Harry worried that what Hagrid was about to show them had nothing to do with the Triwizard Tournament, so he immediately began preparing his defenses in advance.
"Hagrid, listen to me, we can't stay at your place very long..."
However, Hagrid didn't hear a single word of what Harry said. When he heard Sherlock promise that he wouldn't be seen by anyone, he nodded and said, "Alright, we won't bring Fang, he wouldn't like it..."
Harry instinctively looked toward Sherlock, only to see the latter smile faintly at him.
Oh right, with Sherlock here, no matter how bad things got, they couldn't get that bad.
Thinking this, Harry immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Indeed, Sherlock was absolutely right. He still couldn't let his emotions control his reason.
Since the decision had already been made, Hagrid said no more. He opened the door of his hut and strode out into the darkness.
Harry immediately hurried to follow.
Then he was greatly surprised to discover that Hagrid was leading him toward the Beauxbatons carriage.
"Hagrid, how did you—"
"Shh!"
Hagrid said, then knocked three times on the door decorated with two crossed golden wands.
"Knock knock knock!"
Seeing this, Harry quickly turned around, wanting to alert Sherlock. However, when he turned, he discovered that Sherlock had already disappeared.
Just as Harry was marveling at Sherlock's agility, Madame Maxime had already opened the door. A silk shawl was draped over her extraordinarily broad shoulders.
Upon seeing Hagrid, her previously stern face immediately broke into a beaming smile. It seemed the two had been getting along quite well during this time.
Harry had very high aesthetic standards and was an uncompromising judge of appearances. In his view, although Madame Maxime's stature was enough to make people keep their distance, if one only looked at her face, she could absolutely be called very beautiful.
Originally Harry had thought she and Hagrid were quite well-matched. But now, looking at Hagrid's rough face again, never mind.
As soon as this thought arose, he hurriedly began apologizing to Hagrid silently in his heart. Hagrid, I'm sorry!
"Ah, Hagrid!" Madame Maxime asked with a smile, "Is it time already?"
"That's right!"
Obviously, the two had made arrangements well in advance. Hagrid smiled even more happily than Madame Maxime. He extended one hand to help her down the golden steps. "Good evening, beautiful lady."
Madame Maxime turned back to close the carriage door, and Hagrid offered his thick arm for her to take as they walked around the edge of the temporary paddock where Madame Maxime's winged horses were kept.
Harry was completely bewildered. Could it be that what Hagrid wanted to show him was Madame Maxime? That was completely unnecessary! He could see her anytime!
With her considerable size, she was rather hard to overlook.
He instinctively wanted to seek Sherlock's help as he usually did, only then realizing that Sherlock wasn't by his side. He looked around and, relying on the advantage of the Invisibility Cloak, finally spotted Sherlock in the shadows of some bushes.
At this moment he almost laughed out loud, because in order to avoid being discovered by Hagrid and Madame Maxime, Sherlock had assumed a very comical position.
But he quickly realized he couldn't continue like this. Hagrid and Madame Maxime's strides were too large, and he needed to jog to keep up with their pace. Sherlock, on the other hand, under cover of the night, appeared completely at ease.
Harry silently admired him even more. As expected of Sherlock. From the looks of it, there was no way Madame Maxime would discover him.
However, it seemed Madame Maxime was receiving the same treatment from Hagrid as Sherlock and Harry had.
"Where exactly are you taking a lady at this late hour, Hagrid?"
She said this in a joking tone, making the atmosphere somewhat ambiguous for a moment.
"You'll like it," Hagrid said, his voice hoarse, clearly sensing this. "Trust me, dear Maxime, this is definitely worth seeing. But... you mustn't tell anyone I brought you to see this, alright? Because you're not supposed to know about any of this."
Hearing this, Madame Maxime's heart stirred, and her long, dark eyelashes immediately began fluttering. "Of... of course I won't tell!"
