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Published:2022-11-20Updated:2024-09-01Words:328,865Chapters:61/?Comments:5,091Kudos:6,170Bookmarks:2,718Hits:367,800
(Restricted) A Stranger in a Strange Land
A_Strange_Twist_of_Fate
Chapter 2: Old Valyria
Notes:
So I've been thinking about how to deal with the language barrier and I've settled on: Latin and High Valyria are very similar, like Spanish and Portuguese which have a lexical similarity of 90%. I'm going off of Latin being taught in Hogwarts because it makes sense to me that the students would learn the language that they use to cast spells, even if it's not really canon (but this is canon divergence and crossover.
Now, Hariel isn't super great at speaking Latin...but she knows enough, so it'll add a little the barrier where she struggles to remember how to speak it and some of the words don't translate right.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hariel #2
"There is no way back?" Hariel repeated, in English.
The Ironback's eyes remained steady on her, and Hariel couldn't tell if she was grateful or angry at that. She was stuck here, in this ruined land of once dragons, because she'd mistakenly said yes to wanting to go home with the dragon. Then the dragon had performed some sort of spell, dragonmagic, that she'd been prevented from performing while chained, enthralled, and spelled dumb and lethargic and that she could only do once to bring her back to the land of her people.
Because Hariel and she had bonded she'd taken Hariel with her -- although the dragon did not seem to understand why her home came with her. At least that is what the dragon had explained to Hariel after she'd killed the weird fire-creature that had attacked them.
She wanted to scream. She wanted to bash her head, tear at her hair, and scream at the sky -- and then laugh. Was this not perfectly her? Was this not how all of her problems started? Because she said something, did something, without thinking and the consequences hit her in the face, full force, afterwards.
The dragon watched her, and her head loomed down to nudge at her shoulder and Hariel's anger bloomed bright and brilliant -- but she also found herself calming at the touch. She brought her hand up to rub against the dragon's muzzle -- and she'd have to find a name for the dragon, wouldn't she? She was all Hariel had now -- and she tried to bite back the anger that rose at that -- and she couldn't think of her as just 'dragon' forever?
At least for now. If there was a way to return, Hariel would find it. She would look, she would not sit down and give up. But, for now, this dragon and this house was all she had.
"I have stolen you." the dragon said, and Hariel couldn't quite peg the feeling she said it with. Mournful and yet vindictive, perhaps?
"You did." Hariel could not help the anger that colored her voice. " But you were stolen, too. You did not know. We did not know."
She would do her best to not lash out. She was an adult now, at least by wizarding standards, and she would not let her anger get the better of her. Not now at least. She could blast apart some of these already ruined buildings later, when everything settled in and didn't feel like she was walking into a dream.
" Artemis." Hariel said, decidedly. She watched the metallic silver-sheen of the dragon's -- of Artemis' -- body and said again. "I am going to call you Artemis."
"Artemis. I will be Artemis, then, and you will be Skybringer, for you have brought me back to the sky." Artemis said, her muzzle nudging again against Hariel's shoulder.
Later that night, when the realization hit Hariel again, when the empty wound that was Ron and Hermione and everyone else being gone and away from her hit her again full force, Hariel screamed at the sky and destroyed so many buildings she lost count as Artemis soared above her and let the sky taste her fire.
-
The land that Hariel had been brought to was…well, to be frank, it was dangerous. More of those fire worms were around and some of them rivaled Artemis in size. Some of them beat Artemis in size, too. Grimmauld was protected enough that nothing went near it, or noticed it, but Hariel was much more worried about something happening to Artemis as she slept.
She also couldn't live out her entire life never leaving the house. That had driven Sirius mad -- or madder than he'd been after Azkaban, at least.
Valyria, wherever this was, whatever it had been -- now it was a ruined land of monsters and death. There had to be more land out there, other places to be, but as much as Grimmauld had been a tomb of dust, bad memories, and pain it was also all that Hariel had from home that was familiar. It had protection, it had the library that Hariel desperately needed, it had clothes and running, clean water and everything else she could possibly need.
