After a period of intense work, Aiden finally completed the paper Professor McGonagall had assigned.
He knocked on his professor's office door, carrying a thick stack of parchment.
"Professor, the paper is finished. Would you like to review it?" Aiden asked with a polite smile.
"Just put it there. I'll check it for you after I finish grading these assignments," Professor McGonagall replied, gesturing vaguely toward her desk.
The table, however, was completely covered with the young wizards' Transfiguration homework, leaving Aiden with no clear space. The mischievous dragon simply placed his paper directly on top of the towering pile.
Professor McGonagall picked one up and started reading, but her expression quickly soured. She looked up from the parchment and found Aiden holding back a laugh.
"You really should have been in Gryffindor, Mr. Prewett," she sighed, though a hint of amusement touched her lips.
"Professor, there's something I'd like to request," Aiden said, his tone turning serious.
"Go on," Professor McGonagall said, putting down the paper.
"I wish to begin the training to become an Animagus," Aiden stated clearly.
"No..." Professor McGonagall instinctively wanted to refuse, but the word caught in her throat.
Aiden took off his hat, revealing the small, pearlescent dragon horns curling from his hairline.
"You... what is this?" Professor McGonagall's demeanor became grave. "Have you performed magical creature modification on yourself?!"
Her tone was exceptionally stern; Aiden could practically see an aura of anger radiating from her.
"No, Professor. I wonder if you've heard of the Prewett Dragon-man," Aiden said calmly.
"Dragon-man? I thought that was just an ancient legend. Your..." Professor McGonagall trailed off, her memory stirring. "Your father and uncle once discussed it with me. They told me that the Prewetts bear an ancient mission to reawaken the dragon's blood."
She pressed her lips together, her expression softening from anger to deep concern.
"Yes. As the culmination of many generations of the Prewetts' efforts, I believe I am ready to undergo a complete magical creature transformation," Aiden said with quiet confidence.
"How?" Professor McGonagall asked, her voice filled with a mix of skepticism and awe.
"By following the Animagus ritual. The heartbeat closest to my own will surely be that of a dragon. At that moment, I will place the second set of magical pathways onto my dragon horns, which will perfectly solve the problem of conflicting magical circuits between different biological forms."
After hearing Aiden's explanation, Professor McGonagall hesitated for a long time, unable to make a decision. She raised her wand, and a silver-white tabby cat Patronus flew out of her office. It seemed she was going to consult Dumbledore.
Before long, a flash of fire heralded Fawkes's arrival, bringing the headmaster with him.
"Minerva, what's wrong?" Dumbledore asked gently.
"Albus, see for yourself what your star pupil is planning now," Professor McGonagall said, gesturing toward the dragon in the corner.
The dragon offered an awkward but polite smile.
"So, you plan to become an Animagus?" After a short conversation, Dumbledore understood the entire situation.
"Professor Dumbledore, I am quite confident. The experiment on Professor Lupin was a complete success," Aiden nodded.
"Alright. As headmaster, I grant you permission to attempt to become an Animagus," Dumbledore agreed.
"Albus..." Professor McGonagall began to protest.
But they were both old Gryffindors; they understood each other's tolerance for calculated risks.
Finally, Aiden had successfully obtained permission and began his preparations. He visited Professor Sprout to acquire some Mandrake leaves and started the lengthy process.
At the Ravenclaw table, Edmund saw Aiden's puffed-out cheeks and couldn't resist poking him. Aiden responded with a death glare.
"What are you holding in your mouth? You seem to have a poor appetite," Ethan also asked curiously.
"A Mandrake leaf," Aiden answered carefully, afraid he might swallow it. "This thing tastes awful, so I haven't been able to eat well recently."
"A Mandrake... I get it! You want to learn to be an Animagus. I thought you'd lost your appetite because of a broken heart," Edmund teased.
"Why would you think that?" Aiden asked, genuinely puzzled.
Edmund gestured with his lips toward the other end of the table. "Look at those young witches. They look like they want to eat you alive. The number one gossip in the school today is: Who broke the heart of the Rose of Ravenclaw?"
With one sentence, Edmund had thoroughly offended a certain Manipulator. Aiden shot him a sharp look, infusing it with a subtle pulse of dragon's might.
Edmund's mind went blank for a moment before he shivered and quickly looked away.
