Cursed

Everyone heard it.  It would have been difficult not to.  The sound rent the air like something primal, sending an extra bolt of fear through every creature within earshot.

“What the hell was that?” Ginny was the first to find her voice.

“I told you!” Professor Trelawney gabbled.  “I told you to stop him before he could summon it!”

“Sybil, what are you talking about?” Professor McGonagall asked, her voice clipped and angry.

“I had a vision,” Professor Trelawney declared, waving her arms dramatically.  “That the fear of the one returned to us would summon something ancient and terrible…”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Professor McGonagall cut her off.  “It’s not a monster!”

“It’s…” Hermione’s eyes widened, and she caught first Harry’s eye, and then Ron’s.  They were both looking like they’d heard something familiar that they couldn’t place.  All three of them realized at the same moment.

“It’s a dragon!” they all exclaimed, looking skyward to see if they could spot it.

“What if she’s right?” Hermione hissed.

“Who?” Ron frowned.

“Professor Trelawney?” Harry asked, incredulous.

“What if it attacks?” Hermione insisted.

“He’s not here for that,” Luna said, facing north and staring into the sky, her face strangely abstracted.  “He’s here to help.”

Jack took comfort in Luna’s words and continued to send reassurance along the bond to Ianto.  He refused to look towards his lover, knowing that seeing the younger man’s precarious hold on the broom would reignite his own panic.  He felt Luna’s hand grasp his shoulder, and he put his hand over hers as she offered him additional comfort and reassurance.

Ianto had known the sound as soon as he heard it.  There was a dragon nearby, and now he could hear it speaking to him.  It was so strange, because he knew it wasn’t actually speaking – it felt very much as it had with the unicorns.  Some sort of telepathic communication. 

These weren’t coherent thoughts, of course.  Ianto was trying too hard to hang onto the murderous broom to entertain anything more articulate than Dragon! and Somebody please help me!  He was beginning to feel a bit ill, to be honest.  And his hold on the broom was beginning to weaken.

But then he heard the dragon again.  Not the throaty, bellowing roar it had let out before, but the voice in his head, which sounded like two great stones grinding together.  It was a rough, harsh sound, and yet it was warm and full of comfort.  Ianto felt Jack’s calming influence and was finally able to grasp the meaning of the words being spoken in his head.

Be calm, brother.  Take a breath.  You are safe.

“Like hell I am!” came Ianto’s spluttering protest.  It was met with what Ianto could only describe as a chuckle.

I am close.  Almost there.  You do not need to hang on for much longer.

“What do you mean?” Ianto tried to hug the broom closer, but the bulk of his body weight was pulling against his arms and legs, and he was becoming very tired.  He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hang on.

I will reach you in a few moments.  When I am close, I will let you know when you can let go.

“Let go?” Ianto asked, feeling another jolt of fear.  “I don’t want to fall, but I can’t get this bloody broom to go back down.”

You will be fine.  I am almost there.  Breathe, Little Brother.  Try to calm yourself.

Ianto vaguely heard his friends let out an exclamation from the ground.  He looked towards the north, somehow knowing that to be the direction the dragon was coming from, and saw it flying towards him, though it was still too far away to make out any details. 

He screwed his eyes shut and tried to hold onto the broom, but it was like the bastard thing had become possessed.  It was vibrating violently, swinging back and forth, and shaking up and down.  Ianto wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on.  He drew in a deep breath, and then another, trying to calm himself as the dragon had instructed.

The broom gave a huge vertical jolt, and Ianto’s legs came loose.  He heard his friends cry out from the ground, but he was too busy trying to hold on to pay them any heed.  He now had the broom handle in both hands, and he felt his sweaty grip weakening.

“I’m going to fall!” he shouted.

When I tell you, let go of the broom.

“What?  No!” Ianto said.

I am almost there.  I will catch you, Little Brother, I promise you.  But you must trust me and let go when I say.

“I don’t want to fall!” Ianto said, knowing he was about to do just that.  Unless he let go.  In which case he would still fall, but presumably the dragon intended to catch him.  “I don’t want to do this!” he amended.

Your choices are limited, Little Brother.

The dragon almost sounded amused, and in other circumstances, Ianto might have shared the laugh.  But his terror was still too real.  He felt his hand slipping, but he was afraid to let go to try to get a better grip.  His arms were so tired, he knew if he let go, he would lose his hold on the broom, altogether.

Almost there.  Remember, when I say. 

“I’m slipping!” Ianto shouted, realizing he wouldn’t be able to hold on very much longer.

Almost there.  Hang on another few seconds.

“I… can’t…” Ianto watched in horror as the broom handle began slipping from his grasp.  “Gonna… faaaahhhhhhh,” he screamed as his fingers finally came loose and he began to fall.

Jack had opened his eyes and was watching in horror as the broom shook Ianto’s legs loose.  He hung there by his hands for what seemed like an eternity before he lost his grip and began to fall with a terrified scream.  But with a whoosh of wings and another roar, the dragon arrived.  It dove sharply and managed to get under Ianto in time to catch him, mid-fall.

Jack felt the physical jolt of Ianto’s landing, followed by a flood of profound relief.  He could see that Ianto had landed on the dragon’s shoulders, well above its wings.  He wrapped his arms as far around the dragon’s neck as they would go and was holding onto the creature for dear life.

