Hatchling

Charlie stared in shock at the newspaper sitting in front of him.  He couldn’t believe what he was reading.  Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, had disappeared and nobody had noticed until he hadn’t shown up to Hogwarts.  When Aurors had shown up at his relatives to investigate, they found that the savior of the wizarding world had been missing for three years already.  His aunt and uncle had been questioned by Albus Dumbledore himself and he had concluded that Harry had a bout of accidental magic and apperated to an unknown location.  No one had seen the boy since.  

The dragon tamer stared at the page unseeingly as he thought about his brother Ron.  He was the same age as the Potter boy.  He couldn’t imagine a 9-year-old Ron disappearing in the blink of an eye and having to find his way home on his own.  So many things could happen to a kid all alone, not to mention someone with such a target on their back like Harry Potter.  What if he had splinched himself?

In all likelihood, if the kid had not turned up by now he was probably already dead.  

Charlie went through the motions for the rest of the day.  He checked on the dragons using a specialized locator spell that told him the location of every dragon in the territory and their general vitals.  Everyone looked to be doing ok, besides the fledgling that had fallen and broken their wing trying to fly before her wings were fully developed.  Charlie had managed to get her stabilized, but her mother was refusing to go near her now that she smelled like him.  He would need to keep bringing her meat and change her dressing on her wing until she recovered.  Hopefully she would be able to teach herself how to hunt after that, it was unlikely that her mother would ever accept her back into the nest ever again smelling like a human.  She was probably on her own now.  

When he told his mentor Kert about the injured fledgling he had recommended giving her a swift painless death.  Most injured horntails were too dangerous to get close to to heal and were unlikely to survive on their own once they were rejected from their nestmates.  But Charlie had refused to give up on her.  

He was on his way to where the fledgling was healing when he stopped at one of the nesting mother caves.  He vaguely remembered the Hogwarts letter he had found inside this cave a few weeks back.  There was no way.  But… what if it was?  Any kid that accidentally apperated into a dragon cave was long dead.  There was no chance even if it had been Harry Potter’s letter that the kid would still be alive…

But the paper said he had been missing for three years.  If he had died three years ago, a Hogwarts letter never would have been sent.  Against his better judgment, Charlie went to investigate.  

***

Harry was taking a nap curled up in the nest with all of the other hatchlings snuggled in around him.  Mother had left to go hunt again and Harry was dozing with his head resting on the ledge of the nest facing the entrance.  Even in his sleep he was alert enough to keep an ear out for danger.  As the oldest hatchling, it was his job to look out for his brothers and sisters now.  

When he heard the sound of boots treading softly on the cave stones, he was instantly awake and ready for a fight.  An egg snatcher had tried to steal Harry from the nest not that long ago, just a month before his nest-mates hatched.  He had gotten very excited when he had found Harry in the nest next to the eggs and kept chattering so fast that Harry could hardly understand him.  It had been several years since he had spoken anything other than Draken and the man didn’t seem to care if he answered.  He just kept trying to touch his forehead and grab his hand.  

When Harry had tried to back away, the man had grabbed him.  Harry let out a distressed screech when he was picked up and tried to bite the man’s neck.  The big human yelled and pointed a stick at him and suddenly Harry was bound tightly in ropes.  Harry struggled but the man just threw him over his shoulder and took him away.  Harry had let out another frightened trill and sagged in relife when he heard his mother’s answering roar.  

The man had tried to run, but he didn’t get far.  Helga had swallowed the hatchling thief whole for trying to steal from her nest.  Harry still had an ugly scar on his side though, from when his mother had tried to cut him free from the ropes with her claws.  Harry was a very fragile hatchling and sometimes she forgot his scales were not as strong as hers.  

Harry hissed in warning as he watched the intruder walk into the egg chamber.  

***

Charlie could only blink as he stared at the sight before him.  In the middle of the room was a horntail nest made out of shiny stone that had been melted down and shaped into a perfectly shaped bowl of smooth glass.  And there surrounded by the razor sharp spines of multiple horntail hatchlings was a little boy with messy chin length black hair that had an array of tiny braids running throughout like a tiny norse warrior.  The little boy was covered up by the baby dragons like a pile of puppies, or maybe hedgehogs with how many spikes were pointed in every direction.  But what really caught his attention were the luminescent green eyes glaring daggers at him from over the rim of the nest.  

