Chapter 24

After class, Allen went towards Armand and William, the two Hufflepuff girls behind him. "Hey, How did it go?"

"Hmm, it was okay, had to teach them proper intonation, but other than that, they managed to do it just fine. What about you?" Asked Armand.

"Oh, they kept on pestering me about yesterday instead of asking about the lighting wand charm, so I just stayed quiet instead"

"Ha! That's good. What about you William?" Armand turned his head.

"Ah, well… I guess I'm not fit to teach, probably…? I told them to feel it and it would work, but they couldn't understand me" He sighed, shaking his head from left to right. "But enough about that, who are the Hufflepuffs behind you?"

"Right, they were my group mates, I teached them the charm and wanted to be friends with us, if you guys don't mind?"

They looked at each other and just nodded. "Sure, nice to meet you, my name is Armand Malfoy"

"Same here, William Cooper is the name" He said pointing at himself with his thumb.

"Hmm, nice to meet you both, my name is Sophia Bailey"

"And my name is Elsie Wright"

"Bailey and Wright wanted to know if we could walk to transfiguration class together" Allen added after they finished their introductions.

"Ah, you can just call me Elsie, I don't mind"

"Hmm, s- same h- here" A barely audible voice left Sophia's mouth and while Allen did hear her, he decided to mess with her for a bit.

"What was that Bailey? I couldn't hear you"

"I- I said that you can…" Before she could finish he interrupted.

"Alright then, let's go to class or we'll be late, and I don't think the next professor would be as forgiving as professor Flitwick"

"Right, Professor McGonagall really is a strict person for rules, so it would be better to not anger her" Added Armand to the conversation.

They followed the other first years who seemed to know where the classroom was, walking down the moving stairs. "What if they don't know either and we are just following them to get lost?" Asked William as they were going the stairs.

"Well, usually the first years are always following each other, and one of them usually always knows where the classrooms are, even if the rest don't" Answered Allen.

"Mm, that is true but we can ask a portrait like last time when we reach the second floor if you feel like we are getting lost"

"What do you think Sophia? Elsie? Are we going in the right direction?" Allen turned around and asked them after reaching the second floor.

Sophia's face lit up when Allen used her name. "Yes, actually, my mum told me where every class is, I couldn't remember so she wrote it down for me, let's see" She took a piece of parchment, out of her backpack and read it from top to bottom.

"The transfiguration classroom is on the ground-floor! Apparently we can access it from the Middle Courtyard" Sophia looked up at the boys, waiting for their approval.

"Nice one Sophie!" Exclaimed William, giving her a thumbs up. "Honestly, they should gives us a map or something, I don't think I'll be able to memorize where everything is"

Right, a map would be good" As they were walking downstairs, towards the classroom, the word 'map' kept on reverberating in his mind. Then, in a stroke of inspiration, he remembered, the Marauder's map. He barely remembers hearing only one Weasley being mentioned in the sorting, meaning that the twins are still not here, meaning that the map is still in Filch's office, he can grab it before the twins do it, the only problem would be to find his office where he keeps all the confiscated objects and Mrs Norris, his cat.

He would need to create a distraction in another part of the castle so he can take his time to look for the map. Since it's a magical parchment, it could be possible for him to see it at first glance using his eyes, but that's still just assuming things, better be safe than sorry.

Honestly, Allen doesn't want to involve his friends into this, more so because he doesn't want to get them in trouble, since he's already in trouble to begin with.

Right, my detention! I completely forgot about that!

Allen grumbled aloud and the others looked at him weird

"What happened? Did you forget something?" Asked Elsie.

"No, its just, I just remembered that I have detention with Professor Snape the whole month. I knew it, but it was just in the back of my mind, but now that I remembered, it made me mad. I won't have time to go to the library to do the homework, probably, sorry."

"Oh, no, it's okay, I'm surprised actually, you even told us about your detention in class just now, how could you forget so fast?"

"I just spewed it out without thinking about it to be honest" Allen lightly hit his face with his hand.

"Well, we can share our homework so it's easier for you" Said Sophia.

Allen just shook his head in negation. "No, it's okay, it's easy anyway. Just writing a lot"

"Alright then, just don't come back begging me to show you my homework when you can't handle it between your detentions" Sophia crossed her arms and turned her head towards the front.

The rest of the kids just laughed at her reaction while they continued walking towards the transfiguration classroom.

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When they finally reached the classroom, they could see a couple of other kids sitting on their seats, but the professor was nowhere to be seen, just a cat on top of the professor's desk.

They walked right in, looking around the classroom. "I think we need a clock, can't be assuming the time all the time, I'll ask my mum to send me a cheap one, what about you guys?" Asked William.

Armand took out a pocket watch out of his robes. "We are on time, just barely, three minutes before class"

"Wha-! If you had a watch why didn't you say so?"

"I've been checking the time frequently, and I assumed you saw me take it out of my robes?"

"Well, yes, but… I thought, never mind" William blushed, turning his head around.

"You think we can sit at the back? I didn't really like being the center of attention in charms"

"I don't mind, let's just sit quickly or the professor will get mad at us if we are not seated when class starts" William, Sophia and Elsie looked around the classroom, searching for the professor but all they could see was a cat.

"Um, are you talking about the cat Allen?" Elsie asked.

"Are you okay in the head?" Sophia added. "The professor is still not here. She spread out her arms as if showing that no one besides them and other students were there.

Armand pulled them close to him and whispered. "No, he's right, professor McGonagall is an animagus, my father told how she likes to impress first years by showing them her animagus transfiguration, something not a lot of people in Britain has done, since it takes a lot of time that they'll rather spend doing something else.

