Harry Potter and the Children of the Clan

Chapter 14

The dragon pointed out the dangers of disease in such crowded conditions, the vulnerability to storms and marauders, and the likelihood of bumping into half a dozen other humans at every turn. The dragon could just not wrap his reptilian mind around the idea that with all the open space available on the planet that so much of it was left uninhabited in exchange for teeming masses of humanity. As Harry drifted off to sleep he had to smile at the idea of what the dragon would require in terms of 'elbow' room.

His sleep was dreamless and he woke up around noon. When he left the bedroom he found his two boys sitting on the bottom step of the staircase leading up to the second floor. When they caught sight of him they sprang up and ran to him.

"Da, can we go out and see the dragon? Mum said we couldn't until you were up," James said with great excitement.

"Not while he's asleep, son. I don't know about you but I've never roused a sleeping dragon. I'm not sure how he'd take to the idea."

"But, Da..."

"Sorry, son. When he wakes up I'll see if he'd be willing to meet you two."

Harry smiled and tousled his son's hair and then made his way to the kitchen to see about some lunch. He found Ginny there already, her lunch in front of her, her face buried in the latest edition of This Week in Quidditch. Harry shook his head and sat down across from her, Nibs already carrying his lunch to the table.

"Anything interesting this week, luv?" he asked.

"What? Oh, Harry, I didn't see you come in," she said, looking over the top of the lowered magazine.

"I noticed that. So, what's so engrossing?"

"Look for yourself," she said with a grin as she offered him the magazine.

Harry took it and looked at the title of the article Ginny had been reading.

"Goliath on a Broom"

Harry's eyebrows rose above the rims of his glasses as he began to read the article.

"In his first year as a front line beater, young Anton DuBonais is living up to the promise first demonstrated during his early performances, first as a reserve and then in the last quarter of last year's regular season when he was called up to take the place of the injured Ian McKinney, who has since retired. DuBonais brings a trio of formidable weapons to play above the pitches of the British Premier Quidditch League. The most obvious is, of course, his imposing size. Standing in excess of six and half feet tall and weighing over twenty well muscled stone, DuBonais brings a considerable fear factor to the game. Wielding a standard beater bat like most wizards handle a wand, he can drive a bludger from one goal to the other with little apparent effort and with enough still left on the ball to pick a flier cleanly off his or her broom. But what marks the young beater as a dominating figure in the air is his uncanny ability to drive the bludger along a curved path, making it extraordinarily difficult to anticipate and defend against his attacks. Call it english, spin, or any other word you care to choose, having a bludger coming at you from DuBonais' bat from a totally unexpected direction can only be called scary. This author has heard many a chaser express great apprehension at the thought of having to share a pitch with the young giant."

The article continued on describing Anton's origins, his playing days at Hogwarts, contrasting his easy going attitude anywhere but a Quidditch stadium with his intensity on a broom. The article concluded with a complaint of sorts when it said,

"The only thing about DuBonais that we find distressing is that he is a citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to play for the British National Team. One person close to the National Team was heard to lament, 'the most devastating beater to come along in a century and he has to be a bloody Yank'.