I was surprised to find that Professor Quirrel was more strong-willed than I expected. Every time any of us passed by the Third Floor Corridor, we would listen in to see if Fluffy was still guarding, which he was. Hermione had started to create study timetables for the four of us due to exams being in two and a half months. We were in the common room one day when Ron finally said something. "Hermione, exams are ages away." Ron complained.
"Ten weeks!" Hermione stressed. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."
"But we're not six-hundred years olf. Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it all."
"What am I revising for? Are you mad? 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." It definitely seemed that the teachers took a page out of Hermione's book, tacking on extra homework. My teachers gave me almost triple what Harry and the others got, under the pretence of 'preparing us for our O.W.L's next year'. We were at the library, and I was sure I was in over my head. My forehead pressed against my Care of Magical Creatures Textbook, a headache starting to prick at my temples.
"Aren't you the top of your class in Care of Magical Creatures?" Harry asked me.
"I am." I grumbled under my breath. "But Professor Kettleburn is making us go over everything we learned this year and we had our Fire Crab lesson again. Those things burnt my hands...again. I know they don't mean it but it still hurt…"
"Hagrid!" Ron greeted happily, prompting me to lift my head to rest my chin on the open pages. "What are you doing?" Hagrid shuffled into our sight, moving something behind his back.
"Jus' lookin'." Hagrid told us. The tone of voice told me he was lying somehow. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He instantly looked suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago. And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St-"
"SHHH!" Hagrid's eyes darted around to see if anyone had overheard. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
"There's a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact, about what's guarding the stone apart from Fluffy-" Harry started.
"SHHH!" Hagrid repeated. "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 are s'posed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-"
"See you later then." And with that, Hagrid shuffled off. Hermione watched him curiously.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione questioned.
"Do you think it has anything to do with the Stone?"
"I'm going to see what section he was in." Ron stated, standing from the table. He left and returned a second later with a stack of books in his arms. He dumped them on the table with wide eyes. "Dragons!" He breathed. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about Dragons! Look at these. Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland, From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon's Keeper Guide."
"Hagrid's always a wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him." Harry admitted.
"Anyone can check out these books if they wanted to." I reminded them. "But...it is against the Ministry's laws to own one. Dragon Breeding was outlawed in the seventeen-oh-nine by the Warlocks' Convention. I mean, if you think about it, it's kinda hard to keep something as big as a Dragon hidden from the Muggles."
"You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania." Ron said excitedly.
"But there aren't any wild Dragons in Brittian?" Harry questioned.
"Oh of course there are." I said happily, a grin spreading across my face. "There's the Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks, and those are the only two we know of so far. I'm positive there's more, the Ministry of Magic are pretty good at covering it all up. According to Dad, they've had to Obliviate dozens of Muggles to keep the secret."
"So...what on earth is Hagrid up to?" Hermione wondered. After an hour, we put our books away and headed down to Hagrid's Hut. All of the curtains were closed, which was surprising. I reached forward and knocked on the door. Hagrid's voice called from inside.
"Who is it?" He demanded. Once he clarified who it was, he opened the door and practically dragged us inside. My hair flashed an Army Green, The Hut was stifling hot and it made me uncomfortable. It was an already warm day but the second I stepped inside sweat started to form at the nape of my neck. I eyed the fire blazing under the grate as Hagrid fixed us sandwiches and tea. "So, yeh, you wanted to ask me somethin'?"
"Yes." Harry said. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone." I guess we're throwing subtlety out the window today. Hagrid frowned at us.
"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 Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outa Gringotts, I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
"Oh, come on Hagrid." Hermione sighed. "You might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on 'round here. We only wondered who had done the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you." Hagrid swelled with pride. I winked at Hermione for her quick thinking.
"Well, I don' s'ppose it could hurt teh tell yeh that...let's see. He borrowed Fluffy from me...then some o' the teachers did enchantments...Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall." Hagrid counted off on his hand. "Professor Quirrell, an' Dumbledore himself did somethin' o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone...oh, yeah, Professor Snape." My eyes widened as my head snapped up to Hagrid.
"Wait, Snape?" I clarified.
"Yeah, yer' not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the stone, he's not about ter steal it?" My eyes fell to my lap. Snape wasn't that bad of a teacher once he started to tolerate you, my Potions grade wasn't terrible even though I was a Gryffindor.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you Hagrid?" Harry confirmed. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore." Hagrid said proudly. "Tho I s'ppose Kenzie here could do it, with a little patience."
"Hagrid, can we have a window pen? I'm boiling."
"Can't Harry, sorry." Hagrid glanced at the fire, prompting me to look at it and my eyes widened.
"Hagrid, is that what I think it is?" I asked, a smile tugging at my lips as my hair flashed bright pink.
"Ah...that's...er…"
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" Ron breathed, crouching over the flames to inspect the egg.
"Won it." Hagrid replied. "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 to get rid of it ter be honest."
"But what are you going to do with it when it hatches?" Hermione asked.
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin', got this outta the library, Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Proffit." Hagrid produced the book from under his pillow. "It's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mother's breath on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feet it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here, how ter recognise diff'rent eggs, what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them." Hagrid seemed pretty pleased with himself, the fact he had such a rare Dragon in his hut.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house." Hermione reminded him, but Hagrid didn't seem to be listening, humming happily as he stoked the fire. I traded a look with Ron. CHarlie worked with Norwegian Ridgeback's, so we know how dangerous they are as adults, who knows how they'd be as a hatchling.
