Emissaries of Angvard

Summary – AU. A war waged. A prophecy fulfiled. A final struggle and a vanquished enemy. Why then, does Harry stands at Death's door? What bargain carries him away? An act of kindness from his past becomes his salvation. Another world to save. Another evil to rid. A warrior Harry steps foot in Alagaësia. Smart Harry! Believably-Powerful Harry! Resourceful Harry!

Disclaimer – This is a work of purely speculative fiction. It is not intended to infringe on any rights by and of the companies and/or individuals involved in the production of any series mentioned here. The characters involved are the intellectual property of their respective authors/creators except for the ones that are listed as an OC, which are mine.

A/N – 1. There will be some(or a lot, haven't decided yet) level of divergence from Inheritance Cycle canon in this story. There will be many things/events in the story that will play out differently here than they did in the original series, some minor some major, and therefore, It will be a long one like the others that I have been writing.

Please read the Author's notes at the end of the chapter for the clarifications that some of you may have about some sequences in the chapter.

That is all. Enjoy the chapter.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Chapter 1

Prologue I – An Act of Kindness

(19 November 1994 – The Forbidden Forest)

…when they had walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight – Harry heard something. Men were shouting up ahead… then came a deafening, earsplitting roar…

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…

– Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire(Book)

He sat there. Long into the night. Long after when even Hagrid and Madam Maxime had departed. He kept on looking at the darkened sky, lost in thought, just staring. The shock of seeing four fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons as they shot torrents of fire into the dark sky had worn off somewhat – having turned into awe at the majestic sight.

Had it not been for the fact that he had to face one of them in some way in that godforsaken tournament, he would have quite enjoyed looking at the fiery spectacle their tongued fire painted on the canvas of the sky. Even now, beneath all his fear and apprehension, behind all the bitterness that had tinged his view, having his choice taken away from him and forcing him to compete, there was still some part of him that yearned to reach out to the amazing creatures.

He had learnt some things about Dragons during his three - going on four years at Hogwarts. Not much admittedly, but enough to know that they were as magnificent as they were dangerous. The magizoologists and potioneers had written books upon books laureling their features and uses, mentioning how their blood, hide, even their heartstrings were a spectacular resource at every turn of a page. There had even been several journal entries from various breeders who had listed off traits and habits for different breeds from endearing to ones that could very well turn one's hair white.

He remembered reading one such tome, having had thrusted onto him by his best friend, when they had sat down for some light reading, as she used to call their Saturday evening sessions. The book itself had been an old, thick, musty thing with a scent that had strongly reminded him of some of the wooden shelves his Aunt Petunia had tasked him to clean. But once his eyes had fallen upon the words that lain therein, he had admitted, grudgingly, that it was a treasure trove of anything and everything Dragons.

From the length of their incisors to the peculiarity of their tail spikes, instructions and ideas had been jotted down on the parchments unendingly. While he had just started taking Care of Magical Creatures during his last year at the school, the subject had become one of his most treasured ones. And he knew that it was at least partially due to the fact that it was his very first friend, Hagrid, who was teaching it. But it didn't really take anything from the truth that he really was fascinated by the creatures that lived in the magical world that had become his home.

And besides, they were all magic, weren't they? Was there needed to be any other reason for him to be so captivated by them?

A fierce roar from the first pen towards his left snatched his attention as he stood up from his spot beside a hulking tree. The orange hue coming from his surroundings was enough to clue him in on the reason for the demanding cry. Apparently, there was only so much handling the Dragon handlers could do before they too needed a shut-eye. It was a good thing, he supposed. He certainly wouldn't have been able to stick around and watch otherwise.

He was about to head back towards the castle when the ferocious roar that was still ringing in his ears turned into a pained whine. Alarmed somewhat, he struggled with indecision as to whether or not he could take a peek around the pen without alerting the Dragon's minders.

Another pained cry, this one a bit more subdued, fell on his ears and made the decision for him. He could not, in good conscience, leave the creature to its pain. Even if he could do nothing to help, as he knew could very well be the case, the least he could do was to figure out why it was in agony.

With resolute steps and cautioned mind, he slid down from the small elevated hill he was sitting on and fastened his invisibility cloak around him once more. Even if he was relatively sure that most of the handlers were down for the night, there was no sense in broadcasting his presence.

Muffled footsteps fell flat onto the mossy grass as he made his way towards the cages where the Dragons were being kept. With a frown, he realised that one of them, the largest of them with spikes on its neck that could skewer him like one of those kebab dishes he had heard Aunt Petunia harp on about so often, was separated even further than the other three who were now sleeping within there pens soundly despite the ruckus.

'Perhaps it's just… lonely?' he thought to himself as he looked at the Dragon that was still partially covered by the trees from where he was watching the enclosure.

If there was anything Harry Potter was intimately familiar with other than pain, it was loneliness. He knew what it felt like to have no one to share your thoughts. He had eleven years of experience with that particular feeling. Even now, when he had people he could call his friends or perhaps even family, there were times when he felt like there was none who could really understand him, who really knew who he was. Maybe it was the cynic in him that had reared its head after years of abuse, or maybe it was just his nature, but whatever had been the catalyst, he knew how corroding loneliness could be.

With that thought in his mind, he stepped aside from the small copse of trees he was hiding behind and skulked his way to the edge of the forest on the east side of the enclosure where, even now, the Dragon was doing it's best to crunch the metallic bars that held it captive.

Being careful as to not alert the creature of his presence, he brushed past the last few natural barriers to the separated cage and chanced a look.

A muffled gasp escaped his lips as he saw the Dragon in its entirety. Scales as thick as his hands covered its liquorice coloured frame. From the ground where his feet were gouging trenches to its head just shy of touching the roof of its cage, it was nearly fifty feet in length and was as tall as the Knight Bus he'd seen. The Hungarian Horntail he had only seen pictures of in the books, looked even more intimidating than he could have ever imagined.

