Chapter 9
"So it's gonna be gone next Tuesday?" I asked.
"Yup," Ron said.
"If Quirrel doesn't stand up to Snape," Hermione explained.
"Which he obviously won't. He's a pansy," Ron said.
Harry and I snickered while Hermione rolled her eyes.
"And you heard this all at the quidditch game Harry?" I asked.
"Yeah after the game," Harry whispered.
We were all studying at the library. It was the day after the quidditch game and they were filling me in on what Harry had heard in the Gryffindor locker rooms. I still thought it was insane, Snape was ahead of a house and a trusted professor of Dumbledore, he can't possibly be trying to get the stone. But all evidence pointed to him, I sighed.
"Then I guess we have to watch out for Snape," I said, and we continued to study.
Apparently, Quirrell was not as big of a pansy as we all thought. For weeks he'd been getting paler and thinner and Snape had gotten angrier and angrier, but it had seemed that neither of them budged. The stone seemed to still be safe. It was nice for us to stop worrying about the greater good and evil and sorcerer's stones and focusing on school, exams, and friends. Exams were fast approaching, and for the Easter holidays, I spent time with Hermione, Ron, and Harry in the library, studying as much as possible. I wanted to do top grades and prove myself, for my mother and for the rest of the Slytherin house. One particular day at the library, we ran into Hagrid. He seemed rushed and was carrying a book called, "Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide". I thought nothing of it until we visited Hagrid's an hour later to see a big black dragon egg boiling in the kettle. We were all worried about what would happen to Hagrid or his wooden hut for that matter, so a couple of days later when Hagrid informed us it was ready to hatch, we were eager to go. After Herbology, we headed to Hagrid's.
Inside the hut, on a small table was the big black egg with deep cracks in it. There was a strange clicking noise and you could tell that something was moving inside.
"It's almost ready," Hagrid said excitedly.
We watched silently as the egg abruptly split open. The tiny, black baby dragon came out. It had big orange eyes, horns, and a protruding spine. It wasn't really pretty, but it was mesmerizing. It seemed we were all holding our breaths when the dragon let out a sneeze that brought a few sparks in the air. We started to talk about the dragon, learning that it was a Norweigan Ridgeback when all of a sudden Hagrid's look of amazement disappeared and was replaced with worry. He ran to the window and immediately closed it.
"What is it Hagrid?" Hermione asked.
"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains — it's a kid — he's runnin' back up ter the school."
Harry and I ran to the door to see who it could've been. Running toward the castle was a boy with pale white hair and green robes. Malfoy.
The next week Malfoy looked happy, he had information that could ruin Harry and his friends, and that made him genuinely smile, no matter how many times I told him he looked creepy. With the threat of Malfoy looming over our heads and the worry that Norbert would get bigger the four of us hatched a plan. Ron's older brother Charlie worked with dragons in Romania and had friends nearby that could take him safely. All that we needed to do was bring the dragon- whom Hagrid named Norbert, to the tallest tower at midnight the following Saturday. Malfoy had gotten word of the plan so we had to change it slightly. Harry and Hermione would use the invisibility cloak to head to the tower, while I would distract him somehow. It seemed risky, but the sooner Norbert was away, the sooner we could finally move on without Malfoy trying to get us in trouble or Ron getting bitten by Norbert.
Saturday at half an hour until midnight, Hermione and Harry left Gryffindor Common Room first in the invisibility cloak and set off to retrieve Norbert. I left moments after and headed to the dungeons. I made it just in time to catch Malfoy leaving the common room.
"What are you doing out past curfew Roberts?" he asked.
"I just finished detention with Filch and was heading back to the common room. What are you doing out Malfoy?" I lied through my teeth.
"Just wanted to get a snack from the kitchens, Roberts. Bye now" He tried to walk past me.
"Wait!" I called out, "I'll come with you. I'm rather hungry too," I grabbed his arm and dragged him toward the kitchens, as far away from the tower as possible. When I noticed our hands were touching I blushed and pulled away quickly as we started to walk in the other direction.
