CHAPTER FOURTEEN Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback
Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought.
. . .
Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.
One Sunday, mid March, Aurora met up with Cedric at the Quidditch pitch. After some warm up ground exercises, they quickly mounted their brooms and ran some seeker drills. Cedric was teaching Aurora different tricks that he had learned from the last few years that he had been playing and what he had seen whenever his father took him to a professional match.
"Did you not go to the matches with them?" Columba asked, looking at her daughter.
Amice felt some of her old resentment of her father build back up at the question. She pushed it back down, and sighed, "No. It was boy's only days." Columba glared at her husband for a moment, she could see how much that hurt their daughter, and resolved to get more information out of her later - one way or another.
He watched as she performed every single trick perfectly the first time she tried them, without him ever even having to show her half of them.
They were having so much fun that they didn't even realize that they had ended up skipping lunch until the Weasley twins came out to the pitch with food for all four of them. The twins joined them in the air after their impromptu picnic, pelting bludgers at the two seekers. Aurora noticed that Fred was hitting more bludgers at Cedric, and swinging much harder than normal, especially for practice but she didn't know why.
"You seriously had no idea?" Alice asked, looking at Aurora dumbfounded.
"Even after hearing his conversation with George outside the train about how he thought you were cute," Marlene added.
"I had heard him and George talking about other girls too, so I just thought that he was a giant flirt," Aurora defended herself.
"To be fair," Fred chuckled, "I am a giant flirt." This caused several others to laugh and Ron and Ginny to fake gag.
Hours later the four of them walked into the nearly full Great Hall, earning stares from all four tables. Aurora ducked behind the twins in embarrassment at having almost the whole school look at her like that.
Peter looked confused, "Why are people staring? Lots of people come in for dinner late."
"Cedric was holding one hand and Fred was holding the other," Neville explained.
Cedric gave her a quick hug, causing Aurora to receive a death glare from the Ravenclaw table that went unnoticed by the girl herself, before heading off to join his friends at the Hufflepuff table.
Fred and George continued to shield Aurora as she quickly made her way over to her friends. Neville and Ron were staring at her incredulously, mouths open, and in Ron's case, food falling off the fork held halfway to his mouth. Hermione had a knowing smirk on her face.
"Chew your food Ron," George scolded. "No one wants to see that."
"Mom, Ron needs to learn better manners," Charlie announced from his spot on the floor where he was playing with Tonks.
"You've been flying all day?" Neville asked, to which Aurora just nodded, still too embarrassed to talk.
"With Cedric?" Hermione clarified, a knowing smile on her face, causing Aurora to glare at the witch, as well as earn a small glare from Fred too.
"You did that stuff on purpose didn't you?" Fred accused.
"Amice and I had a bet on who would ask Ro out first," Hermione smirked.
"You bet against me," Fred sighed, knowing now that Hermione was pointing out how Aurora liked Cedric to draw away from her liking him as well. It had sadly worked.
"I lost a lot of money off you," Amice glared at Fred. "I honestly thought that you would step up sooner, and with Cedric having a girlfriend…" she trailed off.
"She then lost a lot of money on when you two would become official," Hermione said. "And now she owes me more, cause I said before the end of the first book you two would be engaged."
The Marauders were howling with laughter, while Columba giggled at the predicament her daughter found herself in.
"Fred and George joined us at lunch time," Aurora mumbled. "They brought food out to us and the four of us had a picnic. Then we did some seeker drills with them too." Aurora quickly piled up her plate with food. She had worked up an appetite today, but she had had so much fun just flying for the fun of it, and not trying to win a game.
By the time dessert appeared on the table, Aurora had forgotten about most of her embarrassment. Hermione however quickly changed that when she whispered into her ear, "Cedric is looking at you again."
Fred tensed on the other side of Aurora, for the twins had called Lee over to sit next to the four first years. Aurora barely noticed however, she was focused on ignoring Hermione and enjoying her Treacle Tart that had appeared right in front of her.
"That's my favorite too," Lily said.
"It always appears right in front of her too," Alice laughed.
"The house elves learn quickly who likes what and who eats the most of what."
"We are just friends," Aurora whispered waspishly.
"For now," she replied, smugly.
Trying to change the subject quickly, Aurora blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "I want to cut my hair."
Neville and Fred both looked horrified at this. "Don't!" Fred commanded, making Aurora bristle. She hated being told what to do, especially in that tone, and that only solidified her resolve to cut her hair, even though she had only said it to change the subject.
"But it's so pretty," Parvati whined from several places down the table, she and Lavender had been listening in to their conversation.
"I can help if you want," Alicia said, who was sitting across the table from George. "I know how much of a nightmare long hair can be after flying for hours."