Dread filled him as he remembered that it could be the very beast he would have to go up against in the brainchild of masochists that was the tournament. And knowing his luck, he was fairly certain that none but this Dragon would meet his eyes when he passed through the gates of the arena.

How was he supposed to match up to…THAT?!

His breathing quickened as panic seeped in his heart. His knees buckled and he was just about ready to collapse when a voice pierced through the fog of fear that had captured his senses.

§ "Hatchlings…" § The voice hissed mournfully. § "…The filthy humans…" § It snarled even as it continued its efforts to chew through the bars unsuccessfully. § "My…hatchlings…"§

His every movement stopped as the words seeped into his mind. He knew those hissed words. Had heard them…understood them as clearly as he had two years ago.

Dread gave way to shock as images of his battle in the fabled chamber of secrets flashed in front of his eyes. Every single fibre of his brain went into overdrive as explanations and theories kept ravaging within to dispute his senses.

A while passed before he collected enough strength to gather his wits and stop his rampant thoughts. The only beings capable of uttering them was long dead slain by his hands or, he supposed, floating through the earth in as a wraith. Disturbed as he was by his dreams, he was also fairly certain that despite his dreams of the grotesque looking dark lord, he could not be anywhere near Hogwarts' grounds given his state and with Dumbledore still less than a few minutes away.

He looked around frantically, still within the safety of his invisibility cloak, to see if he could find any trace of a person hiding within the woods.

Just when he was on the verge of decrying his senses, the voice returned. § "…HATCHLINGS!" § The roar that erupted from the Dragon's maw was deafening. It jarred his very bones as he crumpled to the ground clutching his ears. The pained anger was palpable in the air even as the Dragon stopped its failing efforts to gnaw at the cage and slumped to the ground with a heavy thud.

Harry looked at the defeated form of the predatory beast and slowly removed his hands from his ears. Realization dawned on him in a second as he figured out the source of the voice.

'The Dragon! It can speak Parseltongue!' he thought, astonished by the revelation.

Now that he had solved the mystery of the voice, the fear that had crept up on him reminding of the nefarious schemes of the evil wizards faded away into the night.

Another pained whine from the Dragon brought him back to the present. He could feel the hurt in the creature's voice even when he couldn't understand the reason for it. The voice had said something about hatchlings and something about humans that he couldn't understand without a context. What was clear to him though was that it was in pain and apparently could speak parseltongue.

Now with a way to understand and a will that drove him to help a fellow magical being, he firmed his resolve and started walking forward to the edge of the cage, cautiously.

He was only a little ways ahead when a snap of a twig beneath his feet and the jerk with which the Dragon swilled its head around to look in his direction told him he had failed in his objective. He stopped motionless on the spot, his hands covering his mouth and as he looked at his quarry. The dragon was sniffing the air suspiciously as its head turned every which way, forgetting about its previous goal.

A gust from behind him wafted into the clearing just as the Dragon was about to move its sight from his direction and everything stilled instantly. For a second he allowed himself to think that he had gotten away with it when a tremendous roar buckled his knees. A menacing snarl followed as it caught his scent.

Harry stood still, wide-eyed as the Dragon reared its head and a spark flickered within its maw.

'No point in hiding then.' He thought desperately and with the courage that had made him worthy of being chosen as a Gryffindor, removed his cloak in one fluid motion.

§ "STOP!" § He hissed with as much strength as his voice could carry.

When the morning would come and Harry would be lying in his four-poster bed, he would be astonished by what he had done at this very moment. Even with his record of diving into dangerous situations, walking in front of a Dragon to attempt to talk to it would be one of the worst and best of his decisions.

But at present, when he was looking into the predatory eyes of a Class-XXXXX beast with its head reared to burn him to a crisp, all he had to go on was…hope.

Utterly surprised and astounded by what it was seeing much less hearing, the Dragon abruptly closed its mouth with a loud snap. It looked at him with little patience as it sniffed the air once more. Its head that had been craning before, receded back to earth hovering just above the low ground as it looked at the human child in front of its eyes judging his worth.

A few moments passed as the slitted yellow eyes bored into Harry's green before the dragon gave a low snarl and hissed, § "Leave…Child." §

A breath he didn't realise he had been holding, released from his mouth and his shoulders sagged in slight relief. Death by dragon fire would not have been a pleasant way to go. Grateful and confused he took some deep breaths to calm his still pounding heart.

When the words finally filtered into his conscious brain, he realised what the dragon had said and how…feminine? the voice really had been. Was this dragon a female? And if it-she could talk, how could the wizards even classify her as a mindless beast? Questions upon questions ravaged his mind before he stopped the onslaught. Now was not the time to contemplate these things. He had chanced much to be able to help this one, there was no way he was going to back out now.

He squared his shoulders and with a polite voice, well, as polite as he could muster while speaking parseltongue to a dragon of all things, he addressed her. § "Hello…" §

This time the Dragon didn't even look in his direction as the low growls and whines continued to echo in the clearing as she mourned her loss.

Realising that there was probably something more at play here besides her being chained and locked up, he attempted to reach her once more. § "I'm sorry…But – what's wrong?" §

Apart from a growl that was a bit more feral than her previous ones, she gave no sign that she was aware of his presence.

Having some experience with the loss of his own, he did the only thing he knew that would somehow gain her attention. She had asked him to leave when she could have easily burnt him to ash instead. He knew she could be vicious, one look at her and it was obvious what he was about to do could very well end his life right then, but what solidified the decision in his mind was just one thing…he could feel her pain as well as he could have his own.

