Summary:Harry has been living on a dragon reserve for the past 8 years, only to be brought to Hogwarts for the first task of the Triwizard tournament. Meanwhile Hermione discovers that the ministry is allowing dragons to be slaughtered for the tournament and resolves to find a way to save them.
Notes:Hope you enjoy this chapter. Feel free to point out any mistakes I make, well me what you did or didn't like, and comment any ideas you have that you have for future chapters.
Chapter TextRomanian Dragon Reserve: November 1st, 1994
Bolt woke up from his dream about a young bushy haired human girl that reminded him of a princess he'd once read about one afternoon while hiding from Dudley in the local library, and stretched out his large black wings, climbing up from his small cave in the forest and flying a circle around the dragon reserve that had been his home for the last eight years, enjoying the beautiful landscape and mountains just like he did every morning since he'd woken up here.
He nodded politely to the older dragons as he flew by their nests, never stopping his flight.
He'd grown a lot during his time here, from a small 3 meters to over 6 and he was still growing.
He still remembered being a human, but he didn't miss it much.
The only thing he wished he could do that he couldn't as a dragon was having friends his own age, but he hadn't been much good at that as a boy either, as all his potential friends had been too afraid of his cousin to want to be around him.
He was content here, and life was simple. It had taken some time, getting used to being a dragon, but overall he considered it to be much better than being starved and beaten by his relatives on a daily basis.
He loved to go flying, feeling the wind on his scales as he watched the world shrink below him. It was beautiful here, and he reveled in the freedom. He'd sometimes go out into the forest and hunt the goats and sheep that the humans stocked into the forest for him and the others.
One of the hardest parts of learning to be a dragon was learning to eat. Unlike when he was just a boy, he had to hunt for his food here, and it'd taken him months to work up the courage to eat a whole goat. He had ultimately decided that although he didn't mind the taste, he much preferred to roast his prey with his breath than eat it raw.
The other dragons seemed to think he was strange for cooking his food, but he mostly avoided them anyway. When he'd first arrived here he'd tried to socialize with the other dragons, but although he spoke dragon language, he'd quickly learned tokyo his mouth shut, as although he spoke dragonese, he had a notable accent that caused the other dragons to view him as an outsider.
He'd learned this the hard way after trying to speak with another large dragon only to be accused of trespassing on its territory. He'd narrowly escaped with his life. It was almost as if they could sense that he wasn't a true dragon, and knew that he didn't truly belong.
He didn't mind much, as he was used to being alone, or at least that is what he told himself.
He knew he was really a human boy, but he continued to ignore the small part of him that longed for a friend. Life as a dragon suited him, and although he was quite lonely here, it was much better than his life from before he changed.
He had access to food, water, he was free to fly and roam as much as he wanted, and best of all, there was no cupboard!
In his mind, humans were cruel and weak and he wanted no part of a world that had allowed him to be beaten and nearly killed on a regular basis.
The only thing he truly wanted that he didn't already have was companionship. Sometimes he could hear the dragon handlers as they worked nearby, speaking about things, and though he often didn't understand what they meant, he liked to listen in if only to learn what was going on at the preserve.
He knew things were changing here at the preserve. His original handler, and owner of the preserve, Aaron, had passed away recently. Aaron had been good to him since he'd arrived, spending a lot of time healing his injuries. Bolt found it very hard to trust others, but he'd always felt comfortable enough to go to Aaron whenever he was injured, such as the time when he was first learning to fly and he missed the spot on the rock where he'd meant to land and ended up with a large branch impaled in one of his wings. Aaron had healed him and he'd been flying again a week later.
Aaron also used to bring goats and occasionally a pig as a special treat and leave them at the entrance to his cave. He was grateful for this, especially when he was younger and was still learning how to hunt prey.
He was wary of the new manager of the reserve, a younger man named Charlie Weasley. Something within him told him that the man couldn't be trusted.
As he circled around and landed back at his nest from his morning flight, he noticed an entire cow had been laid at the entrance to his cave.
It had a funny, almost artificial smell to it, but as Bolt had never eaten a cow before, having only eaten mostly goats and pigs, with the occasional fish he managed to catch from the stream on the other side of the valley, he just assumed that was just how cows smelled. He began to eat after dragging the cow carcass into his cave and roasting the meat on the stone floor of his cave with his breath, being careful not to catch anything flammable on fire, as he didn't want to catch the surrounding forest on fire.
As he finished off the shoulders and loins which were his favorite parts, as they were the most tender, he began to feel drowsy. He shakily got to his feet, and immediately stumbled to the ground. It was then that he realized something was seriously wrong. He struggled to get up, but his body wouldn't obey his commands.
The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was Charlie Weasley walking up to him with a muzzle in his hands.
Hogwarts Forbidden Forest: November 2nd, 1994 Unknown Time
As Bolt began to wake he groggily shook his head, wondering what had happened. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn't in his cave anymore, but what drew his attention most was the fact that his snout was muzzled and his legs were shackled to the bottom of a large metal cage.
