Hogwarts: The Bloodline Wizard

Chapter 5: Is There Any Room for Ordinary Wizards to Live?

October 31, 2020

The trio barely made it into the classroom before the start of class.

"I swear! Those staircases were definitely targeting us, trying to make us late," Ron grumbled, rubbing his still-red nose as he stepped into the classroom. Seeing the empty podium, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Looks like we're not too late. The professor hasn't even arrived yet," Harry said, glancing at Ivan with gratitude. Thankfully, they had gotten up early, or they would have been late for sure.

"No, I think the professor is already here," Ivan ignored their comments and instead glanced at the tabby cat on the podium before quickly taking his seat.

Harry and Ron were puzzled, but as soon as they sat down, they saw the tabby cat leap off the podium. Its form twisted and transformed, and by the time it landed, it had become a middle-aged witch—Professor McGonagall!

Harry and Ron were stunned, finally understanding what Ivan had meant. But how had Ivan known the cat was Professor McGonagall?

Professor McGonagall was also surprised. She had taken her Animagus form to observe the new students and to use her transformation as an introduction to the first Transfiguration class. She hadn't expected a student to recognize her.

With a nod of approval toward Ivan, Professor McGonagall began the first lesson.

"Before we begin, I must remind you that Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous forms of magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone who dares to mess around in my class will be out the door and never allowed back!"

With a wave of her wand, Professor McGonagall transformed the podium into a pig, eliciting gasps of amazement from the students. She then turned it back into a podium.

Ivan, sitting near the front, watched the entire process closely.

Precise, swift, flawless.

Transforming a wooden podium into a living, conscious creature was akin to altering the very structure of matter, even temporarily imbuing inanimate objects with intelligence. The mystery and power of magic were on full display.

While wizarding magic might lack the destructive force of other forms, it was unparalleled in its versatility and comprehensiveness.

Professor McGonagall's demonstration immediately captured the students' interest. After explaining the methods and techniques for casting the Transfiguration spell, she handed out matches to everyone, with the goal of turning them into silver needles.

As Professor McGonagall began her explanation, a notification popped up in Ivan's mind.

[Ding! You have attentively listened to the professor's explanation. Although the content is somewhat difficult to understand, your proficiency in Transfiguration has slightly increased.]

Ivan checked his information panel and saw a new entry under the magic skills section.

[Transfiguration – Level 0 (6/100)]

Seeing this, Ivan felt a surge of excitement. This meant that any magic could be quickly mastered through repeated practice and increased proficiency.

However, after practicing for half the class, Ivan realized it wasn't as simple as he had thought.

"Ivan Hales!"

"Mr. Hales!"

The sharp, stern voice echoed through the classroom, drawing the attention of the students.

It wasn't until Professor McGonagall turned around sharply that the students reluctantly returned to their tasks, struggling to make even the slightest change to their matches.

Professor McGonagall scanned the room, her gaze lingering on a bushy-haired girl whose match had already taken on a needle-like shape. A faint smile of satisfaction crossed her lips.

After a warning glance at the slackers, Professor McGonagall turned her attention to the dazed boy in front of her.

"Mr. Hales, I believe I warned you earlier that spellcasting is dangerous and requires focus! Repeated, mechanical practice won't help much. You need to concentrate and visualize the needle in your mind."

"Yes, Professor McGonagall. I'll keep that in mind," Ivan nodded politely, focusing his mind under the witch's gaze. He waved his nearly twelve-inch wand in a peculiar rhythm.

On the dark gray wooden table, the match seemed to twist and transform under an unseen force, slowly changing shape.

However, just as the match began to transform, it suddenly reverted to its original form.

This outcome didn't seem to surprise Professor McGonagall. She nodded, left a brief comment about practicing more, and moved on. After all, most first-year students were at a similar level.

Left alone, Ivan muttered to himself, "It seems increasing proficiency isn't as easy as I thought."

After most of the class had passed, Ivan's initial excitement had faded.

The rate of proficiency growth had slowed significantly after the initial surge, and not every attempt resulted in an increase. After some experimentation, Ivan realized that the system wasn't so much increasing his skill through practice as it was reflecting his current level in the form of proficiency.

By the end of the class, Ivan still couldn't maintain a stable Transfiguration spell.

Just as Ivan was zoning out during the Transfiguration class, someone poked him.

Turning around, Ivan saw an excited Harry pointing at an object on his desk—a thin, shiny, needle-like thing.

"Hey, Ivan, look! I did it! I did it!"

"Yes, Harry, you're really talented!" Ivan nodded, acknowledging Harry's achievement. For a first-year to achieve noticeable transformation and maintain it was impressive, far better than Ivan's own efforts.

"Really? I didn't expect it. My aunt and uncle are Muggles, so I was worried I wouldn't be able to do magic at all," Harry rambled on, relieved and excited.

Before entering the wizarding world, Harry had been an ordinary eleven-year-old boy. Suddenly becoming the "Boy Who Lived" brought him immense attention and glory, but also immense pressure. He had even feared the embarrassment of being unable to perform magic. Thankfully, things hadn't turned out that way.

