‘Can’t I smile in the classroom?’ Leon grumbled, wondering if she retained her animagus form’s sharp eyes.

“The ice went under Fundamental scrutiny, i.e., due to the room temperature a very small portion of it melted- it got changed at a fundamental level- no matter how small, making it revert.” Leon was just winging it, the explanation just made sense, so he stuck with it not buckling under the stern glare of the professor.

“Good, 5 points to Hufflepuff. This will be the result if anyone other than an experienced wizard transfigures things into ice or similar volatile substances.”

“Now focus,” she said.

The professor waved her hand turning the existing floating jelly cube into a giant ice cube.

With another wave of her hand, a huge water droplet dripped onto the ground before turning into jelly.

Multiple water droplets slid down the ice cube and reverted to their original form by the time they touched the ground.

“Can anyone tell me why eating or drinking transfigured objects is harmful?”

“Yes, Mr Thomas.” A Gryffindor who looked uncertain answered.

“Because when they get digested, they will revert to their original form.”

“Correct, good. As you guys are in your first year any object you transfigured will revert into your mouth as you chew.”

“But in your coming years, if one of you is stupid enough to eat to transfigured object which will revert to its original form as your stomach tries to digest it, you will spend a full day in the Hospital wing, vomiting your guts out.”

“You won’t be turning anything into volatile substances like ice cubes any time soon as it is an advanced branch of transfiguration. This demonstration is meant to show you what happens when solids break down in your stomach when you foolishly eat transfigured objects.”

“So, no practicing transfiguration without a professor to supervise, anyone who breaks this rule will not be allowed to attend my classes.”

The professor made eye contact with every student to stick it into their brains.

“Any questions before we proceed to spell practice?”

Leon raised his hand, making her nod at him.

“Can no one transfigure objects permanently, on a fundamental level, like transfiguring a rock to pudding? With the transfigured pudding having the same amount of nutrients as a real pudding?” He inquired.

“As a wizard grows older, they learn to transfigure objects closer to the real thing. But only wizards like our headmaster Dumbledore can alter things at a fundamental level. But those less accomplished can turn to the path of alchemy if they want to turn a rock into pudding,” she said some amusement dancing in her eyes.

“But alchemy isn’t taught nowadays, and its books are restricted as most alchemy processes are volatile. You can ask me or your house head in your sixth year if you want to learn alchemy.”

‘Damn! There goes my hope of becoming a rich oil tycoon by using water. It seems only Dumbledore can become one and he already has a great beard…how is that fair?’ Leon shook his head, chuckling.

‘And Alchemy goes onto the back burner for now.’

“Now it's time to practice, turn these match sticks into a needle. You have two classes to perfect it, so if you don’t want to fail your exams, I suggest giving it your all.”

As the first-time students were suddenly introduced to the concept of being held down for a year, pairs of matchsticks and needles appeared in front of them, making them jump right into practice.

“Professor? Does a transfigured apple taste the same as a real one? If it passes, force scrutiny, of course. And can you be healed if you inhale a transfigured solid?” Leon asked as McGonagall started supervising the practice.

“You can think about it in your free time, but it depends upon the skill of the Witch. You can be healed, but matter-state transfiguration is not easy or important enough for you to learn in your seven years of education. Many charms replace the need of that branch, so you better concentrate on turning the match into a needle now, Mr Leon.” The professor replied, gently.

He nodded and flexed his hand, making his wand appear in his hand while keeping another topic on the back burner, for now.

Holding back a sigh at the number of topics out of his reach, he started to touch the needle to get a feel for it.

After fondling the needle for a couple of seconds he incanted the spell, performing precise wand movements.

He imagined silver color covering the matchstick, from one end to another, wood becoming compact and slender, slowly turning into a needle.

And boy was he surprised.

A silver layer slowly moved from the bottom of the matchstick turning the wood into metal.

‘The shape is wonky, but I didn’t expect the match to be so responsive.’ He grinned and incanted the spell again.

This time the matchstick turned into a perfect needle- shape, size, texture, everything.

As he admired his handiwork, he started to feel a connection to the transfigured needle, the same feeling he experienced in charms class.

‘So cool,’ Leon's eyes twinkled as elegant designs appeared on the needle as he performed the spell again, tugging at the connection, sending his intent through it.

