star-crossed

Dragons are a Man's Best Friend

Contrary to the Sprigs' belief, Quirrell must have been fairly brave. In the weeks following Harry's eavesdropping, he did seem to be getting paler, but nothing so far indicated that he'd cracked.

Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, the Sprigs would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Draco had quietly confessed one afternoon that he'd stopped spending his Sunday mornings in the potions lab with his godfather.

Whenever Harry and Neville passed Quirrell these days they gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron and El had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter or complaining about the garlic smell of his classroom. 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. The others wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away."

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

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

"We've been so caught up in this Stone business, I haven't been anywhere near my usual standard of studying," Hermione worried aloud. "I should have started revising a month ago, I don't know what's gotten into me..."

"Merlin, Hermione, did you live in the library before Hogwarts?" Elowen asked, watching as Neville let the girl start coloring him a study schedule. "You're in there all the time as it is!"

Hermione's face flushed. "I didn't exactly have friends before you guys," she mumbled. "My books were my friends."

"That is so sad," Draco remarked and batted the study schedule out of Neville's hands. "If we all agree to spend an hour a day studying with you, will you let up on the nagging?"

Hermione brightened. "I'll make a schedule!"

Ron groaned as she scurried off to the Den's board. He glared at Draco. "Why'd you agree to that?"

"I'm sorry, I was under the impression that you were tired of it." Draco rolled his eyes. "Giving in and studying a bit certainly won't hurt you."

"Sometimes I really hate you."
~~~
Unfortunately for Ron, 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.

The board in the Den had been taken over by Hermione's new study schedule for the group and the Sprigs ended up spending much of their free time in the library reviewing with her.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon in May, throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of the library window. It was the first really beautiful day they'd had in months. The sky was a clear, cloudless blue and there was a feeling in the air of summer coming.

"I agree," Neville moaned, shoving his History book away. "Why are there so many goblin rebellions to remember?"

"Because Dumbledore won't get rid of Binns," Elowen reminded. She sighed, glancing out the window. "Really, Hermione, we can't study outside?"

Hermione frowned over her books. "You'll all just get distracted."

"It would hardly matter," Draco pointed out. "They're barely staying focused as it is."