Chapter 177: Dragon Transfiguration, A Trace of Haze
When Ethan entered the dormitory, he happened to bump into Goyle rushing toward the bathroom without even greeting him.
"What's wrong with Goyle?"
Ethan felt somewhat strange. Among the snacks he brought this time, there were indeed some with "novel" flavors. After tasting them once, he never wanted to eat them again.
However, those strange snacks merely had peculiar tastes. They shouldn't have made Goyle run out in tears without even having time to say hello.
Pointing to the bag in Crabbe's hand, Draco explained to Ethan speechlessly, "These potato chips. Goyle found them a bit spicy when eating, but because Crabbe kept eating, Goyle kept trying hard to overcome it, and finally ended up like this..."
"Really, if afraid of spicy don't eat. Weak but loves playing." Ethan was also speechless. He picked up a bag of potato chips with his favorite flavor, tore open the packaging, and ate them crunch crunch.
That night, Goyle, who had a stomachache due to excessive spiciness, tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Finally, it was only after Ethan gave him some common antidote to drink that he felt relieved, allowing everyone to sleep peacefully.
On the first day of the new semester, every professor emphasized that the end-of-year exams were approaching.
"There are still two months left. You must hurry up and practice your Charms," Professor Flitwick stood on a pile of books, reminding them sternly.
"There are less than ten weeks left. Hurry up and recall the Herbology cultivation techniques you've learned.
"In this class, we will leave some time for you to move freely. Go find a pot of herbs yourselves to practice on."
Professor Sprout left them fifteen minutes to themselves and went to tend to the Mandrakes that were about to mature.
"If you haven't mastered the Transfiguration content from the first two terms, hurry up and practice after class. There isn't much time left for you."
After collecting the homework, Professor McGonagall issued a warning to the whole class, specifically glancing in the direction of Crabbe and Goyle.
This made the two guys, who had only completed their homework by "referencing", feel somewhat guilty.
All the professors were emphasizing this matter, making even the students who weren't that nervous feel the pressure. Everyone listened to the lectures more attentively than before.
After dinner on Monday, Ethan went to the Headmaster's office to find Dumbledore.
The purpose of this trip was twofold: one was to ask when the old man would have time to fulfill the promise made before the holiday, and the other was to ask about the restriction issue of Transfiguration.
"Tomorrow night then. I still have a few documents to process tonight. Meet at eight o'clock tomorrow night at the old spot in the Forbidden Forest." It could be seen that Dumbledore, at the beginning of the new semester, was indeed quite busy.
When Ethan entered the door, the old man was taking a piece of parchment from a stack, glancing through it quickly, and writing something on it.
"Okay." Not wanting to disturb him further, Ethan nodded and left.
In the library, Harry was not there. He was probably copying the borrowed homework in his dormitory. Hermione, however, arrived late.
"I just went to Professor McGonagall and chose all the courses." Just sitting down, she glanced at Madam Pince's position and whispered to Ethan.
"What did the professor say?"
"She agreed to my choice.
"After returning to the dormitory last night, I still couldn't make up my mind.
"So when I saw Percy again today, I talked with him about choosing all courses.
"Percy told me to go to Professor McGonagall and ask for her opinion. From what Percy meant, it seems it's not that you can choose whatever you want. Choosing all courses requires meeting certain conditions.
"So I went to her office at noon and asked. But as the Deputy Headmistress, she actually couldn't make the final decision. She still had to ask Dumbledore's opinion.
"Just now, Professor McGonagall called me to her office again. She said Dumbledore agreed to this matter and told me to wait for the book list to be issued during the holiday."
Hermione was puzzled: "Just why does it have to be so troublesome? Compared to you guys, didn't I just choose two more courses?"
"Because it's hard to arrange the class schedule. Although we still have a lot of free time on our schedules, there might be conflicts due to the professors' schedules."
Ethan was telling the truth. Arranging schedules for students of different years from four houses, while also accommodating all professors' time, was indeed not a simple matter.
"Alright." Hermione felt this made sense: "Professor McGonagall should have a way to solve it."
