Harry leaned across the table to give Hermione the note Hedwig had delivered. Naturally, she read it twice.
Then a third time.
"Well?" Ron asked impatiently.
Hermione lowered the scrap of parchment.
"It says it's hatching."
Ron stopped chewing.
For several seconds, none of them said anything.
Then Ron swallowed with some difficulty.
"Now? But we have Herbology."
"I assume so," Hermione said, looking, most likely for the first time in her life, reluctant to go to class.
Harry snatched the parchment from her hand to read it again himself.
Hagrid's handwriting occupied most of the simple little scrap.
It's hatching.
Beneath it, squeezed somewhat awkwardly into the remaining space, was another instruction.
Tell Hawthorn.
Hagrid
Harry frowned.
"Alexander Hawthorn? Why him?"
Hermione looked as though she had already considered the question and disliked the only answer she had.
"I don't know."
Ron leaned over Harry's shoulder to read the note himself.
"You reckon Hawthorn knows about the dragon?"
Nobody answered.
Harry looked toward the entrance of the Great Hall as though Alexander Hawthorn might conveniently wander through it and save them the trouble of finding him.
He did not.
Ron groaned.
"Brilliant. Hagrid's illegally hatching a dragon and before we can go see it, we've got to hunt down a Slytherin."
Hermione gave him a look.
"Alexander isn't that bad. For a Slytherin," she said, a bit defensively.
"I didn't say he was bad."
"You said Slytherin like it was a disease."
"I said finding one specific Slytherin in a castle this size is going to take forever. Besides, you just like him because he sent you that book for Christmas!"
"Ronald Weasley, I do not like him!" Hermione said sternly, looking positively scandalised.
Harry folded the note and stuffed it into his pocket as his best friends got into yet another argument.
"I didn't mean it like that, Hermione!" Ron backpedalled hastily. "Just that you're more positive toward this particular Slytherin because he gave you a nice and thoughtful gift. That's all."
She harrumphed but didn't continue arguing.
She even reluctantly admitted that, unfortunately, Ron had a point.
Hawthorn had an irritating habit of being everywhere until someone actually wanted to find him.
Harry himself had once seen him reading beneath a staircase by the light of a floating ball. Another time, he'd been sitting on a fifth-floor windowsill with his ridiculous pointed hat pulled over his face, apparently asleep.
Fred claimed he'd once found Hawthorn inside a cupboard in the kitchens like some sort of boggart when he'd gone looking for a spoon. Hawthorn had refused to explain what he'd been doing there—or how he'd managed to spring out of such a small cupboard the moment Fred opened the door.
George maintained that he and Fred had spent an entire month inspecting that particular cupboard with every spell they knew, and even a few they'd invented specifically for the occasion, without ever figuring it out.
To this day, the twins considered it the best practical joke any Slytherin had ever managed to pull. It was even funny.
Hermione gathered her books, then shoved a sandwich into Ron's mouth to keep him quiet for a moment.
"We should check the library first. That's where he found us last time, remember?"
Ron stared at her while chewing furiously.
"Hawthorn? He reads? But he's a Slytherin."
Hermione's expression flattened.
"Slytherins can read, Ron. So can Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors." She paused. "Although I'm not entirely certain about every Gryffindor."
"I know Slytherins can read! Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
Harry stood before another argument could develop into something larger.
"Library it is, then."
And he hurried them out before it was too late.
They found Alexander a quarter of an hour later.
Not in the library, where they first rushed. Not in the Slytherin common room—which they couldn't have entered anyway, though they knew it was somewhere in the dungeons.
Not even in one of the abandoned classrooms Hermione thought he might reasonably have taken to using.
They found him halfway up a staircase leading toward the fourth floor, walking downward while reading a book as he did so.
Harry wasn't entirely certain how he managed that.
The pointed hat appeared first around the curve of the staircase, followed shortly afterward by Hawthorn himself. His attention remained fixed on the little book held open in one hand, while the other rested casually inside his robe pocket, perhaps holding his wand.
"Hawthorn!" Harry called out immediately.
Alexander stopped and soon his eyes appeared over the top of the book.
He inspected them from head to toe. First Harry, then Hermione, and lastly Ron.
His gaze lingered on the three of them together, slightly curious, before the book slowly closed.
"Mr Potter. Mr Weasley. Ms Granger."
He paused, then continued in his usual unhurried way.
"Either I've done something remarkably ill-advised to upset all three of you without noticing, or you want something from me. Mind solving the puzzle?"
He directed the question toward Hermione with a small smile.
For some reason, she stepped behind Ron and shook her head mutely.
Ron glanced at Harry puzzled, Harry looked at Hermione as clueless as his friend about their friend's weird behaviour.
Hermione sighed then stepped back out behind Ron and said a bit hesitantly.
"Hagrid sent us a note."
That changed Alexander immediately,His expression barely moved
he seemed to focus on her now fully and the book disappeared into his bag.
"What happened?"
Harry pulled out the parchment and handed it over after a few seconds of awkward silence since Hermione had lost her voice again.
Alexander unfolded it seemingly unbothered. His eyes moved across the first line and then the second and his entire face lit up.
"Oh! Marvelous!"
He shoved the note back into Harry's hands.
"It's finally hatching."
"Yes," Harry said.
Alexander was already moving past them down the stairs.
"Well, come along."
Ron stared after him.
"That's it?"
Alexander stopped several steps below them and looked back.
"What else would there be?" He asked puzzled.
"Hagrid has an illegal dragon egg!" Ron hissed looking around and hoping nobody else heard.
"Yes."
"And apparently you already knew about it!"
"Yes."
Ron waited.
Alexander waited.
Harry had the strange impression that each was expecting the other to explain why those two facts were supposed to be remarkable.
Eventually Alexander tilted his head and smiled crookedly
"Are we going to continue discussing Hagrid's questionable respect for the Ministry and its regulations, or are we going to watch a dragon hatch hmm?"
The journey down to Hagrid's hut proved considerably stranger with Hawthorn accompanying them. For one thing, he seemed entirely unconcerned about being seen with them.
Harry had expected him to suggest they split up, or take some obscure route through the castle, or perhaps disappear through one of the passages Fred and George claimed he had an unhealthy interest in discovering.
Instead, Alexander simply walked beside them.
He had retrieved his book almost immediately after they started moving and was once again reading as they descended the stairs.
Harry watched him curiously. Alexander turned a page as they reached the bottom of the staircase. He stepped neatly around two second-years without looking up.
Harry frowned.
Another staircase shifted just as they approached it and Alexander stopped exactly one step before the gap opened.
He waited for the staircase to settle into its new position, then he simply continued walking.
He still hadn't looked up so Harry finally gave in to curiosity.
"How are you doing that?"
"Doing what?"
"Walking."
Ron looked between them and laughed.
"Pretty sure he's been doing that for years, Harry."
Even Hermione snorted at that.
Harry ignored them both.
"You're reading and walking."
Alexander glanced down at his feet as though checking.
"Apparently."
"Without looking where you're going."
Alexander closed the book around one finger.
"Of course not. That would be silly."
Harry waited.
When Alexander offered no further explanation and reopened his book, Harry was forced to ask,
"With what?"
"My eyes, mostly." Came the absentminded answer.
Ron laughed uproariously like it was the greatest of jokes and Harry gave Alexander a suspicious look.
There was something deeply irritating about asking Hawthorn a question and receiving an answer that was technically complete while explaining absolutely nothing.
Hermione apparently agreed.
"You haven't looked away from that page for nearly a minute."
Alexander considered this.
