Just a reminder that I do not own Harry Potter.
The next morning Aria waited eagerly in the infirmary for Ollivander to appear. Daphne and Tracey had come early with a change of clothes which she had immediately put on and now she was waiting to be allowed to leave the infirmary after one final check-up after she got her new wand.
Ollivander finally arrived and set a carpet bag on one of the beds, opening the bag, and summoning dozens of wand boxes out of the bag. Aria gasped as the boxes flew out and stacked neatly beside the bag. It was just like Mary Poppins!
"How do those all fit in there?" she asked once all the boxes were stacked.
"An Extension Charm," Ollivander explained with a wink while she peered into the empty bag. The inside looked as innocent as ever. "Mind you, it's registered with the Ministry. It's a regulated charm."
Aria sat back down between Daphne and Tracey.
"May I see your old wand?" Ollivander asked. Aria handed over her burnt wand which Ollivander gently took in his hands, tsking and shaking his head as he studied the ten-inch willow with unicorn heart string.
"The strength of your wand served you well," Ollivander observed, "but it is clear you are in need of a more mature wand. I have brought some of the oldest wands in my shop, made by my ancestors. One of these will surely be able to handle any outbursts of magic without burning out."
"You can't just remake my wand?" Aria asked.
"Oh no! The wand chooses the wizard, Miss Bourne. Or witch in this case. Any other ten-inch willow with unicorn hair will be very different from the one that chose you. Each wand has a life of its own, just like you and Miss Greengrass and Miss Davis are three Slytherin first year girls but are very different from one another." He handed a wand to Aria who only had to hold it for three seconds before he snatched it back and went looking through the stack of wands on the bed.
"Try this one," Ollivander said, "yew, dragon heartstring, eleven inches." Aria took the wand, only to drop it as hot searing pain went up her arm. She cried out, bringing Madam Pomfrey from her office. Ollivander scooped up the fallen wand while Aria inspected her hand.
"Definitely not," Ollivander muttered, moving several boxes around. "You were a little difficult when you came into the shop the first time, Miss Bourne."
Over the next ten minutes Aria tried a combination of wands: yew and unicorn, holly and dragon heartstring, poplar and phoenix, among others of various sizes from trees she had never heard of; she even tried a cherry wand with a dragon heartstring that leapt from her hand before she could even wave it.
That rejection felt personal.
"I'm never going to get a new wand!" she bemoaned. Daphne and Tracey patted her shoulders.
"I have never had a customer not get a wand!" Ollivander declared. "If I must have my apprentice bring me another three dozen wands I will – you will have your wand today, Miss Bourne. Mark my words. Ah! Try this one, young lady. Elm, unicorn hair, ten inches, very pliable."
Arai took hold of this wand. This time, to her immense relief, silver and green sparks shot out of the tip and there was a gentle hum that ran through her body from her hand holding the wand to her magical core which she could just feel beating within her if she concentrated hard enough.
"An excellent wand," Ollivander cried, packing up the other wands with a flick of his own. "That wand will be good for many spells – and I don't just mean everyday charms and such – I mean sophisticated ones. Magic that needs detail but also a little imagination. You know . . . there is an unfounded legend that elm wands only work for purebloods."
"Really?" Aria asked, admiring the detail of her new wand. The handle had intricately detailed leaves and vines carved into it.
"Yes. Some idiot probably trying to discredit Muggleborns came up with it no doubt. No wandmaker worth his or her salt will ever play into such nonsense. The wand chooses the wizard and wands don't care how old your bloodline is."
Ollivander bowed to the girls.
"How much do I owe you?" Aria asked.
"Nothing," Ollivander stated. "Headmaster Dumbledore said the school will be paying for your new wand." He nodded to Madam Pomfrey who had remained nearby and left.
Aria tried several spells, happy to feel her magic flow through her.
"It's perfect!" she declared. Madam Pomfrey put her through one more set of tests before letting her leave with a warning to not overexert herself and to not use too much magic in classes for the next week.
She, Daphne, and Tracey hurried out of the infirmary, intent on finding their friends so that Aria could show off her new wand at breakfast.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and their other Gryffindor friends admired her new wand, especially the detail around the handle. Blaise and Theo pretended not to be interested while Pansy and Millicent sneered at her.
"Shouldn't have given you a new wand," Pansy snipped. "You don't belong here."
