Beta: None
Original release date: 11/2/14
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the Harry Potter or any other universe.
Chapter Seventeen – By the Skin of His Teeth
"I should have begun studying before now!" complains Hermione, aggressively throwing books back into her bag.
Stopping and looking over her bag, Hermione comments to a nearby Harry, "Harry, this bag your guardians make is amazing. It's taken some abuse, but it's holding up very well."
Smiling, Harry replies, "Thanks, I'll pass that along to Sirius and Remus."
"Studying? For what?" asks a bewildered Ron.
Hermione huffs, placing her hands on her hips and replies, "For our second year of course. Honestly Ronald, what goes on in your head does confound me some times."
"You worry too much, Hermione. Exams are far away" replies Ron.
The weeks are relatively quiet as they near closer and closer to the Easter holidays, with a few well timed, well placed, and remotely detonated Double Trouble Tubes, Dial-A-Decoy, and of course a few randomly placed Bloodlust Visions, causing the victims to see red alongside obtain an interesting shade of red hair.
"You must brew a Forgetfulness—" begins Snape
"Sorry I'm late, professor!" exclaims Draco, covered head to foot in red dust, sporting red slicked back hair, with a few pieces sticking out at odd angles.
Looking Draco over from head to toe, Snape says in a quiet but menacing voice, "Mr. Malfoy, come here."
Draco makes his way over to Snape who wordlessly waves his wand, causing the dust on Draco to disappear, leaving only his hair a bright red.
"Now Mr. Malfoy, how did this...unfortunate incident occur?" queries Snape.
"Crabbe, Goyle, and I were on our way to class when we heard a faint popping sound-"
At those words, Harry makes a mental note about the popping sound, before turning back to the front of the room.
"-and Crabbe and Goyle are still there" finishes Draco.
With an unidentifiable look in the black pits that are Snape's eyes, Snape looks slowly around the room, making brief eye contact with select individuals and when Snape and Harry make eye contact, Harry feels a prickling sensation at the back of his head.
As quickly as Snape began eye contact with Harry, he breaks it.
"Mr. Malfoy, do you have any idea of whom would want to do this to you?" drawls Snape.
"No sir."
Scanning the classroom very quickly, Snape replies, "Take a seat then Mr. Malfoy."
Turning back to the rest of the class, Snape resumes, "As I was saying, you will be brewing a Forgetfulness Potion for me for your end of year exam. Questions? No? Today's work is on", tapping his wand on the board, "the board. Get started."
The rest of the period continues in relative quietness until a few minutes before the end of the period Snape announces, "I want a vial clearly labeled with your name on my desk."
Everyone begins the process and Harry places his vial in the holder on Snape's desk and begins his journey back when the tinkling sound of glass breaking sounds before Snape calls out, "Mr. Potter, I need another vial from you."
Nodding his head ever so visibly, Harry returns to his cauldron, fishes out a few flasks from his bag and discreetly fills the flasks, leaving just a little left in his cauldron, and fills another vial and walks it to the desk.
On his way back to his bag, Harry once again hears the tinkling sound of a small glass object breaking when Snape's voice rings out again, "Mr. Potter, your vial has fallen again. I'm afraid that unless you have another vial of today's work, I'm afraid that you'll be receiving a zero" with a barely concealed smirk.
Smiling in return, Harry goes to his bag, pulls out a flask and fills a third vial and walks it up to the front of the classroom and then right up to Snape, and says, "Here you go, sir."
A hushed silence falls across the room, in which Snape replies coldly, "Thank you, Mr. Potter" before the bell dismissing class rings, causing everyone to file out when Snape calls out, "Mr. Malfoy, remain behind."
A few hours later in the library, Ron grumbles, "Still got weeks before exams Hermione."
"Four weeks" interjects Neville returning to his Charms notes, making a new and comprehensive study sheet for exams.
"That's still a ways off" argues Ron.
"The professors EXPECT us to be studying, Ron" counters Harry.
Just then Hagrid shuffles by.
"Hagrid, what are you doing here?" asks Ron
Flushing, Hagrid replies, "Jus' a bit of readin'", before continuing on his way.
Looking after Hagrid for a few moments, Ron pipes up, "I wonder what he was looking at" before disappearing towards the direction Hagrid had come from.
Shaking his head, Harry resumes proofreading his Transfiguration essay. Moments later Ron returns and whispers, "Dragons, he was reading about dragons."
"Dragons?" repeats Hermione, confused.
"Yea"
"But there aren't any dragons, are there?" asks Hermione.
Smiling, Ron replies, "Charlie, my older brother, handles dragons in Romania."
"Dragons…in Romania?"
