There Be Dragons Here
The second day on Bouvet Island went by quickly. Even though everyone got a good night's sleep, they were up long before dawn because the sun wouldn't come up until nearly 11. Kaja and Busar were on the job so they immediately went to the library and work lab after breakfast to continue their studies. Alastor and Tonks were busy putting together their reports for their summer abroad. At the same time, Tristan practiced some electric-based spells with Brandt since they were an incredibly effective part of his defense against the balbal attack.
Harry and Lyra took turns playing Mental Simon with Whispers but still couldn't get a pattern over thirty in the conversation. The constant beating on their mental shields by their little brother eventually broke them and there seemed to be nothing he could do to soften the blows. Harry was also trying to predict Whispers's movements when he would surprise them in real life, but his little brother never let him get past two or three before assaulting his senses from every direction.
The muggles didn't join them on their next excursion. After getting all bundled up, they first made their way down to the coast where the adults spent nearly ten minutes just summoning all sorts of fish straight out of the water until they had enough to fill an entire magically expanded trunk that Kaja had brought along. Harry and Lyra took turns levitating the trunk heading to the nests of the vulkatross. On the way, Lyra came up with a plan that she thought might work to help Kaja and Busar with their studies of the enormous birds.
She gave them dozens of hoohoo feathers, which they stuck all over their outfits. When she gave them the signal, they would cross the expanse between the cliff edge and the first nest with the gathered food. They were not to engage the birds in any way and just deliver them food over and over until trust was gained. She explained that if the hoohoos could understand trust, then these firebirds should also get it too, though instead of turning visible to express it, they would just not cook the visitors on sight.
Upon arrival, Lyra went out to visit the bird she had seen before. It didn't attack at all as she approached. She just sat next to it and talked for a while, reciting anything she could remember from History of Magic, just to have the bird know she didn't mean any harm. Tristan and Tonks went back into the frozen and windy landscape to have a duel in the difficult weather conditions while Moody continued to keep a strange fixation on Brandt, as he had been since finding out whatever it was about the orbs he had been using.
Despite the scrutiny from Alastor; Brandt, Harry, and Whispers kept their eyes glued to Lyra, in case she needed help. When she eventually waved Kaja and Busar over, Harry set the tips of the feathers stuck on their outfits on fire, so they gave off the calming glow of the hoohoos and sent them on their mission. Hopefully, it would also convince the vulkatross that they were something similar to a distant family. They had to stop quite a few times on their way over for the great bird to relax. When they were thirty feet away, Lyra had them throw fish individually to her where she fed them to the vulkatross and set up a small fire to cook some for herself.
It was nearly lunchtime when Kaja and Busar were sitting next to the nest, not even looking at the bird, while they cooked their own meals and occasionally threw another raw fish to the great avian of fire and heat. The strategy seemed to be working, though after they had all eaten, another vulkatross decided to join them. It must have smelled the cooking meat and wanted some for itself, because it went straight for the fish that were cooking, pushing Kaja and Busar aside to snack on them, ignoring the fire as if it were nothing.
The first bird took offense at the new one invading and taking advantage of the gifts being given to it and the two began to screech at each other, the air getting exponentially hotter around where they were from the heat emanating from their mouths. Kaja and Busar began to crawl away from the area before they were cooked in the heat while Lyra jumped around between them trying to get them to stop fighting. When the two magizoologists were far enough away, she got the attention of the birds by just dumping out the remains of the trunk so that a mountain of fish lay between them and there was no more reason to fight over the individual meals. As the two birds gorged themselves on the fish, it attracted even more of them to the area, which turned into a larger fight, so this time Lyra activated her portkey and the other two apparated back to the group to avoid getting trampled.
When all the food was gone, many of them took off flying, disappearing in front of the sun as the one had done yesterday. When the coast was clear, Lyra snuck back and gathered up as many feathers as she could that had fallen during the fight. She took numerous white and gray feathers and four red ones. She gave most of the lot to Kaja and Busar.
"We've been picking them up little by little," Kaja smiled. "We've also never gotten the red ones."
"We'll just start a food fight next time," Busar added. "Though it would be nice to eventually get some freely given ones for the wandmakers."
"Try putting some magic into it," Brandt prompted as she held the smallest red feather, which was about four feet long.
They gave her a bit of space as she held it in one hand and ran the same there down the length. Just as she started to focus, Whispers screeched and vanished. His reaction had Lyra drop the feather and jump back herself.
Harry grabbed the invisible demiguise and waited until he turned visible, before asking, "What did you see?"
"Fiiire," he told them. "Fiiiire," he repeated and shivered.
"So it's very dangerous," Tonks told Lyra with a very serious tone. "Don't play with it again until you're at Hogwarts and Professor Flitwick can help you with fireproofing, ok?"
