A Changed Lestrange (1-2) (under editing)

12: Hagrid Is A Criminal

"Hermione," said Ashton, chuckling. "the exams are ages away."

"Ten weeks," snapped Hermione. "that's probably a second to Nicolas Flamel."

"Funny, because I don't recall being 665 years old, Hermione. Besides, you already know so much you could probably ace our O.W.L. exams." Hermione's cheeks flushed slightly at this compliment but she did her best to hide it.

"What am I revising for? Are you insane? You are aware we need to pass these exams to get into our second year, right? They're crucial, I don't know why I didn't do it before..." she trailed off, muttering to herself.

Sadly the teachers had an identical mindset to Hermione and were piling dozens of pieces of  work onto the students. That made Easter holidays about a million times more stressful than Christmas. It was really hard for Ashton to relax when Hermione was next to him reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood and practising wand movements. Ashton, Harry and Ron tended to spend almost all of their free time with her practising. 

Harry, who was looking up 'Dittany' in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, didn't look up until he heard Ashton say, "Hagrid! What're you doing in the library?"

"Jus' looking," he said shiftily. "an' what're you lot up ter?" He suddenly looked suspicious at the quartet. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?" 

"Oh, we found out who he was ages ago," said Ron proudly. "and we know what the dog's guarding, it's a Philosopher's St--"

"Shhhhhh!" Hagrid looked around quickly to make sure no-one was looking. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what're yeh playing a'?"

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

"SHHHHHHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "Come on, what's ter matter wit' yeh? Listen - come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' anythin', but don' go rabbitin' 'bout it in here, students aren' s'posed ter know."

"See you later, then." said Ashton. Hagrid shuffled off.

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

"Maybe it had something to do with the Stone," replied Ashton, shrugging.

Later on, the four Gryffindor first-years had entered Hagrid's hut.

"So, yeh wanted ter ask me summat?"

"Yes," said Harry. There was zero point to beat around the bush. "we were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy."

"And don't give us some pathetic lopsided answer." added Ashton. Hagrid frowned.

"'Course I can't," said Hagrid. "number one, I don't know meself. Number two, yeh four know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almos' stolen outta Gringotts - I s'pose yer worked that out an' all? Confuses me how yeh even know 'bout Fluffy." 

"Hagrid, you know everything that goes on around here." said Ron in a flattering voice. Hagrid's beard twitched, and Ashton got the hint that he was smiling. "We just wondered who Dumbledore trusted 'part from you."

Ashton didn't think Ron had it in him to be a suck-up.

"Guess it couldn' hurt to tell yeh that. Let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me, some o' the teachers did enchantments. Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell, an' Dumbledore did summat himself, oh, I'm forgetting someon'... oh, yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?" asked Harry incredulously. 

"Yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Listen, yeh, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not gonna steal it." Ashton knew his friends were thinking the same as he was - if Snape was in on protecting the Philosopher's Stone, that meant he'd have known the other teacher's enchantments - except Quirrell's and Fluffy, seemingly.