Chapter 54 Dragon Egg

However, Malfoy's business was not something Cohen needed to worry about. Cohen only needed to accept the benefits from the Malfoy family, and as for the return...

Reciprocating favors and social etiquette were things adults should consider. Cohen was only eleven years old, and eleven was precisely the age when one's words didn't count.

Cohen tossed the stone into the walk-in cupboard in his room, which had already been stuffed with a great deal of things by him prior to this.

For instance, the live-action Dungeons & Dragons display box sent by Edward for Christmas, the snow globe sent by Rose on his birthday (though due to the magic slowly fading away, the little clay figures inside could no longer make their chattering sounds), countless Honeydukes candies, a large sack of frozen Hinkypunk eggs—no, wait, frozen Flobberworm? No, frozen Firecrab eggs—and test tubes of Acromantula venom that took up nearly an entire section of the cupboard...

Thanks to the protective Runes the Room of Requirement had conjured on the walls for Cohen, he wasn't worried that the Malfoy family had played any tricks on it.

If Lucius were foolish enough to send an eavesdropping alchemy item as a first gift, then the Malfoy family was truly far too urbanized.

After leaving the Room of Requirement, Cohen returned to the Gryffindor common room.

Fred and George were currently dressing a round-headed, plump goblin in a shrunken Santa Claus outfit inside the common room.

"Cohen, what do you think about putting this little Santa Claus in the Great Hall?"

Seeing Cohen, Fred waved in his direction.

"I think Professor Dumbledore might take it back to raise—as long as we dress it up properly." George chimed in.

"Or maybe Snape." Fred reminded.

"Or maybe the two of them will have a fight over this goblin!" Fred and George said in unison.

Although the two brothers were wearing two different sweaters bearing the letters "F" and "G," Cohen suspected they had actually swapped clothes in secret, making it completely impossible to tell who was Fred and who was George using this method.

"Cohen, do you think it looks flawless right now?" Fred asked Cohen, "We trimmed the thick calluses on its hands and feet—and applied some hair growth tonic to it; now it looks exactly like Santa Claus."

"At first glance, you can't tell. If Dumbledore takes off his glasses... he probably won't be able to tell the difference."

Cohen walked around to inspect the goblin with the snow-white, bushy beard, which was currently tearing at its clothes—the heavy garments made it extremely uncomfortable.

"You'll have to find a way to keep it from doing a striptease at the staff table, though—it doesn't seem very fond of the clothes you've forced upon it."

Disregarding the consequences, Cohen felt the Imperius Curse could work—yet considering the factor of letting the goblin come into contact with Dumbledore, using a malevolent spell was clearly out of the question...

This would rely entirely on the imagination of Fred and George.

"That's easy."

Fred showed no concern whatsoever about the goblin's insubordination. He pulled a book out from the armchair beneath him, leafed through it for a moment, and finally spat out a string of rugged syllables at the goblin.

"Goblin language?" Cohen caught sight of the book's title, *Introduction to Goblin Language*, "What did you say?"

He asked this latter sentence because the goblin had actually stopped moving and looked like a beaten dog—

"We told it that we caught the other goblins in its nest." George accurately stated the meaning of the goblin words Fred had just spoken, even though George knew nothing about the goblin language at all.

"Spot on!" Fred happily high-fived George.

"You guys really..."

Cohen suddenly felt that his previous simple approach of kill, kill, kill was still too conservative... Perhaps those Acromantulas could be used for some other tasks?

"I hope I can get to see Dumbledore holding this Santa Claus in his arms tomorrow—have you guys seen Harry and Ron?"

"Nope, little Ron took a huge bag of food and headed back to the dormitory." Fred re-fastened the buttons on the red cotton coat worn by the goblin, "Looks like they're having a secret party—take a deep breath before opening the door, all abnormal conditions are normal."

"Even if you happen to see two naked—" George said.

"He means seeing Nearly Headless Nick—you know, ghosts love celebrating holidays too, and they love enjoying grand feasts they can't actually taste." Fred stopped George from uttering that word to Cohen, a first-year newcomer.

With a twitching mouth, Cohen bid farewell to the Weasley twins and headed up the stairs back to the dormitory.

There was no sign of Harry or Ron in the dorm; it seemed Harry had already taken Ron to the Mirror of Erised.

Dumbledore would definitely show up to counsel Harry; this was something Cohen didn't need to fret over.

Therefore... tonight he could finally get a good night's sleep!

Yet the good sleep didn't last long—Harry and Ron returned.

"Back so early?"

Cohen poked his messy little head out from beneath the duvet:

"I thought, Harry, you wouldn't be able to bear coming back all night."

"We..." Harry didn't know how to phrase it.

"We ran into Dumbledore." The tips of Ron's ears still retained a reddish hue, "He told us 'not to dwell on dreams and forget to live'—but today was only my very first time going..."

"He was probably talking about me." Harry said guiltily, "I shouldn't have brought you boys out for a night stroll... nor should I have taken that mirror for real—Cohen, you were right, I should focus my sights on reality; there's a Quidditch match after the holiday."

"It's fine, at least Professor Dumbledore didn't deduct points from us—otherwise I feel Percy would definitely write a letter to my mum." Ron comforted, shivering at the mention of Mrs. Weasley.

After spending a relatively harmonious night, Harry still tossed and turned in the adjacent bed, unable to fall asleep.

Yet Cohen slept soundly and even had a dream.

In it, he saw a massive snake with dark green scales, coiled inside a cave beneath a thicket of bushes.

It was hibernating and looked very peaceful.

By the time he woke up the next day, Cohen had almost forgotten the dream—all he remembered was a vague cave and the sensation of being curled up into a ball.

During the remainder of the Christmas holidays, Harry no longer dwelled on the magic mirror, spending his entire day playing chess with Ron.

The Weasley twins' Christmas goblin scheme also concluded with resounding success; Dumbledore cheerfully carried the Santa goblin away, though the expression on the goblin's face suggested it was thoroughly unhappy.

As for Cohen, he wasn't idling either.

On the second day after acquiring the dragon egg, Hagrid wrote a letter to Cohen, telling him to hurry over to the hut and take a look, as he had managed to get his hands on something rare.

Hagrid had even torn the parchment in his excitement while writing, leaving Cohen barely able to decipher the fragmented words on the page.

Upon arriving outside Hagrid's hut, Cohen knocked on the door.

Yet Hagrid, with a rather mysterious demeanor, made Cohen cover his eyes, cautiously closed the door of the hut, and then led Cohen over to the fireplace.

The temperature inside the room was extremely high.

"Ta-da!"

Hagrid presented it as if giving Cohen a surprise, right after Cohen removed his hands from his eyes:

"A dragon egg! I won it off a card player! I bet you've never laid eyes on this thing before, we can raise it up together! Merlin's beard, first a black unicorn, and now a dragon egg, I can hardly believe what a fine stroke of luck this year has brought!"

Hagrid looked quite excited, his thick black beard trembling with every word.