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Published:2026-05-12Updated:2026-07-20Words:62,089Chapters:14/?Comments:432Kudos:1,846Bookmarks:1,016Hits:53,777
Harry's Guide to Raising Dragons and Nobles
Zizabelle98
Chapter 4: Chapter 4
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Moving slow so as to not spill the potion within, Harry carefully removed the cauldron from the flames and set it on its stand on his desk.
The dragons had been banished from the room for this project, not that there were many who could still fit - only Janus really, who at 7 months old was old enough to speak and obedient enough that Harry usually trusted him when working on volatile magic, but not this time.
Potions making was incredibly delicate work and he'd never been particularly talented at it in the first place - Harry blamed Snape's classroom behaviour - but experimenting with potions was a hundred times worse.
Of course, Harry wasn't exactly trying to create a new potion or anything, that was way too complicated for him even after 5 years of unrestricted access to the Black library, but he was experimenting with new ingredients. Specifically ingredients taken from the fauna of this land.
It was Freya that put him on this path actually. All of his children were well aware of his frustration over the limited amount of animal potions ingredients. Some were used in some really useful potions that just had no substitute! So when Freya went out hunting with her siblings one day and came back reporting having found ashwinder eggs, Harry had hopped on his broom and sped after the brown dragon to see the discovery himself.
They weren't ashwinder eggs. In fact, they were fireworm eggs and although not identical, they did actually look quite similar to the eggs Harry had in stasis on the shelves of his potions lab. With how similar they looked, Harry took them anyway to run experiments on them on his runic desk. Turns out, despite not being ashwinder eggs, they had almost the exact same properties! Not enough to be a complete replacement, but enough that they should act as a good substitute in at least a few potions.
This then turned into his biggest project yet.
First: capture creatures and discover the properties of their various parts, which was no small job in and of itself. In the years since his arrival, Harry had discovered more of the monstrous mutations that he had first come across during his early exploration days. There were 72 different species on this island and he had to investigate every single piece of their anatomy: the leather, the flesh, the blood, the eyes, each and every organ, the claws/spikes/teeth, the saliva, the slime/sweat/mucus, the tendons...
Once that was done, he had to compare them to the properties of the ingredients he already knew of and find the ones that were almost completely compatible.
Then, he had to find the recipes that used those ingredients, focusing on the properties that were specific for that potion - as some ingredients had multiple properties but in one potion was used for only one property and in another potion was used for a different one.
Finally, he could test the potions and if successful, recategorize that recipe into the 'freely available' pile.
So far, fireworm eggs were a good replacement for ashwinder eggs, pond-maggot saliva was a near perfect match for flobberworm mucus, mutated-rat tail was obviously fine for regular rat tail, wyvern spleen could sometimes be used instead of bat spleen... overall Harry had discovered another 32 ingredients he could use for his potions, which after careful canvassing made 177 new potions available to him, though only 21 of those were actually useful to him in his current situation. Harry had no use for a hair-colouring potion after all.
But still! A success! He now had unlimited supply of any ingredient - ok, most ingredients, he hadn't found substitutions for everything - he could ever want.
Freya was crowing all about the place that it was thanks to her that he'd made so many interesting discoveries. Harry was happy enough to let her have her due credit, although he was quick to jump in when she started saying she was his favourite kid because of it.
Now, Harry was testing his last potion while six dragons waited impatiently downstairs, the other three being too big to even fit in the house.
"No one will hunt with me!" Eros whined.
He was far too big at 7meters long and 2.5meters tall to be dramatically throwing his body over the furniture, but Harry had long ago reinforced them so simply narrowed his eyes in the dragon's direction.
The dragon huffed. "Father!"
"I heard you." Harry absently responded. "Maybe if you didn't always go for the largest fireworm you could find, one of your siblings would agree."
"But that's no fun!"
"I doubt Nike agrees."
