At present, this perfect-level observation feature hasn't been replicated, but Eisen suddenly smirked while holding the observation mirror. With just a thought, ripples appeared in the center of the mirror, like the surface of a disturbed lake. The mirror then revealed the scene inside the Hogwarts library.
However, as Eisen continued scanning the library, he couldn't locate the trio. Were they not in the library? With another thought, Eisen shifted his gaze to the Gryffindor common room. There, he saw several young wizards, including Neville, but the trio remained elusive.
Strange. Could the "sea of questions" tactic I gave them have been useless? Though puzzled, Eisen kept searching. Two minutes later, he found several people gathered in Hagrid's hut at the edge of the hunting grounds.
Seeing Harry, Ron, and Hermione seated on a bench, talking to Hagrid, Eisen smiled. Yet, at that moment, he noticed a problem. While the mirror allowed him to observe a location in real-time with great clarity, it offered no way to hear sound.
This was indeed an issue, but Eisen had no solution for it at the moment. Perhaps, he thought, he could learn to read lips and understand what they were saying. But it was merely a passing thought, as he had no time to learn lip-reading.
Eisen quickly dismissed the idea. After all, he hadn't developed the scope for eavesdropping on conversations.
So, what were Harry and Hagrid talking about? Eisen saw Harry addressing Hagrid while Hermione and Ron looked on eagerly. Hagrid, however, appeared very serious, as if worried about something. Then Hermione spoke, her tone a bit flattering, causing Hagrid to puff out his chest.
Of course, Eisen couldn't hear their conversation, but he assumed it was about the Philosopher's Stone. After all, the trio already knew that the stone was being guarded by Hagrid's pet, Fluffy.
Eisen continued watching for a while longer and saw Hagrid, Harry, and the others glance toward the fireplace. Eisen followed their gaze and saw a large black egg beneath the fire.
Ah, this must be Hagrid's Norwegian Ridgeback. Eisen was quite familiar with this plot.
He knew that Hagrid had won the dragon egg in a card game with someone outside. What Hagrid didn't realize was that the person had deliberately lost to him to get close and learn how to bypass Fluffy, allowing them to pass through the trapdoor.
When it comes to dragons, though, Eisen can't help but complain: Western dragons, with their winged-lizard appearance, are quite ugly. But in this world, dragons, regardless of species, are immensely powerful magical creatures. For wizards, they are very dangerous.
Eisen was more curious about how Dumbledore had discovered the twelve uses of dragon's blood. Did he extract dragon's blood for experiments daily?
As for the twelve uses, Eisen was also intrigued. The original book only mentioned one use—as a stove cleaner—which seemed wasteful to Eisen.
After all, why waste dragon's blood on magical cleaners when cleaning spells suffice? Eisen couldn't make sense of it.
After about twenty minutes in Hagrid's hut, the trio said their goodbyes. Before leaving, Harry exchanged a few words with Hagrid, seemingly telling him something, but Hagrid simply waved it off.
In the following days, besides practicing spells and studying alchemy, Eisen made time to observe the trio each night. As he predicted, they were consumed with the homework assigned by their teachers. Moreover, Eisen noticed that the "sea of questions" tactic he had suggested was now being put to use by them.
Eisen felt a sense of satisfaction whenever he saw the trio grimacing over their assignments, quizzing one another. Perhaps this was the suffering he had endured, now being passed on to others.
From their expressions, it seemed Hermione was managing well, but Harry and Ron looked on the verge of losing it, much to Eisen's amusement.
Of course, none of this mattered to Eisen. He still gave astronomy lessons to the younger wizards every Wednesday night. After teaching the names of the major planets and satellites in the solar system and explaining the planetary orbits, he moved on to basic knowledge of galaxies and constellations.
For young wizards, astronomy class was primarily useful in conjunction with divination. So, Eisen didn't pay too much attention to whether they took the subject seriously or just aimed to scrape by in the class.
[Power Stones Required]
Naturally, during his lectures, Eisen couldn't resist slipping in some personal insights. For instance, he mentioned that Muggles had launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, which could observe the depths of the universe, sparking amazement among the young wizards. He subtly planted the idea that Muggles weren't as helpless or foolish as some might think.
Though Eisen didn't know the long-term effects of this, simply instilling this concept was enough to achieve his goal.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione, meanwhile, were like ascetics, toiling through their studies. But misfortune always follows close behind.
One day, Hagrid sent word to Harry via Hedwig that his dragon was about to hatch. Finally, after some persuasion from Ron and Harry, Hermione accompanied them to Hagrid's hut to witness the event.
Unfortunately, the secret was soon discovered by Malfoy from Slytherin. When Eisen observed Malfoy's frequent suspicious glances at the trio through his scope, he knew trouble was brewing.
Poor Harry, poor Hagrid. Knowing that Malfoy had found out about the dragon, the trio made frequent visits to Hagrid, trying to persuade him to release it before Malfoy reported him.
Harry and his friends urged Hagrid to let the dragon go, but Hagrid refused, insisting that Norbert was too young to survive. However, within a week, Norbert had tripled in size, and in a few more weeks, he'd be larger than Hagrid's cabin.
Finally, after a heartfelt conversation, Hagrid agreed to Harry's plan: they would send Norbert to Charlie, Ron's brother, who studied dragons in Romania. Charlie would then release the dragon.
Ron wrote to his brother in Romania, explaining the situation. For the next week, the trio balanced their studies with anxiously awaiting Charlie's response, all while dreading Malfoy's inevitable report.
They had never known life to be so difficult.