#145 - Illegal Animagus

However, it was this glance that allowed him to discover something magical. After the beetle crawled into a shadowy corner and circled around for a moment, it suddenly transformed into a stylishly dressed young woman. The woman looked around to make sure no one was watching, then pulled out her wand and disapparated.

"Hmm? An Animagus?"

As an extremely advanced form of Transfiguration, Anduin naturally recognized it. After all, Professor McGonagall was an Animagus. However, because the learning conditions for this type of magic were extremely harsh, and failure could easily lead to unpredictable consequences, the Ministry of Magic explicitly prohibited any wizard from learning it privately. Furthermore, all Animagi were required to register with the Ministry of Magic. He had once seen in the 'Daily Transfiguration' journal that, to his knowledge, there were only 7 registered Animagi in the British wizarding world, and he didn't remember any animals like beetles being registered.

After a moment's thought, Anduin glanced again at the spot where the Animagus had crawled out. It was a private residence, with only the surname 'Elkott' on the doorplate, and no other information.

Anduin tilted his head in confusion, not understanding what was going on.

An illegal Animagus thief? But she didn't look like one.

Could she be there to catch a cheating spouse?

He shook his head vigorously. It wasn't his business, and he didn't want to meddle, so he put the matter behind him and continued towards the Three Broomsticks Pub.

Velen and Vivian were already waiting for him in the pub, and had even ordered him a butterbeer in advance. After Anduin took his seat, he drank the beverage with them, sampled the owner's cooking, and listened to Vivian's rambling about Quidditch and gossip from her Mahjong club.

The three of them spent a relaxing weekend together, and Anduin got what he wanted. Indeed, there was no harm in relaxing occasionally.

It wasn't until Anduin saw the new issue of the 'Daily Prophet' on Monday that he realized what the beetle he had seen that day meant.

Former high-ranking official of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and Hogwarts Transfiguration Professor's unknown secret love history?

"So the house I passed that day was actually Professor McGonagall's house. The illegal Animagus I saw that day must have been Rita Skeeter, who wrote this report. She's a reporter for the 'Daily Prophet,' and she's using Animagus transformation to snoop for gossip? I've really discovered something incredible."

Looking at the headline on the newspaper, Anduin realized that their Transfiguration professor, McGonagall, had just married Elphinstone Elkott, a former Ministry of Magic official, and they had moved to Hogsmeade together. Elkott was McGonagall's superior when she worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and apparently the professor accepted Elkott's proposal last summer.

The newspaper even reported a lot of private information about the two, such as McGonagall insisting on keeping her own surname after marriage, and Elkott buying a house in Hogsmeade specifically to make it easier for McGonagall to go to school every day, and so on.

Moreover, the report added all sorts of embellishments to the McGonagall couple, depicting Professor McGonagall as a proud and arrogant queen, while Elkott was written as an old simp who had been chasing the goddess for many years.

"They dug deep enough. This Rita Skeeter is really bold. Isn't she afraid of getting ambushed at night?" Anduin speculated teasingly.

Although he seemed to have inadvertently discovered Rita Skeeter's secret, he didn't plan to expose it. This handle might be useful to him in the future.

In recent days, gossip about Professor McGonagall had been spreading like wildfire throughout Hogwarts. As a result, Professor McGonagall had a dark face all day long. Students from all houses could sense that the professor was in a bad mood in Transfiguration class. It was no wonder, her family's privacy was not only made public, but her image was also portrayed as a cold and arrogant wicked woman. In any case, Professor McGonagall had stopped reading the 'Daily Prophet' recently.

This report became a topic of conversation among all the young wizards at Hogwarts for a while, but of course they didn't dare mention it in front of Professor McGonagall.

However, Anduin didn't pay much attention to it after being surprised the first day. He had more important things to do.

Inside the hut in the Forbidden Forest, Anduin frowned as he thought about something. He had been consulting various materials in the library recently, trying to find a way to measure magic reserves. Since he had the inspiration that day, this idea had been lingering in his mind.

"After testing, magic output can be measured, but magic output doesn't seem to be directly related to magic reserves, so where should I start?" Anduin looked at his experimental notes with a headache, trying to find the end of the thread in this mess.

He had recently made another alchemical item that could roughly test the magic output ratio. Each young wizard had a different amount of magic they could output per second, depending on their physique and condition. He had wondered if magic output was related to their own reserves, but after testing, he found that there was little correlation. Magic output was only related to the wizard's physique, learning, and training.

"It seems I have to seek help. Relying on my own knowledge reserves alone is not enough to solve such a problem."

After a moment's thought, Anduin made a decision, then flipped out parchment, ready to communicate with those Charms scholars.

Since his Echo Charm paper was published, he had aroused the interest of many scholars in the Charms research circle and the Alchemy circle, and there had been many exchanges of letters between them. One of them had even met Anduin once, and that was Xenophilius Lovegood's wife, Pandora Lovegood.

As a Charms scholar, Mrs. Lovegood had a considerable amount of knowledge, and coupled with her acquaintance with Anduin, she quickly became a pen pal in academics.

Anduin described his ideas and the difficulties he encountered in his research, preparing to send them to several scholar pen pals, including Professor Bones. Other people's stones can be used to polish jade, and perhaps he could gain some inspiration from other scholars.

"Shunfeng, your diet seems to have been a little too good recently. Be careful of high blood lipids. Here's a chance to exercise, these letters..."

As an owl, Anduin's 'Shunfeng' was a bit of a personality. Every time he wanted to send a letter, he had to coax it to work, which gave Anduin a headache.