TW for slight reference of attempted sexual assault at the beginning.

"Yesterday afternoon, The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office had issued a statement that…."

Edythe had put Violet to bed before cleaning up the dishes and cups with a flick of her wand as the radio had droned on. Taking a deep breath as she walked into the parlor where her brother was.

"It's been a few months, and even if Violet has two years yet, this house is still quiet without Andrew," Edythe mused as she sits in her usual seat by the fireside.

"Wait until he returns from school," Remus points out with a smile. "Then it wouldn't be so quiet."

Edythe nodded, and as she reached the book she had left on the table, there was a distinct rattling from the stairs. She froze, feeling the blood drain from her skin as she could only guess what the source of such disturbance was.

At this point, Remus had turned his concerned eyes to his. "I could take care of it," he offered.

Edythe could understand why her younger brother made the offer. To go seek out the boggart instead of her. To spare her from any distress he thinks she might feel. If she doesn't confront her demons, however, she might not grow.

"No, let me," Edythe choked as she stands up. Swallowing repeatedly. "I can do this, Remus."

Remus nods, though she can feel his gaze of uncertainty as she climbed up the stairs. Perhaps registering her quickening breath and her shaking hands. Why did werewolves have to sense one's emotions?

Her swallow was painful, as if a Golden Snitch was forced down her throat while she reached the landing. Darting her eyes around the upstairs corridor as she made the trek to the wardrobe in the corner.

Clutching the wedding band that she wore around her neck with a clammy hand for support as she drew closer. Hoping and praying for Violet not to wake up. With each breath she took, it was as if it was getting harder to even breathe.

When reaching the wardrobe, the pulse became prominent in her throat. Gripping her black walnut wand so tightly that it could have snapped in half it wanted to. The cold sweat running down her neck as the door open slowly. Her shallow breathing audible in her ears as she sees the pale white, clawed hand poke out.

It's just a boggart, Edythe thinks as she closes her eyes. Just a boggart. It's not actually him.

She remembered the time when she asked her mother why her boggart took the form it did. Why it was some big and scary man. Only for her mother to speak on how she was nearly assaulted on her way home after visiting a friend. How the only reason he didn't go through with it was that he heard a couple passing the street.

Oh, how Edythe envied her. Envying her for not feeling the hopelessness and filth to the extent that Edythe herself thought days and weeks after her escape.

Unwittingly, she forces herself to the present with a big exhale. Opening her eyes to see the form of the red-eyed man who was the source of her pain and sorrow. Her mouth was now dry at the sight of it.

"You think that you can move past all that," he taunted as he advanced towards her. Edythe taking back steps as her chest and windpipe closed. "Don't let this false sense of security deceive you, Edythe. I will find you when I come back, and when I do, you'll wish that I have ended your pathetic, miserable life. You're going to wish that you'd be six feet under the earth instead of watching me groom her for her place by my side."

It's as if her heart is about to burst from her chest as she closes her eyes again. Trying to breathe, as painful as it may be. To bring her back to earth. To the present.

Just a boggart, she thinks. Just a boggart. He's not real. He's not real.

She doesn't open her eyes as she raises her wand with a shaking hand. "Riddikulus!" she rasps.

After the seconds drag, does she open her eyes and sees a tiny Jack-in-the-Box at her feet. Her back hits the wall as she swallows back a sob. Sliding down the wall as she covered her mouth as she tasted the salty tears in her mouth.

Everything shaking around her as the tears streamed down her face.

Only choosing to look up when she feels a hand on her shoulder.

"Here." Offered to her could be none other than a bar of chocolate. "Aftershock stemming from a panic attack. Always the worst."

Edythe looks at the chocolate bar in her hand. Hand trembling. Oh, how their mum would give them either a bar of chocolate or hot chocolate to comfort them should she and Remus have that nightmare of the beast coming into their bedroom through the window.

Mum.

Edythe buries her face into her brother's chest. Allowing him to wrap his arms around her in an embrace. Even if Edythe was glad that her mum wasn't alive to know what had happened to her, but now, she'd give anything to have her back.

Fortunately, Quirrell did not seem to be getting past the dog soon. He was, however, growing increasingly thinner and paler in the following weeks. As if the stress of such a mission was sucking the life out of him. Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Victoria, Andrew, Harry, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside.

Except that wasn't all that Victoria was doing.

"One of us has to tail him," Victoria said. "It can't be any of the four of you."

"What if you get caught, though?" Ron had asked.

