Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 37: The first lesson of the Transfiguration Club
"What?" Quirrell opened his eyes wide in astonishment after hearing Voldemort's order. He said anxiously, "But Master, your body is too weak. I'm afraid you can't stay here for so long—"

"Enough!" Voldemort interrupted Quirrell impatiently and gave a weak order, "Of course I know my weakness... Even a child can resist my spell, ha!"

Voldemort attributed Harry's escape from his Legilimency to the weakness of his own magic and the decay of the spell cast through Quirrell's body. In short, he would never admit that Legilimency failed because Harry's soul was stronger and his willpower was stronger than his.

"Of course, that child does have his merits," Voldemort said softly, "his childhood experiences gave him a strong will, but in front of a serious me, no matter how strong his will is, it is nothing but an illusion."

"I'm tired," Voldemort said tiredly, "Don't stop, Quirrell, my loyal servant... Keep searching..."

Voldemort's voice became weaker and weaker, but before it disappeared completely, Quirrell finally heard clearly what he should do.

The Defense Against the Dark Arts office finally quieted down. After a while, a few faint sobs were heard in the darkness, barely audible.

..............................

Harry did not know Voldemort's ambitions, Quirrell's ambitions and fears - or even if he knew, he would not care.

After all, out of vigilance against his enemies, Harry had already investigated the life and deeds of Voldemort. In Azeroth, he was just a minor character who could not be on the stage. No matter how much he emphasized his evil, darkness and terror, Voldemort only killed a few hundred wizards during his entire reign. Even if the Muggles who died of persecution were included, there were probably only about ten thousand people.

In Azeroth, Voldemort is almost like a bandit who found a place with a group of people and plundered the surrounding villages and passing caravans. He can only be regarded as an elite leader. He usually will not live too long before being dealt with by adventurers. He is far inferior to the enemies that Harry has experienced who were able to cause a world-destroying crisis.

As for the political theory advocated by Voldemort himself, it was even more ridiculous in Harry's view - the theory of the nobility of pure-blood aristocrats, haha.

As a hero who has saved Azeroth many times, Harry does believe that a privileged class should exist in any ethnic group—but the privileges of the privileged class come from his contribution to the ethnic group.

This is the same for both the Horde and the Alliance, because everyone's abilities are different. When a crisis comes, those with abilities should stand in the front and provide protection for the weaker people behind them.

Correspondingly, in times of peace, those who have shed their blood and risked their lives to be at the forefront deserve respect and the best treatment.

That's just the way the world works.

But Harry did not see this kind of awareness in Voldemort. Voldemort clearly advertised that he would bring a new future to the wizarding community, but what he actually did was to kill his own people through terrorist means.

This kind of person is the kind of rubbish that Harry doesn't even bother to debate with. The only reason he's still alive is because of Dumbledore's request and because Harry doesn't understand the magic of this world and can't be sure in what form Voldemort exists.

For Harry, what was more important at the moment was that Professor McGonagall had finally sent the invitation - the first class of his Transfiguration Club was about to begin.

Harry left the Gryffindor common room under a burning gaze, and he knew who it was without turning around.

Who else could it be but Hermione?
From the moment a senior schoolmate delivered the invitation, Hermione's eyes were red, and she repeatedly asked Harry many times to take more notes and show them to her when he came back.

And Harry naturally wouldn't refuse such a request... well, he didn't even dare to make a joke. After all, the pressure that the little girl had accumulated over this period of time seemed to be so great that it was about to explode. Now she was simply an unstable goblin bomb that could release herself at any time. It was very dangerous.

Pretending not to notice the heat ray behind him, Harry went to the place mentioned in the invitation - Professor McGonagall's office.

It is called the Transfiguration Club, but in fact it can also be called the Transfiguration Advanced Class. It is a place where Professor McGonagall gives extra training to children who are talented in Transfiguration after class. There is nothing mysterious about it.

Unlike usual classes where students sat neatly behind their desks, there was a round table in front of Harry. It was not full, with only a few students sitting sparsely. Harry also saw a few familiar faces - for example, Ron's brother Percy, who was waving at him enthusiastically.

"Welcome, in the new semester, we have two new companions." Unlike in the usual classes, Professor McGonagall spoke with a sense of humor. "This is Mr. Lent from the third grade, and I don't think I need to introduce this to you, right?"

"Of course! Professor!" Percy said impatiently: "Harry Potter!"

"No, Percy, I think you forgot to say the word 'prophet'." A pretty girl next to him laughed. She said to Harry enthusiastically, "If you don't mind, you can sit next to us, our great prophet."

"That's right, Harry, come and sit here," Percy waved and said.

"If possible, please call me Prophet. I am more accustomed to this title." Naturally, he would not refuse the invitation of an acquaintance. Harry thought that these children of the Weasley family were all pretty good, he joked.

They said to sit down, but when Harry walked over, he saw that the chairs Percy and the others were sitting on looked very gorgeous, and one person's chair was even inlaid with jewels, while the empty chairs were very plain. Suddenly, Harry understood something.

"So this is the first lesson of the Transfiguration Club?" Harry said with a smile, then drew out his wand and waved it.

The next second, the empty chair in front of him turned into a very large wooden chair with a backrest, covered with a layer of animal skin - this kind of chair was the kind that Harry was more familiar with, full of tribal style.

"Nice Transfiguration! Harry!" Percy praised immediately, "Professor McGonagall is right, you are indeed very talented in Transfiguration."

"Conjuring a suitable chair for yourself is not a first lesson. As I told you, we do not encourage lower grade students to join formal course clubs. It is too early for them - you are an exception, Harry." Professor McGonagall said with satisfaction after taking a look at the chair Harry conjured.

