Hello, everyone! Here's the newest chapter for the "Harry Potter: the Serpent Lord" story. Enjoy!

* Review response:
The Sinful, no, you haven't missed anything. But even in canon they are teases (not this much, of course), so I don't think that their behavior here was too OOC. Plus since Harry actually won his place on the team, his relationship with the chasers should be a little better too.
justbin, professor McGonnagal is kind of personification of equality and rightfulness for Harry, while Flitwick 'represents' joys of learning and other positive sides of schooling. Thus for Harry they are 'anchors' to the school and the magical world. Why wouldn't he want them in his 'fantasy', especially since the mirror builds image based on desires of heart, and not exactly on the reality around the one, who looks into it... As for the chapters - here I update weekly and not bi-monthly, plus these chapters are just about 25% smaller that in other stories...
Dark Dragen, ChaosLord SilverLink310, Reishin Amara, Doldemort is Vead, 000oo000, BioHazard82, Hanzo of the Salamander, mitremlap, thank you, folks!
Tutenstein, that last phrase could also mean 'more than a lifetime', so it depends on how you interpret it... And yes, Harry is eleven, thus a bit of an idiot, but he didn't know Dumbledore was there, when he said his heart's desire aloud... And Dumbledore just always believes in good in people (well, that bad guys can be reformed), so, yeah, he IS an idiot.
First Lady Lestat, sorry, Draconica's time will be a little later.
Victorules, Dumbledore isn't giving up on Neville yet, he just made Harry the primary candidate (for now) into the role of the chosen one... And Harry/Draconica relationship will start somewhere between years two and three. Right now they are a bit too young.
xavierp, since in this story Harry isn't as naive as in canon, he isn't (mentally) stunned as much. But, yeah, that blond in the reflection of the mirror was more like a 'life partner' than a 'wife' to him. Still those two a quite close and can easy change into one another.
Still Not Dead Yet, 'Deathstick' is just a powerful wand (not an 'ultimately' powerful too). Plus subtle usually means not very powerful (unless modifications are small or do not force someone too much out of their character), so finite incantem should be enough to end those compulsions. As for the compulsion used in this chapter, it just 'forces' to send the 'correct' reply and ignore magical changes to the letter. The text itself was changed.
ShadowAngelBeta, Harry and Draconica will start interacting more during the second year, but their relationship will stop being 'just associates' only in the third year.

* Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" and its characters in any shape or form.

"human speech"
'human thoughts'
"spells / parseltongue"

This chapter was not beta-read. Yet.
Also, this is mostly a filler chapter.

And finally, I uploaded a picture of (older) Draconica on deviantArt. The link is in my profile.

chapter 8: Here comes the Dragon

Surprisingly enough, the next months of the school year were quiet and pretty much eventless. The subjects they were taught became a bit more difficult than they were in the previous semester, but working together with Hermione and Neville, Harry had little problem with them. Occasional – and mostly silent – help from Draconica did factor there too...

The quidditch match of the Griffindor team against the Hufflepuff one too went good. Other than professor Snape being the referee, there wasn't anything outstanding about the game – no brooms going out of control or anything like that. The house of red and gold won the game, but, no offense to Hufflepuffs, the only player they had that was a challenge for the Griffindor team was their seeker Cedric Diggory...

But this period of calmness allowed Harry to think a lot about the Philosopher's stone and why it was at Hogwarts. He didn't the conclusions he came to... It looked like the stone – the fake one as there was no way in the hell Nicolas Flamel would give the real one away – was there as some kind of a lure. After hours upon hours spent on pondering who the headmaster hoped to lure with the stone being in the castle, the green-eyed wizard decided the it was there to lure someone possessed by the spirit of lord Voldemort. But there was one more thing: Dumbledore all but announced where to look for the stone at the opening feast. It was almost like he wanted a student to go and save the stone, or something... And thinking about why the whole thing happened in this particular school year, the young Potter came to a conclusion that Dumbledore wanted him to save the stone.

