Galo Jodard, from France
1st Year (age 11)
Specializes in care of creatures and ghost hunting, artistry
Worst subject is potions
Galo sighed and tried to concentrate. The class filled with distractable students and an equally distractable instructor - that is to say "Ghost Relations" with Trudy Shout - was almost over. But Trudy was known for giving out pop quizzes, and today was no exception.
"Who can name the primary function of this rune in a warding circle?" She asked, and held up a card with an obscure symbol on it. Galo had seen it before, but he was only a first-year, he wasn't well versed in such things just yet. He knew more about what kind of ghosts haunted what sorts of landscapes, or how to lure one in, not how to make them go away! Fortunately, one of the older students fielded that one, and at last, the deep ringing of the hour bell brought the class to a close.
It was hard enough for Galo to pay attention at all, since he was only eleven. But he was eleven, French in an English school, and knew that there would be dragons coming to visit the first years in his Care of Magical Creatures class.
How could anyone concentrate on silly ghosts when there were dragons to look at? There was a twenty minute break between classes at House Domina, while everyone scattered and headed off to their dorm or up to the library. Galo put on his sweater and brought his notebook with blank paper for drawing along with some magically enchanted coloring pencils.
When the class assembled outside in the courtyard to the rear of the House, where one could see the small quidditch patch and the herbalism house beyond, it was clear that the dragons were as ready and excited as the kids.
At that time, there were a couple dragons at House Domina, living in magically enlarged caverns just on the hills nearby. If people were disinclined to go there because of the rumors of ghosts or werewolves, they were even less likely to seek out dragons - they were awe inspiring.
Galo thought they were lovely. A bit big, but lovely. Iris and her shining white-blue one, Lucas with his feathery red fire - she was a shapeshifter like himself. A huge copper colored male rounded out their little group, belonging to the artificer Dakota. Only one student had located a draconic bond, Svedok - Lucas' son - and his big black friend was also a shapeshifter after a fashion.
Galo wasn't much into animagus, he tried shifting into something once, but it took him days to get out of it, and it was right about then that his parents sought out House Domina instead of their local French establishment. He'd have been laughed out of the school if they ever found out. But at Domina he felt safe - because half the instructors were also kind of silly that way.
The foursome of dragons stood eagerly near one another. The white Spirit dragoness at one end, and black Dairruinth on the other. At the moment, the Avengaean fire Audeo was in her humanoid shape, redskinned and with beautiful red feathery wings. But Galo knew from having spied secret glances at the dragons, that she was the biggest of them all. It was strange, because as a human she was hardly bigger than Trudy, and she wasn't that tall.
Because no one was going to stop him, Galo immediately started drawing the dragons as he saw them. His pencil moved across the page, and artfully recreated first one and then the next. By the time he was halfway through copper Kastanja, though, Iris cleared her throat and indicated that class had begun.
"I know that your normal instructor, Professor Khayali, would normally be here, but she's allowed me to take today and make it special." The bright eyed woman turned to the Magical Creatures specialist, who nodded. Uma Khayali was a bit queer too, like most of the instructors, but Galo liked her a lot. Of course, she walked around with that dreadful unicorn skin draped over her - apparently it gave her powers of some kind...
Iris continued, "As you can see, our dragons are otherworldly in nature, and not at all like the Earth dragons found here." She went on to talk about magical use by dragons - Dairruinth was one of those who had not only the body of a dragon but the mind of a scholar and could study magic just like any person could. Earth's dragons could hardly do that, now could they? The more she talked about dragons from other places, the more Galo thought about ... being other places.
He'd drifted again, letting the pleasant voice of the paladin Iris lull him into a thoughtful state. While in this state he still saw what was in front of him, but it was distant - like seeing something in a mirror. He could still hear, but hardly made out words - instead, he allowed one or two statements to be plucked out and concentrated upon. Plus, he knew he heard words that he didn't understand, more because they were in English and not because he didn't get the concepts behind them.
