AN: Its been quite a while since I last updated this story, but since my last update I started at a new job with has eliminated the vast majority of my free time. I'm hoping that I will have some more free time soon; but I will have to wait and see. And the writers block im having on chapter 6 isn't helping much either. I'm not going to abandon this story, I want to finish it eventually. Anyways thanks to Fangirling Way past my bedtime for betaing this.

The Rook

"So everyone ready?" Luna's father sounded out towards the other three in the room. After a couple quick nods, he gestured for all of them to grab hold of the rope in his hand. The spell on the portkey activated as the last of the group grabbed it causing them all to disappear inside a swirl of colors. As the world blurred around them, both of the children had a look of amazement, and a hint of nauseousness as they continued to spiral around the piece of rope. After several moments, Pandora gestured for the kids to let go, and after doing so they plummeted into the snow filled ground outside the Potter's retreat; with the two adults walking through the air towards where the children had landed.

After a couple of moments both Harry and Luna managed to stand up and look at the scenery around them. They were currently residing on a small cliff at the base of a snow capped mountain; several hundred feet below the side of the cliff was a large, currently frozen lake that had formed in the valley between several mountains. The sides of the frozen lake was lined in rocky, snow covered shores, after a little ways from the lake's coastline a snow covered pine forest started, that spread throughout much of the valley surrounding the lake; and progressed up the slopes of the mountains till they became too steep. The trees were all covered in several inches of freshly fallen snow, creating an image of a white, frozen wonderland.

Back on the cliff, the group was in a small clearing near its edge, and like the slopes in the valley, the clearing quickly ended into a snow topped pine forest the ascended the slopes of the mountain. The Potter retreat was located in this clearing; it was a simple two story cottage, very similar in its outward design as to what remained of the one in Godric's hollow.

"Where do you think you two are going? Its almost dark, you can explore tomorrow when there is plenty of daylight." Pandora commented as she used a quick spell to keep two excited children from running off.

"Ok." They both replied with a bit of a pout as they followed the adults into the retreat. As they entered the building, the adults noted that the similarities to the cottage in Godric's Hollow wasn't limited to the outside, the inside layout was almost identical to the former cottage. After walking through the entryway, the group went up the stairs and split to head towards their respective bedrooms to unpack; the adults headed towards the master bedroom. While the kids headed towards the other end of the hall; and stopped when they reached where two doors across from each other reside. They looked at each other, and with a quick shrug they both walked through the left side door.

The walls were covered in a simple orange with a red trim lining the top and bottoms of the walls. There was a small four pane window that was currently closed to the outside, that had red curtains covering it; below it was a simple twin bed, abet one that was on the larger side. The sheets and covers were red patterned in orange griffons. There were also a few wall mounted magical candles that were lit to light up the room after the sun went down; besides that the room was fairly spartan. Harry and luna walked towards the bed, and each pulled a shrunken trunk out of their pockets, after they landed on the floor besides the bed, they quickly expanded to their original sizes. After a short period of unpacking, they went downstairs and waited for dinner to be ready.

Earlier, London suburbs

An eight year old, bushy brown haired girl was pulling her wheeled suitcase towards the family car, a white 4-door sedan. Waiting besides the car were the girl's parents; the mother was a thin woman of medium stature with black hair and brown eyes, while her father was a similarly thin man of a taller stature with brown hair and green eyes. The girl handed her suitcase to her father before getting in the back of the car, while he put the suitcase in the trunk with their other luggage; meanwhile her mother got into the car.

It was around midday when the family left their house in the London suburbs, and early afternoon by the time they were on the small jet heading for the swiss alps where their vacation was going to be taking place. They arrived at the swiss airport by late afternoon, and come early evening were outside the newly built ski lodge they were staying at. The lodge was a large four story building built into the side of the mountain, and the outward appearance of the building game the impression it was built out of wood; despite the fact that it was a primarily steel building.

After checking in at the front desk, the family went to their room on the third floor. The room was fairly simple in design, with two large beds,and a couple wall mounted lights. Besides that there was a small dresser in the corner of the room, and a decently sized television that rested on top of it, and between the beds was a small nightstand. The family of three, were able to unpack fairly quickly before heading down to the eating area of the lodge to get some dinner; after that they returned to their room to get some sleep for the start of their vacation tomorrow.

The family was alerted to the following morning as the sun's rays peered in through the window waking them fairly quickly. The little girl was up with the sun's first rays, her excitement almost palpable as she was ready to be outside skiing within 10 minutes; while her parents were still waking up. Her parents were ready after about another 20 minutes, and were outside the lodge on the mountains gentle slope, ready to ski with their daughter. The region outside the lodge was primarily a gentle downward, snowy slope with the sparsely located pine tree; this was the family and kid friendly section of the slopes. While the steeper and more rigorous slopes were located off on either side of the area directly in front of the lodge.

