Sorry I forgot to upload Monday, again, I was a little busy this week, so I will be publishing a make up chapter tomorrow.

Not Potter and the Stupid Stone

Chapter 19

Laura

The next day, back at Hagrid's house, the group went off, complaining about what had happened.

"Draco," Ron shouted. "That little git."

"He's going to tell on us, for sure." Noel sighed.

"Normally, I'd say we can't assume he would," I scoffed. "But it's him. He'll definitely tell."

"He hates us and Hagrid," Harry added, "why wouldn't he?"

"I think we need to focus on getting rid of the dragon." Hermione said, changing the topic. "Any ideas?"

The whole group stared at Hermione in shock.

"You mean you don't know what to do?" I questioned, getting concerned.

"We're done for." Harry moaned.

"Well," Ron chimed in, "my brother Charlie works with dragons in Romania."

"Do you think he could pick it up?" Hermione asked. "The dragon, I mean."

"Thank goodness for the Weasley's and their hordes of children." Noel commented.

"Noel!" I yelled.

"What?" She said, confused. I think I need to revisit nice words vs mean words with her.

"Anyways," Ron said, moving on, "I could send him a letter."

"This might just work." Harry beamed.

We sent an owl to Ron's brother who wrote back saying that he could have some of his friends pick it up two weeks later at midnight on top of the astronomy tower.

"All we have to do is make sure no one finds out about the dragon until Charlie's friends can pick it up." Hermione explained.

"We'll set up a rotation, two of us will go down every day." Noel continued.

"No way," I said, standing up. "I'm not getting mauled."

"Laura," she replied, "we all have to do it."

I groaned, "fine."

Hermione made a schedule for who would babysit the dragon each day until it got picked up. I had my first shift the next, day after classes had ended, with Ron.

"I can't believe we have to babysit this thing." Ron complained.

"I know," I scoffed, "it's ridiculous. I know we're friends with Hagrid, but this is a bit too much."

"Like, he's the one who stepped in it," he hissed. "He has to get himself out of it."

"Yeah." I sighed, "I guess we should stop moaning, if we don't do it, Hermione and Noel will beat us with the schedule."

"You're right." He laughed.

By this time, we had reached Hagrid's hut. All the curtains were drawn, still, and smoke was emitting form the chimney it at an alarming rate.

"Do we even want to knock?" Ron asked, rolling his eyes.

"We have to." I said, irritated by the whole situation, myself.

I resigned myself to bang on the door. Hagrid opened it and a puff of smoke came pouring out. He appeared to be patting his smoldering beard with oven-mitted hands.

"You're just in time." Hagrid said, cheerfully. "I'm just 'bout ready for Norbert's feeding."

"Norbert?" I questioned.

"That's what I decided to name him." He explained.

"Can we come in?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course." He ushered us into the smoking cabin.

"We really need to talk about how we're going to get Norbert to the tower." I began.

"No," Hagrid said, shoving the topic aside. "I'm keeping him."

"Hagrid!" I exclaimed. "He's already doubled in size. By next week he won't fit in your cabin."

"And everyone knows that dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1907!" Ron added quickly, as if it was something he had heard often.

"I'll figure something out." Hagrid mustered.

Just then Ron yelped, drawling his had away from Norbert.

"He bit me!" Ron yelped.

"It's alright," Hagrid reassured. "Bin bit a couple of times me self. Not poisonous, he is."

"I'm bleeding." Ron replied, slightly dazed.

"Ron!" I stammered.

"'ere," Hagrid said, passing Ron one of his large handkerchiefs. "Just wrap it in this."

As he bound Ron's hand in the oversized piece of cloth, I decided now was a good a time as any to leave. Even Noel and Hermione couldn't begrudge us leaving early, since Ron had gotten bit.

"Please think about it, Hagrid," I insisted, ushering Ron and I out. "He'll come to get him at eleven thirty, Saturday night. He'll be at home in Romania." As I slammed the door behind us, I let go a sigh of relief.

"Do you think it's poisonous?" Ron, fearfully, asked, "do you think I'll die?"

