A few weeks later, Flynn was at the Great Hall for breakfast when he spotted a large owl flying directly towards him. He shot the bird a sharp glare, only to have it returned in equal measure, before it swooped down and stole an entire omelette off his plate.

Before Flynn could think to throw his fork at the bird, something hit his face with a gentle plap and fell into his lap. He frowned and unfolded the small folded note, recognizing Hagrid's ham-fisted and messy writing almost immediately.

"It's hatching."

Flynn frowned, but ultimately decided the message was important enough that he wouldn't kill the snowy owl for stealing his breakfast. He shot it a glare anyways, and it gave him a look that he could only describe as being way too haughty to belong on a bird's face, before it flew away.

Surprisingly, instead of flying back out of the Great Hall, it landed on a tall ledge on one of the walls and started to preen itself. Flynn narrowed his eyes at the odd behaviour, but managed to notice that it had another folded note clutched gently in its talons, similar to the one that it had dropped onto him. It seemed like the owl had another delivery to make, and given how Flynn was one of the only few students that went to breakfast this early, he could only assume that the owl decided to wait around to deliver its next letter instead of pointlessly heading back to the owlery when it would just have to come back later.

When it gave him a pointed glare, as if to tell him off for staring at it while it groomed itself, Flynn scowled at it one last time before turning away to give it some privacy.

As he waited for another omelette to be made, to replace the one that the bird had stolen, a few more students started to pour into the Great Hall. By the time that a plate floated in front of him, with four individual omelettes stacked on top of it, Flynn let out an annoyed grumble before he started to shove them all in his mouth.

"This may be the first time I've ever seen you actually eating in the Great Hall, besides the first day," Blaise said, as he casually slid into the seat next to him. "I always doubted you were starving yourself, given how pudgy you'd gotten recently, but I did wonder when you found the time to eat."

Flynn scowled at Blaise, but was still only halfway through his omelettes. He swallowed down his last omelette before turning to glare at Blaise.

"Fuck off," he said. "I ain't fat."

"Well, not anymore you're not," Blaise said with a shrug. "But a month ago? Phew. That must've been embarrassing for you."

"I'll punch you in the head. Then we'll see who's fat," Flynn grumbled.

"If you're trying to make a point there, I'm really not seeing it," Blaise said, as he reached up to grab a small pastry off a plate that passed him by.

"Fuck off," Flynn said, before standing up and marching out of the Great Hall.

When he almost ran directly into a familiar trio of Gryffindor students, who were entering the Hall just as he was trying to leave, he shot a dirty look towards the owl for delaying his breakfast for long enough that he would run into them, before glaring back down at the trio.

"Good morning, Flintstone," Hermione said quickly, giving him a strained smile as she stepped forward, as if she were getting ready to step in between Flynn and the two boys, who had been glaring up at him, though Ron immediately turned to Hermione with a shocked expression.

"Good morning?!" he asked, sounding completely scandalized. "Hermione, he's a snake."

Hermione sighed, with a cadence that suggested that it wasn't the first time that she'd made that exact sound.

"Not all Slytherins are like Malfoy, Ron," she said. "Have you forgotten that Flintstone helped save my life from that troll?"

"Help? Hermione, he almost got Harry killed!"

Flynn's eye twitched. Though he hadn't planned to exchange a single word with any of them, he couldn't stop the angry growl that escaped his lips.

"The fuck did you just say?"

Ron froze on the spot, as if just realizing that Flynn could hear what he was saying. He didn't say anything for a long moment, seeming too caught off guard to think of anything to say, but he wasn't the one to speak up.

"You could have just left," Harry Potter, the boy who did fuck all, said.

Not needing much reason to focus his anger on the boy who inexplicably made him so annoyed without even trying, Flynn stepped up to Harry, using all of his height to stare down at him with as much menace as he could muster.

"Were you always this fucking stupid, or did whatever caused that scar of yours extend all the way down to your brain?"

For some reason, Flynn wasn't surprised when Harry only glared at him harder, rather than looking away. Out of the corners of his eyes, he could see Harry's fists clenching by his sides, and he kept his eyes narrowed as he mentally prepared himself to retaliate tenfold when Harry eventually threw the first punch, but surprisingly someone else intervened before either of them could make their first move.

