Published 27/06/15

Chapter 1

The Stone

The sky above the great hall was clear and glittered with stars, each one twinkling down on Harry with happiness he was far too exhausted to feel. Mere hours ago Voldemort had been vanquished and Harry had taken himself back to Gryffindor tower, intent on sleeping for days. It seemed however, that sleep was not on the cards, and when Ginny had joined him half hour later, the problem had only gotten worse. He did not resent the redheads presence, he loved Ginny dearly, but right now she had lost her brother and she needed a support Harry simply could not give. When Ginny had started to cry, creating tear stains on his shirt Harry felt only the urge to flee.

And so he had, waiting until Ginny had fallen asleep he had left the dorms and quietly made his way to where he stood now, staring down at the ashes of his foe, still piled in the centre of the great hall.

'It hardly seems real does it?'

Harry spun round, surprised to hear the voice he knew so well emanating from the darkness. Hermione came forward, her own eyes as haggard looking as Harry's own. She laughed, a dry, rather painful sound as she stood beside him, both turning back to look at the mound of ash.

Slowly Harry felt Hermione's hand slide into his, but when he felt something bump against his leg, he looked down and spotted the now familiar beaded bag.

Noticing Harry's line of sight Hermione snarled, moments before a dry sob escaped her mouth 'I keep thinking we have to keep moving,' she whispered, 'I'm almost scared of letting go of this stupid bag, as if putting it down will cause some death eater to pop up and murder me in my sleep, crazy right? Do you know where I've been for the last five hours?'

Harry frowned, worry starting to seep into his bones as his friend seemed to get more frantic, 'Where Hermione?' he asked with trepidation, but nothing could have prepared him for the shock of her next words.

The bushy haired girl grimaced, 'Raiding Malfoy Manor.'

Harry felt his jaw drop, but he managed to choke out, 'How?' in a small, wheezy voice.

Hermione shrugged, 'Ron and I followed you up to the dorms not long after you did. We went to sleep in Ron's bed but I had a nightmare about Bellatrix… and Malfoy Manor. Ron was snoring so I couldn't sleep with him and I didn't want to sleep alone. I… I thought that if I could just, I don't know, face the place now that everything was over the nightmares would go away. So I went to the headmasters office and floo called. No one answered so I just went through, no one was there, the wards were down.' Here she took a breath, slow and deep to calm the shaking that had spread through her body, 'I never made it to where Bellatrix… I never made it to the dining room, I couldn't. I found the library instead, thought I could, I don't know, bolster my courage. I started looking over the shelves for something to read, and I just… Did you know Professor Dumbledore taught me how to copy large amounts of books at the end of fourth year. He even taught me how to bypass all the copyright charms and any curses on the books in the restricted section. I have the whole Hogwarts library in this purse. When I saw the books in Malfoy Manor, I just couldn't help myself.'

Harry shook his head and enveloped his friend in his arms as she sobbed into his shoulder, it was some minuets later before both could calm down.

It was then, as Harry pulled back from his tear stained friend, that something caught Harry's eye. With slow movements, Harry bent down and, using the tip of his wand, rolled the lightly glowing, purple, pebble sized gem out of the ashes.

'What is it?' he asked, more than a little afraid of something found in Voldemort's would be corpse.

Hermione frowned, swishing her wand and levitating the pebble up in front of her. With a pulse of light the stone glowed even brighter, sending out a pulse of magic that crashed over the two like a wave 'Did you feel that?' Hermione asked in awe, her eyes wide as her hand rose as if to touch the odd stone. With a strangled shout, Harry's own hand shot forward to intercept hers, only for both their palms to collide round the gem, encasing it between their hands at the same moment.

A buzzing sound started to emanate round the room, the light from the gem glowing so bright that it shone through their very hands, rays of light shooting out from between their fingers.

With a bang the doors of the great hall opened to reveal countless wizards and witches who had felt the wave of magic sweep through the castle. Hermione and Harry paid them no mind however, they could concentrate on nothing but the feeling of pins and needles consuming their body, numbing them and causing excruciating pain all within the same breath.

As the pain started to become too much a feeling of weightlessness started to overtake them and the Great hall dissolved from their view, colours and indistinct sounds taking their place. It was then, before her astonished eyes Hermione watched as purple crystals started to grow over Harry's hand; with a panicked shout he tried to pull away, but no amount of strength could dislodge his hand and before long his whole body was encased in crystal, frozen in shock inside his new prison.

