Chapter1 - An Unexpected Arrival

‘James Potter?’ I heard a voice call out from behind, most likely a woman’s.

I sighed. Yes, I was called that all right. James Sirius Potter. James Potter II. But most commonly known as Harry Potter’s son.

Oh, yes. The same Harry Potter who saved the wizarding world from doom. My father, Harry Potter. Old enough to be a grandfather (well, almost one, seeing that Lily is expecting) and still, the fame hasn’t died out. He steps out of the house and is waved at by unknowns, his photographs still get clicked, strangers ask for his autographs. Same things happening since, one could say, fifty years, seeing that he was famous as an infant, too.

Fine, he defeated the bad guys, he gets the attention, but why me? I’m just a man who was born thanks to Harry Potter’s sperm. I get his genes, so I get all that excessive fawning, too? I can’t say that I’ve hated it since forever. It was nice at first. People were respecting me, getting things done my way, all that attention. But later, it became annoying. People started acting all fake to make me admire them, and I had no privacy whatsoever. Famous for something my father did, I, as a person was of no importance at all. Flattering much?

I always had wanted to play Quidditch as a professional. Modesty and boastfulness aside, I am a great player. I have inherited the skills from both of my parents after all. I was the Gryffindor Chaser at Hogwarts. I had had thoughts of joining some Quidditch team, but then I had realised that all that worshipping would get even worse. There would be press interviews, photo shoots and what not. I’d be Harry Potter’s son and a Quidditch star.

So, I started thinking what one job would there be which would be a challenge, use all my skills, and most important of all, wouldn’t receive too much press attention. I pondered for days until Charlie came to visit us, and then the answer came. A dragon tamer, of course!

It would be challenging. Merlin knew how much. No normal wizard would be able to do that. You needed to have that special power with the wand as well as lots of knowledge of spells. And amazingly, I’ve always found the Care of Magical Creatures class pretty easy. The best part: the press wouldn’t hound me. Fine, so they would be able to take a picture or two from far, but no one would dare to cross the dragons just to ask me questions.

So I had a talk with Charlie and my dad. Dad had some qualms but when he saw that I really wanted to do it, he agreed. My mother, surprisingly, didn’t argue at all. Mum’s cool that way. But I still expected some reasoning and explanation. Maybe it didn’t seem big for her because one of her brothers was working with dragons. It was decided that I would go with Charlie to the local dragon reserve and find out which other reserves would need my services. Several dragon reserves had vacancies and we went to each by Floo Network and then came back home after a very exhausting day.

Another talk took place the next day. And weighing the pros and cons, it was decided that I would go to the Chinese reserve. The most deciding factor for me was that no one would dream of me being there, so that meant no bloody Daily Prophet reporters.

Charlie had accompanied me again to the reserve. We had discussed things with the head tamer. He had given me a few tests in which I barely passed. It seemed that this work would be more difficult than expected. I was given the job because I had the potential to become much better, but I’d still be on probation for the first few months. That’s what Qi Fang, the head tamer, had said.

Then my living quarters were shown to me. They were right there! In the forest, at some distance from the dragons. Yes, private all right. Perfect!

I went home whilst Charlie went back to Romania. I started packing my stuff and moved in my new home a week later.

Mum and Dad were a bit sad to have me at such a distance, but they put a happy front. There was a dinner the day before I was to leave. The whole family was there and I was bombarded with goodbye hugs and presents and good luck wishes.

I had shifted to my new home the next day. A few well chosen spells and everything was clean. Some more spells with fluid hand movements and all my stuff was in place. It was a spacey place. Two bed rooms, a tiny kitchen, a lounge and a bathroom. Well, not huge, but more than enough for a bachelor like me.

I had become used to the place well. The weather was bearable, sometimes good even. I had also found friends in other tamers. I had passed the probation period. My wages had been upped. Mum and Dad visited me one month. I would visit them the next. I still sometimes came across screaming girls or reporters or photographers when I went to London, but it was better than before and I was content. Until now that is.

