Happy New Year! I'm back! Or am I?

Apologies for another year-long wait... I got pretty busy this year... No, wait, it's last year now. Well, I got pretty busy in 2019, as I was studying for my Masters Degree and all, and now I've graduated! (It sounds impressive, doesn't it? But guess what, I'm still unemployed and have been desperately job-hunting for the past few months, so...)

Anyway, for those of you who are still following, still sending me reviews, I love all of you so very much.

Here's a chapter for the new year. It's a bit shorter than I'd liked, and I actually had more planned, but I decided to stop where I stopped (otherwise you probably won't get the chapter until maybe a week, or two weeks, or a month later...)

Hopefully, I'll be able to write and share the next chapter before half the year is gone. Ideally, one month from now. But knowing myself, it might be two months, or three months, or yes, half a year.

I will, however, make sure I do not wait until the end of 2020 before uploading another one again.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

Currently Not Beta-ed

Chapter Seventeen: Some Rules Are Broken

"Permitte divis cetera." Leave all else to the gods. —Quintus Horatius Flaccus

A half-giant, a dog, four children and two teenagers and a baby dragon were gathered together in a small hut. It sounded like the start of a very bad joke. It did not end in fire as Draco had predicted.

They were arranged as thus—the six children crowded around the table, leaving a large gap for Hagrid. The Weasley twins stood behind them, and Fang was shuffled into another corner of the hut. The large dragon egg was placed in the centre of the table, already cracking and shaking, with clicking sounds coming from within.

"It's happening," Draco whispered in Hadria's ear. "It's really happening!"

She couldn't tell if he was excited, anxious or in awe, but he was also constantly fidgeting beside her.

"Quiet!" Hermione hissed from Draco's other side, squeezed in between him and Pansy in the mess that was eight people and a half-giant trying to arrange themselves in a tiny hut in the most optimum way.

A tiny claw broke out with a sharp sound as the egg shook even harder.

"It's black!" That was Draco again, now with both hands gripping her shoulders.

"Isn't it brown?" And that was Neville.

And then the rest of the egg split open, revealing a slightly damp spindly thing with disproportionately large wings, looking altogether very much like distorted black umbrella. It had a row of ridges along its spine, stubby horns and large orange eyes like a pair of lanterns.

Just as Draco was squeezing forward to get a closer look, the baby dragon sneezed, sending tiny sparks flying into Draco's face.

He cursed out something unintelligible as he covered his face with his hands. But luckily for him, when Hadria managed to wrestle his hands away, she saw that he wasn't hurt much… There were simply new freckle-like red spots on his nose and cheeks.

"Is he alright?" Hagrid asked as he picked up the dragon who struggled and tried to snap at his fingers.

"Yeah, he's fine," said Hermione, not even looking in Draco's direction. Actually, Hadria was probably the only one who wasn't preoccupied with staring at the baby dragon, primarily because even without her previous life's experience, she'd gotten the chance to play with dragons in a dragon sanctuary before, thanks to Gellert's enriching and educational travels.

"Dragons grow pretty big pretty fast," said George when they saw how enamoured Hagrid was with the baby dragon.

"It's not very practical to keep a dragon here unless you've got better defensive enchantments and an array of expansion charms," Fred added.

"We could—"

"I am almost certain that your… house would not have the right conditions either, for keeping a dragon," said Pansy, looking like she had been very close to using some less-polite-sounding word for 'place that someone stays in'.

The twins blinked at her with identical expressions. Then they exchanged glances.

"We don't know what you're talking about," they said.

"We are friends with Hadria," Blaise pointed out. "And your expressions earlier were identical to the one she had earlier, before she decided to entertain our foolish blonde friend."

Pansy nodded. "And hers said 'Could I convince my guardian to let me keep a dragon'."

"Actually—"

"You're not even allowed to keep white peacocks, what makes you think you could keep a dragon?" Draco huffed, finally getting over the mild sting on both his face and his pride.

"Actually, could I send the dragon to Gerwald? Just as a prank. Before we send it off to a dragon sanctuary."

It was at this point when Hagrid interrupted. "Now wait a second, who said I'm sending Norbert anywhere?"

Everyone looked at him like he'd lost his marbles.

"Norbert?" Hermione asked faintly, as Draco buried his face in his hands again, and Neville looked like he was trying to pretend he didn't hear anything, while Blaise and the twins were decidedly edging away from what they viewed to be the territory of the girls. Pansy did indeed look like she was preparing herself to back up the lecture that Hermione was about to burst into.