"Mm. Is that so? I'll have to take your word for it."
"Then how are you looking?" Hermione asked, exasperated.
He tapped the side of his head.
"Sneakily, when you three aren't looking."
He deadpanned it so completely that Harry couldn't tell whether Hawthorn was joking.
Before Harry could press him further, Alexander slipped the book back in his bag as they had reached the entrance hall.
"Probably best not to arrive as a group," Hermione said quietly to Ron and Harry.
Alexander looked toward the great oak doors.
"Why?" He asked puzzled
Hermione stared at him.
"Because we're going to visit an illegally kept dragon." Ron said with a snort.
"Also, we can't go yet. We still have Herbology," came a tiny squeak from Hermione's direction.
Harry glanced at her.
It couldn't possibly have been Hermione. The voice was far too weak and reluctant to belong to someone who normally treated missing lessons as a moral failing.
Alexander didn't even slow.
"Mm. Good luck with that. I have History of Magic, and this is considerably more important than glorified storytelling performed by a ghost."
He kept walking.
Ron tried to keep following him as they got out but Hermione practically dragged them to the class saying they could visit on a recess.
That apparently settled the matter and they went to the class.
As soon as the bell rang they dropped their gardening shovels and rushed across the yard to the edge of the woods to Hagrid's little hut.
By the time Harry, Ron and Hermione reached Hagrid's hut, he was already waiting beside the door.
"Hurry up, it's almost out already" Harry followed him inside followed tightly by Ron and Hermione.
The trio rushed in to see the huge black egg shaking on top of Hagrid's table. There were several huge cracks on the surface and something was moving inside making a funny clacking noise.
Alexander Hawthorn was sitting with his hands in his sleeves, a chair pulled a bit further away from the table and was staring intensely at the egg. In the dimly lit hut his eyes seemed to gleam like cats but that was probably just Harry's imagination.
The hut was still unbearably warm. Every curtain had been drawn despite the daylight outside, and a fire roared still in the fireplace where the enormous black used to be sitting among the coals.
Hagrid came to hover over it as the trio settled around the table.
"About time!" He muttered
"We came as quickly as we could," Hermione said primly.
Alexander did not react at their arrival, he had removed his hat and it hung on a peg near the back door to Hagrid's pumpkin patch.
A faint scratching sound came from inside. Harry felt his stomach tighten pleasantly in anticipation and excitement.
Beside him, Ron whispered,
"Blimey."
Alexander, Hermione and Hagrid said nothing. Soon they all just stared in silence at the wobbling egg.
Harry glanced sideways and immediately noticed something was different about the Slytherin boy.
Harry couldn't have said what he was seeing. There was something strangely distant about his gaze,as though Alexander waslooking through the egg rather than at it.
The egg cracked loudly and everyone jumped a bit, well everyone except Alexander who kept staring as focused as before.
Another fracture appeared across the black shell. Then another as something struck it from inside.
Crack.
A piece of shell fell outward and Hagrid made a sound Harry had previously only heard Mrs Weasley make while talking to Ginny on the platform last september.
"There yeh go! Come on!"
The hole widened and a dark snout appeared.
Ron leaned closer and Hermione grabbed the back of his robes.
"Don't."
"I'm only looking!"
"Look from there."
Another piece of shell broke away. The creature inside pushed harder. For several frantic seconds there seemed to be far too much dragon and nowhere near enough egg.
Then the shell split apart and the baby dragon tumbled forward into the table top.
Hagrid caught it with his enormous hands before it could roll off from the table..
Harry stared,It wasn't beautiful. At least, not in the way Harry had imagined dragons might be beautiful.
It looked rather like an extremely ugly black umbrella that had somehow become alive and was furious about the experience.
Its wings were enormous compared with its skinny body. Its snout was broad, its nostrils already smoking faintly, and little pointed horns protruded from its head.
Hagrid looked ready to cry.
"Isn't he beautiful?"
Harry wasn't sure what answer Hagrid wanted.
"He's certainly—"
"Extraordinary."
Everyone looked at Alexander. He hadn't moved from his seat and his eyes followed the dragon with complete concentration.
Harry had seen Hermione absorbed in books before. He'd seen Ron watching Quidditch.
This was very similar,yet different.
Alexander looked hungry. Not literally or for food. Hungry to understand the being infront of himself.
The dragon sneezed out a shower of sparks that struck Hagrid's beard.
Hagrid laughed delightedly.
Alexander's eyes widened.
"It changed," he muttered.
Hermione looked at him. "What changed?"
"The flow."
Alexander pointed toward the dragon.
"Before the shell broke, almost everything was moving inward. Heat, ambient magic—whatever it was drawing through the fire. Now…"
He stopped and tilted his head.
Harry couldn't see anything. Judging from everyone else's expressions, neither could they.
Alexander slowly moved one hand through the air several inches above the dragon, almost as if to touch something around the dragon others could not see at all.
"Don't touch 'im," Hagrid warned.
"I'm not." he said calmly
"Yeh said that last time." Hagrid chuckled
Alexander withdrew his hand.
Harry looked at him.
"You've done this before?"
"No."
Hagrid snorted and Alexander ignored him and suddenly scrambled backward and reached for his satchel.
Harry expected a wand but instead Alexander produced a thick leather journal and fountain pen.
He opened it across his knees.
Harry caught the heading at the top of one already crowded page.
Norwegian Ridgeback — Incubation
"You've been taking notes?"
Alexander looked up.
"Of course."
Harry wasn't sure why he'd asked and chose not to say anything more as Hagrid carefully placed the dragon on the table.
The little creature tottered unsteadily across the wood, wings folded tight behind it and to his sides..
Alexander followed closely and so did Ron. Hermione remained at what Harry considered a much more sensible distance.
"What are you going to call him?" Ron asked.
Hagrid's expression became solemn.
"I've been thinkin' Norbert."
There was silence.
"Norbert?" Ron repeated.
"Yeah."
The dragon snapped at his sleeve.
Ron jerked backward.
"Seems more like a Razor or a Fang or something."
Fang, who had been hiding beneath the bed since the dragon emerged, whined at hearing his name.
"Norbert's a good name," Hagrid said defensively.
Alexander wrote something down and Harry leaned over to spy what he wrote.
Name: Norbert.
Temperament: Unknown. Immediate indications unfriendly.
Harry smiled.
"Bit early to decide that, isn't it?"
Alexander looked at the dragon who seemed to be eyeing the gleaming brass on the pen and sure enough Norbert lunged at his pen.
Alexander moved it neatly away.
"Just a first impression," he said, eyes never leaving the dragon.
Ron laughed.
"Oh, come off it. He's tiny."
Hermione said immediately in a warning tone
"Ron—"
but Ron was already poking the dragon and to no surprise to anyone.
Norbert bit him.
"OW!"
Ron ripped his hand backward and ended up on his ass on the floor.
Norbert made a tiny rasping sound that Harry suspected was the dragon equivalent of triumph, or perhaps confusion about where the tasty ginger giant disappeared to.
Hagrid scooped him up and scolded it like a baby
"Norbert! Bad dragon! No chomping on students"
"HE BIT ME!" Ron yelled
"Yeh frightened him!" Hagrid said defensively.
"You put your hand near his face, and you're ten times its size of course it bit you" Alexander said calmly.
"You were doing exactly the same thing!as did Hagrid"
"it knows me and thinks Hagrid is its mother." He said calmly
"Aww, Norbert's a smart little dragon, aren't yeh? Already knows his mum." Hagrid cooed proudly.
