After much persuasilenn, the little girl finally let go of her determination to uhe truth, at least temporarily.

  The only thing they could be certain of was that the cores of their wands were definitely not ordinary dragostrings.

  That was the first point.

  The sed was Glenn's awareness of his tinuously improving physical dition. If Glehis way, Hermione, who had gohrough the same experience, should feel the same. Though they didn't uand why, it was undoubtedly a good thing.

  Other information remained unclear, waiting to be discovered ter.

  Having been blessed by the white mist, Hermione was now full of energy, showing no signs of fatigue typical after a full day of csses. Adhering to her principle of not wasting energy, she dragged Glenn to review for the final exams until curfew.

  Though Hermioill seemed eic, Glenn refused her request to stay up, insisting on maintaining her healthy sleep schedule. He carried the protesting and struggling girl back to the Gryffindirls' dormitory, despite her obvious displeasure.

  When he knocked on the door, Parvati, who had bee quite aced to such ses, ope and effitly took charge of the squirming Hermione. Glenn theuro his own dormitory.

  To his surprise, Draco, who usually went to bed early when there was no training due to exhaustion, was wide awake and sitting on his bed, appearing to be waiting for something.

  Seeing Gleurn, his eyes lit up. He jumped off the bed, put on his slippers, and pattered over to Gleedly asking like someone seeking praise, "Glenn, guess what I discovered at that dim-witted gamekeeper's pce today?"

  Glenn raised an eyebrow. The words sounded familiar, but he wasn't in the mood to py along. He answered directly: "A dragon."

  Draco's smug expression froze, clearly not expeg Glenn to know already. He scratched his head awkwardly and said with a sheepish smile, "How do you always know everything? I wao surprise you."

  But his tone shifted as he added mysteriously, "That's not all. Guess who else I saw there?"

  "Harry Potter and Ron Weasley," Glenn replied ftly.

  "...How do you know everything?!" Draco irritably ruffled his usually well-groomed pale blonde hair.

  "That's not the point. What matters is that I know keeping dragons is illegal, and now that I have this information, we could use it to threaten Potter and Weasley, or evehem deducted points or expelled for c it up," Draco tinued proudly, seemingly waiting flenn's approval.

  "Yes, that's a clever idea that could be Slytherin," Glenn nodded, aowledging Draco's reasoning.

  "However, Hagrid is a friend to both Hermione and me. If you report them, Hagrid might get fired, which is somethiher of us wants to see," Glenn calmly expined, causing Draco's excited expression to fall.

  "But if you keep this secret, you e with Hermione ao see the baby dragon at Hagrid's."

  Draco hesitated. For a first-year Slytherin wizard, the choice between house points and seeing a real dragon was obvious.

  He promptly abahe idea of rep and agreed to keep the secret.

  Dracon' Malfoy: Potter, Weasley, and some Gryffindor points versus a real dragon? Was that even a question?

  Seeing Draco choose secrecy, Glenn nodded and added, "I hope you'll refer tamekeeper as 'Hagrid' rather than using any discriminatory terms. You're my friend now, and so is Hagrid. I'd like you both to get along."

  Draco pursed his lips. Though he still harbored some prejudice against those from Gryffindor, his bias had been gradually fading due to his retionships with Glenn, Hermione, and Neville.

  After a moment's sideration, he nodded seriously, "I promise."

  "So when we go?" he asked eagerly, his eyes twinkling. It seemed no young wizard could resist the allure of a baby dragon.

  "We go tomorrow after csses," Glenn replied. With their versation cluded, it was time flenn's nightly patrol of the Forbidden Forest. As he began putting on his gear, Draco finally returo his bed, already dreaming about tomorrow afternoon's adventure.

  ---

  "Well, well, how did Draao stumble upon this? It seems wherever Harry Potter is, Draco appears - quite peculiar, isn't it?" Hermione ented wryly after hearing about Glenn's versation from the previous night.

  Glenn shook his head, indig he had no expnation. They were now waiting at the Great Hall's entrance for Draco, who had gone back to his dormitory to drop off his textbooks.

  (The Uable Extension Charm is indeed ve! *ughs*)

  "Let's go!" Draco's voice called out as he came running up to Glenn's side, clearly uo tain his excitement.

  "Are you a child?" Hermione rolled her eyes at his eager expression, vely fetting she had acted the same way yesterday.

