Chapter 59: Tending the egg
I thought we weren’t supposed to go anywhere near the Forbidden Forest?” Hoshiko asked Aerie. Aerie, Hoshiko, and Kitsu were slowly gliding out over the forest. Three pegasus fillies.
“Quiet, and stick to old ponish.”
“You saw something?” Kitsu asked making sure to use the old language. Few were those among humans who knew it well enough to speak it.
“Professor Snape headed out to the Forbidden Forest. He had his hood over his head but I’m sure it was him. Looks like a canon event. Even though he knows we can’t do anything, he wants to try anyway.”
The trees steadily grew thicker as they made their way over the forest. Back and forth they went, circling whenever one spotted Snape. And then in a small clearing, they spotted Professor Quirrel. Aerie motioned to the others to double back, they glided in low, and down into the canopy where they landed in the upper branches of a huge oak tree where they spotted Snape, his hood drawn back approaching Quirrel.
“...d-don’t know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…”
“Oh, I thought it’d be best to keep this private. Just to ourselves. Students aren’t supposed to know the Philosopher's Stone is here in the school and we wouldn't want anyone overhearing us. Now would we?”
“I-I’m not sure th-there’s anything we need to discuss.”
“Isn’t there? Have you figured out how to get past all the traps yet? There is of course the trap you set, but that does you little good if you’ve no idea how to get past Hagrid’s dog. Have you found out how to get past the dog yet? Well? Have you.”
“B-b-but Severus, I –”
“You don’t want me as your enemy, Quirrell.” Snape took a step closer to him.
“I-I don’t know what you are ta-talking about.”
“You know full well what I’m talking about. You need that stone. You’ve done something to yourself, or some creature has done something to you. You need that stone, don’t you? Let us help you.”
“He-help me? Help me?”
Hoshiko sneezed and the two men began to turn to look in the direction they’d heard the sound. "Moonie, cover us with crows," Aerie whispered. What the two men saw was the trees filling with crows. The three fillies sat in their perches waiting as still as death itself. Snape's gaze lingered the longest before turning back to Quirrell.
“If you change your mind let me know and we may have another chat, and I’d strongly suggest you think about where your loyalties lie.” And with that, he pulled his hood over his head, turned, and made his way to exit the forest.
Quirrel just stood there for the longest time. Aerie had no way to know why, and at the same time, she and the others could do little more than sit and wait. He did eventually leave, but not to go back to school. The fillies watched in morbid fascination and horror as he transformed into some sort of serpent-like wraith. The thing looked about and then turned to go deeper into the forest.
Once they were sure he was well gone the three fillies took off and made a beeline for the school.
“I’m going back to my dorm,” Hoshiko announced as they flew over the grounds. “If you know what to do, why haven't you?!”
“It’s not as simple as just ending him. He can’t be killed or imprisoned,” Aerie admonished.
“Not even banished?”
“We’d need all seven elements of Harmony to do it!” a moment of silence fell between the two. "There might be a way. A device. He can't be killed, nor captured and imprisoned in the normal way, but... I'm going to send an owl to Mrs Silverwood and ask if she could make inquiries. The device I'm thinking of isn't in this world but a certain archmage might be able to procure one."
The three continued on silently until they landed on the Ravenclaw balcony.
“Hoshiko, you are just going to have to trust me.” Aerie offered followed by letting out a sigh. “There is a plan in place but it’s going to take time. But, you need to put it out of your mind. Don’t think about it, don’t think about what we all saw. Put it out of your mind.”
“There’s a possibility he might be able to read our minds?” Kitzu asked.
“Your Moonie can block you from him. Even so, if you think about it if it’s on the top of your mind…”
“I know, don’t think about it.” Hoshiko sounded like she wasn’t happy but knew that there was nothing she could do. Hoshiko transformed back to her human form and gave Aerie a hug. Kitsu transformed herself back into a fox and the two made their way downstairs. Aerie turned, launched herself into the air, and made her way to the roof of the main hall where she could transform unseen and head back down into the school and up to the Gryffindor tower.
Aerie stepped through the entrance hole and looked about at the party, the crowd saw her and burst into a spontaneous cheer. So much for sneaking upstairs. Sure she could have gone in via the attic but then people might catch on. Sure, she could do it when no one would be looking for her, but right now she had an appearance to make. And as long as she was at it, she might just as well partake in the veritable smorgasbord that had been arrayed before her.
