Chapter 19: Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon
"It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit-
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Albus folded his hands in his sleeves, every inch the image of a grim archmage, as he looked down at the flagstones of the Astronomy Tower. "I assume, Filius, that in asking me up here you have discovered how the duel went awry?"
"It didn't go awry," the former world-class duelist said, equally grim. "It was deliberately sabotaged, or, to be more accurate, hijacked. Look here," he said, gesturing towards the center of the tower. A flick of his wand sent a cascade of glowing magenta light out from the center of the tower.
"A magic circle," Albus murmured, "a very involved one." He knelt by some symbols. "Some form of ritual magic?"
"Perhaps, but only to appropriately channel the quantities of magic needed," Filius gestured to thirteen points of light, brighter than the rest, that were clustered closely together in a grouping that was longer than it was wide. "All of the fey-stones were destroyed, either inside their case or in the hands of one of the duelists."
"I thought Ms. Thorne threw hers and was able to intercept the sphere short of striking her and Harry?" Albus asked.
"She threw a handful of fey-stone dust and chips," Filius said. "But if you look at this circle, do you see how—"
"Yes, this must represent the circle as it was laid out, including the markers for where the chips of fey-stone he or she must have gathered would have been destroyed," Albus said. "Thaumaturgy. This would not have been a minor undertaking, Filius. True it is not widely studied anymore, at least not in Britain, but this…"
He frowned and stroked his beard. "We only settled on the use of Promethean Fire a week before the duel. I doubt even I could have crafted a thaumaturgic ritual as fast, not one capable of channeling the amount of power needed to destroy fey-stone, disguise it from inside the very halls of Hogwarts, and keep anyone else from noticing until after the fact."
"And gotten a piece of fey-stone in advance of the duel?" Filius asked. "The sphere was clearly under the control of someone after the available fey-stones were destroyed. That same someone likely set up the magic-sink that drained away my attempts to destroy the sphere. The field was prepared, Albus, and I never detected it."
"There are not so many places a duel could have been held once I agreed to allow it on Hogwarts grounds," Albus sighed. "And yes, Filius, I know you checked the field before the duel. But you checked for the kinds of spells a student would have used."
"Do give me a little credit, Albus," Filius said severely. "I am well aware that both Mr. Malfoy, Lucius I mean, and Ms. Thorne would have their own interests in the outcome. I assure you, I checked for well more than mere first-year spells, and I found absolutely nothing to indicate any tampering. Both Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Blackthorn would be well within their rights to challenge me for such a failing.
"Not that they will," he added parenthetically, "I rather believe that both are quite relieved that the whole things is over."
Albus nodded thoughtfully. "I only have two questions more. Did Ms. Thorne have another will-based focus? And if she did not, could she have sufficient strength of will to have bent the sphere to her purposes without one."
"Ms. Blackthorn you mean? No," Filius said flatly. "The first I checked as a matter of course. As to the second…this sphere was specifically designed as a dueling instrument and tuned to fey-stone conductors, Albus. I had Severus test it without and he could not get it to so much as bob in the air."
"And so her plans, I suspect, for Harry are more long term," Albus said softly.
"I highly doubt she is plotting against—"
Albus shook his head, "I didn't say I thought she was plotting against him."
"But you do think that."
Albus ignored the charms professor's statement. "I merely observed that her plans have not yet come to fruition. This attack was performed by someone or some-ones not on the Tower, but who knew about the duel. Even the duelists didn't know the specific method you had chosen until they reached the field."
The twinkle in his eyes faded. "The information about the timing and method was limited to the staff and Board of Governors," he said grimly. "One of them, or someone they told, did this." His blue eyes turned very cold indeed as he gathered his power around him. "When I find this…person, I would be well inclined to ask for your services, Filius, did I not think that under the circumstances you would decline."
He turned to leave.
"Albus?"
The Headmaster of Hogwarts paused and looked back.
"When you first hired me it was on the condition that I give up dueling," Filius said. "It occurs to me, however, that the dueling circuit and the regularly scheduled tournaments are not the same thing as an honor-duel."
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Harry, for one, was quite relieved to not be a resident of the Hospital Wing for once. He had woken with a pounding headache and the knob the size of an egg on the back of his head, but he had woken before Madam Pomfrey—whoever usually did the task—had gotten him changed into a Hospital Wing gown. That apparently meant he was well enough not to need to stay for 'overnight observation' as far as the resident medi-witch was concerned.
She had given him some teal-colored goop that had little sparkling things in it to smear on the light burns he had received and a vial of something that smelled like swamp gas and tasted worse. To be fair, the goop was effective at healing his burns, though its tingling took a lot of getting used to, and the potion did wonders for his headache.
Allie, however, was still in the Hospital Wing after nearly a week. She lay on her stomach and the bedsheets were levitated to keep from coming into contact with her burned back and legs. She did have an odd, donut-shaped pillow that looked down on a mirror, a second mirror was mounted on a moveable stand over her bed that she could adjust. By looking down at the mirror below her she was able to look out through the mirror above her. Harry found having to look up instead of down at his injured friend odd to say the least.
"You should try it from my perspective," Allie growled irritably.
"Sorry," Harry said.
"And here I thought you'd finally gotten over apologizing for every little thing," his friend muttered.
Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Allie, about the duel—thank you."
"For what?" she asked.
"For jumping in front of the fire," Harry said.
"Why wouldn't I have?" she asked. "I had something that could disrupt the sphere, albeit at very short range, and it wasn't like it was going to kill me after all."
"What?" Harry asked. "I thought the whole point of the Promethean Fire was that—"
"Oh it would have been lethal enough if it hit me in the head or upper chest," Allie said. "It was pretty obvious you didn't know about that though, did you?"
"No," Harry admitted. "Why would it have only been lethal there? I mean, the stomach and stuff is vulnerable too…right?"
"Sure, but it doesn't kill as fast," Allie said. "Europe went nuts a couple centuries back. How to heal fire-based injuries is well in advance of other healing magics."
"Oh, you mean because of the witch burnings?" Harry asked.