Harry let out a quiet grunt as a small folded note hit his face. He glared at Flynn, as if Flynn had been the one to drop the note on his face, but when he glanced upward, his expression softened almost immediately as he held his arm out.

A familiar white owl landed silently and softly on Harry's outstretched arm, and it gave Flynn a cursory glare back before leaning down to nip at Harry's hair.

"Hey, stop that, Hedwig," Harry said, laughing as he gently placed his hand on the bird's face and pushed it away.

The bird gave Harry an annoyed grimace as it shook its head to try and unruffle its feathers, but it didn't seem to care enough to reprimand the boy. After nipping at Harry's hair one last time, it pushed off his arm and took off, flying back towards the owlery. Harry's eyes followed it with a warm expression, before he seemed to realize that he should be glaring at Flynn instead, though the effect of it was lessened with how his glasses were still askew from the owl's friendly assault.

Flynn and Harry glared at each other for a few more seconds before Hermione coughed awkwardly into her fist.

"Harry," she said. "I think Hedwig wanted to give you something."

Harry seemed shocked by Hermione's words, as if he'd forgotten she was there, before he glanced down at his feet where a suspiciously familiar note laid. When Flynn glared down at the note, Harry bent down quickly to snatch it up off the ground. Giving Flynn a quick glare, he unfolded the note and read it quickly, though if Flynn's suspicions were correct, there wasn't much to read.

Harry's eyebrows shot up, and his lips twitched up into a grin before he glanced behind him.

"Ron! Hermione!" he said, his focus on Flynn immediately disappearing as he waved the note towards his friends.

Flynn scowled at the sight of Harry turning his back to him, as he seemed to forget about him entirely, but it wasn't like he was offended by the lack of attention. Even without seeing for himself, the fact that the note was delivered to Harry by the same owl that had delivered Hagrid's note to Flynn gave him at least a bit of an idea of what was written on the note.

"It's hatching!" Ron said, in a volume that made it clear that he didn't fully understand the concept of whispering.

Flynn shot the group a scowl that went unnoticed, and though his suspicions were confirmed, he didn't feel satisfied in the slightest.

Marching away as fast as he could, to try and avoid having to listen to the trio's inane chattering any longer, he almost ran over another eyesore in turn.

"Watch it you oaf!" Draco whined angrily, before he patted down his robes aggressively, as if he thought that Flynn had rubbed some dirt on them. Once he seemed satisfied that there was nothing to clean off, he sneered up at Flynn, and gave him a slight bow. "Oh, my apologies, Lord Slytherin. I didn't realize it was you. With your impressive waistline, I must've mistaken you for a wall."

Flynn glared at him, but didn't feel like wasting time when he had other things to do, not that he really cared about the blonde bitch to retaliate in the first place. Maybe if it were in the start of the year, he would bother to talk back and try to intimidate him into leaving him alone, but once it became obvious that the blonde bitch wouldn't do anything further than making passive aggressive comments while he hid under the shadows of his two cronies, Flynn had a hard time finding a reason to waste any mental energy on him.

Flynn didn't bother to respond as he walked forward, earning another indignant yelp from the blonde bitch as he barely jumped out of Flynn's path.

Flynn didn't look back as the blonde bitch yelled some vague and mild threats at his back, finding no reason to take them seriously, especially when his cronies were off sick for poisoning themselves with chicken that they had forgotten in their pockets for weeks after trying to emulate Flynn's eating habits. Though Madam Pomfrey could apparently heal them of their troubles almost instantly if she wanted to, she had made it a point to let them heal through more natural means to drive in the lesson that they surely hadn't learned, as well as giving them, and the other Slytherin first years, an actual lecture about their health when Vincent and Gregory told her that it was a "popular" trend amongst the other Slytherin first year boys.

Without another word, Flynn marched through the Hogwarts Castle until he found himself in a basement cellar that had an immense still-life painting of a pile of fruit against one of the walls. A couple of Hufflepuff students seemed startled at his presence as they appeared from a room that was way to small to fit all of them, but Flynn paid them no attention except to confirm that none of them were Lily.

It was only when one of them walked up to him that he bothered to acknowledge their existence.

"You're Flynn, right?" a small Hufflepuff girl asked, despite the scared looks her friends were giving her, silently waving at her to come back.

Flynn shot the boys behind her a quick glare, before he looked back at her.

"Who's asking?" he growled.