Hadria, who had expected this, turned to Draco.

"Time to tell your father," she said.

They did not send a letter to Lucius Malfoy, as they did, in the end, manage to convince Hagrid that sending Norbert to a dragon sanctuary was better for the dragon's welfare. In fact, they did not need to send a letter to anyone, because apparently, eight children trying to sneak back to their dormitories through Hogwart's darkened corridors was not quite as easy as three children sneaking back under an invisibility cloak.

Filch caught them just as they were about to split up as their dormitories were located in four different directions. Or perhaps, Mrs Norris had found them first. They wouldn't know, as that cat could pretty much skulk near-invisible if she chose not to meow.

"Well, well, well, what have we got here," said Filch with a nasty grin. "Eight children out of bed."

Draco let out a sound that sounded suspiciously like a squeak.

Hadria thought it was quite an accomplishment, a record achievement. After all, simply because they were from all four Houses, Filch had to summon all four Head-of-Houses to meet them.

Fred whistled as they waited in Filch's office for the grumpy man to return with their head-of-houses, while Mrs Norris was left to watch over them.

"Nicked some stuff from here before," said George, even as he snapped his fingers at the cat.

Hermione ignored him in favour of panicking, muttering to herself, "We're going to get expelled, aren't we? We're going to get expelled… We're going to…"

"Salazar's snakes, no! They don't expel students just for breaking curfew," said Draco, interrupting her, then face-planted into a nearby desk, completely disregarding his image, mumbling morosely, "But… Father might just kill me if he finds out."

"What are you doing?" Blaise asked George, completely unconcerned. Pansy didn't seem very perturbed by their situation either, though she kept eyeing the door with a strange look every now and then.

"Distracting it," was George's reply—his wand was out now, and there were now a flock of tiny birds harassing the hissing cat.

Then there was a loud crack, and a shout of "Aha!" They turned to see Fred waving a frisbee.

"It's harder to find one of these… Do you think Norbert will like it?"

"It's a baby dragon, Weasley. That thing could kill it," Pansy replied dryly.

"Better hide it before Filch comes back with our Head-of-Houses," Hadria piped up.

All of them looked about. None of them had their bags with them, or any other item that could be used to hide a Fanged Frisbee. So Hadria had to unwind the 'scarf' she had around her neck and with a flick, the void-coloured item unfurled into a large cloth-like thing.

"Oh, it's that cloak again," Blaise noted. After all, she had worn Noh twice now, and its darker-than-black colour was not easily forgettable.

She stuffed the frisbee into Noh's mouth, her ever-useful pocket of near-limitless-space.

When Filch returned with four Professors behind him, two of them were very stern-faced, their mouths a grim hard line, and even Sprout looked kind of tired and somewhat irritated. Only Flitwick seemed more curious than upset about being awaken in the middle of the night about children breaking curfew.

"Oh, honestly!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed when she saw the Weasley twins. Perhaps it was because she was far too used to catching the twins doing things they shouldn't, for all she said, after glaring at them with the ferocity one might expect from a lioness rudely awoken from sleep, was, "Both of you will receive detention. And forty points will be taken. Forty each, from the both of you!"

Professor Snape, however, wasn't facing a pair of habitual troublemakers. In fact, it could be said that the Slytherins made up the bulk of their group—four of them, out of the eight they had, with two Gryffindors, one Hufflepuff and one Ravenclaw.

Hadria thought she'd seen scarier—after all, she had quite an enriching experience from both past and present lives, but even so, Snape's current aura was not for the faint-of-heart. One should also know that Slytherins, in particular, are really not well known for their bravery.

(Professor Sprout had exasperatedly taken Neville to one side for a lecture, not entirely surprised by the current situation, considering how she once had to stop Neville from accidentally creating biological weapons in their greenhouse. And Professor Flitwick was near-interrogating Hermione about the cause for their rule-breaking with much enthusiasm.)

So, the Slytherins were alone in their misery—the twins had been shuttled off to bed by their irate Head-of-House—as they stood nervously under Snape's icy gaze, like the group of guilty children that they were. Blaise was likely the most unrepentant, and Hadria suspected that his boldness was less bravery and more fearlessness, for his mother didn't seem to care much about morals or public opinion. Hadria didn't know much about the Parkinsons, but Pansy was indeed rather uncharacteristically subdued, while Draco seemed to be turning whiter with every passing second.

