Hydrus stood in front of the bathroom mirror.
When she took care of her personal hygiene every day, she would switch to her house-elf constitution.
She opened her mouth, pointed a finger, and her mouth was instantly fresh;
She pointed at her face, and it was instantly clean, smooth, and fair;
She pointed at her hair, and her long black hair floated up, all grease gone, and it even braided itself.
She nodded in satisfaction.
She'd been spooked by Dumbledore that day and fled Diagon Alley in a hurry, failing to buy her textbooks, which was a slight regret.
But on second thought, she didn't really need any wizarding magic at this stage.
'Had house-elf domestic magic lost its charm? Or was her dragon's magical constitution not tough enough?'
As for the two ancient books confiscated from the Gray family vault, one was written in Runes, and the other was in Old English.
Needless to say, the Runes were mostly gibberish to Hydrus; as for the Old English one, she recognized all the letters, but put together, she couldn't understand a single bit.
Changing back to Audrey's face, Hydrus walked toward the stairs.
"Audrey, you're up!" Rick poked half his head out of the kitchen. "Look what I made for you!"
"Good morning, brother," Audrey bounded down the stairs. "Let me see what has my brother so proud?"
On the dining table, several crooked strips of something were arranged on a plate.
"I made these according to your description of 'youtiao'. I tried them, they're delicious!"
Looking at the rather unappetizing "youtiao," Audrey gave an awkward laugh.
'I shouldn't have told Rick the recipe. I've dug my own grave! Do these even look edible?'
'The fact that Rick thinks they're good doesn't mean anything. The British palate... hehe.'
She dipped one in milk and took a bite. Huh?
Audrey was surprised to find that Rick's fried dough sticks were unexpectedly crispy and delicious.
"Delicious!"
Receiving Audrey's praise, Rick smiled so wide his eyes disappeared.
He sighed emotionally, "If our family's income hadn't increased these last two months, we really couldn't afford to fry youtiao."
He looked at the full pot of hot oil on the stove, his face full of feeling.
...
...
"Brother, I'm going out to play!"
Audrey dashed out the door.
"Hey, slow down! Don't fall!"
Rick shouted from the doorway. Audrey didn't look back, just raised her right hand high and waved. "Got it!"
Rick smiled and shook his head, about to close the door.
A tabby cat shot out through the crack in the door, startling Rick.
"Huh? Jinhu! Didn't Audrey take you with her?"
Jinhu had been with them for three months now. This cat had a huge personality. He couldn't be held or petted, and he insisted on eating the same food as them. He wouldn't touch cat food or canned food.
If his food was late, he would even 'beat' people.
He was an absolute cat-lord!
But fortunately, he didn't destroy the house or cause trouble. Even when 'beating' people, he kept his claws retracted. He was very sensible.
...
...
In the sky, not far from the Wales Thestral Carriage Station.
Hydrus hovered there, gazing into the distance.
She was currently using her Thestral constitution.
The reason she didn't use her dragon constitution was that she had discovered a problem.
Her control of the dragon constitution wasn't complete. Not only would her body dragon-ize, but her personality and temper would also be affected by the dragon's nature.
So now she relied on the Thestral for flight. Not only was it fast, but it also kept her invisible to most people.
A few minutes later, a carriage departed from the station and flew toward her position.
Hydrus smiled slightly. "Gray family, how have you not learned your lesson?"
"You could at least change the transport time. Being so predictable makes you no challenge at all!"
Hydrus ascended slightly, getting closer to the sky.
The sea of clouds below wasn't just a monotonous expanse of sheep-like shapes; some clouds looked like mountains dyed red by the setting sun, revealing rugged edges.
Seeing the Thestral carriage enter a 500-meter range, Hydrus deactivated her Thestral constitution and began to free-fall. Five seconds later, she switched to her house-elf constitution.
Pop!
Hydrus appeared in the carriage, in high spirits.
She didn't even see clearly who was in front of her before she spoke: "Robbery! Hand over the Galleons, quickly!"
She was very familiar with this routine. After all, she had already done this four times.
The person sitting opposite her was very calm. The box for the Galleons was placed right next to him.
