"The Common Welsh Green, or just Welsh Green, is a dragon native to Wales," the owner of the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary informs the eight of them.

He's a big, broad man, undoubtably strong, with untameable brown hair and a bushy beard, matching his unkept eyebrows. Isabelle spies several burn marks covering his arms, along with a nasty-looking scar that travels from his temple down his face, disappearing into his beard. Florin is his name, and he demanded they all call him by it. "None of this 'sir' or 'professor' business," he had told them.

"It nests in the higher mountain regions where a reservation has been set up for it. It is a green dragon, with a distinctive, musical roar," Florin continues, his voice naturally gruff and harsh, almost guttural. But his eyes hold a certain softness as he looks around at the eight students standing before him, as though remembering when he was in their position, many years ago.

"This dragon is a relatively subdued breed, and prefers to prey mainly on sheep and other small mammals and to avoid human contact altogether," Florin says, pacing back and forth in front of them with his hands clasped behind his back.

Isabelle watches him, listening intently as she stands next to Charlie. She's one of only two girls in the group of eight, the other six being boys, all of them either eighteen or nineteen, fresh out of school. The other girl in the group almost reminds her of Amelia, with dark brown hair and brilliant blue eyes, matching Isabelle's own. Her name's Elena, and she's apparently fought a dragon before — the only one out of all of them that has. Isabelle doesn't know whether that's true or not, but if it is, it's very impressive.

"The Welsh Green's roar is rather distinctive and somewhat melodious and it issues its fire in narrow jets," Florin continues. "The eggs of the Common Welsh Green are earthy brown, flecked with green."

The eight students studying dragons at the Sanctuary arrived only the day before, unpacking their stuff and having the opportunity to settle down in their huts. It's two per hut, Isabelle sharing with Elena, of course. Despite the girl's tough exterior, the brown-haired girl seemed to take a liking to Isabelle within the first couple of minutes knowing her, the two of them spending the entire afternoon in their hut, talking all about different creatures and their experience with them.

Elena told Isabelle all about her dragon encounter, of course, which was when she was much younger, wandering through the woods near her house at night. It was only a baby dragon, but she fought it off all the same. She didn't know what breed it was, not only because it was dark, but also because she was never interested in dragons before then. It was only after that she started becoming invested, truly invested, in dragons.

In return, Isabelle told Elena all about her fascination with dragons as a child, and how she studied them in France, but then moved up to Scotland to study creatures at Hogwarts. She told Elena all about their class trip to Tibet, and the close run-in with the Yetis that her and Charlie had. Elena was a good listener, her eyes widening at parts of Isabelle's story, gasping at other parts. It was a nice afternoon, and Isabelle is really glad to have made a good friend already.

"It is possible that a young Common Welsh Green may have been the actual cause of the Great Fire of London," Florin continues, Isabelle's eyes widening as she listens on. "The Ilfracombe Incident occurred in 1932, when a rogue Common Welsh Green attacked a group of sunbathers at Ilfracombe, in Devon, England. The attack was thwarted by the Toke wizarding family, who proceeded to cast the largest group of Memory Charms seen in the twentieth century."

Charlie glances down at Isabelle, who's staring intently at Florin, listening to what he's saying with immense interest. He smiles slightly to himself.

"The Toke family were subsequently awarded the Order of Merlin First Class, for their heroism and quick-thinking," Florin finishes. "However, this is a rare occurrence with a Welsh Green. They are usually relatively subdued, and I won't count on an incident like that happening again."

Isabelle hardly knows any of the boys' names that are here with her. Obviously she knows Charlie, but the other five she hasn't talked to properly yet. She's met Charlie's roommate, of course, a tall and slender boy with blond hair called Daniel, who's a lot stronger than he looks, but she doesn't know anything about him other than that. She might have been introduced to the other four the day before, but she can't remember any of their names.

"If it isn't obvious to all of you by now," Florin continues, halting his pacing to face the eight students, "we will be starting our dragon studies with Common Welsh Greens. There are five that currently reside here in the Sanctuary, and I will take you up to meet them shortly. Your task is to earn their trust. Make them comfortable enough with you that they'll allow you to ride them."

