I am in an extremely bad mood. My 'friend' is giving me hell, my horse, Gryffin, decided to let me go over the jump first, and I think I failed today's exam. So why not let out all my anger in a chapter?

Disclaimer: I do not own. (Sheesh, more news to put in an even worse mood...)

Darren POV

There was a raging storm, and I hoped ShadowFang and the rest of her flock would manage the trip.

I was standing in the pouring rain, thunder crashing overhead and lightning painting the sky bright electric white. Choppy waves whipped across the lake, and the massive trees in the Forest were creaking and protesting loudly as the howling wind threatened to yank them out by the roots.

The whole school was watching from the castle, peering out the windows. Everyone had wanted to see the dragons arrive, but no one had been prepared to wait outside in this weather, not that I blamed them.

There! I could have sworn I had just seen a glint of silver scales in the turmoil above.

"Over here!" I cried in dragon tongue.

A distant bugling roar sounded, and out of the black clouds leapt a massive black and silver dragon.

Spotting me, ShadowFang angled her wings and slowed her descent. Behind her were nine other dragons, though none as large or as beautiful as her.

The ground shuddered beneath her as she landed, and she bounded towards me. I warbled a greeting, which she returned before lowering her head so I could hug her, which was difficult, considering the many spines and horns that decked her head.

"I missed you," she said, and nudged me. Laughing, I reached up and scratched behind her ear.

"Greetings, Wingless One," greeted another dragon. I recognised him as TalonSheath, a large steely grey scaled dragon.

The only others I recognised were SkullCrusher; a bone white male dragon, FireClaw; who was metallic orange male, SharpTooth; an acidic green she-dragon, and SwiftWing; a navy blue female.

After greeting the others, who were introduced as SwordBiter, BrightScales, WindRider and FlameTongue, I lead them up to the massive doors that made up the entrance of Hogwarts.

"Back away from the doors!" came a muffled shout from inside, and the doors swung open.

Shaking themselves to get the remaining water off their scales, the dragons squeezed inside one by one. I was worried that they wouldn't all fit, but the entrance hall was huge, and had been magically enlarged so that all the dragons could fit comfortably.

The students had hurriedly backed away from the doors when they had opened, and now they stood staring with awe and more than a little fear at the gargantuan beasts before them.

The dragons, in turn, absolutely ignored them, instead turning to Dumbledore.

Still staring at the headmaster, ShadowFang asked me to translate for her.

"Er... She says... Thank you for being so considerate in lending us your home, and..." I struggled to find a direct translation, "Um... we hope we are not... imposing on you in any way... and- I'm not going to repeat that!" I glared at my dragon, then to Dumbledore I said, "Sorry about that. The only contact they have with English speakers are Vampires, and let's just say my people say things that would make sailors cry."

Dumbledore's smile looked slightly strained. "Well. Let us not dwell on that, and rather move on to the fantastic feast that awaits us the Great Hall."

With that, the entire student body turned and ambled over to the Hall, glancing over their shoulders at the scaled beast who padded silently behind them. I sat in the spiny crest on Shadow's head, balancing precariously.

A space had been cleared at the back of the Hall for the dragons, and huge platters of meat lay spread out on the ground. The dragons lay down and curled their tails around them, except for the youngest, WindRider, who couldn't have been more than four years old, and about the size of a small pony. She entertained herself by fly up to the ceiling and snapping at the floating candles, until her mother, SwiftWing, called her down.

"I wish I could learn to ride them," said Ginny wistfully, seeing me perched on Shadow's shoulders, where I had shifted after sitting on her head (A horn up one's butt tends to get uncomfortable.)

"Me too," sighed Hermione. Soon, everyone was commenting on how they'd like to ride dragons.

A mischievous smile lit up my face...

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I glanced down at the group of terrified-looking students from my vantage point on Shadow's back, before booming out:

"Welcome to Dragon Riding 101!"

Hope you liked! (Nearly threw my laptop out the window when it refused to save. Yup, that's what bad moods do to me!)