paying Hagrid a visit
The next morning when Harry woke up Draco had already left the dorm. Harry thought nothing of it and got dressed quickly, rushing down to the great hall so he wouldn’t miss too much of breakfast. Immediately upon entering the great hall, instead of walking towards the Slytherin table, Harry walked over to the Gryffindor table and greeted Harmione and Ron who were sitting across the table from one another. Ron was chatting with some of the other Gryffindor boys their age and Hermione had her nose stuck in her potions book.
“Hey, Ron, Hey, Mione,” Harry said with a friendly smile. Hermione looked up from her book and gave Harry a warm smile. “Morning, Harry. What’s up?” Hermione asked, putting a bookmark into her heaping textbook to save her place. “What so something has to be wrong for me to want to talk to my best friends?” Harry asked as if Hermione was accusing him of something. Hermione gave Harry a look that said ‘stop dancing around the issue and tell me what you want’. “Fine,” Harry conceded. Harry leaned closer to Hermione and Ron focused his attention now solely on Harry. “Ok, so the other day we… well it doesn’t matter why, but… me, Draco and Luna were wandering the castle and we found this suspicious looking locked door, so, naturally we opened it. Behind the door we found this giant three headed dog and it looked like it was guarding something. Is there maybe anything valuable that you’ve read about that the dog might be guarding, Mione?” Harry asked.
Hermione looked pensive for a moment before opening her mouth to speak again. “No, nothing comes to mind, but I’ll keep a lookout and do some research on it. Why do you wanna know so badly anyways?” Hermione asked. “Isn’t it obvious?! Curiousiody, I mean wouldn’t you be dying to know if you were in my shoes?” Harry asked. “No! I’d simply move on, no good can come from sticking your nose in places it doesn’t belong!” Hermione fired back at him.
“Well, nevertheless, we were all gonna go ask the grounds keeper about it before supper, would you two maybe like to join us.” Harry asked. “Oh! Hagrid! Of course, we’d love to go see Hagrid!” Hermione said gleefully. “Who’s Hagrid?” Harry asked with a confused look on his face. “The grounds keeper, of course! Harry, don’t tell me you don’t know any of the names of the staff here!” Hermione exclaimed with a look of disappointment on her face.
“Yeah, during the first few weeks of school she wouldn’t shut up about it. She was on this big sort of quest to introduce herself, personally, to every staff member at Hogwarts.” Ron added. “Even the house elves that work in the kitchens!” “Of course! House elves deserve to be treated fairly just like anyone else!” Hermione exclaimed, shooting Ron a dirty luck. “Whatever you say, Mione,” Ron said, rolling his eyes and going back to talking to the other Gryffindors at the table. “Well, Hagrid is a rather good friend of mine now, and, I’m sure he’ll probably know something about this three headed dog of yours, Harry.” Hermione said with a reassuring smile before returning to her book.
Harry made his way back to the Slytherin table and sat down in his usual seat, across from Draco. Draco gave Harry a dirty look before looking back down at his food and continuing to eat. After a few moments of the pair eating silently, Draco finally broke the silence. “I just don’t get why you have to involve the Gryffindors in this.” Draco said suddenly, but not so loudly that it drew attention to them. “because, Dra, they’re my friends, and Hermione is actually really, really, smart. You’d know that if you bothered to look past the fact that she’s muggle born.” Harry said bluntly. Draco’s face flushed for a moment before returning to its natural shade of ivory. “Did you just call me Dra?” Draco asked. Harry’s face flushed a little at Draco’s question before he quickly changed the subject back to the topic at hand. “Way to change the subject, Draco.” Harry replied. Draco’s face slumped.
Draco guessed that what Harry said may be true. After all his father had beat into him from an early age that muggle born people were worthless and below them, but Draco didn’t really think that… did he?
-later that day-
Harry met Hermione, Ron, Luna, and Draco just outside the castle near the forbidden forest. “Hey guys!” Harry greeted with a smile and a wave. “Hey Harry.” Hermione chirped back, the rest of his friends gave a gentle wave to him, except for Luna whose nose was stuck in a book. Harry had begun to worry that his uncle Moony wouldn’t be able to keep up the book supply with how fast Luna was reading them. “Alright, now that we’re all here,” Hermione announced to the group, shooting Harry a dirty look. Harry instantly regretted ‘taking his time’ getting there after his last class, “Hagrid isn’t allowed to tell us anything that’s confidential, which this obviously is, but he does often let certain things slip if he’s caught off guard, so, we can’t tell him why we’re there immediately. I will simply tell him that I brought some of my new friends for a visit with me, since I visit Hagrid often, and from there we can ease into the conversation about this dog of yours.” Hermione explained. “You’re seriously friends with the groundskeeper Granger?” Draco asked in a snooty tone. “Yeah, what about it, ferret face.” Hermione said, pulling his wand on Draco. Draco held his hands up in surrender. “Cool it, hot shot,” Draco said with a smug look on his face.
Harry lowered Hermione’s wand with his hand and gave her a look that said ‘you can’t kill him when there are witnesses around’. Hermione tucked her wand back into her bag and took a deep breath.
The group walked down the hill towards Hagrid’s cabin with an heir of tension between the three ‘factions’ of the group, one faction; the Gryffindors with a distrust for all Slytherins, the second; a snobby pure blood, and the third; Harry and Luna desperately trying to hold the group together.
When they reached the small hut Hermione knocked on the door nervously. A large man with a long beard opened the door with a kind smile on his face. “Hermione! Good to see you again!” Hagrid greeted Hermione, giving her a big bear hug. Harry reckoned that Hagrid looked sort of like a big teddy bear, only with more hair. “Who are your friends?” Hagrid asked with a smile. “Oh, this is; Harry, Ron, Luna, and Draco.” Hermione said, pointing to each person as she introduced them. “Lovely dear, well, i’d invite you in for tea but I think my house is a tad small to fit all of you at once so… should we take a walk?” Hagrid suggested. “That’d be lovely, Mr. Hagrid.” Luna said with a small smile. “Oh please, Luna, it’s just Hagrid.” Hagrid said with a smile.
The group walked along a path near the forbidden forest for a while talking for a while before the topic of the dog was brought up. “Hagrid, is it true you’re sort of in charge of the magical animals at the school?” Luna asked, wide eyed. “Oh, yes. We’ve got loads of magical creatures and it’s mostly my job to keep track of them.” Hagrid explained obliviously to the plot the children had. “Then, would you happen to know anything about a three headed dog living in the castle?” Draco asked, fainting curiosity. Hagrid looked troubled for a moment. “Now… Why would you ask that?” Hagrid asked, now a bit nervous, Hagrid never was good at keeping secrets. “Well, the other day we were wandering about the castle and found a three headed dog, and… it looked like it might be guarding something.” Draco explained. “Well, you shouldn’t go snooping around him.” Hagrid warned, “The Philosopher’s stone is nothing to scoff at.” “The Philosopher's stone?” Hermione questioned. “Oh… I shouldn’t have told you that.” Hagrid said under his breath, “Look just promise me you kids won't go snooping around him, I don’t want you getting hurt.” Hagrid warned. “Ok, Hagrid.” Hermione said with a smile before continuing to walk with him once more.