The Essence of the Transfiguration Spell

"It's all right, Mom. I don't need any presents. I just hope Santa Claus can deliver them to you and Dad instead."

Dylan looked at his hesitant parents and comforted them instead.

After all, he had his cheat ability now, and getting into Hogwarts was a certainty.

He was so eager to confirm whether the Owl had taken the letter because he wanted to hurry to Diagon Alley.

"Oh my, my darling is just too adorable!" Maeve said, her eyes filled with emotion.

When Christmas came, she would definitely save enough money to buy her son a proper present!

Just as Hubert was about to say something to comfort his son,

there was suddenly a light tapping on the windowpane.

They all turned around and saw an Owl perched outside the window, its head cocked to one side as it stared fixedly at the letter on the table.

"An Owl?" Maeve exclaimed. "Could it have come to collect the letter?"

"Tap, tap."

Seeing that the people inside still had not opened the window, the Owl pecked at it again with its beak. The crisp sound made it seem almost as though it were knocking on the door.

"Hubert, hurry and open the window!" Maeve looked even more anxious than Dylan.

When Hubert reached out and pulled the window open, the Owl outside did not fly away. Instead, it hopped inside and planted both claws on top of the envelope.

"Tap, tap."

Just then, another polite knock sounded from the doorway.

The three exchanged glances, then turned toward the door together.

Hubert and Maeve were filled with unease.

Dylan, however, rose directly and strode toward the door, taking a deep breath at the same time.

Which professor could it be?

"Click."

The door opened.

Dylan looked up, and the first thing that caught his eye was a dark-green robe.

He slowly raised his gaze, revealing the somewhat stern face of a middle-aged woman wearing square spectacles.

"Nice to meet you. Sorry to disturb you. I couldn't find the doorbell, so I had to knock."

Dylan: "."

He tugged at the corner of his mouth. "It's no problem. May I ask who you are?"

"Hello, Mr. Hawkwood. I received your reply. I'm Hogwarts' Transfiguration Class professor, Minerva McGonagall."

Upon seeing Dylan, Professor McGonagall's gaze softened slightly, but a strange look flashed through her eyes immediately afterward.

Was it just her imagination?

Why did she feel as though she could sense the aura of a spell on this Young Wizard?

"Hello, Professor McGonagall. Nice to meet you. I'm Dylan Hawkwood. P-please, come in."

Dylan had thought he could remain calm, but when he actually saw Professor McGonagall, he realized that his emotions were surging like a tide, making it difficult even to speak—

It was not only the excitement of seeing a familiar character, but also the nervousness of possessing the Three Unforgivable Curses while having to face a Magic Master directly.

Fortunately, Professor McGonagall seemed accustomed to reactions like Dylan's. She did not observe him for long before following him inside, then smiling and greeting Hubert and Maeve.

"Professor McGonagall? To be honest, we're still having some trouble adjusting to this business about magic..." After inviting the remarkably dressed female professor to sit, Hubert could not help speaking up.

"Of course. I completely understand. That is also one of the purposes of my visit."

Professor McGonagall smiled naturally and warmly.

"In fact, if Mr. Hawkwood had not replied, the school would have sent a professor to guide the Young Wizard from the Muggle Family to Diagon Alley a few days before the start of term."

As she spoke, she took out her wand and gave it a gentle wave.

The notebook on the table transformed in the blink of an eye into an alarm clock with hands ticking around its face.

"Ring, ring, ring!" The alarm suddenly went off, and Dylan instinctively pressed it off.

Hubert and Maeve witnessed this incredible scene and finally became certain that magic truly existed!

Dylan was also somewhat surprised. After turning off the alarm, he raised his head. "Professor McGonagall, is this the Transfiguration Spell you'll be teaching me later?"

"That's right. You'll learn it after you enroll," Professor McGonagall replied.

"Then can the Transfiguration Spell transform living beings? And would those beings be real life-forms, or merely illusions that don't involve their essence?" Dylan pressed.

A trace of surprise flashed through Professor McGonagall's eyes as she studied Dylan for a moment. "Magic cannot truly alter the essential form of a living being, but it can attempt to affect it."

"So, this alarm clock looks like an alarm clock, but in essence, it's still a notebook?" Dylan blinked.

"You can understand it that way." Professor McGonagall nodded.

"But then why can it ring?" Dylan asked again.

"Because ringing is something an alarm clock can do," Professor McGonagall answered.

"Something it can do?" Dylan did not quite understand. "Could you explain it in more detail, Professor?"

"The essence of Transfiguration is the result of consciousness and magic working together. I expect it to become an alarm clock capable of reminding me later, so it can produce sound. That is also a function of an alarm clock."

Professor McGonagall frowned slightly. "In fact, I should wait until you start school before explaining this part to you in detail."

"However, since you're interested, I can give you a simple explanation."

"The essence of the Transfiguration Spell is that you need to possess sufficient understanding of an object, whether it is living or not. Otherwise, the thing you transform will only be superficial and lack realism."

"If you want to transform a living creature, you even need to consider its natural reactions—in other words, its habits."

"Magic can complete the foundation of the transformation, while consciousness is the key to whether you can complete it."

Consciousness and magic?

Having lived two lives, Dylan had seen quite a lot.

And now he possessed the Three Unforgivable Curses at their max level.

He easily grasped what Professor McGonagall was trying to convey.

In fact, consciousness was equivalent to a page of sheet music, while magic was equivalent to various musical instruments.

The process of casting a spell could be understood as performing a designated piece of music.

The wand and incantation could be explained as the central conductor.

If the sheet music was wrong, the performance would naturally fail.

If the instruments were damaged, the performance would have flaws.

Take Professor McGonagall's transformation of the notebook into an alarm clock, for example.

The thought of "transforming" it was the sheet music.

The difficulty of Transfiguration lay in how to perform the piece according to the sheet music when the instruments were in perfect condition.

In practical terms, when casting the Transfiguration Spell, the more complete the image of an alarm clock in your mind, the more complete all its functions would be. The alarm clock you transformed would naturally be capable of producing sound.

If you only imagined the appearance of an alarm clock, it would naturally have only a shell and be unable to produce any "effect."