Over here, very few journalists knew who I really was. And even few town people. How in the world the person behind me had known who I was, I didn’t know.

‘James Potter?’ the voice called out again. Yes, definitely a woman. I decided to ignore her. If I wouldn’t reply, she would think that she had made a mistake and leave me alone. So I kept on walking.

The woman, it seemed, was difficult to ignore. She continued to follow me. I increased my walking speed.

‘JAMES SIRIUS POTTER!’ she bellowed. I stopped in mid step. I should talk to her or everyone would know who I was. Two people were already staring at me. Better have a hard time with one and keep the rest at bay.

I turned out slowly, a fake smile on my lips, excuse already half out. ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear...’

‘Sure you didn’t,’ the woman retorted.

Huh? What kind of reporters talked to famous people like that? And what kind of a fan... woman shouted at her hero? Who was she?

I asked the question out loud. ‘Who are you?’

The woman smirked. ‘Why don’t you try to guess?’

Guess? I knew her then? Or was it some kind of a game? I stopped the annoyance from showing on my face. Dad had told me that press was bad, but that negative press was even worse.

‘I really don’t know,’ I replied truthfully.

‘Try...’ she insisted.

I swallowed another heated reply. I looked at her closely. She was tall, reaching my shoulder. She was fair and had brown locks. But what about the hair? Didn’t women dye them every other week in hopes that they would find a colour which would suit them? I couldn’t see her eyes, she had shades on. If only she would remove them...

She removed them! It seemed as if she had read my mind. I stared into her eyes... blue eyes. Fair skin, brown hair, blue eyes... I looked at her face again. She smiled. And something hit. That smile! The eyes! The hair!

‘You!’ I exclaimed out loud.

Chapter 2

She was sitting opposite me, her blue eyes looking at the creature on the table with fascination. She brought a glove-covered hand forward and stroked the creature’s back. A few sparks came out of its mouth but the girl continued petting it.

My eyes widened. Weren’t girls usually supposed to be afraid of dragons? Or practically any other magical creature which was even close to be termed as dangerous? But this girl seemed quite confident about being at such close proximity with it. It even seemed as if she liked touching the scaly skin.

She grinned as the baby dragon breathed fire.

Yes, definitely a strange girl.

The fire didn’t hurt any of us, of course. The Shield Charm which the teacher had performed around every baby dragon in the room was such that it shielded the humans from the dragons but not the other way round. That meant that we could touch the dragon but we wouldn’t get injured by any of its actions.

There were five baby dragons in the room. One kept on each table for a pair of students. There were ten kids in total. Not many students had considered Care of Magical Creatures an important enough class to be studied for N.E.W.T.s.

We had been theorising about dragons for a month. Now, Hagrid had taken special permission and brought live dragons for us to study.

When he had entered, he seemed very happy. I sensed at once that something unusual was to happen. He hadn’t failed my expectations. The next moment, he had taken a baby dragon out of the crate, which he had been carrying, and held it in his hand for us to see.

Some people screamed, some backed into the room and some just stayed where they were. But none volunteered to take a close look at the dragon.

Hagrid had seemed downcast, but then he recovered and turned back to his teacher mode and gave his instructions. We had to examine the dragon’s behaviour for an hour. Note what it did, what breed it was, how it reacted to what, everything. And then we had to write an essay about it and submit it the next week. A joint essay.

Then Hagrid had placed the dragons on the tables and performed the charms. When we had made sure that the class wasn’t going to be life threatening, we had returned to our respective seats, albeit reluctantly.

But then Hagrid had stopped us and stated that he would be pairing everyone fairly so that everyone would get a chance to contribute equally to the essays.

He had taken names. It was usually in the ‘good/brave student with fair/scared student’ format. And then he had taken my name...

‘James Potter with Adelaide Ricci.’

***

You! I exclaimed out loud.

‘Me.’ She grinned.

‘Adelaide Ricci!’ I said, astonishment dripping from each letter.

She grinned. ‘Took you long enough. But at least you remember me. I had started to think that I had been buried and forgotten behind those who came after me. Or...’

