//------------------------------// // Ch. 14 — Here be Dragons! // Story: The Triwizard Pony // by tkepner //------------------------------// Ch. 14 — Here be Dragons! The two had almost reached the students when Rita noticed just who those students leaving Honeydukes were. Her eyes widened and a predatory smile appeared. Harry stepped forward to meet her. It was always better to start the conversation with a reporter, it helped establish who was in charge. And he had been preparing, as Blueblood had taught him, ever since he saw her leave the pub. “Miss Skeeter,” he said happily, “What a pleasure!” He held out his hoof. “I hope things have been going well for you?” he said solicitously. “Why, yes,” she replied. She held out her hand as if the shake his hoof, but he quickly turned his hoof under her hand and lifted it as he bent over slightly to “kiss” the back of her hand, as a proper gentlepony should do. “You are here to cover the Tournament’s first task, are you not?” he said, straightening. “Oh, how remiss of me,” he continued quickly, as if suddenly remembering something, “Allow me to introduce my friends.” He waved the three girls closer, who complied with varying expressions of suspicion. “This is Miss Ginny Weasley, this is Miss Luna Lovegood, and this is Miss Hermione Granger,” he said as he pointed to each of them. “They, along with Mr. Jonathan Spratt and Miss Liza Cherks, both prefects in Gryffindor House, have been helping me prepare and catch up with my peers in your wizarding magic,” he said gratefully, and smiled at the girls, who were now looking a bit embarrassed. “After working hard at cramming as much as they could into my poor head for the last two weeks, they decided I needed a rest from the studying. All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy, right?” He smiled wryly and leaned just a bit closer to Rita, as if confiding a secret, “And I must say, my brain feels quite woolly right now; it might start leaking out my ears at any moment if I don’t give it time to settle.” He straightened. “There are just so many spells to learn in so little time!” He shook his head sadly. “Just remembering their names is a chore, never mind what each does.” He pursed his lips. “And I have no way of knowing which will be useful and which will not.” He glanced at the photographer, who was angling for another shot of the four, and then back at the reporter. The trick was, Blueblood had explained, “In an unscripted, surprise meeting, never give the reporter a chance to get a word in sideways. If they decide to be rude and interrupt, then that provides a perfect excuse to leave. If not, then you get to lead the interview on your terms, not theirs.” “Well, I just thought I’d mention that I did enjoy your article about the tournament, although Mr. Krum and Ms. Delacour were quite put out that you misspelled both their and their schools’ names. Better luck next time, eh?” He gave her a wink and raised an eyebrow. “In any case, I shouldn’t keep you from your business any longer. I’m sure it’s much more important than I am. So, thank you very much for taking the time out of your valuable schedule to talk with me.” He chuckled and gave her a brilliant smile before turning to his companions. “Well, ladies,” he said looking at them. “I think our next stop is Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop, isn’t it? Lead the way!” He started off down the street at a brisk walk, the girls belatedly hurrying after him. He quickly cast his don’t-notice-me-field on them as they approached Zonko’s Joke Shop. “Get in Zonko’s,” he hissed. He was lucky. They managed to reach the door and duck inside the joke shop just as Rita and her photographer started to catch up. “Harry,” she said loudly, in the street, “If I could speak to you for a moment?” She twisted and turned her head quickly, trying to see where they had disappeared to. “Don’t move,” he ordered between barely moving lips as Rita looked in the open door and glanced around. Not seeing them immediately, she hurriedly left, heading farther down the street, towards Scrivenshaft’s, he imagined. He was relieved to see that he had managed to elude her, and escape a “private” interview. Who knew how she would twist whatever he said? Luna was a lot better, by comparison. She got her facts right and didn’t try to quote things out of context just in the name of sensationalism and higher circulation numbers. If she wanted an interview, he wouldn’t say no. He dismissed the spell and they got on with perusing the shop’s many offerings. He