Entertainment is entertainment—it's necessary. But wasting all your time on it? That's no different from courting death.
Every mealtime, Andrew would receive a fresh and piercing reminder of that.
That terrifying noseless man was still hiding over there, behind a thin scarf, watching Hogwarts intently.
Andrew had thought of several ways to report him, but not a single one was safe.
Using a manuscript was the first idea he rejected—Dumbledore either couldn't or wouldn't trace it, but that noseless guy could easily pinpoint him through the publishing process.
Anonymous letters wouldn't work either. They'd never reach Dumbledore's desk.
If Dumbledore could read every random letter sent to him, he'd probably have died from exhaustion long ago.
Where was the justice in a "useful" method being blocked just because the recipient was too high up?
He even considered sneaking into the kitchens and hiding a letter on Dumbledore's dinner plate—but after thinking through the house-elves' combat abilities and the secrecy of such an action, he eventually vetoed the idea himself.
"Forget it… I'll just focus on practicing Transfiguration."
Professor McGonagall had once again raised the difficulty of the tasks she gave him—but fortunately, this one was a focused technical challenge.
Simply put, it was about how to maintain the effects of a Transfiguration spell over time.
It was an incredibly time-consuming exercise—because there was no stable, controllable acceleration spell, he had to create multiple boxes filled with small transfigured items and test them the old-fashioned way.
He ended up using not only his roommates' boxes, but also borrowed one from the dorm next door.
Even with all that, he still had a lot of free time—aside from waiting to record results and prepare a new batch of items for comparison, there wasn't much else he could do.
——
"Wow, you can transfigure wooden sculptures now? And it's a puzzle with interlocking parts? That's amazing…"
Well, technically, not a sculpture—it was a 3D wooden puzzle made of multiple interlocking pieces, the most complex structure Andrew could currently transfigure. Extremely fragile, and perfect for observing how the spell held up.
"It's alright. Honestly, it's way easier than trying biological transformations. Too bad permanent transfiguration is still out of reach—otherwise I'd make one for you…" Andrew noted down his latest results in a notebook while responding to Kevin. "You've been pretty busy lately too. What've you been up to?"
Speaking of which, I wonder if there are similar toys on the market… not sure if LEGO exists yet in this timeline. Might be a good Christmas gift for Kevin…
"Oh, I've been working on that dark jinx that leaked from Slytherin…"
Kevin said this with a mock-mysterious tone. "It's already spreading in small circles. I just got the spell and the casting method… been practicing for a while—it's ridiculously easy."
"That outrageous?"
"Not really. Curses are some of the easiest kinds of spells. They're not even proper formal magic."
Kevin clearly knew more than Andrew in this area. "You know how traditional spells usually don't have counterspells? Once cast, they're hard to undo. But curses? The easier they are to cast, the easier they are to counter. Those Slytherins probably only practiced it for a day or two."
As he spoke, he pointed his wand at one of Bell's shoes left on the floor. "Watch closely!"
With a flick and a jab of his wand, he chanted: "Shoe, bite him!"
Andrew watched clearly as the shoe opened a wide mouth and bit down right where the toes would be.
"See? Super simple. I didn't even get it to run around biting everyone."
Kevin spread his hands. "I bet the Gryffindors already figured out a counter, but they don't seem motivated to use it."
"It is simple…"
Andrew pulled out his wand and levitated his own shoes. "Shoe, bite him!"
Just like Kevin had done, the shoe snapped at the air.
"Yeah, doesn't even feel like Transfiguration. Just a minor nuisance curse. The Gryffindors were just caught off guard."
He nodded in agreement.
But Kevin looked stunned—and a little heartbroken.
"I—I practiced the whole morning to get that right!
"I was planning to show off in front of everyone before teaching it!"
"Oh—I promise I'll act surprised when you do," Andrew quickly apologized, assuring Kevin he wouldn't steal his thunder. That finally soothed Kevin's bruised ego.
——
Apparently, there were plenty of people like Kevin. Within two or three days, the whole castle was full of shoes biting toes.
Even though everyone kept the effect mild enough not to do real harm, even a soft bite still hurt like hell.
But Andrew had already found a counter—this jinx only worked on ordinary shoes. It didn't affect magically-transfigured footwear at all.
At first, he thought of adding iron plates to his shoes with Transfiguration, but after discovering the suppression effect of the spell, he simply changed his shoe color every day and cheerfully watched his classmates struggle to prank him.
Of course, he'd always return the "favor" with a curse of his own, in the spirit of "fun."
This strategy effectively shut down some students trying to get back at him—many of whom were sore about being cut from the clubs they applied to, while Andrew got in despite his open criticism of them. Not much he could do about that.
Once he publicly credited Kevin for discovering the counter, word spread quickly—and once first-years' Transfiguration grades slightly improved, the biting-shoes trend quickly faded into the past.
——
"These latest notes…"
"Channeling energy through the wand core definitely helps Transfiguration resist decay more effectively than other methods…"
"Of course, it's still heavily dependent on magical strength… The wooden planks and Quidditch balls I enchanted still show no changes…"
"But then the question is… are the rougher casting techniques I'm seeing due to my lack of experience? Or is the caster simply forcing higher power levels through increased magical growth?"
Full of questions, Andrew began peppering Professor McGonagall with them before even submitting his paper.
"An interesting line of thought," she said. "But like I told you before the school year started—without a solid foundation, none of these theories are usable."
"Still, I was planning to tell you this anyway: when it comes to magical experimentation, in addition to being very careful, you also need to learn how to manage your time effectively."
She pulled out yet another reading list.
"These books—read them carefully."
"Yes, Professor."
T/N: For twenty chapters ahead on all my fics become a P@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle