Preliminary Animagus Practice

This notebook was clearly recently written; the brand-new parchment still smelled of ink.

The Animagus practice steps were quite complicated, and with many of Dumbledore's own annotations, it took Sean more than an hour to carefully read through them.

"Ugh, this is so troublesome, and it even depends on luck..." He had a toothache.

The first step begins with holding a single Mandrake leaf in your mouth for a full month (from one full moon to the next). You must not swallow the leaf or remove it from your mouth at any time; if the leaf leaves your mouth, the entire process must be restarted.

Sean picked up a thin Jade Piece tucked inside his notebook; it was carved into the shape of a leaf. Following Dumbledore's advice, he should practice with a substitute for a while before attempting a real piece.

After all, if you accidentally spit out the leaf after holding it in your mouth for twenty days when you actually start, you'll have to start all over again. Moreover, the leaves of Mandrake are somewhat poisonous.

Sean put the Jade Piece engraved with leaf veins into his mouth and found that he even had difficulty speaking. Moreover, as time went on, he couldn't help but accumulate a lot of saliva in his mouth, which leaked out whenever he spoke, making him look like a silly, drooling Troll.

In the actual transformation process, a single leaf of Mandrake must be held in the mouth for a full month, during which time one must also talk and eat. Dumbledore specifically noted that the mandrake leaf tastes terrible, like bitter lettuce that has been soaked in rotten water for a month, with a hint of dragon dung.

"No wonder even Dumbledore said that it often takes several years to master Animagus ..." Sean mumbled indistinctly, his mouth full of the Jade Piece, and then began to try to push the Jade Piece to the bottom of his palate with his tongue.

After he had been practicing for a while, Hermione, holding a book, came over.

"Sean, what are you doing?" she asked curiously as she sat down beside him.

Sean quickly turned around, wiped the drool from his mouth, and mumbled, "Practice Arimagos..."

"What?"

"Magus." Sean tried to pronounce it as clearly as possible.

Hermione finally understood. She immediately put on a serious expression and whispered, "Animagus?! Sean, this is extremely advanced and dangerous magic, and illegal Animagus might be sent to Azkaban! Also, how did you get the instructions?"

Sean tried to explain, but the Jade Piece in his mouth kept hindering his tongue, so he had to spit Jade Piece out.

After exhaling and moving his mouth around, Sean realized for the first time how wonderful it was to be able to speak normally.

"Don't worry, I won't put myself in any danger, and I have professionals to guide me. As for whether it's illegal or not— Hermione, you won't betray me."

After mastering Animagus, Sean really didn't want to register himself with the Ministry of Magic. He'd ask Professor Dumbledore for his opinion later.

"Of course I wouldn't betray you!" Hermione glared at him. "But Animagus is extremely dangerous; only seven wizards in this century have mastered it!"

"To be precise, there are seven Animagus registered on the Ministry of Magic's list," Sean corrected the girl. He knew of several illegal Animagus.

James Potter, Sirius, Peter Pettigrew, Rita Skeeter, and Sean thinks that someone like Snape is probably also an illegal Animagus.

This magic is indeed extremely difficult, but Sean thinks that most wizards who can master it would be unwilling to reveal their Animagus form—anyway, the Ministry of Magic wouldn't be able to detect it.

"You just got extra points from Snape, and now you're going to break the rules?!" Hermione said angrily.

"Tergeo," Sean said lazily, wiping the drool off the Jade Piece. "In fact, I've been breaking school rules all along. Just raising Swooping Evil is enough to get me expelled and sent to Azkaban."

"What?!" Hermione's eyes widened. "You're still raising Swooping Evil?!"

"Uh..." Sean chuckled awkwardly. He had handed the Swooping Evil over to Hermione yesterday, and he subconsciously assumed she knew about it. In reality— Hermione thought she only kept a Occamy...

Hermione was like a cat with its fur standing on end. She first cautiously looked around to make sure no one was watching this corner, then the girl stood up angrily with her hands on her hips.

"Tell me, how many other things have you done that violated school rules?" she asked in a low, angry voice.

"Relax, Hermione, that's all," he whispered reassuringly.

The girl puffed out her cheeks, her expression clearly conveying: Do you think I believe you?

"This doesn't really count as violating school rules, since I haven't been caught, have I?" Sean explained.

Actually, that's always been the case at Hogwarts. The key to breaking the rules isn't the 'breaking' itself, but rather avoiding getting caught...

"You're just hoping for the best!" Hermione gave him a disapproving look.

The girl seemed about to have an outburst, but after a few violent heaving of her chest, she slumped back down.

"I can't believe my best friend at Hogwarts keeps Swooping Evil as a pet!" she sobbed resignedly. "One day, I'll get expelled from school for protecting you, sob!"

Sean smiled and flattered Hermione, which finally brightened the girl's mood.

Having resigned herself to her fate, Hermione reverted to her studious nature. Sean generously showed her the Animagus training method. It wasn't exactly top secret, and with him there, Hermione wouldn't secretly practice it out of curiosity.

"Good heavens, that looks really dangerous... Sean, you don't want to try it now, do you? Dumbledore is really going to teach you?" Hermione handed the notebook back to him with a worried expression.

"Animagus isn't as dangerous as you think. As long as I follow the steps strictly, I won't be in any danger. Besides, I've only just started practicing. This isn't a spell that can be learned in a few days. I need to be fully prepared."

The time span for mastering Animagus is often measured in years, and Sean currently lacks many essential conditions.

For example, after completing the first step, you need to take out the leaf during the full moon, fill a Crystal Vial with saliva, soak the leaf in it, and let it receive the pure moonlight (if the night is cloudy, you will have to find a new Mandrake and start over).

It really depends on luck, since the weather can change in an instant.