made sure to reapply the spell as they left the shop. He removed the spell as they entered the next shop on their list, after ascertaining that Rita was not in attendance. And repeated the process as they explored the village. He wasn’t sure the girl’s even realized what he was doing. He couldn’t help but notice the big black dog that seemed to follow them stealthily. She, or maybe he, had shown up outside Zonko’s, and appeared outside every shop they visited. She looked well fed and cared for, with a happy enough expression, almost smiling as she watched them. Perhaps it was a stray and one of them reminded it of its owner? But it looked too . . . well-groomed . . . to be a stray. It was some time later, almost noon, when they wandered into The Three Broomsticks. It was packed with Hogwarts students enjoying the day away from the castle. Scattered through the room, though, were a variety of different magical people. Hogsmeade, being the only all-wizard village in Britain, must be a bit of a haven for creatures like hags, korrigans, clurichauns and the like, who were not as adept as wizards at disguising themselves. Moving cautiously through the crowd, Harry headed for a table in one corner that seemed free. Hermione detoured to the bar for butterbeers — she insisted he would like the mildly alcoholic beverage. He hoped it wasn’t salty. Too much salt with alcohol would be . . . problematic. Harry spotted Ron, who was sitting with George, Fred, and Lee Jordan. They exchanged nods as he continued to work his way inside. While there was a positive horde of Hogwarts students in attendance, there were not many he knew. It wasn’t difficult to settle the three of them at the table he had spotted, with more than enough room for a fourth. Shortly after making it to the table, Hermione arrived, floating their butterbeer bottles in front of herself. Luna quickly appropriated the corks for her necklace. Or maybe she intended to make more, who knew for certain? She still ended up with the four corks. Harry sighed as he sipped the sweet beverage. Good, no salt. He had quite enough in his diet without overdosing. He did not want to get like some of the ponies he had seen stumbling out of saloons in Appleloosa. Not on purpose, and definitely not by accident! What he wouldn’t give to be home, right now, among friends and family, Instead he was stuck here. At least he had no problems with the Gryffindors, at the moment. Everyone was nice enough, a few were cold to him, but he expected that. Given how contentious humans were, he was rather surprised he hadn’t had more problems such as he had with that Draco Malfoy boy in Slytherin. Of course, his dispute with them the previous week hadn’t won him any favours with their House. That they hadn’t started trying to hex him he attributed simply to not seeing them outside of Potions and meals, and him staying squirreled away in the Gryffindor Tower. Although, his standing in Gryffindor had gone up after that. The Hufflepuffs, Cedric Diggory’s House, were very aloof and tried to pretend he didn’t exist. Not a hard duty, considering they only saw him at meal times, since he had dropped Herbology. The Ravenclaws seemed to have adopted a similar attitude. Him discovering and revealing Luna’s bullying, and the House’s subsequent falling in points, hadn’t earned him any fans, either. The numerous detentions in their House also restricted their abilities to do mischief — Hagrid and Mr. Filch would have plenty of assistance until Christmas break, at the earliest. The four of them sat and quietly nursed their drinks for a short while, then Harry treated them all to lunch. They were idly talking about where to go next when a deeply tanned, blonde-haired wizard with brilliant blue eyes came to their table. His robes looked both rugged and well-travelled. He looked down at the four of them, smiling, as they looked up curiously. Something about this man struck Harry as unusual, and he quickly brought up a shield matrix, but held back the casting. “G’day, mates!” the man said cheerily. “Enjoying the day, are yous? A bit a’ tucker, eh?” He glanced at their nearly empty plates. They nodded suspiciously. “Well,” he rubbed his hands together enthusiastically, “I jest wanted to see if I’m a flaming galah for believing’ the furphy tha’ ya might be the famous Harry Potter.” He looked at Harry through narrowed eyes. “Ya dun look like him at all. Being furry and all, I mean. Never mind the horn and ears.” Harry blinked. He didn’t detect any violence in the wizard, but who knew? “Prince