CHAPTER 16 – Transfiguration classes and some strange situation

After the extremely boring class of History of Magic, we all went towards our next class, which happens to be one I'm really interested in. Transfiguration. As we also shared the same class with those of Slytherin, we all went like a small herd of children towards our next classroom.

After getting there, I actually saw a cat waiting over the desk of Professor McGonagall.

{Oh, it's that joke about transforming from a cat and surprising the students with her animagus form.}-I thought to myself while looking at the cat over the desk.

I wanted to pet her before we actually knew it was her. But I had respect for that teacher, if at least, her and a few others here for what I knew and read about them. With that said, I just went towards my seat and waited for her to do her trick.

Once everyone was sitting on their chairs, she actually transformed back into her human form, getting a few gasps here and there. Not that many as I thought, probably because those of magical families already knew of her.

"Now, I welcome you all to Transfiguration. Some of you may know, some of you don't. But, just to make things clear, Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you'll learn here at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave, and not come back. You've been warned."-She said while sternly looking at all of us.

{Well, with how she looks like, I'm sure not many here would like to cross her… She seemed rather nice while we went to Diagon Alley, not like she's not nice now. It all probably depends on the situation.}-I thought to myself.

"Okay, with that said, today we'll start with something easy, we'll turn matches into needles. But, before, we'll first take notes of a few important things you'll need, after that, I'll hand each one of you a match, which you'll try to turn into a needle with the help of your wands."-So she said.

We had to write a few things down on our notebooks, which were slightly weird to me, as I saw really few classes of transfiguration during the movie, and none of them actually have something like this. They just went and boom, turn things and animals into other things.

"Well, now that everyone's ready, let's start with your first lesson. Turning a match into a needle."-professor McGonagall said before she started to teach how to actually do it.

{Well, it doesn't seem that hard…}-I thought to myself while looking at my match.

The first was focusing. We really need to focus on the match and the desired object we'll turn it into, which, this time, was a needle.

Second, it was the fact that you have to perfectly imagine the desired object in your mind. The more detailed and concentrated you are in said image, the better the result you would get.

And third. Point your wand at the match while saying 'match to needle', while focusing on the transformation you want to take place.

Now. It sounded easy. But was actually hard to do from what I could see from the other students. With that said. I just went and looked at my needle.

{Occlumency is really useful in this kind of thing. After going through the process of building those defenses, a simple imagination practice isn't that hard.}-I thought to myself while looking at the match, imagining the kind of needle I would want.

"Match to a needle."-I said while touching the match with my wand.

Immediately, the match started to transform into an actual silver needle, one with a particular pointy end, that could probably puncture through your skin really easily, with a bluish-silver raven perching on the other end of the needle.

{… Now, this feels great.}-I thought to myself while looking at the results of my transfiguration magic.

[Congratulations! You've completed a hidden quest! You've successfully completed your first transfiguration lesson! And not only were you the first to do it in your class, but your needle is also an actual piece of art for such a young wizard!]

[50pts have been earned]

{And this is such a nice surprise! I'll better take care to do well in all my lessons. That'll be like mining gold.}-I thought to myself, trying really hard not to jump and shout out of happiness.

"Mm? Well, well, Mr. Taylor, this is indeed such a surprise."-Suddenly said McGonagall while I was being happy at the amounts of store points which I gained. "Look at this needle, everybody, Mr. Taylor went beyond what was expected, not only could he successfully turn his match into a needle, but he could actually do it with such precision and, I must say, artistry, congratulations Mr. Taylor. 10pts to Ravenclaw."-And here I gained another kind of points, which I didn't need.

"Wow, dude, how did you do that!?"-Roger asked beside me. "I've barely been able to turn it into a straight metallic… thing…"-He said while looking at his supposed needle.

"Relax man, the trick is in the image you create in your mind. The more precise it is, and the more you can focus on it, the better the result."-I gave advice to him.

"Thanks… I'll try."

The rest of the class was easy, as I basically didn't have to do anything. At much, what I did was help Roger, who still had a few problems with it, I also gave some advice to William and Jake, who both were sitting in front of us. I looked for Lisandra, but she was doing great on her own, winning 5 points to her house while being the second one to actually succeed on the magic.

After that, it was time for our lunch break, so we all went towards the Great Hall. Where you could actually see every kind of food. Again, it's not like the banquet at the start of the year, but it surely was an amazing sight, seeing so much food around.

Once lunch was over, and after I secretly took some food into my inventory, we all went to our next class, Potions… Now, I'll say this. But I don't like Snape. Looking at the movies it was like seeing a selfish asshole. No matter how 'sad' was his story, he was really selfish, deducting points to students apart from those in his house. The guy was a master in potions, yes, but he was a really bad human being.

And for what I've been able to understand in some fanfics, he was not that much of a martyr on the books either… So, all in all, I will only accept that the guy was great when it came to potions, and being a double agent.

Also… I discovered that I probably should have learned how to cook… As, while I'm not being that bad with making potions, a little bit of practice handling any kind of ingredients would be helpful here…

A lot of points were taken during the classes, mostly from those of Gryffindor, including the twins, who were playing around with their stuff. In the case of Ravenclaw, we got under the radar of the guy that calls himself a teacher, but still some of our classmates, a girl, in particular, got deducted a few points, as it seems she had some clumsy hands.

{I'll add practice potions to the list of the year…}-I thought to myself while getting towards my next class, DADA or Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was taught by some teacher with weird antics, and that I won't see any more after the end of this year, probably.

We started looking into a few basic dark creatures, and some spells to counter them, but nothing much, really, the guy didn't know how to teach the subject, and I could probably beat him faster… Probably…

Finally, our last class was Herbology, again with Slytherin, where I got to learn nice magic, 'Incendio', to counter some of the dangerous plants that habit in this world, like the Devil's Snare or a Venomous Tentacula.

Weirdly enough, the charm was really easy to learn, I could actually use it on my first try, which gave me the idea that I may have an easy time learning new magic. This added to my list to learn as many charms as I could while using the RoR.

After the end of classes, I quickly went towards the RoR, with no time to lose, there, I started practicing Incendio until I could register it in my spellbook, and after that, I started to look over a few charms in the books, like the severing charm or the one to make the enemy laugh with tickles.

It didn't matter what kind of charm it was, if it seemed relatively easy, I would try to learn it until I could register it inside my spellbook. I got so focused on it, that I forgot to attend dinner.

Thankfully, I took some food from lunch, which I could quietly eat inside the RoR. After going out, with still some time to make it to the common room before 9, I was about to walk down the tower, but I got slightly curious and went towards the Astronomy Tower.

"Wow… This view is amazing…"-I murmured while looking out of the tower. The view was simply fantastical… And it was while I was turning to look towards the castle, that I noticed the backyard of the castle, where a standing Snape and two students were talking, and alongside them, what looked like a statue.

"What the hell…"-I said while looking at them before backing off slightly to not get seen by any of them, just in case. "That… Wasn't that a petrified student!?"-I almost shouted in surprise.

Now. I didn't know of any kind of accident before Harry's coming into Hogwarts. So, it was basically impossible for me to think about a petrified student.

{It seems this is going to be a more moved year than I thought…}-I thought to myself while I quickly went towards my dorm.