Allie laughed, but it vanished into a choking-wheezing sound. "I have no idea how that rumor started. The mundanes were burning heretics, not witches. Oh, a couple of real witches got caught up, but even those that went to the stake usually got away just fine. Mostly the mundanes hung witches and wizards, something that worked all too well. For whatever reason, however, most of the magical world thought the mundanes were burning them so there was a great interest in anti-fire protection spells and burn treatments. Against the minute quantity of Promethean Fire Flitwick brought and the presence of a certain medi-witch, Malfoy's and my chances of actually succeeding in killing one or the other of us were pretty remote."
"But I didn't know that," Harry said slowly, "so I didn't know how to…survive getting burned. You still didn't need to jump in front of me," he added stubbornly. "What if you'd been wrong?"
"Then ol' grannie would be ecstatic and Dumbles would be happy," Allie muttered. "The Great Hall would be trimmed in black, and I'd try to keep from laughing as Dumbledore tried to eulogize me."
Harry snorted despite himself.
"Personally, I think I'm going to blame Parvati," Allie continued thoughtfully. "All of those high romances that she had me read. I thought I'd take a stab at the hero-gig. You know, the whole 'someone-else, somewhere-else being miserable when not in grave danger-slash-saving-people-thing.'"
"What's it like?" Harry asked.
"I think I'll stick with my day job," Allie said. "Besides, I don't have the name for it. Heroes need good names, you know, something out of legends like 'Percival' or 'Roland', or that are shortened in someway unusual like 'Xander' or 'Buffy', or speak of a defining characteristic like 'Honor'."
The door of the Hospital Wing opened and Harry turned as Draco Malfoy walked in.
"Potter," he said, walking over.
"Malfoy," Harry replied in much the same tone.
"Blackthorn," Malfoy continued to Allie.
"Malfoy," Allie replied. "Harry," she said.
"Allie." Harry said with a grin. "Malfoy."
Malfoy glared at him, then turned away dismissively. "Blackthorn," he said, "I've come to inform you that despite the…irregularity at our duel I consider the matter suitably dealt with."
"Will your father consider the matter at an end?" Allie asked.
Harry moved a hand towards his wand as Malfoy stiffened, but Allie went on before the blond boy drew his wand. "I only ask because I know the Mistress of Thornes will not be satisfied with an interrupted duel should she find out about it."
"I am satisfied," Malfoy said tersely. "An exchange was made. Both parties were wounded and declare honor was satisfied. No more about it needs to be spoken."
"We have an accord then," Allie said.
Malfoy jerked his head once in what might have been a nod, then spun on his heels and left.
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With the duel over and no Quidditch games until early May the following days, and then weeks, began to blur together. Harry and his friends saw no proof that Snape—or whoever was after the Stone and/or trying to kill Harry—had come any closer to achieving his (her/their) goal(s). The High Lords of Chaos pulled a few more pranks, but nothing as elaborate as their first one or even the now-regularly scheduled Quidditch prank.
Apparently to get them ready for the end of term crunch period, the Professors stepped up the amount of material they were covering and the amount of out-of-class work that they were assigning. At the same time Thrace stepped up the pace of Quidditch practices as the May game was Hufflepuff against Slytherin. Tonks had passed along Allie's off-hand comment, however, and the practices shifted slightly to give the Chasers more time to practice their foul-throws.
The Weasley twins managed to slip something into the pumpkin juice one day in mid-march, and about half the people in Hufflepuff had their robes change into badger fur. Tonks had immediately started to shed, and only a quickly conjured beach towel had kept a very embarrassing scene from becoming extremely embarrassing. McGonagall had dragged the twins off by their ears to spend a detention with Filch, but not before Tonks swore vengeance on their entire house. The next several days were tense, but then the incident seemed forgotten by the collective consciousness of the school.
It really should not have, for less than two weeks later was the Twins' birthday.
Harry came down to breakfast that morning considerably wary. Tonks had spent nearly the entire weekend bursting out in giggles, often accompanied by wildly fluctuating hair color. But as he looked around no one seemed to be sprouting horns or asses ears or coats of fur or anything else odd. The food seemed to all be perfectly normal and not charmed to smell or taste as something other than what it was supposed to smell or taste like. The morning flock of owls came in right on time, and while some students had to dodge a particularly low-flying owl, none had to dodge for other reasons.
He calmly fed Hedwig a piece of bacon as he looked around the hall. The others in Hufflepuff were chatting, as normal. More than half the Ravenclaws had their heads in books, as normal. The Slytherins were talking in low voices, or reading the Dailey Prophet, or any of the other things they commonly did at breakfast, as normal. He looked over at Gryffindor, all of the Weasleys seemed to be sitting together. That wasn't normal, but it wasn't exactly odd either.
Harry started to turn away, but he paused and looked more closely at Gryffindor. So, he thought, Tonks turned all of their hair Weasley-red, except…it all seemed to be the same style as well.
"Harry, Harry you have to help us."
Harry turned at the unfamiliar voice to find Ron's brothers Fred and George hurrying over. "You need me to help you?" he asked, taken aback. Fred and George were only third-years but that was a load of difference in how much magic they had been taught. Furthermore, Fred and George were notorious for the ingenuity of their pranks. "How can I help you?" he asked.
"Well," the other one said, "if you or your friends can figure out a way to transform us back into ourselves that would do quite nicely."
"You…er…transformed into each other?" Harry asked.
"No!" snapped the first. "I'm Parvati!"
"And I am Hermione," said the second.
"You're fruity," Ernie said, "and she's nutty," he added.
"Shut up, MacMillan," seethed the first one.
"Self-transfiguration isn't covered until seventh year," Harry pointed out.
"You think we did this to ourselves?" snarled Twin #1.
"They're your friends, get them to undo this!" said Twin #2.
"Weasleys," a greasy voice said behind them.
Even sitting on the bench at the Hufflepuff table, Harry jumped. He turned to find the Potions Professor looming over them.
"I am sure that your…vitally important conversation is no doubt fascinating," he said, "but now is neither the time nor place from it."
"But, Professor—"
"Five points for cheek, Mr. Weasley," Snape told Twin #2. "The proper place for meals is with…your…house…" his words drifted off as he took in the sight of Gryffindor house.
He wasn't the only one. Conversation in the hall had come to a stop.
