It was only two weeks later that Hedwyg brought Harry a note at breakfast from Hagrid — It’s hatching. Unfortunately, Hermione insisted they go to their Herbology class first. “Seven of us skivvying off to go to Hagrid’s hut would be rather obvious,” she had explained as they left the Great Hall. “We can check in before Charms. And again during lunch.”
“But we’ll miss it hatching,” Ron hissed as they headed to class. He really wanted to see a dragon egg hatch.
Harry wasn’t nearly as impatient. He didn’t want to take a chance and find himself turned into a cactus. Or into a twenty-yard tall lizard. Or for that to happen to any of the girls. He was sure that the wizards were not as forgiving to the perpetrators as Princess Celestia about things like that.
Regrettably, Parkinson and Malfoy overheard Ron. They stopped walking ahead of them, ducked out of the stream of students to fake a quick private conversation, and then started following the Gryffindors, trying to listen for more.
“Shut up,” hissed Harry, but he thought it was a case of closing the bedroom door after the Cutie Mark Crusaders had already escaped.
After a quickly gobbled lunch, they hurried to Hagrid’s hut, while dragging a protesting Ron. “I haven’t finished eating,” he protested, to no avail. He grabbed a plate of sandwiches as they left the table.
They arrived into the inhumanly hot hut just in time. No sooner had they gathered around the rocking egg, now on the table with numerous cracks, than the egg started to come apart.
The baby dragon looked like a crumpled, black umbrella with huge spiny wings and a skinny jet body; it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes. It looked nothing like Spike.
Hagrid, naturally, proudly said, “He’s beautiful!” Sweat drenching their clothes, they looked at him as if he were barmy.
Harry looked at it critically. He hoped Spike hadn’t looked that awful when he was born. Although, he was almost as big as Spike was now. Ah, it was the wings! The baby dragon was slowly expanding and stretching them. And his lungs were inflating with air.
The egg had been quite an uncomfortable and tight fit, it seemed.
It sneezed sparks out of its snout as Hagrid reached to stroke it. Naturally, it snapped at his fingers, displaying an alarming set of needle like teeth. Harry wondered if the dragons here ate gems, too.
Hagrid had been right. It was looking more like a Norwegian Ridgeback every second.
They warily examined the vicious little beast for several minutes. Hagrid suddenly leapt to his feet and ran to the curtained window. He stared for several moments, turning his head back and forth. “Someone was lookin’ through the gap in the curtains,” he cried.
Several of them bolted for the doors, and Scootaloo and Ginny shot out the door on wings. But it was too late. The two fleeing students had too much of a head start and managed to make it to castle doors, and inside, before the two pegasi could catch them. However, they got close enough to see that the two were wearing Slytherin robes. Harry had a fair idea who they might have been.
They worriedly discussed the matter on the way back to the castle.
“We should tell Headmaster Dumbledore,” Hermione insisted. “If Hagrid tells him now, then if someone tries to get him in trouble, he’ll be covered.”
“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle said, shaking her head doubtfully. “He doesn’t seem to be all there, sometimes.”
“Yeah,” agreed Harry. “It wasn’t actually a smart idea to send the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs to the dungeons when the Troll was supposed to be in the dungeons, last Halloween.”
The others nodded in agreement.
Knowing the Slytherins, it wouldn’t be long before they tried to use the secret to their advantage. And to Hagrid’s detriment.
The idea of raising a dragon, though, was brilliant! His mum and Spike would be thrilled to see in the pensieve what raising a dragon on this side of the portal was like. However, the trouble if Hagrid was caught was not as wonderful to think about.
Unfortunately, Hagrid was having none of it when they talked the next day. “I — I can’t jus’ abandon him, can’t.” He shook his massive head. “I know I can’t keep ’em forever,” He looked quite despondent at the possibility. “but he’d never survive on his own. Not right now.”
The half-giant was willing to risk everything to keep his dragon. The numerous chicken feathers and empty brandy bottles littering the hut proved that. As did the fact that Hagrid hadn’t been doing his gamekeeping duties because he was so busy with Norbert. The dragon was already bigger than pony, and it had only been a day. At the rate it was growing it wouldn’t fit in Hagrid’s hut in two weeks.
And Norbert showed almost no interest in the few gems Harry tried to give him, although Hagrid did give him a puzzled look.
“Wait,” Harry said, “Your brother,” he turned to Ron and Ginny, “Charlie, works at a dragon preserve in Romania, right?” They nodded hesitantly.
“How about writing him? That would give Norbert a good home, if he agreed. They could pick him up!”
Scootaloo started to get excited. “And if he says they’ll take him, then we can carry him to meet them!”
