Chapter 10:Diana's Crazy Animal Obsession
The three girls hadn't had time to speak to Hagrid yet, but they most certainly made time to spy on Snape and Quirrell, and visit Fluffy at least once a week something that Diana enjoyed immensely.
Quirrell turned from slightly pale to death white within the next week, he was stuttering much more in class, and he looked like he hadn't had a good night sleep in days; while Snape was still growling around in his usual bad temper, something which made the girls come to the conclusion that Snape was trying to steal the Stone, and he was pressuring Quirrell somehow to help him.
"But that doesn't make sense!" Hermione said irate. "Why would Snape want the Stone for?"
"Immortality! Ring a bell?" said Diana in a tone that made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I get that," the bushy haired girl snapped. "But seriously, does Snape look like a person who would give much of a thought to that?"
"Aha," nodded Diana with a skeptic look on her face.
"Try imagining for a moment that not everybody is like you," said Hermione vexed.
"Snape is definitely the type to value immortality," Heidi intervened before the two got caught up in a silly argument. "I know I would. Wouldn't you Hermione?" she turned to look quizzically at her friend.
"I…I don't know," Hermione answered honestly. "The thought is rather tempting I guess, but…I haven't given much thought to it."
"Of course you haven't," Heidi waved a dismissive hand. "After all, death is something common among our kind, especially among Muggle; so of course no one would give much thought to something that is by all means impossible to achieve. But deep down, I think we all want it; the power to transcend humanity, to overcome the fear of death that is permanently weighing down on our shoulders. It's quite a natural emotion for a human."
Hermione nodded her head while Diana looked plain bored, she wanted to go and play with Fluffy, but of course the two know-it-alls wouldn't agree! The insane girls (Diana was sure they had cracked), wanted to start studying for the finally exams, when said tests were months away. They had prepared their own personal study board, and had enlisted Diana onto it despite her loud protests and continuous arguments that she unlike them had a social life to attend to!
The teachers seemingly agreed with the two and had therefore pilled the students up with so much homework that it was hard to follow Snape and Quirrell around sometimes. Diana hated them so much at the moment that she had given them insulting nicknames just to feel like she was protesting in some way: Flitwich the Shrimp, Quirrell the Inept, Bins the Boor, Sprout the Unclean, Sinistra the Loony, Snape the man who desperately needs a hug (big time!), and McGonagall the one who desperately needs a snogg (she would have used another words that began with an S, but she still had some respect for the strict woman).
"Ok, enough with the life philosophy and such, we have to start studying," said Heidi as she reached for her bag of books.
Diana at this moment was desperate for any type of distraction that would keep the two girls' minds off of books. "What to go to Hagrids," she blurred out in an attempt to lure the two away from studying.
Hermione turned to look strangely at her. "Where did that come from?" she asked slightly amused.
"Well, I was thinking about the fact that we haven't gone to see him yet, and he might be able to tell us something," she argues hoping to catch the two's interest.
"Not gonna happen," her charming sister said sweetly.
"Why not? Have you forgotten about the stone?" Diana asked outraged.
"Have you forgotten about your studies?" Heidi shot back. "How's your potions' essay doing?" she asked in a taunting voice.
"I will drop that stinking subject the moment I can, trust me on that," Diana assured.
"That won't happen till fifth year, and until then you have to at least have decent grades in the subject," Heidi said in a final tone and pulled out her Charms book.
"I want to see Hagrid!" Diana whined and crossed her arms over her chest refusing to do anything but pout.
Heidi shot her an irritated glare and sat her book down. "Annoying brat!" she hissed at her sister while making her way towards the door. "Are you coming or not?" she snapped when Diana made no attempt at moving.
Diana turned her surprised gaze on her sister and just looked at her dumb-stricken for a few seconds before a brilliant smile made her way across her face. The red haired hopped off her bed happily and bounced towards her sister. Hermione gave a frustrated sigh and closed her book, before standing up and following the two out of the bedroom.
