AN: One word... Finally! This took way too much time to write and post, but real life hit hard. I'm still in a "low" as far as mood goes, so the work on the next chapter goes very slowly. I just hope my mood has not influenced the quality too much. Anyway, enjoy!

When she awoke her fears were realized. The humans had put her back into the walled off terrain her Green-Eyes told her the two legs called a paddock. She took a breath and was assaulted with familiar, though faded, scents. Calmly she stood up and camouflaged, assessing her body and she shook the last vestiges of sleep from her long, powerful limbs. There was no trace of the itchiness she associated with the thing she clawed out during her escape. She snorted, it was foolish of them. What hunter gives up such an obvious advantage?

Her hatchling had explained to her how humans probably used it to track her, although how exactly they achieved that, went over her head. Nonetheless, it was a powerful tool.

Tools… a concept her young one explained to her in depth. It allowed her to at least understand how such weaklings managed to be so dominant. She glanced down at her clawed hands. In the wild she had no need for tools, but here? In her prison? Maybe… she had escaped once, they would probably learn from it. However, she had too.

First thing, Pale-Mother carefully stalked around, trying to see if anything was different. To her shock, it was;, although not in the way she expected.

The wall was lower and she had the feeling the paddock was larger. To use her hatchlings words, at least by half in both cases. It was obviously counter-intuitive, even from her perspective. Her eyes narrowed, this bore investigating. As she came closer to the wall she had to amend her thoughts. Not all sections of the wall was lower, remaining as high as around the large gate and the viewing room as it had been initially.

When she was close enough to touch the wall she realized that, if she wanted to, she could gaze beyond it. And that meant she could probably climb over the wall easily…

Taking a few steps back, allowing her to build up a running start, she jumped.

Only to bounce back and, unbalanced, land painfully on her side; roaring in dismay and fury, scaring, especially the human, in hearing range. Stretched out on her side, she glared in silent ragel at the top of the wall. The Indominus couldn't understand what had happened. Except…

She stood up again and carefully stretched herself to scrape her head against the top edge of the wall. There was a strange, almost irritating, tingling that grew in intensity the closer her muzzle got to the edge. Like thorns scratching along her scales; the feeling triggered something in her memories. Her hatchling did something similar the very first time they meet.

"Magic…" The growl was still full of anger. Magic was a force her Green-Eyes also tried explaining to her and, as he put it, if something unexplained happened it was probably magic.

She needed to know more then.

Looking around she picked up a stick - for her at least it was a stick - and hurled it towards the wall. It cleared the concrete without anything happening, beside the a surge of panicked and angry shouts coming from a number of humans beyond the wall.

"What is she doing?" Simon asked, standing inside the viewing room. The visibility wasn't that great; but they had begun to correct their previous design errors in the time they had. The trees were thinned out in the paddock in close proximity to the room and fully cut down between the room and the main gate, ensuring an unobstructed line of sight in that direction.

"She is testing the wards we raised." Albus said in clear astonishment, before turning towards the other man. "You didn't tell us she is that intelligent."

"We had suspicions the moment Dr. Wu told us everything about her. Some we confirmed when you showed up the first time." Simon's brows were furrowed. The I-Rex was learning and that just raised her risk factor by quite significant margin.

For the the next half an hour the workers that were under ironclad NDA - that doubled as a magically binding contract, even if they didn't know it - along with Simon Masrani and Albus Dumbledore were greeted to a sight of a pale dinosaur rubbing along the walls and occasionally throwing small logs over it.

Eventually, after the I-Rex had finished its explorations, both men were forced to focus on the hybrid as she stomped up to the viewing room. For a moment the two parties stared at each other, Pale-Mother roaring in challenge as she stepped even closer.

In the past she had tried to attack the room with her claws straight on, which yielded less than satisfying results, for her at least. This time around she choose a more tactful approach. Grabbing one of the reinforcing bars in her teeth, she pulled. It appeared to be quite painful for the determined dino, but with a loud shearing noise the metal gave; Pale Mother stumbling backwards, metal in mouth, at the sudden lack of resistance.

Inside Albus and Masrani took a few steps back in shock, the window frame had bent and the reinforced glass buckled and cracked.

