"Yeah, I heard George say that Adrian's Transfiguration level is good enough for O.W.L.S.," Harry couldn't help but jump in.
He thought Hermione was already amazing, if she was complaining, then he and Ron might as well just give up.
Seeing that Hermione was still feeling down, Adrian tried again to cheer her up.
"It's not good to stress out before exams. You should chill out and take breaks, or it'll mess up how you do on the test."
Harry and Ron immediately dropped their books and nodded eagerly. They thought Adrian made perfect sense, studying all the time was exhausting.
Adrian ignored them and continued, "I'm almost done training Norbert. Charlie's coming to pick him up in a few days, so we could go see him together during our break today."
For the past week, Hermione had been buried in the library studying. Sometimes she didn't even bother eating, so Adrian wanted to use this chance to help her relax.
"No, what's so interesting about dragons? I'm going to review Basic Transfiguration Theory again," Hermione stubbornly shook her head. She wanted first place in every class, and Transfiguration was no exception.
Never mind the other subjects, at least in the exam she was best at, she didn't want to lose to Adrian.
Harry and Ron were the complete opposite. They'd already thrown aside their boring History of Magic books and asked about dragon training.
Adrian didn't hide anything, telling them about the training process with Hagrid. He kept his voice low so Hermione, who was reading nearby, could just barely hear.
Since they were sitting in a corner of the library, Adrian wasn't worried about being overheard as long as he wasn't too loud.
After hearing that Norbert had grown bigger than a table and could follow commands to jump, roll over, and breathe fire, Harry and the others got excited and wanted to see him.
Adrian talked while quietly watching Hermione, the young witch was obviously turning pages much slower and seemed distracted.
"Norbert can fly now. Don't you want to try riding a dragon?" Adrian struck while the iron was hot, playing his best card.
"So close to the castle, what if we get caught?" Hermione finally couldn't help asking.
"We could go in the evening and fly low. As long as we're careful, we shouldn't get spotted," Adrian smiled.
Hermione nodded and tried to keep studying, but within two seconds she snapped the book shut with a loud "pop" and glared at Adrian angrily. Her mind was full of dragons, she couldn't focus on review materials anymore.
A few hours later, Adrian sat outside Hagrid's hut in a chair, lazily giving commands.
"Norbert, jump!"
"Norbert, roll over..."
"Norbert, breathe fire... You're already a two-hundred-pound big guy. You need to learn to cook fish yourself..."
On the grass in front of them, a large, fierce-looking Norwegian Ridgeback was happily rolling on the ground. Following Adrian's instructions, he sprayed hot flames at the fish grill.
Then he grabbed the grilling rack with his fang-filled mouth, flapped his wings, and ran up to Adrian on all fours, placing the two grilled fish in a bowl and waiting for Adrian to sprinkle on the flavor-boosting potion before eating.
Adrian reached out and petted Norbert's head. Dragons really did grow fast, in just over a month, Norbert had grown several times bigger.
"This is so cool!" Ron, who had been watching in amazement, reached out wanting to touch Norbert's wings like Adrian. Harry and Hermione also looked eager.
"Don't move!" Adrian suddenly shouted.
Ron jumped, startled. After getting over the shock, he was about to complain, but then he turned and found Norbert's large head close to his, with fangs showing and yellow drool dripping.
Ron realized Adrian hadn't been talking to him and sat down hard in shock. Harry quickly stepped forward to help him up.
"So stubborn..." Adrian reached out and knocked Norbert's big head, making him pull back his fangs. The hard scales made Adrian's knuckles hurt.
"Adrian, haven't you tamed him?" Ron asked, still shaken up.
"It's only been this long, how could it be that fast? I've only gotten some basic results," Adrian shook his head. Don't let Norbert's current obedience fool you, this was built on fear and grilled fish.
When Norbert got older and realized his trainer wasn't as strong as he'd thought, this whole relationship could fall apart.
But for now, Adrian could control Norbert. After some comfort and warnings, he talked to the others who were nervously excited to interact with the dragon.
"If you want to touch him, you can now."
Ron, who had been scared moments before, didn't dare get close yet, but Harry bravely reached out his hand.
"Hermione, you should try too," Adrian looked at the conflicted Hermione.
Originally planning to say no, after all, it was too dangerous, Hermione ultimately couldn't resist the temptation of petting a dragon. She placed her hand on Norbert's head. Though the hard scales felt weird to touch, the young witch was thrilled to be touching a creature like a dragon for the first time, and she couldn't help smiling.
Though Norbert was uncomfortable with several strange little humans touching him, Adrian's presence made it hard for him to flap his wings and swat them away.
Adrian carefully watched Norbert's expressions and movements during this time, making sure he wouldn't suddenly turn violent before relaxing a bit.
Over the past month, with the help of dragon training, Adrian had successfully collected enough dragon blood, and the Bloodline Fusion Potion in the Room of Requirement had finished brewing. He only needed to add the dragon blood to complete it.
He frowned slightly when thinking about the evaluation of the dragon blood he'd collected earlier.
[Magical Item: Dragon Blood]
[Description: This is dragon blood extracted from a juvenile Norwegian Ridgeback. Its activity and magic are inferior to that of an adult Norwegian Ridgeback, but it has the same potential...]
Though Adrian had expected this, he was still a bit disappointed when he got the information.
Fortunately, the juvenile Norwegian Ridgeback's blood had basically the same potential as an adult's, meaning it would just take more time to develop that potential. This gave Adrian some relief.
He immediately decided to add the dragon blood tonight.
Just as Adrian was lost in thought, urgent barking suddenly came from the Forbidden Forest. Then, from the nearby bushes, a large, bloody, limping dog came running toward them...