"Hagrid said he's not poisonous." I affirmed.

"Hagrid also thinks he's the mother of a bloody dragon."

"Calm down," I said, attempting to stop some of the panic. "I'm sure the cut will be better tomorrow."

However, the next morning Ron's hand had practically doubled in size and by second period had turned a nasty shade of green and was slightly oozing.

"You need to go see Madame Pomphrey." Noel commanded.

"But what if she can tell it's a dragon bite?" Ron asked.

"Ron," Hermione said, sternly. "You might die."

Harry, Hermione, Noel, and I went to visit him, after lunch, since we had a free period.

"Did she figure out it was a dragon bite?" Harry questioned.

"I told her it was a dog bite," Ron explained. "Not sure she believed me though."

"We just have to hope she did." I said, unsure.

"How's your hand?" Harry asked.

"Feels like it's about to fall off," Ron replied, uneasy. "But that's not what I'm worried about."

"What did you do now?" Hermione

"Me?! Nothing. It's Malfoy you have to worry about."

"What about Draco?" I sighed.

"He came in here earlier saying he wanted to borrow one of my books, he really just wanted to taunt me, but... the book..." Ron blabbered.

"Spit it out already!" Noel jabbed.

"The letter form Charlie was in my potions book and..."

"NO!" Hermione shouted, piecing the rest of the puzzle together.

"What are we going to do now?!" Noel cried.

"We have no choice." Harry decided. "There's no time to send Charlie another letter and this could be our last chance to get rid of that thing."

"You're right." I agreed. "Sorry, Ron. We're gonna have to do this without you."

"Just hurry up and get rid of it." He relented.

The next day Harry, Hermione, Noel, and I waited with bated breath, and when the time came, we slipped under the invisibility cloak and out of the castle. We were a little later than planned because we had to wait for Peeves, the castle poltergeist, to finish playing tennis against the entrance hall door. Thankfully, when we got to Hagrid's, Norbert was waiting by the door in a large crate.

"He's got his teddy bear to keep him company and some rats for him to eat." Hagrid said, near tears. "Please, keep him safe."

"Of course." Harry replied.

"I'm sorry, Hagrid," Noel said, rushing the goodbyes. "But we have to go now."

As we walked away, we could hear Hagrid calling after us, "your mummy loves you Norbert, don't ever forget that. I love you..."

The dragon was quite heavy, but between the four of us, even without Ron, it wasn't that bad. That is until we began carrying it up the stairs. A left, then a right, then twelve more rights, then seventeen more lefts, before we finally reached the stairs to the tower. I mean, how hard could it be?

"Are we almost there? I'm dying." Noel panted.

"Why are there so many stairs in this place?" I asked, near passing out.

"There must be a million." Harry groaned.

"Actually," Hermione corrected, "there's only 142 staircases and, considering that an average staircase has about 12-13 stairs, multiply 13 by 142 and you get 1,846. So, even though it's not a million, considering most muggle structures use..."

"I think I can see the top of the steps." Noel said, interrupting the endless explanation.

"Yes!" Harry cheered.

"Thank goodness." I said, relieved.

As we emerged into the moon light, we threw off the invisibility cloak.

"Oh," Hermione buzzed. "I could sing!"

"Me too." I laughed

"Please," Harry begged, laughing. "Don't."

Down swooped four young wizards on brooms, as our attention drew up to them. They had a harness rigged up between their brooms and they helped Harry, Noel, Hermione and I hook Norbert up to it. The four of us were almost sad to see the wizards go, since they had been such a jolly lot, but we were more excited to have gotten rid of Norbert.

"We did it!" Hermione cheered.

"Let's go!" Noel clapped.

Harry led us back down the stairs. Right as we were nearing to tower exit, I suddenly got the feeling that we had forgotten something. The invisibility cloak. I began pounding down the stairs to catch up with the others.

"Wait up guys!" I panted between heaving breaths. "We forgot the..."

I cut off midway through my sentence, as I turned the corner and came face to face with a rather displeased professor McGonagall and a smirking Draco.