Harry Potter: I am the Legend

At this moment, the Quidditch pitch was shrouded in layers of thick, drifting smoke of unknown origin.

At the highest stands, Albus Dumbledore immediately sensed the abnormality. Rising to his feet, he scanned the area with a frown before raising his wand.

In a soft murmur, he uttered, "Sever."

Hum.

An invisible ripple swept through the air, carrying with it a powerful mental force and an inexplicable magnetic field that enveloped the entire pitch. All the gray fog was forcibly suppressed, revealing a ferocious, shadowy beast within.

However, just as the fog cleared, a violent wave of dizziness surged through Dumbledore's mind.

He froze for a moment, stunned, then let out a helpless chuckle and murmured softly, "Aberforth... Gellert... you two really are—"

Before he could finish, his body collapsed heavily onto a chair in the stands.

The vast mental field he had summoned dissipated instantly.

Without Dumbledore's restraint, the dense fog surged forward once again.

At first, no one in the crowd noticed. Spectators were still cheering enthusiastically for their teams. But as the fog thickened and began to obstruct their vision, both players and spectators realized something was amiss. Confusion quickly spread through the crowd.

Soon, people started collapsing after inhaling the fog.

The once jubilant atmosphere turned to panic and terror.

Some senior students stood up, intending to seek Dumbledore's help. However, they were met with the sight of him slumped unconscious in his chair, head tilted to the side. Though he struggled to open his eyes, his efforts were futile.

On the pitch, Quidditch players stopped their game. Hovering on their brooms, they watched the distant flashes of lightning and the growing haze below, unsure of what was happening.

A few players began descending toward the ground, hoping to land.

But Aglaea, recognizing the danger from her past encounters with poisonous fog in the Forbidden Forest, shouted sharply, "Don't go down!"

Her warning came just in time.

A swarm of Snare-Winged Bats burst out from the fog, their fluttering forms reminiscent of bats emerging into the night.

Suddenly, the swarm scattered, as if sensing something.

Above them, a massive bolt of lightning illuminated the overcast sky, drawing startled gasps from the crowd as they instinctively looked up.

Just moments before, the lightning had seemed far away.

But in the blink of an eye, a colossal lightning bolt struck the tower within everyone's line of sight.

BOOM!!

Blinding blue light tore through the dark, stormy clouds.

Rain began to pour, pattering heavily against the pitch.

Someone gasped, "Look! There's a figure on the tower!"

The crowd erupted in exclamations.

"Wait! That person looks like they've been struck by lightning!"

"What?!"

"Oh no! The one struck by lightning—they're falling!!!"

Tom Riddle, seated among the spectators, had noticed the unusual smoke the moment it began to spread across the pitch. His brows furrowed as he quickly made his way down from the stands.

But the closer he got to the fog, the more he sensed its danger. Narrowing his eyes in thought, he stopped and returned to the upper levels.

Drawing his yew wand with a calm precision, he pointed it at a Quidditch player hovering in the distant sky and muttered evenly, "Petrificus Totalus."

The Gryffindor player had no idea what was happening before suddenly being struck by a Stunning Spell. He toppled stiffly off his broom.

Tom Riddle, calm and composed, stretched out his left hand, and the Gryffindor player's broom flew swiftly into his grasp.

Without sparing a glance at the gray fog blanketing the Quidditch pitch, he mounted the broom and took to the air, preparing to leave.

However, shortly after ascending, the rolling storm clouds above captured his attention. A massive bolt of lightning struck in the distance, illuminating something peculiar—a half-human, half-bird figure falling from the Astronomy Tower.

"What is that?!"

Tom rubbed his eyes, but his vision was blurred by the pounding rain.

The rain came down in torrents. Hofar could no longer speak, but he had a far better way to express his exhilaration.

With a triumphant screech, he leaped from the 300-foot-high Astronomy Tower. During the rapid descent, his transformation was complete.

At first, he was unfamiliar with his new body, but soon, instinct coursing through his veins made his muscles tremble.

Finally, just ten meters above the ground, he found his rhythm. He flapped his massive wings, seized the air, and sliced through the torrential downpour. With a graceful arc beneath the tower, he soared skyward.

In that moment, Hofar flew freely across the heavens. The world below grew ever smaller.

All the constraints that once bound him—like the gravity of the earth—faded into nothingness.