"Reparo!" The old wizard calmly, and rather sternly, intoned with a swish of his wand and the damaged section of the room's wall repaired itself; the bar that was pulled off flying back, smacking the pale hybrid on her arm on its way up from the ground and drawing an angry snarl from her lip less maw.

Simon reached for a small head set that was lying around on a small table sat at the back wall. "Can someone release the bull? Now?!" There was a clear displeasure in his voice, having ordered the thing released almost five minutes ago.

It was something that Charlie suggested and Owen approved. Giving her live prey instead of feeding the I-Rex with a crane, something that could fight back to a degree. Simon could see wisdom in trying to satisfy the hybrid's hunting instincts. It was costly as they had to ship the bulls from mainland but their other alternative was feeding her live dinosaurs and that would have been even more costly. And, as per the sponsorship contract with Dumbledore, they had to refrain from using lethal force on both Indominus Rexes. So that left Simon - and by extension Claire and Owen - with the only option of making the adult Indominus as content as was possible.

Simon's gaze was drawn to the bright form of the Chianina bull that just rushed into the paddock from a small side gate that had been added for this purpose. It was disgruntling to see such a magnificent animal being sent to slaughter. Nonetheless, it seemed to work as both men saw the attention of the adult Indominus shift.

Pale Mother heard the mechanical sound of a gate opening, turning towards the new sound with great interest, and was surprised when the scent of live prey hit her. She was so used to being fed carcasses by the thing with metal ropes while she was inside the paddock, that for a moment she stood still wondering what new trickery was this.

The prey animal was obviously agitated as it moved around, tossing its head in her direction, breathing loudly.

In the end, her hunger won over her caution and she moved towards the bull. In this enclosed space she could throw caution to the wind and just charge forward. She got the surprise of her life when she saw the light coated prey with horns lower its head and run straight at her. At the last moment she stepped to the side, out of the way of the horns, and twisting closed her jaws on the bulky neck of her prey, quickly silencing the terrified bellow of the animal.

While not as satisfying as some of the kills she made with Green-Eyes, the taste of fresh prey made up for that. Soon enough very little was left of the bull, and not really interested in what was left, she moved once again in the direction of the viewing room. Camouflaged, she was intent on doing some observing of her own.

Harry and his company arrived around the time when the bull was released. The first thing the young wizard did was glance over the paddock.

"What's with the wall? It's kind of low and what's with the different heights?" Those were the young wizard's first words after he jumped out of the jeep. "And you realize that with more than half the wall so low, Pale Mother can jump over it, right?"

The animagus snorted in amusement when he saw all of the adults cringe at what he called the Indominus. It was Bill who broke the awkward silence by clearing his throat.

"The wall was redesigned to allow for quick expansion of area inside and with a Pasture Ward in mind, a quick, simple ward if you want to keep out unwanted animals and your herd in. Also the height differs so the ward line is far away enough from the muggle electronics."

"Anyway, let's go." Owen finally got over the fact that the kid was apparently calling the I-Rex of all things, mother… he was never going to get used to that. And if the glance at the others was telling him anything, they shared his feelings on that.

Their group of five moved swiftly through the gravel cowered ground, and then up the stairs leading to the viewing room, where they were greeted by Simon and Albus. Harry was not really interested in the small talk the adults indulged in and went straight up to the viewing window. His green eyes scanned the tree riddled paddock, as he unconsciously clenched and unclenched his fists in his nervousness.

"You wanna go in?" It was Owen again, although all of them could tell how much he struggled to say those words. "She's pissed right now."

The last statement was confirmed by a short "Very" spoken by Masrani and a nod from the aged Headmaster.

"She will not hurt me, if that's what you are concerned about." The adults had to admit, the conviction in the young wizard's voice was admirable. "And you may want to wait a day or three before you start panicking about me not changing back, she will probably be very... clingy. So how do we do this?"

Charlie and Owen almost simultaneously sighed, leave it to the kid to give them a headache.

"Come on then, I'll show you the entrance." Apparently this had now become Owen's show as he once again took lead.

