I can’t for the life of me remember the summary. It’s the Harry Potter x Temeraire Crossover where Harry is Temeraire reborn and Charlie Weasley is Laurence reborn. Unbetaed.
Flying Again
1.
The first thing Charlie remembers is staring at a stuffed dragon toy,
and wondering why it was green instead of black. He asks this of his father,
who considers it a moment and then pulls out his wand to change the toy into a
black dragon instead. For some reason, it doesn’t make Charlie satisfied.
2.
Harry’s first memory is of green light and his skin crawling. For years
he will have nightmares of that moment, of the screams of his mother and of
Voldemort’s laughter, but it takes much, much longer for him to remember the
brief transformation and how comfortable wings are.
3.
Charlie feels often wrong in his home - and oddly happy for it. He
doesn’t know why, but seeing his father lifting his sons up to play with them
was somehow rewarding - and when his mother took out a spatula and chased her
errant husband across the kitchen, odd age old pain inside him unclenches and
he doesn’t quite understand why.
4.
Harry’s first days in Dursley house hold consist of yelling and hunger,
and tight crowded spaces that made him feel trapped and lonely. The Dursleys,
though he cannot name them quite yet, do not like him and do not want him and
though he can’t understand everything yet, he understands this well enough. He
understands what it means when his cousin gets more food than he does. But he
doesn’t like to go without, he doesn’t like unfairness and he likes hunger even
less, so he cries and roars and shatters every window in the living
room.
5.
Charlie learns to read quicker than Bill did. He doesn’t know why, but
it seems important like he’s supposed to be reading something specific,
something special. If only he knew what. He reads every book in the house in
search of that special book he thinks he ought to be reading, but the ones
about gardening and house work and muggle electronics do not settle the odd
feeling of unease inside him.
6.
The Dursleys fear him now, and Harry feels a little sad about that. He
only wanted to make them see the unfairness of their actions, not frighten
them. But it gets his plate a little fuller and he is taken out of the tiny
wooden space when he shatters the door, so maybe it’s alright. He gets his own
room, and his own bed and even his own toys, though most of them are Dudley’s old broken cast offs. He likes the broken robot
with golden chest plate the most.
7.
Unbeknownst to all, Charlie feels jealous of his brothers. They seem to
be unhindered by the odd worries and anxieties he gets every now and then, and
instead they play happily and without any care. Even Bill, who goes to Hogwarts
now, seems perfectly careless whilst Charlie feels worry, and worry, and worry…
and he doesn’t quite know whom he is so worried about.
8.
Harry is smart and he knows it, but he never quite understands why Dudley isn’t smart like him. Harry masters reading in matter
of days and he teaches himself to write by copying the letters in books of the
house, until he can write anything he wants. Dudley can’t even read his own name despite how Harry tries
to show him, and it baffles Harry before he realises that oh, Dudley is like, like… like someone. And though he can’t
remember who that someone is, it helps a little.
9.
When his uncle asks him what he will do when he grows up, the answer
comes without a second thought. Charlie Weasley would fly dragons. He doesn’t
understand for years to come why his answer makes the whole room laugh.
10.
When Harry, at the age of barely three, corrects his uncle on a
mathematical problem involving paper work, Vernon tries to send him to his room without
supper. Harry doesn’t stand for that, and when aunt Petunia returns from the
grocery store, the boy is still scolding the man for being silly.
11.
Charlie goes to Hogwarts, looking forward to it and fearing in the same
time. He has always known of the place, but he doesn’t know until he steps into
the castle that he didn’t actually believe in it. Even when the sorting
hat pronounced him “a Gryffindor if it ever saw one”, and he sits
beside his elder brother, he still doesn’t quite believe it. He thinks of
pearls and foolish dreams and feels completely out of his depth.
12.
The Dursleys talk about him when they think he isn’t listening,
worrying and arguing. Harry tries not to listen, as it is impolite, but he
can’t help it, they speak so loud. They fear him and hate him and want to be
rid of him but in the same time they know they are suck with him, which he
doesn’t quite understand. In the end, they decide to send him to school one
year early.
13.
His brother drags him out of the library time and time again, wondering
when he had gotten to be such a Ravenclaw. Charlie can’t explain it and doesn’t
even try, all he feels is deep sensation of dissatisfaction. The book isn’t in
the Hogwarts library either, and though he found some interesting books - which
oddly enough aren’t that interesting to him, but which will be interesting to
read - he feels like he is missing something very important.
14.
Harry thrives in school, and loves it with passion he only showed for
the golden plated robot toy and someone’s lost earring he had found on the
street. The books, the things to learn, all the writing! It is without doubt
the happiest he has been in years. More than anything, he loves the school’s
small library, and spends every recess there, blissfully reading mathematical
texts. He never quite understands why reading them alone in the light of a desk
lamp makes him feel so lonely, though.
15.
Charlie never tells it to anyone, but sometimes he looks at the
Slytherin banners and feels odd sensation of wrongness. Wasn’t green supposed
to be his colour, now? It is strange, because he doesn’t much like most
Slytherins. He doesn’t like how they treat other students or how they treat
animals - he saw one of them kick a cat in the corridor and nearly lost his calm.
He doesn’t like their attitudes; most of them remind him of someone very
unpleasant and very cruel. They don’t deserve the green colour. It was meant
for people greater than them.
16.
One girl in her class once sees Harry examining his lone earring in
recess. It is a beautiful thing, shaped like a droplet with a white stone in
the middle and wavy pattern around the edges - and it sparkled so nicely in
sunlight. The girl giggles at him and makes fun of him, and becomes his very
first friend when next day she gives him a plastic bracelet that has a silver
paint coating.
17.
Charlie can’t wait for the day he is in his third year and can finally
study about Care of Magical Creatures. He can study about dragons in his own
time, scour through breeds and types, of course, but they don’t seem to be
giving him the right answers. All the books seem to consider them mindless
beasts fully capable of killing humans if they were allowed to. It is very
dissatisfying and disheartening to read, and he can only hope that the books
are wrong and a teacher could prove them so.
18.
Harry has several bracelets and even more rings and whole class full of
girls he calls his friends and whom he happily helps with reading and writing
when ever they ask it, when the teacher pulls him aside. She says that he is so
smart and knows the material so well, that keeping him in the grade would be
waste - that they want to talk with his guardians about putting him on higher
grade. Harry preens with pride, and turns to say something to someone who isn’t
there.
19.
Charlie reads Arithmancy out loud sometimes on his free time, when his
dormitory is empty and no one is there to hear it. He doesn’t understand most
of the texts, having picked too advanced book from the library, but it is oddly
comforting for some reason. It eases the loneliness he cannot shake in the
castle full of people.
