Lesson 1 - N.E.W.T. level

Another school year, another bunch of new and old students... Every year the same, but every one of those years he enters these classrooms with a smile on his face and joy in his heart because of the classes and the opportunity to teach new wizards and witches what he knows. The lesson plan and the working methods are still the same, the classroom is still empty... but the latter will soon change. Professor McCoy took his seat at the front desk and waited, scrolling through the enrollment list for this year.

Transfiguration had always been a fascinating subject for Amelia, especially since her father dappled heavily in this area of magical research and had given her a taste for it from a very young age. In all her logic and reason, Amelia could see the practicality of transfiguration and knew it would be applicable, no matter what career she decided to pursue after this year; unless, of course, her mother got her way and she ended up becoming a concert pianist, which in Amelia's opinion, would be an epic waste of her intellectual ability and education at Hogwarts. She wanted to practice spells in her daily life, not scales.

She knew she was early when she got to the classroom and found it deserted save for the professor, but this did not faze her as she took her usual set and pulled out her transfiguration book. She had already read through it in its entirety, but there were a few passages she had yet to memorize, and thus she flipped immediately to those pages and began to convert the slightly familiar words to complete memory.

A quick check of the timetable hadn’t been necessary for Elijah that morning. He didn’t know whether he liked Transfiguration or not but what he did know was that it frustrated him to no end. Goblets purred and pillows had whiskers. He didn’t know why his magic like felines so much but he’d given up questioning it. He just got on with it now but it still irked him somewhat. He was still early. Somehow he’d gotten into the habit of rising early to avoid his roommates and get on with everything he had to do without them breathing down his neck about hurrying up. It also gave him plenty of time to have a cigarette before heading to classes. He’d already been down to the kitchens to see the House Elves so he was filled and particularly content.

Today, the Slytherin had confiscated some sort of Muggle cube off of one of the first years. He assumed it was a Muggleborn student because he’d never seen a cube with so many colours on it before. He was guessing that the colours were meant to be aligned but he wasn’t entirely. Elijah entered the classroom, still twisting the cube sides around, and shut the door behind him with his foot. He mumbled “Good Morning” and continued to twist the sides of the cube around. He chucked his bag onto the floor and sat down in his chair, not realising that he wasn’t late or the last in the classroom but in fact that he was the second.

Brienne tidied up her robes and such, gathered her transfiguration materials, and put a smile on her face. This would probably be one of her favorite classes. Especially if whatever she made from whatever else was living, and could climb up her sleeve. She had to wonder, though, how did the atoms and molecules of one thing become something totally different with just one spell? Of course, she was thinking about this all the while, and had been practicing spells taught in previous years while in the dorms. Daniel always made sure to pack extra stuff for Brienne to do this.

"Hello all!" She said, cheerfully as could be. She took her seat in the front row, her usual spot.

Salem Everwood stepped into the classroom and almost immediately regretted it. Anxiety seized her heart and she paused, her eyes darting to the front and the back, the back and the front. She could never decide where would be the best place to "hide." Which place would help her disappear? In the front, no one would bother her because she was right in the professor's range. But then there was the professor... Then again, the back usually housed the troublemakers.

She headed for the leftmost desk in the back, deciding the corner would be a sufficient enough place to disappear. But as she sat down, more anxiety stabbed through her as she glanced up at the professor. She never knew if the professors knew about her condition- about the fact that she had selective mutism, and therefore, would not be speaking in their classes. Fortunately, she was a master at nonverbal magic, having excelled at it even at an early age, but it still came as a shock to adults when they demanded her name and she could not give it.

She pulled out her notebook, knowing full well it would be her best means of communication. She realized that it may be a problem, being in the back unless the teacher was one to move around. Well, worst come to worst, she would be moved where her notebook could be of easier access. That really was the least of her worries right now, though.

Transfiguration was more useful than most people gave it credit for. They thought about switching spells and wondered when they'd ever need to turn a needle into a matchstick or transform a mouse into a snuffbox. The trick to transfiguration, Angelique found, was going beyond the things you learned in class when you had to apply it to the real world.