Both of them left the viewing room and had to walk a bit, quickly reaching the newly redesigned maintenance entrance. Briefly, the raptor trainer experienced a flash back to the moment he crossed those doors for the first time. However, he noted, with critical eyes, the new addition in the form of a safety "air lock" similar to what they had in the raptor pen entrance.

"Ok. Listen up! When you get in I want you to put your hand on the pad near the other door. It will scan your hand so you will be able to open them yourself, later on." As he was talking he slid a key card into a slot on the outer, steel bar doors of the cage's lock. There was a brief buzz and the light indicating the lock's status went green. "For the peace of mind of everyone involved the outer door can only be opened by a key card that you will be not getting. Charlie and Bill have one each. It's all electronic so no magicking your way out. If the lock fries you're stuck until we can fix it. If the card fries, you're stuck until we can replace or it, so no summoning it either... or whatever you call it."

"Anything else?" Harry said with, a small amused smirk threatening to break out across his face. He had a feeling that what the older man was talking about were all token efforts, as he was pretty certain that if he wanted to he could get out. The best part was, judging by his body language and tone, Owen himself didn't put too much faith in the new security measures, be they mundane or magical.

"Don't maul or eat anyone else, yeah, that's kind of important."

Owen winced at the glare that stole over Harry's face. "Look, kid, I didn't mean-"

"Yeah, you did. I killed a guy. I get it. It's not my first and I doubt it'll be my last. So just drop it and I'll try not to eat anyone. Ok?"

Harry cringed at the reminder of the unfortunate ACU member he had killed on his first day as a dinosaur animagus. And while he was perfectly happy not thinking about it, the memories of fabric and flesh tearing, hot blood in his mouth, it was all… there. In the back of his head, he knew what people tasted like, and that would never go away.

The steel doors closed behind him with a bang, making him jump. Harry hadn't even realized he walked inside.

"Good luck kid." With that Owen began walking away, presumably towards the viewing room.

Taking a deep breath, the young animagus walked toward the inner door and did as instructed. After a few seconds, and a quiet beep, the metal door slid open with a hiss. He took a few steps into the paddock before the feeling of being watched assaulted him. The doors closing automatically made him turn his head briefly.

"Right…" He murmured. Having a vague idea of what to do next, Harry closed his eyes and allowed the animagus magic to wash over him. It was still disturbing to feel his body change so dramatically, it was getting easier, but…

"Green-Eyes! The humans captured you too? Did they hurt you?" The roar was surprisingly full of care to his own dinosaur senses. He just managed to turn his muzzle toward the direction she was coming from, before he was bowled over with an indigent squawk as Pale Mother began nuzzling along his body looking for any signs of harm.

"I'm fine! I'm here of my own will."

"You always say you're fine!"

Up in the viewing room the six adults watched the reunion with expression ranging from highly amused to disturbed.

"I'm seeing this... but I'm still finding it hard to believe… She's... quite gentle with him." Claire whispered, not used to seeing the Indominus expressing anything but hatred and bloodlust. Until, that is, the adult hybrid pinned the smaller one, not that gently, and started roaring and growling. "Is she… scolding him?"

"Knowing Harry? Probably." Charlie chuckled as he furiously wrote in a book he had produced from… somewhere. Almost like magic, Claire thought, wincing at the terrible joke she'd kept in her head..

"Alright enough already!" Harry finally growled and swiped at the annoying muzzle that kept prodding him. His eyes widened and both of them stopped, seeing three thin red lines appear on Pale Mother's snout. "Soo… I'll check out the paddock!"

He bolted.

"Get back here hatchling!"

What followed was a mock hunt and fight, with Harry being more often than not tossed around like a leaf on the wind. It lasted well into the afternoon and by the time Harry submitted and admitted, defeat both hybrids were tired; resting in a spot well obscured by underbrush, Pale Mother having designated this their nest in the enclosure.

Busy licking his wounds, Harry listened to the slow breathing of the adult dinosaur. Their play time was rough, probably lethal to anything that wasn't an I-Rex, but he hadn't realized how much he missed it. It also made him realize that he had totally forgotten the fact that they were probably observed, maybe even recorded, the whole time. Also he was quite certain that due to confined space, boredom would soon settle in.

That there might be a few… issues because of that was his last thought before he settled down to catch some sleep.

