No dragon fights. Was Professor Quigley going to be the one who told Balerion he couldn’t be himself. Brooklyn certainly wasn’t about to stop her dragon from doing whatever it was he wanted, even if, as per other things the Charms professor had said, she had control over him. She wanted him to be fearsome. She didn’t want a docile dragon. The only thing she wanted to make sure of was that he didn’t try to hurt her. Luckily, being free to enjoy the fresh air, Balerion had stopped shooting jets of flame toward her. She didn’t particularly care if it happened in any other direction.

Either way, it was time to try and ride him, and she guessed it would be more difficult getting on a dragon than it had been the hippogriff last term. She’d approached her dragon carefully, reaching a tiny hand to stroke between the spikes near his head. She felt even smaller next to the fully grown dragon than she usually did. It wasn’t about to stop her, and she’d smiled a little again as Balerion had bent his front legs to lower himself to the ground more. “Why thank you,” she replied, although it still took work to scramble up between the front legs. Not even just because of all the spikes and everything. Her dragon was just that big, and she’d had to keep hold of her wand while she’d climbed up too. Eventually she managed to reach her goal, settled between the spikes and securely on the dragon’s back.

It happened quickly, which was EXCELLENT, considering they were still flying toward it. Could dragons fly backward like hummingbirds? Was that a thing? Could he make his dragon do that if he failed? So that he didn't have to hit his head on a hoop? ...

With the target hoop enlarged big enough for them to pass, Zeke bowed his head and looked back over the tail of his dragon to watch it shrink again. Success!!!

All this under pressure business was kinda mean though. He already knew this charm, but it was SO much harder when he was 1) moving and 2) moving quickly ... not to mention the whole DRAGON thing.

With the next target in sight, Zeke readied himself.

Visualising was happening, and his wand was poised for the task. Leaning forward slightly for comfort, Zeke watched as the hoop loomed closer still.

....

The rush was soooo awesome! "THIS IS SO COOL!" Adi couldn't help yelling, thoroughly enjoying himself. Annnnd incoming! He and Toothless were approaching their first hoop at rapt speed! Adi readied himself.

"Engorgio!'' With the aid of the incomplete circle in a clockwise manner wand movement, the hoop enlarged. Toothless flew right through and both boy and dragon had not even touched any side of the hoop for a bit. SUCCESS WITH THE FIRST HOOP!

The Puffer glanced back to see the object shrink to its smaller state, prepared for the next student and their dragon. He now focused back ahead of him to keep a look out for the next target. Soon they were upon it. "Engorgio!'' A repeat of the wand movement had them passing through the second object successfully once more.

Adi was loving this activity!

As she listened to what Professor Quigley said and nodded. Right. This made total sense she ran her hand through her hair as she listened to the rest of the instructions and the spell details because hello this was going to be good right? Nervously chewing on her lip Puck first practiced her wand movement a circle in the dragon’s general direction and clockwise at that. Interesting.

Puck quickly threw her hair into a ponytail before she went on to trying the spell. “Come on Duke we can do this!” She grinned as she practiced first getting the wand movement.

Raise her hands if she wanted to turn him in….eying everyone she glanced around. Her hands pointedly down, because this sounded awesome okay? Really awesome. She gave Professor Bellaire a nod as if saying I understand where you are going with this and still stood firmly where she was. There might even have been a defiant flicker in her eyes…hello maybe some people were smart enough to not raise their hands when asked to because really she could just practice enlarging her and then tell it t bite the Professor right?

It wasn’t like she was going to snitch and really wouldn’t it be safer for the younger students if the prefects were there? Aiming her wand at Duke she carefully began to move her wand in the motion of an incomplete circle in a clockwise at the Duke. She could do this. She wanted her Dragon to be happy, strong, and as beautiful as ever because really he would be beautiful wouldn’t he? Adding the spell into the mix she carefully cast her wand in the motion of the incomplete clockwise circle and with the added words and intent she watched as he grew. Not only grew but expanded in almost every direction – wow.

“Good boy Duke,” she grinned as she looked at her now eight foot long dragon. “Professors how am I going to be able to ride my dragon without being impaled? Are there saddles or maybe some horn caps we can put on these guys?” She asked and stood there, predicament indeed. Maybe she should have made a Welsh green but then again not, Duke was fitting. Strong. Protective. A great defense mechanism at any size.

