A Life Changing Story "Percy Jackson and Harry Potter"

Chapter 10

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought. In theweeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but itdidn't look as though he'd cracked yet.
Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Percy, Ron, and Hermionewould press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growlinginside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surelymeant that the Stone was still safe.
And with tests coming up, Percy had to shift his attention from the stone to his books. Luckily, Hermione had drawn up a study schedule for him and insisted that he color code important notes and facts.
"Hermione, the exams are ages away."
"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second toNicolas Flamel."
"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, whatare you studying for, you already know it all."
"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize we need to passthese exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I shouldhave started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me. . . ."
Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines asHermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidaysweren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones.
"Look at you playing with your cards. Pathetic! We've got final exams coming up soon." Hermione said
"I'm ready! Ask me any question.
Hermione: All right, what are the three most crucial ingredients in a Forgetfulness Potion?
" ...I forgot."
Harry and Percy sniggered.
"And what, may I ask, do you plan to do if this comes up in the final exam?"
"Copy off you?
"No, you won't" Hermione said outraged at the idea! "Besides, according to Professor McGonagall, we're to be given special quills bewitched with an anti-cheating spell."
"That's insulting! It's as if they don't trust us! Dumbledore again!"
Percy rolled his eyes and looked up at transfiguration notes until. . .
Hagrid! What are youdoing in the library?"
Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He lookedvery out of place in his moleskin overcoat.
"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An'what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin'fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And weknow what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St —"
"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening."Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," saidHarry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy —"
"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Listen — come an' see me later, I'm notpromisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here,students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh —"
"See you later, then," said Harry.Hagrid shuffled off.
"What's up with him?" Percy asked.
"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"
"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough ofworking. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms andslammed them down on the table.
"Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons!Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg toInferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever methim," said Harry.
"But it's against our laws," said Percy. "Dragon breeding was outlawed bythe Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stopMuggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden —anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry
Percy shook his head. "There are many such as Common Welsh Green and HebrideanBlacks. Once, a welsh green was loose and attacked a bunch of muggles. But the ministry kept a memory charm on 'em."
"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.
When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, theywere surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who isit?" before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them.
Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.
"So — yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" Yes," said Harry. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."
Hagrid frowned at him."O' course I can't," he said. "Number one, I don' know myself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn't' tell yeh if I could. ThatStone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts — Is'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou'Fluffy."
"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on around here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling.
"We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on."We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words.
Harry, Percy and Ron beamed at Hermione.
"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that . . . let's see . . . he borrowed Fluffy from me . . . then some o' the teachers did enchantments . . .Professor Sprout — Professor Flitwick — Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell — an' Dumbledorehimself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."
"Snape?"
"Yeah — yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."
"Well. we're the only one's who know how to get past Fluffy." Percy said. "You wouldn't tell anyone Hagrid?"
"Not a soul," Hagrid said.
"Well, that's something," Harry muttered to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."
"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. Harry noticed him glance at the fire. Harry looked at it, too.
"Hagrid — what's that?"
Percy looked closer to see a black egg. He joined all the pieces and it clicked.
"That's a dragon egg!" Percy said. Everyone's eyes widened.
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."
"Won it," said Hagrid. "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."
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Hermione.
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library — Dragon 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 NorwegianRidgeback. They're rare, them."
He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said. But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.
"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed, as eveningafter evening they struggled through all the extra homework they weregetting
Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note fromHagrid. He had written only two words: It's hatching.
Ron and Percy wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut. Hermionewouldn't hear of it.
"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragonhatching?"
"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to whatHagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing —"
"Shut up!" Harry whispered.
Ron and Hermione argued all the way to Herbology and in the end,Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with the other three during morningbreak
When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, thefour of them dropped their trowels at once and hurried through the groundsto the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.
"It's nearly out." He ushered them inside.
The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Somethingwas moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it.
All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The babydragon flopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; Harry thought itlooked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge comparedto its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs ofhorns and bulging, orange eyes.
It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to strokethe dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs.
"Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!" said Hagrid.
"Hagrid," said Hermione, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow,exactly?"
Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face— he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.
"What's the matter?"
"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains — it's a kid — he'srunnin' back up ter the school."
Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was nomistaking him.
Malfoy had seen the dragon.
Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy's face during the next weekmade the four of them very nervous. They spent most of their freetime in Hagrid's darkened hut, trying to reason with him.
"Just let him go," Harry urged. "Set him free."
"I can't," said Hagrid. "He's too little. He'd die."
They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just aweek. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Therewere empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.
"I've decided to call him Norbert," said Hagrid, looking at the dragon withmisty eyes. "He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where'sMummy?"
"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered in Harry's ear.
"Hagrid," said Harry loudly, "give it two weeks and Norbert's going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment."
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 Ron.
"Charlie," he said.
"You're losing it, too," said Percy. "He's Ron?"
"No — Charlie — Ron's 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!"
"Brilliant!" said Ron. "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 Hermione and harry sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron and Percy appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry's invisibility cloak. They had been down at Hagrid's hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate.
"It bit us!" Percy said, showing them his bloody hand. "I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. Itell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the wayHagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a bunny. Whenit bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it alullaby."
There was a tap on the dark window.
"It's Hedwig!" said Harry, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie'sanswer!"
The three of them put their heads together to read the note.
Dear Ron,
How are you? Thanks for the letter — I'd be glad to take theNorwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. Ithink the best thing will be to send him over with some friends ofmine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, theymustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon.Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at midnight onSaturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it'sstill dark.
Send me an answer as soon as possible.
Love,Charlie
hey looked at one another."We've got the Invisibility Cloak," said Harry. "It shouldn't be toodifficult — I think the cloak's big enough to cover two of us and Norbert."
By the next morning, Percy's and Ron's bitten hand's had swollen to twice its usual size. He didn't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey, but eventually convinced him to go since his hand turned as green as Percy's eyes.
"It's not just my hand," he whispered, his hair turning grey "Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me — I've told her it was a dog, but I don't think she believes me."
"Calm down Percy. Besides!, It will be over by Saturday."
But this didn'tsoothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat.
"Midnight on Saturday!" he said in a hoarse voice. "Oh no — oh no —I've just remembered — Charlie's letter was in that book Malfoy took, he'sgoing to know we're getting rid of Norbert."
Harry and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey cameover at that moment and made them leave, saying Percy and Ron needed sleep.