Professor Fawcett
December 03, 2008 3:09 PM
Lesson One for Third, Fourth, and Fifth Years by Professor Fawcett
Of all the papers he could have...misplaced, it had to be the roster. John muttered under his breath, turning through his notes with the speed of long practice. Finding a page he needed had been a major part of his original career in magisociology, and he had enough talent for mixing up the documents in his study to have retained the skill.Apparently, his stint as Sonora's Care of Magical Creatures teacher hadn't gone as poorly as he'd imagined, because he would be taking Transfiguration classes until a permanent professor could be found. John hadn't asked many questions, because apart from liking Transfiguration, he also needed the money involved. His latest attempt at a textbook had gone...poorly, and his publisher was rather annoyed with him.
Myrna LaMar was not a good woman to annoy.
He found the sheet of names as the first students began to cluster together outside the open door. "Come in," he said as he began restacking notes. "Everyone find a seat, we'll get started momentarily."
The bell rang to begin class as he got his two folders back in order, which he thought was excellent timing. "Good day, class. For those unfamiliar with me, I'm Professor Fawcett, and I will be your substitute teacher for - " Manfred Bulla had not exactly said how long he would be here, this time - "the time being." That was vague enough.
"This is a large class, and I'm, ah, aware that you aren't all at the same place skill-wise. With that in mind, three activities have been set up for you today. Third years will be Transfiguring inanimate objects into other inanimate objects, fourth years on animate to inanimate, and fifth years from inanimate to animate." He gave the oldest-looking ones a slightly stern look over his glasses. "That will be asked of you on your CATS examinations, which I'm sure you're all aware of the importance and nearness of."
He had, as he recalled, hated hearing lectures on just how important CATS and RATS were when he'd been preparing for them, so John decided to spare them any further talk of that. Their regular professors could be the ones to induce anxiety attacks, if they pleased. "You'll see instructions on the board," he said, indicating said instructions with his pointer. Unlike some, he didn't use his wand as a pointer, mostly for fear he'd accidentally set his robes on fire. His mother, a spectacularly poor witch, had started drumming wand safety into John and his sister as soon as it had become clear they were magical. "I shall demonstrate the incantations for you now. This one is for the third years."
With a slight flourish, John took the cover off what looked like - and was - an oversized button. "Your aim, third years, is to turn something a bit smaller than this into a basket. To do this, you move your wand in two counterclockwise circles while saying the incantation 'changer de panier'." As he finished saying the words, the enlarged button morphed into a straw picnic basket, identical to the one he and his wife, Allison, sometimes took along on day trips to the mountains.
"It will, of course, go back to being a button shortly, but never mind - you'll learn more about permanent Transfigurations later, if you continue in the subject. The fourth years will be attempting to take a mouse - " another flourish revealed that the covered box was actually a mouse in a cage - "and turn it into a mitten with the incantation 'changer de gant'.” A gray mitten lay on the bottom of the mouse’s cage. “For those of you who may have concerns, there is no pain or damage involved for the mouse. There is – “ he remembered who his audience was – “quite a bit of magical theory behind that, very interesting if you care to read it, which you may do on your own time.” He doubted they were old enough for it, but better to let the Aladrens, at least, find it out for themselves.
That done, John took a red pincushion that, between its color, shape, and the scrap of green felt at the top of it, rather resembled a tomato from a box of identical ones. “Fifth years, your objective is to turn one of these into a parrot. If you do not know what a parrot looks like – “ better to cover all possible problems – “refer to the images on the board.”
He was rather proud of that bit of charmwork, which showed a realistic-looking parrot from several angles. Charms had never been his strongest subject. "A solid red parrot will receive a lower grade than one that looks more like Bessie on the board," he added before starting the demonstration for the fifth years. "Animare avis."
A large, mostly green bird fluttered into animation with a squawk. John decided to end the incantation prematurely in order to not see if it knew how to talk.
"Well, there you are, then," he said. "Fourth and fifth years may attempt the younger years' spells for review, but please don't attempt the spells of the group above yours. We don't want any accidents. Raise your hands if you require assistance."
OOC: Please keep to the posting minimum of 200 words; posts not reaching this point will not receive House points. Be creative, and have fun!
Subthreads: Okay, peeps, I've posted, You can stop waiting for me now. by Holly Greer with Cecily Smythe
Pincushions to parrots. by Helena Layne with Oliver Abbott, Oliver
Buttons to Baskets by Grayson Wright
Lesson Closed (nm) by Professor Fawcett
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Professor Fawcett
Lesson One for Third, Fourth, and Fifth Years
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Professor Fawcett
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Holly Greer
December 14, 2008 10:23 PM
Okay, peeps, I've posted, You can stop waiting for me now. by Holly Greer
Holly had heard that Professor Saana had left, but she was still a little surprised to walk into the classroom and find last year's Care of Magical Creatures substitute in the front of the room. She had liked him well enough in the more volatile COMC class, so she figured she was happier with him than a completely unknown replacement. Even if she was still slightly put out that the woman she'd come to associate with Transfigurations was gone.Taking a seat in the middle of the room, Holly opened the spiral notebook she had designated (with a purple glitter marker) to be for Transfiguration to the first blank page. Putting the day's date on the top line, she readied herself for taking notes.
