Chapter 8: Norbert the Dragon, and the Forbidden Forest

Eventually we found out about the Sorcerer's Stone. That was what connected Nicolas Flamel and Dumbledore. But we had more pressing problems at hand. Hagrid had gotten a dragon egg from some stranger he met in the pub. Normally we would all be worried about the end of the year exams and such but now we had problems with Hagrid and what would happen to him if anyone found out about the dragon.

"That blasted dragon bite me!" Ron came in cursing loudly

"He needs to be taken to the hospital wing." Iris got up and walked with him to the hospital wing, with him going on about Norbert.

"Hagrid has lost his mind this time around." Blake said looking at Hermione who nodded.

"Hagrid open up!" Blake pounded on Hagrid's hut

"What do you lot want? Norbert's at a tricky stage, nothin' I can't handle o'course."

'Hagrid, Ron wrote to his brother Charlie to come and collect Norbert. Now hand over the dragon! We have Harry's invisibility cloak. We won't be seen. It can easily hide four of us and a dragon.' Hagrid started crying but agreed to let Norbert go.

Now on the way to the astronomy tower we saw Malfoy being dragged by Professor McGonagall.

"Nothing gives the student the right to walk about the castle at night. I shall be speaking to Professor Snape about you. Fifty points from Slytherin, and I hope that this teaches you a lesson. And to top it off you are going to get a nice detention."

"But you don't understand Professor. Harry Potter is coming here tonight and he is going to be bringing a dragon with him."

"How dare you speak such lies! Come on let's speak to Professor Snape right now!"

"Malfoy has detention, I think I could sing and chant!" Hermione chanted as soon as we were up in the tower.

"We don't need to get caught too." Harry advised as we watched Norbert go away.

They walked down the stairs thinking about Norbert being gone and Malfoy getting detention. What could possibly go wrong? Well, the answer was waiting for us at the bottom of the staircase. There was no excuse for us to hide behind. Filtch had found us and well, Professor McGonagall wouldn't be lenient at all judging how she reacted to Malfoy.

"How many times am I going to have to repeat myself tonight? Nothing and I mean nothing gives the student a right to walk about the castle at night. I have never been more ashamed at Gryffindor students. Mr. Reed, I am surprised that you have the will power to go through this cock-a-bull story. Miss Granger I had thought that you had more sense. And as for you Mr. Potter I thought that Gryffindor meant more to you than this. Miss Potter I assumed that you were smarter than this as well. All four of you will receive detention. And to insure that this doesn't happen again, forty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"Forty!"

"Each."

"Professor you can't."

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do Potter. Now get up to Gryffindor tower, immediately!"

And like rockets we were off to the tower. All a bit depressed. How on earth could we have all been so stupid to forget the cloak at the top of the tower?

The next morning Gryffindors that walked by the hour glasses where the house points were kept thought that it was a mistake. But then again, the stories started to seep out. Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter and his sister along with a bunch of other stupid first years had done this. They were in dead last place as far as house points standing. Everyone was looking forward to a non-Slytherin victory that everyone ignored us. Ron and Iris tried to keep us all optimistic. Seeing as they were in the hospital wing last night, they didn't have to deal with getting caught. They also said that it is a good idea that they didn't go with us, because we would've had to take my cloak too. If we lost both cloaks then we would be in a bad situation. We stuck around late after everyone went to bed that night.

"I saw something after that match with Hufflepuff. Snape was threatening Quirrell. And something about his little hocus pocus. Which leads me to believe that there are other things setting the stone apart from Fluffy, stuff that Snape can't get through to unless Quirrell gives up his information." Harry whispered

"So, you think for sure that Snape is after the stone then?" Blake asked

"Defiantly, I know it. And Neville with get an 'O' in Potions before Hagrid would betray Dumbledore."Harry muttered

"Then the stone will be gone next week if we are relying on Quirrell staying quiet." Ron said angered

"It's ten till nine, we better get going guys." Hermione told us reminding us of our detentions to go along with the house point loss.

When we got to the entrance hall we saw Filtch with Malfoy. In all of the confusion we had forgotten that Malfoy had detention as well.

"Best have your wits about you." Filtch said as we were walking toward Hagrid's hut.

"You guys are all going into the Forbidden Forest." Filtch laughed

"'Bout time you got 'em here Filtch."

"I'll be back at dawn for what's left of them, I can handle their corpses."

"We are seriously going into the forest? We can't go in there!"

"Do yer think that your father would rather yer expelled? You've done wrong and now yer have to pay for it. We have a mission to go and find a hurt unicorn in the forest. Well split into two party's then. Harry, Kami, and Hermione will come with me."

