Hogwarts: This holy light is righteously evil

Chapter 170 Frost Dragon

Inside Hagrid's cabin, a warm fire continuously warmed the air, and a stew pot sat steadily on the fire, inside which lay the carefully nurtured dragon egg.

Puni looked at Hagrid, who was constantly anxious and staring intently at the dragon egg, and patiently reassured him once again.

"You don't need to be so anxious. The incubation period of dragon eggs is naturally long and extremely stable. They won't hatch prematurely. Especially now that there is no mother dragon to keep them warm with her natal dragon fire, we can only rely on artificial constant temperature cultivation. Only by proceeding step by step and waiting for them to develop can we maximize the chances of the baby dragon being born smoothly and avoid the risk of premature death."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat around the wooden table, already very familiar with this explanation.

In just a few days, Puni had explained the incubation principle to the eager Hagrid several times, but Hagrid still couldn't suppress his anticipation and would ask about the dragon egg's condition every now and then.

Everyone could clearly see that Hagrid had long regarded the dragon egg as his child, taking care of it with all his heart, just like a parent eagerly awaiting the birth of their offspring.

Despite the calm of the crowd, Hagrid spoke earnestly about his discovery.

"This time is different from the past. Yesterday I clearly observed the eggshell trembling slightly several times, and the little guy inside was moving. It will most likely hatch soon."

Hagrid spoke with absolute certainty.

To confirm the truth, Puni got up and approached the fire, bending down to conduct a thorough and detailed inspection of the dragon egg in the pot.

He carefully sensed the constant temperature value on the surface of the eggshell and explored the activity of internal life signs through the patterns on the eggshell, quickly figuring out the abnormal situation.

Judging from the basic temperature, the overall heat of the dragon egg is far below the standard for a regular fire dragon to hatch, and it does not meet the basic conditions for the hatchling to emerge.

However, contrary to this, the life force inside the egg is exceptionally active and vigorous. All developmental indicators show that the young dragon has entered the final stage of incubation and will most likely hatch within a few days.

In the quiet wooden cabin, the sounds of friction and pecking continued to emanate from inside the eggshell. Hagrid, who had been guarding the egg closely, noticed the unusual activity immediately and tensed up instantly. He dared not leave the dragon egg for even a moment, for fear of missing the moment the baby dragon was born. He could only quickly pick up parchment and a quill pen and write two short letters.

He then summoned two manor owls, secured the letters to their claws, and urged them to set off immediately to deliver the messages, informing Puni and Harry to come.

Two owls took flight from the wooden house one after the other.

At that moment, Penny and Harry were both training in the castle's dueling club, in the same training room, which led the two letters to the same destination.

The training atmosphere in the Duel Club was intense when the door was gently pushed open, and two owls flew into the room one after the other. The sudden appearance of the birds startled all the students in the room, and everyone turned to look, their hearts filled with surprise.

Everyone noticed that the two owls came from the same source, clearly from the same person who sent the letters, yet they were delivered to Puni and Harry. This aroused their curiosity, and they began to speculate about the contents of the letters.

Puni raised his hand and took the letter from between his claws. He swept the light across the hurried and hasty handwriting on the paper, which contained only a few words about the dragon egg being about to hatch.

Looking at Hagrid's hastily written handwriting, he could imagine the other's nervous yet excited expression. His original intention to tease him for making a mountain out of a molehill vanished instantly, and all the helplessness in his heart turned into understanding.

He reached out and took out a few nuts to feed the messenger owl, then soothed the bird before turning to look at Draco, who was sparring with him, and abruptly ended today's training session.

"Today's training is now over. We'll cover the rest another day."

Before Draco could respond, Puni had already turned and walked through the crowd to find Qiu, who was also at the club. After a brief greeting, they left the training room side by side.

Draco tried to peek at the contents of the letter, but Puni deliberately covered it up the whole time, preventing him from seeing a single word.

Draco, who had been focused on training, felt a surge of resentment as he watched the two figures hurry away.

Not long after, he saw Harry and Ron also hurriedly leaving the room together, clearly having received the same message and preparing to go out.

The fact that everyone left at the same time completely piqued his curiosity. After weighing his options for a moment, he finally couldn't resist and quietly followed them.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside Hagrid's cabin was lively.

Ron stared at the scene before him, unable to contain his excitement, and cheered loudly.

"It's out! The baby dragon has really hatched!"

The dragon egg above the fire had already cracked most of its shell, and a young dragon with a bright blue body was slowly breaking free from the egg's restraints. Its tender body was still covered with a layer of transparent, viscous amniotic membrane, just like when it was born. Its limbs were still soft and weak, and it could only clumsily lie in the cracked eggshell.

