Chapter 15
6 January 1992
Madam Pomfrey,
I didn't want to disturb you in case you were busy, so I thought it better to just write you a note. I want to thank you again for your help after Halloween, and I wanted to let you know that I spent some time talking about things with my mum. She helped me get things set up for when I am not in school in case I need them there. You were right, I think it was just the stress of the arguments with Ron because nothing happened after we settled our differences. My mum and I spent four days just the two of us, shopping, talking, and getting things ready for when I go home in the summer. Thank you again for your help and for listening.
Hermione
She sent the letter off that morning at breakfast, as she had sent letters to Oliver, and saw her dove wing it's way over to the matron who opened and read it
One day, shortly after the holidays, Hermione entered the Great Hall to sit with Harry and Ron, dropping a heavy tome on the table with a loud thump. "I had you looking in the wrongsection," she said when they looked up. "How could I be sostupid? I checked this out weeks ago," Hermione continued, "for a bit of light reading."
"This is light?" Ron asked, arching a brow.
Hermione rolled her eyes as she opened the book and flipped through the pages. "Here it is!" she exclaimed when she found the page she was looking for. "Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of thePhilosopher's Stone!"
"The what?" Harry and Ron asked in confusion.
"Honestly," she said, shaking her head. "Don't you two read?"
When they didn't answer, she sighed and read:
"The Philosopher's Stone is a legendary substance with astonishing powers. It can transform any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal."
"Immortal?" Ron said in awe.
"It means you'll never die," Hermione said.
"I know what itmeans!" Ron retorted.
"The only stone currently in existence belongs toMr Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist, who last year celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday."
Hermione paused looking at them before sighing.
"See?" she asked. "That's what Fluffy's guarding on the third floor.That'swhat's under the trap door.The Philosopher's Stone."
Hermione, Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team were dreading the 22 February match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff for different reasons, though all centred around Professor Snape being referee. Harry and Hermione were worried that he would try jinxing Harry's broom again. Hermione hadn't been able to convince Oliver of what she'd seen. He still believed, like Hagrid, that Snape wouldn't harm a student. Instead, Oliver and the rest of the team were worried about fair calls, even if it wasn't Slytherin they were going up against, they figured he would make calls in Hufflepuff's favour over them.
"Now don't forget," Hermione said as she and Ron took their seats. "It's Locomotor Mortis."
"I know!" Ron snapped, having heard it for the thirteenth time just that morning. "Don't nag."
She, Ron and Harry had come up with a plan that if Snape tried to jinx Harry's broom again, they would use the leg locker curse on him that Malfoy had used on Neville the morning that they'd discovered who Nicholas Flamel was.
She learned that they needn't have worried though, as Harry made it a quick game, catching the Snitch within the first few minutes, although he nearly bowled Snape over in his dash for it. No rules were broken however, so Gryffindor won the game. It hadn't even lasted five minutes. Hermione smiled as she saw Harry get off his broom as the crowd cheered. She didn't miss the glare from their white-faced Potions master, but she was relieved that he wasn't able to punish Harry as Dumbledore strode forward to congratulate him.
"Hey, Ron," Hermione said and looked down to find that she'd been so focused on the game and watching Snape that she hadn't noticed Ron and Neville getting into a fight with Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. She sighed and shook her head as they stood up. Ron had a bloodied lip, and Neville sported a bloody nose while Draco had a black eye, and Crabbe and Goyle were gasping from punches to the stomach.
On April 24, Hermione headed down to Hagrid's with Harry and Ron. Hermione was surprised to note that curtains were drawn over all the windows.
"Sorry," Hagrid said when he opened the door only an inch. "I don't wish to be rude, but I'm in no fit state to entertain today."
"We know about the Philosopher's Stone," the three said in unison when Hagrid went to close the door.
"Oh," the man said and opened the door for them.
"We think Snape's trying to steal it," Harry said after he, Ron and Hermione entered the small cottage and the door was shut behind them.
"You're not still on about him, are you?" Hagrid asked, moving toward the table by the fire and sitting down.
"Hagrid," Harry said. "We know he's after the stone, we just don't knowwhy."
"Snape is one of the teachersprotectingthe stone. He's not about tostealit," Hagrid said in exasperation.
"What?" Harry and Ron asked, looking at each other in confusion.
"You heard," Hagrid said. "Come on now, I'm a bit preoccupied today."
"Wait a minute," Harry said. "Oneof the teachers?"
"Of course!" Hermione said. "There areother thingsdefending the stone, aren't there? Spells, enchantments?"
"That's right," Hagrid said. "Waste of time if you ask me, though. Ain't nobody going to get past Fluffy. Ain't a soul knows how, except for me and Dumbledore. I shouldn't have told you that," he said worriedly. "I should not have told you that."
A rattling noise in the cauldron over the fire drew their attention and Hagrid turned, reaching in and taking something out of it, placing it on the table before them.
"Hagrid," Harry said as they stared at the large, dark, oblong object on the table. "Exactly whatisthat?"
"That?" Hagrid asked. "It's..."
"I know what that is!" Ron said excitedly, interrupting him. "But Hagrid," he paused, looking up at the man in confusion. "How did you get one?"
"I won it," Hagrid announced proudly. "Off a stranger I met down at the pub. Seemed quite glad to be rid of it as a matter of fact," he finished in confusion.
Harry, Ron and Hermione watched nervously as it began to move, before it cracked open and a dark wing extended. It moved and the rest of the black shell fell away to reveal a small lizard-like creature.
"Is that..." Hermione asked before looking to Hagrid for confirmation. "Adragon?"
"That's not just a dragon," Ron replied. "That's a Norwegian Ridgeback. My brother, Charlie works withthesein Romania."
"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid asked as the dragon then turned to face him. "Oh, bless him, he knows his mummy. Hello, Norbert," the man cooed as he scratched the dragon behind the ears.
"Norbert?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, well, he's gotta have a name, doesn't he?" Hagrid returned.
The dragon hiccuped and lit Hagrid's beard on fire when a small spark emanated from its mouth.
"He'll have to be trained up a bit, of course," Hagrid said after a slight panic where he patted the fire out with his oven mitt covered hand. "Who is that?" he asked, looking at the window across from them.
Everyone turned to see a blond head disappear from between the gap in the curtains.
"Malfoy," Harry said, turning back to him.
"Oh dear," Hagrid muttered.
The following week, Harry, Ron and Hermione watched Malfoy to figure out what he was going to do. They all knew that owning a dragon was illegal and that Hagrid could get into a lot of trouble for it, let alone that he lived in a wooden house with a fire breathing dragon. Over that week, Ron wrote to his brother, Charlie for help. In his reply, Charlie said that he'd send some friends out to get Norbert the following week.
Before that week was up, Ron was bitten by the small dragon and had to go to the hospital wing, leaving Hermione and Harry to carry Norbert up to the Astronomy Tower alone on the night that Charlie's friends were coming.
Under the invisibility cloak that Harry had received from some unknown sender at Christmas, Harry and Hermione made slow progress carrying Norbert's crate in between them. They'd gotten Hagrid to feed him blood and chicken livers that Hermione had laced with a Sleeping Draught. Half way back to the castle, the growls and ripping sound of Norbert playing with his teddy bear ceased and all was quiet to their relief. It didn't do any good to be invisible if people could hear things.
"Good evening," Professor McGonagall said as they walked back down the tower steps, startling them.
Harry and Hermione groaned looking at each other. They'd been so relieved to be rid of Norbert, that they'd forgotten the cloak on top of the tower. They were in it for sure.
Draco stepped out from behind her and smirked at them, while Neville looked at them from her other side with a guilty expression.
Professor McGonagall waved her hand, motioning them forward as they headed toward her office.