Kaja started wrapping the three other red feathers in some kind of fluffy packaging before putting them with the others in the trunk that Busar had just summoned back from the nest area. Brandt took some of the material from Kaja to wrap Lyra's faster before she cast a preservation charm on it and stored it away.
Back at the camp, they prepared to leave. Despite the adventure, they were all looking to relocate somewhere warmer. Busar handed out metal numbers to Brandt, telling him that they would take three portkeys instead of one to reach Romania. The number '1' portkey would take them to Lagos in Nigeria. The number '2' would deliver them to Aurillac in France. Finally, the '3' portkey was a transfer of the original destination to a better key and would bring them to the dragon reserve in Romania.
Alastor was a bit skeptical about splitting up the portkeys but Brandt told him to trust Kaja, even if he couldn't gain the old man's trust. After goodbyes were shared all around, Brandt held the '1' key between everyone. After the last journey, Whispers was back to his death grip on Harry. A chain was strung between their luggage and Brandt began the countdown.
When it activated, they all felt pulled to the center as they were sucked away. This time, there was very little discomfort. They were still traveling at breakneck speed but with minimal spinning. After roughly three minutes they slammed back into the ground. Everyone landed on their feet, though Harry fell to his side, with Whispers jumping away at the last second.
"That wasn't bad at all," Lyra commented.
"Clear your arrival platform!" a man in a gray uniform told them, gesturing to a seating area.
They shuffled over to the benches as Brandt tried to secure a spot for their next jump. The room they arrived in was the size of a basketball court with red and green circles around the floor. Tristan explained to them that in hubs like this, they needed to organize incoming and outgoing travel because of the amount of magic occurring in one place.
They saw three more groups arrive and four depart before they could take their next jump. When the portkeys activated, there was more spinning than the last jump, but it felt like they were moving slower. It was an easy landing again as they arrived in an opulent room that looked like a small cathedral. The ceilings were white stone with arches and the windows were stained glass. Just like last time, they were sent to get seated while Brandt arranged their next jump. Moody distributed anti-nausea potions just in case they needed them.
This spot was much busier with groups arriving and departing every minute. As they waited, trolleys with food and other potions came around.
The man pushing one stopped in front of their group to stare at Whispers, who was chewing on some flobberworm jerky, then asked, "Anything off the trolley? Snacks for the kids? Drinks? Time adjustment potions?"
Tonks perked up at the last one and he pulled out one to show the swirling purple and green liquid. She shook her head.
"They're perfectly safe, fully tested with A-level ICW certification," he tried to push the sale.
"She knows," Tristan told him as Tonks groaned. "She invented it when she was sixteen."
"Sure you did," he smiled and pushed the cart away. Though Lyra chased after and bought a few chocolate frogs.
It took another twenty minutes for their turn to depart. The final jump felt like they were on a Gringotts cart, going up and down with no twists until they arrived in a grassy field surrounded by mountains. This time they all staggered, but no one fell. Whispers did let out a large burp but he had just eaten a few chocolate frogs. The valley they were in was huge, many miles wide and very long, so much that they couldn't see the end in either direction. The mountains created huge walls and contained many ridges and caves along their slopes. Other than a few birds in the sky, there was nothing and no one around them in any direction.
"Where are we?" Brandt asked Tristan, with a veiled accusation.
"I gave you Charlie's letter," he replied defensively. "This is where he told you to set the portkey."
"Calm down, children," Alastor told them. "Just wait for it," he told them as he pointed about fifty feet in front of them towards a large amount of open space identical to the rest of the space around them.
"What is it?" both Harry and Lyra asked simultaneously.
"You can't see anything either?" Harry asked his sister. She shook her head.
"It's not invisibility," Moody told them. "It's something else."
Just as he said that a building appeared in front of them. There was no sound, just one moment it was there as if it had been the entire time. It was circular, made of white stone, and had a dome with a red roof. There were windows along the top of the dome that sparkled in the sunlight, but no entrances that they could see. They stared at it for nearly a minute before a door appeared and three men walked straight through and towards them. All of them were very muscular but only one had ginger hair while the other two were bald. Tristan walked over quickly and embraced Charlie in a brotherly hug. The others quickly followed.
Introductions were quick as the other two dragon handlers kept trying to get them back to the building as if they were in danger just standing around. Alastor picked up on their insistence and started herding them over. When they got to the door, the two bald men pulled keys off necklaces around their necks and stabbed them into the wall, gesturing for the others to walk through the door that swung open.
The inside of the building was huge, obviously made with expansion charms, and was devoid of any sort of furnishing. The only thing that was there was a large mirror on the floor in the center of the room. Above it, at the peak of the dome, was a large orb, yellow like the sun, that seemed to be absorbing light through the windows around it, then projecting it around the room. Charlie beckoned them towards the large mirror, as he and the other handlers walked out on it.
"Just a little further and we'll be there," he told them.
