After Hagrid left holding Fang, Kael turned to look at the three of them, smiling as he said, "So the egg is in the fireplace, huh... how much longer are you planning to hide it?"
"Oh..." Ron muttered, "Hermione, didn't you say you'd read that book before? How come you didn't know dragon eggs would smell in the fire… or did you get the title wrong?"
"Shut up, of course not. Do you think I'm like you?" Hermione snapped, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a required book by the school, I obviously read it, more than once."
"Then how come..."
"Don't ask, I don't know!" Hermione ruffled her hair and said, "I don't remember it ever saying that in the book, it only talks about how to hatch dragon eggs!"
As they spoke, the three of them turned their eyes toward Kael.
Ron asked suspiciously, "Did you just make this up?"
Compared to Kael, he trusts Hermione more, since Hermione never got anything wrong from the textbooks.
"Then what about Fang," Kael said, "there's no way Fang would cooperate with me, right?"
Harry thought for a moment and said, "Maybe... it just happened to feel unwell."
"Well, it sure picked a good time."
Kael took a sip of tea from the table and said to Hermione, "I think you must have bought your book before the start of school."
"That's right, on my first trip to Diagon Alley." Hermione frowned, "Is there a problem?"
Kael shrugged and said, "Actually, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been revised many times. I reckon the people at Flourish and Blotts gave you an older edition."
Saying this, he even took out his own book and handed it to Hermione.
"You can take a look yourself."
Hermione took it and quickly flipped to the page about fire dragons.
Just as Kael said, it indeed had that line written on it.
Looking at the publication date, there was a fifty-year difference between the two books.
"This is ridiculous..." Hermione said angrily, "It's deceptive, how could they do this!"
"It's not unusual. Newt revised it so many times, yet the cover never changed. If you don't open it up, it's hard to tell if it's the latest edition."
"Plus, there are so many people buying books before school starts, the staff probably didn't notice they grabbed the wrong one."
Hermione remembered when she went to Flourish and Blotts, all the textbooks needed for Hogwarts were placed at the entrance, except the box for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was empty.
And the staff was very busy at that time, she found hers herself from a corner of the bookshelf.
"Oh, damn it!"
Hermione was even angrier, but this time with herself.
She realized the content in Kael's book was noticeably more detailed, she wished she had waited longer back then.
"If it bothers you, you can take it to Flourish and Blotts during holiday, I'm sure they'll let you exchange it." Kael said with a smile.
Fifty years ago was Newt's peak creative period, sometimes a newly revised edition would be overridden and rewritten within a few days, so old stock wasn't abundant back then.
These books are of no use to ordinary people, but it's different for those bookstores. To show off their abundant collections, they typically display a whole set of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
"No need!"
Hermione returned the book to Kael, "It doesn't cost much anyway, I'll just buy another one when the time comes."
She said as she sat back on the bench.
It was too hot in front of the fireplace, since Kael already found out about the dragon egg, there was no need to go back and suffer.
Harry and Ron followed her.
With them no longer blocking his view, Kael easily spotted the large black egg hidden under the kettle.
"Norwegian Ridgeback?"
"That's right." At that moment, Hagrid walked in.
After closing the door, he excitedly said, "How about it, quite rare, isn't it?"
Kael nodded.
The Norwegian Ridgeback's rarity is second only to the Hungarian Horntail and the Antipodean Opaleye, indeed very rare.
....
On the way to find rowan trees, Hagrid kept looking back at his little house every few steps.
"You should go back and take care of the dragon egg, I know the way, you don't need to come with me."
Hagrid shook his head firmly, "No, I can't let you go into the Forbidden Forest alone!"
"Alright then, I'll try to pick faster." Kael sighed with some disappointment.
"But speaking of which, how did you manage to get a dragon egg?"
"I didn't buy it, I won it," Hagrid said. "Speaking of which, it was quite a stroke of luck. A few days ago a guy I usually drink with came to me, said someone in the village was playing cards with a dragon egg, and asked if I was interested."
"So you went to Hogsmeade?"
"I didn't want to go initially, you know how the Forbidden Forest has been lately, but it was a dragon egg..." Hagrid lowered his voice, excitedly saying, "The guy was so dumb, I managed to trick him with just a little bit of trickery."
Kael looked at the proud Hagrid, raising an eyebrow but saying nothing.
Being tricked by Hagrid... it says a lot about the guy who lost.
"But, what do you plan to do when it hatches?" Kael asked.
"Oh, I've been reading up." Hagrid turned to glance at his little house again.
"Once it hatches, you just have to feed it a bucket of chicken blood and brandy every half hour."
"Then you better be careful." Kael warned, "Norwegian Ridgebacks aren't a quiet breed, like the Hungarian Horntail, they're very aggressive. It will be hard not to get noticed."
"Hmm... yeah, I'll be careful." Hagrid mumbled.
Thinking of raising a dragon soon, he wasn't paying attention to anything else.
"Since that's the case." Kael patted Hagrid's arm, saying in a meaningful way, "If you ever need help, don't hesitate to ask."
Fire dragons grow fast, in just a month they could be bigger than Fluffy.
Kael decided that when he got back, he would hurry to expand the box.
....
The two of them reached the vicinity of the Moonstruck Beast's lair, where the rowan trees grew the best nearby.
Kael walked over, carefully inspecting the trunks of the rowan trees while Hagrid stood absentmindedly by.
His mind was on the dragon egg in the little house, worrying whether the fire in the fireplace would go out, or if Harry and the others might break it.
This made him look increasingly anxious, constantly glancing back, as though he wished to return immediately.
On the other side, Kael circled around and soon found two relatively young and less dense rowan trees.
This was the best choice, much easier to transplant and more likely to survive.
....