Cia.

Cia is my new greeting. It means hi, hey, yo, hello, whatever. It's funny because it sounds like "See ya".

Angel Logic.

I reported back to my friends the deal with my brother.

"Jinx!" Harry said. "Do you want Hagrid to be kicked out?"

"No! Of course not! I know that one month isn't that long, but it's the best we've got." I said.

"Jinx is right. We just have to convince Hagrid to set him free." Hermione said.

Hagrid, however, wasn't easy to convince.

"Just let him go." Harry urged. "Set him free."

"I can't." Said Hagrid. "He's too little. He'd die."

We looked at the dragon. It had grown three times in length in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of it's nostrils. Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because the dragon was keeping 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. I was standing creepishly close, so I heard.

"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."

He's lying. We still have three weeks.

Hagrid bit his lip. "I -- I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him, I 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!" Said Harry.

He's smart.

"Brilliant!" Said Ron. "How about it, Hagrid?"

And in the end, Hagrid agreed that we could send an owl to Charlie to ask him.

The following week dragged by. Wednesday night found Hermione, Harry and I sitting alone in the common room, long after everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on the wall had just 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.

"Ew." I said, wrinkling my nose.

"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 frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby." Ron said incredulously.

There was a tap on the dark window.

"It's Hedwig!" said Harry, hurrying to let her in. "She'll have Charlie's answer!"

The four of us put our 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 midnight 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

We looked at one another. I touched my tongue to my nose and Hermione shot me a look.

"We've got the invisibility cloak." Said Harry. "It shouldn't be too difficult -- I think the cloaks big enough to cover three of us and Norbert."

It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that we agreed with him. Anything to get rid of Norbert -- and my brother.

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. We 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 doing this."

Harry and Hermione tried to calm Ron down. I stroked my imaginary beard while listening to Harry and Hermione talk about how awful my brother was. On the contrary, I agree. 

"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."

Harry and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer. Madam Pomfrey came over at that moment and made us leave, saying Ron needed sleep.

"It's too late to change the plan now." Harry told us. "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. Unless you've told him."

I shook my head. "I've only told him what he already knows."

We found Fang, the boarhound, sitting outside with a bandaged 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 we told him about Charlie's letter, his eyes filled with tears, although that might have been because Norbert had just bitten him on the leg. I almost felt bad.

"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, Hermione, and I walked back to the castle feeling Saturday couldn't come quickly enough. We would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the time came for him to say good-bye to Norbert if we hadn't been so worried about what we had to do.

It was a very dark, cloudy night, and we were a bit late arriving at Hagrid's hut because we'd had to wait for Peeves to get out of our way in the entrance hall, where he'd been playing tennis against the wall. Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.

"He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey." Said Hagrid in a muffled voice. "An' I've packed his teddy bear in case he gets lonely."

A dragon with a teddy bear.

Go figure.

From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to me as though the teddy was having his headtorn off.

"Bye-bye, Norbert!" Hagrid sobbed, as Harry, Hermione, and I covered the crate with the invisibility cloak and stepped underneath it ourselves. "Mommy will never forget you!"

How we managed to get the crate back up to the castle, they never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as we 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 shortcuts didn't make the work much easier.

"Nearly there!" Harry panted as we reached the corridor beneath the tallest tower. Then a sudden movement ahead of them made us almost drop the crate. Forgetting that we were already invisible, we 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 Draco by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of thenight, how dare you -- "

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming -- he's got a dragon!" Draco protested. He sounded like such a idiot.

Well, he is one so I supposed he just sounds like himself.

If that makes sense.

"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 tower seemed the easiest thing in the world after that. Not until we'd stepped out into the cold night air did we throw off the cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hermione did a sort of jig, and I joined her.

"Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!" She sang.

"Don't." Harry advised her. Chuckling about Draco, we waited, Norbert thrashing about in his crate.

"You know, it's kind of weird to hear you guys refer to my brother as Malfoy, because technically, I'm Malfoy too." I said randomly.

About ten minutes later, four broomsticks came swooping down out of the darkness. Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. They showed us the harness they'd rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then we shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.

At last, Norbert was going... Going... Gone. We slipped back down the spiral staircase, our hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off us. No more dragon -- Draco in detention -- what could spoil our happiness?

The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As we 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.

"Shit." I said.