The Magical Animagus Transfiguration

The night slipped away quietly, and Ezio, having returned to his dormitory, enjoyed a satisfying, restful sleep.

Early the next morning, he woke up while everyone else was still deep in their dreams. After a trip to the kitchen for a hearty breakfast, Ezio began his morning studies. Since he had to see Professor McGonagall in the afternoon, he swapped his usual magical training for Transfiguration practice. After receiving pointers from Professor McGonagall, he had finally grasped some of the tricks to casting Transfiguration spells.

He still needed to practice inanimate object transformation. He couldn't yet perfectly execute high-level transfigurations, such as turning paper into a wooden stick and then snapping that stick; otherwise, he wouldn't have had to turn the soil into a soft mound last night, but rather a pile of straw.

Turning soil soft was a form of object shaping. This kind of change, which does not alter the material state of the object, can persist indefinitely. Statues created by wizards are crafted using this method. This simple alteration of structural form does not require magic to remain within the object to be maintained long-term. However, the cost of doing so was that after returning to the dormitory, Ezio had to spend half an hour scrubbing himself clean; the patch of land where the Troll had slept was highly contaminated soil, and the stench of its body odor had deeply permeated it.

As for living creature transformation, Ezio had also begun to grasp some tricks. He could now transform small objects into living creatures of similar size, such as turning a button into a beetle. To him, this was already visible, rapid progress.

This type of elementary living creature transformation belonged to the third-year curriculum, yet Ezio had only been at Hogwarts for his first week.

Time slipped away quickly during his focused practice. After heading to the dining hall for lunch and taking a short rest, the time for his appointment with Professor McGonagall arrived. Ten minutes early, Ezio knocked on the door of Professor McGonagall's office.

"Come in."

Professor McGonagall's voice came from inside.

"Come this way." After seeing Ezio enter, Professor McGonagall stood up. "Because many questions piled up during the holidays, your seniors have arrived early. We will go in from here; the practice room is this way."

She led Ezio through a wooden door located on the left side of the office. Upon pushing it open, a large room of about two or three hundred square meters appeared before them. It was filled with many practice props and even many living creatures, such as goats, rabbits, toads, mice, and various beetles kept in glass cases, all used for Transfiguration practice. Students would also use these items in class.

"Professor McGonagall, if I'm not mistaken, is this a first-year student?"

A boy wearing Ravenclaw robes spoke up, looking somewhat surprised.

"This is the pride of our Slytherin, so what if he's a first-year?" The one who spoke was an acquaintance of Ezio, the Slytherin prefect Labas Foley. "If he hadn't come, that would be the strange thing, Daniel."

"Alright." Daniel shrugged. Like Labas, he was a house prefect. "I'm just regretting why he didn't come to Ravenclaw."

"Because Slytherin is the most outstanding house." Labas spoke with a hint of pride.

There were not many people in Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration Club—only seven in total, even including Ezio. As the most complex subject at Hogwarts, very few people possessed the talent to be valued by Professor McGonagall. Of these seven, Slytherin accounted for three: the male and female prefects and Ezio. Of the remaining four, Ravenclaw held two seats, while Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had one each.

"Normally, I would not invite students below the third year to join my club, but Mr. Auditore has already completed the first and second-year Transfiguration curriculum, and you have started to touch upon living creature transformation, correct?"

Professor McGonagall glanced at Ezio, and seeing him nod, she smiled with satisfaction.

"The third and fifth years are the watersheds of Transfiguration. Living creature transformation is the first major hurdle. Only about sixty percent of students can keep up with the learning pace. Two years later, those who can enter my advanced class to study higher-level Transfiguration will drop to less than one-fifth. Transfiguration is a subject that truly tests a wizard's talent and learning ability."

"Effort is necessary, but control over magic is the most important priority."

Professor McGonagall spoke calmly, stating a very realistic yet cruel fact.