Jack could feel Ianto’s excess adrenaline, and it made him feel a bit queasy.  He watched, waiting for the dragon to land, but it kept flying.  Jack realized it was headed towards the Forbidden Forest, and he knew with sudden certainty where they were going.  He took off running, hoping he could find the clearing within the stone circle in the light of day.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione began to follow, but Luna called them back.  “This is the final piece that is needed for Ianto to allow the dragon’s blood to settle within his system.  I imagine it will be a private discussion, very much like the one he had with the blessing.”

Ron looked skyward.  “I don’t see any others.  You don’t think a whole thunder of dragons will show up for this, do you?”

“The whole blessing came to meet him because the unicorn whose blood Ianto was forced to consume was one of its members.  The dragon’s blood is different.  Only a small amount was taken, and from a fairly old dragon in Wales.  I’m not sure this will be a comparable experience.”

“Are they safe?” Harry asked, watching where Jack had just entered the forest.

“They are both safe,” Luna confirmed.  “But I’m not sure how Ianto will be, when they emerge.”  She turned to Professor Trelawney, her eyes uncharacteristically hard and angry.  “He was meant to be safe here, but he was attacked.  Again.”

“I’m sorry!” Professor Trelawney exclaimed.  “I couldn’t see that it was a dragon.”

“And you couldn’t see that it was your actions that guaranteed its arrival?” Ron asked hotly.

“No, that’s not true,” Luna sighed.  “I can see that its home is a good number of miles to the north; it never would have arrived in time to help us if it had only left when Professor Trelawney attacked.”  She went on, ignoring the professor’s protests.  “No, it started heading this way the second Ianto started to panic.”

“And when was that?” Hermione asked, fascinated.

“When we refused to listen to his protests at breakfast,” Luna sighed.  “We violated his trust when we ignored his arguments.  He was terrified, and we should have seen that.  But we didn’t, and he was probably low-level panicking from the moment he heard that we were doing flying lessons, today.  And it was his panic that summoned the dragon, who came to help Ianto, though I don’t think the dragon realized…”

She trailed off, that abstract, vacant expression returning.  “It did know,” she breathed.  “It has been aware of Ianto’s presence and has been waiting for the right moment for them to meet, but Ianto’s panic presented a moment sooner than expected.”

Professor McGonagall thought back to the morning’s breakfast table, and Ianto’s pallor and protests.  “We shall apologize when he returns from the forest.  You are certain they are in no danger?”

“I’m sure,” Luna nodded.

“That spell has done my head in,” Ron said, looking from Harry to Ginny, who both nodded their agreement.  “I could do with a cuppa.”

Luna and Hermione agreed, and soon the five friends set off for the great hall to have some refreshments as they waited for Ianto and Jack to return.  Professor McGonagall and Madam Hooch, who had rejoined them with her broom just as the dragon caught Ianto, escorted a contrite Professor Trelawney back to the castle, as well.

“Seems you had an actual vision,” Madam Hooch remarked, looking at Professor McGonagall, who was stalwartly silent, knowing this was likely only the third legitimate vision the Divination teacher had ever had. 

Minerva didn’t hold with Divination, it was true; but that was mostly because Sybil had developed the nasty habit of overcompensating.  She’d had so few authentic visions that she had begun… supplementing her teachings with other, less reliable trappings and in doing so had descended into the cliché.

But Divination was a legitimate field of study, and she was sorry she had never made that distinction between the subject and its trappings more clear for the likes of Hermione Granger, who to this day had a blind spot in the form of a stubborn refusal to take the art of Divination seriously.  She was learning; Luna Lovegood’s talents were not to be ignored, so Minerva could only hope that she showed Luna and other Seers the respect they deserved so as not to adversely affect her own career.

“I’m sorry!” Sybil sobbed into a handkerchief she had withdrawn from her robes.  “I didn’t see it; I only heard it, and I didn’t know what it was.  But it was such a primal sound; I panicked.”

“Plenty of that going around,” Madam Hooch remarked, though she was not unsympathetic to Mr. Jones.  In fact, she was finding the opposite to be true.  “He was terrified, and yet he got on that broom and pushed off, anyway,” she shook her head, begrudgingly impressed.

“Yes,” Professor McGonagall nodded.  “But we know he is brave, from the war, and his work with Torchwood.  And the Lost Year.”

“Oh, of course,” Madam Hooch nodded.  “But this was something different.  He has worked hard to overcome his childhood fears, but his fear of heights is profound.  He did not want to do this lesson today, but he did it, anyway,” she smiled.  “The boy has moxie.”

“Indeed,” Professor McGonagall replied.  “But we still owe him an apology.”

“Most definitely,” Madam Hooch concurred.

“Me most of all, I think, “Sybil added.

“I believe he will understand,” Professor McGonagall tried to console.  As annoyed as she was with Sybil’s interference, it was done now, and it could not be undone.  If recent experience with the blessing was anything to go by, this encounter would be necessary in order for the dragon’s blood in Ianto’s veins to settle, but she wished the morning’s events hadn’t been quite so frightening or traumatic, for Mr. Jones.

***