Their journey finally ended with half the students asleep leaning on their friends' shoulders, and the other half fighting off that same slumber. Adrian's sleep was more naturally inherent to his condition, Cressida's was all business - she wanted to be well-rested when they got there. Lyra fitfully dozed, and Ambrose gave off adorable light snoring.

It seemed that Gideon and Cepheus would hit it off on a deeper level than just mindless attraction to one another: they spoke very quietly about what their lives had been like 'before they knew' and 'while deciding what to say' and at least for Gideon, how life had been since he was reasonably accepted at home.

Cepheus didn't hold any jealousy toward the red head. In fact he wanted to get some kind of pointers for how he could break his own news to his family - someday. That day might never come, but at least he knew now that he'd have a very friendly face helping him along if he needed support. That that friend was an expert duelist was not going to hurt things either!

Daphne and Joseline chatted about school elections, House Elves, the Ministry, and all manner of other things. Both were pretty energetic when the carriage finally halted, and they spotted the floppy ears of their transportation Elf as he scuttled down to get their gear and open the doors. Gideon gently nudged Lyra awake, and noticed Cepheus very carefully doing the same for Cressida. They could only imagine what she'd be like if she were awakened rudely.

As they stretched, stumbled down the steps of the carriage onto the turf below, all eight of them noticed that it was just barely evening. They'd been traveling all day long, and none of them could say quite where they'd wound up. Particularly not since it could have been magical travel as well as conventional even with the horses drawing the carriage. The surroundings were getting dim, but they could make out plentiful trees, oak and birch mostly, as well as the distinct outline of the little keep which served as House Domina's main structure.

"House Domina," the House Elf said, as his companion organized their luggage and pet cages. "You should be greeted any moment now by--"

"There you are!" A boisterious woman of indeterminate age appeared from the gates nearby. Her dress and hat said she was a Witch, piles of green and grey material with the occasional bright orange patch sewn on for good measure. However, her hair was also bright orange - as were her eyes once they'd gotten a look at them. "I was begining to wonder whether that old coot would be sending anyone or what!"

As a group, the students looked at one another in turn, realizing that indeed, there was an adult conspiracy afoot and they were the subject of it all.

"Excuse me, miss, but... Sending us for what purpose?" Joseline perked up. Cressida held her tongue, knowing that anything she had to say at this point after her short nap would sound far more acidic than intended.

"Oh and he's still the same as ever," the woman said, unhitching the iron fence's lock and throwing the gate wide open. "I am Zora Domina, of House Domina. We're a school, you see, a school of wizardy."

"We know that much," Cepheus said.

"But what are we doing here?" Lyra asked.

All this seemed to just make Zora giddy. "You're perfect!" She said. "I'd say 'all in good time', but that's something he would say, so I won't. Instead, I'll just tell you that there's hot dinner on the tables, and our elves will take your stuff inside. Once you're sitting and stuffing your faces full, I'll talk at you and you'll grunt and nod. Okay?"

Daphne laughed first and loudest, and followed the woman into the pathway that led into the keep. It wasn't a big place, but then magical buildings had a way of looking far smaller on the outside than their interiors could boast. This one was no exception at all. The trees that framed the entrance and dotted the whole of the small enclosure were old, very old, but well-maintained. There was a thigh-high stone wall enclosing the entire place, though it looked like it had seen better days hundreds of years prior.

The gates swung shut behind them, the carriage left in a jangle of hoofbeats and tack noise, and their 'stuff' had been moved out from behind them without any one of them even noticing. Zora walked quickly in the direction of the dining hall, which wasn't nearly so grand as the one at Hogwarts. Yet, they all found themselves gawking at this new place just like they were first years. Zora's typical flurry of motion was so unlike most of the instructors or staff at Hogwarts, she seemed so much younger and more lively. She urged them to eat, so she could get on with her monologue.

Zora wasn't kidding: there was hot food being shoveled into their mouths as fast as they could, it had been since well before lunch time that they had been in that carriage, and for whatever reason hadn't stopped for food - even though the offer for it was extended several times by the elves. The kids just hadn't bothered expecting it, and by the time they were talking or sleeping comfortably with feet on laps opposite, they just forgot they were hungry. But now? The smells and sounds of a busy kitchen were nearby, no such hidden workings as in Hogwarts here. Four tables were joined up as one massive square just now, but it looked like the room could handle the same tables spread a bit for a large group of students or staff to sit and eat together. Even so, the food was gathered mostly on the one corner where they sat.