"Weasleys," he hissed the word in a way that made Harry think of a dog vomiting something that it had found in the back of a week-old dumpster. "You have really out done yourselves this time," he seethed, "indeed you have. And it is only fitting, I believe, that this…ingenuity be properly awarded."
He glanced at Professor McGonagall.
As though taking their cue from him, Harry and the rest of the inhabitants of the Great Hall turned and looked at her.
"What do you propose, Severus?" she asked, giving the Gryffindor table as a whole a very disappointing look.
"Weasleys," Snape said, "five points from Gryffindor for the disruption this will no doubt cause in my classroom." His face had twisted into the sort of expression that would warp minds and break psyches, but that the truly deranged would instantly recognize as gleeful as he added a single word.
"Each."
A pall of perfect silence filled the Great Hall as Gryffindor's lead in the House Points disappeared with the rattle of rubies returning to their holder on the House Point scale.
"If any other Professors wish to discipline you for disruptions that is, of course, their prerogative," he continued, his expression clearly hoping that someone would do just that. "In addition you will…each of you Fred or George Weasleys, serve two detentions with me for potentially putting other students at risk. I shall make up a schedule. It will arrive with tomorrow's owls."
"But you can't do that!" someone shouted.
"Would you rather it was ten points each and three detentions?" Snape asked.
"Severus," Professor McGonagall said. "While I can well understand the need to curb disruptions in the classroom, it is unfair to punish those who are not at fault."
Snape frowned at her, then glared at the table. "Those of you who have successfully resumed your normal visage before your next class with me shall receive seven points. Two points for successfully rising above such a limiting deformity, the rest to balance the points taken. Knock on the door of my office and wait to be admitted. Do not disrupt me during classroom time or you will regret it."
An indescribable buzz filled the Hufflepuff dorms in the weeks following the April Fool's prank on the twins. Gryffindor only had two classes with Snape on Mondays, and the spell had expired before breakfast on Tuesday, but the Potion Master had held firm on students needing to see him before class and the First Year Gryffindors hadn't thought he would.
In the end Gryffindor had lost only fifty points after adding the points from the students who had managed to see him on time and Dumbledore stepping in to round the results. The detentions, however, one for endangering other students by using an unknown potion and/or spell and the second for endangering students by impeding easy identification, he had let stand. The worst, that Snape would have insisted that he assigned two detentions to every person who appeared to be Fred Weasley and another two everyone who appeared to be George (effectively four), didn't happen. Still, as assigned that would have been more than enough to keep them from Quidditch practice, maybe even enough to take them out of the season closer with Ravenclaw. But something had happened that night, because by Wednesday morning not only did the Weasleys have only four detentions each to serve, but Gryffindor had lost another hundred points.
It was at this point that all four houses realized something. That with Gryffindor knocked to the bottom of the point-totals, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, which had been running a dead heat, were both positioned to over-take Slytherin. Slytherin, of course, realized that they only had to maintain their lead for three more months.
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"It was Wood's idea," Parvati explained one afternoon as Harry revised his potions notes with her and Padma. "The point-loss, the first one, had ruined our lead and Gryffindor's reserve beaters just aren't that good. Even if we kept Ravenclaw from hammering us, the point totals wouldn't net us the Quidditch cup no matter how the Hufflepuff/Slytherin game goes. We wouldn't have made up enough points in the game to get us back into the lead, and unless you caught the snitch in about thirty seconds Slytherin was going to get enough points to make the lead impossible to overcome."
"And so taking a hundred-point loss was better?" Harry asked.
"In exchange for getting the Weasleys back for Quidditch?" Padma asked. "Yes," she nodded. "Despite their narrow loss to you Gryffindor is actually fairly well-placed for the Quidditch cup. Since points in the game factor into the house points, and the Quidditch cup alone is worth a hundred points to the house that gets it, losing their beaters would have taken them out of the running for both. It'll depend on point-spreads, of course, but if they can get within, say, a hundred or so points of Slytherin in the house-point total, they may still manage a come-from-behind victory and pick up both cups."
"How would we and Ravenclaw have to do to get the Quidditch cup?"
"We can't," Padma said with a shrug, then made a bit of a sour face. "You caught the snitch while my team was trying to save you and you saw the Slytherin game. You'd have to lose by three or four hundred points and we'd have to utterly trounce Gryffindor. For a Hufflepuff victory…it would depend on the point-spread."
Harry smiled at his friend. "You're back," he said. After months of reticence, Padma seemed to have finally gotten over her attack.
"I wasn't aware I had gone anyplace," Padma said lightly, which got a spurt of laughter from Parvati but didn't seem very funny to Harry. "At least I'm not waking up screaming anymore," she said after a while. "Still waking up, occasionally, but I'm not waking everyone else up."
"Maybe Madam Pom—"
She held up a hand and Harry stopped in mid-word.
"I've had enough with healers and potions," she said crossly. "I'm not having more than one nightmare a night, usually not even that many, and at least I can go back to sleep after a while which I couldn't do at home," she looked at her sister who crossed her arms defiantly. Padma regarded her twin for a moment more before turning back to Harry. "What really worries me is that whoever did it is still here, but there's nothing I can do about that so can we please stop talking about it and get back to what we were working on? The teachers are starting to pile on the work they want us to do outside of class, exams are less than three months away, and I understand that Granger has already started revising."
Harry started to acquiesce, but was distracted by Hagrid coming out of the stacks.
Now, seeing one of the Professors in the library was not an uncommon occurrence. Hogwarts was widely regarded as having one of the largest collections of magical books in the world. There were far more books than anyone, even with the lifespan of a wizard or witch, could ever hope to read. Still, possibly the only person who would have looked more out of place coming out of the stacks than Hagrid in his moleskin overcoat would have been the caretaker, Filch.
"Hello, Hagrid," Harry said.
"Harry," Hagrid said loudly as he stuffed one massive hand behind his back, "What're yeh doin' here?"
Harry gave Hagrid an odd look. "Potions revision," he said slowly, "what about you?"
"Oh, jus' lookin'," Hagrid said in a shifty voice that caught Padma' and Parvati's attention. "Potion revisions, eh?" he continued quickly. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh no, we figured that out months ago," Parvati said sweetly. "We also know what he…created."
Hagrid looked around the library nervously.
"There were a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," Harry said. "About what is guarding the…thing apart from Fluffy."
