I prefer flowers, really. on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

September 01, 2013 9:22 AM

Beginners - I had a lovely bunch of coconuts by Professor Skies

Classes were about learning, first and foremost. If she could make them fun on top of that, Professor Skies liked to do so. She also liked to tie classes in to the end of term events, and so was rather pleased with her revision lesson for today. Or would have been, had it been going to plan. She had planned to use the Mirage Chamber, to get a real fun fair feel but something seemed... wrong with it. Its images had been faded and sad looking, and more than once had flickered out entirely, leaving her in a blank room. Her students, who had been expecting to meet her there, had been sent a message during the Care of Magical Creatures class, informing them that this would no longer be the case, and she had also asked Tavarius Mimms, the portrait guardian of the chamber, to send along any strays who had somehow missed the memo.

“Good morning,” she greeted the class, “I am very sorry for our slight change of plans today. There seems to be a fault with the Mirage Chamber,” she explained, making a mental note to speak to the headmistress about it. The end of term reward for the house cup would be rather lack lustre if the room was blank.

“However, I've done my best to improvise what we would have had,” she nodded to the back of the room, where several metal poles were topped with any number of odd objects. Behind them hung a colourful stripy cloth. On her own desk, at the front of the room, was a little pile of white balls.

“For our class today, I've made up a coconut shy, though I'm sure you can all spot the major flaw with it at the moment. All the objects on it have been partially transfigured,” she had made sure to leave at least a little coconut in all of them. The class had covered reverting their own objects back to their starting form, but untransfigurating someone else's spells, once they were fully complete, was a much more complicated process, which they would only come onto much later in life.

“I would like you all to use Reparifarge, to return the object to a coconut, then work out what spell would have been used on it. Every coconut that has been successfully repaired and had its spell identified will go back on the shy and we will spend the last ten minutes of the lesson using it as it is intended,” she smiled. “There are enough ex-coconuts for one each, though you may discuss your work quietly with a neighbour if you wish, or see me if you're really stuck. Please begin.”

OOC – posts will be marked on length, creativity, realism and relevance, and must be a minimum of 200 words.

Subthreads:

I prefer flowers, really. by Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus with Emrys Lucan, Aladren

I never would have guessed. by Leo Princeton, Crotalus with Eleanor Vandenberg - Crotalus, Leo

0 Professor Skies Beginners - I had a lovely bunch of coconuts 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus

September 03, 2013 7:22 PM

I prefer flowers, really. by Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus

It was very difficult for Charlotte to choose a favourite class, but she did enjoy what she was learning. Not all of it would be applicable as a housewife, but the household spells they were learning would come in handy. She hadn't learnt much in Transfiguration that her mother used often while entertaining guests or working with the family's finances, but it was good enough and Adam enjoyed the class. Charlotte thought she ought to too, or at least try to enjoy it.

She had been looking forward to seeing the Mirage Chamber, having been there once before with her Potions class. Alas, it was not meant to be and she went dutifully to the Transfiguration classroom instead. It had been good of Professor Skies to send them a note during COMC.

She sat down at an empty table, being early, and set out her materials for class. Charlotte was looking forward to the term ending and going through the fair either with Emrys or her brother. Or both, if she was lucky. But Adam had his booth which she wouldn't mind loitering about if his booth helper didn't mind. But she was especially looking forward to seeing her painting put up in the Art Club booth. She had worked on it for the past two terms with the Art Club and it had been loads of fun and hard work. Charlotte was afraid of any negative reactions, but she was glad she had been brave enough to put her work out there in the first place. Maybe Evan could tell her how their peers had liked it afterwards.

However, she still had to finish this term off strong and in this class it was by reverting half-finished coconuts back to their original form. Charlotte was impressed with Professor Skies's efficiency in creating an entirely new lesson with the chamber not working. She went up and picked out a coconut that seemed to desire to be a globe of the earth. She spotted Africa and the European continent as well as Russia and Asia, but she was quite sure Antarctica did not run from the bottom of the world to completely covering the Americas before turning into a brown husk at the North Pole. But the map of Europe reminded her of home and she missed it terribly.

