Chapter 180: Red Dragon on a Rainy Night
"It's here!"
Ethan rejoiced secretly. The timing of his departure from the library was simply perfect.
He walked hurriedly, violently pulled open the castle's front doors, and without even bothering to use an umbrella spell, sprinted toward the Forbidden Forest.
In just a few minutes, a panting Ethan arrived at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Rainwater continuously dripped from his soaked hair.
He quickly pulled out his wand, and before the second bolt of lightning illuminated the night sky, he dug out the box he had buried from under the marked tree.
After cleaning the mud off the box, Ethan hissed, opened the box, and by the fleeting light of the newly flashed lightning, he clearly saw the potion inside, which had turned blood red.
"Succeeded! Now all I need to do is drink the potion and complete the Transfiguration, and the job is done." Ethan happily picked up the potion.
He threw the box into his bag. Only then did he have the mind to cast a spell to clean the rainwater off his body, and then he cast the Impervius charm.
After confirming that Dumbledore was not observing nearby like when he buried the potion last time, he stepped into the Forbidden Forest.
Walking only a few steps into the Forbidden Forest, Ethan cast the Disillusionment Charm, gripped the potion bottle tightly, rose from the ground, soared over layers of treetops, and flew toward the depths of the Forbidden Forest.
Long before the Easter holiday, Ethan had considered that the commotion during his Animagus transformation might be huge. Thus, he had decided long ago that this final step must be completed deep within the Forbidden Forest.
Only in this way could he ensure his secret would not be discovered by others.
For this, he had chosen a spot deep in the Forbidden Forest long ago, just waiting for this moment.
Accelerate, accelerate, accelerate again. Ethan sped through the increasingly heavy curtain of rain.
The spot he chose was at least six or seven kilometers away from the edge of the Forbidden Forest, because only in this way could he guarantee that whether it was day or night, he would not be easily discovered by the people at Hogwarts.
Although most of the depths of the Forbidden Forest were covered by dense trees, there were still some areas dominated by shrubs and grasslands.
Most of these places were artificially created, and some still had thick stumps remaining. It was unknown whether they were special clearings formed by intentional logging by werewolves, trolls, or other creatures living deep in the Forbidden Forest.
Soon, the rapidly flying Ethan arrived at his destination.
This was a grassland surrounded by tall trees, with an estimated area half the size of a Quidditch pitch. However, this was the scale after Ethan expanded it; previously, it was probably only one-third of its current size.
When he came to clear the site previously, he found a werewolf tribe seemingly living nearby. However, after he unleashed his full deterrence, these werewolves had left.
At least the last few times he came back, he did not find any traces of those werewolves.
Because the woods were too dense for sight to penetrate, after landing, Ethan first turned on his special vision to scan around.
After confirming there were no souls of dangerous creatures within his line of sight, Ethan took a deep breath and began the final step of the Transfiguration he had planned for half a year.
He held the potion bottle in one hand and drew his wand with the other, pointing the tip at his own heart.
"Amato Animo Animato Animagus!"
Ethan loudly chanted this spell, which he had to practice hundreds of times every sunrise and sunset for the past eighty-plus days.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Just like during recent practices, after the spell was chanted, a powerful heartbeat sounded in his chest area.
Ethan pulled out the stopper, tilted his head back, and downed the blood-red potion in the bottle in one gulp.
Thump, thump! Thump, thump! Thump, thump!
As the potion entered his stomach, the already intense heartbeat grew louder and louder.
Gradually, this sound could no longer be heard only by Ethan himself. It spread to the surroundings, appearing exceptionally clear in the Forbidden Forest where there was only the sound of raindrops hitting leaves.
Even the rainwater falling around Ethan was affected, vibrating rhythmically with the heartbeat.
"Ah!" When the rapid heartbeat reached its peak, a wave of intense pain struck. Although he was prepared for it, Ethan still couldn't help crying out in pain.
Even though he had practiced Human Transfiguration so many times, he still could not endure this pain.
During previous Human Transfiguration practices, Ethan only endured the conflict of magic and the shifting of internal organs. But now, what he endured, besides the scouring of magic, was the pain of his body's muscles and bones being torn apart.
From a human over one meter tall and less than half a meter wide, to expanding to a size of over twenty meters, this pain of the body being torn apart and filled again almost made Ethan faint.
Fortunately, the continuous practice before had slightly raised his pain threshold, preventing him from losing consciousness now.