TIMESKIP
One day at breakfast, Hedwig landed in front of Harry with a note from Hagrid. The only words scribbled on a scrap of paper was 'It's hatching'. Ron wanted us to ditch our next lessons to go for it, but Hermione and I berated him for it. "Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a Dragon hatching?" Ron asked. "And Kenzie, come on, how can you tell me you don't want to see this?"
"Of course I want to see it!" I hissed at Ron. "I'm an Animal Legilimens, how many times would someone of my abilities be even near a Hatchling Dragon to even record its first thoughts. Besides, my next class is Potions, there is no way I'm letting Snape take points off for me not being there-"
"Shut up!" Harry breathed. I looked up and saw Malfoy, standing almost completely still as if listening. How much had he heard? I decided that after my lesson today, I would go down to Hagrid's hut to see if I could catch the hatching. The second the bell rang, I hurriedly packed my items and practically burst out of the dungeons running towards the hut. I met up with the others and we joined Hagrid out the front of his hut.
"It's nearly out." He said excitedly, ushering us inside. The Egg was sitting on the table, with cracks deeply embedded across its surface. I couldn't hear any thoughts from inside. We dumped our things and pulled chairs up to the table to watch it. There was a scraping noise and the egg split open, letting the Hatchling Dragon sprawl across the table. It was a tiny thing with black spinny wings and tiny black body, tiny horn nubs, wide nostrils and large orange eyes.
"Awww!" I cooed as the Hatchling sneezed out sparks.
"Isn't he beautiful." Hagrid murmured. He reached forward and went to scratch him, but the Dragon snapped at them, showing us a row of tiny sharp fangs. "Bless him! He knows his mummy!"
"Kenzie, do you hear anything?" Ron asked me. I concentrated, listening to the Hatchling. Hungry, mamma, cold, fire.
"He's hungry." I said softly. "And cold."
"Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" Hermione asked. Hagrid opened his mouth to respond but he paled, leaping to his feet and running to the window. "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." Hagrid replied. Harry raced out the door, stood for a moment before returning to us, his face ashen.
"It was Malfoy." Harry told us.
"Oh no…" I breathed. "We're screwed."
TIMESKIP
To say I was nervous about Malfoy revealing Hagrid's secret. I had the rarest opportunity to document the inner mind of a baby dragon. No one else was able to do this. However, due to the Dragon being a...well...Dragon, he grew at an exponential rate. He was about three times his size in just under a week. Hagrid refused to let him go because 'he's too little'. Hagrid also named him, Norbert. "Hagrid!" Harry said loudly. "Give it a fortnight and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."
"I-I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't." Hagrid admitted. Harry then turned to me and Ron.
"Charlie." He stated.
"You're losing it too." Ron told him. "I'm Ron, remember?"
"No, Charlie, your brother Charlie. In Romania. Studying Dragons? We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild."
"You are a genius Harry." I said, grabbing Harry's head and pressing a kiss to his mop of hair. "Bloody brilliant I tell you." We managed to convince Hagrid to send a letter off to Charlie to ask him.
TIMESKIP
The following Wednesday, Ron came back at midnight from helping Hagrid feed Norbert. "It bit me!" Ron complained, showing his hand which was wrapped in a bloodied handkerchief. "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 Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby." There was a tap at the window.
"It's cold!" A voice complained from outside. "Let me in please!"
"That's Aquila." I said. I opened the window and Aquila flew into the room, landing on the armrest of the chair I was sitting in. She shook out her feathers, offering me a sealed envelope. "Thank you."
"Send me to the burrow next time." Aquila huffed.
"I'm sorry." I apologised, breaking the seal and taking out the letter.
Dear Kenzie,
How are you? Thanks for the letter - I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming over to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal Dragon.
Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it's still dark.
Send me an answer as soon as possible.
Love, Charlie
"I swear, Charlie's the best." I said.
"We've got the Invisibility Cloak." Harry said. "It shouldn't be too difficult. I think the Cloak's big enough to cover two of us and Norbert." The four of us shared a look, two of us would have to stay behind.
TIMESKIP
It was clear by the next morning that Ron would definitely not be one of the two under the cloak. His hand had swollen to about two times bigger than it was and by the end of the day, he had to go to Madam Pomfrey as his hand had turned green...it wasn't until that point I remembered that Norwegian Ridgeback's had venomous fangs and I felt guilty as hell. I visited Ron almost every day, and we soon found out that Malfoy stole Ron's book, the one with Charlie's second letter that organised Norbert's removal. I, unfortunately, wasn't able to be the second person under the Cloak, as I fell asleep in the common room, drooling over a parchment for Muggle Studies. I woke up at around two when I was woken up by the Portrait Hole opening up. I yawned, "Hey guys." I greeted as Harry, Hermione and, to my surprise, Nevile shuffled into the common room. "What happened?" My eyebrows pinched together.
"We did it." Harry responded, walking by me. "But we got caught...we lost a hundred-and-fifty-points." My eyes widened as the walked up the stairs. That was it...we just lost the House Cup in one night.