Capítulo 18: Here be dragons
14th April 1992
Despite the presence of a homicidal Dark Lord at Hogwarts, the second semester was almost boring. After the New year, classes resumed and the routine of homework, study and occasional playtime went on as usual.
My regular trips to the Room of Requirement after dinner continued without break. As predicted, I had finished all the fourth year spells by the end of last year, and now I was perusing the 5th year spellbooks. As for the spells from the grimoire, I have learnt a few very useful ones.
Transmutation (Creation Magic) allows the caster to turn one object into another. The difference between transfiguration and transmutation is that the former only changes the form of the object. For instance, if you try to cut a pig transfigured from a desk, the moment the form of the pig takes any damage it will turn back into a desk. Transmutation brings about a permanent change in the composition of the object. Of course transmutation does not work on living beings.
Nonetheless, the spell was a tremendous help in artifact creation. It allows me to directly create an object in the form I imagine. Moreover, I can use something as useless as common stone to turn it into high quality steel, or even better.
My brief foray into a super alloy has finally borne fruit. At first, I managed to fuse an alloy of tungsten, titanium and aluminium after a lot of trial and error. It had very impressive properties, but one glaring shortcoming. It had a heating problem. So, I decided to add Molybdenum, a flame retardant, into the mix. The new alloy had significantly better heat-resistant properties. I am gonna be using this super alloy in all my creations from now on.
Event Horizon (Gravity Magic) is no doubt, an offensive spell. However, I found a surprising utility in its use. Mimicking a black hole, the spell at its centre creates tremendous pressure. And we all know, pressure in a closed system is directly proportional to temperature. So, extremely high temperature and pressure. You know what that means fellas. Diamonds!
But I was not excited about making money by selling diamonds. Oh no! You see, I remembered an article I had read in The Before, about how an ultra pure diamond wafer measuring 5 cm in diameter could store data equivalent to 1 billion Blue-ray discs.
It was done by hiding information in 5D with a femtosecond laser pulse. Considering that one Blue-ray disc could store up to 25 GB, a 5 cm diamond wafer should be able to store a whooping 25 exabytes (EB) of data. And with the diamond wafer of 10 cm diameter, I could store even more data.
The only caveat is that during the initial diamond formation, it has to be completely pure. Even the nitrogen in the air cannot be allowed to get mixed in. But this is not a problem for me. With a simple atmospheric charm, I would be able to obtain ultra-pure diamonds, which would provide storage media for my upcoming project.
Next comes Spatial Magic, probably the most useful one, I thought as I looked at the glowing blue 'Warp Portal' in front of me, which connected to the portal at the end of the room. I stepped through it and instantly I was at the far side of the room, a distance of about 80 m covered in an instant. I stepped through portal 2, and was back where I started. Man, portals are fun! And the best thing, they are not hindered by anti-apparation wards.
Opening a portal requires a clear destination in the mind's eye. So far, I can only open portals to places I have been to, or to places that I can physically see. I've tried to open portals to places I saw in photographs or moving pictures, but it didn't work. I don't know if it is because it can't be done or because I have never seen the place in real time. I will have to do more tests.
Oh, I also picked up an 'Invisibility' spell from the Spatial Magic section. Unlike a disillusionment charm, this spell makes you truly invisible by bending multiple interlocking fragments of space that refract all light around the caster.
Last but not the least, I managed to learn 'Soul Bind' from the Spirit Magic section. It allows the caster to bind a soul to a vessel - organic or inorganic. It took me quite a bit of effort as it was beyond my current level, but with the end of the school year fast approaching I was running out of time. Let's just say dear old Tommy boy is in for a nasty surprise.
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The first 3 months of the year passed by without any excitement. The only exception being the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff Quidditch match back in February. Madam Hooch had come down with some minor ailment and couldn't referee. And so Snape, inexplicably was pressed into service as her replacement.
Personally, I thought he must have lost a bet to one of the other professors. The man's general disdain for the sport was well-known, and I was surprised he even knew the rules well enough to officiate. Most of the Ravenclaws thought Snape would just start making up rules in order to penalize the Gryffindors. The lions must have been afraid of the same thing, because Harry was so focused he caught the snitch in under 5 minutes - a new school record - much to the embarrassment of the Badger's new seeker, Third year Cedric Diggory.
There was almost a mutiny in March when Hermione wanted us to start revising for the final exams. It was only after I talked to her and Harry explained how he had to train for the Quidditch cup, that she relented. But now that only 6 weeks remained, there was no stopping her anymore.
This afternoon, like most days we were in the library. I was reading 'The standard book of spells, Grade 5', Hermione was going through various potion recipes, while Harry and Neville were perusing notes on the Knockback jinx (flipendo). It was then that Hagrid entered the library.
Normally, there would be nothing strange about it. But the way he was trying to stealthily make his way to the section on Magical creatures just screamed 'suspicious'. It was like watching an elephant trying to tiptoe. I elbowed my comrades, and they too were interested in Hagrid's weird behaviour. He soon came out with several books on dragons. Suddenly I remembered that it was time for Norberta to make her appearance.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" said Hermione thoughtfully.
