Chapter 144: 128: Lesser Dragons

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"Hey, Harry," Sirius cornered him in a corner one day as he was heading to his next class with his friends.

"Oh, hey, Sirius," Harry greeted him as did Hermione, Neville, Lavender and his other friends.

"Good to see you all," Sirius nodded his head to them. Then turning to face him, he whispered, "I have a lead on what the first trial is."

"What is it?" Harry asked as he perked up.

"Just make sure your follow Hagrid all day and you will have our answers," the wizard answered mysteriously. Breaking off, he smiled at them and spoke, "I best be getting to my class," and with that he left.

Coming up to him, Hermione asked, "What was that all about?"

"The Triwizard tournament," Harry simply answered.

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Today, all students in the third year and above were permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade.

Leaving the castle grounds, Hermione hurried up to catch up to him. "What does following Hagrid have to do with the Triwizard tournament?" she asked, bringing up the topic from earlier.

"Don't know," Harry shrugged his shoulders, "but Sirius must have uncovered something for him to tell me to follow Hagrid all day."

"I still do not like it," Hermione said wrinkling her noise a bit. "Cheating like this..."

"Well if the competition is doing it, why not us," Harry shrugged his shoulders, "and who knows this might be part of the tournament, uncovering the first trail all on your own."

"Fine," Hermione said, "why don't we go and have a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, it's a bit cold, isn't it?"

"Sure, my treat," Harry said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder.

The Three Broomsticks was packed, mainly with Hogwarts students enjoying their free afternoon, but also with a variety of magical people Harry rarely saw anywhere else from hags, elves, goblins, werewolves, ghosts, dwarves, and other magical beings.

"Look, it's Hagrid!" Hermione pointed out the half-giant.

Turning around and looking at the back of Hagrid's enormous shaggy head, Harry smiled to himself and whispered, "got you!"

Harry edged slowly toward a spare table in the corner with Hermione in tow that provided a good outlook on the whole establishment. He saw plenty of Hogwarts students were in as they chatted away and played around.

It wasn't long before the owner of the inn, Madam Rosmerta came up to them. She was a very attractive witch with a curvy figure, well endowed assets, and a pretty face that went with a beautiful smile. She was the perfect imagination of so many Hogwarts boys who fancied her.

"What can I get you lover birds?" she asked as she drew up short to them.

"We aren't lovers... or anything like that," Hermione blushed a bright pink as she nearly hide into her winter cloak.

"Really?" the older witch asked, "Then why didn't you say. I always did have my sights on your little hero. I didn't want to be that sort of woman and steal him from you, but now..."

"You can't have him," Hermione nearly shouted.

"Why not?" both Harry and Madam Rosmerta asked her.

"You did say we weren't lovers or anything like that," Harry grinned, "so I would imagine I am free to pick and choose as I wish."

"Shut up," Hermione said, then looking at Madam Rosmerta, she ordered, "just get us two butterbeer, that would be all."

"Alright," Madam Rosmerta smiled, "will be up shortly."

Watching as she left, Harry watched as Hermione start to mutter like an angry demon. "The gull on that woman, going after students like that. Does she have no shame?"

"Well I would imagine it can get lonely running an inn all by yourself," Harry voiced.

"You shut up," Hermione repeated as she pointed a finger at him to silence him.

"Hey," Harry said in a falsely hurt tone, "you are the one who said we aren't lovers, when I clearly think of you as more than that," he whispered to her as he placed his hand over hers.

Quickly drawing her hand away, she looked everywhere except at him and muttered in a low tone. "Let's think about the stuff later, maybe after we graduate and get our careers started,"

Not having any time to respond, Harry watched as Hagrid made to get up and start to leave. "Let's go," Harry said, "Hagrid is on the move."

Picking up their cloaks, Harry and Hermione made to go, but Madam Rosmerta called out, "Your drinks, where are you going?"

"We will have to go," Harry said as he took the drinks from her hands and put some galleons in their place.

"But... but this is too much," Madam Rosmerta said as she saw the gold in her hands.

"Keep the change," Harry said as he watched Hagrid step out the door.

"Hey, Harry," Fred called out, "where are you going. Come on let's give you a toast as the Gryfindor school champion!"

"Yea, come on," George said.

"Sorry, really busy," Harry called out as he pushed his way through the crowd, hoping they wouldn't lose Hagrid.

Finally stepping out of the inn, Harry ran into a large figure and looked up to see Hagrid staring down at him.

"Hey, Hagrid," Harry smiled at the gentle giant, trying not to act suspiciously.

"Hi, Hagrid," Hermione waved at the giant as she came into step behind him, she really wasn't doing a good job of not acting suspiciously at all as she kept on twitching and looking nervously about.

"Yer really needs to do a better, Harry, even a lumbering ogre is more quiet than yer," Hagrid shook his shaggy beard.

"Yea, well I..." Harry said coming up short with excuses as he awkwardly scratching the back of his head.

Hagrid beamed down at Harry and bent down on the pretext of picking up butterbeer from off his hand, and said in a whisper so low that only Harry could hear it, "Meet me tonight at midnight at me cabin. Wear that cloak."