“It’ll have to be late at night,” Ginny said, “Or we’ll be seen.”
“Pshaw,” she said disparagingly. “We can use Harry’s invisibility cloak to get out of and back in the dorms, right?” She looked at Harry. “Nobody’ll see us. We can even put the cloak over the dragon.”
Harry wasn’t too happy at the suggestion, he could just see the dragon burning up his father’s invisibility cloak with a sneeze.
“It’s the perfect plan! Cutie Mark Crusader Dragon Smugglers, YEAH!” Scootaloo jumped up and slapped hands with Ginny.
“And, in the meantime, we can be Cutie Mark Crusader Dragon Sitters!” Apple Bloom cried, looking at Sweetie Belle. “YEAH!” they yelled, also slapping hands.
Ron and Hermione looked at them as if they were crazy. Harry stoically shook his head.
Considering some of the schemes the three had come up with over the previous two years, this one was pretty straightforward. But it all depended on the Slytherins being quiet. Something Harry, and most of the others of the cohort, were convinced couldn’t happen.
But if it helped Hagrid keep his job, then it would be worth it.
And if Charlie couldn’t help them? They would tell the Headmaster. Surely he wouldn’t punish the half-giant too severely.
۸-~-۸
It was nearly a miracle that the Slytherins kept silent during the week it took for an answer to the group’s letter. Were the two just revelling in the thought that they were tormenting the Gryffindors by doing nothing? It seemed so, from the manners in which Draco and Pansy smirked at them with malicious grins whenever they caught the Gryffindors looking at them. And the way they kept looking at Hagrid at the Headmaster’s table during dinner and snickering.
In any case, their relief that Charlie was sending some friends to get Norbert was almost palpable. All they had to do was wait until the next Saturday.
And in direct proportion to their elation was Hagrid’s dejection.
Norbert, however didn’t seem to care, from the daily carnage they saw, after classes, while they “babysat” the dragon in Hagrid’s hut. Fang had taken to sleeping outside. And his furniture seemed to be sporting quite a few scorch marks.
۸-~-۸
Hagrid sobbed, “Mommy will never forget you!” as they covered the crate with the Invisibility Cloak.
Ron shook his head. “He’s lost his marbles, he has,” he muttered under his breath to Harry.
The feather-weight charm, and the acromantula ropes, made it a simple matter for the two pegasi to heft the crate and fly up to the top of the Astronomy tower. The quarter moon wasn’t very bright, but it made it possible to see the two flying groups meet. Harry hoped he would still have an invisibility cloak by the morning.
Much later than they had expected, the two were back. The group of ponies began to cross the lawn to the Gryffindor tower. They were ponies because they would be harder to see in the dark. Even with their bright colours, the moonlight wasn’t enough to make them more than lighter and darker greys. Not to mention that being smaller made them that much more difficult to spot.
“What took so long?” hissed Hermione, “we thought something had gone wrong!”
“They,” Scootaloo excitedly told them, “had a special harness to carry Norbert! They transport injured and small dragons all the time.” Ginny nodded eagerly. “They were real happy to see we already had him in a secure crate,” she continued.
“Boy,” said Ginny, “were they surprised to see us as pegasi, too. They thought we’d be on brooms. Two almost fell off their broomsticks when we had changed back to witches.” She danced on her hooves happily. The rest discovered that the subsequent conversations, and demonstrations, had taken most of the two’s time on the tower top.
Almost as an afterthought, the dragon handlers had complimented them on using a feather-weight charm to make their job easier.
Alas, the plan to sneak back into the dormitory through the windows didn’t work. Someone had actually re-locked the windows in the boy’s section! And the alarms on the Girls’ Dorm windows prevented the boys from using that particular point of access.
Thus it was that Ron and Harry were slowly making their way to a convenient painting near the main doors when Filch, turning a corner, walked right into them. Well, not exactly. He tripped over the two ponies, accidentally knocking the cloak loose at the same time.
Harry and Ron transformed into people. While they could have out-run the squib, there were very few ponies in the school, and their colours would have given them away, immediately, anyway. And Harry would never abandon a friend by simply teleporting away to leave him to face the consequences. Not that he knew for certain he could.
As the three scrambled to their feet, Harry used Ron as a screen to stuff his cloak into a pocket. He didn’t think Filch even noticed that they had been ponies. If the professors knew, rather than suspected, that they had used their animagi forms, the punishments would be worse.
Filch took them to Professor McGonagall’s study on the first floor, and left them there as he went to find her.
“Aw, man, mom’s gonna kill me,” Ron moaned. “I’m gonna get a howler, for sure.” He hung his head down.