Ivan wasn't surprised by Harry's quick progress. The Sorting Hat had already made it clear—Harry was brave, kind, and highly talented. It had even considered placing him in Slytherin. By his third year, Harry would master the Patronus Charm and drive away hundreds of Dementors.

If not for Hogwarts' relaxed approach to education, Harry would likely have reached professor-level skill by graduation.

Ivan told himself he wasn't jealous. Not at all.

After all, highly talented wizards were rare.

Ivan glanced around and felt a bit better seeing that most students were at his level. But then Professor McGonagall's voice rang out again.

"Excellent, Miss Granger! Everyone, look here. Miss Granger has successfully transformed her match into a silver needle. Five points to Gryffindor!"

A few seats away, Professor McGonagall held up a silver needle for the class to see.

Hermione Granger, her bushy brown hair spilling over her shoulders, sat proudly, basking in the amazed and envious gazes of her classmates.

Ivan stared at the silver needle, his carefully adjusted mindset shattered once again.

Was there any room for ordinary wizards to live?

"Damn it, I was so close! If I'd practiced a bit more, Professor McGonagall would be praising me right now," Ron muttered, poking his match with his wand and glaring at Hermione, as if she had stolen his glory.

Ivan glanced at Ron's desk, where the match had reverted to its original form after losing its magical effect. He doubted Ron would reach Hermione's level anytime soon.

Not that Ivan was doing much better. In fact, he was worse off.

Ivan sighed. Where was the overpowered talent that usually came with transmigration? Where was the massive boost in mental power from soul fusion?

None of the common tropes from novels seemed to apply to him. Ivan now understood how accurate the Sorting Hat's assessment of his talent had been.

Of course, Ivan suspected that part of his struggle with Transfiguration was due to the drop in wand compatibility caused by his soul replacement.

If magic was electricity, the wand was the plug and wire, and spells were the appliances. With the wire short-circuiting occasionally, the lightbulb would flicker on and off.

Unfortunately, Ivan couldn't solve the wand issue anytime soon. He would have to make do with this wand for at least a semester.

After another round of battling the match, the first Transfiguration class finally ended. Ivan still hadn't managed to stabilize the transformed match.

However, he did discover a rather useless trick: by releasing magic haphazardly through his wand, he could create a thin beam of magical light. Its only use was to revert unstable Transfigurations back to their original form.

Ivan stumbled upon this during his Nth failed attempt at the spell, nearly blowing up the match in the process. Aside from using it to prank Ron during class, it had no practical application.

As Professor McGonagall announced the end of class, another notification popped up in Ivan's mind.

[Ding! After your relentless efforts, the Transfiguration class has ended. Keep up the good work!

Overall Class Evaluation: Average

Evaluator: Minerva McGonagall

Reward: Academic Points*5]

Seeing the notification, Ivan was surprised. He hadn't expected to receive rewards for attending class.

Academic points? It felt like he was back in university.

It seemed the evaluations were given by the professors. Did this mean there would be rewards or penalties based on exam performance?

While Ivan couldn't help but吐槽 (mock) the system, he was pleased to discover another function. He just wasn't sure what the academic points could be used for.

After triggering the system panel, Ivan had noticed the academic points section. Since he hadn't earned any before, the related functions had remained locked. Now, he quickly found a new exchange option.

To his slight disappointment, the exchange menu only had one item: a "Genius Experience Card," which cost 100 academic points and temporarily boosted learning efficiency for one hour.

There were no powerful spells or forbidden curses to exchange, as Ivan had imagined. It seemed the system was all about studying.

Ivan looked at the five academic points he had earned from one class and felt a wave of despair. Hogwarts only had three to five classes a day. At five points per class, it would take him five full days to earn enough for a one-hour Genius Experience Card.

How was he supposed to learn anything in just one hour?

But there was nothing he could do. Without this exchange, Ivan had no way to improve his inefficient learning.

What else could he do?

Study hard, I guess.

After Transfiguration came the tedious History of Magic class, taught by the ghostly Professor Binns. The entire class was a monotonous lecture, with no regard for the students' engagement.

This made things difficult for Ivan. Academic points were clearly tied to the professors' evaluations of his performance in class, and Professor Binns' teaching style left no room for improvement.

By the end of the class, Ivan received another average evaluation and five academic points.

However, Ivan soon realized the benefits of History of Magic.

In the next class, Charms, the students learned how to channel magic steadily into objects, a foundational skill for the Levitation Charm. Due to his wand's interference, Ivan spent the entire class barely succeeding, blowing up the practice object three times in the process!

His performance was only slightly better than Neville's.

Meanwhile, Hermione succeeded on her third attempt.

Unsurprisingly, Ivan received a poor evaluation for the class, earning only two academic points.

The only good news was that after a few days of exploring, the progress for the[Explore Hogwarts]task had reached 30%. Each percentage point earned him two academic points, totaling 60 points—far more than he could earn from classes.

At least now Ivan had hope of saving up 100 points for a Genius Experience Card.

End of Chapter