Chapter 148: Transfiguration Cookies

The heavy snow coated Hogwarts Castle in silver frost, deepening the longing between people.

Yet Wizard Sean still had no letter to send, and he thought, no letter would arrive.

For a full week, Wizard Sean wandered endlessly between the dungeons, the Transfiguration office, and the Alchemy office.

Alchemy was unlocked, but his own talent remained absent:

【Floating Quill: Apprentice Level (1/300)】

【Three Apprentice-Level Alchemical Objects, Unlock Apprentice Title in Alchemy】

Like most magical disciplines, Wizard Sean still needed to craft several simple alchemical objects.

Meanwhile, Professor Tera had assigned Wizard Sean a few tasks: make a Howler, and choose one alchemical object of his own.

The Weasleys always wanted Wizard Sean to pick their inventions:

“Look at this! Peruvian Invisibility Smoke Bomb!”

Yesterday afternoon, in the corridor. Fred burst out from behind a painting, clutching a black sphere; the moment he threw it, darkness swallowed everything—even “Lumos” and “Incendio” could not pierce it.

But Wizard Sean could walk from corridor to Great Hall with his eyes closed, so the Weasleys’ hopes were dashed.

“I told you the Great Hall’s aroma was too unfair—”

Fred cried out in mock despair.

“So why must I choose your inventions?”

Wizard Sean asked the mischievous Weasleys softly.

“Those old-fashioned things are so dull, but if you use our inventions—”

Fred seemed to have been waiting for this, and he exclaimed excitedly.

“Then Professor Tera might even take interest!”

George picked up the thread.

“If the professor is interested, we can get investors—just one phrase from Professor Tera: ‘Promising potential!’”

Fred grew even more excited.

“Wizards from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will flood us with Jin Jin Jialong!”

George winked.

“You’ll understand Professor Tera’s standing in the alchemy world someday!”

The twins spoke in unison.

Wizard Sean ultimately chose Canary Cookies (or some other transfigured food) as his practice item. Along with the Howler, he had to complete both alchemical objects before Christmas.

This meant he needed to learn the materials, fusion rituals, and magical rune arrays for both objects.

Overall, his time was growing tight again.

It was officially December. One morning, Hogwarts awoke to several feet of snow blanketing the grounds, the Black Lake frozen solid.

Wizard Sean stepped out of the castle with Professor Tera’s notes; outside, a crowd of young witches and wizards were running and playing joyfully in the snow.

Even though Wizard Sean could now run and jump, he still preferred to stay quietly in the corner.

He lit dry grass in his fireproof jar with his newly learned 【Beginner】Fire Spell, then summoned two fire lizards.

They burned marks into the snow, then sprinted off in a flash, their flames fading until they vanished beneath Hogwarts’ snow.

For a long time, Wizard Sean pondered what to transfigure.

Advanced transfiguration involving living creature to living creature—given his time, he could likely master only one in the short term.

The animal he had observed most closely, and the most intriguing option, was unquestionably the wizarding world’s messenger: the owl.

Wizard Sean pulled out a scattered pile of parchment, waved his wand, and a flock of transfigured owls flew from his hand.

“Merlin—”

Ron stared, dumbfounded.

“It’s normal—Wizard Sean’s Transfiguration progress even surpasses some upperclassmen.”

Jia Jia Siting explained gently.

“Not just some—I think all of them…”

Ron muttered under his breath.

Since the Hope Cottage agreement was announced, the six young witches and wizards had grown increasingly inseparable.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville were all in Gryffindor, so they often moved as a group.

Their destination was simple: meet up with Jia Jia Siting, because once they found him, Wizard Sean wouldn’t be far.

【You practiced one advanced Transfiguration at expert standard. Proficiency +100】

The system notification chimed; Wizard Sean knew that even deep advanced Transfiguration was negligible against his hundreds of thousands of proficiency.

Only by constantly exploring and practicing advanced Transfiguration could his progress accelerate.

He had not forgotten how last time, expert-standard advanced Transfiguration granted him ten times the proficiency.

His current priority was turning a living creature into an owl.

Professor McGonagall gave him some beetles as experimental material and repeatedly stressed the key to advanced Transfiguration.

As he carefully read the professor’s notes on owls, Jia Jia Siting and Hermione, watching the swirling snow, seemed to awaken some primal instinct.

Soon, they were having a snowball fight.

Wizards’ snowball fights differed from ordinary ones: when Jia Jia Siting dodged Hermione’s first snowball, he saw her wave her wand and chant a spell, and then snowball after snowball followed.

Jia Jia Siting knew that despite both being 【Skilled】-level in Levitation Charm, he still lagged behind Hermione.

So he abandoned trying to control the snowballs with Levitation Charm and instead used “Water Spout” to create a wall that instantly froze.

Watching their fight, Harry and Ron quietly lowered their snowballs and picked up their wands instead.

Their Levitation Charms had improved steadily through repeated practice.

“Oh… what about Wizard Sean?”

During the truce, Hermione frowned and whispered to Jia Jia Siting, watching Wizard Sean read his notes nearby.

“My mother said everyone’s joy differs, but true friends always feel each other’s happiness.”

He raised an eyebrow; Wizard Sean happened to look over just as Harry and Ron tried to sneak-attack Hermione, only to be turned into two snowmen by her spell. Wizard Sean’s lips curled slightly.

Amid the blue and white, owls flew through the blizzard-lashed sky, delivering mail after arduous journeys. By this season, they needed Hagrid’s care to regain strength before taking flight again.

“Catch this big snowball—Great Green!”

Wizard Sean heard a familiar voice; beside him, a fire lizard instantly swelled and swallowed the snowball whole, then charged straight at Fred.

“Oh no—”

Fred was chased in frantic circles through the snow by the fire lizard.

George laughed until he couldn’t stand, then saw Fred barreling toward him—soon both were running in panicked circles through the snow, pursued by the same fire lizard.

“Fred—”

George cried out.

“George—”

Fred shouted back.

Another chapter in half an hour.