"Shhh!" Hagrid hissed. "Yeh should know better than ter talk abou' that in public, what's the matter with yeh?" He looked around sharply, then bent his head towards them. "Listen—come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anything, 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," Harry said, watching Hagrid shuffle off.
"I wonder what he was hiding behind his back," Padma said after he was gone.
"Right," her sister said, "that's enough of this." She flipped up the cover of the textbook in front of her so that for a moment half the book hung open under its own weight. Gravity asserted a hold and pulled it closed the rest of the way, the book closing with a firm whumpf. "Time for something fun," she declared, heading for the stacks.
"Where are you going?" Padma asked.
"To see what section Hagrid was in," Parvati's voice echoed from where she had disappeared into the stacks. She was back in less than three minutes with a Hermione-sized collection of books.
Padma held up a hand, then turned to Harry and looked pointedly at the scroll of parchment he had just spent an hour on.
With a sigh Harry bent and inked in the last parts of the spell-diagram for the mouse-to-snuff-box transfiguration that McGonagall was going to use for practice exams. When he was done he slid it across the table to Padma who looked it over and nodded approvingly.
"Okay," she told her sister as she slid the parchment back to Harry. "Now we can have fun."
Parvati rolled her eyes as she set the stack down at their table. "Dragons," she hissed. "Look at these. Dragons of Great Britain and Ireland. Marvelous Dangerous Dragons. From Egg to Inferno, the Dragon Keeper's Guide. Dragonrider's Trilogy…" she paused at this one, a large, brightly-colored paperback, and flipped it over to read the blurb on the back. "Hmm, I think I might want to read this one."
"This is not good," Padma said.
"Why not?" Harry asked.
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon," Parvati said, setting her new reading material aside for now. "It isn't exactly a secret, he usually mentions it sooner or later…to anyone who'll listen."
"Speaking of, how do you and Allie know him so well?" Harry asked. "I mean, we only just started this year…"
"You know how daddy is into house reclamation?" Parvati asked.
"I know that he fixes up wizarding houses for mundanes to live in, if that's what you mean," Harry said. "Allie and he are in business together, I think."
"It's more like Allie is a specialist he sometimes hires," Padma said, not looking up as she flipped through one of the dragon books. "Hagrid's the same way. He knows an awful lot about magical creatures, especially pests. Daddy calls him in when there's a flesh-eating slug infestation or ashwinders living in the coal bin, things like that."
"Anyway," Parvati cut in, "Hagrid's wanting a dragon is pretty well-known."
"So?" Harry asked.
"So it's illegal," Padma said, closing the book before finally putting away her own potion text and the parchment she'd been taking notes on. "The Warlocks' Convention of 1709 outlawed dragon breeding. You can't exactly hide one in a shack in the backyard. The largest species is bigger than an elephant, but even the smallest species grows to over fifteen feet. Besides which, dragons are wild magic. It'd be easier to tame a hurricane or stop the stars in their tracks than to try and tame one."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" Harry asked.
"Sure there are," Parvati said. "The common welsh green and the hebridian black. If I remember right one of the old Scot magical clans deals with the hebridian black, but the Ministry of Magic has quite a job hushing up the welsh greens. Every so often one escapes from the reserve and goes off to burn Dublin or something and then the Ministry has to hush everything up and make the muggles forget all about it."
"Why Dublin?" Harry asked. "Wouldn't some place in England, or Wales for that matter, make more sense?"
"Because the muggles built a whole slew of castles on the English/Wales border a couple of centuries back," Padma said. "They got really efficient at killing dragons. Why else do you think the muggles have all those old stories about knights slaying dragons? The dragons remember, and even if we aren't about to let the muggles kill any more of them the dragons aren't exactly inclined to forget that kind of thing. They aren't stupid enough to go where the dragon-killing people live. So they go to Ireland where there really isn't a whole lot that's worth burning other than Dublin."
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When they reached Hagrid's little hut they were surprised not to see him puttering around outside. Usually he was visible from the castle, working on the odd bits of leather and wood that he used to keep the grounds in order, or tending to the chickens that kept Hogwarts in fresh eggs, or the massive vegetable patch where already the twisting vines of next Halloween's giant pumpkins were growing. Even odder than Hagrid not being outside, was that the curtains over the windows of his hut had been pulled tightly shut.
"You don't suppose Hagrid's been turned into a vampire, or developed an allergy to sunlight, do you?" Parvati asked.
"Don't be ridiculous," Padma huffed. "I'm sure Hagrid has a good reason for his…atypical behavior," she continued, but even to Harry it sounded rather weak.
Parvati knocked on the door, and from somewhere inside Hagrid's voice called out, "Who goes there?"
"Good reason," Parvati muttered as Harry responded: "It's Harry!"
Hagrid cracked the door open and examined the three friends before opening it just wide enough for them to slip inside before slamming it shut.
Inside the hut it was stifling hot. Summer had come early to Hogwarts and it was very warm outside. Despite that, however, Hagrid had a great blazing fire laid in the grate. Harry noticed that a great black iron cauldron hung in the fire, but the usual smells of Hagrid's cooking were absent. Hagrid made them tea, which they accepted. He offered them stoat sandwiches, which they politely declined, and even Fang, who normally seemed as though would eat anything that a person said was food, went and hid under Hagrid's mammoth bed when they were offered to him.
"So—yeh wanted ter ask me somethin'."
"We want to know what else is guarding the Stone besides Fluffy," Padma said without preamble.
"I can' tell yeh that," Hagrid said. "Number one, I don' rightly 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 almos' stolen outta Gringotts—I s'ppose yeh've got that all worked out?"
"Did Professor Dumbledore know there was going to be a break in?" Harry asked.
Hagrid's eyes tightened. "I dunno what yeh mean."
"I mean did the Headmaster deliberately bring to Hogwarts something that someone broke into Gringotts to try and get?" Harry asked.
"Hogwarts is the safest place on the planet!" Hagrid proclaimed.
"So far this year someone has tried to kill me twice!" Harry said. "Would have, if Cedric and what's-his-name, the Ravenclaw Seeker—"
"Rudyard," Padma said.
