A/N: We're nearing the end of first year, and like other moments in this fic, a few things happen in canon that don't happen here and vice versa. Thanks to Harry's friendship with Ron in this AU, Norbert gets the help he needs and Hagrid's hut doesn't get burnt down.

Chapter 16 Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

In the weeks and months that followed Gryffindor's Quidditch victory against Hufflepuff, life returned to normal for Harry after the high he'd been on in lieu of his snitch catch. For a few weeks, he'd been treated like royalty by Gryffindor house for becoming the youngest seeker in over a century to catch the snitch. While the sentiment was nice, he didn't always appreciate the way he was treated and often preferred to be left to his own devices if given the choice. At least Ron, Hermione and his Quidditch teammates spared him any worship. For the most part, Harry continued to focus on his training and his studies, but with the prospect of exams looming larger over them by the day—thanks to Hermione's very frequent reminders, he knew he'd have to focus less on his Quidditch and get focused on his studies if he wanted to score well. After all, despite his strong ability at Transfiguration and DADA, he still wasn't as smart overall as Severus and Lily were, definitely not Hermione either; but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try his best.

Aside from his troubles balancing his Quidditch training and his studies, Harry was confronted with another problem throughout the entirety of February and the first half of March, the problem being Malfoy. For weeks after Harry's late January Quidditch victory, Malfoy had been as annoying and grouchy as ever, and he usually expressed said grouchiness by taking it out on his fellow first years, Neville being a favorite target of his. For the most part though, Harry avoided many confrontations with Malfoy and Malfoy's cowardliness meant he oftentimes avoided trying to bully Harry too largely because his rival was rarely if ever alone. Severus and Lily claimed that in the classes they shared with the Slytherins, Malfoy had taken to shooting them dirty looks but never tried anything beyond that for fear of repercussion from the professors. Tracey oftentimes matched Malfoy's scornful looks with ones of sympathy herself, but outside of their weekly brewing sessions in the dungeons, she wasn't hanging out with them anywhere nearly as much as she had during and before the Winter break.

As March began, the Professors seemingly came under the delusion that their students weren't working hard enough, so the start of Spring coincided with a sudden and massive increase in workload. Harry found himself spending much less time at the Quidditch pitch, and a lot more in the library with his friends in an attempt to plow through his assignments. Lily was helpful enough, and easily the most approachable of his friends when it came to asking for assistance on an assignment. Hermione might've been the smartest on paper out of the lot, but asking her for advice usually came with an added lecture on how important it was to take notes in class and to pay better attention when the teacher was talking. Suffice to say, Hermione's lectures which were often reproachful in nature weren't all that wanted, and always fell on deaf ears. Severus, for all his intelligence was even worse to ask for help than Hermione, he usually came up with some snarky or sarcastic answer that led Harry nowhere. Although Harry supposed he did find it funny that Severus was all too willing to roll out the red carpet and prepare a five-star briefing at the drop of a hat should Lily ask for help. It was obvious that his Severus had a crush on the girl who would become his mother, he found it pretty funny.

On the third Tuesday of March, the Gryffindor Quidditch team held practice from four to six o'clock in the evening. Harry—who had been playing, and Ron—who had been watching from the stands, agreed with his friends to meet them in the library afterwards and get some studying done before dinner. After a quick shower and a chance into a fresh set of robes, Harry and Ron set off for the castle together, only to be surprised by Severus and Lily in the Entrance Hall waiting for them.

"I thought we were gonna meet outside the library, right?" Harry asked confusedly as he approached his friends.

"We decided to meet you here instead," answered Lily, wearing a smile.

Harry shrugged and glanced at Ron, who gave no indication he knew Severus and Lily would be there.

"Anthony, Mandy and Hermione are already in the library," Severus supplied. "We said they could go on ahead while we waited for you here."

Ron sighed loudly and reached into his backpack for his half-finished History of Magic essay. "Well come on then. My essay on Goblin Rebellions isn't going to write itself is it?"

