Chapter 30: Of Dogs and Dragons

"Why would there be a troll in the castle? How did it get in?" pondered Harry while lying in his bed. "There are clearly protective wards strong enough to prevent such a creature from entering. So someone must have let it in. But why?"

Staring into the air while thinking about the different possibilities, Harry continued, "Either someone wanted to kill someone inside the castle. Considering it went to the bathroom, maybe me? But no, the culprit had to prepare a troll beforehand. There was not enough time to head to the mountains and get it through the wards and send it to the bathroom, the only place where I was longer. Normally, I would have been at the feast, and there is zero chance that a troll would be able to harm me with all the teachers and Professor Dumbledore present. We weren't even half an hour in the girls' bathroom. Maybe the target was Hermione, she was there longer?"

"No, Hermione is a regular girl. Maybe some racist would be stupid enough to target her, but I don't think they would be capable enough to pass through the ancient wards of Hogwarts. Why else would someone set a troll free in the castle?" pondered Harry before he remembered the Cerberus guarding the trapdoor. "Of course, a distraction! Someone is targeting the third-floor corridor. They want whatever that three-headed dog is protecting. Now I am really curious about what is hidden there. But who could be the culprit? I heard from the other students that it was Professor Quirrell who discovered the troll. So maybe him? He is pretty suspicious with all his stuttering and the dark feeling he gives off."

In the end, Harry decided it didn't concern him whether it was Quirrell, but if the thing hidden on the third floor was worthy enough to break into the supposed safest place in the Wizarding World, then it should be something interesting.

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After the troll incident on Halloween, the castle returned to normality. The teachers couldn't find the troll even after searching through the whole castle multiple times. They even began to give Quirrell strange looks. Among the students, the rumor began to spread that Quirrell just hallucinated the troll out of his own fear.

To Harry's confusion, the teachers didn't even contact the law enforcement of the Wizarding World, the Aurors. Wasn't a deadly mountain troll roaming through a boarding school full of the children of the entire Wizarding Britain a serious thing? Shouldn't they at least inform them? But apparently, Dumbledore was here, so there was no need for anything like that.

Although Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard, he was just a headmaster of the school. Not involving the Aurors made the whole thing around the third-floor corridor even more suspicious to Harry. Another strange thing that Harry observed was that Snape was hurt on his leg after Halloween. Maybe he also wanted to try to get into the third-floor corridor. He could also be the one letting the troll inside the castle. So he also added Snape to the list of his suspects. As for why he wouldn't learn until he knew what was hidden in there.

But for now, he couldn't explore the third-floor corridor as he had no way to bypass the detection spells and the Cerberus without killing it. And the castle was filled with a spy network of living portraits monitoring most of the corridors in the castle.

For now, he focused his research on spells allowing him to move secretly through the castle. He had no trouble keeping up with his classes as he was already far ahead of the rest of the class. Instead, he was practicing spells like the Disillusionment Charm and similar.

As for the Cerberus, he already had an idea of who he should ask to learn more about it. During his last visit to Hagrid, he learned about his fascination and love for magical creatures, especially the dangerous and deadly kind. So who in this castle would be the owner of a big three-headed dog that would try to rip your head off if you come too close to it besides Hagrid, the half-giant who would consider such a big dog a nice pet?

So after the first Quidditch Match in November between Gryffindor and Slytherin, which ended terribly with a terrible loss for the House of the Lion as their new Seeker Cormac McLaggen, a complete dunce from the second year of Gryffindor, spent more time lecturing his older teammates than searching for the golden Snitch, Harry decided to visit the giant at his hut.

Now that he knew for sure that the game was a completely unbalanced waste of time since the Gryffindor team dominated the whole match but still lost 140 to 160 because Slytherin caught the Snitch, he walked pleased with his foresight to the wooden hut of the giant at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Harry knocked on the wooden door, the sound echoing through the tranquil surroundings. Moments later, the door creaked open, revealing the towering figure of Rubeus Hagrid, the gentle half-giant.

"Hey Hagrid, how are you doing? Did you enjoy the Quidditch Match?" greeted Harry warmly.

"Hey Harry, good ter see yeh. I am doin' good, just a bit disappointed tha' Slytherin will take the Quidditch trophy this year again. Wanna come in?" replied the half-giant with a big smile.

"Sure, I am eager to hear more about magical creatures again. It's a bit sad that Care for Magical Creatures is only an elective for third years," said Harry as he stepped inside.

"Magical creatures are wonderful beings. I wished I could teach tha' class," admitted Hagrid with a sad smile.

"I am sure you would be a great teacher. You must have quite a lot of them? Do you have a real dragon? I saw one from a distance when I was at Gringotts," continued Harry with a smile.

"Gringott's really has a dragon? On'y heard rumors 'bout tha'. I always wanted ter have one meself. But never got an opportunity. Me collection is quite big. In the Forbidden Forest, I have many amazing creatures like hippogriffs, unicorns, an' similar. There is also a colony o' acromantula. I raised the firs' one meself. Hmm, wha' else? Oh, I even have a Cerberus. He was so small when I got 'im, fit in the palm o' me hand," counted the giant proudly.

The moment Harry heard Cerberus, he grinned as he found out that he guessed right. "A Cerberus, really? Aren't they rare? I learned that they are the guardians of the Greek Underworld. So shouldn't they be native to Greece?" chatted Harry, fishing for more information.

"I bought Fluffy from poachers tha' were eager ter get rid o' 'im. The poor thing was completely scared. But yeh are righ', they are native ter Greece. They prob'ly stole 'im there. So I couldn't leave 'im with 'em," nodded Hagrid.

"Fluffy? You named such a dangerous animal Fluffy? Shouldn't he be big and deadly by now?" wondered Harry.

"Well, fer someone o' your size, he would be quite dangerous. I wouldn't approach 'im if I were yeh. He lives normally in the forest. Although he is often quite playful an' sometimes even aggressive an' tries ter bite me, with a bit o' music, he's all calm like a baby again and takes a nap," explained Hagrid, recounting his experiences before he remembered that he shouldn't talk about Fluffy. "Eh, but forget tha'. Jus' don't get close ter 'im if yeh ever should see 'im."

Harry nodded. "Don't worry, Hagrid. I won't. I don't think I will meet him in the castle after all. And if I should land in the Forbidden Forest sometime, I will keep my distance."

After that, the two of them continued chatting about different magical creatures. Harry even got some tips on how to keep his mountain troll when he mentioned the rumors about the troll roaming the castle, as he was living for now on a pretty empty island with a few plants and animals to keep him fed.

Once Harry finished his tea and saw that it had gotten dark, he said goodbye to the friendly giant and returned to the Ravenclaw common room, having accomplished his goal of information gathering.

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