I'm way way way way WAY sorry for the wait, everyone! But at least I have a good explanation!
You see, my college offers month-long summer semesters for some classes. Now, I hate my English class (and have failed it twice...Oi! Don't laugh! It's HARD!) and I figured, 'Wow, only a month of dealing with English and I only have to do two big essays instead of four? Yes, that's for me!'
And now...my thoughts are more like 'AGH! I'm going to die! Too much work!' This is because my college crams the bigger, longer classes into the month to make these tiny summer semesters...stupid college.
Although, I think I'm getting a B...stupid hard work paying off.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Claimer: I DO own THIS Harry Potter
…
"What!" Ron yelped, "Who told you?"
"We have no idea what you are talking about," Hermione said quickly.
She and Harry elbowed Ron, who stammered out a completely unconvincing, "We don't know what you're talking about."
"Alas, you haven't been properly informed on how the old Hogwarts rumor mill works yet," Fred said, sighing dramatically.
"Basically, if you ever say anything, the rest of the school finds out in an hour or less. No exceptions," George added with a grin.
"We aren't plotting any evil conspiracies," Harry said.
"Not without us, we should hope!" George laughed.
"And 'sides, as the Prankster Kings of Hogwarts, we have been given a royal duty to amuse ourselves while you work on big brother Charlie's present," Fred smirked, holding out a piece of paper covered with words written in familiar handwriting.
"Charlie's owled the whole school about it!" Ron groaned, "We're trying NOT to get Hagrid sacked!"
"Never fear, we're here!"
"That's why I'm nervous," Ron grumbled.
A moment later, Ron blinked, "Why did Charlie owl you two about it? He doesn't really think we need your help, does he? I imagine that that letter was really a warning for you two to keep out of this!"
"Nay, Ickle Ronnikins," Fred replied, "The thing is, Charlie's heard from Mum about how your two best mates are the two most studious girls in Gryffindor -"
"Can't imagine why she'd even think it," George smirked.
"- But since we don't need to worry about little things like that," Fred finished, "We're more than happy to whip up something splendid, just for you three and your evil Gryffindor conspiracy!"
Hermione looked torn between reprimanding the twins for their obvious delight in being ordered to do pranks and break rules, and jumping up and down in happiness that with the twin's 'help', the chances of the three of them being caught moving Norbert had significantly decreased.
Harry massaged her forehead in exasperation: this was just making her ever-present headache worse.
"Do I dare wonder what you have in mind?" Harry asked.
A pair of utterly evil grins was all the answer she got. Her head was near to throbbing now - Saturday couldn't get here quick enough.
When the day in question finally bothered to arrive, those of Hogwarts that knew about the situation were tensed to the point of bursting. Well, except for Fred and George, Harry noted during the ridiculously-early Quidditch practice Wood dragged the team to that morning. The twins were too busy plotting whatever it was that they had planned to be worried.
Ron had finally gotten his muggle fist-fight with Malfoy. The blonde Slytherin had wandered past the Gyffindor table at lunch, perhaps in yet another attempt at getting his possible private chat with Harry. Whatever his original intentions, Malfoy had chosen to cover his departure with a mutter of something that Ron decided was insulting and requiring of punishment. Before anyone could stop him, Ron jumped Malfoy.
The professors stopped things before they got too much farther out of hand, and Ron, Malfoy, and Neville (who hadn't been fighting at all: Ron and Malfoy had accidentally landed on him) were docked ten points each, assigned detentions, and basically declared embarrassments to the school by the older years of all the Houses (except for Hufflepuff, of course).
Later that afternoon, once Neville was consoled (by Hermione), apologized to (by Ron, with Harry prodding him), and sent on his way, Hermione was the one to say a very strange thing.
"It'll be just as well that you can't be available tonight, Ron," was what Hermione said.
"Huh?" Ron blinked.
Harry blinked as well. Then it suddenly occurred to her what Hermione was saying, and she nodded in agreement. It did make sense…this unspoken agreement, naturally enough, left Ron completely in the dark.
"What are you talking about?" Ron demanded.
"You can't go tonight, Ron," Hermione said, "You're already in enough trouble as it is. If we were caught, they would most likely expel you from school. Harry and I have been behaving ourselves, so we should only get detentions and lose p-points at the most."
Hermione looked conflicted as she spoke; the stutter only proved it. Ron was gaping at her now. It had been an acknowledged fact that Hermione wanted as little to do with the actual rule-breaking as possible; for her to offer to risk her reputation and perfect rule-abiding streak…
"You're…going to…you're going to go? But you HATE breaking rules," Ron pointed out, "You can't be serious."
"Well, I think it would be rather difficult for Harry to go by herself," Hermione replied, "Besides, this way is safer. We only have to worry about Lavender and Parvarti noticing we're gone, and they sleep very soundly."
Reluctantly, Ron agreed, and when he went off to talk to the twins, Harry turned to Hermione and stated bluntly, "Sit down before you faint."
Hermione, who had been looking quite pale, started guiltily before sitting down on the plush chair by the second fireplace. Gryffindor's common room had several such two-seater chairs, and there was more than enough room for Harry.
"Hermione, I know you don't like it, but you need to be realistic. Please?" Harry said in a low, urgent voice.
