star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER EIGHT

After the game, the only thing on the minds of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Arabella was what happened with Harry's broom, despite the victory.

"Nonsense! Why would Snape put a curse on Harry's broom?" said Hagrid.

"Who knows? Why was he trying to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween?" Harry asked.

"Who told you about Fluffy?"

"Fluffy?" Ron asked.

"That thing has a name?" Hermione asked.

"Of course he's got a name. He's mine," Hagrid said. "I bought him off an Irish fellow I met down at the pub last year. Then I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the-"

"Yes?" Harry urged him to finish.

"Shouldn't have said that. No more questions! Just don't ask any more questions! That's top-secret, that is."

"But, Hagrid, whatever Fluffy's guarding, Snape's trying to steal it!"

"Codswallop. Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher."

"Hogwarts teacher or not, I know a spell when I see one," Hermione said. "I've read all about them. You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking."

"Exactly," Harry agreed.

"She's right, Hagrid, and you know it," Arabella said. "What are the chances that Harry loses control of his broom at the same time Snape is staring at him muttering something?"

Hagrid sighed. "Now, you listen to me, all four of you," he said. "You're meddling in things that ought not to be meddled in. It's dangerous. What that dog is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel."

"Nicholas Flamel?" Harry asked.

"I shouldn't have said that. I should not have said that."

"Nicholas Flamel. Who's Nicholas Flamel?"

"I don't know," Hermione said.

"I don't know, either," Arabella said. "But he's got to be somewhere, hasn't he? You know, in the library?"

She and Hermione exchanged a look before heading to the library.

[word count: 311]
[written: 4/16/20]
[published: 5/12/20]