So, for those of you who haven't read my other ongoing story, Honor Among Thieves, I am switching to a new updating schedule now that school's started and I have a lot less time. Since I have two WIP stories right now, I'm going to alternate updates on them every week. So, last week I updated Honor Among Thieves, this week I'm updating this story, next week is Honor Among Thieves, and so on. Got it? Good.

THANK YOU to leobutler, Gir240, Saria19, Firehedgehog, Silvermane1, Kyrianae Narii, ultima-owner, Akatsuki's Neko Stalker, SNolon, Prototron MJ Tornada, Angel wolf11021, and BlueRoseMidnight for reviewing!

To Gir240: Actually, now that I think about it, it kinda does. Huh, interesting.

Sasuke: -_- ... I am nothing like that spoiled brat...

Naruto: Actually, sometimes you kind of are, teme...

To Prototron MJ Tornada: Oh, by all means, be my guest. Put Reaper's sword arms to good use... mwahaha...

Disclaimer: Don't own. End of story.

"...so, Mr. Potter, what do you have to say for yourself, hmm? It seems to me that your 'Pride' has once again attacked another student. Perhaps they should be confiscated, until they are no longer quite so… hostile."

Cub frowned angrily. "Actually, I don't believe that you have any right to do that, considering that they only attacked in self defense. Therefore, as Chris was the one who instigated the fight, they were merely defending me. And the rules state that if a student attacks another, the attacked student may defend themselves using any means necessary. As I defended myself using the Pride, you have no right to confiscate them. So if you'll excuse me, I believe my friends are waiting."

With that, Cub stood and exited the room, ignoring the Headmaster's attempts to make him stay. Once we got out into the hall, we found Hermione and Neville waiting at the gargoyle.

"Heh. Old coot's just a waste of my time," Cub muttered under his breath. I agreed wholeheartedly.

"Oh, Harry! What happened? You didn't get in trouble, did you? After all, it was a clear-cut case of self defense. I looked it up in Hogwarts, a History, and it states that if-"

"One student attacks another, the attacked student may use any means necessary to defend themselves. Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I didn't get in trouble. They were all super mad, though, since I think they just wanted an excuse to punish me. And because I just walked out. But according to Hogwarts Rules, I'm not in trouble," he replied. Hermione closed her jaw with a snap, looking slightly relieved.

"Oh, that's good, then," she said happily. After seeing the obviously biased treatment of Chris given to him by the Headmaster and nearly all the teachers, most of all James Potter, Lily Potter, and Sirius Black, Hermione no longer had the love for authority figures that she once had.

"Yeah, that's good. Come on, let's go down to Hagrid's, I want to thank him for that Herbology book he loaned me," Neville said. The other two nodded, and the trio then set out for the grounds. Behind us, however, I scented the biased teachers exiting Dumbodore's office, the stench of anger and indignation rolling off in waves.

Twisting my neck around to see the four humans exit, I smirked smugly at them and stuck out my tongue. Devil, on Cub's other shoulder, snickered to himself and barked, "Hey, did you know that humans have a set number of colors when they're mad? First it's red, then purple, then reddish-purple, then this really weird darkish color, and bright red. Then when they calm down they kinda just slowly fade back to normal. Isn't that strange?" he asked between snickers. Spike laughed at that, while Flare kinda made a strange hissing sound that counted as serpentine laughter.

Upon reaching Hagrid's house, I felt my fur prickle slightly when faced with the unusually high temperatures emitting from the wooden hut. All the curtains were drawn shut, but I could see the flickering light of a large fire behind them. Devil leaned forward and sniffed the air, flaring his nostrils as wide as they could go.

"Smells like smoke… brandy… chicken… blood… and… ehh, reptile? It's really faint, though, overlayed by the smoke. Strange…" he muttered, eyes closed in concentration. Cub raised an eyebrow at the strange list.

"What's he doing in there?" Neville asked. "I can feel the heat from here, and we aren't even inside yet. He does realize that he lives in a wooden house, right?"

