Chapter 11: Norbert and Flamel
The first thing that Hermione mentioned the next day before breakfast was that her parents, who were dentists by trade, had never heard of Nicholas Flamel. Harry lamented the story about how he had nearly found out but been stopped by his aunt and banned from the library.
"Didn't you find anything?" she asked desperately.
Harry froze. "Well, there was one thing. It mentioned Alchemy, which if memory serves me right, involves turning materials into gold-ACK!" Hermione grabbed Harry by his robe sleeve and began dragging him up flights of stairs. When they reached the seventh floor, Harry had a feeling of foreboding.
"Hermione, are you sure this is a good idea?" The girl wasn't listening, and Harry could almost hear the gears turning in her head.
They reached a portrait of a large woman in a pink dress. This must be the Gryffindor Portrait.
"Daisy Fly," Hermione spoke. The portrait, which had been sleeping, awoke with a start and swung open. Then she caught sight of Harry, and slammed shut.
"He can't come in!" the woman cried. Hermione shook her head.
"Let him in. There is no rule against bringing a member of another House into your dormitory," Hermione said confidently. The woman sighed, and the portrait swung open. Hermione grabbed hold of Harry's shirt collar and practically threw him into a red armchair in front of the fire while she ran up the stairs, presumably to the girls' dorms. "Stay there!" she shouted down at him, and he settled in, placing his feet on the table and relaxing.
He smirked as Ron, Fred, and George Weasley, followed by Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas began to walk down the stairs. They were talking about him.
"So then Potter says…WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?" Ron bellowed. Harry smirked up at him.
"Greetings, Weasleys," Harry drawled. After spending so much time with Tonks, his desire to mess with other people's heads had grown. "I don't recall saying that, actually."
"What are you doing-" Fred began.
"-in our Common Room?" George demanded. Harry smiled pleasantly at them.
"I was dragged in here by Hermione. I'm not completely sure why, I could have waited for her…oh, here she comes." Sure enough, Hermione came pounding down the stairs, carrying a massive book. Ron turned on her.
"What do you think you are doing, inviting a Slytherin into our Common Room? Have you no sense?" Harry snorted. He glared at him. "Think this is funny, do you?"
"Yes," Harry admitted, casually getting up. Hermione gestured for him to sit, and he sat back down. "You asking some one else if they have no sense is quite amusing, actually. Don't you agree?" he said, turning to Fred and George. They smiled evilly at him.
"Oh yes-" said George.
"-After all-" said Fred.
"-We suspect that-"
"-Ickle Ronniekins-"
"-was dropped on his head as a baby," they finished together.
"I can't believe you are taking his side!" Ron cried indignantly. Hermione finally reached their location, and set the book down on the table. It hit with a lump THUMP that rattled the table.
"Blimey Granger-" Fred said.
"-are you going to kill someone with that?" George asked.
She scowled at them. "Only your brother if he doesn't keep quiet."
"I'm not going away until he leaves." He drew his wand as he spoke, but it was pointing at the floor. Harry decided now was as good a time as any to show off his new toy, and he flicked his wrist, sending his holly and phoenix feather wand in his right hand, which was pointing at Ron. He winked, before sliding the wand back up his robe sleeve, where it clicked back into the holster.
Ron stomped off, infuriated, his brothers heckling him mercilessly. Dean and Seamus followed. Harry sighed when they left. "Now that those clowns are gone, do you mind explaining to me why you dragged the most hated student in the school into the Gryffindor Common Room?"
She flipped open the massive book, and Harry caught a glimpse of its title: A Detailed History of Alchemy. She flipped the book open, and found the passage she was looking for. "There!" she said triumphantly, pointing with her wand.
The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth Birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).
Harry sucked in a breath, then let it out. "Bloody hell, no wonder someone's trying to steal it. First the Gringott's thing, now the dog…and Snape," he said, a few pieces of the puzzle beginning to fall into place. Hermione looked baffled. Harry looked at her.