"Don't be too formal. Unlike formal classes, the purpose of the Transfiguration Club is to expand your thinking and make you aware of the different aspects of Transfiguration. Just think of it as a gathering of like-minded people."

Professor McGonagall was indeed very relaxed. She didn't even call him Potter or Mr. Potter anymore, but called him Harry directly. By the way, Professor McGonagall was also dressed very relaxed today. She was wearing a light grey sweater, and she looked at least ten years younger.

"Okay, I'll pay attention, Professor." Rubbing his butt on the familiar chair with nostalgia, Harry turned his head and said to Percy, "In fact, the only thing I'm proficient in now is the transformation between dead objects. If you ask me to turn it into a chair that can move and roar, I can't do it."

"It sounds like you haven't overcome that psychological barrier yet?" Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows.

"It's difficult, Professor," Harry said sincerely, "I've tried many times, but I can never do it. Headmaster Dumbledore may have mentioned to you that in addition to being a wizard, I am also a shaman, which makes my perspective very different from that of ordinary wizards."

"Shaman?" The girl next to Percy interrupted, "Not a prophet? Oh, sorry, I don't think I introduced myself yet - my name is Penelope Clearwater, from Ravenclaw, I hope you don't mind."

"We all come from a school called Hogwarts, there is no difference between us, just call me Harry." Harry shook his head slightly and said, "As for the prophet, it is just an ability of the shaman priests. If you are interested, you can come to my shaman club to try it later."

It was a very dangerous thing to advertise one's own club in the Transfiguration Club. Before Professor McGonagall became dangerous, even Penelope, who was curious about the fact that Harry had his own club, wisely stopped questioning.

"Since you may have some privacy that is inconvenient for others to know, we will leave your questions to discuss privately after this get out of class, Harry." Professor McGonagall nodded, "Now let's start our journey of Transfiguration."

Unlike normal classes, the Transfiguration Club does not differentiate by grade. After all, there are students of different grades here. But after the class starts, no one will have a strong feeling of not being able to understand.

This is of course partly because the entry threshold of the Transfiguration Club is third grade, and most of those who can get in have a level of magic that exceeds that of their peers, and their learning progress is far beyond the level that ordinary people can learn in the classroom.

But the more important reason is as Professor McGonagall said, this is not a class, but to help them expand their thinking - to be precise, it should be called the application of Transfiguration.

This makes sense. After all, no one would expect a group of children to sit together all day to study the nature of transfiguration, or the future development direction of transfiguration, and finally come up with some results - that's not realistic at all.

This kind of profound stuff should be a topic that students should spend their entire lives studying if they are interested after graduation.

If Hogwarts really had such a class, it should be called the Century Wizarding Club or the Magic Lord Crash Course. Only super geniuses like Dumbledore, Grindelwald or Voldemort could enter it. For those who invented spells by themselves in the second and third grades, it could only be considered the basics and was not worth mentioning.

Obviously, Professor McGonagall's club wouldn't be that high-end.

The theme of the Transfiguration Club class that Harry experienced today was the application of Transfiguration in wizard duels. According to Professor McGonagall, this theme might accompany them throughout the year, depending on the specific situation.

After a brief opening speech, Professor McGonagall waved her wand and the round table in the office disappeared without a trace. Then the entire office began to move, and the surrounding walls seemed to have grown horns and moved to make more space.

"Come on, Miranda, give a presentation to your fellow students." After clearing the venue, Professor McGonagall extended her hand to invite a sixth-year Gryffindor student to walk to the center of the venue.

"Uh, okay, professor - can you be a little gentler?" Miranda hesitated for a moment and then walked in.

"Don't worry, kid, it's just a demonstration." Professor McGonagall seemed eager to try. She encouraged him, "You can attack me in any way you can think of, and I will only use Transfiguration to fight back. Is there a problem?"

"No problem, Professor."

"Okay, then three-"

"two--"

"one!"

"Collapse!"

The moment Professor McGonagall finished speaking, Miranda immediately raised her wand and attacked Professor McGonagall. Using the spell directly was naturally fast, but unfortunately Professor McGonagall had anticipated this and jumped to the side.

As expected of a woman who could turn into a cat, Harry discovered that although Professor McGonagall was old, she was indeed agile. No wonder she was not wearing her usual robe today, but a sweater and trousers that were more convenient for movement.

As she jumped to the side, Professor McGonagall raised her wand, and the two chairs that had previously run to both sides of the classroom suddenly turned into two soldiers, blowing the charge horn and rushing towards Miranda.

“Break to pieces!!”

Obviously panicked, Miranda cast two Shattering Spells in quick succession. They were quite powerful and blew the two chair soldiers into pieces. Unfortunately, she soon found herself unable to speak.

The hairband had turned into a deadly rope at some point, piercing through her arms and thighs. In a few seconds, it tied her up into a ball and she fell to the ground. She could only helplessly admit defeat.

"Your attention is too distracted, Miranda," Professor McGonagall said sternly, "There are only two shapeshifters. Why do you ignore the existence of your opponent? Can two shapeshifters be as dangerous as a wizard?!"

"Sorry, professor, I'm too nervous," Miranda said as she rubbed her arm which was hurting from being strangled and stood up.

"Be flexible, girl," Professor McGonagall encouraged, and then said to the others watching on the sidelines, "I'm sure you've all seen how much of an advantage a wizard who's proficient in Transfiguration can have in a duel. This will give us a crucial rhythm in the duel."

(End of this chapter)