The room was filled to the brim with people, mostly young, around the same age as their guests. But they didn't know that, and they didn't have to.
Huntsgirl stood ramrod straight, back facing the wall, her uniform blending in well with the red curtains decorating the part of the room where she was. The Sorting had taken place yesterday and now school was officially starting for the students. It was bustling and noisy as they got their timetables, so none from the young crowd took notice of the slender masked person. She felt a few inquisitive stares, just like the other day, from the professor's table, but they had already been filled in by her uncle before he left her here.
The Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, seemed wary of the Hunstclan as a whole, knowing them as a force to be reckoned with – which is why he, a clearly pro-magic wizard, was willing to cooperate with them in the first place, lest he ignite their wrath. But he was surprisingly warm and friendly towards Huntsgirl. Smiling openly towards her. Like he could see into her soul with his eerie blue eyes, somehow deeming her a good person and then proceeding to treat her accordingly. Once her uncle left the two of them alone in his office, Dumbledore offered her candy like the grandfather she never had. She didn't know how to feel about that.
Huntsgirl suddenly noticed the old man in question rising from his seat. He lifted a hand (the other, black and shriveled, she noticed was discreetly tucked under his large robe sleeve) and the entire room went quiet. "I believe our other guest has arrived." Hushed, whispered questions in the air immediately afterwards, but Dumbledore offered no further clarifications.
A roar suddenly tore through, a piercing vibration, leaving the whole population in the Grand Hall frozen in its wake. Hunstgirl shifted for the first time since she came into the room, her pulse speeding up. She stayed put though, waiting for the students to rush out. No reason to end up on the spotlight, it was against her persona. This was all a matter of timing.
As she reached the crowd now formed outside, she heard their awed and fearful exclamations as they saw the ruby red dragon flying towards the castle. She remembered what Jake had said weeks before, soft and tired against her body in the middle of the night.
They didn't know about the kind of dragons that could talk, let alone be able to mingle with humans. So the whole thing could've easily turned into one massive panicked misunderstanding if the Headmaster hadn't walked forward. Standing a few feet ahead of everyone else, he stared right at the creature in the sky. Smiling.
As the dragon lowered itself towards the ground, huge wings flapping against its back, everybody besides the Headmaster took a step back in apprehension. But Huntsgirl heard amidst them a bushy-haired girl's exclamation of wonder and surprise; as she listened to gauge the entire crowd's reactions to the dragon's arrival, she heard the girl's long winded inquiry at the creature's unusual shape – the wings were independent from its arms, its size was slightly smaller than a fully-matured average-sized one, the overall shape seemingly European but the torso more elongated and snake-like, closer to the Chinese dragon…
Stop calling him an "it". My boyfriend's not a thing… Huntsgirl could only complain in her head, still hidden in a shadowy corner between the outer walls.
"Welcome to Hogwards." Dumbledore tore through the noise as he greeted the young dragon warmly, arms open, just like he did with her the day before. She was planning to jump in at the right moment to prove the Huntsgirl's stance against the dragons in a (fairly predictable) ambush. Better let them see what they had to see as soon as possible, not let them suspect anything less than hatred between them.
"Uh, wassup?"
But now was not the time to do that, apparently. She left in a hurry lest she blows her cover in the most embarrassing way as she witnessed the public's reaction to a dragon's American slang. Running back into the castle, along the corridors, Huntsgirl smothered her laughter but couldn't keep the wide grin from creeping underneath her mask. She loved her boyfriend so much.