Harry frantically tried to think of a good reason why they were out of bounds this late at night without getting Hagrid, Charlie, and his friends in trouble, too. Absolutely nothing came to mind.
When Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, finally arrived, she was leading both Draco and Pansy, to the two Gryffindors’ astonishment.
“Detention!” she was shouting as they came in. “Twenty points, each, from Slytherin! Out after curfew —”]
“But, Professor,” Malfoy insisted, “it’s Harry Potter — he’s got a dragon!”
Pansy was nodding her head a bit fearfully.
“Utter rubbish! How dare you persist in such lies! We shall see what Professor Snape has to say, Mister Malfoy!”
Pansy shrank back, clearly hoping to avoid further scrutiny.
Both their eyes lit-up on seeing who was in the room waiting for them.
“See, Professor!” cried Draco, pointing at the two Gryffindors, “I told you!”
Harry’s eyes widened and he shook his head. But Professor McGonagall was incensed to see them waiting for her. She stalked over and towered over them. Harry fancied he could see her about to breathe fire.
Mr. Filch was quick to explain where he found them, coming in from outside.
“Explain yourselves,” she demanded angrily. “I would never have believed it of you!”
Harry and Ron were speechless. Draco and Pansy both smirked behind McGonagall’s back.
Somehow, the Professor came to the conclusion that they had tried to trap Draco into being caught out of bounds, just as he had tried to do to them at the beginning of the year. And that they had snuck out to see the action.
She stood, hands on her hips. “I’m disgusted. That you two would do such a thing.” She pursed her lips angrily. “You’ll all receive detentions!” She turned her head to look at the Slytherins. “That means you two, too!”
Their smiles disappeared.
“And,” she turned back to Ron and Harry, “as the instigators of this farce, you two will lose seventy points from Gryffindor.”
She turned her head to the two Slytherins, “And you two lose twenty points, each, for being so gullible! You know Ron’s brothers, you should know better! Letting a petty rivalry get so out of hand.” She shook her head in disgust.
“Seventy?” squeaked Ron as Harry gasped.
“Each!” the Professor proclaimed.
“Mr. Filch, if you please,” she said frostily, “Escort these two Slytherins back to their dorm.”
Filch, standing outside the door and grinning madly, nodded.
“And I will take these two . . . miscreants, back to Gryffindor.”
She reprimanded them the entire way.
۸-_-۸
The fillies were anxiously waiting when the two came in through the entrance. However, Professor McGonagall’s concluding loud admonishment that, “Don’t you ever do that again! If you do, the point loss will be DOUBLE!” had them cowering behind the furniture, trying to stay out of sight.
It took a few minutes for Ron and Harry to explain. The two had to wait until the ringing in their ears had stopped before they could hear the questions to answer.
If Professor McGonagall ever sent a howler, it would bring down the walls!
After hearing what had happened, the ponies later consoled themselves with the thought that they had, at least, ensured a good life for Norbert, and saved Hagrid his home and job.
On the other hoof, they had plummeted to last place in House points. There was no way they could regain those points through classwork, alone. And they would have to trounce Ravenclaw by a large margin to regain their lead. Assuming there were no more point losses. Which, given Professor Snape’s attitude towards Gryffindors, was highly unlikely, even if he wasn’t anywhere as severe as he had been at the beginning of the year.
The next morning, the story quickly made the rounds and Harry dropped from being the most popular and admired person in Gryffindor to the most hated. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him, too, because they had been hoping to see Slytherin lose the House Cup. Ron was just as much a pariah, but Harry received most of the anger, as he had let them down the most.
The Slytherins mockingly went around applauding him and praising him for putting them in the House-point lead. The mocking was in inverse proportion to how much they had liked him before the debacle. Or thought him a valuable career contact.
The Gryffindor Firstie animagi, however, knew the truth. They might not like the point loss, but it was for a good cause, and took great bravery, in their opinion. They quickly closed ranks around Harry. And Harry learned a valuable lesson on just who his true friends were. And how fickle wizards and witches were in their opinions.
It made him want to curse them. Seriously curse them, not just prank. But he held off. He wasn’t that kind of pony. He would seek other avenues of revenge.
۸-~-۸
Elly was very confused. She thought she had mapped out quite accurately the various interactions between the students, their Houses, and their friends. Doing that was critical for an infiltrator to maximize harvesting food.
How could she have messed up?
The Equestrians’ herd-stallion getting in trouble shouldn’t have made that much of a change. Even getting in big trouble, which he had, according to her friends in Hufflepuff, shouldn’t have changed attitudes that far!
