Writing Utensils on Transfiguration

Professor Lilac Crosby

September 23, 2011 3:32 PM

Fork it over, quill you?! [First and second years!] by Professor Lilac Crosby

If one was to judge by the appearance of the desks, one might have thought the beginner’s level Transfiguration class was going to have a snack. Silverware--excluding any knives--sat atop every desk. There was, however, no plates, only parchment and an ink well, which might have caused an observer to reconsider.

Of course, looks could be deceiving. Lilac knew that very well. For example, the professional, stuffy clothing she put herself in for class was not her at all, and she almost preferred when her hair was its usual messy way. However, that did not seem to be the case for the best, and thus her appearance had changed some time back.

Grey eyes had not changed, and the same eyes brightly watched the first and second years enter and take their seats. “Let’s not dawdle,” said the professor with a smile. “Everyone be seated.” Once everyone was, a flick of her wand slammed the door shut.

“Before you should be a variety of silverware: dinner fork, salad fork, soup soon, et ceteran,” Lilac began. This spell was one of her favorites acceptable for the age group. “Also should be an ink well to share with the person beside you, plus individual parchments. Everyone got those things?” Anyone who didn’t was provided with the materials before she continued.

The twenty-eight year old pointed her wand at the board, and the incantation wrote itself. “Scribblifors. That’s our spell for the day.” She grabbed a fork off of her own desk, aimed her wand, and recited the incantation with a left-flicking wrist. “What should happen,” she continued, raising the final product to show the class, “is the utensil turning into a nice, useable quill.” The detail of the feather, the nice pattern, she supposed, had just been luck.

“If there are no questions, go ahead and get started. Once you have produced a quill or two, go ahead and use the ink and parchment and have fun.” Lilac figured the kids would either have homework for another class they could do, or maybe they would like to doodle. “If you need any help, you know where to find me.”

OOC: ….Oh, hello there! Didn’t see you there! Welcome to Transfig! Nice long posts are greatly appreciated, and good grammar is always a blessing. Follow the rules, don’t godmod, don’t stab each other with forks or quills, et cetera. Tag Lilac if you need to. Happy posting!

Subthreads:

Writing Utensils by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren with Jenny Owens, Kitty, Kitty

Knife job with the pun! by David Kim with Linus Macaulay

I wonder... by Jhonice Trevear - Pecari

CLASS CLOSED (nm) by Prof. C.

0 Professor Lilac Crosby Fork it over, quill you?! [First and second years!] 0 Professor Lilac Crosby 1 5

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

September 25, 2011 2:03 PM

Writing Utensils by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Transfiguration, while difficult, was an absolutely fascinating class for Kitty. It amused her greatly to try and figure out what they were doing by the items that usually graced the desk in the minutes before class started and they were told what they would be doing. Oh, she was never right, but it was still fun to guess.

Bouncing into class with her normal endless energy Kitty took a seat up front (something that had become necessary seems all the other student were taller than her it was impossible to see over their heads if she sat in any other row). Curious blue eyes examined the items on display on her desk. Forks, spoons, parchment, and ink. Maybe the parchment will become a bowl and the ink soup? Hmm, what kind of soup should I make? Tomato! Kitty thought as the rest of the students found their seats and the lecture began.

Nope, she’d gotten it backwards! It wasn’t the parchment and ink that needed to be changed, but the silverware. Kitty gave a little pout, seems she was getting hungry. Then again, tomato soup made out of ink might taste rather awful, Kitty decided as she picked up the spoon in her right hand and held her Rosewood wand in her left. “Scribblifors.” Kitty said, carefully pronouncing the word. A satisfied smile tugged at her lips as the spoon morphed into a white quill, there was perhaps a slight sheen of silver in the white but Kitty thought that just made it look even cooler.

“Alright, lets test it shall we?” Kitty murmured to herself as she dipped the quill into the ink. Putting quill to parchment Kitty tried to write her name in her usual loopy script, only about a centimeter of ink flowed before it stopped. Pouting Kitty glared at the sheet of parchment as if it was the hapless paper’s fault that the quill failed function. “Aww! Dang it, it doesn’t work.” Kitty said to the student sitting next to her.

