Percy Jackson and the Mirror of Erised

39) Dragon

The curtains were closed when we knocked on Hagrid's door. Hagrid had been very cautious, peeking his head out of the door before ushering us in.

It was very hot inside. I immediately pulled off my sweater and rolled up my sleeves, still sweating buckets.

It had already been a warm day, but there was still a blazing fire burning. Hagrid made us tea, he gave me water instead, and offered us sandwiches. We all refused.

"So — yeh wanted to ask me somethin?"

"Yes," Harry said. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Sorcerer's Stone apart from Fluffy."

It clicked for me right then. I already knew. How nice. But I couldn't tell my friends the future. I only had glimpses myself, and that was a bad thing anyways. And the terrifying thing was, I'd been having more nightmares than glimpses of the future lately. My own mind was fighting against me.

Hagrid frowned, "O' course I can't. Number one, I don' know messlf. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts — I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an all? Beats me how yeh even know abou Fluffy."

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know everything that goes on round here," Hermione said, flattery lacing her voice. Hagrid's beard twitched and we knew he was smiling. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Hagrid's chest swelled and we all smiled at Hermione.

"Well, I don s'ppose it could hurt to tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout — Professor Flitwick — Professor McGonagall— Luke Castellan did a lil somethin —" he counted on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell — an Dumbledore himself did somethin, o course. Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh yeah, Professor Snape."

"Snape?"

"Yeah — yer not still on abou that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it."

I was a little worried. If Snape and Quirrell were working together, then that was two defenses against the Stone that were already cleared for them. Fluffy was easy. I found that one out on accident. The rest weren't too difficult, either.

"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" Harry asked anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the teachers?"

"Not a soul knows except me an Dumbledore," Hagrid said impressively.

"Well, that's something," Harry murmured to us. He glanced up at me for a moment, probably seeing how flushed I was, and asked, "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I think Percy is dying."

"Can't, Percy, sorry," Hagrid said. I saw him glance at the fire. And I saw it. I'd seen it before. A flash of a dream.

"Hagrid — what's that?" Harry asked. But I had a feeling he knew. The large, scaly black egg made it obvious.

"Ah," Hagrid fiddled nervously with his beard, "That's — er..."

"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" Ron said, crouching over the fire for a closer look. "It must've cost you a fortune."

"Won it," Hagrid said. "Las night. I was down in the village havin a few drinks an got into a game o cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, to be honest."

"But what are you going to do when it's hatched?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I've been doin some readin," Hagrid pulled a book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library — Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit — its a bit outta date, o course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, cause their mothers breathe on em, see, an when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An see here — how ter recognize diff'rent eggs — what I got there's a Norwegian Ridge-back. They're rare, them."

Hagrid looked happy, but Hermione did not, "Hagrid, you live in a wooden house."

Hagrid was not listening. He looked much to happy, staring into the fire.

One breakfast, Hedwig flew in. She landed in front of Harry and he pulled the letter open, quickly reading it to us.

I'd started sitting with Gryffindor in the morning. Hufflepuff at lunch and dinner. Surprisingly, none of the teachers stopped me.

"It's hatching," Harry read. All of our eyes immediately widened.

Ron wanted to skip herbology and go down to the hut but Hermione wasn't having it.

"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?"

"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing—"

"Shut up!" Harry whispered.

Draco has stopped to listen in. Him and I had talked about it. I wouldn't tell him about this stuff. The stuff that could get us in trouble, because he'd have to use it. So we just didn't.

Ron and Hermione has argued the entire way to herbology. Eventually they agreed on going to see Hagrid during morning break.

When the bell rung, we all ran to Hagrid's hut. He opened the door looking flushed and excited, "It's nearly out."

The egg had large cracks on its scaly surface. It was clicking and I could see something moving inside of it.

We sat in the chairs. There was suddenly a scraping sound and the egg split open. Urge baby dragon fell onto the table. It wasn't very pretty. It looked like a wet, folded umbrella. It's wings were too big. It's snout was long with wide nostrils. Ember orange eyes flickered open.

It sneezed, sparks flying out of the baby dragon's nostrils.

"Isn't he beautiful?" Hagrid murmured. He went to stroke its head, but the dragon snapped, showing its pointed fangs.

"Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" Hagrid said.

"Hagrid," Hermione said, "how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"

Hagrid was about to answer, but the color drained from his face. He ran to the window.

"What's the matter"?

"Someone was lookin through the gap in the curtains — it's a kid — he's runnin back up ter the school."

Harry ran to the window and whispered, "Malfoy."

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Next post on Thursday.