Evelyn Riddle and the Philosopher's Stone

Chapter 9: It's a Dragon!

Sitting in the library for the Easter holidays, how fun. Exams were in ten weeks (still a while away), and yet Hermione was making us study like crazy! And homework was more intense than ever. Can't wait for six more years of this.

"Hagrid! What're you doing in the library?" Ron asked suddenly.

I looked up. Indeed, Hagrid was there, holding something behind his back.

"Jus' lookin'," Hagrid said in a shifty voice. "An' what're yer lot up ter? Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?"

"No, we found him," I said simply, shrugging like it was nothing.

"And," added Ron, "we know what that dog's guarding, it's the Philosopher's St—"

"Shh!" Hagrid exclaimed, looking around. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we want to ask you," I said, lowering my voice.

"About what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy—" Harry said.

Hagrid shushed us again. "Listen — come an' see me later — I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin' — 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," Harry said.

Hagrid left, whatever he was hiding still behind his back.

I stared after him suspiciously.

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

"Do you think it had to do anything with the Stone?" said Harry.

"I'm going to go see what section he was in," Ron said. He stood up and wandered over to where Hagrid was looking. He came back a moment later, a pile of books in hand and an astonished look on his face. He piled them onto the table — the book at the top of the stack was called From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide.

"Dragons!" Ron whispered. "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons!"

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me the first time I met him," Harry said.

Having a dragon as a pet would be cool —especially since I love them—, but I think I'd rather just let the experts deal with them.

"But it's against our laws," said Ron. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709 — since Muggles would notice if we kept dragons in our back gardens."

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

I already had a feeling it wasn't going to be good.

We decided to go check on Hagrid at his hut, but all his curtains were closed.

Harry knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Hagrid called, before opening the door a crack. When he saw it was us, he rushed us inside, then slammed the door.

It was burning hot in the small cabin. I ignored it —reminding myself that it was a relatively hot day— and sat on Hagrid's couch with my friends.

"So," Hagrid said. "Yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"

"We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy," said Harry.

Hagrid frowned. "O' course I can't. 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's fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringrotts — I s'ppose yeh've worked that out? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."