CHAPTER TWENTY: Draconem

Author's Note: *dodges flying shrapnel* I'm sorry for the late updates! Ah! :( Your reviews inspired me to write however, keep them coming! My lovely audience, you are far too generous and patient with me. Here is a chapter to reward you. All 400 of you. Sheesh. 400 followers! This is crazy. If you guys like my writing you should go check out my new solo-account, cathartic! That's where I'll be posting any future stories. So, follow me! ;) Okay. I'll stop rambling and let you read.

Harry wiggled about, pulling his legs into a lotus style position one foot at a time. He pinched his eyes closed again, blowing a gust of air out through his nostrils.

Reveal yourself. And be a bird. Not a beaver. A bird, please.

"If you were thinking any more aggressively, you'd be shouting at me. The goal is to empty your mind and feel, Harry."

Green eyes flicked open in distinct annoyance. "I am feeling," Harry spat, glaring over at his friend who was sitting by the light of a candle reading.

Draco shrugged disbelievingly, turning the page of his book without looking up.

"Adrian said someone's going to attack me at try-outs," Harry blurted suddenly as the memory hit him. He pulled his legs free of their tangled position as Draco looked up, grey eyes sharp with anger.

"Did he say who? Does he know what they're planning?"

Harry shook his head. "He couldn't tell me much, I think it's someone in Slytherin, with the way he was acting."

Draco nodded stiffly. "We get your broom from the Quidditch rooms tonight and check it for jinxes or curses. If there's nothing, then we keep it locked up here, and I'll replace the bludgers, quaffle and snitch with ones that we know aren't cursed just before the try-outs."

Harry shrugged, bobbing his head in consent as a disappointed frown stole over his features. "I don't think my animagus wants me to know what it is," he said dejectedly. The lights in the room reappeared as per his silent request as he stomped over to one of the conjured boomshelves, running his fingers along the spines of the books.

"Your animagus is a representation of your nature and doesn't have a personality," Draco drawled in response, arching both eyebrows in an unimpressed fashion.

Harry opened his mouth to respond when suddenly an open window appeared on the side of the room, lending an opening straight into the owlery. Hedwig flew inside, dropped a letter promptly on to Harry's lap, and flew back through the opening.

The window disappeared from behind.

"I didn't know that worked for animals," Draco commented in a perturbed voice. Harry ignored him, tearing open the envelope and beginning to read his letter.

Deer Harry,

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around four? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.

-Hagrid

"Who's it from?" Draco asked as he leaned over Harry's shoulder, reading it for himself anyway and wrinkling his nose in distaste. "Oh."

Harry ignored him, a grin quirking up the corners of his lips. Snatching up a nearby quill and earning a glare from his roommate, Harry quickly scrawled on the back of the note that he would see him then.

"Come down to the owlery with me to send this off?" Harry asked, parchment held tight in his hand as he paused by the doorway. He attempted for a moment to convince whatever window Hedwig had created to show up, but to no avail.

Frowning and making a mental note to do some research on that, Harry looked to his friend expectantly.

Draco heaved an all-suffering sigh and very dramatically rose to his feet, shrugging his shoulders. "Fine, I'll go with you to drop off the letter. But I'm not going to tea with you."

"I have the most unbearable headache right now. I named it Harry, because it's just like you," Draco sniped as he stomped down the path toward the hut, head ducked to avoid eye-contact with any possible passer-bys who might recognize him.

"I told you that you didn't have to come with me," Harry muttered in response, kicking a stone out of his way and watching in surprise as it sprouted legs and scrambled away.

Draco made a disgruntled noise of distaste in response, adjusting his cashmere, green scarf.

"It's cold," Harry mumbled, shivering and wishing he hadn't forewent a scarf and jacket. Draco sent him a smug look in response, which he chose to ignore.

"Where are you two going?" a sharp voice asked, startling Draco into ducking his head, his eyes rounding in horror as he scooted closer to Harry, hoping not to be identified.