"Slytherin, remember?" Victoria points to the green and silver crest on her robes. "After all, Gryffindors aren't known for their self-preservation."

That didn't stop Hermione any. Hermione had asked her about how to cast the Disillusionment charm. The two of them would lurk outside the door for an hour every few days of the week. Only to come up empty.

Victoria didn't tell them that she told Eridani. That Eridani had been trailing him as well. And she, too, had been coming up empty.

"What's taking him so long? I mean, if he has the rest of the year to do it," Eridani said, scratching her head as they walked to class one afternoon.

"I don't know, but he was planning something," Victoria noted. Not only did Quirrell seemed to know what to do, but it was that she didn't know what it was that bothered her. What was he planning to get past the dog? How was he going to do it?

However, it proved that she would have more than just Quirrell on her mind. With examinations coming up, Victoria had begun drawing up revision schedules and color-coding all her notes. Hermione did the same thing. A habit had brewed a string of complaints.

"Why do you have all those books?" Kevin demanded one afternoon, pointing to her pile of books and notes on one of the tables in the Slytherin common room. "We don't have our exams until June."

"If I don't start now, it's not going to be good," Victoria pointed out as she flipped through her Charms notes.

Outside Slytherin, Ron Weasley seemed to object.

"The exams are ages away."

"Not for the teachers," Victoria pointed out. "Ten weeks is not too long for them."

"For Flamel, it's even less," Hermione concurred. "It's like a second for him."

"We're not six hundred years old," Andrew retorted.

It was proven that the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as both Victoria and Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that they spent the Easter holidays revising and doing their homework. The first years weren't the only ones studying for their exams. The fifth years were revising for their O. (Ordinary Wizarding Level), and the seventh years their N.E. (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests). Alphard was rather unpleasant and had literally assigned detentions to anyone who he thought was disturbing his revising.

One seventh year even took to cursing people to the point where even Cassiopeia was among some of the Slytherins being sent to the hospital wing to recover.

Though Victoria seemed to have no trouble, it had taken a toll on some of her friends around her.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon when she was revising in the library with Andrew, Hermione, Harry, and Ron (Eridani, Kevin, and Millicent were absent. With Eridani possibly trying to tail Quirrell and the last two appearing to favor what the Weasley twins were up to instead of revising). Ron threw down his quill, and looked longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Victoria's eyes were glued to the Transfiguration notes that she had just taken during a recent class. Not even looking up until she heard Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Her eyes turned away from the parchment in front of her to see Hagrid shuffling into view. It wasn't so much that he looked out of place with his moleskin coat; instead, it seemed suspicious the way he was hiding something behind his back.

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

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago, before the Christmas holidays," 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," said Harry, "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," said Harry.

Hagrid shuffled off.

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

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

"If it is really that secret, I don't think that Dumbledore should have told him," Victoria pointed out. Not that Hagrid was a bad person, but so far, he seemed terrible at keeping secrets even if his life depended on it.

"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

"Dragons!" he 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."

"Mr. Malfoy has always said that Hagrid is rather reckless with creatures," Victoria pitched it. The whole "drunken savage who sets his hut on fire" was untrue. Though given his past ownership of the Cerberus and now this, the recklessness with creatures seemed to be accurate so far. "I mean, he would want a dragon if he bought Fluffy."

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "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."

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry.

"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?" asked Hermione.

While Victoria went off revising for her examinations with their four Gryffindor friends and with Kevin and Millicent pairing off to spy on the Weasley twins, Eridani was on her own. Standing outside Quirrell's office on the second floor.

Not that it was a job where she needed anyone. She'd draw less attention this way instead if she were with someone else.

Victoria hadn't dropped her in favor of Harry, Andrew, Ron, and Hermione. In fact, their friends on the Slytherin side had talked with them too, as well. Though, Eridani couldn't help but feel jealous.

No, she was not jealous of Ron and Andrew, but she found herself jealous of Hermione and Harry. Something that Eridani had felt bad about. For they were also her friends. It's not as if they liked her as Eridani did.

Eridani did like her. In fact, one day, she hoped that Victoria would be more than just a friend to her. She had liked Vic since their younger days. She loved the way her dark brown eyes lit up when she smiled. Her intelligence. Some of the things that made Victoria Victoria.

But the question was: did Vic feel the same way?

Where she came from, though, it was best to keep such feelings private. The family that raised her since she was one seemed just as intolerant of those with same-sex attraction as they were intolerant of those who were muggle-born or those not human. It was a threat to chances of continuing the family lines of pure-bloods.

