A discerning taste on Transfiguration

Professor Sutekh

September 25, 2007 9:58 AM

Sixth Years. Lesson One by Professor Sutekh

Sanaa stood at the window looking out over the school grounds. Behind her the Transfiguration Classroom was bathed in sunshine, the birds in the cages hanging from the ceiling sang joyful songs, the rats, frogs, mice and hedgehogs squeaked and snuffled around in their cages either on the ceiling or below the windows. Sanaa had never been outside since she started and realised she had missed it. Her husband had often dragged her on long walks where they used to have fun transfiguring everything around them trying to outdo the other. Sacmis, being twenty years older, usually won but she had fond memories of chasing him around a field with a colony of bats transfigured from pine cones.

Sanaa smiled at her memories and turned as she waved her wand at the door letting the sixth years into the classroom. She noted a few seemed surprised to see her not at her desk.

“Please be seated.” She watched as they sat at the desks in a half circle around her desk. She waited until they were seated before she closed the classroom door and walked to her desk upon which sat different vegetables. Sanaa stepped up onto the raised platform on which her desk sat and smiled at her class.

“I am Professor Sutekh and will be teaching you for the near future. Today we have an interesting lesson.” Professor Sutekh took a whole carrot off her table and tapped it with her wand. It slowly morphed into a chocolate frog, which hopped once in her hand before she tightened her grip upon it. She then broke it up and offered it to several students. “If you try it, it tastes of chocolate.” Some students who had taken the pieces nibbled the edges, and Sanaa watchd carefully for their expressions. “This chocolate still contains the nutrients found in a carrot as you are never actually changing the properties of the carrot in the first place.”

Professor Sutekh picked up a handful of peas and after a few taps had a handful of lemon sherbets.

“This spell is useful for when you, or when you are older your child, absolutely hates something. I often have nights when I curl up in front of my hearth, transfigure some carrots and broccoli into chocolate and have a relax. However I am still getting the nutrients and vitamins from the original vegetables. It makes me feel rather smug.” Professor Sutekh smiled before she waved her wand sending vegetables to the students’ desks.

“I am sure you probably have heard from my other classes but I believe in your imagination. You need to be able to imagine not only the image of the chocolate but also the taste at the same time. Otherwise you can have a chocolate frog still tasting of carrot.”

“You tap the food you are changing whilst saying the incantation ‘commutare esca’. This doesn’t only work on vegetables it can work on most food, but bear in mind you can only transfigure it into something of equal size. For example you would not be able to change a single pea into a large bar of chocolate. It also doesn’t necessarily have to be turned into sweets.” Professor Sutekh demonstrates on another carrot. The carrot morphed into a red apple.

“There is one word of warning. You have to be careful about food poisoning. You would never transfigure raw meat into chocolate as you are never actually changing the properties of the meat. It would still technically be raw.” Professor Sutekh hoped this would stop many students from ending up in the infirmary she didn’t particularly want to be on the wrong end of Nicolas Wolfe’s wand.

“You’re going to need lots of practise but I know from experience you are going to be trying at every meal so by the time your exams arrive next year you will have no problem with this spell. You may work in pairs but you will each be transfiguring your own vegetables. Please begin.”

OOC: Enjoy, post and use your imagination to make it interesting.

Subthreads:

A discerning taste by Zack Dill with Professor Sutekh

It's like summer all over again. by Mia Kerova

0 Professor Sutekh Sixth Years. Lesson One 0 Professor Sutekh 1 5

Zack Dill

September 25, 2007 12:40 PM

A discerning taste by Zack Dill

Zack walked into the transfiguration room and stopped dead at all the animal cages hanging about from both the ceiling and near the two walls of windows. Fortunately, the were small and, well, in cages, so he was able to convince his feet to keep walking. He claimed a seat in the front semicircle, two seats to the left of absolute center. He'd normally choose one a little further to the side (by two more seats), but this was a RATS level class and therefore probably a little bit smaller than normal (though transfiguration was a fairly core magical class and he imagined everyone who could take it, probably would). Plus, that seat had some mice overhead, and Zack didn't want anything landing on him.

This seat only had a ceiling above him and that was the way he liked it. Also, it had a piece of celery on it, which was his favorite healthy munchie (especially with peanut butter) and much better than the peppers, carrots, and string beans some of the other desks had. He carefully put the stalk of celery off to the side so he wouldn't start absently chewing on it before he needed it for the day's activity (which was its obvious purpose).

He opened his spiral notebook with the word "TRANSFIGURATION" written out in Basic letters on its front (it had been a while since he used the Star Wars alphabet and he'd been struck by a burst of nostalgia when he was deciding which notebook would go to which subject so all but his Runes one was labeled in Basic this year). Inside the front cover, he wrote the new teacher's name (also in Basic), then poised his pen over his first college-ruled line and waited for the lesson to begin.

He took his notes in the Runes language, Futhark, as much as he could, but where his vocabulary or time ran out (he wasn't yet very fast at his translations so he sometimes fell behind in the lecture), he filled in with his usual mix of Klingon and Sindarin.

