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[ philosopher's stone ]
MALFOY COULDN'T BELIEVE HIS EYES WHEN HE SAW THAT HARRY AND RON WERE STILL AT HOGWARTS THE NEXT DAY, LOOKING TIRED BUT PERFECTLY CHEERFUL. Indeed, by the next morning Harry, Ron and Maya thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite keen to have another one. In the meantime, Harry filled Ron in about the package that seemed to have been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy protection. "It's either really valuable or really dangerous," Ron said.
"Or both," Harry frowned.
But all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was that it was about two inches long, and they didn't have as much chance of guessing what it was without further clues.
Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again.
Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, sometimes Maya but not as much as she usually would, but the boys thought she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw it as an added bonus.
All the three really wanted, however, was a way of getting back at Malfoy, and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a week later.
As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screech owls. Maya was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel, and was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of Harry, knocking his bacon to the floor. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.
Harry ripped open the letter first, Ron and Maya looking over his shoulders, which was lucky, because it said:
DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.
It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your first training session.
Professor McGonagall
"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."
The trio left the hall quickly, wanting to unwrap the broomstick in private before their first class, but halfway across the entrance hall they found the way upstairs barred by Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy seized the package from Harry and felt it.