“We won! We won!” Ron cheered as he pounded Aerie on the back as the twins handed her a plate heaped with food. “And I gave Malfoy a black eye. Neville took on Crab and Goyle, and then Aurora sat them back into their seats like a couple of naughty toddlers!”
“Aerie, I know you wanted to double back, but you took so much time I was starting to think you just didn’t want to be at the party. Did something happen?” Hermione seemed honestly concerned.
“Nothing really. I saw Snape going into the forest.”
“Don’t tell me you had a look yourself?” Fred asked bombastically.
“As a matter of fact, I did. Not far mind you.” The two boys all but crowed at the idea that Aerie might do anything inappropriate. “I’d two professors there. Granted that I made sure not to be seen. After all, I’d no business being there.”
“Two? Who was Snape talking to?” Hermione pressed with a conspiratorial tone.
“Just Professor Quirrel. No big deal. I turned around and came right back.”
Hermione took in a breath at the news but said no more. She’d learned from Hagrid prior to Aerie and Hoshiko’s arrival that Quirrell was one of the members of the faculty who had set up traps to help protect the Philosopher’s stone. Aerie made her way into the room and by the time she’d managed to slip away not only was Aurora back, it was also time to go down to dinner.
In the following weeks Quirrell grew thinner, his color paler, but he’d yet to make any attempt on the location where everyone who knew anything believed the stone to be. Granted that Aerie knew it wasn’t there, even so, she would like nothing better than for the man to have a go at it, realize he’d been had, and hopefully move on.
Hermione, Ron, and Neville having completely misinterpreted the facts in front of them were now trying to be extra cheerful in the presence of Quirrell and sulky around Snape. Aerie found it all rather annoying, and when Hermione insisted that everyone in First-Year use study schedules she’d drawn up along with color-coded study notes it was all Aerie could do not to tell her off. In truth, the easiest thing for the girls to do was to humor her. As for the boys, they were free to say they’d look at everything she had provided and then flatly ignore them once they’d retreated to the boy’s dorm.
The teachers had also doubled down on assignments making it very difficult for Aerie to sneak down to Hagrid’s hut. She was forced to step out the window on multiple occasions, fly down, pay Hagrid a quick visit, give the egg a little more magic, and then zip back up before the bed count.
“I went looking through old books as you’d suggested,” Hagrid announced on a visit in which Hermione, Ron, and Neville were present. Hagrid pulled out a large warn book bound in a heavy hide. “Got this one outta the restricted section. Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit . A bit out of date, but it says you are right about the eggs needing to be exposed to lots of magic. It recommends feeding the new hatchling a mixture of chicken blood and brandy about every half hour. Slowly mix in minced meat mixed in mead until it’s ready for solid food mindful of bones until it’s old enough to manage. And it even has a bit on how to recognize the eggs. According to this here what I’ve got is a Norwegian Ridgback. They’re rare, they are.”
Hagrid was quite pleased with himself, but then his mood soured as though the sun had gone behind a cloud. “Shame I can’t keep it.”
“Ron?” Aerie prompted.
“I got an owl back telling me to contact some friends. They’ll come after the egg has hatched. If it hatches. He says that it’s not a good idea to transport eggs.”
“Don’t worry Hagrid, that’s a healthy egg.”
“Aerie, how can you be so sure?” Hermione asked. “And I’d swear you seemed to know in advance. You even knew about Ron’s brother.”
“Ya, how did you know?”
“A proper witch never gives away all her tricks,” Aerie replied with a cheeky grin.
“I want an answer. A proper answer.”
“Fine. I can sense its life force. When I feel the egg.” Their look of credulity gave her to understand she’d need to elaborate. The truth was that the issue with her eyes made it possible for her to see the life energy within slowly morphing into a baby dragon. It may also have been because it was an egg and she a pegasus. Deep down a part of her desperately wanted to brood over it. “It’s just one of those little weird things I can do. I just know that there is a healthy little baby dragon in that egg.”
“Of course there is,” Hagrid added emphatically. “And he’s gonna grow up to be a strong healthy dragon.”
Time dragged on at the school, which was something Aerie took to be a good thing. Their instructors were heaping more and more work on them which gave everyone precious little time to do much of anything beyond their assignments.
