"How were your vacations?" Daphne asked the others as they sat in the compartment, headed back towards Hogwarts.
"Relaxing," replied Tracy. "I managed to spend several weeks with almost nothing odd happening to me. It was a nice change. I had almost forgotten what it was like."
"Speak for yourself. I merely traded Hari for my mother," said Blaise. "It's just a different kind of weird. Besides, my mom was celebrating the end of her mourning period."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. Her husband died right after their wedding. It was the day after the sorting. Natural causes." Blaise smiled wryly. "Fell up and down the stairs. Six times. Onto a pile of knives. From the guest house kitchen. And then buried in a shallow grave. Alive."
"That's natural causes?"
"That's what the medical examiner ruled. He said, 'given that I'm being dangled by one ankle over an active volcano, it was most definitely natural causes.' Or something like that." Blaise shrugged. "Besides, falling up and down a flight of stairs onto knives and then being buried alive naturally causes you to die."
The rest of the cabin was looking at him in a mix of horror and fascination.
"Actually, what he said was, 'marrying you counts as suicide.' I don't get why." He flashed them a smile. "Anyway, she was happy to be able to wear bright colors again. I think she's started dating a nice rich man."
The others shared suspicious looks. "That's . . . good?" managed Pansy.
"Maybe. We'll see." Blaise said mildly. His eyes got cold for a moment. "Of course, if he's mean to her . . ." He brightened. "But why borrow trouble. How was your time off, Pansy?"
"Eh." Pansy sighed. "I spent it with my parents. The only upside was that Malfoy wasn't invited." She grinned. "It was so nice to not have him around. On the other hand, my parents were there."
"So?" Millicent cocked her head. "What's wrong with that?"
"You people!" Pansy snapped. "Because of you lot, I started realizing how silly my parents sound. They don't seem to think even half-bloods might be worthy of consideration, let alone anything else. Never mind that Granger is the smartest student in our year."
"I had some great brawls with my mother," said Millicent. "We wrecked the living room."
"With your mother?" asked Tracy.
"Well yeah. My dad doesn't like fighting."
"Isn't your mom a foot shorter than you?"
"Yeah. Don't let it fool you, she's stronger than I am and more resilient."
"That's a thing."
The door slammed open and a frizz-haired ball of fury stormed in. "I am going to beat that jerk to a pulp!" she snarled as she dumped herself into the seat beside Blaise.
"Okay," he said placatingly. "Is there any chance you can elaborate?"
"Hari!" she hissed. "He sent me a packaged wrapped like a gift."
"What'd he get you?" asked Pansy.
"What?"
"He sent me a digital watch." Pansy held out her wrist, showing the device. "It keeps better time than magical ones. They're always based on the phase of the moon or something like that."
"He got you something?"
"Me too," added Tracy.
Hermione screamed. Blaise picked up a piece of parchment that fell from her hand. "Oh." He handed it to Daphne.
"'Oh' indeed." She handed it around.
Pansy began to snicker.
X
X
Hari leaned forwards and Hermione overbalanced, her swing sending her flying forward and the book in her hand into the mashed potatoes. "Hello, Hermione," he greeted her. "Welcome back from vacation." He absently avoided her badly aimed kick. "Did you make progress?" He blocked the thrown piece of roast by using the bowl in his hand.
"Stop moving!"
"Okay." Hari stopped moving and her attempt to hit him caused her to miss and smack Draco Malfoy in the back of the head. He went face-first into the stuffing.
"Potter!" Snape's voice cut through the chatter of students reuniting with friends who they hadn't seen for as long as two whole weeks and were, therefore, in need of shouting to each other the details of their vacations (the volume partly necessitated by the shouting being done by other groups of friends in competition for the available sonic wavelengths). "Twenty points from Slytherin for Granger hitting Malfoy."
Hermione stared at the book in her hand and then at the blond head otherwise lost in a mound of food. "Uh . . ."
"And a detention for Granger missing you."
Hermione flushed. "I'm getting detention?" she whispered.
"No," replied Blaise. "Hari is. I don't think Snape is really aware that there are students other than Hari when he's around."
"Don't worry, Hermione," said Hari. "I won't go to the detention, so you don't need to feel guilty."
