The pencil or the pocket kite? on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

March 31, 2015 2:23 PM

Beginners - you spin me right round by Professor Skies

Professor Skies tried to take things relatively easy on the beginners class. They had a lot learn, certainly, but many of them were dealing with being away from home for the first time, or still coming to terms with the existence of magic if they were Muggleborn. She had not overburdened them with a lot of holiday homework. Now they were into the second half of the year, the pace had increased slightly but hopefully everyone now had the basics down, and anyone having a full on psychological meltdown about any of the other issues had been noticed and assisted.

“Good morning,” she greeted, once they had all taken their seats. Now that they were well acquainted with the school building, being unpunctual was not given a lot of lenience without very good excuse.

“Today, you will all be drawing up your own tables. Once you have finished coming up with the categories and filling them in, I would like you to compare with your neighbours for similarities and differences.” The Transfiguration tables should, by now, have been very familiar to all the students, but they were only a means to an end - that of good, internal visualisation skills. She did not want the students to drift onto auto-pilot and stop noticing what areas warranted their focus.

“Even if you end up partnering someone doing a different Transfiguration to you, you can still benefit from seeing areas they remembered that you may have missed, or different ways that they interpret and visualise their subject that may give you ideas for your own.

“Today, you will be making pinwheels,” she held up an example of the simple children’s toy, in case anyone was unfamiliar with it. “Can anyone think why this might present an extra challenge compared to some of your previous projects?” she queried, calling on someone who volunteered.

“You are welcome to take either a pencil or a pocket kite to start. There are some theories to support either of these being the easier, and some of it may depend on your personal thinking and learning styles. Please read the chapter in your books entitled ‘Semantic and phonological links in Transfiguration’ for homework and answer the questions on this worksheet” she explained, a stack of papers making their way around the room “You may also wish to use the information you learn when you reflect in your journal,” Selina encouraged all students to keep a journal of their class activities, in which they could describe anything they noticed about casting spells. Whilst Transfiguration was much more by the book than Charms, which allowed for personal flair, there would still be particular strengths and weaknesses in every individual - certain wand movements they found easier or harder, ways of visualising that worked best for them… The journal helped them keep track, to try to analyse what specific things they had been doing when something had gone right (or wrong) in order to recreate those conditions (or avoid them) as best as possible in the future.

“It’s an unusual spell, as it has German instead of Latinate origins, and as part of your homework, I’d like you to find two more spells commonly used in the Western world with non-Latin origins. The spell is Virfla. It evolves from the thoroughly unpronounceable Hvirfla.> Although the ‘h’ has been dropped in the in my experience, making the ‘v’ as aitch-like and breathy as possible improves the results. You will need to use a quick, spiralling wand motion, like so,” she demonstrated with a quill on her desk, holding up a nice blue and yellow pinwheel, in honour of her former school house at Salem.

“You may begin.”

OOC - the usual drill applies. Points for creativity, length and relevance. Minimum 200 words. Apparently, a pinwheel is also a firework, so to clarify, I am talking about this, which I would call a windmill.

Subthreads:

Not as stupid as I think. by Caelia Lucan, Crotalus with Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

The pencil or the pocket kite? by Joella Curtis, Pecari with John Umland, Aladren

13 Professor Skies Beginners - you spin me right round 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Caelia Lucan, Crotalus

April 02, 2015 12:36 AM

Not as stupid as I think. by Caelia Lucan, Crotalus

Caelia’s Transfiguration journal sucked. She was the first person to admit this. It was a mess of misspelled words and awkward sentences. She just simply did not have the patience nor the will to take the time to write properly. Many of her pages were crossed out and written over in black ink by Emrys who disapproved of her choice of writing in purple or pink ink. In contrast to her jumbled journal, however, Caelia’s Transfiguration tables were always very detailed. Ever since her first big success in the class where she had carefully written out a very detailed table and gotten the spell nearly perfect on her first go-around she had been sure to do the same for every spell since then. Caelia did not want to take any chances to see if the result had been because of her own magical ability or because of the table she had created.

Thus, Skies instructions that they were to make their own tables that day was not too daunting of a task. By now even Caelia had figured out the basic workings of a Transfiguration table and she set herself to work almost immediately, carefully drawing the lines in and labeling the columns. She was not a particularly innovative sort of witch and thus her table looked similar to one that Skies had given them. However, Emrys had given her a few pointers on what else to include when she was thinking about her transfigurations and since then her accuracy had been getting better and better.

