Ron opened the red envelope with obvious reluctance, and the moment he did, it rose into the air above his head. Julian instantly cast a spell, transfiguring earmuffs over both his own ears and Dusk's. That turned out to be an excellent decision, since they were seated in the worst possible spot directly across from Ron. "RONALD WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU!" a voice exploded from the letter so loudly that the table beneath it shook, and Julian could practically feel the words hitting him as they were shouted. Mrs. Weasley's lecture went on for quite a while, severe enough that both Ron and Harry seemed to shrink into their seats out of sheer embarrassment.
When the tirade finally ended, the letter tore itself apart with violent force, and the fragments immediately crumbled into ash. Julian removed the transfiguration, and Dusk gave an appreciative nod, clearly grateful to have been spared the deafening blast. Breakfast was basically over by then, and Julian, Ron, Harry, and Hermione got up to leave the Great Hall. Yet somehow, in defiance of every instinct for self-preservation, Malfoy still chose that moment to come over and needle Harry and Ron. At least the boy had enough sense to leave Julian out of it, though whether that was caution or the murderous glare Dusk was giving him was anyone's guess.
Julian could not help sighing when he noticed Lockhart trailing after Professor Sprout near the area by the Whomping Willow. "Ah, good morning, children. I was just assisting the good professor in treating the injuries of the Whomping Willow, as I have encountered several of the species during my travels. Not that I would ever suggest I know more than an expert like Professor Sprout, of course!" Lockhart declared with a blinding smile that somehow seemed to gleam all on its own. Then the overdramatic fool pulled Harry aside to talk, while the rest of the class filed into one of the locked greenhouses marked with the number three.
Inside, the greenhouse contained several rows of leafy plants shifting in dry soil, along with a handful of other specimens set along the walls. Julian kept a suspicious eye on the venomous tentacula to make sure it stayed far away from him as he moved into place. The lesson then continued more or less as normal, with Professor Sprout and Hermione explaining what mandrakes were, though Julian decided to make things a little more interesting by adding a detail that had not been mentioned. Raising his hand, he earned a pleasantly surprised look from Professor Sprout before she invited him to speak.
"Hermione forgot to mention that aside from those uses, mandrake leaves also play an important role in a particularly interesting branch of transfiguration, the Animagus transformation. In fact, they are one of the key ingredients in the process," Julian said with a grin, and he immediately saw Professor Sprout stiffen at the mention of it. "That is, of course, worth five points to Gryffindor. That said, I can assure all of you that it is a dangerous process, and anyone interested would be best off speaking to Professor McGonagall for further information," she said once she recovered. Even so, she sent Julian a warning look that made it clear she knew exactly why he had decided to share that particular fact.
Truthfully, Julian simply thought it was a terrible waste that so few people ever chose to go through the process, and he wanted to see whether he could push some of his classmates toward considering it. He wanted to undergo the ritual himself, but he had learned that now that he was no longer human, every ritual he performed from this point onward would have to be modified to account for his new race. The required adjustment was not especially large, but making it meant delving into arithmancy. And like any form of mathematics, that subject was a headache to improve in.
It also did not help that for the Animagus ritual, Julian needed to modify it further so that it incorporated the magical phenomenon tied to the birth of magical beasts. Thankfully, that part would be much easier, since he had found a few books on the subject in the "ancient" section of the library the previous year, even if he had not read them yet. His plan was to expose himself to that phenomenon before undergoing the Animagus ritual so that he would become a magical beast rather than an ordinary animal. 'Though before any of that, I need to call my Patronus first and confirm that I'll become what I think I will,' he thought after leaving Herbology completely unharmed, thanks to the precautions he had taken.
McGonagall's class was easy enough for Julian and Hermione, though the same could not be said of most of the others. The task was to turn a beetle into a button, and after spending a few months without practice, their classmates were rusty enough to make the effort look rather pitiful. Julian transformed his beetle into a polished silver button decorated with tiny, intricate beetle designs, which impressed McGonagall as usual and earned Gryffindor another ten points. After that, he spent most of the rest of the lesson relaxing while occasionally offering useful reminders from the previous year's material.