Hippogriff

The happy days at Hogwarts passed quickly, and before they knew it, June had arrived.

Over those four months, the number of people practicing hill climbing and treading water by the Black Lake had grown from three to four.

Besides the Weasley Twins at the beginning and Penelope, who had joined midway through, Kyle had also pulled Cedric in—the boy he had once met briefly in the kitchen.

Perhaps because they trained together, the five of them quickly became close friends.

Under Kyle's lead, the five of them had violated at least dozens, if not hundreds, of school rules over those four months.

Their exploits included, but were not limited to: sneaking into the Forbidden Forest in the dead of night to go after magical creatures, using secret passages to visit the wizarding village outside the school on non-Hogsmeade weekends, breaking the underage drinking ban, and blinding Argus Filch with Lumos when they ran into the castle's disciplinarian and caretaker during a nighttime stroll, then taking the chance to escape...

Dumbledore saw the behavior of his half-adopted son and could do nothing about it.

Mere verbal lectures, such painless educational measures, had absolutely no effect on Kyle.

As for corporal punishment, Dumbledore did not believe that a lesson of that level would have any deterrent effect on Kyle, who could remain expressionless even with severe burns on his arms.

Even Professor Snape, who wore a perpetual gloomy expression and radiated an air of oppressive menace that had left an indelible terror in the hearts of Hogwarts students, could not scare Kyle in the slightest.

Thus, whenever Dumbledore thought about Kyle's upbringing, he felt a wave of melancholy.

With Kyle as the ringleader, the mischievous Weasley Twins of Gryffindor as the backbone, and Cedric, a well-behaved child led astray by the other three, the four of them could form a Father-Worriers Alliance.

As the name implied, it was an alliance dedicated to worrying him, this old father, half to death.

He could hardly petrify Kyle with a Petrification Curse and toss him into some lightless little room for a few days as punishment.

What alarmed Dumbledore even more was Kyle's magical talent.

Like his father, Kyle possessed extraordinary magical talent and showed immense interest in highly dangerous combat magic.

Not long ago, at Kyle's request, Dumbledore had helped him refine a spell called the "Rasengan."

Although the Rasengan was only powerful enough to destroy a tree, there were countless spells in the Magical World capable of easily destroying one.

But what shocked Dumbledore was the endless potential contained within this spell.

The Rasengan was formed from the most basic magical power. With Dumbledore's mastery of magic, the moment he saw it, he thought of incorporating all sorts of other spells into it.

For example—Fiendfyre.

In fact, he had tested the power of a Fiendfyre Rasengan. The trees reduced to ash across several hundred square meters of the Forbidden Forest were the best proof.

Dumbledore could tell that this was not even the greatest power the Rasengan could display.

That alone said plenty.

Fortunately, aside from blinding Filch with a flash of light and drinking while underage, Kyle had not yet done anything else that worried Dumbledore, such as bullying other students.

At the very least, Dumbledore was not at risk of witnessing the birth of a third-generation Dark Lord anytime soon.

June's blazing sunlight baked the earth scorching hot. Light filtered through the dense layers of leaves, leaving patches of shimmering brightness of all sizes across the ground.

In the Forbidden Forest, Kyle, still holding his bow, slightly raised his head and stared unblinkingly at the tall horse before him.

This horse differed from an ordinary horse. It had the enormous head of an eagle, sharp eagle talons instead of normal horse legs, and a pair of powerful wings stretching over twenty feet when spread wide.

It was a Hippogriff.

The Hippogriff held its head high with pride, staring at the young wizard bowing before it.

Just as Kyle was about to lose control and blink, the Hippogriff suddenly bent its scaled front knees and lowered its body, clearly returning his bow.

"Ha! Kyle! You did it!" Hagrid's rough voice rang out beside him. "Now you can ride Buckbeak."

Buckbeak was the Hippogriff's name.

Hearing Hagrid's words, Kyle blinked his slightly stinging eyes and carefully stepped forward. Using the expert cat-petting techniques he had honed in his previous life, he scratched the feathers around Buckbeak's neck.

Buckbeak rubbed its head against Kyle in pleasure, clearly enjoying the scratching.

Seeing that, Kyle finally relaxed. Boldly placing a hand on Buckbeak's body, he used it for leverage and swung himself onto Buckbeak's back.

"Good, Kyle! Be careful not to pull out any of his feathers. He won't like that," Hagrid reminded him.

Once Kyle was ready, Hagrid patted Buckbeak's hind leg. Buckbeak abruptly raised his two foreclaws, and his twelve-foot wings spread out to either side.

Carried by Buckbeak, Kyle shot into the sky like an arrow released from its bow.

With both arms wrapped around Buckbeak's neck and the fierce wind rushing against him, Kyle's heart leaped with excitement.

This is way more thrilling than flying on a plane!

The wind stirred the willow branches by the Black Lake. The towering Hippogriff soared through the air, carrying Kyle in circles around the castle's lofty towers before darting toward the mountains surrounding Hogwarts.

After flying through the valleys for several minutes, Kyle suddenly had a bold idea.

He pulled out his wand, took off his wizarding robes, and rolled off Buckbeak's back.

As he fell freely through the air, Kyle steadied himself and touched his wand to the wizarding robes he had taken off. The robes instantly transformed into an unpowered hang glider.

With his current skill in Transfiguration, transforming wizarding robes into a hang glider—an exchange between inanimate objects—was not easy, but neither was it beyond him.

Hanging beneath the glider, Kyle quickly caught up to the Hippogriff ahead.

Buckbeak turned his head to glance at Kyle and let out a piercing eagle cry.

After the boy and beast soared through the sky for several more minutes, Kyle turned the hang glider around and slowly flew back toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest, where they had started.

Buckbeak spread his wings and trotted forward a few steps on his four legs after touching down, bleeding off his momentum before landing steadily on the ground.

Kyle's landing, however, was nowhere near as smooth.

When he was still three or four meters above the ground, he released his left hand from the glider.

His right hand, holding his wand, cast a Cushioning Charm on himself to slow his descent. The instant his feet hit the ground, Kyle rolled with the impact. Only after getting covered in dirt did he rise to his feet.

Hagrid walked over.

Hagrid was quite puzzled as to why Kyle had landed hanging beneath a glider, but in the end, he did not ask.

"How did it feel, soaring through the sky?" Hagrid asked.

Picking up the wizarding robes that had fallen to the ground, Kyle excitedly waved at Hagrid. "It was amazing! If I could, I'd really like to know what it feels like to ride a dragon!"

"Ah, that's somethin' I'd like to know too."