The students left one by one, holding their materials, the last one to leave slammed the door behind them.
"Bang."
Silence fell over the staff room, with only Professor Binns leaning against the fireplace making snoring noises in a tranquil mood. However, this silence was quickly broken as Felix leaned his body back in his chair, "Would you like a cup of tea, everyone?"
Professor McGonagall, Snape, and Grindelwald looked up, with varying expressions.
"I wouldn't mind," Grindelwald said nonchalantly, "the probation report can be written any time."
Professor McGonagall's sharp gaze immediately moved away from Felix, as if she had found a new point of focus. "I should remind you, Professor Bagshot, that you've been dragging this whole thing out for weeks." "Thank you, Minerva," Grindelwald said politely and perfunctorily, "I just have a new insight every time I think about it ..."
"It seems Mr. Bagshot is still a man of perfection," Snape said nonchalantly, "I'm sorry I haven't heard of your reputation before."
"I haven't spent much time in England, it's too cramped and the weather is bad." Grindelwald said.
"Click."
Several heads turned to Felix as he calmly bit off half of a crunchy biscuit. Just as they spoke, three plates of pastries, two kettles of hot tea, and four mugs had been placed on the table, "I don't think we need to consider Professor Binns for now, unless any of you want him to join the chat ..."
No one paid him any attention.
Grindelwald poured himself a cup of honey tea, Snape stared at the pale glow at the surface of the table, a fourth plate was trying its best to break free from the table, and Felix pushed the ice jelly with the cat's smiling face painted on it over to Professor McGonagall's side, so he could make room for the fried jam doughnuts plate that is emerging.
"A kind of alternative food summoning spell?" Snape asked.
"I invented it," Felix said, "the secret is to pre-negotiate with the house elves ... I added a special halo to make it look more magical."
Professor McGonagall looked somewhat impressed.
"Felix," she said, pursing her lips as she looked at the soft, bouncy cat jelly for a moment, "I need to communicate with you about the lesson plan, the Animagus Transformation is extremely dangerous- "
"Minerva, I trust your eyesight, the two of us will be looking over it." Felix said, "And I still stand by my opinion that the biggest obstacle for Animagus is not the tedious prior preparation, rather it is about how to control the feral nature that bubbles up in our hearts during the first transformation, ninety percent of the danger occurs at this stage."
"I totally agree, Felix," Professor McGonagall said, and then asked, somewhat suspiciously, "Have you mastered Animagus as well?" She had thought that Felix had simply compiled the study notes passed down through the generations of the Black family and brought them to the students.
"Sort of."
"Sort of?" Professor McGonagall huffed and knocked over the cup in front of her, she waved her wand and the cup was immediately restored to its original state. Without looking at it, she asked, "What is your Transfiguration form?"
"A rain swallow." Felix said without thinking.
"I never saw your name in the announcement issued by the Animagus registry." Professor McGonagall said seriously, "So my teaching career has consisted of a succession of major blunders, with a total of four students who practised and became illegal Animagus under my nose?"
"Ahem, to be precise ... I don't know if I am actually an Animagus or not. As for registering ... Miss Granger has been too busy lately to be bothered too much." Felix began to make up nonsense.
Professor McGonagall stared at Felix, her chest rising and falling rhythmically.
Both Snape and Grindelwald were silent at this point, motionless and eavesdropping on the conversation between them. As far as Snape knew, Felix hadn't studied Animagus during his school years, at least not at school. Because his mouth had never been idle, always asking questions, and he remembered that Felix had earned a nickname because of it, what it was ... the wandering Sphinx?
But it was impossible to tell what he had done privately on holiday, or after graduation, it was entirely possible.
Grindelwald, for his part, remembered Dumbledore's Animagus.
"... Therefore, if students have experienced this feeling of being on the verge of losing control, it will help to keep them sane during a real Animagus transformation." Seeing that Professor McGonagall hadn't relented yet, Felix nudged his mouth towards Snape.