Eros sharply pulled up his head to glare at his father in offence. "That wasn't my fault!" He insisted. "Also, those were pond-maggots, not fireworms!"
"Which you insisted on attacking for no reason at all and Nike got hurt." Harry responded sharply. "It might not have been your fault pond-maggots turned out to be far more dangerous any of us had thought, but you started a fight for no other reason than nothing else worth hunting was around. None of us even like pond-maggots and they're too small for any of you to to eat anyway."
It was maybe one of Harry's worst memories, watching two of his children flying home from a hunt, one of them obviously struggling to support the weight of the other. Eros had been in near hysterics and Nike had almost passed out from the pain. He didn't get a clear picture on what happened until he'd poured multiple potions down Nike's throat and slathered burn paste down most of his side.
Apparently, pond-maggots like to burrow. They reminded Harry of a few species of spiders and wasps back home - they'd enter some creature's body either by burrowing their way in or through some orifice, and then lay eggs. Thankfully, these pond-maggots hadn't gotten that far: the pain of them digging into Nike's flesh had been enough for him to set his side on fire in a panic.
They'd burned the things out, leaving Nike with burn scars across most of the left side of his flank and chest, and three obvious trails of red on his now deformed white scales where the monsters had managed to burrow.
"He doesn't blame me." Eros whispered guiltily.
"No." Harry's mouth twitched. "He think he looks even more like his namesake now."
"The goddess of victory."
"Yes. I don't blame you either." Harry said, waiting for his son to look up from the floor. "I'm just saying that you have a tendency to charge in looking for the biggest and most dangerous thing to fight, and after a bunch of tiny maggots did so much damage to your brother, no one is really willing to put themselves in more danger than they need to."
Flopping to the floor dramatically once again, the pink dragon let out a stream of smoke.
"I can't go alone though!"
"If you're so eager for adventure, why don't you go exploring?"
"We've found everything there is to find on this island."
"Then find another one. Galene swears she saw land to the east."
Finally, he perked up. "Really? And I can fly over the smoking see to look?"
"You do know I stop expecting you all to follow my rules when you turn two, right? I have made that clear to you all, haven't I?
Rolling his eyes, Eros reached his long neck out to lay his head on Harry's lap.
"Yes, father, you tell us all the time, but you're so sensible that following your rules is probably the best thing to do, or we'd all die terrible deaths or something. You're not a tyrant, you don't have that many rules. I mean you let me go out and fight the massivest monsters I can find all the time!"
"Fine, well, yes. You can fly over the smoking sea. You're strong enough to fly non-stop for like a whole day by now, you can fly wherever you want."
"Nice! So where is Galene? I want her to tell me exactly what she saw."
Harry shrugged. "Who knows? She took Janus on a trip yesterday and hasn't come back yet. She's probably showing him the rocks."
Harry tried not to laugh when his kid groaned and let his head fall from his lap and onto the ground.
Accommodating for nine dragons was no small thing, even if they were able to hunt for themselves after a certain point. In fact, once they'd hatched their second pair of twins, Freya and Nike, they'd all agreed that maybe one at a time was for the best after all. Feeding two small hatchlings was fine. Feeding two large teen dragons was not. So not only had they reduced the number of eggs they hatched at any one time, they also slowed it down. There was only 7 months between Loki and Artemis but a whole year between each set of twins, 15 months between the latter set and Janus, and 18 months between him and Bellona.
Now, 6 years after Galene first hatched and who knows how long after his arrival, they had nine dragons, 7 of whom were taller than him and 5 that couldn't even fit through the front doors anymore.
He'd had to expand his livestock pens so many times he'd lost count, as well as ward off like three entire neighbourhoods to give his eldest some room to roam safely. Not that there was much that could take his five eldest anymore, especially Artemis who had outgrown Galene as expected, but it was always best to play it safe.
