Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to J.K. Rowling.
9-Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback
It was a great relief for Quirrell seemed to be braver then I had originally thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet.
Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I would press our ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter. I usually kept quiet, for he still gave me the creeps.
Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer's Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and color-coding all her notes. Harry and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same. I already had a deal with Luka on studying. We would get together with Ariana, and put out heads together over the books, though I was reluctant.
"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Ron groans.
"Ten weeks," Hermione snaps. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."
"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminds her. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it all."
"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me. . . ."
Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Harry, Ron, and I spent most of our free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.
"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day we'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming. I was twirling my wand through my fingers when Ron made me jump.
"Hagrid! What are you doing here?" He asks. I whip my head around to look at him. Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.
"Jus' lookin'," he says, in a shifty voice that got our interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looks suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago, and we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St —" Ron says getting cut off.
"Shhhh!" Hagrid looks around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," Harry says, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy —"
"SHHHH!" says Hagrid again. "Listen — come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh —"
"See you later, then," I say quickly. Hagrid shuffles off.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asks thoughtfully. I shrug my shoulders, and look over at her work. She pushes me away with an annoyed glare.
"I don't know, I'm just curious if he's ever been in the library before." I say, getting up and stretching my legs out. All this library business has serious knocked me out of whack. I need to be outside, and getting some sun. I'm not meant to be a creature that's kept indoors at all times, people should have read my label.
"I'm going to go look in the section he was in." Ron says jumping up. He'd do anything to get away from the homework. He comes back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slams them down on the table.
"Dragons!" he whispers. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry tells us.
"But it's against our laws," Ron explains. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden — anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
I nod my head already knowing all this. When your last name is connected to dragons you start to know these kinds of things, even if your family has nothing to do with them in actuality. Harry is freaking out about there being actual dragon in Britain, while I'm biting my lower lip. Hagrid better not have what I think he has, this year has been wild enough as is already.
"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" Hermione wonders. That's what we're all wondering, and I'm not looking forward to the answer.
When we knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, we were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let us in, and then shut the door quickly behind us. It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made us tea and offered us stoat sandwiches, which we refused.
"So — yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" Hagrid inquires nervously.
"Yes," Harry says. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy." Hagrid frowned at him.
"O' course I can't," he says. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could, that Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts — I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," I say in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and we could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." I go on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words, Harry, Ron, and Hermione beam at me.
"Well, I don' s'ppose it could hurt ter tell yeh that . . . let's see . . . he borrowed Fluffy from me . . . then some o' the teachers did enchantments . . . Professor Sprout — Professor Flitwick — Professor McGonagall —" he ticks them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell — an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."
"Snape?" Hermione asks in shock. Hagrid gives the four of us an incredulous look.
"Yeah — yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it." Hagrid grumbles. We share a look; if Snape helped protect it then it would be easy to figure out how the other teachers were protecting the stone.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" asks Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," Hagrid says very proudly.
"Well, that's something," I mutter to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling." I plead. Hagrid shakes his great head at me.
"Can't Jamie sorry." Hagrid says glancing into the fire. It catches out attention though.
"Hagrid — what's that?" Hermione asks. But I already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.
"Ah," says Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's — er . . ."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" asks Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."
"Won it," Hagrid explains. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermione cries. I was starting to wonder the same thing. We're not talking about a small paper dragon that I draw in my sketchpad; we're talking giant-sized, and fire-breathing real.
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," says Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library — Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit — it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here — how ter recognize diff'rent eggs — what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."
He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," Hermione cries exasperated. But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire. Oh boy, we're doomed.
So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.
"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighs as evening after evening we struggled through all the extra homework we were getting. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Harry and Ron, too. It was driving them nuts.
Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. He had written only two words: It's hatching. Ron wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. Hermione wouldn't hear of it.
"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" Ron whines.
"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing —" She's cut off.
"Shut up!" Harry whispers, glancing at Malfoy who's nearby. Ariana is next to me, and giving the four of us curious looks. I'm still partnered up with her, and there's nothing to do about it, Professor Sprout is under the impression that we work well together, I don't know how she came up with that though.
I give her a nervous look, and bite my lower lip. If I tell Ariana, she might tell her grandfather and then Hagrid will get in trouble, and I don't want that. Malfoy was giving us curious and knowing looks, and I didn't like that at all. Ron and Hermione bickered all through Herbology, and we agreed to go see him during morning break.
I just hoped that the smarmy weasel knew enough to mind his own bloody business. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the four of us dropped our trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted us, looking flushed and excited.
"It's nearly out." He ushered us inside. The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. It was completely fascinating and I forgot that it was going to turn into a dangerous man-crushing creature for a few minutes. We all drew chairs up to the table and watched in baited breath.
Hermione was gripping my hand hard underneath the table in her excitement. "Ow Mione." I murmur, trying to bring circulation back into the appendage. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; I thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body; it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.
It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout. "Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmurs. He reaches out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snaps at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. "Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!" Hagrid coos at the small reptile.
"Hagrid," Hermione asks, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"
Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face — he leapt to his feet and ran to the window. "What's the matter?" Ron cries.
"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains — it's a kid — he's runnin' back up ter the school." Hagrid says anxiously.
Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him. Malfoy had seen the dragon. Evil smarmy weasel git!
Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy's face during the next week made Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I very nervous. We spent most of our free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him. "Just let him go," Harry urged. "Set him free."
"I can't," Hagrid cries. "He's too little. He'd die." They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn't been doing his game keeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.
"I've decided to call him Norbert," Hagrid says, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mummy?"
"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered in Harry's ear. I totally agreed, first a giant three-headed hell beast, now a dragon, Hagrid was on a roll to kill me one of these days.
"Hagrid," I say loudly, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment." Hagrid bit his lip.
"I — I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't." Hagrid mutters. Harry suddenly turned to Ron.
"Charlie," he says.
"You're losing it, too," Ron crows. "I'm Ron, remember?"
"No — Charlie — your brother, Charlie, in Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!" Harry exclaims, slapping his hand down on the table.
"Brilliant!" says Hermione. "How about it, Hagrid?" And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.
The following week dragged by. Ariana kept giving me inquiring looks, and cornering me in the hallways, because I've been avoiding her, and Luka has gone missing in action on me, because he's taking studying for his exams way more seriously than any first year ever should, he's even giving Hermione a run for her money.
Though I think that if she didn't have Norbert to deal with, with us that'd she be in the exact same position as him. Some days I wonder how she even managed to get into Gryffindor, when she has the love of knowledge and studying of a Ravenclaw. I'm glad she's in my house though; I don't really like the other girls who share our room.
Tonight I'm not happy though. It was Ron's and my turn to help Hagrid look after Norbert the fire-breathing baby death machine. Things hadn't gone as planned at all. The bloody monster bit Ron, when he tried to feed him, and blew fire at us, which managed to catch my right arm on fire up to my shoulder! I was in so much pain it wasn't even funny!
The two of us cursed silently all the way up to the common room under the Invisibility Cloak. When we burst through the portrait, the clock on the wall had just chimed midnight. Ron threw the cloak off us in disgust. "It bit me! The bloody dragon bit me, and nearly burned off Jamie's arm!" Ron cries. He waves his hand and Harry and Hermione, showing them the bloody handkerchief wrapped around his hand.
Hermione hurries over to me, a look of shocked horror on her face when she sees my raw and blistered red burned skin that's slightly bleeding in some places. "Oh Merlin Jamie!" She exclaims, running up to the dorm to go get some bandages, and mild healing balm. Harry looks at the two of us in ghastly horror.
"Bloody hell." He swears. Ron took that as his cue to continue on in his rant, as Hermione returned, and started placing the balm on my arm and shoulder.
