Hagrid, your house is made in wood…

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers, page 231

ANSWERS TO THE REVIEWERS' NEIGHBORS' DOG

Randal: Yup, good ole code of conduct… Now, now…. That's a secret that'll be broken about 2 pages below ^_-

Shireen McLean: Not that brilliantly deployed plan, any older Slytherin would have refused; he is the precedent seeker after all. That's what happens when I get sarcastic. Ouch, feeling sorry for you. At least kids hate me back. My little niece literally screamed bloody murder when I walked up to her first. *shrug* maybe because I gave her an evil grin that will probably stay stuck in her nightmares for years… mwahahaha!

Myrddin Ambrosius: That would be telling, wouldn't it? Thanks for reviewing!

Tora Tigress: Erm… *takes the sugar away* Ok… I'll update more… just stop jumping around, my screen's about to go through the roof ^_-

Thanks again to VMorticia for beta-ing me!

Chapter 9: Motherly instinct


Heavy.

Yup, heavy.

You read well, heavy.

What's heavy, you ask? Well that's how Harry felt when he came back to the world of the not-so-awake: Heavy. Not the 'I gained 10 pounds in 2 minutes' heavy, but the 'I gained 10 tons in 2 seconds' heavy.

Hmm, maybe it was also because he felt extremely tired. And sore. Sore like he had decided to take a jog in front of a roller and fell down, like he had decided to dance a waltz with an elephant called 'Longbottom', like he had decided to try bungee without elastic over a bottomless-pit-that-wasn't-so-bottomless-after-all. Need more examples? Bad, bad reader then.

Based on what he felt, he easily guessed where he was. The "light" sheets that weighted tons covering his tired body, or the crispy texture of the pillow and that annoying sterilized smell that was often associated to hospitals or, in this case, the infirmary.

"Do you think he'll wake up soon?" He heard a familiar female voice come to his ears.

Blaise.

"Well, I sure hope so. Quite a stunt he pulled though, almost crashing in the teachers and crashed straight into McGonagall's desk… it's a wonder his broom is still in one piece!" This time it was a just-as-familiar male voice.

Draco.

"He passed through a metal-reinforced window, crashed against a desk, rebounded head-first into a wall and landed on a bunch of chairs and you worry about his broom??!"

"Do you have any idea how much a Nimbus 2000 costs? Professor Snape isn't likely to buy another one."

After Blaise's indignant "Hmmph!", there was a moment of silence. Harry was almost tempted to try opening his two-tons-too-heavy eyelids, but Draco broke the silence before he could.

"Did they find who poisoned him?"

Poisoned?!

"Yeah, it was Higgs. The idiot used one of the potions he was best at, and he's pretty much the only one to have managed it in his year. Heard he got himself a full month of detention with Filch and that he lost about 150 points… not counting the fact that he's banned from the Quidditch pitch forever." Blaise said.

"Too bad McGonagall decided to butt in and remove the points though."

"Well, she wants Gryffindor to win, no matter what. We're still in second place, though."

"Just second place?" Harry whined, opening his eyes. "That means we'd better work extra-hard."

"You were awake?" Blaise said, a slightly menacing tone in her voice.

"Since you asked when I was gonna wake up." Harry replied nonchalantly, noting the irony.

"Glad to have you back, Harry." Draco said with a grin. "You were out for two days."

"Two days?!"

"Just the time to flush the poison out." Blaise added.

Harry tried to sit up, but his whole back protested and launched anchors back down on the bed, making him crash back. His arm felt sore and the back of his head, along with his neck, were killing him. He looked at his left arm, which felt very sore. It was in a cast.

Attracted by the squeaking noise of his heavy landing on the bed, Pomfrey quickly came like some kind of spider with something in her web. With Blaise and Draco watching in the background, she inspected him. After a minute, she let out a sigh and looked at Harry.

"You're lucky to be so well off." She said. "The poison is completely gone and the bruises are healing. Although you'll have to keep that cast for a while."

"I thought you could mend bones easily…" Harry groaned. The prospect of having a cast for any periods of time between 'another second' and 'Forever' was appalling at best.

"I usually can, but I already used enough magic getting rid of the poison. Using any more would be dangerous."

"Why?" Draco asked.

She gave him a glare and turned back to Harry, who was looking at her with a puzzled expression. With a sigh, she started explaining.

"The magic I used to purge the poison from your system is still in your blood, making sure there's nothing left. If I add up any more, the effect is chaotic at best. You might end up with a rabbit ear, a fish tail or, more dangerously, one of your organs changing inside you. Imagine you suddenly end up with a fly's heart, or that your lungs suddenly start growing warts."