Next, a three-headed red dragon exactly like his Patronus surfaced in his mind.
The fiery red scales were like burning flames. Because it had color, this red dragon was far more majestic and terrifying than the silvery-white, translucent Patronus.
Ethan's body was expanding slowly. Bones and muscles were undergoing earth-shaking changes.
His miserable screams emitted due to pain also gradually dehumanized.
Suddenly, the human voice disappeared, replaced by three overlapping dragon roars.
And this resonant voice was continuously strengthening as his body size expanded.
Finally, the roaring stopped. Appearing in Ethan's original position was an over twenty-meter-long, fiery-red giant three-headed dragon.
On those three huge heads, a sharp single horn grew respectively. The massive body and huge wings made it look even more imposing.
Ethan's Transfiguration was over, but the pain brought by the Transfiguration did not disappear so quickly.
Ethan crawled in place. From the three huge mouths, specks of sparks sprayed onto the ground from time to time, turning the grass that had just turned green back to yellow.
When the pain eased, Ethan began to try manipulating this three-headed red dragon body that he had successfully transfigured into for the first time.
Ethan, standing on all fours, easily exceeded six meters in shoulder height.
With a swipe of a claw, a row of thick trees was cut off by the sharp claws. With a sweep of the tail, large trees more than half a meter thick were snapped in half.
Ethan was very satisfied with this strong body. Compared to those dragons he transfigured into before, this had at least ten times the strength.
And manipulating this body was also a very wonderful feeling.
Previously, the creatures Ethan transfigured into, whether magical creatures like dragons and phoenixes or ordinary creatures like red deer and lizards, only had one head. But now, he had three heads.
At this moment, although his consciousness was mainly concentrated in the main head, he knew that as long as he wanted, the remaining two heads could also become the main head. This meant that even if a head was chopped off, as long as not all of them were chopped off, he would not lose his life because of it.
He continuously switched the position of the main consciousness, enjoying the things seen from different fields of vision.
Finally, he divided a part of his consciousness into the other two heads, enjoying the all-around observation brought by three fields of vision.
"Sure enough, just as Dumbledore said, the creature transformed by Animagus has an instinctual ability application." During the process of trying, Ethan remembered Dumbledore's words.
Although this was Ethan's first time manipulating a red dragon's body, he just gently flapped his huge wings and, under the action of magic and wings, slowly flew into the sky.
The three-headed red dragon was the same as other dragons in terms of flying. Besides flapping its wings, it also had to rely on magic. Otherwise, relying on wings alone could not bring such a heavy body into the air.
Ethan controlled himself to continue ascending, testing the limits of his thirst for knowledge, and stopped climbing just slightly above the surrounding trees.
The constant flapping of the wings whipped up a strong wind, making wet fallen leaves and dead branches on the ground roll with the wind.
The middle head opened its big mouth, and a cluster of black fireball appeared in its oral cavity.
With a light spit, this fireball composed of Fiendfyre shot out rapidly, hitting a tall tree, igniting it instantly.
Following that, the left and right heads also opened their big mouths, spitting out one blue and one red fireball of different colors respectively.
"Roar!" Three heads raised simultaneously, letting out a loud roar at the sky.
This was Ethan testing his attraction derived from his bloodline.
Ethan himself, when in human form, had this innate ability. Now, having transformed into a three-headed red dragon, this body had amplified it an unknown number of times.
The Forbidden Forest became restless. From an unknown distance, sounds of birds calling and beasts roaring came.
The attraction test was over. Next was to test deterrence.
Another loud roar. A deterrence stronger than before by an unknown number of times spread around along with the roar.
Those various creatures deep in the Forbidden Forest that were originally attracted by the inexplicable feeling just now and were running and flying toward Ethan's direction, driven by the sudden panic in their hearts, fled in a panic away from Ethan's direction.
"Whoosh!" Ethan raised his heads to the sky. Three bloody mouths opened, twisting their heads. Three pillars of fire of different colors, red, blue, and orange, spewed out.
While Ethan vented the excitement in his heart to his heart's content, the fire in the Forbidden Forest grew larger and larger.
Because the trees in the Forbidden Forest were too dense, the several big trees ignited earlier ignited other trees.
However, solving this problem was a piece of cake for the current Ethan.
