Chapter 6: A Meeting of Royalty

Morgana flopped down on her new bed. It was rock hard.

Big surprise.

"Well, it's not exactly fancy," remarked Stormy.

Understatement of the year, Morgana thought but didn't say. Stormy and her were not exactly on speaking terms, and it would look pretty strange for her to answer anything the Slytherin said, no matter how true it was.

And the room was, indeed, far from fancy. There was one bare lamp on the ceiling. A dresser and two beds were the only furniture. There was a small attached bathroom with a rusty bathtub and no hot water.

* ~ *

After several days, Morgana and Stormy had all but totally exhausted the possibilities of arguments.

So far, they had argued about at least fifty different topics. There were all the normal ones, like lights on/lights off, who got the bathroom first, who got which bed, and other things that any two people will argue about if they're stuck together for too long. Then there were the not-so-normal topics, like Morgana doing her Super-Light Orb spell at three in the morning, Stormy letting loose her pet snakes to lie in wait in the bathroom, and who was the more powerful witch.

On the fourth night of their week-long sentence, Morgana and Stormy weren't arguing. They didn't have much left to argue about. So instead they just lay down on their beds, seeing who could keep the stony silence longer.

In fact, they were so occupied in refusing to speak to each other that at first they didn't hear the tapping at the window.

There was a terrible storm going on at the time. It was inky black outside. The rain poured down like it would never have another chance. The eerie landscape of the grounds was lit up every few seconds by a flash of lightning.

After on such flash, Morgana could have sworn she heard something.

"Did you hear that?" she asked her owl, Merlin.

"What?" asked Stormy groggily.

"The question was directed at Merlin here, not you," snapped Morgana.

"Well, I'm not the one talking to an owl!"

But their spat was silenced by the sound that came from the window.

Morgana heard it clearly this time. A muffled voice pleaded urgently, "Let me in! It's cold and wet out here!" The voice was accompanied by more tapping.

It took a while for this to sink in. When she realized what was happening, Morgana dashed to the window and threw it open.

* ~ *

Stormy gawked.

She still wasn't sure how the very large silver dragon had gotten through the tiny window. For that matter, she wasn't sure how the huge bulk of the enormous lizard was even resting in the middle of the isolation dorm, which wasn't very large either.

You're at Hogwarts, Stormy, she reminded herself. Anything can happen.

She managed to make her jaw work long enough to stammer, "But.... but....dragons are illegal!"

"This is no ordinary dragon," replied Morgana.

The dragon itself looked positively disgusted at the mere thought of it being anywhere near normal.

"Me? A common dragon? Ugh! Certainly not!" it scoffed.

"But... what are you, then?" asked Stormy, bewildered.

"I? I am Zephyr, the Dragonqueen!" it informed. "Who are you?" Zephyr added, seemingly bemused (dragon facial expressions are an altogether unexplored area).

"I'm.... " Stormy started, but was cut off.

"I know who you are," Zephyr said, in the same kind of tone one would use to say something like, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

"You're Stormy Riddle. You live with your grandfather, Lord Voldemort, because your parents, Salazar Riddle and Amber Jewelle, were killed by said grandfather because they were going over to the Good side. Your uncle, and your father's twin, Severus Riddle, went into hiding and later resurfaced as Snape. He took a job as Potions teacher here at Hogwarts.

"You have an older sister named Lex and a younger sister named Sunny," Zephyr ticked off on her claws. "Your best friend is Cassiopeia Malfoy, who is Draco Malfoy's twin sister. Draco has been a friend of yours since you were very little.

"Name one thing about you, Stormy, and I'll tell you as much or more than you know yourself."

Zephyr smirked. "And this is why." Then she changed.

* ~ *

Standing in place of the Dragonqueen was a girl dressed in black Hogwarts robes.

Stormy got over her shock first.

"KIRI!!!!" she yelled.

"I am going to KILL you! You just gave Morgana enough dirt on me to make my life miserable for years!"

Stormy gestured frantically toward Morgana.

It was now Morgana's turn to be confused. She'd met Zephyr before at conferences, but Kiri? The Dragonqueen? The words were just not connecting in her mind.

"But Zephyr... " she protested. "I didn't know you were here! In the same year as me!"

"Stranger things have happened. Although it is unusual that both the Griffinqueen and the Dragonqueen would be in the same year.

"By the way, I would appreciate it if you would refer to me as Kiri while I'm in human form. It's much less confusing that way."

"Sure, Zephyr," mumbled Morgana absentmindedly.

"Wait a minute, Kiri. You're saying that Morgana is the Griffinqueen?!" demanded Stormy.

"Well, I think that perhaps you should see that for yourself," replied Kiri.

"Right." Finally something she could understand, thought Morgana.

And with that she began to change.



A/N: Okay, I know you're confused, so let's recap the important things in this chapter.

One night in the isolation dorm, a dragon flies in the window. The dragon turns out to be the Dragonqueen, whom Morgana knows, but Stormy doesn't. The Dragonqueen turns out to be Kiri, whom Stormy knows, but Morgana doesn't. Neither one of them knew that Kiri and the Dragonqueen, Zephyr, are one and the same.

The last thing in that long and very confusing chapter was that Kiri says Morgana is the Griffinqueen. To find out if it's true (plus what, exactly, the Griffinqueen is), read the next chapter.

A/N about the A/N: I don't usually write teasers, but that was just too tempting.

A/N that is not directly related to either of the other A/Ns: Now the title is coming clear! ::Audience goes, "OHHHH!!!"::