Jake yawned taking his seat on the train and less then half a second passed before he pulled out his laptop. It was weird taking the fireplace here but weird in a 'why'd they wanna do that' kind of way instead of being surreal.

Jake was used to magic even though his father was a normal guy and his mother... well the gene skips a generation sometimes so she couldn't do magic herself.

Jake and his pain in the butt sister were both magical, their brains were evolved enough in order to tap into the chakra pathways that ran throughout their bodies. Everyone and everything has chakra, even plants, but only more evolved creatures can use it (like dragons and wizards). As Jake's favor teacher often pointed out just because his brain was 'evolved' didn't make him smart. Why Mister Kedrid, the mean old dark elf, was his favorite teacher might surprise a lot of people. It was because the elf couldn't care less about Jake's title. Somethings it could be cool to be admired but some of the time it made him ill. The kids and teachers alike, even the principle, treated Jake like a celebrity. Jake was popular at his magic school but he never had any real friends there either. It was nice having someone to talk to that didn't put him on a pedestal.

"This seat taken?" Said a small boy, remarkably as small as Jake, with big round glasses and bright green eyes

"Take it" Jake shrugged checking his email, neither Spud nor Trixie had written him back yet. Guess that should be expected, ever since Pops found out about the magical world they hadn't really seen much of each other. They didn't know about magic either which made Jake feel like he was lying to them even though the subject never came up. Still the secret put strain on their friendship, they just didn't know why.

When Pops learned magic was real the first thing he did was faint but after his little freak out he wanted to make sure his children had the best magical education he could afford. So Jake stared going to a private magic school hidden in New York City and his best friends became 'after school friends'.

The school 'Hocus' was one of the best schools in the country, meaning it was expensive, but the Dean herself was so excited about having the 'American Dragon' in her school she gave him a scholarship (meaning she waved the fee). Odd how that same reason got him kicked out after a few short years. Jake's sister was still enrolled there because she wasn't burdened with that title (she got a scholarship because she was a know it all). Now because of that stupid title Jake was once again being forced to go to yet another new school. At least his old school was in the same city, this one wasn't even on the same continent. And again his 'after school friends' were downgraded to 'summer friends'.

Because of his bloodline Jake was destined to become the 'American Dragon' the second his draconic powers kicked in but Pops had yet another freak out. Guess it was kind of nuts to have a 13 year old fighting for his life on a daily baises, even if it was supervised. Anyway since no school in America was willing to piss off the Dragon Council by 'brainwashing' their 'sacred warrior' with evil learning books Pops got a little drastic.

So here the boy sat on a train to Scotland to go to some British boarding school to learn the English style of magic. Jake was used to casting spells through hand movements and incantations. Wands weren't taught until 5th year as an elective, teaching students how to use them as a focus. Here wands were used for everything, even basic cleaning spells, because of this Jake's parents bought him a bunch of scrolls and books based on wand movements for spells but even after studying all of those Jake was still far behind the students of Hogwarts who'd undoubtedly had been studying with wands their whole lives. Jake even had to get a custom made wand because the normal ones acted all screwy with his draconic heritage.

Pops figured since Gramps has been taking care of the American Dragon duties for this long the old man can wait another four years. Really he had a point as dragons have a life expectancy of over a thousand years, so it's not like waiting for Jake to be an adult was THAT big a deal. At least not nearly as big as the Dragon Council was making it out to be.

"You might want to preserve the battery" a girl's voice broke him out of his chain of thought

Jake looked up to see a girl with puffy curly hair sitting next to him. Another boy, a tall ginger, was sitting across from her and the boy with the glasses was sitting across from Jake himself.

"Huh?" was obviously the best way to show off his mad vocab skills

"The battery" she repeated "Hogwarts doesn't have any outlets for it"

"I know" Jake groaned closing his laptop "you guys are Amish. Don't worry the thing's enchanted so in addition to being able to use it anywhere it's got a few eternities of life left in it"

"Your not supposed to have enchanted muggle artifacts, its illegal" the girl scolded

"whaggle?" Jake blinked

"non magic folk" the boy with the glasses responded instantly sounding like he was repeating what someone else told him "this your first year at Hogwarts?"

"Yeah" Jake shrugged "I'm an exchange student from America so I don't really know british slang" muggle sounded like it was a curse word if it wasn't so silly

"Why are you going to Hogwarts if your from America?" the redhead eyed him

"Long story" Jake shrugged again "Anyway my laptop can't be illegal because I brought it here from America"

"I'm pretty sure that's smuggling, also illegal" said the girl

"Yes well I have this horrible illness where if I don't have constant contact to the internet I spite fire at everything within 49 miles. It's called 'touch-my-laptop-and-die-itis', its very contagious to anyone who's had prolonged exposure to the world wide web"

The redhead appeared completely lost during this conversation.

