A few days later found Harry in the Forbidden Forest with the thestrals. He was sitting underneath a tree with this year's new crop of foals cuddling with him while their dams watched carefully from nearby. The closest one, Kali, had her head resting on his lap as he stroked her neck with one hand, the other hand busy gesturing wildly.
"I know there's nothing that can be done about it now, but you'd think that a dangerous tournament like this would be better protected! If anyone can just put someone's name it, we're lucky someone didn't put in a first year's as a prank or something! I know the Goblet's supposed to pick the best person fitted for the job, but what if it made a mistake? What if some poor first year had to deal with all of this?"
Namgal, Ereshkigal's first foal, whistled soothingly and scooted closer, making Harry huff in amusement. "Yeah I know. It didn't happen. Instead I got shoved into this mess."
Suddenly a loud roar ripped through the forest. Before Harry could do more than flinch, his tree was surrounded by the adult thestrals, the foals being absolutely still around him. He carefully extricated himself from the foals, careful to move slowly and not garner attention. He carefully stepped up next to Thanatos, who looked displeased that he was out of the circle but didn't do more than try to nudge him back into the center.
Harry carefully stepped out of the circle completely, but didn't stop Thanatos when he followed closely behind him. Before long they found the cause of the roar, and Thanatos was quick to bite the back of his shirt before Harry accidentally stumbled into the clearing.
Another roar burst out, this time followed by a jet of white hot fire, and Harry flinched again, jerking back into Thanatos as he found himself surrounded by a pile of bones that seemed to have just popped into existence, or perhaps were summoned from the ground, since the ground seemed to have been upturned quite violently.
He shivered, wondering what was happening to him that he was summoning bones, instead of just finding them. He shook himself and turned to go. Thanatos seemed very pleased by this decision and hurried right next to him before opening one of his wings and crouching down a little.
Harry blinked in shock and looked up at the thestral. "Are you sure?" The look he got in return was clear. It was practically a whole paragraph of how it would be faster to get away by flight. Harry nodded and quickly, if not easily, climbed on. One sweep of wings later, and Harry found himself flying through the Forest back to the thestrals' clearing.
******************
After he helped the thestrals find another clearing farther away from the dragons, Harry headed back to the school. As he exited the Forest, he quickly turned the stone on his ring in the agreed pattern that Les Amis should meet in the classroom when they could, but that it wasn't an emergency.
By the time he reached the classroom, everyone was there, so Harry just sat down quickly and told what happened.
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Ginny spoke. "Talk about being wary of fire," she snorted, before her smile dropped. "Seriously though, dragons? That sucks. Should Ron and I write to Charlie to see if he has any advice?"
Ron shook his head. "I shouldn't. If I ask about dragons now of all times when I've always tried to avoid his conversations about them before then he'll get suspicious. I'll help Hermione research instead."
Hermione blushed for some reason, but Harry shrugged it off in favor of thanking them.
Draco grinned. "I'll help you find fire proofing spells. Wouldn't want you to get burnt to a crisp, after all. It would be such a shame to ruin your pretty face."
Harry sputtered for a moment while the others just laughed, making Harry turn away.
"Seriously though, we need to research fire proofing spells," Draco said, making everyone else agree.
"We also need to figure out why you're summoning bones now though. It's probably because of your grandfather, but it would be best to figure out exactly why," Hermione interjected.
Neville nodded seriously. "Finding bones everywhere is one thing, but if every time you're frightened or startled you summon them? Not good. That's a quick way to get a one way trip to the worst place in everyone's regard."
"Harry will have to wait to ask, it's not like he's going to be allowed to leave to talk to the portraits in his vault without a good reason," Ron said pragmatically.
"It will turn out," Luna said. "All things do, and Yule break will come soon enough."
"I want to know more about the thestrals!" Ginny exclaimed.
Harry grinned, leaning toward her. "There is one thing I didn't mention.
Draco groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Don't tell me."
Harry laughed, leaning into his side briefly. "Fine, I won't tell you."
Ginny groaned. "Won't you tell me, Harry? I want to know!"
Hermione frowned. "We probably should know, just to make sure it's not another incident like with the murder snake in the walls."
"Salmissra is perfectly nice!" Harry exclaimed, affronted.
Neville hid his laugh behind his arm. "Yes, we know that now, but when you first started talking to her all you knew was that she was hungry and in the walls."
Harry pouted. "Fine. Then I won't tell you what I did."
Draco leaned into his side. "I suppose we should know. It can't be worse than seeing dragons if Harry's this excited about it."
Harry grumbled, but his twitching lips showed how much he was enjoying the moment with his friends. "Fine, I'll tell you," he said dramatically, then leaned forward with a mad glint in his eye and a grin. "I rode a thestral."