Disclaimer – I solemnly swear that JKR owns everything Harry Potter. Whether or not I am up to no good with her characters is for you to decide.

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Harry Potter: Dragon Whisperer

Chapter 11 – What Did You Do?

8:15am

Monday, 8 August 1995

Romanian Dragon Reserve, Romania

.

There was something different. Daphne wasn't sure what it was but she knew it was there. Instinctively, she slowed her pace, her eyes flitting about the Dragon Reserve. No one was running. At least, not quite. But there was definitely a quickened pace to everyone that she saw.

There, a group of four Handlers were striding towards the tree line that marked the bottom of the hill. Another two walked past, their heads bent together, their speech – although not quite understood – was definitely fast. Three flew in low from just over her left shoulder and she ducked, glaring up at them even though there hadn't been any possibility of collision. The fact that all three seemed to keep moving just as fast on the ground, their brooms now in their hands as they had been in the air, indicated that they were in a hurry.

Yes, Daphne was sure of it. Something was going on. Or had gone on or … or something. Whatever it was gave a taste of excitement, not danger, which only increased Daphne's curiosity.

But this early in the morning? She shook her head before turning to ask her father's opinion. She blinked at finding that he was no longer walking beside her. Where her own steps had faltered to the point where she'd nearly stopped, his had only lengthened.

With a huff, Daphne stomped off after him. At least he was easy to find – his broad shoulders in the deep grey cloak was more than halfway to the Big Hall and getting further away with every step but for all that, very easy to see.

Lengthening her own strides meant that she was able to enter the Hall not long after him. The sight of a pair of Handlers all but running at the door had her quickly sidling alongside the wall out of the way.

Here, too, that same air of urgency prevailed. There was movement everywhere, people shifting between the tables or talking animatedly amongst themselves or unexpectedly running off after being given some instruction.

No, she amended, her eyes coming to rest on the end of the far table.

A smaller body was sitting there, hunched over so that his messy dark hair was resting on his arms. There was a blanket draped over him that all but obscured him but still, Daphne knew who it was. She'd know him anywhere.

Her eyes stayed focussed on him even as she weaved her way between the tables and around bodies. Within minutes, she was sliding onto the bench beside him.

His eyes were closed, one cheek scrunched up on his bare arms. Daphne started. Bare arms? Why wasn't he wearing a shirt?

"Harry?" she said gently, letting her hand rest softly on his near side before sliding up his back and around him to curve over his far shoulder.

"Hmm, that feels nice," he murmured even without opening his eyes. "You better be careful my girlfriend doesn't catch you doing that."

"Girlfriend, huh?" Daphne replied, unable to hide the smile that instantly blossomed on her face. "I hadn't heard that you'd actually asked anyone to be your 'girlfriend' yet."

One eye popped open and Daphne gasped. It was bloodshot and there were deep black circles under it.

"Harry? What's happened? Are you alright?" she asked, forgetting what she really wanted to talk about in her worry for him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he replied.

She shifted slightly as he pushed himself upright, a massive yawn escaping him. His arms stretched right out and she swore that she could hear his back popping as he arched backwards.

"Now, where were we?" he asked as his arm came down and slipped around her waist.

Harry blinked and for a second, his emerald eyes shone as his face lit up with a soft smile.

"I believe that we were talking about how remiss I was," he replied, answering his own question. "Daphne, would you be my girlfriend?"

She stared at him, her mind oscillating between worry for his haggard appearance – shirtless, bloodshot eyes, hair more tussled than normal – and the wonder, the excitement, the brilliance of his question.

"Yes! Of course, yes," she replied and quickly raised a finger to stop his lips in their tracks towards her own (something that she really didn't want to do but her Merlin-be-damned curiosity insisted that she do). "Provided you tell me what's going on. Why do you look so tired? Why are you shirtless?"

Harry pouted against her finger before pursing his lips to kiss it ever so tenderly. Thankfully, before she could give in, he relented and sat back up. The fact that he left his arm around her waist was something that she wasn't going to complain about.

"There were poachers," he replied simply, giving an accompanying shrug.

Daphne stared at him, waiting. But frustratingly, that seemed to be it.

"And?" she all but growled.

"And I had to go help out," he replied.

"Harry …" she began, her frustrations rising.

"What my dear, deluded godson is not telling you is that the dragons called for him and he went to them as you see him – shirtless, shoeless and still in his pyjama shorts. Well, not quite as you see him; he didn't have that blanket," Sirius said appearing on the other side of the table and swinging his leg over the bench to sit down across from them.

Daphne's head swivelled between the two.