"Hannah Abbott," the girl said, as she casually inspected Flynn, before grimacing and shaking her head. "I'm Lily's dormmate. You're here for her, right?"

Flynn refused to react, keeping his arms crossed and glare sharp.

"She talks about you, a lot," she explained, with a tired look in her eye. "Do you want me to get her?"

"I'll wait," Flynn grunted, as he looked up at the doorway that more Hufflepuffs were steadily streaming out of.

"Okay," Hannah said, though she looked relieved by the answer. "But it might be a while. She always sleeps in. I have no idea how Sally manages, but it's a miracle how she's not always late to class."

Flynn let out a huff of annoyance, and Hannah raised an eyebrow at him, but seemed to realize quickly that it wasn't meant for her.

"Okay," she said. "See you around."

Flynn let out a small grunt, which seemed to confuse her, but she eventually shrugged her shoulders and rejoined her group of friends, who seemed relieved that she'd returned alive.

True to Hannah's word, it took Lily and Sally a long time to burst out of the room, about three minutes before morning classes would start, nearly running past Flynn before doing a double take and nearly tripping over their own feet as they did.

"Flynn?" Lily asked, still blinking some sleep from her eyes. "What are you doing here? How do you even know where the Hufflepuff dorms are?"

"I followed where the other Hufflepuffs were coming from," Flynn answered. "And I'm here because Hagrid's dragon is hatching."

Lily's eyes narrowed for a moment, before her focus was broken by a large yawn that looked like it might split her mouth open entirely.

"Sorry," she said, struggling to speak past her yawn. "I didn't hear that. Hagrid's what?"

"Hagrid's dragon," Flynn repeated, louder this time so he wouldn't have to repeat it again.

For some reason, Lily seemed confused by what he said. Her brow furrowed in concentration as she grabbed her chin in a thinking pose that was so stereotypical that it almost felt like she was mocking it. Unfortunately, Flynn didn't have enough time to decipher what she could possibly be so confused by, before he felt something slap him in the mouth.

Looking down, he saw Sally, reaching up on her tip toes to press her hands hard against his mouth, with a nervous look that only seemed to intensify as their eyes met for possibly the first time since they'd met. Like a small animal, she froze under his glare, keeping her hands pressed against his mouth more out of fear than anything else. Though Flynn felt like he should push her away, he was confused enough by the sudden violence to freeze in place as well, as he struggled to understand the reasoning behind Sally's sudden slap.

"Oh yeah," Lily said, nodding to herself. "People aren't allowed to keep dragons as pets. You shouldn't talk about Hagrid's dragon in public, Flynn, or he might get in trouble."

Sally immediately let go of Flynn to rush over and to try and slap them over Lily's mouth, if it weren't for Lily letting out a yelp and quickly intercepting Sally's hands. Sally wrestled with Lily for a moment before she looked around to see that nobody was actually around to overhear them before she let go and gave both of them a glare.

Though Flynn waited a few seconds for her to start talking, the only thing that Sally did was to jolt up in the spot, as if she had suddenly realized what she was doing, and averted her gaze away from both Flynn and Lily. Flynn frowned, but Lily mostly ignored it, paying more attention to rubbing at the corners of her eyes.

"So did you come down to tell us that?" Lily asked. "That's very sweet of you, Flynn. Hopefully Hagrid's little baby hasn't hatched by the end of our first class."

"Binns's class is worthless, and I'm not sure that Hagrid's hut won't burn down if I'm not there," Flynn said. "I'm skipping. I'm just making sure you don't think I'm abandoning you to face him without me, so you don't get all annoying about it later."

"Oh," Lily said, frowning when she realised what he was talking about. "Ok, then I'll skip too."

"I thought you don't skip classes," Flynn said. "Not that I give a shit either way."

"I'd say something about how you're a bad influence, but I can't think of one right now," she said, frowning and shaking her head. "Remind me to tell you one later."

"Save it," Flynn said. "I don't care about your shitty jokes."

"Sally, are you coming?" Lily asked, ignoring Flynn's comment entirely.

Sally hesitated for a moment before shaking her head.

"I shouldn't," she said. "I can try to give Binns an excuse about why you two are missing if he asks, but I'll go to Hagrid's after class."

"Okay," Lily said, with a lethargic nod before walking off. "We'll see you then."

