Anxiety is the easiest emotion to spread in this world.

Before the bell for the first afternoon class even rang, the despair and helplessness of the fourth-year students in Transfiguration had spread throughout every house in Hogwarts, and a sense of unease and tension was engulfing students of every grade, indiscriminately.

Upperclassmen began to worry about how much of what they had learned in the past was still reliable.

And the younger students fell into another kind of panic –

"If my grandmother finds out that I didn't pass my second-year Transfiguration class, she'll be furious."

Neville muttered fearfully, as they were leaving the common room on their way to Professor McGonagall's class.

"People as clever as George and Fred are like that, I definitely won't be able to keep up..."

"That's because they're taking their O.W.L.s next year. Compressing five years of courses into a year and a half is bound to be quite painful – it's different for you, you're only in second year, and there's nothing wrong with learning some new knowledge."

Aileen seriously analyzed, comforting the distraught young wizards around her.

Anyway, whether her predictions were right or not, in a few days she should be able to piece together the full picture of the "new Transfiguration" course from the students of each grade. Even if Transfiguration turned into advanced physics, her exemption qualification for this semester wouldn't change.

"Don't be gloating here, you might be back in a few days..."

Hermione glanced at Aileen, who was standing at the stairwell on the fourth floor waving goodbye to her, and said unhappily.

"If even the O.W.L.s are going to be adjusted, then the extra senior year written test content you applied for during the end-of-year exams last year will be meaningless, right? After all, all of that content is based on disproven theories."

Unlike other young wizards, the "calculation machine" who attended extracurricular classes at the institute on weekends could vaguely guess what was coming.

If it was really as she guessed, and some physics and chemistry theories were introduced, then Aileen's exemption qualification might not be so useful. After all, in some relatively difficult fields, this white-haired ball of fluff wasn't all-knowing.

For Hermione, the difficulty of the course wasn't the problem, but the subsequent homework was the real trouble.

"That's at least something for next semester, this semester I still have to take Muggle Studies."

Aileen shrugged, said indifferently, and turned around happily to follow Bill's figure as he left.

Perhaps the Transfiguration cram school on Saturday would involve some new knowledge, but compared to the torment of two large classes every week, less than two hours of private tutoring was obviously much better – what's more, she might also serve as the question setter later.

Obviously, there was no reason for the question setter to do their own papers, which was the backdoor Aileen prepared for herself.

…………

After Aileen left, the group heading to the Transfiguration classroom became even more silent.

The entire class silently walked down the stairs, pushed open the door of the Transfiguration classroom with an atmosphere of tragic determination as if going to their deaths. No matter how Aileen comforted them, the miserable and desolate state of the fourth-year students was more convincing than any words.

Professor McGonagall arrived in the classroom as usual.

She seemed a little tired. The look behind her glasses was still as serious and sharp as ever, but the dark shadows under her eyes clearly indicated that she hadn't slept well last night – which undoubtedly added to the students' panic.

Even so, Professor McGonagall gave everyone a rare gentle smile as the whole class sat down.

After a whole night's effort, she finally completed the adjustment of the teaching plan for Hogwarts grades one through seven before class today, which was undoubtedly a very proud and inspiring achievement, and she had bought a lot of time for the students.

It was just that Professor McGonagall's smile didn't achieve the effect she expected.

The whole class trembled neatly, and a look of tragic heroism appeared on everyone's face.

"Really, what's wrong with you all today?"

Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows and asked, looking suspiciously at the students.

The discipline of the Transfiguration class had always been the best, but it rarely presented such a lifeless appearance. This reminded her of the sorting explanation before the annual opening banquet – many children seemed to have the same expression.

"But it doesn't matter, I believe today's course content will soon cheer you up."

Everyone trembled again, but no one dared to speak, their eyes filled with fear.

Now, the smile on Professor McGonagall's face couldn't hold on anymore.

At this moment, Hermione raised her hand and said softly.

"Professor, we just came down from the common room. The fourth-year students told us that the previous textbook content of Transfiguration has been almost completely overturned and falsified, and we have to start all over again, and that knowledge is very difficult –"

"Ah, so that's it."

Professor McGonagall said, nodding with a smile of realization.

"I understand your concerns, Miss Granger. The lower grades are different from the upper grades, they will take the O.W.L.s next year, so the pressure will naturally be greater. In fact, from an objective point of view, the new content is not unrelated to the past knowledge. You will soon understand that the new Transfiguration theory is actually more interesting, accurate, and simple..."

After a few seconds of pause, McGonagall frowned and glanced at the still gloomy classroom, and said with a slightly serious expression.

