They went back to the school on the Hogwarts express the next week, a day before spring term started. The boys reluctantly left their brooms at the Riddle Manor, with Tom who promised to take good care of them. Hermione rolled her eyes, though she had the exact same reaction when Camellia asked if Hermione would like to leave her books at the manor so that she won't rip it by accident. She took the books with her, if you haven't guessed already.
Gryffindor was up against Hufflepuff for another quidditch tournament, and if they didn't win this one, they would be dead last. After the last attempted murder from Quirrell to Camellia, Severus had decided to referee, which made many questions rise from both the teacher's and student's side. He simply cast the questions aside, saying that
''I just want a nice clean game that is all.'' Not a single person believed him, other than Camellia and her group.
After the game had ended, with Hufflepuff's seeker losing against Harry, Severus saw from the corner of his eyes, Quirrell leaving for the forbidden forest.
He rushed after the distinct purple turban, and cornered him to a giant ash tree.
"... d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus..." Quirrell started. This made him confused. He hadn't talked to Quirrell at all.
''What on earth are you talking about?''
"Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," said Quirrell, his mask broken, letting his true side free. His voice icy. "Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all. Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"
''You stupid traitor! What is it that you want!?''
"You don't want me as your enemy, Severus,"
"I don't know what you're-"
"You know perfectly well what I mean."
Quirrell left Severus to think over what just happened in the last few seconds.
"Very well," Quirrell cut in. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."
Now he understood what the purple turbaned man meant. That was a message from Albus...
Albus was getting suspicious of him. That couldn't be good.
~oOo~
Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Draco, Neville, Camellia, Ron, and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Quirrell was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe.
Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer's Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and colour coding all her notes. The rest 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 studying for, you already know it's an A."
"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realize 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 gotten into me..."
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 practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, they spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.
"I'll never remember this," Draco 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.
Neville, who was looking up "Dittany" in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, didn't look up until he heard Harry say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"
They all listened in on their conversation, which had Harry talking about the whereabouts of the philosopher's stone. Camellia facepalmed at her brother's stupidity. Who knows how many people could've heard what he said.
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Harry, "about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy--"
"SHHHH!" said Hagrid again. "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," said Harry.
Hagrid shuffled off.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Lavender thoughtfully, a girl who had started being friends with Harry a few weeks ago. Camellia seethed every time she saw her with him, knowing all she wanted was the gossip and fame.
"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"
"I'm going to see what section he was in," said Seamus, who'd had enough of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.
"Dragons!" he whispered. "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."
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him, " said Harry.
"But it's against our laws," said Dean. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' 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."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain ?" said Harry.
"Of course there are," said Ron. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job shushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."
"So what on earth's Hagrid up to?" said Lavender.
When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut an hour later, they were surprised to see that all the curtains were closed. Hagrid called "Who is it?" before he let them in, and then shut the door quickly behind them.
Camellia and the rest were all under an invisibility charm which Camellia learnt in one of her higher charms books she got from Flitwick. They jumped inside the hut, just before Hagrid could close the door on them, Though Draco, Ron and Hermione was left outside.
It was stifling hot inside. Even though it was such a warm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid made them tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.
"So -- yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"
"Yes," said Harry. There was no point beating around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."
Hagrid frowned at him. Camellia almost groaned. How naive could he be? When life gives you problems, you can't expect it to just give you clues on how to solve them!
"O' course I can't," he said. "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 worked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on round here," said Lavender in a high pitched whiny voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and they could tell he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Lavender went on. "We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Harry, Dean and Seamus beamed at Lavender.
"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 -- " he ticked them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell -- an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."
"Snape?"
Her suspicions were right. Though it was a surprise that Quirrell was amongst the teacher list.
"Yeah -- yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."
Exactly!
Harry knew Lavender, Seamus and Dean were thinking the same as he was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it must have been easy to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. He probably knew everything -- except, it seemed, Quirrell's spell and how to get past Fluffy.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy. aren't you, Hagrid?" said Harry anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," said Hagrid proudly.
"Well, that's something," Harry muttered to the others. "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm boiling."
"Can't, Harry, sorry," said Hagrid. Harry noticed him glance at the fire. Harry looked at it, too.
"Hagrid -- what's that ?"
But he already knew what it was. In the very heart of the fire, underneath the kettle, was a huge, black egg.
"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, "That's -- er..."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" said Dean, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg. "It must've cost you a fortune."
"Won it," said Hagrid. "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."
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" said Seamus.
"Well, I've bin doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his 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 I 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 looked very pleased with himself, but Dean didn't.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," he said.
But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.
So now they had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.