Title: Jade Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Author: Queen Serenity

Fandom: Harry Potter

Chapter: Thirteen – Dragons and Idiots

Something Jade noticed in the next few weeks was that Quirrell wasn't doing well, it seemed. He was getting paler, and thinner, too.

But she paid little attention to that. Solluna had taken to avoiding her mistress's bed for specific reasons. Primarily, it was because Jade was running for bitch queen.

Just kidding.

Truthfully, Jade was acting rather irritable whenever anyone bothered her outside of classes. In just over two months, the exams to get into next year were coming up. Whenever Jade was in class, she was taking notes furiously on everything the teachers talked about, even in History of Magic. Whenever she was not in class, she had her canopy closed, a magical light set up in it, and she was sitting there on her bed, studying or doing her homework. Anyone who so much as spoke to her would basically get their head verbally bitten off.

She wasn't scared of failing. That wasn't the problem…

The problem was that Jade was feeling slightly… competitive. And Hermione was doing the same studying. There was a sort of friendly competition going on between the two girls to try and be top of the class. Since she knew she would usually be busy, and didn't know if Hermione could do it alone, Jade asked Lisa to make sure she would give Ron a little extra help with his studying. Knowing him, he'd put it off until the last minute, probably, then have a spaz attack as he tried to cram it all in at the last second.

Lisa, unlike the other two in the Ravenclaw Trio, wasn't stressed about being top of the class, or about failing. She knew with absolute certainty that she would pass, as she had learned all of the stuff fine throughout the year.

Since she wasn't having much time to see Ron anymore outside of class (and they had very little classes together), Ron had taken to sitting sometimes at the Raveclaw table with Lisa, Hermione, and Jade.

One day, when Jade had actually come out to study with her friends in the library, they all saw Hagrid. Once he'd left, they were able to figure out that he'd been looking up dragons.

This, of course, made them all curious exactly why he had been looking them up… and it made Jade a bit suspicious.

They all ended up going to Hagrid's hut to interrogate him on why he'd been looking up dragons, and were (except for Jade) rather surprised to find that he actually had a dragon egg. There. In his WOODEN house.

Hermone tried to talk some sense into Hagrid, but Jade didn't even bothed trying; she knew that with Hagrid it would be useless…

Jade fell back into her study habits for a few days. One morning, when they were all eating breakfast, Jade had to leave for a few minutes to use the ladies' room.

When she got back, she noticed that Ron and Hermione looked a bit worried, and Jade asked why. They showed her a note which Athena had delivered, one from Hagrid which said:It's hatching.

Next, they told Jade how they'd been arguing about whether to skip class or not to go down to the hut, and it looked like Malfoy had heard.

Jade spoke, her voice low. "Okay… first of all, Ron, dragons take a little while to hatch. We can go down during morning break, and it probably will be coming out about then. Second of all, you guys need to learn to be quieter about things like that… you know he's always itching to find ways to get you into trouble, Ron."

After their morning classes, Jade and Hermione met up with Ron and hurried down to the hut. Solluna, as usual, trailed behind Jade. As they came up to his house, they could see Hagrid's head sticking out of the door, looking rather flushed and excited. His face practically glowed when he saw them.

"It's nearly out," he said as he ushered them inside, Jade going first.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it.

Hagrid, Ron, and Hermione all drew their chairs up, excited, and watched, barely breathing. Meanwhile, Jade went ahead and set her chair against the wall beside the window. She'd read a bit about Norwegian Ridgebacks, and knew that even as newborns, that they were rather hostile… even at birth. She could see just the cracking egg just fine from here. Solluna sat on her haunches beside Jade's chair, so that Jade was situated against the wall between Solluna and the window.

Out of nowhere there was a cracking noise which pierced the otherwise mostly silent room. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. Jade smiled slightly, watching it… it looked exactly like she'd always pictured a baby dragon when she had read Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books when she was younger.

It sneezed, a couple of sparks flying from its snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. The big man reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head, only to have it snap at his fingers and show its pointed fangs. At this, Solluna let out a light snort.

My fangs are cooler. Much, much cooler.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" Hagrid said.

"Hagrid," asked Hermione, "How fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face – he leapt to his feet and Jade blanched as she thought, for a moment, that he was for some reason running at her. Turned out he was just headed for the window, though.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains – it's a kid – he's runnin' back up ter the school."

Jade ran to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him.

Malfoy had seen Hagrid's dragon.

Jade decided not to mention the dragon to Malfoy. I mean, I was in there, too… she thought. So he'll probably keep quiet about it, right?

Still, Jade and her friends tried to reason with Hagrid… but he wouldn't get rid of the dragon. He named it and everything. As Jade had known it would, the dragon grew very, very quickly. She knew that within a month the house would be too small for him.

They came up with an idea. Ron's brother, Charlie, worked with dragons. They'd get a hold of him and see if he could take it. Hagrid reluctantly agreed and so then a letter was sent with Athena off to Charlie.

In the following week, an answer came from Charlie as Ron was showing Hermione and Jade the bite that Norbert the dragon had just given him. It was about midnight, and they were all in the Ravenclaw common room again.

Out loud, Jade read the note that had been delivered.

Dear Ron,

How are you? Thanks for the letter – 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 mid-

night 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

They decided to go ahead and do it… the three of them would hide under the cloak, along with Norbert.

Ron's hand got so bad from the bite that he ended up having to go to Madam Pomfrey.

When Jade and Hermione went to visit him there at the end of the day, they found him looking terrible. He told them how Malfoy had come in, pretending to need to borrow one of Ron's books, and gloated over him, threatening to tell about the dragon. When Ron said that Malfoy was doing it because of what had happened at the Quidditch match, Jade silently agreed, and had to resist doing so out loud. She frowned, thinking. Malfoy was most likely just messing with Ron… right?

Right?

She forced a reassuring smile onto her face. "Don't worry, Ron. It'll all be over at midnight at Saturday."

That didn't have the desired effect. Ron sat upright quickly, sweating.

"Midnight on Saturday!" he said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no – oh no – I've just remembered – Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."

Before Jade and Hermione could answer, Madam Pomfrey came in and ushered them out, saying her patient needed sleep.

They still decided to go through with the plan.

On Saturday night, with much huffing and puffing, they were able to get the dragon up to the castle, and then they were making their way to the tower. In the corridor beneath the tower, though, sudden movement made them freeze. A lamp flared about ten feet away, revealing Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and hairnet, holding Malfoy by his ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you –"

"You don't understand, Professor. Ron Weasley'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!"

Silently, Jade shook her head. She couldn't believe Malfoy had been such an idiot. Well, it was his own fault.

They got the dragon to the top of the tower, and got the dragon safely sent off with Charlie's friends ten minutes later.

Unbelievably happy, they made their ways back down to the corridor, only to meet up with Filch's leering face.

They were in trouble.

A lot of trouble.

They'd forgotten the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.

QS: I honestly thought about having Jade remember the cloak… but then that would get rid of the detention in the forbidden forest, and I wanted to keep that. Do you guys get why Malfoy told? If not, you'll find out next chapter.

Sorry the chapter's so short, but remember, I'm summarizing some parts… but not the important ones. I just don't feel like quoting the original book too much.

By the way, I know Ron originally wasn't with Hermione and Harry when they did this, but I decided to go ahead and have his hand better enough for him to do it, too.