Lenore McCrea, Domina Weather Witch -4

"That's the coolest thing ever," Kwet said. "If I do say so myself..."

The crest embroidered onto patches was a pretty thing, colorful in violet and black. Split into four diagonal areas like the Slytherin crest, but not separated by more than that. Several diamond shapes were placed on the top across it, there were scrolls on one field, an orb on another with a wand below it, and what looked like potion bottles on the bottom field. And in the middle, across the whole thing, spread a yellow and grey colored octopus. Its tentacles danced cleverly around each of the objects, as though House Domina's totem animal had its paws on everything in sight.

Which pleased Lenore and Kwet greatly - because they did have their hands in every pie they could get at. Specialize in nothing unless it's odd, never take the easy path, curiousity and boldness, adaptability... These things seemed apparent in the crest.

"I kind of wanted purple and pink," Zora said, "but I couldn't find anything about pink in any heraldry book."

"I didn't see any," Kwet said. "You?"

Lenore shook her head. "So purple it is. Nice choice."

"You get passing grades for this," Zora said, grinning. They finally went up the stairs to the dorm and entered.

"Say..." Lenore said, "is it just me or is the dorm bigger?"

"It's not just you," Kwet said, looking around at the rooms. There were four doors off their main common, instead of just the one. Private rooms, one bigger than the others where they as a group decided they'd be able to study or perform their homework spells.

"This is great," Leny said. "Aren't you happy?" She asked Zora. The older woman was still smiling, but since Lenore had been there the longest, and had stuck by her during the whole summer (and was now considered fifth-year, instead of third, because of her intense summer training) she could see the hesitation in her House head's eyes.

"Yeah - it's ... there is something else on my mind, Leny. Don't worry about it."

"Something about us?" She asked regarding the students.

"No, not really. Private matter." Zora said. She was being unusually quiet about her 'private matters' - very odd to Lenore. Usually, Zora was flirting with every single eligable male in the building - no matter their age, rank or station. This was new, then. Lenore wanted to ask about it further, yet the look on Zora's orange eyes told her to be silent. They got settled and arranged. Nothing more was said about it, until much later in the year.

It was this semester that just started, that Lenore at long last stood in the lines outside in the field near Hogwarts beautiful halls, and learned how to ride a broom properly. She was adept at it, quickly learning the tricks of remaining on a broom as it might buck or fall - but it was more rewarding to her to know that her own powers of weather working would be far more important to her in the long run. She would be able to play up in the clouds, some day - but for now, she remained where the cat-eyed professor and Quidditch referee instructed her to be.

Lenore didn't really want to get her own broom - after all, they were pricey, if bought at Diagon Alley, and she didn't have time to devote to making her own. Especially not after attempting to collect the wood needed out in the Dark Forest and getting detention for like a lifetime...

***

"It won't really be hard to get back. And if you want to stay, it's all right with us," Said Dumbledore to the gathering of House Domina students. He almost looked sad, but it was kind of hard to say because he always seemed somewhat tamely somber. When his old face brightened into a smile, everyone knew something good was going on. When he raised his frail voice, they knew it was bad. His voice remained soft, as he asked Zora, "would you like a lemon drop?"

Zora accepted, with a smile. But she noticed how he was quite ... guarded, in his presence at House Domina. The new House Domina, that is.

Zora decided that taking her time assembling a bunch of students, 'rejects' from other schools, of her own choosing had been a bold move - and one which the other professors at Hogwarts didn't much take to. Hence the new digs.

With some amount of coaxing, the now-auburn-haired Lenore, Kwet, and five other girls, plus one very -very- gay young guy were rounded up and brought out to the new northern House.

"So, it's your own School as well as your own House?" Asked one of the local men. He was a wealthy land owner, this place had been bordering his property for as long as his family had been in the area. He was glad to finally get someone in it worth having as a neighbor.

"It certainly is," Zora said proudly. A ghost wandered by, and hovered near. "Hi. We're moving in. Is that okay?"

"Is it okay!?" It said, gleefully, "you don't know how long it's been since we've had people to haunt!"

"Good. That's settled. Everyone? Get your stuff. We're gonna decorate."

