The Children Who Lived and The Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Fourteen - Eleanor and the Dragon Norbert.

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, they would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside.

Snape was storming about dramatically in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Nellie passed Quirrell, she gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.

Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Philosopher's Stone. She had started drawing up revision timetables and colour-coding all her and Nellie's notes. Harry and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

And 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 with Hermione next to you, reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements.

Moaning and yawning, Harry and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with Hermione and Nellie, trying to get through all their extra work. Nellie, 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.

"Just lookin'," he said in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "And what're you lot up to?" He looked suddenly suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron said.

Hagrid's eyes bugged almost out of his head, and he shuffled off.

"See you later then," Harry said.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked. "Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"

"I'm going to see what section he was in," Ron said, who'd had enough of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

"Dragons!" he whispered, and Nellie's head shot up. "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 us the first time we ever met him," Nellie said.

"But it's against our laws," Ron said. "Everyone knows dragon-breeding was outlawed. 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."

Nellie wanted to meet Charlie so she could see his burns and so he could tell her what it was like to have the coolest job in the world.

"So what on earth is Hagrid up to?" Hermione said.

When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed.

Hagrid opened the door and quickly said, "Hello, sorry not trying to be rude, but I'm in no fit state to entertain today." He tried to close the door.

"We know about the Philosopher's Stone!" They all cried.

"Oh," he said gruffly before he let them in and then shut the door quickly behind them.