Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Hagrid, who loves to learn (Edited)
Hermione, who had studied for eight hours straight, was a little tired. She stretched lazily, blinked and rehydrated her dry eyes. She put away the results of today's study and put them in her backpack. Looking at the thick stack of notes and papers, Hermione felt extremely calm and satisfied, and even Tom off to the side looked very pleased.
"Time to eat." Only then did Hermione realize that she had missed lunch and was now starving, so she dragged Tom with her into the Great Dining Room.
For dinner, Tom had prepared a lot of chicken thighs and wings, plus a lot of food for himself. Every evening he found an opportunity to let the Occamy out to feed him and clean his kettle.
After a day of review, Tom felt so confident that he began visiting each of the teachers for evaluation. The first was kindly Professor Sprout, the professor in charge of the herbalist's shop, and the dean of Hufflepuff. Then there was Professor Aurora Sinistra, who taught astronomy, and Professor McGonagall, who taught Transfiguration.
The exams went smoothly and Tom passed them all easily, receiving recognition and various pieces of advice from them. The professors' advice was surprisingly unanimous: now that you've mastered first year, start learning second year magic!
Now there is one last person left...
Severus Snape, the Potions Professor.
Tom was hesitant: he really didn't want to go see Snape for this test, after all, the best way to deal with a professor as prickly as Snape was to stay away, you'd be dead if you flaunted your knowledge in front of him.
But everything is inevitable, and at the end of a Potions class, Snape left Tom behind.
"I hear you've approached the teachers of all your subjects about giving you an early final exam?" Snape looked at Tom with his emotionless eyes.
"That's right, Professor." Tom said.
"Very well," Snape's mouth curved into a smirk, "Since our brilliant Mr. Yodel wants to add a little test to your life, to push you a little, I as a teacher will not stop you..." Snape waved his wand, his black robe fluttered and a pile of potions ingredients and a cauldron appeared on a desk.
"The test is simple, make a forgetting potion, and if anything goes wrong, you will spend the rest of your days in detention." With a stern statement, Snape made room for Tom to approach and brew the forgetfulness potion. The potion causes memory loss and was very complicated to prepare.
Snape stood behind Tom as he dispensed the potion, watching closely, his breath reaching Tom's neck. Snape decided that if he made a single mistake, he would fail Tom immediately. But Tom had let him down, he had made the forgetfulness potion perfectly.
Snape examined Tom's work with a stern face, then declared it passed with a deadpan expression. After that he left in a hurry, as if one more second in the Potions classroom would make him feel bad. But he seemed to have left in such a hurry that he had inadvertently left a notebook behind.
At this point, Tom had completed all of his theoretical progress. The rest of his days were spent in the library, practicing Quidditch and playing a few matches with the team, all of which he won. At this point both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were the winning teams, and would decide the Quidditch Cup in a straight match at the end of the school year.
Tom's life didn't break until just before Easter. On a sunny Saturday morning, Tom and Hermione were studying together in the library when they saw an unusual visitor - Hagrid.
You'd hardly associate Hagrid with the library, but right now, Hagrid is actually in the library. He shuffled around trying to make as little noise as possible, but his large size gave him away.
"Mr. Hagrid, what are you doing here?" Hermione saw him, waved Hagrid over and asked curiously.
"Ah, looking for some books..." said Hagrid in an evasive voice, which instantly piqued Hermione's interest.
"What kind of books are you looking for? Tom and I have been doing a lot of reading here, I could help you." Hermione said.
"Ah, that...no need, I'll do it myself, you guys still need to study, right? I won't bother you," Hagrid panicked, and this reaction aroused Hermione's suspicions.
"If it's about books on magical animals, we might be able to help." Tom stepped in on cue, raising a book in his hand titled "The Types of Dragons of Britain and Ireland."
Hagrid's eyes straightened.
He looked around, saw that no one was looking, and said quietly, "Well then, keep your mouths shut, I'm looking for books about dragons."
Hermione looked at him, and for a moment understood it all, but didn't say much, she got up and turned away, and returned in moments with a stack of books in her hands: 'From Egg Hatching to Nirvana', 'Guide to Dragon Breeding', 'Breeding Dragons for Pleasure and Profit', etc.
Hermione handed the books to Hagrid, "I hope this helps."
Hagrid flashed a simple, honest smile and nodded quickly, "All right, all right, I won't bother you anymore, I'll be back--"
"Hagrid! What are you doing here?" Harry, Ron and Neville appeared out of nowhere, their bags crammed with books.
Hagrid instantly became alert, "You three are still looking for Nicolas Flamel, aren't you?"
"Ha, we knew who he was hundreds of years ago!" Ron looked very proud.
"Nicolas Flamel? I remember that he seems to be a very powerful alchemist who can refine the Philosopher's Stone!" replied Tom suddenly from the side.
This sentence directly broke the defense of the four people present.
Hagrid was about to collapse: how could anyone else know the secret that Dumbledore had asked him to keep?
Ron and the others were devastated: they had been investigating for months and the chocolate frog had finally given them a clue, and this boy, Tom, knew!
Hagrid was furious, he was angry with himself, he hurled a word at the people present: "Don't investigate this again, it's none of your business" and he stormed off angrily.
Hermione looked at the three boys curiously: what do they seem to know that she doesn't?
Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Hagrid's Dragon (Edited)
At Hermione's questions, Harry and the others told the truth about what they knew.
"Dumbledore has hidden the Philosopher's Stone on the third floor of Hogwarts?" Hermione was a little surprised, she hadn't thought that the legendary supreme achievement of alchemy was hidden in this castle, and she got a little excited at the thought.
Harry shared his concerns with Hermione again.
