Beginners - I feel pretty, oh so pretty on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

July 24, 2016 12:33 AM

Beginners - I feel pretty, oh so pretty by Professor Skies

“Good morning,” Selina greeted the beginners class. “Today, we’re going to be focussing on a slightly different element of Transfiguration - design.” The design lesson was a key one, that usually cropped up somewhere in the second term, once students had enough of the basics under their belts to be getting some consistent results.

“Whilst exams may seem a long way away, a common way of differentiating grade levels in Transfiguration tests is not only completeness of the finished project but detail. Essentially, the more ornate you make the finished product, the higher your grade. We will therefore spend certain lessons throughout your time in this class focussing on spells you’ve previously achieved but adding more in the design element. That’s not to say you shouldn’t strive for it the rest of the time - I would always encourage you to aim for something above the plain and the ordinary, even if it’s just changing the basic colour of your object, and to stretch yourself when trying new spells. However, from time to time, we will pause and make that our soul focus.

“Today, we will be revisiting the crayons or pencils into candles that we did last term. I would like all first years to use crayons, and any second years who feel uncertain about this spell, as the point today is to make your objects beautiful, not to stretch yourself in terms of your ability to change the raw materials,” in truth, she would be a little concerned about any second years who opted for the easy project this far into the term, and would be making a note to give them some extra attention before the end of term.

“The spell, as you know from last time, is candere - remember to pronounce that final ‘e’,” she added, in case the students had been skimming their old notes without calling the details to mind. Hopefully they were getting better at realising that spell words didn’t always follow the normal rules of English, but she felt it prudent to remind them, “With a sharp straight flick of the wand.

“You may use whatever means you like to help you prepare for the spell. Transfiguration tables may be useful, although they tend to focus on material properties. Some people find sketching out their ideas helpful. As always, the key is good visualisation, so do whatever helps you to achieve that.

“You may talk quietly amongst yourselves. Please begin.”

OOC - points will be awarded based on length, creativity, relevance and realism. As noted in the lesson, this is a spell your character should be familiar with, and able to achieve the basics with relative ease.

Subthreads:

Do I have to? by Gabriel Valenti, Teppenpaw

Surreptitious note-passing. by Lily Spencer, Pecari

Appearances are everything (Tag - Natalie) by Arianna Valenti, Aladren with Natalie Varth, Tepp

Less Surreptitious Candle Passing by Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw with Madeleine Dautin, Aladren

This is not my subject by Ben Pierce

13 Professor Skies Beginners - I feel pretty, oh so pretty 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Gabriel Valenti, Teppenpaw

July 25, 2016 7:45 PM

Do I have to? by Gabriel Valenti, Teppenpaw

Gabe entered the classroom with a lot on his mind, which was usually not an ideal state for him. Over the break, he’d gone to buy his dress robes. Ma had wanted to wait until this break, just in case Gabe’s growth spurt decided to kick in this year (it hadn’t). Dad had made it into a full day event, with Gabe, Dad, and his older brother Mattie (just Matt now, to his tenth grade peers) going into Manhattan for the day.

Before going to dinner and a Rangers game, they’d made a stop in one of the magical neighborhoods of the city, and gone into one of the shops. The second year had never been bothered by running magic errands with his non-magical family. He was the baby of the family, the youngest of the Valenti siblings, but still, it did not feel very strange to be the only one who could see the entryway to the magical street, the one who had to lead the way. In the shop, he noticed the sales ladies giving the Valentis strange looks, unaccustomed to patrons wearing hockey jerseys. He kindly assumed that they just didn't know who the New York Rangers were. It was weird to see Dad unsure of himself, asking for advice on what Gabe should wear, as Mattie ran around trying on silly hats, but it was fun.

No, the only truly, seriously uncomfortable part of the whole affair had been when Mattie had teased Gabe over who he was going to take to the Ball. To be honest, the younger brother had never even thought about it. He had simply assumed he would hang out with his friends - Nat, Joe and Ben, most likely, maybe Ari too - and they would goof around and nothing would be particularly different from normal, save that they would be wearing silly outfits.