"There was a break-in at Gringotts the day that Hagrid removed the Stone. They got into the vault, which is incredibly difficult to do. Dumbledore moved the thing just in time. And Snape…Snape was limping after the troll incident, remember?" Harry tried to recall the memories of the night he'd been attacked by the troll, but found his memories blurry. Hermione's eyes lit up.
"I remember! His leg was all torn up and bloody. I didn't think much of it at the time. He must have tried to get past Fluffy!"
"That's ridiculous name," Harry breathed. "But I don't think so. I hate Snape more than anyone in the castle, but I know one thing: the man is loyal to Dumbledore. I don't know what the story is there, but while I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him, I don't think he's after the Stone. He must have realized the troll was a diversion, and headed off the real thief." Harry paused, steeping his fingers and gazing into his best friend's eyes.
"The question is how…and why?"
The next few weeks flew by in a hurry, and soon all thought of Christmas break was forgotten. The First Years had thought they were lucky, getting off without any homework during the holidays. Unfortunately, the teachers simply piled in on after the students had returned.
Not that it was much of a problem for the two brightest (and most despised) students in the year. Harry and Hermione got their homework done on time and quickly, then spent the remainder of their free time fulfilling their duties as bookworms. The library had become a second home to both of them.
One thing that wasn't going quite so well was Harry's attempts to teach both Hermione and himself combat spells vastly beyond the First Year level. After hours of practice in empty classrooms, both were proficient with all the spells they knew, but they seemed to hit a wall. Harry had wanted to try some more difficult curses, such as Cutting and Slicing Curses, but found himself unable to perform them at all. From their reading, Harry and Hermione had learned that they required emotion to work, as well as magical power. It was likely that the two eleven-year olds were too emotionally immature and magically raw to perform them. Either way, the two could soundly trounce any student in their year.
Not that that was the reason they were learning them. Based on the suspicious events that had occurred at their school this year, both thought it a good idea to be prepared.
What did interrupt their cycle of learning and work was a one-line note from Hagrid on Tuesday morning.
It's Hatching
As soon as they had a free period, Harry and Hermione crossed the bridge and descended down the stone path to Hagrid's hut. All of the doors and windows were closed, and the room was a furnace. On top of the battered wooden table lay a large, grey-green egg. The egg was moving slightly. As it did so, Ron finally gave in and opened a window to let a little cool air into the sweltering cabin. Hagrid didn't notice. A small beak was poking out of the eggshell. Seconds later, the egg cracked open, and the tiny Norwegian made its presence felt with a high-pitched croak. Hagrid swooned over the nasty-looking creature.
"I've decided to call 'im Norbert." All of the other four people in the cabin stared in disbelief.
Then Harry saw something: a flash of blond hair outside the window. In less than a second, his wand was in his hand. "Stupefy!" The jet of red light struck Malfoy in the face and he keeled over backwards, dropping out of sight. Harry rushed out of the cabin, and levitated Malfoy's unconscious form somewhere near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, then calmly returned to the cabin, where the four people inside stared at him. Harry shrugged.
"Would you rather getting arrested for possessing an illegal dragon? I'm going to have to learn Memory Charms, I have a feeling I'll be needing them." Hermione gaped at him.
"Memory Charms? Do you have any idea how dangerous those are? You could try to erase the last five minutes and completely wipe their memories!"
"I know, that's why I'm not fooling around with them until I'm really good at them," Harry said. Weasley was staring at him, mouth agape? "What? Planning on having a bunch of flies in your mouth?" Ron shut it.
"How can you do that? First, you can perform a Stunning Spell, which is definitely not First Year magic, and second, you do it without thinking, on a member of your own House nonetheless."
Harry shrugged. "When you grow up with the Grey Maiden, you pick up some things." Seeing Hermione's puzzled expression, he muttered, "Daphne," and she nodded.
"So, what are we going to do about Norbert?" Neville asked, stressing the name of the dragon in disbelief.
"Well, I'm planning to keep 'im," Hagrid said stupidly. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house. Norbert will easily exceed the size of said house within two months. You cannot keep him, else you'll be sent to Azkaban or expelled for your efforts." Hagrid paled at the mention of the wizard prison.
"He's right, Hagrid," Ron said, looking annoyed that he was agreeing with a Slytherin.
"But I can't just let 'im go. 'E's too little, he'd die," Hagrid moaned.
"I know!" Ron said excitedly. "Do you remember my brother, Charlie?"
"Oh yeah. He stopped by quite 'o bit, to see what interestin' creatures I had on me. Always brought that 'Tonks' girl, crazy one if I've sen one." Harry snorted.
"She certainly does have that affect on people. I met her over break." Hagrid smiled.
"Made another friend, eh Harry? That's good. Well Ron, why don't'cha owl Charlie and see what he can do? I think…" he sniffled, "…I think that Norbert would be happy at a dragon preserve."
The days passed in agonizing slowness. Draco had been glaring daggers at Harry recently, and Harry was starting to get the bad feeling that he remembered being stunned. That meant he also remembered the dragon. Inexplicably, he hadn't gone to Snape, who was treating him the same as always. Well, a little worse, because now he had the 'brat-who-lived' and Gryffindor's resident know-it-all working together. Not just working together, but creating high-quality potions, no matter what harassment he heaped on them. Harry's observation skills had proved crucial in this regard. He was now adept at spotting Malfoy about to chuck an ingredient into his cauldron, an action that was halted by Harry's wand flying into his right hand. Snape hadn't caught him yet.
Finally, four days after the dragon hatched, Charlie wrote back. Ron, visibly straining, walked over to the Ravenclaw table and invited the Slytherin and the Gryffindor traitor to read the note at Hagrid's hut that afternoon. Harry helped out Ron by casting a security charm on it to prevent Malfoy from nicking it and finding out. The boy grudgingly thanked him.
After Transfiguration and DADA, Harry and Hermione joined Ron and Neville at Hagrid's hut. Neville looked pleased to see them, while Ron still looked suspiciously at Harry. He would also glance at Hermione from time to time then glare at Harry. If Harry didn't know better, he'd swear the redhead had a crush on the bushy-haired girl. Which makes absolutely no sense…
Ron opened the letter and red it aloud.
Hey Little Bro,
Sounds like you've got a rather unique problem. Norwegian Ridgebacks are very rare, and very dangerous, almost as dangerous as a Hungarian Horntail. Always knew Hagrid was a wee bit off his rocker.
Back to the point of the letter. We're more than willing to acquire a rare dragon like that, and we can afford to send a few of the handlers, including yours truly, over to pick him up. Why don't you meet us at midnight on Wednesday night at the top of the Astronomy Tower. Hope that isn't too much trouble. Just get it up there, and we'll take care of the rest. Owl back ASAP to confirm this.
Love,
Charlie
"Well, that settles that," Harry said after Ron had finished reading. "We'll send him away on Wednesday." Hagrid looked like he was about to cry, but he nodded.
Hermione looked concerned. "How are we going to get to the Astronomy Tower at midnight without getting caught? We'd lose so many points if we were caught!"
Harry smirked, then pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of his pocket (he had taken to carrying it around). He threw the cloak around himself and her gasps.
"Bloody hell, where'd he go?" Weasley asked stupidly.
"It's an Invisibility Cloak, Ronald," Hermione said, right as always. "Well, will it fit everyone and a box?"
Harry pulled the cloak off, folding it up and putting it back in his pocket. "No. I'd say two people and the dragon are the maximum. It seems to have the ability to expand, but I don't think it will cover all four of us and a large box."
"So then who's going?" Neville asked. "Not me, Gran would kill me if I got caught after curfew."
"Hermione…" Harry said, knowing what her response would be.