They slowly made their way towards Hagrid's hut, mostly because Diana was stalking for time. The other two were getting quite annoyed with the red head because they were obviously not going to get any work done today either, and they were already behind schedule, but the thought flew out of their head when they neared the groundkeeper's hut. The first strange thing they noticed about it was that all the curtains were drawn, the second was Hagrid asking who it was after they knocked, the third was the oven heat that was inside the cabin, the forth one was the huge black egg that was laid neatly in the fire, but appeared to be unfazed by the burning flames.
"Hagrid, what's that?" asked Heidi cautiously, a feeling of dread overtook her with every passing second she spent looking at the egg.
"Oh, that's a-" Hagrid never got to finish as Diana's shrieks of terror filled the room.
"Hagrid how could you!" The red haired asked in a horror filled voice mixed with not a little resentment. "I thought you loved animals!" she said accusingly. "How could you do that to a poor, defenseless egg?" Tears were beginning to form in the girls' beautiful hazel eyes and she looked at Hagrid with a reproachful glare.
"No, no, no, Diana, yeh, don' understand," Hagrid hurried to pacify her. "That t'ere 's a dragon egg. He needs ter be warm so he can hatch, the fire aint hurting 'im, it's helping 'im!"
"A dragon egg?" asked Diana flabbergasted.
"Ay that t'ere's a Norwegian Ridgeback, they're rare them," said Hagrid proudly.
"But where did you get that?" asked Hermione.
"Won it," said Hagrid. "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."
"Really?" inquired Heidi in a sarcastic tone. "There's no way I'm believing people go around selling dragons to stranger, not when keeping one has been outlawed centuries ago. Don't you think that's a little fishy?"
"Who cares," said Diana suddenly sparkling with joy. She crouched down besides the fire and looked gleefully at the dragon egg. "When will it hatch?"
"Do' know but I recon it'll be pretty soon," Hagrid answered and proceeded to stoke the fire.
"Anyway, we came here to talk to you about something else," Heidi said in an incensed tone while throwing a dirty look towards the dragon egg; that thing had trouble written all over it.
"O' cours'," Hagrid nodded. "What do yers waned ter ask me 'bout?"
"We wanted to know what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy," Heidi blurred out, not wanting to beat around the bush.
"I can't tell yes t'at," he said. "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. Beats me how yeh know abou' Fluffy."
"We found him by accident on one of our nightly errands," was Heidi's swift reply.
"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you surely must know what's guarding the place, after all, you know everything that happens around here," said Hermione in a sweet, flattering voice. "We were just wondering who Dumbledore might have trusted, besides you of course, to guard such a valuable item."
Hagrid's chest pumped up at Hermione's words and he beamed with pride down at them.
"Well, I don' s'pose 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 ticked 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? Really? Dumbledore trusts Snape that much?" Heidi asked in a doubtful voice.
"O' cour' he does," said Hagrid defensively. "He wouldn't o' let him near the stone if he didn't."
Heidi nodded thoughtfully, a pensive expression clouding her face.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy right?" asked Heidi after a few minutes of silence.
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.
Heidi nodded again, not looking convinced in the least. The girls spent a few more minutes at Hagrids then Hermione and Heidi literary dragged Diana back to the castle, while feeding Hagrid some shabby excuse about homework; well, technically, it was true, they did have homework left undone, but the three were in no state of mind to concentrate on it. No, the three spent the rest of the night debating on what they had learned.
"So Snape is helping protect the Stone, alongside Quirrell and about a dozen other teachers," Hermione muttered.
"Seems like it," said Diana suppressing a yawn.
"So, what? Does that mean that they're both innocent and don't want to steal the stone for their own purpose?" asked Hermione desperate.
"No. One of them is definitely trying to steal that stone," Heidi assured her. "I'm leaning towards Snape!"
"Me too," Diana agreed.
"He definitely is the most suspicious of the lot," Hermione agreed. "Then why would he help protect the Stone?"
"Inside information," stated Heidi simply. "He's part of the team, so no one would suspect him, and he could chat with the other members about what they did to protect the stone, you know friendly collaboration and stuff."
"Then why hasn't he stolen it yet?" inquired Diana.
"Didn't you hear Hagrid? No one know how to get pass Fluffy except him and Dumbledore!" said Hermione. "And apparently he's got some problem with Quirrell's spell, because he's definitely trying to harass him into telling him what it is."