Potter retreat, otherside of the mountain

Despite not being in the direct path of the sun's morning rays; both Harry and Luna were awake and out of their seperate beds within minutes, dressed and jumping on the bed their parents shared shouting "It's morning" with every jump. After a few moments, both adults were stirred from their sleep, and at seeing this the two hyperactive children stopped their jumping before rushing downstairs, awaiting breakfast from the adults.

"They certainly are hyper today." Pandora commented with a chuckle as she continued to wake up. At that they both got out of bed, and a quick swish of their respective wands changed their sleepware into their day clothes. After that they headed downstairs to start breakfast, and a little while later the family was eating pancakes in the dining room. The walls of the room were loosely decorated with a large oak table and ten chairs surrounding dominating the center of the room. There was a medium sized candle lit chandelier hanging above the center of the table.

"You two planning on exploring the area around the retreat today?" Xenophilius commented between mouthfuls.

"Yep!" They both replied during a quick vigorous nod, the excitement clear on their faces.

"Remember to be back before dark." Pandora calmly stated, shortly before the two kids nodded again in agreement. After that the kids finished eating with gusto. After they finished eating they rushed up towards their shared room, putting on the thick winter jackets, mittens and hats they had brought with them. After they finished dressing, they rushed down the stairs, waving to their parents in the process as they rushed out the door and into the snowy clearing. They continued running through the clearing towards the edge of the cliff, and within moments they were in the air plummeting towards the frozen surface of the lake below. The moment they started falling, the effect of gravity overpowering their initial jump, they started shifting towards their dragon forms; growing to 20 feet, 30 feet, and up to their full length within seconds as a set of powerful wings erupted from their shoulder blades. They were fully shifted by the time they were halfway down the cliffside.

The two dragons glanced towards each other, before Harry gave a quick nod towards Luna. After which he opened his fanged mouth and charged a bolt of lightning, after a few moments a inch thick bolt of pale yellow lightning flashed towards the icy surface below. The ice below them was almost a foot and a half thick, but right as the lightning bolt struck the ice, the energy from the bolt superheated the frozen water particles into steam. The energy from the bolt spread outward into the ice, superheating a patch of ice that was a little over a hundred feet in diameter. The steam started rushing up and outward almost instantly after the lightning made contact, engulfing both descending dragons within a couple moments. While the two dragons were diving through the rising steam cloud, as they approached the lake's surface, they quickly leveled out and flew out of the steam cloud with trails of steam streaking behind them.

"That was cool." The storm dragon commented with an excited chuckle, he started flying above part of the frozen lake as Luna caught up with him and following along side. "So what now?"

"Hmm, lets fry around for a bit, and then look for a cave." She replied happily as the thought crossed her mind.

"Ya, we need a cave here; but why find one when we can probably make one!" He happily mentioned as he steadily got more and more excited at the idea.

"Oh that sounds like fun." she joyfully replied as the two dragons continued to fly above the frozen lake. While they were flying around, the steam cloud continued to expand and rise upwards; by this point it had already peaked above the side of the cliff that the Potter's retreat was located on. It wasn't much longer after that the rising cloud was visible to the guests of the ski lodge on the other side of the mountain.

Ski slopes

"Mom, what is over there?" A young girl questioned as she pointed towards the rising column of steam poking up from the other side of the mountain.

"The map at the lodge showed that there is a lake over there, but at this time of the year it would be frozen over." The girl's mother commented.

"The rising column in probably steam or water vapor; although what would cause that much is anyone's guess." The girl's father added, clearly a bit curious.

"Can we go see the lake?" The little girl commented as she was clearly curious.

"I suppose Hermione; I'll admit I would like to see it as well." Her mother commented with a slight smile. With the family of three headed back to the ski lodge to stow away their ski equipment, and be better prepared for a hike to the other side of the mountain.

Frozen lake

"So where should we go make our cave?" Harry commented while trying to think how to answer the question himself.

"Hmm, it should be somewhere hidden. We don't want people to be able to simply walk to it." She replied after thinking for a moment. "We should look around a bit, maybe between the mountains."

