Chapter 11: Mafario and the New Book

"Ah—ha—"

On the morning of the next day, at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall, Macka, yawning, absent-mindedly stuffed sliced white bread into his mouth, forgetting even to spread jam on it. His school robes were askew, clearly thrown on haphazardly, a departure from his usual neat style.

"Hey, little junior, why so tired? Didn't sleep well last night?" Charlotte, the carefree senior, clearly didn't care about others' appearances—although she always dressed elegantly herself.

"Mm... yeah, a bit," Macka nodded listlessly, eyelids drooping, seemingly on the verge of falling asleep at any moment.

"Thinking about some girl?" Charlotte teased opportunistically.

"Yeah, thinking about you, huh—" Macka instinctively replied, yawning again.

Charlotte Miss didn't expect this guy to have a sharp comeback even when half asleep, showing a face of "I admire you."

"Alright! Wake up quickly, class is starting soon." She raised her hand and, putting some strength into it, slapped Macka on the back, startling him so much that even the bread in his mouth fell onto the table.

"I say, senior, was that really necessary?" Macka grimaced, feeling like there was definitely a bright red handprint on his back now.

Just then, the owls arrived.

Macka looked up, watching the flurry of owls flying around in the Great Hall, dropping off packages or letters onto the recipients' laps.

"Come to think of it, my Mafario stays in the dorm all day (it doesn't even want to go to the school's Owlery), eating and sleeping, hardly useful for anything!" Macka suddenly realized, slapping his thigh as if struck by a revelation, "What did I get it for? Looks like I need to find something for it to do..."

Just as Macka was thinking about letting his own owl take a stroll outside, a dark shadow swooped in from the entrance of the Great Hall, scattering the other owls.

"Huh?" Macka raised his head at the sound, only to see his own owl, Mafario, diving towards him, then like a bomber, dropping a large package onto the empty space behind Macka with a resounding "boom."

"Moo," Mafario hooted, then landed on the table and pecked at another slice of bread from Macka's plate.

"Is that your owl?" Charlotte Miss stared at Mafario with curiosity, "It's really strong. I want one like that too. Where did you get it?"

"Knockturn Alley's 'Giant Spider'," Macka replied casually, pulling out a receipt tucked in the package, "Oh, my books I ordered from Flourish and Blotts arrived."

These were the books Macka had ordered from Flourish and Blotts a few days before school started, some about potions and herbology. Although he could find these books in the library, they wouldn't allow him to scribble on them.

Charlotte leaned over and took a few glances, then exclaimed in surprise, "Junior, are you planning to finish all of Hogwarts' courses in your first year?"

Macka stuffed the book list into the package and said, "How is that possible? I just need them for reference. I need to take these books back to the dorm before class."

Passing by the Gryffindor table on the way, Harry called out to Macka.

"Hey, Macka! Hagrid asked me to have tea with him, are you coming?" He waved a note in his hand and asked Macka.

"When?" Macka asked.

"This afternoon, around three!" Harry replied.

"I have class this afternoon. Please give my regards to Hagrid, I'll reschedule to visit him later." Macka nodded, then continued on his way to the common room—he needed to return these books before class.

As for the morning, it was the first Transfiguration class for Hufflepuff.

The Transfiguration professor was Minerva McGonagall, as strict as Snape, but unlike Snape, she treated students from all houses equally, punishing any student who broke the rules.

So, although most students were afraid of this stern senior professor, her sternness inspired respect.

Her teaching style was always concise and effective. Just at the beginning of class, she gave all the students a warning.

"Transfiguration is the most complex and dangerous spell in your Hogwarts curriculum," she said, "anyone who misbehaves in my class, I'll ask them to leave and never let them back in. I've said this to every new class, and I hope you take it as a warning."

Then, she turned her desk into a deer and back again.

Most students were fascinated by this magical spell, and Macka was probably the one among them who could best understand its difficulty, having read about it in "The Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration."

So far, Macka had finished reading several required textbooks, and he found this course, which was probably the most difficult.

The difficulty of Transfiguration not only depended on a wizard's study of its principles, but that was just the beginning. To truly master Transfiguration, the biggest challenge lay in understanding the properties of objects before and after transformation thoroughly.

Students studying Transfiguration not only needed to study the physical properties of objects but also to have as high an understanding and control of the magical properties of objects as possible—this was extremely complex and profound and could be said to be endless.

For example, a beginner wizard might be able to turn a matchstick into a needle of roughly the same size; however, a master of Transfiguration could turn that matchstick into various sizes, materials, and even textures, maintaining them for hundreds of years!

Of course, besides differences in precision and consumption, the biggest difference lies in understanding.

This was a long-term course that consumed a lot of time, and Macka found that there were no shortcuts, only accumulation through daily learning and research.

In class, Macka turned the feather assigned to him into a lump of metal. He didn't have good control over the shape of objects yet, but Professor McGonagall still nodded at him—being able to cause a qualitative change in an object was already a very good performance for a beginner.

In the afternoon, it was another drowsy History of Magic class. Professor Binns always lectured in his monotonous tone, droning on about the major historical events in the wizarding world. His emotionless lecturing style made almost all students lose interest in this class.

But Macka found it quite enjoyable. He realized that Professor Binns didn't just stick to the textbook; he organized the content very systematically and occasionally included some details that even the textbooks missed. He believed that this respected Hogwarts' only ghost professor prepared meticulously for his class every night.

Of course, perhaps this was also because ghosts didn't need to sleep, which gave him a lot of extra time. If he didn't do something, he'd surely get bored enough to want to die again.

"I heard that Professor Binns was the History of Magic professor at Hogwarts during his lifetime, until one day he forgot to bring his body when he came to class." Ernie whispered beside Macka.

"As you said, Professor Binns not only dedicated the latter half of his life to teaching, but even after death, he continues to maintain this extremely difficult persistence." Macka nodded, saying so.

"Listening to you say that, it does seem to be the case!"

Ernie paused for a moment, realizing that it indeed seemed to be the case. He couldn't help but straighten up and listen attentively to the lesson, but not long after, he slouched again—this class itself was just too dull.

While the History of Magic class might be extremely unbearable for other students, Macka found that time passed by quickly.

"Macka, where are you going? Aren't you going to the common room to play Wizard's Chess for a while?" Ernie asked, a bit puzzled.

The History of Magic classroom was on the second floor, and the badgers were all heading downstairs to the common room, exchanging various gossip and information, but Macka alone was climbing the stairs upwards.

"Oh, I need to go to the library for a bit, there's some information I need to check." Macka replied over his shoulder, not pausing his steps, disappearing from Ernie's view soon with the staircase's automatic turn.

The library on the fifth floor of Hogwarts was a behemoth with a vast collection of books.

Here, you could find almost all kinds of magical books currently in circulation or previously published. Of course, there was a large area called the "Restricted Section," where you couldn't borrow without the headmaster's or Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's signed permission.

The librarian was Mrs. Pince, thin, old, and irritable, looking like a grumpy old buzzard due to her constant hunger.

She regarded the books in the library as her life and would drive out any student trying to deface or damage the collection. To her, these precious books were her forbidden fruit, and if possible, no one should come near them.

Just past class time, there were only a few Gryffindor first years in the library—there were no classes scheduled for their house this afternoon.

"...Fantastic Beasts... Fantastic Beasts... here it is!"

Macka tiptoed and pulled out a book titled "Habitat and Habits of Humanoid Fantastic Beasts," immediately standing there and flipping through the pages.