I better not get all steamed up! on Transfiguration

Professor Lilac Crosby

January 24, 2011 12:08 AM

I'm a little tea pot, short and stout... [Beginner lesson!] by Professor Lilac Crosby

Eager to begin, Lilac sat grinning at her desk. Each of the students’ desks had a dark box, the contents currently known to only the professor herself, sitting atop them, whereas Lilac’s was a mess of papers. She wasn’t even sure how that happened; the year had just begun! At least it seemed to her to be an organized mess. She knew where everything was that she could possibly need.

Another year meant new first years--she had already, of course, met those of her House, Teppenpaw--so she was looking forward to the new faces in her beginner lesson. Some of the old faces--the upperclassmen of the group--would be moved up to the intermediate, so it would feel strange to see them not present, but that was just going to happen every year, and the twenty-seven year old knew she ought to get used to it.

Believing she was beginning to hear footsteps, Lilac retracted from her comforted position and hurried over to open the door. “Welcome to Transfigurations!” she announced loudly as the flow of students steadied when they began to pour in. It seemed like most of them had arrived at just about the same time. Funny how kids’ minds worked together like clockwork sometimes.

“Find a seat, everybody!” she called cheerfully. “Anywhere is fine!” Last year’s seating chart had not gone over well, and she had to switch some seats around for particular students anyway--hemhem, Nova Wynn and Marcus Williams--so she was just going to trust the students this year to be responsible. “Just sit where ever you want.”

Once everyone seemed to be seating, the brunette professor smiled. “For those of you who know me, hello again! For those of you who don’t, it’s nice to meet you! I’m Professor Lilac Crosby; welcome to my classroom.” Her grey eyes scanned over the faces, most being familiar but some unrecognizable. Some seemed eager, and she pretended not to notice the ones that didn’t.

“I know you first years may be unprepared, but we’re going to jump into this course with both feet,” Lilac informed her students. “Please note that in my class, I am trying to push you to and even beyond your limits. It is highly likely that your spells will take plural attempts before succeeding, and that’s okay. Just remember not to get discouraged, and never give up on yourselves.”

“Please open your boxes,” she instructed. “Don’t just put your hand in unless you’re in the mood for a--probably unpleasant--surprise.” Within the boxes she knew, of course, were snails. After drawing her wand from her pocket, she strolled over to the closet desk in the front, asking, “May I borrow one of those?” before gently picking up a snail by its shell in her non-wand hand.

“The spell we are going to use is Domiporta Thea.” As she spoke the incantation, she directed her wand--waving it thrice--at the snail, which then took the form of a teapot in her hand. “For the spell to work, you have to wave your wand three times. Also, rest assured, the snails are not harmed, and I will un-transfigure and release them.”

“Get into partners--preferably an older student with a younger student, just in case assistance is required. After all, I can’t give one-on-one with everyone at once.” She looked to see if anyone seemed terribly confused, and if any of the kids were, it wasn’t very obvious. Then again, Lilac was often somewhat oblivious. “Go ahead and get going. If you need me, I’ll be at my desk. If I’m not looking up to see your hand, just call my name.”

OOC: Welcome--and to some of you, welcome back--to Transfiguration! Standard posting rules apply, two hundred words, et cetera. Be creative in your posts--more creativity and detail means more points for your House. Also, it’s super-helpful to me if you could include your House in the author’s box. (Example: Sophie Jamison [Pecari] ) Thank you, and happy posting! !

Subthreads:

Here is the handle, but where is the spout? by Jessica Applerose [Teppenpaw] with Renée Errant, Jessica, Renée Errant {Crotalus}

I'm a lil teapot, short and - hey, are you calling me fat? by Derwent Pierce IV, Teppenpaw with Topher Calhoun, Crotalus

Does that mean we get tea served with this lesson? by Asher Reid, Aladren with Regina Parker (Teppenpaw), Asher, Mollie Murphy, Mollie Murphy, Aladren, Professor C.

Please don't break into a song by Luka Anastanov [Pecari, 1st year] with Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw], Luka

I better not get all steamed up! by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) with Sara Raines, Pecari, Fae

Getting this over with. by Marcus Williams (Pecari) with Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus

Must I? by Alice Adair, Crotalus with Arthur Carey, Aladren, Alice

But what pattern are you? by Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw with Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw, Madeline

I'm a 12 year old boy who is neither by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus with Fidelio Winters, Aladren, Professor C.

I'm a pretty human, tall and thin... by Eliza Bennett, Crotalus

0 Professor Lilac Crosby I'm a little tea pot, short and stout... [Beginner lesson!] 0 Professor Lilac Crosby 1 5

Jessica Applerose [Teppenpaw]

January 24, 2011 10:39 AM

Here is the handle, but where is the spout? by Jessica Applerose [Teppenpaw]

Jessica was excited to begin classes, and here was her first class! Transfiguration. She preferred charms over any class, but transfiguring things to other objects was always fun as well, though difficult. She had recently gotten her wand, and she was excited to finally put it to use. Now she'd be able to do real magic!

As she entered the classroom, she noticed that every desk had dark boxes on it, and she was intrigued. She sat down at a desk in the center of the room and was tempted to open the box. However, feeling like that wouldn't be a good idea, she refrained from doing so and just pulled out her quill and some parchment just in case she needed it for notes.

The professor--Professor Lilac Crosby--began introductions, then told them to open the box. Jessica did as she was told, and then wrinkled her nose in disgust. Snails? Ew! What were they going to do with these things? Hopefully she wouldn't have to pick it up.

Much to her chagrin, however, professor Lilac was going to make them hold it and transfigure it into a teapot. Jess wondered what it would feel like to be transfigured as she watched the snail change its form.

Domiporta Thea. She had to remember that. Professor Lilac dismissed them to work, and Jessica pulled out her 10¼ inch wand. It was made of willow wood with a unicorn hair for its core, and Jessica loved it. It was beautiful. And now it was finally being put to use!

Jess turned to the person next to her and smiled. "Hi, I'm Jessica. Want to be partners?" she asked. She turned to her snail. "I'm not the biggest fan of snails," she confessed before waving her wand. "Domiporta Thea," she said, and waved her wand, unsure of what wand movements to use. She pointed her wand at it, and she watched as the snail slowly turned into a teapot though...not completely. It had turned from a snail to half-teapot and half-snail. "That's ugly," she said, and laughed.

0 Jessica Applerose [Teppenpaw] Here is the handle, but where is the spout? 0 Jessica Applerose [Teppenpaw] 0 5

Derwent Pierce IV, Teppenpaw

January 24, 2011 12:17 PM

I'm a lil teapot, short and - hey, are you calling me fat? by Derwent Pierce IV, Teppenpaw

Derry chose a seat near the front of the classroom. This decision was based mostly in response to his previous learning experiences all being one-on-one lessons where there was no possible way to hide from the teacher (and, therefore, it didn't even occur to him to try), but a preinclination to like his Head of House and a little bit of near-sightedness also chimed in with their own support for the seating choice.

Once seated, he took off his tricorner hat so that it wouldn't block line of sight for the people behind him, and took out his quill, inkpot, and parchment for notes, and his shiny new maple wand for practical work.

The box got his attention right away. He wasn't sure if they were allowed to open it, so he refrained from doing so, though he did try other methods to try to figure out what was inside. He discovered it wasn't very heavy, was small relative to the size of the box, and it rolled around inside freely. He thought it might be a rock.

Derry was willing to try jumping right into the class as Professor Crosby said they were going to do, but he wasn't sure how well that was going to go for him. His uncertainly was forgotten when she said they could open their boxes, and Derry tore into his like it was Christmas present. "Oh!" he exclaimed, finding the poor snail inside, "Sorry!" he apologized sincerely for all the shaking he'd done to the little critter. "C'mon out here, I won't throw you around anymore, I promise," he vowed, carefully lifting the creature out of its box and putting it onto the desk in front of him.

He split his attention for the rest of the lesson between what the professor was saying and making sure Snag the Snail didn't go wandering off the side of his desk. 'Snag,' he had decided almost immediately was an excellent name for a snail.

This was fortunately made much easier for him when Professor Crosby borrowed Snag for her demonstration, so he was able to pay eager attention to how the spell was supposed to work. Hamlet had said they'd probably start with inanimate to inanimate transfigurations to start, because that was easiest, but apparently Professor Crosby meant it when she said she was throwing them right into the hard stuff.

Though, Derry supposed, snails were pretty slow and were probably one of the easiest things to start animate to inanimate transfigurations on.

Snag was returned to him in his original form and Derry checked him out to make sure he was okay. He seemed in perfect snail health to him, if a bit confused (as much as a snail could be confused, Derry supposed, but he might also just be projecting). Derry would certainly have been confused, too, if some giant had briefly turned him into a teapot, so he decided this was also healthy.

Satisfied that Snag was unharmed, Derry picked up his own wand to give Snag another chance to do his teapot impersonation (er, imsnailation maybe?). Anyway, he cleared his thoughts as Hamlet had said was the best way to go about Transfigurations, and pictured in his mind a clear image of a Snag changing into a teapot and held the end product in mind for a few seconds before lifting his wand.

"Domiporta Thea," he said and waved the wand three times, like Professor Crosby had done. Magic pooled inside him, shot through the wand's unicorn hair core, and came out in a small burst of light and hit Snag.

Snag did not look precisely a teapot when the magic faded, but he did not look precisely like a snail either. He looked a bit like a snail that had made a home inside a teapot instead of a snail shell.

"I suppose that could have gone worse," Derry remarked and turned to the person sitting next to him. "How did yours go?" Then he remembered something else Professor Crosby said and added belatedly, "Are we partners?" That wasn't quite right though; Professor Crosby hadn't assigned partners, so he amended the question, "I mean, do you want to be partners? I'm Derry Four."

1 Derwent Pierce IV, Teppenpaw I'm a lil teapot, short and - hey, are you calling me fat? 189 Derwent Pierce IV, Teppenpaw 0 5

Renée Errant

January 24, 2011 1:54 PM

I probably have it. by Renée Errant

'Ugh!' Renée thought to herself, glumly dragging her feet all the way to Transfiguration class. 'Ugh! Blah! Grrr! Nnnh!' Unable to think of any more unpleasant sounds to clearly indicate her unpleasant situation, she resigned herself to continuing onto class. It wasn't that she didn't like Transfiguration, she did. It was just the waking up, rolling out of bed, falling hard on the floor, crawling to the bathroom, crawling out of the bathroom, blindly getting dressed, and making her way through the throngs of students to get to a morning class all the while knowing she could be using the time to sleep that was upsetting her. Resigned to her sad fate, she slunk into the classroom and fell into a seat, rubbing her eyes while the words of the teacher floated in and out of her hearing.

'Gringotts goblins, I'm exhausted!' She placed her chin on the back of her hand. Watching Professor Crosby's lips move. 'What I wouldn't give for one more hour... or two.' Her interest was suddenly peaked by a general sound of disgust from the class. Looking around as kids opened their boxes, Renée too opened hers. 'Snails.' She glared at them, was Sonora mocking her? Over the summer, to showcase her new designs, Marianna gone to Paris and had taken her daughter with her. There she had met up with Arlette Chevalier and her family. The seemingly beautiful charming funny family... that tricked her into eating the salty sweet and slimy substance that was known as - snails. The taste suddenly lingered in her mouth, she quietly snapped her tongue uncomfortably against the roof of her mouth. 'Most likely, hopefully, maybe, she won't make us eat them.'

She listened to the instructions (whew! no eating mentioned) and then took out her wand (Aspen wood and fwooper tail feather, 12 3/4 inches). She placed her fingers gently on the snail and lifted it up, watching as its body oozed inside its shell. The sight did not particularly bother her as Care of Magical Creatures was her favorite class. She raised her wand above the poor creature, praying that it wouldn't be hurt by her spell, and opened her mouth to say the incantation.

"Hi, I'm Jessica. Want to be partners?"

"Hmm?" She turned to the girl next to her. "Oh, sure." She smiled slightly. "I'm Renée." She watched as she cast the spell, her nose instantly crinkling up. "Eew, that's gross." She grinned despite herself though. "Nice going." She teased. "Don't think I'll be going to any of your tea parties though."

She turned to her own snail, waving her wand around thrice and then pronounced, "Domiporta Thea." Her fingers let go with a slightly startled face, causing the snail to drop as it grew in size. The color began to fade into a black, and the shell seemed to be spreading out until soon the actual body of the snake was gone and instead a rusty looking black misshaped what could have perhaps passed as a tea pot warbled on the table in its place. "Huh." She turned to Jessica. "Well, it's not so horrible." She laughed. "It looks as if it can at least hold water." She suddenly noticed that where there was supposed to be a spout, was nothing more than hardened rusty looking black shell. "Pouring it out might be another matter..." she muttered.

0 Renée Errant I probably have it. 0 Renée Errant 0 5

Jessica

January 24, 2011 2:54 PM

Well, do you know how to put it back on? by Jessica

Jessica looked at her new acquaintance's teapot and giggled. "At least yours isn't moving." She wrinkled her nose again as she watched the antennas on her teapot move around slowly. "I just hope it doesn't start moving across the table or something. Do you know how to change it back?"

She didn't even want to pick the pot up. What she thought was supposed to be the body of the teapot looked like an enlarged shell of the snail. It was rather strange. "Yes, maybe we'd be better off just buying our teapots from professionals," she said with a smile. "Until we learn the spell better, anyway." She poked her "teapot" with her wand.

"What year are you?" she asked Renée, deciding to make conversation. "I'm a first year. Brand new to everything." She smiled. "This is my first class here too. It's all exciting, especially 'cause I've never been away from home before."

Jess pushed her curly brown hair behind her ear and looked around at everyone else, wondering if she and Renée were the only ones with problems. It was a pretty difficult spell. At least she assumed it was. She'd never transfigured anything before in her life!

"Do you like Transfiguration?" she asked. "What's your favorite class here?"

0 Jessica Well, do you know how to put it back on? 0 Jessica 0 5

Asher Reid, Aladren

January 24, 2011 3:44 PM

Does that mean we get tea served with this lesson? by Asher Reid, Aladren

Passively looking around at the classroom from his seat, Asher did not feel that he could ascertain how well this year was going to go for him. Thus far he had kept to himself, lulled by a sense of security that being in the background provided. He was not sure that he would fit in, namely because he did not know anyone here and had to go about figuring them out from s distance before he would feel comfortable enough to approach them.

Also he was raised a pureblood with a family name that was not all that famous but neither was it infamous, and his family had put pressure on him to behave in front of other purebloods as to not drudge up their blossoming reputation. He wondered then how he was supposed to act in front of people who were not from pureblood families, because he was curious if they were as different from him as his family made them out to be, but in due time he was sure he would unfold that mystery for himself.

Asher jolted in his seat when he heard the boisterous greeting, courtesy of the Transfiguration Professor. She seemed rather excitable, a trait that seemed to be popular at this school. He had seen more than his fair share of happy faces recently at any rate. He hoped that she would not keep that up all the time though, simply because he had never worked under the instruction of someone so… merry. It unnerved him how unprepared for this whole boarding school experience he was.

Following directions, Asher did as he was told and lifted the lid of his box. He only had enough time to register the fact that he was peering down at snails when a boy sitting somewhat near him had his own snail taken and used for the demonstration. The snail, after some wandwork, transformed into a teapot. It did not look too complicated, but Asher knew better than to assume it would be that easy for him. Worrying that he would not be able to do it made Asher not even want to try it at all, already marking himself as a failure before giving the spell a try.

The blond pushed his wand to lay neatly beside his box, debating on how long he would wait before he could gather up the courage to try the lesson out. Some part of him told him that it would be in his best interests to try it sooner rather than the last five seconds of class, but a larger part of him was wary of not performing well.

Wondering if it would be beneficial to see the example again, Asher turned to look inquisitively at the person beside him. He gulped, realizing this was perhaps the first interaction with someone else he was having, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. “Pardon me,” he said somewhat hesitantly, “but would you mind if I watched you do the spell?”

0 Asher Reid, Aladren Does that mean we get tea served with this lesson? 0 Asher Reid, Aladren 0 5

Topher Calhoun, Crotalus

January 24, 2011 6:01 PM

I deny everything by Topher Calhoun, Crotalus

It was not something he planned to share with the masses, but Topher had looked through his textbooks before he came to Sonora, and come to the conclusion that Transfiguration was going to be a tough class. That had been before he recognized the woman grinning at them from the front of a room full of seats behind boxes as the same one who’d led the yellow people out of the Cascade Hall on the first night at a run. Once that happened, he concluded that this, not the Defense room, was the place at Sonora where he should be ready for anything.

His definition of ‘anything’ still hadn’t included skipping straight from the beginning of the book, the part he’d looked at, with all its allegedly simple inanimate-to-inanimate transfigurations whose theoretical explanations still hurt his brain, into taking something alive and making it into a teapot. Marathon Lady was a dangerous, dangerous being.

He got by, but book smarts just weren’t his thing. While his friends and relatives at home were picking up history like mail, he’d finally had to get out a few board games and cobble them together into a strange hybrid in order to understand any of it, and had then looped everyone else into acting out the Vampire Wars with him, once he agreed to play most of the vampires. Of course, it had only worked until Lucy got bored with following history exactly and ended the wars about five years early by somehow twisting things around with Tess so that the vampires took over the state of New Hampshire, but they’d then gotten a fun recurring game out of it, and he understood the parts they’d gotten through even better than he did the ones he’d played out in his synthetic board game. He had to do something to learn, which was the one reason he wasn’t yet despairing of his chances in this class. Marathon Lady – Professor Crosby – had said it was hard, but she had yet to mention one word of magical theory.

So Topher stared at his snail, and found it staring back at him, and he blinked first, but that was to clear his mind of thoughts about staring down a snail and concentrate on how snails were not sentient and he was going to turn this one into a teapot. Why anyone would ever drink something from a teapot made of a snail, he had no idea, but if that was what Professor Crosby wanted, then that was what Topher Calhoun was going to give her.

“Domipora thea,” he said confidently, pointing his wand at the snail.

There was a strange feeling in his arm, sparks flying, and then…

Well, it did look like a teapot. A very squishy one the shell-like lid seemed permanently attached to, but still. Teapot. Not bad for a guy who’d only had a wand for a little more than a month, and had never really gotten to use it due to his dad being a stickler for rules and way too familiar with what could happen when people did magic without having a clue.

Initially, he took the person beside him talking about how something could have gone worse for more dialogue with the guy’s snail, but then he asked how Topher’s went. “Could have gone worse,” he agreed.

The question of whether or not they were partners was harder. “I think we’re in the same year,” he said, actually quite sure of it. Now that he looked at him, he remembered that this was the person he’d dubbed Hat Guy, for obvious reasons. Hat Guy had been at the Sorting with him, and he was pretty sure everyone there had been a first year. “I’m okay with being partners anyway if you are, though. You have an awesome hat.” He considered this explanation enough. “I'm Topher Calhoun. What exactly did you do, since yours is more teapot than mine?”

0 Topher Calhoun, Crotalus I deny everything 0 Topher Calhoun, Crotalus 0 5

Regina Parker (Teppenpaw)

January 24, 2011 8:41 PM

I hope not! by Regina Parker (Teppenpaw)

Regina was excited, extremely excited, to use her wand. Ever since she had gotten it with her dad back in the summer, Reggie had only wanted to just use it. Use it on everything. She begged her father to let her try some magic, but he had told her not until school. In school, she could use it whenever she wanted, but outside of school, she couldn’t until she was seventeen.

That really upset her. It was like getting her favorite candy, but being told she was never allowed to eat it.

The Transfiguration professor was her Head of House, so Regina already knew that she was this really odd, bubbly person. Probably the right sort of head for Teppenpaw, but she might have done well for Pecari too. Still, Regina was not expecting to start her very first lesson with an animate to animate transfiguration.

Regina was not terrified of snails in any way. With all the camping trips that Regina had taken with her father, she was used to bugs and snails and slugs. And with her father being a Potioneer, she was used to handling all sorts of awesome treats, like dead things. Actually, Regina was accepting of a lot of strange things that most people probably weren’t. But there was one thing that she was terrified of and that was of the dark. Last night had been horrifying for Regina because she didn’t have her father there to check everything.

Yes, she was eleven, but the dark was something far more sinister than anything she has ever known. Her father had told her that when she was a small child, she had often had night terrors. She’d wake up screaming and no matter what her father did or mother did, she just couldn’t be calmed. Eventually, they had given her a small orb that omitted light when there was none. Her dad said it would keep the bad things away while she slept. After that day, Regina hadn’t had any night terrors. Sure she may have had a nightmare or two, but nothing as substantial as the terrors.

Last night, as her roommates were getting ready for bed, Regina had closed her canopy curtains and slept with the ball beside her on the bed. This way, she still had her light and it didn’t bother anyone else. There may be a time when she’ll sleep without it, but she wasn’t ready for it just yet.

Sitting in the classroom now, Regina grinned down at the little snail. He was harmless and would never be able to hurt a single thing. He just sat there and ate leaves. She felt a little guilty with having to change him into a teapot. She really didn’t see why she would have to. And not only did she have to turn him into one, but she needed to blow him up in size too. That was a double whammy for the first day!

“Sorry Mr. Snail, but I need to pass this class.” She apologized and picked up her wand to start, but the boy next to her spoke and she turned her attention onto him. “Er…” She fumbled for a moment. “Sure. I’ve never done it before though, so don’t think too much of it.” Regina warned. She lifted her wand again and thought very hard of what a teapot looked like. She thought they were sort of like kettles, but maybe porcelain? They had a kettle at home, so she was going to focus on that instead. “Domiporta Thea” Reggie commanded, waving her wand three times as the Professor had.

The snail grew and morphed slightly in front of her. It grew a large round tummy and his shell flattened and formed a knob on the top. What used to be the head of the snail had a slight curve in the neck and the whole thing had a shiny metal look to it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a complete transformation. It looked like a pulsating teapot with antennas.

“I don’t think that is right.” Reggie muttered, looking to the boy to make sure he agreed with her. “Oh well, I think it’s a nice start considering that was my very first time using my wand!” Regina exclaimed, grinning. “I’m Reggie.” She greeted and then looked at his snail. “Want to try it now?”

6 Regina Parker (Teppenpaw) I hope not! 187 Regina Parker (Teppenpaw) 0 5

Luka Anastanov [Pecari, 1st year]

January 25, 2011 1:46 AM

Please don't break into a song by Luka Anastanov [Pecari, 1st year]

Luka fingered the Chimaera scale around his neck. It was a reminder of home, of the forests, of the open air and wild cries of the beasts. Unconsciously he ran a finger over the scar on his left cheek. The olive-skinned boy’s green eyes were fixed on the window.

How could Luka spend seven years in captivity?! He ached to return to his little village in the mountains of Macedonia. He was a hunter – what use did teapots have to him? He could not afford tea, nor could he afford to turn snails into teapots. Did they have any idea, how much the Mayor would pay for half a dozen of these molluscs? In a town situated in a landlocked country, these were a delicacy that earned boys like him a good ten sickles. Or, if he were to travel to the Muggle town a few miles off Kyotsev, he could earn five Denar off the snails.

Once again, his mouth curled over his teeth, as he tried to suppress his rage and disgust. Why did his brothers have to scrape all their savings to send him to school? He could have brought down a bison a day, if he were back in the forests. The world had no meaning to him, outside the forests. It was the call of the wild – he was one of them. Now he felt like he was caged in a zoo. He did not want to get ‘educated’ and get a job at the Ministry or a company or a bank. Learning how to use the spear, how to debone a young calf or shoot a bison between the eyes was all the education he needed and cared for.

Luka did not have any intention of partnering up. He could do the spell by himself, he’d not need any help. So, he picked up a snail and was about cast the spell, when someone asked him to be a partner.

Gritting his teeth, he looked up. “Whatever you please,” he said, non-chalantly, turning back to the snail.

0 Luka Anastanov [Pecari, 1st year] Please don't break into a song 0 Luka Anastanov [Pecari, 1st year] 0 5

Derry Four

January 25, 2011 10:00 AM

My family is good at that, too by Derry Four

"Thanks!" Derry grinned cheerfully in happy appreciation that Topher liked his hat. He thought his hat was pretty awesome, too, and Three must have been brilliant to think of wearing something like that all the time.

Derry then leaned over to examine Topher's transfiguration and did not feel the least bit worried that they were both first years in their new partnership. They were supposed to be jumping in with both feet, right? Besides, it wasn't like Hamlet hadn't droned on and on and on forever about magical theory ever since Derry had made the ground bouncy for Thad when the younger Pierce cousin had fallen off his broom. It hadn't been his first bit of accidental magic, but it had been the one to convince Hamlet he needed some kind of magical training before he got to school.

His inspection complete, Derry sat back in his chair and offered the insight, "Well, at least you got the living to inanimate part sort of done. I just transfigured the shell which is pretty much dead. Snag himself is still a snail." Likely a very bewildered snail, with his home undergoing such massive renovation, but a snail.

"But Hamlet says the most important parts of transfiguration are concentration and imagination. You have to picture in your head exactly what needs to change and how, in order to get it to go right." He frowned down at Snag's home. "I wonder how you turn it back so you can start over."

1 Derry Four My family is good at that, too 189 Derry Four 0 5

Renée Errant {Crotalus}

January 25, 2011 2:35 PM

As you can see, my power's not really to be trusted. by Renée Errant {Crotalus}

"Change it back..." Renée was stuck in the midst of both fascination and repulsion when looking at the mutant snail-pot hybrid. On one hand, it appealed to the strong side of her that loved weird creatures, but on the other hand, she'd never felt more like a girl in her life. "Gah! It's so disgusting." She giggled despite herself. "She really should have told us how to change it back. Um... try Finite Incantatem." She paused, realizing she was talking to a first year. "I mean - I'll do it." She pointed her wand at the snail thing. "Finite Incantatem!" She brandished her wand with a flourish.

BANG!

Her eyes shot up as the snail-pot shot up into the air spinning and emitting weird whistling steaming sounds and then came falling down on Jessica's desk with a heavy thud. Renée opened her mouth to both laugh and apologize, but suddenly the snail-pot began to shrink in on itself, and started to lose the pot figure it had acquired. She smiled, pleased with herself, as it finally turned back into a rather worn snail.

"Let's just say, I planned for that whole thing to happen." She smiled and turned back to her own tarnished snail-pot. "I'm in second year. It's funny... I think I actually spend most of my time away from home than home itself. My parents are always traveling," she glanced down at her arms, pleased to see the beautiful bronze tan she had kept up after her stay on the beaches of southern France. It was amazing how Arlette hadn't lost her pale complexion at all. Renée didn't know her new friend (well, her brother's really) was a veela. "and I hope that stays the same the rest of my life. My brother's studying to be a mapmaker," She raised her head proudly. "And he's gonna take me with him wherever he goes." Okay, he hadn't exactly said that. But she honestly couldn't believe how he wouldn't. She was positive they would be together always. School was a temporary obstacle.

"Where are you from?" She asked, scratching the back of her head while trying to figure out away to make the pot more presentable. She frowned slightly at the shorter brown curls her mother had insisted on. Last year her long brown curly hair had reached her waist, now it was shoulder length. Her mother had told her firmly it was cuter, but Renée's ultimate fantasy of herself was with long hair like a princess and surrounded by animals in a lush forest. It was weird, but when she changed the long hair to short, the fantasy just dissipated. She couldn't make it logical, it just was.

At Jessica's question Renée didn't even need to pause and think. "Careofmagicalcreatures." She answered quickly, than laughed. "Care of Magical Creatures." She enunciated this time. "I like Transfiguration and Charms though. Defense against the Dark Arts can be interesting as well. Sometimes you learn how to defend yourself against different creatures. What about you? What's your favorite class, or what do you think it will be?"

0 Renée Errant {Crotalus} As you can see, my power's not really to be trusted. 0 Renée Errant {Crotalus} 0 5

Jessica

January 25, 2011 2:57 PM

I trust you anyway by Jessica

Jessica laughed. "That was marvelous," she said. "And you did a good job! It's back to normal." She looked at her snail, and, seeing that it was still intact, tried the spell again as she listened to Renée's background. "Domiporta Thea," she said, waving her wand gracefully and making sure to enunciate each syllable properly.

She gasped in delight as her snail began to take the form of a teapot, but it stopped again before fully becoming one. It was rather ugly. It was a brown, sluggish color and had antennas at the spout and a slimy handle. Jess shivered.

"That's cool. My sister's studying to become a potions master." She wasn't sure if that was the case now, but she remembered her sister once saying that she was majoring in potions.

Renée's interest was a rushed statement before she amended it, saying "Care of Magical Creatures." Jessica nodded. She didn't like some of the scary magical creatures out there. "Transfiguration is hard," she muttered, and tried the spell Renée had used. "Finite Incantatem," she said, making sure her pronunciation was exactly the same as Renée's. A loud bang interrupted the class and made Jess jump, but the snail-teapot did change back. Jessica beamed.

"Look at that!" she said. "Oh, you asked a question. I'm from Southern California. I live in the magical part of it, like an hour away from the coast. And, well, I'm very sure I'll like charms. It's supposed to be difficult, but I don't see how anything can be more difficult than transfiguration." She pouted and tried the spell once more. "Domiporta Thea!"

The same thing happened again, with the sluggish brown color, antennas, and slimy handle. "Maybe I'm pronouncing it wrong?" she said, confused.

0 Jessica I trust you anyway 0 Jessica 0 5

Renée Errant

January 25, 2011 4:19 PM

Haha. That's a mistake many have made. =} by Renée Errant

At the compliment, Renée grinned and gave a mock bow. She watched as Jessica gracefully moved her wand and began to transform the teapot. "Hey that's looking really g - ross!" She bit her tongue in surprise again, looking at the disgusting creature. "Well, it's better than last time at least."

She turned to her own pot, examining the snout. 'Maybe I could just blast open the snout hole.' She thought. 'And just call it a day.' Renée, though immensely talented, was actually quite lazy when it came to things she was not at all passionate about. Transfiguration, fun as it was (though right now just plain disgusting), was not a passion of hers.

At Jessica's question she turned again to her pot. "Nah, you're pronouncing it correctly. It's just that you need your wand to get used to the magic. It hasn't done much before. Mi papa always describes it like a muscle, you know? You have to keep on flexing it and working it until it's strong." She turned back to her own pot. "Finite Incantatem!" Without the flourish of her wand, this time the tarnished pot easily sagged into the form of a shaken snail. Waiving her wand around three time, Renée pronounced "Domiporta Thea!" with all the confidence of her being. A second of nothing, and her expectant face fell. "So much for my - " She broke off as the snail shook and suddenly grew to four times its height and into a brown china pot. She looked it over in amazement. No ooziness, no antennas, no snail.

"Haha!" She side hugged Jessica without thinking and then let go, grinning wide at the pot. "This is so cool! I mean, it's as ugly as heck but it's transfigured." She picked it up, tilting it to look at all sides. "Kind of looks like a bent up house elf to be honest." She set it down. "Wish I knew how to make it prettier, but whatever. Onto yours."

She bent over her elbows and looked at Jessica's pot, waiting for the first year to do something to it, but making sure not to get touched by the oozing slimy deformity. "Do you have any other siblings besides your sister?" She asked. "I'm from New York but I have family in Spain as well. I have loads of cousins and other relatives but sometimes I wish I had a little brother or sister or something. Even though," she smiled. "It can be fun being the baby of the family."

0 Renée Errant Haha. That's a mistake many have made. =} 0 Renée Errant 0 5

Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

January 25, 2011 8:09 PM

I better not get all steamed up! by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

Fae still wasn’t sure what to think of Sonora. She knew that she was supposed to send a letter home over the weekend to her parents to let them know her first thoughts regarding the school and if it was a good enough to continue the family education there or if it was best to just home school the children for the remaining lives of all Sinclairs.

Fae just loved how this was all on her shoulders.

But, she had met some interesting people thus far. Her roommate was… different, but she knew coming into this that the people she met would not be like her family back home or like the other girls at some of the meet and greets she had attended with her mother. She just wished her parents had explained that a little bit better so that she wasn’t taken completely by surprise. Topher had been nice though. She wasn’t sure of the Calhoun name, but perhaps her family could look into that for her. They had wanted names, after all. Names were everything.

Walking into Transfiguration, Fae wasn’t sure what to expect. She took an available seat, adjusting her skirt and blonde waves as she did so. Her mother said she needed to dress and act like a lady at all times. It was exhausting to act like one all the time. Fae didn’t know how people did it. How they were composed all of the time! She was eleven, all she wanted to do was wake up in the morning and just sit there. She didn’t want to do her hair, she didn’t want to pick out dresses or skirts, and she didn’t want to put on makeup. She just wanted to sit there. But, that wasn’t the case for Fae. Fae had to be perfect every moment of every day in order to make her family happy. So, that’s what she did. That was her routine.

The professor was… enthusiastic. Fae wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. Her tutors at home actually really bland and boring. Fae had been under the impression that all professors and intellectuals were that way. She should have known better the moment she took the goblet from the giant man in the Hall and the one professor with the weird top hat, she should have guessed that the Professors here were vastly different than life as she knew it.

Fae had opened the box when the professor had given them the okay and was immediately revolted. Inside the box was a slug with a shell. Also known as a snail. Fae hated, absolutely hated, nature. Everything about it was disgusting. The bugs were the worst of it though. Some animals too. Why did Fae have to work with a snail? Why couldn’t she have started on something more simple, like a quill? The book used a quill. The book said it was more difficult to transform something from one mass to a completely different mass, and having that be an animate to inanimate object to top it off was absolutely ridiculous. This was definitely negative marks in her book to be sending home to her mother and father.

She sat quietly, writing down the spell that the Professor indicated and looking up the spell in her book so that she could mark it. Fae wasn’t an Aladren. She wasn’t necessarily smart, but her parents expected the best out of her, so she’d go out of her way to get it. Even if it meant turning a snail into a teapot.

Picking up her wonderfully beautiful wand, Fae used her free hand to tip the snail from the box (she had to shake it a bit to get it to drop out) and then took a breath. She could do this. She was born with magic running through her veins. This should just be natural to her. Yes, she would do this. “Domiporta Thea” She commanded, waving her wand as the professor had done. Expecting to see a teapot transformed in front of her, Fae was more than a little disappointed to still see the snail just as it had been when she shook it from the box.

The corner of her mouth turned downward in a frown as she looked at the snail. She tried the spell once again, but received the same response. Absolutely nothing. Fae looked to the person beside her. “I don’t understand why it isn’t working. How are you doing with yours?”

0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) I better not get all steamed up! 0 Fae Sinclair (Crotalus) 0 5

Jessica

January 26, 2011 12:03 PM

Maybe I should trod carefully? by Jessica

Get her wand used to the magic. Hm. She'd never heard of that before, but then again, she hadn't been around too many older wizards besides her parents. "I see," she said, a little disappointed. She'd hoped she'd be a prodigy or something. Well, this was only transfiguration, not something like charms.

"Finite Incantatem," she said, changing her snail back. She watched Renée take her turn. Her partner successfully changed her snail into a teapot, though it was brown and ugly. It was still a teapot. Jessica remembered how Renée had done the spell.

"Good job!" Jessica said, laughing as Renée embraced her in her excitement. Now it was her turn. Jessica turned to her snail who was slowly oozing along the table, and she practised the spell just as Renée had said it. She made sure to focus intently and to concentrate on the spell.

"Domiporta Thea!" she said, waving her wand three times just like Renée had. Her snail successfully changed into a teapot, though it turned a beige instead of brown like her partner's. She squealed in delight. "I did it!" she exclaimed. "I did it!"

She held up her pot to examine it as she answered Renée's question. "Yeah, I have an older brother too. He's the oldest. I haven't seen him since he left, though. Like," Jess tried hard to remember, "five years? I don't know. A long time." She didn't really think about her brother all too much. He was always mean to her anyway. "I have loads of family that I've never met," she told her. "But they're all in England."

Jessica smiled. "I'm the baby of the family too! And I don't want any brothers and sisters." She wrinkled her nose. "I rather like being the youngest. Should we show our teapots to the professor?" she asked.

0 Jessica Maybe I should trod carefully? 0 Jessica 0 5

Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw]

January 26, 2011 4:48 PM

I swear I won't. by Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw]

Valentina was sort of sad to be coming back to Sonora, it had nothing to do with not liking the school, but she missed her Ballet Camp. It had been awesome, just dancing all day and being with people that liked what she liked was refreshing. To be honest, she had been surprised when her mother said she could attend, with her father’s blessing. She had been beyond excited and couldn’t talk about anything else during the time before she actually left for two months of dancing. The now second-year knew that he didn’t want her daughter being the center of attention to that extent. She didn’t know why, but she complied to his wishes because he was her dad. It was a very strange relationship, but it was all she had. To add to her excitement, his brother, Alex, also got to go to a summer camp, but it was centered on Quidditch. To each his own she thought. The blue-eyed girl didn’t like Quidditch that much, it was dangerous and one could get hurt. Ballet was safer and more beautiful.

Anyways, she was back at school, and she needed to attend classes. With that in mind, she got all of her stuff and headed down to Transfiguration. The Teppenpaw didn’t have a favorite class, yet. But she was looking for one; she had a lot of time to figure that out. She entered the classroom, and sat down without looking who was besides her, since it was time to give her full attention to Professor Crosby. She smiled at the Professor and listened intently. Valentina didn’t have a fully formed opinion on her other than she was eccentric, but nice. Plus, she was her Head of House.

Now, after Prof. Crosby finished with her lecture, she had to wrinkle her nose when she opened the box and looked inside. Snails? Yuck! They were slimey and buggey and just gross. She didn’t want to touch them! Valentina just stood there looking at the bugs…she didn’t want to touch them, but she didn’t want to fail the lesson. This was a very hard situation. Her blue eyes scanned the people around her, they seemed to be doing all right.

Out of the blue, she remembered that she had some gloves inside of her bag. She didn’t remember why she did, but there they were there. Excellent. She got them out and merrily put them on. She was not going to fail the class! She grabbed one of the snails and set it down on her desk. She tried the spell, and it didn’t work. The thing was slowly crawling on it. After her second attempt failed, she decided to ask for help. The boy besides her looked like he was doing okay.

With a smile on her face, she addressed him. “Would you mind helping me?” he answered her and just then ignored her. How rude. She took a deep breath and a step closer to him. “I really need some help. Are you busy?” the smile never leaving her face.

0 Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw] I swear I won't. 171 Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw] 0 5

Topher

January 26, 2011 8:52 PM

Some of my biological relatives ain't half-bad. by Topher

“Don’t mention it,” Topher said when Derry thanked him for the compliment on his hat. “I guess you really like history, huh?”

Because while Derry’s hat was awesome, it wasn’t really normal. Topher had donned some pretty strange things over the years through the History Game and other things – there were at least two occasions he refused to mention, which had occurred after he’d been dumb enough to take bets from Lucy; he still occasionally kicked himself for the second, but had learned his lesson and never taken a third – but he usually – the second one had been a big bet – didn’t wear any of them in public. So unless Derry also had a sadistic genius for a cousin and had lost a bet recently, there had to be some kind of story behind the hat, and Topher liked a good story.

Once his new pal finished examining his attempt at a teapot, Topher grimaced at his analysis of it. “Yeah, I was trying not to think about that,” he said, poking it very slightly. “I’m not sure if it’s still alive or not, and if – uh – Bill here still has a nervous system…Do snails think? I’ve heard of people talking to snakes…”

He guessed, based on the context, that Hamlet was the nickname of some tutor or student or whatever who’d given Derry basic theory lessons before Sonora. “I heard it’ll turn itself back in a minute or two,” he said, hoping for as much for his own sake as for the newly-christened Bill’s that the snail was still alive when he became snail-shaped again. “Mrs. Ballard – that was my teacher, at home – said it’ll be years before we can make transfigurations stick. And stuff like – Hamlet? Said about concentrating, too, but I don't get it. How do we visualize everything about how a snail turns into a teapot? She said that didn't matter, it was some artistic thing, but..." He grinned and shrugged. "I guess they didn't call it one of the hardest classes you'll ever have for no reason, did they?"

0 Topher Some of my biological relatives ain't half-bad. 0 Topher 0 5

Renée Errant

January 27, 2011 3:34 PM

A wise decision you have made. {Tag: Professor Crosby} by Renée Errant

Renée laughed at Jessica's excitement. "Well, this wasn't so hard. I wonder if she'll give us something new to change into." She eyed the rest of the classroom, seeing the other groups of students in the midst of transforming their snails. Most looked like Jessica's had in he earliest attempt. Pulsating, antenna's waiving, and just downright disgusting. "Hey I think we're ahead of the class." This thought pleased her, she couldn't help feeling self-satisfied. She was used to excelling - well, if she put effort into it that is. And here she had, for some reason. She suspected it had something to do with the fact that they were actually working with a creature, though very little about it was magical.

"You haven't seen your brother in five years?" Renée gaped at her. She thought she would die without seeing Gabriel for five whole years. He was her idol, her champion, her - her brother! "I would go crazy like that..." She suddenly remembered that she wasn't part of the most conventional family either. "I haven't seen my grandparents ever though. I think they saw me when I was born and then on a birthday but I don't remember them." She said this without attaching any importance behind it. To her it was simply how it was, and despite her natural curiosity, she had long accepted that was how it would continue to be and pried no further into the family drama.

"Yeah, we should probably show Professor Crosby our tea pots." She raised her hand and waited for the Professor to notice her. After two seconds she became fed up and placed her arm over her head in a lazy half wave. When the professor still failed to notice she simply took out her wand and cast, "Wingardium Leviosa." on her teapot, watching it rise in the air and waited for it to grab the professor's attention. When she caught Crosby's eye she smiled sweetly, "We're done." She pronounced, indicating her and her partner.

0 Renée Errant A wise decision you have made. {Tag: Professor Crosby} 0 Renée Errant 0 5

Sara Raines, Pecari

January 27, 2011 8:13 PM

I really hope no one does by Sara Raines, Pecari

Professor Crosby, in their mutual first year, had been irrational and irritating, and Sara did not expect anything better from her in their second. She entered the Transfiguration classroom with grim determination, sitting down in the same seat she’d been roped into last year – not that she didn’t like Jordan, of course, she thought they actually got along nicely, but still, they should have been told they’d be in those seats for the year before they sat down – and taking out her things.

She had been small for an eleven-year-old when she was in first year, and now, twelve and in second, she still would have been considered small for an eleven-year-old. That wasn’t something Sara liked, but, like Professor Crosby, it was something she had yet to find a way to do something about, so she’d done her best to try to look older in the hopes that she wouldn’t be too easily confused for one of the first years. In addition to the low heels she was permitted to wear at school, she was wearing a straight, narrow knee-length dress instead of a blouse and skirt, had her dark brown hair hanging straight down over her shoulders instead of in waves or curls, and had worn a little make-up. Not much, because Mother thought that looked cheap and it would ruin her complexion later if she started wearing heavy foundation and powders now, but just enough to bring out her brown eyes and so she thought she could perhaps pass for a short thirteen instead of a mature eleven. Twelve continued to elude her; it wasn’t much of an age, anyway.

She was also sitting on top of a textbook covered with a scarf charmed to make it feel like a cushion, but she hoped no one would comment on that.

She frowned darkly at the call to sit anywhere, seeing it as a trap. They hadn’t been told ahead of time that seats would be permanent last year, either, and the seating chart was going to change anyway because the old second years were now third years and in intermediate classes. It was only logical to assume that she was going to let them sort themselves out, then tell them they were locked in again. The second years should know better – if her classmates weren’t stupid, anyway; Sara wasn’t sure about some of them – but she hoped the first year class didn’t include any real crazies, the way her year did.

She had seen that something was going on at Crotalus on the first night, but had yet to find out exactly what it was, only that Eliza had moved seats looking all flushed and then left the room with Jordan a few minutes later. Sara couldn’t think of a reason why they would scheme against her, but if something was going on, she wanted to find out about it as soon as possible, in case it overlapped with an interest of hers. Hopefully, one of them would share her fear about the seating and sit with her, and she’d get a chance to try to pull it out of them. They were more likely to sit with each other, but still, hope was hope, and there would be other opportunities.

A first year took a seat on one side of her, and Sara smiled at the – Crotalus, according to the robe. “Good day,” she said. It was always best to be polite, Father said, because you never knew who anyone might become, and since no one but the Teppenpaws had a large group of people to become friends with built in, it was entirely possible that the other girl needed a friendly hello right now.

The lesson began, and – to Sara’s surprise – no strange tricks came of it. Professor Crosby acted almost like a normal, stable, responsible adult human being. The lesson was ridiculously advanced, and Sara thought she might be of more service offering a shoulder to cry on to the first years than friendly hellos by the end of it, but still, this was closer to a normal lesson than anything she could ever remember Professor Crosby giving them.

Trap. There was no other explanation available.

When they were sent to work, though, it was with nothing stranger than a request for her year to help the younger students, since Crosby wanted to whine a little. Sara knew, on some level, that she would have interpreted the “I can’t be everywhere” remark as just a little too casual instead of as an attempt to avoid work from any other professor, but she didn’t like this one and it would take more than one decent lesson to make her trust her on any level, or assume any of her motives were actually good.

She thought of offering her assistance to the first year beside her, but the other girl was already working, so Sara put on the gloves she carried everywhere, just in case, and took a try at Transfiguring her own snail. Between this class and Care of Magical Creatures and a little bit of Potions, she no longer had much of a problem with having creatures around, so long as they weren’t dangerous, and she didn’t think Professor Crosby would even tell them streelers were snails and allow them to be burned. That would be a firing offense.

She got something which was almost a teapot, if a wobbly, ill-formed, snail-shell-patterned one, just as her neighbor decided to speak up. “It's going well, thank you,” she said automatically. “I think I was better at the end of last year, but you lose a little over the summer.” She looked at the other girl’s attempt, only to find it still looked entirely snail-like. “I wouldn’t worry about yours yet, though. It usually takes a while to get the hang of it,” she added with another smile. “This is far more advanced than most things you’ll do in first year.” Unless the entire faculty had gone crazy, but she doubted it. “You have to concentrate very hard, and try to visualize the snail turning into a teapot.” She made a face. “I know it isn’t a pleasant visual. I’m Sara Raines, of the Illinois Raineses. Second year Pecari.”

0 Sara Raines, Pecari I really hope no one does 0 Sara Raines, Pecari 0 5

Marcus Williams (Pecari)

January 27, 2011 9:39 PM

Getting this over with. by Marcus Williams (Pecari)

Marcus had had the most awesome summer! He had been unbelievably happy to be back in Rochester with his friends and with his mom. He spent a lot of the time at Seabreeze and at the beach. Most days the water was closed off from them because of the bacteria, but the sand had been good enough. Besides, he had been able to be outside and with his friends, so that’s what really mattered. When he wasn’t at the beach or at the local amusement park, Marcus was playing baseball or basketball with his friends.

Dinners with his Ma and Grandma had been good too. It felt comfortable and normal. He missed soul food. He missed his mom. Heck, he even missed his Grandma even though she was stubborn and mean at times.

When summer ended, Marcus regretted knowing that he would be boarding a flying wagon to head back to Sonora. He was happy to know that magic was real and apart of his life. He was not so happy that he would have to leave one world behind in order to live in the other. He wanted to still be able to see his friends and his family. They knew him and knew how to keep him sane. Marcus didn’t really have friends at Sonora. He had a handful of acquaintances, but not necessarily friends. Of course, he really only had himself to blame for that. He would just have to try harder this year to make it work. There was no turning back now since he already lost out on a year of muggle schooling.

He had spent the first night quietly eating and listening to everyone around him. Today was the first day of classes and Marcus would have to deal with people. Including two of whom he didn’t really enjoy spending his time around. Walking into the Transfiguration, Marcus saw one of the very people he desperately wanted to avoid, Professor Crosby. Last year, Marcus had picked up on the fact that there were quite a few people who did not like the professor, but he doubted it was for the same reasons as him.

Marcus stayed back while others started to find seats because he didn’t want to get stuck near the other person he was going to avoid for the remaining years of his Sonora life. When he found a desk that was already surrounded by others that were not Nova, Marcus grabbed it. He would rather just keep his head down than try to bother with any of it. He didn’t want another detention or else that would most definitely give him a bad reputation.

Because he had transformed a beetle last year, he wasn’t really surprised that she continued to start off with one of the more difficult transfigurations that someone their age could do. He didn’t get it. Why would a professor start their lessons (especially for those who never knew of magic) with the most ridiculous of lessons instead of easing them in and starting out small until they got the hang of it? Sure, throw them into the pit of fire when they were fifth years, but as first years? Someone ought to look over her curriculum before allowing her to teach.

Of course, Marcus could be biased in his thoughts here.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Marcus pulled the snail from the box and set it down. He closed his eyes to visualize the transformation of a snail to a teapot. It was extremely difficult to visualize. Extremely difficult. Especially since there was no logical reason as to why one would choose a snail to turn into a teapot. But, whatever, not his lesson.

After a moment longer of visualizing it, Marcus picked up his wand and spoke in a clear voice, “Domiporta Thea”. The snail did nothing for a moment and then suddenly grew in size and began to change forms. By the end of it, it had the teapot shape, but was a weird metallic material with a copper look to it. Wasn’t exactly what he had been aiming for, but he didn’t think it was a terrible first try.

6 Marcus Williams (Pecari) Getting this over with. 180 Marcus Williams (Pecari) 0 5

Derry Four

January 27, 2011 10:03 PM

So they're half-good? by Derry Four

For a second, Derry was confused by Topher's odd idea that he liked history. True, he didn't dislike it, but where was he getting that he 'really liked' it? Then he realized that the hat was historical, sort of. "Oh, no. I guess maybe my brother did, but I got the hat by way of hand-me-downs. I just think it looks cool."

Derry considered Bill. Then he considered Snag's confusion about the recent home renovations, and nodded. "They think," he decided. He looked at Bill again. "I'm sure Bill's fine. Snag looked way deader when Professor Crosby turned him into a teapot. The magic protects them, I think."

He watched Snag for a little bit longer, waiting out the minute for it to turn back. Hamlet hadn't mentioned that, but Derry was sure Mrs. Ballard knew what she was talking about if she tutored people. And Hamlet had hardly had time to tell him everything about Transfigurations. "Yeah," he agreed, grinning a little, "and they don't make it any easier by skipping right over inanimate to inanimate."

He held up his maple wand so Topher could see it clearly, "At least now I get to use my own wand. It's really hard to use Grandfather's but at least I can practice at home that way."

He startled a little as his semi-teapot suddenly turned back into snailshell. "Oh, cool, Snag's back."

He brandished his wand, tried to visualize the transformation including Snag's body this time, and tried again, "Domiporta Thea!" His magic shot into the snail again and it transformed.

Derry tilted his head to the side and studied the result. "Well, it's an interesting looking teapot," he granted. It . . . looked like someone had taken a sculture of a snail and made it into a teapot. "But," he tapped a finger against the side of it and it made a ceramic sounding noise, "it is a teapot. Kind of."

1 Derry Four So they're half-good? 189 Derry Four 0 5

Alice Adair, Crotalus

January 27, 2011 10:22 PM

Must I? by Alice Adair, Crotalus

Alice wandered into the Transfiguration classroom with the other students. She knew that other first years would be in the class, but was mildly surprise to realize that there were second years as well, only definable by the fact that she had seen her sister bouncing along with her normal enthusiasm whereas she more or less shuffled. She preferred not to draw attention to herself if she could help it. She liked being invisible in the world of visibility. It was easier that way, easier to cope, because when people saw you, they could hurt you. Maybe they didn’t intend to do it, but they did just the same. So, it was with this that she took to finding a seat that was in the back of the room.

Settling into her seat, she pulled out the required parchment and quill to take notes. She figured that was what she was supposed to do in a classroom setting. Though, she hadn’t done it much with her tutors, but this was a new setting, a new experience, one that she wasn’t too happy about. She didn’t understand why she just couldn’t continue learning at home. It would have been the same, if not a better, education than Sonora. Plus, she wouldn’t have had to socialize with others. Didn’t anyone realize how incredibly difficult it was for her to do such things? When she tried, they just ended up looking at her weirdly. It made her crawl into her shell all the more. She was never going to be happy here. Ever.

Alice listened intently to the professor though she really wanted to tune most of what she was saying out. Of course, they were unprepared. That really went without saying and did it really matter if she was going to push them beyond their limits? They had to do what they were told no matter what so it really didn’t matter very much. Just like how they were being told to open their boxes. Gingerly, she opened the top, expecting something to jump out of her, but nothing did. It was almost disappointing. It might have been a little interesting if something had. She didn’t frighten easily. Every Halloween when they went out to get candy, people would try to scare her and she would just stare at them. Occasionally, she might have said something, but only if she had found them mildly amusing.

Turning a snail into a teapot, however, was not amusing. It wasn’t even that useful since she never intended on using the spell, because one, she didn’t just have mollusks running around waiting to be turned into teapots, and second, she didn’t even like the taste of tea. It was quite disgusting. However, it was obvious that regardless of the usefulness of the spell, they were still going to be required to perform it. Though, going beyond one’s limits was an understatement. Snails didn’t come close to teapots in any way except perhaps the shell being somewhat rounded, but even then it wasn’t quite right for a teapot. Though, she supposed if she tried the head could seem like a spout and the tail was the handle.

Still, it was stretching quite a bit. She had to disregard the molecular structure of the snail completely. She had to pretend that it didn’t have a lung. She had to pretend that it didn’t secrete mucus. She had to pretend that it didn’t have a lot of things that it quite obviously did. All those things had to be removed in order to pour water into and allow it to come to a scalding temperature. What happened if someone let all the water boil out of the teapot and it scorched the bottom? Wouldn’t the snail be return to a state with a scorch somewhere on it? So, the professor had to be lying to say that the snail would be unharmed. There were all kinds of ways that it could be harmed and that was just from actually trying to do the lesson. She could only imagine what some cruel human might actually try to do to the poor little snail. Poor thing. It reminded her of her, moving slowly, hidden in its shell. She felt something of a kinship with this little creature.

But a lesson was a lesson and she would do it for the sake of knowing the spell, whether or not she considered it useful. Unfortunately, it involved working with someone. The light brown haired girl frowned a bit. She didn’t really see the need to work with someone else, someone older. Why would they have to work together? She didn’t think that anyone would have any trouble with the spell. If one did everything they were supposed to do, then it should be fairly easy, but if she worked alone, she would get noticed so partner it was. She didn’t bother to look around. The first person she saw, she asked, “Since partnership is required, would it be all right to work together? We don’t actually have to work together.”

0 Alice Adair, Crotalus Must I? 0 Alice Adair, Crotalus 0 5

Arthur Carey, Aladren

January 27, 2011 11:41 PM

We all must by Arthur Carey, Aladren

He had thought he would be all right, but as Arthur followed his brother into the Transfiguration classroom, all he could think was that he really should have taken his sleeping potion last night.

Between his circadian rhythm being somehow reversed so often he wanted to be awake at night and asleep during the day and having a mind he found it difficult to quiet, he had never slept well. That was why a Healer friend of his father’s had prescribed him a sleeping potion. Nothing very strong, just enough to allow him to relax on nights before lessons he thought he would need to be especially on his toes for. To be used only sparingly, not on a nightly basis, and he only had a limited supply to ensure that he didn’t misuse it. He was used to sleeping fitfully most of the time anyway, so while his mother didn’t like it, on normal days, he had been expected to carry on as usual. And since the first few days, at least, would be things he and Arnold had already taught themselves….

Somehow, it had failed to occur to everyone that at Sonora, having so many other people in his bedroom might mean he wouldn’t be able to really sleep at all. Every time exhaustion set in hard enough blank out everything else and he thought he might be on the brink of slipping under, one of the others would make a noise and bring him back. By the time he’d given sleeping on his own up as a lost cause, he had been ready to commit fraternicide and it had been far too late to take the potion without sleeping into the middle of the day. When morning had finally come, the second thing he’d done, after rubbing enough cold water under his eyes to let him see straight, had been to write a strong reminder to himself in his planner to see what it took to put a silencing charm around his bed and, if he couldn’t perform the magic himself yet, make Professor Fawcett do it at the first opportunity.

That would help him another day. Right now, though, his head hurt, he was having trouble thinking, and all available sources suggested to him that Transfiguration was not only difficult because of its complexity, but because it required a very specific kind of mind to conceptualize properly. Arthur had always loved the theory, and had been anticipating getting to learn it for months. It had been one of the things he was most looking forward to. Being cheated of the chance to enjoy his first day in it – and when the professor promised to let them begin the real work right away, too! – felt almost like a personal insult.

He opened his box along with everyone else, not putting his hand into it because he was smart enough to obey a warning when he heard one in an appropriate context, and frowned when he saw what felt reasonably sure was an over-large snail. Engorgement Charm, perhaps? Wouldn’t that make the transfiguration that much more complex? He wasn’t sure. She wasn’t explaining the rules behind it, much to his irritation.

But he had to focus. Invertebrate, exoskeleton, transfiguration to hollow inanimate object, like an exoskeleton. Tissue spreading and thinning and hardening into porcelain, a piece of china, like those his grandmother and mother had. There was one set his great-great-grandmother had gotten when she was young, she and Anthony IV no longer celebrated birthdays, they said the cakes looked just like when the Muggles burned Atlanta for some reason, apparently cousin Edwin had been there at the time. Edwin was very old now, but was he older than Anthony IV? But he was supposed to be working with teapots. The only food-based heirloom older than Belinda’s china was her grandmother’s silver. Aurelia Porter had brought it over from England when she married Augustus Hamilton, and their son had been Reginald, and his daughter had been Belinda, and she’d married Anthony IV…If he ever had a son, he was going to name him Bill, or George, or anything but Arthur. They did not need another line most easily distinguished from each other by their wives.

He could try for the silver, but that seemed harder, somehow. It felt as if it would be easier to go from bone to porcelain than bone to metal, but he didn’t know why. Why did no one ever seem to know why?

“Since partnership is required, would it be all right to work together? We don’t actually have to work together.”

Arthur realized he had been looking in the direction of the speaker without really seeing her. There were always patterns in the walls, but it was rude in a room full of people, and it was strange, he shouldn’t do – no, he had to concentrate right now. And take his sleeping potion the second he finished supper, and, as Grandfather would say, damn the consequences. Arnold would understand, and Preston, Russell, and Asher could think whatever they pleased. He could fix the damage later, and do less than he would if he tried to carry on a proper conversation after more hours of this. “I find your suggestion agreeable,” he said, remembering to make a slight bow in his seat. A very slight one, because he had the irrational thought his head would fall off if he tried anything elaborate, but she was still a girl. “My name is Arthur Carey, of the South Carolina Careys and Aladren House.”

He took out the snail, then performed under his breath the simple freezing charm he’d noticed in his charms book before school began and decided, based on the number of times working on animals came up in the later chapters of the Transfiguration textbook, was one he and Arnold should know ahead of time, so they could build up their ability with it for when it was really needed. They’d only practiced on flies and beetles, not anything as large as the snail, but it should stick long enough for this to take. Too bad they’d stopped after two inanimate-to-inanimate Transfigurations, though…they’d wanted to look smart and unusually talented, not like they’d been illegally studying magic for a few weeks on their own, and he had never anticipated something like this on the first day. It was his punishment for breaking the rules. “Domiporta thea,” he tried.

He had an image of Belinda’s teapot in his head, but it was fuzzy and vague, and his ability to suppress all the other thoughts was lower than usual. The…thing he had in front of him after a moment did look vaguely like a teapot, he supposed, but its spout and base still appeared to be made of living tissue, and he thought he could see what looked a bit like his dead great-grandfather’s face on the shell-like side of it. He sat back and covered his mouth, trying not to gag.

“Finite incantatem,” he tried.

”I’m sorry if you saw that,” he added to his companion a moment later. “I normally do things right in lessons. I’m very tired right now.”

0 Arthur Carey, Aladren We all must 0 Arthur Carey, Aladren 0 5

Asher

January 29, 2011 2:17 PM

… I take it you dislike tea? by Asher

It was not much of a sensible request, but the girl beside him relented all the same. The tension Asher had felt at the possibility of her turning him down subsided at her response, and he gave her a small smile to express his gratitude. Narrowing his pallid green eyes at her workspace, Asher had anticipated seeing the girl yield the same results the bubbly professor had. It was only when he was blinking at a teapot-shaped snail that he realized he might have been expecting too much for a stranger to get it right straightaway.

”I don’t think that is right,” the girl said, looking over at him.

He shrugged noncommittally. “I think you did fine, I just would not actually use it for tea.” He smiled down at it, suddenly rather impressed. Though the spell had not worked completely, he anticipated her getting it down pat her third, perhaps fourth, try. Asher liked to think of himself as someone who was good at feeling situations and people out, so there was no doubt she would get this sooner or later. As for himself… well, he would just put this off as long as he could. Though watching her made him feel like he did not have to get it right the first time, the risk of performing horribly did not seem worth taking to him.

While grinning, the girl introduced herself as Reggie. This was usually the part where Asher would greet her in the manner of a proper pureblood he was raised to be, by kissing the back of her hand and bowing slightly. But they were sitting down, dealing with slugs, and Asher was nervous to do such a thing because Reggie had not introduced herself in a pureblood fashion either, so his formality might be weird. With this in mind, he wondered if maybe this girl was not a pureblood. In which case his elders seemed wrong so far: she did not resemble dirt that belonged on the bottom of his shoes in the slightest. It made him feel slightly guilty having memories like that when this girl seemed so nice.

“Nice to meet you, Reggie,” he answered with a smile, because her smiling at him made him want to do the same. “My name is Asher Reid, of the Alaska Reids.”

Asher looked down to his snail, following Reggie’s gaze, and he rubbed his knuckles together nervously as he heard her simple question. “Well, I –“ he stumbled over his words, trying to find a reasonable excuse for why he could not even practice it once. Sadly, ‘I am afraid of being a disappointment’ and ‘I am too scared’ sounded too lame to even consider letting slip. With an exaggerated sigh, Asher nodded glumly in defeat. It would be ungentlemanly to make a request of a lady and not even follow hers through.

Waving his wand over his snail, he gave the creature a worried look before waving his wand in the manner the professor had. ”Domiporta Thea,” he echoed. He was slightly surprised to see the snail transform in front of him, everything looking very much like a teapot, with the exception of the spout. The head of the snail was where the spout should be, but otherwise it seemed decent enough.

“I would not use this one for tea either,” he confessed. “But it did turn out a lot better than I was expecting.” Very true. Asher decided it didn’t matter what her background was, because she was nice enough to help Asher into actually trying.

0 Asher … I take it you dislike tea? 0 Asher 0 5

Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw

January 29, 2011 2:38 PM

But what pattern are you? by Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw

She had been thinking about it for ages, imagining what it would be like, and where, and what they would do, and now, here it was.

Magic class.

Madeline felt like something dramatic should have happened as she stepped over the threshold of the Transfiguration classroom and looked around, but nothing did, and after a second, she began to feel self-conscious about being in people’s way and hurried to find a seat.

She didn’t, however, stop looking around, and soon noticed something strange. There were more people here than there had been in the Sorting, and some of them, she was sure she’d seen at the tables while she was drinking her potion. She had thought that meant they were older students, but if they were, then why were they in her class? This was supposed to be the Beginners’ class. The very basics. The class that people like her, who knew nothing about all this, could somehow pass, or at least catch up in before they got to being asked to do what everyone else could do.

Unless this was the remedial class, and they were just being nice and not calling it that, but Madeline hoped she was wrong there. There was something extremely discouraging about the thought of being in class with older students who’d already failed Transfiguration once. She hadn’t even had a chance to see if she was good enough to work with the people from magic families yet, and keep up without special tutoring, and Mr. Towers had said that no one could really do magic when they first came to school, and that she wouldn’t really be that far behind anyone…

It occurred to her that she was putting a lot of trust into a man she’d only known for a few days, and who she’d hardly known which questions to ask. She had to find the library as soon as possible.

She had looked through her textbooks, though, and knew that the early chapters of the Transfiguration one were about turning toothpicks into needles and that kind of thing – things that didn’t violate conservation of energy too much, they were just like old notions of alchemy, like Dad had written that article on last year. This…was that, she guessed, but it sounded a lot harder. Would she end up with a dead snail, or a living teapot? Did she even want to know the answer to that question? It wasn’t so much that Madeline liked bugs, though snails were kind of cute in their own way, as that she really didn’t like the idea of killing something. Even flies bothered her.

Professor Crosby was telling them it wouldn’t hurt the snails, but still, wasn’t that assuming they did this right? She really didn’t know about this….

But she had to try. Professor Crosby was nice. She wouldn’t give them something they couldn’t do at all. Right. That was how she had to think of it. She could do this. Totally. Well enough to pass, anyway. She could worry about making all As once she got off the ground here.

“Hi,” she said to the person sitting next to her. “Do you want to be partners?”

0 Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw But what pattern are you? 0 Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw 0 5

Luka

January 30, 2011 7:53 AM

And don't dance either.. by Luka

Luka was beyond annoyed. If the girl needed help, why was she asking him, instead of the professor?

“Of course, I’m busy. We’re in a class, remember?” he said. His voice wasn’t exactly rude, but it was cold. He did not like the concept of partnering up, in the first place. Why, it was a pretty uncomplicated spell, and if anyone couldn’t do a simple transfiguration like this, they ought to leave the school.

Nevertheless, he moved in his seat, accommodating a space for the girl. The girl looked exactly the opposite of what he was, and what he admired. He was a wild boy, his longish hair was untamed and the scar on his cheek made him formidable. He was just eleven, but already his arms and shoulders were starting to get swathed with muscles. His tanned skin stood out like a pirates in the room full of whites.

The girl put on gloves, and Luka snorted grimly. His hands were chaffed and calloused from handling bow and arrows and hacking wood all day long. Resolutely, avoiding the girl’s glance, he concentrated on his snail. He did not even introduce himself – he felt no obligation whatsoever to be polite.

Flicking his wand thrice, as instructed, he said, “Domiporta Thea!”

His snail neatly turned into a teapot. He set the pot on his table and crossed his arms across his chest. The lesson was over and it had been barely ten minutes. Now all he’d have to do was wait till he could get out of the class.

0 Luka And don't dance either.. 0 Luka 0 5

Topher

January 30, 2011 6:58 PM

At least a few bronze medals in the Denial Olympics. by Topher

Older brother hand-me-downs. The question of why Derry’s brother would go around wearing a tricorner hat was still up in the air, but Topher guessed it made more sense than his first theory. If he’d had brothers, he was sure there would have been clothes-sharing.

Of course, for all he knew, he did have half-brothers, and ones from the socio-economic class where there was very rarely the passing on of clothes, but Topher didn’t think so. All he’d ever heard mentioned was Caroline, and they’d been nearly – what – six by the time his mom married his dad and Daniel quietly dropped out of the picture. That was a long time to be okay with having a girl as an heir if Daniel wasn’t ultimately okay with having a girl as an heir. So, unless there were other illegitimate kids running around, Topher was pretty sure Caroline was the only person he shared any sort of parent with.

It occurred to him, absently, to wonder if Caroline knew that, or if she’d been sheltered from what a loser her dad was and was wandering along her merry Canadian way thinking she was completely an only child. He guessed he’d find out when Daniel died and someone either tried or failed to try to kill him. Wasn’t that how purebloods handled their parents’ indiscretions?

“It does,” Topher confirmed for him on the subject of whether or not the hat looked cool, though his opinion had not been solicited. Topher didn’t really feel the need to wait to be asked for his opinion all the time. In the Proctor family, doing that was a good way to never get a chance to voice an opinion at all. It was just assumed that if you had something to say, you’d find an opening and say it.

“Not the answer I wanted, dude,” Topher complained when Derry concluded that snails could think. He really would not want to be in Bill’s mindspace right now if that was so. But then there was the theory that magic protected the snails from their mess-ups. “I think I’ll think that, too.”

He admired Derry’s wand for a moment and decided to show off his mahogany one for a moment. Mom had said it was typical that he’d end up suited to an imported wood that cost more, which had rubbed him a bit the wrong way even though he’d known she was teasing him and not thinking along remotely the same lines he was. “Yeah, way better than nothing,” he said when Derry admitted the advantage of at least having a wand to work with at home before he’d gotten his own. “My dad’s in accident reversal, so him and Mom always kept theirs where I couldn’t get to them. I got hold of other people parents’ every now and then, but that wasn’t much, either. Not enough for skipping the first half of the book or stuff like that.”

He could only assume that Derry’s parents weren’t as strict about not letting him use his grandfather’s wand, because on the second try, he got something that looked like one of the decorative dishes Mom liked to keep all over the place, except hers were a mix of cows and butterflies. That, or Derry was really, really powerful and had a natural talent for Transfiguration. Either way, Topher was glad they were getting along instead of not liking each other as far as he knew. “Works for me,” he said, about the time Bill also turned back into a snail. Topher looked him over, but except for his antennae moving around in what Topher interpreted as an agitated way, he seemed pretty normal.

“Okay, here I go again,” he said, focusing very hard on a mental image of a teapot. A brown teapot, kind of like the snail’s shell. “Domiporta thea,” he tried again.

It was a teapot, but a very small one, and, maybe because he’d been thinking of them right before he tried, it still had antenna-like projections on its head which moved. “Not too bad,” he concluded, rapping it in imitation of Derry to see if he had hollow pottery. It sounded like he did. “Another try or two, and I think we might pull this off.”

0 Topher At least a few bronze medals in the Denial Olympics. 0 Topher 0 5

Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus

January 30, 2011 7:02 PM

Likewise by Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus

On the first day she’d ever met her, Daisy had come to have an opinion of Professor Crosby, and it was fundamentally simple: crazy woman was crazy, and Daisy’s best bet in life was to avoid her like she was carrying a particularly nasty strain of spattergroit. A few more lessons had done nothing to change that opinion, so Daisy had kept her head down, done her work, drawn no attention to herself, and occasionally been amused by the way some of her classmates let the crazy woman get to them.

This year, it appeared that the crazy woman was trying to be less crazy, which, Daisy decided, must have had something to do with the regime change. The regime change was very interesting for her, and she added the professor’s sudden good behavior to the list of reasons why. Was Headmaster Regal just another placeholder, doing whatever it was adults in education who didn’t teach did while everyone else got on with the business of running the school the way it had always been run, or was he trying to pull something off? And if so, why? It didn’t really matter to her, she was going to have to at least politely smile and bear it, but it was fun to watch, and trying to figure it out gave her something to do, like a good mystery novel.

Her roommates were definitely trying to pull something off, and Daisy still wasn’t too sure what, but they weren’t going about it very well. Eliza and Jordan had walked out of the feast as though no one else was around, and after Eliza had already moved seats, that screamed of something being up. Daisy was half-surprised they weren’t in Pierce’s office already, unless the Head of House wasn’t as strict as she liked to look. She would keep an eye on that, too, but frankly expected her attempt to analyze the new headmaster to be more interesting in the long run.

She really needed to find out if professors had to at least perfunctorily run their lesson plans by a higher authority. If Crosby had gotten approval to throw them all under the Granians’ hooves this way, then it made Regal even more interesting. Was he trying to “force” the first years, make them develop their abilities more quickly – in which case he thought something was going to happen, though, now that she thought about it, Crosby doing this at all, regardless of higher approval, could indicate something like that – or did he just know nothing about how things really worked?

Wheels within wheels within wheels. And people wondered why Daisy felt no particular urge to do things in the world. It might be fun to shake things up even further, but she was already having a great time just trying to figure out what it was everyone else was doing.

She supposed she could help out the first years, but first, she had to make sure she could do this crazy lesson herself. It had been two months since she last tried to Transfigure anything, and she hadn’t been the top of the class in the discipline even at her best. Not bad, but not brilliant, either. Good at best. She was not going to offer her assistance to some first year like she was queen of the world and knew everything and then make a fool of herself.

“Domiporta thea,” she intoned precisely, copying the professor’s wand movement with her own nine and a half inches of chestnut, and looked with interest at the lumpy, grayish-brown teapot that resulted from her efforts.

She glanced to one side and found Marcus Williams and his coppery teapot sitting there. That made her think for a second. She thought he was friendly with all her roommates – maybe he had a thing for ditzy girls, in which case she doubted they would get along at all for real – so it might be good to at least be on civil speaking terms with him, in case some kind of all-out war started and everyone’s links outside the room became important. If he was seen as a neutral force, then he couldn’t be somehow turned to damage her. She’d take up with Jordan and Eliza if it came down to that, they were political assets Addie One would appreciate a lot more than Renée Errant, but for all she knew, no one would have her, and it would be a three-sided issue.

“Not bad,” she said, tilting her head toward his work to show what she meant. “I think you did better than I did.” And since Daisy prided herself on being one of the smarter people in their year, and made no effort to hide that she was, she hoped he would get that she meant that as a real compliment. “Did you get to practice over the summer? Mother locked my wand up as soon as I got home. She’s terrified I’m going to turn the linens blue or something during a dinner party.” It was possible he would interpret that as a joke or exaggeration; it wasn’t, but she had never seen the harm in seeing the humor in Addie One’s eccentricities.

0 Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus Likewise 0 Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus 0 5

Valentina

January 31, 2011 1:43 PM

but dancing is fun! by Valentina

Valentina regretted asking him for help the second he heard him talk. His tone was cold, and it made her feel unwelcome and stupid. The Spaniard was very uncomfortable, so much that she couldn’t reply back to him. The boy was not rude, but certainly not warm towards her. To top it all, he had a sort of wild look about him, making the blue-eyed second-year wary of him. She just stood there staring at him for a few minutes before taking a step forward and settling besides him, in the space he had made for her. Maybe, he wasn’t that bad.

The Teppenpaw felt self-conscious about the fact that she hadn’t grasped the spell, it was an easy one, and then the boy made her feel awful about not being able to do it. What if she was almost a Squib? That would be super sad and her father would be super angry. If she was, why had she been accepted to Sonora? Maybe it was a matter of nerves or something. Boy’s attitude was making her get more nervous and self-conscious, why couldn’t he be more supportive!? Asking him for help had been a very big mistake.

One part of her was against continuing with this little exchange, but the other part of her was saying that she should continue with it. From the look of it, he was a first-year and maybe he was nervous about the new school or stuff like that. Burying any ill feelings towards him, she smiled. She would be supportive! Besides, harboring negative things was not part of her, she liked people.

Watching him do the spell, she noted every single detail of what he did. She would do be able to do it by the end of the class. It was her new goal. After he finished he stayed silent, and she took it as her opportunity to try it herself. She furrowed her brow in concentration and flicked her wand thrice and said the spell. The previously crawling snail turned into a teapot in front of her blue eyes…she had done it!

Valentina squealed in delight and looked at him, “Thank you!” ignoring the fact that he hadn’t introduced himself (maybe he forgot!), she offered him her hand, and started with the introductions, “I am Valentina Bentancourt, pleased to meet you.” She smiled at him, it was a friendly smile. She loved meeting new people.

0 Valentina but dancing is fun! 0 Valentina 0 5

Fae

January 31, 2011 8:47 PM

It's bound to happen at some point. by Fae

Fae found herself looking at an unfamiliar face. That wasn’t very surprising. Fae had only spoken to the small group of first year crotali and to absolutely no one else. She had seen the other first years vaguely from her seat at the Opening Feast, but they were all so many different colors and each student looked happier than the last, the their faces were contorted in Fae’s mind. This girl could have very well been one of the many faces that Fae had seen, or she could be one of the many faces Fae’s mind hadn’t been able to register at the time.

Her blue eyes glanced at the girl’s work and discovered that it was much better than anything Fae was currently hoping to achieve. She gave an inward sigh. She had really hoped that the professor would have been able to provide more detail in how exactly they were supposed to transform a snail into teapot considering how very different the two objects were in comparison to one another. Clearly it was more than just a spell and a wave of the wand. Fae had perfected the wand movement and said the spell with perfect clarification and absolutely nothing happened. So what exactly was she missing that the professor had not said to do?

As the girl spoke, she made it clear that she had been through this before and was now in her second year. It was unspoken, but it seemed as though Crosby made it a habit to start off her students with the difficult transfigurations. Perhaps she thought if they mastered what was the most difficult to their level, than everything else would be cake. But what if they couldn’t master the most difficult and ended up failing the class because of it? That didn’t seem at all fair. How was she supposed to do this without any sort of guidance? Sure she could raise her hand and ask, but then she would look like a complete idiot to her classmates and that would bring embarrassment onto her family.

“Fae Sinclair of the Connecticut Branch, first year Crotalus.” Fae introduced herself with a slight bow of her head. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sara.” Sara was the first person that Fae had met who had introduced themselves as she had been taught. Well, minus the addition of the house. Fae would just have to get used to that. Apparently this school was big on judging a person based on their house. From what Fae had read regarding Crotalus, this was the house that her family would be most proud of.

Fae took in what Sara was telling her. She found it incredibly hard to visualize a snail becoming a teapot because they were just so ridiculously different. Why would she even need to know how to do this? It wasn’t like she was going to go out in the backyard and start digging for snails so that she could go make a pot of tea. Besides, she never made anything. They had house-elves for that. “Oh, right, visualization…” Fae said, though her doubt was evident in her voice. Not doubt of what Sara had told her, but rather, doubt that she would succeed by visualizing the transformation.

Taking a moment to clear her thoughts, Fae closed her eyes and tried to picture a snail turning into a china teapot. Once she felt she had the visualization down, she opened her eyes, picked up her wand and repeated the spell. The snail twittered for a moment and then promptly ballooned out. It certainly didn’t take a shape of a teapot, but the color faded and turned white. Fae swore that she even saw small little pink flowers along the sides of it, but she didn’t want to venture close to verify.

“Er… it’s not really snail anymore, so that’s a plus.” Fae said, giving a hesitant smile. “Maybe the visualizing did help. I just wish I had a better understanding of all of this rather than just a wave of my wand and a spell. Clearly this means far more than just that.” Fae commented, already feeling exhausted. “Are all lessons like this? Maybe not the challenge in skills, but just so vague?”

0 Fae It's bound to happen at some point. 0 Fae 0 5

Mollie Murphy

February 01, 2011 1:08 AM

Sorry, I don't mean to barge in, but... by Mollie Murphy

When Professor Crosby had given the class the instructions for transfiguring the snail into a teapot, Mollie had been extremely excited. It would be her first actual attempt at magic with a wand. And one of the first times seeing actual wand magic done as well.
The first year was a half-blood, but due to unfortunate circumstances, she thought gloweringly of her mother, she had been raised by her muggle father. So this class would be one of the first times she had ever witnessed magic. At least in her memory.
Needless to say, when she preformed the spell, Domiporta Thea, and the snail stayed the same, the shell only looking slightly more polished than before, she was somewhat disapointed. Mollie wasn't entirely sure what she had expected, but this certainly was not it. She frowned as she looked at her snail. Why couldn't she do it? Maybe she wasn't imagining the teapot right. That had to be it.
Think Mollie, she thought to herself. What were you thinking about right before you cast the spell? Oh, that's right. My mother.
Mollie glared at her snail as if it had caused her personal injury. Trust her mother to ruin yet another aspect of her life without even being in it.
“I would not use this one for tea either, but it did turn out a lot better than I was expecting.”
Mollie turned to see the voice who had brought her out of her rather unpleasant thoughts, a boy about her age was talking to a girl. And they had both somehow gotten their snails to resemble a teapot even in the slightest way. The girl had got hers almost there and the boy, a spout.
"Sorry," Mollie apologised. "Um, it's just...I was wondering how you did that. Transfigure the snail I mean."

10 Mollie Murphy Sorry, I don't mean to barge in, but... 376 Mollie Murphy 0 5

Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

February 01, 2011 7:58 PM

A pretty floral one? by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Hope, who was excited about most things about Sonora, was naturally very excited for her first class, Transfiguration. The Teppenpaw had been looking forward to it as long as she could remember as she figured most pureblood children probably did. Hope had seen her family do magic her whole life and now she got to do it herself.

She was even looking forward to having the eccentric professor. She'd already met Professor Crosby and as two of her sisters had also had her previously, Hope felt she was better prepared for Professor Crosby's teaching style than most of her classmates. She had some idea what to expect.

Though Hope really hadn't appreciated the run. It had been so hard to keep up! She was lucky to have gotten to the Teppenpaw common room at all. Plus, the first year had seen that one of her roommates, Addison she thought, not only had a hard time keeping up but hadn't seemed to be able to catch her breath afterwards. Hope had noticed her crying and felt so bad for her.

As she sat down next to another of her roommates, Madeline, Hope turned her attention to the front of the room. She was definitely expecting something exciting and different. Nina had told her that this class was not a boring one. That was something coming from the fourth year, as Nina was not that interested in anything academic.

Her perpetual smile dimmed slightly,however, as Professor Crosby mentioned that they would be turning snails into teapots. Animate to inanimate on their first lesson, really? Maybe Marshall could have done it-in fact, Hope was pretty sure he could have. Her cousin was a prodigy at Transfiguration-but the average student? Doubtful.

And Hope assumed she would only be an average student.

She brightened once again as Madeline turned and asked her if she wanted to parners. "Sure!" Hope exclaimed happily. She really wanted to get to know her roommate better and hopefully become friends.

11 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw A pretty floral one? 186 Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw 0 5

Alice

February 01, 2011 10:40 PM

I think we should protest. by Alice

Alice gave a slight nod when he agreed to her suggestion. She even liked the way he had agreed, because it was done in a very to the point manner. She didn’t like when people beat around the bush or fidgeted around or did any of the things that it seemed that most other students did. She had noticed quite a bit of this on the first day. She didn’t really understand why they didn’t just come out and say what they actually thought or even avoid someone altogether rather than make polite conversation or excuses. It was all deemed rather unnecessary. If one just got to the point, then it made the situation much easier to deal with, because then there could be an obvious conclusion to how it would go.

The suggestion was agreed upon meant that they could do their work and that would be that though they were technically partners. She was glad he had also gone on to introduce himself, because she hadn’t thought of it and it would make their story of being partners more plausible. However, she was taken aback slightly by the bow. She was always surprised by it even when she shouldn’t have been. She had grown up in pureblood society and knew that men bowed to women. She had just never expected someone to bow to her. It was strange. Biting down on her lower lip, she looked away; unable to meet his gaze for a moment for fear that she might do something girlish like actually blush.

No, no, she wouldn’t do that. She would not be like her silly sister. Getting herself together, keeping her walls in tact, she looked back at Arthur. “My given name is Alice Adair, of the Arizona Adairs and Crotalus House.” She mimicked most of his proper introduction back at him since this was what one was supposed to do in proper pureblood greetings. Thankfully, nothing more was required of her. Interacting with people could be quite taxing. She always felt like interacting with people was emotionally draining. Sometimes, she wished it wasn’t and that she could find joy in it like Jordan seemed to. But she didn’t understand it. She didn’t understand how she kept herself from all of the complications that seemed to follow people around.

Complications. Alice thought about it for a moment. Obviously, she had been making the equation too complicated when it called for something simpler. It may not be as functional as some others might be, but that wasn’t the assignment. The assignment was to make the snail into a teapot. It didn’t require them to actually boil water in the teapot. So, why couldn’t the snail’s shell be the material for the teapot? Or better yet, why maintain its shape? They had cat shaped teapots and turtle shaped teapots. They even had ones shaped like houses. So, why not a snail shaped teapot? That’s what she was going to do. It was really very straightforward. Just how she liked things.

Brandishing her wand, she held it in her left hand at what most people would consider an awkward angle, yet it felt natural to her. She pictured the snail becoming a snail shaped teapot. It would be void of anything that made a snail a snail and not something inanimate. She thought of the snail becoming a little larger to compensate for all of the internal parts of the snail. The tail would turn up to become the handle, but it wouldn’t quite touch the body of the teapot before curling out. The head would be the spout and the antennae would stay where they are. The mouth would open for the water to pour out of. Everything was shifted. The snail would maintain its body since the shell was serving as the spot for the water. The shell had to change so that the top would come off and there needed to be a handle a top for that, but that wasn’t too hard to imagine. The coloring would all stay the same so no need to change that. Yes, this shouldn’t be too bad at all.

“Domiporta Thea.” The magic words uttered she saw exactly what she had pictured. Yes, that had certainly been easy. Finished, she started looked around to see what teapots the others had created, but frowned when she saw that some weren’t able to make the snails into teapots at all. Why couldn’t they? She didn’t understand it at all. She was distracted from all other thoughts by her ‘partner’ apologizing. Turning to him, thinking he was talking about the other projects and missing what he actually said, she answered, “There’s no need to apologize. Before coming here, I thought that maybe Jordan and Dani might have been below average. I thought that here people would just know how to do spells. Like, we would go to class and everyone would be able to do the spell and we would learn something else and do that and so on. I guess I was just being silly.”

0 Alice I think we should protest. 0 Alice 0 5

Reggie

February 02, 2011 1:12 PM

I do not like tea from inside a snail... by Reggie

Reggie nodded. She definitely would not be using this snail for tea. Ever. Even if she had transfigured it correctly. If just felt very very wrong to use a teapot that had originally been a living thing. She was aware that people did things like that, but she didn’t understand the purpose. Why transfigure a living thing (unless it was to keep it hidden in plain sight) into a non-living thing and use it? Why not just transfigure a non-living thing to a non-living thing if you needed a cup or something?

Asher introduced himself in the same fashion that Derry had, which Reggie could only conclude that he was a Pureblood. Her eyes widened at the mention of Alaska! She had always wanted to go there, ever sense she saw those cruise commercials at her grandparents house. All the glaciers and the animals and just the scenery. She so wanted to go! Her dad said at some point he might be able to get her there, but for now, she had to be happy staying on this part of the continent.

“Alaska? Is it as amazing as they say? Crisp and clean and full of seals?” Reggie asked, her hazel eyes wide with excitement and her lips parted far in a smile. She so hoped it was like everything that they say it was otherwise she’d be utterly disappointed. Any place was exotic compared to Nebraska, but if she found that Alaska was exactly like Nebraska (also known as boring) than she would just die. Colorado had been fun. Mount Rushmore in the Dakotas was amazing. The Grand Canyon and Yosemite were also amazing, so Reggie really didn’t think Alaska was boring, but his take on it might have her cancelling any future plans of going there.

Watching Asher transform the snail, had Reggie clapping in excitement. He totally did a better job at it than she did with her attempt. “You should have totally gone first, yours is so much better than me.” Reggie complimented. Another voice interrupted them and Reggie turned to find a girl speaking to them. “Oh, er…” Reggie said, trying to figure out the best way to explain what they just did. “Well, you have to picture the snail becoming a teapot first.” Reggie advised. “And then once you have that image, you wave your wand three times while saying the spell. Theoretically, the spell should work, but since this is hard, it doesn’t always.” Reggie gave the girl a smile. Her dad always said, failure only happens when you stop trying. “I’m Reggie, by the way.”
Reggie

6 Reggie I do not like tea from inside a snail... 187 Reggie 0 5

Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus

February 02, 2011 7:49 PM

I'm a 12 year old boy who is neither by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus

Ryan was less nervous about Transfiguration then he had been last year. It was a subject that he actually felt like he was good at. He rarely felt like he was good at much of anything but last year he had at least been able to partially change his beetle into a button for a moment. Ryan had never expected to do more than that on his first try. In fact, he hadn't even expected to do that .

