The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.7 | Sanctuary's Secret

The morning dawned with roars of magnificent dragons from all around the valley.

After a delicious breakfast in the canteen, Margaret's tour around the sanctuary commenced. An elderly lady named Nadia and a young woman called Tara had agreed to bring Margaret along for the ride.

Literally.

The quickest and easiest transport around the sanctuary was through the waterways. The canals leading from Galbena River were wide with planks bridges above them at intervals to enable people to get across. These bridges even lifted the middle to let different sized boats pass through.

"The idea was taken from the London Bridge," Tara says in a Serbian accent, smiling at Margaret who watched in awe as their boat sailed underneath the bridge.

The different sized boats were enchanted to carry different things; the one they were aboard was carrying saddles for Riders and then Nadia was heading downstream to the lake on the other end of the valley.

Tara told Margaret that the area of the Carpathian valley that the sanctuary covered was right in between the borders of Romania and Serbia, the latter being her home country. It had different habitats for different species of dragons to live in and was enormous enough for them to fly around without crossing the magical boundaries. Of course, the place was closed off for the Muggles as it was known as too dangerous to travel through.

Margaret watched two gigantic dark-green dragons flew high overhead, their wings stretched out in an effortless flight.

"Norwegian Ridgebacks," Tara says, squinting up at the sky. "Prani and Xander, both grown up here. Prani's eggs hatched last week; three beautiful baby dragons. A good flight was in order for the new parents."

However, it was this that had confused Margaret since she stepped into the sanctuary. Dragons were Classified XXXXX, the most dangerous creatures in existence, yet the beasts did not attack the people working there.

She decided to voice her thoughts. Nadia, who had the most peculiar yellowish-green eyes, smiled at her question but let Tara answer.

"We look after them; train them from birth to be around humans, not to domesticate them but to exist alongside us without qualms. Of course, they're unpredictable as far as magical beasts go; so we train every employee to protect themselves in case of emergencies and have rules set in place. It's also why you, like every visitor, is told not to go anywhere without a trained employee."

"I do remember Charlie drilling that in my head," says she, chuckling.

"Charlie Weasley, yeah?" says Tara. "He is a Dragonologist, they study the relations between dragons and humans to help us understand them better."

"And... you're a Rider?" asks Margaret, glancing at Tara's badge which was like that of Anika's.

"Yep!" Tara says, grinning. "Feels good to be one!"

The three of them sailed on, Tara telling Margaret the names of employees who waved back at her or were working with young dragons on either side. On the far end of the pebbly bank, a pair of young Welsh Green and Ukrainian Ironbelly caught Margaret's attention. The two were wrestling one another in a magically barricaded space, breathing puffs of fire but not hurting each other.

They were not the only young dragons she had seen so far, there were many in the magical barriers; some curled up, taking a nap or soaking the sunlight, some walking the length of the barrier and others being fed by Caretakers.

"Hey, how do different breeds of dragons get along so well?" asks Margaret.

It was Nadia who answered this time in a thick Scottish accent.