I do not own Harry Potter nor World of Darkness
Slytherin common room, Hogwarts, 16th April 1992 (Thursday)
Theo started salivating and quickly wiped the drooling saliva from his mouth.
"I'd say it works." commented Daphne.
"Yesh. - commented Theo, shoving a Chocolate Frog into his mouth. - That thing's powerful."
Harry smiled, finally having mastered Passion to the point he could use it on command.
"Sorry for using you as a test subject, Theo."
Theo shrugged, his mouth too full of chocolate to respond.
Over the past few months, they didn't get much luck on their research on the Cerberus. Daphne's family had a few books on Magizoology, but they were in old Norse and even if they went through the trouble of translating them, the chances of them mentioning a monster from Greece were slim to none.
Surprisingly, Ron had provided the greatest contribution, showing the group the Magizoology textbook of his brother Charlie. Unfortunately, Cerberi were only mentioned in passing and his brother Charlie had taken the Advanced Magizoology book with him in Romania where he now worked, since dragons were also covered in that book.
Which meant their only option to learn more about the creature was asking Hagrid, using with a little help from Harry's Passion. Sally's suggestion of giving the man a little bit of firewhiskey to loosen his tongue even more was quickly shut down due to the fact that none of them had any way to get alcohol.
After their Charms lesson with Griffyndor, the group walked towards Hagrid's hut, which, despite the beautiful day, had the curtains closed. Harry knocked on the door and, after a few seconds, Hogwart's groundskeeper opened the door.
"Hello, yeh lots. What can I help yeh with?"
"Well, Mr. Hagrid…"
"No Mr., please. Just Hagrid."
"Well, Hagrid, we were wondering if you could answer some questions about the creatures in the forest. Ron here insists there are spiders bigger than your house, but… well, frankly none of us believe him." Harry's eyes flashed red for a second.
"Dat's not very nice of yeh, not believin yer friend like that. But sure, get in, get in. I got lots of stories ta tell yeh 'bout old Aragog."
The group entered the hut, and was immediately hit by the heat wave of a roaring fireplace at full blast, turning the mild mid-spring temperature into the scorching heat of a desert.
"How do you even breathe in here?" asked Ron.
"Are you breeding a dragon or something?" asked Sally in a joking tone.
Hagrid laughed, but none of the students missed the groundskeeper's worried glances toward a black egg sitting in the middle of the fire.
"What is that?"asked a concerned Theo, asking for confirmation about what everyone already knew.
"Ah - said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard - That's er..."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid? - said Ron, crouching over the fire - It must've cost you a fortune."
"Won it las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."
"You won a dragon egg in a game of cards?" asked Daphne, incredulous.
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?"
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'"
Hagrid pulled a large book titled 'Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit' from under his pillow
"Got this outta the library. It's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here… how ter recognize diff'rent eggs… what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."
He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house."
But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire. Harry cleared his throat, his eyes flashing red as he looked into Hagrid's.
"Say, you don't happen to have another exceedingly dangerous mythical creature just hanging around the school? Like that three-headed dog on the third floor corridor?"
Hagrid jumped to his feet.
"How d' yeh know 'bout Fluffy?"
"Fluffy?"
"Yeah, he's mine. Bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year. I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the…
"Yes?" said Harry eagerly.
"Now, don't ask me anymore - said Hagrid gruffly. - That's top secret, that is."
"But someone's trying to steal it." pointed out Theo.
"I'm not tellin' yeh! - said Hagrid hotly. - Now, listen to me, all six of yeh… yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' you forget what it's guardin', that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel."
Harry smirked. Not a full answer, but a good enough hint.
"So.. yeh wanted to ask me somethin' bout Aragog?"
"Yes, but first… do you mind telling us a bit more about Cerberi in general?" asked Harry, eyes flashing red once again.
