☲☲☲☲⋇⋆✦⊛⋇⋆✦☲☲☲☲
"𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙞𝙩, 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙚 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙤𝙢 𝙞𝙨"
☲☲☲☲⋇⋆✦⊛⋇⋆✦☲☲☲☲
Harry, Ron and Hermione are very nervous. They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.
"Just let him go," Harry 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 game keeping 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 Mummy?"
"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered in Harry's ear.
"Hagrid," said Harry loudly, "give it a fortnight and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Y/N could not be with Malfoy all the time, trying to block him for us."
"Listen to Harry, Hagrid. Y/N's been always with that skank..." Ron grumbled on the last part — seething with hatred as they talked about a plan how until Norberts here, she'll do as much as she can to lead Malfoy away from them.
Hagrid bit his lip.
"I – I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."
Harry suddenly turned to Ron.
"Charlie," he 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!"
"Brilliant!" said Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"
And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.
Y/N — thought all along that Draco was putting up with her alibis. In the other part of the story, Draco was not falling for it although he loves the way she tries. She'll drag him along now. She'll give him more attention than he needs. From the time that he was being ignored — he now was the one who wasn't chasing her. Although, he knows that she wasn't chasing him for that kind of attention. She was chasing him away from those "three godforsaken idiots" that she calls friends.
It made him somehow turn down a smile. The only reason why she hangs out with him is not that she yearns for it. She wants to, the reason for pushing him away more. But who is he to not savor these moments with her? It has been months since the last time she and he had spent time as long as the day could go.
On the other side of the story — Y/N was fine with it. As Draco thought, she's more than acceptable with their situation. She has applicable time to be with her Slytherin friends who seem to be much farther away from her ever since she became friends with Gryffindor's. Though, it should not be their reason for that. They know her situation very well. She can't just stay in the same house as everyone else does.
"What are your plans for this upcoming summer?" Pansy asked, flailing her arms on the couch's backrest beside Draco whilst Y/N was on the ground — flipping through the pages of a muggle novel. "I'm not sure, what about you, Y/N?"
Hearing no response from her, Draco leaned forward on her shoulder to see what she was so engaged in. He snatched the book from her hands, earning a little "Hey" from the girl. She tried to reach for it but Draco stood on the couch and said, "What is it with you and these muggle romance books?"
Y/N pulled herself up on the couch and yanked the book back away from Draco. "That is none of your business," she said. Pansy laughs at Draco whilst Y/N flops herself on the couch in between the two Slytherins. "It's just that — you always read them. What is so mesmerizing about them?" He sat beside her, peeking once more at the book's cover.
"I don't know. It's entertaining," she replied, dryly. She doesn't know why romance in books got her so hooked. Is it the undying butterflies she gets from the tandem of the two main characters? Or was it the fact that she would also want to have what they have...?
"You want a Romeo in your life don't you?" Draco teased, bumping his shoulder with hers which makes her tsk. "Who said I do?" Y/N retorts. "Oh, come on. It's obvious! I can be your Romeo if you want," Draco smirks, closing his face with hers which makes her make a disgusted face. Pansy, irritated enough — pushed Draco's face away from her.
"You don't know if it's Romeo she wants," she said. The two turned their heads towards Pansy who has a resting face now instead of that fun look she had earlier. "I mean," she fixes her posture and looks away from them, "She might want to read these novels because it's entertaining. Don't assume high of yourself Draco," she laughed. A forced laugh perhaps.
Y/N agreed, she continues about how she finds it fun to read and that's only about it. Yet, unknowing to her, Draco was staring at Pansy who was gazing so hard on the ground. Surely, he's not stupid to not know why she said that. He's not sure about it, but he's not going to be hiding from the bushes.
Pansy was on the other side of the couch — she was having a small little heart attack. Thoughts are incoming in her head like the music of howls at night, pushing predators away. Why did I say that? Why do I have to be such a fool about it? Careless! Careless fool! She sides-eye her other two friends and sees Y/N flawlessly talking with such grace whilst Draco... Draco was staring at her like he knew something.
Eyes effortlessly rested whilst she made eye contact with him like the both of them read each other's minds perfectly.
I understand now...
Never speak of it.
The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Y/N, Hermione, and Harry sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry'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 is 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."
"Uncle Hagrid has been wishing for a dragon for a long time now, let him be whilst it lasts," Y/N said, thinking about how devastated her uncle will be after this.
There was a tap on the dark window.
"It's Hedwig!" said Harry, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"
The four 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
They looked at each other.
"We've got the Invisibility Cloak," said Harry. "It shouldn't be too difficult – I think the Cloak's big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."
"If I were you," they all looked at Y/N, "I wouldn't be jumping to conclusions."
It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other two agreed with him. 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? 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.
Harry, Y/N, 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."
The three 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."
Before Ron could even finish his sentence, Y/N ran out of the hospital wing — trying to look for Malfoy and sneakily pull the letter out of the book. All of the hard work they've done shouldn't go to waste or else they'll go down for this. Well, Y/N doesn't care about herself. It's Uncle Hagrid she's nervous about.
There's a big probability that once the Professor knows that he has a dragon, every student will for sure know. Then they'll send letters to their parents, which they'll send to the ministry, directing to her Uncle's downfall in Hogwarts.
"Malfoy's nowhere to be seen," Y/N's statement rang in Harry and Hermione's heads, "I've asked everyone and they told me they have not seen him for the past hours." From all the things that could happen, why does Malfoy have to be in one of them?
"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry told them. "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."
"Do you need help-"
"No! Jus' go back with Harry and Hermione!"
The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle. Harry and Hermione walked back to the castle with Y/N following behind them, 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 them as though teddy was having his head torn off.
"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, getting comforted by Y/N who was too having a hard time for Hagrid as Harry and Hermione covered the crate with the Invisibility Cloak and stepped underneath it themselves.
"Mummy will never forget you!"
"Why don't you go with Harry, Y/N? I also need to check on Ron." She looks up at her Uncle. "It's all right," he sniffles, "Go,"
Hermione pulled the cloak up for Y/N, she murmured a small "thank you" before covering herself with the invisibility cloak.
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 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 two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared.
Professor McGonagall, in a tartan dressing-gown and a hairnet, had Malfoy by the ear.
"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! 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!"
"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.
"Times of dragging him around just went to nothing," Y/N puffed out, feeling like she did nothing to stop Draco.
"You've done enough, at least he has detention." Harry comforted her. That's the least he could do after shouting at her last time.
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 Harry and Y/N the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them.
They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Harry and Y/N shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.
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?
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."
"Disappointed, Y/N. You should have known better." He scowls at her.
They'd left the Invisibility Cloak on top of the tower.