He tried to take another step closer, but as he did the child let out a deep rumbling growl that made a shiver run down his spine.  That was not a human sound.  That sounded exactly like a fledgling dragon about to attack.  He should know, he had been dealing with a temperamental female with a broken wing for several days now.  He lifted his hands to show he wasn’t armed, “Easy kid.  I’m not going to hurt you.”  

The boy gathered up the still groggy hatchlings and gathered them behind him protectively.  He watched Charlie warily, continuing to growl deep in his chest intermingled with a few angry churips.  Charlie knew not to mess with dragons when there were new hatchlings about and this kid had a look in his eyes just as protective as any nesting mother he had ever seen.  Slowly, Charlie backed up until he was against the wall.  Then he slowly sank to the floor to make himself look as non-threatening as possible.  “Not going to hurt you or the hatchling kido.  Just wanted solve a bit of a mystery.”  Honestly, Charlie didn’t know what he was doing here anymore.  

Even if this kid did turn out to be the missing boy-who-lived, he didn’t look like he wanted to leave.  And if he tried to take him back by force, the mother dragon would likely fight to protect him.  He could ask the other tamers for help but the only way to take a hatchling from their mother would be to kill her and if that happened then all the other hatchlings would die as well.  That wasn’t something Charlie was willing to risk.  

Still, the paper had said the kid had a family that had been looking for him for the past three years.  He might be able to sneak the child back to his family before the mother returned if he cooperated.  “I found a letter near the entrance of this cave and wanted to see if the letter belonged to a missing boy.  Are you by any chance Harry Potter?”  

The boy froze at the name, but did not show any more signs of recognition or that he even understood a word he was saying.  “Harry?  Your aunt and uncle have been looking for you for a very long time.  If you’re lost I can help you get ho-”

A bolt of red light shot from the child’s hand and Charlie just managed to throw himself to the ground in time to dodge it.  The wall behind him glowed red where the spell had impacted.  “No!  N-Not going b-back! Moma H-Helga sssaid I didn’t have to hurt anymore!”  

Charlie stood but kept his hand up in a show of peace.  “Hey, kid!  Nobody said anything about hurting you.  I just want to help you get home.”  

“Am home!  Helga protect from the bad nestmates that hurt me.  Not going!”  

Charlie looked closely at the boy.  His face was set in a stubborn scowl, but his hands were trembling and his green eyes were filled with fear.  Not of the man eating dragons around him, but of monsters much worse.  Something in the back of Charlie’s mind clicked.  “Ok,” he whispered.  “Ok, you don’t have to go back.  I won’t make you go back if you are safe here.”  

He watched as the boy seemed to relax.  “Good,”  he said with a happy nod.  “Now go.  Moma come back soon.  She will not be kind.”  

Charlie stood.  He wasn’t stupid enough to stay and get caught in the horntails cave by an enraged mother dragon.  But he paused, he couldn’t just leave the kid alone here forever.  He turned and looked at the boy again, “I will come back to check on you, ok?  I won’t tell anyone you’re here, but other people might try to take you back.  I will teach you what you need to know to protect yourself and your family.”  

The boy watched him carefully.  Those eyes were far too wary for a child, but he would need that if he was to stay free from the eyes of the wizarding world.  The people in power would never allow the savior of their world to live out of their reach and if they discovered that he had chosen dragon kind over their own, they would stop at nothing to bring him back under their control.  Charlie would not let that happen.  

After a long moment Harry nodded, “You come back.  I tell mother not to eat you, but if you hurt dragons I will kill you.”  

Charlie nodded and left as quickly as he could.  He had already been here too long as it was.  

***

Harry watched as Charlie tried to convince Ronith to fly with the other yearlings.  It had already been more than a year since the young female had fallen and broken her wing.  Charlie had nursed her back to health, but Ronith had ended up bonding extremely strongly with the tamer and now was refusing to join back with the rest of the dragons her age.  Harry giggled as the young dragon turned her nose up at making friends with the other dragons and snuggled into the tamer’s side instead.  She had even started sleeping outside his outpost’s door and as a result Charlie still had yet to gain any other tamers to help him here.  None of the other tamers wanted to stay in a base with a temperamental juvenile horntail mere inches from the door to their home.  

