Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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?” Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon’s head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. “Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!” said Hagrid. “Hagrid,” said Hermione, “how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?” Hagrid was about to answer when the color suddenly drained from his face — he leapt to his feet and ran to the window. “What’s the matter?” “Someone was lookin’ through the gap in the curtains — it’s a kid — he’s runnin’ back up ter the school.” Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him. Malfoy had seen the dragon. Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy’s face during the next week made Harry, Ron, and Hermione very nervous. They spent most of their free time in Hagrid’s darkened hut, trying to reason with him. “Just let him go,” Harry urged. “Set him free.” “I can’t,” said Hagrid. “He’s too little. He’d die.” CHAPTER FOURTEEN 236 They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils. Hagrid hadn’t been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keep- ing him so busy. There were empty brandy bottles and chicken feathers all over the floor. “I’ve decided to call him Norbert,” said Hagrid, looking at the dragon with misty eyes. “He really knows me now, watch. Norbert! Norbert! Where’s Mommy?” “He’s lost his marbles,” Ron muttered in Harry’s ear. “Hagrid,” said Harry loudly, “give it two weeks and Norbert’s going to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go to Dumbledore at any moment.” Hagrid bit his lip. “I — I know I can’t keep him forever, but I can’t jus’ dump him, can’t.” Harry suddenly turned to Ron. “Charlie,” he said. “You’re losing it, too,” said Ron. “I’m Ron, remember?” “No — Charlie — your brother, Charlie. In Romania. Studying dragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take care of him and then put him back in the wild!” “Brilliant!” said Ron. “How about it, Hagrid?” And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owl to Charlie to ask him. The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Her- mione and Harry sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just NORBERT THE NORWEGIAN RIDGEBACK 237 chimed midnight when the portrait hole burst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled off Harry’s Invisibility Cloak. He had been down at Hagrid’s hut, helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats by the crate. “It bit me!” he said, showing them his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. “I’m not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon’s the most horrible animal I’ve ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you’d think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for fright- ening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby.” There was a tap on the dark window. “Its Hedwig!” said Harry, hurrying to let her in. “She’ll have Charlie’s answer!” The three of them put their heads together to read the note. Dear Ron, How are you? Thanks for the letter — I’d be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won’t be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn’t be seen carrying an illegal dragon. Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallest tower at mid- night on Saturday? They can meet you there and take him away while it’s still dark. Send me an answer as soon as possible. Love, Charlie CHAPTER FOURTEEN 238 They looked at one another. “We’ve got the Invisibility Cloak,” said Harry. “It shouldn’t be too difficult — I think the cloak’s big enough to cover two of us and Norbert.” It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that the other two agreed with him. Anything to get rid of Norbert — and Malfoy. There was a hitch. By the next morning, Ron’s bitten hand had swollen to twice its usual size. He didn’t know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey — would she recognize a dragon bite? By the afternoon, though, he had no choice. The cut had turned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert’s fangs were poisonous. Harry and Hermione rushed up to the hospital wing at the end of the day to find Ron in a terrible state in bed. “It’s not just my hand,” he whispered, “although that feels like it’s about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey he wanted to borrow one of my books so he could come and have a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her what really bit me — I’ve told her it was a dog, but I don’t think she believes me — I shouldn’t have hit him at the Quidditch match, that’s why he’s do- ing this.” Harry and Hermione tried to calm Ron down. “It’ll all be over at midnight on Saturday,” said Hermione, but this didn’t soothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat bolt upright and broke into a sweat. “Midnight on Saturday!” he said in a hoarse voice. “Oh no — oh no — I’ve just remembered — Charlie’s letter was in that book Malfoy took, he’s going to know we’re getting rid of Norbert.” NORBERT THE NORWEGIAN RIDGEBACK 239 Harry and Hermione didn’t get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave, saying Ron needed sleep. “It’s too late to change the plan now,” Harry told Hermione. “We haven’t got time to send Charlie another owl, and this could be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We’ll have to risk it. And we have got the Invisibility Cloak, Malfoy doesn’t know about that.” They found Fang the boarhound sitting outside with a ban- daged tail when they went to tell Hagrid, who opened a window to talk to them. “I won’t let you in,” he puffed. “Norbert’s at a tricky stage — nothin’ I can’t handle.” When they told him about Charlie’s letter, his eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bit- ten him on the leg. “Aargh! It’s all right, he only got my boot — jus’ playin’ — he’s only a baby, after all.” The baby banged its tail on the wall, making the windows rattle. Harry and Hermione walked back to the castle feeling Saturday couldn’t come quickly enough. They would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say good-bye to Norbert if they hadn’t been so worried about what they had to do. It was a very dark, cloudy night, and they were a bit late arriving at Hagrid’s hut because they’d had to wait for Peeves to get out of their way in the entrance hall, where he’d been playing tennis against the wall. CHAPTER FOURTEEN 240 Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate. “He’s got lots o’ rats an’ some brandy fer the journey,” said Ha- grid in a muffled voice. “An’ I’ve packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely.” From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to Harry as though the teddy was having his head torn off. “Bye-bye, Norbert!” Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and Hermione covered the crate with the Invisibility Cloak and stepped under- neath it themselves. “Mommy will never forget you!” How they managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as they heaved Norbert up the marble staircase in the entrance hall and along the dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another — even one of Harry’s short- cuts didn’t make the work much easier. “Nearly there!” Harry panted as they reached the corridor be- neath the tallest tower. Then a sudden movement ahead of them made them almost drop the crate. Forgetting that they were already invisible, they shrank into the shadows, staring at the dark outlines of two people grappling with each other ten feet away. A lamp flared. Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, 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’s coming — he’s got a dragon!” “What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on — I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!” NORBERT THE NORWEGIAN RIDGEBACK 241 The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until they’d stepped out into the cold night air did they throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hermione did a sort of jig. “Malfoy’s got detention! I could sing!” “Don’t,” Harry advised her. Chuckling about Malfoy, they waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate. About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swoop- ing down out of the darkness. Charlie’s friends were a cheery lot. They showed Harry and Hermione the harness they’d rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Harry and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much. At last, Norbert was going . . . going . . . gone. They slipped back 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’d left the Invisibility Cloak on top of the tower. C H A P T E R F I F T E E N 242 THE FORBIDDEN FOREST hings couldn’t have been worse. Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall’s study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other. Hermione was trembling. Excuses, alibis, and wild cover-up stories chased each other around Harry’s brain, each more feeble than the last. He couldn’t see how they were going to get out of trouble this time. They were cornered. How could they have been so stupid as to forget the cloak? There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for their being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone be- ing up the tallest Astronomy Tower, which was out-of-bounds ex- cept for classes. Add Norbert and the Invisibility Cloak, and they might as well be packing their bags already. Had Harry thought that things couldn’t have been worse? He was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville. T THE FORBIDDEN FOREST 243 “Harry!” Neville burst out, the moment he saw the other two. “I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag —” Harry shook his head violently to shut Neville up, but Professor McGonagall had seen. She looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them. “I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you were up in the Astronomy Tower. It’s one o’clock in the morning. Yüklə 3,2 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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