Hagrid is just a little naïve, heartless, unsophisticated, clumsy, and easily gullible, not really stupid, and Neil's words also made him feel uneasy.

Harry swallowed.

"Hagrid, do you remember what the person you played with that day looked like?"

Hagrid shook his head pale, "I don't know, he won't take off his cloak."

Seeing the shocked expressions of the three of them, he hurriedly tried to explain, "No, you don't know, there are a lot of people dressed like this at the Hogsmeade Bar, which is Hogsmeade. I mean, there's always some weird guy coming around all year round, so I thought ......."

"And how can you be sure he's not a local?"

Hagrid whispered something with an aggrieved expression, as if he had "said it himself".

Harry thuded and sat down on an overturned barrel.

"What did you talk to him about? What did Neil say...... Did you tell him?"

"Wait, wait a minute, let me think about it......" Hagrid recalled with a frown, "I drank a little too much that day, and there were some things- ah, by the way, we talked about Hogwarts!" He asked me what I was doing, and I said I was here as a game keeper!"

"And then?" Ron and Hermione urged in unison.

"Hey, don't rush me! I was trying to think about it - he asked me a little bit which animals I was looking after, and I told him...... And then I said I had always wanted a dragon so badly...... Afterward...... Later, I don't remember exactly, but he kept buying me wine to drink...... Let me think again...... By the way, he later said that he had a dragon egg in his hand, and if I wanted, we could play cards and gamble...... But he had to find out if I was capable of dealing with the dragon, and he didn't want the dragon to run out and cause trouble...... So I said to him, I can even manage Lu Wei obediently, and a dragon is nothing......

There was dead silence in the hut. Only Neil sneered viciously as if he were venting his anger.

"What do you mean by that? See you in the picture!"

The rest of the words didn't need to be said more, but Hagrid, clutching his head in pain, continued, just as a prisoner confessed his crime in court—in fact, Harry privately felt that if the wizard had a court, he wouldn't have been wronged by standing in the dock ten times for this.

"He's interested in Lowe...... I didn't think much of it at the time, after all, how many dogs with three heads can you touch? So I told him that Lowe is actually very easy to deal with, and that you just need to know how to quiet it down, put some music on it, and it will fall asleep in no time - oh my God, I'm a complete idiot, kill me!"

Harry didn't care about him—he wasn't unsympathetic to Hagrid, but there was something more pressing to do.

"There's no time! Snape already knows how to get around Lowe and he'll be doing it soon, and we'll have to inform Dumbledore about it!"

"There's really no time." Neil interrupted him dryly, "Headmaster Dumbledore just left the school this morning—Mr. Headmaster...... It's respectable."

The news was like five thunderbolts, and for a while no one remembered to ask him how he knew about it, and no one thought his cynical tone was strange.

"What now?" Ron asked nervously. After this half a day, the unreasonable claim in his mind about the ownership of the Philosopher's Stone had faded a lot, but when it came to the urgency, there were signs of recurrence, "Write a letter to Dumbledore?"

"It's too late...... Harry was about to inform Deputy Headmaster McGonagall, but what Neil had said earlier suddenly flashed through his mind.

- You already knew where the theft would be before it happened, didn't you?

"Let's go to the penalty area first, Snape could make a move at any time, we can't let him get caught in the air." He said firmly, "Hagrid, go tell Professor McGonagall and tell her...... Uh, you can do it, okay?"

The hesitant tone of the last sentence ruined the atmosphere, but Harry couldn't help but ask Hagrid to confess his mistakes (or sins).

line). Fortunately, the latter also understood how serious the problem was at this time, nodded and stood up from the half-collapsed chair.

"I understand...... As much as I don't think the person who poured me the wine would be Professor Snape, I would never forgive myself if the Philosopher's Stone had been stolen because of this." He nodded solemnly and was about to leave, but at this moment, his eyes inadvertently glanced at the dragon egg in the hearth, and the expression that was resolute just now suddenly fell, "...... Do you mind if I wait for it to hatch?"

