A/N: Im really great at uploading a bunch, then disappearing without a trace. xD if you guys ever need to find me, My insta for writing is phoenix_feather! :D
Fun Fact: Zander really hates Almonds.
(Henry POV)
"I miss having a normal life." While Harry had put all his focus into Hagrid and his dragon situation, I had caught Draco and Urie up on everything we'd found out and they were now helping me try and figure out what was going on with Snape and why he was trying so hard to steal the stone.
Even Draco seemed really into the search and was great at keeping the whole thing a secret. Whenever Harry and I were working on other things, he was always eager to try and do more research with Urie. Lately, all the research had been us trying to dig into Snape's past but it was better than just twiddling our thumbs.
As the days turned into weeks and eventually, the weeks turned into months however, nothing new came, no new lead, no new escapade, nothing except for the one thing that came much sooner than Harry or I was ready for.
We were just sitting down for lunch, when Hedwig brought us a note that had nothing more than two words on it. "It's hatching!" When we saw that, we immediately knew who it was from and we were up and running from the Great Hall, before either Draco or Urie could ask us what was going on.
"It's nearly out." He ushered us inside before we'd even had time to say a word. Following him soundlessly, we looked around, the room like an inferno more than a cabin.
The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it.
Grabbing chairs we all pulled them up to the table and sat down to watch with bated breath.
All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; I thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.
It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.
"Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!" said Hagrid.
"Hagrid," said Harry, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"
Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face - he leapt to his feet and ran to the window. Following after him, I instead went to the door and threw it open. "Draco!" I was so furious that he'd gone peeking around, even when it wasn't his business. No one should know about this! Harry and I felt obligated to help Hagrid, because we liked him but Draco wasn't.
"Would he tell?" I looked then as Harry said Urie's name in annoyance and she came out from where she'd been hiding while Draco was peeking. "You guys—!" I threw my hands up in annoyance and turned away.
"You can't tell anyone." Harry was telling Draco as Hagrid looked on the verge of a panic attack.
"He can't keep that thing here!" Draco said as Harry and I pulled him and Urie into the cabin.
"No, he can't." Harry looked at Hagrid, who looked heartbroken.
"What am I to do with him, I can't just chuck him out, he's a baby!"
I looked from Hagrid to Draco as I thought really hard on what to do. Where could we hide a legitimate dragon? Anywhere but a few places and we'd be arrested. Then suddenly, the idea hit me and I grinned, it was a brilliant thought.
"What about Charlie?" I said. "Doesn't Ron Weasley have a brother studying Dragons in Romania? We can write to him and see if he'd take him." We looked at Hagrid and when he looked back at us with hesitance, I said. "Hagrid, that's four students that's found out so far and the dragons barely hatched. More are bound to find out and if you're caught, not only will the dragon be taken, but you might be chucked in prison."
Hagrid looked as though he was going to cry, but I sighed with relief when he finally agreed, that we could contact Charlie Weasley.
I then looked at Draco and Urie, "We're gonna help him get rid of this thing and while we do, you aren't to tell a soul about this." With their nods, I shook each of their hands, looking into their eyes as I did. Draco, I knew would be careful, because especially since we'd all made up from earlier this year, he'd been a lot nicer and I knew he didn't want to lose us as friends, which he would definitely do if he told.
I had a time of contacting Ron's brother without going through Ron, himself. Eventually though, I was able to do it and while we waited, it was back to studying and research. What we already knew about Snape was what we'd gathered from Mum, Dad, Uncle Sirius, Remus and Aunt Xayla.
Snape was friends with Harry's mum, but then she ditched him for Harry's dad and Harry's dad was a bit of a prat, but he'd grown up and matured. Snape had then gone off and joined Voldemort, but he'd turned sides at some point. Now this last bit was where I was skeptical.
Once someone served a man like Voldemort, I was very doubtful that they could suddenly become a good person. I was just glad my parents were good people, then again… I honestly didn't know that much about my dad now that I thought about it. I knew all about mum, because Harry had asked her a lot about his mum growing up, but I hadn't really ever thought that it was important.
