Leaving the Hogwarts tent, Asterion found himself surrounded by a sea of camera flashes and completely deafening applause. The whole stadium seemed to shake with the emotion of the people. A few draconic roars could be heard in the background, showing why the crowd was so excited.
With his eyes gradually getting used to the spicy, blinding lights, Asterion looked at his surroundings, his eyes soon settling on the huge starting line. At the starting line, all the dragons were lying motionless, although their mouths could move, guttural roars were escaping and some were clearly very angry at being in that position.
Asterion soon noticed that the dragons' positions were completely random, no member of the Hogwarts team was anywhere near his dragon.
Speaking of Ancalagon, Asterion's red eyes fixed on his dragon. Its reddish-black scales seemed to glow with the sunlight bathing them in a fiery glow. Its imposing and powerful crown of horns looked especially majestic.
Unlike other dragons, Ancalagon was completely still and kept his eyes closed despite all the noise around him, a behavior that reminded Asterion of Morgan.
In terms of size, Ancalagon was undoubtedly the largest dragon. His body was an incredible fifteen meters long, not counting his tail. With its wings fully unfolded, its wingspan reached a terrifying sixty meters.
Honestly, placed side by side with other dragons, Ancalagon looked like a calm father while his children were making a fuss all around.
Asterion could hear the sighs of admiration from the audience towards his dragon, which was understandable, Ancalagon drew more attention than anything else.
They said goodbye to Asterion and quickly walked towards their respective dragons.
Asterion stood next to Ancalagon and stroked the scales on his long neck, treating him as if he were only a slightly larger kitten. The dragon melted at the caresses on his neck, leaning towards him as if asking for more.
The sight of the dragon and Asterion caused many to exclaim in shock at the display of affection between them. After all, the difficult temperament of dragons was widespread in the Wizarding world, so to see such a display surprised the witches and wizards present.
Suddenly, Asterion's caresses stopped, he felt the signature of a Semi-Special Grade Witch approaching him. Looking back, he saw a rather kind-looking old man approaching him, holding a rather old but impeccably clean briefcase. His clothes were green and he wore a blue coat over everything.
Asterion noticed that the old man's eyes didn't stay still or even stare at anyone for long.
From the case in his hand, Asterion felt countless signs of magical energies of different species emanating from it. If you're asking how many species there were, the current Black patriarch would answer that there were around ten thousand, and maybe a bit more.
Asterion was speechless when he felt that many magical creatures. Let's not talk about the unreasonably large space in that case, just the cost of looking after so many magical creatures was simply astronomical!
What is the concept of ten thousand magical creatures? The amount of money and time to manage such a large space was unbelievable in itself.
Piecing together all the clues before him, Asterion already knew who the old man was.
The world's most famous Magizoologist, Newt Scamander. For Dumbledore, one of his most important lieutenants in the fight against Grindelwald in the past.
"Mr. Black." The old man greeted Asterion, but at no point did his eyes meet Asterion's eyes. The old man's eyes were fixed on the dragon and no one else.
He seemed fascinated by the dragon.
"Mr. Scamander." Asterion didn't mind the man's particularly rude behavior. He knew that the old man in front of him loved magical creatures above all else and a variant of a new species like Ancalagon was especially tempting for him.
Reluctantly averting his eyes from the beautiful, majestic creature, Newt turned his gaze to Asterion, but didn't look him in the eye.
"It's a Hedridean Black, how did it mutate?" He asked, his voice filled with an innocent curiosity, almost childish if you calculated that the man was ninety-nine years old this year.
"Mixed with the blood of a cursed spirit." Asterion replied without caring much. Of course, he wouldn't say that the cursed spirit was Morgan. Imagine the impact of Morgan's existence being revealed to the world. It would certainly cause too many problems for him.
Newt blinked a few times as if he doubted whether he had heard Asterion's words correctly. And seeing the calm look on his face, Newt wanted to refute the absurd claims made.
As someone who had studied magical creatures all his life, he knew very well what happened when individuals of different species mated. Most of the time, the offspring born died or lived very little due to genetic defects.
A hybrid between a cursed spirit and a magical creature has never been reported in any book in wizarding civilization. So Asterion's words without any proof didn't exactly satisfy the old Magizoologist.
Seeing the suspicious look in the old man's eyes, Asterion rolled his eyes. He knew very well that his casual excuse couldn't convince the old man in front of him.