Harry James Potter Sparkle, actually,” he said quietly. “That’s what a Gringotts heredity parchment said.” “Gringotts, Eh?” He nodded his head decisively. “Can’t argue with them, can I?” He paused a moment staring intently at Harry. “Good on ya! Well, cheers,” he said, smiling. “Hooroo!” He started to turn to leave, then stopped and leaned close to Harry, instead. “A word to the wise,” he said in a low whisper out of the corner of his mouth. “Thar be dragons in the bush.” Just as quickly, he stood and walked away. Harry glanced at the girls, who stared at him and looked just as mystified as he felt. When he looked back into the main area of the pub, there was no sign of the man. He concentrated hard, but nothing out of the ordinary appeared in the room. The mysterious man hadn’t just cast a don’t-notice-me-field, or the wizarding notice-me-not version. He simply wasn’t in sight. He looked at the girls. “I think we should be very careful, the rest of the day.” They nodded their agreement. The four spent the rest of the afternoon in Tomes and Scrolls and Spintwitches Sporting Needs before heading back to the castle. The black dog Harry had noticed no longer hung around the shops, but Harry did see it watching them from a distance, and always from a position of almost hiding. It even followed them back to the Hogwarts gates. And then watched them until they were out of sight. Shortly after losing sight of the dog, Harry picked up a familiar scent. He stopped dead and just stood for a moment, sniffing the air, He knew that burnt smell. And it wasn’t just that of burnt wood. Considering the statement the man in Three Broomsticks had made, Harry was almost certain he knew what the next task would involve. Based on his readings, the dragons here were not very smart, compared to the wizards. Or were they? The books also called werewolves monsters and beasts that couldn’t be trusted — and every werewolf was a wizard before he became a werewolf! And werewolves were only wolves once a month, the rest of the time they were just like every other wizard or witch. So, figure that one out! Had anyone really tried to talk to the dragons, before? Or did they just assume the dragons were unreasoning monsters because they couldn’t speak English? That they were so solitary and reacted violently when they were disturbed probably didn’t help. He would have to find out tonight. “Is something wrong, Harry?” Hermione asked, breaking off her conversation with the other two. “Harry has discovered something important, the wrackspurts are very happy,” Luna said dreamily. The others glanced at her. “Well, yes, I think I know what the task will involve,” Harry finally said. “I’ll check it tonight.” Later, around midnight, and once everyone was definitely asleep, Harry snuck out of bed and crept carefully up to the top of the Gryffindor Tower. He pushed open the hatch on the roof and climbed up the ladder to look out across the valley around Hogwarts. Standing on one of the highest towers, looking out past the crenulations, he could easily see the stadium they must have built for the first task. It was hidden from direct view of the castle by the woods, but only just barely. That was not all he could see. Just where he had suspected, there was an encampment in the forest — much, much farther away and better hidden, but now visible — where he could see dragons. Not just from campfires of the dragons’ minders, but from the flames they, the dragons, occasionally let loose. Most, if not all, of the flames were directed at the ground. Very faintly he could shouting and roars, a human would never have heard them. They must have some sort of sound deadening magic at work to hide so much noise so close to the castle. Moments later, he was winging his way down for a closer look. As he got closer, it was easier to make out the details. He landed in a nearby tree, perching precariously on a thick branch. And just watched for several minutes Inside a fenced enclosure — thick planks of wood — were four fully-grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons. They were not a happy bunch, not that Harry could blame them. They roared and reared, and snorted torrents of fire into the dark sky, fifty feet above the ground on their outstretched necks. There was a silvery-blue dragon, with long, pointed horns, that snapped and snarled at the wizards trying to control it. The second was a green-scaled one, who writhed and stomped menacingly. The third was almost entirely red, with fine gold spikes in a fringe around its face. It