Agendas

The parchment sat there on the rickety field desk. Senior Dragon Wrangler Warren Reed stared at it and scrubbed his face with his callused hands before letting out a long sigh. The grey hairs on the side of his face felt like all of them were getting more pronounced by the moment. He was sure of it and that damned parchment was the reason why. There was a knock at the door, which bowed in with the force of the taps.

The thought that it was stupid for the bosses of the dragon preserve to send them out with a third-hand wizarding tent to use as a field office ran through his mind yet again. He didn't express that, though.

"Yeah! Come in!"

"You wanted to see me, boss?"

Reed looked up between his splayed fingers to see his Lead Dragon Wrangler standing in the doorway, scowling at the door's lack of fortitude.

"Come in, but don't sit on that chair, Malcolm. It looks like it's about to collapse just sitting there."

Malcolm Tucker looked at the chair with the same dubiousness as his boss as and said, "I think I'll stand for now. What's up?"

"Take a look at this."

He came further into the small office and the door fluttered shut behind him. The parchment was handed to the younger man. He read it and Reed could see his eyebrows rising higher and higher.

"Boss, what the…"

"I know," Reed said quickly, cutting him off. "It's something I never thought I'd see and that I thought would never happen."

"The Treaty of Shelleche Notch has been invoked? From centuries ago?"

Reed thought the bumfuzzled expression on Tucker's face was something he'd never see, either. He didn't consider that he had roughly the same expression on his face despite having a little more time to think about this.

"Eight or nine, yeah. It was after Hogwarts was founded – after the Founders passed on. Something like that." He thought for a moment. "Now that I think about it, it was signed at Hogwarts. Isn't the symbol of the school a dragon?"

"Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Dunno, just something that popped up in my mind."

The tent was quiet for a moment.

"When did this arrive? For that matter, how?"

The questions sounded like the younger man couldn't quite decide in what order to pose them. There had been no owls delivering messages since they set up here, which made sense. Only the bravest (or stupidest) of owls came around dragons. The stupid ones got roasted for a dragon version of hors d'oeuvre. The brave ones somehow avoided that fate, although the smarter ones of that group flatly refused to attempt to deliver post a second time.

"It was waiting on the desk when I came in. The door stays locked and the window has been jammed shut ever since Bob somehow got that resin in the track."

They rolled their eyes. No one had figured out what the man's thought process had been but as a result the window was well and truly stuck shut. Everyone who tried to fix it failed, whether they tried manual or magical means. Thanks to the bean counters on the dragon reserve, that meant there still wasn't enough justification to replace the mobile office tent. It made heat waves hard to deal with whenever they came around, Reed thought. At least Bob wouldn't be done with the scut work details for few months for his efforts. Considering how many times he screwed something up, there was no need for anyone else to do those details.

"Anyway, Malcolm, there's supposed to be a British Ministry of Magic representative showing up any time now."

"In other words, tomorrow? Government efficiency?"

They traded looks at the obvious contradiction in terms.

"Probably. There's no money to be extorted… er, received, rather, right away. So, yeah, probably tomorrow. We aren't supposed to leave for a week or so since a lot of the wranglers have family in the area."

"Gives them a chance to drop in to see them. Yeah. Charlie's been bragging about his mother's cooking being better than everyone else's for the last few days, so I've been wondering if he's willing to put up or shut up."

The older man grinned but didn't say anything. Malcolm hadn't been around the day Molly had sent her son a Weasley Special (with homemade apple pie!) under stasis for his birthday. It being Molly, there was enough food to feed four people even with Charlie's appetite.

Warren Reed had eaten good that day. The next day, he'd bragged about it to his wife. On reflection, it had not been the best of decisions to sing Molly's praises.

It took two weeks of burned dinners, dry ham sandwiches in his lunch, and boiled eggs and toast with thin coffee for breakfast before she mostly accepted his apology. He continued to sleep on the couch for another week after that.

