Chapter 69: Accidentally Missing Out on a Billion

Busy times always pass quickly. Bell spent every day studying magic and conducting magical experiments.

On the second day after the Easter holiday, Hermione suddenly found him, asking Bell to review with her, especially the contents of History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Because the exams were approaching, and it would be too late if they didn't review diligently.

"Hermione, if I remember correctly, our exams are at the end of June, right?"

"Yes."

"But it's only early April now, right? There's still more than two months left. You don't have to be so anxious."

Although Bell didn't know what date it was today, it was definitely in April.

Seeing the serious expression and tense demeanor of the young witch, Bell felt that she was putting too much pressure on herself, which wasn't good.

"The weather is nice today, and the temperature is comfortable. How about we take a walk by the Black Lake to relax?"

"No! Bell, two months is not long! I still feel like the day we came to Hogwarts was just yesterday, but it's been over half a year. So if we don't start reviewing now, you'll find that the exams are tomorrow, and you haven't reviewed anything yet!"

Hermione stared at Bell seriously, clearly not accepting his proposal.

"And you've never attended History of Magic and Defense Against the Dark Arts classes! If you want to get good grades in the final exam, you need to start reviewing earlier!"

After saying this, Hermione didn't wait for Bell to refute and pulled him towards the library.

Actually, the first-year curriculum was not difficult for Bell. However, just like many middle-aged people in their forties or fifties who couldn't solve elementary school math problems, because it had been so long since they last encountered them, he didn't know how to answer very simple questions.

Considering this, Bell thought it wouldn't hurt to review before the exam, so he could save some brainpower during the written test. As for whether to review now or later, there was actually no difference. So Bell let Hermione pull him to the library.

After looking at some books in the library for a while, a burly man who seemed a bit out of place quietly entered the library.

In Hogwarts, the only people with such a physique were the caretaker of the keys and the gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid.

Bell hadn't had any contact with Hagrid. Although he didn't dislike Hagrid's straightforwardness, he also didn't like to chat with people who weren't very smart. As for how he could tell that Hagrid wasn't very bright even though he hadn't had any contact, just look at him now.

Come on, Hagrid was about 3.5 meters tall. Standing there, he was almost touching the ceiling with his head. Why did he sneak around like this? Did he not want others to notice him? Or did he want to attract attention?

"Hagrid? What is he doing in the library? And why does he look so sneaky? What does he want to do?"

Obviously, Hermione was also attracted by Hagrid's presence. So Bell said his appearance was more suspicious.

Hermione wasn't familiar with Hagrid. After all, no one dared to approach a giant who was about 3.5 meters tall casually, let alone a group of young witches and wizards. You know, even if the giant didn't mean any harm, what if they got eaten?

"Who knows? Whatever."

Bell shrugged casually.

He vaguely remembered this, but even after searching through his memories with Legilimency, he couldn't find any relevant content.

Bell didn't understand why. Logically, if he had an impression, it meant he should have seen relevant content before, so using Legilimency should be able to find corresponding memories. But Bell had searched through his memories about his previous life several times, reviewed all the memories related to "Harry Potter" that he could find, but he still often had a subtle sense of familiarity with some images that were not in his memory.

Perhaps there were many aspects of memories that wizards hadn't yet understood.

If Bell checked the titles of the books Hagrid borrowed, he would definitely regret his indifference.

Because all those books were related to dragons, including "Species of Dragons in Britain and Ireland," "From Dragon Eggs to Hell," and "Guide to Raising Dragons."

Seeing these book titles, it's not difficult to associate that Hagrid wanted to raise a dragon, or maybe he was already raising one.

Private dragon breeding was illegal because of the dangerous and hard-to-tame nature of dragons. At the 1709 Wizarding Congress, a bill was officially passed banning the breeding of dragons. So even though Bell already had a Chimaera, which was no less dangerous than a dragon, he never thought of raising a dragon.

But this didn't stop his interest in dragons. Although he had seen and used many dragon-related parts from his own dragon ranches in recent years, he had never seen a living dragon.

If he knew Hagrid had a dragon egg, maybe he could use some harmless methods to get the dragon egg and play with it?

As a person from China in his previous life, Bell's love for dragons was beyond doubt, after all, he was the descendant of dragons.

Of course, at the beginning, Bell looked down on the so-called dragons, thinking they were just lizards with wings, much inferior to true dragons.

But after investigating the information about "dragons" in detail, Bell found that perhaps Western dragons and Eastern dragons had the same ancestors—the Yinglong.

In Chinese mythology, the Yinglong was a winged dragon god, also known as the "Ancestral Dragon" or "Dragon Ancestor." The appearance of the Yinglong was very similar to a combination of Western dragons and Eastern dragons.

Therefore, Bell speculated that the Yinglong might have been a powerful and magical creature that once existed in the East. As time passed, perhaps due to the movement of continental plates? Part of the Yinglong migrated to the West and evolved into dragons, while those that remained in the East evolved into divine dragons. Then, until modern times, dragons evolved into dragons and divine dragons evolved into sea serpents.

Powerful creatures didn't necessarily mean they were suitable for survival, because the stronger the creature, the fewer offspring it had, and the longer it took to grow. This could easily lead to generational gaps due to accidents.

Just like in the natural world, the most resilient and populous species were always the small insects. Some powerful animals, such as lions, tigers, elephants, and whales, were more likely to face extinction.

So it was very important for the survival of a species to appropriately reduce the average strength of the population and find a balance between strength and quantity.

Of course, all of this was just Bell's speculation. Only heaven knew the truth.

In any case, because of Bell's indifferent personality, he missed the opportunity to acquire a rare dragon hatchling... cough cough, I mean, a dragon egg.