Another Hogwarts Tale

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they’d thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn’t look as though he’d cracked yet.

In the weeks that followed, he seemed to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look like Snape had broken his spine yet.

Each time they passed the third-floor corridor, the friends pressed their ears to the door to see if Fluffy was still growling from behind.

Snape scurried about in his usual bad mood, which surely meant the stone was still where it belonged.

Hermione and Ophelia, however, had more on their minds than the philosopher's stone.

They had started setting up a schedule for reviewing the subject matter.

Lucy had also started to look at the subject matter again and soon wanted to start learning properly.

Hermione had even marked all her notes in different colours.

The others wouldn't have bothered - for the most part - but she kept bugging them about it.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away."

"Ten weeks," she said harshly. "That’s not ages, that’s like a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you already know it’s an A."

"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize 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 gotten into me…"

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to think the same way as Hermione.

They gave them so much homework that they didn't have nearly as much fun over the Easter break as they did over the Christmas break.

Lucy, Ohelia, Louisa and Stella were sitting in the library with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

And sometimes at their short breaks they looked longingly out of the library window

It was the first really nice day in months. The sky was clear and forget-me-not blue and there was a hint of summer to come.

"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?" Ron suddenly asked.

Lucy looked up from her book and saw Hagrid not far away.

Hagrid, looking out of place in his beaver coat, shuffled over to them. He was 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?"

We are students and it's almost time for exams, Lucy thought. We are in the library to study.

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy -"

"Shhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what’s the matter with yeh?"

"We actually wanted to ask you a couple of things," said Harry, "namely, what else is there to guard that stone besides Fluffy -"

"SCHHHH!" Hagrid hissed again.

"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 aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh -"

"See you later, then," Harry said.

Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully.

"Do you think it had anything to do with the stone?"

"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, tired of work.

A minute later he came back with a stack of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

"Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper’s Guide."

"Hagrid’s always wanted a dragon, he told me, so the first time Lucy and I ever met him," Harry said and Lucy nodded in agreement.

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren’t wild dragons in Britain?" Stella asked.

"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.

~~

An hour later, when they stood in front of the gamekeeper's hut and knocked on the door, they were surprised to find that all the curtains were drawn.

Hagrid called out, "Who is it?" before letting them in and quickly shutting the door behind them.

Inside it was unbearably hot. Although it was warm outside, a fire blazed in the hearth.

Hagrid made them tea and offered them weasel sandwiches, which they declined.

"So - yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes," said Harry.

There was no point in beating around the bush.

"We were wondering if you could tell us what’s guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned at him.

"O' 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."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here" Hermione said with a warm, flattering voice.

Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling.

"We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

At her last words, Hagrid's chest swelled. Lucy and the others beamed at Hermione.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that… let's see… he borrowed Fluffy from me… then some o' the teachers did enchantments… Professor Sprout - Professor Flitwick - Professor McGonagall -" he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell - an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?"

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

Harry knew that at least Ron and Hermione were thinking the same thing as him.

If Snape had been there when they cast the wards around the stone, it must have been easy for him to figure out how the others had protected it.

He probably knew everything except, it seemed, how to break Quirrell's spell and get past Fluffy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy. Aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.

"Well, that's something," Harry murmured to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling"

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid.

Harry saw himself glance at the fire. Harry looked over too.

"Hagrid - what's that?" Lucy asked.

But she already knew what it was.

Under the kettle, in the heart of the fire, lay a huge black egg.

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

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, leaning over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."

"Won it," said Hagrid. "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."

Lucy raised her eyebrows and looked at Harry, who met her gaze.

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

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, 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 I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here - how ter recognize diff'rent eggs - what I got there’s a Norwegian Ridgeback. They’re rare, them."

He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn’t.

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said.

But Hagrid wasn’t listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.