She was glad to find that as a third year she would be continuing to work only with inanimate to inanimate transfiguration. While turning a button into a basket was hardly the height of elegant or useful magic, it wasn't anything she objected to, either, which made it among the better lessons she was likely to see at this school.
Disregarding the instructions for the older years as inapplicable to herself, she closed her notebook once she finished taking down the information for her own year and moved the provided button to the middle of her desk. She politely waited until the professor was done talking before attempting to try her spell, though.
When it proved he had nothing further to add to the third years before they were told to begin, Holly set right to work. She moved her wand in two counter-clockwise circles and said, "Changer de panier," all while imagining a basket like the one she had, as a flower girl, carried petals in for her Mother's wedding with Michael three summers back.
And the button did transform into a facsimile of that basket. Its only problem was that it was better sized for Polly Pocket than Holly Greer.\r\n\r\n
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Okay, peeps, I've posted, You can stop waiting for me now.
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Helena Layne
December 24, 2008 11:29 PM
Pincushions to parrots. by Helena Layne
For some reason, one she suspected was vaguely related to a certain acronym she only got to hear eighteen-hundred-times or so a day, Helena felt unusually hesitant about beginning another year of Transfigurations. She wanted to continue in the subject as a sixth year, but didn't know if she'd score well enough on her exams to do so. It was one of her better subjects, but her talent for it was still only modest. When it came to taking CATS, modesty was not a virtue.The door being open should have given her a hint, but since it didn't, it came as a shock to finally walk in and find a Professor Fawcett instead of a Professor Sutekh. So the old Transfiguration curse had not, in fact, been broken. Helena wasn't sure how she felt about the same wizard who'd done a passable job as the Care of Magical Creatures teacher being in charge of the Transfiguration classroom, but she offered him a small smile as she sat down, anyway. Being nice would hurt no one, and she'd liked him well enough before.
Having three years together wasn't a class style Helena was especially enamored of, but at least they weren't all doing the same thing. She took notes only on the fifth year parts of the lesson and tried to keep her skepticism off her face as she took a pincushion. Inanimate to animate wasn't among the easiest transfigurations to do, and it took a good leap of the imagination to go from a tomato pincushion to Bessie the parrot.
Once they were set loose to work, she took her wand out and took a deep breath. She could do this. Inanimate to animate was standard fifth year material, and if Geoff could, to an extent, master it, then so could she. Imitating the way the substitute professor had moved his wand, Helena waved hers, focused on the image of a parrot, and took great care to be correct in her pronunciation of "Animare avis."
To her delight, the pincushion did change it shape from the roundness of a cloth tomato to the lines of a parrot. A bit less gratifying was the parrot's size, texture, and colors. It was as tall as her hand, looked woven, and - worst - was all-red except for the eyes and a leaf-shaped green spot on its head. Even its beak was red.
Pressing her lips together, she ended the incantation. She had done poorly, but she hadn't Transfigured anything in a few months, and she had all class period to make it better than it was at present. That was more than an hour to keep trying until she got it right.
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Pincushions to parrots.
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Oliver Abbott
January 03, 2009 4:19 PM
Mice to Mittens by Oliver Abbott
Oliver could never really get into transfiguration. He didn't find it too difficult like a lot of the other students did, but it just didn't have the excitement of DADA or the finesse of potions. On the plus side, sniggerring at botched attempts was a great part of transfiguration classes.The apparently all-round substitute teacher was taking third through fifth years, which Oliver considered to be rather ambitious, considering the craziness that was third year girls. He took notes on his assigned task of turning mice into mittens (why? why would anyone want to do that?) before trying the spell out.
Oliver's first attempt was not good. The mouse was woolly and had no head, and was in the rough shape of a mitten, but stll had feet and a tail and was running around in its little box. "That is not right," he said, trying, but failing, not to smirk at the would-be-rodent ran time after time into the wall of its container. His smirk turned into a snigger as he looked up at the desk in front to see Helena's parrot.
"Nice parrot," he said with a grin, hoping she wouldn't be offended. "Looks like my grandma knitted it." That was a total lie, because Oliver had never met any of his grandparents. "Beats my mitten though. Unless mittens tend to run around. What do you think?"
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Mice to Mittens
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Helena
January 05, 2009 7:53 PM
Alliteration is Amazing by Helena
Helena looked up, surprised, from her unparrot when she put two and two together to get someone talking to her and gave Oliver a wry smile as he commented on their transfiguration expertise and she, curious, took a look at the mitten-mouse his attempt at the fourth-year spell had produced as it did its best to do itself an injury.It was very...odd-looking. Transfiguration could prove very disturbing or very amusing, depending on how one elected to look at it. She decided to be amused. "I never saw or heard of one that ran around before, but I've never seen all that many mittens." One of the advantages of her home state: the weather did cool down, but not the kind of cold she'd heard her father describe in his stories about New England.