As the others walked out onto the mirror, Harry looked at it and was startled at what he saw, "How come the mirror reflects everything except for us?" he asked.
"It's a magic mirror… obviously," one of the handlers told him. "Hop on."
Harry shared a look with Whispers, whose eyes glowed blue for a moment then stepped on, then ran over to the center where Lyra was already standing. He rushed over to join them, his footsteps echoing as he went.
When they were all there, Charlie raised his wand, and said, "Here we go!"
Without any incantation, they all felt something similar to the pull of a portkey. However, instead of feeling like they were being pulled forward, it felt like they were being pulled down. It lasted a tenth of a second, but in that time, their vision distorted for a moment, then cleared. They were still in the same building, though now it was even larger than before. All around them, people were moving around, some at desks, some at a small cafe, others just going from place to place carrying scrolls, dragon teeth, or a million other unidentifiable items.
"Welcome to the Romanian Dragon Reserve!" Charlie announced. Some of the people stopped what they were doing for a moment to look, but then returned to what they were doing.
"Where are we?" Lyra asked.
The two bald men that had accompanied Charlie started to wander off, so he guided them away from the giant mirror as he responded, "We are exactly where we were a second ago. Except now, we are in the third largest Lidenbrock pocket space in the world."
"I've only heard about that school in Canada. How many are there?" Tonks asked with curiosity.
"Tons, toothy," he replied with a smirk. "The Canadian school is the second largest. The first is in the Congo, and I've been to only one other in the Amazon. As usual, the Chinese say they have the largest, and one has been reported in their territory, but no one can verify the size of their claim."
For the confused children, Brandt explained, "A Lidenbrock pocket-space, also sometimes called an upside-down or an expansion hole, is a term used to describe an area like this created by naturally occurring magic for an unknown reason. Magic creates a small hole that can be entered and looks like the outside. Over years it slowly grows unless magic is used to contain it. When small ones appear, the ICW will collapse them immediately because muggles can fall into them and get lost forever as escaping requires magic. The larger ones predate the Statute of Secrecy and have been adapted for different uses. By studying this phenomenon, it is also where wizards originally learned how to create expansion charms for things like houses and luggage."
They listened attentively, and Harry asked, "So this one is being used to keep dragons?"
"Exactly!" Charlie jumped in. "Dragons are nearly impossible to contain and are effectively a two-finger salute to the Statute of Secrecy. All of the reserves have their tricks to keep them contained. I believe ours is the most humane."
"So, Mr. Weasley," Alastor began, "what's the plan for while we are here?"
Charlie went on to tell them about the reserve and how they would first get them settled in. After that would be a tour of the facility and their first look at the dragons. After feeding some of the dragons, they would have dinner themselves and then sleep. The following day they would see the dragons during the day and then start experiments with Harry's hair growth potion.
The building they were in was mostly underground, though it was confusing if the underground was above the real world in the Lidenbrock space. It hurt one's brain to figure out how the space worked and Lyra just gave up trying after a few minutes. Harry took a little longer trying to wrap his head around the idea but eventually decided to just be like Whispers who didn't care at all and was looking for food.
The space underground was created by a team of magical gophers, so the tunnels and walls were all hard-packed dirt with support structures and side rooms added by the wizards. Charlie explained that the main building was the only structure above ground in the valley because they could only reinforce one location with enough magic to withstand all the dragons in the area. Being underground was a better defense and it allowed them to travel freely.
They unpacked a little and Harry got the premade doses of his hair growth potion ready for testing. When the rest of the group was ready, Charlie led them to a large room with a small bubble pushing through the roof, poking above ground. All along the outside of the large room were pens containing various types of livestock. The group was directed to a circular carpet at the center of the room while Charlie retrieved many leather collars from a cabinet and strapped them to a couple of cows and sheep in their pens and then joined them on the rug.
"Up we go!" he spoke up, and the rug began to rise towards the bubble in the ceiling.
When they got into the bubble, they were back inside the valley. It looked a little different, with trees lining the edges and more caves, lining the mountains around them. The sun was setting over the top of one peak, bathing the valley in a deep red light.
As they were admiring the landscape, they jumped as a furious roar was heard. Charlie smiled.
"That's our Crimean Razorback. She's new, and is going to try to attack us now." The group looked frightened and Whispers vanished a moment before a shadow appeared over them and a large shape crashed into the bubble dome.
Only Charlie stayed standing as the rest of the group lay flat. Standing above them on the clear dome was a dragon larger than the acromantula, Aragog. Most of its body was a reddish hue with jagged scales sticking off the top side of its back, neck, and head; like fragmented crystals. The sides of the dragon's body were devoid of the jagged skin, as that's where the wings folded up. The head was pointed like a bird, with a sharp beak, and had a small barb on its tail. The underside was primarily a pinkish-white.