20.
Harry is looked down upon by his new classmates when he starts his
spring semester in different grade, but only for a while. The older girls see
what the younger ones had, and soon he has a friend and then two and though the
older boys still snort and poke fun at him because of his age and his
bracelets, the girls are very nice. Even when he corrects them on their
homework assignments, they don’t seem to mind. It’s enough to keep his mind
pre-occupied for a while.
21.
Charlie isn’t all that good with magic, and he knows it. Potions,
Herbology, Astronomy and History, those he can handle easily and master
quickly, but the rest of it is more difficult. And when ever McGonagall asks
him to stay behind the classes so that she can show him the transfigurations
again, or Flitwick calls him in for remedial charms lessons, Charlie feels slow
and awkward and oddly enough too old even though he is only twelve years old.
“Can you think what might be your problem with magic?” they ask.
Charlie can’t quite tell them that he doesn’t really believe in it.
22.
What takes the others in his class weeks to learn, Harry learns in
matter of hours. It seems to irritate the boys in his class and some of the
girls too, but the teacher is amazed and has him do odd tests after class.
Eidetic memory, they say. He doesn’t understand why this is so important -
until he realises that not all people remember things after one read through.
23.
The school year ends with Charlie feeling dissatisfied. He didn’t find
the book, the ones about dragons were disheartening, magic kept on bewildering
him through the year and he is certain he should have met someone important by
now and hadn’t. He boards the Hogwarts express frowning.
24.
Harry’s teachers and guardians talk it over for days, before aunt Petunia
turns to him and asks him what he thinks of the accelerated learning program
his teachers suggest. He would study thorough the summer and in the autumn he’d
do tests. If he passed them, he’d go to a different school meant for especially
smart children. He agrees happily, and is certain that Petunia and Vernon wouldn’t have agreed to it if Harry hadn’t
been promised a scholarship.
25.
The summer goes past with playing with his siblings and fighting with
Ginny who had learned a very irritating habit of saying no to everything.
Charlie goes back to school with Bill, promising this time to keep himself busy
and not think about weird things so much. This year he would try and see if he
could get into the Quidditch team and have fun, Arithmancy be damned.
26.
Harry’s new school doesn’t allow accessories, so his rings and
bracelets and one necklace he is very fond of go into a box to stay there until
further notice. He is bothered about it for a while before the studies distract
him and he throws himself into them fully. The mathematics is more advanced in
his new school than in his last - and the library is enormous. He reads and
studies and learns and for a moment forgets that he is missing something very
dear.
27.
Flying, Charlie feels, is closest he has gotten to a sensation of true
home. It’s like that feeling he gets when he reads of dragons and Arithmancy,
but put together and made soar. It feels flimsy, though, weak and fake and not
at all powerful, but it’s exhilarating and freeing, and on broom he forgets
everything but the wind and the little golden ball he is supposed to catch. But
still, afterwards he always feels like he is supposed to give the Snitch to
someone else, than Madam Hooch.
28.
Time flies past. Harry buries himself in books and calculations, he
absorbs difficult physics like a sponge, and spends many hours pondering over
chemical reactions. He is fascinated by books about mineralogy and hogs the
book about famous jewels to himself for four months before the library finally
says that he needs to return it. He learns and learns and learns. Somehow, it
manages to keep him content for years.
29.
When he starts his third year and the Care of Magical Creatures,
Charlie tries and fails to hide his disappointment. Some of the things
professor Kettleburn teachers are interesting and probably correct, but
everything he says about dragons feels wrong. Still, Charlie learns it better
than he has learned anything else, memorises it and even writes it all down in
a journal. One day, he would prove every word wrong.
30.
Harry walks past a beauty shop on his way to school every day. It
always has a mannequin in the window, a woman with beautiful wig, clothes, make
up and everything. For months, if not for years, he keeps staring at the
mannequin’s hands. The nail polish changes over the weeks, from red to gold to
brown to dark purple to grey to silver… until one day he can’t take it anymore,
and ventures inside. The teachers berate him for it and the kids at school make
fun of him in their smart way, he honestly doesn’t care. His fingernails look
so nice, when they’re shining in silver.
31.
Charlie flies a little every day. Even when it rains and there is no
practice, he gets up early for bit of personal flying. His team mates consider
him a hard worker and dedicated player, saying that one day he will be their
captain, one day he will play professionally. He keeps them in that belief as
he soars as high as he gets, and longs to feel the beat of massive
wings.
32.
Harry wins awards and writes his first mathematical paper when he is
eight years old. Later he considers it juvenile and flawed and makes many
changes to it, but it is only first of many and soon he becomes known in
certain circles and some real mathematicians even come to meet him and they
have long discussions about applied mathematics and Newtonian physics. Somehow
Harry’s picture is never published, despite the media coverage of his genius,
and they keep getting his name all wrong.
33.
When Charlie is made a prefect, it surprises no one but him. He almost
asks why, after all he had done, only to realise with some confusion that he
had actually never done anything against any rules he could think of. It’s an
odd feeling to say at least.
34.
Harry can never explain it to himself, but sometimes, when his mind is
free and there is nothing to read, he misses the ocean. It makes no sense,
since he had never even seen one.
35.
When the career day comes, and professor McGonagall asks about his
plans, the professor doesn’t look surprised with his choices. Charlie doesn’t
say that he for a long while considered working briefly for money so that he
could pay the tuition for the extra classes at Durmstrang - it’s the only
magical school in Europe that teaches sailing. He keeps it to
himself mostly because he had no idea where the thought came from.
36.
It is by lucky coincidence that Harry finds the book in a cart of soon
to be discarded books in the local library. It is old, worn, the covers are
coming apart, and the print is ugly and messy. Something about it draws him in,
however, and he picks it up gingerly to read the cover. Philosophiæ
Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton, the cover says, and for
the life of him he can’t figure out why it brings tears to his eyes.
37.
Professor Kettleburn arrangers Charlie’s first visit to the dragon
reserve in the Hebrides. Charlie spends the weekend in the
guidance of Andrew MacFusty, the main handler of the Hebridean Blacks that his
clan is responsible, and learns more about dragons than he had ever in
Hogwarts.
“I do think dragons are more intelligent than they seem,”
Andrew says as they stop by a female dragon brooding over a clutch of eggs.
“But I don’t think we’ve ever given them much a reason to show it to
us.” Charlie, having studied dragon slaying and hunts and the near
extinction two thousand years ago when all wands had been made of dragon
heartstrings, doesn’t doubt it in the least.
38.
