[Transfiguring Inanimate Objects...]
[A fundamental introductory form of Transfiguration, yet one that spans an enormous range of difficulty and is of extraordinary importance.]
[From the simplest transformation between a matchstick and a silver needle, all the way to transforming an iron plate into a precision mechanical object with multiple interconnected structures, such as a clock...]
[Books divide the subject into two entire academic years, comprising more than a hundred lessons. But in my view, there is actually no fundamental distinction between them.]
[As long as it is the Transfiguration of an inanimate object, it falls under the same technique. The reason different levels of difficulty exist is simply that different casters possess different degrees of confidence in themselves.]
[A matchstick and a silver needle have similar structures. Most young wizards believe they can accomplish the transformation, so they can pick it up easily and complete it after practicing a few times.]
[Note: This specifically refers to wizards who have not seriously studied Muggle materials science and therefore have little understanding of the differences between materials such as wood and silver. Sometimes one has to admit that ignorance and recklessness can actually be advantageous when it comes to magic.]
[But when there is a vast disparity between the original material and the object being transformed, the doubts in a young wizard's mind will cause them to suffer the bitter consequences of Transfiguration failure.]
[Therefore, the core of Transfiguration is to make yourself firmly believe!]
[And if one wishes to accelerate this process, besides long-term practice, I believe certain spells can also be used as assistance.]
[For example, if you wish to turn a sponge into stone, you can first cast a Hardening Charm on the sponge, using the addition of the same element to reinforce the suggestion in your own mind.]
Inside the library.
Lai held his quill and bent over his work, line after line of fresh ink appearing on the parchment as he rapidly approached the required length.
Dawn tilted his head and read for a while before letting out a disdainful snort.
What complete nonsense!
A crippled wizard who could not even master the Transfiguration of inanimate objects was supposed to learn a Hardening Charm, which was slightly more difficult than Lumos?
That was going to be difficult!
Dawn shook his head, inexplicably thinking of Ron's foolish face while simultaneously constructing much more brilliant and straightforward explanations in his own mind.
Still...
Although he had thoroughly criticized Lai's writing in his head, Dawn genuinely had nothing else to do.
So he remained standing beside him, reading through the assignment while mentally picking it apart.
Scratch!
Suddenly!
The tip of Lai's quill dragged sharply across the parchment.
Ink splattered everywhere, staining a large portion of what he had already written.
Dawn frowned at the sight of the dirty parchment.
He raised his head.
At some point, Lai had frozen in place, apparently so absorbed in his thoughts that he had not even noticed the ink about to drip onto himself.
What was he thinking about?
Dawn could not figure it out.
At that moment, Aemon also noticed the boy beside him staring blankly into space. He reached out and carefully poked him twice.
"Lai... Lai? Hey, are you all right? Are you feeling unwell?"
He helped clean up the spreading ink, looking worried.
"Do you need me to take you to the hospital wing? Lai... Lai?!"
When his friend continued to give no response, Aemon's voice grew louder, and he even shook Lai by the shoulder.
Amid the repeated calls, the boy finally turned his head as though he had only just become aware of the world around him.
His scarlet eyes reflected the light of the lamps, but on closer inspection, they were as empty as a puppet's.
"Lai?"
His voice was uncertain.
"Are you... calling me?"
Hmm?
In an instant, Aemon froze!
He stared at the confused, almost childlike expression before him, completely at a loss for how to react.
Dawn was equally stunned.
But before either of them could think about it further, the light returned to Lai's eyes. He even broke into a grin.
"Ah~ Sorry, sorry. Just kidding. Don't worry. Maybe I didn't sleep well last night. I was simply distracted for a moment."
"Honestly!"
Hearing that explanation, Aemon's concern disappeared. He rolled his eyes helplessly.
"I didn't know you liked pulling things like that."
Lai merely smiled.
He ran his fingers over the parchment, and the black stains instantly vanished, revealing the words underneath.
Aemon was startled again.