He and his friend Ron had somehow managed to lose seventy points, each, in one night. A Hogwarts record, according to a Ravenclaw friend. They had gone from lead to last. Not even a Quidditch victory could have helped them recover, not unless it was ridiculously lopsided. Which wasn’t likely given their last game would be with the Ravenclaws, not exactly a bunch of pushovers.
There were rumours that a dragon — a dragon! — was involved and Hagrid was a part of it.
But those were rumours. No one really knew the truth except the ones concerned, and they were tight-lipped about it.
The dynamics in the whole castle had changed, overnight. Students who used to look on the Gryffindor Firsties with fondness now disliked them. Even when they were ponies, now, there were a fair number who avoided them.
Which really didn’t make any sense at all. Unless these wizards and witches were very much unlike the ponies. And while ponies were fickle, according to her instructors, friendships tended to win out in the long run.
The anger levels were so pervasive that her food gathering had fallen to merely maintaining her levels, even backsliding a tiny bit.
Anxious, she decided to check on her hidden reserves. Which were just fine, she was relieved to see. But that reminded her of the Mirror of Erised.
Had anything changed with these new circumstances? Maybe she should check?
It was a late Sunday night that she used to investigate. She made sure to bring along her notes for easy comparison.
The room was unchanged. To all appearances, no one had been here since the last time she had explored it. She carefully scouted the edges, circling the room, looking for any indications of a trap or alerts. It was only after an hour’s examination, including the ceiling, that she finally approached the mirror.
Unlike virtually every other time she had looked in the mirror, this time nothing appeared except herself! And she appeared as a student, not as a ling? What was going on?
She walked around the mirror, examining its frame closely. There were no marks, no additions, no subtractions that she could detect. It appeared exactly as it had before. Except, perhaps, a bit of dust on the top surfaces.
She turned her attention to the mirror, itself. With her eyes almost touching the mirror, she carefully inspected the edges where it disappeared into the frame. While she could see faint markings that might have been runes, she had the impression that they had always been there. Her magic, at least, couldn’t detect any recent alterations.
Finally, she settled back and just studied herself in the mirror. As a few minutes before, there wasn’t any definite background, just a formless grey. She stood in the middle of the mirror, as if in a spotlight, but there were no shadows.
The Elly in the mirror covered her mouth with a hand as she giggled.
But no additional people appeared. No lings. No ponies.
What could this mean? Had she lost all her desires? That made no sense. She still wanted a Hive, she still wanted lings and nymphs.
Frowning, she stared at the mirror.
Staring back, mirror-Elly reached into a pocket and pulled out a reddish rock. She held it up, laughing, then dropped it back in her pocket. She then waggled her eyebrows, still laughing.
Elly stood stock still. There was something in her pocket. It hadn’t been there a second ago.
Moving slowly, she reached into her pocket and took out the rock that had been in the mirror. She stared at it, uncomprehending. It was a deep red, almost like a gem in that it was translucent, except it had no symmetry or fine cuts as a gem did. She then looked back into the mirror at her laughing self.
She broke out into a cold sweat — and wasn’t that a strange feeling!
Elly dropped the stone back into her pocket. “Return to the mirror, return to the mirror,” she frantically whispered. Nothing happened.
Her mirror-self was laughing harder, clutching at her stomach.
The changeling shivered, and tried again. She gripped her wand desperately, “Return to the mirror, return to the mirror,” she chanted. Still nothing changed. The rock remained heavy in her pocket.
The Elly in the mirror was now doubled over laughing, and having difficulties in standing as a result.
She pointed her wand at herself in the mirror. “Return to the mirror, return to the mirror,” she said frantically, her eyes screwed shut, as she tried to will the stone back into the mirror. But nothing happened except she started to develop a headache. She slowly opened her eyes, squinting at the mirror.
The image had begun to blur. All her features started to become indistinct.
Had she broken the mirror? Oh, Mother-queen! What if someone realized it wasn’t working anymore? They would be furious! If they found her here she would be in so much trouble. The Headmaster would surely unmask her.
Elly glanced around the room, panicked. Nothing to see.
She glanced back at the mirror. It wasn’t any clearer. If anything, it was less.
She took a deep breath. She had to escape before the Headmaster came and found her.
She ran to the exit stone post and frantically kicked it five times. She had to hurry! The Headmaster could be on his way here right now. For a moment she thought nothing was going to happen.
She almost sobbed in relief when the trapdoor dropped her through the floor.
Elly carefully checked the corridor before hurriedly sneaking out of the hidden room. The sooner she was under her bed, the safer she would be.