Pleased with herself, she added Emrys’ ideas to the table, started with texture. Once she was certain she had completed her table properly, writing “Virfla: pencil/pocket kite -> pin-wheel” in clear letters at the top, she found someone who seemed to have finished their table already and was transfiguring the same object as she was. “Hi,” she said with a big smile. By now she knew all of her classmates’ names Muggleborns and purebloods alike—for someone who had a hard time remembering texts and lessons, she had perfected the art of knowing who was who simply because her grandmother had told her that was the mark of a well-trained lady. “Would you like to work with me?”

Whether or not her potential partner was a Muggleborn or pureblood didn’t really matter to Caelia—at least, only slightly. Though she would have preferred to work with a pureblood, she understood that it was imperative she treat all her classmates equally, because the way the world seemed to be working, one day a Muggleborn might become Minister of Magic. The thought made Caelia shudder slightly but Grandmother had said that was the truth of the matter and a smart individual would be aware of how she treated her peers so she didn’t end up on the wrong side of someone. In reality, this sort of logic was confusing to Caelia but she had been trained to listen to everything Grandmother and Grandfather said so she was used to not understanding the reasoning behind why she was supposed to and not supposed to do something.

She swung the pocket kite gently from her fingers as she waited for the response. She couldn’t wait to transfigure the pretty green meadow patterned kite into a light pink and white pin wheel!

10 Caelia Lucan, Crotalus Not as stupid as I think. 307 Caelia Lucan, Crotalus 0 5

Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

April 09, 2015 1:19 AM

There are worse things to be. by Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

Though schoolwork was hardly her top priority in life, Kelsey made sure to do everything she could to become a capable witch. It wasn't about being the very best, though she did have to be superior to the non-purebloods. Well, she was, but Kelsey would never let them do better than her at spells, especially Transfiguration. If the Aladren boys or even Caelia showed her up,it was one thing, but the idea of Muggleborns or half-bloods beating her was not an option. Not that Kelsey would ever know anyone's grades but her own as it was extremely rude to ask, but well, you could see how well someone performed a charm or transfiguration.

It was more that she couldn't bear the thought of not being able to manage the simplest spell or potion. The main reason why wizards were superior to Muggles was that they could do things that Muggles couldn't. Not to mention having class, elegance, dignity and manners. The non-purebloods in her class had certainly done nothing to help Kelsey think otherwise. It was as if they didn't even care to try . Hopefully, in time, they would follow the example of herself and other proper purebloods and act...more presentable. So long as they stayed in their proper places, of course.

Her Transfiguration journal was filled with detailed entries of everything that happened in class every day academically. Kelsey felt this was a valuable activity. Not only did it help with the class itself, but she also got to practice her penmanship. Which was already remarkable, but it was good to keep up one's skills. A proper lady could never have poor penmanship.

Quickly-but still neatly-the first year drew up her Transfiguration table. She didn't know if she really needed one, but that was what she was required to do. Kelsey chose to write about the shoelace and ribbon transfiguration that they'd done earlier in the year. It had not taken her too much time to get it.

After she was finished, she took a light purple pocket kite and set upon looking for a partner. Preferably a pureblood one. Fortunately, Kelsey didn't have to wait long before her roommate asked her to partner. "Certainly." She smiled. It would be nice to have a friend and Caelia was definitely someone whom she could be friends with. It was a waste of time to work with someone who wasn't.

11 Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus There are worse things to be. 305 Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus 0 5

Joella Curtis, Pecari

April 09, 2015 7:54 AM

The pencil or the pocket kite? by Joella Curtis, Pecari

Joella had never been particularly fond of Transfiguration, a subject which she wholly agreed was the most difficult taught at Sonora. So far this year, however, she considered the subject an improvement on the previous year. Now that she was much more confident using her wand, she had discovered far better results in lessons than before. Even so, she could still never bring herself to feel enthusiastic about the class. Whilst being in second year meant the young Pecari had a whole year's worth more experience than the current first years, it also meant she was often expected to do harder things yet still get a better outcome.

The second year Pecari ideally liked her work to be neat but in reality she frequently let the aesthetics slide because achieving the desired orderliness always seemed to take her a long time. Nevertheless, Joella did as Professor Skies instructed and drew up her table, doing her best to keep it looking fairly tidy as she labelled the columns.

