Disclaimer: Harry Potter and friends belong to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this story.
**Any print in italics is quoted directly from J.K. Rowling. I will note which book it was taken from at the bottom of the chapter.**
WARNING: THIS STORY WILL BE RATED M FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS.
A/N: Sorry my faithful readers for missing a week, in return I promise to post 2 chapters. Here is the second one.
Please, if you see any glaring grammar errors, please let me know so I can correct them.
By the way, a big thank you goes to my new Beta – breaniver for his suggestions and corrections.
-Cosmyk
Chapter 7:
Tea with Hagrid was unusual, especially the rock-cakes. Harriet shook her head politely when they were offered and sipped her tea. She made a face and when his back was turned, tending the cauldron, she discreetly poured it out the window. She felt uncomfortable in the presence of the huge man and decided she would make sure she had something else to do next time she was invited to tea. A rattling from the kettle disrupted her thoughts and she turned to stare at it curiously.
"What's in the kettle, Hagrid?" Rhonda asked, eyeing the black pot nervously.
Hagrid got excited. He pulled the kettle off the fire and reaching inside with mitted hands, pulled out a large black egg. Harriet backed herself against the wall. She didn't want to know what was inside such a large egg.
"Blimey, where did you get a dragon's egg?" Rhonda breathed.
"Dragons are illegal to have as pets Hagrid," Herman scolded.
"I won him off a feller down at the pub. He seemed right happy to get rid of it if ya know what ah mean," Hagrid explained, examining the egg. There was a sudden *CRACK* and the parts of the shell fell apart to reveal a small, spiny, yellowish colored dragonet.
It flopped over sideways on the table, its wet body unable to support itself yet. It looked up at Hagrid and gave a cheep.
"Look at 'im, he knows his mummy." Hagrid crooned at the tiny beast. It opened its mouth and a tiny finger of fire jetted out. Rhonda lept back, tripping over the footstool. She wobbled for a moment before regaining her balance.
"That's a Norwegian Ridge-back. I've seen them in Charlene's books before. They are very dangerous and highly illegal to own." Rhonda said, placing herself so the footstool was between her and the infant dragon.
"I'm going to call 'im Norbert." Hagrid said, completely ignoring Rhonda.
Herman leaned in closer, fascinated with the little creature. "What does he eat?"
Harriet inched towards the door, Rhonda mimicking her movements.
"According to this, he eats chicken blood and bone meal for the first few days before graduating to small rodents," Hagrid said, holding up the book he had swiped from the library.
Harriet turned the knob of the door. "Herman, we have to go, it is almost curfew. I don't want a detention. You know if Filch or the prefects find us out of the tower, we are going to be in trouble," she pleaded with her friend.
"Right," with a wistful look back at the baby dragon, Herman followed them out the door with a quick good-bye for Hagrid.
"Herman, that man is dangerous, you should stay away from him. He's going to get in big trouble if anyone finds out about that dragon," Harriet warned her friend as they hurried towards the castle.
"He doesn't mean any harm, Harry, besides, don't you think that dragon is cool?"
"No, it's dangerous," Rhonda backed Harry up, "dragons are class-A dangerous creatures and Hagrid lives in a wooden hut. He's going to burn the place down around him. Charlie warned me about how dangerous dragons can be and mum flips out every time she comes home with a new scar."
"Well, I'm going back to see it. Maybe I will even borrow that book on Dragons from Hagrid. Besides," Herman said, "we forgot to ask him about that dog."
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Potty, Weasel and Granger." A sneering voice said from the side of the castle. Harriet turned her head. Just outside the doors of the castle Draco Malfoy was standing, flanked by his goons, Crabbe and Goyle. "Out a bit late aren't we? But then Gryffindors aren't known for their common sense." He sneered.
"Shut up, Malfoy." Harriet snarled, her fear of Hagrid and the dragon shifting into anger at the nuisance in front of her.
"Why don't you just make me? Oh, I forgot, you are just a whimpy little girl. How you ever destroyed the Dark Lord, I can't imagine." Malfoy taunted, stalking closer to them.
Harriet drew her wand. "UNGUICULUS JELEXIO" she bellowed. Malfoy dropped his wand as his fingers began to droop. Crabbe and Goyle stepped in front of him, wands pointed at Harry and her friends. Suddenly the wands were tugged out of all their hands.
She heard a gasp from Rhonda before a deep voice said "Fighting in the halls is against school rules. I want to see all six of you in my office now." Professor Snape pocketed their wands and then turned to Malfoy. "FINITE INCANTATUM."
Harriet walked slowly toward the dungeons, her face burning with shame. She knew fighting in the halls was agains the rules, but Malfoy always made her so mad. It wasn't long before they all were standing before his desk, Gryffindors on one side and Slytherins on the other.
Professor Snape looked over at the Slytherins. "Five points will be deducted from each of you for being out of bounds after curfew. Get to your common room, now." He turned to the Gryffindors. "I am deducting ten points from each of you for being out of bounds after curfew and Miss Potter, I am deducting another fifty points from you for hexing a fellow student. I will see you tomorrow evening in the potions classroom for detention, now all three of you are to return to your dormitory immediately."
Harriet sniffled all the way up to the common room as Herman and Rhonda ranted about Professor Snape's unfairness.
"Ten points each! He only gave the Slytherins five." Herman fumed.
"You know he always favors the bloody Slytherins. Filthy snakes always stick together," Rhonda retorted.
"We shouldn't judge everyone just because of a few bad apples," Harriet reasoned, her voice very quiet.
"They are all just the same, after all, there isn't a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn't in Slytherin," Rhonda snarled, shooting Harriet an odd look.
"That's not true," Harriet replied. "Sirius Black, the notorious mass murderer was a Gryffindor."
"But, but, he's an exception. Everyone knows the whole Black family was into the dark arts. He probably tricked the sorting hat into putting him in Gryffindor," Rhonda retorted.
"Would you have hated me if the sorting hat had put me into Slytherin?" Harriet asked, curiously.
"That's – that's just beside the point." Rhonda excused.
Harriet sighed and shook her head. There was no getting through to Rhonda when she was like this.
They reached the common room without incident and Harriet followed Rhonda up to the girls dorm, still puffy eyed from her crying jag. She changed into her nightgown and washed her face before sinking down onto her bed, miserable. She remembered the look of disappointment she could see in her uncle's eyes as he deducted points and gave her detention. She knew she was supposed to be working on learning to control her temper, but she hadn't been practicing the control techniques he'd taught her. She'd gotten so caught up in work and hanging out with Rhonda and Herman that she'd forgotten his words to her from the summer.
"It's important that you work on controlling your temper. When you are angry it is that much easier for your enemy to manipulate you, and your occlumency shields won't be as strong when you are angry. I want you to work on your occlumency and also on learning to clear your mind and not let what others say affect you so much. I also want you to stay out of trouble. Your father and his friends were always getting in trouble at Hogwarts. Though you are a lot like your mother, you seem to have your father's curiosity. It got him into trouble quite a bit."
Rhonda's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "I'm sorry for snarling at you earlier, but that slimy git makes me so mad. Look at how he treats Neville."
Harriet sighed. "I accept your apology. Let's agree to disagree on the matter of Professor Snape, if you don't mind. Neville Longbottom may be a nice boy, but he is a walking disaster in potions class. I'm sure that's why Professor Snape is so hard on him."
Rhonda huffed, "well, I think you are completely wrong about Professor Snape. I still think he's trying to get his hands on that stone. Just be careful tomorrow in detention, promise me."
"Alright, I will be careful. Now I'm tired, goodnight." Harriet closed her curtains and turned over, burying her face in the pillow.