There was a Transfiguration class on Monday.
The first thing John saw when he woke up was Tom's enthusiastic tongue.
Still groggy, he got out of bed, walked over to the table, and set out a generous scoop of dog food for Tom before John went to brush his teeth and wash his face.
Looking at himself in the mirror, John felt as though he had forgotten something.
"Oh no, I have Transfiguration today!"
He had stayed out rather late on his nighttime excursion, then fallen straight into bed after exercising.
He hurried out and spotted his alarm clock on the floor, still covered in Tom's slobber.
No wonder he had not heard it ring. Tom had turned it into a chew toy.
He put on his wizard robes, but by the time John left his dormitory, the Slytherin Common Room was already empty.
Out in the corridor, he began to envy the Weasley twins.
They always managed to find convenient shortcuts. Fortunately, John was in good shape himself.
When he reached the Great Hall, he still had enough time to squeeze in breakfast.
Hermione had been looking around, and when she spotted John approaching, she waved to him.
John sat down beside Hermione. Seeing that she was still giving Harry and Ron the cold shoulder, he said nothing.
"Where's Neville? Did he oversleep or get lost?"
From what John knew of him, Neville was always forgetting things and getting lost.
"His toad's missing. He's looking for him in the Gryffindor Common Room." Hermione was eating buttered bread, with a few crumbs clinging to the corner of her mouth.
She had deliberately slowed down to wait for John.
At her usual pace, she would already have been on her way to class.
John cut into his fried egg and put a piece in his mouth, then said helplessly, "Well, I think I know what to get Neville for Christmas. He needs a cage to keep Trevor safely locked up."
Noticing the crumbs at the corner of Hermione's mouth, John pointed to the corner of his own to let her know.
When Hermione caught on, her little face looked as though someone had brushed it with blush.
Just as John was finishing his meal, Neville finally found his way there.
This was already the fourth time Neville had gotten lost. John thought he ought to get him a Marauder's Map.
After sitting down, Neville took out his Remembrall and stared in bewilderment at its red glow.
The Remembrall turned red whenever its owner forgot something.
But Neville never knew what he had forgotten.
John looked him up and down and said, "Neville, you might not get to have breakfast this time."
"Why not?"
Neville felt miserable. He had only just managed to reach the Great Hall.
Giving Neville a sympathetic look, John held up two fingers. "Two reasons. First, class is about to start. Second, you need to go back to your dormitory."
"Because you forgot to put on your outer robe."
Neville finally remembered what he had forgotten. Forgetting all about breakfast, he hurried off to struggle with the bewildering Moving Staircase.
John arrived at the Transfiguration classroom. He had missed the previous lesson because he had been given detention for fighting, which he deeply regretted.
He was very interested in Transfiguration, but he could not remember the details very clearly.
Inside the classroom, Slytherin green and Gryffindor red were distinctly separated, so he and Hermione went to sit apart.
Whether in the wizarding world or outside it, students always shunned the front row.
The few seats left were all at the front, and John walked over to take one.
Suddenly, he spotted a tabby cat.
The Tabby Cat sat on the teacher's desk, with unusual markings on her face that looked like a pair of square glasses.
As someone who loved fluffy animals, John admitted that he was tempted.
He vaguely remembered a cat appearing somewhere in the story, but his body moved faster than his thoughts.
Taking the lickable cat treat he had brought for Mrs. Norris out of his pocket, John approached the Tabby Cat with a smile and reached straight out to pet her.
That single gesture left the young wizards from both houses stunned.
Even the Tabby Cat was stunned.
"It's a cat treat. Want to try some?"
John himself had no idea why he sounded like a middle-aged man trying to lure a child away.
All he knew was that his actions had earned him a sea of awed and admiring looks.
Coming to her senses, the Tabby Cat wriggled out of his grasp, leaped down from the desk, and transformed into an older cat lady.
"Mr. Wick, I think you should find a seat now, rather than standing here like a block of wood."
Professor McGonagall maintained her dignity. Her square glasses finally made John realize where the Tabby Cat's markings had come from.
John sheepishly withdrew his hand. He remembered the part about the cat now.
Professor McGonagall's Animagus form was a tabby cat with distinctive markings.
John trudged back to his seat, feeling as though this might leave him psychologically scarred.
He silently swore that, before petting any more cats, he would check whether they were transformed Animagi.
If a cat turned into some sleazy middle-aged man while he was petting it, he would be done for.
Hearing muffled laughter, John looked back. The Slytherins fell silent the moment his gaze swept over them.
The young Gryffindors gave him admiring looks. Harry, the Chosen One, had his mouth slightly open, as though he had never met anyone more reckless than himself.
Hermione lowered her head to hide her laughter, but her shaking brown curls gave her away, bobbing like a little lion's mane.
This little incident changed the young wizards' impression of John.
It turned out that the boy had an endearing side, too.
In Transfiguration, they learned how to change objects.
Looking at the box of paper clips, John tried to turn it into a mouse.
Unfortunately, the transformation was very difficult to control.
After many attempts, John finally unlocked the spell.
Although it was still only level 1, he successfully completed the transformation before class ended.
Looking at the lifeless mouse before him, he felt it fell far short of the goblet Professor McGonagall had produced during her first demonstration.
"Five points to Slytherin."
As John was the first to finish, Professor McGonagall awarded him points.
What John considered a poor result pleased Professor McGonagall greatly.
For a beginner who had even missed a lesson, it was already exceptionally good.
Transfiguration was so difficult that even Miss Know-It-All Hermione had failed to complete it.
John had barely left after class when Hermione jogged after him.
"How did you do it?"
Her Top Student instincts kicked in, and she questioned him tirelessly, still bothered by her own failure to complete the transformation.
John could hardly tell her that he had a cheat, so he could only say that he had watched Professor McGonagall demonstrate it before starting school.
Fortunately, Miss Know-It-All did not keep questioning him for too long.
In the corridor, John set his sights on a suit of armor.
"John, what are you looking at?" Hermione stopped to ask.
Behind John, the figures in the enchanted paintings leaned closer as well, their faces equally curious.
Rubbing his smooth chin, John muttered to himself, "That looks like it could make a decent training weight."
The knight in the painting gaped when he heard this. What sort of Little Wizard thought about training weights?
John had always been someone who dared to put his ideas into action. He had his eye on that suit of medieval armor-or, more precisely, the sword it held.
The armor itself would have made a decent weight, but it was too bulky and would restrict his movement.
The sword, on the other hand, could be carried on his back, and when he was not running, he could use it as exercise equipment.
"I'll take the sword tonight."
An eager look appeared in his eyes, making the suit of armor rather nervous.
Apart from the Gryffindor Common Room, the place Hermione visited most often was the library.
Miss Know-It-All had a thirst for knowledge about everything except Divination.
John was dragged along too, mainly because he wanted to familiarize himself with the location of the Restricted Section.
Picking up a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, he began pretending to read.
The library had strict rules.
Anyone who made a racket in the library would learn just how formidable its librarian, Madam Irma Pince, could be.
Just moments earlier, John had seen Neville, who had eaten too many beans at lunch, being chased and beaten by a broom.
John sympathized with him.
Night fell.
After finishing his cleaning in the Trophy Room, John sneaked over to the suit of armor in the corridor.
The poor suit of armor woke up the next morning to discover that its sword was gone.
For a time, the incident became one of Hogwarts' unsolved mysteries.
Only Mr. Filch insisted with absolute certainty that the Weasley Twins had done it.
Before you continue