Dont own Harry Potter
Chapter 10- Stones and Eggs
Luckily Harry had Quidditch to keep his mind off the mirror. Oliver Wood was having the team practice any chance they got, especially since most of the team wasn't taking it seriously since they were playing against Hufflepuff. But while it helped keep Harry busy, it also limited the time he and his friends could look for information about Flamel. They all felt ready to give up the search until one day Neville came into the common room in a total leg lock.
"Malfoy again?" Harry asked. Neville nodded, looking ashamed of himself for letting the Slytherin bully him. Seeing how bad he felt, Harry went to his trunk and found the box of chocolate frogs his dad had sent him. Harry had to smile thinking about how his dad always gave out chocolate as a cure for a bad day, nightmare, or anytime anyone needed cheering up. For some reason Harry had never thought to ask about, it always worked, almost like using a cheering charm. Hopefully it would work for Neville. If anybody ever needed cheering, it was him.
"Come on Neville. Don't let someone like Malfoy get you down. He's not worth it." Neville took the chocolate frog, but did not eat it yet.
"Malfoy's right. I don't belong in Gryffindor. I'm not even brave enough to stand up to one bully. I should be in Hufflepuff."
"Not that there's anything wrong with Hufflepuff, but don't talk like that. The sorting hat put you in Gryffindor didn't it?"
Neville nodded.
"Well there you are. You wouldn't be here if the hat didn't see courage in you. And Malfoy isn't one to talk. Look what house he ended up in." Normally Harry would have remembered what Remus taught him about all four houses having both good and bad points, but if it helped Neville, he was willing to temporarily forget that lesson. "Now have some of that chocolate. It isn't poisoned, you know."
Neville gave a smile, and unwrapped the chocolate frog. Taking a bite, Neville looked at the card.
"Here, Harry. You collect the cards, don't you?"
Harry took the card, and saw that it was another one of Dumbledore. He already had several copies of that card since he'd been collecting them since he was little, but for some reason he started reading what it said about the elderly wizard. He jumped up in surprise. The clue to Nicholas Flamel had been right under their noses the whole time. After hours of searching through books, of all places the answer would have to be on a chocolate frog card.
"Listen to this! Flamel and Dumbledore were partners in alchemy." He remembered reading something about alchemists in one of his dad's books. "Hang on just a minute. Didn't alchemists try to make-"
"The Sorcerer's Stone!" Hermione shouted. "The main thing alchemists are known for is trying to make the Sorcerer's Stone. I don't know if any of them ever succeeded or not though."
"They must have. That's the only thing an alchemist would have made that would be important enough to have a monster dog guarding it." Suddenly Harry remembered what the stone was used for, making gold and the elixir of life that would make the drinker immortal. Anybody would want something like that, but Snape was still their main suspect. That didn't help considering Snape was refereeing the next Quidditch match.
As it turned out, the match was the fastest that Harry had ever played thanks to Harry catching the snitch in nearly record time, but there wasn't much of a chance to celebrate. Almost as soon as the game was over, Harry overheard Snape and Quirrell talking about the stone. Or actually, talking probably wasn't the right word. Quirrell wasn't doing much except stammering. From the looks of things, Snape was coming close to threatening Quirrel into telling him something about how to get the stone.
"So tell us again. What exactly did Snape say?" Hermione prompted.
"First he asked if Quirrell knew how to get past that dog. He said Quirrell didn't want him for his enemy. Then he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus.'
"That must mean he's trying to figure out how to get past whatever Quirrell did to protect the stone, and get Quirrell to find out how to get past Fluffy for him." Hermione said. "What else did he say?"
"He said they'd talk again after Quirrell had a chance to decide his loyalties."
"His loyalties! That's rich. Snape's the one with questionable loyalties," Ron said.
"But that doesn't make sense," Hermione pointed out. "Snape would know what Quirrell's loyalties are, wouldn't he? Threatening someone and blackmailing them into telling you something doesn't change what their loyalties really are."
Ron shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe in Snape's mind it makes sense. And what else could it mean?"