The pang of not being at home had hit her incredibly hard two weeks ago with her birthday. It was her first birthday away from home and she had cried. Adam had done his best to make it a wonderful day for her, but it was hopeless. It wasn't the same without her parents and her younger siblings to celebrate it with her. But time continued and Charlotte hoped it went by faster so she could see her parents again and get a proper cake and the birthday kisses she had missed.

Charlotte set the object in front of her and tried to remember what they had learnt the day before. Turning fully transfigured objects back into their original form would be difficult, but half-transfigured objects didn't seem quite as daunting a task for a first year. "Reparifarge," she said, tapping her wand against the top of her former coconut. The coconut bit of the mutation grew out a bit more and the husk where she had tapped her wand grew darker, but the globe did not disappear. She tapped her wand against it again. "Reparifarge." The husk grew all along the coconut skin, successfully turning the Americas, Greenland and the Arctic and Pacific Oceans into half a coconut.

0 Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus I prefer flowers, really. 0 Charlotte Spencer, Crotalus 0 5

Leo Princeton, Crotalus

September 10, 2013 11:56 AM

I never would have guessed. by Leo Princeton, Crotalus

It was rare that Leo had ever made it to class early. He was always barely on time, right before the particularly punctually-obsessed professors shut the door at the strike of the hour. This time around, despite the warning during COMC which Leo had hardly paid any attention to, he made his way to the Mirage Chamber. The portrait of the old wizard Leo didn’t care about directed him back to the classroom and Leo dragged his feet all the way there. He was at least ten minutes late, having had to make his way to Transfiguration from the dining hall, but he was there. Being so late made Leo contemplate skipping the class entirely, but it wouldn’t look good on his record and he was certain one of his mates or cousins would miss him and tell on him.

There was a spot in the back of the classroom as if it were there waiting just for him and Leo took his regular seat with a sigh. The coconuts were rather strange-looking, but Leo didn’t say anything. How did one make a coconut feel shy? Coconuts were inanimate objects. He rolled his eyes at that, but he made sure to close his eyelids so no one else could see his exasperation. If the professor caught him, he would be on her bad side indefinitely and he didn’t want that.

These mutated coconuts were supposed to be returned to their natural state and Leo simply stood up and went to pick one up himself. He wasn’t particularly pleased to have joined in time to catch the end of the Professor’s lecture, but at least he knew what he was doing. Leo took a seat once more and stared at what looked like a stick protruding out of the coconut’s body. What would it look like if this had been a creature the professor had partially transfigured? Animal transfiguration was tricky work and Leo didn’t think he wanted to see what a partially transfigured bird might look like or something.

Leo held the coconut by the stick protruding out of it and hit the round end on the table. It made a loud, hollow sound and Leo grinned. It would make for an entertaining beating bat with the bludger on the stick. He still had it out for Carter Browning; Leo wanted to beat him with this stick without mercy after Carter had thrown that blooming Quaffle right into Leo’s precious mouth. It had been healed easily, of course, but that didn’t soften the mental blow any more. Leo had wondered if Viktor was up for any revenge on that certain wizard, but hadn’t spoken to him about it. They would make a good team, he and Viktor; Leo would obviously be the manipulator and Viktor could be the body of it all. Though Leo did not hold grudges often, he never forgot one when it formed. That was part of the reason why he was still not speaking to his oldest brother.

“Reparifarge,” said Leo with a wave of his wand, interested in seeing it return to its original state. Had Professor Skies said it was a coconut being transfigured or that the coconut was the original state? Leo couldn’t remember, but he supposed it didn’t matter if he could get it right. He tapped the coconut with his wand once more and said, “Reparifarge.” The second try made the stick shrivel a bit more and lower itself into the round object at the bottom, making it obvious that its original form had been a coconut. “How many times am I supposed to be doing this?”asked Leo impatiently. “Reparifarge.” The coconut grew in size and the stick shrank a bit more, but it didn’t seem to be responding very positively to Leo’s spell. Either that or Leo wasn’t concentrating hard enough. “I was hoping we’d be doing something a bit more fun today,” he commented to his neighbour.