She couldn't leave before she figured out how to take it with her. Unfortunately, Artemis' magic that had brought them here had been blood magic. No words spoken, just blood, a tie to an old land that was long dead, and blood that bound the two and allowed herself to return. Artemis didn't know how Grimmauld had followed, and didn't know how to make it follow them if they left.
At the very least Hariel managed, after three days of constant threat of death by fire worm, to extend the Fidelius Charm enough that Artemis could comfortably sleep within the line of protection without worry of attack. Hariel had to go with her on a hunt, though, so that she could eat without looking over her shoulder for a fireworm to burst from the ground and take a chunk out of her.
Not that there was much to hunt, though. Fireworms, mostly, and Artemis despised the taste. There were some smaller creatures here and there, full of fur and that vaguely resembled a cross between a rabbit and a deer, but they were small and few between that Artemis could not live on them alone.
Grimmauld was also not exactly teeming with food. While Artemis could eat the creatures that lived here, Hariel was less sure about herself. So she found herself rationing her food and pouring over books in the hopes that she could find a way to remove Grimmauld. Otherwise, she'd have to choose what to take with her because her food supply was dangerously low.
Which, of course, is when Artemis let her know that she had laid her eggs -- two months after they've arrived.
" I…did not realize you were with child. Children. Eggs?" Hariel said, eyes wide, as she watched Artemis drag in debris to add to her nest.
She then settled around the three eggs that lay in the center and Hariel studied them. Two were so dark a gray that they were almost black, and the third that shone like freshly polished silver. They were large, two, about the size of her head and looked thick and heavy. Artemis settled down around them comfortably and then watched Hariel with her large red eyes.
" It is recent. There are no other dragons. I am alone. I need to make children, that I may not be the only one." Artemis said. She nestled into her burrow of broken buildings, the broken couch and cushions that Hariel had given her, cloth, and fire worm skin and seemed content for the first time in days.
She had raged with Hariel. Both had lost their homes, really, and it was this knowledge that was like a balm to Hariel's anger. She had let the sky taste her fire, and when that was not satisfying enough, she had let the ground, the fireworms, and the buildings taste her fire, too. Hariel had even joined her with a few Bombardas -- although she'd felt guilty enough afterwards that she had repaired two of the buildings. Had she not said that she was an adult now, and wouldn't have tantrums -- and then turned around and had a tantrum?
At least there was no one to be embarrassed around. Artemis had approved of the destruction her spells had wrought, and had been confused as to why Hariel had decided to fix what she had destroyed.
The buildings had been massive. Huge, they towered over her like trolls. They were even bigger than the skyscrapers Hariel had seen muggles make. They had been like nothing Hariel had ever seen, and when she ventured inside it too it had been even more mystifying as some of the furniture that had been inside had been fixed. Even though she hadn't been able to fix everything -- perhaps it was the time, or the fact that everything was so splineted that not every bit remained -- the not wholly fixed building were impressive.
" But…if there isn't a male dragon…" Hariel started, confused.
" One does not need a mate to have daughters. That is how my mother had me, how her mother had her, and how I will have mine." Artemis said.
Her deep red eyes turned to Hariel and she moved her massive head forward, closer to Hariel's shoulder. " Will you not make daughters, Skybringer?"
Hariel could feel her face flush red and hot. She coughed, twice, into her fist. " Um, no, I do need…ugh, a mate. And I am a bit young, I think, to have a child. I would like a family some day -- but even if I wanted to now I would need to find, ugh, a. Ugh, a mate."
The thought made her flush even harder. She had fancied Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory, and Charlie Weasley at different points in her life --- but she'd never been on a real date unless one counted taking Luna to Slughorn's party as a date. But that had been as friends only. She didn't even really count taking Ron to the Yule Ball because they'd both only done so out of desperation to have someone to dance with, and her because she was required to go.
She'd never really thought much of dating -- let alone marrying and having a child -- because she'd spent so much time trying to not die.
She did want a family, though, Desperately. Children of her own, a spouse to come home to. A large family. She'd always dreamed of it.
