Imprisoned in the Past

.Forbidden Forest, Scotland, 1/28,1983, 13:59

Harry made his way through the fallen spiders placing a red ribbon on the leg of all the adults and a blue ribbon on the leg of the juveniles.

These ribbons would speed up getting an accurate count as every time he tied a ribbon a tally would appear in the appropriate column on Newt's clipboard.

It was boring work but necessary so Harry went about his task as efficiently as he could.

Yesterday evening Newt had called him on the floo to inform him the ministry would be bringing down the wards this morning. Harry had been surprised to learn that the potion they had deployed was also a preservative that prevented decay and kept their venom and silk sacs from drying out.

Harry had been tying ribbons all morning and was maybe a quarter of the way through the clearing. The ministry harvesting teams were following behind him and processing the animals he had already tagged and placing the venom and silk sacs in special containers.

He had received a letter from the ministry yesterday morning informing him that they had already transferred what they had projected his five per cent would be to the Peverell vaults. Harry had gotten a letter from Gringotts a little while later informing him that the sum of thirty-two thousand five hundred and twenty galleons had been deposited in his vaults.

Doing the math in his head he realised that the ministry believed the silk and venom from this colony would be worth six hundred and fifty thousand galleons or more.

Personally, he thought they were lowballing that estimate but he had no idea of the value of acromantula parts so he kept quiet on the matter.

"Harry," Newt called bringing him out of his musings.

"Yeah?" Harry asked.

"You can take a break from that for a minute, would you mind helping me get measurements on the female?" Newt asked.

"Sure," Harry said as he finished tying the blue ribbon on the juvenile and walked over to the female Newt was standing beside.

"You are way ahead of the harvesters now, I see. What I need you to do is help me straighten her legs out so we can measure them," Newt explained.

The process of straightening the legs was labour-intensive as they had all curled up and rigour mortis had set in.

They had to unlock the joints in the legs one at a time before Newt could get the measurement and Newt could jot them down on his clipboard.

It took them about an hour but eventually, they had measures for all eight legs and the two arm-like appendages under the spider's pinchers, which Newt called pedipalps, then they moved on to measuring the circumference of her abdomen.

"I'm afraid there is one more task we have to do," Newt said somewhat regretfully.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"We have to destroy the female egg her body created when she died," Newt said as he reached into his pocket and removed a wooden case before unshrinking it.

When Newt opened the case Harry saw a collection of knives that wouldn't be out of place in a butcher shop.

"And we have to cut it out of her?" Harry asked.

"Yes, but seeing as you're the apprentice I will instruct you while you remove the egg," Newt said with the barest hint of a smirk on his lips.

Harry picked up a knife with a finely serrated edge that looked like a bone saw before heading to the larger of two openings on the underside of her abdomen near where the abdomen connected to the thorax and began sawing the thick exoskeleton around the opening that was about as big around as a grapefruit.

"Excellent you have been studying acromantula anatomy I see," Newt exclaimed happily.

"Yes, I looked over the chapter on acromantula in that book you sent me," Harry admitted as he succeeded in cutting a twelve-inch by twelve-inch square out of the exoskeleton and peeled it away from the spider's abdomen.

"Excellent, now I have to warn you this next part will be very unpleasant. I need you to make an incision to widen the opening then reach into the gonopore and pull the egg out," Newt instructed.

"Right," Harry said as he put the bone saw back in the case before taking a long thin blade from the case.

It was truly disgusting work, after making the four incisions in the sides of the gonopore, he had to reach his arm into the spider all the way to the shoulder and fumble around in the cold slimy abdomen of the massive spider until he gripped a round leathery ball about the size of a quaffle and slowly began to pull it out.

After a lot of pulling and tugging Harry managed to pull the egg free from the spider, it finally slipped out of the gonopore with a disgusting wet slurping sound slinging slime all over Harry's robes as he caught it before it could hit the ground.

The egg was a pinkish red and almost perfectly round, it had a transparent leathery membrane and Harry could just make out a tiny spider in the centre of the egg its little legs curled up underneath it suspended in a reddish-pink fluid.

"Well done, this is what a female egg looks like," Newt explained taking the egg from him and looking it over in interest.

"How do you know it's a female egg?" Harry asked as he attempted to remove the slime that was covering his arm with his wand, the stench of the spider was really starting to get to him.

"The egg is too large to pass through the gonopore," Newt explained as he placed the egg on the ground and pointed his wand at it before casting a spell that made the juices in the egg start to bubble as if they were boiling.

