Chapter 38: Are You Serious?

New students obviously couldn't learn animal Transfiguration in their first lesson.

Professor McGonagall used a single matchstick to make them understand that transforming furniture into animals would take a long time.

Despite the young wizards' best efforts at waving their wands, the matchstick in front of them remained unchanged.

Sometimes, things that seem easy for others are a complete mess when you try them yourself. Especially when the "other" is Professor McGonagall.

"Pay attention, it's supposed to become a needle, not a silver stick."

Professor McGonagall stood in the classroom aisle, constantly correcting their mistakes.

Half the lesson passed quickly. The matchstick was still the same. It hadn't shown any signs of becoming a needle.

A few Hufflepuff students managed to turn the matchstick into charcoal dust. But this didn't meet Professor McGonagall's requirements, and they were also deducted a point for damaging the teaching equipment.

Ravenclaw was different. They were smart after all. Seeing no progress, some of the brighter students decided to take a different approach. They stopped obsessing over turning it into a needle and changed the matchstick's color. They also quietly sharpened one end, hoping to get away with it.

Some even smarter students directly replaced the matchstick with a needle they brought with them, and then insisted that they had transformed it.

Unfortunately, Professor McGonagall caught them red-handed.

Ravenclaw was also deducted twenty points for having too many cheaters.

...

Professor McGonagall stood in the aisle, looking around the classroom. She was a little disappointed to find that this generation didn't seem to have many promising talents.

The only one who was performing well was just one…

Professor McGonagall shifted her gaze to the first row.

There, Kyle was propping his chin with one hand and idly waving his wand with the other.

As his wand lightly tapped, the matchstick in front of him was constantly changing.

Although it hadn't fully turned into a needle, it had already been successful halfway… halfway.

Kyle had only transformed half a needle. And its position wasn't fixed. Sometimes it was on top, sometimes it was on the bottom, or it was just sticking out in the middle.

How could you describe it? Perhaps like this:

Needle?

What needle?

What needle?

Professor McGonagall was stunned. She had seen students who failed for the whole class, and she had seen students who succeeded on the first try.

But she had never seen anyone fail so successfully.

But no matter what, Kyle had at least produced a needle. This alone surpassed the other students.

As the lesson progressed, time flew by quickly. It was almost time for class to end when a student finally succeeded in turning the matchstick into a needle.

"Look, Professor McGonagall, someone from Hufflepuff succeeded."

An excited voice from a student in the front row instantly attracted everyone's attention.

Professor McGonagall looked over. For the first time, she showed a smile. But to her surprise, the first person to complete it wasn't Kyle, whom she had been looking at, but Kanna Prince beside him.

A low-key Hufflepuff girl.

But Professor McGonagall was only slightly surprised. She quickly recovered and picked up the shiny silver needle. She showed it to the whole class.

"Everyone look, Miss Prince succeeded. As a reward for first place, Hufflepuff gets three points!"

A loud round of applause erupted. The badgers clapped particularly enthusiastically. It wasn't just because of the points, but also because they were happy for Kanna.

At this moment, everyone's gaze was on Kanna.

This socially anxious young witch had never experienced this kind of attention. Her whole face instantly turned red, and a faint plume of white smoke rose from her head. She wished she could find a hole to crawl into.

As soon as class was over, she ran out of the classroom like a rocket, clutching her textbook.

Kanna was so regretful.

As expected, being too close to Kyle was bad! If she had known this would happen, she would have switched seats, even if it meant being scolded by Professor McGonagall!

...

On the other side, Kyle, who had been innocently caught in the crossfire, didn't know that he had somehow taken the blame. He had just left the classroom when Cho came over and invited him to go to the Great Hall to find Cedric.

"Sorry, I just remembered I have something to do later. Can you go by yourself?" Kyle pointed to Ryan, who was walking towards them. "We made a plan to go see Mickel together. If we're too late, Madam Pomfrey will kick us out."

" ... Okay."

Cho was a little disappointed, but she didn't say anything more. After all, Kyle was going to visit a patient. That was much more important than getting a map.

She could just go by herself. Besides, she had met Cedric, and she remembered him well. He was the second most handsome boy she had seen at Hogwarts. She shouldn't make a mistake.

Right, Kyle was the first.

To save time, they said goodbye and Cho immediately left for the Great Hall.

Kyle watched Cho disappear around the corner of the hallway. He felt like he had forgotten to tell her something.

What was it…

Kyle couldn't remember for a moment.

Just then, Ryan walked over and said a little unhappily, "Kyle, I saved a seat for you. Why did you go to the first row?"

Hearing Ryan's words, Kyle unconsciously recalled the terrifying scene before class. He also remembered what he had forgotten.

He had forgotten to tell Cho about giving Leona a map.

This was a mess… forget it, I'll tell her later.

Kyle sighed and said, "Sorry, Ryan, I was thinking about something and didn't notice. Next time!"

"I didn't mean that." Ryan waved his hand, "I'm just surprised that you dared to sit in the first row.

I heard from upperclassmen that the first row in the Transfiguration class is almost always empty. Nobody dares to sit that close to Professor McGonagall when she's teaching. You're something."

"Heh… yeah."

Kyle chuckled dryly. If he could, he wouldn't want to sit in the first row either.

Fortunately, Ryan didn't notice his strange behavior. He continued, "Should we go back to the dorm now? Or should we wait for them?"

Wait for them?

Only then did Kyle notice that the students leaving the classroom were all Ravenclaws. There were only the two of them from Hufflepuff.

"Where is everyone else?" Kyle asked in confusion.

"They're organizing notes in the classroom." Ryan said matter-of-factly, "Oh, and they also reminded Professor McGonagall not to forget Mickel's homework."

Well… are you serious!!

Kyle's eye twitched. He thought for a moment and said, "Forget it, let's go back to the dorm."

He had planned to take Ryan to the hospital wing, but now that he thought about it, forgot it.

…

A few minutes later.

In the classroom, Professor McGonagall was beaming as she saw the Hufflepuff freshmen off.

She hadn't seen such hard-working students in a long time. They were still reviewing their notes, filling in the gaps, and even volunteering to do homework after class…

This was what a student should be like.

Professor McGonagall rubbed her slightly sore eyes and started to collect the matchsticks, which had been used as teaching aids.

Only then did she discover that Kyle had succeeded. The matchstick on his desk had also turned into a shiny silver needle.

Maybe he was stimulated by Kanna Prince.

Professor McGonagall didn't think much of it. But she was still happy that two promising Transfiguration students had come out of the same house.