"Hagrid, this is madness!" Cried Revati as she paced about his hut. Ron and Harry were sitting at the little dining table, rock cakes forgotten, as Hermione sat in Hagrid's giant armchair, Fang slobbering all over her knee. All three of them were staring at the big black dragon egg sitting over Hagrid's fire with varying degrees of shock and disbelief written across their faces.
"It's not," Hagrid replied defensively. "Besides, yer not exactly in a position ter judge me, are yeh? Yer mum once saved half the fores' by befriendin' the Peruvian Vipertooth set ter keep watch over the trapped creatures!"
"I—what?" Asked Reva, momentarily distracted. "That doesn't even make sense, what was a Vipertooth doing out of South America? And how do you even befriend one, Vipertooths love human flesh, don't they?" She shook her head to clear it. "You know what—that doesn't matter. Hagrid, are you going to keep it as a pet?"
"Why not?" Asked Hagrid gruffly. "Always wanted a dragon."
"Hagrid," said Hermione very plainly and very slowly. "Your house is made of wood."
"Where'd you even get it?" Asked Ron.
"Won it," said Hagrid, looking pleased with himself. "Played a game o' cards for it. Bin studyin' all day today, figurin' out how to care for a baby Ridgeback."
"A Ridge—not a Norwegian Ridgeback?" Said Ron, looking taken aback. "But they're extremely rare, aren't they?"
If possible, Hagrid looked even more happy with himself. "Righ' yeh are, Ron." He grabbed a pair of oven mitts, and, humming to himself, quickly but gently turned the egg on its side so it could be evenly warmed.
Their trip to Hagrid's was stress inducing in more than one way, unfortunately—it turned out that Snape was one of the teachers protecting the Philosopher's Stone, which meant that he probably had an easier time figuring out what the other enchantments on it were. Somehow, Quirrell was still holding strong, but Revati got the feeling that wouldn't exactly last very long.
He looked more drained during their Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, like something major was stressing him out. Students would often see him pacing about the hallways, murmuring things to himself and jumping at the slightest noise. His turban was smellier than ever, presumably to ward off any possible creature that might want to eat him. Months ago, Revati would have wondered what he thought could happen inside Hogwarts, but she knew better now; between Fluffy, and Hagrid's new secret pet dragon, let alone Snape's threats, Quirrell had very good reason to be worried.
Indeed, the only person who looked more anxious than the Defense professor on a regular basis was Hermione.
"We really ought to be studying all the time now!" She lamented in the common room one day, looking frazzled. "Here, Reva—ask me about the Werewolf Code of Conduct."
"We've been over it three times already!" Reva protested. "Hermione, you know it practically by heart."
"I still don't have it down as precisely as you," Hermione argued. "Come on Reva—I won't risk failing because I can't remember the year it occurred!"
Revati only knew so much about the Werewolf Code of Conduct because of her Uncle Moony. It was an oppressive piece of legislature that would have forced werewolves to register themselves before agreeing to lock themselves up in chains during the full moon. Nobody signed it.
"It was 1637," Revati sighed. "And you couldn't possibly fail as badly as the Werewolf Code itself did, don't worry."
Ron and Harry snickered, but Hermione let out a huff and turned back to her books. Reva felt a little bad for teasing her.
"Look, you're the smartest person in our year. It's more likely that—oh, I dunno—Snape started handing out candies after class, than it is that you fail. But even if you do—that is to say, even if Snape offers us chocolates with a smile and says, 'Have an absolutely smashing day, my dear students!' as he waves us off like a mum at King's Cross on September first—there's no way McGonagall or anyone else would force you to repeat the year, much less expel you." Reva said.
Even Hermione cracked a smile at that, but it was ultimately short lived. The next morning Hagrid sent a note at breakfast telling the four first years that the egg was hatching, and Hermione refused point-blank to skip class to watch it happen.
"Come on, Hermione," Ron begged all through Herbology, his voice low. "You can water a flowering shrub any old time—but when are you ever going to see a dragon hatch again?"
"We ought to check on Hagrid anyway," Reva added in a quiet murmur. "We really should try to convince him to send the dragon to a conservatory, he'll get into loads of trouble if he's caught."
Hermione didn't look convinced.
"And it's my birthday," Reva reminded her. "You didn't get me a present."
Hermione sent her an irritated glance as Harry and Ron snickered. "Well, that's not my fault, is it?" She snapped. "You didn't tell me!"
In fact, none of her friends had known it was her birthday—she hadn't really ever mentioned it before, since she'd never had a reason to, and they'd only found out that morning when Elvie, her mother's owl, dropped her a pack of homemade cauldron cakes which she promised to share with them later. All three of them scolded her thoroughly, but they relented when Reva had said in her most injured voice that she'd meant to tell them.
