Chapter 24: The Fine Line Between Negotiation and Coercion

On a quiet night at Hogwarts, a full moon shone in the sky, casting a soft light over the campus. Owls flew by occasionally and night cats cried out, creating a peaceful atmosphere.

However, in a basement not far from Hogsmeade village, an explosion was about to occur.

"Damn," Malfoy cursed as he watched the soft, golden-yellow liquid in the crucible start to bubble and change color.

It turned from pink to red and finally black as the reaction became more and more violent, resembling turbulent waves.

More and more bubbles broke away from the liquid, making a popping sound.

"Two months of work destroyed in an instant," Malfoy sighed, disappointed at the failed potion.

He had been trying to brew a healing agent, but something had gone wrong during the process.

He sat on the ground and started to think hard, frowning as he tried to figure out where he had gone wrong.

He had forgotten that the pot of failed potion was still boiling.

"What the hell," a strange sound interrupted his thought

"Armor protector!" Malfoy instinctively cast a spell, sensing that he would be the first person to die from an experiment if he didn't use it.

As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a loud boom and a violent explosion occurred in the basement.

The impact and the rushing airflow threw him against the wall and sent dust flying everywhere.

"Cough," Malfoy coughed as he slowly got up from the ground, looking at the destroyed basement and the spilled potions with a grim smile.

"I should remember to clean up after experiments," he thought to himself. "I can't believe I survived and make it back." I wonder what's wrong with my experiment.

No, I shouldn't bother with this and make preparation for next experiment."

Draco redirect his focus on materials and tools.

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During the Easter holidays at Hogwarts, students have a lot of homework to catch up on and are preparing for final exams.

However, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are not studying in the library like they should be. Instead, they are drawn where they meet Hagrid, who is collecting information about dragons.

The trio follows Hagrid back to his hut and asks him about the Philosopher Stone, which they have learned Snape is also responsible for protecting.

Their focus then shifts to a dragon egg that Hagrid has acquired. It tells them that he won it while playing cards with a stranger and plans to raise it according to an outdated book called "Raising Dragons for Recreation and Profit."

Ron, Harry, and Hagrid are excited about the prospect of raising the dragon, but Hermione is not as enthusiastic and has concerns about the legality and care of the creature.

As the sun sets, they realize it is late and they should return to their studies.

Their current focus is the dragon.

"Hagrid, can you open the window? It's hot outside"

"No, Harry, sorry." Hagrid said. Harry noticed that he glanced at the fireplace. Harry also turned his head to look at the fire.

Harry noticed that Hagrid was looking at the fireplace and followed his gaze. In the middle of the fire, under the kettle, lay a large, dark egg.

"Hagrid, what is that?" Harry asked.

"Oh, that's..." Hagrid said, twisting his beard anxiously.

"I won it last night while I was playing cards with a stranger in the village. To be honest, the man was probably eager to get rid of it."

Ron, who had been squatting by the fire to get a closer look at the egg, said, "Where did you get it, Hagrid? It must have cost you a lot of money!"

"I won it," Hagrid repeated.

It's not clear from the given information what Hagrid plans to do with the dragon egg or how he plans to care for it once it hatches.

"But what will you do when it hatches?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, I've been reading books," Hagrid said, pulling out a large book from under his pillow.

"I borrowed this from the library - it's called 'Raising Dragons for Recreation and Profit'. It's a bit outdated, but the information is still useful. It says to put the eggs in the fire because the mother dragon exhales on them. And after it hatches, you have to feed it a bucket of brandy and chicken blood every half hour. Look, it even tells you how to tell the difference between different types of eggs. I've got a Norwegian Ridgeback - very rare."

Hermione intuitively knew was illegal to own a dragon, but when she saw that Ron, Harry, and Hagrid were all excited about it, she didn't know how to bring it up.

The last time she had tried to object to something they were doing, she had ended up getting turned into a cat.

She decided to be more inclusive with her friends and go along with their enthusiasm, even though she wasn't really interested in the dragon egg.

"Hermione? Hermione?" Ron said.

"Don't daydream, come and see the dragon egg. I promise you've never seen anything like it."

"Okay," Hermione said, forcing herself to look at the egg even though she wasn't interested.

It was strange to think that a new life might be emerging from it, and she found herself feeling a little bit excited and less disgusted by the prospect.

As the sun began to set, they realized it was getting late. "Hagrid, we have to go,"

Harry said. "We'll come back again," Ron called out as they left the hut.