A feeling came forth from within his chest then and gave him the will he needed.

With steps that started heavy at first, he walked closer to her cage until he could touch the bars with his hands. Taking a deep breath he looked at her once more and sat down on the ground with his back against her cage. § "I…I don't know what hurt you. I don't even know why I am doing this, but when you wish to tell me…I will be here." §

Hours passed as she continued to disregard him. He knew it was well past midnight now, just about the time when he could consider going back to his dorm and expect to sleep away this experience. But there was something…a bizarre feeling that rose within him that made him stop, whenever he thought of leaving.

A hot breath on his back brought him out of his reverie and he stilled. He could feel her just behind him as if he was looking right at her. The muffled grinding noise as her scales grazed the metallic bars adjacent to his back made him inhale sharply. It was funny how in moments like these, the mind remembered things that it had forgotten previously. Abstractly, he remembered the clearing near enough to where he sat now that had been witness to his stray adventure during in his second year. And with morbid humour he did not know he was capable enough to derive on his own, a single thought ran through his mind as he waited for the inevitable.

'Well, at least it will be quicker than spider-chow…'

-x-x-x-x-x-

She knew his kind. Humans. The creatures with the same capacity for destruction as her own. In her long life, she had seen the carnage they could wreak with a flick of their sticks. All the magic at their fingertips…and all they sowed were seeds of devastation. They took without asking, they pillaged with greed, killed…without a second thought. She had seen much before they captured her.

Loathed though she was to admit it, she had seen the other side too. Their compassion…their ability to love, the kindness they could show to one not even their own. Even if this side was almost completely shadowed by anger at what they had done to her, it was still present, somewhere in her psyche.

When she saw him sitting at the edge of her cage, without guarding his back even, she thought it was arrogance that dictated his actions. But then he waited…for hours…and she realised, he was waiting for her…waiting for her to tell him her what ailed her.

Had she not lost enough to his kind, she would have trusted him enough to do as he was expected. But they had taken too much, hurt her too deeply for her to ever trust them again.

§ "I asked you to leave, child…Are you so fond of death that you would walk to it with such callousness?" § she said retreating back.

He breathed out as he sensed her form receding and thought about what she had said. A frown marred his face as he turned to look at her. § "I don't wish to die. I heard you calling for someone and I could feel you were hurting. I just – I just wanted to help." § he finished softly.

She almost lunged at him right then. A threatening growl came from the back of her throat and she hissed at him angrily. § "Your kind has HELPED enough! Leave if you do not wish to meet a painful end, hatchling. I will warn you no more." §

He gulped, the bite of her words hitting him grievously. The tinge of lingering pain in her anger, however, was louder than her words. He knew if he left now, there would always be something reminding him that he could have done more. That he could have stayed and helped her somehow. The same thing that had made him leave his friends behind to fight the monster that had taken away his parents… and the thing that had made him jump down a drain and fight a vicious basilisk to save a young girl… It was the same something that had made him stand up to the hoard of soul-sucking demons to protect his godfather.

It was as though Fate was smiling down upon him, knowing, he would do no less.

Harry gathered all his courage and stood his ground, refusing to leave now that he had felt the acidic touch of her pain that lingered within her. As he thought about her words a worrying realisation started forming in his gut. § "You said that before… 'Hatchling'," he paused as an appalling thought struck him. § "Have they…Do they have your children?" § he asked alarmingly.

She turned her head sharply and in a flash, her face was in front of his petrified form as she snarled at him. § "THIEVES! FILTHY THIEVES STOLE MY CHILDREN FROM ME! Attacked me in the night with their magic, dozens of them! And when I could protect them no more… when I could do nothing but beg them not to take them from my side…that…that they would not live without my fire, the pillaging filths took them anyway!" she hissed in pained anger. Blinking back tears from her slitted eyes, she turned away once more.

§ "…Even now, I can feel my youngest slipping away from me. His fire has run out. You, humans, think you know us, that you know magic. You think you know how we live, who we are. YOU KNOW NOTHING!" she spat venomously. A pained whine burst forth from her as she collapsed within her cage, unmoving. § "…They…They would not live for me to see their faces…I know it." §

Horrified beyond belief, Harry stood there, as unmoving as the Dragon in front of him. Knowing a little as he did about eggs of her breed, he knew that her clutch needed her fire to live within the shell. He might not know the reason but he knew that lack of a mother's fire was said to cause the eggs to turn to solid stone within minutes, killing the dragons inside!

Questions, queries ran rampant through his mind as he tried and failed to understand the reasons for the tournament officials to have done such a thing.

'And what about the handlers? Had they just let the ministry officials take her clutch? Weren't they suppose to stop such things from happening?' he thought furiously.

Rage bubbled within him as he understood the depth of what they had done. He knew wizards who had lived their whole lives in the presence of magic were often callous enough to take it for granted but to do this? To separate a mother from her unborns?

He couldn't be the first Parselmouth to talk to a dragon, could he? He couldn't be the first one to find out that Dragons were intelligent beings capable of feeling pain. Was it simply because they thought she was, as had been written in so many tomes, a mindless beast? Or livestock? Just another resource for their precious potions? He asked, flummoxed, trying but unable to comprehend how his fellow wizards could stoop so low, not knowing how rare the gift of Parseltongue really was among his kind. Or even how less than ten witches and wizards in the last twelve centuries had been known to exhibit it.

Emotions warred within him as any reason he could come up with failed to appease his sense of honour. There was nothing that could justify such an act for it was nothing but barbaric.

And sadly, it was something, he knew, his fellow wizards were quite capable of. He had seen the attack on the Quidditch world cup. He had seen the Death Eaters commit atrocities right before his very eyes to the people that had done them no harm. To think wizards capable of taking eggs from a nesting mother dragon…it was regrettably, easily imaginable.

