Czeslaw started calling people by their first names after getting to know them a little. This was supposed to be about Firo becoming a teacher but Czeslaw seems to have stolen the spotlight.

Warning, some coarse language (just a little)

Chapter 14 - Lunch with Dumbledore or Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

After hearing what the kids had to say, Czeslaw decided that it might be best to find out everything that he could about Quirrell; it would be OK to put his own research on the back burner for now. It was tiring, researching people from the magic world. Muggle technologies made things a lot easier, but it wasn't like he wasn't used to this kind of research though.

There didn't seem to be anything especially useful about Quirinus Quirrell. Although he had very good grades, aced his NEWTs and OWLs, he was always a sort of timid person. The kind of person that was bullied as a child. He had been a professor of Muggle Studies, before he went on some journey. A lot of this information he got from talking to some of the more reasonable, and unassuming, teachers.

There wasn't a lot of information at the school about what he was studying but that wasn't the interesting part. According to eyewitness accounts, Quirrell's attitude changed a lot when he got back. He couldn't get any details, just that he had changed.

He didn't have a clue what that meant. Once again, he was in the library, surrounded by books and papers. He leaned back and pinched the bridge of his nose. Perhaps it was because of his intelligence but Snape was intelligent too. He also got high grades in school, and he was closer to Dumbledore. This didn't really make sense. That must mean that Quirrell had something that Snape didn't...what was it!?

He had only been sitting there for a few moments when someone stormed into the room and slammed their books on the table. He opened one eye to see who it was. Hermione was clearly very angry as she started opening her notes. "Sorry Czeslaw," she said when he looked at her, "I didn't mean to disturb you. It's just I have exams in just a little over ten weeks from now. I should have started studying last month. I'm going to be so far behind at this rate."

He raised an eyebrow and gave her a wry smile. "You think that you're that unprepared?" She gave him a slightly surprised look, "Of course. Ten weeks would be like a second to Nicolas Flamel. Anyway, if I don't pass the tests this year, I won't get into second year. These tests are very important. I've told that to the boys but they didn't listen at all."

He gave her a thoughtful look as he closed the book in front of him to give his full attention. "Nicolas Flamel is immortal but that doesn't mean that he knows everything. After you've lived for about a hundred years you start to play around a little more than studying. Besides, you have your entire life ahead of you. Don't waste it in a book."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. She glared at him before she started colorcoding her notes angrily. "I don't have time to play. You'll understand when your older." He rolled his eyes and packed up his notes. She would never know what an ironic thing that was to say. Maybe she'll understand what he was saying someday. That, or she is going to burn out and do something stupid.

As he left the library it seemed like everyone was in the halls. Even though he wasn't wearing a uniform the other students mostly ignored him so he thought he would just slip through. Snape glared at him as he passed him, irritated as always. In the distance he could see Ron yelling at someone for making fun of Quirrell. He had also seen Harry giving him encouraging smiles.

Normally he would just go home through the front gate but instead he decided to go through one of the passages that he found.

Every now and then he would see the Weasely twins moving around but they hadn't seen him or just decided that he wasn't worth their time. Either way, he was fine with it. There was one passage that he had found that he couldn't get through. It was passed a statue of a one-eyed witch. There had to be some secret to get through but he couldn't figure it out yet. He thought that these passages might come in handy someday. Besides, exploring them was kinda fun.

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Meanwhile, Firo was also working hard on his own study guides. The other teachers told him that they needed to start preparing the students for the upcoming tests. Most of them were actually really helpful. The only ones that didn't really try were Snape, because he was kind of a dick and, Quirrell.

That wasn't really fair to Quirrell. They hadn't actually had a real conversation since Diagon Alley. It seemed like he was a bit intimidated by him, even though he thought that Firo was much younger.

During the days that they had no classes Ennis would come and visit him while he was planning his lessons. She was a welcome distraction. One day, while in his office they were sitting together while he was looking through his notes. "What do you think about Snape?" He asked suddenly, out of the blue.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, "I don't know much about him. He seems... easily irritated." Firo set his notes to the side and looked her in the eyes, "He's acting suspicious. The stone is here," she gave him the same look that he had given Dumbledore, "I know. Dumbledore thought it was a good idea. I guess he and the creator were friends or something. Snape has been skulking around the room it's being kept in. It's not like I care if he has it or not, but these kids might be in danger if it's taken out of the room."

She gave him a tender look, "What do you plan to do about it?" He shook his head, "I don't know what I can do. Dumbledore knows my opinion," she gave a little laugh, knowing what that meant, "Listen," she said patiently, "If you can't do anything about Snape, then do what you can to protect the children."

