Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Chapter 14 - Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

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Chapter 14

Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

Classwork and school responsibilities over the next few weeks make it impossible for the children to think, or even talk about the Stone. But Quirrell seems to be more courageous than they expected. It appears that as the weeks progress, he has not surrendered to Snape. And Snape continues to be in a constant bad mood. The children still have hope.

But there is something else that happens that distracts the children even more: it is Hagrid. They see him one evening in the castle, coming from the library. He is walking back to his house. He keeps looking over his shoulder, as if someone is following him. He is acting very suspiciously. The children decide to investigate. “Hello, Hagrid,” Harry says, as they approach him. “How are you?”

“Nothing!” Hagrid responds, suspiciously. “I don’t have anything under my coat. Er… ah, what are you all doing here? Are you following me?” Hagrid is obviously hiding something under his coat, behind his back, but the children don’t mention it. “Are you still looking for Flamel?” Hagrid asks. “Oh, we know all about the Philosopher’s Stone, and Fluffy…” begins Hermione. “Shhhh!” yells Hagrid, “Don’t go talking about that in public!”

“That’s actually why we came over to you, Hagrid,” Harry says. “We’d like to ask you a few questions about him.” “Listen, just come over later. I can’t promise anything. No one is supposed to know anything, anyway. They will think I told you!” Hagrid says, with a worried look on his face. “Ok, we’ll see you later,” Harry says. Hagrid gives one more suspicious look at the children and walks towards his house.

They knock on Hagrid’s door later that night. But something is strange. The house is very quiet, and all the curtains are closed. “Who is it?” Hagrid asks cautiously. He opens the door slowly and quickly rushes Harry, Ron and Hermione inside. It is extremely hot inside. Even though it is a warm night, there is a huge fire in the fireplace.

Hagrid makes them some tea, and Harry decides there is no reason to wait: “Hagrid, we know about the Stone. But what else is protecting the Stone besides Fluffy?” Hagrid makes a frown. “You know I can’t tell you, Harry. Dumbledore has his reasons.” Harry persists, “But Hagrid, we need to know about the teachers - who is loyal to Dumbledore? And who does Dumbledore trust, besides you, of course?”

Hagrid looks very proud that Harry thinks Dumbledore trusts him so much. “Well, I guess it can’t hurt too much,” Hagrid continues. “You’ve got Professor Sprout, Flitwick, and McGonagall, obviously. Quirrell worked directly with Dumbledore, of course.” Hagrid pauses for a second to think. Then he continues, “Oh, and Professor Snape! I almost forgot him.”

“Snape?” the children say in surprise. “Of course Snape!” Hagrid says. “Why do you distrust him so much? He helped protect the Stone, he’s not going to steal it.” The children are not convinced. They believe that Snape knows all the different spells that are protecting the Stone, all of them except how to get past Fluffy.

Harry is distracted. “Hagrid, can you please open a window? I’m melting!” “Sorry, Harry, I can’t,” answers Hagrid. Harry sees Hagrid look at the fireplace. There, in the middle of the fire, Harry sees something he cannot believe: an egg! A huge, black egg! “Hagrid, what’s that?” Harry asks. “Ah…” Hagrid begins, “that’s… er…” Hermione looks closer at the egg. “That’s a dragon egg, Hagrid! What are you doing with a dragon egg?”

“Oh… I won it last night in a game of cards. I won it from a stranger. When I think about it now, I think he was happy I won it from him.” “But what are you going to do with it once it hatches?” Hermione asks. “You know dragons are prohibited in the wizard world!” “I know,” Hagrid answers, “but I’ve always wanted a dragon. Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted a dragon. This one’s a Norwegian Ridgeback. They’re a very rare species.”

“But Hagrid, you live in a wooden house,” Ron says. “Dragons breathe fire. Have you thought about that?” But Hagrid does not pay any attention to Ron. He is looking at the big, black egg in the fire with an expression full of love. Now the children have one more thing to think about - how to protect Hagrid from getting into trouble for his illegal dragon egg!

