Isaac turned at the sound and immediately recognized the wild, bushy brown hair.
It took a serious amount of volume to reach that level of chaos.
Someone with Isaac’s fine, soft hair could never pull it off.
Caught staring by both Isaac and the manager, Hermione’s face flushed bright red.
Eavesdropping wasn’t polite.
Reacting dramatically to someone else’s conversation was even worse.
The Grangers had raised her better than that.
“I’m so sorry!
I didn’t mean to listen in, but—!” Her words came out in a frantic rush.
“But you said you already finished A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration?!” The last time the Grangers had been in Diagon Alley, Professor McGonagall had left in a hurry.
Snape had taken over—cold, intimidating, and completely uninterested in small talk.
Mr.
Granger had tried once, gotten no response, and wisely stopped.
They’d only bought the required supplies that day.
Hermione had been so excited about the books that she’d spent the entire month buried in them.
She read the theory every day and tried practicing every spell she could.
After thirty days she had only managed a few charms from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1.
Her parents had finally dragged her out today for a change of scenery.
They were sitting in the ice cream shop across the street while Hermione, predictably, had made a beeline for the bookstore.
She’d been completely absorbed in Hogwarts: A History when she heard a familiar voice.
The voice of the boy who might or might not be a real prophet.
She had asked McGonagall the same question once.
The professor had gone pale and left immediately.
When she asked Snape, he had only given her a withering glare.
None of that mattered now.
What mattered was what she had just heard.
Someone had already finished A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration?
Hermione was smart enough to catch the manager’s implication.
While she was still stuck on basic spells, this boy had already completed a book that covered both first and second year.
Intermediate Transfiguration was for years three through five.
Advanced Transfiguration Guide was for sixth and seventh.
Isaac had just lapped her by two full years at the starting line.
That was unacceptable.
Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes.
Isaac saw it coming and spoke quickly.
“You heard right.
I finished it.
A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration isn’t that hard.” He glanced at the manager as if looking for backup.
The manager nodded enthusiastically.
Whether the book had been difficult for him back in school didn’t matter.
If Dumbledore’s “relative” said it was easy, then it was easy.
This boy was their biggest customer right now.
If he claimed Dumbledore couldn’t do magic, the manager would still agree.
Isaac’s own credibility with Hermione was shaky after the prophecy stall incident.
But the manager’s word carried weight.
So a book that normally took two years… this boy had finished in one month?
Hermione looked ready to cry for real.
Across the street, the Grangers noticed their daughter’s distress, paid for their ice cream, and hurried over.
The manager, sensing he might have gone too far, tried to smooth things over.
“Miss, if you’re worried about your studies, there’s really no need.
Wizards with Mr.
Waldore’s level of talent are quite rare in our world.” Hermione’s head snapped up.
She zeroed in on the loophole instantly.
“Rare… does that mean there are more than one like him?” Her voice cracked.
The manager realized he had just made everything worse.
Merlin’s beard.
This Muggle-born girl had a terrifying competitive streak.
As a senior bookstore manager, he knew when to shut up.
Powerful wizards had strange tempers.
If he said Isaac was unique and some other powerful witch or wizard took offense, it could start another war.
He was not about to become the man who accidentally triggered the next wizarding conflict.
So he pretended he hadn’t heard her and turned smoothly back to Isaac.
“Given your talent in Transfiguration, Mr.
Waldore, I strongly recommend subscribing to Transfiguration Today and The Transfiguration Quarterly.
They publish the most cutting-edge research.
I would also personally suggest the collected edition of Transfiguration Today: Developments and Prospects.
It’s a series of papers that picks up right after Advanced Transfiguration Guide—a perfect bridge into deeper theory.” The manager’s recommendation was a little wordy, but Isaac understood the larger point.
Hogwarts was basically magic middle school plus high school.
It was the one place where young witches and wizards could get knowledge cheaply.
Once they graduated and entered real wizarding society, the same information would cost ten times, a hundred times, even a thousand times more.
That was when the gap between Muggle-born, half-blood, and pure-blood wizards truly opened.
And the worst part?
After Hogwarts there was no magic university.
No structured higher education.
If you wanted to keep learning, you had to pay through the nose for private tutors, rare books, or exclusive mentorships.
That was the real world waiting for them after graduation.