Elizabeth emerged from the hospital wing. "Well, Pomfrey has healed his wounds, but he's still knocked out. Says he'll be fine, though."
"Oh, I can't believe you, Ronald," said Hermione. "What were you thinking? Fighting with Malfoy? You're just lucky that Elizabeth jumped in there when she did!" Hermione was outraged that Ron had attacked Malfoy at the Quidditch match. "If she hadn't, Malfoy would have never called Crabbe and Goyle off you and Neville! You both would have suffered a lot worse injuries than you did! What you did was incredibly foolish!"
"All right, Hermione, calm down," said Elizabeth. "It's not like Draco didn't deserve it. Let's just get back to the common room."
On their way that had run into a gloomy looking Harry.
"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione squeaked.
"You're never going to believe what happened to us at the Quidditch match today," Elizabeth told him. "What you said to Neville, well it must have had an impact on him. He tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle single-handedly! It was brilliant. You should have seen him!"
"Elizabeth!" said Hermione. "He's in the hospitable wing!"
"Is he okay?" Harry sounded worried.
"Yeah, he's fine." Elizabeth brushed off Neville's injuries. "Just knocked out."
"You really should have been there, Harry," said Ron. "I gave Malfoy a black eye!"
"And I suppose you're proud of yourself, aren't you, Ron?" said Hermione stuffily.
Ron ignored her. "Everyone's waiting for you in the common room. We're having a party. Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens."
"Never mind that now," said Harry breathlessly. "Let's find an empty room, you wait 'til you hear this..." He made sure Peeves wasn't inside before shutting the door behind them. "I just saw Snape talking to Quirrell about the Philosopher's Stone."
"So we were right," said Ron.
"Who's this we?" Elizabeth crossed her arms. "Me and Hermione? Why yes, Ron, we were right."
"Yeah, but you were wrong about Snape," said Harry. "He is trying to get the Stone and he's trying to force Quirrell into helping him. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy ─ and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus-pocus' ─ I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through ─"
Elizabeth laughed.
"What's so funny?" said Ron.
"Harry," Elizabeth said through her laughter. "Everybody knows that when Snape came to this school he wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, not Potions. He doesn't need Quirrell to break any spells. He can do it himself."
"And where did you hear that?" Ron said in disbelief.
Elizabeth put her hands on her hips. "Your brother Percy told my brother Richard and Richard asked Uncle William and he said it's true." Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at him.
"Is not!" said Ron defensively.
"Both of you stop it." Hermione ended their argument. "If Snape gets past Fluffy, then he can get the Stone no problem?"
"We better do something," said Ron.
"Do what?" said Elizabeth. "Talk to Quirrell? He's going to deny whatever we say. Students aren't allowed to know about the Stone. He could probably lose his job if he said anything to us."
"We can't just sit around and let Snape steal it!" said Harry.
"If it all depends on Quirrell standing up to Snape, the Stone'll be gone by next Tuesday," Ron said.
Professor Snape must not have figured out how to get past Fluffy though, because the dog could still be heard growling in the forbidden corridor the following weeks and Quirrell seemed to be growing weaker.
There was more on their minds than the Philosopher's Stone, however. Hermione had been drawing up revision schedules and colouring coding her notes. She had been nagging Harry, Ron, and Elizabeth to do the same.
"I don't even take notes," Elizabeth complained.
"Then how do you expect to pass these exams?" said Hermione.
"They're ten weeks away! I'll worry about it then."
"If you think you're just going to sit here and do nothing, then pass the exams no problem, you have another thing coming."
"If you think I'm going to sit here and revise for the rest of the school year, you have another thing coming."
Unfortunately, the teachers were on Hermione's side. They piled so much coursework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as fun as the Christmas ones. They had spent most of their time in the library with Hermione, trying to get through all their extra work. It was so frustrating. It seemed that all they did anymore was coursework.
Elizabeth lay her head on the table. She was drained of energy. "Who wants to play the not study game for a while?"
Ron threw down his quill and closed his books. "Sounds good to me."
"You two will never get all your work done if you keep slacking off," said Hermione.
"But it's a nice day," whinged Elizabeth. "The first nice day we've had in months. They sky is a clear blue and it's warm out. Hermione, I want to go outside and live a little."
"You will not pass your ─"
"If you say one more thing about exams, my head's going to explode."
Hermione rolled her eyes at her. Elizabeth noticed Harry still buried behind One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, looking something up.
"Harry, put the book down, we're rebelling against Hermione and her revision schedule." Harry didn't look up from the book. "Harry? HARRY!" She grabbed the book out of his hands. "If you could manage to tear yourself away from the fascinating study of fungi, I would like to ─"
"Hagrid!" Harry noticed the giant shuffling into view, hiding something behind his back.
