Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own.

A/N Longest chapter yet. I hope you enjoy.

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet.

Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, they would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Serena, it seemed, was getting a bit attached to the beast, because she'd begun to talk to it through the door.

Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile. Phoebe had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.

To add another level of stress to the group, the exams were coming up. The teachers piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. Most of it was spent in the library, trying to ensure they would pass and be able to go onto their second year. Though they tried, their dedication tended to falter when they got bored.

One particular day, they were having trouble keeping their heads inside. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming. They had their books open in front of them, but it was hard to focus. Thomas had made a crossbow and arrow out of rubber bands, clips and a broken quill. Serena was sketching a three-headed dog in what was supposed to be her notebook for History of Magic. Phoebe had fallen asleep and was drooling over her notes. Until Thomas accidentally shot her with his make-shift arrow and she had to pull the piece of quill out of her arm with a groan, that is.

Harry, who was trying to look up 'Dittany' in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, didn't look up until he heard Serena say:

"Hagrid!"

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"An' what're you lot up ter?" He sounded nervous and suspicious at the same time. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is." Phoebe waved off his question.

"And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St-." Harry started.

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact, about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy-."

"SHHHH!" Hagrid said again. "Listen: come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-."

"See you later, then."

Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Serena questioned.

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" Harry asked.

"I'll go check the section he was in." Thomas put his make-shift crossbow down and hurried off. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table, rattling everything else.

"Dragons!" He whispered urgently. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him." Harry informed him.

"But it's against our laws. Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden. People don't like dragons or werewolves." Thomas explained.

"So what on God's weird earth is Hagrid up to?" Phoebe questioned, raising her head lazily to peer around at them. No one could answer that.

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called 'who is it?' before he let them in and then shut the door quickly behind them.

It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.

"So... Yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes." Harry agreed. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy." Hagrid frowned at him.

"Course I can't." He said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts. I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"He almost ate us." Phoebe told him.

"We surprised him, that's all." Serena put in quickly.

"The point is, we just wanna know a little more. Morbid curiosity." Thomas told him.

"Come on, Hagrid." Harry wheedled. Phoebe stood up and went to stand next to Hagrid, the tall girl looking like an even younger child next to him.

"We only wondered who had done the guarding. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him handle this situation, apart from you." Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. The others beamed at Phoebe.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... Let's see... He borrowed Fluffy from me... Then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout... Professor Flitwick... Professor McGonagall." He ticked them off on his fingers. "Professor Quirrell an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. Yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Harry disagreed. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything. Except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" Harry asked him anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore." Hagrid reported proudly.

"Well, that's something." Harry muttered. Louder, he added: "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."

"Can't, Harry, sorry." Harry noticed him glance at the fire. Harry looked at it, too.

"Hagrid... What's that?" But he already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.

"Ah." Hagrid mumbled, fiddling nervously with his beard. "That's er..."

Everyone stepped closer to the fire and kneeled down to get a closer look.

"Where did you get it, Hagrid? Don't tell me there's a black market for dragons." Phoebe looked back at the giant.

"Won it, actually." Hagrid informed her. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched and, you know, breathing fire and eating small animals?" Thomas asked.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'." Hagrid explained, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library: Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. It's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here. How ter recognize diff'rent eggs. What I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them." He looked very pleased with himself, but the four just exchanged worried looks.

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house." But Hagrid wasn't listening to them anymore. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.

So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

"Wonder what it's like not to have mental breakdowns every other day." Phoebe muttered, as evening after evening they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting.

Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. He had written only two words:

It's hatching.

Serena and Harry wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. It was odd to have Thomas and Phoebe speaking as the voice of reason:

"We skip classes-." Thomas started.

"We fail an exam-." Phoebe continued.

"We don't get to go on to second year-."

"Something dastardly happens next year-."

"We don't go on that year either-."

"We're still taking Potions with Snape when we're thirty." Phoebe finished.

"How many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching? It'll be little and cute and not deadly yet." Serena whined.

"Hagrid will probably take pictures like a proud momma-." Phoebe started.

"Shut up!" Harry whispered. Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen. How much had he heard? Harry didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all.

When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the four of them dropped their trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." He ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; Harry thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. "Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!"

"Look at those eyes." Serena cooed.

"Look at those fangs." Thomas mocked.

"Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, do you reckon?" Harry asked.

Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face. He leapt to his feet and ran to the window. Everyone else scrambled to follow.

"What's the matter?"

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains. It's a kid. He's runnin' back up ter the school."

Phoebe and Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him. Malfoy had seen the dragon.

Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy's face during the next week made the group very nervous. They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.

"Just let him go." Harry urged. "Set him free."

"I can't." Hagrid protested. "He's too little. He'd die."

They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.

"I've decided to call him Norbert." Hagrid confided, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mommy?"

"Is anyone sane anymore or are we the insane ones?" Thomas mused.