"So, what do we do?" asked Diana slightly excited; the concept of a new adventure appealed to her quite a lot.
"Nothing," stated Heidi simply earning herself two incredulous looks from the other occupants of the room.
"Nothing?" asked Hermione perplexed.
"Of course," nodded Heidi. "We have lessons to worry about and exams to pass. Besides, if Snape can get pass Dumbledore that he can definitely get pass us."
Hermione nodded her head in agreement while Diana looked like she was going to protest but Heidi swiftly cut off any reply.
"There are seven teachers who placed their strongest enchantments on that place, seven! Do you actually think you're better then that?"
"Well, no, but-"
"But nothing!" Heidi snapped. "I do not want to hear you talk about anything else but your exams before the end of term, or I will curse you!" she threatened.
Diana bowed her head in resignation while secretly promising she would not stand by and watch while something was stolen from straight underneath their noses. However the thought was soon flung to the back of her mind, as life went on its usual routine, and having both Heidi and Hermione breathing down her back, it was impossible to think of anything else but studying. The thought returned to her head some days, near the end of April when Blanch swooped down at breakfast carrying a note in her beach that read: It's hatching in a very untidy scrawl that the girls could barely make out.
Diana ran out of the Great Hall like a deranged bull chasing the red flag.
Screw Herbology! I have to see this! Was the only coherent thought running through her brain at the moment. Hermione and Heidi weren't far behind, shouting for her to slow down, but she didn't. She ran all the way up to Hagrid's hut and banged the door open, breathing erratically; face redder then a tomato, and looking like she just got out of a struggle for cheep prices at a Supermarket sale.
"Where…is…it?" She managed to ask between pants.
"It's nearly out," Hagrid said beaming with pride.
The egg was sitting neatly on the table, the beginning of a crack was forming somewhere around the middle. For about an hour or so, the occupants of the room stood glued to the table watching entranced as the egg slowly cracked in half, and a pair of bath wings gradually stretched from between the cracks, then the small body (that looked suspiciously like a dinosaurs), then the head, that looked like… nothing they could put into words. The eyes were a honey color that shone brightly with something akin to curiosity as it sprang its head around the room looking at the assembled crowd.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid muttered. He reached out a hand to stroke the head lovingly. Diana nodded her head fervently, and she too started fussing over the baby dragon, while Hermione was looking at it with an expression twisted between horror and fascination. Heidi thought it was the most hideous thing she had ever seen, and mind you, she actually liked animals, but that…thing, was definitely gonna be trouble with a burning hat on top.
The dragon bared its fangs at Hagrid's enormous hands and started growling threateningly.
"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" Hagrid had tears of happiness sparkling in his beetle eyes.
"Hagrid! You can't be the mommy, you're a man!" protested Diana. "You're the daddy!"
"Bu' he needs hes mother!" Hagrid protested.
"I'll be the mother," Diana said cheerfully and proceeded to hoist the dragon up in her arms, whom, unsurprisingly, didn't as much as squint in discomfort. Heidi didn't know what that girl had, but any animal alive would attach itself to Diana, no mater how vicious it might seem (or be).
"He seems ter like yeh," smiled Hagrid ruefully.
"Hagrid," interrupted Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"
Hagrid opened his mouth to answer the girl, but suddenly the color drained out of his face and he looked petrified towards the window.
"What's the matter?" asked Diana who came to stand besides him, the dragon still safely held in her embrace.
"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains — it's a kid — he's runnin' back up ter the school."
Well, F#$K! Thought Heidi as she and Hermione scurried to the door and looked around frantically for the student. They spotted him hurrying up towards the great oak doors of the castle, his platinum blond hair billowing around his face.
"This can't be happening," Hermione pleaded desperately.
"Oh, but it can," snarled Heidi sardonically.
The next week or so found the girls stalking Malfoy throughout the castle worse then his shadow could. They had decided on cornering him alone one day and threatening him against opening his mouth, but the slimy little Slytherin was always in companion of those dim-headed cronies of his Crabbe and Goyle, even when he went to the bathroom (yes, Diana was that desperate on keeping her newborn baby dragon safe), Heidi had had a hard time convincing her sister into not jumping the boy that Friday before Potions.