"—Rudyard, hadn't been as good as they are, or if Allie hadn't jumped between me and a ball of primordial fire during her duel. That same someone probably unleashed the troll that nearly got Hermione, Ron and me killed on Halloween."
"And Padma would have been killed just before the winter hols if not for Allie," Parvati added.
"If you can't tell us what's guarding the thing," Harry said, "I'd at least like to know who Dumbledore trusts enough to actually help guard it so I know who I don't have to worry about trying to kill me."
"Yer not suggesting its one o' the Hogwarts Pr'fessors," Hagrid said.
"Do you think one of the older students could have hijacked a duel overseen by Professor Flitwick or tried to throw me off my broom?" Harry asked quietly.
"You said it yourself, Hagrid," Parvati added. "Whoever did it have to have used awfully powerful Dark Magic."
Hagrid refused to meet Harry's look, instead staring down at the large clay carafe that served him as a tea mug. "Well…I don' s'ppose it'd hurt to tell yeh who's guardin' der Stone…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 his fingers, "Professor Quirrell—and Dumbledore did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone, Professor Snape."
"Snape?" Parvati blurted.
"Yeah, hey," he said, turning to Harry, "yeh and yer friends aren' all still on abou' that, are yeh? Professor Snape is helpin' protect the Stone. Why would he want ter steal it?"
"Hagrid," Padma said quickly before Harry had to reply. "Do you know why Professor Dumbledore asked you? I mean, isn't Professor Kettleburn the Care of Magical Creatures instructor?"
"Yeah, but Dumbledore wanted somethin' big that could scare off students that got into der corridor accidentally," Hagrid said. "None o' Professor Kettleburn's creatures are really all that big, an' he favors those that breathe fire or have deadly venom."
"Oh," Padma said, "but you're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, right? And you wouldn't tell anyone."
"That's a secret between me an' Dumbledore," Hagrid said firmly. "O' course I wouldn' tell anyone."
"Well that's something, at least," Harry muttered. "Hagrid, can we open the windows? It's broiling in here."
"Can't, Harry, sorry," Hagrid said, looking nervously at the fire.
Harry turned and looked. Underneath the black iron cauldron was a very large, very black egg. "Hagrid," he said slowly, "what is that?"
"Well, er…"
"It must have cost you a fortune to sneak into the country," Parvati said.
"Trading in viable dragon eggs is illegal," her sister added.
"Well, I won it, actually," Hagrid said.
"You won it?" Harry repeated.
"Yep," Hagrid said. "I was down in the village last night, havin' a few drinks at the pub, an' I got in-ter a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was glad ter be rid of it, ter be honest."
"I couldn't imagine why," Parvati said drolly.
"I know, righ'?" Hagrid asked. "A real dragon's egg!"
"Hagrid," Padma said slowly.
"Yeh," the groundskeeper said proudly.
"Presumably it is going to hatch…"
"Well, I've bin doin' a bit o' readin'," Hagrid said. "I got this outta the library," he continued, pulling out a book and setting it on the table.
"Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit?" Harry asked.
"It's a bit dated, o' course," Hagrid said. The embossed cover proudly proclaimed it to be the 1666 revised edition "Still, dragons don' change much now do they? Keep the egg in the fire 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, and when it hatches yeh feed the dragonet a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half-hour. An' see here, how ter recognize differen' eggs? What I got there is a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."
"So what do you think?" Harry asked later as they walked back to the castle.
"Well, Hagrid's dragon aside I think we can scratch the professors who are helping to guard the Stone off the list," Paravti said reluctantly. "It's just…Snape seemed like such a likely person."
"Actually," her sister said softly, "I think that it's just the reverse. That whoever is attacking us and trying to get the Stone…I think that person is one of the people guarding it."
"Why?" Harry asked.
"Well…knowledge about the Stone is restricted, right?" Padma asked. "I'm sure the staff knows that something is in the school, but Dumbledore needn't have told them what exactly it is. He'd have only really needed to tell the people who were helping to guard it. In fact he wouldn't really have to tell even them, though I think he probably did."
"Professor Sprout probably wouldn't agree to help without knowing what she was helping guard," Harry agreed reluctantly. "So you think it's one of them because they would have known about it?"
"And because by being part of the security they're really above suspicion. You heard Hagrid," Padma said. "If I was trying to steal something someone was having guarded, setting myself up as one of the guards would be how I would do it."
They walked on together for a while.
"Snape," Parvati said finally as they paused before the doors to the Entrance Hall.
Her sister hesitated, but then nodded in agreement. "Snape."
Harry didn't hesitate at all before echoing his friends.
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"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a peaceful life?" Parvati asked at breakfast the next morning as she looked with considerable disgust at the study sheet her sister had given her. By now the sight of a tiny knot of first years with very different house badges sitting clustered together at one end of the Hufflepuff table had long since stopped drawing the attention of anyone but Snape.
"It isn't that bad," Padma said. "Granger is already making study schedules—"
"What do you call this?" Parvati asked, shaking the parchment.
"—for end of year exams."
"I know, why do you think I'm studying with you?" Harry asked. It was a slight exaggeration. He was still studying with Hermione and Ron, but Parvati flatly insisted on taking breaks for 'fun' stuff and Hermione was much harder to deter than Padma. Allie had started a small study group for revising potions, but it met infrequently. A lot of her time seemed to be spent on a quest to keep Neville Longbottom of Gryffindor from failing Potions and herself from failing Herbology.
Padma shrugged, "have you bought into the pool?"
"What pool?" Harry asked.
"The one Fred and George Weasley started," Parvati said. "About how you think Neville's going to finish in Potions. Buy in is two sickles and I heard the pot is already up over twelve galleons. You have to name both how he does on the final potion, and the grade Snape gives him. Winners split the pot, with Allie and Neville each getting a sixth off the top and can't buy in."
"Oh, no I haven't then," Harry said. "What did you get?"
"Exceeds expectations and an incomplete but otherwise correct potion," Padma said.
"Acceptable, non-exploding cauldron," Parvati said.
"Good morning, Padma," Susan Bones said as she sat down next to the Ravenclaw. Snape still glared at them whenever he saw people from more than one House eating together though he'd stopped taking points for it months ago. By now it had become second nature to most of the Hufflepuffs, and a few of the upper years had even started to have friends from other House show up.
