Professor Sutekh
September 24, 2008 4:27 PM
Year 7 by Professor Sutekh
Sanaa looked around her classroom, the chairs and desks stacked at the side of the room, the floor covered in blue mats, and sighed. The Animagus Transformation was the hardest part of the RATs exams so instead of recapping everything the students had already learnt over their school career Sanaa decided to continue with her previous lesson, but go over common mistakes and offer more help. The RATs were unpassable unless this was mastered.Sanaa opened the classroom door with a wave of her wand and let the class file in. “We are continuing with your Animagus Transformations today. As a recap the incantation is ‘Manasugi,’ whilst twirling your wand clockwise and then jabbing at the part of the body you wish to change.”
Sanaa held up her wand, twirled and jabbed it towards her arm. “Manasugi!” Sanaa’s arm was immediately yet smoothly replaced with an owl wing. Sanaa flapped the wing a few times before saying “Exigo” and ending the transfiguration.
“In the last lesson I noticed a few common mistakes. First is concentration. This spell involves having a clear mind and concentrating only on this spell, but you cannot think of an animal at all as this will stop the transfiguration from happening. I found that focusing my mind on the wand movements and thinking hard on the incantation usually stops you from going off track. A second common mistake is the wand movement. You need to make sure that you complete two complete circles clockwise, not completing the last circle means you could end up vanishing the body part you are working on. Lastly there are sometimes mistakes in the incantation. It is pronounced ‘Man-a sue-guy’. Hopefully these hints will help. I advise you to work on your own. You may begin.”
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Zack Dill
September 25, 2008 4:45 PM
Doing better by Zack Dill
Zack arrived in the Transfiguration classroom with a trepidation he hadn't felt since he stopped taking DADA. Unlike in DADA, where the anxiety came from the fact that he might be made to encounter something terrifying, today's nerves were due to the fact that in the last lesson, he still hadn't mastered the animangus transformation they would need to complete for their RATS. It was moving beyond frustrating to downright traumatic for him.He'd already read through just about every book he could find on the subject in the library - giving up several of hours that had previously been allocated to sleeping in his already overfull schedule - but the skill remained elusive.
Part of him was beginning to suspect that the trouble was less that the theory and ability were beyond him, but that he psychologically just didn't want to become an animal. He liked being human, thank you very much.
Fortunately, he wanted a perfect A+ report card even more. That made it a mental block that could be overcome.
He listened intently as Professor Sutekh explained some tips for improving their performance and took careful and precise notes. Her suggestion that focusing on the wand motion and incantation was probably the most helpful of all of them, since he hadn't realized that was an acceptable thing to think on last time (she'd said to clear his mind of all thoughts, which was, frankly, impossible - so he'd been distracted and thinking about not thinking).
With that in mind, he took out his wand and focused completely on completing two full rotations of his wand tip, carefully enunciating with only the slightest hint of his natural Detroit accent, and then making a sharp jab at his own foot.
And this time, this time, he could feel it working. Something had changed. He yanked off his shoe and his sock (he wondered if they had been supposed to change as well, but decided any change at this point was significant improvement from the nothing he had achieved before).
Zack unbent his knee, holding his foot out at legs-length in front of him, and stared.
"Huh."
On the other side of his ankle was what looked a bit like a slightly furry hand. He took a brief moment to be grateful that, of the most intelligent species in the world, his animagus form was apparently some form of primate and not a dolphin. Or a pig. Or a mouse. Or an elephant. Or - no offense to the symbol of Aladren or Professor Sutekh - any kind of bird with sharp talons and a taste for rodents.
Experimentally, he flexed the 'fingers' and then closed them into a fist. It was weird.
And yet, he couldn't help but exalt at the possibilities of have not two, but four, opposable thumbs.
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Zack Dill
Doing better
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