Elizabeth sighed. "Sit here while you ignore me," she muttered to herself.
"What are you doing here?" Ron asked Hagrid.
"Jus' lookin'," said Hagrid, in a shirty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He suddenly looked suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?"
"No, we've already found out who he is," said Elizabeth. "Know what the dog is guarding too."
"Hagrid, there a few questions we want to ask you about the Stone," said Harry.
"SHHH!" said Hagrid looking around to see if anyone was listening. "Don't go shoutin' about it. Students aren' s'possed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh. Listen ─ come see me later. But I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin'."
They nodded.
"What've you got behind your back, Hagrid?" Elizabeth stood up and leaned to one side to try and see what Hagrid was concealing.
"Er ─ nothing." Hagrid moved to block Elizabeth's view. "I've got ter go," he said quickly before shuffling off.
Elizabeth sat back down.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" asked Hermione.
"It was a book," said Elizabeth. "A book on dragons."
"But why would Hagrid be taking out a book on dragons?"
"He'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."
Hermione looked impressed that Ron actually knew something and he didn't learn it in History of Magic class either.
"Besides, even if Hagrid could keep one, he can't tame it," said Elizabeth. "They're dangerous. You should see all the burns Charlie's got from wild ones in Romania."
Elizabeth never particularly liked the Weasley boys. Percy was more stuck up than Richard and twice as intolerable, the twins were nothing but trouble and they picked on her all the time, and Ron couldn't get along with Elizabeth more than ten minutes without starting a fight. Bill she never minded, as he seemed to try and keep some order with his siblings, but he was now in Egypt working as a curse-breaker for Gringotts. Charlie, on the other hand, was right up there with the twins in her mind. She simply found him annoying whenever he visited. Margaret seemed quite taken with Charlie though and Elizabeth couldn't figure out why.
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain, are there?" Harry asked.
"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you."
"Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, Beast Division, Dragon Research and Restraint Bureau," said Elizabeth proudly. "Although, I think it's the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes that puts spells on the Muggles who've seen dragons to make them forget. Or maybe it's the Department of Misinformation. No," she shook her head. "That'd only be if they caught them on camera, I believe."
"You've spent way too much time researching the Ministry," Ron said.
"I know," Elizabeth admitted, "but I think I'm better qualified for a job there after school."
"A job doing what?"
"Werewolf Support Services," she suggested. "Maybe Department of Mysteries. I've always wanted to know what goes on in there."
The Department of Mysteries was shrouded in...well, mystery. Elizabeth didn't know what they kept up there on the ninth level, or what the people that worked there did. All she knew was it was off limits and the people that held positions there were called the "Unspeakables." It seemed to be that they were the only ones who knew what was up there, besides the Minister of Magic, of course.
When they walked down to Hagrid's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. He quickly let them in and shut the door behind them. It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was a warm day, he had a fire going in the grate.
"So ─ yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"
"We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy," said Harry.
"O' course I can't," said Hagrid frowning. "I don' know meself an' if I did, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could."
"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 flattering voice. "We only wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him guard the Stone, apart from you."
Hermione was the best at buttering people up. Her extreme brown nosing and excellent relations with the teachers had really helped them. Besides getting out of serious trouble on Halloween, she had also charmed Madam Pince one day in the library back when they were still searching for Nicolas Flamel. Elizabeth had slammed a book back onto the shelves out of frustration and accidently caused a few others to fall out of place, landing on the floor. Madam Pince nearly threw her out before Hermione complimented Madam Pince on her excellent organisational system. Elizabeth was merely given a warning about her inappropriate volume and told to respect the books.
"Well, I don' s'pose it would hurt ter tell yeh that Dumbledore has all the teachers protectin' the Stone."
"All the teachers?" Elizabeth questioned. "Is that possible?"
"Well, Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall." Hagrid ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell, an' Dumbledore of course, oh an' Professor Snape."
"I knew I should have bet you, Ron," said Elizabeth.
"Yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."
"Why's it so hot in here?" Elizabeth rolled up her sleeves. "Hagrid, why don't you open a window?"
"Can't, Lizzie, sorry."
"Why not? Are you hatching a dragon egg in here?" Elizabeth joked. Hagrid glanced at the fire. "I wasn't being serious. Hagrid, you can't have a dragon. It's against the law."
"Where'd you get it?" said Ron amazed, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the huge, black egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."
"Ron!"
"Won it," said Hagrid. "Las' night off a man in the village in a game o' cards. He seemed glad ter get rid of it."
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.
"Let it go," said Elizabeth.
"I can' do that, Lizzie. I got a Norwegian Ridgeback there. They're rare, they are. Learned all abou' recognisin' dragon eggs an' how ter take care o' them once they hatched from a book I got out o' the library."