With a firm nod, he came to a decision. Without speaking another word to her, he left her cage, striding towards his the encampment, to do what he must.

And to undo what should never have been done.

-x-x-x-x-x-

Loud snoring and sleeping bodies greeted him as soon as he reached the area where the tents for the handlers had been erected. He had seen a glimpse of them back with Hagrid when they had been trying to corral the dragons into their pens. Even as he tried to estimate their numbers, he remembered that even then, he hadn't seen the liquorice female dragon with the others.

Had they planned to take her clutch all along? Did they mean to sell it as Quirell had sold Norbert's egg to Hagrid three years ago? They had to know that without her fire, the eggs wouldn't last the night.

With silent steps, he entered the encampment, hiding within his cloak. There were three tents to his left separated evenly in the clearing and two that almost seem to merge with the forest on his right. He knew, even with the space expansion charms within, it was unlikely for the officials to be staying within the tents when Dumbledore had so graciously offered them hospitality within the walls of Hogwarts, so that left him with a dozen or so handlers. So, it was most likely just the handlers that were left.

'A dozen or so fully-fledged wizards and merlin knows what else… Right. What could go wrong, eh Potter?' he snarked.

Had it not been for his experience in sneaking around where he wasn't supposed to be, he would have been caught as soon as he stepped foot within the area. As it was, he was a little more proficient than your run-of-the-mill cat burglar and had the one thing that made his task easier than he had even hoped.

His invisibility cloak.

Harry didn't know it then and would not know of it for many years to come, but his invisibility cloak was special. Even by usual wizarding standards.

Those who knew of the legend would have called it Third Deathly Hallow. Said to have been created by Death itself, the magical artefact could render the wearer invisible, even from the very being who created it. It will take him traversing a path wrought with dangers and foes that would chip away at his innocence before this truth found him out, however.

In years that would follow, Harry would go on to have many adventures with his cloak. Some moments would hurt him grievously whereas some would give him opportunities to help those he loved. But most of all, there will be those that would make him capable, capable enough to stand, even in the face of tremendous loss.

But right at this moment, when he was but a fourteen-year-old wizard just stupid enough to wish to help a fellow magical being, the cloak would help him do the one thing that would one day become his salvation

It was because of his cloak that he had realised why this debacle was happening, having heard two wizards grouching about having to share profits with some 'ministry stooge' lying in their cots.

Apparently, the Ministry, in its esteemed intelligence, had seen fit not to use the services of the dragon handlers who had brought the four dragons from the sanctuary in Romania, feeling their own workers more than capable of handling the beasts. Even with his own meagre knowledge of politics, he could see, quite clearly, it had been a poorly disguised attempt to save some gold. Or worse, to earn some at the expense of nesting mothers. After all, accidents did tend to happen in the logistical nightmare that was the tournament.

It had taken him a while to convince himself to not raise his wand to take some action at the unsuspecting animals who had the audacity to call themselves humans after hearing that.

He had wondered how could the mother dragon hold onto such hate for his kind. When he was in the middle of these…these cheap imitations of human beings, the answer was quite easy to find. Even he, with all his tolerance, could see how easy it was to hate these ignorant fools.

Thrusting away his more violent thoughts, he had decided to get on his way. It had taken a lot of effort and breaking more than a few laws before he had found the tent where the eggs were being kept.

When he had entered the first tent, he had realised how the ferocious roars of the mother dragon were unable to rouse the men inside a fabric. The pitiful beings had erected silencing wards over the entrances of their tents to stop all sounds from coming inside their resting abodes. Shaking his head at the cruelty of people, he had continued his efforts to find the eggs.

Hampered by his inability to cast spells silently as he had seen his professors do, he had been limited in his choices. But as soon as he had realised that most if not all of the burly looking workers were heavy sleepers, an idea sprang had to his mind.

Moving along the three tents to his left as he searched the eggs within, he had cast sleeping charms on the workers as subtly as he could. There had been one or two close calls when his whispered voice had roused a worker or two but luckily he had moved fast enough to avoid being caught.

It had taken him almost an hour to clear all four tents but he was sure that his spells would keep the men from waking up before he was done with his mission.

All those shenanigans finally brought him to the present inside the last tent just beside the forest canopy, where he stood now, looking at the last ministry lackey sleeping soundly on a small cot. He had seen him walking around from his vantage point outside. As soon as the man had walked past his cot, Harry had sneakily brought out his wand out of his cloak and a whispered, "Somnus" had put paid to that problem. After a brief struggle which had involved him getting the heavy body of the now sleeping man to his cot, he was left looking at the single cauldron hanging on the fireplace as the eggs within pattered rhythmically on the solid iron.

He cursed their ignorance as he realised the fire underneath the cauldron held not even the tiniest bit of magic whatsoever. Were these workers complete morons? Did they not even know the non-magical fire would hamper the magic of the younglings inside the shell!

With haste, he walked briskly towards the cauldron without preamble, hoping against hope that the youngest one, the one mother dragon was worried about had not yet lost to the ether.

A plan formed in his mind as his eyes caught sight of a steely net and gloves sitting on the table beside the fireplace.

Shedding his cloak and pulling on the gloves, he cast an impervius charm as he had been taught last year to stop the effects of fire on objects.

'Careful now. One egg at a time…' thoughts of a stone egg kept running through his mind and he concentrated on pulling out the eggs safely to keep himself on track. '…I know he lives. He has to.'

He scooped the first egg into his hands and relief flooded into his being as he saw the shell intact with a smooth finish, quite similar to what he had seen in the few pictures that were available in the library. With motion as slow and fluid as he could muster, he put the egg onto the net, right in the middle.

