Chapter 14

Norberta the Norwegian Ridgeback

Dear Grandmother Sarabi,

I did exactly as you said for the Quidditch match, I stayed out of her way, well for the most part anyway, for I had to speed past her to get the Snitch. I caught it and the game was over in five minutes! I couldn't believe it, still can't, in fact. But there's more; for you see, later when everyone was at dinner, I followed Professor Triphorm on my broom into the Forest and I saw her talking to Professor Quarrel about the Mirror. Professor Triphorm is trying to bully Quarrel into revealing how to get past Mina's three-headed cat. I know I shouldn't have followed, but seeing as everyone else was at dinner, you can see why I followed. Send your advice to me soon, please.

Give my love to Grandmother Sarafina.

Lots of love,

Kiara

She replied to this letter a few days later:

Dearest Kiara,

I can see why you followed her in, but you really shouldn't have done that. I know you only want to do what's best, but you really shouldn't have got involved in this, but I suppose it's too late to tell you this now.

About Professor Triphorm, I suppose you think she wants to steal the Mirror, but I have to tell you that you're wrong, my child. It's not her, but someone else. You see, Tiana Triphorm wants to make sure that the Mirror is highly guarded and wants to protect it. She was only asking Quarrel about it because someone wants to steal the Mirror and Triphorm's trying to stop them before it's too late. I can't tell you who, but it's someone at the school, and that's all I'm saying.

Speak to you soon. Sarafina sends her love.

Lots of love,

Grandmother Sarabi

After reading this, I thought that she was mistaken and that Triphorm was trying to steal the Mirror. But it turns out that my grandmother was right, but I'll get to that later. Right now, I'll get on with this part of my story.

Quarrel, however, must have been stronger and braver than we'd first realised. In the weeks that followed she did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though she'd cracked yet.

Every time we passed the third-floor corridor, me, Chris, Sian and Chrissie would press our ears to the door to check that Cutesy was still growling inside. Triphorm was sweeping about in her usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Mirror was still safe. Whenever I passed Quarrel those days I gave her an encouraging sort of smile, and Chris and Chrissie were telling people off for laughing at Quarrel's stutter.

Sian, on the other hand, had more on her mind than the Mirror of Wishes. She had started drawing up revision time-tables and colour-coding all her notes. Chris, Chrissie and I wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging us to do the same.

"Sian, the exams are ages away."

"Ten weeks," Sian snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicola Fleming."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Chrissie reminded her. "Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it all."

"What am I revising for? Are you mad? You realise we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started revising a month ago, I don't know what's got into me …"

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Sian. They piled so much homework on us that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Sian next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practising wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Chris, Chrissie and I spent most of our free time in the library with her, trying to get through all our extra work. And what was more, Sian had stopped visiting her mother on weekends so that Sian could get more studying done; furthermore, they only communicated through owl every Saturday.

"I'll never remember this," Chrissie burst out one afternoon, throwing down her 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.

I was looking up "Dittany" in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, was busy reading about it, and didn't look up until I heard Chris say, "Mina? What are you doing in the library?"

Mina shuffled into view, hiding something behind her back. She looked very out of place in her moleskin overcoat.

"Jus' lookin'," she said, in a shifty voice that got our interests at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" she looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicola Fleming, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who she is ages ago," said Chris impressively. "And we know what that cat's guarding, it's the Mirror of Wish –"

"Shhhh!" Mina 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," I said, "about what's guarding the Mirror apart from Cutesy –"

"SHHHH!" said Mina again. "Listen – 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 to know. They'll think I've told yeh –"

"See you later, then," I said.

Mina shuffled off.

"What was she hiding behind her back?" said Sian thoughtfully.

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Mirror?"

"I'll go and see what section she was in," said Chrissie, who'd had enough of working. She came back a minute later with a pile of books in her arms and slammed them down on the table.

"Dragons!" she whispered. "Mina 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."

"Mina's always wanted a dragon, she told me so the first time I ever met her," I said.

"But it's against our laws," said Chris, as Chrissie nodded. "Dragon-breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks Convention in 1709, everyone knows that. it's hard to stop Muggles noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden – anyhoo, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Kat's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't wild ones in Britain?" I said.

"Of course there are, Kiara," said Chrissie. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our lot have to keep putting spells on Muggles who spot them, to make them forget."

"Then what on earth's Mina up to?" said Sian.

When we knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, we were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Mina called, "Who is it?" before she let us in and then shut the door quickly behind us.

It was stiflingly hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Mina made us tea and offered us stoat sandwiches, which we refused.

"So – yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes," I said. There was no point beating about the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Mirror of Wishes apart from Cutesy."

Mina frowned at me.

"O' course I can't," she said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Mirror's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Fauntrotts – I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Cutesy."

