[ALL] Transfigurations Class

[OOC: Hello! Welcome to class! Please keep your posts between 100 and 300 words if at all possible. If that means using different accounts to post different students, feel free to do that. But remember to take turns instead of posting back and forth with one other person. We want everyone to feel included, and want it to be easy for them to catch up with what is happening. Also, remember that failure is part of the fun, so don’t be afraid to let your student take a while to understand the task that is asked of themt].




'I hope that nobody is allergic to rabbits.' Amelia began after completing the register once everybody had arrived. 'Because today we're going to be transforming objects into rabbits.'

'As always it is easier to transfigure inanimate objects because they're less complex, which is why you will all see a stone before you.' Amelia continued, walking towards the desk closest to her own and raising the large pebble besides the students books. 'You'll need to ensure deliberate concentration and clearly visualise the process of the transfiguration of the stone acquiring the features of a rabbit such as the ears, the large incisors et cetera.'

'I don't expect any of you to achieve this on the first go and some of you may find it difficult to transform the stone into an animate rabbit, but for those of you that do I have something a little extra for you to progress onto and hopefully by the end of the first month of classes you'll all have progressed to transforming different animals into rabbits.'

'Now before you continue I want you to repeat the incantation after me: Lapifors'

'You'll only have a successful transfiguration if you focus, have a clear end result in your head and pronounce the incantation correctly.'

'Of you go.' Amelia ended with a smile before proceeding between the rows of desks ready to assist anybody who was having problems, although hopefully the students would work together and help each other. However, after a summer apart Amelia had a feeling that any talking the students did would probably involve catching up on their summer antics.

Contrary to their new professor's opinion, Jenna was confident that she would be able to transfigure her stone into a rabbit immediately.

Primarily because she'd done this class seven years in a row. It was the first lesson for every transfiguration class and if it wasn't on her NEWT exam, she was going to be very irritated indeed.

She picked up the river pebble and inspected it. Smooth, brown, very few faults running through it. Transfiguring it into a sleek, brown rabbit would be the work of a moment.

Though privately Jenna would beg to differ about inanimate to animate transfiguration being easier. She personally found animate to animate transfiguration much simpler, especially when the animals were, for example, both mammals. Then it was just a matter of rearranging their main parts a little.

Still, she concentrated on this rock and tried to conjure up the main components rabbits needed to survive. Bones, muscles, nervous system, digestion, cardiovascular, all this and more she had to hold in her head in order along with the distinctive things like fur and perky ears and fluffy tail that made the creature a rabbit rather than a stoat.

"Lapifors," Jenna swirled her wand above her river rock and felt the animal start to come together, before she was abruptly left with a mess of blood and gore across her desk.

Gross. She'd always preferred charms anyway.

Vaughn listened to the teacher as he sat in the back of the class room hoping that no one would take notice of him. After all the issues last year he can only hope that he goes unnoticed this year.

"Lapifors," he mimicked the teacher as he looked at the rock in front of him hoping for once that he can do it in on try. He pointed his wand at the rock and said again, "Lapifors."

The spell hit the rock and the only thing that came out of it was a tail and a pair of ears. Vaughn groaned but then winced when he saw another student had blood over her. Taking his eyes away from the girl covered in blood he tried again on his own spell.

Rabbits?

Ophelia held her breath and pouted her lips. Not that she had anything against those poor, little and cute creatures, but her body did. She was allergic to animals -- all sorts of them which had fur. And that made it harder for her to even breathe right now. She didn't even have the medicine with her, but hopefully she would survive this lesson.

Coughing quietly, although it sounded more like some sort of squeak coming from her mouth, she looked at the direction of other students. None of them seemed to have issues with their tasks and so she took out her wand as well, though she felt the need to inform the teacher about her current situation.

And yet she remained still and glared now at the small stone in front of her nose. "Lapifors," she repeated after the professor, only nothing happened. Pointing her wand at the stone, she repeated the spell quietly, but nothing happened yet. She sighed and looked around once again.

One boy had a stone with small bunny ears -- that looked funny, and then, something exploded and she looked towards that direction only to see a table full of blood. Ophelia covered her mouth with her hand and swallowed. Now, not only feeling afraid of her incoming allergies, she also felt like throwing up.

This was going to be a good lesson.

As Amelia strolled between the isles of the seated students the sound of students calling lapifors rang around the room. Occasionally a squeak appear. In hope somebody had managed to successfully transfigure their stone Amelia would look over, only to see the mis-transfigured magic return to a stone as the magic was unsustainable.

However, one thing that the Professor wasn't expecting was a little popping sound and the splatter of blood on her robes as she walked by Miss Boot-Corner. It appeared Jenna had either tried to transfigure her stone into a dead rabbit that had been brutally mutilated or she'd focused too much on the internal components of the rabbit.

'Nothing to worry about.' Amelia said, waving her wand and casting scorgify to clean the desk from the blood - along with the splatter that had splashed onto her robes.

'Sometimes our minds can get a little carried away focusing on all the functioning parts of an animal we want as the end result. Instead of focusing too much on each individual component try and think of them as a whole, working together to create something complete and wonderful.' Amelia told Jenna.

'That's the beauty of transfigurations.' Amelia said, this time addressing the rest of the class. 'It opens your eyes to the minute details of the world and how they all unite to form something so complex that, at a glance, seems to simple.'

Ending with a nod towards Vaughn who had only managed to attach a pair of ears and a fluffy tail to his rock.

'Try thinking about every inch of the stone completely morphing into a rabbit, whilst forgetting that the stone was ever there.' She said as she wandered across to his desk.

Malaika raised her hand. There were many things she didn't understand about the British education system and this was one of them. Learning things just for the sake of it.

"Excuse me, professor, but why would we ever need to transform a rock into a rabbit, specifically?" she asked.

She didn't want to say learning the spell seemed pointless to her, mostly because she suspected that would lose her house points at best. But she couldn't think of any scenario in which she'd particularly need a transfigured rock-rabbit.

"I mean, why a rabbit?" she expanded, in an effort to sound more respectful. "Why not a bird or a field mouse or a mushroom?"

Especially a mushroom, if it meant she wouldn't get splattered with blood like the older girl had.

Another lecture which Mia had to attend.
First thing she had seen when she sat down at her desk was a stone. Okay, this is getting weird.
When professor began with a lecture, Mia's eyes widened in disbelief.
She should stone, I repeat: STONE turn into a living being, or more precisely a rabbit.
After all, why rabbit? They are disgusting, just dirty all around.
She shook her head in disgust, she did not repeat spell out loud, but she remembered.

She sighed deeply and turned her wand to the stone.
"Lapifors" she murmured, almost indifferently.
Of course, in her case, lacked what was most important: concentration.
Her stone was changing form for couple of seconds, and eventually became a stone with rabbit ears and feet of grasshopper. How it happened, Mia did not know to explain. She looked shocked at her stone.