April 13th
The Easter holidays had arrived, but the usual excitement was drowned under a mountain of homework. With just around eight weeks until exams, the castle was a pressure cooker of stress. The library was packed, students hunched over books and parchment, their faces illuminated by flickering candlelight. Daisy, overwhelmed by the workload, decided to visit Hagrid for a much-needed break.
When she reached his hut, she was surprised to find the curtains drawn tightly shut.
Daisy knocked.
"Who is it?" Hagrid's voice called from inside, tinged with unease.
"It's me, Daisy," she replied.
The door creaked open, and Hagrid ushered her in quickly, shutting it behind her. The hut was stiflingly hot, a roaring fire blazing in the grate despite the warm spring day. Daisy blinked, adjusting to the dim light, and was startled to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione already there.
"What's going on?" she asked, her eyes landing on the enormous black egg nestled in the heart of the fire.
"Ah," Hagrid said, fiddling nervously with his beard. "That's—er..."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" Ron crouched by the fire, peering at the egg. "It must've cost a fortune."
"Won it," Hagrid said proudly. "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."
Hermione's eyes widened. "But what are you going to do with it when it hatches?"
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid said, pulling a large book from under his pillow. Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. "Got this outta the library. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see? When it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here—what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."
Daisy's jaw dropped. "A dragon?"
Hermione chimed in, "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house!"
But Hagrid wasn't listening. He hummed merrily as he stoked the fire, oblivious to the horrified looks exchanged between Daisy, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Daisy decided the best course of action was to pretend she'd never seen the egg—or been there at all. She quickly waved bye to everyone and left.
---
April 27th, Monday
The Easter holidays ended, and the castle fell back into its usual rhythm. Classes, meals, and free periods filled the days, but the looming exams cast a shadow over everything.
That evening, as the Slytherin girls prepared for bed, Daphne dropped a bombshell.
"Did you hear? Draco's got detention."
"He did?" Daisy asked, surprised. "What for?"
"Out past curfew," Daphne said, smirking. "The funny part is, his excuse was that Potter had a dragon."
Tracey burst out laughing. "A dragon? What a load of rubbish."
Daisy chuckled dryly, knowing full well it wasn't a lie.
"He lost us twenty points," Pansy grumbled. "Twenty."
"Good thing Gryffindor lost a hundred and fifty," Daphne added. "Potter, Granger, and Longbottom all got detention."
"A hundred and fifty?" Daisy, Pansy, and Tracey exclaimed in unison, before clapping their hands over their mouths to stifle their laughter.
Daisy felt a pang of guilt. She could piece together what had happened, but there was nothing she could do.
---
April 28th
The next day, after Herbology, Daisy decided to check on Hagrid. She knew how attached he got to his creatures, especially ones he'd raised from infancy. A dragon would be no exception.
When she knocked on his door, there was no answer. Pressing her ear to the wood, she heard faint sobs.
"Hagrid?" she called, pushing the door open.
The sight inside was heartbreaking. Hagrid lay on the floor, surrounded by empty bottles, his face streaked with tears.
"Get yourself together, Hagrid!" Daisy yelled, shaking him gently.
"Norbert," he groaned faintly.
"Norbert?" Daisy questioned.
"He's gotta have a name, don't he." Hagrid mumbled. Daisy pieced it together and came to the conclusion that he was talking about the dragon he hatched.
Daisy grabbed a nearby chipped mug, pointing her wand to it. "Aguamenti." Water filled the mug. "Here, drink this."
It took some effort, but Hagrid finally managed to sit up and take a few sips.
"How are you feeling?" Daisy asked.
"A lil' better," he mumbled.
"That's good," she sighed, looking around the messy hut. "Do you need my help with anything?"
"That's okay," Hagrid said, then hesitated. "Actually, I haven' bin feedin' Buckbeak. Poor thing's probably missin' his ferrets."
Daisy nodded. She'd learned how to approach a hippogriff from Hagrid before. "Where is he?"
"In teh forest. Grab sum ferrets 'n head in. He'll find yeh... and take Fang with yer, jus' in case."
Daisy gathered the ferrets hanging in front of Hagrid's hut and set off, Fang trotting beside her.
---
The forest was eerily quiet, the usual rustle of leaves and distant hoots of owls absent. Daisy's hand twitched on her wand, a creeping sensation crawling up her spine. She had accompanied Hagrid into the forest many times before but this time...
Something was wrong.
A sharp pain lanced through her skull, and her vision swam.
No. Not now—
Fang's bark snapped her back to reality. She blinked, her heart pounding as she took in the scene before her.
A unicorn lay dead, its silver blood pooling on the forest floor.
Daisy gasped. Unicorns were symbols of purity—their death was an omen of something dark and terrible.
The sound of wings made her turn. Buckbeak emerged from the shadows, his sharp eyes locking onto hers. He probably heard Fang.
Daisy bowed low, her heart racing. Buckbeak returned the gesture, and she quickly fed him the ferrets before hurrying back to Hagrid's hut.
"Hagrid!" she panted, bursting through the door. "A unicorn—it's dead!"
Hagrid's face darkened. "Yer run along now. I'll handle this."
Daisy nodded, her mind racing as she hurried back to the castle.
--- Great hall ---
Daisy slipped into the Great Hall just as dinner was ending.
"Where have you been?" Tracey asked. "You're never late to meals."
"Sorry," Daisy lied, forcing a smile. "I got caught up studying."
As she sat down, her thoughts churned. The dead unicorn, the blackout, the dragon—it all felt connected, like pieces of a puzzle she couldn't quite solve.
---
That night, as Daisy lay in bed, the image of the dead unicorn haunted her. Its silver blood, its lifeless eyes—it was a warning, a sign of something far more sinister lurking in the shadows.
She thought of Hagrid, of Norbert, of the strange blackouts that seemed to pull her toward danger.
And deep inside, in the part of herself she didn't fully understand, something stirred—a whisper, a presence, waiting to be unleashed.
Daisy closed her eyes, her wand clutched tightly under her pillow as she drifted into sleep.