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SIYE Time:12:29 on 29th March 2024
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The Drakeshaugh Dragon
By Northumbrian

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Category: Post-Hogwarts, Post-DH/AB, Post-DH/PM
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Drama, Fluff, Humor
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: G
Reviews: 60
Summary: Al Potter is a brave and world famous Auror, but sometimes, he still needs help from his dad. Especially when faced with his brother, and a dragon.
Hitcount: Story Total: 17605; Chapter Total: 4745
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
Thanks again to amelie for her beta work.




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2. The Drakestone

Annie Charlton’s hands, both of which had been waving excitedly, fell to her side and the little girl slumped. A sombre blanket of silence fell over all five children as the Charlton’s car crested the ridge and disappeared from sight. Even Henry was uncharacteristically quiet as realisation struck; his parents had gone. James was watching Henry, and Al was staring at Annie. Harry watched his children as all three put themselves in the Charlton children’s place.

‘What you wanna do now, Annie?’ asked Al quietly. Harry saw Annie’s bottom lip begin to tremble.

Lily looked up hopefully at her parents, obviously hoping that they would do something to prevent the tears from flowing.

‘We thought that we could go off on an adventure. Would you like that?’ asked Ginny. Annie looked uncertain, but Henry’s eyes widened, Al smiled, and Lily jumped and bounced.

‘Wiwwit be siting, Mummy?’ Lily squeaked.

‘Very exciting, Lily,’ Ginny promised. ‘I have packed us with plenty of provisions and we are going on an expedition into uncharted territory.’

‘We’re going to the Drake Stone, aren’t we?’ asked James, sounding bored. Harry caught James’ eyes and narrowed his brows, halting his eldest son’s next comment.

‘Yes, James, we are, and we’re going to the Lake, too.’ Harry squatted down next to Henry and pointed through a gap in the foliage to the huge boulder standing on the ridge. ‘Have you ever been up to the stone, Henry?’ asked Harry.

‘No,’ said Henry.

‘Would you like to go and see the stone?’ asked Harry.

‘Yes, please,’ the youngster replied.

James, whom Harry was certain had been busily making other plans, accepted his friend’s decision with good grace.

‘Good, then we’ll go back to the house and organise our expedition,’ announced Ginny. ‘We’ll need porters to carry our provisions and scouts to lead the way, and…’

Henry jumped, waved and shouted, ‘Me.’

‘Daddy-daddy me’n Henry’ll be scouts!’ announced James, immediately catching his friend’s excitement. ‘We’ll go ahead and keep you safe from dragons ‘n trolls. We might have to fight some.’ He paused and looked at his friend for confirmation. Henry nodded in agreement. James’s nose and forehead crinkled and creased as he thought. ‘We’ll probly, defnly have to fight somefing. We’ll need swords, magical swords,’ he announced.

‘An’ guns,’ Henry added.

‘Wan’s is better,’ said Lily knowledgeably. Fortunately Henry ignored her. Al stood in silence, watching James and Henry with a wary eye.

‘And we’ll need an expedition leader,’ said Harry.

‘Me,’ volunteered Al. James looked like he would argue.

‘The expedition leader will have to stay with the main party, Al,’ said Harry. James was immediately happy to remain a scout.

Chattering excitedly, the Potter children and their guests trooped back through the woods to Drakeshaugh. Ginny took the lead and Harry brought up the rear, watching the kids closely. James and Henry each picked up a long stick as they wandered through the woods. When James waved his stick experimentally close to the back of Al’s head, Harry cleared his throat. James took one look at his father’s face and immediately put on what he obviously believed was an innocent expression.

Attempting nonchalance, James began to use the branch as a walking stick. He looked back at his father with a gaze that tried to say “it was always a walking stick, never a sword, and anyway even if it was a sword, I wouldn’t poke Al”. It was a good attempt, unfortunately he was unable to disguise the addendum: “at least, not while you’re watching”.

The rucksacks were already packed and waiting on the kitchen table. Because of the presence of two Muggles on the expedition, Ginny had used rucksacks which did not have Undetectable Extension Charms on them.

