A couple of days after the Quidditch match, Hermione went into a panic over the end-of-year exams. She began colour-coding her notes and drew up a study schedule. None of the others would have minded, except that she began insisting they do the same. The other four Ravenclaws, while concerned about the exams, were not in the state Hermione was in, and told her to slow down a bit. Emily and Diana were used to this and said, "There's no need to worry, Mia. You're the smartest person in the year and will definitely pass the exams."
"But what if I don't?" wailed Hermione. "These exams are important! If we don't pass, we'll either have to repeat the year or get thrown out of Hogwarts!"
"Hermione, the exams are ages away," said Ron. "You don't need to -"
"Ten weeks," Hermione interrupted with a snap. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."
"But we're not six hundred years old!" cried Alex, losing patience. "You're not going to fail the exams, Mia, so stop worrying about it!"
"How do you know? You can't see the future! I could fail and then I'll be expelled and it'll -"
"Hermione Jean Granger, enough!" Marcy looked extremely annoyed. "I can see the future and it says that we're all going to pass the end-of-year exams. You'll come in first."
Emily suspected that Marcy might have made it up just to get Hermione to shut up, but it worked and she calmed down. However, that didn't stop her from studying and reminding her friends to do the same, adding that it wasn't wise to tempt fate and the future could be changed. The teachers were of the same mind as Hermione, giving out so much homework that the Easter holidays were nowhere as fun as the Christmas holidays. Therefore the Hogwarts Gang could be found either in the library or the Founders' room, doing homework or studying. Visits with Hagrid stopped completely, for after the first visit with him, they had taken to seeing him in groups of no more than five or six almost every week. All of them could have gone together, but as it was rather crowded when all twenty of them were in the hut, they had decided to split it up and visit in smaller groups.
One very lovely afternoon, Emily threw down her quill and looked longingly out the window. She would love to be outside, enjoying the weather, and was very tired of studying. She was smart and didn't easily forget things, so there was very little chance of her failing the exams. But Hermione would pitch a fit if she stopped studying all together.
"What are you doing in the library, Hagrid?" asked Justin, surprised. Emily turned to look. Hagrid, looking out of place, stopped to look at them, holding something behind his back.
"Er, nothin' much," said Hagrid in a shifty voice that got their attention at once. "What're yeh all up to?"
"We're studying," answered Anthony.
Marcy suddenly gasped and stared at Hagrid, wide-eyed. "Oh no, Hagrid, you didn't!" she exclaimed in a whisper.
He gave her a funny look and then left the library. "What was Hagrid doing in the library?" asked Tracey. "And what was he hiding behind his back?"
"I'll go check the section he was in," said Ron, jumping to his feet. "I need a break from all this studying." He returned a minute later with several books in his arms. "Dragons! Hagrid was looking up information on dragons. I wonder why. Other than the fact that he likes dragons so much."
Marcy groaned. "Great, now my vision is definitely going to come true. I saw a dragon egg hatching in Hagrid's house. This is terrible." Seeing Justin's confused look, she explained, "Dragon breeding is against the law. Nobody is supposed to have dragons eggs of their own and try to hatch them. Hagrid's going to be a lot of trouble if he's caught."
"We need to have a talk with him," said Ling. "Talk him out of what he's doing. And while we're at it, we can also ask if he has any idea what the other protections on the Stone are."
A couple of hours later, the entire Hogwarts Gang went to see Hagrid. They exchanged looks when they saw that the curtains and shutters were shut. Hagrid asked "Who is it?" when they knocked and only let them in when Emily said they knew what he was up to and wasn't going to tell on him.
Once inside and the door was shut, everyone looked over at the blazing fire in the fireplace, which had a dragon egg in it. There were several groans and nobody paid much attention to the fact the room was stifling hot in the face of this new worry. "Hagrid, are you crazy?" demanded Daphne, uncharacteristically untactful. "Dragon breeding's against the law!"
"And what about when the egg hatches?" continued Padma. "The dragon will grow quickly. Within a couple of months, it'll be too big for your house. Then where will you hide it? In the Forbidden Forest? The centaurs and unicorns and other creatures living there won't like having a dragon. And people will notice when sections of forest start burning."
"Hagrid," added Hermione, "you live in a wooden house. The dragon could burn it down while it's still small enough to live in it."
"But it wouldn' do that!" protested Hagrid. "Dragons are wonderful an' amazin' creatures!"
"Yes, but they won't make great pets," said Blaise firmly. "That dragon would be better off at a perserve, like the one Ron's brother is working at."
