Suguna however seemed to have been braver than they thought. Over the next few weeks he was getting thinner and paler but it didn't look as though he cracked yet. Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Silver, Razor and Coral would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Infinite was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Drive was still safe. Whenever Silver passed Suguna these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Razor had started telling people off for laughing at Suguna's stutter. Coral, however, had more on her mind than the Chaos Drive. She had started drawing up revision timetables and colour-coding all her notes. Silver and Razor wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same. Razor tried to remind her that the exams were ten weeks away which just made her go crazy "Ten Weeks? You realise we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's got into me". Unfortunately the teachers seemed to be thinking the same as Coral. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones.

It was hard to relax with Coral next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practising with her flute. The trio were in the library trying to remember all their notes when "Big, what're you doing here?" Razor asked. Silver looked up, Big was in front of them holding something behind his back "Just lookin for something". He stared suspiciously at him "Yer not still lookin' fer Mammoth Mogul, are yeh?" "No, we found that out ages ago. He made the Chao-" "Shhh. Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?". Silver wasn't giving up though "We wanted to ask you. Is there anything else guarding it beside Fluffy" "SHHH! Listen, come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'posed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh" "See you tonight then". Big ran off "What do you think he had behind his back?" Coral said. They were all thinking the same thing, was he reading something for the protection of the Chaos Drive. Razor went to check the section Big was in. He returned looking confused "Dragons. There were a bunch of books about raising dragons" "Big said he wanted a dragon" Silver said. Razor looked horrified "But that's against the law. How're we supposed to hide from Muggles if all kept dragons in our gardens. And you can't tame them anyway. You should see some of the injuries Rotor's got". Silver didn't see what the big deal was "But there aren't dragons in Mercia, are there?" "Of course there are. The Ministry's got a hell of a job keeping them secret". They all stared at each other worrying what this mean Big was up to.

When they arrived at Big's house they were surprised to see all the blinds were down. Big shut the door quickly behind them and they were blasted by a wave of heat. It was already hot outside but for some reasons Big had the fire on. Big offered them tea but it was too hot to accept "So, yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" "Yes, We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Chaos Drive apart from Fluffy". Big frowned "O' course I can't. Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Drive's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Nameless. I s'pose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy". "Oh, come on, Big, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here" said Coral in a warm, flattering voice. Big tried not so well to hide his proud smile, Coral continued "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really. Who Locke had trusted enough to help him, apart from you". Silver and Razor were impressed as Big spoke "Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that ... let's see ... he borrowed Fluffy from me ... then some o' the teachers did enchantments ... Professor Chrysan, Professor Charles, Professor Echo…". He started ticking them off on his fingers "Professor Suguna, Locke himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Infinite".

Silver couldn't hide his surprise "Infinite?" "Yeah, yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Infinite helped protect the Drive, he's not about ter steal it". But none of them were listening. It was all too clear now, if Infinite took part in the Drive's protection the it wouldn't be hard for him to find about the others. The only two they knew he didn't have was Fluffy and Suguna's protection. Silver was getting anxious "You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Big? Not even the teachers" "Not a soul knows except me an' Locke" he said proudly. Silver thought that was at least something, now that he got everything off his chest he thought he could ask "Big, can I open a window, it's boiling in here" "Can't, Silver, sorry" he kept glancing at the fire. Silver noticed an object in the fire "Big, what is that?" but Silver could already tell what it was. Inside the fire was a large, black egg. Razor was amazed by the sight "Where did you get it? It must have cost a fortune" "Won it. Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest". Coral looked terrified "But what about when it hatches?" "Well, I've bin doin' some readin'. The books were a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour". He looked so pleased with himself that Coral had to remind him that he lived in a wooden house.

Now the three had something else to worry about, what would happen to Big if anyone found out he was illegally breeding a dragon "Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life". Even when they finished all their homework Coral decided to make them revision timetables. Then one morning during breakfast Lily arrived to give Silver a letter. It had only two words "It's hatching". Razor wanted to skip herbology to go see but Coral wouldn't hear of it "Coral, how often are we going to see a live dragon hatching?" "We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Big's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing-" "Shut up!" Silver said noticing Rutan nearby.

After their lessons they ran as fast as they could out of the castle and headed for the house "It's nearly out" Big told them as they entered. The egg was on the table partially cracked and shaking from side to side. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath. All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped on to the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; it was green with a long neck and a large stomach. It sneezed releasing a few sparks. Big tried to pet it and it snapped at his fingers "Isn't she beautiful. She knows her mummy. Hello, Dulcy". Coral stared at it with both amazement and fear "Big, how fast do Dragons grow?". Before Big could answer he gasped, "What's the matter?" "Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains. It's a kid. He's runnin' back up ter the school". Silver ran to the window and even at a distance he could tell… Rutan had seen the dragon.

