The Legacy of Salazar

The Voice

"I can't believe you came to tryouts."

It was Saturday night, and the three of them were situated in their usual spot at the back of the library. Draco was gazing at Hermione, surprised and confused. He shook his head and glanced at Merlin, before turning his attention back to her.

"Pansy couldn't stop talking about it."

Hermione hummed but didn't reply. She was reading one of Lockhart's books again, having already finished her essays.

Draco had made the team, though narrowly. What with it being Terence's last year, the confrontation between the old seeker and captain had turned rather ugly in the locker-room. Marcus had ended up giving Terence a position as a chaser and reserve seeker, though neither was quite happy about it. Every other old team member had been reinstated.

Merlin suspected that Draco's new broom had been the tipping point for Marcus in deciding.

"I said I would come," Hermione said without looking up from her book. "Why is that so hard for everyone to understand?"

"Probably because of the rivalry," Merlin grumbled, rubbing his eyes. They'd been there already for several hours, and he felt no closer to completing his work.

At last, Hermione looked up. She narrowed her eyes. "Why aren't you writing?" she asked Merlin, indicating the sheet of parchment in front of him, which only had a couple of sentences on it.

Merlin groaned. "Because," he said, pushing his parchment away from him. "I don't get it."

"Well, the act of transforming the beetles—"

"—is unlike killing them because they can be returned to their living state," Merlin finished, shaking his head.

"Then what's the problem?" Hermione asked, frowning.

Merlin looked from her to Draco. "I don't get the point of that," he said. "So turning beetles into buttons doesn't kill them, big deal! I don't care about a couple of beetles."

"Well," Draco said slowly, "would you care if it was a dog?"

Merlin blinked.

Draco shrugged, "I mean, you'd want to know if transforming your dog into something might kill him."

Merlin paused. He hadn't thought of that.

"Exactly," Hermione said, nodding. "It's important to know that transforming living things into inanimate objects doesn't change them permanently, and vice versa. The transfigured object can be returned to its original state."

"But," Merlin said, shaking his head, "I mean, why would it kill him in the first place? It's magic."

"That's true, but magic uses the energy of an object during the transformation," Hermione said. "Haven't you noticed that we always transfigure things of similar size? Matches into needles, beetles into buttons—you can't just turn a pebble into a bed. The pebble doesn't have enough energy. But that also means it's easier to turn a living creature into an inanimate object than the other way around because animals have more energy."

Merlin stared at her. "Are you telling me magic has laws?" It was hard to imagine applying any sort of logic to magic.

Hermione grimaced, "In a very loose sense, because after enough practice and education, wizards can stretch that law by using the energy around them during the incantation as well. And you could just materialize the bed with a conjuration spell but it won't last forever." She took a breath. "But, back to the dog—since we're using the dog's energy to turn it into a chair or something, if we were to damage that then transfigured chair, it'll have less energy when we turn it back into a dog."