It was only moments later that the feeling of weightlessness started to change, gravity started to reassert itself and Hermione felt herself falling, no flying through the air. With frantic eyes she watched as the colours around her started to change to sky and land, and then she and Harry were not alone in their flight, for there was a stone, a great blue stone flying on the same trajectory right beside them. A loud rumble started to emanate from the flying stone, a flash of light almost like lightning traversing the distance between it and a crystalized Harry. It struck him with a crack like breaking crystal, like a landslide, reverberating through the air and entering into Hermione, through their joined hands. With one last shout of pain her eyes shut and she lost consciousness.

The small dragon sighed in annoyance as he moved inside his egg. He was itching to escape the confines of his prison for days now, but the soft but firm hissing voice of King Dragon Father or Queen Dragon Mother stopped him every time he tried to break through. As his restlessness once again reached it's peak, their combined voices once again halted his movement.

Not yet my son, his father's voice hissed, These times are not safe, this land is not safe enough for one so precious as you, you are our future and we cannot risk you falling into the greedy hands of that would be king of men and dragon.

The little dragon sighed, but allowed King Dragon Father to once again quite his unease.

A rumbling laugh echoed and reverberated his egg as Queen Dragon Mother nuzzled him with her snout, You are defiantly your fathers son, my little princeling, so impatient to enter the world and torture your poor mothers nerves to shreds with worry over your rashness.

The feeling of amusement soon left the little dragons mind however, chased away by the panicked sound of another familiar voice, Elder Dragon Sister spoke of the ones to wish him helm, she said they were coming and there was little the other wild dragons could do when they had so many heart of hearts at their beck and call.

So it is time, said King Dragon Father solemnly, My son hear me now, you are our last hope, the last hope for the wild dragons. When the time is right, when peace rules, land sea and sky, return here and find your brethren, we love you son.

Be safe until you return to us, we pray to the stars you will, Queen Dragon mothers voice was strained, and the little dragon felt hot tears fall on his prison.

A huge boom shook all around him, and Dragon Sister shrieked, Father please, Galbatorix is here, you must send him now or never!

We shall meet you in the stars son, was the last he heard Queen Dragon Mother speak, for in the next second heat bloomed all around him, and the little dragon felt his egg sink into the molten rock King Dragon Fathers flames created beneath him. Another harder shell of diamond formed around him, before he felt a jolt as he was thrown high, high into the freezing air, faster than even King Dragon Father had ever flown.

It was as he felt the outer protection of the diamond shell shatter in the cold that he started to worry, and it was when the cold started to crack his real shell that the pain started and he retreated to his heart of hearts. He still felt the pain of his small body freezing, but it was muted, and eventually the numbness took over.

When he felt gravity once again pull him to land, he knew instinctively this was not his home, not his land, but he was so thankful for the heat on his heat of hearts as he fell to ground that he did not care. When finally he landed, the little dragon felt the primitive minds of the animals surrounding him snuff out, and slowly all over the land life died. With no one there to see his weakness, the little dragon allowed his anguish to seep out, calling to his kin with silent wails, only to give way to a deep slumber. For millennium he lay there, slowly gaining power as he soaked in the magic of the suns rays, feeling as life returned to the land around him and evolved into something far more intelligent, until one day a magician picked him from his resting place.

He did not respond to the magicians probes, only locking away all but a tiny fraction of his collected power. But that tiny fraction was enough for the magician. Using his own powers, he moulded the energy he felt from the heart of hearts, calling on the power all wild dragons possessed to communicate with their ancestors in the stars and magically cut a symbol into the dragons heart of hearts.

Using his new possession the magical called again and again on the powers of the stone to speak with his dead wife, until one day the powers of the stone were not enough to satisfy his need to be with her, and he took his own life. The small dragon thought that with the death of the magician his suffering would be over, and for a time it was. He was passed down from magician to magician, idly searching for something, but not truly knowing what he was looking for. Until one day he felt an invasion of his sanctuary, an evil presence that tried to push him out, but only succeeded in driving him further into his heart of hearts, abandoning the surface to the presence.

For a time the little dragon knew nothing more of the world. The surface, where he could gaze out was taken up by the Presence and in truth he felt pity for the frail thing, mad as it was and missing the rest of it's soul. Very little could helm him, and so the dragon let it be. When one day the deadened surface of his heart of hearts was cracked and the Presence obliterated, he once again rose to the surface , slowly but surly healing the damage the Presence had caused to his heart of hearts and gazed out at the youngling that wore him on his wrinkly blackened hand.

When he met the Scarred Youngling, when human fingers closed around his heart of hearts in the Land of Black Trees and the Scarred Youngling called upon his own parents with a desperation the little dragon had felt only in his own soul, he knew he had found what he was looking for. When the Scarred Youngling left him, he thought his heart of hearts would crack right then, but luck was on his side, and the Snake Man, to whom the Presence had once belonged, picked him up in interest at the strange, if somewhat weak magic the little dragon allowed his heart of hearts to emit.

