It was like time stood still as the scene in front of them sank into their minds, Harry as always noticed everything, evidently Andrea had not gone out long, since she stood in front of Carol (trying to stand in front of Sophia as well, but the brave determined teen refused to bow down to anyone or anything much to Harry's immense pride) Amy as well, but even the blonde refused to cower, standing instead with a knife at the ready like the rest of his core group. The kids were cowering behind them, terrified beyond belief. The rest of Harry's people were spread out along the road crouched on the floor trying to make themselves as invisible as possible so badly fearing for their lives that Harry could see their entire bodies shaking.
Then it was as if someone had hit the play button and noise rushed through his ears, "Don't do anything, you'll only make it angry!" came the voice of Sophia, sounding so confident and assured by her statement. As Harry blasted a wave of water towards Luna's own water shield causing the waves of fire to bellow out and steam rise like an inferno.
"Why are you just standing there? DO SOMETHING!" Tara snapped just as Harry expelled water from his wand. She was crouched outside the house that her family was using. They should never have come here; she should have known there was no such miracle without consequences. The venomous look Harry shot her had her shuffling back, fear flashing through her eyes, perhaps she had been best to keep her mouth shut and not antagonise a wizard.
Harry immediately felt bad but not enough to apologise, he was doing his best here for Merlin's sake! His heart sank, it took dozens of wizards and witches to subdue a dragon, and he was only one man. Even if he somehow got the dragon away like he had done in the past during the tournament...it could just very well return and cause even more damage possibly kill them. The magic surrounding this place...was...a supernatural beacon for all magical animals. It just had to be a damn dragon that made its way here.
Harry's left hand suddenly flicked in a downward motion causing Daryl's crossbow to aim downwards causing the arrow to release and hit the concrete and skid away uselessly. "You'll just make it furious, it could fry us to a crisp before you could do any damage," Harry explained, green eyes dull. They were going to have to leave, face the uncertainty of finding another place...his people had settled, were happy, and he felt terrible about what he was going to have to do. "Almost nothing can get through dragon hide,"
"I thought nothing could get through your wards?" Michonne questioned, her samurai sword already held defensively in her hand. Her attention alternating between Harry and her son who was safely ensconced in Carol's arms. She feared moving and bringing the dragons attention on them and incidentally her son.
"Nobody can," Mira was the one to answer, her breathing was a little quick, but she was calm. "Animals and certain creatures...magical creatures are different," as brilliant and ingenious as the Fidelius Charm was...it didn't work against certain magical creatures like dragons or House-elves. Just because she was a squib it didn't mean she didn't know her stuff, and it would have been something she'd had to say before meeting Harry. Fortunately, Harry wasn't prejudiced against non-magical or squibs.
"Son of a dick!" came from the red headed guy, who was standing up despite his injuries at the surgery door, eyes almost popping out of his head.
"Repeat of my fourth year?" Harry murmured quietly, gazing intently at the dragon in front of him through the wall of water. Its scales are smooth and copper-coloured. It also has black ridge-markings and short horns on its head. Like the Norwegian Ridgeback, its fangs are venomous. It is the smallest and fastest known breed of dragon, about fifteen feet (five metres) long and able to conceal itself well from Muggles something it evidently didn't feel like doing. The Vipertooth feeds on goats and cows but is notorious for its particular craving for humans. Vipertooth dragons were all but endangered before the end of the world, they had been all but exterminated by wizards because they couldn't be controlled and were a danger to the secrecy act.
"We'd need to sleep with one eye open more than normal!" Luna murmured back barely protesting. "It would just come back...it came here for a reason."
Harry snorted, "Yeah, to eat," he told her sarcastically, but his countenance shouted worry and defeat. He wasn't surprised that Luna would just basically repeat his own thoughts back to him, they were in sync, always had been, especially when it came to animals, but Harry had to admit without a single bit of embarrassment that Luna definitely knew more about magical creatures than him.
"What exactly happened in your fourth year?" Merle asked cautiously, he didn't listen to half the information he probably should have though.
"I got chased around the school on my broomstick by a dragon," Harry sighed, brushing his hand through his hair, his face pale and drawn tightly. "One bigger than that, and just as deadly. The only problem is, as Luna said, it might just return...it takes dozens of wizards to subdue a dragon, its hide is nearly impenetrable,"
"Can't we kill it?" Daryl suggested standing as always next to Harry, eyeing the dragon as he would a beast he was hunting.
Harry pursed his lips; truthfully the thought of killing any more magical creatures was sickening. Hell, he felt guilty about killing the damn basilisk in his second year still, and that too had been a kill or be killed situation. He felt less guilty about killing Quirrell than the basilisk. "The only weak spot would be to ram a sword through its mouth and into its brain, not only would we have to watch for the fire but its teeth are highly venomous."
