Romania Brings Leo Elsewhere

It was busy. No, scratch that, it was hectic.

That was the first thought that popped into his head.

Everywhere you look you could see people running to and from places holding the same sticks—sorry, wands—that the two blue-clad boys from that French school-with-a-complicated-name had.

Standing at the edge of the reserve and watching the restless sanctuary, Leo couldn't help but compare it to their journey to Romania.

It was surprisingly easy, he found, since he was somehow able to sense where the dragons were—the same way one can sense a monster except the feeling isn't as sinister in sensation. As they got closer to their destination, to Romania, the connection—whatever it was—grew stronger until they could finally see the place that they had been heading to.

Surprising enough though, the dragon sanctuary was enclosed with a faint bubble of something which was not that different to the Mist. It was a little less defined, however, and easily detectable by a demigod like him, but it's probably just as dumbfounding to mortals as when they encounter the Mist.

Then again, he shouldn't have been surprised. They are, in his theory, a really long line of descendants of Hecate working together. I mean, they are aware that the Greek gods existed—and that they are not myths—and it should explain how they got magic in the first place.

Not wanting to risk Festus being caught by professional dragon keepers, he dismounted a good distance away. It was better to walk alone than to risk losing one of the most important friends to him after all. Thankfully, it is located deep within a mountain range full of trees—not unlike the one in France (gee, wizards really love their mountains and trees, don't they?, Leo thinks), so it was easy for Festus to hide.

Being in the Dragon Sanctuary though, he begins to realize that he might not even get the chance to ask anything from anyone with how much busy and in an absolute extreme level of panic they are all in.

He contemplates making a scene but decided against it because, though it would capture their attention, he would most likely be thrown away in the fires for annoying them so much. Granted, he won't burn but the intention is clear.

So what should he do? What could he do?

As he ponders over which action to take, the Fates probably decided to be kind enough to present him an opportunity. Well, "kind" is such a strong word since the Fates hate him, and the opportunity is not exactly... kind per se, but coming from the Fates? It's just as good as.

"What are you nitwits doing just blathering around?!" he hears more than sees a man—wizard?—yell at two people loitering near the back of the dragon enclosure.

The man awfully reminds Leo of Coach Hedge.

"Our best men are out of the country and now I have to deal with you, idiots, gossiping around like some teenagers! Get movin'!" the man continues to rant.

With his back to the enclosure, the wizard, who Leo suspects to be the leader, is not aware that a HUGE metallic grey-silver dragon (not drakon, thank the gods) behind him had howled [1]1. Not because it was being subdued—quite the opposite, in fact—but because the said dragon just broke free from the restraints being used by around a dozen people, who Leo suspects to be legitimate (what did those two Spanish dudes call them? Leo asks himself) dragonologists, to tie the dragon down. [2]2

Just as the leader had turned around after the nitwits had yelled at him to watch out, the dragon rears its head back in preparation to most likely breathe fire at the dragonologists, and by the angle, would also hit the leader and the nitwits, just as the dragon also flaps its wings, making a hurricane-like wind, putting everyone back by the strength behind each blow.

At that exact moment, at his angle after creeping closer in curiosity, Leo finally acts immediately, letting his hero-complex and instincts take over his whole persona by running in to help and/or possibly shield the fifteen or more people in direct line of the attack.

Faintly, at the back of his mind, he can hear the experienced men shouting something like stupefied or whatever, as he watches some red sparks hit the majestic beast which all come from the wands these wizards are holding [2]3[3]4. Instead of being a threat to the dragon, it only seems to irritate it more and more.

"GET DOWN!" Leo yells at the men, running from the behind the bushes of the forest he had hidden.

"BOY, GET OUTTA HERE!" he hears the leader yell behind him.

"GET DOWN NOW!" he yells at them again, making sure he uses the voice that clearly shows that he meant business, just as he reaches the space between the dragon and the pool of dragonologists.

"GET BEHIND ME, YOU BRAT!" the leader yells once more, much closer.

