Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts.

Chapter 528 The most frightening thing is when the air suddenly goes quiet.

Of all the magical creatures, the dragon is probably the most famous and also one of the most difficult to hide from.

The reason is obvious: they are simply too enormous.

Female Rathalos are larger than male Rathalos and are more aggressive.

However, regardless of gender, no one should attempt to approach them except for well-trained and highly skilled wizards, lest they endanger their lives.

Unsurprisingly, the British Ministry of Magic assigned this creature a classification level of ×××××.

After reading the passage, Sherlock smiled and said to Hermione:
"They should really find someone with a loud voice to read it to the organizers."

Hermione nodded; she now understood why so many people had died in the Triwizard Tournament.

How can a group of wizards who are still in school face a fire dragon head-on?

This is because the competition format was changed this year, with three participants. If it were just one person...

Hermione couldn't even imagine the scene.

Sherlock just told Harry that Ravenclaw has a lot of people of the knowledge base type.

He first learned this from the Sorting Hat at the Sorting Ceremony.

This is what made him abandon Ravenclaw and switch to Gryffindor.

Since Ravenclaw has so many people like this, he himself doesn't need to enter the house to acquire knowledge.

If necessary, you can just get it directly from them.

Unexpectedly, after entering the school, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Gryffindor had a large, self-contained knowledge base.

Whenever he thinks about this, he can't help but feel a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a complex emotion encompassing

Hermione is so useful!
For example, she came in handy again right now.

As Sherlock said at the beginning, to deal with a fire dragon, you must first understand it.

Next, Hermione began to use her strengths, searching through the books for information about dragons, like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Her specialty is reading.

The skin, blood, heart, liver, and horns of a fire dragon all possess powerful magical properties.

Dragon eggs are classified as a Class A non-tradable commodity.

In other words, the fire dragon is a treasure trove.

There are ten different species of dragons, and it is understood that they occasionally interbreed, producing rare hybrids.

Based on this, Hermione focused her search on the three dragons that had been drawn into the Triwizard Tournament.

Swedish Short-nosed Dragon

A type of dragon fruit native to Sweden.

Its exterior is an attractive silver-blue, and it spews dazzling blue flames from its nostrils, capable of turning wood and bone to ashes in an instant.

Compared to most fire-breathing dragons, the Swedish Brachynotaurus committed fewer murders, but that doesn't mean they were gentle and harmless.

This is mainly because this fire dragon lives in remote, desolate mountainous areas, and it is still very dangerous in nature, ultimately being a mythical creature of the ××××× level.

[China's Fireball]

Also known as the Lion Dragon, it is a type of fire dragon native to China.

It got its name from the fact that it can shoot mushroom-shaped fireballs from its nostrils when it is angered.

Its weight is usually 2 to 4 tons, and the female fireball is larger than the male fireball.

Its outer surface is striking, with smooth scales that are scarlet in color.

It has a short, upturned nose on its face, surrounded by a ring of golden, tassel-like spikes, which makes its eyes stand out.

The eggs of the Chinese Fireball are a bright deep red with golden spots. The eggshells are highly valued and widely used in Chinese shamanistic circles.

It is important to note that the Chinese fireball is a fire dragon that is inherently aggressive.

However, compared to most fire dragons, the Chinese fireball is more tolerant of its companions.

Sometimes, they are even willing to share a territory with one or two other fire dragons.

This is extremely rare among fire dragons.

Most mammals are food for the Chinese fireball, but they generally prefer to eat humans.

Hungarian wood bee

The fire dragon, native to Hungary, is generally considered the most dangerous of all fire dragons and one of the fire dragons with the longest fire-breathing distance.

The Hungarian wood bee is a large animal covered in black scales and looks very much like a lizard.

It has yellow eyes, bronze horns, and a long tail with prominent bronze-colored spikes.

Its eggs are the same color as concrete and are exceptionally sturdy.