He noticed that Charlie Weasley was there with 2 others whose scents he vaguely recognised from the preserve, arguing with a huge bearded man who after a while eventually seemed to relent and make his way back through the forest.
He scanned his surroundings, realizing that he was in a small clearing surrounded by dark forest, a forest that he was sure was a long way away from the preserve he had been on when he'd fallen unconscious.
He shook his head, trying to free himself from the muzzle that was keeping him from roasting the man who dared kidnap him, but also taking care to keep quiet enough as to not let the others notice he was awake.
He couldn't help but wish Aaron hadn't passed, as he'd have never allowed dragons to be caged. He wondered why he'd been brought here.
He was smart however, and quickly realized that it was best to conserve his energy until had an opportunity to escape, so he laid down and pretended to sleep as the men continued to laugh and joke. Unlike the others, he had experience with being locked up in tight places, and he'd still rather be in this cage than locked in his cupboard.
Over the next 2 days he laid quietly trying not to attract attention to himself and was able to overhear enough information to realize that whatever this "tournament" was about, these men were going to do their best to make sure he and the others didn't survive it. They had been offered gold by some committee to ensure that he and the other dragons were brought here. The large bearded man had come back several times to argue with Charlie the first day, but seemed to have given up as Bolt hadn't seen him since the first day.
Hogwarts Castle: November 5th, 1994
Hermione Granger was angry. Every single book in the Hogwarts library on the triwizard tournament had been checked out, and if there was one thing Hermione Granger hated, it was not knowing important information.
Even though she wasn't competing, she was still curious and had wanted to check out a few books for some background reading about the tournament.
She huffed, quietly making her way back to the common room.
It wasn't like she had anything else to do. No one in Gryffindor even spoke with her unless they needed help on a homework assignment, and she was always at least 3 weeks ahead of her own schoolwork.
She had no real friends, and had been bullied and belittled from the moment she had arrived on the train for her first year, with Professor Snape being one of her biggest bullies.
Well, him and Ronald Weasley. Dumbledore had allowed it because it gave them something else to focus on other than the fact that Harry Potter wasn't at Hogwarts. She'd come very close to not returning for her second year.
The only thing that changed her mind was that after first year there was a huge scandal when Dumbledore was sacked as headmaster due to him being forced to drink veritaserum during a questioning revolving around the disappearance of Harry Potter, as he was known to be the last person to see Harry Potter alive.
What they found shocked the wizarding world. Albus Dumbledore, the supposed leader of the light, had dropped a baby Harry Potter off on the doorstep of muggles, and had never even bothered to check on him.
He'd quickly defended his decision stating that there had been wards set up to protect him, but seeing as Harry Potter had died in a magical house fire at the age of 6, they obviously weren't sufficient. When the subsequent investigation brought to light that he'd also allowed Sirius Black to sit in Azkaban for 11 years without receiving a trial, and he'd deliberately ignored the Potter's wills, he'd been sentenced to Azkaban for the next 20 years as well. Not even his reputation could save him from the media storm that followed.
Hermione had been horrified to find out that someone could be sent to prison without a trial, and it had brought home to her just how backwards the wizarding world could be sometimes.
Sirius Black had immediately been released, but upon finding out that his godson had died, a newly heartbroken Sirius Black had chosen to leave Britain and go abroad, hoping to find a fresh start somewhere new.
The best thing that had come from the political turmoil, other than an innocent man being set free, in Hermione's opinion, was that her favorite teacher Professor Mcgonagall had been made headmistress and it was this, along with a long discussion with Professor McGonagall that had finally convinced her to give Hogwarts a second chance.
Things had improved slightly after that, especially with Snape, but Hogwarts was still difficult for her. People seemed to be intimidated by her intelligence, and it didn't help when she was forced to kill a basilisk in her second year after it had petrified 3 students and had killed Filch's cat.
She scoffed, thinking of how easy it had been to discover what was causing the petrifications.
Any single student, or even teacher could have discovered it if they had bothered to research it. It had been clear to her that it had been a basilisk after having read a chapter on them in a book on magical reptiles she had checked out, so after explaining her hypothesis to the headmistress, who had agreed with her assessment once shown the book, had promptly begun transfiguring parchment into roosters.
Once she had over a hundred, she began placing them at carefully chosen places around Hogwarts, jinxing them to crow once a minute on a loop.
She'd then returned to her dorm and waited. The next morning students had woken up to find not only over a hundred roosters roaming the Hogwarts halls, but also a dead basilisk just outside the girls bathroom on the second floor.
Hermione had been awarded an award for special services to the school for her actions. She'd hoped that this would force her classmates to finally accept her, but unfortunately, it had only ostracized her further, with some students claiming she'd been the one behind the attacks all along, only killing the basilisk to cover her tracks.
McGonagall had quickly given detention to those students and made a statement defending her, pointing out that she was a muggleborn and wasn't likely to be the heir of Slytherin, but it still didn't stop the stares and whispers that followed her wherever she went.
