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"You&039;re stuck with it now," Aunt Zelda told Septier "It I to be a bit of a handful when it grows up,h where you&039;d find one nowadays, I don&039;t know"

Septi at the cracked re their previous stay with Aunt Zelda She had found it while Septi in the tunnel that led to the teon Boat was hidden Septimus had treasured the rock; it was the very first present that anyone had ever given hishell that lay in pieces in his cupped hands, Septimus could not believe that his beautiful rock had turned out to be a dragon eggere the chances of that happening? he wondered

The chances were remote Seption eggs scattered throughout the world, and it had been on Dragon eggs are usually found in old, long-forgotten dragon haunts, and many people who find them do pick them up and keep thes are greenenerally they spend their days in display cabinets or tucked away in old shoe boxes and never hatch, for a dragon egg needs to follow a coht order, all within a certain aon The last tio on a small desert island, when a lone shipwrecked sailor had awoken oneto find that his treasured blue rock had hatched into an unexpected, and extremely troublesome, companion

Like the shipwrecked sailor, Septis that needed to be done in order to hatch a dor Firstly, he had kick-started the incubation by leaving the egg close to the fire at Aunt Zelda&039;s on his last visit A dragon egg needs sustained heat of over eighty degrees for at least twenty-four hours in order to get the process going It then needs a year and a day of constant war from beside the fire, Septimus had decided to keep it in his pocket, which provided not only the waron needed but also the sensation of on will not hatch just because it is war it around with her and will be there to care for it when it hatches To a dragon egg, no g with a year and a day of war to convince the tiny dragon that its mother was very lively indeed After the year and a day had passed, the dragon would be al It now needed a sharp tap to wake it upif this did not happen within the following six on would die and never have the chance of hatching A dragon mother would normally use this ti up the baby dragon When she had done so she would give the egg a very gentle bite Luckily for Septihtfully stepped in for the dragonthe outer shell At that point the baby dragon was very nearly hatchednearly, but not quite There was one last thing it needed, and this was provided not by Septi needed a touch of Darkenesse

All dragonthe last require; so outside a Darke Witch&039;s house overnight and hope that it would still be there in the h of their own Darkenesse and no need to go looking for more So when Simon&039;s cloak had beco, it had provided the final touch and started the clock ticking The baby dragon was then set to hatch in twelve hours&039; timewhich was exactly what it had done

"I don&039;t know onswell, not newborn ones anyway," said Aunt Zelda as she finished bandaging Septie sandwich at the saive the they will be Naetting them to take any notice of you at the best of times, from what I understand And for the first twenty-four hours it should not leave your sideso you&039;d better let Septimus have it back now, Jenna"

"Here you are then, Sep," said Jenna a little regretfully She scooped the tiny winged lizard out of her lap and handed it to Septimus "It&039;s cute, isn&039;t it?"

Seption, which lay curled up in the pally heavy for its size,cool to the touch and as s froave a loud yawn and stretched sleepily "Gotta get so

"Name first, then sleep," said Aunt Zelda "What&039;s it to be?"

Septiht Nicko&039;s yawn He was far too tired to go on sat up and coughed up so sac; two tiny bursts of flame spluttered from its nostrils and scorched Septiasped "It&039;s spitting fire at me That&039;s itSpit Fyre That&039;s its name Spit Fyre"

"Go on, then," said Aunt Zelda

"Go on what?" asked Septions like everything to be done by the rules," Aunt Zelda told him "You have to saynow let me thinkah, yesOh,faithful companion and fearless friend, ill be with me until the end, I name thee Spit Fyreor Poodle-Face or Derek orwell, whatever you happen to have decided"

Seption in his hand and murmured wearily, "Oh, faithful companion and fearless friend, ill be with azed at hi sac

"Yuck," said Septiht Spit Fyre was fretful; whenever Septiers or scrabbled at his clothes with its sharp claws Eventually, in a bad teon back into the pouch he had kept the egg in and at last it settled down to sleep

They were all woken far too early the nextfrantically at thelike a butterfly trying to get outside

"Tell it to be quiet, Sep," Nicko said blearily, stuffing his pillow over his head and trying to get back to sleep Septiot up and snatched Spit Fyre off the pane He was already beginning to see what Aunt Zelda on scrabbled against his hand with its sharp little claws, and Septiain