"Susan," Padma said, nodding back. She looked up and down the hall. "You know," she said, "it's nice. The inter-house unity and all, I mean. And while I wouldn't necessarily mind having all the Hufflepuffs over, some of my house-mates might want a little room for themselves."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked on cue.
Padma pointed to the ceiling. Specifically, she pointed to where the house banners hung over each of the tables. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff banners still hung over the center two tables, but they had been switched around.
An angry shout went up from Slytherin where the students had realized that the same was true of the banners over that house and Gryffindor. In the lower right corner of each was a splash of tie-dyed color with HLC in the center written in a shockingly bright pink.
"The Hogwarts Lunatic Committee has struck again, I see," Susan said. She shook her head to smother a giggle. "I do hope they know what they're doing."
"What makes you say that?" Padma asked, liberating a small pile of pancakes from a platter as it strolled by.
"I was in the owlery yesterday to mail a letter to Auntie. The Weasley twins were leaving just as I got there, and had a very large package with them."
"Probably just stuff from home," Harry said. "I spent Christmas with them, and their mother sent them all huge packages of fudge and stuff."
"Maybe," Susan said doubtfully, "or they could have been stocking up for a prank war."
Harry was saved from having to answer by Hedwig sweeping in on silent wings. She back-winged beautifully to kill momentum, and Harry only felt a sudden weight on his shoulder a moment before a beak snapped out and took the sausage off the end of his fork as neatly as one could ask.
"You've really gotten the hang of that," Susan said. "Our family owls always fly into my shoulder like it's a mouse and then scramble to hang on for dear life."
Harry shrugged one (unoccupied) shoulder and fed Hedwig a bit of bacon before accepting the note from her. It was in Hagrid's familiar scrawl, and only two words long. It's Hatching. Conscious of Susan's presence he slipped it into his pocket and continued to eat breakfast.
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Harry wanted to go to Hagrid's right after breakfast and Parvati was right with him. Padma, however, wouldn't hear of it.
"We can't skip classes, how will we explain it? We'd get in trouble, detention, and then how would we see it?" she asked. "Besides, what if someone sees us? We can't all fit under Harry's cloak and the grounds are wide open. What Hagrid's doing is illegal, all it would take is for the wrong person to see and then what do you think would happen?"
He doubted Binns would notice, but Fliwick and McGonagall certainly would and it wouldn't be fair to his friends if he went alone. So he sat through History of Magic, for once managing to stay awake despite Binns' droning monotone as the ghost recited the events leading up to the Goblin Rebellion of 1639. Padma and Parvati were waiting in the Entrance Hall when the bell rang for the morning break, and together the three went down to Hagrid's hut where the Groundskeeper met them, looking flushed and excited.
"It's nearly out," he said, ushering them inside.
The black egg had been set upon the table. A towel twisted into a donut shape kept it from rolling off the table. Deep cracks had already split the surface of the egg. Sections of shell moved this way and that, but never quite totally separating. Funny clicking noises came from inside the egg.
They eagerly pulled up chairs to watch more closely. Padma had even brought along some parchment and began to jot down observations. "Hagrid, do you know if dragons eat their shells the way some birds and reptiles do?"
"Couldn' find out one way or the other," Hagrid said absently.
There was a knock on the door.
The three first looked at each other warily as Hagrid got up and went to the door. He peered outside, then opened the door just wide enough for Hermione and Ron to sneak in.
"Has it happened yet?" Hermione asked.
"No," Padma said unhappily as she watched the Gryffindor find a seat.
"Oh good," Hermione said. "Say, can I have a copy of your notes? I ran completely out of parchment."
Padma looked less than thrilled but nodded.
"So how did you find out?" Parvati asked her roommate.
"You remember that field hike Professor Sprout took us to for us to take wild cuttings for Herbology?" Hermione asked. "Well, I saw Hagrid slaughtering chickens when we came back and there was a cart from Old Tillman's Brewers & Distillers in front of Hagrid's, dropping off a giant cask. I was curious, so we came back later and asked."
"Shh," Harry said. There was a soft screech from inside the egg, followed by a hollow thump. After a moment there was a scraping sound and the narrow end of the egg popped off of the top.
Despite the towel the egg tilted crazily over onto its side, much to the displeasure of its occupant judging by the noises issuing from inside it. A moment more, then something black that looked sort of like a broken umbrella tumbled out.
The baby Norwegian Ridgeback was jet black. Four straw-like legs that sprawled haphazardly on the table were connected to a body that was sort of a cross between a fat snake and a skinny lizard. Its tail was black, long and very thin, and whipped wildly behind it. A neck that wasn't much thicker than the body of a quill sprouted from the end opposite the tail, and held up a head that was barely the size of a snitch. It had bulbous orange eyes and a tiny black snout with fangs that curled down out of its mouth. Wings sprouted from the dragon's shoulders. Tiny little bones gave the impression of an umbrella's ribs, and a very fine membrane was stretched between then.
"Wow," Ron said.
The dragon twisted its head around to look at Ron and sneezed explosively. Tiny little sparks were blasted halfway across the table.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid crooned, reaching out to stroke the dragon's eye-ridges with an over-sized finger. The dragon snapped at him, displaying a full set of sharp teeth. "Awe, look at that, he knows his mommy!"
"Hagrid, just how quickly do dragons grow?" Hermione asked.
Hagrid, however, was not paying attention. He produced a bowl that was almost half the size of Harry's potion cauldron. A large stoppered jug, one of a score or more that lined one wall, was taken up and the cork popped out. The mixture, which Hagrid began to pour into the bowl, was dark red and strangely thin-looking. The smell of it was quite potent.
The dragon's head snapped away from examining its tail as soon as the jug was opened. It half-scampered, half-crawled across the table, all six limbs plus the tail moving so fast that they blurred, but they were so awkwardly coordinated that it ended up going sideways or backwards almost as often as it went forwards.
It dove into the bowl with a splash and began to feed with a fervor that even Ron could not have bested.
"Wow," Ron said again as the dragon wallowed in its food. "Look at that."
"That is pretty neat," Parvati agreed.
