Okay, I can't decide if this is the coolest thing ever or really, really bad. Harry thought wryly as he felt sweat bead down the back of his neck both from the heat of Hagrid's tiny hut, and the implications of what was happening.
Neville looked positively terrified across the table, as Hagrid cooed at a tiny, slimy, garbly dragon on his very wooden table in the middle of his very tiny, wooden hut.
When Hedwig had brought him a note from Hagrid this morning telling him to visit after dark because had something special to show him, he'd dragged Neville along because the blond hadn't really gotten to know Hagrid yet and he really thought that once Neville got over his fear of the giant man, they'd be great friends. Neville spent most of his time in the greenhouses or with his plants, and Hagrid definitely had a green thumb of his own as the keeper of the grounds, and while Hagrid was kind of terrifying at first glance and had… legitimately terrifying pets all around, he was a genuinely good guy and so was Neville, so Harry kind of thought they'd get along like a house on fire eventually.
The imminent threat of an actual house catching fire and the freaking dragon in front of them made everything a bit more complicated unfortunately, and Harry was kind of regretting even telling Neville about this, much less bringing him to now be unequivocally involved.
"H-Hagrid… it's illegal to own dragons." Neville whimpered like he was really wishing he didn't need to point that out, eyes positively bugging out of his head at the creature in front of him as it turned and warbled in a distinctly baby-like way for a lizard at the Gryffindor when it heard him speak.
Harry hadn't known that it was illegal exactly, but he'd definitely figured. He was very close to being fully caught up to third-year-level Transfiguration which means there was some very tiny introductory paragraphs about turning larger objects into animals in the books he'd been reading—one of them being turning a couch into a dragon which was a derivative of the second year spell of turning small objects into tiny dragons. There'd been a very aggressive footnote on that spell about a time limit applied to how long your couch could remain a dragon and also the fact that if you actually managed to have enough power to turn a couch into a full sized dragon you actually needed a permit from the Ministry to even attempt such a thing.
And given how pricy and rare dragon parts were as potion ingredients, dragons were very regulated affairs. Hagrid getting his hands on an egg set every alarm bell Harry had in his head off all at once.
"Why on earth did some guy have a dragon egg in his pocket for you to win it in a card game? Where were you playing cards and against who? Also, if you're that good at cards you definitely could've sprung for those hydrangea bushes you were talking about." Harry ranted a bit, and Hagrid got all huffy, his cheeks turning a bit red under his bushy beard.
"It was a bit 'o luck, winnin' that hand, I'll admit." He relented. "An' the Hog's Head is a reputable pub I'll 'ave you know."
Harry seriously doubted that.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house."
"I've always wanted a dragon though," He complained, but Harry put his foot down firmly.
"Hagrid, no way. Listen to me: you need to go tell Dumbledore about this right now before it's too late. If you're caught with Norbert here, you could get arrested much less fired! Tell him you didn't know what it was before it hatched and made a mistake—maybe they'll have a chance of going after the guy who gave this to you because really, if he's got dragon eggs in his pocket who knows what else he's dealing! If he's got one, he could have others, and they're supposed to be a protected species, aren't they?" He pleaded, Neville nodding along rapidly in agreement.
"But I can't give 'im up, he's just been born! That'd be jus' cruel, leavin' 'im to fend fer 'imself now, wouldn't it?" Hagrid wasn't listening, pulling a piece of meat he had on hand and letting Norbert gobble up his first meal happily, a puff of smoke that was dangerously close to becoming a flame already given it was only ten minutes old making Harry extremely nervous.
"What's cruel is keeping what'll eventually grow to be ten times your size in a tiny hut." Harry muttered, before raising his voice more clearly. "Hagrid you're going to get arrested. We need to tell Dumbledore!"
"Come now Norbert, don't do tha'," Hagrid was yet again distracted by the baby dragon attempting to claw at the wooden table below it—baby claws immediately leaving huge divots on the wood with ease.
Harry could only gape at him in shock, before turning to Neville and getting met with an equally out of depth blue gaze.
