Chapter 21: Minerva

"Merrick, how did you do it? You succeeded on the first try."

Astoria, sitting beside John, had not yet successfully completed the transformation, and asked John with wonder in her eyes.

"Uh, just did it as the Professor taught?"

"Perhaps you can find a real silver needle, observe it carefully, and then try again."

John also said somewhat uncertainly, because he had only built the appearance of the silver needle in his mind and imagined the match as a silver needle, and he succeeded.

In this process, he felt that the most important thing should be how to concentrate his attention to build the object form to be transformed.

The spell and gestures just need more practice.

"Mr. Merrick is right."

"When you can't imagine the transformation object no matter what, you might as well find a real object, understand it carefully, and then try again."

"In your mind, gradually imagine the match in front of you as a needle, practice more, and you will succeed."

Standing to the side, Professor McGonagall nodded after hearing John's statement; this was indeed the most direct way of learning.

After all, human brain power is also limited; having a direct reference object as a learning object makes it much simpler.

"The practice of Transfiguration is a process of accumulating and then releasing."

"It is very difficult at the beginning; when you gradually master the technique of imagination and can build the object to be transformed in your mind anytime, anywhere, your basic Transfiguration is considered to have achieved great success."

"Of course, this is still just the most basic transformation."

"Transfiguration is divided into three stages. The first stage, dead objects turn into another kind of dead object; the second stage, living objects turn into dead objects; the third stage, dead objects turn into living objects."

"As long as you practice diligently, you will definitely be able to do it."

When Professor McGonagall was explaining to everyone, she didn't forget to give everyone a pep talk.

While she was speaking, she waved her wand nimbly.

The textbooks on the podium turned into birds and flew up, then turned into a set of band instruments, neatly playing songs, and finally turned into countless light feathers, floating all over the classroom.

The whole process was dreamlike and done in one go, showing the magic and power of Transfiguration to all the students, arousing everyone's strong interest.

Is this the strength of a top Transfiguration master? She didn't even need a spell, just a wave of her hand to complete such a large collective transformation.

At this moment, the charm displayed by Transfiguration also deeply attracted John.

He imagined the scene of himself facing an enemy, waving his hand to transform countless machine guns to strafe.

But he could only imagine it, because the bottom-layer logic of Transfiguration is that a single object can only be transformed into another single object.

For example, it is impossible to turn one thing into both a bow and an arrow at the same time.

So the fantasy of machine gun strafing, unless he prepared a large number of bullets in advance, or turned thousands of stones into bullets at the same time, could it be possible to realize.

And he must also understand the structure of firearms and the structure of bullets, and even the composition of gunpowder.

However, with this effort, what wouldn't be better to transform?

Shaking his head, no longer thinking about these unrealistic things, it would be better to lay a good foundation before fantasizing.

Soon the Transfiguration class ended; John, who had originally planned to leave with Ryan and Ethan, was called by Professor McGonagall before leaving.

Although John was strange, he didn't ask much and obediently came to Professor McGonagall's side.

By the time everyone in the classroom had left, Professor McGonagall took out a red leather book and handed it to John.

"Mr. Merrick, this book is for you; of course, only temporarily."

"You can study the content above well; I think it will be very helpful to you."

John took the book; the packaging of this book didn't look exquisite, but from the creases on the pages, one could see it was an old book that was frequently flipped through.

He glanced at Professor McGonagall, then opened the first page with curiosity; on it, written in flying dragon and dancing phoenix handwriting, was "Minerva's Transfiguration Diary."

"!?" Seeing this signature, John looked up at Professor McGonagall in surprise.

Professor McGonagall just smiled slightly, patted John's shoulder, and then left the classroom.

This was her lifelong learning record, but she was never stingy about imparting knowledge to students.

She had previously lent this diary to Miss Granger, whose progress was gratifying; now Professor McGonagall lent this diary to John again, hoping that John could surpass that senior.

"Thank you, Professor! I will study hard!"

John came back to his senses and shouted at Professor McGonagall's departing back.

However, he didn't get a response from Professor McGonagall; she soon disappeared around the corner.

There was only one class in the morning, so there was quite a lot of free time; in the afternoon, there was only one flying class, and there was no need to preview any content, so John was quite free now.

On the way back, John simply flipped through this diary.

Inside, it recorded Professor McGonagall's learning experience.

Some handwriting looked very old, while some was very new.

It could be seen that Professor McGonagall would sometimes update and replace some knowledge in this diary to ensure the content wouldn't be outdated.

Compared to the rigid textbook, this diary seemed to lean more toward Professor McGonagall's insights, as well as the learning techniques she realized herself, and some failed or successful trial cases.

To John, this book was like a mine waiting to be mined, so it must be well protected.

By the way, he would go ask Professor Fuliwei to see if there was any spell to prevent book damage to learn.

Doing it as soon as he thought of it, before it was lunchtime, John turned his steps and rushed toward Professor Fuliwei's office.

Professor Fuliwei's office was near the Ravenclaw tower and on the same floor as the Spell classroom.

When he went over, he saw that the Spell classroom was being used, so Professor Fuliwei should be in class.

So John waited outside the Spell classroom; during the wait, he wasn't idle either, starting to read the book.

He didn't just look at Professor McGonagall's diary, but opened the *Beginner's Transfiguration Guide*, comparing the knowledge of the textbook with Professor McGonagall's diary.

He recorded some ideas and techniques in Professor McGonagall's diary that were different from the textbook into his own textbook, mastering them and making them his own.

As time slowly passed, he didn't even notice that the Spell class had ended; students of all kinds passed by him, looking curiously at this junior sitting at the door of their classroom.

"Hm? Mr. Merrick, what are you doing here?"

Hearing someone calling his name, John finally came back to his senses and discovered that the Spell classroom door had opened, and Professor Fuliwei was standing at the door looking at him.

"Professor Fuliwei."

John hurriedly closed the book and called out.

"I came to find the Professor; there is a spell I would like to ask you about."

"Oh, of course, I am very happy that you came to find me."

Upon hearing that John was here to learn magic, Fuliwei said with a smile.

He raised his hand to invite John into the classroom; at this time, there was no one in the classroom, so it was just right to teach John magic. ===== CHAPTER 22 =====