Flynn grabbed Lily's arm, stopping her from going back towards the Hufflepuff dorms and dragged her down the hall in the opposite direction. After a moment, after Lily somehow managed to wrap her arms around his, despite him having a firm grip on her wrist, he considered shaking her off before he realized that her head was hanging down gently and her eyes were completely closed as she walked alongside him.

"You really do suck at waking up," Flynn said.

Lily let out a low grumble, her only other response being to cling to Flynn's arm tighter. When they stepped out of the castle, Lily seemed to finally be jolted awake by the cold late-winter air, though unfortunately that only made her cling tighter to Flynn for warmth.

"You really are a bad influence on me, Flintstone Fredericton," she said, through lightly chattering teeth. "Maybe my dad was right about boys like you."

"I thought I told you I don't care about your shitty jokes," Flynn grunted.

"When did you say that?" Lily asked.

Flynn let out an annoyed huff, but didn't bother giving her an answer.

Hagrid's hut was still standing, but Flynn didn't slow down until he was knocking at Hagrid's door. When Hagrid opened the door a few seconds later, his hands clad in thick oven mitts and his beard failing to hide the smile that was behind it, Flynn couldn't help but be incredibly annoyed by how openly Hagrid was displaying the egg, now that he knew that it was illegal. Without giving Hagrid the chance to invite them inside, Flynn walked through the door, dragged Lily in behind him, and slammed the door shut.

"Ye made it!" Hagrid beamed, not paying any mind to the rough treatment of his door. "I though ye wouldn't be here until yer first period ended, at the very least."

"Flynn and I decided that this was much more important than class," Lily said. "Sally wanted to come too, but she said she'd cover for us so we wouldn't get in trouble."

"Oh," Hagrid said, his expression twisting like he was confused about what he should be feeling. "It's not good te be skipping classes. Yer education's important ye know."

"So are you, Hagrid," Lily said simply.

Hagrid turned away quickly, but not fast enough to hide the deep blush that blossomed over the few inches of skin that weren't completely covered by his beard. He sputtered something unintelligible, before silently offering Lily a mug of tea, which she happily accepted.

Flynn ignored the interaction as he scanned the room instead, scowling when he saw that all the curtains were opened, letting light stream freely inside.

"Hagrid? Why are all the windows curtains opened?" he asked.

"To let the light in, o' course," Hagrid mumbled under his breath, as he shifted the embers in his fireplace closer against the black dragon egg, refusing to meet Lily's eyes.

"Is it necessary?" Flynn asked. "What if someone peeks in and sees that you have a dragon egg?"

"I wouldn' worry about tha'," Hagrid said. "Not many folk come 'round my cabin, and the only ones tha' do already know about the dragon."

"Oh?" Lily said. "There are more people than us?"

"Yeah," Hagrid said, turning his attention back to the fire, still not able to look Lily in the face. "I sent them a message too. I'm sure they'll come 'round after the first classes end."

"Not everyone can be a delinquent like us," Lily said, with a serious nod.

It quickly turned out that there wasn't much to do in preparation for a dragon hatching. Aside from making sure that the flames were stoked down to embers, keeping the egg warm but not suffocating the emerging baby dragon with smoke, the only thing that needed to be prepared was a copious amount of brandy and chicken blood to be mixed in a bucket, and Hagrid already had that on hand.

At first, Lily had busied herself by staring intently at the egg, but it seemed like the glacial pace that the spiderweb of cracks was expanding at wasn't enough to keep her entertained, so she defaulted to harassing Fang as he tried to sleep in the corner of the hut. Flynn glanced out the window every so often, but as time went on without him seeing anything, the frequency of his checks started to go down as time went on until he arbitrarily decided that it might be close to the end of the first period, though it was difficult to tell without a clock in Hagrid's hut.

Regardless, Flynn managed to catch the movement of three figures during one of his checks. Narrowing his eyes, he watched as they approached, and though he wasn't particularly happy when he managed to identify them, he wasn't dumb enough to think that they were a threat to Hagrid's secret either, given the fact that he saw Hagrid's letter slapping Harry in the face.

Sitting down with a huff, Flynn kept his arms crossed and his lips pulled down into a frown, refusing to react when there was a knock on the door.

Though Fang grumbled towards the door, with no energy to bark after being knocked nearly comatose by Lily's hour long ear scratches, Hagrid didn't even seem to notice the sound of the knock as he stared intensely at his dragon egg. Seeing that he was busy, Lily got up despite Fang's lazy protests and made her way to the door.