Oh my god, Hagrid's going to get arrested.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to think. Well… they were cutting it dangerously close to curfew, and he couldn't help Hagrid tonight. And… Norbert couldn't grow that fast, right? They probably had a couple weeks until he was too big to hide anymore… but then again they probably had days, if not hours, until the tiny trouble maker learned to breathe fire so…
Well, one night probably wouldn't hurt.
"We need to make it back to the tower by curfew so… Hagrid we will be back tomorrow to talk about this, don't think this is over!" He warned, but the giant man waved him off, either not really hearing him or just not caring.
"Harry… Harry we can't leave that there," Neville hissed as Harry took him by the hand and flat out ran back to the castle, the grounds dark around them and the realization that they were definitely not going to make it becoming clear. Harry had his cloak, but Neville didn't, so there was really nothing to do about it but run.
"We don't really have a choice—it's no use if we get in trouble right alongside him. Let's just get back to the tower and try and think of what the heck to do about this tomorrow, it'll probably be fine until then."
"What exactly, will be fine until then?"
A voice cut them off just as they entered the entrance hall, and Harry felt Neville freeze solid behind him. He wasn't exactly thrilled with that particular voice either, as he turned to see none other than the last professor he wanted to see waiting on them right now.
Snape.
Who, was looking very unsurprised to see them, Harry noted. In fact he almost looked gleeful, which was honestly a creepy look on him, more so than usual.
But it meant someone had snitched, seeing them leave the castle after dark and informing Snape that he'd catch a couple Gryffindors if he just posted up and waited them out—Harry hadn't exactly cared who'd seen him go at the time because he had no idea Hagrid was going to get them caught up in illicit activities out of the blue like that, nor that they'd spend that long trying to convince the ground's keeper not to be a blooming idiot about the whole thing, to very little success.
"Our herbology final project," Harry lied immediately, flashing a not-so-friendly but undoubtedly polite smile at the potions master. "Apologies professor but we're going to miss curfew if we don't—"
"I believe, you already have." Snape cut him off, and if the flapping cloak he always wore was proof enough he was a pathetically dramatic man, the bell tower chose that exact moment to ring out, signaling for all the castle that they were now out past curfew.
Crap.
"You mean to tell me you were at the greenhouses, this late at night?" Snape raised a brow derisively, and Harry was lying but he still felt indignant that the greasy-haired man dared doubt him.
"Yes sir, something about the moon cycle and white-lily flowers—I'll confess Herbology is not my best subject so don't quote me on that though." He doubled down, meeting his inky eyes without hesitation. On another day, they could've just said they were at Hagrid's and on any other day had it been any other professor, they might've been able to check with the giant man to corroborate their story and avoid a detention.
But if anyone knocked on Hagrid's door this particular night, things would get messy very quickly. If Snape were the person to knock, Hagrid might as well start trying on cuffs that would actually fit him now.
The potions master stared them down, clearly not convinced although Harry had no idea why he was so certain they were lying. I mean, they were, but Harry thought himself a pretty good liar and Neville was just flat out terrified—Snape had never seen the blond Gryffindor with any other expression, so how would he possibly know he was significantly more terrified at this moment than any other?
They key to a great lie is to believe it.
Harry wiped all thoughts of Hagrid and dragons from his mind and pictured the white flowers Neville had shown him last week, where they'd spent hours after dinner taking notes on them to support their Herbology final project. He could almost for a second convince himself that'd been this night instead of last Wednesday.
Snape… eventually seemed to buy it, even if it was clearly reluctantly.
"Back to your dorm, now." He commanded, and Harry hadn't let go of Neville's hand yet so he just took off quickly without a word, dragging the blond behind him.
Not quite fast enough though.
"And fifty points from Gryffindor each… for breaking curfew." The royal git sounded way to pleased to say it and Harry forced himself not to turn around, not acknowledge the man, not even react to the intense punishment they'd just been given as he bolted up the entrance hall stairs, forcing Neville along as he gasped sharply in shock at the loss. He knew it was probably rude of him not to acknowledge a professor, but he also knew they'd just lose more points to his unfortunate habit of mouthing off if they stuck around too much longer, and at least now they were out of earshot for if the man decided the slight to his person was worth detracting yet more points from the lion house.