Then it occurred to Harry that Neville's fate so far was very similar to his own: parents being a major thorn at the dark lord's side, being attacked at fifteen month of age and losing both parents – though, Neville's were only in some kind of magical coma as the scion of house Longbottom never talked about them as if they were dead... Neville, while being well cared for, still wasn't very loved by his family in his early years as he was thought to be a squib. And they were born within twenty four hours at the end of July nineteen eighty... So there was a small chance that Dumbledore had decided that it was Neville's role to 'save' the stone from the spirit of Voldemort.

With this in mind, Harry let the young Longbottom on to what was happening at Hogwarts this year. And Hermione too, as the girl would find this out anyway... Much like him, they weren't happy with what this all meant, and, while Hermione could do nothing about this, being a muggleborn and all, Neville promised to contact his Grandmother, who was on the school's board of governors, and ask her to do something about this. Harry also decided to try to contact Nicolas Flamel himself, but it was more likely than not that the old alchemist would be inaccessible...

~/ *** \~

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was very thankful that he had installed a ward that scanned all outgoing letters for a specific a word combinations – "Sorcerer's stone" or "Philosopher's stone" in this case – the last summer. No, he was pleased that both boys that could be the chosen one solved the mystery about what was hidden on the third floor – the world didn't need dumb heroes – but the fact that neither Harry nor Neville wanted to play by his rules wasn't to his liking: they, well, either of them, were supposed to save the stone on their own, not ask higher-ups to solve the situation.

Changing Harry's letter to master Flamel didn't require a lot – the wards around Nicolas' house were very powerful and kept unwanted incoming mail away. As such, all that Dumbledore needed to do, was to make sure that the letter was marked as an unwanted one by Flamel's wards – an easy task...

Modifying Neville's letter was much harder, as it needed to reach the addressee. Thus, the headmaster had to change what the boy was asking his grandmother to do: instead of bringing the subject of the stone up on the upcoming meeting of the board of governors, it now was buying some more fertilizers for Longbottom greenhouses. And a strong, but subtle compulsion to ensure that Augusta will send the right response to her grandson... Thanks God, she was laconical in her speeches, verbal or written.

When he was finally done with modifying the letters, Dumbledore sealed them back into the envelopes, erasing any detectable signs of him doing anything to the mail, before sending the owls on their ways... The ancient man felt a little bad about what he had done: tampering with others mail was a crime after all. Unless it was done for the Greater Good, of course. Content with his actions being justified, Dumbledore popped a lemon drop into his mouth and started going over the balance sheet for the last calendar year that needed to be presented to the board of governors...

~/ *** \~

After Neville got a reply from his grandmother, saying that 'she will do this', the Griffindor trio relaxed a little, thinking that the situation with the stone will be taken care of, and, upon Hermione's urging, started preparing for the exams, even if they were still quite a time away. Thus, the trio of Griffindor could be found at the library quite often these days as they studies tomes on various aspects of magic they had to know to pass the end of year tests.

From time to time their little study group was joined by Draconica, who often provided her own insight into the 'topic of the day' of her Griffindor yearmates, while always listening to what they had to say on this... At first Hermione was against letting a Slytherin join their study group, but since ms. Malfoy was a scholar and was tolerating enough towards the muggleborns, even if she wasn't knowledgeable about muggle world... and because Harry had personally vouched for her, the bushy-haired girl allowed Draconica to become the fourth, unofficial, member of their study group.

Today was twentieth March, and the Griffindor trio, following the study schedule Hermione drew up for them, was working on their transfiguration – Draconica had a study session with her housemates in the dungeons tonight – when Hedwig finally returned after almost two weeks of absence that followed her being sent to deliver Harry's letter to Nicolas Flamel. The letter was unopened and still tied to the white owl's leg. Not that this was unexpected, but Harry still was a little disappointed that he couldn't contact the alchemist about what was done with his 'stone'... Giving tired Hedwig some owl treats and letting her to return to the owlry to rest, the green-eyed wizard was ready to return to his transfiguration book, when he noticed Hagrid with some books in his hands exiting the restricted section of the library.

"You noticed, Hagrid's taking some books again." The scion of house Potter said. It was true, they have seen the giant man taking books yesterday and the day before that.

"We're at school, Harry." Hermione 'reminded' him. "Just because he's a gatekeeper, it doesn't mean that he has to stop studying – self-improvement and all. Plus I have heard that he wants to take the position of Care for Magical Creatures professor, when the current one retires. Of course he will be reading books." Neville nodded, most likely to stay on Hermione's good side, though.

