Aha! Another chapter, things start to get interesting here. Hope you enjoy.

England was quite interested in the argument that started between Ron and Hermione a few days later, when Hedwig brought Harry a note. During the morning break, he looked out his office window and saw the three children hurrying toward Hagrid's hut. His curiosity peaked, he resolved to visit Hagrid himself to see what all the fuss was about.

After classes were finished for the evening, England strolled outside to the gamekeeper's hut. He knocked on the door. He heard some scuffling and then Hagrid called, "Who is it?"

"It's Professor Kirkland, I was wondering if you might join me for a drink."

"Um," there was a loud thump, and a muffled cry, then Hagrid spoke again. It sounded like he was in pain. "Imma bit busy, right now. Maybe come back later."

England caught a whiff of something between burning hair, blood, and brandy. "Do you have a dragon in there?"

"Wha? No, no, of course not. Why would I have a dragon? It's illegal ain't it?"

England chuckled and reached for the handle. "I'm coming in."

"Don't – wait!"

England got a gout of fire right in his face. He stiffened and squeezed his eyes shut. Dammit.

"Oh dear. This isn't good. Come on, professor, come inside. Le's getcha patched up."

England waved his ministrations away. "I will be perfectly fine, Hagrid. Don't worry about it."

"Bu-"

"Hagrid, please. We all have our secrets. Now, where's the little drake?"

Hagrid pointed. Not that the Norwegian Ridgeback was hard to miss. It was clearly newly-hatched, but it was already lively, and quickly growing. England shook his head in amazement. "How'd you get her?"

"I got 'im from a dealer. Looked real eager to get rid of 'im."

"Her," England corrected.

"'e's a 'im."

"Her," England repeated. "Your Norwegian Ridgeback is a female. But, you can't keep her here."

Hagrid hesitated for a moment. "I can't let 'im go. He's too little He'd die."

"I wasn't suggesting that, dear man! Of course she's too young. I have a friend in Romania, he has access to the dragon sanctuaries there. I am sure he could find a safe place for your little darling."

Hagrid sniffled, looking ready to cry. "I-I s'pose it would be best, wouldn't it."

England nodded, patting the huge man on the shoulder. "It would, she'd be among her own kind, and you wouldn't get into trouble, raising a dragon by yourself.

Hagrid nodded. "Okay. You can contact your friend."

England left, passing the invisible trio of children as he did. He shook his head and smiled. They were too nosy and helpful for their own good. He liked it.

He wrote a letter to Romania, and told him of the situation. He made sure to mention his location in Hogwarts, and the children.

He received a letter back the next day.

Arthur,

Well, fancy that. A dragon on Hogwarts grounds. That is quite the story. I understand your need to relocate her. I have a Weasley here, working in one of my dragon sanctuaries. It will be a simple matter to get that information relayed to him, and if he gets help from you, or someone in Hogwarts, it will be quite simple to bring the hatchling here.

Charlie Weasley will get information to his younger brother, and then it will be quite simple from there.

Vlad

England returned two days later to Hagrid's hut, to find him struggling with the massive dragon stuffed into his hut. Hagrid was crying.

"Everything alright?"

"Norbert's leaving."

"When?"

"Saturday night. Charlie's coming and getting him. The kids are sneaking him up to the tallest tower."

England nodded. "Excellent. I'll make sure Norbert stays safe."

Hagrid's crying intensified and he hugged England tightly. England patted the man's shoulder, trying to ignore his creaking bones.

Saturday night, England was helping Hagrid pack the dragon into the crate. Harry and Hermione knocked on the door. Apparently, Ronald had received a nasty bite on his hand and was stuck in the Hospital Wing. He stood by Hagrid as he cried.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," said Hagrid in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded as though the teddy was having his head torn off.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and Hermione covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it themselves. "Mommy will never forget you!"

England waited until the children were out of sight, then he patted Hagrid farewell and hurried after the children, whispering an invisibility spell. He helped the children along, keeping teachers away from them, and making sure the staircases behaved.

"Nearly there!" Harry panted as they reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower.

Then a sudden movement ahead of them made them almost drop the crate. Forgetting that they were already invisible, they shrank into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared.

Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you -"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming - he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on - I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

England tried not to snicker.

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until they'd stepped out into the cold night air did they throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hermione did a sort of jig.

"Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!"

"Don't," Harry advised her.

Chuckling about Malfoy, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness.

Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. They showed Harry and Hermione the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Harry and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.

At last, Norbert was going... going... gone. England made sure that the coast was clear as the children slipped back down the spiral staircase. He followed them down, then stopped just above them as they ran into Filch.

"Well, well, well," he whispered, "we are in trouble."

They'd left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower. England hurried back up the stairs, retrieving the cloak and then slipping into the Gryffindor dormitories. He left the cloak neatly folded on Harry's bed and then went to McGonagall's study where he listened intently through the door.

"Harry!" Neville burst out, the moment he saw the other two. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag -"

Harry shook his head violently to shut Neville up, but Professor McGonagall had seen. She looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them.

"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue.

"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," said Professor McGonagall. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"

Harry caught Neville's eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn't true, because Neville was looking stunned and hurt. Poor, blundering Neville - Harry knew what it must have cost him to try and find them in the dark, to warn them.

"I'm disgusted," said Professor McGonagall. "Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All three of you will receive detentions - yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous - and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."

"Fifty?" Harry gasped - they would lose the lead, the lead he'd won in the last Quidditch match.

"Fifty points each," said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose.

"Professor - please

"You can't -"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."

England was rather shocked, but couldn't blame McGonagall.

Unfortunately for the children, this made them all very unpopular and England wished he could comfort them. However, he continued his vigil on Quirrell, and, with Snape's help, he managed to catch the man in a rare moment of solitude. But, this time, he didn't confront him, he watched, and listened.

"No - no - not again, please –"

"All right - all right -" he heard Quirrell sob.

Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight.

England also noticed Harry slipping away from the scene. He had seen it too. So, he followed Harry into the library, curious, and worried, about what the boy was going to do about the new information.

Harry went back to the library, where Hermione was testing Ron on Astronomy. Harry told them what he'd heard.

"Snape's done it, then!" said Ron. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell -"

"There's still Fluffy, though," said Hermione.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Ron, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Harry?"

The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron's eyes, but Hermione answered before Harry could.

"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure."

"But we've got no proof!" said Harry. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor - who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

Hermione looked convinced, but Ron didn't.

"If we just do a bit of poking around –"

England was about to interrupt, but then Harry spoke again.

"No," said Harry flatly, "we've done enough poking around."

He pulled a map of Jupiter toward him and started to learn the names of its moons.

England nodded and walked away.

Haha! New chapter. Now, just a reminder, I am going off what the BOOKS do, not what the movies do, so there are no inaccuracies (I am reading through the book as I write this, so that's part of the reason why it takes so long.) Anyway, hope you enjoy. :)

Please review!