He wasn't going to make that mistake again, but neither was he going to help Malcolm out either. The younger man could learn from his own mistakes, not Warren's. He grinned at that thought.

"Anyway, Malcolm, what about…"

There was a light knock behind Malcolm. The door shook on its thin hinges as it bowed in again.

"Come!"

Malcolm had to move a bit to allow the door to swing open to reveal a short, pleasant-looking man with thinning brown hair. He had a fairly large messenger bag slung over one shoulder.

"I'm looking for Warren Reed."

"That's me."

Reed stood up to offer his hand and Malcolm shuffled around in the tiny office to give him room. The man took it with a firm grip.

"I'm Philo McClemont. I work for the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, specifically the sub-department of Dragonborne Treaties and Treatises."

"'Dragonborne…'"

The man sighed.

"I agree it sounds pretentious, but it's the government. If we can screw something up, we find the most efficient way to do that. If that means making up jobs that don't have much to do for the job perks, then that's what we do."

There was a snort from Malcolm, but no one commented on it.

"So, what can we do for you, Mister McClemont? And would you like some tea?"

"Call me Philo, and don't mind if I do. Thanks. I'm here because the Treaty of Shelleche Notch was invoked by a dragon using draconic means and magic."

Eyes went wide between the dragon wranglers. This was unheard of. McClemont saw this.

"Imagine how we felt when the magic popped in. There was a lot of spilled coffee and parchment all over the place and it took us about an hour and a half, almost two, to figure out what to do to answer it. When we did that after digging up the text, we wanted to throw up."

Reed sighed.

"Um… can you give us a rundown on what that particular Treaty is about? It's been a long, long time for me since I studied it when I was just starting out in this business and that was just a review anyway."

"Sure, no problem. In fact, here." The visitor opened the messenger bag and passed out several file folders held closed with a thin rubber strap. The folders looked to be about an inch or so thick and had an embossed drawing of a dragon with reading glasses perusing a large book on each folder.

"I made copies of the text for you, once I found out that you had a location here. I'm sure that Hogwarts has a copy somewhere, but I remember how Madam Pince is. One of those is for everyone listed on the cover page, with copies for Hogwarts to keep too."

Grimaces were exchanged around the room without words at the mention of the librarian. Reed looked at the magically glimmering list of names and his eyes widened. There was time for a quick glance at the other dragon wrangler before the Ministry wizard went on.

"Anyway, the Treaty of Shelleche Notch involved a wizarding family and a draconic Mother Eminence. Shelleche Notch was a fairly small wizarding town near what is now Llithfaen. It was destroyed a few centuries ago, but long after this business. The mother dragon witnessed the murder of a wizard that she got along with and the near-destruction of his family. It seems that long before she grew to become a young Mother Eminence, this wizard encountered her in a perilous state and basically saved her life. This created almost the equivalent of what we would call a life debt."

Eyebrows raised.

"Tell me about it. Now for whatever reason, the wizard simply wasn't afraid of the dragon. Respectful of what she could do, yes, from what we found in a series of journals his estate was left with, but they apparently got along well for many years. It took a while for his family to get used to a two-ton dragon visiting as though she was the neighbor down the street coming by for a cup of sugar or to trade pictures of the kids, but they did."

The thought was a bit stupendous for the dragon handlers.

"How they communicated with each other, I don't know and I doubt we'll ever know, but they did. Somehow. She was a Common Welsh Green, which was odd when you consider they usually don't have anything to do with humans. If she had a name, it's been lost to history."

Nods came from the other two.

"So, near as we can tell, they socialized a good bit with each other – to the point that the dragon became close to a babysitter of the wizard's kids as they got older and could feed themselves. Sounds strange, but it didn't cause any problem since the wizard and his family was out in the country, so to speak. They lived away from the larger population centers where it was a lot quieter and more peaceful.