"Jake Long" Jake smiled holding his hand out to the girl

"Hermione Granger" the girl answered politely "That's Ron Weasley and Harry" she was making a point in not saying Harry's last name

"Wazzup" Jake continued to grin putting his laptop back into his backpack. It seemed pretty stupid to get a trunk like the school wanted when he could just put everything into the near bottomless backpack he got for school years ago "So what houses are you guys in?" Jake figured that was a safe way to keep the conversation going.

"We're all Gryffindors" he seemed to only be having this conversation with Hermione "What about you, have you been sorted yet?"

"I got sorted when Dumbles gave me and my 'rents a tour of the castle" explained Jake "it felt like that weird hat took the better part of an hour before settling on Slytherin" everything instantly came grinding to a stop and moments passed like hours before suddenly Ron exploded "I KNEW there was something wrong with you"

"Ron!" Hermione snapped

"Look at his hair!"

Jake blushed running a hand through his spiky green hair so dark it appeared black. Only the light hitting it could reveal the green and there was a lot of light flooding in from the window. It had been a long time since anyone teased him about his oddly colored hair.

"Who else would charm their hair green" Ron sneered clearly not caring for an answer

"It's naturally that color" Jake sighed

"Sure what are you part lizard?" Ron snapped ignoring Hermione's loud "Ron, shut up"

Jake held up his hand and allowed it to burst into flames, his fingers turned to claws and his skin to red scales "You could say that"

Hermione was glaring daggers at the redhead as Jake let his hand change back to normal "You'd think a wizard would be smart enough to realize a kid with pointy ears and green hair wasn't entirely human"

"At all human actually" Jake corrected

"You're a Draconic Sorcerer right?" the girl tried to steer the conversation away from her mentally challenged friend "I've read about them. Shape shifters descended from dragons. Beings that forsake their humanity in favor of their draconic heritage"

Jake didn't really know anything about 'forsaking' his humanity. He just wasn't human to begin with. His dragon blood made him a dragon. At least according to all the other 'draconic sorcerers' as the british called them "Beings? I thought the ministry labeled us as Beast?"

That made Hermione look a bit uncomfortable "They fixed that... oversight a long time ago"

'Not the way Gramps tells it' Jake thought but then again Gramps was running on 600 years of bitter old man. He likely never forgave the British for calling him an animal.

Gramps had told horror stories about the British to try and scare Jake enough to stop him from coming here. Stories of capturing 'Draconic Sorcerers' and ripping out all of their scales one by one before harvesting their organ, for potions presumably. They had to be kept alive throughout all of this as dragons revert back to their human form upon their death.

Not that Jake's opinion mattered in the slightest so all Gramps did was terrify his grandson and anger the boy's parents. The headmaster of the school convinced his parents it was safe. That that barbaric point in their history was just that, history. Something long since passed. Of course Dumbledore hadn't phrased it like that but it's how Jake understood it. These wizards just wanted, no expected, everyone to forgive and forget.

The British Ministry of Magic got along so horribly with the Dragon Council it didn't matter. In America the council practically ruled over all magic. A 'Draconic Sorcerers' was even serving as the current Secretary of Magic to the President but here... It's why Hogwarts was the best place for Jake to finish his education. The council had virtually no power here so they couldn't threaten the British into doing what they wanted without major political backlash. China, Africa, Australia, nearly everywhere at least respected the Dragon Council but not here. Here the British could care less. Here Jake wasn't the American Dragon. Here he was just a kid going to school.

"So what's your favorite Quidditch team" the boy with the glasses, 'Harry' Jake reminded himself, asked

"I can't believe your making idol chatter with a Slytherin!" Ron... Jake decided he didn't like Ron.

"I'll be honest" Jake ignored the redhead "The game doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The point system is insane. Like you get 200 points for grabbing one of the balls, the rest of the game just seems pointless with that"

"It's 150 points" Harry corrected well adjusting his glasses "And it's pretty wicked if you give it a chance. Don't they have Quidditch in America?"

"Not really" Jake admitted and just as he was about to confess he'd never actually been to a Quidditch game there was a sudden jerk and the train was on the move "I prefer baseball anyway"

Ron scrunched up his nose "what's baseball?"

Now it was Jake's turn to stare in shock "How could ya never heard of baseball? The great American pastime!"