When he feels the man touch his arm, Leo grabs both his arms, twisting the man enough to lessen his ability to grab him as well, before throwing him back to the other surprised dragonologists with force—actually making all four of them fall down to the ground after their leader just fell on top of them. [4]5 Leo wants to apologize but there's no time for that at the moment.

"KID, GET OUTTA THERE!" he hears them all yell again.

He never got to reply since the dragon finally bows its head to face them. He hears the screams of the men, yelling "GET BEHIND US!" "TAKE COVER!" "RUN!" behind him. He's touched at their concern but right now, he has a majestic beast to deal with.

Leo spreads his arms out, looking at the dragon's deep-red eyes (reminding him of Festus' ruby eyes), just as it releases a stream of fire sixteen times hotter than boiling water [1]6, aiming at all the dragonologists with Leo in between. He hears everyone yelling, "NO! THE BOY!" and a stream of curse words which surprised Leo at their creativity.

After that, silence.

Seeing a boy get fired up by a dragon probably shocked them… Woops. Leo thinks, forgetting for a moment that his fire abilities is still not normal even amongst these people—even if they were from magic.

Meanwhile, the dragonologists all look away, frozen on the spot, all waiting for their own incoming deaths with the weight of guilt on their shoulders after witnessing a small boy die through fire because of their carelessness and their inability to get the job done.

Unbeknownst to all of them, they were all thinking the same thing: At least, the guilt from negligence is brief, as they all await hell.

You can imagine their confusion when, instead of hearing anguished screams of pain from a boy dying by fire, they instead hear a simple grunt and a small shout of "OH MAN, YOU'RE A STRONG ONE!"

As they all look up, confused on how they were not barbecued, they see the fire from the beast surround them in a perfect circle, as if someone made a ring of fire around them—completely missing them.

In front of them, they see the boy with his hands raised sideways, both hands slightly shaking and moving closer to his own body as if he is pushing two walls on his sides that are squeezing him alive. They watch as the mysterious boy screams and throws his arms sideways with the ring of fire being pushed away by a sudden invisible force before fading away into the cold air as if someone closed their fist around a flame.

When the fire subsides, they are met by the confused gaze of the dragon, staring at the boy who had bent down to place his hands on his knees, panting as if he just went for a run, before straightening himself up. Before any of the dragonologists yell at the boy to get back immediately, they hear it.

A powerful voice echoes through the sanctuary coming from somewhere in front of them, engulfing them with the strength behind it. It may not be immensely deep as if it is from an old bloke, but as if it just reached the peak of its puberty. It takes them a minute to realise that the boy is the one speaking.

"Ω δρακον! Nάν δυδ αίλκ άκιερε μισσ7," the boy firmly proclaims to be heard, much to the confusion of everyone—including the dragon.

[O dragon! I command you to stop this reign of terror!]

Meanwhile, to Leo, just as he flicks his arms and hands to push the fires away, he lets out a breath of exhaustion, placing his hands on his knees and momentarily looking down to collect his breath. This dragon is just plain angry, he realized.

Leo looks up to look at the majestic beast, staring at him in confusion the same way Festus had looked at him the first time he tried to fry Leo a year ago.

Finally, he straightens himself up immediately to stare at the dragon in the eyes and feeling something akin to fear coming from the dragon. Still, he doesn't want a repeat of whatever in Tartarus just happened.

"Dude, listen to me: you gotta calm down," Leo tells it loudly.

What shocks him—as well as the people behind him, judging from their gasps of surprise—is the fact that the dragon cocks its head before letting out a small puff of smoke before dropping its mighty wings and bowing its head in submission… to Leo, of all people. Is it because he's made of fire, too?

He never expected the majestic creature to actually understand him, let alone obey him… but somewhere deep inside him, his instincts are telling him to just go on and keep talking… and that it will most likely work.

Hoping for the best, he addresses it the same way as he would Festus.

"You're not actually dangerous, are you?" he asks. "You just don't want to be tied down," he adds, slowly approaching the dragon with his hand outstretched.

