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"See you, Harry," said Ron, clapping him on the back.
"'Bye, Harry!" said Hermione, and she did something she had never done before, and kissed him on the cheek.
"Harry - thanks," George muttered, while Fred nodded fervently at his side.
Harry winked at them, turned to Uncle Vernon, and followed him silently from the station. There was no point worrying yet, he told himself, as he got into the back of the Dursley's car.
As Hagrid had said, what would come would come... and he would have to meet it when it fof.
Fof? Harry paused. That wasn't what Hagrid had said. Harry couldn't entirely remember what he had said.
For a split second Harry sat dumbfounded. He quickly regained his senses when the car around him disappeared and he fell into hot sands that were now under him instead.
Harry stood up with trembling legs. He looked around franticly half expecting to see Death Eaters apparating. What Harry didn't expect to see was his trunk laying neatly behind him as if it too had fallen out of the car. Glancing around he saw the area looked like an old roman coliseum. The ground was covered in fine sand (which was very hot and starting to burn through Harry's sneakers). There was a low wall surrounding the sand, and raised seats behind the wall. Harry started turning in a slow circle and saw there was an arched entrance to the area where you could either enter the stands or the sanded area from.
There was a scream. Harry knew to be Hermione's. What was she doing here?
Turning to where the scream came from Harry saw Ron and Hermione. Later Harry would notice that the way everyone was positioned exactly relative to where everyone was in London. However this strange fact wasn't what was holding Harry's attention. The large golden dragon trouncing towards Hermione and Ron was quite enough to deal with right then and there.
Ron reacted quickly, he didn't have time to pull his wand out of his pocket, so he just shot the spell right through his jacket. However his unfortunate choice of using "Stupefy!" knocked him out because the spell hit the dragon's thick skin and bounced back at Ron.
Harry kicked open his trunk just as Ron hit the ground. Harry reached for his wand but his Firebolt jumped into his hand by its own power. Without hesitating Harry mounted it and flew at Hermione and Ron. The moment Harry reached the two he grabbed Hermione's hand and flew them back to where his trunk still lay a good 100 yards behind the dragon.
Harry quickly landed and Hermione released her grip on Harry's hand. Grabbing his wand out of his trunk he turned to the Dragon, which didn't seem to have noticed Hermione's sudden disappearance, or didn't care, and was still advancing on Ron's unconscious form. Hermione pulled her wand out of her pocket and shot a few sparks at the Dragon to try to distract it from Ron who was completely defenseless.
Hermione's plan worked, which in Harry's opinion wasn't necessarily good.
"Harry! What do we do!" Hermione shrieked.
"I..." Harry didn't finish because a woman and atleast eight men had appeared from around the corner and ran up to the Dragon. The woman was shouting at the dragon.
"Ramoth! What's wrong!" She shouted. Then she noticed Ron's unconscious form and the two large trunks sitting behind him. She paused. The Dragon turned its giant golden head towards her and the two stared at each other is silence.
The woman looked towards Harry and Hermione who had stood there watching in stunned silence. The men followed her gaze and jumped in surprise. She looked back at the Dragon, which started to growl.
"Please Ramoth!" She said and turned to Harry and Hermione again. "Who are you?"
Harry hesitated, and then with a glance at Hermione, they both lowered their wands.
"We didn't mean any harm," Harry said. "That Dragon attacked us."
The Dragon did not seem amused. With a roar it started towards Harry and Hermione who quickly raised their wands again, not entirely sure if even together they could do anything to stop the monster.
"RAMOTH! DON'T!" The woman shouted. The Dragon stopped, it turned its head to the woman, and after a moment of silence growled and walked to a pile of eggs that Harry now noticed was near Ron. With some irony Harry realized there was a golden egg in the center with the other eggs.
"I can assure you, whatever happened here was not caused by Ramoth attacking anyone or anything." The woman said to them as she quickly strode over, with the men following close behind. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
Harry and Hermione lowered their wands.
Harry looked over the woman's shoulder (which wasn't very difficult given the fact she was no taller then himself) to check on Ron. He seemed as well as he could be, still unconscious next to the trunks.
Hermione spoke first "I'm Hermione Granger" she said very respectfully, "This is Harry, Harry Potter." She emphasized the "Potter."
Harry looked at the woman expecting to see the usual double take and glance at his forehead, but it didn't come.
Instead she said, "As you should know I am Lessa, Weyrwoman here at Benden. What are you doing here?"
"We..um.." Hermione hesitated and looked at Harry with a face he had only seen on one or two occasions. She was completely and totally lost. She simply had no answer to that question.
"We sorta just appeared." Harry said unhelpfully.
Lessa raised an eyebrow. "From between?"
Harry looked at Hermione for help, which didn't come.
"Well, no, from London really," Harry said rather blandly.
The woman glared. "Explain."
Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. How on earth were they suppose to explain that they were leaving King's Cross and just appeared here.
