Disclaimer: I still don't own any of it.
WHAAAAH! I'M SO SORRY! I missed 3 updates, I know… please forgive me. There was medical stuff, then doctors, then projects and volunteering… Please don't be mad! It's not completely my fault!
Thank you guys who reviewed! I mean, wow, 82 reviews? I had no idea this story would be so… popular? Have people who cared? Whatever it is, thanks. It really means a lot to me.
After about a week of students tormenting the Head of Gryffindor House, Dumbledore stood up and made a speech about how yes, this was very fun, but please stop now because all the teacher's coffee has been turned into spiders. The three friends looked at each other and grinned. "I still say it's mission accomplished-she made The Face six times!" The others all nodded in agreement. The days passed by rather easier after that; Professor McGonagall was grumpy, but still relatively fair. Everyone still referred to her as "Professor Kitty" once she was out of earshot, of course, but what's a teacher to do about that?
It was nearing the Easter Holidays when Jack was woken up in the middle of the night by a very anxious Doctor. "Wha… whuzzat?" he asked sleepily. "Jack," The Doctor hissed, "Remember what happens to Hagrid this year?" Jack hmmed into his pillow for almost a minute, then sat bolt upright. "Shit," he gasped. The Doctor grinned a maniac grin. "Yep!" Jack groaned, running his fingers through his hair. "I'll… I'll be down in a second." The Doctor nodded and slipped away.
By the time Jack got downstairs, The Doctor was vibrating, with Martha standing next to him, quietly sipping coffee out of her enchanted mug. Jack blinked at him. "…Doctor?" "Yep?" "Martha's awake." "Yep. I went into the girl's dormitory to wake her up." Jack blinked again. "Isn't… Don't… Don't the stairs turn into a slide?" Martha sighed tiredly. "Guess it only works on humans!" The Doctor said brightly. "Darn." said Jack. Martha and The Doctor both glared at him. "Jack!" "Can't blame me for trying!" Martha rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's go see Hagrid. Anyone have an excuse?" "Um… Ron ate too much sugar and can't sleep?" Jack suggested. They all laughed, then The Doctor stopped. "Hey, that's not funny!" The others cracked up again. "Oi!"
They used Jack's Invisibility Cloak to slip downstairs unnoticed. Jack and Martha shivered as they stepped outside; it was chilly. The Doctor, of course, didn't seem to notice. "Come on!" he cried, sounding for all the world like a whiny kid who wanted to see the elephants. Jack and Martha rolled their eyes. They snuck over to Hagrid's hut, and Jack took off the cloak once they were there. The Doctor fit it into a pocket that did not look big enough to hold a cloak as Martha knocked. Hagrid soon opened the door a crack. "Eh? Oh, Harry! Yer out late! How ye doin'?" He opened the door just enough to give Harry a bone-crushing hug. "Blimey, haven't seen ye in a while, have I!" Jack was trying, but not succeeding, to breathe. "Great… to see… you too… Hagrid" he gasped. Martha took pity on him. "Uh, Hagrid? Could we come in? Ron can't sleep, and we were wondering if you had tea to calm him down?" Hagrid released a very purple Jack immediately. "Oh! Eh… sure." He let them in, while very conspicuously trying to stand in front of the fire, which was roaring even in the middle of spring. "Ooh, Hagrid, what's in the fire?" The Doctor piped up excitedly. "Nothin'," Hagrid said shiftily. Martha and Jack mentally rolled their eyes. The Doctor looked
"Wow! A dragon egg! It's… a Norwegian Ridgeback, right?" Hagrid looked scared that someone had figured it out, so Martha cut in. "Hagrid… where'd you get this?" The Doctor winked at her from behind Hagrid's back. Hagrid puffed out his chest. "A man in th' Hog's Head gave it te meh! Was real impressed by Fluffy. He said-" just then Hagrid seemed to realize this was top-secret information. "Ehhh, never mind. Uh… ye guys want some tea?" The three graciously accepted the tea and they sat down.
The Doctor spoke first. "A real dragon egg! Wow! Hagrid, when do you think it'll hatch?" Hagrid beamed. "Sometime next week, in fact. Th' books I'm readin' said so!" Martha facepalmed. "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house. How are you going to take care of a dragon that breathes fire?" The Doctor rolled his eyes. "Bring it to the Forbidden Forest when it's old enough, duh!" he said. Jack shot him a you're-not-helping look. The Doctor shot back a too-bad-for-you look. "You can't bring a dragon into the Forbidden Forest! It'll eat everything and terrorize the students!" Martha exclaimed. "Who says? The Acromantulas didn't change the ecosystem that much. That was a whole bunch of them! Who says a little dragon will hurt anyone?" Martha and Jack groaned inwardly. Didn't this go against the plot or something?
