Transfiguration

"You two, hurry up! If you don't, we'll be late!"

Draco Malfoy impatiently urged Crabbe and Goyle, who were sleeping like the dead.

After yesterday's storytelling, none of the young wizards had slept well.

Draco Malfoy and his two friends had lain in bed reliving the Great Sage, Heaven's Equal's heroic exploits, too excited to fall asleep for ages.

Eli had tossed and turned, wondering, Were that old man's eyes dry or not?

Between one thing and another, they had nearly overslept.

The two idiots were especially bad. No matter how Eli and Draco Malfoy called them, they wouldn't wake up.

Furious, Draco Malfoy grabbed a cup of cold water and poured it over their faces. That finally woke them.

The four of them hurried along, half walking and half running, and finally reached the classroom.

There weren't many people inside. It seemed they were still fairly early.

Goyle and Crabbe nearly collapsed in the doorway. Running all that way while dragging their heavy bodies had clearly been too much for them.

Eli and Draco Malfoy entered the classroom. A tabby cat was crouched on the teacher's desk, and on closer look, it seemed to have markings around its eyes like spectacles.

"Even the professor isn't here yet. Looks like we're plenty early."

Draco Malfoy stood in the aisle as if no one else were there, looking smug.

No doubt he'd noticed that Harry Potter and Ron Weasley had yet to arrive.

Eli stood beside him with a grave expression, facing the tabby cat.

Without drawing attention, he jabbed Draco Malfoy, who was grinning like an idiot.

"What? Do you have to be so serious? It's just a class. The professor isn't even here yet!"

Draco Malfoy's inexplicable sense of superiority was showing again.

At this point, Eli had no desire to save the fool.

Draco Malfoy was puzzled to see Eli standing so respectfully before the tabby cat on the desk.

"Why are you being so respectful to a cat? It obviously belongs to Professor McGonagall. It's as skinny and old as its owner."

He's done for.

Eli silently mourned for Draco Malfoy, giving him a look that seemed to say, Young, reckless, and clueless. Figures.

Eli suddenly gave the cat a perfect ninety-degree bow, then quietly found a seat and sat down.

Draco Malfoy looked baffled. Was Eli having another one of his episodes?

Still clueless, Draco Malfoy sat beside Eli and nudged him with his elbow.

"Hey, what's going on?"

To his surprise, Eli shifted away. "Draco Malfoy, if you want to die, don't drag me down with you."

Just as Draco Malfoy grew even more confused, the tabby cat leaped up and transformed into a human in midair.

A tight bun, emerald-green robes, and spectacles on a stern face.

Who else could it be but Professor McGonagall?

Professor McGonagall slowly walked up to Draco Malfoy and stared at him.

The moment Draco Malfoy saw the tabby cat become the professor, his face had visibly turned even paler.

By the time Professor McGonagall fixed her gaze on him, not a trace of color remained.

"Mr. Malfoy, I hope you'll show an old, skinny professor more respect next time. Twenty points from Slytherin!"

Oh no!

That was the silent wail of Eli and the other Slytherin students. A full twenty points lost on the first day of school!

For the Slytherins, with their peculiar obsession with the House Cup, it was a devastating blow.

Everyone glared at Draco Malfoy.

As for Draco Malfoy himself, his mind had gone blank.

On the first day of school, he had badmouthed a professor right in front of her—and in front of so many people.

He wanted to disappear on the spot!

Professor McGonagall turned away, became a tabby cat again, and crouched where she had been before.

Eli looked at Draco Malfoy, whose face was changing color yet again, and sighed with pity.

Making an example of him had worked wonders.

After that terrifying moment, the students all obediently lowered their heads to their textbooks.

Whether any of it sank in didn't matter. They just had to look.

Draco Malfoy in particular had suffered a terrible blow to his young heart.

When the other young wizards arrived later and saw everyone studying diligently, they took the hint and quietly found their seats.

Of course, there were exceptions to everything. Draco Malfoy wouldn't be the only unlucky one.

"Oh, Merlin! If we'd come any later, she'd have had a face like thunder!"

Eli looked over, pity in his eyes.

Another couple of kids were about to acquire a childhood trauma.

Seeing that someone else was in trouble—and that it was Potter and that Weasley, no less—Draco Malfoy grinned like an idiot at their misfortune.

Eli could only marvel at how quickly Draco Malfoy had recovered.

It was the same entrance all over again.

The tabby cat suddenly turned into Professor McGonagall.

Ron Weasley stared blankly at the professor who had appeared out of nowhere and blurted, "Nice move."

Professor McGonagall replied with impeccable politeness.

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Weasley. But perhaps I should turn one of you into a watch. Then at least the other wouldn't be late."

"Professor, we got lost," Harry protested.

"Then a map, perhaps. You won't need one to find your seats, I trust!"

The two of them slunk off to their seats.

Draco Malfoy's face fell. Why hadn't they lost any points?

With all the students present, Professor McGonagall wasted no more words.

She tapped the blackboard with her Wand, and lines of writing immediately filled it.