"One day, a gang of hooligans intent on trouble broke in on the wizard's wife while she was making dinner, got the drop on her and… well. She didn't survive. The dragon heard her screams from a distance and took off to help, while magic of some kind warned the husband. He got there before she did. It was terrible what he found."

McClemont took a sip of his tea before it cooled.

"He was so shocked to see it that he was taken down by the hooligans before he could do anything about it. The dragon arrived, with some help that had decided to tag along, to find him, his wife, and their daughter dead.

"Now, as you know, a Mother Eminence is the alpha of female dragons and runs things in a community of dragons. That's the simplistic view and as dragon handlers you know that better than I do and that there's really more to it than that, but for now, that'll do for my explanation. They're large and in charge."

Reed tried to stop the eye roll at the minor joke and got the feeling that the man had been waiting to say that all day. Another snort came from the side of the office and he glanced at Malcolm.

"Sorry, boss."

McClemont went on with a slight smile on his lips.

"Anyway, mother dragons are like mothers all over, they care for their young. It's not unheard of for a mother of one species to assume care of the young of another species for whatever reason. What happened here was that the dragon was upset that her friend had been murdered, along with most of his family. If she hadn't found the wizard's son alive but for a bad beating, she would have flamed the whole valley. What happened next surprised everyone."

"What happened?" Reed wanted to know, even if some of the details from that long-ago lecture were reforming in his mind in a hazy way.

"Well, the Mother Eminence, since that was the role she was acting in now, had two assistants that rounded up the hooligans. Smaller dragons, but still large enough and with precise enough control to burn their wand hands off and cauterize the stumps. Meanwhile, she was looking over the young wizard. Apparently there was enough resonance between her dragon's magic and his magic that he was somewhat healed. There's been a lot of speculation over the years that they had formed some kind of friend-bond or even familial bond thanks to his father's relationship with her that something in Magic worked to help him."

"Magic is Magic, after all."

"Too true. Anyway, it turned out that there was another wife in the village that was supposed to visit that day – who knows why – and while she knew and even met the dragon before, she was scared to death. That was, until she saw the dragon set the boy on the ground after standing him up. When he turned to look his 'babysitter' in the eyes, the witch reported seeing a magical flash, followed by the sight of the other two dragons bowing to the boy."

The dragon wranglers traded glances. Reed spoke up.

"And wasn't there some kind of fight, too? Something about custody since his family was dead?"

"To cut a long story short, yes, but it stopped when the boy proved that he could communicate with the dragon. What was probably scary was that the dragon had taken on an ability to link with some of the fighters there – and don't ask why or how, we never figured out – and the sudden knowledge and exchange of the same from a Mother Eminence lead to a formal Treaty that outlined the dragon accepting custody of the boy and setting out the guidelines should it be necessary to do again."

Eyebrows raised.

"She took that boy in. Kid was twelve, maybe thirteen, and she raised him to adulthood. There was a lot of growing pains, but he turned out pretty well. Introduced his family to her and she later babysat some of the 'grandkids,' too. The dragons she ran with seemed to be pretty chilled out, for dragons anyway, and there are reports that some of even watched out for what was considered part of their weyr. He even wrote some of the leading dragon literature of the age, which makes a lot of sense. Too bad that in 1532, the Dark Wizard Odel destroyed most of that, all of the artwork, and many of the memories. What little we have is what's in the Treaty itself, the Department of Mysteries, and some of the family vaults of Gringotts. It set back dragon relations and knowledge for centuries."

"Wow."

"Tell me about it. Imagine my surprise this morning when I got a magical package landing on my desk from a dragon named 'Tessaies.' She had uttered, or spoken or whatever a dragon does anyway, a magical invocation that triggered the Treaty. All the language, information, precedents and forms correct, too. You got a dragon here under that name?"

Reed looked at the other dragon handler.

"Better find Weasley. I can't keep all these names and nicknames straight sometimes, other than the Dumb Ditsy Bitch. I think he went looking for the Potter kid. You should probably take a few of these to give him."