“Aurora, you two didn’t have a fight, did you? You and Aerie?” Idda asked at breakfast one morning. Aurora was being grumpy but it had nothing to do with Aerie and everything to do with her inability to spend time with her Scootaloo.
“What? No. What makes you think that?”
“You two haven't been spending as much time together.”
“We spend plenty of time together,” Aerie offered between bites.
“Study time, yes. Free time, no.”
“What free time?” Aurora griped. “Why do we even need to break down the mechanics of spells anyway?”
“So that we fully understand the basics,” Aerie offered. “Or to be more precise, to keep us too busy to have any free time. Not like I don’t already know the basic mechanics.”
“Well, I don’t,” Hermione blurted out indignantly.
“Hermione, you know the mechanics quite possibly better than I do…” Even as Aerie was saying this a large Snowy Owl came swooping in and delivered a hastily scrawled note to Aerie. “Thank you, Hedwig.” Yes, Hagrid had kept Hedwig who’d become sort of a school owl.
“Who sent you a note?”
“Oh, just Hagrid. He’s panicking about something.”
“Hagrid?” Ron asked. “What could he be that…” Aerie gave him a dirty look at tilted her head toward the Slytherin table. Namely, Draco who’d yet to show any sign of maturity. Worse yet was that he was now wholly fixated on Ron and anyone who associated with him.
“You mean that research project you helped him with?” Hermione. Hermione failed at sounding casual, and for anyone eavesdropping it was obvious that she was talking about something. This resulted in Draco getting up like he had finished eating breakfast and slowly closing the gap between them.
“You mean about the drag-mph?”
Ron was about to spill the beans with Draco within earshot but Aerie used her telekinesis, her right hand making like a mouth closing, to shut him up.
“You have got to teach me how to do that,” Idda quipped.
Aerie let go when it’d become clear he’d finally noticed Draco. “Is there something you want, Malfoy?”
“I might be inclined to ask how a first year could possibly help Hagrid.”
“Found him in the library,” Aerie offered. “A person would think he’d know his way around the library, but sometimes even adults need to be pointed in the right direction.”
“He can read?”
“No, he just looks at the pictures. Of course, he can read. He is a Hogwarts alumni.”
“Who got kicked out in his third year.”
“Curious you’d know that? You aren’t secretly in love with him… are you?”
“You take that back!”
“That’s not a denial.”
Draco’s spluttering was met with laughter from both the Gryffindor and the Slytherin tables. Not knowing what else to do, he turned, informed Crabbe and Goyle that they were leaving, and stormed off.
You know, you can finish your breakfast,” Aerie offered.
“As much as I hate to agree with a Gryffindor…” one of the other Slytherins began slowly. “You are not his servants.” The two boys looked in the direction Draco had gone, and their plates, back towards Draco, and then back to their plates. The plates won.
“I think I’ve just enough time to run upstairs, brush my teeth, and run down and see what’s got Hagrid in a tither,” Aerie announced as she got up.
“Hang on, you’re not leaving me behind,” Ron protested.
“You’re welcome to try to follow me into the girl’s dorm,” Aerie offered as she walked off.
“That’s not what I meant!” Ron called back and then turned to his breakfast. It was a wonder he didn’t choke to death what with how fast he shoveled it down.
“Ron, we’ve got Herbology,” Hermione protested. “We’ll get into trouble.” The rate at which she was eating suggested she was just as eager.
“It might be ‘atching,” Ron whispered loudly.
“Not nearly as much trouble as Hagrid will get into if you don’t shut it.” Hearing Neville tell someone off was such a surprise that nearly everyone who’d heard him stopped to look wondering if the mild-mannered self-deprecating boy had been replaced. The trio would argue all the way to Herbology and were mildly surprised to find Aerie was already there.
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well now this is a great chapter and the cliffhanger is right on spot.
11677375
Thank you. Part of me felt like this chapter was borderline rambling. At the same time, it covers a lot of the in-between stuff. The line about contacting a certain archmage may seem like a throwaway line but it's really important to what I have planned. What I can tell you without giving anything away is that I'm not going to turn Voldemort into a statue. This has turned out to be a good decision on my part because it would have ended up looking like I was copying someone else.
11677920
yep i understand
you do your story as you see fit and i am loving it.