In truth, after arriving at Hogwarts and truly encountering the study of Transfiguration, Ezio could barely understand how Harry's father's group of four had all managed to learn to become Animagi. Peter Pettigrew, whom he had once looked down upon the most, actually had some skill if one set aside his cowardly nature. After all, a wizard capable of blowing up a street with a single spell could be considered an absolute elite in the entire British magical world. One had to realize that many Ministry of Magic employees, after working for a few years, even forgot how to use basic defensive protection magic.

And in the generation of Harry's father, Hogwarts was truly filled with geniuses; it was quite dazzling.

"I will remember that, Professor." Ezio nodded slightly. Even if Professor McGonagall hadn't said it, he had always been very self-disciplined.

"Then let me introduce you to the others. You should know these two: Mr. Labas Foley and Miss Josephine Shafiq."

"These two are Mr. Daniel Cogboray and Mr. Mark Williams from Ravenclaw."

The two nodded slightly at Ezio. The relationship between Ravenclaw students and Slytherin was not bad, but the little eagles only recognized a small portion of the Slytherin snakes; they looked down upon the fools entirely.

"This is Percy Weasley, the new Gryffindor prefect."

The red-haired Percy held himself with a hint of arrogance. Due to the hostile stance of house rivalry, Percy did not show any enthusiasm.

"The last one is, like you, Mr. Cedric Diggory, who just joined the club this year. He is the most outstanding among all the third-year students. You two can discuss and learn from each other more."

Cedric was a handsome boy in every sense of the word, but unlike Ezio, this guy always wore a gentle and elegant smile. He was a warm, gentlemanly type of handsome, and his style could be said to be worlds apart from Ezio's.

Upon hearing Professor McGonagall introduce him this way, Cedric smiled somewhat bashfully, then stepped forward two paces and extended his hand to shake Ezio's.

"I've heard your name for a long time. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ezio."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Cedric."

Ezio nodded at him. He wasn't particularly concerned with making friends, but he wouldn't refuse the goodwill of someone with excellent talent.

"Now, I will begin to assign your respective learning tasks. Cedric and Ezio, you two wait a moment. I would like you to practice the prerequisite for living creature transformation in advance: object animation training, such as making a teapot run quickly and steadily."

Professor McGonagall pointed to the long table to the side, where the props for their practice were laid out.

Ezio and Cedric nodded in agreement and walked over to the long table.

Object animation transformation is different from living creature transformation. This type of animation only causes inanimate objects to grow movable limbs—for example, making a teapot grow two or more legs—and does not turn the teapot into an animal entirely.

According to the difficulty ladder of Transfiguration, from easiest to hardest, they are: inanimate object shaping, inanimate to inanimate transformation, inanimate object animation, inanimate to living creature transformation, living to living creature transformation, and human transformation.

The larger the target of the transformation and the more complex the object, the higher the difficulty of the transformation.

"Are you really doing this just by self-study?"

Seeing Ezio easily make the teapot grow eight spider-like legs and run back and forth on the long table quickly and steadily, Cedric asked curiously, his surprise undisguised on his face.

"Before coming to Hogwarts, I couldn't do this. Professor McGonagall told me some techniques, which were very useful to me."

"So, just one week?" Cedric's surprise did not diminish in the slightest. He exclaimed sincerely, "This speed is simply too fast."

"Actually, there are tricks to it."

Ezio waved his wand, turning the teapot back to its original state. "When I first started practicing, I tried to turn it into this first—"

The base of the teapot suddenly turned into four wheels and then zoomed away with a swish. When it returned, the wheels had turned into tank treads, and the structure had become much more complex.

"Compared to growing legs, this kind of mechanical structure transformation is much simpler. By increasing the difficulty bit by bit from easy to hard, the efficiency of practice will improve significantly. If you grit your teeth from the start and try to practice how to make a teapot grow two legs to run..."

Ezio turned the teapot into a shape with two legs, wobbling as it ran forward.

"Then I suppose I'm still stuck at the stage of figuring out how to keep it balanced so it doesn't fall over."

