Glenn and Hermione were both experts at utilizing fragments of time for learning. Even with only fifteen minutes between classes, they could make excellent use of it, adding new knowledge to their mental libraries.
However, fragment time was still fragment time. The two had spent some time walking from the Arithmancy classroom to the Transfiguration classroom, and now, having opened their books less than seven minutes ago, this Transfiguration lesson was about to begin.
Old cat lady Professor McGonagall walked to the front of the classroom, her stern gaze sweeping the room through her square spectacles, signaling the still somewhat noisy young witches and wizards to quiet down.
It was undeniably effective. Everyone present was well acquainted by now—they all knew Professor McGonagall's temperament and equally understood the importance of Transfiguration. So even though the young witches and wizards still felt anxious and unsettled by the prophecies they'd heard in the Divination classroom during the previous lesson, and wanted to express their inner emotions through discussion, they could only forcibly suppress their urge to speak and settle down to listen.
Professor McGonagall was clearly satisfied with this. The little ones were becoming increasingly well-behaved in her classroom—even the Slytherin serpents were no exception.
She cast an inconspicuous look of appreciation at Hermione, who sat in the very center of the front row. The current thick atmosphere of learning throughout the school, and the greatly improved relationships between students both within and across houses, were all thanks to Hermione—her most prideful student.
Diligent and inquisitive, respectful to teachers, exceptionally intelligent, and still having energy left over to help other young witches and wizards with their studies after taking care of her own affairs—where could you find such a wonderful classmate, such an excellent student!
Professor McGonagall had once seen her own apprentice days reflected in Hermione, but now it seemed Hermione had already far surpassed her younger self at Hogwarts.
Setting aside academic progress and talent, just Hermione's willingness to spend so much time and energy coordinating relationships between the houses—even establishing a study organization that completely abandoned house divisions—was something Professor McGonagall felt she absolutely couldn't have accomplished herself.
Professor McGonagall admitted she lacked patience. If she were to organize something like Hermione's current study group, it would inevitably end with everyone parting on bad terms.
What an amazing girl!
The more she looked, the more she liked her; the more she looked, the prouder she felt.
Enough, enough—no more looking. Class was the priority.
Professor McGonagall turned her gaze back and began leading the young witches and wizards to open their Transfiguration textbooks, introducing what they would be learning today.
"Animagus—an extremely special form of self-transfiguration that allows one to transform into a certain animal according to one's own will, while retaining roughly the same thinking ability, self-identity recognition, and memory as before the transformation."
"Unlike other transfiguration spells, its duration isn't determined by the amount of magical power in the initially cast spell. After transforming into an animal through Animagus, the caster can continuously release magical power to maintain their transformation."
"After learning Animagus, the magical power consumed while maintaining the Animagus form isn't much. Under normal living conditions, the caster's own magical power generation is completely sufficient to maintain Animagus transformation indefinitely."
Professor McGonagall paused, glanced at the expressions on the surrounding young witches' and wizards' faces, and continued her lesson.
"In other words, as long as a wizard who has learned Animagus wishes, they could even maintain their Animagus transformation for an entire lifetime."
"Even surviving for long periods in Animagus animal form, the caster can still possess a normal human lifespan."
"But one important point to note: with prolonged Animagus maintenance, the caster's emotions and sensations will be simplified, replaced by animals' wild desires. They'll crave whatever they long for in their corresponding animal form, rather than human food. Similarly, other desires will also match those of animals—I won't enumerate them all here."
"So if someday in the future you learn Animagus, please try to use it for short periods only."
She glanced briefly at Hermione and Glenn. In recent letters Hermione had sent her, she often used the excuse of preview to ask about Animagus information. If she wasn't mistaken, these two children had already begun secretly preparing to learn and cast Animagus.
And the kind that didn't plan to report to the Ministry of Magic!
...But so what? As far as she was concerned, she knew nothing about this matter.
Professor McGonagall's glance was very brief and very subtle, making Hermione almost think it was an illusion.
"But it probably wasn't an illusion... I feel like Professor McGonagall knows exactly what we two want to do, which is why she's giving us such veiled reminders in class."
The girl's mouth didn't move, sitting perfectly upright, but her mosquito-thin voice still reached Glenn's ears.
Glenn nodded but didn't intend to speak aloud.
So what if she knew? Given Hermione and Professor McGonagall's relationship, Professor McGonagall presumably wouldn't react negatively to this.
Just continue listening to the lesson.
"But the prerequisite for long-term Animagus casting is first mastering this extremely difficult transfiguration. Becoming an Animagus transformer is very difficult—the process is both time-consuming and complex, very prone to accidents, and serious errors are also possible. Therefore, it's said that only one wizard in a thousand can become an Animagus transformer."
"The warnings about Animagus don't stop there. Even if you learn Animagus, you must be careful during the transformation process and maintain firm conviction. Otherwise, if errors occur during transformation, the consequences will be very serious and the outcome very tragic."
"Losing conviction or patience with the long and complex transformation process often leads to catastrophic results—such as becoming a strange half-beast, half-human form. And as far as I know, the current wizarding world has no antidote capable of reversing this. So wizards unfortunate enough to experience this can only be forced to live out their lives in this odd and pitiful state that is neither human nor animal."
"You wouldn't want to become the sort of half-human, half-beast appearance that draws strange looks or even malice from others, and that you'd find disgusting to look at yourself, would you?"
Professor McGonagall stared at Hermione and Glenn again.
This warning is specifically for you two—understand?
Hmm?
Be careful!
Cold sweat broke out on Hermione's forehead, and she couldn't help but show a sheepish smile.
Professor McGonagall's love really was quite heavy indeed...
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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