The following week didn't get any better, and things didn't improve between Jeff, Calysta, Regulus, Felix and Raymond. In fact, the argument seemed to have made things worse, and Jeff was avoiding his friends completely. Calysta would often see him lurking alone in the corridors after class, and sitting all alone in the library.

She longed to sort things out, but every time she and her friends would try to approach him, he'd mutter excuses under his breath and stalk off in the opposite direction. 

None of the others felt as if Jeff's theory about Professor Quirrell was accurate. Harry had told Calysta he'd heard the same conversation between Snape and Quirrell that Jeff had. In fact, Harry believed that Quirrell was protecting the stone from Snape.

Ron and Harry had gone around trying to get people to stop laughing at Quirrell, but it didn't seem to be doing much good. As the weeks went by, Quirrell became paler and paler, but a growling heard on the forbidden corridor along the way to charms class told Calysta that the stone was still safe.

Meanwhile, Calysta had often spotted Jeff tailing Quirrell and spying on him, and although she tried to tell her cousin that Harry too suspected Snape, he would hear none of it.

From what she heard from the other boys, Jeff would come to bed only five minutes before curfew, and leave his dormitory far earlier than Calysta even had Quidditch practice.

Moreover, only ten weeks were left until the end of year exams, and Hermione had tried to coerce Calysta and her friends into making color coded schedules.

"Granger, the exams are ages away," Felix raised his brows.

"Ten weeks," she said stiffly. 

"Seventy days," Felix bantered back.

"One thousand, six hundred and eighty hours," Hermione chirped.

Felix narrowed his eyes. "One hundred thousand, and eight hun— "

"That's enough!" Calysta interrupted. "Just because you two have brains, doesn't mean you need to show them off to the rest of us who have to share a braincell." 

The brunette proposed a plan. "Here's what we'll do. Hermione will keep her study plans away from us, and we'll see who does better at the end of the year. Felix, or Hermione."

"Fair deal," responded Hermione smugly.

"Easy, I will be the top of the year, wait and see."

That would have fledged into another argument, if it weren't for Regulus, who interrupted them by slamming his book shut, loud enough to earn a warning glare from Madam Pince.

Felix then stood up, shot a glare towards Hermione, who rolled her eyes. 

"You guys coming?" the pale boy spoke, looking at Calysta, Ray and Regulus.

"Definitely, I can't stand this place," Regulus muttered under his breath, while Hermione gasped as if it was her being insulted. 

"How can you?" she asked, "there are so many books."

"Exactly," Regulus drove his point forward. 

Raymond, who was sketching a rather amusing portrait of Professor Quirrell, stood up. "Yeah, I'm coming."

"Me too," Calysta chirped, leaving Hermione alone in her blissful haven of books.

They had only eight weeks left before the end of year examinations, and the teachers only seemed to pile more work on the first years. 

Calysta and her friends still hadn't made up with Jeff, since he was still avoiding them, and the air was getting even tenser between them.

One afternoon, Calysta was seated in the library, with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Raymond, quietly discussing the twelve uses of Dragon Blood, when Ron looked wistfully out of the window. 

"I'll never remember this rubbish," he muttered, his head turned to the window. It was one of the finest days they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not shade of blue, and the black lake shimmered underneath the calming rays of the sun. Calysta opened the window and stuck her head out, inhaling the air. 

"Summer's on it's way," she sighed happily, a smile on her face.

Madam Pince unfortunately caught her.

"Sit down," she said in a shrill voice, closing the window magically with her wand. As she hobbled off, Calysta heard her mutter something like, "first years.." under her breath.

As she watched Raymond sketch a tulip on the bottom of his page, she suddenly looked up when Ron spoke again.

"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

"Hi Hagrid," Calysta chirped. "What're you doing here?"

Hagrid shuffled into view, wearing his giant moleskin overcoat, hiding a book behind his back.

"Jus' lookin'," he said gruffly, a little too hastily, in a tone that caught their interest at once. "An' what are yeh lot up ter?" He looked at the suspiciously. "Still not lookin' for Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St —"

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Listen — come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh —" 

"See you later, then," said Calysta.

Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully. "Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" 

"I don't think so," Calysta shrugged. "He knows everything about it anyway.."

"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough of working. 

He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table. "Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."

