He was completely innocent!
Quirrell was speechless. With his acting skills and actual abilities, he didn't need such an extremely dangerous method to find ways around those protections.
But looking at Snape's furious expression, Quirrell knew the other man must have solid evidence to confront him like this.
I did not do this! Who's the coward trying to ruin me?!
Quirrell's mind raced through the wizards who had grudges against him, but none of them were at Hogwarts. It seemed unlikely they'd travel all this way just to set him up.
He could only conclude that his luck was terrible, some student had probably stolen the potions, and now he was being suspected because of his previous suspicious behavior.
This was hopeless...
Quirrell wanted to cry. Despite his inner frustration, he didn't dare explode. He could only put on his most pitiful expression and say tremblingly, "Severus, the theft really has nothing to do with me... I swear it!"
"Really? Where were you on the afternoon of the third day of term? I asked around, no one saw you," Snape said, squinting and staring into Quirrell's eyes.
Quirrell fell silent. He couldn't exactly say he'd snuck into the Forbidden Forest that afternoon trying to hunt unicorns to restore the Dark Lord's power, could he?
"I stayed in my office all day," Quirrell said desperately, insisting he'd never left.
"A student went to your office that day, and you weren't there at all!" Snape pressed.
"Maybe I went to the bathroom temporarily..." Quirrell stammered, searching for an excuse, but before he could finish, he suddenly realized that damn Snape was deliberately tricking him.
Given his rock-bottom reputation at Hogwarts, no student would ever voluntarily come to see him...
"Your little tricks can't fool me!" A cruel smile spread across Snape's face, now certain that Quirrell had stolen from his stores.
Quirrell's face flushed red and he nearly lost control and started shouting...
What tricks? He'd never stolen any potions, he hadn't even touched them!
All he'd been doing was helping the Dark Lord return!
Who had time to steal potions?
It wasn't like he was broke and couldn't buy his own materials!
But Quirrell could only keep his thousand grievances bottled up inside. Since he couldn't explain his whereabouts, he could only continue pretending to be weak, innocent, and trembling to win sympathy, though with Snape, it made no difference...
Just as Snape was about to continue his interrogation, he noticed someone eavesdropping and had to quickly warn Quirrell to figure out who he was working for before turning and leaving.
Adrian, hiding in the shadows, nearly burst out laughing. He hadn't expected his spur-of-the-moment frame job to work so well against Quirrell.
Harry and the others waited until Snape and Quirrell had left before emerging from their hiding spot.
"Quirrell really stole Snape's potions? How is that possible?" Harry couldn't believe it.
Although Adrian had mentioned this possibility long ago, Harry had always been reluctant to believe it. After all, Professor Quirrell was timid, he was known as the nicest guy in school. Even when students played tricks on him, he couldn't get angry. How could someone like that steal Snape's potions?
But Harry had heard the conversation between Snape and Quirrell clearly. On the day Snape's potions went missing, Quirrell's whereabouts were unknown, and he'd lied about staying in his office. It all looked very suspicious.
"Let them sort it out. Professor Dumbledore will handle it," Adrian said, no longer interested in staying. "Let's go to Hagrid's and see if the dragon has hatched."
For him, the dragon that was about to emerge was far more important.
"Adrian, I didn't know you liked dragons so much," Hermione complained. She felt Adrian's enthusiasm for dragons was starting to rival Hagrid's.
"It's a dragon! The ultimate magical creature!" Adrian explained, though he didn't voice the rest of his thoughts.
Once he obtained dragon's blood, he could complete his Bloodline Fusion Potion and improve his magical talent. That would give him some real self-defense capability in the magical world, and he could face going home at term's end with confidence.
Before leaving, Adrian reminded Ron not to discuss anything about dragons along the way, to prevent being overheard. He didn't want to see Malfoy showing up at Hagrid's like in the original story.
The four of them made their way to Hagrid's hut. Hagrid welcomed them with far more enthusiasm than usual, clearly, he was very happy today.
All the doors and windows in the hut were sealed, leaving only a few small openings for ventilation. The hot stove beside the bed radiated continuous heat.
The moment Adrian entered, his eyes went straight to the table where the dragon egg sat. There was already a deep crack across it, and it swayed occasionally.
When Adrian got closer, the cracks in the shell suddenly expanded. With a harsh scratching sound, a bald, scrawny triangular head poked through the crack, followed by a thin black body emerging from the broken shell. Its limbs were spindly and its legs shaky.
'So ugly...' Adrian couldn't help but think, though Hagrid was ecstatic. He thought it was beautiful and was eager to give it a proper name.
"Norbert... let's call him Norbert," Hagrid said, reaching out a finger to pet the dragon. But Norbert bit down with a mouth full of fangs, though Hagrid's half-giant skin was too thick to be pierced.
"Look how much he likes me!" Hagrid didn't mind Norbert's behavior at all. Instead, he thought it was a sign of affection, convinced that Norbert saw him as his mother.
This left Harry and the others feeling helpless, but given Hagrid's excitement, they were reluctant to argue.
However, Norbert had his own ideas. After enduring Hagrid's petting for a while, he suddenly opened his mouth and expelled a ball of flame, spraying it directly at Hagrid's face and setting his beard on fire.
"Hey, you little troublemaker!" Hagrid frantically patted his burning beard.
"Aguamenti," Adrian waved his wand, summoning a stream of water that poured over Hagrid's head and face.