Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'dthought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to begetting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'dcracked yet.
Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Harry,Ron and Hermione would press their ears to the door to checkthat Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweepingabout in his usual bad temper,which surely meant that theStone was still safe.Whenever Harry passed Quirrell thesedays he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron hadstarted telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.
Hermione,however,had more on her mind than thePhilosophers Stone. She had started drawing up revisiontimetables and colour-coding all her notes. Harry and Ronwouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do thesame.
'Hermione, the exams are ages away.'
'Ten weeks,' Hermione snapped. 'That's not ages, that's likea 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.'
'What am I revising for? Are you mad? You realise we needto pass these exams to get into the second year? They're veryimportant, I should have started studying a month ago, I don'tknow what's got into me ...'
Unfortunately,the teachers seemed to be thinking alongthe same lines as Hermione. They piled so much homeworkon them that the Easter holidays weren't nearly as much fun asthe Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione nextto you reciting the twelve uses of dragon's blood or practisingwand movements. Moaning and yawning, Harry and Ronspent most of their free time in the library with her, trying toget through all their extra work.
'I'll never remember this,' Ron burst out one afternoon,throwing down his quill and looking longingly out of thelibrary window. It was the first really fine day they'd had inmonths. The sky was a clear, forget-me-not blue and therewas a feeling in the air of summer coming.
Harry,who was looking up 'Dittany' in One TbousandMagical Herbs and Fungi, didn't look up until he heard Ron say,'Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?'
Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind hisback. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.
'Jus' lookin',' he said, in a shifty voice that got theirinterest at once. 'An' what're you lot up ter?' He looked suddenly suspicious. 'Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel,are yeh?'
'Oh,we found out who he is ages ago,'said Ron impressively.'And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a PhilosophersSt-'
'Sbbbb!' Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone waslistening. 'Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter withyeh?'
There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matterof fact,' said Harry, 'about what's guarding the Stone apartfrom Fluffy-'
'SHHHH!' said Hagrid again. 'Listen - come an' see melater, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' gorabbitin' 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 Hermionethoughtfully.
'Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?'
I'm going to see what section he was in,' said Ron, who'dhad enough of working. He came back a minute later with apile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.
'Dragonsi' he whispered. 'Hagrid was looking up stuff aboutdragons! 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 firsttime I ever met him,' said Harry.
'But it's against our laws,' said Ron. 'Dragon-breeding wasoutlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709,everyoneknows that. It's hard to stop Muggles noticing us if we'rekeeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can't tamedragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's gotoff wild ones in Romania.'
'But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?' said Harry.
'Of course there are,' said Ron. 'Common Welsh Green andHebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushingthem up, I can tell you. Our lot have to keep putting spells onMuggles who've spotted them, to make them forget.'
'So what on earth's Hagrid up to?' said Hermione.
When they knocked on the door of the gamekeeper's hut anhour later,they were surprised to see that all the curtains wereclosed. Hagrid called, 'Who is it?' before he let them in andthen shut the door quickly behind them.
It was stiflingly hot inside. Even though it was such awarm day, there was a blazing fire in the grate. Hagrid madethem tea and offered them stoat sandwiches, which theyrefused.
'So-yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?'
'Yes,' said HHarry. There was no point beating about thebush. 'We were wondering if you could tell us what's guardingthe Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy.'
Hagrid frowned at him.
'O' course I can't' he said. 'Number one, I don' knowmeself. Number two,yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a goodreason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts - I s'ppose yeh'veworked that out an' all? Beats me how yeh even know abou'Fluffy.'
'Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, butyou do know, you know everything that goes on round here,'said Hermione in a warm, flattering voice. Hagrid's beardtwitched and they could tell he was smiling. 'We onlywondered who had done the guarding, really.' Hermione wenton. 'We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough tohelp him, apart from you.'
Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Harry and Ronbeamed at Hermione.
Well, I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that ... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me ... then some o' the teachersdid 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,ProfessorSnape.'
'Snape?'
Yeah-yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look,Snapehelped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it.!'
Harry knew Ron and Hermione were thinking the same ashe was. If Snape had been in on protecting the Stone, it musthave been easy to find out how the other teachers had guardedit.He probably knew everything-except,it seemed,Quirrell'sspell 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'ttell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?'
'Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore,' said Hagridproudly.
'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 glanceat the fire. Harry looked at it,too.
'Hagrid-what's that?'
But he already knew what it was. In the very heart of thefire, 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 Ron, crouching overthe fire to get a closer look at the egg. 'It must've cost you afortune.'
'Won it,' said Hagrid. 'Las' night. I was down in the villagehavin' 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 Hermione.
'Well, I've bin doin' some readin',' said Hagrid, pulling alarge 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 theirmothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on abucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here-how ter recognise diff'rent eggs-what I gotthere's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them.'
He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn't.
'Hagrid,you live in a wooden bouse,' she said.
But Hagrid wasn't listening. He was humming merrily ashe stoked the fire.