"Absolutely not! Do you realize the trouble I'd get in?" she huffed indignantly. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Well, do you realize the likelihood that one of us doesn't come back alive if you stick me and Weasley under that cloak? Silencing Charms can only do so much," Harry said. Weasley looked offended, but then shrugged, realizing it was true.
"But…" Hermione whined, looking for a way out. Then she sighed.
"Don't worry, Hermione. With the cloak and Silencing Charms the only way we'll get caught is if we ram into someone, and I assure you that won't happen."
After agreeing on the plan, Weasley slipped the note into a textbook and they left for dinner. Unfortunately, the next day did not bring good news. As Harry and Hermione were sitting out on the grounds, reading, Ron Weasley came plodding up, his face contorted in pain and his hand twice normal size with an unhealthy greenish tint. The two looked up.
"The bloody thing bit me! Merlin, I can't wait until we get rid of it!" Weasley said, much too loud. Hermione shushed him, while Harry looked at his hand.
"Hospital Wing, Weasley. Looks like Norbert's fangs are poisonous." Ron turned the same color as his hand, and ran into the castle.
If that had been bad news, it was nothing compared to what happened two days later. They were visiting Ron in the Hospital Wing, who wasn't convinced that Madam Pomfrey had bought the story about him being bitten by a dog. Worse than that came after that. Weasley looked in his bookbag and paled. "Oh bloody hell. I leant my book to Malfoy! And Charlie's letter was inside!" Harry rounded on him.
"What do you mean you left the letter inside? Does it have sentimental value or something? Why didn't you just burn it you bloody idiot?" Harry raged at him. If Malfoy went to Snape…well, he was dead.
"Harry!" Hermione yelled at him. "You aren't helping."
Harry fixed Weasley with a dark look. "If you get caught, you'll lose some points and get a detention. If I get caught, I might not survive the year. That's how much the Slytherins hate me. Hell, I doubt Nott and Greengrass will ever speak to me again."
"You're friends with them?" Ron asked suspiciously. Harry shook his head.
"We have a neutral relationship. Hermione is my only real friend here at Hogwarts. And Hagrid, I suppose," Harry admitted. Weasley looked surprised.
"C'mon, we have to get to class," Hermione reminded him, leaving Weasley to ponder the consequences of what he had done.
The night that Harry had been dreading finally arrived. With Ron laid up in the Hospital Wing, and Neville terrified of what his grandmother would do to him, it was up to a Gryffindor and a Slytherin to keep Hagrid an employed, free man. Harry snuck out of the Slytherin dormitory past his sleeping roommates, and donned the invisibility cloak, casting Silencing Charms on it and his feet at he did so. He snuck past Filch, and got out of the castle.
He found Hermione waiting by a huge crate, with Hagrid off to the side, sobbing loudly. Harry shushed him and told him it would be alright (though the thought of comforting a man about losing a dragon seemed alien to him), and quickly tested if he, Hermione, and Norbert's box would fit under the cloak. They did, though just barely. After Hagrid said farewell to Norbert (as the dragon ripped the teddy bear that had been placed in with him into pieces), they set off.
With the Silencing Charms and the cloak, they managed to avoid Filch entirely. They reached the correct wing of the castle, but froze when they heard shouting. Creeping forward, they saw that Professor McGonagall, wearing a green tartan nightgown, had Draco Malfoy by the ear. The pureblooded heir was wildly protesting his innocence, and talking about the dragon. It was plainly obvious that McGonagall didn't believe him, and Harry couldn't blame her: you couldn't make up a more unlikely scenario if you tried. It was fortunate that Ron had gotten both his book and the letter back, as Malfoy had no proof.
Hermione giggled at Draco's predicament, but Harry winced in anticipation of what he would do to Harry the next day, knowing that he got him in trouble. McGonagall dragged Malfoy off, and the strange threesome moved on.
Climbing the stairs to the Astronomy Tower was no easy feat, but luckily, the door was unlocked. They managed to get the crate to the top and then both collapsed against a wall, exhausted. Even with a Lightening Charm, the crate weighed a ton.
