FicWad

Chapter 13: Pets and Powers

Harry could not help but feel amused at the sight he saw a few days ago. Ron Weasley staggering around the school like he became intoxicated, caused Harry and his friends hours of amusement. Although the hangover part of the spell was an unintended side affect Harry could not have foreseen.

After another grueling Quidditch Practice, where Flint had given the team a bit of interesting news, which was potentially problematic to Harry.

"Snape is refereeing the next Quidditch Match," said Daphne in disbelief. "What qualifications does he even have to be a Quidditch referee? This sounds a bit suspicious don’t you think?"

"I have learned in recent months to expect that I’ll find myself in the middle of suspicious events," said Harry darkly.

"Harry, this is serious," said Hermione. "If Snape was the one who is after the Stone, he could make it look like an accident during the Quidditch Game with Ravenclaw. Especially with your reckless nature."

"My reckless nature is not a concern here," said Harry dismissively. "Snape is refereeing and if I need to do something to survive, then so be it. Listen, we need get down to Hagrid's right now, because I do not think Flint will be this generous again when letting out early for Quidditch practice. He seemed to be in a good mood when he found out Snape was refereeing."

Theodore, Daphne, Hermione, and Harry left out for Hagrid's hut. Walking the short path from there school. Harry raised his fist, knocking on the door.

"Hang on a minute," said Hagrid's muffled voice behind the door. "Back Fang, back."

Hagrid opened the door as Daphne, Theodore, Harry, and Hermione walked into the Hut. Harry winced at the sight he saw. Apparently the four friends were not the only visitor Hagrid had that night. Ron Weasley pulled his wand out and pointing it at Harry.

"What are you doing here, Potter?" growled Weasley.

Harry just looked at Weasley. Some people never learn their lesson, no matter how painful.

"We are here to visit Hagrid, like civilized people," said Harry. "A type of person I am sure you could never be."

Ron's ears went red in anger before muttering something about "slimy snakes" and "bloody traitors" under his breath. Hermione turned to Harry, Theodore, and Daphne.

"Are you sure it is wise to talk about the You-Know-What in front of Weasley?" asked Hermione.

"What, the Philosopher’s Stone?" muttered Theodore before Daphne elbowed him in the gut.

"Idiot," muttered Daphne shaking her head in disgust.

"What are you four slimy gits blathering on about?" said Weasley.

"Slimy!" cried Hermione incredulously. "How dare you call me or my friends, slimy you hot head!"

"I think you could be confusing us for Malfoy and his cronies," said Theodore mildly. "Even you can’t be that stupid."

Hagrid had a confused look on his face but Harry gave him a look of apology.

"Guys, knock it off," said Harry. "Just attempt to peacefully coexist with Weasley for at least a few minutes."

"Like I would want to coexist with you, Potter," snapped Weasley.

Harry just narrowed his eyes before his gaze turned to a big black egg in a basket over a fire. A feeling of impending doom washed over Harry when seeing the egg.

"Hagrid, is that what I think it is?" inquired Harry, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the egg. Surely Hagrid would know the risks?

"It's uh well it's a, well you see," stammered Hagrid, attempting to stretch for a concise reputation on what it was.

"Hagrid, we know it's a Dragon's egg," said Daphne.

"I heard they were extremely rare," said Hermione in awe.

"Where did you get it Hagrid?" asked Harry with a bit of a suspicious feeling on the origins of the egg.

Before Hagrid could answer, Ron Weasley opened his mouth again.

"Why, Potter, need some blackmail material you sneaking Slytherin?" said Weasley.

Harry looked at Weasley, his eyes glinting in anger.

"One more comment, Weasley," said Harry, leaving his threat to hang in the air dangerously.

"Won it, in a card game," said Hagrid.

"Don't you find it a little odd, Hagrid, that someone just simply had a dragon egg for a card game?" asked Harry. "It seems a bit fishy."

Yeh find a lot of shady folks at the Hog's Head," said Hagrid. "Might of bin a Dragon Dealer for all I know. Always wanted a dragon, so it was very lucky this guy showed up."

Harry nodded his head slowly, as there was defiantly something shady going on here although he could not put his finger on it right at the moment.

