14 Chapter 14: Hogwart's Library
After setting up a simple warning ward around his bed which he had learned from Hermione, Kent finally relaxed.
Despite having his danger sense, Kent set up the ward as an extra precaution.
He was quite certain that Scabbers, being a coward that he was, won't attack anyone in the dormitory but it was quite unsettling to sleep in the same dorm as a murderer.
Scabbers was the rat that Ron Weasley currently owned. It was not actually a rat but Peter Pettigrew in his animagus form.
Unlike majority of the Wizarding world, Kent knew that it was Pettigrew who blew up the street and killed twelve muggles framing Sirius Black.
With the assurance of his acute sense of danger that works even if he is asleep and the warning ward he set up, he closed the curtain to his bed.
Under the dim simmering light of the lamp, the tiredness of today's journey took over as he fell asleep.
...
The next morning, he woke up early around 6 o'clock. After brushing his teeth and taking a quick shower he changed to a pair of warm clothes and went to the common room. It was empty.
He went back to the dorm and took out a book titled "Magical Theory" written by Adalbert Waffling.
Back in the common room, he dragged an arm-chair closer to the fireplace and sat on it.
With nothing else to do, he quietly read the book.
No matter how many times he read the book, it never ceases to amaze him.
The book had several theories about how magic came to be or what magic actually is. It gave him a lot of inspirations on how to improve the spells he had learned. Especially the wand movements, which he found were nothing but runes.
"What are you reading?" asked a female voice from behind him.
"A book on magical theory," Kent answered. He was already aware of Hermione's presence.
"Have you had breakfast?" asked Hermione.
"Aren't students supposed to eat together?" asked Kent.
"It's not mandatory but a tradition," Hermione said, "let's go, I am hungry."
"Wait for a sec," he said as he went back to the dormitory to put the book in his trunk.
...
After having a fulfilling breakfast, Kent followed Hermione to the library.
It was a huge library, probably the largest he had ever seen. Seeing so many books, Kent wondered if he would be able to record all of it.
'Let's start with spells and transfiguration,' he decided.
Spells are the most important part of an wizards strength, be it auxiliary spells like levitation spell and summoning charm or offensive spells like the cutting curse and blasting hex.
As for transfiguration, it is the most versatile branch of magic. You can use it to attack, defend and also for auxiliary purposes.
Hermione being familiar with every corner of the library showed him the relevant sections.
Kent first went to the section with books mostly on transfiguration, theory and laws related to it.
There were three shelves with about hundreds of books in each. He was unfamiliar with most of them, so he chose the books randomly.
He was just going to record the information contained in them.
He carried the book to the table next to the shelves. There were very few students at this time in the library. Kent guessed that it must be because classes hadn't started yet, there were no homework whatsoever. Only the ones who loved reading and acquiring knowledge would come to the library so early.
Leaning against the wooden chair, he activated the record function of the system library.
He opened a thick book with leathered cover and started flipping through the pages.
He would pause and glance at each page for a moment and then glance at the next one.
In the beginning he had underestimated the capability of the system, especially the library function. A glance is what it requires to record a piece of information like page of a book or a picture.
The process of pausing and glancing at each page went on for about a minute before he finished the hundred and fifty page book. Putting it aside, he opened the next one and went through the same process.
One by one the pile containing ten books were finished within an hour. He put back all the book to their original position and chose the next batch of books.
He kept repeating the same process for the next two hours. After that he had to slow down because the library started filling in with students mostly seniors in the sixth or seventh years.
It was almost noon when he finished the first shelf. Looking at remaining two shelves, he determined that it would take another day to record all the books related to transfiguration that are not in restricted section.
He really wanted to record the more advanced knowledge from the books in restricted sections but unfortunately a slip from one of the teachers was needed.
'Don't be so impatient, Kent!' he reminded himself. There wasn't much to worry because it only needed good performance and a plausible excuse to get the teacher's permission.
