Ron-Weasly book 1. V2 part 12

However, apparently, Quirrell turned out to be braver than we thought. As the weeks passed, the professor became paler and thinner, but it didn't look like he was breaking down.

Every time we walked down the third-floor hallway, Harry, Hermione, and I put our ears to the door that led into the forbidden territory, and from the growling coming from there, we concluded that everything was fine so far. This was confirmed by Snape, who was always in his usual foul mood. We had a deep respect for Quirrell, and I began to stand up for him, making remarks to those who laughed at the professor's stuttering.

As for Hermione, unlike Harry and me, she wasn't just thinking about the Philosopher's Stone. She started making an exam preparation schedule, saying that we all needed to repeat the entire program, and cast a spell on her notes, marking the topics for each of the classes with different colors.

"Hermione, exams are still an eternity away." Harry and I protested in unison.

"It's only been ten weeks," snapped Hermione. "It's not an eternity at all, but for Nicolas Flamel it's like one second."

"But we're not six hundred years old," I reminded her. "And why should we repeat everything, especially to you, because you already know everything?" I took a bite of the dried apricot bun I stole from the kitchen.

"Hermione, I'm going to have nightmares about these wand movements soon. Although the potions are really worth repeating. But why so early? And even more so, why should you repeat it?!"

"Why repeat it?!" Hermione almost choked with indignation. "Are you crazy? Do you understand that in order to enter the second year, we need to pass the exams? This is very important, we should have started repeating it last month! And how I forgot about it!"

We celebrated my birthday in the family circle. I received a chocolate present from Harry and Hermione. They already knew that I adore it, especially the milk one, but also the mint one that Hermione gave me.

The teachers seemed to think the same way as Hermione. They literally overwhelmed the students with homework, and therefore the Easter holidays turned out to be very sad compared to the Christmas holidays. And how can you relax when Hermione is next to you, repeating aloud the twelve ways to use dragon's blood or practicing the technique of magic wand movements. Yawning and moaning with displeasure, Harry and I spent most of our free time in the library, trying to simultaneously repeat what we had learned and learn new things.

"I'll never remember that in my life!" Finally, I exploded, throwing down my pen and staring longingly out the library window. I don't like potions, but sometimes their composition just froze me out. How to apply and where to get the ingredients is for me. But brewing potions is a scribe. Although I like it. Definitely a potion healer will be needed in the team. It was a really pleasant day for the first few months. The sky was bright blue, like a forget-me-not, and a premonition of summer floated in the air. And we're sitting in a stuffy library. Damn, I even have my shirt stuck to my back because of the heat. I looked up from the parchment with the recipe for the composite antidote and looked around.

"Hagrid! What are you doing here?"

Hagrid seemed to be trying to hide from us behind the shelves, but realized that we had seen him. He came out of there and, shuffling his feet in huge boots, moved towards us. He didn't get too close, but kept his hands behind his back, as if he was hiding something from Harry and me. The giant in the mole-fur jacket clearly did not fit into the local environment and seemed to realize that he was attracting attention to himself, although he tried his best to avoid it. And it seemed that he was not happy to meet at all.

"I'm just, uh... I came to take a look," muttered Hagrid, averting his eyes. Harry and I were wary.

"What are you doing here? Are you really all looking for Nicholas Flamel?"

Hagrid immediately looked very suspicious.

"Yes, we already found out who he is a long time ago." I said in an important voice. "And we know what the dog is guarding — it's philosophical..."

Hagrid hissed, putting a finger to his lips and quickly looking around.

"What are you... Why are you shouting about it, what happened to you?"

"By the way, we wanted to ask you something," Harry said. "Tell me, who and what, besides Cannon, is guarding the stone?"

"Be quiet!" Hagrid hissed again. "Don't talk about it here. You can come by my place later... well.. to... uh... tell you something, I won't promise, but here... well... you can't talk about it at all, schoolchildren don't need to know that. Otherwise, someone will think that you learned everything from me, yes! And I have nothing to do with it!"

"See you later, then," said Harry, and Hagrid wandered out of the library.

"I wonder what he was hiding behind his back." Hermione asked thoughtfully.

"Are you saying that it might be related to the Philosopher's stone?" Harry asked.

