After the Dawn: The Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Twenty Two: Help and Hatching

The next day dawned bright and clear, and Harry, Neville and Hermione found Blaise and took her for a long jog around the school grounds. Everyone was used to seeing this now, as the foursome often ran together.

Now Harry's students were beginning to be able to run easier, and so they could talk as they ran, for a little while. But of course, the group could not maintain running and talking for long, and so soon settled down to rest and talk properly.

They told Blaise of all that they had done so far, and she knew that they spoke the truth as they knew it – they would not lie to her, she knew well.

When they had finished talking, she nodded her agreement to their words. "I'll help you, as best I can," she told them firmly, her conviction plain. "Just tell me what to do."

"For now, watch Snape, and listen for Fluffy. If you hear him stop growling, or note anything suspicious, send word to one of us," Harry replied.

"Yes Sir! Captain Nemo Sir!" Blaise said, saluting jokingly, before they got up and began to run again. Harry smiled as he jogged easily at the forefront of his friends, leading them on a full circuit of the Hogwarts grounds before returning to the spot where they had talked.

Here they took up the beginning exercises of Tae-Kwon-Do as Harry led them through the basics. He couldn't teach them in the traditional form, with the right clothing or any of that, since he hadn't learnt it yet, but he hoped that when the holidays came and they returned to their homes that they would find a local teacher and begin to learn properly.

Harry didn't know exactly what he should teach them first, since he had never really thought about it before. It had been so long since he had himself begun to learn that he couldn't remember were his own teacher had started him.

In the light of this, Harry simply followed his instincts and hoped that he was doing what he should be. If not, his friends would have learn properly with a certified teacher.

He had told them all of this, but they wanted him to teach them anyway, and now that Harry had accepted the task, he would do his best to teach.

The days passed in a round of classes, studying, running, practicing … Hermione was insistent that they spend as much time studying as possible, and about the only thing that would shift her was the suggestion that Harry teach them some more.

Harry was getting heartily sick of studying, and he was also growing more and more worried about the dragon egg in Hagrid's hut, since he knew that every day that went by was a day closer to the hatching, and he still had no idea what he could do about it.

Sirius hadn't replied to the letter Harry had sent him, informing him of the situation at Hogwarts, and Harry was growing concerned, since it had been over a week since the letter had been sent, and Sirius had never failed to reply for so long before.

Harry's worries, however, was soon to be momentarily forgotten when a letter arrived at the Gryffindor table one lunch time. There were only two words on the parchment, and they were written in a familiar scrawl. It's hatching.

Neville attempted to convince Hermione to skip Herbology and see the hatching, his main argument being that it wasn't every day you saw a dragon hatching. Neville liked Herbology, but he was getting very tired of spending all of his time doing class related things.

"Neville! Our end of year tests are coming up. Need I mention that whatever happens we'll get in trouble for it, and on top of that, we might miss something that we'll need for our exams!" Hermione informed Neville angrily.

"It would be an educational experience, watching a dragon hatching," Harry said slowly, thinking. A flicker of doubt appeared on Hermione's face, and a look of hope on Neville's, but Harry knew that Hermione was right, in his heart, and his next words removed all doubt of what they would do. "But a hatching can take several hours, even days sometimes, to be completed, and if Hagrid says it's hatching, that probably means that the beginning of the process has started … if we turn up after Herbology, we won't have missed anything but a lot of nervous waiting."

Neville sighed, his cause lost, and Hermione brightened considerably. The three of them left the hall and went outside to Herbology, where Harry listened as attentively as he could to Sprout's lecture on the Devil Snare.

It was, however, somewhat hard to pay attention. By the time the class the finished, he remembered something about them binding their victims tightly, and that they liked the dark and damp. He remembered something about a joke involving a Devils Snare in a potion masters cupboard, but he didn't remember what the joke itself was.

Along with Neville and Hermione, Harry made his way down to Hagrid's hut, where they knocked on the door and answered quietly when Hagrid furtively asked for their names.

"It hasn't hatched yet," Hagrid said in a hushed whisper as they joined him at his large table. On the centre of the table the egg rested, rocking to and fro. Hagrid watched the egg with an expression of awe and happiness.

Hermione and Neville watched with interest, and some trepidation, and Harry … Harry watched, an expression of interest overlaying his true feelings of concern and trepidation, all the while his agile mind forming plans, and then dropping them in favour of others.

As a tiny crack formed near the top of the egg, Harry reflected that there was very little he could do until he saw Sirius again.

More cracks formed, and against his will, almost, Harry leant forward with the other three to watch the final stages of the dragons birth.