Malcolm snorted again as took the folders and left. The Ministry man glanced at Reed curiously.

"'Dumb Ditsy Bitch?'"

"Ohhhhh, you have no idea. Good mother dragon, fairly sweet as dragons go, but she fits every single blonde joke out there."

|:-:|

Daphne Greengrass didn't want to admit to anyone that she was… concerned. She was about to be up close to a dragon, for Merlin's sake, and if it weren't for the honor of Slytherin she wouldn't be entertaining the idea. If Potter hadn't trapped her into coming along with him and Granger…

And that was another thing. Since when did those two walk arm-in-arm? She'd seen the interaction in the First Task, but so soon?

Maybe their talk after the Task had cleared some things up for both of them. It probably meant that there would be payouts in the constantly running bets the Weasley Twins had. It wasn't that she had her own bets in (which she wasn't admitting to,) but it was still true that entertainment was where you found it sometimes.

And speaking of entertainment, why was Potter looking at her with that very amused look on his face?

"What, Potter? And Granger, too?"

"You invited me to a meal at the Slytherin table, remember? Hermione tells me that you and she get along well in class and as I have no hope of catching either of you in the class standings, I need backup at the table of the snakes."

She started to say something, but was interrupted.

"Scarhead, what are you doing here? Are you lost?"

"No, Malfoy. Are you deaf or has all that hair product gummed up your ears?"

Muffled chuckles ran up the down the Slytherin table. Apparently that was a speculation for most of them, too.

"But…"

"Shut up, Malfoy. Go break another mirror with your face. You're not part of this conversation."

Daphne Greengrass' voice was cold, and she tried not to look at Potter's grin.

"And don't say, 'When my father hears about this,' either. I'm tired of hearing it every day. Grow up."

From the sound of the gurgle coming from his direction, Malfoy was choking on his surprise. No one seemed interested in helping him, instead they watched to see what Potter would do. Even Granger seemed interested.

"Well. May we be seated?"

She nodded and watched as Potter assisted Granger into her seat before taking his. Eyebrows rose at the display.

"Thank you for inviting us, Miss Greengrass – well, me – but anyway. It would be interesting to see how the other side of the hall eats. I've been curious since my first year."

"Oh?" Her eyebrow rose.

"Well, but for a desire to be 'anywhere but Slytherin' thanks to how Malfoy came across when we first met, I'd be sitting here every day. The Quidditch Cup would most likely be in Professor Snape's office at the end of the year, too."

Silence descended along the table in waves as the word was spread that Potter was almost a Slytherin.

"You lie!"

"Nope, Malfoy. If you don't believe me, talk to the Sorting Hat. He might not actually tell you because of privacy stuff, but he might well confirm that Gryffindor was his second choice. It's worked out pretty well for me, I'll say. I have to wonder though. Your Sorting was fast, but was Slytherin really the Hat's first choice? I changed my Sorting and I have to wonder now about yours."

Harry left the others to draw their own conclusions as eyes turned to Malfoy. He turned away from the choleric Slytherin and addressed Daphne.

"Let's eat! Slapping down ferrets make me hungry."

The meal passed quickly, if a little stilted. Harry was successful in making a bit of conversation with those around, although Hermione found it a little harder. Daphne and Tracey Davis carried most of the conversation, with surprisingly, Pansy Parkinson chipping in occasionally. Malfoy didn't seem to like that either, but the hooded glares being sent in his direction kept him from commenting further.

Harry pretended to ignore that, talking to Tracey about the differences in music between the Muggle world and the Wizarding world. As she was a half-blood and he was too but Muggle-raised, he was able to carry on a discussion that others along the table furtively listened to. The Gryffindor was sure that there would be questions asked in the Slytherin dorms tonight. He wondered if the gramophones Hogwarts had could play long-play records.

Probably not, but it would be funny to see purebloods react to relatively current Muggle music.

