Harry Potter and the Dragon

XXII

The Request

Harry, confused, with no time to grasp what was happening inside his former room, only exclaimed in the beast's direction: "Don't believe anything he says!!!!"

When recognizing Harry's voice, Gilderoy extracted his head from under the carpet and screamed in ecstasy, "Harry, is that you??!! Did you come for me, love??!! Oh, I was so afraid!! I thought another monster was going to strike at me from behind!!! Thanks God it was you!!!"

The dragon stood paralyzed, unable of dodging a virtual lighting of energy that flashed along his tortured soul. When the image in front of him remained too long to be just a trick played by his perturbed mind, he blinked his eyes, and announced his unexpected return to life in the only possible way: "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE????!!!! DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO GO THE FUCK AWAY???!!! DIDN'T I TELL YOU I DIDN'T WANNA SEE YOU ANYMORE???!!! AND WHO'S THIS FUCKING PRICK HERE???!!! HE SAYS YOU'RE HIS BOYFRIEND!!!! WHAT DOES HE MEAN???!!! IS IT TRUE???!!! IS IT TRUE???!!!!! I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL HIM!!! AND YOU, TOO -!!!"

"No!! Nooo!! Harry!! Save me!!!" Gilderoy moaned hysterically.

"Listen! Listen! I already told you!" shouted Harry desperately. "He's lying! He's nothing to me -!"

"I HATE YOU!!! I HATE YOU!!!" The dragon started to cry disconsolately, covering his eyes with his claws.

"Harry!! Help me!! This beast wants to kill me!!" Gilderoy began to climb to the window, to get on Buckbeak.

"Get off, you son of a bitch!!" Harry bellowed, kicking Gilderoy away.

This time, the dragon didn't move around breaking stuff, nor did he cut his scaled wrists with the shards of mirror scattered on the floor. He was standing in the middle of the room, shaking his head, sobbing like a child. His wails were so loud that any other sound was practically imperceptible.

In spite of that, a piping voice was able find its way out. "Err, sir! Listen to me, please! Harry's telling the truth! This awful man here -!" Hermione began, intending to referee and failing on the spot.

"WHOOOO'S SHEEEEE????!!!! WHOOOO'S SHEEEEE????!!!!" the dragon demanded, forgetting he was currently crying his eyes out.

"She's no one!! She's just -!!" Harry extended his arms to shield Hermione from the dragon's fury. The girl made herself as tiny as possible behind Harry's back, squealing in terror, trying not to think that they were in mid-air, mounted on a hippogriff that looked like a lap dog compared to the beast.

"Master!! Listen to me!! They're just friends!!" Ron the cup came out of Harry's pocket to give his testimony. He had now a fresh reason for clearing this mess up and recovering his former body.

"YOU, FUCKING CUP!! WHAT??! YOU'D GONE AWAY WITH HIM????!!!! YOU'RE ALSO A TRAITOR!!! I'LL SMASH YOU TOO, THEN!!!" The dragon was now out of his mind, screaming like a savage, but making no actual movement towards the window.

"Harry!!! Save me, please!!! In the name of love!!!" screamed Gilderoy, still trying to escape from the room of doom.

But Harry wasn't listening. "Dragon!! Listen to me!! I came back to tell you this bastard was coming! Only I couldn't get here before... I also came 'cause... 'cause..."

Expecting to be interrupted, Harry shut up. However, nobody spoke. Hermione had found it wiser to disappear behind the boy's cloak. Ron had darted into the pocket as soon as he was death-threatened. Gilderoy was clinging from the curtains, intending to get to the hippogriff by all means. The dragon was looking at him with eyes bright from tears, his shoulders shaken by hushed sobs. Harry finished his sentence. "...'cause I want you to take me back..."

Hermione uncovered her head, not a single fraction of fear in her face, and stared at Harry absolutely puzzled. Ron showed up, too, with a look of understanding across his tiny eyes.

"WHAAAAAT????!!!! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING???!!! DO YOU THINK YOU CAN COME BACK HERE AND BEG...AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME???!!!... DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH???!!!" the dragon moaned, showing to the boy the surrounding destruction with his paw. "DO YOU THINK IT'S BEEN EASY FOR ME TO ACCEPT YOUR DEPARTURE???!!... THE MANOR'S NOT BIG ENOUGH TO EXPRESS MY AGONY!!!... And it's not as destroyed as my heart..." He couldn't go on, for misery possessed him again.

