In truth, besides the influence of Dumbledore, there was another major factor in Isaac Valdore’s choice to delve into the field of Transfiguration.
That was the fact that his aptitude for Transfiguration was completely different from his aptitude in other subjects.
In other areas—be it Potions, Herbology, or even Alchemy, which wasn’t even taught in the lower years at Hogwarts—Isaac’s talent could only be considered excellent.
An excellent talent meant that Isaac could eventually become a master in that field, provided he invested enough time and energy.
If Isaac hadn’t realized his specific gift for Transfiguration, he might have truly believed that his talent in those other fields was his peak.
But combining the master-level lectures from his prophetic visions with his own practice at home, Isaac discovered that his talent for Transfiguration was bordering on the absurd.
For example, a simple object-to-object transfiguration, which took other young witches and wizards an entire lesson just to grasp the absolute basics, was effortless for him.
He could even draw broader inferences about the underlying mechanics after mastering a single spell.
At first, Isaac merely assumed the disparity stemmed from his status as a transmigrator, which gave him a stronger willpower than the other children.
After all, he had been an adult in his previous life; wasn’t it only natural for his focus to be stronger than that of ordinary eleven-year-olds?
The magic of the Harry Potter world was fundamentally different from the conventional magic Isaac had known in his previous life.
The magic and mages he was familiar with from fiction were more akin to standard spellcasters who needed to meditate, expand their mental reserves, and condense their inner mana.
In the Harry Potter world, however, they weren’t mages; they were wizards.
At the same time, whenever Isaac practiced magic, he never felt anything resembling a depletion of his magical reserves.
After casting a massive number of spells, he would only feel physically exhausted, as if he had run a marathon.
In Isaac’s view, what local wizards consumed more of when casting spells was simply their physical stamina.
The best proof of Isaac’s theory was the phenomenon of the Obscurus.
How was an Obscurus formed?
It was created when a young wizard forcibly suppressed their own magic under extreme trauma.
To form an Obscurus, one had to bottle it up—suppress it entirely—and refuse to vent any of the magic within the body.
When a young wizard’s magic was trapped inside to such a desperate degree, it would inevitably warp into an Obscurus.
This proved that wizards in this magical world did not suffer from a lack of raw magic.
Just by this fact alone, how many mana-starved mages from other worlds would envy them?
Wizarding magic emphasized the power of the mind, and Isaac always believed that his mind was inherently more disciplined than those of the children around him.
Perhaps during the initial adaptation phase, he could absorb the Hogwarts curriculum and adapt to magic faster than his peers.
However, when Isaac spent a mere three days finishing the entire first-year Transfiguration curriculum, he finally concluded that his talent in this specific discipline was truly formidable.
To verify his aptitude, Isaac also attempted to learn some second-year coursework under Professor McGonagall through his visions, and his progress did not slow down in the slightest.
At that moment, Isaac realized that his talent for Transfiguration was probably truly astonishing.
Based on his observations of other students in his prophetic visions, Isaac divided magical talent into six distinct tiers.
From low to high, they were: Slightly Poor, Average, Normal, Excellent, Top-tier, and Limit.
Most young wizards’ talents were clustered between Average and Normal, while a few exceptional cases—who clearly seemed to have something functionally wrong with their brains—fell into the Slightly Poor tier.
Young wizards with Excellent talent could basically digest the content taught by the professors immediately and reflect that understanding in their homework.
As for those with Top-tier talent, they absorbed knowledge faster than others and could even draw logical inferences to a certain extent.
The Limit tier of talent meant that a student did not even need a professor to teach them; they could thoroughly chew through the concepts just by looking at the textbooks.
If a professor happened to be lecturing, they would digest it even faster.
Isaac was able to master a school year’s worth of knowledge in three days, and Professor McGonagall truly deserved the credit for that.
Her lessons were absolutely worthy of being called master-level instruction.
Next, Isaac planned to buy the remaining Hogwarts Transfiguration textbooks: Intermediate Transfiguration and A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration having already been conquered, he needed the Advanced Transfiguration Guide.
He also planned to stop by Flourish and Blotts to see if there were any other supplementary works on the subject.
This time, without Dumbledore providing a free ride via Apparition, Isaac couldn’t take the Knight Bus either.
He didn’t have any wizarding currency on his person at the moment.
Let alone Galleons or Sickles, he didn’t even have a single Knut.
He had to have his old butler drive him to the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road, and then access Diagon Alley through the pub’s rear courtyard.
This time, he properly entered through the official channel.
As the start of the school term approached, Diagon Alley remained bustling, with wizarding families everywhere bringing their children for a massive shopping trip.
There were also Muggle families, whom Isaac could recognize at a single glance.
In Diagon Alley, those who looked like they were walking through a standard Muggle shopping mall—completely unfazed by everything around them and simply taking their children out for a stroll—were established wizarding families.
Conversely, those who found absolutely everything novel, frequently looking left and right with wide, wandering eyes, were Muggle families.
If such shifty behavior wasn’t displayed by a family unit…
then calling them a thief would also seem quite fitting.
Isaac headed straight to Gringotts and, navigating around the long-faced goblins, exchanged his British pounds for the annual one-hundred-Galleon allowance permitted to Muggle-born students.
In truth, Isaac still couldn’t understand why, even though these goblins had been the defeated side in historical rebellions, wizards still blindly allowed them to control the economic lifeline of the magical community.
After leaving Gringotts, Isaac went straight to Flourish and Blotts.
The moment he stepped inside, the bookstore manager appeared before him.
“Welcome, Mr.
Valdore!
Is there anything I can help you find today?”
“I need Intermediate Transfiguration and the Advanced Transfiguration Guide,” Isaac requested.
“By the way, what other works do you have in stock regarding Transfiguration theory?”
The manager did not raise any questions about Isaac’s advanced book list.
Come on, this young master was the very person whom Albus Dumbledore had personally escorted and opened an account for.
Although his surname wasn’t Dumbledore, the entirety of Diagon Alley was currently speculating that Valdore might share some secret kinship with the Headmaster.
Professor Dumbledore was a renowned master in the field of Transfiguration, so wasn’t it only natural for Valdore to want to purchase advanced works on the subject?
This was what one would call academic heritage!
The manager immediately instructed a shop assistant to bring over Intermediate Transfiguration and the Advanced Transfiguration Guide.
Then, he looked at Isaac with a touch of curiosity.
“May I ask, Mr.
Valdore, have you already mastered the contents of A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration?”
“Yes, Mr.
Manager,” Isaac nodded.
The very next second, a sharp exclamation echoed from right behind him.
“What?!”