One after another he continued to grab the eggs from the cauldron as carefully as he could, checking them to see if they were alright. After the fifth one, just as he was about to pull out the last one, a rough grinding feeling against his right hand stopped him in his tracks. His breath hitched as he felt the texture of the egg once again.

It was…different.

He pulled it out hastily and brought it near the lone oil-lamp that was hung in the middle of the tent. The yellow light shone upon the egg and fear gripped him once more.

The right half of the egg was almost completely turned to stone.

'No. no. no. You are not supposed to die, little one. No!' he screamed not noticing he had shouted his anguish out loud.

Realising that he could lose all of them if he didn't hurry, he brushed his moist eyes with the back of his sleeves and with gentle hands, put the damaged egg in the middle of the clutch.

§ "Your mother is waiting for you, little guy…Please…hold on. You'll be with her soon," § he pleaded not knowing what else to do.

To his astonishment, just as injured egg came into contact with his brethren, they all started pulsing with a timid orange light as though coaxing their brother into breathing once more.

Once, twice, thrice they pulsed, trying to keep him alive.

Just when he was about to lose faith, a feeble pulse lit up within the damaged egg as he clung to life once more.

He almost howled in triumph right then. But knowing time was slipping by, he grasped that last tendril of hope with both hands and started pulling all the corners of the net together. He put the net in his cloak and tied a loose knot around its corners along with his cloak, using it as a make-shift pack. Holding them close to his chest, he ran to their only hope of survival.

Down the clearing, past the copse of trees, around the jutting thorns, he went, running as fast as he could to save a dying clutch of sentient beings that had not even taken their first breath in the world. Stray branches marred his face with a litany of scratches as he took every conceivable path to reach his destination as swiftly as he could.

Just as he broke through the last foliage, near enough to see the nesting mother in her cage roaring resoundingly looking at him with wide hopeful eyes, his own caught a glimpse of the clutch within his arms.

…

The dim light from the injured egg was pulsing no more.

-x-x-x-x-x-

She felt him leave without a word through her senses and a feeling of utter loss settled within her. Had she expected really him to be able to help her somehow? A child. He was no more capable than she was, chained as they both were, her literally and him by his years.

She had been a wild one. Been born deep within the mountains, she had earned her pride flying the free skies for years on end. What her mother couldn't teach her, she had learnt from nature itself. Learnt to be her own master and never to lose.

Until…Until they caught her.

Human filth.

Unlike many of her kind, it was the first time she had lost a clutch to the greed of these humans. She remembered how her mind had been addled by these wizards. How when she recovered days later, she could feel something stirring within her as if something had changed. It took her but a week to understand the feeling.

They had bred her.

Without her even being aware of it.

Such rage, such anger had filled her when she realised what they had done that it had taken two dozen of the stick wielders to stop her from demolishing the prison they had the audacity to call a sanctuary for her kind. Even then, she had ravaged their cages and slaughtered many who had been sent to subdue her.

She cherished her hatchlings but she had taken blood from those who had forced her to spawn life.

Then one night she had realised, to what end?

The human filth would still cut their life short and butcher her spawns for…for supplies? Resources?

As much as she was looking forward to seeing their faces, she was dreading the moment they would take their first breath… Their first breath as slaves.

It had haunted her for nights on end. Gnawed at her every time she looked at her clutch.

Until now…now when she was almost certain that they would not even live to know who she was.

She cried for hours, mourning her children who were slipping away from her every second. The connection she shared with her clutch was eroding away as the time slipped by. Nothing mattered to her other than the painful sensations she got every time her connection with one of her hatchlings dulled to the point of nothingness.

…

And then…just like that, it came back alive!

She jolted back to her feet and craned her head as far as she could from her cage, waiting…waiting for that feeling that would tell her she hadn't been mistaken.

…

There!

She roared to the heavens as she felt it again. § "HATCHLINGS!" §

One after another, the tendril of magic that connected her to her clutch strengthened. She actively sought out each one, making sure they were alive. Just as she reached the last one, her hopes fell. Hurriedly, she sent a pulse of magic through their link searching for something, anything. All she got was silence. A pit formed in her gut as she realised her fears had been proven true.

Her jubilation at feeling rest of her young alive warred with her sorrow at never being able to see one of there faces ever again. Her psyche seemed to split at the seems as it couldn't contain two opposing emotions battling within her.

Before she could properly absorb what had happened, the tether to her youngest flowed back to life! Subtle and diminished, it wavered in her mind and she struggled to hold on to it.

Uncomprehending and worried she growled in her cage and started slamming the metallic bars with a renewed vigour.

She knew not what was happening, but she knew her younglings were alive…and she would get to them howsoever she could. Though her efforts were as futile as they had been before she had seen the human child, she continued regardless.

Before long, her sharp eyes caught sight of the same human child running through the dense foliage in her direction.

Her eyes widened as she realised what had happened.

§ 'The child…he…he saved them,' § she thought. Surprise, elation, gratitude, all emotions kept cycling through her even as she bathed in the feeling of having her hatchlings back to her.

A deafening roar erupted from her jaws as she shot a torrent of fire into the night sky watching him break through the last of the hedges.

She looked right at him as their eyes met once more. He took another step in her direction, for some reason looking down into his arms, and suddenly, stopped in his tracks.

Cycling as she was between revelling the return of her clutch and worrying about their condition, she failed to notice the one tether that bound her with her youngest.

He had passed into the void…

-x-x-x-x-x-

Harry stood still, uncomprehending, staring at the stone sitting in the middle of the clutch that had once held a life within its shell. He could see the mother dragon roaring into the sky staring at him with a hopeful look in her eyes.

Tears filled his eyes as the realised how they would look when she'd see it for herself.