"I don't know what you heard from the fourth grade, but I must emphasize in advance that if anyone intends to be clever and say that they have forgotten how to transform because of this, or use this as an excuse not to do homework, it is best to dismiss the idea as soon as possible."

Strangely, as Professor McGonagall put on a straight face, the students' unease dissipated a lot.

Not knowing who started it, they began to eagerly describe to Professor McGonagall the decadent, pale appearance of the fourth-year students after returning to the common room, as well as the terrible scenes revealed by the senior students.

"It's so scary, Fred said we have to forget the wrong theories, otherwise we might blow ourselves up?"

"We have to turn the light into at least seven colors later, otherwise we will fail –"

"—People who fail will be put in small boxes and sent home!"

"I see, so Mr. Weasley and Hagrid understand it this way?" McGonagall asked, frowning slightly.

Under intentional or unintentional guidance, Professor McGonagall quickly reconstructed the scene in the common room from the students' mouths.

These contents didn't sound like they had been fabricated too much, but at first glance they were indeed terrible. Professor McGonagall silently wrote down the names that appeared more frequently in her heart, while comforting the students in the classroom.

"Fake news, it's all to scare you..."

"...Don't worry, Hogwarts will not punish students with Transfiguration..."

As one of the teachers who had taught at Hogwarts for the longest time, McGonagall had the ability to comfort students in a few words.

As she had said before, the class then became pleasant.

Professor McGonagall conjured a set of triangles, compasses, balances, and a pile of glass measuring cylinders, triangular cones, and various geometrically shaped metal blocks on each student's desk, just like a handicraft class at an elementary school outside.

"We use volume to describe the space occupied by an object." Professor McGonagall said as the students took notes. "Have you noticed those small squares in front of you? Next to them are two pieces of parchment, one is the formula for calculating volume, and the other is a blank form for filling in values and types – this is the content of today's course –"

Professor McGonagall waved her wand, and a burst of water sounded from the back of the classroom, and the students subconsciously looked back.

A row of sinks appeared at the back of the Transfiguration classroom, and one of the faucets was running water, but as the young wizards looked over, it closed again, and Professor McGonagall's voice continued to sound in the students' ears.

"Measuring cups, balances, everyone should have come into contact with these basic utensils in Potions class, but today I will teach you some new uses – let's try to use these simple tools to measure and calculate the small objects around us..."

Volume, mass, density...

These are the cornerstones of the "new version" of basic Transfiguration.

Compared to the upper grades who directly start memorizing formulas from scratch, the lower grades obviously have more time. They can gradually learn and understand the world while playing, and in the magical world, this game will become more interesting.

Looking at the students patiently measuring various things with rulers, Professor McGonagall nodded with satisfaction.

In addition to the objects provided at the beginning, the young wizards were also doing various simple transformations.

The young wizards who were promoted to the second grade already had a certain ability to transform, and in this class, Professor McGonagall did not limit the results of their transformation. Even if it was just changing the shape, it was considered a success – they could freely transform any object, and then use the thing they transformed to measure and finally fill in the form on the blank parchment.

Professor McGonagall looked around in the classroom, paying attention to the progress of each student, occasionally guiding some students on how to use balances, rulers and other tools in a standardized manner, while thinking about and perfecting the teaching plan details for the later grades in her mind.

After the help of Muggle scholars, Transfiguration was obviously more systematic.

From the most basic volume, mass, and density, to the simple mechanics derived from it, this was the course for the first half of the second grade.

And from the next semester, it will gradually involve optics and the establishment of crude virtual models, and will also involve a part of the habits and basic parameters of animals and plants, mainly in order to better grasp the changes in living body transformation.

As for after being promoted to the third grade, it can be regarded as truly starting a rigorous and scientific study of Transfiguration.

After all, any discipline always has a gradual process. Before the math class has learned about multivariate mapping, differentiation, and partial derivatives that McGonagall herself has not yet understood, the lower grades do not need to face those things too early.

Of course, the upper grades were obviously not so lucky.

For example, the content of the third grade in the next class is to use Transfiguration to reproduce the random tables filled in by the second-grade students one by one, and some of their results will be used as materials for higher grades.

It must be admitted that this graded, batched, and phased teaching method derived from Potions is still quite valuable for reference.

Professor McGonagall looked around at the excited classroom and nodded secretly – next class, she might try to take it a step further with practical exercises.

…………

At the same time, the Muggle Studies classroom.

Compared to the ease in the Transfiguration classroom downstairs, the atmosphere here was not so pleasant.

"So..."

Quirinus Quirrell narrowed his eyes, looked at the fat witch standing by the podium, and said in a bad tone.

"Are you planning to teach me how to teach, Professor Umbridge?"

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Yay!