Meanwhile, Hadria was very much aware that Gellert and her Head-of-House had been in contact before, and were likely to be in contact once more. She winced internally. While there was little they could do that would faze her, there were things she wanted, which she doubted she'd be getting if she were to stress Gellert out too much.

After a period of silence, Snape finally said in that low dangerous voice he usually only used when petrifying the shit out of Gryffindors, "You have two minutes to give me a full account of your… misadventures tonight. If you are unable to give me a reasonable explanation, each of you will have an extra twenty points deducted."

Draco swallowed audibly, his mind shooting straight from my-father's-going-to-kill-me to the-House-Cup! Or at least, that was what Hadria assumed from the minute change in expression on his face—he really wasn't as good as he should be at concealing his emotions. But then again, he was only eleven.

Pansy darted a look at Hadria, while Blaise shifted a step backward, so that Hadria was nearer to Snape. So she took a deep breath, while her lips twitched into a sheepish smile almost subconsciously.

"Well, it started when we discovered that Hagrid was going to hatch a dragon's egg in his hut, and we felt that this was an opportunity of a lifetime, and it would also be excellent material for our magazine, so we decided to take up his invitation to watch the dragon egg hatch. Unfortunately, the egg was timed to hatch late after curfew, but we felt that it was worth the risk. We also managed to convince Hagrid to send the dragon to a sanctuary, which would be better for both the dragon and the school, so we planned on contacting one soon, but perhaps that's unnecessary now, as I suppose we can leave this to you, Professor?"

For a moment, Snape merely levelled a baleful glare at Hadria, before he said, lips curling into a sneer, "It would have done you better, if you had the foresight to leave this to a Professor earlier. It would not have been difficult to arrange for students like yourselves to watch a dragon hatching event under the supervision of a Professor, for educational purposes."

Hadria blinked, genuinely surprised. "That's possible?"

Snape did an aborted movement with his hand—which Hadria suspected might have been his impulse to either pinch the bridge of his nose or rub his temple—before he breathed heavily out through his nose. "Yes."

Blaise made a soft sound in his throat from behind her, but she didn't know if it was a suppressed cough or a swallowed laugh.

Finally, their Professor evidently had enough of their nonsense, for he said, "Fifteen points from each of you, for your carelessness and idiocy. The next time I catch you lot behaving like Gryffindors, I will double the points deducted."

All four of them nodded obediently. But before any of them could relax—after all, that would be a sixty-point deduction, less than the number Gryffindor was losing due to the twins, and their House was still in the lead—Snape went on to say, in an even softer voice, "All your parents will be informed of this matter, and since you seem to think that you have not had enough… educational opportunities… you'll all be serving detention as well. I expect it will be suitably enlightening for the four of you."

Then, he turned with a dramatic sweep of his cloak, and started to stride in the direction of their dormitories, so they could only hurry to catch up. The other Slytherins were all in bed when they returned to the common room which was empty save for someone's pet iguana, which was relaxing by the fire like a cat.

He left them after shooting them a final stern glare. And the four of them stood alone in the common room, looking at each other.

"That went well," said Blaise, breaking the silence. And he did look genuinely satisfied.

"Well? That went well?" Draco hissed.

Pansy shrugged. "Honestly, you could just tell your parents that you only went along because Hadria forced you to. Because that's what I'm telling mine. They'd buy it."

It was, however, true that if it were anyone else but Hadria, the Malfoys would probably be displeased by the idea that their son was forced by anyone to get into trouble. Of course, the main point wasn't that he'd broken school rules, but that he'd gotten caught. However, most of their parents knew about Hadria by now, and the Malfoys were more familiar than most parents about Hadria.

In the end, their parents were notified, the dragon was sent to Romania, and each of them received letters from their parents. Fortunately, none of them were Howlers.

Gellert's letter to Hadria was surprisingly tame, however. But when the whole group of them passed the letter around to read, with Hadria's permission, they all soon discovered that the only reason their friend escaped a long and stern lecture was because her misdemeanour had been overshadowed by her guardian's relief. And the reason for the relief? Well, naturally, it was because she had decided not to attempt sending the dragon home, because he was unaware that she had, in fact, fully intended on sending the dragon to him, at least as a prank.

Unlike in Hadria's previous life, there wasn't an uproar over this incident, because no sole House lost an exceptional amount of points. But there was evidently a collective drop in the number of gems in their House hourglasses. Hufflepuff lost twenty points, Ravenclaw just ten, while Slytherin lost sixty and the Gryffindors eighty. But no one was surprised by the great decrease in red gems, if only because everyone already knew about the Weasley twin's propensity of getting (read: causing) trouble.

