Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, Never will I claim to. The following work is being produced simply for the entertainment of the author.

Author's Note: Hello all, I've never written for Harry Potter before, but I'll try to give it a hell of a go. Yes, as I'm sure you can all guess from the title and summary this is a 'Harry has new powers fic', and I'm sure that you'll guess exactly what his form will be. It will be useless complaining about it, as I have already concretely made up my mind. My only hope is that I present it in a seemingly believable way. There will be no disclaimers past the first chapter, as I believe it should head the entire work, not every chapter, as they follow in succession.

Harry Potter and the Dragon's Breath

Chapter 1 - Ancient Dragon Scale

Dawn had broken only moments before over an ideal Privet Drive. Dew was kissing the tops of the blades of grass, and the bright morning light caused the dew to sparkle with unrivaled intensity. The animals of the night had all made their ways back to their homes so that the animals of the day would have uncontested rule. A few stragglers still puttered about the sky and earth, meandering about in during the time where no danger was present.

Two owls flew lazily in the air, one a bright snowy white, and the other a deep brown. If an observer were to look closely enough, the brown owl was following the snowy owl clutching something in its talons. They descended slowly toward the house marked number 4, and perched lightly at one of the second floor windows.

Harry awoke to the slight knocking of Hedwig's beak on the window. Slowly rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Harry sat up with a few popping protests from his joints that settled over the night.

He blearily glanced about his room, it looking the same as it ever did, with his cousins broken and unused playthings scattered about. The change this year had been that his trunk now sat at the foot of his bed. His aunt and uncle had not even attempted to contest this decision. They knew full well, now, that Harry's godfather was an escaped convicted murderer, Harry having never told them that he was innocent.

He reached over to the small desk near his bed and retrieved his large, round glasses, placing them on his head, and scratching lightly at his messy hair, revealing a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. He slid out of bed, his feet landing softly on the floor, and reached over, opening his window for Hedwig.

Harry, coming closer and closer to reality, blinked. There was a second owl, a great brown one, accompanying Hedwig. He glanced down and saw a letter tied to its talons, one addressed to him. He reached out and gently untied the letter from the owl's leg.

"I hope you don't mind girl," Harry said to Hedwig, giving her a stroke along the side of her head. She gave him an affectionate nip on his finger, seemingly knowing what he was talking about, and consenting. He reached over and grabbed two owl treats, giving one to Hedwig and another to the brown owl. The owls ate them happily, and after getting a little water from Hedwig's dish, the brown owl flew off. Harry supposed that it was returning to its post.

He turned the letter over in his hands, its weight a little heavy. The only writing on it was his name. He reached over and gave Hedwig another stroke as thanks for helping the other owl find him. She leaned into it slightly, nodding off shortly afterwards. He turned back to the letter, and without preamble, tore it open.

There were several pieces of parchment inside, Harry unfolded the largest and began to read.

Harry,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I had been thinking, as I traveled from Hogwarts, and I had Buckbeak stop off at a safe house for a moment. Here are the ingredients and instructions that your father and I were able to work out in our time at Hogwarts. It took us some doing, but after a while we were finally able to become the Marauders as you know us. Use it wisely, it is dreadfully useful. Remember, this is three years' worth of hard work I'm giving to you.
Padfoot

Harry read it again, never getting tired of the fact that he now had someone to look out for him on a more personal level from now on, even if he was on the run at the moment. He looked over at the other pieces of parchment, and saw that they were an ingredient list, followed by two pages of detailed instructions for brewing a potion. He looked over the ingredients, and his eyes bugged slightly.

At the top of the page, in a hurried script he was sure was either his father's or Sirius from back at Hogwarts, was a header reading Animagus. He smiled to himself, remembering how Remus had told him in the shrieking shack that it had taken his father and Sirius the better part of three years to figure out how to do it.

He glanced at the ingredients once more. A majority of them were quite expensive due to the rarity, such as the six-inch dragon scale and the down of a phoenix the day after it burned. Others were more common, but they were still high quality ingredients.

He laughed a little, though. Thanks to the trust fund left by his parents, it would be no problem securing the ingredients, even the platinum cauldron that was listed in the ingredients. He wondered slightly how well off his parents were, to be able to leave a trust fund that outdid a ministry official's own funds.

He looked to the directions and paled. This was a bugger of a potion, even going as far as reciting the depth the wand should go in the mixture for the stirrings, all alternating between clockwise and counter-clockwise.

Here and there, parts were underlined to stress importance, and other parts were circled. Notes in the margins of the handwritten instructions proved that it was two people who put this information together. At the end there was a spell to be recited, and it even had the pronunciation, as well as timing per syllable to help someone who would be very poor at magic. This would have been part of the help that Peter Pettigrew had gotten from the two Marauders.

He noted that it seemed that they had also gone through with the transformation on their summer break, as there was a note in the margin that said that the magic given off during the spell registered even lower than accidental magic. The Ministry would never know.

He read the instructions again and again, only coming out of his room for breakfast lunch and dinner, all of which were too small, due to the diet that Dudley was now forced to be on. He was glad that Hedwig returned yesterday with loads of meat pies and other foods from Mrs. Weasley. His real meals began the moment he stepped back into his room and locked the door.