Even Hermione couldn't answer that. The first chance they got, they headed to Hagrid's hut. They'd hoped to find out what besides Fluffy was guarding the stone and if possible convince Hagrid that Snape was trying to steal it, but it was pretty much the same as every other time they'd mentioned Flamel or the stone. It seemed like they'd never convince anyone that Snape couldn't be trusted.
"Snape's one o' the teachers protectin' the stone. He's not about ter try an steal it."
Harry almost groaned. If Snape was one of the teachers in charge of protecting it, then he knew almost everything he needed to know to get it. From the way he'd been arguing with Quirrell, the Defense professor had made the one obstacle besides Fluffy that Snape hadn't been able to overcome. And if the stone's security depended on Quirrell, coward that he was, it would be gone by next Tuesday. Harry wished he could think of a way to convince Hagrid, but as hot as it was in the hut, it was hard to think at all.
"Hagrid, would you mind putting the fire out? It's awfully hot in here."
"Sorry, Harry, but gotta keep it lit."
"But why-" then Harry looked at the fire, and then at Ron. There was a large black egg in the fire that looked suspiciously like one Charlie Weasley had brought home to show the family on a visit from Romania last summer. As Hagrid got up to add wood to the fire Harry whispered to Ron "Please tell me that's not what I think it is."
Ron grimaced. "It is. It's a Norwegian Ridgeback egg."
"As if we didn't have enough to worry about with Snape trying to steal the stone, now Hagrid decides to get yet another dangerous pet," Ron grumbled. Harry knew Ron was really as fond of Hagrid as he was since the half giant had often visited both Harry and Remus and the Weasleys, but how were they supposed to help him out of this problem when he was unable to even admit there was a problem? To Hagrid, the fact that he lived in a wooden house and dragons happen to breathe fire was a minor detail.
"He'll have ter be trained up a bit, o' course, but long as Norbert's trained from a hathlin' on up he should be fine," he'd said.
"Norbert! He's already named the thing," Ron said as they entered the common room.
"And dragons are impossible to train. It says so in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," Hermione said. "And Norwegian Ridgebacks develop fire breathing capabilities sooner than any other breed of dragon."
"Any more good news?" Ron asked.
"At least we have someplace to send the dragon if Charlie will take him," Harry pointed out. "The hard part will be getting Hagrid to let him go."
Ron sighed "Ever wonder what it would be like to have a peaceful life?"
Harry gave a small laugh at that and said "Look on the bright side. How could things possibly get any worse?"
Before long, they found out how. Hagrid had sent them a note telling them the egg was hatching, and over the next two weeks they had watched Norbert grow to three times the size he had been when he hatched. By the end of the month it was bound to be bigger than Hagrid's hut. And things went from worse to worse yet when Malfoy saw the dragon through Hagrid's window.
"Hagrid, I'm sure if we contact Charlie he'll be able to take Norbert and give him a good home. And Norbert will be happy with his own kind."
"But what if the other dragons don't like him. He's just a baby and all the other dragons will be bigger than him."
Harry knew he had to choose his next words carefully.
"I'm sure he'll be fine Hagrid. The other dragons will love the-er- cute little guy," Harry said, trying to be reassuring as the "cute little guy" decided to bite at Fang. Harry took that as an opportunity to say "And look at him. He needs to be around other animals. We're sure he knows you love him Hagrid, but it would be kinder to let him go." He almost convinced himself to reach over and touch Norbert in a sympathetic way to really convince Hagrid, but he had common sense mixed with his Gryffindor courage.
Finally Hagrid was convinced, and agreed that they could contact Charlie. Luckily they already had without Hagrid knowing it, because otherwise Norbert would have been too big to transport by the time they'd made the arrangements. It turned out that Charlie and some friends of his could come pick up Norbert on Saturday at midnight, and everything seemed to go according to plan. Norbert was soon safely strapped into a harness and on his way to Romania, and they'd even overheard Malfoy get a detention for being out of bed to tell McGonagall on them. They should have known things were going too well.
They were coming down the spiral staircase, well on their way back to Gryffindor tower, when Filch met them at the bottom of the staircase.
"Well, well, well. We are in trouble."