Another chapter! I want to Time Jump directly to Voldemort, but can’t do that… *sniffles*

Chapter 19 – Harry

I can’t believe this. They’re hiding the Sorcerer’s Stone at school, and it’s only one of the most powerful magical artifacts in existence! But I guess that if whatever tried to steal it could get into Gringotts, this won’t be safe for long…

I’m worried.

What if it is Voldemort after the Stone? I mean, he’d probably want it, and most likely a lot of other magical objects, but I don’t feel safe. Then again, if the Stone is that good, everyone would want it!

Is Dumbledore willing to risk all of our lives just to keep a stone safe? I mean, what if Voldemort kills someone here?

Okay, I’ve scared myself enough. Time to work on that Charms essay…. I need to concentrate! But it should be easy.

Why do we have to write essays on charms? It’s just waving the wand, concentration, and the right words, right?

Oh well… two inches left to go…

Hermione Granger just walked into the common room. Hm, she looks rather messed up. I wonder what happened to her? I notice that she’s been spending a lot of time at Hagrid’s. Well, it is not like she has any other friends. Do I pity her? I think not.

If only she weren’t such a know-it-all I might want to be her friend. There’s being smart, and then there’s showing it off.

However, is that a bite mark on her hand? That’s odd.

Maybe Fang bit her.

I ought to go visit Hagrid, since he’s probably pretty lonely there.

What happens if Quirrell cracks? Snape probably knows his way past the rest of the spells. So it’s an easy route to steal the stone for him. Oh, I do hope Quirrell is going to brave this out!

Otherwise, we’re pretty screwed.

I listened at the door of the third corridor today, and I could hear breathing, so the three headed dog is still there. That’s good.

We should try to figure out how to get past it though, just in case.

I am such an idiot.

Hagrid told me himself that he likes dragons! So if he had an opportunity to get one, he would!

Now he’s got a baby dragon in his house on campus! What is the world coming to? Oh, this is not good…

What are we going to do?

Maybe… maybe there’s a way past this.

“Charlie.”

They look at me like I’ve gone insane.

“What? I’m Ron, remember?r” Ron waves his hand in front of his face. No, I’m not crazy. This will work!
“Your brother, Charlie, in Romania!”

And their eyes widen as they realize what I’m saying.

“That will work!”

“Yes, we’ll just have to send him an owl first!

I volunteer Hedwig, and it will be okay. Because in six days we’ve got a reply, and yes, he’ll take the dragon.

Problem solved!

I have to say; it’s a good thing I thought of that though. Even Hermione didn’t know how to help Hagrid, for all her book knowledge. She did know about the dragon though, but she’s never there when we visit Hagrid.

Maybe she avoids us like we try to avoid her.

That’s probably it.

I should have never expected it to be so simple. Hermione insisted on coming up to the tower with us, and sneak Norbert away. Ron argued that it wasn’t fair and we had no way of sneaking the dragon up, but apparently she found out about my invisibility cloak somehow! When I find out who told her…

Yuki volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye out for things, but I didn’t want him to stay, so I said no.

Still, everything was difficult until Yuki hit upon a solution. He used a temporary shrinking spell that would keep Norbert in miniature for half an hour.

Then, we ran up to the tower.

It’s awfully dark at night, and with four of us under the invisibility cloak it’s a rather tight fit! I cannot believe Hermione came along…

Ow! Just stubbed my toe on a staircase.

Footsteps are coming.

We huddle against the darkest part of the wall as McGonagall comes down, dragging Malfoy by the ear. How in the world?

“Detention for you, and twenty points from Slytherin, Malfoy! Such lies! A dragon here at Hogwarts?”

Hermione looks sheepish.

“How did Malfoy know?”

“He-he saw me in the hospital wing and guessed what the bite was! I think his family owns dragons...” She whispered.

Ron grins. “At least he didn’t see us.”

Yuki’s holding the dragon in a glass jar since that’s how small it is. “We’d better hurry though, this only lasts for fifteen more minutes.” It’s a long way up to the tallest tower. We’re running up the stairs as fast as possible when Hermione trips on the hem of her robes. That was a loud crash!

This is not good…

Honestly, girls are such trouble! I can see why Yuki doesn’t like them now. But what are we going to do? She looks pretty bad, since she fell down quite a few stairs.

Ron looks worried. Sure, we don’t like Hermione, but we don’t want her to die either! And we’ll get caught!

Yuki shakes his head. “I’ll take care of Hermione.” He shoves the dragon jar into Ron’s hands. “You two take the invisibility cloak, I’ll use mine.”

“You brought it?”

He nods so we hurry up the stairs and leave the two of them alone. Sure enough, Charlie and his friends are waiting with a harness to rig Norbert up.

At least he’s gone and we’re safe.

What if Filch comes back though? Ron and I manage to get back to the common room still under the cloak.

Well, hopefully everything will be all right…

I hope.

In any case, Yuki brought Hermione back, but she looks pretty bad. There’s a giant bruise on her face and one of her legs is twisted. How are we going to explain this to Pomfrey? And someone will have to carry her to the hospital wing.

I guess we’ll wait until tomorrow to see what comes.

Poor Hermione. Well not really! It was her own fault for being such a busybody! Tripping over your robes, only a girl would do something like that.

All the same, I hope she doesn’t die. Nah, it’s only a broken leg, right? Everything will be fine.

I don’t want her death on my conscience, even if she’s only a know-it-all…

I don’t want anyone else to die.

End Chapter

Completed 1/29/05