Chapter 65: When has Mom ever lied to you? (Edited)

"Minerva~" ?●ω●?

Early the next morning, instead of reporting to the Great Dining Hall, Fish snuck into Professor McGonagall's office and jumped on her acting like a spoiled child.

"No."

Professor McGonagall patted Fish's head and refused without waiting for him to say anything.

"Meow! I haven't said anything yet."

Fish raised his head and protested defiantly.

Reaching out to pinch Fish's cheeks, Professor McGonagall cheerfully explained, "Miss Hooch already told me that you stole the Snitch from Wood and the others, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't, meow..."(●?ω?●).

Fish looked away sheepishly, and the next moment he was confident again. "I found it! And I gave it back."

"Really? Then Fish is a good boy."

Professor McGonagall didn't burst Fish's bubble, but humored her words and scratched his chin.

"Heh heh heh..."

Fish narrowed his eyes in amusement and rubbed his head against Professor McGonagall's hand.

After enjoying it for a while, Fish finally came to his senses and said quickly, "Wait meow! I'm here to get Minerva to buy me a Snitch!"

"That won't do," continued Professor McGonagall, "that little thing is more expensive than a flying broom."

"Meow?"

Fish cocked his head to one side, clearly not having a clear idea of the price.

Professor McGonagall also sensed this and, after a moment's thought, resumed her analogy, "If you trade it for a snacks, it'll last you about three years."

"Meow!" (⊙△⊙).

"But..." Professor McGonagall changed the subject, "You should want a toy that can fly, right? It doesn't have to be the Snitch."

"Mmmmmmmmm!"

Fish nodded his little head vigorously.

"That's easy then," asked Professor McGonagall, smiling as she stroked Fish's head, "Have you forgotten, Fish, what lessons I teach?"

"Meow?"

Fish stared at the ceiling for a moment, then nodded his head vigorously, "Hmm! I forgot, meow!"

Professor McGonagall: "..."

"It's transfiguration class, you little bastard!" Professor McGonagall pressed Fish's head angrily and rubbed wildly, "Think of how I caught you when you were naughty before!"

"Meow meow meow meow!" ? (●>ω<●)?

Struggling to free herself from Professor McGonagall's grasp, Fish covered his head and puffed out his cheeks as he replied, "Of course I remember, Meow! Minerva always looks for help when she can't fight, she's the worst!"

"I made them all using transfiguration!" Professor McGonagall pulled out her wand in tears, turning a small Quidditch-themed ornament on her desk into a small tabby cat like Fish's, and asked, "Haven't you learned how to do that? And it works pretty well."

"Meow!" ?ω?

Fish moved his head closer to get a closer look at the tiger-spotted cat that looked like him on the desk, then twitched his nose and sniffed, cocking his head to the side for a bit before frowning and saying, "No wonder those helpers you found earlier, Minerva, didn't smell like animals at all."

"Because they're not real animals, even if they are fixed forever by some means, they don't have all sorts of physical needs like real animals..."

Professor McGonagall waved her wand again and the tabby cat turned into a palm-sized cake with a cute buttercream design: with a cartoon tabby cat, "Likewise, food transformed by Transfiguration can't fill your stomach."

Fish, who had been trying to lick the cake with his tongue out, stopped and licked a layer of cream.

"Blah, blah, blah! It doesn't taste like anything," Fish said as he spat.

"I told you," smiled Professor McGonagall, rubbing Fish's head, "Transfiguration knowledge is huge."

"Meow?" Fish, who had already scratched the cake on the table into small pieces, raised his confused little face, "What are you talking about, Minerva?"

Professor McGonagall: "..."

Don't be angry, don't be angry.

Suppressing the sudden urge to hit the kitten, Professor McGonagall waved her wand again and the wretched cake on the table returned to its previous form... but in pieces.

She then used the Repair spell to repair the ornament, and the little figure hopped back onto her flying broom doing a few flying loops as before.

Slapping the table to divert Fish's attention away from the ornament, Professor McGonagall lifted her square glasses from the bridge of her nose, "Back to the previous topic..."

"What topic?" asked Fish.

"... Transfiguration! Shut up and listen to me!" said Professor McGonagall.

"Okay." Sais Fish.

"Well... What did I just say? Ah, yes, Transfiguration...," Professor McGonagall, who was a bit confused by Fish's distraction, rubbed her forehead, sorted her thoughts and spoke again, "If you master Transfiguration, then, whether it's the Golden Snitch or anything else, you can do it yourself."

Professor McGonagall waved her wand again and again, demonstrating to Fish.

Under her control, the poor ornament turned into a golden Snitch, into a mouse, into a flying broom, and finally back into an ornament and back to the table.

"Oooooooooh!" (●? △ ?●)

Fish looked at the changing ornament with a twinkle in his eye and grabbed Professor McGonagall's sleeve excitedly, "I want to learn meow! Minerva! I want to learn this!"

Transfiguration, of course, can't make a golden snitch or a broomstick, or the makers of those things would have been ruined.

Ordinary Transfiguration cannot conjure magical creatures or magical objects, but a transfiguration master like Professor McGonagall has no problem conjuring a shape. Together with the help of magic spells like the levitating spell, it was easy to trick Fish.

The most important thing now was to take this opportunity to guide Fish towards learning.

"Then you'll have to pay attention in class, and you'll have to do your homework," said Professor McGonagall, patting Fish on the head, "You know, Transfiguration is an important subject."

"Meow..." ?ω?

Fish immediately looked embarrassed, but nodded firmly at the idea of being able to make fun toys at will, and to make a bunch of fake animals to help him fight, just like Minerva.

"I'll do my best, meow!" said Fish.

Professor McGonagall had guessed that Fish's patience wouldn't last more than a few days, and that after a few tries the little smarty-pants would probably realize he'd been tricked, but for now she'd take a few days and then think of another way to trick him.

As for later, when Fish comes to his senses... the important thing is for her to turn into a bird or a mouse or something, or let Fish play with a flying broom for a limited time.

The main reason Professor McGonagall hadn't taught Fish transfiguration to create small animals was to get rid of her hunting habits when she was a feral cat, but now that Fish had made friends with the owls and they were still alive and kicking, along with Ron's pet mouse and Neville's pet toad in his dormitory, Professor McGonagall wasn't too worried about it.

Professor McGonagall began to make the best of the situation, "It's not just my class, you'll need to study for the other classes as well, you'll need other magical aids for advanced transfiguration."

Fish shot a questioning look at Professor McGonagall and said, "You're not lying to me?"

"Of course not, when has Mum ever lied to you?" said Professor McGonagall.

"When you tricked me into learning words, when you tricked me into dressing up, when you tricked me into using a fork...," Fish started counting on his fingers.

"Cough, cough! How can that be considered tricking you? didn't I give you a reward for all of them afterwards?", Professor McGonagall hastily interrupted Fish's recollection.

"Yes... Meow?"

Fish hesitated, but nodded, though he sensed something was wrong.

But then Professor McGonagall interrupted once more, stroking Fish's little head and saying with a smile, "So you see, Mummy has never lied to little Fish."