章节_82

ll think

ive told yeh --”

”see you later, then,” said harry.

hagrid shuffled off.

”what was he hiding behind his back?” said hermiofully.

”do you think it had anything to do with the stone?”

”im goi se he was in,” said ron, whod had

enough . he came baute later ile of books

in his arms ahem dowable.

”dragons!” he whispered. ”hagrid was looking up stuff about

dragons! look at these: dragon species of great britain and ireland;

from egg to infernuide.”

”hagrids always wanted a dragoold me so the first time

i ever met him, ” said harry.

”but its against our laws,” said r was

outlawed by the warlocks of 1709, everyone knows

that. its hard to stop muggles from notig us if were keeping

dragons in the ba - anyway, you t tame dragons, its

dangerous. you should see the burns charlies got off wild ones

in romania.”

”but there arent wild dragons in britain?” said harry.

”of course there are,” said ron. ”on welsh green and

hebridean blacks. the ministry of magic has a job hushing them up,

i tell you. our kio keep putting spells on muggles

whove spotted them, to make them fet.”

”so what rid up to?” said hermione.

when they khe damekeepers hut an

hour later, they were surprised to see that all the s were

closed. hagrid called ”who is it?” before he let them in, and then

shut the door quid them.

it was stifling hot ihough it was such a warm day,

there was a blazihe grate. hagrid made them tea and

offered them stoat sandwiches, which they refused.

”so -- yeh wao ask me somethin?”

”yes,” said harry. there oiing around the

bush. ” if you could tell us whats guarding the

sorcerers sto from fluffy.”

hagrid frow him.

”0 course i t, he said. ”number one, i don know

meself. wo, yeh know too much already, so i wouldn tell

yeh if i could. that stones here fer a good reason. it was almost

stolen otts - i sppose yehve worked that out an

all? beats me how yeh even know abou fluffy.”

”oh, e on, hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do

know, you khat goes on round here,” said hermione

in a warm, flattering voice. hagrids beard twitd they could

tell he was smiling. ”ho had dohe guarding,

really.” hermio on. ”ho dumbledore had trusted

enough to help him, apart from you.”

hagrids chest swelled at these last words. harry and ron beamed

at hermione.

”well, i don spose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... lets

see... he borrowed fluffy from me... thehe teachers

did es... professor sprout -- professor flitwick --

prall --” he ticked them off on his fingers,

”professor quirrell -- an dumbledore himself did somethin, o

c on, ive fotten someone. oh yeah, professor snape.”

”snape?”

”yeah -- yer not still on abou that, are yeh? look, snape

helped protect the stone, hes not about ter steal it.”

harry knew ron and hermiohinking the same as he was. if

snape had been ihe sto have been easy

to find out how the other teachers had guarded it. he probably knew

everythi seemed, quirrells spell and how to get

past fluffy.

”youre the only one to get past fluffy. arent

you, hagrid?” said harry anxiously. ”and you wouldnt tell anyone,

would you? not eveeachers?”

”not a soul k me an dumbledore,” said hagrid proudly.

”well, thats something,” harry muttered to the rid,

we have a window open? im boiling.”

”t, harry, sorry,"