Chapter 52
Chapter 52
With one experience of Apparition behind him and time to prepare himself, Suer found the second journey much less unpleasant.
Amelia took him directly to Lily Street, where he and Hermione had summoned the Knight “roller coaster” last time. From there, home lay three turns farther down the road.
“Bwother…” A second-floor window of the Ellison house suddenly opened, and a small figure leaned out, waving excitedly at Suer from afar.
Mrs. Ellison appeared an instant later and hauled Angel back inside before the little girl could wriggle any farther through the window. Suer breathed a sigh of relief.
By the time he and Amelia reached the house, Angel was already waiting for them at the door.
“You’ve come back at exactly the right time. I’ve just finished making lunch,” Mrs. Ellison said. “Ms. Bones, you must join us.”
Amelia had meant to decline politely, but the enthusiastic Mrs. Ellison had already stepped forward and linked arms with her.
Since joining the Ministry of Magic, Amelia had rarely–no, almost never–been treated with such easy familiarity.
Mrs. Ellison was an excellent cook, and Amelia ate with evident satisfaction. Restless little Angel kept devising ways to steal food from Suer’s plate, filling the table with laughter. The sound of her sweet, childish voice lifted Suer’s spirits considerably.
After lunch, Angel began to droop with sleep, so Mrs. Ellison took her upstairs for a nap.
Only Suer and Amelia remained in the sitting room.
Suer stared at the “unicorn” beside the sofa, turning the Christmas present he had been forced to accept over and over in his hands.
He and Amelia had spoken at length in the house at Godric’s Hollow. As of today, he supposed he had finally accepted his true surname.
It had absolutely nothing to do with the expensive bottle of Felix Felicis Amelia had given him.
As it happened, Susan Bones, who belonged to the same house as Suer, was also his younger cousin–and a rather close blood relation at that.
They shared an uncle, Edgar Bones, who had been brutally murdered by Death Eaters during Voldemort’s rise to power.
Suer’s father had been Edgar Bones’s younger brother, one year older than Susan Bones’s father.
Amelia noticed that Suer had been staring at the “unicorn” for some time. After a moment’s thought, she asked, “What is the key to layered Transfiguration?”
Suer blinked, but quickly recovered. “Balance. The magic contained in the two differently transformed objects has to reach a point of equilibrium.”
“Correct.” Amelia nodded in satisfaction. She drew her wand and tapped the teacup on the table.
“Watch carefully. This is ordinary Transfiguration.”
Under the influence of magic, the cup became a bird with beautiful plumage. Yet its eyes were dull, and it stood motionless on the table.
Suer nodded without taking his eyes from it.
“I can give you a hint at most. I cannot describe the sensation in detail, so I’ll demonstrate instead.”
Amelia lightly touched the transformed bird with her wand.
It immediately came alive. Its eyes darted about, bright and alert, before it spread its wings and took flight. Amelia held out her palm. After circling the sitting room once, the bird landed in her hand and changed back into a teacup.
Amelia took a sip of tea and looked at Suer.
“To make a transformed creature come alive, you must understand the difference between an object that possesses life and one that does not.”
“Something with life is alive, while something without life is dead.” Suer knitted his brows. “The difference is… Wait.”
“Is it… the soul?” he ventured. “A living creature has a soul, while a non-living object does not.”
“Precisely.” The corners of Amelia’s mouth lifted. Suer’s insight surprised her; most young wizards would never think on the level of the soul.
They knew only that magic could turn an object into a moving “living creature”. They had never tried to understand the principle behind it.
“The soul is a profoundly difficult subject. After a thousand years of study, no one can claim to understand it completely.”
“One of the principles of Gamp’s Law of Transfiguration states that we may temporarily turn a dead object into a living thing, but we cannot make it live forever.”
“Because our magic temporarily serves as the non-living object’s soul, so it ‘lives’,” Suer answered at once, suddenly enlightened. Then his brows drew together again. “When the magic fades, it ‘dies’.”
“But how do you make an object under layered Transfiguration come alive?”
Transforming an object into a living creature was simple: one merely had to provide it with a “soul”. But once two transformations were layered together, the problem became far more complicated.
“No, no.” Suer shook his head. He glanced at the “unicorn” and murmured, “I’ve been thinking about this all wrong. I merely changed the chair’s shape. That was Transfiguration, not a Switching Spell.”
“If I want it to move, the object of my first transformation should also be alive. Then I can layer another transformation over it.”
“But Professor Dumbledore turned a chair into a moving ‘unicorn’… Why did that work? Hiss… The more I think about this, the more complicated it becomes.”
The harder Suer thought, the more muddled his head became. He looked at Amelia in utter confusion.
Amelia chuckled after listening to the whole of his muttered reasoning.
“Transforming one living creature into another and then applying a second transformation is the correct approach,” she confirmed.
“But Dumbledore–” Suer began urgently.
“Dumbledore’s method was not wrong either. You’re too impatient, child.” Amelia smiled and shook her head. “Do you know the difference between you and Dumbledore?”
“What is it?” Suer asked blankly.
“He is more than a hundred years old. And you?”
“You are eleven. The difference in magical power between the two of you is simply too great.”
“The magic contained within Dumbledore is beyond anything you can imagine. His sheer power allows him to disregard the boundary between the two.”
Now he understood. He truly understood this time. The old bee’s demonstration had led him completely astray.
It was nothing more than brute force producing miracles!
No wonder Nymphadora, who had visited the house that day, said she could not compare with Dumbledore. She had looked as though she had only just graduated.
Realisation dawned across Suer’s face.
“However.” Amelia’s expression became extremely stern. “Suer Bones, I must warn you: under Ministry law, transforming a sentient being without permission is illegal. It is one of the offences Aurors prosecute most severely.”
“Promise me you will never–never–casually transform a sentient being. I do not want to visit you in Azkaban one day.”
“I promise.” Startled by her severity, Suer nodded hastily.
“Of course, if the creature happens to be an enemy, I doubt the Aurors would object.” Amelia’s sternness lasted only a moment. As she spoke, she gave Suer a playful wink.
“Ha… ha ha…” Suer laughed dryly.
“All right, it’s about time I left. I still have to visit the Ministry this afternoon.” Amelia rose, preparing to go.
“W-wait,” Suer called.
Under Amelia’s puzzled gaze, he jumped to his feet and ran upstairs to his bedroom.
He returned shortly with a wrapped box in his hands.
“This is for you.”
“Happy Christmas.” Suer hesitated.
“And… thank you for your present, Aunt Amelia.”
Amelia froze at the final two words. Then a radiant smile blossomed across her face.
“Thank you, Suer. Happy Christmas.”