Harry tried hard to lift his upper body and saw only the tip of a round, chubby tail.
Padma, stifling her laughter, crouched down and conjured a small mirror in her palm, finally letting Harry see what he looked like now.
His whole body was covered in emerald-green scales and was coiled on the floor. His head was round, with dark green markings circling his eyes—on closer look, the markings clearly mimicked the shape of his glasses.
"Hisss—" Harry couldn't help saying, "this feels so strange."
"Hmm?" Hermione poked his head, reminding him, "That's Parseltongue you're speaking, Harry."
Harry flicked his tail and muttered dryly, "Why a snake? I wanted to be a lion."
As soon as he said it—pop!—he changed back. Harry staggered and quickly steadied himself on the sofa, and adjusted his glasses out of habit.
His legs felt a little weak, as if he wasn't quite used to having them again.
"This really feels way too strange!" Harry grumbled once more.
"Let me try."
Theo casually popped a gummy into his mouth, and with a soft poof, he shrank down into a ball. In the blink of an eye, a fat orange tabby cat stood on the floor, flicking its ears and staring around in confusion.
Everyone burst into laughter again.
The tabby had a naturally grumpy face, half-dead fish eyes, and was so fat it looked like a tiny truck. The rolls of flesh on its belly nearly sagged to the floor.
Ryan couldn't resist scooping him up, weighing him in his arms with amazement. "Merlin, this is the fattest cat I've ever seen!"
The tabby patted its fluffy belly and spoke in Theo's voice: "Next time, I hope I turn into something lighter. I feel like I'm on the verge of a heart attack at this weight!"
A while later, Theo turned back. Rubbing his neck, he asked, "Why do the transformations always turn into these… uh… unrealistic-looking forms?"
George blinked. "Aha, don't you think that makes it more fun?"
"That's exactly what we picked out carefully!" Fred nodded seriously. "Even if you do nothing else, just the moment of transformation is enough to make people laugh!"
Wade set the jar of gummies down and explained:
"From a safety perspective, overly realistic animal forms could cause panic. Think about it—if a venomous snake or a giant spider suddenly appeared next to you, even knowing it's just a transformation, people might still freak out."
"And realistic animal forms could also be exploited by those with bad intentions—for example, sneaking into places disguised as someone's pet…"
Everyone thought at once of Peter Pettigrew—And the Weasleys, in hindsight, felt very lucky that Percy had given him to Ron (Ron: huh?), and not to their little sister Ginny.
"So, we chose to keep the fun features of animals while mixing in Muggle-style cartoon traits, making the transformations look less realistic," Wade continued.
"In other words…" Harry asked thoughtfully, "it is possible to transform into very realistic animals—you just deliberately didn't do it?"
Fred nodded. "That's right."
Michael's eyes lit up. "Then if you did turn into a completely realistic animal… wouldn't that basically be like a simplified version of becoming an Animagus?"
"Exactly—and then the Ministry of Magic would be inviting us over for tea!" George quipped from where he sat on the table.
Fred imitated the tone of the Aurors and said sternly: "Production forbidden! Sales forbidden! Destroy all products immediately, or we'll send you to Azkaban!"
George spread his hands and added: "So you see, this is just a prank product, got it? It will never replace real Animagus transformation."
Hermione was taken aback. "Remarkable—you two actually thought this through to such a degree. In that case, I suppose Aslan's Magical Workshop will soon be putting out another new product, won't it?"
Fred coughed, and George's eyes drifted upward.
"What is it?" Hermione asked suspiciously when she saw their reaction.
"Well…"
Fred scratched the back of his head and looked unusually awkward: "We don't really want to hand this product over to Aslan's Magical Workshop… we want to make it the signature item of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes."
As he spoke, he darted a glance at Wade out of the corner of his eye.
Although the Morphing Gummies were developed from the Canary biscuits, without Wade they would have remained nothing more than "turning someone into an oversized canary." They would never have become this fun or this varied.
But if the Morphing Gummies were to be sold through their joke shop—which for now existed only on paper—that meant Wade would have to wait a long time to see any profit.
