Chapter 3 - Professor McGonagall

"Mr. Adrian, I am Minerva McGonagall, the Vice-Principal of Hogwarts, the Head of Gryffindor House, and the Professor of Transfiguration."

Professor McGonagall introduced herself immediately.

As the Vice-Principal of Hogwarts, she is also one of the few reliable professors. She is responsible for half of the new students from Muggle families every summer vacation.

Professor McGonagall has seen many Muggle families over the years and has even been pointed at many times. She summarized the following points:

Families that do not believe at all and just think it is a prank will generally ignore the admission notice.

For such families, Professor McGonagall has to demonstrate her skills when she visits them, such as turning the door into a lion, etc.

For Muggle families who are skeptical but send a reply letter within the specified time according to the rules, Professor McGonagall also follows the rules, confirming the time and visiting them to demonstrate her skills.

It can be said that she is very experienced.

"Welcome, Professor McGonagall. Please come in and sit down."

Facing a wizard with extraordinary power, Patrick Adrian did not dare to neglect her.

"Professor McGonagall, although we believe that no one would use this kind of thing to play a prank, could you please prove it?"

After greeting and inviting Professor McGonagall to take a seat, Noele could not help but ask.

Although she believed in the existence of magic, as a mother, she needed to know more about the situation.

"Of course. This is also one of the purposes of my visit: to prove the authenticity of magic and confirm that young Adrian has indeed been admitted to the magic school, and then to help him buy school supplies."

Professor McGonagall smiled and nodded, then took out her wand and gently waved it at the fruit plate on the coffee table.

In an instant, the fruit plate and the seven apples on it turned into cats—eight British Shorthairs in total, one large and seven small. The cats, once transformed, were not calm and jumped off the coffee table one after another.

This display truly shocked Patrick and Noele. It was undoubtedly magic happening right before their eyes.

"Professor McGonagall, is this Transfiguration?" 

Ethan grabbed a cream-colored kitten and tried to see if he could find any difference from a real cat.

The short, dense fur was very elastic, and the thick body could feel the movement of the muscles. Because Ethan's handling was uncomfortable, the kitten was struggling and meowing.

From every aspect, this was a real British Shorthair. Not only did it look the same, but its behavior was also identical. It was completely in line with the habits of a cat, not as dull as Ethan had imagined.

No wonder there are Gamp's Laws of Transfiguration, the first of which is that food cannot be transformed by Transfiguration.

After all, the transformed food is exactly the same as the real thing and is completely indistinguishable.

It can only be said that this Transfiguration is truly impressive.

Even though Professor McGonagall was a little shocked by Ethan asking about a subject such as Transfiguration, thinking of all the Muggle books that contained knowledge related to the magical world, she shook off her astonishment and answered.

"Yes, this is Transfiguration. If you have a talent in this area, you may join my club in the future."

Professor McGonagall was very pleased with Ethan's reaction.

Soon, Ethan asked another question: "Professor McGonagall, are these cats under your control?"

"I mean, the one in my hand and the two that are scratching the sofa. After all, it looks like cats would do that."

At this point, Professor McGonagall became serious. This little wizard was indeed different. It was the first time she had encountered such a problem after working as a freshman receptionist for so many years.

She replied, "No, although I can control all their actions, I am not doing so at the moment. This is all their own instinct."

"Professor McGonagall, you mean that they have become cats and exhibit the natural reactions of cats. Before you remove the Transfiguration, they are indeed cats, correct?"

"Yes, that's right!"

Professor McGonagall was very satisfied with Ethan's understanding. With such high sensitivity to Transfiguration, this boy should be a good fit for Gryffindor.

Think about what has happened in the past two years.

The Weasley twins had brought Gryffindor to the bottom of the valley.

"Professor McGonagall, did you add the reactions after transformation when you performed the spell?"

Ethan asked. 

"No, I didn't add them, but Transfiguration is like this. To succeed in perfect transformation, you need clear thinking and deep understanding."

Seeing that Ethan had no more questions, Professor McGonagall began to talk with Patrick and Noele.

Showing magic was just the first step.

The rest involved answering a series of questions about Hogwarts, including the learning environment, holiday issues, and communication with family.

After all, you can't just show off your magic and expect the other party to hand over their child without knowing anything.

Who knows if you are using the child for some experiment? (That would be a threat.) Ethan didn't pay much attention to Professor McGonagall's conversation with his parents.

He was still deeply immersed in thinking about Transfiguration.

After all, he knew something about the situation at Hogwarts.

Although Professor McGonagall's answer was not entirely clear, it could only be regarded as a concept.

But education in the wizarding world is like this.

You can't expect professors to crush all the knowledge and feed it to you.

If you can understand, think, and do it, you are considered talented.

Otherwise, you are considered slow.

Professors have no choice but to give up on such students. (If you don't do well in the fifth-year OWLs exam, you will lose the qualification to continue studying this course.)

Professor McGonagall's words, combined with Ethan's experience using black magic over the past two days, suggested that Transfiguration mainly relies on consciousness and magic.

This is completely different from black magic, which requires negative emotions, and the Patronus Charm, which requires positive emotions.

In your subconscious cognition, the transformed object has certain characteristics and a specific form, so it will be what it is after transformation.

In other words, as long as you have enough magic power, sufficient cognition, and a deep understanding of Transfiguration, you can transform not only magical animals but also mythical creatures, and they will still reflect the forms in your consciousness.

Thus, the potential of Transfiguration is truly quite high.