Mercury eyes • Harry Potter love story

Revelations

"Hagrid!" 

"Oh, hello, sorry, don't wish ter be rude, but I'm in no fit state ter entertain today." The giant said trying to close the door again.

"We know about the Philosopher's Stone!" They shouted making him stop dead on his tracks.

"We think Snape's now actually trying to steal it."

"Snape? Blimey, yer not still on about him are you? An' what about Ms. Malfoy, did yeh go question her too?"

"Well, we did —"

"An' what did she tell yeh?"

"She got angry and avoided us for a few weeks, she says she fully trust Snape. But Hagrid, we know he's after the stone. We just don't know why." Hermione explained.

"As she should, Snape is one of the teachers protectin' the stone. He's not 'bout to steal it." Hagrid reprimanded them.

"What?" They asked surprised.

"Yeh heard right. Come on, now, I'm a bit preoccupied today." He said trying to shoo them away.

"Wait a minute. One of the teachers?"

"Of course! There are other things defending the Stone, aren't there? Spells, enchantments." Hermione pointed out.

"That's right. Waste of bloody time, if yeh ask me. Ain't no one gonna get past Fluffy. Ain't a soul knows how, except for me an' Dumbledore." Once again, he realized his mistake a bit too late. "I shouldn' have told yeh that. I should not have told yeh that."

There was a sudden rattle coming from a pot on top of the chimney's fire. Hagrid grabbed something circular and extremely hot from inside and carefully placed it on the table.

"Hagrid, what exactly is that?"

"That? It's a...er"

"I know what that is! But, Hagrid, how did you get one? It must've cost you a fortune." Ron said with interest.

"Won it. Off a stranger, I met down at the pub. Seemed quite glad ter get rid of it, as a matter of fact."

It stopped moving and the eggshell started to crack and break. A tiny grey creature with bat-like wings came out of it.

"Is that...a dragon?" Harry asked in awe.

"That's not just a dragon. That's a Norwegian Ridgeback. My brother Charlie works with these in Romania." Ron explained.

"Isn' he beautiful? Oh, bless him. Look, he knows his mummy. Hello Norbert." Hagrid gently pets him with his finger.

"Norbert?"

"Yeah, well, he's gotta have a name, don' he? Don' you, Norbert?" The tiny dragon did a sound like a sneeze and blew fire on Hagrid's beard. The giant tried to put it out with his kitchen glove. "He'll have ter be trained up a bit, of course."

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house. He'll grow up and someone will find out." Hermione tried to reason but Hagrid didn't listen.

"You can't keep Norbert here, you have to set him free," Harry told him.

"I can't, he's too little, he'd die. I-I know I can't keep him forever, but I can't jus' dump him." Hagrid said sorrowfully.

"What about Charlie? Your brother works with dragons, right? We could ask him to come and take Norbert." In the end, they managed to convince Hagrid to let Ron's brother come get the dragon.

"It's late, I promise ter take care of Norbert's departure, but yeh need to leave now." They bid their goodbyes and left the hut. It was quite late and they hoped they didn't get in trouble for being out at this time.