Not to difficult on Transfiguration

Allie St. Martin & Saul Pierce

September 10, 2009 3:32 PM

Beginning Transfiguration: Solido Urna by Allie St. Martin & Saul Pierce

Though Saul was much less intimidating to work with than Geoffrey, Allie found she was more nervous about what would happen during the Transfiguration lessons she helped with than she was about the Creatures ones. So many things could go wrong with Transfiguration that she was surprised they had let any students, never mind her and Saul, touch it.

Since they had, though, she'd gotten hold of a copy of what the beginners class had done before midterm and had planned carefully for the first lesson. As Saul was better with the actual spells and she was better with the theory, it hadn't been difficult to work out a system for running it. Perhaps it was some latent Crotalus gene in her, but having that in place made her feel much more secure; she didn't like to be spontaneous. As she looked over at Saul and the bell let it be known that the students would be arriving soon, she felt nervous still, but manageably so.

"We'll be all right," she said, as much to herself as him or Professor Fawcett.

Saul gave her a bright grin and two thumbs up. "We'll be awesome," he promised, showing all the confidence Allie lacked.

Once everyone was in, Allie smiled at them. "Hello," she said politely. "My name is Allie St. Martin, and this is Saul Pierce." Beside her, Saul raised a hand in a casual wave and offered his own greeting to the class. She supposed everyone already knew who she was from Care of Magical Creatures and who Saul was just because everyone seemed to, but Headmistress Powell must have had an even odder sense of humor than some of their Parent Night seating arrangements had suggested; Allie's identical twin, Lila, also taught with Saul. "We're your student teachers for this class, and I hope that you all enjoy your time with us."

Introduction done. Lesson time. "Before midterm, you worked with objects that are similar in size and shape, but not in practical use. Now, we're going to look at objects that are different in size and shape, but which are related in use." She held up a sheet of parchment so the class could see it, and then placed it on the desk in front of her. "This spell takes a piece of parchment and turns it into an inkwell - a pair of objects that are both frequently related to writing and which ink is often added to." She nodded to her partner as she stepped away. "M - Saul is going to show you how you do this." She had almost referred to him as 'Mr. Pierce'; a few things, it seemed, just didn't wash out. "Saul?"

Saul stepped forward, brandishing his wand, perhaps a bit too theatrically for a classroom demonstration, but even those in the back would have no trouble distinguishing the exaggerated motions of the cedar stick as it traced out a simple tap onto the center of the parchment that he held up vertically so all could see what he was doing, and stayed there. "The wand movement is a really easy tap, right to the middle of the page," Saul narrated his own actions, "and then you hold it there as you say the incantation, which is 'solido urna'." He paused a moment to let the kids scribble all of that into their notes, if they were so inclined. Once most of them seemed to be done with that, he repeated, "That's solido urna." He said it again, slower and with carefully distinct diction and practiced projection, so even those back row kids would hear it as clearly as those in the front.

"Putting it together, it goes like this:" Saul lifted his wand, and tapped it back down on the parchment, still held up by its edge so they could see it clearly, and enunciated, "Solido urna," as he held the wand tip right against the center of the page. The parchment began to fold and curl into itself, darken into a deep blue, and grow shiny. Within a few moments, Saul was holding a blue ceramic inkpot by the rim. He shifted his grip on it, so he held it by its base, and held that up and spun it around so the kids could all see the final product before he put it down on Professor Fawcett's desk. "The trickiest part is hitting that tap right in the middle. If you get it off-center, your inkpot will probably be kinda deformed."

He stepped back, returning to Allie's side, giving her a chance to make any closing statements or expand on anything academic that he might have glossed over. His talent was in the perfect mimicry of word and motion, which translated well to the practical execution of the spells, but even as a seventh year RATS student, he still didn't really understand how any of it was actually happening. That was why he wasn't teaching anything by himself and why he was still kind of surprised the administration was letting him do this at all. Allie seemed to have a pretty good handle on all of that though. She was a lot easier to work with than her sister, too.

Allie smiled in relief as Saul finished the presentation. Maybe they had, in fact, been moderately awesome. “Thank you, Saul,” she said, then turned back to the class. “I’m going to write the incantation up on the board for you all,” she said. “You can all start on your Transfigurations now. We – “ she gestured to Saul and Professor Fawcett – “will be here if you run into any problems.” She smiled at them once more. “Good luck!”

OOC: Have fun and keep to usual posting rules.

Subthreads:

Being distracted by Jethro Smythe

Not to difficult by Andrew Duell with Jose Hernandez

0 Allie St. Martin & Saul Pierce Beginning Transfiguration: Solido Urna 0 Allie St. Martin & Saul Pierce 1 5

Jethro Smythe

September 11, 2009 11:16 AM

Being distracted by Jethro Smythe

Some of Jethro's classes this year had been taken by older students. He didn't know why, but sometimes he walked into his class and found it being taught by seventh years. Today was one of those occasions. Jethro came into the classroom and took a seat by the door (because his attention span allocated to finding a seat was very short indeed) and that's when he noticed the older students standing at the front of the class. Jethro stared at them for a while, and only remembered to open his bag and take out his books and things when he noticed everyone else had done that already. In fact, the student teachers had already introduced themselves by the time Jethro had fished his quill out from his school bag.