"Oh, come on, Mina, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Sian in a warm, flattering voice. Mina's mouth twitched and we could tell she was trying to hide a smile. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really," Sian went on. "We wondered who Ma had trusted enough to help her, apart from you."

Mina's chest swelled at these last words. Chris, Chrissie and I beamed at Sian.

"Well, I don' s'ppose it could hurt ter tell yeh that … let's see … she borrowed Cutesy from me … then some o' the teachers did enchantments … Professor Spud – Professor Winds – Professor Darbus –" she ticked them off on her fingers, "Professor Quarrel – an' Crighton herself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Triphorm."

"Triphorm?"

"Yeah – yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Triphorm helped protect the Mirror, she's not about ter steal it."

I knew that Chris, Sian and Chrissie were thinking the same thing as I was. If Triphorm had been in on protecting the Mirror, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. She probably knew everything – except, it seemed, Quarrel's spell and how to get past Cutesy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Cutesy, aren't you, Mina?" I said anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except me an' Crighton," said Mina proudly.

"Well, that's something," I muttered to the others. "Mina, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."

"Can't, Kiara, sorry," said Mina. I noticed her glance at the fire. I looked at it, too.

"Mina – what's that?"

But I already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.

"Ah," said Mina, fiddling nervously with a strand of her hair. "That's – er …"

"Where did you get it, Mina?" said Chris, he and Chrissie crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg.

"Yeah, it must have cost a fortune," said Chrissie.

"Won it," said Mina. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. She seemed quite glad ter be rid of it, s'matter o' fact."

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Sian.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Mina, pulling a large book from under her 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 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken's blood every half hour. An' see here – how ter recognise diff'rent eggs – what I've got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

She looked very pleased with herself, but Sian didn't.

"Mina, you live in a wooden house," she said.

But Mina wasn't listening. She was humming merrily as she stoked the fire.

0000

So now we had something else to worry about: what might happen to Mina if anyone found out she was hiding an illegal dragon in her hut.

"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Chrissie sighed, as evening after evening we struggled through all our extra homework we were getting. Sian had now started to make revision timetables for me and Chrissie, too. It was driving us mad. Chris had done one for himself, too, so that Sian didn't have to drive him mad and he was a bit of a swot.

Then, one breakfast time, Harold brought me another note from Mina. She had written only two words: It's hatching. I hadn't written to Grandmother Sarabi about the dragon because I didn't want her involved in the trouble.

Chris and Chrissie wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut, but Sian, as their eldest sister, would not hear a word of it.

"Sian, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" said Chris.

"C'mon sister, lighten up. It's only one lesson, and this is the most exciting thing we've been part of since we've been here," said Chrissie.

"No, I'm not discussing this. I want you to have a good education and have good futures, as does Ma. Besides, we've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Mina's going to be in when someone find's out what she's doing –"

"Shut up!" I whispered.

Malty and Rae-Bradley were only a few feet away and she had stopped dead to listen. How much had they heard? I didn't like the looks on their faces at all.

Chris, Sian and Chrissie argued all the way down to Herbology, and in the end, Sian agreed to run down to Mina's with me and her siblings during break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of our lesson, the four of us dropped our trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the Forest. Mina greeted us looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." She ushered us 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 our 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 on to the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; I thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. It's spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body and it had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Mina murmured. She reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at her fingers, showing pointed fangs.

"Bless her, look, she knows her mummy!" said Mina.

"Mina," said Sian, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Mina was about to answer when the colour suddenly drained from her face – she leapt to her feet and ran to the window.

"What's the matter?"

"A couple of people were lookin' through the gap in the curtains – two girls – she's runnin' back up ter the school."

I bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking them.

Malty and Rae-Bradley had seen the dragon.

0000

Something about the smiles lurking on Malty and Rae-Bradley's faces during the next week made me, Chris, Sian and Chrissie very nervous. We spent most of our free time in Mina's darkened hut, trying to reason with her.

"Just let her go," I urged. "Set her free."

"I can't," said Mina. "She's too little. She'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. Mina hadn't been doing her gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping her so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.

"I've decided to call her Norberta," said Mina, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "She really knows me now, watch. Norberta! Norberta! Where's mummy?"

"She's lost her marbles," Chrissie muttered in my ear.

"Mina," I said loudly, "give it a fortnight and Norberta's going to be as long as your house. Malty and Rae-Bradley could go to Crighton at any moment."

Mina bit her lip.

"I – I know I can't keep her for ever, but I can't jus' dump her, I can't."

I suddenly turned to Chrissie.

"Kat," I said.

"You're losing it, too," I said. "I'm Chrissie, remember?"

"No – Kat – your cousin Kat. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norberta to her. Kat can take care of her and then put her back in the wild!"

"Brilliant idea, Kiara!" said Chrissie.

