When Harry returned to the common room, the students were almost gone, and he spotted Ron and Hermione who were still there, and went over to them. Ron was staring at the box in his lap with a shocked expression on his face, and when Harry was about to speak, Hermione suddenly slammed her risen book on the table with a loud thud.
"Ro-uh, what's wrong with you, Hermione?"
"Terrible! It's the first time I've ever experienced this feeling, it's like my whole being is out of control." Hermione said with annoyance and Harry looked at Ron uncertainly for a hint.
"Transfiguration." Ron muttered, not sounding quite happy.
"Well, it is." Hermione said to Harry, though she didn't elaborate, and pulled out her wand instead as she pointed it at herself, "Watch - my reasons are telling me that I can't do it because I haven't figured out the principle yet, but ..."
Harry stared at her and for a few seconds he thought Hermione was joking with him, but he slowly opened his mouth wide.
Hermione's face began to change. Not the kind of change that was particularly noticeable, but every detail was modified a little, the curves of her face became smoother, her eyebrows got evener, the tiny blemishes on her cheeks disappeared ... in a word, what they had learned and not learned in Transfiguration class during all this time displayed perfectly.
Hermione showed her teeth at him, whereupon Harry noticed that her slightly protruding front teeth had also shrunk by a fraction, and her whole face looked particularly nice, almost like a different person.
"Wow." Harry said admiringly, "You're getting more and more skilled at Transfiguration."
Hermione sighed. "That's the point, I don't know how I did it."
Harry froze a little until Ron grunted - "Animagus." It was only then that it dawned on him.
"It's that effective?" He mumbled in surprise.
According to Sirius, learning Animagus would have a huge boost on Transfiguration.
"It's not entirely the effect of Animagus, I already had the foundation." Hermione thought about it and said seriously, "If I were to cast spells separately, like eyebrows, teeth, hair, and other transfigurations ... I could do them all very well, but putting them together would cause problems from time to time. But now that problem is fixed."
"Isn't that great? You've improved." Harry said.
"Not that good, because a new problem has arisen." Hermione said naggingly, "I'm not sure how I did it, in fact, during the day training I just had some ... gut feeling pop up every now and then, and it was goading me into doing something I wasn't sure about."
"That sounds awful." Harry said dryly as he had experienced that same feeling in the morning, though he went much more overboard than Hermione, as he blew up a small patch of the forbidden forest. "So what are you going to do?"
He recalled Professor Bagshot's words and thought - even if Professor Bagshot wanted to teach Hermione, they probably wouldn't get along.
"Of course to read a book, I'm going to find the book I read before about Transfiguration and study it all over again," Hermione said, "That's right!" She looked at Harry with certainty, the look on her face mirroring the one she had on countless occasions when she pulled out her reference book list.
"Leave her alone Harry, she's asking for trouble." Ron said.
"No, not at all!" Hermione raised her eyebrows and stood up to glare at him condescendingly, "I've finished reading the Transfiguration textbook for years one to four thoroughly and I can tell you, just now, I've had quite a few new insights! Harry, I suggest you do the same in the future." With that, she picked up her book and strutted off.
Harry looked at her and muttered to himself in some confusion, "You're saying that Hermione has really mastered the principles of all the magic she knows?" Is this the secret to her ability to harness her magic so easily?
He looked over at Ron, who lowered his head again, that disbelieving look returning to his face. Harry stared at the contents of the box in his lap, and inside the coloured padded cardboard lay some sort of knitted fabric.
"I've been meaning to ask for a while now, what's that?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Ron said in a flat tone, but Harry bet he definitely wished for him to ask more about it. "It's a present from Fred and George, it amazes me that they even remembered my birthday." He said.
Harry leaned over and found the contents of the box to be a pair of gloves, especially the fingertip section which seemed to have been extra thickened and wrapped several times with red wool thread to give the appearance of some sort of frog's webbed feet.
Quite fitting with Fred and George's character.
Harry imagined Ron wearing the frog flipper gloves outside and hanging out in a cheerful mood. But as soon as Ron pulled the gloves out of the cushioned cardboard box, Harry realized he was wrong.
This birthday present is going to be even more exciting than he had imagined, with the ten fingertips of the gloves being the heads of delicate tiny figurines. Ron put the gloves on and stared at them for a few seconds by himself, then showed them to Harry woodenly. Harry's eyes fell on the only anomaly above the ten fingers: at the left thumb, the hair on the little figure's head was not red, but black.
