Harry Potter and the Obscurus

Chapter 17 Hagrid's Cry

Judging from the sequence of memories Moran showed Harry, they first rescued the unicorn and fought a mysterious figure who might be Voldemort. Then, while transforming into the Obscurial and chasing after it, they were attacked by Hagrid and the giant spiders, which is why they furiously slaughtered hundreds of giant spiders.

Harry was completely convinced by this explanation, especially after learning that Morgen had attacked Voldemort without hesitation, and he no longer cared how horribly the giant spiders had died. Even when Hermione asked him why he had been sneaking out every night during the entire holiday after school started, he came up with a perfectly reasonable explanation.

“I went to keep an eye on Quirrell. Although he was away from school for a while during the holidays, I still managed to catch him red-handed. Last night, while following him, I discovered he went to the Forbidden Forest…”

"The Forbidden Forest! Are you crazy, Harry? Dumbledore said at the beginning of the school year that it was absolutely forbidden for students there!"

Hermione was frantic; her brown hair was almost tangled with Harry's.

"I didn't go into the Forbidden Forest with him, Hermione. Calm down. Besides, I still have the Invisibility Cloak. There won't be any danger."

Ron pursed his lips, seemingly unconcerned about Harry following Quirrell.

"If I had an invisibility cloak for protection, I'd also like to go and explore the Forbidden Forest."

"Hmm... Ron, if you insist, we can find a night..."

"No! Harry! This is utter nonsense! If you keep doing this, I'm going to report you to Professor McGonagall!"

"Ignore him, Harry. When do we leave? Tonight?"

Just as the trio was chatting away, a figure that no one could have predicted appeared in the library.

"Hagrid? Did you go to the wrong place?"

Mrs. Pince, the librarian, picked up a feather duster and spoke in a rather apprehensive tone.

"No, Mrs. Pince, I've come to borrow some books."

"Wash your hands, go wash your hands! No, take your boots and trench coat... never mind, what kind of book do you want? I'll go find it for you."

"I'd like to read some books about fantastic creatures, mainly about dragons, including their habits and how to raise them. You know I really like..."

"Okay, okay, I understand. You wait here for a bit, don't touch the bookshelf or break anything."

……

Ron, with an incredulous look on his face, lowered his head and said to Harry and Hermione:

"Can you believe it? Hagrid! He came to the library to borrow books! I thought all he had on his mind were monsters and parchment cakes!"

Hermione tossed her hair triumphantly and held her chin high.

"Reading is the most effective and important way to acquire knowledge, Ronald. If you don't want to come to me and Harry for help every time you do your homework and take a test, I suggest you read more books."

"I don't want to!"

Harry interrupted Hermione and Ron with a serious expression, seemingly having found the final piece of the puzzle to unravel the mystery in his mind.

"Didn't you hear what book Hagrid wanted to borrow? He wants to look up information about dragons, specifically about their habits and how to raise them."

"So what? Everyone knows how obsessed he is with fire dragons."

Ron said it indifferently, but Harry was not about to let the lead go.

"No, Ron, it's precisely because he's obsessed with dragons that this is strange. Think about it, if you suddenly came to the library one day looking for books about caring for flying brooms, what do you think would be the reason behind that?"

Ron quickly understood Harry's implied meaning and said:

"But...but this is illegal! Back in 1709 at the Wizarding Convention, the Ministry of Magic officially passed a law banning the keeping of dragons, and everyone knows that!"

Hermione seemed concerned that Ron knew about the history of magic she didn't, and muttered something under her breath.

"Not everyone..."

“Just think about it. If every wizard kept a dragon in their backyard, Muggles would definitely notice us! And even a wizard as powerful as Dumbledore would have a hard time completely taming a dragon. Even the most docile dragon is the most dangerous of all magical creatures. You should really look at the scars on my brother Charlie's body; those are the ones he got in Romania!”

Harry stroked his chin, thought for a moment, and then asked Ron:

"Romania... Well, does Britain have any wild fire dragons?"

"Of course there is!"

As Ron recounted his experiences, he couldn't help but glance at Hermione's reaction.

"There are Welsh green dragons and Hehidari black dragons, but both are very ordinary fire dragons, nothing special. My dad told me that the Ministry of Magic has a department specifically responsible for concealing the existence of fire dragons. They are so difficult to tame, and of all the magical creatures that are easily spotted by Muggles, they cause the most trouble. In addition to frequently casting forgetfulness charms on Muggles, we also have to drive those fire dragons that wander into Muggle areas back to safety. If Hagrid really finds a wild fire dragon, we can see it from the Astronomy Tower."

Hermione reminded Ron:

"Don't forget what Hagrid just said. He said he wanted to look at books about animal husbandry and its care, which means..."

Harry nodded and finished the last few words of the sentence for Hermione, who looked suspicious.

"He might have gotten hold of a baby dragon, or even a dragon egg."

"Then what are we waiting for!"