I suppose I'd trained myself not to ever look in the past, because I didn't want to know about my birth parents, especially not since I'd started having the nightmares, though I highly doubted those had anything to do with my birth parents. It was astonishing to think that Harry remembered his parents deaths, let alone if I remembered things from when I was a toddler.
I shook my head suddenly as someone called my name and looking over, I saw Harry holding a letter he'd just gotten from Hedwig. "He replied." Opening the letter, Draco, Urie and I looked over Harry's shoulder as he read aloud the reply.
Charlie said he'd be more than happy to take the dragon, but it would be dangerous for him to come get it himself, so what he could do was have some friends of his pick it up on their way to see him. All we'd have to do is make sure that the dragon was up on the astronomy tower at midnight on the day he directed and the dragon would be gone. Early, I grabbed a paper to write a reply, letting out a sigh of relief as Hedwig flew off to deliver our letter.
All we had to do now was more waiting, but eventually, the night came. We would've felt more sorry for Hagrid as the four of us made our way from the common room and toward the entrance hall, but with everything we'd seen that Dragon do, I for one at least didn't pity the decision at all.
It was a dark and cloudy night this particular night and we had a really hard time getting out of the castle, what with peeves causing trouble and us having to wait for him to move.
Harry and I had decided against using the invisibility cloak to get the dragon upstairs, but we had descretely brought the map and were glancing at it every few seconds, when Draco of Urie weren't looking, so we could make sure we were avoiding all the teachers we possibly could.
When we reached Hagrid's hut, he had his Dragon— that he'd named Norbert all ready to go, and packed in a giant crate that I assumed was fireproof. "He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," said Hagrid in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."
From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to all of us as though the teddy was having his head torn off.
"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Draco, Urie and I all lifted the crate. Lucky for us that with three of us, the crate would be relatively easy to move. Walking ahead, Harry was acting as our navigator, his eyes glued to the map. "Mummy will never forget you!"
Midnight ticked nearer as we moved Norbert up the marble stairs. Up another staircase, then another - even one of Harry's shortcuts didn't make the work much easier, but nonetheless, we moved quickly into and then through the castle, the job taking longer than expected when we kept having to detour or hide in a secret room, because we might pass a teacher.
"Nearly there!" Harry said as we reached the corridor beneath the astronomy tower.
That's when we heard something and Harry stopped, and looked at the map. Seeing nothing on it however, we continued on and up the stairs to the tower, where we set the crate down and each high-fived quietly as we did a little jig of happiness. We'd done it, all we needed to do now was wait, and—
"Oh look!"
At that moment, several broomsticks came streaking down, towards us and landing quietly, one of the boys grinned at me. "Henry, I presume?" At my nod, they talked with me briefly and quietly about how Hagrid had gotten the dragon as they prepared the thing for transportation. Once they were finished, they were back in the air and taking off.
From the ground, we all very quietly cheered, and waved. That dragon was gone, Hagrid wasn't in trouble and we managed to get away with sneaking out.
Or had we?
Harry suddenly groaned from behind me and turning, I saw he was looking at the map and quite suddenly, he put it away as none other than dad came suddenly into the top of the tower, looking furious.
(Harry POV)
"Are you four mental!" We all now sat in Uncle Zander's office as he paced from one side of the room to the other, absolutely fuming. "Don't you know how dangerous is it to be out this late? I told you not to be sneaking out anymore— I warned you."
We all looked down at the ground, each angry that we'd gotten caught and even more worried of the repercussions. If there was one thing I knew very well about my uncle, it's that though normally he's very laidback and doesn't mind a bit of mischief, he's not a man to test limits with. He does keep to his word and will give out punishments when the time calls for it. Currently, we were catching the winds of hell like no other and when he finally gave Urie and Draco their detention and took forty points from Slytherin, he dismissed them and they were out before the next second had ticked on the clock.