He took the original needle, which was given to the first years to feel how their transfigured object should be, and scratched his transfigured needle.

‘Damn!’

A little scratch converted the needle into its original form – a matchstick.

And unlike the slow transformation of turning into a needle, it reverted very fast, like reality snapped back into its original state.

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He performed the spell again.

This time the match transfigured quicker than before.

He scratched it again with the needle, and it reverted.

As Leon was lost in perfecting the transfiguration, his needle caught the attention of Professor McGonagall.

“10 points to Hufflepuff,” she announced standing beside him, snapping him out of his focus.

“Good work, Mr Leon. Continue what you are doing. At the end of the class, if your needle can retain its transfiguration even when snapped in half, you will earn 10 more points.”

Leon just nodded before tuning out the class, concentrating on the matchstick.

Susan pouted at him comparing her matchstick, which gained a hue of silver to his perfect needle before continuing her practice as Hannah shook her head in exasperation.

Leon’s progress was visible as he kept damaging and transfiguring the matchstick, each time it took a little more damage for the needle to revert.

30 minutes after McGonagall praised him, the transfigured needle didn’t turn back to its original form even when snapped in half.

By the end of the class, he was able to transfigure multiple matchsticks at the same time with the transfiguration difficulty increasing if the matchsticks were far apart.

As the students murmured how unfair life was, McGonagall sent them off with an unsympathetic glare not caring about the existential crises the students were experiencing due to Leon.

The Hufflepuff students made their way toward the library as they were informed in the morning that Tuesdays were study meetings for the puffs.

Leon caught some snippets from Susan’s and Hannah’s conversation as they were talking about how the study meet came to be.

‘It seems, the meeting started with the prefects helping the first years but slowly more students attended to clarify their doubts which made the prefects call for help. And now the whole Hufflepuff will be in the library every Tuesday.’

Leon, lost in thought about how Puffs looked like the best house, didn’t notice the buzzing behind him as his yearmates whispered about his talent.

Susan was also listening to their murmurs looking at Leon’s back with a complicated face.

The castle hallway made its way to an extremely detailed giant door.

‘Damn, Full attendance. I thought older students wouldn’t care much about such gatherings, but then again I am in Hufflepuff.. peer pressure must be huge as we are supposed to be the house that embodies loyalty,’ he thought peeking into the library.

“Hey! How did you do that?” A voice made him stop as he was about to enter the library.

“What?” he asked, turning around.

The Hufflepuff boy, his batchmate, glared at Leon.

“How were you able to transfigure so many needles?”

“Oh! Once you learn to transfigure one matchstick, its number matters less as long as they are bunched together. Weird, I know, but I think it beca-”

The Hufflepuff interrupted Leon.

“Did you practice the transfiguration before, in your home?”

“Huh! No..” Leon answered taken back.

“You are lying,” the Hufflepuff accused.

Leon’s eyes turned sharp as he took in the little boy’s appearance, finally focusing on him.

‘Neatly combed hair, groomed eyebrows.. arrogant expression, punchable face. Hufflepuff’s Malfoy..?’ A weird expression appeared on Leon’s face as he observed the huffing Hufflepuff.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Smith, Zacharias Smith. Direct Descendant-”

“What do you want?” Leon asked, cutting him off.

He only vaguely remembered the character named Zacharias Smith. As he let the boy fume in anger, he noticed that his remaining batchmates who were supposed to be behind him vanished.

“There is no way that you did the matchstick transfiguration for the first time today, admit it.” He spoke, gritting his teeth.

“What? Why do you think that? I heard that turning a matchstick into a needle is supposed to be very easy.”

He mock-gasped, a grin tugging at the corner of his lips.

“Don’t tell me you weren’t able to complete a beginner exercise in transfiguration?” Leon asked with a smirk, donning his douchebag expression.

As Leon looked at the gobsmacked expression on Smith’s face, a hand ruffled his head.

“Hey! Firstie I heard you got 30 points in a single transfiguration class.” Tonks ran her arm around his shoulder and glanced at Smith before staring at Leon as he tried to escape from her shoulder hug.

Smith gritted his teeth and walked away glaring at Leon.

‘Yeah, I can feel it he is going to be a problem.’ Leon thought as he nearly broke through Tonk's hug before her arm bulged with muscles, tightening her grip around his shoulders.

