The Night We Met

Chapter Twenty-One

Draco looked at the dragon, which in his mind should have been called something cool, but instead, the poor thing got stuck with the moniker of "Norbert." It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Draco knew that the dragon was only a hindrance to Hagrid, who hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor of his hut, which despite Draco's whining, he'd been finding himself in more and more over the next week, with Harry and Hermione.

To tell the truth, Hagrid's darkened hut was disgusting and Draco didn't really want to be there. But Harry and Hermione had dragged him and Ron here to try and reason with him, in a vain effort to get rid of the dragon.

"I've decided to call him Norbert," said Hagrid, looking at the dragon with misty eyes, repeating himself but he probably didn't know, he looked so distracted. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mummy?"

"He's lost his marbles," Draco muttered to Harry.

"Hagrid," said Harry loudly, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Anyone could see him, they could go to Dumbledore any day now."

Hagrid bit his lip. "I- I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't."

Harry suddenly turned to Draco and Ron. "Charlie," he said.

"You're losing it too," said Ron. "I'm Ron, remember?"

"No- Charlie- your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!"

"That's a great idea," said Draco, passively, looking at the boys with a feeling of- what was it, pride? He turned to the oaf. "How about it, Hagrid?"

And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.

The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Draco and Harry sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to sleep. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. He had been down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

"It bit me!" he said, showing them his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby."