The clearing in the Forbidden Forest was silent, save for the rhythmic drumming of the rain against the mud and the low, draconic hum vibrating from Sebastian's chest. Mia stood her ground, though her boots sank inches into the soft earth. She looked at the three-meter-tall creature before her—a nightmare of obsidian scales and golden eyes—and felt the instinctive urge to cast a Shield Charm.
"Sebastian," she said, her voice barely audible over the thunder. "If you've lost your mind, give me a sign. Don't make me do this."
The creature's mouth, filled with teeth that looked like ivory daggers, curved into a frighteningly familiar smirk. "My mind is perfectly intact, Mia. Better than ever, actually. I can see the magic in the air. I can feel the temperature of your breath. Now, stop worrying and hit me. I need to know if I built a fortress or a glass house."
Mia let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. That arrogant, academic curiosity was pure Sebastian Swan. "A 'glass house'? You're nearly ten feet tall and covered in armor. And what happened to the dragon? I thought the whole point of this insanity was to turn into a Ridgeback."
"This is the Ridgeback," Sebastian rumbled, his voice sounding like a cello played with a bow made of iron. "This is the Stage Two Transformation I conjectured about back in our seventh year. I've compressed the dragon's essence into a humanoid frame. It's more efficient. More... lethal."
Mia's eyes widened. "You actually did it. McGonagall called that paper 'the most brilliant piece of reckless fiction' she'd ever read. She's going to have a heart attack when she sees this."
"Let's not give the Head of Gryffindor a stroke just yet," Sebastian chuckled, the sound rattling the leaves of a nearby willow. "Come on. Test the skin. See if I'm as solid as I feel."
Mia stepped forward, curiosity finally outweighing her caution. She reached out and pressed her palm against his bicep. It didn't feel like skin, or even like a regular dragon's hide. It felt like warm, living stone. The scales were so fine and tightly packed that they felt like velvet if rubbed one way, and like a razor-sharp grater if rubbed the other.
"You're a monster," she teased, though her eyes were soft. "We look like a scene out of a fairy tale. Beauty and the Beast, except the beast is a giant narcissist with horns."
"I prefer 'Apex Predator,'" Sebastian corrected, standing tall. "Now, back off. Simple spells first. I want to see how the magic dispersion works without my Stacked Curses active."
Mia retreated to the edge of the clearing, her wand leveled. "Fine. Don't blame me if I ruin your new look. Stupefy!"
A jet of red light slammed into Sebastian's chest. In a normal duel, it would have sent a man flying back twenty feet. Against this form, the spell didn't just fail; it shattered. The red light splashed against his scales like water against a hot stove, dissolving into harmless sparks. Sebastian didn't even blink.
"Is that it?" he prompted, his golden pupils dilating. "I've felt more impact from a heavy rainstorm. Give me something with some teeth, Mia. Don't hold back."
Mia's competitive streak flared. She knew Sebastian's limits better than anyone, but this was a new frontier. She slashed her wand through the air. "Incendio!"
A torrent of magical flame erupted, swirling around Sebastian in a violent vortex. The heat was intense enough to turn the falling rain into a thick curtain of steam. For several seconds, he was completely obscured by the orange glare.
When the fire died down, Sebastian was standing in the center of a blackened circle of mud, looking entirely bored. Not a single scale was charred. Even the fine, silk-like membranes of his folded wings were pristine.
"Warm," he commented. "But a dragon eats fire for breakfast. Try the heavy hitters. Try the one Severus is so proud of."
Mia frowned, her hand trembling slightly. "Sectumsempra? Sebastian, that's an invisible blade. It's designed to bypass physical toughness. If it gets between the scales—"
"It won't," Sebastian stated with absolute certainty. "Trust the alchemy, Mia. Strike."
Mia gritted her teeth. She knew the risks, but she also knew Sebastian wouldn't ask if he wasn't prepared. She performed the sharp, slicing motion. "Sectumsempra!"
The invisible blade hissed through the air. To a human, it was undetectable. But to Sebastian's draconic vision, the spell appeared as a shimmering ripple in the atmosphere, a distortion of light and intent.
"Too slow," he rumbled.
Instead of dodging, he stepped into the path of the spell and swiped his right hand across his body.
Clang!
A sound like a sword hitting an anvil echoed through the Forbidden Forest. The invisible force of the spell was physically batted aside by his claws. Sebastian looked at his palm. There was a faint, silvery line where the curse had tried to bite into the scale, but as he watched, the magic of his core surged, and the scratch vanished in heartbeats.
"Unbelievable," Mia whispered, walking closer to inspect the hand. "That spell can cut through a stone wall like parchment. You just... you just slapped it away."
"The Ridgeback's scales were already top-tier," Sebastian explained, his voice filled with a cold, intellectual satisfaction. "But when compressed into this human-sized density, their resistance increases exponentially. I'm not just magic-resistant anymore. I'm effectively magic-immune to anything short of a Killing Curse or a master-level elemental strike."
He turned away from her, his gaze landing on a massive, ancient oak tree at the edge of the clearing. It was a giant of the forest, its trunk thick enough that three men couldn't touch hands around it.
"Defense is one thing," Sebastian said, his tail twitching behind him. "But I didn't become a dragon just to be a target. Watch."
He didn't use his wings. He simply pushed off the ground. The mud exploded under his feet, and he moved with a speed that blurred the vision. He was at the tree in less than a second.
He didn't punch it. He drew his hand back, fingers stiffened into a blade-like configuration, and drove it into the heart of the oak.
CRACK-BOOM!
The sound was like a cannon going off. The massive trunk didn't just break; it detonated at the point of impact. Shards of wood the size of javelins flew in every direction. The upper half of the tree, weighing several tons, tilted slowly before crashing into the undergrowth, its fall shaking the very earth.
Sebastian stood there, his hand buried in the splintered remains of the stump. He pulled it out, shaking off the sawdust. Not a single claw was chipped.
"Merlin's ghost..." Mia breathed, looking at the devastation. "Sebastian, you could tear a giant to pieces with your bare hands. You're a one-man army."
Sebastian looked at his claws, a thoughtful expression on his draconic face. "The power is there, yes. But it's crude. I'm a wizard, not a brawler. I need a way to focus this strength." He paused, a glint of inspiration hitting him. "A sword would be too delicate. Maybe a mace? Or a spiked club? Something with enough mass to match the arm behind it."
He looked back at Mia and saw the speechless wonder in her eyes. It was the look he lived for.
"But here's the best part, Mia," he said, his grin widening to show all his teeth. "The real reason Slytherin's dream was worth chasing."
He reached into the folds of his wing-mantle and pulled out his wand. It looked like a toothpick in his massive, clawed hand, but the moment he gripped it, the air began to crackle.
"I can still do this. Reparo!"
He made a lazy, elegant flick with the wand.
The forest seemed to hold its breath. Then, the shattered oak tree began to scream in reverse. The tons of fallen timber rose from the mud, the splinters and sawdust flying back like iron filings to a magnet. The wood knit itself together, the bark smoothing over, the leaves turning from brown back to a vibrant, magical green. In seconds, the tree stood tall and unbroken, as if the last five minutes had been nothing more than a shared hallucination.
Mia sat down on a fallen log, her wand finally lowered to her side. "You've done it. You've created a form that has no weaknesses. You have the defense of a dragon, the strength of a giant, the agility of an acrobat, and you can still cast high-level Transfiguration."
She looked up at the three-meter-tall Dragon-Human, a mix of pride and mock-annoyance on her face. "How am I supposed to keep you grounded now? You're literally a legendary creature."