"Where else would they keep dragons away from muggles?" replies Ron as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Madam Pince glares at the group for a few seconds, before continuing to prowl the library. Taking the hint, the group quietly packs up and leaves the library. Walking back to the common room, Hermione blurts out, "I want to talk to Hagrid."
Everyone but Hermione comes to a complete stop while Hermione continues walking for a few steps before also stopping. Seeing the perplexed looks on the boys' faces, Hermione says, "I just want to talk."
"Does this have anything to do with dragons?" asks Harry.
Hermione just continues to walk, not answering the question.
"Should we go tonight or tomorrow?" asks Harry.
Pausing ever so slightly, Hermione replies, "Tomorrow of course. Such a silly question, Harry."
The next day begins and so with it classes. As dinner time rolls around, Harry asks, "Shall we go see Hagrid once we finish eating?"
"Yes, before curfew starts" replies Hermione.
Knocking on the wooden door to Hagrid's homely abode, Hagrid booms, "Who's there?"
"Harry, Neville, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger" replies Neville.
Opening the door and letting them in, Hagrid says, "Oh, jus' you all. How can I help you?"
"I, err, we were wondering about your fascination about dragons?" asks Hermione in the most charming tone she can muster.
"Always wanted a dragon" replies Hagrid. [beta, check for how Hagrid speaks, seems off to me].
"Always wanted one?" replies Hermione, curiosity laced throughout her voice.
"Always been fascinated by nature"
"But wouldn't tending to a dragon be, I don't know, hard?"
"After Fluffy, a dragon wouldn' be too hard."
"Fluffy?" choruses Hermione and Ron.
Exhaling loudly, Harry replies, "Fluffy, a three headed dog guarding a Philosopher's Stone."
With a look of surprise on his face, Hagrid asks, "How do you know abou' the stone?"
"You told us that Fluffy was guarding something that Nicholas Flamel and Dumbledore knew about, so—" begins Harry.
"Hagrid! Is, is that a dragons egg?" exclaims Ron, pointing at the fireplace.
Smiling, Hagrid replies, "It is".
"Where did you get one?" queries Ron.
"Won it off some chap at the pub from a game o' cards las' night."
"But what will you do with a dragon once it hatches?" queries Neville.
"Raise it I suppose."
"Are you aware that your house is made of wood?" remarks Hermione.
At that moment the egg sitting in the fireplace cracks and a dark snout pushes its way out of the fragmented shell that was the egg. Within a few minutes the entire egg is broken and the baby dragon hopping about on the floor. Looking up and out a window, Harry spots a flash of yellowish hair and immediately jumps out of his seat and to the window. For a very long few seconds, the room is unnaturally quiet with only the sounds of the fire popping and crackling and the baby dragon, newly christened as Norbert, making muted sounds on the wooden table.
"What is it, Harry?" asks Neville.
As Harry turns around, everyone sees that the color has drained from his face before he speaks, "Malfoy was watching."
"Who?" asks Hagrid.
"Fellow first year" replies Harry glumly.
"You can't be caught with a dragon!" exclaims Hermione, face ashen in color.
"He is but a tyke. He needs his mommy" replies Hagrid, hugging the dragon to his chest.
A long silence invades the room, smothering everyone until Ron speaks loud enough to just be heard, "My brother Charlie handles dragons."
Slowly everyone turns and faces Ron, who just stands there, perplexed look etched on his face. "Where is your brother?" asks Hermione.
"Romania."
Thinking along similar lines of Hermione, Neville suggests, "Why don't we contact Charlie about some how getting the dragon to Romania?"
"That sounds good" comments Harry.
"We'd better owl him about it first" adds Hermione.
"Let's get to it then!" clamors Neville.
Jumping up, the quartet say their thanks before dashing off towards the owlry. Ron quickly, and sloppily, pens a letter before sending it off with Chronos. Harry also pens a letter, sending it off with Hedwig.
A few days later, Chronos flies in at breakfast, delivering a neatly tied letter at Ron's place. "What does it say?" inquires a bubbly Hermione.
Opening the letter up, Ron quickly scans and replies, "He says that a few friends of his will stop by around fifteen minutes before midnight at the top of the Astronomy Tower to pick up the dragon, on Saturday." Just as the sound of a person hurrying away, the bell to signal class rings, causing students to rise from their seats.
Saturday evening around ten pm, the quartet sit in a secluded corner of the common room, maps in front of them.
"So, what's the plan again?" inquires Hermione, anxiety and nervousness bubbling over.
"Three people take the invisibility cloak and use a concealment charm [I think this is what I want] on one person, with the fourth person here in the common room. I suggest Ron, Neville, and myself go for the dragon, with you here, Hermione" states Harry.
"Sounds good" remarks Neville.
