This is the first of two chapters that are heavily copied from the book. If you've recently read Philosopher's Stone, you can essentially skip the entire chapter and not miss much. You could wonder why it's even there, then, but the problem with compressing it is that I wouldn't have enough left anymore to make it flow like, well, a story, and paraphrasing, to me, looks weirder than a direct copy-paste.

Chapter Nine: Draco Non Dormit

In spite of Daphne's promise to keep an eye on Snape, she didn't really find out anything new over the next couple of weeks. She didn't mind, though. Her newfound freedom had made her impervious to small annoyances, and she was having a lot of fun sitting at the Gryffindor table at mealtimes.

She'd seen Snape glancing oddly at her the first couple of times, but he hadn't confronted her about it.

She was sure McGonagall would've seen it as well, but the Gryffindor Head of House did not seem to consider it worthy of open notice or remark.

Dumbledore, however, had given Daphne a wide, encouraging smile the first time he spotted her at the Gryffindor table. It was her first interaction of sorts with the Headmaster, and despite the benign smile, it had made Daphne a bit nervous to attract the attention of someone so powerful.

Malfoy had avoided her completely since the day she'd received the letter, and the rest of her classmates, despite increased suspicious glances in her direction, didn't mention it either.

The only person who talked to Daphne about her switch in seating locations was Gemma. "You've got some interesting friends," Gemma said, a few days after 'the letter'. "It's unusual to see a Slytherin being this friendly with another House, especially when that House is Gryffindor."

She grinned. "I'm not blaming you, though. I'm just curious what prompted the sudden change."

When Daphne told her about the letter, Gemma laughed. "I'm glad your parents are so supportive. Honestly, I wish more of the pureblood parents were like that. I've seen so many people stressing out over meeting the expectations of their folks…it makes me glad I'm a half-blood."

She grew a bit more serious. "Keep your eyes open, though. Most of the higher-years won't care one way or another, but our House has a few basket cases who take 'House pride' very seriously. If any of them ever bother you, come to me, okay? I'll sort them out," she said.

Fortunately for Daphne, she hadn't had to make use of Gemma's offer yet, and with the exam period approaching rapidly and the amount of homework steeply increasing, she figured that she would probably be fine.

Now that she could freely hang out with her friends, she'd taken to studying with them in the library during free periods. Hermione was trying to get her to use a revisioning schedule, but Daphne wasn't all that interested, nor were Harry and Ron.

"It's okay, Hermione, really. I have my own way of studying," Daphne said after a not-so-subtle lecture on the virtues of color-coding your notes.

"So do I," Ron said. "It's called 'winging it', and I've been perfecting it for most of my life."

"You all do realize we need to pass these exams to get into the second year, right?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, and they're still ten weeks away," Harry said.

"Ten weeks is like a second to someone like Nicolas Flamel," Hermione said stubbornly. "I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me…"

Ron shot Daphne a look and said, "You know, neither Harry nor me would blame you if you wanted to bail."

Daphne giggled. "Don't worry, I'm not about to run away when things get difficult. No one will ever say that a Greengrass is a fair-weather friend," she said.

Ron shrugged. "Your funeral," he said.

As the days went on, the amount of homework the first-years got kept increasing, and Daphne spent nearly every waking moment in the library with Harry and the others. She was glad for the company, but even with their support and Hermione's constant encouragements, the work was often dull and dry, and with the weather improving by the day, she was longing for a few moments of relaxation, which even the Easter holidays didn't provide.

One beautiful spring day they were in the library once again, struggling through their mountains of homework.

Ron, who'd been staring out of a window after exclaiming he'd never remember everything he was supposed to remember, suddenly looked at something behind Daphne and said, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Desperate for any kind of distraction from her work, Daphne immediately turned around.

"Jus' lookin'," Hagrid said in a shifty voice. "An' what're you lot up ter? Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron said dismissively. "And we know what Fluffy's guarding. It's a Philosopher's St–"

"Shh!" 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," Harry said. "About what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy–"

"SHHH!" Hagrid said 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," Harry said.

Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked thoughtfully.

"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?" Daphne asked.

"I'm going to see what section he was in," Ron said.

He came back a moment 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."

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry said.

"But it's against our laws," Ron said. "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?" Harry asked.

"Of course there are," Ron said. "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's Hagrid up to?" Hermione wondered.

When they knocked on Hagrid's door an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains we're closed. "Who is it?" Hagrid called before he let them in, and once they'd stepped through the door he quickly closed it behind them. Daphne felt like she'd walked into a wall of heat. Despite the warmth outside, there was a blazing fire in the grate.

"So — yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes," Harry answered. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned at him. "O' course I can't," he said. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts — I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on around here," Hermione said in a warm, flattering voice.

Daphne grinned and quickly hid her mouth behind her hand.

Hagrid's beard twitched and they 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."

Hagrid's chest swelled at these words. Daphne, Harry, and Ron beamed at Hermione.

"Well, I don' s'ppose 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 McGonagall, Professor Quirrell…and 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."

Daphne exchanged glances with the others. Again, the theory that Snape was trying to steal the stone seemed to be strengthened…but at the same time this revelation made it less likely in her eyes. If Snape had been part of the Stone's protections, wouldn't he know what the other teachers had done to guard it? Fluffy could've been added as an afterthought, but even then, Snape could probably legitimately have asked Hagrid how to bypass him. If McGonagall had told Snape how to pass her protection, he would certainly have the authority to ask Hagrid, after all. And if he did, why would Quirrell withhold his secret?

