CHAPTER TWELVE - Norwegian Ridgeback

Harry rushed up the stairs towards the Gryffindor common room. He spotted Attuoria at the staircase outside.

"Congrats on-"

"Attuoria!" Harry interrupted, running to her. "I've got something to tell you. Where's Ron and Hermione?"

"They're in the common room. Although if you have something to say, I'm not sure you should go in there. I'll go get them." Attuoria turned around and entered through the portrait. As the portrait lifted up, Harry heard loud shouts coming from inside. It sounded like they were having a party.

A few moments later, Attuoria came back out with Ron and Hermione.

"We won! You won! We won!" Ron screamed when he saw Harry.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked, but Harry ignored both of their questions.

"Never mind all that, wait 'til you hear this." They all huddled up close together as Harry told them what he overheard. Apparently Snape was trying to force Quirrell to help him get the stone. The story made sense to Ron and Hermione, but that's because they don't know Quirrell's true colors. Attuoria suddenly felt uneasy.

Harry's explanation clearly showed Snape's intentions in stealing the stone. But at the same time, Attuoria knew Quirrell wasn't just a simple tool. Quirrell was the one with two voices in his head, not Snape. Perhaps Snape knew about it? Attuoria let out a gasp, startling her friends who were mid-conversation.

Dumbledore said that Snape could perform Legilimency, too. So he must know about the voice in Quirrell's head.

But doesn't that mean Dumbledore knows, too? If Snape, Quirrell and the mysterious voice in Quirrell's head were trying to get to the stone, then Dumbledore, who is a master of Legilimency, should also know. Dumbledore will stop them. There should be no problem then… right?

"So? Any input?" Hermione asked, staring at Attuoria expectantly.

Ron groaned, "I swear if you say 'Oh Snape isn't doing anything wrong, it's Quirrell!' I'm actually gonna go-"

Attuoria ignored his comment and picked up the conversation from where Ron left off.

"They're not going to get it." Attuoria said firmly.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"They're not."

"What, you really think Quirrell's going to last that long?"

"Maybe."

"Care to explain?"

"No. But I'm saying that it's impossible for them to steal it."

The three of them stared at her with mixed expressions on their faces.

"Are you just being extremely hopeful and positive, or are you serious?" asked Harry, who was thinking of how Attuoria managed to use the Mirror of Erised as a normal mirror and clearly thought she was the happiest person alive. Maybe happiness made people blind, especially to danger.

Attuoria shrugged. "I'm sure Dumbledore knows what he's doing."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at her like she was crazy. They had no idea how Dumbledore was supposed to be related to what they were discussing just now. Attuoria didn't say anything else. Whatever she knew about Dumbledore, Snape or Quirrell, it was her business and not theirs.

For the following weeks, Harry and Ron were kinder than ever to Professor Quirrell. Because of that, Attuoria managed to make eye contact with him a lot more often, and each time she was greeted by that unfamiliar voice in his head. The voice was there every second of the day, constantly barking orders at Quirrell through his mind. Attuoria soon realised that the voice wasn't just there to keep him company. It was Quirrell's master.

***

One sunny afternoon in March, Attuoria was sitting at the library with her friends, who were studying for the upcoming exams. Attuoria wasn't too worried about those, as she basically had photographic memory and could never forget anything. That was a perk of being a Nightmare demon with a gigantic mental storage space.

She focused on her search for "T.M.R.", which was still going absolutely nowhere. Nothing she read ever came close to what she needed to find, despite having already read more than sixty books so far in the school year. At least she was now more knowledgeable than the average fifth year Hogwarts student. Exams were going to be a breeze for her.

After finishing a book about famous Alchemists (Attuoria wondered if "T.M.R." could be an Alchemist like Nicolas Flamel, but she found nothing), Attuoria stood up and returned it. She strolled through the aisles, brushing the tips of her fingers on each book as she walked by.

As she took a turn to the next aisle, she spotted Hagrid with a book in his hand.

"Hagrid!" she said cheerfully, strolling up next to him. Hagrid immediately turned around, shut the book and hid it behind his back.

"Uh, hullo Attuoria," he grunted, forcing a smile.

