The Philosopher's Stone

Chapter 14 (Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback)

Me: Welcome back! Sorry it's taken so long.

Danny: Yeah, it's been a while.

Me: Yeah, school and life and stuff is a lot.

Danny: Mhm. Wanna do your disclaimer and continue?

Me: Yeah. I don't own Danny Phantom or Harry Potter or their characters, both belong to Butch Hartman and J.K. Rowling respectively. Now, ONTO THE STORY!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quirrell, however, must have been braver than they'd thought. In the weeks that followed he did seem to be getting paler and thinner, but it didn't look as though he'd cracked yet.

Every time they passed the third-floor corridor, Harry, Danny, Ron and Hermione would press their ears to the door to check that Fluffy was still growling inside. Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe.Whenever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, Danny would participate more in his class, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell's stutter.

Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Philosopher's Stone. She had started drawing up revision timetables and colour-coding all her notes. Harry and Ron wouldn't have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

Danny was more or less indifferent to it, considering Jazz had been much worse on him before.

"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 revising for, you already know it all."

"You could think you're solid on all the material, but still get a bad grade. Trust me, I'd know. " Danny said.

"That's exactly my point! 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 got into me ..."

"I'm sure you'll do great Hermione. Though I'm not too sure about myself." Danny chuckled, "Never really had the best grades." 'Though that's mostly due to late night ghost hunting' he added silently

Unfortunately for the three boys, 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, Harry, Danny, and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

"I'll never remember this," Ron 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.

"I'm sure you'll be fine." Danny said placing a hand on Ron's shoulder in an attempt to reassure his friend.

He glanced around at the table and saw Harry was looking up a word in in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi,

Danny returned to his own work before hearing Ron say, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something behind his back. He looked very out of place in his moleskin overcoat.

Danny's eyes narrowed slightly in curiosity.

"Jus' lookin'," he said, in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?' He looked suddenly suspicious. "'Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"