The 4 branch of transfiguration

Ravenclaw Tower, Early Dawn

Felix woke up from his bed and noticed that his three roommates were still sleeping. He quietly changed his clothes, put his wand into his pocket, and headed out to the common room. He made his way to one of the bookcases, searching for a book to read. After a while, he found a book called "What You Must Know About Magic" and settled down in one of the chairs, focusing on the book.

The author of the book explained that the basic concepts of magic were fairly simple—even a two-year-old wizard could perform some form of magic. However, the inherent power and potential for misuse were significant. It was for this reason that promising young witches and wizards were sent to schools of magic, such as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to refine their craft and learn the art and responsibility of their power. There, they learned a variety of magical specialties, general theory, and the history of magic in their world. While Felix was engrossed in his reading, he didn't notice the sun rising and the rest of the students starting to leave the tower. It wasn't until a blonde kid came too close to him that he looked up from his book.

"Hey, Felix."

"Ah, hey, what do you want? I'm busy," Felix lifted his head and glared at the boy before returning to his book.

"Okay, sorry for my mistake. Don't blame me when you miss breakfast and get late on the first day," said the boy, as he started walking toward the door. Felix closed his book and chased after him.

"Wait! Sorry for earlier. I'm coming with you. My name is Felix Scarletwound, but you already know that. Nice to meet you," Felix apologized.

"My name is Xenophilius Lovegood. Nice to meet you too, Felix," said Xenophilius with a smile on his face.

"Xenophilius? Can I call you Xeno?" Felix asked, finding Xenophilius' name interesting.

"Fine, no problem," said Xeno as they headed to the dinner hall.

While they were eating breakfast, they received their detailed schedules from the prefect. Felix was happy to see that he had a free period before his first class. He finished eating as quickly as possible and asked one of the seniors for the location of McGonagall's office. He then headed there, leaving Xenophilius looking at his back.

McGonagall's Office

"Knock, knock," Felix knocked on the door and waited for a few seconds until he heard the professor's voice.

"Come in."

"Good morning, Professor," said Felix.

"Good morning, Mr. Scarletwound. How can I help you?" asked McGonagall, wearing reading glasses and holding some papers.

"Professor, I have read the entire book on Transfiguration and memorized every spell in it. I know about the four branches: Transformation, Untransfiguration, Vanishment, and Conjuration. But I can't try anything on my own since it is dangerous. Can I train in your office, please?" Felix asked politely.

Upon hearing this, McGonagall remembered the conversation she had with Dumbledore the previous night after taking Felix to the dinner hall.

"Don't you think what you did was ruthless, Albus? He's just a classmate who might end up being hated by others because of those points," said McGonagall with a hint of anger.

"Sorry, Minerva, but it was necessary. I just wanted to see his reaction when he harmed others and not himself," explained Dumbledore. Then he asked, "So, what was his reaction, Minerva?"

McGonagall looked at the old man, realizing he already knew the answer, and said with a bit of hesitation, "He felt relieved, but that doesn't mean anything. He's just another student, but with a more passionate desire to learn."

"Minerva, he's using you. He's obsessed with Transfiguration and sees you as a way to reach his goals. Obsession can turn a human into a monster. That's how Tom's obsession with eternal life led him down a dark path. I want to stay close to him and guide him to ensure he doesn't fall into darkness," said Dumbledore, with trust in his eyes.

"I will try my best, Albus," replied McGonagall.

Back at McGonagall's office

"Okay, no problem, Mr. Scarletwound. You can come here whenever you want as long as I'm here. But before trying spells, I want you to write an essay about the four branches of Transfiguration to see how much you know," said McGonagall, turning back to her paperwork after giving Felix a feather and a piece of paper.

Felix watched the feather for a moment, put it aside, took out a dry pen from his pocket, and sat down to start writing.

After 10 minutes, Felix said, "Here, I'm done."

He handed the paper to the professor, who raised her head with a surprised look on her face.

"That was fast," she said, taking the paper and starting to read.

Transfiguration was a branch of magic that focused on the alteration of the form or appearance of an object, animal or person, via the alteration of their molecular structure. Transfiguration could be done to most (if not all) objects and, as with most forms of magic, it included — but was hardly limited to — Transfiguration spells.

Transfiguration was divided into four branches (though — whilst based on canonical information — the typology is conjectural). In these main four branches there were also sub-branches, such as human Transfiguration and Switching, which would be in the branch of Transformation. They were, in ascending order of difficulty: Transformation, Untransfiguration, Vanishment, and Conjuration

Transformation: This referred to any Transfiguration that deformed or altered the target in some way

Untransfiguration :was the art of reversing a previous transfiguration, being therefore considered both a transfiguration and a counter-spell. It was a mysterious branch of transfiguration.

Switching: was another sub-type of transformation magic. During switching, a physical feature from one of the two targets was switched with that of another, hence the name. It differed from a straight transformation in two ways: firstly, switching targets affected two objects simultaneously; secondly, the change in one of the pair was dependent on a change in the other.

Vanishment was the art of causing things to Vanish; to "make things go into non-being". The difficulty of the Vanishment to be performed positively correlated with the complexity of the organism to be Vanished (for example, snails, as invertebrates, were easier to Vanish than mice, which are mammals)

Conjuration was the art of conjuring things ("bringing things into being") and hence was the opposite of Vanishment. It was harder than its counterpart, being a N.E.W.T.-level feat, and was taught to sixth and seventh years at Hogwarts It was also considered to be very advanced magic, though some conjurations were considered simpler then others

the danger of Transfiguration :

Due to the applied, precise nature of Transfiguration magic, there was a large potential for it to go disastrously wrong, even for the experts. This was especially true if the practitioner wasn't taking things seriously and/or punching above their weight (with respect to the magic they are attempting to perform).

If it was done improperly, the Transfigured object could become half-Transfigured or permanently stuck in one state (whether fully or partially Transfigured).