When he was settled, Jethro was determined to pay attention. So he watched the presentation, and became so enthralled by the demonstration and repeated wand moevemtns that none of it sunk in at all. Well, except the incantation - that had been said so many times that even Jethro couldn't fail to hear it. So when the student teachers had stopped talking, Jethro immediately tapped his wand on the piece of paper in front of him and said solido urna. Jethro started with surprise as he page folded itself up and made a little box, sort of inkwell shaped, out of parchment. It looked like that Japanese folded paper. That's when it occurred to Jethro that all he'd done was fold paper. He picked up his 'inkwell' and smoothed it back out to a flat page again. Now he knew he could do the spell, all he had to do was concentrate on getting the paper to turn into glass. Easy.

"Solido urna," Jethro said, as he tapped the middle of the page with his wand. He was concentrating really hard on it being glass, so he was a little disappointed that the inkwell he made still looked a lot like paper. Though when he reached out and touched it it was smooth and cold, like his real inkwell. He picked it up; it was heavy. "It just looks like paper," Jethro mumbled aloud to himself.

0 Jethro Smythe Being distracted 146 Jethro Smythe 0 5

Andrew Duell

September 19, 2009 2:55 PM

Not to difficult by Andrew Duell

Andrew walked into the room, and instantly recognized Saul standing in the front of the room. Was he going to be teaching them? This would be fun. He found a seat down near the front of the classroom so that he could watch. Transfiguration was one of his favorite classes, mainly because it was really the only one he was good at. He wasn't entirely sure why, he just seemed to have a knack for it.

He pulled out his book, notebook and quill while the rest of the students were coming in and finding seats. Once Allie starting talking, he scratched down a few notes but took more during Saul's demonstration. He took down wand movements, which wasn't much for this spell but there was the whole 'center of the paper' thing. He also noted the words, and their phonetical spelling.

Once it was their turn to try it, he looked at his paper for a moment trying to determine the center. Could he mark the paper? That still might not get him the center though. What if he folded it? Twice would be all he needed, if he got the edges lined up right the two folds would cross right in the exact center. He didn't think the folds would throw off the spell.

There was only one way to find out though. He folded the paper and placed his wand in the center as indicated. He closed his eyes, and in his mind he pictured the paper and the inkwell that it needed to become. Having the images locked in his head, he opened his eyes and spoke the words. The paper neatly folded itself up into a pretty good looking inkwell. It did seem to have two seams running along the glass meeting at the bottom, sectioning it into quarters. Remnants of the folds probably.

"That wasn't to difficult." He spoke to no one in particular.

2 Andrew Duell Not to difficult 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Jose Hernandez

September 21, 2009 10:04 AM

Not too easy by Jose Hernandez

Saul was teaching again, Jose saw as he walked into the room. After Charms, and Saul's continued lack of embarrassing greetings for his cousin, Jose felt a bit more confident that the seventh year wasn't going to mess with Jose's mojo with his classmates. Consequently, he picked a seat closer to the front instead of hiding in the back of the room.

As before, there was no mortifying acknowledgment that would associate Jose to the seventh year Pecari prefect. It remained up to Jose to admit they were related, in the off chance that that insanity would ever appeal to him. Maybe in a few years, when Saul's shadow wasn't so big, but right now, Jose needed to stand on his own.

He took sporadic notes as Saul and his partner explained what the day's lesson was about and how to do it. Parchment to inkwell. Exciting.

Despite a lack of enthusiasm for the spell in question, Jose took out a sheet of parchment, chewed on his lower lip as he guesstimated the middle to be about here, and marked that spot with a dot of ink from his quill.

Satisfied with that preparation, Jose drew forth his wand with a bit more flourish than was generally considered normal, and said the spell word, "Solido Urna," as he touched the wand tip to the mark on his paper.

The page folded in on itself, creating an excellent example of an origami inkwell, and then stopped.

Jose sighed. "So close, and yet, so far," he lamented.

Glancing over at his neighbor as he spoke as well, Jose nodded with impressed approval as he saw the result of the other guy's spell. "Not bad," he congratulated.

They hadn't been formally introduced yet, though they'd shared enough classes that he was pretty sure the guy was another first first year, in Teppenpaw, named Andrew or Anthony or something else that started with an A. "I'm Jose," he offered, in case the other kid was wrestling with a similar uncertainty. "Jose Hernandez." As the other one was in his sixth year and in Crotalus, it was unlikely there'd be any confusion between the two Joses in the school, but it never hurt to be sure.

1 Jose Hernandez Not too easy 149 Jose Hernandez 0 5

Andrew

September 21, 2009 9:06 PM

Sure, simple as altering subatomic structure by Andrew

"Heya Jose." Andrew smiled and nodded to his neighbor. He recognized the boy from around school, and various classes. There was only one reason, Andrew thought, that someone would introduce themselves halfway through the school year. That was alright though by him, Andrew couldn't have said Jose's name either had he been asked a few minutes ago. "I'm Andrew, Andrew Duell."

He looked down at Jose's 'inkwell', "That's pretty neat. All you have to do is turn it to glass now. I didn't know you could do this one in stages."

Andrew pulled out another sheet of parchment, "I'm going to have to give that a try. I never was good at origami." Without folding the paper this time, he placed his wand near to the center and quoted the magic words again, "Solido Urna." The paper folded itself neatly into a inkwell, and promptly turned to glass.

He sighed, "How did you do that?"

2 Andrew Sure, simple as altering subatomic structure 145 Andrew 0 5