Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 80 I actually know quite a bit about dragons (Merry Christmas!)

In Rice's view, this was a perfect opportunity to get closer to Hagrid. Once they were close enough, he could take any materials from Hagrid's dragon, and he could also talk to Hagrid about the precautions for raising dragons—a win-win situation.

What's even better is that Hagrid, as the guard of the hunting grounds, must have accumulated quite a few good things over the years. As long as the relationship is right, all of these things can be obtained to help Rice expand his potion material reserves.

Truly precious potion ingredients are very difficult to find on the market, such as the African tree snake skin, the main ingredient of Compound Potions. This stuff is snapped up by potion masters the moment it's discovered, and it never sees the market. It's almost impossible to buy with money; you can only trade it with other potion masters for raw materials of the same quality.

Thinking of these benefits, Rice quickened his pace.

No Potions Master can refuse the opportunity to expand their inventory of ingredients. If they do, it means their passion for Potions isn't deep enough.

Led by Ron, Rice and his two companions quickly arrived at Hagrid's cabin.

All the curtains in Hagrid's cabin were drawn tightly shut. After Ron knocked on the door, Hagrid first confirmed his identity before opening the door.

Then he froze, because Ron had Rice and Daphne behind him.

"Hagrid, they can be trusted!" Ron noticed Hagrid's concerns and quickly vouched for Rice. He held up his bandaged hand to show that Rice had treated his wound.

With Ron's endorsement, Hagrid finally let Rice in, and after they entered the house, he made sure to close the door tightly.

The room reeked of blood, with chicken feathers and empty bottles scattered on the floor.

Rice immediately spotted the culprit: a fire-breathing dragon, about the size of a hound, frantically tearing something apart under Hagrid's bed. Judging from its scales and tail fin, it was indeed a Norwegian Spinosaurus.

After confirming the dragon's condition, Rice began to observe Hagrid's living environment.

Hagrid's cabin was rather cramped, a small wooden cabin with only one room. Hams, pheasants, and rabbits hung from the ceiling. A fireplace sat against the wall, with a kettle on it where Hagrid usually boiled water. His bed was in the corner of the room, its patchwork quilt torn to shreds by the fire dragon.

The magical fluctuations inside the room were quite intense, only slightly less than Snape's potion storage room, which made Rice secretly alarmed.

He looked around, his attention finally drawn to something hanging among the ham and pheasant: a tuft of silver hair, inconspicuously hidden among the various smoked meats. Rice looked closer, then his pupils dilated for a moment: it was a huge tuft of unicorn hair!

This bundle of precious animal fur, enough to be exchanged for a large bag of Galleons, hung casually on the ceiling, almost overlooked by Rice.

Rice took another closer look at the furnishings in the room, and then made some more astonishing discoveries: the bundle of hay next to the firewood in the corner looked more and more like fern shoots; the basket for holding odds and ends seemed to be made of laurel wood; there seemed to be a few pieces of firestone in the fireplace stones; and the wooden stick on the ceiling used to hang game was, according to Rice, the heartwood of an oak tree that was at least three hundred years old...

Rice took a deep breath, realizing that if he hadn't sold the "burial goods," Hagrid would probably be much richer than him.

"Sit down, please sit down. Would you like some tea?" Hagrid warmly invited the three of them to sit down and brought over a huge teapot.

"Hagrid, that fire dragon..." Rice tried to get straight to the point.

"Its name is Norber, haha, I didn't expect you to find out." A hint of embarrassment flashed across Hagrid's face.

"Yes, I know. I guessed it when you borrowed the book that day." Rice took the steaming teacup from Hagrid.

"Is that so?" Hagrid scratched his head. "I thought I was hiding it pretty well."

"What preparations did you make to raise the dragon, Hagrid? Did you just read those few books?" Rice put the teacup back on the table and asked very seriously.

"Yes, I consulted as many books as possible." Hagrid also became serious.

"Your preparations are far from adequate," Rice said bluntly. "Ron's injury is just the beginning. If you continue like this, something much worse will happen sooner or later. This time he was just bitten, next time he might lose an arm."

Ron's face turned pale as he recalled the rumors his brother Charlie had told him.

Rice glanced at Norber, who was chewing on the bed leg. "It needs training. You need to teach it what's right and what's wrong."

"Nober is just a child, it's still small—"

"It will be too late once it grows up." Rice felt his patience was slowly running out.

"You know what will happen if it grows up like this."

Hagrid fell silent.

Rice's words were cruel, but they were the reality. Once Norber becomes a fully grown fire dragon, if it remains this disobedient, it's highly likely it will be killed—even fire dragon reserves won't take in fire dragons with overly volatile tempers.

"Also, raising dragons is illegal now."

Hagrid pursed his lips, and the room fell into a long silence, with only the dragon Norber and the flames in the fireplace making any noise.

"I, I..." Hagrid opened his mouth, unsure how to answer.

"I can contact my brother Charlie. He's researching dragons in Romania, and he'd definitely be happy to take Norbert," Ron quickly interjected, trying to smooth things over.

Rice glanced at him. His initial idea was for Hagrid to release Norber into the Forbidden Forest, which, given its size and resources, could easily accommodate a dozen or so dragons.

“Training a fire dragon isn’t actually that difficult,” Daphne said. “I think I have some old documents at home; I’ll get them for you later.”

"That's great, that's great!" Hagrid exclaimed excitedly, thanking them repeatedly. However, he was so overwhelmed with emotion that he ran out of words and could only repeat a few phrases over and over again.

"Very good." Rice smiled and looked at Hagrid, asking if he minded if he would give Norber a physical examination.

"To be honest, I actually know quite a bit about fire dragons."

Rice was not lying.

When the four of them first moved here, the Forbidden Forest next to Hogwarts was inhabited by many fire dragons. These energetic creatures often came out to attack Helga's livestock. So, to expand the potion storage room and guard the livestock pens, Rice cleaned the Forbidden Forest of fire dragons.

In this process, he indeed gained a deep understanding and research on fire dragons.

"Really? That's great, go ahead!" Hagrid had no idea about these old stories, and he waved his hand, agreeing to Rice's request.

"Thank you." The smile on Rice's face sent a chill down Hagrid's spine.

He was a little confused: Was a window left open? It looked like the fire in the stove needed to be turned up a bit more.

As for the fire dragon Norber, it alertly raised its head, seemingly sensing something amiss.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The third update is here! Goodnight, everyone! And Merry Christmas!

(End of this chapter)