He no longer feared the future.

He no longer avoided challenges.

He gave his all to seize control of his destiny in the present.

Rain poured like a waterfall, growing heavier by the second, yet the fleeting silhouette in the flashes of lightning etched itself firmly into the minds and hearts of all who saw it.

Another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.

Tom Riddle hunched low over his broom, trembling. He couldn't make sense of what he'd just witnessed—a massive shadow flying over his head. No one understood the terrifying surge of magical energy better than he did.

But what frightened him even more was the mental force within that energy—unyielding, fearless, and intent on breaking through all obstacles.

Beneath the billowing Ravenclaw Quidditch banner, someone raised their arm and shouted, "I saw an eagle flying!"

Another person gasped and covered their mouth in fear. "What kind of eagle could be that big? That must be some kind of unknown magic!"

"By Merlin's beard!"

"A grotesque chimera!"

"Galloping Gorgons, is that a creature from mythology?"

On the pitch, a juvenile Venom Leopard, now drenched and resembling a bedraggled cat, stared up in terror at the eagle-like shadow. Overwhelmed by the presence of the ultimate predator, it let out a panicked roar and bolted for the Forbidden Forest without looking back.

As it fled, it revealed a trembling figure beneath it—a man.

It was the Quidditch instructor, Palio.

He knelt there in the rain, stunned, his head tilted back as water streamed down his face, his mouth agape like a gibbon.

"By Jesus reborn… what is that?"

In the stands, Miranda braved the storm and dashed toward Dumbledore.

Her gaze flicked between the lightning-filled sky and the high-altitude shadow. Quickly, she pulled out an antidote and helped Dumbledore drink it. After swallowing, Dumbledore managed to open his eyes slightly. The rain had drenched his auburn beard. Slumped in the highest chair, he stared in disbelief at the shadow in the storm and murmured, "A... Animagus?"

Miranda knew exactly what it was. She understood better than anyone the truth behind that shadow and the boy who had fallen and risen so many times.

Unknowingly, her eyes brimmed with tears, indistinguishable from the raindrops streaking down her face.

High above, Hofar rolled and dove, slicing through the storm with lightning speed. His wings thundered as he streaked over the pitch, leaving only the fleeting glimpse of a shadow and the deafening roar of his flight.

In May of 1939, no one at Hogwarts would forget this moment.

In the midst of a thunderstorm, a giant bird descended from the heavens and then shot past above their heads, like a divine being surveying the world below.

No one knew where the great bird had come from.

And no one knew what it had endured.

They could only stare dumbfounded, their heads tilted back like a group of Muggles, letting the torrential rain brought by the giant bird pour down on their faces.

They had no idea what it was.

Ordinary people were destined never to comprehend the transformation of a master.

Aglaia stood frozen as well, staring blankly at the lightning and the eagle silhouette in the distance, completely unaware of the Chimeras lunging toward her.

The other Quidditch players were equally stunned by the spectacle, their mouths agape as if they intended to swallow the Quaffles darting around the pitch.

But soon, their negligence came at a cost.

The frenzied Chimeras surged forward again, scattering their formation and dragging them one by one from their broomsticks.

Aglaia snapped out of her daze, immediately drawing her wand and trying to flee on her broom, but the Chimeras targeted her first.

The relentless downpour extinguished the dense gray fog on the field, revealing three tall figures below.

The tallest of the three had a silvery phantom monkey perched on his shoulder, chittering anxiously in a state of extreme unease.

"Major, we... we should leave!" one of the dark wizards said in trembling German, glancing nervously at the distant lightning.

"Something seems... off!"

Schmidt Ruthelow squinted at the sky.

"The mission may be compromised. Let's go."

With that, he waved his wand, summoning several broomsticks from the air, which landed in his grasp. Aglaia, broomstick and all, was dragged down by the Chimeras.

When enemies meet, emotions run high.

Before Aglaia could react or draw her wand, Schmidt had already disarmed her with a flick of his wand.

He swiftly grabbed her, holding her hostage.

Barely moments after the three took off, a piercing screech resounded through the sky.

One of the dark wizards on a broomstick shouted in terror, "Boss, what's behind us?!"

Schmidt turned to look, but all he saw was a flash of lightning illuminating the storm clouds. Before he could react, the wizard who had screamed was struck by a massive bolt of lightning, reduced to charred remains that plummeted lifelessly from his broom.

