Dragon Egg

In the Library, piles of homework were stacked on the tables.

"I can't finish it. I'll never finish it!" Ron wailed, slumped in his chair.

Harry lifted his head from the mountain of homework, glanced at Ron, and could only sigh as well.

Hermione rolled her eyes at them and continued memorizing the twelve uses of dragon blood.

"Tut, tut, tut. Wasn't this Grindelwald basically a senior?" Oren flipped through the little witch's History of Magic notes. "And all these goblins rebelled. After committing a crime worthy of exterminating nine generations, they still got to keep running Gringotts. Tut, tut, tut."

"Oren, why are you so relaxed?" Ron asked lifelessly.

Oren pointed at George and Fred in the distance. The two red-haired giant pandas, complete with enormous dark circles under their eyes, were furiously grinding through their homework.

Ron...

"This kind of suffering doesn't disappear. It only gets transferred. That's not just magic—it's science too," Oren said with a cheeky grin.

"Bang, bang, bang—" Harry pulled his head out from beneath a small collapse of books.

"Hagrid! Why are you in the Library?"

Hagrid hid something behind his back. "I'm just having a look around. What are you lot doing? Don't tell me you're still looking into Nicolas Flamel!"

"Give it up, we figured that out ages ago," Ron said smugly. "We even know Fluffy is guarding the Philosopher's Stone!"

"Shh!" Hagrid looked around in panic. "Keep it down, Ron. You can't go saying things like that."

"Listen, come see me later. And don't go blabbing this stuff everywhere. Students aren't supposed to know about it."

Harry said, "All right, we'll see you later."

"Look at Hagrid's shifty little eyes. I'd bet he's hiding something from us." Oren looked as though a master detective had possessed him.

"What could it be? Could it have something to do with the Philosopher's Stone?" Hermione asked.

"What are you thinking? Hagrid doesn't have that many schemes in him. He must have gotten hold of some magical creature."

"I'll go see what books he was looking for." Ron eagerly escaped the pile of homework.

Five minutes later, Ron came rushing back with a stack of books in his arms. "Dragons! Hagrid was looking up information on dragons!"

"He's always wanted a dragon," Harry said. "He told me that the first time I met him."

"A dragon? I want to get one too." Oren was very interested in that idea.

"That's illegal!" Ron said, waving his arms in shock. "Those dragons are dangerous! And the law forbids private dragon ownership."

"What if I got a wild one?" Oren asked unwillingly.

"Where would you keep it? In your dormitory? Or in Hogwarts' Greenhouse?" Hermione punched Oren. "So what exactly is Hagrid planning to do?"

"No matter what he's doing, Hagrid will definitely give us a surprise." Oren put down his notes. "Come on. Let's go see what's going on."

"Bang, bang, bang!" Oren knocked on Hagrid's hut door. "Open up, Hagrid! You've got the guts to hatch a dragon egg, but not the guts to open the door?"

The three little ones...

"Shh!" Hagrid nervously dragged all four of them into the room.

Harry said, "Hagrid, can you tell me what defenses are protecting the Philosopher's Stone? Besides Fluffy, what other traps are there?"

Hagrid frowned. "I don't know. You already know too much. You shouldn't know this stuff."

"How could that be? Other than you, who else could Dumbledore trust?" Hermione said in a sweet, flattering voice, pitching it high. "Just tell us who designed the traps."

"Pfft." Oren had not expected Hermione to pull something that ruthless.

After glaring at Oren, Hermione and Harry continued trying to pry information out of Hagrid.

"Tut, tut, tut. This is painful to watch," Oren muttered, beginning to examine the dragon egg in the fire.

After extracting all the information they could, the other three also gathered by the hearth to inspect the egg in the flames.

"What were you laughing at?" Hermione pinched Oren's waist with her little hand.

"Hiss—" Oren sucked in a sharp breath. "I wasn't laughing at anything. You should know how pure-blood family education works. No matter how funny something is, we don't laugh."

The little witch rolled her eyes, thinking, Family education? Oren doesn't have any bloody family education. Prenatal education, maybe?

Hermione withdrew her hand in satisfaction. Sure enough, if she couldn't deal any damage, it only meant she was using the wrong method.

Harry asked, "Is that a dragon egg?"

"Hagrid, that must have cost you a fortune." Ron stared unblinkingly at the fire.

"I won it," Hagrid said proudly. "Won it in a card game against a stranger. He was probably eager to get rid of it too."

"I borrowed a lot of books from the Library, all so I could take proper care of the little fellow."

Hermione said, "But you live in a wooden house!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The temperature might not be enough to hatch it. It must have caught a bit of a cold. How about we turn it into scrambled eggs?"

Tears flowed from the corners of Oren's mouth. "Slurp, slurp. Then we wouldn't have to worry about Hagrid getting caught raising a dragon illegally."

Hagrid...

The three little ones...

In the common room.