So there was one more thing to worry about: What might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut?

~~~~

"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed as they struggled through all the extra homework night after night.

Hermione had now started making study schedules for Harry and Ron, too. It was driving them nuts. At least that made Harry and Ron furious.

Lucy, Ophelia, Louisa and Stella were grateful and tried to stick to the plan as much as possible.

Then one day, while they were having breakfast, Hedwig brought another note from Hagrid.

He had only written two words: It's hatching.

Ron wanted to skip Herbology and head straight down to the cottage, but Hermione and Ophelia didn't want to hear about it.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"

"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing -"

"Shut up," Harry whispered.

Just a few steps away, Malfoy had stopped dead in his tracks to listen.

How much had he heard?

Lucy turned unobtrusively in his direction and didn't like Malfoy's expression at all.

Ron and Hermione argued all the way to Herbology, and finally Hermione was persuaded to run to Hagrid's place during long recess.

When the castle bell rang at the end of the lesson, the six immediately threw down their trowels and ran across the castle grounds to the edge of the forest.

Hagrid greeted them; face flushed with excitement.

"It's nearly out." He pushed them inside.

The egg was on the table. It had deep cracks. Something stirred inside him; a strange cracking sound could be heard.

They arranged their chairs around the table and watched with bated breath.

With a sudden loud scratch, the egg cracked open.

The baby dragon flopped onto the table.

It wasn't pretty; It seemed to Lucy like a shrivelled black umbrella.

Its bony wings were huge compared to its thin-skinned jet-black body, it had a long snout with wide-open nostrils, small horn stubs, and bulging orange-red eyes.

It sneezed.

A few sparks flew from its snout.

"Isn't he beautiful?" murmured Hagrid.

He reached out to pet the baby dragon's head. It snapped at its fingers, showing its sharp fangs.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!"

"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid was about to answer when the color drained from his face - he jumped up and ran 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."

Harry jumped to the door and looked out.

Even at this distance there was no doubt who it was.

Malfoy had seen the dragon.

~~

Something about the smile that lingered on Malfoy's face for the next week made the friends very nervous.

They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.

"Just let him go," Lucy suggested. "Set him free."

"I can't," said Hagrid. "He's too little. He'd die."

They looked at the dragon.

In just one week he had tripled in size. Small smoke curls floated from his nostrils.

Hagrid was already neglecting his duties as gamekeeper, for the dragon was constantly encroaching on him.

Chicken feathers and empty liquor bottles lay strewn across the floor.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," said Hagrid, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mommy?"

"He's lost his marbles," Ophelia mumbled in Lucy's ear.

"Hagrid," said Harry aloud, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."

Hagrid bit his lower lip.

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

Harry turned to Ron.

"Charlie," he said.

"You're losing it, too," said Ron. "I'm Ron, remember?"

"No, Charlie, your brother Charlie," said Lucy, who had immediately known what her brother was getting at.

"In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!" Harry reported about his plan.

"Brilliant!" said Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"

And in the end Hagrid agreed to owl Charlie and ask him.

~~

The next week dragged along slowly.

Wednesday night, after the others had gone to bed, Hermione, Harry and Lucy sat in the common room for a long time.

The clock on the wall had just struck midnight when the portrait jumped aside.

Ron dropped Harry's Invisibility Cloak and appeared out of nowhere.

He'd been down at Hagrid's hut helping him feed Norbert, who was now devouring baskets of dead rats.

"It bit me!" he said, showing them his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody 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 little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby."

Something scratched at the dark window.

"It's Hedwig," Harry said, hurrying over to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"

With heads together, they read the bref.

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 as soon as possible.

Love,

Charlie

They looked at each other.

"We've got the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It shouldn't be too difficult - I think the cloaks big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."

The fact that the others agreed with him was a sign of how upset they were from the past week. They would do anything to get rid of Norbert - and Malfoy.

There was of course a hitch.

The next morning, Ron's injured hand had doubled in size.

He didn't know if it was wise to go to Madam Pomfrey - would she recognize a dragon bite?

It was afternoon and now he had no other choice. The bite had turned an ugly green colour. It looked like Norbert's fangs were poisonous.

~~

That evening, Harry, Lucy and Hermione ran to the hospital wing to find Ron in bed in a terrible state.

"It’s not just my hand," he whispered, "although that feels like it's about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me - I've told her it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me - I shouldn't have hit him at the Quidditch match, that's why he's doing this."

Harry, Lucy and Hermione tried to calm Ron down.

"It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday" Hermione said, but that didn't snoothe Ron at all.

Suddenly, he sat bolt upright in bed and broke out in a sweat.

"Saturday at midnight!" he said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no oh no - I've just remembered - Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."

Harry, Lucy and Hermione had nothing more to say to that.

Just then, Madam Pomfrey walked into the room and asked her to leave, as Ron needed some sleep.

"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry said to Hermione and his sister.

"We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl, and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we have got the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that."

They went to Hagrid to tell him their plan and found Fang the boar dog sitting in front of the hut with his tail bandaged.

Hagrid opened a window to speak to them.

"I won't let you in," he puffed. "Norbert's at a tricky stage - nothin' I can’t handle."

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

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

The baby banged its tail against the wall and rattled the windows.

The three friends walked back to the castle feeling that Saturday couldn't come soon enough.

~~~~

It was about time for Hagrid to say goodbye to Norbert. They would have felt sorry for him if they hadn't been so excited about how best to proceed.

It was a very dark, cloudy night, and by the time they got to Hagrid's it was a bit late.

They had had to wait in the entrance hall until Peeves, who was playing tennis against the wall, cleared the way.

Hagrid had already packed Norbert in a large basket.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," said Hagrid in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

There was a chilling noise coming from the basket, and it seemed to Harry as if the teddy bear's head was about to be ripped off.

"Bye-bye, Norbert," Hagrid sobbed as Harry, Lucy, and Hermione covered the basket with the Invisibility Cloak and then slipped under it themselves. "Mommy will never forget you!"

How they managed to get the basket up to the castle they didn't know themselves.

Midnight ticked closer as they hauled Norbert up the marble steps to the entrance hall and down the dark corridors.

Up another flight of stairs and another - even one of Harry's shortcuts didn't make the job much easier

"Nearly there," Harry gasped as they reached the hallway to the tallest tower.

Something moved in front of them, and they almost dropped the basket in shock.

Forgetting that they were invisible, they ducked into the shadows and stared at the dark shapes of two figures wrestling ten feet away.

A lamp came on.

Professor McGonagall, a hair net over his head and wrapped in a tartan robe, was holding Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you -"

"You don't understand Professor, Harry Potter's coming - he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on - I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

The steep spiral staircase to the top of the tower afterwards seemed the easiest exercise in the world.

Only when they had stepped out into the cold night air did they throw off their coats, glad to finally be able to breathe freely again.

Hermione do a little tap dance.

"Malfoy’s got detention! I could sing!"

"Don't," Harry advised her.

As they waited, they made fun of Malfoy while Norbert romped in his basket.

Ten minutes passed and then four broomsticks came out of the darkness.

Charlie's friends were a fun bunch. They showed the three friends the harness they had put together for Norbert so that they put him between them.

Then Harry, Lucy and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them warmly.

Finally, Norbert was going... going... gone.

They crept back down the spiral staircase, now that Norbert was gone, with hearts as light as their hands.

No more dragons, Malfoy got detention, what could possibly stop their happiness now?

The answer to that was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

As they stepped into the corridor, Filch's face suddenly appeared out of the darkness.

"Well, well, well," he whispered, "we are in trouble."

They’d left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.