50 points!? What a git! I got 30 points for successfully using a Transfiguration spell against a mountain troll as a first year, and yet 100 points total loss for being one minutelate to curfew because we were studying for a final!? Which, was a lie, but HE didn't know that!
Harry fumed darkly, too angry for words as they made the last stretch to Gryffindor tower.
I should get to deduct 100 points from Hogwarts in general for every near-death experience I've had. THAT'D even the playing field, wouldn't it?
Still, by the time they got to the fat lady's portrait, Harry had neatly re-categorized his indignant rage into not that important for the moment. Annoyed as he was, it still didn't rank on his priorities of things he needed to care about considering there was a dragon in Hagrid's hut right now.
As the portrait swung shut behind them, marking them finally safe, he turned and felt sympathy for the extremely pale Neville who let his hand drop limply to his side in shock. "W-we l-lost a hundred points?" He gaped.
Harry pat his arm sadly, acknowledging there really wasn't anything he could say to make it better.
"You what?" Harry looked over, an aghast fourth year accompanied by several of his teammates having overheard that and their faces turning red. Huh, so they took this house points thing that seriously?
Neville quailed immediately under the upper year's glare and Harry's mouth moved without thinking.
"I lost 100 points for mouthing off to Snape—apologies, but he's a snitch so what exactly did you expect?"
"You picked a fight with Snape!? Are you insane?"
"Debatable." Harry snapped, not appreciating his tone and not really interested in getting into a fight with his own house. "Now I think it's about time I call it a night—if you want to be bitter about it I'll earn the points back myself."
"Potter-"
"It's Monroe to you," Whoever the hell you are—do I even know you? "And have a great night," He cut the conversation off brutally, once against grabbing Neville to drag him up the stairs to their dorm.
"Harry…"
"People take the house rivalries way too seriously." He muttered darkly under his breath. "If Gryffindor keeps acting as prejudiced as the Slytherins, I'm going to start rooting for Hufflepuff."
Neville fell quiet at that until they made it back to their dorm safely—luckily everyone else being still down in the common room. Particularly Ron, who bought into the points system way too deeply and was rude enough to confront them on it outright, without stopping to consider the fact that Snape was a biased git who was actively looking to take points at every chance he got (not to mention the fact someone had sold them out to the potions professor, and Harry was absolutely sure it was one of the many Slytherins out to get him for how he was encroaching in their politics these days).
As Harry was at the end of his rope after today, he couldn't assure anyone that Ron would have all his limbs attached if he tried him right now.
"Harry…" Neville mustered up enough courage to try it again, face crumpled in both weariness from how much terror he'd just gone through tonight and something else eating at him deeply. "You shouldn't have taken the blame for me."
"It was me who dragged you down there—and no I didn't know Hagrid was going to rope us into that exactly, but it was still my idea. You wouldn't have been out past curfew if not for me, so it was only right."
But the blond was already shaking his head, "That's not how this works, and I've told you before. It was my choice to follow you, I'm just as to blame for any of it." He bowed his head, shoe kicking the ground slightly in agitation. "You don't have to protect me."
Harry sighed… smiling a bit wryly.
"To quote a friend, that's now how this works." He scolded gently, Neville lifting his gaze in surprise. "I'm probably the most Slytherin-like Gryffindor to ever be in this house, and that means I've got the best and worst of both worlds. I want to protect my friends of my own free will, and I do that by lying whatever lie I need to." He reached out and nudged his friend's arm soothingly, the blue eyes following him seeming to try and warp his head around that logic, and totally failing. Harry offered him a reassuring grin as he nudged him again, just to be sure he was listening. "I'll tell you what: I'm going to think of a way to get Norbert out of here as soon as possible, and I can't guarantee it's not going to end up with me in detention until I graduate. If you want in, I won't try to protect you this time because I'm warning you now we might get in a world of trouble for it—I'm hoping just endless detention instead of arrested, though."
Neville slumped, seeming at a loss about the whole dragon situation, but determination flickering in his face again, washing away the anxiety like Harry had hoped it would.
"Okay. Count me in."
Harry grinned with more confidence than he felt, wondering how (or if) Neville would keep to the lie that Harry had been the one to lose the points. He had no clue if Neville could actually lie or not.
And honestly, he was hoping to never really know that answer.
000
"Draco!"
Normally he wouldn't announce his presence quite so loudly in the Slytherin side of the Great Hall, but he wanted to catch his friend before he could sit down to breakfast properly. True to form Draco paused to turn and spare him a greeting smile (and he was getting much better at doing that, even in snake territory), while Blaise also stopped in curiosity. Nott didn't even break stride and continued on, but Harry expected nothing less from him by now.
"Potter," Blaise greeted blandly, but with far too much glee in his tone to be a good sign. "Couldn't help but notice Gryffindor lost some serious points yesterday." He said brightly by way of greeting, and Harry didn't even bother wondering how Blaise knew it'd been him to lose the points.
"Blaise, not now. I really just have bigger things to worry about than the stupid house points." Harry shot him a look, "Also, it was Snape. Need I say more?"
"I would love it if you did."
"I'm sure you would, but unfortunately I don't trust you not to spread it around within minutes just because you're you."
"Now what does that mean?"
Harry made a very clear point of rolling his eyes. "Somehow, playing dumb suits you."
Instead of being flat out insulted, Blaise actually had to prevent himself from dying as he attempted to cover his startled laugh by pretending it was a coughing fit, though he managed to fool exactly no one.
"Gryffindor seems pretty concerned over the house points." Draco pointed out, ignoring his roommate as he attempted to turn and go sit down, only to be halted by Harry latching onto his sleeve insistently. He paused, seeming to realize something was up and got a concerned look on his face.
"Gryffindor is pretty concerned over a lot of stupid stuff and if I help win the next quidditch match, I'll be good. I'm not stupid enough to think everyone has to like me, and frankly people's opinions on me ranks pretty low on stuff I care about right now." Harry dismissed it entirely, before meeting his grey gaze with a wide green plead of his own. "I need your help."
"Why?" Ever the good Slytherin, even being his best friend he wasn't going to just agree that easily. Snakes didn't work like that, but Harry came prepared.
"I'm not talking about it in front of Blaise—but I'll trade you Transfiguration notes for the next month." He announced bluntly.
Draco perked up—but so did Blaise and pretty much every Slytherin in the vicinity who'd been doing a great job at pretending they weren't eavesdropping. Even some upper years who had no use for first-year class notes—the fact Harry was offering that much before getting around to saying what he wanted meant whatever he wanted, he wanted it badly.
Like sharks in the water they could sense a desperate deal from a mile away, and let's just say they were intrigued whether they were involved or not.
"Okay… not a bad trade, depending on what it is you want." The blond relented with a narrow look. "And if you're offering that up front, I'm suspicious."
Harry gave him his most guiltless smile he could and by both of their expressions, they bought it about as much as they'd bought Blaise's coughing fit.
"We… may get detention for it."
Draco stared, uncomprehending.
"You're… planning on getting detention?"
"It's a necessary evil." Harry waved it off uncaringly. "Transfiguration notes, or not? Midterms are coming up, may I remind you."
The Malfoy heir seemed to give it some serious consideration… before giving in with a sigh.
"Let me hear this plan of yours first."
000
"Why do we have to be here for this again? Hagrid could do it himself."
"Because Hagrid wouldn't do it himself. He'd back out at the last second and not let them take it."
"Okay, fair… then why am I here?"
"Because we're going to get caught, probably." Harry said for what felt like the twentieth time, patting Draco on the shoulder a bit patronizingly because the boy was being dense. "And a Slytherin already sold us out to Snape, so they'll probably do it again, so Snape will be the one to catch us. Probably. However, if you're right alongside me, he'll only give us detention instead of expelling us or even having us arrested. Probably."
"Then why is he here?"
"Because my better friends don't need to bribed to back me up when I come up with crazy plans." Harry cut the sharp tone off in a second, Neville remaining perfectly quiet on his other side as they left the castle and walked down to Hagrid's hut and letting him deal with Draco's complaining. Said Slytherin's cheeks turned a rosy pink in indignation that Harry would dare say that, but green eyes cut off his report with a glare before he could attempt to respond to that.
Honestly, it didn't make sense for Neville to be there, when you looked at the plan like a Slytherin.
But luckily for Harry, Neville was a much better Gryffindor than he was, and the sheer fact he knew this was going down meant the quiet boy was going to be involved whether Harry had told him to stay back in the castle or not. He knew Harry was going to be helping get Norbert out of Hogwarts, so he was going to be helping him even if it made sense for him to get implicated in this or not. Because Gryffindors put friends before fear of danger at every opportunity, and Neville was a good guy who, while he was still afraid of Hagrid, still respected the groundskeeper enough to not want him to get arrested. Even Neville who was flat out petrified of what they were about to do, still considered a couple of detention in exchange for Hagrid's continued freedom a fair price.
Draco was now sulking over him calling Neville his better friend, but you know, Draco was being paid to be here so he was just going to have to live with it.
He switched tactics instead. "If he were truly a good friend he'd be talking you out of this!"
"What, like you are?" Harry deadpanned, and Draco gave him a truly impressive glare. While the blond was very vocally against this, he hadn't actually made any attempt to talk Harry out of it. Either he knew it wasn't worth arguing to change his mind or was accepting his bribe as being a good deal despite the risk of detention and potentially getting arrested.
Or, he knew they weren't actually going to get arrested. Or at least he wasn't, given he was a Malfoy and his father was a barrister when it suited him. Draco had already clearly informed his parents that he was likely to get a detention, but given it was for a deal (that he wouldn't go into details about, just that it was for status which they seemed to like to hear) they were fine with it. It was only disrespectful as a Slytherin to get caught on accident—if you did it on purpose then that was fine, in their eyes.
I realize this means that Snape will likely eventually learn we willingly took his detention as part of a bigger plan, but hopefully it'll be well after the fact and there won't be anything he can do about it.
In any case, Draco was complaining because he was a brat, not really because he was against the plan. He was being well-compensated and it wouldn't harm his reputation or status in Slytherin at all so long as he didn't lost them too many points—and given Snape would likely be the one to catch them, chances of that were low. He was probably complaining because Neville had tagged along, and for some reason when he was outnumbered by lions he got more cactus-like than usual.
Okay… maybe it wasn't a mysterious reason as to why he acted like that, but Harry was going to ignore it for now. Neville was at least being civil in that he was trying his hardest to pretend like Draco wasn't there, facing forward as they made their way past the greenhouses and headed towards Hagrid's instead of so much as twitching at Draco's pointed barbs.
But just because he understood where the boy was coming from, didn't mean Harry was going to let that fly.
"Draco, shut up." He told him pointedly, and the blond snapped his jaw shut in a deadly glare. "We only have about ten minutes until it starts, so let's pick up the pace, shall we?" He refocused them, walking a bit faster and the two followed suit in silence—one tense and the other pouting so loudly in the silence, Harry rolled his eyes to no one.
The plan was simple, for as stupidly ballsy as it was.
Because they'd already been caught out after curfew, Harry was determined not to make the same mistake again… so this was going down middle of the day, when the sun was still high in the sky above them and most people were sitting in classrooms taking notes. They just so happened to have a break the hour after lunch, and the twins just so happened to be more than willing to skip their potions class this same hour (it's not like they could do worse in that class if they tried anyway) to enact a prank they'd apparently been planning for a couple weeks now, so it was certainly going to be a doozy.
Harry really should consider himself lucky that the twins were willing to bank so much on his future Transfiguration skills, because he owed them quite a few favors at this point and they were more than happy to wait a couple years for his skills to be worth cashing in on.
Just yet another reason to get good at Transfiguration quickly, I guess. I'll owe them half a dozen times over for this.
The twins turned out to be surprisingly pivotal in this plan, and it wouldn't have happened if Neville didn't have a wallflower superpower, as Harry had mentally started calling it. People tended to just forget he was there, so he knew quite a bit about quite a lot of people, just because they'd talk and confide in others and never really give a second thought to him also listening in. Which, was how he knew via Ron talking to Seamus that one of the elder Weasley brothers worked at a dragon reserve in Romania.