"You might run with that, though," she said. "It will never be as big as my knit parrots, of course - " her knit parrot chose that point to revert to being a pincushion - "but the fashionistas would buy anything if you told them it was - " she struck a dramatic pose and took on an atrociously awful French accent - "a la mode."
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Alliteration is Amazing
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Grayson Wright
January 05, 2009 8:20 PM
Buttons to Baskets by Grayson Wright
The door was open.Gray considered this a thing worth noting, because the door to the Transfiguration classroom was never open. Since he'd been at Sonora, Professor Sutekh had always made them stand outside until she opened the door, usually right before the class was to start. The door being open suggested Something was Up.
What that something was became immediately apparent once he cautiously entered the room and started to head for a front row seat. Professor Sutekh was not at the front of the room today. Instead, they had - assuming, of course, that he was not making things up between having a bad memory for people and a strong ability to make things up - the guy who'd been Professor Kijewski's substitute the year before.
The veracity of his memory was soon proved, which Gray was pleased by, though he wasn't as happy Professor Sutekh was gone. He had liked her and her lessons. He liked Professor Fawcett, too, but he was just a substitute, which meant he would leave soon and Gray would have to adjust to a third, possibly not-so-likeable, teacher.
He took down notes on the third-year spell, his handwriting all but illegible to anyone but him. Gray thought it ran in the family Aladrens, since Anne's wasn't much better unless she was concentrating. He studied what he'd written as more instructions were given to the upper years, only picking up his wand once they were set to work.
The button he ended up with looked very normal. If someone had put it beside one from his own cloak pocket, Gray felt sure he'd never be able to determine which was his through anything but sheer dumb luck. He closed his eyes, pictured the basket the professor had conjured up, and made the two counterclockwise rounds over it with his wand while he was saying the three-part incantation.
When he opened his eyes, he was looking at an exact replica of Professor Fawcett's basket...made of dark blue plastic.
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Buttons to Baskets
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Oliver
January 06, 2009 2:49 PM
Metaphor is the bomb by Oliver
Pleased that she hadn't been offended, Oliver laughed as Helena quipped about their failed attempts. "You think?" he queried her fashion victim joke as he pushed his hair back from his eyes to get a better look at the odd creature. "I know beauty is pain, but getting your wrists scratched all day by teeny tiny little feet can't be all that good. Nope," he said with an exaggerated sigh, "I think the mouse mitten is out. Come on down, knit parrot." Except the parrot wasn't so anymore - it was a tomato-looking pincushion again. Another glance into his box confirmed that Oliver's mouse had likewise resumed its original features."So, take two?" he suggested to Helena. "I never was any good at this transfiguration stuff." Trying to concentrate for a moment, Oliver gave the spell another attempt. The sad result was a gray short-fur mitten with a long pink tail. "Don't know about you," Oliver said with a grim smile, "but I'm not brave enough to put my hand in there."
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Metaphor is the bomb
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Cecily Smythe
January 06, 2009 3:03 PM
We need a leader to follow by Cecily Smythe
Transfiguration again. Cue huge sigh. Cecily didn't have a particularly academic mind, and in subjects where she tried to put forth her point of view she was unequivocally rebuffed (see History of Magic). Transfiguration was difficult and confusing and she was just about prepared to give up on it. It really did not help that, as usual, Amelia far far better at the class than she was. Well, on the birhgt side, Milly wasn't in this particular class, because it was third to fifth years only. Of course, that did mean there were a whole lot of older students who could make fun of Cecily's poor spellwork.Of course, Cecily did have a lot of friends in this class, and that always softened the blow. Hoping the class would pass quickly, Cecily sat next to Holly and listened while their sub - taking all subjects now, apparently - explained what they had to do. Cecily thought it was very lazy of the professor to hold only one lesson and teach three different things. If they were all going to be learning different stuff then each year should have had a separate class.
Besides, there was no point to this class. Why would anyone want to transfigure a button into a basket? To pass the subject, cecily grudgingly reminded herself. Putting away her notes, she took the button and glared at it for a long while before even considering an attempt. Then she decided to watch Holly try first. "Well, you made a basket," Cecily said approvingly. That was the assignkment after all; there had been no size specifications. "Bet that's more than I can do."
Now she had a basket in mind (Holly's basket), Cecily was finally ready to attempt the spell. She waved her wand, incanted, "Changer de panier," and watched as her button curled up around the edges and got rather bigger, but quite flimsy. "What is that?" she asked her obviously failed attempt. "I think I'm insulted," she said to Holly. "It's like my spells are trying to embarrass me. This is a silly, pointless class, anyway."
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Cecily Smythe
We need a leader to follow
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Professor Fawcett
January 07, 2009 8:36 PM
Lesson Closed (nm) by Professor Fawcett
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Professor Fawcett
Lesson Closed (nm)
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