Transfig Basic Level: Lesson 1

Finn could not comprehend how everyone was so confrontational and she just wanted to turn into mist and disappear. She kept her down and fervently turned the pages of her book, trying to keep out of the tension caused by the couple. Nevertheless, she could not help but form her own opinions. Both of them had just... ignored Ariane. And, according to a voice from the back, just started making out. Finn was very glad she had not tried to pursue any sort of conversation with the Hunter boy then.

She lifted her head to look up at Ariane who was grinning widely. Finn found a small, trace of a smile tempted onto her lips, but was saved from much more by the professor speaking.

She was already good with Draconifors, so she decided on Evanesco. At the end of the last year, her professor had allowed her to try it out on a flobberworm and she had finally managed to do it. She figured being out of practice couple with the odd failings of magic recently would make the task harder - especially considering that a rock was much more dense than a flobberworm.

She retrieved two rocks - one for her and one for Ariane, placing the rock on the Hufflepuff's desk with a slight smile. She sat at her chair, back straight, perfectly poised, and set the rock in front of her. Her brow furrowed in concentration and she pointed her wand at the rock. "Evanesco. EVANesco. EvanesCO. Evanesco." The rock shivered and half of it disappeared. She grimaced. Whoops.

Still, that was something.

Vaughn sighed softly then said to Dakota in a soft voice, "Behave love." He got up going to the front to retrieve two rocks from the desk. He put one on Dakota's desk then one on his own. Wanting to see if he could do a dragon he pointed his wand at the rock. He made a slashing motion as he said, "Draconifors." A red light shot out hitting the rock and turning only half of it into a dragon. "Well that didn't work so well, sorry buddy." He said to the dragon on his desk. He rubbed it's head to calm it as he thought about what he could do to make it better. Slashing his wand at it again hoping the rest would transform. "Draconifors." He said again but the other end of the dragon turned into a head. "Bloody hell, sorry little guy I didn't mean for you to end up with two heads." The dragon was looking at the new head but instead of it being angry it seemed happy. Chuckling slightly he rubbed the heads softly as the dragons tried to figure out how to walk. He watched them with curiosity and amusement but he didn't know if he wanted to try the other one. Sighing he took a small wooden figure out of his pocket and placed it on the table.

He pointed his wand at it saying, "Evanesco." The figurine's head disappeared but that was about it. He groaned softly to himself as he looked at it. "I really would love to know when the magic is going to go back to how it was." He said the last part more to himself than anyone else.

When Bertie arrived at Transfiguration he had noticed the majority of the class filing into the room, a couple of people he recognised: Kit, the girl he'd shared a compartment with when the Hogwarts Express plummeted to the depths of the lake and ... Casey Weasley. A Weasley Bertie enjoyed avoiding at all costs.

Only last year had Bertie found himself in a nightmare game of hide and seek with Mary Mist and Amelia Cooper as Casey had decided to spark a firework show in the library after hours. In all fairness neither should have been there but the Gryffindor had been way out of line and to drag Bertie in it? The poor Ravenclaw could have gotten expelled had the Professors caught him in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily they managed to escape but not without the odd burn and an aching back from where the pair had been crouched on a shelf behind the desk out of view from the vultures. The memory still haunted Bertie and upon entering the classroom Bertie made sure to take a seat as far from Casey as possible and got out his books.

So Bertie would be continuing with the vanishing spell today. Great. He'd had difficulty with it the previous lesson. Usually the Ravenclaw excelled in the practical side of transfiguration, it allowed him to explore his imagination and inject a little creativity into a subject with a heavily dry theoretical component. The vanishing spell, however, had not brought any of that enjoyment.

Watching a fellow fifth year that he knew as Fiona who was a sat on the row in front of him the Ravenclaw too retrieved a couple of rocks and brought them back to his desk. The Professor had instructed the class to work as a team and help each other but neither seat besides him were occupied and the Ravenclaw was hardly the type to barge his way into another group - especially when the other groups seemed to be engrossed in conversation already. Hopefully someone would come to him, if not, well, he'd have to try and tackle the task alone.

Melody was late. Late, late for a very important date! she thought to herself in amusement as she ran down the hallway toward her Transfiguration class. She had woken up late and that had thrown everything into disarray. She had never been good at time management and this was no exception.

She slid into the classroom to find that some of the students were already doing spells. She glanced at the board, saw the two spells listed, and joined the side of the room with dragons. It seemed the most interesting of the two spells and she was hopeful that she could blend in and the Professor wouldn't notice.

Melody glanced around for a partner. Perhaps someone could catch her up to speed?

Katherine had fully intended to work on her own, starting with the vanishing spell - that sounded a lot less difficult than the dragon one. Although she had done both spells before, now that magic wasn't working properly, things were much more dangerous, and she knew she ought to take everything cautiously. But then a Gryffindor came in later, and Kit thought she recognized her.