Harry winced at the picture, then grinned nervously. "Ok, a cast sounds good right now…"

Blaise checked her watch and gasped. "Oh great, Transfiguration. And we're late. McGonagall's gonna have our heads."

"Gotta run! Sorry to leave you alone with her, mate!" Draco called as they ran out of the infirmary. Pomfrey's outraged expression was almost funny.

…at least until she decided to check if the cast was well in place.

Few hours later, the sky outside was growing darker. He had long since figured out he would spend the night in the infirmary, which did not cheer him any. Pomfrey came and went every now and then, students walked in afflicted in all kinds of problems; a Hufflepuff walking in with her hair made out of spider web, a Ravenclaw with a pair of overgrown fly wings and big antennas, constantly muttering "zzz"… the list was long and fairly entertaining, especially that Gryffindor who had a banana in his ear.

The door opened again, letting another wounded student inside. Harry didn't even look, he was watching the squid in the lake, who was currently wrestling with it's own tentacles. The things some people do for fun… *sigh*

"Mister Weasley, what in the world?!"

"Erm…" Replied a familiar voice. "I got bitten by a dog."

"Must have been some dog." Pomfrey replied.

Harry tried to look, but the two had already taken refuge in another section of the infirmary. He could still pick up their voices, though.

"…my goodness, what did that dog look like?!"

"Well, I didn't really see it…" Weasley admitted. "It kinda attacked me for no reason."

'Weasley, you are one horrible liar.' Harry noted.

"Well I can safely say that this… dog was venomous. I'll be right back."

Pomfrey got up and walked straight to the pharmacy, where she kept her antidotes. Harry risked a peek

Weasley looked barely different than usual. His face contorted in barely contained pain, his hair looking like a mass of red lightning bolts, his right hand clenched around the left one, which was about twice as big as a normal hand's size and tainted in an unhealthy green color.

Exactly as usual.

…ok, maybe not.

'A dog, eh?' he thought, sitting back on his bed, his reconnaissance mission completely unseen. 'Yeah right. I have to know what did that'

Curiosity killed the cat. Good thing Harry wasn't a cat, then.

Pomfrey came back to Weasley with a bottle of purple liquid. A second later, a quick "Drink." was said, followed by an instant of silence interrupted by a disgusted "Echh! What is this stuff?!"

'Rat brains' Harry thought with a smirk.

"A multi-purpose antidote." The medi-witch replied, much to Harry's chagrin. "Hopefully the swelling will stop. As for your… dog," And the word was said in a tone dripping… nay, flooding with skepticism "I will ask Filch to be on the lookout. Let's hope it won't bite anymore people."

She walked away soon after. When he thought he was alone, Weasley muttered 'Bloody idiot and his dragon…'

It didn't take long for Harry to put two and two together.

Idiot and his Dragon.

"Oh, I wish I had a drag'n, I dream 'bout it since I'm a little kid…"

Hagrid has a dragon.

'Bloody hell.' He thought.

Harry Potter, the nightstalker. It had a ring to it, but the boy in question certainly didn't want to be known as such. Probably because being known for that would remove the whole purpose of sneaking around at night.

Sneaking out of the infirmary toward the Slytherin common room, he dearly wished he had his cloak on him, but in absence of that, his five senses and hope that lady luck was on his side would have to suffice.

And usually, she was at his side like a sick puppy glued to his leg.

After managing to avoid Filch not once but twice, he found himself in front of the Slytherin common room door.

"Immortalis!" He whispered.

The door swung open, allowing him to enter. As he had expected, the room was completely empty. The fire was still burning, casting a rather eerie light on the area. With a decided and silent step, Harry sneaked up his dormitory, climbing the stairs as stealthily as he could.

He opened the door, finding the rest of the boys sleeping soundly, Draco silently – and hugging his green with blue dots stuffed dragon called Frilly close to him – while Crabbe and Goyle were doing their usual rigorous imitation of the Hogwarts express. With a slight grin, Harry dug into his things and took out his invisibility cloak.

Feeling safer, Harry sneaked out of the dormitories again. Avoiding Peeves spreading oil all over the stairs, and avoiding the stairs themselves, he managed to slip outside unnoticed, immediately walking toward the dim lights in the distance betraying the presence of Hagrid's cabin.

Walking inside Hagrid's giant footsteps on the melting snow, he easily reached the house. Faintly, he could hear voices from inside.

"…how are we gonna manage it?"

"I don't know." Replied a voice that he recognized as Blaise, answering Hermione.

"How 'bout he stays here…?"

