Chương 361: Chapter 361: It Seems I'm Getting Smarter (Edited)
"If you don't master the technique of mass transfiguration, you can't consider yourself an expert in Transfiguration. In my opinion, Transfiguration is divided into four stages. The first stage is transfiguring a single object, the second stage is transfiguring multiple objects into the same form, like the sleeping bags I just transfigured. The third stage involves transfiguring multiple objects into different forms, and the fourth stage is permanent transfiguration."
At that moment, Professor McGonagall pointed her wand again at the sleeping bags, transforming them into a chicken, a flower vase, a teapot, and an eagle.
"This is turning objects into something different, which increases the difficulty compared to the previous transformation."
At that moment, the eagle swooped down on the chicken and, with a single strike, ripped its head off, reverting to its sleeping bag form, but with a large opening and down feathers spewing everywhere. The eagle got scared and soared into the air but collided with the ceiling and fell unconscious.
Professor McGonagall shrugged resignedly and began gathering the remains while muttering to herself.
"Next time, I will definitely transform it into an inanimate object." After tidying everything up, she couldn't help making that comment.
Transfiguration involves wrapping objects in a layer of magic to change their appearance. However, if an object is hit with an external force that exceeds its magical resistance, it will reveal its original form and may even be destroyed.
The level test in Transfiguration is based on whether the transformed object retains its original characteristics and acquires the characteristics of its current form. Some mediocre wizards can turn a hedgehog into a pincushion, but when someone approaches with a needle, the pincushion will shrink in fear, which is considered a poor transformation.
The best transfiguration is when the object acquires the characteristics of its new form. For example, the eagle that Professor McGonagall just transfigured has hunting and escape instincts, something not all wizards can achieve.
When Professor McGonagall started teaching at Hogwarts, she made a fool of herself because her level of transfiguration was too high. In her first class with the first-year students, she showcased her ability to transform into a giant cat and then transformed her desk into a fat pig.
According to young Professor McGonagall's script, that performance was already impressive enough and piqued the students' interest. However, the professor's transfiguration level was so high that the pig turned out to be too realistic. The pig, in front of everyone, dropped a large amount of foul-smelling excrement.
The class erupted into instant chaos, scaring the pig, which fled from the classroom, leaving Professor McGonagall alone on the empty desk stage.
Professor McGonagall struggled to transfigure the pig back into a desk, and from that moment on, she began to exercise more caution in her transformations, avoiding them being so lifelike. That's why the pig she showcased in Tom's Transfiguration class on the first day of school stayed in place.
The eagle's hunting act and feathers floating in the air today undoubtedly awakened Professor McGonagall's memories, recalling her experiences when she was young. That's why she immediately restored the sleeping bags to their original form.
"Cough, as you can see, this is not a permanent transfiguration. Permanent transfiguration is the level that every Transfiguration master tirelessly pursues. I hope that some of you may achieve it in the future."
"Professor McGonagall, have there been any previous students who achieved permanent transfiguration?" Hermione raised her hand, curious about this question.
"No, so far, it hasn't happened. In fact, I'm not even sure if I can achieve permanent transfiguration." A flicker of remembrance passed through Professor McGonagall's eyes. "I remember there was a child; she achieved almost permanent transfiguration once. She gifted her Potions professor a golden fish she had transfigured herself, and that golden fish accompanied him until one day..."
"What happened?" Hermione looked at Professor McGonagall with curiosity, wanting to know the outcome of that story.
A flash of sadness crossed Professor McGonagall's face, but she quickly concealed it. "It doesn't matter; the transfiguration of the golden fish lasted for several years. She was a very intelligent girl."
Looking at Hermione, Professor McGonagall showed a glimmer of affection. "You resemble her a bit, Miss Granger. You're also a Muggle-born from a Muggle family, and you're extremely talented... I believe your level of transfiguration in the future won't be inferior to hers."
This story was puzzling to Hermione, but being praised by Professor McGonagall made her very happy.
"Alright, let's get back to the main topic. Mass transfiguration requires us to focus our attention on all the objects we want to transform, envision them as a whole, and then transfigure that ensemble. It sounds easy, but it requires a lot of practice. However, I believe that after practicing several times, you will gradually find the trick..." Professor McGonagall explained to the students the methods and details to consider when performing mass transfigurations. Occasionally, she wrote a few lines on the chalkboard and shared some tricks she had discovered.
The students diligently took notes and strived to write down the information Professor McGonagall dictated and the tricks she wrote on the chalkboard. At that moment, they didn't know if they missed Professor Snape's slide presentations.
The worst was when they had a teacher who didn't write on the chalkboard or use slide presentations but simply talked non-stop. In those cases, they could only ask outstanding students to photocopy their notes. Fortunately, the Hogwarts professors didn't have that bad habit, although Professor Sprout, who usually taught in the greenhouse, could be considered one. However, what she taught was already in the books and not difficult to review.
A good quill was also very important. Tom was lucky; his feather quill didn't need ink, which saved him a lot of trouble. Hermione, sitting next to him, ran out of ink in her steel quill and, in despair, dipped the nib into the inkwell, ending up with ink stains all over her notes.
Professor McGonagall finally finished speaking. The students in the audience let out a sigh of relief and could finally relax their wrists tired from so much writing.
Hermione cast a slightly jealous look at her desk mate. "Nice quill!"
"Next time, I'll modify your steel quill to have a larger ink capacity..."
Upon hearing that, Hermione thought to herself: It seems I can apply a little spell to the inkwell... I'll investigate it when I get back.
At that moment, Professor McGonagall took out several small boxes, and Tom realized they were matchboxes. Matches were old acquaintances in Transfiguration class. Professor McGonagall placed five matches on each student's desk.
