped when arms wrapped around him. Looking up he saw it was Neville.

"I used to make tons of mistakes because I didn't have the confidence and was always sure I would mess something up. Those times they were my fault because I….. I messed up on purpose, I didn't want anyone to get their hopes in me. It was you that made see that I should do better for myself. This is not your fault Harry."

The others then came in for a hug. "That's right Harry, if anything this is an opportunity for us. According to the books elves are immortal only being defeated in battle can kill one. We had enough training with the last battle and now we have a dragon on our side." Hermione said through suspiciously wet eyes.

"Yeah mate, you aren't getting rid of us that easily." Said Ron not masking his own tears

They went to sleep minutes later emotionally exhausted.

For the next week they fell into routine. In the morning they would drink a bitter broth then run wild with restless energy before falling asleep. In the afternoon they would learn DragonTounge and try to come up with plans and before they feel asleep they experimented with their magic tattoos.

It was comfortable, it was predictable and it all changed in one afternoon.

Atara had been acting frenzied since the eggs had moved during the night. She gathered the bitter herbs in great piles and boiled plenty of snow to water. The children helped where they could, moving burning stones preparing the fires and sweeping the egg chamber while moving around the large dragon. It was exciting and all they could do was wait and watch.

An egg cracked and atara growled like the purring of a cat. The first egg broke and after some jostling a snout poked through the crack sniffling and snorting.

Atara turned towards the cauldron to check the waters and found it still hot before turning back to the nest.

With another crack the first pip was out. It crept over the sand flicking out its red tongue towards its mother. The pip was nose to tail the length of a Neville who was the second tallest at 4'.3'. His scales, all wet and shiny, were a golden bronze and near translucent. Its wings were mashed to its sides and small.

He scratched at the nest with his claws and cried out like all newborns, except he had no tears.

"He will be Alamar, the golden one" said Atara proudly. The others could see that his scales had the promise of gold as he grew older.

The next pip came along quicker bursting from his shell with a strength that seemed greater than that of his brother. He smashed the shell that was holding him and made deep impressions in the sand as he crept towards Atara.

"He will be Jahari, one of youth and great strength."

Atara took a great piece of the broken shell and filled it with the water and brought it towards the pips.

They dipped their snouts in the broth and drank. They change seemed instant, soon they were growling, biting and clawing at one another. Alamar bit Jahari but he was the smaller of the two and soon was at the bottom. They breathed fire and scratched open shallow wounds on each other. They hissed and snarled, and like when they six did it atara stood by and watched.

Once they pips settled down and fell asleep atara turned towards the others with an odd look on her snout.

First she looked to Hermione, "You will be Saphira, one who gathers knowledge."

Then Neville, "You will be Aithusa, light of the sun."

Ron, "You will be Thorn, one of hot fires."

Draco, "You will be Grandeeney, one of healing."

Harry, "You will be Fyre, one of small stature." Everyone smiled at that.

Finally Luna was given a name, "You will be Gwyneira, one as pure as snow."

-Time skip a few months, still in 2963-

They were glad atara had given them lessons in DragonTounge before the pips were born, because they had to speak only that for the six months it took the little ones to begin to speak. According to atara that was before schedule and probably had something to do with their magiks. The pips were a rowdy pair and given their small size it was easy to rough house with them as long as they had some healing sap from the few plants they could scrounge up growing out of the cave entrance.

It was in those months that they watched atara teach the pips not to cry.

Just as bitterness was a dragon's milk, anger was their tears. To cry would kill a dragon, it would drown their inner flame and snuff out their life. A dragon's sorrow was shown in its anger, instead of tears they would lift their jaw and roar it out. The flames from them would be so hot they would turn blue. It was a truly haunting sight.

-Time skip 2964-

It was a year later after they all, including the pips, could understand fluent DragonTounge that atara began giving lessons starting with dragon history. Saphira of course began to write it all down wanting to chronical the history. Atara never brought back paper but they found sealed inkwells in the treasury and bound the shed dragon skins together to make a book, and given that dragons shed every month until two years after they were hatched and then every six months afterward there was a lot of material for her to use.

