An hour after their encounter with Hagrid at the library, the quartet arrived at his hut. Strangely enough, all his curtains were closed.
"Who is it?" Hagrid called out from inside the hut.
"It's Albus–" Rapunzel turned to the other three. "How many middle names does Dumbledore have?" She only received shrugs in response.
"It's Albus Dumbledore, can't you tell?" Rapunzel said in her best imitation of Dumbledore's voice, which wasn't very good at all.
Hagrid opened the door, looking somewhat unimpressed as he ushered them in. "Yeh need teh practice."
Rapunzel felt as through she had stepped into a whole other dimension, it was stifling hot inside Hagrid's hut. Despite it being an already warm day he had a fire going.
"So–yeh want to ask me somethin'?" Hagrid asked, sitting down at his table, which caused the wooden chair he sat on to squeak loudly beneath him.
All four kids looked at each other, then three of them looked at Harry. They weren't gonna be the ones who said it.
"Yes," Harry sighed in resignation, flashing a quick glare to the other three. "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philsophers Stone apart from Fluffy."
Hagrid frowned, and Rapunzel very quickly realized she didn't like it when he frowned.
"O' course I can't. Number one, I don't know, meself." He started counting off on his thickly gloved fingers. "Number two, yeh know too much already, so wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here for good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts–I s'pose you've worked that out an' all. Beats me how yeh could know about Fluffy."
"Oh, come on, Hagrid. You might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on around here." Hermione said, voice warm and flattering. They could see Hagrid's beard twitch, and they knew he was smiling.
"We only wondered who had done the guarding, really." Hermione continued. "We wondered who Dumbledore has trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Rapunzel had to admit, Hermione was very persuasive. Yet she still felt guilty that they were manipulating him like this.
"Well..." Hagrid hesitated, almost bashfully. "I don't s'pose it could hurt to tell yeh that...let's see...he borrowed Fluffy from me...then some of the teachers did enchantments..."
They were all watching him attentively at this point, seated at the same table as him; eyes widened with interest as they all leaned forward.
"...Professor Sprout–Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall." He looked up, as if trying to pull their names from somewhere in his brain. "Professor Quirrell–an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course." He paused, looking confused.
"Hang on, I've forgotten someone. Oh! Professor Snape."
"Snape?" Rapunzel asked incredulously, sharing looks with the others.
"Yeah–yer not still on about that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about to steal it." Hagrid sighed, seeing the look on their faces.
If Snape was present for all the enchantments, then he probably knew how to get past them. Except for Fluffy, it seemed.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you Hagrid?" Harry asked anxiously, almost desperately. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even the teachers?"
Rapunzel flashed Harry a look, trying to tell him to tone it down otherwise his motives would become abundantly clear to Hagrid.
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," Hagrid said proudly, thankfully not seeing through Harry's crumbling facade.
"Well, that's something." Harry muttered.
"Hagrid, can we open a window? I'm boiling in here!" Rapunzel requested.
"Can't, dear, sorry." Hagrid said, glancing at the fire.
"Hagrid–what's that?" Harry asked, peering into the fire. But he had already seen it. Beneath the kettle was a huge, black egg.
"Ah," Hagrid started, wringing his hands nervously. "That's, er–"
"That's a dragon egg!" Rapunzel squealed with excitement. "Hermione, you owe me ten sickles!"
"Where'd you get it, Hagrid? It must've cost you a fortune!" Ron asked with wonderment, crouching over the fire to get a better look at the egg.
"Won it," Hagrid said with pride. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' card with some stranger. Think he was quite glad ter be rid o' it, to be honest."
"But, what are you doing to do when it's hatched?" Hermione asked cautiously, hoping Hagrid would see the dangers of having a dragon.
"We'll, I've bin doin' some readin'," Hagrid reached under his pillow and pulled out a book. "Got this outta the library–Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. It's a bit outta date, o' course, but it's all in here."
"So that's what you were hiding behind your back at the library." Rapunzel realized.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house!" Hermione exclaimed.
But Hagrid wasn't listening anymore, humming to himself as he stoked the fire.
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LUCKY FLOWER||FRED WEASLEY {REWRITING/MOVED}
Fanfiction"Wait, your name is Rapunzel? Like-" "The fairytale princess, yes." Rapunzel was named after a storybook princess, and for good reason. Born with the ability to heal those with her own hair that grew very long very quickly, it's no surprise her pare...
