Basically, it all boiled down to his familiar catch-phrase: it was for your own good. Bollocks. If he were in charge of Hogwarts, he'd certainly put a stop to the classrooms moving around.
Professor McGonagall had always been the hardest teacher to impress enough to give points. That was easy enough to understand: she always expected more of her students than the rest of the professors. And being an apprentice, Harry was sure she was going to expect a lot out of him. The first lesson had been the standard of transfiguring a match into a needle. Harry had gone to school for seven years and knew the coursework like the back of his un-scared hand. He couldn't remember every lecture verbatim or even cite a passage out of any book, but he knew his spells. The simple ones all the way to the tough ones, he recalled every single one with clarity.
Harry hadn't come to school to outperform every other student, and especially hadn't come in to show up Hermione. He had come to school to solidify his position within the world and give himself an alibi while he went horcrux hunting. He was here to ensure the prophecy was met full force and the person he deemed was worthy enough be the victor. The sheer fact that Voldemort was a murdering psychopath was enough to sway his vote to Longbottom, irritating prat that he was.
Still, he needed to do his assignment. And being an apprentice did give him an advantage knowledge-wise as it was already expected of him. So zimba-zoomba, the match was a needle. Of course, the needle was now multi-colored and could combust at any given moment, but it was still a needle. Harry opted to make his assignment more interesting and kept changing it back and forth, changing it a little bit here and there until it was a pen that could catch fire.
"Mr. Potter? May I ask what you are doing?"
"Oh, sorry Professor. I'm just seeing how far I can transfigure the match. I'm looking for optimal weight/height/density restrictions."
"And have you found any limits so far?" This was something that intrigued the professor. That specific theory wasn't even discussed until OWLs.
"I started to reach a 15 centimeter length limit until I transfigured the needle into a pen first. That got it working again. Now I'm just playing around seeing if I can incorporate the properties of the original match into the transfigured object. You know: a light pen."
"Impressive, Mr. Potter. Any luck?"
"Not yet. The pen lights up, but it catches fire and the ink burns too fast. I'm going to have to give it another go with converting the sulpher in the match to a lithium battery."
"You realize that a muggle battery won't work correctly in Hogwarts, don't you?"
"Eh, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it," Harry replied offhandedly. "I guess I could always try storing a lumos spell within the confines of the lithium. Maybe even extend the battery's life."
Startled at the suggestion (especially since she hadn't thought of it in all the years she'd been teaching), she said, "Ah… good work, Mr. Potter. Ten points to Gryffindor. You certainly have your father's talent for Transfiguration."
"I hope you have that same attitude when I'm bunking in another house, Professor," Harry smirked.
"Anything is possible with magic, Potter," she replied with a slight smirk. "Since it appears you know the subject, would you please assist other students until I have a better understanding of your skills? Next week I want to schedule some time with you to go over your knowledge." She then turned to help another student.
Harry saw Hermione struggle with the coursework, turning the match into a partial match/needle.
"Hermione? Do you need some help?"
"No thanks, Harry. I saw you do it a few minutes ago so I know I'll be able to do it any time now. It can't be that hard, can it?" She tried the spell again and it became a matchstick with a needle handle at its base.
At that moment, Harry saw something he hadn't seen in quite a long time: his friend. He saw Hermione on the train and saw his old friend. He saw Hermione at the Gryffindor table and saw his old friend. He saw this Hermione struggling with a first year spell and now saw: his new friend. This wasn't the old Hermione; this was someone altogether different. Someone he could still be friends with.
"Hermione, can I tell you something? A secret that might help you?"
She stopped the incantation and lowered her wand. She looked around the room and noticed others were still working on the match, their faces scrunched in concentration.
"I taught myself several spells from the books I read over the summer, Harry. I was able to understand them completely. Why is this giving me such a hard time?"
"Spells are fairly straightforward in thinking and in their desired reaction. Transfiguration is governed by a grownup secret, Hermione. I only know because I overheard it a couple years ago which is why I'm able to do it so well now."
Voice quiet, she said, "What secret?"
"Hermione, transfiguration is basically understanding the association game," Harry said in all honesty.
"What?"
"The rules of association, Hermione. If you had the magical strength to do it, you could take a clump of dirt and turn it into another planet. Or even the sun if you didn't get fried in the attempt. But in order to do it, you need to understand the association convention that is linked with all transfiguration.
"Take this needle. You are being asked to turn it into a matchstick."
"Opposite that, Harry," she corrected
....
Read ahead by more than 60 chapters on my p@treon.
Link: pa*treon.com/GalaxyWonder (Remove the *)
Free members an get up to 2 free chapters.
Have a great day....