Although she'd at first been saddened by the fact that she'd been forced to kill another sentient being, she knew she didn't have a choice. As large as it was, there would have been no way to restrain and relocate it, if it could even be done safely.
Though she had been quite pleased to find out that she got to keep half the basilisk, she knew it was quite valuable due to its large size, with the other half being donated to Hogwarts.
She would have gotten around 100,000 galleons, but she had requested to keep part of the hide and a few other items she knew were good for potions such as the fangs and organs. She was still quite happy with the 65,000 galleons she'd walked away with, and had promptly commissioned a pair of basilisk hide boots, which she'd worn ever since as they were charmed to grow with her.
As she reached the common room, she stopped reminiscing and sat down in an armchair in the corner of the room. She picked up a worn out book on the different dragon species and began to read. Ever since she was 7 years old, Hermione had been fascinated with dragons.
It had begun when she'd started having occasional dreams of a gorgeous black dragon with emerald green eyes, and she'd been interested in dragons ever since.
At first, before she learned that she was a witch, there weren't many resources for her to read, other than fiction novels such as the Dragon Riders of Pern and the occasional mythology textbook.
When she turned eleven and received her Hogwarts letter, however, the first thing she did after dragging her parents to Diagon Alley was purchase a book called Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland using her allowance, and it had been her go to book whenever she needed to relax ever since.
She had been surprised to learn that the dragon she had been dreaming of was actually a real dragon species, a Hebridean Black, though her dream dragon had emerald eyes instead of the normal purple that was associated with the species.
She usually only had them occasionally, though since the first of November her dreams had increased in frequency to where she was having them almost daily. As she sat in the common room reading quietly, she overheard Ronald Weasley nearby talking loudly with his roommates Seamus and Dean.
"Hey Seamus, Dean, my brother Charlie just wrote to me and said that he and his work friends have brought dragons here from the reserve and are keeping them in the forbidden forest," he said clearly trying to impress the others.
This piqued her interest, so she quietly closed her book, laying it in her lap as she began to listen more closely to the conversation to be sure she didn't miss anything,though it was unlikely with how loud the boys liked to talk.
"Why would they bring dragons to a school? Aren't they extremely dangerous?" Dean asked, unknowingly voicing the same question Hermione had just thought of herself.
Ron replied, "Charlie says they are going to be used in the first task of the tournament. The champions are going to fight them to the death. Charlie is excited because he gets a percentage of the profits when the bodies are harvested for potions ingredients."
Hermione couldn't help but burst in here, "That's barbaric, how could they make the champions try to kill dragons! It's horrific, and I highly doubt any of the champions will be able to kill a dragon," she said, internally horrified at the thought of someone killing a dragon for entertainment.
"What do you know about it you know it all bitch? Besides, Charlie said even if the dragon wins the fight, they'll still be slaughtered after the tournament for hurting the champion." Ron laughed, "Maybe I'll get Charlie to save some hide so I can get me a new pair of boots."
Hermione slammed her book shut.
"Dragons are sentient Ronald Bilius Weasley! They have thoughts and feelings just like you do!"
Ron scoffed. "So? What about the basilisk that you killed in our second year? Didn't stop you from killing it and having those boots you're wearing made, did it?" he said.
Hermione was enraged.
"I'll have you know that the only reason I killed that basilisk was because it was a danger to every student in this school, and there was no way for it to be controlled without someone who speaks parseltongue. Looking back I now realize I should have just left it alone. At least then if I had been petrified I wouldn't have to deal with your bullshit every day!"
She stormed out of the common room, leaving a red faced Ronald Weasley in the common room.
How could the headmistress allow something this horrible to happen, inside a school of places? She knew dragons were intelligent creatures, and that she couldn't just allow them to be slaughtered for entertainment, but she didn't know what she could do about it.
All she knew was that she had to do something.
She knew she'd get in big trouble if she was caught trying to free them, and could possibly even be sent to Azkaban, but she felt a connection with the dragons that couldn't be ignored.
They were seen as monsters, and were treated cruelly just because people were intimidated by them, which was similar to the way she had been treated since she had arrived in the wizarding world. She knew first hand what it was like to be hated and feared.
I'll have to go visit Professor McGonagall in the morning to see if there's anything that can be done to free them, she thought. But for now, she knew she needed to find more information. She'd quickly realized that it was entirely possible that Ron was making the entire story about the dragons up. It wouldn't be the first time he'd lied to increase his popularity, as when she killed the basilisk in her second year, he'd loudly claimed that it had been his idea to use roosters until she'd set him straight with a stinging hex to the arse.
She knew she needed to confirm his story before she made any further plans. It was late, but luckily she had the marauders map that she'd blackmailed the twins into giving her after she'd discovered that they'd been responsible for turning professor Snape's hair Gryffindor red and gold.
So, with the Marauders map in hand, she went to seek help from the one person she knew loved dragons as much as she did.