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During spring break Czeslaw was at the library every day. It didn't matter if he was with the students or not. The librarian had long since gotten used to him just being there.

One day, he passed the giant grounds keeper as he walked into the library. It was odd to see him in here and he looked a little nervous. Ignoring that, he headed to the table were Harry and Hermione were sitting together.

"Are you making any progress in your studies?" he asked Hermione sly. He hadn't spoken to her since they talked the week before. "Some," she replied tensely. "Hi Harry," he turned to him. "Hey Czeslaw," Harry greeted him.

Ron came up to them moments later and put a bunch of books on the table, "Dragons!" he whispered harshly. "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."

Czeslaw raised an eyebrow, "So?" "Hagrid's always wanted a dragon," Harry responded, "He told me so the first time I ever met him." "But it's against our laws," Ron added, "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, are there?" Harry asked. Ron smiled, "Of course there are. Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. 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." 'That's not the only thing that they hush up' Czeslaw thought cynically.

"So what on earth is Hagrid up to?" Hermione asked. The other shrugged. "Supposing Mr. Hagrid is keeping a dragon illegally," Czeslaw put his hand on his chin in thought, "What are you going to do about it?" "I don't know," Harry answered, "but we need to find out for sure."

Although his plan was to come to the library to study, he ended up being invited to go to the gamekeeper's hut. It took then nearly an hour to finish up what they were doing and get ready to go. Czeslaw took this time to flip through the books about dragons. He didn't really know much about them, other than basic knowledge. They were dangerous creatures that he really had no interest in.

On the way down, he was considering leaving them but he was really interested in this. If there really was a dragon in the school, he wanted to know. The curtains were drawn in the hut. After Harry knocked on the door he heard a deep voice asking who it was. Clearly this was a man with something to hide. When they informed him it was them he ushered them in quickly and shut the door behind them.

It was so hot inside, stiflingly so. The Grounds Keeper had a fire blazing. The first thing that Czeslaw noticed was the huge black eggs sitting under the kettle in the fireplace. If the Ministry found out about that, he could lose his job, at least.

The Grounds Keeper made them all some tea and sandwiches but they all refused. "So, yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" Mr. Hagrid asked nervously. "Yes," Harry said directly, "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."

That wasn't the direction that Czeslaw thought that this conversation was going to go but he was fine with this too. The Grounds Keeper would have to be completely incompetent to tell them anything, like harmfully stupid. But there was a chance that he could get something out of this conversation if he asked the right questions. He already seemed OK with a bunch of children knowing about the stone. Unless he was informing Dumbledore about everything.

The Grounds Keeper shook his huge head, "O' course I can't. Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. The Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts. I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid," said Hermione in an especially flattering voice, "you might not want to tell us, but you do know. You know everything that goes on round here." They could see that the Grounds Keeper was smiling brightly under his big, fluffy beard. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." she continued, "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

The Grounds Keeper seemed really happy at the praise. This girl was a lot more useful than she let on. "Well," said the Grounds Keeper proudly, "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, Professor Quirrell," he counted them out with his fingers as he listed them. "An' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" asked Ron. "Yeah," The Grounds Keeper nodded, "yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Czeslaw had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. It was obvious that he would ask him for help if he asked all the others. If he helped with protecting it, he would be the perfect person to steal it. But this was in interesting development. If Snape helped on the protection charms, why would he need Quirrell? Surely he couldn't threaten the secrets out of the other teachers and he didn't seem close enough with any of them for them to tell him. Was it possible that it wasn't him? But he seemed so suspicious.

It seemed like the children came to the same conclusion about Snape wanting to steal it. "You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" Harry said a bit nervously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

He was wrong about this person, he was foolish enough to give away all the secrets. Even when Harry was being so obvious about his suspicion, he didn't seem to notice. Czeslaw wiped away the sweat from his brow, this place really was unbearably hot.

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," The Grounds Keeper seemed really proud of that. "Well, that's something," Harry muttered under his breath. It seemed like the children didn't think that he was very reliable either.

"Um," Czeslaw spoke for the first time since arriving, "it's getting a bit late. I was only suppose to be at the library for a while. I've got to go, sorry." "Really?" said the Grounds Keeper, "that's a shame." "Bye Czeslaw," said Hermione. Ron waved, "See ya mate." "Bye." Said Harry." He didn't really want to be caught up in something illegal.

Czeslaw had gotten a lot of information and now he needed to process this. More than likely, Firo has found a way to get himself involved as well. Well, that guy was actually pretty lucky so having him around probably wasn't the worst thing. Right now, he wanted to see the Head Master. He seemed like he was the center of everything.