"He's just interested in dragons, he's told me that before," Calysta inputted.

 "Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," said Harry. 

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden —anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania." 

"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry. 

"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget." 

"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione. 

"I wish I knew," said Calysta, the subject piquing her interest. "I mean, he probably doesn't want anyone to know he sneaked a book out of the library, so he's definitely hiding something. But if he'd checked out the book, then most probably, he just wanted to read."

"You know, you're actually pretty smart," Hermione pointed out. "If you'd worked a little harder, you could be one of the toppers."

Calysta shrugged, standing up. "Where's the fun in that? Sitting in the library all day instead of spending a wonderful day like this outside?"

She looped her arm in Ray's and the pair left the library. She couldn't take even another minute of studying.

About an hour later, Calysta was playing Wizarding chess with Felix, who was proving to be a very challenging opponent. Commanding her rook to B5, she was interrupted when her brother tapped her on the shoulder.

"We're going to Hagrid's, do you want to come?"

"Sure," Calysta nodded, standing up. As she stood up, she locked eyes with Jeff, who was watching her curiously as he was writing his Herbology essay.

Calysta send him a nervous smile before following Harry, Ron and Hermione to Hagrid's hut.

What she didn't realize, was that Jeff had heard their conversation, and was following her.

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them. It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.

"So — yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes," said Harry. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned at him. "O' course I can't," he said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts — I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy." 

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. 

Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you." Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. 

Harry and Ron beamed at Hermione. 

Calysta instantly noticed that there seemed to be something almost too... easy about getting information from Hagrid. All it took were sweet words and he'd spill his deepest, darkest secrets. And they were only first years. She couldn't imagine who else had noticed this about Hagrid. If stronger, more experienced witches or wizards noticed, it would only be too easy for Hagrid to be manipulated, especially because he was close to Dumbledore.

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that . . . let's see . . . he borrowed Fluffy from me . . . then some o' the teachers did enchantments . . . Professor Sprout — Professor Flitwick — Professor McGonagall —" he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell —an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape." 

"Snape?"

 "Yeah — yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it." 

Calysta knew Harry, Ron and Hermione were thinking the same as she was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything —except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.

 "You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?" 

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly. 

"Well, that's something," Harry muttered to the others. 

But Calysta was too busy doing some thinking, Harry and Hagrid's conversation playing through her mind.

"Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling." 

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. Calysta noticed him glance at the fire. 

She glanced at the fire, and noticed something there.

"Hagrid, what's that?" she questioned. In her heart, she already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.

"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's — er . . ."

"Uh oh," she muttered, facepalming. "This can't be good."

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."

"Won it," said Hagrid. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

How many strangers carry dragon eggs in their pockets? I don't think that was a stranger... It must have been Snape. He knows Hagrid well enough to know he wanted a dragon. Calysta was deep in thought.

Calysta instantly stood up. "I need to go," she breathed. She needed to do some research.

"Cal, yer not... goin' ter tell anyone, are yeh?" Hagrid asked, shifting in his position nervously.

She forced a smile. "Of course not, your secret's safe with me."

And then she left the hut, making sure to shut the door behind her. What she didn't expect, was to run into Jeff as soon as she'd taken two steps forward.

"You?" she blurted, nearly tripping over her feet. "Why are you following me?" she demanded.

"I need to talk to you," her cousin said, looking at the floor.

Calysta nodded. If Jeff was willing to talk to her, then he must be over their fight. 

Jeff took her hand and led her to the bank of the Black Lake, where he sat on the grassy ground, leaning against the tree.

"I'm sorry," Calysta quickly said. "For everything."

Jeff only gave her a small smile, wrapping his arms around her. "It's okay, cuz, let's put it behind us. I need to tell you something about Quirrell."

"Wait," Calysta interrupted. "Let me tell you about Hagrid first."

"I know about Hagrid's dragon egg. I saw him sneak into the library and followed him... I saw him take the book about dragons.."

"Yes, but there's something else. Have you noticed that Hagrid is extremely easy to coax into telling your secrets?"

"Of course I have. In fact, I overheard Dumbledore telling Professor Snape to keep an eye on Hagrid, because he was drunk this morning."

"And how did Snape react to the news?" Calysta questioned, knowing that if Snape had given Hagrid the egg, then Snape would have known Hagrid was drunk.