Two hours later, the group left the hut, glad to return to a manageable temperature once again. It had taken Harry more than a few uses of Passion, to the point he was starting to feel the urge to drink more Vitae, but they had learned a ton of informations. Not only had Hagrid told them plenty about Cerberi, powerful creatures with the ability to eat spiritual entities and spew a jet of boiling silvery metal from their central head, but had also dropped a few interesting tid-bits about an Acromantula colony in the north-east section of the forest, some unicorn attacks that had been happening monthly since the start of the school year and somehow even managed to force Hagrid to let slip that Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell, Professor Snape and Headmaster Dumbledore all added their own bits of security to whatever Fluffy was protecting.
"That was extremely careless of Hagrid. - huffed Hermione on their way back to the castle. - What was he thinking, spouting all those secrets like it was nothing?!"
"He wasn't thinking. Trust me, I would know." commented Theo.
"What do you mean?" asked Ron.
Sally hit Theo with an elbow to the ribs. "Can you honestly think staying in that room for long is healthy for your brain? We were in there for barely two hours and I feel like my brain is melting out of my ears."
Hermione conceded the point. "So, what now?"
"Now… we take a shower. - declared Harry - Then dinner and then we start looking at this Nicolas Flamel guy."
Manhattan Valley, New York, 18th April 1992 (Saturday)
Harold Zettler re-read Harry's letter, smiling widely.
Silver-spitting.
That sounded like music to his ears. Outfitting entire First Strike teams with multiple magazines of silver bullets had always been a chore. Despite their technological and magical prowess, mass-production of silver bullets wasn't particularly viable, and chemical substitutes for silver, while making them slightly more effective than regular bullets, were still nowhere near as effective against Garous as the real deal. They had toyed with many alternatives, the last of which included hiring the wizard that graduated Hogwarts the previous year with the highest score in Transfiguration, but progress was minimal and incredibly slow. Apparently, casting transfiguration spells in a storage room had given the wizard a surprisingly severe case of heavy metal poisoning. What made it even weirder was that as soon as the wizard started using the same spell from his hospital bed to finish up his quota, the transfiguration had gone off without a hitch. Which to Sir Harold made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but honestly there wasn't much he could do about it.
A Cerberus, however… It would require a lot experimenting and testing, of course, but he could see a lot of potential in the domestication of that particular beast. The only thing he needed was acquiring a living specimen, preferably through legal means.
He picked up a pen and started to write.
Dear Minister Fudge,
It has come to my attention that there is a law which prevents
the use of magical creatures as guardians of both private
residences as well as businesses. While I do understand the logic
behind banning dangerous creatures such as dragons to be used
in such a way, I feel like some other creatures, such as Cerberi,
would be able to fill the role quite well.
As such, I suggest you open discussion with the Wizengamont for
a possible concession on the use of certain magical creatures as
guard dogs for businesses with an annual revenue over half a million
Galleons. I hope to receive news regarding the result of such a debate.
Yours truly,
Sir Harold Zettler
And there it was. Although the proposal was very unlikely to pass, he was certain that Fudge would be able to sneak in a loophole or two that would allow him to obtain a couple Cerberus pups, for testing their viability if nothing else. Then, he could join this testing program and get a scientist to run a few tests of their own.
Moving staircase, Hogwarts, 21st April 1992 (Tuesday)
Theo had received a letter that morning from his parents, where they congratulated him on acquiring excellent blackmail material for one of Hogwarts staff members. Sally also had the brilliant idea of telling his parents that he had overheard the name 'Nicolas Flamel' somewhere, and wanted to know if he was a relative since the name was familiar. Turns out, somehow, that Nicolas Flamel was one of her relatives: a 665 year old french alchemist from a side of the family her mother never really spoke with who had made a name for himself by creating the Philosopher's Stone.
Harry wanted to immediately write to Sir Harold, but he, like everyone else that knew about the dragon's egg, had received a simple note from Hagrid.
It's hatching
They all agreed to skip Transfiguration, Herbology for Ron and Hermione, even if convincing Hermione to skip class had been difficult.
