Chapter 15: Going Back Home

"Harry, is that a baby dragon?" Charlie asked in alarm, the moment he returned from sorting out the dragons.

"Ehm..." Harry said smartly. He really hadn't considered getting himself out of this situation. "His name's Reniatar?"

Charlie scowled. "You can't go around naming dragon hatchlings, Harry! You'll make yourself out to be some sort of dragon master. Merlin knows that would make the paper. When did he hatch, anyway? They usually hatch within hours of each other. But, while they've fully developed in there, they usually wait for at least a week!"

Harry blinked. He was frantically trying to remember - he had a story all worked out a few hours ago, many of them in fact, but they were all based on him revealing Reniatar to Charlie, certainly not having the red head discover the dragon himself.

Fortunately, Charlie didn't give him time to reply. "Well, whatever you've done, we'll just have to deal with it. Although Reniatar – what kind of name is that, how do you come up with such bad names, anyway?" He laughed slightly, "Tell me, you aren't some sort of dragon master, right?" He looked at Harry quizzically.

Harry blinked. He had a sort-of plan, but pulling it off would require a lot of skill. "I... what?" Perfect.

It seemed to Harry that, somehow, Charlie didn't buy it. Harry barely knew what he was doing, though, so that may not have been purely Charlie's skepticism. Harry found he had become amazingly good at ignoring the insanity that his life had become. When talking to dragons and snakes and casually running away from school to travel through time became common, Harry honestly didn't think anything could faze him anymore.

On a similar note, he was still receiving information that Killagarah had given him. This made everyone think that he was a very fast study, because he 'learned' whatever the workers thought he should know on the first try.

Yet even with life continuing somewhat normally, Harry's constant question lingered: Should he tell anyone? He in constant worry, sneaking away at spare moments to talk to Reniatar and avoiding Charlie, who was most likely to find out his secret. He spent the majority of his time with Carl, who didn't mind the extra help at all. Carl was also good at not asking questions he knew Harry was secretive about.

Not to say they didn't talk, or ask each other questions. "Carl, have I told you you should be the defense professor?"

"I'm not even qualified. Wouldn't I need to, y'know, be a professor?"

Harry snorted. "If all our teachers were qualified, then I'd be scared for the system. And the future of mankind."

"They can't be that bad!" Carl chuckled.

"Er... the first was a man who pretended to stutter to conceal the fact that he had Voldemort," Carl winced slightly, "On the back of his head. The second's best and only spells were Lumos and Obliviate, which he used to steal various peoples fame." Harry took a deep breath. "The third was okay but he got sick practically every month, the fourth was a dead death eater under polyjuice as a ex Auror. Trust me, you're qualified."

"Oh."

He did have a few more chances to... convince Carl to come to Hogwarts, most of which didn't seem to end as well. Carl had gone to a small private school in Liverpool, so he didn't know much about Hogwarts. Harry mentioned that he'd have his fill of magical creatures - and creature lovers - in the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid.

Carl did some questioning of his own, too. Harry thought it was quite constructive, but bothersome.

"Where did you get that bracelet?" Carl asked as they 'trained' Reniatar to come to wherever they clapped their hands by holding chunks of meat. Harry doubted the validity of this on less intelligent dragons, but it was going pretty well.

"From my friend." Harry answered softly. Morgana. He had effectively blocked her from his mind for the most of his time at the preserve.

"Is it from a girl?" He asked mockingly, laughing easily.

Harry looked at him sharply and nodded, turning back to whisper a few choice words to the dragon. A few blissfully quiet minutes passed.

"Every time you're in the papers, you're shown with glasses. Are those just for show?"

Harry groaned and stopped his Draconic* muttering. "I used to need to wear glasses. I got my eyes fixed."

Carl looked surprised. "Really? That's a bit dodgy. Isn't that magic still in a experimental stage?"

Harry grimaced. Hang on - "Yeah, my friends in France are pretty good at it though. It wasn't too bad, but it hurt a lot."

Carl made a sympathetic sound. "I suppose that's why your eyes turn gold when you do magic. It must be a reaction caused by the influx of magic through your eyes." Noticing Harry was looking at him oddly, he continued, "Sorry, Muggle school ramblings. My cousin Chris taught me enough to be confusing wizards left and right."

"It's ok, I was raised by muggles." Harry grinned at Carl's surprised face. "I was so confused when I first came to Diagon Ally. Never mind that everyone at the Leaky Cauldron wanted to shake my hand." He ended bitterly.