shot mushroom-shaped fire clouds high into the air — those were what he had seen from the castle. The last was a gigantic black one, much more lizard-like than the others. It was closest to him. Seven or eight wizards were trying control each dragon, at least thirty in all, probably more. The wizards pulled chains connected to heavy leather straps around the dragons’ necks and legs. One wizard near the fence strained to control the chain he held on the black dragon. “Keep back, Hagrid!” he yelled. “I’ve seen this Horntail shoot fire forty feet or more!” Apparently the two knew each other. Harry watched, horrified, as the wizards, working together, brought down the four dragons and secured their chains to iron pegs driven deeply into the ground. He shuddered. Princess Ember would be absolutely furious! And Princesses Celestia and Luna wouldn’t be much calmer. These wizards weren’t just stupid, they were criminally insane! Even the little voice in his head that scoffed at the stupid wizards whenever he saw an adult with a wand in hand was silent. He listened as Hagrid and the wizard below discussed the dragons, and what the task might be. He thought the wizards must be quite mad. And seeing them bring eggs over to one of the dragons didn’t make things better. Nesting mother dragons. Even dragons walked carefully when in the presence of a female with eggs. Celestia! The best way to deal with a nesting mother was the same as dealing with an erupting volcano — be somewhere else! And they had four, here, together? Crazy! They had to be all crazy. The moment one got upset, the others would react and follow suit. Not long after Hagrid and Madame Maxime left, Harry wasn’t surprised to see Professor Karkaroff make a stealthy appearance. The only reason the heads of the schools could have for not knowing the task involved dragons ahead of time would be to keep them from warning their champions. And if they were here, snooping around, it wasn’t for idle curiosity. As Hermione had said, the tournament was renowned for its cheating. He continued to watch far into the night. He waited until the wizards were mostly asleep, then glided over the fence to hover near the Chinese Fireball. From what he remembered from the Care of Magical Creatures text, that one was the smartest of the bunch and her kind would even cooperate with each other on occasion. §Hey,§ he whispered, loud enough to attract her attention, he hoped. Her eyes slowly crept open and she glared at him balefully. §Can you understand me?§ he said. She blinked in surprise, but still regarded him suspiciously. §How do you know the noble language of Dragons, two-legs?§ Her eyes narrowed even further. §You don’t smell like a two-legs!§ He leaned back slightly, more upright, while still hovering. §Er,§ he said hesitantly, §I’m not. I’m a unicorn.§ He frowned, §Language of dragons? I was speaking Ponyish.§ Or was he? Had he been hissing? The dragon snorted and a puff of smoke shot out of her nose. This time there was a hint of amusement in her voice, §Ponyish? No, you were speaking Dragon.§ She studied him carefully, noting his wings, horn, furred face, and hooves poking out of his robe. §No unicorn has ever spoken Dragon. Or flown.§ He shook his head wonderingly, then landed on all fours and looked around nervously. §Look, I’m going to turn myself invisible so the two-legs don’t see me, okay?§ Not waiting for a response, he did so. Even though his robe was black, which made him difficult to see, he felt much better now that no one could see him blocking out the background if they happened to look this way. And standing still on the ground meant he wasn’t moving to give away the illusion. §Do you know what’s going on? Why you’re here?§ §No,§ she said angrily, §I was in my cave-nest in the mountains. Then I felt sleepy and when I woke, I was here, in a forest.§ She snorted in frustration. §My eggs were missing.§ She looked to her side and wrapped her tail closer to over her eggs. §And I had these chains on me. When I started to struggle, to find my eggs, they knocked me out. I want to go home to my mountain,§ she said plaintively. She glanced at her chains. §But I can’t.§ She looked around the enclosure. §And out here in the open, my eggs are in danger.§ she said darkly. §I’ll have to stay awake all night!§ She turned her head back to him. §There are many despicable creatures that would try to sneak into my nest and eat my eggs if I fell asleep!§ She glared at where she heard his breathing and voice. §Do you know why I’m here?