Say cheese on Transfiguration

Professor Fawcett

August 23, 2009 5:01 PM

Lesson Two for Sixth and Seventh Years by Professor Fawcett

Ten minutes before his Advanced Transfiguration class was due, John Fawcett was wearing an expression of annoyance. This was rare enough by itself, but even stranger was the source of his annoyance: a book.

John had been an Aladren in his day, and supposed, in some way, he still was. He liked books very much - more than he did most people, in fact, for all he was a bit more social than the stereotype implied. Even now, what was irritating him wasn't so much the book - he was far from being persuaded by its premise, but then, he read a lot of books he didn't necessarily agree with - as the book's author . Her, he was very annoyed with.

Like all teachers, he denied favoritism, and again like all teachers, he had favorites just the same. Melinda Hayes had been one of his; in fact, after some years, he had begun to view her as something between an apprentice and a daughter. And then she'd stabbed him in the philosophical back. Until she had sent him a hand-dedicated copy of her latest book - the book currently eliciting a frown - he hadn't heard from her in thirteen years.

The challenge was all too clear. Melinda had gone to great pains to contradict every point John had made in his first book and then included the note hoping he enjoyed it inside the front cover. She was throwing down the gauntlet and demanding that he retaliate. The only question left on the table was whether or not he was quite stupid enough to answer.

He was, finally, forced to stop flipping through the pages of Melinda's book when the first students began to arrive. To keep his mind on the task at hand, he put it inside one of the teacher's desk drawers, half-hoping he'd forget it. Once everyone seemed to have arrived, he began the lesson in the usual fashion by taking roll, and then put a large stalk of broccoli on a plate on the desk in front of him.

"I'm sure," he said, "that, at one point or another, most of your parents despaired of getting you to eat all your vegetables. If they were talented in Transfiguration, though, they may have solved the problem without you even being aware of it." With a slight frown of concentration, John tapped the broccoli with his wand, turning it into a cupcake. "Like so.

"As I trust you are all aware of, food is one of the five exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. It cannot be conjured, but can be Summoned, multiplied, and Transfigured. With this spell, you may cause a food item to assume the appearance and taste of another, more desirable, food while retaining the nutritional value of the first food - something I'm sure will considerably improve your mealtimes as you try to adhere to the rules laid down for what to eat while getting ready for RATS." He had gone through all the guidebooks as a fifth and seventh year too, and had come to the conclusion that most of them were worthless, but they still sold very well.

"If you are sufficiently talented, you can cause any food to assume the appearance and taste of another, so it's not necessarily limited to vegetables and cakes. The main thing to remember is that the product retains all of its basic elements except appearance and taste; if you turn bad meat into ice cream, you are still going to get food poisoning. You also have to concentrate on both the appearance and the taste of the desired food, or it may only change on its surface and still taste of the original food." He pointed his wand at his chalk, which began to write on the board in something neater than his handwriting. "The incantation, which is now on the board, is commutare esca. It may be performed verbally or non-verbally, though I recommend beginning verbally and working your way up; it's a spell that requires some concentration."

A third wave of his wand sent vegetables to each desk. "If no one has any questions on this topic - " Dear Merlin, he had spent far too long teaching Quentin Melcher - "you may begin."

Subthreads:

And suddenly, Transfig got easy again... by Saul Pierce

Say cheese by Annabelle Winslow with Morgaine Carey

0 Professor Fawcett Lesson Two for Sixth and Seventh Years 0 Professor Fawcett 1 5

Saul Pierce

August 23, 2009 7:56 PM

And suddenly, Transfig got easy again... by Saul Pierce

After Professor Skies last semester, Saul had feared Transfiguration was going to completely escape him this year. Even with Simon's tutoring, he was still having trouble grasping most of the concepts she'd tried to inflict on him, and he could not rightly say what the difference between levitation and suspension was even now, except that levitation was a lot easier to do.

Saul was less than convinced that Professor Fawcett taking over the class again was going to make any difference in his transfiguration ability until the substitute put out a piece of broccoli onto his desk. Well, technically, he didn't think that would change his skill in the subject at all, but he was suddenly a lot more interested. Broccoli might not be his favorite pizza topping, but food was food, and Saul was a seventeen year old boy. He was always hungry, and there were things far worse than broccoli that people had tried to feed him.

As he went on about the evil machinations of parents tricking their children into eating foods that had no business being eaten, he frowned in suspicion. His Dad wouldn't do that. Bo Pierce didn't have the talent. His mom and Simon, however, were different stories, and at least one of them had tried other underhanded means of getting him to eat tofu before, and Simon had been his primary source of contraband pepperoni for years.

Saul felt a momentary pang of nauseous revulsion from the very thought that his treasured stores processed meat might have actually been completely vegan after all.

In spite Saul's fresh introduction to this horrifying application of the spell, however, it was not the first he'd heard of it. In fact, he'd been teaching himself this very spell for most of the year already, in preparation for a possible pepperoni flavored senior prank.