Harry, Severus and Lily all shared a quiet chuckle at their friend's expense, except they could all sympathize with Ron's plight. None of them liked History of Magic all that much, that is, if you didn't count Hermione.

"Alright then, let's get going," said Harry.

The quartet of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws all set off together for the library.

"So, how was practice Harry?" Lily asked.

"Oh, he was on fire today," Ron said with a gleeful smile. "You Ravenclaws are gonna be in for it next match. Harry was catching snitches left, right and center like it was nobody's business."

"Thanks for the report Ron, way to go giving away my progress to the opposition," Harry said sarcastically.

"Do you really think you'll be able to beat us?" Severus asked, wearing a sneer that Harry thought looked remarkably like his older self's. "We beat Slytherin, you guys lost against them, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah? Well we beat Hufflepuff," Ron countered, seemingly far more offended by the attack on Gryffindor's quidditch ability than Harry himself. "You guys couldn't even win against those duffers!"

A group of third year Hufflepuffs walking past them in the corridor shot Ron a series of dirty looks, one even flipping him the bird. Ron had the good grace to look ashamed of himself and his potty-mouth.

"Guys, this is all getting really grating," Harry said exasperatedly. "Let's just…get to the library and get started on our studying yeah? We've got less than an hour until dinner, so let's make the most of it."

Lily, perhaps the most sensible of the current quartet—which wasn't saying much, nodded in firm agreement with Harry's words. "Harry's right, we're wasting time. Let's just agree to not talk about Quidditch—" she glared at Severus and Ron as she spoke, Ron still looked sheepish but Severus not so much, he glared back at her in defiance. "—Until the match. May the best house win."

Ron and Harry shared a conspiratory look, as did Severus and Lily. Despite agreeing to postpone their Quidditch debates for the time being, it was clear that both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw duos already held pre-conceived notions of who was the best house that were already set in stone. They continued walking along the maze of corridors towards the library, now chatting about their classes and commiserating over the fact that they'd been getting so much more work recently. As they neared the library however, the sound of a rather familiar, but unpleasant voice met their ears. Severus was the first to recognize it, his wand in hand before any of the other three had even reacted.

"Malfoy," he muttered darkly. He eyed Harry, Lily, then Ron in turn.

"You're right, that is him," Ron chimed in, nodding at Severus.

"He's not alone either, Carmichael's there too," said Lily, shooting a fleeting look at the suddenly-white-knuckled Severus.

Severus and Carmichael mostly ignored one another these days, but that didn't mean they got along well by any stretch. Despite their similarities, the boys were as far apart from being friends as could be; but at least they no longer brawled either with magic or physically.

"Forget it then," Severus said gruffly. "Carmichael can throw a halfway-decent punch, he'll be fine if it comes down to it." He rubbed his jaw over the spot Carmichael had socked him on Halloween.

"Oh, come on Sev, you're not still sore about that are you?" Lily whinged. "Right now, he probably needs our help, we should get closer so we can at least hear what Malfoy and Carmichael are talking about, no?"

"Yeah, let's go," Ron said, drawing his wand.

Seeing that he'd been vetoed, Severus reluctantly followed Harry, Lily and Ron down the hall to hear what Malfoy and Carmichael were talking about. He was beginning to regret telling his friends that he'd heard Malfoy at all. As they neared the source of the noise, Lily and the boys could tell that it was a commotion of some sort was taking place. They all had their wands drawn at this point and upon reaching the final corner away from where Malfoy and Carmichael were, they flattened themselves against the near wall to listen in and find if Malfoy was just having a friendly chat—unlikely, or if he was up to trouble—very likely.

"C'mon Vincent, Greg, hold him still for me, yeah? I want to try out this hex here," Malfoy drawled.

"Let go of me!" Carmichael thundered, sounding as though he was struggling against the two hulking, behemoths that were Crabbe and Goyle.

"And why should we do that. Vincent, Greg and I are purebloods, we're better than a lowly mudblood like you. As if we'd listen to your groveling," Malfoy drawled sadistically. The blonde ponce turned his attention to his two goons, then said; "now hold him still boys, this hex here says it'll turn the target's legs to jelly, let's try that."