That wasn't what was important now, though. The question left her aching and tired but she had other concerns, more pressing concerns. Like were there more people -- more humans around, somewhere? What was this place like, this home world of dragons? Artemis knew so little of her own home, only what was passed down from her sire and so on, but she knew that there were lands outside of Valyria.
She knew less about them than she did Valyria, though.
Then there was the food. Hariel needed more food, these dragons would need more food. Safety was another concern. Heriel couldn't imagine having to keep three baby dragons safe from the creatures that roamed the land.
"How much time do we have?" Hariel asked.
" The hatchlings will be here in three cycles of the moon. I can feel it." She bent down to nuzzle at the eggs, and let out a breath full of steamy hot air as she did so.
Three months. Hariel ran a hand through her hair and nodded.
"I will try my best to make my home mobile, but if in two and a half months -- two and a half cycle of the moon -- if I cannot…I will take what I can and we will have to leave."
--
Rhaenys #1
---
"There must be a mistake of some kind. Who has been telling you such lies? A dragon spotted in the Doom of Valyria." Rhaenys watched as her husband sat, wearily, in front of her.
She sipped from her wine as he sighed, heavily, and ran a hand over his face. He looked tired, but not as much as he had previously. Their daughter's would be marriage to the broke and foolish son of Braavos Sealord had weighed heavy on them all, so when Daemon killed the fool for their daughter's hand two years previously she had hoped that this would ease some of the tension a bit. Would entice her lord husband to stay closer to the land, closer to Driftmark that they might spend time with their true born grandchild. Laena had given them two already, twin daughters as lovely as the moon itself.
It had not worked. Even with their true born granddaughter's beckoning him home, even with her waiting for him, Corlys Velaryon sailed off to every corner of the world that he might turn over every rock, pebble, and stone. That he might sail every sea, lake, ocean, river. Pond, mayhaps, she thought when she could not contain the bitterness any longer.
"Would anyone but my brother have come to me with this claim I would say the same. And yet it is so. A dragon has been spotted in the Doom. Atop a rider." Corlys rubbed at his gray and white beard thoughtfully. "I have been given leave to go to the edge of the Doom to investigate. I would desire aid, though, and would prefer to not take a Scorpion unless strictly necessary."
He was asking her to accompany him, then. Not in so many words, mayhaps, but Rhaenys understood the request her lord husband put before her without it.
A dragon at the Doom -- and a rider. A person. There were so many implications to this if it were true -- but Rhaenys had her doubts. Ambition ran thick in the Velaryon blood, and Vaemond was not exempt from this. She did not doubt that he would make any claim he thought would bring him closer to the Driftmark throne, or that would bring him honor and power. He was not one to keep his discontent quiet, and already with the birth of their trueborn heirs he made his displeasure at Rhaenyra's offspring known.
Yet he turned this over to Corlys, his brother, instead of petitioning the Iron Throne himself that he may sail out and discover this oddity for himself.
Rhaenys could not deny that she was curious. She had never cared to sail, had been even spiteful of the amount of time her husband spent away from her and their home, and yet she could not deny that this sparked a desire in her to set out and see for herself if this dragon and dragonrider were true or merely the delusion of an overly ambitious man.
"When will we leave?" She asked.
Corlys smiled then, and laid his hand on hers over the table. "After we break fast, I think. I will have the men set the ship as you eat."
Rhaenys saddled Meleys herself. She waited at the cliffs for the signal from her husband to set out. The air was crisp and cold on her face, and she loved the thrill that ran through her as she was lifted higher and higher into the air.
She did not know how or why her husband loved the sea so much. She loved flying, yes, but the travel to Valyria was exhausting. At the end of each riding day she had to stretch out her aching limbs, and she found herself longing for her bed. And she rode a dragon, much quicker and more comfortable than riding in a ship and left to the mercy of the sea and its whim. What about this was better than being home?
Meleys stopped close by the ruins of Valyria and Rhaenys gazed upon it as she waited for her husband to catch up to her. He approached her as his ship docked, his gaze fixed on the ruin that was Valyria and the dragon they both spotted off in the distance, so far away it was merely a speck in the sky.
