Chapter 39: Transfiguration and Animagi

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“Your first lesson with the Head of House. I admire your courage, warrior!” Daphne laughed, though she was also rather worried about the punishment Snape would give him.

“It’ll be fine. I’ll show the Head of House what I can do and make him understand that falling asleep in class wasn’t my fault.” Rogge raised an eyebrow and spoke with confidence.

“Not your fault? Then whose was it?” Daphne asked, propping her chin on her hand as she gazed at him curiously, eager to hear what marvelous excuse he had come up with.

“Obviously, it’s the Head of House’s fault. Who told him to make his lessons so boring?”

Daphne’s eyes widened. She gave Rogge a huge thumbs-up. “You’d better die somewhere far away and make sure you don’t drag me into this.”

By the time Rogge and Daphne finished breakfast, the Great Hall was as noisy as a market. He glanced around with his textbooks tucked under his arm but failed to spot a single clock. It seemed he would have to get himself a mechanical watch.

“Merlin, this is ridiculous.” Rogge sighed. He seemed to have found the root of the wizarding world’s profound sense of history.

The booklet Professor McGonagall had given him was extremely useful, introducing various techniques and points to note regarding Transfiguration. Combined with Swiech’s *A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration*, it had given him a deeper understanding of the subject.

Transfiguration was founded upon two principles: the mutability of matter and the will of the caster.

In Professor McGonagall’s notes, she proposed that the foundation of Transfiguration was the fact that all matter shared the same essential nature. Only then could matter be mutable.

Besides mastering Transfiguration spells and wand movements, a wizard also needed to possess a powerful will.

Rogge nodded. This was much the same as in most wizarding worlds: a wizard had to possess an unwavering conviction that “I am the universe.”

Only with such will could a caster manipulate magic according to his desires. In other words, will was the core of a spell, while words and wand were merely tools for giving that will form.

When a wizard’s will was strong enough, he could even cast aside those tools and directly realize his intentions.

“Lumos.” Rogge instinctively cast the spell without a wand. With a wave of his hand, he illuminated the entire courtyard. This was the absolute manifestation of his own will.

“Wow, that’s bright!” Daphne, who had been studying her textbook beside him, stared wide-eyed. “Why is your Lumos so bright? And you didn’t even use a wand!”

Rogge hurriedly cut off the spell. Fortunately, they were in the courtyard; otherwise, who knew what kind of commotion he might have caused? Still, he was troubled. His spells grew stronger every time he used them, and he had yet to find a way to control their power. In the future, they might become so potent that he would be unable to cast them casually.

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“A family technique. Strictly confidential,” Rogge said mysteriously.

“Yeah, right.” Daphne rolled her eyes at him, clearly unconvinced.

He gave an awkward chuckle without explaining and continued reading. Once the fundamentals of Transfiguration had been mastered, what remained was an understanding of matter and form. This was the crucial step in completing a transformation: a wizard had to possess a sufficient understanding of the matter involved.

“From this perspective, every wizard proficient in Transfiguration is a master of deconstruction. They can see through the essence of matter at a glance, but this requires an immense amount of knowledge and practice.” Professor McGonagall had written this near the end of her notes, where she also listed several branches of Transfiguration.

Basic Transfiguration could change one kind of matter into another. In such transformations, similarity of shape outweighed everything else. Animal Transfiguration was a more advanced technique that allowed a wizard to transform into an animal through the use of a spell.

“Hm? Why isn’t there anything about Animagi?” Rogge stared at the notes in confusion. Beneath the section on Animal Transfiguration was a large blank space. It seemed Professor McGonagall had deliberately removed that portion.

Even so, Rogge managed to find a few clues in the section on Animal Transfiguration. The spell required specific incantations and extensive training, and produced a temporary, external change. By reasoning backward from those traits, the deleted material was easy to infer: an Animagus transformation was permanent and fundamental in nature.

“If I raise Animal Transfiguration to a sufficiently high level, wouldn’t that become a kind of pseudo-Animagus transformation?” Rogge’s thoughts ran wild. If the spell could be maintained for fifty years, then regardless of the difference in essence, it would be indistinguishable from being an Animagus from the outside.

At the end of her notes, Professor McGonagall also mentioned Human Transfiguration and Inanimate Transfiguration. However, both were complex and dangerous forms of advanced magic, so she had not explained them in detail.

Rogge and Daphne entered the Transfiguration classroom. Daphne immediately spotted the adorable tabby cat on the teacher’s desk.

“Wow, what a cute kitty! Why is there a cat in the Transfiguration classroom?” Stars sparkled in Daphne’s eyes as she walked over without thinking.

“Wait a moment.” Rogge smiled uneasily and pulled some food from his pocket, handing it to Daphne.

Owl feed—in other words, cat food. As he watched Daphne scatter it in front of the cat, he dug his fingers fiercely into his thigh to keep from bursting out laughing.

The cat on the desk avoided Daphne’s hand and glared at the young witch sternly.

“Not cute at all,” Daphne muttered as she returned to her seat beside Rogge. She noticed that he was lying facedown on the desk, his shoulders trembling.

Sensing that something was wrong, she quickly looked up at the desk. The cat disdainfully swept the food onto the floor. Only then did Daphne notice the half-rectangular markings beneath its eyes, strikingly similar to Professor McGonagall’s distinctive spectacles.

“No way…” Daphne’s face flushed crimson as she covered her mouth to keep from crying out.

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She stamped hard on Rogge’s foot, then hurriedly put on the appearance of a well-behaved girl and raised her textbook to hide her face. At that moment, she desperately wanted to pull out her wand and poke the damned fool beside her to death.

The bell had not yet finished ringing when the students from both houses had essentially arrived. Well, all except Harry and Ron. Like Professor McGonagall, they had yet to appear in the classroom.

It was the first lesson of the school year, and the young witches and wizards began whispering among themselves. The little lions in particular discussed matters fearlessly and enthusiastically. The little snakes, by contrast, were much quieter—not because they were less lively, but because Rogge had reminded them that this was the Deputy Headmistress’s classroom.

Worried that Professor McGonagall might deduct points, they all sat quietly. They had already learned that Snape showed them limitless favoritism, and now they feared Professor McGonagall might be the same sort of person.

Seeing the Slytherins’ restraint, the little lions finally realized what was going on. In an instant, the entire classroom fell utterly silent. Everyone waited for the late Professor McGonagall, as well as for Harry and Ron, who were still nowhere to be seen.

The two boys quietly pushed open the classroom door, but the noise they made closing it still drew everyone’s attention.

“The Chosen One is finished!” Daphne whispered as she watched the cat, grinning gleefully.

Hermione, seated in front of them, also shook her head helplessly. They were going to lose house points because of those two on the very first lesson of the year.

Malfoy glanced back at them and smiled contemptuously. Harry had rejected his friendship and chosen Ron instead. Mixing with that red-haired Weasley—the outcome had been inevitable.

“We finally made it!” Ron looked around the classroom. The only empty seats were in the exact center of the front row.

He and Harry walked over, relieved that the professor had not yet arrived. “I wonder what her face will look like when she realizes we’re late.”

The instant Ron finished speaking, the cat leaped from the teacher’s desk and transformed in midair into Professor McGonagall. He was then confronted with the icy expression of his Head of House.

Although Rogge and Daphne had expected it, they still could not suppress their cries of surprise.

“Is that advanced Transfiguration?” Daphne exclaimed, suddenly taking a keen interest in Professor McGonagall’s lesson.

“Transfiguration can’t maintain a form for that long,” Rogge explained softly. “That’s an Animagus.”

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