"He was surprised. Like— really surprised."

That didn't add up. If Snape was surprised, either he was a really good actor, or he'd sent someone else to give the egg to Hagrid.

"Yes, Hagrid had gone to the pub last night," Calysta nodded. "That's where he got the egg. Although he said he got it from a stranger."

"Cal, don't you understand what I'm saying?" Jeff said with a frustrated sigh. "I still think it's Quirrell that's trying to steal the stone."

Calysta rubbed her forehead. "But all the evidence points to Snape."

Jeff shook his head. "Let's just wait a couple days more for anything out of the ordinary about Snape or Quirrell."

Calysta agreed. "For now, let's go finish our map."

One day, during breakfast, Harry furiously nudged Calysta, showing her a note sent by Hagrid. 

It's hatching.

Her eyes widened, and she instantly wanted to skip Herbology to go see a dragon hatch, because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Ron seemed to agree with her. "Yeah. Cal and I will go skip herbology and go down to Hagrid."

Hermione seemed to hear none of it. "You'll get into trouble."

"Killjoy," Calysta muttered, rolling her eyes. Hermione sent her an angry glare.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" 

"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing —" 

"Shut up!" Calysta whispered. 

Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen. How much had he heard? Calysta didn't like the look on Malfoy's face at all.

 Ron and Hermione argued all the way to Herbology and in the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with the other Harry, Ron, Calysta, and her other friends during morning break. When the bell sounded from the castle at the end of their lesson, the eight of them dropped their trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to the edge of the forest. Hagrid greeted them, looking flushed and excited.

"It's nearly out," he ushered then inside the hut.

The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath.

 All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. It wasn't exactly pretty; Calysta thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jet body, it had a long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes. It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

 "Isn't he beautiful?" 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 mummy!" 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?" Regulus stood up.

"Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains — it's a kid —he's runnin' back up ter the school." 

Calysta bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him. 

Malfoy had seen the dragon.

Over the next week, Calysta couldn't bear Malfoy's smug little grin whenever they crossed paths. He had found out a really deep secret, and Calysta knew it was only a matter of time before he opened his mouth and spilled it.

On the other hand, things between Jeff, Calysta, and the other boys had mended, and their friendship had become stronger than ever. They had gone back to playing pranks, to make up for all the lost time while Jeff wasn't speaking to them, and Calysta had to admit, she'd missed him terribly. Her friends just weren't the same without him.

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron and Hermione tried everything in their power to make Hagrid see reason about letting the dragon free. All while Calysta tried to coax Hagrid into keeping it in the forbidden forest. In just a week, the dragon had grown to triple its size, much to the first years' amusement and delight.

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

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

"But if you keep him in the forest, you could still go visit him..."

"He'd set everything on fire," replied Hagrid.

They looked at the dragon. Smoke kept furling out of its 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 Mummy?" 

"He's lost his marbles," Ron muttered under his breath, causing Regulus to snicker. 

"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 jus' can't 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!" 

"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, Harry, Ron and Hermione were still obsessing over the dragon. Calysta and her friends would have been too, if they hadn't gotten into another detention.

Once again, one of their pranks had gone horribly wrong. While the five of them had planned on making a grand entrance into the Great Hall for breakfast, it had unfortunately not had gone as well as they planned.

It all started on Monday morning, when Calysta, Jeff, Regulus, Felix and Raymond walked into the Great Hall for the first meal of the day. Of course, breakfast was the usual, boring affair of low chatter comprising of whispers, yawns and sleepy gestures, and nothing interesting ever happened.

Until Calysta, Jeff, Regulus, Raymond and Felix hatched a plan that would perhaps, liven the usual lifeless, mundane ordeal.

Jeff had suggested a grand entrance, based on the muggle concept of skating. Felix only added that just skating into the hall would be rather boring. Regulus commented that they didn't have any skates, and Calysta said they could make skates. Raymond inputted the fact that they could use a spell to attract everyone's attention, and a new plan was born.

So on Tuesday morning, in the boys' dormitory, Calysta and the four boys were wearing their usual black shoes, when Calysta transfigured them into brightly colored skates.

Calysta's were a light shade of blue, while Jeff had made Calysta transfigure them (with great difficulty, she was only a first year, it was extremely hard) into several colors until he was happy with a bright, shocking pink. Felix had chosen the most dull, boring color, which happened to be a light yellow, while Raymond and Regulus were wearing orange and purple respectively.