After lunch, he returned back to the library.
If possible, he wanted to record all books on transfiguration today.
This time, instead of going back and forth between the table and the shelves, he pulled out a book while standing, took a glance at each page and then return it to its original position. It was way faster and convenient.
...
The next day, Kent woke up early like usual, took a shower and changed to his Hogwarts uniform.
Gryffindor first years was scheduled to have their first transfiguration class with the Slytherins at 9 o'clock in the morning.
Just like yesterday he and his sister didn't do the daily exercise like they used to do in their home. It was because they hadn't found a good place outside of prying eyes.
It was unfortunate that the simulation space of the system had little effect on the physical body.
Having their breakfast and resting for a bit in the common room, Kent and Hermione went directly to the classroom where professor McGonagall would be taking the transfiguration class.
Although they reached ten minutes earlier than the designated time for the start of the class, there were already lot of first years in the room.
The classroom was huge. There was a big blackboard behind the teacher's desk in the front. A cat, ignored by most of the students, was quietly resting on the desk.
The student's desks were arranged in rows with certain spaces between them. It was probably to reduce the possibility of students accidentally hitting each other with spells.
The Granger siblings sat down in an empty desk at the back of the first row from the right.
The students of Gryffindor and Slytherine House were sitting in separate rows as if they had an unspoken rule.
Five minutes had passed since the start of the class time but there was no sign of professor McGonagall. Kent knew that the odd looking cat sitting on the desk was in fact the professor's animagus form. Kent could guess that she was waiting for Harry Potter.
Kent was curiously watching the behaviour of the cat.
The cat's ears perked up as she stood up abruptly. Moments later, Kent heard a pair hurried footsteps from outside the classroom.
A pair of boys came running in. They were panting as if they had run a marathon.
Their entrance attracted the attention of every student in the room. It was mostly because of the bespectacled boy with black hair. He was the boy-who-lived after all.
Seeing that professor McGonagall wasn't present, both of the boys sighed with relief.
"Looks like we came in time," the red haired boy laughed but it was cut short by a sharp voice.
"No Mr. Weasley, you and Mr. Potter are five minutes late," the cat that standing atop the front desk jumped and changed into professor McGonagall and said, "I hope that I won't have any students coming into my class late from the next day."
...
For the first half of the class, professor McGonagall introduced the students to the art of transfiguration, theory behind it and the mistakes to avoid.
The students scribbled down everything.
Even though Kent had finished the first year course with the help of the system, he noted down everything. There were lot of unique insights from the professor in it; they couldn't be found in the book.
"Today you will be learning how to turn a match into needle," the professor said, "but before we start, I must warn you that transfiguration is one of most dangerous magic. I will not have anyone messing around in my class."
After getting a stern warning from the professor, each student was given a match.
Most of the students started trying according to the instructions given by professor McGonagall, only to realise that it was not as easy as shown by the professor.
At the back, Kent had already turned the match into a needle while Hermione appeared to be struggling with her match.
"Well done, Mr. Granger," professor McGonagall said with a smile, "five points to Gryffindor for your excellent performance."
"Thank you, professor." replied Kent politely. He was not being humble. He himself knew that he was not a genius.
Having an adult mind not only provided Kent with many benefits but also with a great obstacle.
The obstacle being the rigidity of his thinking making it harder to believe in anything that is not normal, thus affecting his magic, be it transfiguration or spells.
He spent countless hours practicing spells and transfiguration in the simulation space of the system, to overcome this psychological barrier.
The successful transfiguration done by Kent triggered other students in the room to be more enthusiastic about turning the match into needle, especially the Slytherine students. It was quite embarrassing and unacceptable for them to be overtaken by muggleborn students in terms of magic.
But their enthusiasm was short lived as they couldn't produce any change whatsoever in the colour or structure of the match.
At end of the lesson, it was only Kent who successfully turned the match into needle. As for Hermione, she only changed the colour of match to silver which was was purely intentional.