‘Of course not! It just took me time to recognise you because I haven’t seen you in a couple of years and you were clearly the last person I had expected to see over here.’

‘…or that you had become an arrogant prat and didn’t want to be seen in the company of a common mortal like me,’ she continued, completely disregarding my previous dialogue.

‘Did you even listen to what I said?’ I demanded.

Adelaide chuckled. ‘Oh, I did. But I wanted to complete my other well-thought out reason, so I chose to ignore you.’

I couldn’t help but laugh. Adelaide has always been a bit... different.

‘And,’ she adopted a stern voice, ‘I waited for you to come and visit me, but of course you didn’t. Just because that’s my choice of profession, doesn’t mean that our relationship should be affected.’

I was silent. I had expected an accusation like this. But I still didn’t know how to respond.

She continued, ‘And don’t say that you were so busy that...’

I interrupted her again. ‘You know I don’t lie or I would have made this excuse myself. And you also know why I didn’t visit you,’ I replied angrily. She always succeeded in making me lose my temper, if only for a tiny reason.

‘So, a different choice of profession is an adequate reason for two people to grow apart?’ she asked quietly.

That left me dumbfounded. She was right. We shouldn’t let something as minor as work come between our friendship. Mum and Dad had always taught me to value my friends, and had often advised me to not let anything interfere with a true friendship.

‘I am sorry, Adelaide. You know I’m sorry. But do you really think I’d go to the Lion’s Den myself? You are a reporter, you work at the Daily Prophet! You live in a flat near their building. I couldn’t just walk in there so everyone would gape at me. I would never have been able to reach you anyway. Your colleagues would have pounced on me.’ And then I decided to turn the tables. ‘But you could have come and visited me.’

‘Oh, of course I could! But the only problem is that I work in London and you in China. A tiny distance for you, I’m sure. You know both the places well by now. You can easily Apparate and Disapparate here and there whenever you wish. I just came here on the Knight Bus with an extremely long and bumpy ride, but it was really fun, of course. I just got a two week vacation, and I came here. Stupid me for wanting to waste my precious holiday time just for you. I’m so insane for coming to a place where there will be dragons breathing fire all over me. I should just have sat at home, safe and sound. Well, it’s not too late. I can go back to London. The journey was really fun after all,’ she ranted on.

I didn’t reply. I just watched her. Her eyes shining with anger, her face flushed, her chest heaving. It was a familiar sight, and it always made me want to laugh, but I had never dared. I still didn’t dare.

Again, she was right, but it would be of no use trying to apologise when she was in such a worked up state. I waited for her to calm down.

Her breathing rate turned normal. Right. Time to say sorry. But before I could say anything, she said, ‘Okay, I have vented it all out. Anything else you want to say other than sorry?’

I smiled. She had always been so unpredictable. It seemed as if she still hadn’t lost that trait.

‘You caught me there. Now, would you brave the dragons and go to my flat or would you like me to book a room in a pub for you?’ I asked her.

‘Oh, I’ll come to your flat. For now, at least. And you’ll be there to protect me, won’t you?’

I laughed again. I had been doing that a lot today, I duly noted.

‘As if you need protection. But if you are too tired, I can Apparate us in front of my building so you’ll just have to climb a couple of stairs. Otherwise, you’ll have to walk for another five miles.’ I looked at her. ‘Do you think you can handle it?’

She glared at me. ‘The knight in the shining armour will be there if the damsel falls in distress, won’t he?’ Saying that, she stalked off past me.

Another Muggle thing. But I knew all the Muggle references because I had taken the subject at Hogwarts.

Smiling, I went after her and soon caught up with her.

We walked on quietly until she started commenting on our surroundings. About how lovely everything was.

The mountains were towering. Rocky and difficult to climb. The peaks used to be covered with snow during winters. The alpine trees on it, tall and straight, and very, very green. There were clear streams flowing, looking like blue, shimmering crystals. Very simple yet quite beautiful.

‘I sometimes come here to be alone,’ I told Adelaide.

‘You’re here in this remote area, and still you feel the need to be completely by yourself sometimes?’ she asked in disbelief.