"That's not the point!" Ron growled as he tied his scarf around the wound.
Alexander looked down at his journal and Harry saw his pen move.
Ron narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"What did you write?"
"Nothing."
"Hawthorn."
Alexander closed the journal.
"Merely a scientific observation concerning Norbert."
"What observation?"
"Nothing important."
Ron lunged for the book, but Alexander slipped sideways easily.
"Give me that!"
"No."
"What did you write?"
Harry was laughing now, and even Hermione was visibly trying not to.
"Alexander."
Hermione held out her hand.
Alexander looked betrayed.
"Et tu, Granger?"
"Show us."
With enormous reluctance, Alexander opened the journal.
Beneath Temperament: Unknown, another line had appeared.
Feeding/defensive response: willing to bite nearby objects, including Ronald Weasley. Further testing inadvisable.
Ron stared at it.
"You wrote me down as an object?"
Alexander considered the wording.
Then, with complete seriousness, added a tiny insertion mark.
nearby objects and Ronald Weasley
"There."
Harry had to sit down, it was ridiculous. Even Hagrid laughed at that and held Norbert close so the dragon could see all the activity. Ron looked deeply offended.
"I hate all of you."
Norbert sneezed again and this time a little tongue of flame emerged and that of course made Hagrid fuss all over it.
Ron cradled his injured hand against his chest.
"Of course that's what you care about."
Alexander was already writing again.
And for perhaps ten minutes, with Norbert stumbling around Hagrid's table, Hagrid fussing over him like an enormous hairy mother hen, Hermione repeatedly pointing out increasingly serious legal problems, Ron complaining about his hand and Hawthorn documenting absolutely everything—
Harry had almost forgotten that the dragon was illegal.
Almost.
Then Hermione said quietly,
"Hagrid."
Something in her voice changed the atmosphere of the room. Hagrid looked up.
"You do know,you can't keep him."
His smile faltered and he looked at Norbert who looked back at him gurgling curiously.
The little dragon was currently attempting to eat the corner of Alexander's journal but the Slytherin boy kept just far enough that none of its lunges was successful.
Hagrid gently pulled him away.
"I can manage him." he said defensively.
"Hagrid, he's going to grow." Hermione insisted.
"O' course he's gonna grow! I'll feed 'im proper, won't I? Keep 'im healthy."
"Very quickly."
Hagrid's expression hardened and Harry knew that look.
It was the same expression Hagrid wore whenever someone suggested that one of the terrifying creatures he adored might actually be terrifying.
The same exact expression came up when they found out about Fluffy and pointed out that the giant three headed dog was dangerous.
"I'll train him."
Hermione looked helplessly toward Harry.
Harry looked toward Ron and Ron was examining the bite on his hand looking a bit ill.
Then, for reasons Harry couldn't quite explain, all three of them looked toward Alexander.
Alexander kept writing for a while till he noticed the silence and his pen stopped, and he looked up.
"What?"
Hermione gestured toward Norbert.
"You know about magical creatures."
"A little." He said
"You know about laws." Hermione asked
"Considerably less." He admitted.
"Can Hagrid keep a Norwegian Ridgeback in his hut?"
Alexander looked at Hagrid then at Norbert. Then he glanced around the hut and looked at Hermione like she was a bit slow.
"No."
Hagrid looked wounded.
"Alex! Thought you'd understand."
"I do understand." He said and closed his journal.
"That's unfortunately why the answer must be no."
Hagrid folded his arms.
"Could keep 'im quiet."
Alexander looked at the dragon.
Norbert immediately released an ear-piercing screech and attempted to climb Hagrid's sleeve.
Alexander looked back at Hagrid.
Hagrid scowled.
"He's excited."
"Of course,who wouldn't be, it's his birthday afterall." He muttered but Harry caught the tiny twitch at the corner of Alexander's mouth.
Then he became more serious.
"Even if nobody discovers him, where would you keep him in six months?"
Hagrid didn't answer.
"A year?" he demanded.
Still nothing.
"Five when he's half the size of Greenhouse three?" he asked.
Hagrid looked toward Norbert,some of the stubbornness slowly melting away.
Alexander didn't press further.
That surprised Harry somewhat,Hermione would have produced another twelve reasons and rapidfired them all till Hagrid gave up.
Instead Hawthorn simply re-opened his journal.
"We don't have to solve it today." He added it as a consolation prize.
Hermione frowned.
"We rather do."
"No, we have to solve it before Norbert becomes impossible to conceal. That's different."
He looked toward Hagrid.
"And Hagrid has just watched him hatch."
Harry understood then.
Alexander wasn't disagreeing with Hermione at all.
He was simply giving Hagrid permission to be happy for a little while before they took that happiness away from him.
Hagrid seemed to understand too and his enormous hand settled carefully over Norbert's back petting the dragon like it was his cat.
"Just a little while," he muttered.
Alexander nodded.
"Just a little while."
Harry watched him for a moment.
He really did not understand the Slytherin boy.
Sometimes Hawthorn seemed almost completely detached from people, as though every problem were merely something to examine, classify and solve.
Then, every so often, he did something unexpectedly kind and behaved as though he hadn't noticed doing it.
Stranger still, Harry had seen him in the library surrounded by students, smiling, explaining things and somehow becoming the centre of a study group without apparently trying.
Harry couldn't quite make all those versions of Alexander Hawthorn fit together.
Norbert tried to snap at Alexander's sleeve but he pulled his arm away.
"Do that again and I'm changing my notes from 'unfriendly' to 'belligerent.'"
Norbert hissed.
Alexander stared at him.
Norbert stared back.
Harry had the sudden, ridiculous impression that some sort of argument was occurring in silence between the two.
Then there came a noise from outside.
The sharp crack of a flowerpot breaking.
Everyone froze.
Alexander changed. The delighted eleven-year-old vanished.
His journal snapped shut and his wand appeared in his hand, pointed toward the window so quickly Harry never saw him draw it.
"Someone's looking through the curtains."
His voice had gone completely flat and Hagrid went pale.
Hermione rushed toward the window and pulled the curtains fully aside.
Harry's stomach dropped.
Because pressed against the glass, staring directly into the hut—
was Draco Malfoy.
Malfoy disappeared from the window before any of them could move.
For perhaps half a second, nobody spoke. Then Ron said the obvious.
"Oh, brilliant."
Harry rushed to the window and crowded in beside Hermione, hoping to catch sight of him, but Malfoy was already halfway back to the castle, his pale head disappearing between the trees beside the stone-paved walkway
Hermione looked horrified.
"He saw Norbert."
Yes," Alexander said.
His wand had vanished just as quickly as it had appeared. His hands were tucked back into his sleeves, his expression once more calm and neutral.
Harry still wasn't entirely certain he'd seen it happen. One moment Alexander had been an excited eleven-year-old watching a dragon hatch; the next, his wand was in his hand, pointed with unnerving precision at the exact spot where Malfoy had been peering through the curtains.
It was the change in him that bothered Harry most. Like someone had flipped a switch, and for a few seconds something considerably more dangerous had stood in his place.
Hawthorn remained beside the table, staring through the window in the direction Malfoy had vanished.
Unlike Hermione, he didn't look particularly horrified, just thoughtful.
"What do we do?" Harry asked from the room.
Alexander's eyes shifted toward him.
About Malfoy?" he clarified,"Nothing." He said with a shrug.
Ron stared at him.
"Nothing?" he almost yelled.
Hermione looked incredulous. "Alexander, he knows Hagrid has an illegal dragon!"
"Yes." he said calmly
"And he'll tell someone!" Ron piped in.
"Probably."
"Then how can you say we do nothing?" Hermione demanded
"Because he's already gone and there is nothing to do about it." He said simply
Harry opened his mouth,then closed it again.
Annoyingly, Hawthorn had a point.
"We can't exactly chase him down, tackle him and threaten him into silence," Alexander continued.
Ron looked contemplative and Hermione rounded on him immediately.
"No."
"I didn't say anything!" he said defensively
"You were thinking about it."
Alexander's mouth twitched.
"Besides, telling someone presents Malfoy with the inconvenient problem of explaining why he was skulking around Hagrid's hut and peering through the windows. No, he'll probably wait, let the problem get worse, then try to get us expelled—or imprisoned, if he's feeling particularly ambitious."
He sounded disturbingly amused by the prospect.
Harry hadn't thought of that. Apparently neither had Ron cause he started to sputter.
"Oh, is that all? Expelled or imprisoned, you say? Then we have nothing to worry about, right?" he said with heavy sarcasm, directed squarely at the only Slytherin in the room.
Only Hermione remained rational.
"That won't stay his hand for long, he isn't that patient."
"No," Alexander agreed. "But it might make him hesitate long enough for us to clean up this mess before it lands in our laps."
He turned toward Hagrid.
"Which means Norbert needs somewhere else to live considerably sooner than previously anticipated."
Hagrid's face fell.
"Alex…"
Norbert chose that moment to bite the edge of the table.
Alexander watched him gnaw determinedly at the wood.
"Preferably somewhere with fewer tables to eat through."
The following weeks were strange even by Hogwarts standards.
Norbert grew. There was no other way of putting it.
He simply grew like he was paid hourly to do so.
Every time Harry visited Hagrid's hut, there seemed to be considerably more dragon inside it.
At first Norbert had been small enough for Hagrid to carry comfortably beneath one arm.
A week later, he occupied most of the table.
Not long after that, Harry arrived to discover Hagrid reinforcing one of the chairs because Norbert had apparently decided furniture was edible.
The curtains remained permanently closed now and the fire burned at all hours.
Hagrid developed several new burns and insisted every single one had been his own fault.
Fang stopped entering the hut altogether.
Alexander, meanwhile, was having the time of his life.
Harry had never seen anyone so delighted by a rapidly worsening problem.
Every few days Hawthorn appeared carrying the leather journal Hagrid had given him at Christmas. The section labelled Norwegian Ridgeback — Incubation had quickly acquired several additional pages beneath a new heading:
Post-Hatching Development.
Harry discovered this because Alexander had left the journal open once.
He also discovered several entries.
Day 4 — Wings developing disproportionately quickly relative to body mass.
Day 6 — First deliberate flame rather than reflexive discharge. Hagrid disagrees. Further observation required.
Day 9 — Considerable increase in jaw strength.
Beneath that one someone had added what looked like Ron's handwriting:
YOU DON'T SAY.
Alexander had crossed it out but left it eligible
Ron's hand was not improving. If anything, it was getting worse.
The first day, the bite had merely been swollen.
By the third, his fingers had puffed up enough that holding a quill became difficult.
By the fifth, the back of his hand had acquired a distinctly unpleasant greenish colour.
Hermione became increasingly worried and Ron became increasingly irritated at Hermione becoming increasingly worried.
Even Alexander became interested,when Ron's hand stopped working altogether while still technically alive and attached to his body.
Harry noticed him writing something in the journal that looked suspiciously like:
Are dragons venomous?
By the end of the second week, even Ron had stopped pretending the bite was fine.
His hand had swollen to nearly twice its normal size.
Hermione stared at it across the Gryffindor common-room table.
"You're going to Madam Pomfrey."
"No."
"Ron."
"I can't!"
Harry understood the problem.
Madam Pomfrey was very good at recognizing injuries.
Unfortunately, a Norwegian Ridgeback bit me while I was visiting Hagrid's illegally hatched dragon. Was unlikely to be considered an acceptable explanation.
"We need an excuse," Harry said as Ron cradled his hand miserably.
Hermione frowned at the swelling.
"We could say some sort of magical creature bit him."
"No kidding," Ron muttered. "You're really selling the hospital visit."
"I meant something other than an illegal dragon."
The portrait hole opened and Harry looked automatically toward it.
Then remembered that Alexander couldn't enter Gryffindor Tower.
He had grown strangely accustomed to Hawthorn simply appearing whenever the dragon problem was being discussed.
Two mornings later, Harry woke to the sound of someone swearing.
He rolled over and saw that Ron was sitting on the edge of his bed. Even in the dim morning light, Harry could see something was very wrong.
"What happened?"
Ron turned around, his face pale as a ghost.
"Harry."
Harry pushed himself upright. Ron held up his hand and Harry's stomach dropped.
It had swollen enormously during the night.
The skin was stretched tight across the back of his hand and wrist, and the strange greenish colour had darkened into something Harry didn't like looking at.
"Bloody hell."
"Yeah."
"You're going to Madam Pomfrey."
Ron didn't argue.
That frightened Harry considerably more than the hand had.
Madam Pomfrey took one look at Ron and ordered him into bed.
"What bit you?"
Ron froze and Harry, standing beside him, froze as well.
They had discussed this several times, in fact.
Unfortunately, every excuse they had invented the previous evening suddenly sounded remarkably stupid while Madam Pomfrey was staring directly at them.
"A dog," Ron said.
Harry closed his eyes.
Madam Pomfrey looked at the hand then at Ron.
"A dog."
"Yes."
"What kind of dog?"
Ron hesitated.
"A big one?"
Harry resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands.
Madam Pomfrey's expression went from disbelief to incredulity.
"A large dog with venomous fangs?"
Ron looked desperately at Harry, but Harry had nothing.
"Foreign," Ron said.
Madam Pomfrey stared at him.
"A foreign dog."
A very long silence followed.
"I see."
Harry was fairly certain she saw considerably more than either of them wanted her to.
Madam Pomfrey took Ron's wrist carefully and examined the injury.
Her expression changed and the irritation disappeared.
"Whatever did this," she said sharply, "you should have come to me immediately."
Ron swallowed.
"Is it bad?"
"No, Mr Weasley. I regularly admit students whose hands have swollen to twice their proper size because everything is going splendidly."
Ron had enough sense not to answer.
"You're staying."
"What?"
"You heard me."
"But—"
"You're staying."
She pointed toward the bed and Ron looked horrified, apparently enough to try something new to him.
"We've got classes!"
"And unless you would like to attend them with considerably fewer fingers than you possess at present, you will remain exactly where I put you."
Ron sat down immediately and Harry thought that was probably wise.
Madam Pomfrey turned toward him.
"And you."
Harry straightened.
"If your friend's mysterious foreign dog bites anyone else, I suggest you inform them that the Hospital Wing exists."
"Yes, Madam Pomfrey."
"Out."
Harry left at something just short of a run, before Madam Pomfrey decided to admit him as well for sheer stupidity.
He found Hermione waiting just around the corner.
"Well?"
"She knows." Harry gasped
Hermione went pale.
"She knows about Norbert?"
"No. I don't think so." He backpedaled
"What did you tell her?"
Harry looked at her a bit ashamed and Hermione's expression became suspicious.
"What?"
"Ron told her a dog bit him."
Hermione closed her eyes.
"A dog."
"A foreign dog."
Her eyes opened.
"A foreign dog?"
"It got worse once she asked questions."
Hermione made a strangled noise and Harry couldn't blame her.
They found Alexander after lunch—or rather, Alexander found them.