When he got back to the cottage, Ennis wasn't there. This was becoming more and more common. Taking out a small scroll and quill, he wrote a quick note to Dumbledore:

Professor Dumbledore,
You had offered to study with me sometime. I would like to take you up on that offer. Maybe we could meet sometime and talk. I have tons of questions and I'm sure that you could show me lots of things that I didn't know.
Sincerely, Czeslaw Meyer

That sounded like something someone 'his age' would write.

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That night, when Ennis got home, Czeslaw was sitting in the kitchen, reading a book about dangerous animals. "Are you wanting to explore?" She asked jokingly.

He shook his head without turning away from his page. "There is a dangerous animal in the school that could cause some problems. I wanted to see if it had some weaknesses that could be exploited."

"It wouldn't happened to be a big dog would it?" she said, half jokingly. Firo had told her about the three headed dog but Czeslaw didn't seem like the type to go out of his way to fight something like that.

He sat the book down and looked directly into her eyes, "How did you know that?" She sat down across from him, "Firo mentioned something like that. Are you planning on doing something about it?"

Czeslaw shook his head, "Figures that Firo would already be involved in this. No, but I might give some people some information that I find." Ennis nodded, "Well, I know that you usually work alone but it might be good for both of you to get together with Firo. You might be able to help each other out."

He looked like he was going to answer but his little owl flew through the window and delivered a letter. Although she didn't know what it said, it probably confirmed something he was looking into, based on the look on his face. "Good news?"

He nodded, "Dumbledore wants to have lunch with me next week. He's a bit busy right now." "That's nice," said Ennis. She was confident that Czeslaw was cautious enough to keep himself out of too much trouble.

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Ron was sitting next to Harry during breakfast about a week after they had found out about Hagrid's egg when Hedwig delivered a letter to Harry. It only had two words, "It's hatching."

This was one of the most exciting things that had ever happened to them. He suggested that they skip Herbology so they could go right down and see it. But, of course, Hermione argued with him.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" he tried reasoning. She crossed her arms, "We've got lessons, we'll get in 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 harshly. None of them had seen Malfoy, who was just a few feet away. It seemed like the nasty little brat was trying to listen in on their conversation.

He tried to convince Hermione all through Herbology and, finally, she agreed to go during the morning break. He wondered if they would see Czeslaw on the way. Probably not though. He seemed to just pop up randomly and most of the time he was busy with his own thing. He wondered what he could be doing, since he wasn't in classes. Maybe Professor Prochainezo gave him homework anyway, just because he was there. Being the family of a teacher must be hard.

As soon as class was finished they ran to the edge of the forest. Hagrid was waiting for them. He looked just as excited as Ron felt. "It's nearly out." he said, ushering them inside.

He had set the egg on the table. Even though it had a lot of cracks in it, they couldn't see what was inside. They could hear some weird clicking noise coming from it and there was something obviously moving. The four of them sat around the table and watched for the moment to come.

After a while, there was a scraping noise and the egg opened up all the way. The little dragon kinda flopped onto the table. It wasn't as majestic as he had expected. It's big wings looked like they was too big for it's body and it's bulging orange eyes were a stark difference to it's jet black body.

As it was looking around it sneezed and some sparks flew out of its snout. "Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured, reaching out to stroke it's tiny head but it snapped at his fingers. 'Beautiful' wouldn't be the word that Ron would use to describe it. "Bless him, he knows his mommy!" Hagrid said happily.

"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" Ron nodded, that was a good point. Hagrid looked like he was about to answer but he seemed to notice something out the window. "What's the matter?" Ron asked.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains. It's a kid. He's runnin' back up ter the school." Ron watched as Harry bolted to the door. He had told them that it was Malfoy, for sure.

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Dumbledore was surprised when Czeslaw wrote to him. Unfortunately, he had some affairs to take care of first and he wanted to give him his full attention. Czeslaw was an extremely interesting person, powerful. Whether that power would lead to good or evil was the true question.

He had invited him to have lunch with him. He really just wanted to get to know him better. To find out who Czeslaw Meyer really was.

When Czeslaw arrived at his office, the first thing he did was look carefully at Faux. Weirdly, Faux had the same reaction as he did with Professor Prochainezo. That was something he was going to have to look into later. But for now he wanted to focus his attention on Czeslaw.

"I am very happy that you wanted to meet with me," he said, standing to greet the child. "Pleasure to be here," Czeslaw replied, smiling back. His face and actions seemed different from the last time they had met. It was almost like he was putting on an act.