"Sounds good to me." He replied as he followed after the dragoness in search of somewhere secluded where they could make their cave. After exploring a while, they decided to try along the rivers that fed into the lake. They decided to start with the river that ran in a ravine along the mountain that the Potter retreat was on. The riverbed were currently exposed as any water that would be flowing down them was currently locked up in snow and ice on the mountains. The two dragons landed where the mouth of the river would have entered the lake; as their eyes progressed upstream, they noticed that the riverbed was exiting out of a large, deep ravine. The riverbed itself was only 15, maybe 20 feet in length; as it progressed into the ravine, the opening steadily shrank to around 40 feet between the rock faces. It

"I think this will work, let's take a look." She commented, liking the idea of having the entrance to their cave in a small deep canyon. Luna took the lead, with Harry following behind her given that the ravine itself would have quickly become too constricting if they walked down it side by side. As the two large dragons walked further down the rocky lakebed, they would occasionally glance up, taking note that the grey cliffs on either side of them got progressively higher. After they had been walking for a while, the sides of the ravine were well over a hundred feet above their heads, and progressively getting higher.

"This far enough?" He questioned after he had just glanced up.

"Maybe, let's take a look up there first." She replied after looking up and thinking for a moment. She then looked towards Harry, and with a quick nod they both began to shrink till they were both only ten feet in length. At that they were able to fly up towards the top of the ravine fairly easily; as their heads broke above the cliff face, they noticed that the area around where they were was mostly an open clearing with an occasional snow covered pine. She continued to look around for a moment when she seen that deeper along the ravine there was a beginning of a thick pine forest; at that she flew back down into the ravine with Harry following closely behind. "Lets keep going."

"Ok." He commented as he landed back on the ground, once again walking behind his best friend. After a couple moments, both dragons returned to their full sizes and continued walking deeper into the ravine. They continued walking while occasionally glancing up to notice when the forest was overhead; after a while they figured they were already fairly deep into the forest, and by this point the walls of the ravine rose over 150 feet above their heads. They stopped for a moment as Luna glanced further down the ravine and noticed something.

"Harry, look ahead and tell me what you see in the distance." She inquired as she continued to focus her eyes.

"I see a cliff in front of us, far off from here though. I can barely see it." He replied after focusing for a moment when an idea popped into his head, he then glanced towards Luna who was nodding her head at him.

"I think we found where we can make our cave." She cheerfully commented as she walked towards the end of the ravine, with Harry once again quickly in tow. After a long while they reached the end of the ravine, its walls now raising over 250 feet above their heads. At this point she looked towards the dragon behind her and then glanced upwards; a couple moments later he understood the message and both dragons shrank down to about ten feet in length again. They flew up to the top of the ravine, and observed that while there was the forest surrounding them, the trees were not very dense in concentration surrounding the beginning of the ravine. They also noticed that there was a slight impression in the ground where the river flowed into ravine; having seen enough the two dragons flew back down into the ravine, returning to their full size after they landed.

"This will work nicely." Harry happily commented as Luna nodded in agreement. "But how are we going to make our cave? In some of the stories we've been read the dragons make their caves by using their fire breath, but we don't breathe fire."

"Hmm, we could use our claws." She replied after thinking for a moment. She then raised her clawed appendage and carved into the rock with some difficulty. "That won't work."

"Let me try something." He commented after an idea popped into his head; he opened his fanged mouth, where it was clear a burst of lightning was being charged. After a few moments the bolt of lightning erupted from his mouth and collided with the rock's surface. The energy from the bolt was transferred into the rock, rapidly heating it as it started to melt into a grey liquid that started forming an increasingly large indent in the cliffside, where Luna had originally tried to claw into the rock. He kept up the lightning bolt for as long as he could, letting up about 20 seconds later; As the bolt ended its clash inside the rock surface, the two dragons looked to see the results of his attempt. There was an initial crater, forming an almost perfectly semi-spherical impression that was about almost 5 feet deep, coated in a semi-liquified coating of grey stone. At the center of the impression, there was another almost perfectly circular tunnel that was only around a foot in diameter that extended into where the lightning bolt had drilled into the cliffside. The tunnel in the center of the crater extended a couple hundred feet into the cliff side. By now Harry had regained his energy. "That kinda worked, but we need something more to make the cave bigger."

"Like something that has a bit more boom? Like when your lightning meets my snow?" She replied with a grin as a fanged smile quickly appeared on Harry's face. "You good for another go?"

"Ya, what are you thinking?" He commented, curious as to what she had planned.

"We both aim our breaths at the center of hole, so the steam from it is forced into it. Hopefully we can make it big enough to be a cave for us that way. Let's start on the count of 3." She informed him as he replied with a confirmatory nod. "Three, two, one."