Straightening up, Hagrid said loudly, "Nice ter see yeh, Hermione," winked, and departed.

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"Why does Hagrid want me to meet him at midnight?" Harry mused out loud. "I wonder what he's up to?"

"I still do not like it," Hermione crossed her arms around her chest. "Cheating and all..."

"Yeah well if I want to make it through alive I guess I have to bend some rules," Harry shrugged. He was very curious to know what this might be; Hagrid had never asked Harry to visit him so late at night.

"Let me come with you," Hermione said, "you could use the back up."

"Well..." Harry said, "I don't think we will be able to fit under the cloak anymore. We have grown a lot."

"You're right," Hermione shook her head, then smiling she remarked, "I was still thinking we were little kids like back then. But now we really have grown by a lot."

"Yea we did," Harry smiled too, remembering the good old days of his first year. "Best be going now," Harry said, "take care," he added as he pressed a light kiss on her cheek which had her blushing like a maiden.

At half past eleven that evening, Harry, began to get ready, pulling out his Invisibility Cloak and racking it over himself, he silently headed out of his private quarter and crept back downstairs through the hallways, Quite a few people were still up.

The Creevey brothers were working on new badges dedicated to him and had a whole box of them they planned to pass around. They were able to bewitch them to make them say Support Harry Potter! He is the true winner.

Harry crept past Argus Filch and his accursed cat which looked around as if sensing him. "What is wrong, Mrs. Norris?" the unpleasant man asked his cat.

Harry waited for a minute or so as they looked around but gave up in the end when they didn't see anything. Keeping an eye on his watch, Harry moved along and headed out the castle gates.

The grounds were very dark. Harry walked down the lawn toward the lights shining in Hagrid's cabin. The inside of the enormous Beauxbatons carriage was also lit up; Harry could hear Madame Maxime talking inside it as he knocked on Hagrid's front door.

"You there, Harry?" Hagrid whispered, opening the door and looking around.

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"Yeah," said Harry, slipping inside the cabin and pulling the cloak down off his head.

"What's up?"

"Got summat ter show yeh," Hagrid whispered.

There was an air of enormous excitement about Hagrid. He was wearing a flower that resembled an oversized artichoke in his buttonhole. It looked as though he had abandoned the use of axle grease, but he had certainly attempted to comb his hair — Harry could see the comb's broken teeth tangled in it.

"What are you showing me?" Harry asked warily, wondering if the skrewts had laid eggs, or Hagrid had managed to buy another giant three-headed dog off a stranger in a pub.

"Come with me, keep quiet, an' keep yerself covered with that cloak," Hagrid said. "We won' take Fang, he won' like it one bit..."

Harry knew right away he did not like that one bit, although Fang was a coward at heart he at least had the sense to avoid dangerous things which Hagrid never did.

The half giant opened the cabin door and strided off into the night. Harry hurried to follow and found, to his great surprise, that Hagrid was leading him to the Beauxbatons carriage.

"Hagrid, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Shhh!" Hagrid said, and he knocked three times on the door bearing the crossed golden wands. Madame Maxime opened it. She was wearing a silk shawl wrapped around her massive shoulders. She smiled when she saw Hagrid.

"Bonjour," Hagrid said, beaming at her, and holding out a hand to help her down the golden steps.

"Ah, 'Agrid... it is time?" Madame Maxime closed the door behind her, Hagrid offered her his arm, and they set off around the edge of the paddock containing Madame Maxime's giant winged horses, with Harry right behind them running to keep up with their giant steps.

He couldn't wipe the grin off his face as he was happy that his friend finally found the one. However had Hagrid wanted to show him his new girlfriend, Madame Maxime? No, it couldn't be it.

It seemed like Madame Maxime was in for the same surprise as Harry, because after a while she said playfully, "Wair is it you are taking me, 'Agrid?"

"Yeh'll enjoy this," Hagrid said, "worth seein', trust me. On'y — don' go tellin' anyone I showed yeh this, 'lright? Yeh're not s'posed ter know and I could get in trouble with Dumbledore."

"Of course not, my lips are sealed" Madame Maxime smiled, fluttering her long black eyelashes.

It wasn't long before they walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight. Harry paused as he could have sworn he heard something. Men were shouting up ahead and then there came a deafening, earsplitting roar that split the air. A roar of a creature he knew so very well.

Hagrid led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt. Harry hurried up alongside them — for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires, and men darting around them — and then his mouth fell open.

Dragons!

12 fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring, and snorting — torrents of fire were shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, 30 feet above the ground on their outstretched necks.

They were nothing compared to his Great Wyrm form as he stood proudly at 100 meters nearly 10 times their size. However that didn't mean they weren't terrifying little buggers.

At least 50 wizards were attempting to control them, pulling on the chains connected to heavy leather straps around their necks and legs.

Mesmerized, Harry looked up, high above him, and saw the eyes of the black dragon, with vertical pupils like a cat's, bulging with either fear or rage, he couldn't tell which. It was making a horrible noise, a yowling, screeching scream.

He had the feeling that he knew that dragon, like he meet it before long ago, before he could put any thought into it someone pulled on its chain.

