Chapter 10 First contact with Hogwarts 

The first difficulty you have to face while studying in Hogwarts Castle is that most of the things in

the castle are alive. There are moving escalators, steps, armor, paintings on the walls, and doors

that need to be opened or disguised by special means.Yes, when the images in the novels and movies actually appeared in front of Ryan's eyes, he was very excited to see them for the first time.

But when the excitement wore off, the difficulties of the constantly moving furniture in the castle really began to show. As a result, Lane spent a lot of time searching for a destination due to the complex interior construction. It must be said that the slower pace of life at Hogwarts probably has something to do with these disruptive facilities.

To cap it all, Peeves even ran into him on the way to class on Tuesday afternoon, making him and several of his classmates almost late for Professor McGonagall's first class as Dean.

When they came huffing and puffing into Transfiguration, they found that it was not yet class time, but some students had already sat down to go about their business.

The room was not very different from a normal middle school classroom, except for the odd thing: a cat was sitting on the desk.

Hermione, who came in with Ryan, was clearly a cat lover; she tried to scratch the cat's chin on the desk, but the cat deftly dodged it. Ryan stared at her with open mouth. He was so focused on finding his seat when he entered the classroom that he had never expected the sedate Hermione to have such a child-like side.

Ryan pulled back Hermione, who was still trying to handle her cat, and then saluted the cat.

Hermione gave Ryan a quizzical look. Back at her seat, Hermione asked him across the aisle, 'Why did you salute that cat?'

'That cat up there is Professor McGonagall's transformation, one of only seven Animagus to have been registered this century. Do you think that cat has the exact same markings on the side of her eyes as Professor McGonagall's glasses?' 'said Ryan softly.

Hermione looked up at the cat and suddenly her whole face went very red. She buried her face in her arms and said very quietly, 'Why didn't you tell me about this before you knew?'

Ryan didn't know what to say. He thought to himself: A cat standing on the lectern is not a normal thing in itself. How could I have guessed that you would just pick it up and touch it?

A few minutes later, when it was time for class, the classroom door flung open again and Harry and RON burst in.

'Good, Professor McGonagall hasn't arrived yet,' said Harry. RON said happily to Harry.

With that, the cat jumped off the platform and took on a human form at the same time.'Professor McGonagall! RON went suddenly pale.

'I think I should turn you into alarm clocks so you won't be late,' said RON. 'said Meg, a little crossly.

'We're just lost, Professor,' she said.

"Then we should turn you into a map. Don't be late again. Go back to your seats."

The two men ran dejectedly to their seats and sat down.

"Ryan Liang, you're the first freshman to recognize me this year. You seem to be observant and

have studied carefully before class, so ten points for Gryffindor." Professor McGonagall looked at Ryan before stepping up to the desk.

'Transfiguration is the most complex and dangerous spell you will learn at Hogwarts,' said Professor McGonagall. 'she said.' Anyone who acts up in one of my classes will be asked out and never allowed back in. You have been warned. '

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. The students were fascinated and could not begin to learn at once, but they soon learned that it would be a long time before furniture could be turned into animals. After they had jotted down a lot of difficult notes, she gave them each a match and began to make them try to turn into a needle.

It was true, as Len had thought, that magic was not just a matter of saying a spell and waving a wand. It was a very serious science, with many profound theories in it. It seemed that learning magic well required more than mere practice; it required learning to understand its principles.

Transfiguration is a subject as simple as it is difficult. A first grader, for example, can turn a match into a needle. But if a master were to do such a thing, the needle could be made of all kinds of materials, in all kinds of patterns, and the effect would last for hundreds of years.

In addition to the difference in magic, the difference is the understanding of the magic itself, and the mastery of various physical properties. Especially the latter point, which requires a lot of time and energy to accumulate, can not be opportunistic.

Ryan took some time to combine what he had read before class with what he had copied from his notes during the class, figured out how it worked, and then started doing it. The transition from theory to practice was not as easy as expected, and it was towards the end of the class that he turned a match into a needle, but it was still three minutes slower than Hermione's, and the needle did not yet have a pinhole.

Ryan had thought he was making a fool of himself. But when he looked around, he saw that others were progressing more slowly, and that some of the matches in front of them had not changed at all.At the end of the class, Professor McGonagall nodded to Ryan. After all, being able to make something change is a good performance for a beginner, of course it is. Hermione, an excellent student, was an exception.

In addition to Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration, Ryan had been doing very well in his other subjects, from Charms to Herbology.

In Charms, Professor Flitwick was a little wizard who fell off a pile of books when he said Harry Potter's name, which was a bit of an exaggeration. However, he was very good at spells and was happy to answer students' questions, and Len felt that his charms were improving rapidly after repeated inquiries.

It was in herbology that Lane found it so easy to handle the plants that he even earned extra points from Professor Sprout, which is likely a special bonus to his Chinese ancestry in farming.

Astronomy and the history of magic, however, were less interesting. First year astronomy is just observational records and simple calculations of the periods of the stars. It's pretty boring.

The history of magic was taught by a ghost, Professor Binns. During the lessons Professor Binns spoke in a monotonous voice and the students scribbled notes. From what the professor said, Lane could get a lot of information about history that was not in the books, and even that Professor

Binns had lived through many important historical events. However, Professor Binns' monotonous and never-ending lecture style made people sleepy. So every time after class he had to copy from the notes of Hermione, the only student in class who had stayed awake.