Hagrid's Hut.
Lucien used a poker to stir the firewood in the fireplace, hoping to make the flames burn brighter.
But this was only for appearances.
According to what Newt had taught him, dragon eggs required the mother dragon to continuously breathe warm air over them, supplemented by intermittent, small-scale dragon fire—this was the real key.
A dragon's magical flames were extremely hot and contained special magical elements that provided sufficient nourishment for the hatchling's incubation and development.
Ordinary flames, like those produced by firewood, were barely enough to make the egg hatch.
Even if it did hatch, the young dragon's subsequent development would fail to keep up.
So, while Hagrid was away, Lucien had subtly mixed a trace of Net Fire into the firewood—an advanced flame that was almost pure gold in color.
With this, the temperature required by the dragon egg was more than sufficient.
Of course, Lucien also followed the standards given by Newt, carefully controlling the temperature range of the Net Fire so that the incubating dragon egg would not be turned into a roasted one.
As for the special magical elements contained within dragon fire, Lucien genuinely found them difficult to replicate.
He could hardly capture an adult dragon to help incubate the egg; with a dragon's fiery temperament, it might well treat the egg as a snack.
However, a hunch told Lucien that the Net Fire of the divine beast Qilin would likely have an even more remarkable effect.
Having had previous experience, Lucien now trusted his instincts quite a bit—or rather, that special sense of inspiration of his.
"Lucien, you've worked hard. Take a break and try the ferret sandwiches I made."
Hagrid set the tea and snacks on the round table, took the poker from Lucien's hand, and busied himself with other things.
Looking at the refreshments, Lucien felt it was all very Hagrid.
He picked up a cup of tea and took a gentle sip, deliberately avoiding the "dark cuisine" of ferret sandwiches.
Instead, he took a rock cake from nearby, secretly cast a few softening charms on it, and then took a bite.
Aside from being very, very hard, the rock cake was quite fragrant.
"Oh, right, Lucien," Hagrid said. "You mentioned before that dragon eggs need high-temperature flames to hatch, so this fireplace…"
"It's fine. I've already mixed some magical flames into it. It might not be as good as real dragon fire, but it's stronger than ordinary firewood."
Hagrid clapped his hands happily when he heard this.
"Thank you, Lucien. You really are a good person."
Lucien fell silent for a moment. He actually wanted to obtain this dragon egg from Hagrid.
It definitely wouldn't be for free—he would compensate Hagrid—but how was he supposed to bring it up?
Bang bang bang—!!
A knock sounded at the door, and Hagrid hurriedly pushed the dragon egg deeper into the fireplace, hanging a kettle above it.
Then Hagrid got up to open the door.
Glancing at the kettle, Lucien noticed there wasn't a single drop of water inside. He shook his head and gave a light wave of his wand.
A silent Aguamenti charm filled the kettle with clear water.
"Oh, it's Harry. Come on in, all of you."
The three children arrived together at Hagrid's Hut and immediately felt how surprisingly hot it was inside. Even though it was spring, the fireplace was still burning.
And sitting by the fire was the familiar Lucien.
After greeting him, Harry and the others sat down. When Hagrid offered them ferret sandwiches, they wisely and tacitly declined.
"Hagrid, let's not beat around the bush. We want to know—besides Cerberus, what other obstacles are protecting the Philosopher's Stone?"
"No, no, no, I can't tell you that. You already know too much!"
Faced with Harry's blunt question, Hagrid waved his hands repeatedly, then added,
"Anyway, I don't know either, so I can't tell you anything."
Harry and his friends exchanged glances. Nearby, Lucien leisurely sipped his tea. Finally, Hermione spoke.
"Hagrid, what happens around here that can escape your notice? We just want to know who else designed the obstacles."
Pausing, Hermione flattered him in a sweet tone.
"Besides you, who else could Dumbledore trust? And who else could help him?"
Seeing the proud, delighted smile on Hagrid's face, Harry and Ron secretly gave Hermione a thumbs-up.