"You have to let him go Hagrid," Hermione pleaded for the tenth time that week.
"NO!" shrieked Diana. "I am not going to give my baby up for the likes of Malfoy!"
"Be reasonable Diana! He might decided to open that fat trap of his at any given time," Hermione tried to reason with her.
"Then I'll kill him before he does," snarled the red head viciously and pulled the dragon (which was now three time's its usual height), to her chest.
"Dear Lord, give me patients," Heidi pleaded as she crashed her fists together looking in any direction but her soon-to-be dead sister.
"Diana, please understand that the dragon is nothing but trouble. Hagrid, you have to see that two," Hermione tried again, but the two just shock their heads firmly and refused to listen to another word she was saying.
That's when Heidi snapped.
"Now listen here you two bunch of gorilla heads! I have just about had it with your unjustified stubbornness and unreasonable way of thinking! So let me enlighten you on a few things." Heidi turned her blazing eyes towards Hagrid, and spat unemotionally.
"You, live in a wooden house! A fire breathing dragon would have no trouble at all burning it to the ground in two seconds!" Hagrid tried to protest but Heidi wouldn't have any of it. "AND you are the Groundkeeper! And you've done one hell of a grate job dismissing your duties like you have in the last week. You should be ashamed of yourself!" Hagrid was really going to start an argument this time, but unluckily for him, Heidi knew just the thing that would shut him up. "DUMBLEDORE would be ashamed of you!" Hagrid's mouth closed with a bang and his posture became rigid like a statue. "Dumbledore trusted you with this job and what do you do with it, hah? You throw it out the window! You chose to endanger the life of his students by letting a dragon run freely around the grounds just for your own amusement!" Heidi saw the giant of a man go death white after hearing the last part; his enormous gleaming eyes, sparkled with tears and conflicted emotions; he kneed down, head bowed miserably, a single crystal tear ran down his beard as he snapped his eyes shut and dropped his face into his palms, weeping silently.
Diana couldn't stand to see the half giant in such a wretched shape so she decided to stand up for him; unfortunately, Heidi deemed that her mental scaring conversation with the giant was over and turned towards her second victim.
"And let's not forget about you!" she hissed at her sister before the red haired could utter a single word. "You and you're selfish little brat-like behavior! Do you actually think you could possible raise that-" she gestured towards the baby dragon who was cowering in fright behind her "- without attracting any attention? Even if by some miraculous wonder Malfoy doesn't speak, that thing would be as big as the house in two weeks! Where are you gonna hide it then? In the bloody lake?! Because if Dumbledore finds it and contacts mom and dad -" Diana flinched visibly at the mention of her parents "-they would be so proud to hear their little daughter growing a dragon of all things. Did you even stop to consider how disappointed they would be if you got expelled over something like this? Noooo, of course not! You only think about yourself, you won't even take in account what he (she pointed towards the dragon again), feels in the end. Or what, do you actually think he's going to like being trapped in a wooden house for the rest of his life like some zoo animal?" Heidi asked in a sarcastic voice. "Well, would he?"
"No," it was barely a whisper, but Heidi heard it. Her sister was looking apologetically at Norbert (so they had named the dragon), a sad expression imprinted on her porcelain face.
"Glad to see you finally came down to earth then," Heidi nodded stiffly and sat herself in a chair besides Hermione.
The silence that followed was absolute. Hagrid had stopped crying a few minutes ago, but still held his head bowed in his hands, while Diana was still looking miserably at Norbert who had his head hidden behind the half-giant's massive shape. Hermione didn't dare speak. She felt in no way entitled to break the grim silence that had fallen over the other occupants of the room; after all, she had little to no contribute on this conversation and therefore decided it wasn't wise to butt in.
"I recon…I recon we sh'd give hem up t'en," Hagrid finally broke the silence after what seemed like forever.
"That would be advisable," stated Heidi in a diplomatic voice.
"But I don' know ter whom," complained the giant miserably. "I don' wanna give hem ter some ol' coak that all mistreat hem."
