Dragon in the castle
In all honesty, Harry didn't know just why he was so surprised about Hagrid somehow having gotten his hands on a dragon - considering his track record, between that spider Tom had told him about and the Cerberus currently in the third floor corridor, and Hagrid having admitted that he wanted a dragon of his own, it had been a bit of a matter of time. If anything, the biggest surprise was that Hagrid had found someone willing to sell him a baby dragon, or a dragon egg - apparently, aside from being stupidly expensive, they were also illegal to own.
"What is Hagrid thinking?", Neville asked. "Nevermind that he lives in a hut mainly built of wood, he could get seriously burned! I've seen the injuries suffered by dragon handlers, and it's... it can get bad."
'Knowing Rubeus, he only sees a cute baby dragon', Tom snarked. 'Tarnation, I really thought that stint in Azkaban hammered home to the point of not owning illegal creatures which could eat him in a few bites.'
"We don't know if he owns one", Hermione half-heartedly argued. "Maybe he's just looking to broaden his horizon."
"But why would he be so secretive about it, then?", Harry said. "Look, I like Hagrid, but he pretty much admitted to me that he wants to own one, and considering he has a Cerberus... it's not a stretch to think he could've gotten his hands on a dragon."
"He's not wrong", Neville agreed. "Supposedly, there's a big black market for rare creatures - Gran says it's where Kettleburn buys his menagerie, and the Aurors are just flat incompetent when it comes to combatting that."
Hermione shook her head in frustration. "Uh, but what should we do? Inform Professor McGonagall?"
Harry groaned. "That would simply get Hagrid into trouble", he grumbled. "And I don't want that."
'Might be a good wakeup call for him, though', Tom said.
"Maybe we should visit him, see what's what", Neville suggested.
Sure enough, the three of them did just that, and roughly an hour later, they found themselves knocking on Hagrid's door, not entirely sure about how to play the whole matter.
"Well, that's a surprise", Hagrid chuckled as he opened. "What brings'ya down here?"
"We were kinda curious about the Forest", Harry lied. "Heard that there were some interesting creatures there, and, well, since you live right next to it..."
'Smooth', Tom commented.
Hagrid chuckled again. "Well, 's long as you don' enter it to see'em for yourselves", he half-sternly said and stepped aside for them to enter.
"Aren't students forbidden from entering it, though?", Hermione asked as they took a seat.
"Bah, like that ever stopped anyone", he grumbled. "Lost count of the number of times I had to chase the Weasley twins out of there... it's 'specially bad right now, though, so ye kids keep out."
"What do you mean?", Neville asked.
Hagrid looked mightily uncomfortable. "Ah, not really s'posed to sayin' it, but somethin's been goin' round, hurting unicorns", he eventually said. "Nasty business - unicorns are powerful, an' hurtin'em is incredibly hard, much less killing'em. Whatever it is, it's dangerous, and it's drainin'em of their blood."
Neville blanched at that. "Who would do such a thing?", he asked.
"No idea", Hagrid grunted. "Already had to put one down, when I couldn't help it, but it's been goin' for a few weeks now."
'Sounds like Quirrell is more desperate than we thought', Tom stated.
'What do you mean?', Harry asked.
'Unicorn blood has healing properties - it can prolong life for those who are close to death. Supposedly, if you drink it, you curse yourself for eternity, but I never bought into that. Sure, unicorns are supposedly the embodyment of purity, and protected by ancient and powerful magic, but considering no one ever bothered to elaborate on that curse, I believe that it's just bollocks someone made up to protect unicorns - oh, don't look at me like that, of course I looked into all that, even if I never used the blood - too hard to get, and the effects are barely worth the hassle.'
'And, you know, you may have to kill a powerful magical creature', Harry snarked.
'Eh, not the biggest challenge.'
Hermione meanwhile had a slightly different thing to wonder about, as her eyes fell upon the fireplace - the fireplace which was now dominated by a large black egg.
'Oh, bugger me!', Tom groaned.
"Hagrid", Hermione began, "what is that?"
Hagrid blushed. "Oh, that, ah, that's, err..."
Neville eyed it curiously. "This must've cost a fortune, Hagrid", he said. "How on earth were you able to afford it?"
"I won it", the groundkeeper said. "Was at the Hog's Head last night, for a glass or two, an' played some cards with some foreigner - odd chap, but shite at cards, though I think he was glad to be rid of the egg."