So now they had something else to worry about: what mighthappen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegaldragon in his hut.
'Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life,' Ron sighed,as evening after evening they struggled through all the extrahomework they were getting. Hermione had now startedmaking revision timetables for Harry and Ron, too. It wasdriving them mad.
Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry anothernote from Hagrid. He had written only two words: It's batcbing.
Ron wanted to skip Herbology and go straight down tothe hut.Hermione wouldn't hear of it.
'Hermione, how many timnes in our lives are we going tosee a dragon hatching?'
'We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothingto what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out whathe's doing-'
'Shut up!' Harry whispered.
Malfoy was only a few feet away and he had stopped deadto listen.How much had he heard? Harry didn't like the lookon Malfoy's face at all.
Ron and Hermione argued all the way to Herbology, andin the end, Hermione agreed to run down to Hagrid's with theother two during morning break. When the bell sounded fromthe castle at the end of their lesson, the three of them droppedtheir trowels at once and hurried through the grounds to theedge of the Forest. Hagrid greeted them looking flushed andexcited.
'It's nearly out.' He ushered them inside.
The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks init. Something was moving inside; a funny clicking noise wascoming from it.
They all drew their chairs up to the table and watchedwith bated breath.
All at once there was a scraping noise and the egg splitopen. The baby dragon flopped on to the table. It wasn'texactly pretty; Harry thought it looked like a crumpled, blackumbrella. Its spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny jetbody and it had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of hornsand bulging, orange eyes.
It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.
'Isn't he beautiful?' Hagrid murmured. He reached out ahand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers,showing pointed fangs.
'Bless him, look, he knows his mummy!' said Hagrid.
'Hagrid,' said Hermione, 'how fast do Norwegian Ridge-backs grow, exactly?'
Hagrid was about to answer when the colour suddenlydrained from his face-he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.
'What's the matter?'
'Someone was lookin' through the gap in the curtains - it'sa kid- he's runnin' back up ter the school.!'
Harry bolted to the door and looked out. Even at a distancethere was no mistaking him.
Malfoy had seen the dragon.
Something about the smile lurking on Malfoy's face duringthe next week made Harry,Ron and Hermione very nervous.They spent most of their free time in Hagrid's darkened hut,trying to reason with him.
'Just let him go,'Harry urged. 'Set him free.'
'I can't,' said HHagrid. 'He's too little. He'd die.'
They looked at the dragon. It had grown three times inlength in just a week. Smoke kept furling out of its nostrils.Hagrid hadn't been doing his gamekeeping duties because thedragon was keeping him so busy. There were empty brandybottles and chicken feathers all over the floor.
'I've decided to call him Norbert,' said Hagrid, looking atthe dragon with misty eyes. 'He really knows me now, watch.Norbert! Norbert! Where's Mummy?'
'He's lost his marbles,' Ron muttered in Harry's ear.
'Hagrid,' said Harry loudly,'give it a fortnight and Norbert'sgoing to be as long as your house. Malfoy could go toDumbledore at any moment!'
Hagrid bit his lip.
'I - I know I can't keep him for ever, but I can't jus' dumphim,I can't!' Harry suddenly turned to Ron.
'Charlie,' he said.
'You're losing it, too,' said Ron. T'm Ron, remember?'
'No-Charlie-your brother Charlie. In Romania.Studyingdragons. We could send Norbert to him. Charlie can take careof him and then put him back in the wild!'
'Brilliant!' said Ron. 'How about it, Hagrid?'
And in the end, Hagrid agreed that they could send an owlto Charlie to ask him.
The following week dragged by. Wednesday night foundHermione and Harry sitting alone in the common room, longafter everyone else had gone to bed. The clock on thewall had just chimed midnight when the portrait holeburst open. Ron appeared out of nowhere as he pulled offHarry's Invisibility Cloak. He had been down at Hagrid's hut,helping him feed Norbert, who was now eating dead rats bythe crate.
'It bit me!' he said, showing them his hand,which waswrapped in a bloody handkerchief. 'I'm not going to be able tohold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the mosthorrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes onabout it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. Whenit bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left,hewas singing it a lullaby.'
There was a tap on the dark window.
'It's Hedwig!' said Harry, hurrying to let her in. 'She'll haveCharlie's answer!'
The three of them put their heads together to read thenote.
Bear Ron,
How are you? Thanks for the letter-I'dbe glad to take the Norweglan Ridgeback, butit won't be easy getting him here. I think thebest thing will be to send him over with somefriends of mine who are coming to nsit menext week. Trouble is, they mustn't be seenwoboup robam uo buhuoo
Could you get the Ridgeback up the tallesttower at midnight on Saturday? They can meetyou there and take him away while it's still dark.
Send me an answer as soon as possible.
Love,
Charlie
They looked at each other.
'We've got the Invisibility Cloak, said Harry. 'It shouldn'tbe too difficult-I think the Cloak's big enough to cover twoof us and Norbert.'