"Malfoy!" Harry shouted, turning around the corner with his wand outstretched and raised threateningly at the Slytherin.

Malfoy's eyes widened, his wand then pointed away from Carmichael towards Harry. "Potter," he snarled contemptuously. His eyes glimmered hungrily, seeing that Harry was all alone without any of his usual entourage in sight.

Before Malfoy could think to cast a spell, or Crabbe or Goyle could even think about dropping Carmichael down and going for their wands; Severus, Ron and Lily all turned around the corner as well with their wands outstretched, ready to use one of the jinxes or hexes they'd learned if Malfoy so much as tried anything.

"Let him go Malfoy," Lily said sternly, eyeing Carmichael—who stared back at her with surprise and even a bit of relief. "Just let him go, we don't want trouble and you don't want to hex him."

"But what if I do?" Malfoy sneered, although there was a hint of fear in his voice as he spoke. Four opponents was far too much to take on, and with Goyle and Crabbe otherwise unable to help by virtue of being hexed if they tried to draw their wands, he was sorely outmatched. Still, he couldn't help but posture some more.

"You don't. Trust me. Just…get out of here and leave Carmichael alone. This doesn't have to end in a fight," Lily said calmly, but the threat her words promised was impossible to miss. Malfoy certainly picked up on it if his raised brows and widened eyes were anything to judge.

"Or you don't have to go and we could fight, four versus three, I like our odds," said Ron.

Malfoy quickly regained his composure and nodded for Crabbe and Goyle to release Carmichael. Both boys quickly dropped Carmichael's arms and whirled around to draw their wands, Carmichael dropped to the ground, staying on all fours for a moment to catch his breath before standing up. It was only then that Lily, Severus, Harry and Ron witnessed Crabbe's puffy and bleeding lip and Goyle's purplish eye. Clearly, Carmichael hadn't gone down without a fight and inflicted some damage before being restrained by the two brutes. Carmichael quickly made his way towards the two Gryffindors and his two housemates at the end of the corridor. Malfoy was smart enough to realize that now with Carmichael released and back on the side of Harry, Ron, Lily and Severus; that meant his odds were even worse now at three-to-five. He wisely lowered his wand, although both Crabbe and Goyle looked a little more hesitant to do the same.

Not the sharpest tools in the shed are they, those two. At least Malfoy's not too much of a fool to attempt to take on all of us at once, Harry thought, smiling inwardly to himself.

"Have it your way then," Malfoy drawled, his sneer and glittering grey eyes told the group that he couldn't resist just getting one more verbal barb in. "Stupid mudbloods and blood-traitors such as yourselves don't know when to recognize their betters, do they?"

Severus snarled, Lily growled, Ron released a cry somewhere between anger and affront, but Harry merely raised his wand. "Flipen—"

"Mister Potter, Mister Malfoy, Mister—the lot of you! What are you doing?" came the indignant squeak of Professor Flitwick. "All of you! There is no dueling in the halls! For that, let's see—thirty points from Slytherin! Twenty from Gryffindor, and thirty—no, twenty from Ravenclaw!"

"But Professor, none of us actually used our wands, none of us!" Lily said indignantly.

"I am well aware of that Miss Bergman, thank you very much—" Lily adopted a sheepish look, "—you would have received a detention to go along with your point loss had you been dueling, as such, I think ten points taken away for each of you is fair enough. Now away with you!" Flitwick squeaked.

Not even Malfoy nor his goons was willing to posture with an angry Professor Flitwick. The three Slytherins shot contemptuous looks at Harry, Severus, Lily, Ron and Carmichael, before taking their leave to return to the dungeons.

As the three Slytherins left the corridor in fiery peace, Lily turned to Carmichael and asked; "What happened Carmichael? Why were Malfoy and his lot going after you?"

"Is my blood not reason enough?" Carmichael retorted swiftly. "C'mon Bergman, you're a muggleborn too, you should know better than your friends that Malfoy has it out for people like us."