Seeing Charlie's lack of fear, they started to stand up again only for the dragon to roar again and stomp on the dome with a large, black-taloned foot on the end, and they were scared flat again.
"Stop it, Cindy," Charlie yelled. "Do it again and you won't get dinner." He turned to the rest of them, "She has no idea what I'm saying and she's going to keep doing it until I feed her. It just makes me feel better to threaten her."
Sure enough, as the group stood up again, she fruitlessly pounded away at the dome.
"Why is she the only one attacking us?" Tristan asked.
"Because she's one of our few true dragons," he explained. "They come in different types and we collectively refer to all giant magical lizards as dragons, but historically only those with wings that are on their backs and not connected to another appendage are dragons. They are also the most intelligent and hostile." He motioned towards the dragon above them that had stopped stomping and was now carefully using one talon to try to split the cover open.
"The others eventually stop trying to get through and just wait for the food." He called out to the red dragon above them, "But not you, Cindy, right? You're going to keep trying to kill us until you succeed, right?"
Cindy opened her mouth and let loose a torrent of flame that covered them and blocked out all other light for ten seconds before she gave up.
"Are you sure she can't understand you?" Lyra asked.
Charlie laughed and pulled out a small stone with colored spots on it. He tapped one of them and they heard a snapping noise as a cow appeared outside the dome, forty feet away from them. It tried to start running but Cindy chased it down in a second and snatched the entire thing in her jaws. There was a momentary noise of pain before the cow was crushed in her jaws and bits of blood leaked out the sides of her mouth. As she walked away, the rear legs of the bovine hanging out the side of her mouth, the tail smashed into their ceiling to make a final insult before she went to eat her meal.
"That was awesome!" Harry exclaimed as Whispers also gave a little cheer.
"Just wait a moment," Charlie smiled and tapped the stone with his wand in numerous places.
As he did so, the various sheep and cows that he had collared earlier started appearing around the valley above them. As numerous roars were heard around them, the animals began to run in all different directions as dragons began to exit the caves in the mountains around them, running and flying to feast on the animals below.
There were at least five different kinds of dragons that they could see; one had a very slender body and was colored dark purple. It was not a 'true dragon' like Charlie had described. The wings were attached to its front legs, and when it landed there were tiny fingers on the front of the wing that helped it balance on the ground. It had three small horns along its head and a whip-like tail. Two of them worked as a team to corner two sheep then snatched them in their rear claws and carry them back up the mountain like a bird of prey carrying a fish.
A group of five blue dragons with crests on their heads killed a group of cows with fire breath and then started eating them on the spot. They had similar wings to the purple ones though their wingspan was greater and they looked much stronger.
Another black one with small wings, that it didn't seem to be using, slithered in between the feasting monsters, picking bits and pieces of their meal on its own. Everyone stared in awe at the incredible lizards laying waste to their evening meal. Though just as a few of the cows seemed to be getting away towards the forest, Charlie smiled.
"Heeeere's Doug!" he yelled.
The group turned in the direction he was looking at as a giant green dragon fell from the sky like a brick, shaking the earth. Even standing underground on a flying carpet, they felt the impact. The body of the dragon resembled a pitbull the size of a house, with muscles able to be seen through its thick scales. The wings were a slightly lighter shade of green but blended into the body as they folded up. It had a stub of a tail that looked like it had been cut off at some point. Doug had a serpentine neck with golden tusks under its chin that extended past its mouth, parallel to each other.
The monstrous creature lowered its head and charged an escaping cow. A couple of other dragons got out of the way to avoid being trampled, as it did not seem to be slowing down at all. The tusks impaled the cow through the side and then lifted it into the air and let loose a large breath of fire, cooking it on the spot until it was charged black. When the fire went out, the dragon flailed its head and tossed the burnt carcass in the air, and snatched it before it fell, eating it whole with a crispy crunching sound.
With all the livestock dead, carcasses got taken back up into the mountains while more of the black, serpentine dragons came out of the forest to eat the bits and remains left in the valley.
The carpet began to float back down as Charlie asked, "So what did you all think?"
Everyone had something to say about the experience and no one got any questions answered for a minute until Tristan asked a direct question.
"That last one, Doug, he was a Romanian Longhorn?"
Charlie smiled, "Yup, and before you ask, he was the one to give me my scar." He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a thick burn mark across his right bicep.
"What hair-brained stunt were you doing to get that?" Tonks asked knowingly.
"What would you think I was doing something stupid?" but then sighed as she glared at him. "So we had Doug on a draught of living death while he was having surgery on his tail. We got him after he killed a bunch of wizards that almost cut off his tail and we had to amputate the rest. He was completely under the influence of the potion so I decided to do some handstand pushups while I was waiting. The stupid thing was I did them on Doug's tusks." Tonks groaned as he continued. "So I was upside down, balanced on those golden tusks when the doc snipped off the rest of the severed tail and he let off a bit of fire which caught my arm."