-Time skip 2968-

Four years after atara began teaching them dragon lessons Gwyneira began to toss and turn in her sleep and soon after so did Fyre. If anyone was not sleeping or if atara had not gone out in search of food, someone would have seen them begin to glow. It wasn't the natural glow that their skin had taken on after they had become elves, it was the glow of the moon. Tilion had found two that he could work through much like Galadriel but they were untainted by the rings of power.

That night the two elflings dreamed of a child being born. The child was tiny no bigger than their hands as Fyre and Gwyneira were the smallest of their groups that was one tiny baby. They could see through the child's eyes to his parents were their size. It made them asp at the love that two people could hold towards such a small being.

-Time skip 2973-

There was practically nothing a dragon did not know. Atara had taught them all about the world, languages, divining (all dragons have some sense of the paranormal), all the different species in the world of Arda and maths. When atara taught them mathematics it was awe-inspiring, they would have compared her knowledge to that of a goblins years ago before their history lesson when they learned goblins were as of now a war mongering species that cared little for monetary things and dwarves were the miners of now.

It had been ten years of lessons and practicing their magic and learning to hunt. They were not human anymore and knew that elves aged slowly but it still surprised them that they had only physically aged one year and looked nine instead of the eleven they were in body or the twenty-seven they were in mind, not to mention if any elf saw them they would think they were ninety years old.

After ten years with their only outing being near the caves it was time for the pips who were half the size of their mother to learn to fly and hunt. The last few months were spent gliding down from small drifts and exercising their wings to bring up their strength. Now was the true test.

Standing at the edge of the cliff they could see how the mountain face dipped into a steep drop where below they could barely see jagged pikes of stone jutting out. Suddenly atara took to the sky. She dived down until she barely skimmed the rocks, tearing at them with her great claws then she circled out of their vision.

She came at them from behind seconds later, her great shadow covering the snow before she did.

"Alamar. The sky is yours to conquer." She said folding her wings neatly.

Once again they all looked down to see the rocks promising death to those that jumped. Taking a deep breath and blowing it out in a stream of fire Alamar looked to Jahari before developing a supine smirk and quitting the cliff-side.

As soon as he leapt he froze up and continued to fall until atara yelled for him to spread his wings. With his wings spread atara slowed into a spiraling spin before his wings caught the air and he began to flap picking up speed and steering away from the rocks. He circled in the air crying out is joy in loud roars before he came bank and crashed into the snow behind them in lieu of landing on his claws. Then it was Jahari's turn.

Jahari was much more confident after his leap, already his wings were spread and instead of going down towards the rocks like his bearer and nest-mate he went higher towards the clouded sky. They watched as he circled above them taking dives and swoops in the air much like Fyre did on his broom so long ago. When he landed minutes later it was the same as Alamar, clumsy.

Thinking themselves done for the day the six turned away from the cliff to find atara blocking their way.

"Fyre, the sky is yours to conquer." Atara said in a tone of finality as if daring them to question her.

"Atara, it is too much. We have no wings to fly just as we have no fire." Saphira tried to reason, but she had picked the wrong argument and as soon as the words left her mouth she knew it.

Thorn was the first to liken the broth to a bitter Firewhiskey and also the first to test it by blowing fire after channeling his magic. Since then they had all taken to practicing the new skill with Alamar and Jahari.

"You have fire, I have seen," she said amused that Saphira had forgotten. "Just as I have seen you Fyre, when you think us rested or not looking. I watched you fly and now you shall fly again."

Everyone turned to Fyre and found that he looked red and not with cold.

"My mother, she could fly. I saw it when Snape showed me his memories," he said in a quiet voice as if he didn't want them to hear, and he probably didn't. Harry had so few private memories of his parents that they weren't surprised that he kept that to himself.

Looking back at atara Fyre saw an expectant look on her face before he turned towards the cliff and sat down at the edge. He looked back up at his… his family, before he pushed himself off the cliff.

The others including Alamar and Jahari rushed for the edge and saw nothing. There was no Fyre falling through the air or flying, no body crushed along the jagged stones. They began to panic until they heard a scream of exhilaration. Looking up into the sky the saw him with his arms spread out and his head thrown back in joy.

Despite them not blaming Fyre for their situation he blamed himself. He tried to make it up to them in his actions but he had become saddened, weighed down by his own chains. In the air he was free, that was the only way to describe it.

When Fyre came down for a landing it was with the grace of having done so for years. Though he showed his elation on his face there was trepidation in his eyes that lightened when everyone shared his joy at flight.

