Chapter 19 Mistake and Match

Waking up with a still sore and stiff body, Zhāng began to get ready for what he expected to be the most interesting class, Transfiguration, the art of turning one thing into another. With the dangerous nature of the magic, the classes that were for transfiguration are naturally close to the medical wards on campus, just like the dueling classes.

Although he gained the ability to walk properly he still was sluggish and stiff meaning Zhāng was almost late for his first class, something that he tried to make a point not to do. Unlike the history class, the classroom's tables for the students were in a circle around a pedestal where he assumed the teacher would be.

"Ahh looks like the final student is here" the middle-aged man in the center of the room called out with a pep in his step, very much like what he imagined all the obviously false propaganda he was fed made the Americans out to be.

Making his way to one of the empty seats in front of the professor just in time for the teacher to start talking "Rules are boring therefore we shall start immediately with our material, Oh and my name is instructor Min Li".

"Today and Friday you all will be– Yes a question already that's a record," He said looking at Zhāng's raised hand "Sorry instructor but my schedule says that I've only got this class today", looking around Min saw about a dozen other students nodding their heads.

Seeing this the teacher walked up to one of the students and asked for their slip that had their schedule on it, confirming that it really did not have a transfiguration class on Friday just like Zhāng's, a book appeared in Min's hand while glasses appeared on his face.

"Hmm, very interesting, the headmaster is not going to like that," Min Li said while disappearing, not like the violent and instant crack signature to apparition but a gentle fade out of existence, reappearing mere seconds later with another older man who picked up the slip gently while also looking at the book still held in the teacher's hand.

"How unfortunate, it was a whole 55 years since this last happened, looks like that damn ghost got out again," The headmaster said with a slight frown on his face, waving his hand all of the slips of paper changed slotting in another class into Friday which unusually only had one class on each slip.

Classes of Mr. Zhāng Huangdi Caesar

Year one history 8:30 PM – 11:30 PM (Monday)

Potions 12:45 AM – 2:45 AM (Monday)

Dueling 2:45 AM – 4:30 AM(Monday)

Transfiguration 9:30 PM – 12:30 AM(Tuesday)

Herbology 1:30 AM – 3:30 AM(Tuesday)

Magical Creatures 8 PM – 11 PM(Wednesday)

Dueling 12:45 AM – 3 AM (Wednesday)

Defense against the Dark Arts 8:30 PM – 11:30 PM (Thursday)

Hexes And Vexes 12:45 A M – 2:45 AM (Thursday)

Wards and Arrays 2:45 AM – 4:30 AM (Thursday)

Transfiguration 8:30 PM – 11:30 PM (Friday)

Dueling 12:45 AM – 4:45 AM(Friday)

Seeing that the problem was fixed the headmaster, like the teacher, gently disappeared into a mist. With the short delay out of the way Min Li once again began class.

"As I was saying Today and Friday you all will be turning this into a matchstick," Min Li said while waving his wand at a pebble.

"Lignum Ignis", seeing the pebble morph into a matchstick was a weird sight, "now your turn, there are 5359 pebbles in that container so you all should have enough," he said while pointing his wand and flicking sending pebbles flying at the students, the container itself was similar to a mesh ball bag used to hold footballs and tennis balls.

Leaving to a backroom Min Li neither stopped nor turned around, he simply left with a goofy smile. Unbeknownst to the shocked class, the teacher wouldn't return until next tuesday.

'Soon you will realize that this place doesn't deserve its title as an academy, no it's more than that. Here you will learn how to be soldiers, and if you can't work together then you fail' Min said while completely losing his goofy manner, walking the empty campus to his teacher's quarters.

Seeing that the teacher just left and hadn't come back for a full five minutes everyone just looked at each other with a did that really just happen look. It was only after that look that Zhāng took out the transfiguration textbook by Li fan.

None of the first 100 pages talk about any spell with the incantation of 'Lignum Ignis' and he highly doubted that there was such a spell as the spells outlined were getting more and more complex. Thinking about it with a more open mindset all transfiguration on the basic level is the same, change of the molecular structure therefore most of the concepts outlined in the book should be applicable to this problem.

"Lignum Ignis", Zhāng said eliciting a glance from all of the students yet nothing happened so they thought he was just randomly trying the spell to see if it worked. A very important part of transfiguration is understanding what you are changing, how you are changing, and to what you are changing– with the stringent rules of transfiguration you must understand all three of those parts, Zhāng knew what he was changing being a stone, and he knew what he was changing it too, a stick with potassium chlorate and sulfur.

Making his wrist go stiff he made sure that just like the teacher he made no unnecessary waves, "Lignum Ignis". This time it worked yet he did nothing different nor thought anything different.

Seeing that another student actually did it, the other student's eyes bulged in shock "Aye how did you do that?".

"I don't know, I did nothing different than the first time, and that failed" Zhāng shrugged while getting up to go get more pebbles.

Over the next hour Zhāng had transfigured three matchsticks while not even understanding how he did it, he definitely didn't know why it worked as he tried over three hundred times yet only got three successes.