C H A P T E R 13
"Thank Merlin we dropped Divination and Ancient Runes," Fred stated happily when they went to Care of Magical Creatures on Monday.
The dragon egg was still an egg and Hagrid predicted it should hatch by the end of the week.
Fred, George, and Samantha had gratefully dropped the two classes after a tiring first term of not learning anything useful. Samantha was completely annoyed that her death was being predicted every class. They thought those two classes would be fun, but they soon learned rune and tea leaf reading was not their forte. She knew those classes were helpful for people more interested but they never grew on her and was able to not waste any more of the teachers' time.
They spent the class taking notes on a new creature Grubbly-Plank was discussing. After that class and Arithmancy, which the three loved, they went off to lunch.
Samantha found the trio sat at the table reading a small note. She quickened her pace because she thought she knew exactly what that note was saying.
"Does that say what I think that says?" she asked in a rush as she sat down next to Harry, the twins still lingering into the hall.
Instead of answering, Harry just showed her the note. In a scrawled writing was two words: It's hatching.
"We just got this now," Ron said.
"Just got what?" a voice asked from behind them.
Fred and George had caught up to her and were currently standing next to Ron.
The four froze, not sure if they wanted to drag the twins into this.
"Uhm...," Harry started to say but trailed off not coming up with a sufficient excuse.
"You can trust us," they said together and then turned to Samantha giving her a knowing expression.
Samantha started to sink a little feeling guilty of keeping something from them. She sighed and regained her composure.
"Look just come with us because we're going to miss it if we don't leave now," she stated quickly standing up.
The trio gave her a look but then also stood up knowing she was right. They certainly didn't want to miss this and knew the twins could be trusted.
"Come on," Samantha said leading them quickly out of the hall and down to Hagrid's hut.
"Where are we going?" Fred asked her as they rushed out of the castle doors.
"Just hush and hurry up," she called out and continued.
The two just sighed and started to run to keep up with the four.
They reached the hut within the next few minutes and Harry knocked on Hagrid's front door.
The door cracked open ajar and once Hagrid saw them, he opened it up completely to let them in.
"Why are we here?" George asked as he closed the door.
Hagrid turned and faced the twins with a blank yet scared expression.
"It's ok Hagrid. You know you can trust them, even if they are a bit annoying," Samantha said with a quirky smile.
"Hey," they both chorused at the last part.
"Oh alrigh'. It's comin' out," he said and led them to the table where the black egg was slowly cracking and letting off a few pieces.
"Is that-" Fred started gasping.
"What we think it is?" George finished his eyes slowly surveying the splitting open egg.
"Yes it is," she answered and they all sat down around the egg anxiously waiting for it to hatch.
"Maybe Charlie was right about going into the field of dragons," Fred spoke as the egg burst revealing a black crumpled heap slowly moving its body.
It's wings were twice the size of its legs and it opened its eyelids revealing bright orange eyes.
"Beautiful, isn't he?" Hagrid cooed smiling.
The dragon started to open its wings and the students on instinct moved back their chairs.
Suddenly they heard the bell ring from the castle signaling the end of lunch and the six immediately jumped up and ran out of the hut telling Hagrid they would come back after dinner.
"That was amazing," George said happily as the three grouped together to work on their Charms notes. They only lost five points for being a few minutes late due to the dragon situation.
"Seriously," Samantha agreed.
"We should tell Charlie. He'd be so excited," Fred said.
"And proud," George added.
Samantha nodded but then a light bulb went off. Charlie. That's it. Ever since she found out Hagrid had an illegal dragon, she had been thinking about ways for him to not get caught with it.
Sooner or later, the dragon would grow, possibly even burn down his wooden house.
They could write to Charlie and send the dragon with him so Hagrid wouldn't get caught. That would certainly be a disaster.
• • • • •
"That's a great idea," the trio agreed with a smile.
The six were currently in Hagrid's hut during their afternoon break on Wednesday and were shocked at how much the dragon had grown in just a week. Three times its original size to be exact.
Samantha told them about Charlie and Hagrid looked sad at the thought of giving up 'Norbert' but new it was the best option.
The twins had some spare parchment and started writing a letter to Charlie. Once they finished, they left and set off to the Owlry to find Oaks and send him off with the letter.
"It's for the best Hagrid," Hermione soothed and patted his large shoulder.
He was currently staring at the sleeping Ridgeback with a solemn expression. "I know, but I wish I could o' kept him for a bit longer," he said sighing and then blew his nose into his large handkerchief. Hagrid was very upset to say the least.
• • • • •
"We just received Charlie's letter," the twins said as they sat down next to the four during breakfast the very next week. They had been checking the Owlry morning, noon, and night each day to see if Oaks had come back. They were eager to see what he was going to say.