Since it was a foregone conclusion, Ethan didn't tell her about the Time-Turner, to avoid making her anxious now.
The girl buried her head in reviewing, while Ethan continued familiarizing himself with the dragon body structural diagram he was about to use.
Tuesday night, a crescent moon hung in the sky.
After greeting Hagrid, Ethan arrived early at the location agreed with Dumbledore, lit a bonfire, sat on a chair, and waited for the old man's arrival.
Ethan's mood now was somewhat excited, not much different from when he performed the phoenix Transfiguration for the first time, or even more excited. He had some doubts in his heart, and he thought they should be resolved today.
Listening to the crackling sound of burning dry branches, Ethan closed his eyes, seizing all time to construct the dragon's body form in his mind.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps slowly approaching this place.
Ethan opened his eyes and turned his head to see Dumbledore in blue and purple robes.
"Came quite early. All ready?" The old man also transfigured a chair, looking at Ethan across the flames.
"Ready." Ethan took a deep breath and touched his heart, which had begun to beat violently.
"Then let's begin." Dumbledore held his wand in hand, ready to intervene at any time.
"Mm." Ethan stood up and walked to the center of the clearing.
Raising his wand, aiming the tip at himself, Ethan chanted the complex spell, and finally waved the wand forcefully, pointing at his own heart.
Crack! A yellow-green dragon over five meters long appeared in the clearing.
By the firelight, Dumbledore saw clearly the full picture of this Common Welsh Green transfigured by Ethan:
Two backward-pointing sharp horns grew on its head, mouth full of fangs, wings retracted to the sides of its body, and a slender tail flicking uneasily.
Ethan, on all fours, shook his long neck, snorted softly, and red flames spewed from between his thin upper and lower jaws.
The reason Ethan chose the Common Welsh Green instead of the Swedish Short-Snout was because among all the data he possessed, this type of dragon was the most abundant, and the one he was most confident about.
After recovering from the pain brought by the magic conflict triggered by the Transfiguration, Ethan hurriedly tried to revert to his own form.
With the experience of turning into a phoenix, Ethan's restoration this time went much smoother.
Although the magic operation of dragons and phoenixes was not identical, Ethan still figured out the dragon's magic operation method in a very short time and found the way to restore.
Last time transforming from a phoenix back to a human, Ethan took three and a half minutes and almost needed Dumbledore's help.
But this time, it took less than two minutes for Ethan to restore his original appearance. He stood up from the ground and sat on the chair.
"Succeeded on the first try. Made a big progress compared to last time." Dumbledore, putting down his wand, applauded him lightly.
"Thank you, Headmaster." Ethan slightly closed his eyes, grasping some feelings from the Transfiguration just now.
Soon, he basically mastered the knacks within, feeling he would have no obstacles next time he transfigured, so he asked the question he wanted to ask.
"Headmaster, I still have a question about Transfiguration I want to ask."
"What question?"
"During the holiday, when I talked with my grandfather about magical creature Transfiguration, I told him I wanted to transfigure some monsters appearing in mythology.
"But my grandfather told me Transfiguration cannot transform into things that have never existed. Is this statement correct?"
Ethan leaned his body forward slightly, looking at Dumbledore's eyes through the half-moon spectacles reflecting the flickering flames.
The old man stroked his beard, thought for a moment and said: "It depends. If you want to use ordinary Transfiguration to transfigure a thing that has never appeared in the world, it is not impossible."
"Like this."
Dumbledore waved his wand, and a small stone on the ground turned into a creature Ethan had never seen in reality—a Hydra.
"This is a monster I transfigured based on the image of the Hydra in Muggle mythology and legends." The old man waved his wand, and this small creature, less than ten centimeters, flew in front of Ethan.
Ethan stretched out his hand, letting this monster land on his palm.
Nine high-raised heads hissed at Ethan, but he couldn't understand the meaning of this snake language.
The small snake body coiled together. The slippery scales rubbed against the skin of the palm, like a real small snake.
"No one has seen this either, right? I can still transfigure them out."
The old man continued: "It's just that I cannot transfigure myself into this mythical creature."
Allowing this small-sized Hydra to crawl randomly in his hand, Ethan asked: "Why is this?"