"And what do you think you would've done if he hadn't been there?" an exasperated voice bled into the room as the door opened. "We hadn't been taught any combat spells at the time, so it was a miracle that he had something to deal with the situation."

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Though Flynn was sitting in a position where he was hidden behind the door, it wasn't difficult to identify the voices.

"That only makes him even more suspicious, Hermione," Ron replied. "He's a first year just like us, so how come he knows a spell like that? You've seen him in charms. I'm better at charms than him, and I'm rubbish! Seems pretty shady to me. What if he's just pretending?"

"He's not rubbish, Ron. And neither are you. Spellwork is just a combination of repetition and effort, so clearly he's been doing some practise on the knockback jinx in his spare time. I know a few spells beyond our grade and I don't see you calling me shady. Besides, regardless of how he knows it, it doesn't change the fact that the three of us don't. So tell me, what were you planning to do without him? Stick your wand up its nose?"

"Umm," Harry's voice said, interrupting Ron's voice before it could start. "Who are you?"

From where he was sitting, Flynn could see Lily giving an unimpressed look towards someone who was at her eye level.

"I know it's easy to assume you're famous enough that everyone knows your name, but it's still quite rude to demand that someone gives you their name without introducing yourself first, you know," she said.

"Oh," Harry replied, sounding flustered enough by the reprimand to need a moment to continue. "Sorry. My name's Harry, and this is Ron and Hermione. Is Hagrid in?"

"Oi!" Hagrid shouted from inside the hut, finally acknowledging the trio's arrival though he didn't turn around. "Come in quickly, you lot. You're lettin' all the heat out."

Lily stepped aside to let the trio in, as they let out a set of hurried apologies. As Lily closed the door behind them, Flynn glared at the trio as they kicked off their shoes at the door until they all slowly started to notice him.

"My name's Lily," Lily said before they could say anything. "And this is Flynn. It's very nice to meet the three of you."

"Likewise," Hermione said, though it was possible that it was just a reflex as she didn't stop staring at Flynn.

Lily frowned as she seemed to realize that something was going on, but quickly returned her expression to a smile.

"Oh, you all know each other already?" she half-asked, half-stated.

"Y-yeah," Ron stammered out, looking around in every direction besides Flynn, though he couldn't seem to focus on anything for more than a few seconds.

"I suppose you could say that," Hermione added.

Harry didn't say a word, as he glanced between Flynn and Hagrid, frowning the entire time.

Lily stared blankly at each of them, before her eyes narrowed.

"I see," she said. "And when exactly did all of you meet? Judging from how you're acting, I can't assume you've known each other for very long, but since I know how prickly Flynn can be, I might guess that you all met a few months ago. Maybe around Halloween?"

A tangible feeling of tension seemed to settle in the room at Lily's question, though Flynn wasn't exactly sure why. The only people who didn't seem to notice or care about it were Hagrid and Fang, but the rest of the room's attention was focused on Lily as she glared at the trio.

"Y-you're absolutely correct," Hermione said, with a choked laugh. "We actually did meet on Halloween."

"I assumed," Lily said, giving Hermione a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I didn't actually talk with Flynn on Halloween, and I didn't actually talk with him on the day after Halloween either, even though we were supposed to have classes together that day. He had permission from Professor Snape to take the day off because of his injuries."

There was a short silence that stretched over the room, though it quickly evolved into a long and awkward one as Hermione seemed unsure about whether Lily had finished talking and lost her the opportunity to continue the conversation without it being awkward. She gave Lily and Flynn an awkward smile back, which Lily returned with a wide grin of her own.

"Actually, we were just talking about that," Hermione said, with a laugh. "Flintstone is rather difficult to track down, and I was just talking to Ron and Harry about how they haven't had the chance to thank Flynn for helping them fight that troll. It was all my fault we were in that situation of course, but Flynn was a huge help in saving my life and I'm sure more of us would've been hurt if it weren't for him."

Lily blinked in surprise for a moment, her too-wide smile breaking for a moment before she seemed to fully process what Hermione had said, but her glare returned in full force as she turned her focus to the two boys instead.

"You're telling me that you three were with Flynn when he fought that troll," Lily said. "But you never bothered to thank him or even check up on him afterwards?"

