Daydreamer - The Girl Who Lived

Chapter 12

Quirrell turned out to be braver then we suspected, he had started to look paler and thinner as the weeks passed but he hadn't seemed to crack yet.

Given the fact we had taken to pressing our ears to the door every time we passed the third floor corridor to make sure Fluffy was still there and growling, and the fact Snape was still sweeping around the castle with his usual bad temper, we took that to mean that the Stone was still safe. I had also started to give Quirrell my friendliest smile and say hello every time I passed him in what I hoped was some form of encouragement, and Ron had actually started to tell people off then they laughed or made fun of Quirrell's stutter.

Hermione was a little preoccupied from the Philosophers Stone, she had started to make us study schedules and colour coded all of our notes in preparation for exams. We would have thanked her for it, it was a lovely thing to do, except she was incredibly naggy about it and seemed to care more about it then the Stone. I didn't understand why, personally, but it seemed like we just had different priorities.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away." Ron had attempted to calm her down.

"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 all anyway."

"What am I studying for? Are you crazy? You realise 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 the same as Hermione, the amount of homework we now had meant that the Easter holiday's were going to be spent doing work constantly instead of researching more into the Stone, making sure Quirrell hadn't cracked, and just having a little bit of fun. Hermione didn't help things, whenever I had a scheduled free moment (Hermione scheduled break periods that she kept to very strictly) she had taken to reciting things under her breath in order to remember it all. Who was I kidding, I had no breaks at the moment.

"I'll never remember this," Ron burst out one afternoon, finally having enough, throwing down his quill and staring out of the library window, since this had now become our second home. It was the first really nice day we had this year, the weather picking up as spring drew in.

"At least you don't have to translate it all." I grumbled, since I learnt better in Spanish (which was an obvious thing) so having to learn and remember all of this in English was incredibly difficult.

I was currently reading up 'Dittany' for our Herbology exam, and looked up when I heard Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid shuffled over to us, not so subtly hiding something behind his back. "Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that just proved he was doing something. "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 Philosophers St-"

"Shhhh!" Hagrid quickly looked around to make sure nobody else was listening in. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh?"

"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," said Ron, "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-"

"Adios, ten." I say, giving him a cheerful wave as he shuffled away.

"What was he hiding behind his back?" Was Hermione's immediate question. "Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"