"If I'm being honest... it doesn't look good," Harry said after a few moments of contemplative silence, "It looks starved, its scales look wrong, not as vibrant as they should be, and its chain around its neck...it looks old," Luna was nodding along with everything he said, agreeing with him one hundred percent.
"Who in their right mind would try to imprison a damn dragon?" Merle muttered people were crazy.
Harry swallowed thickly, "More people than you'd think," Harry sighed regretfully, thinking of Gringotts and all that had occurred during his seventh year. Realizing that he had made a mistake earlier when he spoke to Glenn, it wasn't just two dragons he'd dealt with but three, this was the fourth. Had he cursed himself by speaking of the damn creatures earlier? It certainly seemed to be the case.
"That and their scales and venom are worth a lot of money," Luna said bitterly, her lip curled in disgust. She'd resigned herself to having to kill animals to eat, to survive, painlessly, but keeping animals in captivity and treating them disgustingly caused her to thrum with anger. Animal cruelty was something she was very vocally against.
"What is that obnoxious thing?" Was hissed. "It stinks worse than the mutt!"
Harry froze, an exasperated groan leaving his lips; could anything else go wrong today?
"Is that what I think it is?" Amy asked her voice shrill looking ready to bolt.
"Really? You're calm in the face of a dragon but ready to wet yourself at a tiny reptile?" Harry asked her sardonically, giving her a pointed look. "She's fine, she's been here the same length of time you have, you didn't think the terrarium I had in my house was there for fun, did you?"
"B-b-but it's a..." Amy squeaked, breathing quite heavily.
"Do you have Ophidiophobia?" Harry asked, his tone softening, usually sarcasm helped ease Amy from panicking; admittedly he hadn't had to use it often anymore. "A fear of snakes," he elaborated seeing the lack of understanding on her face.
"C come here," Harry hissed, he really didn't want his snake to cause the damn dragon to cause any trouble. "And for the last time, Anubis is not a mutt!"
"It speaks our tongue,"
Harry and Luna froze as one, it hadn't been Celesta that had spoken...it wasn't hissing like hers but more of a growl...the dragon knew and understood Parseltongue. "Merlin!" Luna breathed out in shock, this wasn't known, there was no single mention of dragons understanding Parseltongue, and despite the end of the world...new information was coming forth and surprising her.
"Would you look at that, the stinky thing can speak!" the snake hissed out in amusement.
Harry pursed his lips, trying to stop himself from laughing despite the situation; he had one hell of a sassy snake.
The dragon snorted, letting out a small dose of fire, aiming it at the side of Celeste as if it could control it. Hope began to consume Harry, perhaps he could get through to the dragon, create some sort of sanctuary somewhere nearby, somewhere it would be safe...like a preserve.
Celeste hissed and moved further away, an indignant look on her face as she slithered towards her human. Instinctively knowing that Harry would protect her, instead of doing what would come naturally to a predator she was. Harry scooped down and brought her up, wrapping her around Luna, he was about to do something...incredibly stupid and he didn't want anyone else hurt if this all backfired on him.
Swallowing thickly, his mind reeling as ideas on how to keep his people safe slammed into him, he was an idiot for not thinking of it before. "If anything happens, shrink everyone down and send them through the charmed box and into the safety of Hogwarts. Or if you want, get Hermione to send you the charmed cabinets; she'll know what I'm talking about."
"What...Harry no," Luna snapped, grasping his shoulder, "Now you're just being stupid!" not afraid to tell him what he thought.
"Short of killing it, there's not much else we can do, if I can resolve this without having to move...I'll do it." Harry said softly, "Just remember what I said." he added, squeezing her hand which lay tight on his shoulder ducking her wand down, removing the shield of water she had up, leaving only his own.
Harry turned towards Daryl, almost immediately the others glanced away, not truly understanding why either, they were just staring at each other. But the emotions they conveyed through simply looking were...very private, it spoke of the bond they shared that required no physical contact to understand one another. Nonetheless, it was intense; surprisingly even Merle had nothing to say. Eventually, Harry simply ran his fingers along Daryl's arm down his hand, their fingers touching until they weren't.
Then Harry began to walk in the direction of the dragon, his posture revealing nothing but confidence and self-assurance in his own abilities.
"Bloody hell, call him back! This is suicidal!" Andrea begged/pleaded with Luna, knowing out of them all, Luna would have the greatest success.
"You should know Harry by now," Luna sighed, her eyes still trailing after Harry, not even sparing Andrea a glance. "Nobody can make him change his mind once he's decided something. The depressing truth is...if anyone can do it...it's Harry, you have to trust that he knows what he's doing, and honestly? He DOES have the best chance out of us all." worst come to the worst Harry could fight fire with fire. Nothing, not even a dragon would survive a well placed Fiendfyre. She didn't like the thought of it being harmed...but what could you do? Harry would do anything for the people he loved, to keep them safe, to allow them to remain in this safe haven they had created. Nevertheless, Luna kept her wand tightly grasped; the wall of water was still aloft.
Harry steadily made his way towards the dragon, both hands-free of a wand; if he had to he would just have to do Wandless magic. No doubt the dragons associated magic with attacks, wands with oncoming attacks, so to have any hopes of coming out of this unscathed the wand had to be slid into his holster. He was terrified, there was no denying it, not the kind of fear you'd feel upon a first encounter, just a fear that it could all go wrong. "I'm not going to hurt you, you have my word." Harry hissed soberly, "You aren't the first dragon I've encountered, but I wasn't aware that dragons could speak Parseltongue, none of the others spoke in the past." his hand reached up, a small smile appearing on his face when the dragon nudged his hand with its nose, snorting a little.
"Can you understand what's being said?" Amy asked, assuming it was a Wizardkind thing, keeping her distance, glancing at the snake on Luna with a grimace, curious enough to know what was being said to endure being close to the reptile. Glancing behind her seeing those that had crouched on the floor were cautiously standing up, gaping at Harry in awe as he stood right next to the dragon which had just been threateningly snorting out flames.
"I'm going to remove the shackle around your neck; can you remain still while I do it and try not to burn me? You obviously have some control, I saw you trying to scare my snake, I know you could have set her ablaze," Harry hissed, "You weren't imprisoned for long were you?" It wasn't really a question, it was a statement. "You're nothing like the other dragon I saved." with that Harry coaxed his magic out of his other hand aiming it at the choker collar around the dragon's neck, not noticing the look on its face at Harry's absent-minded words.
"My God!" Bob rasped out, as the metal choker chain that was attached to the dragon fell, but Harry smoothly sidestepped it was if it was nothing! It was bigger than any other animal trap he'd ever seen. He was insane; he was practically nose to nose with a damn dragon without any real weapon he was going to get himself killed. His own heart was pounding erratically, in fear of what could happen not only to Harry but everyone here. Yet he could see that many had faith in Harry to have their back, to save them. He hadn't been here long enough to say he actually trusted him...but the others...so many others couldn't be wrong.
"Harry's the only one with the gift to speak to reptiles," Luna explained to Amy without looking away from Harry, tense and alert ready to do whatever she could if things went south. She could feel that Daryl was much the same as her, Luna could sense just how useless Daryl felt at the moment but she couldn't comfort him, couldn't lie to him. "It's a rare gift, used to be a lot more popular but the families died out..."
"How the hell did he get out of that bed?" Merle grumbled, eyes narrowing in on the ginger haired stranger that had been brought in a few days ago. He eyed the guy with a suspicious look, his fingers dancing across his gun as if contemplating whether to use it.
"Tyreese and Big Tiny are supposed to be keeping an eye on them," Michonne stated, answering Merle, having followed his gaze while Daryl and Luna refused to look away (like the majority of their people) from the spectacle in front of them. "Has anyone been in touch with Glenn and Maggie? Should we tell them to be careful?" noticing that the two were absent. She didn't want them accidentally causing the Dragon to become defensive and spew fire out, none of them even wanted to consider having to put down an infected/burnt to a crisp wizard. She was very fond of Harry, they all were.
"I'll do it," Amy said immediately, slowly walking backwards away from Luna and the snake, further from Harry and the dragon already had her fingers tightly gripped around the radio and called out to Glenn.
"You saved one of my kind?" the dragon questioned, eyeing the strange magic human, she'd only known magic to be terrifying, hurtful, used to take her baby's away, to put her in crates, to lock her up, to lock her away out of the sun. Then the humans had begun to change, the smell of death and decay, once she got free she flew for days not stopping, wishing for somewhere safe to nest. The magic around here called to her on a primal level, she just knew she was safe; it reminded her of the magic in the sanctuary before she was taken from there.
"I did, he was locked underground, very pale, shackled to the ground, scared, I think he'd been there since he was an egg." Harry confessed quietly, with a sad sigh, "We used magic to remove his shackles, and he flew for the first time, taking me and a few others to safety at the same time... he never spoke, I wonder if its because you are a Vipertooth dragon that you understand this language," he hadn't been able to determine what breed of dragon the other one was, unfortunately, it had been practically deformed due to its time down in the bowels of Gringotts.
"I think he might be getting through to it," Luna sighed, easing somewhat seeing that Harry himself was relaxing a little, still rubbing his hand over its snout. She could scarcely believe this was happening; then again she'd been bloody shocked when she saw the dragon landing amongst their territory. Her quick thinking had saved everyone from the dragons fire, either death or very severe burns.
"Why did you come here?" Harry hissed tone tentative as if hoping he wasn't reminding the dragon of some nefarious plan he had to eat them all and decide to enact it. They stood watching each other, Harry had the very disconcerting feeling that he was being judged...and briefly wondered what would happen should he be found lacking.
"Safe to nest,"
Harry gulped freezing completely, his eyes going comically wide ceasing breathing altogether. Great, just great, a pregnant dragon of all things, trying to nest, there was no way he would be able to convince it to leave, unless...unless he created somewhere for her to be nearby. A dragon preserve, a sanctuary for dragons...if its humans the dragon wants then there was an abundance of walkers to snack on.
"Oh, no," Luna muttered, squinting as if she hoped to see Harry better, something was wrong, Harry had gone stiffer than he had before he walked over. Tightening her hold on her wand, ready to do something...anything if the need arose. She didn't want to hurt the dragon, she cared about all creatures big and small...but her love for her brother, for Harry, was so much more than anything else in this world.
Luna touched Daryl's tense bicep shaking her head solemnly, warning him against firing that arrow he had just loaded into his crossbow. She understood his desire; she wanted nothing more than to fire off a spell in order to protect Harry. Yet she knew, she knew if she dared, Harry would pay the price even before the spell or arrow could make contact - and even if it did it would do nothing but anger it further.
"Bloody hell," Harry breathed out, how the hell did he get out of this one? "Alright, alright, you want somewhere to nest, I can make you somewhere to nest, somewhere safe, where the walkers cannot get to you, where you won't hurt anyone, you'll be out in the open, free fly as you like, I promise, and I'll even visit you...how does that sound?" praying that the dragon agreed, she couldn't stay here! She'd just scare everyone away - make them scream for the hills.
The dragon shifted from foot to foot, staring straight at Harry, "Alright magic human,"
Harry smiled at the dragon, pleased beyond belief and very happy with the outcome. "I'm going to call someone over, so we can find you somewhere, alright? Don't set them on fire,"
The dragon snorted, dipping its head a little in agreement.
With a flick of his wrist, Harry sent a Patronus message with his Stag, not wishing to should and startle the dragon.
The second Luna heard the message; she summoned a map of the area, handing it to Daryl. She knew he would want to go, he was already shifting restlessly just short of going over there without prompting - he was so protective, he wasn't used to predators he couldn't deal with, anything he met in the wild he could kill expertly. He was faced with the predator of all predators, one not easily killed. With fire as a defensive shield and impenetrable skin, not even the walkers could hope to penetrate its thick skin.
Merle growled as he watched his brother move, if it weren't for Luna's hands on his arm he would have made sure Daryl remained back. Even if it meant starting a fight with his little brother, seeing him going towards one of the deadliest creatures they'd ever been up against was terrifying, not that he'd ever admit that. He was never good with his feelings; he doubted he ever would be. "Fuck," he spat, watching wide eyed in shock as Harry and his brother climbed onto the Dragon's back, "What the hell are they doin'?" Merle clenched his teeth as it flew away.
"They're looking for somewhere to put the dragon that isn't here, somewhere safe," Luna said with pride - Harry had done the impossible yet again. "Big Tiny, Axel, Merle keep an eye on the three in the surgery please, if any are absent let me know,"
"What are you doin'?" Merle asked suspiciously as if he suspected she would just disappear from him as well.
"I'm going to let Glenn and Maggie know the situation has been resolved, then I'm going to talk to them," Luna stated sharply, gazing at Tara for a moment, she had heard what she said to Harry. She had been furious with her words but had been forced to concentrate on the dragon, now it was resolved her earlier ire was returning. Harry wouldn't be happy with her for what she was about to do, but nobody got to talk to Harry like that - not when he was doing his damn best to keep everyone safe.
"Andrea, go with Big Tiny and Axel," Merle grumbled, refusing to let Luna out of his sight. He was on guard and would remain that way until Daryl and Harry returned.
Andrea knew this so nodded her head in understanding, squeezing her sisters shoulder, "Go let everyone knows it's safe," she told Amy, not everyone had been in the vicinity, for example Hershel and Dale had been tending to the animals at the other side of the PA, Lori, Rick and T-Dog had been tending to the additional crops they had just put in place. Judith was with Carl, but she wasn't sure exactly where the kid was.
"Go to the board, tick everyone off, make sure nobody is missing," Carol suggested, as she handed Andre to his mother with a small smile. "I'll come with you; we all need to eat,"
"Alright, good idea!" Amy nodded waving her sister away she and Carol made a beeline for the communal dining hall/museum.