"Idiot," Tonks smiled, as Tristan laughed.
Dinner was served in a large cafeteria with the entire population of the reserve. Many people came over to introduce themselves to Harry and Brandt started to get volunteers to help test the hair growth potion, looking for people with burns and missing hair. There were quite a lot of those.
Whispers was also getting a lot of attention as such a rare animal, though as people started crowding him, Lyra yelled at them to back off and lit her hair on fire. Now all the attention was on her. The large group of men and women devoted themselves to fire-breathing monsters saw a girl who could control fire and were very interested. Harry gave her a silent look to ask if she wanted help, but she declined. Whispers took the opportunity that she created and dashed under the table to Harry and finished his food.
When people were starting to disperse, Charlie told them, "I need to do some work, so just feel free to explore. Don't go through any doors marked in red, those go outside. Everywhere else is safe."
As he left, Brandt turned to Tonks, "Miss Tonks, can I leave the kids in your care? I want to go do some shady business with disreputable people."
"Whatever," she rolled her eyes. "Moody and I can handle things."
"I think I will get an early bedtime," Moody said, surprising everyone. "Tristan, do you mind stepping in for me?"
He looked a bit shocked at the sudden authority, and his posture tightened as he stepped forward with a nod.
Tristan asked Harry to pick a direction and they went off down the earthen tunnels. Most of the rooms they walked by were personal rooms for the handlers, but they eventually turned into functional rooms. The first that they entered was a large garden. It didn't seem magical at all, just rows and rows of fruits and vegetables. Some on trees, some on bushes, some above ground, some under with glass sides to see below the ground. The ceiling had the same sunlight enchantment as Lyra's trunk where she had a mango tree growing, though it was starting to dim in time with the nightfall.
Tristan stopped Whispers from grabbing at random fruits until someone working came over to see what was going on. He had a very round head with burn scars along his bald head and a scrappy beard missing patches.
"If he's not going to eat a lot, the demiguise can take some," he told them.
Harry looked at Whispers and told him, "You hear that? Not a lot. Only three fruits, ok?"
Whispers glared back and held up his whole hand, "Fiiiive."
The man jumped a bit but said, "Sure, take five."
Whispers took off into the garden to take his prizes.
"So I hear you're going to give all of us our hair back?" he asked. "I'm Darius."
"Harry Potter," he shook the man's hand and then introduced the other three.
He led them to where he was currently working, trying to revitalize a batch of dying trees. He explained to them that the trees in this section died out very quickly and they didn't understand why. They couldn't plant anything in this far corner, it was a waste of space. He showed Harry several testing kits measuring soil nutrients and comparing them to other sections, but everything came back the same.
Without prompting, Harry and Lyra began digging through the soil with their bare hands, investigating the problem. Lyra got down to the roots of one of the dying trees and ripped it out, passing it to Harry. He took his time examining it and breaking it apart, bit by bit. When it had been broken down, he looked up at the ceiling and pulled his broom out of his pouch, and floated up to the top of the tree where he started examining the foliage.
"Is there anything in the ceiling above the sunlight enchantment?" Harry asked.
Darius looked curious, "There are vents to the outside all over the ceiling."
The herbalist dismissed the enchantment on their side of the room, darkening it considerably and revealing vents going upward. He pulled out his own broom and approached the vent, casting diagnostic charms inside. When he was done, he floated back down.
"There's a buildup of dragon ash in this vent. We use it as topical soil dust but at this level, it's poisoning the plants from the top down. How did you figure it out?" he asked.
"The roots," Harry explained. "The one Lyra pulled out was healthier at the bottom which wouldn't be the case if the problem was in the soil."
Lyra started to back off as Harry started to discuss gardening techniques with this man. While she helped with the mangos, berries, and fertilizers on the island, it wasn't a passion of hers. She looked up at Tonks and asked if they could go.
When she gave him a nod, Lyra told Harry they would be going exploring. He looked a bit torn between staying with the gardener and joining them. After a few seconds of consideration, he whistled and Whispers came running. His mouth was stained blue and red from numerous fruits, which probably numbered more than five.
"If you're looking for something fun, head to the tavern," Darius told them. "There's normally something crazy going on there."
Tonks smiled as her hair reflected her excitement, turning lavender and wavy. They got directions through the tunnels and headed out. It felt like the tunnels were leading downhill and all the branches were joining together as they got closer to their destination. The noise level got louder as they arrived and they entered a room that was about as big as the greenhouse they had been in before but with a much taller ceiling.
They got stopped at the door by a wizard who looked at Lyra and Whispers strangely, then back at Tonks, "Uhhh this is a bar."
Tonks just smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "Look at you! The smartest dragon handler we've seen so far!"