"I did," Hermione squeaked out.

Lily's eyes narrowed for a moment before she closed them completely. She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to give Harry and Ron what looked like a soft smile.

"Well, Flynn is pretty hard to find if you don't know where to look for him, I'll give you that," Lily said, with a laugh. "But I guess that problem's fixed now, isn't it? Now you boys have the perfect opportunity to say thank you."

The three Gryffindors each reacted to the not so subtle demand differently. Hermione glanced back at her friends with an anxious look in her eyes, and while Ron and Harry both looked between Lily and Flynn with a look that made it clear that they wouldn't be thanking Flynn for his help, their specific reactions were slightly different. While Ron looked confused as if he couldn't fathom why Lily was demanding a thanks in the first place, Harry looked at her with a guarded hostility, as if she was demanding something unjust of him.

Flynn had seen that look a hundred times before, of someone who felt like they were being beat down by the world and didn't understand why. While most of the street rats in Fredericton learned their lesson in one way or another, nobody ever truly lost access to that "look", since the lesson they learned was often that the world was just unfair for no reason and that there was nothing they could do to change it.

Flynn sighed and finally stood up, making the trio flinch back, more at the suddenness of his movement than them actually being intimidated, but Lily didn't seem to notice until he grabbed her wrist. She flinched at the touch, but didn't look back, refusing to take her eyes off the trio.

"Hey," Flynn said. "What makes you think that I need you to speak for me?"

"Well, you clearly weren't going to speak up for yourself," Lily grumbled.

"Yeah, that's because I didn't give a shit," Flynn said. "Instead of asking them to thank me, I'd rather they just shut up so I don't have to listen to their annoying-ass voices."

"But you were hurt," Lily said, finally turning around to look up at him.

For some reason, Flynn didn't like the way that angry tears were forming in the corners of her eyes so he turned around, walking back towards where he'd been sitting. Lily almost stumbled as she failed to realize he wasn't going to let go of her, and he slowed down to let her catch her footing, before continuing to drag her away.

"I'm fine," Flynn grunted, still keeping his eyes firmly pointed away from her as he sat down, dragging her down with him. "And don't think it doesn't apply to you too. Instead of giving me sympathy, I'd rather you just shut up so I don't have to listen to your annoying-ass voice."

Even though he wasn't looking at her, he could feel the heat of her glare burning a hole in the side of his head until she let out an annoyed huff and let her upper body fall against his arm, maybe a little more aggressively than she needed to. Flynn had the feeling that she was still glaring at the trio, but even though he felt a strange warmth travelled through him for no reason, it seemed like she hadn't quite understood that he didn't want any energy wasted on those three on his behalf. Grabbing Lily's shoulder, Flynn forcefully turned her towards him so she wouldn't be able to look in the trio's direction unless she strained her neck. She let out a quiet squeak of protest, but when he pulled her closer to him, she suddenly went completely silent.

Flynn couldn't help but marvel at the utter silence that the room had fell into, and wondered if it had always been this easy to shut Lily up for once in her life. Aside from the crackling of the fire that Hagrid hadn't taken his eyes off of for the past hour, the silence in the room was almost smothering, which wasn't something that Flynn minded in the slightest, but after a few long seconds, he realized that he had never known Lily being so quiet or still for so long except for the time that she had fallen asleep on his arm.

Flynn glanced down to see if that was the case, and was surprised to see that she was staring blankly forward and her eyes were wide with confusion, though he could only see one of them with how he was squeezing half her face against his chest.

As if noticing his gaze, Lily seemed to come back to life, as she slowly shifted her head to look up at him, staring directly at him with the same look of confused shock in her eyes.

It took a few seconds before she seemed to realize something, and though Flynn couldn't guess what that something was, it seemed to be startling enough for her to rip her eyes away from him, her face glowing with a tinge of pink.

It took a few seconds for Flynn to realize the same thing, even if he still didn't fully understand what that something was himself. Ignoring the feeling of heat blossoming in his cheeks, he pushed Lily away and aggressively scooted away from her.

"Don't fucking touch me," he grumbled, refusing to acknowledge how ridiculous that sounded, considering he had been the one to pull her close in the first place.

