"I'm listening."
"Tell us."
Rhys and Rowena both moved closer to Helga, curious to see what progress she had made.
"I had a sudden idea a while ago, and now it's basically workable." Helga's eyes were bright, with piles of books and drafts scattered around her.
She rummaged through them for a while before finally finding the steps for the dragon transformation magic that Salazar had written down earlier.
"Look, this dragon transformation magic is actually quite similar to the toxin carried by werewolves." Helga kept tapping her finger against the parchment, clearly extremely excited.
Rhys thought back on it and realised that she was right.
Werewolves infected ordinary people by injecting the werewolf toxin into their bodies. The toxin would take root inside the victim and fuse with their flesh, making it impossible to remove. Then, on the night of the full moon, moonlight would trigger the toxin completely, transforming an otherwise normal person into a wolf.
Jack's dragon transformation magic worked in a similar way. It first introduced a special substance known as draconic essence into the human body, altering the body itself, before using an external stimulus to trigger the transformation into a dragon.
"I originally intended to recreate this so-called 'draconic essence', but the price it demands may not be something wizards are willing to accept," Rhys said, explaining his own concern.
From Jack's memories, Rhys had already confirmed that the dragon transformation magic was irreversible. Once the substance entered the body, it remained there for life, just like the toxin carried by werewolves. It was even somewhat contagious, just like lycanthropy.
"Of course I'm not planning to copy it exactly." Helga gave a mysterious smile, took something from her robes, and handed it to Rhys.
"Take a look. What is this?"
"A biscuit? No, wait. It's one of the Weasley twins' Canary Creams!"
Rhys was confused at first and could not understand what Helga was trying to do. After taking a closer look, he realised that the biscuit she had handed him was one of the prank sweets from the Weasley twins' joke products.
A flash of understanding appeared in his mind. He vaguely felt that he had grasped an important clue.
"You and Rowena aren't skilled in food magic, so it's only natural that you wouldn't think of this." A trace of smugness appeared on Helga's face. "Don't underestimate food magic!"
"How could we?"
"Of course not!"
Rhys and Rowena spoke at the same time, firmly denying that they had ever looked down on food magic.
"These biscuits are genuinely fascinating. Those two Weasley boys are truly talented." Since Hufflepuff had not personally experienced many of Fred and George's pranks, her impression of the two was actually rather good. She even vaguely felt that they were somewhat suited to Hufflepuff House.
"I was inspired by the Canary Creams and created my own version. Why don't the two of you try one?"
Helga took out a box of biscuits and pushed it towards Rhys and Rowena.
The two of them had more or less understood what their old friend was trying to do, so naturally they had no reason to refuse.
Rhys took the box and discovered that each biscuit had a different animal carved into it.
He chose one engraved with a snake, while Rowena picked one bearing the image of an eagle.
After eating the biscuit, Rhys felt a stream of magic spreading through his limbs.
He could have interrupted the process, but there was no need.
Allowing the magic to circulate freely through his body, Rhys transformed into a snake with a sudden flash.
Beside him, Rowena transformed into an eagle.
Interesting!
As Rhys experienced the unfamiliar body of a snake, a flash of understanding appeared in his mind.
The eagle beside him also seemed thoughtful.
However, when Rowena caught sight of the large silver-and-green snake lying on the ground, a crack seemed to appear in the dam holding back her rationality.
That snake was so plump.
It looked delicious!
Rhys shuddered.
He suddenly sensed the murderous intent of a predator staring at him.
Instinctively, he raised his head and found himself looking directly into a pair of yellow-orange eagle eyes.
Rhys: ???
Rowena: ...
Rhys was stunned.
Rowena hurriedly looked away and began using her beak to preen the feathers on her wing.
The atmosphere immediately became rather awkward.
Fortunately, the transformation did not last very long.
In less than a minute, both of them returned to human form.
After transforming back, Rowena obediently stood off to the side and suddenly developed an intense fascination with her own hair.
Huh? Why wouldn't this hairstyle sit properly?
Rhys, meanwhile, glared furiously at Rowena.
"Ravenclaw, what was that supposed to mean?!"
"Ah, um..."
For once, Rowena looked genuinely guilty.
After all, staring at an old friend while nearly drooling over the thought of eating him was simply too embarrassing.
However, she was the clever Rowena Ravenclaw.
Within two seconds, she came up with the perfect way to defuse the awkwardness.
"Helga, there's a flaw in these transformation biscuits!"
With a single sentence, Rowena redirected the blame towards Helga.
She pointed out that Helga's biscuits caused them to inherit some of the animal instincts of whatever creature they transformed into.
Helga raised an eyebrow.
"Then I'll improve them later. But you understand what I mean now, don't you?"
Helga casually brushed aside Rowena's complaint and brought the conversation back to transformation magic.
"Of course."
Rhys and Rowena answered in unison.
Helga clearly intended to let students transform into powerful magical creatures by consuming specially prepared food.
It had to be said that the idea was extremely bold, and also extremely difficult to achieve.
"So you're planning to make things like dragon biscuits?" Rhys asked.
"No."
To Rhys's slight surprise, Helga shook her head and denied his guess.
Instead, she took a box from her sleeve.
After opening the box, she removed a small potted plant from inside. The box had clearly been enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm.
Helga's potted plant looked rather similar to the small kumquat trees sold in flower shops. A sapling about two fingers thick grew from soil fertilised with dragon dung, with golden fruits about the size of longans dotted among its leaves.
Rhys had seen Helga tinkering with this potted plant in Rowena's manor before, but he had not paid much attention to it. Helga liked growing all sorts of strange plants, after all.
Clearly, however, this one was different.
"This is the latest result of my research. You can call it a Transformation Fruit Tree. The fruits it produces can allow people to transform in the same way as Canary Creams. I created it by combining the transformation magic from Canary Creams with the results of my earlier research into the Hundred-Flavour Fruit Tree."
Helga's voice was filled with pride.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI