AN: It never made sense to me how in the book, Harry realises Hagrid told the stranger how to get past Fluffy, and suddenly they're convinced the theft is going to happen THAT night... while the card game happened at least a couple of weeks before.

***DNMCY1***

In the weeks that followed, they tried to find out more information – unsuccessfully. For whatever reason, the would-be thief was laying low, and so was his opponent. Madam Pomfrey kept her promise to keep a close eye on their suspects, but despite her and their own best efforts, they could not discover who the thief was, so for now they were forced to give it a rest.

Hermione, in the meantime, was losing her mind over the approach of exams, even going so far as to draw up a study schedule for the others. When she tried to give her a copy, Donna decided enough was enough.

"You have to calm down, Hermione," she told the other girl, whose hair seemed to get frizzier every day.

"What do you mean, calm down? We need to pass these exams to get into second year. They're very important. I should have started studying months ago!"

"You really shouldn't have," she reassured her friend. "I know it doesn't seem like it now, but these exams are not that important in the long run. All they're doing is measuring your current level of understanding. Yes, we can study for them already, but you're hardly leaving any room for relaxing, and that is just not healthy. You're 11, this much stress is not good for you."

"I'm 12, actually," Hermione said.

Donna blinked. "Really? When was your birthday?"

"Oh, back in September. My birthday is the 19th." Hermione shrugged. "It's not that big a deal."

"Yes, it is! You're my friend, I want to give you a gift! Well, it'll be a belated gift then, and you're not getting out from under a celebration next year, ok?"

Donna managed to wrangle Hermione's excessive study sessions down to manageable levels, factoring in some free time as well. Combined with the piles of homework being assigned by the teachers, they spent lots of time in the library, but Neville and Harry were grateful that at least they went outside some of the time. It was a fine balance, but they managed to compromise.

One fine Saturday afternoon, they were lying by the lake. It was the first really good spring day, so they'd decided to enjoy that, rather than spend another minute in the musty library. Hermione had her nose buried in a book, as per usual, but the other three were talking.

At one point, Neville was looking straight at the castle when he noticed something.

"Is that Hagrid?" he asked, sitting up a bit.

The half-giant was indeed coming down the steps, furtively looking from side to side. It wasn't that odd to see him striding around, going about his gamekeeping duties, but right at this moment he was doing everything in his power to appear as guilty as possible. His whole bearing was positively screaming 'I'm doing something I shouldn't!'

Donna looked at the gamekeeper, then at Harry and Neville. The boys looked back at her, and started grinning at the same time. As one, the three of them stood up.

"Come on, Hermione," Donna said, while keeping an eye on Hagrid, who seemed to be going towards his hut. "We're going investigating!"

"What?" Hermione looked up, blinking a little to shift her focus from her book to Donna.

"Investigating. I want to know what Hagrid is up to."

In fairness to Hermione, she only grumbled a little bit as she got up and put her book into her bag.

"What makes you think he's up to something?" she asked while shouldering her bag.

Donna raised her eyebrows. "Just look at him."

Hermione did, and snorted. "Yeah, ok, you've got a point. Let's go."

The four of them followed the big man to see what was happening, but in the end he really only went to his hut, acting suspiciously the whole way.

Without needing a discussion, they moved to the door. Harry knocked.

"Eh? Who's there?" came Hagrid's voice, before the door opened a tiny crack – just enough for one eye to peer through.

When he saw them, the big man sighed and opened the door wider for them to enter, then closed it with a suspicious glance outside.

The inside of the hut was stiflingly hot, the fire blazing despite the warm weather. Something was definitely up.

Harry and Hermione started asking Hagrid questions about Fluffy and about what else might be guarding the Philosopher's Stone – more as a distraction than because they thought he'd tell them anything more. Meanwhile, she and Neville poked about the hut, trying to find what he was hiding.

The obvious first place to look was the roaring fire, where...

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" she asked Neville in a low voice.

"I guess so, if you're seeing an egg sitting in the fire."

They moved back to the others, confident they'd found Hagrid's secret.

Hermione had managed to flatter Hagrid into revealing which professors had contributed to the security – a list that included both of their suspects.

At the first opportunity, Donna spoke up.

"Hagrid, why is there an egg in your fire?"

Hagrid's eyes went comically wide, as if he'd honestly thought he could have kept it from them. "Egg?" he tried. "Wha' egg? There's no egg."

Donna coughed. "These are not the droids you are looking for?" she muttered, low enough that Hagrid didn't hear her, although she could see Hermione smothering a laugh from the corner of her eye. Then she spoke up again. "Yes, there is, Hagrid. The question is, what is it doing there?"

Hagrid sighed and slumped a little. "Fine. It's a dragon egg. I'm tryin' ta hatch it."

Donna stared. So did the other three.

"Wait, no, sorry. I thought you said... dragon egg, and hatching, in the same sentence. Tell me I misheard."

The indignation on Hagrid's face was sign enough that she had not, in fact, misheard.

"Hagrid!" Hermione said. "You live in a wooden house!"

Donna shook her head. She wasn't feeling very much like an 11-year-old at the moment, but neither was she the DoctorDonna. Instead, she was channeling her grown-up self, the one that had children of her own.