Making her way back to her dorm was nerve-wracking. She kept expecting to have the Headmaster pop up in front of her and demand to know what she had done to break his mirror. But he didn’t. And neither did anyone else. She didn’t hear or see either Mr. Filch or his cat.
Making it into the Common Room was a tremendous relief, but she knew she wouldn’t feel safe until she was under her bed. She buried the rock in the bottom of her trunk, after encasing it in a globe of green-resin. She hoped the goop blocked enough magic to prevent anyone from tracking it to her.
She dragged the blankets and sheets off the bed and scurried under the bed-frame, quickly arranging a nest-hole, plugging the entrance with a pillow. Only then did she start to calm down.
She wouldn’t be getting any sleep tonight, she knew. She hoped tomorrow would not bring any unpleasant surprises.
۸-~-۸
Exams were less than a week away when Harry and Ron received notes at the breakfast table on Tuesday morning: they were to report for detention that night with Mr. Filch, at eleven o’clock at night.
They exchanged glances. A detention so late at night? That made no sense! The girls all wanted to come with the two. But, as Percy pointed out when they were in Common Room, waiting, they didn’t have detentions. That would mean they were out after curfew and would get into trouble.
Eleven o’clock arrived. The girls all gave him one last hug, then the two set out for the entrance hall to meet Mr. Filch. They arrived to find the unpleasant squib waiting for them with Malfoy and Parkinson.
In amongst all the angst since their point-loss, Harry and Ron had forgotten that two others had been caught that night.
With much grumbling, and reminiscing about the old punishments, the man led them outside, to their surprise. They headed across the darkened lawn to Hagrid’s hut, its windows glowing brightly in the dark. The moon was bright, not yet at the last quarter and over half still visible. The clouds swiftly crossing it, however, reduced the illumination it provided.
Harry was relieved. Hagrid would not be such an awful task-master. He knew the truth! Harry relaxed. This wouldn’t be all that bad! But what were they going to be doing outside in the dark? Harry tapped his glasses and turned on their night-vision mode. The dark suddenly became as clear as day, although the colours were a bit muted.
It was when Hagrid appeared out of the forest, carrying a massive crossbow and quiver of arrows, with Fang at his heels, that Harry began to rethink the detention. The crossbow was bigger than he was, and the arrows were more like spears. Hagrid stopped in front of them, and greeted Filch with, “What took so long? I bin waitin’ fer half an hour.” Harry realized that the cross-bow was more of a ballista without the wheels.
Then Filch, spiteful git that he was, said, “I suppose you think you’ll be enjoying yourself? Well, think again! It’s into the forest you’re going. And I’ll be counting the pieces when you come out!” He gave them a nasty grin.
“That’s why yer late?” Hagrid said as he rolled his eyes and frowned at Filch. “Couldn’ stop yerself lecturin’ them, eh?”
Ron grabbed Harry’s sleeve and choked. Pansy grabbed Draco while making the sound a mouse getting stepped-on might make. Draco, paled even further. Enough that Harry was sure the others could see it, too, even without night-vision glasses.
“We’re, we’re going into the Forbidden Forest . . . at night?” squeaked Draco.
Harry didn’t feel too well, himself, at the prospect of going into the forest. It was one thing to go in during the daylight, either the Forbidden or the Everfree, but to go at night? No, not a good idea. Not. At. All.
Even the Equestrian Guards only braved the forest at night in well-armed groups.
And these crazy wizards wanted him to go in with a half-giant?
Harry gave another glance at the massive cross-bow Hagrid was carrying. A well-equipped half-giant, for sure, but still!
And what could there possibly be in the forest that would require going into it at night?
Well, except maybe gathering things for potions. And while the Potions Professor was no slouch with a wand, when he went into the Forbidden Forest he was looking for fungi and plants. Hagrid, on the other hoof, took care of the grounds and animals at the castle. And he, certainly, was not looking for anything as simple as shrivelfigs or bubotubers!
“Right then,” said Hagrid. “It’s dangerous what we’re gonna do tonight, so listen carefully. I don’ want no one takin’ risks.
No. Really? The Forbidden Forest was dangerous? Who would have thought that? Harry snorted. Did he think they were half-wits, just like him?
“Summat has hurt a unicorn in there — hurt badly, too. I found another one dead last Wednesday. We’re hafta find the poor thing.” He shook his head sadly. “We might have ter put it down.”
Harry could only shake his head, gobsmacked and barely listening, as Filch cackled gleefully, then threatened them with all sorts of terrors — werewolves, acromantulas, centaurs . . . CCEENNTAURS? They weren’t just made-up rumours to scare Firsties?
There were really centaurs in the forest? He shivered in terror.
۸-_-۸