"Hagrid, Norbert is just two weeks old and he's already big enough to fill up half of your house." Hermione replied.

"And as Hermione so eloquently put it a while back, your house is in wood…"

"I could tie 'im up outside… so he'll be able teh walk 'roud a bit…"

"And then everyone would see him and you'd be in big trouble."

Harry removed his cloak, hid it in his pocket and pushed the door open. The house was exactly as it had always been; a single room with a large teared up bed, a table that had one of it's legs chopped off, the claw marks on the wooden floor, which was littered with empty cognac bottles and chicken feathers. Oh, and let's not forget the huge dragon giving him a feral look. The three humans inside tensed up, but relaxed when they saw him.

"'arry, aren't yeh supposed teh be in the infirmary?"

Harry shrugged. "Like I'd spend the night in the same room as Weasley while I can play with a dragon." He pointed at the beast, who was looking at him with smoke pouring out of it's nostrils, licking it's lips. As if either one was actually an enjoyable activity.

"You knew?!" Hermione gasped.

"Well, with Weasley coming in the infirmary with a hand as big as a baseball glove and his muttering, it was kinda easy to guess."

"Think anyone else guessed?" Blaise asked.

He shook his head, but gave a look at Hagrid. "Though if what I heard is right, People will pretty soon."

The dragon was huge, filling up at least half the house by itself. Pretty soon it would be too big, and it would learn how to breathe fire. And when that was done… well, let's just hope Hagrid's got good fire insurance.

Harry wasn't about to let that happen to his friend.

A brown, tawny owl flew in through the window, dropped a letter on Hermione's lap and, with a single look at the dragon, quickly flew out with as much calm as a crowd parachuting into Godzilla's 'nest o' luv'.

She ripped the letter open and quickly scanned it.

"It's from Charlie… he's coming tomorrow to take Norbert. He'll meet us---"

"Norbert?" Harry interrupted with a look at the dragon. "Norbert?!"

"He'll meet us," Hermione continued with a glare at the Slytherin boy, "at the top of the tallest tower."

"That would be the astronomy tower." Blaise reminded.

"Hold on, who's Charlie?" Harry asked.

"It's Ron's older brother… well, the second oldest." Hermione answered.

"Geez, how many brother does Weasley have?!"

"He's got five brothers and one little sister. She'll be here next year."

Harry let out a groan. "So we'll have the walking rulebook, the terror twins, the freckled wonder and the little squirt at the same time? Somebody stop those rabbits…"

"Harry!" Hermione snapped with a glare, shutting the boy up. Instead, he turned to Blaise.

"So tomorrow, we'll hand Norbert" The name was said in such a tone of disbelief it made someone saying 'I've got an army of mutant zombie lizards running after me, they want to kill me with those deadly, evil and painful play-doe balls!' sound honest. "over to Weasley's brother. And I bet you girls are gonna need my help, right?"

Blaise nodded. "Remember to bring your you-know-what, we don't want to be caught by Filch or Norris."

Hagrid and Hermione gave her an odd look. Harry nodded and winked at Hermione.

"Don't worry, it's not against the rules as long as no teacher knows about it."

"Doesn't Dumbledore know…?" Blaise asked.

"He's the headmaster, not a teacher." Harry explained, as if that was any safer. Hagrid was positively puzzled, but didn't ask. And Norbert decided to chew on the remains of a broken bottle of cognac.

Harry went back to the infirmary just as the sun rose. Unfortunately for him, Pomfrey had checked up on his presence during the night and found he wasn't there. He quickly made up a story involving having a heart breaking nightmare about his parents' deaths – People tend to believe dramatic and sad stories, after all - deciding to take a walk to calm his mind, barely avoiding Filch, Peeves and Norris by running outside the school, finding a hidden secret passage back inside near sunrise and barely managing to come back in the infirmary alive.

At least his story didn't involve a five meter long venomous dog. Called Norbert.

Pomfrey passably believed it, but decided to keep him in observation all day long, in case he had caught something during his nightly excurc— escape.

Harry wasn't mad, actually. He used the extra time to catch up on his sleep, which had been lacking from the previous night. Before he knew it, it was night again. Getting up, he wrapped his invisibility cloak around him and, after reorganizing the bed sheets in a believable "there's a boy here" way, and slipped out of the infirmary. Weasley's hand had swelled down quite a bit, but Pomfrey said that without knowing exactly what type of poison it was, there was no way she would release him before the next day.

He easily reached the Slytherin common room, where he found Blaise waiting for him. They both had agreed not to let Draco in on the plan, since he didn't like Hagrid much. Hermione had absolutely refused to be left behind, thus the fat lady's portrait was the next stop.