"That's not even the main issue here. Hagrid... you live next to a school!

The half-giant crossed his arms defensively.

"Yeh, so? I can control it!"

"Can you?" Donna asked. "Can you really? I know that dogs – gentle, loving, doting dogs – can hurt the people in their families sometimes. There's more than one account of a dog playing with a toddler, and when the toddler runs away some ancient instinct wakes up and sees 'prey'. And that's just dogs, who've had the wild bred out of them for as long as humans have domesticated animals.

"You want to hatch an actual wild creature near a school full of prey. I'm sorry, Hagrid, but you'll have to find a better solution. I'm not letting you endanger students' lives just because you have an underdeveloped sense of danger. Either you get rid of that egg, or I -will- tell someone in charge. We all love you, but if you can't prioritize the safety of students over your pet projects, perhaps you should think really carefully whether you have the right job."

Hagrid's eyes filled with tears, and for a moment she felt bad about her words. Not enough to rescind them, though. He needed to know that you just didn't do something like that with children nearby, it was a recipe for disaster. As he sat down heavily on one of his overlarge chairs, Neville took over the conversation.

"Where did you get a dragon egg, anyway? I'm fairly sure that's illegal."

"Oh, er... a chappie down the pub had it. I won it off 'im in a game o' cards. Seemed mighty keen ta get rid of it, though."

"That seems... unlikely," Donna said. "Am I the only one who thinks that's just a bit suspicious? What did this guy look like?"

"I dunno, he kept his hood up the whole time. The Hog's Head, not the best place. There's always a couple o' people there don't want ta be known."

"Better and better," Donna muttered.

Harry was also starting to look a bit suspicious. "So a person you don't know, who could be anyone, just happens to start a card game with someone who just happens to have wanted a dragon since they were small – don't deny it, you told me the first time we met. You... didn't mention Fluffy, did you?"

Hagrid scratched his beard, thinking about the question. "Oh, well... there were a few drinks involved, yeh know, but let's see... He said something about raisin' a dragon bein' a responsibility, so I said, well, it's all about knowin' how ta calm 'em. Take Fluffy, for example. Play 'im a bit of music an' he's docile like a little lamb."

Horrified stares answered that statement. Hagrid shifted uneasily. "I... should not have said that..."

Hermione rallied first. "You told a complete stranger how to get past the guard dog?"

"Well, I mean... I guess? But it's not like I said what kind o' dog he is!"

Donna rubbed her temples. She could feel a headache coming up.

"Ok, it might not be that bad yet. I hardly think our thief is going to make a bid for the Stone while Dumbledore's still in the castle, but he does know how to get past the first obstacle now. The more pressing concern right now is the living fire hazard you want to raise. What's it going to be, Hagrid?"

It took some more talks after that, and Donna never knew if it was out of genuine concern for the students or because he realised she'd meant what she'd said, but in the end Hagrid agreed to contact a dragon reserve, to give 'little Norbert' the life he deserved.

The reserve answered quickly enough. They could come and collect the dragon, but only after it was born. If the egg was transported while at a critical stage, it would not hatch. There was nothing for it but to wait for the dragon to come out before they could get rid of it.

Of course, witnessing such an event was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so when Harry received a note during dinner saying 'It's now!', they quickly scarfed down their food and practically ran to Hagrid's hut. The egg was sitting on the table, and they were just in time to see the first cracks appearing.

Slowly the cracks grew wider, until a little bit of eggshell fell down. In the hole it left, they could see a tiny elongated snout, already filled with rows of teeth, pushing to widen the hole. Very soon the dragon's head was poking out and it was pushing with its shoulders and scrabbling with its tiny claws, until finally it fell out of the egg and onto the table.

"Aww, look at 'im," Hagrid sniffed. "He's perfect!"

The tiny dragon was exploring along the table. Then it lifted its snout into the air, stood still for a moment... and sneezed, a full-body sneeze that started deep in its belly and ended with a puff of smoke escaping its mouth.

"It's... cute, I guess," Donna said, although judging by the expression worn by the others, they didn't quite agree with that assessment. "Too bad it doesn't stay that way. When are the dragon people here?"

"Oh, err... I owled 'em today tha' it's hatchin', so... what with prep'rations an' that, prob'ly some time this week. I'll let ya know when, an' you can come visit any time before then, o'course."

Neville suddenly sat up from where he'd been looking at the dragon. "What's that?" he asked, looking at the window. "I think I saw someone!"

Harry rushed over and looked outside. "It was Malfoy!" he said. "Did he see the dragon?"

"Let's work from the assumption that he did," Donna replied. "Good thing the arrangements are already in place. Now we can only hope they come sooner rather than later. The sooner Norbert is on his way, the easier I will rest."

As they walked back to the castle, Donna thought about Malfoy. Probably he'd seen their scramble to get to Hagrid's hut, and had followed them for reasons of his own, likely to get them into trouble, which seemed to be a hobby of his. Could she use that penchant of his?

"Hey," she asked the other three, "how about we play a little prank on our ferrety friend?"

"Go on," Harry said slowly. As she explained her plan, a wide grin started forming on all of their faces.

"Let's do it!"