"How's Eylense doing? Hopefully he's not bothering you too much?" Attuoria said, carefully eyeing Hagrid's expression.

"Oh - no, of course, yer bird is great." Hagrid cleared his throat, glancing around before hunching down and beckoning Attuoria to come closer. "Say, you know how to talk to birds, don't yeh? I've seen you talk to that bird of yours."

Attuoria hesitated. "Sort of? Eylense understands English for some reason, so it wasn't too hard. I'm not sure about other birds, though."

"Well that's no matter. Have yeh ever seen a real dragon before?" said Hagrid, suddenly changing the subject.

"No. Have you?"

"I was wonderin' if you could do me a favour," Hagrid said, not answering her question. "I don't wanna disturb yer studying righ' now, but could yeh come see me later? Maybe in half an hour?"

Attuoria couldn't help it. She went into his thoughts.

"I really hope she can help me with my dragon once the egg hatches. If she can talk to a bird, then she can talk to a dragon… right? I do hope so. I really need her to keep it a secret, though, but I trust she won't tell anyone about it. She's a nice and quiet girl."

Attuoria nodded. "Sure. I'll come see you right after I borrow a new book."

"Thanks a lot, Attuoria." Hagrid said with a smile, lumbering away with that book still behind his back.

Once Hagrid was out of sight, she peered over at the section of the shelf he was looking at. Dragons. Attuoria figured he must've borrowed a book on dragon-breeding.

Her eyes landed on a book titled Men Who Love Dragons Too Much. She doubted that she was going to find "T.M.R." in this book, but decided to give it a read anyway. At least it would give her a little more insight on the dragon keepers in her "native country" Romania.

She quickly borrowed the book and headed back to her friends, and was surprised to see a pile of dragon-related books on the table.

"Attuoria!" Hermione exclaimed. She noticed the book in Attuoria's hand. "Men Who Love Dragons Too Much? Was Hagrid with you just now, by any chance?"

"Yeah, we found Hagrid looking at books about dragons! Do you know what he's up to?" Ron said.

"No." Attuoria lied to both questions, thinking Hagrid wouldn't want them to know of his secret. "I'm gonna go now." she said, picking up the rest of her textbooks from her side of the table.

"Where?" Harry asked with a frown.

"Uh, shower." Attuoria randomly said, and mentally slapped herself for the terrible excuse. Her friends looked equally shocked and confused.

"It's only three, but okay, suit yourself." Harry said, an awkward grin on his face. Attuoria was grateful they didn't question her any further and quickly left the library.

She dropped her books off at her dorm before heading to Hagrid's hut next to the Forbidden Forest. On the way, she thought of all the excuses she could have said that would've been so much better than "shower". She could've just said "Eylense is dropping something off for me at the Owlery", which would be a hundred time more reasonable. Stupid. She made a mental note to start collecting excuses and store them in her head in case she ever needed it.

As she got closer to the hut, she noticed Eylense circling the sky.

"Eylense!" Attuoria yelled. The eagle cawed at her a few times as a greeting before he soared away into the Forbidden forest.

Approaching Hagrid's wooden door, she knocked on it a few times. "Who is it?" Hagrid's gruff voice called out.

"Attuoria!" she called back.

The door swung open and Hagrid quickly rushed Attuoria in before shutting the door. She was immediately engulfed by a wave of hot, smoky air. The inside of Hagrid's hut was quite dark because of all the closed curtains. The only light was from the blazing fireplace. The weather outside was already hot enough, but the inside of Hagrid's hut felt like a sauna.

Her eyes quickly darted around the hut, trying to spot the dragon's egg. She found it easily: a large, black egg was sitting in the flames of the fireplace.

Hagrid chuckled. "You see the egg, don't yeh? Dragon egg, won it from a dragon dealer at the village last night. Whaddya think?"

"It's… great," Attuoria said hesitantly, watching the sides of the egg glow ember as the flames touched it. "What breed?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"Ah, I was just lookin' fer it. I think it might be the Norwegian Ridgeback?" Hagrid handed her the book he was reading and pointed at the description and image of an egg. Attuoria compared the real one in front of her with the one in the book. It looked about the same.

"Tea?" He said, offering her a cup with some boiling liquid inside.