Taking Lyra by the hand, she pulled them into the room with Whispers scampering after. Tables were scattered around the room which had a circular bar in the center with a tower of bottles inside. Plenty of people were drinking and yelling at each other as they passed them by on the way to the center. On the far side of the room, there was what looked like a dueling platform but no one was using it.
Tonks sat on one of the stools with Lyra and Whispers jumping up on the ones next to her. The bartender came over and took a look at the child and demiguise sitting there but just shrugged.
"What can I get you?" he asked.
Lyra wasn't sure what to get, so Tonks took the reigns, "A cotton candy surprise for the girl, and a strawberry daiquiri for her little brother. Both virgins, please."
The man looked a bit perplexed, "I can do the daiquiri but I have no idea what the other is."
Tonks looked at the tower of bottles behind the bartender. There were no shelves, just a massive pyramid of bottles, all supported by each other that looked like it would collapse if a single one was removed. She seemed to be searching through them till she found what she was looking for.
She stood up, "May I?"
The bartender gave a wicked grin, "Go right ahead."
Tonks jumped over the bar as the bartender jumped out. "Freedom!" he yelled as he ran over to a table with some other handlers were sitting and sat down with them.
Tonks looked confused but hesitantly reached up into the tower of bottles and pulled off a bottle with a red, yellow, and blue label that said "Marshmallow" on it. Both surprisingly, and completely unsurprisingly, none of the bottles balancing above it came crashing down, and just stayed where they were. She poured some into a wide glass and filled the rest up with soda. Tonks continued by pulling out her wand and levitating a handful of sugar and a few other things into the air. With a whipping motion, they all spun around her wand, so fast they blurred together, then turned into a large, puffy, pink and blue cloud. She ripped off a chunk and stuck it into the drink about six inches over the top, though it started to dissolve and sink into the liquid. It was passed to Lyra.
The entire process was amazing and captivated quite a few other onlookers. Whispers started to raise his hand and chirp, to which Tonks quickly made another one of the same drink for him. Both Lyra and Whispers's eyes went wide at the sweetness as they drank it. A couple of others came over and asked her for the same thing with alcohol, which she completed until running out of the cotton candy stuck to her wand.
Charlie took that moment to come over and sit down at the bar, "Hey, barkeep, make me an Old Fashioned."
"I'm not the bartender," Tonks replied. "The other guy just left."
"Well then you should leave too," Charlie smiled.
Tonks hopped up on the bar, but before she could swing over to the other side, an invisible wall stopped her. She tried to get over it a few times before pulling out her wand and waving it all over the place, looking more and more frustrated as Charlie laughed more and more.
"What the hell?" she screamed.
Another dragon handler arrived as Charlie fell off his chair laughing, "We can never get anyone to be a full-time bartender, so anyone who wants something special needs to stay there until another person volunteers to switch. Either that or you can buy your way out with favors; I hear you are going to be here for a few days, and I need to be on fertilizer collection duty tomorrow if you'd like to take that from me."
"Absolutely not," she replied with a turned-up nose. "Can't I just fight someone?" she asked as she looked towards the dueling platform.
"Someone can fight on your behalf, but I think you're a bit short on fighters," he gestured to Lyra and Whispers and emphasized the word 'short.'
Lyra on the other hand looked excited, "Can I fight one of them?"
Charlie and his friend had a hushed discussion before he stood up on one of the stools and yelled out, "The bartender has issued a challenge! Is there anyone who wants to fight a little girl with one year of school at Hogwarts to get her out of the bar?"
Quite a few people laughed at the challenge, though one chubby man with matted black hair and a thick beard asked, "What do we get when we beat her?"
Charlie looked to Tonks for an answer, who replied, "Pick a celebrity, magical or muggle, I'll give you a photo with them giving you a kiss on the cheek." To emphasize her point, she shifted into some lighter-skinned woman with black hair which a few onlookers seemed to recognize and whistled at her.
The big man jumped up, "I'll take that challenge!"
The dueling platform was on the far side of the bar, so Tonks walked around as the entire population of the bar joined them. Whispers hopped on the bar for a better view of the crowd. It was a bit wider than the ones they had used for the dueling club at Hogwarts, but the same length. The large man looked at the small girl with long blonde hair at the other end of the platform and smirked.
"What are the rules?" he asked Charlie.
"Don't kill each other," he started. Then thought for a moment, "Victory by knockout, tapout, or ring out. No other rules. Don't be too hard on her Tuuk Tuuk," he told the large man.
"Can I use fire?" Lyra asked hopefully.
There was laughter from all around the room, and Tuuk Tuuk replied with a chuckle, "We're dragon handlers. We can handle all the fire you've got missy."
"Let's do this," Charlie stepped to the middle of the platform. "Duelers at the ready!"
