Investing in the Future

Chapter Four

Andromeda looked around the Florida home and smiled, the sun and warm climate would do Harry good, it wasn't like they had to worry about the commute to work thanks to magic. She would be working with private patients, not wanting to come under another Ministries thumb as much as working in a hospital would entail. Ted would keep his practice in Britain to an extent, it wasn't like many of his cases went to court. For those that did, he could take a portkey and use their London home as a base for the duration. Harry would either be home schooled, something that existed in America to allow students to continue their non-magical education at the same time, or he could attend Ilvermorny and ignore his non-magical studies. She doubted he would choose that method, not after seeing his reaction to getting to go to this wildlife park. It was Nymphadora she was unsure of, her daughter had planned to train as an auror, something she couldn't do in America unless they became full citizens.

She was just hoping they were behaving themselves for Mr. Hammond, this weekend was apparently very important to the park's future.

~~

"Perhaps you should stay here," Ellie offered as Alan rushed off, needing to see the adults. She may not study the various breeds of raptors herself, but she was dating a man obsessed with them, so she had learnt a lot over the years. And after he had scared that kid on the dig with them...maybe it was best for the boy to remain in the lab.

"Sounds good to me," Nym agreed, if that kind of dinosaur looked that deadly as a baby she wasn't too keen on letting Harry anywhere near the adults. Harry looked at Nym, green eyes pleading, and she hesitated, not wanting to disappoint him. "We can go see them later Harry, let the others check it out first," she offered the compromise and Ellie nodded, she would see if the enclosure was appropriate for a teen. Harry nodded, knowing that was as good as he was going to get.

"We will meet up for lunch then," John agreed happily and led the others out, leaving Harry and Nym with Henry.

Henry wanted to groan at being left with the kids, but he knew better. He went back to observing the raptor eggs and they joined him, at least they were staying out of the way.

"How do you know what animal's DNA you have, or is it just a guess the first time until the egg develops? It's not like there's a database of dinosaur DNA you could look up," Harry pondered, and Henry nodded, surprised by the question.

"The first few times were very much trial and error, but with every successful hatching our own database grows. The very first dinosaur successfully hatched was the T-Rex, we now know what that DNA looks like, so we avoid implanting any more eggs with it."

"Why?" Nym asked. "One animal would be pretty lonely."

"Perhaps, but they are apex predators and need a lot of room to roam, we don't have the necessary space."

"I know you said these are Velociraptors...but aren't they a bit big? I read they only get to two meters longs, these guys won't have a lot of growing to do," Harry offered as he mentally compared the baby's size to the diagrams he'd seen in books.

"The adults are between 3 and 5 metres long, 2 metres tall," he answered, proud of his creations.

"So, they're actually closer to Deinonychus or even Utahraptor. Why call them Velociraptors then?" Harry pushed, and Henry stared at him. No one else had ever questioned the name.

"My guess is Velociraptor gets shortened to raptor which is catchier. Though that still leaves Utahraptor as a possibility," Nym offered with a shrug, the name didn't bother her. A dragon was a dragon, no matter if it was a Chinese Fireball or a Norwegian Ridgeback.

"They are Velociraptors," he smiled tightly and was not happy when the boy rolled his eyes. He was the scientist and they had deemed them to be velociraptors.