Chapter 15: Dragon Bite

The next day, I immediately began to make a study plan. I had to make sure I studied everything. I figured I could get about an hour of revision in every morning before breakfast, another hour at lunch, and four more hours at the end of the day. I had to sort out what subjects I would revise and when. I assigned each subject a color and filled in a large revision-timetable. I decided if I was going to revise the material for the entire year, I had better specify what I would study from each class each day. I tried to vary the topics as much as possible so that I could cover everything as evenly as possible.

"What are you so worried about?" Ron asked. "You know you could pass these exams even if you didn't study another day for the rest of term."

"If all I was worried about was passing, then I wouldn't be the same girl who looks over your potions essays," I pointed out.

"Good point," Ron nodded. "Carry on."

Harry and Ron seemed to be taking everything much less seriously than I was. I couldn't understand how they weren't at all worried. It was like they didn't even care if they didn't come back next year. I tried to convince them to make their own revision-timetables, but they flat-out refused. The teachers had also begun to pile on more and more work, which I found a welcome addition as it was all designed to help us with our revising. Even Harry and Ron had to start spending more time with me in the library to keep up with the work.

But then, all my best laid plans were ruined when Hagrid decided to adopt a dragon.

"He's mental!" Ron exclaimed.

Hagrid had invited us down to his hut the previous night, and we'd all witnessed the dragon hatching. I'd hoped, after he'd shown us the egg, that I might be able to talk some sense into him and convince him to get rid of it before it hatched, but I had been unsuccessful. And now the problem was thrice as big and getting bigger by the day.

"Hagrid, you have to see reason," I pleaded with him one afternoon. Harry was at Quidditch practice and Ron was watching, but I'd taken the opportunity to slip away to talk to Hagrid.

"Hermione, you don' understand," Hagrid insisted. "Norbert's family. And you don' abandon family."

"I'm not asking you to abandon him," I sighed. "Just send him somewhere where he'll be happier. Think about it. He's going to grow to be really big."

"I know me hut's too small," Hagrid assured me. "I've got a plan. When 'e gets too big, I'll just make 'im a little home in the forest."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "That's all well and good," I said. "But do you really think Norbert would want to grow up all alone in the forest?"

"'E won' be alone!" Hagrid protested. "'E'll 'ave me!"

"But he won't have any of his own kind around," I pointed out. "He won't have any other dragons to grow up with. It's important to have friends."

I suddenly realized that while I was talking about Norbert, I was also talking about myself. I'd spent so much of my life with just my parents, I hadn't even realized what I was missing, not having friends. But now that I had them, I knew that they were extremely important.

"Look, if you raise Norbert on your own, I'm sure he'll be well cared for and he'll seem happy and healthy. But he won't be. He needs to be somewhere where he can fit in. He'll always feel out of place in the forest, because it's not where he was meant to be."

I could see that I was starting to get through to Hagrid. His expression was softening, and he looked over at Norbert sadly.

"I don' wan' 'im to be unhappy," Hagrid said.

"Then you need to set him free," I said gently.

Hagrid considered it for a moment, but then he clammed up and his expression went stoic again.

"No, I can' give 'im up yet. Maybe when 'e's older, but righ' now 'e needs 'is mummy. Besides, I 'ave nowhere for 'im to go," Hagrid said obstinately.

It was no use. Without a suggestion of where Norbert could go, Hagrid wouldn't set him free. Hagrid was too afraid that Norbert would end up in a worse situation, or else simply get lost and never find his own. And no matter what I said, he wouldn't change his mind.

I was starting to fall behind in my studying. I revised my revision timetable a couple of times to make up for the time I was losing talking to Hagrid, but with each revision, another subject had to pay the penalty for my time wasting. I just hoped that the consequences wouldn't be fatal.

Finally, Harry had the brilliant idea to see if Ron's brother Charlie could take in Norbert. He was a dragon trainer in Romania, after all, and would be the perfect candidate to raise Norbert. Plus, Hagrid knew and trusted Charlie.

To our collective relief, Charlie agreed, and so a plan was formed.

"Ahh!" Ron cried.

"Is it your hand again?" I asked.

Ron nodded. "It's starting to throb," he informed me.

