T H E D R A G O N S T A B L E S
Created by Ksenija Czekaj and Arn Lindberg
With minor edits by Mateusz D?browski and Angel Nikolov
The Dragon Stables are accessed by a long path that goes from the school to the stables; this path also gives access to the Dragon Flying classroom and Oksana Viktorovna's office, as well as her living quarters. The stables are reached by turning left inside the building, and going through a pair of huge double doors. These lead to a large interior, reminiscent of a warehouse with a very high ceiling.
A door immediately to the left of the entrance door leads to the storage room and food preparation area. These are protected from theft by spells, but all students have access to the area as working there is a frequent punishment. To the right is the dungheap where students place what they've cleaned from the dragon stalls for transportation to the greenhouses or wherever else it is needed.
The rest of the area is taken up by seven stalls of approximately the same size and shape with two larger stalls which house the Swedish Short Snouts and Welsh Greens, as there are more of these breeds than any other. Each of these enclosures can only be entered if you know the spell - which is non-verbal for security and is slightly different per alcove - otherwise all the dragons would be set free at the same time. The spell is only taught to students who have received their permits and it is unheard of for someone below sixth year to perform it successfully. Those with permits who are below sixth years or who cannot yet perform the spell either seek out the Head of the Dragon Stables (usually the same person as the Dragon Flying professor), or else fly with a partner (which is strongly encouraged anyway), as the spell is more easily performed with two.
Durmstrang houses only pure-bred dragons, with no room or need for hybrids. They have one of each species, excluding the Peruvian Vipertooth. This dragon is excluded firstly because transporting them from Peru to Russia would be exceptionally difficult and secondly, because they are considered too dangerous to be handled by teenagers. The breeds have been placed carefully - aggressive dragons never facing each other, the more aggressive the dragon - the more timid the opposing breed.
There is a distance of fifty feet between the doors, both for ease of movement for the dragons and because the longest range of fire recorded is fifty feet (accomplished by the fine Hungarian Horntail), a precaution in case a dragon should be angered while one of the doors is opened - especially as a large number of females are kept there, and they are the larger and more aggressive out of the two genders.
The doors are clear and made of a hardened crystal, impervious to dragons and their flames (though one can never be sure with a dragon, and precautions must be taken) - it also allows ground-level viewing. In addition, there are two staircases on either side of the main entrance which lead to walkways that allow a higher viewpoint and cater for better observation. Opposite the entrance to the stables is another set of double doors which lead to the launchpad.
The stables themselves appear on the outside to consist of floor to ceiling stalls that are much larger on the inside than they appear from the ante-chamber (similar to the Weasley's tent in GoF, but on a much larger scale), and mimic the natural habitat of each individual dragon (e.g. lush green hills for the Welsh Green, as opposed to a scrubland valley for the Opaleye).
