Snakes and Lions

Fight and Flight

Harry woke in a panic. He had a sense he had slept for only a few minutes, and he was certain a teacher had just spoken angrily to him, but when he cast Lumos and looked wildly around, the bed curtains were still drawn.

Draco whined in incoherent, sleepy annoyance.

"Again," came McGonagall's voice, "all students, get out of bed and into your clothes. Please stay in your dormitories until further word, but remain alert and ready to move. Keep your wand at hand."

By the end of the announcement, Harry could hear Dean attempting to wake Neville. Ron cursed.

"Malfoy's missing!"

"Imagine that," Seamus said drolly.

"Probably gone and let them in!" Ron said hysterically.

"He's with me," Harry said loudly.

"Harry!" Ron called.

"Silencing charm," Draco reminded Harry.

"Harry," Ron called again, "your ferret is missing."

Harry pushed the curtains open a few inches. "Draco's with me," he said irritably.

"Then why didn't you answer the first time?"

"I did. I forgot I had a silencing charm up."

Seamus burst out laughing.

"Smooth, Potter," Draco commented sarcastically.

"It's another attack!" Dean called from the window.

That stopped all other talk. Harry grabbed his dirty clothes from the day before and pulled them on over his pajamas, while looking out the closest window. He could see a group of people emerging from the Forbidden Forest, accompanied by .... something.

"You-Know-Who's with them!" Ron said, at a strangled whisper.

"Don't be ridiculous," Draco countered, but he nonetheless moved quickly to a place at Harry's window. "The Dark Lord does not go on raiding parties."

"Well, who else has a snake that big?" Ron asked.

"That doesn't move like a snake," Harry noted. "Neville? Grab my omnioculars, would you?" Neville, who was just lurching over, his robe half on, grabbed Harry's omnioculars from his nightstand, and handed them over. Harry got a good look at the interlopers.

"Ah crap!"

"It's You-Know-Who!" Ron repeated hysterically.

"It's a bloody dragon." Harry looked closer. "With Bellatrix Lestrange, I think, and about twenty Death Eaters. Draco?"

He handed the omnioculars to Draco along with the best vantage point in the window they were now sharing with Neville. Ron, Seamus, and Dean were at the next window over.

Draco spent a full minute looking at the group. "That's Lestrange," he confirmed finally. "She doesn't care who knows it, either, or she'd cover her hair. I think the rest... It's hard to tell with the masks and all, but there are only two other people that look like they might be inner circle." He looked around at Harry's roommates and shrugged slightly. "It's the walk, or something. They don't move like Death Eaters. I think she got expendables. Probably they're to try to free or kill the prisoners."

"And the dragon?" Dean asked incredulously.

"That's hers," Draco said. "It's a Peruvian Vipertooth."

"Small, fast, and poisonous," Ron said quickly. He was no longer panicked, but Harry thought he sounded excited.

"You know dragons?"

"One of my brothers works with them."

Draco rolled his eyes. Harry stepped on his foot before he could make the obvious cut about Ron's numerous brothers. "Vipertooths," Draco said, through clenched teeth, "are slightly more vulnerable to magic than larger dragons, but still not much. Acceptable?" he asked Harry.

Harry nodded.

"It's coming right at us!" Neville squeaked.

As one, the six boys looked out the windows. The dragon had lifted off, and was, indeed, headed in their direction, rather than towards the castle doors.

"Common room," Draco said quickly, pushing back from the window. "We can floo out of there, if need be. She's after Harry." The other boys stared at him, horror struck. "Or me," Draco added laughing slightly. "Come on!" He moved for the door. The others followed. Harry hung back. His broom, and Draco's, were still on the top of his trunk. When the others were out of the room, Harry grabbed his Firebolt and scrambled onto the windowsill.

"Harry!" Draco screamed, turning on the stairs. His way was blocked by Harry's confused roommates. "No!"

For the second time that night, Harry jumped.

It took three stories for Harry to catch the broom, this time, but that still left him high in the air. He pulled up slightly and looped once, so the others could see that he was in control, then he got a bit of distance from the tower, so the fight wouldn't affect those inside. The full import of what he had done was starting to hit. He was alone. Lestrange was a powerful witch over twice his age, and she was riding a venomous dragon that might be as fast as his broom. He thought this might well qualify as the most idiotic thing he'd ever done.