"She saved us from a mountain troll," Prudence said as she passed the first years. She slapped Pansy along the backside of her head with a rolled up Daily Prophet. Pansy at least had the brains enough not to talk back to Prudence.
"She's a bit upset that the bonfire had to be cancelled due to the weather and the troll," Tracey told Aria. "Plus, we think—,"
"Who's 'we'?"
"The whole house – we think that she and Flint like each other, but both are refusing to do anything about it. Poor Paddington. She has to be the buffer between the two." Aria glanced over at the two fifth year prefects. Marcus sat on one side of Tracey while Prudence sat on her other side. The two kept glancing at each other and Tracey kept trying to ignore them by reading her Transfiguration textbook, but it was clearly not working.
"They'd make a cute couple," Aria observed. "But I think they'd end up killing each other."
A group of owls swooped into the Great Hall with mail. One owl landed in front of Aria, to her surprise and delight, with a package. She eagerly lifted the burden from the owl, giving it a drink of water and a piece of bacon, before tearing into the box. She found a tin and a letter written on notebook paper.
Your dad said you got hurt and might have to spend a few days in the hospital. Here are some cookies to cheer you up. Don't worry, I baked them, the boys only ended up taste testing a half dozen or so. Yours, Melinda
Underneath Melinda's name was Robert, Samuel, and Tommy's names. It also appeared that one of the boys (most likely Robert) had written Aria a note but that someone else (most likely his sister Melinda) had scribbled it out. Aria lifted it up to the light to see if she could make out the words through the scribble and could only make out an unrepeatable word. No wonder Melinda had scratched it out.
"What did you get?" Theo asked, trying and failing to appear nonchalant.
"Cookies," Aria replied, opening the tin. "Chocolate chip!"
"Chocolate what?" Daphne asked. Aria and Harry stared at each other with wide eyes before turning to their housemates.
"The wizarding world doesn't have chocolate chip cookies?" Aria cried.
"We have lots of cookies," Daphne said. "Chocolate, vanilla, snickerdoodle, molasses . . . ."
"But no chocolate chip! Here, take one, eat and be glad that I have been able to introduce you to the wonders of Muggle baking!" Aria shoved the tin at them, though Harry yanked the tin his way to grab one of the cookies before anyone else. Aria laughed at his antics as he bit into the soft, chewy cookie. Melinda knew how to make the cookies right. Aria always ended up making them as hard as rocks whenever she attempted to make cookies or any kind.
Daphne, Tracey, and Theo all reached in and took a cookie.
"I'm assuming these dark bits are chocolate?" Theo asked. Aria nodded, ignoring her oatmeal in favor of a cookie. Blaise scooted closer to Theo and Aria let him have one too.
"Sweet Merlin!" Tracey cried. "These are amazing."
"Are they really good or are you just joking?" Pansy asked. She, Millicent, Crabbe, Goyle, and Draco stared at Blaise, Theo, Daphne, and Tracey like they might fall over dead having eaten a Muggle food. Aria glanced at the tin. There were a lot of cookies in it . . . .
She held out the tin towards the rest of her year mates. Millicent looked interested, but a swift elbow to the side from Pansy and the girls shook their heads and turned their noses up to the sweets. Crabbe and Goyle eagerly sampled a cookie, which was no surprise to Aria. Draco appeared like he wanted to try a cookie but was too stubborn or prideful to take one, even though he kept eyeing the cookie tin. Aria eventually just set one on his plate.
Harry grabbed another cookie. Aria put the lid back on so that they would not eat all the cookies before the end of breakfast.
As it was Sunday, Aria joined her friends from the other houses for a homework session. They tucked their group in a back corner of the library and snuck out her cookies, always keeping one or two of them on guard for Madam Pince who would throw them out if she knew they had food on them. It was fun watching the kids who had grown up in the wizarding world sample their first chocolate chip cookie. Ron, Neville, Lavender, and Parvati did enjoy the cookies, though Seamus said that his mother made better cookies. Dean ate two. Hermione split a cookie with Aria.
An hour before dinner Aria made her way back to the infirmary for a Pepper-Up Potion from Madam Pomfrey, as she had been ordered to do for the next few days. Pepper-Up after breakfast and Pepper-Up before dinner. She would be glad when she did not have to traipse all over the castle.
