Chapter 289 Leaving in a Hurry

Finally, there was an alarm magic line outside the dormitory area. Just like the administrator said, people are constantly casting confusion spells on it - whether it is to save some time to go around to the gate, or just for fun - but, as Anthony pointed out, there is no fire dragon yet. Such attempts were made.

Hagrid seemed to have completely forgotten about the Chimera. He always left early with the researchers, and returned to their dormitory very late with a chill (sometimes a warm smell of smoke) all over his body, telling Anthony loudly and cheerfully that he planned to go there tomorrow. Track which fire dragon, or follow what the poachers said to besiege their possible temporary settlement.

They had originally planned to stay in the reserve for three or four days and then go back, but Hagrid obviously had some interesting and exciting plans for every tomorrow, the tomorrow after tomorrow, and the tomorrow after tomorrow. Anthony couldn't help but feel that if she let him leave early, it would be as cruel as taking a half-opened Christmas gift away from someone else's hands.

Additionally, several of his roommates—by which he means cats, chickens, and mice—have recently developed a hobby of chasing model fire dragons. The chicken is responsible for the part that prevents the dragon from flying into the air, the cat is responsible for providing teeth, claws and most of the rickety furniture, and the mouse is the one that stops the dragon model from igniting too many things that it shouldn't. The toy mouse given by Professor McGonagall had the good fortune (or misfortune) to participate in this activity, usually serving as some kind of appetizer to attract the dragon model.

Anthony, as always, made the tea, closed the door, read on the sofa, opened the door, cleaned it up and restored it to like-new condition. Thanks to another Christmas gift from Professor McGonagall, he had recently learned how to conjure winged unicorns that existed only in fantasy, though not very skillfully - he swore he hadn't meant to think of a reddish-brown unicorn. . Those flying horses in France must have influenced him to some extent.

He had planned to return to Hogwarts on the first day of school. However, before the holiday was over, an owl unexpectedly came to the window of his and Hagrid's dormitory.

"Oh, hey, hello." Anthony said, standing up and opening the window, letting the angry owl get into the kitchen and land on the stove to preen its feathers. "Merry Christmas, although it's a little late; and, New Year Happy, even though it’s tomorrow.”

The owl tapped its beak dissatisfiedly, reluctantly accepted the water he poured into the teacup, and stretched out one leg. A letter was tied to it.

Parchment paper, green ink, brown-red ribbon, familiar coat of arms pattern. From Hogwarts. Only one owl at Hogwarts has ever attempted to fly over a dragon.

"People just don't know how to write the address of the Fire Dragon Sanctuary correctly, do they?" Anthony asked, reaching to unpack the letter.

The owl bit his hand angrily. Compared to cats, this is not even an attempt.

Anthony wagged his finger in its mouth - it was actually quite interesting to watch the owl's head sway this way and that - and protested: "I thought we had made up. Didn't you get those mice?"

The owl let go and gave him another quick peck before allowing Anthony to take the letter back.

He opened the letter with a hint of confusion, wondering who would write to him at this time.

"Dear Henry:

"I hope you get this letter."

He glanced at the owl. It had grown tired of the water in its teacup and was resting on the tap while casting a sharp glance over the common area shared by Anthony and Hagrid. Anthony wasn't sure if serving it with bread and dragon's milk cheese was a good idea, but that was all Hagrid had left this morning.

Regardless, he continued reading.

"I'm sorry to disturb you at this time. I hope you and Hagrid are enjoying your holiday. However," the handwriting here is obviously heavier than before, as if the writer is pinching the quill hard, "Kerry Dee told us that she heard word that Ms. Dolores Umbridge, the senior investigating officer, would be coming to the school around January third to clean up her office and bedrooms... that sort of thing."

There was a loud bang in his room. It sounds like the undead creature's fire dragon hunt is well underway.

"We thought it might be best to prepare for her before she comes, by sweeping the floor. We'd be very grateful to be able to get back to Hogwarts in two or three days. If not, that's totally fine. I just think you should be informed in advance to make sure you're not too surprised when you come back.

