Harry Potter: Dragon Whisperer

The Only Way Forward

7:10am

Thursday, 11 August 1995

Greengrass Manor, Cumbria, England

.

Strangely enough, when breakfast was served, the entire family was in attendance. Considering that both of his daughters were on holidays from Hogwarts and that breakfast was served at, what was considered by them at least, to be the 'crack of dawn', this was indeed a rarity.

But then, Cyrus thought, perhaps this is a reflection of their holiday abroad, as brief as it turned out to be.

Romania was a mere two hours ahead of England and thus, Cyrus did not believe that a potion to adjust sleeping habits was required. Consequently, the week away with the slightly different time had been enough to ensure that both Daphne and Astoria rose at a more reasonable hour.

As much as he hoped that it would continue, Cyrus was no fool.

He turned half an ear to his youngest daughter, listening to her talking a mile a minute as she, once again, described seeing dragons and getting to touch a dragon and every little nuance that she could remember from their trip to the Dragon Reserve. And all that despite the fact that the rest of the family had been there and had experienced it alongside her.

For an instant, Cyrus wondered whether the idea of the girls joining them for breakfast was such a good one after all.

But then his eyes landed on his other daughter.

Yes, Daphne was there. In body, at least. But with the side of her face resting on her fist, elbow on the table and a morose expression on her face, he knew that she wasn't anywhere near the breakfast table nor even in the country. At least in mind and heart.

Heart. Thinking that had Cyrus frowning.

Harry Potter, the reason for their trip to Romania in the first place, had abruptly left them mid-holiday. Oh, Cyrus knew that it was business, nothing that the boy could do about it but still, anything that harmed his daughter, even in a roundabout way, he was going to take a very dim view of.

To be fair, he wasn't sure why he hated young Lord Potter more: for breaking his daughter's heart again as he raced off to another country, or for the way he swept his daughter off of her feet. And quite literally at that. Daybreak broom flights and even an afternoon on the back of a dragon!

Again, to be fair, that last might have had a touch of jealousy about it as well; very few, well, precisely two people alive in the world right then had flown on the back of a dragon. The boy could have at least offered!

A tapping at the window interrupted his thoughts and Cyrus looked over to see a bird standing at the window, tapping with its beak. What made this event most remarkable was the fact that it wasn't an owl, the normal method of sending letters about. No, this bird was much, much larger and one that wasn't seen very often at all. Albatrosses were expensive. Extremely expensive and only used to carry international post.

"Oh my!" Penelope exclaimed, her eyes fixed on the albatross.

With a bird of that size and of a type that he was unfamiliar with, there was no way that Cyrus was going to ask one of his family to retrieve the letter. No, that task was for him alone.

Rising, he strode around the table to the window. As he opened it, he could see that there was a tube tied to the albatross' leg. After glancing up at the bird, which seemed incredibly interested in what he was doing, Cyrus tentatively reached out and unwound the string that tied the top of the tube down. A rolled up envelope appeared and Cyrus plucked it out, watching as it grew in size as it emerged.