Chapter Eleven

An hour later, Remus had gone. He'd kissed Harry's head, patted him gently, and disappeared with a pop. He would not be able to visit again until he knew for certain that Dumbledore wasn't following him, and with the man's persistence, Remus knew it may be for a long while. He trusted Murtagh to tell Harry about him, if he couldn't see him, and he knew Sirius would probably visit regularly. Manhunts never lasted long in the wizarding world. Wizards had very little patience, due to their ability to gratify any whim, on command. If they couldn't find Sirius within three months, they'd probably declare him dead. Dumbledore would still be looking, but that was far less dangerous than an entire squadron of Auror's tasked to take you down, and the entire countryside looking for your face.

Sirius was going to lead Harry and Murtagh to their new home, and then, hopefully, fake his death, after claiming his estate and leaving it to Harry. The goblins would know he was alive, so he wouldn't lose control of the vaults, but the interfering busybodies wouldn't look into it any further with an underage heir. Lucius Malfoy wouldn't get a sniff of the Black money, if Sirius had it his way, even if he was married to a Black.

There was a dragon reserve in Romania that would be perfect. Murtagh, while traditionally unqualified, had enough experience with Thorn to work well with dragons, and the workers at the reserve would be overjoyed to receive a new dragon, especially one as intelligent and well behaved as Thorn. Thorn might even be able to find a nice lady dragon, though they were unsure if the different species in this world would be able to reproduce with a dragon such as Thorn.

Harry would be a bit more difficult to explain away. Dragon handlers usually didn't have families. Their line of work and place of business was simply too dangerous. They would simply have to hope that no one found a new dragon handler with a baby too odd.

Sirius was sitting uncomfortably on top of a dragon for the first time. It was nothing like flying a broomstick, but it was their only form of transportation at that moment. He wasn't familiar enough with the muggle world to travel in their way, and the wizarding way was out as well, as most people considered him a felon. He couldn't get a portkey without Ministry approval, and he didn't know how to make one. He couldn't apparate them all to Romania, Thorn was too big to sidealong, and he'd probably kill himself trying. He didn't have his motorcycle, as Hagrid had never returned it, nor his racing broom, as it was locked up in his flat, which was locked down by Aurors. He'd get it back eventually, as all his stuff would go to Harry, according to his Will, as long as none of it was cursed. Thankfully, the Aurors could only search his flat, as all the other Black properties were unplottable, and the Ministry didn't know about them. This left him awkwardly attempting to stay on the back of a dragon, who was currently inside his head, exploiting his knowledge of the geography of Europe, in order to navigate them properly to Romania. It all made him dreadfully uncomfortable, but he'd promised Lily and James three months before Harry's birth to do anything to keep that baby safe, and directing sentient dragons was what he could do at that moment.

Thorn was enjoying himself greatly. The dog-person was amusing, and baby Harry was giggling in his side pouch, wiggling around and tickling his belly with his little feet. While the dog-person wasn't enjoying himself, Harry certainly was. The baby seemed to enjoy anything to do with heights. Any time the babe was about to throw a tantrum, Thorn would simply curl him into his tail, and whisk him around, zooming him through the air. It worked well, until Murtagh could get back and do what was needed, be it feed the child, or wash him. They'd agreed that Thorn wouldn't attempt to do that, as the motions needed were far too delicate for any portion of his anatomy. Perhaps he could have managed as a hatchling, but he was incapable at his current size.

Murtagh was busy making up everything he needed for his backstory. Remus had mentioned something called a rez-oom-may, which he'd need if he wished to be employed by the preserve. They'd agreed to make his background as someone self-taught, a sort of adventurer or explorer who found a baby dragon, and decided to try an experiment with one raised in a human environment. It would cover his credentials, as he had lots of experience with dragons, but would also give him an excuse for any information he might lack.

They'd decided that Sirius would remain a dog, unless they could be sure they were alone, and that Remus would only come if he was sure that no one would suspect anything. They would raise Harry at the Romanian Preserve, and keep him hidden until it was time to send him to Hogwarts.

Five years later, Murtagh was one of the most respected, and least known of the employees at the Romanian Dragon preserve. They'd discovered that the dragons of this reality were quite different than Thorn or Saphira, the adults little better than animals in intelligence. They did understand the ancient language, but were not concerned with anything beyond their base instincts. However, Thorn had endeavoured to teach the hatchlings, maintaining contact with them from the time they hatched, until they wished for privacy in their mental space. They were teachable, could think in the Ancient Language, and understood some English and a little spoken Romanian, enough to decide whether or not they wanted to cooperate with the dragon handlers, at any rate. Thorn was healing a bit inside from what he'd been forced to do as a baby, and was wildly happy to be forming his own group of peers, of kin, almost. They did not attach themselves to any one human however, and, when Eragon looked into the ritual for Rider egg dedication, the hatchlings found that they could not do it. They got along with the handlers, and were vastly amused by Thorn's recountings of Harry's exploits, but did not understand his bond with Murtagh.

Murtagh was very careful to keep Harry away from the Earth dragons. Even Thorn's hatchlings were entirely too likely to get bored and try to 'play' with him. They were commonly found attempting to bounce a handler between their noses, playing a game of 'keep away'. While the handlers had grown accustomed to wearing body armour, and were big and muscular enough to survive the experience (one odd one that claimed to be a 'good love', whatever that meant, even seemed to enjoy it), Murtagh was afraid that Harry's delecate neck would snap with such jostling. For now, Thorn played messenger between them, and they were content.

Unfortunately, Sirius had been banned from the reserve before they even got there, apparently, dogs were the primary carriers of dragon pox, and weren't allowed anywhere near them. They'd had to drop him off a safe point near one of the locked down Black properties and hope he'd be able to get inside. For the past few years he'd been taking Harry there on his one week of vacation time, and letting him get to know his godfather. Before that, it had been too dangerous to even consider taking Harry near a Black property, not with people still searching for 'the evil' Sirius Black, and they'd needed to separate Harry from any sign he might be Harry Potter.

Remus wrote them both in code, letting them know what he'd learned about Dumbledore's plans. He'd been 'hired' as the old man's secretary, though his real job was really to organize the mostly defunct order into doing the man's dirty work. There was always an excuse 'for the greater good', but he really had no business coopting people into doing the job of the (now functional) police department. Most people previously in the order were growing tired of the old man's delusions, but Remus did his best to placate him, and they had a glorious time pretending to follow his orders while actually moving on with their lives. As expected, none of them were interested in searching for the 'notorious' Sirius Black when Remus was subtly reminding them that he hadn't been proven guilty, might even be dead, and certainly wasn't making any trouble.

Dumbledore wanted people (though not himself, he was a busy man) to be doing all sorts of things, though it mostly involved curbing Sirius's supposed power, and protecting Harry's interests. Interestingly, this mostly meant attempting to take or block Sirius's inheritance (didn't they know what the man could be doing with all the Black's books and money?…Books and money Dumbledore could be using much better?), and building up Harry's image as the 'golden child'. It made Murtagh nervous. Dumbledore still, seemingly, hadn't discovered that Petunia didn't have the boy (and wouldn't tell anyone else where the boy supposedly was), but his maintained interest in his adopted son's welfare didn't fill Murtagh with confidence. Powerful old men who wanted to keep all the power and money away from others, and gave children a reputation they didn't deserve never made Murtagh happy or trusting.

Author's Note:

I hope to get back into this. Sorry its shorter than usual, but I wanted to get something out for those that have been waiting