Chapter Text
The white dragon rose, climbing higher and higher, leaving the smoking and ruined remains of Gringotts far behind. London unfurled below them, buildings and people getting smaller and smaller, until they were barely larger than specks.
The dragon didn't have any specific destination in mind, only to get away. He was doing it quite fabulously, though there were problems that needed to be addressed. The air was getting incredibly thin and it was getting harder to breathe, and still, the dragon pushed on, his powerful wings pumping up and down as they coasted along a convenient updraught.
"Harry!" Hermione yelled, over the roaring of the wind and the popping of Harry's ears as the air pressure changed, barely audible if she weren't sitting right behind Harry. "We have to go down!"
'Um, excuse me, sir?' Harry said, not sure what to do, tapping the nearest spine on the dragon's back slightly. There was a slight rumbling noise, distant, and slightly muffled by the wind. Harry frowned when he heard it, but he put it out of his mind. It wasn't a problem. 'Sir, we need to go down!'
The dragon didn't reply with words, but a feeling of anger, rage, hatemurderdestroy wafted down the link to Harry, as well as an image of Harry, Hermione and Ron being thrown off the dragon's back.
'Please don't do that,' Harry said.
'Then fly yourself. I'm not a horse.' Harry blinked at the hoarse, angry roar that echoed through his head, the speech slightly stilted. It was obvious that the dragon hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time. Also, the rumbling from before was getting louder.
'Also!' Harry said, remembering the reason he had tried to communicate with the other dragon in the first place. 'Also, we need to go down, sir, we're too high up.'
'Bah,' the dragon said. 'I know where I'm going just fine.'
'But sir!' Harry protested. The dragon responded by very pointedly cutting the telepathic link between them, which was the dragon version of turning around and sulking.
Personally, Harry kind of liked being so high up, but his breath was forming little ice crystals in the air in front of him and he could see that it was going to become a problem soon-
And then everything went to shit.
They coasted over a large clump of clouds, and then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, an airplane appeared, less than half a kilometre away. And with the rate it was travelling, as well as how the continued to dragon fly stubbornly on, there would be some form of collision, and pain, and perhaps some high velocity severed limbs, very, very soon.
All three passengers of the dragon screamed, and Harry desperately hammered on the mental door that was the telepathic link between the two dragons.
'Sir- SIR!' He yelled. The dragon ignored him and flew steadily on, getting closer and closer to the plane. Suddenly, a reckless, stupid, idiotic plan popped into Harry's head. He laughed hysterically, despairingly, and in a fit of desperation, decided to go along with it.
He started to climb along the dragon's back. Hermione yelled something at him, but her voice was drowned out by the rumbling of the plane and lost in the wind. Harry clambered over scales and spines, steady and balanced from years of playing Quidditch.
The plane was getting increasingly closer, the rumbling of the engines becoming deafening. The dragon finally seemed to notice that something was wrong, his head cocked sideways. Harry was clinging on to a large spike on the dragon's neck, inching closer and closer to his head.
And still, the plane was getting closer.
Harry finally reached the dragon's head, squatting precariously on his long neck. The dragon had definitely realised that something was wrong by now and was squinting in the general direction of where the rumbling was coming from, his face frowned as his ears twitched.
'SIR!' Harry yelled, trying again. This time, the dragon reopened the link grudgingly, and Harry almost sobbed in relief.
'What is that noise?' The dragon asked gruffly.
'No time to explain,' Harry said hurriedly, smacking the top of the other dragon's head. 'Don't ask questions, you need to turn left!'
The older dragon hesitated, and Harry was getting ready to change into his dragon form and get Hermione and Ron the hell away from the explosion when it happened, regardless of the consequences, when the white dragon swerved to the left suddenly, almost throwing his three passengers right off.
'...You're going to have to tell me where to go,' The white dragon admitted angrily. 'I have no clue where I'm going. I've been flying randomly this whole time.'
Harry laughed in relief, but not without a tinge of hysteria.
***
Hermione and Ron cornered him in the Great Hall, which had been transformed into a sort of temporary infirmary. The survivors of the battle had all ended up at the Great Hall, drifting around and generally looking lost, now that the fight was over.
Makeshift cots were scattered all around the Hall, students and staff alike tending to the injured and grieving the dead.
Harry had been standing over the injured form of Fred Weasley, hurt but thankfully alive. Percy and George had pulled him out of the way of the explosion at the Room of Requirement, and while he had been hit by stray pieces of shrapnel, he had been saved from the brunt of the explosion.
Before long, he was joined by the rest of the Weasley family, all clamouring around the small cot, George clinging to his twin's side. Once everyone had assured each other that none of them was hurt too badly, Ron and Hermione turned around to stare Harry down, almost predatorily.
Harry shuddered a bit, grinning wryly at the irony of the hunter had become the hunted.
"Ok, you gotta tell us what that was about, mate," Ron said, Hermione nodding behind him.
"Did you become an Animagus? But no, Animagus forms never come in mythical creatures... Oh! Except for Merlin himself, who was a dragon, if I remember correctly, so that's still an option... Did you find some sort of transformation magic somewhere? Harry?" Hermione said, barely pausing for breath.
Harry laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"You see, the thing is, um."
"Yeah?" Ron said, gesturing for Harry to continue. "Get to the point."
Harry squeezed his eyes shut. He knew that his friends would continue to love and accept him just as he was, but after spending his entire life keeping his secret, well, a secret, it was hard to just let everyone know.
But here goes nothing.
"I'm a dragon," Harry said, much quieter than he meant to, but it didn't matter. The Great Hall had silenced, and his admission echoed through the cavernous hall.
Then, Ron snorted.
"Yeah, that's funny mate, but what's the real reason?"
Feeling bolder, Harry said it again.
"I'm not kidding, I'm a dragon."
Ron was slowly turning pale, and Hermione stood, frozen next to him.
At the moment, Norbert poked her head out from under his colour and looked around curiously, then clambered out and hopped off his shoulder, transforming into a human before she landed.
"I just woke up, what's going on?" She said once the cloud of smoke had faded, her speech still slightly slurred, but much better than it had been before. Harry turned and glared at her, knowing full well that she had been awake the whole time. She glanced at him and gave Harry a cheeky wink.
"Is- is that, what is happening?" Ron whispered, his freckles a stark contrast to the paper-white his complexion had become.
Harry huffed in frustration, his control slipping a tiny bit as sparks flew out of his mouth along with his breath. Everyone in the Great Hall collectively took a step back.
Norbert laughed.
'This is very funny,' She said, so that only Harry heard her. 'Humans are hilarious.'
"Don't be rude," He reprimanded her. "I know they're funny, but you still have to be nice about it."
"What is going on?!" Ron said frantically to himself, though it seemed that everyone else was in agreement with him.
"I'm a dragon, that's what," Harry said, seeing the humour in the situation, and deciding to make a joke of it. It would be a lot better on his nerves. "And I just ate the Dark Lord, so if you'll excuse me, I need to go brush my teeth."