One hour later, they knocked on the wooden door of Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid very cautiously confirmed their identities through the door panel before inviting them inside, then immediately turned around and shut the door tight.
In such hot weather, with the curtains drawn tight and a roaring fire blazing in the fireplace, it would have been strange if there wasn't something fishy going on.
"Hagrid, where did you get a dragon egg?"
Kyle spotted it the moment he entered the room—a large, pitch-black egg sitting right in the center of the fire.
"Won it." Because of the incident with the three-headed dog earlier, Hagrid didn't intend to hide it from Kyle.
He explained, "Last night, I was down in Hogsmeade having a few drinks and got into a card game with a stranger. To be honest, that fella seemed glad to get rid of it."
"Ever since I got it, I've been reading up. Borrowed Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit from the library. It's a bit outdated, of course, but it covers everything."
As Hagrid spoke, he served them tea and something called Rock Cakes...
Self-defense weapons.
That's right, self-defense weapons.
Rock Cakes were rough, hard lumps with things that looked like raisins on the surface. They were misshapen and looked a bit crude; if you didn't look closely, you'd really think they were stones.
Their hardness far exceeded that of Russian rye bread or French baguettes; they could almost rival diamonds.
Out of curiosity, Kyle had taken one back previously and tested it with Sectumsempra, but failed to cut through it.
If one were to fashion this into the shape of a Gunbai fan, Kyle had no doubt it could deflect a Tailed Beast King.
If Gaara had possessed enough Rock Cakes for self-defense when Deidara invaded Sunagakure, he wouldn't have let the Akatsuki capture him.
"This is illegal!" Hermione said with a frown, her tone full of worry.
A dragon's growth rate was astonishing. In a month, it would grow to be about the size of Hagrid's hut. By then, it would be impossible to hide it from the students at Hogwarts.
"There'll be a solution, won't there?" Hagrid twisted his beard uneasily, casting a pleading look at Kyle.
He knew Kyle also liked magical creatures. Kyle had asked Dumbledore to help him solve the problem with the three-headed dog last time, so this dragon shouldn't be a problem, right?
Unexpectedly, Kyle shook his head.
"A space for raising a dragon can be solved with a suitcase cast with an Undetectable Extension Charm."
Kyle changed the subject: "But Hagrid, have you considered how you, alone, could manage a fire dragon and ensure it doesn't escape from the suitcase?"
When Dumbledore first met Kyle, the autistic old man following him who wouldn't look people in the eye was the renowned Magizoologist, Newt Scamander.
Old Man Newt had a suitcase cast with an Undetectable Extension Charm, boasting a space as large as New York, specifically used to illegally house all sorts of magical creatures.
But even Old Man Newt wasn't crazy enough to stuff a fire dragon into his suitcase.
"If that dragon causes trouble, you, as its owner, will be thrown into Azkaban," Hannah reminded him.
Hagrid's face went pale. "Then what should I do?"
Kyle rested his chin on his hand. "Maybe I can buy a dragon reserve..."
"Pfft!" Ron sprayed out the tea in his mouth.
Is this what a tycoon looks like?
He mentally fell to his knees.
Hannah and Hermione were also shocked by Kyle's words.
Hagrid froze for a moment, then shook his head like a rattle drum. "No, no, I can't let you spend that much."
He knew how much a dragon reserve cost.
Just the land sufficient for dragons to live on would cost several thousand Galleons.
The necessary equipment for raising dragons, along with magical barriers to repel Muggles and defensive spells to prevent the dragons from escaping—adding all that up would cost at least ten thousand Galleons.
On top of that, you had to hire a large number of Dragonologists, and the monthly salary expenditure was another huge sum.
Even if the cost of a dragon reserve was just a drop in the bucket for Kyle, Hagrid couldn't watch Kyle squander money like that.
Hagrid bit his lip. "I... I know I can't keep it forever, but I can't just throw it away..."
"Charlie," Ron said suddenly.
"What?" Harry turned his head.
"My brother Charlie works at a dragon reserve in Romania. We can send the dragon to him. Charlie can look after it for a while and then release it back into the wild."
"That's brilliant!" said Harry. "What do you think, Hagrid?"
Kyle sat with his fingers interlaced on his lap, staring expectantly at Hagrid. "How about I just buy a dragon reserve? I'd really like to own a dragon."
The others in the room ignored his tycoon-like statement.
In the end, Kyle couldn't persuade Hagrid to hand the dragon over to him.
Kyle rested his chin on the table in front of him with a look of utter despair. He really, really wanted a dragon.
He wondered if his family had any business involving dragon reserves.
When he got back, he would definitely have to write a letter to Alfred to ask about the Grindelwald family's assets.
Or, more accurately, to inquire about the August family's assets.
The Grindelwald family's wealth had been carved up cleanly by the Ministries of Magic of various European countries after his father's downfall years ago.
The little bit of property left for Kyle in Gringotts had only been preserved out of respect for Dumbledore.
As for the August family, who had followed Grindelwald, they hadn't been affected much.
After Grindelwald emerged from Nurmengard, the fiercely loyal Old Man Alfred immediately offered the entire August family fortune to Grindelwald.
He had no descendants anyway—his son and daughter-in-law had both died in the Global Wizarding War back then.
Now, the old butler only had Catherine, his adopted granddaughter, left.
In Alfred's mind, as long as Catherine became the mistress of the Grindelwald household, wouldn't they all be one family?
Why distinguish between the August family and the Grindelwald family?
Hagrid wanted to wait for the dragon to hatch and raise it for a while to satisfy his craving before handing it over to Charlie.
Harry and Ron, however, advocated against hatching it and simply having Charlie come and take the dragon egg away directly.
Kyle stopped paying attention to the bargaining between Hagrid and the Savior Trio; his mind was now entirely on the Grindelwald family assets.
If he didn't have a dragon reserve, he would just buy one. Weren't Harry and Ron planning to send the dragon to the reserve where Charlie was?
Then he would just buy that dragon reserve directly.
After some back and forth, Harry and Ron finally agreed to Hagrid's request. There was no helping it; a four-meter-tall half-giant sniffling and shedding tears was simply too terrifying to behold.
However, before that, they had to send an owl to Charlie to inform him of the situation.
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