A/N: Well, it's been quite the year! I just graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Geneseo and I will be matriculating as an English graduate student at the University at Buffalo in September. A note about this chapter: the end highlights a plot discrepancy between PS and HBP that I've long wondered about…
Chapter Fifteen
Spring Term 1992
After the Easter holiday weekend was over, I entered the third and final term of my first year at Hogwarts. My life had changed considerably during the year I'd spent in the magical world, and it would certainly be changing much more before the rest of the year was over.
Classes started again on Monday, April 20 and I fell into the routine quite easily. We all found out our winter term exam grades on Wednesday, and I was unsurprised to see all Outstandings. I even had an O+ in Transfiguration, which was the only distinction between Harry's grades and mine. He had all Outstandings as well, but no O+. Sally had one Outstanding and mostly Excellents; Ron had a two Excellents and a bunch of Acceptables; and Neville had an even mix of Excellents and Acceptables.
It was quickly apparent that the spring term was going to be a little different from the previous two terms. Because of its shortened length, very little new material would be introduced, except to prepare us for the following year. Much of the term would be concerned with reinforcement of what we had already learned. Though I had already more or less mastered the material, review would be a good and even welcome respite from the workload of the other two terms.
That first week of the term saw all of us first years interacting on a more active basis, which most likely had something to do with the football game we had played. There was another planned for the upcoming weekend, and I could truthfully say that I was looking forward to it. It had been energizing and enjoyable, especially after being cooped up in the castle all winter.
During breakfast on Friday, as we were getting ready for another highly enjoyable Potions class with Snape, Hedwig swooped into the Great Hall with the other owls. She was immediately recognizable because she was the only white owl amongst the browns and grays of the rest of them.
Harry reached out to stroke the beautiful bird as she gracefully landed on the table between us.
"What is it, girl?" he wondered, untying the note from her leg. He fed her some bacon and she hooted at him, taking off with the meat hanging from her beak. He looked across the table at me and then at Ron, who was next to me, after reading the note. Neville and Sally looked curious, too.
He silently passed the note to me. Only two words were written on the small piece of parchment: It's hatching.
I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows. I hoped Hagrid knew what he was doing with this dragon, because it could turn out very, very badly for him.
I passed the note to Ron, who then passed it to Sally; finally, Neville received the small piece of paper. We all just looked at each other in silence for a few moments. I don't think any of us wanted to admit that we were just a little bit curious, because I'm pretty sure we were all worried about this whole thing, as well.
"Are you gonna go see it?" Neville asked, eventually.
Harry shrugged; Ron nodded. "Maybe," Harry said.
"Definitely," Ron answered.
Sally glanced at me. "I dunno…"
"Well, regardless, we have Potions first," I said. "And actually, we should probably get going, or we'll be late."
We stood from the table, picked up our things, and trudged down into the dungeons for another lesson with Snape. He made it a point to tell us that Potions would still require the same amount of work during this shortened term, and that his class would not be merely review for the rest of the year. One part of me loved that Potions would still be rigorous, but the other part blanched because Snape would be teaching it.
We had all fallen into a sort of routine, though, and Potions passed fairly uneventfully. As long as we did our work quietly and efficiently, Snape rarely bothered us. He had even backed off from picking on Neville, but that was probably because Neville's Potions work had picked up over the year.
At one point I had to send some discreet signals to Harry, because he was glaring at Snape with a very suspicious look in his eyes. If Snape saw it, it would probably start some kind of incident, so no matter what our suspicions were, we had to keep them to ourselves for now. Nothing had happened on the Philosopher's Stone front for quite some time, so it seemed like the mystery would go unsolved, at least for the rest of this year.
After Potions let out, the five of us lingered in the hallway just beyond the classroom.
"Alright, who's going with me?" Ron asked.
"I guess I'll go," Harry said. "S'pose we should support Hagrid."
"And make sure he doesn't burn his house down," I added, resolving to go with them.
"I, uh, oh alright, I'll come down for a look," Neville said, surprising me a little bit. Out of all of us, I would have expected him to stay behind.
We all looked at Sally expectantly.
"Come on, Sally. How many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" Ron asked, goading her.
"Yeah, but-"
"A dragon hatching-" Ron started.
"Shut up!" Harry said, fiercely.
I turned to follow the direction of Harry's stare, and I felt a dread in my stomach when I saw that Malfoy had just walked out of the Potions classroom. He had stopped by the doorway and was clearly listening to our conversation. I made eye contact with him for a moment and then he turned and walked away. We watched him go in silence.
"How much d'ya think he heard?" Harry wondered.
"Dunno," Ron answered, "but it doesn't matter. Let's go, or we're going to miss the hatching." He looked at Sally. "You coming?"
She pursed her lips. "If you all are going, I'll come along too."
"That's settled then. Let's go," Ron said.
We ascended to the Entrance Hall and then exited the castle through the massive front doors. It was a beautiful day outside-warm and sunny and breezy-so our walk down to Hagrid's cabin was pleasant and comfortable. The door was closed and there was still smoke coming from the chimney.