"I wasn't feeling guilty." She glanced at Malfoy. "Except for not hitting you. I don't feel guilty about that, though, just frustrated."
"That's okay, then." Hari leaned back on the bench.
"Hari," began Millicent, "I want to thank you for the gift. They were so useful!"
Hermione's eye twitched.
Hari smacked his forehead. "That's right! Hermione, did you make progress like I told you to?"
Several forks launched themselves into the air. "No, I did not."
"You're still having the anger problem, are you?"
"Yes," she hissed.
X
X
"Where did you get that book?" asked Hermione as Hari sat across from her in the common room.
The book in question was quite . . . leathery—that was a good word for it—and had some dark stains on the brown cover. To make things worse, the whole thing smelled a bit chemical. "This?" Hari turned a page, not looking up. Or opening his eyes. "The library."
"I don't think I've seen it there."
"Have you been in the restricted section?"
"Of course not!"
"That's why, then."
"You . . . you . . ."
"I'll let you read it if you manage to levitate something without being mad at me." He turned another page, for the look of the thing more than because he actually needed to. "It's not so hard now that it stopped fighting me."
"I'll assume you don't have permission to read that book?"
"What's 'permission'?"
"Gah!"
"Focus on your task or I'll hit you with your wand again." The object in question was currently orbiting Hari in a neat elliptical.
Hermione glared at the pebble on the carpet.
"This isn't really all that advanced," commented Hari. "It's just some simple rituals. This one for growing extra arms is fascinating." He shifted the book in his hand, blocking the pebble. "Here's one that makes teeth even. Wow, it's just a bit of mouse blood and a few words."
The pebble fell to the floor. Hermione glared at it and then took a deep breath. "You promise to let me read it?"
"Of course. Carrot and stick."
The pebble wobbled as it rose, but it did rise.
"Very good, Hermione. Now you need to get it even."
"You said I could read the book."
"Yes. I'll let you read the page of your choosing. You can read the whole thing when you get things steady."
"The ritual for even teeth."
"Alright . . ." Hari held out the book. "You do know there's a second p—"
"Shut it, Potter."
"But—"
"Seriously. Shut it."
"Fine. Now get back to work."
"Or what? Ow! ICK!" Hermione covered her head as her wand struck her on the cheek.
X
X
Hari was standing on one of his favorite nighttime perches. The Astronomy Tower gave a good angle for him—specifically, it gave a clear line of fire for his stolen toy. He made sure to go up at least once a week and practice by shooting Acromantula in the forest.
It also allowed him to indulge in one of his other amusements: watching the progress of the dragon. Hari had noticed that the kindly idiot who worked as a groundskeeper had acquired a dragon earlier in the year and had been observing as it grew ever larger.
Somehow, everyone had missed the fact that it now took up most of the wooden hut that the man lived in. What was actually worrying was that no one spotted the six feet of anaconda-thick tail waving out the back door. Or the pile of broken cow bones by the front and the increasing supply of dung in the greenhouses.
Hari was coming to the conclusion that everyone was blind, since for the last week, there had been a pair of leathery wings that punched out the windows of the tiny building and flailed wildly. And the thing had been roaring and shooting fire out the door in twenty-foot bursts.
It was only a matter of time until . . . ah. The hut exploded into flames as the dragon bellowed and launched itself into the sky. It was about the size of a large summoned creature—not one of the boss-critters.
The gun at Hari's hip swiveled and fired with a crack and the twelve-point-seven millimeter round tore a grapefruit-sized hole out of the creature's left wing. He slung the rifle over his shoulder and grinned.
Just for the sake of trying, he fired Intelligent Hard Work at the dragon and gave it a boost with Pressure Damage. For a brief moment, there was a sun in the night sky over Hogwarts. When it had gone, Hari was unsurprised to find that there was an awful lot of dragon left. It was looking a bit ragged after the tearing effect of the wind attack, but it was still struggling to gain altitude.
Hari shrugged. Well, it wasn't like he'd expected it to die quickly. Instead, he fired a trio of False Darkness, blowing more holes in the dragon's wings, and then flicked a wind dragon to wind through the air and slam into the creature's flank.
