AN: I do not own either HP or the Inheritance Cycle.

This will be Harry/Murtagh.

Harry sat down at the mess hall, ignoring everyone else's stares. He could feel the ever present dark magic tailing him and shuddered as it stopped and hovered over him, 'checking' him for any magic use. Even worse, the Shade had entered the room and was overseeing one of the last groups of the king's men.

Apparently, the new dragon and its' rider had led the Empire right to the Varden's location. Harry had heard that the king had ordered Durza to lead the monsters known as the Urgals and destroy the rebels. All of the other soldiers in the mess ducked their heads as the Shade approached; none of them wanted to gain Durza's attention.

As Durza approached, he smirked at Harry. "The king's pet wizard..."

Harry ignored him and took a sip of water then finally looked up to him. "What do you want?"

Durza leered at him, dark magic leaking from his every pore. Harry inwardly winced, not wanting the Shade to see his reaction. "I am to destroy the Varden, as you know."

"Yeah and your point is…" Harry trailed off, taking his last bite of food and putting down his fork.

Durza took a step closer to him. "You will be working under the King for the duration of the battle. He will give you orders than you are to send them to me. You are to fill him in on the battle."

Now Harry recoiled. When he had appeared in the capital, the Shade had been right there and had dug into his mind immediately and basically rendered him powerless. Harry still had nightmares about it. The Shade hadn't seen everything but still… And he was reminded of his situation everyday when he glanced down at his neck and saw the collar there. And try as he might, he wasn't powerful enough to get out of here. Not when the King was so so powerful. Harry still had no idea how King Galbatorix had gotten powerful enough to overcome Harry.

Harry, who was immortal due to his animagus form, was not as powerful as the king, at least right now. If his magic wasn't suppressed like it was, he might possibly be a match for the king. Though, he had never met the king in person. He did remember seeing someone else other than Durza when he had landed here a few months ago and that might have been the king. The castle was also full of magic that felt poisonus to him and his skin always got goose bumps whenever he came in contact with it.

"Are you sure you'll be able to receive my words that far away?" Harry idly asked, smirking a little. He knew that he had just insulted the spirit but he didn't care. He had to get his fun somehow, even if said fun ended up with him knocked unconscious and thrown to the tender mercies of the soldiers. Or occasionally, if Durza was around, another torture session. "If I heard correctly, the Varden live in the Beor Mountains. Those are hundreds of miles away."

Durza sneered at him, eyes glowing with magic. "I still have time to have another session, little wizard. The King is more powerful than you are. We are not leaving until dawn."

"You still pissed about the new Rider rescuing that elf?" Harry continued. "I heard his dragon is a beautiful blue color. And you were incapacitated for a few days after you fled back here."

Durza stopped sneering only to grin at him and whisper something.

Harry stiffened and suddenly magic flew around him, ignoring his own, and started to constrict. The magic was red, sickly, in color and tightened around him like a snake, making him fall off the bench and collapse to the ground from the pain. It was like a high level version of the cruciatus curse, attacking his nerves and body. The various soldiers in the room all stopped what they were doing to stare at him. None of them interfered. None of them could.

After a few minutes, Durza let up and spoke another word. "You are to report to the king in the morning. He will not be as easy with you as I am."

Harry was still on the ground, breathing heavily and glancing down at his body as the cuts that had opened up continued to bleed sluggishly. He could feel sweat pouring down his back and down his forehead, as some dripped into his eyes. He nodded quickly to let the Shade know he had heard and then Durza left.

The magic in the collar around his neck prevented him from using any kind of magic to heal his wounds. It prevented him from using any magic in general, including shifting into his other form. He could only use magic when someone directed him, when Durza used him to scare the troops or when the Shade had tried to make him scry for the elves. So he just stood up slowly, testing his legs, and left the mess hall, glad that he had managed to finish his dinner before Durza had come.

He stood outside the throne room door, waiting with more than a little trepidation. The king was in there, along with the dragon Shruikan. Up until now, Harry had only ever met Durza and various other generals. He had never gone into the throne room and he was quite worried about it. He had heard rumors from the servants and guards about the king's dragon being insane. His heart had flipped in his chest when he had heard about what Shruikan had gone through. The black dragon had been forced to hunt down and kill his own species.

Harry sighed; he wished he could do something for Shruikan even though he hadn't met the dragon.

"Come in, wizard."

Harry shuddered and cautiously walked into the throne room. He of course hadn't been around before Galbatorix rose to power but right now… The big room was definitely not large enough to accommodate Shruikan, who was behind the throne. His own eyes widened at the sight of the big dragon. He had expected a large animal but that was… He wondered if that size was uncomfortable for Shruikan as the dragon reached all the way up to the ceiling and then some. He figured that Shruikan couldn't move adequately; it was like even Galbatorix was scared of the dragon. It was almost unnatural though Harry definitely wasn't an expert on dragons. He did know all that Durza deemed necessary for him to know through reading books from the big library.

Galbatorix was sitting on the throne, arms and legs spread out over it. It was like Galbatorix expected the battle to go well and to receive a captive dragon and her rider in a few day's time. And for the Varden to be absolutely crushed.

"Sir?"

"The battle has not started yet. I do not have need of you. However, my dragon has need of a bath."

Harry's eyes widened and heard Shruikan growl, slowly raising his head to look Harry in the eyes. Shruikan had light blue eyes and his pupils were dilated. Shruikan definitely looked like he was insane, eyes haunted with pain and anger. He wondered if he were to read the dragon's thoughts… if there were any lucid thoughts in the dragon's mind. But perhaps not as Shruikan growled even louder as Galbatorix stood up from the throne.

