The week seemed to go by very slowly. Right now Harry, Hermione, and I were waiting in the common room while I was trying to help Harry do his homework and study but we were distracted. My knee would not stop bouncing and Harry was biting on one of his nails while we both looked at the portrait hole every minute or so. Hermione seemed a little more on edge than usual but nothing too different. And Syrus? Syrus was busy sleeping on Harry's lap after giving up trying to sleep in mine but got too tired of the constant movement and left.
"You know, I was just thinking... Why would they ask Quirrell to help guard the Stone?" I asked out of the blue. This thought had been driving me insane ever since we found out he was helping to protect it.
Harry responded, "What do you mean? He's the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. It seems like it would make sense."
"Yeah but think about it. He could barely stand the sight of a knocked-out troll... How could they trust him to keep this huge secret?" Harry put his quill down and looked at me, thinking more about it. "I'm not saying he's bad at his job or anything, and if Dumbledore trusts him then he must be good, but it is interesting that he was one of the chosen ones." I continued to think more about it while mindlessly drawing on the parchment in front of me. Hermione didn't say anything but she did nod in agreement before going back to her own study guide.
"Yeah, I guess-" But Harry didn't finish his thought due to hearing the portrait hole open up and close. Ron tore off the invisibility cloak and ran toward us.
"Ron, what's wrong?" I asked, worried about the look on his face.
"It bit me!" He wailed, holding his bloody wrapped hand with his other.
"What?" I yelled, getting shushed by Hermione. "Norbert bit you?" Ron nodded. It had been his turn to go down to Hagrid's hut helping to feed the dragon so the gamekeeper could return to doing some of his required duties and while I thought the animal was adorable, this was crossing the line. I got pissed.
"I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week! I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny. When it bit me, he told me off for 'frightening' it. And when I left, he was singing it a bloody lullaby." I slumped back down, sighing.
"Charlie's letter can't come fast enough," I mumbled. Ironically, as soon as I said that, there was a tapping on the window beside us.
"It's Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed, jumping up to run to open the window and ignoring Hermione shushing him.
"You guys are going to get us caught!" She scolded but was visibly glad that the letter finally came. Once Harry had untied the letter from Hedwigs leg, we all crowded around him to read the note.
"But how will we get him up there?" I asked, looking toward the others. Ron shrugged.
"We have the invisibility cloak. It shouldn't be too difficult- I'm sure it'll be big enough to cover three of us and Norbert."
"Three?" Ron asked, confused. I gave him a sad smile.
"I agree with him Ron, you're not going to be able to lift him due to the hand. I think you should stay away from him for now." He slouched over, clearly unhappy about the situation.
"At least, after this, no more Norbert." He grumbled, laying his head down on the table.
When Hermione and I met the boys in the common room the next morning, it was obvious there was a problem. I carefully unbandaged his hand and gasped at how it looked. It was still red and had swollen twice his size. I tried to urge him to go to Madam Pomfrey but he was more worried about the possibility of her recognizing it as a dragon bite. By lunch that day, his hand had swollen even more but began to turn a yellowish-green shade with some pus seeping out.
"Ron, you have got to go to Pomfrey, if not for yourself, for me because that's absolutely disgusting," I told him, scooting farther away from him and my food, losing my appetite. He sighed but nodded and left, knowing there was no other choice. It was clear that Norbert's bite had poison and it needed to be taken care of. We just hadn't realized what kind of problems could come from it.
"It's not just my hand," Ron groaned out. "Although it does feel as if it will fall off any moment... Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me... I told her it was a dog by the way- pretty sure she doesn't believe that. I shouldn't have hit him during that Quidditch match, that's probably why he's doing this." I shook my head and made him move over so I could lay next to him on the bed.
"No, that's just how he is. He'd be acting like this no matter what you had done. Plus, he really did deserve that, I just wish I got to see it." I smirked at the thought of Malfoy getting punched by Ron.
"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday," Hermione tried to reassure him as she sat next to the bed but his face went paler than it already was.