Everything seemed to only partially fit in, and it was driving her nuts.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" Harry asked anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

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

Daphne frowned. If Hagrid had been told to keep things quiet, then it stood to reason that the other teachers had received similar orders. Why, then, would Snape be so interested in Quirrell specifically? Again, she simply couldn't believe that someone like McGonagall would freely tell Snape how to bypass her protections, and if Snape had been a part of the design of the defense in the first place, he should already know what Quirrell had done anyway. Why didn't things make sense?!

"Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling," Harry said.

"Can't, Harry, sorry," Hagrid replied.

He glanced at the fire, and Daphne followed suit. In the fire lay a large, black egg.

"Hagrid…What's that?" Harry asked.

"Ah," Hagrid said, fiddling nervously with his beard. "That's, er…"

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

"Won it," Hagrid said." Las' night. I was in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."

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

"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid said, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library: Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. It's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here — how ter recognize diff'rent eggs — what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."

He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't. "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," she said.

But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.

So now, between the preparations for the exams and the worries about the Stone, they had another thing to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.

The constant stress was briefly broken by Daphne's birthday, a short time after their visit to Hagrid. At breakfast, Ron's twin brother Fred and George insisted on leading everyone nearby in singing 'Happy Birthday' to her — which they'd also done for Ron and themselves earlier in the year, and which, while embarrassing, was also very flattering to Daphne — after which Harry, Hermione, and Ron handed over their presents personally.

Ron gave her a large box of Chocolate Frogs, mumbling something about not being able to afford more.

Hermione gave her a book of Muggle folklore.

Harry also gave her a book — but this one was titled Simple and Subtle Defensive Jinxes, Hexes, and Curses.

"Y'know, in case Malfoy gives you any trouble," he said with a meaningful look.

"Should you really be encouraging violence, though?" Hermione asked.

Daphne smiled brightly at all of them. "Thank you so much for these," she said. "My classmates didn't even know it was my birthday. To be fair, though, I don't know when theirs are, either."

After that sweet moment of reprieve, though, the hard work resumed. Around a week later, at breakfast, they received a note from Hagrid that only had the words 'It's hatching' written on it. Ron immediately suggested skipping their first class to go and see Hagrid, but Hermione was against it.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"

"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 hissed, and he made a small movement with his head.

Daphne looked in the direction Harry indicated and saw that Malfoy was only a few feet away and was listening intently to the conversation.

When he walked on, Daphne said, "I'll try to keep him away from Hagrid, you guys go talk to him."

Malfoy, however, turned out to be a slippery guy. Even though Daphne was able to keep an eye on him in class, when the bell rang for the morning break she briefly lost sight of him in the mass of students piling into the hallway, and that was all it took for him to get away.

When he returned, he was wearing a slightly manic smile, which told Daphne all she needed to know: he'd seen the dragon.

The most worrying thing about Malfoy having seen the dragon was that he didn't seem to be doing anything with it. He wasn't even mentioning it in the common room, though that could just be because he knew that Daphne would tell Harry and the others immediately.

Whenever they could, they visited Hagrid in his hut, trying to reason with him to let the dragon go, but Hagrid wouldn't hear of it and said that Norbert, as he'd decided to call it, would die if Hagrid would set hem free.

Eventually, Harry had proposed to call in Ron's brother Charlie, who worked with dragons in Romania, and Hagrid had reluctantly agreed, but even then it taken another week for them to receive a reply, by which time Ron had been unfortunate enough to get bitten by Norbert.

Worse, the plan to get Norbert away from Hogwarts involved dragging him through the castle up to the Astronomy Tower, at midnight.

That alone would be bad enough, but the worst part of it all was that Malfoy, who'd been gloating over Ron in the infirmary under pretense of needing to borrow a book from him, had gotten his hands on Charlie's letter, meaning he knew exactly when Norbert would be moved.

"I think I should go with you," Daphne said to Harry. "I don't care if I get caught; they won't expel me anyway and I'm not interested in House points. Serves Malfoy right if his big scoop ends up costing Slytherin."

Hermione was reluctant to agree, though she was also relieved she wouldn't have to be around Norbert or breaking any more rules.

Though it was a painful exercise, Daphne and Harry were making good progress carrying the crate containing Norbert through the castle. It was heavy, but with some difficulty and careful application of Wingardium Leviosa, they managed to get through most of the castle without obstructions.

Then, when they were nearly at the Astronomy Tower, there was a sudden movement in the hallway ahead of them, and they quietly put down the crate, staring intently at the two people roughly ten feet away from them.

A lamp flared. Professor McGonagall, in a tartan bathrobe and a hair net, had Malfoy by the ear.

"Detention!" she shouted. "And twenty points from Slytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night, how dare you–"

"You don't understand, Professor. Harry Potter's coming — he's got a dragon!"

"Yes, just like he was to have a wizarding duel with you earlier this year, wasn't he? Come on, I shall see Professor Snape about you, Malfoy!"

The hardest part about climbing the staircase, after seeing that scene, was keeping themselves from bursting out laughing.

Once they were finally up in the cold midnight air, they threw off the Cloak and waited for Charlie's friends to arrive, and soon they'd buckled Norbert's crate into a harness and were watching him disappear into the darkness.

Daphne shivered in the cold night air, and she went down the spiral staircase a couple of steps ahead of Harry. She was nearly at the base of the stairs again when she realized that, far apart as she and Harry were, there was no way she was under the Invisibility Cloak, and Harry likely wasn't either.

And right at that moment, she saw a light approaching from around the corner. She was far enough ahead of Harry that someone from downstairs wouldn't immediately be able to see her, so in a split second she made her decision.

"Oh no, I forgot my cloak!" she yelled, hoping that Harry would realize what she meant and hurry back upstairs.

For her, though, it was too late. Filch rounded the corner, and after Daphne's shout he was already looking at the staircase.

"Well, well, well," he said softly. "We are in trouble."