"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"
"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing."
"Shut up!" Harry whispered, pointing towards Draco.
Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped. Ignoring his presence and hoping he didn't hear anything, the group swiftly moved to Hagrid's hut. They would all claim to have gotten a stomach ache after Ron shared some candies he had found in his trunk.
"Why does it have to be me?" protested Ron
"Because no one will believe any of us had old candy in their trunk." was Daphne's response, which shut down the Weasley for good.
Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.
"It's nearly out." He said excitedly while ushering them inside. The egg was lying on the table, twitching every couple of seconds and was covered with deep cracks. Every minute or so, they could hear clicking noises coming from it and a new, microscopic crack, appearing on its surface. They huddled around the table and watched with bated breath. All at once, they heard a loud scraping noise and the egg split in two, the baby dragon flopping onto the table. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet black body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns crowning around its head and bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed, shooting a tiny jet of flames from its nostrils.
"Isn't he beautiful?"
Hagrid murmured, reaching out a hand to stroke its head. The dragon snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.
"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!"
"Hagrid - asked Hermione - how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"
"Way too fast." muttered Sally.
Hagrid turned around and the color drained from his face.
"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains!"
Theo and Harry bolted to the door and looked out, immediately recognizing the silhouette of Malfoy running away.
"Well, fuck." muttered Harry under his breath.
Manhattan Valley, New York, 25th April 1992 (Saturday)
Sir Harold Zettler looked at the moving picture of Nicholas Flamel, shaking with rage.
"That's how you were hiding all this time?" he muttered in a deep growl.
Before he could stop himself, his fingernails had already sunk into the picture, tearing it to shreds via sheer rage. He took a deep breath. No. This was a good thing. Now that he knew where the bastard was, he could finally end this. He picked up the phone.
"Get me a First Strike team. No… wait... forget about it… Get me Persephone!"
After a few seconds, a female voice answered the phone.
"Hello?"
"Persephone! My lovely childer, how are you doing?"
He could almost hear Persephone's eyes rolling in the back of her head.
"Greatly, Sir. What may I assist you with today?"
"Persephone, Persephone… where are your manners tonight? Have I not taught you anything?"
Sir Harold chuckled at the silence on the other side of the call.
"Say, my dear… would you like to hunt a Tremere? A proper Tremere, mind you… an old school Tremere mage."
"... When?"
"Yesterday."
"Where?"
"Paris. I'll send you the address, it's a small residential home surrounded by Kine, of all things. Hard to believe the man used to be a Mage. Shouldn't be too difficult of a job, but… be sure that he's properly terminated. Wouldn't want him to show up in another three or four centuries again, would we?"
"It shall be done."
Hagrid's hut, Hogwarts, 26th April 1992 (Sunday)
Something about Malfoy's smile during the next week made the group very nervous. While Harry was convinced that Sir Harold would have loved the chance to take in a dragon, Harry had receives a somewhat ominous letter from Sir Harold's secretary that a recent Wizengamont meeting, which had ensure a complete ban on the use for Magical creatures as guards, had left the vampire so pissed off that she felt the need to suggested avoiding any contact with the vampire for the time being. Besides, even if the man had accepted, he didn't really have the means to get the dragon out of Hogwarts safely, let alone safely and undetected. Still, he hoped the news regarding the Philosopher's Stone and Nicholas Flamel would at the very least distract his domitor from whatever had caused the vampire's foul mood. Theo, Sally and Daphne's parents could, at least theoretically, sneak the dragon out, but getting caught would cause a massive scandal and none of them were willing to risk it. They had visited Hagrid's darkening hut, trying to reason with him, but they had little success. Not even Harry's Passion had dulled the man's frankly obsessive love for the dragon enough to let him go. Theo had even suggested the man might have been bewitched by the guy that 'lost' the egg. In the meantime, the dragon had tripled in size, and smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid had been neglecting his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy.