He wrote in particularly large Klingon letters, DO NOT EAT CHANGED RAW MEAT OR OTHER REVOLTING FOOD OR YOU WILL FEEL AS THOUGH KHAN DISEMBOWELED YOU WITH A SERRATED TRIPLE BLADED KNIFE AND THREW SALT INTO THE FESTERING WOUNDS. (Klingon translations tended toward graphic violence - there was no direct translation for 'get a stomachache' or 'become sick'. Due to the Klingon word 'revolting' having a greater connotation toward 'attempting to overthrow authority', Zack was sure he could remember that he intended it to mean 'food you are allergic to' rather than something he just didn't like the taste of. Orcish suffered the same drawbacks as Klingon. The elvish languages, however, weren't nearly as effective in issuing warnings/threats. Likewise, Futhark's 'Eating bad magic foods will make you ill' somehow didn't carry the same dire foreboding that the Klingon translation did.)

Once he finished taking down his notes, Zack put the notebook away and pulled out his wand. He centered the piece of celery on his desk. He imagined a pile of nacho cheese Doritos. He imagined their crisp texture and the powdered flavor that turned your fingers red. He imagined the familiar taste and his mouth began salivating just thinking about it. Then, he tapped the long white-green stalk as he said, "Commutare esca."

"HA!" he crowed as he looked down at the trianglar chips. Their color was a bit off, looking a bit more cool-ranch than nacho-cheese, but the size and shape were appropriate. He picked up one chip and tasted it cautiously. He grinned. They were a bit stale, but he'd eaten them stale enough times to be able to enjoy them anyway. Now he just needed some Mountain Dew and his Sonoran life would be perfect. He raised his hand, asking when he was called upon, "Does this work the same with beverages, or does it have to be solid food?"

1 Zack Dill A discerning taste 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Professor Sutekh

September 30, 2007 11:31 AM

An Interesting Question. by Professor Sutekh

"Does this work the same with beverages, or does it have to be solid food?"

Professor Sutekh was amazed that this was the first question asked. Not only did it mean somebody had already mastered this difficult concept, but they were actually interested in learning more advanced material. She happily explained the new concept.

"It does work with beverages too. The incantation starts off the same as the one for food, 'commutare', then you have to add what you wish the drink to form into. Let me show you an example."

Professor Sutekh pulled out her wand and conjured a small cup, into it she poured water from her wand until it was almost full. She then touched the liquid with the tip of her wand and stated clearly;

"Commutare vinum." The water inside the cup turned from clear to red. "It is quite safe for you to drink this as, the same with the food, you are keeping the original properties of the wate, therefore there is no alcoholoic content in this wine. However you can transfigure wine into water and get drunk on it."

Professor Sutekh placed the cup onto the students desk so he could try it if he wished to.

"You could also turn the water from water to beer, or pumpkin juice. As long as you keep the 'communtare' base. I'll give you some space so you can practise." Professor Sutekh smiles at her student and returned to her desk to watch the rest of the class.

0 Professor Sutekh An Interesting Question. 0 Professor Sutekh 0 5

Mia Kerova

October 30, 2007 6:34 PM

It's like summer all over again. by Mia Kerova

Mia finished off the last sentence of her letter to Dino for his birthday just as she reached the door of the transfiguration classroom. She folded the paper and put it in her bag while walking inside. Mia approved of the new look of the room. She dropped her bag by a seat near the window. The professor was standing not far from Mia. Mia noted the vegetables on the professor’s desk and wondered what that was all about. She threaded her wand through her fingers like a small baton as per habit since first year while she waited to see if any of her theories would be confirmed.

Mia was definitely interested at the sight of the chocolate frog in place of the carrot. Not that she didn’t like carrots. So when she was offered a piece, she wasn’t hesitant since either way she would enjoy it. And since she had yet to see a professor make a mistake, she didn’t doubt it would taste like chocolate as Professor Sutekh said. And it did. Mia was quietly elated. This spell was surely a godsend as there were times in a girl’s life when nothing but chocolate would do.

Mia eyed the piece of broccoli that landed on her desk. Since it wasn’t one of those times when chocolate was a necessity, she considered what she was in the mood for. She could go for something sweet, but not hard candy sweet. The taste of that much sugar gave her a headache. Maybe something baked sweet. She recalled her birthday cake and smiled. It might be a bit of a stretch because the size difference was pretty big, but it couldn’t hurt to try. She raised her wand and concentrated. This was what she loved to do.

“Commutare esca.” She tapped the broccoli with her wand and it began to change. It took on a round form and then flattened on the top and bottom. She didn’t have a problem with broccoli either, but the new food was looking much more appetizing. When it finally formed, she saw an extremely miniature cake in front of her. It was funny because it looked just like the cake she had on her birthday, even her name written on it in chocolate. It was all just greatly scaled down. So much so, it looked more like a thick, spongy, decorated cookie.

She broke off a piece with her fingers and looked at it. The only problem she saw were a few scattered specks of green on the inside. She followed with a taste test and grinned. That was definitely cake. She heard Zack ask a question about drinks and listened to the answer. Professor Sutekh left a glass on Zack’s desk for him to practice the second spell. Mia subtly watched Zack and the water to see an example of an attempt with liquid. She still planned to try the food spell again and make sure it was completely right before she tried something like changing water into that drink she had at the beach and ending up with unpleasant results.

0 Mia Kerova It's like summer all over again. 0 Mia Kerova 0 5