allendalepharm Chapter 268 Dumbledore's Transfiguration!
Chapter 268 Dumbledore's Transfiguration!
Chapter 268 Dumbledore's Transfiguration!
Lockhart once had such a clear understanding.
When ancient witchcraft is widely classified as "black magic" by the modern magic system, the only legitimate dueling magic left are a handful of spells like "raging flames" and "expelling weapons"—
Given this situation, the wisest course of action is not to champion "ancient witchcraft" and argue that "it's not so bad," nor to secretly learn these extremely powerful black magics and then make one's abilities unpresentable.
In the realm of magical duels, the answer in this era is Polymorph!
Dumbledore is undoubtedly a top figure in the field of Transfiguration.
Grindelwald was not, and neither was Voldemort.
Ask him, you can't go wrong.
"Transfiguration," Dumbledore said, admiring Lockhart's foresight in ultimately choosing Transfiguration. "The most crucial point in learning Transfiguration is that you should think about what the thing you want to transform into will do, not what you want to transform it into."
Lockhart seemed thoughtful.
He knew all too well the significance of Dumbledore's words. There are countless paths to magic, and countless books that record knowledge, but even the most learned person will often fail to grasp the essence if they do not ponder the most fundamental point.
Seeing Lockhart deep in thought, Dumbledore continued his explanation, first gesturing to his wand, "Me!"
He raised his wand and gestured to some raised, seemingly decorative reliefs beneath the office dome, above the portraits of past principals. "I'm going up there to get something."
Then he tapped the high-backed oak chair beneath him with his wand.
In an instant, he suddenly rose a great height, and then, with an extremely strange speed and swaying posture, he circled the desk and came to the corner of the wall.
Surprisingly, four hairy animal legs had sprouted from the chair's legs.
The little guy with short legs runs around.
Upon reaching the corner, a pair of enormous white wings quickly unfurled from the back of the chair, and a small wing also sprouted from above each of the four beast legs.
Then the chair flew smoothly up, all the way to a position where Dumbledore could reach out and touch the relief.
It was a relief depicting a headmaster in his study. Dumbledore raised his hand to touch the relief, then gently dipped it in and pulled a book from the study shelf.
After taking it out, one book was missing from the bookshelf details carved in the relief.
The chair flew around the desk again, returned to its original position, and landed lightly. Finally, the beast's legs and wings disappeared.
"Did you see that?" Dumbledore asked with a smile.
Lockhart nodded as if suddenly understanding. "Transfiguration lies between 'self-will' and 'the achieved goal.' Transfiguration is the process, not the result!"
Dumbledore smiled and nodded with satisfaction. "It seems you really understand."
As he spoke, he handed over the book in his hand, "This is my summary of my understanding of Restoration. You must return it to me after you have finished reading it. This is a book I dedicate to Hogwarts."
Lockhart solemnly extended both hands to accept it. "Thank you, Dumbledore."
Old Deng smiled kindly, "I also have a request. I hope that after you study, you can write down your insights and contribute to the knowledge base of Hogwarts."
"Of course," Lockhart thought it made perfect sense.
Restoration is one of the five major categories of transfiguration, and it is also the solution for the other four categories of transfiguration.
Simply put, it means undoing and restoring the changes brought about by the Transfiguration.
To master the Restoration spell, one needs a deep understanding of the other four major categories of Transfiguration, which is essentially an advanced subject in Transfiguration.
These four categories are—
The Transfiguration Charm can transform a single target or a group of targets. For example, it can turn a group of people into sheep simultaneously.
The Transformation Charm can transform two or even multiple targets. For example, it can graft Neville's ear onto a cactus. The Vanishing Charm can also transform something from existence to non-existence. Another example is the Cleansing Charm.
Summoning spells are spells that create something from nothing. For example, the Summoning Spell for Flocks of Birds.
Each of these can extend into an extremely broad field, encompassing such a wide range that it can almost be said that the wizarding giants who originally built this discipline had the ambition to include all forms of witchcraft.
Lockhart's most vivid memory of Transfiguration was a scene he had witnessed in his previous life.
Ron turns his pet mouse into a cup during class.
Now that he has actually stepped into this magical world, this scene has become terrifying upon closer examination.
Because Ron's pet mouse Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew's Animagus!
In other words, a powerful wizard transforms into an animal through the Animagus, and then a junior wizard, through a lesson in spells, transforms that powerful wizard into a cup.