"For God's sake—I'll take care of that damn egg for you, so hurry up, okay?"

"Okay...... Good...... By the way, should I change my clothes first? You know, be respectful?"

"Hagrid!"

……

Neil smiled and waved as the four of them hurried towards the castle, the smile on their faces fading as they passed.

"Alright, let's get to work."

He quickly pulled out a robe with gossip patterns and a thick pile of yellow paper from his all-encompassing robe, and threw it out with the back of his neck that had passed out with the heat - Hagrid had left it outside the door, but it was well known that the dog's loyalty (and stupidity) sometimes even overcame the instinct to survive, and it sneaked in between his legs while Hagrid was opening the door for Harry, and then it was forgotten.

With all these preparations done, Neil knelt in front of the fireplace, carefully removed the black dragon egg from the ash pile, then scooped a scoop of warm water from a nearby bucket and poured it on it, reached into the still smoking black ash with his bare hands, grabbed a handful, and began to rub it on the eggshell.

This is expedient. Dragon eggs are very demanding if they want to hatch healthily, but he can't stay in this makeshift hut until the eggs hatch - given the risk of Hagrid being arrested for illegally possessing dragon eggs, it may be best to boil it and eat it, but for swaddling clothes...... To be precise, it was a young life that had not even entered the infant life, and Neil was somewhat moved by compassion.

After applying, seal the egg layer by layer with yellow paper, and add a spirit rune to temporarily protect it from the threat of bumps and hypothermia...... Although the appearance of the dragon egg is becoming more and more similar to some kind of traditional Chinese cuisine made by wrapping whole chicken in lotus leaves and sealing it with a layer of yellow clay, no one can point this out at this time, not even Neil himself is in the mood to talk much.

He hurriedly ...... the chicken with a wrapping towel He pocketed the eggs, tied a slipknot and put them on his back, and prepared to run out the door. But before he could take two steps, he realized his omission—even on a non-philosophical level, one cannot trip over the same stone twice, and the lesson of the last time he went into the forbidden area alone is still vivid, how can he not learn something from it?

Neil stopped, reached into his trouser pocket and fumbled for a moment, pulling out a cobalt-blue glass bird, curled up in a ball with wings curled up like a finely carved pebble. Neil tapped his knuckles on its back, and the motionless bird suddenly came to life, spreading its wings to reveal its little head, outlined with gold thread—too small to see the sharp majesty of a falcon—and barked at him as if in court.

"Awake? Very well, how about doing me a favor?"

The bird agreed. Neil scratched its chin dotingly.

"Good boy - listen, you go back to the dormitory now, tell the old horse, let him wait for me outside the restricted area on the fourth floor, okay?"

The bird let out a long howl in a milky voice, spread its wings and flew away.

Ever since he had his own dedicated broom shed, Matt had been hiding in it and singing all night long, but Neil was confident that the little guy would be able to drag him out of the country.

All he had to do was hurry to the penalty area.

When he heard that Harry was going to check on the situation in the corridor of the restricted area, a bad premonition flashed in his heart, thinking that it was because he had a premonition that the task of caring for the egg would fall on his shoulders, but ......

Neil shook his head, no

There is a continuation of torturing oneself with baseless imaginations. He carried the scarf containing the dragon's eggs behind his back and hurried towards the castle.

……

……

Hagrid hesitated for a moment to confess his sins to Professor McGonagall, but finally decided to go to the forbidden area with Harry and the others first—he was in a state of confusion right now: worried about whether Lowe would be in danger for his gaffe, worried about Harry if they would come out of the woods, worried about whether he would betray Dumbledore's trust by doing so, worried that he would be swept away by Hogwarts, worried about his dear baby who was not yet out of his shell...... If the corridor of the restricted area is unharmed, he can at least half of his heart when he mentions his throat.