He never said much about his ability in the subject though. Ryan didn't think he, of all people, should brag about anything. It wasn't like he was anything special, not a prodigy or anything. He was simply above average. Besides, Sophie wasn't good at transfiguration so Ryan felt a little guilty that he was.

Also, just because it was one his better subjects, Ryan still wasn't sure the professor liked him even though he liked her. He was still terrified of screwing up and making Professor Crosby hate him, like he was convinced his HoH hated him, since he was no good at flying. It was especially important that Professor Crosby liked him too, because she seemed to be getting to be...friendly with his uncle. She might even be Ryan's aunt someday.

The Crotalus took a seat behind the one he'd been in last year, as someone was already sitting in that one. Ryan wasn't too put out by that as he generally felt he should let others get first pick of things. Besides, at least he still didn't have to sit in front. The idea of that terrified Ryan.

He listened as the lesson began and was not too upset to see that it was animate to inanimate again, like last year. Ryan had not mastered it yet, but he had at least made progress, his transfigurations lasted longer than a second now. He'd mastered all the simpler inanimate to inanimate ones.

Ryan turned to the person next to him, hoping it was someone he could get along with. He had this deep need to be liked by everyone or at least not hated by anyone. Well, besides his mother and sister of course. The second year always tried to cover when he realized he had made a mistake and felt bad after he did. "Do you want to work with me?" Ryan asked.

11 Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus I'm a 12 year old boy who is neither 176 Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus 0 5

Sara

February 02, 2011 9:01 PM

As long as it's not at me, then. by Sara

“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Fae,” Sara said, trying to think if she knew anything about the Connecticut Sinclairs. The sixth year Pecari prefect was Alison Sinclair, but from what Sara had seen of her, she neither looked nor acted much like a pureblood lady. Plus, Sara was fairly sure she was from the Midwest, not the Northeast. She spoke a bit like the people Sara heard in shops when her parents took her to get her school things.

Asking was a perfectly legitimate way to get information, but Sara didn’t think she should. It might be a matter of a disownment in the previous generation, or a general estrangement for any number of reasons, and bringing it up could put a chill on her work with Fae. It was especially important with new acquaintances to do nothing that could cause someone to be embarrassed. Especially over something Sara didn’t really care about anyway, since she did not have a great deal to do with Alison Sinclair and didn’t anticipate needing to in the first place. It wasn’t even like she would be establishing a common acquaintance, since she was fairly sure Alison wouldn’t know who she was if Sara were shown to her. She certainly wouldn’t have known Alison as more than ‘that older girl with the necklace’ if she hadn’t been a prefect.

“You did very well,” Sara said, smiling, when Fae commented that her snail was no longer really a snail. “But I’m afraid that lessons usually are like this. The professors either expect us to catch on by instinct or research the theory ourselves.” She paused, biting her bottom lip in thought before she caught herself doing it and stopped. “Well, I’m exaggerating. Sometimes we do study what we’re doing for a day or so.” She cast Professor Crosby a dark look while she was sure the woman’s back was turned. “Unfortunately, the…woman who teaches this class is a vile, uncouth person who enjoys seeing us suffer, so I’m afraid we’re on our own for learning how things work in here.” She took a deep breath, releasing the hostility. It was always best to seem calm. Unaffected. “Professor McKindy is very good, though, and Professor Fawcett insists that we do research and write about it all the time, and Professor Levy at least explains the purpose behind our Defense exercises, so it’s not always this bad.”

0 Sara As long as it's not at me, then. 0 Sara 0 5

Mollie Murphy, Aladren

February 02, 2011 11:19 PM

Oh... by Mollie Murphy, Aladren

When Mollie had asked the question, she had felt slightly stupid. And when the girl replied, she had felt even stupider.
She blushed. "Oh, erm, that's probably it. I mean, I think I kind of messed up on that part."
But the other girl seemed friendly enough, even offering what looked like an encouraging smile and a name, Reggie.
Mollie smiled back unsurely. "Nice to meet you. I'm Mollie. I'm in Aladren, what houses are you in?"
It was then that she realized that everyone was supposed to be working in pairs and she had somehow or other missed that memo.

OOC: Sorry, I actually, in real life did miss that part of the instructions.

0 Mollie Murphy, Aladren Oh... 0 Mollie Murphy, Aladren 0 5

Fidelio Winters, Aladren

February 02, 2011 11:47 PM

Neither what? by Fidelio Winters, Aladren

When Fidelio Winters sat down for his first ever Transfiguration class, he was excited. He had grown up with his mother transfiguring things left and right into musical instruments for he and his sister Leonora to play with, and his father transfiguring things left and right into ear muffs to block the all noise

Now Fidelio was eleven and could play both the piano and the violin quite well. He smiled to himself thinking of his wonderfully chaotic household where he had learned to read both music and words at an early age and where frequent blowups between his father and his paternal grandfather (who was a more conservative pureblood) took place. The arguments that mostly regarded the fact that Fidelio's father gave his wife equal say in family matters as well as let her and his daughter roam freely whenever they wished.

Though he still had yet to learn the subject, he felt quite confident that the class that both his mother and father had excelled at would be great fun for him as well.
And if he managed to get ahold of it, he might well be able to conjure up a piano from a stone or something like that. He had, after all, only been allowed to take his violin to the school under express orders from his father who generally detested most noisemaking devices.

Fidelio smirked to himself. Who would have thought that his mother and father would have ended up together?
He was a quiet, well to do pureblood who's idea of a good time consisted of holing himself into his dusty library for days on end and pour over ancient texts. She was a jolly, scatterbrained witch from a rather liberal pureblood family who had insisted upon naming her two children after the lead in her favorite muggle opera, Fidelio.

"Do you want to work with me?"

Fidelio looked up rather startled. He, like his mother, was often prone to daydreaming, and frequently came out of his rather trance-like thoughts humming an indistinguishable tune and quite oblivious to what was going on around him.

"Hmmm? What? Oh, sure." He offered a large rather lopsided grin that showed off his dimples and shook his brown hair out of his freckled face. "My name's Fidelio, but you can call me Lio, or Fido (pronounced Feedo) if you're daring."
He laughed. "I'm only joking, I honestly don't care at all if you call me Fidelio, Lio, Fido, or even Hey You if you should ever so happen to forget my name."

He paused to take a breath before rambeling on, unaware that he was probably talking too much. "My sister's name is Leonora, and most people call her Nora, except my Uncle Jack on my mom's side who thinks it's a great laugh to call her Leo and me Lio. There's no difference at all in the two except the 'e' and the 'i', so as you can imagine, it makes things rather complicated when he's calling one of us to help him. I'm a first year in Aladren house, where are you?"

OOC: Sorry if I'm making him talk too much, I just thought it might be intresting as Fidelio doesn't care too much what others think of him and from what I read of your post Ryan does.

0 Fidelio Winters, Aladren Neither what? 0 Fidelio Winters, Aladren 0 5

Luka

February 03, 2011 2:28 AM

headdesk by Luka

“What are you thanking me for?” said Luka, in obvious confusion.

And it wasn’t all confusion. It was unfamiliarity with the word. Back in the woods, no one helped you catch you kill. If anything, the scared it away so that they could have it for themselves. So, to Luka, being thanked, was a very rare occurrence. But, of course, it was a common etiquette for the girl.

“I am Valentina Bentancourt, pleased to meet you.” The girl said, as if his cold behaviour and obvious disregard towards her was outside the reach of her perception.

Her pleasant behaviour somehow threw him off a bit, too. He was used to being shouted upon; he was used to being threatened. He was, however, not used to being said ‘-pleased to meet you’.

“Likewise,” he said gingerly. “I’m Luka Anastanov.”

She reminded Luka of someone. But he scolded himself for that. No, she could not remind him of anyone he knew. She was a spoiled, rich girl, and he had never been acquainted to any in his life. Neither did he have any such intention. But, no matter how much he denied, somehow, she did remind him of Sofya. Sofya, the little girl of his village. The little girl, full of life, was everyone’s apple of the eye. That is, until Ruslan, the Mayor’s boy took her away, like he took so many other girls of his village. Sofya was never heard of again.

Luka unconsciously curled his fingers into fists and clenched his jaw. Little Sofya’s memory reminded him how wrong it was that he was here, learning magic like ‘civilized gentry’, while his family back in Macedonia toiled every day under the Varnalievs’ tyrrany.

But, if only for the reminder, Luka decided to be a little more civil towards Valentina.

0 Luka *headdesk* 0 Luka 0 5

Professor C.

February 03, 2011 9:33 PM

Quick OOC by Professor C.

Miss Murphy;

while I am pleased to see you are enthusiastic about posting, there is a thing we call posting order in a three-person thread to keep things in order. Typically, this thread should have gone Asher-you-Regina, but as you replied to Regina, it is now Regina-you-Asher.

The order of posting is to prevent any confusion, and the thread continues in an orderly fashion. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask either here in an OOC, on the OOC board, or in the author Chatzy.

Thanks, and happy posting!

0 Professor C. Quick OOC 0 Professor C. 0 5

Valentina

February 04, 2011 3:49 AM

Don't do that! You might get hurt! by Valentina

The smile on Valentina’s face faltered when she realized that her teapot was slowly going back to being a snail. Her blue eyes reflected the sadness and irritation she was feeling. The Spaniard really wanted to be good at school, since that was what her father and mother were expecting of her. Apparently Transfiguration was not her best subject. Now, Potions and Charms were another story. She didn’t particularly like them a lot, but they were easier to grasp, especially Potions. Not to mention that she was better at them. The second-year returned to reality when the Boy asked her why she was thanking him. Well, it was obvious to her, he had shown her how to do it, and that merited the thank you.

“Because you showed me how to do it, and it helped me grasp the concept.” The smile returned to her face. He seemed to be softening towards her, and that was just awesome in the eyes of the Teppenpaw. The change in attitude was evident on the way he introduced himself to her. He seemed less cold, and sort of happy to meet her (well, maybe not happy, but certainly not completely deattached). She was sure that he was being honest with his words. AWESOME.

Already forgetting the fact that her teapot was crawling away, she focused her attention on Luka. It was nice to match a name to his face. “Pleasure, Luka.” Valentina extended her hand to him. She knew that because of her status as Pureblood and what her mother had taught her, she ought to be curtsy and be more formal, but she didn’t think Luka would appreciate it. The boy didn’t seemed to be used to it. Plus, being informal would make her seem more approachable, and that was what Valentina wanted.

The Teppenpaw was curious about him, but at the same time she didn’t want to pry too much into his life, they were practically strangers. Valentina completely forgot about the lesson and the gross snail on her desk, and concentrated on him. Starting with the typical small conversations questions seemed to be the better way, “So, I am a Teppenpaw and I haven’t seen you around my house. Which is your house? There it was a good solid question that would enable her to get to know him without prying too deep into his life. She wouldn’t do it, because it would be rude, and she wouldn’t like someone prying into hers.

0 Valentina Don't do that! You might get hurt! 0 Valentina 0 5

Marcus

February 04, 2011 6:46 PM

Not a fan of the class or something else? by Marcus

Marcus had no intentionally meant to bring attention to himself in any way while being in Professor Crosby’s class. The woman seemed to want to try and be a respected by her students, but it was clear that she had no idea what she was getting herself into. At least, not last term. This term, despite her throwing them straight into the hardest transfiguration for students their age, Crosby seemed to be more aware of what the students needed. Like, an actual adult. So, Marcus was going to give her the benefit of the doubt. But that still didn’t mean that Marcus wanted to make a show of himself around her or anyone else in this class. He might have been carefree in his muggle school, but he never had the threat of being sliced in half over it either.

His brown eyes shifted at the voice and he found himself looking at Daisy. Marcus had never had a conversation with her, but he had spoken to every single one of her roommates. Thus far, aside from a minor stand off with Eliza regarding preconceived notions on both the magical and muggle worlds, Marcus had a good associations with them. Unless, they really just hated him for not being of this world. After his first year, Marcus had read as much as he could on the magical world. If there had been a History of Magic class, he would have aced it hands down. In his reading, he had learned all about the way the magical society, in particular Purebloods who have old blood in them, felt about the muggle world. He was sad to see that Eliza hadn’t just been naïve about things that she didn’t know, it was something that was taught in this world. To hate those who had no magic. They even rejected their own kind, Squibs. He thought the muggle world was hard with the racism and violence, but the magical world was just as sad.

“Thanks.” He replied, looking down at her results and hoping that she really was complimenting him and not sulking at her snail-thing. “No, I’m not allowed to practice.” Marcus advised. He was pretty sure no one under the age of seventeen was allowed to really do magic, but his was more strict because if his situation. “Wizarding laws will probably throw me in jail if I attempted to do magic in my neighborhood.” Marcus semi-joked, giving her a smile as he would with anyone else. Being genuine came easy to him. “I just read all my school books while I was home. Not that I’m a bookworm or anything, but I felt very unprepared last year and I did not want to be a fish out of water this year.” Marcus explained. This was true, as long as he had the basic knowledge down, this wouldn’t be as confusing.

“The book says that it helps to visualize the transfiguration of the objects. That’s what I did for this. It seems to work better, I guess. It’s not perfect, but it’s way better than anything I did last year.”

6 Marcus Not a fan of the class or something else? 180 Marcus 0 5

Arthur

February 04, 2011 9:36 PM

You get the signs, I'll rally the masses? by Arthur

Arthur remembered to smile when Miss Adair introduced herself. Episodes like this one were why he was a great believer in the unconscious mind, because normally, he wouldn’t have needed to think to remember that – he was a South Carolina Carey; etiquette had been drilled into him when he was so small that he couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t known some of it – and it made sense that the deepest parts of the mind would be the first to stop working properly when something, in this case his sleep schedule, was out of balance.

Alice Adair, of the Arizona Adairs. He wished she’d been an Aladren. The continued alliteration would have tickled his sense of the ridiculous, whereas the sudden C of Crotalus broke the flow, startled him, didn’t work. But he smiled, because that was the proper thing to do.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Adair,” he said.

A very short time later, he began to think it might be true.

He looked, with a wave of surprise that cleared his head for a moment, at the ornamental teapot in front of her as she looked in his direction – it seemed his apology had been unnecessary; he’d undone it before she noticed – listened to her talking, concluded that Jordan and Dani must be people at the school she somehow knew outside it, and realized, with something like awe, that he had found his match.

“I imagined so as well,” he said. The basic shape was the same, but the move from one form to another at least looked flawless. She’d done that on her first try, therefore doing something he hadn’t. Admittedly, he was very tired, he was sure he would have done better if he had taken his potion, but he couldn’t know that. “My tutors assured me it wasn’t true, but I suppose I thought they were underestimating us all. I overestimated myself a bit, but…” He shook his head, not noticing as he slipped a hair out of his perfect academic’s diction. “Why aren’t you in Aladren? No one else in our year – “ he scanned the room, matching faces to the Sorting to the projects in front of them; he thought he was right – “has done that yet. Though I’m about to try again.” A thought occurred to him. “How good are you at Charms?”

0 Arthur You get the signs, I'll rally the masses? 0 Arthur 0 5

Luka

February 05, 2011 10:46 AM

Still better than seeing you dance by Luka

“I didn’t do it to show you, actually,” said Luka. He could not imagine why the girl would think he did the transfiguration to show her. It did not occur to him that the particular remark may seem rude, because he said it in all honesty. He was quite oblivious to misinterpretation of words, because he was used to very little.

“Pleasure, Luka,” said Valentina, extending her hand. Luka was not ignorant to social norms, especially because back in his village, the annual village gathering was quite formal. His mother had taught him how to treat the ladies, what was the appropriate way of greeting them. But, apparently, he had forgotten all about it, until now. Seeing Valentina’s delicate hand, it all came back to him. He gently took her hand in his hard one, and briefly held it. He did not bring it up to his lips, because, no matter how much his mother taught him, he could not find any logic behind kissing a stranger’s hand. He hoped Valentina did not expect that, either. Not that I care in the least what she expects, he thought.

He folded his arms across his chest again, warily watching Valentina’s teapot turning into a snail again.

“So, I am a Teppenpaw and I haven’t seen you around my house. Which is your house?” was Valentina’s next question.

Normally, Luka would have felt irritated at uninvited questions, but he was too preoccupied with the wriggling teapot, and carelessly answered. “That’s because I’m a Pecari.”

Then, with a glance at Valentina, he picked up his wand. Without any foreword, he flicked it thrice at the ‘teapot’ and said, “Domiporta Thea!”

He knew he wasn’t supposed to help out his partner, but he just couldn’t sit around while the teapot started sprouting eyes. He hoped the professor did not see it. He waited for Valentina to object – after all, it was none of his business.

0 Luka Still better than seeing you dance 0 Luka 0 5

Fae

February 05, 2011 7:44 PM

I hope it's not me either. by Fae

The manners in which Sara produced sent a wave of relief and a sense of ease to Fae. She hadn’t realized how tense she had been since she came into the school. Having met her three house mates and knowing none of them had the same background (as far as she could tell) had set Fae in panic mode without her even realizing it. Her subconscious had put her on the defense because there was a fear in her about being alone in this school. But having met Sara, who had the same charms and clearly same background, gave Fae a little bit of hope about this school. But, only a little. She would still write home asking about the Raines family. Surely they would be approved by her parents.