Carl laughed at him to lighten the mood, and Harry had to join in.

A day later, of course, Carl was back to asking questions.

Harry was wearing a sleeveless shirt, completely forgetting about the scar on his arm.

"That's a funny scar." Carl poked at it.

"How's it funny?"

"Well it's just like the one Lord Draco got from saving Merlin's life, isn't it?"

Harry frowned. "It is?"

"Yeah!" Carl said enthusiastically. "Down to the size and everything. They say it came from being bitten by a magical creature, and he nearly died before being healed by his Lady Morgana."

Harry snorted. "Yeah, I travelled back in time to save Merlin from an unknown beast. What did you do last summer?"

Despite the escape working with Carl offered, Harry had the nagging feeling that there was no way he could tell Charlie without him getting angry, concerned or scared. He knew he would have to explain, and then... he had no clue.

When given the option of working with Charlie the next day, Harry grabbed it. "Hey Charlie? What's a Dragon master?" He asked false-eagerly.

Charlie looked a bit confused, but answered his question. "A dragon master - or it might've been Lord, I dunno - was a person able to control and hatch dragons. Merlin was supposed to be the son of one, and the ability died out around that time."

Harry nodded. "Well if it died out, was it hereditary?"

Charlie nodded. "Probably, yeah."

Harry frowned. "So if there aren't any dragon lords anymore, and they were the ones who hatched dragons, then why are the dragons still here?"

Charlie furrowed his brow. "I honestly don't know. I don't think they were the only ones able to hatch dragons, they probably hatched on their own as well."

Harry nodded.

"I, well, I mean, I was interested because it seemed like it was right after I gave him a name, that he hatched." He looked anxiously up at Charlie, "It kind of... came to me. In my head and I don't understand it because I know what the word means but it's not in a language I know and I'm scared, Charlie. What's happening? How did I do that, why did he hatch?"

Charlie took in his words calmly, waiting a long moment before answering. "I'm not sure. We'll keep this to ourselves, though. I don't know everything that's happening but I think telling everyone would be a mistake."

Harry looked at him worriedly. "What should I do?"

"Well," Charlie said. "I see two options. We can pretend it just hatched on its own, but no, we can't. They hatch within hours of each other. Unless you think you can hatch the other two?" He looked hopeful that this was the case, and Harry wondered what his other idea was.

Harry looked at the nest, and the names settled on each of the two eggs. "Yeah. I can. It's odd, I can see the names swirl about and match up to each egg, but the names are strange." Harry didn't need to fake the emotions for that, which felt nice after deceiving Charlie for so long.

"What are the names?" Charlie asked.

Harry pointed to each one as he said them, "Flavina and Entrexas."

As Harry expected, but Charlie definitely did not, the two dragons began to hatch.

Harry watched in fascination as a large gold and red dragon emerged, and a slightly smaller, completely midnight green egg fell to pieces, it's dragon holding haunting golden eyes. Immediately the two bowed to him, and Harry greeted them as he had Reniatar. "Hello Flavinea, Entrexas."

Charlie was frozen in spot, surprise dominating his features. "Wicked." He breathed, blinking rapidly and pinching himself to assure that it was real. Once he did, he turned abruptly to Harry. "We can't let anyone know about this. It would scare people, and make the news... in this climate the paper wouldn't put the best spin on it." He laughed humorlessly, "Ron was right, you do get into all sorts of situations. I wonder..." He stopped.

Stepping over to the former egg's nest, he picked up something that was lightly glinting among the broken egg shells. It looked like a pebble, no larger than Charlie's fingernail, but it shone an unearthly glittering green that wasn't natural, even in a dragon nest.

"What is this? Are you getting any names for it?" Charlie asked, holding it up between two fingers.

Harry squinted at it, holding out a hand to take the small metal-like object. Charlie set it on his palm, and Harry immediately knew the name. "Basiligar."

The tiny egg hatched, piece by shining piece. A tiny, metallic green dragon no bigger than Harry's pinky hatched, wings laying outspread on Harry's palm, barely reaching either side of his hand. The minuscule creature looked up and bowed to Harry slightly, then sitting back on his hind legs to get a good look at the world. He snapped his jaw on a passing fly, and curled up in Harry's hand, content.

Charlie gaped. Harry grinned, the live dragonling reminded him of the miniature Horntail he still had from the first task. He wanted to know how Basiligar would react to the animated figurine.

