Chapter 15 – Small Unfriendly Dragon

Days passed, then weeks and Quirrell seemed to be holding up better than they thought he would. From a distance, Emma could tell he was getting paler and thinner, like he was ill, but he mustn't have broken yet. Snape was in as bad a mood as ever, which only seemed to confirm that.

Every time Emma, Hermione, Harry and Ron passed the third floor corridor that was hiding Fluffy, they'd check he was still growling inside.

Harry had taken to giving Quirrell encouraging smiles, and Ron kept telling people off for laughing at his stutter. Emma on the other hand just kept trying not to fall over whenever she smelt the stench of garlic that followed him around.

Hermione and Emma, however, had more on their mind than Quirrell and the Stone. They had both drawn up some revision timetables and Hermione had even colour coded her notes and kept nagging the boys to do the same.

'Hermione, the exams are ages away.'

'Ten weeks.' snapped Hermione. 'That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel.'

'But we're not six hundred years old.' said Ron. 'Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it all.'

'What am I revising for? Are you mad? You realise we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me...'

The teachers had the same idea as Hermione and had taken to giving them more than double the volume of homework they'd been getting up until now. It had gotten to the point where Emma was only able to explore one or two nights a week, and they were a blissful escape from the stress, even if she sometimes went into the Forest.

Due to the volume of work, the Easter holidays could hardly be described as such, and Emma, Hermione, Harry and Ron were, yet again, spending most of their free time in the library. Emma had gotten really quite good at blocking out Hermione muttering quotes or incantations to herself, or Ron groaning and complaining. Emma mostly just sat and read in silence. Sometimes books to help with her homework, and other times her notes for revising. She had noticed though that whenever she read her notes, particularly the ones from after Christmas, she could remember them nearly word for word. She could swear her memory was never that good before, but then again, she had started second guessing everything good and bad about herself as being the result of her vampirism.

Emma had put her notes down, realising there was no point finishing reading them and sighed, breathing deeply and caught a familiar musky smell that grabbed her attention. She sniffed the air a couple more times, making Hermione look at her curiously, and tried to find the source.

'Hagrid?' asked Emma out loud, looking toward an isle of books not far from their table.

Hagrid shuffled out into view looking very shifty while hiding something behind his back. He was wearing his moleskin overcoat which was what Emma could smell.

'Hagrid!' said Harry, happily excused from his work. 'What are you doing in the library?'

'Jus' lookin'.' he said trying to sound nonchalant and failing, piquing their interest. 'An' what're you up ter? Yer not still lookin' for Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?'

'Oh, we found out who he was ages ago.' said Ron impressively. 'And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosophers St-'

'Shhhh!' implored Hagrid looking around quickly to see if anyone was listening. 'Don't go shountin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?'

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

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

'See you later, then.' said Harry as Hagrid left the library.

'What was he hiding behind his back?' asked Hermione, thoughtfully.

'That's his business.' mused Emma. 'I'm sure he's got a good reason for hiding something.'

'Do you think it had anything to do with the stone?' asked Harry.

'I'm going to see what section he was in.' said Ron, any excuse to get out of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down onto the table.

'Dragons!' he whispered. 'Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons!'

Emma looked at one of the books, it was titled Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland.

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

'Same here.' added Emma. 'That's why I gave him that paper one that flies around his hut.'

'But it's against our laws.' said Ron. 'Dragon-breeding was outlawed by the Warlock's convention of 1709, everyone knows that...'

Emma leaned back in her chair and kind of zoned out the conversation. She wondered why Hagrid would suddenly decide to get a book on dragons. She was woken from her daze a short while later when the boys started packing their work away.

'Can you two put the books away while I just finish this bit off.' asked Hermione to the boys.

Once they were out of earshot, Hermione looked at Emma with a frown. Emma guessed what that meant.

'Was I?' asked Emma, looking down at Hermione's neck reflexively.

Emma had started getting a bit better at noticing when she was doing it, but her thirst was ever present and she just couldn't stop herself.

Hermione nodded.

'Do you think I should talk to Dumbledore again?'

'I think so.' whispered Hermione. 'You've been doing it more and more the past two weeks.'