Harry shook his head. "What Lily means is…how did you come across Malfoy?"

"I knew what she meant," Carmichael drawled disappointedly. The shorter-than-average boy gave a little shrug of his shoulders then stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I was just…making my way from Hagrid's to the library and we happened to cross paths just as I was leavin'. He said something, then I said something, then I was fightin' his lackeys and the rest is history."

Severus chose to ignore the latter half of Carmichael's statement, instead, choosing to focus on the former. "You were at Hagrid's?" Severus asked sharply, his black eyes glittering with curiosity.

Carmichael shot him a sharp look, but he didn't appear angry or even upset, just surprised. "You were right about him, y'know? He really is a decent bloke, at least, once I got to know him. I've been spendin' some time with him recently, what's it to you?"

"Nothing," said Lily, holding her hands up in a placating gesture. "We were just…well, we were surprised, a bit, since you didn't like Hagrid all that much previously. I mean…that's how you and Severus got into your fight, wasn't it?"

Carmichael and Severus shared a brief glance—Severus even thought he saw a hint of respect in the Muggleborn boy's eyes, but as soon as he saw it, that look quickly vanished.

Carmichael sighed and shifted his gaze to Lily. "Hagrid offered to have me over a couple months ago back in January, and since I had nothin' better to do, I accepted. We talked a bit, and when we got talkin', we kinda learned we weren't as different as we thought, after all, thought the same about a lotta things. He's got a lot o' neat creatures he's raising too, so there's that as well. I go back once every two or three weeks or so to talk to him—" he shrugged apathetically, "—just somethin' I enjoy doing once in a while."

Lily nodded, but this time it was Harry who spoke. "Hagrid's a good bloke, we like spending time with him too, Carmichael."

Carmichael gave Harry a shrewd look, then a tense-looking nod. "Whatever. I'm outta here. Enjoy your studies," he said sarcastically.

Carmichael stuffed his hands in his pockets and wandered off down the corridor.

"You're welcome for saving you!" Severus called out after him, unable to resist throwing his roommate a sarcastic remark.

All it earned him was a flip of the bird from Carmichael; and a series of annoyed, but amused looks from his friends.

"C'mon, let's head on in guys. Hermione and the rest'll be wondering what's kept us," said Ron.

The group collectively nodded and set off down the corridor, rounding a couple corners and climbing a flight of stairs before arriving at the entrance to the library. They politely greeted Madam Pince and quickly made their way to their usual spot in the back left of the library, where Mandy, Anthony and Hermione were waiting for them.

"Where were you?" Mandy hissed quietly, upon their arrival.

"We were waylaid, sorry about that," Lily explained.

"It doesn't matter now," Hermione said curtly. "You're here, that's what matters, so get your books out."

Ron shot his housemate an exasperated look and plopped himself down next to Anthony. The boy glanced up from his Potions assignment, brushing his blonde fringe out of his eyes to give Ron a scrutinizing look, then returned to his work. Harry and Severus sat next to each other in the middle of the table, with Lily joining Hermione and Mandy on the opposite end, facing Ron and Anthony. Within minutes, they were hard at work on their assignments chatting quietly amongst themselves. In the week that followed the incident, Severus entertained the notion of going to visit Hagrid again at the next available opportunity. It was no secret that Hagrid raised a bunch of creatures outside of his boarhound, Fang; but Severus' curiosity had well and truly been piqued so he asked Harry and Lily if they wanted to go pay their friend a visit. Naturally, Lily and Harry were both quick to agree, so Lily wrote to Hagrid using Alain and they arranged to meet on the last weekend of the month. Ron and Hermione asked if they could come along as well, they were eager to meet Hagrid and to have a reprieve from the stuffy air of the castle.

