Draco

Draco glanced around him; the other three Slytherins were still passed out in their armchairs. He thought that the voice that's been haunting him was all in his dream; but his confusion was cleared soon enough when the voice called again, "My Lord…"

Draco was suddenly alert, all his drowsiness gone. He finally accepted that the voice was real and the speaker was calling for him. And somehow, he wanted to follow the voice.

He wasted no time in getting ready, using his wand to tidy himself up. When he was leaving the dungeons, nobody else had woken yet; owing to the fact that it was an early Sunday morning.

Draco found his way out of the castle quite easily, with no one interrupting him. He walked along the Black Lake and through the gamekeeper's wooden hut; straight into the Forbidden Forest. Draco's past experiences of the forest hadn't been so great and he had avoided it as best as he could in the past. But today, it just felt like the right thing to do.

When he had walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight—Draco heard something. Men were shouting up ahead… then came a deafening, earsplitting roar…

The sound subsided soon enough, after a large thud; although Draco could still hear some men talking. He walked around a clump of trees and came to a halt. There was a large enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, and inside it were four fully grown dragons. They all appeared asleep, probably passed out judging by their steaming mouths; each of them was the size of a small hill. There were around thirty wizards monitoring them. Draco moved closer into the shadows of the trees, careful not to be spotted.

"I wonder what made them this excited so early in the morning. We gave them a Sleeping Draft last night, didn't we?" the wizard closest to Draco said to his partner as they proceeded to tighten the chains and fasten them securely to iron pegs, which they forced deep into the ground with their wands.

"We did, Charlie. Their behavior is certainly odd, but it can happen because of the new environment and them losing some of their freedom." The other wizard answered.

"Yeah. Dragons aren't supposed to be kept tied up this way, it's in their nature to be wild. Especially this Hungarian Horntail." Charlie was saying to his partner as they both proceeded forwards towards the base of their camp at the far end of the enclosure.

When Draco was sure that all the wizards in the vicinity had left their posts and returned to their base, he climbed up the wooden fence and entered into the enclosure. He quietly laughed at the person who had thought of the wooden fencing, probably their gamekeeper Hagrid; these dragons could've easily burn it down with their fiery breaths.

Draco observed the nearest dragon. This was the Hungarian Horntail, according to the dragonkeeper who had just left. It was a massive black lizard like dragon, with black scales yellow eyes, bronze horns and similarly coloured spikes that protruded from its long tail. To Draco, she looked magnificent.

Then, Draco noticed a clutch of huge granite gray eggs at the dragon's side. Almost reflexively, he picked one up in his hands. The egg felt hot in his bare hands.

And then all at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto Draco's hands. It looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were larger compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, yellow eyes.

It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

Draco blinked in surprise. This was the second time he had witnessed a dragon egg hatch. He recalled a similar incident in his very first year, when he had looked inside Hagrid's hut on instinct and watched a dragon egg hatch. He had felt a bit odd even then, but the joy of having something against Potter and his friends had distracted him at that time.

The baby dragon looked directly at him, and Draco heard the same voice speak inside his mind again, "My Lord."

Draco, who was taken by surprise, stumbled and his one hand inevitably reached the scaly hides of the mother dragon. He was instantly reminded of the Hogwarts School Motto: 'Draco Dormiens Numquam Titillandus'; Latin for Never tickle a sleeping dragon.

The mother dragon had now opened his vertical eyelids to reveal large gleaming yellow eyes. To Draco's relief, she wasn't making any move to harm him; instead she was just observing him intently lying still, perhaps pretending to be passed out to the dragonkeepers. He realized that the dragons were more intelligent than the wizards gave them credit for. Draco even had a suspicion that she had been watching him ever since he had picked up the egg.

Draco heard another strange voice speak in his head, deeper and hoarser; "Don't worry, My Lord. We would never hurt you. It's just taking us a while to grasp that a DragonLord has arisen after so many centuries."

Draco realized that the dragon was referring herself in plural. He turned around to find another three sets of vertical eyes, staring at him. He managed to speak but it came out in a strange tongue, "I... don't understand."

"We had lost all hopes of seeing another DragonLord again. You are the first one in centuries." the same deep voice, which Draco now realized was mother Horntail's, spoke.

"But how can I... be a Dragon…Lord? Maybe you're all mistaken." Draco said, unsure.

The baby dragon in his hand now danced playfully and its voice spoke, "I have no doubts, My Lord. I know you are the one. I can feel the bond between us. You are my DragonRider."

Draco was having a hard time believing the things he was hearing. He looked around to find that the four grown dragons were still looking at him intently. Feeling like he was expected to say something, he said, "It's a lot to take in. Are you really sure?"

"The fact that you can hear us is proof enough. A DragonLord is born when two fire-bloodlines come together. It hasn't happened in quite a long time, maybe because there aren't many pure-blooded wizards left and most importantly because the wizarding community has lost touch with our species. Dragons haven't taken the absence of our masters very well. We have lost all our past glory and are reduced to a mere breeding species on the mercy of a few wizards. And now this little dragon has sought his Rider, perhaps our glorious days will return once again." another deep voice spoke which Draco assumed to be from the silvery blue dragon with long, pointed horns.

The baby dragon in Draco's hands snorted happily and looked up at him. Draco felt a sudden rush of joy pass through his own mind.

The red one dragon with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face now spoke, "The Elders would've sensed the bonding too. I expect they'll all be gathering to meet the new DragonLord soon."

Draco couldn't help but feel a bit apprehensive at the mention of the Elders.

The Hungarian Horntail seemed to guess his uneasiness and she explained, "The Elders are the oldest living dragons of each of our twelve species. The moment my egg hatched in your hands and this little dragon acknowledged you as his Rider, a bond formed between you two; marking you as the DragonLord. All of us dragons have felt the impact, and I'm sure the Elders will propose a formal gathering recognizing your emergence soon enough. It may take some time, given that the dragons are distributed all around the world."

Draco took in the new information for a moment and then said, "I understand."

The smooth scaled green dragon, who was nearest to the wizard camp spoke, "I think some keepers are coming around for a round of patrol, you shouldn't be caught here, young DragonLord."

Draco felt odd at being addressed as such, but he thanked the dragon nonetheless, hoping she could hear him even at this distance. He gently put the baby dragon in his hands down to the ground at his mother's side. The dragon didn't seem happy at the parting, but his mother said to him, "Come now little one, the Lord needs to leave now."

Draco couldn't help but give the little dragon a pat before leaving and said, "Don't worry. I'll come back for you."

As Draco walked back into the castle, he felt as if he was in a dream. He even pinched his arm to check but ended up with a sharp pain and tearful eyes. When he reached the Slytherin common room, he nudged the three boys awake who were still slumped in their armchairs.

"Blimey, what time is it?" Blaise asked, still yawning.

"About eight." Draco answered.

"It's Sunday, Draco. For God's sake." Theo muttered as he collapsed into his armchair again.

"C'mon, Theo. You'll miss the breakfast, if you don't wake up soon enough." Draco said, and it had the desired effect on Theo, who now sat in his chair grudgingly.

"I don't want to eat anything. Just let me have some sleep." Adrian muttered, his eyes still closed.

But Blaise gave him a sharp nudge and he too got up from the chair, rubbing his sleepy eyes.

Draco waited while the three of them got to the dormitory to freshen up. He did not want to think about his earlier conversation with the dragons just yet. He decided not to tell anyone about the dragons, not even Professor Snape or the Headmaster. This was something that hadn't happened in his past life and he wondered what its implications would be.

Draco was spared from his thoughts by the arrival of the three Slytherins and they walked together to the Great Hall for breakfast. Draco made his way to the library after a considerable opposition from Theo and Adrian who wanted to spend the day in the grounds flying on their broomsticks. But Draco knew that he needed to get some more information on the dragons and the DragonLords to ease his mind a bit.

Draco wasn't surprised to find the library almost deserted as it was a Sunday morning. Only a handful of N.E.W.T. students were present there, Draco felt a bit bad for them as this was the worst year for them to be sitting for the exams with the Triwizard Tournament happening at Hogwarts. He quickly found the section dealing with the books about dragons. He took a few of them to a table and started going through them.

To his dismay, there was nothing mentioned about the term DragonLord in any of these books. However, they did give him insightful knowledge about all the breeds of dragons and the book called 'From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide' described the various stages of a dragon's life in great detail.

"Dragons? Since when are you interested in dragons, Malfoy?" Draco looked up startled to find Hermione Granger peering from his shoulders. Harry Potter was also standing beside her with a disinterested look on his face.

"Just a bit of light reading, Granger. Mind if I continue?" Draco sneered. Although his comment made Potter snort loudly, which he suppressed quickly, earning a glare from Granger.

Hermione proceeded to sit at his table; Draco was surprised as she hadn't done that except for their Arithmancy lessons. Potter reluctantly followed her. They sat in silence, each absorbed in their own work; till Viktor Krum made his way into the library, followed by a group of giggling girls. Hermione made an impatient sound, clearly disturbed by the sight. Krum however, proceeded to sit at a further table opposite to Hermione.

Later that night, Draco slipped out of the castle at around midnight to visit the dragon enclosure again.

The dragons let him know when it was safe for him to approach the fence. They also informed him that the Elders' Gathering will take place in a week, formally inviting him on the Elders' behalf; which Draco gracefully accepted.

The little dragon was visibly happy to see him again as he danced around in his hands in the moonlight. Draco looked affectionately at him and said, "You know, I think it's time you got a name. Moondancer."


Author's Notes:

Chester99, thank you for the review. And congratulations on guessing about the voice correctly.

KyuubiNoPuma, I was just pointing out the fact that Moody was taking off the Slytherin points in the classes because he thought they had betrayed his master, Voldemort. The group were just cursing him for that; not that he found out about them being up that night. Thanks for writing the reviews.

Zhi'rev, Irmorena and TinySlippers, thank you for writing the reviews.