"You've already mastered the transformation of matches in the first year, so I believe everyone here should know the key points of match transformation," Professor McGonagall said as she pointed her wand at one of the matches on the table. Instantly, the match transformed into a shiny silver needle.
"Today there's nothing different; you just need to transform several matches into needles at the same time."
Observing the eager young wizards ready to try, Professor McGonagall decided not to say much more and urged them to begin.
Tom stared at the matches in front of him and did his best to imagine them as a whole. After a while, he took his wand and pointed it at them, and the five matches transformed: three into needles, the fourth into a shape similar to a needle, and the fifth barely changed.
Although he hadn't achieved complete success, the result of his first transformation wasn't bad. However, Hermione by his side was a bit more skilled; she transformed all five matches into needles at once.
"Very good," Professor McGonagall approached, drawn by the progress of both, "you've improved your transfiguration skills a lot, especially Miss Granger." Looking at the matches transformed by Tom and Hermione, Professor McGonagall was slightly surprised.
Originally, she thought that before the class ended, the students would only be able to transform three matches into needles at most, but she didn't expect Tom to meet that standard on his first try, and what surprised her even more was that Hermione transformed them all.
She wouldn't have been so surprised if they had done it differently. She had the impression that Yode- was a gifted but less hardworking student, and Granger was a less gifted but more hardworking one. Today, Granger had shown more talent than Yodel.
"Is this the first time you've done mass transfiguration?" Professor McGonagall asked incredulously. Upon receiving an affirmative answer, she couldn't help but praise their rapid progress: It's too fast! These two have improved at an astonishing rate. Their transfiguration skills are now no less than those of fifth-year students. And their Patronus Charm the other day was impressive, exceeding a student's expectations.
"Ten points for Ravenclaw." Although she was surprised inside, Professor McGonagall didn't show any emotion on her face and simply awarded Ravenclaw ten points before leaving.
Hermione frowned as she walked away.
She wasn't frowning because of the lack of points or praise, but because she was confused. She was confused because she felt like she had "clicked" and had done something she normally couldn't do.
Intuitively, she felt her performance should be similar to Tom's, but the results were unexpected. This feeling of casting spells so effortlessly was truly amazing to her.
She thought it had been a fluke, but after a few more rounds, Hermione realized that she was consistently performing, as if she had suddenly become smarter.
Upon careful thought, she couldn't understand the reason, but that didn't stop her mood from becoming cheerful. That feeling of happiness persisted until the end of class.
After the Transfiguration class, they hurried to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The schedule for the day was more comfortable, and Tom and Hermione didn't need to time-travel to attend class.
"Let's hope Professor Snape isn't the teacher today," Hermione said with concern, "Professor Lupin should be better now."
In the previous class, Snape's sarcastic comments had angered Hermione. He had graded her previous assignment as "confusing and inaccurate" and said, "How is it possible for this assignment to get eight points? If it were up to me, I would give it a maximum of two points, and three would be too many."
Hermione was furious: she had spent sleepless nights researching and writing that paper, and somehow it had received such a grade. If it weren't for Tom, she might have stood up and argued with Snape.
As for the two long scrolls that Snape had left, Hermione had no hope left: he would surely point out a bunch of errors and give her a low grade.
"I guess Professor Lupin will come to teach the class," Tom calculated, thinking about the time that had passed since the night of the full moon. Lupin probably had recovered. He just wondered how much the Wolfsbane Potion would affect him.
It was said that the Wolfsbane Potion kept werewolves in a state of lucidity after the transformation on the full moon, but Tom didn't know if the side effects would have weakened. However, he believed they wouldn't weaken but might even strengthen and amplify in that weakened state.
Fortunately, Professor Lupin entered the classroom that day. His face had paled again, and his mood seemed somewhat subdued. He struggled to control a large aquarium and slowly placed it on the desk.
The aquarium swayed as it passed by the students, full of water, and it felt like it could spill at any moment. Fortunately, it had a lid that prevented that from happening.
There was surely something inside the aquarium, but the water was murky, and it couldn't be seen clearly. After the aquarium was placed on the desk, the students applauded in unison.
Professor Lupin smiled helplessly. "Children, really? Applauding for this?"
The young wizards didn't stop applauding; instead, they clapped more enthusiastically.
The reason they were applauding wasn't because Professor Lupin was using a levitation charm, but because he had finally recovered, and it wasn't Professor Snape teaching them anymore. The young wizards genuinely believed that Professor Snape was sufficient to teach them Potions and would prefer him not to teach any class at all.
After a short break, Professor Lupin started the class once the students had gathered. However, he didn't waste any time from the moment he entered the classroom until he began the lesson. He collected the students' essays on werewolves and examined them carefully.
The titles of the students' essays were "How to Identify and Kill a Werewolf." For Professor Lupin, it was very ironic to see these kinds of essays, and they had a touch of dark humor, almost like a hellish joke.
However, Professor Lupin was very dedicated, and even though the topic of the essay wasn't friendly to him, he read each of them seriously.
When he saw Hermione's essay, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. "The essay is so well-written; I guess this girl is already suspecting me. I suppose it's only a matter of time before she discovers my true identity."
He sighed. I'll take it easy. I've lived like this for so many years. Look for a job, have my identity discovered, change jobs... My life has been trapped in this vicious cycle. At least here at Hogwarts, I've been working for a long time.
He just hoped that his identity wouldn't be revealed too soon and wouldn't cause too many problems for Dumbledore.
The first few minutes of class were spent reading the essays. After reading the last essay, Professor Lupin stood up and smiled at the students.
"Well, let's start the class! Today, I'll introduce you to Grindylows."
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