Little Dragon

Harry's trip across the school grounds was quick. He wanted to know why Fleyur seemed upset. He slipped into the Beauxbatons carriage and walked over to her room without anyone noticing him. "What is wrong Fleur?" he asked as he entered her room.

Fleur turned around. "'Arry!" she exclaimed and hugged him tight. "Do you 'ave any idea 'ow worried I 'ave been? 'Ow dare you keep me waiting like that?"

Harry hugged her. "I had to socialize with the Clan," he said. "The Pit wasn't anything worse than what I've been through before." He sat down with her. "I'm sorry for worrying you. Did something else happen or were you just tired of waiting?"

Fleur blushed. "I might 'ave gotten tired of waiting," she said. "You were gone for a long time." She placed her hands on his chest. "You are wearing armour," she said. She stood up from his lap and pulled him up. "You are 'andsome," she said. Then she reached out and ran her fingers through the loose strands of hair hanging from her clip. "You wore it," she said with a smile. "You look good in that."

Harry laughed and nodded. "May I use your bathroom and could you ask Winky to fetch Hermione and Neville? I might as well tell all of you what I have been up to at the same time," he said.

Fleur giggled. "Go ahead and take a shower I will talk to Winky," she said.

When Harry got out of Fleur's bathroom he was still wearing the hair clip she had given him. He wasn't in glamour and his shirt was still halfway unbuttoned. He smirked as he caught both Fleur and Hermione casting him looks. "Girls really. My eyes are up here," he said.

Hermione blushed. Fleur and Neville laughed. Harry buttoned his shirt and sat down next to Fleur on her loveseat.

"So what have you been up to, Harry?" Hermione asked. "Winky wasn't very clear about what was going on."

"Well," Harry said before throwing himself straight into the day's happenings.

"So you are a member of Clam Alfknif now?" Neville asked.

Harry nodded. "Full-fledged," he said.

"More importantly," Hermione said. "You have a dragon?" she was looking at him accusingly. You know that isn't allowed."

"Dagnar promised he would get me all the proper documents to keep him," Harry said. "Hermione, he has decided I am his mother, and I can't just change his mind. If there were others like him around somewhere I would get him there, but as far as the Dwemer are aware all Crystalbacks are dead. Humans hunted them to extinction."

"So he is all alone?" Fleur said. "That is so sad."

Harry reached up and held his hand out against his collarbone. "You can come out Qozul," he said softly. A tiny green dragon with golden wings walked out on Harry's hand.

"Can Qozul grow larger?" Qozul asked.

"Go ahead," Harry said.

Qozul flew up from Harry's hand and grew larger before landing on the floor. He looked around at the creatures that looked like monah around the room. They were not dragons though. "Who they?" he asked.

"These are my fahdonne, my friends," Harry said. He pointed at Neville. "That is Dremgolaak. He cares for plants and makes them grow."

"Dremgolaak smells of earth," Qozul said. He walked up to Neville and stood up on his hind legs.

"What is it saying?" Neville asked.

"Qozul likes the way you smell," Harry said. "He won't hurt you. He is just a curious youngling."

Neville reached out and held his hand out for Qozul to sniff. "Hey little guy," he said.

"How are you planning on taking care of him?" Hermione asked.

"To the best of my ability," Harry said.

Qozul looked between Harry and Hermione. "Monah no like ek, her?"

"I like Oniklah quite a lot. Oniklah is like briinah, sister, to me," Harry said.

"Briinah!" Qozul said. He bounced over to Hermione. "Why is briinah jul?" he asked.

"Because so am I," Harry said. "I'm just dovah as well."

"Monah is juldovah?" Qozul asked.

"Sort of I'm Dovahkiin," Harry said.

Hermione studied Qozul as she asked Harry what they had been talking about. "So what does monah mean?" she asked.

"Mother," Harry said.

"Why mother?" Hermione said.

"I don't know. I could ask though," Harry said. "Qozul, zu monah ni bormah?"

Qozul looked from Hermione to Harry. He walked up to Harry. "Bormah? Zu ni mindoraan. Bormah? Nid gein ahst hofkah fod Qozul meyz. Monah… Krinahkro is Monah," he said. His tone was sad.

