What Happened to Ravenclaw?

"Asshole."

After Connie left, Andrew finally couldn't hold back his curse.

He normally wouldn't badmouth people behind their backs, but today, he really couldn't help himself.

He had mocked that guy right to his face, yet the fool had taken it as a compliment and looked pleased with himself.

Fine, be someone who bullied the weak and feared the strong—but why make so many excuses? Damn it, how had Ravenclaw become like this?

He had already felt something was off before, but now he was certain. This so-called Ministry of Magic faction wasn't any proper group. After their repeated so-called internal selections, the people left behind probably all saw themselves as Ministry employees.

But clearly, they weren't. They were just immersed in their own fantasies—and Andrew was certain there was no organization that guaranteed entry into the Ministry of Magic.

Their so-called selection was just picking out all the normal people, then leaving behind a bunch of arrogant lunatics...

That guy rambled on for ages, and the only useful thing he said was a few evaluations—and even those were horribly one-sided...

"Let's look into it some more," he reassured himself. "At least see whether any of those activities have something I want. I can't let myself get disgusted for nothing."

He was helpless too—falling out with them outright was the worst option. He could only withdraw from the group as gently as possible. Extremists had far more cohesion and far more talent for making people sick than normal people did. If he had been an upperclassman, he could have been more direct. Right now, he could only take the long way around.

It was practically like stumbling into some illegal organization...

Andrew sighed, composed his expression, and made sure no one could tell he had just been angry before quickly leaving the classroom and heading toward the Library.

His top priority now wasn't getting tangled up with those lunatics. It was borrowing the books from the Library, reading them as soon as possible, organizing his paper, and handing it in to Professor McGonagall.

"A Microscopic Guide to Transfiguration in Complex Structures, Fundamentals of Transfigured Structures?"

When Andrew handed the parchment to Madam Pince at the Library desk and asked for help, the stern librarian looked at the titles, then at Andrew, her expression slightly puzzled.

"All right, at least they aren't Restricted Section books. Eighteenth shelf, third level."

"Thank you very much, Madam Pince."

After thanking Madam Pince, Andrew headed toward the shelves, casually observing the classification system of the books in the Hogwarts Library along the way.

The older books were arranged by subject, while the books on each shelf were sorted by the initials of their first two words.

Knowing the title makes things easy to find, but if you want to browse by a book's general contents, you still need someone to recommend something. Otherwise, self-study is really hard to manage—I got that for free from the group.

With the mindset that even a scrap of waste paper had its own unique use, Andrew thought this as he pulled out the books he needed.

Since he wasn't in a hurry to eat, he found an empty table and prepared to skim through the two books Professor McGonagall had recommended.

[Transfiguration is not simply changing the appearance of one thing into the appearance of another—especially when dealing with composite objects.

Let us use one of the simplest and most common objects as an example—a chair.

At first glance, a chair appears to be a single whole. But when we transform an object into a chair, it can only be considered a successful transformation if the chair can be taken apart like an ordinary chair, rather than reverting to its original form after simple disassembly because the integrity of the magic has been damaged...]

"Hiss..."

Andrew sucked in a breath. He had never expected that even simple inanimate-object Transfiguration could expand into something this complex.

He slipped a bookmark into the place he had just finished reading, then stubbornly continued onward. Sure enough, the Transfiguration that followed never went beyond the scope of inanimate-object Transfiguration, yet it offered analyses far beyond his current knowledge on an object's structure, material, color, resistance to damage, and even the duration of a spell's effect.

I was actually feeling smug just because I successfully turned a beetle into a button.

Andrew sighed inwardly. Professional—far too professional. Without Professor McGonagall's guidance, he probably wouldn't have found such targeted books even within a year.

"Disassembly, replacement, and then imagining the whole..."

He sat there with parchment spread before him, writing down a sentence or two whenever an idea came to him. Most of the time, though, he would read further and then cross out whole sections of his own thoughts.

"So that's how it is..."

"OUT!!!"

As Andrew wrestled with a problem, Madam Pince's explosive voice startled him. He couldn't help turning around, only to discover a Hufflepuff student being wildly beaten by a loaf of white bread.

His schoolbag followed behind the bread, occasionally landing a vicious blow during the gaps between the bread's attacks.

"Food is strictly forbidden in the Library!"

Madam Pince's voice rang out again, but unlike her mild manner at the borrowing desk, she now looked as imposing as a tiger patrolling her territory.

After inwardly laughing at that unlucky rule-breaker who had been caught, Andrew realized he was starving. Looking out the window, he finally noticed that night had fallen at some point.

"Damn... I need to eat quickly."

Andrew packed up his draft parchment and obediently went to the still-fuming Madam Pince to check out the books before sprinting toward the Great Hall with his bag.

"Made it."

Although dinner was already more than halfway over, he had made it in time.

Starving, Andrew found where his roommates were sitting and took an empty seat nearby.

"What were you doing? You didn't go back to the dorm, and you're this hungry?"

Bell—one of his roommates—looked at Andrew's bedraggled state and asked curiously.

"I heard he passed the assessment for that club that aims to join the Ministry of Magic on the first day of school. I hear when the Ministry recruits at the school each year, your club takes up more than half the spots."

Another boy with freckles named Hal took the initiative to answer for Andrew. The latter half was directed at Andrew.

More than half? I knew it...

Andrew rolled his eyes inwardly, but since he couldn't tear things apart just yet, he couldn't voice his sharp assessment of that sixth-year.

At least monopolize the spots before acting like you're some organization subordinate to the Ministry of Magic... Turns out you aren't even as good as the Student Council...

"Now that you mention it, your group really is impressive... At least you have plans for the Future... I spent the whole afternoon playing Exploding Snap in my club..."

"Playing cards?"

"Yeah. And I barely won at all... The upperclassmen can even work out the cards you have left after just a few have been played—but there's still hope. There's an event this weekend where students from the other Houses will gather with us to play cards. Then we might even be able to go easy on them a little."

So that was the hope...

No, that really was hope...

There are still normal groups and normal people. Only the people I ran into were extreme... Thank goodness.

Andrew's mood brightened, so he decided to reward himself with another scoop of ice cream.