Harry and Hermione had barely stepped into the courtyard when a familiar pointed hat appeared beside one of the pillars.
"How's Weasley?"
Harry was beginning to wonder how Hawthorn learned things.
"He's in the Hospital Wing."
Alexander stopped.
"Good."
Harry blinked.
"That's it?"
Alexander looked puzzled.
"What were you expecting?"
Hermione, annoyingly, seemed to find this reasonable and went on to explain.
"Madam Pomfrey thinks there's venom involved."
Alexander's expression immediately sharpened.
"She confirmed it?"
"She said something about venomous fangs."
"Hm."
His hand moved toward the journal inside his robes.
Harry pointed at him.
"No."
Alexander looked offended.
"What?"
"You're going to write it down."
"Of course I'm going to write it down."
"Ron told you not to."
"He told me not to write about his hand while he was present."
Harry and Hermione stared at him.
Alexander stared back nonplussed, as if they were the ones who are unreasonable.
"That is absolutely not what he meant," Hermione said.
"Then he should have been more precise."
He took out the journal and Harry decided Ron could fight that battle himself when he recovered.
More importantly, they had a much larger problem.
"Alexander."
The pen stopped.
"Hmm?"
"What are we going to do about Norbert?"
Alexander looked toward the distant edge of the Forbidden Forest.
For once, his enthusiasm disappeared.
"Something soon."
That something soon turned out to be Charlie Weasley.
Harry got the idea when he and Hermione were visiting Ron in the hospital wing.
Ron had mentioned on the train that his older brother worked with dragons in Romania, and once Hermione seized upon the idea, everything moved rather quickly.
Charlie could take Norbert—or, more accurately, Charlie knew people who could.
Friends of his were travelling through Britain and could collect the dragon from Hogwarts.
There remained only one minor difficulty. They had to get Norbert from Hagrid's hut to the top of the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the night.
Without being seen.
Harry expected Alexander to solve this problem.
By then, he had unconsciously begun expecting Hawthorn to solve certain kinds of problems.
Alexander knew hidden passages and he knew unused classrooms.
He seemed to understand Hogwarts' staircases better than most older students.
Fred and George spoke about him as though he had personally declared war on the castle's secrets.
Harry still had not worked out how Alexander had walked around silently reading a book.
So when Hermione spread a rough map of Hogwarts across the little table beside Ron's hospital bed and whispered,
"We need a route,"
Harry looked at Alexander. So did Hermione and Ron.
Alexander looked at the map, then at the three of them.
"What?"
Harry lowered his voice.
"What's the best way up?"
"To the Astronomy Tower?" Alexander asked, looking slightly puzzled.
"Yes."
Alexander pointed at the map.
"Stairs."
From the look on his face, Ron wanted to hit him. Harry briefly considered doing it on his behalf.
"We know there are stairs."
"Excellent. Then we're making progress." He said jovially.
Hermione gave Alexander the look she normally reserved for Ron.
"Alexander."
He sighed.
"What exactly are you asking?"
"The safest route."
Alexander studied the map. Harry waited,this had to be it.
Perhaps some hidden tunnel would undoubtedly emerge from behind a tapestry and deposit them directly beneath the Astronomy Tower.
Perhaps Hawthorn knew a staircase that only existed on Tuesdays. Instead Alexander traced a perfectly ordinary route with one finger.
"Here."
Hermione frowned.
"That's almost the normal route."
"Yes."
"You don't know anything better?"
he made a tiny pause but Harry noticed it.
It lasted perhaps the blink of an eye then Alexander shrugged.
"Nothing I'd rely on while carrying a dragon."
That made sense, Harry supposed.
Still…Something about the answer bothered him.
"What about that passage Fred mentioned near the fourth floor?"
"Too narrow."
"The one behind the tapestry?"
"Wrong direction."
Hermione leaned over the map.
"And the route you use when you're wandering after curfew?"
Alexander looked at her all innocent bewilderment painted all over his face.
Harry became very interested to hear this, but once he said nothing Hermione folded her arms.
"You do realise people know you wander around at night."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." He looked like a patient doctor explaining to his patient that the moon most likely wasn't made of cheese.
"You once came into breakfast with cobwebs in your hair." She accused
"There are cobwebs everywhere in this castle." He shrugged
"And dust on your knees." She went on, listing on her fingers.
"I fell." He said
"While wearing your cloak inside out?" She raised a brow.
Alexander paused and Harry grinned at him.
Hawthorn slowly turned toward him.
"Not a word, Potter."
Harry raised both hands and Alexander looked back down at the map.
"This route is fine."
Hermione still looked suspicious.
"You're certain?"
"No."
"That isn't reassuring."
"Nothing involving carrying an illegal dragon through a school at midnight should be reassuring."
That, unfortunately, was difficult to argue with.
Harry looked down at the map again.
"So we take the main corridors?"
"The quieter ones where possible," Alexander said. "Avoid the central staircase if we can. Too many portraits. Stop before corners. Listen before opening doors. Don't run unless someone actually sees us."
Now he sounded more like himself.
Hermione began writing.
"And the dragon?"
"Covered cage."
"Hagrid has a crate."
"Good."
"Disillusionment Charm?"
Alexander shook his head immediately.
"On Norbert? No. Also it's a very mana intensive spell to cast or so I hear,none of us would manage it at this point without losing consciousness. which is not ideal when carrying a dragon"
Harry considered an invisible fire-breathing dragon loose inside Hogwarts.
"Right."
"Also," Alexander added, "I don't know how his magic would interact with the charm, and this is not the ideal occasion to find out."
Hermione crossed something off her list but Harry kept watching Alexander.
There was still something strange about all this.
He was helping them, he also answered every question and pointed out obvious problems but he wasn't taking over. That was unusual for what he knew about the boy.
Even during the hatching, Hawthorn had spent half the time telling Hagrid what he was seeing and the other half asking questions nobody else had thought to ask.
Now he seemed perfectly content to let Hermione construct the plan.
So Harry finally asked him straight.
"What do you think?"
Alexander looked up.
"About what?"
"The plan."
He glanced over Hermione's parchment.
"It's workable."
Harry waited.
"And?"
"And what?"
"You don't want to change anything?"
Alexander tilted his head.
"Do you?"
Harry didn't and Hermione apparently didn't either.
"No."
"Then why would I?"
Harry couldn't think of an answer but something still kept nagging about the situation. Alexander leaned back and pulled his hat slightly lower, shadowing his eyes from the sun light.
"It's your operation." He said
Hermione frowned.
"You're coming too?"
"Yes."
"Then it's our operation."
Alexander smiled faintly.
"If you like."
Harry looked at him for another moment.
Something was definitely odd but before he could decide what, Alexander tapped the map.
"One problem."
"What?"
He pointed at Ron.
"Weasley."
Ron looked offended.
"I'm sitting right here."
"Precisely."
They all went quiet.
Ron was still in the Hospital Wing.
"He won't be out in time."
"No," Hermione said quietly.
Alexander nodded.
"Then we're down one pair of hands."
Harry looked at him.
Alexander looked back.
And Harry realised what that meant.
"You'll help me carry Norbert."
A smile slowly appeared beneath the shadow of the pointed hat.
"Well."
He leaned forward and looked at the route again.
"I do want to see how much he's grown."
The night of the operation arrived far too quickly.
Harry spent most of dinner unable to eat. What little he managed tasted like ash, so eventually he gave up and simply sat there, looking around the Great Hall and trying not to appear nearly as guilty as he felt.