Atara then looked at Grandeeney, with a few words of advice from Fyre he leapt from the cliff arms outstretched. As it was a new experience for him he only managed to slow down his fall until he glided away from the rocks and had to be retrieved by atara. It was on his second try that he began to fly, he was still shaky but he did a few turns before landed on his knees back where he started with everyone else. Only Thorn had to be saved from hitting the rocks as he was so excited he couldn't concentrate.

This continued until only Aithusa and Saphira were left.

In the last two years at Hogwarts and the last ten years living with dragons, Aithusa had grown confident in himself as if his family had never brought him so low with their snide words and hateful actions. While Aithusa had become strong in body and spirit, he still remembered his first time on a broom, but he also remembered his last. In fifth year Ginny had help him get over his fears and take up flying again. It was slow going at first but soon he was confident on the broom, oh he would never be able to pull of the stunts that even some of the third years could do but he could fly straight and he could fly fast.

Remembering the advice Harry had given them about filling themselves with magic and then releasing it to the winds, Aithusa took a deep breath to center himself and unlike the others he stepped off the cliff calmly.

Aithusa could feel the wind rushing past his ears, he could hear it howling past his body and he could feel his magic singing in his blood. Aithusa called to his magic and pushed it into that wind. At first it resisted him but he soothed it and soon the wind calmed till it like him was still. Opening eyes he didn't know he had closed Aithusa found himself standing in the air halfway between the rocks and his family. Slowly he leaned back and smiled, it was nothing like the broom training. Instead of relying on the flimsy wooden construct he depended on his magic. His magic that was strong and saved his life before he could count. It felt wonderful.

The others watched as Aithusa came up from his standstill and became one with the wind. Unlike Fyre, Thorn or Grandeeney who did all types of stunts Aithusa seemed to swim on the air currents. It was like watching a fish in its element. Coming to a landing he and the most serene smile and when he opened his eyes they glowed with power and life it filled them all with peace, even the nervous Saphira.

Saphira had to be pushed from the cliff she was so worked up and it wasn't until her fourth try that she managed to get a hold on her magic. She would have to practice and it would probably never be her favorite thing to do but she would become a natural.

It was days after their flying lessons that atara brought them out to the Belegaer. They had come down from high in the mountain to an overhanging cliff where they watched as the winter-clad humans deployed fishing boats from the Bay of Forochel. Atara told them that they lived far north where snow was always on the ground so as to be away from the tree-climbers and small mountain men that hunted their kind.

With the death of Smaug, dragons had gone into hiding rarely being spotted by two-leggers. There numbers had begun to dwindle after the defeat of the dark one that created them. The dragons as a whole, except for the fell beasts, decided to disappear from the two-legger view.

Atara had brought them down the mountain to fish. Water was dangerous to dragons as it could put out their fire if left for two long, so they had developed a method for fishing. That night when the boats were brought in and the humans retreated to their dwellings except for a few patrolman, they took to the sky with the darkness giving them cover.

Once past the village bay and out into the sea atara began circling the water lower and lower until when she turned to the side her wings glided over the water. Atara circled many time until the circle was cut into the water by a power they did not know she had and then she began to sing.

Atara sang in the language of water, the smooth rush of a stream, the thunder of a waterfall, the stillness of a pond and the vastness of the sea. Atara sang so beautifully that the water began to glow with the light of the moon and the fish began swimming to the surface. The funny thing was fish understand the language of water and knew that swimming to the surface would mean their deaths at the hands of the singer, but fish also know that life is fleeting and a song as beautiful as the one atara sang would serve as their sermon into the next life.

This was why atara always fished alone and they hunted mountain animals. If they had continued to cry over every meal they killed they would have killed themselves crying rivers at the fragile state of life that came with fishing. Roaring out their fire in anger, they dove into the sea and each came out with a bounty of fish in their claws and mouths.

Flying away from the water they watched as atara was the last to fish, when she came up from the water it was as if a bubble of light had burst around her. The sea became choppy with the rushing of the circle and the light faded away. Returning to their cave high in the mountain they stored away the extra fish in the side cave before taking their dinner to the back.

It was a somber mood in which they ate and atara's words made them all roar out their pain with white hot fire.

"Tommorow you all will learn this song."