However, it seemed Quirrell was not about to give up any information to Snape. He seemed to be getting paler and thinner, but Snape was walking around in his usual brooding manner, so they all knew he had not gotten immense riches or immortality.
Quirrell passed them once when they were sitting in the Great Hall, and Harry gave him an encouraging smile.
"Don't do that," Samantha whispered after Quirrell was far enough away.
"What? Why?" Harry asked.
"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling about him," answered Samantha.
"You said that two weeks ago," said Harry, rolling his eyes.
"And I haven't been proven wrong, have I?" Samantha asked.
"You haven't been proven right, either. Why do you want to believe the good in Snape anyway?" asked Harry.
"I don't," Samantha said. "I don't believe the good in either of them. I think it's more likely that Snape is trying to take the Stone, though."
"You make no sense," Harry said, turning away from her
"Thank you," Samantha replied.
The next day, they all went down to the library to study for exams, mostly because Hermione and Ellie kept nagging them.
"Ten weeks. We've got ten weeks, we've gotta start now," Ellie said, grabbing books off the shelves.
"Exactly. Ten weeks. That's an eternity. I've got them in the bag already anyways," Samantha said. She was taking down books that could have something about Occlumency or a Pensieve so that she could learn more about them.
"Just because you have a strange ability to retain everything and learn spells in three minutes doesn't mean we all have it," Leslie said hotly.
"Calm yourself. If you don't have that ability, that's fine. But I do, so I don't see why I have to be included in this," Samantha replied. She set the books on the table and began flipping through them.
Just as she finally finished going through the book, where she found nothing, she was made to look up by Ron saying, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"
Samantha saw Ellie had left to get another book somewhere and was grateful it was just the six of them now.
"Jus' lookin'" Hagrid said. Samantha knew it was not just looking. "What're you lo' up to? No' still lookin' for Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out about him ages ago," Samantha said brightly.
"and we know what that dog is guarding, the Philos-," Ron started, but Hagrid cut him off.
"Shhh, are yeh crazy?!" Hagrid asked. "Yeh aren' 'possed ter know abou' tha'."
"We do have a few questions though, about what else is guarding the Stone," Harry said.
"SHHH!" Hagrid said, earning a glare from Madam Pince. "Come by my place tonigh', no' promisin' answers bu' don' go mentionin' it here, they'll thin' I've told yeh," said Hagrid.
"See you later then" Max said, and Hagrid walked off.
"What was behind his back?" Leslie asked.
"Nothing good," Samantha said."Or else he wouldn't hide it."
"Come on, let's go see what section he was in," Ron suggested.
Samantha stood up with Harry and Max, but Hermione and Leslie remained seated.
"I need to study for these exams, but tell me what you find," Hermione said, and Leslie nodded.
They walked to the isle they had just seen Hagrid emerge from and found immediately what he'd been looking for.
"Dragons," Samantha whispered, running her finger over the spine of a book.
They grabbed a few to take back to the table.
"He was looking up stuff about dragons," Ron told Leslie and Hermione when they got back.
"He said he always wanted a dragon, when we first met him," Harry said.
"You don't think- but it's illegal-," Samantha started.
"He couldn't have, dragon breeding was outlawed way back, it's hard to keep undercover if we've got dragons roaming the backyard," Ron said.
"Just because something is illegal doesn't stop people from doing it," Leslie pointed out.
"Yeah, killing's illegal, but look at You-Know-Who, or Grindelwald," Max said.
"How could he have even gotten one?" Hermione asked.
Ron shrugged. "Who knows. All we can do is hope for the best case scenario," he said.
"Which would be...?" Hermione asked.
"That Hagrid doesn't have an illegal dragon hidden in his hut," Ron said.
As they had planned, the six of them went down to Hagrid's that night. Hagrid had all of the curtains shut, and called out "Who's there?" before letting them in. It was burning hot inside the hut. Samantha had a bad feeling about this.
"So- yeh wanted ter ask me somethin'?" Hagrid asked.
"Yeah," Harry said.
"We were wondering what was guarding the Stone besides Fluffy," said Samantha.
"I can' tell yeh tha'. One, I don' know meself. Two, yeh know too much already," Hagrid said.
"But Hagrid, we have reason to believe someone might be trying to steal the Stone," said Max.
"Rubbish! No one'd try an' steal it," Hagrid brushed it off.
"Really, Hagrid, we know you're aware of everything that goes on here," Hermione said.
Samantha gave her a knowing look that Hagrid didn't see. "We just want to know who Dumbledore trusts enough to guard the Stone, apart from you," Samantha finished.
