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"You have to believe me. I really saw a magical mirror. Inside it, I saw a lot of people. Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, D, and also a couple who looked familiar somehow. They had to be my parents. The woman's eyes were exactly like mine."
"To be precise, your eyes look like hers."
Hermione rubbed her forehead. At that moment, she felt Harry's logic was a little all over the place.
Harry did not want to waste time arguing over small details.
"And that mirror had a name too. It was the Mirror of... of..."
No matter how hard he racked his brain, he just could not remember the name properly.
"Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi."
"Yes, that's it, exactly!"
Harry nodded quickly, then looked at Dudley in surprise.
"Big D, do you know what that is?"
As expected, there really was nothing in this world that Dudley did not know.
If there was ever a question, all you had to do was ask him.
"You can call it the Mirror of Erised. It's a magical mirror."
"It shows the deepest and strongest desire in your heart."
Dudley said it with a faint note of annoyance.
When he stood in front of that mirror, he had seen absolutely nothing.
Did that mean he had no desires?
How could that possibly be true?
In fact, he really did want to know what his heart actually desired. Only by facing one's own desires head-on could a person truly grow.
"So... that... wasn't real?"
Harry's body stiffened slightly.
When he had seen the image in the mirror, he had truly thought his parents might not be dead...
"That's right."
Dudley carefully set the dumbbell down and said to Harry,
"The images shown in that mirror are false. The future is something we have to build with our own hands."
Harry nodded as if he understood, and also as if he did not fully understand.
In any case, the important thing was that he never went looking for that mirror again.
...
The pleasant holiday passed very quickly.
After Neville and Malfoy returned, the two of them went back to training. Neville was fine, since he had not relaxed during the holiday. Malfoy, on the other hand, had slacked off a little. Apparently, Lucius looked down on that kind of training.
When Ron heard that, after classes resumed, they would still have extra lessons with the professors every single weekend, he let out a miserable howl.
"I thought things were supposed to get easier once classes started again."
"Roast Beef, you can always keep lying around in some soft, comfortable bed..."
Malfoy started mocking him and ran past Ron.
"I already told you, my name is Ron! You cheap little dragon, want to fight?"
The name Draco was tied to the dragon constellation, so Malfoy was sometimes called little dragon.
"Then come on. I'll deal with you first, then I'll beat up Potter."
Dudley never stopped them.
'If someone has a problem with somebody else, then they can settle it with their fists.'
A moderate fight could even help strengthen bonds.
In Dudley's view, the relationship between Malfoy and Ron was actually pretty good.
In truth, Ron only complained once or twice. With everyone around him working so hard and being so competitive, there was no way he could allow himself to become some lazy good-for-nothing.
The days kept passing.
The physical condition of the members of their group started improving at a pace visible to the naked eye. Even Malfoy, who had once been the skinniest of them all, had already developed a layer of muscle on his arms.
But of course, the most obvious change was Neville.
Out of all of them, his bone structure was the biggest after Dudley's.
So naturally, his results were the most striking.
He had gone from being a chubby little boy to becoming a sturdy, heavyset boy.
From time to time, Dudley would organize a trip to the Forbidden Forest.
But unlike when he went there alone, when he took Harry and the others with him, they only moved through the outermost areas of the forest.
Even so, just walking along the edge of the Forbidden Forest was already an extremely stimulating experience.
A wizard could not shut himself away from the world.
It was necessary to broaden one's horizons in the proper measure.
The system had said that to Dudley, so he passed the same logic on to his training companions.
Everyone thought it made perfect sense.
After spending the afternoon gathering herbs and getting to know a few small magical creatures, they came out of the forest and went to rest for a while in Hagrid's hut.
At first, Malfoy refused.
He deeply despised that shabby little cabin and kept grumbling nonstop.
But since Dudley went in, he eventually followed.
As always, Dudley grabbed a Rock Cake and started chewing on it without the slightest difficulty. Hermione and the others, meanwhile, stayed as far away from that dental weapon of destruction as possible.
Out of curiosity, Malfoy picked one up to try it... and nearly cracked his teeth.
'This thing definitely counts as a weapon.'
Thinking that, he quietly slipped one into his pocket.
"Harry, don't you think Hagrid's acting kind of strange?"
Ron whispered to Harry.
Today, he really did seem different. Not only was he nowhere near as warm as usual, but he kept hovering around the fireplace the whole time, trying far too obviously to hide something. The problem was that his movements were way too exaggerated. The more he tried to hide it, the more obvious it became.
And more importantly, the temperature inside the hut was absurdly high.
Especially considering the weather outside.
It was far too excessive.
And even so, he still would not open the window.
According to Murphy's Law, the very thing you worry most about is exactly what ends up happening.
Hagrid tried to block Harry and the others' view, but he forgot that Neville was there too.
There were simply too many visitors today.
"Is that... an egg?"
Neville pointed at a large black object above the flames.
He stepped closer, looked at it for a moment, then widened his eyes.
"What kind of creature is that... wait. That looks like a dragon egg."
Magical plants and magical creatures were exactly the subjects Neville had been focusing on lately.
He really did have talent in that area.
"Did I hear that right? Did you say dragon?!"
Malfoy, who had been sitting beside Dudley until then, perked up instantly the moment he heard the word dragon and rushed over without hesitation.
Since everyone had already discovered it, Hagrid gave up hiding it and simply stepped aside.
In truth, Hagrid had mainly wanted to keep it hidden from Malfoy.
Lucius did not exactly have a good reputation among wizards.
"It really is a dragon egg..."
Malfoy could no longer look away from it.
He stared at it without blinking, completely mesmerized.
His eyes were full of envy.
"Not even my father managed to get me one of those."
Ever since he was little, he had dreamed of raising a dragon.
But dragons were extremely dangerous magical creatures, never truly domesticated by wizards. His absurdly dangerous dream had been crushed by Lucius the moment it started to take shape.
"Hagrid, where did you get that? It must've cost a fortune, right?"
Ron was staring at the egg too.
After all, what young wizard could possibly resist a dragon egg?
"I won it."
As soon as he said that, Hagrid looked incredibly proud.
"Last night, down in Hogsmeade, I was playing cards and drinking at the Hog's Head. That's when this stranger showed up and offered me the egg. To tell the truth, he looked desperate to get rid of it."
"You do know that raising a dragon in secret is illegal, right?"
The moment those words left Hagrid's mouth, the entire hut fell silent.
All the young students stared at him in disbelief.
Dudley gave him a strange look.
"Hagrid... so you knew it was illegal?"
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