Hermione frowned slightly. "You know, I did see him in the library earlier, checking out books about raising dragons. I took a look at one of them myself, and it said that eggs should be kept in large fires before hatching…"

The three friends all came to the same conclusion at the same time. They looked at each other, wide-eyed with shock. "Nooo… he wouldn't…." Neville breathed quietly.

"He has said that he's always wanted a dragon for a pet, remember?" Cub replied softly.

"Oh, that's so dangerous, he lives in a wooden house! And they can get so big…" Hermione whimpered slightly. Then the door opened and Hagrid peeked out, whispering hoarsely, "Come in, quick you three!" before ushering the three inside.

All eyes immediately went to the fireplace, where, to our horror, a large shiny egg was resting right smack in the middle of the fireplace.

"Yeah, he did," Cub whispered. "Hagrid finally got a dragon."

"At least the explains the blood scent," Devil murmured as he saw a bucked of brandy and chicken blood in the corner.

"Look, it's hatching!"

"Isn't he beautiful? I think I'm gonna call him Norbert."

Cub resisted the urge to sweatdrop anime-style as the three watched Hagrid coo over the baby dragon as if it was a puppy or a kitten. Then Draca, being a dragon type, muttered something in Cub's ear which really did make him do an anime sweatdrop.

"Uhh, Hagrid? She's a girl," he said awkwardly. Hagrid stopped petting her and quickly examined the dragonet more closely before nodding in agreement.

"Yah, yer right, Harry. Guess that means I gotta call her Norberta instead ah Norbert, eh?" he chuckled, not even noticing when Norbert(a) sneezed out several bright orange sparks onto his wooden kitchen table. Now all three of them did sweatdrops, while resisting the urge to facepalm.

Just then I caught a flash of platinum blond hair out of the corner of my eye, through the window. Leaping off the Cub's shoulder and bounding up to the windowsill, I growled and felt my hackles raise at the sight of Malfoy sprinting up the grounds to the castle.

He had seen the dragon.

"I can get her to a dragon preserve in Romania," Cub announced suddenly. Hermione, Cub, and Neville were sitting in their private clearing, discussing how to get Norberta out of the castle before Malfoy ratted them out. Since Hagrid wasn't really that bad of a guy, none of them really wanted him to get in trouble.

Hermione and Neville suddenly whipped around and focused all their attention on the other boy. Thus far he'd been silent, pondering their situation quietly. Now he was actually making a suggestion, though his two friends probably thought it completely unreasonable.

"What are you talking about, Harry? Do you have a friend who works there or something?" the bushy-haired girl inquired. Cub shook his head.

"Not really. Point is, I can get her there, given a map and about half a day. So I can do it this Saturday," he replied.

"Harry, that's impossible! You can't travel all the way to Romania in half a day! You can't even Apparate, and you can't leave school grounds!" Neville exclaimed incredulously.

"Well, I can. Hold on a sec, I need to check something really quick. Stay here," he said. Then he got up and retreated from the clearing, ignoring his two friends' confused expressions.

"Okay guys. I need your help. Should I tell them about my animagus forms?" Cub asked, setting us on the ground and resizing us. I tipped my head to the side and went over what we knew of his two friends. Could they keep a secret, or would it be all over the school by tomorrow?

"I think you can. Their auras say that they are trustworthy," Spike answered seriously. The rest of us nodded in agreement. Hermione and Neville were truly loyal to Cub, and I did believe that they would be able to keep it to themselves.

Walking back to the clearing, Cub sat down cross-legged on the grass, facing his two friends. "Okay, I'll tell you guys how. but first, I need you both to promise me that you never let anybody else know about this. And I mean anyone, not you pet, not your other friends, and most definitely not any of the teachers," he said sternly.

