Lucifer found out he had an affinity for casting spells correctly and efficiently on his first or second try.
The practical application of spells was the most fun of any of the classes, he thought, and he was good at it, he wouldn't lie.
The Practical Application of spells could only get you so far, though, so when Hermione suggested they start revising their notes, and making up ti-tables for doing so, he was in agreent.
It was the smart way to go about it since their exams were now roughly ten weeks away.
Harry and Ron didn't understand why they had started revising, but oh, when they had asked, Hermione set him straight, "What am I revising for? Are you mad?" They just blinked as they looked at her.
"I'll take that as a yes," Lucifer whispered to her.
She ignored him, "You realize we need to pass these exams to get into Second Year, right? They're very important, I should've started studying a month ago, honestly."
"Weasely's not wrong this ti you already know all of it, like I do, that's why I am just going to rest until next weekend" Lucifer smirked at her, but Hermione got irritated and thought about her 53rd way of removing that smirk.
At night, Lucifer started reading more about disillusionnt spell and occluncy. To be honest, he just didn't want to use Harry's stolen cloak every ti.
Much to Harry's and Ron's dismay, the teachers thought along the sa lines as Hermione and began piling on the howork, which, of course, ant the Easter Holiday wasn't nearly as enjoyable as the Christmas one, but Lucifer and Hermione were able to enjoy it so because they got their howork done asap.
While, leaving the last two days of break free to do whatever their heart desired, which to Hermione, that ant more revisions for their exams a couple months from then and her extra curricular activities at night, which only ant settling between Lucifer's legs, and do more practice, like she thought earlier.
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The four of them were in the Library one afternoon, Harry and Ron were seemingly bored out of their damn minds, not that Lucifer could exactly bla them, but he didn't find the studying to be a chore.
That didn't an he thought they should spend all of their free ti doing this, but he figured he should at least get First Year out of the way before suggesting to her that they tone it back a little bit.
Lucifer was playing, with his gold coin when Ron spoke up, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the Library?"
The tall man himself shuffled into view, hiding sothing behind his back. He looked rather out of place, being in his moleskin overcoat, and just the fact he was incredibly tall, "Jus' lookin'," he said in a shifty voice that got their interest at once. "An' what are you lot up ter?" He asked, suddenly looking suspicious, "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicholas Flal, are yeh?"
"Oh, no we found out who he is ages ago," Ron said, sounding impressed with himself. "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's the Phil-" he didn't get to finish as Harry smacked his shoulder.
Hagrid looked around quickly to see if anyone was paying attention to them, "Don' go shoutin' about that, what's the matter with yeh?"
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," Harry said, gaining Hagrid's attention, "about what's guarding the stone, well, apart from Fluffy-"
"SSHHHH!" Hagrid said, slightly irked, "Listen - co an' see later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-"
"Alright, see you later then, Hagrid," Harry said to him as he shuffled away.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked in a thoughtful tone.
"You think it had sothing to do with the Stone?" Harry asked them.
"I'll go check," Lucifer said, standing up and disappearing for a mont.
Leaving Hermione to frown, who was secretly touching his forearms to feel his toned muscles.
But, he did return a mont later with a pile of books, "Dragons!"
Lucifer whispered loudly, "Hagrid was looking up stuff about Dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide!"
"Hagrid said he's always wanted a dragon... he told so the first ti I ever t him," Harry revealed to them.
"But it's against our laws," Ron inford them, "Dragon-breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles noticing if we're keeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can't ta dragons, it's dangerous. You three should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain, are there?" Harry asked him.
"Of course there are," Ron said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Common Welsh Greens and the Hebridean Blacks. The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our lot has to keep putting spells on Muggles who've spotted them, to make them forget."
"I would certainly like to ride a Ukranian Ironbelly one day," Lucifer was starting to get excited, after seeing this new breed of dragons.
Hermione started up at him, in horror, "No, you won't!" and, then just started hitting him with her book, while secretly promised to never let him be near a dragon anyti.
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The four of them arrived at Hagrid's hut an hour later, surprised to see the curtains drawn on the windows. Lucifer figured whatever Hagrid was doing, it was shady.
