The Dragonmaster

Prologue

A hooded person climbed on the highest hill of the area. You could see he was a fighter, everything from the way he walked to the way he carried himself he was showing it. Once he arrived at the top of the hill, he looked up at the night sky, staring closely at the stars, one in particular The Dragon Constellation. For a few minutes, nothing happened. The hooded stranger looked down, sighing heavily. Then suddenly he looked up, as if listening to an inaudible music. His stare was fixed on the constellation. Before his eyes they started to glow brighter and brighter. There was a flash and twelve beams of light were shot towards the earth.

The man smiled.

"Finally, they'll be soon here, we must prepare."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It had been two weeks since, Harry had come back from Hogwarts; two dull and boring weeks. The Dursleys had been ignoring him for the whole time, only speaking to him when it was absolutely necessary, meaning; when they ordered him to do something. As a result, Harry had already done all his homework and had started to memorize his textbooks, something which made him smile. (Hermione would be happy to hear that.) But the smile was quickly whipped off his face.

He had received a letter from Dumbledore two days after arriving at the Dursleys that told him that he couldn't communicate with anyone this summer. He was also told that he mustn't go to the Weasleys, with the rebirth of Voldemort, he had to stay at Privet Drive for the whole summer.

Since Dudley was still on diet, he wasn't eating a lot and this time he didn't have his friend's help. Fortunately he had taken some Muggle money with him and could buy some food from time to time. It was the only thing

which keep him going on, or else he would have been fainting with exhaustion. Indeed, the portion of food he was allowed to eat at meals was just enough for someone who didn't do nothing, but not for someone who had

to work. And he was being forced to work. The Dursleys had already made him clean the whole house, and the attic. He had to cook, go with his aunt to the supermarket to carry her bags. Now, he had been assigned at cleaning the garden, well if you could still call it a garden. It was more likely a small jungle. Harry was ready to bet nobody had put a foot in it during the whole year.

He was currently weeding it. He sighed heavily, whipping the sweat on his forehead and trying to ignore his dry throat. He had been in the garden for four hours and today the weather was hot and dry, the type of day during which you want to stay under a tree while sipping a refreshing drink or maybe eating a ice cream.

As he was pulling out a not so co-operating weed, he felt a sharp pain behind his neck, it lasted only a few seconds. He looked around and saw a bee flying away.

"Great," he muttered, "even the bugs are against me."

He put a hand on his neck, cringing when he touch the spot where the bee must have stung him. He was trying to feel if the bug had let its sting, he was relieved to feel nothing. Shrugging, he dismissed the event and went back to work.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The hooded stranger was back on the hill, but this time he was escorted by two other people and was carrying a silver orb. He pushed something on it and the orb opened, releasing a shadow.

"Yeartha kren'yr Drak. Boreth Daryns an'll whukas, hos tur Drak'yr crihjil

vieth."

The shadow nodded and disappeared.

"They'll arrive today," announced the man to his companions.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

For the following week, Harry continued to work in the garden. At the end of the week he had nearly finished his work there: he had cut the grass, weeded the whole area and planted new flowers here and there. All he had to do now was watering it.

His aunt, who had been watching him while cooking, for the past days to make sure he was working, opened the window and yelled.

"Boy! You'll have to paint the fence when you're done!"

Then she closed the window and went back to her kitchen. Harry sent a disgusted look her way. You could always rely on her to find him something to do.

Bracing himself he finished watering the flowers and went to take a paintbrush and some paint. The Dursley's had bought some brown paint. He started to work, careful not to drop anything on the ground. He was

half-way done when he started to have a light headache. He dismissed the feeling, he had been working for the whole afternoon in the sun, it was normal that he got a headache. But as time passed, it grew more and more

painful, especially behind his neck. The pain was now unbearable. His vision was blurred by his tears, his surroundings were spinning. He dropped the paintbrush to the ground, falling on his knees. Finally he passed out, the pain being too much to bear.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry slowly came back to his senses. His first feeling was that he wasn't lying on grass anymore. It looked like he was resting on a bed. His head was still hurting and didn't dare to open his eyes. Slowly he realized that

there were people in the room. They were talking.

"But how could this happen?!" This person was nearly hysterical.

"I don't know," replied a cold voice. "This has never happened before!"

"Could it be an error?"