"You're that good with Reparo? I tried it once before, but I ended up making the writing disappear along with the mess!"
"Nothing special. Practice makes perfect."
Lai shrugged and casually explained.
He lowered his head and wrote several more lines. Once he had reached the required word count, he stood up first.
"Sorry, Aemon. I'm a little tired. I think I'll go back and rest."
"Oh, all right. Take care on the way."
Remembering what had just happened, Aemon did not say anything more. He nodded and waved goodbye.
Creak~
The chair was pushed back, then gently returned to its place.
Lai passed between the towering bookshelves and stepped through the library's glass doors.
Feeling the sunlight falling across his body, he took a deep breath, and his expression gradually became uncertain and troubled.
Dawn raised an eyebrow.
He knew it.
That near-memory-loss episode had absolutely not been a joke!
But...
What exactly had happened?
Dawn narrowed his eyes and turned his scrutinizing gaze toward the boy beside him.
Lai stood silently for a long time.
Then he suddenly began walking, moving rapidly up the stairs toward the eighth floor until he reached the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy.
"I need a room to rest. I need a room to rest. I need..."
He murmured the words under his breath, pacing back and forth along the corridor three times before grasping the handle that appeared on the wall and entering the Room of Requirement.
With a click, the door closed behind him.
Dawn failed to follow in time and could only pass through the wall, experiencing something akin to a ghost's perspective.
Before he could even finish taking in the scenery inside the room, a calm voice suddenly came from an empty corner.
"Calm down, Lai. Things haven't reached the worst possible point yet. If you breathe too quickly, you'll faint."
It was Merlin!
Dawn's eyes lit up.
His concern had not come true, and he could not help breathing a sigh of relief.
Good. He could still hear him!
If that was the case, then the voice he had heard last time had not come from a future Merlin. Had the dream really evolved?
He considered the possibility for a moment but did not dwell on it for long. His entire attention was soon focused on the conversation between the two.
Lai paced back and forth across the room.
In all the dreams Dawn had witnessed, this was the first time he had ever seen him this agitated.
"It has happened thirteen times already! For half a month now, I've suddenly been losing my memory and spacing out. Thirteen times in total!"
He forced the words through clenched teeth, then raised his head, his scarlet eyes fixed fiercely on one particular spot in the room.
"Ambrosius... tell me. What's happening to me?"
"Calm down, Lai! Think carefully. I've told you this before, haven't I? You are a child born within this world, yet you do not exist within its destiny."
Merlin's voice drifted through the air, still as calm as ever, in stark contrast to the boy's tone.
"This world is like a precision clock.
Even if it only points to the present moment, the paths of countless years into the future have already been set.
And you, Lai, are the extra component within that precisely meshing mechanism, the piece that does not belong and therefore affects the entire clock.
As you attend Hogwarts and become increasingly entangled with the people who exist within destiny, destiny itself will increasingly reject you."
Merlin delivered his conclusion in the manner of a riddle.
Lai irritably scratched his head.
"You're saying... I'll become like you? That one day I'll become disconnected from the world and lose all interaction with everyone else?"
His brows furrowed even more deeply.
"Then what am I supposed to do? Should I help Harry as well and assist him in fighting Voldemort?"
"I don't know."
Merlin did not give him a definite answer.
His tone remained calm.
"The reason I experienced disconnection was because of my own particular circumstances.
You may not end up like me. Perhaps nothing will happen. Perhaps you will simply die. Or perhaps..."
Merlin paused before continuing.
"Your memories will be altered, and you will become an entirely new person, someone fully incorporated into destiny."
"Ha... Sounds absolutely terrible!"
Remembering how his memory lapses had been occurring more and more frequently, Lai clenched his teeth and let out a bitter laugh.
For a time, the room fell silent.
Dawn digested Merlin's words while looking at Lai's constantly shifting expression, his own thoughts churning just as violently.
So...
Was this the truth?!
He had wondered countless times what Lai had done to provoke the World Correction and become the person he was now.
