Chapter Eleven
"Well, we have to tell Dumbledore, haven't we?" Draco asked with a smirk.
"No. What would you tell him anyway?" I responded, then I dropped my voice a couple octaves and did my best Draco impression, "'Dumbledore, I was out way past curfew, and I was spying on the gamekeeper, whom I've been watching for weeks because I knew he had a dragon egg. Well, last night the egg hatched so now he has a pet dragon.'"
"Well," Draco paused and glanced at his feet, "We could always tell Snape. He won't rat us out."
"What will he say to Dumbledore then? How will he explain how he knows?"
"Oh, that's the easy part. It's all on him. We wouldn't have to do anything."
"Please, Draco," I pleaded. I had tried using logic and common sense against him, but it hadn't worked. I needed to move onto a new tactic, "Pleeeease! Think of what they'll do to that poor, defenseless dragon…the animal in which you were named after!"
Draco sat silently, smirking in amusement at my dramatic display.
"Fine," I growled, dropping the emotional pretense, "Why don't you let Hagrid raise it then? I bet Harry will have to get rid of it at some point. It'll get too big, and he won't have any way to hide it. Then we can follow him at night because that will be the only safe time to transport a dragon. We can get him in trouble for being out of bed without putting the dragon in harm's way."
He glowered at me. The only thing that bothered him was that Hagrid wouldn't get into any trouble. I knew that, but he knew that if the dragon were to truly be saved, it was the only way.
"Fine," he huffed.
It was about a month later, in the Great Hall, when Weasley's owl flew to his table and crashed into the food. As he righted himself and flew off once again, Weasley grabbed the letter from his beak and ripped it open.
I nudged Draco to get his attention.
Weasley showed the letter silently to Harry before shoving it in his potions book.
"Seems a little suspicious," I whispered to Draco.
"It does. Doesn't it? We'll need to see what that letter says."
So the next day, by a happy coincidence, Weasley had been sent to the hospital wing after getting bitten by the dragon. While I was studying in the library, Draco had gone to visit him. I didn't know whether or not Weasley had been awake while Draco was there, but when he found me later that night, he was smiling and brandishing the parchment.
"It's from Weasley's brother!" he explained as we curled up in front of the fire in our common room, "It was still in the book. He's going to send people from Romania to come and pick up the dragon this Saturday at midnight."
"That's brilliant, Draco! I said they'd do it at night."
While I didn't necessarily want to get the trio in trouble, there was something fun about scheming with Draco. It took me back to our childhood when we would create plots or plan pranks to pull on the house elves.
So that Saturday at midnight, Draco and I found ourselves at the top of the tallest tower, waiting for Harry and Weasley to bring up the dragon. Since it was just the very beginning of spring, the night air was still cold and chilled us both. We huddled in the corner underneath a blanket, trying to find warmth in each other's body heat. Suddenly, we saw a light coming around the corner.
Both of us sat up, eager. For me, it was to be getting back to my warm, comfy bed. And for Draco it was to get Harry and Weasley in trouble. However, it wasn't Harry that rounded the corner.
It was Professor McGonagall.
Her eyes fell on us almost immediately as her jaw dropped and her hand went straight to her heart.
"Malfoy!" she exclaimed in shock, "Ashe! What are you doing here?"
We were too scared to manage an answer, but our silence only resulted in fury as McGonagall stormed over to us. Grabbing each of our ears, she yanked us up to stand. The pain seemed to bring us out of fright, and both of us began arguing a moment later.
"My father'll hear about this!" exclaimed Draco as she began pulling us down the spiral staircase.
"We were only-ouch-here because Harry-ouch," I tried to explain.
"Detention! For both of you!" McGonagall yelled, "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around the school in the middle of the night, how dare you?"
"You don't understand, Professor," Draco continued where I had left off, "Harry Potter is coming, and he's got a dragon."
"What utter rubbish? How dare you tell such lies! Shame on both of you! Come on, I shall see Professor Snape about you two."
"Wandering about the school in the middle of the night?" Snape drawled, sitting at his desk.
I wondered briefly if Snape ever slept. He looked as though he'd never gone to sleep that night, despite the fact that it was just a little after midnight. Harry and Weasley had completed their mission without anything going wrong.
"Yes," McGonagall retorted, her tone clipped and still angry.
"Thank you, Minerva. You may leave. I'll take it from here."
This seemed to satisfy her, and she nodded once before turning to leave the room.
"Why were you out of bed?" Snape asked once the door had closed behind her.
"HarryPotterhasadragon!" Draco wasted no time explaining. He spoke so fast that some of his words stumbled over one another, "It was Hagrid's, and he was bringing it to the tower, where we got caught, and he was going to give it to Weasley's brother's friends from Romania, and they were going to take it back to him, and we were out of bed because we were trying to catch him in the act and get him in trouble because he gets away with everything and we get in trouble for everything even though we do the same things, and it's just not fair, Professor, it's not fair!"
Snape was silent for a long moment, looking back and forth between us leisurely.
"Go to bed," he said finally, "You lost your House twenty points already, so I'll not punish you anymore. Just...don't do it again. It's true that Potter is so infuriatingly privileged. But it isn't up to you two to get him in trouble.
"The day will come when he won't be so entitled."