Fae was rather pleased by the compliment that Sara gave her regarding her not-snail, not-teapot transfiguration. She knew it wasn’t actually good at all considering it didn’t look anything at all as it should, but since she had managed to transfigure it into something at all, she figured she deserved credit for at least that much. She knew that spells would be difficult, her brother had prepared her for that much, but she wanted to be good at it too. She needed to be good at it because her parents and her great grandfather expected her to be absolutely perfect. If she failed out of school or, in general, just did horribly, who would want to marry her and bring more American connections to the family name?

She almost felt the need to cry when Sara said that all the lessons would be like this. If she was expected to figure this all out on her own, there would be no way she’d ever pass anything! Did the professors just throw them under the Centaur and then watch as they were all trampled helplessly and then laugh about it after?

But then Sara continued and apparently, did not like the Transfiguration Professor one bit. Fae could only assume that terrible things had happened the year before and that was why Sara was showing such hostility towards the professor. Fae wasn’t completely surprised considering the woman started off with this lesson to a group of students who had never used their wands before. The rest of the professors seemed to be alright though, at least by Sara’s standards and considering Sara was the only older student that Fae had spoken too, she was going to take her word for it.

“Fantastic.” Fae muttered, looking over at the professor. “I’ll be writing to father about her. Maybe he’ll look into the hiring process or at least how the curriculum is discussed.” Fae returned to her foul project and tried again. It managed to somewhat resemble a teapot this time, but it still wasn’t perfect. She was definitely going to have to be studying this back in the common room. “Father will not be pleased by this.”

0 Fae I hope it's not me either. 0 Fae 0 5

Ryan

February 05, 2011 11:01 PM

Short nor stout. by Ryan

Ryan nodded as the boy introduced himself as Fidelio but said Ryan was also allowed to call him Lio or Fido. This, unfortunately, left the second year in quite a conundrum over what, exactly, he was supposed to call the younger boy. He would hate to make a mistake and not call Fidelio by the right thing, like when he'd failed to remember to call Sara 'Miss Raines' last year. Ryan didn't want to have Fidelio think he was rude or something. He supposed he would go with the Aladren's full first name for now. After all, the Crotalus, like most of his house,was not the daring type.

"I'm Ryan." He replied, smiling politely. Ryan saw no reason not too. He was actually happy anyway, as the other boy had not refused to be his partner. "You can call me...Ryan. There's not really a nickname for that." Nobody ever called him anything but his full name anyway as it was only four letters. Well, his mother and sister called him other nasty things, but Ryan certainly didn't want Fidelio to call him those ugly names.

Or even ever know that anyone did. It was humiliating, which was probably the whole point. Not that there was anyone ever for his mom to humiliate him in front of really other than his sister, his father and the house-elves. Still, Ryan would be massively embarassed if anyone knew, aside from Sophie. The Crotalus felt it was necessary to tell his best friend after she told him her secret but he would die if anyone else ever found out how he was treated.

Ryan listened as Fidelio talked about his family. While he was interested in what the other boy had to say, he knew he would not say anything about his own. Ryan didn't want to have to lie and or have to hide how he felt when he talked about his own sister. As far as he could tell, Fidelio got along with his and it was best for Ryan just not to mention anything about Carrie.

"I'm in Crotalus." Ryan told the Aladren boy, glad for the quick change in topic. Certain people might have interpreted Fidelio's question differently, looked at him weird and told him that they were in the Transfiguration room but Ryan knew what he meant. "And a second year." Ryan added.

Not quite knowing what else to say, Ryan looked back at his snail. He was probably not the best conversationalist. The Crotalus had figured out long ago that it was best to say nothing most of the time and now he had developed a habit of not doing so and not really knowing what to say. "Do you want to go first, or have me do so?" Ryan asked. As Fidelio was male , he didn't have to be chivalrous, and as Ryan didn't know his last name, he didn't have to go out of his way to be polite but at the same time, the second year still felt it necessary to give the other person the choice.

Besides, if he turned out to be a pureblood, he wanted to make sure he wasn't rude, as Fidelio could report back to his parents that Ryan had offended him and it could somehow get back to his mother who in turn would use it as an excuse to cruelly punish Ryan. Furthermore, it was important to the second year that Fidelio like him so Ryan would go out of his way to be nice, no matter what.

OOC-No problem :)

11 Ryan Short nor stout. 176 Ryan 0 5

Eliza Bennett, Crotalus

February 06, 2011 7:04 PM

I'm a pretty human, tall and thin... by Eliza Bennett, Crotalus

If Eliza had dressed to impress for the Opening Feast, she dressed to fight for the first day of classes. She had gotten up two hours earlier than usual, sipping at an alertness potion from time to time during the extra time, just so she could pay attention to every detail of her clothes, hair, make-up, and jewelry. By the time she was through, one thing felt certain: no one could look at her and call her inferior, especially not to the sort of careless person who’d sit in class rubbing her eyes and staring off into space instead of doing something about her situation. Though Eliza couldn’t say she would be displeased if the reason for Renee’s show of fatigue was a realization of just what a mistake she’d made in their first conversation of the year keeping her up all night. She herself had been forced to only sleep very lightly, to make sure the other girl didn’t do something horrid to her in her sleep, or just get up first and try to turn their roommates.

She didn’t rub them, but she did find her eyes moving more than they should have as class got under way, first warily focusing on the box in front of her, then warily fixing themselves back on Professor Crosby. Eliza had thought she knew someone who needed sedatives before she met Lilac Crosby, but the Transfiguration teacher put Nicole Bennett to shame. It was impossible to expect anything from Transfiguration class, because any expectations she came up with might go out the window at any time.

Eliza didn’t really like that. She didn’t like the kind of rigid schedules her mother would have liked to impose – she liked having some time to spend lying in bed doing nothing at four in the afternoon, or reading a magazine or a book just for enjoyment, or walking in the garden and coming in when she got hot – but nor did she like having nothing to rely on. There was free time at home, but dinner was at seven o’clock sharp, and they always sat in the same places around the table unless Mother had just had another baby. At nine on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Eliza and Paul played chess, and it wasn’t uncommon for their father to give them advice about life before they went to bed at eleven. Each household had designated occasions to host, such as Grandmother’s Christmas gathering always being the Sunday before Christmas itself while Eliza’s parents took her and her siblings with them to spend a week every August with Aunt Helena while Daddy and Uncle Roger went hunting, or fishing, or whatever it was they did – something outdoorsy, Eliza had no interest and had never asked for details. Little things, but they provided anchors in her life, things she could count on and arrange her leisure time around. And she knew more or less what she was going to do with time of her own anyway, which made the matter almost trivial, but meant that true unpredictability unsettled her.

She had no idea what the professor was thinking, giving them an assignment as hard as all that on the first day, which was also the first day ever for the first years, and decided that this year really was just out to get her. She couldn’t catch a break. It wouldn’t surprise her at all to go back to Crotalus tonight to find that Coach Pierce had found out about everything and was taking Renee’s side even more aggressively than she and Jordan had speculated and that she was now in trouble, and would have to bring her family into this. Eliza had gotten by for twelve years without drawing her great-grandfather’s attention, and she did not want to draw it now, in a bad way, because of one sad person with no manners.

And she had to touch a snail. That did not make her day better. Or did she? The professor had taken hers out, but why shouldn’t Eliza just transfigure it in the open box? That would work better.

“Domiporta thea,” she tried, and wasn’t sure if she should be amused or irritated and disappointed about the result.

The snail was now, for all intents and purposes, teapot-shaped and made of porcelain. It was also itty-bitty, and anyone in her family could have identified it as being identical to one of the little dishes in the cabinets in the antique dollhouse in her bedroom. Grandmother had given it to her for her fifth birthday, and while Mother said she was too old to, Eliza still liked to play with it sometimes, or at least rearrange the furniture. She was very good at rearranging furniture, so good that Paul sometimes made awful jokes about her becoming an interior decorator.

Lowering her wand without letting go of it, Eliza lifted part of her dark hair over her shoulder with the other so it all fell down her back and turned to her neighbor, admiring her delicate wrist as she lowered it again. She had always thought she had pretty hands and arms, and liked to call attention to them. “Do you think this would count for credit?” she asked, tilting her box so her miniature teapot could be seen. “I think it might be littler than the original snail, but it’s totally teapot right now.”

0 Eliza Bennett, Crotalus I'm a pretty human, tall and thin... 174 Eliza Bennett, Crotalus 0 5

Valentina

February 07, 2011 10:27 PM

You think? I mean you are killing your neurons... by Valentina

Valentina became serious after Luka’s statement. She had really thought that he had warmed up to her, but apparently she was wrong, and he was as cold as ever. Not to mention that he had been rude, and she wasn’t used to people being rude to her. It was something new for the Spaniard, and she didn’t know how to react to it. Should she be angry at him? Or upset? Or just leave him standing there? So many options, but every one of them ended in her being rude back at him, and that was something she couldn’t do. She would feel guilty about it all and end up telling her mother, and in return she would become upset with her. No it was not the way to go, regardless of how he was acting.

Confusing her further, he shook her hand and she couldn’t help but smile at him. Smiling was her thing; it was true when people said that smiling was a good way to cope with things. Plus, it brightened people’s day. Sharing a smile was like sharing hope. The Teppenpaw was happy about the hand-shaking, it was a sign of intimacy, a sign of a future friendship! She was sure of it. So, she was sort of sad when he retrieved he hand and folded them in front of his chest.

Her blue-eyes looked at him and then to the crawling almost-bug, he seemed to be preoccupied by the crawling thing. Valentina had forgotten about it, until he looked at it. She really wasn’t concerned about it, she wanted to make a new friend, and by Merlin she would do it! New goal of the class: have Luka become her friend. He finally answered her last question, and he was a Pecari. Interesting. The Spaniard had the idea that Pecaris were awesome, next to her House, of course. They seemed to be full of life, but sometimes careless. She hoped Luka wasn’t careless.

“Pecari, you say. It sounds incredible! What is your house like?” okay, maybe she was making too many questions, but she was honestly curious about other Houses. Suddenly, Luka retransfigured the crawling teapot into a normal unmoving teapot. She tilted her head, and wondered what she had done wrong. Why could he cast the spell, but she couldn’t? By now, she really couldn’t be preoccupied with such trivial things when she was making a new friend.

She giggled a little bit, and couldn’t help but ask him another question, “How do you do it?” Valentina was in awe. He was a first-year and still awesome at magic.

0 Valentina You think? I mean you are killing your neurons... 0 Valentina 0 5

Madeline

February 09, 2011 12:15 PM

That works by Madeline

Madeline smiled back as Hope agreed to work together. “Great,” she said, meaning it. She had already started, though she felt a little guilty about it, to think of Reggie as her best friend at Sonora, but she really wanted to be really good friends with all the other Teppenpaws as well. And everyone, lots of friends and no enemies would be the best situation she could think of with people she was going to be living with for most of seven years, but especially the people in her House.

There was still a problem, though, which went beyond whether or not Professor Crosby would be okay with Madeline and Hope not working with second years in the interests of bonding as roommates. It was how they were really supposed to work together at all. Maybe Hope was magical enough to know about it? It couldn’t hurt to ask.

“Do you know how we’re supposed to work together, though?” she asked. “I’m totally new to this, my mom and dad aren’t witches or anything, but it’s not like one of us can turn a snail into half a teapot and the other one turn it into the other half, is it? Or am I completely off base?”

She had tried, really hard, to learn as much as she could about the magic world before she came here, but there was only so much anyone could do in a month, and Madeline knew she wasn’t the smartest cookie ever to come out of the jar. She loved listening to her dad talk about all the things he knew, but was aware that she would never be anywhere near as smart as he was, or even be able to read as fast – there was, after all, a difference between being able to read really fast and remember things and being smart. She’d had that preached to her for as long as she could remember, though more by Mom than Dad. He believed basically the same thing, but also claimed that anyone who (like her dad) made it through the entire Summa Theologica had to be smarter than the average Joe even if he couldn’t function socially (unlike her dad, most of the time).

0 Madeline That works 0 Madeline 0 5

Fidelio

February 10, 2011 7:10 PM

Well then, neither am I! by Fidelio

Fidelio felt himself squirming while the other boy talked. He seemed careful. And Fidelio was anything but careful. But since Ryan seemed friendly enough, Fidelio figured he would just have to deal. After all, his sister had told him that when he went to Sonora, he'd have to watch himself. Not everyone would be like his parents or his mother's family. Some would be exactly like Grandfather. Fidelio mentally shuddered at the thought of his cold, unforgiving relative.
And now, Fidelio thought to himself, you have a chance. So watch what you say!
"Do you want to go first, or have me do so?"
Fidelio debated the question for a moment. "Honestly? I don't care at all!" There you go again, he berated himself. Shooting off your mouth without thinking. "I mean, um, which ever works for you, I have no preference."
There, I hope that was better, he muttered to himself.
Then, as if having an epiphany, he shot out of his chair. "Ryan?!? Can I call you Ry?!?!?!?!?!?"
He looked at the older boy for confirmation, and then, hoping he hadn't stepped out of bounds for a mere first year, added, "I mean, if that's okay with you of course."

OOC: Okey-doke, then I'm just going to have Fidelio go into one of his super exuberent modes, sound good? :)

0 Fidelio Well then, neither am I! 0 Fidelio 0 5

Daisy

February 12, 2011 9:31 PM

Not really a fan of much, to tell you the truth. by Daisy

So he was Muggleborn. That was strange. Daisy never would have seen an Adair and a Bennett getting friendly with a Muggleborn. Had they just missed the fact, or did they really not care? And if they didn’t care, how had they come to not care? It didn’t fit with what she had seen of them in a year of living together – that they were both at least mostly ladies, for a certain definition of ‘lady.’ Daisy didn’t like having so many questions she couldn’t answer.

“There’s nothing wrong with reading,” she said when he quickly disclaimed being a “bookworm.” Daisy knew she wasn’t, perhaps, the most unbiased commentator in the world, since the only thing keeping her out of Aladren was supreme indifference to most things and a willingness to go along in order to remain comfortable instead of making stands all over the place, but she still didn’t like the implication. “But I see your point. It’s not good to think everyone else knows what’s going on.”

That was why Daisy, too, learned as much as possible. The faint condescension with which she felt adults treated them all rubbed her very much the wrong way, and while there was nothing she could do while growing up to get rid of it, she could at least have the fun of occasionally making those who treated her that way look foolish when she tripped them up verbally. It wasn’t safe to do it with most of the adults she knew, because they had power over her, but it was very good when dealing with snotty salespeople. If she was going to spend her stipend in their stores, they should take her as seriously as they would Daddy or Addie.

She nodded when he made the point about visualization. “I’m told it helps, too, to understand the process, but that has more math in it than I know yet. Visualization it is until then.” She made a face. “It’s why I like Potions. At least everything there is reasonably concrete most of the time.”

0 Daisy Not really a fan of much, to tell you the truth. 0 Daisy 0 5

Sara

February 12, 2011 10:18 PM

I can't see why it would be. by Sara

Sara smiled a little wryly at Fae’s insistence that she was going to have her father look into this. “I told mine about it when she punished my Housemate after he was attacked by another student and, I heard, tried to drop desks on the Intermediate students, but he says that’s just how things are at Sonora unless she hurts me,” she said. “Mother says it’s the last place in the world for the least employable teachers in the world, and that’s what makes it wonderful often enough that we have to overlook the...aberrations.” She bit her lip for a second before adding, “Uncle Charles says that the only reason it’s still open is because it’s the only school left that allows purebloods to behave the way our parents want us to without the staff being allowed to try to change our minds, but Uncle Charles isn’t very happy.”

This was generally true, though Sara imagined it was a little more true than usual lately. She had not spent much time in the country over the summer, but when she’d come home right in time to get ready to go back to school, Mother had told her all about how Uncle Charles’ real niece, Anna, had been disowned and how, though only the family had picked up on it and she mustn’t tell anyone, there was some kind of problem between Catherine and her husband. Sara had watched them very closely at Catherine’s twenty-second birthday party - everyone had to go to Catherine’s birthday parties; they were huge and tedious, got worse every year, and no one enjoyed them very much, but to not go would risk the wrath of Aunt Lila and the disfavor of Uncle Charles, and in their state and family, those were not good things to risk – and she’d seen it, too: there was something tense between them, not that much different from the way Uncle Charles and Aunt Lila had been when Sara was younger.

It occurred to her, sometimes, just how lucky she was. Her parents were very happy together. Sometimes they disagreed about things, but it never lasted very long, or disturbed the basic feeling of togetherness that Milton and Caroline Raines projected. They also stayed out of scandals all the time. Her parents were, as far as she knew, spotless, which was more than the things she was told suggested was the case for almost everyone.

“Still, you really are progressing quite well,” Sara assured her, making another attempt at her own snail. “Some people can’t get any results in their first lesson – no change at all, for days, sometimes. Have you had many theoretical tutors before?”

0 Sara I can't see why it would be. 0 Sara 0 5

Hope

February 13, 2011 10:30 PM

Excellent! by Hope

Hope's smiled dimmed a little again, as Madeline asked how they were supposed to work together on what honestly seemed to be a solitary activity. "I'm not honestly sure myself," she admitted. "Maybe she's just letting us work in pairs so we can bond and make friends. I mean, that seems unusual for a teacher to do, but my sisters and cousin said that she's unusual." Hope nodded in the teacher's general direction so Madeline would know who she meant.

