"Harry, you have to cheer up!"
In the Three Broomsticks Bar, Hermione took a glass of grape juice from the proprietress, Madam Rosmerta, then turned around and whispered to Harry seriously.
"The dragon is not as easy to deal with as the magical creatures we saw in the Defense Against the Dark Arts class before... Although Professor Dracula is watching over us, this time we have to deal with a dragon. If it just touches you with its claws, you will be turned into a meat pie!"
"Don't worry, Hermione. Professor Dracula will definitely help Harry deal with the dragon easily." Ron said confidently, "Haven't you all seen it? In the first year, Professor Dracula caught the troll's stick with his bare hands—"
Ron came up to Hermione and Harry and said, "If you ask me, Professor Dracula could have killed that dragon with his bare hands without using a wand!"
Harry nodded in agreement.
He had a more comprehensive understanding of Professor Dracula's strength than Ron - because he had seen Dracula chasing Voldemort with his own eyes.
No one would ever think that the Dark Lord who must not be named could not defeat a mere dragon, right? Then it was obvious that the dragon would not have any difficulty in defeating Dracula who was chasing Voldemort.
Thinking of this, Harry felt a little more relaxed.
"Ron, you're too dependent on Professor Dracula!" Hermione glanced at Ron and complained, "What if Professor Dracula suddenly found something interesting around him while watching the game? Do you think he would be willing to continue to be a security guard or study his fun?"
"this… "
Harry and Ron looked at each other and swallowed.
It seems to make sense...
According to Professor Dracula's style of doing things, he would jump out of the window and leave when he suddenly thought of something interesting in the middle of a lecture. It was not surprising that he would just slip away while serving as a security guard for the semi-finals tournament.
"Am I right?" Hermione raised her head proudly. "In short, Harry still needs to become stronger, at least to the extent that he won't be easily killed by a dragon."
"It sounds easy, but that's a dragon!" Ron looked distressed. "Charlie trained in Romania for so long, but it still took several people working together to deal with a dragon."
"But even with the cooperation of many people, he still suffers from various injuries all year round. Every time my mother sees him, she always complains about him for a while."
After listening to Ron's story, Hermione also fell silent.
"It's okay, you two don't have to worry about me." Harry took a deep breath, his eyes gradually firmed up, "I definitely won't just stand there and wait for Professor Dracula to save me."
"Now the whole Hogwarts, even the students of Beauxbatons, Invermorny and Durmstrang are waiting to laugh at me, waiting to see how I will make a fool of myself in the competition... but I don't want to make a fool of myself."
"Since I have already participated in this competition, I should at least complete it decently," Harry said.
"Whether it's proving to other colleges that I'm not a thief who stole Cedric's honor, or not embarrassing Hogwarts in front of other magic schools... I can't put all my hopes on Professor Dracula."
"It would be best... I mean it would be best if I could not get the last place."
Ron and Hermione looked at Harry somewhat touched. A smile gradually appeared in Hermione's eyes, while a hint of guilt flashed in Ron's eyes.
He now completely believed that Harry did not sign up himself.
"You can do it, Harry." Ron patted Harry on the shoulder and said to him, "You are the top scorer in Defense Against the Dark Arts in our grade!"
Speaking of the first place in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Hermione pouted a little depressed.
Ever since she lost to Harry in her first year, no matter how hard she tried in every subsequent year, she was always a little behind Harry in Defense Against the Dark Arts, which made her goal of getting first place in every subject a little more regrettable.
"It's good that you think so," Hermione said. Now was obviously not the time to argue about the grade of a course. "Don't worry, both of us will help you well."
"Besides, I believe that this competition will not really ask you to defeat a fire dragon... That's too exaggerated!"
While the three little wizards were still talking, Hagrid's huge, messy head suddenly appeared in the crowd outside the three brooms.
"Hey, why is Hagrid here?" Ron looked over there puzzled.
"Oh, thank Merlin, he finally stopped combing his hair into a broom." Hermione looked back and breathed a sigh of relief, "Otherwise I really don't know how to face him."
Hagrid saw the three little wizards sitting on three broomsticks from a distance and waved to them outside the window.