Harry hummed as he processed what Qozul had said. It wasn't straightforward, but he was pretty sure he got the gist of it. "He calls me mother because he has no concept of what a father is," he told the others. "He hatched alone. There was no one else left by then. I would guess that dragons are born with the idea of what a mother is, but they learn what a father is."

"I guess that makes some kind of sense," Hermione said. She looked down at her watch. "We should probably head back to the castle. We still have some homework to do and dinner is soon."

Harry called Qozul back. The little dragon wrapped around his neck. "See you soon Fleur," he said before kissing her on the cheek.

"Bonsoir," Fleur said. She waved as they left. She had a few things she needed to do herself or she would have joined them.

Harry, Hermione and Neville went to the Great Hall for dinner before returning to the common room. They sat down by the fireplace. They started working on their herbology homework. It wasn't so much homework as preparation for the next class.

"Harry," "What is that mate?" "Have you been dressing up like a," "lady again?" Fred and George asked as they walked up to them sometime later.

Harry turned around. "Nah, course not," he said. "I left on a valiant quest and my fair maiden gave me a good luck charm for the journey." He got up. "I battled a dark shade and a hundred skeletons single-handedly," he said dramatically.

The twins started laughing. "Come on, brave knight," "The fair ladies of Quidditch want to tell us their secrets," the said.

Harry walked with them over to Angelina, Alicia and Katie. He sat down next to Katie. "It looks like it will be you and me," he said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She raised an eyebrow. "What has gotten into you?" she asked.

Harry laughed. "Oh, if only I could tell you," he said. "Today has been a good day." he smiled as he looked around the table. "Let's go. What is our plan of attack? Do we stuff the Slytherins lockers full of worms?"

"Oh, Harry, don't give Fred and George ideas," Angelina said, but she was smiling.

"Okay so not sabotaging the other teams then," Harry said. "Tanya is doing really well. She flies like a dream. Might give me a run for my money in a year or two."

"Beaters are," "looking better too," Fred and George said.

"We should set up some trial games," Harry said. "Us against them and then switch players between the teams as we go to make sure that everyone can play with everyone. Their team gets the keeper since he needs practice."

"Fair enough," Angelina said.

"Tanya's birthday is coming up and I was thinking that I'll just get her the latest Comet. It will suit her flying style and it won't cost an abhorrent amount of money," Harry said.

"Sounds good. The rest of them have decent brooms. It seems like some of them have gotten brooms from their families since they were added to the team," Angelina said.

"Tanya's mother isn't likely to get her a broom, but she isn't against Tanya playing," Harry said. "I've spoken to Tanya about it. I just feel she needs her own broom so I can fly next to her."

"Well, that is up to you," Angelina said. "I think you are right about training them by actually playing against them though. It will push them to improve."

"If we don't watch it we'll train the next big players and then we'll be out of jobs once they graduate," Alicia said jokingly.

Everyone laughed. It was possible of course, but that wouldn't stop them. They started working on strategies and picked dates for them to rent the pitch. It still seemed like no other house was thinking of training their Quidditch teams while the Tournament was held. That might change now that the weather was improving though so they wanted to make sure they had pitch time.

Sometime later Harry finally headed off to bed. He cleaned up in the bathroom and changed to nightclothes before disappearing behind the crimson curtains around his bed. Qozul jumped off and landed on the soft bed. He explored this new strange nest for a bit before finding the egg that Harry kept warm in his sheets.

"Briinah," Qozul said.

Harry looked down at the little dragon. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Qozul nodded. "This is sister," he said. "Monah is taking good care of sister."

"I certainly hope so," Harry said. "It is time to sleep now Qozul."

Qozul curled up on the pillow next to Harry's head and closed his eyes. He was really tired. A lot of things had happened. He finally had a mother who would care for him and teach him. His mother was a little strange, but it was fine. Qozul didn't mind.

Harry stared up at the canopy of his bed for a while before he too fell asleep. He hoped that he would be able to do what needed to be done for Qozul. He had not been ready to take on another little dragon. He had placed a hand on the egg he had been given. Hopefully, it wouldn't hatch for a while yet.

18th of May, 1995.

It was early on Thursday morning. Harry was out running with Qozul and Fleur. They were in the Forbidden Forest. Fleur had been a little sceptical as to the safety of running in a forest they shouldn't enter, but it was the best way to teach Qozul things he needed to learn so she relented. She kept close to Harry as they ran. Next to them Qozul was diving and soaring between the trees. This wasn't the first time they had headed into the forest so he could fly about, but they hadn't gone this far in before.

It was quiet, apparat from the myriad of questions that Qozul asked. He wanted to know why Fleur couldn't speak to him. He wanted to know why the leaves were green. He wanted to know why the sun wasn't up all the time. It had been the same way all week.

Harry stopped suddenly and Fleur slowed down too. "What is it 'Arry?" she asked.

"Spiders," Harry said. He looked up to see where Qozul was. "Qozul be careful there is duraan, danger. Spider. Don't go close," he told the dragon.

"Qozul won't, monah," Qozul said.

"Weren't the spiders in here giant?" Fleur asked.

"Yes," Harry answered.

The spider turned towards the voice and scurried straight up to Harry. Harry summoned a spear of ice and slammed it straight through the spider's skull. "Hopefully that will make them understand that I don't like their company," he said. "If not then I guess I might just have to clear the nest out."

"You think there are others listening?" Fleur asked.

Harry nodded. "They seldom travel alone," he said. "I won't kill spiders unless they attack me or my pack." He spoke loudly as he looked around. He could tell where at least four other spiders were from where he was standing. The spiders scurried off as his gaze landed on them.

Harry took Fleur's hand and continued walking. It was probably time for them to head back out of the forest.

A long dangling azure tail hung down from a tree branch a little further up the path. Harry and Fleur looked up to see Qozul sitting up there with something clutched in his hands. He was tearing pieces off whatever it was and eating them.

"Yummy?" Harry asked.

"Qozul caught himself," Qozul said.

"That is great Qozul," Harry said. "We should start heading back now. Catch up with us once you have finished eating."

"Zu fen," Qozul said.

"Let's head back out of here," Harry told Fleur. "I think we have had enough excitement for one day."

"I would 'ave to agree," Fleur said.

They started walking towards the edge of the forest. Qozul caught up with them and flew on ahead until he reached the last few trees. He landed on a branch and waited for Harry. "Qozul wants to go in forest with monah and Yuvondun again," the little dragon said as he landed on Harry's shoulders and shrank.

"We will," Harry said. "Don't worry we will."

Fleur just smiled. She found it rather fascinating to listen to Harry speak to Qozul. Sometimes she wished she could understand them, but Dragon-tongue seemed hard and she had a lot to do already.

They headed back towards the castle and split up so they could attend their classes for the day.

19th of May, 1995.

Alice looked up from her drawing as Kato walked up to her bed. "Good day Alice," he said. "How are you doing today?"

"I'm drawing," Alice said. She showed him her drawing. "I got coloured pencils instead of crayons. I like that."

"I thought you might," Kato said. "I have someone who would like to say hello to you, but you can't tell anyone about him." He moved closer to her and reached up to his collar. When he brought his hands back down he was holding a dragon.

Alice moved her pencils and paper to the side as he sat the dragon down in her lap.

"This is Qozul," Kato said.

"It's a dragon," Alice said in amazement.

Qozul grew larger. He blinked slowly. "She feels like Dremgolaak," he said.

"She is Dremgolaak's monah, but she was hurt badly and cannot remember. I'm trying to help her remember," Kato said.

"I see," Qozul said.

Alice's eyes were wide. "You can speak to him," she said. She reached out for the dragon and he licked at her fingers. She giggled and pulled her hand back. She didn't notice that Kato didn't answer. She was too focused on the dragon. He spread his green and golden wings for her. He had a little golden chain around his throat with a tag on it. His name was written on the tag.

Alice looked up at Kato. He was staring off into the distance. He did that sometimes when they met. He had explained that he did that so she could remember more. She guessed that was a good thing even though she got really tired afterwards.

"Could you bring a toy next time?" Alice asked when Kato finally blinked back to reality.

"I certainly can," Kato said. "I will go check on Frank for a bit now. He summoned a small ball of light and made sure Alice could hold it like a real ball. He made the light as dim as he could so it wouldn't hurt her eyes. "For now I hope this will be good enough as a toy," he said.

