Staros only had a single period of Charms, unlike the Gryffindors' double period of Herbology, so he made his way down to Hagrid's hut much sooner than they did. After being let in, Staros sat 'comfortably' in the single large chair Hagrid had acquired to boil alive while waiting on the egg to hatch. The egg shifted in the fire and twisted a few times. Hagrid used a large pair of tongs to pick it up and place it on the table where it continued to rock and shift.

As the first cracks were starting to appear, the three Gryffindors made it to the hut. Everyone gathered around the table to watch as the cracks widened and the egg rolled a couple times. All at once, there was a loud scraping sound and the egg burst in two. An ungainly shape fell from between the pieces of the shell, popped its head up and hissed.

The baby dragon was hardly pretty. Harry thought it looked like a crumpled black umbrella. Ron was quite fascinated by it, having heard stories from his brother Charlie. Hermione was trying to pick out the differences between what the dragon looked like and other known lizards. Staros simply thought about the trouble Hagrid was going to get himself into. All were impressed and thankful they had been here to witness the event.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out his hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing off its pointed fangs.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" cooed Hagrid. Staros was more of the opinion that the dragon had recognized that the rest of them were NOT dragons.

"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow exactly?"

Hagrid looked about to answer when he suddenly paled and jumped up towards the window next to the front door.

"What's the matter?" asked Ron.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains. Looks like a student, he's runnin' fer the school."

Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at the distance, he recognized that hair. Draco.

During the next week, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were very nervous. Staros told them they had nothing to worry about if Draco hadn't said anything yet, he was likely trying to be cunning and had some elaborate plan in the works. This did nothing to comfort the three Gryffindors.

It wasn't any better in the Slytherin dorms as Staros had to put up with the weird little smiles from Draco every time they saw one another. After a bit, Staros got that to stop though when he cornered Draco in the common room one day.

"Seriously, Draco, you have to just accept it. I don't swing that way," said Staros in a voice just loud enough to be heard by a few passing third years and a couple others nearby. Everyone in hearing seemed to pause their activities just to catch what sounded like a bit of juicy gossip.

"What?" came Draco's confused reply.

"I've seen the looks, Draco. Following me around. Staring at me like some piece of candy. It's got to stop. I don't want you to pine away for something you can't have."

The look of confusion gave way to utter horror as Draco stared for a moment, then beat a hasty retreat to his room. Staros sighed theatrically, then seemed to notice everyone eavesdropping. Assuming the look of tired resignation, Staros walked slowly and stiffly back to his dorm room, as if to comfort poor Draco. Whispers from a few people began the moment he left the room. With any luck, Draco would avoid him for weeks.

After telling Blaise about it, the poor Italian boy had a hard time not bursting into laughter every time he saw Draco. Just after being told, he laughed himself into a ball on the floor, Staros being almost as bad. The two took almost an hour to recover from the fit and stop giggling like schoolgirls every few minutes. It was quite painful actually.

The campaign to get Hagrid to let the little dragon go continued, however. Every chance they got, the Gryffindors were at Hagrid's hut trying to get him to see reason, Staros often there just to watch in amusement.

"Just let him go," Harry said one day. "Set him free."

"I can't," said Hagrid, sniffling. "He's too little. He'd die."

The students looked at the 'baby' dragon. 'Too little' seemed to include being more than a meter and a half long and probably weighing seven or so stone. The bursts of flame and constant smoke trails from its nostrils attested to what it thought of being 'too little.'

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

"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered just loud enough for the others to hear.

"You know, Hagrid, a couple more weeks and Norbert here will be too big to hide in your house." Said Staros, flicking a piece of chicken at the dragon. Norbert seemed to like Staros the best of the students, probably because he stayed back but always threw him a chunk of meat when he visited. "Of course, that assumes he doesn't burn the place down by accident."

"And Malfoy's gonna tell someone. You know he will," said Harry.

Hagrid looked worried at this. He chewed his lower lip in thought, torn between wanting to keep the dragon and knowing he had to give him up.

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

Harry suddenly turned to Ron.

"Charlie."

Ron looked baffled, "You're losing it too mate. I'm Ron, remember?"

"No, Charlie, your brother, that Charlie? In Romania. Studying dragons. We could maybe send Norbert there. Charlie could take care of him and get him back into the wild!"

"Brilliant!" exclaimed Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"

Hermione and Staros both commented on the wisdom of the plan and in the end, Hagrid broke down and agreed it was for the best. Harry and Ron wrote a letter that night to Charlie, asking him for his help.

The week dragged by, Draco seemed to stop making as many sudden, smiling appearances, which relieved the Gryffindors but caused Staros to chuckle every time they saw Draco. He wouldn't tell them what was so funny, nor why Draco only looked like he was up to something when Staros wasn't with them. He usually went elsewhere when Staros was about, never quite looking like he was running away. Draco had even stopped coming to Staros' morning training sessions.

One morning, Staros saw Harry and Hermione sitting without Ron at breakfast. Curious, he walked over to see what was up.

"Hey guys, where's the human garbage disposal?"

"Ron?" said Hermione. "He got bit last night by Norbert. He's with Madame Pomfrey for a few days."

Staros chuckled at that.

"I'll send him flowers," Staros said, earning an evil look from Harry and a confused one from Hermione. "Tell you another time, Herms. So, hear from Charlie?"

Hermione huffed at Staros' reference to her name but answered anyway. "Yes, last night."

"So, everything's set?"

"Yeah, for Saturday. We have it handled, but we'll let you know if we need help," said Harry.

"Cheerio then! That's one of your British terms, right?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded. Looking pleased, Staros left.