Posing the question to the twins, they'd been happy to give them an unofficial introduction to one Charlie Weasley via owl—a couple letters back and forth between him and Harry, and they'd had the makings of a brilliant (insane) plan. He very pointedly hadn't told the twins what he was up to, and luckily 'plausible deniability with the Ministry' was enough to convince them that they really didn't need to know. Detention was one thing, but their dad worked for the Ministry and even they weren't eager to endanger that no matter what the mischief was. They were happy to cause the distraction and to remain blissfully unaware of what Harry was actually up to, which was yet another reason to just love Fred and George.
Charlie, on the other hand, sounded almost as blinded by his love of dragons as Hagrid was about his pets, so maybe he wasn't exactly thinking of his father's position through this whole ordeal, of which Harry was thankful for. And in any case, Charlie had a license to work with dragons, so if he were caught with Norbert the consequences would be much less severe than if anyone else were to be caught with one.
And speaking of…
They arrived to Hagrid's hut to see him sniffling into a tablecloth-sized handkerchief, a rather large crate on wheels beside him shaking a bit ominously. Harry caught sight of a wisp of smoke emanating from it, and felt sweat beat down the back of his neck.
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
000
"Wow, isn't she a beauty!" Charlie Weasley looked exactly like Harry would've imagined for yet another Weasley brother, just buffer. Working with dragons was clearly hard on the body because he had biceps for days. Also, Harry had pegged him accurately as he seemed very much not concerned with the illegal situation they were involved in here, and more like an excited puppy to see the dragon in front of him.
Wait.
"She?" Neville blinked, also catching that in surprise.
"Yeah, she's female Norwegian Ridgeback. Only a couple weeks, right? So cute!" He cooed at he peeked through the slats in Norbert—Norberta's?—crate, which was far closer than Harry would've given the periodic fire-breathing and the insanely sharp talons that only seemed to stop scratching at the crate walls because Hagrid asked it to settle down politely.
Which is starting to make me think Hagrid has some kind of ability with animals, because since when could you reason with a baby dragon like you could a dog? You can't even reason with human baby like that!
"Females are much more vicious than their male counterparts in this species you know, so the claw marks are a dead giveaway," he chatted conversationally like they weren't under a time crunch.
"You don't say." Draco deadpanned, but luckily Charlie seemed to miss it.
"Yep!" He turned, sympathizing with the teary-eyed Hagrid watching the exchange sadly. He patted his huge arm gently. "Don't worry Hagrid, she'll have a ton of space to grow and be free on the reserve, and I'll send letters of her progress, I promise."
"Jus' so long as she won' miss me too much," He sniffled.
"Ah… well, as much as dragons can," Charlie rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, but thankfully Hagrid didn't seem to notice as he busied himself flustering over the crate, making sure the baby fire-breather had his snacks and stuffies with it.
Although given the amount of stuffing that had fell from the crate on the way up here, Harry doubted the stuffies had made the trip up the stairs much less to Romania.
Given there was already a Cerberus in the castle, bringing in a dragon as well had seemed like a sketchy idea, but it had also been the perfect cover. A large, slightly shaking crate making rattling, scratching sounds and smoking slightly was suspicious as hell, but luckily Hagrid had managed to stick to their cover story when Professor Sprout had seen him entering the Great Hall with it and asked what it was.
'Supplies for the third floor', got her backing off immediately, not wanting to know what exactly Hagrid was choosing to feed Fluffy.
That was all Hagrid had to say and it worked just like Harry had thought it would—but it'd taken them all week to coach Hagrid into actually being able to tell that lie. They guy was too easy for his own good, but luckily Harry now knew Hagrid was far too honest a bloke to ever be a liar. Someone would have to have a lot of motivation to both convince, and then coach the groundskeeper to lie even just a little bit—and honestly, after going through it this week with him, if someone ever actually managed to get Hagrid to lie again, Harry would have to give them a round of applause rather than being upset by it because they'd managed to do the impossible, frankly.
As it was, Harry, Draco, and Neville had followed at a distance to ensure Hagrid actually made it to the third floor instead of chickening out and taking Norbert back to his hut, and he'd paused long enough a couple times that Harry knew if the man didn't know they were following him, he probably would've done just that. It was because of that, that not even Draco put up a fuss when they followed him all the way to the forbidden third floor to ensure Hagrid met with Charlie properly for the exchange.