"Keep back there, Hagrid!" yelled a wizard near the fence, straining on the chain he was holding. "They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I've seen this Norwegian Ridgeback do forty!"

"Is'n' it beautiful?" Hagrid said softly.

"It's no good!" another wizard yelled.

"Stunning Spells, on the count of three!" Harry saw each of the dragon keepers pull out his wand.

"Stupefy!" they shouted in unison, and the Stunning Spells shot into the darkness like fiery rockets, bursting in showers of stars on the dragons' scaly hides.

Harry watched the dragon nearest to them teeter dangerously on its back legs; its jaws stretched wide in a silent howl; its nostrils were suddenly devoid of flame, though still smoking — then, very slowly, it fell. Several tons of sinewy, scaly-black dragon hit the ground with a thud that Harry could have sworn made the trees behind him quake.

The dragon keepers lowered their wands and walked forward to their fallen charges, each of which was the size of a barn. They hurried to tighten the chains and fasten them securely to iron pegs, which they forced deep into the ground with their wands.

"Wan' a closer look?" Hagrid asked Madame Maxime excitedly. The pair of them moved right up to the fence, and Harry followed. The wizard who had warned Hagrid not to come any closer turned, and Harry realized who it was: Charlie Weasley.

"All right, Hagrid?" he panted, coming over to talk. "They should be okay now — we put them out with a Sleeping Draft on the way here, thought it might be better for them to wake up in the dark and the quiet — but, like you saw, they weren't happy, not happy at all —"

"What breeds you got here, Charlie?" said Hagrid, gazing at the closest dragon, the black one, with something close to reverence. Its eyes were still just open. Harry could see a strip of gleaming yellow beneath its wrinkled black eyelid.

"Don't you remember her?" Charlie grinned, "It's Norberta!"

"Ner way," Hagrid said breathlessly as he slowly rubbed his hand over the creature's snout.

"They grow up very fast unlike us humans, a helpless baby one day and a nightmare the next."

"It's so good to see yer girl," Hagrid muttered to the sleeping creature.

"This is a Hungarian Horntail," Charlie pointed out the next dragon, equally as terrifying.

"There's a Common Welsh Green over there. The smaller one a Peruvian Vipertooth watch out as well it is very venomous. That blue-gray is a Swedish Short-Snout, that red little bugger is a Chinese Fireball. That green horned one is a Romanian Longhorn," Charlie pointed out each dragon one by one until he took notice of the other person around, Madame Maxime who was gazing up at the stunned dragons.

"I didn't know you were bringing someone else, Hagrid," Charlie said, frowning. "The champions aren't supposed to know what's coming — she's bound to tell her student, isn't she?"

"Jus' thought she'd like ter see 'em," Hagrid shrugged his shoulders, still gazing, enraptured, at the Norwegian Ridgeback.

"Really romantic date, Hagrid," Charlie shook his head.

"12 Dragons, huh," Hagrid asked, "so it's one fer each o' the champions, is it? What do they gotta do... fight 'em?"

"Just get past them, I think," Charlie said. "I am not sure on the details really. Just told to bring them over."

"We'll be on hand if it gets nasty, Extinguishing Spells at the ready. They wanted nesting mothers, I don't know why, but I tell you this, I don't envy any of those kids who get to fight a mother dragon. They are the most vicious lot."

Five of Charlie's fellow keepers staggered up to the dragons, carrying a clutch of huge dragons eggs between them in blankets. They placed them carefully in a cart to the side side. Hagrid let out a moan of longing.

"I've got them counted, Hagrid," Charlie said sternly, already understanding the half-giant's thoughts. Then he said, "How's Harry?"

"Fine," Hagrid said after he briefly froze for a moment, but quickly hid it as he gazed at the eggs.

"Just hope he's still fine after he's faced this lot," Charlie said grimly, looking out over the dragons.

"I didn't dare tell Mum what he's got to do for the first task; she's already having kittens about him..." Charlie imitated his mother's anxious voice. "'How could they let him enter that tournament, he's much too young! I thought they were all safe, I thought there was going to be an age limit!"

"She was in floods after that Daily Prophet article about him."

"All done here, Charlie," a dragon keeper reported in.

"Alright let's turn in for the night," Charlie said, "those stunners should keep them out for the night."

"Hagrid," Charlie said as he turned to face the big man, "You best be leaving now. I could get in trouble for giving you the peek."

"'lright," Hagrid said as he got up, his eyes lovely at Norberta "see yer in the castle then."

Clearing out, Harry decided to wait awhile before leaving, he didn't only have to watch out for Hagrid and  Madame Maxime, plus Charlie and his Dragon keeper but the people hiding in the foliage and trees as well.

He took notice of them long before and spotted many familiar faces of Headmasters and school champions. He wasn't surprised to see them in the least bit!

After everyone had left, Harry was the only one left with the sleeping dragons.

Coming up to them, Harry felt that bond all the more now as if he was before his kin.

Reaching out his hand and running it over the Norberta, he felt her stir in her sleep. Just as he felt her stir he also felt the dragon in his stir as well.

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