 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 30→2ch | 60→5ch | 100→8ch | 200→15ch | 400→25ch⏰ Resets Monday!
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Wait, you actually can?
Ron stood dumbfounded, watching the rat scurry across his body. Swallowed hard. Shot Harry a pleading look.
Harry immediately stepped back half a pace. Eyes drifted elsewhere. Message clear.
Your bet. Not my problem. Don't drag me into this.
The friendship boat capsized just like that.
Thinking about eating the rat, Ron's throat churned with nausea.
Not just swallowing something alive. The bigger issue: he actually liked rats. Even kept one named Peter—wait, no, Scabbers—as a pet.
Hermione didn't understand. But respected it.
One flick of her wand. The transfiguration reversed. The rat instantly became a quill again. Fluttered to the ground.
"Heh."
A light laugh. Hermione walked away without looking back.
Ron and Harry stood frozen. Exchanged glances. Both saw the shock in the other's eyes.
They knew full well: books available in Diagon Alley before school contained no transfiguration instruction. Meaning Hermione had learned it just by watching McGonagall once.
How could they not be shocked?
Even Ron—from a wizarding family—found this far beyond comprehension.
What was this?
Genius?
Watching Hermione's receding figure, Harry and Ron scrambled to catch up.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Hermione didn't stop. Instead checked the magic book in her mind.
She'd already intimidated the two boys. Established preliminary authority in their eyes. What Hermione cared about now were the two transfiguration spells she'd just recorded.
[Transfiguration Lv1 (1/1000)]
[Transfiguration: Animagus (Cat)]
She'd already used the former. Gained one proficiency point.
She could feel it: Lv1 Transfiguration could only change small objects. Duration wasn't very long either. Increasing proficiency would improve effects, but couldn't escape that scope.
Probably only upon reaching Lv2 would other functions appear. A qualitative change.
As for the latter, Hermione hadn't had a chance to try yet.
Animagus—wizards who could transform into a specific animal while retaining magic. One rule…
The animal form related to the wizard's physique, personality, and other factors. Couldn't be chosen. And a lifetime allowed only one animal form. Unchangeable.
Plus, this transformation was extremely difficult to master. The training process carried considerable danger.
Throughout the entire 20th century in the Harry Potter world, only seven people registered as Animagi. That said it all.
But judging from the magic book's description, Hermione should be able to transform directly into a cat like Professor McGonagall. Since Animagus was permanent, there was no proficiency metric.
But if that's the case… could she collect other Animagus forms too?
Hermione pondered while striding forward. Behind her, left and right, two bodyguard-like followers appeared.
Not a moment of mourning for the blow the two had suffered. The battlefield ahead: Potions classroom!
No matter which classroom, the back corner was strategically contested territory.
Hermione had twenty years of experience with this.
Except now, this supposedly inconspicuous corner had become the new students' focal point.
Because Snape in black robes was staring intently at Harry's eyes beside her. Face utterly gloomy.
"Mr. Harry Potter. Our new celebrity. Tell me, what would happen if you added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Harry felt uncomfortable with Snape's manner of speaking. Shot Ron a pleading glance.
Ron immediately face-planted on the desk. Played dead.
"I don't know, Professor." Harry said helplessly.
"Where would you find a bezoar?"
"Don't know…"
"And what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"Sorry."
"Clearly, fame alone is insufficient." Disappointment flashed deep in Snape's eyes. His tone dripped with sarcasm. "Isn't that right, Mr. Potter?"
Mocking words paired with his indifferent tone, plus disheveled black hair and enormous hooked nose, constantly gave off a malicious vibe.
The classroom fell silent.
Harry already had a poor impression of Snape. After such obvious targeting, naturally couldn't hold his temper. Retorted: "Clearly, Hermione knows the answer. But you only want to call on people who don't."
The young wizards' eyes bulged.
Good lord. That confrontational?
First day and already clashing with a professor—the most difficult one, Snape, no less.
All heads swiveled toward Hermione in the corner, leaning against a stone pillar.
Hermione: ??
Excuse me, are you sick?
She'd retreated to the corner. Showed zero signs of raising her hand. Yet he still dragged her into this.
Though Hermione wrongly blamed Harry. He genuinely thought she knew.
After all, that earlier transfiguration move left too deep an impression. Combined with her aloof, haughty demeanor, he'd gradually developed a feeling that Hermione knew everything.
Hearing this, Snape instinctively looked at Hermione.
"Since Mr. Potter claims you—foolish girl—know these things, then you answer. Get it wrong and Gryffindor loses… What are you reading?" Snape spotted the book on Hermione's desk. Frowned.
"Hogwarts: A History?"
Seeing the title, even Snape short-circuited for two seconds. Then laughed in fury: "Miss Granger, you're reading school history in my Potions class? Are you certain your eyes function properly? Brought the wrong book? Or has my Potions class already ceased being worthy of your study?"
This was actually true.
The entire Potions textbook's recipes had been recorded in her magic book. As long as she followed procedures—with the book's assistance—success was guaranteed. No probability involved.
Unless there were more advanced textbooks, or Snape personally demonstrated something not in the materials, first-year Potions… really had nothing worth listening to.
History was better.
Hearing this, even Slytherin students couldn't help themselves. Wore schadenfreude expressions. Erupted in mocking laughter.
As expected, Gryffindor only produced "brave warriors."
The Sorting Hat never lies.
Hermione looked at Snape's face, dark as a pot bottom. Sighed lightly. Said calmly: "Asphodel and wormwood make the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from a goat's stomach that cures most poisons. Monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant."
"Am I correct, Professor?"
She looked up. Met Snape's gaze.
The magic book could only record potion-making. But even without it, Hermione's talent was top-tier. Plus her past life's compulsory education gave her incredibly strong memory. This basic knowledge—one glance and she memorized it effortlessly.
One sentence. Blocked all of Snape's follow-up mockery.