Chapter 39: I Have Unique Insights into Transfiguration
Back in the dormitory, seated at his desk, Regulus gently ran his fingers over the deep blue dragon-hide cover of McGonagall's notebook.
He skimmed through several pages. True to the professor's word, there were no specific spells — only sustained, deep reflections on the essence of Transfiguration.
One passage on the difficulty gradient of material transformation caught his attention.
McGonagall argued that the difficulty of Transfiguration was tied not only to the complexity of the object but, more critically, to the inherent structural stability and strength of "form memory" within the material itself.
Combining today's discussion with his own practice, a key conclusion about Transfiguration was essentially confirmed in Regulus's mind.
Elemental transformation — changing one pure substance into another form of the same element — was harder than converting one complex compound into another, especially when it involved a total alteration of the material's intrinsic properties.
Turning a wooden rod into an iron bar meant converting one complex organic structure into a metallic crystalline one: essentially replacing one established internal structure with another.
Many young wizards could manage this, though most only changed the outward form.
But turning graphite into diamond meant transforming one allotrope of elemental carbon into another.