"Then I get Fang." Malfoy interrupted

"Fine, but just so yer know he's a bloody coward. Blake you go with that bloke there."

We started into the forest and we found out that there are centaurs in the forest. It was really cool to see them and talk to them even if they are a bit fortune telling esq. Just then we saw red help sparks fly up in the air.

"Stay on the path and I will come back for yer guys." Hagrid said trudging through the growth.

"What do you think that happened to Blake?" Hermione wondered

"It really should have been me or Kami going with Malfoy. Since he is so prejudiced he probably attacked Blake just for the heck of it."

'This is really going to be a long night.' I said as we heard Hagrid's return with Blake in front and Malfoy by the collar of his robes.

"Okay this bloke here thought that it would be funny if he lied to Blake and then attacked him from behind. Which leads me to believe that we should switch party's here. Harry go with Malfoy. Blake join us."

I waved goodbye to my brother as he walked off with Malfoy. Hagrid then lead us off. About a half an hour later we heard Malfoy screaming behind us. We stopped before following him back to get to Harry. He was getting off of the back of Firenze. He apparently had a lot of stuff to discuss with us.

"We'll see you after breakfast Hagrid." Harry said as we walked back toward the castle.

We ran upstairs to the Gryffindor tower. Iris and Ron had fallen asleep in the squishy chairs trying to wait up for us to come back, but obviously not succeeding.

We woke them up quickly so we could fill them in and so that Harry could fill us in on what he saw and theorized in the forest. Ron wasn't too pleased that we didn't bring food with us, but then again, when is he ever not pleased about food. Anyway as soon as they were awake we started in on our conversation.

"Well, there has to be other things protecting the stone apart from Fluffy, like spells and enchantments." Hermione started

"But who would Dumbledore be mental enough to trust?" Ron asked

"That is a question to ask Hagrid when we visit him after breakfast then." Blake suggested

'Harry what did you need to tell us?'

"When I was in the forest I saw something. I saw a cloaked figure drinking unicorn blood. We had it wrong, all this time we thought that Snape wanted the stone to get rich. But really he wants to give the stone to Voldemort. With the stone Voldemort can come back."

"But what is so wrong about unicorn blood?" Blake asked

'It is a terrible crime to slay something so pure to save yourself. From the moment that the blood touches your lips you'll have a half life, a cursed life.'

"But if he comes back Harry, he won't try and kill you guys will he?" Iris asked

"If he had the chance I think he would have tried to kill me tonight and Kami."

"Oh, and some house elf dropped off your invisibility cloak while you guys were gone." Iris said throwing the cloak at him.

"It's so lucky that we got it back." Harry sighed

"I'm starved. Let's go down to breakfast now." Ron said earning him a smack from Hermione.

After breakfast we all ran down to Hagrid's house before Herbology. It was really very convenient that we had Herbology that morning. Professor Sprout wasn't exactly that strict and didn't mind if we were a few minutes late especially if Hagrid came with us.

"Wait a minute!" Harry stopped a few feet away from Hagrid's house

"What is it Harry?" Iris asked

"Don't you think it's odd, the one thing that Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon egg, and then this stranger turns up with a dragon egg in his pocket? How many people are mental enough to walk around with dragon eggs if they are illegal? Why didn't we see this before?"

We walked toward Hagrid and before all of us could catch up with her Hermione asked the question that all of us were dying to hear the answer to.

"Hagrid, what is guarding the stone apart from Fluffy?"

"I can't tell yer that!"

"But we just want to know who Dumbledore trusted besides yourself."

"I suppose it can't letting yer know that. Um…let's see Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Quirrell, and Snape. And of course Dumbledore himself did something."

"Snape?"

"Blimey, yer not still on about him are yeh lot?"

"Hagrid, what did the guy look like that gave you Norbert?" Harry asked

"I dunno he kept his hood up."

"But you and this stranger, you had to have talked about something."

"Well he wanted to know about what kind of creatures I looked after. And I told him after Fluffy, a dragon will be a piece of cake, a walk in the park even."

"And did he seem interested in Fluffy?"

"Of course he was interested in Fluffy! How many times do you come across a three headed dog even if you are in the trade? But I told him, the trick to any beast is to know how to calm it. Take Fluffy for example: Just play him a bit of music and he'll fall straight to sleep. I shouldn't have told you that. Hey! Where are yer lot off to?"

We ran and didn't stop running until we got to the greenhouses. Right before we got there Harry stopped us.

"That wasn't just some cloaked guy. It was either Snape or Voldemort which means that they know how to get past Fluffy. Now if Quirrell speaks we are doomed."

"It'll be gone by next week." Ron muttered

'Thanks for the optimism Ronald.'