meant to be (1)

38

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

"Who is it?" Hagrid called before he let us in and then shut the door quickly behind us.

It was stuffingly hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made us tea and offered us soat sandwiches, which we refused.

"So - yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"Yes" Harry said. There was no point beating about the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy."

Hagrid frowned at him

"O' course I can't" he said. "Number one, I don't know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts - I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know everything that goes on around here." said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. The boys gave her a weird look, but I realised what she was doing as Hagrid's beard twitched and we could tell he was smiling.

"We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." I went on imitating Hermione's tone. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Harry and Ron, who were a bit slow, now also understood what we were doing and beamed at us.

"Well, I don't s'ppose it could hurt to 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 with his fingers. "Professor Quirrel - Professor Dumbledore himself did somethin' o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" we all asked in shock at the same time.

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

I knew the other three were thinking the same as I was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything - except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" Harry askes anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore." said Hagrid proudly.

"Well, that's something" Harry muttered to us.

"Hagrid, can we have a window open?" I asked "I'm boiling."

"Can't, Julie, sorry" said Hagrid, glancing at the fire. We all had noticed the glance and looked at the fire as well.

"Hagrid - what's that?"

But I already had a feeling what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.

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

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" asked Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."

"Won it" answered Hagrid. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got in 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?" Hermione asked.

"Well I've been doing some reading" said Hagrid, 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 breath 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 to recognise diff'rent eggs - what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them"

Hagrid looked very pleased with himself, but I didn't.

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house!" I exclaimed.

But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.