Even so, the baby dragon can use its tail to break through the eggshell and hatch.

This is because the tail tip is already well-developed at birth.

Hungarian wood bees primarily feed on sheep and goats, but they will also eat humans whenever possible.

"Based on this, the three fire dragons should be ranked as follows in terms of danger: Hungarian Wood Bee > Chinese Fireball > Swedish Short-nosed Dragon."

However, the book also clearly states that this does not mean the Swedish Brachynotaurus was gentle and harmless.

Hermione began her habitual muttering:
"'A treatment for trimming claws with magic, and for festering scales?'"

This is useless; it's for weirdos like Hagrid who crave the strength and power of a fire-breathing dragon.

"Dragons are extremely difficult to kill because their thick hides are infused with ancient magic, which can only be penetrated by the most powerful spells."

It's of little significance to us; we're simply not in a position to master powerful spells at this stage.

After reading the books about dragons, Hermione began to study spells:

"The Conversion Charm might be useful; it could turn its fangs into something like taffy, making it less dangerous."

The problem is, as the book says, not much can penetrate a dragon's skin, so it's not very practical.

Or use a Transfiguration spell?

But you certainly wouldn't succeed in transforming such a behemoth.

I suspect even Professor McGonagall...

Unless you cast a spell on yourself to increase your power...

But they're not just simple spells, oh Sherlock, I mean we haven't learned them in class yet.

I only learned about them when I was doing practice questions for the OWL exam...

Oh no, he's here again!
Why can't he read a book on his clumsy, dilapidated ship?

Hermione, who was studying the dragon, suddenly became irritated.

This was because Viktor Krum walked in listlessly.

As usual, he gave Sherlock and Hermione a gloomy look, then sat down in a corner in the distance with a stack of books in his arms.

Sherlock immediately realized something from Hermione's tone.

"Has he been coming over frequently lately?"

"That's right!"

Hermione gritted her teeth and said, "Sherlock, shall we go back to the common room?"

"Did he harass you?"

"This is not."

Hermione was startled and quickly said...

Krum himself wasn't the problem, but groups of girls would often hide behind the bookshelves to spy on him, and Hermione found those noises distracting.

"Just wait and see, his fan club members will be here soon, chattering away, it's so annoying..."

"He's also here to look up information related to fire dragons."

Sherlock's gaze swept over the stack of books in Krum's hands:

"But he's all alone... Professor Karkaroff really has strong likes and dislikes... Let's go, there's not much point in staying here any longer."

He and Hermione spent almost the entire day in the library, and once they were immersed in the ocean of knowledge, they even forgot to eat lunch.

As they left the library, a group of girls tiptoed past them, one of whom had a Bulgarian scarf tied around her waist.

"He's not good-looking at all!"

She glared at Krum's sharply defined profile and muttered angrily:
"They like him only because he's famous!"

If he hadn't pulled that sneaky, fake trick—"

"It's a feint."

Sherlock smiled and said, "Harry actually used it during the game too."

"Uh... okay, I mean, these girls are just so annoying!"

"It's perfectly normal to like someone just because they're famous."

"Let's not talk about him anymore, Sherlock. Have you thought of a solution?"

“That’s good. We have a preliminary idea, but we still need to do further calculations.”

Hermione, you might have a tough few days ahead of you…

Before Sherlock could finish speaking, Hermione immediately said:

"No problem! As long as it can help you, it's all worth it, no matter how hard it is!"

When Harry returned, he was told about his day's haul.

The information he received was similar to what Sherlock and Hermione had been working on.

In short: Fire dragons are beyond human power to defeat.

In particular, there are two underage wizards in the Hogwarts party.

According to Harry, Cedric has grey eyes that are very similar to Sherlock's.

But when Cedric heard Harry say that the first project was a dragon, the same fear he had felt the first time he saw a dragon the night before flashed in his eyes.

In addition, Cho Chang also expressed her concerns about Harry.

