meant to be (1)

37

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than we 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.

Everytime we passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Ron, Hermione and I would press our 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 we passed Quirrell these days I gave him an encouraging sort of smile and even started telling people off for laughing at Quirrells 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 notes. Hermione motivated me to do the same and we started studying together, even though I didn't care about my grades as much as she did. She also started nagging Harry and Ron about it.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away!"

"Ten weeks" I corrected Harry while reading through my Transfiguration notes.

"That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel!" Hermione added.

"But we're not six hundred years old." Ron reminded us. "Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it!"

"What are we revising for? Are you mad? You realise we need to pass the 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 teacher seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on us at that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones.

It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you always reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements. I tried to study with her, but it was extremely exhausting.

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

"I'll never remember this!" Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill.

"Is Ronnie about to have a temper tantrum again?" I mocked my best friend.

"Shut up." he said, looking out of the window. It was the first really fine day we had in months. The sky was clear and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

"Hagrid what are you doing in the library!" Ron suddenly shouted, maybe a bit too loud.

Hagrid shuffled into the view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

"Jus' lookin'" he said in a shifty voice. "An' what are yeh lot up ter?" He looked suspicious. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flanel, are yeh?"

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago" Ron said proudly. "And we know what the dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St-"

"Shhhhh!" 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 Harry. "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't go rabbitin' about it in here, student aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-"

"See you then" Harry said as Hagrid shuffled away.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked thoughtfully.

"I'm going to see what section he was in" I said. My head was aching from all the information I was taking in and needed a break. I was in shock to see what Hagrid has been looking for and quickly went back with a few books.

"Dragons!" I 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 met him" Harry answered.

"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?" Hermione asked.

"Of course there are." said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing 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?" I asked.