NORBERT THE
NORWEGIAN RIDGEBACK
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.
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