"I really think you need to go to the hospital wing," I insisted. Harry had slipped away to check on Hagrid and Norbert, and Ron and I were on our way to class to meet back up with him.

Ron had been down at Hagrid's hut the previous night helping to feed the dragon and had gotten bitten. It hadn't seemed like a big deal at the time, and we'd agreed that the hospital wing was an exaggeration. But this morning the hand had swelled, and now it was starting to turn funny colors.

"No," Ron shook his head. "Madam Pomfrey will know it's a dragon bite in a heartbeat."

"But if you don't go, you could get a serious infection," I insisted. "You're already getting a serious infection."

"It'll go away," Ron insisted.

"Not without treatment," I shook my head. "Did you know that in the muggle world, people die from infections?"

"Well that doesn't happen in the wizarding world," Ron declared. "So I'm not worried."

"They don't happen because witches and wizards seek appropriate medical care when they contract one," I rebutted. "Please go see Madam Pomfrey."

But Ron was adamant. So instead we went to charms and I watched out of the corner of my eye all through class as Ron's hand slowly changed from purple to a sickly green.

Finally, I'd had enough. I raised my hand, even though Professor Flitwick hadn't asked a question, and started speaking before he had the chance to call on me.

"Professor, I need to take Ron to the hospital wing," I declared.

Ron glared at me furiously, but I didn't care. He wasn't about to die from this.

"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Weasley?" Professor Flitwick asked, looking Ron up and down.

"Nothing Professor, I'm fine," Ron assured him, tucking his hand into his sleeve. But I wasn't having it. I reached over and yanked his sleeve down off his hand and held it up.

"He's infected," I said, showing the charms Professor the now green, swollen hand. "He got bitten by a – "

"A dog," Harry supplied.

"Yes, he got bit by a dog," I agreed. "It must have been rabid or something. We can across it when we were taking a walk down on the grounds yesterday."

"And you waited until now to seek treatment?" Professor Flitwick demanded. "That was very foolish. Go on Mr. Weasley, and get that hand looked at."

"Thank you, Professor," I said, gathering up my things and Ron's.

"Miss Granger, you may stay put," Professor Flitwick insisted. "Mr. Weasley appears perfectly capable of walking down to the hospital wing himself."

I didn't like it, but I didn't have a choice. Besides, someone had to take notes for Ron, since he was going to miss the rest of class, and to be perfectly honest, I didn't trust Harry to be thorough.

Sitting through the remainder of charms class was like torture, but finally, the lesson came to an end and Harry and I raced to the fourth floor to see how Ron was doing.

As it turned out, Ron was fine. He was in a great deal of pain, and Madam Pomfrey was mad that he'd waited so long to seek medical help, because now her job would be much more difficult. But worse than that, Malfoy knew about our plan to smuggle Norbert out of the castle. Ron had accidentally let him take the book we'd stashed Charlie's letter in. And it was too late to change our plans.

"So, the plan's all set?" Ron asked. It was Saturday evening. Harry and I were going to smuggle Norbert to the top of the Astronomy Tower that night, and then we would be free of the dragon for good.

"Yep, everything's ready to go," I nodded.

"And what about Malfoy?" Ron asked, worried. "You know, maybe I should come too, just in case – "

"Not a chance," I shook my head. "You need to rest and recover. Madam Pomfrey says it'll be at least another few days before she has that infection under control. I can't believe you let it travel so far before coming here. And Harry and I can handle Malfoy just fine."

Ron grumbled, and I knew he was upset about being stuck on the sidelines. But it was more important that he heal, and we weren't about to risk Norbert biting him again and making everything ten times worse.

"Just be careful, alright?" Ron insisted.

"Of course."

That night, everything went off without a hitch. We hid under Harry's invisibility cloak, so when Malfoy tried to bust us, he failed spectacularly and ended up landing himself in detention. Charlie's friends came by to pick up Norbert, and they flew off into the night. Everything was going just as we'd planned, right up until we forgot the invisibility cloak on top of the tower and got caught out of bed after curfew by Filch.

"I blame Hagrid," I mumbled as Filch dragged us to Professor McGonagall's office to receive our punishment.

"I blame Hagrid too," Harry returned.