Hogwarts: Harry Returns from Azeroth

Chapter 41 40. Breaking through the maze and successful transformation of living things
And Professor McGonagall...if she didn't know that there was a spirit on this hairpin, that is, it was the product of her longing for her husband, then she wouldn't think there was anything wrong.

But now she knows it, and even performs a transformation herself.

Looking at the cute orange cat on the table that was licking her fur, Professor McGonagall knew that similar transformations had been performed countless times in the past, but for some reason, she always felt that her feeling this time when she saw the transformed object was different.

This feeling was as if - as if she had distorted her own thoughts about her deceased husband with her own hands, or was playing with these thoughts, making Professor McGonagall feel a little complicated.

Even though she could never see the spirits of all things that Harry said only shamans could see, Professor McGonagall could more or less understand why Harry used the word "twisted".

If a spirit is compared to a person, then what she did just now is equivalent to changing the person's form of existence with her own will, such as making him grow a pair of cat ears or animal claws, or adding a mouth and a few noses. No wonder the word "twisted" is used to describe it.

This feeling must be unpleasant.

"...Go on, Harry." Rubbing her temple, Professor McGonagall sighed and said, "Next I will change it back to its original state. You need to pay attention to the changes in its spirit during this process."

"Okay, Professor."

There were three more countdowns. At the moment when the last one fell, Professor McGonagall waved her wand again. In an instant, the well-behaved and cute orange cat turned back into a brown hairpin and was quietly placed on the table.

Only the scratches on the student's paper next to it could prove what had just happened.

"And what about this time, Harry?" Professor McGonagall asked after a breath, "What changes will the spirit of the hairpin undergo during this later transformation?"

"It's changed back to its original state." Harry was also a little surprised. "It's no longer like a cat. The liveliness and curiosity are gone."

"Are you sure?" Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows slightly. "It's completely changed back? Exactly the same?"

"This... this is hard to determine, Professor." Harry smiled awkwardly. "After all, most spirits cannot speak. Unless they have accumulated enough power to appear in the real world, it is basically impossible to observe such subtle changes. We can only sense them roughly."

"So that's it." Professor McGonagall leaned back in her chair and kept thinking.

The new knowledge she had gained from Harry today, everything that had just happened, and her own feelings kept surfacing in Professor McGonagall's mind.

Spirits... spirits created by thoughts... deformed... people... twisted...

The office fell silent again, and Harry was thinking about what Transfiguration meant to the Shaman.

"Harry?" Professor McGonagall suddenly broke the silence. "Have you ever talked to the ghost in the castle?"

"Yes," Harry replied, "I heard them talk about the old Hogwarts. It was very interesting."

"Yes, in a sense, they are all carriers of past knowledge, but that's not what we are talking about now." Professor McGonagall's eyes became brighter and brighter as she spoke. "What I want to ask is, did you notice how they died?"

"How did he die?" Harry was a little confused.

"Yes, for example, our Gryffindor ghost, Sir Nicholas," Professor McGonagall added, "I think he would be happy to show you his...head."

"Ah indeed, Nearly Headless Nick" Harry chuckled.

Because Sir Nicholas liked to pull his head aside and complain to others about how unskilled the executioner who chopped off his head was, so that there was still a piece of skin attached to his head and neck.

"He doesn't like people calling him that," Professor McGonagall also laughed. "In fact, as far as I know, Sir Nicholas has been applying to join a ghost team - the Headless Hunters, but he was always rejected because his head was not completely chopped off."

"That's a shame," Harry said sincerely.

"It's indeed a pity, but what I want to say is not how crude the executioner's craftsmanship is, but that when a wizard becomes a ghost, the way he died will also remain on his body," said Professor McGonagall, shaking her head.

"…I remember Slytherin's ghost, the Bloody Baron. There was still blood on his body from the time it splashed onto his robes before his death," Harry murmured as he recalled. He seemed to realize what Professor McGonagall wanted to express.

"Yes, that's right," Professor McGonagall said excitedly, "When the body is incomplete, the soul will also be changed accordingly, and even affect the ghost's existence form - do you understand, Harry?"

"You care too much about invisible spirits, Harry," Professor McGonagall said sharply, "but the state of the spirit will be affected by the state of the object in the real world. I remember you said just now that if some people worship or hate something for no reason, it will also cause that thing to give birth to a spirit, right?"

"...yes" Harry couldn't deny it.

"That's the problem, isn't it?" Professor McGonagall said clearly, "You are asking something that will change due to people's living habits and various actions to remain in a certain state forever, but how is that possible?"

suddenly see the light.

With his eyes wide open, Harry stared at Professor McGonagall's eyes. They were as clear and empty as if he had eaten a whole block of ice on a hot summer day.

"I admire your attitude towards the things around you, Harry," Professor McGonagall said softly, "You have a kind heart, and you are willing to treat everything around you with an equal attitude - even some intangible things."

"But you also have to know, Harry, that nothing in this world is permanent," Professor McGonagall said leisurely, "Just as grass sprouts and withers, people grow up and die, and their ideas change with the things they come into contact with and the things they experience. This is growth."

"When this growth is reflected in the soul, it will cause each of us to have a different soul - just like our different bodies, which are the basis of our existence in the real world." "Even wizards who possess the miraculous power of magic cannot escape this law," Professor McGonagall waved her wand, and as she moved, the hairpins on the table kept changing.