Hagrid beamed. "Well, I guess it couldn' hurt ter tell yeh," Hagrid said. "Les see... some o' the teachers did some enchantments... Professor Sprout-Professor Flitwick-Professor McGonagall" Hagrid said, counting them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell... Dumbledore himself did somethin' as well," he said. "Hang on, I'm forgetting someone... oh yeah, and Professor Snape."
"Snape?" Ron asked.
"But he's trying to steal it!" Max said.
"He helped protect the Stone, he's not abou' ter steal it," Hagrid said.
"Hagrid, no one knows how to get past Fluffy, right?" Leslie asked.
"No' a soul 'cept me an' Dumbledore," Hagrid said proudly.
"And you wouldn't tell anyone?" Hermione asked.
"Wouldn' even think o' it," Hagrid replied, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Hagrid, it's boiling, can we have a window open?" Harry asked.
"No, sorry, Harry," Hagrid said. He took a quick glance behind him at the fire.
Samantha looked there too. There was a large, black egg sitting amongst the flames. Her heart sank. Hagrid had a dragon.
"Hagrid, what's that?" Harry asked, sounding like a parent scolding a child.
"Ah... that's, er," Hagrid said.
"Where did you get it?" Ron asked, walking over.
"Yeah, it's gotta cost a fortune," Max said, also walking nearer. Samantha and Harry followed.
"Won it," said Hagrid proudly. "A' the pub las' night."
"What will you do once it's hatched?" Leslie asked. She was holding back with Hermione, looking apprehensive.
"I been doin' some readin'. I know all abou' how ter feed it an' care for it," Hagrid said, holding up a book on dragons that was sat on the table.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," Hermione said.
Hagrid ignored her.
The next night, Samantha and Max made it out for a sunset walk of the grounds.
"What're we gonna do if someone finds out about...?" Samantha asked Max as they strolled around the Great Lake.
"No clue," Max shrugged. "All we can do is hope we can get rid of it before anyone has a chance to spot it," he said.
"Hope didn't get us far last time," Samantha pointed out. "Plus, we can't just set it free. It's a dragon, not an owl or a cat. Where could we possibly send it?"
Max sighed. "I don't know," he paused. "This year is so much more complicated than last year. There was no Stone last year, no illegal dragons, and less homework."
"And we've got to pick extra subjects to take for next year," Samantha added.
"Oh, I forgot about that... I'll probably get a bunch of letters from family about what to choose, I remember my parents sending Margot letters on that..." Max said.
"I've got no one to tell me what subjects to choose," Samantha said sadly.
"Don't count that as a negative, Margot said so many letters stressed her out," Max said, raising his eyebrows.
The next day, they were choosing their new classes. Max was right; he got five owls from different family members advising him on which subjects to choose. He didn't open any of them, and instead lit them magically on fire.
They were handed lists from which to choose from, and had to choose at least two.
Samantha read over them many times, and asked Margot, Fred, and George about them. Percy gave her advice too, but she hadn't really wanted him to.
Finally, she decided on something. She would take them all.
"You live with Muggles," Leslie said exasperatedly when Samantha told her of the decision.
"I want to get as many O.W.L.s as possible," Samantha replied, shrugging.
Leslie went for Care of Magical Creatures and Divination, saying she didn't want to do math or study Ancient Runes. Max had chosen Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy, but hadn't gone for Study of Ancient Runes or Divination. She knew Damon was taking Arithmancy too, and that Connor was taking Care of Magical Creatures, but hadn't paid too much attention when they had all met to talk about it on the grounds that evening.
A few mornings later, Harry got a letter at breakfast. He opened it carefully, and Samantha saw the two words scrawled messily on the paper- It's hatching.
Samantha gasped. "Oh, I wish I could go now, but I've got Transfiguration and McGonagall would probably take two hundred points from Gryffindor if I skip it," she said sadly.
"We've got Herbology, though, we could go," Ron said excitedly.
"No, Ron, we've not skipping a class for this!" Hermione said hotly, and that was the final decision.
"We've got History of Magic after, though, and Binns won't even notice if we're gone, thank Merlin we share that class with the whole year, the first time I'm ever grateful for the sheer amount of people in that goddamn room," Samantha said.
"Oh, I'm sure that it'll be an important lesson, probably something on your exams!" Hermione said.
"So what? I can look it up later," Samantha shrugged.
Hermione huffed. "That's not very responsible of you," she muttered.
"Since when have I been a responsible person?" asked Samantha. Hermione didn't answer.
"We've got our morning break after, we'll go with you," Harry said.
"Oh, see, it works perfectly," Samantha said happily.
So, that morning, after their Transfiguration class, they rushed to the grounds without being seen and went straight to Hagrid's cabin.
The giant egg was on the table. It had large, deep cracks running through it, and was making a funny clicking noise.
They all crowded around the table to watch, Leslie still hanging back slightly.
