Chapter 92: Hellfire
When Ethan returned to Hagrid's hut, he asked, "What did Dumbledore say about handling the Norbert situation?"
"He told me to work out the details with Charlie and send Norbert to Romania."
Charlie was Ron's brother. He'd been Quidditch captain during his time at Hogwarts, and now he worked with dragons in Romania.
Ethan didn't know what Hagrid had told Dumbledore, but he found it strange that Dumbledore hadn't handled Norbert himself, instead leaving it to Hagrid.
So, after briefly asking about the conversation between Hagrid and Dumbledore, Ethan guessed: "Hagrid said Harry knew about this, so Dumbledore wanted to see if Harry would help his friend, to learn more about his character?"
Actually, Ethan wasn't surprised by the outcome.
He knew Dumbledore had no way to safely hide an illegal dragon.
Although many creatures were concealed within the Forbidden Forest, housing an illegal dragon there would spell disaster for Hogwarts.
So the best solution was to make it legal.
That required connections at the dragon reserve, and Charlie, the son of a prominent member of the Order of the Phoenix, was undoubtedly the ideal candidate.
Ethan visited Hagrid's hut to help care for Norbert whenever he had free time, using the opportunity to test whether his affinity for dragons was growing, just like Norbert's.
Time flew by. After Saturday's Potions class, he saw Cyril again that night.
This time he brought several notebooks on developing family abilities.
Among these notebooks, one looked brand new and thick, as if it had just been printed. The others varied in condition; some had damaged covers and were thinner.
Whether new or old, this knowledge represented the accumulated knowledge of countless Shafiq clansmen, refined over thousands of years.
The notebooks detailed a wide variety of abilities. Alongside powers familiar to Ethan, such as those involving dragons, snakes, and black flames, there were abilities he had never encountered.
Ethan looked up from the catalog in surprise. "We have Parseltongue in our bloodline too?"
Cyril nodded. "Yes. According to British legend, the ability appears almost exclusively among Slytherin's descendants. But in our bloodline, the talent occasionally awakens."
Ethan fell silent, considering this.
He couldn't recall ever encountering snakes as a child.
He had always attracted small animals, even as an infant, but the adults never let snakes near him.
As he flipped through the notebook, he decided to find a snake in the Forbidden Forest to test whether he was a Parselmouth.
The most extensively documented and important topic in the notebooks was the Shafiq family's black flames, known as Hellfire.
This talent didn't appear in every family member, surfacing only sporadically, but it was the most common ability throughout the Shafiq family's millennia-long history.
Because so many had possessed it over the centuries, the ability had been refined to perfection.
Moreover, this seemingly ordinary ability was not to be underestimated. It was extremely important.
Apart from rebirth, Hellfire was the ability best suited to guaranteeing a Shafiq's safety.
After all, Hellfire was at least equivalent to a wandless, silent Confringo, if not more advanced, with even greater destructive power.
This time, aside from the notes, Cyril only demonstrated some wandless, silent casting techniques for the Feign Death Spell.
Inside Hogwarts Castle, he didn't dare reveal too many family secrets.
The only reason he'd revealed the family's greatest secret last time was that Ethan had faced mortal danger, forcing his hand.
Cyril didn't stay long this time either. Within the hour, he'd dropped off the materials and left the Headmaster's office.
"Sorry to trouble you, Dumbledore."
Dumbledore shook his head. "It's no trouble. Did you see Nicolas when you returned to France? How is his health?"
Cyril thought about his meeting with Nicolas Flamel and shook his head, sighing. "Not very good. He's grown too old. The physical decline has become unbearable."
Dumbledore sighed. "Immortality is not necessarily a good thing."
"Yes. Immortality at such a price is worse than death. All right, then. I should be going."
Cyril disappeared from outside Hogwarts Castle once again.
Holding several notebooks, Ethan returned to his dormitory from the Headmaster's office, setting aside work on his other abilities to focus on Hellfire.
Looking over notebooks from different eras, each penned in a distinct hand, he could feel the weight of the Shafiq family's history.