"But," Snape said slowly as he put down his teacup, "how are you going to manage the in-between, don't tell me ... you got the idea from that Death Eater when he punished the students for breaking the rules. "
Felix knew the Death Eater he was referring to was Crouch Jr, who had disguised himself as Moody and turned Draco Malfoy into a ferret not long after the school year had started.
"That's right," Professor McGonagall said, with a tremor in her voice, "I don't suppose you've forgotten the terrible experience of the witch Hicks Crowley?"
Felix looked at her in puzzlement.
"What was that?"
"Crowley was a witch from the 1920s who made a serious mistake during her first Animagus transformation and was driven out of her mind by the unquenchable surge of feral impulse in her mind; her family only realized something was wrong a week later and realized there had been a storm during that time, and their daughter was working on Animagus magic during that time... ..."
"And then what happened?"
"They found Crowley and restored her to human form, but she was completely delirious, and it took three months of treatment at St Mungo's to be healed." Professor McGonagall said solemnly, "She is considered very fortunate, there is a clear indication that proves more than seven disappearances of wizards in the last century are believed to be linked to the failed Animagus transformation."
Felix looked thoughtful.
"I think this story shows us how important it is to have a reliable brain and friend ... Minerva, and I'm more curious about how Crowley's parents found her because as per common occurrence, she was in a state not much different from a real beast."
Professor McGonagall gave him a hard stare and said with exasperation.
"Because Crowley's parents insisted on casting the Animagus reversal spell on every animal they saw for the next three days, and then they found a cow a kilometre away, happily munching on wild strawberries, with stripes identical to the one in their daughter's favourite dress ... "
"... After recovering from that experience, Crowley was so frightened that she refused to perform the Animagus Transfiguration for the rest of her life, so the Ministry of Magic did not register her name."
Or maybe that Transfiguration form really wasn't much use ... Felix thought to himself as he said in a lighter tone.
"Okay, I admit that story is scary and the feeling of being out of control of your body sucks, but you didn't think the students could run away with the two of us around, did you? If you really insist, we can set up a control group - think about it, Minerva, we're perfectly capable of keeping the danger within reasonable limits, and once we've succeeded, the new practice method will greatly improve the chances of safely performing the Animagus transformation."
There was a moment's silence, and Professor McGonagall's will loosened somewhat.
Although she was usually a little old-fashioned, it was just something she had developed in the face of mischievous students. She also had Ravenclaw traits within herself, and had almost been sorted into Ravenclaw House when she had enrolled; she was single-minded in her approach to knowledge, and never lacked courage.
Otherwise, she would not have mastered Animagus.
What made her hesitate was that she wasn't sure whether to put her students at risk and how much to risk. She looked at Felix, who gave her a confident smile.
"Then present your plan," Professor McGonagall said, "I won't agree to it even if there's a slight issue."
"No problem," Felix said cheerfully, "I bet those students won't even finish reading the materials, so we've got plenty of time ..."
The door was pushed open from outside.
"It's so lively, I can hear you from outside," the bloated Slughorn panted as he squeezed in, carrying a small fruit basket in his hand, "So you're all hiding here, I wondered why I couldn't find anyone after dinner ... " when he saw Grindelwald, an alert expression appeared on his face.
"Horace." Professor McGonagall said, with a faint flush still on her face, "Someone sent you to do something again?"
"Ugh, you can tell that?" Slughorn, for the rare instance, did not boast about his connections, and fiddled with the buttons on his waistcoat uneasily, as he muttered in a small voice, "From Carlotta Pinkstone, I knew her when I was young, she wasn't this crazy ... and stubborn back then."
He placed the small gift basket on the table and tore open the wrapping paper to reveal the candy preserves inside.
"Ah, they're my favourite ... You're welcome." He said, nimbly picking up a piece of dried pineapple sprinkled with sugar frosting with his chubby fingers and using his other free hand to pour himself a cup of tea, and looked down and sniffed gently, "Honey tea, what a perfect match."
"So, what you guys were talking about? If you don't mind, I'd like to introduce you to the small party I am preparing for Christmas, where quite a few famous people will be invited," he said as he stole a glance at Felix.
