The Young Padfoot *Book One*

Freedom of Norbert

With Hagrid's secret dragon at the disposal of Malfoy, we had to be extra careful what we said and did around him. Our plan was to try and give Malfoy no reason to turn Hagrid in but I don't think that this plan will work for very long. Something about the smirk he gave us whenever he saw us put us all on edge. For the next week, the four of us spent most of our time in Hagrid's darkened hut trying to persuade him to give Norbert up.

"Just let him go. Set him free," Harry urged Hagrid for the third time today.

"I can't. He's too little. He'd die," Hagrid replied.

I looked down at the dragon. It had grown three times its original length in just a week and every now and then, smoke would come flaring out of its nostrils. Not only that, but Hagrid had been missing most of his gamekeeper duties as he had been so busy looking after the dragon.

"He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where's mummy?" Hagrid said to the dragon who continued to wander around the table.

"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered to me.

"Hagrid. Give it a fortnight and Norbert's gonna be the length of your whole house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any minute. He's be forced to make a very difficult decision. You wouldn't want to put Dumbledore in that position now, would you?" I tried using the 'Dumbledore Card.'

Hagrid looked at us all sadly then back down at Norbert.

"I—I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I can't," Hagrid told us.

"Charlie," Harry suddenly said, staring at Ron with wide eyes.

"You're losing it, too," Ron commented, rolling his eyes. "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 out him back in the wild," Harry explained.

"Brilliant!" Ron exclaimed. "How about it, Hagrid?"

It took the rest of our free period to persuade him but eventually Hagrid agreed that we should send Charlie an owl and see what he says.

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The next week dragged by so slowly I almost felt like I was going backwards. On Wednesday night, Harry, Hermione, and I were sitting in the common room catching up on all the homework we had fallen behind on. Everyone else had gone to bed by now and Ron was down at Hagrid's helping him with Norbert. Hagrid had asked him to help feed Norbert who was now eating dead rats by the crate.

Just as the clock chimed midnight, the portrait hole opened but no one walked in. At least that's what it looked like till Ron shrugged off Harry's invisibility cloak.

"It bit me!" Ron told us, showing us his hand that had a bloody handkerchief wrapped around it. "I'm not gonna 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 rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for scaring it! And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby."

I gave Ron a sympathetic smile just as a gentle tap on the dark window rung through the empty common room. We all turned to look at the window and outside of it was a white snowy owl.

"It's Hedwig!" Harry exclaimed excitedly. "She'll have Charlie's answer."

Harry got up to go and let Hedwig in while the rest of us sat anxiously in our seats. When he had the letter, Harry sat back down and read it out loud.

"Dear Ron,

How are you? Thanks for the letter—I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they can't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.