Expedition leader Al Potter took his job seriously. He checked up on the provisions, lifted one of the bags experimentally, discovered how heavy it was, and sensibly decided that the porters would be Mummy and Daddy. Harry and Ginny exchanged a smile.

The group set off immediately, with Ginny leading the way. Harry spent some time locking and magically securing their house. By the time he’d finished the rest of his family, and their guests, were some way up the track.

It did not take Harry long to catch them, five small children did not walk quickly. They had stopped and were staring intently at the ground when Harry joined the group. A toad walking purposefully across the Forestry Commission track was the cause. Al, Lily and Annie were fascinated. James and Henry pretended disinterest, talking loudly about being bored. For all their talk, they did not take their eyes off the creature until it hopped into the overgrown roadside ditch and disappeared into the undergrowth.

They continued to stroll up the track for about half a mile before taking a narrow path leading north-west, away from the woods and directly towards the stone. Lily grabbed Ginny’s hand and began skipping and jumping. She usually did when walking on the soft and spongy peat. It was a good walk for the children; their destination was always visible on the horizon and it was almost impossible to get lost on the moorland.

Once off the track, the scouts strode ahead. James knew where he was going and he led Henry along the rough path. The two boys were soon well ahead of the main party and chattering happily to each other.

The main group were slowed by Lily, who insisted on walking and stopping to look at flowers and butterflies. However, by the time they began the final, steeper, rock strewn ascent to the stone Lily was beginning to flag. The moment she began to complain about the climb Harry lifted his daughter onto his shoulders. Lily grabbed his hair painfully tightly in order to steady herself, but Harry didn’t complain.

As they continued up the bracken-clad hillside Harry kept a careful watch on the distant figures of James and Henry, as well as on Annie and Al. The two scouts were taller than the bracken, but the younger children were not. There were a few instances when both Al and Annie were lost from view.

About halfway up the hill the main party was forced to stop and search when Annie vanished into the green. A few moments of frantic shouting were brought to an end when Annie jumped to her feet from her hiding place among the ferns and shouted, ‘Boo!’ She giggled at their expressions.

‘At least she’s happy,’ Ginny observed, laughing in relief.

After that incident, the expedition leader, at the suggestion of his mother, decided to keep a careful eye on his party. Ginny and Harry, with Lily still on his shoulders, kept to the rear. Al and Annie, hand in hand, trudged up the hill in front of them, chattering happily about toys and “‘speditions” and “‘ventures”. When Ginny’s hand sought Harry’s, he took it happily and squeezed.

‘I think that Annie’s going to be okay,’ said Ginny quietly. ‘I was a little worried.’

‘Al will look after her,’ said Harry. ‘I think that he likes to help people, he wants to be wanted, to be needed.’

Ginny rested her head on Harry’s shoulder for a moment. She said nothing, but squeezed his hand tightly and put gentle pressure on the knuckle of his middle finger with her thumb, their silent signal for “yes”, or “I agree”. She then ran her thumb across all four knuckles in a gesture which meant, depending on circumstances, “I love you”, or “you big softy”. In this case, Harry knew it meant both.

There was a sudden yell from ahead. Harry looked towards the noise and his initial worry immediately vanished. The two scouts were involved in a furious battle with some imaginary opponents. Both boys were shouting war-cries and bits of bracken were flying into the air. The multi-purpose branches James and Henry had been using as walking sticks had become wildly waving swords.

The battle against whatever creatures existed in James and Henry’s minds was a long one and the main party caught them up. The two panting boys stood proudly side-by-side in an area of trampled and broken ferns.

‘Look at Al,’ Ginny whispered to her husband. Harry did so, and realised that Al was still holding Annie’s hand. James and Henry had noticed too.

‘Al’s gotta girlfriend,’ said James smugly.

‘They’re holding hands, James,’ Ginny said. ‘You and Henry hold hands when you go on school trips.’

‘That’s ‘cos Miss says we gotta. And anyway, Henry’s a boy,’ explained James, using a logic which was difficult for most people who’d passed puberty to understand.

‘What’s been happening here?’ asked Harry, indicating the flattened bracken and moving the conversation onto safer ground.