In hopes of assuring Angel more, Benny leaned forward and gave some attention to her own transfigured dragon. "See...good dragon." Nothing to be afraid of. And it wasn't like it would be the first time she had flown. No...that had been last years hippogriff flying where she had been on the flying creature along with him as they were airborne and going through the obstacle course.

No partner flying this time.

Professor Quigley wanted them on their own dragons if they agreed to it. Which he was now giving the go ahead to mount and start flying. Benny was torn between staying and helping Angel and going up with Elliot and trying his own hand at things. Maybe it would be good for her to follow by example.

Moving back over to Elliot, the Gryffindor eased himself onto the dragon's back as best he could. Having to gingerly adjust his position once he was on so he felt sort of secure. There wasn't any saddles or reigns or anything really to work with since the dragons were all scaly. Oh well. Benny kept hold of his wand knowing he would need it for the spellwork, using his free hand to pat the dragon's side.

"Okay Elliot....up...fly," he instructed, absently mimicing the actions he might use on an Abraxan with his legs. Not that the dragon needed much coaxing, his wings stretching out as if preparing for take off. The fifth year didn't need to wait long before they were running a little before actually being off the ground.

WOOHOO!

The third hoop was no different- the dynamic duo flew through safely and without problem. The fourth one though... Adi wasn't paying that much attention probably because his early success had gotten to his head. He was looking back at the third hoop to watch it shrink again, his confidence soaring higher than Toothless and making him forget that he should keep his brown eyes on the upcoming hoops.

Toothless let out a low rumble and that is what caused its rider to jerk his head back to normal. Uh oh... They were SUPER close to the hoop! Adi nearly lost his head completely because he froze with a bit of panic. Toothless let out a throaty rumble again as though trying to bring Adi back so he could focus.

Right! There was a hoop to be enlarged! The boy shook his head as though to clear it. "ENGORGIO!'' The incantation and correct wand movement sent the hoop growing bigger. This time, however, one of the dragon's wings bumped into a side of the hoop.

Woops.

That was Adi's fault. Ugh! "Sorry about that, buddy,'' he shouted to the dragon. Lesson learnt! He must maintain focus!

Angel was still scared out of her wits by trying to fly these dragons through the hoops but before she could say anything Benny had climbed onto his dragon and she was getting told off for repeating a question, oops but she hadn't meant like that, she had meant with finite if they had to stop a spell or something did finite actually stop all current spells, she hadn't thought about that before but she would just leave it and ask someone else another time.

Angel looked at her dragon as Benny went off into the air. "Firestorm, do you think you can do that?" Angel gingerly asked as she climbed onto her dragons back, she was shaking a bit, as this was just totally scary. "Benny, don't go to far ahead." Angel wanted to stay near him if she could, this was just horrible and totally scary, the dragon was huge.

Angel had a funny feeling Firestorm was trying too calm her down as they flew into the air slowly. "Firestorm, your amazing." Angel hoped and prayed that they could both get through this in one piece.

So they had to get on their dragons and then fly through each hoop using the 'Engorgio' spell to make the hoops large enough to fit through. Alright that didn't seem to bad... just so she got her timing right and didn't end up crashing into the hoops.

Patting Klaus' side lightly she grinned at him. "Alright Klaus now is your time to shine. First I'm going to get up onto your back and then we'll do some flying...we need to go through those hoops up there, see them?" Hady spoke to the dragon gesturing towards the hoops in the sky.

For what it was worth Klaus actually turned his head and looked at what she was talking about with a small huff. Something like he was laughing at how simple that was. Grinning herself Hady made an attempt to scramble up onto her dragons back..being little though didn't help much. In the end Klaus had to use his head and nudge her up onto his back. "Thanks buddy," she laughed patting him as she settled into her place holding onto him.

"Time to rise up and prepare to fly," Hady gave the quiet order not at all surprised when Klaus did just that. She knew he was cause that's what the spell told him to do.

There was no back up activity? That was a little disappointing but Lux understood. She just hoped that Professor Quigley wouldn't dock points from her over it since it really wasn't her fault she was scared and she couldn't help that there had been no other plan for her.

Nodding to the Professor, she headed off to an area where she could watch the proceedings. As she passed by Kace, she gave him a smile and a light shoulder squeeze. "Thank you for the offer. I appreciated it." He was such a good friend to her.

Caleb was a bit late, but no worries - he'd gotten here eventually. He had Spike happily in his cage, and the little guy was bouncing around, making little squeaking noises that he could only assume were squeaks of happiness.

He got there just as the professor was talking about the second part of the activity - but he hadn't done the first! EEK! He was REALLY far behind, wasn't he?