Across the table, Hermione ate with the determined concentration of someone who had decided that finishing her vegetables was somehow an essential part of successfully smuggling a dragon out of Hogwarts.
Harry glanced toward the Slytherin table.
Alexander Hawthorn appeared completely unconcerned.
The Slytherin was eating pudding.
Not picking at it nervously while occasionally glancing toward the staff table, as Hermione had been doing before attacking her vegetables. No, Alexander was simply eating his pudding and apparently enjoying it immensely.
Worse, he seemed to be having a perfectly ordinary evening.
He was talking with the girl sitting beside him, listening to whatever she said before replying with something that made her laugh.
Harry stared at him for a moment.
Either Hawthorn possessed nerves of steel, or there was something deeply wrong with him.
Harry looked away and scoffed quietly at Hermione.
"Look at him."
Hermione glanced across the hall.
"What?"
"Hawthorn."
"What about him?"
"He doesn't even look nervous," Harry hissed.
Hermione watched Alexander for a moment before turning back.
"He probably is."
"He's eating pudding."
"That doesn't mean anything. He's also a Slytherin, so I'd assume he's rather good at pretending when the need arises," she said primly.
Harry wasn't convinced.
At that exact moment, Alexander looked across the Great Hall.
Their eyes met.
Alexander smiled faintly and raised one eyebrow.
Harry immediately looked down at his plate.
A moment later, when he risked another glance, Hawthorn had already returned to his pudding and was now talking with an older Slytherin boy on his other side.
Harry found this deeply irritating.
Harry and Hermione waited until the castle had gone quiet, then slipped from Gryffindor Tower beneath the Invisibility Cloak.
Alexander was waiting exactly where they had agreed to meet, in the courtyard just outside the castle proper.
He stood in the shadow of an alcove with his pointed hat pulled low and his hands tucked into his sleeves. He was so still that the two Gryffindors nearly walked straight past him.
They probably would have, had he not suddenly said,
"Potter, Granger, isn't it a bit rude to ignore me like this?"
Harry and Hermione both jumped. Being startled was bad enough; being addressed directly while underneath the Invisibility Cloak was considerably worse.
Alexander stepped out of the alcove and looked directly at them.
"Must you do that?" Harry whispered.
"Apparently," he replied with an amused smile.
Harry pulled the cloak aside so they could talk eye to eye.
Alexander stared at it. Then at Harry. Then back at the cloak.
"That is a very interesting cloak you have there," he murmured, his eyes gleaming as they traced something across the silvery material that Harry couldn't see.
Harry suddenly remembered that Alexander had never seen the cloak before. In fact, they hadn't mentioned this part of the plan to him at all.
Considering the number of secrets Hawthorn kept from everyone else, Harry decided not to explain anything.
Let him see how he liked it.
"Get under."
Alexander didn't move.
"Hawthorn," Hermione hissed.
"Yes?" came the distracted reply.
"Dragon," Harry reminded him.
That worked.
"Oh. Right."
It immediately became apparent that Harry had overlooked one simple problem.
The cloak had comfortably hidden Harry, Ron and Hermione before.
It was considerably less effective when the third person insisted upon wearing a pointed hat.
"Take it off," Hermione hissed when she noticed their feet were almost completely exposed.
Alexander clutched the brim.
"No."
"Your hat is making a tent!"
"It folds."
"Then fold it!"
Alexander reluctantly crushed the pointed top downward.
Harry had to bite the inside of his cheek. Hermione seemed to be having similar difficulties.
"You look ridiculous," she whispered.
"You can't see me," Alexander replied petulantly.
"I saw you before we put the cloak over you."
"That seems irrelevant."
Hermione proved otherwise by poking him repeatedly in the ribs.
"Would both of you shut up?" Harry whispered.
Three people beneath one cloak was difficult.
Three people beneath one cloak while carrying a crate containing an increasingly irritated Norwegian Ridgeback would prove to be something else entirely.
Harry pulled the cloak off once they were properly outside and the three hurried across the grounds toward Hagrid's hut.
Hagrid was waiting outside beside a large wooden crate.
Harry stopped.
Norbert had grown enormously.
He stared at the crate, then at Hagrid.
"That's Norbert?"
Hagrid looked offended.
"Course it is."
Something scraped loudly against the inside of the crate.
Alexander immediately crouched beside it.
"How much does he weigh now?" he asked, one hand already disappearing into his robes, presumably in search of his ever-present notebook.
Hermione grabbed his shoulder.
"No."
"I only asked."
"We are not doing observations tonight."
Alexander looked at the crate.
Norbert hissed from inside.
"Probably wise."
Hagrid had packed the dragon with enough dead rats to last the journey and, inexplicably, a teddy bear.
Harry decided not to ask.
Hagrid bent over the crate, his enormous face crumpled.
"Bye-bye, Norbert."
The crate shook.
"Daddy won't forget yeh."
Harry looked away and Hermione suddenly became fascinated by the ground. Even Alexander had enough sense to remain silent.
Hagrid sniffed loudly.
"Maybe they'll let yeh visit someday."
Norbert slammed into the side of the crate.
Alexander steadied it.
"I think he's saying goodbye." he said to Hagrid.
Hagrid wiped his eyes.
"Yeh think?"
Harry saw Hermione glare at Alexander and Alexander wisely said nothing else.
They lifted the crate and had Hagrid spread the cloak over them all as well as possible.
They crossed the grounds slowly.
Harry and Alexander took most of the weight while Hermione walked awkwardly between them, keeping the Invisibility Cloak spread far enough to cover the crate.
Norbert did not cooperate and every so often he shifted suddenly, throwing his weight against one side.
"Left," Harry hissed.
"I know." came a calm answer.
"No, your other left!" Harry hissed back
"I possess only one!"
"Then use it!"
"Both of you stop whispering!" Hermione breathed.
They reached the castle doors when Alexander suddenly stopped and Harry nearly walked into him.
"What?"
Alexander raised one finger and they listened intently,footsteps.
Somewhere beyond the entrance hall.
Harry's heart began pounding as the footsteps grew louder. Then Filch appeared around the corner and Mrs Norris trotted beside him.
All three froze.
Filch shuffled across the entrance hall, muttering to himself not even glancing at their direction but Mrs Norris stopped.
Harry stopped breathing once the cat's head turned to stare straight toward them.
Harry felt Hermione's fingers tighten against his arm.
Alexander didn't move.
Mrs Norris stared.
Norbert scratched the inside of the crate.
Scrrrrch.
Filch stopped.
Harry's stomach dropped.
"What is it, my sweet?"
Mrs Norris took one step toward them as Alexander's moved slowly Harry could not see what he was doing but hopefully something clever and Slytherin.
A moment later—
tap.
A tiny sound came from the opposite corridor. Mrs Norris's ears snapped around.
Another tap. Filch peered into the darkness.
"Who's there?"
Mrs Norris darted away and Filch followed suit with surprising agility.
Harry waited until both had disappeared.
Then he looked at Alexander.
"What did you do?"
"Threw a button." he said, already picking up the crate to hold it better.
Hermione stared at him.
"A button?" She whispered
"Yes."
"Why do you have buttons in your pocket?" She asked bewildered
Alexander looked genuinely confused by the question.
"Why don't you?"
Harry decided there were mysteries better left unanswered.
so they continued up the stairwell.
It took them nearly an hour and a half to reach the Astronomy Tower.
By the time they climbed the final staircase, Harry's arms and legs were trembling and he was breathing hard enough that the cloak was barely concealing them anymore.
Hermione was exhausted too, though she seemed to be handling it better than either of the boys.
