The Return to Hogwarts

The rhythm of the dance changed, revealing a different kind of magic that miraculously harmonized with the body movements. The movements were slow and fluid, lacking the allure of self-expression that had been present before, but instead filled with a sense of peace that soothed the soul, like a gentle breeze meeting the sunset on an autumn day, leaving one mesmerized.

The Welsh green dragon immediately became drowsy. It gracefully flapped its wings a few times before lying down to sleep.

At this moment, Hibiscus was also nearing her limit. This wondrous magic was not only consuming her physical strength, but also putting her under immense mental strain.

The moment the Welsh green dragon began to snore, Fleur collapsed to the ground, her forehead and cheeks beaded with sweat, her eyes glazed over. However, she still remembered her mission and, among several brownish-gray dragon eggs, found the golden one that stood out from the rest.

The moment Fleur's hand touched the dragon egg, not only she, but even Ludo, the commentator, breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to say something when the sleeping Welsh green dragon suddenly snorted, and a small mushroom-shaped cloud of flame emerged from between its jaws, briefly touching Fleur's calf—

"Don't worry, Orim--"

After Fleur was hurriedly carried offstage by a group of healers, Mrs. Maxime immediately wanted to leave her seat to visit Fleur, but Dumbledore grabbed her sleeve.

"I believe the competition outfits provided by Amosta are effective. The most important thing now is to score Ms. Delacour's excellent performance."

Fleur's performance was brilliant. If it weren't for the final burn from the fire dragon and the fact that she hesitated for too long while thinking about how to bring down the Welsh green dragon, she should have been able to outdo Cedric with her extremely endearing magic.

Dumbledore, Crouch, and Bagman all gave it an eight, while Mrs. Maxime gave it a nine and Karkaroff gave it a seven. In the end, Fleur trailed Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts by one point.

"Hogwarts is in the lead for now!"

Harry and Sirius had just gone to find Hermione, but they hadn't managed to talk to her much. The staff in the tent wouldn't allow them to disturb the warriors at that time, so the two of them ran back dejectedly. Because Sirius couldn't show his face, the father and son hid in the exit passage.

Seeing the score displayed on the large screen above the arena, Harry happily pumped his fist, then said indignantly,

"The principal of Durmstrang only gave Cedric 6 points. I'd like to see how he plans to score when his Warriors come on the court!"

"Don't even think about it, Harry—" Sirius was also clapping for Fleur. After hearing Harry's complaint, he smiled contemptuously. "It's unrealistic to expect someone like Karkaroff to be objective and fair. I bet you that even if Krum manages to complete the challenge, no matter how badly he performs, Karkaroff will still give him a perfect score."

Harry was about to express his indignation at Sirius's opinion when a loud voice suddenly flashed into his line of sight. He instinctively wanted to warn Sirius to get out of the way.

"Don't worry, Harry, it's Hagrid—"

Sirius Black brushed Harry's hand aside, grinning as he prepared to greet Hagrid. However, upon seeing Hagrid's terrified expression, Sirius's brow furrowed, and his expression turned serious.

"What's going on, Hagrid?"

"Oh, Sirius!" Hagrid was clearly not expecting to see the father and son here either. He stopped in his tracks and said in surprise, "And Harry, what are you doing hiding here?"

"Never mind that for now, Hagrid!"

Harry realized that something was wrong with Hagrid, and he asked anxiously.

"What happened, Hagrid? Where are you going?"

Faced with their questioning, Hagrid hesitated, but after Harry's repeated urging, he cautiously turned around to look behind him. Confirming no one was there, Hagrid wiped the sweat from his brow and nervously whispered, "..."

"Phew—you guessed right, something went wrong!"

Panic flickered in Hagrid's small, beetle-like eyes as he gasped for breath.

"Professor Blaine just secretly sent me a message. There's a fire dragon, oh, the one Hermione has to deal with, that's not quite right!"

In that instant, a multitude of thoughts flashed through Harry's mind.

What's going on? Is it related to Hermione again?!

"What's wrong with that fire dragon? Explain yourself, Hagrid!" Sirius shouted.

"They... I mean Charlie's dragon trainers, they gave several dragons restorative drugs. They had previously used sedatives to put the dragons to sleep, and the other three all recovered smoothly."

Hagrid said, panting.

"Only the Chinese fireball that Hermione had to deal with remained asleep. Charlie and Professor Blaine examined it and concluded that someone had given the Chinese fireball an overdose of paralyzing potion and sleeping pills, causing it to remain asleep."

A paralyzing potion. A potion!

Harry's face turned pale, and Snape's name immediately popped into his head.

"Then what are you going to do, Hagrid?" Sirius frowned deeply. "What's it to you? I mean, if Charlie and Amostella need someone who knows about potions, shouldn't they go to Snotnose?"

"Oh, here's the problem--"

Hagrid still couldn't overcome his nervousness; beads of sweat kept pouring down his forehead.

"Charlie said that they've been inseparable from the fire dragon all this time, even at night, and there are guards. They haven't seen any strangers approach the fire dragon, let alone feed it medicine, except for me—"

Hagrid swallowed hard, looking like he was about to face a terrible disaster.

"I've been the only one responsible for feeding the dragon--"

Chapter 625 The Truth

2023-11-30

"Impossible!" Harry's mind went blank for a few seconds before he came to his senses. He said firmly, "Professor Blaine and Charlie won't suspect you of poisoning the dragon Hermione was supposed to fight, Hagrid!"

