Zhang Xiao stood and bowed slightly.
"Professor, I think I felt the mouse resisting during the Transfiguration. I was wondering whether that was why it failed!"
The corners of Professor McGonagall's thin lips curved upward, and she nodded approvingly.
"Well said, Mr. Zhang. I had intended to give you a hint, but you've already discovered the problem yourself. Five points to Slytherin."
Zhang Xiao's brows knitted slightly as he asked in confusion:
"Professor, there's still something I don't quite understand. Can a mouse's resistance alone affect whether a spell works?
"Then with offensive spells like Stupefy and Reducto, the targets are human beings. Surely their resistance would be much stronger than a mouse's?
"Why can't they resist those spells?"
Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows as well. She studied Zhang Xiao, then suddenly asked:
"Mr. Zhang, when do you think a person's emotions and concentration are at their purest and most intense?"
When were emotions and concentration at their purest and most intense?
In sorrow, despair, or pain? Zhang Xiao pondered for a moment, but before he could come up with an answer, Professor McGonagall said bluntly:
"When attacking someone else, Mr. Zhang. Think carefully: when performing Transfiguration, do you have that same powerful intent?"
Professor McGonagall abruptly stopped there. Apparently feeling she had said a little too much, she left him with "Keep thinking, and make more attempts," then turned away.
Zhang Xiao remained behind, deep in thought.
Although Professor McGonagall had said only a sentence or two, they contained a great deal of information. At the very least, Zhang Xiao could infer quite a few things from them.
The purity and intensity of emotions and concentration... Did that mean those two factors had a considerable influence on a spell's power?
*What about magical energy? Did magical energy have no