A Hogwarts Rose Year 1

Chapter 30

So we walked to Hagrid's hut and he was still playing those pan pipes, obviously Norbert was pretty important to him.

'Wait a minute, of course!' Harry said and he quickened his pace. 'Why didn't I see it before?'

'What is it?' Ron asked.

'How many people do you know that walk around with dragon eggs in their pockets?' Then he ran ahead and we followed after him. 'Hagrid, who gave you the dragon egg?'

'It told you some fellow I met down at the pub.' Hagrid shrugged.

'What did he looked like?'

'Well I don't know, I didn't see his face, he kept his hood up.'

'This stranger, you and he must've talked.'

'Well he wanted to know what kinds of creatures I looked after and I told him after Fluffy, a dragon's gonna be no problem. I told him that the trick to any beast is to know how to calm it, take Fluffy all you've got to do is play him a bit of music and he falls straight to sleep.' The four of us looked at each other in shock. 'I shouldn't have told you that.' Hagrid said then we ran to McGonagall's office to ask to talk to Dumbledore to tell him what we knew and to warn him about Snape.

'We need to see Professor Dumbledore, immediately!' Harry said as we rushed up to the desk.

'I'm afraid Professor Dumbledore is not here at the moment, he had an urgent matter with the Ministry.'

'But it's about the Philosopher Stone, someone's going to try and steal it.' Harry explained. McGonagall was shocked; obviously we really weren't meant to know about that.

'Well I don't know how you found out about the stone, but I can assure you that it is perfectly well protected. Now all of you go back to your dormitories, quietly.' She said and we left. Once we got out in the empty corridor we started talking again.

'What are we going to do?' I asked.

'Snape is going to try and steal the stone, then Voldemort can attack Harry.' Ron said.

'And now that Dumbledore's gone.' Hermione sighed.

'Wait a minute you guys, Snape's coming.' I hissed.

'What would three young Gryffindors like yourselves be doing inside on a day like this?' Snape asked.

'Well........w-we.........were just.......uh......' Hermione stuttered.

'You ought to be careful. People will think you're...............' He trailed off, noticing Harry glaring at him. 'Up to something.' Then he turned and walked away, his robes billowing behind him.

'We've got to go after it, tonight.' Harry said and the decision was made.

So that night after everyone else had gone to bed Hermione and I snuck out of the dormitory and down into the common room where we met Harry and Ron. Ron saw Neville's toad on the arm of the chair.

'Trevor! Go! You shouldn't be here!' Ron hissed.

'Neither should you.' Neville said appearing from out of the darkness, then he came and stood in front of us blocking our way to the portrait hole. 'You're sneaking out again, aren't you?'

'Neville, listen-' Harry commanded.

'No I won't let you, you'll get Gryffindor into trouble again! I-I'll f-fight you.' He said, bringing his fists up in front of him.

'Neville, I'm really, really sorry about this. Petrificus totalus.' Hermione waved her wand and Neville froze like stone and fell flat to the floor. Ron stared at her startled.