"The sound it made just now, you probably didn't understand what it meant, right?"
"Indeed didn't understand. Felt this is not Parseltongue." Ethan nodded.
"Of course, because this is not a living creature. This is just a stone covered with a layer of Hydra skin, driven by magic to simulate the movements of a creature.
"Do you still remember the symbol totems of each house appearing on the four long tables when the House Cup was announced last school year?
"Those moving totems were also transfigured like this." The old man smiled眯眯的.
"Is the reason we cannot perform this mythical creature Transfiguration because we don't understand these creatures and don't know their internal structures?" Ethan still had some doubts.
He put the snake on the ground, holding his wand, transfiguring a stone into a three-headed Common Welsh Green.
"Headmaster, look. This transfigured thing is obtained by modifying based on the Common Welsh Green. Theoretically, if we refine its internal structure, can we successfully transfigure it into a living creature?"
Putting the three-headed dragon flapping its wings on his hand, Ethan continued pointing his wand at it, chanting the Transfiguration spell. But after a burst of white smoke, a stone appeared in Ethan's hand.
"But, Headmaster, when I transfigured it according to the body structure of the Common Welsh Green, it didn't succeed. Why is this?"
"I also considered this question before. After transfiguring this Hydra, I also tried to fill out a reasonable internal structure for it based on the body structure of the Runespoor.
"However, I finally failed. Although I tried many times, I never succeeded once.
"I think this might be because of the world's restrictions? We actually haven't truly recognized these non-existent creatures, so those structures are actually unreasonable? So the world doesn't recognize this transfigured creature?"
Dumbledore spread his hands, indicating he actually wasn't very clear where the problem lay either.
"Is that so?" Ethan's face was somewhat ugly. He felt the three-headed dragon Transfiguration he had struggled for so long might end in failure.
"If I forcefully perform Human Transfiguration of this legendary creature, will I die?" But Ethan was still somewhat unwilling, because this not only concerned his Human Transfiguration but also the Animagus he had spent more time on.
"That won't happen. But you might suffer some injuries. Of course, high probability is still like this stone, Transfiguration fails, reverting to the original form.
"I tried transfiguring many things into these mythical creatures before, from stones, chairs to animals of various sizes. Except for some with fragile vitality, unable to withstand the magic backlash brought by Transfiguration failure, other animals just suffered some injuries, recovering after simple treatment.
"After experiencing two failures, I gave up this idea.
"However, I advise you to just simply try. After all, whether multiple failures will trigger more serious consequences, I don't know either."
The old man's answer made Ethan somewhat joyful.
Even if it were death, he could afford to bear it, it was just a question of whether it was worth it. Moreover, this attempt was just injury. He had therapeutic potions and spells, not afraid.
Immediately, he thought of a new question: "Headmaster, does incomplete Transfiguration have a certain rationality?
"For example, if I use Human Transfiguration to turn into a red deer, I don't have the ability to cast spells. But what if only my head turns into a red deer? Can I still retain the ability to cast spells?"
Ethan remembered Krum during the Triwizard Tournament. His head transfigured into a shark's appearance, but his body didn't transfigure.
From a Transfiguration perspective, this was obviously a not-so-successful Transfiguration, but in this way, he not only retained the wizard's ability to cast spells non-verbally but also gained the ability to breathe underwater. Seemed quite promising.
"What strange idea is this? Does a red deer have any advantages?" Dumbledore looked at Ethan with strange eyes.
Ethan indeed also felt his example wasn't very appropriate: "Uh, I'll put it another way. What if transfiguring into a fish head? Gaining underwater breathing ability, also able to cast spells underwater?"
"Why not use a combination of Bubble-Head Charm, Gillyweed, etc.?
"This kind of incomplete Transfiguration is highly unstable. Might revert to original form at any time. And might cause magic backlash. You'd better not have such ideas." The old man's look at him was even stranger.
"Alright, I know."
Ethan also felt his idea was somewhat unreliable. Krum did that because he could only achieve that level.
And one thing often has other better solutions. No need to use this dangerous incomplete Transfiguration.
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