Was he expected to ask someone? He didn't know, he had never attended a ball before, least of all a magical one. If he asked out a girl, did that mean that they, well, like-liked each other? And what was he supposed to do then? He definitely couldn't ask Mattie about it, his brother would just laugh at him. He didn't dare ask Emma either, she might call him something awful, like "cute". Gabe was twelve and-a-half years old, practically a teenager, and he was not cute, thank you very much. But he had questions. Like, if he did ask anyone to the ball, would he have to... dance? The thought terrified him.

On top of all this, Professor Skies expected them to transfigure stuff prettily. Gabe groaned, it was a happy surprise when he could transfigure anything at all, let alone in an intentional style or hue. The second year wasn't excited about a lot of parts of growing up, but he thought he just might look forward to the day he got to give up Transfiguration. Unless maybe he could one day transfigure a dragon.

Gabe flipped through his notebook, flipping through pages covered in mediocre doodles until he found his notes on the spell from last term. This particular page had a kneazle holding a crayon scribbled on it. Or maybe that was supposed to be a dragon with a candle. He couldn't remember.

The young Teppenpaw looked about the room, filled with potential dates. Gabe didn't personally know of anyone in his year or the year below who had a date, but that didn't mean that people weren't pairing off already. What if it was already happening, in secret, and Gabe was the last to know? He thought about asking Ari for intel, but decided against it. She would probably just giggle. Besides, it would be pretty lame if his first year cousin had already figured out all this ball stuff, and he hadn't.

Feeling especially vulnerable today, he decided to not call attention to himself, and grabbed a pencil, even though he really thought he could only handle a crayon. It was a red, colored pencil though, and hopefully not as tricky as a regular one with an eraser and all. Hopefully he could just get through this lesson, focus, take his mind off of grown up things like dates and balls. Man, why couldn't Sonora just do another bonfire? Now that had been fun!

Someone was talking to him, but Gabe hadn't caught what they said. Never one to put his worries on other people, he fixed his face into its usual smile.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch what you said,” he smiled apologetically at his classmate, his tone genuinely positive. He was happy for any distraction from his current thoughts.

0 Gabriel Valenti, Teppenpaw Do I have to? 330 Gabriel Valenti, Teppenpaw 0 5

Lily Spencer, Pecari

July 26, 2016 5:04 PM

Surreptitious note-passing. by Lily Spencer, Pecari

Returning to school wasn't as difficult as Lily had expected. She had friends here now, a few that she actually liked talking to and playing with. She'd been pleasantly surprised by how open and playful most of her classmates were. Her courses weren't too terrible either. Once she decided not to hate them, she actually did rather well. She wasn't at the top of her class by a long shot, but she didn't care about that. At least she wasn't at the very bottom.

Though Transfiguration was one of the most difficult for Lily, she liked Professor Skies. She was stern, but not a complete bore. One of the tutors that had taught Lily how to spell had been such an absolute wart that Lily didn't learn anything from him. He'd only lasted a few weeks before he was replaced. Luckily none of the professors at Sonora were that terrible. She actually enjoyed learning from them to some extent, except for Potions. She would never, ever understand potions the way some of her classmates did, and Lily certainly didn't want to put in more work than she needed.

Lily sat down next to one of her classmates and slung her book bag onto the table. Jozua had been avoiding her in their classes, so Lily had taken it upon herself recently to not sit next to him. He was acting weird, but Lily just assumed it was a stupid wizard thing and didn't think much of it. At least they still played together. Maybe he thought she wasn't smart enough to be his partner, and there was some merit to that. She knew she wasn't the brightest, but as long as he still considered her his best mate she didn't care.

A few days ago, Jack had told her Caelia Lucan and he were going to the ball together. Lily had assumed she and Jozua would be attending together as well, but nothing had ever been said about it. Jack had then kindly informed her that it was necessary to make plans before the ball, and with an irritating flick of his head asked her if Jozua had actually asked someone else. Lily was still mad at Jack even though he'd only been teasing, but what he'd said made sense. She and Jozua did need to verbally confirm that the two of them would be attending together. Why Jozua had to be the one to ask, however, was beyond her.