"Midnight on Saturday!" He whispered, eyes wide. "Oh no... Oh no... I just remembered... Charlie's letter was in the book Malfoy took! He's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert." We all looked at each other, worried at how much riskier this became. Before any of us had the chance to say anything, Madam Pomfrey shooed us out of the Infirmary so that Ron could get some much-needed rest.
"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry told us as we walked toward Hagrid's since it was my turn to feed Norbert, and (thankfully) neither Harry nor Hermione wanted me to go alone. "We don't have time to send Charlie another letter and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it." We nodded along.
"Plus, we've got the Invisibilty cloak and Draco doesn't know about that. As long as we make sure to have it and not let any of us show, it should be smooth sailing." I told them, partially trying to help convince myself that that was all we needed to all. No big deal, right?
"I won't let you in," Hagrid huffed at us through the door. "Norbert's being tricky- nothin' I can't handle." But I was worried, especially when Fang came up to us with his head down and his bandaged tail between his legs. When Hagrid finally looked out the window, we told him about the plan, and his eyes filled with tears. We weren't sure if it was sadness or the fact that Norbert bit him out of our view.
"Argh! It's all right. He only got me boot. Just playin'. He's only a baby after all." He tried to convince us, but after he said that Norbert hit a wall with his tail and caused the entire hut to shake a little. As we headed back up to the school for dinner, we all shared the thought that Saturday couldn't come fast enough.
The sky was dark and cloudy as we made out way down to Hagrid's hut that Saturday night. It was half an hour before midnight and we were running a little bit behind schedule. Peeve's had decided to play a round of 360 tennis- so the ball could've flown in any direction and hit us- so we had to wait for him to finish up.
By the time we handmade got to Hagrid, he had already put Norbert in his crate with tears in his eyes. "He's got lots o' rats am' some brandy fer the journey. And I packed 'is favorite teddy bear 'case he gets lonely." The tears were streaming down his face now. From the crate, a ripping sound could be heard and I was sure that teddy was not looking good by now. I shared a look with the others who nudged me to go toward the giant. With a sigh, I stepped up and placed my hand on his arm.
"Hagrid, Nortbert will be fine. Charlie promised to take great care of him and you know how good he is with dragons. Plus Norbert will be able to meet others like him and have dragons he can play with and fly around and feel free." He nodded and wiped his nose with his sleeve.
"Bye-bye Norbert! Mummy will never forget you!" He cried near the crate as he helped us cover everyone and the crate with Harry's cloak.
"We look good?" I asked him and he nodded, giving us a thumbs up before he went back to his hut still wailing. I sighed and looked at the others. "Let's do this..."
"Nearly there!" Harry panted, as we struggled to carry the crate up all of the stairs. And when I say struggle, I mean struggle. Norbert wasn't a light dragon by any means and all the stairs didn't help anything.
We all jumped when we heard a noise and shrunk back into a corner as we watched a light from a lantern get closer and closer.
"Detention!" Professor McGonagall scolded as she wrapped her robe tighter around her body with her hair in a hairnet. "And twenty points from Slytherin. Wondering around the castle in the middle of the night. How dare you-"
"But you don't understand! Harry Potter's coming and he's got a dragon!" Draco pleaded with the teacher as her nostrils flared in anger. Harry, Hermione, and I shared terrified looks as we prayed Norbert wouldn't make any noise to direct the teacher's attention toward us.
"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy! Come on!" Was the last we heard from her as she dragged Draco away by his ear. We all let out a collective sigh in relief. "Thank Godric..." I muttered as we continued our way through the last set of stairs.
The air was chilly from the top of the tower when we took off the cloak, keeping an eye out for Charlie's friends. Hermione was doing a small sort of happy dance to celebrate but I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen.
"Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!" She continued to cheer and I snorted. "Don't." Harry and I replied together and shared a smirk. "I've heard you sing Hermione." I continued and let out a small laugh. She sent us a playful glare but didn't let our jokes ruin her mood.