"I'm writing to the faculty on vacation, trying to get everyone ready. Severus has returned, but Filius hasn't left at all. Pomona is visiting an African herbalist. Learn from the Master. I have sent her a letter but am still not sure if she can adjust her overall plans.

"We would also be very happy if Hagrid agreed to come back, but we know long distance travel is not easy for him, so please tell him that we fully understand and support him spending his entire holiday in the Dragon Sanctuary. As long as he can Manage to show up to school on the first day of school - decently, I mean - I don't think things will get particularly troublesome. Just be sure not to bring back more stuff that requires a permit.

“Once again, I deeply apologize for interrupting you during your vacation. Believe me, I wasn’t happy doing it.

"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year with all your might,

"Minerva

"Also, please don't bring back anything that is completely illegal."

Anthony put down the letter.

The owl turned its head towards him and hooted softly.

Anthony sighed: "No problem, Minerva. Go back as soon as possible, and there are no souvenirs with question marks." As if these things were missing in Hogwarts.

For a castle with Acromantulas, Chimera beasts and countless dark magic books to escape the search of the Ministry of Magic - fortunately Hagrid had asked Sirius to take away the illegally modified flying motorcycle - this way The advice was really reassuring.

"Oh, by the way," he lowered his head and looked at the owl, "Since I will be returning to Hogwarts soon, do you want to apparate with me or take some other magical transportation method..." The owl used Looking at him with round eyes, "Or do you prefer the thrill of flying away from the fire dragon alone?"

The owl pecked him again immediately after he finished his question. He guessed that hinted at the answer.

…

In order to prepare for the New Year celebration party, Hagrid came back at noon.

"Phew, this morning was really interesting. We found a kind of moss, and Andrea thought it might be able to cure the diarrhea of ​​fire dragons." He said happily, taking off his hat and trying to take off the tight reserve leather jacket. , "We saw two fire dragons - Irene and Lucas - eating them. It was amazing, you'd think they ate nothing but meat. Oh, and, Henry, you'll be interested . Delmar promised to show us tonight one of the reserve's unique fire dragon cocktails - Dragon Tail, I think he called it. They were also going to play a game similar to the Cracker Tiles, but more interesting, Because they use various varieties of fire dragon patterns..."

He finally took off his leather jacket, hung it on the hook at the door, bent down and began to take off his shoes. He glanced sideways between words and was immediately stunned: "What are you doing, Henry?"

Anthony directed the last few books to fly into the box and buttoned his suitcase.

"I'm packing," said Anthony. "See that owl? Minerva sent us a letter, Hagrid. I need to leave."

"What?" Hagrid asked in surprise, "But tonight is New Year's Eve. What happened, Henry?"

"You know we're about to have a top prosecutor, right?" Anthony said.

"I heard." Hagrid nodded, straightened up, stood with one foot inside the shoe and the other on the carpet, "So what?"

"She will be coming to school around January 3rd," Anthony said, gesturing to Hagrid to read the letter on the table. "Minerva thinks we'd better prepare in advance, and I fully agree with her."

Hagrid kicked off his other shoe, strode over, grabbed the letter and read it. He looked increasingly confused.

"What does this mean?" he muttered, "Does Professor McGonagall need us to go back?"

Before Anthony tried to explain, Hagrid shook his head again: "Anyway, Henry, she wants us to go back, right?"

"That's true," said Anthony, "but she also gave us the freedom to say no. The most important part of this letter was to inform us of Ms. Umbridge's arrival, and to warn us not to do anything for ourselves and Minerva herself. Adding more trouble to yourself. You can stay here - you know, I'm not as addicted to fire dragons as you are, so I don't mind leaving early - "

Hagrid interrupted him: "I'm going with you, Henry." He looked down at the thin letter again and read, "'I am writing to the staff who are on vacation, hoping to try my best to make everyone Anyone can be prepared.' I'm the Hogwarts Keykeeper and the Gamekeeper, so that counts too. I'm going back prepared..." he muttered, "whatever that means."