"I've decided to call him Norbert. He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mommy?"
"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered in Theo's ear.
"Told you he's been bewitched." answered the boy.
"Hagrid - said Daphne loudly - give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as big as your house. Then what?"
Hagrid bit his lip. "I… I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."
"We could send it to Charlie. - suggested Ron - my brother. He's in Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put
him back in the wild!"
"You had the solution the whole time and didn't say anything?!" almost shouted Sally.
"I didn't think about Charlie!" protested Ron.
"How many brothers do you have to forget… oh. Right. Weasley."
Library, Hogwarts, 27th April 1992 (Monday)
Ron appeared out of nowhere as he sat at their impromptu gathering spot.
"It bit me!"
he said, showing them his hand wrapped in a bloody handkerchief.
"I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby!"
"I've been saying this for days, but there is no possible situation where Hagrid hasn't been bewitched to love that dragon."
"I agree. I'm still surprised he accepted to have your brother take him away to Romania."
"He might be bewitched, but Hagrid isn't stupid. He knows he can't keep Norbert in his hut forever."
There was a tap on the window.
"It's Errol! - said Ron, hurrying to let the owl in. - He'll have Charlie's answer!"
Dear Ron,
How are you? Thanks for the letter.
I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy
getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send
him over with some friends of mine who are coming to
visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal
dragon.
Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on
Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still
dark.
Send me an answer as soon as possible.
Love,
Charlie
They looked at one another, thinking of a possible solution.
"We've got my father's invisibility cloak - said Harry. - It shouldn't be too difficult. I think the cloak is big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."
Notes
Harry mastered his first (possibly only?) vampiric power! Dementation 1: Passion. As you can tell, it's a bit tricky to use, but does its job well and with a great degree of subtley. I never really liked the idea of Hagrid just "accidentally" giving our top secret information, so I decided to give him a little bit of a push. The group essentially ends up with the same knowledge they have in canon, but they got it in a slightly different method.
"what's that about Fluffy spitting silver? it's not in the books!" Correct. In WoD, however, Cerberi are a group of spirits that DO have the ability to spit silver! And because this is a crossover, I have to pick from both sides. It doesn't really change much from HP canon, but does make Sir Harold REALLY intrested in them, going so far as to use his political blackmail for getting one.
Shame Fudge is incompetent and ruins Harold's perfect plan.
Hagrid's attachment to Norbert in canon is... a bit much. I know he likes dragons, but to the point of risking burning down his own house? That kind of behavious seems... induced. Maybe not Imperius, but I'm sure there are other compulsion spells around... and the way he gets the egg is VERY suspicious in canon as wel, so...
Nicholas Flamel. What an interesting character. Is he really Tremere Mage? How does sir Harold know him? Why does he hate him so much? (well, apart from the fact that he's a Tremere... which tbh should be more than enough reason by itself). You guys have no idea how much I rewrote Flamel, but I didn't want him to have that great of a role in the story (you'll meet tradition Mages in the future, but rn it's a bit too early), so I hope you enjoy what little I'm going to give you. World of Darkness is a setting shrouded in smoke and mirrors, after all, and some truths are best left only as hints
Answering PM/Reviews
I... have no fucking clue how you managed to get it right on your first attempt with basically no prompting on my part. Yes, the Hallows are connected to Azrael. I have nothing to say except I'm genuinely impressed by you getting this right. Kudos to you. Tips off the hat
EDIT; I'm sorry if you thought this chapter was sub-par compared to the previous ones. I have checked it over and changed a few things, hopefully that fixed the mistakes. Usually when I write these chapters I have the book open to the side and copy the original text whenever applicable (especially when it comes to Hagrid's speech because I find that VERY hard to write), I suppose I followed the original text a bit too close in style as well.
I do appreciate the constructive criticism, but maybe next time offer some more details: i fixed what i THINK made this chapter sub-par, but there's no way for me to tell wheter I hit the mark or made it worse in the process
