Harry Potter - The Accidental Animagus

Chapter 37 - Dumbledore's Plot Revealed

Harry, however, didn’t go to McGonagall about Quirrell and Snape, despite Hermione’s continued nagging. He kept saying he was thinking about it, but that same uneasiness always stopped him. Before they knew it, a month had gone by, at which point Hermione started obsessing over exams, saying she should had started revising earlier, drawing up study schedules for both of them, and becoming so worked up and insufferable that Harry finally had to grab her hands away from her books to force her to sit still for a minute.

“Mione,” he told her sternly. “You. Need. To. Relax. You’re going to ace the exams. I’m going to do pretty well on the exams. And we’re both going to revise a reasonable amount so we don’t go mad before term’s over.”

Hermione slumped back in her seat with a heavy sigh. “But I just—”

“Hermione, as your little brother, it’s my duty to make sure you lighten up once in a while.”

“Well, as your big sister, it’s my duty to make sure you don’t skive off all the time.”

They glared at each other for a few moments, and then they both broke out laughing. It was actually pretty impractical from the start to act like a little brother and big sister when they were always in the same year at school.

“Okay, okay,” Hermione conceded. “I’ll trim back the study schedules.”

“Good. Now why don’t we revise outside for a while?” Harry looked longingly out the window. “It’s the first nice day in months.”

Hermione leaned forward. “Well, of course, you’d say that, furball,” she whispered. Harry had never fully left behind his initial stint as an outdoor cat.

But Harry stared her down and won out this time. “Alright, we can go. I just need to return this book to the library first.”

“Yes!” Harry said behind her back. The two of them walked down to the library to return Hermione’s book, where they found Neville helping Ron with a Herbology essay.

“Hi, Ron. Hi, Neville,” Harry said.

“Hey, Harry. Hey, Hermione,” Neville replied.

Ron waved to them. “What’s up.”

“Just turning in a book,” Hermione said. “Harry wanted to work outside.”

“That’d be nice,” Ron said wistfully. “I gotta finish all this, though.” He gestured to the library books that were strewn around his table.

“Well, when that’s done, you should—” Harry started, but he was interrupted by a very large man in a moleskin overcoat shuffling through the stacks. “Hagrid? What are you doing in the library?” he asked.

“Jus’ lookin’…” Hagrid said shiftily. He appeared to be hiding something behind his back. “Doin’ homework I see?” But before they could answer, he said, “See yeh “round,” and made a hasty exit.

“Well, that was strange,” Hermione observed. “Even for him. I wonder what he’s up to.”

“Maybe you should see what section he was in,” Neville suggested.

“Good idea,” Hermione said happily, and she dashed off into the stacks. About a minute later, though, she came back looking very pale. “Dragons,” she said. “He was in the section about dragons.”