A/N: The only bad thing about wearing glasses is that they have to be cleaned. A lot. It's annoying. Siriusly, I've stopped counting how many times I took off my glasses to clean them. But other than that, it's great to be able to see properly. Anyway, one of my eighth-grade classmates transferred to my school, and while I understand why he would do that – my school is infinitely more awesome than that one – that might not be so great for me. Luckily, we're not in the same class, so I shouldn't run into him too often. He was one of the guys who'd sometimes be nice to me and sometimes try to kill me – right now he's in the nice phase, which I hope will last until I'm out of high school – but knowing my luck, that won't happen. Sigh…
Disclaimer: What do I look like, JKR?
Quirrell, however, must have been braver than I'd thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet. Every time we passed the third-floor corridor, we'd press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron and I had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter. Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer's Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and colorcoding all her notes and nagging the rest of us (except me – she had given up on me long ago).
"Hermione, the exams are ages away," said Dean one afternoon.
"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."
"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it."
"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year?" she said incredulously.
"I don't see Jonathan studying so hard," he grumbled.
"Well, that's Jonathan," Hermione rolled her eyes. "He couldn't be bothered to study. My point is, they're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me..."
Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays – in which we weren't allowed to go home – weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. We all spent a lot of time in the library, doing our homework and studying (Hermione and I had finished our homework long ago and I knew all the material, so it was really Hermione and me helping the others finish their homework and helping them study).
"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day we'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.
"Here, let me help," I said, bringing his parchment over to me and looking at it. It was Ron's uncompleted essay about healing plants. The written portion ended with One more useful healing plant is dittany, which
"Right," I said. "So what do you remember about dittany?"
"It's some sort of healing plant…" he said. "Its essence is good for something, I don't know what…"
Ron and I talked about the properties of dittany and he wrote everything down. When he had finished, I went over his essay, correcting a few things here and there, until I heard Dean say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"
Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.
"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got my interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively, getting up. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St -"
"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy -"
"Shut up!" I hissed. "Not here!"
"Listen," said Hagrid, "come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh -"
"See you later, then," said Harry.
Hagrid shuffled off.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully.
"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" I asked.
"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.
"Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to
Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him, " said Harry.
"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry.
"Of course there are," I said.
"Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks," said Ron. "The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."
"So what on earth is Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.
When we knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, I was surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let us in, and then shut the door quickly behind us.
It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made us tea and offered us stoat sandwiches, which we politely refused.
"So - yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"
"Yes," said Harry. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy."
Hagrid frowned at him.
"O' course I can't," 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 – I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all?"
"Well, we worked out that that was what you took out of that vault on Harry's birthday," I said, "and we knew the same vault was broken into, so yeah."
"And how d'yeh even know abou' Fluffy?" he asked.
"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and I could tell he was smiling.
"We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. I beamed at Hermione.
"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?" Harry and Ron said in unison.
"Yeah - yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."
I knew we were all thinking the same thing. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything - except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.
"Well, that's something," Harry muttered to the rest of us. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."
"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. I noticed him glance at the fire and looked at it, too.
"Hagrid - what's that?" asked Harry.
In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg. I had never seen any eggs like these in my life and Hagrid had been reading about dragons, which must have meant that -
"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's er..."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."
"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."
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book
from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library - Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit - it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here - how ter recognize diff'rent eggs - what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."
He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said.
But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.
So now we had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.
"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed, as evening after evening we worked on all the extra homework we were getting. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Harry, Ron, and Dean, too. It was driving them nuts. Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. Harry showed us the note: It's hatching.
Ron, Dean, and I wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. Hermione wouldn't hear of it.
"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" I said.
"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing -"
"Shut up!" Harry whispered.
Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen. How much had he heard? I didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all.
Ron and I argued with Hermione all the way to Herbology and in the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with the rest of us during morning break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of our lesson, the five of us dropped our trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.
"It's nearly out." He ushered them inside.
The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. We all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath.
All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.
It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.
"Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!" said Hagrid.
"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"
Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face - he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.