"Nothing, I repeat,Nothing," she said when they reached her office, and Harry, Neville and Hermione looked scolded while Draco stood off to the side, smirking. "Gives a student the right to walk around the school at night. Therefore, as punishment for your actions, fifty points will be taken."
"Fifty?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Each," Professor McGonagall clarified. "And toensureit doesn't happen again, all four of you will receive detention."
"Excuse me, Professor," Draco said smugly. "Perhaps I heard you wrong. I thought you said thefourof us."
"No, you heard me correctly, Mr Malfoy," Professor McGonagall said. "See, honourable as your intentions were, you, too, were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention."
9 May 1992
Oliver,
It is simply horrible! I feel so awful! Last week, Harry, Ron and I went to visit Hagrid. I didn't tell you what happened earlier because well, we thought that we could help him and I didn't want to get Hagrid in trouble. Everything was going fine tonight until we forgot Harry's invisibility cloak on top of the Astronomy Tower. We were so relieved that everything was over that it just slipped our minds.
What happened was that Hagrid won a dragon egg at the pub. Harry said that Hagrid had told him that he'd wanted one since the first day they'd met. Well, it hatched last week. That's why Hagrid hasn't really been around. We tried telling him that he should give it up, that it could burn his house down, and then everyone would know anyway, but he just wouldn'tlisten.
Ron sent a message to his brother, Charlie, and he was the reason we were on the tower tonight. He set it up so that his friends would pick up the dragon from us and Hagrid would be able to avoid trouble because then no one — well, except for Draco Malfoy — would ever know. It wasn't until Ron got bitten by the dragon this week and was in the hospital wing that Hagrid finally agreed to give it up.
All week we've been watching Malfoy because he found out about the dragon. We were waiting for him to do something, but he didn't until tonight when we were moving it to the tower once it had eaten some Sleeping Draught laced chicken liver and it took effect.
I don't know how he knew we were going to be moving the dragon tonight, but somehow he did. He and Professor McGonagall were waiting for us at the bottom of the tower. Not sure if they were actually waiting for us, or just bad timing, but now we've lost Gryffindor a hundred and fifty points, and we have detention with Malfoy and Neville. Neville because he overheard Malfoy's plan and tried to warn us.
I am so sorry I didn't tell you. Please don't hate me.
Hermione
Hermione sent off her letter the moment she got back from Professor McGonagall's office. She didn't know if Oliver was still up or not, she didn't pay attention to who was in the common room when they entered. Feeling so awful over what had happened,she had gone up to her dorm but felt so bad, she couldn't sleep. Not long after she sent the letter off, a reply came.
9May 1992
Hermione,
I don't hate you. I'm a bit disappointed that you waited so long to tell me, but I also understand why you did, and what you were trying to do. I like Hagrid, too. A lot of students — well, aside from Slytherins — do, and we don't want him to lose his job or worse, but he's not all that smart when it comes to dangerous things. So I don't fault you for trying to keep him out of trouble. Though they won't admit it, many students would probably do the same.
Don't worry about the loss of points. I am just glad that you're safe. It was smart putting the dragon to sleep, it would have been dangerous transferring it while awake. It could have bitten you or Harry like it did Ron, or could have set the crate on fire and then where would Hagrid be? Besides, Fred and George have lost Gryffindor points loads of times and no one hates them.
I will warn you though, you might get some backlash from people when they wake up in the morning and see the amount of points lost — it'll be a shock to them, but they'll come round, just be patient. I'll always be here for you. Let me know when you have your detention. McGonagall usually plans them out, letting you think she's forgotten before she springs it on you.
Oliver
Oliver was right; the next morning, the Gryffindor table was surprised to find they'd lost a hundred and fifty points overnight. They also didn't admit that they'd have done the same to help Hagrid when they found out what had happened. Harry, Neville and Hermione were shunned for a week after that, and heard insults for losing so many points in one go, everywhere they went. Hermione's only solace came from knowing Oliver didn't hate her.