Blaise guided him toward the "elusive" Gryffindor tower, which was pretty much the most obvious of all common rooms. Then again, obvious places for obvious people. Hermione was waiting outside the room, having, for some unknown and probably incomprehensible reason refused to hand the Gryffindor password to two Slytherins.

Of course, because of the invisibility cloak, she couldn't see them. Her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently under the questioning look of the fat lady, she looked quite angry and eager to leave.

Grinning, the two Slytherins sneaked behind her and started pushing her forward. Her eyes became wide as saucers, her head whirling to look behind her, her bushy brown hair whipping Harry's face as it went.

"What the…" she started.

"It's us…" Blaise hissed. As soon as they were away from a puzzled-looking portrait, Harry lifted the cloak, pulled Hermione in and lowered it again.

She gave a wide-eyed stare at her friends, looking at the cloak around her.

"That's… an invisibility cloak! Amazing!" She whispered in awe. "Is it yours?" She asked Blaise.

"Naa, it's Harry's. It used to be his dad's."

Harry nodded as they started walking toward the entry hall, intent on going out to meet Hagrid and gather Norbert.

"Must have been useful for the night rounds… troublemakers wouldn't know when to hide…" Hermione continued.

"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, his ears struggling to hear if a teacher was coming.

"Didn't you know? He used to be head boy when he was here. Your mom was head girl as far as I know."

Harry whirled around to face her, his eyes wide in surprise. "Where did you read that?"

"Burrowed a book from the Library, Prefects who gained power. A fascinating read, really…"

"Even if he was head boy," Blaise said, grinning slightly, "something tells me he used it for something totally different than his prefect duties."

Hermione looked scandalized. "Surely a head boy wouldn't break rules—"

"Shut up, both of you!" Harry snapped. "Not one word 'till we reach Hagrid and… Norbert." Again, the disbelief flood gates were open.

The two girls kept silent the rest of the way, though he was certain Blaise stepped on his foot on purpose. Unless a step needs enough power to squash a tank in pancake mode. Soon enough, they had to silently pull open the main doors. It wasn't easy. Do you have any idea how hard it is to open a pair of sixteen feet tall oak doors that weight as much as a couch potato one 'Calorie 5001' without making a sound? No? Thought so. Well it's hard.

…at least until Hermione decides to act smart and use a spell, to which both Slytherin whacked their foreheads. Magical instincts weren't quite installed yet.

They found Hagrid waiting just outside of his hut, his eyes glittering with tears at the thought of his impending separation with his monster—erm… kid.

"Hagrid!" Hermione called.

The man looked up in surprise, looking straight at them but his eyes not focused on them in an unnerving way. He was looking around wildly, before getting up, toting his crossbow.

"Who e'zit?" He asked, his voice not quite as stable as usual. As an empty cognac bottle laying in the snow betrayed, he had tried to drink out his sorrows.

Harry quickly whipped the invisibility cloak off them. It took nearly three seconds for Hagrid to recognize them, but when he did he bust out in tears and sat back down on his seat.

"So, yer 'ere teh tak' 'im 'way now? It's too soon!" He wailed.

"It's an half hour to midnight, Hagrid." Hermione said, checking her watch. "Charlie's gonna be here soon."

"Yea, I know, but whu'tif… whu'tif the othe' Drag'ns dun' like 'im?" When drunk, Hagrid's accent was even thicker than before. "Whu'tif he's nut happy there?"

'Oh, he'll be happy as long as he's got things to smash, burn, crush or hurt.' Harry mused. "He'll be fine, Hagrid. He'll be with his own kind, with people who take care of others like him for a living." He said and, with a smirk, added: "Anyway, this Weasley can't be worse than his brothers."

Hermione glared at him and punched his shoulder. "Be nice, Ron's my friend."

"What about his brothers?"

"They are annoying." She admitted.

With a victorious smirk, Harry shrugged and dropped the subject, turning to Hagrid. "Is… Norbert ready?" He asked, struggling not to burst out laughing.

"Yea," Hagrid replied, pointing to a large box at the side of the house. "He's 'n ther'. I hope he wun' be too cramped up… oh, an' I gave 'im is fav'rite teddy bear so he wun't be lonely…"

A sharp tearing noise came from inside the box, announcing the immediate and not mourned passing of said teddy bear.

"C'mon, we have to go." Harry said to the girls. "Weasley's coming soon."

Hermione pointed her wand at the box and muttered "Mobilipyus!"

"Isn't it supposed to be Mobilicorpus?" Blaise asked as the box started floating.