"You saw the mark just like me, he has been chosen!"

"But, but, It's impossible! It can't be! A mere human can't be chosen!"

"Apparently it's possible, even if I doubt a human would be able to follow our training."

Harry could clearly hear the disgust and scorn in the way the second person pronounce the word 'human'.

"What are we going to do!"

"We'll give him a tour as soon as he wakes up as well as a few explanations, then we'll drop him in the choice room. Demenor will know what to do."

"You're sure, shouldn't we erase his memory and send him back to his world, he doesn't belong to our world!"

"We can't, he has the mark, he must be trained, even if I doubted he'll be able to do anything."

"Alright."

Harry slowly opened his eyes, looking around him. Apparently the two people weren't too keen on humans and he didn't look forwards talking with them.

"Finally you're awake." The cold voice said sharply.

Harry's vision was still a bit blurred. He blinked a few times and looked at the people next to him. His eyes widened in shock.

They were elves! The one with the cold voice was tall and muscular. He had shoulder-length black hair pulled in a ponytail and steel gray eyes. His companion was shorter with chestnut brown hair reaching his ears and hazel

eyes. Both had pointed shaped ears and a silver lock of hair.

The black-haired one sent him a hard look which confused Harry a bit, what

had he done to deserve it?

"Get up, human, we have a lot of thing to do, and no time to waste."

Harry obeyed immediately and followed them outside the room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Translation:

"Yeartha kren'yr Drak. Boreth Daryns an'll whukas, hos tur Drak'yr lyan'yr

crihjil vieth.": "Salutations Dragon's spirit. Bring the youths in our care,

for the Dragonmasters' history to go on."

Chapter One

The two elves gave him a quick tour, barely speaking, no more than one or two words to him. Harry was really confused; not only by their behavior, but also by the situation. Where was he? Why? How? All these questions were swirling in his mind. He didn't dare to ask them, seeing the look on their faces. They showed him the headquarters, the apprentices' area where he would stay, the masters' one, the common room where they had their meals. The building was quite strange, there seemed to be no roof, and the walls were covered with plants. Then he was led outside and showed the fighting area, the paddocks and the training rooms. Finally they brought him back to the main building and stopped before a large door; it was made of steel and silver, with nine figures imprinted. Studying them closely, Harry noticed there were nine dragons. He looked expectantly at the two elves. The one with black hair faced him.

"Listen closely human." He paused, making sure he had Harry's complete attention. "You're here at the Dragonmasters' headquarters. In this room, each new apprentice is chosen by one of the masters who will become his or her surveyor. Each master is responsible for the apprentice until he or she is partnered. When you enter, you must stay silent. Don't speak if you're not spoken to."

Harry nodded.

"Well, let's go now."

He opened the doors and entered followed by his companion and Harry. The chatter in the room died as they walked in the room. All the eyes were fixed on them, or more precisely on Harry. He looked down, quite uncomfortable with all the attention he was getting. He noticed that the two elves had joined their friends. The silence was finally broken by a strong voice.

"Very well, now that we're all here, let's start the ceremony." Harry looked up at the speaker and met a pair of blue eyes, a bit like Dumbledore's except that these ones weren't twinkling at him. The speaker looked older than all the other people present; he appeared to be the leader.

"Welcome Dragonlings, I'm Demenor, leader of this group. Now step forwards, and state your name so that you can be chosen."

Immediately, eleven youths, looking about Harry's age walked to the center of the room. Confused, Harry joined them.

The first to talk was a tall dark haired elf.

"I'm Teneb," It was clear that he was used to being obeyed.

Demenor turned to the masters.

"Does anyone accept Teneb as his Daryn?"

An elf raised his hand.

"I, Kario accept Teneb as my Daryn."

Teneb bowed.

"I, Teneb, swear obedience to Master Kario."

One by one, all the youths were chosen by a master. There were six elves: Teneb, Inir, Vlad, Xjahl, Malisa and Arnelle. The five remaining ones didn't look like anything Harry knew. All were human-like except for some details. Two of them had white hair and orange eyes. They also had only four fingers on their hands. They were Magis as Harry would soon learn. Magis were cousins of the elves but due to a prolonged contact with strong magic, their appearance had changed as well as their powers. Magis were able to manipulate magic flows. They were called Garth and Ophelia. The last three were Elementals. Like Magis, they were cousins of the elves but were divided in four groups recognizable by their appearance. One of the three youths, called Kobalt was obviously a Water Elemental, with his deep purple hair and his ocean blue eyes, the second; Ribor, was an Earth one, having dark green hair and hazel eyes. The last one, Chrisianne was an Air, with her silver gray locks and gray eyes. They all had very pale, almost transparent skin. Finally, it was Harry's turn. He stepped forward and said, a bit shakily:

"I'm Harry."