"That's me?" Harry asked in surprise, staring at it for half a second, not noticing any resemblance to himself and only being able to make a wild guess based on the colour.
"That's right," Ron moved his left thumb and the little figure on his glove, making it look like it was dancing and swaying from side to side. "That's Ginny." He gestured to his right thumb this time, and Harry could only make out a hint of Ginny from the long hair of the little figure.
He surveyed the other fingers some more and vaguely made out the shadows of Weasley family members.
Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Percy ... Harry was half touched, half jealous, and he thought a little greedily that it would be nice if this could be his gift, but the fact that Fred and George had thought to put him in it made his heart well up with warmth.
"Look at this! Fred and George have added a new feature." Ron said, flexing his left thumb - the little figure that represented Harry - and a loud voice suddenly cried out.
"Snape, Snape, Severus Snape, the big greasy bat."
Harry jumped in shock and looked sheepishly from side to side twice. The voice sounded eighty to ninety percent like him and in his trance, he thought it was him who was talking, but after the shock, he knew it was Fred and George who were up to no good. Harry couldn't help but smile.
"Well?" Ron looked at him with a grin, seemingly pleased with the effect as well.
"I think you should show it to Snape." Harry said calmly.
"Oh-" Ron pouted, deciding not to take that up, "Look Ginny - Fred and George didn't tell me exactly what it was and let me come back and try it myself, but with their character -" he flexed his right thumb.
A new voice sounded -
"I love flying brooms! I love Harry Potter!"
An exuberant voice that was eighty to ninety percent similar to Ginny's echoed through the common room.
Harry and Ron stared at each other, looking at each other blankly. "Oh," Ron trailed off, looking caught off guard. He cleared his throat, "Let's try Fred and George figure once, I don't suppose it'll be anything good, though, that would fit -"
He raised an eyebrow and raised two middle fingers at Harry.
The little figure on the two fingers made a gesture of taking off their hat, this time uttering a sound that sounded most like themselves, "Fred (George) sends you his regards and wishes you a good life." Harry could just picture the twins standing in front of him smiling mischievously.
"How about it, mate? But it's not me giving you the middle finger, I guess that's Fred and George gesturing at themselves." Ron said defensively, while Harry looked on with glee, "Brilliant."
The next morning, at meal time in the great hall, Hermione's book bag was even more bloated, and she suddenly asked, "By the way, Harry - I haven't asked you how Professor Dumbledore's lesson went, any new developments?"
"Meeting a lot of friends that he made when he was at school." Harry muttered, holding the mandrake leaf under his tongue and taking small sips of pumpkin porridge, a manoeuvre he had become quite adept at.
At that moment, the Creevey brothers passed by them, exchanging friendly greetings, before circling around and sitting with their friends.
"Like Elphias Doge, who enrolled in the same year as Dumbledore - I personally think he's an avid admirer of the Headmaster," Harry's eyes followed the Creevey brothers until they were seated, before continuing, "and Nicolas Flamel, Bathilda Bagshot, Adalbert Waffling-"
"Who's that, Adebe or something?" Ron interrupted, he was chewing his food carefully with the right side of his teeth.
"Adalbert Waffling, an expert on magical theory." Hermione blurted out quickly, "And who else, Harry?"
Harry hesitated, "And Dumbledore's little brother."
Ron choked, he hurriedly covered his mouth and after a short while he whispered, "The Hog's Head's owner?" He made an effort to look like he was thoughtful with wide eyes, "Tell me more, Harry, I'm curious, did they look alike when they were at school?"
Harry thought back for a moment and nodded lightly.
"I think they were quite similar."
"Think about it, a younger Dumbledore looking like a sloppy slob." Ron said pleasantly, looking over to the faculty table.
"To be precise," Harry couldn't resist the urge to explain, "you can tell the two apart at a glance, they have very different personalities, Aberforth- I mean Dumbledore's brother, he's not much of a study lover and always has a provocative expression on his face. If it weren't for Dumbledore being his brother, he would have gotten a lot of beatings ..."
"But from our brief encounter, they don't seem to be on very good terms." Hermione said softly.
"Yeah," Harry said, also looking over to the long dining table where Dumbledore was talking to Hagrid, with Professor Hap and Professor Bagshot listening from the side next to him. He changed the subject and said, "Hermione, I wanted to ask if you've ever tried to use your magical powers at full power and, then like, blown up a piece of forbidden forest ..."
