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On the sixth day of Christmas, my best friend gave to me...

Six Dragons Hatching

When Hermione was shaken awake by Hannah, she thought nothing of it until she caught the worried look on the other girl's face. A sense of foreboding filled her. "Hannah?" she asked, stifling a yawn. "What's wrong?"

"Well, I don't want to alarm you," the blonde began, twirling the end of her plait between her fingers nervously. "But Harry appears to be up to something shady involving the fireplace, and the Common Room is sweltering."

Hermione, recalling the first time she found herself in an incredibly hot room, panicked.

She raced down into the Common Room, Hannah on her heels; desperately hoping that Harry had more sense than to -

Hermione stopped short and Hannah ran into her back, causing her to stumble forward a few more paces. She barely noticed. Her attention was glued to where her best friend was crouched by the fire.

The boys sleeping in the dorms, as well as Parvati and Lavender, were all still upstairs, but Theodore, Blaise, Ginny, Justin and Susan were all fixated on Harry. Luna was dancing around the other side of the Common Room in a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, twirling tinsel, humming Jingle Bells and ignoring everyone else.

Theodore looked up as Hermione took another few steps towards the fire. "Oh thank Salazar!" he exclaimed. "Granger, Harry has gone insane."

"It's like he's channelling Hagrid," Susan moaned, not taking her eyes from the Gryffindor boy. "Only worse, somehow."

Hermione took a deep breath, winced at how warm the air in Gryffindor Tower was, squared her shoulders and strode the last few metres to stand directly behind Harry. She then momentarily considered forsaking her Gryffindor bravery and running away screaming hysterically.

Thankfully for everyone else, Hermione managed to keep hold of her courage and cleared her throat.

Harry jumped and whirled around, almost overbalancing and landing in the fire. "Hermione! I swear this isn't what it looks like!"

"Really?" she asked caustically. "Because it looks an awful lot like you're trying to hatch dragons in the Gryffindor Common Room."

"It does?" he asked, striving for innocence. "I wonder how you could make that mistake."

"Do you now? I think it might have something to do with the six dragon eggs in the /fireplace/!"

Harry winced. "Oh, you saw those?"

"Saw them? How could I miss them? Harry -" She stopped abruptly as she noticed that the brown, green-flecked egg was beginning to crack. "You're insane," she murmured.

"I'm not going to keep them!" he protested. "I'm doing a favour for a friend!"

She frowned in disapproval. "You should know better than that, don't you remember the last time that Hagrid tried to raise a dragon?"

"Oh, it's not Hagrid," he reassured her. "It's Charlie."

Hermione blinked. "Charlie Weasley asked you to hatch dragon eggs in the Gryffindor Common Room?"

Harry shrugged. "Pretty much. He wanted someone to take care of them for a few hours while he visits with Hagrid - because no one in their right mind could take dragon eggs down to Hagrid's hut and expect to leave with them. So I volunteered."

Ginny cleared her throat to catch their attention. "What's my brother doing at Hogwarts with six dragon eggs?"

"Well, he was collecting them from somewhere and taking them back to Romania with him, and since he was here he wanted to stop off and visit Hagrid, and then you and Ron."

Hermione winced as she realised that the black Norwegian Ridgeback egg was beginning to crack as well. "That's very kind of him, but didn't he think it was, oh, dangerous to leave a bunch of dragon eggs to hatch in the care of, well, you?"

Harry shrugged again. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? I don't think he was expecting any of them to hatch, though."

Ginny's reply to that was cut off as the portrait swung open and Charlie stepped inside, grinning brightly.

"Hey Charlie," Harry called across the room.

Charlie gave him a wave, dodged Luna's flailing tinsel strands and crossed the Common Room to join them by the fire. "Hey. Let me guess, Ron's still in bed?"

"Yes," Hermione replied. "And you're not going to get to see him, either."

The red-haired man frowned at her. "Why not, Hermione?"

It was Ginny who answered, and she did so in a tone that was incredibly similar to one her mother would have taken. "Because you are going to collect your dragon eggs and leave before they /hatch/, Charles Weasley!"

Paling, Charlie glanced down into the fireplace. "Oh. Oops."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Ya think?"