After a bitter month of holding the leaf in his mouth, Aiden finally spat it out. On a moonlit night, he placed the leaf and his own saliva into a crystal vial. He added a single strand of his hair, a teaspoon of morning dew, and the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawkmoth.
Professor McGonagall personally escorted him to the Forbidden Forest to bury the potion.
From that day forward, Aiden had to point his wand at his heart and recite an incantation every day between sunrise and sunset. On the fifth day, a powerful, second heartbeat began to sound faintly within him. In the subsequent incantations, this heartbeat was sometimes strong, sometimes faint, making Aiden worry for a time that he had failed.
On a blustery Thursday afternoon, Aiden ran into the trio in the castle.
"Hey, Aiden, haven't seen you around recently. What have you been busy with?" Ron asked.
"Studying magic. Or you could say, Preparing a surprise for your mum," Aiden winked.
"By the way, Aiden, Hagrid asked me to bring you these rock cakes. He said it's to thank you for your help," Harry said, taking out a bag and shaking it. The sound of hard objects colliding echoed from within.
"I love them. Next time you see him, tell him I said thank you," Aiden replied, accepting the bag with genuine gratitude.
The three looked at Aiden, who now held a full bag of what sounded like literal rocks, with sheer amazement.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky, and Aiden immediately broke into a sprint.
"Ha, he's such a coward—actually scared of lightning," Ron joked.
"No, I understand now. He's learning to be an Animagus. Remember how he was always holding something in his mouth a while ago?" The ever-knowledgeable Hermione immediately deduced what he was doing based on his reaction.
"So Aiden will be able to turn into an animal?" Harry asked, his interest in the advanced magic piqued.
"Maybe in a few days, we'll see his name on the Ministry's registration list," Ron shrugged. "Aiden's amazing. I've never seen a spell he couldn't learn since we were kids."
When Aiden reached the place where the potion was buried, Professor McGonagall had already arrived, dragging Dumbledore along with her.
"Mr. Prewett, because becoming an Animagus is itself a powerful ritual, we cannot nest another ritual on top of it from the outside. After the transformation is complete, the compression of your magical pathways can only be done by the matrix you've set up yourself. That will likely be an extremely painful process."
Professor McGonagall gave him one last warning. "It's not too late to stop now."
Aiden simply shook his head, dug up the potion, and began carving runes onto his own body with his wand.
Seeing his determination, Professor McGonagall didn't try to persuade him any further.
The blood-red potion sat in a crystal vial stained with dirt. Aiden took out his wand, pointed it at his heart, and chanted, "Amato, Animo, Animato, Animagus."
After chanting the incantation, he downed the potion in one go.
What followed was intense, searing pain and two fierce, dueling heartbeats. In his mind, Aiden finally saw it—a beautiful, magnificent silver dragon.
The dragon didn't bring any shock or terror to his consciousness; instead, it approached him with cautious curiosity. Aiden looked at it calmly and naturally accepted the fusion with his other self.
He began to transform. His robes merged into his body as shimmering scales and sharp claws grew in their place. With a sound like tearing fabric, a pair of large, powerful wings sprouted from his back.
A silver dragon with pristine white scales appeared before the two Gryffindors. Under the moonlight, the scales shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow. The runes Aiden had just carved on his skin were still visible, now glowing with magical energy on the scales themselves. It seemed Professor McGonagall wouldn't need to help redraw them after all.
"Aiden?" Professor McGonagall called out cautiously, wanting to confirm he was still sane.
The silver dragon turned its majestic head and nodded to her, finally putting her worried heart at ease.
The final step was to compress the magical creature's pathways into the designated organs. Aiden, having gained enough experience from Professor Lupin's transformation, activated the matrix carved on his own body.
The runes began to emit a faint magical glow, compressing his draconic magical pathways inch by inch. The process was agonizing, as if his body were being dissected bit by bit and then reassembled from the inside out. Crucially, Aiden had to remain fully conscious throughout the entire ordeal.
The process lasted for what felt like an eternity but was likely only an hour. The magical pathways were completely compressed into his dragon horns, and Aiden transformed back into his human form, collapsing onto the forest floor. Not caring about being covered in dirt, he lay there, panting heavily.
"By Merlin... to think I'd witness such a breakthrough in Transfiguration in my lifetime," Professor McGonagall said, her voice filled with profound excitement.
"Professors, would you like to give it a try?" Aiden asked, looking up at Dumbledore and McGonagall with a weak but triumphant smile.
Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall shook their heads in perfect, emphatic unison.