Dragonology

Chapter One

Draco never loved the food they would serve at the beginning-of-semester feast, but it wasn't horrible. He took a small bite of the food on his fork, listening to his friends casual banter. It was so dull he began to doze off, not even really listening anymore, that is, until the mention of...

"I heard they have a new teacher in this year." Pansy leaned in, "They say he's from one of the elven clans."

Draco raised a brow, lifting his head from his hand, "An elf? But no one's met once since before Slytherin's era. Are you sure?"

Crabbe cut in, "Oh, yeah, I heard he's coming to... 'reestablish human-elven communications, and that he's decided to start a whole new class here."

"Yeah, but I hear he's a bit... weird. Not crazy or anything, just... different." Goyle shrugged as he took a healthy bit out of his turkey drumstick.

Draco looked forward, along with the others at the sound of Dumbledore's old voice, "Hello, children, and welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. As many of you have probably been talking about, we have both a new teacher, and a new class. This is truly a historical moment, so may I present, Professor Gilthanas Solostaran, you're new Dragonology° teacher." Dumbledore gestured his hands toward a man sitting at the edge of the teacher's table.

A young man, not a day past twenty three or so, stood. He dawned a blue tunic that hung to his knees, a white, long sleeve tunic, and a pair of greyish leggings. His ears were pointed, his hair was blonde, and his eyes were a bright shade of amber. He flashed a bright smile, making his eye crinkle in just the right way to make all the women's hearts jump into their throats. He gave a quick wave before sitting down again and looking to Dumbledore.

"I assure you, he is an expert on all dragons, and is in fact a silver dragon commander. This class will begin with all the others, and will not require you to readjust your schedule. And on that note, I leave you to enjoy the rest of your feast and evening."

The September skies where a dusty grey, filled with clouds and a frosty chill. Because he always left his window open, Draco's room had gone down in temperature to a freezing thirteen degrees°. Sure, Crabbe and Goyle had their fat to keep them warm, but Draco had unconsciously rolled himself into a human yarn ball as it would seem, surrounded by his thick blanket. His pale grey eyes slowly opened, immediately falling upon the sight of his pure white eagle owl, perched on the windowsill with a small, white, ribbon bound box hanging from it's mouth. He sat up in his bed, his blanket falling over his shoulder. He pulled his feet out of the blanket, throwing the rest off of himself. Once his feet touched the ground, he could feel the ice cold wood. He shivered as he walked over and took the box from his owl's mouth, "What's this, then? More candies from Mum...?" He pulled the ribbon loose and pulled off the lid. Inside he saw a silver chain necklace with an emblem on it. He gently lifted it out of it's case, revealing the beautiful design on the silver medallion. He smiled as he saw it glisten in the light before pausing and turning it over to look at the other side. A small note was written on the bottom:

You have been selected to be in the first year of Dragonology classes, taught by Ambassador Elflord Gilthanas Kanan Ne'l Solostaran. You will also be taking part in private tutoring. Please Bring your owl, Nicolai, with you to your first session at one-twenty in the evening, 2nd of September.

Keep this note private until further notice.

Draco lowered the note, looking over to his owl, "What have you been into, eh?" he smirked a bit before looking at the clock, it was almost time for his first class of the year; potions. He slipped the necklace on over his head an opened his wardrobe, revealing his freshly cleaned and pressed uniform.

--

He slipped his potion book into bag, preparing to head to his next class. He turned, and caught sight of a similar piece of jewelry hanging around Luna Lovegood's neck. He stared for a moment in disbelief. Could a weirdo such as herself made it into the same league as him so early in the year? He caught the same glimpse at his necklace and gave a joyous grin, lifting her and pointing to it gleefully before waving. Thank goodness no one else was around, otherwise the secret would be out.

He gave a small, concerned smiled back, just barely showing his teeth. He turned back to see Crabbe and Goyle, staring at him blankly and panting as if they had just run all the way over, "Ugh..." He shoved his way out from in between them, shaking his head.

He turned his back to a tree and leaned against it, sliding down wearily. He blew his hair out of his face with a huff and looked down, "This is going to be fun..." he looked up, taking his fingers to his mouth and letting out a loud whistle. Out of the grey cloud in the sky appeared his owl, swooping down gracefully and landing on his forearm. He looked into his owls deep blue eyes, "Just about time, isn't it?"