With a loud crack, the egg split in half and the baby dragon spilled out onto the table top. Hagrid's breath caught in a half sob, but Harry couldn't help but think the little creature a little ugly, and very ungainly.

The little creature cried out in hunger, and Hagrid reached out to tickle it under the chin. The dragon snapped at his fingers, then sneezed and emitted a tiny burst of flame.

Hagrid seemed totally taken with the dragon, and he didn't notice, though Harry did, a face at the window – a face that was frighteningly familiar. Hagrid did not notice Harry's quick goodbye, or him dragging his friends from the house.

Outside, Harry pointed ahead of them when his friends questioned why it was that he had pulled them out so quickly. There, running up the steps to the castle, was Draco Malfoy.

"What are we going to do?" Hermione demanded, "I don't know how Malfoy found out about any of this, but it's going to be really dangerous for Hagrid now that someone who has no reason to keep his secret knows about it."

Harry sighed, "I don't know," he replied. "But rest assured I'll find something to do about it."

Hermione sighed, "Why is that all this is happening to us?" she wondered aloud, "All I want to do is to be able to concentrate fully on the exams coming up and learn everything I possibly can!"

"No one can be sure why they were picked to fulfil a particular task," Harry told her, "But right now, all we have to do is concentrate on what needs doing, and do it."

"The ruby is our main concern?" Neville asked.

"At the moment, no. Our main concern is the dragon," Harry replied. "The ruby can wait, I don't think that it is, yet, in any real danger. The protector seems to be holding, and who knows that the thief may want it for? It may not be for anything evil, as such, or even hurtful."

Neville and Hermione both nodded, "So, we worry about the dragon for now," Neville said acceptingly.

"And our exams," Hermione reminded them. "Everything should be second to them, at least until we know for sure that the thief wants to use the ruby for harm."

The three nodded, and they walked up towards the castle. However, a chance glance made by Harry noticed that there, in the shadows by the edge of the forest, was a large, canine-shaped shadow.

He smiled – it seemed that Sirius had answered his letter after all, just not in the form he had, perhaps, expected.

"Master, what is it you wish me to do?" Quirrell asked, pacing around his study, almost angrily. "Severus is still swooping around, keeping an eye on me …"

"Forget him," a voice hissed, seeming to come from Quirrell himself. "He is, for the moment, irrelevant. When I have triumphed, he will be punished, rest assured, unless he has a very good reason for his actions. Now you have only to concentrate on getting past his little test … and finding out what it was that Dumbledore did!"

"But master, if I enquire too closely, Dumbledore will surely become alerted to me … you are not strong enough yet to risk an encounter with him, and if he suspects me, you may never be."

"Leave Dumbledore to me, fool! Just continue finding the unicorns, and killing them, that I might live and grow strong. Concern yourself with that, and for the moment finding out what Severus has done, and how to get past it, will be enough… We will deal with whatever Dumbledore has done when the time comes for it."

"Yes master, of course," Quirrell stammered.

"And do not question my orders!" Quirrell fell to his knees, his hands reaching up, as if he wanted to take the turban and throw it from himself, but his hands fell back to the ground soon enough as he supported himself against the wracking pains that came from the back of his head, his master showing his servant that he was the one in command.

Well, sorry about the short chapter, but I figured that you'd want something from me, even if it isn't much. Now that school has gone back, I already have quite a lot of things to do, so I won't be able to get much of this story done, necessarily. School is a busy place, especially for me right now. My OWL's (as such) are approaching way too fast for my liking (I have trial exams in September, and the real thing in November.) I'll try and work as much as I can, but I'm also co-writing a BRILLIANT story with a friend of mine – we'll start posting it in a month or two, I expect. Look out for Darkness Rising: The Unicorn Hunt by Three Craaaaaaazy Aussies.

Thanks To:

Kraeg001, azntgr01, torifire126, easilyamused, Nerwen Elendil, NateP, Jeanne2, Leeanna-Marie-Malfoy, athenakitty, Samara-Morgan-101, someone, IceSugarHigh, darkangelgep, Vicky, Musicstarlover, JeanieBeanie33, cyress, Wytil, gaul1, hermione21, Surarrin, I-want-to-fly, mileseon, Cyblade Silver, Krisalyn, grand admiral chelli, Loopy Loona Lovegood, xxGREEN BAYxx, cantfindagoodname, sami1010220, Regulus Black II, Empress Sarah-sama, TheShadowPanther, Siri Kat, Rawiya Prabhakar, Hermione Malfoy Potter, AltonShadefoot, CuriousKitty, Crissy Potter, Darkshadow.