Ron's excited shouts were particularly jarring. The rest of the people in the room remained calm, but Hermione could no longer bear it. She raised her hand and lightly slapped him, the force of which made Ron stagger and almost fall off his chair.

Her eyes held a warning, signaling Ron to remain quiet and not disturb the newborn dragon.

But Ron was too excited to sit still and immediately got up to argue with Hermione. The sound of their bickering filled the small cabin.

It was also the first time that Qiu had witnessed the entire process of a dragon hatching. She had come with Puni and was gazing at the newborn dragon with great interest, carefully observing its shape and movements.

The incessant noise interrupted her interest, so she raised her hand to make a shushing gesture, signaling the two to stop arguing and keep the room quiet.

Hermione and Ron immediately covered their mouths to suppress the noise of their argument, and quietly leaned down to gaze at the newly hatched dragon, their eyes fixed on the azure-blue newborn magical creature, not daring to make the slightest noise to disturb it.

From the moment the baby dragon broke free of its egg, Hagrid's emotions were completely filled with ecstasy.

Unable to contain his excitement, he repeatedly grabbed Puni's clothes and shook them gently with unrestrained force, the repeated pulling and shaking making Puni dizzy.

Overjoyed, Hagrid paid no attention to the state of others. Unable to suppress his curiosity and affection, he slowly reached out his broad palm and gently stroked the young dragon's tender chin.

Puni stood aside, wanting to speak up and stop this somewhat reckless action, but after a slight twitch of his finger, he ultimately chose to remain silent.

He secretly thought that it might not be a bad thing to let Hagrid, who had no experience in raising dragons, suffer a small loss and learn a lesson, so that he would know the special nature and danger of young dragons.

Since hatching, the baby dragon has remained quietly nestled in the broken eggshell, without making a sound.

But the moment Hagrid's fingertips touched its chin, it suddenly opened its small mouth and spat out a murky liquid.

This clump of liquid has a sticky texture and is exactly the same as the amniotic fluid covering the surface of the young dragon's body. It is the waste nutrient solution left over from the embryonic development stage of the dragon egg, which is equivalent to the amniotic fluid waste left over during biological development. It has no special power in itself.

Hagrid's palms were completely stained, the wet and sticky sensation was particularly noticeable, but he did not feel the slightest disgust or resistance.

Instead, worried that the residual waste fluid in the baby dragon's throat might not be completely drained, affecting its subsequent breathing and development, I raised my hand again and gently rubbed the baby dragon's lower jaw, wanting to help it clean it thoroughly.

Under the second stimulation, the young dragon opened its mouth again and spewed liquid.

This time, the substance ejected was completely different from the previous waste liquid. It was no longer a turbid waste liquid, but a clear and transparent liquid sphere, which occupied almost a quarter of the young dragon's body. It was suspended in mid-air and emitted a low-temperature halo.

Sensing the unusually low temperature and chill, Hagrid immediately withdrew his hand and dodged backward to avoid it.

However, the liquid was sprayed at an extremely fast speed. He was half a step too slow to dodge, and a small amount of liquid landed on the back of his hand. It quickly condensed upon contact, forming a thin, fine layer of ice crystals on the surface of his skin. The piercingly low temperature spread along his skin.

This dragon is a special breed cultivated by Puni; it is no longer a fire dragon, but rather an ice dragon.

This was only the effect of a small amount of liquid; most of the detached, low-temperature liquid clumps fell directly onto the wooden tabletop next to them, where they solidified and froze instantly upon landing.

Ice crystals spread rapidly in all directions from the point of impact, forming dense, sharp ice ridges that covered the entire tabletop, and the low temperature instantly enveloped half of the wooden house.

Witnessing this special ice ability firsthand, Puni's eyes flashed with obvious interest, his curiosity completely piqued by the mutated young dragon's unique physique.

"This attack method is very special, completely different from the innate abilities of a regular fire dragon."

Puni sighed softly, his gaze fixed on the young dragon, and he raised his hand, ready to take the initiative to touch it and test its condition and abilities.

Upon seeing this, the others in the room immediately tensed up and spoke up in unison to warn Puni, fearing that the low-temperature ice ability might accidentally injure him.

Qiu reacted the fastest, immediately raising her hand to grab Puni's wrist and steadily pulling his outstretched arm back, her eyes full of worry.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, nothing will happen."

Puni raised his hand and gently patted Qiu's shoulder, his tone firm and steady, before slowly reaching out to approach the young dragon again.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued to whisper reminders and dissuade him, but Cho no longer intervened.

She knew Puni's abilities and judgment; as long as he was certain about something, nothing unexpected would happen.