"Oh, then how does she lay the egg?" Harry asked as he succeeded in removing the slime from his arm and the sleeve of his robes.

"As I said before, the adult female only produces a female egg when it's very near death. The egg is meant to hatch inside the mother and the newborn female will feed on its mother for the next few months. When it finally gets big enough the new female will force its way through the mother's exoskeleton," Newt explained.

"So in a way the mother is the egg," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Essentially yes," Newt agreed as he pulled a familiar suitcase out of his pocket and set it flat on the ground before opening the lid.

"Bella really should count herself lucky she isn't a spider," Harry muttered.

"Indeed, I'm just going to set the egg in my office," Newt said before he began climbing into his suitcase.

Harry watched him slowly descend into the suitcase before he decided to get back to tying ribbons on the spider's legs that way the harvesters wouldn't have to wait on him.

It was a few hours later that the ministry workers began portkeying the spider corpses that had already been processed to an undisclosed location to be incinerated.

Harry was impressed at how fast they worked, there was a good twenty foot stretch of ground clear now. At this rate, he figured they would have them all processed within the month.

"We can call it a day," Harry," Newt said from the other side of the clearing.

After getting the measurements of Aarogog and his mate, Newt had been taking measurements of the adult acromantula to get an average of the spiders in this colony.

"Great, what's the count so far?" Harry asked as he handed Newt the sacks of ribbons which he quickly tossed in his open suitcase.

"Five hundred and forty-three adults, eight hundred and thirty-seven juveniles," Newt said after checking the clipboard.

"I think I should be done with tying the ribbons tomorrow," Harry said.

"I have enough baseline measurements so I can help you finish up the tagging so we can get out of the ministry's way," Newt said patting him on the shoulder.

"Where are we going next?" Harry asked curiously.

"A dragon reserve in Wales, have you encountered dragons before?" Newt asked curiously.

"I have, I've actually witnessed a Norwegian Ridgeback hatching before," Harry admitted.

"Good, that's actually why we're going to the reserve," Newt explained as they started walking through the forest.

"We're going to see a hatching?" Harry asked intrigued.

"Yes, they have a welsh green who has a clutch of eggs that should hatch within the next two weeks," Newt explained.

"So what should I do until then?" Harry asked.

"Study that book I sent you and take your wife out somewhere nice," Newt suggested.

"Great idea, I might also neglect to tell her about the dragons," Harry grinned.

"You're a quicker learner," Newt nodded approvingly.

"She wasn't thrilled about the spiders," Harry shrugged.

"Nor was Tina," Newt admitted as they stepped out of the forest onto the grounds near Hagrid's hut.

Harry noticed the cabin was sealed up and wondered where Hagrid was, he hoped the man hadn't gotten in too much trouble over the acromantula.

"That's the groundskeeper's hut, he has been taken into custody, I think he will avoid Azkaban but it will be close," Newt said when he saw where Harry was looking.

"I kind of feel bad for the guy," Harry confessed when they got close to the front gates.

"As do I, he is a good man but underestimates how dangerous some magical creatures can be," Newt said tiredly.

"I'll see you soon, Newt," Harry grinned before disappearing with a soft 'pop.'

"Cheeky bastard," Newt chuckled as he disapparated away from the grounds of Hogwarts.

Hogwarts Head's Office, 1/28/1983, 19:35

Albus collapsed into his chair and sighed tiredly. He had managed to get Hagrid's sentence reduced to community service.

Hagrid would be staying at the facility all of the acromantula corpses had been transported to, he would be feeding them into the furnace to work off his sentence.

Albus knew working there would be very difficult for Hagrid, that was most likely the reason that Scrimgeour had suggested the punishment in the first place. Then again Hagrid could handle moving tbe spiders by hand when it would take three wizards to levitate an adult acromantula, so it would keep the cost down at the CDF.

The creature destruction facility was top secret only the higher-ups in the ministry even knew it existed. The CDF as it was referred to, was a decommissioned muggle steel mill, the blast furnace had been enlarged and repurposed to incinerate magical creatures that had been harvested for potion ingredients or wand cores, died of old age, or was executed by the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous creatures which were in charge of the facility.

As awful as the place was, it did serve an important purpose, they couldn't very well leave magical creatures to rot somewhere and risk the muggles finding them and exposing the existence of the magical world.

Muggles already knew about a lot of ancient dragon species thanks to palaeontologists digging them up and putting them on display in museums, though they believed them to be prehistoric mundane creatures from millions of years ago.