He can hear the cries of the men behind him and see a spark hit the dragon in the face, making it roar once more, getting ready to fire.

Leo looks behind him, growling at the dragonologists, "STOP HITTING THE DRAGON!" before turning back to the dragon with his arms raised in front of him as if calming a panicking horse. "CALM DOWN, YOU!" he tells the dragon which makes it pause with its action and go back to its calm demeanor earlier.

Not wasting any more time, Leo removes the distance between himself and the dragon as slowly as possible with a hand outstretched. It wasn't long before he feels the nose of the dragon, nudging at his hands and leaning on his touch, cold in contact which is a spark contrast with the hot breath emitting from the beast, engulfing him in warmth he himself feel more used to.

Oddly enough, it feels like home as if he was either at the forges or near the bonfire at Camp Half-Blood, making him all the more melancholy, remembering that he left his home after being ignored by his own family and being stuck in the past, seeing dead bodies of his old friends appearing on the ground every time he walks along the camp.

As he thinks more and more about this, he doesn't realize that he had unconsciously laid his head on the dragon's long scaly snout, hugging it, just as the dragon itself closes its eyes to lean closer to the son of fire.

Meanwhile, the dragonologists are gobsmacked. They all look at one another as they all realise that this small kid had just inadvertently saved all of their lives; actually tamed a dragon—something that was legitimately deemed impossible since a dragon, especially a Ukrainian Ironbelly, can never be tamed and needs more than a dozen wizards to stun it (by stunning it at the same time); and spoke in a powerful voice that does not sound the same when he speaks in English. [1]9[5]10

Leo, on the other hand, comes back to reality when he hears the loud voices of the men behind him, all wondering aloud on who he is, yelling at him that he should get out of there right now, and questioning anyone near them on what happened and why he isn't dead.

The dragon doesn't pay them much mind as it finally lets its head rest on the ground completely, purring at Leo and letting out puffs of smoke whenever Leo stops stroking his scaly snout.

"You shouldn't be in chains at all," he tells the dragon quietly, looking at parts of the restraints still on the body of the said dragon.

Using a concentrated amount of fire, the color of the fire nearly turning blue, Leo uses it to remove every single restraint still clamped around the dragon's legs, tail, and neck, giving it more freedom.

Meanwhile, the dragonologists start yelling at the boy on what in Merlin's name he is doing because he has no idea what the dragon could do to anyone it comes into contact with, and those ropes and chains took a long time to put around the dragon in the first place!

The leader, on the other hand, stays standing at the centre, looking at the small boy in surprise as he uses elemental wandless magic to remove the binds around the large dragon, yelling, "Iθι! Iθι! Iθι!11" which he still doesn't understand.

[Flee! Flee! Flee!]

Leo, on the other hand, goes completely confused when the dragon only gives him a sad note after he kept yelling, "Run! Go away! Go!" for once, not obeying.

Instead of flying—which Leo had suspected the dragon would do, the dragon steps back a bit and looks at Leo in the eye before gently turning towards the cage. For some reason, Leo immediately understands that the dragon wants him to follow.

As they both enter the cage, with the dragon lifting a wing for Leo to squeeze in, he finally sees it: dragon eggs. The dragon had eggs to protect and counting the number of indents in the cage, some are missing. [2]

"Your eggs are missing?" he asks the dragon behind him. The sad huff from the dragon was all the answer he needed. "Don't worry. I'll find out what happened."

At his statement, the dragon nods its head and lies down at the entrance, curling her body around the remaining eggs, protective and distressed.

Letting his hand roam the scales of the dragon one last time, Leo finally walks out of the cage and towards the tamers gathered around at the edge of the closure, still talking amongst themselves in a heated argument.

Because the gods hate him so much, they decide to trip him to humiliate him. This is totally not because he is a clumsy human being. No.

All the dragonologists look at him at the same time as he lets out a small curse in Spanish. Every time he doesn't ask for attention, he always gets it.