"Thanks, Horace." Professor McGonagall said dismissively, she had been a colleague of Slughorn's for quite a few years and knew the Master of Potions' temperament very well. "I can see that the years of retirement have not left your teaching abilities rusty, and you are still very fluent in your craft."
"To be honest, it's a little uncomfortable." Slughorn said with a grin, "There have been a lot of changes from the time before I retired, for example ... all the good talent has been picked out, which is only natural, with quite a few excellent colleagues emerging in the school ..."
In the evening, after finishing Quidditch practice, Harry, Ron, and Ginny dragged their heavy feet back to the common room.
"Did training go well?" Hermione asked as she read through the Animagus material, she waved her wand and the dirt and grimy faces of all three of them became clean and fresh. She had gotten quite adept at using the non-verbal spells now.
"Thanks," Ginny said under her breath, "everyone's been up and down except Harry and Katie, and with a bit of luck we can score a whopping score; but if by chance the whole team is in oddly poor form ... " she shrugged her shoulders.
Harry was too tired to talk, after shouting about tactics all day his voice seemed to be out of order, and it hurt to even swallow spittle.
Hermione glanced up at them and said calmly, "It's a bit insensitive, but I'd suggest you take some time to look at the materials the Professor gave us, so you won't show up unprepared for -"
"Hermione, we know it in our hearts." Ron slumped back in the sofa chair and said grumpily, "But the most important thing right now is Quidditch! You can't understand, we're going head-to-head with Malfoy, and I'm dreaming about hitting the Bludger in his face."
"You're going to steal the beater's job? What about the goal, let it learn how to dodge Quaffle on its own?" Hermione said pointedly.
Harry laughed silently but he quickly suppressed his smile, he thought it would be smart to allow Ron to keep up his fighting spirit.
"So I talked to Peakes and Coote about my dream in detail," Ron said as he rolled his eyes, at which point Hermione pulled a book out of the pile and read it from the middle. "They were so motivated that they decided to help me fulfil my wish. You're welcome, Harry." He waved his hand at Harry.
Hermione grunted through her nose and leaned down to grab another book, carefully counting the page numbers before looking down to take notes.
"Hermione, how are you doing this?" Harry asked in a hoarse voice.
"Doing what?"
"Reading several books at once."
"They were meant to be read together," Hermione explained, "Aren't you used to the Professor's style? He always likes to-"
"I can't believe there are annotations?" Ginny asked curiously as she leaned over and looked at the materials laid out directly in front of Hermione, then she smacked her lips a little as she read what she saw, "For more information about reasons to keep your emotions calm, refer to the entire chapter 12 'Don't study magic when you're in a bad mood' of the Book of Invented Charms by the Committee on Experimental Charms. "
Harry exclaimed incredulously, "All this stuff is in the material?" He felt like his throat began to fume.
"Pretty much every page has ... oh, just the first third, the part Professor McGonagall provided has no annotations, she wrote them all on it. In fact, Professor McGonagall only added safety matters and failures, as well as her personal review notes."
The few people looked at each other. After a good while - "Bang!" There was a loud bang and Ron tumbled over from the back of his chair.
"Are you all right, Ron?" Harry pulled him up off the floor, half concerned, half amused, and Ron maintained a shocked expression on his face as he stood up.
"I had thought about waiting until the match to finish and staying up late to read the materials, now I can see it's totally hopeless." Ron said with a pale face, then said as if he had seen a saviour, " Hy, Hermione, you must lend us your notes."
...
Almost in the blink of an eye, the weekend had arrived.
The sky above the gallery was blue with white clouds, which meant it would be a beautiful day. When Harry and the rest of them came down, the Gryffindor students greeted them warmly and Harry caught a glimpse of Luna, and he wished from the bottom of his heart that some miracle would happen, like Professor McGonagall wanting to host the tournament by herself on a whim or something ...
As he changed into his uniform in the changing room and led the trembling players into the pitch in stride, the cold wind blew his hair around and his mind had completely calmed down.
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