Harry Potter and the Bleak World

The weeks passed, and nobody but Harry knew of what happened between Quirrell and Snape. In the corridors, he kept his eyes on them, though it (apparently) seemed like he was glaring. He would've done more to keep an eye out for whether the stone had been taken or not, but he just didn't have the time, he found-- Hermione had been raving up about exams. She'd begun working up study schedules and colour-coding her notes; He wasn't sure when or how she did it, but she'd done it to his too. And she even managed to get him scrambling to study in extra time, even though exams were over two months away. But, he supposed, He'd enjoy his exams much more when he wasn't half-asleep from putting off studying forever. He'd learned the hard way that it almost never works out. 

Ron certainly didn't like how they were studying all the time, since he thought exams were ages away, and he was not the only one. The professors, however, had decided that it was far too close to exams and their homework had practically gone from clocks to ticking time-bombs. Easter break had been nothing like Christmas break, when the homework was nowhere near as fun. 

One long afternoon, Padma, Ron, and Lisa all proved very impatient. The sky was a clear blue, and the day had been extraordinarily warm, and the three of them wanted to enjoy it as much as possible-- but Harry, Hermione, and Luna had only agreed they'd join after some studying had been done, much to the their chagrin.

"I'll never remember any of this anyway," Ron whined, throwing down his quill and staring hopefully out the window nearest. Padma, who'd been fast asleep, jolted awake when the quill feather brushed by her face. 

"We've been here for hours, when can we go enjoy the sunshine?" Lisa added. "I'm getting restless and if I get restless, we're all getting kicked out of here--"

"It's only been ten minutes, Lisa," said Hermione sternly. And by all means, go enjoy the sun, we're not stopping you. We'll join you soon enough-- and really, you ought to just do it and be happy. Ten weeks is hardly a second to Nicholas Flamel, I bet, and these exams let us get into second year! You wouldn't want to repeat, would you? And--" 

"Hermione, pleeeaaasseee. I'm not six-hundred, ten weeks is ten weeks!" 

"Oh, nonetheless! And you especially, really, should be studying magical theory out of all of us! You've got a bad habit of getting your incantations wrong, and that's going to be the end of you one day, I swear--" 

"Hagrid! What're you doing in the Library?" Ron disrupted Hermione, pointing at Hagrid, who had been acting rather oddly.

He had been hiding something behind his back, "Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, no, 'course not. We found out who he is weeks back, you know. We know what said Fluffy's guarding in the you-know-where." Padma said proudly.

"Well don' go shoutin' about it! What's the matter with yeh?"

"Aside from that, I actually wanted to know, Hagrid-- what, or who, is guarding the Stone--" Harry began to ask.

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Listen-- come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', yeh not 'sposed ter know in the first place. Jus' come an' see me later." Hagrid said, shuffling away.

"What's he hiding behind his back?" Luna brought up.

"I'll go see what section he came from," Padma said, quickly scampering off. She returned a minute later with a pile of books, dropping them on the table. "Dragons! He was looking at books about dragons!" She whispered.

"Dragons! He's told me he wanted a dragon, back in Diagon Alley, but you don't think he's got one, do you?" Harry asked. 

"He can't, it's illegal-- dragon breeding has been outlawed by the Warlock's Convention since 1709, it's practically common knowledge," Ron said, his voice suddenly low. "And, obviously, you can't keep a dragon in the back garden and call it your pet crup, no matter where you live! Muggle or Magic, it's not legal! And you can't tame dragons anyway, it's too dangerous-- that's why there's professionals! You've got to see the burns my brother Charlie's gotten off the ones in Romania-- those are not the kind of burns you can pretend aren't serious, trust me."

"Ron, is there a single dangerous animal Hagrid actually finds dangerous?" said Lisa, rolling her eyes. "And anyway, aren't there tons of wild dragons, like, everywhere, anyway?" 

"Yeah, of course there are," Ron scoffed. "those guys are on the Ministry's hands. Common Welsh Greens, Hebridean Blacks. Most common you'll meet round here-- there's tons of Muggles getting their memories wiped everyday. The laws against dragons really aren't jokes. You get caught with one of those things, you'd probably get time in Azkaban." 

"If Hagrid's doing anything, it's certainly not good," said Luna, shaking her head. 

When they knocked on the door of the Hagrid's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. "Who is it?" Hagrid called, peeking out through the tiniest crack in the door, before he hesitantly let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them.

It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm, nice day, there was a blazing fire in the grate that made it feel hundreds of degrees hotter. Hagrid made tea and offered stoat sandwiches, which they refused.

"So, yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" He asked. 

"Yes." said Harry, nodding. "I'll get to the point-- I was wondering if you could tell us if there's anything guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned at him.