"I know, and I don't like it, but that's not what's bothering me, really," Hermione sighed.
"Then what is it?" Harry asked.
"I…I don't know what to do!" Hermione finally admitted, startling Harry.
"I have been going over plan after plan in my head ever since we received Charlie's letter," the bushy-haired witch said, "And even with Fred and George doing something as a distraction, the chances of getting caught are too high! I know how to keep anyone who sees us from running off to tell a professor or the Headmaster, but they'll still see us, and they'll still tell! If it's a ghost, then I can't even do anything, and I may be the only one who's noticed, but security for the castle has been stepped up ever since the troll got in on Halloween. I've looked, but I haven't had enough time to find a spell that would keep us from being seen…and we're likely to be in so much trouble…"
Harry was about to open her mouth and point out that Dumbledore wouldn't likely care anyway - he'd seen Norbert as an egg and as any wizarding idiot would know what came out of such eggs, the Headmaster had had more than enough time to get involved - but instead, Harry remembered the cloak from Christmas. It was fairly big, and Harry had sort-of forgotten on purpose to tell Ron and Hermione about it…
That night, once everyone was in their dormitories, and in Lavender and Parvarti's cases, fast asleep, Harry and Hermione crept down to the Common Room. After checking that they were the only ones present, Harry held out the cloak. Hermione was stunned speechless - for a moment, anyways.
"That's an Invisibility Cloak! I've read about them - they're made from woven Demiguise hair, which makes them very valuable. They were first -"
"Hermione!" Harry hissed.
"What? …Oh…right," Hermione blushed, "I'm not a textbook. I remember."
This was a little joke between the two of them, from very early on in Harry's and Hermione's friendship. One day, Harry, just a little bit fed up with the way Hermione seemed to be able to recite every single fact ever written about any subject, had pointed out that Hermione could help the girls in their dormitory save a fortune in textbooks: Hermione would just need to read one set of the books, and then, when the other three girls needed information, Hermione could repeat it for them…
Hermione had understandably protested that she "Wasn't a textbook!", and since then, Harry had been reminding Hermione of that fact every time she went off on one of her unnecessarily extensive explanations for things…
Harry folded up the cloak and pushed it out of sight with record speed as the portrait door swung open. Fred and George strolled in, arms full of what looked like a miniature feast from the Great Hall. Upon seeing Hermione and Harry sitting on the biggest couch, the twins tut-tutted at them in a manner eerily reminiscent of McGonagall.
"Now I should hope you two don't get any foolish ideas about wandering the corridors after curfew," George said, "There's something very odd going on in the dungeons tonight, and the professors will not appreciate First Years offering their assistance."
"Too true, too true," Fred agreed, "Biscuit?"
Harry and Hermione declined the biscuit.
"What sort of odd thing is going on in the dungeons?" Hermione asked, her curiosity aroused.
"We'll just say its something pink and leave it at that, shall we?" George winked as he and Fred headed up the stairs to their dormitory.
"Where did they get all that food? Hogwarts, A History never mentions where the kitchens actually are," Hermione said doubtfully as Harry pulled the invisibility cloak back out.
"At this point, I can believe that Fred and George can go anywhere they want," Harry said, unfolding the cloak and gesturing for Hermione to get underneath it, "Let's get going, Hermione."
Once they were suitably invisible, Harry and Hermione pushed the portrait door open and moved into the corridors. Whatever pink thing Fred and George had set off, it was enough that the two witches saw no sign of their professors or the castle ghosts. They made their way down to Hagrid's hut with no problems but a stubbed toe.
Hagrid had already gotten Norbert inside a sizable traveling crate, and was making his last, teary goodbyes to the infant dragon.
"I've told 'im teh be a good boy fer Charlie," Hagrid told the girls, still sniffling, "An' teh make loads of little friends in Romania. I've already given 'im 'is supper an' he's got 'is teddy in there in case he gets lonely…"
Snarling and ripping noises from inside the crate made Harry wonder whether Teddy was going to survive the trip: actually, she rather doubted it.
"Bye, Norbie!" Hagrid cried as Harry and Hermione levitated the crate and began pulling up towards the castle, "Mummy will never forget you!"
Back in the castle, the problems Hermione had been having in coming up with a plan became very evident: Hermione knew a charm to keep the noises from Norbert's crate from being heard, but she hadn't found a spell to keep it from being seen. Now they had two options.
Harry and Hermione could have continued going under Harry's cloak, but that would mean a large crate would be seen floating around the corridors - hardly an unnoticeable sight. If they covered the crate, the two of them would need to be extra-careful not to be seen. After another moment's thought, Harry pulled the cloak out and began pulling it over the crate.
Once the invisibility cloak was draped carefully over Norbert's crate, Harry and Hermione guided it through the winding corridors and up the thankfully still stairs, heading for the Astronomy Tower. Charlie's friends would be arriving soon…
When the stairs of the tower came into view, Harry could have jumped for joy. That elated feeling was instantly evaporated when a dark shape appeared on the steps. Hermione choked and Harry feared all their hard work had been for naught.
"It's a quarter to midnight! Where have you been!" hissed the voice of Draco Malfoy.
…