The Hogwarts professors that had accompanied the group into their new locale pulled Zora aside, and were quiet enough that Lenore didn't get the chance to hear what they'd told her. It was perhaps somewhat telling that Snape wasn't among them - and Leny knew better than to think he didn't want to be there. Everyone knew the rumors were true. No one said anything - perhaps until recently that is.

Lenore wondered if this decision was actually a mutual one, to get them out of Hogwarts, or what.

But her worries left, when she noticed that big dark cloud of hers trying to reform over the new small keep. "Oh no you don't," she muttered. With a bit of concentration, aimed directly at the weather, it dissipated and she grinned. At last, after three years of hard study and even harder emotional flipflops, Lenore had begun to conquer her unconscious magic.

That might help - the house looked like it needed some cleaning and she could wash the whole thing down if she had a good cry over something...

***

When the word started to spread, several months after their arrival and after Zora's gathering of people into the School that was House Domina, that there were dragons to be found, Lenore eagerly listened.

The pair of extremely odd 'people' that Lucas had brought with him (was he totally spookier than Snape? By like about a hundred times? Yes, he was, and they would probably have gotten along famously if Lucas had been allowed in to Hogwarts any more. It looked to Lenore as though he and Zora had about the same kind of relationship going on too...) told the students and staff about this place and that, where they could find a dragon egg. Where they would maybe find a partner among the hatchlings. Smart dragons, ones that could talk or perform their own magic.

Lenore really wanted to learn more. She followed Svedok, the four-legged centaur dragon, down a corridor until he turned his long-horned head and looked at her. A chill ran through Lenore, but then he smiled and turned.

"You're very quiet," he said. "I usually hear someone come up behind me."

"Something about the air," Lenore said, offhand, "you know that storm outside is mine, right?"

He looked a little surprised. "You are a weather shaper. That is intriguing."

Lenore didn't hem and haw, the way she would have before coming to their new school. She said, "I'd like to know if there's a place I would get a proper dragon friend. That you know of?" Her voice went all high and hopeful.

Svedok chuckled, and his long tail swished around. "There might be. Would you like to see our notes? They are written in an old language, but there are many illustrations - you'd be able to see them, they are fairly self-explanatory."

"I'm okay with languages," Lenore said. "I could whip up a spell of learning."

"Then you may need to do so," Svedok said. "There are many places which would take you on, but you might not speak their language. Or, understand their culture." He chatted, more talkative than usual and certainly more so than his father. They walked down the tall corridor into the chambers where his father lived.

"Some places do not understand nor hold with magic," Svedok explained. "So you might not want to head there. Some are quite ... stuffy, about things like gender. They would try and pair you only with a dragon of your own gender, and you..." He looked her up and down, "might not truly benefit from that. I think you may belong paired with a male of some kind."

Lenore blinked slowly, and the storm front outside redoubled in intensity. She was after all, just over sixteen years old, almost seventeen, and had only been to two dances - had rarely had a date - in her recent life. Even the hint of a ... naughty encounter - even with a dragon like Svedok? Gave her hind-brain a bit more to mull over.

"You think so." Lenore said, finally. Svedok didn't seem to notice the look she'd given him. He wasn't all that human after all, was he? Well, he had a beautiful human portion, that was for sure...

Lenore shook her head and followed Svedok into a room where the records they'd been poring over were spread onto a wide round table. His winged sister, Lumiere, looked up from her stack of pages.

"Ah - another visitor." She said. "You'll find those over there to your liking," she waved her clawed hand at a stack of parchment with illustrations and words on them, which had been set apart from the others.

"Traditional, non-traditional?" Lenore asked, peering over Lumiere's wing-shoulder.

"Yes. I assume Svedok has told you about the differences."

"He did, and he thinks I would do better with a male friend." Lenore grinned. To her surprise, Lumiere glanced at her brother, then back at Lenore with a chuckle.

"He did, did he."

Svedok slithered out of the room, glancing back with a grin.

"It's his subtle way of telling you he thinks you're cute." Lumiere said, with a smirk. "I'd ignore him if I were you. He hasn't conquered shapeshifting or transmogrification yet."

"Well, neither have I. Maybe we should work on that together. After-school project." Lenore muttered, looking at the papers before her without really seeing them.