"Me too," Hermione added, nodding gently.

The next day, Harry received a note from Hagrid via his owl, Hedwig.

The note contained only four words: "Almost out of the shell." This indicated that the dragon egg was about to hatch.

Ron didn't want to go to class anymore and wanted to go to Hagrid's hut instead. Hermione strongly disagreed.

"Hermione, how many times do we get to see a dragon hatching in our lives?" Ron aske

"We have to go to class or we'll get in trouble. And if someone finds out what Hagrid is doing, he'll be in even more trouble than us," Hermione replied.

"Quiet," Harry whispered.

During the herbal medicine class, Ron had been arguing with Hermione. Finally, during the morning break, Hermione agreed to go to Hagrid's hut with them.

At the end of class, as the bell rang in the castle, the three of them dropped their shovels, ran across the field, and headed towards the edge of the forbidden forest.

Hagrid greeted them, looking red and excite

"It's almost time for the hatching," he said, letting them into his hut. The egg was on the table, already cracked and with something moving inside.

There was a strange clicking sound. The three of them pulled their chairs up to the table, held their breath, and watched closely.

Suddenly, with a loud scratching sound, the egg cracked open and a dragon flapped onto the table. It wasn't very pretty - Harry thought it looked like a crumpled black umbrella.

Its wings were especially large compared to its thin black body, and it had a long, sharp nose with white nostrils, scar-like marks on its head, and protruding orange-red eye

The dragon sneezed, shooting a few sparks out of its nose.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Hagrid whispered, reaching out to touch the dragon's head.

The dragon snapped at his finger, showing its pointed teeth.

"Oh my goodness, it knows its mother!" Hagrid said.

"Hagrid, how quickly do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow?" Hermione asked.

Hagrid was about to answer when his face suddenly turned pale.

"Someone's outside the window," he said, jumping up and blocking the light as his large body.

"It's you!" Ron and Harry exclaimed in shock as Malfoy walked into the room. Hermione looked uncertain, not knowing what to thin.

"You were spying on us outside!" Ron yelled, raising his wand. Normally, he wouldn't have the courage to confront the strongest Malfoy like this, but things were different now because Malfoy didn't have a wand.

Many wizards believe that wizards without wands are worse than Muggle

"Stay back!" Ron shouted, a green light shooting from his wand.

"I won't let you succeed!"

"No!" Hermione shouted urgently.

However, neither Hagrid nor Harry seemed to hear her, both of them were stunned by the current situation.

"I hate it when people point wands at me," Malfoy said lightly.

"Protégo!" Ron shouted, casting a spell.

The green light seemed to hit an invisible wall, stopping abruptly and giving a strange feeling of using the wrong force.

Then, the light bounced back at a faster speed than when it came.

"Ron, are you okay?" Harry and Hermione rushed to help Ron as he stumbled back and fell to the ground.

Harry glared at Malfoy with resentment.

"Don't look at me like that," Malfoy shrugged.

"I'm just defending myself. If I don't resist, it's me who would look like that."

After speaking, Ron burped and a few slugs fell from his mouth onto his thigh.

He continued, "Only dark wizards point their wands at unarmed people, just like a regular army doesn't point their knives at civilians, they only fight with real opponents. It seems that I'm a better civilian."

This statement was clearly made up on the spot, but it sounded reasonable.

"You were the one who was spying on us first!" Harry said loudly, although his voice was weak and shaky.

"A law-abiding citizen is obliged to report illegal activities," Malfoy replied.

"Let me see, what does the 'Magic Animals Protection Law' say? Ah, privately domesticating dragons is punishable by five to ten years in prison, and considering our custodian has previous convictions, they'll probably get a longer sentence. And as for accomplices... imprisonment or expulsion, perhaps? I'm sure our school would be happy to see Gryffindor's score would decrease massively."

Hagrid's beard shook violently and he remained frozen in shock.

Harry was shocked at the prospect of expulsion. In his eyes, it was worse than death.

The glory of Gryffindor would be tarnished by him, so it would be better to go to prison.

"So, do you want to report us?" Hermione tried to keep her voice calm.

She was the only one present who could still remain composed, although her thin fingers were clenched tightly and the white knuckles betrayed her inner turmoil.

"He's not such a person, he's not such a person," Hermione whispered to herself, waiting in agony for his answer.

Ron wanted to speak, but he ended up spitting out a few slugs on the ground.