He looks around at them all, staring each of them dead in the eye in turn.

"This is, as I'm sure you're all aware, easier said than done. You will work in pairs to achieve this. I will assign these pairs. I will also assign you a dragon — one for each pair. You will be given a month. That's it. A month to gain your dragon's trust enough to ride it. Both of you have to ride it, not just one of you," Florin instructs.

"If only one of you gains its trust, you have failed. Here at the Sanctuary, we need to be able to work together to accomplish tasks and look after the dragons. If only one of you succeeds, you have failed in teamwork."

Isabelle swallows thickly, having a feeling that this task is going to be so much harder than Florin's making it out to be.

"If you take longer than a month, you have failed," he continues. "Time pressure is a real thing when working with dragons. If you have an untamed dragon, the longer you take to tame it, the wilder it's going to get. Therefore, you only get a month, maximum."

Elena catches Isabelle's eye, their matching blue eyes grinning at each other. Yes, it's going to be a challenge, but that's what they signed up for, isn't it?

"Throughout your time here in Romania, you will be presented with a different task for each dragon. Each dragon will be a level up from the previous dragon, and each task will therefore be harder than the previous task. If you successfully complete a task, you will move up to the next dragon. If you fail a task, you will study all the books I instruct you to read regarding that dragon, and you will try the task again. And again. And again. Until you succeed. Is this all clear?" Florin asks.

The eight students nod their heads, mumbling their 'yeses' and 'yeahs'.

"Good," Florin says, clapping his hands together. "Follow me, then. I'll take you to our Common Welsh Greens."

The group of eight follow him down the path, then up through a hiking trail in the forest, winding up the mountains, each student grabbing onto trees and branches to help themselves up along the path. Isabelle, along with quite a few others, is panting as they finally arrive at the top, in a massive, shaded clearing. She'll need to get her fitness up a lot if she wants to continue like this.

Out of nowhere, causing Isabelle to step back in fright, a massive green dragon lands in front of them, having flown down from a nearby tree. It eyes the students apprehensively, but makes its way over to Florin, rubbing its gigantic head on his arm in an affectionate manner. Isabelle stares in shock and awe, along with the other seven students.

"This is Aemilius," Florin introduces, placing a scarred hand on the dragon's green head. "He's the dragon I had to tame when I was in your position, given the exact same task. As you can see, I succeeded. He's the last of the original Common Welsh Greens here in the Sanctuary, all the others having returned to the wild. However, we have received a number of new Welsh Greens, which you will be tasked with."

Isabelle can't seem to take her eyes off the dragon before her. This is the first time she's ever seen a dragon face-to-face, and she can't believe the stark realness of the whole thing. She can make out every single one of the scales on its face, see the tiny veins in its eyeball, the soft tendrils of smoke swirling out of its nostrils. It's unbelievable.

"Time to pair you up," Florin says, clapping his hands together once more. Aemilius doesn't seem bothered by this at all, flopping to the ground and resting its head on one of its clawed feet, causing a mini-earthquake and looking up at Florin, eyeing his every move, as if making sure he's ok.

"Darius and Luca, you two are a pair," Florin says, two of the boys heading over to stand next to each other. "Elena and Avram—" Elena moves to stand next to a black-haired boy with a kind face "—Charlie and Christopher—" Charlie pairs up with a heavily-muscled boy "—and Isabelle and Daniel."

Daniel moves to stand next to Isabelle, smiling down at her. She returns it.

"Now, follow me one pair at a time, and I will take you to your assigned dragons," Florin instructs, the first pair, Darius and Luca, following him off into the trees. Aemilius stays on the ground in front of the rest of them, eyeing them with a seemingly stern gaze, the rest of the pairs barely moving under his watchful eye.

The pairs go off one by one, until it's just Isabelle and Daniel left. Florin appears from out of the trees once more, and beckons them to follow him in the opposite direction. They do, bush-bashing through the undergrowth until they come to another small clearing.

