WHAT HAPPENED ON THE MOUNTAIN

Harry had thought for a long time that his scrawny constitution was due to the years of malnutrition at Privet Drive. Even though he had Harry's messy hair, James had grown into a fine teenager, with the Weasley's wide shoulders and their skin glowing of good health.

But Albus, who had been just as pampered, had been a fragile child. At fifteen, with his lean body and his thin features, he looked more than ever like his father at the same age and Harry, for the first time in his life, wondered how Dumbledore had dared to place the weight of the world's salvation on shoulders this frail.

Molly had been right to want to keep him away from the Order of the Phoenix. Harry felt sick just picturing Albus prey to the nightmares he had had to deal with after the horrible night at the cemetery, or teaching his classmates in secret to protect them from a so-called educator, or witnessing the death of the person who was his only family in the Department of Mysteries...

It was just unacceptable. Unbearable.

Even if at the time he had ardently wished to be involved in the Order of the Phoenix and to fight, even though he was pretty sure his son would have shown the same courage facing the same circumstances, he would do anything for his children to grow up without suffering.

- "Dad?"

He pushed off the anger twisting his stomach and his gaze came back to his son who was sitting up painfully on the enchanted bed, rubbing his eyes like when he was younger.

Harry felt his heart melt with love. He reached out and tousled the tangled dark curls.

- "How d'you feel, Al?"

- "Mmm... stiff. Like if I had been grinded like a scarab beetle..."

The boy glanced around in confusion. He recognized the room where Charlie had brought them the day before, but the other two beds were empty. The curtains were tied to the sides of the window and the sun was streaming in and warming up the old stone walls. A light breeze carried in the smell of freshly-cut grass and cherry trees in blossom, the distant voices of students strolling by the lake.

- "Where are Terrence and Scorpius? It is morning? Did I oversleep? I'm going to be late for class! Why aren't they here? Did something happen to them? Did I ... did I ... k-k ..."

His breathing had quickened. A typhoon of panic was rising in his emerald eyes.

Did I morph? Did I hurt anyone? I'm a monster, isn't it? That's why you tried to kill me, right?

Harry grabbed his son's slender shoulders and locked eyes with him.

- "They're fine, Al", he said firmly. "Everything's okay. Breathe. You don't need to go to school today; Minerva has given everyone the day off. Neville took your friends to breakfast. Now. I want you to listen to me carefully. Okay? "

Albus swallowed hard. He nodded weakly.

His heart was pounding in his chest.

He was not afraid. This man was his father. He loved him. His father would have never hurt him. His father knew what was happening. His father never lied. Things were going to be okay.

Harry took off his shoes and climbed on the bed to lean back against the stone wall. He put his arm around the boy's shoulders, holding his breath for a minute, and gratitude overwhelmed him when he felt his son snuggle against him, like he used to when he was a child.

- "There's something I need to tell you. When you were six, you had a terrible illness and the healers told us that... you were not going to recover."

His son frowned.

- "I don't remember being sick."

- "I know", said Harry. "That's what he said would happen. That's why we never told you, Mum and I. We thought you'd never have to remember."

There was a silence, during which Harry remembered the little boy who was dying, his feverish green orbs looking at Ginny and him, his bright smile slowly dimming away.

Years later, the anguish and helplessness he had felt during those moments were still a lot more painful than the burning of his scar when facing Voldemort.

- "He came to us at that time. Out of nowhere. A black dragon, covered in fur instead of scales. At first it was just a cub, you were playing together in the snow when you still well enough, and then he grew up. He became huge and, the bigger he got, the more you lost your strength. Mum thought it was him that was weakening you."

Albus was listening intently.

- "What about you?" he muttered. "What did you think of it?"

Harry smiled and tightened his arm around the boy's shoulders.

- "I thought you two were having a great time. I couldn't believe he would hurt you on purpose. And then your Uncle Charlie said the dragon had come to us specifically to save you."

His throat was clogged. What came next was so difficult to explain…

- "When things became dire... Charlie, Neville and I followed the dragon's instructions."

