The Contradictions in the Metamorphosis Class and Miss Oil Painting

"Angelina's right, Fred. I can't figure out a single problem. All we see is a white blur, nothing at all," Lee Jordan said, throwing his wand on the table in Transfiguration class, sounding a little annoyed.

"We definitely did poorly on the test, but you did very well. It's unfair to keep bringing this up."

"...I'm sorry, Lee, Angelina."

Fred and George were immediately flustered and quickly apologized.

George tried to comfort them, saying:

"We were just guessing randomly, maybe it was just luck. Last year in Potions class we were very confident, thinking we had made the right potion, but we still wrote down the scabies potion as the modified dung egg recipe. Snape was almost furious that day."

"Besides, the professor isn't necessarily right. Snape always says that everyone except the Slytherin students is a fool..."

"We all know that Flint is the biggest fool," he concluded.

Flint is the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, and he and the four others are old enemies.

They tried to distract the two men.

But they soon noticed that Lee Jordan and Angelina's expressions, after initially improving, turned to one of fear as they looked behind them. Fred laughed for a moment, then froze—

He turned his head slowly and found Professor McGonagall standing behind them, looking at them sternly.

"Professor Snape, Mr. Weasley, I expect you to be mindful of basic manners, or I will have to teach you a lesson by putting you in solitary confinement."

"I'm sorry, Professor."

Fred and George immediately lowered their heads obediently.

"alright."

Professor McGonagall turned around, walked onto the podium, clapped her hands, and drew everyone's attention.

"Alright, everyone, I finally understand what happened today—no wonder you all look so down. I can understand your mood swings because you didn't do well on the divination test."

"But I have to tell you, even I don't have the talent for divination. I believe Professor Victor would say the same thing to you: what matters is not talent, but your effort. As long as you work hard and make the most of your strengths, it doesn't matter whether you can do divination or not. If there is no divination class, there are arithmetic divination and astronomy to choose from."

Professor McGonagall hesitated for a moment, but ultimately couldn't resist adding:

"...Although I don't like to speak ill of my colleagues, even Professor Trelawney's divinations have often failed to come true. Every year she would predict that a student would die at the end of the semester, but so far, everyone has been alive and well."

Professor McGonagall's example immediately lifted the students' spirits. If even they weren't truly capable of divination, then talent didn't matter.

At least, most students temporarily forgot their frustration and started thinking about something else—

If even the original Professor Trelawney was wrong, then were the things that Cedric and the Weasley brothers divined actually true?

.......

Meanwhile, after the students had all left, Victor returned to his office.

The office remained gloomy and dark, with only a single lantern casting a dim light on the wall in the cramped space. In the pale light, Victor closed the fireplace door and sat back down at his desk.

Everything seemed the same as before.

But upon closer inspection, something seemed amiss. The kettle on the table had been moved, with only a corner of its handle protruding from under the table.

In contrast, on the large but somber oil painting, the long, somewhat haggard blond hair had vanished without a trace...

But if you look closely, you'll find that at the dark entrance to the top floor of the tower, there are faces that are almost indistinguishable from the shadows.

The people in the painting have moved.

She turned around herself.

The face got closer and closer to the camera...

"They've all left?"

A pleasant, clear sound rang out in the room.

Although there was no one else in the room, Victor seemed to have gotten used to it and sat down in a chair on his own.

"Yes, all the students have already left."

"So you've finished your work? You've planted the seeds of evil in those children?"

"I prefer to call it a 'hint,' Miss Rapunzel. I didn't stir up much conflict; I just caused some students to fail their exams. As long as they're still at Hogwarts, they'll only have more and more exam failures."

"No normal person would lose their mental balance because of this."

"They can adjust to failing ordinary exams, but you will teach more and more knowledge in your divination classes. As time goes by, short-term regrets may turn into long-term jealousy, thus distorting their minds," the voice said.

"It's like the difference between Muggles and wizards."

At this moment, the girl named Rapunzel finally appears in full in the painting.

She braced herself against the bricks of the tower, revealing her face. Her face had an oil painting quality, with rosy cheeks and features that possessed a captivating yet eerie beauty, but because she was so thin, her eyes were frighteningly large.

The sound I heard earlier came from her mouth.

Rapunzel is a nickname for lettuce, but she prefers this name because it makes her feel more like a person than a lettuce.

Yes, the Rapunzel in this painting is animated.

When Harry appeared in the office earlier, he had almost forgotten a basic piece of knowledge about the wizarding world because he had lived in the Muggle world for so long—wizard paintings are alive!

Although Victor isn't from the wizarding world, his paintings can actually move. However, due to different techniques, Rapunzel's portraits perfectly replicate the special charm created by the enchanted lettuce, so to avoid trouble, Rapunzel has to pretend she can't move.

"When Muggles and wizards exist in the world, Muggles will increasingly want to become wizards, and wizards will desperately try to distance themselves from Muggles..."

Rapunzel leaned against the windowsill, looked at Victor, and said softly:

"You want them to pay double the price again? Just like my mother and I did."

Her cheeks were thin, which made her expression look slightly unnatural, but her demeanor and voice didn't carry a sinister feel; instead, they possessed a kind of captivating power that made sensitive people feel threatened.

But Victor said, "Your assumption is too idealistic. The main difference between Muggles and wizards is other conditions, and what I'm doing can at most get one or two students to exchange something that doesn't really matter to him."

"That was just a casual experiment, which happened to save me some effort."

"As for what happened between you and your mother... that has nothing to do with me. You two came to me on your own initiative, trying to use the prophecy to get rid of each other." Victor shrugged.

If you can collect two prices at the same time, why not?

Rapunzel glanced at him and sighed softly, "Yes, but I gave up all the magic I had, only to receive the news that she had given everything and died—that wasn't what I wanted. I just wanted her to stop chasing after me and start a new life on her own."

She gave an answer that Harry might find shocking.

...In the story of Lettuce, Victor turns out to be the "mastermind" behind everything.

He received the price from both the witch and Rapunzel, yet he only did one thing: kill the witch. He didn't even fulfill Rapunzel's request directly; he merely took her magic.

But Victor remained calm in the face of Rapunzel's questioning:

"She only received what fate had ordained, Miss Rapunzel. Besides, it's a good thing to be free from that cursed magic. At least when your mother painted you, you were still the same, isn't that enough?"

"Alright, are you that free? How's the matter of getting you into those other paintings going?"