Draco and Neville had wondered why the third floor was forbidden, but Harry's explanation of 'one of Hagrid's pets' had silenced any further questioning on the topic. It almost made their shoulders hike up in tension as they glanced nervously around the floor for said mysterious pet, keeping close to Hagrid's side while they were there in the faith the pet would at least be hesitant of eating its owner.
The third floor was dangerous considering Fluffy was really only kept in by a locked door (not even magically locked as Hagrid, his caretaker, wasn't supposed to use magic and yet still needed to be able to get in to feed him) not to mention highly off limits. However, that also meant it was a perfectly safe location for an illegal exchange given no one but Hagrid had a legitimate excuse for being up here—not even Filch who Hagrid confirmed was ordered to keep kids away from this floor, but not actually set foot up here himself (a squib against a Cerberus was very bad odds, after all). The window they'd chosen to meet at had empty classrooms above and below it, and Charlie's group of people he'd brought with him all knew how to disillusion themselves and Norbert's crate so they wouldn't be seen flying away on their brooms with a massive crate between them in broad daylight.
It was a good plan, but it could always be better. There was still a chance someone would see them fly off, hence the distraction.
Which, as Hedwig flew by the window in a graceful arc, before heading up towards Gryffindor tower, Harry knew the prank was in full-swing on the other side of the castle. She was an insanely intelligent bird (smarter than some humans Harry knew, honestly) so when he'd explained the situation she'd circled the castle all morning, waiting for the professors to be pulled towards the east side of the castle from whatever the twins had done. Flying by their window and up towards Gryffindor tower was the signal the coast was clear.
"That's the signal—you all need to go. Thank you again for this Charlie, we really owe you."
"It's a pleasure! I'll take good care of her, promise." He flashed a wild grin, the guys accompanying him already having roped the crate to their brooms. "And it was nice to meet you Harry—watch out for the twins for me, they're a handful!"
"You don't have to tell me that," he rolled his eyes, Charlie giving him a jovial laugh at they prepped to take off.
Harry waved them bye as they disappeared under their disillusionment charm and wind left out the window in the tell-tale sign, patting Hagrid's arm as he sniffled loudly beside him.
"It's for the best, Hagrid." Neville mustered up the courage to comfort him as well, sympathetic if not able to understand exactly.
"I know… it's jus' hard—they grow up so fast!" He patted his eyes dry with his handkerchief, and Harry refrained from commenting while he continued to try and act as sympathetic as Neville. Draco seemed disturbed but thankfully didn't say anything either.
After what he hoped was a reasonable amount of time to give him room to… grieve? Was that the right word? Anyway, they really needed to get moving because the prank wouldn't keep the professors' attention forever and if they weren't caught leaving the third floor and could avoid detention, all the better. So, after a reasonable amount of time Harry poked and prodded Hagrid with Neville's help until the man collected himself enough to put his handkerchief away and be lead from the third floor as quickly as they could cajole him to go.
On the upside, Harry was proven entirely correct in his paranoia when not ten meters away from the third floor exit, they were caught.
On the downside, Harry was proven entirely correct in his paranoia in that it was Snape standing there—beady eyes narrowed as he clearly realized where they were coming from.
On the other upside and not something Harry had seen coming, McGonagall was standing right next to the Potions professor when they were caught.
On the other downside, she looked way angrier than Snape did.
"What is going on here exactly?" McGonagall's no-nonsense tone snapped out, sounding somehow both calm and collected and furious at the same time and Harry had no idea how she did that but very much wanted to learn.
Since it was his idea and it wasn't just Snape, Harry opened his mouth before anyone else could get the chance to answer her.
"We may have gotten turned around and also maybe forgot the third floor was off limits and Hagrid was bringing a crate of something weird up there and he saw us so… are we in trouble?" He asked as innocently as he could—and received a very impressive death glare from both the Transfiguration and Potions professors almost as if they'd rehearsed it. "We were wandering! Do you know the kind of cool stuff that you can find in this castle!?"