Felix, who was exceptionally skilled with charms, used a tricky little spell to cause the newly transfigured roller-skates to emit a sort of sparkly, neon trail wherever they went, and Raymond used another spell to make them roll at a tremendous speed.

When the five entered the Great Hall, it was chaotic. Not only were they leaving bright, neon marks all over the floor, but they had made a great mistake by forgetting the most crucial detail. While Ray had used a spell to make the skates go faster, nobody had thought of making them have a spell to stop.

And so the five Gryffindors kept bumping into teachers and students, only getting faster by the minute, as the speed became too fast to control. Calysta zoomed past the Gryffindor table, and due to the reason that she wasn't able to stop, she tried to nick a slice of vanilla cake, but only ended up making the whole cake splatter onto the floor.

Regulus was screaming, trying to stop moving, and he only stopped after he crashed headfirst into the Hufflepuff table, falling to the floor while the wheels on his skates still turned around, his face flat on the floor. "Ow," he groaned, knowing he'd be full of bruises the next morning.

Raymond and Jeff were better at controlling it. They were whooping and cheering as they whizzed all around the tables, leaving brightly colored prints all over the floor, ignoring the students' and teachers' yells as they bumped into them. Only a select few students were watching the drama unfold with amusement, and it was them who cheered for the five first years who were completely out of control.

Felix, however, was not so lucky. After he slipped on some spilt pumpkin juice, he banged straight into the Slytherin table, and landed on something stiff and squishy, which happened to be none other than Millicent Bulstrode, the girl who despised him after he walked into her changing on the train on September the first.

While the other teachers were too busy shouting and looking around in confusion as more and more havoc spread, it was only Professor McGonagall who first came to her senses and actually did something.

"Finite Incantatem!" she shouted, pointing her wand at each one of the moving Gryffindors, causing their roller-skates to stop as they froze in their spots.

Standing up, Calysta had never seen her this furious. Her face was red, and her eyes were wide and glaring at each of them in turn. 

"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, her lips pressed into a thin line. Ten points from Gryffindor, from each of you. And detention!" she exclaimed. "For the rest of the week."

As Calysta looked at the Great Hall, that was when she noticed the damage they'd caused. The colored marks on the floor didn't seem to fade at all, even with the most complex of spells. No amount of scrubbing could get the neon imprints off the floor, and Filch was absolutely livid. He kept complaining, until Professor McGonagall declared that their detention would be to remove the marks off the stone floor of the Great Hall.

Of course, Professor McGonagall wouldn't make the same mistake again. The five under detention would constantly be under supervision, lest they cause trouble again, like they did during their detention in the trophy room a few weeks prior.

That didn't stop them from whispering and giggling to each other. Calysta couldn't lie. She didn't really like detention much, but with her friends, it didn't seem too bad. Professor Binns usually supervised them, and he had a habit of falling asleep, so it was like having no figure of authority watching them as they instead, plotted more ways to make grand entrances in the future.

On Wednesday night, the marks in the Great Hall had gotten considerably lighter, when Ron walked through the doors of the Great Hall, only an hour before curfew. 

"It bit me," he whispered, showing him his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief. "The dragon. Hagrid told me off for frightening it, and when I left, he was singing it a lullaby!"

Regulus and Jeff roared with laughter at his expression. 

"Go to Madam Pomfrey," Felix suggested. 

But Ron dismissed the thought, claiming he didn't want anyone to know about the dragon.

The following morning, Ron's hand was twice its size, and a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert's fangs were poisonous. Harry had excitedly come to Calysta, telling her that Ron's brother Charlie had agreed to take the dragon. 

Calysta was sad the dragon had to go, but was thrilled at the same time, since Hagrid wouldn't be in trouble if anyone found out.

Ron had finally agreed to go to the hospital wing after Felix's constant nagging, and Madam Pomfrey had made him stay.

"It's just not my hand," Ron grumbled. "It's Malfoy too. He claimed that he wanted to borrow one of my books, just so he could have a good laugh at me."

"Want me to prank him?" Calysta questioned, as if it was no big deal.

"Yeah, that's a nice excuse to prank him," chimed in Regulus.