...
"Definitely a nasty thing, Dumbledore," Hagrid lowered his voice and spoke in a buzzing tone, "I found it when I got up this morning to patrol the Forbidden Forest, a large chunk of the Forbidden Forest suffered, I can't imagine what kind of creature did it, even a giant couldn't do it, it must have been some dark wizard with bad intentions ..."
Felix and Grindelwald, who were listening closely at the side, had thoughtful expressions.
"Hogwarts has upgraded its defense system with new ones, so if an outsider infiltrates, he will definitely be discovered." Felix said lightly.
"That's right," Dumbledore agreed, "I'll take care of this," he glanced at Grindelwald, "It could have been caused by one of the professors practicing magic in private, I'll warn him. "
"Oh, I thought-" Hagrid shook his head, "you really should have seen it, the scene was even more terrible than I said, the centaurs were worried, and it was very close to their tribe." When his eyes turned to Felix, he was dazed for a moment, and showed a witty gaze.
"Not me." Felix instantly said.
"Of course, how could ..." Hagrid stammered, though from the look on his face it was clear he didn't believe it all. "Use your head, Hagrid," Felix said suggestively, "we've known each other for over ten years."
Grindelwald flipped through a page of the booklet Who Will Dictate Ancient Runes without a moment of hesitation.
Hagrid froze for a moment, "Now that you mention it ... I do remember something, well ... it was actually something Professor Kettleburn mentioned to me when I visited him some time ago. He settled in Hogsmeade after he retired, and I would occasionally visit him for advice and stuff, you know, Classroom Seven is closed, Scamander ..."
"I know."
Felix interrupted. Silvanus Kettleburn was the professor for the Care of Magical Creatures class before Hagrid.
"He has taken you to the Forbidden Forest a few times, in ..." Hagrid abruptly caught his throat, "ahem, the years you stayed in school. Kettleburn thought you'd develop a career towards magical creatures, but it turns out you were only partially interested in knowledge like the Manticore's ability to withstand spells with its hide and inquired where to find a place that sold clothes made of that material."
"Just satisfying curiosity." Felix said dryly.
"Sounds like Kettlebone took it seriously, and he moved the Sphinx immediately after that to a more isolated location," Hagrid said gruffly, "It took a lot of effort."
"Everyone has unrealistic fantasies when they're young. At least I don't need them now."
"Yeah, I remember Kettleburn even saying that his greatest hope for a while was to retire in one piece," Hagrid lamented, "Unfortunately, he only managed to get half of his wish." He muttered, "One arm and one leg less ..."
Dumbledore asked amiably, "Is Silvanus's leg still in one piece? I gave him a full set of enchanted wooden prosthetics when he retired, but I was told he developed a habit of visiting the Dragon Sanctuary shortly thereafter."
Felix turned his head the other way and asked a slightly more uncomfortable Slughorn ( because he is sitting next to Grindelwald), "Professor Slughorn, I am planning a gathering and will be inviting a number of Potions Masters. You are the undisputed leader, do you have anything scheduled lately?"
Slughorn hesitantly wiped his mouth with a velvet handkerchief.
"Oh, oh, I've been very busy lately, son ... but," he said promptly, "since you've invited me, I'm sure I can find some time, can I ask who you've invited?"
"Let's see ... Severus, Damocles, Dorothea-" "Dorothea Bonham? " Slughorn asked in surprise, "You could invite her?"
"Yes, I think I can. There's also the Head and some members of the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers, some people from the St. Mungo's Magical Medical Society, a few Ministry of Magic officials ..." Felix said slowly, "I'm thinking about inviting the members of the Alchemy Society, it doesn't feel too relevant, and the foreign masters of potions as well..."
"You're sure about that? I mean, you know that many people?" Slughorn asked, his eyes bulging with astonishment.
"Well, not too well actually, but I have people I know in the local Ministry of Magic who can extend the invitation on my behalf. There's also the fact that I'm confident in what I've come up with would be worth their time." Felix said relaxedly.
Slughorn was out of breath for a moment and said as if dreaming, "I'm starting to get curious about your gathering."
Dumbledore, who was whispering to Hagrid, looked up, the corners of his mouth curling slightly as if he had just hit a brilliant shot at a ten-pin bowling.
"I hate Ancient Rune." Grindelwald whispered with a grimace as he stared at the booklet he held in his hand.
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