And unlike Marchionne's company, the twins couldn't instantly begin mass production to ensure the inventor got a handsome share.
"Of course,"
Before the others could catch on, George smoothly picked up the thread and spoke a little faster than usual:
"This is only our preliminary idea. After all, we still have more than a year before graduation! Who knows, by then we might have even greater inventions."
So if Wade disagreed, they would respect his decision and move on to researching other prank products.
Wade understood what they meant and said with a smile: "It doesn't matter to me who sells the Morphing Gummies. At the end of the day, the foundation is your invention—it's only right that the two of you decide."
The twins visibly breathed a sigh of relief, then said a little sheepishly: "But that would mean we might not be able to give you as much profit as Marchionne could…"
"That's no problem. I already have more than enough money," Wade replied with a grin. "Besides, I'm really looking forward to seeing your joke shop open."
"You won't be disappointed!" George said excitedly. "From now on, you'll be our VIP customer—every new product will be yours to try for free!"
"Sounds good," Wade said with an amused smile. "It may look like I'm taking a small loss right now, but in the future, you'll certainly make me earn much more."
"Of course!" Fred puffed out his chest and declared boldly: "We'll open the most popular shop in the entire world and create prank products that everyone will love!"
Hermione shook her head helplessly and muttered to Neville under her breath: "These three… who would actually like prank products?"
Neville, who was always on the receiving end of such things, nodded in full agreement: "Yeah, I don't like pranks either… but then again, those Morphing Gummies are actually kind of fun."
Hermione: "…"
Honest Neville continued to ask: "You don't like turning into a pegasus, Hermione?"
"Well… flying wasn't that bad…" Hermione said, her eyes darting about. "But I hated that feeling of being out of control! I was just… I was just appreciating the brilliance of the transformation magic from an academic perspective! Purely academic!"
…
The Morphing Gummies soon stirred up a wave of transformation mania throughout Hogwarts.
Even though the joke shop wasn't open yet, Fred and George opted for small-scale sales—and that only made the students go crazier.
At the breakfast table, in the corridors, on the lawns—Wade would often see some students go pop! and turn into a rainbow-colored sloth, a little yellow dragon that blew soap bubbles, or a dopey-looking penguin.
It was said that one particularly bold second-year student had actually transformed into a sluggish snail right in the middle of Snape's Potions class. The furious professor docked points from him, his desk-mates in front and behind, and even sentenced several of them to detention.
Soon after, a new entry appeared on Filch's list of banned items, yet the public transformations still went on unabated.
Whenever students were caught, they would righteously and pitifully protest: "I don't know what happened, Professor! Someone must have slipped a Morphing Gummy into my lunch!"
Their earnestness was enough to make even the stern Professor McGonagall chuckle.
For the first time, she didn't have much to say about the Weasley twins' pranks. In fact, if she wasn't present at the moment of transformation, she would sometimes even pretend not to notice.
But privately, McGonagall summoned Wade and the twins to her office and asked sternly: "Are you absolutely certain this product is safe?"
"What product?" Fred feigned ignorance.
"It's perfectly safe, Professor," Wade said. "We were the very first to test it ourselves. And during this time, we've kept records of every transformation and collected a great deal of data."
The twins instantly whipped their heads toward Wade, as if he'd betrayed them. But when McGonagall's eyes swept back across them, they quickly straightened up and said in unison: "Safe, safe! Absolutely safe!"
McGonagall fixed them with a long stare, then sighed. "Just don't let me catch you using it in class."
That was as close to tacit approval as they could hope for.
The Weasley brothers did, in fact, keep their word. Unfortunately, not every student who got their hands on Morphing Gummies knew where to draw the line.
No one knew which daring student it was (though afterward everyone agreed it had to be a Gryffindor), but someone secretly slipped a gummy into the staff's dining table. From where it had been placed, he probably meant to play a trick on Professor Snape.
But as soon as Dumbledore sat down, his sharp eyes spotted the unusual candy. He picked it up and examined it thoughtfully for a moment.
