AN: Trying to update this story more. I really want to get to The Chamber of Secrets before the weekend so here's hoping. Maybe I'll get on a roll and get all the way to Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm still not completely sure who all I will save but you have to remember I can't save everyone no matter how much I want to. Once again anything you recognize is JK Rowling's anything you don't is mine.
The Quidditch match passed quickly. Harry caught the Snitch so fast it was hard to believe. Ron and Neville had fought the Slytherins and missed most of the game. Ron ended up with a bloody nose and Neville was still in the hospital wing. When Harry came to the common room that night he told us something that made everything so much more complicated.
Snape had talked to Quirrel about the stone. Good lord could things get any worse?
"So we were right, it is the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy — and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus — I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably, and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through —"
"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" I said in alarm.
"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Ron.
The weeks passed but nothing seemed to change. Snape was his usual surly self and Quirrel seemed to look worse with every passing day. Whenever I saw him I tried to give him an encouraging smile.
I started making study schedules for Harry, Ron, Neville and I. Harry and Ron groaned and grumbled when I passed them the color coded study schedule while Neville quickly looked over his own his face pale.
The teachers seemed to be thinking the same thing I was and gave us loads of homework. I worked my butt off every night in the library trying to keep up with all the work. It felt like I was drowning under all the pressure. Neville came with me to the library every night trying to work on his own homework. I helped him as best I could and he helped me with Herbology, which he had a knack for.
Once the Easter holiday passed Harry and Ron were joining me in the library. Neville was in the hospital wing from having a potion fall on him during Potions class. Snape had yelled at poor Neville and blamed Harry (again) for ruining his classmate's chances for getting good grades. What a git.
"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue, and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming. Harry, who was looking up "Dittany" in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and I was flipping through my Transfiguration book, neither of us looked up until Ron said, "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 my interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked 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 a Sorcerer's St —"
"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
Harry and I exchanged a smile.
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about 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 rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh —"
"See you later, then," said Harry.
Hagrid shuffled off.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" I asked thoughtfully.
"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"
"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who looked more than ready to stop studying. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.
"Dragons!" he whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide."
My stomach dropped like a stone. Oh Hagrid, you didn't! You couldn't! He wouldn't! After all he lived in a wooden house. He wouldn't be that foolish... would he? No. He was smarter than that.
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him, " said Harry.
"But it's against our laws," said Ron. I relaxed. He wouldn't raise a dragon if it was against wizard law. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden — anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry.
"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."
"So what on earth is Hagrid up to?" I asked in a pinched voice.
"No idea." Harry and Ron said at the same time.
AN: Please Review! Reviews make me happy, when I'm happy I update more, when I update more you're happy. In the end everyone wins.