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Chapter Text

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(19 November 1994 – The Forbidden Forest)

…when they had walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight – Harry heard something. Men were shouting up ahead… then came a deafening, earsplitting roar…

Hagrid led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt. Harry hurried up alongside them-for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires and men darting around them – and then his mouth fell open.

Dragons…

– Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire(Book)

He sat there. Long into the night. Long after when even Hagrid and Madam Maxime had departed. He kept on looking at the darkened sky, lost in thought, just staring. The shock of seeing four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons as they shot torrents of fire into the dark sky had worn off somewhat – having turned into awe at the majestic sight.

Had it not been for the fact that he had to face one of them in some way in that godforsaken tournament, he would have quite enjoyed looking at the fiery spectacle their tongued fire painted on the canvas of the sky. Even now, beneath all his fear and apprehension, behind all the bitterness that had tinged his view, having his choice taken away from him and forcing him to compete, there was still some part of him that yearned to reach out to the amazing creatures.

He had learnt some things about Dragons during his three - going on four years at Hogwarts. Not much admittedly, but enough to know that they were as magnificent as they were dangerous. The magizoologists and potioneers had written books upon books laureling their features and uses, mentioning how their blood, hide, even their heartstrings were a spectacular resource at every turn of a page. There had even been several journal entries from various breeders who had listed off traits and habits for different breeds from endearing to ones that could very well turn one's hair white.

He remembered reading one such tome, having had thrusted onto him by his best friend, when they had sat down for some light reading, as she used to call their Saturday evening sessions. The book itself had been an old, thick, musty thing with a scent that had strongly reminded him of some of the wooden shelves his Aunt Petunia had tasked him to clean. But once his eyes had fallen upon the words that lain therein, he had admitted, grudgingly, that it was a treasure trove of anything and everything Dragons.

From the length of their incisors to the peculiarity of their tail spikes, instructions and ideas had been jotted down on the parchments unendingly. While he had just started taking Care of Magical Creatures during his last year at the school, the subject had become one of his most treasured ones. And he knew that it was at least partially due to the fact that it was his very first friend, Hagrid, who was teaching it. But it didn't really take anything from the truth that he really was fascinated by the creatures that lived in the magical world that had become his home.

And besides, they were all magic, weren't they? Was there needed to be any other reason for him to be so captivated by them?

A fierce roar from the first pen towards his left snatched his attention as he stood up from his spot beside a hulking tree. The orange hue coming from his surroundings was enough to clue him in on the reason for the demanding cry. Apparently, there was only so much handling the Dragon handlers could do before they too needed a shut-eye. It was a good thing, he supposed. He certainly wouldn't have been able to stick around and watch otherwise.

He was about to head back towards the castle when the ferocious roar that was still ringing in his ears turned into a pained whine. Alarmed somewhat, he struggled with indecision as to whether or not he could take a peek around the pen without alerting the Dragon's minders.

Another pained cry, this one a bit more subdued, fell on his ears and made the decision for him. He could not, in good conscience, leave the creature to its pain. Even if he could do nothing to help, as he knew could very well be the case, the least he could do was to figure out why it was in agony.

With resolute steps and cautioned mind, he slid down from the small elevated hill he was sitting on and fastened his invisibility cloak around him once more. Even if he was relatively sure that most of the handlers were down for the night, there was no sense in broadcasting his presence.

Muffled footsteps fell flat onto the mossy grass as he made his way towards the cages where the Dragons were being kept. With a frown, he realised that one of them, the largest of them with spikes on its neck that could skewer him like one of those kebab dishes he had heard Aunt Petunia harp on about so often, was separated even further than the other three who were now sleeping within there pens soundly despite the ruckus.

'Perhaps it's just… lonely?' he thought to himself as he looked at the Dragon that was still partially covered by the trees from where he was watching the enclosure.

If there was anything Harry Potter was intimately familiar with other than pain, it was loneliness. He knew what it felt like to have no one to share your thoughts. He had eleven years of experience with that particular feeling. Even now, when he had people he could call his friends or perhaps even family, there were times when he felt like there was none who could really understand him, who really knew who he was. Maybe it was the cynic in him that had reared its head after years of abuse, or maybe it was just his nature, but whatever had been the catalyst, he knew how corroding loneliness could be.

With that thought in his mind, he stepped aside from the small copse of trees he was hiding behind and skulked his way to the edge of the forest on the east side of the enclosure where, even now, the Dragon was doing it's best to crunch the metallic bars that held it captive.

Being careful as to not alert the creature of his presence, he brushed past the last few natural barriers to the separated cage and chanced a look.

A muffled gasp escaped his lips as he saw the Dragon in its entirety. Scales as thick as his hands covered its liquorice coloured frame. From the ground where his feet were gouging trenches to its head just shy of touching the roof of its cage, it was nearly fifty feet in length and was as tall as the Knight Bus he'd seen. The Hungarian Horntail he had only seen pictures of in the books, looked even more intimidating than he could have ever imagined.

Dread filled him as he remembered that it could be the very beast he would have to go up against in the brainchild of masochists that was the tournament. And knowing his luck, he was fairly certain that none but this Dragon would meet his eyes when he passed through the gates of the arena.

How was he supposed to match up to…THAT?!

His breathing quickened as panic seeped in his heart. His knees buckled and he was just about ready to collapse when a voice pierced through the fog of fear that had captured his senses.

§ "Hatchlings…" § The voice hissed mournfully. § "…The filthy humans…" § It snarled even as it continued its efforts to chew through the bars unsuccessfully. § "My…hatchlings…"§

His every movement stopped as the words seeped into his mind. He knew those hissed words. Had heard them…understood them as clearly as he had two years ago.

Dread gave way to shock as images of his battle in the fabled chamber of secrets flashed in front of his eyes. Every single fibre of his brain went into overdrive as explanations and theories kept ravaging within to dispute his senses.

A while passed before he collected enough strength to gather his wits and stop his rampant thoughts. The only beings capable of uttering them was long dead slain by his hands or, he supposed, floating through the earth in as a wraith. Disturbed as he was by his dreams, he was also fairly certain that despite his dreams of the grotesque looking dark lord, he could not be anywhere near Hogwarts' grounds given his state and with Dumbledore still less than a few minutes away.

He looked around frantically, still within the safety of his invisibility cloak, to see if he could find any trace of a person hiding within the woods.

Just when he was on the verge of decrying his senses, the voice returned. § "…HATCHLINGS!" § The roar that erupted from the Dragon's maw was deafening. It jarred his very bones as he crumpled to the ground clutching his ears. The pained anger was palpable in the air even as the Dragon stopped its failing efforts to gnaw at the cage and slumped to the ground with a heavy thud.

Harry looked at the defeated form of the predatory beast and slowly removed his hands from his ears. Realization dawned on him in a second as he figured out the source of the voice.

'The Dragon! It can speak Parseltongue!' he thought, astonished by the revelation.

Now that he had solved the mystery of the voice, the fear that had crept up on him reminding of the nefarious schemes of the evil wizards faded away into the night.

Another pained whine from the Dragon brought him back to the present. He could feel the hurt in the creature's voice even when he couldn't understand the reason for it. The voice had said something about hatchlings and something about humans that he couldn't understand without a context. What was clear to him though was that it was in pain and apparently could speak parseltongue.

Now with a way to understand and a will that drove him to help a fellow magical being, he firmed his resolve and started walking forward to the edge of the cage, cautiously.

He was only a little ways ahead when a snap of a twig beneath his feet and the jerk with which the Dragon swilled its head around to look in his direction told him he had failed in his objective. He stopped motionless on the spot, his hands covering his mouth and as he looked at his quarry. The dragon was sniffing the air suspiciously as its head turned every which way, forgetting about its previous goal.

A gust from behind him wafted into the clearing just as the Dragon was about to move its sight from his direction and everything stilled instantly. For a second he allowed himself to think that he had gotten away with it when a tremendous roar buckled his knees. A menacing snarl followed as it caught his scent.

Harry stood still, wide-eyed as the Dragon reared its head and a spark flickered within its maw.

'No point in hiding then.' He thought desperately and with the courage that had made him worthy of being chosen as a Gryffindor, removed his cloak in one fluid motion.

§ "STOP!" § He hissed with as much strength as his voice could carry.

When the morning would come and Harry would be lying in his four-poster bed, he would be astonished by what he had done at this very moment. Even with his record of diving into dangerous situations, walking in front of a Dragon to attempt to talk to it would be one of the worst and best of his decisions.

But at present, when he was looking into the predatory eyes of a Class-XXXXX beast with its head reared to burn him to a crisp, all he had to go on was…hope.

Utterly surprised and astounded by what it was seeing much less hearing, the Dragon abruptly closed its mouth with a loud snap. It looked at him with little patience as it sniffed the air once more. Its head that had been craning before, receded back to earth hovering just above the low ground as it looked at the human child in front of its eyes judging his worth.

A few moments passed as the slitted yellow eyes bored into Harry's green before the dragon gave a low snarl and hissed, § "Leave…Child." §

A breath he didn't realise he had been holding, released from his mouth and his shoulders sagged in slight relief. Death by dragon fire would not have been a pleasant way to go. Grateful and confused he took some deep breaths to calm his still pounding heart.

When the words finally filtered into his conscious brain, he realised what the dragon had said and how…feminine? the voice really had been. Was this dragon a female? And if it-she could talk, how could the wizards even classify her as a mindless beast? Questions upon questions ravaged his mind before he stopped the onslaught. Now was not the time to contemplate these things. He had chanced much to be able to help this one, there was no way he was going to back out now.

He squared his shoulders and with a polite voice, well, as polite as he could muster while speaking parseltongue to a dragon of all things, he addressed her. § "Hello…" §

This time the Dragon didn't even look in his direction as the low growls and whines continued to echo in the clearing as she mourned her loss.

Realising that there was probably something more at play here besides her being chained and locked up, he attempted to reach her once more. § "I'm sorry…But – what's wrong?" §

Apart from a growl that was a bit more feral than her previous ones, she gave no sign that she was aware of his presence.

Having some experience with the loss of his own, he did the only thing he knew that would somehow gain her attention. She had asked him to leave when she could have easily burnt him to ash instead. He knew she could be vicious, one look at her and it was obvious what he was about to do could very well end his life right then, but what solidified the decision in his mind was just one thing…he could feel her pain as well as he could have his own.

A feeling came forth from within his chest then and gave him the will he needed.

With steps that started heavy at first, he walked closer to her cage until he could touch the bars with his hands. Taking a deep breath he looked at her once more and sat down on the ground with his back against her cage. § "I…I don't know what hurt you. I don't even know why I am doing this, but when you wish to tell me…I will be here." §

Hours passed as she continued to disregard him. He knew it was well past midnight now, just about the time when he could consider going back to his dorm and expect to sleep away this experience. But there was something…a bizarre feeling that rose within him that made him stop, whenever he thought of leaving.

A hot breath on his back brought him out of his reverie and he stilled. He could feel her just behind him as if he was looking right at her. The muffled grinding noise as her scales grazed the metallic bars adjacent to his back made him inhale sharply. It was funny how in moments like these, the mind remembered things that it had forgotten previously. Abstractly, he remembered the clearing near enough to where he sat now that had been witness to his stray adventure during in his second year. And with morbid humour he did not know he was capable enough to derive on his own, a single thought ran through his mind as he waited for the inevitable.

'Well, at least it will be quicker than spider-chow…'

-x-x-x-x-x-

She knew his kind. Humans. The creatures with the same capacity for destruction as her own. In her long life, she had seen the carnage they could wreak with a flick of their sticks. All the magic at their fingertips…and all they sowed were seeds of devastation. They took without asking, they pillaged with greed, killed…without a second thought. She had seen much before they captured her.

Loathed though she was to admit it, she had seen the other side too. Their compassion…their ability to love, the kindness they could show to one not even their own. Even if this side was almost completely shadowed by anger at what they had done to her, it was still present, somewhere in her psyche.

When she saw him sitting at the edge of her cage, without guarding his back even, she thought it was arrogance that dictated his actions. But then he waited…for hours…and she realised, he was waiting for her…waiting for her to tell him her what ailed her.

Had she not lost enough to his kind, she would have trusted him enough to do as he was expected. But they had taken too much, hurt her too deeply for her to ever trust them again.

§ "I asked you to leave, child…Are you so fond of death that you would walk to it with such callousness?" § she said retreating back.

He breathed out as he sensed her form receding and thought about what she had said. A frown marred his face as he turned to look at her. § "I don't wish to die. I heard you calling for someone and I could feel you were hurting. I just – I just wanted to help." § he finished softly.

She almost lunged at him right then. A threatening growl came from the back of her throat and she hissed at him angrily. § "Your kind has HELPED enough! Leave if you do not wish to meet a painful end, hatchling. I will warn you no more." §

He gulped, the bite of her words hitting him grievously. The tinge of lingering pain in her anger, however, was louder than her words. He knew if he left now, there would always be something reminding him that he could have done more. That he could have stayed and helped her somehow. The same thing that had made him leave his friends behind to fight the monster that had taken away his parents… and the thing that had made him jump down a drain and fight a vicious basilisk to save a young girl… It was the same something that had made him stand up to the hoard of soul-sucking demons to protect his godfather.

It was as though Fate was smiling down upon him, knowing, he would do no less.

Harry gathered all his courage and stood his ground, refusing to leave now that he had felt the acidic touch of her pain that lingered within her. As he thought about her words a worrying realisation started forming in his gut. § "You said that before… 'Hatchling'," he paused as an appalling thought struck him. § "Have they…Do they have your children?" § he asked alarmingly.

She turned her head sharply and in a flash, her face was in front of his petrified form as she snarled at him. § "THIEVES! FILTHY THIEVES STOLE MY CHILDREN FROM ME! Attacked me in the night with their magic, dozens of them! And when I could protect them no more… when I could do nothing but beg them not to take them from my side…that…that they would not live without my fire, the pillaging filths took them anyway!" she hissed in pained anger. Blinking back tears from her slitted eyes, she turned away once more.

§ "…Even now, I can feel my youngest slipping away from me. His fire has run out. You, humans, think you know us, that you know magic. You think you know how we live, who we are. YOU KNOW NOTHING!" she spat venomously. A pained whine burst forth from her as she collapsed within her cage, unmoving. § "…They…They would not live for me to see their faces…I know it." §

Horrified beyond belief, Harry stood there, as unmoving as the Dragon in front of him. Knowing a little as he did about eggs of her breed, he knew that her clutch needed her fire to live within the shell. He might not know the reason but he knew that lack of a mother's fire was said to cause the eggs to turn to solid stone within minutes, killing the dragons inside!

Questions, queries ran rampant through his mind as he tried and failed to understand the reasons for the tournament officials to have done such a thing.

'And what about the handlers? Had they just let the ministry officials take her clutch? Weren't they suppose to stop such things from happening?' he thought furiously.

Rage bubbled within him as he understood the depth of what they had done. He knew wizards who had lived their whole lives in the presence of magic were often callous enough to take it for granted but to do this? To separate a mother from her unborns?

He couldn't be the first Parselmouth to talk to a dragon, could he? He couldn't be the first one to find out that Dragons were intelligent beings capable of feeling pain. Was it simply because they thought she was, as had been written in so many tomes, a mindless beast? Or livestock? Just another resource for their precious potions? He asked, flummoxed, trying but unable to comprehend how his fellow wizards could stoop so low, not knowing how rare the gift of Parseltongue really was among his kind. Or even how less than ten witches and wizards in the last twelve centuries had been known to exhibit it.

Emotions warred within him as any reason he could come up with failed to appease his sense of honour. There was nothing that could justify such an act for it was nothing but barbaric.

And sadly, it was something, he knew, his fellow wizards were quite capable of. He had seen the attack on the Quidditch world cup. He had seen the Death Eaters commit atrocities right before his very eyes to the people that had done them no harm. To think wizards capable of taking eggs from a nesting mother dragon…it was regrettably, easily imaginable.

With a firm nod, he came to a decision. Without speaking another word to her, he left her cage, striding towards his the encampment, to do what he must.

And to undo what should never have been done.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Loud snoring and sleeping bodies greeted him as soon as he reached the area where the tents for the handlers had been erected. He had seen a glimpse of them back with Hagrid when they had been trying to corral the dragons into their pens. Even as he tried to estimate their numbers, he remembered that even then, he hadn't seen the liquorice female dragon with the others.

Had they planned to take her clutch all along? Did they mean to sell it as Quirell had sold Norbert's egg to Hagrid three years ago? They had to know that without her fire, the eggs wouldn't last the night.

With silent steps, he entered the encampment, hiding within his cloak. There were three tents to his left separated evenly in the clearing and two that almost seem to merge with the forest on his right. He knew, even with the space expansion charms within, it was unlikely for the officials to be staying within the tents when Dumbledore had so graciously offered them hospitality within the walls of Hogwarts, so that left him with a dozen or so handlers. So, it was most likely just the handlers that were left.

'A dozen or so fully-fledged wizards and merlin knows what else… Right. What could go wrong, eh Potter?' he snarked.

Had it not been for his experience in sneaking around where he wasn't supposed to be, he would have been caught as soon as he stepped foot within the area. As it was, he was a little more proficient than your run-of-the-mill cat burglar and had the one thing that made his task easier than he had even hoped.

His invisibility cloak.

Harry didn't know it then and would not know of it for many years to come, but his invisibility cloak was special. Even by usual wizarding standards.

Those who knew of the legend would have called it Third Deathly Hallow. Said to have been created by Death itself, the magical artefact could render the wearer invisible, even from the very being who created it. It will take him traversing a path wrought with dangers and foes that would chip away at his innocence before this truth found him out, however.

In years that would follow, Harry would go on to have many adventures with his cloak. Some moments would hurt him grievously whereas some would give him opportunities to help those he loved. But most of all, there will be those that would make him capable, capable enough to stand, even in the face of tremendous loss.

But right at this moment, when he was but a fourteen-year-old wizard just stupid enough to wish to help a fellow magical being, the cloak would help him do the one thing that would one day become his salvation

It was because of his cloak that he had realised why this debacle was happening, having heard two wizards grouching about having to share profits with some 'ministry stooge' lying in their cots.

Apparently, the Ministry, in its esteemed intelligence, had seen fit not to use the services of the dragon handlers who had brought the four dragons from the sanctuary in Romania, feeling their own workers more than capable of handling the beasts. Even with his own meagre knowledge of politics, he could see, quite clearly, it had been a poorly disguised attempt to save some gold. Or worse, to earn some at the expense of nesting mothers. After all, accidents did tend to happen in the logistical nightmare that was the tournament.

It had taken him a while to convince himself to not raise his wand to take some action at the unsuspecting animals who had the audacity to call themselves humans after hearing that.

He had wondered how could the mother dragon hold onto such hate for his kind. When he was in the middle of these…these cheap imitations of human beings, the answer was quite easy to find. Even he, with all his tolerance, could see how easy it was to hate these ignorant fools.

Thrusting away his more violent thoughts, he had decided to get on his way. It had taken a lot of effort and breaking more than a few laws before he had found the tent where the eggs were being kept.

When he had entered the first tent, he had realised how the ferocious roars of the mother dragon were unable to rouse the men inside a fabric. The pitiful beings had erected silencing wards over the entrances of their tents to stop all sounds from coming inside their resting abodes. Shaking his head at the cruelty of people, he had continued his efforts to find the eggs.

Hampered by his inability to cast spells silently as he had seen his professors do, he had been limited in his choices. But as soon as he had realised that most if not all of the burly looking workers were heavy sleepers, an idea sprang had to his mind.

Moving along the three tents to his left as he searched the eggs within, he had cast sleeping charms on the workers as subtly as he could. There had been one or two close calls when his whispered voice had roused a worker or two but luckily he had moved fast enough to avoid being caught.

It had taken him almost an hour to clear all four tents but he was sure that his spells would keep the men from waking up before he was done with his mission.

All those shenanigans finally brought him to the present inside the last tent just beside the forest canopy, where he stood now, looking at the last ministry lackey sleeping soundly on a small cot. He had seen him walking around from his vantage point outside. As soon as the man had walked past his cot, Harry had sneakily brought out his wand out of his cloak and a whispered, "Somnus" had put paid to that problem. After a brief struggle which had involved him getting the heavy body of the now sleeping man to his cot, he was left looking at the single cauldron hanging on the fireplace as the eggs within pattered rhythmically on the solid iron.

He cursed their ignorance as he realised the fire underneath the cauldron held not even the tiniest bit of magic whatsoever. Were these workers complete morons? Did they not even know the non-magical fire would hamper the magic of the younglings inside the shell!

With haste, he walked briskly towards the cauldron without preamble, hoping against hope that the youngest one, the one mother dragon was worried about had not yet lost to the ether.

A plan formed in his mind as his eyes caught sight of a steely net and gloves sitting on the table beside the fireplace.

Shedding his cloak and pulling on the gloves, he cast an impervius charm as he had been taught last year to stop the effects of fire on objects.

'Careful now. One egg at a time…' thoughts of a stone egg kept running through his mind and he concentrated on pulling out the eggs safely to keep himself on track. '…I know he lives. He has to.'

He scooped the first egg into his hands and relief flooded into his being as he saw the shell intact with a smooth finish, quite similar to what he had seen in the few pictures that were available in the library. With motion as slow and fluid as he could muster, he put the egg onto the net, right in the middle.

One after another he continued to grab the eggs from the cauldron as carefully as he could, checking them to see if they were alright. After the fifth one, just as he was about to pull out the last one, a rough grinding feeling against his right hand stopped him in his tracks. His breath hitched as he felt the texture of the egg once again.

It was…different.

He pulled it out hastily and brought it near the lone oil-lamp that was hung in the middle of the tent. The yellow light shone upon the egg and fear gripped him once more.

The right half of the egg was almost completely turned to stone.

'No. no. no. You are not supposed to die, little one. No!' he screamed not noticing he had shouted his anguish out loud.

Realising that he could lose all of them if he didn't hurry, he brushed his moist eyes with the back of his sleeves and with gentle hands, put the damaged egg in the middle of the clutch.

§ "Your mother is waiting for you, little guy…Please…hold on. You'll be with her soon," § he pleaded not knowing what else to do.

To his astonishment, just as injured egg came into contact with his brethren, they all started pulsing with a timid orange light as though coaxing their brother into breathing once more.

Once, twice, thrice they pulsed, trying to keep him alive.

Just when he was about to lose faith, a feeble pulse lit up within the damaged egg as he clung to life once more.

He almost howled in triumph right then. But knowing time was slipping by, he grasped that last tendril of hope with both hands and started pulling all the corners of the net together. He put the net in his cloak and tied a loose knot around its corners along with his cloak, using it as a make-shift pack. Holding them close to his chest, he ran to their only hope of survival.

Down the clearing, past the copse of trees, around the jutting thorns, he went, running as fast as he could to save a dying clutch of sentient beings that had not even taken their first breath in the world. Stray branches marred his face with a litany of scratches as he took every conceivable path to reach his destination as swiftly as he could.

Just as he broke through the last foliage, near enough to see the nesting mother in her cage roaring resoundingly looking at him with wide hopeful eyes, his own caught a glimpse of the clutch within his arms.

…

The dim light from the injured egg was pulsing no more.

-x-x-x-x-x-

She felt him leave without a word through her senses and a feeling of utter loss settled within her. Had she expected really him to be able to help her somehow? A child. He was no more capable than she was, chained as they both were, her literally and him by his years.

She had been a wild one. Been born deep within the mountains, she had earned her pride flying the free skies for years on end. What her mother couldn't teach her, she had learnt from nature itself. Learnt to be her own master and never to lose.

Until…Until they caught her.

Human filth.

Unlike many of her kind, it was the first time she had lost a clutch to the greed of these humans. She remembered how her mind had been addled by these wizards. How when she recovered days later, she could feel something stirring within her as if something had changed. It took her but a week to understand the feeling.

They had bred her.

Without her even being aware of it.

Such rage, such anger had filled her when she realised what they had done that it had taken two dozen of the stick wielders to stop her from demolishing the prison they had the audacity to call a sanctuary for her kind. Even then, she had ravaged their cages and slaughtered many who had been sent to subdue her.

She cherished her hatchlings but she had taken blood from those who had forced her to spawn life.

Then one night she had realised, to what end?

The human filth would still cut their life short and butcher her spawns for…for supplies? Resources?

As much as she was looking forward to seeing their faces, she was dreading the moment they would take their first breath… Their first breath as slaves.

It had haunted her for nights on end. Gnawed at her every time she looked at her clutch.

Until now…now when she was almost certain that they would not even live to know who she was.

She cried for hours, mourning her children who were slipping away from her every second. The connection she shared with her clutch was eroding away as the time slipped by. Nothing mattered to her other than the painful sensations she got every time her connection with one of her hatchlings dulled to the point of nothingness.

…

And then…just like that, it came back alive!

She jolted back to her feet and craned her head as far as she could from her cage, waiting…waiting for that feeling that would tell her she hadn't been mistaken.

…

There!

She roared to the heavens as she felt it again. § "HATCHLINGS!" §

One after another, the tendril of magic that connected her to her clutch strengthened. She actively sought out each one, making sure they were alive. Just as she reached the last one, her hopes fell. Hurriedly, she sent a pulse of magic through their link searching for something, anything. All she got was silence. A pit formed in her gut as she realised her fears had been proven true.

Her jubilation at feeling rest of her young alive warred with her sorrow at never being able to see one of there faces ever again. Her psyche seemed to split at the seems as it couldn't contain two opposing emotions battling within her.

Before she could properly absorb what had happened, the tether to her youngest flowed back to life! Subtle and diminished, it wavered in her mind and she struggled to hold on to it.

Uncomprehending and worried she growled in her cage and started slamming the metallic bars with a renewed vigour.

She knew not what was happening, but she knew her younglings were alive…and she would get to them howsoever she could. Though her efforts were as futile as they had been before she had seen the human child, she continued regardless.

Before long, her sharp eyes caught sight of the same human child running through the dense foliage in her direction.

Her eyes widened as she realised what had happened.

§ 'The child…he…he saved them,' § she thought. Surprise, elation, gratitude, all emotions kept cycling through her even as she bathed in the feeling of having her hatchlings back to her.

A deafening roar erupted from her jaws as she shot a torrent of fire into the night sky watching him break through the last of the hedges.

She looked right at him as their eyes met once more. He took another step in her direction, for some reason looking down into his arms, and suddenly, stopped in his tracks.

Cycling as she was between revelling the return of her clutch and worrying about their condition, she failed to notice the one tether that bound her with her youngest.

He had passed into the void…

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry stood still, uncomprehending, staring at the stone sitting in the middle of the clutch that had once held a life within its shell. He could see the mother dragon roaring into the sky staring at him with a hopeful look in her eyes.

Tears filled his eyes as the realised how they would look when she'd see it for herself.

Silently thrumming orange pulses dimmed in their intensity as though they knew one among them was lost to the ether. Right before his eyes, the interval between each pulse increased and he steeled his heart.

He had to save the other five. No matter what.

He ran as he had never before, clutching on to the younglings hidden beneath his cloak.

Just a few more yards and she would see them again.

A few more yards and she would breathe life into them once more.

A few more yards before she would realise her youngest was lost to her, forever.

He slid to a stop right before her cage and gingerly, without a word, peeled back his cloak loosening one of the knots from the corners.

He saw the relief in her eyes as they caught glimpse of five of her younglings still living, if demurely. And then he saw that relief turn into horror at the sight of the stone sitting in the middle.

The intensity of her pain was such that he couldn't help but avert his eyes just to stop his own guilt from flaring uncontrollably. As gently as he could, he put down the eggs on the ground as the net and his cloak almost touched the metal bars of her cage. He untied the knots completely and stood up, not knowing how to explain to her the events that had transpired.

How could he tell a mother than her child was gone? How could he be the one to take that away from her?

He knew, by experience, at times like these, explanations did nothing to relieve the pain. They hadn't for him. Not that he'd always gotten his answers.

He saw her lean down and sniff the eggs as she nudged them with her face. A single tear rolled down the spikes on her cheeks and landed on to the lone stone egg.

§ "I…I am sorry. I…I tried. I tried to bring them all back alive. I thought…I thought I would. He was here, for a moment…I could feel him. I am so sorry." § He whispered softly. Tears that he was holding back with a purpose, rivered from his eyes even as he trie to brush them away with his sleeves.

She remained silent until he spoke. Her head was hovering over the eggs as she checked them for damages. With halting motions, she rolled the stone egg tenderly towards the side, not giving any indication that she'd heard.

Just as he finished, she slowly lifted her head and looked at him right in the eyes. At the distance when he could very well see his own reflection in her slitted pupils, he somehow understood all she wanted to say, but her words thrummed in his mind anyway.

§ "Thank you…little one." §

Nodding to him once, she once more returned back to her young.

Time stood still and as though he had known what would come next all along, he stepped beside her when she opened her mouth and breathed life into them once more.

Fire, pure and white, burst forth from her maw and the eggs came alit at once. The orange light that had stopped pulsating, ignited with a radiance.

His eyes caught sight of the lone stone egg at the edge and something broke within him at the sight.

'You…you should have been here. To see her face…to feel her presence. To know how intense and pure her love is for you…' He raved within his mind sullenly.

Maybe because it was so very similar to his own situation or maybe because he was seeing the other aspect, a mother losing her child, but it was prodding at those very things that he had buried deep within himself ever since he had truly understood the reason for the absence of his parents in his life…when he had remembered the pleading sounds of her mother as she begged Voldemort to spare his life. Not liking the reminder he suppressed the feelings once more.

A glint at the corner of his cloak caught sight of his blurry vision and he only had a second to worry about his cloak directly beneath the dragon fire when without knowing why or even how, his body froze. Right before his eyes, a glowing pattern of a shining triangle, something he had never seen before on the magical fabric, ignited at the corners of his cloak.

His peripheral vision caught sight of the mother dragon beside him and everything he had ever learnt about magic, unravelled in an instant.

The fire coming from her maw had frozen in the air.

His eyes widened when he saw that not just the fire but everything in his vicinity had been petrified. Frantically, he attempted to move his eyes to the far side of his periphery despite being unable to move his muscles even an inch. He saw the bushes tilting unnaturally as the leaves hovered in middle air and the world all-around stuck as if someone had paused the reality midstream.

More than a little afraid just as he was about to resist whatever force that was keeping him captive, a terrible burning sensation on his forearm tore a scream from his throat.

"AHHHHHHHHH…"

Beams of scorching hot plasma started etching the same triangular pattern on his right forearm as he had seen on his cloak.

"ARGHHHHH…"

Unable to move, unable to even see past his chest, he could do nothing to stop the branding much less alleviate the pain.

Unbeknownst to him, powers that be were working in tandem to achieve something they had never thought would ever come to pass. From all the choices in all the moments, he could have made tonight, this particular turn of events had been very, very low among the possibilities.

But happen it did.

And so began the work for the ones who were named the guardians of this world by the one whose name even they had forgotten.

If there was even the slightest chance that path for the chosen one could be diverted to help more than just his own people, they were willing to risk walking on the extreme edges of what they were allowed to do within the mortal realm.

As suddenly as the pain had exploded within him, it faded away like a breeze.

The gusts of wind touched the elements again, righting the bushes and trees as the world started revolving once more.

Harry felt the hold on him decrease and he fell to his knees gasping. He took deep gulps of breaths, not realising he too had stopped breathing with the world. Somewhere back in his mind, he could still feel the force continuing to do whatever it had started.

He turned to see the mother dragon and just as his eyes met her form it was as though the last remnants of the invisible force returned in full force, using him, for one last time.

His pupils turned bleached white, matching his sclera. Voices, he couldn't recognise in a language he didn't know, spoke from his mouth without his askance.

"REAPER IS YET TO COME, DAUGHTER. YOUR PROGENY AWAITS FOR HIM JUST BEYOND THE VEIL…"

Startled, the mother dragon growled at him warily. Yet as the words kept flowing through him, some knowledge far beyond her reckoning, somehow, brought an understanding to her soul. Not knowing who, but understanding its importance, she could do nothing but listen to the words of the spirits she had heard only whispers about from her mother as they used the human child as their mouthpiece.

"WE GIVE YOU THIS BOON, TONIGHT. BY THE VIRTUE OF THIS VESSEL, YOUR YOUNGEST WILL LIVE ONCE MORE…"

Her heart fluttered at those words. 'The spirits…they know!' she shouted in the recesses of her mind as a hope alit within her. And then dread snatched that hope when her mother's words rang in her ears.

'…life for a life. Nature is balance, young one. It takes before it can give once more…'

As though they had heard her worries, the voices interjected. "PEACE DAUGHTER…JUST THIS ONCE, THE PRICE HAS BEEN PAID…"

Abruptly, his right arm moved on its own and covered the stone egg with a corner of his cloak. "BREATHE DAUGHTER…" the voices commanded.

Unwilling to not heed the words of the spirits, she did as told. The same molten, white fire burst from her jaws onto the cloak covered stone egg. She did not know how long it was that she breathed, or for what, but as seconds turned to a full minute, a sharp crack echoed within the clearing.

Harry, still unable to control his own body, remove the cloak from the egg, wondering despite the issue of hijacking, what he would find underneath.

The mother dragon beat him to it. With her snout, she gingerly touched the surface of the egg, sniffing its shell as she tenderly rolled it onto a side.

As though her touch was the last ingredient needed, a bright orange light burst from within the egg and the shell cracked in the middle, chipping, and finally crumbled into the dirt, leaving behind a smooth exterior.

The lost tendril of connection rejuvenated in an instant and she howled into the dark sky, roaring a loud, bone-jarring roar.

The voices returned, more tender, like soothing her worries after the rollercoaster of emotions she had experienced tonight. "…May you have years worth of memories to share with your young…"

Harry fell onto his back as the force completely receded from his mind and body, leaving him tired like never before. He coughed clutching his stomach uncomfortably even as fresh air filled his lungs.

Confusion, apprehension, a little fear circled within his psyche as it tried and failed to understand what exactly had happened in the span of the last few minutes.

And then his eyes caught sight of the sixth egg, alit with an orange glow within. Alive. All the questions faded from his mind as the only fact that mattered to him at the moment settled in.

He hadn't failed.

A single look at the mother dragon caressing all her eggs one after another and he knew, to see that love in her eyes once more, 'It was worth it.'

A choked laugh erupted from his mouth suddenly and soon he was howling at the moon in happiness.

Not noticing the seared symbol of one of the Hallows disappearing from his forearm.

-x-x-x-x-x-

They talked long into the night. Him telling her about adventures he had shared with his friends just as she regaled him with the times she had shared in the wilds, seeing things that his kind had never even bothered to understand.

Every time he looked at her, it was as though her eyes smiled at him, thanked him for saving those she loved the most.

Neither had asked for the other's name, not because they wished to keep it secret, but simply because the respect they had for the other was more than enough in their eyes.

He even shared the troubles he'd had ever since his name had come up in the farcical tournament. How his friendships had become strenuous. How alone, he felt even when sitting in the common room filled with people.

And when he'd told her how afraid he was that he would have to stand against the of-age witches and wizards who were already so far ahead of him in their education, she had said something that had stuck with him the most.

§ "To have the courage to do what is right not what is easy is the bedrock of what makes you a champion, little one." §

And though it had done nothing to allay his fears of what was coming in the upcoming tasks, it had given him something to think about.

As if an unspoken agreement had been struck, neither had said anything about the extraordinary experience they had shared just a few hours ago. And if he was being honest with himself, he did not even know how to even begin to understand something so out of his depth. So until he could, he had decided to let it go… for now.

An owl hooted in the distance and with a start, he realised how late- his late-night wanderings had gotten him. He turned away from gazing at the stars in the night sky above the clearing beside her cage and looked at her nudging the eggs lovingly. A smile formed on his face at the sight, along with a startling realisation.

His eyes widened as the full extent of the situation hit home.

§ "We have to do something about them." § he said hesitatingly, not knowing how she would take the news having just gotten them back.

As he had expected - and feared – a threatening growl came from her and he put his hands up in surrender.

§ "Listen! Please. They took your children once. There is really nothing stopping them from taking them again. Once they see them in your cage, they will come back." § he tried.

§ " Let THEM! " § she snarled, her upper lip curling showing her sharp teeth as she coiled her tail around her clutch protectively.

Harry shook his head at that. He had no doubt she would be deadly in protecting her young ones but as his fellow wizards had proven one before, when it came to earning some fast gold, even a nesting mother was not enough of a deterrent.

Plans and schemes ran through his mind with the speed of light as he tried to find a way to keep the eggs from being taken again.

He couldn't even hide them somewhere because they needed her fire every couple of hours from what she had told him and someone was bound to notice his absence as he went back and forth from her cage to wherever he ended up hiding the eggs.

And then there was that. He really had no place where he could hide six eggs half the size of his forearm.

Just as he was about to give up, an idea sprang to his mind. A wild, large-eyed, flappy-eared, squeaky idea that he had met just this morning.

Grinning, he looked up into her slitted eyes and asked, § "Do you trust me?" §

She looked at him askance, unsure why the question had come to his mind. Though her tail tightened around her hatchlings a bit more, she decided to ponder his question.

Did she trust him?

The part in her that was fierce, jaded and hurt uncountably by the atrocities his kind had delivered upon her raged within her mind to even consider such a thing. It was true he had saved her children, brought them back to her when he could have easily gone back to the castle, ignoring her plight, but he was the progeny of the same beings who had taken her clutch away from her in the first place. Capable enough to fall to the same greed and malice just like others.

But the part within her that was a mother, a female, less primal, the part that had seen the child through, had seen his selflessness, that had listened to his thoughts, had watched the spirts talk through him as they gave her back her child praising his virtue, that part squashed the aspersions on his character with extreme prejudice.

When she really thought about it though, there was really nothing to consider.

Leaning down so his eyes were level with her own, she hissed softly. § "Yes…" §

The smile she got in return was something that would live in her memories forever. Long after her young had left to journey on their own and longer still when she would be flying under the sun in the mountains she grew up, once more…as a free dragon.

Harry moved back a few steps with a purpose and spoke just one word…

"Dobby!"

-x-x-x-x-x-

(24 November 1994 – Near Hogwarts Grounds)
The First Task

The dragon cut him off and whipped him off his broom, as he landed on the roof of the northern tower, hanging on for dear life. The dragon clambered across the roof, strewing tiles as it went. Harry attempted to reach his broom stuck in between. He jerked it loose and let go of the roof just in time as the dragon swiped at him. Unable to balance himself, he fell down the tower as winds whistled by his ears before regaining control, the dragon right on his tail. He flew towards the bridge with a purpose, sticking to the plan he had concocted on the fly. Ten yards…Five yards…Two yards and he flew through a gap in the bridge even as the dragon crashed into it and falling into the water.

– Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire(Movie)

He knew he would get only one chance at this. Dobby had heard the officials about monitoring the skies in case the dragon was able to break the chains. Taking the opportunity his damaged broom provided him, he deliberately turned heavily towards the ravine between the small mountains he had spotted earlier.

Just as he was sure, none could see him, he zoomed past the narrow edge of the mountain to the place they had decided.

He saw the small flat area on the lip of the ravine and landed urgently.

"Dobby!"

The excitable house-elf popped near him in an instant, carrying a familiar steely net with all its occupants resting within.

Harry looked at him and they both grinned at what they had accomplished. The little guy had been a tremendous help. He had agreed to ferry the eggs back and forth to the mother dragon and had even found a safe enough hiding place for them in a hidden alcove in a cave near the lake.

He had no idea how the elf had managed to pull it off without everything falling apart but Harry was glad that he had. He knew he wouldn't have been able to do half the things Dobby had managed to do by himself and creating a facsimile of the eggs that could hoodwink the officials…phew…that was among the least of his contributions in the plan.

And when he had said as much this morning, thanking him for his help, the elf had brushed it away in that same squeaky voice, "Harry Potter Sir be needing help. Dobby did what Dobby could after all Harry Potter sir had done for him."

Really not wanting to let Dobby get on 'the great Harry Potter sir' wagon once more he had simply shaken his hand.

A powerful gust of wind brought him out of his thoughts as a great shadow came upon the sky, hovering above them both.

Harry hurriedly stepped back as the mother dragon descended onto the ground, flapping her wings to balance herself.

Just as her feet touched the ground, he was upon her. § "Are you alright? I know I said it would have to be convincing but did you have to crash into the bridge?!" § he asked worriedly.

A rumbling sound came from her throat as she laughed? § "Our hides are much stronger than yours, little one. It was barely a scratch." § she said as her tongue licked a scale near the centre of her body. It was the amount of trust she had gained in both of them that her eyes didn't continue to linger on her clutch as she spoke.

§ "Well…" he hesitated, "…we don't have much time." §

She looked at him with the same eye-smile he had grown to love seeing on her face. § "I know." § she replied softly, unable to grasp how important he had become to her in the span of a few days.

Dobby decided to jump in before his Harry Potter sir got in trouble with the evil tournament officials.

"Harry Potter Sir's dragon must be going now!" he squeaked. "The be looking for him otherwise…"

Harry hesitated a second time but nodded in slowly. § "Go…Take care of yourself…" then pointed at the clutch still in Dobby's grasp, "…and them." §

She nodded with her large head, acknowledging his care. § "Always." Just as she turned to Dobby, the elf fixed the net within a harness he had made for her hind legs. Turning to him once more, she spoke with a tone that he couldn't recognise. "They will know what you have done, little one." Before he could say something in denial, she overrode him. "They have magic you have yet to learn and with intentions are dark as their own…they will stop at nothing if they find something amiss to hunt you down."

Harry frowned. True, there had been way too many close calls in the past days but they had always come out ahead. It was less than likely that anyone had figured out their secret. Not with Dobby on the case.

But he knew she was right in a way. If there was one thing they had missed, just one thing, his luck was such that the ministry would find it without even looking.

Before he could say something, however, she closed the distance between them in a flash. before he or even Dobby could do anything, she opened her maw and as gently as she could, breathed onto them a white misty fog.

§ "I may not be able to protect you from the perils of the path the spirits have chosen for you, little one. But I will  not  be so honourless to leave you to fend the wolves I know your kind to be…You will not remember me or mine, young one. You will not know how you saved me from despair. But you will live in my memories forever, Harry Potter…" §

Saying her peace, she looked sadly at the child who had given her so much, taught her so much before she steeling her heart. And with a last look at both of them, she flapped her strong wings and flew away into the ravine, disappearing at the turn, leaving behind two beings with no memories of their times spent together.

When Dobby would wake in a few seconds, he would find his Harry Potter sir on the ground and he would wake him up sending him on his way struggling to remember how he had gotten to the ravine away from the castle.

And Harry…

Harry would return to the arena with a damaged broom and an echo of a name whispering in his mind.

'LENORA…'

-x-x-x-x-x-

~ Review please ~

Chapter Text

-x-x-x-x-x-

(2 May  1998  - The Forbidden Forest)

"I thought he would come," said Voldemort in his high, clear voice, his eyes on the leaping flames. "I expected him to come."

…

"I was, it seems… mistaken," said Voldemort.

"You weren't," Harry said as loudly as he could, with all the force he could muster: He did not want to sound afraid.

Just as the Ressurection stone was about to slip from between his numb fingers, a familiar feeling that he had forgotten so long ago let itself known. Not knowing the reason for it, but doing it anyway, he gently pushed the stone into his back pocket and out of the corner of his eyes saw the forms of his parents, Sirius, and Lupin vanish as he stepped forward into the firelight.

-x-x-x-x-x-

…Hands, softer than he had been expecting, touched Harry's face, pulled back an eyelid, crept beneath his shirt, down to his chest, and felt his heart. He could hear the woman's fast breathing, her long hair tickled his face. He knew that she could feel the steady pounding of life against his ribs.

"Is Draco alive? Is he in the castle?"

The whisper was barely audible, her lips were an inch from his ear, her head bent so low that her long hair shielded his face from the onlookers.

"Yes," he breathed back.

- Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows

He felt the hand on his chest contract: her nails pierced him. Then it was withdrawn. She sat up.

It is fascinating how one instant can change one's whole life in a matter of seconds. How it can devour the destiny of those close enough to be caught in the storm. How one person…held in their grasp the very shatter point of the world.

Ever since her birth, Narcissa Malfoy formerly Black had known nothing but prejudice. Not that she had ever considered it as such. Been raised as the youngest daughter of Cygnus and Druella Black (née Rosier), she was taught the philosophy of blood purity from a young age and regaled by the stories of how the unworthy had stolen the magic of their ancestors to become a mimicry of what the lords of old once had been.

Between the eldest, Bellatrix, and her mother, she really had stood no chance to come out of the quagmire of prejudiced opinions and violent tendencies even when Andromeda, the second daughter of her parents, had attempted, time and again, to cajole her corroding thoughts away from the principles their parents had chiselled into them from the very beginning.

Calling Andromeda, a mudblood lover, having married the love of her life, Theodore Tonks, Narcissa had broken any and all contact with her in her later years, unknowingly closing the only door for salvation that she would have in her life.

So now, when she saw the half-blood Potter scion lying beside her, feigning his death, all so he could pounce on a chance, having told her that her son, the boy she loved more than life itself was alive, it was not gratefulness that she felt, but fury. Fury brought forth by the past harsh years her family had had to endure the tortures of their master, their own lives in peril, and having lost all respect in the eyes of their peers.

She did not see that the Potter boy had saved Draco from death on occasions, even risking his own life sometimes. But she saw the reason for her loving boy to have faced the deadly encounters all on his own in the first place.

Here was one chance for her to get all that was lost to her.

Her family will rise once more.

Her son will have the respect that Malfoys once held in the eyes of the wizarding world.

"He is alive!" Narcissa Malfoy cried at the watchers.

And then all hell broke loose.

-x-x-x-x-x-

(13 May  2010  – Ruins of Hogwarts Castle)

"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry.

"Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does… I am the true master of the Elder Wand." Harry bluffed, knowing full well that the death stick did not owe him its allegiance. Death had told him as much.

A red-glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light hit both of their faces at the same time so that Voldemort's was suddenly a flaming blur. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he too yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing his phoenix-feathered wand:

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Coracis!"

The bang was like a cannon blast and the golden flames that erupted between them, at the dead centre of the circle they had been treading, marked the point where the spells collided. Harry saw Voldemort's killing curse meet his own spell, green battling red.

The beads that had once been the symbols of their matched wands were nowhere to be seen, having lost their purpose as soon as Harry had destroyed his nemesis' yew wand in a nasty duel a year or so back.

The bastard had not grown any weaker in the slightest ever since their last clash. Not that Harry had expected it. Lord Voldemort had within his grasp the very essence of his magic, controlled and powerful.

But then again, Harry had become more than what he once had been nearly twelve years ago when he had cheated death by the slightest of margin in the Forbidden Forest during the Battle of Hogwarts.

The years hadn't been kind on him, but he had remained strong even in the face of insurmountable odds. With the amount of control he had on his magic, he had single-handedly taken upon more than a few of the lieutenants that the Dark Lord was in the habit of sending after him.

None, not even the formidable Lestrange brothers had been able to down him. He had out-duelled them two on one and had only left them alive enough to answer the questions the Resistance desperately needed answered.

His magic was powerful, his spirit strong and after years of battling the war that had shook their realm, his will was iron. Unbent and Rigid.

It didn't matter that he could not match the beast duelling him spell for spell. It didn't matter that he could not still come close to the powerhouse that was Lord Voldemort. It didn't matter that he was alone, in the ruins, while his enemy had his forces behind him, the forces he had thinned to but a mere dozen before coming here, as they all looked at him with a mix of fearful and hungry gaze.

It didn't matter because one look at the pulsing black stone that sat within the black ring on his finger and he knew…He knew that victory would be his tonight.

He had everything he could to rid the world of his soul-jars. Even the pet snake the pale bastard tend to keep at his side after his failed attack at Hogwarts all those years ago had been finished off by Ron and Hermione and the last of the Resistance just a few minutes before. Even though he wasn't there, the look of unadulterated terror on the face of his nemesis had been enough for him to know that the Resistance had been successful in their mission. It was a memory he was going to cherish even if he ended up in the hellish pits of the damned.

But there was still one that remained. The one the bastard had created after the Battle of Hogwarts using some poor soul whom they hadn't been able to evacuate when the Death Eater's had come calling.

Seeing the deaths of so many children that night…it had broken something within him. Narcissa Malfoy had been his first conscious kill that night. The one he had meant to kill from the bottom of his heart. Everyone else that had fallen to his wand that night had just been the victim of his righteous fury.

That one soul-jar had been the thing the Resistance had been hunting for years now. The one he knew they would never be able to find now. Not in the time frame they had anyway.

The war had dragged on for more than a decade now. Countless lives had been lost to fight one megalomaniac who was hell-bent on subjugating half the world's population through murder.

The muggles had finally put their foot down.

Kingsley had just gotten word from their spy within muggle Prime Minister's aid that a decision had been made to cut their losses and eradicate the vermins who were responsible for killing countless of her majesty's legitimate citizens.

It would have been good news if the definition of vermin in the meeting hadn't involved all the magicals living in the British Isles.

Harry had scoffed when Kingsley had shown him the report from the spy. The fucking Pope had even been consulted. The mouldy old preacher of peace had heavy-heartedly given his acquiesce as though he had ever had any authority over the magicals.

Fucking heretics.

What had hit him though, were the actions of his fellow magicals.

The I.C.W. had denied their requests for help after the matter had reached muggle ears stating that since the muggles were now in the loop and as hundreds of muggle lives had already been lost, their involvement would put every nation under their purview at risk.

What a load of shit!

But it had opened up the flood gates of denials from every single party they had contacted. The Ministries of Magic all over the world had given much the same response, give or take a few.

The French had helped some, so had the MACUSA but when trade sanctions had been imposed upon them, their help had vanished without so much as a by your leave.

It had been made clear to them, they were all on their own.

Kingsley had managed to convince the Minister for a reprieve of forty-eight hours to mount one last operation. One last hope for thousands of survivors hiding all over the isles, waiting…waiting for the monster's days to end.

But even then Harry knew, it had been a foolish hope.

Without the last Horcrux, there would always be someone who could and would bring him back to commit atrocities again. And then there will not be any reprieve from the people who had been burning their kind at the stakes for centuries.

And so, it all came down to here and now.

And the price of the victory. One price too much. But a price he would pay without shedding a tear. For they were his people. His family.

The green jet battling his own red thrusted its corroding naturing towards him as the wand in his hand vibrated with the sudden surge. It didn't matter now. The end was near. And it would be upon him before his people reached him…before he got to see their faces one last time.

Dismissing the thought, he gripped the knife in his hand by the edge and slit his palm, opening a large gash in the middle. The drops of his life-brew spilt over the grass where Astonomy's tower had once stood like the final beats of a dying heart.

Before the Killing curse could gain more power from the superior wand, gaining even more strength from the no doubt fuming Dark Lord, Harry did the unthinkable.

With a slash, he abruptly broke the connection of his magic with his wand and immediately rolled to his side to avoid the curse coming at him.

"Realised your folly, have you Potter!" snarled Voldemort. "No matter. The angel of mercy will not touch your soul tonight. Your end, my beginning…it is upon us."