His short gray hair was combed meticulously. A black waistcoat made him look exceptionally sharp, and the overcoat he wore gave him an extraordinary aura.
Hydrus's mouth fell open in surprise. "Bode Gray?"
She was extremely surprised. "Is the Gray family out of people? Does the great patriarch of the Grays need to transport the Galleons himself?"
Bode Gray's expression was definitely not good.
These past three months, their Gray family had become the laughingstock of the wizarding world.
Their Galleon transport carriages attacked by dragons;
Bribing Ministry officials with a prank;
Falsely accusing Gringotts of an inside job;
Selling off Lestrange family treasures at a low price for household expenses...
Bode Gray had been clueless about these incidents until the moniker "Evil Dragon Hydrus" accidentally reached his ears.
He'd set aside the Gringotts matter for now. He had no proof and no ability to confront Gringotts directly.
But the robbery of the Thestral carriages and the swapping of Galleons in Diagon Alley were definitely connected to her!
As it turned out, he was right.
Just as he expected, Hydrus had rammed right into his carriage.
'Try the same old trick again?'
'He, Bode Gray, was not one of those incompetents!'
"Miss Lestrange, you've stolen nearly ten thousand Galleons from our Gray family in total. Shouldn't you give me an explanation?"
'It's actually twenty thousand!'
Hydrus was all smiles. "Old Grampa Bode, don't you know where your Gray family's wealth came from?"
She just loved it when they wanted to chat first.
It gave her ample time to transform.
Seeing the dragon-ized Hydrus, Bode showed no surprise. "Indeed. Names can be wrong, but nicknames are rarely mistaken."
A sneer touched his lips. "Evil Dragon Hydrus? Today, I shall be a dragon slayer!"
BOOM!
A powerful aura exploded from Bode. A magical shockwave blasted outward from him.
The entire carriage was blasted apart. The four Thestrals pulling it were also injured to varying degrees, shrieking as they flew into the distance.
Hydrus was protected by her dragon scales and naturally unharmed. She clearly saw the wooden box beside Bode Gray disintegrate in his explosion. There wasn't even a bronze Knut inside.
So, from the very beginning, this was Bode Gray lying in wait.
And she, the stupid rabbit, had really run headlong into the stump.
Hydrus floated in the air, her dragon constitution making her furious.
'She'd been tricked?'
Bode Gray's body was wrapped in a howling gale.
He flew calmly, speaking, "Miss Lestrange, you are not the only one who can fly."
His voice was devoid of emotion, cold and sinister:
"Although I don't know how you acquired your current power, it no longer matters!"
Bode Gray raised his wand.
"Norson, Daniel, Stevenson... those incompetents failed to take your life, allowing you to survive for so many days,"
"But now, for the sake of my Gray family, you will obediently die!"
"Infinite Ice!"
The air temperature plummeted. Hydrus felt her body rapidly stiffening. Ice crystals began to form around her.
The freezing speed was extremely fast. In another second, she would be frozen solid!
Her dragon-human body shot upward, narrowly avoiding the fate of being frozen.
'Being able to freeze a fire dragon's body... that's not something an ordinary person can do.'
'And even more shocking... Bode Gray's spell has such a huge area of effect?'
Looking down from higher up, a 30-meter-diameter space had turned deep blue, and that blue was still spreading outward.
Hydrus was horrified. She never expected that Bode Gray, the patriarch of the Gray family, who had never shown his strength, was actually such a powerful wizard!
The quick-witted girl turned and fled.
Her intuition told her this was not an opponent she could fight.
She continuously increased her speed, hoping to shake Bode and then Apparate away.
At this moment, the five-second weakness required to switch her magical constitution was infinitely magnified.
Those five seconds were a fatal five seconds.
But she was confident in her speed. If she could just create enough distance, she'd have a chance!
However...
"Trying to run?"
Pop!
Bode Apparated in front of Hydrus.
"Why don't you Apparate to escape? I heard you are very skilled at that spell!"
"It's fine. I'll give you the chance to Apparate. Let's see if I can't find you through the magical echo, Lady Lestrange!"
Bode's voice was full of mockery.
Hydrus's face turned ashen. It was a fiasco. This time, it was a major fiasco.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]