"'Course I can't," He said. "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 outta Gringotts-- I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy." He explained.

"But there is something else guarding the Stone." Harry didn't mean to smile, but he did. Hagrid looked ashamed. 

"Sorry Hagrid, we just wanted to know," Luna apologised, and Hagrid just nodded in understanding.

"Hagrid, please? We know you know-- you know everything around here," pleaded Hermione, in a sweet voice that made Hagrid smile. "And we just want to know so we can help make sure the Stone is fully protected. And we were wondering who else Dumbledore found as trustworthy as you."

Her words had definitely made Hagrid swell up in pride. Harry hoped Hermione didn't miss the fact that nearly all of them were beaming at her. 

"Well, I don' spose it could hurt ter tell yeh... a'ight, let's see... Dumbledore borrowed Fluffy from me.. then some o' the teachers did their own enchantments.. Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall.." He counted on his fingers. "Professor Quirrell-- an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah! Professor Snape."

"Snape?" Ron said, suspiciously.

"Yeah– yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Harry knew what Ron had been thinking. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew how to get past everything, but if he helped, wouldn't he have just taken the Stone when no one was looking? The culprit being Snape felt like it made made sense, but it just wasn't illogical, and Harry knew better than to trust his gut sometimes. It was like the voices, just much quieter and much more reliable-- but sometimes it just wasn't right. 

"But yeh ain't gotta worry about anyone even gettin' past Fluffy. Only me an' Dumbledore know how to," Hagrid said proudly. 

"That's nice, but Hagrid, can we open a window? I'm boiling alive!" Harry groaned.

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. Harry noticed him glance at the fire, so he looked at it, too. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg. It couldn't be anything else but a dragon egg. 

Apparently, Luna was looking too, because she said, "Hagrid, what's that in the fire?"

"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's-- er..."

And now they all knew very well that Hagrid had a dragon egg. Ron was the first to get up and try to get a look at it.

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" He asked. "It must've cost a fortune!"

"Eh. 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."

"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermione asked, sounding perturbed.

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid said, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library-- Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit-- it's 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. An' y'see here-- how ter recognize diff'rent eggs-- what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

Hagrid looked incredibly pleased, but Harry felt otherwise. And fortunately, he was not the only one. 

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," said Padma, but Hagrid, unaware of anything but the Norwegian Ridgeback egg, didn't hear her.

And now they had more to worry about. The days were even shorter, it felt, and there was less and less time to study inbetween classes and making sure Hagrid wasn't going to get himself caught.

"Wonder what it's like not being involved in things sometimes, don't you," Padma whined one evening, looking at Harry. He hoped she didn't mean anything offensive, and he wished the same anyway.

"You're not even studying for exams, Padma," Luna said, smiling. Harry wondered how she did it so much, honestly. 

"Because, they're two months away! I'm smart, I hardly need to study!" She argued.

"You're driving me insane, you know," Harry muttered, and Padma gasped.  

"Oh, you're going insane? Hermione has put time for homework and studying in my schedule! She's driving me mental, more than insane!"

"Studying's good for you anyway, halfwit,"

"Excuse you, I am not a halfwit!"

Then, one early morning, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. He had written only two words: It's hatching.

Ron, looking for any reason to not go to class, had insisted they skip first period. "I mean, how many times in your life do you get to see a dragon hatching?!" He quietly said. 

"It's probably the same as a chicken hatching," Hermione snapped, "and we are not skipping any classes! I am not getting into trouble for you any more times this year, Ron!" 

"Shut up!" Lisa shushed, pointing at Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin girl who didn't even try to hide she had been listening in. She ran off when they noticed her, however.

"Great! Now we won't get to see a dragon hatch, and we're going to get ratted out!" Ron groaned. 

"We weren't going to see a dragon hatch! And that's Pansy Parkinson, the most she'll do is blabber to Malfoy!" Hermione said.

"Even worse!" Ron snarled. Ron and Hermione argued all the way to classes, until Luna suggested they just meet during morning break, and Hermione agreed, shockingly. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, all of them hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them at the door, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out." He said, as he ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside-- an odd, sort of funny clicking noise was coming from it.

They all drew 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 onto the table. It wasn't very pretty, but most dragons probably weren't-- just maybe the babies looked worse than he supposed they did when they were older. He thought it looked like a crumpled umbrella at first. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes. It looked halfway nightmare-worthy, halfway a small version of the monster you'd imagine in a fairytale. It sneezed, making a couple of sparks fly out of its snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured, reaching out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. "Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!" 

"Er, Hagrid, just how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?" Harry asked, backing away as the Ridgeback sneezed again. Hagrid was about to answer, when he suddenly bolted for a window.