"So, how long ago have you won the egg, Hagrid," said Hermione.

"A few weeks ago," said Hagrid. "It should be hatchin' any moment now."

"As interesting as this dragon egg is, we came here to get confirm our suspicions about the item of the third floor," said Harry. "Are there any other protections besides the obvious one on the floor?

"Well, there are spells an' enchantments by most of the teachers in the school," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid," said Hermione. "You have been extremely helpful."

Ron Weasley could not help looking curious at this vague conversation between Hagrid and Harry and his friends. Everyone's attention was diverted by a cracking noise on the kettle. It seemed the dragon was hatching. The egg burst open revealing a small creature with black scales with black rides on its back with bronze horns.

"Hagrid, is that a Norwegian Ridgeback?" asked Theodore with interest.

"Of course it is, Theodore," said Hagrid happily. "I think I will call him Norbert."

"Norbert?" asked Daphne as if she did not hear Hagrid correctly.

"Of course, he's gotta have a name, doesn't he," said Hagrid as Norbert snapped at his fingers. "Bless him, he knows his mummy."

"He's lost his marbles," said Harry lightly as Weasley nodded in agreement before straightening up and looking disgusted he actually agreed with Harry.

"Wait, someone's at the window," said Daphne.

Hagrid straightened up right away and looked out the window.

"It's a kid," said Hagrid looking frantic. "And he is running towards the school."

Harry could see it was extremely bad news, as in worst-case scenario bad. There was no mistaken it was Malfoy who had seen the dragon.

"We are going to have to get Hagrid to ditch the dragon," said Daphne as the four friends were walking in the hallway.

"Yes, but how in the world could we even do that," said Harry. "It is not just like you can pawn off a dragon to the pet store. Plus it may be a bit difficult to get Hagrid to get rid of Norbert. Hagrid did say his lifelong ambition was to own a dragon.”

Hermione snapped her fingers, remembering something.

"I've got it, but unfortunately there’s a catch," said Hermione looking regretful.

"Isn't there always?" said Theodore. "What is it now, Hermione?"

Hermione looked hesitant about what she was about to say.

"Well, we may have ask Ron for help," said Hermione hesitantly.

Of course this set Harry into such a great mood. The hellish Quidditch practice had already been working on Harry's nerves recently.

"Oh is that all, Hermione, you are putting our hopes of getting Norbert out of this castle and Hagrid out of trouble before Malfoy opens his mouth in the hands of a hothead. What a bloody fantastic idea that is!" said Harry sarcastically. "What other miracles would you like me to perform this afternoon! Perhaps I should walk on water and turn water into wine."

Harry stopped his little rant, putting his hand on his forehead.

"Sorry, Hermione, I am just under extreme amounts of stress due to the sleepless nights I have been getting due to Quidditch practice," said Harry. "Although I fail to see how Weasley can help us with our little problem."

"I overheard him talking about one of his brothers who have left school working on a dragon preserve," said Hermione. "Maybe we can talk..."

A trio of angry looks cut off Hermione from Daphne, Theodore, and Harry.

"Okay, maybe I can talk to Ronald and try to get him to write to his brother, asking him to take Norbert," said Hermione shaking her head in amusement.

"Whatever floats your boat, Hermione," said Daphne. "Still, putting this problem in the hands of a Weasley, especially that Weasley doesn’t do that much to sooth my nerves."

"Yeah but the actual dragon ditching should not be entrusted to Weasley, because I have a funny feeling he does not know anything about stealth if it slapped him in the face," said Harry.

"So it's settled," said Hermione. "I will attempt to get Ron to help us and then we will figure out what we are going to do from there."

"If this goes right, it will be a miracle on the level of getting Crabbe and Goyle to becoming honors students," said Theodore who sounded as uneasy as this plan as Harry felt.

It was later that night. Harry felt extremely tired after yet another grueling Quidditch practice. Flint seemed to be taking the practice to near sadistic levels. Harry was browsing through a text on Metamorphmagi. Harry read a little on the subject months ago but Harry decided to devote these late night hours to reading up on the subjects. Looking at the text, Harry glanced upon something interesting.