I nodded my head.

She didn’t say anything but stared at me for some time, trying to read me through. Then she just shook her head and continued walking. But then, I stopped.

‘Okay, Adelaide, jokes aside, I seriously think we should go to my flat on my broomstick. That way, you’ll be able to see the scenery from the air. Neither of us is prepared for a long and weary climb. We can come and hike here later, okay?’

Adelaide looked at the mountains for long. She seemed to be weighing her options. ‘Right. But we fly only till we reach the reserve. Then we go on foot. I want to see some of those pets of yours.’ She grinned.

I agreed without arguing; it would be of no use anyway. And she had listened to part of my plan, after all.

I took out my wand and another piece of wood from my pocket. Pointing my wand to the piece and muttering a spell, I enlarged the wood piece into a broomstick - a Zooming 2250.

‘Impressive,’ Adelaide called from behind. ‘Clearly, you get paid well.’

Zooming 2250 had come out a year back. It was the second best model up to date, and still quite expensive.

‘Hey! I needed this. I’m not playing Quidditch professionally, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten it. I play it with the guys here. But it’s not the same as Hogwarts,’ I explained to her. Then I mounted on the broomstick and motioned her to do the same.

I kicked off in the air when I felt her hands on my shoulders.

‘We could play some day, you and I. A real game,’ she said from behind.

‘You mean Quidditch?’ I asked, flustered.

‘Yes, dimwit,’ she replied back.

‘How long are you staying?’

‘Then I’m not welcome here for long?’ she asked in a would-be offended tone.

‘You know I didn’t mean that.’

‘I know, but checking just in case.’ She laughed. It was close to a giggle, but not a complete one. Adelaide never giggled.

I didn’t reply. I was busy steering the broom in the proper direction.

‘Mmmhmm...’ I heard from behind me.

‘Yes?’

‘Ah, it feels so good! Hair flying in the air, wind hitting my face. Just sitting and feeling.’ She sighed contently.

‘Having a lovely time while I have to do all the hard work,’ I complained.

‘I don’t know for how long I’ll be here. Like I said before, I only have two weeks of vacation in which I plan to get reacquainted with you and also visit my grandparents in France. So, hm, maybe one week here and the second there. I don’t know anything for sure,’ she answered my previous question with another abrupt change in the conversation.

‘Oh, okay. So, would you like to stay at my flat? I have a guest room. It’s small, but I’m sure you’ll do fine,’ I offered. ‘But you should check it yourself first,’ I hurriedly added, unsure now.

‘No, it’s fine. I just need a place to sleep. Even the couch would do. A separate room is a bonus. Thanks!’

‘No problem and we’re almost there.’ I could see smoke, a building and miniature dragons below me.

‘By the way, where’s your luggage?’ I had never seen anything on her except a leather hand bag.

‘Ah, it’s all in here,’ she said. I turned around to face her to see that she was patting the same bag.

I was confused for a moment and then realised. ‘Oh. Oh.’

‘James, look out!’ Adelaide suddenly screamed.

I looked forward and my jaw dropped.

A Chinese Fireball was flying towards us.

Oh, God.

Chapter 3

The dragon continued flying in our direction. And now I could see another one following it.

Merlin! Were there others too, flying at some distance from the first one? Had all of them escaped? How had they escaped? There had been several enchantments to keep them from breaking free. What in the world had happened? I needed to help controlling them right away. But first I had to get Adelaide to safety. She had come to meet me and if anything happened to her, it would be my fault. I had to protect her from getting injured.

That was a problem. I looked down; we were at quite a distance from the ground. Flying downwards and then back up would be a waste of time and also dangerous. If there was some other way... and then I saw other workers on their broomsticks and realised what I could do.

‘Hey, Chang!’ I called out to the youngest man in the group who had joined recently. It was suicidal coming here to help when he had barely spent any time with these creatures. But now that he had come, he would solve my predicament.

The Chinese flew towards me. ‘Yes?’ he asked eagerly.