Harry signs himself up for Mandarin lessons over summer without a
second thought, when the possibility presents itself. He takes into it almost
as quickly as he took into reading and writing, only to be hindered by the
surplus of symbols to memorise. The speaking part takes a little time to figure
out as well, as his tongue is too adjusted to English, but he manages it
quicker than anyone else in the class. The teacher, heartened by his eagerness
to learn, gives him books and instructs him about bookstores where he could find
more and offers him a cup of Longjing tea. It’s the best Harry has ever tasted.
39.
If Charlie had felt undeserving of the prefect badge, it was nothing
compared to the day when he finds the Head Boy badge in his letter. He stares
at it in a long while before drawing a shuddering breath and vowing he’d do his
best to live up to it, even if he feels guilty just by holding it. He will keep
it, he knows, even after he graduates. It is beautiful in a simple way, golden
and glossy and maybe one day he will give it to a dragon.
40.
Mandarin isn’t the only language Harry learns. French comes to him even
easier than Mandarin had, and though Latin is hard to master with the lack of
proper teacher, he learns that as well. He doesn’t know why, but in his free
time he also looks over some books about Turkish and German and ponders where
to find about some tongues spoken in central Africa. Somehow he feels learning Tswana would come in handy
one day.
41.
Charlie leaves Hogwarts with good scores in the subjects that matter
the most, and somewhat meagre ones in others. He doesn’t much care about the fact
that his Transfiguration and Charms scores could be better, and that maybe he
should’ve paid a little bit more attention in Defence Against the Dark arts. He
has the knowledge he needs, and two weeks after coming home he heads off to Romania to start his internship in the Longhorn
Dragon Sanctuary.
42.
Harry isn’t that surprised when he receives the Hogwarts letter, handed
over by his aunt’s slightly trembling hands. He reads over it and thinks it
through for a moment. It feels natural and strange in the same time, and though
he can’t say why, he feels like he has been expecting it. He writes his reply
in complex, loopy cursive and walks outside to hand it over to an awaiting owl.
At last, he thinks.
43.
There are lot of dragons in the sanctuary - and most of them are
Romanian Longhorns, which isn’t much a surprise. However, Charlie doesn’t have
as much trouble with the dragons - attending to them and to their needs feels
like second nature for him, and the dragons seem to know it too. His worse
problem is with the language - most people in the sanctuary speak Romanian, and
Charlie isn’t too good with translation charms. But he is relentless, and keeps
his eyes open, and learns.
44.
When Professor McGonagall takes him to Diagon Alley, she is scandalised
by his behaviour in Gringotts. Harry can’t help it, though; the pile of gold
just looked so comfortable. She is mellowed some what when he buys enough books
to need a magically expanded bag to carry them out of the store. She worries
about the wand he buys and the argument he gets into in the potion’s store, and
seems to be uneasy about the fact that every magical creature they encounter
seem to stare the boy in awe. Harry doesn’t care. He delights in magic and in
new knowledge and buys himself real silver and platinum bracelets and rings
when she lets him out of her sight for too long.
45.
“You natural,” says one of Charlie’s instructors through a
faltering translation charm. “No fear, but respect. Respect dragon, it
respects you. Fear it, it eats you. You natural in respect. You be a good
tamer, one day.” Charlie doesn’t know how to say that he has no intention
of ever being a tamer. A dragon, despite what everyone said to him, was
not a creature to be tamed.
46.
“That’s odd,” Hagrid murmurs to himself while leading Harry
towards the platform the day the train is going to take him to Hogwarts. He is
looking at Harry thoughtfully, not seeming to care about the bracelets, rings,
necklaces and earrings at all. Instead, he is eying Harry’s teal shaded eyes.
“I’ve always though you had green eyes.”
47.
A bad tempered Peruvian Vipertooth gives Charlie his first burns. He recovers
in matter how hours with the help of a talented healer and some potions, but it
takes a while longer for his hair to grow back.
48.
Harry meets a lot of people in the train and politely greets them all,
shows them his scar and even shakes hands with few of them. He figures he would
like to talk with Hermione Granger again one day and that he might as well
avoid Draco Malfoy - the blonde reminded him of someone very unpleasant but he
can’t remember whom. Ronald Weasley is a little rude and rather nice, and Harry
decides he rather likes him the best when the red haired boy teaches him about
Chocolate Frog cards - which have nice golden outline - and tells him stories
about his brother, who studies dragons.
49.
When they suggest putting the dragon that burned him to death, Charlie
argues vehemently against it for two hours straight, before the other
caretakers manage to get a word edgewise. They laugh and explain to him that
no, they had never been intending to kill the dragon and that suggesting it had
been a test of his character - and that by his answer he passed with flying
colours. Charlie feels rather like punching the head caretaker and wonders why
he feels odd sensation of déjà vu.
50.
The hat shouts out “RAVENCLAW” without ever even touching
Harry’s silver bead adorned hair, which he is frankly rather relieved about. He
hurries to the table and shakes hands with the other Ravenclaws, and still has
to run an uneasy hand over his hair, hoping it hadn’t gotten dirty. It had
taken so long to arrange too.
51.
Charlie doesn’t much care for his appearance and doesn’t mind the burn
scars in his neck. He doesn’t even mind the fact that his hair grows back in a different
colour now, thanks to the healing potion. That however doesn’t stop him from
taking necessary precautions to avoid further injuries, and he takes into
wearing a charmed neck cloth like every other worker in the sanctuary, that
would force him to keep breathing even if burns and shock would try to make him
choke.
52.
The people of Hogwarts whisper to each other when Harry passes them by
and look not to his eyes, but to his forehead. He almost stops pinning his hair
back with clips so that they’d stop staring, but he doesn’t want them to know
that the attention makes him uneasy. What bothers him the most is how they seem
to think he is arrogant and boastful just because he wears jewellery. “Just
ignore them, they’ll settle down,” Ron says to him and distracts him by
asking help with his studies.
53.
In the dining hall of the dragon caretakers, Charlie hears endless
stories of dragons and hatchings and caretakers. He hears about the first
dragon reserves and the first dragon tamers, about how hard it was back then
without right spells and right methods. He heard about the Dragon Reservation
acts all around the world, and how it’s illegal now to hunt dragons for their
hearts or blood or hide - they’re all harvested from naturally deceased beasts
now. What he does not hear is what he wants to hear, he knows that much
even if he doesn’t know what exactly it is that he is waiting to hear.
54.
Of all his fellow first year Ravenclaws, Harry likes Su Li most. They
aren’t really friends, but he likes her accent and the little things she does
differently than others and how she lapses to cursing in Mandarin when her
books fall to the floor or she hits her toe to table. One day she can’t find a
word in English and keeps repeating it in her native tongue only confusing the
listeners except for Harry, who happily translates for her much to her shock.
