Chapter 62: Professor McGonagall's Guidance

Under Allen Finis's Ultraman figure offensive, Harry Potter finally reconciled with him, which made Allen Finis breathe a sigh of relief.

But his thinking was interrupted, the train of thought he had vaguely sorted out vanished, and in the end he decided to seek help from Professor McGonagall, after all she was the true Transfiguration Master and could surely offer him some guidance.

So he borrowed Hedwig from Harry Potter to send a letter to Professor McGonagall, simply saying he had a question to ask and inquiring when she might be free.

It was not until the day before the Christmas holiday ended that Allen Finis received Professor McGonagall's reply, asking him to come to her office to find her.

Allen Finis arrived at Professor McGonagall's office with ease; Professor McGonagall seemed less busy today, the Christmas holiday had improved her complexion, and even her expression was not so stern.

"Speak, what question is so urgent it must be asked during the holiday?" Professor McGonagall, sitting behind the desk, straightened her body and said.

Then Allen Finis recounted the matter of transforming the Ultraman to Professor McGonagall, describing the Ultraman Tiga as an Ultraman of his own creation.

Although she did not fully understand this Muggle thing called Ultraman, Professor McGonagall still obtained enough information from Allen Finis's account.

"I think I understand what you mean," Professor McGonagall summarized. "You want to transform something that has never appeared in the world, yet find the difficulty very high, while transforming something that exists universally in the world proves to be of lower difficulty, is that the meaning?"

"Yes! Yes! Why is that?" Allen Finis nodded his head like a chick pecking at rice, looking hopefully at Professor McGonagall, hoping she could answer his question.

"Wizards discovered this point a long time ago," Professor McGonagall said with some hesitation.

Allen Finis, familiar with Professor McGonagall, immediately saw what Professor McGonagall was thinking.

"Professor, I should be allowed to know the content of these item transformations, right?" Allen Finis asked with a bit of insecurity; as someone who had been washed by the information of the Internet age, his mind held all sorts of whimsical ideas, and before, when he took these whimsical ideas to ask Professor McGonagall, she always refused to answer on the grounds that it was beyond the syllabus.

She also said that the knowledge taught at each stage was planned by her, and knowing some knowledge in advance would do him no good.

"Hmm, indeed you can," Professor McGonagall pondered for a moment. "Your learning progress is now almost at the stage of transforming items into animals, and your Transfiguration grades have always been the most excellent, just like Miss Granger, so you may know this content." Professor McGonagall finally made up her mind.

"Thank you, Professor!" Allen Finis hurriedly expressed his gratitude.

Professor McGonagall organized her words and said softly, "Do you remember the question you asked me two months ago about whether a transformation spell could be used for combat? At that time you also proposed many interesting ideas."

Allen Finis instantly understood which matter Professor McGonagall was referring to.

At that time Allen Finis was searching for various methods to strengthen himself; he thought through every spell he had mastered, wanting to determine a tactic for encountering danger, but in the end he found it futile, impossible to combine into an effective tactic.

It was precisely at this moment that the transformation spell began to enter Allen Finis's view; he seriously considered how to use the transformation spell in combat, even if only for escape.

But after thinking for a long time Allen Finis still had no particularly good train of thought, so he shamelessly went to ask Professor McGonagall this question.

And Professor McGonagall was very surprised that he raised this question; in her words, transformation spells are mostly used to help with life and work, rarely for combat, mainly because compared to other spells, the preparation time before casting a transformation spell is too long.

The fourth element of other spells—the caster's subjective awareness of the spell effect—is very simple, but the transformation spell is different; when casting a transformation spell, one must have a very clear cognition of the transformation result,

the clearer the cognition, the less likely the transformation spell is to fail; if the transformation result is an animal, then an even clearer cognition and planning of that animal's action logic is needed, and by the time all this is prepared and the transformation spell is successfully released, the enemy will have already cast four or five spells.

The second reason is that animals transformed for wizards are all too fragile, and their action logic is relatively simple and rigid; bullying low-intelligence magical creatures is possible, but dealing with wizards is beyond their capability.

Then Allen Finis was very unconvinced by the second reason and proposed his own thought: even if animals are relatively fragile, couldn't the bones of the transformed animal be turned to steel and the outer skin to iron, wouldn't that make it not fragile?

Then Professor McGonagall refused to answer Allen Finis's question and produced the above arguments.

Allen Finis woke from his recollection; looking at Professor McGonagall, he said in confusion, "You mean the idea I proposed at that time of turning the bones of the transformed animal to steel and the outer skin to iron?"

Professor McGonagall nodded approvingly: "Yes, you are the student with the richest imagination I have ever seen; this trait of yours left a deep impression on me."

Allen Finis's mouth corners turned up from the praise; one must know that Professor McGonagall rarely praises people.

"I did not tell you the reason at that time because you had only mastered using the transformation spell to turn items into items, so I thought you should not know these things first, lest you aim too high and grasp at straws. But now, with your level, you can already learn to transform items into animals, so I have decided to tell you this knowledge." Professor McGonagall looked deeply at Allen Finis.

Allen Finis quickly straightened his body, putting on an appearance of listening attentively.

"Many wizards in history have had the idea you proposed at that time, but later they all failed; do you know why?" Professor McGonagall stood up and began to pace in the office.

Allen Finis thought for a moment and said, "Is it because it is too difficult?"

"Yes, it is precisely because the difficulty is too great; wizards discovered long ago that if the transformation result is something existing in the world, it will be relatively easy, but if it is something that has not appeared in the world, the difficulty will multiply several times over, and will rise exponentially with the complexity of the transformation result. You found it so difficult just transforming a doll; transforming an item into what you described involves a difficulty beyond your imagination."

"And I have always said that Transfiguration is a very precise discipline; even if you achieve the effect you described, iron skin and steel bones, have you thought whether an animal in that state could move at all?"

Allen Finis opened his mouth, yet found he could say nothing.

Professor McGonagall paid no attention to Allen Finis's expression and continued: "Even if the structure of the animal's body you transform can move, how can you be sure that the action logic you endow upon the transformation target will definitely make the transformation target move?"

Allen Finis sat in the chair, plunged into deep thought; he felt a vague inspiration in his mind.