Hagrid working at the facility meant the ministry would be getting free labour at the creature destruction facility. The ministry was making out quite well from the acromantula colony. Though on the bright side, this windfall would mean a tax break for the citizens of Magical Britain.

Still, Albus was pleased with how things had gone with the acromantula, the muggleborn scholarship fund was flush with gold, the school had forty brand new broomsticks, and he was able to replace equipment in the potion labs that had been in use since the eighteenth century.

Yes, the students would benefit greatly from the destruction of the acromantula colony.

He had even planned to allow Professor Kettleburn to take his classes to the acromantula clearing to study the creatures while the ministry processed them.

Professor Kettleburn had been thrilled, he had been trying to talk Albus into letting him take his classes into the forest for years now but Albus had always refused because of the dangers the acromantula posed to humans. Now he had lifted that ban so the students could enter the forest once again, with adult supervision of course.

Yes, all was going well until this morning when he received a summons from the board of governors to meet with them on the first of March, they wanted to know why he had never done anything about the acromantula colony.

He was already dreading that meeting as he really had no good answer for that.

Albus had always had a soft spot for Hagrid, the way he was treated after being accused of opening the chamber of secrets had sickened the aged wizard.

So he had talked Professor Dippet into letting Hagrid stay in Og's cabin as the groundskeeper's assistant until the surly old man retired.

Og had retired from Hogwarts the same year as Professor Dippet stepped down as headmaster and passed the running of the school to him, Albus' first order of business had been to hire Hagrid as the new groundskeeper.

It was a decade later that he discovered the acromantula colony and he allowed them to stay against his better judgement because he knew how much Hagrid cared for Aragog.

Now those chickens were coming home to roost, he would be lucky if he avoided suspension for turning a blind eye to the dangers the acromantula colony presented to the students.

On the upside, from what he had gleaned Mr Peverell seemed to genuinely like working with magical creatures. Albus had observed him working with Newt in the clearing and Mr Peverell was eager to do whatever task was requested of him.

Peverell's affinity with creatures could explain his success with Fenrir and his pack last October and eased the headmaster's worries about the man.

This was unimportant at present, he would have to put his fascination with Harry Peverell aside and worry about keeping his head off of the chopping block.

'You've really done it this time, Hagrid old boy,' Dumbledore thought to himself as he popped a lemon drop in his mouth.

Peverell Beach House, Cornwall, 1/30/1983, 09:43

Harry awoke from an excellent sleep, he had been very busy of late and was looking forward to some time off.

"Good morning, Harry," Bellatrix said from her side of the bed.

Bella's tummy was really starting to swell now that she was entering her final trimester. Andromeda had been coming over to stay with her while Harry was working since Bella could no longer apparate or travel by portkey and needed a spotter to catch her if she travelled by floo.

"Good morning, how did you sleep?" Harry asked.

"Not well with these two dancing on my bladder all night," Bella said as she rubbed her stomach.

The babies had started kicking a few weeks ago and Harry was fascinated every time he placed his hand on her stomach and felt them moving.

"We're almost there, just a few more months," Harry said soothingly as he rolled over to look at her.

"I know, Bella can't wait until they're out," Bellatrix sighed.

"Be careful what you wish for, from what I've heard babies are quite a handful in the first six months and only get worse when they learn to walk," Harry grinned.

"Bella's babies will be perfect angels," Bellatrix said confidently.

"Oh I'm sure they will, but if they take after me they will always find trouble wherever they go," Harry predicted.

"I hope they are like me then," Bella grinned.

"Yes, I'm sure you were perfectly behaved," Harry chuckled.

"Indeed, what are we going to do today?" Bellatrix asked curiously.

"I thought we would go to the alley for a bit, maybe go somewhere for lunch," Harry shrugged.

"That sounds nice, I need some new clothes," Bella said thoughtfully.

"So do I," Harry admitted as he stretched before getting out of bed.

Harry had a couple of weeks off and he planned to spend some quality time with his wife while he could.

Coming out of the bathroom he passed Bella as she made her way in to get ready for the day, Harry quickly got dressed and made his way to the dining room.

Harry sat down at the table and his breakfast appeared in front of him, (full English this morning) and dug in with gusto.

He had just popped a tomato in his mouth when the delivery owl landed n front of him, summoning three knuts to slip before slipping them in the bird's pouch he unfurled the paper as the bird took flight.

