Disclaimer:

I do not own Harry Potter. Obviously...

Summary:

Ever since first year, Harry's had a problem.. He's just to darn photogenic and no matter what he seems to do there's always a photo the next day in the newspaper calling him the next merlin.

This fic is slightly Au and will get increasing Au as the story progresses.

Chapter 6 The Dragon Egg

Draco Malfoy was furious. He was sitting in the train compartment on his way back to Hogwarts looking over another quidditch magazine talking about Harry Bloody Potter.

This particular article didn't even have one of those clearly staged photos, but was speculating about Harry's upcoming quidditch matches. This particular author was sure that not only would Harry easily sail through the remaining games but would be a shoe in for a professional team. Maybe even before he graduated. Closing the article is disgust Malfoy couldn't believe all the positive press that pathetic half-blood was getting.

But luckily, he had a plan. Along with his many other gifts this year he had requested and received a top-notch magical camera. It had all of the latest features including zoom function and could even take a picture day or night without a flash.

With this camera he would catch Potter doing something wrong or embarrassing and he would send it to every damn newspaper and magazine in Britain. Then everyone would see him for the fraud he was, and Malfoy would get all the attention and recognition a man of his station deserved.

He just had to find the right moment…

Harry and Ron were walking down the grounds towards the main gates. It was a cold January afternoon, and they were both bundled up in their coats and cloaks. Today the students who had left for the holidays were returning and they had decided to walk down to the gate to meet Hermione. They did this both because they were excited to see their friend but also because they couldn't wait to tell her about all the things they had learned. From the lack of information on Nicholas Flamel, Snape's suspicious activities with Quirrell, the invisibility cloak, the discovery of the mirror of Erised and most pressingly the dragon egg.

As the reached the gate they saw the carriages filled with students pulling up. As groups of students dismounted, they would collect their trunks and begin making their way up the hill. Many offered Harry friendly greetings with some even stopping to ask how his holidays were.

Harry did his best to be polite, he had almost forgotten about how oddly friendly everyone had been as of late. He was at least thankful that the little Christmas tree incident had mostly been forgotten or at least put in the back of people's minds over their holidays.

As another group said their goodbyes and moved on Harry spotted some bushy brown hair on an incoming carriage. He quickly pointed it out to Ron, and they rushed over.

When they arrived, they saw Hermione had been ridding with Neville, who seemed to be giving the front of the carriage as wide a berth as possible for some reason.

As Hermione got down, she spotted her friends walking towards her. She gave a wide smile before calling out to them.

"Harry! Ron!"

She hopped of the final step on the carriage and quickly trotted over before throwing her arms around Harry in a crushing hug.

Harry felt a bit awkward as he wasn't entirely used to being hugged but he did miss Hermione as well and so hugged back, if a little awkwardly.

"Oi what am I a dirty sock," Ron commented.

Hermione broke off embarrassed before giving Ron a quick hug as well.

"Just let me grab my trunk," she said rushing to the back to unload their trunk.

Harry watched as Hermione unloaded the clearly over packed trunk from the back of the carriage. It hit the ground with a loud thud and Hermione began to try and drag the heavy thing in the snow.

After it became obvious that her trunk was getting stuck in the snow, she looked up at the boys embarrassed and was about to ask for help when Ron interrupted.

"Honestly Hermione it's like you forget you're a witch," Ron said rolling his eyes.

He then pulled out his wand and cast "Wingardium Leviosa."

The trunk easily lifted up and out of the snow and Hermione flushed, realizing her error.

As she quickly walked over to her friends, they began walking up to the castle together and Harry began to quietly fill her in on what she had missed.

Draco Malfoy was annoyed. Over a month of carrying around this stupid camera had already passed, and he still hadn't found an opportunity to embarrass Harry. It was already late February and the only thing that came close to embarrassing was Valentine's Day. Harry had received more mail then usual (and wasn't that saying something) most of which came in red or pink frilly envelopes. Lots of 1st and 2nd year girls had also gone to talk to him, giggling and playing with their hair.

Draco wanted to gag, the only pictures he managed to get was of him surrounded by his valentine's letters and / or giggling girls. He decided not to send those photos off as he certainly didn't need to see another headline speculating on scar head's love life.

Unfortunately, someone else didn't get the memo because the following day Witch Weekly's and other trash magazines were covered with similar pictures taken by other students.

Now though as the month of February approached it's end, it seems the teachers were determined to swamp him with homework. So, Draco was now in the library searching for a book to help him with his transfiguration homework.

As Draco was walking down the aisle searching for his book, he suddenly heard the annoyingly familiar voice of that know-it-all Granger.