Silently thrumming orange pulses dimmed in their intensity as though they knew one among them was lost to the ether. Right before his eyes, the interval between each pulse increased and he steeled his heart.

He had to save the other five. No matter what.

He ran as he had never before, clutching on to the younglings hidden beneath his cloak.

Just a few more yards and she would see them again.

A few more yards and she would breathe life into them once more.

A few more yards before she would realise her youngest was lost to her, forever.

He slid to a stop right before her cage and gingerly, without a word, peeled back his cloak loosening one of the knots from the corners.

He saw the relief in her eyes as they caught glimpse of five of her younglings still living, if demurely. And then he saw that relief turn into horror at the sight of the stone sitting in the middle.

The intensity of her pain was such that he couldn't help but avert his eyes just to stop his own guilt from flaring uncontrollably. As gently as he could, he put down the eggs on the ground as the net and his cloak almost touched the metal bars of her cage. He untied the knots completely and stood up, not knowing how to explain to her the events that had transpired.

How could he tell a mother than her child was gone? How could he be the one to take that away from her?

He knew, by experience, at times like these, explanations did nothing to relieve the pain. They hadn't for him. Not that he'd always gotten his answers.

He saw her lean down and sniff the eggs as she nudged them with her face. A single tear rolled down the spikes on her cheeks and landed on to the lone stone egg.

§ "I…I am sorry. I…I tried. I tried to bring them all back alive. I thought…I thought I would. He was here, for a moment…I could feel him. I am so sorry." § He whispered softly. Tears that he was holding back with a purpose, rivered from his eyes even as he trie to brush them away with his sleeves.

She remained silent until he spoke. Her head was hovering over the eggs as she checked them for damages. With halting motions, she rolled the stone egg tenderly towards the side, not giving any indication that she'd heard.

Just as he finished, she slowly lifted her head and looked at him right in the eyes. At the distance when he could very well see his own reflection in her slitted pupils, he somehow understood all she wanted to say, but her words thrummed in his mind anyway.

§ "Thank you…little one." §

Nodding to him once, she once more returned back to her young.

Time stood still and as though he had known what would come next all along, he stepped beside her when she opened her mouth and breathed life into them once more.

Fire, pure and white, burst forth from her maw and the eggs came alit at once. The orange light that had stopped pulsating, ignited with a radiance.

His eyes caught sight of the lone stone egg at the edge and something broke within him at the sight.

'You…you should have been here. To see her face…to feel her presence. To know how intense and pure her love is for you…' He raved within his mind sullenly.

Maybe because it was so very similar to his own situation or maybe because he was seeing the other aspect, a mother losing her child, but it was prodding at those very things that he had buried deep within himself ever since he had truly understood the reason for the absence of his parents in his life…when he had remembered the pleading sounds of her mother as she begged Voldemort to spare his life. Not liking the reminder he suppressed the feelings once more.

A glint at the corner of his cloak caught sight of his blurry vision and he only had a second to worry about his cloak directly beneath the dragon fire when without knowing why or even how, his body froze. Right before his eyes, a glowing pattern of a shining triangle, something he had never seen before on the magical fabric, ignited at the corners of his cloak.

His peripheral vision caught sight of the mother dragon beside him and everything he had ever learnt about magic, unravelled in an instant.

The fire coming from her maw had frozen in the air.

His eyes widened when he saw that not just the fire but everything in his vicinity had been petrified. Frantically, he attempted to move his eyes to the far side of his periphery despite being unable to move his muscles even an inch. He saw the bushes tilting unnaturally as the leaves hovered in middle air and the world all-around stuck as if someone had paused the reality midstream.

More than a little afraid just as he was about to resist whatever force that was keeping him captive, a terrible burning sensation on his forearm tore a scream from his throat.

"AHHHHHHHHH…"

Beams of scorching hot plasma started etching the same triangular pattern on his right forearm as he had seen on his cloak.

"ARGHHHHH…"

Unable to move, unable to even see past his chest, he could do nothing to stop the branding much less alleviate the pain.

Unbeknownst to him, powers that be were working in tandem to achieve something they had never thought would ever come to pass. From all the choices in all the moments, he could have made tonight, this particular turn of events had been very, very low among the possibilities.

But happen it did.

And so began the work for the ones who were named the guardians of this world by the one whose name even they had forgotten.

If there was even the slightest chance that path for the chosen one could be diverted to help more than just his own people, they were willing to risk walking on the extreme edges of what they were allowed to do within the mortal realm.

As suddenly as the pain had exploded within him, it faded away like a breeze.

The gusts of wind touched the elements again, righting the bushes and trees as the world started revolving once more.

Harry felt the hold on him decrease and he fell to his knees gasping. He took deep gulps of breaths, not realising he too had stopped breathing with the world. Somewhere back in his mind, he could still feel the force continuing to do whatever it had started.

He turned to see the mother dragon and just as his eyes met her form it was as though the last remnants of the invisible force returned in full force, using him, for one last time.

His pupils turned bleached white, matching his sclera. Voices, he couldn't recognise in a language he didn't know, spoke from his mouth without his askance.

"REAPER IS YET TO COME, DAUGHTER. YOUR PROGENY AWAITS FOR HIM JUST BEYOND THE VEIL…"

Startled, the mother dragon growled at him warily. Yet as the words kept flowing through him, some knowledge far beyond her reckoning, somehow, brought an understanding to her soul. Not knowing who, but understanding its importance, she could do nothing but listen to the words of the spirits she had heard only whispers about from her mother as they used the human child as their mouthpiece.

"WE GIVE YOU THIS BOON, TONIGHT. BY THE VIRTUE OF THIS VESSEL, YOUR YOUNGEST WILL LIVE ONCE MORE…"

Her heart fluttered at those words. 'The spirits…they know!' she shouted in the recesses of her mind as a hope alit within her. And then dread snatched that hope when her mother's words rang in her ears.