“We’ve just killed a giant!’ James announced. ‘We saved you all.’

‘Well done, James,’ Harry congratulated his son. ‘It looks like it was a hard fight.’

‘It was,’ Henry announced. ‘The giant was even biggerer than that rock.’ He pointed at the Drake Stone, which was now only a few hundred yards away.

‘‘Twas the biggerest giant ever!’ James confirmed.

‘Really?’ said Harry, sounding impressed. ‘We’re almost at the Drake Stone, do you think that we should stop for a drink, and maybe some chocolate, when we get there?’

‘Yes,’ said Al firmly. ‘And I think that we should race to the stone.’

‘The first one to touch the Stone gets the first piece of chocolate,’ suggested Ginny. ‘Wait!’ she added when James and Henry turned to run. ‘Not until I say that you can go.’

‘Down, please, Daddy,’ demanded Lily urgently. Harry gratefully obliged. Lily wasn’t heavy, but Lily plus a laden rucksack was rather uncomfortable on the neck, and her firm grip on his hair was painful on the scalp.

‘You can each go when I tell you, and not before!’ ordered Ginny.

‘Lily, go!’ she said. Lily scampered forwards. Ginny allowed her to get some distance away before saying ‘Annie, go!’ Annie immediately set off.

‘Al, go!’ Al too, followed.

James and Henry were inching forward impatiently, watching for Ginny’s signal.

‘Last two, go!’ Ginny finally told them. They dropped their sticks and sprinted towards the stone.

Harry was impressed by Ginny’s handicapping skill. The gaps were closing and he was certain that it would be a very close race. It would have been if Lily hadn’t looked over her shoulder to see how far behind the others were, tripped, and fallen heavily.

Even before Lily’s cries reached them Ginny had reacted. It seemed to Harry that she started moving the moment Lily began to fall. She shrugged off her rucksack and begun to sprint rapidly up the hill.

Harry picked up his wife’s discarded rucksack and trotted behind her. Annie reached Lily first and Harry watched the little girl stop to comfort his daughter. Al stopped too, and to Harry’s surprise, so did James. This made Henry the clear, but slightly embarrassed, winner in what had suddenly become a one-child race.

By the time Harry reached the group Lily was in her mother’s arms and her heart-rending cries had turned into muted sobs. Henry was staring back at the group from the Drake Stone and wondering whether to return to join the others.

‘Are you all right, Lily?’ Harry asked, kissing his daughter on the top of her head. Lily shook her head and tearfully showed her father her grazed and bloody palms and knee. Harry bent forwards and kissed them.

‘Blood,’ she sobbed.

‘Mummy will soon mend your hands and knee, Lily,’ said Harry. Ginny nodded meaningfully towards Annie. Harry reluctantly left his daughter in the care of his wife and led the other children up to the rock. He had handed a piece of chocolate to race winner Henry and was breaking off sections of the slab to give to the other children when Ginny and Lily arrived.

‘Look,’ said Lily, holding out her clean and uninjured hands and pointing to her no longer skinned knee. ‘Mummy magicked them better.’

‘Wow,’ Henry observed. ‘Your mam’s better at magicking things better than mine is, James. My mam needs to use a sticky plaster.’

‘I’m sure your mum is very good at it, really, Henry,’ said Harry.

Henry shrugged dismissively. ‘No,’ he said with certainty. ‘That’s like real magic.’

Al was staring up at the huge boulder. ‘Why is it called the Drake Stone, Daddy?’ he asked.

‘Well,’ Harry began, grateful for the distraction of Al’s question. ‘Drake is another word for dragon, and a long time ago…’

‘Daddy, I want a Wonsuponatime story!’ Lily said firmly.

‘Now?’ Harry asked.

Lily narrowed her brows determinedly and nodded. ‘Now,’ she confirmed.

‘Okay,’ Harry agreed.

‘Good,’ Lily was satisfied. ‘Come here, boys, Daddy’s going to tell us a new story,’ she ordered. Lily sat down with her back against the Drake Stone. Annie sat next to her, and the three boys sat on rocks. Harry looked at the expectant faces and wondered how Lily did it. Her brothers simply did as they were told. He was no better, he knew that; Lily could wrap him around her little finger.