"I... I promise I'll help you repair it," said Harry through a half smile, unaware of both Hermione's gaping jaw and the cup's retching expression.

Gilderoy felt a surge of panic at this unexpected twist. "Mister Dragon, dear!! Don't believe him! Remember what I told you!! He's a slut -!" he began, hysterically.

"Shut up, you animal!" shouted Hermione.

"Fucking bastard, it's all your fault!" exclaimed Harry.

"I'll kick you to death very soon, you dog!!" Ron couldn't help snapping.

The dragon grabbed Gilderoy with the agility of a reborn. "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A SLUT???!!! WHOOO ARE YOU CALLING A SLUT, YOU -!!!!" he didn't spend time picking up a proper insult; he just threw the blond away through the opened door towards the corridor. Ignoring his terrified scream and the resulting crack of the collision, he turned around to face Harry. "Is it true that you have a mole?!!"

"What? A mole? What are you -?"

"JUST ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!!"

Harry frowned and looked away, thinking. "I... think I just have this scar, a couple of freckles on my shoulders, maybe a blotch or two... I don't know! Why are you asking me that??"

"Never mind. I'll see to that later," the dragon said to himself. "I-I'm glad you came back," he added briefly, his claws fidgeting with the curtain.

The boy smiled. "That's not what you were just saying..."

"You know sometimes I lose my temper," the beast muttered apologetically, scratching the carpet with his long, blade-like toes.

"Stupid," sniggered Harry. "Why don't you come out? We can have a flying tour around the manor, to marvel at the sight of the Latest Monument to Human Idiocy..."

"Who said I was human?" the dragon retorted, opening his cattish eyes.

"Well, you act like one," replied Harry.

The dragon chose not to answer and simply jumped off the window. He stretched his wings and fluttered happily away, conscious of the fact that from the distance he surely looked no different from a goldfish, floating in the blue mass of the morning sky, secluded by the transparent nature of his feelings. Flying was exactly what he wanted to do. No other action could possibly express his absolute plenitude in a better way than soaring over the forest, spinning madly, diving dangerously, maybe as much so as to fish a centaur from the ground and give it to Harry as a present... Indifferent to someone spotting his flamboyant flying skills, the dragon was genuinely enjoying being a dragon for the first time in his life.

Harry led Buckbeak towards the beast, squinting at the shining reflection of the sun in his scales, smiling at the confident sensation that he now hosted. Everything had finally come out right. Well, almost everything: the dragon had forgiven him, but the manor was in ruins - that would take time - and Hagrid was in danger...

"D'you think the dragon would let Hagrid hide for a while here in the manor?" he asked the cup.

"Under the manor, you mean? Well... I think he'd do anything you ask him to," he replied.

"Harry..." Hermione said as tactfully as she could. "Were you serious when you said you wanted to... you wanted to stay here, with him...?"

"I think so," answered Harry distractedly; he was now paying attention to the dragon, who seemed to be spitting fireballs down to the centaur forest in the distance. "Asshole... he's going to burn the trees down!" he laughed.

"But, Harry! He's... a dragon! I mean... I know you may be friends, but there's something very strange here, you know? I've been thinking about this place, and I was wondering -"

"Hey, you...! What's your name?" interrupted the cup, jumping to Hermione's hand. "Would you like a cup of tea?" he said as gallantly as he could.

"Yeah, good idea!" answered Harry. "We should have some breakfast before starting to mend this place up..."

"What?!!" exclaimed Ron and Hermione at the same time.

Harry made the hippogriff go closer to the dragon, to tell him that it was time to land, that Beaky was tired, and to ask if he had already roasted the kitchen, in case they could have a snack before starting to rebuild the manor.

The dragon grinned and answered that he didn't exactly remember the places he had flattened, for he had been so concentrated in his task that he had been hardly aware of the surroundings. Harry teased him, and the dragon teased him back, and that way they flew towards the still erected balcony, one of the few remnants of the once beautiful and now battered dragon's manor.