Even when she curses and scolds him for not letting her know earlier that
there’s someone around to whom she can speak normally, he still likes
her best over all other Ravenclaws.
55.
Most of the work in the reserve is rather gruelling, but Charlie had
been expecting it. It’s herding cattle and cleaning after the dragons, mending
the bars between their caves and making sure the beasts didn’t end up killing
each other. Sometimes they have to bind dragons down for treatment after they
ended up fighting amongst themselves, and it is no easy task to keep a ten ton
beast from wringing free, especially when the said beast was immune to most
magic the wizards had to use on them. The dragons usually thanked for these
treatments with gusts of flames and angry roars, so to say that it is very
rewarding work would be lying through one’s teeth.
Charlie, however, is perfectly certain that he’d never want any other
occupation.
56.
Harry doesn’t care for Draco Malfoy at all and finds the blonde wholly
unfitting of his name. But he has to be a little grateful when Draco tempts him
to grab the broom and chase after him and thus helps him discover the beauty
and magnificence that is flying - even in it’s odd, aided form. They call him
the greatest flier since Charlie Weasley, maybe even better than he was, but
Harry is too charmed by the concept of flying to hear the significance.
57.
Charlie watches his first hatching just before Halloween. First in the
clutch of new Longhorns cracks the shell slowly, almost cautiously, poking its
head out and keening before starting to tear at the shell more vigorously until
it cracks completely. As the mother dragon noses the dragonet and ushers him
into the shelter of her wings, Charlie can’t help but feel that something vital
is missing from the process.
58.
Harry misses the Halloween feast, having lost track of time after
finding a book about Chinese fairytales, and never hears Quirrell’s shocking
announcement. What he does hear is the troll’s grunts as it makes its way
through halls, dragging its club after it. Instinct and anxiety he can’t quite
explain draws Harry towards the sound. It’s a threat, he feels, one that cannot
be left alone.
He hasn’t used the roar in
years, but it’s more powerful than ever as it shatters near by windows and
knocks the troll out in one loud blast. Harry’s jaw aches and his lungs burn
and he feels powerful as the troll falls with its ears and nostrils
bleeding. He doesn’t realise until sometime later that Hermione Granger saw the
whole thing from the door of the girl’s bathroom.
59.
There is something to be said about tending to a dragonet that was
rejected by its mother, Charlie muses while feeding the small Longhorn with
pieces of meat. The dragon is small and fragile, the runt of the clutch and
unlikely to survive, but there is something special, something important in
this. As the dragon chirps and eagerly attacks another strip of meat, Charlie
can’t shake the feeling that he has done this before.
60.
Hermione never says anything about the roar, but she sits beside him in
library and studies with him, helps Ron understand the classes and lodges
herself firmly into the bubble of their friendship. Ron is confused but Harry
doesn’t mind, and sits still as she makes small braids into his hair and binds
them with silver thread. When someone criticises Harry or calls him names
because of his manners or habits, Hermione is brimstone and acid right along
side Ron’s more physical anger. Sitting between them makes Harry feel oddly at
home.
61.
The little Longhorn lives and grows strong under Charlie’s care. He is
happy to have saved its life and even happier that the dragon seems somewhat
affectionate towards him and does not once use fire on him, but it’s a
strangely bittersweet feeling. And sometimes, when the dragon comes close for a
pat or a treat, he feels oddly guilty, looking around for a jealous rebuke that
never comes. Even the fact that his success with the dragonet earns him a
permanent spot in the Sanctuary doesn’t make the feeling go away.
62.
Harry soars on broom, freer than he has ever been, more at home in air
than he has ever felt on ground. The broom tilts and turns, angles left and
right and follows his control perfectly, and though he can’t shake the feeling
of how limited it seems, it is incredible. He zips past the other
players, circling around the other seeker, dives, stoops and catches the snitch
that temptingly glimmers in the sunlight, and wins the game for Ravenclaw.
No one ever finds out how hard professor Quirrell tried to curse his
broom throughout the game, to no avail.
63.
Charlie gets often letters from his family members, mostly from his
parents but also from Ginny, Percy and Bill. The twins amuse him greatly with
their tales from Hogwarts when ever they thought to write. Ron, not being much
of a writer didn’t bother with it often, but the occasional letter does come,
telling about Hogwarts and whining about Slytherins and classes, and explaining
about some measure of bewildered awe about his best friend who was weird and
somehow amazing at the same time. “Fits Ravenclaw like button on a robe
with the way he hoards all things glittery, but damn he can fly.” Charlie
chuckles and smiles, and doesn’t think much of it at the time.
64.
Christmas holidays come, and the castle empties. Harry enjoys the peace
and quiet with a book and by having great many snowball wars with Ron and his
twin brothers while they parents visit their brother in Romania. Harry gets
presents and cards and letters - even a sweater from Ron’s mother, in shade of
bottle green which Harry finds oddly familiar and comforting. Mostly he seems
to get great many glittery things, but he certainly doesn’t mind - and though
the Invisibility Cloak isn’t exactly glittery, it does shimmer from certain
angle which he likes very much. All in all it’s the best and more comfortable
Christmas he has ever had.
65.
Charlie is both endeared and embarrassed when his parents decide to
spent their Christmas at Longhorn Sanctuary. His mother wrings her hands over
his very short hair and new scars and wonders if his younger brothers would
lose their freckles too when they’d grow up - Bill certainly hadn’t seemed to,
so maybe it was just Charlie. In the meanwhile his father pats his shoulder and
asks him questions about what he does and is proud when Charlie introduces them
to the Longhorn he had saved.
And all the while the future Dragonologist can’t shake away the thought
of how strange it is to have such a hearty approval from his father for
his animal husbandry.
66.
Harry finds it by accident while in bout of mischievousness testing the
cloak he had gotten and roaming the castle corridors by night. The mirror is
beautiful, golden and well made and Harry stares at the frames in admiration
for a long, long while before looking at the surface itself. He is taken aback
for a moment and then he stares at the image the mirror shows in astonishment.
It is not his own refection, but that of a man in a bottle green
uniform from the nineteenth century, with a sword, muskets and rifle and
everything. The man smiles down to Harry with open fondness despite the weariness
that is deeply rooted to his features, and like in the day Harry found the
Principia Mathematica, the boy feels his eyes watering and his throat closing
up. This time, though, this time the odd, deep rooted sorrow has gotten a face
that would forever represent it for the boy. If only Harry could remember his
name…
67.
Of course, his father is a smart man and notices his confusion, asking
Charlie to explain in puzzled but still understanding tones, fully willing to
listen and explain if he can. “I don’t know,” Charlie can only say,
because despite what his heart says he knows Dragonology is a respectable
profession and his father would’ve been proud of him in any case. Why is it so
hard for his heart to understand? “Perhaps I’m just overly anxious.”
