Chapter 32
"Hagrid, we know that, of course," said Harry. "It's just that last time we overheard some rather worrying things."
They then told Hagrid about the conversation Harry had overheard in the Forbidden Forest between Snape and Professor Quirrell, and warned him that Snape might come looking for a way past Fluffy, so he should be careful.
"That's impossible, it doesn't make any sense at all," Hagrid said loudly. "Professor Snape is a teacher at the school, and he helped design the protections. He can't possibly be trying to steal the thing."
"The thing?" Harry pressed. "Hagrid, we know now—Professor Dumbledore has hidden the Philosopher's Stone on the fourth floor."
"My goodness, how on earth do you know that? Keep your voices down—this isn't something to be discussed at school," Hagrid's face changed colour. He glanced around nervously, as though expecting someone to leap out at any moment.
He looked at Gray next, but Gray's expression remained completely unchanged—clearly he already knew about it too.
"Oh, heavens, just how many people know about this?" Hagrid said, sounding rather panicked.
"Probably just the four of us," Hermione explained. "We found out by researching Nicolas Flamel. He's a friend of Dumbledore's—they even collaborated on some research involving dragon's blood."
"That's a relief," Hagrid said, patting his chest. He had been genuinely afraid these children might not realise how serious it was and go spreading it around.
Of course, he trusted Gray—he never talked out of turn, so there was no worry there.
"But the Philosopher's Stone isn't safe right now," Hermione continued. "Snape has been trying to get it, and we have reason to believe he's already got past the other protections. Now only yours and Professor Quirrell's are left."
"Professor Quirrell?" Hagrid muttered. He knew about the protection Quirrell had set—a mountain troll. Quirrell had even asked him to help tame it once, but Hagrid had refused.
The smell of trolls was far too overpowering; he didn't want to risk getting any of that stench on him—it might never come off, and then he'd never be able to handle other magical creatures again.
But if you were talking about trolls being difficult to deal with, that would be underestimating Snape severely. The weak point of a troll was the back of its head—any adult wizard ought to know that. For someone like Snape, there were a hundred ways to handle a troll, let alone just one.
"Yes, Professor Quirrell," Ron said confidently. "I reckon he set up some sort of anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape can't get past, so that's why he's been threatening Quirrell."
Hagrid shook his head. These children's imaginations were running away with them.
He didn't believe a word of it—he was convinced they'd misheard or misunderstood something.
Thinking this, he glanced at Gray again.
If only all the children were like Gray—fond of reading, quiet, not overly curious, and most importantly, really liked dragons!
Oh, and rock cakes too. Gray was simply brilliant.
For the first time in years, Hagrid felt he'd found a true kindred spirit.
"Right, that's enough of that, children," Hagrid said firmly, cutting them off. "I don't believe for a second that Professor Snape would try to steal the Philosopher's Stone, and you lot shouldn't go poking your noses into it any further. Exams are coming up—shouldn't you be revising your lessons?"
"As for the Philosopher's Stone, you really don't need to worry about its safety. With Professor Dumbledore at the school, no one can steal it—not even You-Know-Who could manage it."
"But what if Professor Dumbledore leaves?" Hermione pointed out the flaw in his argument. "He can't be here all the time."
"Then the other professors will protect it. You first-years don't need to concern yourselves—you should be focusing on your studies." Hagrid shut the conversation down, folding his arms with a look that clearly said he was done talking.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged glances and reluctantly gave up.
Gray had been sitting quietly the whole time, reading his book and eating rock cakes, without joining the discussion.
There wasn't much more to say. Hagrid was right in his approach—he just clearly didn't understand Hermione's determination and resourcefulness. In the end, they were bound to try breaking through those protections themselves.
Hermione and the others didn't stay long at Hagrid's. When they realised he wouldn't discuss the Philosopher's Stone any further, they left, disappointed.
Before they went, Ron curiously asked how Hagrid had got the dragon egg. Hagrid said he'd won it in a card game down at the village pub, looking extremely pleased and proud.
Hermione kindly reminded him that raising a dragon was very troublesome and involved a lot of considerations. Hagrid cheerfully replied that Gray would help him—Gray had read loads of books about dragons, so he just had to follow Gray's advice.
Hermione shot Gray another glare and finally said helplessly that she hoped they would be careful and not let the school find out, or they might get into serious trouble—possibly even sent to Azkaban.
Also, since Hagrid's hut was made entirely of wood, she told Gray to be careful not to set the place on fire.
Gray just nodded, unconcerned.
He was fully prepared for this dragon—nothing unexpected would happen.
"I still can't believe Hagrid actually got a dragon egg," Ron said excitedly as the three of them walked back up to the castle. "I always thought that sort of thing only happened in stories."
Gray had stayed behind to keep observing the dragon egg a while longer and hadn't come with them.
"It's not that surprising," Hermione said. "Hagrid has always wanted to raise a dragon. He keeps an eye on anything dragon-related—he was bound to come across a real one eventually." Then her face grew worried. "I'm a bit concerned about Gray. If he's caught helping raise a dragon at school, he'll definitely be expelled."
"But it's Hagrid's dragon," Harry said anxiously. "I don't want them to get caught either, but if they are, Hagrid's the one who should be punished."
"Come off it," Ron said. "I reckon Gray's taking it far more seriously than Hagrid."
"Did you see just now? Next to Gray there was a notebook full of drawings of dragon eggs—the kind of thing I've only ever seen in Charlie's stuff."
"Charlie?" Harry asked, puzzled. Hermione looked at Ron too.
"Charlie's my brother—you know, I've got five brothers. Charlie's the second oldest. He's been mad about dragons since he was little. Now he works in Romania studying dragons. His room's full of notebooks like that," Ron explained. Then he grinned and added a funny story.
"Once when Charlie came home on holiday, I saw him crawling around his room in this really weird, awkward position. I asked what he was doing, and he said one of his dragons walked like that—they thought it was injured somewhere, but they couldn't find anything wrong. So he was pretending to be the dragon to figure out what might be causing it."
"And then what?" Harry asked, hooked.
"Turned out it was something wrong with the dragon's kidneys. They couldn't spot it at first because the dragon thought that area was too embarrassing and wouldn't let them examine it properly," Ron said, scratching his head.
"You mean Gray might start crawling around on the floor like that too?" Hermione asked, looking worried
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