Harry glanced up to see Seamus Finnegan staring at the two of them very pointedly from where he stood alongside Ronald Weasley. The redhead looked a bit uncomfortable with the situation, but would occasionally shift from embarrassment to shooting the cringing Draco a mean look.

Harry bristled. "What's it to you?" he snapped. Draco lifted his head now, clearly having realized that the person speaking wasn't someone whose opinion he cared about, and sent the Gryffindors a disdainful look.

Seamus narrowed his eyes, stomping over in a very Gryffindor way in a clear attempt to intimidate the slightly shorter boy. Ron followed suit. Harry curled his hands into fists, green eyes flashing, and Draco didn't bother repressing a snort of laughter.

"You're Slytherins out after hours heading toward the Forbidden Forest. I think it concerns all of us what kind of weird stuff you two could be getting up to now," Seamus said boldly, glaring openly at Harry.

Harry glared back. "What do you mean? Like the time we saved the entire school? Sure is dark stuff we get up to, I see your point," he spat in response.

Draco looked to Harry in slight surprise and Riddle poked his head out from Harry's collar where he had been resting. The adolescent snake lifted itself into striking position in a distinctly angered fashion, and the two Gryffindors flew several steps back with yelps of alarm.

"What is that!" Ron whimpered, stepping behind Seamus with brown eyes that were wide with child-like terror. "Seamus!"

"Riddle, quit it," Harry snapped in Parseltongue without a beat of hesitation. The young snake reluctantly relaxed, making its way down his arm and coiling around the limb, peering at the ground curiously as one of the rocks with legs scuttled toward the grass.

"You're a bloody Parselmouth," Seamus said breathlessly, stepping backward and stepping into Ron who was now absolutely silent, his face paling in a way that made his freckles stand out starkly against his face.

Draco laughed humorlessly at the statement. "And you're an idiot. Harry and I actually had somewhere to be, now, if you don't mind," the blond said, stepping in as Harry frowned slightly at the horrified response of his fellow students. "As much fun as playing 'state the obvious' is."

"I told you they were up to dark stuff," Seamus whispered to Ron, who simply shook his head and backed up several steps and gestured toward the castle. "I'm going to tell a teacher," Seamus said triumphantly, stomping up toward the building with Ron at his side.

Draco rolled his eyes impatiently and started down the path, a hesitant Harry keeping pace.

"I don't understand, what's he going to tell a teacher?" Harry asked quietly after a moment of silence had passed between the two. The pumpkin patch and Hagrid's hut were now clearly in view.

"Merlin knows," Draco replied stiffly. "Gryffindors are absolute idiots. They're downright afraid of anything they don't understand that's more dangerous than a kneazle."

"Aren't kneazles kind of aggressive?" Harry asked.

"Half-kneazles, then. Don't be so picky with my wording," Draco replied, attempting to casually change the subject. "Weasel - I mean Weasley - hey, no, you know what? Weasel. Let's call him Weasel."

"What about him?" Harry asked slowly.

Draco frowned. "Weasel's scared of spiders. What makes you think he'd fancy snakes? Finnegan is an idiot. You shouldn't worry so much," the blond Slytherin said.

"I guess so," Harry murmured, glancing down at Riddle who was dangling off of his wrist and nipping at the grass as they trailed along the path.

"I agree the boys are idiots," the young snake inserted into the conversation as he plucked a piece of grass triumphantly from the ground.

"He's getting even better at understanding us," Draco said warmly as he smiled down at the animal, which had begun to spit out the grass in a disturbed fashion. Obviously the taste was less than impressive.

The two came to a stop outside of the hut. Harry opened his mouth to respond, his hand resting against the door, when a sudden shout from out back behind the hut and an odd sort of roar drew the boys' attention.

Harry darted around the side of the hut without further encouragement, Draco reluctantly darting after his friend with a frustrated expression.