As they finished, Harry offered a hand to Hermione, who took it with a smile. Daphne had risen from the other side of the table at the same time but bent slightly to listen to a whispered question from Tracey. The other girl got up quickly and the two hurried to the end of the table, where Harry stood waiting for Daphne. Hermione was on his left arm, also waiting.

He offered his other arm to her and she stared at him. Harry grinned.

"What? A lady should be escorted. Granted, we're not going to a formal event, but it is an important meeting."

Whispers raced up and down the table, with feminine whispers sounding a bit irritated, and masculine whispers sounding resigned. The other Houses watched and had their own whispers.

Daphne looked at Tracey, who raised a teasing eyebrow. There was a distinct amused light in her best friend's eye. Sighing to herself, knowing that Tracey would never let her forget this, she stepped toward the other pair.

"Don't get any ideas, Potter."

"Who, me?" The gleam in his eye belied his innocent statement and she looked at the other girl.

"Did you put him up to this, Granger?"

"No, actually. I don't know what he's up to," here she looked at him, "and considering how his plans go, he'd better have a good explanation."

If anything, Harry's grin widened.

"Does 'prank Malfoy' work for you?"

Daphne grimaced at the mention of Malfoy and resolutely took the offered arm. For his part, Harry snugged it in closer and whispered, "Relax. I know what I'm doing."

From the resigned look on Granger's face the moment he said that, Daphne didn't feel relaxed at all. He looked over at Tracey. He remembered that she was supposed to be Daphne's best friend and would probably drive her crazy with questions later that night about the dragon visit. With that in mind, he made a snap decision.

"Come with us. However, I seem to have run out of arms or I would offer one for you to hold."

Harry didn't know how he knew it, but he suddenly knew that Tracey was suddenly up to something. She didn't react with surprise at his offer as he'd hoped she would. It could have been the look in her eye, but he wasn't at all sure. Harry watched as she flipped her hair back before speaking.

"Oh, don't worry, Potter. I'm sure I can find something to hold on to."

The choking sound from Harry rivaled the earlier one from Malfoy. It didn't help when he felt her arm wiggle in between himself and Daphne and felt her hand pluck at his robes as she giggled. He jumped a bit as she blew on his earlobe from behind. Daphne looked at her in amusement.

"Right. Um."

He flailed for something to say, when Malfoy spoke up.

"Scared, Potter?" There was a distinct note of derision in his voice.

"No, Malfoy. I can handle this, easily. Let's go, girls."

Harry didn't mention the fact that his throat was trying to close up and his breath was a little short. He looked at Hermione, who looked like she couldn't decide whether to glare at Tracey, laugh at Harry's expression, or join Daphne in wanting to hurry up and get going. However, Harry noticed that she had the dreaded expression that denoted that her mind was calculating many variables, and he didn't look forward to later talking about whatever she had on her mind. As they started to move Tracey walked with them, holding on to her grasp of his robes. It was a strange sight.

Watching from the Gryffindor table, Neville turned to George Weasley with a grin on his lips.

"10 Sickles that Harry has to grovel for the next three days and carry every book she has."

George grinned back and took out his ledger. Soon there were plenty of other bets from those who saw the same thing. Some matched Neville, while some were considerably more ribald. George wrote those down too while Fred started mentally tallying pranks.

|:-:|

Dumbledore grinned at McGonagall, who had a slightly pinched face and Snape, who looked like he'd bitten into a sour lemon. Given his usual expression, it was a bit hard to distinguish.

"I believe the term is, 'Pay up, suckers.'"

Both professors muttered to themselves while Flitwick chuckled to himself. He didn't want to know what their bet was this time, but the expression on the boy's face was far too funny. The bet between himself and Pomona Sprout hadn't finished up yet, but there was still time. He looked at her to see the amusement on her face, and knew that they would be laughing their ribs sore before class actually started or they'd be unable to teach. A little way down, Professor Sinestra looked up blearily from her coffee. She goggled at the quartet leaving the Great Hall and turned to Professor Sprout.

"Wait… did I miss something?"

"Just the usual thing around a Potter," the rotund professor laughed. Another exchange of glances with Filius and a look on the face of the Potions Professor down the table made it hard to take a sip of her tea without spitting it out everywhere.

The Astronomy Professor couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was too early for her.

|:-:|

The quartet had made it out into the sunshine. Harry looked at Daphne and decided to ask.

"So what 'matters of mutual interest' did you have in mind?"

Daphne was quiet, so he continued on.

"You can trust Hermione. I'm not going to say she does my thinking for me, but I've learned to seek her advice. Otherwise, I find myself in more trouble than if I'd swallowed my pride and asked her in the first place."

There was a general sense of amusement and Tracey murmured, "Smart man, for once."

Harry decided that it wasn't worth it to respond, especially since his arms were trapped and he couldn't get away quick enough. He waited to see what Daphne said.

"My father wanted to talk to you about joining our Houses in alliance and what terms or offers you could see yourself accepting."

Harry felt Hermione stiffen on his other side and Tracey's grasping of his robes get much tighter. He couldn't decide how to respond what Daphne said, since he had more immediate problems. Daphne had gripped his arm very tightly as she spoke and Hermione's fingernails had started digging into his other arm, while the fabrics of his shirt and robes had gathered up a good bit of his body hair, under the fist of the girl behind him.

His eyes started watering and he wondered what he was going to do now.

"Hey, Harry! Over here!"

It was still a good bit chilly out and Harry noticed that the three girls had huddled into him for warmth. He had been trying to decide how much he liked it since it wasn't really his way to be so close to others, and finally came to the conclusion that it was… nice. Well, aside from the painful part that was. The shout from somewhere in the direction of the Forest caught his attention.

He turned his head to see Charlie Weasley with another dragon handler and behind them, Hagrid.

Charlie turned his head to say something to the other wrangler that couldn't be heard as they weren't close enough. Hagrid chuckled and said something else but he couldn't be heard either. They did see the unknown wrangler look at his expression and raise an eyebrow.

Harry was wondering what that was all about. It took a few minutes to meet them, since three girls kept him moving slower than usual. He wondered if he was better than a heating charm and decided not to ask. There was no telling what answer he would get.

As they got closer, they could hear Charlie regale the other man with some of the things that Harry had done in years past and wondered how much Charlie knew. Harry and Hermione knew about events around the dragon that Hagrid had hatched in his hut. They noticed that Hagrid stayed quiet about his role in that, but his wink in their direction was caught by the quartet.

Daphne and Tracey decided that they had some questions to ask the other two later. From what little they could hear Charlie saying, there was going to be a lot more questions than they thought.

Tracey whispered in Harry's ear, "You've been a busy boy, haven't you?"

Harry tried to still the shiver that went down his spine or at least pass it off to the chill in the air, but Hermione glanced at him. Daphne looked over her shoulder to see the smirk on Tracey's face. Apparently Harry hadn't been as discreet in his efforts as he thought.

They stopped in front of Charlie. The dragon wrangler shook the hand that Harry managed to disengage, and eyed the group in front of him.

"Hey, Charlie. It's good to see you. Introductions. You know Hermione, on my left. On my right is Daphne Greengrass. Behind me is Tracey Davis."

Charlie looked to see the wink Tracey threw at him after flipping her eyes at the back of Harry's head. He looked down to see the hand grabbing more of his robes and looked up to see him wince. He looked over to the arms trapped in Hermione's and Daphne's arm, respectively, then traded glances with the others with him.

"A pleasure to meet you, ladies, although maybe not as pleasurable as Harry seems to find it. You know Hagrid – everyone does. With me is my fellow dragon wrangler, Malcolm Tucker."

"Pleased," Harry gasped out.

Charlie eyed him.