However, Asterion had never planned to say anything to Newt Scamander in the first place and hadn't even bothered to invent a more believable excuse for the old man.
Unfortunately, Asterion didn't know that Newt Scamander could be especially intrusive and very curious when it came to magical creatures.
Just as he was about to say something, Asterion noticed Newt's briefcase shuddering for a moment and opening slightly. Suddenly, a tentacle emerged from the case, but was pushed back by Newt.
"..." Asterion's lips twitched unnaturally and he wondered if that case had more stringent protection. He could imagine the pandemonium that would ensue if all the magical creatures in the case escaped.
It could be said that it would be an event worthy of being described in the annals of the history of the wizarding world.
Perhaps noticing Asterion's increasingly strange gaze, Newt looked away and looked all around, but not at Patriarch Black, feeling inexplicably guilty.
Newt quickly grabbed his briefcase and disappeared, heading towards the stands, exactly towards the VIP seats where Dumbledore and all the others were.
Asterion no longer cared about the exotic Newt Scamander and concentrated on checking that the cell at the base of the dragon's neck was firmly attached.
Even if he wasn't afraid of falling from a high altitude, he didn't want to be embarrassed in the eyes of hundreds of thousands of wizards and witches from all over the planet.
In the VIP seats, seeing Newt's arrival, Dumbledore stood up and hugged his old friend with a smile on his face.
"You look younger since we last met." Dumbledore said with a cheerful tone.
"And you look older, Professor." Newt replied with an equally comfortable smile.
"That happens to all humans and I'm no different." Dumbledore replied with a nonchalant tone. It seemed that death drawing ever closer didn't seem to bother the wizard.
"I'm glad you agreed to come to the tournament." Taking a seat in the main chair, Dumbledore replied with relief in his voice.
This made Newt frown, he knew the look on the Hogwarts principal's face, the same look he had seen when he took part in the war against Grindelwald.
"What happened?" Snapping his fingers, Newt created a barrier that prevented the sound from propagating and asked, pushing aside any other distracting thoughts in his head.
"I want you to investigate something for me, Newt. You're the only one I can trust." Reinforcing the barrier so that the sound wouldn't propagate, Dumbledore spoke with an incredibly serious tone.
He continued speaking. "Investigate an organization called R, it's behind the recent conspiracies involving something very dangerous. Dangerous enough to destroy the whole of Great Britain."
Hearing his words, Newt's face showed a look of shock despite his years of experience. Although he had assumed that something very serious had happened for Dumbledore to invite him out of his retirement that he was enjoying with his wife, he wasn't expecting something on that scale. "This organization called R is so dangerous? It seems even more dangerous than Grindelwald's Acolytes." Newt asked, still somewhat skeptical about this R organization. Quite understandably, given that before this, he had never even heard of such an organization.
Knowing his doubts, Dumbledore wasn't stingy and told him everything he knew so far. "From what I've been able to gather so far, it's an organization created before Hogwarts was even built. An Order of Witches and Wizards used it to survive in the past era, but it has endured to this day, becoming a secret organization that tries to control the world from the shadows."
The more he listened, the more Newt's eyes widened in shock at so many revelations. He couldn't believe that such a powerful organization could exist and remain hidden for over a thousand years!
"It won't be easy, Professor. From what you've told me, this organization has infiltrated all the Ministries of Magic in various countries, investigating something like this with so many eyes watching won't be an easy task." Newt commented with a terribly serious expression. His voice had lost all the hesitation and lightness it had had before.
Newt could imagine that he was walking into a hive of bees and it only took one sighting for everyone to run to him with the intention of killing him.
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Next Chapter Second Volume: Chapter 197 - Dragon Race (3), Chapter 198 - Dragon Race (4), Chapter 199 - Dragon Race (5), Chapter 200 - Dragon Race (6), Chapter 201 - Dragon Race (7), Chapter 202 - Dragon Race (8), Chapter 203 - Golden Path (1), Chapter 204 - Golden Path (2), Chapter 205 - Golden Path (3), Chapter 206 - Battle in Desert City (1), Chapter 207 - Battle in Desert City (2), Chapter 208 - On the Night of the Storm (1), Chapter 209 - On the Night of the Storm (2), Chapter 210 - On the Night of the Storm (3), Chapter 211 - On the Night of the Storm (4), Chapter 212 - On the Night of the Storm (5).