0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren Writing Utensils 0 Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren 0 5

David Kim

September 27, 2011 10:17 AM

Knife job with the pun! by David Kim

He was the third to arrive-- third student that is, and David took the early arrival as a chance to better prepare himself for the forthcoming lesson. It wasn't that Transfiguration was particularly challenging in concept; David understood the fundamentals, the theory behind it. After his completely lack of success at the beginning of the school year with the subject, he had even dedicated several week-ends of study in the library, focusing on the thick texts that incorporated a Muggle approach to the subject. Molecular structures, DNA fragments, atoms and nucleotides-- the lot of it had been far beyond his ken, but David was starting to get it.

It wasn't that the spells just turned things into new things; rather, the spells changed the objects' chemical structures so that the molecules transformed or bonded in new ways. Which made sense. Kind of. As much time as David had spent in the library while in elementary school, his choice in literature tended toward the arts, not the hard sciences. Still though, David had felt confident that this extra study would cause his abyssmal showing in Transfiguration to improve to a passable fair-to-middling.

It hadn't happened. David had yet to successfully pull off a duro spell, and his pride did not allow for him to ask for extra help. He'd never had to get help in classes before, and he was not about to admit a need for it now. The stress of these repeated failures, though, was building. The feeling, a tight knot that sunk in stomach, would begin before breakfast, preventing him from eating, and would only grow larger as the day progressed. By the time he would reach class, his heart would be racing, his hands sweating, and his breath short. The moment he fell into his seat, the symptoms would lessen, but his anxiety remained.

Today, he would do it, he would tell himself. Today, the spells would work.

The silverware seemed to disagree with him, the shiny surfaces already goading him into trying to prove otherwise.

Professor Crosby's manner did not help, either. The non-challance with which she spoke seemed to only further enforce the fact that Transfiguration should not be this hard, that surely by now David ought to have mastered at least one of the lessons. His chest tightened as he watched her so effortlessly transform the fork into a delicate quill.

It would happen today, he repeated silently. Today, it would work.

David rubbed at his chest, willing the painful tightness away, and gripped his wand harshly. He paid no mind to his partner, and focused intently on the silverware before him. Scribblifors he mouthed mutely. Scribblifors. Over and over, he mouthed the spell, not daring to yet utter it audibly. Someone was saying something, he dimly recognized, an annoying buzz on the edge of his concentration. Scribblifors, he continued. Scribbliforsscribbliforsscribbliforsscribbl--

His concentration broke and he slammed his wand down with it, a small sputter of sparks crackling from its tip. "What is it?" he demanded, his voice low but harsh. "What is it that's so vital that you had to interrupt me? What?"

OOC-- I apologize if this reads as godmodding. Not my intention, but if it is, let me know!

0 David Kim Knife job with the pun! 0 David Kim 0 5

Linus Macaulay

September 29, 2011 12:42 PM

You could use my help by Linus Macaulay

He wondered whether it had been intentional that what was reputed to be the most difficult class had the craziest teacher. That wasn't to say that many of the professors at Sonora were normal by Linus' standard. Professor McKindy was odd by Muggle standards, but possibly not so by wizarding norms; Linus wasn't sure. Professor Kijewski seemed relatively normal, and professor Fawcett, too, but Professor Levy and the librarian seemed to belong to some sort of cult, and in Linus' humble opinion, professional witches in their position really ought not to succumb to stereotypes that could be easily adpated by young, impressionable students. Regardless of whether it was accidental or intentional, the balance of the crazy professor who was trying too hard to be normal, and the ridiculous level of work beginners had to accomplish in transfiguration classes, produced an irony that was sufficiently amusing for Linus to get by in this class, even when at its most challenging.

Today's class didn't sound especially difficult, though, as a first year, Linus had adjusted to the notion that he was less capable of completing the spells within the first couple of tries than the older students, but he wouldn't be a first year forever. In fact there was barely a couple of months left before he would be in his first year no longer, and would have to return to living the life of a Muggle for the duration of the summer, a life wherein he would have no need for turning his cutlery into a quill. Until then, however, he would incant at this silverware until it bent to his will.