"Called for him?" Daphne repeated. "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means that every dragon here roared at the same time, apparently in parseltongue, calling for Harry there. Woke the entire Reserve up. Surprised you didn't hear it down where you're staying," Sirius replied before his gaze switched to Harry. "You know, godson, I'm most disappointed in you."

"What? Why? What'd I do?" a clearly-startled Harry yelped, looked decidedly awake for a moment.

"Here you are, a beautiful girl with her arm around you and you have the perfect story to make her even more impressed with you and find you irresistible and charming and brave – and a story that you don't even need to embellish at that! And here you are, refusing to tell it. No, I am most disappointed. I have failed as a godfather," Sirius finished with a slow, sad shake of his head that Daphne couldn't resist laughing at.

"Are you saying that I don't know how to charm women?" Harry asked.

"Yes! That's exactly what I'm saying," Sirius replied. "Unless you can prove me wrong?"

"Firstly, godfather, we haven't been around each other long enough for you to have failed or succeeded in teaching me whatever it is that you're trying to imply," Harry told him, a statement that had Sirius visibly wincing. "Secondly, I would like to point out that I'm the one with the beautiful girl in my arms, not you, so whatever I'm doing, I'm obviously doing it right."

Daphne couldn't help it. She laughed. Sirius' hurt and indignant look was just too much for her.

"He's got you there, Padfoot," Remus said, joining them.

"He doesn't have to rub it in, though," Sirius grouched.

"If he didn't, then I would," Remus said lightly. "Now, Harry, as your honorary Uncle, I will give you this one piece of advice to do with as you will. It's not nice to keep a lady waiting. If you haven't told Daphne what happened last night and I'm going to assume that she's asked, then it behoves you to do so quickly."

"Well?" Daphne asked, raising an eyebrow, her gaze firmly fixed on her new boyfriend.

Harry sighed, dropped his head momentarily, before lifting it to look back at her.

"It's as I said, there were poachers," Harry began. "And yes, the dragons bellowed. They wanted, no needed me there. So, I went as quickly as I could, which meant not worrying about stopping to put on a shirt. They'd already stunned Ramaranth and they had the fledglings trapped in the cave. I suspect that the poachers were going to kill the fledglings and sell them on the Black Market."

"I really wish they had a different name for that," Sirius muttered but both Daphne and Harry ignored him.

"The dragons wouldn't go in for fear of hurting the fledglings themselves, so … so," here Harry paused and ran a hand through his hair.

"So …" Daphne prompted before her brain filled in the most dangerous, most ridiculous thing that she could think of. "Please don't tell me that you went into a cave full of grown witches and wizards by yourself armed with only your wand!"

"Okay, I won't, 'cause I didn't," Harry replied happily.

For the briefest of seconds, Daphne was happy. The Harry she knew didn't race off into danger. No. He painted or went fishing or made weird shoes that walked on plants or something else utterly ridiculous. But never dangerous. Of that she was positive.

But hearing Remus and Sirius sniggering and seeing Harry's smug face morph into one of near fear told her that she was wrong. For some inexplicable, idiotic reason, this time Harry had raced into danger.

"Harry," she groaned. "What did you do?"

His eyes darted about as though he was looking for an escape before locking back on hers and dropping.

"I ran into a cave full of adult witches and wizards by myself without my wand."

The last was whispered and it was only the fact that she was listening for it that Daphne heard it. Her hand acted on instinct, not that she would have stopped it even if she'd thought about it, after all, she'd seen her mother do the same thing to her father more than once.

"Ow! What was that for?" Harry complained, rubbing the back of his head.

"Maybe next time you'll think before doing something so recklessly stupid!" she retorted. Then, "how are you still alive?"

"Um, because I can do wandless magic?" he replied sheepishly.

Daphne closed her eyes. "Of course you can."

"Did a right good job of taking them all down, too. You wouldn't believe some of the spells that he used," Sirius supplied happily. "And then he got the baby dragons to sit on the bad guys."

"And summoned us," Remus beamed and Daphne was sure that there was something else there that she hadn't been told.

"Harry?" she asked warningly.

Thankfully, he got it.

"I produced my first real patronus and a messenger patronus at that," he replied happily. "It's a dragon."

"A patronus," Daphne stated flatly. "I know you said that you'd been practicing but … a patronus? At your age? That's … that's …"

She finished with a shake of her head. No one that she'd ever heard of had been able to produce a patronus at fifteen. Hell, not many adults could produce one. She wasn't even sure if her father could and he was one of the strongest wizards that Daphne knew.

And then her brain froze, her head snapping up to stare at her boyfriend.