Plop. Ron and Harry dropped their quills. They had fought late into the night, then gotten up early to keep fighting. They had finally finished their homework, and the two little ones collapsed into their chairs as though they had found peace in death.

"All right, we can start revising now." Hermione pulled out several sheets of parchment. "Harry and Ron, I've already made revision plans for you. And for Oren too, of course."

"Huh?" Oren put down Dumbledore's study notes and pointed at his own face in disbelief.

The little witch placed a thick stack of History of Magic materials in front of Oren.

Oren, who was in the middle of modifying a camera!!!

Harry and Ron's eyes seemed to say, So this day finally came for you, huh?

After a thoroughly satisfying revision session, they headed to the Great Hall.

Mige the owl flew into Gryffindor Tower with a note in its beak, then charged forward and knocked Harry out of his chair.

"Gulp." Ron swallowed with lingering fear. "Oren, your owl is still as violent as ever."

Harry struggled up from the floor. "Hagrid says the baby dragon is about to hatch."

"Let's go!" Ron sprang to his feet and slapped the table. "What are we waiting for? How often do you get to watch a baby dragon hatch?"

Hermione said, "No. We still have Herbology class. If anyone finds out Hagrid is secretly raising a dragon, he'll be in serious trouble."

"Shh, stop talking." Harry warned them with his eyes. Malfoy was sneakily eavesdropping nearby.

During Herbology class, Oren handed out some sweets while poking the fungus in front of him with his wand.

"Oren, where did you get these sweets?" Harry asked. "They taste much better than the sweets we usually eat."

"Of course they do. These are sweets Headmaster Dumbledore had stashed away. Last night, I used threats and temptations—no, not trickery and fraud either. Anyway, the Headmaster gave them to me."

The three little ones...

"Class is over!" Ron shot to his feet, grabbed Harry and Oren, and called to Hermione, "Come on, come on! To Hagrid's hut!"

Outside the hut.

Oren said, "You go in first. I'll go in later."

"Why?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"Oren must have his reasons. Let's hurry inside." Ron impatiently pulled the other two into the hut.

Listening to the chatter inside, Oren slipped into the bushes nearby, preparing to teach Draco, who had followed them all the way, a lesson. He would make him understand just how grave a mistake it was to enter bushes without warding them first.

"Who's there?" Harry rushed out of the hut and saw Oren lightly tap Malfoy's head with his wand.

"The detective game ends here!" Oren tapped Draco's head again, secretly casting a silent, wandless Stupefy.

Then, before the horrified eyes of the three little ones and Hagrid, he fed Draco a red-and-white capsule.

"What did you make him eat?" Hermione asked in horror.

"I call it APTX4869." Oren was grinning so widely his face had become a caricature.

Before Harry and Ron's horrified eyes, Mr. Malfoy became Miss Malfoy.

"Hiss—" The three little ones sucked in a breath.

Oren conjured a small mirror. "Wake up! Wake up! The operation was a success. You're Miss Malfoy now."

Draco stared blankly into the mirror while Oren kept snapping photos with his camera.

"Nooooo!" Draco let out a heart-rending howl. Snowflakes drifted, the north wind howled~

"Hahahaha! Look, he believed it! Hahaha!" Oren laughed so hard he could barely stand straight. He patted Draco on the shoulder. "Stop howling. The medicine only lasts half an hour."

After howling his heart out, Draco fled in a sorry state. The two little ones also backed away several steps in terror.

"Well? This prank product lasts half an hour. Are you two interested in buying some to try?" Oren smiled like a little demon about to trick someone out of their soul.

"Of course, I can let you try it for free first. Hehehehe~"

The two little ones shook their heads in panicked refusal.

Hermione said, "Are we just going to let Malfoy run off like that?"

"Let him run." Back inside the hut, Oren poked the baby dragon with his wand. "I think it has a cold. How about we turn it into—"

"I've decided to call him Norbert. I think he recognizes me," Hagrid said, holding the little dragon.

Harry said, "What are you going to do now? Soon it'll grow as big as your house."

Hermione whispered, "Can the photos you took stop Malfoy from reporting this?"

Oren shook his head. "Not likely. Draco will probably get angrier and angrier once he gets back, and he'll definitely report it."

"What are you two whispering about?" Harry leaned toward them. "We've decided to send a letter to Charlie, Ron's brother who studies dragons, and ask whether he can take Norbert in."

On Wednesday, in the common room before curfew, Ron took off the Invisibility Cloak and performed a disappearing-and-reappearing act in front of Oren, Hermione, and Harry.

"Norbert bit me, and Hagrid wouldn't even let me scare him. Worse still, when I left, Hagrid was singing him a lullaby."

Everyone...

A flutter of wings sounded, and Harry's owl Hedwig slowly landed on the table.

"Hedwig is still steadier and more elegant. She's way better than Oren's Mige," Ron said wistfully.

"You just don't know Mige's strengths. Even if it had to fly through an anti-aircraft gun emplacement, it would still deliver your letter," Oren disagreed with Ron.

Ron...