And now the truth had finally been revealed.
Lai had actually done nothing.
He had simply been altered by the world because he did not exist within the destiny laid out by the original story.
Dawn slowly exhaled.
He should have realized this long ago!
In the world of Harry Potter, because of the perception created by the collective consciousness, time was linear and immutable.
Even changes to history would be corrected by the world.
How could the sudden appearance of someone supposedly "transmigrated from another world," someone who had thrown everything into chaos, possibly be treated as though nothing had happened?
Dawn turned his head.
Through the bright window, he could see a blue sky outside, white clouds drifting lazily across it, with several owls circling overhead and calling out.
"Ha... What a magical world. It wears the beautiful outer shell of a fairy tale, but underneath..."
His voice trailed into a quiet murmur.
He now had a rough outline of what had happened in the past.
For some unknown reason, Lai had "transmigrated" into the world of Harry Potter, becoming someone outside of destiny.
As a result, he encountered the World Correction, and at some point, perhaps during his first-year Christmas holiday, Lai became Dawn.
And those missing days were perhaps the aftermath of the World Correction.
But...
Could things really be that simple?
Dawn thought about it calmly.
He had already experienced far too many inexplicable events. After the brief shock, he quickly regained his composure.
And then...
He thought of something else.
Leaving aside what this so-called "transmigration" actually meant, why did he, as the product of the World Correction that had transformed Lai, still retain memories of the original story and his previous life?
"Go to Egypt."
Before Dawn could finish thinking, another voice suddenly rang through the silence.
"Lai, I have been watching you since the day you were born, constantly thinking about how to solve the difficulties you would encounter."
Merlin repeated softly:
"So go to Egypt. There may be a power there that can help you."
Lai leaned against the wall.
He did not answer immediately.
Only after a very long silence did he ask coldly:
"Why?"
He raised his head, his red eyes filled with suspicion and distrust.
"Mr. Ambrosius, may I ask why you are helping me? As a Slytherin, why would you be so kind?
House affiliation represents nothing more than one's pursuits and restraints. It cannot completely define a person."
Merlin seemed to chuckle.
"Lai, you don't strike me as someone who judges others based on their House."
"Do you think so? Then let me put it another way."
Lai's expression remained blank as he spoke each word clearly.
"I don't believe in free lunches!"
He continued on his own.
"Although history speaks rather highly of you, and you founded the Order of Merlin and established a bridge between wizards and Muggles, which makes you sound like a thoroughly good man..."
"But..."
Lai paused and looked toward one corner of the room.
"Mr. Ambrosius, could you give me a reason to believe that you genuinely want to help me?"
His tone was aggressive.
But Merlin was not angry.
Instead, he answered the accusation seriously.
"Lai, to a certain extent, helping you is equivalent to helping me. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement."
"Mutually beneficial..."
Lai murmured the words.
He did not question him any further, as though he had been convinced, or perhaps simply had no other choice and had to accept.
He let out a long breath, his tone carrying a hint of sarcasm.
"Then, Grand Sorcerer, tell me first. What exactly do you want me to do in Egypt?"
"I need the power accumulated by the Egyptian pharaohs."
Merlin answered with complete frankness.
"Surely you understand, Lai, that casting magic requires emotion. But a single person's emotions inevitably have limits.
The Egyptian wizards ruled that land for countless years.
They built the pyramids and used a unique method to accumulate vast quantities of emotion.
That is what I want."
Isn't that the collective consciousness?
Dawn immediately thought of Hogwarts' castle consciousness.
He had never expected the Egyptian pharaohs to possess something similar.
Could this sort of technique actually be commonplace?
And besides...
Lai could not see the special patterns, and apparently did not yet possess sufficient understanding of the collective consciousness either.
Dawn knew that he only had the advantage of being further along in time, but at that moment, he still felt a faint sense of satisfaction.
At this point, after Merlin's explanation, Lai finally understood what he meant.
"So you want to use those emotions to strengthen and amplify the power of some kind of magic?"