"Now it's true that the whole of my House could fit easily inside the Great Hall at Hogwarts, don't get me wrong, I know that much," Zora said. "And, the entire student body would fit on a third-year roster list of Griffindor. But we've got some... interesting studies here that the old man figured would be good to let some of his brats in on. He can't have these studies at Hogwarts, and you'll see why."

Other students could sometimes be seen darting around in the back of the room, swiping a second or third roll and some jam, or another chicken wing. But none of them stayed in the dining chamber, per Zora's obvious request. She cleared up the transfer students' worries, by telling them, "your parents will believe you to be at Hogwarts all this time, and you haven't been kicked out of the program yet."

"Well that's a relief," Ambrose said. "But why the secrecy? I mean, it was kind of ... well, kind of rude of them to just kick us into a carriage and not even say what was going on."

"Because if anyone else knew," Zora said suddenly more sedate and eyes narrowed, "they'd probably try and stop you from coming." That left a strange heavy sensation in their guts, and it wasn't just the potatoes. "We aren't a 'dark arts' academy if that's what you're wondering. That's up to some of my old students." She tossed her head and indicated part of a wall which was decorated with numerous small portraits and plaques below each. Apparently several of them had gone on to make their own school? Zora was obviously proud of all her students - she wouldn't have put those images up at all if she hadn't been. In fact no one at Hogwarts would ever have done so - too many images would be up on every surface!

"So this place is just starting out, still?" Joseline said, having to resist pulling out her ever-present quill and paper.

"Well, compared to Hogwarts or the other schools around Europe and the States, of course. I'm the founder of House Domina, after all, and I haven't had much time to become a legend or anything." She gave a bold, silly grin. Her hair was bright red now, with violet at the tips.

"Oh you're a metamorph?" Daphne said, and suddenly clamped her mouth shut, that kind of thing was often considered rude elsewhere, particularly if someone was cursed or had a magical accident and then had to explain why their appearance wouldn't stop shifting around.

"Of course, dear," Zora said. "I'm very fashionable today." She glanced at her dress, and sneered at it. "Wait, that was yesterday. What is this I'm wearing?" She flounced about, her clothing changing from the layered and raggedy look, into a far sleeker and modern skirt and blouse in black and purple. "School colors, get used to them," she said. "Oh and," she nodded toward the emblem on the center of one wall, "our octopus has its tentacles in everything."

As dinner wound down, and it looked like the attention could be placed on exploring rather than explanations, Zora bade them to take whatever munchies they needed and look around the place. Before she left though, she held up her hands and warned: "Don't take anything that doesn't belong to you, and don't try opening locked doors. Knock first, wait for a reply if one's shut. Don't summon anything you're not capable of controlling, and lastly, own up to anything you wind up doing by mistake. Those are the rules. Have fun." She vanished into the broad, dark hall beyond the dining room, and the double-handful of transfers wondered what they should do next.

"I ... think I'll have a look around!" Gideon said, and it was very obvious that Cepheus would be going with him. Adrian asserted that he'd want to find somewhere to sleep, and with that said a House Elf appeared to help him out.

There weren't as many of them here, and only one which recognized the 'SPEW' button that Daphne wore. She didn't want to step on toes about it, so she finally wound up taking it off and putting it into her pocket for later. She and Cressida strode about the place like they were the best of friends, though it felt odd to both of them when they thought about it. A slytherin and a muggle-born becoming friends?

Ambrose, Lyra and Joseline took some time looking at the old students in their portraits - some of them were actually just snapshots made by Muggle cameras, while others were magical portraits and one or two were actually cartoons with a distinct style that Joseline recognized first. "Those must be collectors items," she said, "that's the artist who makes that one comic book."

Lyra wasn't familiar with it at all, Ambrose only barely - so Joseline set about finding her stuff, and located not only her bags but the girls' room. She pulled out a comic, it was folded up in weird ways, but un-did itself with the touch of her wand. Before them, a silly sequence of 'wizard running from a scary beast' played out, and then she closed it up. "It's cool that maybe they knew the artist or something."

"Or the artist works here," said an adult voice, from their dorm's doorway which was still open. The brown-haired woman there waggled her eyebrows and walked away - and was followed by a man who looked suspiciously like the one in the comic book.

A few moments later, Joseline - eyes wide and smile wider - giggled madly to her friends and said, "this is going to be great."

They'd gone upstairs into one of the two south-facing towers, and shortly Cressida and Daphne arrived yawning. They shooed Ambrose out, he met up with Cepheus and Gideon who'd gone back to the kitchen for the aforementioned munchies and not as one might have suspected, to make out somewhere quiet, and then back upstairs to the room near the girls' dorm. There were other students about, but not many, and most merely nodded and smiled on their way to their own rooms.