So, at ten past two in the afternoon, on the last Saturday of the month; Severus, Lily, Harry, Hermione and Ron all left the castle and trudged across the grounds to Hagrid's hut. The air was light and clear with hardly a cloud in the sky—lending the quintet of First Years to believe that Spring was well and truly upon them. Mercifully, the Scottish Winter had been rather mild, and now they were able to rejoice the fact that they no longer froze to the bone whenever they stepped outside. With the sun beating down harshly on their hats, they crossed the slopping grounds from the courtyard to Hagrid's Hut. Upon nearing the structure, Severus couldn't help but notice that there was smoke billowing out of the chimney en masse, which was strange considering that it wasn't all that cold any longer.

"That's odd," Hermione said with a frown, seemingly just as observant as Severus was. "Why would Hagrid have a fire going at a time like this?"

"Well, we'd better hurry up so we can ask him," Harry said in reply.

They arrived at the hut soon after with Severus taking the lead and rapping his knuckles on the door. Severus heard a bang and a crash, what sounded like a vase falling to the floor, and instinctively took a few steps back. Hagrid yanked open the door moments later, looking even more haggard and tired than usual, and quickly ushered the five first years inside. They complied quickly and stepped into the hut, with the door slamming shut immediately in their wake.

"Hullo you lot, grab a seat at the table and I'll be right wit' yeh," Hagrid said with his usual jovial demeanor.

Harry, Ron, Severus, Hermione and Lily all did as they were asked, sitting down at Hagrid's enormous kitchen table while the half-giant lumbered about the rest of his hut, humming a tune as he went. Severus spotted a warm fire burning in the hearth, but struggled to think of a reason why Hagrid would be burning anything. It was warm enough as it was, wasn't it? Upon closer inspection, he spotted a cradle of some sort above the fire, and in the cradle, was a large, black egg.

"Say Harry…you see that there? Hagrid's got an egg burning in the hearth," Severus whispered, pointing at the fireplace.

Harry turned around and spotted it, his eyes widening in surprise. "What sort of egg?"

"I have no idea how Hagrid might've gotten it…but I think it's a dragon egg," Severus whispered.

"Really?" Lily asked interestedly, leaning closer to her two best friends. "A dragon egg? How'd you figure that out Sev?"

Before Severus could respond to Lily's question, Ron seemed to have spotted the egg in the fireplace as well, and he was just a tad bit more vocal about it than Severus had been. "Say, Hagrid…what kind of egg have you got there?" Ron asked. He squinted his eyes at the egg, then gasped, his eyes widening in shock. "Looks like a…no…that's a…but how'd you get it?"

Hagrid, who had his back turned from the five students, turned around—his complexion as white as a ghost's. "What I'm about tell ye', can't leave this room, understood?"

Harry, Lily, Severus, Hermione and Ron all exchanged a series of serious nods.

"Of course Hagrid," Hermione said, her brown eyes unflinching with resolve.

"We won't tell a soul," Lily chimed in.

"Not one," Harry added.

"It's a dragon egg, isn't it?" Severus said, sparing Hagrid the pressure of revealing the egg's identity.

Hagrid blinked slowly at Severus, his beady, black eyes widened slightly in surprise, before nodding. He briefly turned away from the five children to pick up a large pot of tea, before carrying it over and setting it down on the table. He proceeded to pour out five cups and one mug of black tea, then sat back down on his large chair. Hagrid wiped his massive palm over his face, finger and thumb rising to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"It is a dragon egg," Hagrid confirmed, to no one's great surprise.

"But Hagrid…Dragon eggs are really expensive, where on earth did you get one?" Ron asked. The redheaded boy pushed his chair back from the table and walked over to the fireplace, Severus followed him with the two boys scrutinizing the egg closely.

"This must've cost a fortune, Hagrid? How'd you even pay for this?" Ron whispered.

"Norwegian Ridgeback eggs don't come cheap," Severus added, giving his two knuts.

"Is that what this is?" Ron asked.

Severus nodded at him. "Yeah. Funnily enough, I learned about European dragon species a bit thanks to that book you gave me for my Christmas gift Hagrid, thank you for that."

"Don't mention it," Hagrid scowled.

"So you're telling me that's a Norwegian Ridgeback egg," Ron said, peering closer into the cradle holding the egg.

"Severus is right," Hagrid said. "As for how I got it, I won it recently down at the pub, free of charge."