“Cool!” he exclaimed and poked her muscled hand, making Tonks blush and release him.

‘So, Easy!’ He smirked, while his target wasn’t to make her leave his shoulder when he poked, the results were all that mattered.

“Yeah, it's nothing, I earned nearly 40 points in yesterday’s charms class.” He answered her, noticing Susan and Hannah standing behind her.

“Really? Why don’t I remember?” Hannah asked.

“Well, Professor Flitwick said he cast a spell to not let my spell practice disturb others. I was experimenting with maximum brightness and different colors of light.”

“Oh! It seems we got a talented badger this year. Good! Good! I was afraid people would forget about Hufflepuff after I graduated from Hogwarts,” Tonks mockingly patted his shoulders, her hair suddenly turning yellow.

“I pass on my torch to you, you have to take care of our house in the future,” she said, waving her wand.

Susan and Hannah started giggling looking at him.

“What did you do?” Leon questioned, unbothered, but still touching his face.

“I just passed on the torch, look my hair is losing its color and yours is turning yellow,” she said pointing at her and Leon’s heads as her yellow hair slowly gave rise to a black color.

“Ha! Funny,” Leon scoffed making Tonks hit his shoulder before walking away.

“Thanks, you didn’t need to bother her, I could have handled him.” Leon naturally wasn’t afraid of a rude 14-year-old, but the said 14-year-old being a wizard did increase his threat level.

‘Well, a single bright Lumos will take care of any first year. Though I should practice reducing, or outright eliminate the wand movement.’

“But how did you know he was looking for trouble.”

“We know him from a young age, our families attend the same gatherings. So, we know how your talk was going to end,” Susan said, sighing.

“Forget about him,” Hannah mumbled and entered the library before beelining towards a shelf.

Susan and Leon made themselves comfortable on a table as they watched Hannah browse what looked like a magazine and story section.

Shaking his head, Leon opened his charms book and started to search for his second spell.

Hannah skipped towards them and handed a magazine to Susan.

The black-haired Hufflepuff eyed the magazine and Leon’s charms textbook, before taking out her DADA textbook.

Hannah whined quietly but she too followed her friend and took out her Herbology textbook.

Leon didn’t notice the byplay but if he did, he would have patted their shoulders and continued reading with a smile.

‘Ok! I still need a spell that will help me in a pinch, so a movement or a stealth spell. There aren’t many threats in Hogwarts that a first-year’s spell can hurt if you don’t have the power of plot armor.’

As he searched the textbook multiple spells caught his eye, but somehow he was reluctant to get on with casting.

‘Fine, I can’t delude myself anymore. I didn’t want to put myself in dangerous situations while exploring this magical world until I accumulated at least a moderate amount of power. But I sooo want to see the Troll and the Cerberus Hogwarts Houses. Especially the Cerberus, they are supposed to be very rare.’ His enthusiasm smothered in the name of safety rose, breaking through his weak objections.

‘Instead of deluding myself that I won’t stalk the troll or visit the Cerberus and learn subpar spells, I should learn customized spells to evade the senses of these magical creatures. If my spells can deceive a magical beast, I don’t think I have to worry about first years.” He decided and left to find the famous ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ book to learn more about the magical beasts.

‘Cerberus…Cerberus.. Here it is.’

‘Cerberus is a three-headed dog that grows in size as it ages. They are very territorial and are at the top of the wizard killer list. Wizards are encouraged to Apparate away when they suspect they have trespassed into Cerberus territory.

Cerberi are very rare. According to F.B.W, Fantastic Beasts Welfare, there are only a couple dozen Cerberi on the planet prowling the active volcanoes near Greece.

To compensate for their abysmal reproduction rate, Cerberi are nearly immune to physical damage and highly resistant to magical damage.

And don’t believe in the myth that a Cerberus falls asleep to music- it doesn’t. Only Cerberi bred in captivity are conditioned to fall asleep if they listen to a certain tune. Otherwise, any music just makes the Cerberus drowsy, and in turn, makes it want to eliminate the threat before taking a nap.

So, don’t do a song and dance when you come face to face with a slobbering three-headed giant dog. Even if they are bred in captivity, you can’t know the particular music they fall asleep to if you aren’t the one who raised it.’