Harry took some petty satisfaction in seeing Alexander's hands and legs shaking just as badly as his own when they finally reached the top.
They emerged onto the tower and the cold night air struck them like a blessing.
Harry pulled off the cloak.
Alexander immediately straightened his hat and stretched his back.
Hermione stared at him.
"That is the first thing you do? Really?"
"Yes."
Harry collapsed onto the stone floor beside the crate.
"I can't feel my arms."
Alexander flexed his fingers.
"I can."
Harry glared at him.
"They hurt considerably, though," Alexander added.
"Good."
Then they waited.
The castle spread beneath them, dark and silent. Beyond the grounds, Harry could see the Forbidden Forest stretching beneath the stars like an enormous black sea.
For several minutes, nothing happened.
Then Hermione suddenly pointed.
"There!"
Four broomsticks were approaching.
Harry dragged himself back to his feet as Charlie Weasley's friends landed quietly on the tower.
Everything after that happened surprisingly quickly. There were whispered introductions, a brief inspection of Norbert, and one of the wizards gave an appreciative whistle.
"Healthy little Ridgeback."
Alexander visibly brightened.
"How can you tell?"
Hermione caught the back of his robes.
"We are not starting another conversation."
"But—"
"No."
Alexander looked wounded.
One of the wizards chuckled and muttered something about an old married couple, earning quiet laughter from the others.
Hermione went scarlet and Alexander merely looked as confused as Harry felt.
Norbert gave one final irritated growl.
Harry rested a hand against the wood. Despite everything—the worry, Ron's hand, Malfoy, the sleepless nights—he felt strangely sorry to see the dragon go.
"Bye, Norbert."
Hermione touched the crate as well.
Alexander hesitated before giving the wood two light taps.
"Try not to eat anyone."
Norbert hissed from inside.
Alexander smiled.
"I'll consider that an agreement."
Four broomsticks rose into the night, carrying Norbert between them. Soon they were soaring above the Forbidden Forest, bound eventually for his new home in Romania.
Harry watched until they became tiny shapes against the stars and finally disappeared.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then Hermione let out a small, breathless laugh.
"We did it."
Harry grinned.
"We actually did it."
Alexander continued looking toward the empty sky for another moment.
Then he smiled.
"Yes, we did."
Harry had never felt so relieved. Norbert was gone. Hagrid was safe. Malfoy couldn't prove anything now even if he tattled. Ron would recover soon.
It was over.
"Come on."
They headed downstairs.
None of them remembered the Invisibility Cloak lying beside the tower door.
They had made it down only one flight of stairs when a voice spoke from the darkness.
"Well."
Harry stopped dead.
Hermione walked straight into his back. Alexander froze beside them, his eyes narrowing toward the darkness.
Professor McGonagall stepped into the torchlight.
Harry's stomach dropped somewhere near his shoes.
She was wearing a tartan dressing gown beneath her cloak, which somehow made everything worse.
Professor McGonagall looked first at Harry, then Hermione, and finally Alexander.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Mr Hawthorn."
Alexander removed his hat.
"Good evening, Professor McGonagall."
Harry glanced sideways at him.
He sounded perfectly calm. Not frightened. Not even particularly surprised.
McGonagall's gaze swept over the three students standing on the Astronomy Tower staircase after midnight.
"I would be fascinated," she said in a dangerously quiet voice, "to hear your explanation."
Nobody answered.
Harry's mind went completely blank. Every excuse he had ever heard vanished as though someone had cast a spell upon them.
Hermione seemed equally incapable of speech.
Alexander, however, appeared to be thinking.
McGonagall noticed.
"Mr Hawthorn?"
Alexander looked at her.
Harry waited.
Surely Hawthorn had something.
Some clever explanation. Some obscure rule. Perhaps an impossibly convincing lie.
Alexander opened his mouth.
"Would you believe Ms Granger and I were on a date and Mr Potter was our chaperone?"
Harry stared at him.
Hermione stared at him.
McGonagall raised both eyebrows.
"Perhaps a few years from now and simultaneously forty years ago."
Alexander considered that.
"Then we were out after curfew on a dare."
Harry nearly gaped.
That was his brilliant defence?
McGonagall's expression hardened.
"Come with me. All three of you."
Things somehow went from bad to worse downstairs. Draco Malfoy was already waiting in Professor McGonagall's office.
Harry stopped dead.
Malfoy's miserable expression transformed into triumph the moment he saw Harry and Hermione.
Then he noticed Alexander.
The triumph faltered.
Confusion came first.
Then something Harry thought looked remarkably like apprehension.
"Hawthorn?"
Alexander regarded him neutrally.
"Malfoy."
Harry looked between them.
Professor McGonagall's mouth became a very thin line.
"Mr Malfoy was discovered wandering the corridors after curfew," she said. "He has been telling a rather extraordinary story involving a dragon."
Hermione went rigid and Harry's heart began hammering again.
Malfoy pointed at them.
"They had it! I told you! Hagrid had a dragon and they were taking it up the tower!"
McGonagall's eyes flashed.
"That will be enough, Mr Malfoy."
"But Professor—"
"Enough."
Malfoy shut his mouth and Harry risked a glance at Alexander.
Nothing, his face was calm and even serene.
There was no surprise,fear and not even irritation.
Alexander merely looked at Malfoy when he accused them and then at Professor McGonagall's when she spoke.
Harry couldn't read his expression at all.
McGonagall turned toward them and looked at them sternly.
"Is there a dragon on the Astronomy Tower?"
"No, Professor McGonagall," Hermione said confidently. "Of course there isn't."
It wasn't even a lie.
McGonagall looked toward Harry.
"No, Professor."
Then Alexander.
"There is no dragon on the Astronomy Tower, Professor. Quite lovely moonlight, though. Excellent atmosphere for a romantic rendezvous."
McGonagall's mouth twitched.
Malfoy made an outraged noise.
"They're lying!"
Alexander looked at him.
"I said there is no dragon on the Astronomy Tower."
Harry almost groaned.
It was perhaps the most suspiciously precise answer anyone had ever given.
Then again, Harry only knew that because he knew the truth.
McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose.
"I do not know what game the four of you believe you are playing."
Nobody spoke.
"But I know this: four students have been found wandering Hogwarts in the middle of the night, three of whom appear to have climbed the Astronomy Tower for reasons none of them are willing to explain."
Alexander opened his mouth.
"Willing to explain to my satisfaction," McGonagall added sharply, "and within the realm of possibility."
Alexander closed it again.
Harry could have sworn there was amusement buried somewhere in her expression.
Then her gaze settled upon Harry and Hermione and she got serious once more.
"And after the trouble earlier this year, I expected considerably better judgment from both of you."
Harry's face burned.
Then she looked at Alexander and for some reason, that felt worse.
"And you, Mr Hawthorn."
Alexander stood a little straighter.
"Yes, Professor?"
"I confess to being particularly disappointed on finding you here"
He only nodded
"Understood, Professor."
McGonagall's gaze lingered on him before moving to Malfoy.
"And you, Mr Malfoy, appear to have left your dormitory specifically because you intended to catch your classmates breaking school rules."
Malfoy went pale.
"I was trying to warn—"
"You were out of bed after curfew."
"But they—"
"Other students' misconduct does not excuse your own." She said sharply.
Alexander looked down and Harry could have sworn the corner of his mouth moved.
"Fifty points."
Harry's stomach clenched.
"Each."
Hermione gasped, both hands flying to her mouth.
Malfoy's jaw dropped.