Just because five of his children no longer lived in the house though, doesn't mean that they were any less of a tight-knit family than they were when it was just him, Galene and Loki. Harry left all doors wide open at all times so that they could stop by whenever they wanted - just because their wings didn't fit doesn't mean they didn't push their head in as far as they can reach - most of their afternoons were spent outside anyway.
It never stopped being funny seeing the size difference. Loki may have grown slower than any other dragon first, but it had sped up a little once he had bulked up as much as he could, and now with Bellona being only 42cm to his 10.7meters, the hatchling could comfortably fit on his foot. A good thing too as she seemed to idolize her eldest brother and nothing made her happier than standing on his foot while he stomped about.
Harry no longer yearned for the company of his friends from Hogwarts. He sometimes wondered if Hermione had gone into magical creatures rights and he'd always expected her to, or if Ron finally managed to witness a victorious Quidditch match for the Cannons. If McGonagall was Headmistress now and if Hagrid had decided to leave the school in favour of a dragon reserve now that Dumbledore was dead.
Assuming they had all survived the war obviously.
But he no longer wished for their presence here with him. He had all he needed with his dragons; his very own family.
Galene, who still delighted at new discoveries and continued to fill journal upon journal. Loki, his responsible son who had picked the highest place within the wards he could find to make his nest just so he could watch over his siblings. Artemis who despite her size remained the sweetest of his children and always visited for cuddles with him and her siblings, and whose skill in the art of mosaic-making had improved leaps and bounds. Juno, his most inquisitive, the first to volunteer to go with her twin to explore this new island across the eastern sea. Eros, his fiercest and the most likely to give him grey hairs, always looking for the adventure and battle. Freya, his most eager helper, no matter what the task was; so eager to prove herself. Nike who was happiest when he was flying, trying out new daring moves to put on a show and impress his siblings. Janus, the most social dragon in existence, constantly seeking out his siblings so they could tell him a story or show him something interesting. And finally Bellona, his newest baby whose energy was on par with every hatchling Harry has seen so far.
Harry had forgotten what it was like to interact with humans, but he found he didn't mind it.
"You want what?"
"A hatchling." Galene repeated, and Harry was just as surprised as he was the first time she said it.
"But Bellona is only 5 months old!"
His eldest bent her neck so that her eyes were more level with his and breathed out. Harry didn't comment on the strong gust of wind buffeting him, he got used to it ages ago.
"Bellona is your daughter; my sister. I want a hatchling of my own."
"You mean... you want your own kid? You want to be a mother?"
"Yes."
Well. Well. This was certainly a development. Galene wanted to make him a grandfather. He was only 24 years old! Galene was only 7! Jesus Christ, his 7 year old daughter was about to have a kid. He should have expected this when he figured out that dragons matured faster than humans, but 7 years old!
"Ok so - ok. Alright. First off - you do know the eggs aren't my eggs right? I don't own them, you don't have to ask me if you want to take one for yourself. Also - I mean - Is... is this not too soon?"
Galene tilted her head to the side, which was actually so much cuter when they were the size of elephants, and made some kind of crooning noise of confusion at him.
"Too soon? What do you mean? I am old enough to lay my own eggs, I don't see why taking one already laid would be any different."
"Wha- since when?!"
"I have been old enough to lay for two years now."
"Merlin ok. Ok, and is that - is that something you would want to do?"
"Of course. One day."
Which was weird, though. These were his kids! Not only was Galene talking about having kids at 7 years old, but also the only other dragons around to mate with were her brothers!
"But they're your brothers!"
She eyed him critically, as if questioning his sanity, which Harry objected to because he wasn't the one planning on mating with his siblings!
"You do remember none of us have the same sire or dame?" The dragon asks and Harry flushed because no - he had forgotten that he wasn't actually their dad. "We may all call you our father and love each other like siblings, but if one day that love changes to be romantic, then there is nothing wrong with mating."
Harry wasn't sure that he would ever be willing to mate with an adopted sibling regardless of blood, but he'd never had one so he decided to just reluctantly accept and move on.
