Chapter 219: Stage 2

Allen left the basilisk continuing to sleep in the underground tunnel and quietly departed the abandoned girls' lavatory.

It was now past nine o'clock at night, and he needed to hurry back.

However, today he unexpectedly discovered that there were many people inside Gryffindor Tower.

He spotted Harry and the other two immediately within the crowd.

"What's wrong? Why is everyone standing here? Why not go inside?" Allen walked up to them and asked in confusion.

"It seems the portrait has been closed!" Hermione said.

Allen stood on tiptoe to take a look; he saw that the portrait was indeed closed, but he could not see any further details.

"Let me through." It was Percy's voice; he strode out from the crowd looking self-important. "What are you all blocking the way for? You don't all happen to have forgotten the password, do you? Excuse me, I am Boy Prefect—"

The crowd fell silent, starting from the very front, so it was like a chill spreading through the corridor. They heard Percy speak, his voice suddenly rising to a squeak: "Someone go fetch Professor Dumbledore. Quick!"

After a short while, Professor Dumbledore arrived; he hurried toward the portrait, and the students of Gryffindor House crowded together to let him pass.

Allen's curiosity was aroused, so he directly cast a Levitation Charm on himself, suspending himself in mid-air, thus enabling him to see the situation at the very center clearly.

The phoenix's eyesight was excellent; he saw that the Fat Lady had vanished from the portrait, which had been maliciously vandalized, with small scraps of canvas scattered everywhere on the floor and large pieces of the painting completely torn from the frame.

Dumbledore took a quick glance at the damaged painting, then swiftly issued orders to search for the Fat Lady.

Soon news came back: the Fat Lady had been damaged while trying to prevent someone from entering, and that person was Sirius Black...

Professor Dumbledore called for all Gryffindor students to return to the Great Hall; ten minutes later, students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and other houses also arrived, all looking completely baffled.

"The staff and I will conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told the students, while Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick closed all the doors of the Great Hall. "For your own safety, I believe you may have to spend the night here. I require the prefects to stand guard at the entrance to the Hall, while the Boy and Girl Prefects remain inside the Hall to maintain order; report any incidents to me immediately."

With a casual wave of his wand, the long tables flew to the edges of the Hall, lining up against the walls; with another wave, the floor became covered with hundreds of purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well," Professor Dumbledore said, closing the door behind him as he left.

The Great Hall immediately filled with an excited buzz of conversation: the Gryffindor students were busy telling the other students what had just happened.

The four of them—Harry and his friends—discussed the matter for a long time within their sleeping bags, but in the end, they failed to derive any useful conclusions.

In the following days, everyone at school talked only about Black. The stories of how he entered the castle grew increasingly fantastical: a Hufflepuff student named Hannah Abbott heard that Black could transform into a flowering bush, so during their next Potions class, she spent considerable time telling this to anyone willing to listen.

The Fat Lady's damaged portrait had been taken down from the wall, replaced by the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat gray pony.

Although the appearance of Sirius Black gave the students much more to talk about, it hardly affected the rhythm of Allen's life.

During this period, he consumed his own magic materials to Transfigure dragon scales and Demiguise fur, successfully obtaining the ancient runic parameters for both.

Although Demiguises are rare, Invisibility Cloaks are woven from Demiguise hair, so they are still quite easy to purchase on the market.

His catnip training method continued to be used; with this method, the duration he could persist grew longer and longer, until finally, after one Transfiguration Club session, he successfully maintained it for three hours.

Meanwhile, other wizards could only persist for about an hour while under Transfiguration.

Although this result greatly exceeded Professor McGonagall's expectations, she still kept her promise and announced the entry into the next stage.

Two more students dropped out of the Transfiguration Club, and Professor McGonagall gathered everyone together.

"Given that Mr. Finis is now able to persist for three hours, I announce that your curriculum has entered the second stage," Professor McGonagall said, scanning the students in the staff room.

Sparse applause rang out in the room; everyone felt rather bad about losing to a third-year student.

However, one witch detected something different in Professor McGonagall's words.

"Professor, did you just say 'your curriculum'?" the witch asked somewhat uncertainly.

"Yes, all of you will enter the second stage of study," Professor McGonagall said.

The wizards in the room displayed expressions of surprise. "But we are still far from the standard you required," one wizard said, raising his hand.

"The preparations for the second stage actually have little relation to how long you can persist, and the preparations for both do not conflict, so you can all begin preparing for the second stage," Professor McGonagall explained.

The wizards present exchanged glances, all revealing expressions of delight; although being Transfigured into animals was interesting at first, they were now inevitably beginning to feel bored, so having something new to learn was better than anything.

Allen had no particular thoughts on this; anyway, his progress was far ahead of the others.

"The first step to becoming an Animagus is that for an entire month (from full moon to full moon), you must keep a single leaf of mandrake in your mouth continuously. At no time may you swallow the leaf or remove it from your mouth; if the leaf leaves your mouth, the entire process must be restarted," Professor McGonagall said as she began distributing a fresh leaf to each person.

Everyone turned the leaves over and over in their hands, and suddenly everyone's morale surged.

"The leaves distributed to you have all been Shi Le Mo Fa; by the time we meet next, I expect you to guarantee it is still in your mouth!" Professor McGonagall continued.

"Professor, do you have any experience you can share?" Allen asked, raising his hand.

"My experience may not be suitable for you, so you must explore the method best suited to yourselves; additionally, you must continue practicing the duration you remain conscious after being Transfigured into an animal; three hours is merely the beginning." Professor McGonagall's final sentence was specifically directed at Allen.

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