Chapter 24 - Teaching Hermione

From that day onward, Hermione started to spend more and more time with him in abandoned classes where he would use the time turner and teach her Transfiguration or Charms.

It wasn't that she was behind him in the subjects. In fact, she had already completed all the theory of first year but reading a book on transfiguration does not make you a transfiguration expert.

It just makes you a well read person.

"It's about your intent and will more than anything else." Harry explained "Saying the incantation and waving the wand in the correct manner will help but they're only there to help. The main power comes from your will. When you point your wand at the cup, you need to focus all your intent on it and and then you must will it to change. And your magic will do the rest."

"You know I've heard that explanation hundred times already." Hermione huffed angrily "But I still can't change this blasted thing into a crystal ball."

Looking at her angry and defeated expression, Harry thought about it a bit and tried to recall all the helpful tips he'd read in the books about transfiguration so that he could help her complete the task.

"Well, how about you try visualizing the changes in the cup in various steps?" he asked.

"Visualizing?" she asked.

"Yes. Take a mental image of the crystal ball in your mind. Then start changing the cup into a crystal ball in various steps. First imagine the metal changing into glass from top to bottom. A bit at a time. Then imagine the cup shrinking in itself slowly until it gains a spherical shape. And there you have it. A crystal ball. Try it." He said.

She looked skeptically at him but decided to follow his instructions regardless.

Harry could understand her hesitation. After all, things such a will, intent and visualisation were never truly taught in the classes. He had no idea why Minerva never taught the students about this method of transfiguring things instead of doing it the easy way by relying on your will and intent,

Harry had realized that incantations and wand movements were like crutches for a person who was learning how to walk.

In his opinion, those crutches should never be used unless there is something seriously wrong with your magic and you can't perform it without the use of the crutches. But not only does the students in this school rely on those crutches but they also come to overly rely on them as time passes to the point that once they become an ȧduŀt and their magic mȧturės properly, it gets very, very hard for them to let go of those crutches.

After something deep thinking, he realize that maybe there was a reason behind it all.

After all, he had been practicing how to use his magic based on will and intent alone for the past four years without any incantation or wand movement. And he could easily recall the many failures he met in his early years when he was not even able to use his magic to call a book to himself.

Maybe Hogwarts teaches magic they way it does because it provides instant results instead of the slow method that he chose when he started to learn about magic.

Who knows how many of them would have dropped the classes and then the school after Minerva spent the first half of the year simply telling them to pull a piece of paper and they were still not able to do it.

In it's comparison, saying an incantation, waving a wand and then getting a result instantly was so much more satisfying.

Yes, maybe there was a reason why the teachers did what they did.

But that didn't made them right. Or wrong. Just different.

His path was different from theirs and in a way, he was grateful for his path because even though he had a shaky start, he was now far beyond the capabilities of his peers. Or even other students who were far older than himself.

He was brought out of his musings by a shriek of happiness before he was once again engulfed in a hug by an excited Hermione who had just completed her transfiguration perfectly.

"I did it. I did it. I did it. Thank you so much Harry. This transfiguration is taught to us at the end of the year and I've already managed to perform it perfectly."

"Yes. You did." He said with a smile and let her have this moment of happiness before he continued "But there's still so much more for you to learn."

She looked at him with some confusion "But Harry, I've you already learned how to do all the transfigurations from the first yes. OH! You now want me to learn how to perform second year Transfigurations. Don't you? Oh this is so exciting. I bet none of the other students have managed to do this so far." She said before breaking the hug and going back to the crystal ball.

"Tell me what I should do next Harry." She said, bouncing in excitement and he felt a bit bad for what he was about to do next.

"Now you'll have to learn how to focus your will and intent on a object. Because the better you're at it, the better control you'll have over your magic." He explained in a sagely manner which only confused her even more.

He sighed and decided that since he was about to do this anyway, he might as well show her the true extent of his talent.

"Hold my wand." He said and gave his wand to her who just looked even more perplexed at his actions.

In wizarding world, giving your wand to others was not something that people usually did. If ever. Because giving your wand to other signifies your giving all your power to the other person because most wizards and witches are not capable of doing much magic without their wands.

Because of that, giving your wand to someone else also shows the sign of ultimate trust.

Like how Narcissa gave her wand to Draco once he lost his own wand to Harry.

But he was different from the others and made sure to never overly rely on his wand even if it was a huge help when performing magic.

"Now look carefully. I'll show you how to perform magic with just your will and intent alone. And a lot of visualizing. No wand waving and incantation. Just magic in it's purest form. Watch carefully because this is the most farthest I've reached in transfiguration so far." Except for the human transfigurations he'd been performing as of late. But of course, those were two different things.

And he doubted that she would like to see human transfiguration in the first place.

Then he focused his magic, will and intent on the crystal and visualized it being transfigured into a sparrow before finally adding the key element, life, to it and watched in fascination as a live sparrow took the place of the crystal glass ball and ċȯċked it's head to look at the two of them before it flapped it's wings and flew away.

He then turned to look at Hermione who was looking at him with a gob smacked expression.

He chuckled at her expression which brought her out of her moment of shock before he was flooded with questions.

"What? How? When? How could you? That's… Harry. That's a… I don't know.. A 6th or 7th year transfiguration. And you did it without a wand or an incantation. How?" by now she was looking at him imploringly and he knew that he had chosen the right student for himself.

"Well sit down then. And I'll teach you how to do it." He said and watched in fascination as she followed his orders while looking at him like he was some like of Messiah. Or Merlin reborn.

He really overdid it with that sparrow, didn't he.

Then he turned a matchbox into a piece of paper before giving the paper to her who looked at it questioningly.

"Now keep you wand on the table. You won't be needing it for this exercise." He said and spent the next ten minutes explaining her that she needed to use her Intent and Will and a bit of visualization to pull the paper toward herself.

And she spent the rest of the day in frustration. Trying to pull the paper to herself without much success.