"That's not what I mean." The green-eyed wizard replied. "Have you seen the titles of the books you Hagrid is reading? They are all about dragons."

"Well, dragon are very interesting creatures." Neville said. "And they provide materials and the likes for many things wizards make." Harry nodded: that was all very true, especially since his own wand had a heartstring from a dragon for a core.

"Yeah, but a couple of those books were about breeding dragons." He pointed out. This got the attention of his study partners.

"Dragon breeding is illegal in Britain!" The young Longbottom exclaimed. "And those wild species we have running around, ministry tries to catch and ship them off to the dragon reserves... The closest I know is in Romania... One of Ron's older brothers works there, Charlie was his name, I think. There was another reserve in Ural mountains, but they had some troubles with muggle government and I'm not sure what happened to it..."

"Then why would Hagrid be reading a book on dragon breeding?" Hermione asked. "You don't think he got an egg from somewhere, do you?"

"Like you can meet a mysterious stranger with a dragon in his pocket drinking in a bar at Hogsmeade." Neville said. "I think, you have better chances at seeing professor Snape laugh like a horse at a random joke than that." The trio shared a quiet laugh at the joke.

"Still, don't you thing we should go see what Hagrid is up to if he's reading such books?" Hermione said then. Harry nodded, not wanting to his first friend from the magical world do something bad. And wanting to get out of the library and the castle, since the weather was getting quite warm and sunny outdoors. It was several more seconds before Neville nodded, as the young Longbottom was finishing writing a sentence down onto his parchment.

It took the Griffindor trio some time to make it to Hogwarts entrance and then to the hut where the gigantic man lived. Harry then knocked on the door, which was immediately answered by a loud barking of a boarhound named Fang that lived with Hagrid.

"Who's there?" The man himself asked from within the hut. "Fang, quiet!" Cracking the door open a little bit, the half-giant peeked outside, and smiled when he saw the trio. "Oh, it's you lot. Come in!" He said, opening the door completely. "Some tea, cakes?" Harry, Neville and Hermione filed into the hut, finding that it was heated very much. Too much, actually, as it felt like they were in the middle of Sahara now.

"Some tea, no cakes." The three Griffindors chorused: by now they knew well that Hagrid's cookery was edible only for Hagrid himself. Harry looked around the hut, trying to find a reason why it was kept so damn heated there. Finally he spotted a pot sitting directly above the flames of the stove, with a large bluish egg in it.

"Hey, Hagrid, what is it?" The green-eyed wizard asked, pointing at the egg.

"Where? There is nothing there!" The half-giant exclaimed, trying to place himself between his guests and the stove. Unfortunately, the trio had already seen the egg, so that action only caused them to shake their heads. Hagrid sighed and gave up. "Okay... I won it. A couple of nights ago I was at the 'og's 'ead for a few drinks an' got into into a game o' cards with a stranger. I think, 'e was glad to get rid of it." Harry and Hermione looked at Neville, who just shrugged, while smiling sheepishly.

"...And what are you gonna do with it?" The young Potter asked, while he and his two friends got comfortable on Hagrid's bed that was right next to the table and, thus, was used as a sofa when the man had guests.

"I 'ave been readin' books... you know, 'Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit' and the likes... 'Is egg is from Norwegian Ridgeback..." And then Hagrid went on about what to do to have the dragon hatch and how to care for it when that happens.

"Hagrid, but you are living in a wooden hut! I don't think, it's a good idea to keep a fire-breathing dragon there." Hermione said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible. But the half-giant didn't listen to her. The trio tried to tell the gatekeeper that breeding dragons was illegal, but he still didn't listen. In the end, Hermione finally came with a compromise: Hagrid were to have the egg till it hatches, and the young dragon recognizes him as its 'mother' and then it'd be shipped off to some dragon reserve, Romanian one most likely, as it would need a company of other dragons, something the half-giant couldn't provide... Hagrid had reluctantly agreed with this. Now, the trio needed to contact the dragon reserve somehow and tell them they had a young dragon for them to pick up...