It screamed as scales were ripped from its side. Then its hide began to tear away and a huge rent appeared as flesh was winnowed away by the slashing blades of the technique. Hari wished he'd figured out the lightning version of the dragon-attacks. It seemed like it would be really useful right now.
A Water Trumpet just knocked the stunned creature further off balance. An earth dragon launched itself up from the bank of the lake and spat mud-covered rocks that pummeled the beast. He gathered his chakra, deciding to end things after testing his techniques against something this magically resistant. It was pretty sure that he could put a metal spike through its head and kill it that way, but it might require more skill than he had now. Instead, he unleashed False Darkness again. The giant bolt vaporized the dragon's head and the decapitated corpse tumbled downwards, crashing into the burning remains of the groundskeeper's hut.
Hari yawned and decided to turn in.
X
X
"Potter," Professor Snape's voice on the other side of Hari's door sounded more exasperated than angry.
"Yes, Professor?"
"Get up."
Hari yawned and rolled off of the ceiling. He was impressed: he'd actually gotten to sleep before Snape started heading down the corridor and triggered him waking himself. As he opened the door, he put on a smile. "What can I do for you, Professor?"
"I'm nearly certain you are somehow involved in this latest incident, Potter. I have no evidence, of course." He grinned evilly. "However, as you are the cause of my being awake at two-thirty, you get to join me."
"Come again, Professor?"
"If I have to be awake, you have to be awake." Snape motioned for Hari to follow him as he began to walk towards the Common Room. "It's sad, really," he commented. "I had so enjoyed the two weeks without any incident that smacked of your touch. I knew it was too good to last, though."
"Sorry, Professor?"
"Yes, yes, I'll assume you denied it and move on. Any chance you'd care to guess what happens to have me awake at this hour?"
"No, Professor. Did another student run off to join the love-thing?"
Snape twitched. "No, Potter. It's remarkable, really. No students have gone missing. For once."
"Then I've got nothing."
"Of course you don't." Snape led the way to the entrance hall in silence.
"It's fascinating," Dumbledore was saying to McGonagall when they got there. "Apparently, Hagrid was keeping a dragon in his hut."
"Gosh, Professor Headmaster, was he?" asked Hari.
"So I gather. Everyone seems to have missed it, too." Dumbledore smiled slightly. "I've asked the staff and everyone says that they've seen nothing odd about the hut for weeks."
"Which," Snape added, "should really be a warning sign. Hagrid is always breeding something."
"From what I gather, the dragon was probably taking up most of the room in the hut. Which is why it has come as a bit of a puzzle that no one saw anything." Dumbledore twinkled as the staff, who were all studiously engaged in synchronized floor inspection.
"Since I'm coming into this a bit late," said Hari, "I follow that a dragon was being kept in someone's house. Fair enough. What I'm not understanding is what I'm doing awake."
"An excellent question," said Professor Sprout.
"I've come to my new rule," replied Snape. "If something has happened that requires me to be awake in the middle of the night, Potter can be awake too. I can't prove it's his fault, but I'm sure every time I've not had a night's sleep because of an incident of some sort or another, it's been because of him. So the least I can do is make him stay awake."
"It would appear that the dragon got free," answered Dumbledore. "And was trying to fly away from the burning home when it was set upon and killed. There are, therefore, the dual concerns that there was a dragon on the grounds without being noticed," the staff began to check the vaulted ceiling for mold, "and that something killed a dragon on school grounds . . . without being noticed.
"Therefore, there will be a search. Get the Prefects to help you. I want the school to be checked as best it can before morning. Don't engage if something threatens you, just call for Fawkes." He looked at Hari and winked. "I'm sure Mister Potter will offer his help as well. Since he's up." There was a slight edge in his tone that Hari last heard from his father.
"I guess I can, Professor Headmaster."
"Good. I, meanwhile, will head back to sleep." He smiled benevolently. "I have a lot of paperwork to get through in the morning. Dragons on the grounds alone will require a few days of time to sort out. And that doesn't include getting the permits after the fact."
X
X
The Great Hall was abuzz. Three houses were trying to find out what had happened to cause all that noise the night before. The only ones who had any idea were the Gryffindors who had been able to watch from their tower. Some of them. The redhead moron was holding forth that the battle between Giants and Dementors had kept them awake well into the night.
