Chapter 12-

As the weeks passed. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Phoebe had been keeping a close eye on Quirrell. They noticed Quirrell was getting paler and thinner but didn't appear to have cracked yet.

Everytime they passed the third floor corrdior they pressed their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside and Snape was sweeping around the castle in a bad tempter- which meant the stone was safe.

Harry, Ron and Phoebe gave Quirrell encouraging smiles and told anyone off for laughing at Quirrell's stammer. Hermione, however had more pressing matters of her own. She had drawn up revision timetables and was now colour- coding her notes.

'Hermione, the exams are ages away.' Ron moaned at her.

'Ten weeks.' she snapped. 'That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel.'

'But we are not Six hundred years old.' Ron reminded her. Which led to the usual Ron/Hermione argument- which meant Harry and Phoebe decided to play a game of exploding snap.

The Easter Holidays were no were near as fun as Christmas, as the teachers were thinking along the same lines as Hermione and had gave them a pile of work. Phoebe was lucky if she got to write to her family at least once a week. Phoebe spent most of her free time these days in the library with Hermione and the boys.

'I'll never remeber this.' Ron burst out one afternoon in the library, throwing down his quill, and looking longing out the window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in a long time. The sky was a forget-me-not blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Phoebe was trying her best to read through her Potions notes and didn't look up until she heard Ron say

'Hagrid, what are you doing in the library?'

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

'Jus' lookin' ' he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. 'An' what're you lot up ter' suddenly suspicious. 'Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?'

'Oh, we found out who he is ages ago,' said Ron impressively. 'And we know what that dog's guarding, it's the Philosopher's St-'

'Shhhh!' Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. 'Don'go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?'

'There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact.' said Harry, 'about the what's guarding the stone apart from Fluffy-'

'SHHHH!' said Hagrid again. 'Listen- come an' see me later, i'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabibitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-'

'See you later, then.' said Harry.

'What was he hiding behind his back?' said Hermione, once Hagrid had shuffled off.

'Maybe it's to do with the stone?' Phoebe suggested.

Ron got up and went to the section Hagrid had been in. He came back a few mintues later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

'Dragons.' Ron whispered.

'Hagrid always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time i met him.' said Harry.

'You don't think Hagrid has a dragon!' said Phoebe.'

'But it's against our laws.' said Ron, and he began explaining the Decree to Harry and Hermione.

'What on earth is Hagrid up to?' said Hermione.

An hour later they knocked on Hagrid's door and were surprised to find that the curtains were closed.

'Who is it?' Hagrid called.

'It's us.' shouted Phoebe, he shut the door immediately once he let them in. Hagrid had a roaring fire -even though it was such a warm day. He had made tea and offered them sandwiches, which they refused.

'So- yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?'

'Yes,' said Harry. 'We were wondering if you could tell us what else was guarding the stone apart from Fluffy.'

'O' course I can't' he said. ' Number One, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell if I could. That stone is here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta ya worked that out in all.'

Hermione began with a little flattery to wiggle information out of him, this made Hagrid smile

'Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh ...let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me...then some o' the teachers did enchantments...Professor Sprout- Professor Flitwick-Professor McGonagall-' he ticked them off on his fingers. 'Professor Quirrell- an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape.'

'Snape?'

'Yeah-yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look Snape helped protect the Stone. He's not about ter steal it.'

'You are the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you Hagrid?' said Harry, anxiously ' and you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?

'Not a soul knows except me and Dumbledore,' said Hagrid proudly.

'Well , that's something,' Harry muttered to the them. 'Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling.'

'Can't, Harry, sorry.' said Hagrid. They noticed him glance at the fire. Phoebe also looked and saw underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.

'Hagrid, What's that?'

'Hagrid, you haven't?'

'Where did you get it Hagrid?' said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer looked at the egg. 'It must've cost you a fortune.'

Hagrid then began to explaing to them how he won it in a game of cards in the pub.

'But what are you going to do with it once it's hatched?' Hermione asked.

Hagrid then began to explain that he got books in the library. Hermione tried to reason with Hagrid by explaining he lived in a wooden house - but Hagrid ingored her.

'Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life,' Ron sighed, one evening as they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting. Hermione had even started making them revision timetables which drove the boys mad.

Then one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid - with the words 'It's hatching.'

Phoebe and Ron wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down to the hut, but Hermione wouldn't hear of it.

'We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing-'

'Shut up.' Harry whispered, as Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped dead to listen. Phoebe didn't like the look on Malfoy's face, how much had he heard?'

Ron and Hermione argued all the way to herbology and in the end she had agreed to run down to Hagrid's during the morning break. When the bell rang, they dropped their trovels at once and quickly made their way to Hagrid's.

Hagrid greeted them looking very flushed and excited.

'It's nearly out.' he ushered them inside.

The egg was lying open on the table. There were deep cracks in it, and something was moving inside, a funny clicking noise was coming from it.

They all drew their chairs up to the table and watched with bated breath.

All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg spilt open. The baby dragon flopped on to the table. It wasn't exactly pretty, Phoebe thought it looked like a crumpled, black 's wings were bigger than it's skinny body and it had a long snout with wide nostils, stubs for horns and bulging orange eyes.

'Isn't it beautiful?' Hagrid murmured. As he reached out to stroke the dragon's head and it began to snap at his fingers. 'Bless him, he know his mummy!'

'Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow exactly?'

Hagrid was about to answer when the colour suddenly drained from his face- he leapt to his face and ran to the window.

'What's the matter?' Phoebe asked.

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

Harry and Phoebe bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distance there was no mistaking him.

Malfoy had seen the dragon.