Entanglement

Hagrid's Dragon

Harry enjoyed the fact Elena had grown kinder to him. He expected her anger to last longer, he knew he deserved it.
"Harry, are you even listening?" Pansy asked, and Harry's eyes snapped back to Pansy.
"Sure, sorry, I'm listening," he replied, although he was lying.
Harry disliked Pansy and Draco as much as Elena, maybe even more. But he wanted to protect her- he couldn't do that if he ended up in Gryffindor. Not to this extent, anyways.
The two were still horrible to his sister, but it could be worse.

Draco reminded Harry of Dudley. Dudley was so physically violent to Elena. Imagining what Draco, a wizard, could do to her scared Harry more than anything.
That's why he befriended him. So it wouldn't be as bad.

Harry quite liked Adrian, though. He seemed to be the only Slytherin Harry liked through and through.

He told Adrian to warn Elena.
*

Hermione had more on her mind than the Philosopher's Stone. She started drawing up revision timetables and color coding her notes. Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same. Elena did so immediately.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away."
"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."
"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it all."
"What am I revising for? Are you mad? You realise we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're very important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's got into me..."

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking the same as Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Elena and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

Elena, who was looking up 'Dittany' in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, didn't look up until she heard Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"
Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
'Oh, we found out who he is ages ago,' said Ron impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St–"
"Shhhh!" 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," said Elena, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy–"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid 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," said Elena.

Hagrid shuffled off.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully.
"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"
"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Ron, who'd had enough of working. Elena and Hermione exchanged smiles. He came back with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down.
"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," said Elena.
"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon-breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles 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?" asked Elena.
"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job shushing them up, I can tell you. Our lot have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."
"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Hermione.
*