"Free of charge?" Hermione asked, a hint of disbelief in her query. "How? In some…pub game?"

"Summat like that," said Hagrid, sounding just a little bit smug. "See, I was havin' a pint the other night, and I won this off a stranger."

"But what are you going to do when it's hatched, Hagrid?" Lily asked, her brows furrowed in apparent concern. "I mean…it's a dragon egg! I may not know as much as Sev 'n Ron, but it'll get pretty big, won't it?"

"I can manage it," Hagrid said confidently. "And b'sides, I've been doing some reading up on it too. Checked out a few books from the library recently to get up t' speed on raising dragons," the half-giant added, gesturing over to his bookshelf.

"But Hagrid…there'll come a time when this thing gets too big won't it? And there aren't any Dragon reserves near here so what'll you do?" Ron asked.

"I'll worry about that when it happens," Hagrid said flippantly, as if the matter was of little importance to him. "I'll be fine until then, I've got all the things this little feller needs."

Severus, Lily, Harry, Ron and Hermione all shot Hagrid discreet, skeptical looks, but didn't comment any further on it.

"Who did you get the egg from Hagrid?" Severus asked.

"Never saw the feller's face," said Hagrid, with a regrettable shrug. "But it doesn't really matter, now does it? He had an egg to get rid of, I've always wanted one, we both got what we wanted in the end."

Hagrid looked pleased with himself, but Severus and Hermione certainly didn't.

"Aren't you at least curious to know who the person was, Hagrid?" Harry pressed, following up on Severus' line of questioning.

"Doesn't matter to me," the Groundskeeper said gruffly, a hint of annoyance in his words and expression. "The egg was free an' that's what matters, innit?"

"I guess so," said Severus, sounding anything but. Still, he mustered up a smile for his friend, which Hagrid returned with wholesome glee.

While there was no doubt that Harry, Severus, Ron, Lily and Hermione were all happy for their jovial groundskeeper, the atmosphere for the rest of tea was decidedly tempered as they contemplated what might happen following the egg hatching. Needless to say, they were quite concerned of once the dragon made its appearance, despite Hagrid's prowess at caring for and nurturing magical creatures, it was obvious the friendly giant would have his hands full. All in all, by the time they left Hagrid's mostly wooden hut—the thought alone was enough to make them shudder, they were filled to the brim with scenarios of what might go wrong for their beloved groundskeeper. Upon finishing their tea, Severus, Lily and Ron cast wary looks at the egg sat in the cradle; then they bade Hagrid goodbye and took their leave. Hagrid was smiling as widely as he waved them off back to the castle; Severus swore he even heard the man whistle to himself as he slammed the door shut. Severus thought his large friend might've had a few screws loose.

On the way back to the castle, a sudden stroke of inspiration hit Harry, he turned to Ron and said; "Hey Ron…your brother Charlie, he works with Dragons doesn't he?"

"Mhmm, he does," said Ron, a despairing look on his face. "What about him?"

"Well you could write to him, couldn't you?" Harry asked eagerly. "Hagrid's dragon'll be getting big soon. So if you write to him now, maybe he can help us out before it gets too big!"

"Harry is right, Ronald," Hermione said, throwing in her own two knuts. "That dragon will be huge soon. Your brother might be able to help."

"Considering that it's a Norwegian Ridgeback, it'll probably grow to be the size of his hut within a couple months," said Severus.

"Was that book Hagrid gave you that informative Sev?" Lily asked, sounding bemused.

"It was, and it stoked my interest. Funnily enough, I was wondering who'd checked out so many books on Dragons from the library, turns out that someone was Hagrid."

"I was snooping around that section too," Ron added, nodding at Severus. "Could hardly find a single book about dragons, so I checked out one on Nundus instead."

"A Nundu?" Lily asked, her green eyes trained on Ron. "What's a Nundu?"

"Never mind that. You're saying you actually checked out a book from the library?" said Hermione with ample incredulity in her tone.

