Chapter 95: 22nd September 1991, Sunday: Part 1

George woke up the next day feeling much better than he had for the past few weeks. Even after being defibrillated by his alarm clock, he felt more than enthused to start the day. All of the pain George was used to enduring had gone, he felt like he had been reborn. He initially thought of the Draught of Peace to rationalise his good mood but that wouldn't make any sense, he doubted that Pomfrey had stealthily sneaked into his room at night and administered a dose whilst he was asleep. It didn't take long for him to realise that his pep must have been induced by the unexpected incident at the Shrieking Shack.

Yesterday's transformation had left George's body in significantly greater health than he had ever experienced before. His skin was soft and smooth and without a single blemish, his muscles and joints felt like they were ready to run a marathon. Normally he would need to spend a minute in his dorm room to clear his head and prepare himself for the day but the new and improved George felt ready for anything.

George got washed and dressed faster than he had done any day prior and hurried to the Great Hall to eat his breakfast. Even though he had eaten a beautifully cooked roasted ham glazed in honey last night and treated himself to an enlarged pulled pork sandwich from his rations as dessert, the heavy toll of his transformation still left him feeling famished. George guessed that it will take at least a week of heavy eating to fully recover his energy since he lost far more blood than he ever had before. Even though he was so pale that he was practically transparent and was most likely anaemic, walking around without the constant pain of bruises tearing open felt better than ever.

He ate his full English extremely quickly, practically inhaled it, and left the Great Hall before it had a chance to settle in his stomach. Normally George would have left the Great Hall in a rush because of his superstition but today he had far more pressing matters to attend to. Yesterday's revelation left him with questions he needed to answer as soon as possible. Although he had said to himself that he wouldn't go back before the month was over, George was contently heading toward the Library with a skip in his step.

George had brooded over his transformation in the Shrieking Shack yesterday evening and had given a lot of thought to what he was becoming. It had certainly been an aspect of his life he had considered on many occasions but was simply cast to the side as he knew it was completely out of his control. What was happening to his body and mind wasn't by his design and was a realm of magic far beyond what he was currently capable of comprehending. George was also well aware that he was one of a kind and there would be no comparison to reference or compare himself to, just like the Philosopher's Stone.

Last night, that mentality changed since George definitively recognised what he was becoming. Although he might not be able to find a way to change his affliction, a better understanding of his body would potentially help him cope with the physical and mental changes he had observed over the past few months. He had already compared his appearance to the information he had gathered from the books he had read and had come to some conclusions. George could say with a great deal of certainty that not only was he changing into a dragon but he was specifically becoming a Ukrainian Ironbelly.

Thanks to the famed Magizoologist Newt Scamander and his book 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', George was able to make plenty of comparisons between this specific dragon species and himself. The book had a whole section dedicated to Newt working with the Dragon Research and Restraint Bureau department in the Ministry. During that time, Newt travelled to Ukraine and spoke to the locals about their native dragons and recorded his observations when he saw the Ironbellys in person.

According to Newt's notes, both George and the Ukrainian Ironbelly had metallic grey scales and deep red eyes; they also shared the same shape of limbs and horns. George had seen a drawing that Newt Scamander had made of one of these dragons and immediately recognised the irrefutable similarities. In his dragon form, George would say he looked like an adolescent version of the detailed drawing. It was quite shocking for him to realise what he was most likely going to become over the next few years, he still had quite a lot of growing to do.

After deducing his species, George recalled everything referencing the Ukrainian Ironbelly in the book from his memories. As the name implies, the Ukrainian Ironbelly is a species of dragon native to Ukraine, but there had been dozens of cases where they had been spotted all across Eastern Europe. None had been seen in Britain which meant George's blood was most likely foreign.

Two main characteristics separated these Ukrainian dragons from the rest, their outstanding endurance and size. These dragons could grow over sixty feet long and weigh up to six tonnes, which happened to be the same weight as the African elephant and the same length as the whale shark, which officially made it the largest species of Dragon on the planet. The Ironbelly is also known as the hardest dragon to subdue because of its thick metallic hide which could deflect most spells. Newt had witnessed over a dozen trained wizards struggle to successfully stun one after a bombardment of Stupefy spells. One unlucky wizard had apparently fallen unconscious due to their spells bouncing back at them.

