Chapter 5

It was now ten weeks before the end of year exams and Hermione was driving everyone nuts with her homework plans and studying schedules.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Ron wined.

"Ten weeks is not ages!" She argued.

"What are you revising for anyway, you already know it all." Ron muttered.

"What am I revising for?!" She exclaimed, "Are you mad? You realize we have to pass the exams to get into second year? They are very important, I should have started studying months ago. I don't know whats gotten into me! It must be-"

"Hermione!" I interrupted, "You have all our text books memorized! You are going to do great. You've read Hogwarts a history a thousand times, right? So tell me, has anyone actually ever flunked out of Hogwarts before the OWLs? In fact, Hagrid was the only person to ever be expelled before his fourth year. So calm down." That seemed to have worked as Hermione did in fact calm down.

"Thanks, Annie." She said to me.

"Annie?" I questioned.

"It's your new nick name. You know. Joanne - Annie." She explained.

"If you say so 'Mione." I laughed.

...

Despite having calmed Hermione down we still ended up revising hard for the last nine weeks. It was now about one and a half weeks before we were to take the exams. I had also been practicing the more advanced charms. I was now able to protect my whole body with ease, using the shield charm. I could also do the summoning charm very well.

We had been so busy that we forgot all about the Philosopher Stone. We needed to get a move on if we were going to stop Quirrell so I suggested we go see Hagrid on Saturday morning.

...

We were traveling down the path to Hagrid's hut. It wasn't long before we reached the hut. Harry knocked on the door and we waited. And waited. He knocked again, louder this time. Still nothing. Then I heard a yell coming from behind the hut. "Come on." I said, and we ran round the side of the hut. We reached the space behind the hut and we all stopped dead in our Tracks.

We saw Hagrid. But he wasn't what had made our mouths drop open. Standing next to him was a young dragon. A dragon! I had forgotten all about Norbert. Or Norberta as she is later known. She had grown to about the size of a small pony. It opened it's mouth and shot a ball of fire at us. Hermione and I dived out the way as Harry pulled a mesmerized Ron to the side. "No Norbert! We do not try to burn our friends." Hagrid scolded the dragon. Hagrid must be completely nuts.

"That's a Norwegian Ridgeback. Hagrid, where ever did you get it!?" Ron finally said.
"I won 'im of a bloke down at the pub, 'e was just a little egg." Hagrid told us. "I've always wanted a dragon, you know."

"Hagrid you can't possibly keep that thing. Your house is made of wood!" Hermione all but yelled in his face. "What on earth were you thinking?!"

"But he's 'armless, really." Hagrid told us.

"Hagrid, he almost fried us less than twenty seconds ago!" I exclaimed in exasperation, "You can't keep him!"

"But where's 'e gonna go?" Hagrid asked defiantly.

"I'll send a letter to my brother Charlie in Romania. He works with dragons. He can take him to a dragon reserve." Ron suggested.

"That's a great idea." Harry said.

"But what if the other dragons are mean to 'im?" Hagrid asked. I sighed in exasperation. Honestly! I like Hagrid but one of these days the guys love for dangerous creatures is going to get someone killed.

"He would be better off with others of his kind." Hermione said gently.

"I s'pose your right." He sighed.

"Hagrid did you see the guy who gave you the dragon egg?" I asked, hinting at the fishiness of the situation. "I mean, doesn't it seem a little odd that a guy was walking around with a dragon egg in his pocket."

"I actually didn't see 'is face. He 'ad 'is hood up the 'ole time." Hagrid replied.

"What did you talk about?" Harry asked.

"Well, 'e asked me about my experience with magical creatures, so I told 'im 'bout Fluffy ye see."

"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?" I questioned.

"'Course he was interested in Fluffy. 'ow often do ye come across a three 'eaded dog?" Hagrid explained. "So I told 'im, the trick with any beast is to know 'ow to calm 'im. Take Fluffy for instance, ye just play 'im a bit of music and 'e falls strait to sleep."

Harry's eyes widened in realization. "Well, we better go and owl Charlie." He said then he grabbed Ron's arm, turned him around and lead us hastily away. Way to be covert Harry!

After he had lead us into an empty classroom he turned around and said, "This is bad. The person who gave Hagrid the dragon egg could have been anyone. That means Snape could know how to get past Fluffy!" Hermione gasped.

"Well, like you said before Hermione, there must be other things protecting it. We need to find out what else is there." I said. They nodded and we left the room. Harry, Hermione and I went to the common room while Ron separated from us to owl Charlie about Norbert.

...