On her way down from the infirmary Aria passed the corridor leading to the headmaster's office. She paused, hearing a muffled, yet distinct sound of someone crying. Pausing at the head of the corridor she peered down, seeing the griffin statue at the far end which she knew led to the headmaster's office. The crying, she determined, must be coming from one of the alcoves in the corridor.
Walking down the corridor she discovered an alcove she had missed the one time she had gone to the headmaster's office, tucked behind a statue of wrestling bears. There, on a stone bench sat the Gryffindor fifth year prefect, Percy Weasley, Ron's older brother, quietly crying into his school robes which were bunched in his hands against his face.
"Percy?" she whispered, not sure how the fifteen-year-old would feel about a little first year seeing him cry. The older boy's head shot up. "Are you all right?"
"Aria!" Percy cried, giving a short chuckle, though it sounded wet and weak. "I'm fine."
That was a lie. Aria shuffled into the alcove, sitting next to Percy on the stone bench. She dug out from her backpack the tin of chocolate chip cookies and offered one to Percy who sniffed, laughed again, though more genuinely, and took one.
The two sat munching on their cookies for a moment.
Why was Percy in this alcove crying? Aria wondered. How much could she pry without the boy getting mad at her? She knew Ron complained about Percy's obsession with the rules and trying to keep their twin brothers in line, but Percy had always been nice to her and she knew him as one of the prefects that kept a particular eye on her and the older students of Slytherin, particular the sixth and seventh year students. Also, whenever Ron didn't know the answer to a question, he always said "That's a Percy question" as if he truly believed his older brother had all the answers to life.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Aria asked. "Do you want me to go find one of your brothers? Fred and George? Ron?"
"No!" Percy cried. "The twins would have a field day seeing me like this, their 'Perfect Percy the Prefect Prat' having a bad day. And Ron can't see me like this. How can he possibly come to me with any problems if he sees me like this? If I can't handle my own problems how can I handle his?"
Aria wasn't sure he had meant to say some of that out loud. She bit into another cookie.
"I don't want any of my brothers seeing me like this," Percy stated firmly, pulling out a handkerchief and mopping up his face. "I can't believe you've seen me like this!"
"I promise I won't tell, if that's what worries you," Aria replied. Robert, Samuel, and Tommy all hated it when they thought she had seen them cry. It was a boy thing, her dad said, but she thought it was a silly thing. If they were her friends why would they try and hide that they were hurt from her?
"Thanks," Percy muttered, taking another cookie, "I appreciate it. And thanks for being friends with Ron. I was a little worried for him, but he's got good friends in Gryffindor and in Slytherin with you and Harry."
"He, Harry, Hermione, and me just sort of fit together, you know? We just clicked." She noticed his bookbag was on the ground by his feet and slipped the rest of the cookie tin into it while he continued to stare at the opposite wall, nibbling at the cookie in his hand.
"I'll leave you alone?" Aria questioned.
"It's almost dinner," Percy replied, picking up his bag, seemingly unaware of the new object in his bag. "I'll walk you down." They stopped off at a bathroom for Percy to wash his face and they parted at the doors to the Great Hall.
During the month of November, the students of Hogwarts were flung into exam prep. Professors assigned additional homework, worked the students harder, and covered more material than Aria thought possible in a few short weeks. By the time Dead Week came around Aria did feel dead.
Aria and Hermione managed to convince several of their housemates to form a study group and so the two girls found themselves corralling a group of Gryffindor and Slytherin first years together to study. Neville, Dean, Seamus, Lavender, and Parvati all agreed to the study group, even if it was with Slytherins, and Aria was pleased that Theo and Blaise joined Daphne and Tracey in coming, even if Blaise said the only reason he was coming to was copy Hermione's notes.
Hermione sat as far from Blaise as possible.
Halfway through revising their DADA notes Draco entered the Great Hall, school bag slung over his shoulder. He made a quick beeline for their group.
"Can I join you?" he asked. The group stared at him. Aria couldn't help but drop her jaw in surprise.
"Don't look at me like that," he snapped. "Can I join you or not?"
"If you can keep any snooty comments to yourself," Aria stated.
"And if you can keep your hands to yourself too!" Lavender added with a sniff.
"Or if you've brought food," Seamus called from the down the table. He had arrived with his school bag half filled with snacks.
"I said I was sorry for dragging Aria across the courtyard," Draco muttered as Daphne and Theo made room for Draco. He plopped down between them and pulled a box from his school bag, setting it beside the pile of snacks.
