After receiving the letter, Albert decided to visit Hagrid in the hunting lodge to boost his confidence and also... well, he mainly went to take a few photos of Buckbeak. It was not easy to use the Transfiguration Charm to conjure up a Hippogriff.
Albert first tried to deform the wood and make a model of Buckbeak in the same height. At least the appearance could not be too different from the original, otherwise it would be easy for people to find the flaws.
Of course, having a model alone is not enough. We need to turn inanimate objects into living things. This is actually not too difficult. As early as the third grade Transfiguration class, Professor McGonagall taught us the Transfiguration Spell, the one that turned a teapot into a turtle.
But... there's still a big problem. The bigger the thing, the more difficult it is to cast a spell on it.
If it was just a matter of turning a stone into a hound, Albert would have been able to do that long ago, but Buckbeak is not small in size and is a magical creature, so the difficulty of transforming him is several times higher than turning a stone into a hound.
As expected, Albert's first attempt failed. The hippogriff he transformed into was small in size and did not look like a living creature at all. The flaw was obvious at a glance.
After experiencing continuous failures, Albert gave up practicing and decided to ask other people for advice. Professor McGonagall was a ready-made expert in the field of Transfiguration and was much better than him, a half-baked one.
"You want to use the Transfiguration spell to create a dragon?" Professor McGonagall couldn't believe her ears after hearing what Albert said.
"No, no, professor. I just want to make a model, a movable, lifelike model." Albert explained quickly. "You may have heard about the accident in the Care of Magical Creatures class at the beginning of the semester. Hagrid's Hippogriff is likely to be executed. I want to give him a gift to make him feel better."
"I've heard about this, too." Professor McGonagall's eyes softened.
"Do you know how to conjure up a model like that?"
"If it's just a model, there shouldn't be any problem, but..." Professor McGonagall paused and reminded, "Conjuring a dragon should be possible in theory, but not in practice. Even Dumbledore would find it difficult to achieve this level of transformation. You should know that the larger the size, the more difficult it is to transform."
"What's the largest creature you've ever transformed into?" Albert asked curiously.
"Turn the table into a pig." Professor McGonagall looked at Albert and smiled, "I think with your current ability, you should be able to do this."
"A presentation at the beginning of the term?"
Albert still clearly remembers Professor McGonagall demonstrating the magical magic of turning a table into a pig in the first Transfiguration class for freshmen.
In fact, Professor McGonagall was very happy that Albert changed his research direction.
Ever since she knew that Albert's patronus was a griffin, she didn't want Albert to undergo the Animagus transformation.
A wizard's Animagus usually takes the same form as his Patronus, and while there's no evidence to suggest there's any connection between the two, an Animagus obviously can't turn into a magical creature, or even she doesn't know what would happen.
However, what Professor McGonagall didn't know was that Albert had not given up on Animagus, but the Transfiguration ritual was too complicated, and he planned to see if he could solve this problem in one go through the mission.
After Professor McGonagall briefly explained how to create a magic model, Albert found that making a moving magic model was easier than he expected.
“It’s a good alternative.”
Albert felt that his initial idea of transforming into an Hippogriff was a bit foolish, and it was completely due to his overconfidence in his own abilities.
After thanking Professor McGonagall, Albert planned to go to the library first to borrow some transfiguration books recommended by Professor McGonagall.
Before leaving, Professor McGonagall hinted that he should give priority to the O.W.Ls exams and that the study of Transfiguration Spells could be put in the sixth grade Transfiguration Advanced Class.
Albert was so absorbed in the Transfiguration training that he almost missed dinner. When he hurriedly left the Room of Requirement and headed for the lobby, he found Lee Jordan reading Classifying Broomsticks, seemingly supplementing his knowledge of Firebolt. In his words, if he showed that he knew nothing about Firebolt during the game, everyone would think that his commentary was very poor.
"If you can use this enthusiasm in reviewing, I think you will definitely get a few more excellent grades." Albert couldn't help but complain.
"What do you want Professor McGonagall for?"
"We're discussing Transfiguration." Albert said casually, "I'm wondering if I can conjure a dragon."
"Wow, is this possible?" Lee Jordan threw down the book in his hand and asked, "It would be so cool if we could ride on the back of a dragon."
Last time, the three of them were resentful for a long time because they didn't have the chance to ride Hagrid's Hippogriff.
"It's theoretically possible, but it's basically impossible." Albert raised his wand and tapped it lightly, and Lee Jordan's book "Classifying Broomsticks" turned into a palm-sized model of a Norwegian Ridgeback.
Albert had once seen the Norwegian Ridgeback that Hagrid raised, and the model on the table was made based on that dragon's appearance.
“That’s cool.”
Lee Jordan placed the model on his palm and looked at it carefully. It was really lifelike. The fire dragon even sprayed sparks at him.
After a moment, Lee Jordan seemed to remember what this thing had changed into, and turned his head to Albert and said, "Can you change it back? I haven't finished reading the book yet, and I have to return the book to Wood."
"Of course."
Albert waved his wand, and the Norwegian Ridgeback model turned back into the Classified Broomstick.
"I'm sure this thing will sell well." Fred and George appeared from nowhere, apparently having seen the dragon breathing fire.
"Transfiguration spells weaken over time," Albert shook his head.
"What happy things have happened to you? Tell us about them and make us happy too." Lee Jordan asked the Weasley twins with smiles on their faces.
"The Slytherin team went to scout our training this evening. You didn't even notice how ugly his face was." Fred and George looked at Mrs. Montgomery of Slytherin provocatively and said, "It's like a dung ball was stuffed in the mouths of those people. By the way, our dung ball reserves are not enough. When will we go to Hogsmeade next time?"
"Before Valentine's Day," Albert said without hesitation. Valentine's Day was on Monday, which was undoubtedly not a pleasant thing.
"Before that, Gryffindor has a game against Ravenclaw."
"I dare say that the Slytherin team would never want to see the Gryffindor team defeat the Ravenclaw team and compete with them for this year's Quidditch championship," George pointed at Malfoy who was arguing with Harry, "They are jealous of Harry's Firebolt."
"Those guys will definitely do something bad to prevent Harry from playing, or find a way to make him fall off his broom again." Fred speculated about the Slytherin team with the worst possible malice.
"Don't worry, it's almost impossible unless they can bring the Dementors back, but Professor Dumbledore will never allow Dementors to enter Hogwarts School again." Albert certainly knew what Malfoy wanted to do, but he didn't intend to reveal any information. "Even if they want to cast a curse on the Firebolt, they can't do it. Their level is not up to that level, so you don't have to pay too much attention to Slytherin's little tricks."
"What if they're pretending to be Dementors?" Lee Jordan asked tentatively.
"Why do you have such a weird idea?" Albert reached out and patted the other person's shoulder, sighed softly, with an expression that said you can't do it.
Fred and George also followed Albert's example and patted Lee Jordan's shoulder gently, which made him a little confused.
"Hey, explain it to me clearly!"
"You have to work harder on your Defense Against the Dark Arts." Albert said speechlessly, "Do you think Harry Potter is afraid of Dementors? No, he is just affected by Dementors, not fainted by them. If Slytherin students pretend to be Dementors, then I feel sad for their families."
"Yeah, that's a sad story." Fred and George both understood the meaning of this.
That's right, only a mentally retarded person would do such a stupid thing!