Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling; various publishers including, but not limited to, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books; and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N: And Year One is winding down - there are three more chapters - and then I'll start Year Two.

Chapter Fourteen: Hagrid

With the resumption of classes and quidditch – the Gryffindor's next game would be against Hufflepuff – not to mention continuing lessons on guitar for Ron and keyboard for Neville and Hermione, Harry didn't have much spare time. He continued writing home – a letter to A.J. every week, one to Sirius and Remus, and another to his family.

Harry was reminded of his unease around Quirrell during the first Defense lesson. However, he wasn't sure what to do about it. Shortly before the long weekend that heralded Easter, Harry's eyes and met Quirrell's during a lesson. Harry's assumption that the pain in his scar and meeting the Defense professor's eyes the first night at Hogwarts were connected was supported as Harry felt another flash of searing pain in the scar. Why would Quirrell be causing this? he wondered, then went back to taking notes.

One afternoon, a blessedly free afternoon, wherein Harry didn't have class, homework, or quidditch, he headed outside, intent on taking a walk in the early spring sunshine. He found himself not far from the gamekeeper's cottage and was about to turn around and head for the lake when he heard something roar and a lick of flame escaped from a window. Despite his apprehension of the extremely large man who served as groundskeeper for Hogwarts, if the man was in trouble, Harry couldn't let it continue. He crept up to the window and peered into the hut.

"Come on, Norbert, sit!" Hagrid said, sternly. He was holding something in one hand, to Harry it looked rather like a leash. He followed the leather strap and had to gasp in surprise. Tethered to the other end of it was a dragon, roughly the size of a small horse. Harry ducked out of sight and hurried back up to the Tower. He had to tell the guys!

Dean was sketching something near the fire in the common room while Seamus and Neville were finishing up their own homework. Ron was playing a game of chess with one of the older students. Hermione was reading, curled up on the window seat in her customary fashion. "Hey, y'all. Come on! I just saw something…" When Harry didn't get quite the reaction he wanted, he whistled shrilly. Every head in the common room swung to meet him. "Hermione, Seamus, Ron, Neville, and Dean! Come with me!"

He headed up to his room without waiting for them. Hermione followed him immediately, but the boys looked to each other. Neville shrugged, "Should we go up?"

Dean laid his pencil down and flexed his hands. "Think so. I haven't seen him that worked up since Halloween." It took a fair few minutes to pry Ron from the chessboard, though.

When the four boys reached their room, they could hear Hermione through the door, "…Harry! What's going on?"

"Not 'til the others get here, Hermione."

Ron opened the door. "We're here," he said before flopping down on his bed. "Now, tell me just why I had to concede a game I was winning?"

"I saw a dragon!" Harry said, excitedly.

Seamus groaned, "Is that all?"

"Yeah, mate, I thought maybe another troll had gotten into the school, or something!" Dean followed Ron's example and flopped down on his bed.

Harry sighed, "Oh… I just thought it was odd… I mean, that Hagrid fella had it on a leash an' was tryin' ta get it to sit like a dog…"

"What?!" Five simultaneous shouts sounded from identically shocked faces.

"That's illegal!" Hermione continued, through her surprise. "You can't own a dragon in Britain!"

Neville nodded, "That's right. Dragon breeding was made illegal during the Warlocks' Convention of 1709. I thought everybody knew that."

Harry blinked, "I didn't. Hafta wonder if anyone told Hagrid? Looked like he was tryin' ta tame the one in his hut."

Ron squeaked. Actually squeaked. Harry had to bite his lip before he burst out laughing at him. Ron tried again. "You can't keep a dragon in a house! They're too big."

Harry shook his head, "Not the one Hagrid has. It's only about the same size as a horse. Maybe a large pony."

"It must not be very old, then." Ron said. "If it's still that small, it can't be more than a couple of days old at the most, which means Hagrid had to have hatched it… Wonder where he got the egg, though?"

"Who cares where he got it?" Hermione said. "He has it now, and he really shouldn't!"

Ron nodded, "Yeah, you can't tame dragons anyway. What's Hagrid thinking?"

Seamus spoke up, "You know, I think he might not know about it being dangerous. My mom's uncle came to Hogwarts – was in the same year as Hagrid, actually – and he told me that Hagrid was always getting into trouble for bringing dangerous creatures into the castle. That some girl accidentally got killed by one of his 'pets,' and that got Hagrid expelled when they were third-years."

Harry smiled at all his friends, "What do you say we go talk with him?" he asked. He felt less apprehensive about going to see the man if he had his friends by his side.

Leading the way back down to the gamekeeper's cottage, Harry paused at the door and made sure everyone was still with him. They were. Good, Harry thought while reaching up to knock on the large door. Dunno what I woulda done iffen they hadn't come, too.

"Jus' a mo'!" the large man boomed in response to the knock at his door.

A couple of minutes later, Hagrid opened the door to his cottage, "Well, 'ello there. Wha' can I do fer ya?"

Hermione spoke up, "We know about the dragon, Mr. Hagrid, sir."

Though it was obvious Hagrid wasn't used to being addressed as 'sir,' much less 'Mr. Hagrid,' he frowned. "Dunno wha' yer talkin' 'bout."

Harry laughed, "Oh, come on! I saw it! Heard it roar an' thought someone might be in trouble, so I came down to see what was goin' on, an' saw you through the window."