"So it is true." Corlys said.
He had one hand on his sword, although what he expected to do with that sword against a dragon Rhaenys did not know. Mayhaps it brought him comfort. He only held it for a moment, though, before he released it and turned to her.
"I did not see a rider." Corlys said, and his eyes briefly turned back to the flying dragon. "But that would not mean it lacks one. I suppose there is no place to go but forward."
They both eyed the land of Valyria, the land that the Doom had taken. The name Aerea hung heavy between them. There was a reason that setting foot on Valyria was forbidden -- Princess Aerea Targaryan had returned, on Balerion, with such wounds to the both of them that it was unspeakable. Horrifying to think of, and that was just the information the Maesters had thought fit to share.
"We will not go far. Let us try to see if we can lure this dragonrider to us before we step foot on the ground." Rhaenys said after a pause.
If there truly was a rider that was living in the Doom of Valyria then mayhaps it would be safe to set foot on, truely. More, even. Rhaenys had given up her ambition to sit the Iron Throne decades ago -- but the idea of renewing Valyria. New Valyria brought back by her and her husband. Was that not a grand idea?
She let the idea settle in her head and then pushed the idea away. She would not let ambition rule her, but she would not turn away if there was an option. She would wait, see, and learn.
Corlys nodded. Rhaenys mounted Meleys once again and soared high, high into the sky until her husband was nothing but a small speck on the ground. She gazed out at the ruins and was startled when she saw a handful of buildings, surrounded by the waste, perfectly tall and proud as they sat amongst the Doom. She could not see many details but they seemed -- no, they seemed unharmed but that could not be.
At her command Meleys let out a roar that shook the sky, the scarlet of her throat flashing in the sun as she did so. The dragon's attention turned towards them, and Rhaenys braced herself on Meleys. The Red Queen let out another roar, her neck and head moving with challenge.
The dragon did not move towards them, though. It moved down towards the ground. It landed and walked -- its gait was strange, nothing like Rhaenys had ever seen before although it was too far away to see anything other than strangeness.
Then it disappeared. Rhaenys nearly stood in surprise, and instead leaned heavily on her forearms as she leaned forward. Where had it gone? It had taken a few steps forward, away from the tall buildings, and then…had gone.
She gazed down at her husband and nearly commanded Meleys to land when it shot out of nowhere, up into the air, and this time Rhaenys could see a rider on its back. She would not confront this dragonrider in the air, though. Meleyes and she settled back onto the ground, close to Corlys but in front of him enough that she could protect him if necessary.
Now, the question was -- did she get down to confront this dragonrider, where it would be easier to talk but where she would look smaller and hold less power? Or did she stay on her dragon that she may look the dragonrider that she was?
The question was settled for her when the new dragon, a four legged beast with metallic silver scales that glistened like polished silver, landed heavily on the ground and the rider dismounted immediately. She could hold the higher ground, yes, but it would be easier to speak if she was not yelling atop the Red Queen.
She dismounted gracefully and Corlys stepped forward to stand by her side.
"What is your name, Dragonrider?" Corlys called out, his voice easily crossing the distance between the two parties.
Rhaenys studied the dragonrider as they waited for a response. She seemed small in the distance, especially next to her dragon -- and Rhaenys could not help but find herself gazing back at the thing, for it was the weirdest dragon she'd ever seen. It stood on four legs like a horse, and yet was clearly a dragon. The resting, the stomach, the scales -- she had never seen anything like it before.
The woman that rode him had dark, black hair that hung messily around her face and was pulled back at the base of her neck. She wore strange clothes, too. A loose fitting gray tunic and black pants of a soft material that Rhaenys did not recognize. Silver framed metal hung around her eyes.
She gazed at them, and opened her mouth to speak -- and then seemed to struggle for a moment.
"Do you…tongue…ah," the woman said, fumbling, and then tried again. Only, it was a word that meant absolutely nothing. Just complete nonsense.