- "It was talking?"

Albus' green eyes were twinkling.

How much did he look like the little boy who had begged them to keep the clumsy black dragon!

Harry took a deep breath.

- "He wasn't speaking aloud, rather... like words in your head. And not everyone could hear them. Charlie was the one who understood him best. As for me... he talked to me more at the end."

He felt his son's body stiffen.

- "At the end?"

Harry shifted a bit and tilted his head to look at the anxious young face.

- "The dragon... the dragon took us to the top of a mountain, the only place where Neville could find a very rare flower that would allow you to channel the ancient magic we were going to invoke."

He was trying to speak softly, reassuringly.

- "The dragon and Charlie knew what they were doing. It was the only solution if we wanted to save you. When the time came, the dragon..."

He swallowed hard.

He thought of Dumbledore's blue eyes behind his half-moon spectacles when, at the end of his first year in Hogwarts, the old man had told him how his mother's love protected him from the Dark Lord.

- "The dragon died to save you, Albus. I... Charlie had explained that you needed to… to die, so you could be reborn (bloody hell, how complicated and twisted it sounded, years after...) and so when I... when I killed you ... the dragon did something, and..."

The emerald eyes staring at him were clouding. The boy's face was very pale. Harry wiped the silent tear rolling down his son's cheek like a drop of ice.

- "It's thanks to him that you're still alive. He loved you very much. So... well, I don't know why, now, these things are happening, but... I'm sure the dragon means you no harm."

He brushed away a dark lock on his son's forehead.

- "I'm sorry I kept this a secret for years", he whispered. "Mum didn't know the whole story either, that's why she's so crossed with me. We had nothing to lose at this point, that's how I... I managed to cast that terrible curse. You were going to die anyway, so if it could save you... "

Albus shook his head slowly, as if lost in a dream.

- "I understand", he rasped.

He looked about to faint.

- "I promise we will find a solution, Al. You're not alone, don't be scared..."

Harry pulled the teenager close, nestled him in his arms like when he was a toddler. Albus did not struggle, in a daze.

"I'm here. Daddy won't let you down, love. You don't need to face the world on your own. I'm protecting you. I will protect you forever."

This lack of reaction was terrifying.

It was almost a relief when sobs wrenched the lean back of the boy and when garbled words choked against his father's shoulder.

Until Harry, aghast, understood what he was gasping.

- "I'm sorry, Daddy... I'm so sorry ..."

But before he could protest, Albus' body dissolved into a whirl of golden particles and Harry had to close his eyes, dazzled.

When he was able to see again, the young black dragon was in front of him.

- "Too ... Toothless?"

He ran a hand over his face, gathered his jumbled thoughts.

- "Al?"

The dragon cocked his head and his fluffy ears flickered. His golden split green orbs were watching the man with interest. His spade-shaped tail swept the slabs happily.

Harry's hand touched the satin soft raven muzzle.

"Al?"

The dragon started to purr, half-closing his eyelids.

"Dad?"

Harry's heart jumped.

"Can you hear me?"

There was no answer. The dragon sneezed suddenly and sat down with a flump. He turned his head to the window, intrigued, listening to the voices outside. His wings unfurled a little.

- "No", said Harry. "You can't go out."

The animal growled and his muscles rolled under his ebony fur, as if he was preparing to pounce. He sniffed the breeze and Terrence's bed, trotted to the closed door and scratched it with his paw.

- "No", Harry repeated, amused despite the situation.

He ruffled his tangled dark hair and sighed.

- "What are we going to do with you?"

As if to answer him, the door opened and the dragon, surprised, leapt back, swelling like an angry cat.

Charlie popped his head inside and his serious face gave way to a grin when he saw the creature.

- "Ah", he exclaimed, coming in. "You're done chatting, I see."

Harry winced.

- "Not really. I had just managed to tell him the whole story, when suddenly..."

His brother-in-law nodded knowingly. He ran his hand over his forehead absently and Harry found himself wondering that this was perhaps why he was balding.