Emma lowered her head before nodding. This would be the third time she'd have to ask Dumbledore to reduce the number of days between each feed. By the middle of January, she'd had to reduce it to every three days and now it was going to be every two. This had Emma very worried. If it continued, she would have to feed all the time.

She was still looking down at nothing in particular, thinking, when Harry and Ron returned.

'Are you two ready?' asked Harry, seeing that Emma hadn't packed up yet.

'Emma's not feeling very well.' said Hermione.

'Oh, okay.' said Harry. 'Do you want us to go with you to the hospital wing?'

'No, no, it's fine.' said Emma, shaking her head slowly. 'I'm just going to go up to the common room and rest for a bit. Go see Hagrid and say hello for me, please.'

As soon as the others had left the library, Emma started writing her letter to Dumbledore before packing up her things, running to the owlery to deliver the letter and then headed back to the common room.

Later on that afternoon, a dejected looking Hermione, Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole, Emma's suspicions instantly verified.

'He got a dragon didn't he?' said Emma, more of a statement than a question.

'Yeah.' said Harry. 'He won it.'

'Playing cards!' added Ron exasperated.

'And he's keeping it.' said Emma guessing.

'Yes.' said Hermione and all four of them slumped in their chairs.

The next week went the same as the past few, drowning in work, only now they also had to worry about Hagrid getting in trouble for having an illegal dragon egg.

One morning, Emma was waiting in the entrance hall for the other three to finish their breakfast before going to the greenhouses for Herbology when she noticed Hedwig at the table, and Hermione and Ron talking animatedly. She grudgingly decided to join them, despite the smell, and as she got closer, she could hear them talking about the egg. Even though Emma knew her hearing was far better than anyone else's in the Great Hall, they clearly weren't being careful enough. She'd noticed out of the corner of her eye that Draco Malfoy had gotten up from the Slytherin table and was coming round the front of the tables, behind Emma, to hear what Hermione and Ron were discussing.

Emma, still walking slowly, slowed down a little more, half way between Malfoy and the other three and concentrated on not being seen, trying to use her fake invisibility. A few weeks ago, Emma and Hermione had worked out that Emma's ability was more like a 'notice-me-not' charm than invisibility, but it had a very similar result, and Emma had spent a while trying to control it better. She knew it was working when she stopped and turned around, and Draco hadn't noticed. She then walked right into him, and as he was still walking toward her, they both nearly fell over.

'Watch where you're going...' drawled Malfoy.

It seemed that he'd intended to finish that sentence with her name, but came up short. Emma just lowered her head, apologised and moved to let him go by. There would be no problem now as Hermione and Ron were silent and staring.

'You really need to be more careful.' said Emma, sitting down next to Hermione.

'Thanks, Emma.' said Harry.

They still continued arguing on the way to Herbology, though much quieter. Ron wanted to skip lessons to see the egg hatch, but Hermione wouldn't allow it. In the end, Hermione relented to go during the morning break.

'It's nearly out.' said Hagrid, ushering them into his hut.

There was a large egg on the table, covered with cracks and it was shuddering and clicking intermittently. All five of them got closer, pulling up chairs and sitting around the table, waiting for the inevitable.

After a few moments, there was another, louder click and more cracking and the egg split open, dropping the baby dragon onto the table very unceremoniously. Emma thought it was amazing.

The dragon had a jet black skinny body and long spiny wings and it's head was just as Emma had expected. It's snout was long with huge nostrils, it had some tiny horns and large, bulging, orange eyes.

It sneezed and a few sparks shot out of it's snout.

'Isn't he beautiful?' murmured Hagrid, reaching a hand out to stroke the dragon's head and it snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs that put Emma's to shame.

'Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!' crooned Hagrid.

'It is beautiful!' smiled Emma.

Hermione, Harry and Ron looked at her like she'd lost her mind.

'Well, sure, it's ugly as sin, but it's beautiful in it's own way, don't you think?' said Emma, getting the dragon's attention.

'Hagrid,' said Hermione, rolling her eyes at Emma. 'how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow exactly?'

Hagrid was about to answer when the dragon tried to bite Emma's hand off and it didn't look like it was doing it affectionately either, like it was with Hagrid. Emma backed away a little, as did the other three, but the dragon clumsily moved toward her, blowing a few sparks out again.