"That is indeed a perspective with great reference value."

Professor McGonagall, having finished setting the tasks, walked up behind the two of them. "Mr. Auditore has also given me a reminder; a step-by-step approach is more conducive to the learning and practice of Transfiguration. Before this, I believe I had fallen into a misconception, which was the desire to achieve everything in one go."

"After all, cars are almost never seen in the wizarding world. Coming from the Muggle world, I have a bit of an advantage in this regard."

Ezio bowed slightly. He didn't think this was any major discovery. While it could lower the difficulty of Transfiguration practice and speed up the mastery process, it wouldn't be of much help without the necessary talent for Transfiguration. It was a small trick to add flowers to a brocade, not something that could change the essence of the matter.

"I only made the teapot move ahead of time to train myself to find the feeling of its movement. In essence, it's a shortcut. Whether it's wheels or tracks, it's still fundamentally a transformation of inanimate objects into other inanimate objects; it doesn't involve the animation of inanimate matter."

"But one cannot deny that this is a clever approach. Finding the feeling of movement is also something that is not easy to grasp during the practice process."

"Very well. Now, I need to conduct a more comprehensive examination of you both to evaluate the level of Transfiguration you have mastered so far. I will formulate subsequent learning tasks tailored to each of your different stages of study. The club meetings are mainly for summarizing and solving the problems you encounter during your learning and practice. Here, I will answer them for you one by one."

The club meeting lasted longer than a regular class. During the three hours from three to six in the afternoon, Ezio gained a great deal. In terms of theoretical knowledge and basic practice, he was slightly inferior to Cedric. There was no helping it; Cedric had studied at Hogwarts for two years longer than Ezio and was very talented himself, so it was normal to be behind for now.

In the final ten minutes before the end, Ezio found Professor McGonagall alone to chat. He wanted to learn in advance about some high-level Transfiguration knowledge that he intended to master in the future but could not yet access.

"Professor McGonagall, may I ask you some questions about Animagus? I know I don't have the ability to learn this magic yet, but I want to understand it a bit more. It is a skill I very much want to master in the future."

"Appropriate curiosity is beneficial, and I also hope that you will successfully learn the Animagus transformation one day in the future."

Professor McGonagall encouraged him. Every student who could enter her club to study actually had the talent to master the Animagus transformation.

"There are questions in three directions."

Ezio was well-prepared for this questioning.

"What I want to know is, does the form after the Animagus transformation have a direct connection to the wizard's original body?"

"I saw an example in a book: a wizard who transformed into a wolf was attacked by a werewolf in the wild. The transmission of lycanthropy has always been considered a form of curse magic, and the most direct way of transmission is through biting. However, this wizard bitten by the werewolf did not contract the werewolf curse after returning to his original body. What is the reason for this? Is it because the transformed body is an independent existence?"

"This question involves the principles and composition of the werewolf curse." Professor McGonagall pondered for a moment before answering: "Werewolves are forced to transform into a half-human, half-wolf form during the full moon because they are cursed. However, the transformation principle of this curse is actually similar to that of an Animagus, or rather, the werewolf itself is in a state of an incomplete Animagus transformation. This was an accident caused by wizards in ancient times while exploring human Transfiguration."

"Therefore, the werewolf curse is ineffective against a wizard who has already mastered the Animagus transformation and is currently in the transformed state, but that is only one of the reasons."

"The independence of the transformed form you mentioned is also a factor that affects the effectiveness of the curse."

"Animagus is a semi-permanent transformation. As long as the wizard is alive, the wizard can maintain the transformed state until death. The wizard's original body will affect the Animagus form; for instance, when the wizard's original body suffers trauma, the transformed form will also exhibit corresponding injuries, especially in cases of severe injuries like the loss of limbs."

"But if you are injured while in the Animagus form, those injuries will almost completely heal when you return to the wizard's original body. This is because during the transformation process, we can control the reorganization of the transformation, which is to say, actively heal wounds. This is the most marvelous point of the Animagus."