"I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby." Ron exclaims in fury. I'm crying again by now, and Hermione is biting her lip trying to ignore my flinches and tears, as she tries to treat me.
"I'm sorry Jamie, I'm so sorry." She keeps muttering softly, treating me like a small child, and I feel like I am one. Harry hadn't taken his eyes off of Hermione and me. I think that the gravity of the situation just struck him; I think that it just struck all of us. There was a tap on the dark window.
"It's Hedwig!" Harry says, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!" The four of us put their heads together to read the note.
Dear Ron,
How are you? Thanks for the letter — I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.
Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.
Send me an answer as soon as possible.
Love,
Charlie
We looked at one another. "We've got the Invisibility Cloak," Harry says. "It shouldn't be too difficult — I think the cloak's big enough to cover two of us and Norbert." It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the rest of us agreed with him, anything to get rid of Norbert — and Malfoy.
There was a problem with our plan though. I couldn't sleep at all last night, and by early morning, I was in constant tears, so Hermione brought me to Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing, chiding softly for she thought that I should have gone last night. Madam Pomfrey was alarmed and went straight to work, ushering me into a bed, and shoving a calming draught and a pain numbing solution down my throat.
She demanded to know what happened. We made up the lie that I was involved in a potion draught gone wrong. She seemed to believe me, and chided me for not coming to her sooner. She was going to have to regrow the skin, but luckily I wouldn't scar. I was thankful, and Hermione left me with the assurance, that she'd come back with the boys later.
I shouldn't have been worried. At morning Ron's bit hand had swelled twice its normal size, and by afternoon, it had turned a sickly green color. It looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous. He had told Madam Pomfrey that it was a dog bite, but it seemed like she didn't believe him. She was keeping the pair of us over the weekend because of the seriousness of our injuries.
By the end of the day Ron was a right state worse, and I was in tears again, as my skin slowly, and painfully regrew itself. Harry and Hermione looked horrified for us. Harry sat by Ron's bed, while Hermione sat by mine, gripping my uninjured hand tightly. Ron was busy telling them how he felt. I was pretty sure that they could guess my state of mind.
"It's not just my hand," he whispers, "although that feels like it's about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me — I've told her it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me — I shouldn't have hit him at the Quidditch match, that's why he's doing this." Harry and Hermione tried to calm Ron down.
"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," Hermione says, but this didn't soothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.
"Midnight on Saturday!" He cries in a hoarse voice. "Oh no — oh no — I've just remembered — Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."
I groan in frustration and pain, and Hermione squeezes my hand tighter, and puts a cool washcloth on my forehead. Harry and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Ron and I needed sleep.
One of the bad things about being stuck in the hospital wing, besides the pain and agony was the fact that I was easy to corner. Luka and Ariana took advantage of this fact a lot. Harry and Hermione were going out to smuggle Norbert out of Hogwarts, and what am I doing? I'm lying in a bed cursing the ruddy beast for putting me in the hospital wing.
I'm going to have to rethink my last name. I used to think that dragons are cool, this one definitely wasn't. Ron was pretty much occupied for our stay, for he was either passed out cold, or throwing up into rubbish bins. As long as I sat still and didn't move my arm a muscle, the pain from my skin wouldn't be as excruciating as it had been.
When Luka came flying into the hospital wing, he looked like a cross between a frightened fairy, and an angry troll. He skidding over to me side, and gaped at my arm. "Blimey Jamie! I can't leave you alone for a minute!" He exclaims sitting down in a chair next to my bed.
"What can I say, I suck at potions." I murmur. Luka gives me a disbelieving look.
"Come on Jame, we both do fairly well in that class, the only way you'd blow something up, is if you did it on purpose." He tells me. I give him a sheepish smile, and my brother groans. He rubs his hand over his face, then through his hair.
