"Don't say that again!"

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Guys, first year is so close to end. We be moving onto second year soon! Anyways, enjoy!

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Harry's POV

Every time we passed the third-floor corridor, the four of us would press our ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever I'd passed Quirrell I gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.

Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Stone. She'd started drawing up study schedules and colour coding her notes. Me and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away."

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you're already good."

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

"Hermione, calm down, it'll be fine." (Y/N) assured her.

"No it -- you need to revise too! Herbology isn't looking good for you (Y/N)."

"I know that Hermione." (Y/N) replied, sighing, "but I'm an average student on that subject! I don't get why I need to learn how to control these crazy plants."

"Herbology is useful."

"I'll just ask Neville to help me. He's good at it."

The teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They gave us so much homework, that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood. Moaning and yawning, (Y/N), Ron and I, spent most of our free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window.

I was looking up "Dittany" in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, until I heard Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St--"

"Shhhh!" Hagrid 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 Stone apart from Fluffy--"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid 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 ter know. They'll think I've told yeh--"

"See you later, then," I said.

Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully.

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

"I'm going to see what section he was in," said (Y/N). She then took sight of Ron, who was groaning about the work. "Want to come with? Ron?"

He looked at her gratefully and together, they walked out to the shelves Hagrid had neen hiding behind.

They both came back a minute later with a pile of books in their arms and slammed them down on the table.

"Dragons!" Ron whispered. "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."

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," I said,

"But it's against our laws," said (Y/N). "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." Ron finished.

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" I asked.

"Of course there are," said Ron. "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."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.

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

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

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

"Yes, we were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy." I added.

Hagrid frowned at me.

"O' course I can't," he said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That 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, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. We all beamed at Hermione.

"Well, 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 -- " he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell -- an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?"

"Yeah -- yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything -- except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.

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

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.

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

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. I noticed him glance at the fire.

"Hagrid -- 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 Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's -- er..."

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."

"Won it," said Hagrid. "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 with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.

"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 recognise diff'rent eggs -- what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.

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

But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.

So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed, as evening after evening they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting. Hermione had now started making revision time-tables for Ron, (Y/N) and I.

Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought me another note from Hagrid. He had written only two words: It's hatching.

(Y/N) wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut, as did Ron. Hermione wouldn't hear of it.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" Ron asked.

"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing--"

"Shut up!" I whispered.

Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen. How much had he heard? I didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all.

Ron and (Y/N) argued with Hermione all the way to Herbology and in the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with the other two during morning break.

When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the four of us dropped our trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted us, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." He ushered us inside.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside.

We all drew their 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 onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; I thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils and orange eyes.

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

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!" said Hagrid.

"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face -- he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.

"What's the matter?"

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains -- it's a kid -- he's runnin' back up ter the school."

(Y/N) bolted to the door and looked out.

She came back out looking horrid.

"Malfoy." she stated, coldly.

Third Person POV

Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy's face during the next week made Harry, Ron, Hermione and (Y/N) very nervous. They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.

"Just let him go," Harry urged. "Set him free."

"I can't," said Hagrid. "He's too little. He'd die."

"Give him away to someone. Someone who knows how to handle dragons!" (Y/N) said, desperately.

They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," said Hagrid, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Where's Mummy?"

"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered in Harry's ear.

"Hagrid," said Harry loudly, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."

Hagrid bit his lip.

"I -- I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

Harry suddenly turned to Ron. "Charlie." he said.

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

"No -- Charlie -- your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!"

"Brilliant!" said Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"

In the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.

(Y/N)'s POV

The following week dragged by. On Wednesday night, Ron and I decided we go down to Hagrid's hut and feed Norbert, with the Invisibilty cloak, of course.

"Here." Ron said, coming out of the dormitories and handing me the cloak.

He was much taller than I was, so when we put on the cloak, it was quite easy for me to hold on and walk.

"Thanks. Let's go!" I whispered as he draped the cloak over the two of us.

We walked out of the portrait hole and ran down the stairs. We eventually made it to his hut and knocked thrice. He opened the wooden, creaky door and let us in. The same heated feeling hitting both mine and Ron's face as we desperately took the cloak off. The heat punching us, hard all over.

"Where is it?" Ron asked, holding the cloak back.

The dragon was now a lot larger, but still the same rough skin.

"Thank yeh fer helpin' me. Not many would want ter when I have such a dragon. People get scared, see?" Hagrid commented, handing a crate with dead rats. I scrunched my nose in disgust as Ron took the crate.

"Better hope Scabbers doesn't come down here, Ron." I added, taking a pair of gloves that were way too big for my delicate hands.

"Don't say that again!" Ron whimpered, though firmly.

"I was -- joking. Anyway, of course we'd help you Hagrid." I said, as I held the dead rat by its tail (with the gloves) and gave it to the dragon.

"Yeah, we'll always help." Ron said, as he fed yet another rat to Norbert. Ron wasn't wearing gloves so when his hands came in contact with it's skin, it snapped back and bit him.

"Ron!" I yelled,

"Ow!" he shouted, waving his hand frantically.

