Who in their right mind would give anyone a dragon?
There had been bets going around on how long it would take Quirrell to crack, but based on Snape's sour mood he hadn't yet, surprisingly. Harry and his friends had taken to listening to Fluffy's growling when they passed the door. Hermione and Ron were pleased to hear that the dog was there, but something was bothering Harry. The tone the growling had taken was familiar, similar to the hungry noises Aunt Marge's dogs made, only deeper. Much, much deeper. He had talked to one of the older years about it and they had gotten him some meat from the kitchens. The growling always quieted down after Fluffy was fed, replaced by a wagging tail. Neville had even joined Harry when he dropped the meat into the room, comforted by the fact that the hulking beast was more intrigued by the raw chicken than him.
The reason they hadn't gotten to the Stone yet was because they had no clue how to get Fluffy calm enough to remove him from the room. They would look more but the Stone wasn't the only thing on most students' minds. Exams were ten weeks away and Gryffindors were starting to prep, Hermione was one of the worst about it. She had drawn up study schedules and color coded all her notes. The rest of the 1st years were subject to her nagging about studying as well, Seamus did the least amount of complaining. (Ron did the most, but that was because he didn't like that the color coding was working.)
The teachers seemed to agree with Hermione, as they were now drowning them with homework. It was an amazing day that caught the trio in the library looking for books to help with their growing workload. Harry was looking for a book for his Herbology homework when he heard Ron say, “Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?”
Hagrid shuffled into view, hiding something, “Jus’ lookin’,” he said in a shifty voice. “An’ what're you lot up ter? Yer not looking fer Nicholas Flamel, are yeh?”
“No, we're grabbing books for our homework,” Hermione said, every bit an innocent student.
“I did want to ask you something about Fluffy-” “SHHH,” Harry was cut off by Hagrid, “Listen – come an’ see me later, I'm not promisin’ anythin’, but students aren' s’pposed ter know.”
“See you later, then,” said Harry.
“What was he hiding behind his back?” Hermione wondered out loud after Hagrid shuffled away.
“I'll check what section he was in,” Ron said, darting off. A minute later he came back with an armful of books.
“Dragons,” he whispered, barely heard as he slammed the books down, “Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons!”
“Hagrid told me he's always wanted a dragon,” Harry supplied.
“But it was outlawed in 1790, it was hard to hide from muggles with dragons in the back garden,” Ron said, “and it's dangerous, you can't tame them.”
“So what on earth is Hagrid up to?” asked Hermione, to no one in particular.
The curtains were closed and the fire was lit in Hagrid's hut when they arrived an hour later.
“So -- yeh wanted to ask me somethin’?” Hagrid sounded tired when he prompted them to speak.
“Yeah,” Harry said, “I was just wondering if Fluffy was being fed, it doesn’t seem like anyone is going into the room at all.”
“Cours’ Fluffy's bein’ fed. I go up ev’ry week.”
“Just once a week?” Harry was confused, Hagrid clearly cared about Fluffy, why wouldn't he feed Fluffy more often.
“The headmaster don' wan’ people noticin’. Speci'ly with the work the teachers did ter help guard.”
“Which teachers?” Hermione asked quickly. Hagrid seemed startled that he had given them such a hint but Hermione rushed to clarify, “There’s so many that we don’t know and as a staff member I’m sure you know them fairly well.”
Hagrid smiled, “Jus’ your lots teachers, McGonagall, Quirrell, Flitwick, Snape, an’ Sprout.”
Harry felt his shoulders tense, if Snape helped he might know what the other things guarding the Stone are, there is a good chance Quirrel and Fluffy are the last line of defense.The stress of that, along with the stifling heat, was making it hard to think,
“Can we open a window, I’m boiling in here.”
“Can’t Harry, sorry,” Hagrid’s eyes flicked towards the fire and Harry’s gaze followed them.
“Hagrid, what is that?”
In the heart of the fire was a huge, black, egg.
It felt like they were going in circles, every time they got new information they would go to Percy and the twins.
“Hagrid has a dragon in his hut,” Ron whispered, still not over the fact as they sat down.Fred snorted without looking up, “But we’re all accounted for Ronny.”
Percy sighed and looked resigned, “Please don’t tell me Hagrid has a real life dragon in his hut.”
“Just an egg at the moment,” Herminoe said sheepishly.
Percy stood and began to walk away as the twins processed what they just heard. “I’m writing to Charlie.”
The note they got at breakfast a week or so later left them with some decisions, mostly on who would go down and when. The older Gryffindors didn’t want their first year near a dragon or to miss class because of it, but eventually it was decided that Harry, Ron and Hermione would go down after Herbology. The dragon looked more like an unstable umbrella than a killing machine but Harry didn’t have much time to gain more of an opinion on the small thing because Malfoy had seen the dragon. The next week was spent trying to convince Hagrid that giving up the rapidly growing dragon was the best thing for both of them. Informing him that Charlie Weasly was willing to take the thing was the only way they could get him to agree. Ron had almost been bitten by then, and had subsequently been banned by Percy from visiting Hagrid until Norbet, because Hagrid had named the overgrown lizard, was gone. And by midnight the next Saturday it would be done.
There was a bit of a problem, the letter Charlie had sent had gone missing, no one could find it anywhere. It was too late to change the plans now though, if it had been stolen they just had to be quick and take routes no one else knew. George and Fred were the ones chosen to accompany Harry up to meet Charlie’s friends, former Gryffindors that had graduated a year or two before, Harry was the one to carry Norbert’s crate because the baby dragon seemed infatuated with him for some reason. This had given Harry endless teasing from the twins, they claimed he had been recognized as another baby dragon by Norbert and he’d been confused as a sibling or family member. (Harry’s argument about Ron also being a Dragon went ignored) Despite the worry of being caught the drop off went off without a hitch and they were slipping back to the dorms through the secret passageways within minutes.
When they returned Hermione and Percy were pretending to be electrocuted or something while Ron looked at them like they had been possessed.
“Ah yes,” George said in a tone often found among muggle documentaries. “The victory dance of an excited Percy Weasly.”
The comments made Hermione turn to them and she rushed over, almost knocking Harry over as she did, “We figured it out, we know how to calm down Fluffy!”