"Up there," Florin whispers, pointing up above them in the canopy overhead, where Isabelle catches a glimpse of a long, scaly green tail swishing about, before disappearing into the leaves. "This one's name is Codrin. He's a shy one — extra tricky. Good luck."

And with that, Florin walks off, leaving Daniel and Isabelle all alone with the wild dragon. They turn to each other, searching the other for what to do now.

"I zink..." Isabelle begins quietly. "I zink zee best way to get familiar wiz zee dragon is to first get familiar wiz each ozzer." Daniel nods slowly, agreeing with her.

"That sounds like a good idea," he says. "I reckon if we just sit down and relax and get comfortable and talk to each other, getting to know each other, then Codrin will slowly become familiar with having us in his space. That's probably the first step to gaining his trust, right?"

Isabelle nods. "I would say so," she replies, slowly walking over to a nearby tree with branches low to the ground. Without making any sudden movements, she pulls herself up to sit on the lowest branch, her legs dangling just above the forest floor. Daniel comes over to join her, sitting down beside her.

"Ladies first," he smiles. "Tell me about yourself."

So she does. About her growing up in France, about how she transferred to Hogwarts for her last year of school, how she studied creatures there and met Charlie, how they went to Tibet and had the encounter with the Yetis, how she visited France again before going back to Charlie's house for the holidays, how she got her NEWT results back and found out she was able to come here. She leaves out all the details about Clara and her parents, of course, just she talks about Célia being the only pet she's ever had, the cat now living at the Weasleys' house, under the care of Ginny. She talks about how she's always loved animals, spending hours and hours each day running into the forests with her friends back in France.

Daniel smiles as she talks, listening to her story. When she finishes, he begins his own.

"I'm also an only child," he says, starting off, "however I never had many friends growing up. My family and I lived in a tiny property with hardly any room for the three of us, let alone any siblings or friends to come over, or even animals, for that matter. Whenever I got home from school for the holidays, I would spend most of my time out of the house, wandering around parks and climbing trees, swimming in lakes and trying to catch butterflies."

Isabelle smiles at that, resting her head back against the trunk of the tree, and Daniel grins as well.

"I think I was very young when I found a stray dog at the park, starving and sickly," he continues. "So of course I took it home and gave it a bath and some food and cleaned it up. I had to hide it from my parents because they would never let me have a pet, you see, but when it got stronger I went to the park and played around with it. I guess that's how I fell in love with animals, and I took Magical Creatures Class at school, learning all about them and falling in love with them more and more, especially dragons. They were the one animal we never learnt about in school, so I would go to the library as often as possible, borrowing out every book they had on dragons and re-reading them dozens of times."

He chuckles to himself at the memory, shuffling his body around so he lies down on the branch, one leg dangling over the side.

"When I found out that there was a dragon study program here in Romania, I studied so hard for all my end-of-year exams and was over the moon when I got in," he finishes.

"You know, I am very surprised you did not 'ave many friends growing up," Isabelle says thoughtfully, looking down at him as she continues to lean against the tree trunk. "You are a very likeable person."

Daniel smiles. "Thank you, Isabelle," he says. "But I don't know if I really wanted friends all that much. See, I could have easily had them, I just never introduced myself or chose to hang out with them. I much preferred reading and being around animals compared to other people."

"Zis is fair enough," Isabelle chuckles.

"I'd say so," he grins at her. "I think I've had a change of heart now, though. I mean, you're not too bad."

Isabelle laughs her tinkling laugh. "I will take it," she smirks, her eyes shining. Daniel grins up at her, but then his grin fades, catching sight of something behind her. He nods at it and she turns around slowly, her heart warming at the sight.

Sitting in the same tree as them, up above on a much higher branch, Codrin the Common Welsh Green sits, his tail swishing back and forth, his head resting on his feet as he looks down at them, just listening to their conversation as if he can understand what they're saying.

"I think it's working, Isabelle," Daniel whispers, the French girl too happy with this small, yet significant recent development to reply.