'Uhm, Hagrid...' said Emma, as calmly as she could, trying desperately not to hiss at it like she really wanted to, when she dodged another bite from the baby dragon. 'Why is your dragon trying to hurt me?'

'Stop frightenin' him.' said Hagrid angrily.

'I'm not doing anything.'

'Yer upsettin' him.' he said crooning at the dragon, trying to get it's attention, but it was definitely trying to hurt Emma. 'Tha's it. Emma, get out.'

Emma thought about protesting, but the dragon trying to eat her fingers and the look on Hagrid's face told her otherwise. She was about to close the door on her way out when she spotted Malfoy moving quickly down the path to Hagrid's hut from the castle, obviously up to no good. He'd stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Emma. She took one look at him and reopened the door slightly.

'Hagrid,' she shouted louder than needed. 'Malfoy's here to see you.'

If looks could kill, Emma would certainly be dead. He glared at her angrily and then stormed back up to the castle.

'Never mind, he's gone.'

Over the next week, Emma, Hermione, Harry and Ron went down to Hagrid's to plead with him to let the dragon go. Emma failed at that as every time she entered the hut, the dragon would try to attack her, which resulted in Hagrid banning her from visiting. The other three weren't having much luck either as Hagrid was very stubborn. He wouldn't let the dragon go as it was too young and wouldn't be able to survive on its own. He'd also named it Norbert, which was never a good sign. He was obviously getting attached to it.

One night, they were in the common room trying to think of ways to persuade Hagrid to get rid of the dragon when Emma remembered that one of Ron's brothers worked with dragons in Romania.

'Why don't we send it to your brother?' asked Emma, looking at Ron.

'Which one?' replied Ron, confused.

'Charlie!' said Harry excitedly.

'Brilliant!' exclaimed Ron.

They broached the idea to Hagrid and he grudgingly agreed to let them send a letter to Charlie to see if he was willing to help.

Another stressful week passed where Harry and Ron would take it in turns to check up on Hagrid and the dragon using the invisibility cloak late at night. Hermione wouldn't go as she had a hard enough time letting the boys go out after hours and Emma couldn't as she was still banned. It was currently Ron's turn and Emma, Hermione and Harry were waiting up at around midnight, long after everyone else had gone to bed and they all heard the portrait open as Ron returned.

Emma could smell blood before Ron had even taken the invisibility cloak off and she quickly held her breath. She'd fed the night before, but given how often she had to feed recently, she couldn't risk it. She moved her hand under the table and jabbed Hermione as Ron took off the cloak. Hermione did a double take as she looked from Emma to Ron and back again, looking worried.

'It bit me!' complained Ron showing them his hand, that was wrapped in a bloody bandage.

Emma immediately looked away. Seeing blood often made her thirst far worse. Panicking, she got up quickly, running to the bathroom and locking herself in a cubicle. She collapsed down, back to the door as usual, gasped for breath and started crying. If she'd had even the slightest bit less self control, Emma was sure she'd have attacked Ron, right there, in front of the other two. She'd really begun to feel like she was balancing on a knife edge, one tiny wrong step away from losing herself and becoming feral. She was terrified.

Even though the door to the bathroom was good at stopping the smell of blood, Emma could still hear the other three, slightly muffled, talking in the common room.

'Emma's really... squeamish.' stammered Hermione to the boys, getting up. 'I'll just make sure she's ok.'

Hermione came into the bathroom, quickly closing the door behind her to let as little of the smell of blood in as she could, and sat down. Emma felt her door jostle as Hermione leaned on the other side of it.

'I can't do this, Hermione.' cried Emma. 'I can't. I'm losing, I know it, I feel it. I'm going to attack someone, I just know it. First you, now nearly Ron. Who's next, Harry? Hagrid?-'

'It's alright, Emma.' soothed Hermione. 'I know you. You'd never hurt me, or Harry, or Ron. And definitely not Hagrid, even if he is being pig-headed at the moment.'

'But I did try to hurt you.'

'Emma.' chided Hermione. 'You know full well that that wasn't you, that the vampire took over.'

Emma shook her head, sniffling, not really believing Hermione.

