Chapter 5: Are We Even Allowed to Let Ordinary Wizards Live?
The trio barely made it into the classroom before the bell rang.
"I bet those stairs are out to get us, trying to make us late!" Ron muttered, rubbing his still-red nose. He was the first to step into the classroom and, after seeing the empty lectern, finally relaxed.
"Looks like we're not too late after all. The professor hasn't even arrived yet," Harry said, glancing at Ivan with relief. He was glad they had woken up early that day, or they would have definitely been late.
"No, I think the professor is already here," Ivan said, ignoring their conversation. He glanced at the spotted cat on the lectern, then quickly returned to his seat.
Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks, but just as they sat down, the cat suddenly leaped off the lectern, its form twisting and morphing. By the time it hit the ground, it had transformed into a middle-aged witch—Professor McGonagall!
Harry and Ron were stunned, finally understanding what Ivan had meant. But they were still puzzled as to how Ivan had known the cat was actually Professor McGonagall in disguise.
McGonagall, on the other hand, seemed surprised. She had transformed into her Animagus form to observe the new batch of students and to begin the lesson on Transfiguration, but didn't expect to be recognized by one of them.
She gave Ivan an approving nod and began her lesson.
"Before we start, let me remind you that Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous branches of magic you'll learn at Hogwarts. Anyone who thinks they can mess around in my class can leave now, and never come back!"
With a flick of her wand, McGonagall turned the lectern into a pig, then restored it to its original form amid the students' gasps of astonishment.
Ivan, sitting at the front, watched the transformation closely.
It was precise, quick, and flawless.
Turning a wooden lectern into a sentient creature was akin to altering the very structure of matter, even briefly granting intelligence to a lifeless object. The mystery and power of magic were fully revealed in that moment.
While magical spells in the wizarding world might lack the raw destructive power of some other forms of magic, they had their own unique strengths—comprehensive and complete!
McGonagall's demonstration immediately captured the students' attention. After explaining the technique and method for casting the Transfiguration spell, she handed out a matchstick to each student, asking them to transform it into a silver needle.
As McGonagall began explaining the Transfiguration spell, a notification sounded in Ivan's mind.
[Ding! You have carefully listened to the professor's explanation. While the content is somewhat difficult to grasp, your proficiency in the Transfiguration spell has increased slightly.]
Ivan opened his information panel and saw a new entry in the magic section.
[Transfiguration Spell: Level 0 (6100)]
Seeing the familiar text, Ivan felt a wave of excitement. This meant that, no matter the magic, if he practiced repeatedly to increase his proficiency, he could quickly master it.
However, after half a lesson of practice, Ivan realized it wasn't as easy as he had imagined.
"Ivan Hals!"
"Hals, Mr. Hals!"
McGonagall's stern and loud voice echoed through the classroom, drawing the attention of the students in the rows behind.
It wasn't until she turned around sharply that the other students reluctantly returned to their work, frowning or frustrated as they repeatedly waved their wands, trying to get even the smallest change from their matchsticks.
McGonagall surveyed the room, noticing that a little witch with messy hair had made significant progress with her matchstick, which had taken on a vague resemblance to a needle. She relaxed her tightly pressed lips and gave a small, satisfied nod.
After sending a sharp look at the students who were still slacking off, McGonagall turned her gaze to the boy, who appeared somewhat dazed. She spoke sternly.
"Mr. Hals, I believe I've already warned you that casting spells requires full concentration. Before casting a spell, you must focus!"
"Also, mindless repetition won't help you much. I suggest you put more thought into it, focus, and try to imagine the shape of a silver needle."
"Yes, Professor McGonagall. I'll be more careful," Ivan said politely, nodding. Under her gaze, he gathered his focus. His wand, nearly twelve inches long, moved through the air with a strange rhythm.
On the gray wooden desk, a matchstick seemed to be moved by some invisible force, twisting and changing under the magic's influence.
However, just as the matchstick began to change, it was as if it had been interrupted by something, and it instantly reverted to its original shape.
This seemed to be within McGonagall's expectations. After observing the result, she merely nodded and mentioned that more practice would be necessary before turning to leave. After all, most first-year students were at this level.
Ivan sighed quietly to himself.
"It seems that increasing proficiency isn't as easy as I thought."
After trying for the better part of the lesson, Ivan had lost the excitement he had felt earlier.
The increase in proficiency had slowed significantly after an initial surge, and not every attempt seemed to lead to an improvement.
After a while, Ivan realized that this wasn't just about practicing to increase proficiency. It seemed more like his current skill level was simply being reflected in the proficiency score.
By the end of the lesson, Ivan still couldn't stabilize his Transfiguration spell for more than a few seconds.
As he daydreamed during class, he was suddenly poked in the shoulder.
Turning around, Ivan found Harry, who was excitedly pointing at something on his desk.
"Hey, Ivan! Look, I did it! I did it!"
"Yeah, Harry, you're really good, and you've got talent!" Ivan glanced at the object on Harry's desk and nodded. Changing a matchstick into a stable form of silver needle in the first lesson was already quite impressive, at least better than Ivan himself.
"Right? I didn't think I'd manage, especially with my aunt and uncle being Muggles. Before coming here, I wasn't sure I'd even be able to do magic!"
Encouraged by Ivan's praise, Harry eagerly shared all his previous concerns and doubts.
Before entering the wizarding world, Harry was just a regular eleven-year-old boy. Suddenly, he became the "Chosen One," the subject of unimaginable attention and honor, but also immense pressure.
Harry had even feared the embarrassment of being unable to perform magic, but luckily, that fear hadn't come to pass.
