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While Draco and Hagrid were engrossed in an animated discussion about dragons, Harry and Ron remained distressed over Draco's surveillance. Their anxiety had gotten so bad that they'd lost their appetite and even failed to meet their usual quota of losing house points in class.
Little did they know that Hagrid, despite his honest face and trustworthy demeanor, had already switched allegiances.
But that's a tale for another time.
Norbert, who had been dozing on the table, stirred at the surrounding voices. He opened his mouth in a tiny yawn, accidentally shooting out a streak of red flame that nearly singed Draco's meticulously gel-slicked hair. The young Malfoy yelped and ducked behind Hagrid, hands protectively covering his precious hairstyle.
Shaking off his drowsiness, Norbert rose to his feet, determined to see who had dared disturb his beauty sleep.
Then his eyes fell on Glenn and Hermione.
Something stirred in the newly-hatched dragon's primitive instincts - a curious mixture of fear and reverence. He shivered once, then straightened his previously slouching posture, sitting properly on the table like a well-trained pet. The usual contempt in his eyes toward other creatures vanished without a trace.
Glenn and Hermione exchanged puzzled looks: ?
The two couldn't help but notice Norbert's dramatic transformation. Just yesterday, he'd been the very picture of arrogance. What had turned him into such an obedient little creature overnight?
They shared a knowing look, both reaching the same conclusion - it must have been their wands' unusual reaction yesterday.
Apparently, Norbert held them in high regard?
Well, well, this was turning out splendidly.
After Glenn tentatively reached out to pet Norbert and the dragon docilely lowered his head in acceptance, Hermione could no longer contain her excitement. She practically shoved Glenn aside, scooped up Norbert, and began showering him with affection.
Draco, watching from the side, turned to Hagrid with an accusatory look. "Hang on a minute! Didn't you say dragons were nearly impossible to approach? That even you, their caretaker, couldn't touch them? So why is Norbert letting them handle him like some common house pet?!" The young Malfoy's newfound revolutionary friendship with Hagrid teetered on the brink of collapse.
"Well... I'm as baffled as you are," Hagrid admitted, his eyes fixed longingly on Norbert, who was contentedly curled up in Hermione's arms. "Though I must say, I'd give anything to cuddle him like that myself!"
"But I was the first... the hatching, the shell breaking... everything was me first..." Hagrid's voice trailed off into unintelligible mumbling, his eyes growing distant with a hint of jealousy.
Hermione, growing increasingly uncomfortable under their envious stares, finally cracked. "Look, Norbert," she addressed the dragon hastily, "these two here are your friends too. You should be nice to them." Without waiting for any sign of comprehension, she promptly deposited the small dragon into Hagrid's arms.
Surprisingly, instead of his usual tantrum of biting and fire-breathing, Norbert merely adopted a distinctly feline attitude of elegant disdain in Hagrid's embrace. He settled in with an air of resigned tolerance, occasionally emitting small, disgruntled huffs.
Hagrid's eyes welled up with joyful tears as he cradled his unexpectedly calm dragon. "Blimey! I... I can't thank you enough, Hermione! You've worked a proper miracle with Norbert!"
"My turn! Let me hold him!" Draco bounced impatiently, too short to properly see Norbert in Hagrid's arms. The groundskeeper reluctantly passed the dragon over, and for once, both little dragons - one human, one actual - seemed perfectly content with the arrangement.
Under Glenn and Hermione's influence, Norbert had indeed become remarkably well-behaved, though his preference for Hermione's embrace was obvious. After all, what dragon wouldn't prefer the warm, soft cuddles of a sweet young witch to the awkward handling of two wizards?
The moment this thought crossed Norbert's mind, Glenn felt a twinge of annoyance. When the dragon attempted to leap back into Hermione's arms, Glenn smoothly intercepted him, grasping him by the scruff and depositing him firmly back on the table.
Norbert's expression clearly said: I'm offended, but I shall maintain my dignity in silence.
While Glenn retreated to the sofa for some meditation, Hermione, Hagrid, and Draco entertained themselves with Norbert. During a lull in their play, Hermione, who had settled down with a cup of hot tea from Glenn's enchanted waist pack, suddenly remembered something concerning.
"Hagrid," she began thoughtfully, "according to what I've read, young dragons grow at an astronomical rate. From hatching, they quickly reach adult size. Your hut..." she glanced around the modest dwelling, "well, it won't exactly accommodate a full-grown dragon. Have you thought about what you'll do then?"
Hagrid, who had been cheerfully playing with Norbert, froze mid-motion. It was clear he'd been deliberately avoiding this particular reality, but now that Hermione had voiced it, worry crept across his features.
Draco opened his mouth, about to suggest the spacious grounds of Malfoy Manor, but quickly thought better of it. With the Ministry's current crackdown on illegal activities, and the extra scrutiny his family was under due to his father's past associations, harboring an illegal dragon would be a one-way ticket to Azkaban. He closed his mouth with an audible click, reluctantly abandoning his dragon-adoption scheme.