While Professor Hayes was complimenting Fiona - "Two points to Hufflepuff, Miss Grimm. Excellent start. You'll get three more to make a nice set of five if you can get rid of the rest." - Kit decided to be friendly. She wasn't often outgoing anymore, but she didn't really want the other student to get in trouble. So she stood up and snuck past the professor as he turned to look at Vaughn's work - "Do consider going back to Draconifors, Mr. Hunter. Despite our magic being strange right now, you've got the whole class to try and get it right."

Kit gathered herself up a bit, trying to stand taller than she felt, and offered a small smile to the Gryffindor. "We're meant to work together," she offered, holding out one of the rocks that Professor Hayes had set out for them. "We're working on the spells on the board. Since magic is being weird and is sort of dangerous, do you want to work on the vanishing spell with me? I think it would be a safer start."

Melody was extremely glad that the Professor's attention was diverted from her late arrival. And when a Ravenclaw girl approached her and offered help, she was relieved.

She smiled and accepted the proffered rock. "Thanks mate! I'm Melody, or Mel for short. I've seen you around but don't really know your name. Sorry about that." She talked fast, part of her personality and the adrenaline rush coursing through her veins from her run - and bending the rules.

She took out her wand and swished it around a bit; not trying to perform any spells, just giving a good let-out. Then she was ready to begin. She squinted at the board and mouthed the word before saying it out loud.

She placed her rock on the desk, pointed her wand at it and intoned, "Evanesco! She was not at all surprised when nothing happened. She shrugged and glanced at the Ravenclaw. "You want to try now? I suppose we can take turns, just in case something bad happens. One of us should be prepared to step in and help the other, you know?"

Dakota glared at the little Lion, "Good for you. What do you want, kid, a medal?" She rolled her eyes and turned back around. Dakota smiled as Vaughn brought her a rock. "I am behaving. I havent laid a hand on her yet now have I?" SHe grabbed her wand and thought about the two spells. She pointed it at the rock and cleared her throat "Draconifors" Like Vaughn, she ended up with onyl have a dragon. She bit her lip and smiled apologetically to the creature on her desk "Sorry there, little guy." She pet its head and smiled as the dragon nuzzled into her hand.

Katherine was surprised to have someone call her 'mate' when they didn't know her, but she supposed the girl seemed nice enough. After all, if she was already calling Kit a friend, that wasn't too bad, was it? "My name is Katherine. Most people just call me Kit, though. Shorter that way," she replied, adding on the last little sentence, her cheeks heating a bit. She didn't often introduce herself to others anymore, so she felt silly for explaining her nickname.

Professor Hayes had turned his attention on the Slytherin girl who had managed about half of a dragon, saying, "Be sure to slash your wand through the air in front of the object. That might help get the other half done. I know that magic is a bit funny, but if you can get the other half and get him to fly around, I'll award Slytherin ten points."

Kit's eyes widened at the idea that the professor was handing out so many points for this lesson. But it actually made her more nervous; she had never actually been the best at Transfiguration. Potions was more her thing, unfortunately, so she was feeling less-than-prepared. She looked up again at Melody's question, though, nodding to show that she agreed. "Yeah, good idea," she replied, stepping forward.

She pointed her wand at the rock and called out the spell. Immediately, she knew something had gone wrong, because a bright light came from her wand. It wasn't supposed to make any light at all, she reminded herself nervously. And suddenly, she felt exhausted. It was as though the spell had drained her somehow. It reminded her of the last time she had been ill, so although she did deflate a bit and release a heavy sigh, she tried to shake it off. The rock, unfortunately, was pushed off of the desk and onto the floor a few feet away. Her cheeks colored when the professor raised an eyebrow at her, but he didn't speak to her directly. For that she was grateful. Perhaps he remembered the last time she had left school...?

"Miss Cooper," he spoke, addressing the Gryffindor instead. "Have you had any success yet? I can try to offer some help if it isn't going well," he added, his gaze darting over to the rock where the offending thing sat on the floor, mocking Kit from afar.

Casey glared long and hard at Dakota. Typically, her feuds were strictly with muggleborn-haters, pureblood snobs, and Death Eater sympathizers. She was much like her brother - legalistic almost in who was good and who was bad. She rarely hated someone just for being stupid, but there were exceptions on occasion, and Dakota was one of those exceptions.

But she had work to do.

Casey was slashing the air madly, staring at the rock. Nothing was happening. She paused, stared hard at the rock, and slashed madly, whispering the incantation.

A dragon appeared. Oh yeah. But it was a bit big. And it was still growing. She stepped back, the dragon stopping once it was about a foot tall. Casey stepped back staring at the dragon which was staring her down.

"Don't you-"

And it began hopping from table to table. Casey slid across her desk, ramming into Dakota, and then jumping over their table too in mad pursuit of the dragon.

Finn turned pink when the professor awarded her points, pleased but, as always, a bit embarrassed to have been called out, even for something positive. She nodded, looking at the rock in determination, really wanting it to be gone with everything she had.

Conversation was happening all around her, though. And she just could not seem to focus on the task at hand. She blinked around and tried once more to make the rock disappear. She took a deep breath and snatched up the rock, slowly approaching Professor Hayes. "Could I work on this at your desk? There's too much noise around me - I'm having trouble with focus."