--

"Good afternoon, students. My name, as most of you probably know, is Professor Gilthanas Solostaran, but please, just call me, Professor, or Gilthanas." The elf smiled at the students. Draco couldn't help but look over to see who was in the class, which was everyone from his year, excluding a few students, "I am your dragonology professor. No most of you are probably going to ask me why you'd want to study dragons, right? Because, of course, their evil, horrible monsters. No, actually they aren't. What you will be learning today is the difference between metallic and chromatic dragons, which is very simple. Does anyone know what a metallic dragon is?" Gilthanas waited for a response, to which their was none, "Right, they probably haven't been here for a long while, haven't they? Metallic dragons are dragons with a metallic coloring, like silver, gold, bronze, copper, and brass. Chromatic dragons are dragons of chromatic coloration, like red, white, black, blue , and green. The difference between chromatic and metallic dragons is while chromatic dragons are evil, unfriendly, and violent, metallic dragons are law abiding, friendly, and humanoid loving, and just to prove it, I've brought a friend for you all to meet." Out of the sky, a dragon the size of a horse began to lower to the ground. Several of the students began to back away in fear as it's wings folded to relax against it back, "Don't worry. He's friendly. This is a brass dragon. His name is Jarek, everyone say hello to Jarek." Gilthanas held his hand up to the dragon.

After the students gave a slight pause the dragon tilted his head, "Well hello to you all, too." he said sarcastically. The dragon's ability to speak didn't make things easier for the students to relax into, at least other than Draco and Luna, who were rather oddly fascinated. The Brass dragon looked over to Gilthanas, "Should I leave?"

"No, no." He looked to the students, "Relax, all of you. He's on your side. Jarek has been fighting for me for over ten years. There is no danger. But trust me, he is no animal. He is a fully capable being, who's probably got forty times the experience you have, seeing as he's one-hundred-seventy-two. Feel free to ask him a question if you'd like."

Hermione took the opportunity and raised her hand, getting an acknowledging nod from Gilthanas, "If I may, Jarek, what exactly is your power?"

"Several things. I'm quite the mage if I do say so myself. I'd cast something for you, but I don't want to violate any rules." Jarek lowered his head ans straightened his neck, "Unless you'd like to see some of my less damaging skills." Hermione gave a small nod. Jarek lifted his head and looked at the sky. The clouds grew thinner as they parted, showing the bright sun. The clouds slowly disappeared, "I can control the weather. Whether I want it hot." The air suddenly got a chill as snow began to fall, "Or cold." He returned the weather back to normal as the students stared on in awe.

Draco raised his hand, "You don't need to do them, but can you tell us what you can do to attack?"

"Why, I could kill a man with the power of suggestion, or slice him in two with a razor sharp gust of wind." Jarek lifted his head proudly.

"Are there anymore questions?" Gilthanas asked smoothly. There was a slight pause before he spoke again, "Then class id dismissed. Enjoy the rest of your day." He looked to Draco with a kind stare, "Other than those who I have given my emblem to." was what Draco thought he was trying to get across. As the crowed slowly thinned, and Jarek flew back into the sky after a few quick words with Gilthanas, only Draco and Luna were left.

Draco looked around quickly, "Are... Are we the only ones you chose?"

Gilthanas smiled, "You expected more? The reason why I decided to tutor you two is because I noticed something that seems to have been looked over at this school. How long have you had your owl, Draco?"

Luna looked over at the white eagle owl and smiled. The owl tilted it's head and purred at her clulessly.

Draco furrowed his brow, "As long as I can remember, really. Why?"

Gilthanas approached the bird, "May I?" he held his arm up. Draco nudged the bird to mount Gilthanas' arm, to which the owl complied. It gave a loud purr as Gilthanas looked it over, "Pure white feathers, deep blue eyes, long lifespan for it's species, I don't think this is an owl at all." He looked closer, "He's the reason I came here, really. That and we had no idea Kendir had made it out this far." He looked over at Luna, then back to the owl, "Nicolai... You forgot you were a dragon, didn't you?

°Dragonology is the study of all aspects of dragons, their spells, and their types.

°13° Celsius is 56° Fahrenheit