In the eyes of ordinary wizards, Transfiguration can be broadly divided into four stages:
Stage One: The Transformation and Reshaping of Material Properties.
Turning hot water into hard ice, mud into stone, or wood into metal—all sorts of arbitrary changes that Muggles would consider miraculous are merely trivial challenges wizards face when first starting with Transfiguration.
Perhaps someone might ask: *”Professor, Professor!
If I’m short on cash, can’t I just conjure Gold Galleons to have endless money?
Or if I turn mud into uranium ore, couldn’t wizards rule the Muggle world in minutes?”*
First, these material transformations are temporary; the duration of a Transfiguration depends heavily on the caster’s depth of understanding.
Second, transfigured materials cannot replace real minerals for refining or chemical reactions.
From an occult perspective, magic primarily serves to help ‘transform’ and ‘stabilize’ properties.
Without external interference, the greater the difference in physical properties between the original and transfigured substances, the higher the difficulty.
Of course you could craft Uranium-235 out of water, but the price would be draining an entire Albus Dumbledore’s worth of magic just to maintain it for ten minutes.
Furthermore, if you were to drop this high-energy mineral even lightly, the magic would run wild and revert it to its original form.
Thus, the idea that “once a wizard understands a nuclear bomb, they can transfigure nukes everywhere” is neither reliable nor safe—and it comes with a sentence of at least eighty years in Azkaban.
Seeing this, you might ask again: *”Professor, Professor!
Didn’t Hogwarts use a massive amount of Transfiguration when it was founded?”*
“That brings us to the key point of today’s lesson.” Professor McGonagall tapped her wand against her lectern, looking toward the boy and girl who asked the most questions in the whole classroom: Mason and Hermione.
Hermione’s questions were usually fairly fundamental, showing she had done the reading beforehand and formed plenty of her own insights.
But Mason, sitting beside her…
was harder to evaluate.
Professor McGonagall always felt he indulged in wildly bizarre mental leaps based on her lectures.
“Reshaping a material without altering its underlying composition requires a negligible amount of magic, much like this.”
Professor McGonagall incanted the Transfiguration spell.
The lectern—used as a teaching aid for who knows how many times—disassembled itself before the young wizards’ eyes.
Its sturdy wooden planks stretched long and thin, thinner than nails.
And the nails?
They softened like noodles and drooped limply.
“Whoa—” The young wizards marveled at McGonagall’s noodle-stretching technique.
“I do not expect you to mold stone like clay in your very first class—that is for second-years to master.
However, you had better pick up your quills diligently, because my exams will not lower their standards just because your skills are unrefined!” You are reading on novelping(.)com, the official source.
A flurry of rustling quills filled the classroom.
Seeing this, Hermione tugged at Mason, who was currently lost in thought savoring his newly unlocked spell concepts, saving him from having their Head of House catch his embarrassingly intoxicated expression.
“In the eyes of a true master of Transfiguration, unfortified rock is no different from water flowing in a mountain stream—to say nothing of Hogwarts’ four great Founders.
Using immense magic, they reinforced and altered the castle that originally stood here, employing three techniques of Permanent Transfiguration that you will only learn after your fifth year.
So long as Hogwarts continues to admit students, the Transfiguration within the castle will endure forever.”
Mason understood completely; automation was his absolute favorite thing to study.
“Stage Two Transfiguration generally refers to turning the living into the inanimate—that is, temporarily transforming a living entity into a piece of furniture or an object.
The less the transfigured object resembles a living creature, the more skillful the caster.”
“Stage Three Transfiguration is the exact opposite of Stage Two, but I shall not dwell on that today.”
“So all those talking pieces of furniture in fairy tales were made by incompetent wizards?” Mason whispered, leaning over.
Hermione, sitting to his right, was far too busy scribbling notes to pay attention, so he could only mutter his thought to Harry on his left.
“Wouldn’t those have to be transfigured people?” Harry caught his drift.
“Human Transfiguration falls under Stage Four, which will not be open to you until at least your sixth year.” Professor McGonagall had glided over without them noticing.
She glanced at their notes and said sternly, “Whispering in class.
Seeing as you were paying attention to the lecture, you will each hand in a one-foot essay to me before our next class.
The title shall be: *Reflections of Muggle Fairy Tales on the Development of Transfiguration in the Wizarding World*.”
*Mason, you set me up!*
Near the end of class, Professor McGonagall handed out a match to each student and instructed the young wizards to try turning their match into a needle.
Mason mimicked Professor McGonagall’s wand motion and incanted the spell at the match on his desk.
Swinging his arm holding his Elder Staff with a bit too much flare, he almost hit Hermione, earning a glare from her.
A magic distinct from ordinary wizarding magic released from the tip of his staff, turning into tiny sparkles that wrapped around the match.
Guided by the spell, it slowly seeped inside, preparing to shape it into the needle in Mason’s mind.
*Speaking of which, if some people are born with aphantasia—unable to clearly visualize an image in their minds—are they inherently unfit to learn Transfiguration?*
*Is it supposed to be a silver needle or an iron needle?
Would an iron pestle work?*
*How many years does it take to grind an iron pestle down to a needle again?*
Countless stray thoughts raced through Mason’s mind before finally settling on a memory from his childhood: his grandmother holding a needle and asking him to help thread it.
Perhaps the emotional surge amplified the effect of his magic, for the match instantaneously turned pure silver before fluctuating back and forth between expanding and shrinking.
Professor McGonagall, who was making her rounds, noticed a powerful surge of magic washing through the classroom.
Except for Hermione, the young wizards with weaker focus had their Transfiguration attempts abruptly interrupted.
“Focus, Mason!” The experienced McGonagall immediately located the source of the magic surge.
*I was supposed to transfigure a needle, how did I get distracted by a memory…*
Snapping back to reality, Mason bade farewell to his grandmother in his head:
*”Grandma, I’m taking the needle now!”*
With a gentle flash of light, the match finally transformed into a sewing needle.
At the same time, Hermione let out a breath of relief, having completed her own transformation as well.
“Splendid Transfiguration!
Five points to Gryffindor!”
After dismissing the class, Professor McGonagall walked away with a light step.
A natural freak of talent and a hardworking genius, and both of them in Gryffindor—the House Cup was saved!
Mason packed the sewing needle into his bag and immediately turned to ask Hermione for help with the extra essay Professor McGonagall had assigned.
The Little Beaver cracked her knuckles and cleared out her Sunday—which was originally set aside for rest—telling Mason to meet her in the library then.
“Did she agree?” Harry asked nervously.
Because of Ron, he wasn’t familiar with Hermione at all and was counting on Mason to learn the ropes and teach him back in the dormitory.
“Sort of.
Don’t worry, even if Hermione hadn’t agreed, I’d still pull you through.
I was the one who dragged you into this,” Mason said.
“Why not try posting a commission?
Mason, I really don’t know how you can stand her…” Ron winked and pulled a face, clearly unable to tolerate the Little Beaver.
“Stop right there.
She’s my friend, and so are you two.
At least don’t go badmouthing her in front of me.” Mason crossed his arms, looking displeased.
“And besides…
the commission review panel has members from all four houses monitoring each other.
If you dare post a commission for cheating or ghostwriting, you’ll be taken down in seconds.
Have you forgotten?”
“I thought only high-value proxy purchases were banned.
They sure meddle in everything.” Without the high-value proxy purchases, the older girls who used to cluster around Ron were gone as well.
“By the way, did you guys find out how Anna completed her commission?”