The notebooks spanned generations, their scripts ranging from delicate to rough, yet all were written in English. Clearly, these records came from the British branch of the Shafiq family.
The most recent volume was written by a single hand, compiling notes from various Shafiq ancestors. Clearly, Cyril had translated it himself, worried that Ethan wouldn't understand French.
According to one notebook, Ethan summoned a black fireball the size of a tennis ball in his palm.
He'd previously tried to make the fireball change shape.
Now, with these notebooks, he had access to far more diverse techniques.
Beyond simply changing its form, the fireball had other applications. These were techniques developed by Shafiq's ancestors over generations.
Treating this clearly advanced flame as just a silent, wandless fireball would waste its potential.
According to the description, Hellfire shared some characteristics with Fiendfyre while possessing unique advantages of its own.
Like Fiendfyre, it grew larger by consuming objects, but unlike that uncontrollable blaze, it didn't burn indiscriminately.
Hellfire could also sustain itself for extended periods. Though it couldn't compare to the legendary eternal Gubraithian Fire, it far surpassed ordinary fire magic.
But Hellfire possessed certain characteristics that neither of those flames had.
For instance, it was particularly lethal to certain legendary dark creatures born of curses, such as werewolves and vampires.
The flame could actually harm ghosts as well.
"It can actually hurt ghosts? Incredible."
Ethan shook his head slowly. "It seems the wizarding world still has plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows. To think that ghosts could actually be harmed by anything other than a Basilisk's petrifying gaze.
"But if a ghost is hurt or killed, what happens? Will they dissolve into motes of light and vanish completely, or transform into another form, as some legends describe?"
Ethan couldn't make sense of it. He continued reading through his ancestor's notes, but the account of injuring the ghost with Hellfire was frustratingly vague.
[The ghost I set on fire let out a terrible scream, floating in the air as it tried to extinguish the flames. Too terrifying. I didn't dare look and fled the scene.]
Judging from the handwriting, this ancestor was a woman, so the lack of follow-up made sense, Ethan thought.
He still regretted that none of his other ancestors had documented killing ghosts either. If he truly wanted to know what happened, he would have to test it himself.
Ethan considered every ghost at the school. Even Peeves, as troublesome as he was, didn't deserve to die. "Forget it. None of the ghosts here deserve to die."
He went through the notebooks one by one, copying every passage concerning Hellfire development until he had compiled a collection on the subject.
After copying the notes, he placed the ones Cyril had given him in the cabinet for safekeeping.
"Actually, under the bed would be better for hiding these secrets. Unfortunately, my bed would probably just burn them." Ethan shook his head.
He knew he would probably experience a third magical riot sometime in his second year or later.
He couldn't risk losing these precious family notes to fire, especially after what happened to his clothes.
After writing and organizing his notes, he took out a roll of parchment and meticulously recopied everything, sorting the content by different developmental paths.
After copying everything twice, he had gained a deeper understanding of how this ability could develop.
He was exhausted. Time to sleep.
Draco and the other two had drawn the curtains hours ago and fallen asleep. Crabbe's snoring filled the room.
Ethan turned off the small magical lamp on his desk that Hagrid had bought for him, then climbed into bed in the dark.
After a day of Advanced Potions and a night of copying notes, Ethan fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
The pleasant weekend flew by. Ethan felt like he'd just taken a nap when Monday arrived.
On Monday night, after visiting Hagrid's hut to check on Norbert again, Hagrid handed him a letter. "Look, Ethan," Hagrid said, "Charlie's reply."
Ethan unfolded the letter:
Dear Hagrid,
How are you? I received your letter and Dumbledore's. I'm happy to take care of the Norwegian Ridgeback.
But getting it to Romania won't be easy.
So I want to take this opportunity to come home and bring a few friends to help me move it.
We can't let anyone see us transporting a dragon illegally.
So, could you bring the Ridgeback to the tallest tower at Hogwarts on Saturday night?
Dumbledore said we can meet you there and move the dragon while it's dark.
If possible, please also bring Ron, Fred, and George along. Of course, if Percy wants to come, he's welcome too.
Please write back soon.
Charlie
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