Not that Harry minded having Charlie all to himself.  The young tamer had started teaching Harry about the wizarding world a year ago when they first met.  He had learned a variety of spells and potions using Charlie’s old school books.  He had also taught him about his supposed role in the wizarding world as the one who defeated the dark lord and as an heir to the house of Potter.  Not that Harry really cared.  He never wanted to go anywhere near the other wizards and leave his family.  Charlie was ok, for a human, but Harry much preferred the company of dragons.  

Charlie however, insisted he learn how to manage his responsibilities.  He himself was going to inherit the Prewitt seat, while his brother Bill would inherit the Weasley seat.  So Harry was forced to learn about wizarding history and its politics.  If nothing else, it might help Harry protect the other dragons from wizards plotting to enslave them like they had in the past.  

In the past year, Harry had improved greatly in his wandless casting.  He refused to use a wand, especially now that he knew that wands used parts of magical creatures as a focus for the user's magic.  

One of the only fights Harry had ever had with Charlie was when he discovered that the tamer’s wand held a dragon heartstring core. Harry had nearly burned down half the forest before Charlie had explained. Apparently, all the dragon reserves had a standing treaty with all the dragons that allowed them to harvest potion ingredients, wand cores, and leather once a dragon dies before the dragon took the rest of the remaining for their morning rituals. Many years ago, there was a dragon singer, a human that could speak draken, who negotiated the treaty between the two sides. This agreement allowed the dragons to live in protected areas without restraint while the wizards received the magical items they coveted without risk to the dragons themselves. 

The money from the goods helped fund the reserves and discouraged poaching through laws and regulations. Not to mention a steady supply of merchandise meant that the cost of goods was not high enough to make the money worth the risk to the poachers' lives. Only the desperate or the foolhardy tried to hunt dragons anymore. Although, egg snatching for potion ingredients was on the rise as they were not something any dragon would willingly part with. 

As the peaceful days drifted by, Harry got more comfortable with dragon tamer and he began helping him with his chores around the outpost. They worked together to help clean the nesting mothers’ caves, Harry going in to clean closer to the nests since the other dragons were more comfortable with “the odd hatchling” near their eggs than a stranger. Harry helped Charlie heal the dragon when they got injured, keeping them calm and explaining what the tamer was doing to keep them from snapping at the red-head. He even cooked for the dragon handler from time to time. It was one of the few thing Harry remembered enjoying from his old life, and Charlie was a disaster in the kitchen after having his mother cook for him his whole life. 

Harry snickered again as he watched Ronith flick her tail dismissively at the tamer. “Why should I have to fly with those reckless idiots!  I would much prefer to keep my four claws on the ground.”  

In the month since Ronith’s wing had fully healed, she had continually refused to leave the ground. Sure, she would glide from perch to perch and flutter her wings to reach other landings, but she hadn’t really flown. After such a traumatic accident at such a young age Harry couldn’t blame her, but she needed to fly to survive. 

If only Charlie could talk to her himself. Ronith wouldn’t listen to a word Harry said, but she acted like Charlie had hung the moon and stars just for her. If he were the one telling her that she needed to fly and leave the nest, maybe then Ronith would finally listen.  It would also mean that when Charlie found himself in dangerous situations with the other dragons that he would be better protected.  Dragons respected the human dragon singers.  They instinctively knew that the humans that spoke their tongue were their best chance to maintain the tentative peace they had with wizard kind.  It was one of the only reasons the other dragons hadn’t banded together to kill and eat Harry when he first “infiltrated the clan.”  The elder dragon had forbade them from outright hunting him after he had discovered Harry’s gift.  Some dragons still tried throughout the years, but Helga was a strong female who protected her nest with a viciousness that quickly taught the others that such a small mouthful of meat was not worth the risk to their lives.  

In the last year though, Harry had discovered more than one dragon stalking Charlie when he was out on his rounds.  Harry had chased them off with his magic, but he couldn’t always be there to protect the dragon tamer.  The mere thought of one of his kin hunting Charlie down and snapping him up like unsuspecting prey had Harry begging his magic for a solution.  

He watched as Ronith gave a startled scratch of alarm as Charlie fell to the ground clutching his throat.  Harry rushed forward, terrified that he had hurt his friend.  Charlie’s eyes were tearing up with pain as he rasped, “What wasss that?  My throat feelsss like itsss on fire.”

Harry grinned like a maniac as he heard his friend speaking draken for the first time, but his smile quickly fell as the world around him started to spin.  Maybe I asked a little too much of my magic, he thought as the world went dark.