"Still," Reva said, knowing full well that she was crossing the line from petulance to whinging, "You could make it up to me by skiving off Binns' class!"
"Oh—alright," Hermione sighed finally. Reva turned her head and grinned at the boys, who grinned right back. After Herbology ended, the four friends jogged down to Hagrid's house, just in time to see the egg crackle and one long, bony wing to stretch out.
"I can't believe this is happening," Reva whispered. She didn't know whether to feel excited or nervous, so an intricate knot of both swirled chaotically in her stomach. In the next second, the egg crackled away entirely, and they were left looking at a small, black, baby dragon.
"Isn't he precious?" Hagrid cooed. "Think I'll call yeh Norbert." The dragon turned to him and made a little rumbling noise as smoke came out of the corner of its mouth. "Oh, bless him! He knows his mummy!"
"He's lost it," Ron whispered to Harry, but he was loud enough that the girls could hear him, too. Hagrid, who hadn't been paying attention, looked up and began asking Ron to repeat himself, but his eyes darted to the window and he stopped short, face paling to a horrifying grey.
"Who's that?" He croaked, pointing outside. "There's a studen' outside—I think he's seen Norbert!"
All four first years whipped their heads around to see the back of a very blonde, very gelled head as the student raced back up to the castle. Even from here, Reva could make out the green-and-silver detailing on his school robes.
It was Draco Malfoy.
The next week was very stressful indeed for Reva and her friends. Between keeping an eye on Quirrell in case he finally cracked under the pressure of Snape's intimidation and the looming threat of Draco Malfoy telling a teacher that Hagrid had an illegal dragon stowed away in his cabin, the four first years were spread quite thin. That was, of course, ignoring the added stress of their classes, which had grown far more vigorous; exams weren't until the first week of June, but it was now mid-March and many professors still had loads of material they wanted to cram in before beginning the review period. Every spare moment they had free, they ran down to Hagrid's hut to beg him to give the dragon up, but their friend was too attached and had so far refused point-blank.
"If that studen' were teh tell a teacher, they would'a done it by now," he had said unconcernedly the last time Harry had asked.
"He's being an idiot about it, really," Ron groaned one day during lunch. The four of them had just come out of Charms, and they were planning on going back down to Hagrid's after their afternoon block of Defense. "I mean, if the Ministry finds out…" He shook his head. "Well, he'd have a tough time getting out of that one."
But Reva stared at him for a moment, her heart pounding fast. Her mother worked for the Ministry—in the Department of Magical Creatures. True, it was technically for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, but Anjali Kumar had always prioritized their safety and dignity. Perhaps her mother could help out…
And just as soon as that thought entered her head, it left. Her mother couldn't be caught smuggling an illegal dragon anywhere; she'd be fired in an instant.
Harry seemed to be having the same series of thoughts. He turned to look at Reva sharply.
"Your mum told me in her last letter that she's worked for the Department of Magical Creatures for thirteen years now," he said. "Is there anything she can do?"
"I dunno," Reva sighed. "She can't be in possession of one, that's for sure, but that's not the main point. We need to find out exactly how much trouble Hagrid will be in if he's caught, because he isn't listening when we say it's a lot—Godric, I wish I'd listened when Mum talked about the procedure she had to follow!"
Reva was usually very interested in what her mother was saying, but the boring bureaucratic machinery of Ministry procedure had bored her almost to the point of tears. That information hadn't stayed in Reva's head one bit.
"Well," said Hermione practically, "Is there anyone you could ask?"
Reva stared hard at her friend, thinking. In the background, behind Hermione's left ear, she saw movement over at the Hufflepuff table. A bunch of third year boys were laughing merrily as they ate their lunch. With a nearly electric jolt, the answer hit her.
"As a matter of fact, Hermione," Reva said, grinning brightly, "There is."
Ignoring the questioning glances her friends sent her, Revati got to her feet and hurried over to the Hufflepuff table, where the group of third year boys had started eating.
"Hello, Cedric!" She greeted brightly. One of the boys, a rather good looking fourteen year old, looked up in mild surprise.
"Oh—" Cedric said, smiling kindly at Revati. "Hello, Reva." He turned to his friends quickly. "This is Revati Kumar, boys. Her mum works with my dad at the Ministry."
It was true—Amos Diggory was a member of the same Department as Reva's mother. Reva knew her mum wasn't especially close with Mr. Diggory, though they had been on the same damage control team for six or seven years now, but Cedric had always been very nice. They'd seen each other at all the Department holiday parties since they were young children, and when Anjali and Amos were travelling for work and it coincided with the full moon, during which Reva's Uncle Remus couldn't look after her, she'd spend the week at the Diggory's with Cedric and his mum.