"As far as I could glance from the titles," I replied, "Books on dragon keeping."
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon," Harry supplied. "He told me so the first time I ever met him."
"But it's against our laws," said Neville. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlock's Convention long ago. It's hard to keep muggles from noticing us if we keep dragons in the back garden."
"So, there aren't any wild dragons in Britain?" said Harry.
"Oh yes, there are," I answered. "Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks. They cause a ruckus everytime they show up near muggles and the Ministry has to obliviate everyone involved. It happens so often however, that some witnesses always slip through the cracks. And so dragons are some of the only magical creatures well known to muggles."
"So what on earth's Hagrid upto?" asked Hermione.
Concerned about Hagrid's strange actions, my friends decided to call on him in the evening. Once we entered into his cabin, we were hit by a wave of sweltering heat, caused by the blazing fire in the grate.
"So, what brings yeh by?" asked Hagrid, offering us a plate of stoat sandwiches, which we politely refused. "If yer here to ask me about the stone, I'm not tellin' yeh anythin'. You lot know too much already as it is."
"Actually, we were wondering why you were checking out books on dragon breeding in the library earlier," I said.
"Oh," said Hagrid, not expecting that line of enquiry, "Well...I just...er..."
"Hagrid... what's that?" asked Neville, pointing to a huge black egg, sitting right in the middle of the flame, underneath the kettle.
"Ah," said Hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard. "That's...er..."
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" I asked, moving closer to the fire to get a better look. I have never seen a real dragon egg, so I was quite curious.
"Won it," said Hagrid. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game of cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad to get rid of it, ter be honest."
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" asked Hermione.
"Well, I've been doin' some readin'," said Hagrid, pulling a large book from under his pillow. "Got this outta the library...Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit...it's a bit outta date, of course, but it's all in here. Keep the egg in the fire, 'cause their mothers breathe on 'em, see an' when it hatches, feed it on a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. An' see here how ter recognise different eggs...what I got there's a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, them."
He looked very pleased with himself. Unfortunately no one else did.
"Hagrid, you live in a wooden house," said Hermione.
But Hagrid wasn't listening. Unable to convince him to see reason, we had no choice but to return to the castle.
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22nd April 1992
It's been a week since our last visit to Hagrid's, and now on top of all the homework and revision, we had something else to worry about: what might happen to Hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his hut.
Then at breakfast this morning, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid. He had written only two words: it's hatching.
I wanted to leave at once. After all, how often do you get to see a real life dragon hatch? But Hermione wouldn't hear of it. So after finishing our first class on Charms, I got my camera that I had gotten on Christmas. We joined up with Neville and Harry and went to Hagrid's cabin. Hagrid greeted us looking flushed and excited. "It's nearly out." He ushered us inside.
The egg was lying on the table. There were deep cracks in it. Something was clearly moving inside; a funny clicking noise was coming from it. We all drew our chairs up to the table and waited with baited breaths. Soon, there was a scraping noise and the egg split open. The baby dragon flopped onto the table. To be honest, it looked like a crumpled, slimy black umbrella. It's spiny wings were huge compared to its skinny body. It had a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns and bulging orange eyes. It gave a sneeze and a couple of sparks flew out of its snout.
I started clicking pictures of the newborn dragon from every angle. Even though Hagrid had illegally hatched the dragon, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I had no second thoughts about using up a whole roll of film taking photos of the baby dragon.
"Isn't he beautiful," Hagrid murmured. He reached out a hand to stroke the dragon's head. It snapped at his fingers, showing pointed fangs. "Bless him, look, he knows his mommy!" said Hagrid.
Harry, Neville and I shared an incredulous look, while Hermione asked, "Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow, exactly?"
Hagrid was about to answer when the colour suddenly drained from his face...he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.
"What's the matter?" asked Harry.
"Someone was looking through the gap in the curtains...it's a kid...he's runnin' back up to the school," replied Hagrid.
We ran to the door and looked out. Even at a distance, there was no mistaking that blonde hair. Yep, Malfoy had seen the dragon. Ferret must've heard something when we were talking in the morning. Frankly, I don't understand what this guy's deal is. He is like a crazy obsessive stalker ex. Like an annoying piece of chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe that you can't get rid of.
As we were walking back to the castle with the impending threat of what Malfoy might do with the knowledge that Hagrid had hatched an illegal dragon in his cabin, I spoke up.
"Okay, has anyone got any bright ideas on how to deal with the dragon? No? Because I can guarantee you it will be three times bigger in a week. Give it a month, and it will be bigger than Hagrid's hut. If it gets found out, or if Malfoy tattles to his daddy, who is on the Hogwarts' Board of Governors, well the sentence for illegal dragon breeding is 3 years minimum, in Azkaban."
All of them looked extremely concerned. "Do you have any ideas, Ben?" asked Neville.
"I do have one," I said, looking at them proudly. "I have been thinking about it from the moment I saw that egg. If everything goes according to plan, Hagrid might even get to raise the dragon publicly for a couple of months, before having to send it off to a Dragon Conservatory."
"Don't keep us in surprise, then," said Hermione. "What's the plan?"
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