harry potter book of crimes

"What is the most dangerous thing in the mountains other than fire dragons?"

"It's a mountain!"

Ron's question was answered by Charlie with a subtle answer.

"Don't think I'm joking with you," Charlie put away the smile on his face and said seriously, "Fire dragons have a naturally sharp perception. Even if they are sleeping, they can still detect the reaction of the curse."

Maka who was following him immediately nodded and said:

"Do you still remember our Hogwarts school motto? The so-called 'Leave the Sleeping Dragon Don't Disturb' is what it means..."

Of course, the "dragon" in that school motto does not refer to today's fire dragons, but to those huge dragons with superior combat power in the ancient magic world.

But in terms of principle, it is actually the same, so Maka said it smoothly.

However, Ron's eyes immediately widened after hearing this.

"School motto?" He asked in astonishment, "How come I haven't seen it before?"

After he finished speaking, Harry, who was walking not far away, also nodded his head.

"Write it on the ribbon under the school badge!"

When Hermione saw this, she couldn't help but cover her forehead - they were in Hogwarts until the sixth grade, and they still didn't know the existence of the school motto. These two idiots were completely hopeless.

"Haha," Charlie laughed suddenly and patted his brother on the shoulder, "So, unless the fire dragon has discovered us, we'd better move forward on foot - don't blame me for not reminding you, climbing a mountain is quite tiring.

of!"

A few people were walking and chatting on the road, and soon followed Charlie and Natalia into the forest.

This is a very ordinary mountain forest. The trees are neither thick nor very tall. However, due to the recent snow, the slopes are covered with soft snow. In this case, climbing becomes difficult.

It became more strenuous.

"Our dragon farm basically uses a free-range method. Although this will make management more difficult, it can basically maintain the nature of the fire dragons. And people like Egypt prefer it.

Use enchanted chains to restrict the movement of the fire dragons..."

While climbing the mountain, Charlie did not forget to share some knowledge about taming fire dragons. Looking at the way he talks endlessly, you can tell how deeply he feels about this job.

"But those dragon farms in Egypt are more commercial. They will serve as suppliers to provide some materials to the market. My mother originally wanted me to go there because the salary was obviously higher, but I never really liked it.

That’s the way they do it.”

Natalia would sometimes supplement Charlie's narration like this, but what she said was more subjective and emotional than the latter, which won the approval of Hermione and Ginny.

As for Luna, she was looking around almost all the way, touching tree trunks and grass blades, which made Maka call out to her from time to time to avoid missing anyone while walking.

But it didn't take long for everyone to realize firsthand why Charlie said, "The most dangerous thing in the mountains is not the fire dragon, but the mountain."

Wanting to keep moving forward in this increasingly steep mountain range is indeed a very challenging thing for wizards who mostly lack exercise.

Even Maka felt that her legs were starting to feel a little sore.

"I've been busy doing research lately, so I haven't done much physical exercise..."

Even so, compared to other people who had beads of sweat on their foreheads this winter, how could his little muscle soreness be a big deal?

"McLean...you have a pretty solid body, aren't you?" Charlie couldn't help but said with a surprised look on his face.

When Maka heard this, he just opened his mouth and wanted to say a few words of modesty as usual, but the next second he quickly tilted his ears.

"Be careful, there is movement——"

Before the words could be settled, a roar rang out from the forest to their left. The roar was muffled, like something roaring at a pipe, with a "buzzing" echo.

"Is there a dragon's lair in that direction?" he asked immediately.

"Oh, yes!" Charlie thought for a moment and frowned, "There is a horned dragon living there, but...it should be as prone to sleepiness as other fire dragons during this period? How could it be..."

Before he could finish speaking, another roar came again, but it was subtly different from the first one just now.

"We can't let it scream like this anymore, it will wake up other fire dragons around it." Natalia said immediately, "The fire dragon whose sleep is interrupted will be even more irritable and restless than usual!"

After saying that, she nodded slightly towards Charlie, and then ran first in the direction of the sound.

"Well, anyway, you guys stay here and don't move - it's best to hide under the tree. If the fire dragon flies up, it will make it harder for you to be discovered."

"I'll go with you! Hagrid is here, it'll be fine-"

Seeing Maka say this, Charlie, who was just about to leave, nodded without thinking much - he is also a member of the Order of the Phoenix after all. Although he has always been in Romania, he is still better than Natalia in getting information.

There are more than enough for ordinary wizards.

