The next day, Gryffindor and Slytherin had Transfiguration Class together.
The seats at the front of the classroom were nearly full. Fotkai habitually headed for a corner in the last row, where the seats around him stood empty, forming an invisible vacuum.
He did not care. Setting his textbook on the desk, he casually swept his gaze over the podium.
A Tabby Cat was sitting on the podium, its fur sleek, its expression stern, and square, spectacles-like markings around its eyes.
Fotkai's eyes flickered slightly.
In his previous life—or rather, in his original world—he had read the Harry Potter novels.
He knew who this cat was.
—Professor Minerva McGonagall's Animagus form.
At that moment, an abrupt, indescribable urge seized him.
The [Scavenger] card seemed to have magnified certain uncontrollable parts of his personality, parts with a hint of maliciousness.
Looking at the stern little cat, a thought crazily surfaced in his mind.
He rose to his feet and, under the astonished gazes of the few students who noticed him, walked straight toward the podium.
The Tabby Cat seemed to sense his approach. She raised her head warily, her eyes, so much like Professor McGonagall's, fixed on him sternly.
Fotkai bent down. Moving too quickly for anyone to react, he reached out, gently cupped the cat's head in both hands, and then—
"Smack."
He leaned in and planted a quick, solid kiss on the cat's head.
The cat's body went rigid at once, every hair seeming to stand on end!
Fotkai forcibly held back the faintly icy laughter that nearly spilled from his throat, suppressing the uncontrollable curl of his lips. He quickly let go, turned around expressionlessly, and returned to his seat in the last row as though the person who had just done something so shocking had not been him.
The students at the front of the classroom who had witnessed the whole thing were utterly dumbfounded. A deathly silence spread through the room.
[Emotion Points +50] (from Professor McGonagall's shock, anger, and embarrassment, as well as the extreme horror of the students who knew) [Emotion Points: 555/100]
Just then, the classroom door was pushed open, and Harry, Ron, and a panting Hermione rushed in. They were obviously late.
Ron, careless as ever and oblivious to the strange atmosphere in the room, looked around. Seeing no professor, he loudly declared, "Professor McGonagall is late? We're so lucky..."
Before he could finish—
The Tabby Cat on the podium, still rigid after being kissed, suddenly leaped down. Her body rapidly expanded and transformed in midair.
In almost the blink of an eye, she became Professor Minerva McGonagall, dressed in emerald-green robes, her expression as if covered in Arctic ice and her lips pressed into a tight line!
She stood on the podium, her chest rising and falling slightly. Behind her square spectacles, her eyes were like two ice-tempered blades. First, she fiercely glared at Fotkai in the last row, who wore a calm expression that said, "This has nothing to do with me."
Only then did she turn toward Harry and Ron, who stood frozen in shock, their faces instantly gone pale.
"Er..." Ron's mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg.
"Thank you for your assessment, Mr. Weasley." Professor McGonagall's voice was cold enough to freeze flames.
"Perhaps turning you and Mr. Potter into pocket watches would help you learn to keep time better? At least then, one of your parts would be on time!"
Harry and Ron were terrified out of their wits and hurriedly found empty seats, not daring to raise their heads throughout.
Professor McGonagall took a deep breath, seeming to be doing her utmost to calm her surging emotions. There even seemed to be a faint, barely noticeable flush lingering at the tips of her ears.
She turned around and began the lesson. Her voice remained stern, but on closer listening, it seemed to hold a little more... barely perceptible tension than usual.
Meanwhile, Fotkai, the culprit, sat quietly in the corner with his head lowered over his textbook. Only the Emotion Points notification that had just appeared on the system panel proved that his heart was not entirely undisturbed.
[Emotion Points +20] (from Harry and Ron's fright, Hermione's shock, and the other students' continued fear and curiosity) [Emotion Points: 575/100]
Transfiguration Class continued in an extremely strange atmosphere.
Professor McGonagall's voice was colder and harsher than usual, and her pace was slightly faster as well.
Throughout the lesson, she tried her best to avoid looking toward the corner of the last row, as though something there made her intensely uncomfortable.
Today's lesson was to turn a toothpick into a needle.
Fotkai did not do anything else out of line.
Lowering his head, he picked up the tiny wooden toothpick on his desk and focused all his attention on it.
He recalled the key points Professor McGonagall had just explained.
—The precise turn of the wrist, the stability of the wand's trajectory, and the need to clearly envision every detail of the target object in his mind.
Some sort of concentration brought by the [Scavenger] card—or rather, that obsessive habit of taking everything to the extreme—came into play.
He shut out everything around him.
That included the occasional popping sounds and frustrated mutters from students in the front when they failed, as well as the cold sidelong glance from the podium that he could still feel despite her deliberate avoidance.
Again and again, he waved his wand and quietly recited the spell.
The first time, the toothpick merely twisted slightly.
The second time, its tip barely became a little sharper.
The third time, the entire toothpick took on a metallic sheen, though its shape was still strange.
He did not grow impatient. Expressionlessly, he repeated the motion, adjusted the slightest differences in his magical output, and constantly refined the image of that "needle" in his mind.
Finally, after who knew how many attempts, the light flowing from the tip of his wand became steady and condensed.
With a faint sound of transformation, the toothpick on the desk completely changed shape.
—It became a standard sewing needle, gleaming silver, with a sharp point and a clearly defined eye.
He had succeeded.
Looking at the needle, Fotkai felt a pure satisfaction born from mastering a new skill briefly overwhelm the indifference and irritation brought by the [Scavenger] card.
Almost unconsciously, the corners of his mouth lifted into something that could be called a smile. Then he raised his head, his gaze carrying a barely noticeable hint of seeking approval—or perhaps deliberate provocation—and looked straight at Professor McGonagall on the podium.
Look, I did it.
His gaze met Professor McGonagall's in the air for a brief moment.
Professor McGonagall had clearly seen his success, as well as the smile on his face that might have looked a little smug to her.
Her lips instantly pressed even tighter together, and an extremely faint but unmistakable blush seemed to rise on her cheeks.
Almost immediately, she shifted her gaze away a little too hastily, turning to the other side of the classroom to comment on another student's work in a deliberately raised, businesslike tone.
"Very good, Miss Parvati. The shape is already very close. Pay attention to controlling the sheen."
She completely ignored Fotkai and the nearly perfect needle on his desk.
But Fotkai clearly caught that instant of embarrassment and avoidance.
[Emotion Points +15] (from Professor McGonagall's embarrassment and irritation, deliberate avoidance, and forced composure) [Emotion Points: 590/100]
The smile on Fotkai's face slowly faded, returning to his usual expressionlessness. He lowered his head and nudged the silver needle with a finger, feeling its cold touch.
He had successfully completed the transformation, but it seemed that he had also successfully made this stern Deputy Headmistress even more... unwilling to see him.
Still, the Emotion Points were firmly in hand.
He slipped the needle into his robe pocket and prepared to try turning it back into a toothpick.
The lesson continued.
Before you continue