Adrian was sound asleep in his bed, and that sounded like a terrific idea for everyone else too. Their day had been blown on sitting around, but exhausted them anyway.

***

"Since the fifth years joining us are coming in a little later in the semester than I expected," Zora said at the morning meal - a large gathering of students and one or another adult staff member hanging around the hall nearby - "I will bring them up to speed until they're ready to join everyone else. You'll be in your normal types of classes, I've got it on good authority which ones those will be needing tutoring or able to help out others catching up. But then there are some more ... specialized classes that we have three times a week that you'll need to prepare yourselves in different ways to attend."

They were still a bit confused. But the food was good, their rest had been wonderful, and they were being greeted on all sides by friendly faces. One or two of the younger students had actually shown up at Hogwarts before being sent off here, Joseline noted, remembering them from their Sorting. Or, lack of Sorting, as the case may be, since they didn't find a place there... The kids there were just like those at Hogwarts except they sometimes had the more colorful purple and black outfits, or ... well, other things that distinguished them. Joseline swore she saw someone with horns, but they vanished into the hallway before she got a better look. Lyra heard the distinct babbling of a water-bug somewhere.

Zora introduced them to their professors as the day went on, they were as colorful a bunch as she could have prepared them for. Potion making, Astronomy, Runes, Divination, Flight - everything was covered. They did have some manner of Dark Arts instruction however, and it was when Zora passed by that classroom (which doubled as their Necromancy and Taxidermy area, and smelled a little weird) that the eight students all but froze in their tracks.

"Miss... Domina..." Ambrose said, and Zora immediately corrected him with a 'Just Zora, Please', "that... that woman, the Necromancy teacher? She's a rabbit? Is she an Animagus?"

"No, dear, she's a Usagi. A queen, actually, so be polite when you meet her properly." Zora breezed them by that chamber where the others caught a glimpse of a brilliantly white furry shape, behind numerous stacks of books and devices. "And, she has children here too, so they'll be underfoot I'm sure. She's always got children here," Zora muttered to herself, laughing a little.

"But... a rabbit?" Ambrose was still a bit confounded.

"Of course, dear. Our Transformation and Animagus instructor is a dragon-mage. Our Undead Recognition and Communications professor is a ghost, herself, sort of. The Care of Magical Creatures instructor is somewhat... unicornish..." She went on, there certainly were a good number of different people here.

"Isn't it illegal?" Asked Daphne. "I mean, I know it is, what I mean is, how are you letting them teach? Should they even have wands?"

"Some of them don't need wands," Zora said, while escorting them toward the back of the keep, where their Quid patch was. "Photha and Kate need to get down here so I can have them show off something..." Zora bade the kids to wait on the wide stone balcony which overlooked the Quid area. It was a smallish patch, kind of disappointing to Cressida and even to Adrian. But both of them noticed something a little odd about the whole place. There were rugged, short cliffs surrounding the back of the Keep's forested lands, dotted with dark patches.

"Ah there you are," Zora said, startling the group and showing up with the professors of artistry and dueling. "Come come, down to the patch."

There was clearly some kind of visual spell over the Quid patch, because by the time they got down to it, it was obvious there were people and creatures all over it. Big and small, furry and feathered and...

"Those are dragons," Lyra said, stopping in her tracks and just staring with wide eyes.

"Yes, they are dear. That's why you're here. To learn about them properly." Zora waggled her fingers, pushed her now-yellow hair behind her ear, and got the group to catch up.

Photha's tiny little rock-lizards stood on his shoulders, playing with his head-wings. Kate's nebula-colored reindeer-horned whorling danced around the winged wolves and other smaller sized critters. Then there were the big ones, up to and including a huge fire-orange colored queen that responded to Zora herself. There were also... people. Different people - Lyra immediately took in a quick breath when she spied Kalkin and his ... dragon mount? Mate? shapeshift from human forms into large dragons. Several winged people, some with four legs in addition, were lined up next to the students.

"They really are dragons!" Daphne laughed, joined by the others with amazed looks on their faces.

"Yes, and this is why we couldn't just tell you what was going to happen," Zora said, happily, dangling from the uplifted paw of her gigantic fluffy golden dragon.

There was a great big black dragon with long swept back horns, strangely glowing glass-sharded things which creeped the group out, Fu-dogs, even some thestrals and other undead creatures.

"You'll be finding your own dragon, some time soon," Iris, one of the instructors who also stood before her own incredibly beautiful white and pale blue colored dragon, said. "We'll help you, we're ... trying to make some headway with offworld contact among the Wizarding realm. It's uphill work."

"You've got dragons," Adrian said with his lopsided grin on, "you can fly over hills."