Draco Malfoy swung his head around, careful to keep the horse going in the correct (at least he hoped) direction. The black dog loped alongside them, as the horses trotted over the moor. "When I was just a kid - I think the happiest I ever was - I had just gotten a broom. Flying - and it wasn't a great broom, but being up in the air. I must have been eight - it was my birthday. I had been asking for that broom for months."

Harry Potter looked at Malfoy, and responded, "Did your dad ever fly with you?"

"Occasionally. Just drills, though. How to avoid a spell, how to keep your balance while deflecting, things like that. It was never any fun."

"And your mum?"

"I've never seen her on a broom. I think she'd say it's undignified, or something like that." Harry snorted at that, finding it imminently plausible. Draco smiled fondly, and said, "Found a picture of her, once, flying on a broom at Hogwarts. She looked... carefree. Like she had put the entire world on hold for a moment."

Harry Potter found himself thinking about Dudley's bicycle, which Dudley had ridden just long enough to learn how to ride, and then never picked up again. Harry had wanted to pick it up and at least learn how to not fall over, but he had had the good sense not to do that.

"You remember Hagrid, right? That big oaf of a halfbreed?" Harry Potter said, the words Draco Malfoy had said still hurting years later.

"He's kind of too large to forget, Potter." Draco Malfoy said, his natural defensiveness coming out in prickly, quippy responses.

"Well, I had been going down to talk with him a lot - he knew my parents, and would tell me stories. Even got me some pictures." Harry's voice was infused with a level of warmth that Draco Malfoy found odd, almost... disquieting.

"I started bringing Hermione and Ron, and - this one time, we found him trying to hatch a dragon's egg."

"Oh, right, the dragon. Who thought that would be a good idea to have in bloody England?"

"You know, I don't think we ever did find out who brought it here. Hagrid said he won it in a card game."

"Someone wagered an illegal dragon's egg, at a card game?" Draco Malfoy's eyebrows were raised to the point that they were nearly off their head. "Do you have any idea how grievin' stupid that sounds?"

"It's Hagrid, at the Hog's Head - do you think Hagrid even knows how to lie?" Harry said, his flat tone changing suddenly into one that's far more contemplative.

"Stinks, that does. Smells like a trap, or a ruse, or something." Draco Malfoy frowned. "Bothersome, that." He said, still thinking about the whole thing. "Wasn't my father, either. I'd have heard about it, elsewise." Shaking his head again, still frowning, Draco said, "I just can't think of who would have it out for the Keeper of the Keys of Hogwarts..."

"Maybe that's it?" Harry Potter ventured...

"What's it, Potter?"

"Someone wanted a clear way into Hogwarts. Maybe they thought that it would be easier with Hagrid busy..."

"... or dismissed." Draco said, his expression clearing up, turning stony.

"Well, you remember what happened at the end of the story."

"I still cannot believe anyone would think that a dragon belonged at a school for children."

"Well, it is Hagrid."

[a/n: boys will be boys. Plothole in original novel, not my fault. Write review, I love you too.]