As they had predicted, things turned out just as they had.

Puni's fingertips gently landed on the young dragon's head and chin, the movements soft and gentle, without the slightest offense.

The young dragon, which had been so easily triggered to spew ice spray just moments before, was now unusually docile and obedient. It showed no anger whatsoever, nor any sign of spitting out cold liquid again. It simply nestled obediently under his fingertips, being unusually docile.

Hagrid, who had just finished cleaning the ice crystals off the back of his hand, witnessed this scene and felt a pang of jealousy.

He meticulously incubated and cared for the dragon egg day after day, spending countless efforts to protect its development. However, the newly hatched dragon was unusually affectionate and docile towards Puni, whom it was meeting for the first time.

Hagrid had already named the young dragon Norber. Even though the dragon was still unfamiliar with him, he firmly believed that with long-term, careful care, they would eventually be able to get closer to each other.

To better care for the newborn dragon, Hagrid turned and looked around the cabin, searching for the supplementary food he had prepared in advance, intending to feed it to Norber to replenish his strength.

But just as he glanced out the window, he suddenly noticed a faint figure hiding in the shadows outside the window frame, secretly peering into the room.

"Who's outside!"

Hagrid shouted, his booming voice instantly echoing in the cramped wooden cabin.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Cho, who were all prepared, were startled by the sudden roar and froze.

Startled by the noise, the still tender and sensitive young dragon instinctively trembled, opened its mouth again, and spat out a new ball of low-temperature liquid, which flew straight toward Puni's face.

Faced with the rapidly approaching low-temperature liquid mass, Puni remained calm and showed no sign of panic.

He kept his wand in his left hand, and with a slight twist of his wrist, he activated a weak spell, freezing the liquid in mid-air in front of him and blocking its flight path.

The liquid clump suspended in mid-air remained in a liquid state, showing no signs of freezing or solidifying.

Based on the phenomena observed earlier, such cryogenic liquids would instantly freeze into ice and form icicles if they landed, came into contact with external objects, or were subjected to vibration. However, since they were magically frozen and suspended, they maintained a stable liquid state.

While everyone's attention was focused on the frozen, low-temperature liquid in mid-air, Puni, while maintaining the stability of his magic, calmly diverted his attention and spoke to determine the identity of the spy outside the window.

"Don't be nervous, the person outside is most likely Draco. Harry, go out and call him in."

After a long period of getting to know each other and working together, Harry had come to trust Penny completely and would almost never disobey his orders.

He immediately stood up, pushed open the cabin door, and saw Draco turning around to quietly return to the castle.

"Malfoy! Puni wants you to come in."

Harry's voice pierced the night wind and reached Draco's ears.

Draco, who had been quickly retreating, stopped in his tracks. Even he himself was puzzled. He stopped his escape and turned back towards the cabin.

He was filled with resentment and unwillingness. He repeatedly reviewed his actions and concluded that he had not done anything wrong. The real ones who violated the rules were the group of people in the house who were secretly raising dragons.

Draco's heart was filled with conflicting emotions.

He knew that hatching and taming dragons without permission was strictly prohibited by the International Wizarding Code, and that everyone in the house would be held accountable if the matter was reported to the Ministry of Magic.

Logically, he should have reported it immediately, but deep down, he harbored an undisguised envy and an intense longing to get close to this mysterious baby dragon that had just hatched.

While secretly resolving to expose everyone's misbehavior as soon as he finished looking at the baby dragon, he obediently walked into Hagrid's cabin without stopping.

As Draco walked in through the door, Puni casually offered a very tempting invitation.

"Draco, since you're here, why not go up and try touching this newborn dragon?"

Draco's expression tightened instantly, and he secretly retorted with great pride.

As the heir to the Malfoy family, his vision and composure far surpass those of ordinary people. He would never be easily bought off by such simple favors, nor would he compromise so easily.

But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, his body gave him the exact opposite answer.

"Can."

Draco strode to the wooden table, reached out his palm, and carefully stroked the young dragon's cool, smooth scales, completely immersed in this novel experience.

His inner thoughts and physical actions were completely disconnected; he still maintained a proud bottom line, but his body had already obediently submitted.

Draco's movements were rather exaggerated, and he appeared somewhat agitated. If Puni hadn't secretly cast a buffering spell to suppress him, this sensitive ice dragon would most likely have been startled and sprayed him with cryogenic liquid on the spot.

Draco was stroking the young dragon's back repeatedly, not yet having fully experienced the novel sensation, when a crisp mechanical sound suddenly rang out beside him.

He looked up and saw Qiu holding a magic camera, just pressing the shutter to capture the entire scene of him bending down to stroke the baby dragon.