"Ah, so you're here." He bent over and hunched over to squeeze through the narrow door of the Three Broomsticks, then came to the round table where Harry and the other two were sitting and smiled at them. "How are you? Have you been doing well recently?"
"Well... not bad." Harry hesitated for a moment, and ultimately did not tell the thick-skinned Hagrid about his troubles during this period.
"I knew it!" Hagrid laughed and patted Harry's shoulder heavily. "You are a warrior of Hogwarts. It won't be long before you win glory for the school!"
"I just hope I don't embarrass myself in public," Harry grimaced as Hagrid patted his shoulder.
"Relax, you'll get a good grade, Harry!" Hagrid bent down mysteriously and winked at Harry.
Then he said in a very low voice, so that only Harry could hear it, "Harry, come to my cabin at midnight tonight, and remember to put on your Invisibility Cloak."
Harry was stunned for a moment, but before he could say anything in response, Hagrid straightened up.
"Nice to meet you three today!" he exclaimed loudly and pompously.
After saying that, without even ordering a drink, he squeezed through several little wizards who wanted to come in and went out through the narrow door.
It can be seen that the owner, Mrs. Rosmerta, is not in a very good mood.
"Why did Hagrid ask me to go find him in the middle of the night?" Harry turned his gaze to his two good friends and said in surprise.
"Really?" Hermione was also surprised. "I really don't understand what he wants to do. I don't know if you should go, Harry..."
She looked around uneasily and said in a low voice, "I think you'd better take some time to think about how to deal with the fire dragon."
Yes, now is the time to race against time -
There are only three days left before the start of the first event of the semi-finals. The first event of the semi-finals will officially begin on next Tuesday afternoon.
If Harry cannot think of a way to deal with the dragon within these three days, he will inevitably make a fool of himself on the field, and then be looked down upon by students from Hogwarts and even other schools.
"But... I think Hagrid might have something important to talk to me about." Harry hesitated for a moment, but finally decided not to let Hagrid down. "He's never asked me to come over so late before!"
…
It turns out that choosing to live up to Hagrid's invitation did indeed bring Harry great benefits.
At half past eleven that night, Harry, who had pretended to go to bed early, put on his invisibility cloak, quietly walked through the Gryffindor common room, and went downstairs.
There were several other people in the common room - Harry saw Colin Creevey had obtained a bunch of "Support Cedric Diggory" badges from somewhere and was trying to charm them into saying "Support Harry Potter".
However, with great difficulty, all he could do was to fix the inscription on the badge on "PORTER STANK TUCK".
Harry crept past them and came to the Fat Lady's portrait hole, his eyes fixed on his watch.
At exactly eleven thirty-five, the door suddenly opened.
It was Hermione who opened the Fat Lady's portrait for him from the outside as planned, allowing Harry to leave the common room through the hole without being noticed by the Fat Lady.
Harry whispered a "thank you" and ducked past Hermione, setting off for Hagrid's hut.
The grounds behind Hogwarts Castle were completely dark.
Harry walked along the lawn towards the light coming from Hagrid's hut, and saw that the huge carriage at Beauxbatons was also brightly lit.
As he knocked on Hagrid's door, he could hear Madame Maxime talking in the carriage.
"You come, Harry?" Hagrid whispered mysteriously, opening the door and looking around warily.
"Yeah," Harry felt a little puzzled. He slipped into the hut and pulled the Invisibility Cloak off his head. "What do you want from me so late at night?"
"Let me show you something," whispered Hagrid.
It can be clearly seen that Hagrid is very excited at this moment.
He had a flower in his buttonhole that looked like an oversized cabbage. He apparently stopped putting engine oil on his hair, but he still took a lot of trouble to style it after Professor Dracula—
There were a lot of broken teeth of the comb in his hair. It was probably because the fragile comb couldn't withstand the hardness and thickness of Hagrid's hair, so it broke inside his hair.
"Hagrid, you're really not suitable for Professor Dracula's hairstyle..." Harry said helplessly.
"Really? I think it's not bad, at least much better than before!" Hagrid pulled his hair and pulled out a bunch of broken teeth of the comb.
