Kitty: Chapter Fifteen!

Yugi: Man, we're really going along, aren't we?

Kitty: YEP! Only a couple more chapters...and I'll be finished!

Lina: And that means...SEQUEL!

Kitty: You bet! It'll be kewl!

Harry: We can only hope so, compared to this awesome fic here.

Ryou: R&R!

Chapter Fifteen:

Dilemmas with Dragons

Quirrel must have been braver than Diana and the others had thought. As the weeks went by, the professor did look thinner and paler than before, but since Hogwarts hadn't been renamed Severus Snape's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Diana assumed he hadn't cracked yet.

Either way, all of Diana's friends had been on edge, trying to guard the Stone as well as the Queen of England's Royal Guard. Harry and Yugi would always check the third floor corridor from time to time, pressing their ears to the door to make sure Fluffy was still growling away in there. Marik had been keeping an eye on Snape, and reported twice a day the same thing; Snape was as sour as ever and looked ready to give him a detention for stalking him.

Hermione, unlike the others, was focusing on other things, and that became quite clear one morning when Marik had not come to report Snape's status.

Yugi had been asking Harry if he reckoned Marik was alright when Hermione had put down some papers in front of him.

"What are these, Mione-kun?" Yugi asked as he examined the top one.

"Exam schedules, of course," Hermione said coolly. "And you better get to studying the notes I gave you."

"Mione, the exams are ages away," Ron muttered.

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped back. "That's not ages, Ron, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"Well, we're not 600 years old," Ron reminded her. "Besides, what are you worried about? You already know everything."

"Are you crazy?" Hermione squawked. "Do you realize we need to pass these exams to get into second year? They're very, very, very important, I should've started studying a month ago, for Heaven's sake..."

Diana sweatdropped as Hermione kept going and going like an Energizer battery. Finally, she patted her friend's shoulder.

"Mione, let me just inject two words here: shut up."

Right then, Marik appeared, looking a little annoyed.

"Status the same as ever?" Yugi asked.

"Nope," Marik said dully. "This time, the message is this; Snape is as sour as ever and he gave me a detention for stalking him."

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking a lot like Hermione was.

They piled tons of homework on each of the students, and with that and Hermione nearby reciting things for you every few minutes to copy down, it was quite difficult to relax.

"You know, I think Malfoy isn't even relaxed enough to tease us," Ron remarked one rainy afternoon. "I'll never be able to remember any of this..."

Diana, desperate to escape Hermione's reciting and Ron's complaining, went to the library to go find Ryou, who was probably sticking his nose in a book as usual.

Diana went inside the library and did indeed find Ryou reading and taking notes at a table. Smiling in relief, she slid into the seat next to him.

"Hey," she greeted.

"What merited me for a visit, Dare-kun?" asked Ryou with a smile. "Did Mione-kun's reciting get to you too?"

Diana laughed. "You could say that. Ron's complaining got to me too, though..."

Ryou smiled at Diana before looking behind her with a surprised expression.

"Konnichiwa, Hagrid-san," he said. "What are you doing here in the library?"

Diana turned to see Hagrid hiding something behind his back and looking out of place in his large moleskin overcoat.

"Just lookin'," Hagrid said shiftily. "An' what're you two up te?"

His eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"You ain't still lookin' for Flamel, are ya?"

"Oh, we found out about him ages ago," Diana said loftily. "And about what the dog's guarding, the Sorcerer's-"

"Shh!" Hagrid said quickly.

He looked around the library to see if anyone was listening.

"Don' go shoutin' 'bout it, what's the matter wit ya?"

"But we do have some more questions," Ryou said calmly. "What's guarding the Stone besides...?"

"SHH!" Hagrid repeated. "Listen, come an' see me later at ma cabin. I'm not sayin' I'm gonna tell ya anythin', but you can' go blabbin' 'bout it in here. Students ain't supposed to know, and people'll think I told ya."

"See you later then," Ryou said, sounding slightly disappointed.

Hagrid nodded, before shuffling out of the library.

"What do you reckon Hagrid was hiding?" Diana asked Ryou when Hagrid was out of earshot. "Do you think it had something to do with the Stone?"

Ryou stood up and began examining a section of books.

"He was looking up stuff over here," he said quietly, examining the titles.

His brown eyes widened.

