Chapter 1: Squibs and Dragons

Hi there! My name is Katherine Morgan and I'm an American witch. It's actually an odd story. You know those Harry Potter books that are so popular? Well they're my FAVORITE series and I had always wished I could be a witch in that world. Unfortunately, my 11th birthday came and went with no letter from any wizarding schools. I was a muggle through and through.

But I knew there was something different about me. I could change my hair color at will even though it took longer than most metamorphamagi to do it. There were other random things that were just odd about me too. For one thing, I could see things that other muggles couldn't. In the US we have our own magical creatures, some were brought over with the first settlers and others are native to these lands. Flower fairies are pretty common and I've seen them all over. Forest creatures are all over the place and hippogriffs with eagles heads and buffalo bodies are also indigenous. We have our own dragons too, mostly small forest dwelling ones, but there are some wicked desert dwellers so I've heard. Oh! And the Plains dragons are particularly mischievous. There are also centaurs here although they are dwindling drastically in numbers. I've never met them, but I've heard they get mistaken for horseback riders a lot which is good for them.

As you can see I know quite a lot about mythical creatures. I've also read up quite a bit about the European mythical creatures and I really want to study them in person. So far as I know the place to find the widest range of creatures is in the Forbidden forest at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But I can't go there thanks to my almost total muggleness. It really sucked, until I found a way to get in contact with the Headmaster. It took a long time to gather enough information from hearsay, but I FINALLY was able to track down the American Association for Magic's headquarters. Once in I was able to get a map to Rumon Mall and rent a post owl. For simplicity's sake most magical countries use Galleons, sickles, and knuts. In America we use Bars, roukes (pronounced rooks), and xypers (pronounced zippers). Just cause we can. And to annoy everyone else. It's a pain. But that's beside the point. I converted some of my muggle money to American wizarding currency and sent a letter via owl post to the Headmaster of Hogwarts explaining my situation and my request.

So far I've been able to pass myself off as a squib around town, but I have to be careful. An 18 year old without a wand roaming around the magical world is a little odd. But the fact that I'm there kind of tips people off that I know about them and then they don't bother me. Already having a cloak is helpful. But there are a lot of things in the US that I don't know about and that are different than in Britain, which makes for some awkward situations sometimes but I've been managing.

Since I live on my own I decided to get a pet that could deliver mail. The coolest thing about America, I think, is the variety of animals that can be trained to deliver mail. My favorites are the dragons. Because of the lack of unoccupied land in America, there are a lot of smaller breeds of dragons that are terribly clever. My favorite is the Northern woodland breed. They have softer scales and skin as well as are more likely to have fur to combat the cold. They're very friendly and companionable seeing as they use each other to stay warm in the winter. Because of how common they are people started befriending them and training them to deliver messages. This was the pet I wanted.

It took the rest of the money I had converted to wizard cash but it was worth it. I got a beautiful male northern forest dragon. He had soft, leathery, brown skin with green fur and ice blue eyes freakishly like mine. He changes color too! In the winter the tips of his nose, ears, toes, tail, and wings turn white. I named him Kiefer Teas, which means Pine warmth in German and Irish respectively. I have German and Irish heritage and I love the languages. Most people who get northern dragons name them with norse names. I prefer the German and Irish languages. So I now am the proud owner of a male northern forest dragon named Keifer, but I think I'll nickname him Kei (rhyming with pie). He loves snuggling. He also likes perching on my shoulder so I often walk with him on my shoulder around town. The interesting thing is, because of their natural camouflaging abilities, wizards found they could easily enchant them to be able to shift shape and color at will so I can bring him with me out and about in the muggle world. Magical folk found out pretty fast that dragons, especially the more mischievous breeds, didn't like being cooped up like owls. This was the solution and a cool one it at that. Each dragon can transform into a different breed of dog. They tend to be fairly inconspicuous. Mine is a smaller Bernese mountain dog.

I know I've kind of gone on a bit of a tangent but bear with me for one more moment. I did say I loved magical creatures and I know a lot about them. I have confession though. I spent a little extra money on Kei because he was a little more unique. He can size shift meaning that he can be as small as a newt or as large as a draft horse. This means that I can fly places on him should I need to, negating the necessity of a broom. He's my transportation to Britain. There are so many reasons to have this little guy but the main one is companionship. He's excellent company.

On with my story! I exchanged a little more muggle money for wizard cash for my post and in case then went home to my apartment. Thankfully pets were allowed in my apartment so I didn't have to worry about Kei causing a scene. I signed the necessary documentation that allowed him to stay in my room and led him up the stairs with his leash. Thankfully dragons eat just about anything so I could feed him whatever I had in stock for now until I could get to the store to buy him some actual dragon chow (handily disguised as dog food). I wanted him to be as healthy as possible. We both settled down on my comfy old couch for a good How to Train Your Dragon movie night with some soda and m&ms. Lets just say dragon burps are way cool. Just imagine multicolored bubbles that spark and whiz.

That night I decided I'd go back to Rumon Mall and figure out dragon supplies. I had bought a book when I purchased him with basic dragon know how, but I wanted to know a little more about the specific species and to be quite honest I was interested in being a breeder. Life was going to be very interesting from here on out.