For a while before the third task, Harry was very happy.
With the professors' help, he and Ron had developed complete ideas and plans for tackling the third task, and more than one at that.
They had tried the gillyweed Professor Sprout had obtained through her connections. The gillyweed grown by Sprout's friend, a wizard who specialized in cultivating magical plants, worked considerably better than they had expected.
Harry and Ron tried it three times. The longest lasted an hour and twenty-seven minutes, and the shortest an hour and thirteen minutes. All three exceeded the one-hour limit indicated by the clues currently available for the third task.
With Professor McGonagall's help, Harry and Ron had also gained an initial grasp of transfiguring themselves. Harry had a better grasp of it, which was only natural, since he had already mastered becoming an Animagus.
His progress was so fast that it even drew surprised looks from Professor McGonagall. Harry felt there was something not quite right about the way she looked at him. He grew a little nervous. Could Professor McGonagall have discovered that he was an Animagus?
That was not impossible. After all, Professor McGonagall had already been an accomplished Animagus decades ago. It would have been perfectly normal and reasonable for her to notice a few signs.
In the end, however, Professor McGonagall said nothing, leaving Harry unable to put his anxious heart at ease.
Harry had expected to master Transfiguration quickly. Yet Ron had also mastered this magic in a very short time, which surprised Harry quite a bit.
Although Ron had consistently been the best in their class at practical Transfiguration since getting his new wand, even pulling a little ahead of Hermione in second place and Harry in third, his speed still astonished Harry.
Harry was not