He had bided his time, waiting for the Snake man to fall to the Scarred, and then, when the Snake Man fell to his foe in the Cave of Carved Rock , he called out to the Scarred Youngling, nudging him from sleep and guiding him to where his heart of hearts lay forgotten in the ash. It was chance alone that brought the Wise Youngling there also, but the little dragon could not choose who to take and who to leave when both Younglings touched his heart of hearts at the same time… so he took them both.

Where am I, Harry asked, a feeling of nothingness surrounding him.

In our mind, came the reply. Harry tried to be afraid at the reply from the unknown sourse, truly he did but the calm surrounding him was impenetrable, and all he could do was drift.

Our Mind? He questioned softly, only for images and thoughts, thousands of thoughts and feelings and memories to flood his consciousness. Dragons flying high in the sky, feeding off wild deer, sleeping, mating, loving, hating, happiness, sadness; all this and more until Harry could take no more of it.

Who are you?

I am you, you are me… I needed your help… More feelings followed, at once more vivid and yet vague. The feeling of comfort, love, brilliant happiness from Father, Mother, siblings. Their fear, terror at what was to befall them.

Why is there only feeling and words, why no pictures?

I… I never left my egg, I never saw the world I was to hatch into…

I am sorry, you died then?

No, I retreated, into my heart of hearts, more memories followed.

I thought you did not have proper memories? Despite his odd predicament Harry was intrigued by the strange being.

They are not mine but my ancestors, I think your people call us…dragons. We pass on our memories to our children.

Dragons? Harry asked in a faint voice, I'm having a conversation with a dragon.

The being hesitated, I do not understand, you are a dragon too. That is why we are here.…We…you and I… are now one, Scared Youngling…or at least we will be one very soon. The merge is almost complete, when we hatch we shall be one being, one dragon.

Panic in full bloom, Harry felt his mind lash out into the nothingness, desperately trying to break from the strange prison he found himself in, Hatch, what do you mean hatch?

As I said, we are now one. You saw my earliest memories Young One, you have seen my life, experienced it as if it was your own. As I have done with yours. This conversation will be the last we have as separate beings.

I don't understand! Harry exclaimed in a desperate, angry voice. Why me? Why would you take me from my home, just when everything was over? When I had a chance to live the life I always wanted, why would you take that from me?

The beings mind seemed to unfurl from Harry slightly, hurt and shock radiating from it, You… you were my only way home… The being trailed off, as if searching for words, I was stuck in your world with no way back to my own. I know not how I found myself in your world. I had no body, no way to move for myself, but because I had never walked before, I did not understand what I needed to find in order to return. When I connected to your mind in the forest I found your soul sang in harmony with mine, that our two souls were one in the same. I had been searching for so long, for something I did not truly know, then I found you, I knew you were the answer. You were a part of my soul, and you had a body, something I needed. When you touched my heart of hearts again, I felt the magic rising within me, I had to use it then and there or risk loosing the ability to wield it, to go home.

At the beings words, Harry felt all the overwhelming, burning feelings within him calm; Home. That one simple word that encompassed so much, brought up so many feelings of loss. Harry could never deny someone, anyone the chance to return home, even at his own expense. After all, despite the Weasley's welcoming him into their family as if he had always been there, the truth of the matter was he hadn't. Harry had no home; he had grown up with no family, even the house his parents had lived in was now a monument to Voldermort's defeat. He was an orphan, just like the being he was now conversing with, the only difference was that the being had somewhere it wanted to be, somewhere it had a connection to, a home.

So… Harry said tentatively, You were the Resurrection stone?

Is that what I was called? The being seemed to find the name funny, and a feeling, almost like a childs giggle passed over Harry's consciousness, What a strange name! it declared, giggling again.

If Harry could have frowned, could have formed his facial features into something resembling trepidation and caution, he would have, Forgive me for saying this, he said carefully, trying not to hurt the beings beelings again, but… while you seem to, um… know a lot of words, you seem rather… childlike.

The being did not answer straight away, as if it was trying to find the right word, the right way to convey what it wanted to say. When it did answer, the words were slow and deliberate, like a child concentrating very hard. When I retreated into my heart of hearts my… emotional development was halted. While I learned was able to observe and learn of the world, in a way I am still a hatchling, I am not capable of feeling complex emotions. I suppose you may think of me as a very intelligent child.

Harry nodded, or at least, signified that he understood with a mental gesture to the being, So, what now? Harry asked wearily.

Now, we hatch…

DUN DUN DUN!... So yeah, no idea where this story is going, or if it will go anywhere... Might upload more might not, let me know what you think either way!