"I don't know—" Hagrid said慌张地, "I was just about to go check on the situation—"

"Where are they, Hagrid? Let's go together!"

Sirius said he was clearly aware of the seriousness of the matter. Now, the eyes of the entire European wizarding world were on Hogwarts. If something went wrong in front of so many people, what would people say? All sorts of rumors could circulate.

Led by Hagrid, the three hurried along the edge of the arena, making a short loop, until they reached the tunnel where the dragon was temporarily housed. When they arrived, the dragon trainers were already carrying the sleeping Welsh green dragon into the tunnel in a wagon, blocking the passageway, so Harry and his friends had to wait on the side.

After the Welsh green dragon went down, the dragon trainers quickly pushed a black fire dragon out of the tunnel ramp.

Hey!

Sirius gasped when he saw the Hungarian tree peak, and Harry also looked horrified.

This fire dragon with dark scales had a ferocious appearance. It was much larger than the Swedish short-nosed dragon and the Welsh green dragon from last time. Even when it was huddled in its cage and could not stretch out its body, it was still at least thirty feet long. Moreover, its neck and tail were covered with sharp bronze spikes!

This terrifying tree peak was much more spirited than the previous two dragons. It let out a series of shrill roars and banged against the iron cage. The dragon tamers escorting it dared not approach the cage and only used magic to propel the carriage forward.

Why doesn't it breathe fire?

Harry suddenly asked a nonsensical question.

"They used a fire-prevention spell to immobilize it; otherwise, no one would dare approach it while it was awake!"

Despite the trouble that had come his way, Hagrid's gaze toward the tree peak remained filled with longing.

Harry had no idea how Krum planned to deal with the behemoth; he was just glad he wasn't the one dealing with such a terrifying creature.

“Let’s go—” Sirius said with a hint of regret, “Let’s hurry and get to the bottom of this, maybe we can still catch a glimpse of the ending—”

The three of them jogged down into the underground pit, which was a huge underground space. Torches were stuck in the rock walls all around, illuminating the cave brightly and making it warm and cozy.

Fleur's Welsh green dragon was still asleep, while Cedric's Swedish short-nosed dragon was awake, but it couldn't move. Harry noticed that the short-nosed dragon's massive body was completely bound by a gray, transparent, chain-like magical rune.

These magical runes coiled around the short-nosed dragon's entire body, emitting a faint glow that solidified the surrounding space.

There were two holes in the hole, two people and a silver phoenix hovering in mid-air. Harry only hesitated for a moment before realizing who the phoenix was. It was Professor Dumbledore. On the night of the Quidditch World Cup, Professor Dumbledore used this form to send a message to Professor Blaine.

"Are you here?"

Hearing the noise, Amosta, who had his hands behind his back, turned around and smiled slightly at the three people.

what happened?

A flicker of confusion crossed Harry's eyes. Another unexpected turn of events had occurred during the Triwizard Tournament, and while the match was in progress, Professor Blaine didn't seem to be in a particularly bad mood. The silver phoenix's azure eyes were also fixed on them, as calm and unwavering as ever.

Charlie's performance was exactly as Harry and his friends had expected. He knelt before the red dragon, which resembled a puddle of mud, looking utterly defeated. He struggled to scrape some black, ointment-like substance from between the dragon's fangs, and there was already quite a bit of this ointment on the ground at its feet.

"Give me an explanation, Hagrid!"

Charlie also noticed Hagrid walking in. He didn't care for the fact that Harry and Sirius were there either, and angrily yelled at Hagrid.

"Professor Dumbledore, Professor Blaine—"

Hagrid cried out in bewilderment. He rushed forward and stared at the black goo on the ground. His sun-baked face turned deathly pale in an instant.

"Oh, this...this, I bought this from Knockturn Alley--"

Hagrid stared blankly at the silver phoenix. "It's something I use to quiet down the magical creatures in the Forbidden Forest. You know, Professor Dumbledore, those guys love to fight, and I have to quiet them down while I'm healing them—"

Harry and Sirius stared at Hagrid in astonishment. They knew Hagrid very well; they knew that although he was often confused, he was never careless when dealing with magical creatures, and dragons were among Hagrid's most beloved magical creatures. How could he—

"Are you out of your mind, Hagrid!"

Charlie wiped the black grime off his fingers on his robe, stood up, and said angrily,

"How could you mix this stuff into the feed for this Chinese fireball? There must be at least twenty pounds of it. Don't tell me you're planning to get yourself a dragon egg while the fire dragon is in a daze!"

Harry couldn't argue with Hagrid anymore; perhaps Hagrid really might risk everything for the dragon egg.

"I didn't, Professor Dumbledore!"

Hagrid cried out in grievance,

"The food I prepared for the four dragons last night was all their favorite food. They have been eating this for the past ten days or so without any problems."

"Did you personally deliver the food to the dragon, Hagrid?" Dumbledore asked calmly.

"No, there was a bit of a strife in the forest. Those centaurs suddenly went crazy and started driving away the magical creatures nearby. Aragog's descendants suffered heavy casualties, and he sent a little guy to tell me, so I went to check it out."

"Then who did you entrust with this?"

Sirius asked seriously, having also realized the problem.

"It's Dom—"

Hagrid gasped for breath, as if someone were choking him.

"It's been helping me deliver food to the dragon all this time, and it knows that path very well. Oh, I think it's quite brave; it was too scared to get close to the dragon at first."