Unfortunately, it backfired, and the group had just climbed the stairs leading to the fourth floor when they heard a commotion, and several junior students from an unknown house rushed down the stairs screaming, and fled without even looking at them, as if something terrible was chasing after them.

Harry's face turned pale, and his first instinct was that Hagrid's three-headed dog had broken free from its chains and escaped from the box - the worst it could have been. He didn't have to look back to know that Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid himself had the same idea, as the four of them picked up their pace at the same moment.

The closer they got to the forbidden area, the more students fled from there in a panic, and the worse the faces of the four became. Know that the more witnesses there are, the more difficult things will eventually become.

"Hagrid." Harry panted as he ran, "Do you have a way to make it quiet immediately?"

"Of course! Just get some music for it, and it will be honest in no time......" Hagrid's stride was much larger than Harry's, but going against the fleeing crowd made him the hardest one, "But—"

"But?!"

Hagrid coughed dryly, "I mean, this method has never worked before, but Lowe has never broken free from its chains before, and if it escaped because those bad guys did something to it with magic, I'm not sure......

The second half of the sentence was stuck in his throat, because by this time the group could already see the door to the corridor of the restricted area, and the group of monsters standing in front of the door brandishing a big stick to drive away the students was obviously not a three-headed dog.

"What's that?" Harry froze, looking up at the ugly humanoid monsters with an expression of disbelief.

They were about ten to twelve feet tall, their blue-gray skin as dull as mossy stones, their heads smiling strangely, their legs thick and short, and their torsos surprisingly fat, standing there like a hill of rubble. These ugly, horrible, and stinking creatures were laughing and waving the heavy wooden sticks in their hands, causing the students who had fallen to the ground with weak legs and couldn't run away.

Harry noticed that they weren't really trying to attack people, but were just amusing themselves by watching the students scream, cry, and pee their pants. They deliberately swept the sticks over the students' heads, smashed a large piece of patent leather on the wall, and allowed the historic tapestries and frescoes on them to become a mess of garbage under the ravages of violence; He even threw the stick aside, grabbed the wooden railing and shook it, and then threw the large pieces of it into the middle of the crowd.

"Trolls!" Ron's jaw was about to drop to the ground, "At Hogwarts? How is this possible?"

However, he then remembered that there was another negative case around him that successfully smuggled both the three-headed dog and the dragon egg into the school...... Maybe Hogwarts security wasn't as good as you thought it would be?

"Damn, what the hell is going on...... Hey, you guys! Run after me!" The expression on Hagrid's face changed several times in an instant, and he was even briefly relieved to find out that the culprit was not Lowey, but responsibility eventually prevailed, and he tore out his throat and yelled at the remaining students who were still in a daze, and then strode towards the nearest troll, slamming an old punch on its chin, "Harry, go tell the other professors!" I'll stop them!"

Harry felt his brain spin faster than ever.

"Nope."

He whispered.

"What did you say

？」 Hermione asked, horrified.

"This must be Snape...... Or someone else, anyway, the guy who gave Hagrid the dragon egg, in order to delay time for himself! He's definitely in the restricted area now, and we can't watch him take the Philosopher's Stone!" Harry's voice grew faster and faster, he knew how crazy the plan was, but he had no intention of giving up.

"But ......"

More trolls poured out of the gates of the forbidden area corridor, but Hagrid's size and bravery were eye-catching enough that the stupid monsters were all drawn to him, and no one cared about the three dwarf little creatures next to them.

"Wait, don't do anything stupid!" Hagrid shouted at him to dissuade, but a troll struck him in the shoulder with a club, forcing him to take two steps back, "Damn it, Harry, listen to me! Don't go!"

It was too late, and the three of them had come to an agreement in the space of a few seconds, and by the time Hagrid had managed to throw the troll around his neck off the corner of the stairs with an over-the-shoulder throw, and regained the freedom to breathe, the three of them had long since disappeared.