'…life for a life. Nature is balance, young one. It takes before it can give once more…'

As though they had heard her worries, the voices interjected. "PEACE DAUGHTER…JUST THIS ONCE, THE PRICE HAS BEEN PAID…"

Abruptly, his right arm moved on its own and covered the stone egg with a corner of his cloak. "BREATHE DAUGHTER…" the voices commanded.

Unwilling to not heed the words of the spirits, she did as told. The same molten, white fire burst from her jaws onto the cloak covered stone egg. She did not know how long it was that she breathed, or for what, but as seconds turned to a full minute, a sharp crack echoed within the clearing.

Harry, still unable to control his own body, remove the cloak from the egg, wondering despite the issue of hijacking, what he would find underneath.

The mother dragon beat him to it. With her snout, she gingerly touched the surface of the egg, sniffing its shell as she tenderly rolled it onto a side.

As though her touch was the last ingredient needed, a bright orange light burst from within the egg and the shell cracked in the middle, chipping, and finally crumbled into the dirt, leaving behind a smooth exterior.

The lost tendril of connection rejuvenated in an instant and she howled into the dark sky, roaring a loud, bone-jarring roar.

The voices returned, more tender, like soothing her worries after the rollercoaster of emotions she had experienced tonight. "…May you have years worth of memories to share with your young…"

Harry fell onto his back as the force completely receded from his mind and body, leaving him tired like never before. He coughed clutching his stomach uncomfortably even as fresh air filled his lungs.

Confusion, apprehension, a little fear circled within his psyche as it tried and failed to understand what exactly had happened in the span of the last few minutes.

And then his eyes caught sight of the sixth egg, alit with an orange glow within. Alive. All the questions faded from his mind as the only fact that mattered to him at the moment settled in.

He hadn't failed.

A single look at the mother dragon caressing all her eggs one after another and he knew, to see that love in her eyes once more, 'It was worth it.'

A choked laugh erupted from his mouth suddenly and soon he was howling at the moon in happiness.

Not noticing the seared symbol of one of the Hallows disappearing from his forearm.

-x-x-x-x-x-

They talked long into the night. Him telling her about adventures he had shared with his friends just as she regaled him with the times she had shared in the wilds, seeing things that his kind had never even bothered to understand.

Every time he looked at her, it was as though her eyes smiled at him, thanked him for saving those she loved the most.

Neither had asked for the other's name, not because they wished to keep it secret, but simply because the respect they had for the other was more than enough in their eyes.

He even shared the troubles he'd had ever since his name had come up in the farcical tournament. How his friendships had become strenuous. How alone, he felt even when sitting in the common room filled with people.

And when he'd told her how afraid he was that he would have to stand against the of-age witches and wizards who were already so far ahead of him in their education, she had said something that had stuck with him the most.

§ "To have the courage to do what is right not what is easy is the bedrock of what makes you a champion, little one." §

And though it had done nothing to allay his fears of what was coming in the upcoming tasks, it had given him something to think about.

As if an unspoken agreement had been struck, neither had said anything about the extraordinary experience they had shared just a few hours ago. And if he was being honest with himself, he did not even know how to even begin to understand something so out of his depth. So until he could, he had decided to let it go… for now.

An owl hooted in the distance and with a start, he realised how late- his late-night wanderings had gotten him. He turned away from gazing at the stars in the night sky above the clearing beside her cage and looked at her nudging the eggs lovingly. A smile formed on his face at the sight, along with a startling realisation.

His eyes widened as the full extent of the situation hit home.

§ "We have to do something about them." § he said hesitatingly, not knowing how she would take the news having just gotten them back.

As he had expected - and feared – a threatening growl came from her and he put his hands up in surrender.

§ "Listen! Please. They took your children once. There is really nothing stopping them from taking them again. Once they see them in your cage, they will come back." § he tried.

§ " Let THEM! " § she snarled, her upper lip curling showing her sharp teeth as she coiled her tail around her clutch protectively.

Harry shook his head at that. He had no doubt she would be deadly in protecting her young ones but as his fellow wizards had proven one before, when it came to earning some fast gold, even a nesting mother was not enough of a deterrent.

Plans and schemes ran through his mind with the speed of light as he tried to find a way to keep the eggs from being taken again.

He couldn't even hide them somewhere because they needed her fire every couple of hours from what she had told him and someone was bound to notice his absence as he went back and forth from her cage to wherever he ended up hiding the eggs.

And then there was that. He really had no place where he could hide six eggs half the size of his forearm.

Just as he was about to give up, an idea sprang to his mind. A wild, large-eyed, flappy-eared, squeaky idea that he had met just this morning.

Grinning, he looked up into her slitted eyes and asked, § "Do you trust me?" §

She looked at him askance, unsure why the question had come to his mind. Though her tail tightened around her hatchlings a bit more, she decided to ponder his question.

Did she trust him?

The part in her that was fierce, jaded and hurt uncountably by the atrocities his kind had delivered upon her raged within her mind to even consider such a thing. It was true he had saved her children, brought them back to her when he could have easily gone back to the castle, ignoring her plight, but he was the progeny of the same beings who had taken her clutch away from her in the first place. Capable enough to fall to the same greed and malice just like others.

But the part within her that was a mother, a female, less primal, the part that had seen the child through, had seen his selflessness, that had listened to his thoughts, had watched the spirts talk through him as they gave her back her child praising his virtue, that part squashed the aspersions on his character with extreme prejudice.

When she really thought about it though, there was really nothing to consider.

Leaning down so his eyes were level with her own, she hissed softly. § "Yes…" §

The smile she got in return was something that would live in her memories forever. Long after her young had left to journey on their own and longer still when she would be flying under the sun in the mountains she grew up, once more…as a free dragon.