"It took forever to get back to sleep," muttered Pansy. "Whatever it was, we heard it in the dungeon. Good grief, it was loud."
Blaise slipped into the seat opposite Hermione. "There was a dragon flying over the lake."
"How do you know that?" asked Tracy.
"I asked." Blaise smiled. "A couple of second-year girls were willing to overlook my Slytherin-ness and tell me."
"How does that make all the noise?"
"Ah. From what I gather, something tore it to shreds and then killed it."
Hermione was turning a bit green. As were most of the others.
Hari finished his meal and shrugged. "That's about right."
"How do you know?" hissed Hermione.
"Professor Snape woke me up to help with the search." Hari set his bowl down and stretched.
"Why aren't you dressed properly?"
"I don't know how that's connected to what we were talking about, but I prefer this." Hari gestured to the outfit he'd taken to wearing over the break. "It's a little less . . . civilian."
"Potter." Snape's voice caused several of the older years to jump. "How fortunate that I came upon you as you were discussing your dress."
"I'm not wearing a dress, Professor."
"I'm not even going to entertain that one. You are, in fact, required by school rules to wear robes. It's part of the dress code."
"Oh."
"Indeed, Potter."
"Professor Headmaster!" called Hari. "I'm going to take a field trip this afternoon."
Dumbledore nodded and returned to his toast.
"I won't be in Transfiguration this morning, either," Hari informed his friends. "I'm going to get a bit of sleep."
X
X
"What are you wearing?" hissed Hermione at dinner.
Hari looked up. "Robes?"
"Those are not school robes."
Hari made a show of examining the garment. It was black, like school robes, but it had a somewhat more tubular shape, opening at the front. And there were all the red clouds on it. "You're sure?"
"Yes!"
"Loathe as I am to agree with Granger," muttered Pansy, "but she's right."
"Funnily enough . . ." Hari held up a finger. "I shall hold off on answering your questions so I can do so only once. Hello, Professors." Behind him, Snape and McGonagall were eying him with suspicion as distaste. "As I was about to explain to Hermione, these are technically school robes."
"An interesting position to take, Potter," Snape growled. "Considering that they are not, in fact, school robes."
"About that . . ." Hari smiled at Daphne and Tracy, across the table from him. "These are school robes. They have just been suitably tailored to my specifications. Oh, I think Professor Headmaster has some sort of announcement to make, we can continue this later."
There was a bang as Dumbledore stood up and fired his wand into the air. "Your attention please. Thank you. Miss Varence, I'm sure that whatever it is you are discussing with Miss Taber is quite interesting, but I happen to be speaking and, as Headmaster, I get to have everyone listen when I do. It's a special little perk of the job, so if you'll cease your yammering, I will take it as a kindness.
"Good. I would like to deal with the rumors that have cropped up regarding this morning's incident. I have no doubt that, in the best Hogwarts tradition, anything resembling fact has been carefully filtered out so as to avoid informing the unwary. I will have to unfortunately break that happy state of affairs, if only to get you think about your homework once in a while.
"At some time this morning, around two, a dragon which has been living in Rubeus Hagrid's hut decided that it was ready to leave the nest, if you will. It did so by tearing its way free of said 'nest'—Hagrid's home—and flying up into the air, leaving behind a burning ruin.
"A person or persons unknown at this point proceeded to bombard the dragon with high-level magic, ultimately destroying the creature by annihilating its head. I subsequently convened the staff and had a 'thorough' search of Hogwarts performed—not counting the various out-buildings, secret chambers, staff quarters, and so on—and can happily say that there was no unknown person that we know of in the castle to perpetrate the worrying damage to a magically resistant species. We have thusly concluded that it didn't really happen and so there is no need to be even a little bit worried about dangerous magical creatures being easily annihilated on school property without the perpetrator being discovered.
"Hagrid is currently in the process of rebuilding his house to be fireproofed, and any seventh years with skill in Runes would be welcome if they would offer their aid. I'm sure that you all have nothing to fear today that did not already terrify you yesterday.
"One last note: a new school policy. Going forwards from this point on, school robes may not be modified from their current states. I hope that clears up any issues. Now please go to bed, you can stand missing a meal or two."
"I guess we should go then," said Hari. "Shame we couldn't finish," he said to the Professors.