Chapter 658:

Joy Outside the Forbidden Forest, Felix, Professor McGonagall, and several students looked at each other through the thick rain curtain. They held up their wands, and a fine airflow extended from the tip of the wand, forming a vague umbrella-shaped air wall above their heads to keep the rain out.

The people present tried their best not to look at Professor Happ or show any strange expressions. Because the one holding the wand was not the professor himself, but a Niffler. Valen sat on Felix's shoulder, his eyes jumping between Draco, Hannah, and Hermione. The big devil said that they would turn into small animals in a while.

Harry and Ron also appeared here. At first, they found an excuse that they wanted to watch the Animagus transformation process, but they were severely rejected by Professor McGonagall.

"There is no need for this."

However, the two played the emotional card, "We are Hermione's best friends, and we are really worried--" Unexpectedly, after Professor McGonagall looked at them carefully for a while, she nodded in agreement. Harry and Ron secretly felt lucky.

"You can start now,"

said Professor McGonagall when the first lightning flashed across the sky. Above everyone's head, above the thick black clouds, a giant magical thunderbird flapped its wings and soared.

Hermione, Hannah, and Draco stumbled into the Forbidden Forest after hearing the sound, and ran in different directions, disappearing in the storm in the blink of an eye. They wanted to get the crystal potion bottle hidden at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Professor McGonagall held the wand tightly in both hands. The rain blown by the wind wet her hair and flowed down her pale cheeks. Her knuckles turned white because of the tight grip.

"They will be fine." She murmured.

Felix looked into the depths of the Forbidden Forest. The rainstorm and darkness did not block his sight. Against the gray and white background, three glowing silhouettes kept going away. At this time, Felix suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the castle from which they came.

A flash of lightning flashed, and he seemed to see a vague silhouette standing on the balcony of the castle.

Felix squinted.

Harry also followed Professor Happ's line of sight, then opened his mouth in surprise and screamed, "Neville?" In the darkness, a vague figure rushed towards them, appearing and disappearing in the crazy lightning.

Professor McGonagall jumped up in surprise.

"You - Longbottom, how did you -" she said incoherently.

Neville was breathing heavily, his face and body were completely wet by the rain, his body was covered with mud, and it seemed that he had stumbled more than once. He announced breathlessly: "I - succeeded - at sunset today - I felt -"

"You felt the throbbing of Animagus?" Professor McGonagall helped him finish his words.

"Yes, that's right." Neville said in the rain.

"Then do it as soon as possible, there's still time now." Felix said.

Neville nodded heavily, turned excitedly and ran towards the Forbidden Forest. Professor McGonagall looked at his back and exclaimed in a low voice: "It's incredible. Including Longbottom, there are four of them... They all mastered the Patronus Charm... This discovery will definitely become one of the most subversive Transfiguration theories of this century."

She suddenly turned to Harry and Ron and said seriously: "Potter, Weasley, you must not give up. It's totally worth a try... I have to discuss with Virgil and Jamie Lynn and suggest that they take time to learn the Patronus Charm..."

Virgil and Jamie Lynn were the two seventh-year students in the Transfiguration Club. They still have to recite the spell every sunrise and sunset.

Harry and Ron nodded silently, feeling that the mandrake leaves in their mouths were more important. The two exchanged glances silently and made up their minds to eat in the special cafeteria for the next period of time.

Felix looked at the sky. The dark clouds completely covered the moon. From time to time, the black clouds were pierced by a bright lightning, leaving a solidified light spot on the retina, and thunder rumbled.

They waited silently, and finally the first person came back.

It was Hermione. Her fluffy hair was now stuck to her face, her trouser legs were covered with mud, and she was shivering with cold, but she was holding a small crystal potion bottle in her hand. The mixture of various materials in the bottle had now turned into a blood-red potion.

"Professor, I did it, the potion--" she said excitedly.

Felix raised his hand gently with a smile on his face, and four walls rose up from the ground in front, behind, and around Hermione, closing together to form a connected space.

"Miss Granger, you are only one step away from success."

"Chi!" Valen cheered her on.

Hermione took a deep breath, pointed the tip of the wand to her heart, and chanted the spell with a trembling voice: "Amado, Animado, Animagus." Then she drank the potion in the bottle in one gulp, closed her eyes and waited.

Several pairs of eyes were fixed on her movements.

"Professor... It's a beaver-my Animagus form." Hermione couldn't help saying.

"Very good, this is in line with our expectations." Felix said calmly, with a convincing force in his tone. Hermione's teeth chattered as she tried to hear what he said. "You should feel severe pain and two intense heartbeats now. You must merge into one without hesitation. There is nothing to worry about. You have experienced transformation a dozen times, and each time you were on the verge of losing control. Compared with this, the wild impact brought by Animagus is nothing." "

We are here." Professor McGonagall said sharply.