"Avada…"

Before the dark lord could utter the spell, Harry struck. His bloodied hand painted the stone on his finger and inside his robes where lay the cloak of invisibility with its crimson essence and he intoned with all his intent and will thrusted into one single spell. "ORCUS COHEREO!"

The cloak and stone surged to life in an instant. Their smooth surfaces glowing with an eerie light as they sucked on his magic like thirsty carnivores.

Harry, prepared though he was for what was to come, still gasped and fell to his knees and felt the powerful tug at his core, signalling him that the connection had been established by the spell. The spell he had earned in his bargain with Death.

'Any moment now,' he thought, desperately, looking at the moving world as if in slow motion.

It happened just as the Dark Lord was about to spit the last syllabus of his favoured spell.

"…Kedav…AHHHHHHHH…." A high pitched scream left Lord Voldemort's throat as his body began to burn in terrible agony. He stumbled backwards clutching at his pale hands, attempting to wrench away the wand from his hands.

Having the most intimate connection with his own magic as he did, Voldemort could feel the wand somehow sucking it from his core at a worrying rate even with his attempts to sever its connection forcefully.

The resurrection ritual had given him a body, true, but it had been a magical construct in its truest sense. From the tissue and bone to the smallest of nerve endings, it had been the work of the necromantic magic he had found deep in the caves that had once been the harsh lands outside the Nile Valley, the kingdom of Egyptian god Set.

Voldemort knew, instinctively, that his core would not be sufficient to end the hunger of the Stick of Destiny. His body would soon follow.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE POTTER!" he shouted, frothing at the mouth even as his efforts to rid himself of the wand continued to fail.

Hearing the screams of his most hated enemy, a vicious smile bloomed on his face. 'It worked!' Harry cried inwardly.

Knowing the time was of the essence, he touched his wand tip onto the ground beneath his feet and cast with all his might.

"Terra Diffringo!"

His magic spread within the ground like a parchment soaking water. And the result was as spectacular as it had been the first time he had cast the spell. A tug of war ensued between the spell and the Hallow on his finger as both tried to lay claim to his magic.

Harry knew the struggle would not last long. No matter the power requirements of the earth spell, it had nothing on the Hallow. His only chance was to take advantage of the few seconds it gave him.

All around him the very earth lurched with a purpose as it shook with a cataclysmic force, ripping apart stone, tearing the layers beneath with sickening cracks just as the Dark Lord's forces stumbled along with their master. Multiple crevices appeared all around the area perfusing with his magic. Dark hollow innards showed themselves to the butchers as though the open maws of a beast, reminding them of their end.

A rift opened up right below the left flank and swallowed seven of Voldemort's followers deep within its recesses, their screams echoing in the chasms frightening many who lingered nearby. Two from the right followed the same end as the ground beneath them gave away.

Harry, though, was already on the move. An upward heave from his wand and wide barriers of stone grew from the torn ground between him and his opponent even as he leapt towards the nearest one to close the distance.

Deadly curses and Hexes passed him by as the few Death Eaters who had gained their balance attempted to catch him despite their master's instructions before he reached any closer than he already had. It surprised him that they had understood, if only partially, what his goal was. He had been under the impression that the Resistance had picked off all the Death Munchers who had more than a few brain cells to command the forces. It seemed he had been mistaken.

But it wouldn't make even the tiniest bit of difference tonight.

A dodge to the left, a roll forwards, sidestep to avoid the familiar pink hue of the dark variant of a gouging spell and he was off towards another barrier.

Just a couple more steps now.

He shielded himself from the arcs of lightning that came towards him, his blue shield fading away as soon as the attack stopped. He continued to move regardless, stumbling along the way as the earth-spell continued to leech off the magic from his core.

One more stone barrier left.

"Confringo!" He cried deflecting an exploding curse to his right with one of his own.

Swatting aside two bone breakers and an entrails expelling curse, he leapt towards the stable ground ahead and broke into a run, watching from the corner of his eyes as a few black figures attempted to flank his left, trying to hit him from behind.

'Honourless Cowards.'

"Expulso!" Harry shouted, throwing the blue jet to his left and a split second later gave another heave from his wand to the heavens without even looking at his attackers.

The wizards who hadn't fallen into the crevice and were taking potshots at him from behind cover jumped back to avoid the blasting curse just as the stone spears from the ground speared their bodies rising from the ground as Harry's second spell struck.

Heaving breaths and a large dip in his magic told him that he had little time.

'Protego Duo!' He conjured a reflective shield at his front and rammed the last few meters to his opponent with a roar that shook the heavens.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH…." He thundered. Pushing himself to the very edge if it meant he could end this nightmare tonight.

The stumbling Dark Lord now within his grasping distance, he let the shield fall. He didn't need protection tonight. Tonight, he would meet the monster head-on.

A shout from behind alerted the struggling Voldemort of his presence. "MY LORD!"

It did him no good.

Harry was onto him before he could do anything other than lift his wand a bare inch.

"Oh, come on, Tom... Let's finish it the way we started it…" Harry whispered harshly gripping Voldemort's wand arm in an iron grip, "…Together!" and jumped into the open crevice connecting to the endless chasm that had once been The Black Lake.

A scream echoed from the edge of the fields.

"HARRY!"

Hermione's cry reached far, but not far enough for Harry to return to her.

The Resistance had arrived with his two best friends leading the charge as they joined in the fight against the remaining Death Eaters.

Seeing her best friend fall to his death pulling with him their enemy was enough to jolt them all into action.

But none realised except perhaps her that they had seen the last of Harry Potter. At least, until they joined him in the next great adventure.

-x-x-x-x-x-

The proximity of the two items of power, channelling magic from the cores of two of the most powerful wizards of the century was a phenomenon none had ever witnessed before.

Until now.

It started with an echo of a scream.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHH…AAAAHHHHHHHHHH…"

The two forms falling melded together as the Hallows extracted the price that Harry had set upon himself and the man who had taken everything from him when he had intoned the powerful spell to connect their cores with the accursed items.

The Deathly Hallows. Despite being three different items of power said to have been given to the wizards by death itself, they were one unit. Capable of so much more than even the most power-hungry wizard could have ever dreamt possible.

But none, not even the original holders of the Hallows had ever realised this truth.

Until one did and used it to eradicate the evil who had marred his life with endless pain.

Harry felt himself fall with a sense of detachment. He knew the spell on him core was still active. He could feel the stone on his finger and the cloak in his pocket pulling it out of him even now. One look at the panicking face of his enemy and he knew the same was true for him as well.

"WE WILL BOTH DIE, POTTER!" the madman screamed as the howling wind muffled his words. "END THE SPELL! END IT! NOW!"

Harry simply continued to clutch his robes with all his strength and looked at him amusedly. "No," he quipped even as a scream tore through his own throat, the beginning of his end, setting in. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH…"

"CURSE YOU, POTTER! CURSE YO….AGGGHHHHHH…"

Fire, hungry and all-consuming fire erupted from within their bodies as their cores finally depleted.

All too soon the feeling of falling dimmed to a standstill and he saw with a satisfied if a bit tired smile the last remnants of the monster that had taken away his parents being consumed by the fire take away with it the wand of destiny.

A heaviness settled upon him and he gave himself to the embrace of darkness that was pulling him towards his end.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Burning…It had a distinctly different feel to it than anything he had ever felt before. The way his flesh sizzled and melted right before his eyes. The smell of it…his screams…his very life being lifted out of his body. He could feel every second of it. Could see it as if he was an outsider, watching his body being scorched asunder. It was almost easy at this point, despite the pain involved, to let go.

And so he did, surrendering himself to the pull that was calling him from the beyond.

A mind-shattering scream seemed to echo in the abyss as he felt himself being wrenched by an invisible force. He felt a forceful jerk and suddenly his essence veered upwards pulling him along. Time lost all meaning as the journey seemed to go on forever. Up towards the heavens he went as though he were a passenger of some force he had no understanding of.

It took some time to realise that the echoing screams he was hearing were coming from his own throat, not that it helped him any. He had no control over anything anymore. Nothing he could do or rather wished he could do seemed to change anything in this place. Minutes, hours, days, blended in together. Where was he? What was happening? Was this it? The afterlife. The great next adventure that Dumbledore seemed to prattle on and on about. Didn't seem like much, did it? At least the screams had stopped. Or was it just him? Wasn't he the one who had been screaming?

The black streams of nothingness touched him and backed away repeatedly as if in the rhythm of breathing of some gargantuan beast. There was nothing here but constantly flowing black miasma that he couldn't even touch. His body, if he could call the translucent blob that, was flowing through the stream along with a multitude of other things that he couldn't name nor understand.

The pain that had settled within him pulsed continuously as though playing a part in a cruel symphony. His essence contorted, shifting in the nothingness as the cold abyss started to affect him with its corroding touch.

Hands, thousands of them, tried to hold him down, keep him with them, as they had so many before. He cried sharply when he felt something bite him with its sharp and jagged teeth despite having no physical form.

He remembered losing his magic. He remembered everything that had happened in the span of a few hours. But why then did he feel his magic spreading around him, consuming every soul that had tried to trap him just now.

Pain…An all-consuming pain erupted within him as his magic connected him to every soul that had touched his essence.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH…."

"Help us…Help us chosen one…Save us…why won't you heed our calls…Save us from this pain…SAVE US!"

"AAAAHHHHHHH…"

It was all too much. Too much for him to handle. No one could hold onto that much pain and still have their sanity.

"STOP!" Harry cried. "STOP!"

"…Save us…why won't you save us…Save us from this pain…HELP US!"

"LEAVE ME!" His anguished, his pleas getting drowned by the souls.

"Peace, little one."

And just like that, silence, blessed silence rained upon him bathing him with its calm serenity and took away all the pain that had set upon him by the desperate souls.

"Follow my voice….Come to me…I am waiting…"

His eyes opened in the same black abyss as he heard the enchanting voice. It was familiar. Like a forgotten song he could remember listening but not the melody that went with it.

A whisper of a name niggled at the back of his mind but he was unable to grasp it no matter how hard he tried. It was like an itch inside his very skin.

A mesmerising white light burst forth from above him and warmth spread through his being, washing away all his worries. And once more, Harry Potter gave into the embrace of the unknown.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It was the sound of hooves that woke him from the most peaceful sleep he had ever gotten in his life. The rhythmic clip-clops of the footfalls fell on his ears like the most bizarre melody he had never heard before.

It was surprisingly soothing.

Harry sat up groggily, looking around with a sense of awe, astounded by what he was seeing.

Wherever he was, this place…It was breathtaking.

Whether it was after sunset, or before sunrise, he didn't know. But the light from the sky appeared diffused and pinkish, colouring the surroundings with its hue and serenity. The sun was below the horizon, but its rays were scattered by the atmosphere that imprinted on the twinkling stars shining above.

Just as his eyes caught sight of them, a lone star shimmered into existence and brought with it the curse of his memories.

Harry scrambled to his feet clutching his head as he tried to steady himself on the mossy grass hill. The images of his life flashed before him, reminding of all that he had left behind and all that he had saved.

It took him but a scant few moments to make sense of it all but understanding finally bloomed within him.

His lips quirked up in a sad smile as he looked at the sun once more.

It had lost some of its brilliance. Perhaps not in reality, but it seemed dull to him all the same in the presence of the truth. Maybe it was the transcendence? Or whatever that had happened to him.

Death hadn't been much clear on the issue when he had given him the spell that connected all the Hallows with the wizards' cores.

"I wasn't, was I?" a deep sound interrupted his musings forcing him to pause in his introspection.

Harry turned and found himself not the least bit surprised to see the being coming towards him.

He was a grey man, tall with broad shoulders as they held the two ends of a dark cape hanging behind him wafting with the winds as he walked. His skin was like porcelain, unmarred and stilting. On his head sat a crown, golden and shining embedded with gems of various colours and sizes.

But it was not his appearance but the powerful aura surrounding him that demanded respect.

Harry turned his back to the man to once more look at the twilight sky even as the man continued walking towards him beside a grey horse in tow with its reins in his hands as he guided his steed along his path.

Death.

That is what he had called himself when he had met him before.

And as in life, Harry wasn't even the least bit afraid of his presence, powerful or not.

When his footfalls came near enough for Harry to hear him and his trotting horse, the being stood watching him, silently. Waiting.

Harry said nothing. Content with watching the scene in front of him.

A sigh escaped Death's lips. "I see you're still the same."

"You expected the end of my life would change who I am?" Harry countered.

"Change? Perhaps not. But troubled with querries, certainly." Death replied softly nudging his horse with a pat to his long neck to give them some privacy.

Harry simply smiled without turning. "Would it change what happened?"

When Death remained silent, he spoke once more. "I thought as much…The only questions I have are the ones you will give me anyway. I know you enough to believe that you are a being of your word, and you gave your word to me. For now…that is enough. It has been many years since I have felt this, this free. I think I will enjoy it for a while longer."

With that, Harry began to walk away. Ten, thirty, fifty yards ahead over the peak of the hill, he stopped and sat beside the grazing horse without a sound. It was peaceful.

And he could do with some peace now that he wasn't among the living.

-x-x-x-x-x-

'They will know what you have done, little one…' A voice whispered.

'They have magic you have yet to learn and with intentions are dark as their own…they will stop at nothing if they find something amiss to hunt you down.'

His body shuffled in his sleep as echoes of the past he had forgotten continued to barge into his mind.

'You will live in my memories forever, Harry Potter…'

Harry woke up with a start, sweating profusely even as the cold air on the hill on his spot breathed him back to consciousness.

It had happened, again.

The voice…that hauntingly beautiful voice had penetrated his mind again just as it had been doing for what felt like a really long time now.

Maybe next time he would remember who she was and why she seemed so important.

He had a lot of time to figure out the mystery anyway.

-x-x-x-x-x-

'A rumbling sound came from her throat as she laughed? Our hides are much stronger than yours, little one. It was barely a scratch. she said as her tongue licked a scale near the centre of her body.'

'To have the courage to do what is right not what is easy is the bedrock of what makes you a champion, little one…'

"The dream troubles you still?" a voice asked from behind.

Harry sighed and rubbed his face with his hands and turned partially to look at Death. "You ask as if you do not know the answers I am looking for," he answered with a piercing gaze but with quirked lips that took away the heat from his words.

"Perhaps I wish for you to find the truth for yourself?" Death returned, looking far away into the orange sky.

Harry shook his head. "I do not require another puzzle, my friend."

A small smile came to Death's grey face as he heard the endearment. It had been a long time since he'd had any friend. It felt…pleasing, even for someone like him, to hear a soul call him a friend.

Not many had the strength to accept his harsh reality.

But the man sitting at his front had not taken much time to get accustomed to it. And his fate had been harsher than any other who had passed his hallow lands.

"How does the world fair?" Harry asked, bringing Death back from his thoughts.

"Your people are safe, Harry. They have recovered. Your friends have even brought a new life into the world below. We discussed this earlier, remember?" Death chided gently.

"I do," Harry nodded, his lips forming a genuine smile at the reminder of Ron and Hermione's second daughter.

He had never seen them, he couldn't, for such was the existence in limbo. But he knew all about them. Had never failed to ask Death about their lives during their talks most evenings. He was happy for his friends. And his people. "I just…I just wish…" he trailed off, shaking his head at the unreasonable thought that had sprung to his mind.

Death, though, had seen his thoughts on his face before he could hide it. "You wish you could live again. Be among them for the joyous times as you were during the struggles," he stated.

Harry turned back and stared into the horizon that carried in its womb the never-setting sun. There was a time, he knew, when he would have tried to deny it. But he had learnt to accept things since then. "I do," he repeated.

Silence settled upon the hill as the two friends sat beside each other, merely enjoying each other's company.

Death pondered over many things during these peaceful moments they shared. Though he had plenty of duties, countless souls needing to be ferried from the living just being one of them, he always came to see Harry on the hill he had decided to call his own.

It was a sight to behold, the courage of this man. If Death had the luxury of it, or if the circumstances hadn't about to become dire, he would have liked to forget about the bargain he had made with him during the wizard's time of need.

But the world needed warriors. And that is what Harry was. A warrior through and through.

And though it pained him to ask for his payment, he would, because the other world in his domain would crumble to ashes if he chose the path of cowardice despite its own prophecy of a chosen one written in The Word. The only writ by the creator they all had to follow. Even beings like him.

Death knew Harry's world would bloom to become the pinnacle of human achievement in the centuries that would follow. The struggles of his people and his own sacrifice had made sure of that. He had seen it with his very eyes.

But there were trials still left for other souls in worlds beyond. Trials where countless souls would perish without a lancer to cut through the evil that plagued their lands.

Death looked at his side to see the content visage of the wizard who had accepted the end he had received. It was commendable. But it was also untrue. His was a life that was far from an end.

It was more than a few moments later before Death broke the peaceful quiet.

"It is time, Harry."

Harry stilled at those words, instantly realising what Death meant. A few moments passed before the tension in his shoulders eased and he released a deep sigh. "Has it been that long?" he asked in a tone that could not hide his sadness.

"It has been more than a few years, my friend." Death replied gently.

He nodded in respect more than anything. Harry knew that he wouldn't grow old, or even age now that he had accepted the burden that his actions had forced him to take. Not that he wouldn't have done what was required of him.

The spell that ended his enemy's days had had far-reaching consequences than he had previously realised.

