Chinese Fireball Dragon

Introduction

The Chinese Fireball, or Liondragon, is the only dragon species that lives in Asia, as the name may suggest. This dragon has been studied by wizards who have been involved in magizoology research: Newt Scamander, Charles Weasley and Quong Po.

The Ministry of Magic has classified the dangerousness of this type of dragon as XXXXX: this means that it is a known wizard killer, impossible to train and domesticate.

Biology

Equipped with smooth and scarlet flakes, the Chinese Fireball has a crown of golden tips around the chunky nose, and very protruding eyes. When angry, it emits a mushroom-like flame from its nostrils. It weights two to four tons and the female is much larger than the male. The eggs are crimson coloured and sprayed with gold; the powered eggshell has a lot of magical properties and it is much used to perform different kinds of magic. The Chinese Fireball is aggressive, though more tolerant than other dragons towards their own species: sometimes, it agrees to share its territory with up to two other specimens. This dragon feeds with pigs and humans.

History

The magical properties of the eggshell of the Chinese Fireball have been discovered by Quong Po (1443-1539).
Quong Po risked his life many times to collect at least one of those red and gold, big eggs. After 30 years of research and attempts in stealing eggs, he finally succeeded in his purpose and brought an egg to his laboratory. He broke the egg and took yolk and shell. He analysed the genetic material and did not find much in the yolk. Nevertheless, he found out that crushing the eggshell with a pestle and mortar would result in a fine powder that would increase the magical properties of the shell itself and could be used as ingredient in potions.

The Chinese Fireball has been used in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament in 1994. Durmstrang student Victor Krum had to face this dragon in the attempt to steal the golden egg. He used the Conjunctivitis Curse to cause irritation in the dragon’s eyes. This made Victor steal the golden egg, but it also made the dragon break some of its real eggs, and this caused a loss of points for the Champion.