Harry was surprised to see his name in the headline, top of the fold no less.

Acromantula Colony Destroyed in Forbidden Forest! Newt Scamander and Harry Peverell Heroes to Britain!

by: Rita Skeeter

It has always been known that dangers lurk in the Forbidden Forest, as a young Hogwarts student I remember hearing tales from the upper years about werewolves, vampires, and all sorts of man-eating monsters living in the forest. Later in life, I believed that these were tales only meant to frighten the students and that the forest was just like any other. Unfortunately, dear readers, that is not the case. On the twenty-eighth of January, a ministry harvesting team arrived in the Forbidden Forest four miles East of Hogwarts school to process the largest recorded acromantula colony outside of the Island of Borneo in modern history. If you are not aware, an acromantula is a large XXXXX creature that resembles a gigantic tarantula and is known to feed on anything smaller than themselves. After a bit of digging, I learned that the ministry working with the legendary magizoologist Newton Scamander and his handsome young assistant Harry Peverell began setting up wards to trap the colony before deploying vaporized potion to humanely exterminate this danger to the students of Hogwarts. Recent evidence has come to light that one Rubeus Hagrid Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts school was responsible for introducing this invasive species into the Forbidden forest. Mr Hagrid has since been taken into custody by ministry aurors but this leads us to question, why did Albus Dumbledore let this situation go unchecked? Are the children of Magical Britain really safe attending Hogwarts under a headmaster who allowed thousands of XXXXX creatures to remain so close to the esteemed school? And should Rubeus Hagrid have ever been allowed to work at Hogwarts school in the first place? We can only hope the ministry and the Hogwarts board of governors do what's right for the sake of our children who are the future of our world. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Mr Newton Scamander and Mr Harry Peverell for taking care of this problem and ensuring the safety of all the students who attend Hogwarts now and in the future. I will be following this story as it progresses and can only hope the ministry and the board of governors punish those responsible for this accordingly.

For more on the exploits of Newton Scamander see pages 3,5 and 6.

For more on Harry Peverell see page 4.

For the history of Rubeus Hagrid see pages 7 and 9.

The article was accompanied by a black and white photograph of him and Newt walking out of the forest and onto the Hogwarts lawn, it must have been taken the day he removed the egg from the female because his robes were stained from the blueish slime blood mixture he had been covered in that day.

Harry could only shake his head in disbelief, as much as Harry disliked Dumbledore he felt some amount of sympathy for the man. It was very possible that this one article could end his career as headmaster of Hogwarts.

The article had nothing but praise for him which would only strengthen his sister-in-law's resolve to push the Peverell name to prominence. Though he had no interest in politics this article would be good for his career in magizoology. He had made a headline in a national paper for his contributions to the field and that would open doors for him in the future.

He only hoped he didn't have to exterminate any more magical creatures as that could gain him negative attention from others in the field.

The next assignment Newt had planned was much more to his liking, he would prefer to care for creatures rather than kill them and baby dragons were cute in their own way. He had interacted with adult dragons before, hell he had even ridden one out of Gringotts and somehow came out of the experience alive.

He did find them fascinating though he had no desire to specialize in them as the thought of working inside a dragon's mouth to heal a case of ragged-tooth sent a shiver up his spine.

"You made the front page!" Bella exclaimed in excitement.

Harry jerked in surprise as he hadn't noticed her enter the dining room.

"Yes, I know. I just hope that Cissa doesn't see this," Harry said in resignation.

"Oh she'll see it, she probably read it before the article was printed. She's good friends with Martha Cuffe, that's how she stays so well informed," Bellatrix said distractedly as she read the article and then turned to read the other article about him.

"She mentions your encounter with Greyback," Bellatrix said after a minute of silent reading.

"I figured she would, anything else?" Harry asked as he finished his breakfast.

"Just that you recently wed Bellatrix Black a beautiful daughter of the upstanding Black family and that we're expecting a child soon," Bellatrix grinned.

"Well at least she put in the important part," Harry smiled.

Harry waited for Bellatrix to finish her breakfast before he led her to the fireplace. He stepped into the green flames first and called out, " Diagon Alley."

Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley, 1/30/1983, 11:26

Harry stepped out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron and waited in front of the fireplace. A few seconds later Bella stumbled out and Harry rushed forward to steady her.

Her centre of gravity was understandably out of wack so she required someone to catch her on the other end when she travelled by floo.