The two of them sat down at a lunch that he had the house elves prepare earlier. As he started eating and Czeslaw started carefully picking apart the food, he decided it was as good a time as any to start their conversation. "So Czeslaw, I've been informed that you are quite the tenacious researcher."

"Thank you," he replied, still looking at the meal. Czeslaw looked a little conflicted for a moment; as if he wanted to ask something but couldn't quite figure out the right way to say it. Dumbledore let him have his time to think. He had found, over the years, that most of the time it was best to let children have their space when talking about serious things. And this looked like it was going to be a very serious discussion.

After a couple of moments Czeslaw looked him in the eye, his face had changed, almost like he had grown up in an instant, "How much do you know about Firo?"

That question had an interesting answer. The fact is that he didn't know very much about him. Firo Prochainezo hadn't published any books or papers and he wasn't in any recent newspapers. He didn't have any sort of record that could be looked into. It was like he appeared out of nowhere. He hadn't even heard about him until he met with Mr. Maiza. More importantly, was Czeslaw asking because he had something important that he wanted to share?

"When I went to America I was looking for someone else. But that person wasn't available to come to my school. Your brother was highly recommended." he answered simply. Czeslaw looked unhappy with that answer.

He put his hand on his chin and said, "Is that really the only reason he was hired? That's... disappointing. Do you know anything else about him?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, "Why do you think he should had been hired?"

Czeslaw shook his head, "Firo isn't really what I wanted to talk about. I've been here for a while now and I've noticed something interesting about the staff. Some of the people that you have hired are excellent at their jobs but some are... less then pleasant. For instance, Professor Quirrell seems like he couldn't stand up to a kitten, yet he is teaching defense against the dark Arts. He's not the only example either. What I'm saying is, you didn't seem to know anything about Firo before hiring him. Who's to say he wasn't, say a mass murderer who peddles drugs in his spare time."

Dumbledore nodded to show that he was listening. "Quirrell may come off as timid but he has a much stronger side that you have yet to see." Czeslaw looked doubtful but he went on, "Some time ago he went into the world to study vampires. It was quite an experience for him and he was a bit shook from it but I believe that there is bravery and passion in that man." He believed that too, but there was something going on and he wanted to know for sure if he was right.

"Fine," Czeslaw seemed to wave that off, "but there is one more teacher I would like to bring up." "And who might that be?" Dumbledore said, lacing his fingers over his forgotten food. He hadn't wanted this to turn into an unpleasant conversation but he wanted to see more of Czeslaw's personality.

"What little I've seen of Professor Snape has been hateful and spiteful. The petty little things he does are incredibly unprofessional. Besides that, he seems to dislike certain students because they are in the wrong house. I've heard many students talking about this, and if it were just one or two than I would have dismissed it, but it's a lot of them. And it's coming from all sides as well. Students from all the houses, including Slytherin, acknowledge that he gives them an unfair advantage. And this seems to go unabated for lack of reprimand of any sort. Or am I mistaken?" Czeslaw's voice was getting a little aggressive.

Dumbledore smiled at him. The more Czeslaw spoke, the less like a child he sounded. He believed that he was seeing the real Czeslaw for the first time. "For the most part I let my teachers teach their own way," Czeslaw narrowed his eyes when he said this, "but, if I think that they are harming a student in any way I have every intention of stepping in."

"I see," replied Czeslaw, looking rather disgusted, "I suppose it is important to teach children that life isn't fair." He wiped his face with the napkin, even though Dumbledore was sure that he hadn't eaten anything, and said, "Thank you for lunch, Professor Dumbledore, it has been... enlightening."

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The next day Firo was walking through the halls, not particularly paying attention to where he was going. He thought that there was something missing from his study guide but he just didn't know what it was.

He didn't look up until he heard a hissing. It was the janitor's cat. He rounded the corner out of curiosity to find the janitor washing something off the wall by hand. Most people around here would just use a simple spell. "Something magically stuck on?" Firo asked, tucking his papers under one arm and sticking the other hand in his pocket.

The janitor just snarled at him. "Do you do all of this yourself?" He continued. The janitor turned to him sharply, "What do you want with me now?" Firo just shrugged his shoulders, "I just thought that if something was magically stuck on, I know a couple of spells that might unstick it."

"I don't need your help," the janitor snapped and started scrubbing the wall harder.

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Meanwhile, Ron, Harry and Hermione were trying to convince Hagrid to set Norbert free. However, Hagrid told them that he would die if he was on his own. Hagrid had spent so much of his time taking care of the dragon that he hadn't done any of his gamekeeping duties. Harry had suggested that Ron send a letter to his brother, Charlie, who was studying dragons in Romania.