He now whirled on Henry and I, "I can't believe you two!" He hissed. I suddenly felt as if I was going to cry as Uncle Zander stared us down and not being able to look up at him, I chose to stare at my feet. I wanted to tell him the truth, about the dragon and Hagrid and Ron's brother, but even if I thought Uncle Zander would keep it a secret, I'd promised Hagrid I wouldn't say anything, and my uncle would be upset that I hadn't told him before, so he could help us.
"You know, they're suspicious of you, Harry." I blinked rapidly as I looked up at my uncle. Usually, I don't think I'd have minded a bit of trouble, but I guess it was hard not to mind when I had so much love and admiration for the man now telling me off and to see him so disappointed in me.
"I know." Of course I knew that the teachers were suspicious, but I hardly really thought about that. I'd been too worried about Hagrid getting arrested.
"Do you want them to find out? If you do, we can just save everyone the trouble and March you right up to Dumbledore's office and confess right now."
"No!" I looked up at him, upset. That was exactly opposite from what I wanted. Our eyes met, and as we stared at one another, it was as if we had an entire conversation. Finally, after a moment, he looked at Henry and then at me again, and rubbing his face, he seemed to soften with a breath.
"Harry— I just want you to be safe. It's all I've ever wanted." He sat down now in the chair Urie had been sat in not too long ago. "When we took you in, Rose and I promised ourselves that we would raise you to the best of our abilities to be a normal, happy and healthy kid. If the wizarding world found out, everything would change."
"W-would they take me away?" It's a thought I'd never really considered before, but doing so now suddenly sent a deep chill down my spine. I would never allow them to take me away from my relatives and my uncles answer didn't make me feel any better.
"I don't know."
"I won't go meddling anymore." I now said, my desperate voice, quiet. How could I have been so stupid to think that I was invincible while I looked like Henry and my mind was closed. I've never really once considered this year what it would really mean to be discovered and how there's the giant possibility that I could be taken away from my aunt and uncle and what if they were chucked in Azkaban.
Now that thought made me want to cry.
After a long moment, Uncle Zander rubbed his face again, and looking at us, he said. "Forty more points will be taken from Slytherin— don't give me that look, Henry. It could be worse." He stood now and held out his arms to both of us, "You both will also be serving a detention. The details of which I'll send you tomorrow, now come here and hug me."
I stood with my cousin and walking over, we hugged Uncle Zander tightly. I sucked in a breath, burying my face into his chest as I tried not try cry. My head was pounding now and still then, on top of my fears and worries about getting caught, I knew starting tomorrow, we'd have to face the wrath of our peers once they saw that we'd lost Slytherin House an entire eighty points.
Henry pulled away first, but hugging my uncle tighter, I stayed in this moment, trying to remember everything about it. The way it felt to be in Uncle Zander's strong embrace, the way he made me feel safe, even if at times, it felt as if the world was coming down, right over my head. I tried to memorize the way he sounded when he assured me that I would be okay, the way his cologne reminded me of home, the sound of his heartbeat… In that moment, in the moment as I listened to my uncles heart before I pulled away, I knew I'd meant what I'd said about not meddling anymore. I was not going to risk losing my family. Not for anything.
"Alright, you boys go and get some sleep, okay?" We nodded and turning away, we left the room, our heads down.
Walking to our dormitory, we changed and got into bed. Turning over, I saw Draco in his bed, his face buried in his pillow and though for the most part, he was silent, I knew he was crying when I heard two very gentle sniffs from his bed. He'd been a part of losing all the points from our house, so he was going to be a part of the shame that would follow us for probably forever.
I turned over and looked at Henry, who was already falling fast asleep. He was more used to trouble then Draco or I, so he probably wasn't worrrying as much, but I knew better. We were small fish in a shark tank now and the Slytherin were going to rip us apart.
A/N: So I've decided to do all the books in one story.
Hope to upload again in two weeks. I would like my upload schedule to be the first and sixteenth of each month. Thoughts? also, thoughts on a Podfic for this?