Good grief! Harry actually detected a hint of coquettishness in Madame Maxime's tone.
The two continued chatting as they walked, going faster and farther. Before they knew it, they had walked a long way around the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Although they could still see the castle in the distance, the lake was no longer visible.
If Harry couldn't still see Sherlock, he would have already given up and returned to the castle, letting Hagrid enjoy his moonlit stroll with Madame Maxime alone.
Just as his mind was wandering, he suddenly felt someone pull him. Harry jumped, startled, only then reacting. At some point, Sherlock had come to his side.
Harry was no longer surprised at all by the fact that Sherlock could detect him through the Invisibility Cloak.
"Walk slower, pay attention and listen," Sherlock signaled Harry to slow down.
Unlike Harry with his active imagination, Sherlock, who had been following Hagrid and Madame Maxime all along, had already deduced Hagrid's purpose. Leaking information about the first task of the Triwizard Tournament.
Hagrid was being quite loyal, thinking of his own school's champion first. However, bringing along Madame Maxime was rather difficult to evaluate. One could only say that men in love were capable of doing anything.
When he heard several men shouting loudly ahead, along with a deafening, shrill roar, Sherlock had even deduced what scene he was about to witness.
One could only say there was good reason why the Triwizard Tournament had killed so many people over the years.
At this point, Hagrid had led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and finally stopped. Sherlock brought Harry along, following directly behind these two giants. Then he made a gesture, signaling Harry not to be shocked.
With Sherlock by his side, Harry felt much more at ease, then looked ahead. For a moment, Harry thought he saw several bonfires with men jumping around them. But the next moment, his mouth fell open in astonishment.
If he hadn't received Sherlock's warning beforehand, Harry would have nearly cried out. Dragons! There were dragons! Was the Triwizard Tournament organizing committee joking with them?
A full three fierce fire-breathing dragons were currently confined in an enclosure made of thick wooden boards. Throughout their journey, Sherlock and Harry had encountered quite a few giant creatures, like trolls, three-headed dogs, Hagrid... among them, the largest had been the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets.
However, at this moment, any one of these three dragons, taken individually, was even more massive than the basilisk. The shrill roar from earlier had come from them.
Jets of flame shot from their fanged mouths toward the dark night sky. Each dragon's neck was raised high, with their mouths at least fifty feet above the ground. Nearly ten wizards surrounded each dragon, desperately pulling on chains.
Those chains were firmly connected to thick leather straps binding the dragons' legs and necks. Obviously, they were trying to subdue these three giants.
Sherlock looked up and met eyes with the black dragon nearest to them. He noticed its pupils were vertical, like a cat's eyes. Whether from fear or anger, those eyes bulged outward like Luna's.
"Hey, stay back there, Hagrid!" one of the wizards near the fence called out to him while gripping his chain tightly. This was quite normal, considering Hagrid's build, not to mention Madame Maxime beside him.
"Be careful, they can shoot flames twenty feet, you know! I've seen this Hungarian Horntail shoot forty feet!"
"Beautiful!" Hagrid said with considerable emotion.
Harry looked at Hagrid with both surprise and helplessness. Yes, this was Rubeus Hagrid's unique taste. He had a particular fondness for large, fierce, and dangerous animals.
Sherlock's attention remained on those wizards throughout. He heard one of them shout loudly, "Not so easy! Everyone prepare Stunning Spells, on the count of three, cast together!"
Hearing him speak, each dragon handler drew their wand. Next, they shouted the "Stupefy" incantation in unison.
Dozens of Stunning Spells shot out simultaneously, creating quite a spectacular sight in the dark night sky. The sparks bursting from the wand tips fell like rain on the three dragons' scaly thick hides.
Every shot hit its mark. After all, the dragons' size was simply too large, there was no need to aim at all.
Struck by the Stunning Spells, the dragons opened their mouths wide in silent roars. The next moment, the flames from their nostrils extinguished, though they still emitted blue smoke.