"Does anyone accept Harry as his Daryn?"

Nobody answered, the room was dead silent.

Demonor asked his question again but this time more forcefully.

Harry looked around him, only meeting cold and defiant stares. He shifted on his feet, uncomfortably.

Finally, the silence was broken by a harsh voice,

"Don't bother repeating the question. Demenor, no of us want to take a weak human as our Daryn. He would only bring shame on us."

Demenor sighed at this, as if he had expected this reaction.

Harry was now looking at the floor truly hurt by these words.

"Well," said the elf. "As no one wishes to take you, human, I have no other choice but to take you myself."

Harry bowed, his cheeks burning with shame.

"I, Harry, swear obedience to Master Demenor."

There were a few seconds of silence, which were finally broken by the voice of Demenor.

"Alright, will the masters take their Daryns with them and explain a few things. I bid you good night." His voice clearly stated that they were being dismissed.

Only Harry and Demenor stayed in the room.

"Well, Harry, your situation is quite peculiar..." said the elf slowly.

Harry remained silent, not knowing what to say.

"Quite peculiar indeed .." he repeated. "I think you deserve an explanation."

Harry slowly nodded.

"Alright, you're here at the headquarters of the Dragonmasters. It's a group mostly composed of elves, also a few Magis and Elementals. Our principal characteristic is that we're all partnered with a dragon."

"A dragon?!" blurted Harry.

There was a faint smile on his lips.

"Yes a dragon, but not the ones you're used to seeing. These dragons are different, more intelligent and resourceful. They can speak telepathically and partnered with someone. There are nine types, broken into three groups: First, the mind dragons: they are the Azurean," a picture of a big azure dragon appeared. It was huge with silver claws, sharp small spikes on the head and the neck. Big spikes on the dark blue wings and razor-sharp blade on the legs as well as at the end of the tail. "These are the strongest most enduring in their group. Then the Dawnris" another picture followed these words. Large light red wings, a body colored in pastel tones from yellow to red, a crown of spikes on the head, small blades along the neck and the tail, ruby claws. This one was smaller than the Azurean. "Really fast, sharp reflexes and great memory. The last member of this group are the Duskers." Another picture showed up. It was the one of a small dragon covered with scales whose colors were either deep purple, dark blue or black. Its wings were a dark violet. It had two horns on the head, little spikes above the eyes, dark claws and round spikes on the tail. "Its principal advantage is his chameleon's abilities. This dragon can blend in his environment, thus making it difficult to identify them.

Demenor took a huge breath and looked at Harry who was starring at the pictures.

"The second group is composed of the Elements' dragons: first the Firelans who had control over fire." A new picture appeared. It was quite a huge dragon. It was red and orange with two horns on its head. Its wing and the end of its tail were made of fire. "Then the Dewats who controlled water." The dragon looked a lot like the Azurean, except he was smaller, had less spikes and that his body seemed made of water. "The third are the Wiscand who mastered the air." This dragon was quite strange. It was hard to described since his body seemed blurred. Its wings were transparent, he had two horns made of swirling air and white fluorescent eyes. "Wiscands are able to make themselves invisible. And the last ones, the Quear with control over earth." It was the biggest dragon Harry had ever seen. It seemed made of rock with massive legs and huge wings. Its body was covered with tiny spikes. Two blades were found at the end of his tail.

Demenor paused again.

Harry had never been so shocked.

"Finally the two last dragons. They're magical dragons. First the Enmags"

Harry was awestruck by the picture of this dragon. If he had to describe something magical it would be this. Huge silver wings, a slender creamy body which radiated magic, rainbow colored spark on his neck and tiny spikes above his head.

"Enmags are all females and powerful healers but they are also very rare. But the rarest are the Sowarocs."

He looked royal, like a chief, a leader. Huge golden wing with silver spikes, diamond-like scales. Huge claws, blades on the on the tail, neck and head. Sowarocs emanated power.