"Yes, he did it wandlessly," Remus supplied for her. "And no, Harry has no idea what that means."

"Yes, I do," the boy in question protested. "I produced a patronus just as you'd been teaching me!"

Daphne stared at him for a long moment before tearing her gaze away to stare at Remus.

"Do you want to explain it to him or shall I?" he asked, clearly amused.

"Harry," Daphne said, turning back to him and she noted the confusion in his eyes. "Harry. Did you truly cast a patronus without your wand?"

"Yeah, I'd left my wand in my room," he replied. "There was no other way. And to be honest, I didn't even realise I'd done any of those spells at all without it until Remus pointed it out to me."

"But Harry, there are only a handful of witches and wizards that are strong enough to produce a patronus in any country and, of them, none – at least that I've heard of – can do it without a wand."

"They can't?" he blinked.

"No, they can't," she replied in a voice that she hoped that would make him understand the importance of what he'd done. "To be honest, there are a lot of things that you can do that most adult magicals can't do. Your ball of light for example – which you still need to teach me how to do – not to mention all of the other wandless spells that you can do."

"I'm sure that everyone could do it if they tried," Harry protested. "I … I just got an advantage having to learn how to control my magic without a wand."

"She's right, kiddo," Sirius stated. "You're powerful. Real powerful. Scary powerful."

"Which is why it's my job to help you understand how to use that power effectively and appropriately," Remus quickly added.

"Can you … can you show me. Your patronus, I mean? I'd love to see it," Daphne asked in a rush.

"Sure," Harry beamed.

A strange look came over his face as he stared at her. It was a smile of pure happiness, of bliss, of something that she could only hope at. His eyes shone and the arm around her waist tightened slightly.

And then he thrust out his other hand, away from them, his eyes never once leaving hers.

"Expecto patronum!"

A streak of silver erupted from his hand in a cloudy stream before coalescing into a shining silver dragon. It flew up, its great ghostly wings beating as it soared around the room. Instantly, every voice vanished, every body stilled as everyone stared up at the sight. The dragon continued its flight around the room before returning to Harry, its wings furling as it landed.

And then, it simply faded away.

Daphne continued staring at the spot, still trying to force herself to believe what she'd just seen. That was, until she felt Harry slump slightly. She switched focus onto him to find that the bags under his eyes had grown alarmingly and his head was drooping.

"Harry?" she all-but-cried in alarm.

"I'm alright," he mumbled. "Just tired."

A large hand landed on Harry's shoulder steading him and Daphne looked up to see the Head Dragon Handler standing there.

"That's enough of that, lad," Alexander said. "You're all done in and pumping out excess magic like that'll mean you'll be sleeping for days. Not something your girl will appreciate, not after having come all this way to see you."

"Yeah, yeah, I reckon you're right," Harry nodded.

"Good lad," he said, patting Harry on the shoulder. His gaze switched to Daphne and she noticed that he actually had quite caring-looking brown eyes, something that she wouldn't have expected from the rough-looking man. "How about you take him back to his cabin, lass."

"I can do that," she nodded. "Come on, Harry, up you get, I'm not carrying you there; you're going to have to help me by walking yourself."

With a nod, he complied. Then, arms around each other, they slowly began making their way towards the door that seemed such a long, long way away.

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8:40am

Monday, 8 August 1995

Romanian Dragon Reserve, Romania

.

The three men at the table – two sitting, one standing – watched the teens go before Alexander turned back to the other two.

"Got a letter here for you," he said, pulling out one envelope from the stack in his hand.

"Thanks," Sirius said, reaching across to take it.

"Any news on how those poachers got in?" Remus asked.

Alexander's face darkened at the question.

"Yeah. Charlie's team found a breach in the wards," he replied. "They used an ingenious little device that pumped out just enough magic to create a localised hole. It was big enough for a person to crawl through on their bellies, small enough to avoid sounding an alarm. Never seen the like of it before."

"At least you've got it now," Sirius said. "What are you going to do with it? Hand it to the aurors, destroy it or study it?"

"Having it doesn't ease my mind," Alexander retorted. "Where there's one of these things, there's bound to be more. No. The aurors'll get it, right enough, but not until after we've found out how the thing works. If'n we can do that, then we can add extra layers to the wards so that no other poachers can get in using one of those Merlin-be-damned things."

"That could take a while," Remus warned.

"You don't know the half of it," Sirius corrected. "My family delved into 'ward busters' and 'toothpicks' and all kinds of dark devices that would get you into places you shouldn't be. From what I remember from my dear old dad, those things are notoriously difficult to make and even harder to counter."