When he blinked a couple times and noticed that Iris had stopped speaking, he gulped, and noticed that almost everyone was staring at him again. He shrunk, in as much as it was possible for a little kid like him to get even smaller, and apologized for drifting off again like he usually did.
"No, no," Iris said, "look, there's something for you." She nodded and Galo looked down to see a small pale colored egg on the grassy ground before his feet. Good thing he hadn't walked toward her. He picked the egg up, and it started to hatch almost immediately.
From it, a little blue snout came poking out and Galo's eyes shot wide open. "It's a flitter!" He blurted, and then realized that other eggs had been given out too - it wasn't just him. But his was a deep, rich blue, the kind of blue that heralded nightfall. "Nightfall," he pronounced the name of the flitter, and realized that there was a little basket of insects and gobby bits ready for the newly hatched creatures to eat.
Because he was an artist at heart, Galo didn't fear squirmy insects or blobby things - he was more apt to try drawing them and examining them in close detail, than shy away from them like one of the girls did.
In the days that followed, the group that had gotten their flitters experienced a spat of popularity, even Galo, but also they learned how to care for the little flits and learned the basics of dragon anatomy from them too. Nightfall was well-tuned to his master's needs, and enjoyed posing for a while as Galo studied and made notes.
Iris and Professor Khayali were both impressed with his artistic abilities, but also that he paid such attention to detail that he knew most of the eggs had come from the same breed of flitter - though one or two had not. "He'll be an excellent practitioner of magical creature care," Uma said, "but he's so young. I don't want him learning the wrong things about dragons."
"I don't think he'll screw it up, Uma," Iris said, smiling. "He is young - but so far as I know he's about the right age to grow up with a dragon. So do you mind?"
"Not at all, if you've already cleared it with Zora." The Magical Creatures professor patted her fellow instructor on the shoulder, "I'm sure that he'll need a little guidance though - his mind wanders easily. Even here."
With that, Iris nodded, and went to make arrangements. She'd heard of a perfect clutch, one of three, at a place that was called Holic. Indeed, if a more perfect clutch wasn't there, for Galo, she wasn't sure what could possibly suit him.
Mistylia, Iris's beautiful Spirit dragon, came to bring the young boy to his potential bond - it was the first time that Galo had ridden a dragon, and he was absolutely enthralled. Nightfall clung to his chest under his jacket, but peeked out over the wind. The boy's supplies and bags had been packed magically for him, everything he needed for the duration. Plus, they knew where to find him.
His parents would probably flip, but Iris would deal with that when they got back...
***
They were adorable, just like Galo - Iris chuckled to herself. And of course, the sparkly blue one was the first that came to him. Galo laughed heartily when the blue's first words to him were I'm hungry rather than "my name is Lokass."
Once more he was happy to provide grubs and pieces of meat and whatever else the dragonet could gobble down - and it wasn't enough... Galo wondered whether this dragon could ever be full!
Not too likely, but that was fine - he always wanted one more bite of bread or spoon of stew too.
They traveled back to House Domina and everyone oohed and aahed, because this was a pretty special dragon! The bobbers on their long stems were of particular interest to Nightfall and other flitter-like creatures, and to ghosts, which was even more awesome to Galo.
As Lokass grew up, and Galo continued studying, it became clear that they were a great team for ghost-busting. They did have to concentrate on getting rid of a ghost, if asked, otherwise they'd just stand around and chat for hours.
Name: Lokass
Gender: Male
Color: Blue-White
Size: Small
Personality: Upbeat and friendly, he's Galo's biggest fan. He's very confident, and loves to learn. He enjoys long, deep conversations.
Abilities: Verbal Speech, Weak Ice Magic, Bioluminescence, Bottomless Pit (able to eat anything he can fit his mouth around, but is never full), Technological Dissaptitude (ability to ruin any and all technology)