A few days later, while Harry is having breakfast in the Great Hall, his owl Hedwig brings him a note from Hagrid. There is only one line on the note:

The egg is hatching!

Ron and Hermione begin to talk excitedly about seeing a dragon egg hatch at Hagrid’s house. Suddenly, “Shut up!” Harry whispers loudly. Malfoy walks by just as they are talking about the egg. Harry doesn’t know how much he has heard. But he doesn’t like the look on Malfoy’s face. That’s all we need, thinks Harry. Now Malfoy might know about the prohibited egg!

After Herbology class, the children run to Hagrid’s. “It’s almost out,” Hagrid says as he opens the door and lets the children inside. The egg is on the table. There are many large cracks in the shell. Something is moving inside it. There are funny clicking noises coming from inside the egg. The children approach the egg and watch closely. Suddenly, there is a loud scraping noise and the egg cracks open into two large pieces.

The baby dragon falls onto the table. Harry thinks it looks like a broken, black umbrella. Its black wings are very large compared to its small black body. Its face is very long, and it has very wide nostrils at the end of its snout. There are teeny-tiny horns on top of its head, and it has large orange eyes. It sneezes suddenly, and there is a small flame that flies out of its mouth!

“Isn’t he beautiful?” Hagrid says. He reaches his hand out to pet the dragon’s head. The dragon tries to bite his fingers. It has long, sharp teeth! “Look! He knows who his mommy is!” says Hagrid, full of love and affection. “Hagrid,” asks Hermione, “How fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow?” Hagrid is about to answer, then suddenly he jumps up and runs to the window!

“What’s the matter?” asks Harry, in surprise. “There was someone looking in the window,” Hagrid answers. “It was a kid. He’s running back to the school.” Harry runs to the door and looks out. Even from a far distance Harry can see him clearly. There is no mistake. It is Malfoy. He has seen the dragon.

The way Malfoy smiles at Harry, Ron and Hermione over the next weeks makes them all nervous. But they have more important things to think about - like trying to convince Hagrid to give up his dragon. But they are unable to convince him. Hagrid is so full of love and caring for his new pet that the children can do nothing to change his mind. Hagrid even names the dragon Norbert.

Several weeks later, after Norbert has grown three times in size, Harry has a great idea. “Charlie!” he says suddenly one day to Ron. “Who?” Ron says. “Your brother, Charlie, in Romania! Isn’t he studying dragons? Maybe we could convince him to take Norbert from Hagrid.” Ron has a big smile on his face. “That’s a brilliant idea, Harry! I’ll send him an owl to ask him!”

While they are waiting for an answer, Ron and Hermione go to Hagrid’s to talk to him. When they come back to Gryffindor, Ron’s hand is covered in a bloody cloth. “He bit me!” yells Ron. “I won’t be able to write for a week!” “And it scratched me!” Hermione says. “I was just trying to help Ron, and it scratched me!” Just at that moment, there was a tap-tap-tap at the window. It is Ron’s owl with a note from Charlie.

Ron reads the letter. “I don’t think we’ll have to wait much longer to get rid of that dragon,” he says. “Listen to this:

“We can use the invisibility cloak!” says Harry. “We can use the cloak to cover us and the crate. I think it’s big enough.” They all agreed. All they want to do is to get rid of Norbert. But there is a problem in their plan. The next day, Ron’s hand begins to swell from the dragon bite. And Hermione’s scratch begins to hurt terribly. They think the bite and scratch might be poisonous. They decide to go to the infirmary.

Harry goes to visit them later. When he enters the infirmary, Harry sees several areas separated by curtains. They must have patients who need some privacy. He finds Hermione and Ron towards the back of the infirmary. They are sitting in their own beds. “How are you, Ron, Hermione?” asks Harry. Hermione smiles, “It’s not too bad,” Hermione says. “Nurse Pomfrey says I should be fine in a day or two.”