"Alright Spike, let's get going," he said, opening the cage and letting his little Hungarian Horntail trot out of the cage. The little stone dragon looked at the big dragons excitedly. Yup, you'd be that big too pretty soon, little guy!

Okay, now that Hugo was bigger Margo was expeted to mount him. She wasn't so sure how she felt about that. Like the Professor, Margo preferred to keep her feet firmly on the ground. She wasn't much of a flyer really not even on broom sticks. But with that being said, she didn't want to be the only student too scared to get up in the air. That woud embarass her even more.

So walking over to her dragon. And stretching her hand out. "It's okay Hugo." Margo said talking to her new friend. Slowly Margo put her leg beghind the wing joint to hoist herself up....and then she swung her other leg over. But not having a handle to hang on to, Margo slide right off the bac end of the dragon just like a slide ending in up at the base of the tail joint.

"WEEE!!!" Margo said smiling, that was by far more fun then flying would be!! Smiling, Margo got up, okay she needed to do this. Trying again Margo succesfully mounted Hugo this time. "Okay boy, ready to fly?" Margo asked Hugo giving him a pat on the neck. She was ready for this

Spike was clearly getting anxious to turn into a big bad dragon, and Caleb was happy to oblige. Seriously, the more he did in this lesson, the more he wondered WHY on Earth anyone would actually get a REAL dragon if they could just do this. It was basically the same thing. Dragons were never going to be cuddly, so you didn't have to feel like you were missing something by cuddling with a stone dragon. It was so easy. Merlin people were not smart.

But back to the task at hand...

Caleb practiced the wand movement a few times and then pointed at Spike. "Engorgio!" he exclaimed, moving his wand in a circle. It was an incomplete circle in a clockwise motion as instructed. He pictured Spike getting about eight feet tall, like the other dragons in the class...at least big enough for him to ride.

Spike started to grow, grow, grow....BOOM! That was one large stone dragon! Spike let out an excited squealing noise before running around in a circle, chasing his spiked tail.

Of COURSE Caleb's love for dogs would come across in the stone dragon. Why was he even surprised...

Benny glanced back to see if Angel was following, doing his best to keep Elliot from zooming away just yet. Though it was clear his ride was itching for the ride beneath him. "I won't..." he said hearing his girlfriend's question and hoping she heard it given the air flow around them. Given they were starting off at almost the same place as long as he and Elliot didn't fly crazy fast, Angel and her dragon Firestorm should be able to keep up.

Should being the optimum word.

With the younger Gryffindor up in the air and seeming secure, Benny was taking the chance to start this trial in earnest. "Okay Elliot...let's go!" The stone dragon eagerly complied and he and Elliot flew off towards the nearest hoop. It was downright amazing and the fifth year nearly forgot he had to do something to their target in his fun.

"Engorgio!" he cast quickly, the spell working but only narrowly so they could slip through. Benny was going to have to focus more from now on.

Angel hear what Benny said and smiled and it seemed that Firestorm was trying to keep her calm as well by flying lightly. "Your amazing Firestorm, but not as amazing as Benny, he's just so amazing and so thoughtful." Angel whispered to her dragon, who seemed to be nodding at her as she spoke, see even her dragon knew.

"Engorgio!" Angel said as she moved her wand in a circle as they flew just behind Benny and his dragon, she didn't want to crash or anything into the ring though if they did sure the dragon would just use it's flames to get out of the way.

Angel watched as the ring grew but at the minute things weren't as easy as she thought they would be, the poor dragons wing hit the side of the ring as they went through it and Angel knew it was her fault and she felt very guilty. "Oh sorry!" Angel sighed as she petted the dragon. "Next time, I will make sure we both fit through the ring perfectly." Angel looked up to see Benny and his dragon not far ahead which was good.

Serious Professor Q was serious. No dragon fights or just flying off with their dragon. Well, the second was obvious. But the first was just a fun killer. Dante would so take bets on dragon fights if he knew how to do such things. Well, something for him to research this summer. He usually had nothing else better to do other than hurt himself. So Doom was already in his big boy diapers and the only left to do was jump on and ride through the hoops. That and make sure not to hit anyone. Flying was not one of Dante's strong suits. Flying off a bike yes. Flying for the sake of staying in the air no.

"You ready Doom?"

You had to give the illusion that Doom had the choice. Dante read things work out better if you do that.

