This action suddenly made the somewhat frightening baby dragon seem less terrifying—but Harry and the others still refused to touch it.
"Just how fast does a dragon grow, Hagrid?"
Hermione was still a little worried, because a spark from Norbert's sneeze had scorched a corner of the table.
It had only been born five minutes ago!
"If given enough nutrition, it should grow to the size of a young adult in just a few months!" Hagrid said happily.
Hagrid, the faster it grows, the easier it will be to be discovered..." Harry interrupted him gently.
Hagrid, however, didn't seem to care much—especially after Cohen had mentioned that there was a place in the castle where it could be kept.
After leaving Hagrid's hut, the three of them were filled with curiosity about the secret room in the castle that Cohen had mentioned.
So Cohen decided to take them to see it—not his own secret base, of course, but to show them what the Room of Requirement looked like as a dragon breeding farm.
After Cohen walked back and forth along the eighth-floor corridor three times, the Room of Requirement opened a door leading to the "vast wilderness."
"Here it is," Cohen said to the three of them as he pushed open the door.
The boundless, open landscape beyond the door made Harry, Ron, and Hermione stare wide-eyed.
After everyone had entered the door, Cohen closed it to prevent any students who happened to be passing by this dead-end corridor from seeing it.
The sun even hung in the sky inside, and cotton-candy-like clouds drifted across the azure sky. If it weren't for Cohen's reminder, they would have thought that this led to the real outdoors.
"This must be some very profound magic—I've never even seen it in a book!" Hermione looked around in awe. "Does it have no boundaries?"
"It probably does."
Cohen casually tossed a spell into the distance. The red spell flew a long distance before disappearing after sparking as if it had hit a wall.
"But it can definitely fit a dragon, and Hagrid can come here often to see it—and bring it some food or something," Cohen said.
"This must be the old school's animal farm," Harry guessed. "Such a big room, it can keep a lot of animals—how did you figure that out, Cohen?"
"There are a bunch of secret rooms and passages in the castle. When you come across something strange, you have to try it out and satisfy your curiosity, right?" Cohen explained. "Like that staircase on the fifth floor, at first we didn't know that if you called it 'idiot,' it would take you to the seventh floor."
"I didn't know that either—" Ron said cautiously. "No wonder you were behind us when we went to astronomy class last time, but you got to the roof first…"
After confirming that the room could accommodate a dragon, Harry and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
Thanks to the Invisibility Cloak, they only needed to secretly transport Norbert to this room before Hagrid raised him to be bigger than a person.
If everything went smoothly, the plan would begin in two weeks.
Unfortunately, this plan was interrupted by a certain white-bearded old man.
Apparently, some ghost or painting had overheard words like "Hogwarts" and "raising dragons" from the "Gryffindor Mischief Squad," and on the third day after the little dragon hatched, a book with a phoenix tail feather appeared on Cohen's bedside table.
"I want to go home!" Cohen complained angrily in the Room of Requirement, carrying the book Dumbledore had sent him. "Some perverted old man sent his pet to break into the boys' dormitory at night!"
"Then I'll expose him for you. Tomorrow morning I'll go to the Great Hall and loudly condemn Dumbledore for sexually harassing students," the Earl said casually, guarding a white bird egg.
"You really are a genius," Cohen praised.
But doing so would only provoke Dumbledore to take some coercive measures to protect his reputation—who knew what would happen if you pushed this arrogant, kind old man too far?
Cohen would most likely not die, but the Earl would certainly turn into a charcoal-roasted Scottish chicken.
The book Dumbledore sent was The Application of the Unmarked Expansion Charm in Architecture—Cohen had heard the title before; Mr. Ollivander had mentioned it before he bought the wand, because Cohen had shown curiosity about how the wand shop was "bigger inside than outside."
Tucked inside the book was a letter containing a few sentences written in Dumbledore's signature thin, artistic handwriting.
[I heard you also love magical creatures. Perhaps this book will be helpful—it once helped one of my students, Newt Scamander, build a magical suitcase that provided his magical creatures with a safe and comfortable home.]
[Also, please do not keep dangerous animals in Hogwarts Castle, lest they harm your classmates and friends. If you have any research difficulties, feel free to seek help from the Headmaster's office. I really like swarms of cockroaches.]
Cohen summarized that Dumbledore meant, "You are not allowed to keep dragons in Hogwarts."
Actually, Dumbledore's concerns were valid; who knew if a student might accidentally wander into the dragon breeding grounds in the Room of Requirement—in which case Norbert might very well swallow that lost student whole.
"I don't really want to admit my mistake," Cohen stubbornly said, "but this time I'll reluctantly—hmm? Earl, what's that thing under your butt?!"
Cohen then realized that the Earl seemed…liked…probably…
"You really are a catgirl!"
"Catgirl my ass!"
The Earl was a little irritable because he was protecting the eggs. Parents are all like this: "I'm the male! I didn't lay these eggs…"
"You and Hedwig finally got together?" Cohen asked curiously, "I thought you weren't very good in that area—"
"That's because Hedwig didn't want to lay eggs in winter." The Earl said logically, "Now that spring is almost here, I'm planning to raise a few sons and daughters first…"
As for why the Earl was the one incubating the eggs instead of Hedwig, the Earl summarized the reason as "Hedwig's living environment is too simple and therefore unsuitable."
But the Earl's busy raising the eggs also had one benefit: he finally stopped nagging—Cohen's reading environment was much better than before.
Since he couldn't keep the dragon in the Room of Requirement, Cohen had to make a choice: either send the dragon away or, following Dumbledore's advice, create a Newt-style trunk.
The latter was clearly more appealing; a mobile base was something most people longed for in their childhood—Cohen was no exception.
Cohen had previously tried turning that horned beast pocket or the old trunk into a long-term, stable small base, but the magic always dissipated over time, causing the interior space to shrink considerably.
And it would always be a dark, gloomy environment, making it difficult to create any pleasant decorating style.
Keeping a troll or unicorn there for a short time was fine, but for long-term habitation… Cohen wanted the base to resemble a proper base.
This book did offer many solutions from the perspectives of alchemy and ancient runes, and with Dumbledore's promise in the letter that "help could be sought at the Headmaster's office at any time," creating such a trunk didn't seem difficult.
"Let's get started!"
Join p4treon for advanced chapters...
Need support for study...
[email protected]/Horizons685
(End of Chapter)