However, the Stunning Spells ultimately had their effect. Their huge bodies swayed and wobbled, as if struggling with all their might, but eventually fell one after another with thunderous crashes.
The successive booms shook the trees behind everyone. Seeing all three dragons fall, the dragon handlers lowered their wands in unison and walked toward the fallen giants.
Even lying on the ground, each dragon still resembled a small mountain. The handlers hurriedly tightened the chains, securing them firmly to iron stakes, then used their wands to drive the stakes deep into the ground.
Only after finishing all this did they breathe a sigh of relief.
"Want to get closer for a look?" At this point, Hagrid turned excitedly to Madame Maxime and asked.
By now, how could Madame Maxime not understand what Hagrid's late-night invitation meant? Her eyes shone with excitement as she nodded vigorously and followed Hagrid toward the fence.
Noticing Harry still standing in place, dazed, Sherlock pulled him again. Only then did Harry react and quietly followed.
At this moment, the wizard who had earlier warned Hagrid not to approach turned around. Harry was surprised to discover that he actually knew this person.
It was none other than Ron and Ginny's second brother, Charlie Weasley, whom he had seen not long ago at the Quidditch World Cup final.
"How's it going, Hagrid?" He walked over, breathing heavily, with a lingering expression of relief.
"I think they should be alright now. Actually, we'd already given them sleeping draughts, and they were unconscious throughout the journey. We thought waking up in the peaceful night would make them feel better. But as you saw, they're not happy, not happy at all!"
Charlie spread his hands and sighed helplessly.
"Charlie, what breeds are these?" Hagrid gazed at the black dragon nearest to him with an almost reverent expression. At this moment, even Madame Maxime beside him seemed less appealing.
Madame Maxime wasn't offended and began strolling along the enclosure, gazing at the stunned dragons. The nearest black dragon, though fallen to the ground, still had its eyes slightly open.
With his excellent vision, Sherlock even noticed a thin yellow gleam shining beneath its wrinkled black eyelids. Compared to the other two dragons, this black dragon's body size was even larger.
"This is a Hungarian Horntail," Charlie said, then pointed to the silver-blue dragon with a pair of long, sharp horns. "This is a Swedish Short-Snout."
The last red dragon had a ring of strange, thin spikes around its face. Charlie introduced it as a Chinese Fireball.
Charlie looked around and, noticing Madame Maxime's movements, frowned and said, "I didn't expect you to bring her too, Hagrid. The champions aren't supposed to know what they're facing. I imagine she'll definitely tell her student, won't she?"
"Perhaps, but I just thought she'd really enjoy coming to see them." Hagrid shrugged his shoulders, his gaze still fixed on the three dragons in fascination, clearly not caring at all about Charlie's reminder.
At this point, Charlie could only shake his head helplessly. Looking at Madame Maxime, whose build was comparable to Hagrid's, he couldn't help but comment, "What a romantic date, Hagrid."
However, Hagrid at this moment was completely unconcerned about this, only asking curiously, "There are three dragons in total, which means each school's champion needs to deal with one? But even if three people work together, fighting a dragon would be far too dangerous, wouldn't it?"
The ancient legend of heroes slaying dragons had a market in every land.
"They won't have them fight the dragons," Charlie shook his head. "I think they'll probably just have to get past the dragons. Of course, if things go badly, we'll step in to help and cast Extinguishing Charms on the dragons. I don't understand why the organizers wanted all nesting mother dragons..."
What was there not to understand? Obviously, the contestants' target was the dragon eggs, not the dragons themselves. However, considering how precious dragons were about their eggs, the danger and excitement level of this task wasn't much different from directly fighting the dragons.
As Sherlock was thinking this, his gaze sweeping over the dragons suddenly focused sharply. A familiar figure came into view.
Unexpected, yet perfectly reasonable.
You can read more than 40 chapters on:
patreon.com/MikeyMuse