20demayo Page 55
Page 55
It was a big, black, gooey egg!
Even in the scorching heat of the coals, the egg remained completely unchanged, clearly indicating that it was extraordinary.
Upon closer inspection, the eggshell is not smooth; it's covered in sharp, needle-like bumps, looking dry, rough, and not at all round.
It was a dragon egg!
When Levin saw it, he had a sudden thought: Could the male dragon's penis be a spiked club?
His reasoning is as follows.
The fact that such a rough egg could be laid so successfully suggests that even in that area, the mother dragon possesses remarkably thick skin and flesh.
Since the female dragon has thick skin and flesh, the male dragon can only be a mace.
If it were even slightly smoother, the mother dragon wouldn't feel a thing when it rubbed against her rough inner skin.
Only a spiked club could soothe the mother dragon who gave birth to such a coarse egg.
Update [5/4], Bonus Chapter [9/17]
Chapter 59 Harry Suffers, Malfoy Bears the Blame
"This is a dragon egg?!" Besides Levin, Hermione also recognized the egg's identity.
Hagrid was taken aback, then laughed happily: "Miss Granger, you actually know it."
Hermione nodded: "I had only seen its image in a book before."
Hagrid looked like he'd found a kindred spirit, as happy as a 500-pound child.
"Yes, yes, a dragon egg! It's a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon egg, very rare."
When the topic turned to dragon eggs, he immediately became very talkative, like a mother about to give birth:
"Oh, I've been reading books about it: they say to put the eggs in the fire because their mother breathes on them. And look, it says here that after it hatches, you should feed it a bucket of brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour."
As he spoke, he pulled a large book from under his pillow.
More related books were displayed on the bookshelves in the distance.
Dragon Species of Britain and Ireland
Raising dragons for entertainment and profit
From Dragon Egg to Hell: A Guide to Raising Dragons
The Man Who Dotes on Dragons
The crowd stared in disbelief at the dragon egg placed in the embers of the stove.
Ron asked with some concern, "Hagrid, keeping dragons is illegal, isn't it? What if someone finds out?"
Harry also reminded him: "Hagrid, does Dumbledore know about this?"
Hermione also pointed out sharply: "Hagrid, don't forget you live in a wooden house."
"Ah..." Hagrid opened his mouth, not knowing what to do.
Levin shook his head. "Do you guys even know how to talk? Hagrid kindly invited them over to share secrets and joy, but you bunch of idiots keep undermining him."
He coughed lightly, trying to smooth things over: "Indeed, there are many problems with raising dragons here, but at least Hagrid can keep them for a few days before they grow larger than this house."
"Yes, yes, that's it."
Hagrid readily agreed.
So, in the days that followed, looking at the dragon eggs became a rare opportunity for Harry and Ron to relax.
Hermione also noticed the problem, but she was also eager to see the dragon eggs, yet she couldn't bring herself to do it, so she always dragged Levin along.
Visiting the dragon eggs became a collective pastime for them.
During these few days, Levin also noticed that whenever he approached Hagrid's hut, the scholar's moonstone would glow.
Once back in the castle, the light dimmed.
He analyzed that this must be related to the ban on forestry.
He will definitely study it when he has the chance to go to the Forbidden Forest.
Until one day Harry received a note with only four words written on it: "Shelling soon."
So the group took advantage of their lunch break to run all the way to Hagrid's cabin.
"Knock knock knock one"
Hagrid greeted them, beaming with excitement.
"This morning, I noticed it started shaking, and it got stronger and stronger. I guessed it was about to hatch."
Hagrid opened the furnace lid, and in the glowing embers, the egg twitched every few seconds, as if something was trying to crawl out.
"You all saw it, right? He's moving!" Ron exclaimed excitedly.
"The little one is coming out." Harry thought intently.
“Let me get it out of the fire.” Hagrid put on a pair of thick dragon-skin gloves, large enough to be Levin’s hat.
Hagrid, wearing gloves, took the dragon egg out of the furnace and placed it on the table.
By this time, a deep crack had appeared on the dragon egg, and a rather amusing clicking sound was coming from it, probably the baby dragon smacking its lips.