Lucien also looked at Hermione with newfound respect. She truly was the brains of the trio in the early stages—no, throughout the entire story.
This struck right at Hagrid's soft spot. The little girl really did have a sweet tongue and knew how to speak nicely.
"Ahem… well, there's no harm in telling you. I lent Fluffy- the Cerberus, and the other professors set up some magical measures."
Hagrid picked up his tea, took a few gulps, and began to reminisce.
"Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, Professor Quirrell, Professor Snape…"
"Oh, and of course, Dumbledore himself also arranged some of it."
The three children all seized on one point.
"Professor Snape, too?"
Hagrid looked completely matter-of-fact.
"That's right. He's a professor at Hogwarts, after all. Why would he steal the Philosopher's Stone? Alright, your only suspect has been ruled out…"
While they were still debating who was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, Harry suddenly noticed something burning in the fireplace.
A large, black egg?
"Hagrid, what's that?"
At Harry's question, Hagrid immediately grew nervous, twisting his thick beard.
"Th-this… well, it's…"
Ron ran over curiously for a closer look, while Hermione spoke up seriously.
"Hagrid, this creature is extremely dangerous. The flames it breathes are terrifying, and…"
Hermione glanced around the room.
"You live in a wooden house."
Hagrid lifted his chin and said cheerfully,
"It's fine, it's fine. Lucien already helped me put fireproof and waterproof charms on the house and the furniture."
"And I've read lots of books…"
As Hagrid went off to fetch one, Hermione cast a suspicious look at Lucien, wondering whether he already knew about Hagrid having a dragon egg.
Lucien calmly continued sipping his tea, as though he hadn't noticed anyone watching him.
"Look, you see, dragon eggs need to be kept in fire, and after they hatch, they have to drink a bucket of brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour. My goodness, can you imagine? Such a little fellow needing to drink that much alcohol!"
"The egg I've got should be a Norwegian Ridgeback. Lucien told me that, and later I found it in a book—it was true!"
"Ah, my dream is to raise a dragon. Hmm… before that, my dream was to raise a Cerberus, and even earlier, an Acromantula…"
Hagrid hummed a little tune as he poked at the firewood.
After Harry and his friends tried to advise him a few times, they realized that Hagrid never gave a clear answer about how he planned to deal with the dragon egg or the little dragon that might hatch later.
Noticing that Lucien also hadn't said much, the three gradually stopped bringing it up.
After chatting for a while, Harry and his friends got up to leave.
There was no helping it—there were simply too many things going on lately.
They had to protect the Philosopher's Stone from being stolen by villains and maintain peace at Hogwarts.
Now they also had to worry about Hagrid raising a dragon.
It left the three of them increasingly anxious.
On top of that, there were important school matters like the end-of-year exams, and as a result, homework in every subject had increased as well.
'Professor' Lucien also mentioned that he still had his final exams. Fortunately, much of the content overlapped with the school curriculum, so it was essentially early revision.
Hermione was naturally delighted by this, but Harry and Ron were miserable. The two of them clearly remembered Lucien saying at the time,
"Recently, some classmates have reported that the study load is relatively light, so we're going to speed things up…"
Although it wasn't fair, Harry and Ron's first reaction was to "suspect" Hermione. But they immediately realized that couldn't be right. With Hermione's personality, if she had something to say, she would say it openly in front of everyone, not privately to Lucien.
Harry and Ron were both convinced that neither of them was responsible for making their studies more difficult. After all, as brothers in suffering, they knew that while they could study well under Lucien, they would never actively ask for more work.
That left two suspicious targets. One was, of course, Malfoy. The other was the newly transferred girl from Slytherin, named Greengrass.
Malfoy was obviously the primary suspect, but Harry and his friends couldn't figure out his motive.
Even so, they had already chosen their targets. For the sake of future peace, they had to find the mole.
________
(^///^) Please support this fic and also read 12 chapters ahead at Patreon.com/DrakDevil1