Schmidt's expression darkened, and he swerved his broom sharply.

The phantom monkey on his shoulder screeched wildly, driven mad by its foresight of what was to come.

A swarm of Chimeras carried their brooms, desperately trying to flee this accursed place.

High in the sky, Hofar watched Schmidt's escape with a trace of mockery flashing in his eyes.

Everything he had learned this term fused seamlessly in his mind. His understanding of Transfiguration had never been as profound as it was now.

The storm clouds above shifted rapidly, forming the colossal phantom of a giant eagle. Lightning crackled across its wings as it spread them wide, blocking Ruthelow's escape path.

Schmidt looked up in fear and saw a giant figure flapping its wings, swiftly passing by him before making a sharp turn and appearing in front of him.

"A Thunderbird! How is that possible? How can such a thing exist in Britain?" Schmidt, who was an expert in magical creatures, roared for the first time.

On the broomstick, Aglaia, held hostage, stared blankly at the sky. The thick dark clouds made the sky pitch black, and only when lightning flashed could she see anything around her.

She had a strange feeling but couldn't believe it.

Could it be him?

How could it be?

How could it be!

What was that thing?

With the speed of lightning, Hofar shot up thousands of meters into the sky, then folded his wings together and dove down through the lightning.

The instinct flowing through his veins made him love the sensation of diving.

Another massive bolt of lightning suddenly struck. Schmidt swerved his broom just in time to narrowly avoid it.

But his companion wasn't as lucky. Before he could even speak, the dark wizard was struck by lightning and fell over a hundred meters to the ground.

Hofar flapped his wings one last time, screeching, and his speed increased again.

In the next moment, he surged forward, surrounded by unparalleled lightning, breaking through the darkness at an astonishing speed of over 350 km/h and crashed into the broomstick.

Boom!!

Time seemed to stop at that moment.

The immense kinetic energy converted into potential energy, and muscle tension caused Hofar's opponent to cough up blood as the fluid dynamics hit him.

Before Schmidt could comprehend what was happening, his broomstick shattered into splinters.

He was sent flying backward, his bones shattered in that instant. He spun through the air, blood and pieces of flesh flying from his body, like a ragdoll, helplessly watching as Aglaia was caught in the giant bird's claws.

"It's impossible!"

"It's impossible!!"

"What about the plan? Where's that kid!?"

He screamed as blood poured from his mouth, before falling from the height of over three hundred meters, along with his phantom monkey and the Chimeras.

Bang!

A deafening sound.

The dark wizard and magical creatures crashed into the muddy ground, even the substitute jellyfish unable to help him at this moment.

Struggling to lift his head from the muck, Schmidt's voice was hoarse with fear as he rasped, "Who is it?"

Hofar flapped his wings and descended. As he landed, his body slowly shrank, his wings transforming into arms, and he reverted to his human form.

He set the stunned Aglaia aside, then walked leisurely through the puddles toward Schmidt.

Schmidt stared in horror as the boy walked towards him, unable to speak a word.

"So, you've been cursed by Grindelwald too?" Hofar asked calmly.

"What are you talking about?" Schmidt croaked, clutching his arm. His voice was hoarse, unable to move. One of his arms had been vaporized by the lightning.

"It seems you still have some of your true nature left." Hofar raised a finger.

"With your talents, you don't belong here. Believe me, this school is about to face disaster. Staying here... you'll die. Don't waste your abilities! Come with me."

"You're right." Hofar nodded calmly, interrupting Schmidt.

"But I refuse."

With that, he raised his finger. His final surge of magical power flashed through him like a bolt of lightning, directly striking Schmidt, sending him crashing to the ground, convulsing and foaming at the mouth, unconscious.

...

Everything.

Settled.

The downpour slowed. Hofar looked at his hand, then at Ruthelow's fallen form. He raised an eyebrow, attempting to walk away. But after a few steps, he felt his legs weaken, his head spinning. Snowflakes appeared before his eyes.

Hofar sighed, knowing what was happening: "I can't even last three seconds."

Exhausted, his magic, energy, and stamina all drained, he fell backward, sliding down the muddy slope toward the Forbidden Forest's edge.

Animagus transformations took a heavy toll.

(End of Chapter)

Want to read the chapters in Advance? Join my Patreon

https://patreon.com/Glimmer09