"There's obvious reproductive isolation between different magical creatures. If you want to crossbreed them, you should find ways to work with their eggs or young..."
In the gamekeeper's hut, Hagrid sat at his desk, looking at the densely packed materials spread across the table, muttering to himself.
"For example, fire crab eggs are naturally very suitable as crossbreeding catalysts due to their hatching requirements and size. Any other creature's blood can be attempted to be fused into them."
"And a few days ago, Evans even gave me a book from the Muggle world—it seems to have some reference value." While muttering, Hagrid sorted and organised the materials on his desk.
Previously, the mutated Blast-Ended Skrewt that Evans had brought had given him great inspiration. These past few days, whenever he had free time, he would research the hatching environments of magical creatures and their crossbreeding methods, and had already achieved some promising results.
Although wizards of the past had developed dangerous magical creatures like basilisks and cockatrices, the magical world's research in this field wasn't particularly thorough. Most research relied on chance, without a clear research system.
This wouldn't do! Since it was a discipline, it should be studied carefully and diligently, trying to do it to the best of one's ability!
Although he also relied on inspiration and talent for his research, this couldn't stop him from thoroughly studying this discipline after understanding it better!
A flash of determination passed through his eyes. Hagrid moved the materials aside and brought the fire crab eggs he had prepared earlier in front of himself.
"Right—first add a bit of Manticore blood, blend in some Resurrection Stone and Fire Moss juices, mix them thoroughly, then throw them into boiling water to hatch." Muttering softly, Hagrid took the materials he had bought previously and began mixing the potion according to the proper ratios.
This was the material ratio he had confirmed after several days of experimentation, which could minimise the fire crab eggs' rejection reaction to the greatest extent. Combined with the boiling water hatching that would maximise the medicinal properties of these materials, as long as nothing unexpected happened, there should be no problems.
In the small bowl, emerald liquid and bright red gradually merged. As the mixture lit up with a bright glow, Hagrid threw the fire crab egg into the bowl, letting it begin absorbing the medicinal liquid.
After the originally bright red egg took on the colour of the medicinal liquid, Hagrid opened the lid of the kettle on the stove fire and tossed the egg in.
The medicinal liquid dispersed in the boiling water, and the fire crab egg began spinning continuously. This magical creature that lived on tropical beaches or near volcanoes would only begin hatching in extremely hot water—this was also one of the reasons why this type of egg was so suitable for crossbreeding experiments.
Looking at the egg bobbing continuously in the kettle, Hagrid nodded with satisfaction and casually set the materials in his hands aside.
If nothing unexpected happened, in about a few hours, this fire crab egg would hatch.
Then he could see whether his research over these past few days had been useful or not.
"Mew—"
A small head poked out from the side, looking curiously at the kettle Hagrid had placed on the stove fire. It had a lion's head, a goat's body, and a dragon's tail, with a bright red flame burning at the tip of its tail, completely illuminating the dim desk.
"You're awake?"
A gentle smile appeared on his rough face. Hagrid reached out to hold the small Chimaera in his arms, took a piece of rock cake from a nearby plate, and brought it to its mouth.
Over the past half month, this small Chimaera had completely adapted to life here with him and no longer stayed in the box all day like before.
But under normal circumstances, it still preferred lying beside its mother, quietly guarding her. Each day it would basically only come out for walks when it woke up, to breathe some fresh air.
"Mew—"
Smelling the rock cake in Hagrid's hand, the small Chimaera turned its head away in disgust, having no intention of trying this food that was as hard as stone.
Seeing the small creature's turned head, worry flashed in Hagrid's eyes.
He would often try to feed the things he made to this small Chimaera, but this little one didn't much like eating his cooking. Although it would eat raw meat, it didn't eat much of it either.
How could it grow strong and healthy continuing like this?
Putting the rock cake back on the plate, Hagrid propped one hand on the desk and sighed quietly.
Although with Professor Snape's specially prepared vitality potion, that mother Chimaera hadn't continued weakening, she still looked half-dead every day, making him very worried.
He wondered when the curse master that Evans had asked Dumbledore to find would finally arrive.
Time slowly passed. The kettle steamed on the burning stove, occasionally making sounds of the lid being pushed open by the pressure.
After giving up on feeding rock cakes, Hagrid got two small fish from the Black Lake for the little Chimaera. Compared to rock cakes, it showed significantly more interest in the small fish, which made Hagrid breathe a slight sigh of relief.
At least it could still eat something.
But were his rock cakes really that unpalatable?
Suspiciously picking up a piece of rock cake and putting it in his mouth to chew, the half-giant's teeth worked with difficulty twice before swallowing the fragments.
"Seems fine to me." Muttering quietly, Hagrid suddenly heard knocking at the door.
Opening the door, he saw Evans standing at the entrance with a somewhat familiar-looking old man behind him.
"Good afternoon, Evans. This gentleman is—" After pondering for a moment, Hagrid's eyes suddenly widened as he looked at the old man in disbelief.
"Mr Flamel?"
Excitedly rubbing his hands, Hagrid extended his hand while saying: "I grew up hearing your legends!"
"Hello." Nicolas tremblingly extended his hand, planning to shake hands with this half-giant, but as soon as his fingers touched Hagrid's outstretched hand, a cracking sound came from his bones, making him pull his hand back again with a sharp intake of breath.
Looking at the old man whose face clearly showed pain, Evans tilted his head slightly.
Although Hagrid's handshake was indeed quite strong normally, wasn't this reaction a bit extreme?
Would a 600-year-old man really have bone fragility to this degree?
However, having lived over 600 years, the magical power within this elder had probably reached an unfathomable level. As the only known owner of a Philosopher's Stone, the fact that Nicolas Flamel could live until now meant that all other Philosopher's Stone owners throughout history had died.
Although he seemed very amiable and fragile, no one dared underestimate this old man who looked like a walking skeleton.
Skilfully drawing his wand with his other hand and pointing it at his injured hand, after a few seconds of healing magic, Nicolas Flamel's expression became more comfortable.
He first reassured the somewhat bewildered half-giant, then spoke softly:
"Let's first go look at that Chimaera. If it's easily resolved, after that, I'd like to see the crown that Albus mentioned."