Even Alexander's eyebrows rose.
"Gryffindor will lose one hundred points. Slytherin will lose one hundred."
Malfoy looked as though he had been struck by a Bludger.
Alexander said nothing. One hundred points, all because of them.
He thought of the Gryffindor hourglasses and all the looks they would get tomorrow from everyone.
Ron,Fred and George.
Everyone.
McGonagall wasn't finished.
"And all four of you will serve detention."
Malfoy found his voice first.
"All four?" he gasped out barely audibly.
"Yes, Mr Malfoy. All four."
Harry glanced at Alexander again, more from habit than anything else.
Hawthorn stood strangely still.
Then, to Harry's astonishment, he simply put his hat back on.
"Very well, Professor."
That was it.
No argument. No clever loophole. No attempt to bargain down the points.
Nothing.
Harry couldn't understand it.
This was Alexander Hawthorn.
The same Alexander Hawthorn who could turn a simple question into an answer that somehow revealed nothing.
The same boy who apparently knew half the castle's secret passages, carried buttons specifically to mislead Mrs Norris, and had spent weeks calmly studying an illegal dragon.
Yet when they had needed to sneak through Hogwarts, he had followed Hermione's route.
When McGonagall caught them, he had offered no real excuse.
When she took fifty points from Slytherin, he simply accepted it.
Harry looked toward Malfoy.
Draco was furious.
But strangely, he wasn't glaring at Harry.
Or Hermione.
He was glaring at Alexander.
Alexander paid him no attention whatsoever.
He looked perfectly content to be exactly where he was.
Harry frowned.
Something about that bothered him.
He just couldn't work out what.
Not yet.
I stepped through the mirror into my room after Professor McGonagall finally let us go.
Malfoy had practically sprinted back toward the dungeons, but apparently he still didn't know all the little tricks of the Slytherin entrance. I had made it inside first.
At least, I assumed I had. I hadn't seen him anywhere, despite the fact that he had looked like he had quite a lot to say to me.
Tweak was waiting and that was never a good sign.
She sat in my armchair with one leg crossed over the other, a cinnamon cigarette between two fingers, staring at me through a thin ribbon of sweet-smelling smoke.
I closed the mirror behind me, rested a hand against the frame to seal it, and began shrugging out of my robes.
"Before you say anything—"
"Fifty points."
I sighed.
"Yes."
"Fifty."
"I heard Professor McGonagall for the first time."
"From Slytherin."
"Yes, Tweak." I said tiredly and loosened my tie and hung it next to my robe.
She took a slow drag.
"And detention."
"Yes."
"With Potter and Granger."
"dont forget Malfoy." I said with yawn
Her eyes narrowed.
"You were caught," she said.
"I noticed." I said and rubbed my eyes.
"You,were caught."
I turned toward her.
"Tweak, I am beginning to suspect you have developed an excessively flattering opinion of my abilities."
"Master knew seven safer routes to Astronomy Tower."
"Nine." I admitted.
Her cigarette stopped halfway to her mouth and I winced.
"That probably wasn't the correct answer." I said
"No."
She stood.
"Master knows patrol schedules."
"Yes."
"Master has a stalking charm, can suppress his aura almost completely, and knows how to disappear when needed."
"Yes."
"Master has passages."
"Yes."
"Master also has an elf. An exceptionally capable elf."
"That one does seem rather decisive."
"And what does the Master do? Walks through the front corridors under Potter's cloak carrying a dragon like a badly organised band of thieves in a strange castle!"
I considered that.
"In fairness, we were reasonably organised."
Tweak stared at me.
"The dragon had a teddy bear, Master, and absolutely no silencing magic."
She dropped back into the chair and rubbed her forehead.
"Why?"
There it was so I sat opposite her and stopped smiling.
"Because it wasn't my operation."
Tweak lowered her hand and looked at me dubiously.
"Potter and Granger needed help carrying Norbert. I agreed to help carry Norbert."
"Master could have gotten them there unseen."
"Of course."
"Then why didn't, master do so?"
I leaned back against one of the four posters on the corners of my bed.
"Because then Potter and Granger would know how I get around Hogwarts unseen. Which routes I use, which ones I avoid, how I think about problems."
I paused.
"Potter might not notice all of it, but Granger would. She's one of the sharper people I've met here."
Silence.
Tweak's expression changed slightly and I shrugged and went on.
"And all that just to protect their dragon-smuggling operation? No. Not remotely worth the effort."
Tweak stared at me and started slowly to come around on my side of thinking.
"Not the master's dragon." She started.
"Not my dragon." I nodded
"Not master's plan." She went on.
"Not my plan." I confirmed
"Not master's Gryffindors."
I paused and raised my brow
"That sounds unnecessarily possessive, their people you know,they are not just pets to adopt." I said.
"Not. Master's. Gryffindors." She said with a stern expression.
"Fine. Not my Gryffindors." I admitted,being too tired to argue about semantics.
Her ears twitched and I smiled.
"And now Potter thinks I can be caught as well,I'm just a boy like any other."
Tweak went very still and looked at me so I continued.
"Granger thinks I can make stupid decisions. McGonagall knows I break rules for things that interest me and come up with very poor reasons for doing so." I chuckled and Tweak giggled
"Yes, Master. She was never going to believe two first-years were on a date while the Gryffindor golden boy acted as chaperone. A Slytherin and a Gryffindor, no less."
I rolled my eyes. " Well anyway,the rest of Hogwarts will know by breakfast that Alexander Hawthorn lost fifty points because he went wandering after curfew with Harry Potter."
I spread my hands.
"That's practically wholesome. More importantly, it knocked me down a few pegs."
I Said and leaned back.
"I've become too visible this year, Tweak. Too competent. Too difficult to catch making ordinary mistakes. I needed a public setback, and this was a perfect opportunity."
Tweak's mouth slowly curled upward.
"And Malfoy?"
That was the beautiful part
I grinned.
"Malfoy knew I was involved."
"Yes."
"He deliberately informed a professor."
"Yes."
"Which means Draco Malfoy tried to have another Slytherin punished by staff over something that had absolutely nothing to do with Slytherin House."
Tweak's smile became positively vicious.
"And lost fifty points doing it." she said and rubbed her hands together.
"And lost fifty points doing it." I repeated with a similarly wicked smirk as she leaned back into the armchair smoking her cinnamonstick.
A long silence followed. "Still sloppy." she accused.
"Absolutely." I admitted.
"Could have gone wrong." She added
"Certainly." I nodded
"The master could have been expelled." She tried.
"Extremely unlikely." I said, " "If the situation had looked truly dire, I would have cut my losses and separated myself from the Gryffindors. It would have damaged my reputation badly, but expulsion would have been worse."
I shrugged.
"It never came close to that."
Tweak glared and I conceded the point with a small nod.
She considered me for another moment. Then raised her cigarette toward me in a tiny salute.
"Acceptable operation."
I smiled."High praise."
She continued glaring for a while at me so I raised my hands and surrendered.
"Fine. I'll be more careful."
"Good."
After that, Tweak finally stopped scolding me.
Apparently having a method to my madness bought me some mercy.
I went to bed.
The next morning, I had barely finished getting dressed when a sharp knock sounded against the other side of my enchanted door.
I glanced toward the mirror and recognised one of the older prefects waiting outside.
Another knock came.
"Mr Hawthorn?"
"One moment."
I opened the door and stepped out, hat in hand and expression carefully neutral.
The prefect looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"Professor Snape wants to see you downstairs."
My good mood disappeared.
"Now?"
"Now."
Wonderful.