"Dragons!" he said in a hushed whisper. "Hagrid was looking up dragons!"

Diana looked at the books too.

"Dragon Species of Britain and Ireland...From Egg to Inferno: A Dragon Keeper's Guide...Merlin, what in devil's name could Hagrid be up to?"

Diana and Ryou left the library and found Seto, Harry, Marik, Ron, Hermione and Yugi in the Great Hall, arguing about studying for the exams so soon.

"Keeping a tab on Snape is much more important," Yugi argued. "I don't care if I'm expelled or what have you, I just want to make sure Snape doesn't get the Stone!"

"But if you're expelled, we won't be able to learn enough magic to stop him, bakayrou!" Seto said coldly.

"That's no argument, Kaiba!" Marik snapped.

"Is that so, Marik?" Seto snapped back. "And what kind of excuse do you-"

"May I intervene?"

They looked up at Diana in surprise.

"Hey, Dare-kun," Yugi said. "Hi, Ryou-kun."

"You have been studying, right?" Hermione asked promptly.

"We were," Ryou said slowly, "but then Hagrid-san came in..."

The two of them continued explaining their conversation, and about Hagrid's "sudden interest" in dragons.

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon," Harry corrected. "He told me so when I first met him."

"But it's against Wizard Laws," Hermione said. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlock's Convention in 1709, and-"

"Alright, Mione, we know you swallowed the textbook, but you don't need to show it off," Diana said dully. "But yeah, it's hard to keep Muggles from noticing magic and all that if we're keeping dragons in our backyard."

"You can't tame dragons anyway," Ron added. "It's too dangerous...I mean, Charlie's got tons of serious burns off the ones he takes care of in Romania..."

"You mean there are wild dragons?" Yugi squeaked.

"Sure," Ron replied, not sounding the least bit worried. "Common Welsh Greens and Hebridean Blacks are found around here, but the Ministry has a hard job hushing it all up."

Seto smirked. "Are there Blue Eyes White Dragons?"

"Blue Eyes whats?" Hermione said. "Never heard of them."

Seto pouted. "Aw..."

Diana, Harry, Yugi and Ryou went down to Hagrid's hut an hour later, and the red-head was the first to notice something strange.

"Why do you think the curtains are all shut?" Diana asked her friends.

Harry looked closer to see what Diana meant, and then shrugged. "Dunno..."

"This makes me even more worried than I was..." Ryou muttered.

Suddenly Bakura took Ryou's place.

The past Tomb Robber rolled his eyes.

"Pathetic," he muttered, "Ryou only does send me out when he's afraid..."

Atem took Yugi's place and smirked.

"That really does show what you're good for," he said quietly, "You can go on and die, and it won't matter; you'll die protecting your Hikari and save the world from suffering...OW!"

Bakura had whacked his Millennium Ring on the past Pharaoh's head, making a sort-of clanging sound as the piece of gold bounced off Atem's pointy tri-colored hair.

"Sometimes I wish you would shut your mouth and save yourself from my wrath," the Tomb Robber snapped.

Atem rubbed his head.

"Wrath, is it?" the Pharaoh said, "Oh my, I'm so scared of fluffy bunnies and pom-pom balls..."

Bakura leaped onto the past Pharaoh and began beating him up.

Diana ran over to pull Bakura off, and Harry pulled Atem up, but the two spirits still kept trying to hit each other.

"Stop it!" Harry yelled.

"Knock it off!" Diana said.

But they either didn't listen or didn't care.

Diana's temper flared, and she shouted to be heard over the spirits' fighting.

"STOP THIS RIGHT NOW, OR I'LL DIG UP YOUR MUMMIES AND GIVE THEM TO PEEVES TO PRANK WITH!"

That got the spirits' attention. They looked at Diana in shock.

Atem eyed Bakura strangely. "This girl is like you, isn't she?"

Bakura glared. "You better mean that as a compliment."

"If I don't, then Diana might back up her threat," Atem said, "I don't know about you, but I like my mummy where it is right now..."

Diana rolled her eyes.

"Are we going to get back to what we were doing or not?" she snapped.

"Yes, miss," Bakura and Atem said meekly.

Harry ran over to Hagrid's door, and knocked.

"Who is it?" Hagrid called.

