Betrayal
A few days later, Draco was still fuming as much as a real dragon might. He had taken to staring at Hagrid’s empty seat for the entirety of every meal, ranting under his breath to Ron about Hagrid’s recklessness and disregard for anyone else’s safety. Hari and Hermione tried to give them as much distance, fearing both boys’ wrath and delved deeper into research about the Philosopher’s Stone instead. While Ron and Draco fretted over dragon breeding books and angry mumbles with their heads bent together, Hermione and Hari grabbed books on alchemy and immortality to read together instead.
Ron and Draco kept disappearing during their free periods to go and continue trying to talk Hagrid out of keeping the egg, only to return to Hari and Hermione with scowls. Hagrid clearly wasn’t budging any more and no longer greeted any of them when they passed or invited them to tea. Finally, almost a week after discovering Hagrid’s secret and Draco came back red faced and seething after getting the door slammed in his face, Hari leapt out of his seat.
“That’s it. We’re going to see Minnie,” he announced, grabbing Draco and Ron by the wrists and dragging them towards the portrait hole. Hermione jogged after them, trying to catch up as they stepped out of the common room.
“Why’re we going to see McGonagall?” Ron asked, following Hari down the corridor.
“Because she’ll know what to do about Hagrid’s egg,” he replied. “She’s known him longer than any of us, she has more authority and she always has the best ideas. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before…” As they reached the door to Minerva’s office, Hari let go of Ron and Draco’s wrists and knocked sharply on the door three times. “Minnie? Are you in there?”
After a beat, the door opened to reveal Minerva, raising an eyebrow at the four eleven year olds staring up at her. “Hari? What are you doing here at this hour?” She glanced at the others. “It’s almost curfew. What could possibly excuse this?”
Hari widened his eyes, blinking innocently at Minerva in the way he knew she would relent. He was the only one who could soften her edges enough, after all. She glared at him before sighing and stepping aside to let them inside. She sat down behind her desk, conjured up an extra three chairs besides Hari’s usual seat, and indicated for them to sit down. Immediately Draco blurted out about Hagrid having a dragon’s egg. At his announcement, her eyebrows raised and she made them explain the whole story.
“And now Hagrid’s avoiding us and won’t listen to any reason,” Draco finished off a few minutes later, arms crossed.
Minerva leaned back in her chair thoughtfully, drumming her fingers on the table. Her gaze moved towards the window where Hagrid’s hut was in view before turning back to those in the room. “I dare say threatening him with Askaban was not your smartest move, Mr. Malfoy,” she said sternly. Draco blushed. “But I agree that he really should not be owning a dragon, particularly this close to a school in a wooden hut, as you said. I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore about what he thinks and then I believe I can politely talk Hagrid out of this.”
“Do you really think you can?”
“Of course I can, Mr. Malfoy. I just need to find somewhere to send the egg…”
Ron perked up in his seat and burst out, “My brother Charlie works in a dragon sanctuary in Romania. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind taking the egg!”
And so it was decided that once they managed to talk Hagrid into giving up the egg, it would be collected by Charlie and taken to Romania to hatch and be taken care of there. It took a few days for this to happen, but one evening after dinner, Minerva called the foursome over to her to tell them that Hagrid had agreed to give up the egg. Hari couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for Hagrid, knowing that his dream in life had been to own and raise a dragon and now that had been taken away from him again.
Even still, Hari knew it would have been a foolish idea to allow him to keep the dragon himself and knew they had to move back onto figuring out more about the Stone and what kinds of protections may have been put in place to protect it. Neither Hermione nor Draco believed that Fluffy was the only safeguard in place and were determined to stop whomever wanted to take it.
One night, Hari was fast asleep, dreaming about flying on a white and silver dragon when someone shook him awake, calling his name. Hari jerked awake to find Draco leaning over him, holding onto both his shoulders.
“Huh? Wha-?” Hari grumbled, sitting up in bed and looking at his two friends in tired curiosity. “What are you doing?”
Draco shushed him, letting go of his shoulders. “Come on. Hermione has to tell us something downstairs,” he muttered. He bent down and grabbed Hari’s invisibility cloak from his trunk, draping it over his shoulder.
Hari threw his blankets off himself and slid into a pair of slippers, grabbing his dressing gown. He glanced at Ron with his face shoved into his pillow, burrowed under his own blankets. Draco found Hari’s line of view and whispered, “He wouldn’t budge when I tried to wake him. Might as well leave him and update him tomorrow.” Hari shrugged, giving Ron one last glance before following Draco out of the dormitory and down the stairs to the common room.
