Planning Part II

Harry's Cabin, Durmstrang. Nov 21st

Harry rolled over in his bed, a groan of protest at the light that was entering through the small porthole. He wanted to go back to sleep, back to dreaming about...

Snapping awake, Harry grabbed his wand. "Tempus."

Groaning at the time, Harry quickly put on some everyday robes, cast a few simple hygiene charms on his face and hair, and made his way outside. He had been up late not only working helping Viktor learn an advanced illusion, but also trying to convince his friend that his plan would work.

Making his way into the castle, Harry quickly began searching for his brother. "Where are you?" Harry asked himself, struggling to remember his brother's class schedule.

Frantically, Harry looked for anyone that might be in his brother's year and knew where he was. As he turned to walk down a corridor, Harry found himself face to face with Ron Weasley. Not in the mood to mess around, he demanded, "Weasley, where is my brother?"

Ron's face twisted into a scowl as two other boys walked up behind him. "I don't know where your brother is, Potter. Not everyone fawns over every move he makes."

Faster than Ron or the other two boys could blink, Harry had his wand out. With a wide sweeping motion, the three Gryffindors were shoved aside. "Then get out of my way. If you see Nathan, tell him I am looking for him."

Not bothering to spare the three boys another glance, Harry continued down the corridor, up a secret passageway, and down a flight of stairs. After almost an hour wandering around Hogwarts looking for Nathan, Harry finally found his brother and Hermione in an unused Transfiguration classroom on the fourth floor.

"Finally," he scowled. "I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"You have?" Nathan asked, surprised, but certainly pleased. "I looked for you at breakfast, I could use some help."

"You have to get past a dragon," Harry said, immediately. "Viktor figured it out last night."

Nathan's mouth hung open before he glared slightly at his brother. "Is that where you were? Helping Krum?"

Quickly taking out a piece of parchment, Harry ignored the question. "Most of our ideas were beyond what you can do, but I think I have an idea."

"Harr–"

"Not now Nathan," Harry snapped. "I think we can do something with a combination of curses and charms. While it won't be flashy, if we practice for the rest of the day–"

"Harry, I –"

"Nathan, let me talk," Harry said, growing upset with his brother's interruptions. "And, Hermione, please start writing these spells down. I should be able to teach you the disillusionment and scent blocking charms fairly easily. That should–"

"I already have a plan!" Nathan snapped, causing Harry to look at him in surprise.

"What?"

"Hagrid showed me the dragons last night," Nathan said, dropping his voice back to normal. "I already have a plan on how to get past it. Hermione and I have been working on it for the last few hours. It might not be the best plan, but I'm going to summon my broom and try to fly past it."

Seeing his brother just staring at him like he was absolutely mad, Nathan slumped into a nearby chair. "What else can I do, Harry? It's a dragon!"

While Harry admitted that the prospect of his brother taking on a dragon was not something he was happy about, Nathan's attitude was completely wrong, and, knowing what effect emotions could have on magic, Harry was starting to grow concerned. Realizing that his brother needed some encouragement, Harry said, "You can do a lot, Nathan. This task isn't nearly as daunting as it appears at first glance."

"What?" Hermione's eyes were wide as she stared at Harry in complete shock. "How can you say that? He has to fight a dragon!"

"No, he has to take something the dragon is guarding," Harry corrected the girl. "Now, let me ask you this Hermione, are dragons traditionally used to guard treasure?"

Hermione frowned. "Well, they are notoriously independent creatures. They're likely to kill anyone, even the person to whom the treasure belongs."

"Exactly," Harry said. "Some people say that the goblins have dragons guarding high security vaults, but that's all probably rubbish, or the Goblins have just crippled them severely. Nathan isn't facing a griffin or Sphinx that would die to protect its treasure. He doesn't need to fight the dragon; he just needs to avoid it. That shouldn't be too difficult considering it'll be restrained."

For the first time, Nathan seemed to perk up. "Restrained?"

"Of course! You didn't think they would just throw you into a pit against a dragon and say 'okay, go for it?' This is a spectator event, Nathan. The dragon needs to be restrained so it doesn't go nuts and burn down half the school." Harry didn't bother to mention that something very similar did, in fact, happen in 1498 at Beauxbatons when a poorly restrained dragon broke free and torched half the countryside before being killed. Hopefully, the judges had noted that rather nasty moment in Triwizard history and remembered to restrain the damn thing properly this time.

"Okay, so, I don't need to fight the dragon." Nathan sighed in relief. "That's good."

Harry hated to bring his brother back down, but he couldn't let him take the task too easily either. "Nathan, it's still a dragon, and you're trying to get into its nest. Odds are you're going to face off with it at some point. Did you ever bother to learn the Conjunctivitis curse? I know it was on that list I gave you last year."

Raising his wand, Nathan shot the spell at his brother, a huge smirk on his face; however, he wasn't prepared for Harry to casually bat the spell into the corner as if it wasn't even the slightest concern to him. "Damn," Nathan muttered, a bit in awe of his brother's skill.

"It was a good attempt," Harry said, not the slightest bit annoyed that his brother had sent a spell at him. Compared to the curses he and Calypso practiced with, the Conjunctivitis curse was rather tame.

"So, what is your plan?" Hermione asked, her curiosity peaked.

Harry sighed. "Okay, Nathan, here is what you are going to do . . . ."