For days this was his routine, he would read the directions over and over, wanting to get it right on his first time. It continued on for a week, until he was able to look away from the parchment and recite the directions fluidly, without any delay or pause. He spent the next few days with his own empty cauldron practicing the stirring, and the depth of his wand.

Two weeks after he first received the letter, Harry was confident that he could do the potion in his sleep. He knew that he was over preparing, but he didn't care. This was something that would bring him closer to Sirius and his father. He wasn't going to mess it up for the world.

He pulled up the loose floorboard, and after a few bites of meat pie, he reached a little further than everything else and retrieved his sack of wizarding money and a small roll of muggle money. He smiled to himself, if the Dursley's knew of the amount of money he possessed, he was certain bad things would happen. He stuffed them in his pocket and grabbed the ingredient list.

It was time for a little trip to Diagon Alley. He was sure he could find everything he needed there, and he knew his relatives wouldn't miss him for the day. He climbed down the stairs, and stopped at the front door long enough to put his trainers on, and set off to the bus stop a few miles from the suburb he was at.

The walk took close to an hour; Harry enjoying the time he now had away from the Dursleys. Sure, they were not being as awful as usual, but still; getting away from them was always a blessing. He enjoyed the slight breeze and fresh air as he strolled.

He sat, waiting for the bus to show up, for nearly twenty minutes. He was lucky he came so near the arrival time, he really hadn't a clue what the bus' schedule was. He paid the fare and settled in for the time that it took to get into London.

Harry got off the bus and walked another five blocks to the Leaky Cauldron, his pace increasing every block. He hadn't realized just how excited he was to be in the wizarding world on his own for a change.

He passed through the pub, giving Tom a greeting as he passed. Out in the back, he tapped on the bricks with his wand and watched, as the brick wall gave way to Diagon Alley. He marveled as the portal opened, always amazed to see it in action, still seeming so very magical to him, as it was his first glimpse into the wizarding world three years ago.

He walked through the street, avoiding wizards and witched as he moved toward the shops he needed. He was intimately familiar with Diagon Alley now, having explored it for two weeks at the end of the summer in his third year after blowing up his Aunt Marge. He proceeded directly to Alchemical Apparatuses, first thing he needed was the platinum cauldron, so he could carry around the ingredients he was here to pick up.

The cauldron set him back more than he would have liked, but his money bag was still half full of galleons, he had made a point to grab only galleons on his last visit, not wanting a repeat of blocking the entrance to his vault so as not to make the Weasleys uncomfortable. He then proceeded to the Apothecary to obtain the ingredients. A few of them he already had. But he still needed the scale and down, as well as some other things he had no idea about.

The young man at the counter greeted him warmly, recognizing him immediately, and began helping him get everything he needed. The ingredients were a bit expensive, but Harry didn't care, as long as they brought him one step closer to his father, in a manner of speaking.

When Harry asked for the last thing on his list, the man looked around the store, making sure there was no one else present. Once satisfied that he and Harry were alone, he leaned closer and began speaking to Harry in a conspiratorial manner.

"Tell you what," He said, and began to lead Harry to the back. "I've been meaning to thank you a bit more properly. You probably don't know this, but my father owned this shop before I did. You saved his life back when you stopped You-Know-Who. He had refused to deal with anyone who was suspected to have been in league with him. After he was brought down we found out that my father was on a list of targets as a warning to the rest of the wizarding world. You saved his life. He passed away a couple of years ago, but I'm sure he would condone me giving you this."

He stopped before a small display case in his office, where a large scale sat, in the center of a fine cushion. "This is a scale from an ancient dragon. I know you only asked for a large dragon scale, but this will work just fine. In fact, I'm sure anything you put this in will be as potent as possible. This has been in the family for generations. Sort of a point of pride, you know? Well, where would that pride have gotten us if Dad had gotten killed by You-Know-Who, huh? The family has been happy to have it for generations, but I don't think they'll mind if you have it."

Harry gave a pause, he really didn't want to be rewarded for something that he had not done on purpose, even if it did save lives. As far as Harry was concerned he had really done nothing.

"I'm sorry sir," He began, "but I can't-"He was cut off abruptly when the man held up a hand, silencing Harry.

"I'll hear nothing of the sort," He said, "this is my decision. You saved my father, even if you were only one year old at the time. That means more to me than some silly old scale." As he was saying that, he pulled the scale from the display case and dropped it off in Harry's cauldron.

"Well, thanks," Harry mumbled, "even though I don't really deserve it."

"Nonsense," the man answered, and proceeded to tally the cost of the ingredients, conveniently leaving off the scale, as it was never for sale in the first place. Harry said another quick thanks and was off. He now had everything the potion called for. He happily returned to Privet Drive, and chuckled at the humor of actually being happy to return to that place.

End chapter the first.

Authors note post script:

Well, here it is: the first chapter. I always thought it odd, that Remus had told harry that it had taken the better part of three years for Sirius and James to puzzle out how to become Animagi, and then people added it in their fanfiction as nothing more than a hiccough that actually disrupts the story more than anything. They make it seem so easy, that it almost makes me wonder why there aren't animagi crawling all over the place. At the time of the posting of this chapter, I have not yet written more, though I have a hell of an outline (something I have never done before) to keep me on track. Here's hoping, eh?