"Mr. Potter this is unacceptable. Detention, am I clear?" McGonagall's eyes were on fire, and Harry wilted. Okay… maybe her having caught him wasn't an upside after all.
"Yes ma'am." He agreed in a cowed tone—and he certainly felt it too. Not really as he'd never regret helping Hagrid, but still… he regretted disappointing her.
"You too, Mr. Longbottom. Whether this was your idea or not, being up there is forbidden for a very good reason and I'll not have my lions doing anything that foolish again. The third floor is off limits due to its danger and getting lost after almost a year at this school is not an acceptable answer to putting yourselves in harm's way."
Neville cowered and nodded quickly, and she leaned off just as fast. It was clear to all present she held Harry mainly responsible… and well, she wasn't wrong exactly.
"And you can join them, Mr. Malfoy." Snape's eyes narrowed at his godson, who pointedly did not react beyond nodding once respectfully. While he didn't say it, the displeasure was most likely because he got caught more than anything.
Then again, Snape probably knew about Fluffy too. If Draco was to be believed and he actually did care about his godson, how close he probably unknowingly came to being eaten by a Cerberus was probably worth a couple detentions alone.
"Do any of you have classes right now?"
"No, we're free for the day until Astronomy tonight." Harry answered her curt tone, and she nodded once.
"Then you three will be coming to my office. I can take it from here, Hagrid."
"Right," The groundskeeper shifted, clearly seeming uncomfortable letting the first years who'd helped him get in trouble for his sake, but Draco elbowing him (which probably felt like a poke, if that to him) kept him quiet enough while they were pulled away.
"Severus, I trust you and Filius can handle the swamp on the fifth floor without me."
"Indeed," The Potions master drawled uncaringly, breaking off from where he'd been giving Draco a look to turn and walk the opposite direction, abandoning his godson to the displeased head of Gryffindor house.
It was as they were being lead down to McGonagall's office that his ears finally caught up with him.
"Wait, what swamp on the fifth floor?"
What did the twins DO?
By the glare he got, he realized he probably wouldn't be the one asking question for a while. He offered his favorite teacher a disarming smile and hoped she'd forgive him quickly.
000
"I hate you."
"She does it because she cares. There's a Cerberus up there—she doesn't know that we know, so her assumption is we could've all been killed accidentally. She worries." Harry defended McGonagall, even feeling less than charitable after spending no less than two hours hearing how much of an idiot he was for being on the third floor. Finally released from her clutches, Neville looked ready to pass out and even Draco seemed wiped.
Even after being scolded to hell and back by her, she was still his favorite adult by a long shot, so he felt obligated to defend her in her absence.
Despite his weariness, Draco did a double-take.
"Wait, a Cerberus?"
"Details, Draco."
"An important detail!" He tossed his hands up exasperated. "You planned to get this detention."
"I said there was a possibility. We had a solid excuse to remain innocent-ish but that wouldn't save us from being up there in the first place if we were seen. It's still a rule broken."
Draco pinched the bridge of nose. "I've had my doubts, but you really are a Gryffindor, aren't you? Doing it midday is gutsy—and arguably just flat out stupid."
"Well, it worked. And you'll have your notes, don't worry." He pat Draco's shoulder reassuringly, before shooting another grin at a nauseous-looking Neville "And you can have my notes too—because I was really hoping you wouldn't get caught in this, so sorry it happened."
"And you didn't care about me getting involved!?" Draco demanded in annoyance.
"No." He huffed bluntly, and the Slytherin made a scoffing/choking sound which was dramatic enough to worm a tiny smile from Neville.
"It's alright, Harry… it was to help Hagrid, so I don't mind." Neville assured him.
"In any case, I bet I can convince McGonagall to let us have the detention with Hagrid so it won't be that bad." Harry offered as an olive branch to the both of them. "I mean I hope it won't. Hopefully we won't need to deal with any of his pets."Both Gryffindor and Slytherin beside him sighed at that, almost in the exact same way.
Harry wondered if they'd be more mad at him if he pointed that out.
000
It was about the same time a hood figure dripping unicorn blood from its mouth was advancing on him in a creepy dark forest, that he realized maybe Neville and Draco had a point about his stupid Gryffindor tendencies getting him killed one day.