The Master of Death.

Harry scoffed remembering the title wizards had given to the one who could gather all three Deathly Hallows.

Knowing the stupidity of an average wizard, he should have realised it far sooner than he had.

The three items of power were a part of Death. And nothing that mortals could ever wield without losing themselves in the process.

Voldemort had thought himself the master of Elder wand. Hunh. The Elder wand had only one master and he was sitting right beside Harry at this very moment lost in the thoughts, probably pondering problems a bit more cosmic in nature.

Harry remembered his final moments when he had connected his core with the essence residing within the resurrection stone and the cloak of invisibility. He didn't know it then, but an imbalance had been created in the powers that were meant to keep the balance. The similar essence of power residing in the Elder wand had done the only thing it could to fill the void that had been created by his meddling.

It had sought out a connection of its own. Voldemort's magic.

And so had ended the threat to his world.

Death hadn't taken much time to recover what was his the moment both of their souls arrived in the beyond. Absorbing the powers within the items, he had banished the soul of one Tom Marvolo Riddle to join the damned in the pits below and had brought Harry here.

To Death's domain.

The domain of King Angvard. Ruler of the perished souls.

Harry wasn't impressed, well, not much anyway.

His friend didn't have much of the arrogance that came with the title, perhaps it was just him, but Death didn't seem to behave much like a king around him either.

It was…refreshing. To see a being of such power with such humility.

Feeling Death's stare upon him, he relented the threads of his errant thoughts. He knew he was stalling. It seemed his friend had realised it as well.

"I gave you my word," Harry voiced, "I will not turn back on it."

"You will not be able to see your loved ones for a very long time, Harry. I do not say this to be cruel, I merely wish for you to understand what the journey would entail," said the King solemnly.

"But they will be waiting for me when I return?" Harry asked with hope lingering in his voice.

"I believe I shall answer this as your mother once did. Your loved ones never really leave you, my friend. They will always be with you, there," Death said pointing a delicate finger at his heart.

Harry swallowed thickly, touched by the words and the whisper of a promise they carried in his tone.

"And what of the truth you wished for me to find," he asked more to gain time to control the upheaval of emotions the words had caused within him.

For the first time since Harry had ever known him, Death smirked. "You will know it soon enough."

As soon as the words left his lips, Harry felt a familiar pull at his being that had carried him away once before.

The mesmerising white light burst forth from above him just as it had once before and warmth spread through his being, washing away all his worries.

And just as he had then, Harry Potter gave into its embrace once more.

-x-x-x-x-x-

~ Review please ~

Chapter Text

-x-x-x-x-x-

The Spine, a range of untamed mountains extending up and down the land of Alagaësia was a magnificent example of nature at its most raw. Though carrying on its edges more than a few villages that supported themselves on the game found within its thick forests, it also nurtured in its womb a few bloodthirsty races of beings who butchered and killed for their merriment.

It was a balance that had been maintained by the years of struggle and mediation by various parties both within and without.

Suffice to say it was not a place for the weak of heart or those who could not defend themselves from the perils of the clustered thickets or what they contained.

Filled with a cacophony of gargantuan trees, ivy and mossy plant life, the spine was most certainly a cursed dwelling.

Especially on an evening like tonight.

Thundering booms roared in the sky above as the lightning clashed between the angered clouds, drenching the wildlife with pouring rain. The animals usually found on the prowl were nowhere to be seen, as though by a pact, having decided to burrow in their homes.

High above in the heavens stood the Utgard Mountain, unreachable, unflinching, defending the southern villages with the wrath of wind and lightning.

Closer and closer the storm arrived at the lone clearing in the eastern Spine, bathing the grassy flats and the stone caves with mountains of water until it was upon it.

A piercing flash seared through the clouds and with a thunderclap, a bolt of lightning struck a cave with the forces of thousands of stampeding animals.

The cave mouth lit up not with fire, but with a brilliant white light that could not be seen if one was not standing at the mouth of the cave and looking straight at it.

The surrounding fauna submitted to the will of those high above and shielded the cave from prying eyes as the final rays of white light began to fade away, leaving behind somethings or someones to the mercy of their hosts.

And as though having served its purpose, the storm faded away from whence it had come, leaving the world below with the gifts, it had brought with it.

-x-x-x-x-x-

His eyes flickered open as the steady dripping sounds of water on stone trickled down to form an obstructive rhythm on the floor. All around him was a thin layer of water drenching his front with its cold wet touch.

He hauled himself up on his weak knees and attempted to clear out the mist fogging his mind. He felt lethargic, unbalanced for some reason.

With a heave, he stood up, swaying a little even as the strength came back to his limbs in little spurts. A strange scratching noise drew his attention to his surroundings.

He was in a cave, surrounded by a faint glow of the stones embedded in its walls. But that did not tell him much. There were plenty of caves from where he had come from and more still with unmined stones of wealth.

Taking a deep breath, he attempted to settle his rampaging emotions. It seemed the ride here, back among the living, had been a bit more challenging than he had thought.

There were no clothes on his body for one and for another, his senses could not feel the world around as they used to.

A glint from his finger caught his attention and he saw the familiar onyx ring on his finger along with the small black gem that he had carried with him for so long sitting within its crevice. Death had never asked him to return the stone ever since he had removed the power from within its recesses and Harry had never had the thought of removing the ring from his hand.

That the ring had followed him in his journey… It was…odd, to say the least.

Shaking his head he began to walk around, looking for something, anything that could clue him in as to where his friend had sent him to repay the debt.

He checked every nook, every cranny for a sliver of any kind of hint that he might have been gracious enough to leave for him, but nothing was to be found.

It irked him somewhat.

“Well, at least no one has tried to kill me yet…” He spoke out loud and was surprised by how rasped his voice sounded even to his own ears.

He knew that beings like his friend – not that there were many who still lived – could not divulge certain secrets to the common ears, but to have sent him here, in what appeared to be a stranded cave without the touch of the world outside, well, debt or not, he wasn’t much pleased.

His green eyes studied his surroundings with the gaze of a hunter and found a crevice that seemed to be hiding within the shadows.

Having nowhere else to go, he sighed, it seemed he’d have to travel bare to get where his friend wished for him to go.

In a dark, gloomy cave, below the mighty Utgard Mountain, Harry Potter took his first steps towards the new life he had been asked to live and entered the crevice.

-x-x-x-x-x-

“Ugh…” Harry grunted feeling the jagged rocks on the floor cut into his already bleeding feet for the umpteenth time.

He had been walking more or less continuously for what he believed had to be close to a full day now. The crevice that had taken him further inside the cave had been the opening for a path that continued for as long as his eyes could see. And when he had finally reached the end, it had shifted to the right giving way to another long corridor that was similarly filled with sharp stones and mossy algae on the floor and roof.

It didn’t help the matters that ever since he had gained consciousness he could not call upon even a trickle of his magic from within him when he felt it churning in his bones and beneath his skin just as before. No matter the lack of focus, he knew his own magic and had called upon it plenty of times without the aid of his wand. Not being able to get in touch with his own magic…

It scared him.

The possibility of losing the ability to wield his magic by whatever or wherever Death had sent him was not something he could easily digest.

And thus, he was trying to keep his mind off of theory for as long as he could.

But that did nothing to help him with his current situation. With no magic to call upon, he could not conjure clothing for himself nor could protect his body from any predator that might be living within the cave, as unlikely as it was. He had been inside the massive labyrinth for some time now, and he hadn’t heard or felt the presence of a single creature besides himself. He was hungry, thirsty and without clothes, a state he hadn’t been in for a very, very long time.

An old memory of his days in his cupboard surfaced in his mind and he banished it as quickly as it could. It would not help him to dwell in the hurts of the past. He had to get to a shelter.  

There was another end visible to him a further hundred yards or so ahead but he wasn’t holding his breath for it to be the last one. The cunning cave had fooled him before.

With a tired sigh, Harry put one hurt foot in front of the other and moved towards what was possibly just another disappointment.

That belief was challenged the next moment when the sounds of a burble of the falling water stopped him short. It was faint, but it was there! The gurgle of sloshing water as though hitting upon the stone with a fierce strike was audible to his sharp ears even from where he stood.

Minding the wounds on his feet, he increased his pace and jogged towards the sounds of rippling water on what sounded like another body of water.

He reached the stone wall that had looked like the end of the cavernous corridor and just as he turned to see past it, he was rewarded with the sight of blue shining water cascading down the stony stalactites onto the pool below.

“At last…” Harry released a relieved breath.

In seven quick strides, he was crouched by the pool, sparing a moment to wash his hands, before he gulped down the clean water as his life depended on it.

After a whole minute of guzzling down the delicious liquid, Harry lifted his head and got the first look at his face ever since he had arrived in this world.

A muscular, thick bearded face marred with dirt and grime of the travel looked back at him with hauntingly piercing green eyes.

He had suspected it, but hadn’t really bought the truth when Death had told him about it. His face…it was exactly the same as it had been all those years ago. Not a single crease or wrinkle having marred it during all this time.

The bitter truth stung when Death’s words echoed in his ears.

‘You’re ageless, my friend. Mortals cannot be the vessels of power within the Hallows and not be affected. They had my very essence in their cores and you were channelling two of the items of power, a change was bound to occur.’

“Change…” Harry said out loud, his tone carrying the bitterness of his emotions.

What use was his youthful visage when everyone he had loved or could ever love would sooner or later fade away before his very eyes when he remained the same. Unchanged.

Harry forcefully stopped his corroding thoughts from further gripping his mind and splashed his face with the cool, calming water.

It was after he was done washing the dirt and grime from his face and washing the cuts and bleeding wounds on the soles of his feet did he see the entirety of the cavern he had found himself within.

It was, well, there was no other word for it, humongous!

Stone pillars growing from the very foundations of the floor reached mountainous heights with some even going so far up that he could barely crane his neck to see where they ended. Thick vines entangled itself in spirals all the way towards their reach as though covering the stone’s nakedness.

It was nature’s marvel as he was sure, no human could ever carve out this beautiful creation with their hands or even the tools they carried.

Turning towards the mouth of the crevice where he had just entered from he saw the wall above the entrance was covered with the same ridges and ivies that the stone pillars had reaching similar heights just as the pillars supporting the cavity.

It was as he saw the entire structure did he realise that apart from taking his chances under the water where there must be an exit out to the world considering the water pooling on the ground had remained at the same level, his only other way was to climb either the wall or a pillar close enough to it if he wished to see the sunlight once more.

As he was considering both the options a small stone fell from far above and splashed into the pool of water creating ripples that touched his feet where he stood at its very edge.

Since there really was no way for him to know how deep from the surface the opening within the water pool was he walked steadily towards the pillar on the right corner which was growing alongside the back wall of the cave.

Wrapping the thick ivy around his waist a couple of times, in case he slipped and using some moss and odd leaves to hide his modesty as best as he could, Harry put one foot on a small indent in the pillar and began the steep climb.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It was the sounds of gusts of wind and a low growl echoing right above him that broke his focus he had been keeping ever since he had begun the climb.

The steep ascent he had been forced to do had been one of the most physically challenging trials he’d ever had to undergo in his life.

The ridges and ivy that had seemed like his friendly companions when the climb began had turned out to be tricky imps with the way they disappeared or merged with the stone on the way for quite a few meters on end.

The ivy he had used to wrap around his waist had become heavy after three or four hundred feet of the climb and he’d had to sever it by using a jagged edge of a rock jutting out of the stone pillar.

He wasn’t ashamed to admit that fear had gripped his heart when he’d had to climb without any sort of safety by using the cave wall and the stone pillar as two ends to pull himself up. He had slipped, more than once, but had thankfully managed to recover with only minor scrapes to show for it.

If there was a moment when he was missing the familiar touch of his magic between his fingers, it had to have been then when he was almost certain that he would be seeing his friend sooner than both of them had wished.

But through sheer force of will and his own strength, he had finally caught hold of a stray ivy hanging near his position and continued his journey by using it as a lever.

He had found an opening to rest where the cave wall had almost joined the stone pillar to form a horizontal platform. Harry had gotten some much-needed sleep while using it as a sitting dais.

Dreams of the familiar hauntingly beautiful voice had woken him up with a start he had just the time to grab onto the pillar he was using before his momentum carried him to his death.

Breathing deeply to calm his rapidly beating heart, harry had put aside the words of urgency the female voice had spoken in his dreams and continued his trek ahead.

A few hundred feet from where he had stopped to rest, he had made an amazing discovery.

On a similar platform where another opening from the cave wall met the pillar, a small hole from above was leaking water on the platform and birthed a life.

A large smile had bloomed on his face when he had found the rough textured, round, dwarf green leaves on a lone stem growing out of the opening of the cave wall.

Dittany.

The powerful healing herb and restorative used to treat wounds and a few other maladies.

Aside from his need of the restorative in his current predicament, the reason for his smile had been something far, far more important.

The presence of the plant meant that all his fears and doubts had been pointless.

This world had magic!

And judging by how the plant had grown without having to be nurtured as he knew plants of such nature required to be, the surroundings must be positively suffusing with magical essence.

With a delighted glee, he had carefully cut two branches of leaves from the stem leaving half an inch of the branch as was proper to let the leaves regrow. Tearing the moss from the stone pillar and hollowing a thick vine with his hands to make a pack for the supplies, he had dropped all the leaves within it save for two.

Despite not having an intimate knowledge of magical fauna as many of the healers in his world did, Harry was more than familiar with most of the magical herbs and how they could be used. Especially the herbs used in healing draughts and potions, having been served as a dummy for the healers during the war for more times than he cared to admit.

And thus he knew that in addition to Dittany's essence being applied topically, the raw plant could be consumed to heal one’s shallow to moderate wounds. Putting the two Dittany leaves clutched inside both his cheeks to cause the healing saliva to mend the wounds from within, Harry had begun his climb with more enthusiasm than he had before.

He had come across two more similar plants and had taken the liberty of acquiring more leaves to add to his supplies. And every time his eye had caught sight of the magical plant, a smile had fought its way to his lips, filling him with the hope that he might not be as alone as he had first thought.

Another few feet after the last find, when he was sure that he had more than enough, he had stopped taking the leaves for the odd platforms and continued his climb with aplomb.

And that is how he came to be in his current predicament.

With his ivy pack on his waist and another thick vine wrapped around upper chest, he was hanging just below a massive platform where the rays of sunlight were shining through what appeared to him a few openings in the cave wall.

Just above his position where the edge of the platform and the stone pillar met, there were dried twigs and leaves arranged in a rough circle along with a few stray pieces of sizable bones that were sticking out with a little raw meat still attached to their ends.

All these things should have registered in his mind that he was dangling just below the lair of a carnivorous beast that could eat his raw without much trouble seeing as he didn’t even have a sharp stick to poke it in its eyes. But with the visible hope of an exit, the thought failed to pierce his conscious brain.

But what finally did the trick was seeing the vividly clear form of a snarling beast as it growled its displeasure at the large oval stone sitting in its nest innocently.

And a single look at the predator was enough to send his heart racing and get the analytical portion of the brain running at full speed again.

The beast resembled a giant serpent around twenty feet in length, with leathery wings similar to those he knew to be like dragons of his word, but much, much smaller. It had dappled green or brown scales that shone with a magnificent glow as the sunlight reflected off of them.

But what gave Harry a pause were its sharp talons and its jagged pointed teeth that were meant to tear into its prey with ferocious ease.

Hiding himself just below the ledge he attempted to minimize any sounds that might escape him lest the beast turn its attention towards his defenceless form.

Just as he was about to descend to look for another way to get to the opening above without having to go through the dangerous creature, a sound of a rolling stone made his ears twitch.

Something fierce, some echo of a lost memory touched at his consciousness and his eyes grew wide.

Harry was intimately familiar with his magic. He knew the way it flowed within his body. The way it felt just beneath his skin. Even with no way to channel it outside and feeling a block arresting him from reaching inwards to grab onto it, the memory tingled at his magical senses like nothing before had ever done since he had stepped foot into this world.

He did not know why, but unwilling to not heed the first call of his magic, Harry braved his heart and spied above the ledge with careful and slow movements.

A troubled frown came to his face as he attempted to understand what he was seeing.

Besides the dangerous-looking foe, the oval stone seemed somewhat of an oddity, not to mention the peculiarity of the actions of the beast itself.

The serpentine creature was using its snout to roll the perfectly smooth liquorice coloured stone to try and chuck it from the edge of the large platform.

Harry looked closely at the stone wondering whether there was something on it that had irked the beast somehow.

The stone looked hard, rigid by the sound it was making as it came in contact with the harsh stone floor. It had no groves or dents in it, which while something he had never seen in an ordinary rock of this size, was nothing that telling. The only thing Harry found a bit odd about it was the perfect shape of it and the smoothness of its surface.

But even that was not enough to know why it had bothered the enraged creature.

As the beast was rolling the stone an errant ray of light reflected off from the stone and his eyes caught the glint.

‘…you will live in my memories forever, Harry Potter…’

“Aaagh…” A sharp cry escaped his lips as the same beautiful voice whispered the forgotten words in his ears and he barely managed to keep his balance holding the ledge.

But the damage had been done.

A moment later, just as he was about to peek another glace to check whether he had been discovered, a high pitched screech like that of iron against iron burst in his ears and his hands left the left and clutched his ears to stop the murderous sound from blooding them.