What's even more amazing is that Ron did this under Professor McGonagall's gaze.
Professor McGonagall was undoubtedly a powerful wizard, one of the most outstanding figures in the field of Transfiguration. Yet, this very person simply watched the Transfiguration take place, still unable to sense Peter Pettigrew's presence.
In this scene, Peter Pettigrew's magical bloodline, Peter Pettigrew's self-will, and Peter Pettigrew's "sociality" all disappear!
This is a landscape Lockhart could never explore along the magical path of memory, time, magical bloodline, and sociality.
From the moment he figured out the magic "Thunderstorm Mountain Fire", almost all of his subsequent magic spells had a "social" aspect to some extent.
But Transfiguration is so powerful that it completely erased this aspect.
How could he not be obsessed with it?
So while there was a commotion outside the school and everyone inside was excited about Voldemort's capture, Lockhart went into the school library alone.
Start with the most basic "Beginner's Guide to Transformation".
He quickly became immersed in a wonderful world.
In this world, magic no longer revolves around one's own will, nor does it develop along the lines of magical lineage and the river of time.
It is no longer governed by trajectories related to the universe, nature, society, etc.
It came to life!
Yes, transfiguration is alive!
Lockhart had always thought that Transfiguration emphasized one's own will, that is, having a very clear idea in one's mind what one wants to become, and then letting magic do it for one.
Professor McGonagall taught the young wizards in the same way.
But Dumbledore said that the most important thing is to be clear about your own will, to know what you want to get, and then let Transfiguration help you get it.
Willpower points the way, and then the transformation is left to develop freely.
This is a very outrageous magical concept because it transcends Lockhart's previous understanding of the distinction between the "spiritual" and the "academic" schools, and so wonderfully merges the two into one.
Lockhart picked up the "Clean Up" spell again.
Try to apply Dumbledore's ideas.
Then he made the amazing discovery that the effects of each cleansing spell were different, yet the results of each cleansing spell were highly consistent.
This is Dumbledore's Transfiguration!
Lockhart needs to experiment with some things.
He had a vague feeling that he had touched on something very important.
He needs an experimental prop, preferably one that is a bit large.
Hmm, maybe it could be a house.
Lockhart rarely asked the dueling club students to do things that weren't related to their growth, or rather, he had never done so before.
This time, we specifically asked the young wizards for help.
Search for stones in every corner of the forbidden forest and build a stone hut in a relatively open area.
Building a house is no easy task, and the long history of wizards seems to have overlooked the study of magic in this area.
Of course, it's also possible that the deliberate madness of ancient witches and sorcerers made them less concerned about this matter.
In short, even after so many years of development from witchcraft to magic, building a house is still a very luxurious thing.
Because it cannot be done directly using magic.
Otherwise, Ron's slum wouldn't have ended up in that state.
Fortunately, the young wizards were indeed putting into practice the magical principles taught by Professor Lockhart, treating building houses as a challenging fairytale adventure.
They were all thinking about how to use magic to accomplish this better.
George and Fred modified a type of gummy candy they had invented before, creating a pair of "super elastic rubber legs," which they attached to the stone, allowing it to hop and skip to where it was going to build its house.
But this can only be used to move smaller stones.
Then Ron suggested that Harry use Exorcism on the stone, since Harry had used this spell to knock away a Quidditch cue that was over ten meters tall.
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
Harry's spellcasting always required emotion and an enemy, and now, looking at the large rock in front of him, he couldn't get into the mood no matter how much he tried to hypnotize himself.
In the end, Hermione came up with a solution.
She used Transfiguration to turn the large rock into a giant stone ball, then had Harry and Ron push it along while she continuously used Transfiguration on the ground to smooth out the surface.
This method was clearly successful.
All the young wizards watched in amazement as such a large stone ball rolled past them, and several of them tried to replicate it.
He was incredibly smug as he passed Draco's group of four.
Draco glared at Crabbe, "You've been with the professor for so long, haven't you learned any powerful magic?"
Crabbe scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah, the Soulfire, you know."
Draco rolled his eyes. "I know that, you taught me, but it doesn't solve the problem! Damn it, we've been outdone by Hermione and the others!"
Asking him to use Transfiguration to push the stone ball like Hermione and the others—ha, he couldn't do it. He thought people would laugh at him for it.
"Besides Soulfire, you haven't learned anything else?" Draco asked, quickly adding, "Don't even mention Warmth and Healing, that spell is useless too."