'Great, so Rubeus gambled it off some smuggler. Well, at least he didn't bankrupt himself - or the school.'
"But what are you gonna do with it once it hatches?", Hermione wondered.
'Uh, is he serious?', Tom asked as Hagrid explained his plans to raise the dragon (a Norwegian Ridgeback, apparently, not that Harry cared much). 'He does realize that people are bound to notice a dragon roaming around his hut, right?'
'Something tells me he didn't think that far', Harry glumly stated.
'Mhm, good point, considering where he kept that Acromantula.'
As time went on, the fact that Hagrid had no idea on what to do with his new dragon became even more evident - Harry, Hermione and Neville checked back with him on the rare occasions when they had time, which admittedly wasn't too often due to exam preparations. Their study group took up more and more of their time, especially as they dared to look at slightly more advanced spells to learn and practice - mainly second and third year material.
And as the days progressed, the House divides slowly began to soften up - not by much, and especially Nott and Greengrass were incredibly closed off, but even they eventually began accepting aid offered by 'lesser mages' (though as it turned out, Greengrass had some serious problems with Hermione, probably because she was just barely below her academic level), though that acceptance was only accepted with a lot of grumbling, and only after repeated failures on their parts.
'History does love repeating itself', Tom mused. 'Something similar happened back in my day - though our group mainly consisted of Slytherins and Ravenclaws.'
'Hufflepuff and Gryffindor being not worthy of your attention?', Harry teased.
'No, we simply didn't have the patience to put up with them', Tom grumbled.
However, a few weeks after having found out about Hagrid's secret, Hegwig brought a note, written in the groundkeeper's chicken scratch. It's hatching, the note said, and neither Harry nor Hermione nor Neville knew what to do.
'Welp, that spells disaster - would be fun to witness, though.'
'The hatching or the disaster?'
'You know, I was actually thinking both.'
Tom was alone in that, though.
"We need to inform Professor McGonagall or the headmaster", Hermione urged.
"That would just see Hagrid get into trouble", Harry argued. "Nevermind that we've known about this for a while now, and if we tell now, we're bound to get into trouble ourselves."
"But Harry, the faculty will simply find out, and we both know Hagrid cannot keep any secrets, and he'll probably--"
"Quiet!", Neville suddenly hissed, and when Harry turned, he saw Malfoy standing closeby, clearly busy eavesdropping on them.
'Someone clearly does not know the value of subtlety', Tom snarked. 'If Longbottom could spot him, how shit is he at hiding his intentions?'
'Hey, don't underestimate Neville', Harry replied, a glum feeling in his stomach. 'But whatever Malfoy's planning, I doubt it's good.'
'Warn Rubeus?'
'Yeah, might be a good idea.'
In retrospect, it may have been a bad idea, but between the worries of Malfoy doing something stupid and (admittedly, even per Hermione's words down the line) an underlying desire to actually witness a dragon hatching. In a queer twist of events, Tom now was the one voicing concerns about going down to Hagrid's.
'That ferret will likely be tailing us', he warned. 'He'll want to see what Hagrid is hiding, just to spite him.'
'He'll do that either way, no matter if we head over', Harry argued. 'And if he does, we can...'
'Do what? Stun him? That does not solve the problem - though if you intend on killing Malfoy, I know a few good spots in the Forest where you could dispose of the body.'
'Okay, seriously, do you have any other way to solve problems than through murder?', Harry asked exasperated.
'Hey, it's not my fault that every so often, problems can be solved through murder.'
By the time they arrived at the hut, Hagrid was giddy with excitement. "It's almost here", he announced with a face-splitting grin.
'Good grief, now I know when that damned spider hatched', Tom grumbled. 'Last time I saw him like that...'
Sure enough, the egg was shaking, making breaking sounds; the trio waited with baited breaths as cracks appeared across the shell, before it finally cracked open with a loud noise, revealing a small scaled creature. It was by no means pretty, at least in Harry's eyes; bony wings which were huge compared to the otherwise slender body, black scales contrasting bulging fiery red eyes, a long snout and tiny horns.
'Wait until you see the grown up version', Tom darkly commented. 'They are majestic, in a way - as long as you keep your distance.'
