Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 20. Harry's troubles and Hermione's pressure

The needle was like a ball of amorphous clay, constantly changing its shape without even a second's pause. However, it did not have the texture and color unique to clay. Instead, it was sometimes metal and sometimes wood, with many changes.

This feeling of casting spells was quite unfamiliar to Harry, because in the orthodox shaman system, spells were generally based on communication and requests with elements and ancestors. Only those shamans who had embarked on the evil path would use their own will to distort the will of the elements and forcibly control them to serve themselves.

But now, the Transfiguration he performed was just like those of the evil shamans, forcibly distorting external objects according to his own will - Harry was not used to this feeling, and could even describe it as disgust.

From the perspective of how spells are created, these are two completely different ideas of casting spells.

Shamans believe that all things have spirits, and even a needle has its own spirit - provided that the needle has some unique meaning to a certain person, such as a needle inherited from parents. Such a needle that is infused with emotion becomes spiritual.

The needle in front of Harry, which serves as a teaching aid for the Transfiguration class, naturally does not have this kind of spirituality, but Harry still can't help thinking, what should he do if the object he wants to transform is a spiritual object?

After the transformation, will the spirit perish? Will it be distorted? Will it be annihilated?

In the case of magic, a mysterious power with a strong idealistic color, such subjective cognition is very important. Harry cannot muddle through it without knowing the reason, as that will only sow disaster for himself in the future.

And if I transform a living object from a dead object into a cat, does that mean I have given that spirit a body? And given it life?
Harry's thoughts wandered, and the needle in front of him - the mass that used to be a needle - was also changing, vaguely taking on the image of a cat.

It has limbs and facial features, but it seems to be covered with a layer of mud and will rot at any time.

Professor McGonagall's face became more and more delighted, and she was even ready to praise it - but the cat broke apart and turned into something unknown on the desk.

"Excellent Transfiguration, twenty points for Gryffindor!" Still praising, Professor McGonagall said, "You were so close, Mr. Potter."

"Perhaps the rest of you don't know what happened just now. I can explain it to you briefly." Professor McGonagall turned around and explained to the other young wizards, "In the first and second years, the most you need to do is to transform living things into dead things. Although it is difficult, the difficulty is very low."

"What Mr. Potter just tried to do was to transform a dead object into a living one, which is something that students in the third grade need to learn, and it is very difficult." Even Professor McGonagall, who is very serious, would not hesitate to praise what actually happened. "I'm sure that most of you will need to wait until the end of the third grade to learn this."

"But I failed, Professor." Harry stared blankly at the pile of things on the table, still recalling the feeling just now.

"That's because you're resisting it, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said rather softly.

It seems that after Harry showed his talent in Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall has let go of her slight opinion of this brat for causing so much trouble before school started.

No teacher will hate a student with good grades, no matter where they are.

Professor McGonagall saw clearly that the cat was about to transform successfully, but at the last moment it began to tremble violently and then broke apart, becoming an example of a failed transformation.

"Yes, I am resisting it," Harry sighed, "I have a lot of questions I want to ask you."

"Of course, that's my responsibility," Professor McGonagall said happily, "but you have to wait until after class. The main focus in class is still teaching content."

Harry naturally had no objection, but when he turned around, he saw Hermione pointing her wand at the needle in front of her with an angry look - as if she wanted to poke the needle to death with her wand.

To be honest, Harry felt that if Hermione had pushed the wand a little harder, the needle would indeed be deformed - even bending it would count as deformation.

This directly caused Neville next to him to be so terrified that he didn't dare to say a word, for fear that he might say something wrong and detonate the bomb.

"What's wrong with her?" Harry asked Ron with a confused look on his face.

"Oh, you finally noticed it, bro," Ron complained. "She was going crazy when you kept fiddling with that needle. I was so afraid she would stick her wand up my nostrils."

"I didn't!!" Even though she tried her best to lower her voice, Hermione's volume was still out of control, which attracted Professor McGonagall's stern gaze, "I just - I just -"

After being unable to speak for a long time, Hermione felt that no matter what she said, something was wrong. Not only did her face turn red, but there was also light in the corners of her eyes.

This was a very strong-willed child, Harry had seen that on the train earlier.

"Keep calm, kid," Harry understood. "This is the first Transfiguration class. According to Professor McGonagall, it would be good enough if the needle can change color a little by the end of the get out of class."

"...I have to remind you, Mr. Harry Potter!" Every word was squeezed out from between her teeth in a low voice. Hermione gritted her teeth and said, "There is no difference between your age and ours. We are both the same eleven years old! So don't call me a child!"

"We are both learning magic, why am I not as good as you? This shouldn't be the case!"

Fighting spirit, start!

In Hermione's opinion, being a little behind students of the same age was understandable, but being so far behind was totally unacceptable - a third-year course! Oh my God!!
Harry opened his mouth. He couldn't explain to Hermione and the others that his soul was not just that of an eleven-year-old child. He also had experiences and growth that they didn't have, so... he could only share his learning experience.

"You need to focus more, Hermione," Harry said fluently, "The key to Transfiguration lies in your determination. You have to distort the target with a commanding attitude. The process must be resolute - for children, the process of focusing is the most difficult."

For many people, the more they try to empty their minds and concentrate, the more things will pop up in their heads, and this is especially obvious in lively children.

"Oh, yes, concentrate," Hermione snorted, "It's so easy to say, why do you do it so easily?"

