A/N: Hello my Soulies! I'm back! Firstly, I want to apologize for the near 3 month absence from this story. I just lost my connection with it. But I believe I have finally found it again! I hope that you enjoy this chapter! I feel it's time to give yet another shout out to Slytherinmomma88 for giving me this plunny, letting me bring it to fruition. And as always, many many thanks to my amazing beta, Frogster. Please, let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. JK owns all.

XoXo,

Elle.

Norbert

They had run straight to the library, much to Draco and Harry's dismay. They could have been on the pitch, practicing for their upcoming Quidditch match. But instead, they'd followed the bushy haired know-it-all into the library to research Nicolas Flamel. "I know I've read about him somewhere. I just have to find the book. It was just some light reading and I think it was from this section. Boys! Don't just stand there. Help me look! It wasn't a book on Nicolas Flamel. Drat! Why can I not remember the title? Or the author?"

Draco and Harry exchanged exasperated looks, but didn't argue. They could see her hair starting to frizz as her anxiety and distress set in. Sparks were firing between the curls and Draco took Hermione by the shoulders, turning her to face him. "Booky, just calm down. Breathe with me." Draco began taking exaggerated breaths and Hermione's eyes locked on his shoulders, watching them rise and fall, slowing her breathing to match his.

This wasn't the first time that they had done something like this. Hermione was terrified of storms, not so much the rain and the lightning, but the crashing, booming and castle-rattling thunder. So naturally, the frequent Scottish storms would work her into a panic attack - as would studying for a big exam that was coming up. Draco only assumed it was going to get worse as finals began to creep in. "That's it, Booky. That's good. Now, I want you to close your eyes and concentrate on that book. Tell me what it looked like."

Draco looked at Harry, who gave him a nod. Harry would look for the book as Draco kept her calm and talking, spouting out the details. In fifteen minutes, they had found the book, with a visual confirmation from Hermione.

Harry carried the book over to the nearest table, setting it down with a resounding thump and he looked at Hermione. "Light reading? This thing weighs as much as I do." That earned a quiet giggle from Hermione and Draco breathed a sigh of relief. She was past her panic attack which meant she would be back to her normal self in the next few minutes.

"We all know what you think about reading, Harry. You barely read enough to get your homework done while Draco and I actually enjoy reading for leisure," Hermione retorted and took a seat at the table, flipping open the dusty and worn leather cover of the book. Her finger scanned the table of contents, looking for what she needed. Hermione began chewing her lip when she didn't find what she was looking for; she began looking through them again. "Hmm, it may be this one."

The book was opened, dust puffing up from the pages as they got a hit of fresh air. Draco sat down next to Hermione, Harry taking the seat on her opposite side as they all three leaned in to look at what Hermione was reading. Though neither of them knew what they were looking at yet. Hermione's fingers were running across the pages, fingers getting coated in a layer of the grimy dust.

On Hermione's left, Harry let off a sneeze. "Bless yer," came from the stacks behind them and the three of them turned around to look at where the voice came from.

"Hagrid?" Harry asked.

The big, lumbering half-giant walked out from the shelves and smiled at the three of them. "Hello kids. What're yeh lookin' at?" He walked over and looked down at the book they were looking through.

"Just looking for more on Nicolas Flamel. What are you doing in the library?" Harry said, his eyes narrowing at the groundskeeper. They were all aware that Hagrid wasn't one to be found in the library. When he began to shift from foot to foot and dodge their gaze, they knew there was something afoot with the gentle creature.

"Oh, eh, jus' doin' some research." Hagrid was getting more shifty by the second, refusing to even look in their direction. "Well, best be off!" Then he was gone, rushing out of the library with a blush on what they could see of his cheeks.

Draco frowned over at Hermione and Harry, rising from his chair.

"Where are you going, Draco?" Hermione asked, getting up to follow him. Draco wound his way through the stacks, back to where they had heard Hagrid's voice.

"I wanted to see what section he was in. He was far too shifty-" Draco trailed off as he looked around at the tomes they were surrounded by, a frown creasing his brow. They were in the magical creatures section. Hagrid did have a legitimate reason to be in that section as he usually dealt with plenty of animals in his position.

Hermione was looking around at the shelves closely, frowning as well. "Draco, look at this."

She pointed at a shelf where the dust was disturbed, but she wasn't pointing at the shelf itself, Hermione was pointing at the rows of books. Draco frowned, leaning in and narrowing his eyes, "Dragons? He was looking at dragons? Why would he be doing that? Dragons are illegal in the UK."

"He's always wanted one." Harry looked slightly green as he divulged that piece of information.

Hermione looked over at Harry with wide eyes, "You don't think that he's somehow got his hands on one do you?"

Draco didn't like the sounds of this, nor the look on Harry's face. Because that look meant that Harry was sure that that was exactly what Hagrid had done. "We need to go see Hagrid later, after we find out about Nicolas Flamel. Hermione, let's get back to reading."

Hermione gave a firm nod, now looking slightly green in the face as well and walked back to their table to skim through the book once more.

