The teachers had started pilling so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. The friends spent most of their free time in the library, trying to get through all their extra work, Ron complaining constantly.
One day however, Hagrid shuffled past, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully.
"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" Ron asked
'I''ll go see what section he was in,' signed Hari, needing a break, a minute later she came back and signed 'Dragons, he's always wanted one.'
"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden"
"How do you know that?" Hermione asked
"Mom has to say it to Charlie a lot." Ron smirked, " anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.
When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid shut the door quickly behind them.
It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused
"We were wondering" said Hermione, "if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."
Hagrid frowned at him.
"O' course I can't," he said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts -- I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Hermione. Hagrid's beard twitched as he tried not to smile. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Hari and Ron beamed at Hermione.
"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout -- Professor Flitwick -- Professor McGonagall -- " he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell -- an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."
"Snape?" Ron said
"Yeah -- yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."
Hari knew what Ron and Hermione were thinking. That if Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. But Hari was sure it wasn't him, if anyone, it was Quirell.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.
"Well, that's something," Ron said, "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."
"Can't, sorry," said Hagrid. Hari noticed him glance at the fire. Hari looked at it, too.
'What's that ?' she signed -- But she already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black, dragon egg.
"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's -- er..."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."
"Won it," said Hagrid. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library -- Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit -- it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on I em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here -- how ter recognize diff'rent eggs -- what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback." Hari had thought so, "They're rare, them."
Hagrid looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said.
But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.
So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.
• • •
They ran down to Hagrid hut after class on the day it was supposed to hatch. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.
"It's nearly out." He ushered them inside.
The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside.
They all drew their chairs up to the table and waited.
All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table, looking like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes.
It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout. Suddenly Hari saw a face in the window, she left through the back door so as not to be seen, then snuck around. It was Draco Malfoy, he had seen the dragon. She grabbed his shoulder, and he whirled around, surprised.
Seeing it was her, he sneered. "What are you going to do, turn me in? The oaf's got an illegal dragon, all it'll take is a word from me." She froze, knowing this was true."Now let go of me." She did, and he strolled up to the castle, sneering the whole way.
Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy's face every time her looked at her over the next week made Hari very nervous. The trio spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him. Hagrid finally agreed to let Charlie, Ron's brother who worked with dragons, come and pick up the Norbert, as Hagrid had named him.
And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.
The night before they were to take Norbert to Charlie on top of the astronomy tower, Ron appeared out in the common room 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, "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's 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."
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.
Hari 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, and Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."
'It's too late to change the plan now,' Hari signed to Hermione. 'We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl. We'll have to risk it. We have the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that.'
It was a very dark, cloudy night. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate, which was very heavy, how they managed to get it back up to the castle, they never knew.
They were almost there, when a sudden movement ahead of them made them almost drop the crate. They shrank into the shadows. Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear, she dragged him off towards her office.
Not until they'd stepped out into the cold night air at the top off the tower did they throw off the cloak. Hari stuffed it into her bag. Hermione did a sort of jig. "Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!"
'Don't,' Hari signed
About five minutes after they arrived, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness. They all helped buckle Norbert's crate safely into a harness and then left.
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 said, "we are in trouble."
They'd forgotten to put the cloak back on.