Everyone moved their chairs closer to the table, held their breath, and watched intently.
Suddenly, with a screeching sound, the egg cracked open.
A sharp, hard nose emerged from inside.
"It's out! It's out! Oh my god!" Hagrid began to sob with excitement, as if the baby dragon were his own child.
Soon, more and more eggshells broke, and a baby dragon emerged.
The newborn dragon was not actually beautiful; it looked like a crumpled black umbrella. Its spiky wings appeared particularly large compared to its thin, dark body.
It also has a long, big nose with white nostrils, horns on its head, and protruding orange-red eyes.
But Hagrid didn't seem to mind, and was as kind as an old lady.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Hagrid murmured.
He reached out a hand and patted Xiaolong's head.
The little dragon bit his finger, revealing its sharp, long teeth, but Hagrid shouted excitedly, "My God, look, it recognizes its mother!"
At that moment, Levin looked at the dragon eggshell on the table and asked, "Hagrid, can I have some of these eggshells?"
Hagrid waved his hand generously and said, "Of course, take it if you need it."
According to Levin's observation, Hagrid is actually a hidden millionaire who has been dealing with animals in the Forbidden Forest for many years and has collected a great deal of material.
In fact, the butt cushions in the house are made of eight-eyed spider silk and unicorn hair—these two things can be used to make top-tier enchanted cloaks, and Madam Malkin of Diagon Alley would go crazy if she saw them.
Levin happily put the eggshell into his bag, remembering that dragon eggshells could be used as an optional ingredient for permanent attribute potions.
While watching the newborn dragons play and breathe fire is certainly delightful, there are still some things to worry about.
“Hagrid,” Hermione asked, “just how fast did the Norwegian Spinosaurus grow?”
“In another week, it will have tripled in size, and in three weeks, Hagrid’s house won’t be able to keep it,” Levin explained. “And what if it breathes fire then…”
Hearing this, everyone could already picture Hagrid's hut burning down.
"Uh…"
Hagrid was speechless.
In the end, he agreed to the four people's request:
I'll only keep this little guy for two weeks.
It needs to be sent away in two weeks.
Ron contacted his older brother, the dragon tamer Charlie, to bring it to a dragon farm in Romania.
After teasing the little dragon for a while, the group left Hagrid's hut.
Levin did not remind them that he had sensed Malfoy's presence earlier.
Haha, without Malfoy's betrayal, how could Harry and Ron have been punished later?
If they weren't punished with confinement, how could they have gone on the forbidden forest trip later?
For the sake of our potion ingredients, you two will have to suffer a bit. Anyway, Ma Tianlong will take the blame.
Sure enough, in the time that followed, Malfoy's sinister smile made Harry and Ron realize that the dragon affair had been exposed.
So they were even more eager for Xiaolong to be sent away quickly, so that Malfoy would have no evidence and the hidden danger would disappear.
Ultimately, the time to send Xiaolong away was set for Saturday midnight.
They planned to see Xiaolong one last time.
Saturday arrived quickly.
It was a dark, overcast night.
At the door of Hagrid's cabin, Ron dejectedly told Levin that because of his mistake, Malfoy had accidentally seen the note Charlie had sent.
“He must know we’re going to get rid of Norber.” Ron’s face flushed red, and he didn’t dare to look at Levin’s expression when he heard that he had done something stupid.
“It’s alright, we have an invisibility cloak that Malfoy doesn’t know about,” Harry reminded him.
“But… the Invisibility Cloak can’t hold that many people,” Ron said in a low voice.
“Don’t worry, you two can just use the Invisibility Cloak.” Levin and Hermione exchanged a glance.
The girl nodded: "Mr. Green and I have other ways to avoid Malfoy."
Update [6/4], Bonus Chapter [10/17]
Chapter 60 Better to die for your fellow Daoist than for me
When the four arrived, Hagrid had already packed Norber into a large crate and was ready to go.
“I prepared a lot of mice for it, and some brandy, enough for it to eat along the way,” Hagrid said in a deep voice. “I also put its teddy bear in there, so it wouldn’t feel lonely.”
Just then, a tearing sound came from the crate, as if the teddy bear's head had been ripped off.