‘The land of Wonsuponatime is a magical place which lives just next to our world and…’ he looked at Ginny who simply shrugged. He was on his own. Harry’s daughter liked new stories, tales she’d never heard before. This often required Harry to extemporise. He thought desperately for a dragon story.

‘And?’ Lily demanded.

‘And, are you sitting comfortably?’ asked Harry, playing for time.

‘Yes,’ five voices replied. Harry looked at the eager faces staring up at him.

‘Then I’ll begin,’ said Harry. ‘A long time ago, a mummy dragon was looking for somewhere to lay her eggs.’

‘Eggs?’ asked Annie uncertainly.

‘Dragons lay eggs, just like chickens,’ Harry explained.

‘And that’s where the resemblance ends,’ observed Ginny, the corners of her eyes creasing as the smiled at her husband.

‘Do you want to tell this story?’ Harry asked her. She laughed and shook her head.

‘Then don’t interrupt. The dragon was flying down this very valley when she saw the Drake Stone, except of course, in those days, it was just called the stone. The dragon landed on top of the stone. The top is very flat and only very brave people can climb onto it.’

‘I wanna climb it!’ James announced.

‘Me too,’ said Henry.

‘When I finish the story,’ Harry promised, cursing himself for his foolish comment. At least he knew that climbing the stone wasn’t too difficult.

‘Well, the dragon decided that the stone would be a good place to make a nest, so she…’ Harry was suddenly inspired. ‘…She flew down to Drakeshaugh Wood and pulled the branches from the top of a huge oak tree to make herself a nest. The tree was old and hollow and she pulled and pulled so hard that the tree cracked and fell.’

Lily jumped up excitedly. ‘Izzat the broken hollow tree next to the stream?’ she asked.

‘It is, Lily. What a clever girl you are,’ Harry told her. ‘Well once she’d made her nest, the dragon…’

‘What’s she called?’ asked Lily.

‘Dolores,’ Harry told her, surprising himself and making Ginny snort with laughter at the name that popped instantly into his head. ‘So, once Dolores had made her nest she laid six eggs and she sat on them, waiting for them to hatch. What she didn’t notice, however, was that one of the eggs was not green, like most dragon eggs, but gold. A wizard was flying past on his broomstick…’

‘Wizards don’t fly on broomsticks,’ interrupted Annie knowledgeably. ‘That’s witches.’

James was about to protest, but Harry silenced him with a warning glance.

‘In the land of Wonsuponatime wizards fly on broomsticks too, Annie,’ Harry told her. Annie wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes at such a foolish idea. ‘Well, this wizard decided to steal the egg, but he was a cowardly wizard … his name was Zacharius … so he decided to have a competition. He invited three wizards and a witch to try to steal the egg from the dragon.’

‘What were they called?’ challenged James. He was beginning to get wise to these stories, Harry realised.

‘Well, the wizards were called Victor and Cedric and, er…’

‘That’s not fair,’ Annie interrupted. ‘It should have been two witches and two wizards.’

‘My mistake,’ Harry told her. ‘It was two witches and two wizards. The witches were called, er, Flower, and … Jennifer.’

‘What did they look like, were they all old and ugly?’ Annie asked.

‘Victor had a big nose and walked like a duck, but a lot of people thought that Cedric was very good looking,’ Harry told her. ‘Flower was tall and slim and had long blonde hair and a lot of people thought that she was very beautiful indeed,’ Harry said, ‘But although Jennifer was not so tall, she had hair which was as red as a summer sunset, and she was the most beautiful witch who ever lived.’

Ginny winked at him.

‘Like Mummy,’ Lily observed.

‘Exactly like Mummy,’ Harry said. ‘And like you, too, Lily.’

James snorted in disgust.

‘Except Mummy is nice, she’d never steal a mummy dragon’s egg,’ added Lily. Al nodded his agreement.

Harry saw his story collapsing before his eyes.

