Half Blood: Philosopher's Stone

Norbert

Half an hour later the five who had decided to go to Hagrid's hut -Elliot had declined("No, I'd like to pass all of my classes.")- were all surprised to see the curtains closed, and Hagrid called "Who is it!" before letting them in instead of opening the door first, then quickly shut the door behind them.

It was stiflingly hot inside, especially with six people. Maddy took this as a good time to try to practice her Cryokinesis, the temperature dropped by about five degrees to just being very hot instead of incredibly hot, she didn't try to drop it anymore because she might end up freezing the entire hut. She looked around the room and noticed the reason for it being so hot was because Hagrid had a fire on even though it was such a warm day already. What was he playing at? Was he trying to get a heat stroke?

Hagrid made them tea and offered them sandwiches, which they all refused.

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

"Yes," said Harry and the others nodded. "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' 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, you know everything that goes on around here," said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you." Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Harry, Ron and Bellona beamed at Hermione, Maddy stared at her. Did she just use the mortal version of charmspeak?

"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter 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 on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell, an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?"

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

"I told you it wasn't Snape," Maddy said smugly.

"Yes, but you also accused Quirrell and he put up some of the charms," Ron said. Maddy scowled.

"Besides, if Snape put up some of the enchantments he probably knows the others, except Quirrell," Bellona said.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry 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 the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."

"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. Maddy noticed him glance at the fire. Maddy looked at it as well, despite the heat of the hut a shiver ran down her spine. It better be a peaceful dragon.

"Hagrid, what's that?" Harry asked.

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

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Ron, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the large black egg and Maddy backed away, hand on the door knob in case it hatched and wasn't nice at all. "It must've cost you a fortune."