Seeing that it was almost time, he left through the window, checked that his backpack contained the textbooks he needed for class and the letters he was about to mail, and then left the dungeons.
He waited a few minutes at the Owlery before he saw Hermione rushing towards him.
She apologized, panting heavily, "Sorry, sorry, I had so much to write, I forgot the time, I'm late."
"It's alright, it's only a few minutes. You can rest for a while before we go in." He thoughtfully cleaned up the other side of the bench and invited Hermione to sit down.
"Thank you." Hermione didn't stand on ceremony and quickly sat down, adjusting her breathing.
"Alright, let's go mail the letter."
The two entered the shed and were immediately surrounded by a sea of owls.
Owls of all sizes and colors gathered here, waiting to deliver letters and items to all the teachers and students. They had already seen them yesterday morning and would see them every morning.
Recalling his encounter at the Eeylops Owl Emporium in Diagon Alley, Ethan Jones was still shaken. Not entirely confident in his restrained charm, he stood at the door and shouted, "Edward! Edward!"
Suddenly a huge owl flew out, landed on his shoulder, and affectionately lowered its head to rub against his hair.
"Alright, alright, if you keep rubbing your hair like that, it'll get messy." Ethan Jones stroked its smooth feathers, stopping it from moving.
"Edward, go and deliver a letter to both of us. You know the address. The left foot is mine, and the right foot is to Hermione's house. Also, bring a reply. Got it?"
Ethan Jones and Hermione each tied letters to one side of Edward's feet.
He had just discussed it with Hermione; they would deliver his letter first, then Hermione's, in the reverse order of receiving the mail, so Edward wouldn't have to make two trips.
Edward nodded, indicating that he understood.
"Good boy!" Ethan Jones took out some dried fish he had brought from his dorm room and fed it to Edward.
Just then, a somewhat familiar owl flew out of the shed and kept circling in front of him.
Ethan Jones observed carefully and finally recognized the round-headed owl as the one that had delivered his college acceptance letter.
"It's you. Long time no see." He stretched out an arm, gesturing for it to land.
However, the owl merely circled around him, showing no intention of getting close, a stark contrast to its previous behavior.
"Got it." He glanced at Edward, who was a bit flustered, and immediately understood.
"I didn't expect you to become the local tyrant so quickly." He ruffled Edward's hair vigorously, put the three dried fish on the ground, and went outside with them.
"Coo coo!" The owl that had been circling just moments before landed instantly and devoured the dried fish.
Hermione's heart melted: "It's so cute! I really want to adopt one so it can deliver my mail for me, and then you won't have to bother anymore."
"I think it's okay, but you need to get permission from someone, since it's school property."
Of course, to be honest, I also wanted to adopt it so I wouldn't have to spend extra money to buy it, but it ran away too fast and I couldn't find it in the end.
Finally, in Diagon Alley, the shopkeeper gave me Edward.
"A gift?" Hermione asked curiously.
Ethan Jones deliberately put on a smug look: "Hey, do you remember when we first met? My family was a bit of a mess, right? It was Edward and his fellow animals who made it. Well, I'm just too charming to small animals."
"Show-off." Hermione chuckled, watching Edward fly into the sky alongside Ethan Jones.
After Ethan Jones entered the classroom, he looked around, trying to find if the cat that Professor McGonagall turned into in the movie was sitting on the desk.
"What are you looking for, Ethan?" The trio of Draco and Ethan, who had just entered the classroom, asked Ethan curiously as he paced back and forth in the room.
"Nothing, I was just curious about the classroom layout and looked around." Of course, he couldn't tell the three of them the real reason.
Ethan Jones, having searched in vain, also calmed down. He idly flipped through books, passing the time before class.
He turned to the last page, read what it contained, and then slammed the book shut.
"I've finished reading this book about bloodlines. I'll go to the library again later and borrow another one."
Professor McGonagall, still wearing a bright green robe, though slightly different in style, entered the classroom as the bell rang.
After taking attendance, she said with a serious expression, "Transfiguration is the most complex and dangerous magic you can learn in your Hogwarts courses."
Anyone who misbehaves in my class will be asked to leave and never be allowed to come back!
She recited a spell, tapped her wand, and a desk in front of her transformed into a giant python. It slithered a few times toward the Slytherin students before Professor McGonagall transformed it back into its original form.
"I warned you!"
The Slytherins were terrified, but they were also attracted by this magical spell and couldn't wait to learn it.
They soon realized that Transfiguration was not so easy to learn.
"Transfiguration is magic that transforms one object into another. It can turn inanimate objects into living things, just as I did. Of course, the reverse is also true."
However, doing so is very dangerous, so I require you not to use Transfiguration on your classmates or other humans, because you simply cannot do it, and forcing it will only harm them.
"When you cast a Transfiguration spell, in addition to having a thorough understanding of the object you want to transform, you also need to be very focused, just like when casting a spell, otherwise you will not be able to successfully transform it."
"At the same time, before teaching the Transfiguration technique, I will first teach you the Reparifarge spell, which can turn transformed objects back to their original form."
"Repeat after me, 'Reparifarge.'"
Everyone in the audience loudly recited along.
"Very good. After class, copy this spell fifty times and hand it in to me at the next class."
After the entire class recited it several times, Professor McGonagall nodded in satisfaction and continued with the next part of the lesson.
Before the practical demonstration, Professor McGonagall explained the relevant information about Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration.
At this moment, although he was taking notes with his hands, his mind was wandering.
"Speaking of transformation, it seems that many stories in Chinese mythology are related to transformation, right? Besides Sun Wukong's seventy-two transformations and the transformation of monsters, the most famous one should be the story of turning beans into soldiers."
He imagined himself throwing out some soybean-sized objects, chanting a spell, and instantly seeing countless Yellow Turban Warriors appear, and a smile involuntarily appeared on his face.
After his fantasy ended, he listened even more attentively to Professor McGonagall's explanation, constantly solidifying his theoretical foundation, hoping to recreate this supernatural power someday.
"However, I don't know how to translate this supernatural power into English, but it would probably be called Magic Soldier? Or Magic Warrior would be better."
Everyone was getting tired of taking notes, so Professor McGonagall stopped explaining the theory and started the practical demonstration.
She gave everyone a match and asked them to turn them into a needle.
"Remember what I just said, let's begin."
The chanting of incantations rose and fell, but it did nothing to change the match.
Ethan Jones looked at the match in front of him, imagining the shape and material of the silver needle he wanted to transform it into, and resolutely waved his wand, chanting the incantation:
"Vera Verto!"
The match quickly thinned and began to gleam with a metallic sheen, but it did not resemble the silver needle he had in mind.
"Well done, Mr. Jones." Professor McGonagall paced around the classroom, a smile spreading across her face as she saw his work.
"Thank you, Professor." He was also pleasantly surprised. Although there was still no perfect change, this was the first time he had come close to success since the summer vacation.
A phrase came to mind: "True teachings can be contained in a single sentence, while false teachings fill countless volumes!"
Of course, his good performance also earned Slytherin a point.