Harry wanted to say a few more words of advice, but Hagrid suddenly clapped his hands, put his index finger in front of his lips and made a "shhh" sound.
"Oh, I almost forgot something," he said in a very low voice, "Come with me, be quiet, and cover yourself with the Invisibility Cloak. We are going without Fang, he won't like it..."
"Hagrid, listen, I can't stay here long... I have other important things to do," said Harry.
But Hagrid didn't listen. He opened the door of the hut and strode towards the Beauxbatons carriage.
After calling Madam Maxime along, Hagrid led them - Harry was covered in the Invisibility Cloak - and the three of them walked a long distance around the edge of the Forbidden Forest until the castle and the lake were no longer visible...
Gradually, the loud shouts of several wizards reached their ears, followed by deafening and high-pitched roars.
Hagrid led Ms. Maxime around a bush and finally approached where the roar came from, then stopped.
Harry, standing under the Invisibility Cloak, hurried over to join them -
The next moment, his mouth opened in shock.
Five adult fire dragons, which looked very ferocious and were covered with scales all over their bodies, were imprisoned in an area surrounded by thick wooden boards. They stood on their hind legs, roared, and snorted.
Balls of fire burst from their open, fang-filled mouths and shot into the dark night sky.
Their necks were held high, and their heads were fifty feet above the ground.
A silver-blue fire dragon with a pair of long pointed horns was angrily roaring at the wizards on the field; a green fire dragon with smooth scales was twisting and stomping its feet desperately; there was also a red fire dragon with a circle of strange-looking thin horns around its face, which was spraying mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air; a fire dragon with rainbow-colored pearl-like scales, colorful eyes and no heart was lying on the ground alertly looking around; the last one was a huge black dragon, which looked more like a dinosaur than the others.
There were at least thirty wizards on the field, and every seven or eight wizards were responsible for dealing with a fire dragon. They pulled the chains, desperately trying to subdue the dragon on the field. The chains were connected to the thick leather belts that tied the dragon's legs and neck.
These dragons seemed to have just been transported to the vicinity of Hogwarts and had not yet adapted to the surrounding environment, so they all seemed a little irritable.
The dragon trainers present tried very hard to control them but failed, and finally they could only use a stun spell to calm the fire dragons.
"You're here, Hagrid?" A red-haired wizard walked towards Hagrid. Harry recognized that this was Ron's second brother, Charlie Weiss. "Wait, why did you bring her here too?"
Charlie looked at Ms. Maxime beside Hagrid, with a hint of displeasure in his eyes, "A warrior shouldn't know what he's facing - she will definitely tell her students, won't she?"
Harry was a little embarrassed hiding under the invisibility cloak.
Charlie has indeed abided by the rules of the Final Four, and it can be seen that he is trying hard to keep it a secret for these big guys.
But he obviously didn't expect that Hagrid was not someone who could keep a secret at all, not to mention that he had almost been bewitched by Ms. Maxime.
"I just thought she would be happy to come and see these lovely big guys." Hagrid shrugged, his eyes still fascinated by the five dragons.
"What a romantic date, Hagrid." Charlie shook his head helplessly and sighed.
Ms. Maxime smiled modestly, with an ambiguous light flashing in her eyes.
Then, Charlie began to introduce the names of these dragons to Hagrid -
"That's a Hungarian Horntail," Charlie said, pointing to the black-scaled, dinosaur-like fire dragon.
"That smaller one over there is a common Welsh Green Dragon; the silver-blue one is a Swedish Short-nosed Dragon; the red one is a Chinese Fireball; and the most beautiful one, the colorful one, is an Australian Opal-eye."
After introducing these dragons one by one, Charlie whispered to Hagrid, "How is Harry? Although I really want to have some confidence in him, after all, these are dragons that seven or eight of us can barely subdue."
"Oh, don't worry, Harry will be fine." Hagrid glanced at the air beside him imperceptibly, and continued to stare at the dragons in a daze, with a sparkling light in his eyes.
"I really hope he is still safe after facing this danger." Charlie said worriedly as he looked at the place where the dragon was kept.
"I can't bear to tell my mom what Harry is going to do for the first project. She's already so flustered about him..."
…
…