"Er… I, er…" Leo scratches the back of his head awkwardly, switching his glance from the dragon to the keepers all staring at him in awe and some in fear. "Look, the dragon just misses her eggs… She's angry and she just wants her children back. I just want to know what happened, and if there's a way to bring them back. She's actually very gentle and nice but… from what I've gathered, no one wants to anger a mother by taking away her children…"

Much to Leo's annoyance, they all just stare at him.

"I… er… I guess I'm… sorry? Er, I mean… I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for, kid?" the leader asks, moving forward to stand in front of Leo who is proud to say is the same height as the man. "You just saved us!"

Leo glances at the other men who seem to look uncomfortable at the fact that a teenager like him could save fifteen adults from a freaking dragon. Their leader, however, may look intimidating—especially with the scars on his arms and face—but the look in his eyes show a gentleness and fatherly vibe… like Chiron.

"It's… It's nothing," Leo replies awkwardly.

Yes, before, he would grab every opportunity to brag about it with the other six demigods but only because the six demigods had done more impressive things than he did. They're much more amazing. They're much more brilliant.

Talking to a dragon and handling that much fire were nothing compared to saving Olympus, defeating a Titan, or earning the blessing of Mars. It is nothing compared to putting Gaea to eternal sleep, being the architect of Olympus, and a favorite of Hecate.

He's just good ol' Leo, alone in a bunker, making jokes and having not one problem in his life like some prince of laid-back idiots.

"It's not nothing, kiddo!" one of the two nitwits, both of whom had also moved forward to stand behind the leader, exclaims.

"I'm Leo," he finally grumbles, not liking being called a kid.

"Ahhh, a name then," the leader says. "I'm Alex—" he gestures to the man on his left—"this is Crock—" he gestures to the man on his right—"this is Ford." [6]12 Alex looks at Leo intently. "The others behind me are some of the best dragonologists in the continent but what you did was amazing. How did you know what to do?" Alex asks.

At the question from their leader, this probably triggered everyone else to start asking him questions. Never mind that he could probably be exhausted after doing so many things at once. Okay, it's not really that tiring but he hadn't had that much training after coming back from the dead since he spent more time in Bunker Nine sitting on his desk and building smaller things… but he might have been exhausted.

"Er… You're American, too?" Leo asks Alex instead, flustered.

"Huh? Oh! Yes! You're from Ilvermorny, too, then?" Alex asks and Leo reaches back to his brain and remembers that Ilvermorny is the American Wizard School.

"Yeah! Definitely! Dropped out though," he adds. "Been too much of a pain in the backside to the school, apparently."

Another Rule to Being a Good Liar: Add hints of truth—bonus points if they're embarrassing—because people would more likely believe it since you shared something so "personal" but nothing that makes it too personal and fake. Choose your white lies with caution and precision.

Alex barks a laughter at his words.

"Fontaine didn't give you a chance, did he?" [7]13

"Apparently, not. The principal probably hates my guts," Leo laughs nervously to avoid the topic of the school because he has no idea what a fontaine is.

"You mean headmaster?" one of the hostile keepers corrects suspiciously.

"Oh, yeah… I forgot that we call him that…"

"Really?" the hostile keeper asks.

"Yeah, sorry, I was in the system so I went to more mort—normal schools than the amount of years I spent in Ilvermorny."

"Your parents were nomajs?" Alex asks.

Schist, what in Hades are nomajs? Leo starts to panic at that but thankfully, Ford unintentionally saves him from making an idiot out of himself.

"Probably not," he says. "Also, ugh, call them muggles, not nomajs. Stop being such an American." Ford rolls his eyes which earned him a hit on the back of his head by Alex, making Ford apologize profusely and indignantly. "Besides," he adds after apologizing, "the boy's too powerful to be muggleborn."

"Oi!" Crock exclaims indignantly. "I'm just as good as you are with magic even though my parents are both muggles! Proud muggleborn forever!"

Ford sighs in reply. "I mean, moron, that the boy might have had some heritage that made him more powerful than any wizard—even a bloody pureblood like me. He just saved our lives without a wand, you know."

