The lull

Since Potter had moved to the Valley of Dragons, he had made a great leap forward. Thanks to the Place of the Force, he had developed much faster, mastering the elements in just two years. That's not to say it was easy, no. But Harry trained hard and got the results he needed.

He no longer needed his wand (nor his glasses - his sight had been fully restored), all spells were non-verbal and his magical potential was fully utilised. Everything the young wizard needed to communicate with dragons was successfully developed and multiplied.

Harry spent almost all of his training by the lake. Fire and air magic worked best in the open air, where he had no fear of breaking or destroying anything.

An open palm reached out to the sun and the first petal of flame bloomed. A gentle flick of the brush and the flame transformed into a ball the size of a large apple. The mage makes a sending pass with his hand - a ball of lightning strikes a dry tree at the edge of a cliff. The burning branches explode into ash, blown away by a gust of wind that comes from nowhere. It intensifies, blowing the boy's clothes and hair away, turning into a whirlwind that gradually rises, leaving neat circles and spirals in the sand...

****

On the brink of magical adulthood, Harry performed another dragon summoning ritual. This time two lizards, Hungarian Tails, answered the call at once. The ceremony was not observed. They literally fell from the sky and brawled with each other.

Harry chuckled mentally as he heard them hissing at each other. It turned out they were having a family row. The male wanted the valley and the female wanted the clutch. The problem was solved in a matter of days. Nestled comfortably in a deep cave, the female warmed her eggs with her breath while the male lounged on the beach. Potter named them Adrynn and Moric.

Harry called out to his fellow dragons more than once that year.

At first the dragons didn't get on. Dagger, the Swedish stupid dragon, was always picking on his opal-eyed counterpart. The latter retaliated by blowing steam out of his nostrils. Eventually, Daguerre developed large gaps in his left wing. Potter tried to treat them, but the holes caused by the Antipodean's breath only diminished slightly, not disappeared completely.

Then the problems became more serious. When it came time for the mating flights, Harry was glad that the valley had been hidden by powerful spells, otherwise such a mass of lizards in the sky over Chapala Lagoon would have started World War Three.

****

So another four years passed. The dragon population expanded successfully. Harry rescued each of the ten species and helped them to mate. They were semi-intelligent creatures, of course, but dragons had personalities and habits.

Sirius watched from the sidelines at first, but then got involved and began to help his godson. On his first expedition 'to the great land', as Black put it, he had brought back Welsh green dragons from a reserve in the mountains of Wales. These babies were no bigger than a dog and just as playful. The Welsh Green's diet consisted mainly of mice, but they didn't mind eating the leftovers of other dragons. Harry placed them in the shallow caves that led down to the beach.

After another ritual, Potter got a warrior and a guard. Ingvarr, the Norwegian hump-backed dragon, constantly scurried around the edge of the Vale, bridging gaps in the magical dome with his breath. He was accompanied by his equally dangerous companions, Carrie and Sif. They regularly circled the borders of the Overlord's domain.

Regular conjurings brought steady results, but there were occasional mishaps. Summoning the smallest dragons, more like winged lizards, Potter found that the connection was made, but the opal-eyed Antipodes failed to respond to the call. Harry found one of them extremely exhausted as he followed the outlined thread of magic that connected him to the lizard. Antono, as the dragon was called, revealed to Potter that they had been captured by Voldemort's arrogance and kept under Imperio to keep scales on hand for the Felix Felicis potion. Antonio had a friend, Amica, who had also been captured by the Dark Lord's followers. She had been transported through a portal by Harry and treated for an unknown illness for almost two months. Now Potter had another excuse for revenge. Harry had fed the dwarf dragons large insects that were abundant in the garden.

Next was the Peruvian Serpentine, Atl. It was a dragon with a long, serpentine body covered in copper scales, each the size of a palm. Legend has it that it was the source of the 'dragon pox' that killed Abraxas Malfoy. Indeed, according to the Ancestor's Manuscript, Harry has discovered that the dragon's saliva contains bacteria. But it has to be applied directly to the mucous membrane of the lips.