I knocked on the door when we arrived, responding to Hagrid's gruff inquiry that it was just the five of us. The door opened almost immediately and we were greeted with Hagrid's flushed, smiling face.
"C'min! It's nearly out!" he exclaimed, ushering us inside. A wave of stifling hot air washed over me as I crossed the threshold, so I immediately swept open my robes, loosened my tie, and unbuttoned the top button of my shirt. I didn't want to pass out in the middle of Hagrid's cabin. I saw that the others were doing similar things to their clothing.
"Why's it so bloody hot in here?" Neville wondered. I looked at him quickly; I had never heard him curse before.
"Got ter keep it hot fer the baby," Hagrid explained, pointing at the table in the middle of the cabin. The egg was vibrating slightly, and there were slowly spreading cracks along its shiny black surface. It was quite evident that something was moving inside.
"Any time now!" Hagrid said. He sat down, facing the table, and we all stood around it, watching the show. There were some clicking noises, almost like something was hammering on the inside of the egg, and then suddenly a small part of the egg fell away. Sally gasped slightly when a long snout with wide nostrils came through the small hole.
"Oh, so beautiful," Hagrid whispered, entranced. The firelight reflected off of his beady eyes as he stared at the egg.
The egg cracked noisily and a large part of it fell away. The hatchling tumbled out in an ungraceful tangle of wings, body, and head. We watched with bated breath as it righted itself on the table, trying to shake some of the egg goo off of itself.
It was an ugly creature. The wings were long and gangly, its body was skinny, and the head was complete with tiny horns and the orangest eyes I'd ever seen. It swiveled its head to look at all of us, and I got the distinct impression of a cool intellect hiding behind those vivid eyes. It then crinkled up its snout and sneezed loudly, sending forth some sparks from its nostrils.
Hagrid made a delighted noise and reached to out pet the baby dragon, but it viciously snapped at his fingers. The smile did not fade from Hagrid's face, however.
"So beautiful!" Hagrid said, again. "And bless him, look, he knows his mommy!"
While Hagrid stared unwaveringly at the dragon in front of us, I made eye contact with Harry, Ron, Neville, and Sally. They all made movements that essentially told me they didn't know what to think.
A question occurred to me: "How fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, Hagrid?"
"Quickly, in fact-" he started to say, but something captured his attention. He jumped up, almost knocking over the table, and rushed to the window by the door. The curtains had been drawn, so he swept them aside.
"What? What's going on?" Ron wondered, sounding bewildered.
"Someone was lookin' in," Hagrid explained, sounding breathless. "Looks like a kid, and he's running back ter the school."
We all glanced at each other again, and there was understanding in our eyes. We bolted to the window and the door to catch a glimpse of this kid. Even before I saw the platinum blond hair and the Slytherin robes, I knew it was Malfoy.
"Bollocks," Harry muttered.
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Every time I saw Malfoy that weekend, I noticed a light smirk playing across his lips, as if he knew something that was amusing only to him. I knew that it had something to do with the dragon, and I was actually fairly surprised that he hadn't told anyone yet. As far as I could tell, no one had said anything to Hagrid about the baby Norwegian Ridgeback currently residing in his hut, and nothing had been said Harry, Ron, Neville, or Sally. For some reason, Malfoy was sitting on the knowledge, and that made me more nervous than if he had told someone immediately.
Just when I thought we had left the Philosopher's Stone mystery behind due to lack of information-and also due to Dumbledore's clear disapproval of our nosing around-we were sucked back into a new intrigue, which could quite adversely affect a faculty member this time. I knew now that having an unregistered dragon without a license for breeding was highly illegal, and would surely get Hagrid sacked if anyone found out. I was worried for Hagrid, but I was also worried for myself and my four close friends. We were now complicit with Hagrid in this little plot; I almost wondered if I should just tell McGonagall, but I hesitated because I didn't think I could do that Hagrid.
The planned football game for that weekend took my mind off events for a little while, but it was only a short respite from the worry that had settled into my mind. The game itself was a good time, as I had expected it would be, and there were more planned for the rest of the year. Dean, Seamus, and Lily had of course dominated again, but it was exciting nonetheless. All of the first years were bonding in a way that was probably unfamiliar to Hogwarts, looking back on it, because we were using a familiar Muggle sport to bridge the gap in the magical world.
Dean, Seamus, and Lily got a chance to show off their skills in a mock shootout after the game ended; Ron decided to be goalie (he apparently had always wanted to be Keeper in Quidditch), and surprisingly did a fairly decent job at blocking their shots. Lily scored with her signature bicycle kick the first time, but the next time she did that Ron blocked it. Dean and Seamus scored a few times, but Ron blocked the majority of their shots during the shootout. He had absolutely no qualms about diving side to side to stop the incoming ball, and the three football players could only rave about his abilities after the shootout ended. Ron was smiling as a result of the praise in a way that I had never seen before; it was rewarding to see him get compliments for something he did completely on his own.