But with the exams coming up, nobody paid much attention to the loss of House points. Perhaps, once, a year ago, a collective drop in House points for all four Houses might have raised some brows, but not this year.

Subsequently, everyone got busy with revision. Hermione was particularly insufferable, and Neville's progress—corruption, according to Draco—seemed to have backslide. Just the other day, Hannah tapped him on the shoulder when his face was buried in his notes, and he jumped like a startled rabbit, before apologising profusely to a confused Hannah and hurried off with his notes.

Of the Slytherins, Pansy was the most hardworking one, seemingly spurred into competition by Hermione, for she once said in passing that she couldn't afford to lose to a Muggleborn witch. Draco hilariously alternated between playing around with Blaise and Hadria, and furiously reciting Charms theory or whatever topic it was that day to Hadria's Jarvey.

"You're not revising much," Hadria commented one day, as they played an altered version of Gobstones in the Slytherin Common Room.

Blaise huffed. "Neither are you."

"I defeated the Dark Lord when I was one," was Hadria's cheerful reply, which garnered her a few odd looks and rolled eyes from the others in the common room.

"Well," said Blaise, equally cheerful. "Perhaps it isn't as impressive as your achievement, but when I was eight, someone I knew got killed by a Valcore."

Theodore Nott, who was passing by, scoffed in a low voice, "'Someone I knew.'"

Of course, everyone within hearing distance probably understood that it roughly translated to 'one of my step-fathers.'

Hadria decided not to comment about the pre-Hogwarts education Blaise received from being raised by a widow who very likely (read: definitely) caused the deaths of all of her very rich husbands, and apparently taught her son to do the same. Instead, she rummaged through her books to search up what a Valcore was. It sounded somewhat familiar.

It seemed to be an enormous humanoid creature with a head full of horns, with strange body proportions that made it look like a cross between a giant and a T-rex.

"Hmm," said Blaise.

Hadria looked up, and saw him watching her with amusement mixed with something else.

"Hmm what?" She asked distractedly. Then she remembered where she'd seen such a creature before. It was an entry in that crazy Monster Book of Monsters that Hagrid gave them in third year. She wondered if they'd be receiving the same book again, assuming that Hagrid once again became a Professor.

"Sometimes, I forget that you did end up in Slytherin. Even if you didn't get your Sorting the normal way," he said with a wider grin, rolling a gobstone in his hands.

Hadria thought she was an excellent Slytherin. Slytherins were supposed to be cunning and subtle, right? Well, she thought she was subtle enough, since Blaise didn't sense any of the discomfort she felt at the idea of her friend, three years younger, and causing the death of someone who was unfortunate enough to marry Lady Zabini.

But there was another thing that he was right about—she wasn't as opposed to the idea of murder as she would have been in her previous life. Not because she felt that anyone's life had any less value, which would honestly be demeaning towards Life, but because dying twice and becoming acquaintances with the Higher Entities did change her perspective of things somewhat. Particularly when she was now… in a permanent contract of unknown terms and condition with Death.

That was a problem, she thought. She was practically a demi-goddess-in-training or something.

In the end, she only said, "Glad you realised that, because we're going to be in the same House for the next six years as well."

Blaise sat back—relaxed now, and she hadn't noticed when he had tensed up—and their Gobstone game resumed.

And that was that.

Thanks for reading! That's all for now. Once again, feel free to comment or leave a review!

You can also find me on tumblr at (delete the spaces:) nevertickleasleepinghydra . tumblr . com, where you can ask me anything~

Next up: A Story About Detentions, Death and Dark Lords

ABOUT GELLERT-PAIRINGS: (Based on reviewers' input)

Current popular choices: (male) Sirius Black, Nobody (i.e. no romance for Gellert please!)

Runner-ups: (female) Lady Zabini, Amelia Bones, (male) Severus Snape, Remus Lupin

Other suggestions:

(female) Poppy Pomfrey, Tonks (?), Rosmerta, Ollivander's daughter/apprentice, an OC

(male) Mad-Eye Moody

No longer considering: Bellatrix (because of Neville), Luna (she's younger than Hadria)

Also not considering: Three-way relationships, not that I have anything against them, but honestly, I have no idea how to write such a thing. I'm not even remotely well-versed in romance of any sort. So, sorry about that.

Definitely not considering: Hadria (If you want to see a Hadria/Gellert fic, wait for it. Wait a very long time for it, because I don't have the time right now but some day, it might happen. Who knows?)