Together (A Harry Potter love story) 1

45

MILLIES POV

There was a hitch. True to what I had said, the spell had only cleaned the dried blood from Norbert's bite. By next morning, Ron's bitten hand had swollen to twice it's usual size.

"You have to go to Madam Pomfrey," Mione said, but I stopped her.

"No! What if she recognises the dragon bite? What would happen then?"

By the afternoon, though, Ron had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norberts fangs were poisonous. Harry, Mione and I rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day, to find Ron in a terrible state in bed.

"It's not just my hand," he whispered. "Although that feels like it's about to fall off. 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 you were right, Millie, I don't think she believes me - I shouldn't have hit him at the quidditch match, that's why he's doing this."

We tried to calm Ron down.

"It'll be all over at midnight on Saturday," Mione told him, but this didn't soothe 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's going to know we're getting rid of Norbert."

I groaned loudly and Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made us leave, saying Ron needed sleep.

"It's too late to change the plan now," Harry told Mione and I. "We haven't got time to send Charlie another owl and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we've got the invisibility cloak, Malfoy doesn't know about that."

We found Fang the boarhound sitting outside with a bandaged tail when we went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to us.

"I can' let you in," he puffed. "Norberts at a tricky stage - nothin' I can't handle."

When we told him about Charlie's letter, his eyes filled with tears - although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg.

"Aargh! It's all right, he only got my boot - jus' playin'- he's only a baby, after all."

The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle. The three of us walked back to the castle, feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough.

I would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say goodbye to Norbert, if I wasn't so worried about what we had to do. We had decided that Harry and I were be the two to pass the dragon onto Charlie's friends, as Mione said she feel felt wary about breaking school rules.

It was a very dark, cloudy night and Harry and I were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because we'd had to wait for Peeves to get out our way in the entrance hall, where he'd been playing tennis against the wall.

Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey," said Hagrid in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to me as though teddy was getting his head ripped off.

I visibly rolled her eyes, but Hagrid was busy saying his goodbyes to Norbert.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry covered the crate with the invisibility cloak, before stepping underneath it with me. "Mummy will never forget you!"

How we managed to get the crate back up to the castle, I never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as we heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another - even one of my shortcuts didn't make the work much easier.

"How did you even find this shortcut?" Harry muttered.

"Fred and George," I whispered. "You and Ron were playing chess-"

Then a sudden movement ahead of us which made me almost drop the crate. Forgetting we were already invisible, I grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him back into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared.

Professor McGonagall, in a tartan dressing-gown and a hairnet, had Malfoy by the ear. In any other situation, I would've laughed out loud at Professor McGonagall in her pyjamas.

"Detention!" She shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you-"

"You don't understand, Professor, Harry Potter's coming - he's got a dragon!"

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on - I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

I looked at Harry to find him laughing silently. I grinned.

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until we'd stepped out into the cold night air did Harry throw the cloak off of us. I was glad to be able to breath properly again. I did a sort of jig.

"Malfoys got detention! I could hug you right now!"

"Come here, then," Harry said, poking his finger through Norbert's cage.

"On second thoughts, I'm good," I said, shivering slightly.

"Are you pretending you're cold so you can wear my jumper again?"

"No I am not," I hissed, wrapping my arms around myself.

"Can I do this then?" He asked casually, draping his arms around my shoulders. I froze slightly at the sudden contact, but soon relaxed against him.

"Only because I'm cold," I muttered, as Harry rested his head on mine.

Ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness. Harry unwrapped his arms from me and shook hands with Charlie's friends.

They were a cheery lot. They showed Harry and I the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. We helped them buckle Norbert safely onto it, and then thanked them very much.

At last, Norbert was going ... going ... gone.

We slipped back down the spiral staircase, my heart as light as my hands, now that Norbert was off us. No more dragon - Malfoy in detention - what could spoil my happiness?

The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As we stepped into the corridor, Filch's face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.

"Well, well, well," he whispered. "We are in trouble."

We'd left the invisibility cloak on top of the tower.