The next week of classes passed much like the previous week, with lessons and homework being fairly straightforward and simple. I studied a little bit for upcoming final exams, but I felt like I had a strong grasp on all the material, so I mostly just helped others where they thought they needed it. Harry and I had fallen into some informal tutoring sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and with finals approaching, they had become even more regular. On Thursday of that week, April 30, all of the other first years sat down with Harry and me to review material, and the session lasted for about two hours. So on top of the football games, all of us were coming together on the academic side of things, as well.
During Potions on Friday, which was with the Slytherins, Malfoy could not stop staring and smiling at us. It was getting on my nerves, but I knew that I couldn't do anything about it, because Snape would surely favor him. After class ended, I signaled to Harry and Ron that I needed to talk with them about something. As we made our way back up to the main level, Harry and Ron fell in step beside me; Sally and Neville weren't far behind.
"I think we should go see Hagrid again," I said to them.
"How come?" Ron asked.
"Because of Malfoy," Harry supplied, and I nodded at him.
"Yeah, did you see how he was looking at us during class?" Neville asked.
"Like a little git," Ron mumbled.
"We need to convince Hagrid to get rid of the dragon," Sally said, and none of us disagreed.
So once we reached the Entrance Hall, we left the castle through the immense front doors and headed for Hagrid's hut. There were a few students out and about, enjoying the beautiful weather, but we were unimpeded on our journey across the grounds.
Harry knocked on the door and Hagrid let us all in after ascertaining that it was just the five of us. Norbert was still on the table, though the baby dragon had nearly doubled in size. The cabin smelled strongly of wood smoke and the table was gouged and charred in several places. The black dragon stared at us malevolently, its orange eyes smoldering in their sockets.
"What's up with you lot?" Hagrid asked, reaching into a bucket by the table and pulling out a rather disgusting dead chicken. He plopped it onto the table and I tried not to look as the dragon devoured the bird; Sally looked like she was going to be sick as the bones crunched noisily.
"We're here about that," Harry stated, pointing at the dragon.
"Norbert?" Hagrid asked, glancing between us and the table.
"Huh? Norbert?" Ron articulated.
"Yeh…that's what I've decided to call him. Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback," Hagrid responded, looking fondly at the beast. It belched, having finished the chicken, and some flames erupted from its snout. Hagrid looked unsurprised.
"Great…" Sally said. "Hagrid…"
"What?" he wondered, looking genuinely perplexed.
"Just let him go," Neville said.
"Set him free," Harry added, urging Hagrid gently.
"He deserves to be in the wild," I said, hoping that all of us could persuade Hagrid to part with Norbert.
"But I can't," Hagrid returned, disagreeing with us. "He's too little. He'd die out there," he said, pointing in the general direction of the Forbidden Forest. At that moment, as if to reinforce his point, something howled from deep within the Forest. We all listened to the sound fade away.
"Hagrid, you can't keep him," I said.
He looked at me. "Why not," he inquired, rather impetuously.
"It's illegal. It's dangerous. It's foolish. Do I need to go on?" I wondered, hoping that I hadn't crossed the line with our genial groundskeeper.
"But he really knows me now," Hagrid contended. "Watch this." He faced Norbert, bending down so he was eye level with the dragon. "Norbert! Norbert! Where's yer mum?"
The dragon continued to lick chicken blood off of the table, completely ignoring Hagrid's calls. I looked at Harry and he looked at Ron. Neville was shaking his head and Sally was staring at Hagrid as if he had completely lost his mind. Ron must have agreed with her:
"He's lost his marbles," he whispered. "Completely, he has," he added, nodding his head. I wasn't about to disagree with Ron, though I did understand that a dragon was something Hagrid had always wanted. I watched as Harry turned from Ron to Hagrid.
"Hagrid," he said. When Hagrid didn't respond and instead kept staring at Norbert, Harry repeated himself. "Hagrid!"
"Yeh?"
"Norbert is going to burn down your house or kill you," Harry said. "In a month, he'll be bigger than your house. You have to do something with him. He can't stay here. If other people find out that you have a dragon, you're going to get sacked."
"I know I can't keep him forever…" Hagrid replied, looking very forlorn.
"Malfoy could go to Dumbledore or McGonagall or Snape at any time," Harry added, and I thought that would be the icing on the cake. I had an inkling that Hagrid wasn't a big fan of Snape, and if the Potions Professor had the opportunity to have some dirt on him, Hagrid would want to avoid that.
"But I can't jus' dump him, I can't."
Silence fell again as we all considered his words. What could we do with Norbert? Should we just let him go, or would that be unfair to the baby animal? By the way it had devoured the chicken, I thought it probably would have been able to take care of itself. However, I realized that if it couldn't fly yet, then that assumption would be complicated.
Suddenly, Harry turned to Ron. "Charlie!" he exclaimed. Ron just looked at him, but my face broke into a large grin. Of course Charlie could help us!