His vision blurred and the echoing screech in his mind made it hard for him to think clearly.

The thick ivy that was holding him in place shook from something and when he attempted to look above him for the cause, his eyes flew open in fear as he saw the same ferocious beast that had just been on the cave platform, hanging from the same ivy that was keeping him afloat.

The slitted eyes of the creature watched him for a moment with their predatory gaze before its sharp talons started cutting the vine with swift motions.

Still struggling with the sudden attack and what he was starting to suspect had involved a mental one as well, Harry scrambled to untie the vine from around his waist as he held onto the ledge with one hand.

Harry saw the creature look at him and even as he continued to untie the ivy, the beast seemed to understand what it was that he was doing. In a flash, the serpentine creature stopped cutting the vine and slithered onto the rope and advanced towards him with a snarling visage.

His hands fumbled once, twice and fear gripped his mind before he got control of his extremities and loosed one knot.

The beast was almost upon him, its hisses and spitting venom dripping from its maw.

With a wrench, Harry threw the vine away from him, clutching the ledge with both his hands.

Heaving with the effort it had taken him, he started to haul himself up and just before he could get one leg up the stone platform, the added weight of the creature combined with the sudden loss of tension in the vine caused it to snap and with a roar, the beast fell upon him.

Talons that could cut through flesh pierced his own as the beast clung to life by gouging its front claw into his left calf.

“AAAAHHHHHH…..”

A scream tore through his throat as the pain registered through his mind.

The creature tried to move, attempting to use him as a ladder to get back to safety once more but even in pain Harry had enough presence of mind to try and shake the thing from his lower half.

When the talons in his calves started slipping with his shaking, the creature let out another roar as though threatening him to not let go.

Through the pain, Harry focused. Clamping down on his occlumency shields, hoping that since the magical branch involved using magic in one’s own body and mind it would work. A surge of warmth settled within him when he felt the telltale signs of his magic infusing his mind and he subjugated the pain and let it flow through his body like a river.

Now was not the time to panic.

True, he had no wand. His magic wasn’t working as it should. But there was one thing that nobody could ever take from him.

He was a survivor. He would survive.

With a clear mind and a few shuddering breaths, Harry attempted to see where the beast had caught his leg. It was right in the middle of the calf with just one of its claws piercing the muscle and flesh.

Once more the creature attempted to jump using him as an impetus but Harry put an end to it as he rotated his body to the side to loosen its grip.

“AAGGH…” It still hurt him nonetheless.

Just as the pain subsided once more, an idea struck his mind and without thinking much about how his leg would look like when he was done with it, Harry tightened his hold on the ledge and did what he knew best. He improvised.

In one swift motion, he pulled his leg from vertical position to a horizontal one and the claw embedding in his calf slipped from it with a wet slurping sound, taking a small chunk of flesh from it.

And the serpentine creature fell into the misty underbelly of the mountain.

“SSSCRRRRRRRGGGHHH…..”

The screech and the sudden pain from the falling beast attempted to shatter his mind once again but his occlumency shields held and averted the attack without much effort.

With a deep shuddering breath and a profusely bleeding left leg, Harry used his uninjured foot to lever himself onto the platform and heaved his body up with some effort.

A gasp left him as his lungs filled with hastily gulping air. His leg was a torn mess, he had just encountered a creature that could attack him mentally and would have more than likely eaten him had it gotten its claws in him and his magic was not responding even for a defensive measure unless one counted the mental attacks from the aforementioned creature.

‘Lovely! Now all I need is a clutch of dragons coming in to roast me up for a mid-day meal and I suppose it would be my average day.’

Just as the thought came through his mind, his eyes caught the stone that was still rolling down the platform in a slow tumble having reached more than half the distance to the edge.

Suddenly the magic-infused in his mind flared in the most bizarre and powerful way he had ever experienced and the second call of his magic surged within his very being, begging him, forcing him to do something.

Memories collided within him, flashing times of past that he did not know he had experienced.

‘ A rumbling sound came from her throat as she laughed? Our hides are much stronger than yours, little one. It was barely a scratch. she said as her tongue licked a scale near the centre of her body…’
‘PEACE DAUGHTER…JUST THIS ONCE, THE PRICE HAS BEEN PAID…’

Harry squeezed shut his eyes to remove the pain and the sensations the memories brought with them despite his mental shields and shook his head side to side.

Another glance at the stone from the corner of his eyes increased the feeling tenfold.

A sudden urge came upon him and not understanding why but knowing he must, Harry grasped the nearest jutting rock from the cave wall and pulled himself up to save the stone from its end even as the pain in his leg reminded him of its presence.

He hobbled, limped and crawled as fast as he could to stop the still rolling stone.

A jagged end on the floor cut through the scarred wound that the Dittany leaves had just healed and fresh blood poured out of it even as Harry increased his efforts to reach the stone that was increasing its speed on the slope at the near end of the platform.

Knowing there was no other way for it, Harry gritted his teeth and broke into a half run.

“AAAHHH…” The wound in his leg and the pierced flesh from his encounter earlier raged on in defiance but Harry did not slow down.

The stone was almost at the end of the slope now.

Ten meters.

‘Almost there.’

Five metes.

‘Hang on!’

Just as the stone was about to touch the edge, Harry dove with all his strength and with a scream that came from the pain and the effort involved, his hands caught the smooth surface of the liquorice stone an instant after it had fallen off the edge.

Not even stopping for an instant, Harry pulled the stone above and crawled away from the edge as he clutched the stone in a hug against his chest.

His legs were burning and the blood was dripping through his many wounds as he looked down to see the thing he had saved.

It made no sense whatsoever but his magic seemed content again as it flowed with its usual calmness inside his body.

A couple of moments passed as he attempted to figure out in his mind what exactly was special about the stone even as he tried to crawl towards one of the openings in the cave wall where the light was coming into the enclosure.

It took some more effort but after generously applying the chewed-on paste of Dittany on his bleeding wounds, Harry was sitting beside a bear-sized opening with his back supported by the cave wall from where he could see the sea of forest that encircled the mountain he had found himself in.

While there was a way down, it was dangerous and steep. With his legs still shaking from the wounds they had suffered, he had wisely decided to take a break and let his body and mind settle after the harrowing events of the past day and a half.

Even with the fear of meeting more creatures like the one he had fought just moments before, he felt the tiredness in his very bones just as the hunger from the past day caught up to him.

Hoping to just close his eyes for a few moments, he never knew when he drifted into the world of dreams.

-x-x-x-x-x-

‘To have the courage to do what is right not what is easy is the bedrock of what makes you a champion, little one…’

His eyes flickered open as the whispers of his dream faded away into nothingness.

A familiar scene flashed before his eyes as he saw the pinkish hue of the setting sun in the sky caught his sight. It rung something within him. The similar view of the sun sitting in the womb of the horizon did much more than just remind him of his hill in Death’s realm, it’s similarity also came with the fact that it was not the place where he had spent his recent years accepting the harsh reality of his existence. They were similar, but not the same.

He really was in a world that was different than his own.

Harry continued to gaze at the beautiful image for some time as he dissected the words he had heard in his dreams as he usually did when such dreams came to him.

The voice…it was enchanting. There was a strong pull he could feel towards the voice. It had been as such for a long time now. Though try as he might, he could not place it from his past.

It took another conscious effort to understand the pull and its consequent failure to provide him with any answers before the weight on his lap registered in his mind.

The stone was sitting there silently. Waiting. Just like him. But for what, he did not know.

Harry tried, yet again, to flare out his magical senses towards the egg, but could not even feel the magic leaving his own body much less touch the smooth, shiny surface of the liquorice stone.

After a few more moments, where he contemplated on the thing in his hand and tried anything and everything he could think of to reveal its secrets, he released a disappointed sigh.

It was clear to him that the stone was important. Much more important than he had realised. But what was his connection to it and how could a stone, an odd one, but still a stone could help him in his current predicament was a complete mystery to him.

Idly he tapped his nails onto the surface of the stone and jerked back when It produced a subtle ringing.

Surprised and thoroughly flummoxed at what had happened, he sat up with some interest.

He repeated his action with a little more force this time and was rewarded with a much-clearer ringing noise than what he had gotten before.

An amused smile grew on his face as the ringing touched at something within him that brought an emotion he had forgotten long ago.

Curiosity.

Harry grabbed a nearby rock and gently tapped at the stone’s surface with the same amount of force he had used when tapping it with his nails. A mournful peal reverberated when it struck.

A bit more interested now, Harry decided to do one thing he hadn’t tried yet.

Closing his eyes Harry focused on his magic and attempted to chart the flow of it in his body as he intended. A warm, soothing feeling settled within him wherever the magic flowed in its serene and calm disposition.

Harry carefully guided it throughout his body to flex his metaphorical magical muscles and gently brought the current into his hands, just below the surface.

The hair on the back of his hands stood up and some static between them travelled from end to end.

With his magic bubbling just beneath the surface of his right palm, Harry brought it near the stone to attempt to channel some through it in hopes of identifying its nature.

It was the oldest trick taught to the wizards who wished to learn warding and ward-breaking. Before they could cast protective wards, wizards needed to learn how to sense ambient magic and even the magic embedded within enchanted items.

As the need had arisen during the war, many of his people, including he had learnt the skill with some vigour. And after years of having to use it to keep himself and his people safe from the forces hell-bent on their eradication, Harry had become more than proficient with it.

But here and now, when he had successively failed in channelling his magic out into the world, it was with little hope that he was conducting his little experiment.

And thus, he was not surprised that when his hand touched the stone, there was absolutely no change that occurred either to him or the stone.

Harry released yet another disappointed sigh from his lips and removed his hand as his final attempt failed.

All was, as it had been, quiet.

And suddenly, a squeak pierced the silence, tearing him back to alertness.

Harry touched the stone again with the same hand as before and this time just a moment later, was rewarded with a louder squeak that rang in his ears and reverberated through his fingers.

Without knowing the reason for it but very much feeling the sentiment, a grin fought its way to his lips as he felt the vibration run through his hand.

He did not know what it was that was making the sound, but there was something he had realised. It was not a mere stone.

It was an egg!

Something he had lost long ago, a desire that he had buried deep within him reared its head once more and excitement at the fascinating discovery bubbled inside his stomach.

He had had the privilege of seeing a hatching only once in his life. It had been an experience that had exited him and frustrated him in equal measures. The birth of Norbert the dragon was easily one of the most magical things that he had seen in his early years even if witnessing such a wonder had caused him a detention with his head of house.

And now when he had just realised that he was about to witness the birth of a being that was more than likely magical – judging by how it had reacted to his own – Harry was understandably eager to see the tiny being.

He was just about to repeat the process when the egg started rocking against hands shaking with more than a little force. The last rays of the sun fell upon its near-black exterior and bleached its surface.

As though that was all the cue it needed, the stone started squeaking and rocking faster than ever with his own heart matching the rhythm.

The egg quivered in his lap and then attempted to roll forward. Harry, not exactly in the know about the hatching process of an unknown species of a magical being, decided to acquiesce to its demands. He put the egg onto the floor and encircled it with his legs, forming a small perimeter.

With his green eyes fixed on the shuddering egg, he waited. Patiently.

Suddenly a crack appeared on the stone. Then another and another. Transfixed, Harry leaned forward to gain a better view of the little blighter inside.

At the top of the stone, where all the cracks met, a small piece wobbled, as if it were balanced on something, then rose and toppled to the floor. After another series of squeaks, a small dark head poked out of the hole, followed by a weirdly angled body.

With a grin plastered on his face as though he had slept with a hanger in his mouth, Harry watched with bated breaths as the creature attempted to rise from inside the shell.

A moment later, the creature was completely visible to his eyes, the eggshells having crumbled the sides.

The grin on his face dropped in an instant as he realised what the creature was.

With its large onyx eyes looking at him, its roughly triangular head, a small pointed tooth jutting out of its mouth, stood a Dragon!

Harry blinked and suddenly found himself without a single thought.

Sounds of wind rushing past and moving trees came through the opening beside him and passed through his ears as though there was nothing to be heard.

A couple of moments passed before his face gave way to the emotion he was feeling at that very moment.

A laugh bubbled from his throat at the sight of the magnificent baby dragon and soon it was echoing in the cavern as he tried and failed to control his mirth.

It could only happen to him.

Harry indulged himself in a few more chuckles while the baby dragon did its very best to get out of the containment it was still stuck within.

With a happy smile, Harry gently tugged at the loose shell and broke some pieces so the liquorice dragon could find its way outside.

When Harry was done with a side, his sharp ears caught a small squeak from his quarry as though in thanks. The dragon lifted its head and its intelligent eyes caught Harry’s own with a piercing gaze.

A rush of magic passed his senses and Harry’s eyes opened wide in slight shock.

Instinctively, Harry focused on his magic and its flow to verify what he was feeling and waited patiently for the surge to happen again.

There!

A small tendril of magic was coming towards him unsteadily as though unsure of its path.

Without askance, Harry felt his magic respond in kind and a feeling of utter certainty passed through him as he saw the path ahead.

With magic as his guide, Harry gave in to his instincts and let them do what his magic desired.

Tentatively, he reached out with his right hand and touched its flank, bathing his palm in his magic so as to convey his emotions with its help.

Just as his fingers touched the dragon’s snout, a blast of icy energy surged into his hand and raced up his arm, burning in his veins like liquid fire. He fell back with a wild cry. An iron clang filled his ears, and he heard a soundless scream of rage. Every part of his body seared with pain. Harry struggled to move, but found himself unable to.

Darkness crept from all sides as something attempted to burst from the sanctity of his mind.

Screams, his own screams reverberated in his ears and memories he had forgotten long ago burst their containments and speared into him and flashed before him as the events were happening right this very instant.

‘I…I am sorry. I…I tried. I tried to bring them all back alive. I thought…I thought I would. He was here, for a moment…I could feel him. I am so sorry. He whispered softly. Tears that he was holding back with a purpose, rivered from his eyes even as he trie to brush them away with his sleeves.’

…

‘Thank you…little one.’

‘They will know what you have done, little one.” Before he could say something in denial, she overrode him. “They have magic you have yet to learn and with intentions are dark as their own…they will stop at nothing if they find something amiss to hunt you down.’

…

‘I may not be able to protect you from the perils of the path the spirits have chosen for you, little one. But I will not be so honourless to leave you to fend the wolves I know your kind to be…You will not remember me or mine, young one. You will not know how you saved me from despair. But you will live in my memories forever, Harry Potter…’

Tears prickled his eyes as he remembered everything she had made him forget.

His emotions were all over the place as Harry struggled to understand what it was he should be feeling seeing the eyes of the very being who had made him forget the precious times they had shared together, now looking at him in the form of a youngling he had just seen hatch in front of him.

Happiness. Anger. Sorrow. Confusion. Intrigue. A jumbled mess of feelings warred within him at the sight of the baby dragon.

Darkness was coming upon him from every direction as his eyes struggled to stay open.

He did not know how, but he knew that his magic was spent in whatever it was that had happened between him and her.

Suddenly, a thundering sound of flapping wings came from the opening to his right and he caught a glimpse of the gigantic form of what had to be another dragon.

Harry only had the time to grab the baby dragon in his arms and utter a name before the darkness settled upon him like a thick fog, stealing his senses.

“Lenora…”

-x-x-x-x-x-

~ Review please ~

Chapter Text

Bright as a flaming sun, the dragon hung before him, buffeting him with gusts from its mighty wings. The dragon's body appeared to be on fire as the brilliant orange light of the setting sun illuminated its shimmering milky white scales.

Harry struggled, fumbling with his fingers to keep hold of something that he could not see as the dragon attempted to push past the barriers that were keeping it away from him and the small bundle in his hands.

Suddenly, all feeling in his legs disappeared even as he tried and failed to get away from the creature that was surely his end.

The dragon was near him now, its hot breath falling upon his perspiring skin making him tremble for reasons he knew not.

A second later the dragon sniffed and its jaw opened a little and Harry had just the time to see its sharp, pointed teeth before it spoke?

"…calm yourself, young one."

Harry woke up with a start, his mouth opened in a silent scream.

"…shhhh," the gentle voice soothed. "Your wound is still fresh. Please, lay down." It spoke near him in a strange lilting tone as it whispered the command gently.

Harry jerked his head to look in the direction the voice had come from. Confusion and pain settled in his mind as he squinted his eyes to see the face of a woman holding her hand to his forehead as she attempted to gain his attention.

She was fair, beautifully so. Her angular face was framed by her long black hair cascading down her shoulders as they curled slightly at the ends, hiding within their curtain, one of her magnificent blue eyes. There was something about her, something that he could not exactly put his finger on, but that screamed magic to his senses.

Just as that thought passed through him, memories of what had happened in his last waking hours hit him with a force of a rampaging bull and his eyes widened in worry.

"Lenora!" He shouted.

Looking around himself, Harry darted his eyes every which way to see where the baby dragon was hiding not having properly registered the fact that he was in the presence another human being for the very first time since his arrival.

"Lenora! Where is she?" he asked frantically.

The woman beside him gently removed her hands from his forehead and settled them on his shoulders in an attempt to calm him. When it did not look like he would listen, she answered his query in her strangely melodic tone.