She spoke in a language that resembled High Valyrian more than anything else, and yet it was…off. Not fully the same, and with an accent that threw Rhaenys off more than the words.
"No, we do not speak….Aenglish." Corlys' eyes turned towards her as he answered.
The woman grimaced, then, but nodded. "My name is Hariel Potter. Who are you? Where do you origin from?"
The first name was unfamiliar, not similar to any Valyrian names Rhaenys knew. The surname was familiar, yet it was odd to hear it. It was accented, but familiar. Potter. Like the Potters of the Reach, a minor noble House with no standing , no real land to speak of, and a small coin purse.
They were barely above the level of the smallfolk. This woman bore a family name that may as well have been a commoner's name, yet she rode a dragon and had settled in Valyria.
"I am called Corlys Velaryon, and this is my wife, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen." Her husband motioned towards her. "Why are you here? It is illegal to step foot on Valyria."
The woman did not seem to recognize either of their names, and seemed surprised to learn that she was not allowed to be here. She half turned back to the ruins, and then stopped and faced them fully again.
"Ah, I am…I apologize. Artemis, my dragon, brought me. She wanted to return to…land of mother. We did not….understand this. Thank you for…to tell me." Her eyebrows furrowed and she had to stop to think every once and a while about what to say.
High Valyrian was clearly not her first language, although she spoke it well enough to be understood at least. It only added to the questions that Rhaenys had, though. Where was this woman from? How and why did she return to Valyria? And with a dragon, too.
"It is not safe. You must leave this place, return with us to Westeros." Rhaenys said, and stepped forward.
The woman grimaced again. "I know safe not. Creatures, like dragon with no wings. Attack all the time. But my home…." She gazed back, then shook her head. "I must gather my things. I must not leave them."
Her gaze turned a little sharper as she watched them. Her eyes turned towards Meleys, and then back towards them.
"I do not understand…do not know if I can leave with you. I do not know you." Her eyes turned towards her dragon and her frown deepened. "Artemis will not trust you with her eggs. They will…be made soon. No, not made."
She paused and seemed to think before she finally exclaimed. "Born! They will be born soon. She will not like strangers around….small dragons."
Rhaenys stilled at that. Dragons, born away from Dragonstone? She'd never heard of it. Obviously, dragons had to be born in Valyria, but after the Doom they had always been born at Dragonstone. Her eyes turned towards the silver dragon -- Artemis, as named by Hariel. But she had also never heard of anyone living in the Doom of Valyria, or this dragonrider with the last name of a commoner and no attributions of Old Valyria to speak of. Mayhaps her eyes would be purple when they got closer, but Rhaenys very much doubted it.
She could threaten the woman, she knew. That they could leave and return with her children's dragons, with the other dragonriders although he would only really need Vhager and Laena. Rhaenys could also accuse this woman, this Hariel, of accusing her of being a thief -- a commoner, dragonrider or not, that has accused a Princess and Lord of the Houses Targaryen and Velaryon of theft.
That did not seem to be the right step, however. This woman's voice seemed young, her expressions earnest, and she'd lived on the land of Old Valyria. Rhaenys did not want to draw blood, or create an enemy out of the unknown.
"It is not safe here for young dragons, either." She said, instead. "But you are correct. We are strangers. Mayhaps we can resolve that problem, then, that we may leave this place together?"
Notes:
added note, I didn't want to add at the beginning because of spoilers for the chapter. There are some species of lizards, snakes, and komodo dragons that will reproduce asexually -- also called parthenogenesis. I could, I suppose, use to hand waving idea of 'it's magic' to explain it but I liked this idea much better. In Whiptail lizards, which reproduce like this, they only have female lizards so it's an all female species which is where I took a lot of inspiration from.
Thanks to everyone who left a review, who bookmarked, or who left a kudos! I love hearing what everyone thinks so thank you!!! <
Edited: 7.4.24 reworded it a bit to make it more clear that when Rhaenys compares the surname Potter (and there is a House Potter in the a reach in the books) that She's being condescending and looking down on a very *minor* noble house and not implying that small folk have surnames.
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