- "When suddenly Al was overwhelmed by tons of complicated feelings – and bam", Charlie completed.

He crossed his arms - they were bare and covered with scars. He was wearing a sheepskin vest of questionable taste, which accentuated the Viking look of his stocky figure.

- "It's alright. He'll be back in no time."

- "I just hope you know what you're talking about", Harry groaned, recovering his balance: the dragon had shoved him to play and he had been nearly thrown down.

Charlie crouched, resting his elbows on his thighs, holding out his hands. He whistled a few notes, almost distractedly.

The dragon turned to him instantly, ears pointing up.

- "Come on, boy."

He waited until the animal came to sniff his fingers and grinned at his brother-in law, scratching the silky throat of the dragon that closed his eyes with pleasure, purring like an old diesel engine.

- "I checked. He's no Animagus, Harry. His friend Terrence told me he had no recollection of the times he morphs. And according to young Malfoy, the first time he changed into a dragon, it was in the gallery, after a serious discussion about the war. T'was a pretty good idea not to wipe their memories. Swanson, he's one heck of a clever lad, that one."

He grabbed the furry jaws of the creature that struggled a bit but did not manage to free itself, and showed Harry the white mark on the dragon's maw.

- "Look. The other did not have this. This is the scar left by the snow flower. From what the boys said and the observations we made last night, I think Albus and the dragon are both in him. But for now, they appear taking turns. The dragon-phoenix gave him a part of himself when he poured in him his magic and it'll..."

A drop of cold sweat trickled down Harry's back.

- "A part of himself?" he choked. "I turned my son into a Horcrux?"

Charlie shook his head hastily and the creature freed itself. He glared at the dragon master and retired to a corner of the room where he proceeded to lick his paw and thoroughly wash.

- "No", the red-haired man protested. "Not at all! Well ... well it looks like that and could be explained like this too, but..."

Harry's face was ghastly.

- "Don't worry", Charlie assured. "I'll keep studying them in any case, and believe me, all legends about the dragon-phoenix agree on one point: it never harms children. Albus is safe."

He came to his brother-in-law and placed a hand on his shoulder.

- "As long as he can control his emotions, he will have no trouble staying in his human form. He's no lycanthrope; he won't be subjected to external circumstances like the bloody moon or whatever. And when he's stronger - better trained - he will even be able to be conscious when he's in the dragon's form. Harry. That's... what Albus is, it's something amazing! Every dragon master would love to..."

He was cut by Harry's livid stare.

- "Albus is not a dragon!" hissed his brother-in-law. "He is a child who has the right to go to school and to be like everyone else! He..."

There was a whirl of gold behind them, then they heard Albus' panting voice.

- "Why am I naked again?"

Charlie grabbed a sheet on the bed and chucked it to his nephew who was swaying a bit on his legs.

- "Welcome back", he said in a thunderous and cheerful voice. "Put that on, don't bother getting dressed. We've got work to do."

The boy's eyes turned to his father, distraught.

- "Did I... I ... change?"

Harry nodded slowly.

- "Yes. But Charlie has an idea to prevent this happening to you without warning."

Albus bit his lip, the sheet draped on him like a bath towel.

- "Was I... Toothless?"

The two men glanced at each other.

- "Do you remember Toothless?" Charlie asked eagerly.

Albus closed his eyes, then opened them again.

- "No", he said simply. "But when I ... I was – asleep, I think ... someone called me that. Is it the name of the dragon?"

His green eyes were waiting for the answer without blinking, but his fingers were fidgeting with a fold of the sheet. Harry felt his heart swell with pride at this courage.

- "I don't know if it was his name, but anyway, you called him like that", he said, coming to his son.

He took off his jacket.

- "You'll be okay, Al. Don't worry", he repeated firmly, adjusting the too broad jacket on the teenager's shoulders.

Charlie grinned.

- "Oh, yes, you will be fine! You were sleeping? Tell me about it. Not really, lad. It means you and the dragon are already becoming one. This is…"

- "I don't want to become him!" Albus cried. "I already feel like I... what if I had never been myself from the beginning, from that day he gave me his heart..."