"I'm going to see which section he was in," I said. I'm already tired of studying. I need some distraction. I got up from the table and turned behind the shelf. Wow! There were books Hagrid had pulled out by the shelf, which he just hadn't had time to put away.

I returned a few minutes later with a heavy stack of books in my hands.

"The dragons!" I whispered. "Hagrid was looking for something about dragons. Here, look: "Dragon Species found in Great Britain and Northern Ireland" and "Dragon Breeding Guide: From Egg to Infernal Monster"."

"Hagrid always wanted to have a dragon. He told me himself the day we met," Harry remarked.

"But that's against the law," I said. "The breeding of dragons was forbidden by the Convention of Magicians of one thousand seven hundred and nine, everyone knows that. If we breed dragons, Muggles will find out about our existence! They fly through the mountains wherever they want. Through magical Britain to Ireland, the real path runs through the greens. Besides, dragons can't be tamed anyway, and they're very dangerous. You should have seen the burns Charlie got in Romania studying wild dragons. The dragons there hatch their eggs in the mountains and train their broods.

"But surely there are no dragons in Britain?" Harry asked hopefully.

"Of course there is." I looked at him accusingly. What was he listening to? "Common Welsh green and black Hebrides. To tell the truth, the Ministry of Magic spends a lot of effort trying to hide them from Muggles. They're flying through magical passageways all over the country. We don't have a reserve where they live in the magical part of the country. They like Muggle woods and cliffs. Our people have to cast spells on Muggles who encounter dragons so that they forget about this encounter forever.

"I wonder what Hagrid is up to?" Hermione asked curiously.

* * *

An hour later, we arrived at Hagrid's hut and were surprised to see that the curtains on the windows were drawn. And Hagrid only let us into the hut after making sure it was us. He immediately closed the door behind us.

It was terribly hot inside. Despite the fact that it was warm outside, a fire was burning brightly in the fireplace. Hagrid made us tea and offered us sandwiches with ermine meat, but we didn't hesitate to turn down this exotic food. How does he even eat it. Well, at least he didn't offer his stone cupcakes.

"So that's it... What did you want to ask?" Hagrid was the first to start the conversation when we sat down at a rough table with steaming cups of herbal tea and pork ham sandwiches. I was hungry again, so I asked Hagrid to share. The giant didn't mind. He cut us thick slices of bread and ham, and poured tea into thick-walled mugs.

"Yes," Harry agreed, deciding not to beat around the bush. "We were wondering if you could tell us what guards the Philosopher's Stone... Except for the Cannon."

A friend bit into a sandwich, and I followed his example.

Hagrid looked at him disapprovingly. I chewed the meat and sipped my tea.

"No, I won't tell you," he said flatly. "First of all, I don't know myself. Well, secondly, you already have a lot of things... uh... You've been scouted, you don't need to know any more. Even if I knew, I wouldn't tell you anyway, yes! As for the stone, it's here for a reason, it was almost stolen from Gringotts... Well, I think you've figured it out for yourself. But how you found out about the Fluffy is beyond me."

Fluffy. Well, before the Fluffy. How did he even come up with such a monster, even if it was a small one?. Oh, the weapon. How did he even come up with such a monster, even if it was a small one? I almost choked on my sandwich from the shock. Hermione sipped her tea, and took a small bite of ham, munching it with bread.

"Stop it, Hagrid! Of course, you don't want to tell us, but you know, you know everything that's going on here. There was blatant flattery in Hermione's voice, and Hagrid's beard twitched. The giant was smiling, even though his smile was hidden by his hair. I surreptitiously gave Hermione a thumbs up. "We just want to know who cast the spells that should prevent the stone from being stolen. We're so curious about who — besides you, of course — Professor Dumbledore trusts."

Hagrid puffed out his chest proudly. Harry and I looked at Hermione with respect.

"Well... this one... I think it won't matter if I tell you." There was no trace of doubt in Hagrid's flattered voice. "So that's it... He borrowed my Fluffy, that's one thing. And then some of the professors cast spells... Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid, counting off his finger as he spoke another name. It felt like a giant was nailing professors to his arm. "Professor Quirrell... and Dumbledore himself, of course. Oh, I forgot something else. That's right, about Professor Snape."

And he's here.

"Snape?" — We all blurted out at the same time.

"What are you talking about again? Come on, okay?" Hagrid waved us away. "How can you not understand — Snape... well, helps to protect the stone, why would he steal it?"

If Snape was involved in guarding the stone, it means he could easily find out which spells the other professors had cast. It seemed that Snape had already found out everything he needed to know, except for the spell that Quirrell had cast.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past the Cannon, aren't you, Hagrid?" Harry asked excitedly. "And you're not going to tell anyone about this, are you? Not even any of the teachers?"

"Not a single living soul knows, that's how! Except for me— uh... And Dumbledore, of course", Hagrid declared proudly.

"Well, at least that's a good thing," Harry muttered to his companions. "Hey, Hagrid, can we open the window? You can suffocate here..."

"I'm sorry, Harry, but there's no way." Hagrid answered hurriedly and squinted at the fire burning in the fireplace. Harry, catching his eye, also looked into the fireplace.

"Hagrid! What is this?!" he exclaimed. I followed his gaze.

In the very center of the flame, right under the kettle hanging over the fire, there was a huge black egg. Oh, my God, he's crazy!

"And... this..." Hagrid tugged nervously at his beard. "Well... this..."

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" I asked, kneeling in front of the fireplace and carefully examining the egg. "It must be worth a lot of money. Dragon eggs are generally very difficult to get. Until you find the masonry in the cave. For now, you'll distract the dragon that's mad with rage. And dragonologists kill for it on the spot."

"I won it," Hagrid admitted. "I won last night. I went down to the village, sat there... well... I drank it. And here's a stranger who wants to play cards. Although, to tell you the truth, he's... uh... He was even glad that he had lost the egg-he didn't seem to know where to put it."

"And what will you do when a Dragon hatches out of it?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I'm reading something here." Hagrid pulled a thick book out from under his pillow "I got it from the library-"Breeding dragons for pleasure and profit." It's a little old, of course, but it's all about it. You have to keep an egg on the fire, that's how! Because dragonesses breathe fire on eggs, they keep them warm like that. And when he is... Well... when it hatches, you have to give it a ladle of chicken blood every half hour and... uh... Brandy still needs to be topped up there. And look at that — it's like recognizing eggs. What I have is a Norwegian humpback, a rare thing, so that's it."

Hagrid was obviously very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't share his joy.

"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house, don't you?" She said in a tragic voice.

But Hagrid wasn't listening to her. He was humming to himself, stirring the fire with a poker.

* * *

Now we had a new concern — we were worried about Hagrid's fate if anyone found out that he was illegally harboring a dragon.

"I've even forgotten what a peaceful life is," I sighed. I petted my rat, and handed him a carrot from a bag of treats.

Night after night, we sat through our homework, which got bigger and bigger. Hermione had first created a repetition program for herself, and now she was preparing the same one for us. It was driving Harry and me crazy. Harry repeated everything. And I learned potions and the history of magic. Hermione noticed how I was practicing with my wand and focused on these subjects, as I was constantly repeating spells and charms.

Hedwig brought Harry a note from Hagrid one day at breakfast. There were only two words in the note: "It's hatching."

I suggested skipping herbology and going straight to Hagrid's after breakfast. This is the first time in my life I'm going to see a baby dragon hatch. But Hermione wouldn't hear of it.

"Listen, Hermione, we may never see this again in our lives", I reproached her.

"We can't skip classes, we might have problems, and when someone finds out about Hagrid, it'll start happening... And if we're still there, close by, then that's it..."

"Shut up," Harry whispered.

Malfoy, who was walking a couple of meters away from us, suddenly froze and listened.

Hermione and I argued all the way to herbology, and eventually Hermione agreed to run over to Hagrid's after class. When the bell finally sounded from the castle, we dropped the shovels we had been using to pick at the ground, jumped out of the greenhouse and hurriedly rushed to the edge of the forest. Hagrid, who opened the door to us, was all red with excitement.

"He's almost out!" Hagrid whispered, pushing us inside.

The egg, riddled with deep cracks, lay on the table. At the time we arrived, just a little more and all the dragon would have hatched. Something was moving inside, tapping on the shell. A couple more minutes and the whole shell would have been broken.