Professor McGonagall also cast her gaze toward the door to watch the Slytherins, only, compared to Link's curious gaze, Professor McGonagall's gaze was particularly sharp.
Under her gaze, the originally noisy Slytherins at the door gradually quieted down, crowding around Emily and sitting down to Professor McGonagall's right-hand side.
However, although they became quiet, the Slytherins did not show much respect or fear towards Professor McGonagall.
Each of their expressions was frivolous, with smiles at the corners of their eyes, and some were even arrogantly making small movements underneath.
Seeing this, Professor McGonagall's already not-so-pleasant expression became even uglier.
It was only because the Slytherins had not broken any school rules nor disturbed the classroom discipline, that Professor McGonagall, who upheld fairness and impartiality, did not overly reprimand them for their behavior.
Link also saw all of this and could only say, "This is very Slytherin."
As for Slytherin House, he was not unfamiliar, it was an ancient House with green and silver as its representative colors.
And just like their House's representative animal, the snake, the Slytherin students mostly exhibited their cleverness, ruthlessness, and ambition.
At the same time, because they upheld the beliefs of the House's founder Salazar Slytherin, generally speaking, Slytherin House only admitted noble pure-blood young wizards (that is, children whose parents were both wizards and had magical talent).
Of course, this tradition had almost faded away after Dumbledore became Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Nowadays, although there were still very few students of Muggle (a wizarding derogatory term for non-magical people) descent in Slytherin House, the number of half-blood wizards had already taken the majority.
But even so, inside Slytherin there still existed many heirs of pure-blood noble families; these families were wealthy and immensely powerful, and some even directly served as Hogwarts school governors.
Relying on the power of these heirs, the Slytherins truly would not be as afraid of Professor McGonagall as students of other Houses would be.
Just as Link was secretly observing the Slytherins, the Hufflepuffs also began arriving at the classroom. However, compared to the carefree manner of the Slytherins, the Hufflepuffs appeared much more awkward.
Each of them had nervous expressions and stiff bodies; many of them did not even have the courage to glance towards Professor McGonagall or the Slytherins' direction.
There were even some who looked like Link's three roommates.
Their hair was messy, their ties were crooked, and sleep crusts were hanging at the corners of their eyes, they obviously looked like they had just woken up in a terrible state.
All of this made Professor McGonagall, standing on the podium, let out a cold snort.
And this cold snort was like a whip driving a flock of sheep, making the Hufflepuffs move even faster.
"Phew! Almost late!" Link's roommate named John plopped himself down beside Link, panting heavily as he spoke.
Seeing this, Link couldn't help but ask, "Weren't you already awake before I left? How come you're only arriving now?"
The other party showed an embarrassed expression and said, "I did want to get up right away, but it seemed like someone had cursed my blanket, it just wouldn't let me go, so I…"
John wanted to continue explaining, but at that moment a dull sound came from the podium, followed by Professor McGonagall's icy gaze sweeping across the crowd before she spoke, "Class begins!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the originally buzzing Hufflepuff crowd immediately quieted down, and even the nearby Slytherins straightened their expressions.
Seeing this, Professor McGonagall's expression became slightly better. She lightly shook her wand, and on everyone's desk appeared stones about the size of an egg.
"Today's assignment is to transform the stone in front of you into an apple."
Professor McGonagall said so, and the Hufflepuffs underneath mostly changed their expressions.
Transfiguration was an extremely advanced branch of magic. Generally speaking, it could be divided from easy to difficult into changing the shape of the same substance, transformation between different substances, and transformation of living creatures.
Besides these, Transfiguration also had many subfields, such as human body transfiguration, permanent transfiguration, and the more advanced Animagus transfiguration.
This classroom task set by Professor McGonagall belonged exactly to the category of transformation between different substances.
Although they had already attempted this kind of transformation back in their first year, today's task of changing inorganic matter into organic matter was still as difficult as last year's final exam.
However, Professor McGonagall did not care about the Hufflepuffs' expressions. She continued to speak, "Although I already told you this last year, I still must emphasize it again now. According to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, wizards cannot create food out of nothing, nor can they eat food created through Transfiguration."
"Because even if you eat it, you won't absorb any nutrients, and you might even get indigestion from it."
"Therefore, remember well, the apples transformed in this class absolutely must not be eaten. I don't want to see any of you sent to the infirmary because of this."
After speaking, Professor McGonagall swept her eyes over the crowd below. Seeing that everyone had listened seriously, she finally waved her hand and said, "Alright, now, please proceed with the transformation according to the steps we taught last year."
"Understood, Professor McGonagall." The students below answered in unison.
But compared to the Slytherin side, the Hufflepuff voices sounded particularly listless.
Link, however, didn't care about these things. Without a word, he raised his wand and aimed it at the stone in front of him.
For this Transfiguration class, he had already previewed the entire Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration ahead of time.
Although due to the high difficulty he had not managed to gain any spell proficiency level in Transfiguration, he had gained a general understanding of it.
Link believed that on this basis, as long as he completed Professor McGonagall's assignment, the spell proficiency for Transfiguration would be unlocked.
Therefore, Link was giving it his absolute all this class.
Unfortunately, some things could not be accomplished just by effort. Link's first attempt failed.
The stone in front of him did transform, but it did not turn into a real apple as he imagined. Instead, it turned into a greyish stone apple.
Seeing this, Link sighed and couldn't help but turn his head to look toward the Slytherins not far away.
Over there, many had already completed the transformation. Although most of the apples they produced were bumpy and hideous, they were undoubtedly apples.
Among them, the one who performed the most perfectly was Emily, sitting right in the middle of the group.
At the moment, she was crossing her arms, coldly staring at the ceiling, while in front of her was a bright red and beautiful apple.
Professor McGonagall also noticed this scene. She studied the apple for a moment, then nodded slightly and said, "Victoria, you did very well, Slytherin +10 points!"
As her voice fell, cheers rang out from within the Slytherin group. But Emily showed no interest in this, not even changing her facial expression.
This cool and indifferent attitude made Link involuntarily purse his lips.
Just then, a familiar exclamation suddenly sounded in Link's ear...
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