"Someone was lookin' though the gap in the curtains," He said. "It's a kid– he's runnin' back up ter the school."

Harry walked up to the window and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him. Draco had seen the dragon. What luck.

Harry had the feeling he wasn't going to be allowed to get away with being at the scene, and his point had only been proven when, all throughout the day, the book had been humming and buzzing-- how it had gone unnoticed by any teachers, Harry didn't know. But he did know that Draco had been writing to him, constantly. He could ignore it, for a while, but sometimes he'd been tempted to check. Later. 

Throughout the week, they'd spent most of their time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.

"Can't let 'im go," he'd say. "He's so little tha' he'd die."

It was apparent-- just, apparently, not to Hagrid-- that they certainly didn't agree every time they looked at the dragon. He'd grown three times his length in the span of days. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. And, all the while, Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy, and there were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor every time they went to visit.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," Hagrid said, looking at the dragon with misty eyes, clearly not paying any mind. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mummy?"

"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered.

"Hagrid, you can't keep- um- Norbert. Give it long enough and he won't even be able to get out the door." Lisa said loudly.

"Give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house! And Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment!" Ron added. 

"He won't," said Luna, and Harry saw her glancing at him. Had he done something? Was he supposed to have done something?

"He definitely will! It's Malfoy! And he's got no reason to not snitch!"

Hagrid bit his lip, nervous.

"I- I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

Harry suddenly got an idea.

"Charlie!" He said. 

"No, no, not you too!" said Ron, groaning and frowning. "I'm Ron! Not Charlie! You haven't even met Charlie!" 

"No, not-- I meant- I- Ron, I know it's you! I meant- he- Charlie, I mean- you said he studies dragons or something, didn't you? In Romania? We could send Norbert to him!"

"Brilliant, Harry! How about it, Hagrid?" Padma cheered. Hesitantly, Hagrid tearfully agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie.

The following week dragged by very slowly, and it seemed Draco didn't plan on stopping any time soon. Harry had taken to leaving the book in his dorm and just checking it when he did homework; It had almost become like a chore. 

"It's a bit of a surprise, I think," said Luna, watching him flip through half a dozen pages Wednesday night. "By now, he already would've told someone. He really likes you if he's still trying to get you to talk to him about it."

"Maybe he already knows I'd have it out for him if he did," Harry muttered, and Luna hummed. "Well, I still think that he really likes you. And maybe it's better to not ignore him. He gets mean when he's in a bad mood."

Harry had only just found his quill when there was a tapping at the window. It was Hedwig. She had Charlie's answer. He and Luna read it together:

Dear Ron,
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 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 back as soon as possible.
Love,
Charlie
P.S- did you get your own owl? She's real patient. 

"He's willing to get Norbert, atleast," Luna suggested. 

They'd been procrastinating for a minute or two before Lisa and Padma came bounding towards where Luna and Harry had sat. They both looked some sort of shaken up. 

"You won't believe it, he- he..." Lisa said, but she never said whatever it was, because she collapsed on the couch and showed no sign that she planned on waking up anytime soon. 

"Oh, fine, leave it to me," Padma scoffed and tossed the Invisibility cloak to Harry, "You both know how it was Ron's turn to feed Norbert, and you can just imagine how that went, I'm sure. Got a nasty bite on his wrist- his hand was swelling up and everything, and then Hagrid told him off for startling the dragon! When we left to take him up to the Gryff's common room, Hagrid was singing a lullaby to the damn thing! You'd think it's a lamb or something!"

"Well, if we enlarged the cloak, a few of us could take Norbert." said Harry. "Charlie's friends are coming to get him, but we've got to get him to the highest tower."

"Highest tower?" Padma repeated faintly. "Surely they could get him from, like, the Quidditch pitch, or something? Or maybe we could force that dumb dragon-- I mean, er, Norbert, to fly and they can catch him in the sky? You know, push him out a window real high up?"

"I think you need to sleep," said Luna as she stood up and brushed past. "You're starting to talk like there are wrackspurts in your ears." 

"Hah, right- maybe Hagrid's got some."

The possible worst thing happened Thursday afternoon; It was already bad that morning, when Ron's hand was incredibly swollen and red, but he didn't want to risk going to Madam Pomfrey-- just incase she recognised dragon bites-- but by the afternoon, they had no choice. Red was starting to turn green, particularly around where he'd been cut, and the swelling hadn't gone down in the slightest. But, as Hermione pointed out, it had been too late to send another letter to Charlie. When they went to go visit him, he was in a terrible state.