"Transfiguration will be the most exacting and dangerous subject you encounter. If I catch anyone waving a Wand around carelessly, you will leave this classroom!"

She waved her Wand again, and a match appeared on each student's desk.

"Your task this lesson is to turn the match in front of you into a needle. Remember to apply what you've been taught!"

At the professor's instruction, the young wizards began trying to follow what was written on the board.

But every match stayed perfectly still, showing not the slightest sign of changing.

Eli took his time. For him, Transfiguration was child's play.

Transfiguration mainly relied on a wizard's will to turn an inanimate object or living creature into the form they desired.

To succeed, a wizard had to understand that desired form well enough.

If you wanted to turn a desk into a pig, you might even need to perform a few dissections to understand how pigs were put together.

Magic that forcibly changed a thing's shape according to a wizard's will placed enormous demands on the wizard's spiritual strength.

So for Eli, whose soul was far stronger than an ordinary person's, Transfiguration couldn't have been simpler.

Perhaps because his souls had merged, his memory was now almost photographic.

He could remember every detail of what a needle looked like.

He lightly tapped the match with his Wand, and magic flowed over it like water.

Under the magic's influence, the match swiftly became a silver needle, complete with an eye for thread.

His control over his magic still wasn't good enough to add patterns to the needle, but even this was remarkable for a young wizard.

Professor McGonagall hurried over to Eli. At the sight of the gleaming silver needle, she looked delighted.

"Oh! Mr. Hall has already turned his match into a silver needle!"

The other students stared at Eli in disbelief.

Hermione Granger glanced at the silver needle on his desk as though she'd seen a ghost, then turned back and prodded at her own match with her Wand.

Draco Malfoy looked at Eli enviously.

Eli felt the gazes around him and was secretly thrilled.

Snap!

A faint crack rang out.

Eli stared in surprise at the silver needle, now broken into several pieces on the desk.

Professor McGonagall looked surprised, then regretful. "A pity, Mr. Hall. You need to control your magic. Still, you've clearly grasped the key to Transfiguration. Five points to Slytherin!"

The Slytherin students nearby instantly broke into smiles.

Only Eli looked grim.

Draco Malfoy patted Eli. "Don't be like that. You succeeded."

Eli smiled at Draco Malfoy.

But his worries remained.

It wasn't as if he'd never tried Transfiguration before. Once he'd gained basic control over his magic, it had stopped surging beyond his control!

Yet the broken silver needle on the desk made it all too clear: his magic had once again exceeded his ability to control it!

He had felt his magic growing lately, but he hadn't expected it to reach this point already.

At this rate, losing control of his magic was only a matter of time. His life was in danger!

He barely knew how the lesson ended. Deep in thought, he walked out of the classroom.

Harry and Ron Weasley suddenly ran up to him.

"Eli!"

Eli broke out of his thoughts, looked at the two of them, and greeted them.

But they looked rather serious.

Draco Malfoy was about to call out to Eli when he saw Harry and Ron Weasley talking to him. His face darkened, and he walked straight past.

"Eli, I think we should go to Professor Dumbledore together. The Sorting Hat must have made a mistake!"

Ron Weasley sounded earnest, and Harry nodded beside him.

The two of them even tried to pull Eli along, but he stopped them.

"Wait. I think we should calm down first!"

Ron Weasley and Harry looked at Eli.

Eli shrugged and smiled at them. "The Sorting Hat's been doing this for years. It's not likely to make a mistake. Maybe I really do belong in Slytherin!"

"But..."

Ron Weasley grew anxious.

Eli was so friendly and such a good person. How could he go to a house for Dark wizards?

Ron Weasley didn't want Eli in a house rumored to produce so many Dark wizards.

Eli patted Ron Weasley on the shoulder. "Ron Weasley, Harry, I think we've all misunderstood Slytherin. Maybe it isn't that bad."

"But even You-Know-Who is rumored to have come from Slytherin!"

Eli smiled unconcernedly. "There are reasons a bad person turns bad. You can't assume everyone else is bad just because of him, can you? If Slytherin were really that awful, I don't think Dumbledore would let it continue to exist."

Perhaps because he trusted Dumbledore, or perhaps because he trusted Eli, Ron Weasley fell silent.

"We just wanted to be in the same house as you."

Harry said it quietly.

He didn't really know how bad Slytherin was. He just wanted to be in the same place as Eli.

Eli was the first person who had stood up for him, the first who had wanted to be his friend.

Harry thought of Eli as his best friend!

Eli looked at Harry, unsure what to say for a moment.

He put an arm around each of their shoulders. "We're still friends, aren't we?"

"Of course!" they said in unison.

"Trust me. As long as we're friends, what does it matter if we're in different houses? We're all still at Hogwarts! Besides, we can take classes together and hang out afterward. Even during the holidays, I'd like to invite you both to my house!"

Harry and Ron Weasley finally let go of their misgivings about Slytherin after hearing Eli's words.

They stopped insisting that he change houses, too.

That worry, at least, was settled.

But Eli still had a worry of his own—one that threatened his life.