novel-bin Chapter 111 has one extra line.
Chapter 111 has one extra line.
"My God, Hagrid, why are you dressed like this?"
Caught off guard by the sudden visit of the Iron Triangle, Hagrid instinctively hid the machine lubricant in his hand.
"I, I'm always like this."
He said this as if he couldn't smell the odor emanating from above his head at all.
"You've dressed up."
"I don't, well, maybe a little."
"Are you going on a date with someone?"
"No...nobody."
"You've already stuck flowers in your clothes! And you still say you didn't... Wait, what's this purple thing? It's not a rose, is it?"
"This is an artichoke, also called a French lily. Ah! Hagrid! Are you on a date with Ms. Maxim?"
Wow! That French tycoon... Ouch!
Seeing that Ron was about to say something wrong, Hermione quickly punched him lightly. Unexpectedly, before she could even think of a way to steer the conversation back to the dragon, Hagrid had already inadvertently confessed.
"Oh, I think I might be a little too infatuated with her. Good heavens, I completely forgot to call Harry to come along."
"What are you here to see?"
"Come and see..."
Hagrid, who was about to blurt out the word "dragon," glanced at Ron and Hermione, then suddenly calmed down and said:
"Not now, we have to wait until midnight. Harry, remember to bring your invisibility cloak when you come to find me."
"But we already know that the first project is the fire dragon."
Ron and Hermione were both incredulous at Harry's startling remark. After all, just minutes before, this same guy had repeatedly warned them to gradually extract information from Hagrid.
"How did you know?"
Hagrid looked at the three of them with a bewildered expression and said:
"I didn't tell anyone this time."
"Ron's brother Charlie said on homecoming day that we'd see each other again at Hogwarts this year. He's an expert on dragons, so we guessed it, but..."
"But what?"
Harry shrugged at Hagrid, then took out his wand and began to clean the broken comb teeth from Hagrid's hair, saying:
"It's nothing. I just think it's a bit unrealistic to have students deal with adult fire dragons. You're the teacher of the Magical Creatures Protection class, so you should know that even dragon trainers need to learn about the species and habits in advance and make thorough preparations before dealing with fire dragons."
Harry's words made Hagrid feel incredibly guilty. As a teacher at Hogwarts, he had actually prioritized using the opportunity to have a late-life romance with Mrs. Maxime of Beauxbatons when he had the chance to give Harry a hint about a problem.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Harry."
Hagrid plopped back down on the sofa covered with some kind of animal hide, covering his face in annoyance and saying:
"I should have thought of you first. I'm sorry, I was so stupid."
"Don't say that, Hagrid."
"No, it's true. If you hadn't come to me, I probably would have forgotten to tell you what the first project was, oh my god..."
Seeing that Hagrid was about to lose control of his emotions, Hermione quickly spoke up to persuade him:
"It's alright, Hagrid, there's still time. Didn't you just say that Harry should come to you at midnight wearing the Invisibility Cloak? Then Harry will be able to figure out exactly what the first project is all about."
"Yes, Professor Hagrid, don't blame yourself."
Harry also took the opportunity to pat Hagrid on the shoulder and said:
"There's still time."
......
Time is something that can go fast or slow, especially when you're looking forward to something and hoping the hands of the clock will speed up; they never seem to grant your wish.
The six or seven hours felt like an eternity. When Harry finally walked along the lawn back to Hagrid's hut, his glutes hadn't even recovered from the soreness from sitting for so long.
Boom, boom.
Hearing the knock, Hagrid opened the door, looked around at the empty space, and asked:
"You're here, Harry?"
"It's me. Where do we go next?"
"Don't make a sound."
Hagrid added that he had locked Tooth in the house, then straightened his bow tie and came out.
"No matter what you see, don't take off the invisibility cloak. Okay, come with me."
Harry extended his arm out of the Invisibility Cloak and gave an "OK" sign. Soon, he followed Hagrid into the darkness and found the enormous carriage of Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Golden candlelight flickered inside the carriage door, which was adorned with two crossed golden wands. Hagrid gently knocked on the door and, like a gentleman, ushered the distinguished guest out of the carriage.
"Ah, Hagrid."
Ms. Maxim gracefully draped the silk shawl behind her neck and said:
"Is the time up?"
"Yes, my dear lady, good evening."
Hagrid said with a smile, while extending his chubby hand to help the other person down.
Seeing Hagrid's attire, Madam Maxim smiled, but with a very feminine air. She closed the carriage door, naturally took Hagrid's arm, and walked along the edge of the temporary enclosure where the Pegasus lived, heading deeper into the Forbidden Forest.
The giants took much larger strides than ordinary wizards, forcing Harry to tiptoe and jog in order to catch up with them without making a sound.
"Where are you taking me, Hagrid?"
"Oh, believe me, everything tonight is worth it, you'll love it! But... don't tell anyone I brought you here, you shouldn't know any of this."
"Of course I won't tell."
Roar!
The moonlit whispers of the two half-giants were abruptly interrupted by a deafening roar. In that brief instant, they witnessed the most spectacular scene of their lives so far.