"S'not just my hand," he whispered, looking very pale. "But that feels the worst- think it'll fall off, sooner or later. And Malfoy was in here earlier-- he told Madam Pomfrey he was borrowing one of my books but he was really just having a good laugh at me. Kept saying he'd tell her what really bit me, no clue why he didn't-- I told her I got into an accident in Potions and didn't say anything, right- I think she believed me, but I know she'd believe him if he did say anything. He's got it out for me for no reason- well, actually, reckon he's mad at me 'cos I don't just let him bully me." 

"Which book?" asked Hermione. "You had half of mine! You know, I've missed out on so many points I could've gotten--" 

"Yeah, yeah, he took one of mine, the prat," Ron muttered, nodding towards his bag. "He took the-- oh! Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" His voice had suddenly gone hoarse. "He took my Charms book! It had Charlie's note in it!" 

"Charlie's note?" Hermione repeated, confused. "Wait, Charlie's note as in the one saying you how to get the dragon, and when to get it? Ron, what do you mean, he has the note?! Why'd you keep it in- in a book, of all places!"

"Where else was I supposed to put it? I haven't got a thousand places to hide paper, you know!" Ron snapped, and his face was suddenly very pink. "I can't believe I didn't realise until now!"

"I don't care what you thought, what are we going to do?!" Hermione hissed. "We can't send Charlie another letter!"

"Well, Draco won't be telling anyone," said Luna, sounding fairly confident. "It'll be fine."

"You don't know that," Ron whined. "Malfoy's a total prat and he has it out for me and Harry. If he gets a chance, he'll take it."

"If he's got any sense, he won't."

"And since when has Malfoy had sense?" Ron retorted, and Luna frowned. "But I've got plenty of sense. And I know my cousin very well."

Ron didn't argue with her any further, but Harry had a feeling she'd probably been right. Draco wouldn't tell. And Harry didn't really need feelings, because it wouldn't matter anyway. It would be over soon enough and it wouldn't be a problem-- not his problem sooner or later, atleast. 

Saturday night came, after what felt like an eternity, Harry and Padma met with Hermione and snuck out to Hagrid's hut. Luna had already been asleep by time they were supposed to leave and- according to Padma- Lisa had practically boarded herself up behind her bed curtains. Fang the boarhound had been sitting outside with a bandaged tail when Hagrid opened the window instead of the door.

"Yeh can't come in," He said. "Norbert's at a tricky stage-- he'll be just all righ' in the mornin'."

When they told him about Charlie's return letter, his eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg.

"It's all right, he only got my boot-- jus' playin'-- he's only a baby, after all!"

Hagrid had struggled to get Norbert packed in a large crate, saying, "He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey. An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded as though the poor teddy was having his head torn off, though none of them had the heart to inform him. They would have felt more sorry for him when the time came for him to really say good-bye to Norbert if they hadn't been so worried about what they had to do. It was a very dark, cloudy night, and it wasn't exactly warm and comfy.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and Hermione covered the crate with the invisibility cloak while Padma held it up for them, and then stepped underneath it themselves. "Mummy will never forget you!"

It had been a long hour or so of dragging the crate all the way up to the Astronomy Tower, and even with a feather-light charm, it was still heavy. They'd gone up the front steps, then up a few flights, then down a few corridors, and past McGonagall in a tartan bathrobe and hairnet, dragging along Draco by the ear. If she hadn't been holding it up, it would've been as low as the other. His face was pink and scrunched up-- Harry had to stifle his laughter as they passed. 

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after all that. It felt like they were really finally able to breathe when the cloak was no longer over them. And it certainly helped that Norbert would finally be gone. They'd waited for around ten minutes or so before four broomsticks came swooping out the darkness. 

Charlie's friends were certainly a cheerful lot. They showed them the harness they'd rigged up so they could suspend Norbert between them, and they all helped buckle Norbert get safely into it. Harry and Hermione and Padma shook hands with the others excitedly and thanked them very much.

At last, Norbert was going...

Going... 

And, finally, gone.

"He's gone. Woohoo! He's gone! I could sing! And dance! Woo-hoo!" Padma cheered.

"Don't, please." Harry advised, grabbing the cloak. He was excited too, of course-- but they still had to get Hermione to the Gryffindor common room, and then get to their own. All of that could wait. Hermione thought the same, it seemed, because she was shaking with excitement but still kept her calm.

Slowly, they crept down the spiral staircase, relieved-- with no more dragon to worry about, nothing could soil their good moods. Or, atleast, they thought so, before they saw Filch standing in the shadows before the stairs. There wasn't even any time to pull the Invisibility cloak over their heads, because he'd already seen them.

"Well, well, well..." He said quietly. "We are in trouble."

"I am really starting to not like your face." Padma blurted, frowning immensely.