§ she said suspiciously, with a narrow-eyed accusatory expression. §Uh, yeah,§ he said, nervously. §The two-legs have decided to have a contest. They want me and three two-legs to sneak by you. I don’t know if that’s all of you, or one at a time, or just one of you assigned to each of us.§ He glanced in the direction of her eggs. §And it has something to do with your eggs.§ She growled and smoke poured out. §My eggs!§ Her tail swept even closer to her body and eggs. He nodded. §Yes. Or else they wouldn’t have selected a nesting dragon, would they?§ She nodded slowly, the chain on her neck clinking, a deep, angry rumble coming from inside her. She glanced at the dragons to one side of her. He shifted uncertainly on his hooves. §Look,§ he said cautiously. §I don’t know what they really intend, but everything I’ve read says that the two-legs consider your eggs very valuable. I don’t think they really want to hurt either you or them. So, maybe every time you wake, you should carefully check your eggs to make sure they haven’t been tampered with?§ §Why are you telling me this?§ she asked suspiciously. §Like you,§ he explained, §I was brought here against my will.§ He scowled even though she couldn’t see him. §Unlike the other three contestants, I am being forced to take part. If I don’t, they will probably kill me. And while they are all considered adults, I am still a juvenile, they are all three years older than me.§ He looked up at the dragon. «Why wouldn’t I help a fellow prisoner?§ He paused. §And if you’re like the dragons at home, then it’s dragon-against-dragon in the mountains; and dragon-and-dragon against the ponies, if the ponies come into the mountains. And dragon-and-dragon-and-ponies against the world if anyone else interferes. And this is clearly dragon-and-dragon-and-pony against the two-legs!§ She humphed. §And what do you intend to do?§ §After warning you? As little as I can to satisfy their magical contract! I just want to get out of this alive.§ She stared at him, or at least, where she heard his voice, then chuckled bitterly. §Don’t we all.§ §Will you tell the others?§ he asked. §Dragon-and-dragon against the two-legs, as you said,§ she replied softly. §This coming daylight is Sunday. The following is Monday. The task is set for the day after that, Tuesday. I wish you luck. Please try not to kill me. Good-bye.§ He flapped his wings and headed back to the castle. Today wouldn’t be as bad, study-wise as he had feared. He only needed to concentrate on spells that were effective against dragons — a hair-thickening charm wouldn’t exactly do anything useful, now would it? And non-fatal spells, it wasn’t their fault that that had been dragged into this. And study their weak spots. ۸-_-۸ Sunday morning was difficult, as he had only managed four hours sleep before being awoken for breakfast. Then he and his tutors had met. “Dragons,” Harry explained. “We each have to get past a dragon. To do what, I don’t know. Hermione had stared at him, slack-jawed in shock. In fact, they all did. Except Luna. She said, “Oh, dear, even the nargles avoid dragons.” “The dragons I saw are a Chinese Fireball, Common Welsh Green, Hungarian Horntail, and a Swedish Short-Snout.” “Blast, are you sure?” Jonathan said softly, incredulous. “I heard a wizard named Charlie point them out and name them. Oh, and they’re nesting mother dragons with eggs.” Hermione’s mouth snapped shut. “The Weasleys have an older brother named Charlie. He works at a dragon sanctuary in Romania.” This was greeted with wide-eyed silence. Hermione suddenly grabbed Ginny’s hand. “We’ll be right back,” and ran out of their practice room. “Where’re you going,” called Liza as they disappeared out the door. “Library,” came the faint answer as their steps grew fainter. They looked at each other blankly. “I don’t know any spells that’ll do anything to a dragon, except annoy it,” Jonathan said, gobsmacked, as he looked at Liza. She just shook her head, numbly. “The Chinese Fireball was really mad, too. She told me they had no idea what was going on, and just wanted to go home.” The other three stared at him again, stunned. “Get stuffed,” Jonathan said under his breath, disbelievingly. “She told you?” Liza said, incredulously. Luna watched with wide-eyed interest. Harry shrugged. “I explained that they were supposed to be one of the challenges in the tournament, and it involves their eggs, for obvious reasons. There’s not much they can do, but at least they have warning, now.” Jonathan and Liza just stared at him, speechless for several minutes, blinking