Part Thirteen
That night they went decided to go down to Hagrid's hut. "Can we all fit under the invisibility cloak?" Harry asked.
"Don't worry about me." Erin said.
"Aren't you going?" Ron asked.
"Of course I am, but I can turn myself invisible. Invisibus Totalus." Erin was there one second and not there the next. "OK, let's go…oh, Harry, you're shoe is untied."
Erin made sure she was behind Harry when he bent down to tie it. When he got up Erin was by Hermione. "That was pretty good." The invisible girl whispered.
"What?" Hermione whispered back to her.
"I was behind Harry."
"Oh." Hermione said with a giggle.
Ron, Harry and Hermione disappeared under the cloak and they were off to Hagrid's. Erin knocked on the door and a moment later Hagrid opened it. "Who's there?" He called.
"It's us." Harry said taking the cloak off.
"Sorry, but I'm in no right state to entertain today." Hagrid said.
"We know about the Sorcerer's Stone." They all said at once.
"Oh." Hagrid said letting the kids in. Erin was still invisible. He had a sit down. "Where's Erin?" He asked. "Yeh know she'd kick yer butts if yeh left her behind."
"That's why they didn't." the girl said complacently leaning against Harry's chair, though at the moment only Harry knew she was there.
"Well, then, I am not surprised that yeh can make yehself invisible."
"So, Hagrid." Erin said. "What's guarding the Stone besides Fluffy?"
"I can't tell yeh that!" He chided pouring tea and putting some cookies on the table. "Don't worry, those are from Christmas, Dumbledore sent me a crate load of them."
Erin took the tea and a cookie. Harry was looking sideways watching the tea and cookie disappear. "Ah, come on, Hagrid."
"Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. It was almost stolen outta Gringott's—I suppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh know abou' Fluffy."
Erin was about to speak, but Hermione winked at her. She knew the girl too well sometimes. "Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here." She was speaking in a flattering voice. She definitely had tact. Hagrid smiled behind his beard. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Erin clapped my hand to my mouth to keep from laughing. Hagrid looked like his ego had swelled a bit. "Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that…let's see…he borrowed Fluffy from me…then some o' the teachers did enchantments…Professor Sprout—Professor Flitwick—Professor McGonagall—Professor Quirrell—an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."
"Snape?"
"Yeah—yer not still on abou' that, are yah? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."
"And you are the only one that knows how to get past Fluffy, right?" Harry and Erin said at the same time and then Erin giggled.
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore. I shouldn' a told yer that."
The brunette rolled her eyes. She happened to glance at the fire and back at Hagrid and then back at the fire again. "Hagrid! What in the name of Merlin—?"
Everyone turned to her, even though they couldn't see her and Hermione caught sight of the fire too, which had a huge black egg in it. "Hagrid—what is that?"
"That—er—that's erm…"
"I know what that is." Ron said. "But Hagrid how'd you get one?"
"Won it." Hagrid said. "From a stranger I met down at the pub, seemed glad to be rid of it as a matter of fact."
"I'm not surprised." Erin sighed.
At that moment the egg began to shake. Hagrid took the egg from the fire and set it on the table where it proceeded to fly apart, revealing a very small, long baby dragon. "That's a Norwegian Ridgeback." Ron said. "My brother, Charlie works with them in Romania."
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid asked. "Oh, look he knows his mummy." Erin shook her head. "What was that?" Erin's head snapped up at Hagrid's words.
She raced over to the window and saw Malfoy hurrying up the steps back to the bridge. "Fabulous." She growled. "Malfoy."
"Oh, dear." Hagrid said.
During the next week the four of them tried to convince Hagrid to let 'Norbert' free. Norbert was what he named the dragon. But Hagrid said Norbert was just too little, that he'd die, and that he would miss his mommy…"Hagrid!" Erin said getting his attention from Norbert. "How long do you think Malfoy is going to keep quiet about this?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "No for long, I tell you!"
"I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him. I can't. Norbert! Where's Mommy?"
Erin shook my head and covered her face with my hand. She groaned wondering what was going to happen next. "He's lost his marbles." Ron murmured. Erin couldn't agree more.
"Charlie." Harry said suddenly to Ron.
"You've lost it too!" Ron said. "I'm Ron, remember?"
"No, Charlie, you're brother, Charlie in Romania. He's studying dragons."
"So?" Ron asked.
"So, Ron, write to Charlie and ask if he can take him." Erin hit him on the back of the head. Ok, she was in a bad mood.
"Ouch! What's gotten your knickers in a twist?" Ron complained rubbing the back of his head.
Erin gave him a look. "Ron, you do not want to know."
Ron's eyes grew wide and his face took on a shade as bright as his hair. He coughed. "Yes, Charlie could take him. How about it, Hagrid?"
It took a little persuading but in the end, and about 5 hits to the back of the head for Ron later, Hagrid agreed they could send an owl to Charlie.
On Wednesday night they were all up late studying. Hermione and Erin hadn't tried to change yet. They were just too busy. But Erin was trying to finish an essay that Snape had given us on Forgetfulness Potions. It was horrible. Hey, if Hermione and Erin were having a hard time they could just imagine what kind of time the others were having. There was a tap on the dark window.
"It's Hedwig!" Harry said as he got up to let his owl in. "She'll have Charlie's answer."
Ron took the note from Hedwig and read it aloud:
"'Dear Ron, how are you? Thanks for the letter—I'd thought you'd forgotten all about me here in Romania. I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon. Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark. Send me an answer as soon as possible. Love, Charlie.'" Ron looked up. "Well?"
"We have the invisibility cloak." Harry said. "Since Erin can turn herself invisible…and I think the cloak can cover two of us plus Norbert."
"But which two?" Hermione asked Harry.
"Well, Ron and I are the most obvious…sorry, Hermione."
"Don't worry about it." She said. "But I don't know, something isn't sitting right with this. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yes." The other girl said. "Something feels wrong. Maybe it's Malfoy, but he can't find out what we're up to."
"We hope." Harry said. "It's still a few days away. Who knows what can happen between now and Saturday?"
Who indeed.