Now the two looked slightly worried. After a few seconds, however, both of them agreed to his terms. Cub sat back, smiling. Then he gestured for the Pride to get off. We did so, leaping off and arranging ourselves on the grass. Then Cub smiled, saying, "I think it'll be easier to show you rather than just tell you. But remember, nobody else can know."

With that, Cub transformed into a panther, amid shocked gasps. Then he became a ninetales, making the pair's eyes grow even wider. Finally he shifted to his phoenix form, changing back as his friends goggled at him.

"My phoenix form is how I'll get there in half a day. All I need to know is where; my phoenix instincts will do the rest. Norberta can be carried in a crate or something," he said calmly, acting as if he was merely chatting about the weather.

Hermione's jaw worked for a few seconds before she finally got out, "Y-you're an animagus! A multiple animagus! A multiple animagus with a magical creature form! And a nine-tailed fox form!"

Neville just stared. Cub leaned over and waved his hand in front of his friend's face. "Hellooo… Neville… you okay?" he asked in a concerned tone. Then Neville's eyes rolled back and he collapsed onto his back with a thump, completely unconscious.

Hermione just sniffed disdainfully before pelting Cub with questions. I could practically read her thoughts- something along the lines of, men are such wimps.

Norberta was dropped off in an unmarked crate in the middle of a Romanian dragon preserve by mid-afternoon the next Saturday. Only a hasty note pinned to the top of the box held any clue as to where the young dragonet came from. It said this:

Name: Norberta

Gender: Female

Age: One Week

From a Friend

Unfortunately, due to the lack of detail, nobody had any ideas on where it came from. And only one young man by the name of Charlie Weasley caught sight of the black phoenix that watched from the trees as Norberta's crate was discovered. But when he went to investigate, all that was left was a single black feather.

The young man kept the feather, never letting anybody know who it was from, until the end of his days. It wouldn't be until all was revealed years later, however, that he finally realized where Norberta had come from.

Cub made it back just as Professor McGonagall was heading towards Hagrid's house, with Malfoy in tow. Hermione and Neville were waiting for him as he appeared in their clearing in a flash of black fire, transforming to his human midair and to land on his feet.

"Alright, Norberta is now in Romania and will be taken good care of. Hagrid won't get in trouble, Norberta won't burn down Hogwarts, and everyone is happy. All in all, that's a pretty good day's work," he said with a grin.

"Yeah, and we got all the evidence out too. Just in time; Malfoy's just brought Professor McGonagall over. I think she's inside now," Neville replied. Hermione smiled, though she did look slightly guilty at tricking a teacher.

Then Cub got an idea. "Hey, let's go to Hagrid's and watch Malfoy get embarrassed. McGonagall will think he's lying, so maybe she'll even take points!"

I purred in agreement, hopping back onto Cub's shoulder. It would be nice to see that pompous idiot taken down a peg or two… or three… or ten…

The sound of Malfoy's protesting voice drifted out of the open door as the three friends approached. The blond boy was arguing heatedly by the deputy headmistress, who was looking more and more annoyed by the second.

"I'm telling you, it was here! I saw it, clear as day!" he shouted angrily. He continued to yell, arguing with stupid reasons but no hard evidence. Finally, Professor McGonagall got tired of his whining and snapped.

"Detention, Mr. Malfoy, and ten points from Slytherin from yelling at a teacher, lying to a teacher, and making unjust accusations against a staff member. Now, meet me in my office at seven o'clock exactly." Then she swept out of the room, only pausing to smile slightly at Cub, Hermione, and Neville. Malfoy stomped out a moment later, too angry to notice the three friends by the doorway.

"Well, that was entertaining," Cub said.

"Heh, Malfoy deserved it. He's got an ego the size of Hogwarts," Neville chuckled. Hermione, meanwhile, merely gazed at Cub thoughtfully. I think that Cub showing them his ninetales form had kick-started the gears in Hermione's mind, and that the young witch might figure it out soon. This would be interesting.

OfOf, Turkey, a town and district in Trabzon, Turkey