Suddenly, there was a loud scraping noise, and the egg cracked open.
A tiny dragon fell onto the table.
Hagrid looked like a proud father. Samantha didn't see the appeal.
It was thin, ragged, and crumpled. It resembled a skeleton with tight, leathery, black skin stretched over it. It sneezed, and flames shot out. Leslie backed up even more.
"Isn' he beau'iful?" asked Hagrid, stroking his head. It snapped, and sharp fangs showed.
"Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" Hermione asked tentatively.
Hagrid was about to answer when he suddenly became very pale. Samantha followed his gaze to the window, quick enough to see Malfoy turn away.
"Oh no," Samantha said.
Draco Malfoy had seen the dragon.
Over the next week, the dragon, whom Hagrid had decided to call Norbert, grew quickly. Malfoy had a tricky smile on his face whenever Samantha saw him, which worried her. She wondered if she'd be able to Obliviate him. She almost did it once, but decided doing that may not be the best decision, seeing as she wasn't keen on getting expelled from Hogwarts.
Finally, after much back and forth trying to persuade Hagrid to get rid of Norbert, they settled on something.
They would ask Charlie.
Ron wrote him a letter that night, asking if he could come take the dragon.
They got a response a few days later.
"He said yes!" Ron exclaimed. "He says that he has some friends who can swing by Saturday night, if we can get Norbert to the top of the highest Astronomy Tower!"
"That's amazing!" Leslie said.
"We can go under the Invisibility Cloak, two of us and Norbert," said Samantha.
"I'll write him back now, I'll be so glad to get this mess over with," Ron said, and scrawled a quick response to his brother.
Then Ron went to tell Hagrid. When he came back, he had a cloth wrapped around his right hand.
"What happened?" Samantha asked. The five of them sitting in their corner rushed over to him.
"The thing bit me!" he said, grimacing. He took off the cloth, and Samantha had to restrain from screaming.
"You've got to see Madam Pomfrey," Max said, looking at the bite marks.
"I can't, she'll recognize it" Ron said. He put the cloth back over his hand.
By the next morning, though, Madam Pomfrey was looking necessary. His hand was swollen and toxic green. They walked him there, and then set off for their respective classes.
They visited after classes, with a reluctant Madam Pomfrey barely letting the five of them in.
"Malfoy came in here. He said he wanted to borrow one of my books, then threatened to tell her what really bit me," Ron whispered once she left the room.
"What've you said?" Max asked.
"A dog," Ron answered. "Hey, it was the first thing that came to mind, alright!" he added defensively when he caught Samantha and Hermione's raised eyebrows.
"It'll all be over by Saturday," Hermione said soothingly.
Ron sat straight up. "Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no," he said.
"What, what's wrong?" Max asked.
"The book Malfoy took, the letter was in there!" Ron whispered frantically, glancing past Samantha and Harry to check that Madam Pomfrey wasn't watching.
Leslie's eyes widened, and Samantha's mouth hung open a little.
"What? So he knows when and where?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, this can't be good," Samantha said, running her fingers through her hair and messing up the part.
"We can't cancel, it'll never reach Charlie in time," Harry said.
"Plus, we can't possibly keep Norbert any longer," said Leslie.
"He'll be too big for Hagrid's house by next week at this rate," Max agreed.
"We'll just have to be extra cautious," reasoned Samantha. "Harry and Hermione should go. They're the smallest of us, so it'll be easier for them to hide under the Cloak."
"Which Malfoy doesn't know about!" Leslie exclaimed, then covered her mouth with her hand, hoping Madam Pomfrey hadn't heard.
"Exactly," Samantha said.
"We could keep watch in an empty classroom near the base of the Astronomy Tower," Max suggested, shrugging.
"Yes, that should work," agreed Samantha, nodding.
"If anyone comes near the base of the tower, we can distract them," said Max.
"What if it's a teacher or Filch, or a Prefect, and they take points off?" Leslie asked.
"Er..." Samantha said, thinking.
"We could act like something was happening in another part of the castle," Harry suggested.
"Maybe we could get Peeves to actually cause some chaos," said Samantha.
"Will he listen, though?" Hermione said skeptically.
"Probably not..." Max said.
"Maybe we could say we were doing homework, and came to a disagreement somewhere, or didn't understand something," Leslie proposed.
"Good idea!" Ron said.
"Maybe only two of us should go, so it'll be less suspicious," Samantha said tentatively.
"I'll stay back," Leslie offered.
"You sure? Because I can," offered Samantha.
"Or me," Max added.
"Yes, I'm sure," Leslie told them. "You two should do it, you're more the type of people to get in an argument over homework, because you're both so competitive."
Samantha opened her mouth and closed it again without saying anything. She looked to Max, who nodded slightly, and then looked back at Leslie.
