The Magical Food God of Hogwarts

Chapter 118 Who says this isn't a cat?

"Mr. McGregor."

Standing before the rows of neat desks and the polished blackboard in the Transfiguration classroom, Professor Minerva McGonagall stared sternly at Lucas.

"You have an extra task. Not only do you need to turn this coin into a button, but you also need to create a clear, three-dimensional cat head relief on the surface of the button."

The little badgers all cast sympathetic glances at Lucas. Turning coins into buttons was already a huge headache for most people, let alone adding a cat's head.

"Lucas, what were you up to while I was gone?" Ellie couldn't help but mutter. "Why did Professor McGonagall treat you like this?"

But in the quiet classroom, Professor McGonagall clearly heard her voice.

"Mind your manners, Miss McFastie." Professor McGonagall's gaze made Ellie swallow the rest of her words. She spoke quickly, "This is Headmaster Dumbledore's special request. Given that Mr. McGonagall has demonstrated a level of magic far beyond his years, he should undergo more intensive training. Do you have any objections, Mr. McGonagall?"

"No, Professor," Lucas said quickly, "I will try my best."

It's Professor Dumbledore again. Did he give instructions to all the professors so that I would get extra practice time?

This is a bit overwhelming...

"Then let's begin," Professor McGonagall's voice grew louder. "What are you all looking at? Have your coins turned into buttons?"

The little badgers hurriedly lowered their heads and pointed their wands at the hard objects in front of them.

Lucas and Ellie exchanged a glance, refocusing their attention on the task at hand. He glanced again at the Transfiguration notes Professor McGonagall had written on the blackboard:

I. Visualization: Construct a clear, stable, and detailed visual goal in your mind.

II. Strong will, strong emotions, and urgent desire (Willpower).

3. Concentration: Continuously apply polymorph magic to the target.

If magic is idealism, then the Food Charm is the idealism within idealism, and Transfiguration is the idealism within ...

Because most of the time, transfiguration doesn't even have a spell! There's only a simple auxiliary gesture. In a sense, it's inherently a silent spell.

The core of Transfiguration is to establish a clear goal for transformation, a firm will, emotion, and desire for transformation, stable spellcasting, and solidification through repeated practice.

The key to everything begins with the "construction" in the brain.

Professor McGonagall looked at the group of badger cubs with furrowed brows, as if they were trying to squeeze their brains out.

"You must carefully construct your transformation targets until every detail is clear and the structure is distinct."

"Exquisite detail, clear structure..." Lucas pondered these eight words and began to try to visualize a button in his mind.

However, the first step is difficult.

You can indeed get a vague image of a button, and it might even be incredibly clear for a moment, but this clarity is unsustainable and will always blur in the next instant, like a poorly received television image. You can imagine its size and color, but you can't reliably "see" its texture, the curvature of its edges, or those four standard thread holes.

The surrounding badger cubs also found themselves in various predicaments.

"Merlin! My head hurts!" Zacharias clutched his forehead with one hand and pressed Ernie's shoulder with the other, only for Ernie to groan, "Don't touch me! I had already figured it out!"

"I've figured it out." Justin confidently held up the brass button on his robe, ripped it off, stared at it, then closed his eyes and raised his wand.

The next instant, the hard object in front of him began to twist, eliciting gasps from his classmates, until it contorted into a shape somewhere between a circle and a square.

Just then, the coin in front of Susan exploded with a whoosh, shooting straight into the sky and embedding itself in the ceiling. Hannah shuddered in fright, and half of the coin in front of her melted away.

The commotion made Professor McGonagall frown, but when she saw Lucas sitting quietly in his seat, deep in thought and completely unaffected by his surroundings, a look of relief finally flashed in the depths of her eyes.

For Lucas, staying focused is a fundamental skill for a chef. If you're constantly checking every little sound, how are you supposed to cook?

Lucas pondered quietly, meticulously studying every detail and clearly defined structure... How exactly could he achieve this?

Wait a minute! For me, creating an image of something, making it detailed and lifelike, is not a problem at all.

Because, based on my superb knife skills, I have mastered the ultimate art of food carving!

