THC

House: Ravenclaw

Class: Head of House

Category: Standard

Prompt(s) chosen: [Event] Robbery, [Location] Dragon Reserve in Romania

Word Count: 1032

Notes: I thought it would be fun to create a story on how Norbert/Norberta ended up with Quirrell for him to give to Hagrid. This is an AU. And I made up the character named Andrei. Use of the crucio curse.

Someone You Wouldn't Want To See

Quirrell knew he needed to find a way past the wretched dog. His Master had been growing tired of Quirrell's failed attempts. The big oaf that they'd hired to watch the grounds surely knew of a way to tame the creature, and while Hagrid had a big mouth, Quirrell needed to be strategic about it. No one could know that the Dark Lord was back and that Quirrell was working with him. It would ruin everything.

Due to the half-giant's large mouth, Quirrell had overheard many conversations about how much Hagrid wished he could own a dragon. So, Quirrell put his brilliant mind to use and thought of a plan on how to get a dragon's egg.

Over winter break, Quirrell flew to Romania. The Dark Lord had some ties there and Quirrell knew that there was a Dragon Reserve. He met up with a local Romanian man, Andrei, who followed the Dark Lord into a bar close to the Reserve. The table was sticky with stale beer and the lighting was so dimly lit that Quirrell could barely see his own fingers. Condensation ran down the side of his glass and onto the table, the lack of coasters made Quirrell cringe. He hadn't even touched his drink, but Andrei happened to be on his second glass.

"You know my fee," the man said after Quirrell told him the plan. "I won't do it for any less."

Quirrell sighed and handed him a bag filled with coins, "I'll give you the rest when I have the egg."

Andrei smirked as he admired the money, "Any egg?"

"Yes, any egg will do."

Quirrell watched as Andrei slipped out of his seat with his belongings and walked up to the bar. He could only pick up on a few Romanian words but saw Andrei hand the bartender a few coins and leave the bar. Quirrell stared at his own drink, the smell of the alcohol made his head dizzy, as he waited for Andrei to return.

It had been entirely too easy for Andrei to slip into the reserve unnoticed. Of course, they had every magical guard known to man, but they hadn't planned for the possibility of someone just walking into the place. Andrei had grown his business without the use of magic, that way he could rob from both the magical and non-magical. Any money was good money to him.

Dragon's roared in the distance as he snuck from building to building. The signs had spells on them to appear in the reader's native language, so Andrei read them all in Romanian. He found his way to the nursery where rows of Dragon eggs were lined up under magical incubators. They were for the eggs that the reserve had received from donators. The ones that couldn't be handed over to an actual dragon just yet.

He spent time watching the rotating spells around the eggs, deciphering what type of magic he would need to disable them, but before he could decide, someone walked into the building, and Andrei hadn't been fast enough to hide from the worker.

"Who are you?" The worker pointed his wand at Andrei. He spoke in English and had vibrant red hair.

"Probably not someone you want to see," Andrei spoke in English as well before he pulled out his own wand. He then cast the crucio curse on the man causing a yell to echo through the building.

"Stop," The red-haired man uttered out between pants of pain.

Andrei stopped, waited for the man to stand back up, and casted the spell again. While the man was distracted Andrei stuck his hand into one of the pods and grabbed an egg. It had been difficult with one hand, but he managed. He didn't sense any magical effects and ran before the worker could recover from the spell.

Charlie had offered to do the rounds, a routine he did ever so often. Check-in on the dragons and the nursery making sure everything was taken care of. He never expected to walk into the nursery and see a strange man in the corner. His hands shook as he drew his wand, and yet his job required him to be quick on his feet. Instead of firing off a spell, Charlie had the brilliant idea to ask the man who he was, because that would surely derail a criminal.

In an instant, Charlie fell to the ground in pain. He had heard stories about the crucio curse and the pain it dealt but he could never have imagined it. They had trained him to deal with intruders, but no one ever thought that it would actually happen. Dragons were dangerous even if you knew how to care for them. He certainly didn't think someone would use an Unforgivable curse just to steal one dragon egg. The man slipped away while Charlie writhed in agony. He tried to run after him once the spell wore off, but Charlie's legs didn't want to move.

When he finally got up, someone had already been on their way to find him. They searched the reserve the entire night but couldn't find a trace of the man.

Quirrell let out a small noise of surprise when Andrei walked back into the bar. The man's arm that held the egg had turned a sickly yellow color.

"What happened?" Quirrell couldn't heal him if he didn't know what caused the reaction.

"I got you your egg, that's all that matters," Andrei spat out. "Now, hand over the rest of the money."

Quirrell did as the man asked but grabbed a cloth to wrap the egg in. He wasn't sure if the egg or something else caused the spell on Andrei's arm and he didn't want to see for himself. Andrei left the bar without another word and Quirrell wasn't about to ask him to stay. He left the bar himself and found a place to apparate away from Muggle eyes. Now all he had to do was get the information he needed and give Hagrid the dragon egg. He just hoped that it would work or else he'd be stuck with a dragon he couldn't care for.