POV of Ariana Prewett
"I think we should call it a day," Hermione sighed, closing the book she had been reading.
A glance at the golden clock hanging above the large, ornate door of the Room of Requirement told me we had to hurry if we didn't want to be caught outside our common room after curfew.
Only four days had passed since the last Quidditch match. Since then, I had spent my evenings alone with Hermione in the Room of Requirement. Neither Bella and Zane, nor Cat-Lee, Padma, Ginn, or Oliver had spoken to us even once during this time. Had they concluded they were just wasting their time here, or did they actually want nothing more to do with us?
I missed the time when we all stuck together. Now, everything - the hope of helping Parvati, the friendship between us all - had silently collapsed, like one of the card houses that Fred and George liked to build. Well, actually, that's a silly comparison. These card houses tended to explode with a surprisingly loud bang when they became too unstable. But if my cousins were Muggles, their cards would fall almost silently.
The twins had written to Charlie about the dragon days ago, but so far, my snowy owl Rhina, whom we had sent, had not yet returned.
My cousins hadn't exaggerated when they claimed dragons grow quickly. Yesterday, the four of us visited Hagrid before dinner, and "little" Norbert had already grown from the size of a hand to the size of a cat. We hadn't stayed very long, as Hagrid had his hands full trying to prevent Norbert from setting his bed on fire. As far as I was concerned, Hagrid must have been completely bonkers to keep this dragon in his hut, where most of the furnishings were made of wood.
"Pig snout," I gave the Fat Lady the password and entered behind Hermione.
Unusually, the common room was completely empty except for Fred and George, who were sitting by the fireplace reading a piece of parchment. As we joined them, Rhina fluttered over from the windowsill to land on my shoulder for a pet. I wrinkled my nose. Despite the open window, there was a peculiar smell in the air.
"Stink bomb," Fred commented nonchalantly. "There was a particularly stubborn group of fourth-years who wouldn't go to bed."
It was clear the twins had deliberately waited for us.
"Charlie has replied," George said, confirming what Hermione and I had already suspected.
Fred summarized, "He's sending some colleagues to pick up the dragon. We're to bring him to the Astronomy Tower on Sunday at midnight," and handed us the letter.
"But how can we carry Norbert through the castle unnoticed? What if we're caught?" Hermione wondered aloud before her eyes widened with sudden inspiration.
"Bella..." she whispered, and I immediately understood her idea.
At Christmas, Bella had proudly shown us her invisibility cloak. If we could use it, sneaking Norbert to the Astronomy Tower would be simple. But would she lend it to us? Did she trust us enough? Could we trust her with our dragon secret? Was there any alternative?
"The Slytherin girl who always hung around with Par?" Fred interrupted, looking both skeptical and confused. His opinion of Slytherins was easy to guess.
Unsure whether to suggest asking Bella for help, I glanced questioningly at Hermione. She seemed to have concluded this was our only realistic chance of avoiding detention.
"Exactly," she began hesitantly. "She has an invisibility cloak, you know. Apparently, a real one with a permanent charm. I honestly think she'd help us."
"Maybe," George countered, "but who's to say she won't rat us out instead? She is a Slytherin, after all."
Hermione seemed to be considering how to convince the twins that we could trust Bella, so I came to her aid.
"Par trusts her. Why shouldn't we?" I interjected.
The twins fell silent for a while, appearing to weigh their response. After a silent exchange of glances, Fred nodded to his brother, who spoke:
"Actually, we have little to lose, don't we? Either she helps and everything works out, or she rats us out and you're rid of her."
Looking at it that way, George was right. After this operation, we would at least know where we stood with Bella. However, much could still go wrong. Even with an invisibility cloak, we might be caught with the dragon in tow. And how exactly would we manage the whole thing? Only two of us would fit completely under the invisibility cloak. At most, three first-years could disappear under it. Who knew how big Norbert would be by then?
Fred and George probably wouldn't come along, which they seemed to have been aware of since Hermione had made the suggestion to ask Bella for help.
For quite a while longer, the four of us sat in the common room, considering how and when to best ask Bella for help, and how to deal with the dragon, which seemed to have a penchant for setting things on fire. I had a really bad feeling about the whole thing…