"She is here, young one. Right beside you. Look…" she said leaning down as she brought the little creature from under his cot with both hands and delivered her into his trembling hands.

A single touch of her leathery skin and shining liquorice scales on his palm was a soothing balm to his body as some of his tension eased out of his body like the still water finally having a crevice to flow.

For the second time, Harry's green eyes caught the little dragon's onyx ones and a deep, content note rung in his mind as though assuring him that everything would be alright if he had her by his side.

He saw her, for the first time, in her entirety. She was of the same liquorice colour as her egg. Her small body was covered in dark slate coloured scales that ran all the way to her hind legs leaving her underbelly with soft skin. She had claws, sharp and white, like polished ivory. A line of small spikes ran down her spine from the base of her head to the tip of her tail. A hollow where its neck and shoulders joined created a larger-than-normal gap between the spikes

A scant few moments later, Harry was gently nudged out of his reverie as the woman beside him looked at them with a small smile. "You will have many a year to bond with each other, young ones…" she paused as she gently rubbing the little dragon's scales with her delicate fingers, "but you both need some rest. I assure you all your questions will be answered when you wake up."

Harry registered her words and was about to say something before the woman said a few words that stilled him, "Fricai onr eka eddyr," and all his worries melted away instantly.

His magic responded to her words and without any effort of his own, its agitated flow settled into its usual smooth, calming presence.

The woman smiled as she saw the tension in his shoulders recede and with slight pressure on his chest, leaned him back so he was once again laying on the cot with something soft underneath his head.

A warm hand touched his forehead once more and with her thumb placed at the middle of his brow, the woman whispered, "Slytha."

A moment passed and his eyes grew heavy, closing on their own, just as his breathing evened out. The woman took one last look at him and the little dragon, who was no longer than his forearm as she settled herself on his chest, curling her tail around his fingers, and left the room with a content smile on her face.

-x-x-x-x-x-

It was not until some time had passed after the woman had left did the green eyes opened in the barely lit room.

There were multitudes of questions churning in his gut and as he looked at the now awake dragon looking at him with her large black eyes so innocently, his hand lifted on its own and settled on her soft head to soothe her.

"Lenora?" he whispered softly.

Something brushed against his consciousness, like a finger trailing over his skin and he felt a tendril of magic touch his mind just a moment later and he suppressed his urge to flinch even as his eyes widened slightly.

It was coming from her!

Her magic had bypassed his occlumency shields like they weren't even there!

There was a part of his mind that scoffed for having expected himself to be able to keep a dragon of all things out of his mind, exceptional mental shields or not.

Dragons of his world were magical powerhouses. Knowing what he did now if one wanted to get inside his mind, he was fairly certain that nothing but his complete and utter concentration towards defending his mind might be able to keep them at bay.

And with his memories of her unlocked, he wasn't as surprised that Lenora had been able to reach him with her mind. She had done it before, after all. And thus it wasn't much of a leap to say that she had at least some level of conscious control of her magic. That is to nothing about how easily she had been able to make him forget about her during the first task.

A sense of sadness crept in his mind as he remembered what she had done before he could mask it and the tendril of magic that was distinctly Lenora, receded from his mind as though ashamed by the memory.

Before it could, Harry grabbed onto it with his magic and coax it back to where it had been with as much care as he could.

While he was upset about it, he could tell that she had done what she did simply to keep him and her children safe from the ministry wizards. He understood the fear that had driven her to take his memories.

The little dragon on his chest purred contentedly just as the warmth of his magic touched her own with the tenderness he had attempted to impart.

And that one act made it perfectly clear to him that not only she could read his thoughts but even his emotions were clear to her as much as her own.

Harry took a deep breath and attempted to unscramble what he had discovered just before falling unconscious and seeing the large dragon outside the cave opening. Now was not the time to be fascinated by the bond that had apparently formed between them.

What he had thought to be a stone had turned out to be a dragon egg. Right.

Lenora's egg…

'What the…? How is it possible? How could she be here?' he thought, utterly baffled by the discovery but more a little glad that she was.

Shaking his head he set the questions about the how of it all aside and focussed on the now.

'Lenora? Can you hear me?' he asked, mentally nudging the question in the direction where her magic had sequestered itself in his mind.

Lenora raised her head and blinked softly at him in reply and a smile came to his face at the success.

'You remember me then?' The thought slipped out of him before he could help it and even knowing how stupid it was to ask such a thing to her when she had already acknowledged him somewhat.

Harry felt a vaguely amused feeling tinged with some shame from her as though she had heard more than that question in his thoughts. But when she blinked at him once more in reply to his answer, a relieved sigh escaped his lips as though a weight had been lifted off of him.

'I'm not alone.…'

Lenora caught the stray thought and craned her neck to gently rub her face with his in support and Harry smiled at her in return.

'Alright. We will talk about our situation later. Right now we need to figure out where we are. Did you see anything while I was unconscious?' Harry asked.

Lenora held his gaze for some time before she closed her eyes and slightly shook her head.

Harry frowned internally. He had gotten a feeling that she was attempting to tell him something but couldn't quite convey what she wanted to say.

It was a very vague feeling, fleeting, ephemeral. As though she knew something but was unable to tell him. It confused him. Was it her magic?

Something occurred to him suddenly as the thought crossed his mind and he looked at Lenora in askance. 'Is your magic weak somehow?'

Lenore blinked once and then yawned cutely having already tired herself during the small conversation she had with him.

Harry closed his eyes and sighed. He could feel her tiredness through the bizarre bond that had formed between them. It reminded him of the familiar bonds some wizards had formed with their pets but much more invasive.

'I suppose whoever had sent her and shrunk to still be within her egg must have diminished her magic too. But why go through all this trouble?'

Just then a memory of the words his friend had spoken to him flashed in his mind and his eyes widened in realisation.

"And what of the truth you wished for me to find," he asked more to gain time to control the upheaval of emotions the words had caused within him.

For the first time since Harry had ever known him, Death smirked. "You will know it soon enough."

Harry released a deep breath through his nose as the jumbled pieces started to form a picture in his mind.

It was Death. It could not be anyone but him. He was the only being Harry knew who was capable enough to mould nature to this degree.

But even as he played all the dreams where he'd heard Lenora's voice through the years, Harry felt thankful to the King that he had not let him suffer his debt alone.

A firelight flickered in his room and brought him back from his errant thoughts.

'Right. I need to figure out a few things before she's awake again. Now that I know for sure she is connected to me somehow, we'd need a plan. Especially if there are more magic users besides the woman who was visiting me.' He thought, focusing on his very brief interaction with the serene woman.

The woman had attempted to use some sort of sleeping spell on him.

It would have alarmed him had he not felt the intent of the spell mingling with his magic when he had allowed it to affect him. It had even required some effort too. The potency of the magic that she had used to cast the spell on him had given him much information about her and possibly even those similar to her. The first and most obvious was that the woman was a Healer.

Secondly, she was an experienced magic-user and was good enough to not require any guards to meet a new arrival like him.

That ruled her out as the possible the leader of whatever these magic users called themselves if there were even others in this place.

And Harry was somewhat leery of attempting to use magic to find signs of any presence nearby even when he could finally feel his magic just above his skin, waiting.

What had happened to him in that cave must have broken through whatever barrier that had stopped him from using it before.

All his thoughts and what little knowledge he had of binding magic pointed towards the bond as the reason. As powerful as dragons were, there weren't many magical barriers that could bind their will and with how he could feel Lenora's magic taking root in his mind, her connection to him must have been enough for the bindings to snap.

But the real reason he refrained from casting a spell was his reasoning that if there were experienced magic users in his vicinity, watching him, then they would no doubt pick up on that and without further knowledge of what he had gotten himself in, it was not the wisest course of action to show his cards.

And thirdly, the woman did not consider it odd that he had a dragon of all things as a pet.

Was it a usual occurrence?

Did people here live with dragons?

Harry knew he had gotten lucky with Lenora when he had met her during his fourth year at Hogwarts. Besides her understandable anger and grief at her stolen eggs, she had been very reasonable and kind to him. Their times spent together, that he could now remember, were filled with them sharing stories and giving each other advice about life, although he had been on the receiving end of the latter.

But many dragons in his world had acted like mindless beasts who wrought carnage if not contained and held a bloodthirsty streak for wizards and other species that had magic running through their veins.

If dragons were common here, and people lived with them, it was possible that most of them were like Lenora.

As bizarre as the thought was, it was, at the very least, a possibility. He had heard about covens of witches and wizards in Egypt and even some in Portugal where the resident magical population resided with Sphinxes.

While the situation with dragons was a whole different ball game but the point still stood. Sphinxes were dangerous and if wizards had been capable of living with them then it was, as he had deduced earlier, at least possible. Dangerous as hell. But possible.

Whatever the case might be, from what he had observed, the woman had seemed slightly pleased having seen his worry for Lenora.

At least he hadn't left that bad an impression.

It could also be that she was simply playing the part and was waiting for him to open up but he rather doubted it.

The brief touch of her magic had not carried any duplicitous feeling nor had it done anything to him other than soothe his worries.

And besides his days spent in Madam Pomfrey's care and his own practices in his later years had been more than enough for him to learn the difference between spells cast by a healer and those that meant him harm.

Intent behind the cast was everything.

The woman had simply meant to give his body some rest.

It was good. It meant that he could at the very least get some details from her or others like her about the world he and Lenora had found themselves in.

But for now, he needed to gain something, anything that did not give him away as an outsider.

His hands touched his sides and for the very first time, he realised that he had been dressed in loose clothing that very very comfortable on his skin. It wasn't cotton, the cloth wasn't thin enough for it to be that. Nor was it any other cloth he was familiar with. It seemed simple, soft to touch and shaped like a tunic.

With as least amount of movement as he could make – knowing as he did about the pesky little alert charms the healers usually cast on the patient's bed – Harry darted his eyes around the room in an attempt to see where he was.

The firelight coming from a lantern in the room and the lone sconce on the wall were bathing the room in a burning glow. The walls seemed to shine with it as uneven, somewhat unpolished and barely worked upon they were. The cot below him was rigid and was probably made of rough fibre like jute or something very similar as the pattern dug into his skin despite the white linen that had been draped on it.

Without lifting his head, Harry looked at his front and was surprised to find an open window showing the night sky with a pair of twinkling stars beyond his reach.

There was a single wooden chair beside his cot sitting empty ever since the woman had departed.

There was a painting of a barren desert hung on the wall to his right and one of a dense forest directly facing it on the opposing wall.

Besides these simplest of things, the room was sparsely decorated. The wooden walls seemed to have been grown rather than built as his eyes could not find a single edge that seemed to connect a part of it to another.

That alone told him that either the magic user's here had transfigured the housing from raw wood or they had directly used magic for construction which was even rarer.

And why wood?

Weren't they afraid what a dragon might do to it if an errant breath from the fire breathing creatures touched their finely crafted homes?

'Too many unknowns.' Harry sighed.

While he could make educated guesses about people here, he would be found out if anyone here asked him a question that he should know but didn't.

'Let's hope the interrogation isn't done until I have at least gotten a look at the surroundings outside.' He hoped.

With sleep calling him once more, his tiredness caught up to him at last. With a hand on Lenora's head and a smile at her adorable little face, Harry closed his eyes and was asleep soon after.

His dreams that night took him on a journey of a land filled with people he did not know as they laughed and lived together in harmony with dragons above in the blue sky roaring their delight at the scene. It was an image of the magical world he remembered having when he'd first gotten his Hogwarts letter.

A world he had wished to call his home.

-x-x-x-x-x-

"Andumë Svit-kona," the voice of her fellow Elf and Rider fell upon her ears as she was gliding towards her the main chamber hall.

She turned, gracefully, and looked at him with a smile. "Atra Mor'ranr lifa unin hjarta onr, Laetri Vor."

"And you, my friend," Laetri replied and inclined his head with a gentle smile on his face. "How fair's our patient?"

Andumë looked at him with a slightly raised brow and a smirk. "Our patient, Laetri Vor? I was under the impression that it was just I who was treating him."

A musical laugh escaped Laetri's lips as he looked at his long time friend. "Indeed, vinr Andumë, you were. Though I must confess my curiosity as his rescuer," he said shaking his head in a little mirth.

He paused for a moment, weighing something in his mind before he continued. "Opheila was worried after seeing him crouching in the cave below the mountain as he clutched his newly bonded to his heart. He looked afraid as he saw us. I suppose I understand the reason, Opheila had caught the scent of a feral Fanghur in the cave, the one we have tasked the apprentices to hunt, but there is still something niggling at the back of my mind. Even meditating on the issue for the last few hours hasn't given me a clue as to what it could be." He shook his head, somewhat distressed.

"And then I had hoped to wait until the dawn to check on the young ones but she asked me to check on his health. It seems she couldn't rest either," he finished.

"Ah, I suppose I can understand why you sought me out this late in the evening then," Andumë nodded understandably. "Opheila's scales must be itching at the sight of a wild young one having bonded herself to a human male in such a manner as they did."

Laetri winced as he remembered the tongue lashing he had got from his dragon when he had attempted to allay her fears. "She was…upset that another kin of her, another wild one had hatched for someone without her knowledge again, besides her worry for the both of them. As it has happened more than half a dozen times in recent years, she has confessed to being somewhat worried about what it might mean for the Order.

"As you know, most of the eggs given to the Order at the end of last year's celebration have not yet chosen any to hatch for. Opheila is of the opinion that Order should restart ferrying the eggs among the populace so the young ones could choose their partners. She believes and here I agree with her that it is the reason that wild ones are being found more and more instead of the younglings that are conceived within the Order," he explained. And then as though following an afterthought asked, "Has Briam shared similar worries?" knowing that Andumë's male dragon partner could be more in tune with his senses than Opheila sometimes.

Andumë was silent for some time as she digested what her friend and his partner were hinting at before she sighed and decided to be open about her own thoughts just as her friend had been. "He has. Though he hasn't shared with me the reasons for his worries, though I suspect they are similar to Opheila's own," she replied, looking at the open night sky from the balcony near the corridor.

A moment of comfortable silence passed between the two friends before Andumë looked up at her friend and smiled. "We can discuss the issue further in the morrow. For now, let me allay your worries about our patient," she said teasingly. "He woke up for a while when I was in his room changing the wet cloth on his head. He was worried about his young partner when his eyes couldn't find her nearby. And then when I put her in his hands…" the female elven Rider shook her head with a serene smile, "…you should have seen his face, Laetri Vor. I will never get used to seeing the strength of the bond between a young Rider and their dragon," she sighed happily.

Then looking at him with a wide smile she whispered, "He seems to have given her a name already." She laughed behind her hands. "Lenora, he called her. And with how pleased she was as she purred in his hands, I suppose she likes it well enough."

Laetri's himself smiled as he pictured the scene in his mind and then shook his head muttering, "Young ones…" A lone star shimmered in the sky and he looked at his long time friend, nudging her with his soft hands. "Get some sleep, Andumë. With the initiates and the new arrivals, we'll have a long day tomorrow. Atra du evarínya ono varda," he wished before walking away towards the stairs that led to the open area where the dragon's usually rested, to reassure his partner once more.

"Atra du evarínya ono varda, Laetri Vor." Andumë mirrored.

With that the two Dragon Riders went to opposite directions, looking for their respective partners to share their thoughts.

Tomorrow was indeed looking to be a long day.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry was up as the first rays of the sun fell on his eyes filling him with its warmth. Having had gotten the best sleep in a long time, he felt rejuvenated and almost ready to be on his way before his minders knocked on his door to start to question him.

Expanding his magical senses around himself in a slow, deliberate manner, he found the remnants of two fading alert wards on his cot and expedited the process by purging the intent behind the spells and flooding them with his own. Placing his hands on two small indents where the woman had anchored the spell, Harry released a trickle of magic from his hands, hoping that his minders wouldn't notice the infinitesimal surge.

Sighing satisfactorily, he felt as the ward faded away completely, its magic absorbed into the environ with some of his own.

A sharp pain shot up through his right palm as a wound he hadn't noticed before made itself known. Harry lifted his hands and felt his skin itching and burning like a spider bite. There was a burn mark of a diffused white oval in the middle of his palm.

On a whim, Harry channelled his magic to heal the wound from within and the mark shimmered, pulsatingly, easing away the itching and burning sensation.

He could feel some of his magic coalescing there, waiting, as though it was a tap, and he only needed to open it for his magic to answer his call.

Sighing frustratingly as another mystery added itself among the unknowns, Harry was about to get up when the weight on his chest stirred and Lenora opened her eyes, turning her head to look at him. She blinked rapidly, likely in an effort to shed the last remnants of sleep and he smiled at her, petting her head lovingly.

'Hello there, sleepyhead.' Harry sent her way through their bond and got a vague happy feeling in return.

For a moment Harry frowned, wondering if her young age was the only reason she couldn't communicate with him as she used to do before but then shrugged. It wasn't the time to analyse the possible reasons behind their bond and her circumstances. He'd needed to hurry if he wished to find anything that could help him make a backstory.

Idly, he noted that the clothing he had found on himself last night, had, in fact, been a tunic shirt and leggings. Though the morning light did reveal it to be a combination of beige as the primary colour with brown linings that ran diagonally through his chest as the cloth wrapped around his form.