I can transform a winter melon into a phoenix with outstretched wings, and I can sculpt 108 Arhats on tofu. All emotions, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, are based on the principles of food carving, which is very similar to metamorphosis.

One must first understand the object's internal texture, structure, quality, and even its "nature," and then follow the natural flow, using the most delicate force to guide the carving knife so that the form naturally emerges.

This is the highest skill: "constructing imagery," or "the intention precedes the knife."

Alright, let's begin.

Lucas closed his eyes. In his mind, the coin had become a piece of food waiting to be carved, and his wand was now his most handy carving knife.

The confidence and aura of being in control returned to him, and Professor McGonagall, who was secretly observing, opened her eyes wide.

In that instant, spirit, energy, and will unite as one, and unwavering will, intense emotions, and urgent desire merge together. The magic of the omnipotent cauldron and wish-granting machine is responding to Lucas's call!

The imagery was constructed with the intention of the knife in mind; a perfectly clear four-hole button was placed exactly next to the coin.

Right now, open your eyes and draw your knife!

With a flick of the wand, it was like a blade flashing.

The coin melted under the blade, and the metal structure changed shape as the blade rotated.

There was no light, no sound. The coin silently reshaped and grew on the table, and a second later, a smooth, warm-textured button with four standard pinholes was perfectly formed.

Wow—

"6

The badgers let out admiring exclamations, while Professor McGonagall glanced at them and quickly looked away. Ellie seemed to glimpse a sudden softening of her facial features, but upon closer inspection, it seemed like an illusion.

Professor McGonagall said sternly, "Not bad, Mr. McGonagall. However, you've only completed the first step; you haven't met the requirement of adding the owl relief."

She turned and walked toward the next student, and Ellie whispered unhappily to Lucas, "Hufflepuff plus one-twentieth, that's what Professor McGonagall should have said."

Lucas shook his head and picked up the button to try. He attempted to modify the already formed four-hole button by adding a cat head relief. However, when he tried to reconstruct the cat head using the techniques of imagery, the four holes on the button became a huge distraction.

His structure is fragmented; where should the cat's head be placed? Should it step over the holes, or avoid them? No matter how you think about it, it feels awkward.

I tried waving the wand, and the button twisted. Instead of the cat's head appearing, two crooked holes appeared.

Failed.

Professor McGregor seemed to have eyes in the back of her head; she didn't turn around, but her voice came clearly: "Mr. McGregor, why do you insist on drawing a pattern without a hole on a button with a hole?"

Lucas paused for a moment, then suddenly realized.

I can make a button without holes!

For example, the top is a round hat, and the bottom is a ring handle for threading the needle—a handle-style button!

"Transfiguration is a flexible form of magic. There is only one goal, but there are countless paths to achieve it."

"Mr. Lu...Mr. McGregor, you must remember this."

Lucas nodded, grasping the sudden clarity in his mind.

He began constructing the imagery in his mind anew. This time, he constructed the base of a handle-style button, a smooth,

A rounded button cap with a cat head relief added to this smooth surface.

cat.....

This image immediately popped into my mind, and I knew it was the one!

Lucas focused his mind and waved his wand again.

Constructing imagery, anticipating the intent before the blade, wielding the blade with lightning speed...

The coin began to wriggle, and a brand new button appeared on the table. It had a smooth cap and a sturdy handle, and on the cap was a chubby figure with a big, round head, round eyes, and round hands.

Ellie and Hannah both leaned over to look at the chubby man, then at Lucas.

Professor McGregor stood before the table, adjusted her glasses, and frowned as she examined the button. "Mr. McGregor, what is the pattern on this..."

"It's a cat, Professor," Lucas said. "Look, it has a bell around its neck."

"The one with bells—a round, chubby guy?"

"Oh, it was supposed to be blue and white. Shall I try changing its color?"

"Blue and white doesn't make a cat either!" Professor McGonagall's lips began to twitch.

"Why not?" Lucas retorted confidently. "Doraemon is a cat too! This is the famous four-dimensional pocket, Doraemon..."