"Probably because it's the great 'American' pastime" Hermione smiled and ignored Jake's mutter of "still shoulda heard of it" as she turned back to Ron "It's a muggle sport Ronald"

"Why would a Slytherin care about some muggle sport?" insult that m word was definitely an insult the way Ron said it

Hermione sighed losing her patience with her redheaded friend "America doesn't have the same blood purist views as Britain Ronald"

"Blood purist?" sounded like they were freaking Nazis, maybe should have lied and not let these guy in

"some wizards and witches believe that muggles are somehow inferior to us because they can't use magic, and all that rubbish" Harry rolled his eyes and Hermione continued for him with an added bitterness "they even claim those born to muggle parents are lesser beings"

Dumbledore seemed to have forgotten to mention British wizards were all racist against anything that wasn't a perfectly ordinary wizard but even with that this was literally the only place in the world that won't boot Jake out to keep the Dragon Council happy.

Jake scrunched up his nose "Okay how does that make sense? The normal people thing I can get with the whole magical holocaust they did" he didn't get it, not really, since it was forever and a decade ago but Gramps was still pissed at human wizards so Jake knew hate could last "but why hate on fellow wizards? I mean in a million years everyone will be able to use magic so ain't they just slowing down natural evolution" hay take that teachers of Hocus he did pay attention.

Hermione was staring at him with an approving smile then confessed "Both of my parents are muggle dentist" why'd she call them 'muggle'? Wasn't that a swear? Did she not like her parents? She sounded like she liked them.

Not thinking long on that Jake quickly screamed "Ah dentist-es!" and used his hands to cover his mouth, protecting his teeth.

Harry laughed well Ron looked on with a confused expression "what's a dentist?"

"They fix your teeth mate" Harry pointed to his mouth, presumably in case the redhead didn't know what teeth were

Ron nodded with no understanding in his eyes before refocusing them on Jake "how do you know what they are?"

"Neither of my parents can do magic and Pops insisted on dragging me to that awful place until he learned of potions to fix teeth" Jake smiled taking his hands away "The school nurse gave them to us about once a month. It was kind of a mix blessing 'cause she had to pull out all my fillings in order for the potion to heal my teeth properly but after all that horrible first encounter it wasn't so bad"

"How are you a Draconic Sorcerer if both your parents are muggles?" Harry asked curiously, and trying not to think about how awful it be to have all your fillings pulled out. He felt strangely glad his relatives never bothered to take him to the dentist "are you adopted?"

"If I was adopted I wouldn't have ta put up with my bratty little sister. No, the gene skipped over my mom. I get it from her side of the family" everyone in the states already knew all this and Jake wasn't sure how he felt about having to explain it and not the media horse feeding every little detail about his life to the public.

"What kind of Slytherin are you?" Ron blurted out "How can you be the son of a muggle and a squib and land in Slytherin!"

"What's that supposed to mean!" Jake snapped angrily

"Ignore him" Hermione insisted "He's got about as much tact as a troll"

"Oi!"

"What's a squib?" Harry asked innocently

"It means your parents were magical but you can't do it" Ron shrugged

"and be sure never to call my mom that ever again"

"Why its what she is?" Ron scuffed

Jake was really to jump up and beat the ever loving crud out of the redhead when Hermione gently placed her hand on his shoulder, grabbing his attention "It doesn't mean anything bad" she assured "Its just a quicker way of saying 'a person born from at least one magical parent but having no ability to use magic themselves' that can be a bit of a mouthful in passing conversation. Like muggle just means 'a person who can't use magic' nothing more"

"What more could it mean?" Ron rolled his eyes but before Hermione could tell him to shut up again an old woman with a cart full of goodies rolled up and smiled as Harry ordered a mountain of everything well Hermione got a copy of the morning paper.

Without even asking if it was okay Ron grabbed a box of jelly beans from Harry's stash for himself.

"Does he always freeload off you?" Jake asked Harry

"I'm not a freeloader you mangy lizard! " no Jake did not like Ron at all

###

Draco looked high and low on the train for the American Dragon. Uncle Sev had been over at Malfoy Manor for a casual cup of tea with Lucius, Draco's father. As head of Slytherin house Uncle Sev had influence over many of the noble families' children and would occasionally talk about his work with Draco's father. So it was not really a shock when Uncle Sev mentioned in passing one of his new charges. This new charge just happened to be a half breed by the name of Jake Long. Normally such news of a subhuman entering Slytherin house would infuriate Lucius but this time a smile spread across his face. Lucius may be a blood purist but he was a business man first. Although the Council of Draconic Sorcerers held no weight in the civilized world the rest of it considered their lackeys to be some kind of divine saviors. A friendship between Draco and one of these beast would (not 'could' but a definite 'would') open up doors in many places for the Malfoys world wide and maybe add a few riches for the dragon itself. Father said dragons were naturally obsessed with gold and all things that sparkled so it would be easy to bribe the creature with a display of wealth.

"You can freeload to if you like" Draco sneered hearing that voice and quickly walked past Saint Potter's cabin.

###

"Thanks" Jake grinned taking a chocolate frog. They were his favorites. He put the whole frog in his mouth and sucked on it. Feeling the treat wiggle and kick in his mouth.