After breakfast, the three of them set off for the Transfiguration Class classroom, but the Castle’s staircases were always changing positions, making the first-years dizzy and disoriented.
“Have we been here before?” Harry stood at a fork in the road, looking in confusion at the surrounding almost identical corridors.
Hermione nervously flipped through the map: “We should turn left… No, right?”
Vera wheeled herself in front of a portrait: “Hello, could you tell me how to get to the Transfiguration Class classroom?”
The knight in the painting was dozing off, but upon hearing this, he opened one eye: “Ah! Finally, a first-year who knows how to ask for advice! Walk straight down this corridor, go up the third staircase, and it is the third door on the right!”
“Thank you,” Vera nodded in acknowledgment.
Hermione looked at her in surprise: “You actually thought of asking a portrait?”
“They have been here for hundreds of years,” Vera said calmly, “Most of the time, they are more reliable than maps.”
Guided by the portrait, the three of them managed to arrive at the Transfiguration Class classroom ahead of time.
A scattering of people sat in the classroom.
Professor McGonagall had not arrived yet, but a tabby cat was sitting gracefully on the podium.
Vera narrowed her eyes slightly, secretly attempting to probe with her Magic Circuit, only to see that upon this seemingly ordinary tabby cat, there was exceptionally powerful magic—those threads of magic formed a complex and intricate magical network around the cat’s outline.
She secretly raised an eyebrow.
So even an Animagus could be seen through?
Although she had encountered Ron’s Scabbers in the compartment earlier, considering that the other party harbored malicious intentions and without being certain, Vera had not rashly probed.
And although Professor McGonagall’s strength was much greater than Peter Pettigrew’s, facing her own student, even if she sensed that she was observing in secret, she could at least ensure that she would not be in any danger.
Now it seemed that she had seen the magic on Professor McGonagall clearly, yet the other party still showed no reaction whatsoever.
This showed that her Magic Circuit appeared even more concealed than she had imagined, unable to be detected even by a Transfiguration master like McGonagall.
Thoughtfully, Vera wheeled herself to the front of the podium, with Harry and Hermione following closely behind.
“Such a cute cat!” Harry curiously approached the podium, reaching out to stroke the cat’s head, but the tabby cat agilely leaped away, effortlessly dodging Harry’s hand.
A cat form was not something you could pet casually.
Taking advantage of the tabby cat being on strict guard against Harry, she reached out from the side and gently grabbed the tabby cat by the scruff of its neck!
The tabby cat visibly stiffened, wanting to struggle and escape from Vera’s clutches; however, in her blind spot, a trace of golden patterns flashed faintly across the skin of Vera’s fingertips.
In an instant, Vera clearly saw the magic on the tabby cat experience a momentary disorder.
The tabby cat’s pupils suddenly contracted into thin lines, yet in Vera’s hands, it also let out a weak meow sound.
Hearing it, it did not sound like bristling fur at all, but rather more like acting spoiled.
With a mischievous heart, Vera—having tested her hypothesis on her own Dean—satisfyingly petted the cat’s head, listening to McGonagall being forced to emit a purr in her hands that was both comfortable and awkward.
“So amazing!” Harry opened her eyes wide in surprise, “Vera, it actually let you pet it!”
Vera raised her lips, pretending to know nothing at all: “Maybe it is just good luck.”
She really had not guessed wrong; under the state of activating her Magic Circuit, her touch would produce some kind of wondrous reaction on magic carriers.
McGonagall’s Animagus form, under the interference of the Magic Circuit, had unexpectedly lost its ability to resist for a brief moment.
Of course, the current Vera herself probably could not use much magic either.
And the conditions to produce this effect were actually quite harsh: first, one had to awaken their own Magic Circuit and be able to see others’ Magic Circuits in order to possibly influence others.
Secondly, one had to have physical contact with the other party while they were completely off guard in order to produce a brief effect.
Mmm… probably only a dozen seconds or so?
After a moment, the tabby cat finally broke free from Vera’s hand, leaped as if fleeing to the other end of the podium, and glared at her vigilantly, the hair on its tail even bristling up.
“It looks like it is angry,” Hermione said quietly.
“Maybe it is just shy.” Vera wheeled herself back to her seat nonchalantly, her expression completely calm, totally unable to tell that she had just done something bad to her own Dean.
She lowered her gaze to look at her fingers, estimating the duration of her contact with the cat McGonagall just now, feeling a bit regretful in her heart.
At least for now, this kind of magical interference could only be treated as a small joke in daily life.
If she wanted to use it against enemies… Visit g.com for the full chapter. serious Wizards would not let people get close to them so easily.
Right at this moment, the classroom door was pushed open, and Ron and Neville rushed into the classroom panting, almost knocking over a desk.
“Almost late!” Ron wiped his sweat and said, “Those staircases are simply a nightmare!”
Neville nodded with a red face: “We circled three times before finding this place.”
The tabby cat suddenly leaped down from the podium, stretching its figure mid-air, and in the blink of an eye, turned into Professor McGonagall.
The classroom instantly fell dead silent, all the students wide-eyed, and the late Ron and Neville subconsciously took a step back.
“Transfiguration is the most complex and dangerous magic in your courses at Hogwarts.”
Professor McGonagall’s voice was stern as always, but her gaze paused slightly when sweeping over Vera, “And, touching unknown magical creatures without authorization is a very unwise behavior, Miss Black.”
Vera met her gaze calmly: “Sorry, Professor. I was just… attracted by the cat’s beautiful fur color.”
Professor McGonagall’s lips pressed into a thin line, seeming to want to say something, but in the end she merely turned her head to look at Ron and Neville, who were still standing frozen in place: “Gentlemen, are you not going to take your seats?”
Ron and Neville snapped out of their daze and hurriedly found seats to sit down.
McGonagall waved her wand, and the chalk on the blackboard automatically wrote down today’s lesson content: Match to Needle.
“What we are going to learn today is turning matches into needles,” she looked around the classroom and waved her wand, handing a match to each person, “Remember, Transfiguration requires clear imagination and precise magic control, spell pronunciation must also be standard, and the wand movement must be decisive—like this.”
She demonstrated a standard wand movement, and the match instantly turned into a shining silver needle.
“Now, begin practicing.”
The classroom immediately resounded with one after another incantations and swishing wand sounds.
Vera picked up her wand.
Through the Magic Circuit, she saw the threads of magic flowing during McGonagall’s demonstration just now, wrapping around the match like a living thing and changing its internal structure bit by bit.
Tapping her wand lightly on the match, she clearly guided the magic to flow out along the trajectory she had just observed—
The match trembled slightly at the tip of her wand, a layer of silver light washing over its surface, gradually elongating and thinning, ultimately transforming into a perfect silver needle with a tip sharp enough to pierce the skin.
“Perfect!” McGonagall’s voice came from right in front of her.
She picked up Vera’s silver needle and showed it to the entire class, “Miss Black succeeded on the first try, five points to Gryffindor!”