and glancing at each other. Jonathan summoned a couple of chairs and they both collapsed in them. “You can talk to dragons?” he finally said. Harry looked at the other two curiously. “Well, yes. Can’t you? My big brother, Spike, back in Equestria, is a dragon.” “Don’t you think Fantastic Creatures would have mentioned them speaking, if they could?” Harry rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right, just like the book mentions that werewolves are just normal wizards and witches who turn into dangerous creatures once a month, and are not horrible monsters that should be banished from society or immediately executed,” he said sarcastically. Hermione’s notes had been very good, as were her conclusions on that subject. There was an uncomfortable silence at that. Abruptly Hermione and Ginny returned, their arms loaded with books. “Here’s everything we could find on dragons,” the bushy-haired girl said breathlessly, floating an enormous load of books on one desk while Ginny did the same to another. She looked around the room, blinking at the dead silence that greeted their return. Harry sighed, walked over and grabbed a book at random. He set it on a desk, and cast the Hayscartes’ spell. When he came back out, he was greeted by five desks with open books. He sighed, the book he had been inspecting — Men Who Love Dragons Too Much — hadn’t been useful at all. He had been able to scan the entire book in that one excursion — he had been reading for usefulness, not content or memorization. Still, he would need to relax for a few minutes to give his brain a rest. He grabbed the next book, Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit, and plunged in By the time lunch rolled around, he also had read Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland, From Egg to Inferno: a Dragon-Keeper’s Guide, and four others, with no success. He now knew far more about dragon physiology, temperament, hygiene, and food preparation than he had ever wanted to learn. Unfortunately, the spells offered could be placed in only two piles: one pile were the small spells useful only for incidental things, like talon-clipping or treating skin surface issues, or spells that took tremendous amounts of power and several wizards and witches acting in conjunction, like the stunning spell he had seen demonstrated in the forest. There was nothing that a single pony, acting on their own, could manage to cast that simply wouldn’t annoy or infuriate the dragon. On the bright side, even if he forgot ninety percent of what he had read, he would still be one of the foremost pony experts on dragons when he returned to Equestria. “What do you mean, you can talk to dragons!?” Hermione hissed at him at lunch. Harry shrugged. “I just can.” She slammed her knife into the table and let go of it. She leaned close, staring intently into his eyes. “Every book we’ve read agrees, Dragons are not that smart! They only respond to simple commands. Like dogs,” she snarled. She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, dogs the size of a small house and can fly and breathe fire. But, still, no smarter than dogs.” Harry shrugged again, but stared at the knife with its point buried deeply into the wood and its handle quivering slightly. “Sorry,” he said, not sorry at all. “But she did say we were speaking the noble language of dragons.” He shook his head bewilderedly. “I thought we were speaking Ponyish, but she said we weren’t, so I don’t know what to tell you. We did have a nice conversation, though. Well, by dragon standards, at least.” Ginny was just as gobsmacked as the others had been. “Dragons have their own language,” she half-whispered, wonderingly. “Charlie is going to go spare when he hears that!” She turned and stared at Harry. “Do they understand English?” Harry frowned, with his third sandwich suspended in front of him. “Ya know, I don’t know. Unless they magically learn it somehow, someone has to go out of their way to teach them, probably. Maybe a few words, though. Just like you know ‘bonjour’ means hello and ‘oui’ means yes; both French words but you know what they mean because you’ve heard them so often. Especially this year.” He glanced at Hermione. “So maybe that’s why the dragons only respond to a few words. Nopony’s tried to teach them more.” Hermione, nodded, grimacing, while the others stared over at the blue-dressed Beauxbaton students. The blue-robed students looked back at them curiously. They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening immersed in the remaining books. ۸-_-۸