Prickly crystal on Transfiguration

Professor Sutekh

June 07, 2008 2:47 PM

Year 5 by Professor Sutekh

Sanaa set up her classroom smiling. She was teaching the fifth years complex layered spelling today, which happened to be Sanaa’s favourite topic. She had recently published an article in a world renowned Transfiguration magazine on this exact subject. Of course she knew she would never be teaching her advanced ideas to any students; the runic equations involved were intricate, but she still enjoyed the simplicity of the CAT determined standards.

On each table was a rock, a standard object used in the CATs and easy enough to find anywhere in the world. Sanaa had not removed the chairs like she had for every other class as students tended to get frustrated with this topic and she thought it far less likely they would throw their rock if they were sitting down.

Sanaa opened the door early and happily sat in her chair behind her desk as she waited for the students to trickle in. Once she was certain all of the students were there she closed the door and stood up.

“Good morning class. Today we will be practicing multi-layered spell casting. You will begin with the rock on your desk. First you will transfigure it into crystal and then into a living plant. I’m sure I said this last year but imagination is the key. You need to imagine a crystal in place of the rock and then imagine the plant in place of the crystal. A common problem is people attaining the crystal but then creating a crystal plant as they forget that a plant is alive and the crystal is not.”

Sanaa waved her wand and rock floats out of a box on the floor and onto her desk.

“The first part of the spell is the easiest and requires a swish and a tap of the wand on the rock whilst you say ‘Adfectio Crystali’.” Sanaa demonstrated and turned her rock into a crystal. “Next you tap the crystal then twirl your wand in four anti-clockwise circles whilst saying ‘Adfectio Floris’.” Sanaa demonstrated and turned her crystal into a rose plant. “A rose is my favourite plant and my garden at home is full of them, hence it is easier for me to imagine its details. I would suggest using a plant you are familiar with.” Sanaa waved her wand and moved the box of stones forward. “Here is a box of stones, for if you make a mistake and the rock doesn’t change into its original form within a few minutes. You can work in pairs but please transfigure your own rock. Please begin.”

Subthreads:

This is not going well. by Morgaine Carey

Imagination, check. Concentration, not so much. by Saul

Prickly crystal by Adam Brockert

0 Professor Sutekh Year 5 0 Professor Sutekh 1 5

Morgaine Carey

June 08, 2008 11:41 PM

This is not going well. by Morgaine Carey

Morgaine still didn't know quite what to think of Professor Sutekh. On one hand, the woman was competent, kept order in her classroom, and had yet to show any interest in Morgaine and her mental health. On the other, the woman was a member of the school of thought that put what Morgaine thought was far too much stock in imagination. Imagination was for that one percent of the population that deemed itself suited for research, not the likes of Morgaine Carey.

She had largely forgotten the matter of her feelings toward her Transfiguration teacher over the summer, but it was too clear that the professor was enjoying something for her not to resume her puzzling. Folding her small hands in her lap, she just watched Sutekh without expression as the remaining fifth years trailed in, not really caring if it was noticed or made the professor uncomfortable. It did no good; by the time everyone had arrived and the door closed, she was just as much in the dark about her opinion of her teacher and on why her teacher was pleased as she had been beforehand.

It was only willpower and practice that let Morgaine remain impassive when the assignment was announced. She wasn't bad at Transfiguration by any means, but that was because she'd always had a policy of more or less attacking anything that she found difficult again and again until she got it right. She did not find Transfiguration easy, and the very thought of transfiguring a transfigured object...Merlin! If she had to do that for her CATS, she might have to surrender her dream of making more Os than Es and nothing below an E. Below the desk, her hands were in knots.

The pain made her focus. She had not even tried it yet, and she had plenty of time to attack potential CATS material to her heart's content. It was not the time to start giving up for anyone, especially not for her. She had never yet given up on anything she really wanted, and she really wanted the highest marks in her year, if only to show up the Aladrens. Besides, Careys didn't give up no matter how clearly they'd lost. That was just a fact. She took her wand out, her face set with determination.

Imagination. If that was what it took to win, she'd play by the professor's rules. Crystal, to her, was impossibly tied up with her aunts and the pretty sparkly things they shared such a passion for and that she and the other children were strictly prohibited from touching. The problem was, she was pretty sure those pretty things were made of glass and that was the professor had produced was not. Why could they have not been allowed to see Sutekh's crystal longer? She didn't relish the thought of trying to replicate something she had only seen for a few seconds, but it was the only way.

Repeating the professor's wand movement as closely as she could, Morgaine pronounced the first spell. It took a few tries, and it never did look like what she thought Sutekh had made, but she finally got something she thought would constitute a crystal, if a greenish one that looked a bit like a cone with slightly faceted sides. She did not look to see if anyone else had done more in the same time. She was not interested in speed, at least not for now. Later, maybe. It was not too bad, for a first attempt.

Now the second spell. Half the class period had gone by, but she refused to let that matter. Maybe there was some importance to imagination, but it still paled beside the importance of sheer determination. She'd been allowed to study medicinal herbs over the summer and thought - that was the key word - that she could form a decent image in her mind of a foxglove.

