If only it would last... on Transfiguration

Professor Sutekh

September 25, 2007 9:57 AM

Fifth Years. Lesson One by Professor Sutekh

Sanaa was beginning to enjoy teaching. Although what she had taught the first through fourth years had been very simple to her, the fifth years were starting a difficult topic she knew would be on their exams at the end of the year. As there was nothing to prepare for the fifth year’s lesson Sanaa decided to feed the animals in her classroom.

Two of the walls in the class we dominated by large windows under which sat many cages. Animals were a large part of any Transfiguration Master or Mistress’ life so Sanaa had learnt early on how to feed and look after many small animals. The other two walls had no animals; they were taken up with moving pictures of transfigurations, but on the ceiling hung lots of smaller cages in comparison to the ones underneath the windows.

It didn’t take Sanaa long to place food and water into the cages and she finished just in time for the fifth years to begin chattering outside of the classroom. She used her wand to cleanse her hands, and then tucked her brown hair behind her ears, before she walked to the platform at the front of the class where her desk sat, surrounded by the students’ desks in a half circle of two rows facing her. Sanaa sat on the front of her desk and opened the door with her wand. The fifth years entered and sat down fairly quickly compared to the other years.

“Hello class. My name is Professor Sutekh and I will hopefully be your Transfiguration Professor for the next few years. Today we are going to be transfiguring your chairs into cats. This is a difficult area of transfiguration as you have to remember that you are transfiguring something inanimate into an animate object. In other words a cat breathes, your chair doesn’t. This is where your imagination comes in. You need to imagine not only the outside of the cat you also have to imagine that the cat is alive and moving.”

Professor Sutekh pulled her chair from behind her desk and tapped it three times with her wand. The brown chair morphed into a brown cat licking its paws.

“I used to have a cat before I moved here, and this is how I always imagined her to look. Therefore whenever I transfigure a chair into a cat this is the pose it begins in. But of course the cat can move.” The cat stopped licking its paws and after a disdainful glance at the students jumped up onto the desk, curled up and played with a pot full of quills. “The transformation should hold for a long time. How long depends on your spell power. For the moment you will only have a live cat for a few minutes at most but with practise it should last for several hours. As with all transfigurations the object will eventually return to its original shape. For your CATS you will need the transformation to hold for a full two minutes.”

The cat on the desk stopped batting at the quills and transformed back into the chair. Professor Sutekh pulled the chair off the desk and sat down upon it.

“The incantation is ‘animare felis’ and is said as you tap the chair for a third time. The first time you tap the chair you imagine a cat, the second time you tap the chair you imagine the cat moving, for me it was licking paws and on the third time you say the incantation. Imagining in time with the taps anchors your thought to the spell and helps you to concentrate.”

“It will most likely take you a long time to master this spell and it will require not only practise in lessons but practise in your own time as well.” Professor Sutekh stood up and tapped her wand three times on the chair and it turned back into a brown cat licking its paws.

“I will leave the cat as it is to help you imagine a living cat. You may work in pairs, but you will be practising on your own chairs. Begin when you are ready.”

OOC: Have fun writing and use your imagination.

Subthreads:

If only it would last... by Nicoletta Dupree

I see this year being rather difficult by Earl Valentine

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

Nicoletta Dupree

September 26, 2007 12:33 AM

If only it would last... by Nicoletta Dupree

Walking into the Transfiguration classroom, Nicoletta opted for a seat in the front for two reasons. One was the fact that she wanted to concentrate on her studies. She was going to have to do well on her C.A.T.s in order to have any marketable skills, especially now that she would have to take care of herself rather than depending on her parents. The other was that she didn’t want to look at Adam, or Dalila. It was just a painful reminder, which would only distract her anyhow. She needed to be focused, not in wistful thoughts.

Taking her notebook out and a quill, one of the last fancy ones she would have, she jotted down some of the lecture that had started. It was an interesting spell to say the least and the point about a transformation having to last at least two minutes was duly noted. She had always been a fair hand in Transfiguration and the only reason she didn’t excel was a lack of effort. Well, now she was going to make one.

She committed the instructions to memory. The first time imagine the cat. The second time imagine the cat moving. The third time is the spell. Nicoletta mouthed the incantation, ’animare felis’. After a few more times, repeating this, she felt ready. Getting out of her chair, she avoided making eye contact with anyone. There were a couple of people that she could have worked with, but she preferred being alone. Her good mood from talking with Earl earlier had disappeared into one of passiveness.

Step one was to imagine the cat. She pictured the cat. It would have lungs and a heart. It would have a stomach and ribs. It would be female. She would have a pink nose and pink paw pads. She would have brown and black fur in stripes. The underbelly and mouth would be white. There would be white tufts on the ears and on the end of the tail. She would have short fur. Her name would be Lynx. She tapped the chair.

Step two was to imagine the cat moving. Nicoletta pictured Lynx. She would be a little aggressive, because she was a little shy. Once she warmed up, she would be sweet. She would stalk her prey in complete stealth. She was a warrior among cats. But in her off duty, she would curl up around her legs, purring, meowing in the little mews that were hers alone. For now, she was curled up on her back, her paws up. She knew she was cute and she wanted affection. Nicoletta tapped the chair.

Step three was to say the spell. Lynx was hers. She could feel it. Lynx was her. This cat would have been her patronus. Of course, in a silver form, but she knew it. It was a part of her. She tapped the chair and stated softly and firmly, “Animare felis.”

Appearing was the cat, perfect in every way. A smile crept onto her face. She scratched the cat on the chin, hoping it would last forever, but it would only last for minutes at most. The cat immediately began to purr. She knew that she would be practicing this spell all of the time. She needed a friend, someone to cuddle and love.

0 Nicoletta Dupree If only it would last... 64 Nicoletta Dupree 0 5

Earl Valentine

September 27, 2007 2:23 AM

I see this year being rather difficult by Earl Valentine

Earl raised an eyebrow at the desk arrangement, but said nothing. New teachers were always prone to do something strange with their room. too bad this professor's idea of changing the room about didn't involve sending the classroom into space, or a forest, or something cool like that. Just desks and animals everywhere.

He immediately sat down at one of the desks, and began shooting furtive looks at Nicoletta who sat diagonally in front of him. He turned to look at the new professor when she began talking about the day's task. Earl gulped. Turning a chair into a cat, sounded incredibly difficult. He stood up with everyone else and looked at his chair. He was having a tough time imagining the wooden chair as a cat. Closing his eyes tight, he tried to think of a cat. When was the last time he saw a cat?

He glanced around at the room, to see how everyone else was doing, and noticed Nicoletta reaching down to scratch a cat's ears. Did she already do the spell? And here he was staring at his chair like a moron. He closed his eyes and tried imagining a cat. A black one with yellow eyes that used to wander the alleyways near his house. He tapped the chair three times saying the incantation on the third tap.

Earl opened his eyes and looked down. It was still a chair...but it was covered in black fur. Earl scrutinized the furry chair for a moment before trying the spell again. The seocnd time the chair sprouted ears, and a tail, and the base of the chair legs turned to paws.

"Well, it doesn't love you like a cat, but it sure is comfier to sit on," he joked to the closest person to him.

0 Earl Valentine I see this year being rather difficult 67 Earl Valentine 0 5