"The Sowarocs are the most powerful of dragons. They can control magic, are deadly fighters and almost immune to all types of spells."

Harry only nodded, completely shocked by the picture.

"Now onto another subject, you'll be trained for two years before being partnered. Your training consists of different areas of study: sword fights, close combat, martial arts, archery, horse back riding, mind magic, magic, including healing, tracking ... You and the other apprentices will be under the care of masters of each field. "

Harry nodded again.

"One last thing, as you know I am your surveyor but I'm also the leader of the Dragonmasters, so I'm really busy and I would appreciate it if you didn't come to me too often."

Once again Harry nodded.

"Good. I'll show you the Daryns' dorm. Follow me."

Harry was led to a black door.

"Here you are. Good night, and good luck with your training, you'll need it."

Before Harry could thank him,, Demenor left. Harry dreaded the reaction of the others in the room. Bracing himself, he opened the door and entered.

He was met with a heavy silence and hard stares.

Biting his lip, he headed towards the only remaining bed, in the corner to his right, near the window. Silently he opened the bags finding some clothes, soap, .... He started to put them into the drawers under the bed, hearing the others talking in quiet whisper between them.

"I can't believe a human has been chosen!" said one of the Magis suddenly.

"Yes, I mean how could a weak human be partnered with a dragon?" added a blond-haired elf, Vlad.

"Did you know that they need sticks of wood to do magic?" asked the Earth Elemental, Ribor, playing along.

"Really?"

"Yes, pathetic isn't it? And I thought the trolls were stupid!"

"Well, humans might be the next step of their evolution..."

"I don't know... Why don't you ask the human?"

"Excellent idea. Hey human!"

Harry, who had acted like he was deaf, looked at the elf.

"Is your mother a troll?"

Harry clenched his fists but remained silent. They were baiting him but he wouldn't fall for their trap.

"What's the problem? Cat got your tongue?"

"Perhaps he is mute?" said the air Elemental, Chrisianne.

"Or too stupid? I mean if his mother was really a troll..."

They looked like they could go on for hours but Teneb cut them off.

"Finished? I think dinner is ready."

"Really, well let's going!" exclaimed an other elf, Xjahl.

They left the room. Harry looked down at his hand. He had clenched his fists so tightly that he had cut himself. He forced himself to calm down, took breathed deeply and exited the dorm, heading for the common room.

He sat at the far end of the table reserved for the apprentices.

Thorough the whole dinner, he remained silent, pretending not to hear the taunts of the other youths.

As soon as they were allowed to leave, he went straight to his dorm, changed and went to bed. He heard the other coming a few hours later and pretended to be sleeping. He had a hard time falling asleep. What had he done to deserve this treatment?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He was awakened by ice water in the morning. Completely drenched, shivering, he looked around and spotted a bucket hovering above him. Without warning it stopped hovering and fell right on his head. The shock made him a bit dizzy.

"Finally awake human?" asked Chrisianne with a fake smile.

"Hurry up Chris or we'll be late for breakfast!" shouted Garth.

"Coming!" yelled the young girl before looking back to Harry. "You should hurry human, or you'll be late..."

As soon as she left, he got up, dressed and ran to the common room. Everyone was nearly finished. He quickly ate his breakfast and headed to his first class, sword fighting.

He was the last one to arrive. Their master gave him a scornful look.

"Well as I said before, I'm Effilin and I'll be teaching you the art of fighting. I'm sure most of you," he glanced at Harry, "will be great. We'll start with sword-fighting. I'll give each of you a sword then show you some basic moves." In a few minutes they all had a blade in their hands. Harry was finding his to be really heavy. He had trouble lifting it.

"Now look at me," the elf said loudly before demonstrating a series of slow simple movements. He made them practice a few times, correcting and praising them one by one. He seemed particularly keen on Teneb who was moving with ease, apparently used to holding a sword. Then, he reached Harry as he was executing the series for the fifth time. His arms were growing tired from carrying the sword and he was panting.

"Well, too heavy for you?"

Harry didn't know what to say.

"A little..."

"A little! But a baby could hold this sword! And your balance is horrible, look!" To prove his point Effilin gave him a good push on the shoulder, sending him on the ground.

"No balance, no strength... What am I going to do with you?"