~/ *** \~

Since Harry's relationship with Ron was strained at best and hostile at worst, the boy definitely was not the one to ask for help, when the green-eyed wizard found himself in a need of contacting Charlie Weasley, who was a dragon keeper in Romanian reserve. Percy was a no too, but because the Griffindor prefect was even bigger sticker to the rules than Hermione was during the first weeks of Hogwarts: he would just report Hagrid to the authorities – not something the trio wanted to happen. That left Harry with the only other way: he had to go to the infamous Weasley twins for help.

Finding the twins , when they weren't in the Griffindor tower or at the quidditch training – Oliver Wood for some reason had canceled the training that Saturday – was a really really hard task. In the end, Harry managed to catch the illusive prankster twins after the dinner on Saturday night.

"Hello, Harrikins... What do you need from our humble selves?" Gred and Forge asked in perfect sync as soon as the young Potter brought them to a nook of the corridor leading to the kitchens – a place where there wouldn't be overheard.

"I need some help from you, guys." Harry replied. The twins grinned.

"Who do we have to prank?.." One of them asked. Then the other twin continued.

"...Or is it that you want us to give you an advice on how to get into the heart of a beautiful young lady?" The green-eyed wizard blushed a little, but shook his head.

"No, it's something serious I need your help with." Gred and Forge dropped their grins.

"What is it?" The asked, once again in a perfect sync.

"One of your older brothers works in a dragon reserve, right?" The twins nodded. "Well, can you ask him to relieve us from a fire-breathing problem. It should be hatching in about one month." Gred and Forge looked at each other.

"Well, Charlie said that he will be visiting our home at the end of April, while several of his coworkers will be at London." Fred, or was it George, said. Then the other twin continued.

"He said they were heading back to Romania on twenty eighth. We will write to Charlie about this little problem you have there, and, hopefully, they will be able to make a detour here to pick this dragon up... What is it, by the way?"

"Hagrid said that it is Norwegian Ridgeback... But one can't be completely sure till it hatches, I think." The Weasley twins nodded.

"Quite a nasty dragon you have there, Harrikins, according to our Charlie." Gred said. Then Forge continued.

"But don't worry. We will ask our brother to relieve you of this little fire-breathing problem."

"Thanks, guys!" Harry said, before allowing the twins to return to planning their next prank, while he himself went to find Hermione and Neville to tell them that he had asked the twins to contact their dragon minder brother...

~/ *** \~

Charlie Weasley, actually, replied quite quickly, and just a week after his talk with the twins, Harry had a letter from the dragon minder with the information about where and when to meet him and his team to give them the baby dragon, along with the detailed instructions on how to prepare it for the upcoming transfer to Romanian reserve.

Harry had passed these instructions to Hagrid, who, while crying as he will have to say goodbye to a dragon that hasn't actually hatched yet, went ahead and started preparing a transportation box. While the half-giant was working in the back yard of his hut, the Griffindor trio, upon his request, were watching the egg in the hut... Why, who knows, as there was quite some time before it would start hatching...

March ended and April started, bringing even nicer weather... and even more homework with it. Harry, Neville and Hermione still spent their free time between the library, where they were getting ready for the exams, and Hagrid's hut, as they were watching the egg... On April nineteen, during lunch, the half-giant sent them a message, telling that the dragon will hatch soon, and they were welcome to be there when it happens.

The dragon, when it hatched, was actually quite small, about twenty inches long with the tail, and had a wingspan of roughly three feet, and was a girl – lack of certain marks made that clear. And the dragon indeed thought that Hagrid was her mommy... and blew a small stream of fire at gigantic man's beard...

The next nine days were quite tiring, as the trio and Hagrid tried to keep the growing dragon hidden... On the evening of April twenty eighth, Hagrid had Norberta – he called the dragonett like that – go asleep thanks to special food and a potion and placed her into the transportation box. With was then placed under Harry's invisibility cloak and levitated by trio to the Astronomy tower, where Charlie and his team picked Norberta up at midnight... When the Griffindor trio was returning to the dorms, they almost ran into professor McGonnagal, but, thankfully, she didn't notice that...

That's all, folks!
The ninth chapter will be published in a week.
Leave me a review.