smiled gently.
‘You too, as always, actually.’ Bleist felt his cheeks flush slightly.
‘How was it at the Palace, Master?’ The dragon also stood up and addressed the colonel eagerly.
‘Exhausting, interspersed with the tedium of long-winded ramblings circling round topics that added nothing to the matter.’ He’d liked to put it more bluntly, but he bit his tongue. The irritation caused by the officials’ sluggishness, sometimes called meticulousness, was not something to be taken home with him. ‘I’m in need of a rest, Draco. A few days when I won’t have to worry about a thing,’ he complained to his pupil, who looked at him with sympathy.
‘Don’t feel so sorry for yourself.’ The elf seemed to lack any trace of empathy, or perhaps she was simply very good at hiding it. ‘One might think your job involves more than just poring over piles of paper,’ she added sarcastically.
‘How was it at the Academy, Draco?’ Bleist pretended not to have heard the elf’s sarcastic remark and steered the conversation towards something neutral, though it would be more accurate to say something thoroughly engrossing. Incidentally, the wizard assumed that even if the dragon had already managed to recount his entire day, Gizel would certainly be keen to hear the lad’s story again.
‘The classes were… rather lacklustre.’ That certainly wasn’t the first word that had sprung to Draco’s mind. ‘At least the theory ones. Everyone was saying almost the same thing, and yet every lecturer said something different. Apart from telling us what we’d be learning, there was nothing else.’ He shrugged. ‘The practical sessions, on the other hand, were brilliant!’ The young reptile beamed, as if he were about to recount the discovery of an ancient artefact. ‘Admittedly, at first Cedric did everything he could to make sure I didn’t like him, but Zane says he’ll grow out of it…’
‘Slow down, Draco, one thing at a time. Who are Cedric and Zane?’ Darius sat down on the sofa, soaking up the energy radiating from the student.
The dragon took a step back and began his story from