He rarely initiated contact with another student during class unless partner work was necessitated by the nature of the assignment, and hence he paid the boy at the desk next to him no attention whatsoever as he began his work. Shortly, however, the lack of activity of his partner caused him concern. While Linus had managed a thick, blunt tip and a feathery textured to his fork on his second attempt, the adjacent student had accomplished nothing, and had not even audibly spoken the spell. Linus was concerned; he recognized the boy, David Kim, from his own yeargroup. He didn't look American, but Linus had heard him talk before, and he didn't have an accent, so he could only assume the language wasn't causing a problem for him. Nevertheless, he had always considered it his duty to help those less fortunate thatn himself.

Lowering his own wand momentarily, Linus cleared his throat and said, "Is there anything I can help you with?" The verbal attack he received in reply was sufficient to make him raise his eyebrows, but he was in no way intimidated. The sparking wand, on the other hand, caused him a little concern, and though he knew very few spells to defend himself, he found himself gripping his own wand a little more tightly. "You looked as though you required assistance, and I was enquiring whether this was the case," he reiterated the cause for his interuption, in a tone that was blunt as it was calm.

0 Linus Macaulay You could use my help 205 Linus Macaulay 0 5

David Kim

September 30, 2011 9:59 AM

I suppoon so. by David Kim

Great. Another one of those Crotalus people. The last thing David wanted was to have to deal with another of their kind. There was one exception thus far to those Crotalus David had acquainted himself with, and considering the way in which Linus Macaulay spoke, he probably wouldn't be like Brianna. David had no intention of admitting to his continued failure in Transfiguration spells to someone who was most likely another of those Pureblood elitists that seemed to make up that house. He could just imagine the sort of self-congratulatory sneer that would spring over the boy's mouth if David were to say as much.

Exactingly, he retrieved his wand and meticulously began straightening the silverware that had been knocked askew by the force of his hand on the surface. He allowed the silence to drag on, willing himself to calmness before answering. He needed his energies to be focused on the lesson, not on some probable snob from Crotalus House. Still though, his fingers wrapped too tightly around his wand, and his ongoing frustration at Transfigurations mingled too easily with his residual resentment of the Purebloods.

"I'm fine," he said, voice strained. "I do not require your assistance." Something of David's feelings filtered through the forcibly civil tone, and certainly, David's expression was one of distaste.

0 David Kim I suppoon so. 0 David Kim 0 5

Jenny Owens

October 02, 2011 11:30 AM

Or utensils for other things by Jenny Owens

Jenny was wryly amused by the sheer energy that the girl who had plopped down beside her emmitted. She was nearly as short as Jenny was, but that never seemed to stop her displaying whatever she was feeling to everyone else - her emotions plastered across her face as they changed. Jenny knew she was the opposite; nothing could be gained from studying her childish face and empty blue eyes.

Still, even she could not help a chuckle at the petulant menace on the girls face as she glared at her parchment.
'Here,' she handed over the knife from the place setting next to her (which was empty) and turned back to her own work. She did not want to seem like she was either skiving of her task or staring, both of which she was as she didn't like Transfiguration and she did like to watch other peoples reactions to things.

She had been at Sonora over half a term now, and she had finally gotten the hang of etiquette around non-family members.

'Scribblifors,' she enunciated calmly, directing her mahogany wand at the fork on her desk. In one of the many books that her mother had forced her to reading in the holidays she had learnt that in Transfiguration decisiveness was key.

As commanded, the fork became a sleek quill - silver and red like her house colours. Sighing Jenny picked it up. Though this particular spell was not one which she had practiced before she had known she would get it right. People of her calibre simply did not mess up things like this - though, at the same time, people of her calibre would never turn their cutlery into writing equipment, as all their cutlery was solid silver wrought by goblins hundreds of years ago.

Jenny did not like wasting parchment, so she took a careful look around before sketching a quick image of their teacher onto the paper. She had been trying recently to capture people's personalities and, being very lively but with a stern visage, she felt that their current Professor was a prime example. When she was satisfied with her work, she held it up to compare to the real thing and, pleased, she placed it carefully into the black sketching book which had pride of place in her bag.

Able to do the spell and out of parchment, she looked to her neighbour to see how she was doing.