Meanthwile, Hagrid was naturally busy gushing over his new pet, saying that it recognized its mommy - much to Tom's amusement, especially when the baby tried to take a bite out of his fingers. The only problem showed itself, however, when Hagrid suddenly blanched, and upon following his gaze, Harry saw a mop of blonde hair disappearing from a window, too quick for him to act on it.
'Told you', Tom snarked, not bothering hide the smugness in his voice.
A quick glance sideways however revealed that Harry had not been the only one who had seen him; both Neville and Hermione had also spotted Malfoy peering in on them.
'You know, there is this clearing, deep in the forest, not far from Centaur territory...'
'Tom? Please don't tempt me.'
Still, even though Malfoy knew about the dragon, he was clearly waiting for something to happen - no one went down to Hagrid's hut other than the trio, no teacher, no auror, no one. For Tom, there was only one possible explanation. 'He wants the jackpot', he said. 'He wants us to get into trouble alongside Hagrid, likely when we try something as stupid as trying to smuggle the beastie out of the castle.'
'Hilarious, considering he does not seem to consider the chance that none of us have any idea on how to accomplish that', Harry responded.
Tom winced at that. 'Well, you're likely going to hate what I'll say next, then', he admitted. 'If I remember correctly, one of the Weasley's is a professional dragon wrangler.'
'Yeah, but that one isn't at Hogwarts anymore... wait, you want me to ask one of the Weasley's still in school to contact him?'
'Pretty much - clear it with Rubeus, get the idiot, the twins or Percy to write a letter to that particular brother, and then, figure out a way to get the beasty out of here.'
'You do realize that there are several issues with that, right? For one, getting a letter out to... Charlie Weasley, is that his name?... will require ratting out Hagrid - and then, how will we move a baby dragon?'
'Meh, the idiot will be happy to help you, what with his hero-crush, the twins always seem down for mischief, and Percy reminds me of myself - a stickler for rules and authority when it suits him, but somewhat reasonable overall. As for how to move the Ridgeback, you do have an invisibility cloak, remember?'
'Yeah, one which I don't want incinerated', Harry groaned. 'Also, since when are you somewhat reasonable overall?'
Tom sniffed in annoyance. 'I'll have you know I can be very reasonable.'
'I'm sure', Harry assured with a grin. 'Still doesn't ease my concerns, though.'
'Ask nicely, and you shall receive', Tom answered. 'And again, that cloak of yours is quite remarkable, and I would hope that Rubeus is smart enough to keep his pet dragon in some enclosed space - else, I know a spell or two to put a baby dragon to sleep.'
'Only to sleep, right?'
'I'm not in the habit of killing creatures, Harry.'
'Right, you only kill people.'
'Listen here, you little shit...'
As it turned out, Hagrid was somewhat self-aware about his lack of ability to keep the dragon - he had even ended up naming it Norbert, as it turned out - and consented to contacting Charlie Weasley. Hilariously, Tom was the one to lament sending the small beast away - after all, the dragon was the unofficial maskot of Hogwarts.
'Would've been fun to keep one on the grounds', he lamented. 'Ah well, I guess whatever I'm supposed to remember about the second floor girl's bathroom may still be alive...'
Harry rolled his eyes. 'You're gonna have to let me in on all of your secrets one of these days.'
Tom snorted. 'That requires me to actually remember all of them!', he answered.
Finding a way to make contact with Charlie Weasley was harder, in spite of Tom suggesting a quick apparation travel to Romania - apparently, he owned some real estate there. In the end, Harry opted to ask the twins.
"So, Harrykins..."
"What can we provide for you?"
Harry took a deep breath. "I was hoping the two of you could contact Charlie for me", he admitted.
Fred and George naturally exchanged a look.
"That's an unusual request", Fred said.
"Considering Charlie's employment", George added.
"Why would you want us to contact Charlie?"
"Unless you had a dragon problem, that is."
"Can you two keep this quiet?", Harry asked anxious. "I don't have a dragon problem, but... Hagrid does - he won an egg not too long ago, managed to hatch it, and now he's saddled with a Norwegian Ridgeback, if I'm not mistaken."
Fred nodded sagely. "Say no more, Harry."
"We'll ask Charlie to send some crafty people to pick up the baby."
It took almost two weeks for the reply to come, but when it did, Harry, Hermione, and Neville breathed a sigh of relief - Charlie would send some friends of his to pick up Norbert (or Norberta, if Tom was to be believed, as he suspected the dragon to be female), the following saturday.
