The stress was piling up, with both the final exams inching closer, and the newfound information about the Stone, Amisty was starting to lose her controlled temper.
She was on edge and snappish, and Hermione only stoked the flames with her constant badgering about her study habits.
"Hermione... Hermione. HERMIONE!" Amisty snarled, shutting up the blabbering brown haired girl in a second. "Please. Stop. Talking. I'll be fine!" She snapped, her eyes like green fire.
"But they're ten weeks away!" Hermione protested, desperate to get her friend to understand.
"Exactly! I've been studying constantly and I'm incredibly stressed out and your constant talking is not helping!" She retorted, placing her hands on the older girl's shoulders and shaking her slightly.
"Amisty, we need to pass these if we want to proceed to second year. Do you not get how important this is?" Hermione asked, her voice tinged with pleading.
"I KNOW HOW IMPORTANT IT IS! DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT I JUST SAID. I'VE BEEN STUDYING NON STOP SO IF YOU KEEP REMINDING ME ABOUT THEM I WILL HURT YOU!" Her temper split in two, and her voice rose in frustration.
"S-sorry." she stammered, taking a step back from the seething black haired girl in front of her.
"Hermione... I'm sorry," Amisty apologized quickly, suddenly quiet when she realized what she had said.
"No... No I get it. I'll stop." She replied, before scampering away to the girl's dormitory.
Amisty sunk back into her chair, a wave of breath leaving her lips. Her head fell into her hands, and she sighed heavily.
"Gah..." she kicked herself, both mentally and physically, before turning back to her Charms homework, and her Transfiguration homework, and her Defense Against the Dark Arts homework.
She would have to make it up to her later.
-=+=-
Amisty sat next to Harry in the library, nose buried in the book. She nearly flew out of her seat when Ron broke the silence as she studied.
"I'll never remember this!" He groaned, chucking his quill down before staring out the window.
Amisty shifted her gaze to the window as well, a small disapointed noise resonated from her chest. It was beautiful outside that day, and there they were, sitting in the stuffy library reading dusty old books. The view transfixed her, until the shuffling of feet sounded in her ears.
"Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?" Ron exclaimed, and three heads shot upwards to spot their friend.
"Jus' lookin. An' what're you lot up ter? Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?" his tone changing from suspicious to accusatory by the end of his sentences.
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago. And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's st--" Ron started.
"Shhhh! Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?" Hagrid hissed, whipping his head side to side to make sure no one was listening in to their conversation.
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy--" Harry added on.
'SHHHH!" Hagrid shushed them up, much louder this time, "Listen -- come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh--"
"See you later, then." Harry interrupted. There was a lot of interrupting going on today.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione questioned, thumb on her chin as she pondered, "Do you think it has anything to do with the Stone?"
"Maybe, he did look awfully shifty," Amisty replied, tugging on a raven strand of her hair.
She had made up with Hermione just before their study session. The brown-haired girl had understood entirely, and she promised to stop with the constant reminders.
"I'm going to see what section he was in." Ron announced, creeping off to where Hagrid had appeared from.
He returned quickly, this time with a stack of books in his arms, which ended up getting slammed onto the table.
The noise was far from quiet, and Amisty cringed at the volume, but her interest in what was happening overtook her powerful hearing.
"Dragons! Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide." he breathed, eyes wide.
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry replied.
"But it's against our laws. Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlock's Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden -- anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania." Ron proclaimed.
Amisty listened with wide eyes, slightly confused as to why Ron seemed to struggle in certain subjects but he knew this much about dragons.
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" Harry questioned.
"Of course there are. Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget." Ron replied confidently.
"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" Hermione inquired, looking at the three of them with a confused look on her face.
"Nothing good, that's certain." Amisty sighed, worried for her friend.
-=+=-
Amisty struggled to keep pace with the other three, wanting to stay and enjoy the cool temperature and beautiful weather.
"Amisty, come on!" Harry urged, grabbing her hand and tugging her along. To her dismay.
"But it's so nice outside!" She protested, looking back longingly at the lush green fields.
"Yeah, it is, but we need to know what Hagrid's up to." He replied earnestly, getting a defeated nod from his friend.
They knocked on the door of Hagrid's cabin, slightly concerned as to why all the curtains were closed tight.
"Who is it?" Hagrid called, before she spotted his eye peek through the curtains and open the door for them.
The four scurried inside, and the second Amisty's foot was inside Hagrid closed the door. A suffocating wave of heat washed over the black haired girl, and a bead of sweat rolled down her face in the few seconds she had been there.
Hagrid handed them cups of tea, as well as stoat sandwiches to which they politely declined.
"So -- yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?" he stated, raising an eyebrow as he looked down at the quartet.
"Yes. We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy." Harry replied.
"O' course I can't. Number one, I don' know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts -- I s'ppose yeh've wroked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy." Hagrid crossed his arms.
"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here. We only wondered who had done the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you?" Hermione spoke up, her tone warm.
Amisty concealed her grin with her hand, meeting Harry and Ron's glowing eyes and seeing the same level of amusement reflected back at her.
"Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see.. He borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout -- Professor Flitwick -- Professor McGonagall -- Professor Quirrell -- an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' coruse. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape," Hagrid counted them off with his fingers.
"Snape?" they exclaimed, shocked.
"Yeah -- uer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it," Hagrid sighed, shaking his head.
Amisty's eyes widened considerably, and she stared down the other three. Wild thoughts running amok in her mind.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid? And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?" Harry questioned uneasily, panic gleaming in his eyes.
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," Hagrid replied contently.
"Well, that's something," Harry whispered to the other three, "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."
"Can't, Harry, sorry," The giant of a man shook his head, his gaze flickering for a moment to the roaring hearth.
Amisty caught it, and she nudged Harry and pointed at the roaring fire. There was a strange black rock being licked by the flames.
"Um, I don't think that's a rock," She whispered, exchanging wide-eyed looks with her black-haired friend.
"Hagrid -- what's that?" Harry gasped, pointing at the massive coal black egg sitting in the bluish center of the fire.
"Ah... That's -- er..." Hagrid's fingers ran through his beard skittishly.
"Where did you get it, Hagrid? It must've cost you a fortune." Ron crept closer to the fire, the orange flames dancing in his blue eyes.
"Won it las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest," he explained sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermione exclaimed, her brown gaze not quite leaving the egg when she spoke.
Amisty nodded, dragons weren't known for being small creatures.
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," He clambered over to his bed and drew a book from under the pillow, "Got this outta the library -- Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit -- it's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here -- how ter recognize diff'rent eggs -- what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them." He seemed rather pleased with himself, though Hermione and Amisty saw the situation in a very different light.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," Hermione argued.
"You're going to die of heatstroke," Amisty muttered desperately into her palm, her voice muffled.
But he wasn't paying them any heed as he added wood to the fire, watching the egg with pride glowing in his eyes.