Can Things Change

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

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.

Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Aurora, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Aurora passed Quirrell these days she gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell’s stutter.

One Sunday, mid March, Aurora met up with Cedric at the Quidditch pitch. After some warm up ground exercises, they quickly mounted their brooms and ran some seeker drills. Cedric was teaching Aurora different tricks that he had learned from the last few years that he had been playing and what he had seen whenever his father took him to a professional match. 

“Did you not go to the matches with them?” Columba asked, looking at her daughter.

Amice felt some of her old resentment of her father build back up at the question. She pushed it back down, and sighed, “No. It was boy's only days.” Columba glared at her husband for a moment, she could see how much that hurt their daughter, and resolved to get more information out of her later - one way or another.

He watched as she performed every single trick perfectly the first time she tried them, without him ever even having to show her half of them.

They were having so much fun that they didn’t even realize that they had ended up skipping lunch until the Weasley twins came out to the pitch with food for all four of them. The twins joined them in the air after their impromptu picnic, pelting bludgers at the two seekers. Aurora noticed that Fred was hitting more bludgers at Cedric, and swinging much harder than normal, especially for practice but she didn’t know why.

“You seriously had no idea?” Alice asked, looking at Aurora dumbfounded.

“Even after hearing his conversation with George outside the train about how he thought you were cute,” Marlene added.

“I had heard him and George talking about other girls too, so I just thought that he was a giant flirt,” Aurora defended herself.

“To be fair,” Fred chuckled, “I am a giant flirt.” This caused several others to laugh and Ron and Ginny to fake gag.

Hours later the four of them walked into the nearly full Great Hall, earning stares from all four tables. Aurora ducked behind the twins in embarrassment at having almost the whole school look at her like that. 

Peter looked confused, “Why are people staring? Lots of people come in for dinner late.”

“Cedric was holding one hand and Fred was holding the other,” Neville explained.

Cedric gave her a quick hug, causing Aurora to receive a death glare from the Ravenclaw table that went unnoticed by the girl herself, before heading off to join his friends at the Hufflepuff table.

Fred and George continued to shield Aurora as she quickly made her way over to her friends. Neville and Ron were staring at her incredulously, mouths open, and in Ron’s case, food falling off the fork held halfway to his mouth. Hermione had a knowing smirk on her face.

“Chew your food Ron,” George scolded. “No one wants to see that.”

“Mom, Ron needs to learn better manners,” Charlie announced from his spot on the floor where he was playing with Tonks.

“You’ve been flying all day?” Neville asked, to which Aurora just nodded, still too embarrassed to talk.

“With Cedric?” Hermione clarified, a knowing smile on her face, causing Aurora to glare at the witch, as well as earn a small glare from Fred too.

“You did that stuff on purpose didn’t you?” Fred accused.

“Amice and I had a bet on who would ask Ro out first,” Hermione smirked. 

“You bet against me,” Fred sighed, knowing now that Hermione was pointing out how Aurora liked Cedric to draw away from her liking him as well. It had sadly worked.

“I lost a lot of money off you,” Amice glared at Fred. “I honestly thought that you would step up sooner, and with Cedric having a girlfriend…” she trailed off.

“She then lost a lot of money on when you two would become official,” Hermione said. “And now she owes me more, cause I said before the end of the first book you two would be engaged.”

The Marauders were howling with laughter, while Columba giggled at the predicament her daughter found herself in.

“Fred and George joined us at lunch time,” Aurora mumbled. “They brought food out to us and the four of us had a picnic. Then we did some seeker drills with them too.” Aurora quickly piled up her plate with food. She had worked up an appetite today, but she had had so much fun just flying for the fun of it, and not trying to win a game.

By the time dessert appeared on the table, Aurora had forgotten about most of her embarrassment. Hermione however quickly changed that when she whispered into her ear, “Cedric is looking at you again.”

Fred tensed on the other side of Aurora, for the twins had called Lee over to sit next to the four first years. Aurora barely noticed however, she was focused on ignoring Hermione and enjoying her Treacle Tart that had appeared right in front of her.

“That’s my favorite too,” Lily said.

“It always appears right in front of her too,” Alice laughed.

“The house elves learn quickly who likes what and who eats the most of what.”

“We are just friends,” Aurora whispered waspishly.

“For now,” she replied, smugly.

Trying to change the subject quickly, Aurora blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “I want to cut my hair.”

Neville and Fred both looked horrified at this. “Don’t!” Fred commanded, making Aurora bristle. She hated being told what to do, especially in that tone, and that only solidified her resolve to cut her hair, even though she had only said it to change the subject.

“But it’s so pretty,” Parvati whined from several places down the table, she and Lavender had been listening in to their conversation.

“I can help if you want,” Alicia said, who was sitting across the table from George. “I know how much of a nightmare long hair can be after flying for hours.”

Katie and Angelina joined in the conversation as well as Lavender, and it was decided that that night they would do mini make-overs in the dorm for any Gryffindor girl who wanted one. After some convincing, Hermione agreed to have her nails and toe-nails painted.

“It was a really fun night,” Hermione admitted. “We made it a yearly thing; one night where all the boys are banished to their dorms, unless they really want to join, and we all give each other make-overs. No one is pressured into anything, and it’s all about treating ourselves and helping the younger years.”

“That’s a really good idea,” Lily and Alice said. It was their last year but they might have to do something like that, to get everyone's minds off of the war, at least for one night.

“We eventually started including other houses,” Aurora added. “We had to find a new location, and at first we used one of the unused classrooms on the third floor, but then we found this room, and it provided us with everything we could ever want and a lot of things that people didn’t have with them at school.”

“It was our way of trying to promote house unity,” Amice said. “We included all four houses and there was a rule in place that once you stepped through the door all rivalries were put aside while in that room.”

“It worked too,” Ginny mentioned. “Once people left the room everything was back to normal for the people who didn’t like each other, but while we were in that room everyone was treated the same.”

The Professor’s looked very interested in this. Maybe they could come up with something like this for everyone, not just the girls (and occasional boy who identified more feminine). 

Aurora shocked everyone the next day with her new haircut, above her chin, with one side slightly shorter than the other, giving her a natural looking fresh off the broom look, and framing her face perfectly. 

Aurora scrunched her face slightly and her hair receded, showing everyone in the room what the haircut looked like. “I always do my hair like this whenever I play Quidditch now,” she said with a slight chuckle, mussing it up a bit with her hand, at the lustful look on Fred’s face - he always had issues when her hair looked like this. “It’s so much easier.”

Fred was speechless when she walked into the common room before breakfast and insisted on escorting her to the Great Hall, where once again she was met with stares from many of the people there. Cedric was quick to greet her, Cho attached to his arm, telling her how much he liked the hair cut.

As March rolled into April, Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer’s Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and color coding all her notes. Aurora and Ron wouldn’t have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

“Hermione, the exams are ages away.”

“Ten weeks,” Hermione snapped. 

Sirius, Peter and James all shot an amused glare at Remus, while Severus, Alice and Marlene shot the same glare at Lily.

“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 all the answers.” 

“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 be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren’t nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon’s blood or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Aurora, Neville and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

The three time travelers gave an exaggerated shutter at the reminder.

“I’ll never remember this,” Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day they’d had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Aurora, who was looking up “Dittany” in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, didn’t look up until she heard Ron say, “Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hagrid in the library before,” said several of the students.

“I don’t think I ever saw him in the library even when he was a student,” Alastor grunted.

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

“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, we found out who he is ages ago,” said Ron impressively. “And we know what that dog’s guarding, it’s a Philosopher’s St—”

“Ron,” James groaned, “don’t go talking about it in public.”

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

“There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact,” said Aurora, “about what’s guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy —”

“SHHHH!” said Hagrid 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,” said Aurora.

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, who’d had enough of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

“Dragons!” he whispered. 

Charlie perked up from where he was playing, “DRAGONS!” The five year old started clapping his hands, and a moving dragon figurine appeared in front of him. Aurora let out a laugh as the figure looked exactly like the one she had received of the Horntail right before the first task of the triwizard tournament.

“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 I ever met him, “ said Aurora.

“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.”

Molly let out a short whimper, she hated being reminded that her children worked dangerous jobs.

“But there aren’t wild dragons in Britain?” said Aurora.

“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.

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper’s hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called “Who is it?” before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them.

It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.

“So — yeh wanted to ask me somethin’?”

“Yes,” said Aurora. There was no point beating around the bush. “We were wondering if you could tell us what’s guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone apart from Fluffy.”

The Marauders shook their heads in disappointment. “That’s not the way you get information out of Hagrid,” James sighed.

“There are two tried and true methods,” Sirius continued.

“One, butter him up,” Remus elaborated.

“Or two, get him drunk,” Peter finished.

Hagrid frowned at her.

“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.”

“Honestly probably half the school knew about Fluffy,” Fred said with a laugh. Turning to Dumbledore, “Honestly you telling the whole school at the welcoming feast that it was off limits because it was dangerous was basically daring everyone to go see what it was.”

Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment. “I see.”

“Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here,” said Hermione in 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.”

“Very well done Hermione,” James and Sirius praised. While Remus and Peter were laughing.

Hagrid’s chest swelled at these last words. Aurora and Ron 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?” Neville asked, a frown on his face.

“Yeah — yer not still on abou’ that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he’s not about ter steal it.”

Several of the time travelers snorted, not because of Snape, but because Quirrell also helped guard it.

Aurora and Neville knew Ron and Hermione were thinking the same they were. 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 everything — except, it seemed, Quirrell’s spell and how to get past Fluffy.