Hagrid's attachment to Norbert was painfully obvious - the last thing he wanted was to give up or release his beloved Norwegian Ridgeback.
Glenn, sensing both Hagrid's distress and Hermione's attachment to the little dragon, decided to offer a solution.
"There's a cavern in the Forbidden Forest," he said carefully, "spacious enough for even a full-grown dragon to live comfortably. If you're agreeable, Hagrid, we could relocate Norbert there once he outgrows the hut."
He turned his attention to the dragon, reasoning that if Norbert could understand Hermione, he'd understand this too. "Norbert, if we arrange for you to live in this cave, can you promise to control your fire-breathing? No random forest fires?"
The dragon, clearly following the conversation, nodded his small head eagerly. The prospect of continued care and attention was apparently worth the proposed restraint.
Hagrid's face lit up - if Norbert could promise not to set the forest ablaze, this might actually work!
Hermione, however, fixed Glenn with a suspicious look. "Glenn, how exactly do you know about this convenient dragon-sized cave in the Forbidden Forest?"
...
Uh-oh.
But Glenn maintained his composure, responding smoothly, "Professor Dumbledore mentioned it to me."
Hermione made a small sound of acceptance - if it came from Dumbledore, it must be legitimate.
Meanwhile, in another part of the castle...
"Ah-CHOO!" Dumbledore's peaceful snack time in his office was interrupted by a massive sneeze, sending his carefully selected Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean flying. The bean hung suspended in mid-air for a moment before zooming back into his waiting hand.
"My, that was close," he mused, popping the bean back into his mouth. "Now, who could be talking about... BLEUGH! Bogey flavor! Perhaps I should have let that one fall after all."
The only witnesses to the Headmaster's misfortune were Fawkes, the Sorting Hat, and the thoroughly amused portraits of former headmasters lining the walls.
Undeterred, Dumbledore continued his candy adventure. "URGH! Dirty sock flavor! I do wonder who gets all the pleasant flavors in these things!"
The inevitable confrontation finally occurred when Harry and Ron burst into Hagrid's hut, only to find Draco already there.
"What are YOU doing here?" Ron demanded, throwing the door open. "Finally showing your true colors, are you?"
Draco turned around with his signature smirk, deliberately showing off the content dragon in his arms. "Please, Weasley, I couldn't care less about you. I'm here for Norbert."
Harry and Ron's jaws dropped in perfect synchronization. During their previous visits, they'd barely managed to catch glimpses of Norbert, the dragon's mere presence sending them scrambling behind Hagrid for protection whenever it threatened to breathe fire.
Talk about looking but not touching.
Yet here was their sworn enemy, cradling Norbert like some precious pet. Both boys felt as if they'd stepped into some bizarre alternate reality.
The young Gryffindors clutched their chests dramatically, stumbling backward until they hit the wall, their expressions a perfect picture of betrayal.
"Hagrid," Harry managed to choke out, spotting their large friend with his bucket, "what's going on here?"
"Oh, that?" Hagrid beamed proudly. "Draco's become quite close to Norbert now - right after Hermione, Glenn, and myself, of course."
Draco?! Since when had Hagrid started using Malfoy's first name?!
And why did that Slytherin Glenn keep turning up in everything?!
Harry and Ron felt their mission to protect the Philosopher's Stone growing more complicated by the minute. It seemed they couldn't turn around without finding Glenn's influence somewhere. First, he'd managed to wheedle information about the three-headed dog from Hagrid, and now this. What would be next - the Stone's exact location?
The Stone could wait, but this betrayal? Hadn't Hagrid always despised Slytherins?
Ron, never one to hold his tongue, confronted Hagrid directly. The gamekeeper shuffled awkwardly, explaining Hermione's earlier persuasion before adding, "She's got a point, you know. Not all Slytherins are bad sorts - look at Glenn and Draco, for instance."
Harry and Ron exchanged dark looks. Hermione's defection to the Slytherin side hadn't surprised them - she'd been following Glenn around like a shadow for ages. But Hagrid? Their straight-forward, honest Hagrid turning coat? Unthinkable!
Oblivious to their internal crisis, Hagrid continued cheerfully, "Besides, Norbert's wonderful behavior around Draco and me is all thanks to Glenn and Hermione. Perhaps if you two made an effort to be friendlier with them, Norbert might warm up to you as well?" He suggested with characteristic simplicity.
After a moment's hesitation, Ron gathered his Gryffindor courage and approached Norbert. "Look here," he said earnestly, "I'm actually good friends with... with Hermione, you know? The witch with the bushy hair? I..."
Seeing Norbert's apparent interest, Ron's hopes soared.
Norbert gazed at him with what appeared to be affection, and then...
CHOMP!
"YEOWCH!" Ron's yelp of pain echoed through the hut.
Et tu, Hagrid?!