Chapter four
Off to Hogwarts
Now it might interest you to know that at the end of the last academic year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Spyro and Cynder vowed, in the wake of the rising of the Dark Lord and Master, that they would be the dragon protectors of the school. So, after Harry's hearing and hearing that he had been cleared of all charges and finding out that Ron and Hermione were now prefects, all that was left to do was wait to return to Hogwarts.
So, when the 1st of September arrived, the only complication was how to get through the crowds of Muggles. All the wizards were ok, they could easily blend in, but a bright purple dragon with golden horns and a dark indigo dragon with silver horns would definitely get noticed easily. After a lot of thought, Harry agreed to lend the dragons his Invisibility cloak.
Once they arrived at the train station, Cynder realised that someone else had followed them, Sirius had turned himself into a black dog and was now following just behind the others, with Harry.
"Padfoot. Are you barking mad?" Moody hissed at the dog as it moved ahead of the group, "you'll blow the entire operation" it then headed off towards a waiting room and was followed closely by Harry. A few minutes later, the boy came out of the room and re-joined the group whereas the dog was seen walking out of the station.
Now, Spyro and Cynder had only gotten to Hogwarts via magical shipping before, so when they were told to run through a brick wall in order to get to the platform they needed to be at, well, they were confused. Eventually, Harry decided to go first, with Mad-eye right next to him. They strode up to the boundary between platforms 9 and 10, and just passed through the wall! Cynder recognised this form of magic but couldn't for the life of her remember what it was called. The dragons decided that they should go next, so the duo ran as fast as they could without losing the cloak draped over them, and as soon as they should have hit the wall, they passed through it and saw that they were standing on a way cooler train station than the one they just left. There was a scarlet steam engine that was waiting next to a platform packed with wizards and witches. A sign overhead said "Hogwarts Express, 11 o'clock" they had made it. Suddenly, the cloak was whisked from over the two dragons by Mad-Eye who handed the cloak back to Harry. Both dragons were excited to return to Hogwarts, not because they were expecting to learn stuff, but because the castle was the closest thing they had to a proper home.
After bidding farewell to the Order, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Spyro, Cynder and Sparx boarded the train. Mad-Eye had given the train guard a stern talking to when explaining why the dragons were to board the train with the others, and they all agreed it was safer to stay as a group than for them to stay split up. So due to Ron and Hermione having to sit in the Prefects carriage, the dragons and the dragonfly decided to keep Harry company in his compartment. They were joined by a boy carrying an odd plant halfway through the journey, Harry introduced the boy as Neville Longbottom, and both dragons remembered Harry mentioning the boy the previous year, he had helped Harry get through the second task in the Tri Wizard Tournament. So most of the ride after that was the dragons answering Neville's questions about where they came from and what they could do.
After the train journey, the group reunited with Ron and Hermione. Now, in any normal event, Spyro, Cynder and Sparx would have joined Harry and his friends on their way to the castle, but they had been told specifically to fly ahead of the students and meet the staff in the great hall. So, the three friends bid farewell to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville and took flight towards the castle. They soon arrived in the main courtyard, where Professor Dumbledore was waiting for them. Without saying a word, he led the dragons through two sets of grand, large doors and into the great hall, where there were four long rows of tables leading up to another long table where the school staff sat. Dumbledore led the dragons to one end of the table and told them to wait there whilst the students entered the room.
Harry was slightly surprised to see Spyro and Cynder sitting on the floor next to the Staff table, but it wasn't completely unexpected. The dragons gave kind smiles to the new first years as they were sorted into their houses and clapped their paws with everyone else when the sorting hat chose each student's house. When the feast began, he saw Spyro and Cynder get given some fish whereas Sparx seemed to be eating a butterfly. Either way, they all seemed satisfied with what they had been given.