"Don't ask Hermione, she's Snape's student. There's definitely a conspiracy," Ron said, trying his best.

But then Malfoy cast a spell and Ron's mouth locked shut. His cheeks became bigger and bigger and soon his throat bulged. It became difficult for him to breathe.

"You'll kill him!" Hermione shouted, clearly frightened by the scene.

"Please stop it"

"The curse will stop," Malfoy said softly.

Ron then spat out the slug and gasped heavily on the ground. He glared at Malfoy in hatred, but then quickly looked down and lowered his head, afraid.

"For most people in this world, death is the ultimate fear, and that includes the Dark Lord. I hope you learn your lesson and don't interfere when others are speaking," Malfoy said, still indifferent.

'What do you want?' Harry asked bravely, clearly shaken by the scene with Ron showed just now was deeply engraved in his mind, and he just wanted to know what Malfoy wanted.

"It was a fair transaction, but now it's clear that you can only see it as coercion," Malfoy shrugged helplessly, obviously somewhat helpless in the current situation.

"What deal?" Hermione asked quickly.

Malfoy didn't answer her directly.

He said slowly, "Norwegian Ridgeback dragons are a type of fire dragon that grow quickly. They can grow to twice their original size in a week."

"This Giant man's house won't be able to fit this fire dragon soon, and because of its unusually aggressive nature, it may cause a big disaster sooner or later without proper domestication."

"Don't you remember the monster from last time? If you compare the strength of magical creatures, this dragon's strength won't be higher than that monster."

"If something goes wrong, you'll go to an ordinary prison, or maybe even Azkaban. You know, Mr. Hagrid, that thinking about dementors are very uncomfortable."

Hagrid stumbled and almost fell to the ground at the mention of Azkaban. Its deterrent is obviously too strong.

"What's more likely to happen is that the disaster it causes will be too great for humans to destroy."

"No!" Hagrid exclaimed in sorrow.

"Norber is just a child." He squatted with his head in his hands, as if he had thought of the scene at that time.

"I can help you, you just have to pay a small price," Malfoy continued.

"What's the cost, and how will you help us?" Harry asked quickly. He didn't care who Malfoy's student was or what conspiracy was going on.

"In good faith, I'll tell you how first. That is, me," Malfoy pointed to himself.

"My father has a lot of investment in the UK, and some of the outside world is also involved. There is a dragon farm in Romania where my father has a lot of shares, and sending the dragon there would be the best choice."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Ron asked incredulously.

"I'm really sad about the IQ of the Weasley family's descendants," Malfoy couldn't help but help.

"Can't you report me if I lie to you? Think again about what your brother Charlie is doing."

Hagrid said in surprise, "Little guy Charlie is also studying fire dragons there. He told me he's also in Romania."

Then his voice fell low. "But I can't bear Norber."

He started sobbing. Even for a big man crying in front of them, Malfoy felt discordant.

"Then what do you want?" Harry whispered.

Malfoy stared at Hermione for a moment, making her feel very uncomfortable.

"What does he want?" Hermione stared at him for a while and thought of a possibility. Her cheeks couldn't help but turn red.

"Impossible, impossible," she said to herself, trying to calm her mood.

"I only need a bottle of dragon's blood," Malfoy suddenly straightened his posture.

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this request in the battle between heart and mind.

"No, you can't treat it that way. He's just a child," Hagrid suddenly went crazy again.

He hugged Noble tightly and repeated this sentence repeatedly.

"Then I'll have to act as a young pioneer and expose the illegal action," Malfoy

Suddenly, harry said in determined voice.

"I promised you for Hagrid," Harry said.

"Harry, how can you..." Ron's condition seemed to be better now, and he quickly dissuaded Harry.

"We have no choice," Harry said in a deep voice.

He had to admit that it wasn't brave or reckless of Gryffindor to solve the problem this way. Peter the little dwarf was involved, as well as Regulus Blake of Slytherin. Harry showed the wisdom and determination he deserved now.

"Wish us a happy cooperation," Malfoy held out his hand and smiled.

"Happy cooperation," Harry also extended his hand and forced himself to make a smile like it was crying.

"My father should send someone over next week. By then, the dragon should have grown a lot. Be ready, but don't let others know, or you'll regret it."

"We won't let others know," Harry promised.

"Oh, that's best." Before leaving, he added, "One more thing, please remember that it is a dragon!"