Hermione nodded slightly with trembling, and at this moment, the transformation began.

Harry and Ron had to control themselves desperately to not scream.

They had seen Animagus transformation before, but when it happened to familiar friends, they realized how weird it was. Every part of Hermione's body was undergoing a complex human transformation - far more profound than the knowledge they had learned in class - her wet hair was shortening little by little, her head and body were shrinking, as if she had been hit by the professor's scaling spell, the outline of her head was gradually transformed into a rodent, her clothes were tightening and blending into her skin, turning into a dark brown hair, her hands and feet were transformed into slender claws... A beaver appeared in front of everyone.

"Pah!"

Hermione's wand fell and rolled twice on the wet ground.

"Remember, think about how to properly place your wand before you transform." Professor McGonagall warned in the heavy rain, and Harry and Ron agreed timidly.

Felix's eyes were shining, staring at the creature in front of him without blinking. It was about two feet long. Compared with rodents of the same genus, the beaver's body size was relatively large, but compared with other creatures, it was dwarfed. Fortunately, no one present cared about what form Animagus was in. The meaning of magic itself was the most important.

From the perspective of magic, the creature in front of him had almost no magic fluctuations. All the magic was gathered in the deepest part of the body, almost solidified, and was actually somewhat similar to a squib.

A moment of trance flashed in the beaver's eyes, and it made two short calls. "Shhh..." The beaver glanced at Ron who laughed in a reproachful manner. Ron apologized seriously and said, "Sorry, Hermione. I'm looking for the wizard's characteristics on you. I think it might be the big buck teeth."

Harry tried his best to hold back his laughter, so that he didn't let himself laugh with Ron.

"Swoosh!"

Valen jumped off Felix's shoulder, stood in front of the beaver, and gestured excitedly.

The beaver called twice, but unfortunately they couldn't communicate in the same language.

The rain parted above Felix's head, and he leaned against the raised wall expressionlessly. At this time, Valen was already writing in the air with his special wand. The beaver looked at the wand that fell on the ground sadly, then lowered his head to look at his short hand, the beard on the side of his mouth curled up, revealing a pair of big teeth.

A slender palm was handed to it.

The beaver stared blankly at the peas in Felix's palm, with a confused expression. Then, it slapped the hand away in annoyance, and its cry was full of anger.

Felix took his hand back as if nothing had happened.

"Well done, Granger. It seems that you can easily resist the wildness in your body. This is good. You can try to change back."

"Professor, did you prepare this specially?" Harry asked in amazement.

"I've made a lot of preparations for the test," Felix said calmly, "In addition to peas, there are also insects and pears that peacocks like to eat, and plant seeds that squirrels like. Of course, I didn't prepare Neville's portion, but his patronus is a cat, and I happen to have some pickled dried fish here."

During this time of talking, Hermione finally found the trick to transform herself back, and she tidied her messy hair. When she picked up the wand, she stared at Felix with dissatisfaction.

"Professor, you are really well prepared." She said angrily, she almost couldn't resist the temptation to taste the peas, it's really hard to know how the professor thought of it.

"After the transformation, the taste will change." Felix said briefly, as if he was explaining to Hermione, his eyes were still on her, and Professor McGonagall couldn't bear it anymore and cleared her throat.

"Um-Professor? What did you find?" Hermione said with a slightly red cheek, her face was a little hot.

"Soul node." Felix murmured.

"What?"

"I'm not sure," Felix thought for a moment and said, "The souls of wizards are obviously different from those of ordinary people. I suspect that magic plays an important role in this. One piece of evidence is that even ghosts have magic, which allows them to slightly interfere with real objects. So what makes the soul of a wizard so special, and what serves as the link between the soul and the body?"

"You think it's magic?" Hermione asked softly, and Harry and Ron exchanged surprised looks.

"Just a guess." Felix shrugged, and the raindrops hit the leaves. After a moment, he turned his head and looked at the Forbidden Forest. Draco Malfoy appeared at the edge of the forest, nearly ten minutes later than Hermione.

But it may also be because he tidied his clothes in the middle. His hair was straight and his clothes were dry. He walked towards them slowly, and the red crystal bottle in his hand was placed in the most conspicuous position.

The corners of Harry and Ron's mouths drooped.

"Stinking show-off." Ron muttered softly. Harry thought this was to the point.

Draco was slightly surprised to learn that Hermione had completed her Animagus transformation, but he didn't mind having an extra audience, and after a moment, he proudly showed off his gorgeous peacock feathers and even tasted two bites of the pear provided by Professor Happ.

As soon as he was transformed again, Ron immediately and mercilessly mocked his brief loss of control. "This way he won't show off in front of us." He said to Harry with foresight.