'You need to stop selling yourself short. You're stronger than you think. And it's been a stressful few weeks, what with homework and the upcoming exams and now the dragon, but we'll get through it, together.'

It took a few minutes of reassurance from Hermione for Emma to calm down and relax a little. Hermione knew that Emma had a tendency to see the worst in a situation, particularly if she was stressed out, but a few calm, logical arguments were usually enough to bring her around.

'Thanks, Hermione.' sighed Emma, wiping her face with her sleeves and getting up.

When Emma opened the door, Hermione extended her arms out wanting to give Emma a hug, but Emma stepped back a pace and held up her hands defensively.

'As much as I really would love a hug right now,' said Emma, a little sullen. 'I think it would be best if you don't put your neck so close to my mouth just yet.'

Hermione nodded and moved back a step.

'Thank you, though, Hermione.' said Emma, feeling a bit better. 'I really appreciate everything you've done for me. I'm really glad we became friends.'

'Me too.' smiled Hermione.

After a few seconds of silence, Emma turned her head toward the bathroom door when she heard the beat of feathers and Harry talking in the other room.

'What's up?' whispered Hermione.

'Hedwig's here. She has Charlie's note.'

Hermione looked at the door and then sympathetically back at Emma.

'Will you-?' asked Hermione.

'Go on, I'll be ok.' said Emma smiling weakly.

When Hermione came down for breakfast the next day, she updated Emma. Charlie had agreed to get some of his friends to take Norbert off their hands if they could get him up to the top of the astronomy tower at midnight on Saturday. The plan was for Harry and Ron to do this using the invisibility cloak, as it could only cover two of them and Norbert, however, there was already a problem. Ron had come down to the common room, thankfully no longer smelling of blood, but his hand was twice the size it should be and it was turning slightly green. Emma looked away again, just-in-case. Ron didn't want to go to Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing with a dragon bite, but Emma and Hermione had been very insistent, and in the end, he relented, saying it was a dog bite.

When Emma, Hermione and Harry went to check on Ron later that evening, it was quickly apparent that Ron wasn't going to get much better in time for Saturday. His hand had gotten far worse and he looked absolutely terrible. Evidently, Norbert was venomous.

This meant coming up with a new plan, or just changing the current one, as it turned out. In the end, it was decided that Hermione and Harry would use the cloak to transport Norbert up to the astronomy tower. Emma would have volunteered in place of Hermione, but the dragon seemed to have a natural hatred for Emma.

She helped instead by showing Hermione and Harry a number of different secret passageways that would make their endeavour easier. She even suggested a few alternate routes that they could use in case they ran into trouble.

Apart from helping with the logistics, Emma offered to run interference for them so as to keep their path as clear as possible. She had originally thought about scaring Mrs Norris, to get Filch to follow her all over the castle, but she couldn't bring herself to be mean to a cat, even one as bad as Mrs Norris. Instead, just before curfew on the Saturday night, Emma broke all of the taps in one of the boys toilets on the upper floors, as far from the routes Hermione and Harry would take. Before she had even left the room, it was starting to flood.

That would take care of Filch for a long time. The only obstacles now would be Peeves, Mrs Norris, teachers and prefects, and it was Emma's job to keep them away for the night.

Emma left the portrait hole at the same time as Hermione and Harry and they wished each other good luck. Emma immediately ran off at a sprint, wanting to check up on the prefects patrols, when the other two vanished under the cloak, heading to Hagrid's.

She heard Harry whisper, 'She's fast!' just before she rounded a corner and smiled. She was back in her element.

After finding each of the house prefects, all doing their usual patrols exactly where Emma had expected, she knew none of them would be a problem. Her next stop was the boys bathroom she'd vandalised to make sure Filch was still occupied, because if he wasn't, he'd be the biggest problem by far. She poked her head round the corner into the right corridor and she could hear Filch complaining loudly inside while he was working. Mrs Norris was also standing guard outside the door.

'Perfect!' thought Emma to herself, turning back.

No Filch, no Mrs Norris and no prefects. This was going better than she thought it would.