Snape's expression changed. "This wouldn't happen to be…"
His murderous gaze instantly swept toward the Gryffindor table—more specifically, to Harry, who was busy sharing a chicken leg with Ron.
Harry: "...?"
He looked back at Snape in bafflement, having no idea what was going on, but without hesitation returned the professor's glare with one of his own.
Snape's face darkened even further, his fork giving a little creak as it bent slightly in his grip.
While their eyes locked in silent battle, Dumbledore had already popped the candy into his mouth with curiosity. Across the table, McGonagall's eyes went wide.
BANG!
A massive brown moose now sat in the Headmaster's seat, nearly shoving Professor McGonagall right out of her chair. She grabbed the edge of the table and shouted angrily: "Albus Dumbledore!"
The moose turned its head with its square nose snorting, while its pair of bright blue eyes gazed at the furious McGonagall. In an especially simple, honest-sounding tone, it said:
"Relax, Minerva. This is just a bit of fun."
Even after eating the candy, Dumbledore could have easily resisted the transformation, but instead he chose to go along with its magic, allowing himself to turn into a moose.
During the short time it lasted, he even clumsily tried to use his front hooves to pick up a baked potato.
As Dumbledore turned his head this way and that, the huge antlers atop it inevitably bumped into Professor Snape's head.
Snape's expression froze. Slowly, he turned toward the moose, wearing a look so murderous that even Harry instinctively grew tense, half-suspecting he meant to tear the moose's head clean off.
But Snape said nothing. He merely hurled down his fork with a face full of killing intent, swirled his black robes, and strode away. As he passed Wade, he couldn't resist shooting him a vicious glare.
Wade: "…"
He couldn't shake the feeling that lately, Professor Snape's favorability toward him had been plummeting off a cliff.
…
Late at night, the wardrobe space was utterly silent. The magic dolls were all down in the underground chamber; in the potion room, only Wade remained.
Before him, the cauldron glowed with a ghostly blue light. A faint green mist slowly rose up, giving off a strong impression that this potion is poisonous.
In fact, what was simmering in the cauldron was the unfinished Morphing Gummies potion—the very candy that had taken Hogwarts by storm.
Wade stirred the mixture intently, his bangs dampened slightly by the steam. After three stirs clockwise and three stirs counterclockwise, the potion suddenly shifted from blue to a clear, water-like transparency.
Normally, this was the point where one would add mandrake leaves and cast the Transfiguration spell. But tonight, Wade instead reached for a bottle beside him, taking out a few slick, rat-tail-like plants.
It was the gillyweed that Maggie had given him.
The moment the herb touched the liquid, it dissolved instantly. Wade stirred the potion slowly, sprinkling in a final pinch of powdered moonstone. Counting silently to thirty, he watched as the potion thickened from clear to viscous—then swiftly lifted the cauldron off the fire.
The flames died out. The potion congealed into a translucent gel. With a wave of his wand and a long incantation, several rounds later, there were now a few round candies inside the cauldron.
He picked one up between his fingers and examined it.
This candy was two or three times larger than a normal Morphing Gummy, gray-green in color, with a faint fishy smell of the sea—hardly appetizing to look at.
Light flickered in the young wizard's eyes. After gazing at it for a long time, he finally smiled in satisfaction.
Wade put the rest away, then left the potion room and walked to the lakeshore. His wardrobe space, much like Scamander's suitcase, connected to an external lake—within it lay a sizable stretch of water.
The lake was cool and refreshing, with little fish occasionally darting by the shore.
Wade slipped off his outer robe and stepped slowly into the water. When the icy lake reached his waist, he swallowed the green candy.
"Wish me luck," Wade murmured.
BANG!
As the smoke of transformation dispersed, the figure by the lakeside vanished. Only rippling circles spreading outward proved that something had just been there.
Suddenly—
Splash!
A long, slender fish tail broke the surface of the lake before falling back. It slapped the water, sending droplets flying, and its scales glistened like gemstones in the light.
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