Professor Skies
September 28, 2012 11:58 AM
Intermediate Class - Hedgebrushes and hairhogs. by Professor Skies
Selina liked all her classes for different reasons. The beginners class were just starting out and she got to see them make their first steps with the subject. In the advanced class, she got to teach really interesting material, and knew that the majority of the students actively wanted to be there. People sometimes regarded intermediate classes as the wilderness in between; the novelty had worn off for the students but they weren't yet the elite, dedicated group. She didn't feel this. This class had got through the baby steps and was able to progress onto some interesting topics, including their first ventures into animate transfigurations. The fifth years were also the same age as her eldest daughter, which gave her a certain fondness for them, and for seeing them achieving things. She could then imagine similar sorts of things going on in her daughter's class. She tried not to notice the girls falling out with each other, or the kinds of looks the boys were giving them. She preferred not to imagine parallel events of those kind taking place in Krisalyn's school, although she wasn't so naïve as to assume that they didn't.“Good morning, class,” she smiled, as they filed in. “I am Professor Skies and I will be teaching you Transfiguration this term.” She went through the usual routine of calling the register, trying not to stare too hard at those whose names she recognised, and definitely trying to block the part of her brain that went into calculating whether these could be children of her former students. She wasn't wholly successful on either count. She followed this with the rest of the house-keeping, such as handing out schedules and going over rules before getting stuck into the class proper.
“I see from the previous class notes that some of you have begun inanimate to animate transfigurations. I hope you will humour me whilst I introduce it to those who have not and try to reassure them, and those of you who might have been nervous about it, that it is nothing to worry about. It is complex magic and you will not be perfect at it to start with. However, one of the concerns I have frequently heard from students is a worry over causing pain or suffering. This is very rarely the case. When you bring forth an incomplete animal, its other half continues to exist elsewhere. It is difficult to explain without going into a lot of complex theory, but the animal is still connected to the rest of itself, although you can't see it. Therefore it is not going to bleed to death, and it's unlikely it feels pain as it hasn't been cut or severed in any way. For example, your lesson today is going to involve hairbrushes and hedgehogs,” she picked up a hairbrush from her desk, “If I only transfigure the front half...” she cast the spell over the brush, consciously holding back some of her energy. Paws and a face appeared, the little nose twitching, whilst his back end remained a handle, which Professor Skies held him by. “Now, I'm not saying he'd do well in the wild. But if I had left half of his insides somewhere else, he would not last very long,” she placed him down on her desk, “I guarantee that he will still be twitching his nose when I'm done talking. If anyone has more questions about the theory or still has ethical concerns, please see me.
“We will be looking at two different spells today. Third years will be getting a hedgehog and trying to make it into a hairbrush. Fifth years will be doing the opposite. Fourth years may choose, depending on where they feel they currently are. You may choose to swap half way through the lesson if you feel you chose the wrong option.
“Those of you attempting to make the hedgehog into a hairbrush, your spell is 'capillius', and involves and upward sweeping wand motion,” she levitated a hedgehog from a box on the opposite side of her desk and demonstrated, before returning him to his original form and repeating the demonstration of the wand movement in slow motion. “I have placed fencing charms around your desks, so they should not be able to get away from you. I recommend wearing your gloves if you need to nudge them back to starting position, but you shouldn't have too much need to handle them. Call me if you need them levitating. I am sure you are all competent at the Charm but it can be a little more difficult when used on a live target and I do not want the poor things being bounced off the ceiling.
“For those of you attempting the brush to hedgehog transfiguration, your spell is 'Erinaceinae,' and you are required to do a circular motion with a flick,” she demonstrated this, both with a brush and in slow motion, before putting both spells up on the board.
“As is always the case with Transfiguration, both your source – that is the item in front of you – and your target – the item you are aiming to end up with – will have some similarities and some differences. Focussing on what you need to alter will help you to channel your energy more effectively. I assume by now that most of you are well practised at making notes on the similarities and differences between your source and your target. Third years may make notes if they wish but over the course of this term, I will expect you to begin to internalise these thoughts. Older years, you should be able to hold the differences you are aiming to alter in your head. If anyone still has difficulties with this method, or has queries about it, feel free to ask,” she invited. She wasn't sure that this specific style had been used by her predecessor, although in her mind there were a limited number of ways to approach the subject, and so she found herself assuming that, at the very least, something similar would have been used. She waved her wand and a list of categories appeared on the board to prompt any of them who might be struggling to think of ways in which to compare their objects.