"Harry," she asked in a confused voice "Why are you in such a rush?"

Indeed, as Malfoy looked between the book aisle cracks, he spotted Harry nearly dragging Hermione towards a table in the back.

"Shh," he replied, "it's Important come along,"

Draco sensing that his moment had finally come did his best to silently approach the bookcase beside them. It took him a minute but as he pressed his ear to a crack in the bookcase next to the table it all became worth it.

"It's happening tonight," Harry spoke quietly to Hermione

"Tonight?" She asked back in a hushed but surprised tone.

"Yah," he replied, "Ron just got the letter from Charlie and is sending his reply at the owlery now."

He then continued in a more serious tone "We have to take it up to the astronomy tower for midnight. They're going to pick it up tonight, good thing to because it's starting to move a lot. If we wait any longer it might hatch."

'Hatch' Draco thought as he quickly walked away. Clearly Potter had some sort of pet or animal he was trying to smuggle. What was even better was he now knew about it and where he would get the picture to put Potter in his place.

Harry, Ron, and the very heavy egg were walking up the steps towards the astronomy tower under the invisibility cloak. As they continued their climb Harry couldn't help but review the plan in his head.

Their main concern is that they would be caught out of bed and cost Gryffindor a lot of points, not to mention being caught smuggling a very illegal dragon egg. As such they had created a three-tier plan to maximize their chance of not getting caught.

Hermione had pointed out that tonight was Professor McGonagall's patrol. So, in order to keep her busy Hermione was going to create a distraction in the common room. They had procured some magical fire works which Hermione had charmed to go off shortly before midnight. Hopefully this would get McGonagall distracted and away from the tower.

Their next step was at the base of the astronomy tower. Ron was going to remain on look out under the invisibility cloak in case a prefect or filch came along. It would be his job to distract them away from the tower. He was armed with his wand and some stink bombs from his brothers. He would make as much noise and chaos as he could without being caught himself in order to distract them and hopefully warn Harry.

Finally, Harry would be the one to carry the egg up himself. He had been chosen to do so when Ron bluntly pointed out. "They're a lot less likely to expel you," much to Harry's chagrin.

As they reached the base of the astronomy tower Harry grabbed the egg and slipped out from under the cloak. Ron gave him a final good luck and promised to wait for him to return.

Harry began climbing up the stairs. So far everything seemed to be going very well and for once Harry felt like things were going alright. It was just at that moment as he reached the top of the tower that he felt and heard a great big cracking sound from the egg.

Looking down he noticed a large crack had formed and could hear a scratching sound from within. It was hatching now!

Rushing up to a window alcove he whipped off his cloak and placed it down before placing the rapidly cracking egg on the cloak. Glancing at his watch he saw he still had another 10 minutes or so until Charlie's friends were to arrive.

Unsure of what to do but also fascinated by the hatching egg, he chose to kneel down next to the alcove so that he could watch the creature emerge. He was lucky it was a bright moon tonight as it made seeing very easy.

After a minute a claw finally punched through the cracks and the eggshell rapidly shattered and collapsed down onto the cloak revealing the very ugly baby dragon. It looked a lot like a crumbled black umbrella and slowly it's small head looked up at Harry and it opened it's eyes. They were a startlingly bright shade of amber and as they stared into each others' eyes, Harry couldn't help but notice how focused they were on him. The dragon then gave off a small crooning sound as it crawled over to his arm. It's small claws latched onto to Harry's arm and the biting sensation of it's claws on his skin caused Harry to instinctively stand up and lift his arm in shock. As he did so the baby dragon gave a great big yawn and stretched it's tiny wings out, casting a great shadow from the moonlight beaming in from the window.

It was then that Harry noticed three men on brooms approaching. Unfourtuetly, it was also how he missed Malfoy sneaking out from behind some crates full of stargazing equipment and make his way down the stairs triumphantly.

Ron was standing under the cloak in the shadows. It had been quite a while since Harry went up stairs and he was getting very stiff. Finally, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and he turned getting ready to greet Harry. So, he was quite shocked when Malfoy came down the stairs instead, with a camera dangling around his neck and a shit eating grin firmly in place.

'Oh no' thought Ron, quickly putting what happened together. He decided he had to act quickly. He stuck out his leg under the cloak and watched in great satisfaction as Malfoy tripped over his leg and hit the stone floor face first. A loud crunch and shattering sound were quickly covered by Malfoy shouting out in pain, only to then cover his own mouth in panic.

Filch or the prefects would have heard that for sure. Ron quickly began to walk up the steps to get Harry but as he turned the corner and saw Malfoy getting up he remembered all the insults Malfoy had throw at his family. He quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out the ever-stink bomb and lobed it at Malfoy.