Katie and Angelina joined in the conversation as well as Lavender, and it was decided that that night they would do mini make-overs in the dorm for any Gryffindor girl who wanted one. After some convincing, Hermione agreed to have her nails and toe-nails painted.
"It was a really fun night," Hermione admitted. "We made it a yearly thing; one night where all the boys are banished to their dorms, unless they really want to join, and we all give each other make-overs. No one is pressured into anything, and it's all about treating ourselves and helping the younger years."
"That's a really good idea," Lily and Alice said. It was their last year but they might have to do something like that, to get everyone's minds off of the war, at least for one night.
"We eventually started including other houses," Aurora added. "We had to find a new location, and at first we used one of the unused classrooms on the third floor, but then we found this room, and it provided us with everything we could ever want and a lot of things that people didn't have with them at school."
"It was our way of trying to promote house unity," Amice said. "We included all four houses and there was a rule in place that once you stepped through the door all rivalries were put aside while in that room."
"It worked too," Ginny mentioned. "Once people left the room everything was back to normal for the people who didn't like each other, but while we were in that room everyone was treated the same."
The Professor's looked very interested in this. Maybe they could come up with something like this for everyone, not just the girls (and occasional boy who identified more feminine).
Aurora shocked everyone the next day with her new haircut, above her chin, with one side slightly shorter than the other, giving her a natural looking fresh off the broom look, and framing her face perfectly.
Aurora scrunched her face slightly and her hair receded, showing everyone in the room what the haircut looked like. "I always do my hair like this whenever I play Quidditch now," she said with a slight chuckle, mussing it up a bit with her hand, at the lustful look on Fred's face - he always had issues when her hair looked like this. "It's so much easier."
Fred was speechless when she walked into the common room before breakfast and insisted on escorting her to the Great Hall, where once again she was met with stares from many of the people there. Cedric was quick to greet her, Cho attached to his arm, telling her how much he liked the hair cut.
As March rolled into April, Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer's Stone.
. . .
"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped.
Sirius, Peter and James all shot an amused glare at Remus, while Severus, Alice and Marlene shot the same glare at Lily.
"That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."
. . .
Aurora, Neville and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.
The three time travelers gave an exaggerated shutter at the reminder.
"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon,
. . .
"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"
"I don't think I've ever seen Hagrid in the library before," said several of the students.
"I don't think I ever saw him in the library even when he was a student," Alastor grunted.
Hagrid shuffled into view,
. . .
"And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St—"
"Ron," James groaned, "don't go talking about it in public."
"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly
. . .
"Dragons!" he whispered.
Charlie perked up from where he was playing, "DRAGONS!" The five year old started clapping his hands, and a moving dragon figurine appeared in front of him. Aurora let out a laugh as the figure looked exactly like the one she had received of the Horntail right before the first task of the triwizard tournament.
"Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons!
. . .
You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
Molly let out a short whimper, she hated being reminded that her children worked dangerous jobs.
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Aurora.
. . .
"We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."
The Marauders shook their heads in disappointment. "That's not the way you get information out of Hagrid," James sighed.
"There are two tried and true methods," Sirius continued.
"One, butter him up," Remus elaborated.
"Or two, get him drunk," Peter finished.
Hagrid frowned at her.
. . .
Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
"Honestly probably half the school knew about Fluffy," Fred said with a laugh. Turning to Dumbledore, "Honestly you telling the whole school at the welcoming feast that it was off limits because it was dangerous was basically daring everyone to go see what it was."
Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment. "I see."
"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."
"Very well done Hermione," James and Sirius praised. While Remus and Peter were laughing.
Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words.
. . .
"Snape?" Neville asked, a frown on his face.
"Yeah — yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."
Several of the time travelers snorted, not because of Snape, but because Quirrell also helped guard it.
Aurora and Neville knew Ron and Hermione were thinking the same they were.
. . .
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.
"And anyone who's ever read any type of Greek mythology," Fred and Hermione both muttered under their breaths.
"Well, that's something," Aurora muttered to the others.
. . .
"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's — er…"
"Where did he get it?" The Marauders all whimpered.
"I don't know, but it's awfully suspicious," Lily said, looking thoughtful, as though she was putting pieces of a puzzle together.
Ron and Hermione looked from Lily to Aurora and started laughing. "You make that same face when you figure something out," they both said to Aurora.
"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," Neville added.
. . .
what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.
"He would most likely be sent to Azkaban," Amelia and Kingsley both said.
Only Sirius and Remus caught the flinches of the time travelers at the mention of the prison.
"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed, causing Neville to snort in amusement,
"I still wonder about that," Ron sighed.
as evening after evening they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Aurora and Ron, too. Neville had made his own with help from Hermione. It was driving them nuts.
