The morning went normally after that, one book folding into the next with barely a pause between them. By the time he was finished, it was well past eight.
He reshelved his stack with a level of care he felt was strictly necessary, given the librarian's earlier glance. And made his way back through the castle's shifting staircases— the trip back was slower than his journey in, since the staircases seemed even less cooperative, almost as if they were fully aware that class was about to begin and had collectively decided to be mischievous.
The Great Hall was in full breakfast chaos by the time he arrived. Aegeus slid into a seat beside Marcus, who was already three plates deep into something involving eggs.
"Morning," Marcus said, not looking up. "Where were you?"
"I was in the library," Aegeus said.
Marcus paused mid-bite. "Library? But it's the first day!"
"So?" Aegeus said plainly.
Rosalind, seated a little further down the table, caught his eye and mouthed something that looked distinctly like, of course you did, before returning to her own breakfast.
Schedules arrived a few minutes later, delivered by a prefect moving briskly down the table. Aegeus scanned his in seconds. Transfiguration, first thing— nine o'clock, with the Hufflepuffs.
At five to nine, the three of them made their way to a classroom on the first floor, where a small crowd of first-years— Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs— were already settled.
Aegeus took a seat near the front, Marcus dropping in beside him and Rosalind claiming the desk just behind, and set his new copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration on the desk in front of him.
On the front sat a single tabby cat, perfectly still, watching the class with an attentiveness no ordinary cat should have.
Aegeus studied it for a moment, the strange cat's posture was too composed, its eyes fixed ahead.
As the clock somewhere down the corridor struck nine, the cat leapt down from the desk— and Professor McGonagall stood in its place a heartbeat later, sweeping the assembled first-years with a single, assessing glance.
A ragged chorus of gasps went up around the room. Somewhere behind him, a Hufflepuff boy jumped out of his chair. Marcus, beside him, simply stood still, as though trying to work out whether he had somehow missed the cat leaving and a professor walking in at the exact same moment.
"Wicked," he muttered, once his voice came back to him.
She moved to the front of the room and, with a small, precise flick of her wand, turned the desk briefly into a pig and back again— a demonstration that again amazed every single one, Aegeus included.
"Transfiguration," McGonagall said once the room had settled, "is one of the most complex and dangerous forms of magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
She spent the next several minutes on theory— the difference between transfiguring an object and merely disguising it, the importance of clear intent, the reason half-finished spells were so dangerous. Aegeus recognized most of it from the books he had read.
"Today," McGonagall finally said, she then brought a small box and set it on her desk, "We begin with something simple. Turning a matchstick into a needle."
She passed a matchstick to each student, along with a demonstration of the correct wand motion— a short, sharp swish followed by a precise tap— and the incantation to go with it.
"Don't worry if you didn't succeed on your first few attempts," she said, reassuringly. "Now begin!"
The room dissolved into a chorus of muttered incantations and the occasional soft pop. A Hufflepuff girl two rows over was watching him rather than her own work. He believed her name was Amelia Abbott. She wasn't even pretending to take notes— her quill rested untouched against her parchment, chin propped on one hand.
When he glanced back, she looked startled, then she looked away so fast her quill clattered off the desk, after that, she spent the next several minutes pretending to transfigure her matchstick with fierce, fixed concentration.
Marcus's matchstick sprouted a single, silver point at one end before reverting entirely. As for Rosalind's, hers thinned promisingly before curling into something that resembled a worm.
Aegeus set his own matchstick on the desk, and then he made the exact same motion McGonagall had shown them.
"Verto."
The wood thinned, brightened, and lengthened, the fibrous grain slowly smoothed into something more metallic, until a plain silver needle lay on the desk where the matchstick had been— slightly duller than McGonagall's, but unmistakably a needle.
McGonagall arrived at his desk a moment later. She picked it up, turned it once in the light, and set it back down without comment.
"Well done," she said finally. "Five points to Gryffindor."
She moved on without saying anything further.
Marcus, still glaring at his half-transfigured matchstick, leaned over. "You could've at least pretended to struggle a little. You know? For morale."
"Next time," Aegeus said, not looking up.
His practical progress over the summer had long surpassed the standard curriculum. He could transform all kinds of inanimate objects. Pencils turned seamlessly into spoons, inkwells into glass marbles, and small wooden blocks shifted shape as he wished with a flick of his wrist.
Yet, he had run into a wall when it came to the physical size of his targets.
When attempting to transfigure a heavy stone into a steel iron shield during his practice sessions, it didn't work. Increasing the amount of magic infused didn't do anything other than causing it to react violently.
Aegeus knew the answer to this question likely existed in some hidden volume somewhere in the library, but with a Master of Transfiguration standing right in front of him, he would be stupid not to take full advantage of it.
"Excuse me, Professor," he said politely
McGonagall stepped over to his desk.
"Yes, Mr. Granger?"
"I tried to transform large objects over the summer, and the results weren't good... Why are larger objects so much harder to transform?" Aegeus asked. "Even if the amount of magic is increased, it only causes the object to react violently."
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TO BE CONTINUED
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