"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry told Hermione and Kirra. "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 and Riddle don'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, Kirra shot forward and wrapped her arms around it and it instantly stopped making a ruckus and calmed down in the girl's lap, Hagrid looked at the girl, he had a feeling that this would happen.
After all, it wasn't the first time that Hagrid had seen the girl with a dragon, even if it was so many years ago, he could still remember it as if it were an hour ago.
Kirra, Harry, 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 goodbye 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 Harry as though the teddy was having his head torn off.
"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed as Harry and Hermione covered themselves with his invisibility cloak, Kirra took the crate and covered herself and the crate with the invisibility cloak
"Mommy will never forget you!" How Kirras small arms had managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as she heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors.
Up another staircase, then another – even one of Harry's shortcuts didn't make the work much easier. "Nearly there!" Harry 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 three people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared. Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hairnet, had Malfoy by the ear with Mattheo behind them.
"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin for each of you! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you —"
"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming — he's got a dragon!" Malfoy pleaded with the woman
"It was clearly the younger Potter, she needs to be expelled, she's clearly putting the lives of her peers in danger by bringing such a dangerous beast into the school," Mattheo said and McGonnogals cheeks went even more crimson.
How dare he talk about letting something dangerous into the school when he himself, was the son of the darkest and most dangerous wizard of all time, and his mother was a complete, psychopathic nutter who killed and then laughed
"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on — I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy and Riddle!" 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 cloaks, glad to be able to breathe properly again.
Hermione did a sort of jig. "Malfoy and Riddle's got detention! I could sing!"
"Don't," Harry advised her. Chuckling about Malfoy and Mattheo, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in her crate while the girl shushed him quietly. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness.
Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. They showed Kirra, Harry 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 Kirra, Harry and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.
At last, Norbert was going...going...gone was all Harry and Hermione could think. The two Gryffindors slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them though Kirra stayed behind as she watched the wizards take Norbert away, she couldn't stop the tear that ran down her face as she stuck her hand in the air and waved towards them as they got smaller and smaller
"Goodbye Norbert, I hope that one day we can meet again" she whispered softly and quickly wiped the few tears away that had run down her face.
She then turned around and made her way back to the Hufflepuff common room where she fell asleep on the couch by the fire trying to keep warm, being too tired to walk to the dorms, she fell asleep as soon as she hit the soft material.
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"Ready boys?" Kirra asked the two redheads next to her with a smirk as they hid behind the corner with their heads peeking out, Filch and Mrs Norris were walking around down the corridor towards them, not knowing what was about to happen
"ready" they both replied with smirks on their faces "this is going to be brilliant," Fred muttered as they watched. Kirra had been the one to set up the prank, and the boys helped her as she told them what to do, it of course had been a lot easier with magic. They had set up a tripwire across the corridor and once the wire was tripped, a large water balloon filled with water and blue dye would fall on whoever tripped it
Filch kept walking towards them, not noticing the three students as they covered their mouths, trying to stop their snickering from echoing down the hallways and alerting their about to be victim. 3... 2... 1
"ahhh" Filch growled angrily as he stood in the hallway now completely blue he looked up and the twins and the younger Potter quickly hid back behind the wall before Filch saw them "you rotten little kids" Filch exclaimed and followed the sound of laughter, the three students broke out into a run, the twins were obviously a lot faster than her, when they realised she was behind them they stopped and went to get her but they noticed someone had got to her first, someone in green robes.
"Well well well, if it isn't the little badger," Mattheo said as he stopped the girl and grinned down at her. He towered over her intimidatingly, but she didn't cower, instead she just glared up at him.
"I suggest you back off riddle," Fred growled as he and George made their way over to the two first years quickly
"Or what Weaslebee?" Mattheo smirked and Filch came around the corner with an angry look on his face, "Mr Filch, I caught the culprit see" Mattheo called and Filch let out a growl and began to storm over to them
"You two go, ill take the blame" Kirra quickly said to the twins but they instantly shook their heads
"No way, we are leaving you here with this snake" George spat as he looked Mattheo up and down angrily as Mattheo smirked at him
"or with filch for that matter" Fred added and Filch made it over to them
"well well well, why am I not surprised that you three did it, A new prank from the three of you every day," Filch scoffed and looked at the Hufflepuff girl
"I had to deal with your father and his meddling friends and now I have to deal with you" Filch sneered and Kirra glared up at the man
"don't you dare talk about my father" Kirra growled "hurry up and give me the stupid detention or whatever, it wasn't the twins it was only me," she said
"I know they were part of it" Filch scowled as he looked at the three of them
"it was a muggle prank, and how would the twins know about any of it, clearly I am the only one that you can blame, besides I think the blue really suits you," she said and smirked up at the man as she tried to get the twins out of trouble "it hides the mold on your clothes and complements your canary teeth," she said and Filch went red
"detention, come to the entrance hall tonight at 11, you and some other stupid little first years will be having a little adventure in the forbidden forest" Filch replied and the smirk on Mattheos face dropped instantly
"the forbidden forest?" Mattheo asked instantly and tried to hide his worry for the girl and instead put it on himself, "I'm not going in there, there could be filthy half breeds wandering around" he didn't like the idea of the small Hufflepuff girl walking around the forbidden forest, but if it was going to happen, he was glad he had got detention too
Filch sneered and then walked off. The Weasleys grabbed the girl and pulled her away from Mattheo and put her behind them protectively "I suggest you stay the hell away from her" they growled and then walked off.