"Thanks," she said, accepting it and putting it down on the table. "I'm guessing you asked me to come here to help you with this dragon-situation?" She said, handing the book back to Hagrid. Hagrid nervously scratched at his beard.

"Er, yeah. You see, I'm not quite sure how it's gonna be once the dragon hatches. They say dragons can't be tamed. If I could talk to dragons, I'm sure it'll be easy to handle, but obviously, I can't. You, on the other hand…" he trailed off.

"I guess I could try. No guarantees I can make it talk, though."

Hagrid chuckled. "Wouldn't that be funny? A talking dragon?"

"You mean Draco Malfoy?" she joked, and Hagrid laughed.

"Malfoy? A dragon? I've never seen a dragon that puny."

The two of them casually conversed about dragons, other students, school life at Hogwarts and Hagrid's interests. Slowly, the topic landed on Hagrid's life at Hogwarts.

"How'd you get expelled?" Attuoria asked him. Hagrid turned red underneath that mane of hair and beard.

"Well, er, yeh see, I have a thing fer magical creatures, as you could probably tell from the dragon egg 'ere. In my third year, I was takin' care of this large spider-creature, an Acromantula, although I wouldn' expect yeh to know about that thing -"

"I've read about it in a book. Those things eat humans."

"Yes, they do. But the one I had, Aragog, he was real nice. He's my friend. I had him since he was still in his egg. Anyways, some girl died one year for unknown reasons. They couldn't find the culprit, but a fellow student saw poor lil' Aragog and thought he'd done it. I tried explaining, but it didn't work. Got expelled fer keepin' dangerous creature, and my wand was cracked in half." Hagrid pointed at the pink umbrella at the side of the room.

"Dumbledore really saved me, though. Gave me a job as the Gatekeeper. I didn't exactly have a home outside of Hogwarts, so being able teh stay 'ere is more than I could wish fer."

"Did they find the girl's body?" Attuoria asked.

"Did they find the girl's body?" Hagrid repeated, frowning. "Well, yes, in the girls bathroom or summin'. Why do you ask?"

"It doesn't make sense. An acromantula would've eaten the person. Any decently knowledgeable witch or wizard would know that. So how come people believed it when someone blamed it on you?" Attuoria asked, trying to piece the story together.

Hagrid shrugged, but looked uncomfortable. It seemed like he was uncovering some bad part of his childhood.

"Sorry. If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay."

"No no," Hagrid immediately said. "You've told me so much about yer life back in Romania, it's only fair I tell yeh about mine. This student - I won't say his name - he wasn't exactly… Well, yeh know what, I'll just say his name. Tom. That's it. Tom Riddle. He was the model student, two years above me. Slytherin Prefect, heck not only that, he was Head Boy! Crazy smart, all teachers loved him, and to be fair, he was quite the charismatic young man.

"Now that I think of it though, I don't think he was really fond of me. Tried ter make fun of me, he did. Maybe it's 'cause I'm part giant, but I dunno. Famous Tom Riddle. No one quite knew where he ended up after Hogwarts. He worked in sum ruddy shop for a while, that I know. Everyone said he'd do great things. The only 'great' thing he ever did for me was gettin' me expelled." Hagrid ended with a grunt, clearly getting unhappy just at the thought of this person. Tom Riddle.

Tom Riddle. T, R.

"Did you say his name was Tom Riddle?" Attuoria asked.

"Yeah."

"So his initials are T.R.?"

"Suppose so."

Attuoria grew excited. "Did he have a middle name by any chance?"

"Middle name…" Hagrid thought for a few seconds. "Not that I know of, no. He probably did have one, though."

"Do you know anyone that might know his middle name?"

"Sure I do, but why'd yeh wanna know? He attended Hogwarts a good, heck, fifty years ago?"

"Is he still alive?" Attuoria's mind was racing. Tom Riddle: T.R. She wasn't sure if this man was actually her secret messenger or not, but if his middle name did start with an M, then it was worth the try to find him. Even if the message was sent eleven years ago. Perhaps he'd remember.

"Is Tom Riddle still alive? Well I'm sixty-four and I'm still alive, so he probably is. But heck, even I'm not too sure about that -"

Hagrid's sentence was interrupted when they heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Hagrid called.