"I wouldn't care if you had a Romanian Longhorn, you cannot keep it!"
But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stroke the fire.
They spent the next few days anxiously waiting for the egg to hatch. Harry was enthralled with the idea of seeing a real live dragon for the first time and for Hagrid to finally fulfill his dream of having one. Ron and Elizabeth were less excited than Harry. They were surprisingly in agreement for once. As much as Ron wanted to see the dragon once it hatched, he knew that Hagrid simply couldn't keep it. He may not have been the brightest in their year, but thanks to his older brother Charlie, he knew plenty about dragons. They were both worried about when the dragon started to breathe fire and how big it would eventually get. Elizabeth and Ron thought dragons were wonderful beasts, but they couldn't be kept as pets.
Hermione, on the other hand, seemed completely uninterested in the dragon egg and spent all her time revising for exams. She was even pushing her revision schedule onto Harry, Ron, and Elizabeth.
"I have figured out a way to maximise the amount of revision time each of you have," said Hermione at breakfast one morning. "Harry, you have less than the rest of us because of Quidditch, but I thought you could make up for it by revising during meal times as well."
She handed Harry, Ron, and Elizabeth a revision schedule.
"Oh look, you've even taken the liberty to schedule in toilet breaks," said Elizabeth. "You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to follow this."
Hermione was arguing with Elizabeth when Hedwig brought Harry a note from Hagrid.
"It's hatching," he said.
"Now?" Elizabeth asked. Harry nodded. "Grab your things, let's go." Elizabeth rushed out of the Great Hall with Harry and Ron close behind her.
"What about class?" Hermione asked as she caught up with them.
"We only have Herbology," said Ron. "It's not like we'd be missing anything."
"We can't skip class. We'll get in trouble."
"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"
"Hagrid's not even supposed to have that egg. When someone finds out what he's doing ─"
"Shut it!" Harry whispered.
Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen.
"Eavesdropping is a terrible habit, Draco," said Elizabeth. "You never get the full story doing so."
"Don't worry, I'm sure I did," said Malfoy smirking.
"I assure you, you didn't. So I suggest you sod off before you get worse than a black eye this time."
Malfoy sneered at her and walked away. She was sure he heard something. Whether or not he heard it all, no doubt would he use what he heard to get them all, especially Hagrid, in trouble.
"You don't think he really heard, do you?" asked Harry.
"I don't know," said Elizabeth. "I wish I knew he was there. I know a spell that would have kept him from hearing."
Whenever Thomas and Margaret had a serious discussion at home that they didn't want anyone hearing, they would use Muffliato so the children couldn't eavesdrop. Similarly, William used this spell quite a bit to keep his mother from eavesdropping on his private conversations, which always led to an argument that if he had nothing to hide, he shouldn't feel the need to use the spell. Of course, he did have things to hide, which is why he used it and saying that only led to a bigger argument. It was one of the spells Elizabeth was very familiar with by then with the frequency it was cast in her household.
"Well, come on, we're going to be late," said Hermione.
"We're not going to class, we're going to Hagrid's hut," said Ron.
"We are not! I already said we'll get in trouble."
"Then you can go to class and we'll go see Hagrid."
"If you go I swear I'll tell Professor Sprout where you are. Then you'll all be in serious trouble."
"Both you shut it!" said Elizabeth.
Elizabeth wanted to go right then and see the dragon, but Hermione would not only tell Professor Sprout that they were skipping class, she would of course mention it's because Hagrid had a dragon egg and he would be in trouble too, not to mention Dumbledore would have to take the egg away. Hermione was as bad as Draco sometimes without even realising it and Elizabeth just couldn't break Hagrid's heart like that. Harry said he always wanted a dragon, and even if he couldn't keep it, she didn't want it to be taken away from him because of them.
"We'll go during break," she said. "It's going to take a while for it to break out of its shell anyway. We probably won't miss anything."
When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the four of them dropped their 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 and something was moving inside. A funny clicking noise was coming from it. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. A black baby dragon flopped onto the table. Its wings were huge compared to its skinny body. It had a long snout, stubs of horns, and bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed. A couple sparks flew out of its snout. Elizabeth thought it looked positively repulsive.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid muttered.
"Define beautiful," muttered Elizabeth under her breath.
Harry nudged her in the side. Hagrid 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.
"How fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" asked Hermione.
Hagrid was about to answer when all the colour suddenly drained from his face. He lept to his feet and ran to the window.
"What's the matter?"
"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains ─ it's a kid ─ he's runnin' back up ter the school."
Harry bolted to the door and looked out. "It's Malfoy," he said.
Elizabeth ran to the door, pushed Harry out of the way, and sprinted back up to the castle after Malfoy.
"ELIZABETH!"