After that Luna unleashed her breath of snow and ice while Harry let loose a dark yellow lightning bolt a moment later, both of the dragon's breath collided; and the energy of the bolt superheated the contents of Luna's breath into boiling steam. The steam rapidly flowed into the tunnel leading into the cliff face, away from where the breaths were colliding; as the breaths continued to collide, the pressure the steam was under in the tunnel continued to increase. After about 15 seconds Harry ceased his lightning breath, while Luna let up a second later; this extra second caused a layer of thick ice to cover the entrance to the tunnel, sealing the pressurized steam inside. The seal of ice was about even with the cliff face, completely filling the initial crater. Harry looked a little confused at this, which she quickly picked up on.

"The rock was easier to break then my ice. So until the rock breaks, my ice can keep the steam inside." She explained, after a moment Harry nodded in understanding. "When you're ready, nod and we will repeat this."

He gave a quick nod before unleashing another bolt of lightning into the center of the ice seal; Luna followed up with unleashing her breath a moment after Harry did. Like before the collision of their breaths produced more steam that flowed into the tunnel, further increasing the pressure the superheated steam exerted on the limestone rock inside. Earlier while the steam was trapped behind the ice seal, it caused the tunnel to expand in all directions further into the cliffside; except for into the ravine as the ice seal strengthened the layer of rock that was immediately surrounding the tunnel's entrance. Like before Harry let up on his lightning breath after about 15 seconds, Luna following up a second later, sealing the tunnel's entrance again; and again like before after a five second break, they started the process over again, repeating another 4 times.

"I need to take a break." The now fatigued storm dragon commented as he went to take a quick break.

"I could use one to." She commented as she was starting to feel a bit winded. At that she layed down on the riverbed to rest for a few moments, while still keeping her eyes on the rock surrounding the ice seal. After she had been resting for the better part of a minute she noticed that tiny cracks were starting to form in the rocks from several feet from the ice seal, outwards to up nearly 20 feet. Her instincts let her know that the situation was about to become very dangerous. "Harry, brace yourself."

"Ok." He commented as he was already in the process of doing since his instincts flared up a moment after Luna's did as the cracks in the cliff's face became more prominent. He and Luna huddled closer to each other as they had their backs to the cliffside opposite of the one currently cracking; they folded their wings in, tightly pressing them against their scaly armored bodies. Their long necks and heads were curled inward putting their thicker torsos between their heads and the cracking cliff face. As the two dragons were preparing for the inevitable, the cracks over the course of about two seconds continuously spread throughout the cliffside surrounding the ice seal; the thick ring of cracks started a few feet from the ice seal, spreading outward to nearly 25 feet from it. A moment after the two dragons finished bracing themselves, the first leak from the highly pressurized steam behind the rock leaked out into the ravine, causing the entire chamber of steam to explosively depressurize; and that was when all hell breaks loose.

It was at that moment that the explosive decompression of the steam caused a wall of several hundred tons of rubble and rock to fly towards the two huddled dragons. The multitude or rocks and rubble were accelerated to speeds comparable to bullets as the peppered the two dragons; however the stones just bounced of the dragons thick armored scales. Although despite that their scales protected them from the rocky projectiles, both dragons were still mostly buried as the wall of rubble crashed into them, and the opposing cliffside that they were laying against. The upper portions of their backs and folded wings were still visible, but everything else was buried under several hundred tons of rubble and rocks.

When the chamber of highly pressurized steam inside the cliff decompressed, it released part of the shock wave into the end portion of the ravine that was responsible for the dragons being buried in the rubble tsunami. However the vast majority of the shockwave that would have come from the explosive decompression traveled through the rock away from the cliff face, and into the mountain that the ski lodge and Potter retreat were located on.

On the mountain, a little bit before the explosion

Several moments before the ravine's cliff face exploded; Hermione and her parents were in the process of hiking towards the other side of the mountain to see the frozen lake. They were currently hiking through the thinly treed forest that surrounded the ravine; more specifically in between the mountain, and the beginning of the ravine. The slope that they were currently walking on wasn't by any means steep, but it was inclined enough that when the shockwave would pass through the rock, the foot deep snow would start sliding down the slope. As the shock wave ran through the rock, it wasn't strong enough for them to feel it, however they did notice when the snow much further up the mountain started rushing down towards them.

"We need to grab onto a tree!" Her father yelled out, this had the effect of knocking his two family members out of their stupor of seeing an avalanche rushing towards them. His wife started rushing through the snow towards him and the nearest tree that was about a dozen feet from him; in the process she grabbed her daughter's hand, pulling her with. The girl was still slightly in shock due to that a wave of snow was rushing down the mountain towards them.