The other youths were snickering at this.

"Give me this sword back, you're not worthy to hold it yet."

Without a word, Harry handed him the blade. The elf put it back on the wall and took a long stick of wood on which he put two rings of steel.

"Take this, and practice with it. At least you won't hurt yourself or anybody else ..."

Garth was mimicking Harry behind the teacher's back.

Effilin went back to the front of the apprentices.

"Well, All of you but the human can practice these movements against each other. You," he said looking at Harry, "you continue to practice alone."

This went on for two hours. Then they headed outside for their archery lesson.

This didn't go well for Harry either, he was exhausted from his first lesson and his arm was shaking, making him miss the targets by meters and earning the anger of Edevia the elf teacher.

Lunch passed quickly and then the first lesson of Magic, the one Harry was looking forward to.. At least he wouldn't be far behind this time. He had only forgot one thing: his wand.

As soon as he stepped into the class with his wand in his hand, he found Sarwin in front of him d glaring at him. The Magis snatched his wand away.

"Forget it human. There won't be any wand waving in this class. We'll be learning about true Magic."

The lesson was torture for Harry. He couldn't do anything, having never learned how to channel his power without a wand. Wandless magic was supposed to be impossible! At the end of the lesson, Sarwin gave him his wand back, warning Harry to keep it in his dorm.

The next period was about mind Magic. The first step in this process was accessing to the spirit plan. The only way was meditating as their teacher, Nerthor had explained them. The ability to keep calm in all the situations was necessary for a dragon's partner. The dragon had a tendency to be overwhelmed by their emotions, so the partner had to keep a cool head to balance this rush of feeling. Apparently the elves, Magis and Elementals use a particular way to meditate and fall in a deep trance. The problem was that it had no effect on Harry. He spent the two hours trying to figure out another way to meditate, failing miserably. Finally he met his last teacher, Lienhior, who was teaching them how to ride a horse. If it was possible, this was the worst hour of the day for Harry. As soon as he said he had never ridden before, he earned the teacher's scorn.

Finally it was over. Harry quickly ate and went straight to bed after nursing his many bruises .

The next days followed the same pattern, and after a week, Harry realized he wasn't welcome by anyone here. His comrades were divided into two groups: one group, composed of Inir, Malisa, Arnelle, Teneb, Opheria and Kobalt, was simply ignoring him, acting like he didn't exist. The others loved to taunt and insult him. It was their favorite game and the teachers acted like nothing was happening.

He hadn't improved in any of his classes. In fighting he still practiced with his stick or was used by Effilin for demonstrations, meaning that he would act as a punching-bag. His aim improved but Edevia was ignoring him. Magic was still impossible and the teacher was ready to throw him out. Mind Magic wasn't any better. In horse riding class he had been declared a hopeless case. Add to this the nightly nightmares about Voldemort, Cedric, tortures.....

All in all his life was a real hell. And the future wasn't looking any better

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Harry was quietly eating, ignoring the taunts from Garth and his friends. He was getting used to it. He was amazed with their ability to come up with new insults every day.

A ringing was heard above the chatter. Demenor rose on his feet.

"Daryns, it's a tradition among us to celebrate the end of the first month you have spent with us. So a feast will be held in your honor in one week."

He sat back among the cheers.

Harry was quite happy about it too.

The following week was spent talking about the feast. Even the teachers were more lenient.

On the night of the feast, the youths were gathered in the dorms, getting ready for it. Ten minutes before the feast, they began to leave the room. As Harry was about to leave too, he felt someone grab his arm.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To the feast, Ribor." Harry replied simply, having recognized Ribor's voice.

"Really? You really thought you were going to be able to come? How thick can you be?"

Harry looked at him confused.

"The little human doesn't understand.... Let me explain in simple terms: You are not coming."

"I don't see a reason which could stop me from going"

"Well, there isn't any, but you won't go."

"Why?"

"Listen, human, you're nothing but a burden. You'll only bring shame upon us by coming. Who do you think will be happy to see you tonight?"

Harry looked down . Ribor had hit a nerve and knew it.

"See?" he said, smirking. "Good night human."

Harry slowly undressed and lay on his bed. A lonely tear rolled down his cheek. He missed Hogwarts, his friends, he even missed Snape; at least he knew why Snape hated him. He slowly fell into an agitated sleep.

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