"Please," Ron said, a grin crossing his lips.

But unfortunately, Malfoy had leverage over all of them. Ron just remembered that the book Malfoy took contained Charlie's response letter. Malfoy knew about the dragon, and about the fact that it would be going. What was worse is that he knew the time and place too.

It was too late to change the plan and write to Charlie, everyone knew that. The only bright thing was that Malfoy knew nothing about the invisibility cloak, and hopefully, nothing could go wrong. 

Hagrid was completely occupied by the dragon. Fang's tail was damaged, and he was sorrowfully seated on the stone steps to Hagrid's castle, when Calysta spotted it looking rather miserable. 

Finally, almost as if it couldn't arrive any quicker, came Saturday. At half past eleven, Calysta and Raymond sneaked out of the Gryffindor common room through their secret passage, dungbombs in their hands.

They accompanied Harry and Hermione to Hagrid's hut, all of them squished underneath the invisibility cloak, when it was time for Hagrid to say goodbye to Norbert.

 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. 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." 

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 underneath it themselves. "Mummy will never forget you!" 

The plan was for Harry and Hermione to take Norbert up to the Astronomy tower, while Calysta and Raymond wait downstairs, in case anyone (like Malfoy) showed up. The pair were to use their dungbombs as a distraction, while Harry and Hermione got rid of Norbert.

As Harry and Hermione climbed up the stairs, Raymond and Calysta found a dark hiding spot behind a large statue, of a queer wizard who seemed to be showing off his cape. It seemed as the perfect spot, until Calysta noticed a lamp flashing, and a tall silhouette, dragging a smaller figure by their ear. 

It was Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and her hair in a hairnet, dragging Malfoy, with his unmistakable blonde hair.

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

"What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Come on — I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!" 

Calysta held her breath as Professor McGonagall stalked past where she and Raymond were hiding, until Raymond flung a dungbomb in the opposite direction. The foul stink reached their noses only too fast. 

"Who's there?" Professor McGonagall demanded. "I dare you, show yourself!"

Calysta and Raymond crouched awfully still and quiet, from behind the statue, until Professor McGonagall cast a spell with her wand.

 The next thing they knew, Professor McGonagall stood above them, looking down at them with a stern, furious expression on her face.

"Detention for you too, Potter, Avery. I must say, I expected better of you. Three students out of bed, this is a disgrace. I suppose Mr. Sanguini, Mr. Evans and Mr. Goldstein are lurking somewhere around here, aren't they?"

Calysta shook her head. "No Professor," she murmured. "It's just us."

Professor McGonagall lead them all to an empty classroom. 

"Potter, Avery, what were you doing out of bed?"

"You see.." began Raymond.

"We were just... well, pranking Malfoy," Calysta quickly said, trying to look as convincing as possible.

"And why, if I may ask?"

"He was laughing at Ron in the hospital wing," Ray added. It was a pathetic excuse, and they all knew it.

"Professor, they're lying," accused Malfoy. "Potterette and Avery were trying to distract you from Potter. He's got a dragon.."

"Stop calling me Potterette," Calysta hissed, stepping on Malfoy's toes, hatred in her eyes.

"Nonsense!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall. "There is no such thing. Potter and Avery just told you the tale to get you into detention, isn't that right?"

Although this was horribly wrong, Calysta and Raymond both nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, that's right. I mean, where would we even get a dragon from?" she forced a nervous laugh.

Malfoy glared at her so furiously, that if his eyes were lasers, she'd be burnt by now.

"Off to bed," Professor McGonagall declared. "All of you!"

When Calysta and Raymond got back to the boys' dormitory, they were quite surprised to see the other three boys laying awake for them.

"Took you long enough, is the dragon gone?" asked Regulus.

Calysta and Raymond nodded, their expression glum.

"What's wrong, did you guys get caught?" Jeff asked.

Raymond sighed. "We got detention."

"Did they find out about the dragon?" Felix questioned.

"Thankfully no," Calysta mumbled, before falling facedown onto the spare bed. 

She was already asleep before her face made contact with the pillow.

{ well, this chapter took me really long to write. i hope it is not too cliché... anyway, please vote, comment, follow and share if you like it. i was also planning on making a spotify playlist for this book, so votes aside here please :)
anyway,, take care. love you guys so much. love, jasmine. }