Hermione was waiting for them at the bottom, still half dressed in her uniform, her hair tied into a very fluffy bun on top of her head. “What’s going on, ‘Mione?” Hari asked her once he neared her.
“I overheard a conversation between Snape and Quirrell. Snape sounded really angry and asked Quirrell if he knew how to get past the other stuff,” she explained, “I-I think they might both be trying to get the Stone, but Snape is making Quirrell help him…”
Hari startled, blinking rapidly as he tried to process her words. “So why are you telling us this in the middle of the night?” Hari asked, unable to keep the slight irritation out of his voice.
“I have a horrible feeling that Fluffy and the dragon might somehow be connected,” she replied, pointedly ignoring Hari’s annoyance. “Draco agrees with me.” She looked towards Draco for help.
He nodded. “Yeah, I do. Two vicious creatures so close to Hogwarts, all because of Hagrid. It can’t be a coincidence that Hagrid managed to get his hands on them both, so what if there’s something else behind it.”
“That still doesn’t answer my question why we’re up in the middle of the night and Draco has the invisibility cloak.”
“We’re going to speak to Hagrid, now. It’s urgent, Hari. What if they try to get the Stone now?” Hermione asked fearfully.
Hari begrudgingly agreed to hiding under the cloak with the other two and they made their way carefully outside the common room, walking silently through the castle in the dead of night. They passed only a ghost on their way, but the ghost did not see them and disappeared through a wall. Once outside under the cover of the stars, the trio took off at a run down to Hagrid’s hut, surprised to see that his lights were still on.
Draco peeled the cloak off of them and rapped his knuckles against the door. “Hagrid! It’s us! Let us in!” he called. Hermione added a hopeless ‘please’ at the end. After a moment, the door opened to reveal a very teary eyed Hagrid looking down at them.
“What the devil are you three doing here? It’s the middle of the night!” he exclaimed, but let them inside the hut.
“We really need to speak to you, Hagrid. It’s important,” said Hermione.
“So important it couldn’ wait til the mornin’?”
“It’s about the Philosopher’s Stone, Hagrid!”
Hagrid flinched, looking horrified at her words. He seemed to have forgotten entirely his grieving over giving up his dragon egg a few days previously in favour of staring open mouthed at them. “How d’yeh know about the Philosopher’s Stone! Yeh shouldn’ know about tha’!”
Draco crossed his arms, clearly rearing for a fight, but Hari pulled him back by his elbow. “We think Snape’s trying to get Quirrell to steal it! Hermione heard them talking!” Draco said, jutting his chin up and shrugging his arm out of Hari’s tight grip.
“Professor Snape and Professor Quirrell? Try to steal the Philosopher’s Stone?” Hagrid repeated skeptically, “Come off it. They’re helpin’ to guard the thing! Why would they try to steal it?”
“Because they want immortality and instant, endless wealth, obviously! Maybe they want to bring back Voldemort!” Hari remarked.
Hagrid winced at the name. “Don’t say his name!” he growled through gritted teeth. “There’s no use in you three comin’ here at this hour of the night just to tell me you think a pair of teachers is tryin’ to steal the stone.” He began to shoo them towards the door once again, but all three of them stayed put.
“We were coming to ask you about that egg, actually,” said Draco matter-of-factly, tilting his head.
“My—my egg? My dragon egg?” Hagrid looked close to tears once again at the mention of the egg. He was clearly nowhere near over having to give it up, even if it was better off.
Draco hummed and replied, “Yes. We wanted to ask you how you got the dragon egg. They’re really hard to get.”
“I got it at the Hog’s Head, down in Hogsmeade. Won him off a fellow there.”
Draco blinked, turning to Hari and to Hermione with an incredulous look on his face. “Did you see this person, Hagrid? The one you won the egg off of?” he asked slowly, eyebrows furrowed.
“No, I didn’t. He was wearin’ a cloak the whole time,” Hagrid replied offhandedly. “Why’d you need to know how I won that egg?”
“So, you didn’t see this person’s face the entire time?”
“Nope. But, well, you get loads of people like that in the Hog’s Head. It wasn’t tha’ out the ordinary, see.”
Hari looked across Draco to Hermione, trying to see if she knew what Draco was getting at either. She seemed just as confused as Hari felt, looking back and forth between Draco and Hagrid. He had no idea what Draco was trying to figure out with all his questions, but he did find it rather odd how Hagrid had won his egg off someone he couldn’t even see. Could this cloaked individual, perhaps, have been Snape or Quirrell?