"You must be a pretty good heating charm replacement for such a skinny bloke, Harry. It's a bit nippy out here. Worse at night, too. But then, you knew that, right?"

A shaggy red eyebrow went up and he repressed a laugh as the girls tried to huddle closer. This didn't help Harry keep his mind on what he was here for.

"Your dragon lady friend is waiting for you. She's been arranging things for your visit for some reason. We keep hearing bumps, thumps, and grumps." Charlie eyed Daphne and Tracey. "I hope you can convince her of a good reason to have more than 'your mate' with you." This time he looked at Hermione.

"Oooh, 'your mate,' huh," Tracey whispered in Harry's ear. "Dragons know these things, hmmm?"

This time, Harry couldn't stop the shiver from running its course, and Malcolm snorted in amusement as he watched. Hagrid could easily be heard laughing to himself.

"Come on. Let's go see her before Harry here melts in embarrassment."

A few minutes walk was met with another greeting. Tessaies suddenly stood in front of them, her breath warming the area. How she moved her stupendous bulk without noise or shaking the ground, Harry wanted to know. He knew better than to ask a lady her weight, however. The girls shrunk into him and he wondered if he was ever going to get the blood back into his arms and belly. They all heard the huge dragon speak to him. They couldn't understand what she said, but it seemed welcoming.

~~ Speaker! You've come! And what's this? You have more mates? One's not enough for you? It's a good thing the others are here, too. They'll have something to say, I'm sure. ~~

Others? Harry mumbled the thought to himself just loud enough for the girls to hear. They looked at each other.

A set of golden eyes laughed at him as a hard snout gently nudged him before she turned around to lead them into an open area. A flick of her wing prompted them to hurry up. They looked at each other for a moment first before following.

From the other comments he could hear in the distance, there were more dragons around and all had some teasing from wherever they were to greet him with and give him at his expense. How they knew he was there, he had no idea. Unfortunately, there was no way for him to facepalm, since his arms were trapped. The girls didn't ask him what was being said. Likely, they didn't recognize the draconic speech for what it was.

Tessaies stopped at a stupendous archway that none of the dragon wranglers or Hagrid had seen before before turning a bit to address Harry. She looked at each in turn as she addressed them.

~~ Speaker, tell all of your companions that they are welcomed in these walls with peace within. Speaker Harry, Wildness of Mane Hermione, you are welcome. Lángoló haj... ~~

Here she nudged Charlie as she spoke. There was a distinct feeling of fondness displayed as she did.

~~and Fiery Mouth... ~~

She nudged Malcolm Tucker, who looked a bit chagrined.

~~ you are both welcome. Large Forest Guardian... ~~

She laid the edge of her head on Hagrid and breathed smoke on his beard, ~~ You are very welcome. We have watched what you do. ~~

Tessaies took a moment to regard the remaining two, who noticed and straightened up to look her in the eye. Harry could feel the quiver in their bodies. The dragon stared at them for several minutes.

~~ Hmmm. ~~

Harry had been translating what Tessaies had been saying and was thankful for the slow speech. The name for Hermione he managed to say without laughter, but she narrowed her eyes at the dragon who snorted a puff of smoke. He wasn't sure how to translate a 'hmmmm,' so explained that she was thinking.

~~ This one, the one behind you, is Quietly Trapping. The other one is Frozen Ruler. You are both welcome. ~~

The Slytherin girls couldn't decide what to think of their new nicknames. Harry could see the amusement in the golden eyes, which was getting easier to distinguish.

~~ Come, let us each parley. We have much to discuss, much to plan, and much to do. ~~

From the sound of that, Harry knew he was going to be busy. He translated to the others about what the dragon said, then followed her as she went through the archway. What he and the others found was totally unexpected.

::-::

Author's note:

I made a reference to an embossing on Philo McClermont's file folders and really wished I had the artistic ability to draw that. It would make a great cover image for this story. I don't, not really, but anyone who would like to try it – go for it!