"Wha-what?" Ron asked. "I'm Ron. You must be losing it, too."
"No, Ron-" Harry started, sounding rather exasperated.
"Your brother," I said, looking significantly at Ron. Harry nodded.
"Yeah, your brother. Charlie, you know, the one in Romania?"
Ron's eyes lit up. "Oh! And he's studying dragons…"
"We could write to him," Sally suggested, picking up what we were implying.
"Yer gonna write ter Charlie about Norbert?" Hagrid asked, once again staring at the dusky creature on his table.
"It's perfect, Hagrid," Harry explained. "He's studying dragons, so we could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take good care of Norbert and then maybe put him back in the wild."
"That's brilliant!" Neville added. "He won't be in any danger, and he'll be in good hands. You can't do much better than that, Hagrid."
"He's right," I agreed. "Norbert will probably be killed if anyone finds out you have him, so Charlie is probably your best option."
"Oh, I dunno…" Hagrid fretted. He was close to tears.
"Malfoy is going to tell someone sooner or later," Harry prodded. "How about it?"
We watched as Hagrid stared at Norbert for several long, silent seconds, but eventually he slowly nodded his head. Norbert stretched, digging his claws into the table, and Hagrid reached out to pet the dragon. I was unsurprised to see that Norbert snapped at his hand, which Hagrid withdrew rather quickly.
"I suppose yer right…"
When we asked Hagrid what he wanted us to say in the letter, he waved us off, saying that we could decide for ourselves. He wanted to spend some quality time with Norbert, so we left his cabin and headed back to the castle, somewhat relieved that Hagrid had acquiesced to our plan. I would not be completely stress-free until Norbert was far away from Hogwarts without being exposed, but we had made a step in the right direction.
Once we were all back in the comfort of the Gryffindor tower, we sat at one of the tables off to the side. I decided that we should write the letter then and there, so I summoned some parchment, ink, and a quill.
"Alright…Harry, why don't you dictate?" I wondered, looking at him and holding the quill above the parchment.
We all looked at Harry. He looked slightly baffled for a moment. I brushed my hair out of my eyes as I waited for him to start.
"What? Why me?" he asked. His green eyes looked confused through the lenses of his glasses.
"Why not?" Neville asked. Harry shrugged. "You always seem to know what to say," Neville continued, answering the question. I nodded in agreement and neither Ron nor Sally protested the statement. Harry seemed to consider it for a moment-I wondered what was going through his sharp mind-and then shrugged again.
"Ok, if you want me to, but he is your brother, Ron."
"It's ok, I'll just bollocks it up."
Harry sighed rather dramatically, and then smiled slowly at all of us. He sat back in his chair, rubbed his chin slowly, and then said in thick Cockney accent:
"Dear Charlie…"
Sally giggled and I smiled involuntarily at Harry's silliness. I wrote the salutation on the top of the parchment, waiting for Harry to say more.
"Hello, this is Ron; I hope this letter finds you well in Romania. I am writing because my friends and I have stumbled on a bit of a problem, which involves the groundskeeper Hagrid, someone you probably know well from your years at Hogwarts. You see, Hagrid has had this lifelong desire to own a dragon, and unfortunately he recently came across the means to actually get one. My friends and I became involved with this dragon-a Norwegian Ridgeback, of all things-and we're trying to help Hagrid get rid of it before he gets into trouble.
"That's where you come in: since you are a Dragon Keeper on a Dragon Preserve, it makes the most sense to give Norbert (as Hagrid calls him) to you. Is that at all possible? I'm not sure how we could manage that kind of thing without being revealed, but if you have any ideas and if you're willing to take Norbert, that'd be great. Looking forward to hearing from you. Your brother, Ron."
I had to write feverishly to keep up with Harry because once he had started to speak the words had begun to flow from his mouth without hesitation. All in all, I thought it was a very succinct letter, hitting all of the right points and eliciting the perfect of amount of urgency.
"How was that?" Harry asked, as I looked up from the parchment.
"Fine," I told him. "Hopefully Charlie can do something about this."
"He should be able to," Ron said. "He's pretty good with that kind of thing-a real problem solver."
"Good to know," Neville said. "Maybe we won't be expelled after all." Our laughter was boisterous, but I thought it sounded just a touch uneasy. The thought seemed to have crossed all of our minds.
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Harry and I posted the letter that night with Hedwig, prompting her to fly with as much haste as possible. She cocked her head at the note tied to her leg for a moment and then swooped out of the owlery, fading east into the darkening sky at a rapid rate.
"Think this will work?" I asked, as we started to head down the stairs.
Harry shrugged, brushing his hair away from his forehead. The motion revealed the scar chiseled into his skin, which for some reason looked a little redder than the last time I'd seen it.
"I dunno. Why do you think Malfoy hasn't told anyone yet?"
"I'm not sure. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. What is he waiting for? He could be trying to spring some kind of trap on us, to get us into trouble with Filch and Dumbledore."
