The next morning.
Brook got up unusually early.
Aside from Harry and Ron, who were still snoring away, all the other beds in the dormitory were already empty.
After washing up quickly, he headed out.
In the common room, he saw Hermione reading a book.
"Morning, Hermione."
"Brook, you got up far too late. Any later and you would have missed breakfast."
Brook smiled faintly.
Hermione's words needed to be interpreted.
For instance, although that had sounded like a reproach, she was actually worried that he would miss breakfast.
And he was sure Hermione had been waiting for him. She had not eaten breakfast herself, either.
"Then let's go and see what delicious food they have."
They went to the Great Hall together.
Breakfast was fairly traditional.
There was toast, bacon, sausages, fried eggs, boiled eggs, butter, and all kinds of jam.
Hermione was not very hungry and only had a boiled egg.
Brook, on the other hand, wolfed down quite a lot.
Although chocolate could replenish energy, it was not filling at all.
Hermione watched Brook in surprise.
She knew Brook had a large appetite, but this was the first time she had seen him eat so ravenously.
"Brook, what's wrong?"
"Maybe I'm growing lately. I've been eating a little more."
Hermione rolled her eyes and did not press him further, merely helping put food onto Brook's plate.
After Brook had eaten his fill, they hurried to the Transfiguration classroom.
Their first lesson was with their own Head of House, so they had to arrive early.
Seeing that the first three rows were already full, Hermione could not help whispering a complaint into Brook's ear.
"It's all your fault. You ate so much that there aren't even any good seats left."
Then she hurriedly claimed a seat in the fourth row.
Brook shrugged.
His attention was entirely focused on the tabby cat on the teacher's desk.
His system had many tasks related to Professor McGonagall.
One of them was [Pet Minerva McGonagall's tabby cat form].
It was not simply because he wanted to complete the task.
He was more curious and wanted to find out what it felt like when a human transformed into a cat.
Still, was it really a good idea to cause trouble for his own Head of House right at the start of term?
Yet his body was honest. His feet carried him toward the teacher's desk without him realizing it.
He looked at the tabby cat, and the tabby cat tilted her head as she looked back at him, the confusion in her eyes obvious.
Brook extended his sinful hand.
It felt pretty nice.
What a pity.
It was a cat and a woman, not a catgirl.
The tabby cat stiffened all over and froze completely.
(⊙o⊙)...
It was not until Brook habitually began scratching the soft fur beneath her chin.
That she finally reacted.
Whoosh.
The tabby cat leaped straight off the desk and transformed back into Professor McGonagall before landing.
Professor McGonagall wore a stern expression, though there was a faint flush on her cheeks that was difficult to notice.
All the young wizards in the classroom sucked in a breath.
Hermione especially looked terrified.
Brook, however, seemed unconcerned.
After all, ignorance was no crime.
As a young wizard born to a Muggle family, he did not know that the cat was Professor McGonagall.
That was perfectly reasonable, right?
If she had been a real cat, he would definitely have taken a few more hits of cat.
"Cool."
"Mr. Lott, while you may like cats or small animals, many creatures in the Magical World are very dangerous. Do not touch them lightly when you do not understand them."
"Yes, Professor."
"Now, please return to your seat."
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Brook walked over and sat beside Hermione.
"You nearly scared me to death. Thank goodness the professor didn't expel you," Hermione said, still shaken.
Brook's eyes lit up.
Right!
He could get expelled too!
How had he not thought of that earlier?
It seemed he needed to carefully review the "courting death" tasks in his system.
He could earn rewards and get expelled at the same time.
Simply perfect.
"Thanks, Hermione."
Hermione held her chin high.
The task in their first Transfiguration lesson was to turn a match into a needle.
When Professor McGonagall demonstrated it, it had looked simple.
With a casual wave of her wand, the match became a needle.
However, when Brook tried it himself, he discovered it was nothing like that.
He tried again and again, but let alone turning the match into a needle, he could not even produce the slightest change.
So he began staring blankly at the match.
At the start of class, Professor McGonagall had emphasized the key to Transfiguration: imagination.
They needed to construct a clear image of the target form and a blueprint of the transformation steps in their minds.
The clearer their thoughts, the closer the Transfiguration result would be to what they expected.
Of course, there were other factors as well, such as focus and magical control.
Brook repeatedly considered Professor McGonagall's words.
His Occlumency gave him extraordinary focus.
His top-tier Dark Arts talent did not include Transfiguration, but it gave him no small advantage when it came to magical control.
As for the target form—the structure of a needle was not complicated.
Clearly, the problem lay in constructing the blueprint for the transformation steps.
He needed to break those steps down further.
At the same time, Professor McGonagall was quietly watching Brook.
In all her years of teaching, Brook was the first student who had dared lay hands on her.
She had high expectations for this genius who had learned Occlumency at the age of eleven.
She wanted to know how talented he was at Transfiguration.
Then she saw Brook snap off the head of the match.
He then pointed his wand at the remaining matchstick and cast the Switching Spell.
The matchstick gradually took on a silver metallic sheen.
Professor McGonagall's pupils could not help widening.
It was not as if she had never seen geniuses before.
There had even been students who could turn a match into a needle in their very first class.
But Brook was clearly not the sort of student naturally gifted at Transfiguration.
Otherwise, his earlier attempts would not have been completely ineffective.
Yet after only a few minutes of thought, he had succeeded?
There was definitely something unusual about this.
Brook cast the Switching Spell twice more, successfully converting the matchstick into metal.
Then he began shaping the eye and point of the needle.
Professor McGonagall walked over at that moment.
She levitated the needle Brook had transfigured so the entire class could see it clearly.
"Everyone, look. Mr. Lott has succeeded."
Brook blushed slightly.
It was not because he had been praised.
It was mainly because the needle he had transfigured was rather hard to describe.
If someone told you in advance that it was a needle, perhaps you could recognize it.
Otherwise, it was somewhat... abstract.
Professor McGonagall encouraged Brook a few times, then told everyone to continue practicing.
Hermione began urgently waving her wand at her match.
The only reason it did not look like she was trying to chop someone was because she was holding a wand.
By the end of class, her match had finally changed somewhat. A needle point had appeared.
"Mr. Lott, stay behind."
Hermione immediately grew nervous.
Could Professor McGonagall be planning to punish Brook over the cat-petting incident?
So she deliberately packed her bag slowly, hoping to eavesdrop.
(It's rather sad. Readers with pictures, please add another one.)
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