Chapter 276 Dormitory of the Hungarian Horntail Sanctuary

The dormitories in the Fire Dragon Sanctuary are concentrated in an open space. They are small elliptical rooms with rough lime paint on the exterior walls.

"Oh, this is the shape of a Hungarian Horntail dragon egg!" Hagrid said happily. The house next to him was just a little shorter than his shoulders, perfect for being hugged by him.

"Yes, the designer hopes this can prevent fire dragons from attacking us." The dormitory manager said without raising his head, lowering his head to pick through a large bunch of keys.

The dormitory manager, Katalin Kovacs, was a gray-haired woman with eagle-like eyes and skinny, rough hands. According to Charlie's introduction, she was once a very famous researcher at the Fire Dragon Sanctuary. She escaped from the flames of the Hungarian Horntail four times and brought back detailed information about dragon scales and eggs to the Sanctuary.

After she retired, she still lived in the reserve, and once had the experience of snatching away a trainee researcher from the mouth of a fire dragon.

"Istvan was extremely grateful. He told everyone that if Katalin hadn't noticed that he hadn't returned to the dormitory and immediately flew to find him after notifying everyone, he would have become a meal for the Horntails. "Snacks," Charlie said. "Since Katalin rescued Istvan, the reserve has hired her as a dormitory manager. All the researchers I met told me that they slept better at night knowing that Katalin was patrolling. alright."

"I didn't rescue Istvan." Katalin corrected flatly, with a slightly less obvious accent, "I just rescued most of Istvan. Here, here is your key. This is The biggest one is in the northernmost corner. This one belongs to you two, next to the biggest one."

She handed a patterned copper key to Hagrid, and then handed two smaller, dark keys to Anthony and Charlie.

"You know the rules of the reserve." She said to Charlie, "I have three minutes left to check who didn't come back on time, so it's up to you to take them to the corresponding house."

"Okay, Katalin," Charlie said.

Katalin nodded and turned to Anthony and Hagrid: "Don't worry about the roar of the fire dragons, but if you hear the bells, you must come out of the room immediately. Drinking and singing are not allowed after eleven o'clock - that means, including now." Even if you can drink alcohol, don't drink strong alcohol outside. There is breakfast from 5 to 6 in the morning. If you can't find a restaurant, you can ask me or follow other researchers. Is there anything unclear? "

She glanced around with her blue-gray eyes and looked with emphasis at the half-bottle of brandy protruding from Hagrid's bulging pocket. Hagrid shoved it back hard. Anthony heard a sound of fabric tearing. He noticed that Charlie also looked at Hagrid's pocket suspiciously, but neither Charlie nor Katalin made any comment.

"I have a question, Ms. Kovacs," Anthony said, holding up the key and gesturing to the round house around them. "How do you tell where the door is?"

…

Charlie shows Anthony and Hagrid how to use the key. They only need to tap the correct key three times on the wall, and a round hole will appear out of thin air in front of them.

Hagrid's house was indeed the largest, but even so, he still got stuck at the entrance of the cave with some difficulty. Hagrid let Anthony and Charlie push him from behind, while he struggled to support the wall, took a deep breath, and muttered, "This place is smaller than a French carriage." Charlie reminded him to keep knocking on the wall with the key, trying to make the hole in the house wider.

Finally, with a muffled groan, Hagrid squeezed into the room, hit something with a thud, and let out an "ouch". The hole disappeared the moment he fell in.

"Hagrid, are you okay?" Anthony asked, tapping on the wall and putting his ear to the house.

"I'm fine!" Hagrid replied loudly.

Anthony stepped back and rubbed his ears.

Charlie said: "This wall is not particularly soundproof——"

"Oh, what is this!" Hagrid rumbled, and Anthony suspected that half of the dormitory area could hear his voice. "Henry, Charlie! My bed seems to have collapsed!"

"You're a wizard, Hagrid," said Anthony. "The Restoration Charm is 'restore to new'."

…

Their movements alerted researchers in several nearby rooms. Several stone-gray walls seemed to suddenly ripple, and the researcher's head poked out of them, like a sea lion sticking its head out of the water and looking around.

"Oh, hello, Gabor." Charlie greeted the researcher closest to them.

"Charlie!" Gabor said in surprise, "Why are you here - what happened?" Several researchers further away looked at them attentively, and Anthony turned his head and smiled at them.

"Two communication scholars came from Hogwarts. I'm here to pick them up." Charlie said, "We will leave tomorrow. Henry, this is Gabor Nagy, senior researcher of the Hungarian Horntail, Demus Trang graduate, he came to the reserve around the same time as me, Gabor, this is Professor Henry Anthony.”

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Najib," Anthony said.

"Same, Professor Anthony." Gabor said politely, looking around Anthony and the big house next to them, "Why just stay for one night? Isn't the Hungarian Horntail more interesting than the Romanian Longhorned Dragon?"

Anthony glanced to the side. Hagrid didn't seem to hear Gabor's words. It sounded like he was counting his various luggage, and was annoyed to find that two bottles of brandy had broken in the previous fall.