0 Jenny Owens Or utensils for other things 0 Jenny Owens 0 5

Kitty

October 03, 2011 12:02 AM

The amazing versatility of Utensils by Kitty

Her glaring contest with the intimate object was cut short by a quiet chuckle accompanied by a soft ‘here’ as a knife was handed over by the girl sitting next to her. “Thanks, this one’s broken.” Kitty said her high light voice somehow holding both friendliness and annoyance all at the same time. Discarding the broken quill Kitty turned her attention and wand on the knife.

Before trying again Kitty watched the other girl easily perform the transformation. Instead of just writing her name, or a few scribbles to see if it worked she began to draw. Kitty watched with amazement as a rather realistic sketch of the professor seemed to flow like water out of the new quill. Not wanting to bother the other girl Kitty tried the spell again, this time her quill was a rather striking shade of violet.

Holding her breath Kitty eased the tip of her newest quill into the ink before trying to write her name again. “Yay! Look, look it worked!” Kitty cheered as she showed off her loopy signature to her classmate, who’d finished her sketch and put it into a sketch book. “Wow, those are really good!” Kitty gushed. “Can I see them?” She asked hopefully, she really did like art, and was a fair hand at sculpting but couldn’t sketch to save her life.

0 Kitty The amazing versatility of Utensils 0 Kitty 0 5

Jenny Owens

October 04, 2011 4:38 PM

Clever little utensils by Jenny Owens

Jenny watched as the girl beside her successfully transformed her implement. The quill was very bold, and Jenny was lost for a few moments in whether perhaps the quills designs could be changed according to the wand wielders mood or personality, or if it was just random.

She liked her classmate even more when she signed her name with a flourish. There was nothing wrong, Jenny had known for years, with a bit of flair. Things that looked pretty were obviously better than things that were plain - at least until you got to live things.

'Well done,' she congratulated her peer, offering a rare smile that flashed teeth that her mother had spent hundreds perfecting.

Then the other girl asked to see her drawings.

It was not often that you got someone of Jenny's family was modest and Jenny was no exception. She did not go in for blood-feuds like her parents, or care about what people looked like like her older sisters. All she wanted from her family was to get away. But her drawings were a different matter. She was not particularly clever, and hardly beautiful, and was not out-going enough to be funny or noticeable. All she did, all she wanted, was drawing.

'I'm Jenny Owens,' she offered her hand and her alias across the distance between them, dragging up her sketch book carefully with the other, 'And I'm not sure whether I like your quill or your handwriting more!' Hopefully this would be reasonable enough to make her seem even slightly humble in her classmates eyes.

0 Jenny Owens Clever little utensils 0 Jenny Owens 0 5

Kitty

October 04, 2011 9:17 PM

Creative too! by Kitty

Her small hand reached out and accepted the handshake with warm enthusiasm. “Hiya Jenny! I’m Kitty, Kitty McLevy.” Kitty chirped with a wide grin, noticing the small but pretty smile the other girl had given her. Friendliness was a natural state of being for the young girl, and even though a lot of the students in the school had cool dispositions, she still reveled in getting them to smile or laugh.

To the young girl’s delight instead of telling her no, Jenny carefully pushed the sketch book closer. And I’m not sure whether I like your quill or your handwriting more!” Jenny said. Kitty flashed a delighted grin at the compliments and with a magician’s flourish write in looping letters on her piece of parchment: Little lion, small and dainty sweet, with sea grey eyes, and softly steppin feet.

With delicate fingertips Kitty opened the sketch book. Though few people would believe it, the tiny girl was capable of sitting still and calm from time to time. Gently she turned each page, with every new sketch she murmured soft praises at the beautiful drawings. “Wow….really I mean wow, these are really good Jenny! Maybe I could have you draw something on my trunk sometime?” Kitty asked without hesitation, the sketches were amazing, and her trunk was so boring anyway. “I could pay you, or buy art supplies…” She offered with a brilliant simile.