"Professor Snape? You people think too much, I know he's a nasty man, but he wouldn't steal from Dumbledore." Hermione shook her head, she still thought Snape was innocent. "It's probably a smokescreen thrown up by the man behind the curtain, just to get the others to focus on Professor Snape so they can take advantage of the situation."
Ron shot a glance at Harry, indicating that the girl was indeed trouble.
He gestured impatiently at Hermione, "Miss smarty pants, you always treat your professors like they're saints, but you didn't have Potions classes with Gryffindor, you don't know Snape's true colors, you haven't seen the way he looks at Harry...and believe me, Snape is capable of anything!"
Ron said to Harry and Neville with a big grin, "Let's go back, it doesn't seem necessary to bother them anymore, they haven't even figured out who's playing with the Philosopher's Stone!".
He then dragged Harry and Neville out of the library, Harry couldn't resist and waved goodbye to Hermione and Tom with an apologetic smile.
Hermione puffed out her cheeks, angry at Ron. As soon as they left, she immediately complained to Tom, "Are you guys crazy? You actually suspect a professor of trying to steal Dumbledore! Your evidence doesn't make sense! Besides, why don't I see anyone in the school trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone?"
Obviously, Hermione was furious at the nickname "Know-it-all." But angry as she was, she and Tom carefully analyzed the known information and came to a consensus: someone was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone; there was no evidence that the thief was one of the school's teachers; and there was a good chance that the person trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone and the person behind the Troll incident were the same person.
However, when Snape was angry in Potions class and made up countless excuses to deduct almost twenty points from Ravenclaw, Hermione had no more patience for Snape. As soon as she left Potions class, she complained, "Just the way he acts, no wonder Harry and the others treat him like a villain..."
Suddenly, Tom tugged at the sleeve of Hermione's robe, and she looked up at him, and her expression froze: Snape was standing behind them, looking at them both.
"If you're done talking, then get out of the way." Apparently Snape had guessed who this was about, even if he hadn't explicitly said so.
Hermione was in shock, she was scared to death, she looked into Snape's empty, dead eyes and felt her brain freeze, she couldn't get a word out of her normally sharp tongue. However, by some miracle, Snape merely waved them away and walked away, not even subtracting points.
Hermione wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and tugged at Tom. But it didn't take Tom long to realize that this was not the way to the Great Dining Hall.
"Hermione, where are we going?" Tom asked.
"To Hagrid's house. Hagrid's had the book for three days, he must be on the move, so it's a good time to go." Hermione sketched a smile, she was pretty sure Hagrid had secretly gotten a dragon egg and was planning to hatch it. Hermione figured that now that Hagrid had the information, he wouldn't be able to resist, and now was the perfect time.
"You're not going to report him, are you?" Tom was a little suspicious, he was worried that Hermione would get stubborn and report Hagrid, since it was illegal to breed dragons. He thought it would be in keeping with Hermione's persona to do such a thing.
Hermione's eyes widened and she quickly said, "No, no, don't be ridiculous!".
Hermione looked around and saw that no one was paying attention to what they were saying, so she said, "I'm just curious about the fire dragons, think about it, we can go there now and watch the egg up close, and in a few days we can watch the baby fire dragon hatch, AND maybe Hagrid will let us keep it! How many times in a lifetime do you get that chance?".
Tom was impressed, and it had a deeper purpose: fire dragons were supposed to be rare transformation material, and Hagrid's dragon was the best chance. It was unlikely that a wild fire dragon would give Tom the opportunity to touch it. If you want to touch a fire dragon, you have to know it well or become familiar with it.
So the two of them headed for Hagrid's hut. All the curtains were tightly closed around the house and smoke was coming out of the chimney. Hermione knocked on the door for a long time and Hagrid confirmed the identity of the visitors before letting them in, and after letting them in, Hagrid closed the door behind them quickly.
As soon as they entered the hut, a wave of heat hit them and beads of sweat immediately appeared on Tom and Hermione's faces. The source of the heat was the fireplace, which was still burning brightly despite the arrival of spring.
Hermione and Tom's eyes immediately went to Hagrid's fireplace, where in the middle of the fire, under a large kettle, lay a large black egg.
Hagrid brought a pot of stew and a pot of pastry and greeted them cordially, "Come and taste it! Fresh beef brisket!" But Tom and Hermione were unfazed, staring at the large egg.
Hagrid twirled his mustache uneasily, "Ah, that's..."
"I never thought I'd get to see a dragon egg up close in my life!" The excitement in Tom's voice was unmistakable.
Hagrid sensed it too and breathed a sigh of relief.
Hermione walked straight over to the fire to take a closer look at the dragon egg, "Hagrid, where did you get it? it must have cost you a fortune!"
Hearing that, Hagrid got excited, "No money! I won it in a card game with a man! I'm afraid the man would like to get rid of it."
"It's a Norwegian Ridgeback egg, isn't it?" Tom asked.
"Yes! Good eye." Hagrid eagerly pulled out from under his pillow his copy of Breeding Dragons for Fun and Profit, and quickly flipped through the chapter on "Egg Identification," where he and Tom carefully analyzed the egg's details to prove that it was a rare Norwegian Ridgeback egg.
"So you should know how to take care of it? You should be ready," Hermione kindly reminded.
"Of course, you see, it's written here, when it hatches, feed it a bucket of brandy and chicken blood every half hour" Hagrid said.
Hermione shook her head, "I mean, Hagrid, don't forget your house is made of wood..." but Hagrid wasn't listening.
Hermione could only sigh, and finally agreed with Hagrid to look after the baby dragon together when it hatched.
Hagrid naturally agreed: it was obvious that the two in question knew a lot about fire dragons, and besides, they didn't seem to shun fire dragons. He had no problem with people who shared his interests wanting to breed a dragon with him.
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