The patrons all turned their way and cheered loudly, clapping and whistling. Harry got a distinct feeling of deja vu, this reminded him of the first time he had entered this establishment on his eleventh birthday.

Harry and Bellatrix were besieged by wizards and witches coming up and thanking him for making Hogwarts safe for their children, he shook what felt like hundreds of hands before he could make it to the door leading out the back of the pub.

"Finally!" Harry exclaimed when the stepped out facing the brick wall that opened into Diagon Alley.

"You seem very popular?" Bella giggled.

"Yeah, it reminded me of my childhood," Harry admitted.

I dread our return trip," Bella sighed as the archway formed in the brick wall.

"So do I," Harry said as they stepped into the alley and made their way toward Twilfitt and Tattings, Harry was accosted by more well-wishers along the way but they finally made it to the shop.

"Congratulations my love, you're a celebrity," Bellatrix snickered as they stepped into the shop.

"It will die down... I hope," Harry said as he turned and headed to the other side of the shop to pick out some new work robes.

"I think I will go look through the maternity wear," Bellatrix said before waddling her way to the other side of the shop.

Harry ended up picking out seven winter robes and just as many summer work robes, he took them up to the seamstress so she could get his measurements and tailor them to fit him.

It was was after he had finished up his shopping and had arranged for his purchases to be delivered to his home, that the bell tinkled and a familiar elderly woman wearing a vulture topped hat stepped through the door pushing a toddler in an old fashioned stroller.

"Mr Peverell," the woman said coldly.

"Madam Longbottom," Harry said curtly bowing his head respectfully.

"I saw that you purged the forest of those eight-legged horrors," Augusta said stiffly.

"I helped," Harry corrected.

"I also saw that your death eater wife is with child," Augusta added ignoring his previous statement.

"She is, though she was proven innocent of her crimes and I will ask that you not cast baseless accusations against her," Harry said with a warning edge to his voice.

"Baseless accusations hell! My son and his wife are drooling vegetables because of that woman and her cohorts!" Augusta shrieked.

"I believe Barty Crouch Jr. gave evidence to the persons responsible for the state your son and daughter-in-law are in and my wife was not one of them. He gave this testimony under the influence of veritaserum, no less," Harry said irritably starting to get very annoyed with the stubborn old woman.

"She was still part of the party, that attacked my son, she and the LeStrange's forced their way into my home!" Augusta shrieked drawing her wand.

"Use your brains woman! We are in the middle of a shop and your grandson is right in front of you, do you really want to start a fight here?!" Harry asked incredulously.

Augusta looked around and then down at Neville who was looking at Harry curiously. She scowled at Harry hatefully then turned on her heel pushing the carriage back through the door, leaving the shop and slamming the door behind her.

"At least she had sense enough to leave," Bellatrix said from behind a rack of dresses to Harry's right.

"I actually feel sorry for her," Harry sighed.

"I only feel sorry for her grandson," Bella snorted.

"Are you finished shopping?" Harry asked looking at Bella who still seemed pretty riled up.

"Yes, my clothes should be delivered to the house sometime tomorrow," Bella said as she hooked her arm through his and led him out of the shop.

"Where to now?" Harry asked.

"I'm hungry," Bella said as she led him towards the sandwich shop.

Harry knew it was pointless to remind her that they had just eaten breakfast a few hours ago, she was eating for three now and he couldn't pass up a chance to get a French-dip sandwich.

"This was not how I seen this day going," Harry sighed as they took a seat at one of the outdoor tables in front of the Happy Hippogriff.

"Why, Bella had a great day?" Bellatrix asked as the waitress approached them.

"We seem to be attracting a lot of attention," Harry sighed after the waitress left to fill their order.

"Yes, and when we get home I'll give you some more attention," Bella whispered in his ear.

Harry couldn't help but grin, his wife always knew how to turn his frown upside down.

Cambrian Mountain Range, Wales, 2/10/1983, 11:16

Harry and Newt arrived by portkey to the Wales Dragon preserve, they were up in the mountains and it was quite cold, in the distance they could see dragons flying high in the air circling the mountains.

"They are hunting," Newt said when he saw where Harry's gaze was directed.

"I'm surprised they let them fly that high," Harry admitted.

"We don't have much choice in the matter, if the dragons don't get enough exercise they can develop all sorts of ailments and their heartstrings would not be useful for wand cores," A gruff voice said to the left.

They had arrived in a valley between the mountains with a bunch of canvas tents set up, the man that spoke was just stepping out of one of the tents.