Lyra pulled out both her wand in her left hand and her staff in her right. The dark-haired man appraised the situation and reached behind his back to pull out what looked like a thick machete made of wood. It didn't have a blade but at the end was a large light blue stone in a rune-engraved brass ring.
Tonks was pounding on the barrier keeping her behind the bar, yelling, "Kick his ass, Lyra!" Whispers stood next to her and screeched as well.
Charlie yelled "Go!" and hopped off the platform.
Lyra's opponent spread his arms wide, "Give me your best shot. Let me see your fire!"
Surprised by being given such an opening, Lyra paused and thought for a moment. Deciding on a course of action, she wove her wand and yelled out "Incendio!" At the same time, she slammed her staff into the ground. A gout of fire from her wand rushed across the platform and engulfed the man in flames, washing over him like a wave.
He called out from inside the fire, "That's it?" right before he grunted in pain and was tossed up in the air, falling on his back outside the platform. The whole room was silent except for Tonks and Whispers who were cheering loudly.
He rolled to his feet and groaned, "That wasn't fire, it felt like an uppercut." Lyra just shrugged and smiled and started to get off the platform. "Wait! I gave you a free shot. Give me the best of three!"
Lyra looked to Tonks for her decision, who considered it, despite the look in the younger girl's eyes that she was ready to go again.
"You are getting behind the bar in any outcome, but if Lyra beats you, who I shift into will be decided by everyone else, not you."
He seemed a bit afraid as all of his coworkers started to decide what embarrassing form Tonks would take. Making up his mind, he agreed to the terms and Charlie stepped back up to start the fight.
As soon as he yelled 'Go,' Lyra blurred her form and Tuuk Tuuk slammed his wooden sword onto the platform like a hammer. Spires of ice erupted in a line down the platform towards Lyra, which she was able to step to the side of. In return, she fired three small Incendio Orbis fireballs at him that he deflected two of and ducked the third.
It dawned on Lyra that they hadn't put up dueling wards as the deflected spells soared out into the crowd. Luckily, a few spectators shielded the fireballs as if they were nothing, and the fight continued. Ice seemed to be his specialty as he threw ice spears toward Lyra which missed her narrowly each time. She was responding with fireballs that were slowly igniting his side of the platform in a storm of flames.
It quickly dawned on everyone that each of them had opposite strategies. Lyra was trying to torch Tuuk Tuuk's side of the platform, while he was trying to freeze hers. With his knowledge and resistance to fire, not to mention at least two decades of experience, he had a huge advantage as Lyra started to slow down. Finally, she slipped on the ice and he tagged her with a volley of snowballs and a stunner.
While Charle woke up Lyra, her opponent ran around hyping up the crowd. Whispers delivered her some jerky while Charlie told the other guy, "Calm down, you just beat a twelve-year-old."
After Lyra had eaten a bit, and the platform had cooled down on one end and thawed on the other, the two of them faced off again. They both looked serious as they waited for Charlie's signal. When it went off, Lyra cast a Fumos spell immediately, covering her entire side of the platform in dark smoke.
Her opponent fired three stunners and a few ice spells into the inky blackness, but nothing hit. As he continued to shoot spells into the fog, a stream of fire came out heading slightly toward the audience, but it bent until it splashed behind him and created a wall of fire, blocking any escape backward. At least for anyone else, it might do that. He just cast a flame-freezing spell on it, so the fire wouldn't hurt him, but didn't dispel the fire. He started back at the fog but didn't cast any spells.
"Hey! I can't move!" he yelled in a panicked voice. He stood perfectly still with his casting arm to the side.
No more spells came from Lyra's side, though ten seconds later, she appeared out of thin air, slightly to his side, reaching upward to hold a knife to his throat.
"Do I win?" she asked.
"You crossed the platform! You can't do that! And a knife isn't magic!" he tried to argue, still unable to move.
Still holding the knife, Lyra asked Charlie, "I thought you said no rules? I don't know how to stun yet."
"That I did, Tuuk Tuuk. She can't kill you though, so I guess you could remain a statue forever."
He seemed to consider it, before yielding the fight. Lyra tossed a small fireball back across the platform and it landed halfway. Suddenly her opponent could move again. The audience cheered as Lyra ran back into the dark fog and a moment later, it dispersed leaving her standing holding her staff.
As soon as Tuuk Tuuk was behind the bar, Tonks ran over to Lyra and picked her up in a hug. She was getting cheers from the others. Whispers jumped up to join the hug for a moment before she put them both down.
"I'm surprised you didn't use more fire," Tonks told her as they walked back to the bar.
Lyra gave her a smirk, "They are dragon handlers. I kinda wanted to see if I could use more but he seemed to be used to the flames, so I tried to use it only as a distraction."
When they were back at the bar, Tuuk Tuuk abandoned the person he was serving to come over to them.
"So if it wasn't the fire, what did you do? The first felt like a sucker punch, and the second time I couldn't move my limbs, but I could still speak… which means it wasn't a body bind."