"It's Harry! And Ron. And Hermione."

Hagrid grunted and stood up. "Don't tell them any of the stuff I just told yeh, okay? It's between the two of us." he said quietly.

Attuoria nodded. "I promise. It's not my business to tell others about your life, anyways."

Hagrid gave her a smile. "Thanks." He opened the door and let the three other kids in. Attuoria suddenly realised that her friends had no idea she was here, because she had lied to them and said she was going to go take a shower.

Attuoria stood up awkwardly as her friends walked in, surprised to see her.

"What are you doing here?" said Ron, a puzzled expression on his face.

Harry glanced at Attuoria, his eyes darting to her hair, which was perfectly dry and in the same condition as earlier. She was also still wearing the same robes and uniform. "What happened with the shower?" asked Harry.

"What shower?" Hagrid grumbled.

"The um," Attuoria stammered, not knowing how to come up with a good excuse. She hadn't had time to think about that, yet. Her eyes flickered over to the dragon egg again. "The baby… shower…?"

"What?" Everyone said simultaneously.

"You know what, I'm gonna go and find Eylense. See ya," Attuoria quickly slunk out of the hut through the back door, leaving her friends to stare at her weirdly.

***

A few days later during breakfast, they received a note from Hagrid saying that the dragon was hatching. Ron wanted to skip Herbology to go check out the dragon, but Hermione made them sit through class and wait until morning break.

By the time they got to Hagrid's hut, the egg on the table already had deep cracks all over it. It was shaking slightly, and made odd clicking noises. They all sat down around the table and watched the egg intently.

The moment it split open, a baby dragon the size of an ink bottle flopped onto the table. It was black and wrinkly, with long wings and a skinny body. There were tiny grey studs lining it's back and it's head, and it looked around the room with bulging orange eyes.

The dragon sneezed, and a couple of sparks flew out of it's wide nostrils.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured, reaching his hand out to stroke the dragon's head. The dragon snapped at his fingers with its pointed fangs. "Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!"

Attuoria gazed at the tiny dragon. It was clearly an aggressive one. She bent down so that her face was in level with the table.

"Hey, dragon," she said quietly, tapping the wooden surface. "Come on, look here."

The dragon ignored her and continued blowing sparks at Hagrid's beard.

"Dragon," she said again, tapping the table. "Look over, dragon."

It continued to ignore her. Attuoria decided that maybe with dragons, she needed a different approach.

"LOOK HERE YOU STUPID THING!" She yelled, slapping the table and scaring both her friends and the dragon. Bright orange eyes met with hers and she was able to unlock the door to its mind.

The baby dragon, newborn after all, had a fresh and clean mind. It was pretty much a blank slate.

"What a loud noise. This thing, long black hair and pale face, yes, this thing made the sound. Wait till I'm as big as you. I'll burn you in a second," she heard the dragon think to itself. She was immediately annoyed by its cockiness, and how the dragon referred to her as 'thing' rather than 'human' or 'girl'. It reminded her that she's not a real human.

"I'm a human, stupid dragon," Attuoria thought to herself as she stared at the dragon, wishing the dragon would be able to hear what she just thought.

She watched as the dragon continued to stare back at her.

"Did this thing just call me stupid? You're stupid, stupid human."

Attuoria gasped. The dragon had responded to her thoughts.

"Wait, can you hear me?"

The dragon cocked it's head to the side when that thought ran through Attuoria's mind.

"Yes, I can. I didn't know humans could talk to dragons."

"Humans can't. Right now, we're communicating telepathically."

"How does that work?"

"I don't know."

Suddenly, Hagrid jumped to his feet and ran to the window.

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

Attuoria watched as Harry bolted to the door and looked out. He came back in, an angry expression on his face.

"It's Malfoy."

Everyone glanced at each other in horror.

"What's the matter?" the dragon's thoughts appeared in Attuoria's mind.

"You're pretty screwed," she sent back.

"Yeah, I'm surrounded by humans that I want to eat. This big hairy hulk here tried to poke my eye out. I'm already screwed."

"Don't make it too hard for Hagrid, okay? I'll come back and visit often, and we can talk."

"Great. I'm sure we'll need to talk. I doubt this human here knows how to take care of me."