Joella's journal was also rather similar and very varied as she went through focussed phases of scribbling down lots of notes and then there were other lessons where she simply couldn't be bothered to write too much. If ever the latter was the case, however, the twelve year old would always find herself regretting her lack of notes later as she found on numerous occasions that it was helpful to look back at past results and observations.

It wasn't obvious to Joella which was easier to transform into a pinwheel between a pencil and a pocket kite but Professor Skies didn't seem to think there was a significant difference so the second year simply selected a pocket kite before allowing herself too much time to be indecisive. Joella turned to the nearest person to her. "Hey, would you like to be my partner?" she smiled. She was never fussy about who she worked with and simply wanted to get to know as many people as she could.

8 Joella Curtis, Pecari The pencil or the pocket kite? 295 Joella Curtis, Pecari 0 5

John Umland, Aladren

April 15, 2015 5:15 PM

Have you tried flipping a coin? by John Umland, Aladren

Because the pinwheel is a composite object, thought John Umland when Professor Skies asked why a pinwheel might be a more difficult end goal than some they’d had in Transfiguration and he raised his hand to answer. It’s at least two joined pieces, but probably even more. You’re Transfiguring something into a more complex item, one with multiple pieces – if it’s all welded together in a lump, it won’t spin, and if it won’t spin, you fail.

What he said when called upon was, “It, er – parts.” His hands, he noticed with irritation, were trying to talk for him again, one making a circular movement in the air as though to spin the wheel Professor Skies held, far out of his arm’s reach, in her hands. “Moving parts. The wheel and the stick – that’s two pieces, anyway, and ah, a pin’s, a pin’s three, so, that’s harder, right?”

Sometimes, he could get a thought to sound almost as good on paper as it did in his head, but it only worked in speech when he was lecturing, something he couldn’t quite do when speaking to someone he was confident knew more about the topic than he did. Since he was pretty sure Professor Skies was just smarter than he was all-around, his answers to her were often slow and clumsy, which frustrated and embarrassed him, which just made it even more difficult to speak smoothly. Flushing, he resolved, not for the first time, to stop answering questions in this class.

Reading the worksheet brought some details of the homework chapter, which he’d read during his summer textbook read-through but hadn’t spent a lot of time with since, back to him, but he didn’t think the questions or the details were going to help much with deciding what to Transfigure. ‘Pencil’ and ‘pinwheel’ felt like the ‘closer’ pair of words to him, but he thought the pocket kite might be the easier object to work with. Both pencil and pocket kite were composite objects, but it was easier for him to see the kite as composite, to make the link between a kite flying and a pinwheel spinning – they both relied on air to move – and to picture the air-catching parts of the kite compressing into a pinwheel than it was to picture the eraser of the pencil fanning out into a wheel or the metal band currently holding the eraser in place becoming the pin the wheel turned on. He’d choose the pencil; there were times to start with something easier and progress to something harder, but this time, he thought he’d just waste time if he did.

Thinking about the unusual spell word was also a waste of time, but it felt like less of one even though he’d only ever learned about ten words of German, all memorized a couple of years ago from a list of conversational terms meant for tourists. He’d practiced them some with a portrait on the second floor who he’d met last year and who only seemed to speak German, but from the way she laughed at him, he was pretty sure he hadn't gotten them quite right and none of them, as far as he could remember, included any elements that could help him figure out how the unpronounceable original translated and how it had turned into the vaguely Latin-sounding spell they were learning, anyway. There might be a German-to-English dictionary in the library, and pestering one of his brothers to look it up for him back home was always an option if he really decided he needed to know that badly, but he’d probably have to wait until he went home for Easter to sort it out.

For now, he thought he could work with it even with the wrong association in his head. He was a little afraid of somehow ending up with a mandrake-shaped pinwheel (pinwheels looked a bit like flowers, mandrakes were supposed to be man-shaped plants, he heard a Latin root word meaning ‘man’ in the spell whether it was supposed to be there or not, one association could lead to another) but he guessed the details hadn’t been specified. As long as it would spin quickly in a small breeze. As a point of pride, though, he was going to try very hard to make it come out right. He only had a few months left before he would be in the Intermediate classes and wanted to improve the consistency of his wandwork before he got to them, both because it meant the teachers might let him do more interesting work every now and then and because most of the rest of the Quidditch team would also be there and he was not eager to lose whatever bits of respect the guys might have for him, which was a stupid thing to care about but something he cared about anyway. Accordingly, when they were set to work, he started drawing his chart - which had slowly, over the course of the year, drifted into something closer to a set of lists – up carefully.