Draco sighed and shook his head. “But how did you even talk this random person into letting you take his egg? He couldn’t have just given you the egg without reason,” Draco continued. Hari thought he could see where this was headed and felt his stomach tie itself in a knot, seriously hoping Draco wouldn’t get to the same conclusion Hari was thinking of.
“Well, I told him all about the different creatures I take care of here at Hogwarts, see,” Hagrid explained, “Had to make sure I knew what I was doin’. He took great interest in Fluffy as well, see, askin’ me all about how I manage him. Course, I told him he’s easy ter calm down once yeh play him some music, calms him down straight away.” And there it was. Hari’s stomach thudded to the floor and Draco went pale, turning to Hari with a look of astonishment. Hagrid seemed to realise what he had said at once and his face fell. “I shouldn’t’a told you tha’. I should not have told you…”
“We have to go,” Hari whispered to Draco, heart racing as he felt himself flooding with realisation. Draco and Hermione nodded in agreement and they stormed out of the hut at once. They ignored Hagrid’s calls after them and raced up to the school at once. “Pretty strange coincidence Hagrid’s life dream is to own a dragon and then he runs into someone who just happens to be carrying an egg, isn’t it?” Hari was saying as they hurried up the steps together. Hermione was about to say something in reply when they stopped dead.
“Well, well, well. We are in trouble…” All three of them froze, coming face to face with the sneering face of Filch, clutching the sleeve of Neville Longbottom behind him. Hari swallowed hard and realised what Hagrid must have been calling them about.
In their hurry to get back to the castle, they had left the invisibility cloak sitting on the doorstep of Hagrid’s hut.
Filch dragged them all over to Minerva’s quarters, summoning her so that she appeared in her dressing gown. “Argus, what is the meaning of—” She stopped dead when she saw who he was dragging behind him. “What are you four doing out of bed?” she asked sharply, refusing point blank to look at Hari.
“Found these three coming from outside, running,” Filch replied, gesturing to Hari, Draco and Hermione. He shoved Neville towards Minerva. “And I caught this one trying to warn them.” Hari winced, sharing a guilty look with Hermione and Draco. Neville had been coming to warn them and now he was in trouble with them. He felt awful.
Minerva sighed in disappointment. “Well, I’ll have to give all four of you detentions. I don’t know what you thought you were playing at, going outside,” she said immediately, ignoring their protests. “And however noble it was for you to try to warn your friends, you should not have been out of bed at this hour either.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And I will take a further 30 points each from Gryffindor-”
“But Minnie-” Hari began.
Minerva held up a hand and he silenced, looking down at the floor in shame at the look of disappointment on her face. “No buts, Potter. And yes, I am willing to take house points even from my own house and a boy I raised to know better than to act so foolishly as this.” Hari couldn’t bear to look up and see the inevitably disappointed look she was giving him right now. He had never seen her so disappointed in him in his life and he really didn’t like to see it.
“But, Professor. It was about the Philosopher’s Stone,” Draco interrupted, whispering the last words directly in her ear so that Neville wouldn’t hear. She stepped back in surprise at his words, spluttering slightly.
“I have—how did you—I have no idea how you three happen to know about this, but as it stands, you broke rules and you therefore deserve to be punished for it.” Minerva fixed them with her usual piercing glare, still not looking in Hari’s direction. He felt worse by the second, eyes burning slightly. “Am I understood?” she asked the group sternly.
“Yes, ma’am,” they all said together.
Minerva sighed and waved her hand. “Take these four back to their common room, Argus,” she said dismissively, turning to go back to her bed. Filch agreed and took the group back towards Gryffindor tower, talking about punishments and misbehaving students the whole way.
Hari simply ignored him, walking slowly back up the stairs, trying to hide the fact that he was crying. He knew the other three would notice, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t just because he had just lost Gryffindor so many points in one night; he couldn’t stop remembering the way Minerva had refused to even look at him because she was so disappointed in him. He felt awful about it, wanting to never see her looking like that ever again. He felt as though he had betrayed her trust: Minerva, who had taken him into her home and cared for him for so many years, only for him to repay her by breaking school rules and acting like a reckless child.
The others didn’t say a word as they made their way towards the dormitories, leaving Hermione to go up to her own dormitory. Draco and Neville didn’t speak as they got into their respective beds and didn’t acknowledge the tears rolling down Hari’s face still. They didn’t say anything as they fell asleep and Hari stayed awake for hours, feeling horrible and like he’d betrayed the one person that had taken care of him since he was 4 years old.