"As if we need any more trouble with Dumbledore," Harry muttered. I watched out of the corner of my eye as he absently rubbed his forehead.
"Harry, has your scar been bothering you?"
We passed through the archway at the bottom of the Owlery stairs and onto the grounds as he looked quickly at me, obviously wondering how I could have known. I had to squint against the sun, which was low on the western horizon, to see him fully.
"A little bit," he said. I'm glad he was able to admit it to me.
"More than usual?"
He nodded. He looked like he wanted to say something, so I waited for him to continue as we headed for the castle.
"Ever since that night in the forest when I saw Snape and Quirrell, it's been bothering me a little more every day. At first it was barely noticeable, but lately it's becoming more than just a tingle."
As we mounted the marble steps to the front doors of Hogwarts, I turned to Harry and made him stop. I turned him to face me and leaned in to peer at his forehead. He just stood there calmly, not fighting my ministrations at all. The scar was definitely a deeper red than I could ever remember seeing, and there was an ugly little line of darker purple running through the very center of the scar. It was almost impossible to see, but it was definitely there. After a moment, I leaned back and looked him in his green eyes.
"Have you thought about going to Madam Pomfrey?"
"Not really."
"She could give you a potion for the pain, at least," I suggested.
He opened his mouth to respond, but he then closed it and reached up to touch the scar. His eyes turned briefly inward, but then they refocused on mine.
"I don't know if that's a good idea, Hermione," he said, measuring his words carefully.
"Why?" I wanted to hear his logic.
"Considering how this scar was given to me," he started, "I think it might be best to avoid numbing any pain."
"I suppose…"
"Think about it," he said. "This is the only mark I have from Voldemort's attack when I was a baby, so if it's acting up, don't you think that could be a bad thing?"
I ignored Harry's usage of the wizard's name. "Or it could just be irritated."
"Could be," he agreed, but he hardly sounded convinced. I had to admit, what he was saying made some sense, but it was somewhat masochistic of him to deal with the pain without any aid-something that I would later realize was a hallmark of Harry Potter.
"Just let it go for now," he said, and something in his tone of voice kept me from saying anything further. We turned and entered the castle, and headed for Gryffindor tower.
After that Friday, we all took turns checking up on Hagrid. Harry went first on Saturday; I went on Sunday; Sally went on Monday; Neville went on Tuesday; and, finally, Ron went on Wednesday. We had decided that it would be best to go just before curfew, because there would be fewer students to see what we were doing.
On Wednesday night, which was Ron's turn, Neville and Sally had both gone to bed after Ron had left for Hagrid's. Harry and I were sitting in chairs by the fire and waiting for Ron. We had been mostly silent for some time, preferring to alternately read and stare into the crackling flames.
Our curfew of eleven o'clock was quickly approaching without Ron's return, so I hoped nothing had happened to him at Hagrid's. When I had visited with him on Sunday, Norbert had been fairly belligerent, and I had stayed only long enough to make sure Hagrid had everything under control. He said he did, but the swiftly growing dragon thrashing around his cabin said otherwise. Just as I was about to ask Harry if we should go look for Ron, there was noise by the portrait hole. I looked over there expectantly and shortly thereafter Ron came into the common room, holding up his hand in front of him. I could immediately tell there was something wrong.
"It bit me!" Ron exclaimed, coming nearer and holding out his hand.
"What? How?" I asked, standing and inspecting the wound. Ron or Hagrid had wrapped it in a handkerchief, which was quite bloody now.
He rolled his eyes at me. "Honestly, Hermione…with its teeth."
"I think she knows that," Harry said, also looking at the wound. "How did you get yourself bitten?"
"Why is it my fault all of the sudden?" Ron whined, looking at the bite marks on his hand and blanching.
"I didn't say that…" I returned.
"Bloody hell! I'm not going to be able to write for a week! I'm telling you right now, that dragon is the most horrible thing I've ever met. Hagrid treats it like a bleedin' dog or something, but it's got fangs and it breathes fire-and it's getting so big!"
Ron's rant continued: "I was just feeding it some rats like Hagrid showed me, and it decided to go for my hand instead. If I hadn't pulled it back, it probably would have bitten half of it off! I'm not going down there anymore if that dragon's there-Norbert my arse! It's a menace, I tell you!
"And, can you believe it? Hagrid yelled at me for scaring it when it bit me. As I was wrapping my hand in this, he started singing it a lullaby…I couldn't believe what I was hearing, so I just left."
He finally stopped talking, and he just stared at us, very red in the face and breathing deeply. The bite marks were deep and they looked raw.
"I'm done with this," Ron said, rewrapping his hand. "I don't want anything to do with the stupid dragon. The sooner Charlie can get it out of here, the better for all of us," he finished, and then stormed away. Harry and I watched him disappear up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. After we had heard a door slam above us, we slowly turned to each other, unable to contain the smiles spreading over our faces and the laughter that started leaking out. Ron had hardly let us say anything, and his tirade had been amusing, although I was a little concerned about his hand. He should probably have seen Madam Pomfrey, and I would tell him as much in the morning.