"Are yeh OK?!" Hagrid asked.

"No! It -- it bit me!" he said, as I came over and grabbed his hand. It was a nasty bite and it was bleeding rapidly.

"Not yeh. Norbert!" Hagrid yelled, going over to the dragon.

"Norbert?! Hagrid, Norbert bit Ron!"

"Yeh scared it, Ron." Hagrid said, waving a hand at Ron whilst accompanying the dragon, "It's OK, Norbert. Mummy's here."

Ron looked sick, green in the face. I ran around the hut to find something to help. My eyes caught sight of a handkerchief and I immediately wrapped it around his hand.

"It bit me! It -- Hagrid, that dragon's dangerous!" Ron whined,

"It's misunderstood, yeh scared him." he replied. Me and Ron exchanged looks as Hagrid started picking the dragon up and singing it a lullaby.

"Come on, we're leaving." Ron demanded, grabbing my hand with his un-wounded one and dragging me out.

"Wait! The cloak!" I whispered, grabbing it back and draping it over us. It was much harder to do because with Ron's hand injured, and him being taller, I had to outstretch my arm and carry it for the two of us as we marched back into the castle.

"Ron.. let's go to the Hospital Wing, Madame Pomfrey'll fix you up. Come on, Ron!"

"No, what if she knows what dragon bites are? We'll be done for." he said, sadly.

"But the handkerchief is getting bloodied up, Ron. Please!" I urged.

"No, (Y/N), we'll both get caught. Besides, how are we supposed to explain why we're out of bed?" he replied.

"I -- Ron we'll -- we'll figure something out! We -"

"You're stuttering. Come on, Gryffindor towers just there."

I muttered the password and walked into the portrait hole, taking the cloak off and throwing it at Harry, who seemed to be wide awake.

"It bit me!" Ron said, showing them his 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 we left, he was singing it a lullaby."

"Ron, please go to the Hospital Wing." I pushed onwards

"No, I told you (Y/N), it'll be fine."

There was a tap on the dark window.

"It's Hedwig!" said Harry, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"

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

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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

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"We've got the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It shouldn't be too difficult - I think the cloaks big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."

By the next morning, Ron's bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. He didn't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey -- would she recognise a dragon bite? By the afternoon, though, he had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. I was getting much more worried about it, and it looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous.

Harry, Hermione and I rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Ron in a terrible state in bed.

"It's not just my hand," he whispered, "although that feels like it's about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He 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 him at the Quidditch match, that's why he's doing this."

We tried to calm Ron down.

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," said Hermione.

"Midnight on Saturday!" he said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no oh no -- I've just remembered -- Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."

I didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made us leave, saying Ron needed sleep.

"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry told us. "We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl, and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that."

We found Fang, the boarhound, sitting outside with a bandaged tail when we went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to them.

"I won't let you in," he puffed. "Norbert's at a tricky stage -- nothin' I can't handle."

When we told him about Charlie's letter, his eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg.

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

The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle. The three of us walked back to the castle feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough.

When Saturday did come, me and Hermione waited by the common room for Harry to come down. Eventually he did.

"The cloak, it'll fit the three of us fine, let's go."

"Harry, I don't think the cloak will fit the three of us." Hermione said.

Harry stared blankly at her.

"It's fine," I whispered, "you two go. I'll wait for you here."

In the end, Harry and Hermione went off as I seated myself on one of the Gryffindor sofas, infront of the fire.

Not long after, someone came trotting down from the boys' dormitories. I jumped from my place on the sofa and pulled out my wand. The person stood frozen into place, scared of my wand pointed at them. It was Neville. I sighed and let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding and put my arm back down again.

"Neville? Oh, you gave me such a fright. What are you doing?" I asked.

"Nothing! I -- where's Harry?" he asked, very quickly.

"Uh -- he's not on the dorms?"

"No! It's not true, is it?"

"What's not true?"

"That Harry's got a dragon and he's trying to send it off!"

I panicked. How did he know this? My palms were now sweating but I kept my composure.

"What? That's ridiculous, Neville. Who told you such a tale?" I lied.

"No one! I heard Malfoy talking about it! We have to warn him! I heard he was saying it was in Hagrid's hut! And he was going to bring one of the teachers to catch him in the act and.. and --"

"Neville! Calm down.. it's not true!"

"Then where is he?" he asked, twiddling his thumbs.

"He -- he's talking to a teacher." I told him, but I knew he wasn't convinced.

"I'm going, I'm going to warn him!"

"No, Neville! It's a lie! Malfoy's probably trying to trick you, Neville!" I yelled after him, grabbing his arm, "if you go and get caught for something as stupid as this --"

But he'd already left. I was debating to myself whether I should go or not, but I didn't have any cloak of my own, and Malfoy with a teacher, it wouldn't be safe for myself as well as the rest of Gryffindor house. It'll also prove that there is a dragon, and we'll all be forced to tell the truth. In the end, I just walked back up to my dorm and went back to sleep.

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I think, we'll have about 3-4 chapters left of first year, and then we go on to meet young Tom Riddle. Bye!

Word Count: 3881