The legend of the Girl Who Lived had again caught fire since 'the Trouncing of the Troll,' as the incident had come to be known. The story became comparable to the extraordinary feats of the first Hercules by the time letters were being sent home about it. In the month and a half before winter-break, Heri had zero time to just kick back, hounded as she was. Luckily, the majority of her groupies went home for the holidays. She spent two blissful weeks lazing about the first-year dorms, only going out for meals and the occasional stroll around the grounds.
All four of the Weasley boys remained at the school. Heri heard from Fred and George that their parents were off to see one of their older brothers in Romania. Charlie Weasley worked on a dragon reserve and didn't have the resources to visit for the holidays so Mr and Mrs Weasley went to him, bringing along their youngest as well.
Heri was introduced to Percy and Ron, the twins' older and younger brother respectively, during the feast on Christmas day. She had come down in the lovely new jumper the twins had gotten their mother to knit for her and greeted the remaining students and teachers cordially.
"You got a jumper too?" blurted Ron, staring disbelievingly at the black knitted top with a prettily stylised yellow 'H' on the front. Apparently, he recognised his mother's knitting style. He himself was wearing a maroon one with an 'R' on it.
Heri smoothed down the front. It was a bit long on her, obviously made by a person used to outfitting bigger people. It came down to her thighs, draped over her fingers, and slipped off one of her shoulders, but it was professionally done as well as being warm and lovely. It was the sweetest thing she had ever received and she was grateful for it.
"It was in the pile along with my other presents," said Heri, sitting down at the table. Hadn't that been a shock? Christmas presents! She had gotten sweets from all of her housemates that she spoke to regularly as well as from other Houses as well. "You must thank your mother for me; no one's ever made me a jumper before."
Ron flushed a bright red.
"Don't know what she's doing, sending you a Weasley jumper," he mumbled into his peas.
After eating, the twins introduced her to the joys of wizarding chess wherein she soundly beat them both. She whooped their behinds two more times before they admitted defeat and pushed Ron forward to battle in their place. Ron was the best chess player in the family they bragged, he would surely give her a run for her money. Heri and Ron fought it out for the better part of an hour before they agreed to a tie for the sake of going out to play in the snow instead.
Later on, after she returned to her dorm for an afternoon nap, Hedwig flew in with another present for her. Heri hadn't seen the dratted bird since winter had reared it's chilly head so it was quite a surprise.
"Hello, Your Eminence. What have you got there?"
It turned out to be a cloak that made the wearer invisible.
Heri wasn't sure what to do. She was sprinting down the dungeon corridors toward the Slytherin common room. Her breath came out in pants, her lungs burned in exhaustion, her legs ached with exertion. She all but flew to her destination, hair streaming behind her, clothes rippling at her speed. She needed Marcus! She needed someone to tell her what the hell she had to do to salvage the situation.
Earlier that week, during one of the teas she took with Hagrid after classes, she had witnessed a dragon being hatched. Where had Hagrid gotten a hold of a dragon egg? What was he thinking, trying to bring up a dragon in a wooden hut? What was he going to do with it when it got bigger?
She had devoted extra time to help Hagrid with his new bundle of scaly joy. After classes, she would help Hagrid by looking after little Norbert while he took care of his Grounds-Keeper duties. Her ability to speak to reptilian creatures came in handy as they had discovered that her hissed words calmed the young dragon. Norbert wasn't anywhere near old enough to communicate yet but he responded well to stories and Heri holding him while she fed him the concoction Hagrid made specifically to nourish baby dragons.
They had been managing well enough until the day of moving Norbert came up. He was growing at a steady rate, already the size of a medium-sized dog and promised to grow larger even sooner. Hagrid had been distraught at the thought of being separated from his baby but he couldn't deny that he soon wouldn't have the resources to care for Norbert; he didn't have enough space and nowhere near enough food.
They had been discussing their options when Hagrid noticed a face in his window. It was Malfoy! The blond ponce had skedaddled when he realised he was discovered but that didn't take away from the fact that he knew they had a dragon. Heri and Hagrid had sat in dread, waiting for the inquisition to drop the hammer on them. But it never came. Two, three days later, still nothing. For whatever reason, Malfoy had kept the information to himself.
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