"Well.. we.. um.." Harry started, not entirely sure where he was going from there.
"What are those?" She interrupted.
"Magic wands," Hermione answered, but the way she said it made it sound completely ludicrous.
Harry then noticed two more people appear in the sandy area, and they went over to examine Ron
Lessa spoke "My patience is running out. Tell me why you are on the hatching grounds, and where you are from. You are obviously not from here," she said, glancing at their clothes, which Harry assumed looked just as outlandish as the gown she was wearing, and the tunics the others wore.
Hermione let out a small cry, and Harry followed her gaze to where Ron lay. Only now he was on a sort of rough stretcher and was being carried away.
"HEY!" Harry shouted and bolted after them. Hermione was quick to follow.
Lessa shouted after them, and Ramoth stood up and roared, but Harry and Hermione ignored both of them and chased after the people carrying Ron.
The people carrying Ron froze when the Dragon roared, and still hadn't recovered. Harry and Hermione reached Ron's side, and without hesitation Hermione pointed at him with her wand.
Harry was pointing his wand at one of the men, "Don't move." He shot a few sparks at the man to show he was serious.
"Ennervate!"
Ron's eyelids flickered open and he sat up.
"Whahappened." Ron's words were slurred and he sounded rather disoriented.
The sparks had been bad enough, but Ron's miraculous recovery was too much for them and they dropped the stretcher. Harry and Hermione caught Ron and stood before he fell.
By this time Lessa and the other's had caught up with them.
"By the first Egg! What do you think you are doing!" One of the men said reaching for his belt knife.
"I think we would all like to know." Lessa sounded strangely like Professor McGonagal.
"What the bloody hell is going on!" Ron shouted, obviously having recovered.
"Ron." Hermione's tone mirrored that of Lessa's.
One of the men who had been carrying the stretcher, and had been gawking at Hermione now found his voice.
"She woke him up!" he said pointing at Hermione. "With that stick, she woke him up! And he almost lit me on fire with his!"
There was an awkward silence in which Harry noticed he was still clutching his wand, and along with supporting Ron, Hermione was holding hers.
Harry and Hermione didn't have enough time to react when two of the men attacked them.
One of them tackled Harry and knocked him to the ground, Harry felt atleast three of his ribs crack. After a brief struggle the man jumped to his feet with his belt knife in one hand, and Harry's wand in his other. Harry started to sit up, but quickly laid back down. Harry's quick reaction was partially because the pain in his ribs was so intense he felt dizzy, and partially because the man who knocked him over in the first place stomped a steel-toed boot onto his chest. "Don't even think about it." He growled.
While Harry was having trouble enough breathing, Hermione had other problems.
Hermione's attacker had also tackled her and pulled out his belt knife, but pinned her against the wall. Her attacker had her wand hand pinned outstretched next to her, and had his belt knife at her throat.
"Drop it!" he shouted.
Hermione hesitated, knowing her wand was the only weapon she had against the almost dozen people surrounding her armed with belt knives.
She quickly regretted the hesitation.
Her attacker drew back his knife, and then smacked her in the face with the broad side.
Hermione cried out in pain and dropped her wand even as a thin line of blood formed on her face.
Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Ron.
"Leave her alone!" He shouted and pulled out his wand. "Or she gets it!" He pointed his wand at Lessa.
This was the wrong thing to say.
Everyone pulled out a belt knife, and suddenly the air was full of roars, the loudest coming from the golden dragon.
"T'bor," Lessa said calmly. "Release the girl. F'lar, get off of him."
T'bor hesitated only briefly, and then released his grip on Hermione's arm and slowly started backing away, blade still out.
F'lar meanwhile exchanged a glare with Lessa and then stepped off of Harry.
Hermione slowly slid down the wall, picked up her wand and shakily stood back up.
Ron came to her side and grabbed her arm since she was pale and looked ready to faint.
"Drop it." Ron snarled pointing his wand at F'lar.
F'lar glared at Ron and threw Harry's wand down next to him.
Harry grabbed it and tried to sit up again. He unintentionally cried out in pain and quickly laid back down.
"Harry!" Hermione cried out and rushed to his side.
Ron stayed where he was with his wand out, ready to take on the eleven-armed muggles around him.
"Now," Lessa said slowly, "we can all lower our weapons, or we can continue and turn this into a bloodbath."
Harry who was near passing out from the pain didn't need to be asked twice. He dropped his wand and went back to clutching his chest.
Hermione pocketed her wand and went back to gently pressing on Harry's ribs trying to estimate the damage.
The armed men hesitated. Ron still had his wand up.
Harry jerked his head at Ron and Hermione stopped her prodding to look. Deftly, she smacked Ron in the shin and went back to Harry.
Ron hesitated a moment longer and lowered his wand.
All blades were sheathed, and the last thing Harry heard before he finally passed out was Lessa saying something about "Summon Master Oldive."