Whats that?
Christmas unfortunately had to come to an end, all good things had to.
The most exciting thing about the second term for Beth at least was History of Magic. They had finished learning about the origins of magic from the Greek world and had now moved on to studying the founding of the school.
They spent the term learning about the four school house founders and about magic in the tenth century, and how the school was eventually founded.
They had now reached the end of the second term and reached Easter. The only problem about this meant that the exams were only two months away.
“Um Beth,” muttered Zacharias looking over at her biting his lip slightly.
“Can I borrow your history notes?” he blushed.
Artie smirked; Zacharias had spent the whole year making fun of her detailed notes especially her history notes. Susan had now had their second terms History notes turned into a book for Beth too.
“Um I’d love to Zach,” she said, “but I’ve already promised them to Neville, and Susan and Ernie. Even with the original notes I’ve only got two copies, I’m sorry Zach.”
“I’ve got an idea,” beamed Ernie picking her two books off the table.
“Where you going with those?” asked Beth confused.
Ernie tapped his nose knowingly and left the Common Room.
He came back ten minutes later with a bulging bag full of books.
“What have you done Ernie?” asked Susan.
“I got Sprout to copy the books for me so now there’s enough to go around,” he beamed, “these are the originals though Beth.”
He handed Beth back the original books but there were still at least eight copies of each book, enough for their whole house.
“Ernie you’re a genius!” said Artie as he handed out the books.
“And Beth’s a life saver,” muttered Zacharias as he flicked through one of the books.
“You’re both right,” said Hannah, “and we are all going to ace our History exams.”
“We might even do better than the Ravenclaws!” beamed Susan.
At the end of the holiday there was only eight weeks left till the exams.
“Who wants to take an afternoon off?” asked Ernie flopping down between to Susan and Beth who were sat down on a sofa and were studying their charms notes.
“Ernie,” sighed Susan, “our exams start in eight weeks.”
“And we’ve just spent the last three weeks studying for them,” he pointed out.
“Come on!” he begged, “it’s the last day of the holidays, why don’t we go visit Hagrid?”
Beth looked out the window and saw that it was the first really fine day of the year. The sun was shining and glistening on the Great Lake.
“Oh, alright,” Beth gave in putting her Charms notebook back in her bag.
Beth and Susan took their bags back up to their room and they all headed down to Hagrid’s.
Ernie knocked on the door of the hut, as Beth skipped down the path behind them stopping to pick the occasional wildflower.
There was no answer at the door but there was a loud barking of Fang.
Ernie shrugged and knocked again.
The door opened a crack and Hagrid’s bristly face poked out.
“Who’s there?” he asked looking around nervously.
“Oh it’s you lot,” he sighed, “I’m afraid I’m in no fit state for company today.”
“If you’re busy, we can come back anther time,” said Beth, “but I’ve picked you some flowers.”
Beth held out a small bouquet of wildflowers to Hagrid.
“Oh alright then,” said Hagrid standing away from the door to let them in.
He took the flowers from her and placed them in a large cup of water.
As they walked in Beth noticed that there was something boiling over the fire which wasn’t a kettle. She also found it confusing that Hagrid had a huge fire lit in late April when it was so warm outside.
“Um Hagrid,” said Beth inkling her head, “what’s that?”
“What’s what?” he asked evasively,
“That,” she said pointing at the egg over the fire.
“Oh its nothing, nothing.”
“That’s not nothing Hagrid,” said Ernie raising her eyebrows, “that’s a dragon.”
“Maybe,” muttered Hagrid shrugging.
“Hagrid those are illegal,” said Susan.
“Yeah,” said Hagrid broodily, “I’ve always wanted one though.”
They stayed for tea and had a heated discussion on the way back up to the school.
“What are we going to do about that?” asked Susan.
“What are you talking about?” asked Beth as she picked some buttercups to put in her hair.
“The dragon,” said Ernie obviously, “they’re illegal.”
“Its still only an egg,” muttered Susan, “maybe it will never hatch?”
“Hagrid lives in a wooden house, is that a house we’re willing to take?”
“Fair point Ernie,” admitted Susan.
“We don’t want to get Hagrid in trouble though so what do we do?” asked Susan.
“Tell someone?” suggested Ernie.
“Professor Sprout!” said Beth, “we’re meant to go to see her if we have a problem, this is a problem alright.”
They rushed off to Professor Sprouts office and knocked on her door.
“Yes dears?” she asked opening the door, “how may I help you?”
“It’s Hagrid,” said Ernie breathlessly having run the whole way, “he’s got a dragon.”
“I’m sorry what Ernie?” she asked.
“Hagrid’s got a dragon egg,” he said having got his breath back.
“Oh dear,” she muttered shaking his head, “I thought the kelpie was bad enough.”
“He’s done this before?” said Susan astounded.
“Hmm,” nodded Professor Sprout.
“I’ll go tell the headmaster,” she said leaving her office.
“Oh and by the way,” she said turning around to face them as she left, “ten points each to Hufflepuff for reporting this properly, if Hagrid had hatched that thing it could have been a disaster.”