“There are tests that I can perform to see the history of your transfigurations, for anyone who was thinking of trying to swap objects with their neighbour when I'm not looking. I will be extremely disappointed if I catch anyone attempting this and penalties will apply,” she informed them, sternly. She hoped that the fifth years, especially, would realise that it would benefit them little to cheat, as they needed all the practise they could get for their CATS, but it was only fair and sensible to give warning.
“If you are stuck, you have several choices. You may talk with your neighbours or, if you are a younger year, I hope those in the classes above will be willing to offer their expertise. Older years, it should not be at the cost of completing your own class work, and you may refuse if you have too many things to get done, but you will find it will benefit your theory and your understanding of your own casting ability to try to explain it to someone else. Finally you can, of course, call on me. Fifth years and fourth years working with brushes may come and get one from the front. Hands up if you are a third year or want to start with a hedgehog and I will levitate one over to you. Oh, and look,” she indicated the hedgebrush on her desk, who still looked as happy and healthy as when they had begun. She countered the spell that she had performed, returning the brush to its box.
OOC – normal posting rules apply. You may assume that Professor Skies gives you a hedgehog if you request one or swaps your brush/hedgehog part way through the lesson if you ask her to. Otherwise, tag if you need me.
Subthreads: Sonic is cuter than I thought. by Fae Sinclair, Crotalus with Russell Layne, Aladren
Well, it's better than if a lorry hit it... by Henny B-F-R with Evan Brockert, Aladren
Trying not to kill something. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus with Michael Grosvenor
I wonder which this qualifies as. by Arabella Brockert, Pecari with Theresa Carey, Pecari
I want them both. by Alicia Bauer, Aladren with Arthur Carey, Aladren
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Professor Skies
Intermediate Class - Hedgebrushes and hairhogs.
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Professor Skies
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Fae Sinclair, Crotalus
September 29, 2012 2:05 PM
Sonic is cuter than I thought. by Fae Sinclair, Crotalus
The classes were still too new for Fae with the professors to really feel a sense of stability in Sonora that she often came about after the first couple of days of maintaining a schedule, but she knew that it would come eventually. As it was, things were still just weird. She was in limbo and would remain so until Arnold told her what he wanted. Of course, she couldn’t really be the one to come right out and ask. She would look eager and desperate. Fae was not that girl. She refused to be. Thinking it and doing it were very different things. Not knowing gave her negative thoughts. He was disappointed even though he said he wouldn’t be. He did not like the way she looked or preferred someone else. She would never ask though. Never. To know something like that would be too much for her. She was sure she’d have a bit of jealousy in there and since she already didn’t think she was good enough, anything left would fly right out the window. No, it was best not to ask. At the moment, she could only hope that Arnold would finally tell her if they were dating or not so that she could have a better sense of it all.Did she want to date him? Of course. She liked him and he was attractive. She was like any other fifteen year old girl and dreamed of her first boyfriend and her first kiss. And, probably like every other Pureblood who was ever in existence, she wished she didn’t have to be forced into a contract to have that happen. There was a chance that it might have happened on its own, if life had given them the time and a little push, but now they would never know and she would never really know if it was what he wanted at all.
But that was neither here nor there. Now it was time for Transfiguration, not her best class, but certainly not her worst class. Her best was Charms, but Transfiguration ranked pretty well up with her favorites. It might take her a few tries before she was able to pull it off completely, but she had always been able to do it. Potions took great skill in perfecting and Defense took great hand and eye coordination, plus for one to be quick on their feet (neither of which Fae was really good at), so they were her worst, but Transfiguration was all confidence and ability.
Fae took notes and watched the Professor with interest as she explained that partial transfiguration did not harm animals. Truth be told, that was something Fae always wondered about. She didn't quite understand how the animal had been alive when half of it was missing, but her mother had simply said that it wasn't a real animal if the object itself wasn't real to start with. That had always made Fae feel better when it came to inanimate object to animate object transfiguration. But now listening to the professor, Fae came to understand that the animate to inanimate objects also weren't harmed because their other half existed elsewhere. She might not grasp it as fully as Alice or Arthur might have, but she felt she understood it enough.
