Christian walked down to the dining room, where breakfast was already prepared. With his eyes half closed, he yawned and stretched out, showing his fatigue. However, even his good morning lacked energy or substance.
"Where are your manners?" said his mother in a reprimanding tone.
"Sorry," quickly said Christian. He was so tired that he forgot it was inappropriate to detire (stretch) and baye (yawn) in front of people.
"Did you not sleep last night?" asked Aunt Eleanor, and Christian's eyes suddenly brightened. "Last night, I had a great idea for a magic experiment. I was so excited thinking about it that I didn't sleep much."
"Oh, now you've piqued my interest," commented Tiara. "So, what's this idea?"
"I won't tell you, not until our afternoon lesson," replied Christian with a cunning light in his eyes. "Unless (his voice trailing) you were willing to give me the day off in the spirit of exploiting the very essence of magic?"
"In your dream," she replied decisively, and Christian smiled wryly as he expected this outcome. "It's a really great idea."
"Says who? You, the novice."
"No, the novice prodigy."
"That's still a novice," added Eleanor, who was reading today's newspaper, making the young boy feel he was being ganged up against.
"That's a fair point." Christian could not argue with these words. "It's been a month; why am I still a novice? Shouldn't I go to a higher level or something?"
"Just the fact that you think one month is enough to become a qualified wizard shows that you're a novice," countered Tiara.
"OK, I won't argue with you two," replied Christian as he admitted his defeat; he knew when to pick his battles, and arguing with a top-tier lawyer and a powerful witch was not one he would win. He focused on his breakfast, which was his favorite: sweet plantains with fried tomato eggs and two sausages on the side.
Christian frowned after a few bites.
"Is something wrong?" asked his mother.
"I just realized I haven't seen Geoffrey Butler around lately."
"I let him go."
"Why?"
"I'll be home, so there is no need for someone else to take care of the house chores," replied Tiara. "And I thought it would reduce the chances of exposing magic. It will be troublesome to involve the law, and having his memories wiped out would not be a good experience."
"That's a good point. But you guys didn't just fire him, right?"
"I gave him a nice severance package and helped him find another job," replied Aunt Eleanor.
"That's good. I wish I had the chance to say au revoir," uttered Christian. Over the years, he had a few different maids or butlers. However, Geoffrey lasted the longest as the others were fired for stealing, not-so-savory things, or leaving of their own accord. Although Geoffrey was a little too proper and etiquette-driven than he would like, he still appreciated the latter's service for all these years.
"I know his number; you can call him on your way home to school."
The day proceeded as usual: boring school, tiring Capoeira practice, peaceful and intriguing language tutoring with Professor Hallmark, and soon, Christian's favorite activity arrived: magic lessons.
Christian held his magic journal in his hand with excitement. He tapped his wand on the first page, and the gibberish rapidly turned into coherent English:
"Tell me what you think."
"Hmm, an interesting idea worth testing," nodded Tiara; she had never thought of such a thing and wanted to know what would happen. "So, how do you want to test this?"
"We will need a control group to compare. We probably also need you to do the same experiment and see if you will find the same result. That also means you would need to remember the anatomy of a creature. Wait a moment, I remember something from biology class. Let me draw."
A few minutes later, Christian looked embarrassed at the pictures he had drawn; he did not know where his confidence in drawing the frog he had seen in Jim's memory came from.
"It was so clear in my mind that I forgot I could not draw," he said with a wry smile. "We might need a biology book."
"I know a spell that can help you project the picture in your mind into a drawing," said Tiara before showing him the wand movement and incantation for the Mindscribe Charm: Imajetran Kreatsia.
"A spell with a Greek word? That's the first. I was starting to think Latin was the foundation of all of them," Christian commented, who knew Kreas was the Greek word for creating or shaping. The spell was simple, so it only took him a few seconds to learn and utilize. Immediately afterward, they began their experiment.
The process took a little time as his mother needed more time to remember the diagram. According to her, she was aging, and her memory was failing. Soon, they stood before a table with four matchsticks labeled A, B, C, and D.
Matchsticks A and C were bright red to indicate their status as the control group. Christians walked to Matchstick A and turned it into a frog using the standard casting method: simply focus and imagine a frog. He turned to Matchstick B and took his time. He imagined the frog's anatomy in as much detail as possible and concentrated intently before transforming it.
Excitedly, he observed these two frogs but could not see any difference.
"I don't see any difference except for Frog B's brighter eyes, but I might be biased," he commented with a raised eyebrow. "Why don't you try it? Maybe there will be some difference because of your skill."
"Alright." Tiara also proceeded with the experiment, but it was the same — no observable difference.
"It seems this experiment is a failure," said Christian. "I really thought I was into something."
"You're giving up too easily," Tiara persuaded. "We will try a few times to see if we miss something. " She pointed her wand at these creatures: "Reparifarge!"
Frog A reverted to its matchstick stage before she proceeded to Frog B. However, something odd occurred: the creature did not change back.
"Could it be?" she muttered. She tried again, and Frog B finally reverted.
"Quick, try your experiment," said Christian, and she did so. Frog C swiftly changed, but it took four attempts before Frog D changed.
"So, it was a success," said Christian excitedly before calming down. "But, what are the implications or applications of this discovery?"
"Many," replied Tiara. "Transfiguration will now become more threatening in battle." She imagined what would happen if someone could not quickly disperse her transfigurations and the advantages that would bring her to battle.
"Transfiguration will, in general, become a more potent and dangerous form of magic. " Every year, countless injuries occur at Saint Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and if people become injured with this method, the severity of these injuries will dramatically increase. On the upside, maybe this method could have healing applications. Maybe understanding the anatomy of whatever creature a wizard fails to transform into would help reverse it.
"Alchemy is a field of magic that also involves Transfiguration: this idea will probably also influence it," continued Tiara. "Lastly, we might be able to make a breakthrough into a field of Transfiguration that was labeled as impossible for thousands of years."
"You mean?"
"Yes…"