Chapter 22: Transformation (Edited)

The three-headed dog was still dazed, lying motionless, seemingly just awakened from his sleep, still unresponsive. But the look in his eyes gradually cleared and the deafening growl from his mouth indicated that his mind was waking up fast.

Hermione's hand was on the doorknob, he had realized that being thrown out was better than being eaten by a dog with bad breath. He backed up a little, yanked the door open, the dog's head reached them and got a slap on the nose from Tom, the three-headed dog's head recoiled and Tom took the opportunity to escape through the door, slamming it shut, Hermione slammed it shut again as fast as she could and then the two of them ran, faster than they could, at the roar from behind the door.

The thin lock could not have stopped the three-headed dog, but it seemed it had been trained not to leave the door, even in its fury.

Fortunately, Filch was far away, so Tom and Hermione hadn't been the ones breaking the rules on the first day of school, now Filch was cursing and cleaning up the corridors. Hermione and Tom ran as fast as they could, to get away from the hallway, until Hermione fell on the stairs and they stopped.

"Ow! Ow!" Hermione covered her foot, almost screaming in pain. She had just stepped on a staircase, which had disappeared in an instant, and she had sunk into it, twisting her foot all at once.

"I can't walk...", Hermione tried to take a couple of steps, but found her foot hurt too much, she sat down on the stairs with a desperate look, "I'm not going, you go back, I'll find a way to explain it to Filch when he patrols around."

Tom pulled out his wand and muttered a spell.

He had obtained such a spell before, but it was still level 0.... He realized that no matter how many times he practiced it, the spell could not go to level 1 on its own, it was simply stuck at the 99/100 threshold, and if he wanted to go up to level 1, he would have to cross the threshold. His current state of the spell can be said to be at the peak of level 0, half a step away from level 1, just a bit away from level 1.

What is the effect of a level 0 spell? It is the equivalent of sticking a Band-Aid on a ruptured artery, not ineffective, but ineffective.

Tom's spell only had a pain-relieving effect, and Hermione was still very sore from the slightest movement.

"You, you should go back, in case Filch comes, I, of course, have a way to trick him..." stammered Hermione, just hoping that Tom would return quickly, before they were caught by Filch.

Tom shook his head, "Actually, there is good news..."

He showed Hermione his ring, on it was engraved another face, the lines were simple but recognizable, it was a three headed dog, the contact with the three headed dog had just given Tom another transformation option.

"Change!" said Tom.

A giant dog over ten feet tall appeared right in front of Hermione, bringing with it a stinking wind that made Hermione cover her nose. "You really need a good bath in that shape!"

Yes, a huge dog that had lived in a damp hallway for who knows how long, when was the last time he'd had a bath?

Tom was a little embarrassed, but you couldn't see it at the moment, he was just sticking his tongue out and panting. He bent down and let Hermione climb up the matted fur, then sat on the dog's head in the middle.

"Whoa! (I'll take you back)," Tom said.

Tom was horrified to discover that this body only seemed to bark, that it was very difficult to make human noises, and that the experience of being a dog was new, for example, the three heads, his consciousness was only in the middle head, the other two heads were just useless pieces of meat.

They were just breathing and drooling out of instinct. But if he wanted to change his perspective, he could easily do so. This may be the difference between a real three-headed dog, which has three consciousnesses. In addition to his angle of vision, his sense of smell seems to be more acute, for example, he can smell Hermione's scent very clearly....

The next step was to return to the common room, but they encountered a very real problem: they were lost. It was only natural that they couldn't find their way, after all, they had only arrived at the castle this afternoon. But since Tom could turn into a dog, getting lost wasn't a problem.

Tom paused, shifted his awareness to the head of the dog on the left, and then approached Hermione and sniffed her carefully, the hot breath sprayed directly into Hermione's face, causing her face to flush. Even though it was a dog's head in front of her, Hermione knew that inside the dog's body was the teenager she knew, and the act was as if the teenager was bringing his head closer to smell her....

Just as she hesitated to kick the dog's head away from her, it moved away from her on its own.

'Okay! Hermione's scent was memorized!', Tom didn't notice Hermione's little thoughts, and in his eyes, the first thing was to go back to the common room.

The next step was to follow the scent back to the common room.

Tom arched his neck, straining to identify the scent in the air, then darted in one direction.

"Hermione's scent is stronger here, and it's fading over here...so let's go that way.... Oh? Hermione, please put your feet up, it will affect my ability to distinguish direction...," Tom barked.

I mean, the dog Tom turned into can't speak human words, otherwise Hermione would definitely kick the dog's head in.

After a few twists and turns, the two finally returned to the Ravenclaw common room, both in tears of emotion: what they had experienced tonight felt like a week!

Tom set Hermione down, returned to his human form and knocked on the door with her.

The hawk at the door spoke, "There are 30 cows in the field and 28 chickens, how many haven't eaten?"

The question was incoherent, seemingly incoherent, but it made Hermione and Tom smile at each other.

"Ten." Hermione replied.

"That's the correct answer." The door opened.

The English words "thirty cows" and "twenty-eight hens" are pronounced exactly the same, which can confuse the listener, so in fact the eagle asked "There are 30 cows in the field, 20 have eaten the hens, how many haven't?"

"What a strange question for an eagle to ask." Tom sighed as he walked Hermione to the bedroom door, and parted from her, as Hermione would not let him in. She walked back to her bed, clinging to the wall, bit by bit, until she was back in her bed, at which point Tom returned to his bedroom as well.