Leo files the information in his brain: Muggles are basically mortals, people with no magic, or aren't demigods. Americans call muggles "nomajs", apparently. Muggleborns are wizards born with muggle/nomaj/mortal parents. I assume half-bloods mean one has magic and one is mortal… er… muggle, whatever. That man said pureblood which I assume both parents are wizards… Oh Styx, that is disgusting, descendants of Hecate actually married each other?

"System?" Alex asks in curiosity, bringing Leo back to reality.

Leo doesn't have to pretend when he looks down on the ground and shifts uncomfortably from one foot to another.

"Foster system."

Third Rule to Being a Good Liar: When you make a mistake, give one real uncomfortable truth to make them drop the subject. Bonus points if it could get them to sympathize.

Crock hits the hostile man's head. "Now, you've done it, Sterling!"

"It's all right." Leo laughs nervously. "Hey, I probably went to more foster systems than I ever did spending time in nomaj schools," he adds, using the slang word immediately for effect.

"How can you spend more time in foster systems?" Sterling asks.

"Stop being such a right bastard, mate," Ford warns.

Leo licks his dried lips. "Can we not talk about that?" he laughs nervously, unconsciously touching his suspenders when the haunting face of his abusive foster mother, Teresa, enters his mind. [8]14

Crock hits Sterling at the back of his head again. "I should let the dragon burn you or something," he tells Sterling, making the latter scowl.

"Speaking of fire," Alex begins once more, "how'd you do that… earlier?"

"I…" He shrugs. "I guess it's a mixture of instinct and experience."

"What do you mean?" someone else he doesn't know asks, making everyone else stare at him—which is seriously creeping him out.

"Well, I kinda already encountered a dragon before so I knew what it was about to do… Did it to me earlier, too…"

"Hold on a minute," the same hostile keeper starts, "what are you even doing here? The wards were made strongly around this area. You're not supposed to even see what's inside—let alone get in."

Leo's heart sinks. How is he supposed to get away with this now?

"I didn't feel any wards or whatever… but it was kinda blurry, okay, I admit… so I got curious." He shrugs. "There wasn't much magic around… I guess I know why you're secluded from human civilization now, I suppose."

"The boy did just use some wandless magic, mate," Ford tells the man, who shrugs and agrees with the logic behind that.

"Explains why you easily threw me earlier too… That's one powerful accidental magic I've ever seen…" Alex adds, making everyone else murmur in agreement.

Just saying I can do wandless magic can make me get away with anything on why I can be kinda powerful, too, Leo thinks to himself. Could be useful later.

"Doesn't explain why you'd go around with a death wish," Crock says.

Leo winces. "I was just here for some questions, all right? I came in to you being attacked and… well… I couldn't NOT help you, you know? I can make some things move with my brain… I guess, magic, then… so I kinda use it all the time until I kinda mastered it… like Telekinesis or something…" he adds.

"A natural wandless wizard with a good heart," Crock whispers with a whistle. "How did you tame the dragon, though? The things you said… What was it?"

I said something different? OHHH… It must have been Ancient Greek. Leo tries hard not to think about the fact that he didn't really do anything special, and that anyone from the camp can tame a dragon since they all speak Ancient Greek.

"My family speaks it… I actually don't usually know when I'm using it. It just happens, you know?" Leo replies. Still not technically lying.

"That's… unusual…" Sterling states, staring at him intently. He really doesn't like that guy. Leo wonders why he won't just stay back and watch like the other dragonologists as he talks to Alex. It's almost unnerving how simply being stared at by Sterling can make Leo want to say the truth.

"Guess it's hereditary," Ford suggests.

"What? Like Parseltongue?" Sterling asks.

"Well, dragons are reptiles, too… so it makes sense that they have their own exclusive language with people, too," Ford reasons.

"Umm… what's a Parseltongue?" Leo asks.