"How about Charlie Weasley?" asked Heidi. She clearly remembered Hagrid telling Diana about a student who had gone to study dragons across the board, and if she wasn't mistaken, that would have to be him. "If he raises dragons I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking care of this one."
"Yer rig't! I've forgot'n bout Charlie!" Hagrid said brightly. "Charlie ad' do it! He loved animal just 'bout as much as I myself do."
"Then it's settled!" Heidi beamed with pride and exhaled a deep breath of relief. Finally she was going to get rid of that pest!
Heidi didn't leave the hut that day until Hagrid had written a letter to Charlie and sent it of with Blanch. Diana was looking heartbroken and hoped beyond hope to stumble across Malfoy on her way to Gryffindor tower (of course that didn't happen), while Hermione boor a grim look.
Sleep did not come easy to the girls that night, but when it did, Diana couldn't stop (or didn't want to stop), dreaming about strangling Malfoy (or out right killing him in a few not so pleasant ways); while Heidi was again dreaming about those blood-shot eyes that seemed to haunt her nights. She unconsciously started stroking the golden necklace she had received for Christmas, which only made the eyes seem more visible, more intense, more real.
"Go away," she mumbled in her sleep and proceeded to glare at the ruby-red eyes who only glared right back at her.
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A week later, at breakfast, the girls received a letter from Charlie Weasley which informed Hagrid that he'd be delighted to take in his dragon, and that he was going to send some of his friends to collect it. There was one problem though: they had to sneak the beast in the castle, and carry it up to the tallest tower that following Saturday at midnight.
"It shouldn't be too hard," said Hermione reasonably. "We have the cloak."
"Thank god, we'll finally be rid of Norbert, and Malfoy," Heidi closed her eyes while a blissful expression enveloped her features.
"You're mean!" Diana growled and sent her sister a dirty look.
"Whatever you say honey," Heidi nodded and started on her pudding.
Potions proved to be a disaster that day. Snape, who was grouchier then ever, moved Hermione from her usual spot besides the twins to Neville and Dean Thomas's table, and placed Malfoy in their bushy haired friends' place. Needless to say, Draco took care to sit as far away from the twins (who were looking murderously at him), as the table would allow while trying to brew the potion all by himself (Heidi had refused to lift a finger when she had seen her new partner). As soon as the class ended the twins and Hermione were the first to leave, not bothering to turn even when Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy started fighting over some letter they had apparently found on the floor.
Saturday finally came, bringing with it the dreaded (or in some cases anticipated) moment of separation of Diana, Hagrid and Norbert. Hermione felt a slight sense of pity wash over her at seeing the heartbreaking goodbye while Heidi was regarding it all uncompanionably, positively convinced that she was doing the three a favor.
They managed to reach the Astronomy tower in a fairly good amount of time, seeing as they levitated the crate up through the caste (they weren't about to carry it!) and waited patiently for Charlie's friends. About half and hour or so, four cheery looking lads landed neatly on the roof top. The moment Diana saw them she had them lectured for about ten full minutes on how to take care of her bay and promised them she would hunt them down and hex them if Charlie didn't send a note back the moment he received the dragon. The four nodded, very much amused, and hoisted the crate up on harness that were tied to their brooms and off they were.
Diana sniffed softly while the other two girls were trying (and failing miserably) not to smile in relief. They made their way down towards the corridor, trying in vain to comfort Diana, but there was just no cheering her up after she had lost a son.
"You just don't understand! You never liked him to begin with so don't pretend you do!" Diana sniffed slightly and whipped her tear filled eyes on her sleeve.
"Ok, we don't," agreed Hermione. "But that doesn't mean we like to see you like this."
"I'm truly sorry sis, but it was for the best, believe me," Heidi assured.
"Then I trust you will understand that the detention you will be receiving right now if for your best as well," a stiff, sharp voice had the girls jump one foot in the air. "What do you think you're doing out of bed at this hour?" McGonagall asked.
The three girls turned swiftly around an apology at the tip of their thongs but that soon died out as they caught sight of Draco Malfoy standing stiffly besides Minerva and looking positively green in the face.