The magic of warm healing is something that only Crabbe among the members of the Duel Club has known so far.
This is a spell that requires complete dedication, just like Harry casting the Disarming Charm. It takes a lot of emotional investment, and Lockhart taught it by tapping into Crabbe's personality traits. No one else has the talent to do it.
This one isn't very popular, because healing spells are an extremely high-level and niche subject, so it's not normal not to know it. "I'm learning a third spell," Crabbe said somewhat helplessly, "but it doesn't seem to be useful either."
"What kind of magic?" Draco asked curiously. He was extremely jealous that Crabbe was able to learn from Professor Lockhart. This opportunity to be guided on the path of magic based on one's own characteristics had once made his father, Lucius, think that he should also try to achieve it.
"It vanishes into thin air and ascends to heaven," Crabbe explained. "That's the first spell the professor teaches everyone."
This spell is Defense Against the Dark Arts, which Lockhart strongly recommended Dumbledore implement in the school; its practicality is extremely high.
Draco's expression immediately turned somewhat strange. "Is this all the professor teaches you?"
Lockhart didn't just teach this spell; he talked to Crabbe about the advanced effects of casting this spell based on the "Soul Campfire." But Crabbe could do it but couldn't explain it. Asking him to memorize those theories would be easier than killing him.
"That's right, that's right."
He stammered and gestured with his hands, but ultimately failed to explain clearly.
"What's the use? I mean, what can you do with this magic right now?" Draco tried to get to the heart of the matter.
"A column of smoke!" Crabbe finally knew how to answer. "I can blow a pile of powder into a column of smoke and send it wherever I want it to go."
Draco leaned back, completely bewildered as to what this thing was for.
Do not!
wrong!
His eyes suddenly lit up. "A column of smoke?"
"Yeah!" Crabbe nodded sheepishly.
Then Draco looked at Goyle, "Crushed to pieces?"
Gore nodded quickly, "I'm good at it."
The Shattering Charm is part of the Charms curriculum, taught at Hogwarts. The spell sounds evil, and it is indeed evil.
It can be used not only to attack solid obstacles, but also to injure people.
In the original story, Ginny used this technique to kill a Death Eater, and Ginny's mother also used it to kill Bella.
Draco then looked at Pansy, "Levitation Charm?"
Pansy waved her wand excitedly, "Of course!"
Almost every junior wizard knows the Levitation Charm, but not every wizard can use it well. Just as Ron can turn the Levitation Charm into a sword-flying spell, Pansy also has an extremely good performance with this spell, which is that it is particularly stable.
"Let's give it a try!"
Draco instructed Goyle to cast a shattering spell on a large rock. The enormous roar echoed throughout the Forbidden Forest, drawing the attention of the young wizards who were trying to figure out what to do.
As the shattering spell was cast, the huge rock exploded, spraying out in a fan shape and shattering into a pile of fragments.
"Continue!" Draco drew his wand. "Let's do it together."
As he spoke, he, along with Gore and Pansy, joined in the destruction of the stone.
The process continued until everything was completely reduced to powder.
Then Draco had Crabbe cast the spell "Disappear and Ascend," which swept up all the dust and small fragments of stones that had been blasted from the ground, and with the help of Pansy's levitation charm, they headed toward the place where the professor was going to build the stone house.
When they arrived at the destination, there was a pile of powder and debris, and they happened to run into Hermione, Harry, and Ron, who had been struggling to push the stone ball there.
The three of them were wiping away sweat with a pained expression. Hermione pushed along with them, encouraging the two little accessories to keep going, "We're almost there, hurry up!"
Then they saw Draco and his three companions walk past them.
Their speed wasn't very fast either, because they also had to maintain the stability of the magic.
Finally, upon reaching their destination, Hermione cast a spell to undo the transformation, restoring the stone to its original form.
Meanwhile, Draco was also waving his wand, hesitated for a moment, and then tried to enhance the magic's effect by shouting.
"Restored to its original state!"
Stone dust swirled and swept through, small stones swayed, and then, as if time had reversed, they quickly glued together, piece by piece, to recreate the original shape of the stones.
"Well done, Draco!" Lockhart shouted happily.
The young wizards turned their heads and were surprised to see Professor Lockhart, Professor Lupin, and Professor Snape chatting not far away.
Of course, they were talking about Transfiguration.
Lupin and Snape were quite skilled and knowledgeable in Transfiguration.
Especially the Animagus, although neither of them studied it, they had a deep understanding and feelings about this magic.