Ron scowled at the bushy-haired Gryffindor and flashed her a rude, muggle gesture he learned from Dean Thomas. Instead of sticking up his middle-finger though, he used his ring-finger, which didn't mean anything at all and caused his four friends to break out into laughter at his expense. They marched back to the castle, still all joking and laughing at Ron's bungled 'middle-finger'; to Ron's credit, he took it on the chin with pride and let his friends get their kicks in.

Later that day, when they were leaving the Great Hall after a sumptuous dinner feast, Harry pulled Ron aside and said he'd talk to Hagrid tomorrow about reaching out to Charlie, and that if he agreed, they could write to Charlie using Hedwig. Ron nodded in agreement, and the rest of the group quickly found out about the plan. Anthony and Mandy caught up with the five of them soon after, both curious as to where the quintet had disappeared to for most of the afternoon. Hermione was surprisingly swift in replying that they'd gone to visit Hagrid's and was just as quick to warn Mandy and Anthony off of visiting because of a supposed Pixie infestation. In any case, Mandy and Anthony seemed to buy it; but Harry, Ron, Lily and Severus were all left shocked at Hermione's surprising ability to spew authentic-sounding bullshit under pressure. Harry was particularly impressed, but also felt a bit guilty at having to lie to Severus' and Lily's friends in order to protect Hagrid's secret. They all went their separate ways for the night, with Harry returning to Gryffindor Tower with Hermione and Ron; while Severus and Lily made their return to Ravenclaw tower all the while being interrogated by their two best friends in Ravenclaw about the supposed-Pixie infestation.

Harry, Lily, Severus and their friends all stayed away from Hagrid's hut for the next week following their visit, so as to lend authenticity to Hermione's lie about the Pixie infestation. They received word back from Hagrid that he'd be alright with sending the dragon to Ron's brother, although he seemed hesitant in his wording. The dragon hatched a few weeks after their initial trip to his hut in the early weeks of April. Harry, Lily, Severus and Ron were present for its birth; with Hermione unable to make it as she'd already promised to catch up with Mandy and Anthony for a study session. Speaking of Mandy and Anthony, both had been rather suspicious about their friends' activity, and were more hesitant to blindly accept Hermione's assertion that the Pixie infestation had been dealt with. Severus and the rest weren't oblivious to the odd, almost scrutinizing looks Mandy and Anthony both shot the rest of the group whenever they were all together in the library studying. Anthony and Mandy felt particularly put out whenever the other five of the group came back from Hagrid's hut after meeting with the Groundskeeper and the baby dragon he was rearing—the little, winged beast being dubbed Norbert.

Having Hagrid's consent, Charlie wrote back that some friends of his would be able to pick Norbert up at the stroke of midnight the following Saturday and that Norbert would be well taken care of. In the days leading up to Norbert's departure, Ron had a close shave with the growing Dragon as it'd nearly bitten his hand. The timely intervention of Severus yanking him back had spared him a nasty bite just in time. Harry, Ron and Severus decided that they'd bring the Dragon up to the very top of the Astronomy tower on the Saturday, which meant the two girls couldn't come along as there wouldn't be enough space under Harry's cloak—which Hermione didn't know about yet. After Ron's close shave, the group decided to stay away from Hagrid's hut until Saturday night, Norbert really was getting alarmingly big and difficult to control and none wanted to risk getting bit. The last few days before Norbert's departure passed fairly quickly; with Harry and his friends hardly able to take their minds off the dragon. Even Hermione struggled to focus in class at times, she even made a few uncharacteristic errors when volunteering to answer questions, which Ron found very shocking. When Saturday night arrived, Lily and Hermione reiterated their intention to not accompany the boys up the Astronomy tower, with the two girls trying their best to console a distraught Hagrid.

So, with Hagrid staying behind at his hut with Lily and Hermione—both doing an admirable job at consoling the miserable groundskeeper; Harry, Ron and Severus set off from Hagrid's hut back to the castle with Norbert in a fire-proof cage. Harry and Severus' knowledge of the castle meant they were able to avoid the usual patrols of prefects and staff members, arriving at the tower at the stroke of midnight to a rather shocking sight. For some reason, Anthony was there waiting for them, eying the invisible crate carried between the three boys with a triumphant gleam in his eye.

