The Cowardly Lion (Book 1)

14: Of Feeling the Heat and Norwegian Ridgebacks

Ron and Hermione relished the nice day they were having, enjoyed the cool breeze sweeping across the grounds. But to their surprise, when they reached Hagrid's hut and knocked on the door, all the windows were shut.

"Who is it?" he asked, before recognizing Ron and Hermione. "I though' Harry and Draco'd be comin', too," Hagrid said, frowning as he let Ron and Hermione in. "Not tha' you two aren' a treat, but - "

"We know what you mean, Hagrid," Hermione cut him off. "Harry and Draco were going to come, but we looked at them - "

"You looked at them - " Ron corrected her.

"Fine, I looked at them, and they were off in their own little world. I swear, they're not telling us something," huffed Hermione, shooting a glare in Ron's direction. "Anyway, Hagrid, we were wondering what was guarding the Stone, apart from Fluffy, of course."

Beads of sweat were appearing on both eleven-year-olds' foreheads - it was stifling hot inside of Hagrid's cabin. Hagrid frowned at Hermione.

"O' course I can't," he informed her. "Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already - " at this, he glowered at Hermione and Ron, " - so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts - surely Harry's told you 'bout that? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

Hermione was sweating profusely now, and Ron had it even worse. Nevertheless, she continued with a different tactic: "Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here. We only wondered who had done the guarding, really - we wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Ron was beaming at Hermione as Hagrid's chest swelled from the flattery.

"Well, I don' s'pose 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 - " he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell - an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" Ron asked, horrified.

"Yeah - yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

Ron still looked horrified.

"Ron, would you stop that?" chided Hermione. "It makes sense he did something to protect the Stone, he is one of the teachers - "

The red-haired boy waved her off. "No, no, it's not that - Hagrid, what's in your fire?"

Hermione's head whipped around to face the fireplace, and sure enough, there was a large black egg sitting in the middle of the fire grate.

"Ah," Hagrid said, fiddling with his fingers. "That's - er - "

"Hagrid, that's a dragon egg if I've ever seen one," Ron said sharply. "Where did you get it? It must've cost you a fortune."

"Won it," Hagrid responded, evidently giving up on trying to hide the fact that he was hiding an illegal dragon egg in his hut. "Las' night. I was down 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?" asked Hermione anxiously.

Hagrid actually looked happy that she'd asked. "Well, I bin doin' some readin'," he 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."