Starting Spark

The Spy

Clarissa's P.O.V

        "Hagrid..." I said with an unsure voice.

        "Yeh?" He answered, not taking his eye off the egg.

        "What's in that egg? And how did you get?" I said in a matter of fact tone.

        "A baby dragon. I won it. Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest." Hagrid said, looking out to the distant dreamily.

        "but what are you going to do with it when it's hatched? It's not allowed in Britain." Hermione piped up from beneath all the smoke that was piling up in the hut.

        "Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid pulled out a large book from under his pillow, "Got this outta the library - Dragons-Breeding for Pleasure and Profit - it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here - how ter recognize diff'rent eggs - what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

        "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house." Hermione tried speaking the sense into Hagrid but he didn't seemed to mind that he could easily burn his egg.

        He stood up and placed it back into the pot over the fire.

*        *        *

        "Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed again as we did our homeworks in the Great Hall before dinner.

        "Well, you just need to imagine yourself as Scabbers." I pointed out. Scabbers was munching his way through a bag of Sour Intestines. I had really wanted some, but now that Scabbers had left his rat mark all over it it's kind of disgusting really.

        "Hermione, remind me again why we can't go to Hagrid's hut right now and just skip Herbology. I mean, it's a lot more fun." Ron complained, as I watched in amusement to see what'd happen next.

        "Because we've got exams coming up, that's why."

        "Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" Ron tried to persuade Hermione again. This was the fifth time he had done it and he had always managed to earn the same out come.

        "We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing -"

        "Shut up!" Harry whispered.

        I turned around to face him. Then I realized why he had snapped at Ron and Hermione (He'd normally sit there and watch them argue with me actually), Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead on his track probably to eavesdrop on us.

*        *        *

        "It's nearly out." Hagrid hushed us as we gathered around the table that night.

        The black egg was lying on the table. There were some rather deep cracks in it. Someting was definitely moving inside. Probably the Norwegian Ridgeback, as you've presumed.

        We all pulled our chairs up close to Hagrid so we can all take a look at the hatching egg. To be completely honest here, the egg was quite beautiful. It had the black shady colour but then at the side, there would be a hint of light that curved in a shape of the moon. There were twinkling dark spots on it, which made it looked like the stars. So technically, it was like a night sky.