"What's the matter?" I said, looking through – and I saw exactly what the matter was. Malfoy was looking through the window.
"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains - it's a kid - he's runnin' back up ter the school."
Malfoy had seen the dragon.
I didn't like the smile lurking on Malfoy's face during the next week. We spent most of our free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.
"Just let him go," Harry urged. "Set him free."
"I can't," said Hagrid. "He's too little. He'd die."
We looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.
"I've decided to call him Norbert," said Hagrid, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mummy?"
"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered to us.
"Hagrid," said Harry loudly, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."
Hagrid bit his lip.
"I - I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."
Harry suddenly turned to Ron. "Charlie," he said.
"You're losing it, too," said Ron. "I'm Ron, remember?"
"He knows that," I rolled my eyes. "He's probably talking about one of your brothers."
"Yeah," said Harry, "your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!"
"Brilliant!" said Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"
And in the end, Hagrid agreed that we could send -an owl to Charlie to ask him.
The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Hermione, Harry, Dean, and me sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. He had been down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed Norbert.
"It bit me!" he said, showing them his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby."
There was a tap on the dark window.
"It's Hedwig!" said Harry, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"
The five of us put our heads together to read the note.
Dear Ron,
How are you? Thanks for the letter - I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.
Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.
Send me an answer as soon as possible.
Love,
Charlie
We looked at one another.
"We've got the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It shouldn't be too difficult - I think the cloaks big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."
It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the rest of us agreed with him. Anything to get rid of Norbert - and Malfoy.
There was a hitch. By the next morning, Ron's bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. We weren't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey - would she recognize a dragon bite? By the afternoon, though, there was no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous.
We rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Ron in a terrible state in bed.
"It's not just my hand," he whispered, "although that feels like it's about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me - I've told her it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me - I shouldn't have hit him at the Quidditch match, that's why he's doing this."
"A dog, Ron?" I said in disbelief. "Really? You should've told her it was the Venomous Tentacula. Anyway, he would've done that anyway. He's just a git like that."
"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," said Hermione, but this didn't soothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.
"Midnight on Saturday!" he said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no oh no - I've just remembered - Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."
None of us got a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made us leave, saying Ron needed sleep.
"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry told Hermione, Dean, and me. "We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl, and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that."
We found Fang, the boarhound, sitting outside with a bandaged tail when we went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to them.
"I won't let you in," he puffed. "Norbert's at a tricky stage - nothin' I can't handle."
When we told him about Charlie's letter, his eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg.
"Aargh! It's all right, he only got my boot - jus' playin' - he's only a baby, after all."
The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle. Harry, Hermione, Dean, and I walked back to the castle feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough.
I would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say good-bye to Norbert if I hadn't been so worried about what Harry and I had to do. It was a very dark, cloudy night, and we were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because we'd had to wait for Peeves to get out of our way in the entrance hall, where we'd been playing tennis against the wall. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.
"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 to me as though the teddy was having his head torn off.
"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and I covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it ourselves. "Mummy will never forget you!"
I wasn't sure how we managed to get the crate back into the castle. Midnight ticked nearer as we heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another - the shortcuts didn't make the work much easier.
"Nearly there!" Harry panted as we reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower.
Then a sudden movement ahead of us made us almost drop the crate. Forgetting that I was already invisible, I 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!"
The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until we'd stepped out into the cold night air did we throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again.
"Malfoy's got detention!" I said happily. "And better, he got it for trying to get us in detention for actually breaking the rules!"
Chuckling about Malfoy, we 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 me the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. We all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Harry and I shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.
At last, Norbert was going... going... gone.
We slipped back down the spiral staircase, a huge load off our shoulders (literally), now that Norbert was off us. No more dragon - Malfoy in detention - what could possibly go wrong?
Of course, knowing my luck, everything had to go wrong. As we stepped into the corridor, Filch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.
"Well, well, well," he whispered, "we are in trouble."
We'd left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.
A/N: That is completely typical of my luck and it totally would've happened to me. Well, only three more chapters to go! I shall see you in the next one, then.
Review or Norbert will set you on fire.