Harper sat in the hospital wing, listening to Ron rage at Malfoy. Her and Hermione were trying to assure him that it wasn't his fault, even if he hadn't gotten into a fight with the blonde princess, Malfoy still would have pulled a stunt like this.

'It'll be all over by midnight on Saturday,' said Hermione in another attempt to sooth their friend. It didn't work. He sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.

'Midnight on Saturday!' He said in a hoarse voice. 'Oh no – oh no – I've just remembered – Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert.'

After leaving the hospital wing, Harper and Hermione found an empty classroom where they could sit and talk without being overheard.

'Is it too late to change the plan?' Harper asked, biting her lip. It was well known dragons were illegal. It would be bad enough if Hagrid was caught with one but possibly worse for two students, they could be expelled and that would be the end of their futures in the magical world.

Hermione looked equally nervous with just a touch of nauseated added to her expression.

'I think so,' she said mournfully. 'We wouldn't have time to write to Charlie and postpone, there's also no guarantee that someone else will be able to pick up the dragon if his friends don't do it this weekend as they pass by on their way there.'

Harper felt miserable, torn between her desire to help her friend and her desire to stay safe and out of trouble. She sighed.

'Hagrid's need is greater than ours. If this is the only chance to get rid of Norbert then we'll have to risk it. No one knows about the Invisibility cloak, that'll give us an advantage.'

Both girls were anticipating and at the same time dreading Saturday night. It felt like the odds were really stacked against them. If it wasn't bad enough that they were smuggling an illegal dragon out of the country they also had to be on their guard for whatever scheme Malfoy would put in place to catch them out.

Saturday night, after dinner, both girls arrived at Hagrid's hut to go over the plan again. They almost felt sorry for the giant; he really did love his dragon even if the thing was a menace.

As curfew began to approach, the girls decided to head back up to the castle to let people see them going to bed. It wouldn't be much of an alibi if they were caught red handed but it was better than nothing if Malfoy convinced a professor to check on them. If that was the case, they crossed their fingers that the professor would only ask about them in the common room, not come up to the girl's dormitory to see for themselves.

Harper's heart went out to the friendly giant as she watched him weep over his dragon, there was a large crate all ready and waiting for the dragon to go into. Hagrid had even put a teddy bear in there to keep Norbert company on the long flight. Though personally, she didn't think the teddy would survive half an hour let alone the whole distance from there to Romania.

Her mind kept dwelling over everything that could go wrong. It was true that the Invisibility Cloak was a huge advantage in their favour but it wasn't infallible. They were still solid, they could still make noise, and the Cloak might even fall off.

It would be bad enough to be caught wandering the school after curfew, never mind the whole dragon smuggling thing. It would be so much easier if they were just a little bit older, their curfew wouldn't be quite so early and they wouldn't get into nearly as much trouble.

She wondered if she could maybe convince the twins to take the dragon. As third years, their curfew wasn't until ten o'clock – a whole hour later than first year curfew – and teachers were used to catching them wandering. As long as they kept the dragon hidden it wouldn't be so bad for them.

Harper's eyes came to rest on Hagrid and her mind stuttered to a halt. She wanted to smack herself repeatedly in the forehead, why hadn't she seen it before? It was the obvious solution.

'Hagrid,' she said, drawing the attention of her two friends. 'Do you ever help the teachers patrol the castle at night?'

'O' course I do,' said Hagrid, his chest puffed out proudly. 'Even the teachers deserve a night off sometimes, I don' mind pitchin' in.'

'Well, why don't you take Norbert then?' Harper asked, beginning to get excited. 'I'll lend you the Invisibility Cloak to keep the crate covered and if a teacher spots you, you can just say you thought it was your night to do a sweep of the corridors.'

'That's a great idea,' Hermione chimed in, her own excitement starting to show, 'Even if the teachers don't quite believe you, it doesn't matter because you're allowed to be there.'

'Hell, you could even say you popped up to use the bathroom or you thought you saw a light on a classroom when there shouldn't be and decided to check it out yourself. Actually that excuse is better, then you can send the teacher you bump into to go check it out, you can pretend to come home and then double back and carry on.'

Hermione nodded in agreement, a feverish light in her eyes as new ideas began to form.

'You could even go now and wait on the tower, there's a lot of places you could hide up there if the wrong person came or you could just sat you were stargazing. There's less chance of you being stopped in the corridors but it'll be trickier to hide Norbert.'

Hagrid looked thoughtful as he nodded in agreement. Harper felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest. She hadn't realised just how nervous she was about smuggling the dragon out until she didn't have to do it anymore. It felt like she was breathing easy for the first time since the thing hatched.

Why hadn't she thought of it before? If Hagrid was seen in the corridors at night, no one would even blink and there were a thousand and one believable explanations if anyone did question him.

It seemed so obvious now. As long as the dragon stayed out of sight, Hagrid couldn't get into any trouble at all.

Harper sighed at herself as she settled into bed that night, safe in the knowledge that Norbert was going... going... gone. She'd been so desperate to help her friend that she hadn't thought about it logically. It made no sense for her to sneak around when Hagrid was allowed to be out and about.

She sighed again. She was going to have to keep an eye on that self sacrificing streak of hers. It might get her into trouble some day.