Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought.

The trio scoffed at that, while many people who had been taught by him laughed.

In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner,

Harry flinched slightly at that, having a very good guess why Quirrell had been like that. Voldemort had probably been getting impatient and angry and had been punishing the man; Harry knew how painful Voldemort's punishments were.

Whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.

Harry and Ron groaned, both of them having forgotten that they had done that.

Harry and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

"It's not that we didn't appreciate the help, but neither of us revise the same way you do," Harry said, Ron nodding along in agreement.

"Yeah, I know," Hermione agreed. She had worked that out by the end of first year and had finally finished working out how they studied best about half-way through third year; she had been able to draw up study schedules for them that suited their way of study after she had done that, which they both had admitted helped, even though they complained.

"Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it all."

"That's true," many in their year agreed, causing Hermione to blush.

They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me..."

"You became friends with us?" Harry suggested.

"You became friends with Harry?" Ron suggested at the same time, getting a "Hey," from Harry. Hermione giggled.

"Yeah, that's probably it,' she agreed, making Harry pout playfully.

The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

"Why didn't you study outside?" Remus asked. Both Ron and Harry pointed at Hermione who shrugged; she knew she had been very uptight in first year.

"We started doing that in second year though," Harry added.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once.

"Of course, it did," Mrs Weasley said with a sigh.

They'll think I've told yeh—"

"He … kind of did," Neville said slowly.

"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough of working.

"Smart."

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

"With my luck, I honestly should have seen it coming," Harry said, sighing.

"Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709,

"Good thing too. Imagine trying to keep the Statute of Secrecy if witches and wizards had dragons as pets," Kinglsey said, his words getting a shudder from Amelia and Moody.

everyone knows that."

Many people gave Ron weird looks at that. The rest of the Weasley siblings were looking the hall in some aspect of confusion, even Percy, while Charlie grinned.

"Is that not common knowledge?" Ginny asked.

"No," Neville said slowly, staring at the many Weasleys around him.

"I don't think any other family had a rehearsed speech that was used at least once a week about why we can't have a pet dragon," Bill said after a moment of thought.

"Who wanted a dragon?" Remus asked. Fred, George, Lee, Ginny, Bill, Mr Weasley, Mrs Weasley, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Tonks all pointed at Charlie, who grinned sheepishly.

"All of us could recite mum's rant about why dragons aren't pets," Fred said.

"Even those who aren't family can," George agreed, specifically gesturing towards Tonks and Lee; Charlie had already moved out by the time Harry and Hermine visited, so they hadn't gotten to hear the speech like the other two had, especially Tonks.

"We can show you if you want," they offered, making a big show of puffing themselves up to start a rant.

"Maybe later boys. We're in the middle of something," Mr Weasley said.

You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

Many people in the hall turned to look at Charlie, whose short sleeve t-shirt displays the numerous burns he had scattered along his hands and forearms.

Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate.

Harry grimaced slightly as he started sweating slightly. It was barely there and would be unnoticeable to anyone else, but it was sort of uncomfortable, especially since the book hadn't affected him for a few chapters.

"Number one, I don' know meself.

"For a good reason," Pomona said. No matter how caring the gentle man was, everyone on the staff knew that he struggled to keep a secret, especially from his friends.

"We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

"Flattery," George said.

"Nice," Fred said.

Look, Snape helped protectthe Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

"Yeah, because that theory worked well," Ron said, rolling his eyes.

If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it.

"That's probably how he did it," the trio said, nodding, although they were referring to the real thief.

Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"And he didn't think that was suspicious?" Remus muttered. He knew that Hagrid was a kind soul, but he was very naive at times as well.

"Having a dragon is illegal," Umbridge exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

"What proof do you have? He doesn't have a dragon," Harry said. He knew that, technically, Malfoy could inform them that Hagrid had had a dragon, but it was four years ago, so he would have no proof, especially since Hagrid had gotten rid of Norbert soon enough.

"The book is entirely truthful," Umbridge simpered.

"And yet you still don't have any proof. You can't tell anyone about the books, remember. And even if you could, he's already gone to Azkaban for something he didn't do, so that's punishment enough," Harry returned.

"Delores, sit down. Mr. Potter is correct when he says that you don't have any proof," Amelia said before turning to Harry. "What do you mean he went to Azkaban for something he didn't do?"

"Fudge had Hagrid sent to Azkaban when the Chamber of Secrets was opened because he, and I quote, 'had to be seen doing something'. It should be shown in the next book too," Harry replied, causing Fudge to pale slightly; only Hagrid, Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy had been there when it happened, so how did Harry Potter know why the gamekeeper had disappeared and what he had said when it happened?

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

"Yes, that would be a problem," Mr Weasley agreed.

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.

"At least they can't do anything about it now," Ron said.

"Yeah, thankfully," Harry agreed. They were both glad that Umbridge's attempt to do something had been stopped quite quickly.

"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed,

The trio all sighed and exchanged glanced.

"Still wondering," they all said. Remus sighed, his head dropping into his hands.

"I don't even want to know."

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

"It's extremely rare. I've never actually seen it," Charlie said. "Only about five people on the reserve have seen an egg hatch." Meanwhile, the rest of the multi-house group shifted in their seats, wondering if the trio would actually see it hatch.

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

"You actually saw it hatch. I am so jealous right now," Charlie moaned.

Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it.

The same clicking noise emerged from the book. Charlie was sitting on the edge of his seat, knowing that the dragonette was almost out.

The baby dragon flopped onto the table.

Fred withdrew the list and made a dramatic show of placing a large tick next to Ginny's suggestion that they wouldn't see a dragon hatch.

Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.

"Your descriptions are wonderful, Harry," Luna said. Harry smiled at the dreamy girl.

"Thank Luna."

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured.

"Ok, I have to agree. Compared to last year, Norbert was pretty cute," Harry said. Many people looked at him as if he was crazy, although Hermione and Ron tilted their heads in thought.

"I can see it," Ron agreed slowly.

"Especially compared to a nesting Horntail," Hermione agreed just as slowly.

"Charlie," he said.

"It wasn't even you?" Charlie asked Ron, who shrugged.

"We all know Harry does better under pressure. I plan better when I have time to think things through."

"But I'm your brother," Charlie said, emphasising your. "You'd mentioned me and my work to Harry, once, months ago."

"Harry remembers a lot of things."

Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!"

"Also, now that they know about my involvement, I thought I should tell you that Norbert is actually a girl. We call her Norberta."

"How do you know?"

"The females are more vicious," Charlie explained. The twins glanced at their younger sister before turning to Charlie.

"Are you sure that's just dragons?"

Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak.

"Did you skip Astronomy?" Tonks asked.

"What?"

"The book said you had Astronomy every Wednesday." The trio exchanged looks.

"Hermione wouldn't have let us miss a class," Ron said.

"I think the class was cancelled because of the weather. It was either raining really hard, or it was too cloudy to see anything," Harry said, straining his memory back to that part of first year.

"We had a shortened class. We had about ten minutes before the clouds became too much and it started raining, so she gave us reading and an essay before dismissing us," Hermione added.

Send me an answer as soon as possible.

Love,

Charlie

The Weasleys all turned to look at Charlie, who flushed, shifting under their gaze.

"What was going through your brain when Ron wrote to you and asked you to help transport a dragon?" Fred and George asked, each with one eyebrow raised.

"That we didn't have any Ridgebacks and it would be a new dragon species for the reserve," Charlie said. Mr Weasley sighed.

"Not the fact that it was illegal for a dragon to be at Hogwarts?" Charlie shrugged.

Harry glanced towards Mrs Weasley, having expected her to have been the one to question Charlie, or to have at least said something about them being in contact with a baby dragon. He noticed that her mouth was moving, as if she was in the middle of a rant, but no sound coming out, and assumed that one of the Weasleys had silenced her.

"It shouldn't be too difficult—I think the cloaks big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."

"Well, considering it covered all four of us…" Remus trailed off and Harry grinned.

"I didn't know that then, did I?" he asked cheekily.

It looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous.

"Ridgebacks do have venom. I didn't know how early they got it though," Charlie said, paling; he knew how potent a Ridgeback's venom was when they were fully matured and hoped that the Ridgeback's age would mean it wasn't anywhere near as dangerous.

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

"Of course, she didn't believe you. You should have said it was one of the plants in the greenhouse, but you didn't see which one and that it had only swelled up overnight," Neville said.

"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."

"Why was it in a book?" Luna asked.

"I was rereading it, to make sure I remembered all the details, so I could get rid of it, when Madame Pomphrey came over to check on me, so I stuffed it in a book so she wouldn't see. I forgot about it until these two came."

"An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

"Oh, that's what that was. We all wondered."

Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

Many people around the hall who had been at the school that year started exchanging looks, working out what that night was, now that it was mentioned that Malfoy had been caught.

"You know, I think my question is going to be answered," Katie said quietly to Angelina and Alicia, who she was sitting with.

"I think it's basically answered already," Angelina replied.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin!

"I forgot it was only twenty," Hermione said, resting her head on the back of the couch.

"Only twenty," Neville said, not having heard how many points Draco had lost.

"So unfair," Harry sighed.

Come on—I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

Minerva rubbed her temples, sighing. How was she meant to know that he had been telling the truth. Sitting a few places over, Severus remembered how cranky he had been when Minerva had woken him up because of Draco, especially after he heard what Draco had been saying.

"Don't," Harry advised her.

"Because you were carrying an illegal dragon?" Fred asked.

"Or because she can't sing?" George asked.

"Um, both," Harry replied. Hermione elbowed him but didn't say anything; she knew she couldn't sing; none of them could, which was why the flute had come in handy.

Charlie's friends were a cheery lot.

Harry tilted his head, looking over at Tonks. He had thought she looked familiar.

"Did you have long, dark purple hair a couple of years ago?" he asked. Tonks blushed and nodded, having hoped that no one would work out that she had been part of the group transporting the dragon; she had been going to visit Charlie at the time ad had been happy to help out.

They'd left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.

"Rooky mistake," Remus said, shaking his head.

"I know," Harry groaned.

"Totally understandable though. We forgot the cloak in situations that were a lot less stressful than smuggling a dragon. And we had used it a lot more than you," Remus said. Harry nodded, while internally laughing at that; they had probably only used it more than him because his dad had had it the whole year, while he had only gotten it at Christmas; he had snuck out almost every night with the cloak for one prank or another the first few weeks back since he couldn't sleep and had kept up the pranking at least once a week until Norbert, well, Norberta, had hatched.