"You know what, I don't feel sorry for you then. Come on Jamie! What would happen if Kingsley knew half of the stuff that you pull here?" Luka demands. I shrug my good shoulder painfully. My brother blows out a breath of air.
"You're not exactly one to talk though Luka. You've been doing stupid stuff as well. Messing with the giant squid in the lake, playing chicken with the Whomping Willow, shooting cheering charms at Slytherins behind their backs." I list. My brother turns red, and I roll my eyes. Boys.
"Yeah but I haven't ended up in the hospital overnight yet!" He hisses back. I raise my eyebrow at him.
"Don't think that I don't know about your disastrous enchanted Bertie Botts experiment. I mean seriously, bright purple skin? I thought that Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart." I shoot back. My brother sighs in defeat, and I smile softly at him through the pain.
"Luka we're kids, we're meant to do stupid stuff, how else will we learn 'eh Wise Guy?" I prod him. Luka smiles at me softly, and squeezes my good hand.
"I guess that we wouldn't be us if we stuck to the rules." Luka admits to me softly. I grin back at him. No brother dear, we definitely wouldn't.
An hour after Luka had left, Ron was passed out after a rather violent expulsion session into the bin. I was just about to close my eyes to attempt to erase the horrific sight from my mind, when I get another visitor. I swing my gaze over to the door, and groan inwardly when I see whom it is.
Ariana Dumbledore comes to the foot of my bed, and gives my injury a long calculating look. I can't tell what she's thinking from the look in her eyes, and that's never a good sign. She comes over to my bedside, and brings the chair closer to me. She sits down, and leans in close.
"I know that that's not a potion explosion." She hisses at me angrily. I wince, and attempt to scoot away from her, but my injury protests.
"I dunno what you're talking about Dumbledore, I was there when it happened." I mutter. Her eyes flash gold in anger, and she grips my good hand hard. That poor hand, it's been through a lot today.
"I know about the dragon Pendragon." She whispers madly. I gulp, and glance over at my passed out friend. Great, where are reinforcements when you need them?
"What dragon? You're off your rocker." I lie to her. Ariana gives my hand another painful squeeze.
"I'd smack you right now, if you weren't already in such a state! You four have been running down to Hagrid's hut every single day, and no one has seen what he's doing except for flashes of light in the windows at night. There have been fewer chickens around his place, and you've been drawing dragons a lot more recently Jamie. I know that you draw what's stressing you out." Ariana says.
I stare at her gob smacked for a few minutes. Wow, she certainly knows a lot more than most people, and she knows scarily a lot about me. Well then again we have known each other since we were little. "You have to swear that you won't tell your grandfather! We're dealing with it, it won't be an issue for much longer!" I plead in a low voice.
Ariana's eyebrows shoot up, and a mystified look crosses her face. Okay, maybe she wasn't a hundred percent sure about the dragon. "I don't know Jamie. My grandfather pretty much knows everything that goes on in this castle." Ariana ponders. She sits back in her seat, and starts stroking my hand with her thumb.
"This is actually seriously dangerous Jamie, you got hurt, and Ron got hurt. Merlin knows that wherever Harry and Hermione are, they could get hurt too." She tells me.
"It won't be a problem anymore after tonight. We're getting rid of it, I swear. I don't want the bloody demon spawn here after it decided that I'd make a nice barbeque!" I exclaim softly. Ariana smiles at me softly. She lets out a puff of air, and sighs.
"Fine, but this better be the last time that I see you in here because of a dragon." She warns.
"What no warning me to stay out of the hospital wing?" I question. Ariana, let's go of my hand, and gets up from her seat. She laughs and shakes her head at me like I'm being silly.
"I know you Jamie, and asking that, would be asking for the impossible, just try not to kill yourself, you hear?" She says leaving me alone in the hospital once more. I chuckle softly, and a yawn breaks through. I lean back into my pillow, and let sleep overtake me. My dreams are mainly about three-headed demon hounds and baby hell dragons fighting to the death, but of them losing.