Lestrange was still out of spell range. Harry tried to remember what Charlie, Hagrid, and others, had told him about dragons, over the years. Dragon hide was highly resistant to magical attack, but the eyes were more vulnerable. Spells that physically attacked the eyes, and spells that attacked the brain, such as Confundus, if targeted through an eye, worked better than spells directed at other parts of the body.

Lestrange sent a spell at him. Harry easily dodged. He expected that attack was just to test his reflexes. She was still too far away for an effective attack, but closing fast. With her left hand, she held to a strap cinched round the dragon's long body, and in her right, she held her wand. Her voluminous cape spread out behind her, as did her hood, concealing nothing of her dark hair, loose shirt, and shining dragonhide riding pants. She still wore the white Death Eater's mask. Within the minute, Harry was dodging and twisting desperately, trying to avoid Lestrange's curses and the dragon's hot breath, lashing tail, and venomous teeth.

"So this is what the Snitch feels like," he muttered, as he rolled under a flare of angry red from Lestrange's wand. The maneuver slowed him, and the dragon twisted close. Harry dove, then shot up, praying the quick change would confuse the great lizard.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Draco shrieked, from off to his left.

The dragon changed course as Lestrange dodged.

"Petrificus!" she screamed back. Draco plunged.

"Finite Incantantum!" Harry cast down. He was opening his mouth to follow with Leviosa when Draco pulled out of the dive, fluttering the leaves at the top of a nearby tree. Harry couldn't watch beyond that, as he was looping to avoid the Vipertooth again.

Draco ascended back to the level of the fight as Harry tried Confundus on the Vipertooth, to no noticeable effect. The blond settled into a position opposite Harry, keeping Lestrange between them. For a minute, the three shifted silently below the half-moon, the shining copper dragon twisting between the two brooms.

"Shall we dance?" Draco yelled over. Harry laughed.

"Malfoy!" Lestrange shrieked, turning the Vipertooth to Draco. "Traitor!" She lifted up her wand. Harry did not waste the time. "Impedimenta," he cried, pointing to Lestrange. She dodged the spell, and it nearly hit Draco, but whatever she had sent at Draco also missed.

"Off," Harry yelled, gesturing Draco to the side. Draco got the idea. He remained almost across from Harry, but not exactly opposite, so they were not in danger from each other's attacks.

Remembering the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry attempted a Conjunctivitis curse on the Vipertooth the next time he had a line on its eyes. It worked, but Lestrange immediately countered it.

"Engorgio!" Draco sent at Lestrange, swelling her wand hand. With a scream of rage, she turned the Vipertooth, not on Draco, but on Harry.

"Impedimenta!" she shrieked. The spell hit. It didn't make the Firebolt any slower, of course, but Harry could no longer dodge and twist fast enough to shake the oncoming dragon. With frightening slowness, he turned to face the onrushing beast. Draco was flat to his broom, coming recklessly up behind it. Lestrange's wand was missing -- Harry could only guess it had fallen from her grotesquely swollen hand after she had cast the Impediment Jinx on him.

"Finite Incantantum!" Draco yelled, but a portion of the dragon's writhing tail moved into the line of the spell. Harry hovered in place, holding his wand steady, and waiting for the Vipertooth to move to the right position.

"Move!" Draco screamed at him.

The Vipertooth was nearly on him. Harry watched its right eye, waiting for the perfect line .... "Imperio!" he bellowed.

Harry knew immediately that it had worked. The cool mind of the dragon, very like that of a snake, lay complacent beneath his will. With a thought, Harry set the dragon bucking and twisting violently. Lestrange screamed in terror and surprise. Draco, dangerously close, managed to hit the leather holding strap with Incendio. As she lost her seat, Lestrange's cloak whipped across the burning strap and caught fire. She plummeted in a corona of orange flame that lit the copper underside of the still-plunging dragon. Sparks flared up when she hit the moonlit lawn with obviously deadly force.

Gasping, Harry returned his attention to the Vipertooth. He nudged it down to the lake, and it steadied out as its wings swept the black water. A tentacle reached up to it, only to be raked by the dragon's narrow gouts of flaming breath. More tentacles rose to the dragon, which twisted in their grasp, biting and flaming, until hissing clouds of steam and great splashes of water rose up from the battle of the squid and the flying lizard. Harry watched, entranced, until both vanished beneath the turbulent water.

Draco, he noticed then, was hovering beside him.

"Glad you didn't try to save her," the blond said quietly.

"Didn't cross my mind," Harry admitted shakily. "That was so gorgeous. I hope the squid isn't susceptible to Vipertooth venom."

