In the mountain range surrounding Beauxbatons, the snow had begun to melt slowly under the sunlight—but instead of warming the air, it released an even sharper, biting chill.
In a sheltered clearing out of the wind, Fleur stood with her wand raised. A faint, silvery glow flowed around her body.
"I'm starting now."
The moment the words left her mouth, her wrist flicked. The wand traced a smooth arc through the air, and crimson flames burst from its tip. They didn't lash out wildly—rather, they moved like tamed ribbons of silk, light and graceful as they danced around her.
Then Fleur parted her lips again. What she spoke this time was no standard wizarding incantation, but the melodic, strangely rhythmic language of the Veela.
Not far away, Lucien stood quietly. Deep within his eyes, tiny black whirlpools surfaced—his Mage-Sight had activated.
As the Veela words flowed, the once-pure, blazing red flames seemed to be infused with moonlight. A fluid silver sheen gradually spread across them.
Silver and red intertwined as the fire grew more animated, trailing dazzling streaks of light through the air. At times, they gathered into blooming flowers; at others, they unfurled like the wings of a bird in flight. Light and shadow overlapped, dreamlike and unreal.
Against the backdrop of that radiant fire, the girl's already striking beauty was elevated into something almost otherworldly—ethereal, untouchable, breathtaking.
Yet Lucien's attention never truly left Fleur herself. His gaze was fixed on the flow of magic within her, and he murmured softly, almost to himself, "Incredible."
What amazed him wasn't the color, shape, or obedience of the flames, but what Mage-Sight revealed inside her body: the quiet transformation of her magical circuitry.
Under normal circumstances, a wizard's magic pathways resembled a well-defined tree—there was a main trunk, roots, branches, leaves, and clusters of magical energy that looked like fruit or knots along the limbs.
Fleur's circuitry had once looked exactly like that.
But now, as she abandoned standardized spellcasting and instead drew directly on the Veela bloodline buried deep within her, that "tree" began to change.
The ends of some branch-like pathways stretched and split, gradually reshaping into intricate, feather-like structures—lighter, finer, more elegant.
At the outer edge of her entire magical system, two faint concentric rings appeared, glowing with a pale, moonlit silver. They rotated slowly, almost imperceptibly.
Specific magical circuitry enabling specific racial magic?
A wizard with magical creature ancestry…
Lucien immediately thought of someone else—Hagrid, who carried half-giant blood.
In the past, Lucien had never taken the time to observe Hagrid closely with Mage-Sight. As far as he could recall, Hagrid rarely cast proper wizarding spells, and he certainly hadn't seen him use any kind of giant magic either.
Would Hagrid's magical circuitry change as well?
After the truth of the Chamber of Secrets incident from fifty years ago had finally come to light, Hagrid's name had been cleared, and the Ministry of Magic had allowed him to legally possess and use a wand again.
Hmm… when I get back, I should find a chance to talk to Hagrid about this.
That thought clicked into place like a key, prying open an idea Lucien had once set aside.
He had long wondered whether it might be possible for an Animagus transformation to go beyond ordinary animals—to take on the form of a magical creature.
But such a transformation would require a complete overhaul of one's entire magical system. One misstep, and the consequences could be catastrophic.
Now, witnessing Fleur firsthand—watching how her magical circuitry underwent a localized, controlled, and spell-specific adaptation while she used racial magic—was like seeing a lantern flare to life in the darkness.
"Maybe… there's another way," Lucien murmured.
He stared at the figure dancing within the silver-red flames, and at the strange, beautiful transformation unfolding within her. A vague but promising research path began to take shape in his mind.
There was no need to start by trying to become a fire dragon or a phoenix.
He could begin by studying and imitating witches and wizards like Fleur and Hagrid—those with magical creature ancestry—and observing how their magical circuitry changed locally when their bloodline abilities were activated.
Understand the principles behind that "transformation," and how it influenced specific magical effects.
Break the problem down. Move from the small scale to the whole.
Every great endeavor starts with the hardest step.
If he could take this first step—if he could understand and begin to control these bloodline- or talent-based changes to magical circuitry—then perhaps, one day, an Animagus transformation into a true magical creature might stop being a fantasy… and become reality.