As our laughter was dying, something tapped on a window to our left. Harry looked first and his eyes lit up.
"Hedwig!" he exclaimed. We both hurried over there to let her in. "She must have Charlie's reply." He opened the window and she hopped inside; there was a letter on thick parchment tied to her leg, which she held out to us. She clicked her beak a few times as Harry busied himself with untying it, and as soon as he had the letter she flew back out the window.
"She must be hungry," I commented, watching her go. Harry opened the letter and held it out for us to read.
Dear Ron,
How are you? Thanks for the letter-I would be happy to take "Norbert" the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it will not be very easy to get him here. I cannot take any time off at the moment because it is our busiest season, so I think the best thing would be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit next week. However, they must not be seen carrying an illegal dragon. To rectify that, I need you to get Norbert to the top of the Astronomy Tower at midnight on Saturday. My friends can meet you there and take him under cover of darkness.
Love,
Charlie
"And just how does he expect us to do that?" I inquired, looking at the letter a little coolly. It was fairly presumptuous of Charlie to assume we would break several rules for his little plan.
"Well, we do have the Invisibility Cloak," Harry responded, folding the letter and putting it in his pocket.
"But it'll be after curfew…"
"That hasn't stopped us before," he said, smiling a bit. I guess it was an indicator of how badly the dragon needed to be away from Hogwarts that I ended up agreeing with Harry. It was really our only chance to get Norbert away without being discovered. As long as Malfoy did not say anything between now and Saturday, it seemed as if we would escape this little fiasco unscathed.
The next morning brought with it a hitch in our plans, however. Ron came to breakfast with an extremely swollen and bruised hand, garnering some strange looks from our classmates and some of the faculty. He could barely function it hurt him so much.
"Ron," I hissed at him from across the table, "you have to go to the hospital wing. That looks badly infected."
"It's oozing green pus," Sally pointed out, wrinkling her nose at the disgusting state of his hand. Neville turned an interesting shade of green at her words, but he seemed to get it under control after a moment. He turned away from Ron after that, though, unable to look at the injury.
"But don't you think she'll recognize a dragon bite?" he asked, through clenched teeth.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Harry said. "It looks like Norbert's fangs are poisonous or something, so you have to get it treated."
Ron just nodded and left the table, heading out of the Great Hall. We visited him later in the day, and he was resting comfortably, but he was worried about Madam Pomfrey. Apparently she had asked him what bit him, and he had told her it was a dog. She obviously hadn't believed him, but she didn't question him any further. So far he hadn't heard anything more, so maybe she had let it go. We all hoped she had.
Ron stayed in the hospital wing overnight, so we brought him notes from our lessons and his homework. His hand was improving; by Friday morning, he could actually flex his fingers. After visiting Ron, we went to the Great Hall for breakfast and then headed to the dungeons for Potions. Just outside the classroom, Sally wanted to see the letter from Charlie to clarify something, so Harry dug it out of his pocket and handed it to her.
"And what do we have here?" a familiar voice said. A hand reached around Sally's shoulder and grabbed the letter from her.
"Hey!" she yelled, turning and drawing her wand on Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Harry had already drawn his wand, and mine and Neville's joined theirs.
Malfoy just smiled at us, lowering his eyes to the letter.
"Incendio," Harry growled, pointing his wand at the letter. It burst into flames in Malfoy's hands, who dropped it to the floor in his surprise. Nothing but its ashes were left after the flames had died.
Harry and Malfoy stared coldly at each other; there was a tense silence as the standoff lengthened. We all lowered our wands slowly.
"So I heard some mutt sidelined Weasel-bit his hand, I guess," Malfoy stated after a moment, watching for a reaction from us. When none was forthcoming, he continued. "I wonder what really bit him, because I doubt a dog could land him in the hospital wing for a few days." Crabbe and Goyle snickered beside him.
"I guess we will never know." He turned to his lackeys. "Come on, you two, let's get inside before Snape shows up and gives us detention Saturday night."
He did not look back at us, but there was no need. His emphasis on the last word indicated that he had read enough of the letter to know what we were up to.
After Potions, the five of us went outside and sat by edge of the lake. It was a breezy day, and slightly cooler than the last few had been, but it was still pleasant. There were a few older students swimming in the lake, which was still very cold. We watched them as we talked about what to do.
"Malfoy clearly knows," Neville said, for the fourth time.
"Obviously," I said, becoming frustrated. We were being blocked at every turn. "But that doesn't change the fact that Norbert needs to go."
"I don't think I should be involved in this," Sally said. She cited the same reason she had before: she had been readmitted to Hogwarts and didn't want to risk any kind of administrative punishment. If word got back to her parents that she had been involved with a dragon, they would pull her from school again.
"That's ok," Harry said, understanding her reason. "We only need three anyway. And with Ron out of commission, it looks like you're going to have to help us, Neville."
"Wonderful…" he intoned.
"Look," Harry said, leaning back and staring up at the blue sky, "it's too late to change plans now. Hagrid is already getting Norbert ready for the journey. And we do have the Invisibility Cloak, which Malfoy doesn't know about. If he does decide to spring some kind of trap on us, we'll have the upper hand."
"Harry's right, Neville. We have to go through with this." As much as I hated breaking the rules and putting myself, my friends, and our education in jeopardy, this had gone much too far already. It had to end.
"Alright, let's just be done with it," Neville said, sighing. Shouts from the swimmers reached our ears, and we all glanced in their direction. The giant squid had apparently decided to join in their fun. One of the teens was riding on the end of its tentacle, smiling brilliantly and waving at his friends.
"Don't think I'd ever see something like that in Little Whinging," Harry commented.
"Or be involved in the illegal transport of a rare dragon," I added. Harry just looked at me. There was a small smile playing on the corners of his lips.
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Around eleven on Saturday, May 9, 1992-just after curfew had officially started-Harry, Neville, and I crept out of the Gryffindor common room under the Invisibility Cloak. We all fit under its breadth easily, but I was unconvinced that adding a dragon into the mix would still render us all completely invisible. Regardless, we slipped silently through the deserted castle, hoping not to meet anyone. We made it to the Entrance Hall without seeing a soul, but just as we were cresting the stairs to descend to the ground floor, we saw Filch by the doors to the Great Hall. He appeared to be surveying the Entrance Hall, as if it was his duty to watch the wide expanse all night. We stopped at the top of the stairs and held our breaths, and after awhile Mrs. Norris slinked to Filch's side. He stared down at the cat for several moments and then followed her down into the dungeons.
We began moving again, descending and then exiting the castle. The night was very dark and it was hard to see, but there was a light on in Hagrid's hut, so we used that as a beacon to guide our way. The sky was completely covered with clouds, so there was no light filtering onto the grounds. Whatever residual light from the castle's many windows from which we might have benefited was lost by the time we were forty paces from its ancient stone walls, so we walked in a nervous silence down the gentle slope toward the lake and Hagrid's. There wasn't even any wind to break the stillness.
As we approached the hut, we heard Hagrid struggling with Norbert inside. The dragon was now over eight feet long, but Hagrid said he would be able to contain it enough for us to bring it to the top of the Astronomy Tower. I had wondered why Hagrid couldn't make the trip himself and save us the trouble, but Harry rightly pointed out that Hagrid would look very suspicious traveling through Hogwarts around midnight with a giant crate in his arms.
We shrugged off the Cloak at his door and Harry knocked; after several seconds, Hagrid opened the door and stepped aside, showing the wooden crate in which he had packed Norbert. There were tears in his eyes and on his cheeks, and his beard was a snotty mess. I almost felt sorry for the big man-almost-but this was something that we had to do.
"There yeh are," he said, and his voice was thick with emotion. "He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey. He should have enough food ter last him `til Romania."
The three of us looked at each other. "Ready?" Harry asked. Neville and I nodded at him. We moved forward and picked up the crate, which wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be. Granted, it was heavy enough, but it wasn't unmanageable. Hagrid draped the Cloak over us after we had situated ourselves with the slightly awkward load.
"Bye, Norbert!" Hagrid whispered, bending down and whispering intensely. "Mum will never forget you!" He wiped his cheeks with the backs of his huge hands, sniffled deeply, and waited until he knew we were outside.
"Take care, you lot," he said, and swung the door closed. We could hear his sobs as we moved away from the hut.
We said nothing on our journey back to the castle or up the many flights of stairs to the Astronomy Tower. I had severely underestimated the work it would take to get Norbert up to the top of the tallest tower, but as midnight approached, we crested the last main staircase and found ourselves in the corridor that would take us to the tower. We were all breathing and sweating heavily.
"Nearly there," Harry gasped.
"Thank Merlin," Neville said, equally as out of breath. I preferred to stay silent, letting my rasping lungs speak for themselves.
We started moving forward over what was essentially our home stretch, but Harry, who was in the lead at the front of the crate, stopped suddenly and moved us to the side. He was peering ahead into the gloom. He motioned for us to be silent.
I thought I might have heard some kind of scuffling, but I couldn't see anything. The noises then suddenly drew much closer, and we shrank against the wall. Harry's Invisibility Cloak would obviously protect us from prying eyes, but people could still discover us by running into our physical bodies. Just as I thought the sounds were on top of us, light flared out and illuminated a strange sight: McGonagall in her nightwear holding a distraught and red-faced Malfoy by the ear.
"Detention!" she said, quite indignantly. Malfoy struggled against her grip, but she twisted his ear. "And twenty points from Slytherin! I would normally express surprise at a student wandering around in the middle of the night, but I cannot say that I'm surprised to find you disregarding school rules, Mr. Malfoy. Explain yourself!"