"Wait! So the cat's the teacher?!" Sophia shouted.

"Yes!, lower your voice and sit down!"

"R- Right!"

After their little meet up, they waited for a moment before class started. Kids continued to walk into the classroom, and seeing how the professor was not there, they decided to talk amongst each other until it was time for class.

The five of them stayed silent, waiting for the moment their professor would surprise them, Sophia and Elsie had a skeptical look on their faces, not believing the other two, but still decided to follow along.

All of a sudden, the cat meowed, calling for their attention and jumped straight at them, transforming in the same witch that told Allen that he was a wizard. Professor McGonagall.

"Settle down and good morning class." McGonagall said, pulling out her wand.

"Now, before we begin, I need to warn you, transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned" The professor looked at each and every one of the kids, lingering a bit longer on Allen and his green robes, most likely thinking about the previous night.

She turned around and summoned to her a box full of matches. "Now, open your book in chapter one, we will read it thoroughly before we do anything else"

After reading the chapter, professor McGonagall then explained Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration that related to the chapter. "Now, after we have gathered basic knowledge in the field, it is enough for you now to try a transfiguration supervised by me. Here." She passed a couple of matches to all of the students.

"I want you all to use what we've learned to transfigurate this match, into a silver needle. We need to start small if we want to do something like the animagus transfiguration that I just showed you. After all, starting small is the only way we can go up. Now, let me show you the incantation and wand movement, then you will try it.

Professor McGonagall then proceeded to cast the spell, transforming the match into a pointy silver needle, then gave her wand a flick and the needle turned back to a match. "If there is any questions, I will be glad to answer them, but if not, we can now start"

Allen looked back to his match, no light was emitting from it, it was just an ordinary match, then, how can transfiguration happen? There is the thing about mass, molecules, and everything in between, he wasn't a scientist by any longshot, but he still remembered a couple of things from it, whether they are right or wrong, is another thing.

Back in the orphanage he never tried to transfigurate anything, since all the thought about his powers was that they could move objects or create fire. Should I try it first without my wand, then try it with my wand?.

Allen pulled out his wand out of his pocket and activated his magic, then he recited the incantation for the Wand Raising Charm, getting closer to your wand before doing any spell it's better than nothing, or at least that's what he thought. Then, he grabbed the match with the tip of his fingers using his right hand, putting it close to his face.

He let his magic run in his body, with the intention of transfigurating the match. Allen saw his magic covering the match in a fog of light. First, the shape changed, a pointy wood match was left, then, as if attacking it, his magic continued to wrap around it, this time it transformed the wood to silver, leaving a nice pointy silver needle.

Right then, I managed to do it, now to turn it back to a match so I can try do it with my wand to see how difficult it is. But before he could do it, Professor McGonagall interrupted his thoughts.

"Ah, Mr Lionheart, I see that you are the first to manage the transfiguration, five points to Slytherin for a job well done. I hope you can continue to show such compromise on your studies"

Fuck. All the kids looked towards him, trying to see how he did it or if it was true.

"Good job mate! How'd you do it? I'm having trouble making it do anything" William shouted while putting an arm around him.

"Mr Cooper! This is a solo activity, and I won't tolerate interruptions in my class, continue with your own match"

"S- Sorry professor" William's face turned white at McGonagall's scolding, he want back to his own seat, trying to concentrate on his match.

After that small display, Allen undid the transfiguration to now try it with his wand.

'Acusignis' He muttered, and his wand responded in kind as he imagined the match turning into a needle just like before, but he continued to push his magic and the more he pushed, the more magic it needed, after a while the match became a pointy silver needle, but it cost him more magic than before.

I feel like I'm doing something wrong, otherwise, there's no way they would teach this to first years if the spell required this much magic. What's more, this spell was specifically designed for students to practice a transfiguration and get the hang of it. Allen squinted his eyes looking at the match, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but it still irked him to use so much magic. Then, as if it was delayed, a searing pain came over him, he was familiar with this pain. The same one he always used to get whenever he practiced something harder or something which he wasn't used to.

He stayed still for a while, waiting for the pain to subside. It didn't hurt when I did it without my wand, so why?

Allen thought back on the rules that he thought were being used when practicing magic. Whenever he tries something new, it can hurt or not, depending on the difficulty, or if he exerts himself too much it can also cause him pain, but it's not because he can't do it, but because his body is getting used to a new practice.

No, just like with exercise, the same conclusion as before, what I'm doing right now is nothing more than exercising using a brand new machine at the gym which I'm not used to. It doesn't hurt the others because they are not used to a machine in the first place, just like me that I'm used to casting magic in a different way. There's only one solution to this, more practice.

Allen let out a sigh and dropped his head on top of the desk. At this point I don't know if what I did was the correct answer or no, but I can't take it back anyway, so let's just go ahead.

Professor McGonagall interrupted his thoughts calling for him "Mr Lionheart, I want to speak with you at lunch time, so after you eat, I'd like you to come see me, rest assured, you are not in trouble"

Yet the other kids didn't seem to be so sure about that since they all chuckled quietly at him.

"Yes professor" And McGonagall just nodded heard in confirmation.

"Don't worry mate, you heard her, I'm sure it's nothing" Whispered William, trying to not get caught again by her.

"That's correct, professor McGonagall might be strict, but she's also fair" Armand agreed with William, nodding his head.

"Now, about the spell…."

"Ah! No fair, I also need some pointers Armand!" Objected Sophia from the front.

"Ah, ah, me too Allen!" And Elsie followed along.

But they ended up being silenced by professor McGonagall and told them to go back to their own work.