Also. the Ironbelly had the highest recorded temperature of fire breath. Their fire was so hot that it could melt unenchanted cast iron and could reduce an unprotected wizard to ashes in seconds. If George had just read that far, then he would have assumed he was going to be practically immortal when he grew up. Requiring over ten wizards to stun him wasn't heard of in the wizarding world except for special cases like Dumbledore or Grindelwald, he would be in the one per cent of powerful wizards with his natural gift alone. As long as George learnt a few defensive spells once he grew up, he could theoretically become a one-man army.

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This fantasy was too good to be true since the entirety of Eastern Europe wasn't overrun with dragons yet. In reality, Newt surmised that the Ukrainian Ironbelly was at risk of going extinct due to mass culling by the Ukrainian ministry. Unfortunately, with every benefit came a negative and the Ironbelly wasn't an exception. Although they were the largest and strongest species of dragon, the Ironbelly was not considered dangerous. Species such as the Hungarian Horntail were far more feared in the Wizarding world.

The reason was due to the Ironbelly's speed and mobility, it was known as the slowest and laziest of the dragons. Although they could fly, these dragons preferred to stay on the ground and live inside caves rich with ore and gems, they only left their dwellings to rarely hunt and mate. Their extremely heavy bodies slowed their movements and flying speed which meant most competent wizards could easily escape if they ever ran into one in the wild.

Native Ukrainian wizards told Newt stories about them often accidentally stumbling across an Ironbelly during a cave exploration. They didn't panic and run away as most would expect, instead, they simply kept their distance and continued into the cave because it had been soundly asleep. The Ironbellys were also known by another name in Ukraine which roughly translated to 'Lying Dragon'.

The dragons got this nickname because they spend ninety per cent of their lives hibernating in their caves for months at a time. They were such heavy sleepers that one brave, or stupid, wizard reportedly climbed inside of a sleeping Ironbelly's mouth and took a saliva sample without waking it up, even the animal-loving Newt struggled to believe that. A Ukrainian Ironbelly was only dangerous if you attempted to disturb their home, damaging or stealing something would wake the dragon instantly and it wouldn't be in a good mood.

The Ukrainians spoke of another story about a group of foreign gem miners in the early nineteen-hundreds that attempted to extract a rare ore from the home of an Ironbelly whilst it was asleep. They monitored the dragon's sleeping and hunting schedule for months and timed their excavation accordingly, the Ukrainians tried to warn them but their words fell on greedy ears. Once the miners entered the cave, they were never seen again. Over thirty people died that day and a small village near the cave's entrance was evacuated when the locals smelt a rancid odour that was unmistakably burnt corpses.

The Ukrainians said that the cave became a forbidden area after that and their Ministry eventually killed the dragon by filling the cave with an air-born poison and sealing the exit. Sadly, that disaster started a trend of the Ukrainian Ministry trapping and poisoning Ironbellys in their caves whilst they slept. The Ministry claimed that this culling was to ensure the safety of their citizens, but the Ukrainians said that the real reason was to mine the rare ores in the Ironbellys caves because the minister wanted to supplement their scheme to lower taxes by selling the ore abroad.

Within a decade, the Ironbellys were slaughtered until there were less than two dozen left in the wild. If it hadn't been for Ironbellys migrating to other countries, they would have probably gone extinct. Luckily, a new minister took over the office and introduced a new scheme to protect the remaining Ironbellys by turning a series of mountains into the largest dragon reserve in Europe. Since then, the number of Ironbellys has been slowly increasing but it will take over a century for them to completely recover their numbers. It was obvious that Newt was greatly saddened by this story since he had explained the entire culling in excruciating detail.

George personally found the story quite interesting, he would try to remember to not get cornered in a cave and die like his lazy brethren. Newt's last words on the Ukrainian Ironbelly were a recommendation to the reader if they ever came across one. He made it very clear to NOT attack it unless they wanted to die like the miners, instead, the reader should simply walk away because the dragon would be too tired to care about them. Now George understood why he found it so hard to keep a normal resting schedule and why he seemed to be sleeping more over the past few weeks.

There was a high chance that many of his mental deficiencies could be simply due to a lack of sleep, but, he didn't want to have to sleep any longer than he was already since he was averaging twelve hours a night. Fifty per cent of his life was already spent unconscious, increasing that to ninety was going to be impossible. It was all well and good that George may be almost invincible but he would happily sacrifice his endurance if it meant sleeping only eight hours a day. Unfortunately, that was the end of what Newt had written about the Ukrainian Ironbelly. George was hoping he could go to the Library and uncover more information that may elude to a method to help cure his dragon insomnia.

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