"So who do you want to mate with, then?"
Galene snorted dismissively. "Only Loki is of age to mate with for now."
"So that's a no to mating for now then."
Galene and Loki's rivalry had not abated over the years. There wasn't much to compete in any more, but they were still a little distant with each other. They loved each other, Harry had no doubt about that. Each one of them would lay their life down for the other, but they were hardly each other's favourite sibling and although he couldn't see any of his kids mating with each other, Galene and Loki were a definite no.
"No, but I can hatch one of the eggs we have."
"Right, yes you can, since you're certain you're ready."
"I am."
"Great."
7 years old! Merlin, if Galene and Loki were old enough to mate by now, then that meant that Artemis would be soon and the twins not long after that. Was everyone going to want to be a parent so young?
Harry missed firewhisky.
As much as Harry complained about Galene being too young to have kids, he was with her every step of the way.
For her first hatchling, she had asked that he be the only one to accompany her to pick the egg out and he had readily agreed. Although the others were disappointed, they all understood that as the oldest, Galene was the only one of them that had ever been alone with Harry, and occasionally she wanted to revisit those times.
So they went together to the manor where they kept the eggs, though his daughter couldn't go in any further than her shoulders. Galene took an hour to pick her egg. There were many, all of different sizes and colour combinations, and Galene wanted to make sure she picked the right one for her.
Eventually, she chose a pale yellow egg. It was the same size hers had been, and just like her it only had one colour.
Harry carried it all the way to Galene's rooftop nest, where they spent the rest of the day carving out the egg's resting place.
Though dragons were creatures of magic, they had no actual magical talent. Of course, one didn't actually need magic or a wand to do certain magical things like brew a potion or carve some runes, so Harry watched for hours as his oldest carved precise runes of containment and protection in the centre of her roof, and only stepped forward once she was done to activate the rune cluster and lay his bluebell flames.
It was a precious ceremony. Although hatching an egg was something they had done ten times now, this was different. This was his first grandchild, the first time Galene was the main player in the ritual. Neither of them spoke the entire time, the moment feeling too heavy and important to ruin it with words.
Now, Harry watched as Galene pushed what was left of her earlier fireworm towards the staggering little dragon that had emerged minutes before.
"She is female." Galene commented, as she did every time a new dragon hatches.
"She's beautiful."
His daughter purred and leaned down further to get as close to her baby as she could.
"She reminds me of the sun you tell us about."
"I agree. Warm and bright and gentle but fierce, just like sun."
They watched for a few more moments before the blue dragon stretched to her full height, her eyes remaining on the newest addition to their family.
"I shall name her Persephone, after the goddess of spring that was lost in a world of death."
"That's a really good name." Harry managed to choke out.
It was only a month later that Loki sped home, roaring to the heavens and acting more excitable than Harry had seen in years, and announced he saw what he thought to be a ship sailing to the south.
Notes:
Galene - a bright and gleaming light blue with pearly horns (2 at the top of the head and 2 from the side of her head), lithe. Female
Loki - deep forest green with pale green horns (2 at the top of the head) and frills, stout and bulky. Male
Artemis - pale silver with black wing membranes and a black horn (between the nostrils) and tail spikes, large and bulky. Female
Juno - dark gleaming purple with white wing membranes, tail tip, horns (2 at the top of the head) and tail spikes, medium build. Female
Eros - dark pink with golden frills and wing tips and white spikes (like a collar around the base of the skull), lithe. Male
Freya - light brown with bronze specks and bronze horns (4 at the top of the head) and spikes all around and down the neck, medium build. Female
Nike - white with gold specks and gold horns (2 above the eyes facing forward) and frills, bulky. Male
Janus - bright orange with a single light orange frill starting above the eyes, lithe. Male
Bellona - dark red with grey wing membranes and grey horns (2 above the eyes facing forward, 1 above the nostrils) and spine and tail spikes, lithe. Female
Persephone - yellow. Female
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