Size:
· Pencil < Pinwheel.
· Pw stick longer, wider at one end, more stuff all around.

Shape:
· Pencil: hexagonal body, round eraser. Both close to same diameter.
· Pinwheel: Round, smooth stick. Wider round top (3D circle)
· Pencil-eraser: joined

John hesitated for a moment, trying to remember if he had ever known the word he was looking for; he thought he should, but it wouldn’t come to him. Grimacing, he continued together smooth – all point in the same direction. Pinwheel parts: wheel attached to side of stick, not top.

Colour:
· Pencil: orange. Silver metal. Red eraser. Gray graphite.
· Pinwheel: Blue and green.

Materials:
· Pencil: wood, graphite, silvery metal, rubber stuff?
· Wheel: Plastics, foil?

He wanted to go into more detail, but since they had to trade papers before they could start working, he left his folder full of outside notes in his bag and put down his pen. He blinked, only a little vaguely, at Joella Curtis when she offered partnership, then at the pocket kite in her hand. “Sure,” he said. He glanced over his paper, but saw only one, probably easy-to-decipher, abbreviation, and his handwriting was clear. Old-fashioned, he’d been told, but clear. The sentences were terrible but he hadn't aimed for propriety in that and doubted many others had. Satisfied, he pushed the paper toward her. “Interesting to compare notes. Do you picture how yours will change along the way, or just the end - what you want to end up with?”

16 John Umland, Aladren Have you tried flipping a coin? 285 John Umland, Aladren 0 5

Caelia Lucan

May 03, 2015 4:02 AM

An awful abuser of fuzzy-time might be one of them. by Caelia Lucan

Growing up, Caelia hadn’t had another girl to share things with. For the most part she had played with Emrys and the neighbor boy, Matthew, but Emrys had Wesley and when Matthew’s letter never arrived—surprising and disappointing his parents, she came to learn he wasn’t proper company to be keeping. But boys aside, there was her mother, of course, but as Caelia got older she found herself getting more and more frustrated with her lackadaisical attitude and the less than serious way she took the invasion of Muggles and Muggleborns into the Wizarding World. And this, of course, forced her to grow closer to Grandmother Viviane who, though a delightfully proper witch, was also much too old for Caelia to relate to on a more friendly level. So she had been extremely excited to start Sonora and start making friends with other witches, other proper witches.

Before attending, she had filled her mind with all sorts of ideas of what it would be like to be amongst her kind but the reality when she got there was different. Sonora was bustling and full of the Wrong Sort. And the chaos of classes and trying to keep on top of her lessons kept her from doing what she really wanted to be doing—making friends and connections and doing fun things. Already she had befriended one of the Crotalus wizards, Alistair Johnson, but he was only a boy and while Caelia was proud of herself for making friends with the Right Sort of wizard, it also wasn’t something she would have to worry about until later down the line. Currently, she had her mind set of making a really good, of the Right Sort, girlfriend.

Whenever she expressed this idea to Emrys he nodded primly and cast his eyes downward, avoiding eye contact when she mentioned that someone like Charlotte was exactly the sort of person she hoped to befriend—pretty, with a good name, and accomplished in all manner of things. She figured this was probably because at the end of explaining this she always would nudge him a bit, but she also thought this was only a small part of it. Her brother had gotten rather serious that year, focusing more on his studies than she had ever seen him before in her life. The upside of that was he was too preoccupied to tell her to be more welcoming and open minded towards all sorts of classmates. The downside was that his new obsession with school work meant he wanted her to work harder on her schoolwork too.

However, when Caelia was in her beginner’s lessons, Emrys was nowhere to be found and as such he had very little say in what she did in the classroom. So, allowed this little freedom, Caelia would try to choose the Right Sort of person to partner up with rather than try and find the sort of person who knew what they were doing. So, she was pleased when Kelsey accepted her offer to work together. Befriending her roommate, a proper pureblood, would please her grandmother to no ends, and it would be nice to have some comradery in the Crotalus Commons—by now Caelia had realized that Kelsey and herself were the only two female Crotalus first years. She smoothed out her dress and sat up straighter almost unconsciously. “Would you like to begin first or shall I?” she asked, looking back towards her own pocket kite, fingers itching to try since for once she was excelling in school, however politesse for the sake of it won out and she waited for Kelsey’s response.

10 Caelia Lucan An awful abuser of fuzzy-time might be one of them. 307 Caelia Lucan 0 5