“As long as you’re happy doing something, then I’m happy to see
you do it, son. Never doubt that,” his father assures, and while Charlie
nods, he knows that it will probably take him a while longer to actually believe
him.
68.
The headmaster catches Harry staring at the mirror and the man in it
one night. He asks what Harry sees, tries to explain it, tries to be gentle
about it, but Harry doesn’t really understand. How does he know the man, why is
he so important, why does Harry’s heart bleed when he looks at him? Deepest,
desperate desires of one’s heart, the headmaster says, and all Harry feels is
gut-wrenching sorrow and loneliness. “It does not do the dwell on
dreams,” Dumbledore says when he ushers the boy away, and Harry is almost
relieved when he says the mirror will be removed and he shouldn’t expect to see
it again.
69.
When his mother asks, when she and his father are about to take a
Portkey back to Britain, if he is happy in the sanctuary, Charlie
doesn’t know what to say. He feels like he is at the right place, like he
belongs there, but it’s not a content feeling, never has been. He knows he’s
doing what he’s supposed to do, he’s doing what he was born to do, and
yet it’s not quite right. It’s all missing something terribly important, like
that book he never found. The whole sanctuary, if not the whole wide world, is
missing something nameless and very dear.
“Yes,” he says finally, and hopes the old longing doesn’t
show in his face.
70.
Harry sulks for a while, and withdraws to his dormitory, surrounding
him with everything he had that shone and comforting himself with the bracelets
Hermione had sent for him for Christmas. He thinks of the man for a long while,
tries to remember where he had seen him, tries to remember his name… In the end
nothing but emptiness comes to him. It threatens to smother him, before Su Li
marches into his room and starts scolding him in sharp Mandarin. The language,
more than the words, makes him gather himself and force himself up. What would
his mother think, he wonders, and only later realises it wasn’t Lily Potter he
had in mind.
71.
Work returns to normal after his parents leave, and Charlie throws
himself to it full heartedly. He doesn’t give the odd twinges and feelings any
attention now, and instead he concentrates onto the dragons - and to the little
Longhorn that has fallen ill and needs his help more. It takes wheedling and
teasing to get the little dragon eating through his coughs, and Charlie
determinately ignores the déjà vu he feels - that and the sudden, odd fear that
it’s not just a cold.
72.
Harry reads and plays Quidditch and smothers the memory of the man
beneath it all, keeping his mind and his hands busy. He reads ahead and learns
Chinese stories and poetry from some of the books Su Li loans him, and learns
to braid the little plaits to his hair the way Hermione sometimes does for him.
He draws jewellery designs in his free time and comes up with the perfect one,
a plate with a pearl in the middle that would rest against his chest. Little by
little, even the dreams leave him alone.
73.
The little Longhorn heals, however, and the unspeakable fear unclenches
its hold on Charlie’s heart. He ignores the other workers who laugh at him for
being such a worrywart, waving their teasing away. The aftermath of the anxiety
leaves him shaking, though, and makes him buy himself a bottle from near by
village and drown the worries, guilt and endless loneliness of his very confused
heart with it. Thankfully, in the dragon sanctuary no one minds a little
drinking, and they only share spirits and laugh over old stories - and if they can tell that Charlie can’t
find any solace in the bottom of his glass, they never comment on it.
74.
The school keeps Harry busy too, as the spring term advances. The
teachers pile the students with as much homework as they seem to be able to.
Harry can hear many complaining about it, but he embraces the distraction full
heartedly and gladly helps Ron with his homework to busy himself further. And
among the dozens book and equally as many papers and essays, as well as his own
personal studies with Arithmancy and mathematics and extra credit paper he was
writing for Astronomy, he is wonderfully busy, too busy to bother to think of
the mirror for a long while.
75.
Charlie isn’t the one to fall into depression and after his single
night of heavy drinking he cleans himself up and goes back to work with greater
determination than before. Few of the other caretakers suggest that if he is
having some sort of homesickness all of sudden, maybe he should visit the
village and find himself some lady company for distraction. The very thought
makes Charlie sputter and blush and turn away much to the amusement of the
others.
76.
Ever since coming to Hogwarts, Harry has enjoyed visiting Hagrid in his
hut with his friends. The hut is small and simple but very pleasant regardless,
and there is something nice and familiar about Hagrid that made Harry enjoy his
visits. However, Harry gets his first negative reply to the request to come
over for tea just around Easter. After he has gotten over being slightly
offended, he gets very curious about the poorly made up excuse.
77.
“I suppose you will do,” Charlie murmurs to himself while
checking over the little Longhorn’s wing that had been injured in a scuffle
with the other dragonets. Calling it little was bit of an understatement,
though, as its shoulder was way higher than his head was. “Go on, get out
of here,” he adds, slapping the dragon’s side, and with a rumble it jumps
down from the ledge and soars towards its cave. With a sigh, the dragon keeper
watches it as it goes. “I suppose you will do,” he repeats to
himself.
78.
“Hagrid, you live in a wooden house,” Hermione says to the
half giant when the egg is revealed, trying to appeal to his common sense.
Harry says nothing as she and Ron continue to try and plea the grounds keeper
to see sense, and instead stares at the egg itself. It was surprisingly small. He
reaches his hand out and runs his fingers along the shell. It is hard, it won’t
take long until it hatches, he muses, wondering how odd his hand with its
bracelets and rings and painted fingernails looks against the shell. It hadn’t
been like this the last time. Had it?
79.
“We’ve gotten word,” the head of the sanctuary says in solemn
tone, speaking to them all. “There’s been dragon eggs in the black market
again. I know that it probably won’t touch us here unless the eggs are found in
Romania, but, as usual, I want you to keep your
eyes and ears open. If you hear rumours, anything at all… and if you could ask
your families, anyone you know who might be able to help, that would be
appreciated.”
The caretakers all answer in unison and Charlie already thinks of the
letters he will write to Bill, his father and some other members of Weasley
family who lived abroad. There was probably little they could do, but it was
better than none at all.
80.
Harry sneaks into Hagrid’s hut between classes and during lunch break
and once the class work was done for the day. When Hagrid is there, he merely
eyes the egg as they talk over it, but the few times the half-giant heads away
to attend to his duties as grounds keeper, Harry stays, kneeling beside the
bucketful of sand and wrapping his arms around the egg. “This isn’t the
best place for you to hatch,” he says. “And Hagrid is a bit… careless
about this. But I’ll make sure it happens properly.”
81.
“Does it happen often?” Charlie asks later from an older
caretaker as they cast charms over the waste pit.