"Hagrid, it's us!" Bakura imitated Ryou, and Atem couldn't help but laugh silently at the impression of the tomb robber's innocent, British Hikari.

But Hagrid didn't seem to hear a difference as he opened the door.

"Hello," he said cheerfully, "C'mon in."

The four of them shrugged, before walking into his hut and closing the door behind them.

It was like stepping into an oven. There was a blazing fire in the fireplace, even though it had been a relatively warm day, and it made the students sweat...well, two of them anyway.

"Aren't you hot?" Harry asked Atem.

"You're forgetting, Harry-kun," the Pharaoh said, "The Tomb Robber and I grew up in Egypt. This is cool compared to weather in the desert."

"But at least you had people to fan you all day long," Bakura snapped, "And you barely moved. I actually did work in the desert."

"Yeah, working," Atem sneered, "Stealing candy from babies."

"Yeah, working," Bakura growled back, "Stealing jewels from stupid past Pharaoh mummies."

Atem looked ready to kill for that, but Diana shot them both a death glare, and the two of them shut up.

"So..." Hagrid said, "Yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes," Diana answered, "We were wondering what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone besides Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned.

"Can't tell ya that, Dare," he said, "Number one, I don't know meself. Number two, yeh know plenty already, so I wouldn't tell ya if I could. The Stone's here for a reason, ya know. It was almost stolen from Gringotts..."

"Hagrid," Bakura said slowly, "Even if you don't want to tell us, you do know. We only really wondered who had done the guarding, really...I mean, who else could Dumbledore possibly trust enough to help him with something this important besides you?"

Harry tried to keep a straight face, but found it hard not to smile. Hagrid, apparently, also found it difficult, but in pride instead of amusement.

"Well..." Hagrid said, "I s'pose it wouldn't hurt to tell ya that...let's see...he borrowed Fluffy from me...then some of the teachers did enchantments..."

"Like who?" asked Harry.

"Let's see..." Hagrid said thoughtfully, "there's Spout... Flitwick... McGonagall... Quirrel... and Dumbledore did somethin' himself, of course. Hang on, I'm forgetting someone...oh, yeah, Snape."

Atem had been scribbling down the teachers' names on his hand with a spare quill, but his head shot up at the sound of the last name.

"Snape?" he repeated.

"Yeah," Hagrid replied, surprised at Atem's reaction.

Then his beetle-black eyes narrowed.

"God, yeh not still on about him, are ya?" he asked, "See here, Snape is helping to protect the Stone, why would he steal it?"

Harry and Diana exchanged a look of puzzlement, since they were thinking along the same lines.

Then Diana looked at Hagrid nervously.

"You are the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" she asked him.

"Not a soul knows 'cept me and Dumbledore," Hagrid said proudly.

"And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you?" Diana asked anxiously, "Not even one of the teach-"

"Hagrid, can we have a window open or something?" Harry panted, "I'm boiling in here."

"Can't, Harry, sorry," Hagrid said dismissively.

Diana saw him sneak a glance at the fire, where there was a small silver pot hanging over the flames.

"Hagrid, what's in there?" Diana said suspiciously.

"Ah..." Hagrid fiddled nervously with his beard as Diana walked over and, putting on a too-big over mitt, picked up the pot and put it on the table.

She looked inside, and her blue eyes widened in shock.

"Hagrid...where did you get this?" Diana said in a deadly cold tone.

With those words, she took a round, black egg out of the pot and put it on the table for everyone to see.

"Won it las' night," Hagrid replied, "I was down in the village havin' a few drinks and got into a game of cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad to get rid of it, to be honest-"

"OF COURSE HE WAS!" Diana yelled, "THANKS TO THAT STRANGER, NOW YOU HAVE TO HIDE THE DRAGON EGG, NOT HIM! OF COURSE HE WANTED TO GET RID OF IT!"

Hagrid, who was more than three times Diana's height, still cowered at her yelling, much like the Weasleys did whenever their mother was angry at them.

"YOU LIVE IN A WOODEN HUT ON THE HOGWARTS GROUNDS, AND YOU ARE BARELY MAKING A LIVING HERE! IF ANYONE FINDS OUT ABOUT THIS, YOU COULD LOSE YOUR JOB! WHERE'D YOU GO THEN, HUH? TO A COLONY WITH YOUR STUPID DRAGON EGG?"