Hermione, Harry noticed, looked a little green. He turned to Padma to find her busily sketching the dragon. Turning back to the dragon he tilted his chair forward and looked a little closer. The dragon had immersed its head and neck past its shoulders in the bloody fluid, the rest of its body hanging over the edge of the bowl so that the tail barely hit the table as it flicked back and forth. There was a slight gurgling sound from the bowl, and as he watched he could see the level of fluid slowly dropping. Despite the speed with which it was eating, however, the dragon didn't seem to be growing any.
"Hagrid," He said as Hagrid replaced the stopper in the jug. "How often do they need to come up for air?"
"Dunno," Hagrid said. "Yeh don' think it'd accidentally drown itself, do yeh?"
Harry could only shrug.
At length the bowl was emptied. The dragon scraped around for almost a minute before it came to the disappointing conclusion that it had gotten everything.
"Yer a cute one, aren' yeh?" Hagrid cooed at it.
The dragon belched. A jet of blue flame burst into the air and threatened to set Hagrid's beard on fire.
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Very little was seen of Hagrid over the next week. Weeds began to sprout in the vegetable beds. Several students ended up in the Hospital Wing after flesh-eating slugs rolled out of the lettuce. Fred and George's holly appeared to have had some kudzu bred into it as the plant, long kept at bay, resumed its attack on Hogwarts' walls. While the annoyingly impossible-to-kill plant did not need magic to survive, when it grew where there was magic it grew very fast indeed.
"This can't be a good sign," Ron said as he, Hermione, and both Padma and Parvati Patil escorted Harry to the Hufflepuff locker room for the Hufflepuff's final game. The walls of the Quidditch pitch were covered with green vines, except for the doors.
"This is ridiculous, that's what it is," Hermione said. "I mean, I've heard of walls being covered in vines, but holly? At this time of year? And in only a week? I've heard of kudzu growing fast but not this fast. It's insane. It's already nearly up to the battlements. What's going to happen when it gets over the walls and begins to grow up the halls and towers?"
"Let's hope that Hagrid recovers his senses and it doesn't come to that," Padma said grimly.
Harry, Ron, and Parvati exchanged looks. That Hermione and Padma were agreeing about something and didn't look ready to take each others' head off could not possibly be a good sign.
"Is anyone saying anything about it?" Harry asked.
Parvati shook her head. "Oh, there are rumors about what's causing it, but no one has pinned it to Hagrid, yet. And so far there are no rumors about his…new pet."
\|/\|/\|/
Harry waited as Thrace finished her usual pre-game pep-speech, but instead of telling them to take to their brooms she hesitated. "This is the last one of the season, for some of us here it's our final game at Hogwarts. We've got a good team, a good mix of experienced players and new players, a good mix of talent and skill, and all I can say is that this is the best team I've been on yet. I just want you all to know, in case I don't get a chance to say it later, it has been an honor and privilege to have been your Captain.
"You all know the standings. If we can hold the Snakes to less than a hundred points then no matter what we finish with, or the outcome of the Lion/Eagle game, then Slytherin doesn't get the cup this year. That's what's on the line. For every year I've been here the Snakes have taken the House and Quidditch Cups. I'd just as soon not end my Hogwarts years by being the second class they sweep."
She looked around at them all. "Okay, you know the plan and I think it's a good one. Get to your brooms, and let's go Play SOME QUIDDITCH!"
The kudzu-holly, Harry noticed as he trotted out after the rest of the team, hadn't made it to the inside of the pitch. The ground was firm, which meant a good kick-off, and the grass was only slightly damp from morning dew. The air was slightly on the cool-side. It was just about as beautiful a day for Quidditch as could be asked for.
Watching as Madam Hooch came out with the chest of balls and went through the traditional call to the Captains to shake hands he reviewed the game plan. Most of it was straightforward. Thrace had a few tick plays she wanted to throw in, particularly the Porskoff Ploy K-Option-2 play that the Chasers had been working on all season, but mainly it'd be the Hufflepuff's standard game of good clean Quidditch.
The tricky part was that the plan was for them to leave themselves open to being fouled. The Chasers had been spending an inordinate amount of time practicing penalty shots in anticipation of this. The assumption being that if the Slytherins saw a chance to foul, at least surreptitiously, they would go for it. And, as Tonks had pointed out, once they were losing the need to make up the difference would cause them to foul more often and openly.
As Hooch released the balls Harry wondered if Allie had let slip that comment about how the Slytherin team played all those months ago in anticipation of this game? Tonks had certainly used it as inspiration when she suggested this tactic to Thrace. Then Hooch blew her whistle, the game was on, and there wasn't a whole lot of time for wondering about anything.
\|/\|/\|/
After the game they all walked down to Hagrid's hut.
"Harry!" Hagrid said, when he cracked the door open. He stepped back and ushered them in quickly. "How was the game?" he asked. "Sorry I couldn' be there ter watch, but…"
The hut was still very hot, and dark because of the closed curtains, and smelled strongly of smoke. Brandy bottles were scattered haphazardly across the floor, and chicken feathers were scattered everywhere.
"We won," Harry said. "370 to 140." Despite getting over a hundred points, the score differential had been enough to edge Slytherin out of the Quidditch Cup. If Ravenclaw could just keep Gryffindor from racking up the points, Hufflepuff would win.
"Tha's fantastic!" Hagrid said. "Yeh caught the snitch a'course."
"You should have seen them," Ron said. "The Chasers must have spent weeks—"
"Months," Harry said.
"—practicing their penalty shots. They didn't cause any fouls themselves, but they just left themselves open for the snakes to play dirty and when Hooch caught them at it, they ended up another ten points up," Ron said. "And they came up with a new way of applying the Porskoff Ploy that gave the Keeper fits. Instead of coming in high the lead Chaser comes in low and crosses into the scoring zone and swoops up, or swoops up just outside of it, and then either goes for the shot or drops it to the second Chaser who is also coming in low."
"I wish I coulda seen it," Hagrid said. He looked over at the hearth where the dragon was sleeping off another brandy and chicken binge. "I've decided to call him Norbert. He really knows me now. Watch. Norbert! Norbert, where's Mommy?"
"He's lost his marbles," Ron hissed in Harry's ear.
"Be nice," Parvati said, elbowing Ron sharply in the side.