"…Because I am Harry Potter."

Harry actually doesn't like the feeling of being noticed, but he has to admit that this statement is really useful when he can't explain something. In the eyes of many wizards in the wizarding world, the name Harry Potter is really equivalent to the four words "innate supernatural power", which is difficult for people from the Muggle world to imagine.

So Hermione got even angrier.

On the other hand, Ron and Neville, Neville was a little nervous, but Ron was very carefree - after all, Professor McGonagall said that needle transfiguration was the course for the next two weeks, so there was no need to rush.

As for Harry being able to transform successfully in his first class... my brother is awesome!!

This is Ron.

The class passed quickly, and by the end of the get out of class, Hermione had finally changed the appearance of the needle. This progressive fact made the girl feel somewhat relieved, and even the pressure in her heart was relieved a lot.

The first-year students had no other classes after the Transfiguration class on Tuesday afternoon. When everyone else rushed out of the classroom, Harry approached Professor McGonagall with his things - the unyielding Hermione naturally followed him, and Ron and Neville didn't want to leave their friends and go first, so they followed him.

"Before you express your doubts, please tell me about your current progress in the Transfiguration class, Mr. Potter." Professor McGonagall looked less serious after class.

"I'm stuck in the third year, professor." Harry was a little worried about how to make Professor McGonagall understand his troubles. After all, wizards are not shamans and don't believe in animism. "Transforming inanimate objects into living things makes me... feel uncomfortable."

Harry could hear the little girl take a deep breath behind him, but he was in no mood to care for the child at the moment.

Even Ollivander, the wand dealer with shamanic talent, could only see spirits related to wands, which was a form of intuition, while most wizards didn't care about this at all.

Harry was a little worried that Professor McGonagall would dismiss his concerns as the idle fantasies of a child.

"To be precise, it's Transfiguration as a whole that makes me feel uncomfortable," Harry decided to be honest. Only by explaining the problem clearly can the problem be solved. "In my opinion, Transfiguration is to use one's own will to forcibly distort external objects, but I - uh, you can understand that I have a kind of innate magic, and my innate magic has been telling me to treat everything around me equally, accept them, and guide them to achieve a balance. The two are in conflict."

"Forced distortion, this word... I didn't expect you to view Transfiguration in this way, so is this the reason why you resist?" Professor McGonagall frowned unexpectedly, "And your innate magic, Headmaster Dumbledore has mentioned some things about you to me, but he doesn't know much."

Blood magic also exists in the wizarding world, such as Tonks's Disguisemagus, and some magic passed down among pure-blood nobles, so it's not that surprising.

Well, not to mention that Harry was in the Daily Prophet the day after he returned to this world.

"I can't answer you hastily without knowing much, especially when it comes to your innate magic, Mr. Potter. That would be irresponsible of you," Professor McGonagall said seriously, "Perhaps I should invite you to join my Transfiguration Club in advance."

There are various clubs in Hogwarts. For example, Ron has joined the Gobstone Club, which is a board game among wizards.

In addition, there is the Curse Club and Duel Club established by Professor Felivi.

Even these clubs will hold corresponding competitions.

"According to common sense, this invitation should have been sent to you in your third year. However, as a professor, I cannot bear to see you waste two years of your time on ordinary courses. This is a loss to the wizarding world."

"We can give you a targeted answer after we have studied your situation in detail." Professor McGonagall pursed her lips. In front of the students, this was considered a smile. "So, Mr. Potter, what is your answer?"

"I'd love to, Professor," Harry certainly wouldn't refuse.

He really likes the magic in this world, and Transfiguration as an iconic category is not something that can be easily given up.

If he could return to Azeroth one day in the future, Harry hoped to use the magic of this world to show off in front of Jaina and vent his anger for being teased by the wizard.

"Um, Professor - can I - can I too? It's your club!" Hermione became anxious when she saw that Harry had joined Professor McGonagall's advanced Transfiguration class (that's what it means in the eyes of Muggle students).

They were already behind schedule, and now Harry had joined the Transfiguration Club - wouldn't that make them even further behind?

"Oh, Miss Granger," Professor McGonagall gave an encouraging smile, "In fact, it is not a good thing for lower-grade students to join this kind of club too early. We would rather see you focus on your courses in this year and enjoy campus life. Don't rush it."

"And Mr. Potter... obviously, his situation is somewhat special." Professor McGonagall nodded, picked up her things and was about to leave. "I have classes in other grades. Someone will bring you the club invitation later, Mr. Potter."

"look forward to your visit."

Professor McGonagall left in a very cool manner, leaving behind Hermione with red eyes - she didn't even leave with her other friends. Hermione left angrily with her book in her arms.

"Aha, she really wants to improve herself." Ron sighed as he watched Hermione push open the door and leave. "To be honest, I wouldn't want to go to the Transfiguration Club even if it was in front of me. I didn't expect her to be so angry."

"She--Hermione's not a bad person, really," Neville stammered.

"Of course, of course I know that," Ron shrugged and said, "After the fight on the train, she still wanted to take all the blame on herself. I just think she is simply torturing herself and torturing us at the same time. It's annoying."

It was because of the deep fighting friendship forged in the battle on the train that Ron regarded Hermione as his own. Otherwise, he would have been disgusted with Hermione's attitude long ago.

Ron, a man of occasional great wisdom.

(End of this chapter)