What's more, those two roars sounded like the fire dragon was angry. If faced with an angry fire dragon, it would be a little bit difficult for two people.

"Oh - actually I want to go too!" Hagrid couldn't help but muttered in a low voice.

But within a few minutes after Maka and Charlie both disappeared into the forest, those who stayed behind were surprised to find that there was still one missing person in the team that was climbing the mountain to look for the dragon.

"Where's Luna?" Hermione suddenly whispered.

…

"boom!"

The cave was not far away, but the moment Maka and Charlie caught up with Natalia at the entrance of the cave, a heavy impact came out of the cave accompanied by vibrations under their feet.

"Ouch——"

Another dragon roar choked Charlie and Natalia's footsteps, causing them to slow down one after the other.

"Mr. MacLean? Why don't you—"

"It's okay, believe me, it will be better with him around!"

Regarding Natalia's question, Charlie gave an answer that was not an answer. Fortunately, Natalia seemed to trust Charlie quite a bit.

During these two conversations, their voices were very soft, as if they were afraid of accidentally arousing the cave owner's alert.

And the moment they changed from running to walking, Maka, who was originally following behind, surpassed the two of them in one fell swoop and suddenly became the leader.

"There are two fire dragons fighting inside," he turned around and said, "Don't worry! In this case, as long as we don't use magic spells, they will ignore us even if we throw stones at them."

"What he said seems to make sense?" Charlie thought about it and said to Natalia.

Under normal circumstances, although some fire dragons are cruel, it does not mean that they will get angry often.

Charlie and the others rarely hear such obviously angry roars. And even if they occasionally experience it, the dragon training farm usually only gathers a dozen of its wizards to use magic spells to subdue the angry dragon.

Of course, even Charlie was only doubtful about Maka's words at the moment.

"Wait," he saw that Maka was still running forward, so he had to temporarily put aside the idea of ​​not speaking loudly and shouted, "We are just here to observe! I will go back and call my colleagues together soon.

You don’t have to go in!”

"ah?"

After Maka heard this, he stopped in his tracks, but at this time he was already standing at the entrance of the cave.

"Aren't you going in?"

His original plan today was to pick up dragons, and it was just a way to show Luna and the others. Seeing the scene of a fire dragon battle, he naturally wanted to take a good look.

This idea is actually similar to Hagrid's, and even Harry and Ron probably think so.

In this world where reality and magic intersect, aren't fire dragons the romance of men? Although... compared with the ancient dragons, these "little lizards" are still a little bit inferior in meaning.

However, the next moment he stopped and turned back, a roar came from the cave again, and his movements suddenly became extremely fast.

In the field of vision of the two people behind, Maka's figure just flashed, and then appeared on the other side of the open space in front of the cave.

At about the same time, Charlie and Natalia also felt themselves being pulled violently by a force, and they both fell to the side.

"Hush-"

A Romanian longhorned dragon rushed out of the cave at high speed. After leaving the cave entrance, it suddenly spread its wings and flew almost close to the ground.

Charlie and Natalia, who fell to the ground, were so pressured by the strong wind that they stopped breathing for a few seconds, but they were still not as terrifying as the huge body of the fire dragon that completely obscured their vision.

At that moment, Natalia could even distinguish several bloody scars on the fire dragon's belly.

After the fire dragon flew quickly to the other side of the mountain range, they slowly sat up with their hands on the ground. When they looked at each other subconsciously, they both saw the frightened expression on each other's faces.

"Looks like it should be fine?"

Maka came from a short distance away, looked at the two of them from side to side, and nodded to herself after confirming that they only had some dirt on their clothes.

"Oh...thank you, McClain." "Thank you."

In response to Charlie and Natalia's thanks, Maka just waved her hand.

"Stand up first, it's not time to let down your guard yet - there is still another one in the dragon's lair!"

"Roar--"

Another roar rumbled, providing very straightforward evidence for Maka's words.

In fact, there was no need for Maka to remind them. After all, Charlie and both of them were wizards who specialized in dealing with fire dragons. After taking a breath, they quickly stood up and looked into the cave with serious faces.

"Natalia, you go back to the facility immediately to gather people. McClain and I will continue to watch here!"

When it comes to magic abilities, Charlie is much better than Natalia. Therefore, the latter did not refuse, but immediately disapparated and left.

But just a few seconds after Natalia left, the sound of heavy footsteps shattered Charlie's plan to wait for help.

"It's coming." (To be continued)