0 Kitty Creative too! 0 Kitty 0 5

Linus

October 09, 2011 5:01 PM

Is English your first language? by Linus

The words spoken by his peer did not match the scenario Linus was experiencing, nor were his words spoken with pleasantry. Considering all that the Crotalus student has done was offer help, Linus didn't see reason for his apparent hostility, and the claim that his assitance was not required was a downright lie on the face of it. "Well when you decide you require assitance," he replied haughtily, "you can just let me know." He wasn't about to turn down helping someone who needed it just because they'd chosen to get frosty with him. He supposed that if he were really struggling with a class then it might have the effect of making him frustrated, but probably not to the extent that he'd strike out at his fellow students. Linus didn't have that sort of rage.

For the meantime, Linus elected to give David Kim the opportunity to try and right his mistakes for himself. Just knowing that there was a safety net of help at hand could sometimes provide a person with the encouragement they needed to complete a task unaided. He would use his time to perfect his own technique, and perhaps pay attention to which aspects of his spell-casting proved more effective than others, so he could better instruct those who hadn't been so successful. His fork had more or less set itself back to rights by now (it seemed magic wasn't especially permanent at this stage in their career), so Linus placed it back central in his desk and focused on it carefully before casting the incantation again.

The nib was becoming thinner, sleeker, and the feathered end more textured and colorful. A couple more goes later, and Linus thought his fork could easily pass for a quill. Not an especially well made one, perhaps, that the conscientious students would seek out from their writing supply stores, but one that had been handed down a couple of times. he wondered whether it was functional. To test it, linus picked the quill up, opened up his ink well, and dipped the nib. he shook it gently, and on a spare piece of parchment, proceeded to write his name. The nib scratched horribly, but ink was nonetheless transfered, forming awkward letters on the page.

Pleased with his success, Linus laid down what had been a fork, and moved on to the next piece of cutlery on his desk. He looked up again at David Kim, to see how his counterpart was fairing, and whether he was now ready to accept some guidance.

0 Linus Is English your first language? 0 Linus 0 5

Jenny Owens

October 10, 2011 3:12 PM

I'm a little bit jealous of utensils! by Jenny Owens

Jenny had to laugh out loud at the little rhyme which the girl swirled onto her page. It was cute; charming, and not by magic either. It was the kind of thing that she could imagine muggle mothers singing to their little children, curled up by a fire as snow fell outside and their father, full of laughter, stamped the cold off his wellington boots.

She swelled slightly at Kitty's praise of her work. She liked it. 'Thanks!' Jenny absently transfigured a spoon into a different quill and twirled it in her elegant fingers - her fingers where the only part of her body she liked about herself - to cover the thought process of this trunk idea.

'You often draw on your things?' She asked curiously. She was aware that this girl was different to her, but she had never heard of such a thing. Not that she would judge, of course.

'Do you do anything arty?' She asked as the new thought struck her. She liked arty people. 'Painting? Singing? Dancing?' She threw out a couple of ideas, just so that the girl knew that she didn't just mean sketches, like Jenny did.

Jenny leant across and pulled the book from her classmates unresisting hands. 'Look,' she flicked through quickly, knowing her work the same way that most people could navigate their bedrooms in the dark. Pausing, she showed Kitty a picture of her younger brother, Charlie. 'This is my baby brother.' Charlie, strictly speaking, wasn't a baby - he was almost ten - but Jenny always thought of him as the cute little boy with a lisp that he had been several years ago. 'This one's my favourite,' she revealed.

“Oh wow! Twin sisters, that’s so cool, I wish I had some sisters too. Um, my dad’s a push over and I can usually get anything I want from him, but he’s not really the boss. Mom refused to let me be too spoiled, so I guess that’s a good thing right? So do you’re sisters look and act just like each other? Can you tell them apart? Did they have their fingernails painted different colors when they were born?” She remembered watching a documentary about a woman who had sextuplets and they had to paint one fingernail on each baby so that the parents could tell them apart. After all, babies looked awfully similar when they were born.

Kitty couldn’t imagine what life would be like for an only child, how lonely that would be! Kitty was glad that Jenny had siblings too, that way she could share that bond that Kitty felt for her brothers. As much as she fought with them sometimes they really were her whole world and Kitty was glad that it was almost summer and she’d get to see them all again soon.