The next morning came too soon in Harry's opinion and, adding to that, it was his rumbling stomach that woke him. Feeling his belly ache and still half asleep, he was one annoyed dinosaur. Taking care of his morning business, it only just occurred to him that there could be someone watching.

The young animagus turned his snout in the direction of the viewing room, currently slightly obscured by the trees. It would seem he was deeply in sync with his instincts again, modesty being a non issue. Out of curiosity, he would have to time himself some day to see how long it took for the Indominus' instincts to fully emerge or fade after each change.

For now though, he move towards the tantalizing smell of still somewhat fresh prey.

Up in the observation room, Charlie had set up camp; a comfortable fishing chair he bought from a muggle store, a low table provided by the company and his trusty, enchanted sleeping bag and backpack filling out his makeshift bunk room.

He was observing Harry's behavior through a specially prepared set of omnioculars, a kind used by dragon handlers and more than capable of seeing in a half dozen spectrum's, while noting down his observations; jumping slightly when he heard the door open.

"You know, when you said you found them fascinating it never occurred to me you would set up camp here." Bill's voice carried a great deal amusement. "Your breakfast, by the way."

Charlie was distracted yet again when the heavenly scent of coffee, scrambled eggs, and bacon reached his nose. With a flourish, his oldest brother sat a tray down on the low table.

"I'm just trying to get an idea of their baseline behavior. It's fascinating, and a touch disturbing, how at ease Harry already is in this form. I know that animagi can grow to connect with their animal form to the degree they're utterly indistinguishable from the creature they've turned into. But, and this is a big but, that's supposed to take years, as the animagus' mind learns to not to question every new instinct and act on, or at least acknowledge, them instead."

"Blood magic was involved, remember? It's only natural that it will tie the wizard closer to his animal side." Bill mused as he moved closer to the glass, looking out into the paddock.

"Anyways my ramblings aside, got that lesson plan figured out?"

"Pretty much, take a look." The oldest Weasley turned around and handed his brother a folded sheet of parchment.

Charlie opened it, and looked over what his brother had deemed 'vital'.

"Martial arts? Really? How do you even plan on teaching him that?"

"There's a guy in that specially formed ACU dedicated to those two that wanted to test himself against Harry after he got filled in on the details. Apparently he knows something called Karate."

"Still can't believe we're announcing that magic exists left, right, and center." Bill murmured as he continued reading.

"Don't worry, Dumbledore and I went over the new employment contracts and added some minor secrecy curses and spells, even making some key words in them Taboos so we know, if we did a poor job of making the contracts do their thing. On top of that Clair, Owen, and Simon know how and when to keep silent on important matters. So we should be ok. Most likely."

It almost made Charlie snort how Bill talked about casually placing Taboos on words, it was a tricky bit of magic on the best of days and, while not exactly illegal, it was kept from being so solely by virtue of the sheer obscurity of the magic involved.

"I'm really hoping that all this effort will be worth it in the long run."

"Look on the bright side, it's not you being forced into this lesson plan." The curse breaker joked, snatching the lesson plan from his brother's hands and shooing the man back over to his breakfast. "Now eat, before it gets cold."

"Yes, mother." Charlie's quip was met with a fast strike to the head with the rolled up lesson plan, leaving both brothers grinning and chuckling.

Down in the paddock Harry was finishing his breakfast, composed of what was left of the bull. As he licked his muzzle clean he began wandering around, examining the enclosure.

Not an hour later, he began to understand why Pale Mother wanted to escape.

By the end of the day, even with Pale Mother serving as a great distraction and them having had several short talks, Harry began to plan his escape just to kill their boredom. At some point his muzzle bore a wide, toothy grin.

"Pale Mother… Seeing as we can't hunt or wander, I was thinking. Let's play a game with the humans."

The adult Indominus lazily opened one eye, she had been close to falling asleep in their nesting area.

"What game?" Even her whisper made the ground rumble.

"Let's see, if we can't escape?" He was probably asking for a prank war with the Weasley brothers just by suggesting it. But he was a bored teenager with energy to burn.

Pale Mother's downright evil chuckle was not something a human would have wanted to hear.

