The Stone

Chapter Twenty-four

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, Bella, Harry, Hermione, and Ron would press their 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 Bella passed Quirrell these days she'd give him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron and Harry 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 notes. Bella, Harry, and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Bella moaned, one morning. 

"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel"

"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her. "Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it all. And so does Bella!"

"Well..most of it," Bella mumbled and leaned her head into her hand, still not fully woken up yet. Harry, sensing her discomfort, pulled her into a hug so she can rest her head on his chest in a friendly way. Bella still blushed ten-shades of red though.

Hermione ignored Bella and the fact she was hugging Harry as she glared at Ron. "What am I revising for? Are you mad? You realise we need to pass these exams to get into the second year? They're important, I should have started studying a month ago, I don't know what's got into me..."

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

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming. 

 Bella and Harry, who were looking up 'Dittany' in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, together (they had become a lot closer) didn't look up until they heard Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

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

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

"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Bella told him impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St-"

"Shhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There a few things we wanted to ask you, as matter of fact," Harry spoke up. "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy-"

"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Listen- come an' see me later, I'm no promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-"

"See you later, then," said Harry.

Hagrid shuffled off.

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