"I probably can't tell them about him." Harry said with a ghost of a smile. Charlie shook his head. "I should probably leave earlier than planned, too. This could end badly for you."

Charlie thought about that, but replied solidly. "I won't make you leave." He said.

"Thank you."

They didn't speak for a while, and the only sounds were of the young dragons playing with one another. Harry walked over to the building, tracing the familiar route to Charlie's room.

He grabbed his belongings, pausing at his notebook. Sirius. Quickly, he penned a note,

Sirius,

I'm coming back to England. Is there any news?

H

Harry turned back to his bag, but not five minutes later his book warmed up.

Harry,

Stay away from the Burrow for a while. It's probably best to disguise yourself if you go to Diagon, too. Dumbledore's looking for you, really wants to make you go to your relatives place.

Listen, my childhood home is Number 12, Grimauld Place, London. I want you to meet me on the street in an hour.

S

Harry closed the book with a scribbled, "Okay, see you soon." Before he left, he whispered in the dragon language to the tiny but oddly heavy creature currently clutching his sleeve, "Stay hidden in my pocket, get some sleep."

He shouldered his bag and walked into the hall. Harry knew Carl would be in his room at this time of day.
The dragon crawled into Harry's pocket, and Harry knocked on Carl's door.

"Hey, c'mon in Harry."

Harry sat down on the chair at Carl's desk, and said, "Carl, I
have to leave soon."

Carl frowned. "Why? Can't you stay until school starts? You've got over a week."

Harry shook his head. "I've... done some good things, here. But to be honest I wasn't supposed to come in the first place, and I don't want to get anyone in trouble. It's been brilliant, it really has, but I've got to go."

Harry knew it was only a matter of time before people connected the three smart, baby dragons to his presence, and he didn't want Blisiga to be found. Merl- Killagarah only knew what that was. On that topic, he needed to consult Killagarah on that.

"Well, I can't say I'm glad we're losing my free help." Carl said, but the joke fell flat. Harry smiled anyway. "I'm sure you'll do fine. You're a fast learner, and that might be very important in the years to come."

"Do you think..." do you think you would teach at Hogwarts? "Where do you think I should Floo to?" Harry changed his question quickly. It wasn't worth asking (again.) He wasn't that much of a clot pole, and it was obvious Carl didn't want to.

"Just Floo to Diagon Ally, I suppose. You don't mean to leave now?"

Harry shrugged. "No time like the present. I need to leave before I can be convinced to stay, it'd be way too easy. You know what? I'll ride my broom. Which direction is west? Well, no, I can use point me. Thank you, Carl. It's been great."

Harry sat down at the table, across from Sirius. Carefully, he brought out the mysterious dragon, Basiligar from his jacket pocket.

"This dragon was in the preserve, in the nest with the rest of them. After the others hatched, he hatched on my palm and sort of attached himself to me." Harry fibbed. He wasn't ready to reveal the whole Dragonlord business, it was bad enough that Charlie knew. But it felt good to be able to tell the truth, even just a little bit.

And Sirius thought seeing four dragons hatch was pretty fun, and made Harry go into excruciating detail. Of course, Harry let it slip that he had dealt with dragons before, in first year. That turned out to be a mistake, as Sirius latched onto it and barely ever stopped speaking of it. Harry assumed it was because, now that they were back in their own time, Sirius was on the run and Harry was expected to fight an evil wizard who had destroyed everyone's lives. There was precious little else to get childishly excited about.

Besides Sirius's cooking. Harry made a big deal about banning Sirius from cooking again, and insisted that he should make the food for the next week. Kreature, the ancient house elf, was perfectly fine with this arrangement, as he hated everything to do with Harry or Sirius. They avoided each other, which suited them all just fine.

In this manner, Harry passed the week before school started barely leaving the house, but for school supplies and food. Before Harry knew it, he was running through platform 9 ¾, and heading back to Hogwarts.

Word Count: 2,500

AN: Sorry about the considerably longer wait than I said it would be. I worked on this chapter and basically rewrote it a few times, and I still really, really hate it.

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding where I want this to go, so don't expect the weekly updates I'm sure you all loved.

Also, my writing depends on what happens in Merlin (Because don't worry, guys, he'll go back again,) so at that point I'll be waiting to see where the show is heading.

*Since Draco means dragon in Latin, I thought that would work for a description of the language. Still have no idea what it's supposed to be called.

Thanks for Reading,

SH