But it could make sense, not only did it make sense for Professor Crosby to do something that didn't appear to on the surface but it made sense for the Head of Teppenpaw to want students to get to know each other. Teppenpaw was all about being friendly and kind, so to Hope it would make sense to pick staff for Head of Houses that embodied those traits themselves, even if they hadn't been to Sonora and been in that house. From how it sounded, it wasn't as they were picked on longevity-as Professor Crosby had been here only one year-or popularity among the students, as Nina had said Professor Crosby was not a popular teacher. Hope wasn't quite sure as she seemed nice enough. She didn't seem to be like that Flatt guy that Chelsea and her friends had gotten fired. Who had also been Head of Aladren and pretty unpopular with students.

Hope thought for a second and went on, as she had thought of that might disprove that theory. "But then, she might not have told us to work first years with second years necessarily. Unless she wanted to like set up some sort of mentoring thing. Like have them show us what to do." Which Hope didn't think was quite fair to anyone, to be honest. It was unfair to the second years because they might not be good at Transfiguration and might, like Hope and Madeline, not know how they were supposed to help others. It was unfair to first years, who would benefit far more from the direction of an experienced transfiguration professor-Chelsea had said that the professor was at least thirty-then a twelve year old with only one year of classes.

Of course, if Hope's former theory, about promoting cooperation among students rather than pitting them against each other was correct, then it was great. Otherwise, it was just a lazy teacher wanting to get second years to do her work for her. Hope wouldn't hold laziness against the woman per se, if that was the case, as some people just had less energy. But it really still wasn't fair to students. Hope chose to believe her initial theory as she always liked to put a positive spin on things.

And what wasn't positive about students becoming friends and helping each other? Hope was sure if they really had trouble, they could still ask Professor Crosby for help. Though Hope would have felt bad about not being able to help Madeline herself, if her roommate had trouble.

She nodded as Madeline said her parents weren't magical. The Teppenpaw had thought the other girl might be. Hope did not know of a Parry family off the top of her head for one thing, but she didn't always pay attention to such things much. Adam had to know that stuff, and Chelsea was the one who cared about it, but Hope didn't feel she really had to, and didn't care. Truthfully, she'd never met a muggleborn, but her parents had told her there was not really much difference between them.

"I don't think you're off base at all." Hope admitted. " I mean, we each have our own snails to use, so I think we're supposed to do our own. Partners don't really make sense, it's not like Potions where are there many steps,so each person does different parts of the preparation. Transfigurations are difficult and complex but its all about inflection and wand movement."

She continued. "My whole family is magical but I've never done magic on purpose before. Just uncontrolled accidental magic that most magical children display. So I'm really kind of in the same boat as far as understanding why she wants us to work together. I've always thought of this as kind of a solitary activity, but I still want to work with you."

The first year lowered her voice so only Madeline would hear. "Also, my sister, Nina, told me it didn't seem like Professor Crosby didn't know what she was doing either." Which had seemed to Hope like sort of mean thing for Nina to say. She brightened again. "But maybe we could try taking turns doing it the way you suggested. Like you doing the handle of one and me doing the spout and then switch with the other one. Or like, one of us could do handles and one of us could do spouts for both of them. That way we only have to visualize half, which is all we'd probably get anyway. Most people can't do a complete animate to inanimate transfiguration on the first try." Hope might have had some genetic ability in this subject,seeing as it seemed to be a subject that a lot of people in her family were good at, but that didn't mean she'd be able to transfigure it all the way.

11 Hope Excellent! 186 Hope 0 5

Ryan

February 17, 2011 2:38 PM

I'm just awkward all over. by Ryan

Ryan couldn't help but notice that Fidelio was squirming. He wondered why, hoping it was because of some tic the other boy had rather than something he'd done wrong. Not that he wished nervous tics on anyone but maybe Fidelio was just more the energetic type that didn't like to sit still in class. That was what Ryan hoped the squirming meant. He didn't want to have done something wrong.

Next it was Ryan's turn to squirm a bit. Fidelio didn't care who went first, which meant Ryan had to decide. The Crotalus had a bit of trouble with that. If he went first, he would be showing the first year what to do, as Ryan had had more experience with this, presumably. However, he might look like a show-off. And Ryan was the last person who had the right to do that. Or even wanted to.
People might resent him if he was ever better than them. Not that that was usually an issue.

Somehow, it didn't seem fair to make someone else go first either though. Like Ryan might be trying to make them go when they weren't ready. He knew that last year or really even this year, he wouldn't want to go first and make a fool of himself. Granted, he could embarass himself just as much by going second.

Before he could make up his mind, Fidelio asked a question. "Um, okay." Being called Ry wasn't too bad, not insulting, just a shorter form of Ryan. Besides, it seemed like it would make Fidelio happy to call him Ry and Ryan was all for making other people happy. He decided he would call the Aladren Fido after all, as the younger boy seemed to like nicknames.

Granted, it probably made Ryan's mother and sister happy to make him miserable too. Carrie sure seemed to enjoy when Ryan got in trouble. Maybe he deserved it after all. Who was he to put his own happiness ahead of that of others. That would be selfish, which his mom often accused him of being. Of course, she accused him of all negative traits that existed, even the ones that contradicted each other and other people, like Aunt Jana, and even his father, said a lot of them applied to his mother and sister far better.

"I guess I'll go first." Ryan decided. He didn't necessarily want to but at least was Transfiguration which he was a little better at than most other things. He took out his wand and withdrew the snail from the box. The Crotalus tried to visualize the similarities between the snail and a teapot. Ryan could actually see them, the shell was the main part of a teapot and the snail's head was similar to the spout. "Domiporta thea" . The Crotalus said, doing the proper wand motions.

The result was a plain white teapot-Ryan, being a guy, didn't think much about teapot patterns, it would seem too feminine to make a fancy one with flowers or something and Fido might laugh at him-with eyes and feelers. Ryan hoped the first year wouldn't laugh at him for not getting it perfect either. "Your turn, I guess."

11 Ryan I'm just awkward all over. 176 Ryan 0 5

Madeline

February 19, 2011 11:22 AM

Claps by Madeline

Hope didn’t seem to understand how this was supposed to work, either. Madeline didn’t know if she should be a little relieved – it was unkind, but at least it made her feel less stupid and out of her depth, that someone with sisters and cousins to report on how things were here was lost, too – or not, since they were still stranded without a clue how to do what it was they had been told to do. She really didn’t want to get in trouble on her first day, or make the teacher think she was too dumb to understand basic directions….”Me, too,” she said when Hope asserted that she still wanted to work with her.

She was equally conflicted, though, about what to think of an older student saying Professor Crosby didn’t know what she was doing. Again, it made her feel a little better, but on the other hand, the description of this class made it sound like really advanced, probably abstract physics combined with alchemy and converted into something solid. And it was agreed that all that was hard and complicated, but at the same time, it was about inflections and getting the wand movement right? All she had to do for that was pay attention and then copy what she’d just seen! That wasn’t complicated at all!

Dear Mom and Dad, my teacher wanted me to break science with a sledgehammer, but the explanation didn’t make sense, so my brain got broken instead, can you send me a new one? Love, Madeline.

Madeline looked back over her snail when Hope kind of came up with a way for them to work together on the project. She could see – even if she really didn’t want to – the head as a spout, and the tail…thing as a handle, so that could maybe work, if they were understanding how this worked at all. “That makes me feel infinitely better,” she said to the idea of almost no one being able to do the assignment right on their own first try. “What you were saying about trying it – that sounds like a good idea, a really good idea.” She smiled at Hope to back up that she meant it. “We should probably switch, both do a handle and a spout, though, so if we have to work our way up to doing it all on the final exam or something.”

She tugged on a piece of her hair, then pushed it all back, just in case. Some of the books had mentioned safety hazards and setting hair on fire and stuff. “I guess I can start, since you came up with the idea and all. I’ll start with, um, handle.” Because while it might be worse to confuse the snail by suddenly giving it a porcelain rear end, she just did not want to contemplate messing with something’s head until she absolutely had to. “Okay. Domiporta thea.”

It took a second for her to see it, and it was a seriously weird and disturbing thing for her to see, but it looked like the snail that had been on her desk now did have its tail curled up, sort of, and that it was harder and shiny in a glass way instead of a snail way. Not all the way to being a teapot handle, but getting there. It also seemed to be trying to move along and not able to do that anymore. Madeline looked at Hope instead of at it, trying not to feel sick. “I guess it sort of worked,” she said, purposefully cutting any hint of a question out of the last word. “Do you want to try, um, the other end now?”

0 Madeline *Claps* 0 Madeline 0 5

Fidelio

February 20, 2011 6:36 PM

And I'm insane, we make quite a team, don't we? by Fidelio

"Your turn, I guess."
Fidelio frowned to himself; did this boy think he was worthless? He was actually starting to worry about his new partner. Ryan seemed to be so...so...careful and unsure. As if someone was watching his every move and the wrong one would have a disastrous ending. Fidelio smiled a little at the thought of being in a similar situation. How exciting that would be to be monitored and you had to somehow communicate that you were being held ransom without your captor realizing what you were saying!
Well, if you were being held captive, I highly doubt that you would be able to discreetly let people know what was up. You chatter too much, and you’re too fond of animated conversation!
Shut up Jackie! Fidelio exclaimed to himself.
He was rather fond of talking to himself. He had a tiny elf named Jackie up in the left corner of his brain who was horribly addicted to coffee and crumpets and liked to point out the things he thought Fidelio couldn’t do. And then of course, Fidelio had to go and prove Jackie wrong. Like that time when he had to prove to Jackie that he could in fact fly. That had, of course, ended up with several broken bones and a self-contented elf saying ‘I told you so’ over and over and over again.
But that was beside the point, Fidelio told Jackie sternly. It was Transfiguration class. It was time to focus. It was time to put Jackie away.
He looked at Ryan's teapot, a plain white one with eyes...and feelers? He smiled at the teapot and let out a small breath of relief, so if he couldn’t perfect it, everything would be ok. Not that he was worried. He was just...concerned. Yes, that's right. Concerned. Take that Jackie!
"It's very beautiful!" He exclaimed. "Well, here goes nothing."
He closed his eyes, stuck out his wand, imagined a teapot, and "Domiporta thea!"
He opened his eyes, and before him sat a pale pink teapot with magenta polka-dots and a bow instead of a handle on the lid. And were those...snail feet attached to the bottom of the object?
Fidelio blinked. Then grinned. And then he laughed out loud. "It's hideous!" He exclaimed. "Even my Great-Aunt Addie wouldn't be caught dead with that thing on her shelf!" Then he turned to Ryan and said very seriously. "My Great-Aunt Addie is very partial to frilly pink things, especially teapots with bows. She has a whole collection."

0 Fidelio And I'm insane, we make quite a team, don't we? 0 Fidelio 0 5

Professor C.

February 22, 2011 9:42 PM

OOC by Professor C.

Mr. Winters, I am enthused to see you posting, but I have one request as to your formatting.

If you could, please separate your paragraphs by two spaces each, as this message is formatted. It makes the post easier to read and thus ensures the thread will become less complicated.

Thanks, and happy posting!

0 Professor C. OOC 0 Professor C. 0 5

Hope

February 26, 2011 9:28 PM

Bows by Hope

Hope nodded. It was kind of painful to look at the half completed snail teapot thing. All the transfigurations that the Teppenpaw had seen prior to this were complete. However, she had heard from Marshall about a cave near Salem where he'd gone to school of animals who had stuck between forms. Salem might have long since closed, but that cave had to still be around.

It made her feel awful. She knew that she wouldn't have liked being stuck as part object. And her cousin would be capable of changing Hope into something, though he never would. Marshall had threatened to change people into things before, like if Kaylie's boyfriend Ian ever hurt Kaylie, Marshall would turn him into something unpleasant. He wouldn't to anything to Hope though, ever. Though he had threatened to turn Chelsea into something awful if she was even the slightest bit mean to Harmony.

Besides, Marshall didn't like that the animals were stuck between being an animal and being an inanimate object. That was what he'd actually wanted to do, fix transfiguration projects that had gone wrong. So far, nothing had come of that, even though Marshall had graduated from SUM quite awhile ago.

She forced herself to look back at the snail that Madeline had started to transfigure. "Okay. Domiporta thea ." Hope said, doing the appropriate wand movements. The snail's shell turned porcelein and became more round. Unfortunately, its head stayed perfectly snail like. Hope grimaced. "This is really unfortunate looking."

They really shouldn't be starting with animal transfiguration. Hope would have been much more comfortable with inanimate to inanimate. She would have much rather built up to the more complex stuff, tried to get better at the subject before messing up a living thing. What if they couldn't change it back? Fortunately, odds were that the transformation wouldn't last very long at all.

11 Hope *Bows* 186 Hope 0 5

Madeline

March 09, 2011 3:02 PM

Well, now that we've got that settled... by Madeline

For a moment, Madeline held out hope that Hope’s spell would work and turn the snail-teapot hybrid into a real teapot, but then she saw the head. “Ew,” she cried out, clinging to her own hands because she wasn’t yet to the point of grabbing her roommates’ even in moments like this. “Oh, I don’t like this.”

She was, though, impressed by Hope’s composure. Was her new friend just very composed by nature – something Madeline had always thought she was, but which was looking less and less true and she was overwhelmed by the magic world and all its strangeness and newness – or was she actually used to seeing things like this? Madeline wasn’t sure which she wanted it to be less.

“It is,” she said, then forced herself to say it. “I’ll try again, and see if I can finish it,” she volunteered, feeling very brave for doing that. Something which hadn’t occurred to her when she was looking through her textbooks, with their deceptively simple-looking directions and spell words, was that magic was scary. It could make one thing be another, or, like the poor snail, half of another. It was dangerous and scary and something she was going to have to take very seriously.

“Domiporta thea,” she tried one more time.

Finally, mercifully, the head of the snail turned into the spout of a teapot. It was shaped a little funny, not really like a teapot spout would normally look, not exactly proportional to the rest of the teapot, but it was porcelain and hollow, at least to look at it, and Madeline was not about to crack it to see if it was still alive beneath the porcelain skin. If it was, she thought she might actually throw up, because just the thought was extremely disturbing.

And they still had to work on Hope’s snail, too, now that Madeline’s was mostly done. At least she couldn’t say her first day of magic class had been boring. “Does that kind of thing happen a lot?” she asked, pleased that her voice at least sounded steady. “Things getting stuck in between, and it taking a lot of times to make it right?”

0 Madeline Well, now that we've got that settled... 0 Madeline 0 5

Professor Lilac Crosby

I'm a little tea pot, short and stout... [Beginner lesson!] by Professor Lilac Crosby

Jessica Applerose [Teppenpaw]

Here is the handle, but where is the spout? by Jessica Applerose [Teppenpaw]

Derwent Pierce IV, Teppenpaw

I'm a lil teapot, short and - hey, are you calling me fat? by Derwent Pierce IV, Teppenpaw

Renée Errant

I probably have it. by Renée Errant

Jessica

Well, do you know how to put it back on? by Jessica

Asher Reid, Aladren

Does that mean we get tea served with this lesson? by Asher Reid, Aladren

Topher Calhoun, Crotalus

I deny everything by Topher Calhoun, Crotalus

Regina Parker (Teppenpaw)

I hope not! by Regina Parker (Teppenpaw)

Luka Anastanov [Pecari, 1st year]

Please don't break into a song by Luka Anastanov [Pecari, 1st year]

Derry Four

My family is good at that, too by Derry Four

Renée Errant {Crotalus}

As you can see, my power's not really to be trusted. by Renée Errant {Crotalus}

Jessica

I trust you anyway by Jessica

Renée Errant

Haha. That's a mistake many have made. =} by Renée Errant

Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

I better not get all steamed up! by Fae Sinclair (Crotalus)

Jessica

Maybe I should trod carefully? by Jessica

Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw]

I swear I won't. by Valentina Bentancourt [Teppenpaw]

Topher

Some of my biological relatives ain't half-bad. by Topher

Renée Errant

A wise decision you have made. {Tag: Professor Crosby} by Renée Errant

Sara Raines, Pecari

I really hope no one does by Sara Raines, Pecari

Marcus Williams (Pecari)

Getting this over with. by Marcus Williams (Pecari)

Derry Four

So they're half-good? by Derry Four

Alice Adair, Crotalus

Must I? by Alice Adair, Crotalus

Arthur Carey, Aladren

We all must by Arthur Carey, Aladren

Asher

… I take it you dislike tea? by Asher

Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw

But what pattern are you? by Madeline Parry, Teppenpaw

Luka

And don't dance either.. by Luka

Topher

At least a few bronze medals in the Denial Olympics. by Topher

Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus

Likewise by Daisy Thorpe, Crotalus

Valentina

but dancing is fun! by Valentina

Fae

It's bound to happen at some point. by Fae

Mollie Murphy

Sorry, I don't mean to barge in, but... by Mollie Murphy

Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

A pretty floral one? by Hope Brockert, Teppenpaw

Alice

I think we should protest. by Alice

Reggie

I do not like tea from inside a snail... by Reggie

Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus

I'm a 12 year old boy who is neither by Ryan O'Malley, Crotalus

Sara

As long as it's not at me, then. by Sara

Mollie Murphy, Aladren

Oh... by Mollie Murphy, Aladren

Fidelio Winters, Aladren

Neither what? by Fidelio Winters, Aladren

Luka

*headdesk* by Luka

Professor C.

Quick OOC by Professor C.

headdesk by Luka