"La Petite Macarons?" Daphne cried, flipping the lid open.
"My mother was just in Paris," Draco answered. "That's where she does much of her gift shopping. She sent me two dozen."
"Is this a peace offering?" Ron questioned as everyone abandoned their notes to peer at the delicate and colorful looking pastries. "Where are the rest of the Slytherin first years?"
"They don't care much for studying," Draco replied.
Aria reached into the box of macarons and pulled out a pink and yellow ombre one. Underneath it, in the box, was the label DRAGONFRUIT. She bit into the confection and was immediately greeted with a shot of sweetness that practically melted on her tongue.
"Oh god!" she cried. "This is amazing."
"Have you ever had a macaron?" Hermione cried. Aria shook her head.
"Neither have I," Harry said, taking a chocolate one. "My aunt loves them though. Uncle Vernon always comes home with a box on her birthday."
"Well it's a good thing both of you have cultured friends now," Draco stated, pulling out his DADA notes. "I'm not sure what drivel you've eaten before this, but at least I have been able to introduce you to proper sweets."
"If Muggles have macarons then how wizarding-cultured are they?" Tracey asked.
"Because we've got more flavors," Draco replied. "For instance, that yellow one's dirigible plum."
"Well since you've shared macarons it's only right that we share the rest of the hoard with you," Dean said, tossing Draco a crisps bag. Aria snatched the bag.
"Introducing him to crisps with salt and vinegar is just mean," she told Dean even as he laughed. She handed over a regular crisp bag to Draco.
"What are crisps?" he asked.
"It's just potatoes," Aria explained. "There are many different flavors." Draco pulled open the bag and reached in, pulling out a small crisp and popping it into his mouth.
"Not . . . bad," he admitted.
"I shouldn't have eaten the prawn flavored one," Seamus said with false regret.
"Those are revolting," Hermione answered.
"They're the best!"
The afternoon mail came flying in, interrupting their conversation as several owls delivered to them. Neville got a package which the owl dropped on his head, Ron and Daphne got letters, and Aria got a letter from her dad.
Dear Aria.
I know this is very last minute, and you're bound to be upset, but you're going to have to spend Christmas at Hogwarts. One of my coworkers, Andy Chase, has had a family emergency and has had to go down to Falmouth and won't be back until maybe the New Year. I've been asked to cover his Christmas shifts, with an additional bonus on top of the regular holiday pay. I know you were looking forward to coming home, I was looking forward to having you home, but I think it's for the best if I take the shifts.
I've already sent a note to Professor Snape so that he is aware of the change of plans. Do well on your exams, I'll see you come summer.
Love,
Dad
Just like that? She wasn't going home? No asking her how she felt about it, just 'you're not coming home'? So what if he was working most the days she would be home? They would still have the evenings and nights!
"What's the matter?" Harry asked. "Aria?"
"Change of plans," Aria muttered. "Dad's got to cover the Christmas shifts at home, so he's basically ordered me to stay at Hogwarts."
"I'm sorry," Harry replied, "but you'll be here with me. We'll have the whole house to ourselves!"
"You're not the only one with a change of plans," Ron said, waving his own letter. "Mum and Dad are going to Romania with Ginny to see my brother Charlie. Bit unfair really, Ginny gets to be at a dragon reserve for Christmas."
Aria stuffed the letter into her bag, a little harder than necessary. Her dad was going to get a letterful when she wrote him!
By the time Aria, Harry, Daphne, Tracey, Theo, and Draco returned to the Slytherin common room, Aria's name had been added to the short list on the bulletin board where students who were staying over the holidays put their names. At the moment it was only her and Harry staying for Slytherin and it was immediately noticed.
"I see you're not going home," Pansy taunted when she noticed Aria in the common room. "Your Muggle family not want you around? I hear that's what happens to lots of Muggleborns. Their families kick them out."
Aria made a go at Pansy, but Daphne and Tracey pushed her back.
"You're such an ass, Pansy," Aria hissed.
"Such language," Pansy sneered. "Hardly befitting a witch."