Draco laughed, choking a little at the end of it. "That would be a shame, wouldn't it? Hogwarts has had a giant squid for centuries." He looked at Harry. "Want to switch wands, and say we grabbed the wrong ones?"

Harry stared at him for a moment. Switch wands. "You're offering to cover for me," he said.

"If I can."

Harry shook his head. "No one will fall for it. All of Gryffindor was watching that, for certain." He looked for the people who had come with Lestrange. The group, possibly dispirited by Lestrange's fall, seemed to have been routed by the staff. One of the buildings near Hagrid's hut was on fire. The night seemed suddenly very still.

"So what are you going to do?" Draco asked.

"Tell Dumbledore," Harry said. "About everything -- the Imperius Curse, and what we did in January. If I don't do it now, I'm just going to get myself in deeper trying to hide it."

Draco nodded. "That's right," he said. He let out a long breath. "You could have used a Panic Curse."

"I didn't think of it." Harry replied. He recalled learning the Panic Curse, Pavoro, the previous year. Flitwick had said, at the time, that it was a useful spell for driving away animals that were able to retreat. A dragon wing floated to the surface of the lake. Harry shuddered.

"And that's the problem with learning things you're not supposed to do," Draco said emphatically. "If it's part of your repertoire, you'll eventually haul it out as the best thing you can think of, under the circumstances. It's much easier to think of the Unforgivables. They're so ... obvious."

They hovered in silence for a minute, looking down at the shining dragon wing floating on the black water. Harry twitched at the first brush of Draco's fingers across the back of his wrist, but he let Draco reach farther and clasp his hand in his own.

"Harry?" Draco said quietly. "This is going to sound hideously self-centered...."

"I'll be shocked," Harry quipped

Draco's tone remained serious. "I don't need another Dark wizard in my life. Really, I have plenty of them."

Harry laughed softly. "Yeah. I bet."

Draco's grip tightened.

"Would you go back to being my Good Boy? Please?"

Harry squeezed Draco's hand. "I'll try," he whispered, and let go.

He looked back at the tower. Various of the Gryffindors had started yelling out the windows, but no words were distinguishable from here. On the ground, the teachers were just entering the castle. A lone figure was trudging over to the place where Lestrange had fallen.

"We'd better get back in."

"Yeah."

Harry looked at Draco, then back at Gryffindor Tower. His mouth went slack in sudden astonishment. "You jumped out the window," he said, in wonder.

"Well at least I had a reason!"

"Really?" Harry teased. "What?"

"I couldn't watch you get killed!"

"Why not?"

Draco looked away, then down. He seemed totally at a loss for words. Harry regretted putting him on the spot. Nudging his broom closer, he reached out and stroked the side of Draco's clenched jaw, lifting his chin.

"Harry..."

"Shhhh." Harry leaned forward and kissed him. It was a far briefer kiss than the one in Harry's bed, but enough that the yelling from Gryffindor tower paused, then increased in volume, with some change in tone. As Harry sat back, Draco laughed.

"You know half your house saw that?"

"Only half? Where were the rest of them?" Harry kissed him again. "Time to go in, Dragon."

They flew to the Gryffindor common room windows, which were quickly opened.

"That was fantastic!" Ron exclaimed. "I wish I'd had a broom, though! I thought it was going to get you on that last pass. What did you do to it?"

Harry looked helplessly at Draco.

"He panicked it," Draco said.

"Oh, good thought! I'd never have remembered that one."

"Do you always kiss your assistants, Harry?" Seamus teased.

"I can safely say no," Ron interposed. "Fortunately."

"I've always wondered what Gryffindors considered a properly romantic setting," Draco contributed. "Bits of slain monster floating on a moonlit lake, apparently."

"How did you set her on fire?" Parvati asked Draco.

"I didn't. I used Incendio on her hold strap, and her cape caught."

"Which of you did the Engorgement Curse?"

"That was excellent flying!"

"I got pictures, Harry! It was the most astounding composition -- the brooms flanking the dragon! I wish you'd stayed directly opposite each other for longer!"

"I'm going to bed," Harry said shortly. Draco was basking in the attention, but Harry just felt guilty and uncomfortable. Draco looked disappointed, so Harry nudged him. "You can stay down here without me," he teased. "They won't kill you."

"Certain?"

"Hermione!" Harry called.

"Yes?"

"Look after Draco, for me? I need some sleep."