After about ten minutes of searching, we saw a group of people flying on broomsticks with lanterns lighting their way. I pointed toward them and waved. They were ecstatic to get going and showed us the type of harness they would be using to carry the crate. We all buckled Norbert in and shook hands with everyone once we were done, but the last girl I shook hands with pulled me in for a tight hug, catching me off guard.
"I've always wanted to meet you! Charlie talks about you all the time!" She continued to gush as I gave her an awkward smile. After a few minutes of Harry checking his watch, one of the others must've noticed the hurry we were in.
"Alright, alright Marissa. I think she gets it. Let's get going so they could get back to bed before we all get caught." I sent a thankful look his way and he nodded. We gave them all one last wave as we watched them flying up into the clouds and out of view.
"And we are free!" I cheered, excited to be officially done with Norbert. With all the excitement going on, we began to rush down the stairs and I completely forgot about the bad feeling in my chest.
That was until we got to the bottom of the stairs.
"Well, well, well." We jumped when we heard a dark voice chuckle. "We are in trouble." Mr. Filch and Mrs. Norris suddenly came out of the darkness with an evil grin on his face.
"Oh no..." I whispered and Filch's grin only grew. We left the cloak upstairs...
"'Oh, no' is right Montgomery..." And he continued to chuckle as he led us all the way down to Professor McGonagall's office. Hermione was close to tears and shaking while Harry and I were both terrified as I gave both of their hands a quick squeeze, hoping for some sort of comfort.
By the time we got to Professor McGonagall and Malfoy, my stomach couldn't have felt any heavier. It only got worse when we saw Neville standing by her, trembling as well.
"Harry!" He began. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag-" But stopped when Harry shook his head in hopes to make him stop talking. I was doing my best to avoid looking at the extremely angry woman in front of me but when I did, I gulped. Her face was beet red and when I thought she looked mad during our first flying class or when she saw us with the troll, this made those expressions look like pure joy.
"I would never have believed it of any of you." Professor McGonagall huffed. "Mr. Filch says you three were up in the Astronomy Tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves." But no one answered her. We all just stared at our feet in shame.
"I think I've got an idea of what's been going on." We snapped our heads to look at her with wide eyes and looked at each other. She couldn't have known about Norbert, could she? "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him detention. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?" Neville's eyes showed betrayal, while Harry tried to plead with him that that was not the case with his eyes. But it was obvious Neville was hurt as tears started to well up in his eyes.
"No, of cour-" I stopped when she glared at me.
"I'm disgusted, honestly. Five students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing! You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. Miss Montgomery, I thought you were better behaved than your brothers. And you, Mister Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to that than you. All four of you will receive detention- yes, you too Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you kids the right to wander around the school at night, especially these days! It's incredibly dangerous." What? "As punishment for you actions, fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."
"Fifty?" Harry exclaimed, interrupting her. I mentally facepalmed.
"Fifty points each."
"Professor, please-" I tried.
"You can't!" Harry cried out.
"Don't tell me what I can or can't do, Potter. And o ensure this doesn't happen again, all five of you will receive detention." At this you could see Draco's smug face turn into a look of confusion and worry.
"Excuse me, Professor. Perhaps I heard you wrong... I thought you said all five of us."
"No you heard me correctly, Mr. Malfoy. You see, as honorable as your intentions were, you too were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor in my life." Draco turned to glare at us but Harry just smirked back at him while I was still focused on how hurt Neville must be feeling.
We all walked back to Gryffindor Tower in silence. Harry had tried to explain everything to Neville, but he wasn't listening to a word he said and only looked forward, wiping tears that fell down his face every once in a while.
Two hundred points. Gryffindor was now dead last and it was practically impossible for us to make those points back by the time school ended. Hermione and I didn't sleep at all that night while muffled sobs could be heard every once in a while from her corner of the room.
What would happen when the rest of Gryffindor found out what they'd done?
I hope you guys liked this chapter! Honestly, I feel like Professor McGonagall could be scarier than Voldemort when she's mad. I hope you guys take a second and give the story a like or comment and have a good night!
xx