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Chapter 11

"Hello, Harry," Cho Chang sauntered up to the Gryffindor table as we were finishing our breakfast one morning. She was accompanied by Michael Corner, whose eyes smiled dazzlingly at Janie.

"Michael was telling me that the first years are starting on animating objects in Charms class," Cho continued. "I'd be happy to go over the theory with the three of you - if you like..."

My first instinct was to tell her that Janie already had a very firm grasp of the theory and she was the only tutor I needed, but Janie's elbow caught my lower rib before I could vocalize the thought.

"That would be great!" Janie replied brightly, flashing a smile in Michael's direction.

A brief pang of jealousy surged through my chest before Janie's elbow tapped my ribs again.

"Uh - yeah - that would be great," I repeated - somewhat unconvincingly, in my opinion.

Cho bought it, though. "We can meet here after our last classes of the day," she smiled at me. "What time are you free?"

"Three o'clock," Janie answered for us.

"I have all afternoon free," Michael informed us. "We have Astronomy tonight."

Janie and I turned to Cho.

"I can be here at three," she nodded. "We'll find ourselves an unused classroom."


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"Hagrid, don't you think Norbert's getting big enough to be released into the Forbidden Forest?" Janie asked the half-giant reasonably. The young dragon had been growing at an astonishing rate.

"Naw - he's still jus' a wee thing," Hagrid shook his head.

"He's as long as I am tall!" Janie protested.

"An' would yer like ter be cast into the Forbidden Forest?" Hagrid retorted. "At yer tender age?"

"Well - no..." Janie sighed, glancing at me and giving a sad little shake of her head.

"But look at your hands, Hagrid," I tried another approach. "And your beard - what's left of it!"

"It'll grow back," the man chuckled. "And Madam Pomfrey's burn cream works wonders. Me hands doan' even hurt!"

"I'm glad you were wrong about the imprinting," Janie added - with some disgust coloring her voice. "Can you imagine that thing following you around everywhere you go?"

"He's not a 'thing' - he's a he - but yer right, though. 'Im follerin' me into the Great Hall might 'a caused a few problems..." Hagrid allowed.

"You simply must get rid of it, Hagrid!" Janie said, very insistently. "Er - him, "she added placatingly.

"How can you even tell?" I asked. "He's from she's, I mean?"

"Yer can't, actually - not until they lay their eggs, that is."

"When will that be?" I wondered.

"Dunno," Hagrid shrugged.

"Hagrid..." Janie eyed him shrewdly. She was up to something, I could tell. "If you were to release him - or her - into the Forbidden Forest, how would he - or she - ever manage to find a mate? There are no other dragons there, are there?"

"Er..." Hagrid looked perplexed.

"Where did the egg come from?" Janie continued. "Originally, I mean - where did the man who gave it to you get it?"

"Er - from a dragon preserve, I reckon... Wait! That's IT!" Hagrid yelled as his eyes lit up.

Norbert looked up at him, startled by the sudden noise, and snorted a bit of flame.

"I'll jus' have ter get m'self another egg!" The large man grinned from ear to ear - a rather odd sight, given the wild, patchy condition of his beard.

"Hagrid," Janie said calmly, "You're looking at this from the wrong angle. Rather than double your problems by getting another dragon - which might in fact turn out to be the same gender as Norbert - maybe you should consider finding a good home for the one you've got - among other dragons."

"Yer mean send the li'l tyke off ter one o' them preserves!? Never!"

"It was just a thought..." Janie shook her head slowly and sighed in defeat.


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"Is it just me or is Professor Quirrell looking ill?" Janie whispered to me as we were leaving Defense class and heading for lunch one day in late March.

"I don't know - he's always looked a little 'off' to me."

"True, but he seems pale - his skin has an almost grayish look to it. It's the look of death."

"Good! Maybe he'll snuff it without our help," I chuckled. "I don't fancy eating that one!"

"Jamie!" she swatted my arm.


"Hi, Harry!" Cho Chang's cheerful voice greeted us as we entered the Great Hall for lunch.

"Hermione!" Michael Corner's voice joined Cho's.

"Michael!" Janie greeted him brightly, if not sincerely.

"Cho!" I grinned at her, knowing full well the game they were up to. They'd been 'softening us up' for weeks.

"Harry," Cho walked up to me and placed her hand on my arm - the one holding my book bag in place on my shoulder. "You know that special cloak you have...?" she emphasized the word. "I know it's really valuable and all, but I was hoping that you might allow me - us - to borrow it for a little while." Her voice was soft and intimate. She gave my arm a slight squeeze as she made 'puppy dog eyes' at me.

"Please?" Michael's pleading expression matched Cho's but was directed at Janie.

Janie and I exchanged a meaningful glance, although its meaning was not what Corner and Chang probably imagined.

"Okay," I nodded after making them sweat for several seconds. "I'll bring it to dinner. Just don't let anyone see it - especially the Headmaster," I warned.

"Thanks, Harry!" Cho leaned forward to kiss my cheek. "You won't regret this! I promise!"

"Thank you," Michael's eyes beamed his appreciation in Janie's direction. She seemed relieved that he didn't kiss her cheek.


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"Don't let anything happen to it - it was my father's," I warned Cho as I slipped the Cloak to her that evening. "Keep it out of sight and by all means, don't let Dumbledore see it," I repeated my warning from earlier that day.

"Don't worry, Harry, I'll guard it with my life!" Cho tucked the Cloak under her robes and then gave me another kiss on the cheek.

"Hey-hey, Potter!" Seamus called form his seat at the Gryffindor table. "Looks like Granger has some competition!"

In reply, I turned to Janie and kissed her full on the lips. It was a short kiss, but we spent several seconds afterward just staring into each other's eyes the way we imagined lovers might do. We could only hold the pose for a moment before we both started laughing. Grinning at each other madly, I took Janie's hand and led her over to our customary seats at the Gryffindor table.

The grins were for our little farce in the middle of the Great Hall, obviously, but also because our plan to help the Ravenclaws find their way to the fake stone was now firmly on track.

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Hagrid's invitation to visit him after classes was slightly different this time: he'd added the word, "Urgent!!"

As we departed the castle, we half expected to find the groundskeeper's hut reduced to nothing but charcoal and ashes, but luckily that was not the case.

"What, Hagrid!?" I said when he opened the door. "What's wrong?"

Norbert raised his head to glance over from the hearth as we entered, then turned back to stare listlessly into the fire.

We looked around the hut, worried that perhaps the fire damage had been confined to the inside, but the only odd thing we noticed was the scorch mark on the stones where the hearth rug used to be.

"It's Norbert," Hagrid gave the dragon a worried glance. "'E's not been feelin' up to 'is usual self."

"Norbert?" Janie walked over and crouched beside the young dragon. "What's wrong, Norbert?" she reached out her hand to stroke his head - something we'd done many times before. "OW!" she yanked her hand back as Norbert gave a small, warning roar and an accompanying lick of flame.

"NORBERT!!" Hagrid scolded, "Tha's not nice!!"

I rushed over to pull Janie away from the dragon, who ignored us all and turned back to contemplate the flames in the fireplace.

"Here - hold out yer hand," Hagrid turned to Janie with a pot of burn ointment. "This'll do the trick!" he assured her, daubing some out with his finger and glopping it onto her hand. "Jus' spread tha' around and yeh'll be good as new. Here - let me put some in a jar fer yeh fer later. It takes two applications - one for the pain and another the next day ter keep it from scarrin'."

Hagrid produced a pint jar and filled it from his large pot. It looked like he'd been using the ointment liberally - the pot was half empty.

"That's a lot, Hagrid!" Janie eyed the jar. "Were you expecting me to need more, later?" she accused him.

"Well - yer never know..." he replied sheepishly.

"Hagrid - there's something you're not telling us," I narrowed my eyes at the half-giant.

"Well - yer see..." he started, but then seemed to think better of it.

"Go on, Hagrid," Janie frowned at him. "You're going to tell us eventually. Just get it over with!"

"Well - yer see," he started again, "There was a student here - graduated jus' las' year - an' he's apprenticin' at a dragon preserve in Romania..."

"And..." Janie prompted when Hagrid seemed to stall.

"An' I owled, 'im, see?"