Lyra looked at Tonks, who told her, "You don't have to tell him. You can be mysterious."
Lyra thought for a moment, then looked like she was concentrating. A second later, shadows began pouring out of her clothes like heavy smoke covering the area in darkness.
"I am a Black," she told him with a smile. "I commune with the darkness. Shadows do my bidding for me."
"Well, that was creepy," he told them. "Call me Tuuk. The others say it twice just because they're too dumb to say it only once."
The shadows stopped and dispersed, "Ok Tuuk, can you make cotton candy surprises for all of us?" She gestured to Tonks and Whispers.
Harry had been having fun. He got to learn a bunch of new gardening techniques as he explored the underground garden and was taught a basic enchantment to simulate sunlight. Tristan was very patient, even if it wasn't his thing at all. As Darius was explaining a project he wanted to do with growing larger pineapple bushes, Brandt entered the room.
"I heard you were in here, Harry. Where is your sister?" he asked.
Tristan answered for him, "She went with Tonks and Whispers to the pub here. Harry has been learning a lot about gardening here."
"And teaching," Darius added. "He has quite the mind for herbology."
"Really?" Harry said as he blushed from the praise.
"Don't be too modest," Brandt told him. "You invented a type of fertilizer and taught agriculture to demiguises."
Darius hadn't heard that bit yet and engaged Brandt in a short conversation, followed by bartering for some of Harry's fertilizer. Since they were flush with it, Brandt got an equal-weight trade of dragon manure fertilizer in exchange for the demiguise fertilizer, along with a bonus of three dozen flobberworms from their processing facility. Due to the processing of dung rich with magic from dragons, these worms were twice the size of anything Harry had seen before and could supposedly eat through some types of stone.
With that bit of business settled and the day getting late, the three of them went looking for the girls and Whispers. They found the pub easily with all the noise coming out of it, as the central spot for entertainment that was expected. What they found inside was not.
Standing on a table in the middle of the room was Lyra, shadows pouring out of her clothes as the crowd around her cheered. Someone threw a bottle in the air over her and she called out, "ikkuma alukpok!"
A thin tongue of flame shot out of her wand, twisted twice in the air, then pierced the bottle so it exploded and the crowd cheered. She cheered along with them. A few seconds later, another bottle was thrown and she performed the same spell to destroy that one as well.
Tonks appeared next to them, drawing their attention, "First off, she's fine. Just a little not herself."
"Is she drunk?" Brandt asked accusingly.
"Merlin, no!" she replied. Though she continued with a guilty expression, "Just a horrible sugar high."
"Where's Whispers?" Harry asked as Tristan started to laugh.
"He might be drunk," Tonks replied with a grimace. "He's been disappearing and sneaking drinks from other people ever since I cut the two of them off from more sugary drinks."
Lyra saw them at that point and called out, "Harry! Tooky showed me a new spell! How cool is this?" Someone threw another bottle and the fire whip hit dead center and pieces of glass disappeared as they fell.
Harry gave her a thumbs up but before he could say anything, she called out, "A bottle for Harry!"
Three of the dragon handlers conjured bottles and threw them in the air toward Harry. Surprised but as quick as he could, he drew his wand and braced it on his right forearm, and sent a bolt of magic at each one, destroying the first two and missing the third, which shattered on the wall behind them.
No one seemed to care that he missed one as they were too astounded at the non-verbal pointcasting of a kid his age. When they got over their shock, they all cheered. Harry was about to cheer along with them when he felt Whispers about to attack, so he jumped out of the way as his little brother dropped from the ceiling. The two of them had a brief grappling fight before Whispers tripped and fell, Harry pinning him to the ground.
More cheers from the crowd followed.
Brandt looked at Tonks, pleadingly, "Please go get Lyra, the kids need to go to bed."
She frowned but complied, with the crowd booing her as she lifted Lyra down from the table. There was still darkness flowing from her clothes as she was carried back to the entrance. All her energy seemed to die as she was carried away and Tonks didn't bother to put her down. Whispers seemed to sense the fun was over as well and let Harry carry him without a fuss.
When they got back to the room for the kids, Whispers was asleep and Lyra was minutes away from being so as well. After getting Lyra and Whispers tucked in together, Harry laid down in his bed as well.
Just as the adults were leaving, Lyra said, "Did you see my fire, Harry?"
He smiled and replied, "It was beautiful. I'll give you a mango in the morning. Who's the person who taught you? Tooky?"
Lyra giggled, "We had a duel. I kicked his ass." Then she fell asleep.
When they were outside, Brandt asked, "What has been going on?"
Tonks took a deep breath and shifted her looks from the short hair she liked for Auror duty to long curls and darkened her complexion to normal. Then, she replied, "Let's go back to the bar and get a proper drink, I'll tell you both all about it."