Over the following week, while they waited for the reply from Charlie, they would help Hagrid out when they could, using the Invisibility Cloak to sneak around. One night, while Ron was helping Hagrid, Norbert bit him. He wrapped his hand in a handkerchief, which was now soaked in blood.

When he entered the common room, Harry and Hermione were waiting for him. "It bit me!" Ron showed him his injured hand. "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."

While they were talking, there was a tap on the window. It seemed that they were going to get their answer. "It's Hedwig!" said Harry, running over to let it in, "She'll have Charlie's answer!" The three of them put their heads together to read it.

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

When they had read the note Harry said, "We've got the invisibility cloak. It shouldn't be too difficult. I think the cloak is big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."

Unfortunately, by the morning the bite on Ron's hand had swollen to twice it's normal size. He was worried about going to Madam Pomfrey because she might recognize a dragon bite. However, by the afternoon the wound had turned green, and he was worried that Norbert's fangs might be poisonous.

He had hoped that he could avoid going to hospital wing but by the end of the week his hand had gotten much worse. He felt like it was going to fall off. And to make matters worse Malfoy had told Madam Pomfrey that he needed to borrow a book from him just so that he could laugh at him. He told her that it was a dog bite but she obviously didn't believe him.

It wasn't until he was telling Harry and Hermione about the situation that he remembered the letter he had received from Charlie was in the book. He wasn't in any shape to take the dragon to the tower anyway and now Malfoy knew about their plans. It was too late to change anything now, he could only hope that Harry and Hermione could do this without getting caught.

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That week was rather busy for Firo, keeping up with the current lectures as well as trying to put the finishing touches on his study guide. It made his head hurt a little. He wanted to go outside and do something, anything. Being still this long was hard and he decided he needed to find something more active to do in his spare time.

Lately he had started walking through the halls and out onto the grounds at night, it was something to do for now. Most of the time it was very peaceful, although he would run into a teacher every now and then or sometimes Filtch, the janitor.

Recently he had learned that Filtch didn't have any magic. He couldn't help but think how terrible that was. It wasn't any wonder why he was so grumpy all the time. He wondered why he chose to work at a place that required magic. Even if you were from a magic family, you could always find a no-mag job right? Well, in the end it wasn't any of his business.

He was slowly walking up the staircases, on his way to the roof, when he heard something a little odd. It sounded like two people were coming his way, but there was also another pair of footsteps further on. He stopped in his tracks and listened carefully.

As the light of a lamp came closer to him, he stepped back out of the way, more out of habit than anything else. Professor McGonagall, still in all her nightwear, had one of the Slytherin students by the ear and was dragging him along. "Detention!" she shouted at him, "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you"

"You don't understand, Professor." the student tried to defend himself, "Harry Potter's coming, he's got a dragon!" Firo hoped that wasn't true, the last thing this school needed was another dangerous animal running around.

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies!" Professor McGonagall was furious. It seemed that she didn't even see Firo in the corner, and he had no intention of getting himself involved in this. Come on, I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

The second pair of footsteps that he had heard when on up the stairs. Deciding that that wasn't any of his business either, he went the other way. If what that Malfoy kid said was true, a dragon would mean the ministry would get involved and Victor would probably show his mug around here too. Best to just let it be.

He went to another window, and looked out. The Quidditch pitch was just below him, looking lonely with no one inhabiting it. A memory of playing Quidditch among friends surfaced in his mind, a memory that wasn't his. He wondered how much effort he would have to put into learning to fly, even though he didn't have any experience.

In the distance, illuminated by the moon, four people on brooms flew through the sky with something suspended between them. Maybe if there was a dragon in this school it was gone now.

With a sigh he headed back down the stairs. He wasn't quite tired yet but he supposed that he should start heading back to his room, he had classes early tomorrow. As he turned the corner he was startled to see Filch waiting there. "What are you doing up so late?!" he snarled.

The more Firo interacted with this guy, the more he disliked him. "I'm a teacher, I don't need your permission to be up." Firo glared at him. Filch met him with a challenging gaze. He thought he heard something being mumbled under his breath but didn't understand it.

As they stood there, glaring at each other, a couple of kids came around the corner looking very pleased with themselves. He recognized them as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. He was a bit surprised to see them, Hermione was one of his best students.

They were as surprised to see him as well, their smiles turned to shock almost instantly. "Well, well, well," Filch said menacingly, "We are in trouble."

Firo wondered how he didn't see them before. Little did he know that they used an Invisibility Cloak, which they had accidently left in the tower.