Ron doesn’t look as healthy. His face is a little green. “It’s not just my hand,” Ron says. “I had to lie to Nurse Pomfrey. I couldn’t tell her a dragon bit me, could I? She would start to ask too many questions!” Harry tries to calm Ron down. “Look, everything will be over this Saturday at midnight.” “Saturday at midnight?” Ron complains. “I’m worried about getting the dragon up to the tallest tower without being seen. I’ll relax then.”

Suddenly, there is a sound from the curtained room next to theirs. They hear a laugh that they all recognize, and the sound of the curtains opening. Then footsteps running towards the exit. Harry turns around and looks back towards the door. Impossible! It is Malfoy again! He must have been spying on them. “That was Malfoy,” Harry tells them. “Now he knows everything!” “It’s too late to do anything now,” Hermione says, trying to calm Harry down.

“We don’t have time to send a message to Charlie now. And this might be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We have to risk it.” Hermione is trying to convince the boys. “Anyway, Malfoy doesn’t know about the invisibility cloak. We should be ok. We need to get to Hagrid’s and tell him about the plan.”

“I won’t let you do it!” Hagrid cries when the children tell him about their plan. But Hagrid doesn’t have much choice, the children explain. Norbert has grown very large. He has bitten Hagrid and Fang many times. He is becoming too dangerous to keep. And anyway, having a dragon is illegal at Hogwarts. Hagrid could be expelled again! “Aargh! Ok! I’ll do it!” Hagrid yells. There are huge tears falling into his bushy beard.

On Saturday night, the children arrive a little late to Hagrid’s. They have difficulty avoiding the ghosts in the corridors as they are leaving. When they arrive at Hagrid’s, they find him crying next to a wooden crate. “I put plenty of rats in the crate. And he has some brandy for his journey,” says Hagrid. “Goodbye, Norbert!” he yells. He hugs the crate and a big ball of smoke flows through the holes in the side.

The children stand next to the crate, and Harry pulls out the invisibility cloak. He throws it up and over all of them. They walk slowly and carefully back to the castle. Hagrid is standing in the doorway to his house. He is crying silently. They do not know how they manage to get the crate all the way up to the castle, up the staircases, and finally to the bottom of the tallest tower. It is hard work.

Then, all of a sudden, there is a sound ahead of them. Then they see a bright light from a lamp. They are still covered by the invisibility cloak, but they decide to hide in a dark shadow in the corridor. It is Professor McGonagall. She is wearing her bathrobe and slippers. She is holding Malfoy by one of his ears. “Detention! And you will lose twenty points from Slytherin! What do you think you are doing walking around here in the middle of the night?”

“You don’t understand, Professor,” Malfoy says in his defense. “Harry Potter is supposed to be here. He has a dragon with him! Him and Ron and Hermione!” “That is nonsense!” yells Professor McGonagall. “How dare you tell such lies. I will tell Professor Snape about you, Malfoy! We’ll see what he does to you!”

Malfoy and Professor McGonagall pass by them and they disappear down the stairs. Harry, Ron and Hermione take a deep breath and climb the last stairs to the tallest tower. They finally take off the invisibility cloak. The cool air feels fresh and good on them. They can breathe properly again. “Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” sings Hermione, “Malfoy’s got detention! Malfoy’s got detention!”

They wait quietly after that. And in ten minutes, four broomsticks appear out of the darkness. Charlie’s friends are very friendly and cheerful. They show the children the ropes they have to carry the crate. They help attach the ropes to the wooden box. And then Harry, Hermione and Ron shake hands with their new friends as they fly off with the crate.

Finally, Norbert is going… going… gone. The children climb quietly back down the spiral staircase. Hagrid is safe and they can finally relax. And the especially good news: Malfoy has detention! What could possibly go wrong? The answer to that is waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Filch is there in the darkness. “Well, well, well,” he whispers, “aren’t we in trouble?” The children have forgotten the invisibility cloak up in the tallest tower.