19) Professor McGonagall's Interest

September 4, 1991. Wednesday.

Keith got off his bed and played with snow a little before putting on his robes. He fished out a parchment from his robes that had the headmaster’s sign on it.

‘I need the Potions Professor’s signature on this before it’s of any use…’ he thought as he took out his timetable and glanced at it, “We got double potions after lunch and double transfiguration in the morning.”

“Hey Keith. Good Morning.” Justin said and yawned, looking around groggily, “What subjects today?”

Keith passed him the timetable and began to change the contents in his bag like he did every day but when he took a look in his trunk for the cauldron, he didn’t find it.

There was one Copper Cauldron that he had bought for himself since there was a lot of money left over, but he had also bought a pewter cauldron. Now, one of them was missing.

He frowned for a second but then closed the trunk without much worry as he remembered some of the contents from a book called, “History of Hogwarts.”

‘House elves move stuff for us huh?’ he thought and shrugged since this made his life easier. He then looked up at Justin who was packing his bag just like him.

“Hey Justin, what do you think of Hogwarts now that you’ve been here for two days?”

The boy turned around, “Hmm I don’t know. Firstly, it’s so exciting to see that magic actually exists but I can’t wait to start doing stuff instead of just listening to lectures. Then there’s the quills.” he said, looking slightly annoyed.

“Why can’t we just use pens or pencils? These feathers are so… dumb.”

Hearing this, Keith grinned and opened up his trunk again before grabbing one of the quills. He handed it over to Justin along with a bottle of ink.

“That ink is normal but the quill, it’s enchanted. It writes on it’s own but do you know why we mostly use quills?”

Justin shook his head.

Keith pointed at the quill as began to explain, “It’s simple. One quill can last you years if you take care of it well. A quill is also a really simple thing so enchanting it is easier than enchanting fountain pens which can also last lifetimes.

“Though I must say, enchanted pens do exist. They’re just not commonly used since they cost more than quills. And enchanted pens cost even higher.”

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Justin nodded, deep in thought before he looked straight at Keith, “What about paper then? And are we allowed to use pens instead of quills?”

“No one’s stopping us from using them. Hogwarts has no rules preventing us from doing so but let’s just say that most of the wizarding population is lagging behind when it comes to implementing muggle stuff.”

Justin nodded, but then he gave Keith a weird look, “Wait, how do you know about all this when you’re from a wizarding family too?”

“My dad’s a muggleborn and he taught me quite a bit about the muggle side of things. I must say, it’s fascinating. Centuries ago, the magical folks could fly but now even the muggles made stuff that helps them fly. Aeroplanes, helithingies and stuff.” Keith said, trying and failing to remember the right word.

“Helicopters.” Justin said, grinning, “What do you think of the cool muggle stuff then? Like radio, televisions and computers?”

Keith raised his eyebrow, curiosity pretty apparent on his face, “What are those? I mean, we have radios but I don’t really know about the other two. Even my dad did not mention anything about them. Actually, let’s go grab some breakfast and we can talk along the way instead of here.”

He then motioned towards the other three sleeping in the room. Justin nodded and the two of them left. As they walked, Justin began to explain.

Keith nodded, deep in thought once he had listened to everything Justin had to say about muggle technology.

“Muggle stuff really is interesting… Movies you say? And it’s not like the theatre stuff?”

They continued to chat for more than an hour until it was time to head to their classes. Like always, he sat down beside Hannah but to his surprise, Justin followed behind him instead of Ernie.

Once everyone settled down, Professor McGonagall began to speak.

“Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,” she said. “Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.”

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. Keith watched, entranced as he imagined the limits of transfiguration. He had seen his mother doing it but he could tell, that the woman in front of him was just on a whole another level compared to his mother when it came to transfiguration.

‘Mom was only good at turning things into other things, never animals. This is so cool! What if I make an army of birds with a bunch of sticks and stones?’ he thought, daydreaming about the possibilities.

Contrary to everyone’s expectations, there wasn’t any cool stuff about transforming tables into pigs right at the start. Instead, it was pure theory for almost an hour. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle.

Once everyone was done with taking notes, Professor McGonagall let them start practising.

She watched as almost everyone began to point their wand at their matched and mutter the spell she had told them about. She watched them do it but didn’t comment.

‘Always the same… they don’t care about the theory at all.’ she thought before her gaze stopped at the four kids who were silently looking at their parchments instead of using their wands.

‘So he’s made good friends already and is also guiding them well.’ she thought as she watched Keith explain something to Hannah beside him.

After a few minutes, she saw him take out his wand and point it at the match in front of him.

Everyone in the class turned to look at Professor McGonagall as she rushed over to one of the tables for the first time during that lesson. Their gazes followed her until they landed on Keith, who looked surprised by the sudden attention.