She was sure that her parents, who were currently in Azkaban, would feel the same way.

As for Victoria, she didn't feel comfortable telling her. What if Victoria saw her as nothing more than a friend. She'd probably be uncomfortable if she knew that her feelings for her were beyond that.

"Hi, Eri."

Eridani looked to see that Neville Longbottom was walking in her direction. An armful of books and papers with him. "What are you waiting outside of Professor Quirrell's office?"

"Oh, I just want to ask him something," Eridani lied, scratching her neck. "A question I have on one of our recent assignments."

"Okay," Neville replied shyly. Giving her a smile before heading on his way. The moment he had left, did she slouch against the wall.

Neville Longbottom. Kind and sweet Neville, who had often found himself to be the victim of her sister's and cousin's cruelty. Neville, who didn't care if her parents and paternal Uncle incapacitated his parents just as long as she was nice.

Cassiopeia and Draco loved to say how he was a Squib who didn't fit in with the lions. Though, it would have to take some nerve to be friends with someone whose parents tortured yours.

The moment Eridani heard the doorknob turn, she cast the Disillusionment Charm that Victoria had taught her.

An hour later did Victoria, Hermione, Andrew, Ron, and Harry troop to Hagrid's. When Hagrid had let them in, it was as if Victoria had stepped into an empty cauldron over the fire.

It's a warm day, she thinks. He doesn't need to draw in the curtains and have a fire in the fireplace.

It didn't take long for Victoria to find an answer. For she happened to look at the fireplace again. Underneath the kettle, at the bottom of the fireplace, was a black egg.

Hagrid didn't even seem to notice her attention to the fire, for he was busy gathering up stoat sandwiches for their plates. All of which they refused.

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

"Yes," said Harry at once. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned at him.

"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. Victoria, Andrew, Harry, and Ron 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, " - an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape an' Professor Quirrell."

"Professor Quirrell?" asked Andrew. "I mean, we took Snape off the list, and Quirrell is acting rather suspicious coming to think about it."

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

Victoria knew Harry, Andrew, Ron, and Hermione were thinking the same as she was. Hagrid was pretty naïve to believe that someone who had been in on protecting the stone wouldn't know how the other teachers had guarded it. Quirrell would know everything, though he was planning on trying to get past Fluffy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy. aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry 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," Harry muttered to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid, glancing back at the fire. Taking Victoria's attention back to it.

Harry seemed to notice both their gazes, for he asked, ""Hagrid - what's that?"

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

He was going to breed it, here? In this wooden hut and risked getting kicked off school property? He had to be daft.

Hagrid looked pleased with himself, though Victoria exchanged a nervous glance with Hermione. She, too, seemed to understand the unfortunate ramifications of this scenario.

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

"You were expelled years ago, and this could very well get you sacked and without a home," Victoria pointed out. "They throw you out of the Hogwarts grounds."

"It would probably burn up this place before he gets sacked," mentioned Andrew.

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

"Did Quirrell do anything?" Victoria had managed to ask Eridani that night.

"He seemed twitchier when he left his office," Eridani answered as she flipped through her copy of Standard Book of Spells.

Quirrell's and her father's scheme, however, she had to push out of her mind for the moment. For there was this one other thing she had to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

Even as she referenced Transfiguration notes on how to do the Switching Spell.

Then, one morning after breakfast, as she and the Slytherins were on their way to History of Magic when she managed to catch a part of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Andrew's conversation.

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

"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!" Harry whispered.

He wasn't looking at Victoria, Eridani, Millicent, and Kevin. Instead, his eyes were both on Lavinia and Draco. Both of them are a few feet away from the Gryffindor quartet. Victoria had bitten her lip. She did not like the look on both their faces.

They must have heard everything.

At the end of History of Magic, Victoria bolted out of the castle for break and had just barely managed to catch up with her friends. Four of whom were already filing into the hut.

In the stifling hot hut, the six of them watched transfixed as the black egg cracked. As the baby dragon flopped onto the table after cracking the egg open. 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.

It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout, that Victoria and Andrew leaned back to not get their robes singed.

"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 mommy!" said Hagrid.

It was going to bite your fingers off, Victoria thought disgruntledly.

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

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

"What's the matter?"

"Two people was lookin' through the gap in the curtains – they are kids – they runnin' back up ter the school."

Victoria joined Harry, and bolted to the door, and looked out. With the conspiratorial glances that Draco and Lavinia gave each other in History of Magic, she had a feeling who they were. Even from a distance, there was no mistaking them.