"Not another egg!!" Janie narrowed her eyes.

"About taking Norbert?" I asked at the same time, a hopeful note in my voice.

"Shh!!" Hagrid put his huge finger to his lips and gave a warning glance at the dragon in question. "Charlie Weasley owled me back this mornin'. He an' three o' his mates can be here Saturday at midnight, see, but they can't be seen at Hogwarts."

"And..." I motioned for Hagrid to continue.

"Well, they figure that if they flew over the Astronomy tower an' jus' happened ter notice somethin' lyin' about - all packed for shipment an' everything - that they might be willin' ter swoop down and take it..."

"And...?" I prodded.

"An' - well - I can't fit up the steps to the Astronomy tower, what with me size and all..."

"So you need someone to carry your 'shipment' -" Janie glanced over at the hearth, "- up to the tower for you?"

Hagrid merely smiled sheepishly and wrung his hands nervously.

Janie and I studied each other's eyes for several seconds before giving each other slight nods of mutual agreement.

"Okay, Hagrid," I rendered our verdict, "We'll be here at half-eleven on Saturday night. Be sure that your 'shipment' has handles for easy carrying."


"We'll have to get the Cloak back from the Ravenclaws," I considered as we trudged back up the path to the castle.

"We can't use the Cloak - Dumbledore will notice!"

"We can't simply stroll up to the castle and through the corridors, carrying a small dragon between us," I countered.

"Hmm..." Janie went into 'postulating' mode.

I padded along behind her, waiting patiently for her to finish.

"Got it!" she smiled back over her shoulder.

"What?"

"We'll let Cho and her friends do it!"

"What ?" I repeated.

"They owe us for lending them the Cloak. We'll tell them that we need it back - permanently - to perform an errand, or perhaps they can do the errand for us..."

"...And continue to use the Cloak! I like the way you think!" I grinned.

"There are four of them and only two of us," Janie grinned back. "I'll bet Norbert's grown quite heavy."

"And if the Headmaster catches them..." I offered.

"...We'll be down at Hagrid's hut keeping an eye on the Astronomy tower," she nodded.

"And consoling the poor groundskeeper over the loss of his pet whilst downing a bottle or two of butterbeer," I grinned.


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The Ravenclaws saw the benefit in our kind offer and 'Operation Norbert' went off without a hitch. After a tearful goodbye on Hagrid's part, we watched as the four 'Claws levitated 'nothing' in the gap between them as they marched two abreast up to the castle.

They emerged on top of the Astronomy tower just before midnight and four broom riders showed up minutes later. It wasn't until after they'd flown off with their cargo that the three of us waiting nervously down at the groundskeeper's hut breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"'E'll be happier there, won't 'e," Hagrid nodded, trying more to convince himself rather than Janie and me.

"Definitely, Hagrid!" Janie assured him. "You saw how he just moped around here."

"Aye," Hagrid nodded to himself.

That's when he broke out the Firewhiskey and that's when Janie and I called it a night.

Well, we might have tried a tiny sip or two of the Firewhiskey before we left - just to be polite, you know.

Wow! That stuff's potent!

"Whee-ee-ee!!" Janie swung our joined hands high over our heads as we stumbled - er - walked back up to the castle.

Don't ask me how we made it back to our common room, but we did. I'm sure of this because that's where we woke up together in the morning - on 'our' sofa in front of the fireplace. We were still wearing our heavy cloaks from our trip to Hagrid's the previous night.


"Late night last night, Harry?" the Headmaster smiled as Janie and I dragged ourselves into the Great Hall for a late breakfast on Sunday morning.

"Er - yes, sir," I muttered, carefully keeping my eyes on the floor in front of my feet.

"The stars were supposedly spectacular last night, I hear," he teased, "for those with the proper vantage point, that is."

"Er - yes, I suppose so, sir," I repeated, wondering what he was on about.

"Professor Dumbledore must have tracked your Cloak to the Astronomy tower," Janie whispered once we'd taken our seats. "He probably thinks that you and I were up there snogging," she let out a quiet giggle.

"But he didn't come to investigate?" I asked her.

"Apparently not!"

"We should have done that instead," I groaned. "You don't get a hangover from snogging."


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