0 Leo Princeton, Crotalus I never would have guessed. 0 Leo Princeton, Crotalus 0 5

Eleanor Vandenberg - Crotalus

September 13, 2013 1:47 AM

Would you give me coconuts if I asked? by Eleanor Vandenberg - Crotalus

"Finally," was what Nellie exclaimed as soon as she saw Leo. He usually took a seat in the back and Nellie, while she tried not to follow his poor example at school, did try to sit back there with him in certain classes where they usually did individual practical work. She was a little disappointed they weren't in the Mirage Chamber because she really wanted to see it, but it wouldn't be a catastrophe if she got to sit next to Leo in the classroom. She had tried her best not to smother him, but she did do her best to sit by him during dinners in Cascade Hall and talk to him whenever she saw him. She was even thinking of asking him to accompany her to the library one day to study, but she wasn't sure that would go very well since he didn't seem to be very studious in general.

She held her breath when she saw him come in and lo and behold! For once, when he came in late, the empty seat in the back was beside her and he went and sat down next to her. He wasn't paying nearly enough attention to her as he should. They had grown up as friends; they should be on their path to getting married in the future, right? Nellie thought so anyway. She paid attention in class and wrote down the notes she probably needed. There were two objectives to her coming to Sonora and one big one was to do well in school. She did not want to be some idiotic trophy wife to Leo someday.

Nell wanted to ask Leo to get a half-transfigured coconut for her, but he left before the words could leave her mouth. She just followed him and grabbed an object for herself. She could figure out what it was, maybe, while she was talking to Leo and doing the spell herself. While she wanted to show off, she didn't want to show off too much and discourage him. From what Nellie knew, Leo wasn't a genius when it came to wandwork, but that was okay.

Leo finally talked to her after a few of his unsuccessful tries. Nellie had done really well in not progressing too quickly on her repairing. It was a hard spell especially since she couldn't tell what her coconut's original shape was, but she looked immediately when Leo spoke. She always dressed to impress and she was especially glad that she had worn her favorite salmon-colored dress today. She had on sweater tights, of course, or else her legs would freeze in the cold. Though she liked looking pretty, she wasn't crazy enough to dress up so much that she would sacrifice her own health. Her parents, both of them being healers, were sticklers when it came to staying healthy.

"At least you got that part to shrink," she said helpfully. "I know, I wish we were doing something a little more interesting too. I was hoping we'd get to go to the Mirage Chamber. Did you go there first? Was that why you were late?" There were many reasons why Leo could have been late, but she wanted to think that he had made an honest mistake.

0 Eleanor Vandenberg - Crotalus Would you give me coconuts if I asked? 0 Eleanor Vandenberg - Crotalus 0 5

Leo

September 15, 2013 2:27 PM

...sorry? by Leo

It was somewhat unfortunate that the only empty was next to Eleanor, but that’s what he had to deal with when he came late. They were friends, of course, good friends, but she had been his only friend growing up. He wanted to branch out from that and make other friends. It was difficult making new friends if the old one was insistent on sticking to him like glue. He had seen her often talking to other people and he was glad for her. If only she would leave him alone at the very least for one entire day he would be fine. She was nice enough to do things for him and Leo liked to use that to his advantage. She was much smarter than him and quicker to understand these sorts of things than he.

Eleanor predictably asked about his tardiness and he told her, “Yeah, that’s it. I went to the chamber and dragged my feet here.” One of the good things about her was, since she knew him so well, she didn’t judge him when he told her the truth about things. She simply accepted it as it were and supported him while she could.

