Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts.

Chapter 81 Grasping the Wings of Destiny

"Roar!" Overwhelmed by a strange sense of crisis, Norber chose to roar to dispel the fear and potential danger in his heart. But this did not scare Rice away. In his eyes, adult fire dragons were just potion ingredients. How could he possibly care about a fire dragon cub that was only a few weeks old?

He nimbly moved to a blind spot beside Norber, and before Norber could react, he grabbed the base of its two wings and lifted it up.

Hagrid was horrified. He jumped to his feet, intending to stop Rice from being bitten by the dragon. However, he was surprised to find that Norbert, who was usually grumpy and unruly, was now more docile than his chickens, letting Rice grab its wings and move it around.

"Although fire dragons stay in their mother's nest after hatching until they reach sub-adulthood, adult fire dragons occasionally need to move or relocate their young. At these times, they will pick up the young fire dragons by their wings and carry them in their mouths. This habit gives young fire dragons an extra 'switch' at the base of their wings. Just touch this spot, and even the most mischievous little fire dragon will quiet down." Rice, holding Norbert's hand, explained the "Dragon Taming Guide" to Hagrid.

Hagrid was quite intrigued after hearing this. Seeing Hagrid's eagerness, Rice sighed inwardly: How dare he hatch a dragon when he doesn't even know these basic facts?

"Alright, it's time to start the examination." Since Hagrid was so unprofessional, Rice simply took over Hagrid's role, perked up, and seriously examined Norber's physical condition.

Fortunately, this little dragon is quite healthy and doesn't have any major problems, except for one thing...

"So why did you give her such a masculine name?" Rice was puzzled. He was clearly holding a female dragon, yet it had a boy's name. Considering Hagrid's situation, he had a pretty sure guess.

"What?! Norbert is a girl?!" Hagrid's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Huh?" Daphne and Ron exclaimed in unison, Hagrid's reaction really surprised them.

"Hagrid, you've had it for over three weeks..." Ron found it hard to express his feelings in words, as did Rice and Daphne.

Hagrid smiled sheepishly, stroking his half-burnt beard with his scarred hands: "I wanted to see it, but Norbert wouldn't let me, and I couldn't really force him, so it's been delayed until now."

Rice sighed, speechless at Hagrid's unreliability.

He went to Hagrid's bedside and threw Norber under the bed.

The bewildered little fire dragon rolled around under the bed. Realizing it was free, it immediately shrank into the corner and stared warily at the feet of the people outside.

"I'll go get you something to eat first, Rhys Lint, right? We can also have a good chat about how to raise dragons." Hagrid walked out of the room with heavy steps and a light hum, to prepare lunch.

Hagrid's dish is a potato, mushroom, and chicken stew—he's been killing a lot of chickens lately to prepare enough chicken blood brandy for Norber, and there's plenty of chicken in his pot, more chicken than vegetables.

After carrying several plucked and drained raw chickens back into the house, Hagrid began processing the meat. He cut the whole chicken into large pieces and threw them into a pot to blanch.

The raw chicken tumbled in the pot, releasing a pungent aroma that made Ron's stomach churn. He tried to suppress the urge to vomit, but failed, and finally, he vomited.

"Ron, are you alright? Did you eat something bad?" Hagrid rushed to Ron's side immediately, and his expression changed when he saw Ron vomit a bunch of green vomit.

This color doesn't look like anything's wrong!

"It's nothing serious," Rice answered Hagrid's question for Ron. "It's just normal detoxification."

He then explained his treatment plan for Ron to Hagrid, leaving Hagrid completely bewildered.

Hagrid didn't quite understand, but Rice seemed very professional.

"Great!" He gave Rice a thumbs up, while also giving Ron an apologetic look.

"Eat more meat for lunch today to nourish your body. These chickens are raised on insects, so they taste really good."

As Hagrid apologized to Ron, Rhys drew his wand and cleaned up the floor that Ron had vomited on.

Hagrid's stewing skills were pretty good. He took the blanched chicken out and set it aside, poured a lot of oil into the pot, and then threw in chunks of potatoes, onions, eggplant, carrots, green beans, and the wild mushrooms he had picked. After sprinkling some salt and black pepper into the pot, he added the chicken back in, and finally covered the pot and simmered it over low heat—he wanted to chat with Rice a little longer.

Before Hagrid put the mushrooms into the pot, Rice carefully examined the species of the mushrooms he had picked. Just by looking at Hagrid's physique, Rice knew that Hagrid must have giant blood, and giants have extremely good resistance to toxins. Mushrooms that giants could eat without harm might not be able to withstand the effects of ordinary wizards, so of course he had to examine them carefully.

Fortunately, Hagrid is reliable in this regard; the mushrooms he picked were all safe and edible varieties.

Once the stew was ready, Hagrid invited Rice and the other two to sit at the table, poured each of them a cup of tea, and brought them a plate of rock cakes.

Ron kept his eyes down, as if he hadn't seen the plate of rock-skinned bread. Rice and Daphne, however, didn't understand the mystery. They each took a piece, took a bite, and then they understood why Ron hadn't eaten any.

That biscuit was as hard as a rock! Daphne's perfectly aligned silver teeth were almost crushed by it.

Hagrid was oblivious to the unusual expressions on the three people's faces. He sat down at the table, picked up a rock-skin cake, and began to chew it heartily.

Rice: ...

Giant bloodline, terrifying indeed!

"Hmm..." Hagrid seemed to be contemplating life as he chewed the rock crust biscuit. Finally, he spoke, but not about how hard his biscuit was. Instead, he spoke about Norber.

"Since Norber is a girl, it's not appropriate to keep calling her Norber. How about we rename her Norberta?"

Rice and the others naturally had no objections.

It was mealtime, and since the humans had food, Hagrid naturally wouldn't neglect his little fire-breathing dragon. He picked up a bottle filled with chicken-blood brandy from the ground and prepared to feed Norbert.

Looking at the suspiciously colored mixture, Rice frowned. "Hagrid, you're feeding it this?"

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.

Back home, writing, and here's the update!

The second update is being written and will be a few minutes later.

Thank you to Yan Yan Xing Hun and Yue Xia Xia Le for the generous donations, and to K Zong and Chuan, love you all~

(End of this chapter)