"Yeah, great idea, Kiara!" said Chris. "How about it, Mina?"

And in the end, Mina agreed that we could send an owl to Kat to ask her.

0000

The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Chris, Sian and I 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. Chrissie appeared out of nowhere as she pulled off my Invisibility Cloak. She had been down at Mina's hut, helping her feed Norberta, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

"It bit me!" she said, showing us her 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 Mina goes on about it, you'd have thought it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me she told me off for frightening it. And when I left, she was singing it a lullaby."

There was a tap on the dark window.

"It's Harold!" I said, hurrying to let him in. "He'll have Kat's answer!"

The four of us put our heads together to read the note:

Dear Sian, Chris and Chrissie,

How are you? Thanks for the letter – I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting her here. I think the best thing will be to send her 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 her away while it's still dark.

Send me an answer as soon as possible.

Love,

Kat

We looked at each other.

"We've got the Invisibility Cloak," I said. "It shouldn't be too difficult – I think the Cloak's big enough to cover three of us and Norberta."

It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other three agreed with me. Anything to get rid of Norberta – and Malty and Rae-Bradley, of course.

0000

There was a hitch. By the next morning, Chrissie's bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. She didn't know whether it was safe to go to Matron – would she recognise a dragon bite? By midday, she had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norberta's fangs were poisonous.

Chris, Sian and I rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Chrissie in a terrible state in bed.

"It's not just my hand," she whispered, "although that feels like it's about to fall off. Malty and Rae-Bradley told Matron they wanted to borrow one of my books so that they could come and have a good laugh at me. They 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 Rae-Bradley at the Quidditch pitch, that's why they're doing this."

Chris, Sian and I tried to calm Chrissie down.

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," said Sian, but this didn't soothe her sister at all. On the contrary, she sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.

"Midnight on Saturday!" she said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no – oh no – I've just remembered – Kat's letter was in that book Malty and Rae-Bradley took, they're going to know we're getting rid of Norberta."

Chris, Sian and I didn't get a chance to answer. Matron came over at that moment and made us leave, saying Chrissie needed sleep.

"It's too late to change the plan now," I told Chris and Sian. "We haven't got time to send Kat another owl and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norberta. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the Invisibility Cloak, Malty and Rae-Bradley don't know about that."

We found Gnasher the boarhound sitting outside with a bandaged tail when we went to tell Mina, who opened a window to talk to us.

"I won't let you in," she puffed. "Norberta's at a tricky stage – nothin' I can't handle."

When we told her about Kat's letter, her eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norberta had just bitten her on the leg.

"Aargh! It's all right, she only got my boot – jus' playin' – she's only a baby, after all."

The baby banged it's tail on the wall, making the windows rattle. Me, Chris and Sian walked back to the castle, feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough.

0000

We would have felt sorry for Mina when the time came for her to say goodbye to Norberta if we hadn't been so worried about what we had to do. It was a very dark, cloudy night and we were a bit late arriving at Mina's hut because we'd had to wait for Weeves to get out of our way in the Entrance Hall, where she'd been playing tennis against the wall.

Mina had Norberta packed and ready in a large crate.

"She's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," said Mina in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed her teddy bear in case she gets lonely."

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

"Bye-bye, Norberta!" Mina sobbed, as Chris, Sian and I covered the crate with the Invisibility Cloak and stepped underneath it ourselves. "Mummy will never forget you."

How we managed to get the crate back up to the castle, we never knew and still don't know. Midnight ticked nearer as we heaved Norberta up the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another – even one of my short cuts didn't make the work much easier.

"Nearly there!" I 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 we were already invisible, we shrank into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of three people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared.

Professor Darbus, in a tartan dressing-gown and a hairnet, had Malty by the ear in one hand, and in the other hand had Rae-Bradley by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And forty points from Snake-Eyes! Wandering around in the middle f the might, how dare you –"

"You don't understand, Professor, Kiara Pride-Lander's coming – she's got a dragon!"

"Dani's right, Professor, Kiara Pride-Lander really does have a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on – I shall be telling Professor Triphorm about the both of you, Malty and Rae-Bradley!"

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 the Cloak off, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Sian did a sort of jig.

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

"Don't," Chris and I advised her.

Chuckling about Malty, we waited, Norberta thrashing about in her crate. About four minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness.

Kat's friends were a cheery lot. They showed Chris, Sian and I the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norberta between them. We all helped Norberta safely into it and then Chris, Sian and I shook hands with the others and we thanked them very much.

At last, Norberta was going … going … gone.

We slipped back down the spiral staircase, our hearts as light as our hands, now that Norberta was off them. No more dragon – Malty and Rae-Bradley in detention – what could spoil our happiness?

The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As we stepped into the corridor, Match'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.