The silver-blue Swedish short-nosed dragon with a pair of extremely long, sharp horns, the Welsh green dragon covered in smooth green scales, the Chinese fireball dragon with lion-mane-like growths around its face, and the Hungarian tree-peaked dragon covered in black scales with terrifying spikes on its back and tail, all unleashed their furious emotions of imprisonment.
One after another, bursts of flame shot out from their raised mouths, and wave after wave of heat made the thirty-odd wizards holding wands sweat profusely.
They desperately tried to control the chains binding the dragon, occasionally casting spells that made them impervious to water and fire and those that protected them with iron armor.
Harry was completely captivated by the sight before him. Even without Hagrid's special fascination with dragons, seeing four rare adult dragons together in one room was a rare spectacle in the wizarding world. However, only about three seconds later, a dragon trainer near the edge of the enclosure spotted Hagrid's enormous figure in the woods.
"Stay there and don't move, Hagrid!"
The man gripped the magic chains tightly in his hands and shouted:
“These are all adult fire dragons, any one of them could easily send flames twenty feet away! Oh Merlin above! I swear this Hungarian tree peak breathed forty feet when it first awoke!”
"So beautiful...so beautiful..."
Hagrid's eyes had become glazed over, and he completely ignored the warnings, instead praising the magical creation in front of him.
As for Mrs. Maxim, who shared similar interests with Hagrid, she had forgotten her main mission of gathering intelligence.
She pushed aside the bushes in front of her that hadn't yet been charred by the dragon flames and walked up to them, speaking a lot of incomprehensible French.
"Ahh, c'est magnifique......Pouvons - nous en approcher?" (How magnificent...can we get a little closer?)
"Damn it, this Tree Peak Dragon has gone mad! All squads! Send out two dragon tamers each to provide support!"
Another elderly dragon trainer shouted:
"Listen to my command! Recite the incantation to make you unconscious! Count to three! One! Two! Three!"
"Stupefy!" (Faints and collapses)
Under the pitch-black night sky, a dozen or so stun spells shot out like rockets at the Hungarian Tree Peak Dragon, which was writhing and stomping its feet. The sparks that flew out fell like a shower on its spiked scales, illuminating the entire enclosure.
One second, two seconds.
The curse has begun to take effect.
The Hungarian Tree-Peak Dragon's pupils stood upright, its eyes bulging out. It opened its blood-red mouth wide, but could only let out a silent roar.
After a few more breaths, the flames in the dragon's throat and nostrils went out and turned into wisps of blue smoke. Its massive body, weighing nearly ten tons, crashed to the ground, shaking the trees outside the enclosure.
The dragon tamers moved with incredible speed. Without the need for the elderly man to continue directing them, they skillfully hammered the chains binding the dragon's body into the ground and reinforced them with magic.
"Let's go take a closer look."
"I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself," Hagrid said. He took Madam Maxim's hand and led her straight toward the entrance to the paddock.
Harry knew that the closer he got to the dragon, the hotter the air would be, so he had cast a water and fire immunity spell beforehand, which allowed him to keep up with the two half-giants. When he followed them to within a few meters of the Hungarian Tree Peak Dragon, he was even more surprised to discover that the wizard who had warned Hagrid not to get close was none other than Charlie Weasley.
"Phew! What a troublesome bunch."
Charlie, panting heavily, said:
"They should be alright now. The other dragons were given sedatives too. We were planning to wake them up during the night since they've been sleeping all the way, hoping it would make them feel better. But as you saw, they're not happy at all. Um... Hagrid... could we talk in private for a moment?"
"May I ask?"
Hagrid was initially a little confused, but after noticing that Charlie's gaze kept drifting towards Mrs. Maxim, he finally realized what was going on.
"Okay, okay..."
He said this somewhat embarrassedly, and then followed Charlie to the other side of the paddock fence.
"I really didn't expect you to bring her along, Hagrid. Normally, warriors shouldn't know what they're going to face before participating in a project... Did she promise you she wouldn't tell her students?"
"Yes, she promised."
"So you believed it?"
Somewhat helpless, Charlie didn't know what to say. He frowned, and after a while, he finally organized his thoughts and said:
"I'm not trying to be mean, Hagrid... but you're a teacher at Hogwarts now, how can you do something that's bad for your school?"
Hagrid, who was already feeling guilty, seemed to grasp at a lifeline upon hearing this. He first gave Charlie a meaningful shushing gesture, then pointed to the empty space behind him and said:
"Ahem, of course I'm aware of that, after all, these are all part of the competition, right?"
click!
The almost imperceptible snapping of a branch made Charlie instantly understand Hagrid's unspoken meaning. He turned around and naturally steered the conversation to the Triwizard Tournament.
"Okay, that's good. Let me introduce it to you, starting with the most common Welsh Green Dragon. The full name of the Welsh Green Dragon is the Common Welsh Green Dragon, and it is the least troublesome of all the fire dragon species. In the wild, they mainly feed on small mammals such as sheep and will actively avoid humans, so they pose little threat. The way to get past it is very simple: as long as you don't attack it, the Welsh Green Dragon will even avoid you."