Adventures of Harriet Potter

Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet. Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Harriet, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Harriet passed Quirrell these days she gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter. Harriet was hoping to lower Quirrell's guard so she could get evidence to either support or refute her theories that Snape was the good guy while Quirrell was the one after the stone.

Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer's Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and color-coding all her notes. Harriet and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same. Harriet didn't have the heart to tell Hermione that she already had a study schedule, even had her own private place to study. In a strange room on the seventh floor, across the corridor from a tapestry of a man trying to teach trolls ballet. The door to which seemed to only appear when thinking about her need to study while pacing the corridor three times.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Ron would groan out when Hermione would pressure him. Harriet kept quiet and accepted the help in good grace, placating Hermione when she was already studying in a nice, quiet place. "Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel." Harriet had to bite her lip. "But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her, Harriet admitted to herself that he had a point. "Anyway, what are you studying for, you and Harriet already know it all." Harriet playfully punched him in the arm, making him mutter a word under his breath that she was certain Mrs. Weasley wouldn't appreciate hearing come from his mouth.

"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize 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 gotten into me. . . ." Hermione said, stressing herself out. Harriet sighed as, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get Hermione to calm down and tackle each subject for their exams at her own pace. It's why Harriet preferred to study in a quiet place, alone. So she didn't stress out over what the teachers would or wouldn't expect on their exams.

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax, let alone study quietly, with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Harriet and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work. Ron doing most of the moaning, seeming oblivious to how much Harriet enjoyed reading let alone actually studying.

"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. Harriet, who was looking up "Dittany" in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi to be absolutely sure she was remembering it properly, 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. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"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?" Harriet rolled her eyes, since it wasn't much of a secret when the guy's name was printed on countless Chocolate Frogs cards. "Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," said Ron impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St —" Harriet covered Ron's mouth quickly, figuring that the Stone's existence at the school wasn't something the professors wanted getting out to the student body — which made her question why a book mentioning it was left in the school library, with Dumbledore's friendship with Flamel being public knowledge, and obviously public news reports of a vault at Gringotts being emptied before it was broken into being printed where any smart individual could put the pieces together. Seemed like someone was setting up a test to her, though who was being tested she didn't know.