Harry knocked on the door, "Who is it?" Hagrid called, but none of them got to answer as the door opened and he quickly ushered them in, shutting the door rather quickly behind them.
It was blazing hot inside, even with their Sumr Clothing on.
Lucifer looked and saw a fire going, and sothing sitting in the fla of the fireplace, and Hagrid made them so tea, offering stoat sandwiches, which they kindly refused.
He decided to not ntion what he saw for now.
"So, yeh wanted tae ask sothin'?"
"Yes..." Harry said, trailing off for a mont. There was no reason to beat around the bush with it, "We were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone apart from Fluffy?"
"O' course I can't," he said gruffly, "Number one, I don' know self. 'n two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn' tell yeh if I could. That Stone's here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen outta Gringotts. I s'ppose yeh've worked that out an' all? Beats how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
"Oh, co on, Hagrid!" Hermione started, her voice quite warm and flattery, this girl almost jumped from Lucifer's lap, while trying to butter him up.
Only, Lucifer couldn't help, but notice her slightly different tone...it's just he thought, it would be much better to just shut up honestly, and not point it out.
"You might not want to tell us, but you do know, everything that goes on around here," Hagrid's beard twitched and they could all tell he was smiling.
"We only wondered who had done the guarding really," Hermione continued to use her sweet attacks, "I am just curious, who Dumbledore trusted enough to help him, apart from you, of course!"
Hagrid's chest swelled at these last words. Harry and Ron were beaming at Hermione, while Lucifer was, again, quite astonished by her manipulation skills.
Hermione could be incredibly devious without any effort at all.
When, she noticed Lucifer's impressed look at her, Hermione blushed as red as a strawberry.
"Well, I don' s'ppose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from ... then so o' the teachers did enchantnts... Professor Sprout - Professor Flitwick - Professor McGonagall..." he was ticking them off on his fingers, "Professor Quirrell - an' Dumbledore himself did sothin', o' course. Hang on... I've forgotten soone..." he sat there for a mont trying to think, "Oh yeah, Professor Snape did sothin' as well."
"Snape?" Harry asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah - yer not still on abou' that, are yeh? Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, he's not about ter steal it," Hagrid tried to defend the Potions Master.
Lucifer thought it suspicious, to be quite honest. Snape was helping to protect it, supposedly, but why would any of the teachers give away their thod of defending the Stone to anyone other than Dumbledore himself?
The only other alternative to that would be every teacher knowing the protection thods.
It just didn't make sense to him, which only made Lucifer's suspicion increase towards the Turban bastard.
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" Harry asked him anxiously, "And you wouldn't tell anyone would you? Not even one of the other teachers?"
"Not a soul knows except an' Dumbledore," Hagrid said proudly.
"Well, that's sothing," Harry muttered to them, and looked back at the giant man, "Hagrid, can we have a window open? I'm roasting here."
"Can't, Harry, sorry," Hagrid said, glancing over at the fireplace. The other three finally noticed what Lucifer had seen earlier, a huge, black egg sitting in the heart of the fireplace.
"Hagrid..." Hermione startled, "What's that?"
Lucifer suspected she already knew, but needed confirmation.
"Ah..." Hagrid was nervous and fidgety, "Th-That's - er..."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" Ron asked him, a look of awe on his face. He got up and crouched over near the fire to get a closer look, "It must've cost you a fortune!"
"Won it," Hagrid said happily, "Las' night actually. I was down in the village, havin' a few drinks an' got into a ga o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."
"Hagrid... what are you going to do with it once it's hatched?" Hermione asked him.
"Well, I've bin doin' so readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "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. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see, an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here - how ter recognize different eggs - what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."
Hagrid was looking pleased with himself, but Hermione pointed out a fatal flaw in that sexy plan, "Hagrid, but you live in a wooden house!"
Lucifer couldn't help the slight snigger that left his lips at her words.
The three of them now had sothing else to worry about, on top of the Stone, Snape, Quirrell not caving, and their exams: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his wooden hut.....only, Lucifer didn't care much about it, he was even thinking, if Hagrid could sell him this egg.
"Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life," Ron sighed.
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