The man was stockily built and on the taller side standing around five-ten. It was obvious he spent a lot of time outdoors as the parts of his face that were visible were well-tanned, he had curly brown hair and a full beard. Harry would guess the man was in his mid-forties,.

"Ah, Good to see you again Arnold, meet my apprentice, Harry Peverell," Newt said gesturing to Harry.

"Arnold Pillsworth, I read about you in the paper," Arnold said offering Harry his hand.

"Pleased to meet you," Harry said shaking hands and noticing that the man's hand was covered in callouses.

"You said that Bertha's clutch is hatching?" Newt asked excitement clear in his tone.

"Yeah, we have to observe her from a good distance she's right nasty at the moment," Arnold chuckled.

"They usually are," Newt nodded almost impatiently.

"Follow me we have a bit of a hike ahead of us," Arnold said as he lead them to a trail that went up the Eastern side of the mountains not far from the camp.

Harry walked behind Arnold glancing out over the surrounding land noticing lakes dotting the landscape, there were vast expanses of moorland and a few meadows where he could just make out men and women herding sheep.

"How big is this reserve?" Harry asked as they started climbing higher up the mountain.

"Quite large, those fields by the larger lake is where we raise livestock to feed the dragons, we have the whole area warded in muggle repelling charms," Arnold said as they headed into a copse of trees.

"This is one of the largest reserves in the world," Newt added.

"Try to stay in the treeline those two in the air usually only go after the sheep but occasionally they will take a dive at one of our boys when they go out in the open, the dragons can be territorial," Arnold warned pointing to the two dragons circling the area.

They soon neared the top of the mountain and Arnold led them down a side trail that came to the edge of a sheer rock cliff looking down into a small glacial trough forming a perfect U shape that ran up the side of the mountain across from them.

"This is as close as you can get, her nest is in the trough about halfway up the mountain," Arnold said.

"Excellent," Newt said before pulling out a pair of massive omnioculars that reminded Harry of something the muggle navy would use and a tripod from his magically expanded pocket.

"If you're good here, I have to go take care of the feedings," Arnold said looking at Newt questioningly.

"Go ahead Arnold, we'll be fine," Newt assured him as he set up the omnioculars on the tripod and conjured a chair in front of it before adjusting the tripod legs to get the optics in position.

"I'll be back to check on you two later," Arnold said before making his way back down the trail.

"I brought you a pair of these jumbo-sized omnioculars," Newt said before pulling another pair of optics and a tripod out of his pocket.

Harry was surprised at how lightweight they were, he quickly affixed them to the tripod before conjuring a chair of his own and adjusting the tripod so he could sit in the chair and look through the optics comfortably.

The tripod allowed the omnioculars a wide range of motion and he was easily able to scan the adjacent mountain until he located the nest in a large flat spot a little over halfway up the mountain.

Harry zoomed in so he could clearly see the earthy brown eggs with green speckles, he counted eight eggs in the clutch and the mother would occasionally breathe flame over them.

Harry moved the omnioculars observing that the nest itself was made of stones piled almost as a person would form around a campfire ring. Moving his optic to the mother dragon he noted she was laying on her belly behind the nest with her clawed front legs resting on either side of the nest. She was facing their direction and Harry had a suspicion she knew they were there. Her yellow eyes never left them even when she blew flames over the eggs.

"She knows we're here," Harry said not looking away from his omnioculars.

"Undoubtedly so, they have keen eyesight, they can see sheep from thousands of feet in the air afterall," Newt said unconcernedly.

"I can see eight eggs but no cracking so far," Harry said after moving the optics so he was looking at the nest.

"It won't be long, she is blowing flame over the eggs every three minutes or so, I predict they will start hatching within the next few hours," Newt said as he pulled a notebook and a dicta quill out of his pocket before hastily going back to looking through the omnioculars.

"She seems very agitated," Harry commented.

"Yes, she does," Newt said thoughtfully.

They watched the nest for at least an hour, the female getting more agitated as time went by. According to what he had read the mother is usually quite docile at a nest site unless approached by a predator. Seeing there was no change in the eggs Harry started looking at the area around the nest, it didn't take long to find something unusual.

"Oh bugger! Harry muttered as he started panning his optic further down the trough where he saw the unmistakable blur of humans under a disillusionment charm.

" What is it?" Newt asked curiously.

"There are people are approaching the nest under disillusionment charms," Harry said making out six disillusioned outlines.

"Poachers," Newt said with a scowl.