"I knew there was no such thing as a simple tea with someone like this," the blond muttered under his breath.

"Bloody hell."

"Oh! Harry! Ye - hey now, Norbert! Be nice!"

"He really wouldn't hurt a fly - am sorry ye had to see that, him misbehavin' an' all," Hagrid said as he pressed a cold slab of meat to a painful-looking burn on his forearm, both sleeves pulled back to reveal criss-crosses of injuries - burns, bites and scratches alike.

"You're keeping a bloody dragon," Draco said, voice uncharacteristically high and stacatto in beat, lacking his usual drawl.

"It's a baby," Harry pointed out in quiet defense, motioning to the now peacefully sleeping creature.

The dragon arched and stretched its back slightly in its sleep, showing off the black ridges running down its spine. Its scales were black overtop, with a bronze-brown underside that showed when the creature moved.

It had a few small bronze spikes on its head, and a bit of smoke would occasionally drift from its nostrils as it took deep breaths in its sleep. Its yellow eyes were closed now, spiked tail tucked against its chest as it slept.

"A baby dragon," Draco replied montonously. Harry shot him an apologetic look, which he ignored, instead pinning Hagrid with a look of horror. "How long have you had this thing?"

Hagrid frowned. "I've had Norbert since last year," he said, putting emphasis on the name he had given the creature.

Draco shuddered, burying his face in both of his hands and scrubbing at his eyes momentarily before stalking over to one of the seats he had previously deemed unsafe to use and falling into it, heaving a sigh.

"Where did you get him?" Harry asked curiously as he scooted away from the clearly-volatile adolescent dragon. "And how did you keep him a secret?"

"I won him at a pub as an egg believe it er not," Hagrid said excitedly, sitting at his 'kitchen' table and tossing the meat to Fang, who seemed to have been eagerly anticipating this all the while. "He's real sweet - just bein' a bit demanding now that 'e's got a bit older. We were havin' a disagreement about him eatin' the roosters," he explained.

Fang had drug the meat over toward the large lizard, and was now curling against his scaley side - carefully avoiding the bronze spikes. "Him an' Fang are good pals," Hagrid added with a smile, his black eyes crinkling around the edges with happiness.

"You can't possibly be planning on keeping this thing," Draco spoke up finally from the corner, voice hoarse with shock. "They're dangerous!"

Hagrid frowned, and Harry jumped to his feet as Draco opened his mouth again.

"It's getting dark out," Harry said, pointing to one of the windows, where twilight was beginning to filter inside. "We'll be back to visit you and Norbert tomorrow Hagrid, okay? And have that tea!"

Hagrid paused, opening and then closing his mouth at the abruptness before nodding his head in agreement. "Yeh, wouldn't want you two gettin' detention fer visiting me," he said in a sad tone, drawing a sympathetic look from Harry and a disparaging glance from Draco.

"Detention? More like expelled," Draco muttered angrily as he allowed Harry to usher him out of the hut, only because he was eager to get away from the fire-breathing menace. "Harry, he can't keep that thing," he said firmly as the door to the hut swung shut behind him. He seemed to finally be recovering from his shock. "I'm going to tell Professor Snape-"

"-Draco, come on, wait. We can't just do that to Hagrid, he'll get fired!" Harry protested, green eyes wide and pleading as the blond started angrily up the path toward the castle.

"She does not seem so bad," Riddle cut into the conversation suddenly, poking his head up from Harry's collar.

Harry rested a hand affectionately against the snake's back.

"Would you not be annoyed if someone gave you a man's name, if you were a girl?" Riddle hissed, shifting away from Harry's patronizing gesture grumpily.

"You mean that thing is a girl? That's even worse!" Draco cried.

"How do you know?" Harry asked curiously as the snake curled around to the other side of his neck, to nod his head very seriously at Draco.

"I spoke to her," Riddle responded very simply.

Short chapter, but a lot happened! Leave a review please!