Draco, who didn't see anything wrong with tailing someone, leaned casually against the wall of the hunting lodge.
Fingering the wand in his hand, he debated whether to knock and walk in like he owned the place, or sneak inside again using the Disillusionment Charm. It wasn't like that half-blood giant would notice any magic being used.
But the problem was... Hermione Granger was in there too. And with how sharp she was, Draco wasn't so confident anymore.
That was exactly why he was hesitating.
Girls and their ridiculous sixth sense...
Still, this place was absolutely disgusting.
Draco didn't consider himself a clean freak, but this hut was genuinely revolting.
Rusty barrels were piled carelessly in the corners, giving off a foul stench from whatever had once been inside them.
The ground was littered with tufts of animal fur and what looked suspiciously like long-forgotten droppings.
If Hermione weren't inside, Draco would've turned and left without a second thought.
In the end, resisting the urge to cast a spell and clean the whole place up, Draco decided he'd had enough. He would just go in—forget subtlety.
But just as his hand reached for the door to knock—yes, knock politely—a loud shout from inside made him freeze on the spot.
Wait, what did he just hear?
"What did you say? A dragon egg?!"
Huh?
A dragon egg!
...
Speaking of which, as Draco's childhood friend, Pansy honestly had no idea what Draco was truly interested in—aside from immersing himself in magical knowledge.
Studying Dark Arts?
Or maybe Quidditch?
Actually, neither.
The Dark Arts were simply a power Draco wanted to master, and Quidditch was just something he used to unwind.
No one knew that Draco actually had something he genuinely liked...
Maybe it was because of his name, or perhaps because he'd been called "little dragon" since he was young, but Draco had always felt an inexplicable closeness to dragons—those mighty creatures.
Whether it was the Swedish Short-Snout that breathed blue fire, the tiny Peruvian Vipertooth, or the infamous Hungarian Horntail, all of them were among Draco's favorite powerful beasts.
In his free time, what Draco enjoyed most was reading about dragons, admiring their majestic forms and the grace they displayed in flight.
So the moment he heard the sound of a dragon egg and footsteps, Draco reacted instantly...
Crack!
"Thank goodness no one heard that."
It was Hagrid who opened the door, his face filled with anxiety, clearly worried that the noise might have alerted other wizards.
After making sure no one else was around, Hagrid quickly shut the door behind him.
What he didn't realize was that in the brief moment he opened the door, someone had slipped in uninvited.
"Uh... sorry, Hagrid."
Harry wasn't sure why Hagrid looked so tense, but the pale look on his face made him realize that shouting out earlier might have caused some trouble, and he felt bad about it.
"What's going on?"
While Hermione had a strong grasp of magical knowledge, she was still at a disadvantage when it came to common wizarding world knowledge—a shortcoming of her Muggle-born background.
Ron, on the other hand, had a rough idea of what was going on. His brother worked with dragons, so this was a rare chance for him to shine.
Especially in front of Hermione...
"You probably don't know this, but it's illegal to keep a dragon without a permit."
"Illegal?"
"Exactly. More importantly, as far as I know, dragon eggs are classified as Class A non-tradable goods!"
"..."
"..."
Whether or not Ron was exaggerating again, Hagrid's increasingly guilty expression made it pretty clear—at the very least, it was definitely illegal...
"Hagrid... the secret you wanted us to keep... it's this dragon egg?"
"Yes! Harry, you'll keep this secret for me, right?"
"Of course, but aren't you worried—"
"That's great! I knew I could count on you, Harry!"
Before Harry could finish, Hagrid pulled him into a tight hug.
Someone instinctively took a step back, and that made Hermione glance over curiously.
Luckily, Harry's next words grabbed her attention.
"Wait, Hagrid. I have a question—about the protections around the Philosopher's Stone. Besides Fluffy…"
"Listen, I can't tell you. And first off, I don't even know everything myself."
Releasing Harry, Hagrid irritably took a bite out of the white weasel sandwich on the table before continuing.
"Second, you lot already know too much. Even if I did know more, I wouldn't tell you. That stone's here for a good reason. Someone nearly stole it from Gringotts, and I bet you've already figured that part out, haven't you?"
His words made Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchange silent glances.
Honestly, they hadn't expected Hagrid to spill so many secrets again.
"We really just want to know who designed the protections. I mean, besides you, who else could Dumbledore trust?"
Hermione's sweet and flattering tone caused a slight ripple in the air, though fortunately no one noticed.
Her words made Hagrid laugh so hard his eyes nearly disappeared...
"All right, I suppose it's fine to tell you. Let me see... He borrowed Fluffy from me... then had a few other professors cast spells. There was Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell, and of course Dumbledore himself. Wait, I forgot someone—right, Professor Snape."
Hagrid counted on his fingers as he spoke, while Harry and the others listened with bright eyes. Clearly, coming to Hagrid had been the right choice.
But they hadn't expected to hear that name...
"Snape?"
"Why him?!"
Harry cried out in shock. If Snape had helped protect the Philosopher's Stone, then he'd know what kind of traps the other professors set. He might even know everything!
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, right, Hagrid? You wouldn't tell anyone—not even the other professors?"
"Of course not. Besides Dumbledore, no one else knows."
Hagrid answered proudly, unaware of the urgency on the trio's faces.
Just as the three of them finally breathed a sigh of relief, a voice that shouldn't have been there suddenly cut in.
"I hate to interrupt at a time like this, but... it looks like that dragon egg is about to hatch."
Hagrid: ???
Harry: ???
Ron: ???
Hermione: Meow meow meow!!!