At ten minutes to the bell, Morgaine sat back in her desk with a satisfied half-smile, surveying the plant in front of her. It had been difficult, and the effort had reduced her to swearing under her breath more than once, but that did not matter now that she had done it. The foxglove was perfect. She put out a hand to touch a leaf...

...And discovered it was made of metal.

The smile vanished. Her face twisted into a scowl that was half-anger and half a desperate attempt not to cry. If she had been free of the blight of Lila St. Martin's presence, Morgaine thought she might have put her head down and hang what the other fifth years thought. Damn the Aladrens.

0 Morgaine Carey This is not going well. 81 Morgaine Carey 0 5

Saul

June 16, 2008 2:19 PM

Imagination, check. Concentration, not so much. by Saul

Saul was, by lucky chance, on time for his transfiguration class. His digital muggle watch (which he often forgot was no longer reliable once he was on school grounds) claimed the time was actually about twelve minutes behind what it was in real life, but fortunately Saul hadn't consulted it in about three hours. If he had, he would have dawdled and been twelve or more minutes late. Instead, he trickled in with the rest of his classmates, following the majority of them from their last class.

Despite the knowledge that front and center was the best seat in the house, Saul took a spot in the middle of the room. He was kind and generous in that way. That, and he didn't want to get called on. Transfiguration was not his best subject.

He looked down at the rock in front of him, picked it up, tossed it back and forth between his hands, and was about to borrow his neighbors' rocks to try juggling when Professor Sutekh started the lesson.

Due to Simon's influence, Saul was able to pay enough attention to watch the teacher change her rock into a crystal and then the crystal into a rose, but all he got out of it was that he still thought Simon was the better performer. Even if Simon's transfigurations weren't as perfect as hers, he had much better showmanship. Saul wasn't sure how he did it, but Simon could make a transfiguration simultaneously look amazingly magical, and yet like something a muggle could do by sleight-of-hand. It was awesome.

Professor Sutekh's transfiguration just looked like a transfiguration. It was actually kind of boring. She didn't even have any good story to go along with it, just some instructions about how . . . oh. Now Saul had to do that. Right. That was how transfiguration class worked. What had she done?

Crystal, first, right? He looked around and spied on his neighbor until he was sure that, yes, they were turning rocks into crystal. Okay. He could do this.

He took out his wand and tapped it on his rock. He imagined the crystal ball his aunts used for their fortune telling. He thought about their weight and heft and size and imagined having one right here in front of him. And then he forgot what the magic words were to make it happen.

He took another minute to spy on his other neighbor as they did the spell. Adfectio Crystali. Right. Who could forget that?

He took a deep breath and tried again. He tapped his wand on the rock. He imagined the details of a crystal ball, the smooth surface, the interior flaws, the way light bent around it. "Affecto Crystally!"

Nothing.

Saul sat back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of him, giving the stubborn rock a dirty look. He knew there was nothing wrong with his imagination so it had to be the way he was casting it. Maybe he wasn't tapping his wand right? Wands were so finicky. They were as bad as choreography coaches.

Okay. One more go. He firmly tapped his wand against the rock. He pictured the crystal ball, which wasn't very different in size at all, just a bit rounder, and a lot more transparent and interesting. He especially liked the way light seemed to get trapped inside so that sometimes he even thought he could make out images within the depths. "Affecto Crystally!"

Nothing.

Arg.

1 Saul Imagination, check. Concentration, not so much. 82 Saul 0 5

Adam Brockert

July 03, 2008 3:21 PM

Prickly crystal by Adam Brockert

Adam took his usual seat in Transfiguration, which was actually his usual seat in any class-in the back, out of the way, where his classmates could forget he existed and not laugh at him if he made a mistake. (Granted, Adam was better at Transfiguration than some of them and thus more likely to get it right eventually.)

He listened to Professor Sutekh explain the lesson. It seemed pretty standard, not any better or worse than anything else. Partners were optional and as they had to transfigure their own rock, Adam couldn't see the point of them. Besides, as it was just his own year, the only people who would have anything to do with him-Pepper and Briony-would probably be snapped up by Saul anyway. Adam really hated it when it was just his year and they had to work in pairs...really really hated it. The only other people who didn't seem to outright despise him were Gunther and perhaps Allie but Adam was never quite sure.

However,it was absolutely unnecessary to worry about that as they did not have to work in pairs and Adam was wasting precious time thinking about it when he should be worrying about whether or not he would be able to do the spell. He got his rock and put it down on his desk, briefly considering making some sort of barrier between himself and his classmates to deflect a rock if one got thrown at him.

Adam envisioned a perfect clear crystal that looked like one of Grandma Penelope's earrings, only bigger as it would be easier to transfigure a rock into something the same size. He did the motions and said the words and was pleased to see a pretty decent crystal in front of him.

The next step would be the plant. Adam wasn't too sure about this. The only plants he could envision were dead, scary-or illegal. He breifly wondered what Talitha's favorite flower was. Then he wondered why he was thinking about that . Adam didn't think about what flowers his other friends would like. He quickly shook that thought from his head and tried to imagine a cactus. They were prickly but they probably wouldn't attack him. Adam could imagine it clearly but when he did the spell, all he got was a prickly crystal.

11 Adam Brockert Prickly crystal 78 Adam Brockert 0 5