“Every now and then. They steal the eggs from sanctuaries and
reserves and they pass from hand to hand in secret. It’s usually a small
miracle if we ever hear about them at all,” the older caretaker says,
frowning. “The few times we do, is when the dragon has hatched and
escaped. But usually, they don’t live long enough to ever get out of shell.
Potioneers don’t need them fully developed to use their hearts or blood, after
all.”
82.
When the hatching starts, Hagrid sends an owl for Harry like he
promised. This is more important than school work he decides and skips his
history class - no one would notice - in order to head to the hut. There he and
Hagrid watch excitedly as the egg shakes and shudders as the dragon inside awakens.
Hermione and Ron, who on Hermione’s insistence went to Herbology lesson not to cause
suspicion, join them not much before the dragon determinately breaks out of the
shell.
The dragonet doesn’t say a word, only sneezes and as he looks down to her
thin body, too big wings, bulging orange eyes, Harry wonders if the dragonet
had born mutated. Then Hagrid says that he has plenty of brandy ready for the
little creature, and Harry forgets all about possible birth defects.
83.
Dragon harvesting is horrible enough and illegal for good reasons, Charlie
knows, but breeding for personal purposes isn’t any better because dragon
breeding is not something any old enthusiast could do. They tended to treat the
eggs wrong, they didn’t keep them warm enough or they heated them too much -
sometimes they wanted to hurry the hatching along and killed the dragonet in
process. And if the dragon got out of shell safely, it was most certainly
maltreated during the first week with poor feeding. Most died of hunger within
the first few days.
Almost all clutches in sanctuaries are kept in supervised conditions
and when the hatching occurs it happens with dragon handlers watching the
process cautiously, to make sure that everything goes alright. For weeks
afterwards the hatchlings are kept under constant watch to make sure that they
get enough to eat, and grow as they should - and for a good reason. One bad
misstep during first weeks, and the dragon is forever damaged.
84.
“Absolutely not!” Harry almost roars, standing between Hagrid
and the dragonet, who is clicking curiously as she watches the proceedings.
“I’m sorry Hagrid, but if you try to feed a drop of alcohol to this
hatchling, I will report you to the headmaster or to Minister of Magic himself
if I have to! I will not stand by as you try and maim the creature like that!
Dragonets eat meat, they eat chickens, lambs, cows, hens, deer, they eat
even fish if it’s just available, but in no circumstances do you feed a
dragonet alcohol, no more than you feed it to a new born baby!
Where on Earth do you think a dragon would get alcohol in the wild if their
hatchlings really needed it? No, I will not budge! Now go and slaughter
few chickens for the little one and after she’s eaten, then we’ll talk.”
The others are so taken a back by his anger, that no one notices the
face in the window until it’s too late.
85.
Though not all books in Hogwarts were wrong about dragons, Charlie
remembers very well the ones that were. Dragon Keeping for Pleasure and
Profit was one of them - a horrible, ancient book for those who had used to
tame dragons for entertainment or potions ingredients in the dark ages. He
remembers reading with some horror about how the book stated, like it was an obvious
fact, that dragonets would be fed bucketful of alcohol every half an hour for
the day and then every third hour for the following week. This, according to
the book, guaranteed the dragon’s “proper” growth.
In reality the dragons that survived that that sort of first week
didn’t do it without losing their minds completely. But then, that was what
most breeders of the time had preferred.
86.
Harry visits Hagrid even more often now that the dragon has hatches,
and swears him almost hourly to keep his word not to feed the dragon any
alcohol. The groundskeeper has learned his lesson though, and feeds the
dragonet meat instead - and she grows in result at a pace that alarms Hermione
and Ron, but which makes Harry frown. She isn’t growing fast enough. In
a week, she has only tripled in size - something she should’ve done within
first two days. The hut is crowding the dragon, and chicken’s and rats are
nowhere near a proper diet. “She can’t stay here,” Harry says,
displeased. The dragon’s silence worries him as well. It only croons and chirps
and occasionally clicks, but doesn’t say a word. “This hut isn’t doing her
any favours.”
“And there is Malfoy to consider,” Ron murmurs. “Who
knows why he hasn’t gone to the professors yet, but I bet he will soon. We
should let him - uh, her - go.” Letting the dragonet go, however, is out
of the question. She isn’t strong enough to manage hunting on her own, and
letting a wild, possibly brain damaged dragon run wild so near a school of
children does not please Harry any more than seeing her in the hut does.
So another plan is made.
87.
The letter from his youngest brother baffles and amuses Charlie, but no
where near as much as it worries him. Illegally hatched dragon in Hogwarts,
not a half a month after the sanctuary was informed of trade? What were the
odds of that? He frowns and contemplates the situation for a moment. Ron wants
to get the dragon out of Hogwarts without anyone knowing - a wise decision
considering how the dragon had been acquired and how long it had been kept
secret. What bemuses him the most is the PS note written in beautifully
elaborate cursive that most certainly did not belong to Ron or Hagrid.
“In the case You will agree to this no doubt troublesome task, I will
beseech You, sir, to come personally. I cannot in clear conscience hand over
the Dragonet to an unknown individual or individuals, even ones approved by
You.”
88.
Harry breathes a little easier when Ron informs him that his brother
has agreed, and that he will come the following Saturday and that they should
meet him with the dragonet on the top of the astronomy tower. The wait is
excruciating, however, with Draco Malfoy looming about and jeering at them, and
the dragon growing still. It is a well behaved creature, considering its
circumstances, but any moment it might decide to become a handful. Dragonets
rarely did as others wanted them to do, after all.
Like suspected, the dragonet acts up and bites Ron before Saturday and
he has to go to the hospital wing, leaving Harry to manage the dragon alone
with Hermione. Still, even with difficulty of handing the dragon without third
pair of hands, and with the threat of Malfoy looming about, Harry isn’t about
to give up. It’s the life of a dragon at stake, after all.
89.
Charlie lands on the tower rooftop with a friend who had offered to
help, feeling both anxious and oddly exhilarated. It’s been almost a year since
he’s seen Hogwarts, and the memory hasn’t faded much. The place still feels
awkward to him, but it’s comfortably distant awkwardness of a person
disconnected now.
He forgets all about it, when a door opens and two students come out.
The first is a very anxious girl who offers them awkward smile. The second is a
black haired boy, who is walking next to a nervous dragonet, one arm wound
around the Ridgeback’s neck, other hand stroking its nose soothingly.
The boy looks up, and Charlie feels dizzy with sudden rush of rightness.
90.
All the questions Harry meant to ask and all the cautionary methods he
had meant to demand seem to vanish from his head, along with the anxiety over
the dragonet’s health. Wordless, he stares at the young man before, wavering
between knowing him and not knowing him. He looks so familiar
that it knocks the breath out of Harry.
