In just one week, Norbert had already tripled in size. He was now roughly the same height as Fang.
Every time Charlie visited, Fang was forced to stay outside the hut. The boarhound looked miserable and no longer came running over with his tail wagging when he saw Charlie.
Inside, empty brandy bottles were scattered across the floor. Unswept chicken blood had soaked into the wooden planks. The whole hut stank.
"Is that white thing his shed skin?" Charlie pointed at a pale, snake-like piece of shed material in the corner. "I was actually hoping to get a couple of his scales. Thought they might be useful as materials."
"Oh, Charlie, dragons don't shed scales easily. Most of the time they just shed their skin, and the scales grow with it. Unless they've been in a fight, you won't usually find loose scales lying around."
Charlie nodded. He didn't mention that he'd even been considering asking for some dragon blood.
That would never happen with Hagrid.
"By the way, in another two weeks this little guy's going to be as big as your—"
Knock knock knock.
Someone was at the door. Hagrid got up and went to answer it.
Charlie stayed crouched on the floor, watching the baby dragon in front of him.
Maybe because Charlie looked completely harmless, Norbert lowered his front legs and arched his back.
"Easy, little guy," Charlie said with a smile.
"Grr… grr…" Norbert growled.
"Hagrid, you might want to tell him to behave," Charlie said, taking two steps back.
"Oh, he's just playing with you," Hagrid called over his shoulder. He was busy with the lock—he'd started locking the door from the inside lately.
"I don't think—"
Before Charlie could finish, Norbert lunged straight at him.
The Impediment Jinx fired on instinct, but the dragon's resistance to magic was higher than Charlie had expected. The charm that could completely halt a person midair only slowed Norbert for a split second.
Charlie's reaction was instant. He raised his right hand and cast the Softening Charm on it while his left hand moved at the same time.
"Engorgio."
His right hand swelled to twice its normal size in an instant. He grabbed Norbert by the throat.
The dragon's long neck twisted as it tried to bite down on Charlie's wrist.
There was no spray of blood. Charlie's enlarged hand had turned into something soft and rubbery, like dense foam.
"Settle down, sweetheart," Charlie said calmly.
"Grr… grr…"
"Sweetheart, if you keep—"
Norbert started thrashing. He opened his jaws wide, aimed at Charlie's face, and exhaled a cloud of black smoke mixed with sparks.
At the same time, Hagrid finally got the door open. Standing outside were Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Oh, it's you three! Come on in. You're here to see Norbert, right? He's doing so well—"
Boom.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione froze in the doorway.
Inside the hut, Norbert had been slammed hard into the floor.
The hand still gripping the dragon's neck was red and veined. The owner of that hand stood there with an ice-cold expression—familiar, yet in that moment completely alien to Harry.
"Norbert!" Hagrid turned around in alarm.
Norbert twisted free, scrambled to his feet, and bolted straight for the fireplace.
"He breathed on me," Charlie muttered, shaking out his hand. For a second he thought he might be imagining it, but his strength really did feel a little greater than before.
Probably back to where it had been when he first started at Hogwarts.
"What happened?" Hagrid asked, worried.
Looking at the genuine concern on Hagrid's face, Charlie started to say something, then stopped. The words stuck in his throat.
"Nothing serious. We were just roughhousing a bit." Charlie forced a smile. "Don't worry, he's fine."
"You're amazing," Ron said, wide-eyed. "Did you actually fight him?"
"Charlie!" Hermione rushed over and grabbed his right hand, examining it closely.
There were several bright red tooth marks on Charlie's forearm. The skin hadn't broken, but it still hurt.
"It's nothing," Charlie said, pulling his hand back. He didn't want to dwell on it. "You three came to see Norbert too?"
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I'll just rest for a bit. You guys go ahead and play with him." Charlie nodded and sat down on Hagrid's oversized sofa while Hagrid crouched in front of the fireplace.
Norbert seemed shaken. When Hagrid reached into the fireplace, the dragon immediately bit down on his hand.
"Oh, you're alright, aren't you?" Hagrid's cheerful smile returned at once.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched Hagrid's completely unharmed hand being gnawed on, then looked at the vicious little dragon. None of them knew what expression to make.
A moment later Norbert finally let go. Hagrid let out a breath of relief.
Charlie asked again, "Hagrid, in two more weeks he's going to be as big as your hut. Where are you going to keep him then?"
