Daily News: The Prophet of Hogwarts

Chapter 34 The Theft of Laboratory Mice

"Based on my current understanding, I think Gamp's basic transformation law has already explained it very clearly: transformation cannot completely create something from nothing," Ryan replied, emphasizing the word "completely."

"A very precise quantifier. Mr. Lane, why don't you demonstrate the reasoning behind this?" Professor McGonagall said.

“Of course, Professor,” Ryan said, picking up the quill in front of him and showing it to the Adventurers’ Club members present. “This quill is six inches long and weighs half a pound.”

Then Ryan tossed the quill into the air, and it rapidly expanded, covering the entire long table when it landed.

"Now, everyone can measure it. The length and weight of this quill pen should be three meters and thirty-nine and a half pounds, respectively."

"I used the Expansion Charm to enlarge the quill, and thus it changed. I can also use the Copy Charm to make many identical quills. In the process, the size and mass of the quills changed."

"However, I cannot create something from nothing completely, nor can I make the transformation process irreversibly and permanently solidify. After the magic I cast wears off, the quill pen will still become an ordinary quill pen."

After hearing what Ryan said, everyone nodded in agreement. It wasn't that they agreed with Ryan's statement; as geniuses of all of Hogwarts' Transfiguration, these people already had a deep understanding of Gump's Transfiguration principles through hands-on experience. They were simply praising Ryan's silent, wandless Transfiguration spell.

At this moment, Penelope suddenly asked, "Ryan, if someone eats food created by the Replication Charm, does that mean they've already eaten?"

Penelope Crivat landed a critical hit, with outstanding effect.

Ryan fell silent.

"Perhaps it has something to do with how long the Transfiguration lasts?" Finally, he said uncertainly, turning his pleading gaze to the true master of this place, Professor McGonagall.

Professor McGonagall noticed the look in Ryan's eyes and asked, "Mr. Ryan, why do you think this has anything to do with the duration of the Transfiguration spell?"

"This involves knowledge of ordinary people, Professor McGonagall. In layman's terms, it involves energy intake and the digestion and absorption of substances in the human body, sugar metabolism, the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and so on." Ryan rattled off a bunch of seemingly profound but actually incomprehensible terms.

Professor McGonagall froze, unsure how to offer her comment.

Everyone stared wide-eyed: What on earth was Ryan saying?! They didn't understand! What did he mean?!

Even Penelope, who was born a Muggle, had never been exposed to this kind of knowledge, and her two clear, bright, and moving eyes lost their luster.

With a frown, Ryan continued, "I suspect... if the replicated food goes through these processes, then people can actually obtain the corresponding energy, which would be equivalent to having eaten."

In other words, in this process, magic replaces matter as the body's nourishment... Following this line of reasoning, Ryan felt his head was spinning, as this involved the very nature of magic.

"Professor McGonagall, it's your turn to speak..." He looked at Professor McGonagall at the end of the long table and let out a silent shout.

Professor McGonagall, having just recovered from a string of biological terms, said, "I regret to inform you, Mr. Lane, that although there is no consensus in the magical world on this matter, the general view is that consuming food transformed by a copying spell does not count as eating."

Everyone turned to look at Ryan.

Facing the gazes of everyone around him, Ryan suggested, "How about we conduct an experiment? We need to prepare some experimental materials and subjects, such as mice."

"A white mouse? What's that?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"A small animal that appears in experiments on ordinary people, its advantage is that most external interference has been eliminated," Ryan said. "I think this experiment still needs Professor McGonagall's help, because without the help of solidification materials and rituals, my magic is not enough to maintain magical transformation for several hours."

Professor McGonagall agreed, and she was filled with a long-lost excitement, as if she had rediscovered her boundless curiosity when she first encountered magic in her youth.

Perhaps the rumors passed down in the magical world will be overturned today?

She had high hopes.

As Ryan instructed, the others went to the kitchen to get different types of food: meat, grains, and vegetables.

He and Professor McGonagall "borrowed" some high-quality white mice.

Cambridge University, the most prestigious university in England.

Students of all kinds come and go in a hurry, but never stop. In a deserted corner of the school, two people dressed in strange clothes appeared.

"Mr. Ryan, where is this?"

"The University of Cambridge, the most prestigious university in Britain, is a top university in the hearts of countless students around the world. Unlike Hogwarts, we graduate at seventeen, while they may not even be old enough to enroll at seventeen," Ryan said.

Then he smiled sheepishly and said, "We're here to borrow some lab mice. Don't worry, Professor, I don't think they'll refuse."

"Why do we need these lab mice? Can't we just buy some from elsewhere?"

"Professor, this involves the issues of controlled variables and external interference, which I can't explain in just a few words." Ryan shrugged. "Let me put it this way: the mice in this school have gone through multiple generations of non-toxic parental lines, and their physical condition and genetic characteristics are similar, which can eliminate interference from non-research subjects."

Minerva McGonagall nodded as if she understood, then watched as the best student at Hogwarts cast a Disillusionment Charm on both of them, turning them into well-dressed Muggles in suits and ties. Then, she swaggered out of the corner and stopped students much older than herself on the street to ask for directions.

Then, the two drove straight in and arrived at the biological laboratory.

Along the way, Ryan kept firing Muggle Exorcism Charms at things that looked like cameras in the corners.

Professor McGonagall knew that ordinary people's electronic devices would quickly break down under the Muggle Exorcism Charm. Watching Ryan's practiced movements, she asked, "Mr. Ryan, what are you doing?"

"Disrupting surveillance, destroying evidence, Professor McGonagall, I've been strictly following the secrecy laws!" Ryan still had an innocent smile on his face.

Is this how you comply with secrecy laws...? Minerva McGonagall felt something was off.

The electronic lock on the biological laboratory door was impenetrable, but after Ryan used "Alaho Open" to communicate with the electronic lock, they successfully opened the laboratory door.

"I need some lab mice for my experiments, and I hope you can lend me a few," Ryan said to the surveillance camera he had destroyed. "I'll count to three; if no one objects, that means I agree!"

"Three, two, one!"

"Alright, since you've agreed, I won't stand on ceremony with you anymore. Little mouse, fly over here."

A large number of mice found themselves lifted into the air by an invisible force and flying rapidly toward a certain place.

Professor McGonagall's CPU burned out, and she was speechless. She watched helplessly as countless adorable little white mice waved their pink paws in the air and fell into the sacks that Ryan had turned into from the broken surveillance cameras.

At the entrance of Hogwarts Castle.

The two returned using Apparition.

Professor McGonagall finally couldn't hold back any longer: "Merlin, Mr. Lane, this is robbery!"

"How could that be, Professor McGonagall!" Lane said righteously. "I believe that Cambridge University, as a global academic hub, would acquiesce simply by not refusing!"

"Mr. Lane, your actions tonight have seriously violated school rules and the secrecy law, which forces me to deduct fifty points from Ravenclaw's score," Professor McGonagall said, now finally understanding what true audacity meant.

Even the most Gryffindor Gryffindor wouldn't infiltrate a Muggle university to "borrow" lab rats in their fifth year!

"Professor McGonagall, let's go back now. Penelope and the others should be ready by now. I can't wait to see what kind of waves these fifty-point mice will make for us and the wizarding world."

Ryan, carrying a sack, strode toward the Transfiguration classroom.