Reality Check

~* Hey, I realise that I have been neglecting the main story line in Philosopher's Stone, so I think I should get right on to that. I hope you don't mind! *~

Chapter 17 ~ Dragons

Quirrell deserved more credit than Harry and Caprice had given him. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he had cracked yet.

Snape still swept around the castle bad tempered, which was a sure sign that the stone was safe. Whenever Harry passed Quirrell, he would give an encouraging smile, and Caprice had taken to snapping at whoever laughed at his stutter. Although the pair were extremely close, and wanting to be in this together all the way, they kept their secret relationship, well, secret.

Exams were in ten weeks, and they were running out of time. If Snape was planning on stealing the stone, he would waste as little time as possible.

Hermione and Ron were the two people Harry spent most of his time with in the public eye. He would have much rather been spending time with Caprice, having fun alone, rather than be in the library with Hermione and Ron, Hermione continually nagging about studying for the upcoming exams.

'Hermione, the exams are ages away!' Ron complained one afternoon in the library. Hermione, being the smart, nosy witch she was, had easily figured out about Nicholas Flamel, and told Ron and Harry, thinking that Harry hadn't already found out.

'Ten weeks, that's not ages, that's like a second to Nicholas Flamel,' Hermione snapped.

'But we aren't six hundred years old, remember?' Ron reminded her, earning himself a glare. 'Besides, what are you studying for, you already know it all,'

'What am I studying for? Are you mad? You realise these exams are very important, and we need to pass them to get into second year, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me…'

Unfortunately, the teachers began thinking along the same lines as Hermione, piling the homework onto the students so that the Easter Holidays weren't nearly as fun as the Christmas ones. Caprice was staying for the Easter Holidays, thinking that Harry would need her around, and it would give her some more time to study.

Moaning and yawning, Harry and Ron spent most of their spare time in the library with Hermione, trying to get through all their extra work. Surprisingly, it was Harry who complained the most, not Ron. He complained about the amount of time he had to spend sitting around listening to Hermione study, not being able to go and see Caprice.

'Well if Caprice is so great, why don't you go study with her?' Hermione said sarcastically. 'She's not a smart witch, I've seen her grades, they aren't looking good,'

'Yeah Harry, besides, she's hanging around Malfoy and his lot,' Ron pointed out.

~***~

'Oh this is pointless! I'll never remember all of this in time for the exams,' Harry exclaimed one afternoon in the library. He looked out the window and longed to be on the grounds with Caprice, having fun, not a care in the world. It was the first really fine day they had experienced in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Harry didn't look away from the window until he heard Ron say; 'Hagrid! What are you doing in the Library?'

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked extremely out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

'Jus' lookin',' He said, in a shifty voice that got their attention at once. 'An' what are you lot up ter?' He looked suddenly suspicious. 'Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?'

'Oh, we found out about him ages ago,' Ron boasted, 'And we also know what that dog's guarding, the Philosopher's St-'

'Shhh,' Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone had overheard what Ron had stupidly blurted out. 'Come and see me later, I'm not prominin' I'll tell yer anythin', but don't go rabbiting on about it, students aren't s'pposed to know. They'll think I've told yer -'

'See you later then,' Harry said, and Hagrid shuffled off. He went back to looking out the window and longing to spend time with Caprice. He hadn't had a decent time with her since the night where they had seen Snape and Quirrell, and he missed her greatly.

~***~

When the trio arrived at Hagrid's hut that night, they were surprised to see all the curtains closed.

'Who is it?' Hagrid called before he let them in and shut the door quickly behind him, glancing around to see if they had been followed. It was stifling hot inside, even though it was such a warm night, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them some tea and offered some sandwiches, which they refused politely.

'Hagrid, is there anything besides Fluffy guarding the stone?' Hermione asked, sipping her tea.

'Could you tell us if you know?' Harry added.

'O'course I can't, firstly I don' know meself, and secondly yer know too much already, so I wouldn't tell yer if I could. That stone's here for a good reason, it was almost stolen outta Gringotts - I suppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know about Fluffy,'

'Oh come on Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on around here,' Hermione said 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 continued. 'We wondered who Dumbledore trusted enough to help him, apart from you,'

Hagrid's chest swelled at those last words, and Ron and Harry beamed at Hermione, she could really use her brain when she wanted to.

'Well, I don't suppose it would hurt ter tell yer… lets see… he borrowed Fluffy from me … then some o' the teachers did enchantment's … Professor Sprout - Professor Flitwick - Professor McGonagall -' He ticked them off on his fingers, 'Professor Quirrell - an' Dumbledore himself did something, o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape,'

'Snape?'

'Yeah, yer not still on about that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the stone, he's not about ter steal it,'

Harry began to thinking, if Snape was one of the teachers protecting the stone, if must have been easy for him to gather information on the other spells guarding it. He probably knew everything - except as it appeared, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.

'You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you Hagrid?' Hermione asked anxiously. 'And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?'

'Not a soul knows except for me an' Dumbledore,' Hagrid said, beaming proudly.

'Say, Hagrid, can we have a window open? It's boiling in here,' Harry said, fidgeting.

'Can't, Harry, sorry,' Hagrid glanced at the fire. Harry glanced at it too.

'What's that?' Harry asked.

'I know what that it, that's a Dragon's egg! Where'd you get it? It must have cost a fortune!' Ron exclaimed.

~***~

'Oh Harry! Please! Please!' Caprice begged with big puppy dog eyes. Harry had told her about the Dragon, which Hagrid had named Norbert. 'Come on Harry, you can't just tell me about this dragon and then not let me see it!' Harry sighed.