So, anyway, she was still doing transfiguration. There was a reason it was a core subject in first year. There was also the possibility of becoming an animagus, but Angelique wasn't sure what she thought about doing that, yet. It was complex and dangerous magic, took time and energy, and really, was turning into an animal really worth it?

Chase sighed and walked down the hall, half dragging her bag with her. It was to early, sure it was morning, but she was never fully awake until noon, when she got a breakfast in. She had scarfed down some breakfast, and made it to class with time to spare. Glancing around the almost empty classroom, she made a quick check of who was in it. A random chick in the back who looked like a deer in headlights, Elijah Krum, some Slytherin girl, and two other Ravenclaws. Of course there would be Ravenclaws in this class. Show up everyone else with their superior intellect, which one seemed to be doing at that moment, reading her text book.

Chase rolled her eyes and moved over to Elijah Krum, he had helped her a lot when school had started, and she wouldn't forget that easily. She sat down next to him, pulled out her textbook, a quill, some parchment and some ink, placing them carefully on the desk, trying not to make to much noise. It hurt her head this early in the morning. Even though it wasn't exactly early.

Chase glanced at him and saw what he was doing. "I know what those are.." She said and then blushed when her voice carried across the quiet room. "Rubix Cube." She half whispered and leaned forward to doodle on her paper for a moment before glancing at him. She hadn't made up with Andrew yet, in fact, she hadn't even seen him, but she didn't really care. She was relatively happy, pushing herself into her studies, determined to do better this year then her other years.

Jack walked towards Transfiguration, her solitude more noticeable than ever before in her entire Hogwarts education. Jack had always been an independent person who did not need an entire entourage to entire a classroom. But with the new additions of friends this summer she had not imagined walking the halls to be such a lonely affair.

Though she could hardly expect to be walking arm and arm with Andrew and Chase, could she? Not after the whole Vito situation, and the summer party where everything had gone up in flames. And then there was the Elijah Krum incident. Yes. Jack and her friends redefined the words "crash and burn." No...they perfected it.

She walked into her Transfiguration class, vaguely realizing that she had fallen into the bad habit of being on time. She began to look around the class, thinking to make new friends. Or maybe she would even sit with one of her old friends, slowly fix this mess they had gotten themselves in to.

She immediately changed her mind once she saw Chase sitting next to Elijah. All thoughts of socializing left her head and she headed for the back of the class, slipping into her seat and yanking her things out of her bag, feeling like the day was about to take a turn for the worse.

Simon walked into the Transfiguration classroom, sending the professor a promising smile that Simon had designed to give people a feeling like they could definitely see good things out of him. That was how Simon operated. Get people to expect things out of him. He already had his father's expectations; what more was the expectations of his educators.

He walked forward and his eyes scanned for a seat. He chose one on the second row, which he found was the best place for academic and social balance. He could not be called a teacher's pet and he could still focus on his work. It was perfect and Simon would not dream to question his system in his second to last year at Hogwarts.

''My dear newts, I welcome you all to another term of Transfiguration, for some the first, for some the last'', he said, standing up, looking at the class. ''There is a lot of you present today, which is something you will continue doing, I hope. Out of all of you, I am extremely pleased to have Miss Lyons back in class, as she is one of the brightest and most intelligent pupils I have ever had the pleasure of tutoring. To the rest, I do hope we shall have a healthy and prolific relationship which will result in you learning something from me, and me learning something from you'', he explained. ''Also, Mister Krum, you are somewhat of a senior now, and I shan't tolerate the pranks you were used to pull during your recent years'', he said. ''I presume you all know the rules and requirements of my class, the only new thing is that I shall punish those who are late more strictly from this term, which is why I hope you shall be on time this term. Now, since you do not need any kind of introduction from me about this subject, I shall start with a simple lesson today, but do believe me... this term will be extremely tough, especially for those who are currently in their last year, since they will have to fortify what they have learned so far and fortify it well, and it will ask for a lot of your knowledge and labor. Now, to get back on track, an old man can easily get distracted, Cross-Species Transfiguration... can anyone tell me what it is and name a few examples?'', he asked.