It said that the easiest way of checking Metamorphmagus talent would be changing the eye color of the length or color of the hair. Although these talents are the only ones exhibited by those who only have a fraction of Metamorphmagus talent.

Harry stared out the text. He wondered. Concentration on his eyes, he felt a strange sensation around the area of his eyes. Harry muttered "reflecto" and a mirror was hanging in mid air. Harry could hardly believe his luck it had worked. Harry's normally green eyes were now blue.

Harry wondered what other latent talents he possessed but before he could explore this further.

"Harry, pick up the mirror, you have a very important call from the Mikey Party Line," said the voice of Mikey from the mirror in Harry's pocket.

Harry pulled the mirror out of his pocket, seeing the face of Mikey swirling in the other end.

"Jeez, Harry, you look like you have had as long of a night as we have," said Mikey shaking his head. Mikey looked rather worn as if he had been in some battle.

"Why, what happened to you guys tonight?" asked Harry with concern in his voice. "Did you run into more ninjas?"

"I wish! Oh we just ran afoul of some psychotic megalomaniac who calls himself the Garbageman," said Mikey. "Now there is a guy who needs some serious psychological counseling. Thankfully we beat him but it was not easy"

Harry looked a bit disappointed he missed out on a fight but then it, how good would it look for his reputation if Harry took a thrashing from some maniac called the Garbageman.

"Yeah, it does sound like this Garbageman needs psychological counseling," said Harry. "Let me guess, his secret hideout was called Mount Trashmore."

Mikey laughed before turning serious or at least as serious Mikey got.

"Seriously Harry, what have you been doing lately," said Mikey. "When Leo talked to you last week he said you looked about as tired as you looked down, so what's the story."

"I have had a very long week," said Harry. "In between Hagrid's new pet, the fact Malfoy would find out, and Flint trying to kill me with his ruthless training sessions, it is a miracle if I would get through this year with my sanity in tact."

"You have sanity, Harry?" asked Mikey shaking his head in amusement. "I think a better chance of Raph becoming all calm, cool, and collected would happen and another thing Harry, I could have swore your eyes were green."

"And what does this have to do with anything," said Harry playing dumb.

"Well, they are kind of blue now," said Mikey. "So what's the story with about that?"

"Magic, Mikey," said Harry. "Anyway, this has been fun but I have got to go. I will see you guys during the Easter Holidays, if Flint doesn’t kill me by then."

"Okay, Harry, try not to get killed during those Quidditch training sessions," said Mikey. "See ya then."

The mirror went blank as Harry shook his head. He gathered up all the books, placing them in their proper place before moving on to bed. It was a long day indeed.

"Hermione, I don’t know how you get me into these messes, but Weasley insisted on coming along on my little dragon ditching mission really puts a damper on his mood," said Harry. It was the morning of the Quidditch Match with Ravenclaw. It had been a few weeks since Norbert had hatched and it had been settled with a reluctant Hagrid that Charlie Weasley's friends would take Norbert. Time was of the essence; they had to get rid of the dragon before Malfoy said anything to Dumbledore.

"Yes, Harry, I’m sorry but he wouldn’t agree to help me unless he got to go with you when you got rid of Norbert," said Hermione fretfully.

"I have a sinking feeling about this," said Harry, putting his hand to his head. "Hermione, you’re going to have to come with us to keep me from removing Weasley's tongue from his mouth when he makes one comment too many."

"Why does it have to be me?" said Hermione

"Because Hermione, isn’t it obvious? Daphne or I would probably hold down Weasley and help Harry remove his tongue," said Theodore casually. "It has to be you because you hate Weasley the least out of the four of us."

"Understatement of the century if there ever was one," said Daphne under her breath.

"So, there’s little choice," said Harry. "I really hope Weasley doesn’t get us in trouble and thrown into detention. I have a very bad feeling about this."

The scene in Slytherin Quidditch Team locker room was extremely tense. The team was sitting around and Flint prepared to give one of his legendary pep talks. Looking around at the team, Flint finally found his voice.

"Win at all costs or else," said Flint shortly.