Both Lavinia and Draco had seen the dragon.

"What are you and you're misfit of friends up to?" Lavinia had asked her one afternoon in the common room. Leering down from her pile of books as Victoria tried to revise.

You know, Victoria thinks impatiently. You are just baiting me.

"No, why would we be?" she snapped, slamming her book down with great force. "It's not like we want to be expelled."

Draco, on the other hand, was more upfront with her.

"Since you know about the gamekeeper having an illegal dragon, why don't you go to one of the teachers about it," Draco demanded when he caught her alone. "Professor Snape is literally you're guardian. One word to him, and it would be off the school grounds."

That's what Draco would have wanted. To get Harry, Ron, Andrew, and Hermione in trouble with Severus for helping Hagrid harboring a dragon. Even if that wasn't the plan. However, knowing Draco, that wouldn't be a satisfying victory.

As for Lavinia, Victoria knew that she too easily could have gone to Severus to report an illegal dragon on the grounds. That a student knew and failed to report it. The fact that Lavinia had that same smile as Draco's lurking on her face told it all.

While Draco aimed to get Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Andrew into trouble, this was Lavinia's revenge for Victoria standing up to her outside the library. As if she found the opportunity to finally get back at her.

Even Victoria's friends from Slytherin noticed.

"I think you should tell Severus," Millicent urged. "Otherwise, Lavinia or Draco are going to take it upon themselves to get you and our Gryffindor friends into trouble."

"We'd simply get into trouble for not speaking about it sooner," Victoria pointed out. Then lowering her voice in an imitation of Severus' drawl, "'May I ask why this wasn't bought to my attention sooner,' he say."

"Anyways, you have to find a way to get the dragon off the school grounds," said Kevin.

Fortunately, even if it served quite a challenge to convince Hagrid to let Norbert go, did they find it during their secret meetings. When Harry suddenly remembered about Ron's brother Charlie who was studying dragons.

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

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

That following week on Wednesday night, Victoria met up with Ron at night. Both of them lumbering crates full of dead rats across the bridge to the hut to feed Norbert (Ron having bought along Harry's Invisibility Cloak with him). Who was eating the dead rats by the crate.

"Abou' time!" Hagrid beamed at the sight of them. "'ittle guy is starvin'"

Perhaps starving was an understatement For the infant dragon inhaled the rats as they were giving them to him.

"Ouch!" Ron exclaimed. Tears streaming down his face as it turned red. He was holding his hand, and Victoria could see blood blossoming between his fingers.

"Yeh frightened 'im!" Hagrid exclaimed, gazing at the dragon as if it was the one that had gotten bit instead. "If yeh didn' move that fast, he wouldn' have snapped at yeh!"

Victoria had wrapped Ron's hand with a handkerchief that was in her pocket, and as they left, they heard Hagrid singing a lullaby to Norbert.

"He's mental, I tell you," Ron exclaimed as they traveled through the bridge under the Invisibility Cloak. "Mental."

"I think you need to go to the hospital wing, Ron," Victoria had urged, looking at the strained blood handkerchief.

"As if I'm going to explain that one easily," he moaned as they neared the castle.

The next day, however, Ron did wind up in the hospital wing. Unfortunately, she had heard it from Draco Malfoy of all people.

"I visited your friend in the hospital wing earlier," Draco noted during Charm, patting a book that was in front of him. "He said that a dog bit him, but it didn't look like it."

"Perhaps it was something scalier than a dog," Lavinia drawled, gazing pointedly at Victoria. As if to get her reaction.

When she, Andrew, Hermione, and Harry met with Ron at the hospital wing at the end of the day. Ron was in a terrible state.

"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."

"Lavinia has been trying to bait me with it," said Victoria. "Despite that, she already knows. Probably trying to get everyone else curious. This was her revenge for what I said outside the library."

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," said Hermione, as if trying to soothe him.

Ron, however, bolted up in the bed. Breaking into a sweat as horror etched on his face.

"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."

Victoria, Andrew, Harry, and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Ron needed sleep.

"I'm going to try to get that book from Draco," Victoria offered as they left the hospital wing. "Try and get it before he shares it with Lavinia."

"No, don't," Hermione urged. "It's only going to motivate her even more. What's to say he isn't sharing it with her at this moment while you're with us in the hospital wing?"

Victoria felt the blood drain from her face as she realized that Hermione had a point.

"It's too late to change the plan now," said Harry. "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."

Saturday couldn't come any sooner.