Hagrid's face fell. "Oh… Better come in, then." He motioned for the six students to enter his house. The dragon was curled up in front of the fireplace, gnawing on a rather large bone.

Ron gasped when he saw it, "That's a Norwegian Ridgeback!"

Dean and Seamus exchanged a glance, but Neville spoke next, "Hagrid? You do realize you live in a wooden house, right?"

Hagrid nodded, "Anyone wan' tea or summat to eat?"

There were a round of negative answers. "I thought dragon breedin' was illegal?" Harry asked.

Hagrid fidgeted and Harry realized that for all the man's size, he was acting more like a first year himself than a fully adult wizard. "Ya won' tell no one?" he sounded really unsure of himself.

Hermione looked like she was about to get into a lecture on the legality of what Hagrid had done when Harry caught her eyes, "No, sir, but… doncha think he'd be better off with his own kind? Plus, he's gonna be gettin' a lot bigger, ain't he? You won't be able ta keep him here… It wouldn't be fair to him. An' what about when he needs to learn how to use those wings of his?" Hagrid sank slowly onto a chair, looking thoughtful. Harry noted that the expression looked rather out-of-place on him.

Ron seemed to know what Harry was implying and chimed in with, "Do you remember Charlie Weasley?"

Hagrid looked up and nodded, "Yeah. Good bloke, animals seemed ter like 'im. You'd be his brother, then?" Hagrid looked around the room and smiled through his bushy beard. "An' you'd be Longbottom, that righ'?" Neville nodded. Hagrid took a closer look at Harry. "An' you're Harry Potter."

Harry chuckled, "Brewer, like I said at the start of term, sir. Was adopted."

Hagrid shrugged, "Even so… Look a lot like yer dad did, Harry, but you've got yer mum's eyes."

Harry nodded, "I know." He realized in that moment that all his fears about the large man had been utterly unfounded. He motioned for Seamus, Hermione, and Dean to step a little closer. "These are my friends. Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Ron Weasley."

"Good ter meetcha," Hagrid said.

Ron stepped a little closer, "Hagrid, you know if you keep the dragon here, you'll get in trouble with the ministry."

"But Norbert's jus' a baby…"

"All the more reason to make sure he received proper instruction on being a dragon from another of his kind," Hermione said.

Hagrid was starting to look decidedly teary-eyed. Seamus spoke up, "You know Alvin Darcy?"

Hagrid nodded, "Yeah. 'E was in me year in school. Helped me out a time or two…"

"He's my mom's uncle," Seamus explained the seeming non-sequitor. "When I got my Hogwarts letter, he came by to congratulate me, and told me a bunch of stories about when he was in school. He told me about a couple of the pets you had during your time as a student."

Hagrid frowned again, "I'll have you know I didn' do wha' they said. Dunno what caused that poor girl's death, but it weren't Aragog – he never hurt nobody."

Seamus held his hands up, "I believe you, Hagrid, but… If this gets out… it could be really bad."

"Do you have a piece of parchment, Hagrid?" Dean asked, out of the blue. Hagrid nodded and retrieved a sheet from a massive desk that was near an equally massive bed.

Dean accepted the parchment and flicked his wand in a practiced motion, muttering something under his breath. It took a second for Harry to realize that he was now using his wand to sketch the dragon, using another hardwood chair as a desk.

While Dean was drawing, Harry turned his attention back to the conversation. Ron was talking again, "Charlie now works for the Dragon Preservation Association, on a preserve in Romania. I'm sure he'd be delighted to find a good home for Norbert…"

All-told, it took the six of them nearly three hours to convince Hagrid that keeping a dragon on the school grounds was a bad idea. Neville was actually the one to convince him by saying that if the dragon ever got hungry and Hagrid had gone for whatever reason, Norbert would be just as likely to eat a student as one of the creatures in the forest. Ron used the floo in Hagrid's hut to call his brother. They arranged for some of Charlie's colleagues to come and collect Norbert that night. The dragoneers would floo into Hagrid's at about midnight, and then fly the dragon back to Romania.

By the time they'd finished settling the plans with Charlie, it was dinnertime. While the rest were saying their good-byes to the gamekeeper, Harry saw Dean pocket a scale that was lying on the floor – one which had obviously come from the dragon sleeping not twenty feet away. Hagrid told them all to come back and visit at any time. Harry smiled at the man and promised to do just that. On the way to the Great Hall for dinner, Harry had to laugh at himself. One of the things that his mom had always told him was not to judge on appearances alone, and he had done just that. Just goes to show I ought to listen to Mom more often.

When dinner was over, Dean disappeared into their room, saying he had something to work on and didn't want to be disturbed. The others, Hermione included, for a change, settled in the common room to play Exploding Snap for a few hours.

That night, the dragon handlers arrived and carried Norbert away. The next morning everyone trekked back down to the gamekeeper's cottage. Dean was carrying something large and rectangular, wrapped in brown paper. All the kids, though, were pretty sure they knew what it was. Hagrid met them at the door, red-eyed and sniffing. He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer and set about making tea for all of them. He actually broke down crying when he unwrapped the portrait of Norbert that Dean had painted, and engulfed the black boy in a shaggy, tear-filled hug.

A/N2: I've received several ideas on band-names, but I'd still like a few more options, if you don't mind.