"I'm just testing the peacock's taste," Draco retorted with a red face, and Harry and Ron crossed their arms and sneered at him, deciding not to admit anything Draco said.

Professor McGonagall ignored the childish behavior of these people. She walked in front of Felix and looked at the dark Forbidden Forest with concern.

"Felix... Hannah Abbott and Neville Longbottom haven't come back yet."

"It really shouldn't be," Felix said in wonder, "I know the approximate location where they hid the crystal bottle. It's not far from here. Even if the road is difficult to walk because of the heavy rain, they should be back now."

"They won't get lost, will they?" Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows.

They looked at each other, and both saw the surprise in each other's eyes. Two students got lost together? But there is indeed such a possibility. Professor McGonagall asked Harry and the others to stay where they were, and she and Felix went to the Forbidden Forest to look for them.

"You stay here, I don't want to wait until Longbottom and Abbott are found, and you disappear again." Professor McGonagall said, Felix left Valen behind, took out two flying brooms from the ring, and Professor McGonagall was eager to try and soared into the sky, and the two glided in the heavy rain.

"There."

After searching for a few minutes, Felix's magic perspective worked. They found Neville and Hannah about two kilometers away from the edge of the Forbidden Forest. The two students were actually together.

Professor McGonagall descended from the sky in anger, and then opened her mouth in surprise, not even noticing the rain pouring into it.

Two students - to be precise, there was only one person at the scene. Neville was holding a red squirrel and struggling to wade through the mud. The rain was running down his hair. When he saw Felix and Professor McGonagall, Neville seemed to be relieved.

"Oh - thank God - professor, you are finally here, Hannah, Hannah is here." He showed the two professors the red squirrel lying quietly in his arms.

"Longbottom, what is going on?" Professor McGonagall shouted, staring at the red squirrel, "Is this Hannah Abbott? She took the potion in advance? Didn't I tell you that you must return with the potion and take it under the supervision of the professor?"

The red squirrel trembled.

"Okay." Professor McGonagall sighed, took the red squirrel from Neville's arms with pity, and walked aside to carefully comfort Hannah.

Neville stammered to explain what had just happened.

"After I got the potion, I planned to go back, but I saw Hannah passing by in the distance. That was the direction of going deeper into the Forbidden Forest. I thought I saw it wrong..." "So you decided to follow her to confirm." Felix said. "Yes, professor." Neville said softly, "Hannah ran very fast. The vision was too poor in the rain. I almost lost her several times, but I roughly guessed that she was lost."

"We also guessed it, but why did she take the potion in violation of the rules?"

"Oh, Professor..." At this time, Hannah successfully restored her human form under the guidance of Professor McGonagall. She sobbed and said, "I'm so sorry, I, I lost my way... I was worried that I couldn't catch up, so I decided, decided..." "

I decided to transform in a corner where no one was." Professor McGonagall said stiffly.

"Yes, that's it," Hannah cried, "I'm sorry, I was too scared, worried that my hard work for several months would be in vain, so I got excited, I, I did well in the course of controlling wildness..." "

Miss Abbott, the course that Professor Hep and I prepared is not an excuse for you to take risks." Professor McGonagall said sternly.

"Professor McGonagall," Neville said with courage, "Hannah actually regained her sanity. I think we should go back to the venue-"

"You are very thoughtful." Professor McGonagall snorted and looked up at the sky. Almost an hour had passed, the clouds began to thin, and the silhouette of the thunderbird was looming.

"You have wasted too much time before, Mr. Longbottom. I suggest you transform here. Professor Happ and I will be watching... Is your potion still there?"

Neville nodded hurriedly.

A few minutes later, he transformed into a tortoiseshell cat, exactly like his Patronus. The tortoiseshell cat meowed twice, and Professor McGonagall's tense face showed a smile, but it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

So when Felix and Professor McGonagall returned from the Forbidden Forest, all four students completed the Animagus transformation. Professor McGonagall did not mention Hannah's mistake in front of Harry and the others, but simply told them that because of time constraints, Hannah and Neville completed the transformation in the Forbidden Forest.

"How cool!" Ron said enviously.

The atmosphere on the way back was very relaxed. Ron kept asking Neville and Hermione how they felt when they transformed, "Is it different from the normal transformation?" When they returned to the castle, Hannah had already started talking and laughing.

"You should have a good rest tonight, and don't try to Transfiguration in private," said Professor McGonagall. "Come to my office tomorrow morning. I will use the two days of the weekend to familiarize you with Transfiguration as soon as possible. And - you have a lot of forms to fill out."

She used her wand to conjure hot cocoa, supervised them to drink it, and then let them go.

"Minerva, don't be too harsh, at least the result is good, good -" Felix stuttered, and he saw Professor McGonagall's face suddenly broke into a smile. She said excitedly: "It's a memorable day, Felix! I must go back for a drink."