Minutes later, five broomsticks flew into sight, ridden by five strange-looking people. Harry recognized the red hair of the leader.
"That you, Ron?" he called down. Hermione frantically gestured for him to be quiet, and he landed, along with a few of his fellow handlers.
"Where's my brother?" he asked. Charlie Weasley was shorter than his younger brother, more stocky like the twins, rather than tall and gangly like Ron. His face had so many freckles on it that he looked like he had a tan.
"Norbert bit him," Hermione explained. "He's in the Hospital Wing."
"Norbert?" a witch said in disbelief. Harry and Hermione shrugged. "Hagrid named him."
The witches and wizards then showed the two eleven-year olds the inventive harness they had rigged up to carry the dragon. They planned to hook up the box, fly to an empty area, then take the dragon out and let him stretch his wings on the way back to Romania.
After saying their goodbyes, Harry and Hermione waved as the dragon and its keepers flew off into the night. Their mission accomplished, Harry and Hermione excitedly hurried down the stairs….
And ran right into a very malicious looking Argus Filch, Mrs. Norris tangled around his leg, her lamp like red eyes eerily reminding Harry of a figure from his nightmares.
"Well, well, what do we have here…?" Filch said. Harry felt his blood run cold.
The Invisibility Cloak was still in his pocket.
Harry's mind was spinning as Filch dragged him and Hermione down several flights of stairs. Well, the Caretaker wasn't physically dragging him, but the two First Years were walking lifelessly behind him as if dragged by an invisible leash. Hermione was muttering worriedly to herself, while Harry was trying to figure out how he was going to ask Daphne to transfer him.
They didn't even notice where they were going until Filch pushed the door to McGonagall's office open. She was in there, still giving a tongue-lashing to Draco Malfoy, who looked up at them in surprise, before a wide smirk crossed his features. Harry's heart sank. McGonagall's lips pressed into a thin line at the two students.
"Found them up in the Astronomy Tower, ma'am. A bit too young to be using it for what you normally see…" Filch said, grinning maliciously. Hermione blushed at the implications, while Harry's face remained as stoic as a stone wall.
"Well I never…I don't believe this! Four students out of bed! Two of them from my own House!" McGonagall said angrily. Harry looked around in surprise, and then spotted Neville Longbottom standing miserably in the corner.
"Oh Neville…" Hermione sighed.
"Well, I have no idea why you did this. Mister Malfoy was feeding me some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, and it seems obvious you tried to play a prank on him. Well, I believe a heavy punishment is in order. You must not be wandering the corridors at night. Especially now…"
"120 points from Slytherin, 70 from Mister Potter, as this is his second offense (she gave him a slightly apologetic look as his face paled), and 50 from Mister Malfoy. 100 points from Gryffindor, 50 each from Mister Longbottom and Miss Granger. I am very disappointed in all of you…"
"70..?" Harry breathed. McGonagall nodded. "Yes, Mister Potter, 70 points. And each of you will receive detention for a later date. Now get back to your dormitories!"
Harry didn't even say goodbye to Hermione, who appeared comatose. He simply turned around and left. Unfortunately, Malfoy was behind him.
"Nice going, Potter," he hissed angrily. "You've lost us the bloody Cup. I'd be running for your life now if I were you."
Harry spun around. "You know, Draco. Even if no one is going to believe me, you and I both know this is your fault."
"What?" Draco said, stopping.
"It is your fault. We would have not been caught if you hadn't been so determined to get me in trouble. You got caught by McGonagall, and she alerted Filch, thinking we were playing a trick. You may have gotten me in trouble, but I don't think losing 120 points was worth it, do you?" Harry asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Malfoy gaped.
"Speechless, Draco?" Harry taunted. Then he walked off, ignoring the stunned Slytherin, who had just realized the extent of his stupidity.