He watched the children carefully. He’d talked himself into a corner, he suddenly realised. James and Henry seemed to be expecting a huge fight against the dragon. But Al, Annie and Lily obviously regarded the egg-thieves as the bad-guys in this story. His plan to use the Triwizard Tournament fell apart. Lily would be unhappy if, because of Victor’s spell, Dolores trampled on any of her eggs.

‘What’s wrong, Daddy?’ asked Lily.

‘Nothing,’ he assured her as his story suddenly flipped in an unexpected direction.

‘Old Zacharius gathered the witches and wizards together, and told them that he was going to test them, to find out which was the bravest, boldest and cleverest witch or wizard in the world. He brought the four to this valley and they stood over there, on that ridge, watching Dolores in her nest.’ Harry pointed to Harbottle Crag.

‘But, the four had tricked Zacharius. Every witch and wizard in the land knew that he was both greedy and cowardly and when he told them what he wanted them to do, they simply laughed. “Stealing eggs is a terrible thing,” said Jennifer. “We are here to protect the nest,” said Cedric.

‘Zacharius was very angry. Despite his cowardice, he was a powerful wizard and with a wave of his wand he caused a huge explosion. “BOOM”,’ Harry shouted suddenly. The children all jumped.

‘The explosion knocked the other witches and wizards off their feet, and the hole it created began to fill with water. And that’s how Harbottle Lough was created,’ explained Harry, pleased with himself.

‘You said they were standing on the ridge, Daddy,’ said Al.

‘They moved, I forgot, to tell you,’ said Harry hastily. He was deflated by the observation. Storytelling wasn’t easy, everyone was a critic, looking to pick up on every slip. Pleasing his entire audience was becoming more difficult the older they got. He’d simply have to try harder. James and Henry were leaning forward, eager for the action to start and they were unhappy at Al’s interruption.

‘Were they blown up into little tiny bits?’ James asked. He seemed to relish the thought.

‘Smotheroons,’ said Henry knowledgeably. Harry recognised one of Mike Charlton’s words.

‘Smithereens,’ Harry corrected.

‘That just means tiny little bits,’ he told the younger children. ‘But no, they weren’t. Cedric was thrown onto the air by the explosion and he hit his head when he landed. He was knocked out. Flower’s robes were set on fire and she was forced to conjure up some water to put them out.

‘Zacharius jumped onto his broom and flew into the air. Victor and Jennifer leapt onto their brooms and gave chase. They zoomed back and forth, up and down the valley, until Zacharius conjured a brick wall in mid-air. Jennifer dodged it, but Victor crashed into it and fell from his broom.

‘A brick wall in mid-air is silly,’ said Henry.

‘Well, that’s what happened,’ said Harry, smiling. ‘Luckily, Victor fell into a big muddy puddle, so although he was a bit smelly, he wasn’t hurt. Meanwhile, the dragon–Dolores–had flown into the air to find out why all of these witches and wizards where zooming about over her nest. Zacharius saw his chance and he swooped down to the nest and grabbed the golden egg.’ Harry watched as Lily and Annie opened their eyes in horror.

‘But the egg was big, and heavy, and slippery, so Zacharius couldn’t keep hold of it. He dropped the egg, and it was falling toward some rocks, where it was certain to get broken. Jennifer put her broom into a dangerously steep dive and just managed to catch the egg before it hit the rocks and broke. She took it back to Dolores nest and put it with the other eggs.

‘Meanwhile, Dolores was very angry with the wizard who had tried to steal her egg. She chased after him and with a “RAAARGHH” she breathed fire and smoke at him. When the smoke cleared, Zacharius was nowhere to be seen. He’d been turned into dust.

‘Good,’ said Lily, nodding approvingly.

And so Dolores settled back onto her nest and the witches and wizards guarded it until the baby dragons hatched. And that’s the end of the story,’ Harry concluded.

‘I think that there should’ve been more fighting,’ said Henry.

‘I don’t like fighting,’ said Annie, folding her arms and glaring at her brother. He stuck his tongue out at her.

‘Any more of that, Henry, and you won’t be allowed to climb the stone,’ said Ginny.

‘Let’s climb it now,’ said James.
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