When Fae received her hairbrush, she took a moment to study the brush and a hedgehog at a desk near her so that she could see the similarities as well as the differences. Although she would never admit this to anyone, Fae though the Hedgehogs were sort of cute to look at. But, Fae wasn’t a fan of animals in general, so admitting that would mean she might have a soft spot for them and then want one for herself.
Having figured out what she could by looking at the objects, Fae mentally ‘saw’ what would happen to the brush after she used the spell on it and filled in the parts of the brush that would change into the animal. Feeling confident enough in her work and how she pictured it, Fae took a breath and pointed her wand at the hairbrush. In a circular motion and a flick, Fae spoke the incantation, “Erinaceinae” and watched as her hairbrush filled out around the middle, sprouted a nose, eyes, and whiskers and grew four legs. It looked, by all means, like a hedgehog, but the bristles of the brush were still bristles of a brush and it had a plastic look to it. Not a complete success, but still not half bad either. “This isn't completely hopeless.” Fae commented to the person beside her. “How is your luck?”
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Fae Sinclair, Crotalus
Sonic is cuter than I thought.
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Fae Sinclair, Crotalus
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Russell Layne, Aladren
October 18, 2012 5:42 PM
Always better to be pleasantly surprised. by Russell Layne, Aladren
The first few days back always, it seemed, brought changes with them now that they were all getting older. So far, by and large, it wasn’t a phenomenon Russell enjoyed as much anymore as he had when it started and the big change had been that they had moved into a new, more challenging set of classes. Now, it seemed that things were just getting knottier for the lot of them by the year, and more and more it was in ways which threatened to upset the delicate balance which allowed a group of strong, ambitious personalities to peacefully cohabitate while they worked to get through school and get on with their ambitions without getting institutionalized or imprisoned. Last year, after all, the big splash had been Josh’s arrival in the dorm, and all the issues with adjusting that had caused for everyone, and this year, there were two big changes: first, Russell had become prefect, and then he had found out that Arnold was engaged to Fae Sinclair, though he thought the rest of the group had already known all about that, making it a surprise only for him.In a way, he found that situation less weird than Preston starting to date Sara last year – rich people just did what Arnold and Fae’s parents had, where Preston had just decided to go be weird with an older girl on his own account – but he was hardly bursting to congratulate them, because for him, it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Arnold had always been the one Russell had considered least part of the rich boys’ clique, the one who was least likely to see Russell as an obstacle to himself, and now he was marrying Preston’s girlfriend’s best friend. He was tied more firmly to the group now, which, in Russell’s opinion, made it much less likely than the socially odd-roommate-out had a shot at Head Boy and much more likely that he could potentially get run over in some way.
There wasn’t much he could do about it but hope that Alicia became prefect in two years or, failing that, that he was wrong and that no one was even going to attempt anything political until they were all out of school, but when he noticed he was sitting next to Fae, it made him think of it. He smiled at her briefly as he nodded in greeting and began taking notes on animate transfigurations, liking the new professor’s explanation of it. He was sure it got much more complicated than that, but he thought he was getting the gist, anyway, of what she was saying.
Even with that, he didn’t expect to have a very easy time turning a hairbrush into a hedgehog. He was okay at Transfiguration magic, not exceptional, and it took time and study for him to get a good grip on things and get them to do what he wanted, especially in the beginning of the year, when he hadn’t, thanks to his parents being strictly in favor of the letter of the law being followed in their house, had many chances to do magic for several months. Getting a plain hairbrush, he turned it over in his hand a few times, learning the look of it, and then placed it bristle-side up on the desk in front of him to help with imagining the hedgehog, with its spiny back.
“Erinaceinae,” he said, focusing on the mental image of one of the little animals on some of the other desks.
The back of the hairbrush bent upward, at first just in the center, then more into an even curve, and the front end extended into something like a nose-shape, but the handle was still clearly visible. Looking at it with interest, Russell’s best guess was that Professor Skies’ example had still had a handle, at first, and he’d somehow gotten that stuck in his head without even realizing it. He shook his head slightly, looking at it.
Just then, Fae spoke about her own example. “About the same, I guess,” he said, indicating his now very strange-looking hairbrush. “Looks like your luck was a little better, though,” he added cheerfully. “Good job.”
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Russell Layne, Aladren
Always better to be pleasantly surprised.
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Russell Layne, Aladren
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