It was a mark of how bad the last week had been that theother two agreed with him.Anything to get rid of Norbert-and Malfoy.
There was a hitch. By next morning,Ron's bitten hand hadswollen to twice its usual size. He didn't know whether it was safe to go to Madam Pomfrey-would she recognise a dragonbite?By the afternoon, though, he had no choice. The cut hadturned a nasty shade of green. It looked as if Norbert's fangswere poisonous.
Harry and Hermione rushed up to the hospital wing at theend of the day to find Ron in a terrible state in bed.
'It's not just my hand,' he whispered, 'although that feelslike it's about to fall off. Malfoy told Madam Pomfrey hewanted to borrow one of my books so he could come andhave a good laugh at me. He kept threatening to tell her whatreally bit me - I've told her it was a dog but I don't think shebelieves me - I shouldn't have hit him at the Quidditch match,that's why he's doing this.'
Harry and Hermione tried to calm Ron down.
'It'll all be over at midnight on Saturday,' said Hermione,but this didn't soothe Ron at all. On the contrary, he sat boltupright and broke into a sweat.
'Midnight on Saturday!' he said in a hoarse voice. 'Ohno-oh no-I've just remembered - Charlie's letter was inthat book Malfoy took, he's going to know we're getting ridof Norbert.'
Harry and Hermione didn't get a chance to answer. MadamPomfrey came over at that moment and made them leave,saying Ron needed sleep.
'It's too late to change the plan now,' Harry told Hermione.'We haven't got time to send Charlie another ow1 and thiscould be our only chance to get rid of Norbert. We'll have to risk it. And we bave got the Invisibility Cloak, Malfoy doesn'tknow about that.'
They found Fang the boarhound sitting outside with abandaged tail when they went to tell Hagrid,who openeda window to talk to them.
'I won't let you in,' he puffed. 'Norbert's at a tricky stage -nothin' I can't handle.'
When they told him about Charlie's letter,his eyes filledwith tears, although that might have been because Norberthad just bitten him on the leg.
'Aargh! It's all right, he only got my boot - jus' playin'-he'sonly a baby, after all.'
The baby banged its tail on the wal1, making the windowsrattle.Harry and Hermione walked back to the castle, feelingSaturday couldn't come quickly enough.
They would have felt sorry for Hagrid when the timecame for him to say goodbye to Norbert if they hadn'tbeen so worried about what they had to do. It was a verydark, cloudy night and they were a bit late arriving atHagrid's hut because they'd had to wait for Peeves to getout of their way in the Entrance Hall, where he'd beenplaying tennis against the wall.
Hagrid had Norbert packed and ready in a large crate.
'He's got lots o' rats an' some brandy fer the journey,' saidHagrid in a muffled voice. 'An' I've packed his teddy bear incase he gets lonely.'
From inside the crate came ripping noises that sounded to Harry as though teddy was having his head torn off.
'Bye-bye, Norbert!' Hagrid sobbed, as Harry and Hermionecovered the crate with the Invisibility Cloak and steppedunderneath it themselves. 'Mummy will never forget you!'
How they managed to get the crate back up to the castle,they never knew. Midnight ticked nearer as they heavedNorbert up the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall andalongthe dark corridors. Up another staircase, then another - evenone of Harry's short cuts didn't make the work much easier.
'Nearly there!' Harry panted as they reached the corridorbeneath the tallest tower.
Then a sudden movement ahead of them made themalmost drop the crate. Forgetting that they were alreadyinvisible, they shrank into the shadows, staring at the darkoutlines of two people grappling with each other ten feetaway.A lamp flared.
Professor McGonagall, in a tartandressing-gown and ahairnet,had Malfoy by the ear.
Detention!' she shouted. 'And twenty points fromSlytherin! Wandering around in the middle of the night,howdare you-'
You don't understand, Professor,Harry Potter's coming -he's got a dragon!'
'What utter rubbish! How dare you tell such lies! Comeon-I shall see Professor Snape about you,Malfoy!'
The steep spiral staircase up to the top of the tower seemedthe easiest thing in the world after that. Not until they'dstepped out into the cold night air did they throw off the Cloak, glad to be able to breathe properly again. Hermionedid a sort of jig.
'Malfoy's got detention! I could sing!'
'Don't,' Harry advised her.
Chuckling about Malfoy,they waited,Norbert thrashingabout in his crate. About ten minutes later, four broomstickscame swooping down out of the darkness.
Charlie's friends were a cheery lot. They showed Harryand Hermione the harness they'd rigged up, so they couldsuspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckleNorbert safely into it and then Harry and Hermione shookhands with the others and thanked them very much.
At last,Norbert was going... going ...gone.
They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their heartsas light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them. Nomore dragon -Malfoy in detention- what could spoil theirhappiness?
The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. Asthey stepped into the corridor, Filch's face loomed suddenlyout of the darkness.
'Well,well,well,' he whispered,'we are in trouble!'
They'd left the Invisibility Cloak on top of the tower.