The twins read the letter and they discussed their options on how to do what Charlie said. The four knew Harry had the Invisibility cloak and Samantha and the twins knew they had the Map so everything worked out with sneaking out on Saturday at midnight to help Charlie and his friends come retrieve Norbert.
Suddenly they heard a gasp behind them and saw a familiar head of blonde hair. Draco Malfoy.
"Did he here what we said?" Ron asked paling a bit.
"Of course not. He's too far away," Fred said.
It was true. The Hufflepuff table was between them but where they were both sitting, no Hufflepuffs were sitting there. If Malfoy really wanted too, he probably could hear their conversation. From the smug look on the Slytherin's face, it seems as though he had heard it.
• • • • •
"Ok so you guys go ahead and we'll stay here and keep look out," Samantha told the trio Saturday night at almost midnight. Samantha and the twins snuck out first to create a clear path and the trio secretly used the cloak, carefully tucking it away in Harry's pocket so it was still kept from the twins.
The trio didn't know about the Map and the twins didn't know about the cloak. Everything worked out.
"You don't want to see Charlie?" Ron asked.
The three shrugged. Not that they didn't miss Charlie or anything, but they had to keep watch and they knew if someone was to get caught, they would rather it be them. Plus, they wanted the trio to meet Charlie and talk to him.
"Nah you guys go ahead, we'll keep watch," Samantha said.
"Tell him we said hi though," Fred added.
"Yeah and to come home during summer," George replied.
The trio nodded and slowly crept up the stairs with Norbert who was luckily under a Silence Charm that George cast. They definitely couldn't risk Norbert spitting fire or attempting to fly away in the halls at the dead of the night.
The three kept close eye on the Map and saw that Filch was somewhere on the third floor, walking through the trophy room. Mrs. Norris was roaming around the library. They chatted about upcoming pranks and the twins told her what Peeves had done to the Ravenclaw first years.
Ten minutes later the three came back downstairs and told them what Charlie had said.
The dragon was off and Charlie had said he would try to come back for summer but they knew he wouldn't come. He loved his dragons too much.
Samantha and the twins were ahead a little and they heard a faint meow at the end of the hall.
'Really?' Samantha thought and groaned.
"Come on. We have to distract Mrs. Norris so the three don't get into trouble," Samantha said to Fred and George who nodded.
They quickened their pace and went right up to Mrs. Norris. She meowed at them and this was time to reveal a secret Samantha had.
She reached into her pocket and took out a piece of chocolate. When she was a kid, someone told her to always carry a piece of chocolate when sneaking around Hogwarts at night. Mrs. Norris loved chocolate.
"What is that?" Fred asked seeing that something was in her hand but was hidden by the darkness.
"And why do you have it?" George added.
"Hush, we don't have much time," Samantha snipped and bent down to the cat and placed the chocolate on the floor.
"Here Mrs. Norris. Have some chocolate and don't lead Filch here ok?" she said softly and scratched her head.
Mrs. Norris nestled into her touch and then trotted down the other corridor, away from where she was coming from.
Samantha wiped off her hand and turned to the twins who were staring at her in shock.
"We don't have time for this. We have to go back to Harry, Ron, and Hermione," she said and they retreated their steps.
They kept walking until they had reached the tower.
"Where did they go?" George asked wondering why they didn't see the trio when they walked back.
Samantha jogged up the tower to see if they had gone back but it was empty. However she noticed that the Invisibility Cloak was piled on the ground near the ledge.
She immediately grabbed it and stuck it in her pocket. If the three didn't have the cloak, then they were walking around unprotected.
She ran back down and saw the twins still there talking to each other in hiked whispers.
"Guys we have to head back to the Common Room," Samantha told them.
Fred and George exchanged confused glances. "But what about-" they started.
"Maybe they went back already," she interrupted and started to head back rather quickly. Her loud steps woke a few portraits but she had to see if the three had returned.
If they were caught they would surely get into trouble. First Years were always punished more when it came to sneaking out. As much as she admired Harry's interest in rule braking, he wasn't trained yet. Plus Harry was on the Quidditch team and she knew that any teacher, besides McGonagall, could threaten to take that privilege away. Oliver would bury her five feet deep if that happened.
"Wait," Fred spoke and they came to a halt. He took out the Map and tapped his wand on it.
"Look, they're in McGonagall's office and Draco Malfoy is there as well," he said sighing as he pointed out where the trio was.
Samantha sighed annoyed. They did get caught. Atleast it was by McGonagall, so Quidditch was untouched.
They made it back to the Common Room and decided to wait for the three to come back and ask them what happened.
The twins were telling them about a new pranking idea when the portrait opened. Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked in looking tired and a bit scared. Samantha and the twins immediately jumped up and went towards them.
"What happened?" Samantha asked.
"Where did you go?" George added trying make it look like they didn't already know that they were in McGonagall's office.