"I will use whatever fucking language I want to describe you, you bloody bitch!" Aria shouted, shoving Daphne and Tracey off of her. "The moment I walked into Hogwarts you have been nothing but an ass to me and you have the balls to say that my behavior is hardly befitting a witch? Tell me, why does your blood status give you a better right to magic than mine? Which one of us learns spells quicker? Which one of us gets better grades? Where were you for the last three hours while some of us were off revising for exams? Exams don't give a shit what your blood status is, but how hard you work and study. So, tell me, Pansy, which one of us is a more of a witch? The one who can barely do any spells in class? Or the one who can?"
That was a pretty low blow, Aria knew, as she watched Pansy's face turn pink from embarrassment and then red with anger. Her dad had always said you shouldn't make fun of people because they weren't as quick as she was at school, but Pansy Parkinson was just asking for it!
"At least," Pansy hissed, "I'm not a jumped-up little Mudblood."
Gasps filled the common room.
"Pansy!" Daphne all but shrieked, her voice reaching a pitch no one had ever heard it reach before. Millicent, Crabbe, and Goyle all looked shocked at Pansy's language, even if they didn't look angry about it.
Aria curled her fists, feeling her magic swirling deep within her. She wasn't quite sure what a 'mudblood' was, but it did not sound nice, and from the looks of their housemates, it was definitely not a nice word.
The couch Pansy, Millicent, Crabbe, and Goyle sat on cracked down the middle, sending them sliding towards the center. Pansy and Millicent screeched in surprise. Several upper classmen yelped in alarm. Daphne covered her mouth while Tracey buried her face in Daphne's shoulder, as if convinced she was about to witness a horror.
"Call me a Mudblood again," Aria growled. "Go on. Do it. I dare you."
Pansy shook her head.
"Anyone else feel like calling me a Mudblood?" Aria demanded. "Come on, I bet so many of you have just been waiting to do so. Your looks, your whispers all tell me that you'd rather I wasn't here. Well too damn bad for all of you. I'm here to stay." She noticed two seventh year girls, Kennedy Carrow and Yolanda McDoogal glance at each other, little simpering sneers twitching at their lips. Those two liked to hiss insults at her when she passed by, liked to pick on other students in other houses. With one glare and a wish, the chairs underneath the two girls collapsed.
"Something you'd like to share with the class?" Aria demanded. A wind sprang up in the common room, whirling around whipping up parchment and flipping open books. Kennedy and Yolanda shook their heads.
"Good." Aria took in a deep breath. She felt her magic swirling inside, agitated and yet eager to do more. That was new, it was as if she reached out, she could control it with a thought. She thought about stopping the wind, she had not meant to do that, and felt the wind die. Several Slytherins sighed.
Pushing past her friends she made for the stairs to the dormitories.
"Hey!" Millicent cried. "We're stuck!"
"Get a prefect to help you, dimwit," Aria shot over her shoulder, disappearing up the stairs. She burst into the first-year girls' room and flung herself onto her bed. Within a minute she heard people barreling up the stairs and then Daphne and Tracey came bursting into the room.
"Was that your accidental magic?" Tracey asked. Aria peeked at her.
"Some," she admitted. "The couch and the wind. The chairs . . . I wanted those chairs to collapse." Daphne and Tracey tossed their things onto their beds before climbing onto Aria's.
"I thought you said that Madam Pomfrey had said your magical core had stabilized," Daphne said.
"I did," Aria answered. "She did! I just . . . I can still feel it you know? Like if I just pay attention, I can feel it inside me. Does that make sense?" Both girls shook their heads. Aria huffed, hugging her pillow to her chest.
The day before everyone left for the holidays Harry received an invitation for tea with Hagrid, the groundskeeper. Harry immediately invited Aria, Ron, and Hermione and Aria was only too happy to stomp through the snow down to Hagrid's cabin. At least it was something to distract her from the fact that tomorrow she was not going home.
Even though she had been introduced to the man in Diagon Alley, she had only seen Hagrid in passing a few times since arriving at Hogwarts, Aria knew Harry had visited the giant of a man several times. Apparently, besides being his Diagon Alley escort, Hagrid had rescued Harry off a tiny island in the middle of the English Channel. Aria wasn't sure why Harry had been on a tiny island in the middle of the English Channel, but had not pressed the issue since it did not seem like something Harry wanted to talk about. Ron talked about how his older brother, Charlie, used to write home about Hagrid all the time, usually stories about antics he and the Care of Magical Creatures professor, Professor Kettleburn, got up to. They would not take Care of Magical Creatures until their third year, if at all, since it was an elective. Ron had pointed out the professor at the Head Table once. He was missing an eye, covered usually with a patch, and he had one prosthetic leg and one prosthetic arm.