"You know that Minerva fully agrees with you staying here, and so does everyone else." Anthony said, "We all know how happy and looking forward to it you were when you mentioned that you were coming to the Fire Dragon Sanctuary."

"Well, I guess so." Hagrid scratched his head, "But I'm the Keykeeper and Gamekeeper at Hogwarts." He repeated, as if that explained everything.

Anthony smiled: "Then, go pack your bags, Hagrid. You can't not say goodbye to those researchers, right? Considering that the Christmas fireplace cleaning is over, I'm going to ask Charlie, in addition to the original route Besides returning, is there any faster way to get us back to the UK?"

…

"A faster way?" Charlie said, "Of course, Barbara's wood dragon needs to test its maximum flight distance. We can at least fly to the border of the Hungarian Fire Dragon Sanctuary, and if we are lucky, we can fly directly to the UK. ——Welsh Green Dragon Base, maybe." He added somewhat doubtfully, "But it is more likely that it will fall apart halfway, like it did in the previous distance tests. I hope you can all swim."

Anthony's breathing quieted for a moment.

"I will," Hagrid announced proudly.

Anthony said, "I... I think I will." Anyway, he guessed, you can't die the same way twice.

"Great, Barbara will be happy. She's been wanting to do the test for a long time."

…

And that's why they stood in front of the creaking wooden Romanian longhorned dragon, listening to Barbara's introduction.

Charlie said, "You swear it won't explode like last time, Barbara. Swear you're sure no one poured the wine from the reception into the Dragon perfume bottle."

Barbara said calmly: "My oath does not reduce the probability of people doing this. I can only guarantee that I did not do it."

"Did we cause you to miss the New Year's party too, Charlie?" Anthony asked, looking at the giant thing in front of him. Everything on it is painted like a real Longhorn, and the two horns even look like they're made of gold.

"It doesn't matter, I always lose anyway." Charlie said, "To be honest, I am very happy to have an excuse to escape - ha, Delma is finished. Without me, he must be the first one to be bitten by the fire dragon. "

"Wish him good luck." Hagrid said sullenly, with tears in his eyes. "He is a good man, a good boy. I will miss him..."

Barbara glanced at them blankly and continued: "In short, every part has been maintained with dragon perfume. The invisible button is here. I don't know why there is this function. Real fire dragons are never invisible. . They're not invisible. But anyway, people asked me to add it."

"It'll be useful, Barbara, thank you," said Charlie.

Barbara said noncommittally: "Hmm. Let me think about it, what else... you all need saddles." She looked at the three people, and seemed to have noticed Hagrid's huge size at this time, and took a slight sip. Shocked, "Oh, I'm not sure, there should be a suitable model. In order to adapt to my fire dragon..."

She turned around and disappeared into her warehouse.

"Oh, by the way, Fire Dragon. I almost forgot." Charlie said, digging in his pocket for a while, "Here, Henry, a small souvenir."

"For me?" Anthony asked unexpectedly, "What is it?"

Charlie motioned for him to stretch out his hand, and then put the thing in his hand on his hand.

"Oh." Anthony said in surprise. It was a small Romanian Longhorns model with golden horns and black body. It was fluttering its wings in his palm and sneezing slightly. Warm sparks emerge from the model's nose.

"And this," said Charlie. "This is yours, Hagrid."

He pulled out a model of a Norwegian Ridgeback, which looked just as big as Norbert was when he was born, but closer in shape to the baby dragon that was now ready to mature.

Hagrid choked up: "Oh, Charlie..."

"We wanted to show you how much we enjoyed your time here, so we customized a fire dragon model for you." Charlie said as Hagrid blew his nose loudly. "I heard you just went to protect District, probably went to see Norbert to say goodbye. Didn't find it, right? I know, that's what dragons are like. But it will be here, and so will we researchers, and I'm sure we'll see each other again, Hagrid. I'm pretty sure."

He patted Hagrid on the elbow. Hagrid sobbed loudly.

Barbara walked out of the warehouse door carrying three sets of saddlery and gave them a confused look.

"It's okay, big man." She comforted in a rare tone of voice, "Even if it doesn't fit, we can use the magnifying spell to adjust it."