Something about the smile lurking on Rutan's face during the next week made Silver, Razor and Coral very nervous. They spent most of their free time in Big's darkened hut, trying to reason with him. They urged him to let Dulcy go but he did have a point that Dulcy was too young and would die on her own. They had to think of something fast though as she had already grown three times her original size and Big was neglecting his Game Keeping duties to take care of her. They thought he was starting to lose it when he kept calling himself mummy to Dulcy. One time they visited Big broke down "I – I know I can't keep him for ever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't". The idea suddenly came to Silver and he turned to Razor "Rotor" "No, I'm Razor" "No, your brother. In Vesuvio. Studying dragons. We could send Dulcy to him. Rotor can take care of him and then put her back in the wild. How about it, Big?". In the end Big agreed and they sent Lily to deliver to Rotor that night.

The following week dragged on. Wednesday night Coral and Silver were waiting in the empty common room at midnight. They were waiting for Razor who had gone down to help feed Dulcy. Eventually the portrait hole burst open and Razor put down the emerald. He slowly became more visible and they saw he was clutching "It bit me". He showed his hand which was wrapped in a bloody bandage "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Big goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little Pocky. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby". There was a tapping on the window "It's Lily". They let her in and she was carrying Rotor's response.

Dear Razor,

How are you? Thanks for the letter – I'd he glad to take

the Dragon, but it won't be easy getting

her here. I think the best thing will be to send her over

with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me

next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying

an illegal dragon.

Could you get her up the tallest tower at

midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and

take her away while it's still dark.

Send me an answer as soon as possible.

Love,

Rotor

They looked at each other "We've got the Invisibility Cloak. It shouldn't be too difficult. I think the Emerald has enough power to cover two of us and Dulcy". It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other two agreed with him. Anything to get rid of Dulcy and Malfoy.

By next morning another problem had arisen, Razor's bitten hand was swelling up. He didn't know it was safe to take it to Madam Vanilla but once it started turning green he had no choice. He lied and told her that Wacky had bitten him. She was suspicious of this but didn't seem to recognise the bite as a dragon one. Silver and Coral visited him later and he wasn't looking good "It's not just my hand. There's something else. Rutan told Madam Vanilla he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me. I shouldn't have hit him at the Sky Chase match. That's why he's doing this". Silver tried to calm him "Don't worry. It'll be all over at midnight, Saturday". Razor groaned "No, you don't understand. The book Rutan took, it had Rotor's letter was in it, he's going to know we're getting rid of Dulcy".

It was too late to change the plan, they didn't have enough time to send Lily to Rotor again. They did have one advantage, Rutan didn't know about the Chaos Emerald. They would have felt sorry for Big when they headed down to collect Dulcy if it hadn't been for the fact that they've had the most stressful two weeks of their lives. They were late to the house because they had to wait for Charmy to stop playing tennis in the Entrance Hall. They finally made it and Big was crying as they gave them a basket with Dulcy in it "She's got plenty of dead Mickys an' some brandy fer the journey. An' I've packed her teddy bear in case she gets lonely". Based on the sound coming from the basket Silver assumed the bear was no more "Bye, Dulcy, mummy will never forget you" Big sobbed. Silver and Coral left the house, the basket was still visible "Hold it closer" Silver said. Coral didn't like this idea very much but she did so. Eventually the basket disappeared as well. By the time they made it to the bottom of the tower they were both panting, they had been taking turns holding Dulcy but she was so heavy that they were exhausted. It was almost midnight, they had to hurry. They heard a noise and forgetting that they were invisible they ran into the shadows. They saw Echo in a dressing gown pulling Rutan by the arm "Detention! And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you!".

Rutan was trying to explain "You don't understand, Professor, Silver the Hedgehog is coming. He's got a dragon!" "What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on. I shall see Professor Infinite about you, Rutan!". Silver and Coral had all the energy they needed after seeing that. They giggled all the way up the stairs "I can't wait to tell Razor" Silver whispered. Once they reached the top of the tower they felt the cold night air. Silver put down the emerald and Coral had the widest smile "I could sing" "Don't" Silver said laughing. They waited about ten minutes when four Extreme Gear landed. Rotor's friends were a cheery lot, they had rigged up a harness between two board to keep Dulcy secure but keeping her a distance from them. Silver and Coral shook their hands and kept thanking them for finally getting Dulcy out of their hair. They watched them leave, Dulcy was going… going… gone. They both practically skipped back down the stairs, Rutan in detention, no more dragon, what could possibly spoil their happiness. The answer to this came when they reached the bottom of the stairs. Rykor was standing their staring at them "Oh, dear… We are in trouble". Silver was screaming in his head, he left his emerald at the top of the tower.