It was a direct hit on the back of Malfoy's head and the stink bomb went off and covered Malfoy. the stinking liquid was in his hair and all over his face. It dripped down onto his shirt along with blood that was clearly coming from a broken nose. What's better is that the camera around his neck was clearly broken from his fall.

Very satisfied by his work and for avenging his family honor. Ron quickly made his way up the stairs to get Harry. Leaving behind a wrenching, injured Malfoy for filch to find.

The next morning at breakfast Harry was very relieved when no newspapers or magazines showed up with his face on it. Ron had come up the astronomy tower stairs and explained the Malfoy situation. They were then able to use the cloak to get back to the dorm room safe and sound.

He was even more happy when he spotted that the Slytherin point hourglass was noticeably lower than the day before. As Harry looked over to the Slytherin Table he saw that Malfoy was seated alone. Not even Crabbe or Goyle would sit near him. Whether it was the terrible smell that still emanated form him or his new social pariah status he had earned, or perhaps some combination of the two, Harry did not know.

As Harry turned back to his friends to talk about their upcoming classes, he missed Draco looking over at him. His glare only slightly marked by the small smirk he wore on his face. Because despite his camera's destruction, it's film was still intact, and he had made sure to mail it off that very morning.

Draco would have his revenge.

The next day was a Saturday, and the golden trio were chatting happily as they made their way to their seats in the great hall. After digging into their breakfast and planning a visit to see Hagrid later that afternoon the morning mail arrived.

Harry was just finishing his eggs when he heard Hermione gasp. Looking over he saw she was holding a newspaper and Harry immediately felt a sinking feeling in his gut. Sure, enough Hermione turned and handed the paper to him, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why she gasped.

On the front page was Harry. Standing tall and proud in his uniform minus the cloak with a baby dragon perched on his arm. As the picture moved the baby dragon gave out what looked like a tiny roar, but which Harry knew was really a yawn as it unfolded it's leathery wings. The image really was quite striking as they were framed in the windows of the alcove with the moonlight shimmering upon their features. looking above the picture to read the headline it read:

Harry Potter Histories Youngest Dragon Tamer?

Looking at the subheadings he read:

Pg. 3-5 More Pictures of Harry with The Baby Dragon

Pg. 7 Does Harry Potter have a license or is he acting under Dumbledore's?

Pg. 9 History of Dragon Breeding

Pg. 13 Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon and Other Rare Dragon Species.

As Harry's face became increasingly white as he read the paper, he suddenly found himself covered in shadow. Slowly looking behind himself, he looked right into the terrifying eyes of a very angry Professor McGonagall. She pointed her finger at the door and said one word.

"March!"

As Harry stood up and began to walk out the door with his head low, he couldn't help but glance towards Malfoy. Sure enough, he once again had his shit-eating smirk plastered across his face and even offered a jaunty little wave.

As they left the great hall and McGonagall directed him to follow her to the headmaster's office, Harry knew one thing for sure.

'I'm Doomed.'

Authors note:

Hello everyone! I hope your having a fantastic Sunday. As you can probably tell the timeline of philosophers stone is changing and the story will become more different from cannon as it progresses.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I look forward to reading more of your fantastic reviews. Speaking of which here are some responses:

Higashiyama Sayuri's Devout:

Wow a comment for nearly each chapter, thanks so much.

1. yes that was the world famous "Superhero" landing

2. unintentional wins for the win! am I right =P

3. Book Ginny is a lot better then movie Ginny but I have some good ideas for her in this story.

4. whos ever head of a life debt in a Harry potter fanfic? *Sarcasm*

Era-romance:

oh Hagrid's flute will be making some come backs, but you'll have to wait to find out =P

La Monsera:

Glad I have you on the edge of your seat lol. here another update for yah!

SvenHPotterFan:

Wow that is very German! Hello google translate!

Ich bin froh, dass Ihnen das Kapitel gefallen hat und ja, viele dieser Dinge wie Susans Rettung werden zurückkommen und in Zukunft wichtige Toles bezahlen. Ja, Harry muss wirklich mehr über die magische Welt lernen! Ron muss sich beeilen, huh! lol

Vielen Dank für Ihren Kommentar und es ist so cool zu wissen, dass ich ein internationales Publikum habe. =)

Darksnider05

Yes it would be rather rude of Harry to not be writing back to all these people wouldn't it.

I'm still looking for a regular beta reader so if your interested please DM me.

Thanks so much to all the fans and readers of this story! I still can't believe we have 93 favorites and 143 follows!

I hope you all have a wonderful evening and remember,

Stay Magical!