When they were told to practice it, Saul set upon the assignment with utter confidence as he verbally cast, "Commutare esca," on his own bit of broccoli and turned it immediately into a stick of the most excellent food product in existance. He couldn't help but smile when his nose breathed in the exquisite fragrance of perfect pepperoni.

1 Saul Pierce And suddenly, Transfig got easy again... 82 Saul Pierce 0 5

Annabelle Winslow

September 10, 2009 1:43 PM

Say cheese by Annabelle Winslow

Transfiguration had always been pretty much Annabelle's favorite subject. She was good at it and it rarely made her feel queasy like Potions. It never bothered her to turn living creatures into non-living ones because she knew very well it didn't harm them in any way. The only issue really was if something got stuck between forms. As far as she was concerned, there were far worse things that a wizard could do than turn a rat into a teacup.

The Cruciatius Curse sprang to mind, for example.

There had also been far worse infractions than not eating her vegetables. Of course, Annabelle had been required to eat them, her father not being one to cut her any slack in any area, but really compared to some things, not eating vegetables was a fairly minor offense.

Even though she had known better than to ever refuse to eat anything-Annabelle had learned to pick her battles and vegetables weren't worth it-she still didn't necessarily like vegetables. Broccoli was better than some. The worst was cooked carrots which Annabelle couldn't even stand the sight of. Beans were also nasty as could be, so she was glad that they were doing this spell, even though it wasn't really an issue.

Annabelle glanced over the piece of broccoli on her desk. She decided to make it a piece of cheese instead. A big hunk of cheddar. " commutare esca " She said, waving her wand over it.

Her nose wrinkled in disgust as it became a big piece of leafy green cheese. Annabelle quickly looked away, so she wouldn't vomit as it honestly looked like cheese that was covered in mold.

11 Annabelle Winslow Say cheese 89 Annabelle Winslow 0 5

Morgaine Carey

September 19, 2009 12:58 AM

Don't think I will, actually by Morgaine Carey

Though he’d been teaching her, in one capacity or another, for quite some time now, Morgaine had never thought much one way or another on the topic of John Fawcett. He performed his role in her life through being a reasonably competent professor, and she responded by being a model student. She vaguely appreciated that, outside of Sonora, he’d once been a scholar of some standing and that he didn’t seem to have marked her as crazy or dangerous, but that was about it.

Today, though, she was looking at the lanky sociologist in a whole new light. Here, surely, was a person of rare quality. Because of him, she could have all the pre-RATS sweets she wanted and not feel the tiniest flicker of filial guilt about it.

Sweets, in the family, were usually forbidden except at parties. They were bad for the figure and overall health, and though the family had finally accepted that she would never be in a position to safely have children, they still insisted on treating her as though there was the remotest chance she would someday marry. That meant living by all the same rules as the twins, whose parents, unlike hers, were actively in search of spouses for them. Morgaine certainly didn’t want to get fatin her spinsterhood, but she had never seen what harm a little chocolate was going to do her after an especially rough day of study, especially since no one much cared what an old maid looked like.

Once she mastered this spell, she would know how little harm it would do her, and she could have all she wanted. The universe was wonderful sometimes. She went so far as to smile at Allie, who she expected was at least as pleased as she was by this announcement.

The best thing for her to have practiced on would have been potatoes. She hated potatoes with a passion, and would have wanted them to turn into something more appetizing more than any other single food in the world. Since she was fairly sure some form of potato would appear for her to practice on at supper, though, she contented herself with what had been provided and went through the process of picturing the stalk of broccoli changing smoothly into a square of milk chocolate.

That mental exercise complete, she took out her wand and pointed it at the piece of broccoli. Since if she had no other skills, she possessed the ability to concentrate intently on a single task, she didn’t see a drawn-out road to success.

Before she could get there, though, she was distracted by the way the next seat turned her head too quickly. She gave the other girl a look of sheer irritation, then glanced at her desk. “What is that?” she asked, not sure if she should be amused or disgusted.

0 Morgaine Carey Don't think I will, actually 81 Morgaine Carey 0 5

Annabelle

September 27, 2009 3:16 PM

All right by Annabelle

Annabelle's face flushed when she noticed the other girl's look of irritation. She hadn't meant to annoy her, she just didn't want to look at the "moldy" cheese any longer. It was disgusting and Annabelle would be far more embarassed to throw up in class than anything else.

She knew the other girl was Morgaine Carey and quite honestly, Annabelle was surprised Morgaine was talking to her at all. Unless, of course, Morgaine didn't know who Annabelle was. That was entirely possible. Annabelle tended to blend in most of the time and that tended to be all right with her. She knew who Morgaine was mostly due to the older girl being one of the most intelligent people in the upper years.

Which made Annabelle all the more embarassed to screw up in front of her. Her face reddened even more so when Morgaine called attention to her mistake. "I was trying to turn the broccoli into cheese." She might have been fairly good at transfiguration but that didn't mean Annabelle always did everything perfect in it. "I guess I need to try again." Except she really didn't want to look at it and that was a fairly necessary part of being able to fix it. Annabelle was no prodigy who could do this without any effort at all.

11 Annabelle All right 89 Annabelle 0 5