Seeing Ethan's absolute confidence, Quirrell ultimately chose to trust him completely.
Choose Ethan.
Choose success.
Simple.
So the two of them quickly finalised the dragon egg plan for that very evening.
The sooner the transaction happened, the better.
Christmas holidays represented one of the few periods each year when Quirrell could leave Hogwarts relatively freely.
Normally, his teaching schedule was horrific.
There was only one Defence Against the Dark Arts professor responsible for every single year group in the castle.
If Dumbledore did not personally evaluate teacher performance every term, Quirrell probably would have collapsed from exhaustion months ago.
After finishing their discussion, Ethan returned immediately to the Room of Requirement.
He still needed to brief Ali properly before using her to manipulate Hagrid later.
But the moment Ethan entered the room, he heard the Count screaming dramatically from inside the artificial outdoor chamber.
Interestingly—
The Count was not yelling at Ethan this time.
The door to Ali's fake grassland remained half open, revealing fragments of artificial moonlight and fake stars beyond.
"Goo-goo-goo—what are you even trying to say?" the Count shouted desperately. "Why are you communicating entirely through head movements?!"
"Squeee!"
Ali scraped her hooves irritably against the ground.
"You're pointing at a tree? No—a rock? Wait, is that supposed to be a jellyfish?!"
"Squeak!!"
The sound resembled an angry mixture of horse snorting and wing flapping.
"…What exactly are you two doing?"
Ethan finally stepped inside.
The Count immediately swooped behind him dramatically.
"This idiot horse is insane," the owl announced furiously while landing atop a nearby perch. "Handle your livestock."
[I was asking where you went.]
Ali's psychic voice sounded annoyed inside Ethan's mind.
[You disappeared suddenly. It felt like being trapped inside another cage.]
Apparently her maternal instincts were acting up again.
"I went to help a junior villain develop an evil plan," Ethan explained casually. "Standard Hogwarts student activities."
Then he moved straight to business.
"I need your help tonight."
Several minutes later, Ethan finished explaining the dragon egg operation carefully.
The Count stared at him silently afterward.
"…So let me confirm this."
The owl spoke with terrifying calmness.
"You plan to bring a giant black cursed unicorn to a half-giant's cabin…"
"Yes."
"…Then convince him the unicorn specifically enjoys drinking Butterbeer…"
"Correct."
"…And furthermore, her favourite Butterbeer comes from the dirtiest pub in Hogsmeade."
"Exactly."
The Count slowly turned his head.
"…Do you actually understand humans at all?"
"No," Ethan replied honestly. "But you clearly don't understand Hagrid."
That evening, snow blanketed the area surrounding Hagrid's hut heavily.
Once inside safely, Ethan released Ali from the enchanted bag.
The reaction proved immediate.
"Merlin's beard!"
Hagrid's eyes practically caught fire.
The giant man stared at the black unicorn in utter disbelief.
"This is… this is…"
His voice trembled emotionally.
"A unicorn crossed with a Thestral?! Merlin's beard—I've never seen anything like this in my life!"
He slowly approached Ali reverently.
"Look at her mane… her horn… those hooves…"
[I think this man might genuinely be mentally unstable.]
Ali's psychic voice sounded deeply concerned.
Unfortunately, Hagrid remained too emotionally overwhelmed to notice he had already been labelled a dangerous pervert by the unicorn.
"I found her while travelling home," Ethan lied smoothly. "Her name's Alexia, though I call her Ali. She followed me back and refused to leave."
Ali silently denied this entire statement internally.
Hagrid meanwhile had already begun frantically rummaging through cupboards.
"What does she eat? I've got loads of food here! Unicorns usually like fresh grass but maybe she prefers something different—frog liver? Ant eggs? Flobberworms?"
"She told me she likes Butterbeer," Ethan reminded him gently.
Hagrid froze.
"…Butterbeer?"
According to plan, Ali reluctantly nodded.
At this point, even she had begun believing the Count was correct.
No sane person should possibly accept this explanation.
[If he believes this nonsense, that's his own problem.]
Ali warned Ethan internally.
Ethan merely signalled for patience.
Then—
Hagrid gasped dramatically.
"I knew it!"
His excitement somehow doubled instantly.
"Glarin and Rune Pony both loved drinkin' too!"
He looked close to tears.
"Can she stay with me for a while? I'll take proper care of her! I'll get her Butterbeer tonight!"
Then he leaned closer eagerly.
"Which place does she prefer? The Three Broomsticks?"
Ethan turned theatrically toward Ali.
"Which Butterbeer do you want?"
[…]
"The Hog's Head," Ethan translated calmly.
After several seconds of visible internal suffering, Ali finally nodded again.
Then she stared at Ethan suspiciously.
[You are absolutely selling me to this giant lunatic.]
"Relax," Ethan reassured her mentally. "Hagrid takes care of half the Forbidden Forest already. He's experienced."
Those words nearly made Hagrid cry from happiness.
Finally.
A student who truly understood him.
"Oh—by the way," Ethan added casually, "I checked the library. Technically Ali's species is probably illegal."
Hagrid waved dismissively.
"If nobody finds out, then it's not illegal."
Perfect.
The man possessed absolutely zero legal awareness regarding magical creatures.
To Hagrid, "adorable" mattered far more than Ministry regulations.
The operation succeeded flawlessly.
After leaving Hagrid's hut alone, Ethan stopped briefly outside Quirrell's office while returning toward the castle.
Through soul perception, he overheard Voldemort viciously criticising Quirrell again.
Apparently the Dark Lord deeply enjoyed workplace psychological abuse.
Children accomplish more in one hour than you manage all year…
Pathetic…
Disappointing…
Typical manipulative management techniques.
Ethan ignored the argument completely.
People's emotions were not interconnected.
He merely found them noisy.
Besides, he still had more important work remaining.
The Patronus Charm.
As long as he could produce smoke, that meant the spell itself fundamentally worked.
The issue had to be compatibility.
Like building an engine successfully.
Once the engine functioned properly, adding wheels afterward became only a matter of engineering.
....
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