"You know you can't keep him here, Hagrid," Padma said. "In a week he's tripled in size. How much longer will it be before this hut it too small for him? How long will it be before he needs space to fly, or before he starts to breathe fire?"
Hagrid's face fell and he ducked his head down. Harry could see the tears well up in the Groundskeeper's eyes. "I—I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him. He's too little. He'd die. An'…an' it wouldn' be the responsible thing ter do."
Harry watched Padma pinch the bridge of her nose. He turned to Hermione, "How long do we have before Norbert can't be hid?" he asked.
"At his current rate of growth?" Hermione asked. "One week, perhaps two."
They turned to Hagrid who was watching Norbert huff and puff by the fireplace.
"Okay, so we have two weeks, maximum, to get the dragon out of here," Padma said. "Beyond that I'm not sure we could sneak it off the grounds, assuming we can in the first place."
"What happens if we don't?" Parvati asked. "What's the worst that could happen?"
"I think the penalty for violating the ban on dragon breeding is ten years in Azkaban," Padma said.
Hagrid stopped playing with Norbert. For the first time seemed a little concerned.
"Kind of scary, watching them," Ron muttered.
Harry rolled his eyes. "So we can't ignore it—Norbert," he said.
"And we can't just dump it in the forest. It wouldn't be…responsible," Padma said, looking at Hagrid. "If it did survive then in a couple of months, maybe even a couple of years if we were really lucky, someone would notice."
"At least it wouldn't be traced back to Hagrid," Ron said.
"Oh they could trace it easy enough," Padma said, dismissively. "I just don't know if anyone could prove anything, and that's what we need to be worried about. I don't suppose we can just kill it either."
Hagrid, Harry thought, looked if anything even more put out by this suggestion than the prospect of going to the wizard prison.
"There are two dragon reserves in Britain," Hermione said. "One in Wales that primarily keeps Common Welsh Greens, and one in the Hebrides that primarily keeps the Hebrides Black. I suppose either would have the resources to care for an infant Norwegian Ridgeback until it could be moved to a reserve in Norway."
"I don't think mom and dad would be interested in transporting a juvenile dragon," Parvati said doubtfully.
"Could yours do it, Hermione?" Harry asked. "If we got it in a box or something to travel in, and they wouldn't even need to transport it all the way. If we could get in someplace remote, we could send a message to one of the reserves that there is a dragon at such-and-such a place."
"If they could arrange to take a vacation this quickly…Mum might," Hermione said. "She's been into muggle fantasy literature since before I was born. She was the one who convinced Dad to let me go to Hogwarts. But I'm not sure she'd understand the danger, she might try to take a look. If she got hurt, or worse, if the Ministry of Magic found out, well, it'd be pretty obvious how she got possession. And we'd still have to get the dra…get Norbert out of the gates."
"My mum would never go for it," Ron said morosely.
"I suppose we could tell Allie," Harry said slowly, aware of the dark looks sent him by Ron and Hermione. "Maybe she knows someone, or the wizard she was apprenticed to…Gilbert?—something like that—knows someone."
"Wait," Ron said, sitting up sharply, the funk he had slipped into gone in an instant. "I know someone. My brother Charlie. He works in a dragon reserve in Romania."
"Isn't that a little far away?" Harry asked.
"There are ways of magically transporting things," Parvati said with a shake of her head. "We just can't use any of them yet. Distance isn't really an issue, except for how long it'll take a letter to get there by owl post."
"Charlie could probably find someone that'd come and take him," Ron said.
"What's Charlie's position at the reserve?" Padma asked.
"Apprentice Dragon Keeper-3rd Class," Ron said. "He's in his last year of a three-year apprenticeship. Why?"
"Is that going to be senior enough?" Harry asked. It didn't sound very high at all, and if Hagrid could go to prison for ten years, how long would Charlie go there if he was caught? "I mean, if he's caught…would he take that risk?"
"And as Hagrid said, Ridgebacks are rare," Ron said. "Really rare. If the Ministry caught Norbert—"
"He'd be killed," Padma said. "Condemned as smuggled or illegal goods, considering how Hagrid got him. Or maybe just as a dangerous creature."
"Exactly," Ron said. "But they're rare enough that the kind of people who run the reserves would be willing to…" he shrugged.
"Smuggle a dragon out of Britain?" Padma asked wryly.
Harry turned to Hagrid. "Would that be alright with you?" he asked.
Hagrid hesitated, then nodded. His eyes were very misty. "Yeah, Charlie's a righ' one with animals."
"So now we have a plan," Parvati said.
"We don't have a plan," Hermione objected. "We have an idea. We have—we have a wishful thought! If the letter gets there in time. If Charlie is able to get a response to use quickly enough. If—"
"Risk it all on one turn o'…something or other."
All five students slowly turned and looked at Hagrid.
The Groundskeeper frowned, then gave a helpless shrug. "Somethin' yer mum told me once, Harry. Can' remember exactly how it went, somethin' about takin' a risk an' losing an' startin' again. Right smart, yer mum."
"Yes," Hermione said awkwardly, "well…" She looked around the table, "you do realize that if we are caught, expulsion is the very least that could happen to us?"
"I thought you said that expulsion was a fate worse than death, Granger," Padma said.
"Your point?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow as Ron looked rather grey.
"Harry," the other boy said quickly before Padma could retort. "Do you mind if I use Hedwig to post my brother?"
Harry started to agree, but paused. Months of sneaking around the castle and having a friend in Slytherin made him hesitate. "No," he said slowly. "Snowy owls aren't exactly common in England or Romania. If anyone were to notice her, they'd wonder."
"Oh," Ron said. "I suppose you're right.
"Could you send a letter home and have your parents forward it?" Hermione asked. "That's what my mother is doing for my letters to my other relatives."
"Mum would insist on reading it," Ron said, shaking his head. "But…Ginny might. I'd probably have to promise to tell her why though, but I can tell her it'd have to wait so I could tell her in person." He turned to Harry, "I can send a letter to Mum as well. I'm not sure how she'd take me borrowing your owl."
"That's not a problem," Harry said. "I can ask Hedwig to take them right to your sister. I'll add a short note as well, just in case your mother should happen to see Hedwig, thanking her for giving me the chance to let Hedwig stretch her wings."