"Well done, five points to Ravenclaw." she finally said after carefully observing the needle.
"Thank you, once I got out of my own way it wasn't very hard." I said honestly.
She raised an eyebrow in interest at that "Can you explain what you mean by that exactly?" she asked.
"Are you familiar with the periodic table?" I asked instead of directly answering.
"Not exceptionally but I do understand it as a way to identify the base materials that make up everything." she said intrigued by the question.
"Quite, now a matchstick is made up primarily of wood which is in turn a heavily carbon based thing. By turning the matchstick into a metal needle however we shift it's elemental base to iron or gold in my case. That doesn't sound very impressive but if you asked any muggle chemist or scientist about it they'd heavily beg to differ. Since I know this it also took me a bit to realize transfiguration doesn't actually change the elements in a thing, it's cosmetic work. The change will always revert to it's true form in the end." I said and she nodded.
"I believe I understand. From that explanation I can see how transfiguration might stump someone. What confounds me however is how YOU know this information." she said looking at me oddly.
"I like learning, a feeling of constant improvement is frankly intoxicating. Is it any wonder I'd branch out my studies quite vastly then?" I asked and she looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking her head.
"No, I suppose not. Continue practicing then, perhaps try something larger and more complex. Transfiguration rewards a vivid imagination and studious practice." she said before moving on to help another student in the form of Seamus Finnigan whose "needle" was glowing red hot and burning the wooden desk.
I was frankly confused how he accomplished something like that given the assignment but he did. I myself did as Mcgonagall suggested and practiced on something larger and more complex in the form of a quill the rest of the class. The most complex attempt I made was my attempt to create a golden quadruple helix spiral. It failed of course as I couldn't really solidify the image in my mind as I directed the magic. Maybe I was overcomplicating things by trying to focus on each individual bar of this shape but whatever the case I failed to bring it out all at once.-
I did earn another five points for the attempt though as Mcgonagall explained that what I was attempting was a more advanced form of transfiguration. A sort of step beyond the rough stuff we were taught in the first two years of school. She explained that thanks to the wonders of magic the more a wizard gets used to transfiguration the easier they find it to make complex shapes with little effort. What I was doing was effectively brute forcing that level of complexity. Not wrong in and of itself but inefficient when time and experience would ease things along.-
Still I pressed on as if normal practice was enough to reach this point then this sort of practice should allow it even faster. I also naturally kept an eye on Mike and Terry giving what little advice I could as well. The fact that somehow turned into giving advice to the other six classmates seated around our table confused me a bit but it was what it was. Finally the class came to an end and Mcgonagall gave homework that had some groans from my peers. -
Four inches on the subject of inanimate transfiguration. I never understood the whole "inches" form of homework as it would have been better to go with a wordcount instead. Not that it would stop me or anyone else from completing it since that was only about four to five hundred words to begin with. It could be more or less depending on ones handwriting but that was roughly what that amounted to. We headed for the great hall to eat lunch and I had to wonder if I had somehow taken Hermiones place as Malfoy was sending verbal jabs my way for my performance in class.-
He didn't use any slurs but he made fun of my orphaned status, the fact I wasn't pureblooded and even tried to call me a try hard in not so many words. I mean he wasn't wrong about literally any of it so I flat out ignored it since I wasn't some sensitive child who teared up at how sad my life sounded. Turns out that ignoring the guy DIDN'T work, crazy right? Even during lunch he'd somehow convinced an older student to prank me to mock me further. -
I flat out just used the levitation charm to dump a gravy boat on his head at that point before we left for the greenhouses since we had herbology next. One of the older students Scourgified him but the humiliation of it clearly wasn't enough to teach him a lesson.
"I challenge you to a wizards duel!" he hissed angrily with a slight gleam in his eyes.
"Set it up with the professors." I said waving him off.
"Don't tell me you are scared?" He said trying to goad me.
"Of you? No. If you want a duel then you must go through the correct formalities. Unsanctioned duels are after all highly illegal and neither of us want to deal with the consequences of that. Unless of course you are equally okay with the idea of shaming your family by making an unsanctioned challenge and then not showing up?" I said leaving him pale at that last part.
It was beyond obvious that he was trying to pull the same trick he did on Harry on me where he goaded one of us into a duel after curfew only to send Filch after us to get us in trouble. He miscalculated though as I was neither an impulsive Gryffindor nor ignorant about the stigma and laws surrounding duels.
{Author note: So few of you may know but there is someone on this platform plagiarizing my previous Harry potter story. When confronted the person claimed a desperate need of funds and promised to take the stolen work down in two weeks. I accepted this because I can understand desperately needing money. The story has not been taken down however. I now call upon all of you to go to the page of this stolen story and report it for planarization. Screenshot my own ringmaker story to help. The stolen story is called Ringcrafting in Harry potter by Kirekky.}