His face was contorted in a desperate plea.

"What if I didn't exist, in fact?

What if I really died on the mountain?

What if I was someone else? Something else?

Am I going to disappear?

Daddy, Mummy, will you still love me even though I'm not what you thought I was?

Will James and Lily forsake me? What about Terrence and Scorpius and the others?

Do I have the right to be here?

I'm a monster, isn't it?"

Harry hugged him almost violently.

- "Nothing will change!" he swore hoarsely.

"I love you. I love you. I love you."

How he wanted his words to be strong enough to stem the ancient magic which consumed Albus and was crackling at the roots of his hair...

"I'm here. I won't let go of you, no matter what happens.

You're not the dragon and the dragon will never take your place.

I'll stop him. I'll protect you.

You're not what I was, history will not be repeated, you won't live like that..."

The whirl of gold vanished.

Harry opened his eyes and looked at his arms. The teenager shuddering against him and the snuffles moistening his shirt were real.

There had been no metamorphosis.

He looked at Charlie. His brother-in-law's gaze was strange.

- "What?" Harry asked, breaking away from his son and checking him thoroughly.

No, more magic.

He was himself again.

Pale and exhausted, but his true self.

The dragon had been quelled.

- "His heart?" Charlie repeated softly. "Who said he gave you his heart? How do you know that, Al?"

The boy shook his head.

- "It's not that I know. I just felt it", he muttered after a while.

His green eyes were filled with a tumult of questions without answers, lost in something like a trance.

"Are you there all the time?

What do you want from me?

Can you hear me, dragon?"

Harry cleared his throat. He did not like that empty look.

Oh, he hated it.

His stomach churned at the idea of his son living with in him the same horror he had discovered at the end of the fighting, the disgusting parasite that had corroded and impregnated him, hidden in the depths of his inner self, the abomination seed left by a curse that no one should have ever cast...

Not Albus.

Not him, not that, never.

He stepped forward.

- "He did not change into a dragon, this time", he said with a loud satisfaction.

It would not be the same.

There would be no sacrifice, no voice in Albus' head, no feelings that did not belong to him hatching in his mind.

He would not be doomed to kill anyone.

Harry was rather proud to have countered the magic of the dragon with his silent prayers. Perhaps he had reached - well, almost reached - the level of the old wizard who had walked with him in the surreal station...

He was going to find a solution to rid his son of this stigma and things would turn out differently this time.

Albus would never have to fight, he would do it for him.

Charlie smiled up to his ears and scratched the back of his neck.

- "Al is one of a kind", he chuckled enigmatically. "I'm going to love working with him."

- "Working?" Albus repeated, with a start as if he had just woken up.

- "Yep. Work, as in practice until you drop dead on the ground. From today onwards, my dear nephew, you're taking night classes in addition to your daily lessons..."

- "I'm going back to school?" cut in the boy, stunned.

- "Yes", Charlie laughed. "Tomorrow. As long as you can prove me you can consciously repeat what you've just done."

Albus nibbled his lips, still wrapped in his sheet. His feet were a little cold.

- "You can do it, Al", said Harry who was not too sure he understood what his brother-in-law meant.

He could not quite get a hold of what he had missed.

But Charlie could already see the change. The most shy and the most fragile of his nephews was already standing with a different poise and the sparkle in his green eyes was stronger, firmer - wiser.

"You can do it, Albus Severus Potter.

I'll be waiting for you."

The deep voice had been almost imperceptible, but it was warm, soft and filled with humor.

He had felt it within him at that turning point, when he was about to lose himself and morph. Like a distant echo, something familiar.

"Don't be afraid, little one.

I'm going back to sleep for now.

Take your time."

Albus decided not to say anything and just nodded when Charlie gave him a shove and asked enthusiastically: "you ready?".

He smiled at his father who looked worried and uncomfortable.

"We will be fine, Dad.

Trust me."

Everything was different since he had heard the voice of the dragon.

TBC

Next chapter: Wendy does not like eels either