224 Animagus temptation

Ron reluctantly opened the red envelope and the thing floated up into the air above his head and immediately Nick cast a spell to transfigure earmuffs over his and Dusk's ears. This proved to be a good idea as they were in the loudest spot across from Ron. "RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU!" A voice boomed out of the letter so loudly that the table under it rattled and Nick could FEEL the words as they were spoken. It was a fairly long stern lecture from Mrs. Weasley that had Ron and Harry both shrunk down in the seats in mortification.-

Once the tirade was through the letter violently tore itself to pieces before those pieces burst into ash. Nick removed his transfiguration and Dusk nodded his head in appreciation for being spared the deafening sound of the letter. Breakfast was basically over at that point and Nick , Ron , Harry and Hermione went to leave the great hall. But somehow against all rules of self preservation Malfoy decided to come antagonize Harry and Ron. The boy was apparently wise enough to leave Nick out of it or maybe the death threatening glare of Dusk persuaded him , who knows.-

Nick couldn't help but sigh when he saw Lockhart following Professor Sprout from the area of the whomping willow. "Ah! Good morning children I was just helping the good professor treat the injuries of the whomping willow as I have dealt with several of the species during my travels. Not to say that I myself am more knowledgeable than an expert like Professor Sprout of course!" Lockhart said with a gigawatt smile that actually shined somehow. The overblown fool then held Harry back for a talk while the rest of the class went into one of the locked greenhouses labeled three.-

Inside the greenhouse was several rows of moving leafy plants in dried out soil and a few other plants off against the walls of the greenhouse. Nick eyed the venomous tentacula suspiciously to make sure it was far away from him at all times as he took his position. The lesson proceed as per normal after that with Professor Sprout and Hermione explaining what mandrakes were though Nick decided to stir the pot a bit and say something interesting that wasn't shared. Raising his hand Professor Sprout looked pleasantly surprised before letting him talk.-

"Hermione forgot to say that besides those uses the mandrake's leaves also have a very significant use in a rather interesting piece of transfiguration , Animagus transformation. In fact they are a key ingredient in the process." Nick said with a grin and saw the professor stiffen at the mention of this. "You are of course five points to Gryffindor , that being said I can assure everyone that that is a dangerous process and it would be best to speak with professor Mcgonagall about it for further information." she said after recovering though Nick did get a warning look that told him she knew why he had shared that information.-

Honestly speaking Nick simply found it far too much of a waste that so few people chose to undergo the process and wanted to see if he could fix this by pushing his classmates unto the path. Nick himself wanted to undergo the ritual himself but he had learned that now that he wasn't human anymore he needed to modify every ritual he underwent from now on to his new race. It wasn't a huge modification honestly but he had to delve into arithmancy to make it. Like all math however the subject was a headache to improve in.-

It also didn't help that for the Animagus ritual Nick also needed to modify it to include the magical phenomena of magical beast birth. That part thankfully was much easier since he found a few books on the subject in the "ancient" section last year but hadn't read them. He intended to subject himself to that phenomena before he underwent the Animagus ritual so that he would become a magical beast instead of a normal one. 'Though before any of that I need to call my Patronus to make sure I will become what I think I will.' he thought after leaving Herbology totally unharmed thanks to his precautions.-

Mcgonagall's class was a breeze for Nick and Hermione though the same couldn't be said of the others. They were supposed to turn a beetle into a button and after a few months without practice their classmates were a bit rusty to say the least. Nick turned his beetle into a shining silver button with tiny highly detailed beetles on it which like always impressed Mcgonagall earning Gryffindor an extra ten points before he basically relaxed the rest of the class while giving helpful reminders of the previous years lessons.

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