Her conversation with Jack had been forgotten for the most part right after, but the ball suddenly sprung into her mind as class began. As Professor Skies talked, Lily quietly ripped a square piece of parchment and scribbled down a note:

Joz, want to go to the ball together? -L

She crumpled it up and waited for an opportune moment to flick it at him. This was going to be an easy lesson; she'd been moderately successful at giving her crayon the shape of a candle last term. With a bit more practise she'd have a full transfiguration on her hands. As soon as Professor Skies told them to begin, Lily sent the note flying at Jozua with a well-aimed flick.

40 Lily Spencer, Pecari Surreptitious note-passing. 357 Lily Spencer, Pecari 0 5

Arianna Valenti, Aladren

July 26, 2016 11:31 PM

Appearances are everything (Tag - Natalie) by Arianna Valenti, Aladren

Arianna walked into the room, focusing very hard on not looking as if she’d rushed there. She’d been sitting in the back of the library (again) where no one (hopefully) could spot her, working on her research project. She’d been certain she was about to make a breakthrough when she noticed the time, shoved the book out of its shelf, and hurriedly exited the history section.

It would have been easier to just sign the book out altogether, but then the library monitors would know, and she couldn’t have that, especially not her roommate, Farrah. If her extra library trips this semester had been noticed by anyone, she hoped that they would chalk it up to Arianna being just another studious Aladren, and nothing more. And better that than the alternative - anyone other than Gabe knowing what she was up to.

As she got herself settled in for her morning class, she wished, not for the first time, that magic people would just get over themselves and get on board with the Internet. It would have made Arianna’s whole search a whole lot easier if there were a wizard version of Google, or something. She would even take wizard Bing.

At least today’s class sounded interesting. The first year had always been intrigued by the subject, the idea of being able to turn one thing into whatever else she liked having always been a dream of hers. And there really was no point in turning one thing into something else unless it was presentable. Otherwise, you’d never use it, it would just be humiliating. Presentation was everything, that is why Arianna always dressed up the drab school uniform with cool hairstyles and accesories. It was with that in mind that she had weaved her hair into a lace headband braid, her curls flowing down her shoulders like a mane. A well-groomed mane, obviously.

She picked out an aquamarine crayon, and twirled it between neatly manicured fingers. The girl had heard talk of an art club, and was considering giving it a try, like she had most other clubs. But she had never been very good at drawing in school, and it would be embarrassing to try now. Besides, she had so many other plans for Sonora, and between school work, training for the Quidditch finals, Fashion Club, Science Club, and Sports Club and maybe joining Archery, she was keeping busy. She would need to drop something eventually, but that was a next year problem.

She was reaching for the walnut wand in her pocket when she noticed a shadow over her desk, and one of the other students approached. She turned to look up at her classmate, waiting for whatever it was they needed to say.

0 Arianna Valenti, Aladren Appearances are everything (Tag - Natalie) 343 Arianna Valenti, Aladren 0 5

Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw

July 28, 2016 2:31 PM

Less Surreptitious Candle Passing by Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw

Jozua was still avoiding Lily in classes. This weekend, he had decided, after they defeated the evil dragons in the Gardens, while he was still feeling brave, he would finally broach the subject of the ball, get it over with, and everything could go back to normal. First, though, there was the rest of this week's classes to slog through.

Transfiguration was neither his favorite (DADA was) or his least favorite (actually, of Sonora's classes, maybe it was, but it was way better than Math or English, and truthfully Sonora didn't have any classes he actively disliked really, so it wasn't any failing of Skies or the subject that put it at the bottom of the pile; he just liked the other ones more).

The thing Transfiguration did have going for it was that there was a lot of room for embellishment, once you got the basic spell down, and Jozua had an excellent imagination, so once he figured out his fancy flourishes had to come from his mind rather than from flamboyant wand motions, his classwork had dramatically improved over the course of last term.