Harry moved back a few steps with a purpose and spoke just one word…

"Dobby!"

-x-x-x-x-x-

(24 November 1994 – Near Hogwarts Grounds)

The First Task

The dragon cut him off and whipped him off his broom, as he landed on the roof of the northern tower, hanging on for dear life. The dragon clambered across the roof, strewing tiles as it went. Harry attempted to reach his broom stuck in between. He jerked it loose and let go of the roof just in time as the dragon swiped at him. Unable to balance himself, he fell down the tower as winds whistled by his ears before regaining control, the dragon right on his tail. He flew towards the bridge with a purpose, sticking to the plan he had concocted on the fly. Ten yards…Five yards…Two yards and he flew through a gap in the bridge even as the dragon crashed into it and falling into the water.

– Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire(Movie)

He knew he would get only one chance at this. Dobby had heard the officials about monitoring the skies in case the dragon was able to break the chains. Taking the opportunity his damaged broom provided him, he deliberately turned heavily towards the ravine between the small mountains he had spotted earlier.

Just as he was sure, none could see him, he zoomed past the narrow edge of the mountain to the place they had decided.

He saw the small flat area on the lip of the ravine and landed urgently.

"Dobby!"

The excitable house-elf popped near him in an instant, carrying a familiar steely net with all its occupants resting within.

Harry looked at him and they both grinned at what they had accomplished. The little guy had been a tremendous help. He had agreed to ferry the eggs back and forth to the mother dragon and had even found a safe enough hiding place for them in a hidden alcove in a cave near the lake.

He had no idea how the elf had managed to pull it off without everything falling apart but Harry was glad that he had. He knew he wouldn't have been able to do half the things Dobby had managed to do by himself and creating a facsimile of the eggs that could hoodwink the officials…phew…that was among the least of his contributions in the plan.

And when he had said as much this morning, thanking him for his help, the elf had brushed it away in that same squeaky voice, "Harry Potter Sir be needing help. Dobby did what Dobby could after all Harry Potter sir had done for him."

Really not wanting to let Dobby get on 'the great Harry Potter sir' wagon once more he had simply shaken his hand.

A powerful gust of wind brought him out of his thoughts as a great shadow came upon the sky, hovering above them both.

Harry hurriedly stepped back as the mother dragon descended onto the ground, flapping her wings to balance herself.

Just as her feet touched the ground, he was upon her. § "Are you alright? I know I said it would have to be convincing but did you have to crash into the bridge?!" § he asked worriedly.

A rumbling sound came from her throat as she laughed? § "Our hides are much stronger than yours, little one. It was barely a scratch." § she said as her tongue licked a scale near the centre of her body. It was the amount of trust she had gained in both of them that her eyes didn't continue to linger on her clutch as she spoke.

§ "Well…" he hesitated, "…we don't have much time." §

She looked at him with the same eye-smile he had grown to love seeing on her face. § "I know." § she replied softly, unable to grasp how important he had become to her in the span of a few days.

Dobby decided to jump in before his Harry Potter sir got in trouble with the evil tournament officials.

"Harry Potter Sir's dragon must be going now!" he squeaked. "The be looking for him otherwise…"

Harry hesitated a second time but nodded in slowly. § "Go…Take care of yourself…" then pointed at the clutch still in Dobby's grasp, "…and them." §

She nodded with her large head, acknowledging his care. § "Always." Just as she turned to Dobby, the elf fixed the net within a harness he had made for her hind legs. Turning to him once more, she spoke with a tone that he couldn't recognise. "They will know what you have done, little one." Before he could say something in denial, she overrode him. "They have magic you have yet to learn and with intentions are dark as their own…they will stop at nothing if they find something amiss to hunt you down."

Harry frowned. True, there had been way too many close calls in the past days but they had always come out ahead. It was less than likely that anyone had figured out their secret. Not with Dobby on the case.

But he knew she was right in a way. If there was one thing they had missed, just one thing, his luck was such that the ministry would find it without even looking.

Before he could say something, however, she closed the distance between them in a flash. before he or even Dobby could do anything, she opened her maw and as gently as she could, breathed onto them a white misty fog.

§ "I may not be able to protect you from the perils of the path the spirits have chosen for you, little one. But I will not be so honourless to leave you to fend the wolves I know your kind to be…You will not remember me or mine, young one. You will not know how you saved me from despair. But you will live in my memories forever, Harry Potter…" §

Saying her peace, she looked sadly at the child who had given her so much, taught her so much before she steeling her heart. And with a last look at both of them, she flapped her strong wings and flew away into the ravine, disappearing at the turn, leaving behind two beings with no memories of their times spent together.

When Dobby would wake in a few seconds, he would find his Harry Potter sir on the ground and he would wake him up sending him on his way struggling to remember how he had gotten to the ravine, this far away from the castle.

And Harry…

Harry would return to the arena with a damaged broom and an echo of a name whispering in his mind.

'LENORA…'

-x-x-x-x-x-

~ Review please ~

A/N – 1. Legend –

• § - Parseltongue

2. Before any of you decide to dis me about how dragon eggs don't need dragon fire to stay alive, do note the first two alphabets of the summary. 'AU'. Also, I have thoroughly checked and there is not a single place where I could find texts relating to proper care for a dragon egg especially those of a Hungarian Horntail dragon. And some of you might think that it's a dragon…how different could the eggs really be? I would like to remind you that wands use cores from different dragon parts and they are different in their temperaments.

I am also changing a few things with the sequence of certain things that happened in Goblet of fire. For example. Harry found Dobby in the kitchens a day after the selection of champions on Halloween and not before the First/Second task.