"Professor-it's Harry Potter! He's coming. Midnight! They're supposed to be here at midnight! They're bringing a dragon-"
"I've heard enough!" she told him, cutting him off and pulling him down the corridor toward the stairs from which we had come. "Utter rubbish. How dare you lie about a fellow student like that!"
"But Professor-"
"We shall see Professor Snape right now about this matter, Mr. Malfoy," she said, and Malfoy's response was lost to the echoing stones of the castle.
"Oh…my…" Neville said, barely able to form words.
"Just go," Harry ground out, and we redoubled our efforts. The final hurdle was the spiral staircase to the top of the tower, but after a few minutes of heaving and panting, we finally reached the end of our journey. Harry pulled the Cloak off of us and bundled it under his arm, and we headed for the edge of the Tower. After we had put the crate down onto the stones, I took a deep breath and chuckled for a moment.
"Malfoy's got detention. How righteous," I said.
Harry and Neville said nothing, which was odd considering how much they both disliked Malfoy. I looked at them and found them both scanning the sky for Charlie's friends. It seemed like they were all business at the moment, so I wisely shut my mouth and looked into the pitch black sky as well.
As we waited in silence, I happened to glance straight up and saw that the sky was opening above us. I tapped Harry and Neville on the shoulders and pointed over our heads, drawing their attention to the small hole in the clouds. There were wisps and fragments of low clouds flitting through the gap, but for the most part, the starlight was unimpeded in that small portion of the sky. After a few moments of staring into that infinity, I was starting to lose my equilibrium, so I had to look down once again. As I did so, I saw four brooms drawing close to the Tower.
"Here they are," I whispered, and Harry and Neville looked where I was pointing.
"Almost right on time," Neville pointed out, sounding very approving.
They landed behind us, dismounting and coming over with the brooms and something that looked like a harness in their hands.
"Hi," one said. He was tall and had brown hair. "We're Charlie's friends. He told us that you would have a package for us. That's it, then?"
"Yes," I said.
"Good." He scanned the three of us with his eyes. "No red hair, so no Ron?"
Harry shook his head. "No. Unfortunately, he was bitten by the dragon and he's been in the hospital wing for the past few days."
The older man frowned. The other three looked concerned.
"Pity. He alright?"
"He's fine," Harry said, and we stood back as they hooked the four corners of the top of the crate to the harness.
"We'll attach one of these hooks to each of our brooms and lift the crate together. Should be no problem. We're just glad you were up here on time. I can't imagine it was fun lugging this thing through the castle."
At being called a "thing," Norbert thrashed around violently. The crate held, though, and the four men just chuckled.
"I see we have a live one for good ol' Charlie," another said.
"Right. Anyway," the first said, "nice meeting you. What are your names? Just so I can tell Charlie that Ron actually has friends," he wondered, grinning.
"Neville Longbottom."
"Hermione Granger."
Harry hesitated for a second or two. The four of them were staring at him. He sighed, probably knowing that his name would get some kind of reaction.
"Harry Potter."
Surprisingly, the four of them held back. The most visible reactions were sets of eyebrows creeping toward hairlines.
"Fancy that," another said. "Well, we need to go. Take care."
They mounted their brooms and, after a moment of coordination, they started forward. We watched them for five seconds before Harry threw the cloak back over us.
"Let's go," he said, and we turned toward the door that would lead us back into the castle. As we did so, though, we saw a flash of light around the edges of the door. We had just enough time to glance at each other and move two steps away from the edge of the tower before the door burst open and three figures ran into sight.
They were the three people we least wanted to see at the moment.
Dumbledore, with McGonagall and Snape at his heels, ran to the edge of the tower and searched the night sky. His wand was out, as were the others', and he suddenly pointed it in the direction the fliers had gone. I had a sinking sensation in my stomach…
"IMPEDIMENTA!" he boomed, and I watched completely mesmerized as a spell burst forth from the end of his wand, so powerful that it thundered through the air as it traveled away from the tower-and, unfortunately, blew our Invisibility Cloak off. It fluttered to the stones next to us.
Even McGonagall and Snape had stood back in awe at the Headmaster's display of magical power. The magnitude with which the spell had been cast was enough to give it a visible essence, which looked like a milky white blob hurtling through the air.
It was bright enough to illuminate the riders as they approached the edge of the grounds, and I could vaguely distinguish them as one looked back and signaled for them to veer away from the oncoming spell. It missed them and continued onward, eventually fading as the night closed around it.
"Who were they-" McGonagall started to ask, but cut herself off with a gasp as she turned and saw us. Dumbledore and Snape looked where she was staring.
My heart began to race and I began to sweat uncontrollably as Snape narrowed his eyes at us. My eyes flicked back and forth between the three of them as they just stared. Neville had looked down and I knew that Harry was having a staring contest with the Headmaster. I didn't know what to do!
Finally, Dumbledore reacted.
"I sincerely hope you can explain yourselves."
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