“Oh! Guess what, Laurie asked me to go to the dance!” Kitty said, excitement flavoring the words as she bounced in her seat. “I got this super pretty red dress with big flowy sleeves and laces up the front.” Kitty said, sketching the dress out onto the air as she described it in detail to her new friend. She hadn’t expected a boy to ask her to go, but couldn’t imagine going with anyone but Laurie, they were going to have such fun! “Are you going?” Kitty asked. If Jenny didn’t have a date Kitty promised to dance with her. The school dances she’d gone to in her old school the girls all just went together and danced in a big group while giggling at the boys who stood against the walls and talked.

0 Kitty *Blushes and offers a napkin* 0 Kitty 0 5

Jenny Owens

October 20, 2011 12:21 PM

Throws chocolate and runs by Jenny Owens

"No, my sisters are pretty easy to tell apart. Aurelia is very tall and thin, like our mum, and Bianca is petite. They've got the same faces though, exactly. And I don't really know how they told them apart when they were babies...the wetnurses will have thought of something." Jenny knew the wetnurses from the time when Charlie was a newborn - they were cleverer than anyone she knew and seemed to know almost psychically what troubled the children.

"Whose Laurie?" Was her first question on the topic of the school dance, mainly because she needed time to think. Though she had, of course, been aware that there was a dance coming up, but the date of it had aluded her. Now she was stuck wishing that there was still weeks to go and that Kitty was simply excited in advance. "No, I don't have a date. When is it again?" Jenny had barely spoken to anyone in the time they had been at school, she had spent weeks acclimatising to being around non-family members.

"So is your dress like a corset up top?" She asked, trying to envision it. "I know a dressmaker quite well, so I'm not too worried about what my dress will by like, it's my hair I don't know what to do with!" Jenny's hair was waist length and very thick. She normally wore it tumbling down around her shoulders or up in a messy bun on top of her head.

"I've never been to a school dance before," she admitted quietly, "so I'm not really sure what the protocol is...how formal is it?" She was 99%certain that it would not be like one of the balls her mother hosted each Christmas.

0 Jenny Owens *Throws chocolate and runs* 0 Jenny Owens 0 5

Professor Lilac Crosby

Fork it over, quill you?! [First and second years!] by Professor Lilac Crosby

Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

Writing Utensils by Katrina (Kitty) McLevy - Aladren

David Kim

Knife job with the pun! by David Kim

Linus Macaulay

You could use my help by Linus Macaulay

David Kim

I suppoon so. by David Kim

Jenny Owens

Or utensils for other things by Jenny Owens

Kitty

The amazing versatility of Utensils by Kitty

Jenny Owens

Clever little utensils by Jenny Owens

Kitty

Creative too! by Kitty

Linus

Is English your first language? by Linus

Jenny Owens

I'm a little bit jealous of utensils! by Jenny Owens

Jhonice Trevear - Pecari

I wonder... by Jhonice Trevear - Pecari

Kitty

It isn’t the tool, but the wielder who makes magic by Kitty

Jenny Owens

How poetic ;) by Jenny Owens

Kitty

Life is like a box of chocolates by Kitty

Jenny Owens

Nom nom nom... by Jenny Owens

Kitty

*Beams and happily eats chocolates* by Kitty

Jenny Owens

*laughs at girl with chocolate all over her face* by Jenny Owens

Kitty

*Gives a chocolate stained grin* by Kitty

Jenny Owens

*Laughs harder* by Jenny Owens

Kitty

*Isn’t sure what the joke is, but laughs anyway* by Kitty

Jenny Owens

*Ducks from flying chocolate pieces* by Jenny Owens

Kitty

*Blushes and offers a napkin* by Kitty

Jenny Owens

*Throws chocolate and runs* by Jenny Owens

Prof. C.

CLASS CLOSED (nm) by Prof. C.

Beams and happily eats chocolates by Kitty

laughs at girl with chocolate all over her face by Jenny Owens

Gives a chocolate stained grin by Kitty

Laughs harder by Jenny Owens

Isn’t sure what the joke is, but laughs anyway by Kitty

Ducks from flying chocolate pieces by Jenny Owens

Blushes and offers a napkin by Kitty

Throws chocolate and runs by Jenny Owens