She was already half way there when Harry called her name, but she just kept running. She had to catch Malfoy before he told anyone about the dragon. If he hadn't heard exactly what was going on before, he certainly knew now and there was no way he was going to stay quiet about it.
She called after him. "DRACO!"
It was no use though. He was too far ahead of her. By the time she had entered the castle, she was out of breath and there was no sign of Malfoy anywhere. She didn't know where he might have gone, which professor he'd run off to tell, so she had no clue which way to start searching for him. She cursed under her breath. They were all in trouble now.
The next week was torture. Malfoy hadn't told anyone yet. He much rather enjoyed the pleasure he got from knowing he could get them all in deep trouble whenever he wanted to and sometimes took to taunting them with the information he now possessed. He could treat them any way he wanted and they couldn't do anything about it lest they risk him telling a professor. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Elizabeth spent most of their free time in Hagrid's hut, trying to reason with him to get rid of Nobert before it was too late.
"Hagrid, you've got to let him go," urged Hermione. "He's getting too big."
The dragon had grown three times in length in just a week. It was breathing smoke now, and Hagrid had been neglecting his gamekeeper duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy.
"He's still jus' a baby, Hermione," said Hagrid. "I couldn' let him go. He'd die."
"Well, you've got to do something," said Elizabeth. "He's going to outgrow your hut soon and everyone's going to know you have a dragon."
"I know, but I can't part with him. He really knows me now. I even named him."
"Oh, Hagrid, no," said Elizabeth in anguish. "Why did you do that? It's going to make it that much harder to get rid of him."
"What did you name him?" said Harry.
"Are you encouraging this? You can't be encouraging this, Harry."
"I've decided to call him Norbert," said Hagrid, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. Elizabeth threw her arms up in frustration. "Watch this. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mummy!"
"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered into Elizabeth's ear.
Elizabeth cringed at the sight and sound of the giant talking such tosh. "Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback." She paused trying to find the words to say. "It's definitely ─ a unique name for a dragon."
"Hagrid, we know how much you love Norbert, but you can't keep him." Hermione tried to reason with him. "Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."
Hagrid bit his lip. "I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him. I can't."
An idea popped into Elizabeth's head and she lightly elbowed Ron in the ribs.
"What?" he said.
"Charlie," said Elizabeth sweetly. "We could send Norbert to him, can't we?"
"That's not a bad idea. How 'bout it, Hagrid? My brother Charlie could take care of Norbert and then put him back in the wild when he's old enough."
Hagrid looked unsure with the plan. "Come on, Hagrid," pleaded Elizabeth. "What other options do you have?"
Finally he agreed to let them send an owl to Charlie asking. He didn't seem too happy about his decision, but it was really the only choice he had.
The following week dragged by. Wednesday night, Harry, Hermione, and Elizabeth were sitting alone in the common room at midnight.
"Did you finish your Transfiguration assignment?" Hermione asked Elizabeth, who lay across a chair, staring aimlessly at the ceiling.
"Yeah, I finished it."
"Why don't you let me look it over?"
"Because I don't need you to. I'm not incompetent."
Suddenly the portrait hole burst opening, causing Elizabeth to jerk upright in her seat. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. Elizabeth sighed and resumed her position laying across the armchair.
"How's Norbert?" she asked. Ron had been spending nights down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed the dragon.
"It bit me!" said Ron. Elizabeth sat back up. He showed 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."
"I think someone's forgetting about that kneazle with the bladder control issues that took a shining to my grandfather."
Now, Thomas loved Pharaoh and Richard and Elizabeth didn't mind her, but she was a kneazle after all. She was suspicious of people, and by people it should be clarified that she hated the Weasley twins, and by suspicious it should also be clear that meant she peed on them. Elizabeth always thought it their fault for tying things to her tail like that. It startled her and she had no control when she was startled.
"At least your grandmother got rid of that thing," said Ron. "The way Hagrid goes on about that dragon, 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."
"Well, if I remember correctly, my grandmother yelled at your brothers too when she went all over them, the settee, and the oriental rug in the parlour."
Pharaoh was a really neat animal and if she could have just learned to stop seeing the world as her toilet, Margaret would have never had such a problem with her.
There was a tap on the window, disrupting the conversation. Harry's owl Hedwig had returned with a letter. Harry let her in.
"It's from Charlie," he said reading it. "He wants us to get the dragon to the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday. His friends will pick it up and take it to him." He looked at them. "I don't think that should be too difficult. The invisibility cloak is big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."
"Well, you two boys have fun getting that dragon up to the Astronomy tower," said Elizabeth. "Try not to get caught by Filch."
"We won't," said Ron, "because you will be distracting him."
"What?"
A/N: Quotes and plot from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Chapter Thirteen, Nicolas Flamel pages 226 to 227, and Chapter Fourteen, Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback, pages 228 to 238.