"Parseltongue is the language of the snakes. Parselmouths are those who can speak to snakes using Parseltongue… They're incredibly rare and only the heirs of Slytherin can speak it," Crock answers.

"Slytherin?" Leo asks. "What?"

"Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders at Hogwarts…"

"That's the school in Britain, right?"

Alex sighs. "I'll take over from here," he tells everyone else. "One American to another… You're hounding the boy with information. Come on, kid, I'll answer those questions you came here for. GET TO WORK!" he yells at everyone else sternly, making Leo's hair stand on edge at the sudden firmness from Alex's voice.

Alex walks away from the now dispersing group and Leo follows him.

"So, kid, I'm guessing you didn't have a nice childhood—"

"You have no idea," Leo interrupts.

"—but rest assured, you can ask me anything you want… You came here with questions, right?" he asks and Leo nods.

"I wanted to know more on how dragons breathe fire… Their anatomy, and how good their forces and strengths are… Everything."

Alex blinks. "Okay, I might not be the best person to ask that… Actually, you kinda remind me of this new kid we had… Well, he's been here for about five years now but he's one of the best already—loves dragons to death, that kid… Maybe you should ask him—Oh, shoot, I forgot he left."

"He left? This place? Why?!" Leo asks disbelievingly.

"Well, not left left. He and some others went to Hogwarts."

Leo looks back to his conversation with the brothers in France. "I heard there's a tournament, there?" he asks.

Alex nods. "Yup. I don't know what the hell they're thinking, actually. Making kids fight dragons?" He shakes his head.

Leo bites his lips before saying that demigods fight things worse than that at the same age… but then again, these are wizards, descendants and not direct demigods.

"If you want more information on dragons, you should ask Charlie Weasley. I heard he once talked to Newt Scamander as a kid. Not interested in anything except dragons… I think you two would work well together, honestly. You're gonna have to wait for a while, though."

Leo shakes his head. "No, it's fine. I'm actually a traveller," he says. "Going around the world and all that. I'm having some fun."

"Are you a runaway, then?" Alex asks cautiously.

Leo nods. "Ran away from six foster homes… but I've been into more foster homes because I got moved a bunch of times. I got into so much trouble."

"What'd you do to get kicked out of Ilvermorny?" Alex asks.

Leo shrugs. "I did a lot of things. I blew up, you know? Got some people a bit angry… Had some enemies and all that… Explosions can kill people, you know?"

Technically, he wasn't answering Alex's question. He was describing the war.

"Doesn't sound like the kid who just jumped in front of a dragon to save grown old men," he comments.

"What can I say? I'm unique, that way…" Alex chuckles at that. "So who's Salazar Slytherin and why do those people act like he's the devil or something?"

"I heard he never accepted muggleborns and muggles at their time… but I don't know… I'm not a Brit so I shouldn't really talk much about it but I don't think Slytherin's much at fault, you know? I mean, I'm not saying he was right but… there were witch trials at the time… They burned wizards. For a time, wizards and witches were scared of fire because of that." [9]15

Leo finds himself paling… Wizards and witches were scared of fire. All his guilt and insecurity with his fire are slowly seeping through his body and he wills it not to.

"Still, besides Slytherin, there are other houses: Gryffindor for the brave, Ravenclaw for the wise, and Hufflepuff for the loyal… and Slytherins are for the cunning. Between you and me: all of them base everything on names and houses and such… Good thing we're from Ilvermorny, eh?"

Leo chuckles nervously. "Yeah…"

"Speaking of: what's your house?"

"Me?"

"Yeah… I'm a Thunderbird."

Panicking, Leo replies, "Oh, me, too…" Before Alex replies, he adds, "Anyway, I seriously want to learn more about dragons. Do you mind telling me where Hogwarts is? Maybe I could go talk to him?"

"Yeah, we actually have a map here, just in case the others need back-up for the tournament… Come with me."

A few minutes later, Leo is on his way to Hogwarts with a map whilst several dragonologists wonder why the Ukrainian Ironbelly has no chains, and why some of the trees surrounding the area are singed.