"It is great!" Alice said. She threw the ball and Qozul caught it. Kato smiled as he walked over to Frank. He was glad Alice was doing better. It was a mess getting her memories in order, but at least he was getting somewhere with her. With Frank, it was much harder to know if he was getting anywhere. He hoped that he would reach Frank eventually.

24th of May, 1995.

One month before the last task Professor McGonagall held Harry back after Transfiguration. She informed him that he needed to be down by the Quidditch Pitch at nine o'clock that evening. Harry still had history and he was meeting up with Moody for another training session. Moody had been pushing him hard lately. He loved it. Thankfully he didn't have to move his schedule around to attend the meeting.

Harry headed out to Fleur's room after dinner. Fleur was busy trying to get her notes straight as he entered. He sat down out of the way and opened a book up. He didn't get to read for long.

"'Arry please quiz me," Fleur said as she shoved notes in his hands.

"Sure," Harry said. It took him a little while to read through the notes so he even knew what to ask her. Then he started drilling her.

Fleur was trying to learn as much as she possibly could for her NEWTs. Every time she answered incorrectly or missed something she would get even more frustrated. Harry finally sat her down and gave her a massage when she started tugging at her own hair. He sang softly as he did his best to calm her down without using magic.

Fleur smiled. "Thank you 'Arry," she said softly after a while. She leaned back against him. "I was getting a bit overwhelmed."

Qozul walked up to her and jumped up in her lap. "Yuvondun is better now?" he asked and Harry translated.

"Oui, Qozul," Fleur said. "I feel better now."

"Qozul is glad," Qozul said. He laid down and Fleur petted him slowly as Harry wrapped his arms around her.

Harry smiled. "You know that stressing like that won't make things any easier," he said. "You're a smart witch. You'll do fine. Just calm down. All this stress is going to frazzle your brain." He looked down at the mess she had managed to create on the floor. "Pick the subject you feel the least confident with and we'll work that over alright," he said.

"Mmhhmm," Fleur looked down at the mess she'd created. "Can we clean up first?" she asked.

"Sure Yuvondun," Harry said. He stood up and helped her pick things up from the floor. They worked quickly and soon the floor was clean again. They settled down on the loveseat with her Transfiguration papers. Slowly but surely, they worked through what she needed to know. Stress just messed you up. Harry had learned that a long time ago. Step by step and calmly, that's how you learned properly. He helped her through her transfigurations one by one.

Qozul liked this better. It was calmer and Fleur could pet him.

"See you're good at this," Harry said. He looked down at the watch he'd bought for himself some time back. It doubled as a compass, something he was sure he'd need eventually. He had gotten tired of casting the spell constantly to find out what time it was. "We should get going," he said.

Fleur nodded slowly. "We don't want to be late," she said.

Together they headed out to the Quidditch Pitch. "Well that's something new," Harry said. The pitch had low hedges growing on it. "Looks like a maze. That explained why they hadn't been able to reserve the pitch after the twentieth. 'Well, at least that means I can sit it out.' All he had to do was enter the stupid thing. He didn't actually need to search for whatever they now had to find.

"What have they done to the pitch!" Cedric exclaimed as he walked up next to them.

"It looks like they are growing a maze," Harry said. "This will put an end to our Quidditch practice."

Cedric shook his head. "Gryffindors have been training when there is no Quidditch," he said. "What has the world come to?"

Harry shrugged. "We're just planning ahead, that's all," he said. "Hey Viktor," he greeted the dark-haired teen with a wave of his hand.

"Harry, Fleur, Cedric," Viktor said.

"Hello there!" a cheery voice called.

They turned to look at Ludo Bagman. He was standing over to the side looking like an overgrown child. The four champions made their way over to him. He beamed at them as they got closer. "So, what do you think?" he asked. "Growing nicely, isn't it? Give them a month and Hagrid'll have them twenty feet high. Don't worry," he added grinning at Harry and Cedric for no reason, "you'll have your Quidditch pitch back to normal once the thirst task is over. Now, I imagine you can guess what we're making here?"

The champions looked at each other then they looked back to Bagman. "A maze," they said in unison. Was he for real? It was kind of obvious.

"That's right, a maze!" Bagman said. "The third task is really very straightforward. The Triwizard Cup will be placed in the middle of the maze. The first champion to touch it will receive full marks."