It was the next morning at breakfast when Ron received a reply. He stuffed it in his pocket and later when the four of them were alone, he ripped open the envelope. He read the letter aloud for us to here:

"Dear Ron,

How are you? Thanks for the letter - I'd be glad to take the Norwegian Ridgeback, but it won't be easy getting him here. I think the best thing will be to send him over with some friends of mine who are coming to visit me next week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seen carrying an illegal dragon. Tell Hagrid that they will pick him up at midnight on Monday? They can meet him and take him away while it's still dark.

Love Charlie."

"That's great!" Harry said. "We should go tell Hagrid. While we're there we can ask him what else is guarding the Philosopher Stone."

...

So that Sunday they went to Hagrid's again. He let them into his hut and made tea. "We got a reply from Charlie this morning at breakfast." Harry told Hagrid.

"Oh! What did 'e say?" Hagrid asked.

"That someone will be by tomorrow night at midnight to pick him up." Ron explained. Hagrid looked sad when he said this.

"So soon?" He asked.

"The sooner the better Hagrid. He is only just small enough to travel with as he is." I told him gently. Then Hagrid started bawling. He yowled and sobbed while Ron awkwardly patted him on the back.

"I'm gonna miss 'im." He explained to us when he was finished.

"I know Hagrid, but it's for the best." I said trying to comfort him. He sighed deeply.

"I know." He finally said.

"So, we were wondering if you could tell us what else is guarding the Philosopher Stone apart from Fluffy." Harry said. I almost banged my head against the table at how obvious he was being. Over the past year I have come to realize that the words secretive, discreet, covert, obscure, delicate and inconspicuous mean nothing to eleven year olds. Or perhaps that's just Harry and Ron.

"O' course I cant," he said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on around here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and I could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you." Nice, Hermione! I thought to myself. At least someone knows the meaning of the word discreet around here.

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

"Thanks Hagrid." Hermione said as they where leaving. As they where walking up the path Harry said, "So Snape knows all the enchantments. He could probably easily get past them. We already agreed that he was probably the person who gave Hagrid the dragon egg. That means he knows how to get past Fluffy as well." He summarized.

"Yes, but he's not going to try anything with Dumbledore around." Hermione said, "Also Hagrid got the dragon weeks ago. That means the Snape has known how to get past Fluffy for weeks. Either he is waiting for Dumbledore to leave for a night or there is still something he doesn't know how to get past."

...

A few days later, right after we completed our exams, Hermione walked into the common room looking grim. She walked up to where Ron, Harry and I were studying for exams and said, "I need to talk to you." This did not sound good. She lead us out of the common room and into an empty classroom.

She just stood there squirming, not saying anything. She would open her mouth like she was about to start and then she would close it again. Finally, Ron lost patience and said, "Well, what is it?"

"I've been doing further research on the Philosopher stone and the Elixir of Life." She began. "I found out that the Elixir of LIfe has unparalleled healing abilities. In the right hands it can literally create body parts and heal fatal wounds." I think I was starting to understand what she was getting at.

"And?" Harry said, urging her to continue.

Hermione took a deep breath before saying, "If Dumbledore is right, and Voldemort is still out there somewhere weakened, he could use the Stone to fully restore himself. He could come back and..." She trailed off.

"What?" Ron asked.

"He would be practically immortal." Hermione finished.

No one said anything. It was completely silent. Ron had goosebumps and Harry looked as if he was in a trance. "So you think Snape is trying to steal the Stone to give it to Voldemort." I said, breaking the deafening silence. I had long given up on trying to convince them it was Quirrell not Snape. They would know I was right later.

Hermione nodded and Harry visibly deflated. "We can't let that happen." He said.

"Agreed," I said. "We need to go see Dumbledore. We should tell him what we know and try and convince him the stone should be destroyed."

They left the classroom and ran to Dumbledore's office. They were almost there when professor McGonagall stopped them. "What has got you four in such a hurry, that you have to charge down the corridor like a herd of elephants?" She demanded.

"We need to see professor Dumbledore. It's an emergency." Harry told her.

"I'm afraid that Dumbledore is a very busy man and-"

"We know about the Philosopher Stone," Harry interrupted her, "And we think someone is trying to steal it." At least he had enough sense not to mention he thought it was Snape.

"Now, I don't know how you found out about the stone but let me assure you it is well protected." She told them, "And I'm afraid that Dumbledore received an urgent owl from the ministry and left for London only an hour ago. He won't be back any time soon." We exchanged meaningful looks.

We left and found an empty classroom to talk in. "With Dumbledore gone, who is going to protect the stone?!" Harry exclaimed. "I bet the ministry didn't even send the letter. It was probably just a distraction to get Dumbledore out of the castle so that it would be easier to steal the Stone." I nodded in agreement.

"You know what we have to do, right?" I asked.

"We have to go down that trap door." Harry finished for me. "Tonight."

...