The Survivor

Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

"What? What about the stone?" Asked Alice.

"Someone really said not your business." Chuckled Charlie.

Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Ron and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside even if it seemed less loud than before. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.

Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Philosopher's Stone. She had started drawing up revision timetables and colour-coding all her notes. Harry and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

"Why is nobody listening to the responsible ones?" Asked Daphne with a sigh. Her housemates never caused troubles about studying since they worked for perfection, but her friends in other houses didn't seem to value preparing in time and logical plans as much.

'Hermione, the exams are ages away.'

'Ten weeks,' Hermione snapped. 'That's not ages, that's like a second to Nicolas Flamel.'

"You want to be an old man or what?" Teased Ginny and Hermione rolled her eyes.

'But we're not six hundred years old,' Ron reminded her. 'Anyway, what are you revising for, you already know it all.'

'What am I revising for? Are you mad? 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 got into me ...'

"Ten weeks are about two months and a half. I think it's enough time, especially with your knowledge." Noted Pomona.

Unfortunately, the teachers seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practising wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Harry and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

'I'll never remember this,' Ron burst out one afternoon, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really fine day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

'I told you, Theo. I won't continue with the explanations until you finish that essay.' They heard a voice from the table next to them. They looked through the books and saw Violet with her friends sitting at a nearby table with different books on it.

"Yikes! Studying with Violet is never fun. She's a maniac when it comes to information and notes." Shuddered Hannah as she remembered the time she tried to join Violet in the library. She never ran out of the library so fast.

Theo groaned as loud as he could and let his head on the table. 'But I hate the history of the Ministry.' He complained and looked moments away from throwing the scroll and book away. 'Who cares about whether or not it was built on sacred land? It's not like we have any proof for either side besides old parchments which are about the same amount for both theories.'

"Yeah. That's actually a pretty serious problem." Pointed out Percy. "If it is built on a sacred land, everything would have to be moved, there would be mountains of paperwork and there will also have to be hired teams of preservation to restore the health of the land."

"Thank you! At last, someone agrees with me." Said Violet.

'If it was built on sacred land, it would have to be moved to another location under the history protection act and the preservation of sacred lands law. A preservation team would have to be called in. And the sight would be the perfect place for certain rituals since it has magical properties and you could take strength from the soil.' Explained Violet. They had been doing this for hours and were nowhere near done with the History of Magic materials.