With a slight effort and a little wince at the discomfort, courtesy of his still sore muscles, he got up from his cot clutching Lenora in his left hand. She yawned prettily and his lips tugged upwards. He really couldn't help it. She was just so cute looking around with her wide-open eyes as she took in most of their surroundings.

Harry crept along the wooden floor with his light feet, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Peeking side to side just outside his door, he saw a long corridor to his left and a similar wooden wall to his right.

With Lenora in his arms, Harry walked briskly towards the corridor, casting his eyes in either direction to see anyone coming his way.

He had just entered a small hall and his worries were well-founded when his ears caught sounds of murmurs coming from an open area just a few steps to his right.

Harry leapt from his position and landed beside a wall on the balls of his feet, hiding behind it quietly to see if he had been discovered. When the muffled voices didn't stop suddenly, he put his ears near the edge of the wall and attempted to listen to what the voices were saying.

Any knowledge was better than nothing at the moment. He just needed a single thread and then he could weave a vague story about how he had found himself in the cave and with Lenora thereafter.

Hopefully, the people questioning him wouldn't be much invasive as to be willing to attempt to break his mental shields. Not that it would be easy.

He shook his head as the words from people behind the wall became clear enough for him to understand.

"…I dinna know what to do, aye. She chose me. Me! A Dragon Rider. Ima just the boy of a tanner, yeh know! Father dinna know what to say either. Was stammerin' the whole time Master Andumë was explainin' things to him. I was too!" the sound of a laughing boy echoed in the hall.

"You had it easy, Turmoth," another boy spoke in a serious tone. "I heard there was a girl from those wanderin' people. Right scary she was. Hard folk her kind are. Always travellin' and moving through The Spine, living in the forests for days on end but never settling at a place. During the last ferrying celebration in Daret, she was just standin' there lookin' at the eggs as the elves carried them among the people in the city and next thing people see is her kneeling beside an egg and everythin' glowing around her. Scary it was. Rihas Ilkasdaughter they called her. Me mum said her people left before she woke up." he finished.

Harry heard the boys until their voice moved far away to not be heard from where he was hiding with a thoughtful look on his face.

He looked at Lenora and his mental gears started working around what he had just heard.

So it was a thing here. People living with dragons. Hell, the boy had said Dragon Rider. They rode them!

Though the concept intrigued him something fierce, it was also so out of his comprehension that it took some time before he was able to accept it.

Dragon riding people. Right.

And the dragon eggs chose their riders?

'Was that what happened with me and Lenora? Did she choose me?' Harry wondered, and found himself surprisingly happy with the thought.

His female dragon though had caught his thought and looked up at him, blinking once in response.

An unexplainable feeling of joy surged in his heart and he found himself hugging her to his chest as she purred in delight.

Some moments passed before his thoughts returned from his dragon to something else the boy had said. Elves.

ELVES!

It all sounded like the times of old he had read about in the millennia-old history texts and scrolls that the Resistance had found in the demolished ministerial archives that Hermione had shown him once. Elves, at least the ones in his world, had long since died, if they ever had been alive, to begin with. Their existence had always been a matter of furious debate among the historians who bothered to search their origins.

Some said that the house-elves had been an off-shoot species that came from the original elves who had been exceptionally magical, much like witches and wizards. The only difference being while witches and wizards had magic, the elves were said to be of magic.

But it was unlikely that the boy was talking about house-elves because they were subservient creatures, dependent on a witch's or wizard's magic to sustain themselves.

With slightly pointed ears and life-spans of hundreds of years, the original Elves were said to be a very peaceful race. Until they died due to some unknown reason.

That was all unproven though. Nobody in his world had found a shred of truth to support the theory.

But elves? Here?

Harry's eyes widened as he remembered the woman who had treated his wounds during the night.

Had she been an elf?

He remembered her presence had seemed oddly powerful to him. It had as he recalled, screamed magic to his senses. It was a completely different feeling that what he got in the presence of his fellow witches and wizards.

And even the way she had greeted him, 'young one…' it at least gave some credence to the theory of longer life-spans if a woman who looked in her late twenties, called him, a young one.

Harry shook his head. Whatever the case, from what the boy had said and from his own short interaction, he knew, that elves lived here along with humans? Other magic users?

Questions, far more than answers stacked in his mind as his frustration mounted. There were plenty of things that could give him away, and that is to say nothing about the things that seemed to be somewhat of a common knowledge like dragon eggs and riders being chosen and this ferrying celebration.

It didn't make a lick of sense to him aside from the basic concept that he would not be able to expand upon even if his life depended on it.

But there was something in the boy's words that had given him an idea and an elementary framework of what he could say to explain his presence.

Lenora squeaked in his arms and he rubbed her scales to soothe her.

'I know you must be hungry, Lenora. I am sure someone will come looking for us when they see the room empty. I don't want to go looking for them before I have at least bare bones of my story prepared. Can you wait a while, you think?' he asked gently even as he sent his apology through their link.

Lenora blinked at him once and nuzzled her face into his chest.

When Harry felt her acceptance through the link, he smiled and thanked her in return.

Even after all these years, magic never stopped amazing him. To see a gigantic dragon from years past snuggling into his arms, purring and squeaking…Harry had never been more glad that he was a wizard. And now that Lenora had chosen him, and if what he had heard was true, perhaps he could be something a bit more…

A voice from the same corridor broke the thread of his thoughts and he froze where he stood. "An early riser, I see. It would certainly help you in the following days, young one."

He saw the one who had found him wandering and a relieved breath left his lips. Coming towards him, looking as though she was gliding on air with how smoothly she traversed the distance between them, dressed in clothes that were similar to his own but with a distinct cut that made it certain that it had been sewn for her gender, was the woman he had met last night. And in the morning light, he could see he had been correct in his estimation of her beauty and presence.

The woman practically oozed feelings of calmness.

Just as she came near him, he could feel her aura attempting to soothe his somewhat agitated heart.

"Peace…youngling," she spoke holding up a hand to allay his possible fears. "We do not consider curiosity to be something one should ever have to hide. I, myself find myself curious with things on a daily basis."

Harry heard her and took it as the sound advice it was meant to be. Knowing that he would need to prevaricate during this conversation, he loosened his mental shields enough to be able to show his emotions on his face but sharp enough to know when someone was attempting to get past them.

When she raised her hand towards Lenora, asking his permission to greet her, Harry nodded, unsurely.

The woman smiled and rubbed Lenora's scale with two of her fingers and greeted them both. "Kvetha, noble dragon. Atra Mor'ranr lifa unin hjarta onr. I am Andumë," she said looking at them both.

Lenora purred in pleasure from the ministrations of, now named, Andumë even as the woman continued to speak. "It is a pleasure to see you both here safe and unharmed. When we felt the surge of coming from the caves below the mountain and a sense of urgency that came with it, we were afraid that something had happened…" she trailed off looking into the distance.

Harry looked at her and frowned internally. She seemed worried for some reason. It was clear enough to see if one knew how to look past her calm demeanour and polite countenance. But without much information about literally anything in here, he could do nothing to understand it.

Shaking her head as though ridding herself of whatever her imagination had conjured, Andumë resumed. "As I said, I am glad I find you both in good health. I would have met you in your room but I did not find you there. I suppose I did not consider that with everything happening so suddenly, you would have wandered on your own, looking for some answers to your, no doubt, countless questions. I confess I would have as well. But certain things need to be addressed before we get to that," she said in her familiar lilting voice that he had heard from her lips last night.

Harry simply nodded once more, agreeing with much of her statement. She didn't know it, but even the things she wished to go through would only fill his empty mind with some much-needed information.

Andumë simply continued her askance with her patient smile. "May I enquire your name?"

He was about to reply when something occurred to him. The boy he had spied on earlier had said the name of the girl in a very peculiar manner, much like the times of old. With a moment's pause to think, Harry decided to answer the query in a way she might expect to hear.

"Harry. Harry Jamesson," he answered in a soft but confident manner.

A twitch of her brow was the only indication he got that his attempt at mimicking their culture had fallen flat.

"Harry…" she said slowly, tasting the words on the tip of her tongue. "A name I am unfamiliar with. Do you know what it means?" Andumë questioned, her brows furrowed.

Harry shrugged. "Someone once told me that it means different things to different people. I, myself consider its meaning as 'protector of the hearth,'" he answered, unwilling to give her an inch she could use to peal his story later.

She looked at him for a moment but inclined her head in acceptance. "Hmm. A good name then. Harry Jamesson, I would have asked you to join me in the initiates chambers but I think it would be best if I explained certain things that you might be going through since bonding with noble Lenora here," she said moving past him and motioning with her hand to follow her.

Harry moved beside her, following her steps while going through what he had planned to tell her about his origins in his head.

Soon they were crossing the hall, another wide, cavernous corridor, a stone bridge connecting two sections of the building and then up a rounding flight of stairs that ascended to the door where a few rays of light were coming from the opening above.

Andumë finally stopped at a finely crafted door and pressed her fingers into the carved grooves and gently pushed at it.

The door opened with nary a sound and the morning light hit his face with all its brilliance just as the fresh breeze touched his skin with its healing touch. Harry's eyes closed without his askance and he breathed in the sweet-scented air that fell on his face, a smile coming to his lips.

Having spent the past two days in a cave and then being sequestered inside for healing had given him a new appreciation for the open.

And what helped more was the magic that permeated in the air. He was practically breathing magic!

He exited the room and entered the open area with his bare feet as they touched the platform where he was standing, feeling the cold stone floor underneath his skin. The platform where he was standing was a large open area about the size of the great hall of Hogwarts, roughly circular in shape and with railings on its edges for protection.

It seemed as though it had been carved from the mountain itself with how it melded with the stone walls that lined the edges of the door frame he and Andumë had just come from.

There were grooves and scratch marks on the careworn floor that didn't tell him anything about how it was used apart from the fact that it was well maintained even with the repeated usage.

Harry stepped forward near the edge and gaped at the majestic sight in front of his eyes with barely disguised awe.

He could see everything.

From the far shadowy trails of what could only be a city situated behind a rising orange sun to the endless forest that engulfed everything in sight. It was as though he was standing on the peak of a mountain that touched the heavens. Clouds, steamy and cool past before his eyes, moving away with nary a sound.

It was breathtaking.

And if the squeak from Lenora and the sense of awe he was getting from her through their bond was any indication, she very much shared the feeling.

Andumë's serene voice brought him back from his reverie. "It was built by the first leader of our Order," she said, admiring the scenic beauty just like him. When he looked at her, she explained. "Utgard Mountain. An outpost of the Riders - one that has lasted since their founding. Edoc'sil, 'Unconquerable,' it is called this bastion. For it is so steep none may reach the top unless they can fly."

"Fly? How?" The question slipped out of him before he realised how stupid it was when the answer was clutching his tunic shirt at this very moment.

Something on his face must have shown his thoughts as Andumë's tinkling laughter echoed in the open area. "Why dragons of course," she finally managed, controlling her mirth.

As though it was the cue that was needed, a brown blur flew from below sending gusts of wind on their faces as it went careening through the air in a brilliant acrobatic display and a powerful roar that matched its size.

Harry gaped, open-mouthed, as a huge brown dragon circled them from above, flapping its massive wings with an ease that he could not imagine from a bulky beast like him.

Lenora's squeak's increased in volume and intensity as she watched one of her kind in the sky with her large black eyes, unblinkingly.

'You used to be that large, Lenora.' Harry sent to her with a laugh, teasing her a little.

Lenora ignored him, busy as she was still admiring the shimmering scales on the large dragon's back as they reflected the sun's rays brilliantly.

Harry shook his head and attempted to get his excitement and awe under control. There had been quite a few shocks since his arrival, it was time to get some answers.

"Are you…I apologise I do not know how else to phrase it. Are you a Dragon Rider yourself?" he asked tentatively.

Andumë turned to him and with a moment's pause replied. "I am."

"And that one," he said pointing at the brown dragon still circling them from above, "is your dragon?"

"His name is Briam and yes we are partners." She answered patiently. "Here," she pointed at her mind, "and here," then moved her finger to her heart. "We do not let while looking at him speculatively.

Harry felt something in her voice which told him that she was waiting for him to confirm a suspicion that she had and he resolutely denied her the chance. "Um… Is that what happened to me and Lenora?" he asked instead.

"Yes," she replied. "though the circumstances differ somewhat."

When Harry looked at her in confusion, she explained. "Briam chose me to be his companion when his egg was being presented to my kind in Ellesméra quite a few years ago during a ferrying celebration when I was in my early youth. Whereas you found Lenora in the wild where she was presumably left by her sires for this very reason. Similar bonds, though different circumstances, as I mentioned earlier."

Harry frowned at that. "Is it common for dragons to leave their eggs in the wild?" he asked not liking what she had hinted even knowing that it was more than likely Death who had put Lenora in his path, not her dragon parents.

When he looked at Lenora and felt a very thin feeling that roughly translated into his mind as agreement from his dragon companion who blinked at him, Harry knew he was right on the mark.

Andumë, unaware of his inner musings, answered his query. "Not common, no. But it has been happening for some time now. We are trying to understand the reasons but the investigation is taking some time."

Harry nodded slowly, knowing that it was all he would get out of her about this particular issue.

"May I ask something to abate my growing curiosity now?" she asked looking at him in the eyes.

He tried not to shift under her penetrating gaze as her blues attempted to unravel his mysteries and just nodded in acquiescence.

"How is it that you found yourself in the caves beneath the mountain?" she asked without preamble.

Harry knew this was coming and prepared himself as best as he could before answering in a tone that conveyed his pained acceptance. "I used to travel with my aunt and uncle. We were wanderin' folks, travelling along The Spine, settling for a few days before moving on. A night a couple of fortnights ago, we were attacked," he began in a monotonous tone.

"I…I don't know what happened. I was separated from the group. When I woke up in the morn, I couldn't find them. I tried searching along the way we had come from and towards the way we were going but even after days, I couldn't find a single trail with a clue that spoke of their presence," he paused, memories of similar incidents in his past flashed before his eyes even as he narrated his concocted story.

Andumë looked at him in sympathy but refrained from saying anything, simply waiting for him to finish his tale.

"Then the storm came," he continued. "I was hiding in the caves down below when suddenly the entrance collapsed. I tried to find a way out but the stones were heavy and I couldn't lift them. It was…It was dark. I searched and found a crevice that led me to a place with a pool of water and stone pillars that reached high above in the mountain.

"I climbed up using vines and then there was this creature. I have never seen anything like it before. It looked like a snake, but it had wings. It was growling at Lenora's egg and after a moment when nothing happened, tried to roll it towards the edge," Harry recounted that bit as honestly as he could.

"I must have made a noise then because I remember it looked at me with its slitted eyes. And…and then it jumped on the vine I was using to climb. I remember bits and pieces after that. I…I think I fought the beast. It's hazy, my memories…" Harry trailed off, looking far into the open sky.

This kind of misadventure was somewhat of a normal thing for him back in his world. No matter what he did, trouble usually found him with or without his efforts. But it would have been difficult to explain the reasoning behind his thought when he couldn't exactly tell her what he had seen and done.

Andumë looked at the young man and found herself surprised by his mental acumen and the way he had dealt with the hurdles that had surrounded him. It was rare, that a human male used his brain rather than force to solve his problems. It was a problem she had seen in many of her students in the past years. She waited patiently for him to regain his composure and continue.

"I saved the egg from falling to the edge. I was tired and hungry. I do not remember what happened exactly, but one moment I was holding the egg and in the next, it started rocking. A shard from the egg broke and…and that is…that how I found Lenora," he finished somewhat tired by the excessive evasiveness he'd had to follow to simply explain his presence.

Not knowing how she had taken it, Harry decided to simply let her take the lead and did not say anything after that, busying himself with caressing his female dragon partner.

After a moment of long silence, Andumë finally spoke. "It is not always an easy thing to do. Revisiting our pasts. It hurts us sometimes, pains us to take another look at what we did and what had happened to us. But it is a strong mind that comes out of the quagmire of past mistakes and suffering." She said solemnly, nodding her head in understanding.

Harry sighed as the weight of her words settled on his shoulders. "Now what?" he asked.

Andumë's smile returned to her face and she spoke in the language she had used to cast the sleeping spell on him last night. "Neyi…ono eddyr aí Shur'tugal."

His very being stilled at her words. The magic in his veins rung within him with the sound of hundreds of bells clanging together in agreement of her exclamation as his magic, even if not him, understood the words as clearly as anything. He knew not what she said, but he could feel the truth of it in his bones.

A surge rose from within him and he could do nothing to stop it as it washed away from him liting up his palm with a brilliant silver light as it shone upon Lenora and bathed her in its silvery essence.

Lenora squeaked happily and nuzzled her face on his palm, humming contentedly and his face split into a wide grin even as something in the back of his mind noticed that the slivery essence was coming from the oval burn mark that he had discovered.

Andumë looked at the scene as her eyes shone with her joy just as the massive form of Briam disappeared behind the cover of clouds with a roar of approval. She shook her head as she heard his last thoughts through their bond.

Deciding to let the new dragon and rider pair know what they would be doing, she put a hand on his shoulder and said something he would remember as the beginning of the most wonderful experience of his life. "Come, Master Laetri is about to address your fellow initiates."

-x-x-x-x-x-

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