'Gotta love the commies and their smuggling rings', Tom joked.
'Tom, in case you didn't notice, the romanians put their socialist dictator up against a wall a bit over two years ago.'
'Meh, old habits die hard.'
Fortunately, the Invisibility Cloak was large enough to accomodate three people or two people and a baby dragon - though the Ridgeback was by no means small anymore, having grown quite a bit since hatching. It was for this reason that Neville opted out of accompanying the dragon to the dropoff point - he was reasonably afraid of losing a few limbs to it - so it fell to Hermione and Harry, and by extension Tom, who naturally gave Harry a rundown of spells which could be used to subdue the dragon if it got any ideas.
'Aim for the eyes, that always hurts them. Use Cutters and Stunners, the scales shouldn't be thick enough yet. Flame-freezing charm should work on the small ones, so use that one if it tries to torch you - of course, it could kill it, but who cares?'
'Err, I care?', Harry said.
'Not if it tries to take a bite out of your face - though you might get Hermione to nurse your wounds afterwards, so...'
'Do us both a favour and shut up, please?'
Tom merely cackled.
When the night of the delivery finally came - on a dark and gloomy saturday - Harry and Hermione snuck under the cloak and out of the Tower, down to Hagrid's hut, where the half-giant tearfully parted ways with the dragon (Harry did his best to ignore the angry noises coming from the basket where the Ridgeback was staying).
"I cannot believe I agreed to this", Hermione grumbled as the pair made their way towards the Astronomy Tower.
"Look on the bright side", Harry grinned. "If something should go wrong, my point about being expelled rather than being dead will still stand."
Hermione groaned. "You're never going to let me live that down, will you?", she asked.
Harry's grin only widened. "Nope", he answered.
"For the record, I may prefer being mauled by a small dragon rather than being expelled", she said in turn. "That would mean I wouldn't have to put up with anyone's disappointment in me."
Harry chuckled. "Well, if it should come to that, I hope I'll be able to drag Norbert off you - or suffer the same fate."
'Not if I have anything to say about that', Tom grumbled. 'Your education can be replaced - unlike your life.'
Hermione chuckled and opened her mouth to reply, but quickly shut it when they both noticed a two shadows before them.
Oh my, Minnie still has that dressing gown? Merlin and Morgana, she already had that one in 1940!'
Harry meanwhile had a different concern. 'How in blazes did Malfoy know when we would move Norbert?', he cursed.
'Don't know, don't care, he's in trouble anyway, so let him take the heat.'
Sure enough, the cloak helped them get passed the cranky Professor McGonagall and Malfoy, whom she dragged along by his ear - a classic, as Tom gleefully noted - and made their way up to the Astronomy Tower, where a quartett of burly wizards were already waiting, wands out.
"You have dragon?", one of them asked in broken and heavily accented english.
'Merlin, Weasley's really know how to pick them', Tom snarked as Harry handed over the basket, causing some romanian muttering. 'I think I used to buy stolen spellbooks from their grandfathers. And trade a few bottles of vodka for a functioning fridge with their soviet cousins, when need arose.'
'Do I want to know?'
'Let's just say I had gotten my hands on more bottles than I could use and was in dire need of a fridge for some items while in Siberia.'
'Yup, I do not want to know the details.'
Language barriers aside, the handoff was a quick one, and the romanians quickly took off on their brooms, leaving Harry and Hermione all alone and eager to get back to the Common Room. Too eager, in fact.
'Harry, grab the damned cloak!', Tom scolded.
Harry sheepishly winced and grabbed the cloak, waving at Hermione to join him under it - just in time, as Filch wheezed up the stairs to the tower seconds after, looking around, quickly joined by McGonagall (still in the gown and hairnet) and Malfoy (still being dragged by the ear).
Needless to say, the fallout was one to be witnessed - Slytherin lost some seventy points, for breaking curfew and wrongfully discrediting fellow students, wasting staff time in the process.
'Can't say I'm happy to see so many emeralds go away, but goodness, that brat deserves it', was Tom's only comment.
Meanwhile, when they finally did manage to get back into the Common Room, Hermione gave Harry a bonecrushing hug.
"I never thought I'd say this", she grinned. "But we need to do this sort of thing more often - it was fun."
'Try not to have too much fun', Tom said. 'Lest you find yourselves answering uncomfortable questions by Poppy.'
Harry could only barely surpress a groan at the latter comment.