How to sneak out a dragon in Hogwarts

Two weeks went by and only a week before their exams started.

During these two weeks the four friends spent all their free time in Hagrid's Hut trying to dissuade him from keeping the dragon.

Neville came too as he was curious about dragons.

With the temper of the system he might have to face a dragon in the near future.

It was best to collect data on them beforehand.

Okay, the main reason was that he could not tolerate the long hours of studying anymore; He was now sure that he will be able to beat Hermione with the time he had spent in Hyperbolic Time chamber.

The Norwegian Ridgeback dragon named Norbert had hatched from his huge black egg into three times times the size it was born at.

It looked like a crumpled black umbrella.

It's spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body and it had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns and bulging orange eyes.

In short , it was not a pretty sight except Hagrid who felt that it was beautiful and wanted it to recognise him as his mother.

Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils.

There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.

It was at this time, Harry had the brilliant idea of sending Norbert to Charlie who could release it into the wild at an appropriate time.

Someone who had been spying on them had been discovered by Hagrid and the said person fled back up to the school.

They all bolted to the door and even from the distance they could tell that it was Malfoy.

In the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him for his help once he realised how disappointed Dumbledore would be after knowing about the matter.

They soon got a letter from Charlie who requested them to bring the dragon up the tallest tower on Saturday at midnight.

They decided that the cloak was big enough to cover two of them along with Norbert.

So, Harry and Ron planned to undertake the journey but fate had its own plans.Ron had been bitten by Norbert, while he was helping Hagrid with feeding the dragon who had been eating dead rats by the crate, and thus had been admitted to the infirmary.

Malfoy had decided to show up and happened to take away the letter from him .

It was a very dark and cloudy night on that Saturday.

Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate with lots of rats and some brandy for the journey.

To ensure that it did not feel lonely he even gave it a teddy bear.

There were ripping sounds from the crate which made Neville think that the bear must be having its head ripped off.

"Bye-bye, Norbert! sobbed Hagrid, as Harry and Neville covered the crate with the Invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it themselves.

"Mummy will never forget you!"

Midnight ticked nearer as they heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in Entrance hall and along the dark corridors.

They didn't use Wingardium Leviosa to levitate the box while sitting on it as Norbert and their combined weight would make it hard for them to maintain the spell for long time interval (Neville could do it but he couldn't let Harry suspect and figure out his system, could he?)

Another limitation of this method was that the spell had no control whatsoever of third movements once they were airborne.

It did not mean that there wasn't any magic that could help them but they were only first year wizards who mostly had to work on their foundation instead of focusing their attention to numerous spells.

Then a sudden movement ahead of them and they had almost dropped the crate. Forgetting that they were already invisible, they shrank into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two people.

A lamp flared.

Professor McGonagall in a tartan dressing gown and a hairnet had Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin!

Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you-

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

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

The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the towers seemed the easiest thing in the world after that.

Not until they stepped out into the cold air did they throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again.

Chuckling about Malfoy, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate.

About ten minutes later, four brooms came swooping down out of the darkness.

Charlie's friends were a cheery lot.

Neville and Harry shook hands with them and thanked them very much.

As they slipped down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them.

No more dragon- Malfoy in detention-what could spoil their happiness?

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

"Well,well,well," He whispered, we are in trouble."

They had left the Invisibility cloak at the top of the tower.

No!

Neville had wanted to take the cloak back but it was simply missing from its place.

He assumed that the headmaster was probably following them and wanted to set up a "date" with the Dark lord and the boy who lived.