Surprisingly, Lily didn't say anything back, but though she remained silent, she didn't remain still. While she kept her back towards him, and her face hidden away, she couldn't stop her legs from swinging out of nervousness or excitement, and kept fidgeting with her hair, pushing it back to reveal how red her ears had become.

"I'm confused. What are they doing?" Ron whispered, with a volume that once again betrayed the fact that he didn't quite understand the base concept of whispering.

"Shh!" Hermione hissed. "Don't ruin it!"

Before Flynn could do anything, Lily was actually the one to shoot a glare towards the trio first, revealing to Flynn just how much of her face had been coloured in a deep shade of red. Though Lily still refused to look in his direction, she seemed to realize that she'd accidentally exposed herself to him, and quickly turned back away from him, hiding herself behind a curtain of hair.

Flynn had no idea what to do, or even think in this situation, so a wave of relief washed over him when he heard a knock on the door, and a quiet creak as the person on the other side didn't bother to wait for a reply.

Sally casually walked into Hagrid's hut, with her face flushed from the cold, and kicked the snow off her boots and took them off before freezing on the spot when she noticed the presence of three people that she was largely unfamiliar with.

Though Hermione and Ron barely registered her arrival, Harry glanced at her with a confused look, which Sally returned in kind.

There was a long and awkward silence, before Sally finally decided to take her coat off, and sat down beside Lily. Though she didn't seem comfortable with the situation, glancing wildly around the room, she didn't say anything to question it either.

The room sat in silence for a long time, before Hagrid let out a loud gasp.

"He's nearly out," Hagrid said, in a voice that sounded close to a cry. "Come on, Norbert. Yer surrounded by friends, ye got nothing te be shy about."

"Norbert?" either Harry or Ron asked, though Flynn wasn't certain of which it was.

Regardless of the choice in name, the opportunity to see a dragon hatching was interesting enough that the tension in the air was somewhat dispelled, as the trio, walked further inside to watch as something struggled to push itself out of the egg. Though Flynn, Lily, and Sally were already seated close enough to see the egg without moving, Lily stood up and got closer to watch anyways.

Flynn and Sally remained seated, and though Flynn was admittedly interested enough about the dragon to keep his eyes on it, he couldn't help but notice that Sally kept glancing at the door to Hagrid's hut.

Flynn tried to ignore the inane fidgeting, as Hagrid cooed at the egg, as if that was helping coax the dragon out of it, but when Sally showed no signs of stopping, he couldn't help but get annoyed by the sight.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" he asked, in a low enough voice that Hagrid wouldn't be able to hear, even though he was sure that he was too blind and deaf to the rest of the world to notice.

"Huh?" Sally said, her eyes widening in shock, like she had no idea how he could have possibly noticed her presence.

"You keep looking at the door," Flynn said. "You got somewhere to be?"

Sally shook her head, but still glanced back at the door.

"I just thought he would be here, by now," she mumbled.

"Who the hell are you talking about?" Flynn asked back.

"Your friend?" Sally said, in more of a question than a statement.

Flynn grunted at her.

"I don't have friends," he said.

Sally glanced at Lily, but didn't comment any further on it.

"The Slytherin boy you sometimes talk to, then," she said. "He didn't say anything to me, but we were going the same direction for a while so I thought he was headed to Hagrid's hut too. I just thought he'd be here by now."

"Blaise?" Flynn asked, though he couldn't think of any possible reason why the laid-back boy would go out of his way to do something as troublesome as walking out in the snow to come to Hagrid's hut, regardless of the reason behind it.

Sally shook her head. "No, not him," she said. "The blonde one. I think his name was Malfoy or something."

Flynn narrowed his eyes. Though he didn't know Draco well enough to think of any reason why he would be coming to Hagrid's hut unprompted, he knew that it could never be anything good.

Flynn got up quickly and moved to the windows, grabbing the curtains and quickly shutting them. Hagrid seemed to enamoured by the dragon egg to notice or care, but at the sound, Harry's head whipped around to glare suspiciously at Flynn.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"What does it look like, asshole?" Flynn answered, as he moved along the windows to shut the next set of curtains.

"Why don't you just leave the curtains alone?" Harry asked. "I'm sure Hagrid knows what he's doing."

Flynn grunted, in place of an argument.

"Lizards like to hide under rocks," he said. "Dragons might want the same thing."