Hagrid's hut was at the bottom of a hill in the opposite direction of the Black Lake. Smoke swirled up out of the hut's chimney as the four first years approached. A boarhound bounded up to them as they arrived, slobbering all over the boys.
"Down, Fang!" Harry cried with a laugh. He knocked on the door. Hagrid swung open the door and the children entered, immediately swamped with the gentle warmth from the fireplace. A large black cauldron was over the fire with a lid on top. Aria wondered what the man was cooking. The children hung up their cloaks and coats (in Aria and Hermione's case) and settled around the table in the center of the hut where a pot of tea was ready for them along with a stack of scones.
"I am so 'appy you've come," Hagrid said, pouring them tea into mismatched, and slightly chipped or dented, cups. He gave them each a scone, and Aria eagerly tried to bite one, only to realize with a bit of pain to her teeth, that it was as hard as rock. She tried dunking the scone into her tea, but that didn't seem to help. When Fang came up to her elbow, she discreetly fed him the scone. He had no problem gobbling it right up.
"The Christmas trees you brought in look very beautiful," Hermione said as she took slid her rock cake (as Aria now dubbed them) to Fang.
"That's all Professor Flitwick. 'e's the one who puts all the decorations on."
"Yes, but you're the one who chose which trees to bring in and Flitwick couldn't do any of the decorating without your trees." Hagrid puffed his chest, grumbling merrily at Hermione's compliment, and almost knocking over the cream as he went to pour some into his teacup.
He did, however, spill the sugar bowl when a rattling sound erupted from the pot over the fire. He rushed over, putting on heavy oven mitts, and taking off the pot's top, reaching in. He withdrew a large oval object, a beautifully smooth object that was dark blue and bronze. It reminded Aria of a watercolor painting.
"Hagrid," Ron cried as the children made room for the object on the table. "Is that what I think it is?"
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"How'd you get one?" Ron continued. "They're incredibly rare and not at all for sale."
"I got it off a chap at the 'ogs 'ead down in 'ogsmeade," Hagrid replied. "Won it in a poker game I did."
"What is it?" Hermione questioned.
"It's a dragon egg!" Ron cried.
"A dragon egg?" Aria repeated, her voice rising an octave in both excitement and slight terror. "As in a fire breathing dragon with wings and scales and hoarding gold and everything?"
"Well it's not gonna be 'oardin' any gold anytime soon," Hagrid said. "It'll just be a lil' baby." The egg suddenly cracked and broke open. A tiny gray head poked out of the shell, blinking sleepily before a pair of tiny wings knocked the rest of the shell away. Aria's jaw dropped, as did her friends'. A real live dragon! Suddenly, all she could think about was writing her dad about this.
The baby dragon chirped.
"Ah look," Hagrid cooed, "it knows its mummy!" The dragon burped and a tiny ball of fire came out, almost catching Hagrid's beard on fire.
"Where are you going to keep him?" Ron asked.
"How can you tell if it's a boy?" Hermione asked.
Ron shrugged.
"I'll keep 'im 'ere," Hagrid insisted. "Always wanted a dragon."
"But, Hagrid," Ron insisted, "my brother Charlie says that normal people can't keep dragons. They're a protected species."
Aria wanted to point out to Ron that Hagrid was hardly a "normal person" but decided it was not the right time to say it. Especially since the dragon's gaze fell on her and the little baby decided it wanted to get to know her better. Teetering across the table, the dragon chirped at Aria before rubbing its head against her chin.
"Aw, you gotta new friend," Hagrid said.
"It's not as scary as I thought it would be," Aria replied. Hermione gently stroked the top of the dragon's head while Aria ran a finger over the wings. The dragon hummed with pleasure.
"Promise me you won't tell anyone," Hagrid said. "I'd like to keep the little tyke. I'm gonna name 'im Norbert."
"You'll get in trouble," Ron pointed out.
"Nonsense. Once 'e's too big for the hut 'e'll 'ave the whole forest to roam in!"
Aria wondered how fast Norbert would grow. She giggled as the baby dragon curled up and began to snooze. After that, the four promised not to say anything about the dragon to anyone else, and Aria, Harry, and Ron promised to come down to the hut as often as possible during the school holiday to see Norbert.