"I'll go under a concealment charm, with Neville and Ron under the cloak. Hermione, you watch the map and contact us if a professor gets close to us. Our pathway is" Harry traces his finger from the grounds to the top of the tower, ", so everyone understand? Good, we'd better leave shortly to make certain Hagrid is ready. We only have one chance to pull this off" says Harry.
Quietly Harry, Ron, and Neville remove themselves from view and exit the common room, frustrating the Fat Lady who could see no one leaving. Slipping down the multiple stairwells to the first floor, the trio meet nary a soul. Cracking the front door to exit, Harry whispers just loud enough to be heard by Neville and Ron, "Stop! Someone's coming."
Halting, the trio wait as the sound of cloth swishing comes ever closer. Swooping into view, Snape stops suddenly and look towards the door where the trio stands. Narrowing his eyes, Snape strides towards the front door and sniffs the air before feeling around. Stepping back from the oncoming hands of Snape, the trio break into two groups, Neville and Ron in one and Harry in the other. With a resounding boom, Snape pushes the doors shut before striding away into the darkness, broken only by the tip of his lit wand.
Spurred on by the loss of time, the trio hurries out the front door and down to Hagrid's hut. Knocking on the door, Hagrid cracks the door and asks softly, "Is tha' you, 'arry?"
Neville pulls off the invisibility cloak and replies, "He's here, but under a charm. We need to go if we are to make it in time."
Sniffling, Hagrid goes and grabs the wooden crate and sets it down in front of the trio.
"Added straps for handlin' Norbert I did."
"Thanks Hagrid" choruses Neville and Ron.
Neville and Ron pick up the crate while Harry covers them with the cloak. As the trio make their way back up to the castle, Hagrid stands in his doorway, tears streaming down his face. Fifteen grueling minutes later Ron gasps, "break, I need a break."
Setting down the crate, Ron exits the cloak and sits down against the wall, breathing heavily. Out of the darkness comes Filch, jowls aquiver, eyes lighting up as they focus on Ron.
"Bloody—" begins Ron.
"Student out of bed, at this hour? A detention—" begins Filch when a booming sound resonates throughout the hall. Turning towards the source of the sound when Snape comes out of no where and asks, "Argus why are you standing in the middle of the hall?"
Turning around, Filch says, "There's a student out of bed, professor."
Looking around in surprise, Snape asks, "What student, Argus?"
Confused, Filch points at the spot where Ron was and stumbles, "But there was a student out of bed professor."
Opening his mouth to reply, Snape is interrupted with more and rapid exploding sounds coming from the opposite direction of the Astronomy Tower. Exchanging looks, Filch and Snape take off towards the source of the sound.
"Thanks" murmurs Ron before the trio resume the trek to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Arriving at the top of the tower, Ron and Neville take off the invisibility cloak and stand out in the cool night air. Within a few minutes multiple brooms swoop down and land at the top of the tower.
"You must be Charlie's brother" comments the apparent leader of the group.
"Yes" replies Ron nervously.
"We'll load up the crate and be on our way" states the unknown leader.
Watching the brooms fly away with Norbert. Disappearing under the cloak, Neville and Ron follow after Harry and make the trek back to the common room. Sneaking back into the common room, Hermione jumps up from the couch and gives each a hug, even the still concealed Harry.
"I'm so glad to see you all" chimes Hermione, smiling ear to ear.
"So are we, little brother" speaks Fred, coming out of the house laboratory.
"And without Fred and George's help, Ron would be in detention" states Hermione, smiling.
With a perplexed look on his face, Ron replies, "What do you mean?"
"Who do you think set off those explosions dear brother?" states George, smiling and tapping lightly on his watch.
"Thanks" mutters Ron.
"Were you successful?" asks Hermione.
"Quite. No longer is a dragon on Hogwarts grounds" replies Harry, shaking off the effects of removing the disillusionment charm.
/*the next day*/
Entering the Great Hall, the quartet notice a significant drop in points for the Slytherins. At the Slytherin table sits a glum looking Malfoy. The day couldn't get any better for the quartet.
In the office of Director Bones, Amelia sits, angry. Why won't they interfere at Hogwarts?! The three headed dog needs to be removed!
Author note: So I've read some reviews that ask for me to not put Harry and Ginny together because she's creepy. She was accident prone around Harry, and she held out hope for one day getting him, but what if she isn't so clingy and is more mature? Not stating that she and Harry are the pairing [I have other pairings for Harry in mind], just trying to see it from your all's views. If not Ginny, then who [other than Hermione] do you think should be with Harry?
Before anyone says anything, yes, I am aware that my Hagrid speech isn't near what it is in the books, but I am trying to get better at that.