"When we transform into other creatures, the transformed individual can be considered a brand-new body. This is because it has now been confirmed that the Animagus transformation will lead to the assimilation of the wizard. That is to say, if you turn into a cat, and you maintain the cat form for a long time—this would take ten or even decades—your way of thinking and even your thoughts will gradually be assimilated by the cat, until one day, you completely become a cat, from body to soul."

"But very few people would do this. Currently, there are only two people who have encountered this accident. They were both wizards from Uagadou, and they maintained the transformed form for more than thirty years. If they hadn't been discovered by chance, we might not have known this secret. But even after they were forcibly transformed back, they had already lost their human thoughts; they had already identified themselves as beasts."

Ezio quickly recorded this in his notebook, then raised his second question: "As far as I know, the Animagus transformation is uncertain. Before transforming, the wizard himself does not know what creature he will transform into. So, is there a way for a wizard to transform into the creature he wants to become?"

"This question is wrong from the start, Ezio."

Professor McGonagall answered earnestly: "Before transforming, a wizard can vaguely perceive what kind of creature they are about to transform into. This is mostly based on the wizard's preference or the need for a transformed form in their heart. Transfiguration is also magic, and it is also influenced by the wizard's mind. Moreover, I can tell you for certain that the Animagus transformation can be actively designated."

"This question did not have a truly definitive conclusion five years ago, but five years ago, wizards from Uagadou found a method. By adding the hair or blood of the creature you want to transform into into the potion for the Animagus transformation ritual, you can determine your own transformed form. However, one thing is certain: magical creatures still cannot be included in the list of transformations. Every wizard who has tried this has met with an accident."

"Why is that?" Ezio asked curiously.

"Because of magic power." Professor McGonagall spoke sternly: "After using the Animagus transformation, all of the wizard's magic power is used to maintain the Animagus form, which means the transformed creature will not have any magic power. Magical creatures, however, must have magic power to survive. Without magic power, the bodies of magical creatures will fall into an irreversible collapse, leading directly to death. Their very existence is a gift of magic power. Compared to wizards, they are more dependent on the existence of magic power. There are no Squibs among magical creatures."

When speaking of this, Professor McGonagall was exceptionally serious, narrating with a cautionary tone throughout. She did not want the student she had her eye on to die miserably because of such things.

"The last question." Ezio nodded earnestly, signaling that he had remembered this taboo. "I want to know, since humans are also a type of creature, does the Animagus form have a human shape?"

"Turning into a... Muggle?"

Professor McGonagall asked in confusion; she didn't quite understand Ezio's line of thought.

But this question also successfully stumped Professor McGonagall. She really had never thought that someone would ask such an outrageous question; this was beyond the scope of just having a wandering mind.

"I really cannot give you a definitive answer to this question you've raised, Ezio."

Professor McGonagall shook her head, but after a moment, she said:

"If you are interested in this question, I can introduce you to a wizard who specializes in Animagus transformation. However, he has used magic to hide his name, making it impossible for owls to send him letters. You can visit him during the holidays. He lives in seclusion in Moon Mountain, which is the mountain where Uagadou School of Magic is located."

"In terms of Animagus transformation, wizards from Uagadou have research that far exceeds that of wizards elsewhere. Their school includes the Animagus transformation in the content of advanced Transfiguration. For every ten Uagadou wizards, at least five have mastered the Animagus transformation. This is related to their passion for wandless magic; wandless magic is very effective at training a wizard's control over magic power."

"Visit in person?"

Ezio's eyes lit up. He was truly very interested in going to other magic schools. After all, opening the map at Hogwarts had given him three milestones to unlock. If other magic schools had the same treatment, his card deck could be enriched quite a bit. After all, unlocking milestones could grant some bugged, extraordinary abilities, such as the Ares War Cry obtained from a million kills; within 30 seconds, Ezio could ignore the threat of the Killing Curse.