. . .
Ron wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. Neville and Hermione wouldn't hear of it.
"But, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"
. . .
Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen. How much had he heard?
"All of it."
Aurora didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all.
. . .
They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath. The four of them might think Hagrid was crazy for trying to raise a dragon, but they knew that this was a once in a lifetime chance.
"It really is," Amos, Fabian and Gideon said.
"Nesting mother's are usually so protective of their eggs that even most dragon handlers at the reserves don't get to see a hatching," Regulus explained. He loved dragons too, although not as much as it was apparent Charlie Weasley did.
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; Aurora 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, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.
A picture of baby Norberta appeared in front of the group. "That's amazing," several people sighed.
"He's beautiful," Luna and Xenophilious said adoringly.
It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.
. . .
it's a kid — he's runnin' back up ter the school."
"Malfoy?" James and Sirius questioned.
"How long does he hold it over your heads?" Remus and Lily ask.
"A while," Aurora and Neville answer.
Aurora bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him.
. . .
Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."
"Or his father," Neville groaned.
Hagrid bit his lip.
. . .
Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!"
"That's a rather good idea," Andromeda said.
"Brilliant!" said Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"
And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.
The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Hermione and Aurora sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed, Neville having left them early as he had been on Norbert duty the previous day. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Aurora's invisibility cloak.
. . .
Love,
Charlie
Aurora made a mental note to continue corresponding with Charlie, He had to be one of the coolest people ever if he was agreeing to help them smuggle a dragon out of the country. She would buy him anything he wanted for his birthday and Christmas next year.
"Why didn't someone just go to Dumbledore," Marlene groaned. "He would have helped, and not gotten Hagrid into trouble."
"I'm assuming that he did know," McGonagall growled. "He would know the moment someone crossed over the wards into the grounds."
They looked at one another.
. . .
would she recognize a dragon bite?
"She would, but she wouldn't ask any questions," Fabian said.
"She knows that if she does, people won't come to her anymore," Gideon continued.
By the afternoon, though, he had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous.
"Looks like Norbert is a female," Regulus commented. "Only the females have poisonous fangs."
"She is," Aurora chuckled. "Charlie renamed her Norberta because she was already used to the name Norbert."
"She's fairly well domesticated too," Ron said. "We took Hagrid to visit the reserve two years ago and she even remembered him."
Aurora and Hermione rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day
. . .
Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."
"Do you guys ever have a plan that goes how it's supposed to," the Marauders asked.
"No," Ron and Hermione said at the same time as Aurora said, "Yes." The trio just glared at each other before bursting out laughing.
Aurora and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer.
. . .
"Mommy will never forget you!"
"He does know that he is a male right?" Peter whispered to Remus.
How they managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they never knew.
. . .
Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.
Amice turned red at the reminder of what else happened that night. Oh her mother was going to be so disappointed in her.
"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin!
. . .
They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Aurora and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much. One of the witches' hair went from dark black, to a bright blushing red, when she shook Aurora's hand.
"I know that isn't my daughter helping to smuggle a dragon out of the castle and all the way to Romania," Andromeda said, her voice dropping to a threatening tone.
"Umm…" Aurora started.
"Well…" Hermione whimpered.
"Andi," Sirius said, drawing his cousin's attention. "You're channeling your sister there." Andromeda stilled for a moment before calming some.
Neville had been holding his breath from the moment she spoke, clutching Luna's hand. His only thoughts were that at least she wasn't using a baby voice.
"Dora and Charlie were best friends at Hogwarts," Fred said. "I figured when I heard this story later that Dora was part of the group transporting Norberta." That didn't calm Andromeda much, but Ted just grabbed her hand and nodded at Amice to continue.
At last, Norbert was going… going… gone.
. . .
No more dragon — Malfoy in detention — what could spoil their happiness?
"You forgot the cloak didn't you?" Lily asked with a sigh. Aurora and Hermione looked down in shame. Aurora had never forgotten the cloak again after this.
The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs.
. . .
They'd left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.
"Not the best place to leave the cloak if you're going to forget it," Sirius huffed.
"Best to do it somewhere the house-elves will find it and return it," James said.
"I forget it in the kitchens all the time," Peter squeaked. "It's always back in the dorm by the time I make it back there."
Amice closed the book. "That's the end of the chapter," she said softly.
"Let's do one more before dinner," Aurora stated. "We should be able to finish the book tonight, and I want to bring a couple more people here before we start the next book."
Ted reached for the book and said, "I'll read next," the same that Fred picked Aurora up and put her on his lap and whispered in Aurora's ear, with a growl, "Change your hair back to normal or I'm not going be held responsible for my actions later. You know what that haircut does to me."