Enoch's a muggle dragon!" said Hagrid excitedly, serving up the tea. "Heri was tellin' me about how Muggles had a species of dragon still living among 'em tha' wasn't part of the lot we include in the Statute. They're a lot smaller'n regular dragons but I reckon tha's why they were considered safe enough to leave with the Muggles." Eyes swung to Heri at such an outlandish claim. She shrugged helplessly and pet Enoch on his snout. "They're called Komodo dragons," she explained. "I'm pretty sure they're not at all magical. I've read that they're called dragons because they're the biggest species of lizard known to Muggles. Muggles call large lizards dragons, you know." "That creature certainly doesn't look like any Komodo dragon I've ever seen before," said Snape, eyeing Enoch's frills. "Ah, well, Hagrid won an egg off of a chap he met who said it was a dragon egg, sir. Looking at Enoch now, I'd say he's some sort of hybrid between a Komodo and a frill-necked lizard." "That's not the dragon I saw!" Malfoy exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at the indolent lizard. He had been growing progressively redder the longer the conversation went along but he had finally reached his bursting point. "I don't know what they did with it, but it had wings and coughed smoke!" Hagrid and Heri looked at each other in feigned confusion. "Were you peeking through the windows or something, Malfoy?" said Heri, making a disapproving face. "If you were being creepy and invading Hagrid's privacy by looking through those hazy windows, I don't doubt that you would have thought you saw Enoch with wings." The situation immediately turned against Malfoy's favour. Heri had never seen Professor Sprout look so shocked and appalled. Later on, after Malfoy had been pinned with two weeks worth of detention for disrespecting a staff member and trying to get another student expelled through outrageous lies, Heri introduced Norbert to his new temporary playmate. The twins had assured Hagrid that they would get in touch with their brother Charlie to get Norbert to a good home, so Norbert only had maybe another week left at Hogwarts. Hagrid was saddened but the fact that Enoch would still be around brightened his mood; he was surprisingly fond of the creature. Out of all the people at Hogwarts, Heri hadn't been expecting Quirrell to be the one to abduct her and drag her off to parts unknown. If she had to make a list of things from the school she thought most likely to do her harm, the stuttery DADA professor was near the bottom of the list, above under-cooked meat but below her own pillow. Well, perhaps 'abducted' was too strong of a word, Heri thought as she was dropped in front of a dusty mirror. She wasn't abducted so much as she was deceived into following him into his office where he then proceeded to body-bind her and levitate her through the corridor Dumbledore had specifically forbidden at the beginning of the year. She wasn't sure what the big deal about the corridor was, either. The cerberus was cool for shock purposes, but any eight-year-old from her primary school could tell you that they were put to sleep with a bit of music. After the dog, it was all decidedly not deadly challenges that they went through to reach the dusty room they were now in. Why the hell were they there? The room was empty beside the old mirror! Oh, gods, he wasn't some child-molester with a fetish for watching himself at it, was he? "I suppose you were expecting Severus, weren't you?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?" Heri blinked up at the man talking to himself. "Excuse me?" Was he asking if she had expected Professor Snape to be a paedophile? "Professor Snape's scarier than the national debt but he's nowhere near the type, sir." Quirrell sneered at her. "Many would disagree with you." Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Heri. "You're too nosy to live, Potter. Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone." "You let the troll in, sir?" Hard to believe when he fainted at the sight of it. But what stone was he talking about and why was it being guarded? "Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls — you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off — and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly." Well, that explained the limp Heri had noticed. She had thought it was the result of a prank gone wrong. "Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror." Again with the mirror. What the hell could a mirror do, especially one that looked old enough to fart dust? At least Quirrell was turning out to be a homicidal thief instead of a kiddy-toucher; she could forgive larceny, being a pervert was unforgivable. "This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this . . . but he's in London . . . I'll be far away by the time he gets back . . ."
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