Are You Serious? (Seeking Collection, Seeking Recommendation)

It was clearly impossible for first-years to learn biological transfiguration in their very first lesson.

Professor McGonagall used only a single matchstick to make them understand that turning furniture into animals would take quite a long time.

Although the young wizards were waving their wands with great effort, the matchsticks in front of them showed absolutely no signs of change.

Some things are just like that; they look effortless when others do them, but become a complete mess the moment you try yourself—especially when that "other person" is Professor McGonagall.

"Pay attention, it is to become a needle, not a silver wooden stick."

Professor McGonagall stood in the classroom aisle, constantly correcting their mistakes.

Soon, half the lesson had passed, and the matchsticks remained the same as they were at the start, with no indication of turning into needles.

A few Hufflepuff students managed to turn their matchsticks into charcoal ash, but this clearly did not meet Professor McGonagall's requirements, and they were deducted one point for damaging teaching materials.

Ravenclaw was different; there is a reason they are known for their sharp minds. Seeing that there was no progress, some of the "clever ones" simply took a different path. Instead of obsessing over turning them into needles, they changed the color of the matchsticks and quietly sharpened one end, attempting to muddle through.

Some even smarter ones simply swapped them for needles they had brought from home, then stubbornly insisted they had transfigured them themselves.

Unfortunately, they were all caught on the spot by Professor McGonagall.

Ravenclaw was also deducted twenty points because there were so many students cheating.

Professor McGonagall stood in the classroom aisle and scanned the room. She was somewhat disappointed to find that this year's intake didn't seem to have many geniuses who could make one's eyes light up.

The only one who performed reasonably well was...

Professor McGonagall turned her gaze toward the front row.

There, Kyle was resting his chin on one hand while waving his wand with a look of boredom.

As his wand tapped lightly, the matchstick in front of him was constantly changing.

Although it hadn't fully turned into a needle, it was already halfway there—halfway in the literal sense.

Kyle had only managed to transfigure half a needle, and its position wasn't fixed; it was either at the top, the bottom, or just stuck right in the middle.

How to describe it? It was roughly:

Needle what?

What needle?

Needle-what-ten?

This left Professor McGonagall stunned. She had seen students fail for the entire lesson, and she had seen students succeed on their first try.

But she had never seen someone fail so successfully.

Regardless, Kyle had at least managed to manifest the needle, and that alone put him ahead of the other young wizards.

Just like that, the lesson quickly drew to a close, and it wasn't until the very end that a student finally succeeded in turning a matchstick into a needle.

"Look, Professor McGonagall, someone from Hufflepuff succeeded!"

The excited voice of a student in the front row instantly drew everyone's attention.

Professor McGonagall followed the sound and offered a rare smile. However, to her surprise, the first person to finish wasn't Kyle, whom she had been watching, but Kanna Prince sitting next to him.

A Hufflepuff witch with a very low presence.

Professor McGonagall was only slightly taken aback before returning to normal. She picked up the silver, gleaming needle and showed it to the entire class.

"Everyone, look, Miss Prince has succeeded. As a reward for first place, three points to Hufflepuff!"

A round of loud applause erupted, with the little badgers clapping particularly enthusiastically—not just because of the points, but because they were genuinely happy for Kanna.

At this moment, everyone's eyes were fixed on Kanna.

This socially anxious little witch had never experienced such a scene before. Her face turned bright red instantly, and a faint wisp of white smoke seemed to rise from the top of her head; she wished she could find a hole to crawl into.

As soon as the bell rang, she grabbed her textbooks and bolted out of the classroom like a gust of wind.

Kanna felt such regret in her heart.

As expected, nothing good ever came from sitting too close to Kyle! If she had known it would turn out like this, she would have risked Professor McGonagall's scolding to change her seat!

On the other side, the innocently implicated Kyle had no idea he had been inexplicably blamed for something. Just as he walked out of the classroom, Qiu came over to invite him to go to the Great Hall to find Cedric.

"Sorry, I just remembered I have something to do in a moment. Could you go by yourself?" Kyle pointed toward Mikel, who was walking their way. "We agreed to go visit Mikel together. If we're too late, Madam Pomfrey will kick us out."

"...Alright then."

Qiu was a little disappointed, but she didn't say anything else. After all, Kyle visiting a patient was more important than getting a map.

She would just go by herself; she had met Cedric before, and she had a deep impression of him. He was the second best-looking boy she had seen at Hogwarts, so she shouldn't mistake him for someone else.

Right, the first was Kyle.

To avoid wasting time, the two said their goodbyes, and Qiu immediately set off for the Great Hall.

Kyle watched Qiu disappear around the corner of the corridor, feeling as though he had forgotten to tell her something.

What was it...

Kyle found himself unable to recall it for a moment.

Just then, Ryan happened to walk over and said, somewhat unhappily, "Kyle, I specifically saved a seat for you. Why did you run off to the front row?"

Hearing Ryan's words, Kyle subconsciously recalled the harrowing scene from before class, and at the same time, he realized what he had forgotten.

He had forgotten to tell Qiu about giving the map to Leona.

What a mess... forget it, he would mention it next time.

Kyle sighed and said, "Sorry, Ryan. I was thinking about something earlier and didn't notice. I definitely will next time!"

"That's not what I meant." Ryan waved his hand and said, "I was just surprised that you actually dared to sit in the front row. I've heard from the upperclassmen that the front row in Transfiguration Class is almost always empty. No one dares to be that close to Professor McGonagall during her lessons. You're really something."

"Heh heh... is that so?"

Kyle let out a dry laugh; if he could help it, he actually wouldn't have wanted to sit in the front row either.

Fortunately, Ryan didn't notice anything unusual about him and continued, "Are we heading back to the dormitory now? Or should we wait for the others?"

Wait for them?

Only then did Kyle notice that everyone leaving the classroom was a Ravenclaw student; he and Ryan were the only Hufflepuffs left.

"Where are the others?" Kyle asked, puzzled.

"Organizing their notes in the classroom," Ryan said as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Oh, and reminding Professor McGonagall not to forget Mikel's homework."

Uh... you guys are serious!!

Kyle's eyelid twitched. After a moment's thought, he said, "Forget it, let's just head back to the dormitory."

He had originally intended to actually take Ryan to the hospital wing, but now that he thought about it, he decided against it.

A few minutes later.

Inside the classroom, Professor McGonagall watched the group of Hufflepuff first-years leave with a look of gratification.

It had been a long time since she had seen such diligent young wizards; they were actually comparing notes after class to fill in each other's gaps, and had even proactively asked for extra homework...

This was exactly how a student should be.

Professor McGonagall rubbed her slightly sore eyes and began to collect the matches she had used as teaching aids one by one.

It was then that she noticed Kyle had also succeeded; the match on his desk had likewise transformed into a gleaming silver needle.

Perhaps he had been spurred on by Kanna Prince.

Professor McGonagall didn't think much of it, but she was still pleased that one house had produced two promising students for Transfiguration.