The days at Hogwarts

The scene over there was a bit horrible. Ron was silent for a moment and politely withdrew his gaze. It's not that he didn't care about his roommate, but it wouldn't work even if he cared.

The emphasis on scoring was not on the Seeker, so Harry was able to take some time to rest after his speed training, sitting in the gallery with Ron and enjoying the breeze.

Harry's attention was on the field, so he didn't see the tragedy behind the field. He sighed, "Your father drove the flying car away yesterday, and Sirius rode the flying motorcycle when he left. The Quidditch field suddenly became so quiet, I'm a little uncomfortable."

Regarding his father suddenly showing up at school and driving away the flying car, Ron suspected that Percy had tipped him off.

The reason why Percy was able to hide the truth from his family with them was that George and Fred threatened him with a secret that could not be told. Most likely, the twins were too arrogant, and Percy would rather fight to the death with them.

Fortunately, this time it's not just his problem. All the Weasleys are involved, and George and Fred are the main culprits. His mother's roaring letter probably won't be sent to him.

Ron shook his head nervously, not intending to think too much about this psychologically traumatic question. He turned around and asked curiously, "Why did Sirius leave so suddenly? When he said goodbye, he said he couldn't continue to teach us Defense Against the Dark Arts in the future."

"I don't know either." Harry shook his head. "He just said that he was going to pay off his debts and find answers to some questions."

"What debt? How can someone as rich as him owe debts?" Ron opened his mouth in surprise and said with emotion, "What debt can the Black family not pay off?"

"I asked him about it, and he told me not to get involved in those things, and just told me to study hard and cherish the time I spend with my friends."

"Magic, just like Dumbledore." Ron muttered.

Chapter 251 The vacation is over

Gryffindor, in a boys' dormitory.

Harry and Ron sat on the carpet beside the bed, leaning sideways, burying their heads in parchment and writing furiously.

"In the future vacations, I will definitely finish my homework before playing!"

"Me too, whoever doesn't do their homework first is a dog!"

"The last time someone said someone was a troll for not doing their homework, I didn't say who it was."

"Ok?"

Harry narrowed his eyes and looked at Ron. What's going on? We are obviously brothers who are copying homework on the same bed, but you are trying to ruin my plan.

Ron was immersed in his homework, his fingers aching and his face painful. He asked plaintively, "Why? I felt like I just had a holiday yesterday, but it ends tomorrow!"

Harry was even more indignant: "Why is the Easter holiday shorter than the Christmas holiday, but the homework is more than the Christmas holiday, almost three times as much!"

Seamus and Neville lay on their beds watching the fun, with gloating smiles on their faces.

"Who told you to stay at the stadium all the time? You should know that Loren and Neville finished their homework in just two days." Simo rocked on the bed, making a "creaking" sound and a leisurely rhythm.

He tutted and teased, trying to rub salt into their wounds: "You should thank Loren and Neville. It was your job to help Professor Sprout look after the Mandrake Herb."

Neville on the other bed scratched his head and smiled innocently: "It's okay, the three of us just happened to earn 45 points for Gryffindor."

"That's right!" Ron nodded in agreement. He suddenly leaned forward to look at what he was copying, and then shouted, "Loren, come and take a look! What words are you writing here? Your cursive is so sloppy that I can't recognize it."

"Which subject's homework?" Loren asked calmly. He was lying on his bed, holding "Animagus in History" in his hand, and turning another page while speaking.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Hearing this, Seamus thought for a moment: "Professor Black has left, and Headmaster Dumbledore did not announce a new professor at the dinner. In this case... I don't have to do the homework for the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, right?"

"Really..." Ron hesitated for only half a second, and a happy smile immediately appeared on his face, "Oh, this is not good."

Looking at Ron who was saying one thing and thinking another, Harry rolled his eyes: "Then why did you put down your pen?"

Closing the book, Loren looked out the window at the dark night. His gaze seemed to pass through the black curtain and fall into the distant Muggle society far away from the wizarding world.

Compared to the long summer vacation and Christmas holidays, the Easter holiday ended quietly, and on an ordinary Monday morning in April, Hogwarts resumed classes as usual.

The first class in the morning was Transfiguration. After the teaching system was changed, the content of Transfiguration became broader, but the depth involved became shallower. Many contents only retained the basic part. Advanced knowledge was either incorporated into the subsequent Transfiguration refresher class or placed in the Transfiguration Club's courses.

For young wizards who do not plan to delve deeper into the field of Transfiguration and have no intention of working in a Transfiguration-related industry in the future, the Transfiguration course becomes much easier.

"This is the official end of the process of deforming mouse hair. This process can be applied to small furry animals of the same type, such as rabbits and cats."

Professor McGonagall knocked on the podium and asked, "Assign a thought after class: Can the above method be applied to the deformation of bird feathers and the deformation of fish and snake scales? What are the similarities and differences between the several deformations?

