Harry stared at it for a long moment as the others followed his gaze and he heard Draco gasp loudly, "Is that a real.. Hagrid is that a real dragon egg?"
"I.. well yeh know-"
"Where did you get it Hagrid?" Ron leaned forward eagerly to get a closer look. "It must have cost you a fortune."
"Won it." Hagrid said after a moment, "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 when it's hatched?" Hermione asked carefully, "I mean... they grow quite big don't they?"
"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."
Hermione blinked slowly, looking around at her friends before Draco slowly spoke up.
"Hagrid dragons breath fire." he stated very slowly, "And.. your house is very much wooden.. doesn't that seem like a terrible idea?"
But Hagrid had stopped listening, humming merrily as he stroked the fire.
The next few days were tense for the four friends, until the point when Hedwig brought a note for them from Hagrid with only two words written on it: It's hatching.
Ron and Draco both wanted to skip class and go straight down to the hut, but at Hermione's insistence they agreed to wait, especially since, after a bit of thought, Harry pointed out that if they skipped class someone might come looking for them and it would get Hagrid in trouble. Because of that they waited until morning break to go, and when the bell rung at the end of the lesson they literally ran down to Hagrids hut, where the giant man was waiting for them, looking flushed and excited.
"It's nearly out." he ushered them inside quickly.
The egg was lying on the table with deep cracks in it, and something was moving inside. There was a funny clicking noise coming from it and they all drew up chairs to the table and watched with bated breath, and all at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open.
The baby dragon flopped onto the table, looking rather like a crumbled black umbrella, with spiny wings which looked huge compared to it's skinny body. It had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of what would eventually be horns, and bulging orange eyes.
It sneezed and a couple of sparks flew out of his snout.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured, reaching out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs and making Hagrid coo.
"Bless him. Look, he knows his mummy!"
"Hagrid how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"
Hagrid gave a very vague answer, which worried the four Gryffindors, but they didn't have much chance to say more because they had to head for their next class. And the next week was filled with trips down to Hagrids, desperately trying to hide the fact that the man had a real live dragon in his hut. But the problem was it was growing fast, within a week it had grown three times in length, and smoke kept furling from its nostrils. Hagrid hadn't even been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy.
They were down at the hut checking in on him when Hagrid decided to finally name the dragon, declaring that he was Norbert, even as they tried to reason with him.
"Hagrid. Another two weeks and he's gonna be too big to fit inside of your house.. someone could find out any day now."
"I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him. I can't." Hagrids voice was so sad that it made Harry feel sorry for him. Then his eyes widened and he span around to look at Ron.
"Charlie!"
"You're losing it. I'm Ron, remember?"
Draco's eyes widened in realisation, "No, no not you Ron... your brother. The one who you said was studying dragons."
"We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild."
"Brilliant." Ron lit up before turning to Hagrid, "How about it then?"
"Oh I dunno you four-"
"Hagrid you can't just keep him here.. it's cruel to the poor thing." Hermione wheedled desperately.
"Well... he'd be looked after out there-"
"Of course." Draco spoke quickly, "Ron's brother will look after him."
And with that Hagrid had agreed, and they rushed back off to the castle to write a letter to Charlie, which they sent with Hedwig. After that, all they could do was wait for a reply.