  "But it's a dragon! They're incredibly rare - most wizards never get to see one in their lifetime," Draco protested, though he didn't argue further. Talking back to Hermione was out of the question - he'd never risk that, not wanting Glenn to make his training sessions any harder.

  The three chatted casually as they made their way to Hagrid's hut. After knog aering, they found still oable, with Hagrid reading something nearby. Hermione asked curiously, "What are you doing, Hagrid?"

  "Shh, I'm giving his early education. Since he wasn't raised in the wild, I o teach him how to survive in nature," Hagrid held up a finger for quiet, waving the book he was holding. Hermione caught a glimpse of the title "Dragon Babies: A plete Guide" and had to suppress a smile, choosing not to ent.

  Draco could barely tain his excitement as he carefully approached Hagrid's side, his eyes fixed on , who was nodding off oable.

  Hagrid noticed the pale blonde head drawing near and frowned, "Young Malfoy, what brings you here?"

  Draco, his attention still focused on the dragon, replied absently, "I saw Potter, Weasley, and this dragoerday, Rubeus Hagrid. You wouldn't waelling anyone else about this, would you?"

  Hearing this, Hagrid's face turned pale. Hermione sighed and reassured him, "Don't worry, Hagrid. He's promised us he won't tell anyone about this."

  She the Draco, "And you, stop sg Hagrid!"

  The tter gave an embarrassed smile and scratched his head.

  Relieved by Hermione's words, Hagrid's expression improved slightly. He moved closer to Glenn and Hermione, whispering, "Why are you two mixing with a Malfoy? Really, they're typical Slytherins, absolutely terrible people... Slenn, I didn't mean you."

  Glenn waved off the apology, indig no offeaken, but spoke seriously to Hagrid, "Hagrid, since you know I'm a good Slytherin, then surely you accept that there are ood Slytherins too. Draco is our friend, and I hope you view him without prejudice."

  Hermione tinued, "Though he be quite annoying, he's beuch less insufferable thanks to Glenn. At least he no longer discriminates against Muggle-born wizards and doesn't hate Gryffindors as muymore. It's not just him - the whole of Slytherin is ging because of Glenn. I'm als to ge Gryffindor's prejudices against Slytherin. While there's still a long way to go before our two historically opposed houses be truly friendly, both Glenn and I believe it's possible."

  She spoke with vi, truly believing that young wizards shouldn't harbor such prejudices and hostility toward each other. She was genuinely w to ge Gryffindor's perception of Slytherin, though this was ti on Slytherin's own transformation from their previously problematic behavior.

  Glenn hadn't given much thought to these matters, as retionships between others didn't him. He had no particur respoo Hermione's words.

  After a subtle pinch to his waist from the little witch, Glenn nodded vigorously, firming Hermione's statements.

  "I hope that the starting point for friendship between our houses begin with you and Draco letting go of your preceptions about each other," Hermione said early.

  Hagrid hesitated. He had developed a strong dislike for Slytherin after being expelled from Hogwarts due to false accusations from a certain Tom Marvolo Riddle of Slytherin house.

  But Glenn was also a Slytherin, and Hagrid didn't dislike him. After hearing Hermione's words, his long-held beliefs began to waver.

  Looking at Draco, who was trying to sneak closer looks at , Hagrid realized that, setting aside prejudice, he was simply a young wizard who loved dragons.

  Bst it! How could anyone who loves dragons be a bad person?

  "All right, all right, you two little ones have vinced me!" Hagrid threw up his hands in surrender.

  Seeing Draco finally uo resist his urge to get closer to the dozing , carefully trying to inch forward, Hagrid sloroached and held him back.

  "If you want to safely approach a sleeping dragon, you should do it like this..." Hagrid began sharing his extensive knowledge about dragons, carefully expining each precaution to Draco.

  "Well, this oaf... I mean, Hagrid isn't so bad after all. Indeed, how could anyone who loves dragons be bad?" Draco thought to himself while attentively listening to Hagrid's dragon expertise.

  Watg the rge man and the small boy i harmoniously, Hagrid reflected, "Indeed, how could anyone who loves dragons be bad? Glenn and Hermione weren't lying - perhaps I really do o ge my thinking."

  Hermione, the pair's peaceful iion, preteo wipe away a tear as she leaned against Glenn, whispering, "It feels like watg our children grow up and mature."

  Glenn g the little witch but chose not to ent on her obvious excuse to snuggle closer to him.

  Annou

  A neter has arrived! I hope you all enjoy reading. My Patreon has now been updated to Chapter67. Your support for my work would be greatly appreciated!