Rey looked a bit helpless; he hadn't expected Madam Hooch to ask him to explain that.
Thinking about it, though, Madam Hooch probably didn't know he had traveled through time.
Time travel is a severe dislocation of reality. To outsiders, a thousand years have passed. To Rey, it felt like just a few years, or perhaps a mere instant.
The experiences between the two perspectives were fundamentally different, so naturally, their starting points for viewing things were different.
Before the time travel, Rey hadn't yet received the Dragon God's approval, so the Madam Hooch of that time naturally couldn't sense him as kin.
But after experiencing that millennium, it was only logical that Madam Hooch could now sense the dragon aura on him.
Rey felt no need to hide anything from this senior Black Dragon. He proceeded to slowly recount his journey through the last thousand years.
What was Madam Hooch's mission again?
It seemed to be waiting for someone who could lead the Dragon Race to rise again.
Since she had a special mission, it didn't matter if she knew Rey had undergone a shocking journey through time.
Her focus was different, so her perspective was different. Still, even for a dragon as knowledgeable as Madam Hooch, she was stunned for a good while after hearing Rey's story.
After the shock wore off, Madam Hooch stared at Rey, then nodded as if realizing something. "No wonder. You've lived through a thousand years, yet not only have you not grown taller, you're actually much shorter than before."
Her comment was sharp and hit the nail right on the head.
Rey could only smile awkwardly again. His height was indeed a sore spot. Thanks to the time travel, while he was tall for his current age, he was still a far cry from his adult height a thousand years ago.
"So, what did you need from me?"
Now that the explanations were over, Madam Hooch didn't seem particularly overjoyed about meeting a fellow clansman. she just wanted to know why Rey had come to find her.
"Since I transformed into a dragon, I haven't been able to cast magic. Professor Dumbledore said my magical power has undergone a qualitative change..."
Since he hadn't hidden the time travel, there was no need to hide his magical problems either.
Hooch listened carefully as Rey described his issues. After a short pause, she spoke. "The mental world is the source and foundation of everyone's magic. As you age, this world grows with you.
"However, the mental worlds of humans and dragons are two different things. You are human, but dragon blood flows through your veins. So, after you transformed into a giant dragon, your original mental world couldn't withstand the dragon's power and collapsed..."
---
Madam Hooch explained it slowly and in great detail.
Listening to her, Rey naturally connected her words to the situation inside his body.
He did indeed have two mental worlds.
Originally, one side was a modern metropolis, and the other was an endless wilderness, separated by a purple-black curtain of light. That was his mental world.
When he transformed into a dragon, the magic in his body increased disproportionately, shattering that purple-black curtain and forcing the two separated worlds to merge.
The curtain vanished, and the two worlds became one.
Although this new world was in ruins, looking like the aftermath of a massive earthquake, it had at least fused into a single entity.
As long as that world could stabilize, he believed he should be able to use this brand-new magic.
But it seemed his internal mental world was still in the process of evolving. Who knew how long it would take to stabilize completely?
"Madam Hooch, is there any way to stabilize my mental world quickly?"
This was Rey's biggest concern. After asking, he looked at Madam Hooch expectantly, hoping for a concrete answer.
"You can only practice diligently. That is the safest method."
Madam Hooch could see Rey's urgency, but she gave the same answer as Dumbledore: diligent practice. There were no shortcuts.
Hearing the words "diligent practice," Rey looked disappointed. But then he processed the second half of her sentence: That is the safest method.
"Madam Hooch, since that's the safest method, there must be a dangerous one, right?" Rey asked, a spark of hope igniting in his heart.
"There is naturally a dangerous method. Provided you can become what wizards call an Animagus."
---
The Animagus transformation—that was the dangerous crash course Madam Hooch suggested.
Rey walked out of her office in a daze, his mind replaying the information he had just received.
There is a fundamental difference between human and dragon magic.
For a wizard to become an Animagus, it might take years of practice, and they generally cannot transform into magical creatures like dragons or phoenixes. Transforming into a magical creature brings unpredictable consequences.
But dragons don't have this concern. A true dragon can shift between dragon and human forms at will physically.
Although Rey was part of the dragon race, he was also human. The magic in his body was different from a standard dragon's, and different from a human wizard's.
Right now, the magic inside him was like an untamed wild horse. If he wanted to command it effortlessly, there were only two ways.
One: Put a bridle on the wild horse and slowly tame it. This process would be incredibly long, measured in years—at least one or two, and given his special condition, perhaps even longer.
The second method was much simpler and had no time limit; it might only take a few days.
To tame the wild horse, you jump directly onto its back and let it run wild. When it's exhausted, it will naturally be tamed.
This was why Madam Hooch told Rey to practice the Animagus transformation. He needed to transform directly into his Black Dragon form. If he could succeed, everything else would fall into place naturally.
Transforming into a giant dragon would earn the approval of the magic within him. That was the ultimate goal.
However, this meant the standard wizarding method for learning to be an Animagus was useless to him.
Rey had asked Madam Hooch if there was a trick to switching between bodies. Her answer was a rhetorical question: "Do you need a trick to open your mouth to speak or move your fingers?"
The answer was obvious. For a dragon, switching forms was as instinctive as eating or drinking. Such instincts didn't require "tricks."
Rey could only smile bitterly at that. He hadn't expected his half-dragon self to be stumped by something as simple as "eating and drinking."
---
Instinct. Instinct. Something you are born knowing how to do.
Rey didn't even know what he was right now—dragon or human? Or maybe a new species: Dragon-man.
"Heh."
Rey mocked himself. That name is melodramatic enough.
"Instinct is innate. Do I, a Dragon-man, have this innate instinct?"
Did he?
Should he?
The more he thought about it, the less certain he became.
He couldn't wrap his head around transforming into a giant dragon or becoming an Animagus.
A thousand years ago, he had drunk the dragon blood Madam Hooch gave him, and the transformation into a Black Dragon had happened naturally.
During that transformation, Rey hadn't visualized what a dragon looked like or how to shift. As Madam Hooch said, it was instinct. He didn't need to think.
Maybe that was a good example.
But back then, the dragon blood had guided the transformation. What about now?
Lost in these messy thoughts, Rey unknowingly arrived at a corridor.
Looking around, he realized he was on the eighth floor of Hogwarts castle. He hadn't expected to wander all the way up here.
"Wait, the eighth-floor corridor... Since when is there a strange door here?"
Rey frowned, snapping out of his thoughts. He looked with confusion at the tall iron door that had materialized on the wall in front of him.