Quigley didn't exactly confirm or deny her request. Maybe he thought she wouldn't call his bluff, and if that was the case then he clearly didn't know AJ Valentine very well at all. Then she eyed her boyfriend. "Of course I'm not going to blow off this lesson." they were flying dragons for crying out loud. She wouldn't miss it if her leg suddenly fell off. Too bad the other professors didn't give her that option because she would blow off Ancient Runes and Arithmancy in a heart beat.

---------------------------------

It was time to fly and AJ could hardly contain her excitement. It was hard not mounting the dragon and taking off before the okay. It was all happening now, and AJ half listened to what the professor had to say. Blah, blah, blah... they were riding dragons. What more was there to listen to?

Oh, Adi thought he was going to win, did he? "You're going down." Really though, they were all winners because they got to fly around on dragons so it was a win win if you asked her.

Time for a little less talk and a lot more action. AJ took a few steps backs, and RAN to her dragon and jumped on to its back. She was low to the ground and certain things were necessary.

"Giddy up?" Was it like riding a horse? How did you get it to go? Maybe AJ should have paid closer attention to the instructions that Quigley told the class. "C'mon, Zelda." Don't make her look like a fool. Maybe the coaxing did it because Zelda was airborne.

"AMAZING!" The wind was whipping her hair around behind he, and a huge smile was plastered on her face. AJ only hoped that when she got to the first hoop that the spell would work for her. It was totally suck to get knocked off her dragon because she messed up the spell, and the hoop remained small. What a total bummer that would be.

He had to fight the urge to yell out in excitement as they flew and a breeze rushed past him in the momentum of their movements. It felt so good to be flying again, made even better by the creature on which he was riding. Dragon flying was an activity he would be fond of forever though he wasn't sure just how plausible it would be with a real dragon. Oh well...a transfigured dragon certainly felt amazing enough regardless.

They dropped a little and Benny looked around to see if anything caused it. It was all clear and soon Elliot corrected himself so the Gryffindor simply rubbed his charge's side. "Good dragon..." he said before spotting another small hoop that would eventually be directly in their path.

"Engorgio!" he cast at the hoop and it worked...for a little bit. It still wasn't large enough and getting closer. "Engorio!" he cast once more and was relieved as it was now big enough to pass through easily which they soon did before swooping up and around to the left.

Two hoops down.

It was time to fly. What could possibly be more exciting than flying.......on a dragon? Right now, Janelle couldn't think of anything and she was sooooo ready to fly. Before she could do that, she'd have to climb up on Mike's back......and before that, she'd have to warn him what was coming.

"Mikey", Janelle said, while looking at him. "I'm going to climb onto your back and then we'll go for a nice ride." She heard no objections from the dragon, so that meant everything was a go. Janelle wondered if she was going to need a boost to reach her proper seat. Amazingly, Mike lowered himself to just the right level and she was able to hoist herself aboard. Safely (more or less) seated, Janelle praised her dragon. "You are just the best dragon ever. You knew exactly what I needed. Now it's your turn. You get to spread your wings. Let's fly Mike."

Janelle wondered if Mike knew what it meant to fly. Since he was under her command, she figured they could make it happen. She patiently waited to see what he would do.

The first hoop was getting closer, and closer. It was time to show off her spell work skills or lack of. AJ just really hoped that she would be able to pull this off on the first attempt especially since she had talked all that smack. It was okay though because she could totally back it up.

"Okay, Zelda. I am going to make that hoop bigger so we can both fit through it." All the dragon had to do was to stay airborne, and AJ... well, she had to make magic happen. Granted, she DID get her dragon ready. Only thing with that was that she didn't manage to get it done on her first, second or even third try.

"Here we go." Deciding it was safer to give it a go now just in case it didn't work, AJ raised her wand and did the required movements. "Engorgio!" Nope. It wasn't going to work for her. No matter. She still had time to give it another go. "Engorgio!" Crap. It still wasn't working for her. "Veer left, veer left." AJ turned her body hoping the dragon would follow along because it was way too early in the game to be falling out her rock dragon.

Once the two of them were level with the first set of hoops, Austin tried the spell out. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine what a hoop looked like when it was big enough for an 8 ft dragon with a 5 ft 5 person on top of it. "Steady now Thrasher. Engorgio!" Thankfully the hoop had grown, but not big enough for them to fit through. "Not yet buddy!" He called down to his dragon. "It's not big enough. Let's try it again. Engorgio!" Again, the hoop had grown, and this time it was the right size. Austin leaned forward, and tapped the neck of his dragon, to let him know it was time to fly.