By the lake behind the house, in a quiet backwater, there were about six snakes comfortably perched, feeding on fish and plankton. Apart from Atla, the other lizards had unpronounceable names - Ioliamanicin, Namakuix, Tlanekstik, Teuikui and Eleuia.

Romanian longhorns - these smelled the call while on the other side of the country. They approached, but couldn't get through the defences. The dragons were about twenty feet long, dark green, with long horns on their heads and two rows of spikes along their backs. They behaved like cats, happily devouring mice and rats that Harry tossed into the air for them to play with.

After another train, the Ukrainian Iron-bellied Dragons, grey, metallic-looking reptiles, arrived in the Vale. They were called Zoren and Veronica. They took up residence in a large cave at the top of the northern cliff, and together with Yunsheng they began to slaughter the mountain goats, which were abundant there.

The Swedish dumb dragons - no matter how much Harry liked them, they always reminded him of Cedric. It was with the female Swedish Dumb Dragon that he had fought in the first round of the Goblet of Fire. Potter had found her in Sweden on Vasagatan Street, the equivalent of Slanted Alley in London, when he was looking for post crows for the Valley of the Dragons. The beautiful silvery blue dragon skins were used to make protective armour and gauntlets. No one noticed as Harry tore the spells from the cages, released all four dragons and told them where to come.

In the autumn, Harry thought all the dragons had answered the call and decided to hold one last ritual on Samhain as a thank you to magic. It was a lavish, solemn event, unlike any that had gone before.

A huge bonfire in the centre of the Septagram, two dozen dragons stationed around the perimeter. Sirius and Harry uttered the final words of invocation and thanksgiving and threw meat and fruit into the fire. After a few hours, when the men were ready to extinguish the fire and the wait was pointless, a mighty bolt of lightning split the sky and thunder rumbled. Strange shapes appeared in the sand, vaguely resembling runes. Three silhouettes emerged from the clouds and shrank towards the centre of the grateful flames, momentarily extinguished by the mighty sweeps of their wings...

Hebridean black dragons - Adar, Jero and Ur, great beauties. They burst through the magical dome from a nearby camp. The dragons were being transported to North America. The portal wasn't set up correctly, so they ended up in Mexico instead of the US. Sensing the call, they couldn't resist it and fled the camp, leaving it deep into the night. Potter had no fear of anyone coming for them, for the borders of the Domain were secure and not even a mouse could slip in - the wizard would know at once.

And so, year after year, Harry collected all sorts of ancient lizards from all around him. He studied them, named them, solved their problems, built up a food supply. And Potter didn't care what was going on in Britain at that time. Although Harry did know what was going on, because the crows brought him all the press, and not just the British press.

****

For as long as he can remember, Charlie Weasley has dreamed of dragons. As the second child of a large family, he couldn't have hoped for a decent position when he left Hogwarts. But his enthusiasm paid off: A few months after graduating, he was offered a job at the Romanian Wildlife Refuge, where he's been for over a decade.

Of course, his dreams were immediately shattered by reality. Not only did Charlie have to study the dragons, he also had to feed them and clean up after them. Not a day went by without a burn, and the man learned how to brew a first-class healing potion. But after a few years, Weasley got used to it and even began to help his superiors with their research. Charlie's dragons obeyed; they were used to having this taciturn fellow by their side at all times, and would gladly take food from his hands, allow him to touch a clutch, and condescend to him taking the occasional old scale from them.

The work was so fascinating to young Weasley that he gradually lost touch with his family. He grew irritated by the noisy atmosphere of his family home and took fewer and fewer holidays, preferring the cool caves and dragon pens.

The news of Potter was seen by Weasley as more nonsense from the Ministry, and his release was seen as correcting the mistakes of Fudge, who was doing his best to keep his chair.

In time, Weasley had forgotten the problems of his homeland and had devoted himself entirely to the dragons, sending his mother an occasional letter saying he was well. It was then that an unfamiliar owl brought a scroll with orders from his superiors: to provide several dragons to guard Hogwarts.

****

One week later.

Work was in full swing at the edge of the small clearing. A few men in leather armour were casting protective and soundproofing spells around the perimeter, setting up a makeshift camp. The dragons trudged quietly to the centre of the bivouac, surveying the place where they'd been taken.