Hermione ends up asking the questions and explaining the worries.
Harry, thorough the hurried process of latching nervous Norberta with a harness
between two brooms for transportation, can’t manage a single word. Only when
the other of the two elder wizards nudges the other, saying they have to go,
does he say anything - because he knows there won’t be another chance in a
while, maybe never. “Do I know you?”
91.
“You might, but I think I’d remember you if we had met,”
Charlie answers, taking in the dark teal eyes, the excess of jewellery, the
oddly elegant posture, the way the young wizard holds his hands, his shoulders,
his whole being. Even if this youth hadn’t been Harry Potter and thus famous,
Charlie definitely would’ve remembered meeting him. But he knows where the
question comes from - because he feels it too. It’s almost overwhelming, how
familiar the boy seems to him.
But there is no time. “We need to go,” he says, awkward and
apologetic and oddly heartbroken. He feels almost disappointed when the boy
frowns, nods, and steps back. “Take care,” Charlie says, not able to
figure what else to say in the short time they have, and they take off. He
looks back over his shoulder as they head away from the castle and towards the
edge of the wards, and feels a spike of guilt for not saying anything more.
92.
“Harry, Harry! We need to go,” Hermione says, shaking him
until Harry snaps out of it, and realises where they are. It seems for a moment
like something had drained the colour off the world - everything had seemed so
bright a moment ago - but it’s only the night, making things dark. Or maybe
it’s the odd turning of his stomach that makes it seem so.
They hurry away, with Harry still thinking about the man, who had to be
Charlie Weasley. He is so deep in thought, that he doesn’t notice Argus Filch
until the man murmurs. “Well well well. We are in trouble.” But even
then, Harry doesn’t much care.
93.
In the Sanctuary no one asks where the little Ridgeback came from. They
only tend to her, check her for injuries, see that she hasn’t been maltreated,
estimate that there was some malformation but there is also a good chance it
will clear out over time. Charlie sighs with relief when he hears no alcohol
has been given to the dragon, and then draws back from the process to think
things through.
But no answer comes to him, Harry Potter’s face and jewellery adorned
figure remains burned in his memory and he cannot think of a reason why he
feels so much remorse for not staying at Hogwarts.
94.
McGonagall jumps into conclusions, having heard one story from Malfoy
and making her own up on the spot when she finds they have been out during the
night as well and they are given detention and they loose enormous amount
points. Hermione shivers and shakes and looks miserable, but Harry can’t force
his mind back to order enough to really be concerned about things such as
points. What was the use of them anyway? It wasn’t like the one who got most of
them got a reward.
“How many points have I won over the year?” he asks when
Ravenclaws glower at him and try to shove him around. They don’t seem to care,
but then neither does he really. He turns his thoughts back to Charlie Weasley,
and tries to remember where he had seen him before.
95.
“How can you know someone without having actually ever met
them?” Charlie muses to himself while watching the little Ridgeback eating
ferociously, its nose covered in blood as it dig around the sheep’s stomach.
“And why does it feel like I’ve known him forever?”
96.
The day before the detention, Harry goes through Hogwarts’ year books
and the book of Gryffindor Quidditch team that the captains apparently
maintained. He finds five pictures of Charlie Weasley, three of them the same
one copied, one of them poor in quality - but one was good enough to see the
elder wizards features. None of them help, Charlie looks stranger when he’s
younger with his red hair and freckles that Harry is sure he no longer has. But
when Ron shows him a picture he had gotten from his parents after Christmas of
their visit to Romania, it clicks into place.
Charlie Weasley looks much like the man in the mirror would’ve, had he
been dozen years younger.
97.
Feeling little embarrassed, Charlie looks through the scant few letters
he had gotten from Ron and rereads the brief, formerly meaningless sentences
about Harry Potter. He is a Ravenclaw, the letters say, a bit weird, but nice -
and smart as hell. He speaks several languages and likes everything shiny -
wears jewellery all the time and is especially fond of his rings. He reads
Arithmancy on his spare time for fun, fact which Ron writes somewhat incredulously.
Even all this nonsensical information seems familiar.
98.
Hagrid leads them into the forest for their detention, Harry, Hermione
and Malfoy following after him. They are meant to find a creature that had been
harming unicorns, and whilst Hermione and Malfoy shiver with fear, Harry looks
ahead excitedly, and for first time in days can almost forget Charlie Weasley
and concentrate to the present. “Aren’t you nervous?” Hermione
demands to know under her breath. Harry glances at her confusedly. Why would he
be?
They find a trail and split to follow it to both directions. Hermione
and Hagrid go one way, Harry and Malfoy another.
99.
“She’s starting to look better,” the head caretaker says,
looking over the Ridgeback. “She’s gaining weight and the sides are
expanding just like they ought to. She should be able to start flying in week
or two, if this keeps up.”
Charlie is both relieved and little confused about why he’s telling
that to him, before he realises that he had been frowning at the dragonet while
once more thinking about he odd boy his heart though he knew. “That’s good
to know,” he offers awkwardly and wonders if the Ravenclaw would like to
know as well.
100.
Malfoy stumbles away in fright, away from the unicorn and the hooded
figure over it before crying out and springing into run. Harry keeps his eyes
on the figure and holds his ground and as it rises up and starts to come
towards him, he takes a deep breath that makes his ribs ache. The roar echoes
through the unnaturally silent forest like a cannon blast, but though the
hooded figure takes it full to the face, it manages somehow stagger back and
then run away from him and from the dying unicorn.
When the centaur finds him, Harry has broken the unicorn’s neck and
closed its eyes, saving it from slow and painful death. “Dragon
childe,” the centaur calls him, and doesn’t seem at all surprised by what
he had done.
In the following day, Professor Quirrell’s classes are cancelled due to
him having fallen ill. Harry thinks nothing of it.
101.
Charlie ponders somewhat indecisively about if he should write a letter
to Hogwarts for a long while. Just a little short letter, telling his brother
that the Ridgeback is doing alright and would be healthy in a week or two, once
she would get some weight to it. Maybe he would ask his brother how he and his
friends were doing…
102.
“Can I see it?” Harry asks as casually as he can, and then
accepts the letter from Ron. It’s very general, just informing them that the
dragonet is getting better and would be okay, telling them to let Hagrid know.
There was a little question about Harry and Hermione at the end that makes the
Ravenclaw’s heart jump, but he hides it as well as he can. Within two minutes
he has read the leather three times through and memorised it carefully.
103.
Ron writes back, thanking for the information and explaining that they
had gotten caught and that Harry and Hermione had gotten to detention - and
that is about it. It’s irritating to realise that is about all he could really ask
for, at this point. He could write a letter to Harry Potter himself, but
that would be too forward and he didn’t know how the boy would receive it - and
somehow, getting no reply at all seems like something he isn’t sure he can
bear.
