You know, you’re right. I was going off the demonstration of partial Transfiguration:
And a few minutes later, Harry was strapped into the safety chair and resting his wand against a metal ball—one that, based on his current test scores, should have been too large for him to Transfigure in less than thirty minutes.
And a few minutes after that, Minerva was leaning against the wall, feeling faint.
There was a small patch of glass on the ball where Harry’s wand had rested.
Which seemed to me to indicate that the glass didn’t appear until a few minutes after he started the transfiguration. And the bit where Harry cuts through Azkaban’s interior wall seems to make somewhat less sense if it’s gradual- the motor oil would just drip out, for instance.
But the fact that Goyle could recognize the cauldrons before the transfiguration was done pretty conclusively rules the idea out. Oops.
As an airborne scout, Goyle was able to report what HJPEV & Blaise were in the process of transfiguring during the battle in chapter 78.
Is that less than conclusive evidence that the transformation is gradual?
You know, you’re right. I was going off the demonstration of partial Transfiguration:
Which seemed to me to indicate that the glass didn’t appear until a few minutes after he started the transfiguration. And the bit where Harry cuts through Azkaban’s interior wall seems to make somewhat less sense if it’s gradual- the motor oil would just drip out, for instance.
But the fact that Goyle could recognize the cauldrons before the transfiguration was done pretty conclusively rules the idea out. Oops.