It is not considered a formal assignment and does not need to be submitted as a paper. Interested students can discuss it. ”

After hearing the latter sentence, many little wizards who were writing down questions in their notebooks put down their quills and smiled with ease on their faces.

If you don’t have to turn in your homework, then you don’t have to do your homework.

Loren tilted his head to look to the side, and sure enough, Hermione was holding a quill and writing the questions in her notebook in neat handwriting.

Then I don’t have to write, so Loren packed his books and put them into his backpack with peace of mind.

Just as everyone was about to leave, Professor McGonagall called out again, "By the way, members of the Animagus teaching class, please tell each other that the Defense Against the Dark Arts class this afternoon will be changed to a teaching class. Everyone remember to attend class on time."

"Okay, Professor McGonagall!" the little wizards answered in unison.

……

Professor McGonagall had explained in detail the value, difficulty and risk of Animagus in the last open class, but the temptation of Animagus was too great, and these contents did not dampen the enthusiasm of the students, and no member of the teaching class chose to quit. Even a small number of young wizards who were shaken wanted to get in touch with formal teaching first.

Loren was surprised to find that Miss Beetle had really become a teaching assistant.

Rita Skeeter still wore a black mask, but her weird golden curls became much neater. Her jeweled glasses were gone, and now she wore the same thin black-rimmed glasses as Professor McGonagall. Her long red nails were cut off.

She held a stack of newspapers in her hands and handed them out to each young wizard one by one, then returned to the edge of the podium and stood quietly, like a normal teaching assistant.

When you open the newspaper, there are no words on it, only thirteen pages of vivid pictures.

The ink prepared with developer solution repeatedly merges and separates on the yellowed paper, and the effect achieved is that people and animals are constantly moving on the newspaper.

Owl, crow, reticulated python, beetle, black dog, tabby cat, alligator, haddock, hedgehog, cheetah, cobra, mouse, wolf.

Thirteen people constantly change into thirteen kinds of animals, and then return to human form from animals.

Although some people covered their faces, Loren still recognized many familiar faces: the reticulated python - Nagini, the beetle - Rita, the black dog - Sirius Black, the tabby cat - Professor McGonagall, and the mouse - Peter Pettigrew.

Loren's fingers brushed over the ink on the picture, and the content of the picture did not change due to the rubbing. The magic engraved atlas had no printing marks, and the damping of the parchment was very comfortable.

I admire Professor McGonagall's teaching. The content in the atlas is so complete. Flying birds, wriggling snakes, running beasts on all fours, and even amphibians, covering almost all kinds of animals. Professor McGonagall did her best in collecting the information she could.

Hermione also recognized several people. She looked up and exchanged a glance with Loren, then lowered her head tacitly and continued looking at the pictures.

The images of numerous animals and humans transforming into each other caused waves of amazement among the group of young wizards.

"Quiet, listen to me first." Professor McGonagall used her wand as a teaching stick, tapping lightly on the desk to suppress the discussion below.

"The contents of this album are collected from various channels. Among the thirteen pictures, only the owl, crow, beetle, black dog, tabby cat, alligator, and mouse are normal Animagus. I wrote to invite some of them to record the transformation process. The image of the mouse is from the criminal file of the Ministry of Magic. I believe you have recognized some familiar faces."

Fred was the first to shout: "I know, the black dog is Professor Black, and the tabby cat is you!"

This caused a group of little wizards to shout excitedly.

"Hehehe..." George laughed maliciously and turned his gaze to the pale-faced Percy, "and our dear mouse Scabbers."

Percy didn't look at him. He took deep breaths in his seat, forcing himself not to think about those distant memories, which were even more terrifying than the illustrations in "The Horrible Dark Wizard".

Ignoring their antics, Professor McGonagall continued to explain the contents of the album: "The Reticulated Python is a blood-cursed orc. Just focus on her transformation process and won't go into details here. The Haddock is the poor one. The witch Mirabella Plunkett, you should have heard her story, this is a map deduced by many transfiguration scholars and arithmetic divination prophets in order to find her traces."

There was another lively discussion.

"I know. I got her picture out of the Chocolate Frog over Christmas break."

"We never found her afterwards. I think she died in Loch Lomond."

"It's so pitiful..."

Professor McGonagall waited quietly for their discussion to end: "The two pictures of the cheetah and the cobra are of old wizards on the African continent. The principles of human body transformation they use are different from those of Animagus. We can learn something from them.

The hedgehog on page 3 is the eldest son of the dark wizard Thaddeus Throckel. You see the scene when he was rescued by the Aurors and restored to human form. Pay attention to his eyes. The long-term fixed animal form has made the beast's brain overwhelm the human brain. The wild instinct suppresses the human reason, and the primitive animal nature controls the body. Remember this scene and take it as a warning!

The last picture is a werewolf's transformation. Experiencing the raging wildness in the picture is crucial to the key step of Animagus! "Professor McGonagall finished explaining the rest of the picture in one breath and stood quietly on the podium to let the little wizards slowly digest this information."