The next issue would be the teachers. Snape wouldn't be a problem as he almost exclusively patrolled the dungeons. Quirrell and Flitwick would be fine too as Hermione and Harry wouldn't be going near their rooms. Sprout, Vector, Binns, Burbage and Trelawny would be non-issues as they rarely monitored the castle at night. This left McGonagall and Sinistra to worry about, and worry she did. McGonagall was known to be strict at the best of times, but she was particularly ruthless to those who broke curfew. Every time Emma had seen McGonagall while exploring, she'd always turned right around and ran. Sinistra on the other hand might be problematic as her office was very near the astronomy tower, it being her subject and all.

Emma ran to the moving staircases and jumped down four floors to start checking the paths she had suggested Hermione and Harry should take. She'd just had a look around the first secret passage when she heard them a ways behind her dragging what sounded like a crate. As good a way of carrying a dragon as any, Emma supposed. She went on ahead, her eyes and ears peeled for any trouble, but for the first half of the journey, they didn't find any. That was until she opened a secret door into a corridor, poked her head out to look around, only to find Peeves a short way away, staring at her. Could Peeves see through her notice-me-not ability?

'Who's there?' he said, carefully. 'Ickle ghostie or beasty? Should tell, I should.'

Before he'd even finished talking, Emma had run back through the passageway and back down to the previous corridor. She got a red crayon out of her pocket which Hermione had leant her and drew a red arrow pointing to Peeves. The other two would know what that meant, but Peeves was certainly going to be suspicious, and he'll probably be looking around to find them now. She had to distract him. She ran down a few corridors to where she knew a suit of armour would be, pushed it over, causing an incredibly loud crashing sound that probably woke up the whole castle, and ran back to the others. There's no way Peeves missed that.

Emma now went to the alternate route the other two should be taking, but she couldn't hear them walking. Instead she listened carefully for breathing. When she eventually heard them, nearly two floors up from where she'd last heard them, she saw why they'd stopped. Professor McGonagall was walking slowly down a long corridor toward them and she was in her tartan nightgown. She must have been woken by the suit of armour.

'Stupid!' thought Emma to herself.

If McGonagall didn't walk into Hermione, Harry or the dragon, she was going to hear them, or smell them when she got close enough. Emma, thinking quickly, planned a new route in her head, sprinting as fast as she could back down a floor, through another passageway and up again, ending up behind McGonagall and she was dangerously close to the others now. This time she quietly cast the levitation charm on the nearest suit of armour, moved it to the middle of the corridor and set it down forcefully with a clang and a rustle. Enough to get McGonagall's attention, but not enough to wake the whole castle. She then ran away, as fast as she could before she got caught, occasionally moving more suits of armour into the middle of the corridors and making a lot of noise. She hoped Peeves would take the blame for it. He was always moving the suits around.

Emma prayed the other two had managed to get away safely as she double backed toward the astronomy tower and caught up with them. They were safe, but exhausted, and still had to get Norbert up to the top of the tower. As she got closer, she made sure the other two could notice her. She really didn't want to frighten them, but didn't want to alert Norbert.

'Need a hand?' whispered Emma.

'Definitely.' whispered Harry, taking a breath and lifting up the invisibility cloak so Emma could see the crate. 'Nice work with McGonagall there, I thought she'd gotten us for sure.'

'It's actually my fault, I dropped the suit of armour to distract Peeves, but I guess it woke her up.' shrugged Emma.

She let the cloak fall back over the crate and helped push it up. It felt really weird lifting an invisible weight.

It took all three of them a lot of effort to get Norbert up to the top, but they finally made it, with nearly fifteen minutes to spare. Hermione and Harry threw off the invisibility cloak and collapsed, but Emma just sat cross-legged, looking out over the grounds.

'Here they are.' said Emma a short while later, seeing four figures flying on broomsticks in the distance and prodded the other two.

Charlie's friends were all very enthusiastic, but thankfully quiet. They'd made a harness that they could attach Norbert's crate to and then suspend him between them. Once they'd all buckled Norbert in safely, Emma, Hermione and Harry shook hands with the others and bid them a safe journey. At last, Norbert was someone else's problem.

Hermione and Emma both pulled Harry into a group hug. It had been one stressful night, but thankfully it was over.

'Can I join you on the way back?' asked Emma, turning to Harry. 'I haven't had a chance to use the cloak yet.'

'Sure.' smiled Harry, stress visibly rolling off him.