Charlie said unhappily: "The commercial value of the long-horned dragon is much higher than that of the Hungarian hornbill. Besides, they didn't come for the long-horned dragon. They came to see the Norwegian Ridgeback that just came."

"The Norwegian Ridgeback with a bad temper and good at flying?" Gabor said, "Okay, okay." He was still looking at Anthony, as if he was looking for an excuse to keep him.

"That's so rude, Gabor." Charlie changed the subject before he could speak, "Why don't you come out and talk to us?"

"Because I'm wearing the pajamas with the map of the excretion path of the wasp drawn on it." Gabor said, "I feel that's even more rude..." He yawned, "Well, lucky Charlie. I'll go see if Isabella has laid eggs tomorrow... I hope she won't think of me as a smuggler who stole the eggs. You know, she has been a little nervous since her eggs were lost." He yawned again and retracted his head.

"Gabor is like this." Charlie said, "Come on, Professor Anthony - okay, Henry - let me see, this is my room, then that one is yours."

"Wait, Charlie." Anthony said a little worriedly, "But what about Hagrid tomorrow? How is he going to get out of the house?"

Hagrid was rummaging around in the room, making a sound similar to the sound Norbert made in the teapot, but it was amplified countless times.

"Oh, this. Don't worry." Charlie said, "You'll know once you move in, Henry. The dormitories in the reserve are all like this - it's difficult to get in from the outside because we have to guard against magical animals or poachers, but it's very easy to get out from the inside because, well, because we usually tend to save our lives." He also yawned.

"Okay." Anthony said, "Well, good night then."

Hagrid said in a muffled voice from his house: "Good night, Henry. Good night, Charlie."

"Good night, Hagrid." Anthony added.

"Good night." Charlie said, standing there and watching him knock on the wall with the key and get into the room.

The room is much larger than Anthony imagined. Coming out of the cave, facing an ordinary single bed, there is no curtain, no tasseled pillow. The bed is a little hard, but very warm, as if the quilt and mattress are emitting warmth by themselves.

There is no fireplace here, and there is no need for a fireplace. The ground is covered with a kind of black and gray stone tiles. As soon as Anthony stepped on it, he felt the heat crawling up his calves along the soles of his feet.

There was a lamp suspended at the top of the room, which looked like a candle in a can, casting a dim light on the few pieces of furniture in the room.

There was a spot on the wall that was also emitting a very faint green light. Anthony leaned over to take a look, but he didn't understand what it was. He put his hand on it, exerted a little force, and his hand suddenly sank into the wall, and then he felt the cold wind from the outdoors flowing through his palm.

The wall melted around him, allowing him to sink his body in easily. Anthony stretched his entire right arm in, and then carefully poked his head out.

He didn't see any strange secret base. Outside were rows of houses that looked like dragon eggs, standing in the dark night. There was a terrifying roar in the distance, and a little orange-red fire suddenly lit up in the dark shadows of the trees, and there seemed to be black smoke floating up.

Anthony turned his head and looked up at the sky. The heavy clouds blocked any starlight, and only the moon could occasionally reveal a little vague light from behind the fast-moving clouds.

Something flew silently over his head. When he pulled his head back, he suddenly realized that it was not a strange-shaped bird, but Katalin sitting on a broomstick.

Anthony shook his head and noticed a low bedside table next to the bed, on which was a light bulb-like thing - or a crystal ball, depending on whether you are a wizard or a Muggle - he touched it with his hand, and the room was suddenly filled with white light.

There were several hooks on the wall above the bedside table, so he hung his coat on them.

He walked around the room and found a small door that was somewhat hidden opposite the bed. He knocked on the door with his key, and it opened quietly. Behind the door was a simple and clean bathroom, even equipped with toothbrushes, toothpaste and towels. Anthony fiddled with the rough towel, wondering if there were house elves in the sanctuary.

He saw the "Hungarian Horntail (and other dragons and local magical animals) Sanctuary Dormitory Management Regulations" on the walls of the main room and the bathroom, and the regulations in it were similar to what Katalin said.

Below the "Management Regulations" in the main room, there were several warning pictures of people being burned, crushed, bitten to death by Hungarian horn bees. Anthony tried to read the schedule posted next to it, but after a while he realized that the schedule had faded and there was nothing written on it. He was staring at the struggling legs of the horn bee in the painting and the inappropriate leather shoes on it.

He sat on the bed, released the ginger cat from the backpack, and hung the backpack on the hook. The cat jumped to the ground the moment it came out, sat down and began to lick its fur with great concentration. The ghost chickens and ghost mice still seemed unwilling to show up, but in Anthony's mind, he could feel their stable and happy emotions.

He looked at the time. It was only eleven forty, and although he could hear Hagrid's deafening snoring, the creaking of the bed when someone turned over gently, and the vague mumbling in his sleep, he had to admit that he was not sleepy at all.

He sat on the bed, opened the bedside table, and happily found a book called "For Trainee Researchers: How I Survive in the Sanctuary" in it.