"Mobilicorpus moves bodies, like the spell says. That's what it means in latin." The other girl explained. "Mobilipyus moves boxes."

Harry wrapped the invisibility cloak around the box. While Mobilipyus was strong enough to lift up the box and the dragon – which was now trying to break the sides of the box in pieces – it would have been hazardous to put anymore strain on the spell. So, with Blaise and Hermione in front and Harry in the back, everyone covered by the –apparently extensible- invisibility cloak, Norbert began his ascension toward the astronomy tower.

On the way there, passing near a crossway near the infirmary, they heard a pair of voices echo in the halls.

"Out of your dormitory after curfew, are you?" Filch's nearly ecstatic voice hissed.

"But… But sir, I tell you, Potter's trying to get a teacher in trouble! I'm only trying to help!" Another familiar voice said.

"Oh Ron…" Hermione gasped in horror.

"Stupid move, Weasley." Harry whispered. "That'll cost Gryffindor a few points and a detention for him at least… not to mention an earful from Pomfrey."

With no more interruptions or trouble, the three children and the softly growling box made it to the astronomy tower. Climbing the stairs had been an adventure in itself, as Norbert wasn't enjoying the box's shaking or the fact that they were constantly turning. Harry couldn't help but stare nervously at the air-holes in the box, out of which dark grey smoke could be seen coming out. What if Norbert tried to burn the box open? He mentally thanked the fact that he was behind, although he felt a bit worried for the two girls in front.

They were quite happy when they reached the top. Jumping out of the cloak, Hermione immediately glared at Harry.

"What was that about?! Getting a teacher into trouble?!"

"He probably thought I wanted to get Hagrid into trouble with Norbert… as if! I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him and Blaise's mom." Harry answered her accusation.

"Not too quick on the trigger, is he?" Blaise asked.

Hermione choose to keep quiet and sat on one of the chairs they used in astronomy, checking her watch impatiently.

"We're on time… they're late."

"Well, it is Weasley's brother after all." Harry mused.

"What in the world did Ron do to you to make you hate him that much?" Hermione snapped. 

"Don't get me wrong, 'mione. I don't hate him." Harry said. "But he can be pretty annoying with his 'All Slytherins are dark wizards' thing. We're not all creeps. Unfortunately, the most famous Slytherins usually are."

"You mean you're a creep?" Blaise asked playfully.

He shot a mock glare at Blaise, which caused the girl to theatrically gasp, grasp her heart and fake a faint.

"They're here!" Hermione called. "Up there!"

The two Slytherins looked up at where the Gryffindor girl was pointing. True enough, their shapes dimly reflecting the half-full moon's pale silver light, four figures could be seen flying over the lake. From their position on top of the tower, Harry could guess they were coming by broom, based on the hunched-up shape they had. He wasn't the youngest Quidditch player in a century to not guess that.

Sure enough, the four cloaked shapes flew over to them. They were effectively sitting on brooms, which all had burn marks or other scars associated with dragons. Harry almost flinched and yelled "Sacrilege!" at their sight. Wearing clothes that were most likely fire-proof and thick enough to let someone survive a dragon's vicious claws, their faces cloaked by thick black masks that would protect their faces in case they were directly in the breath's target area.

"Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Blaise Zabini, I presume?" One of the four said in a young adult male voice.

Harry nodded for them all.

The figure snorted. "Of course you're Harry Potter… where was my mind…"

"Must be a family thing." Harry mused.

He pulled on his mask, revealing the face behind, then removed the cloth from around his head.

The typical Weasley red hair was the only thing Charlie Weasley had in common with his smallest brother. Bearing a recent-looking burn that must have been quite painful to receive across his left cheek, his freckles so densely packed across his face they made it look like he was tanned, the young man was more built than his lanky brother, and would most likely be smaller when the young one would grow up.

"So, the dragon's in there?" Charlie asked, pointing at the box. "'should have known Hagrid would get one, one day…"

With a chuckle, he motioned for the other three, who swooped down and placed the box on a net, which they tied on their brooms before lifting up.

"We'll be going now… you lot better get back in your common rooms before someone notices your gone." The dragon tamer said before he and the others lifted off.

Agreeing, the children scrambled down the tower and were about to separate to head back respectively to the Gryffindor tower, the Slytherin common room and the infirmary when a terrifying voice came to their ears.

"Well, well. What do we have here." Said Filch, the caretaker, his cat looking at the three first years with a malicious glint in her eyes.

And only then did Harry notice the cloak was still in his pocket.

"Bloody hell."

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Finally finished… *sigh*