"You mean they're after her eggs?" Harry asked as he watched the men climbing closer to the nest.

"Yes, dragon eggs fetch a hefty price in the seedier areas, they are useful in certain potions," Newt said sounding distressed.

"Should we try and stop them?" Harry asked.

"I don't know how we could," Newt said softly.

"I have an idea but it could be dangerous," Harry admitted.

"You can't fly a broom on this preserve, those two in the sky would tear you to shreds," Newt warned.

"Actually I was planning on summoning the poachers to us," Harry admitted.

"Best move the optics first, they are frightfully expensive," Newt said with a grin.

After they moved the omnioculars out of the way Harry raised his wand and bellowed, " Accio Dragon poachers," concentrating on the disillusioned men he knew were headed towards the dragon nest, he pushed a lot of magic into the spell.

Harry didn't see anything at first and thought the spell had failed until he saw transparent blurs flying at him. Harry rolled out of tbe way as a series of thuds were heard as the poachers slammed into the ground he had been standing on a moment before.

Harry cast a red paint spell that covered the men before he started firing nonverbal stunning spells, taking two of them out of the fight before they could get their bearings. Another fell to a stunning spell from Newt before the other three got to their feet and began returning fire.

"Who the 'ell are ya?" One demanded as he fired a piercing hex at Harry's head.

Harry didn't answer choosing to deflect the spell before sending a bone breaker curse at the man's knee followed by a trio of stunning spells aimed at his chest.

The poacher rolled to the right avoiding his spells, Harry followed his movement nailing him with a bludgeoning hex to the face before stunning one of the men that Newt was fighting in the back.

The last man paused when his partner slumped against him and took a stunner to the face from Newt who capitalized on the distraction.

They walked over to the unconscious men and removed their wands before binding their wrists and ankles in ropes.

"I'll send a patronus to the ministry," Newt said breathing heavily before casting a patronus that took the form of a kelpie and seemed to swim through the air heading East towards London.

"I admit that I'm impressed, these poachers are usually quite skilled with a wand," Newt said as he started rapping them on the heads with his wand cancelling their disillusionment charm.

"We only managed to take them down so easily because we had the element of surprise," Harry shrugged.

"The paint was a nice touch, would you watch them while I document the nest? I will set your omnioculars up to record in case they start hatching, so you can review anything you missed," Newt asked.

"Sure," Harry agreed as Newt set the optics back up and focused the one Harry had been using on the nest before hitting the record feature.

About ten minutes later Harry had taken a seat on the ground with his back against a tree when Newt called out, " The mother seems to have calmed a lot, she must have picked up their scent."

"Isn't there a scent masking potion they could have used?" Harry asked.

"There is but it's made for topical use and it doesn't cover the scent coming from the mouth and rectum, a dragon has an amazing sense of smell and is too smart to be fooled by the potion. They know what our breath and farts smell like," Newt chuckled.

Before Harry could reply there was the sound of trudging feet coming down the path and a familiar redheaded auror approached him with four aurors walking behind her.

"Mr Peverell, what trouble have you caused now?" Amelia asked a hint of amusement in her tone.

"You wound me Auror Bones, we called because me and Mr Scamander apprehended some poachers trying to steal dragon eggs," Harry said indicating the bound men on the ground painted bright red.

"Why are they all painted red?" a tall blond auror asked from Amelia's right.

"They were under disillusionment charms, I hit them with a paint spell so I could track them," Harry answered noticing the corner of Amelia's lips twitch slightly.

"They are all alive?" Amelia asked warily.

"They are, though the big one took a bludgeoner to the head," Harry assured her before presenting her their wands.

"Very well Savage, Dawlish and Proudfoot take them to the holding cells," Amelia ordered as she pulled an evidence bag out of her pocket and dropped the wands in before sealing the bag.

"Yes ma'am," the tall blond auror said before he and two others began levitating the poachers back down the path.

" How do you know they were going to steal dragon eggs?" a young dark-skinned auror with a familiar earring asked.

"We saw them approaching the nest," Newt answered not looking away from his omnioculars.

"Where is the nest?" Amelia asked looking around nervously.

"Come over here, I'll show you," Harry said leading her to his onnioculars.

Amelia took a seat in the chair and looked through the omnioculars and gasped.

"That has to be over half a mile from here," Amelia exclaimed.

"I think it's a bit further than that maybe a thousand yards or so," Newt said distractedly.

"So how did you get them here?" Amelia asked still looking through Harry's omnioculars.