Her little comment about his transfiguration work wasn’t very encouraging, but he accepted it anyhow. “I asked Mum to send me back to Sonora with the cat this term, you know, since Bonnie likes me better than her, but she wouldn’t go for it. Can’t trust me, she says. She’s got her other cat to keep her company; I don’t know why she wants to keep mine.” Leo tapped the mutated coconut with his wand aimlessly. “I sort of wanted to sic Bonnie on Browning and see what happened. Think I could’ve charmed her?” With Leo’s wandwork currently, there was a very little chance he could charm his cat to do anything.

Leo had told Nell about the Quidditch match and his blood-thirsty desire to see Carter Browning injured, but that was about the extent of it. Leo told her most everything since she bothered to listen to him and since they were such good friends. “Aren’t you cold?” he asked in disbelief. Witches were strange and Leo had always thought so; why would anyone wear a dress in the winter? Nellie wasn’t even the only one. He had seen loads of witches dress up in the winters with stockings and dresses as if it were summer.

Leo didn’t understand witches and he didn’t even bother trying. They were simply there to look pretty and cater to his needs and feed him and care for babies and animals and whatnot. That’s not exactly what his mum was like, but she was apparently a rare breed. He hadn’t met a witch his age as snarky as his mum yet.

0 Leo ...sorry? 0 Leo 0 5

Emrys Lucan, Aladren

September 23, 2013 11:20 PM

Flowers are nice, I don't much like the taste of coconuts by Emrys Lucan, Aladren

When Emrys walked in the Transfiguration room after COMC, he found that Charlotte was already there and all set up. He smiled to himself and, after having run a hand through his hair quickly to see if it was alright (why he did that, he did not know), he made his way over to the seat next to her. "Hi, Charlotte," he said. "How are you doing?" The rest of the class was still filing in, so he figured that they probably had a little time to chat before Professor Skies started talking. He was really excited that his friendship with Charlotte had taken off so, it was nice to have someone else his age to talk to who liked music as much as he did- it made him feel less awkward. He was even feeling ready enough to try and talk to his roommate, Emery again, though he did think that perhaps starting to talk again after nearly a year would be awkward, it was better late than never. Besides, it was kind of weird to live with he guy and never really even talk to him. And though he did like Charlotte's company immensely, sometimes he wondered what it would be like to be friends with another boy.

Emrys listened attentively while Professor Skies introduced the lesson, he figured that he should considering that Charlotte seemed to be doing the same thing. He followed her up to the coconut shy to pick out a former coconut to work on and after her pick of a globe, he considered his options. If he chose one that had a more round shape, it would be easier for him to complete the transformation. But, if he picked something that was slightly less round in shape, while it would be difficult, it would really test his abilities and make him try harder for the grade. He decided to choose an object that was less coconut-y in shape and found exactly what he wanted, a dinner plate. While it was still round, it was also flattened which was the part that posed the problem. In addition, it was dark brown and the underside had bits of husk throughout it so that Emrys could tell that it had once been a coconut. He lifted the plate into his hands and then walked back with his prize to his and Charlotte's table.

He saw that Charlotte had immediately started to work so he got out his wand to and began the process. "Reparifarge," he pronounced carefully as he tapped his wand on the plate. While the plate's appearance did not change on the side that was facing up, he reached out his hand to check the bottom side. Indeed, the bottom half of the plate was entirely the husk of the coconut. Emrys was pleased. "Reparifarge," he said again, though he rushed the end. Instead of turning into a coconut like Charlotte's had after the second try, his flattened half plate turned into a half coconut, half porcelain ball that nearly rolled off the table. Luckily though, he caught it with his hand and pushed it back in front of him. "Reparifarge," he said one more time as clearly as he could and to his delight, there was now a coconut sitting in front of him. He turned to Charlotte. "I'm glad that I finished," he said. "Though, I don't think I particularly want to eat it. I have never really enjoyed the taste of coconut."

OOC: I replied to your post in MARS too, sorry it took so long!

10 Emrys Lucan, Aladren Flowers are nice, I don't much like the taste of coconuts 260 Emrys Lucan, Aladren 0 5