Lumiere said, "you should watch yourself around males, Lenore. Your emotions feed upon the needs of others - I can see that plainly enough in your aura." She fixed Lenore with a serious gaze, unblinking, "you will allow men to use you, and be happy with their abuses, if you are not very careful."

Lenore stood silently, wondering if she ought to laugh, cry or run away screaming. Instead, she chose to start looking through the paperwork on the big table.

***

"So this is the best place, you think?" Leny said to Lumiere, as they stood atop a hill, near a big castle. It was distant, but not as forbidding as the castles on her own world. Lenore still trembled with chill. The trip here - flying beside Lumiere on her broom, as Lumiere navigated them somehow between worlds - left her colder than she'd ever been but it was a brief, brisk darkness they'd traveled through.

"Now, when you've paired, I think these dragons have the ability to move through the Nexus as we just did." Lumiere glanced at the sky, where there were dragons already circling. "If not, I've packed you some instructions to get word to me. We'll be able to get you back, so don't feel like you're alone."

"Lumiere, I've been alone for three and a half years. I abandoned my home, disowned myself from my family, and got picked up by House Domina." Lenore looked at the castle, "I think this place will finally give me something that I've never had. Someone who I can trust to always be with me. And I'd never abandon them."

Lumiere smiled, her strangely angular face looking particularly beautiful in the light of this new world. "I think you'll do fine. There are some qualifications they ask for here, so are you ready to be tested?"

"I'm ready. I've got my wand, what's left of it anyway..." Leny held up the charred wand she'd been given, it proved to be a great focus - albeit one which caught fire with alarming regularity. And what with Lenore's penchant for calling lightning from the sky ...

"Then you should go. Remember, your time will pass here, and then we'll be coming back at a specific meeting point. Since there are more than one of us out there looking for dragons to pair up with."

"What about you, Lumiere?" Lenore asked. "Aren't you interested in bonding with a dragon?"

Lumiere paused, and her wings folded down a little. "I will do that, some day. Remember, Lenore, I am still but an infant to my dragon uncles. I've got six shell-bound siblings that have yet to even be birthed. These dragons here," she waved her taloned hand, "and many others like them, mature in only a year or two. It took my brother almost as long as you've been alive to hatch. This is all new to me, and ..." She grinned, "I'm going to be picky."

"Well, good luck then, do you think you're going to be paired off when we meet again?" Lenore asked. She noticed there were regular patterns to the dragons flying over head. They'd been seen flying in, presumably.

"Maybe. Well, I should go. My appearance might disturb the locals." Lumiere spread her wings, and vanished even before she got into the air. The area near her shimmered, Leny thought she saw the school in the distance through the light.

Then she turned her attention to the pair of people who were landing with their dragons, on the hillside.

"What?" Leny said aloud, with a laugh. It was another couple from House Domina, bringing a couple students along. "Hey, no horning in on my action!"

Bhaktar and his four-winged Naspeth had carried one rather dangerous looking girl, while Iris and beautiful Mistylia brought a younger boy. The spirit-light dragoness looked very unsure and eager to leave. Leny couldn't blame her, the place here, on the back side of Clan Akelara, was dark and forboding. Kind of like Leny's semi-permanent moods.

"They will be standing with you," Iris said, "... we've got to go." She almost bolted off and flew away with the shining dragon not even looking back.

"Well, okay," Leny said. "Nice to see you again," she weakly smiled, as they headed toward the looming castle...

***

Leny looked around, as the surroundings were dark and rather more forbidding than she expected. Well it was the 'dark heart's thing. Or was it? She'd gotten lost, it felt almost as if she were a first-year again wandering around the big castle and not being able to figure out where to go.

This time however she knew she'd taken a wrong turn. There was that weirdly glowing outline, she figured it for a doorway but when she went through it it was just as dark and ...

Wait no, it wasn't. She didn't know where she was now. Lost. Was this a dream? Nightmare? She wasn't prone to those much now, now that she knew her magic wasn't all a dream.

But maybe her dream of flying with a dragon was all fantasy after all. Maybe it wasn't going to be true for her. The old, old ache of pain, the self-pity, began to creep in. The only good that could come of this, was that the little ball-lightning shape that she conjured without her wand would light her way a bit in this weird dark tunnel.

So Lenore slogged along. Wondering what might have been. She'd almost chosen a place where these reptilian-looking dragons lived. But it didn't seem like anyone visited there. So she'd gone with this Dark Heart thing, hoping that maybe ... But her hopes as always were dashed.

She moped, but continued walking. After all, that's what she did to get to Hogwarts in the first place, she simply kept going. Her mind refused to give in to the idea that she would be lost forever, after all a portal and a tunnel had to lead somewhere, right?

Eventually Leny noticed that there was some light. More than just her ball of angry self-doubt and anger lent, actual light. She picked up her pace. And as she did so the cloud of grief and old hurt faded away. For someone who wore her emotions on her sleeve so to speak, she changed her mind rapidly enough that no one would guess that this girl coming from a fissure off a seldom-used corridor had just been through yet another failed effort.

There were people here. And ... dragons. Furry ones. Like, furry furry ones. Plentiful on the fluff, in fact!

Because several years with Zora Domina could change anyone, Lenore didn't feel like she ought to hide or run away from anyone here. They went about their business, conversing about things (odd things, seems there was some kind of rift or anomaly going on, but she never quite caught their meaning), some nodded to her and passed along.

So she started to feel like she belonged somewhere. At last.

She heard voices, several people being ... introduced? To something? Other voices, small and young, chimed in here and there. She turned a corner, and saw a largish cavern or room with ... dragons.

Fluffy ones of course, that seemed to be the order of the day. Lenore spotted someone standing along the edge, observing, and walked up to him. "Excuse me," she said, "I'm a bit lost, could you tell me where I am?"

"Well this is the introduction chamber," he said, waving at the kitlings and the various people talking to them. "These dragonets need some contact with their chosen before they bond fully, if they choose to."

"Oh, I see," Leny said, only half lying. "But where am I, I mean... I'm very new here. Just arrived in fact."

"Oh that kind of lost, this is Mirus, we're having a bit of technical difficulty right now. But you'll get used to it. Go on and check out the hatchlings, they're ready to talk, you look like you could use a friend." He shooed her down toward the others, and when Leny turned to look back he was gone.

Maybe he hadn't even been there, but maybe that was just a trick of this anomaly thing people were discussing.

But in front of her were a dozen or so adorable dragons... She was drawn to one in particular, though. A darker one, one she felt almost reflected her mood. Dark green, with some hints of yellow poking out here and there. Her wings hadn't fully developed of course, she wouldn't know whether they'd be draconic or flight-feathered, or just what.

"You're very pretty," she said to the dragonet, "may I sit here? I've been walking a long time..." She suddenly realized that her legs ached, like they had so long before. Her journey to ... well, yes. All that. She sat anyway, and the dragonet turned to watch.

"Of course you can. You look exhausted! Tell me, where have you been?" It was a simple question but it suddenly provoked Leny's emotional red-button again. The story tumbled out of her, along with the occasional tiny cloudbursts that she strove to keep under control, about how she'd been trying for so long now, to get where she belonged...

"Well ... you've done the right thing, you've kept up, you can always keep going. You don't have to return and you don't have to stay away, you know. You can always go back and try again."

"Do... you think so?" Leny said, snuffling. She was getting mighty tired, and by this time a number of the visitors had already gone back to their quarters to wait the dragonets decisions. "I guess you're right. I don't know exactly how to get there, I wasn't the one doing that spell. Oh! Oh no!" She suddenly gasped, "Lumiere will be trying to pick us up and I won't be there!"

"It's all right," said the dragonet, "you got here, didn't you? Of course you can get back."

Leny began to calm. Maybe she was right... Maybe this wasn't something worth panicking about after all - it could be a good thing. She'd wait it out. She'd find out later. Right now, somewhere to crash, sleep, eat and gather her wits would be nice to have... And a bath after all that walking...

***

Visit Clan Akelara, hosting the Winter's Dark Heart frenzy, where Leny is/was standing.

Leny is hoping to find a dragon friend somewhere... Perhaps at Mirus.

House Domina Logo is comprised of several PSP tube images available online, and my own work. It is in no way shape or form an attempt to infringe upon the 'official' Houses described in the Harry Potter books/movies. If you're in House Domina, you may use this logo! If not, get your own darn house!