"That's an idea," said Emily thoughtfully. "We send the egg to Charlie and let the keepers at the perserve take care of it." They all spent the next hour persuading Hagrid and he finally agreed to send the egg to Charlie. Emily and Alex went to get Hedwig and Emerald while Terry and Seamus wrapped up the egg and Hermione did a heating spell that would keep the egg warm during the journey. Fifteen minutes later, Emerald flew off with the wrapped egg and Hedwig with a note Ron had written, explaining matters, and Hagrid waved at the departing owls, a few tears in his eyes. "I wish I coulda seen Norbert hatch," he said, having named the unhatched dragon already. "But I guess he'll be happier at the perserve."
"He will," said Ron. "Charlie and the other keepers will take good care of the dragon."
Dean then asked about the other protections on the Stone, but Hagrid said he didn't know and wouldn't tell even if he did. After a bit of flattery from Hermione, Hagrid did tell who were the others that provided protection. All the heads of houses, Quirrell, and Dumbledore had all done stuff to protect the Stone. Dumbledore and Hagrid were the only ones that knew how to get past Fluffy and it was going to stay that way. The Hogwarts Gang couldn't help feeling relieved.
Everyone then bid Hagid good-bye, promising to visit later, and headed back to the castle for supper. They were extremely pleased to have solved the dragon crisis so quickly, and happy to have gotten some information concerning the Stone.
Revising continued, and Hermione got increasingly nervous as the exams drew near, despite Marcy telling her that out of all the different possible futures she saw, none of them showed Hermione failing. Everyone stared at Marcy, who sighed and explained, "Sometimes I get visions of several possible futures, not one." When Hermione left the table to get a book, however, Marcy said in a whisper, "I made that up. I really don't have the ability and only said it to get Hermione to calm down. Don't tell her."
On the way to the Founders' room one afternoon, Emily passed a classroom with an ajar door. She heard a sobbing sound and stopped to listen. It was apparently Quirrell, pleading about something. Finally he said in defeat, "All right." She quickly ducked behind a statue and a moment later, Quirrell walked out the room, trembling. Once he was gone, Emily peeked into the classroom, but say no sign of anyone he could have been talking to. The opposite door was ajar, however, so someone could have left that way.
When she told her friends about it, Ron looked excited and wanted to do some looking into it, but Hermione instantly squashed the idea. Dean and Seamus backed Ron up, which made Blaise shake his head and mutter, "I don't why you're in Slytherin and not Gryffindor, Ron. Sometimes you just act like a stereotypical Gryffindor, ready to rush into things. No offense."
"I don't want to go looking into things at the moment," said Emily. "Quirrell may have figured out the other protections, but he can't have found how to get past Fluffy. The Stone is safe for now and I would like to just focus on my exams and Quidditch. I want to get good marks and for Hufflepuff to win the Quidditch Cup."
Ron made a protest, but Marcy said firmly, "There is nothing we can do at the moment about the Stone. We'll get in trouble if we pursue the matter now and do you really want to lose loads of points and do a detention? Yesterday Hagrid mentioned how something was attacking unicorns and I wouldn't be surprised if a detention was to help him in the Forbidden Forest as a result. As for the future, the only thing I see is that the Stone isn't going to be in danger anytime soon. And by soon I mean within the next three weeks. When the exams are over, we can have the luxury to worry about Quirrell and the Stone and deal with it then. All right?"
There were no more protests and everyone turned their attention back to studying, and in Emily's case, also focused some time on Quidditch practice, for Hufflepuff would have their final match, against Slytherin, just after the exams. If Hufflepuff won the match, they'd win the Quidditch Cup, for the first time in fifty years.
Author's Note: I don't want this to be an exact copy of the books, which is why I cut out Norbert hatching and the trouble it took to get him to Charlie. With the Hogwarts Gang present, things are going to go differently, and twenty people would be able to persuade Hagrid that a dragon would be better off at a perserve in a hour rather than a week and also that it would be best if experts helped hatched it. So as a result, there was no midnight trip to the Astronomy tower to deliver Norbert to Charlie's friends and being caught by Filch. Though in this universe, Emily wouldn't be stupid enough to forget the Invisibility Cloak, no matter how happy she'd be to finally get rid of Norbert. There's no detention in the Forbidden Forest, but Hagrid did mention something was attacking unicorns, and in the next chapter, the Hogwarts Gang will find out from him that the something was drinking unicorn blood. Things will go on from there, with the group taking a break to figure out the use of unicorn blood and then realizing who is really the one after the Stone.