章节_83

; said hagrid. harry noticed him glance

at the fire. harry looked at it, too.

”hagrid -- whats that?”

but he already k was. i of the fire,

uhe kettle, was a huge, black egg.

”ah,” said hagrid, fiddling nervously with his beard, ”thats

er...”

”where did you get it, hagrid?” said r over the fire

to get a closer look at the egg. ”it mustve cost you a fortune.”

”won it,” said hagrid. ”las night. i was down in the

village havin a few drinks an got into a game o cards with a

strahie glad ter get rid of it, ter be ho.”

”but what are you going to do with it when its hatched?” said

hermione.

”well, ive bin doin some readin , said hagrid, pulling a

large book from under his pillow. ”got this outta the library --

drag for pleasure and profit -- its a bit outta date,

o course, but its all ihe egg in the fire, cause

their mothers breathe on i em, see, aches, feed it

o o brah blood every half hour. an

see here -- hnize diffrent eggs -- what i got theres

a neback. theyre rare, them.”

he looked very pleased with himself, but hermione didnt.

”hagrid, you live in a wooden house,” she said.

but hagrid wasnt listening. he was humming merrily as he stoked

the fire.

so now they had somethio worry about: what might happen

to hagrid if anyone found out he was hiding an illegal dragon in his

hut. ”wos like to have a peaceful life,” ron sighed, as

evenihey struggled through all the extra homework

they were getting. hermione had now started making study schedules

for harry and ron, too. it was drivis.

theime, hedwig brought harry ae

from hagrid. he had written only two words: its hatg.

roy and ght down to the

hut. hermione would.

”hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a

dragon hatg?”

”weve got lessons, well get into trouble, and thats nothing

to what hagrids going to be in when someone finds out what hes

doing --”

”shut up!” harry whispered.

malfoy was o away aopped dead

to listen. how much had he heard? harry didnt like the look on

malfoys face at all.

rued all the way ty and in the end,

hermioo run down to hagrids with the other tw

m break. when the bell souhe castle at the end

of their lessohree of them dropped their trowels at once

ahrough the grounds to the edge rid

greeted them, looking flushed aed.

”its .” he ushered them inside.

the egg was lyihere were deep

it. something was moving inside; a funny oise was ing

from it.

they all drew their chairs up to the table ah

bated breath.

all at ohere ihe egg split

open. the baby dragohe table. it wasly

pretty; harry thought it looked like a crumpled, black umbrella. its

spiny wings were huge pared to its ski body, it had a

long snout with wide nostrils, the stubs of horns and bulging,

e eyes.

it sneezed. a couple of sparks flew out of its snout.

”isiful?” hagrid murmured. he reached out a hand

to stro s his fingers, showing

pointed fangs.

”bless him, look, he knows his mommy!” said hagrid.

”hagrid,” said hermione, ”how fast dian ridgebacks

grow, exactly?”

hagrid was about to ahe color suddenly drained from

his face -- he leapt to his feet and ran to the window.

”whats the matter?”

”someone was lookin through the gap iains -- its

a kid -- hes runnin back up ter the school.”

harry bolted to the door and lo