It turned into a mouse, a cat, a beetle... and in Harry's eyes, its soul kept changing, and finally turned back to its original appearance.

There were indeed more differences after the successive changes, but the feeling Harry felt at the beginning remained unchanged - it emitted a very strong light, very soft, very warm, and full of blessings.

"I admire your ideals," Professor McGonagall said seriously, "You are determined to become the balancer of elemental forces, which is good, but Harry, you are not an existence beyond this world, you still live in this world."

"In that case, your every move will inevitably affect everything around you, your thoughts, your actions, your magic - how can you be independent?" Professor McGonagall shook her head and said, "That's too arrogant, very arrogant."

"So in my opinion, Transfiguration is not about distorting external objects. To be honest, this word is a bit too harsh." Professor McGonagall smiled and pointed to the hairpin on the table. She continued, "It's still the same, isn't it? It's a gift from my husband, and my thoughts about it... haven't changed at all."

"You are right, Professor." Harry closed his eyes and took a long breath. He said sincerely, "It is true that I am too arrogant. I seem to have gotten into a very difficult situation."

As he said this, Harry drew out his wand, looked around, then pointed his wand at a paper handed in by a student and cast a Transfiguration spell.

The next second, the paper began to move, curling and overlapping, changing into the shape of a cat.

Unlike the previous obstacles and difficulties, this time the deformation was extremely smooth without any pause.

When Harry put down his wand, a cat was sitting on the table licking its fur. It was a tabby cat, and the lines around its eyes looked like the glasses Professor McGonagall wore - it was the Animagus form that Professor McGonagall had shown to the first-year students during the first class of the new semester.

Snap, snap, snap, snap.

"Congratulations, Harry, you succeeded," Professor McGonagall clapped her hands. She looked at Harry with satisfaction, then at the cat on the table and joked, "It's very similar. Your observation skills are a bit too detailed. It's a pity that this is not in class, otherwise I would give you ten points."

"May Mother Earth bless you, Professor." Harry tapped his chest with his right hand and performed an ancient etiquette to Professor McGonagall. He said sincerely, "Thank you very much for your guidance."

"As a professor, it is my duty to answer students' questions and solve their problems," Professor McGonagall said with satisfaction. "I think you can feel the charm of Transfiguration this time, right?"

Teaching students to become talents, Quidditch, and Transfiguration - these are Professor McGonagall's three favorite things.

"Yes, I think I can now feel the charm of the Transfiguration you mentioned, as well as everything you just said," Harry said happily, "All spirits cannot be born out of thin air, and the spirits of things are affected by the basis of existence, just as our own spirits are based on our bodies."

"When I transformed this parchment into a cat just now, I clearly felt the entire transformation process. It was completely different from what I had imagined."

Harry's expression became a little complicated. He reached out and picked up the tabby cat, scratched its chin, watched it purr comfortably on his fingertips, and even rubbed against him to act coquettishly.

——Then Harry looked up and saw Professor McGonagall looking at him strangely. He couldn't help but smile awkwardly and quickly put the tabby cat back on the table.

I almost forgot, this cat looks a lot like Professor McGonagall's Animagus form.

Guilty sin.

"It's very interesting!" Recalling the feeling of performing Transfiguration just now, Harry said excitedly, "I don't need to control its legs and body movements myself. Even its body is no longer a dead object like wood, but a real living thing!"

"I gave it everything a cat should have, including its internal and external structure, personality, and voice. I turned it from a simple piece of parchment into a cat," Harry analyzed carefully.

"But this is only temporary," Professor McGonagall interrupted, "When your magic wears off, it will turn back into a piece of parchment."

"That's right," Harry nodded. "It's like putting a label on parchment, and then it really becomes the thing on the label. As long as you peel the label off again, the parchment will still be parchment, not the cat - nothing has changed."

"It's very strange," Harry said with emotion, "When I transformed the parchment into a cat, it was as if I redefined its form of existence. The magic naturally filled in the rest based on my memory of the cat, but it did not create a false and temporary spirit. It was still itself, and in essence it was still a piece of parchment."

"It's like I dug a deep hole in the ground. When the hole is connected to the sea, the sea water will naturally fill the hole." Harry couldn't help but marvel at the magic of this world. "It's amazing. Is this magic?"

Wizards only need to start thinking and leave the rest to magic and magic power.

"I think you have truly embarked on the path of Transfiguration, Harry. Keep exploring," said Professor McGonagall with a smile. "I recommend you order a copy of Transfiguration Today as a reference. It contains many interesting stories about Transfiguration, as well as the latest research results on Transfiguration."

"Well, as for past issues, you can borrow them from me." Professor McGonagall waved her wand, and a stack of magazines flew out from the cabinet next to Harry. "They contain my opinions and annotations on each article. You can refer to them for understanding."

"Thank you, Professor," Harry thanked him solemnly, "I will treasure it."

Professor McGonagall's care for him was enormous, especially the magazines with her own understanding and annotations, which greatly facilitated Harry's study of Transfiguration - this was knowledge that was hard to buy with money outside.

Knowledge is the most valuable thing wherever you are.

Harry took the note to heart.

(End of this chapter)