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Aurora Areli
IT SEEMED THAT QUIRRELL was braver than we originally thought. Although he had been growing thinner and paler, it didn't seem like he had told Snape anything yet.
Every time 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.
Aside from that, Hermione had started drawing up revision timetables and colour-coding all of her notes. I didn't mind, but her constant nagging was a little overwhelming.
"Hermione, exams are ages away," Ron tried to reason with her.
"Ten weeks," Hermione snapped at him. "That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel."
"But we're not six hundred years old," Ron reminded her, earning a glare in response. "Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it all."
"What am I revising for? Are you mad?" Hermione said, appalled that Ron would even ask such a question. "You realise we need to pass these 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 gotten into me . . ."
Unfortunately for the boys, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on us that the Easter holidays didn't seem like holidays at all, especially with Hermione constantly reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practicing wand movements.
Harry, Ron and I spent most of our free time with her in the library, trying to get through all our extra work.
"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. Outside was one of the first non-wintery days we'd had in months.
I sighed, shaking my head at his dramatics before turning back to lean on Harry's shoulder and skim the pages of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi as he read.
"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?" I heard Ron say.
I looked up to see Hagrid shuffling into view, hiding something behind his back and looking very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.
"Jus' lookin'," he said in a shifty voice, catching my interest immediately. "An' what're you lot up ter? Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is weeks ago," Ron said impressively. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's Stー"
"Shhhh!" Hagrid hissed, looking around quickly to see if anyone was listening. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"