The Slytherin Quidditch Team came out to the field. On the other side was the Ravenclaw Team. Flint did not look as murderous as he did before the match with Gryffindor but still the look on his face was not too pleasant of a sight. Snape, who was refereeing, had a rather unpleasant look on his face. Flint walked forward, attempting to crush the hand of Ravenclaw Quidditch captain. They flew up into the air, as the game began.

The Ravenclaw Chasers were good as they quickly scored a goal right off the bat. The Slytherins went into full sadistic play mode, which caused Snape to turn a blind eye to the illegalities. Of course when one of the Ravenclaw team members did one minor illegal foul, Snape avoided a penalty shot to Slytherin who scored a goal, evening up the odds.

A few more minutes of intense play occurred, with Ravenclaw scoring two more goals. Harry circled the game like a hawk but the Snitch had not made an appearance. Snape awarded another foul to Slytherin but the Ravenclaw keeper blocked the shot expertly. A second shot made towards the Ravenclaw keeper did not get blocked and Slytherin scored another goal, bouncing the score up to 30-20. Ravenclaw rebounded and scored a goal, making the score 40-20.

More minutes of intense playing, with Harry getting struck in the side with the bludger on one of the occasions but managing to rebound. Slytherin, bumping the score up to a 40-40 tie, scored two more goals. Harry spotted a glint of gold in his eye. The Snitch was in his cross hairs. Harry shot up into the air like a cork attempting after the snitch but a bludger being whacked towards his chest stopped Harry. The snitch disappeared and Harry bent over his broom, gagging. He could have sworn he cracked his collarbone.

Harry leaned hunched over on his broom, gasping for air. Snape flew over to Harry.

"Alright, Potter," said Snape in a low voice but Flint angrily flew over to Harry.

"Quit fooling around Potter and find that Snitch," said Flint. "He's fine Professor Snape, go back and do your job, you just missed a Ravenclaw foul Warrington."

"He did?" said Snape mildly. "Penalty shot for Slytherin."

The penalty shot was blocked but Harry spied the snitch out of the corner of his eye. This time he would not be denied, busted collarbone or not. Harry shot up towards the snitch, darting out of the way of another bludger, which was pelted at him. Harry clasped his hand around the snitch and eased himself down to the ground, hunched over in pain. Hermione, Daphne, and Theodore ran over to Harry looking concerned.

"Are you okay, Harry?" asked Hermione bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet frantically.

"I'm fine, Hermione, really," said Harry struggling to breath. "It's just a busted collarbone, honestly nothing big."

"Oh no, nothing big at all, only a painful injury that's all," said Daphne.

Harry laughed, which caused his chest pain. This was going to be a long day.

The time was well after hours. Harry and Hermione snuck out of the school. They were to take Norbert up to the highest tower at Midnight but right now they needed to pick up Norbert and meet Weasley at Hagrid's hut. Hermione knocked on the door and Hagrid let them in.

Hagrid looked regretful, as there was a crate with a growling sound inside it.

"I packed him some rats and his teddy bear in case he gets lonely," said Hagrid with tears rolling down his large cheeks as Harry could hear the sound of a bear getting decapitated within the box. "Good bye Norbert, Mummy’ll never forget you."

Ron, Harry, and Hermione left Hagrid's hut, with the crate in hand.

"I am working together with a Slytherin, I’ve never felt so low in my life," said Weasley shaking his head. "Don’t you dare mention this to anyone…."

"The feeling is more than mutual," said Harry in a low dangerous voice. "Now be quiet, we need to get Norbert up to the tower without attracting any attention. Which means we need to stick to the shadows. Now the way of silence and invisibility take years to master, but we are going to have to make this up as we go unfortunately."

"It would be a lot easier if you had an invisibility cloak or something, Potter," said Weasley irritably.

"The first rule, utter silence," whisper Harry. "Use the shadows to conceal yourselves and do nothing to draw attention to yourselves."

Miraculously, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made it up to the tower with Norbert despite several close calls involving Filch or Mrs. Norris. Charlie's friends had arrived precisely on schedule, strapping the crate to a harness they had rigged up on their brooms.

"For once, something worked out without any problems," said Harry before turning around and staring directly into the face of Severus Snape. "Ah crud."

"Come with me, Potter, Granger, and Weasley," said Snape with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "I would like to have a word with you three about why you have been wandering around at night."