“You’re the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy. aren’t you, Hagrid?” said Aurora 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.

“And anyone who’s ever read any type of Greek mythology,” Fred and Hermione both muttered under their breaths.

“Well, that’s something,” Aurora muttered to the others. “Hagrid, can we have a window open? I’m boiling.”

“Can’t, Aurora, sorry,” said Hagrid. Aurora noticed him glance at the fire. Aurora looked at it, too.

“Hagrid — what’s that?”

But she already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.

“Ah,” said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, “That’s — er…”

“Where did he get it?” The Marauders all whimpered.

“I don’t know, but it’s awfully suspicious,” Lily said, looking thoughtful, as though she was putting pieces of a puzzle together. 

Ron and Hermione looked from Lily to Aurora and started laughing. “You make that same face when you figure something out,” they both said to Aurora.

“Where did you get it, Hagrid?” said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg.

“It must’ve cost you a fortune,” Neville added. 

“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.”

“But what are you going to do with it when it’s hatched?” said Hermione.

“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 now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

“He would most likely be sent to Azkaban,” Amelia and Kingsley both said.

Only Sirius and Remus caught the flinches of the time travelers at the mention of the prison.

“Wonder what it’s like to have a peaceful life,” Ron sighed, causing Neville to snort in amusement, 

“I still wonder about that,” Ron sighed.

as evening after evening they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Aurora and Ron, too. Neville had made his own with help from Hermione. It was driving them nuts.

Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Aurora another note from Hagrid. He had written only two words: It’s hatching.

Ron wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. Neville and Hermione wouldn’t hear of it.

“But, 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!” Aurora whispered.

Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen. How much had he heard?

“All of it.”

Aurora didn’t like the look on Malfoy’s face at all.

Ron and Hermione argued all the way to Herbology and in the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid’s with the other three during morning break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the four of them dropped their trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.

“It’s nearly out.” He ushered them inside.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it.

They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath. The four of them might think Hagrid was crazy for trying to raise a dragon, but they knew that this was a once in a lifetime chance.

“It really is,” Amos, Fabian and Gideon said.

“Nesting mother’s are usually so protective of their eggs that even most dragon handlers at the reserves don’t get to see a hatching,” Regulus explained. He loved dragons too, although not as much as it was apparent Charlie Weasley did.

All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn’t exactly pretty; Aurora thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. 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.

A picture of baby Norberta appeared in front of the group. “That’s amazing,” several people sighed.

“He’s beautiful,” Luna and Xenophilious said adoringly. 

It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

“Isn’t he beautiful?” Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon’s head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.

“Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!” said Hagrid.

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

Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face — he leapt to his feet 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.”

“Malfoy?” James and Sirius questioned.

“How long does he hold it over your heads?” Remus and Lily ask.

“A while,” Aurora and Neville answer.

Aurora bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him.

Malfoy had seen the dragon.

Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy’s face during the next week made Aurora, Neville, Ron, and Hermione very nervous. They spent most of their free time in Hagrid’s darkened hut, trying to reason with him.

“Just let him go,” Aurora urged. “Set him free.”

“I can’t,” said Hagrid. “He’s too little. He’d die.”

They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn’t been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over 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,” Ron muttered in Aurora’s ear.

“Hagrid,” said Aurora loudly, “give it two weeks and Norbert’s going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment.”

“Or his father,” Neville groaned.

Hagrid bit his lip.

“I — I know I can’t keep him forever, but I can’t jus’ dump him, I can’t.”

Aurora suddenly turned to Ron. “Charlie.” she said.

“You’re losing it, too,” said Ron. “I’m Ron, remember?”

“No — Charlie — your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!”

“That’s a rather good idea,” Andromeda said.

“Brilliant!” said Ron. “How about it, Hagrid?”

And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.

The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Hermione and Aurora sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed, Neville having left them early as he had been on Norbert duty the previous day. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Aurora’s invisibility cloak. He had been down at Hagrid’s hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

“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.”

There was a tap on the dark window.

“It’s Hedwig!” said Aurora, hurrying to let her in. “She’ll have Charlie’s answer!”

The three of them put their heads together to read the note.

     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

Aurora made a mental note to continue corresponding with Charlie, He had to be one of the coolest people ever if he was agreeing to help them smuggle a dragon out of the country. She would buy him anything he wanted for his birthday and Christmas next year.

“Why didn’t someone just go to Dumbledore,” Marlene groaned. “He would have helped, and not gotten Hagrid into trouble.”

“I’m assuming that he did know,” McGonagall growled. “He would know the moment someone crossed over the wards into the grounds.”

They looked at one another.

“We’ve got the invisibility cloak,” said Aurora. “It shouldn’t be too difficult – I think the cloak’s big enough to cover two of us and Norbert.”