"We simply 'ave to go through the maze?" Fleur asked. She had a hard time believing that it would be that simple.

"There will be obstacles," Bagman said happily, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Hagrid is providing a number of creatures … then there will be spells that must be broken … all that sort of thing, you know. Now, the champion who is leading on points will get a head start into the maze." He grinned at Harry. "Then Mr Krum will enter and after him Mr Diggory … then Miss Delacour. But you'll all be in with a fighting chance, depending on how well you get past the obstacles. Should be fun, eh?"

Harry rolled his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Fleur's waist. "I so don't want to know what Hagrid is going to put in there," he whispered. He did, however, smile and nod politely to Bagman.

"Very well, if you haven't got any questions, we'll go back to the castle, shall we, it's a bit chilly…" Bagman said.

Harry turned back to the Beauxbatons carriage with Fleur. He could see Bagman out of the corner of his eye coming up to them. "Could I have a moment Mr Potter?" he asked.

"No thank you Mr Bagman I'm fine I know exactly how to handle the next task," Harry said. He was getting irritated with the man. He didn't need help, thank you very much. He didn't even want to compete, and he happened to know that Bagman owed his Clan money. He was not making that money back on him.

"Come on 'Arry I want to get back inside," Fleur said. She looked back at Bagman irritably.

Harry knew she was just putting it on. Fleur was a lovely person as long as you didn't annoy her.

They caught up to Viktor. "Make sure to ask Hermione what kind of creatures Hagrid likes," Harry told him. "Hagrid is a kind man but his thoughts on pets aren't safe. Cedric probably already knows, and I'll tell Fleur, so make sure that Hermione knows I'm perfectly fine with it. A maze means all I have to do is walk in so I'm not participating. This will be between you guys."

"I vill remember to ask Hermione," Viktor said. "You are a good man Harry Potter. You vill take care of Hermione when I have left?"

Harry nodded. "Of course, I will," he said. "She can handle herself. But I'll keep an eye on her."

He and Fleur turned towards the carriage as they reached it. They bid the Bulgarian Seeker goodnight. They settled down in her room and started working on Defence spells for a while though. Fleur really wanted to get everything right.

Harry stayed the night in her carriage. He didn't feel like going through the school after curfew.

28th of May, 1995.

Kato was out in the forest alone with Qozul. Fleur wanted to get some last-minute studying in. They were running further away from the spider nest this time. Kato still wasn't sure what he should do about the spiders. He turned around to locate Qozul. Something felt off.

The little dragon came flying between the trees towards him. He landed behind Kato. "Keymun, horse-man is shooting at Qozul," he said.

Kato's eyes narrowed. He raised a magic shield that caught the next arrow. "If you don't stop shooting I'll retaliate," he called out. He could hear hooves thundering over the dry ground.

"What is a human doing in our forest?" The centaur was young. He had short golden hair and a brown coat.

Kato tilted his head to the side. "As far as I know the forest doesn't belong to anyone and even if it does that doesn't give you the right to hunt a near-extinct species," he said.

"You are not welcome here, human," the centaur said. He grabbed a sword attached to his side and started moving forward.

Kato was glad he had opted to use his glamour that day. He raised a hand. An ice spear appeared, and he blocked the sword with it. He sighed. He didn't want to hurt the foal. The ice spear turned to snow that fell down to the ground next to him. A red pulse appeared in his hand and he hit the foal's side with it as it passed him again. He didn't need something elaborate for someone so young.

The centaur didn't return for a third attempt. "Come with me, malgein," Kato told Qozul.

They made their way out of the forest again and Harry entered his young glamour. It was still pretty early though so he walked over to the lake. He pulled his robes off and jumped in after telling Qozul to be careful. They didn't want to be seen.

Qozul dived into the water. He liked swimming.

"Good morning, Harry," Viktor called from the ship.

Qozul shrunk and hid in Harry's hair.

"Good morning, Viktor," Harry called back.

"How's the water?" Viktor asked.

"It's nice!"

Harry moved back from the ship as Viktor jumped in. There wasn't much of a splash. Harry should have known Viktor might show up. He took morning swims quite often. Qozul muttered, but Harry didn't actually mind. He enjoyed spending time with Viktor.