"Hermione!" Her mother yelled out, attempting to get her daughter to snap out of it; after a few moments this worked and she was running through the snow in hand with her mother towards her father. After several more seconds of running, the family of three were holding each other in a death grip around the closest tree they could find as they braced for the incoming avalanche. "Don't worry Hermione, everything is going to be all right."

The girl kind of just nodded at that as she held onto her family even more tightly than before; her head buried into the tree, given she didn't want to see the avalanche that was racing towards them. The avalanche continued to race towards them as it gained more snow and started carrying some of the smaller trees in the forest with it as it continued to speed down the mountain slope. After a few moments she mustered some courage to look at was coming towards them, a second later pure unadulterated terror broke out on her entire face as she seen what was coming. By now the avalanche was only a few hundred feet from them, a wall of snow, ice and the occasional tree measuring over ten feet in height; and was threatening to bury them all under its tones of rushing snow.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" She yelled out as the tsunami of snow was about to bury her and her parents alive, never to be heard from again. At this moment her parents squeezed her hands and turned their heads towards their daughter, small trails of tears leaking out from their eyes. Their teary eyes conveying their message of eternal love to their daughter as their mouths failed to do realized that this was going to be their final moments, but they were at least finding some solace in the fact that they were going to spend those last moments in the embrace of their family members.

It was seeing this final message in her parent's eyes that caused something to start burning within her. With renewed strength, she glanced inward to herself, hoping to find something. She found the spark that had been started inside her as she grabbed onto it with all of her might; and in turn it responded to her burning desire to survive with her family. It was in that moment, as the avalanche was right on top of them; that the girl, and her parents who still held her in a vice grip disappeared with nothing more than a small crack in the air.

The family of three reappeared further down the slope, right by the start of the ravine; they appeared with a small crack in the air as they were suddenly standing on the edge of the ravine. Hermione managed to remain standing abet barely, she was somewhat lost to what had happened; while her parents fell down to sitting positions in the snow, feeling like they were about to throw up. After a couple of moments their insides stopped churning as they were able to start processing what had just happened.

"What just happened?" Her mother questioned as she took in their surroundings. They were still in the loosely treed forest, but there was currently no sign of the avalanche that had threatened them moments prior. "One moment we were about to be buried, the next moment we're here."

"I'm not about to question the miracle that saved our lives, although it begs the question as where we are." Her father commented, just happy he and his family were alive at that moment. "You both alright?"

"Still a bit shaken, but glad to be alive right now." His wife commented, still feeling a bit queasy.

"I'm tired." Hermione mumbled as she continued to wobble where she stood, gradually losing her ability to stand up straight. It was a moment later that she finally succumbed to unconsciousness, her eyes closing as she started to fall backwards. Her parents had started turning to look at their daughter a moment after she started speaking and had just finished turning to see their daughter falling backwards into the ravine.

"HERMIONE!" They both yelled out as they rushed to grab hold of their falling daughter; she was already halfway to falling into the ravine when they started to try and grab her. Their hands reached ever closer to their unconscious daughter as she got closer to falling over the edge; after a moment they were about to grab her as she passed over the edge and started falling into the ravine. Her mother was about to rush into the ravine after her daughter, tears freely flowing from her eyes; when her husband grabbed her from behind, stopping her from joining their daughter. Her eyes seen how deep the ravine plunged into the earth, the fate of her daughter beginning to register in her mind.

"I can't lose you too." He managed to get out as he pulled his wife into a tight hug, tears flowing out of his eyes just as freely as her's. They just sat their in each other's embrace as they continued to cry over the fate of their daughter, not wanting to move from their current positions. A short while later they were disturbed in their mournful thoughts as they heard a loud rumbling coming from further up on the slope; they looked in horror to see the avalanche they thought they had escaped rushing towards them once again.

"We need to go." He got out as he quickly stood up, pulling his wife along with him as they started running away from the ravine and the oncoming avalanche. His wife nodded, her eyes still filled with tears as she got up with him, her head turning to where their daughter had fallen; she continued to look as tears overflowed from her eyes for several moments before she turned her head again in the direction they were running. The tears never stopped streaming from their eyes as they continued to run. The avalanche reached the ravine about thirty seconds later, as tons after tons of snow and ice rushed into the ravine.

Overall I think this chapter turned out pretty well, and the cliff hanger was just a good point to stop this chapter at. For the foreseeable future updates will be a bit erratic, I want to try for at least 1 update per month; but sure how circumstances will allow for that. chapter 6 is still a work in progress and wont be done for a while probably; but I will try to keep its progress updated on my profile page. Thanks to all those that fav/follow, and a big thanks to everyone who reviews.