He saw him stretch out a dragon claw in the air, slightly mobilizing his massive magic power, and the spreading flames flew into his claw, becoming a small fireball. It was much easier than when he controlled other flames in human form before.
With a clench of the dragon claw, the fireball extinguished instantly, leaving only charred trees emitting blue smoke around.
Ethan slowly landed on the ground, his tail swaying casually, knocking down several more tall and thick trees.
Some abilities he could temporarily test were tested. Ethan worried that if it took too long, the commotion here would attract Dumbledore's attention, so he prepared to try restoring his human form.
He willed it, yet his body did not change at all; willed it again, still no change.
Ethan did not panic. He thought of his family's records and Dumbledore's notes, constantly repeating in his heart: "Restore! Restore!"
Finally, after this will was strengthened to a certain extent, he finally successfully turned back into human form.
Just completing the Transfiguration, he shook his head, suddenly going from the vision of three heads to one. He was somewhat unaccustomed again.
Slightly cleaning up the huge footprints on the scene and other traces that might expose him, Ethan flew to another clearing he had discovered.
Arriving at the destination not far away, Ethan casually transfigured a chair and sat down, immersed in the wonderful feeling of controlling massive magic power, and began to review his ability display just now.
"The legendary seven-headed, ten-horned great red dragon is an incarnation of Satan, imprisoned for a thousand years because it lost the great battle with the archangel.
"And some people also say, the snake that tempted Eve and Adam back then was also an incarnation of Satan.
"Legends are hard to tell true from false, but judging from my own abilities I know so far, perhaps the source of our family's bloodline is a combination of the two?
"After all, we have an extraordinary affinity for dragons and snakes. And the attraction I possess is not among the regular abilities of the great red dragon, but more like the lure of the ancient serpent."
During the previous few holidays, Ethan had spent a lot of time reading books related to Satan, thus finding many different statements.
"But why have wizards, as a group mastering magical power, never confirmed the existence of Satan and God, and only have stories of the Grim Reaper? Truly strange."
Ethan soon stopped dwelling on this question that the family's thousand-year history had not found an answer to.
"The feeling of incarnating as a red dragon is simply too wonderful. That powerful strength, surging magic power. If I could possess it in human form too, that would simply be too awesome."
Although Ethan's magic level at this time already far exceeded some adult wizards, compared to a red dragon whose volume was hundreds of times that of his human form, it was indeed still not enough to look at.
"What I spewed just now were several kinds of fire magic I have mastered. Except for Fiendfyre originating from the bloodline, which doesn't need a spell to release, the other kinds originally all needed spells.
"However, just now I only needed to want to release this magic, and I could spit it out from my mouth. This is slightly different from Dumbledore's description.
"He said his phoenix Animagus could only use the phoenix's own abilities, while what I could do exceeded this scope.
"But it can also be explained. Presumably, this is also the power brought by the bloodline. I originally could be immune to fire damage in human form. Now it's just going a step further, starting to control other different magical flames. It's also reasonable.
"It's just that this ability currently still has limitations. I can only control magical flames I have already mastered. Whether it's a low-level Fire-Making Spell or a high-level Incendio, I can release them directly.
"But, spells like Gubraithian Fire that I haven't learned, cannot be released."
"The rest is the same as Dumbledore said. I cannot use other magic like the Disillusionment Charm in dragon form. I don't know if I can break the restriction Dumbledore mentioned through practice later."
The inventory of testable abilities was over. There were still some things like the magic resistance of the three-headed red dragon, which wasn't something he could test alone.
In addition, there was an ability he hoped to never use—the immortality of the three-headed red dragon.
According to his cognition when he first transformed, he would not die before all three heads of the red dragon were chopped off.
And after a period of familiarizing himself with this form, he discovered another life-saving ability.
Just like he gained an extra life after his magic rioted.
Even if he died in the three-headed dragon form, he would not lose the Animagus form forever as Dumbledore said. Instead, only after dying three times would he completely die and lose this Animagus.
"I really, increasingly look like a world boss in some heroic novels. Having a super long health bar, and can resurrect once after dying."
Ethan shook his head with joy, restored the chair, hid his figure, soared into the air, and left the Forbidden Forest.
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1. Harry Potter: Satan? Nah, Just My Family Crest = CHAPTER 391
2.Harry Potter: Beyond Good and Evil in the Wizarding World = CHAPTER 406
3.Harry Potter: Reborn as Draco Black = CHAPTER 207
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