Charlie Weasley handled the huge dragons with ease as they graciously accepted his attention. He had worked in Romania for eleven years, helping to breed and care for the dragons. At under thirty-three, Charlie was already a professional when it came to all things animal.

The day the dragons got out of control was one he would remember for the rest of his life. What he saw was nothing like what he'd known about these majestic and dangerous reptiles.

Using an illegal portal, he and his colleagues and the dragons found themselves well south of their original point of arrival.

"Bloody Dumbledore! You promised to get the dryads for a proper crossing!" spat Weasley, going to get his pets ready for the night.

Suddenly, a pair of dragons began to stomp restlessly and then staggered out of the camp. Charlie followed them in confusion. He could have easily brought them back, but Weasley was curious: what had the dragons seen? After about two miles, Charlie noticed that the dragons were out of sight, though it was hard to believe as they were the largest and healthiest specimens.

As he reached the spot where the lizards had supposedly disappeared, Weasley felt a magical shield envelop him, and with a slight crack it was restored to his back. He looked around. He saw a shocking sight: huge black dragons bowing to a young man who, after a similarly solemn bow, walked up to them and stroked their spiky heads affectionately.

Weasley ducked down and, drawing his wand, hid in the nearest bush.

"Until I find out who the dragons are bringing, I'd better keep my head down," Charlie thought, and cast a Disillusionment Charm.

Meanwhile, in the clearing, the dragons bowed to the stranger, who crouched on the scaly knee of the black Hebridean, responding to every sound and glance of the lizard.

Weasley's interest grew. As the dragons followed the man into the woods, Charlie crept up behind him, still unaware that Potter had long been aware of his presence.

Charlie saw much that made his jaw drop. Never before had a dragon obeyed a man so easily! And the man seemed to know exactly what they needed, supporting them, tending to the sick, teaching the young, talking to the adults. Weasley realised that his experience was child's play compared to the picture that was unfolding.

And then the man turned and headed straight for Charlie. He was in for an even bigger surprise, for it was Harry Potter himself.

- So, Weasley, did you like it? A dragon tipped me off about you at the beginning of the meeting, so I just let you watch from the sidelines. Now do you see that all your knowledge of dragons is nothing more than a feeble attempt to communicate with them? - Harry grinned.

Charlie immediately jumped up and removed the disguise spells that had become useless.

- Hey, Harry! I saw you. Why do they listen to you so easily?

- You think I'm just going to give up all my secrets? You'd think once you've seen dragons you'd forget all the twists and turns of your life, wouldn't you? - Potter could smell the Force.

- I'm out of touch with my family, Harry, and I haven't been to England in ten years," Charlie held up his hands in a conciliatory gesture. - I sympathise with your situation, but I've never shared Dumbledore's beliefs. I'm on my own. Let me stay here with the dragons. All my life I have dreamed of studying and understanding them...

Potter held up a hand to stop the man's speech and then stood still for a moment, pondering what he had heard. Then he looked intently into Weasley's eyes:

- Then you will agree to the Truth Serum and the Unbreakable Vow. Otherwise, I can't trust you with my charges.

- Very well.

****

The serum revealed nothing that could harm the dragons or Harry's safety. Charlie reported in a detached voice that he had dreamed of dragons since childhood, that he had never struck or cursed them while working at the Sanctum, that he wrote to his mother every six months, and that he had never thought Potter guilty of what he had been accused of. Harry decided to let the second Weasley live out his dream. And left him in the Vale, under an Unbreakable Vow sealed by Sirius. Black's appearance in the living room of the Potter house didn't cause Charlie much emotion, so everything went smoothly. An hour later, the men were sitting around discussing Samhain and enjoying a strong fire whiskey.

A few hours later, all the dragons in the camp had been moved to the Vale and were lounging on the beach, getting to know the other lizards, while the rest of the dragon workers were sent home with their memories a little shaken and their wallets a little lighter.

A little later, the dragons were introduced to Charlie. Potter explained to them that they would now be looked after by this scowling man with long red hair as well as himself. The dragons, sniffing at Weasley, graciously conveyed their approval to the Lord.