Professor McGonagall mentioned the word "savage" and "rational" repeatedly, causing the young wizards to focus their attention on the pictures of the hedgehog and the werewolf, trying to understand something from the changes in their appearance.

"Now let me explain the precautions." Professor McGonagall glanced around the classroom, her serious face exuding a powerful aura that silenced all the discussions. "The atlas can be shown to members outside the teaching class, but private copying is not allowed, and it is not allowed to be taken out of the school. There are restrictive magic on the atlas that can resist the copying spell, and it will spontaneously combust and burn if it leaves the school. Those who violate the rules will be expelled from the class and will never be hired again."

From Professor McGonagall's expression, the little wizards realized the importance of this matter and made the promise seriously.

"Finally, a round of applause to Miss Skeeter, the teaching assistant, whose magic printing skills made this atlas a success."

Rita looked up at Professor McGonagall in surprise, as if she couldn't believe she would say such a thing.

Most of the young wizards applauded vigorously. Although some loyal readers of the Daily Prophet had heard of Rita Skeeter's name, Skeeter was not a famous surname. They did not associate the golden reporter who attracted attention by gossiping with this assistant teacher.

Except for Hermione, she turned to look at her deskmate Loren, the confusion in her eyes clearly visible.

"Hush," Loren raised his index finger and placed it in front of his lips, "Professor McGonagall must have her own considerations. We don't need to worry about them."

Hermione pursed her lips... Never mind, this was in class and as a student, she should just concentrate on her studies.

Just then, Professor McGonagall called her name: "Hermione?"

"I'm here!" Hermione straightened her back.

Professor McGonagall handed her a cloth bag and said, "Distribute the mandrake leaves to everyone."

"Okay!" Hermione picked up the bag and quickly distributed the leaves she had collected.

Every little wizard who received a leaf couldn't help but smile excitedly, but they forced themselves to restrain their excitement and carefully protect the fragile leaves.

"I assume you have all reviewed the first step of the Animagus ritual. I will repeat it again. You must keep a single leaf of Mandrake in your mouth from one full moon to the next. You must keep a single leaf of Mandrake in your mouth for a whole month. You may not swallow the leaf or take it out of your mouth at any time. If the leaf leaves your mouth, the whole process must be started over again."

"This month's leaves have been distributed to you. Those who failed need to re-register and receive the leaves next month. Do you have any questions about this?" Professor McGonagall looked at the little wizards.

Fred raised his right hand high: "Professor, what if I accidentally bite the leaves into pieces?"

"Then declare it a failure and start over again at the next full moon."

George then asked, "Professor, can I take more tablets at a time? This will increase my success rate?"

"No, the process must strictly follow the ritual."

"Professor, is it okay to accidentally swallow it and then take it out?"

"No."

"Professor, can I use the Sticking Charm?"

……

Loren was amazed at the imagination of his seniors. Those who were able to get in were indeed talented.

Professor McGonagall patiently answered these questions full of messy and imaginative ideas, and the answers were all no. There was no shortcut in the whole process of the ceremony.

After confirming that these clever little ghosts had no other clever ideas, Professor McGonagall made arrangements: "Tomorrow, Tuesday, is the night of the full moon. You can start sucking the leaves after the moon comes out, and no later than 12 o'clock at night..."

Professor McGonagall explained some basic precautions, and when the bell rang, she packed up her books and leaves in the bag and walked out with quick and decisive movements.

Rita picked up the remaining atlases and hurried after them, following Professor McGonagall to the office.

"Most of them will fail!" Rita said in a deep and affirmative voice. She had sufficient understanding of Animagus and had experienced the step of holding a Mandrake in her mouth, so she understood the difficulty involved.

Professor McGonagall kept walking without even looking at her: "I know."

"Then why do you still do that?"

……

In the classroom, after checking twice, Hermione confirmed that she had written down all the precautions that Professor McGonagall had just mentioned. Closing her notebook, Hermione turned her head and looked at Loren, with some doubt in her eyes: "Don't you think it's a bit strange that Professor McGonagall was very careful when explaining the ceremony and precautions, but she asked us to find time to suck the leaves."

"Given Professor McGonagall's strict personality, you think she should gather us together and supervise us in starting the ceremony, right?" Loren said with a smile.

Hermione nodded.

"It is to let us accumulate experience of failure, and also to make those who are waiting and watching give up when they see difficulties."

Chapter 252 Mandrake Blade

Resist the urge to speak.

Replace brushing with a cleansing spell.

Place the mandrake leaf against the roof of your mouth, just below the base of your tongue.

The positions on both sides of the seat teeth need to be avoided.

Try to eat foods that don't require chewing, such as porridge and broth. I don't know if pudding counts, so I won't eat pudding for the next month. I'll decide after this month.

Hermione compared the instructions she had copied from some book and silently memorized all the contents.

Loren sat on the patio steps, occasionally glancing over her notes.

There were several young wizards from the Animagus class around, carefully protecting the leaves of Mandrake in their hands, waiting quietly in the courtyard for the full moon to emerge from the tent made of clouds.