After giving a brief explanation about Animagi, Professor Edward officially began the Transfiguration class.
Following half a period of theoretical instruction, Edward waved his wand, and a small wooden matchstick appeared on each student's desk.
Their first practical exercise was to transform the matches into metal needles.
By the end of the morning session, only a few students had managed to achieve a partial transformation.
Professor Edward, however, wasn't surprised. Transfiguration was widely considered the most difficult subject at Hogwarts, and the fact that some students had even partially succeeded exceeded his expectations.
After assigning homework, he dismissed the class.
The first-year schedule was fairly light, Transfiguration in the morning, followed by Charms and Herbology in the afternoon.
The Charms class was taught by Professor Luke, the former mayor of Hogsmeade. Luke had retired from politics after appointing a capable successor and applied for the Charms professorship at Hogwarts.
This decision had left his old rival, the Mayor of Bree, utterly speechless, and somewhat regretful of his own ambitions.
Unlike Mayor Bree, Luke had little thirst for power. Deep down, he had long made his choice after awakening to magic.
He trained his successor early, and once the successor earned Headmaster Sylas' approval, Luke quietly stepped back, dedicating himself to his magical studies.
He only intervened in town affairs when absolutely necessary, spending most of his time refining his spellwork.
Over time, his magical ability flourished. His mastery of charms surpassed that of many full-time wizards, demonstrating extraordinary talent and insight.
Eventually, after successfully applying for the post of Charms Professor, Luke resigned as mayor and devoted himself entirely to teaching, and to exploring the deeper mysteries of magic.
In the afternoons, Phoenix and Thunderbird House students attended Charms class together.
Professor Luke, who also served as Head of Thunderbird House, had a humorous and engaging teaching style. His lessons were lively and entertaining, and he often demonstrated dazzling spells while explaining otherwise dry theory.
The students adored him, his classroom always filled with laughter and bursts of awe whenever he cast a spell mid-sentence to illustrate his point.
Even after the class ended, the students lingered, unwilling to leave, still buzzing with excitement as they discussed the spells they had just seen.
After Charms, the students headed downstairs, left the castle, and made their way toward Greenhouse No. 1 for Herbology.
The greenhouse stood near Sylas and Arwen's private garden, separated by a tall, thick hedge.
When Sylas had decided to establish the school, he had this hedge planted around the garden.
Under the influence of magic, the hedge had grown tall and impenetrable, serving both as a barrier and a protection charm to keep curious young wizards from wandering in.
After all, within that garden, besides the two sacred trees, the White Tree and the Mallorn Tree, grew many rare and delicate plants that could easily be damaged by careless hands.
Thus, entry into the garden was strictly restricted to Sylas, Arwen, and those with their express permission.
Outside the hedge stood the glass greenhouses, numbered from one to seven. Each contained magical plants of varying rarity and danger, the higher the number, the rarer and more hazardous the plants inside.
The herbal chambers that had once existed inside the Amonsul Tower had since been transformed into Sylas's private garden, completely separated from the public greenhouses.
Professor Margaret, the Herbology professor, was responsible for tending these greenhouses.
Margaret had been one of the witches from the very first accelerated magic course. Because of her exceptional talent in herbology, she caught Sylas' attention early on, and after graduation, she remained at the castle to tend the plants in Sylas's herb chambers and private garden.
Over the past ten years, Margaret's research and skill in herbology had advanced rapidly. She had successfully cultivated many magical plants and even made several long journeys into Mirkwood, Fangorn Forest, and the Old Forest, where she unexpectedly gained the friendship of the brown-robed wizard Radagast, the wood-elves, and even the Ents. Through them, she acquired numerous rare seeds.
She planted these seeds in the greenhouses and carefully nurtured them.
She even managed to transplant a Huorn Willow from Fangorn Forest and grow it in Greenhouse Number Seven.
This feat had greatly surprised Sylas at the time and made him value Margaret even more.
Thus, when selecting a professor for Herbalism, Sylas did not hesitate, this witch was the obvious choice.
Margaret was a plump, cheerful witch with brown hair and blue eyes, always wearing a bright smile. She dressed in sturdy brown robes and a dust-covered hat. Though gentle and approachable, radiating an air of warmth and sincerity, she held grand ambitions.
She hoped not only to cultivate more Sacred White Trees and Mallorn Trees, eventually transforming Windrise Peak into a forest of White Trees and Mallorn-like groves, rivaling, or even surpassing, the Golden Wood of Lórien.
Also because of her friendship with the Ents, and knowing that the Ent race had become unable to reproduce after the disappearance of the Entwives, Margaret aspired to use magic to cultivate new Ent saplings and discover a method for the Ents to reproduce again.
Sylas fully supported Margaret's dream. He knew that if she succeeded, she would earn not only honor but also the eternal friendship of the Ent race.
When the students from Phoenix House and Dragon House arrived at Greenhouse Number One, Professor Margaret was already waiting for them.
The greenhouse, expanded with the Unblemished Stretching Charm, was as large as a football field. Its temperature and conditions were regulated by spells such as the Temperature-Control Charm.
Since this was the first-year classroom, Greenhouse Number One mainly housed magical plants that posed little danger.
The most abundant of these was an expansive field of sage, carefully cultivated by Margaret, and it was the subject of the students' very first Herbology lesson.
It had strong healing properties; its sap could be used to make sage essence, capable of healing most wounds.
Many wizarding families now cultivated sage essence as a household remedy.
However, in terms of production, they naturally could not compare to the output of Margaret's greenhouse. The sage essence she produced there was not only sold in Diagon Alley but also exported elsewhere, earning a small fortune.
One could say that Margaret was essentially a hidden millionaire; she simply had a pure love for herbalism, so she spent most of her time in the greenhouse cultivating various magical plants.
Furthermore, Margaret applied her herbological knowledge to combat as well.
She had successfully cultivated an even more powerful Devil's Web, derived from Killer Ivy from the Dark Forest, a dark vine mutated by corrupted magic.
The Devil's Web thrived in dark, damp environments and possessed snake-like tendrils capable of tightly coiling around anyone who approached, strangling them to death. Even large beasts caught by it could not escape.
The plant's only weakness was its fear of light and fire.
However, this weakness had been purposefully left in place by Margaret, solely to prevent the plant from becoming uncontrollably dangerous.
Nevertheless, Margaret had also cultivated a special Devil's Web variant that was immune to both sunlight and fire, with vines so resilient they showed no obvious weak points, a living defensive weapon.
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Stones PLzzz
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