The Dragon flew forward through the hoop, and paused at the front of the next one. By this time a few students had gathered around the hoops, so Austin had to wait for his turn to fly through. Just like the teacher had said, the hoops shrunk after one person flew through it. But that didn't bother Austin too much. He was mastering this spell.

After a few minutes it was Austin's turn. "Engorgio!"

Alright, Spike had been transformed into a nice large dragon...now Caleb had to FLY him. He wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of getting on a giant stone dragon (that sounded mad uncomfortable) but eh. What were you gonna do...

"Alright Spike, come here so I can fly you," he said...but the dragon seemed more concerned about chasing his spiked tail than doing any flying. "Spike, come here!" he called again. The dragon looked up at him, his stone tongue hanging out his mouth to the side and horned tail wagging. LOOK OUT PEOPLE, EXCITED HUNGARIAN HORNTAIL HERE.

"Spike, be careful, you could hurt someone!" he exclaimed. "Now come HERE," he said strictly, and the dragon finally obeyed, bounding over to him in excitement. Now he had to get himself on there...

"Bend down," he told the dragon, and the dragon did as he was told and got down so Caleb could climb onto his back. It was a bit difficult, but after a bit of maneuvering....he got himself up there.

So Margo had mounted her dragon and it was time to fly this thing. Squeezing her legs together, like she would if she were riding a horse and Hugo seemed to get the hint and took to the air. Margo held on for dear life praying that she wouldn't fall off in mid air!!! Okay so sort of directing her dragon toward the first hoop.

"Steady there Hugo, steady!" Margo told her new friend and pulling her wand out to the ready. "Engorgio" Margo said and watched to her amazement that the hoop made it self big enough to fly through. Maybe she was really getting the hang of this spell! That's twice now she made it work on the first try!!! Margo was starting to get a little brave with her magic and this flying a dragon thing.

Maybe Margo would try and find a way to keep him, it made her sad to think that at the end of the lesson Hugo would just be another stone on the grounds....Maybe they could just fly away together???

Since Austin had mastered going through one hoop with his dragon, he decided this time he would try to fly through two at once. His dragon flew through the first hoop with ease. Perfect thought Austin. He leaned to the left dramatically enough that he thought he was going to fall off. He didn't of course, but the Ravenclaw wanted to make sure his friend knew what to do. And he did. The dragon veered left, and alighned with the next hoop. But he didn't stop this time. Now was the moment. "Engorgio!"

And now they were stuck. Even though Austin had enlarged the last hoop with ease, this one didn't grow as much. It was just enough for his dragon to get his head through. But the hoop had gotten caught on his neck. The poor Ravenclaw did his best not to laugh. It really wasn't funny that the hoop had gotten stuck. It was funny that it looked like a necklace. Oh how the simple things amused him. "It's okay buddy, I got you. Engorgio!" The hoop had grown bigger and the dragon, as well as the student, had gotten through. This time his dragon had stopped at the next hoop, and hit Austin on the back with his tail. "Alright, alright, i'll make sure that doesn't happen again." He said with a chuckle.

Grayson was too busy staring at his dragon, to be honest. Look at this magnificent beast that HE'D transformed. Brilliant. And it was spot on with what an actual Chinese Fireball looked like. Dude was well chuffed with the outcome.

............ Enlarging the dragon? FREAKING YES! He was so down for that.

With a wide smile set in place, the sixth year moved to set the cage down on a bit of rock before bending down as well to unlock it. The dragon unfurled its wings, stretched and pattered out onto the rock as well. Good. It was obedient enough. "I'm just gonna enlarge you, mkay? You're gonna be completely fine." Wink. Dude had to know, after all before he went and pointed his wand randomly at it. Kinda scary for a dragon and all.

...............

Alright fine. He was caring for a dragon. Grayson Whitlock was a freaking softie beneath the hard outer shell. Move on.

Angel was totally looking at Benny and his dragon, who seemed to be very interested in going through the hoops that she nearly forgot about where she was going, okay so she should stop concentrating on Benny or things were going to go very wrong fast.

"Sorry Firestorm, I can't help it." Angel sighed as she had a feeling her dragon was trying to tell her to concentrate and she saw why they were getting really close to another hoop.

"Engorgio!" Angel moved her wand around in a circle and smiled as the ring got bigger and they both went through it... oh this was good at least the dragon got through it straight away without being hit which was a good step in the right direction and now that was two hoops down and she was actually starting to enjoy this.