Ronten stood up abruptly, but judging from his excited expression, he certainly wasn't going to report Hagrid.

……

This was the first time Hermione had been so distracted during Herbology class; she was usually much more attentive even during Professor Binns' History of Magic lessons. For the two hours since leaving the library, she had been thinking about Hagrid almost constantly. After all, Harry had been the only one keeping an eye on Quirrell while she was away from Hogwarts; and now that she was back at school, she couldn't let Harry bear all the pressure alone.

Sure enough, when the trio arrived at the hunting lodge, they were surprised to find that all the windows had been covered by Hagrid with curtains or other coarse cloths and sheets.

"Hagrid! Are you in there?!"

Who is it?

“It’s us, me, Harry, and Ron.”

Hagrid opened the door a crack, and only after confirming that it was just Harry and the others did he let them in. Then, he quickly closed and locked the door again.

Although it was still winter, the temperature in his cabin was unbearably hot. Even after Hermione took off her scarf and robe, she still felt a strong sense of suffocation.

"What are you doing here? Don't you already know about the demon... about that thing?"

Harry and the others didn't listen to what Hagrid was saying; they started looking around as soon as they entered the room.

"Hagrid, what's that?"

Ron, who knew dragons best, was the first to spot the dark, gooey dragon egg lying under the kettle.

"Oh...that's...uh..."

Hagrid's expression suddenly became uneasy, and he kept rubbing his beard with his large hands, as if that would help him come up with a good excuse.

"Where did you get this, Hagrid? My God, this egg is... a Norwegian Spinosaurus! You must have spent a fortune on it!"

Hagrid is a bit single-minded; once the topic is changed, he's prone to blurting out the truth.

"I didn't spend a single penny! I won it! First, something really upsetting happened the night before last... never mind, let's not talk about that. Anyway, last night I went to the pub in Hogsmeade Village for a drink, and a stranger came over to play cards with me. He was terrible at cards, and I lost three rounds in a row!"

Neither Harry nor Hermione spoke; they exchanged glances, intending to let Ron extract more information from them.

Are you going to raise it yourself?

"Yes, I also borrowed some books from the library, but they're all a bit outdated..."

As he spoke, he pulled a book titled "Raising Dragons for Amusement and Profit" from under his pillow.

"Fortunately, the instructions are quite comprehensive. Look, it says to put the eggs in a fire at least 200 degrees Celsius because their mother will keep breathing on them while incubating. And after they hatch, feed them a bucket of chicken blood mixed with brandy every half hour. I've prepared everything!"

“Ron, maybe you can go to Romania to study dragons like Charlie someday! It took me a long time to figure out what kind of dragon egg this was, but you identified it at a glance!”

Ron was a little flattered by Hagrid's praise, but he didn't forget why he was there. He touched his nose and continued to ask:

"The person who lost the dragon egg to you, you say you don't know him, but do you remember what he looks like?"

"I don't know. He refused to take off his cloak, but that's not strange at all. There are plenty of people weirder than him in the Hog's Head! Whether they're eccentric or have some kind of merchandise that wouldn't fit in a Diagon Alley shop, they all frequent that place. Your professor even goes there to buy and sell things! I think that guy was probably just a vendor selling magical creatures, except that the one he had with him that day was a dragon egg."

Hermione's eyes widened, and before Ron could speak, she asked Hagrid directly:

"Did you two talk about anything? Two strangers can't just start playing cards as soon as they meet, can they? Did he ask you about Hogwarts?"

"I think so?"

Hagrid frowned and tried hard to recall:

“He saw that I was sad, so he bought me a lot of alcohol and asked me why I was drinking here. I told him that a little over a week ago, my old friend Aragog and his children were killed by bad guys in the Forbidden Forest.”

Aragog!?

Hermione and Ron covered their mouths and said in unison.

"Yes, he's been a friend for decades. I even hatched it from the cupboard myself... sigh..."

Hagrid looked so sad as he brought up the past, but when he uttered the word "hatch," Hermione and Ron could no longer empathize with him.

"Hmm... okay, so what did you two talk about after that?"

"We chatted... Oh, right, he asked what I did for a living, and I told him I was a gamekeeper. Then he got curious about which animals I looked after, and I told him. I remember he seemed to know a bit about it, so I told him it would be great if I could raise a dragon. And then... yeah, he said he happened to have a dragon egg that was hard to handle, and if I won a bet with him, he'd give it to me... But before that, he needed to make sure I was capable of dealing with a dragon, because he was afraid that if I couldn't control it and it escaped, it would drag him into it. I told him that even Luwei was completely under my thumb, so a dragon was no problem at all!"

Hermione tried her best to make her voice sound calm.

"Is he very interested in Lou Williams?"

"Of course! Think about it, when have you ever seen a dog with three heads? Even in the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts? But I don't think anyone would guess that Fluffy only looks fierce, but deep down he's still a dog. As long as you know how to calm him down, like playing some music for him, he'll fall asleep immediately..."