However, it also provided firm support.

After hearing what had happened, Ron also started offering suggestions:

"Could we conjure up some food to lure the fire dragon?"

“The first of the five exceptions to Gump’s Law of Transfiguration is that food cannot be conjured out of thin air,” Hermione said immediately.

“No, no, no,” Ron shook his head and said, “We don’t need to conjure up human food. For a dragon, sheep and goats are food too, aren’t they?”

Harry said with a straight face, "But to dragons, we are food too."

"Uh... I forgot about that."

"..."

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

"Tomorrow is Monday, Professor Lupin should be back by then."

Sherlock suddenly said.

"Indeed, the time since his transformation has passed..."

Hermione chimed in, "Do you want Professor Lupin to mentor us? But as a professor, he can't just help us directly, can he?"

"I don't need him to tell us how to get through the fire dragon, I just need him to verify whether my idea is feasible."

Sherlock then turned to Harry: "Brother, have you forgotten what Sirius said before he left Hogsmeade?"

Harry, reminded by Sherlock, quickly remembered.

"If you're unsure about something, ask Lu Ping... He's often calmer than I am."

Professor Lu Ping is different from other professors after all.

He was one of his father's best friends.

Even if I can't offer direct help due to my professorial status, it shouldn't be a problem to test the possibility of the idea, as Sherlock said.

Besides...

Harry had a feeling that Professor Lupin would hint at something to them.

So after a brief discussion, the matter was settled.

Monday.

While they were having breakfast in the auditorium, they saw Professor Lu Ping appear at the faculty's table.

They also learned from Fred and George that their first lesson was Defense Against the Dark Arts.

So, after finishing the herb class, they immediately rushed from the greenhouse to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

They were lucky; the air in the classroom still seemed to carry the tension of the wizards' duel.

But the young wizards were all overjoyed.

This semester, because Professor Hagrid chose the topic of the blasting snail, he was no longer able to compete with Professor Lupin for the title of most popular teacher.

Furthermore, a large part of his attention was focused on Ms. Maxim, which made the course increasingly boring and frustrating.

In fact, if he weren't able to offer some attractive rewards to maintain his classes, they would have become unpopular.

In contrast, the Defense Against the Dark Arts course became everyone's favorite.

As the students enthusiastically discussed their performance in class and imagined how to better perform and defeat their opponents next time, they poured out of the classroom like a receding tide.

Taking advantage of the others' inattention, they quickly exchanged a glance and walked in the opposite direction from everyone else.

Soon, they walked down the corridor and arrived at the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's office.

Hermione took a deep breath and gently knocked on the wooden door.

"Please come in."

A gentle but slightly weary voice came from inside the door.

Lupin is grading classwork.

Upon seeing that it was the four of them who had arrived, a look of understanding and concern immediately appeared on their faces.

He put down his quill pen, rubbed his temples, and looked somewhat tired.

Clearly, the full moon's influence on him has not completely dissipated.

"Sherlock, Harry, Hermione, Ron?"
"You've come to see me at this time... Let me think, is it about the first project?"

Professor Lupin's gaze swept over the four of them, and recalling his conversation with Sirius Black in Hogsmeade Village the previous day, he immediately understood their purpose:
"So...you've already discovered the fire dragon, is that right?"

The three people, apart from Sherlock, hesitated.

Especially Harry.

He had been worried about this—Hagrid's violation of the charter.

Following Sherlock's instructions, he didn't tell Cedric, but wasn't sure whether he should tell Lupin.

Fortunately, Lupin didn't dwell on this too much.

He sighed softly, his eyes filled with deep worry and a sense of helplessness:

“Harry, I know how difficult things are for you.”

To be honest, I was shocked when I learned about the project.

However, as your professor, my position is very delicate.

I cannot tell you directly how to get past a fire dragon.

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Ron looked a little dejected, and Harry's face turned even paler.