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.