‘Could you please help me, Chang?’ I asked, looking at him as if my life depended on his answer, which it kind of did.

‘Anything, Mr Potter,’ he committed, eyes gleaming. No doubt, he knew who Harry Potter was. Sometimes, being his son did have an advantage. But only sometimes.

‘Could you please take this lady,’ I gestured towards Adelaide, ‘and carry her down to the ground on your broomstick?’ I asked.

He blinked. He had definitely not seen that one coming, and the way he was staring at Adelaide, it seemed as if he had just noticed her.

He turned and looked longingly at the other tamers, shooting spells furiously at the dragons. Whizzing here and there on their brooms to miss the fire being aimed towards them. He would love to be part of the group but it would do no good to him or the team. You needed experience in these situations; bravery wasn’t all that mattered. I had learnt that the hard way, being the Gryffindor that I am.

It would do no good trying to explain to him that it was the situation and not him which was faulty. So I nudged Adelaide, who had been staring at the dragons in awe, and whispered to her to act as the ‘damsel in distress’.

Surprisingly, she didn’t argue but faced Chang and said in a high voice, ‘Oh, Mr Chang! Please take me down there or I’ll get burned by these... these... evil creatures.’ She sobbed in her hands.

I laughed inwardly. Her acting skills had greatly improved over the time, no doubt about that.

Her voice recovered Chang. ‘Oh, yes, ma’am. Please...’

Between Chang and me, we shifted Adelaide to his broom and I thanked him profusely. Blushing, he flew down to safety.

Now, the dragons had to be taken care of.

I focussed my full attention at them and saw that now; two of them were fighting with each other. Dear, Merlin! This would take time and energy.

Determined, I swooped to the group of dragon tamers, all ready to do my part.

****

I slowly opened my eyes and the previous day’s events came rushing into my mind. Adelaide visiting, the ride on the broom, dragons escaping, trying to gain control of them, and one of them falling.

One of the dragons had died.

We had been on our brooms, throwing spells at the two dragons, trying to bring them under control, but the dragons had been too fast. And then, the head had had the brilliant idea of distracting them. I offered to be the bait immediately and he reluctantly agreed. It wasn’t as if he had a choice anyway. Someone had to divert the dragons, and I did have experience after all.

I had followed the plan and the others had successfully managed to stun the first dragon, and slowly levitated it to the ground. It had taken the power of eight wands and intense concentration to bring down a creature as huge as that dragon. They had then tied several chains to it and performed numerous charms so that when it would wake up, it would be unable to set itself loose again.

Then we had flown to the skies to tackle the second dragon, leaving a few tamers behind with the other dragon just in case. He had managed to break loose once, he could do it again.

The dragon was still flying towards the town and we had no time. It was either managing it or being prepared to let everyone know about the wizarding world, which was unacceptable and unthinkable. Using all my power, I had rushed to it and tried to revert his direction to me so that the others could stun it, too and bring him down and it could be all done and over with. But that creature, apparently, had other plans.

He thrashed his tail and blew fire towards us, refusing to stay still. He also set a few trees on fire and some of the workers got busy in trying to extinguish it. We did not need another disaster in our hands anyway. A rebel of a dragon was more than enough; we didn’t need a whole forest burning.

I had then thrown caution to the winds, ignoring the plan, I flew right towards the dragon. We stared at each other. Face to face. Eye to eye. That had surely caught his attention. He remained still for a moment. The tamers took opportunity of it and bombarded it the stunning spells and he had become stiff. But before that, he had managed to breathe fire towards me. If I hadn’t moved fast, I would have been burnt to death, but I did manage to receive quite a few burns though they were not life threatening. I flew downwards, confident that the other tamers would handle the dragon well. Not that I would’ve been any use now.

I had just reached the ground and Adelaide had started coming towards me when I heard shouts and looked up to see the dragon falling down from the sky. It was clear that he was dropping and not being levitated down. Before I could react, it had reached the ground and I felt the bones of my right leg breaking and screamed out loud in pain.

I heard the cries of ‘It’s dead!’ and then blacked out.