"Hagrid." Harry said loudly. "Give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment." Hagrid bit his lip.

"I...I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

"Well, do know anyone else who would take a dragon?" Serena asked, stroking Fang's back and ignoring his drool that was pooling in her lap.

"Charlie." Phoebe said suddenly and everyone turned to look at her. "Fred and George's brother. He works with dragons. Maybe I can get a letter to him through them."

And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.

The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Harry and Phoebe sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Thomas and Serena appeared out of nowhere as they pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. He had been down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

"It bit me!" Thomas cried, showing them his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. "It went for the rat and got my hand. My hand is not a rat! And when it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby." He complained loudly and they all shushed him.

An owl tapped at the window. Phoebe hurried over and grabbed the letter.

"It's from Charlie." She reported and ran over to read it with the others.

Dear Fred and George's Friends,

I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week.

Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon. Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.

Send me an answer as soon as possible.

Sincerely, Charlie

They looked at one another.

"We've got the invisibility cloak." Harry reminded them. "It shouldn't be too difficult. I think the cloaks big enough to cover two of us and Norbert. We'll sneak him through the castle and up to the tower." It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other three agreed with him. Anything to get rid of Norbert. And Malfoy.

There was a hitch. By the next morning, Thomas's bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. He didn't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey. Would she recognize a dragon bite? By the afternoon, though, he had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if cute little Norbert was venomous.

Harry, Phoebe and Serena rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Thomas in a terrible state in bed.

"Malfoy came by. Threatened to tell Madam Pomfrey what really bit me." He reported.

"Did she know already?" Serena asked worriedly. Thomas held up his swollen, puss-leaking hand.

"Well, she didn't believe it was a cat."

"Why would you say it was a cat?" Harry asked.

"Because I panicked." Thomas admitted. "But I think she's see enough weird things that she doesn't even think twice. We're good." He added.

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday, anyway." Harry assured everyone. Thomas bolted up with wide eyes. He patted all over his robes and the sank down with a moan.

"Mates... I have made a terrible mistake."

"What did you do?"

"The letter was in my pocket."

"Was?" Serena repeated in a worried squeak.

"He must've grabbed it."

"He pick pocketed you?" Harry asked. "How would he know how to-?"

"That weasel." Phoebe cursed. "We play spies once when we were kids and he uses it against me years later."

"Once?"

"Okay, fine. A lot. We were kids. I thought he was nice." Phoebe explained reluctantly.

No one got get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Thomas needed to get into his pajamas and prepare for a long night.

"It's too late to change the plan now." Harry told the girls as they hurried back towards Gryffindor tower. "We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl, and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that."

They found Fang, the boar-hound, sitting outside with a bandaged tail when they went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to them.

"I won't let you in." He puffed. "Norbert's at a tricky stage. Nothin' I can't handle."

When they told him about Charlie's letter, his eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg.

"Aargh! It's all right, he only got my boot... jus' playin'... he's only a baby, after all." The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle.

The trio walked back to the castle feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough. They would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say good-bye to Norbert if they hadn't been so worried about what they had to do. It was a very dark, cloudy night and Phoebe and Harry were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because they'd had to wait for Peeves to get out of their way in the entrance hall, where he'd been playing tennis against the wall. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey." Hagrid told them in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely." From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to Harry as though the teddy was having his head torn off.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed as Harry and Phoebe covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it themselves. "Mommy will never forget you!"

How they managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as they heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another... Even one of Harry's shortcuts didn't make the work much easier.

"Nearly there!" Harry panted as they reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower. Phoebe was throwing her back into, trying to pull it up the stairs. Harry pushed it from the other side and they had to keep readjusting the cloak to cover all of them.

Then a sudden movement ahead of them made them stop. Forgetting that they were already invisible, they shrank into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away.

A lamp flared. Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention!" She shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you-."

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter and Phoebe Black are coming. They've got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on. I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until they'd stepped out into the cold night air did they throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again.

Phoebe did a sort of jig.

"Malfoy thought he was on top. Now he's at the bottom!" She grabbed Harry's hands and he held her weight while she did a dip. She straightened up and let out a laugh and he joined her. Chuckling about Malfoy, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate.

About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness. Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. The three men had tattoos and long hair, but wide smiles and kind eyes. The one girl of the group wore punk clothes and had spiky pink hair. She was clumsy, but energetic and eager to get started.

They showed Harry and Phoebe the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it, the group showing no fear of the baby dragon. The pink haired girl, who they learned went by Tonks, skipped back over to them and told them, in a very fond tone, they were absolutely bonkers for doing this. Then Harry and Phoebe shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.

At last, Norbert was going... going... gone.

They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them. No more dragon. Malfoy in detention. What could spoil their happiness?

The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As they stepped into the corridor, Filch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

"Well, well, well." He whispered. "We are in trouble."

They'd left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.