"Exactly."
Merlin's voice was light.
"I have an idea. I cannot guarantee that it will succeed, but at the very least... the result cannot be worse than the situation we are in now."
Lai rubbed his chin, still unwilling to let the matter rest.
"What magic do you want to cast?"
What was it?
Dawn desperately wanted to know the answer as well.
"This..."
Merlin's voice sounded.
But before he could finish—
Crack!
A sudden sound of breaking echoed around them!
The colors before Dawn's eyes shattered like fragments, turning into dust before disappearing completely.
In an instant, Dawn plunged back into endless darkness.
Fuck!
Why was it always like this?!
Dawn's face twitched as he screamed silently in his mind.
When he saw the light again, he had already awakened in bed, the familiar scenery of the wooden hut in the Vatican surrounding him.
Dawn helplessly rubbed his head.
But honestly, he had already developed considerable immunity to dreams that always ended at the crucial moment. He could not even bring himself to get angry anymore.
So.
After calming himself slightly, Dawn climbed out of bed with a perfectly composed expression, recorded the contents of the dream on parchment, and then put the matter aside.
This dream had not left behind too many mysteries, so he did not bother analyzing every word of the conversation or speculating over its implications.
Besides...
Dawn had now realized that instead of wasting time on pointless speculation, it was better to wait for the dream to provide more information.
And so.
After putting everything in order, Dawn forced himself to leave the Vatican, returning to Hogwarts and continuing his research through the books in the Ravenclaw common room.
However...
His plans were not destined to proceed smoothly.
Not long after arriving at the castle, Dawn looked through a corridor window and saw the Minister for Magic, whom he had not seen for more than ten days.
Fudge had apparently finished his meeting and was now pacing restlessly beside the Black Lake.
"Fudge!"
Dawn thought for a moment before calling out loudly.
The Minister for Magic heard the voice and raised his head.
When he saw the figure behind the window, his spirits immediately lifted. He hurried over, sucking in his stomach as he ran.
"Oh, thank goodness! Mr. Richter, you've finally appeared! I've been at the castle since early this morning, but I simply couldn't find you anywhere."
Fudge's eyes were ringed with dark circles, and his face looked exhausted. He appeared as though he had not rested properly for a long time.
Before he had even reached Dawn, he hurriedly shouted, clearly eager to claim credit.
"Mr. Richter! The information you asked me to investigate!
After questioning countless people and traveling through several countries, I finally managed to get to the bottom of it!"
The Minister for Magic clearly understood the art of officialdom.
He first made sure to explain his own accomplishments before delivering the report in an orderly fashion.
"You asked me to find the Ryans living at Number 10 in Kent, correct?
After repeatedly verifying the information, I discovered that they died not long after moving away two years ago."
Dawn was startled by the news.
"You mean... they're dead?"
"That's right."
Fudge nodded firmly.
"I enlisted the help of several Romani witches who were skilled in divination and traveled through countless places.
Eventually, I managed to piece together the general circumstances."
He pulled out a sheet of parchment covered in writing and bent forward to hand it over.
"According to my investigation, two years ago, Mr. Ryan was deceived by one of his relatives.
He quit his job and took his wife and adopted child to America.
They were subsequently kidnapped and taken to Mexico, where they died three months later during a conflict among Muggles."
Dawn frowned as he accepted the parchment.
He studied the detailed investigation records and supporting evidence without raising his head.
"What about the relative who deceived them?"
"He died of a drug overdose. He had already been dead for quite some time."
Fudge lowered his voice.
After hesitating for a moment, he still pinched his nose and took the initiative to ask:
"Would you like me to investigate him as well?"
Dawn thought for a moment before shaking his head and putting the parchment away.
"No. This is enough."
Within the World Correction, truth and falsehood were difficult to distinguish.
Dawn had asked Fudge to investigate the Ryan couple simply as an attempt to cast a line and see whether anything came of it.
Since there had been no useful result, dwelling on it any further would only waste time.
___________
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