The next morning, Bill was suddenly woken up by an annoying buzz centered around his left wrist. He shot up when his mind realized that it was the signal for something breaching the pasture ward.

"Lumos!" His wand lit up on the bedside table. A little known fact, there were actually a few spells that could be cast through the wand while not holding it; just one of the many strange quirks of magic.

The spell light made it possible for him to quickly locate his clothes, the sun was just barely sliding over the horizon and not providing enough light to see by. His first thought was to just run for Bill. But, after mulling it over for a bit, decided that discretion was the better option. Probably. At least, compared to sounding the alarm on another possible containment breach, Masrani had grown… twitchy as of late. So, after he was dressed and, with wand in hand, quickly cast a Disillusionment charm on himself before stepping out of the small, single story bungalow that had been constructed for them on site.

While he knew that doors opening by themselves would be suspicious, Charlie didn't have many choices, not wanting to take any risks should the worst have happened.

Bill tried to step as lightly as possible on the gravel covered ground, wincing when the small pebbles crunched loudly. More worryingly was that in the the dim light of the early morning he couldn't spot any sign of either Indominus. The resident Master Warder was certain it was one of the hybrids trying something, and he would eat his wand if it wasn't Harry.

He was about to reach out for the railing of the stairs leading up to the observation room when something swept his legs from beneath him. Just as his back painfully met the gravel, he felt a heavy, and more importantly clawed, foot pushing against his chest; claws slightly digging into skin his, each leaving a small, bloody dot. The oldest Weasley brother got an eyeful of a teeth filled maw; unpleasantly dripping with drool. But the most gut wrenching aspect of the situation was the fetid stench of rotten meat and cloying blood billowing from his assailant's mouth with every exhale the smaller hybrid made.

"Good Merlin, Harry, your breath stinks!" It was the only thing he could say, his mind refusing to properly process the precarious position he was in. The only thing keeping him from having a full blown panic attack was the - for him easily recognizable - mischievousness in those green eyes.

In a moment, instead of the hybrid dinosaur, stood a young wizard with his boot resting on the older man's chest and a shit eating grin shining in the night.

"Maybe, but you're still dead." Harry's smug grin was wiped from his face when a length of thick rope bound him tightly, making him fall over with a grunt.

"And you got caught." Charlie said from the top of the stairs, walking down as he spoke and still aiming his wand at Harry. "Always pay attention to your surroundings, don't gloat. Anyway, what should we do with this one, oh brother mine?" The dragon handler ominously asked as he helped his older brother stand up.

As Bill dusted himself off and gingerly checked out the small puncture wounds on his chest, he glanced at the young animagus who was still grinning slightly. They would have to make Harry tell them how he escaped.

"What would you say to an early breakfast?"

"An excellent idea, come on then. And no changing, Harry, or we will stun you and drop you off in the enclosure." Charlie said waving his wand to levitate the bound boy in front of him, as the brothers began to walk towards their new house.

"I didn't hear you casting Charlie." Harry finally asked, realizing he was not getting out of the ropes. On a side note, the young wizard thought that being bound and levitated was a slightly uncomfortable experience.

"Silent casting. Dead useful, but they don't teach it until sixth year. Also, it takes a lot of practice and only really works with spells you're really familiar with."

"Speaking of spells, how did you escape?" Bill asked as he held the doors open for his brother and their charge.

Harry was greeted by a mostly unfurnished room that had an open kitchen area to his left, two doors on his right, and one more door just behind the kitchen area. The wall in front of him, what he supposed was the back of the house, was made up of large windows and what looked like sliding doors with a view on a small patch of grass that abruptly transitioned into proper jungle.

"The ward didn't stop me from crossing." Harry shrugged, while it was not as easy as he made it sound that was basically it. When Pale Mother allowed him to climb her, as he couldn't jump that high yet, he tried to just cross it… He was totally unprepared when he was met with resistance, but not the solid wall like the adult Indominus described. For him it felt like walking through molasses, the unexpected feeling almost costing him his balance and nearly making him fall.

"That's unexpected." Bill said as he moved towards the kitchen area, and turned just in time to see his brother magically stick their young charge to a wall, close to the table. Also, apparently, he had a new puzzle to solve.

"Uh, could you let me go now?"

"Nope." Charlie said getting the water going for coffee.

What followed was a highly uncomfortable half an hour of Harry helplessly watching the eldest Weasley brothers prepare, eat, and vocally praising their deliciously smelling, full english breakfast.

Harry was released from his bindings after the older wizards finished cleaning the dishes.

"That was cruel, you know." The black haired wizard grumbled while he stretched, eyeing them both with a degree of… not malevolence, per se. But there was definitely something that told both brothers they best be on the lookout for any future unpleasantness.

"Have an apple as consolation." Charlie tossed said fruit at Harry over the counter that separated the kitchen area from living area; to no one's surprise the boy caught it expertly.

"Geee, thanks." Grumpiness aside, food was food, so Harry didn't waste the opportunity and ate it promptly.

"Don't worry, I'll get started on something meaty for you, while Bill explains about what we have planned for you." Charlie suppressed a wince when he remembered a bit of what they'd guessed about Harry's childhood. What would have been an awkward and annoying thirty minutes for one of the Weasley brothers was probably the kind of thing that would grate against Harry's newly empowered temper.

Mollified, Harry went to join Bill who was still nursing his coffee by the low, glass table that stood by the far wall, with three rattan armchairs arranged around it. As he sat, he was quite surprised by the squeaking sounds the armchair made.

"So Harry, this is what we came up with. Read it and gave me a honest opinion." Bill handed him a piece of rolled up parchment, which Harry quickly read over.

The brothers proposed schedule made his eyes widen slightly. They wanted him to do an hour of physical exercise each morning. Following that, from Monday till Friday the plan was three hours of theory lessons immediately followed by practice of different subjects on each day. In the afternoon another hour of theory, followed by another practice session. There was also an hour reserved for additional physical exercises at the end of those five days.

"I get Runes, I said it would be interesting to know just what my mum did. But why is there Arithmancy in the list of subjects? And didn't you say something about Occlumency or something?" Harry asked, looking up from the parchment to see Charlie standing behind Bill and just noticing the enticing smells spreading from the kitchen.

"Arithmancy, at the very least the basics, are needed for when you are about to screw up while designing runic circles. Anyways, you'll be fine, it can get about as complicated as muggle Secondary math classes. Now, if you take to it and are good enough I'll consider something more advanced."

After giving it some thought, Harry nodded in agreement.

"As for Occlumency, that's going to be mostly on you. We can show you and guide you through first steps and later evaluate your progress, but this, more than anything else, will require discipline and self control. And it will not be easy. We're going to probably have to talk about things you would likely keep to yourself normally. If not with us, then with someone else you trust. I'm also going to get my hands on a batch of mild calming and sleeping potions, in case you ever need them."

That made Harry exhale slowly.

"What exactly will I have to do, that would require those?"

"Conquer your worst memories, so to speak. If you can go through your worst experiences being highly objective, get to the root of the emotions, and understand what drives those emotions, you will be a a step closer to being a master of your own mind." Bill explained, his face rather somber.

"I don't like this." Was Harry's short answer. The last thing he wanted to do in his time away from Dursley's was reliving memories of that hell hole. Because if he was honest with himself, those made up the majority of his worst memories. And as he aged he was beginning to understand how a person can hurt another without even laying a finger on them. The memories of his misadventures at Hogwarts were, in comparison, far easier to deal with.

"You don't have to like it, you just have to get good at it. Nobody said it's going to be easy or pleasant. Now then, go eat breakfast, and after that we will quiz you about what we remember from Hogwarts first three years. After that I'll see what you can do with that wand of yours." Bill stood up as he spoke, quickly making the couple of steps to reach him and patting Harry reassuringly on the shoulder. "I'm going to adjust the ward, I think I know why you could escape. If it takes me too long, start without me Charlie."

"Sure thing." Charlie said, moving towards kitchen again, this would require some extra coffee. "Come on the Harry, I made you some nice steak tartare. I picked up a nice recipe in Romania, I think you'll love it."

Feeling the heavy mood lifting, Harry's stomach growled at the mention of meat, making the boy smile sheepishly. A good meal was a good way to start brightening his mood for what promised to be a long day.