Chapter 2
Chaser lounged in a tree, trying to take a good nap.
Her ear twitched at the sound of the crackling of leaves and she internally groaned when a strong voice called out, “Mera!”
Sighing and saying goodbye to her peaceful nap time, Chaser got up and flew back to the ground, landing softly on the ground in front of the teen she knew well.
Bright green eyes with golden flecks looked into her purple eyes, a frantic light within them.
“I think it's happening now! I'm in pain! I don't know how much longer I can hold on,” Harry admitted, looking a cross between ashamed and worried.
Chaser stood up to her full height, which easily left them eye to eye. She pushed as much calm into her mental voice as she consoled, “Then let go. I am here, cub.”
And just like that, whatever stubbornness that had kept Harry going deflated into relief and he collapsed on the ground. Shivers and trembles wrecked his body and he gave a long moan which turned slowly into a screaming howl.
It seemed it really was happening.
Harry was finally inheriting.
Standing vigil over the teen, the nytura couldn't keep her thoughts from straying back to the years of watching and helping Harry grow, starting with that horrible night.
After stealing away with Harry, Chaser had went to the only place she knew they would both be safe. To her parents at Potter Manor.
The pair of nytura had been in mourning since their entire circle died a year before. They stayed near the home they protected and refused to leave.
Now Chaser wasn't part of her parents' little pack of two, but she had met them multiple times while visiting Potter Manor with James. And she knew they were trustworthy.
Chaser needed trustworthy.
So she had lifted the toddler barely smaller than her and flew to Potter Manor. It was hard and slow going, especially since Harry was fussy and distressed.
The long flight eventually ended when Chaser took herself and Harry through the impenetrable wards of Potter Manor.
Her parents met her immediately and Chaser had rushed through an explanation of what happened. The two had listened to her account and then asked what she wanted them to do about it.
“Can you help me raise him here at Potter Manor?”
The words had stunned the elder pair of nytura. Raise a dragel toddler? By themselves and no circle? It sounded impossible. When they asked her about the rest of her circle, Chaser's tail had lashed in her anger as she spit out what Sirius had done and that the beta, Remus, had been away on a mission most of Harry's life.
So with an unreliable circle, Chaser had taken the situation into her own paws.
Her parents had shared a long look before looking at the exhausted and unhappy toddler. They warned her it would not be easy.
Chaser knew that. She may not be much older than Harry, only a few years old, but she had spent a lot of it watching her circle raise Harry. She knew it would be downright challenging to raise a dragel child.
But she was the only one he had left.
Eventually her parents agreed and Chaser felt a weight lift off her. She wouldn't have to do it alone.
And true to her parents' words, raising Harry was beyond difficult. He adapted to the presence of nytura instead of adults of his own species relatively easily, in the flexible way kids were. And when his first werewolf transformation appeared at four, suddenly he had four paws and strong pack instincts just like them.
Thankfully the portraits within Potter Manor were eager to help teach the boy dragel and human things, and there were clothes from previous Potter children in the manor (though getting him to wear them was another challenge).
The years had been tough and certainly not the 'right' way a child should be raised, but she was pretty proud of the result of her actions.
Harry was alive and safe and happy.
After several hours of intense screaming and howling, Harry finally stopped, drifting off into unconsciousness. Chaser looked down at her now transformed pseudo-son. Black and gold scales were scattered lightly across his skin. And on his back were two large wings, pitch black with what looked like pretty golden cracks on them.
Harry was beautiful.
She could tell he was an alpha and was secretly happy for him. Ever since Harry was a kid he had admired the idea of alphas and wanted to be one when he grew up. Chaser figured it was the wolf in him wanting to be the leader of a pack.
Chaser stayed by his side on the forest floor until he eventually woke back up groggily.
“Is it over?” he croaked.
Chaser nuzzled his head.
“Yes.”
The boy slumped his body in relief.
“That was horrible, Mera.”
“It's a fact of life, cub. And now it's over and done with.”
Harry grumbled before stiffening then bolting up and whirling around, trying to see his wings.
“You're an alpha, Harry,” she told him, pride in her voice.
“An alpha,” Harry muttered wonderingly before letting out a loud whoop and doing a happy little jump. “Yes!”
Chaser watched on with amusement at the cub's excitement.
Just then, disturbing the happy family moment, a swirling portal appeared near them, slipping through the impenetrable wards easily.
A man with black hair and dark eyes stepped through.
Chaser was immediately in front of her cub with a vicious snarl. She soon felt her parents' arrival and all three nytura had the strange dragel surrounded.
She would not let this stranger touch her Harry when he was still vulnerable from his inheritance.