"I knew you'd be up here," the blonde, Ravenclaw boy said triumphantly. "I briefly saw the letter you sent to your brother, Ron," he added, addressing the lanky Gryffindor directly. "So, I decided to see what all the fuss was about myself and get a good look at Hagrid's dragon before you three sent it off."

"For Hagrid's sake, please don't tell anyone," Severus pleaded with his friend.

"Of course not, I like Hagrid and I'm anything but a snitch," Anthony scoffed. The blonde boy seemed offended that Severus even thought he might do that. "I was just curious about why you'd been sneaking off to Hagrid's so much in recent weeks. Now I know why."

"Listen, Anthony, Ron's brother's friends will be here soon," said Harry, sounding urgent. "So if you want to get a good look at him, have a peek under here."

Harry lifted the veil of his cloak and revealed the meter-long form of Norbert to Anthony's wide eyes. Harry thanked his lucky stars that Anthony had been so focused on the contents of the cage that he'd been completely ignorant to the fact that said cage was concealed by an invisibility cloak. He quickly tucked his silvery cloak back into his robe pocket and thanked Merlin once again that Anthony only had eyes for the jet-black dragon inside the cage.

"Whoah…this is so cool! A Norwegian Ridgeback!" Anthony breathed in awe. His blue eyes widened in amazement as he peered into the cage, taking in every detail of Norbert's form. After Anthony had gotten his fill of staring at Norbert in slack-jawed awe, he turned towards Ron, Harry and Severus, with his blue eyes lingering on the latter in particular. "Why didn't you tell me about him?"

There was a sense of hurt in Anthony's accusation that Severus couldn't shake, nor ignore; but before he could respond, the sound of broomsticks whizzing through the air met their ears. Charlie's friends had arrived, and were soaring towards them at alarming speed along the side of the tower. Harry peered over the edge of the tower's ramparts, green eyes squinting through the gloom to discern their rapidly-approaching shapes, he reared back just in time as they soared past him and over the tower, before executing an aerial pirouette directly above them and coming back down to land. The three men hopped off their brooms and made their way towards them.

"Hello Ron," the leader of the three men said. He was the shortest of the bunch, stocky, burly, and quite muscled. "Is that him in there?" He nodded towards the cage.

"Sure is Tim," said Ron, seemingly aware of the leader's identity at least. "That's Norbert, a Norwegian Ridgeback."

"Looks to be about a few weeks old," said one of the other broom-riders. "I think we should take 'im now Tim."

"We'll do just that then," said the burly leader of the trio, Tim. "Thanks a lot for your help Ron, but me and the lads'll take it from here. C'mon boys!"

The three men marched past the four boys and hooked the dragon crate up to hooks beneath their brooms. They quickly double-checked the fire-proofing enchantment on the cage, and then sat down on their brooms and rose to a low hover just above the polished stone of the tower roof.

"Well done Ron," said Tim, smiling warmly down at Charlie's brother from his broom. "Now you four had better get back. Don't want Filch catching you, do ya?"

"We definitely don't," said Ron, grinning at Tim.

Harry, Severus and Anthony obviously agreed with Ron's sentiment.

Tim and the other two men gave the group a nod of gratitude, before kicking off the ground and soaring into the skies, their dragon crate carrying Norbert slung between them.

Severus, Ron, Harry and Anthony turned their four sets of eyes to the star-lit night sky and waved at Norbert as the dragon and his new caretakers vanished into the darkness. The starry blanket of night enveloped the three broom riders, and once they'd disappeared from view; the four boys all bade a hasty retreat from the tower.

A/N: Only two more chapters to go for Harry & Co.'s first year, then this fic'll go on hiatus while I plan out their second year. As I've mentioned in prior chapters, there will be significantly larger divergence in canon come their second year, I won't give away anything more than that. Expect the next update in two weeks. Thank you all for reading!