A week later, Jack got a note in the middle of lunch. It's hatching, was all it said. They raced outside to Hagrid's hut and pounded on the door. Hagrid flung it open. "C'mon!" he said. They went inside. On the table was the egg, and it was wobbling. A small piece had already been broken off and more and more cracks were appearing. Suddenly it split in half and a tiny dragon wobbled out.
Jack knew he had been spending too much time with The Doctor when the first thing he thought about a fire-breathing monster was Awwwww! But he couldn't help it. It was adorable! Big round eyes, a snuffly nose, gangly legs and awkward wings-it was simply too cute. It staggered across the table, and sat down on the edge. It looked down and whimpered. Hagrid went up to the little dragon. He crooned to it and tried to pet it, and then the spell of adorableness was promptly broken when the little dragon tried to bite off Hagrid's finger. Jack winced. "Here, let me try." The Doctor said gently. He went up to the dragon, and it arched it's back and hissed at him, fanning out it's wings. The Doctor hissed back, softly, and snarled. The dragon cocked it's head. The Doctor held his hand out. The dragon nuzzled it's face against his hand. "Who's a sweetie pie?" The Doctor crooned to it. He looked at their disbelieving faces.
"It loves you, Hagrid! I'm sure it didn't mean to bite you-you love your mummy, isn't that right?" The last part was directed at the little dragon, who squeaked happily. Hagrid rushed up to it. "Awww! Yer okay. Mummy's here now." The dragon sniffed Hagrid's hand, and allowed him to pet it. "I think his name should be Norbert. Norbert loves 'is mummy, don't he?" Hagrid cooed. "Actually," The Doctor said carefully, "I'm pretty sure she's a girl." Hagrid looked up. "Ye sure?" He looked back at the dragon. "Huh. Then, how 'bout Linda?" Linda squeaked happily. "Linda loves 'er mummy!"
Linda grew exponentially. After only a week, she was almost the size of Fang. The three friend went over one day to talk about this. "You know," Martha said carefully, "Linda's getting pretty big." Hagrid beamed at them. "I know! She sure packs away the food, too! That's good," he added to the dragon currently purring as it toppled The Doctor over and licked him, "Makes ye nice an' strong!" Jack sighed. He tried diplomacy. "Hagrid… When Linda gets bigger and she can't fit in your house anymore, what are you going to do?" "Put 'er in th' Forbidden Forest, o' course!" He replied promptly. Jack sighed again. "Um, Hagrid, I really don't think that will work. Ron, you have a cousin who works with dragons in Romania, right?" The last question was directed at The Doctor, and was rather pointed. The Doctor looked up from where he was laying on the ground. "What? Oh, yeah." "So… Couldn't Linda go to live with the other wild dragons, out in Romania?" "What?" Hagrid and The Doctor both squawked. "She's much too young, you know." The Doctor said, scratching the head of the dragon sleeping on his chest. "An' we can' leave 'er by 'erself!" Hagrid cried. "Without 'er mummy?" "The Forbidden Forest will be okay, in about another three days or so." The Doctor said, shooting a look to his friends that said Trust me on this one. "You could go and visit her whenever." he said to Hagrid, who nodded. "Tha's a good idea, Ron." Suddenly Jack looked out the window. "Sh-" he cut himself off before he said any more. "Let's go." he said suddenly. Hagrid looked confused, but Jack bodily hauled The Doctor out from under Linda, and dragged him and Martha out the door.
"What's that all about?" Martha asked. "Malfoy," Jack said grimly. "I saw him looking in through the window. Martha gasped. "If he saw Linda…" They shuddered and went back to Hagrid, making plans for Linda to be taken to the Forbidden Forest the next day.
The next day, after class, the friends went directly to Hagrid with the invisibility cloak under Jack's arm. Together, they and Hagrid safely got Linda under the cloak and trundled her over into the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid had a hard time saying goodbye, though. "Don't worry." The Doctor said reassuringly. "I… have this feeling that she'll come to you whenever you go in. And she'll do fine hunting." Hagrid sniffed. "I know, it's just… G'bye, Linda!" He called as she smashed through the forest. Hagrid stayed standing there among the trees, watching, and the three friends turned around to go back to the castle.
And ran smack into Professor Snape as they went along the path leading out of the Forest.
"…Shit." was all Jack said. Snape raised an eyebrow. "Detention. Tonight. Filch shall decide," he said in a silky voice. "In the meanwhile, come back to the castle with me, please.
Yeah, sorry if everyone was a bit weird in this chapter. And sorry for weird chapter size. But hey, it's an update, right?