It was, Harry thought, a replay of his first few miserable days at Hogwarts. Having Hermione helped, but as soon as word got out that the half-blood, Harry Potter, had lost them 120 points (Malfoy's getting caught was blamed on him too), they made it their personal mission to make his life miserable.
Of course, that wasn't really much of a change. The Slytherins had been treating him like pond scum from the day he arrived. Snape was more vindictive than ever, and Harry and Hermione's potions grade had dropped like a stone. Malfoy and the other Slytherins actively sabotaged their potions, and Snape became exceedingly clumsy when handling the vials of their potion. To add insult to injury, the two were kept after to clean up the mess. Snape had given Harry detention for no reason at all on several occasions, and Harry was getting strange headaches whenever he was in a particularly bad mood. It felt sort of like when Daphne used Legillimacy, only less gentle. Harry said as much in a letter home, and she must have passed it on to Dumbledore, for Snape stopped doing whatever it was.
Besides being bruised from being shoved into so many corridor walls, Quidditch Practice was now a fight for survival. The Beaters used Harry as their primary target, and he'd had to get quite good at dodging Bludgers, as Bole and Derrick were hitting them with a little too much force, and intent. Flint, obviously, didn't try to stop them.
Harry still hung out with Hermione, as the two were too good of friends to be separated by something like this, but the strain was showing on both of them. Neville had also become an outcast, people tended to ignore him, and his fear of rejection kept him from socializing with Harry and Hermione.
As for Hermione, she was as quiet and subdued as Harry had ever seen her. She rarely raised her hand in class, and kept to herself. She seemed depressed, and told Harry that her parents had threatened to withdraw her from the school after getting a letter from McGonagall. She'd fended them off, for now, but felt the only way to make up for her transgressions was to earn top marks on all of her exams. That meant she and Harry were making a case to have a pair of bedrooms installed in the library. Besides, no one bothered them there.
As exams approached, so did Hermione's drive and determination to memorize every single word of her notes and textbooks. Harry didn't mind, though he found it a bit excessive.
Still, the possibly the worst occurred about a month after the incident. Harry had just been let out of a hellish Potions class, in which Snape had been making sarcastic comments over his shoulder in an attempt to distract him. When that didn't work, he allowed Malfoy to chuck a ginger root at his cauldron (which Harry knocked down before it got there). Finally, he vanished Harry and Hermione's potion for no reason at all, and gave them their eighth consecutive zero. Hermione looked ready to cry, and Harry was seething. Only a desperate attempt by Hermione to calm him down prevented him from hexing the bastard.
After class, things got worse. Harry ducked into an empty classroom, trying to collect himself. Hermione left to go to the loo. Harry was about to turn around when he heard the door open.
"Expelliarmus!" Malfoy yelled. Harry's wand went flying out of his grasp, and Harry spun around to see Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle advancing toward him. Draco had a murderous sneer on his face.
"You really though you were going to get away from me, Potter? Really thought you'd avoid retribution. Get him, boys!" Draco ordered to Crabbe and Goyle.
The two junior trolls marched forward, and Harry found himself trapped. He ducked the first few blows, but Crabbe soon had a hold of him, while Goyle slugged him in the gut, then hammered him across the face. He was bleeding and bruised when the door slammed open, revealing an absolutely livid Hermione. She stunned Goyle, then set Malfoy's robes on fire. He extinguished them and ran for it. Hermione grabbed Harry's wand off the ground, and threw it back to him. Harry hit Malfoy in the back with a Striking Curse that had all of his anger and frustration behind it, and the blond-haired boy was sent flying through the air before crashing painfully to the ground. He took one look at Harry's murderous expression and fled.
Hermione tended to Harry's injuries as best she could, but Harry refused to go to the Hospital Wing. Luckily, he didn't have any broken bones. She was absolutely furious and wanted to go to McGonagall, but Harry told her that Snape might get him expelled if he found out they were fighting. Malfoy had been humiliated, and wasn't going to tell anyone. She unwillingly agreed to keep quiet.