It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other two agreed with her. Anything to get rid of Norbert — and Malfoy.

There was a hitch. By the next morning, Ron’s bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. He didn’t know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey — would she recognize a dragon bite?

“She would, but she wouldn’t ask any questions,” Fabian said.

“She knows that if she does, people won’t come to her anymore,” Gideon continued.

By the afternoon, though, he had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert’s fangs were poisonous.

“Looks like Norbert is a female,” Regulus commented. “Only the females have poisonous fangs.”

“She is,” Aurora chuckled. “Charlie renamed her Norberta because she was already used to the name Norbert.”

“She’s fairly well domesticated too,” Ron said. “We took Hagrid to visit the reserve two years ago and she even remembered him.”

Aurora and Hermione rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Ron in a terrible state in bed.

“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.”

Aurora and Hermione tried to calm Ron down. 

“It’ll all be over at midnight on Saturday,” said Hermione, but this didn’t soothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.

“Midnight on Saturday!” 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.”

“Do you guys ever have a plan that goes how it’s supposed to,” the Marauders asked.

“No,” Ron and Hermione said at the same time as Aurora said, “Yes.” The trio just glared at each other before bursting out laughing.

Aurora and Hermione didn’t get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Ron needed sleep.

“It’s too late to change the plan now,” Aurora told Hermione. “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 found Fang, the boarhound, sitting outside with a bandaged tail when they went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to them.

“I won’t let you in,” he puffed. “Norbert’s at a tricky stage — nothin’ I can’t handle.”

When they told him about Charlie’s letter, 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 on the wall, making the windows rattle. Aurora and Hermione walked back to the castle feeling Saturday couldn’t come quickly enough.

They would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to 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 they were a bit late arriving at Hagrid’s hut because they’d had to wait for Peeves to get out of their way in the entrance hall, where he’d been playing tennis against the wall. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.

“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.”

From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to Aurora as though the teddy was having his head torn off.

“Bye-bye, Norbert!” Hagrid sobbed, as Aurora and Hermione covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it themselves. “Mommy will never forget you!” 

“He does know that he is a male right?” Peter whispered to Remus.

How they managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as they heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another – even one of Aurora’s shortcuts didn’t make the work much easier.

“Nearly there!” Aurora panted as they reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower.

Then a sudden movement ahead of them made them almost drop the crate. Forgetting that they were already invisible, they shrank into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared.

Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

Amice turned red at the reminder of what else happened that night. Oh her mother was going to be so disappointed in her.

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

“You don’t understand, Professor. Aurora Potter’s coming — she’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 up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until they’d stepped out into the cold night air did they throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hermione did a sort of jig.

“Malfoy’s got detention! I could sing!”

“Don’t,” Aurora advised her.

Chuckling about Malfoy, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness.

Charlie’s friends were a cheery lot. They showed Aurora and Hermione the harness they’d rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Aurora and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much. One of the witches' hair went from dark black, to a bright blushing red, when she shook Aurora’s hand.

“I know that isn’t my daughter helping to smuggle a dragon out of the castle and all the way to Romania,” Andromeda said, her voice dropping to a threatening tone.

“Umm…” Aurora started.

“Well…” Hermione whimpered.

“Andi,” Sirius said, drawing his cousin's attention. “You’re channeling your sister there.” Andromeda stilled for a moment before calming some.

Neville had been holding his breath from the moment she spoke, clutching Luna’s hand. His only thoughts were that at least she wasn’t using a baby voice.

“Dora and Charlie were best friends at Hogwarts,” Fred said. “I figured when I heard this story later that Dora was part of the group transporting Norberta.” That didn’t calm Andromeda much, but Ted just grabbed her hand and nodded at Amice to continue.

At last, Norbert was going… going… gone.

They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them. No more dragon — Malfoy in detention — what could spoil their happiness? 

“You forgot the cloak didn’t you?” Lily asked with a sigh. Aurora and Hermione looked down in shame. Aurora had never forgotten the cloak again after this.

The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As they stepped into the corridor, Filch’s face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

“Well, well, well,” he whispered, “we are in trouble.”

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

“Not the best place to leave the cloak if you’re going to forget it,” Sirius huffed.

“Best to do it somewhere the house-elves will find it and return it,” James said. 

“I forget it in the kitchens all the time,” Peter squeaked. “It’s always back in the dorm by the time I make it back there.”

Amice closed the book. “That’s the end of the chapter,” she said softly.

“Let’s do one more before dinner,” Aurora stated. “We should be able to finish the book tonight, and I want to bring a couple more people here before we start the next book.”

Ted reached for the book and said, “I’ll read next,” the same that Fred picked Aurora up and put her on his lap and whispered in Aurora’s ear, with a growl, “Change your hair back to normal or I’m not going be held responsible for my actions later. You know what that haircut does to me.”