"Well, actually, though many lizards do hide under rocks, that doesn't necessarily mean that they lay their eggs under them. While some lizard species do lay their eggs in small holes or dark crevices, it's not a general rule, and though I wasn't able to find much reading on dragons, their nesting habits are even more varied," Hermione said, though she was only half-focused on the conversation, with her attention still on the egg. "Some dragon species do nest out in the open on the highest mountaintop peaks that they can find, and though I couldn't find any specific information on Norwegian Ridgebacks, Norway is a very mountainous country, so I think it might be easy to assume that they might follow a similar nesting habit."

"The egg's black though," Flynn grunted, as he closed a few more curtains, nearly stumbling over Fang as he ran around the perimeter of the hut. "Black gets hot fast. They might not want the eggs to get cooked."

"That might've made sense if the egg wasn't already sitting in a fireplace," Harry said.

Flynn glared at Harry, but didn't engage with him until he walked over to the last curtain and pulled it shut.

"You've got a fucking problem with me?" Flynn growled.

"That's up to you," Harry responded, as he stood up and walked to one of the windows. "This is very important to Hagrid, and I'm not going to let you ruin it because you think that you can cook a dragon egg by leaving it out in the sun."

Before Flynn could do or say anything, Hagrid let out a squeal of delight at a pitch that might've suited Lily more than it did him.

"Oh, isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid said, cooing before Flynn heard a loud snapping sound that made him look away from Harry, and at the sentient black trashbag that was baring its fangs at Hagrid, letting out a sound that was halfway between a warble and a hiss before it sneezed and a few sparks of flame shot out from its nose.

"Oh, bless him," Hagrid said, wiping a happy tear from the corner of his eye. "He knows his mummy!"

When Flynn heard the sound of curtains being aggressively shut, he turned around to see Harry staring around the room at the rest of the windows, before settling on him. Without saying a word, he quickly shuffled towards his group of friends and whispered something to them that Flynn didn't manage to hear, but Ron's whispered reaction almost echoed through the small hut.

"Malfoy?" he asked. "He saw?"

Though Harry seemed proficient enough at whispering to not be heard himself, he didn't seem to notice or care that his friend was absolutely horrible at it. He whispered something back, and Ron and Hermione both let out a sigh.

"Well, that's a relief," Ron whispered. "But still. I wonder how he suspected something was up in the first place?"

Though Hagrid still seemed completely oblivious to what was going on around him, as he happily poured out some chicken blood and brandy into Fang's old water bowl, earning an annoyed grunt from the large dog, Flynn scanned the hut to make sure that he had properly closed all the curtains without allowing a single gap. As he did, he noticed Lily staring at him with a confused expression on her face, though she quickly broke eye contact with their gazes met, and Sally, whose face had turned pale with concern as she seemed to vaguely realize what was going on.

Flynn sent a glare towards the trio that none of them seemed to notice, before a rank smell permeated the air of the room.

"Oh good boy, Norbert," Hagrid said, letting out a hearty laugh as a dark puddle spread over the table that he'd transferred the dragon onto. "Good boy, just let it all out. It's not healthy to hold it in. Flynn! Would ya mind crackin open a window?"

"Give me a second," Flynn said, as he walked over to a window and drew the curtain back slightly so he could peek out of it.

His eyes narrowed at the back of the lone student that he could see in the distance. Though he couldn't be certain, from the height, the hair, and the way that he was stomping angrily away, as if he was a spoiled toddler who'd just had his toy taken away from him, he could only assume who it was.

"Sure," Flynn said, keeping the curtain closed, but opening the window behind it.

"Thanks, lad," Hagrid said, though he frowned immediately after. "Why're the curtains closed?"

Flynn shrugged and pointed with his chin towards the trio. "Ask those assholes," he said, as walked over to stand beside Lily and stare down at Norbert.

"What do you think?" Lily asked, though her voice was quieter than he'd ever heard it before.

Flynn glared at Lily, but for some reason found that it was difficult to stare at her for too long, so he directed his attention towards the wrinkly lizard that was somehow still pissing all over Hagrid's table.

"Are dragons usually this fucking ugly?" he asked.

The dragon narrowed its eyes at him, and hissed loudly at him before coughing a small spout of flame in his direction.

Lily yelped, and Flynn flinched away from the flame, but when it dissipated less than a foot away from the dragon's mouth, he glared down at it.

"Bitch," he said.

The dragon hissed angrily up at him.