"So what about that potions essay? I've got four rolls of parchment and I'm just looking over it now. If it's good enough, I'm sure Snape will give us points. That combined with us winning the quidditch cup will definitely help us win the house tournament." I was rambling about everything under the sun.
"Are you trying to distract me from something Roberts?" he asked quizzically, there was a mysterious glint in his eyes. He knew what I was doing.
I placed my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye, "What do you take me for Draco? I'd never do that." I knew that saying his name would distract him. Before waiting for him to respond, I boldly grabbed his hand. "Now let's go get some food," I giggled.
We made our way to a main corridor where there was a giant painting of a bowl of fruit. I stood back as Malfoy walked up to the painting, right in front of a pear. Before I knew it, he was tickling the pear. I thought it was strange and was going to comment until the portrait opened up and sure enough, we were in the kitchens. We sat together and talked for a short while about anything and everything. A nice house-elf named Meepy gave us some cookies and a glass of milk. I felt lost in conversation with Draco, and I was starting to forget about the mission to distract him and the reason that I was mad at him at the moment. When we left and decided to go back to the dungeon I was so into our conversation about quidditch that I didn't realize that we were heading straight for the tower.
"-I know being a chaser is pretty difficult but I feel like I'd either be a good chaser or beater. Although I will try for any space that is actually open on the team. Draco are you listening?"
"Yeah uh-huh. Whatever you say, Maggy," he said obviously distracted.
That's when I realized we were heading up the stairs rather than down.
"Draco why aren't we going back to the dungeons?"
"Because I want to look at the stars for a bit. I was named after the stars, you know. Draco. You don't mind, do you?" He raised an eyebrow.
I gulped and immediately faked a yawn. "I'm really tired. Maybe we could go stargazing next time."
"It'll only be a minute Maggy, Just come up with me," He went to go further up the stairs.
"No!" I cried out. "You can't go up there!" I grabbed his hand and held him back.
"And why is that Roberts?"
"Because it's past curfew, Mr. Malfoy" we heard a shrill voice and slowly turned around to see Professor McGonagall in a hairnet and a bathrobe. It would've been funny if she didn't immediately grab us both by the ear.
"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin each! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you —"
"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter is coming and he's got a dragon!"
"He's lying Professor. Harry's not here!" I pleaded.
"I don't care for either of your lies at the moment. What utter rubbish! Let's go to the dungeons and see what Professor Snape has to say about the lot of you!"
With that, she started to drag us off into the dungeons into the evil clutches of Professor Snape. Anything good that happened between me and Malfoy had long gone sour. As we were dragged out to face our punishment, I hoped with everything in me that Norbert at least got out safely.
After a scary talk from a crankier-than-usual Professor Snape on the detention we would get from Filch, he had to usher us back to the common room. He left and McGonagall went to deal with Harry and Hermione, apparently, they had been caught by Filch. The minute we were alone in the common room, I jumped away from him.
"Seriously Malfoy, I can't believe you got us detention,"
"I was trying to get Potter in trouble," he was practically seething, "If you weren't there then I wouldn't have gotten caught"
"I was trying to cover for Harry and Hermione! You could've just left them alone, you know." I was slowly getting louder and angrier.
"Oh, so you were helping the bloody Gryffindors. What were you supposed to be, a diversion?"
I stayed quiet.
"Wow, Roberts. I knew you were a mudblood, but I didn't know that you were a traitor to all of Slytherin."
That's when I snapped. I grabbed his shirt and pushed him hard.
"You can say what you want about me. For the record, I am a Mudblood, get bloody used to it you git. But I am no traitor to Slytherin. Slytherin means more to me than your little snitch sized brain can comprehend,"
I didn't wait for him to respond. I sauntered to the girl's dorm and slammed the door shut, knowing he would hear it. I edged down the door, and when I heard no one near me was awake, I started to cry. I hated that Malfoy git, he was so nice one second, but tore me down the next. I don't know how long it was that I cried on the floor over Malfoy, and this detention, and Norbert, but after I got up into my bed, scooped Leeroy into a cuddle and drifted to sleep.
A/N: Yeehaw guys! 1768 words!