Ivan wasn't surprised by Harry's quick mastery of magic. After all, the Sorting Hat had already pointed out his bravery, kindness, and talent when assigning him to Gryffindor.
The Sorting Hat had even briefly suggested Slytherin, and by the third year, Harry had already learned the Patronus Charm and used it to drive away hundreds of Dementors.
If it weren't for the overly free and happy education at Hogwarts, Harry, with his extraordinary talent, would likely have reached at least a professor-level skill by graduation.
Ivan, however, was not the least bit envious.
Talented young wizards were few and far between.
Ivan glanced around and saw that most of the other students were at the same level as him, and he felt a little relieved. But just then, McGonagall's voice rang out again.
"Very good, Miss Granger! Everyone take a look—Miss Granger has successfully transformed her matchstick into a silver needle. Gryffindor gains five points!"
Near Ivan's seat, McGonagall held up a silver needle, showing it to the class.
Seated proudly at her desk was Miss Granger, her messy brown hair falling over her shoulders, her head held high as she accepted the amazed and surprised gazes of her fellow students.
Ivan stared at the silver needle on her desk, and his mood, which had just stabilized, exploded.
How is this even fair? Are ordinary wizards like us not even allowed to survive?
"Damn it, I was so close! If I had practiced a bit more, McGonagall would have praised me!" Ron muttered, poking his desk with his wand, glaring at Hermione in frustration.
Ivan glanced at Ron's desk, where the object had reverted to a matchstick. He figured Ron would never reach Hermione's level in just a few lessons.
And honestly, Ivan wasn't doing much better either.
He sighed helplessly. So much for the supposed talent boost from his soul fusion, and the idea that his magical abilities would surge!
None of the common tropes in novels were showing up in his life, and Ivan finally understood how accurate the Sorting Hat's assessment of his talent had been.
Of course, he suspected the main reason his Transfiguration skills weren't improving was the lack of wand compatibility, likely due to the soul exchange.
If magic was like electricity, then a wand was the plug, and spells were like electrical appliances.
Now, his wand kept short-circuiting, and the magic wasn't working properly.
The wand's issue couldn't be solved quickly, and Ivan figured he'd be stuck with this wand for the entire semester.
After another failed attempt to control the matchstick, the first Transfiguration lesson finally came to an end. Ivan had yet to stabilize his spell.
However, he did discover a small trick. If he released his magic chaotically through his wand, it would form a thin magical beam. The only useful thing about it was that it could reverse an unstable Transfiguration.
It was something Ivan had accidentally discovered after failing the Transfiguration spell for the nth time and nearly exploding the matchstick. The trick was good for messing with Ron, but not much else.
Just as McGonagall announced the end of class, another voice echoed in Ivan's mind.
Ding—after the host's relentless efforts, the Transfiguration class has ended. Please continue with your hard work, host.
Class evaluation: Average
Evaluator: Minerva McGonagall
Reward: 5 Academic Points
Ivan hadn't expected this information to suddenly appear in his mind.
He could actually get rewards for attending classes?
Ivan was somewhat surprised, especially when he saw the words "Academic Points." It reminded him of his university days, and he couldn't help but complain. It felt just like those times.
It seemed like each professor was responsible for giving evaluations.
Could it be that there would be rewards and punishments based on how well or poorly one performed in the final exams?
Of course, he was still grumbling, but Ivan was still happy to discover another feature of the system. He just didn't know what these Academic Points could be used for.
Ever since the system panel was triggered, Ivan had noticed the existence of Academic Points.
Perhaps it was because he hadn't earned any yet that the related functions had been locked. But after this, it didn't take long for him to find a new "Exchange" option in the panel.
To his disappointment, the entire exchange bar only contained a lonely "Overachiever Experience Card" that required 100 Academic Points. The effect of this card was to greatly improve learning efficiency for one hour.
There was no powerful magic or forbidden spells to be exchanged, just this?
Was this system really all about focusing on studies?
Ivan glanced at the five Academic Points he had earned after one class and suddenly felt a sense of despair. Hogwarts only had three to five lessons a day.
If each class earned him five Academic Points, it would take five days of accumulation just to exchange for one hour of the Overachiever Experience Card?
That seemed like such a rip-off.
What could he possibly learn in just one hour?
But now that things had come to this, Ivan didn't know what else to do. Aside from this exchange option, he had no other way to improve his inefficient learning.
What else could he do?
Study hard, of course.
After Transfiguration, it was time for the tedious History of Magic class. The professor, Binns, was a traditional and rigid ghost who spent the entire class talking to himself, completely ignoring the students.
This made Ivan feel a bit uncomfortable. It was clear that the Academic Points were tied to the professors' evaluations of him in class, but with Binns' teaching method, Ivan didn't even have the chance to improve his evaluation.
At the end of the class, Ivan again received an "Average" rating and another 5 Academic Points.
However, Ivan soon understood the benefit of the History of Magic class.
During the next Charms lesson, they learned how to apply magic steadily to objects and affect them—basically, the foundation of the Levitation Charm.
Due to interference from his wand, Ivan took the entire class to barely succeed, and he accidentally blew up his spellcasting props three times!
His performance was just slightly better than Neville's.
The fastest was Miss Granger, who succeeded after only three tries.
As a result, Ivan unavoidably received a poor evaluation in his class review and earned just two Academic Points.
The only good news was that after a few days of random wandering, the "Explore Hogwarts" task in the quest tree had progressed to 30%. Each percentage increase granted him 2 Academic Points, and he had earned a total of 60 points. This was much faster than the rewards from attending classes every day.
It finally gave Ivan hope that he might be able to gather 100 Academic Points and exchange them for an Overachiever Experience Card.