'Well, Ron's sent a letter to his brother who studies Dragons in Romania, and we are going to take the dragon to the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday.

'Let me go!' Caprice begged.

'I don't know, with my invisibility cloak, there'll only be enough room for two people and Norbert,'

'Who?'

'The dragon,'

'Oh, but you and me could go?' Caprice looked up at Harry, and he just couldn't say no.

'Trouble is, convincing Ron and Hermione, one of them will want to go, most likely Ron,' Harry told her.

'They'll be no trouble, just tell them that - oh no!' Caprice suddenly stopped, looking very much like she remembered something important, and bad.

'What?' Harry asked, curiosity finally getting the better of him.

'I just realised that Malfoy's been going on about a dragon!'

'That can't be good,' Harry said bitterly. 'What are the odds he's talking about Hagrid's dragon? How many dragon's can one school have, after all,'

'Oh, if only I'd paid more attention to the git,' Caprice paused to think, biting her tongue in concentration. 'Oh no! He knows that you are going on Saturday!'

'What? How does he know?'

'I don't know, something about a book he stole from Weasley containing a letter,' Caprice replied.

'He's got Charlie's letter! This is bad,' Harry said.

'Too late to change your plans now though, right? Those people coming to get the dragon would be halfway here by now!' Caprice pointed out.

'You're right, it may be dangerous, but we have to go through with it,' Harry agreed.

'You still have to convince those ruddy Gryffindors that I'm going, not them,' Caprice pouted.

'Fine, I'll do it now, meet me at Hagrid's Hut on Saturday night at eleven thirty,' Harry instructed. 'Oh, and make sure you aren't seen by Malfoy,' He warned.

'Don't worry, I won't be,'

'Be careful though, Malfoy's going to be prowling around that night,' Harry said. Caprice giggled.

'I'll be fine, Mister Potter,' Caprice gave him a quick peck on the cheek and skipped away.

~***~

Harry had just told Hermione and Ron that he planned on taking Caprice to release Norbert.

'Are you out of your mind?' Hermione cried.

'That girl's flaming mental! She'll be sure to get you caught!' Ron yelled.

'Harry, I really think I should go, there'll be less chance of you getting caught by Malfoy,' Hermione said politely.

'How do you know that Malfoy knows?' Harry asked, eyeing the pair suspiciously.

'The letter was in the book Malfoy stole from me,' Ron answered.

'Harry, don't be a fool, don't take Caprice just because she wants to see a dragon,' Hermione tried to reason with him, but Harry would not be swayed.

'It's not fair on her, we all got to see a dragon, she just wants to see him, that's all,' Harry argued.

'Stop defending her! She's a cold hearted Slytherin,' Ron fumed.

'Leave her alone!' Harry shouted.

'Harry, Ron, stay calm, Ron, just let Harry take Caprice,' Hermione said.

'No!' Ron argued.

'Ron,' Hermione warned.

'Fine, take your stupid Slytherin friend,' Ron grumbled and marched up the boys staircase. Hermione turned to Harry.

'I certainly hope you know what you're doing, trusting a Ditzy Slytherin with a task as important as this,' Hermione said haughtily.

'Caprice isn't some Ditzy Slytherin, if she'd known I was coming here, I bet anything she would have been in Gryffindor!' Harry said.

'What makes you sure? She was placed in Slytherin because -'

'- She made friends with Malfoy on the first day! She didn't know any better,' Harry finnished Hermione's sentence for her.

'Harry, you are so arrogant!' Hermione yelled in frustration. 'You need to stop defending her!'

'Leave her out of this,' Harry cried.

'Caprice is the one who started all this mess in the first place! I wish she'd never been born,' Hermione snapped, before storming up the girls staircase. Harry tried to run after her in a fit of anger, but the staircase turned into a slide, and he simply slid to the bottom. Harry let his anger out in a loud scream, startling some people in the common room.

'What are you looking at?' Harry growled at them. He grabbed his invisibility cloak and headed for Hagrid's Hut.

~***~

After Caprice had cooed over the dragon, and Hagrid gotten rather cranky at Harry for bringing another student into this, as well as Malfoy, who was stalking around somewhere, Harry and Caprice lugged Norbert up many flights of stairs.

'Oh no, Harry it's getting too heavy,' Caprice complained.

'Nearly there,' Harry answered.

'Can we have a break?' She asked.

'No, we can't, midnight is creeping closer and we can't be late,' Harry said.

'Fine,' Caprice muttered. They walked around a bend to find Malfoy being pulled by his ear by Professor McGonagall.

'Detention!' She shouted. 'And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you -'

'You don't understand, Professor, Harry Potter's coming - he's got a dragon!'

'What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on - I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!'

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after witnessing that ordeal.

'Malfoy has detention!' Caprice yelped when they got into the open air, and had thrown off the invisibility cloak.

Five minutes later, Charlie's friends swooped down on their broomsticks, and clicked Norbert's cage to a set of harnesses and buckles. They left quickly, and the dragon was gone.

'I would have liked to see it once more,' Caprice said sadly.

'Yeah, and have it bite your head off,' Harry said.

'No it wouldn't have, he loved me,' Caprice re-assured Harry as they walked down the spiral staircase. As they reached the bottom, Filch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

'Well, well, well,' he whispered. 'We are in trouble,'

They had left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

~* I thought I'd end it there, because that's where the chapter ends. Just one thing, I've had a few mentions about doing the rest of the books with Caprice in them, would anyone else like me to continue on with the series? Because Harry and Caprice will never hook up as eleven year olds, but in the future, you never know… some people asked me if this was going to be Harry/Caprice. *~

~Gryffindor Gal~