Hogwarts Study Panel

Chapter 156: Owl Cookies
Outside the Hogwarts Headmaster's office, Professor Snape, having obtained a necessary document, vanished without a trace outside the castle.

Meanwhile, on the garbage-strewn streets of Croydon, Minerva McGonagall, clutching a yellowed letter, once again observed the Victorian semi-detached house nestled in the impoverished southern suburbs before its dilapidated front door.

The people there acted as if they didn't see her, letting her look at the warped floorboards and the drafty single-pane windows.

The letter in her hand was also written through her knuckles as she gripped it tightly:

Dear Madam:

When I finally heard the news, I knew that the long period of wandering was over. Madam, please forgive my loss of composure; I cried all night.

I hope you can see this, dear lady. Please forgive his ignorance, and be patient, very patient.

What she didn't know was that there was more than one wizard on this street.

……

With Christmas approaching, Sheen made owl cookies, which immediately attracted the attention of everyone in Hope House.

After all, many strange phenomena occurred when Sheen was making cookies, such as a cookie suddenly turning into an owl.

This made them feel incredibly curious.

At first, they thought it was just some kind of transfiguration, until they overheard the two Weasleys discussing some kind of share agreement with Sheen in the hallway, and then they realized something was wrong.

Everyone knows that the Weasleys were masters of quirky inventions.

"Sheen, what is this?"

Justin curiously leaned closer.

"Owl cookies,"

Seeing Justin's puzzled look, Sheen answered, then quietly added the rest of his sentence.

"A cookie that allows wizards to transform into owls."

"Merlin—"

Justin looked at Sheen, and after Sheen nodded slightly, he picked up the cookie and examined it carefully, but still couldn't figure out what kind of magic had been applied to it.

Hermione ran over too, and she picked up the cookie and examined it.
Alchemy?

Sheen nodded.

Harry and Ron were already a little confused.

Alchemy?

Isn't that something you can only learn in sixth grade?

"I bet Sheehan will become the next Percy, or rather, three, five, or even ten times better than Percy!"

Ron said with absolute certainty.

"I……"

Harry sometimes felt that he was inferior to his friends in every way except for his reputation... He suddenly felt a little inferior.

"It has just passed the test."

Sheehan recalled how the Weasleys had eagerly risked their lives. The outcome was good; the two of them had ended up hanging in a pine tree, and Sheehan had to use his snowman to bring them down.

Ignoring their initial shock at being grabbed by the giant yeti as soon as they regained consciousness, the whole process went quite smoothly.

"Hmm, we need to be careful. We should take them one at a time. They will temporarily lose their minds after transforming into owls."

Sheehan guessed that the loss of reason was similar to what was mentioned in Quidditch:
Later wizards transformed themselves into bats.

This proved to be foolish; although the wizard who transformed himself into a bat could fly freely,

However, having the heads of bats, they would surely forget where they wanted to go while flying.

Floating in the air is a common occurrence.

Indeed, the vastness of magic lies in the fact that when you grasp a secret, you discover that it has already been recorded by predecessors.

Owl cookies can only be used under safe conditions, but Sheen, following some strange intuition, guessed:
Wizards possess a clone; when a wizard's "self" transforms into a "living being" to fit into the clone, the transformation becomes much simpler. If Professor McGonagall ate the "cat biscuit," would she not lose her mind?
This is just a simple conjecture, but in fact, the solution to the problem of losing consciousness is also very simple: learn the advanced metamorphosis technique of transforming "self" into "living thing".

Here's another example: Krum transforms into a shark head but retains his sanity, demonstrating that this path is feasible.

Inside the Hope Hut, everyone sat obediently, gathered together, waiting for the birth of an incredibly magical product.

"Okay, let me try it first."

Seeing the excited yet slightly worried looks on everyone's faces, Justin took a piece of owl biscuit.

His expression changed after the first bite, but he finished the rest as if nothing had happened.

"what about the taste?"

Sheen suddenly asked a question.

"Of course it's great!"

Justin didn't even blink.

"to be honest."

"It tastes terrible."

Justin's face immediately fell; he had never eaten anything so awful.

Just as Justin transformed into an owl and fluttered around, Sheehan encountered a strange problem—his cookies were awful.

Next, in Hope's Hut, there was a continuous stream of young wizards who, despite their bitter expressions, swallowed the food, along with the owls they had transformed into.

Before setting out to find Professor Terra, Sheen knew he was probably facing one of the biggest problems of all—

Of all the books I've studied, not a single one teaches cooking.

While Sheehan was searching through his books, Justin loitered around nearby;
While Sheen went to the library to borrow a book on magical cooking, Justin sighed beside him;
As Sheehan searches in "Conjure a Feast!", Justin's voice comes through the sound of falling snow:

My mother said that half of a person's life should be spent among friends...

Sheen, I can get involved in some things..."

His eyes sparkled, filled with sincerity and generosity.

Several hours passed quickly, and when the cookies were freshly baked in the Hogwarts kitchen, Justin couldn't suppress the smile on his face.

"Flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, butter, milk... their proportions are..."

Justin gave the recipe a final explanation, which Sheehan wrote down word for word. At that moment, the owl cookies were truly complete.

Sheen waved his wand, and the cookies fell into Justin's hands.

"See you tonight."

He said goodbye to Justin and headed toward the alchemy office with the samples.

The howling letter and the owl biscuit were his practice creations when he first entered the world of alchemy.

Sheen walked hurriedly down the corridor.

Since receiving that letter from London, he had been deliberately keeping himself busy so that he wouldn't have time to think about those exciting, anticipated, unsettling, and worrying things.

The professor's gentle blue eyes often appeared in his mind, calm and gentle like a clear lake.

Whether in her past life or this one, Professor McGonagall is old enough to be his grandmother.

But he still didn't know how to face all of this.

This winter.

The wind howled as it blew over his shoulders, swept past him, and carried him from the past into the future.

Above the wind,
The stars twinkle, their depths unfathomable.

(End of this chapter)