"Okay," she agreed.
So, the group spent the rest of that week planning.
Harry and Hermione were to get Norbert, who'd be ready to leave in a crate, from Hagrid at 11:30. Samantha and Max would be waiting in the closest classroom to the Astronomy Tower entrance. If any students were coming, they'd distract them by asking if they knew where to find a teacher, and then insist they help show them. Only one would be used for this, because the other needed to keep watch as well.
If it was a teacher, they'd start asking about homework.
Once Harry and Hermione got Norbert off with Charlie's friends, if they were both still there, they would join the two under the Cloak. If one or both were missing, they would go back to Gryffindor Tower on their own time, where Leslie would be waiting for them.
"This seems to rely a lot on chance," Leslie said the morning of.
"Well, we'll have to hope everything goes according to plan." Samantha sighed.
"How far has hope ever gotten us?" Max asked.
Samantha rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything.
"Oh, something's gonna go wrong, I can feel it," Hermione said anxiously, slipping into an empty spot.
"Calm down, Hermione," Harry said.
"Yeah, you're gonna make me even more nervous," Leslie agreed.
"You're not even doing anything!" said Max.
"Yeah, but my best friends are," said Leslie, raising her eyebrows.
"Well, just relax, because we won't accomplish anything if we're all stressed out," Samantha advised.
That night, they got in position. Samantha and Max were shut inside the classroom when they heard McGonagall's voice ring through the halls.
Samantha grabbed Max's arm, scared Harry and Hermione had been caught.
"Detention!" she shouted. "And fifty points from Slytherin! Wandering around the halls at night..."
Samantha breathed a sigh of relief. Slytherin, she'd said. It wasn't Harry or Hermione, but Draco.
"You don't understand, Professor, Harry Potter's coming, and he's got a dragon!" Draco said.
"What utter nonsense! Back to your Common Room, Malfoy, or I'll take another twenty!" she said.
Draco didn't respond, and Samantha took that as him going back to Slytherin's Common Room.
They watched out the door, and around fifteen minutes later Harry and Hermione came down.
Samantha turned to Max. "They don't have the Cloak," she whispered. She was about to go warn them, but turned back and saw it was too late.
Filch was walking towards them, an evil grin on his face.
"Well well well," he said. " We are in trouble."
Samantha saw the looks of panic on the first years' faces, and wished there was something she could do to help that wouldn't count as attacking a teacher, which would almost certainly get her expelled.
She watched as her siblings were led away and double checked no one was coming before talking to Max.
"What do we do?" she whispered.
"I don't think there's anything we can do," Max replied.
Samantha ran her fingers through her hair, trying to think. "I wish I knew the Confundus Charm," she said finally.
Max took a deep breath. Neither spoke for a while. "We should see if the Cloak is up there," said Max.
"Yeah," Samantha agreed quietly.
Checking once more that no teachers were headed their way, they crept up to the Astronomy Tower, where they found the Cloak in a pile on the cool stone floor.
"It's pretty out here," Samantha commented, looking out at the starry night sky.
"It really is," Max agreed. He grabbed the Cloak and walked to Samantha at the edge.
Samantha bit on her lip, then turned to face Max. Their eyes met, they were lights in the dark. Max took Samantha's hand, and she stepped closer to him. They could feel each other's breath, warm against the chilly air.
Samantha felt Max move closer, and moved to him. She parted her lips and her heart skipped a beat, excited for another kiss.
Their lips touched, and Samantha could swear there were fireworks. They held onto each other, not leaving any space between their bodies.
To anyone looking up at the castle then, it was a perfect picture for a postcard, or painting. The silhouette of the castle against the starry night sky with the kissing teenagers on the tower and the moon shining in the background, casting just enough light to see the scene, would be a work of perfection.
They knew the right moment to break the kiss. Nothing told them, it just felt perfect.
"Let's go before we worry the others," Samantha whispered.
Max flung the Cloak over the pair of them, and they silently made their way back to Gryffindor Common Room.
Looking back, Samantha wasn't sure what she had expected to come back to, but it was not the scene she saw.
Harry, Hermione, and Neville were sitting silently on a couch. Neville looked like he'd been crying, while Harry and Hermione looked ashamed. Leslie was resting her head on her hands, looking overwhelmed.
"They're back," Hermione said when she saw Max and Samantha.
Leslie looked up. "Where were you?" she asked them.
"Getting the Cloak," Max answered.
"We had to make sure no teachers were coming," added Samantha.
"No one caught you, though, right?" Harry asked.
"No, no one saw us," Samantha said. "Why, what happened after Filch caught you?"
"He took us to McGonagall and she- she..." Hermione started.
"She took fifty points. From each of them," said Leslie.