After receiving the letter, Stelle felt a literal spring in her step.
Though her face remained as calm as ever, her eyes seemed to hold a bit more light than before.
Following her schedule, she arrived early at the Transfiguration classroom along with Hannah, Susan, and Megan.
The Transfiguration classroom had a completely different feel.
The room was solemn, and a single, lonely match sat atop each desk.
The Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors either waited in silence or spoke in hushed whispers.
Stelle noticed a beautiful tabby cat perched on the teacher’s desk.
It had a solemn expression, and the markings around its eyes looked inexplicably familiar.
Stelle’s golden eyes lit up instantly.
Oblivious to the solemn atmosphere of the classroom, she temporarily tossed all warnings of danger and complexity to the back of her mind.
A cat!
A live one!
A fluffy one!
Taking advantage of Professor McGonagall’s absence, Stelle quietly slipped a small strip of smoked jerky—which she had swiped from breakfast for emergencies—out of her pocket.
An emergency like right now.
She tiptoed up to the desk, crouched down, cautiously offered the jerky to the cat, and made coaxing “pspsps” sounds.
The tabby cat looked down at her from its perch, then at the jerky, its expression entirely unchanged.
Refusing to give up, Stelle nudged it a bit closer, blinking her eyes in an attempt to project friendliness.
She was even tempted to reach out and scratch the cat under its chin.
Just then— The classroom door burst open, and Harry and Ron rushed in, panting for breath.
“We made it!” Ron whispered in relief.
The cat on the desk moved.
Standing up gracefully, it ignored the jerky Stelle was still holding and leaped lightly off the desk.
As it hit the ground, its silhouette stretched and shifted instantly.
Within the blink of an eye, Professor McGonagall was standing there.
Her expression was even colder than when she had been a cat.
Her sharp gaze swept over the two latecomers, and then…
locked onto Stelle, who was still crouching by the desk with her hand raised, holding the piece of jerky.
The entire class gasped in shock.
Ron’s jaw nearly hit the floor.
Harry was completely dumbstruck as well.
Stelle froze, forgetting to lower her hand.
Her golden eyes were wide with utter bewilderment and shock.
The cat…
turned into the professor?!
She had just been trying to feed the professor jerky?!
And she had wanted to scratch her chin?!
Professor McGonagall’s gaze flickered between Stelle and the jerky.
Her lips pursed into an incredibly tight line, as if she were exercising supreme self-control.
Ultimately, she chose to address the more serious infraction first.
“Brilliant,” she said coldly to Harry and Ron.
“The famous Mr.
Potter and Mr.
Weasley…” While the professor was scolding them, Stelle seized the opportunity to quickly shove the jerky back into her pocket.
She slipped back to her seat like a startled small animal, her face still wearing a lingering look of dazed confusion.
Hannah and Susan stared at her with a mix of sheer terror and deep-seated admiration.
After handling the tardiness, Professor McGonagall swiftly brought the class’s attention back to Transfiguration.
Though her expression remained stern, a spark of academic rigor gleamed in her eyes as she began to explain the principles of the magic.
“Transfiguration is not omnipotent,” she said clearly, her gaze sweeping across the room as if warning any students harboring unrealistic fantasies.
“It must adhere to Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration.
This means you cannot summon delicious food out of thin air to enjoy, nor can you conjure genuine, magical potions.
Transfiguration changes form and basic physical properties; it does not perform miracles that defy the laws of nature and the essence of magic.” Many students wore expressions of sudden realization or slight disappointment.
Yet, sitting in her seat, Stelle’s golden eyes clouded with an obvious confusion—a first for her in any class.
No conjuring food?
No conjuring potions?
This law clashed violently with her past experiences.
In her understanding, taking seemingly unrelated materials—like a piece of stale crust, a few rusty gears, or some trash picked up after a battle—and combining or enhancing them into life-restoring food or weapons with special properties was as natural as breathing.
To her, the form and attributes of matter were not fixed.
They could be reorganized and sublimated through the will of the Trailblaze and certain formulas she didn’t fully comprehend but used all the time.
What Gamp’s Law prohibited seemed to be exactly what her subconscious deemed completely possible.
“Are the rules of this world…
stiffer?” she mused, turning her wand in her hand.
“Do more rigid boundaries exist for the conversion of energy and matter?” This difference in fundamental laws gave her a deeper understanding of the nature of Transfiguration.
It wasn’t merely about changing shape; it was about reconstructing matter within an approved framework.
It followed a completely different underlying logic from her Trailblaze-style synthesis, which sometimes created something from nothing, or turned trash into treasure.
After the students finished scribbling down a mountain of notes, Professor McGonagall began explaining the theory of turning a match into a needle, emphasizing precise pronunciation and willpower.
“Imagine yourself using your magic to carve this match…” She gave a demonstration, and the match instantly transformed into a silver needle.
When they began their practical practice, Stelle picked up her match but didn’t try immediately.
She recalled Professor McGonagall’s transformation process and stared down at her ordinary little stick of wood.
Stelle gave her wand an experimental flick.
The match emitted a faint silver glow, and its shape began to stretch.
It ended up as a crooked, wood-grained metal strip—but it was certainly no longer a match!
“Miss Stelle!” Professor McGonagall said, stopping by her desk to inspect the creation.
“The direction is correct, but shape control requires extensive practice.
You must focus your willpower!” Though Professor McGonagall’s tone was stern, there was a touch of approval and encouragement in her eyes.
“Yes, Professor,” Stelle nodded.
Looking at her failed attempt, she didn’t feel at all discouraged.
In fact, she thought this shape looked much cooler.
Even after class ended, she was still pondering Gamp’s Law.
Meanwhile, the other students were whispering excitedly, split between marveling at Professor McGonagall’s Animagus form and gossiping about Stelle’s “heroic deed.” Hannah looked at Stelle, still shaken.
“Stelle!
I can’t believe you actually tried to feed Professor McGonagall!” Stelle felt the half-transformed needle in her pocket, then patted the troublesome piece of jerky.
“I didn’t know at first,” she said earnestly.
“Besides, when she was a cat, her coat was so glossy.
She looked very pettable.” She paused, then added with hindsight realization, “Though she is a bit too serious.” …
Out in the corridor, Megan noticed Stelle staring blankly at the silver needle she hadn’t quite finished transfiguring.
“Stelle, what are you thinking about?
Still thinking about what happened earlier?” Stelle shook her head.
She looked at her wand, then at the needle in her palm, and quietly murmured a conclusion that left her friends utterly baffled: “The rules for the Omni-Synthesizer here are different.” To her, understanding the rules of a world was far more important than mastering a spell or two on the spot.
Gamp’s Law was like an important User Agreement, letting her know which actions were permitted and which might lead to account suspension in this new Hogwarts server.
And that, in itself, was a highly valuable Trailblaze.