After a couple of hours searching through the massive book, Hermione gave a sound of triumph and began reading aloud, "Nicolas Flamel, noted alchemist and only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone. The stone produces the Elixir of Life, giving the owner the ability to extend their life well beyond what is considered normal, even for wizard-kind. The stone has also been rumored to turn any metal into gold. Flamel credits Albus Dumbledore in some of his latest research and lives peacefully with his wife in Devon, last roughly estimated to be over six hundred and seventy years old."

The trio exchanged looks, their eyes wide as they each came to the realization of what Fluffy must be hiding. None of them wanted to say it out loud, but now they had even more reason to go to Hagrid.

"Snape is after the stone," Harry said, still adamant that Draco's godfather was the bad guy.

Draco gave one of his sneers that he usually directed at everyone else to Harry. "Uncle Sev is not after the stone, Harry. I don't know why you want to see him as the villain."

Harry was winding up for a retort, but Hermione stopped him. "Boys, stop it. We don't know who is after what. We need to go down and talk to Hagrid. And we need to hurry, it's getting dark. If we're caught out after curfew, Professor McGonagall will have a conniption."

Hermione waved her wand at the book and it zoomed away, back to its rightful place. The three of them hurried from the library, unaware of the tall and lanky ginger following them.

They scurried across the grounds to Hagrid's cabin and Harry pounded on the door. "Hagrid!"

Fang, Hagrid's giant boar hound barked loudly from inside the small cabin. They could hear Hagrid's futile attempts to quiet the dog as if pretending he wasn't home.

"We know you're in there!" Draco yelled, losing his patience. He was just about to open the door on his own when Hagrid opened it, wearing the most ridiculous get up Draco had ever seen.

Hagrid had on a pink apron covered in purple flowers and soot. It was frilly around the edges and entirely too small for him, the ties hanging loosely at the sides of his belly. He had large, padded cauldron mitts on and held a pair of iron fire tongs in one hand. "Wha' is it? 'M busy."

Draco rolled his eyes and was about to smart off when Harry interrupted him, his voice low, "We know about the Philosopher's Stone, Hagrid. That's what Fluffy is guarding, isn't it?"

Hagrid's flushed face paled and he ushered them in, using his large mittened hand to pull them in and shut the door behind them. "Yeh shouldn' be messin' in summat that ain't got nuttin' ta do wit' yeh. Leave it be."

"But Snape is after the stone! When the troll got in, he must have went to try and get it, because he had a bad gash on his leg!" Harry protested.

Once again, Draco was going to rise to his godfathers defense, but he was interrupted. "Why would he try ter steal it? He's one o' the professors protectin' it, it'n he?"

It was said in the form of a question, but it was obviously rhetorical. Then Hagrid realized what he said and shook his head, "Shouldn've said that." There was a rattling sound over by the fire and as one, the three of them looked around Hagrid at the cauldron hanging over the flames.

Hagrid was purposely ignoring the sound, no doubt trying to draw their attention away from it as he headed for the door. "Now, yeh best be gettin' to the castle. It's after yeh curfew." But Draco moved over to the cauldron and looked in, his grey eyes widening in shock.

"Hagrid, where did you get that?" Hermione asked, her voice tight and worried.

Hagrid sighed and shut the door. He walked over to the cauldron and took out the shaking egg, placing it on the worn, dented and scratched wooden table. "Won it off a fella in the pub."

That was all he said, before they were all mesmerized by the egg starting to crack. Before long, a little dragon head was poking out and making little trilling sounds. The dragon turned to look up at Hagrid and the half-giant grinned, "Oh, bless 'im. He knows his mummy." The baby dragon hiccuped and out shot tiny flames, catching a bit of Hagrid's beard on fire. Hagrid patted it out with his mitt. "Oh, look at you Norbert."

The door behind them burst open and Ron Weasley stood in the doorway. "That's a Norwegian Ridgeback. My brother works with those in Romania. What are you doing with a dragon? They're illegal here."

Everyone in the cabin turned to look at Ron with wide eyes, scared of what he might do. He had several choices. Two of which were to come over and look at the dragon, or run and tell. Draco was surprised when he walked over to inspect the new hatchling. "Hagrid, you can't keep it." Ron stated simply.

Hagrid looked hurt and defensive, opening his mouth to argue, but Hermione stepped in. "Ron is right. You can't. They are illegal and keeping Norbert will likely get you thrown in Azkaban."

At the mention of the wizarding prison Hagrid went white as a sheet, swallowing thickly. "Azkaban?"

"I'll write to Charlie. He'll know what to do." Ron offered and Draco was in shock. A glance at his best friends and he could tell they were feeling the same. Ron Weasley was being nice.

Hagrid simply nodded, looking down at Norbert.

With a look between the four students, they decided it was time to go. They said quiet goodbyes to Hagrid and left the cabin. The walk up the grounds was mostly silent, until Hermione spoke up, "Thank you, Ron. That was nice of you."

Ron gave a nod, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I like Hagrid, he's a nice guy. And I don't want him to get in trouble."

They crested the hill, the giant double entrance doors coming into view. One side was open, light spilling out onto the steps and grass, a long shadow stretching across the distance, topped with a witch's hat. "Shite," Draco murmured. Professor McGonagall was waiting for them.