"Oh, I don't know yet." Hagrid clearly didn't want to think about it. "I'll figure it out when the time comes."
"You're planning to hide him in the Forbidden Forest, aren't you?" Charlie said with a small smile.
He looked at the dragon in Hagrid's arms. Norbert looked right back at him.
The next second the dragon opened its mouth like it was going to bite Charlie again.
Charlie gave it a cold glance. Norbert immediately shrank back.
Dragons had their pride, if you wanted to put it nicely.
If you wanted to be honest, the little monster was completely ungrateful. Fang was better company.
Dragons were never meant to be pets.
Whether a large dog gets banned from a city doesn't depend on whether it's loyal to its owner. It depends on whether it's a danger to the neighborhood.
While Charlie was thinking, Norbert suddenly stretched his neck out of the corner of his eye.
"Ow!" Ron yanked his hand back. A fresh bite mark was already bleeding on his palm.
"Ron! Are you okay?" Harry shouted.
Hagrid jumped and quickly set Norbert down, then pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
After a chaotic round of bandaging, the messy hut finally calmed down.
"Oh, you little—!"
"Alright, Ron, it's fine. He must've been scared of you," Hagrid said quickly, cutting Ron off.
"We're leaving," Charlie said once Ron's hand was wrapped. He stood up from the sofa and stretched.
Hermione tugged on Ron's sleeve. "We should go too, Hagrid."
"Go on, then. You've got things to do," Hagrid said. He already looked frazzled from everything that had happened.
The four of them unlocked the door and stepped outside.
"Remember to lock it, Hagrid," Harry reminded him.
Inside, Hagrid had already picked Norbert back up and was singing him a lullaby.
Charlie glanced at Fang as they left and gave the boarhound a pat on the head.
Whine… Fang lowered his head and whimpered.
The four of them walked toward the castle.
"What were you thinking?" Hermione asked, looking at Ron in disbelief.
"I saw that Charlie was fine, so I… I just tried to play with him a little." Ron pointed at the fading red marks on Charlie's wrist. "Okay, fine. I admit people are different."
He dropped the subject and said angrily instead, "I've never seen anything as scary as a dragon. The way Hagrid was acting, you'd think it was some harmless little bunny."
"I did something wrong," Charlie muttered to himself.
He wanted to say something harsh, but this was Hagrid. The man who'd given him mandrake leaves. The man who'd stood below the roof with his arms out, ready to catch him if he fell.
Just remembering that made it impossible to say anything too sharp.
"Dumbledore really is pretty wise," Charlie sighed and shook his head.
"Who's 'Old Dumbledore'?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Your favorite headmaster," Charlie said with a small laugh.
"Why are you bringing him up all of a sudden? Charlie, are you going to tell Dumbledore about this?" Harry asked nervously.
He wasn't sure if it was a good idea. It might feel like betraying Hagrid.
"I won't do that. I promised Hagrid—"
"I'll bet he's planning to hide it in the Forbidden Forest. Then the whole of Hogwarts won't be safe. Imagine walking by the Black Lake and a dragon suddenly flies out of the trees."
"I'm more worried he'll get caught," Hermione said. "He doesn't even seem to realize he's doing something illegal."
"I don't agree with you often, but I do this time," Charlie said, snapping his fingers.
Hermione shot him a pretty glare.
Once they were inside the castle, they couldn't talk about the dragon anymore with so many people around.
On the second-floor corridor, Malfoy appeared with a smug, cheerful expression.
"Draco. Good afternoon," Charlie greeted him.
"Trying to get on my good side won't work anymore," Malfoy said, stepping closer and tugging at his collar. "I know your secret now, Wonka."
"Really?" Charlie suddenly smiled and walked straight up to him. "Which one?"
"Your secret base on the eighth floor."
Charlie's eyebrows drew together. He rubbed his chin, studying Malfoy with genuine curiosity. "That's strange. How did you find out about that?"
"What eighth floor?" Ron asked, leaning in.
"Want me to tell them?" Malfoy asked with a grin.
Charlie stayed quiet, thinking. Why did Malfoy know? And why was he doing this?
"Do you really hate me that much?" Charlie asked, confused. "You stopped caring about dear Harry and started focusing on me instead—"
"Because you're the most annoying one. Let me tell you something—I've got enough on you right now to get you expelled."
"I don't think so. Just knowing I have a secret base on the eighth floor isn't enough. You'd better have more than that. Also, are you still mad about that kick I gave you the other day? You shouldn't even have the right to follow me—"
"Shouldn't have the right—"
Malfoy's smug look twisted into embarrassed anger for a second before he covered it up again. He smirked. "There's a lot you don't know about my methods."
"It definitely wasn't you doing the following," Charlie said with certainty. "If you've got some method I don't know about, it's probably your family connections? Alright, I get it now.
You paid someone to follow me, didn't you?
Probably an older student who knows the Disillusionment Charm.
They want to climb the Malfoy family ladder, or maybe you just paid them a lot.
Either way, because of some things I did the other day, you decided to turn your attention to me and had someone tail me. That's it, right?
That makes sense. Finally, a proper Slytherin move."
Charlie patted Malfoy's shoulder with clear approval in his eyes.
"Take this seriously!" Malfoy snapped, brushing Charlie's hand off. "I have proof that can get you expelled!"
"Impressive," Charlie said, nodding. "But do you have anything else? Anything more serious?"
"Isn't this enough? You were out after curfew the night before last. And last night too. That's already enough to get you in real trouble."
"Anything else? Anything worse?" Charlie asked, sounding almost hopeful.
Faced with Charlie's expectant expression, Malfoy faltered and took a small step back. "What the hell is wrong with you? Aren't you scared I'll expose you?"
Charlie shook his head. Clearly, Malfoy still didn't know about the dragon.
If they wanted Hagrid to willingly get rid of Norbert, they were going to need a villain.
And who better to play that role than Malfoy?
No wonder every good story needed a Sun Wukong. When faced with difficult moral choices, Sun Wukong would just knock people out with his staff and take on the "bad guy" role himself.
"Alright, get lost, Malfoy. What you've got isn't enough to touch me.
If you want to prove I broke curfew, bring actual evidence.
If you think I'm running some evil experiment in my secret base, bring evidence for that too.
Otherwise, get lost."
Charlie waved his hand dismissively, shooing Malfoy away like he was something unpleasant.
The smug expression Malfoy had walked in with vanished. His face turned red with rage.
"Fine. Fine! You'd better hope I don't catch you, Wonka."
Charlie smiled. "Go ahead and try, Malfoy.
You don't even need to keep paying some older student with the Disillusionment Charm to follow me. You can do it yourself.
Don't worry—I promise I won't hit you."
"You just wait," Malfoy hissed, staring at Charlie like he wanted to burn that smiling face into his memory forever.
Charlie watched him storm off, then dropped the smile and shook his head.
Moving the club out of the Room of Requirement was something he'd have to do eventually anyway.
After all, the Room of Requirement wasn't really a secret.
He could guarantee the Weasley twins already knew about it. Why hadn't they turned it into their own base?
Because too many people knew the location.
Everyone only used the Room of Requirement as a temporary space. No one actually lived there.
Looked like finding a new secret base needed to move up on the priority list.
He already had a plan for it. He just hadn't expected to have to speed it up.
Beside him, Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't press him about the eighth-floor base when they saw he clearly didn't want to explain.
They walked upstairs together. Once they reached the second floor and found an empty corridor, they started talking about the dragon again.
"Are you going to the hospital wing to get Madam Pomfrey to look at that bite?" Hermione asked Ron.
Ron shook his head. "It's just a little scratch."
Charlie glanced at Ron's bandaged hand. "Dragon bites are venomous."
"What?!" Ron sucked in a breath. "What do I do?"
"Go see Madam Pomfrey. What else?" Charlie shrugged.
In the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey held Ron's already swelling hand and said coldly, "What bit you?"
"A dog!" Ron said firmly.
"Weasley, you'd better be honest. It'll help me treat the wound properly."
Ron gritted his teeth through the pain as she squeezed his hand and nodded again. "Yes, ma'am. It was a dog."
Madam Pomfrey clearly didn't believe them, but she had her own methods for dealing with stubborn children.
Treating injured kids who lied about what happened was something she was very good at.
Instead of just cleaning the wound and sending them on their way, she somehow detected the venom in Ron's bite and immediately admitted him for observation.
"At least the wound's being properly treated. As long as he doesn't keep provoking Norbert, that's good," Hermione said, trying to comfort Ron.
Ron looked like he wanted to cry but could only nod miserably.
They were all thinking the same thing. Norbert didn't belong at Hogwarts. But none of them wanted to "betray" Hagrid either.
Charlie finally sighed. "Alright. If it comes down to it, I'll be the bad guy—"