"6

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, clearly displeased with this nonsense, her eyes flashing a warning.

Lucas could only sigh, reassemble, and wave his wand.

This time, the pattern on the buttons has changed.

This time it's a cat with half a wing on each hand. It spreads its legs wide and lands precisely on the top of a big tree, using its crotch to split the tree in two from top to bottom.

"Tom the Flying Cat, Professor," Lucas introduced.

Professor McGonagall's face darkened; she seemed to be trying her best to hold back.

Seeing the situation was turning bad, Lucas quickly took action. This time, he conjured a black cat dressed in a police uniform, holding a gun in one hand, looking imposing, and with the words "To be continued" prominently displayed.

"Black Cat Detective".

"McGregor!"

Okay, okay, they're all such classic cat images. What a picky professor...

Lucas racked his brains, and suddenly, an image flashed into his mind.

He waved his wand one last time.

An antique-style button lay quietly on the table. On the buttoncap, a spotted cat was depicted with lifelike detail, leaping from the spire of a Gothic tower to the other, full of dynamism and vitality—a magical moment frozen in time.

Professor McGonagall watched it silently.

"Wow, it's so beautiful!" Ellie exclaimed. "Where is this?"

Lucas smiled. "This was the first time I saw the Hogwarts sky from my bed in the school hospital during the summer vacation."

In that deep, boundless night sky, a spotted cat leaped gracefully across the rooftops—this was his first impression of Hogwarts.

Now, Lucas has sculpted this real, emotional, and memorable scene—the moment the tabby cat leaps atop the tower, along with the tower's silhouette—onto a button.

Professor McGonagall slowly picked up the button, gently stroking the cat relief on it, and gazed at it in her palm. Her gaze behind her glasses seemed to soften considerably.

Then, she turned to face the whole class, holding up the buttons to show the badgers: "Hufflepuff, ten points!"

Hannah clapped her hands enthusiastically, then asked with hopeful eyes, "Lucas, can I have this button?"

Lucas nodded: "Okay."

However, Professor McGonagall did not return the button when get out of class ended.

After lunch, Tuesday afternoon's class is a herbal medicine class.

This was another big lesson, with Hufflepuff and Gryffindor attending together. When Lucas appeared in the warm, humid Greenhouse Number Three, he was immediately greeted with a warm welcome by the lion cubs.

"Lucas, come here!" Harry waved his arms vigorously. "Professor Sprout loves to divide us into groups of four. Come on, join me, Neville, and Hermione!"

Unfortunately, his plan completely failed, because Ellie, Hannah, and Susan had already sided with Lucas, and even Ernie was a step too late, only able to look on helplessly at Lucas.

"Lucas!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, not caring about that. "I've completed the task you gave me!"

.

I've compiled a list of all the major events in the British magical world from 1940 to the present, arranged chronologically, and I can give it to you anytime! Don't forget, you have to teach me the secrets of the Fire Charm.

"Hermione, you're amazing!" Lucas exclaimed sincerely. No wonder she's a top student; her efficiency is simply astonishing. 66

I can teach you tonight.

Hermione was about to say something more when the other Gryffindors surrounded her, shouting incessantly.

"Lucas, we've all heard!" Seamus exclaimed excitedly. "You were fighting the entire mermaid tribe at the bottom of the Black Lake!"

"That's right!" Dean added fuel to the fire. "Fred and George told us inside information that they saw Lucas steal the mermaid's recipe and get beaten up! Lucas even argued that stealing a recipe doesn't count as stealing... stealing a recipe!... Can a chef's business be considered stealing?"

"Huh?" Parvati was clearly hearing this version for the first time. "And then?"

Then Lucas shouted, "My fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens!"

"A burst of golden light and an explosion in the Black Lake wiped out the mermaids in an instant!"

"Finally, the mermaid tribe submitted, and their chieftain even offered to marry his most beautiful princess to Lucas!"

Parvati listened with rapt attention: "Really? Lucas married the Little Mermaid?"

Seamus shook his head regretfully: "Lucas said, 'Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river; never underestimate a young man's potential!'"

"break off an engagement!"