Whose side is truly the dark one?

Flaming huts and butts - 40

   Hadrian was ignoring Draco's whining about his finger being bit by the mandrake baby while the rest of their group had already fled like cowards. A whiny Draco was no fun to be around but he wasn't that bad! Maybe I've just gotten desensitized to it, Hadrian thought. He wondered where his friends had run off too when a not so man like scream sounded in panic. Having heard this sound before when the pixies were let loose, Hadrian grabbed Draco's hand and practically dragged his brother towards the sound.

   At first the scene they arrived upon was quite terrifying as Hagrid's hut was on fire and could be seen desperately trying to put it out and yelling for someone called Norbert. Hadrian quickly prayed to any magical deity that would listen that Norbert wasn't another dangerous creature the half giant had befriended but he feared the worst. However another sounding of an unmanly screech sounded and Gilderoy Lockhart ran around from behind the hut with his robes on fire. He was in such a state of panic he seemed to have forgotten he could just throw them off and instead ran in circles trying to put the fire out which was making it worse.

   Wanting a chance to help Hagrid and embarrass Lockhart again, Hadrian told Draco to get a teacher while he went down to help. Draco didn't bother arguing due to Hadrian's elemental control over fire and being part Phoenix would keep him from getting burned and ran off. Hadrian quickly ran down the steps to the bottom of the steep hill and closed his eyes as he got a feel for the fire. He let his magic out and tightly grasped it, taking a deep breath. He opened his eyes to see the fire still going but much slower and wasn't spreading any more. He looked so a spot to pull the fire out of and his eyes landed on the chimney. Focusing again on his magic like he had practiced any times before, he made sure he had a good hold on the fire and slowly pushed it up and out of the chimney. As it exited the chimney, he let the fire burn out and ignored Lockhart's screaming and Hagrid's shocked gasp.

   Once the fire was out of the hut, all that remained of it was parts of it covered in smoke and ash. It was still in one piece and was nothing a bit of magic could fix. He would let a professor, not Lockhart though, fix it as he wasn't nearly confident in himself to transfigure the entire hut back into its non burnt state. "Thank ya' lad!" Hagrid said with tears in his eyes and Hadrian just smiled at the gruff looking man. He may be a Dumbledore fanatic but the man meant no one any real harm. Hadrian's thoughts were once again broken by a scream when he remembered the idiot who never should have been allowed to hold a wand, much less a pencil. He sent an extremely overpowered aguamenti charm at the man's flaming butt and soon he looked like a wet dog. Shivering from the cold and hair a mess as it fell all in his eyes, Lockhart looked exhausted.

   "Mr. Peverell, I must say your control over the fire was quite an amazing thing to witness but please do be careful when running towards a fire, part Phoenix or not!" McGonagall complemented and scolded at the same time with Draco looking amazed by her side. "Yes professor," Hadrian said still trying not to giggle at his DADA professor's haggard appearance. The stern woman turned her attention to the drenched man and looked him up and down in disappointment. "Gilderoy, I don't suppose you could tell us what happened here?" The man seemed quite happy to answer and puffed his chest out in excitement. "As a matter of a fact I do! You see I was helping out Hagrid here when-" The disappointment of a wizard was cut off by Hagrid's joyful shout, "Norbert! Yer' okay!"

The three turned their heads towards Hagrid's exclamation and Lockhart promptly fainted. Draco stood frozen in fear at the sight of the very real young dragon in the groundskeeper's arms and McGonagall's eyes could be seen slightly widening in shock. "If that what I think it is?" Hadrian asked, not fully believing his eyes. "Yes Mr. Peverell... I believe it is..." His professor said slowly as Hagrid now looked quite sheepish as he had now been caught illegally caring for a dragon. "Norbert don't mean no 'arm! Honest!" Hagrid tried to plead for his dragon but McGonagall seemed to have recovered from her surprise and was not having it. "No Hagrid! You are not keeping a dragon as a pet! Dumbledore lets you get away with a lot but this is way too much! Think of the danger you've been putting the children in!" The angry Scottish woman half yelled.

Feeling slightly bad for the half giant as no one wanted to be on the receiving end of this woman's wrath, Hadrian spoke up. "Um professor..." McGonagall's shoulder's slumped and sighed, "Yes Mr. Peverell?" "It's just that I've met Ronald's older brother Charlie and he works at a dragon reserve in Romania. Perhaps he could come get Norbert and care for him?" "Thank you Hadrian, we may very well do that but for please return to the castle and ask for someone to get Dumbledore down here so we can make him aware of the situation. And do hurry, we don't need Lockhart over here waking up and worsening the situation somehow!" Hadrian flashed the woman a quick smile and Draco followed closely behind as they searched for a prefect or professor to alert the headmaster of what his faithful worshiper has gotten himself into this time.

Word spread quickly through Hogwarts of what had happened and by dinner everyone knew some version of the story. Some were a bit off as they claimed Hadrian started the fire on accident and others say he lit Lockhart on fire but they all said he put the fire out in the end. The dragon, Norbert, had remained a secret between the teachers and most of Slytherin but the teachers didn't need to know that. Hadrian received many looks of awe, shock, and fear but he didn't let them faze him. He had received looks of many kinds for the past two years and was used to them by now and at this point mainly just annoyed him. After dinner and before bed, Hadrian told his housemates the full story of what actually happened and was given many head pats and looks of approval from the older years when he described Lockhart's girly screams as his backend was getting charred before he soaked the man to the bone.

The next day Charlie did arrive to collect Norbert and sent Hadrian and Draco a wink as he walked by. Charlie and three others came through the floo with brooms in their hands as you can't take a dragon through the floo system. Hagrid loudly cried over Norbert and Charlie checked over the Norwegian Ridgeback to find out Norbert is actually Norberta. Dumbledore comforted the large man as he loudly sobbed into his handkerchief and McGonagall stiffened as he blew into it. Hadrian wasn't sure why, either she was a germaphobe or her animagus cat form left her with more sensitive ears. Regardless, Norberta was taken away, Hagrid was an emotional mess, and for once Lockhart wasn't making a scene as he was too embarrassed to currently be seen by the student body.