Who let this Dementor into Hogwarts!

Chapter 317 The Egg-Stealing Plan
Hagrid first took them to Beauxbatons' carriage, seemingly having arranged it with Mrs. Maxim long ago.

“Ah, Hagrid…is it time?” Ms. Maxim said with a slight smile when she saw Hagrid.

"Good evening." Hagrid smiled and reached out to help her down the golden steps of the carriage. "Let's go... but remember, don't tell anyone about tonight..."

It sounds like they're going into a grove of trees...

However, Cohen did not see Ms. Maxim refuse.

“It’s worth watching, you’ll like it,” Hagrid said as they walked. “But whatever you do, don’t tell anyone…”

“Of course I won’t say,” Ms. Maxim assured her.

Cohen and Harry followed the two half-giants along the edge of the Forbidden Forest for a very long time—until they heard a series of deafening roars.

Harry gasped, but no one could hear him, for Madam Maxim also gasped in amazement at what she saw.

Five ferocious adult fire dragons were confined in an enclosure made of thick wooden planks. They were colorful, but the sight of them was anything but pleasant.

At least forty wizards surrounded the fire dragons, eight against one. The chains and belts binding the dragons were currently useless, and the dragons angrily breathed flames at the people around them.

“It really is a dragon…” Harry whispered to Cohen.

"Shh..." Cohen put his finger to his lips, signaling Harry to be quiet, because a wizard had spotted Hagrid and Madam Maxim and was walking towards them.

"Hagrid—don't come near here—" The wizard's voice sounded young; he wasn't very tall, but he was quite strong.

The flames spewed by the dragon illuminated the wizard's hair, making it as red as Ron's.

You could tell at a glance that he was Ron's brother, Charlie Weasley, who raised dragons in Romania and was now working as a staff member to help transport these "race dragons".

"Recite the Stunning Charm! Count to three, then recite it together!" Charlie shouted back to his companions, "One—two—three!"

Dozens of stun spells were fired at the five fire dragons simultaneously, and sparks from the wand tips rained down on the dragons' thick, scaly skin.

The fire dragon, struck by the spell, stood swaying for a moment before collapsing, its mouth wide open, still emitting a silent roar, but the flames in its nostrils had disappeared.

The sound of the five fire dragons falling to the ground was like an earthquake, and many leaves were shaken off the surrounding trees.

"They're so beautiful..." Hagrid's gaze never left the dragons, especially since most of them were almost completely different from Norbert's. "Charlie, how did you bring them here?"

“We gave them sleeping pills,” Charlie said. “They were asleep the whole way here, and we thought they would feel better if they woke up in the quiet of the night—but as you can see, they’re not happy at all.”

“I recognize that one with the hump on its back,” Hagrid said, pointing to a Norwegian Spinosaurus that looked very much like Norwegian. “What kinds are the others?”

“You mean the Norwegian Spinosaurus. The other black one is the Hungarian Wood Beetle, the smaller one is the Welsh Green Dragon—the silver-blue one is the Swedish Short-nosed Dragon, and the red one is the Chinese Fireball.” Charlie pointed them out to Hagrid one by one.

Cohen and Harry had already consciously distanced themselves from Charlie and Hagrid to avoid being bumped into by Charlie.

“I quite like the color scheme of the Swedish short-nosed dragon,” Cohen whispered to Harry.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to keep them…” Harry looked at Cohen in disbelief.

“It’s just raising a few eggs, to give Norber some company,” Cohen said nonchalantly. “Besides, it’s a bit boring to see just one dark, fire-breathing dragon every day.” “…We’ve counted all the eggs, Hagrid,” Charlie sternly reminded Hagrid after he groaned at the several nests of dragon eggs in the distance. “Keeping dragons privately is illegal.”

"No, no, no," Hagrid said, but his eyes remained fixed on the dragon egg.

“Let’s go…” Harry pulled at Lacob, “You heard it too, Charlie said the eggs were all counted…”

“Just a few broken pieces will suffice,” Cohen said steadily, already having a general plan. “Nobody’s going to piece together the dragon egg fragments and count them…”

The two did not linger there; they had already achieved their purpose for coming here.

Harry learned what the first project would entail, while Cohen also decided on the type of dragon egg he would steal.

The Hungarian Wood Beetle and the Norwegian Spinosaurus are both black, which can look a bit monotonous in a box. It would be better to choose from the Swedish Short-nosed Dragon and the Chinese Fireball, as both silver-blue and bright red colors would look great.

"Who's there?"

Just as they were leaving along the path, a greasy voice rang out.

Karkarov hid in a clump of trees like a thief, turning his head to look behind him because he heard someone passing by.

However, after a long time without anyone appearing, he turned his attention back to the fire dragon.
-
"Mrs. Maxim saw it."

Back in the common room, Harry lifted his Invisibility Cloak and said uneasily,

“Kakalov saw it too—they’ll definitely tell Fleur and Krum about it.”

“Everyone cheated, which is the same as no one cheating.” Cohen nodded. “Because it’s impossible to determine whether others cheated or not, for the sake of fairness, I plan to cheat in every subsequent game—I’ve decided to call this theory the Dark Forest—”

“No, that’s not it.” Harry shook his head. “If we all knew, then there’s only one warrior who doesn’t know that the first challenge is against a dragon.”

"Very gentlemanly," Cohen commented.

“Then let’s tell Cedric tomorrow,” Harry said. “I’m wondering if I should ask Sirius about the dragons—”

“What’s there to be afraid of with the Kemeramon?” Cohen raised his eyebrows.

“If there were other ways, I really wouldn’t want to cheat using a chimera,” Harry insisted. “Otherwise, the newspapers would definitely say I’m a cheating, incompetent warrior again…”

"Fine..." Cohen shrugged. "It's up to you."

He truly deserves to be called a savior; his character is so outstanding.

Cohen felt like his very existence was cheating...

“But I also need to find an opportunity to talk to Edward about this,” Cohen said. “If it’s a fire dragon, he should be much more at ease.”

Not only Edward, but also Herbert.

Herbert knew very little about Cohen's situation. Cohen felt that if Herbert came to see his "son" fighting a fire dragon in public without knowing anything about the situation, he might get so nervous that he would want to step in and help.

(End of this chapter)