They'd come to an unspoken agreement, once Cedric started at Hogwarts two and a half years ago, that they'd leave each other alone during the school times, but would remain friends on breaks. This wasn't due to any sort of embarrassment or animosity between them, but instead because they were very different individuals, who might not have even been friends were they not the two youngest people attending all those various Department social events.
Cedric's brows furrowed together, likely wondering why Reva had approached him so suddenly when she hadn't spoken with him all year. "Er, is there something you wanted?"
"Actually, yes," Reva hedged, glancing around at his friends, who were all looking at her curiously. "Do you mind having a word with me about something?"
His friends all laughed, and one of them wiggled his eyebrows. Reva frowned at them as she felt her face warm. Not like that, for goodness sakes! Couldn't a girl talk to a boy without it being misinterpreted?
Cedric rolled his eyes at his friends, then nodded at Reva. He got to his feet quite gracefully, before following Reva to a corner of the Great Hall. From this angle, she could see her friends looking at her in confusion.
"What's up, then?" He asked, smiling. "How's your first year been? I heard you're giving Snape a rough enough time."
"Oh—" Reva said, blinking. "Well, he's bringing it onto himself. He's awful to Harry and Neville, really a terrible bully."
Cedric nodded. "Yes, that sounds about right. Mind you, the Hufflepuffs in your year are quite in awe of you for it. Seems like they've been hearing from the Gryffindors exactly what you've been saying." He cracked a quick grin. "Asking Snape if he wanted you to get him a subscription to Witch Weekly—well, it's no wonder you're a Gryffindor then, is it? I was a bit surprised when you didn't end up in Ravenclaw, but it all makes sense now."
"He was spouting horrid lies about my mum," Reva muttered quickly, feeling her face warm slightly with anger at the memory. "Anyway, I didn't call you over here to talk about smarmy old Snape." She hesitated for a moment before she asked quickly, "Did you pay attention when your dad was explaining Department procedure to you?"
Cedric's eyebrows shot up. He hadn't been expecting that, clearly. "Er—parts of it, yes." He said slowly. "What did you want to know?"
"Well," said Reva, eyes darting quickly over to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were all watching her and Cedric curiously, "If a Department member were to find out the whereabouts of an illegal magical pet, what do they do about it?"
"Depends," Cedric shrugged. "If it's an unregistered Niffler, or something like that, it's just a fine of ten Galleons or so. But if it's something larger and rarer, like a unicorn, then I'm pretty sure it's a stint in Azkaban—the minimum sentence is something like two months, I think."
Reva's heart thundered in her chest. If the illegal raising of a unicorn was enough for a couple of months in Azkaban, then raising a dragon was sure to be upwards of a year of imprisonment. Hagrid had to give up the dragon before Malfoy told anyone, or the charges brought against him would be very serious indeed.
"Why do you ask?" Cedric asked.
Reva opened her mouth, searching for an excuse. She couldn't think of anything. She closed her mouth with an audible click, smiling sheepishly at Cedric. "Would you believe me if I told you I had a Niffler hidden in my room?" She asked hopefully.
Cedric smiled. "Not for a second," he said honestly. "Try again."
"Harry Potter got a fully grown Crup to protect him from his horrible Muggle relatives," Reva tried.
Cedric chuckled. "Liar."
Reva was getting a little annoyed with Cedric now—it really wasn't any of his business, anyway—but she knew him well enough to know he didn't mean anything nosy or unkind by it, and she figured if she didn't play this off somehow, he might write to his dad, Amos, and that would certainly be a disaster.
"Alright, I'll tell you," Revati said, smiling to hide her nerves, hoping this would work. "There's a Cerberus puppy hidden in the school, and that's what's in the forbidden corridor."
Cedric just rolled his eyes. "Keep your secrets," he sighed, though a quick grin lingered on his handsome face. "If that was all, I'm going back to lunch."
"That was all," Revati confirmed. They parted ways with a quick goodbye, and Reva headed back over to her friends.
"Well?" Hermione asked impatiently.
"If Hagrid's caught with Norbert, he goes to prison," Reva told them quietly. "I don't think he knows that, so we'd better tell him. Hopefully that will be enough to convince him to give the dragon up."
alright y'all so as it turns out i FULLY forgot that the department i had anjali work for was the same department amos diggory worked for, and i only realized it when i reread book four recently. i didn't want to have to deal with it then, bc obviously that would mean that cedric and reva knew each other this whole time but only magically started talking in goblet, which would feel very very awkward. i wasn't planning on a cedric/reva friendship but here we are i guess? that's what i get for making anjali a part of the ministry of magic i guess lol.
anyway, i know that nothing v interesting happened this chapter plotwise, but i'm trying to space out the rest of book one a teeny bit over a few chapters bc there's a lot that happens both plotwise and with reva's search for her dad. sorry it's dragging a bit, but i promise it'll move quicker soon :))
hope you guys enjoy! lmk what you think!
thanks for reading!
-alidfi