"I have heard from my spies that Murtagh is among the Varden," Galbatorix remarked, walking over to stand in front of Shruikan. "The little lost boy must return to me. Perhaps I shall contact the Twins and have them return him to me. It is past time for the boy's rebellion to end."

Harry made sure to hide his shudder as Galbatorix reached out a hand and patted Shruikan on his forehead. "A bath?"

"Shruikan is chained," Galbatorix explained, sounding like he was talking to a person of lesser intelligence. "He cannot move for I fear he would eat everyone in sight. I have business I need to attend to before tonight."

Harry nodded idly, the phoenix inside him crying out at the pain, fear and anger emanating from the black dragon. Shruikan was still looking at him and Harry watched as the big dragon took a deep breath through his nose. No one in this castle or anywhere on this continent knew of Harry's other form and yet, Shruikan's eyes had landed on him for a few minutes now. It was as if the dragon was trying to pierce through the insanity and learn what Harry was.

"I will have a servant give you what you need," Galbatorix continued, not even aware of what was going on. Harry watched as the king moved through the throne room and over to the doorway. "You can use your levitation and summoning charms to get Shruikan's back and nothing else. I will be unhappy if he has eaten you when I get back. If you do anything that displeases me, I will give you over to Durza's entertainment for a week."

Shruikan let out a loud growl to which the king spoke in the ancient language. The dragon fell silent and Harry could have sworn he heard a quiet grumble of pain from the creature.

Galbatorix then muttered something in the ancient language and Harry felt as the collar around his neck tightened and then loosened a little. Like the collar knew that the king had given Harry permission to use some magic.

Harry sighed in relief when the king left as the poisonous magic left too. He cautiously walked up to stand a few feet in front of Shruikan, who watched his every move. "Soo… I'm to give you a bath."

Shruikan growled, eyes narrowing.

"Okay, okay. I'm not going to hurt you," Harry whispered, letting his shields down briefly. "Skulblaka, eka weohnata néiat haina ono." Dragon, I will not harm you.

Shruikan continued to stare at him, continued to growl. Though the threatening noise was less, quieter this time. Harry slowly approached, taking measured steps and stopped in front of Shruikan, hearing one of Galbatorix's servants come in. He didn't hear anything for a few minutes other than Shruikan's continued growling. He turned around to see a younger woman staring at him incredulously, holding a bucket of water and some sturdy rags in her hands.

"You can leave those there," Harry muttered, turning back to Shruikan. The dragon was still growling, mouth open to show Harry his teeth and barbed tongue. "I think you've been fed recently, right? You're not going to eat me."

Shruikan stared at him, pale blue eyes looking him over. Harry heard a thunk behind him and whispered the summoning charm, knowing that it was only him and Shruikan in the throne room now. "May I touch you?"

Shruikan watched him and blinked. Harry grinned a little, albeit sadly, and reached out a hand to lightly touch the dragon's forehead. When nothing happened, he started to stroke Shruikan's forehead. "Your magic's being suppressed, isn't it? I suppose we're in the same boat."

"You're very dirty," Harry remarked, turning to look at Shruikan's whole body. The dragon's tail was wrapped tightly around his body as there was not much space to fully extend. Shruikan's wings were black and bound to his side with spelled chain. The black magic around the dragon made Harry's stomach upset just by being near it, reminding him of being around Voldemort in the last battle. "Aren't riders suppose to take care of their dragons? I know I would take care of you, if you were my partner."

Harry reached down to grab one of the rags and grimaced. The rag was not much else but thread. He quickly looked back at the doorway, saw and heard no one around then whispered a strengthening spell. He felt the collar constrict, tightening around his neck and started to choke. But the magic of the collar stopped and withdrew after a second, perhaps able to tell that the spell that Harry had used was not a threat to the king or his kingdom.

He doused the strengthened rag into the bucket of warm water and cautiously laid it on Shruikan's neck. "We would be partners in crime or you know not crime. Just free."

Shruikan stopped growling as Harry moved the reformed rag over his neck. "I don't even know how long you've been chained here. It could be years. Fuck… He thinks of you as his toy, doesn't he?"

Harry stroked Shruikan's neck, starting to massage the dragon's skin. "I've some experience in that department, unfortunately."

For a while after that, Harry was quiet, content to wash the dirt off of Shruikan and massage the black scaly skin after wiping the dirt away. Shruikan even possibly enjoyed it, if the way he leaned into Harry's hands was enough indication. Though every other minute, Shruikan gave a low growl, as if he wasn't sure he should be enjoying this or not. And that broke Harry's heart even more.

As Harry floated down to the ground thirty minutes later, he sighed and looked over his handy work. Shruikan was a gleaming black, not a speck of dirt or… blood on him.

Just as Harry was about to start procrastinating(he really did not want to go back to his 'rooms'), another servant came in.

"The King requires your presence in the war room."

"Understood."

The collar around his neck tightened once as if to reinforce the order.

The servant left and Harry returned to look into Shruikan's eyes. He could still feel the emotions he had felt earlier when he had first seen the dragon. There was still much pain, anger and fear that he could feel but there was a little… something like gratefulness in Shruikan's pale blue eyes. It was there and then gone in a few seconds replaced by anger. Anger toward the king, anger toward himself as the dragon who killed many of his own species.

"I need to go," Harry murmured, stroking Shruikan's neck in that little place where it had made the dragon fully lean into his hand. "I… Here."

Harry pulled on his phoenix form, enough so that he could use his talents but not enough so that he would shape shift. He tried that once two months ago and he ended up almost choked to death. But he closed his eyes, blinked twice and then swiped a finger near his eyes to catch a few tears. He carefully rubbed the tears into Shruikan's skin around his face then turned around and walked out of the room.