Bakura and Atem exchanged a look of terror as Diana continued yelling her head off.

"COMPLETE IDIOT THING TO DO...PROBABLY GOT DRUNK OR SOMETHING, WHO KNOWS WHAT THAT STRANGER WAS-"

Suddenly Diana stopped at the soft sound of cracking.

"The egg!" Harry said, "It's hatching!"

Diana stepped away from the egg on the table in horror. "Oh damn, oh damn, oh damn, oh damn..."

All at once, there was a scraping noise, and the egg split open. Out of the egg and onto the table crawled a baby dragon.

It wasn't anything like Joey Wheeler's Duel Monster card. In fact, at first glance, Diana thought it was a old black umbrella.

Its spiny wings were huge compared to the rest of him, and his long snout with wide nostrils was paired with small stubs of horns and bright orange eyes.

The little dragon sneezed, and a few red sparks came out of his nose.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid said quietly like you would about a puppy.

The dragon looked up and mewed like a newborn kitten.

"Bless him, he knows his mummy!" Hagrid said.

But the dragon wasn't looking at Hagrid. Instead, its orange eyes were focused on Diana.

The dragon crawled over to the red-haired first year, still mewing and its eyes not leaving her face.

Diana stepped away from the table nervously.

"Uh...go back to Hagrid, little dragon, I don't want any trouble..."

She gestured toward Hagrid, but the dragon wasn't paying attention.

"Norbert likes ya, Dare!" Hagrid said.

"Norbert?" Bakura repeated in disgust, "You're naming a dragon?"

Hagrid wasn't paying attention.

"Go on and pet him!" he encouraged.

Diana shook her head fervently and walked farther away.

"Norbert" had reached the end of the table, and looked up at Diana with sad eyes.

Suddenly, he began to roar.

But it wasn't quite roaring, it was more like...crying.

"Dare, he thinks you're his mum!" Harry said as he covered his ears, "Make him stop crying!"

Diana, slowly and carefully, walked back over to the baby dragon, and, taking a deep breath, started to pat his head.

Norbert purred like a cat, snuggling up to her hand. Then he leaped into her arms and began to coo.

Diana couldn't help but smile down at the little dragon.

"I suppose he's not so bad..."

She shot a cold look at Hagrid.

"But it's still too dangerous to keep him."

Hagrid was about to protest, when he froze. All the color left his face, and he ran over to the window.

"What?" Bakura asked, "What is it?"

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains...it's a kid! H-he's runnin' back up to the school!"

Atem bolted to the door and looked out. His scarlet eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched.

"Malfoy. He's seen Norbert."

Kitty: Chapter completed.

Yugi: MALFOY SAW NORBERT?

Bakura: Damn.

Lina: Can I kill that little ferret next chapter?

Kitty: NO. You know my policy; you can't kill any character until the fic or fics are completed...

Lina: (pouts) Aw...

Kitty: ...but you can hurt them as much as you like.

Lina: (grins and grabs a chainsaw) Hee, hee, hee...

Malfoy: (starts running) AHHHHHH!!!!

Kitty: (types on her computer) Let me see...Kani's first. (smiles) Being a retard is fun. I act it all the time.

Diana: (grins) And Yugi did great with Malfoy!

Yugi: (grins too) YES!

Kitty: Next is...Rainbow Guardian Angel! Yeah, Yugi had fun with that...

Yugi: YEAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!

Kitty: (ahem) And the quote was actually similar to one from the book, but thanks. I just thought Seto and Atem would be the two perfect people to say that... (sweatdrop)

Kara: (smiles) And we all know Kitty rocks.

Kitty: (blushes) Thanks. (types on her computer) And...Meanae the Thorn! (winks) Again, my policy does not forbid torture, so young Draco shall be taught a lesson...and no, there are no official pairings in this story BESIDES mentions of Yugi/Kitty and Marik/Kara. There will be more pairings around third or fourth book, and they will be mostly Ron/Hermione and Diana/a char who I will not reveal now!!!!!!

Diana: (glares) You're evil.

Kitty: I am not! Artemis is.

Artemis: RAWR!!!!! :::trying to scare Kitty::::

Kitty: (turns casually to look at Artemis) Hi, Artemis.

Artemis: (blink) Hello...I guess?

Lina: (stops chasing Malfoy for a second to say) R&R!