He took out his wand and gently tapped the podium, transforming it into a sow, which immediately emitted the sounds of snorting. This was just what Professor McGonagall had demonstrated in their first class.
"Professor, is this acceptable?"
McGonagall's expression remained unchanged, even showing a slight disappointment: "Is this it?"
"Transforming an inanimate object into a living creature is certainly excellent, but it doesn't quite surprise me," she continued. "Several third-year students can do it."
"At least two of them," McGonagall added to herself internally, although she was actually very pleased. She was just pretending to be indifferent because Wayne had performed too effortlessly, which didn't showcase his true potential. She was suppressing her desire to praise him and wanted to see just how far he could go.
Wayne scratched his head, completely unaware he had fallen into McGonagall's subtle trap.
With a wave of his wand, the sow transformed into a brown cow, and finally, McGonagall seemed to show a hint of interest.
"Multiple transformations?"
The order of difficulty in Transfiguration spells goes from inanimate to inanimate, living to inanimate, inanimate to living, and then living to living. However, this is merely the most basic classification.
As one of the most challenging subjects at Hogwarts, the intricacies of Transfiguration extend far beyond these basics. The multiple transformations that Wayne just demonstrated represent a more advanced area of study. Other advanced aspects include controlling transformed creatures, converting multiple objects simultaneously, and extending the duration of a transformation.
Only true masters of Transfiguration can achieve noteworthy skill in these areas. For example, Professor McGonagall herself and Dumbledore.
The term "multiple transformation" refers to further transforming an object that has already been subjected to a Transfiguration spell. With each additional layer of transformation, the difficulty increases geometrically.
From podium to sow, then from sow to cow—Wayne was using a double transformation, something most upper-year students couldn't accomplish.
Instead of providing immediate feedback, McGonagall cautiously asked, "Can you continue?"
Wayne nodded and transformed the cow into a python, then into a hawk. Under McGonagall's increasingly unfazed gaze, the hawk landed and morphed into a lion, roaring, before twisting and becoming a honey badger.
"Professor, this is as far as I can go," Wayne admitted, demonstrating some difficulty in maintaining the transformations. The honey badger's form was a little distorted, with one ear larger than the other and its eyes oddly squished together—definitely not very successful.
He looked like he was at his limit.
In reality, he was quite close to it. If it hadn't been for the experience he randomly gained from a blue envelope draw earlier, this would indeed be his limit.
Thanks to that experience, he could attempt one more double transformation.
"Lawrence…" Professor McGonagall sighed, "I admit, you finally surprised me… no, I might even say I'm shocked."
For a first-year student to achieve such proficiency in Transfiguration was something McGonagall had never encountered before, let alone teaching a wizard like this.
Perhaps Dumbledore could do it many years ago. Unfortunately, the two of them were decades apart in terms of enrollment, and McGonagall hadn't truly witnessed Dumbledore's prowess during his school days.
"Then about what you just promised me…" Wayne asked expectantly.