So he goes back to work as normal - and if he goes through the letters
every night and rereads the postscript in the one asking for his help, no one
is to know.
104.
Time drags on slowly and painfully, loaded with school work, as Harry
realises that the pictures in year books and what ever he hears from Ron are
about all he can find out about Charlie. He does seriously ponder on writing
the man a letter, asking about the little dragon, but that would be too casual considering
that they had met only once. And surely it would be a bit strange to write to
his best friend’s elder brother like that, even if he is worried about
the dragonet.
105.
On a trip to the near by village, Charlie catches a glimpse of a
jewellery store, and out of whimsy goes inside. As the store clerk tries to
sell him goods, asking if he’s looking for something similar, perhaps a watch
or something nice to his girlfriend, Charlie looks around absently. It’s easy
to tell that the village is very much aware of the Longhorn Sanctuary - great
many of the jewelleries are dragon-inspired. There are rings, necklaces,
bracelets, earrings, everything with some sort of dragon insignia in them.
What catches his attention, however, is a pair of silver jewellery
meant to wrap around the back of the ear. The creator had apparently tried to
go for a dragon’s wing type of effect, but they looked more like fins which was
probably why no one had bought them. Looking down to them, Charlie gets a
sudden mental image and can’t help but think how well they would fit Harry Potter.
106.
The end exams start soon, and then there is no time to write much
anything but them and homework. Harry might’ve been a bit distracted between
the tests, but he takes his studies too seriously not to pay attention to them,
and he throws himself at the vigour’s of the exams fully, until after a long
potion’s practical examination, it is all over. Ron is the loudest about his
relief, as they relax in the yard afterwards and spend the rest of the day
lazing off.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for summer hols, you
know,” the redhead says, stretching as he lays on the ground. “I’ve
been thinking, by the way. Maybe you two could come over this summer,” he suggests.
“I’ve been writing about you to mum, she’d love to meet you.”
Hermione declines - she and her parents are going abroad - but Harry
accepts it happily. He can just barely keep himself from asking whether Charlie
would be there, and tells himself firmly that it would be pleasant experience
even if he weren’t, despite the hope springing inside his chest.
107.
“Well, we are taking in new students for the summer, so I don’t
mind,” the head of the sanctuary says when Charlie pleas for some time
off. “And you have been working pretty hard the time you’ve been there, so
it is warranted. Mind if I ask you what you intend to do on your holiday?”
“Visit home,” Charlie answers and very determinately ignores
his slight private embarrassment. “It’s been a while, after all.”
108.
Later, Harry can’t really say what happened.
Professor Quirrell has one of the Ravenclaws to deliver him a message,
asking him to visit his office. Once there, the professor rants insanely about
a stone, and the dark lord, and Dumbledore, and how was it that a half-blooded
wizard - a mere baby at the time - could possibly have a protection against a
killing curse. It all comes out of nowhere for Harry and he can only stare
silently as the man unwraps his turban to reveal abomination, that asks for
more answers to questions Harry has no idea how to answer.
“How?! How is it that you can create an impact with your voice
alone without needing a wand? How is it that no spells work on you?!” the
abomination demands to know. “The broom never budged, no curses ever
touched you - how is it possible?!”
Harry, who had never noticed such a thing, has no answer to give.
109.
Charlie says his farewells to the not-so-little Longhorn he had tended
to adolescence, and then to the Ridgeback, who is starting to look much better
now, though it still had ways to go. He copies some statistics about the
dragons’ growth and development to show to his brother - and hopefully to
others - and after making sure the Ridgeback would be well taken care off, he
took his bags and got ready to return to Britain.
110.
“Sir, I really do not know,” Harry answers to the headmaster
after waking up in the hospital wing. He can’t quite believe that the Defence
Against the Dark Arts professor was dead, but having heard it from three
different sources it is finally starting to sink in. The man who had out of the
blue ranted at him was dead - and he was the last person to see him alive.
“The last thing I remember is professor Quirrell… or the thing that was in
him, pointing a wand at me.”
“Hmm…” the headmaster says, looking thoughtful and confused
and oddly satisfied at the same time. “Best not to dwell on it, my dear
boy. Professor Quirrell was a troubled man harangued by magic’s best left in
darkness. I think it’s safe to say that what ever happened to him was greatly
of his own doing.”
Harry readily accepts that. He doesn’t really want to think too deeply
about the fact the spell he had been knocked out by had been the same emerald
green fire he saw sometimes in his nightmares.
111.
The Burrow hasn’t changed much, Charlie muses as he unpacks his things
in his and Bill’s room. Still crowded and messy and very homely - and tad bit
strange to him, despite him having been raised there. He smiles absently to
himself while looking around the room and wonders why it is that despite all
the fondness he has for the place, all the warm sentiments he has, all the good
memories… it has never felt like home to him.
112.
The year at Hogwarts comes to a close without any further incidents.
Professor Quirrell death stirs the school some, but not as much as one would
think - the school has seen too many weird things to be truly shocked by a
death of teacher. And of course, the Defence Against the Dark Arts position has
been cursed for a while, so some had even been expecting something to happen.
In the end, the students pack their things, and make their way to the
train once more. In compartment shared with Hermione and Ron, Harry curls his
arms around his battered copy of Principia Mathematica, and looks forward to
the summer without giving Quirrell or Voldemort any other thought.
113.
The most disturbing thing about home, Charlie soon finds, is how much
his little sister’s adoration for one Harry Potter had increased. It
immediately rubs him the wrong way, which makes him soon after feel rather
uneasy about himself. For years he and the rest of the family have been greatly
amused by Ginny’s love for the stories of the Boy-Who-Lived, finding it all
charming in the way only little girls could be.
Now hearing her tell all about what Ron had written in his letters, and
about how she looks forward to meeting Harry, about how she wants to ask his
autograph and talk to him… now it all seems very awkward. And more than a
little worrisome.
114.
The Dursleys are in a foul mood the first few days, but Harry doesn’t
bother to concern himself with it, and despite uncle Vernon’s bellowing he has none of it when the man
demands he put his trunk to the cupboard to be locked up. “Do stop being
preposterous,” he merely says and waves the man’s objections aside. It
isn’t pleasant in any way, but it is nothing new. He has his books to distract
him and now that he has access to muggle world once more he buys great many new
ones on mathematics, physics and philosophy and happily holes himself up in his
room with them.
He does it mostly in order to distract himself from the upcoming stay
with the Weasleys and from the inane hope that Charlie Weasley might be
present. He reads, does his homework, reads some more, and redoes his homework
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