In the Melancholy Moonlight

Chapter XVII: More to This Than Meets the Eye

LUCY:

In the weeks that followed, my life revolved around little Norbert the dragon. Harry and Ron and Hermione visited Hagrid's hut when they could, but everyone knew and accepted the fact that I was his favorite. I would often babysit Norbert while Hagrid attended to his gamekeeper duties, careful to feed him every half an hour and make sure he didn't burn anything down. (I had mastered the flame-freezing charm by the time he hatched. I wasn't taking any chances.)

A week after Norbert hatched, I consulted the others in the common room late one night, after nearly everyone else had gone to bed.

"Norbert's getting big," I whispered. "He's probably tripled in size since he was born. He can barely fit across my shoulders anymore. We need to get rid of him before he gets much bigger, Hagrid won't be able to keep him a secret much longer."

"Malfoy could go to Dumbledore any day," Harry agreed.

"Have you mentioned any of this to Hagrid?" Hermione asked.

I shook my head. "I don't want to mention it until we have a solid plan. He's grown quite attached to Norbert."

"He's grown quite attached?" Ron scoffed. "Lucy, every time we see you, you've got a new burn mark you forgot to cover up, which just makes us wonder how many more you're hiding."

I blushed. "Norbert can't help it, he doesn't know how to control his fire yet." All three of them stared at me, eyebrows raised. My blush intensified. "Okay, maybe I've grown attached too. But I know that we need to get Norbert out of here sooner than later. The only problem is, without a mother dragon to look after him, he'd die in the wild, and if he gets caught by humans, he'd be killed on the spot." I sighed. "I convinced Professor Kettleburn to take me to the magical creatures reserve yesterday, claiming that my dad was curious about the hippogriff habitats, but I don't think Norbert would be able to stay there. He's too friendly."

"I can't believe you just described a dragon as friendly," Hermione said, shaking her head, "but you have a point. Norbert needs to leave Hogwarts, because he could always be traced back to Hagrid."

"Charlie!" Harry exclaimed.

Ron rolled his eyes. "You're as mad as Lucy, I'm Ron."

"No, not you. Charlie, your brother. In Romania? Charlie could take care of Norbert until he's ready to go into the wild!"

"Brilliant idea, Harry!" Overwhelming relief poured through me. "Charlie would take good care of Norbert. Now we just need to ask Hagrid into letting us send him an owl."

I broached the topic sensitively the next day when Hagrid was somewhat distracted. Norbert had begun to eat dead rats, and Hagrid made it something of a game for him, tossing rats in a unique game of fetch. I held the crate as Hagrid tossed the carcasses, and we both beamed with pride as Norbert caught a particularly fat rat with a satisfying crunch.

"Say, Hagrid, don't you think Norbert is getting a little large for your hut?" I asked.

"He's a growin' boy!" he agreed heartily. "Nothin' I can't handle."

I bit my lip. "I know you can handle him, Hagrid, but, er, well... what about next week? What about when he gets even bigger?"

"I'll make it work! Good boy, Norbert!"

"Hagrid, you know I love Norbert as much as you do, but I, erm... I think we need to start talking about releasing him. For his own good, before he gets too much bigger."

He froze, rat in hand. "But Lucy, he's too little. He'd die."

"I know, and we don't need to release him right away, I'm just saying, well, eventually, we'll need to release him and we should have a plan." I paused. "Well, I talked to the others, and we do have a plan. We just agreed to talk to you first."