Harry groaned. "You're going to hate us," he said sadly sitting on the couch by the fire.
Samantha and the twins raised an eyebrow. "What? Why?" they asked together.
"We were caught by Filch. Right after you three left down the corridor. We thought we heard movement so we tried to go back to the Common Room. We ran into Filch as soon as we turned the corner. He took us to McGonagall's office and she let us have it," Harry explained sighing nervously.
Samantha let out a breath of relief. "So?" she said noticing Harry's fearful expression. "She lets us have it all the time. What does that matter? A bit of lecturing,"
"Yeah it couldn't have been that bad," Fred replied smirking, thinking about all of the times McGonagall yelled at them for pranks and classroom interruptions. 'Good times.' he thought to himself and gave a slight chuckle.
"We lost one hundred and fifty points," Ron burst out wanting to just get it over with.
"And got detention," Hermione added.
The three third years froze. 150? Did they hear that correctly? Did Ron just say one hundred and fifty points?
The three have definitely lost many points in their Hogwarts duration but not 150 all at once. That was just unheard of. McGonagall would never do anything that rash to threaten their chances at the House Cup unless she was really upset and disappointed in her students.
"One hundred...one hundred and fif....fifty..?" Samantha stuttered. The twins were still frozen in shock. Their house cup chances were diminished, unless they can just answer every question and gain them back in the short amount of time. Their only hope was to rely on Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff to beat Slytherin.
The trio nodded shamefully. Harry was feeling the worst out of them. The look his sister was giving him made him cringe. Shock and a bit of disappointment. How could he have been so careless and so stupid? All he had to do was stay hidden and let Samantha and the twins lead them to safety since they had a lot of experience sneaking out, but no. He just had to lead then down the corridor and get caught. Harry made it a vital importance to not sneak out anymore. His curiosity was getting to him and ruining the world around him. It was settled. No more sneaking and no more meddling.
Did the stone really matter anyways? He pondered this thought as the twins said good night and sulked upstairs obviously upset at the loss of points.
Samantha waited until the twins' footsteps couldn't be heard anymore. "They'll be alright by tomorrow, but here," she said and dropped the Invisibility Cloak in Harry's lap.
Harry looked at it wide eyed and looked up to her speechless. "Don't lose this," she said simply and turned to go up to her dorm. "Oh and Harry," Samantha called out from the steps. "No more sneaking out, at least for now," and with that she turned on her heel and went up to her dorm.
• • • • •
Once again Samantha thought about Harry and his friends sneaking around. She was proud of him, but he needed some training. It was now a vital importance for her and the twins to take him under their wings. She thought Harry might just have the trait of sneaking around but she soon realized that Harry must have their mum's trait and this sneaking around was just purely coincidental.
The next morning, the Gryffindors were extremely put out about the loss of points. They thought it was a mistake. Word got around that it was all Harry's fault. He had got caught out of bed at night and lost the points along with his other First Year friends. The twins had come around and realized that they lost points all the time. To them, it was the Quidditch cup that mattered anyway.
The Slytherins, including Draco Malfoy even though he got caught as well, kept thanking him for their now clear path at the House Cup. The other two houses had turned on him, bantering him for basically giving Slytherin the House cup.
Quidditch wasn't as bad but everyone except Samantha and the twins ignored him. They didn't know the true story and as much as Samantha wanted to tell them so they could forgive Harry, she couldn't let them know about Norbert. That would certainly spread around the school and they couldn't do that to Hagrid, not after what he's been telling them about the stone.
Harry really wanted to resign because he felt so ashamed but Samantha talked him out of it saying the other players would come around and that they still had a chance at the Quidditch cup.
Practice was quiet and Oliver didn't like it. This added to the stress the OWLs were putting him under. This whole week, Oliver had his tests and the team could surely see the bags under his eyes and the snippiness in his attitude. Samantha asked him how his Potions exam went and he made her run three laps around the entire pitch.
"Thank Merlin it's only this week," she said out of breath to the twins after finishing her laps.
"What are we going to do?" Fred asked annoyed.
"Oliver has lost his marbles. Everyone is ignoring Harry," George continued.
"We'll never win the cup with this going on," Fred finished kicking some dirt on the ground.
"And we know for sure that we can't let Slytherin win. They'll get both," Samantha muttered.
They heard a loud huff behind them and saw Oliver standing there, arms crossed, and left foot tapping the ground. "That's enough you lot, unless you want another three laps," he stated and turned on his heel back to the center of the pitch where the rest of the team was.
They continued practice in silence. Samantha and the girls worked together like they usually did and even though Fred and George were annoyed, they still worked hard to please Oliver.
Samantha watched Harry fly around the stands looking for the charmed golf ball. She saw the small smile on his face and was thankful that he wasn't letting this points situation get to him anymore, at least during Quidditch.
• • • • •
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