"Don't worry, we'll find a way," Alexander stated before holding up the stack of letters in his hand. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a few more of these to deliver and a couple I'll need to answer myself."

"Do you have any books in the Black library that could help them work it out?" Remus asked.

"Probably," Sirius answered although his mind wasn't quite on the question.

"Padfoot?" Remus asked.

Sirius looked up into the eyes of his oldest friend. "Moony, why would the Regent Longbottom be writing to us? She hates us."

"Well, after what the four of us and Frank did to her drawing room that time, I'd say her feelings were quite justified," Remus replied and his serious tone was completely undone by the twitching in the corners of his mouth at the memory that the both of them were obviously thinking about. "As to why she'd be writing, I can think of only one way to find out."

"You mean open it?" an alarmed Sirius asked, staring down at the letter in his hand in horror. "What if it's booby-trapped?"

"This is Augusta Longbottom, not one of the Marauders," Remus countered incredulously. "Just open the damn letter."

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1:05pm

Monday, 8 August 1995

Romanian Dragon Reserve, Romania

.

It'd been one of the longest days that Alexander could remember and it was barely lunchtime. Still, the important stuff had been dealt with.

The hole in the wards had been repaired. The device had been taken to a magical artificer that Alexander himself knew and trusted; they'd used the man before so there was no fear that the device would be copied and used against them.

The aurors had even already left with the men and women who'd broken into the Reserve in tow not half and hour before.

Alexander had stood there, watching as the group had been roped together ready to be portkeyed to the nearest auror headquarters. The fact that four of them had visibly flinched and shied backwards nearly toppling the lot of them to the ground right before the portkey had activated had confused Alexander. That was until he realised what it was that had frightened the poachers: the sight of young Harry emerging from his cabin, one arm around that girl of his, to stand there, staring at them. Alexander couldn't stop the smirk that appeared on his face. Yes, he'd done well there, putting the fear of the Speaker of Dragons into those men. Hopefully, that fear would spread.

Thinking of young Harry Potter had Alexander glancing back down at the letter on his desk.

Pushing aside his plate, he picked up the parchment again and read it through.

The request wasn't unreasonable. In fact, it was down-right polite, much more polite than one he'd write if the situation was reversed. The question, though, was simple enough. Was the boy ready?

Oh, he'd picked up the basics right well. Better than most, at that and twice as fast. Of course, being able to talk to the dragons likely helped there. But it was still very early days. The boy had only been with them for a little over a week. Was it right to send him on his way already?

Folding the letter, Alexander leant back in his chair and let his eyes stare off into the distance. The tap, tap, tap of the parchment against his chin was almost soothing, the familiar action helping him to gather his thoughts.

It was an English-speaking Reserve, so there was that. Language wouldn't be a problem, like it was here at times. Luckily, the majority of the Handlers here in Romania spoke English as a first, second or even third language, something that helped considering that they had yet to start the boy's Romanian language lessons.

And he wouldn't be alone, either. Black and Lupin would go. Charlie, too, Alexander decided. The two of them had a good rapport building and Charlie could benefit from visiting some of the other Reserves. He could learn some extra techniques to bring back and, as a bonus, Charlie'd be that much closer to getting his own Mastery, something that at that moment he was still a year away from.

The decision had been made. Really, there hadn't been anything to decide. The boy's contract made it clear. He wasn't just contracted to the Romanian Dragon Reserve but to all the Sanctuaries and Reserves that had signed.

Alexander glanced up at the clock. Ordinarily, the boy'd be with Charlie right then, checking a couple of the dragons' health, making sure there was no scale rot evident or cracks in their hide starting to appear, not to mention their wing membranes, teeth and eyes. Not today, though. After what the boy, Harry, had done the night before and especially with how much magic he'd used, he was on bed rest for the rest of the day.

It was just a shame that Harry was going to have to say goodbye to his girl so soon after she'd arrived. Still, that was the nature of the job and why almost all Dragon Handlers remained single.

So, talk to Harry, Black and Lupin first. Check the portkey second and speak to Charlie when he came back up from his rounds.

That'd give them plenty of time to prepare and to take a portkey first thing in the morning before breakfast. With the time difference and allowing for the half hour stop in New Delhi, that should have them arriving at the Preserve in time for breakfast exactly forty-five minutes after leaving here. Or dinner. Or whatever meal the four of them wanted to call it.

Levering himself out of his chair, Alexander tossed the letter to his desk and strode forth to get the job done.

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A/N – If you're enjoying this story, check out my profile page where you can find all of my FanFiction stories. Also there is a link to my Facebook page and my website where you will find all of my original stories as well.