"Overpowered summoning charm," Harry answered amused at how interested Amelia seemed to be in the dragon nest.

"Alright, we'll run them through interrogation I think I can get clearance to use truth serum," Amelia said as she got up from Harry's seat.

"We might need to have you and Mr Scamander come by the ministry to give a statement in the next few days," Auror Shacklebolt said.

"Not a problem Auror...

" Shacklebolt," Kingsley answered.

"Pleased to meet you Auror Shacklebolt," Harry said politely.

"Alright Shack let's get to the office and start processing the red guys," Amelia said as she led him down the path.

"I take it you know her?" Newt asked.

"Yes, she is marrying the head of my wife's house," Harry said as he took his seat and scanned the nest.

Harry noticed the mother's posture had relaxed and she was laying with her head on the ground sending gentle gouts of flame over the eggs.

"The poachers must have really had her on edge," Harry muttered.

"Yes, she looks as if she's about to take a nap now," Newt chuckled.

There was not much change for a while, the mother dragon was very relaxed and only had one eye open, directed at their location.

Harry focused back on the eggs again, the gouts of flame obscured his view every thirty seconds now. Harry saw in between flashes of flame that a crack was starting to appear on top of one of the teardrop-shaped eggs.

"Do you see the egg on the far right, I think it's starting to hatch," Harry said excitedly.

"Great Scott, you're right," Newt said as the crack started to grow wider before the shell seemed to explode outward.

Harry watched as a tiny green dragon chick stumbled around, it resembled a lizard with wings that seemed too large for its tiny body and a long thick neck. It had a lizard-like shape to its head that reminded him of a monitor lizard. There were tiny little spikes on the back of its head the same colour green as its body and it had almost luminescent yellow eyes with jet black slits for pupils.

"It appears to be about sixteen inches from nose to tail and I would estimate a twenty-eight inch wingspan," Newt muttered to the dictaquill.

Harry scanned to the other eggs and noticed they were all cracking now and one by one the shells exploded outward sending dragon chicks tumbling out of them and onto the ground.

"Eight chicks successfully hatched, they all appear to be the same size, at this stage it's impossible to tell males from females," Newt continued to dictate while keeping his eyes on the nest.

Harry watched as the mother leaned her head down and opened her mouth, the chicks flocked to her and began lapping up a reddish- amber coloured liquid that was pooling in her lower jaw.

"Bertha has begun to nurse the chicks with her dragon milk, the chicks seem perfectly healthy...

Harry knew dragon milk was a misnomer, as it was not milk at all. Dragon fire was created by a special high proof alcohol their bodies naturally metabolized, it was actually very similar to undiluted brandy. When mixed with the fermented meat and blood from the mother's stomach it created a nutritional liquid that would speed up growth in dragon chicks.

Wizards could raise a dragon chick with a brandy and chicken blood formula but they would always grow slower than dragon chicks raised by their mother as there were processes involved in making the milk that still wasn't fully understood.

" So what do you think we should do next, Harry?" Newt asked.

"We should come back and observe them for the next few weeks and document their growth cycle. Hell if Bella wouldn't flay me alive I'd say we should camp out here for the next month," Harry chuckled.

"I agree to both, women don't like it when you ignore them to watch creatures," Newt said sagely.

They spent the rest of the day watching the chicks before they decided to pack up around four-thirty.

"Here's the portkey, take it with you and we can meet up here around eight tomorrow morning," Newt said before he handed Harry a twelve-inch stretch of rope.

"Will do, I just hope today's little adventure doesn't end up in the Prophet," Harry chuckled as they started walking down the trail towards the dragon handlers' camp.

When they entered the valley they were met by a smiling Arnold Pillsworth.

" Thank you both, we saw the poachers being led out, according to Auror Proudfoot they were caught red-handed trying to steal Bertha's eggs, Arnold said chuckling at his own joke.

"That was Harry's doing," Newt said before he spun on the spot with a loud 'pop.'

"He loves to do that, no manners at all. We'll be returning in the morning. Bertha's eggs all hatched, when we left they were feeding," Harry Told Arnold shaking his head at Newt's abrupt departure.

"You're welcome here anytime, eggs have been going missing around here for years, I'm jus' glad somebody finally got caught," Arnold grinned.

"I need to get home but thanks for letting us come here," Harry said shaking Arnold's hand before apparating home for the night.

"All in all today was a pretty good day,' Harry thought as he appeared on the beach in front of his home.