Today's lesson seemed to be designed (heh!) specifically to cater to his most favorite part of the subject, and he was pretty excited to see what he could do with a crayon to candle transfiguration now. The last time he'd done this one, he had still been laboring under the misconception that fancy wand motions would improve the final product instead of hindering it from getting created at all. Once Professor Skies helped him discover the folly of that idea, he had started liking Transfiguration a lot better and consequently his grade had also risen. He thought that was the causality, though the two often went hand-in-hand for him, so it was hard to say for sure. If he liked a subject, he worked harder at it, and he tested better in it, and liked it more. Conversely, if he didn't do well in a subject to start with, he was predisposed to dislike it, not do any work, and get worse at it. It was a feedback cycle that he'd been glad to get turned around pretty early.

He was just starting to sketch out some of his candle design ideas - he was pretty lousy at drawing, but bad drawing helped him figure out where the mismatch between the picture in his brain and the picture on the paper was so he could be sure to focus extra well on that when casting, when another paper hit him on the arm and fell atop the miserable sketch.

Confused, he uncrumpled it and read the handwritten words in growing dismay. Clearly, avoiding Lily hadn't been enough to escape this predicament. Mom would not be happy with him is she found out. Fortunately, he had no intention of telling her, so he didn't know how she could, so he was off the hook for not asking properly before now.

Well, the good news was he could sit with his best friend again next class instead of next week.

In the meantime, he did not turn to acknowledge Lily or answer her question, he just bent over his drawing and made furious adjustments to his design before settling the revised picture of his candle firmly in mind and casting the spell with the precise wand motion he'd eventually gotten right during office hours.

The crayon transformed and it was beautiful. Jozua smiled, feeling very proud of himself. It was all one color, the same green as the crayon had been, which couldn't be helped on a first try when the shape was the important part, but the candle's sculpting was perfect. A wick poked out of the top of a leafy tree. Two wax figures, one in robes the other in a gown, huddled against the tree's trunk like they were hiding. Hands covered their mouths but their eyes crinkled like they were stifling giggles. Or at least, they looked that way to Jozua who knew they were supposed to be doing that. They were kinda tiny so he hoped the detail was clear enough for others to make out.

Holding his body between his creation and Lily, Jozua turned the candle upside down and used his quill point to scratch out *For a little while, I guess* into the wax, then turned to pass it to his neighbor to pass to their neighbor and so forth. "Sorry, would you pass that toward Lily?" he requested.

1 Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw Less Surreptitious Candle Passing 348 Jozua Sparks, Teppenpaw 0 5

Ben Pierce

July 29, 2016 11:31 AM

This is not my subject by Ben Pierce

Ben Pierce would never earn the top grade in any of his classes, and this was particularly true in Transfiguration where the theory work was nigh on close to incomprehensible. On more practical terms, he could manage the outward appearance of his new object pretty well, but struggled hard with altering the composition of it. He could generally pull an A on his overall work by the end of the class, but it was sometimes a near thing. When given a choice between starting points, Ben always chose he one most similar to his target in material rather than shape.

Today was no exception and he gratefully selected a crayon for his candle transfiguration over the pencil. Normally second years in their final half year of Beginner classes wouldn't get such an option, but it didn't sound like there would be a penalty for going with the easy choice this time. Not needing to turn wood and graphite to wax would make it so much easier to focus on his design, which was supposed to be today's focus.

Ben's designs were rarely stellar either, but he thought he had a better shot at getting an E today than he did when he was being graded on everything else as well. He had trouble holding a picture in his mind, not being particularly visually oriented, so it usually took him a few tries before he got anything close to what he wanted. But he learned by doing and he was persistent if nothing else, so he would just keep trying again and again until it came out right.

As this was a design class, he figured he should try a fancier candle than than just a straight up crayon-ish shaped one, and decided that the one on his last birthday cake was a good candidate to attempt to reproduce. It had been circular, colored mostly white (his crayon was blue, so that was at least a color charge he should get some credit for; colors were the one thing he found pretty easy to change) with some red stitching like a baseball's and the number 13 printed in the center of it, also in red. A single wick should poke out of the top of the wax baseball candle.

He flicked his wand sharply, incanting the spellword (and pronouncing the last e - which he hadn't considered not pronouncing because his notes had the word spelled wrong in them, as he had sounded it out instead of copying it off the board - he had found some spells had stupid spellings that didn't make sense and hadn't seen the point in writing down the useless versions), and the magic engulfed and transformed his crayon.

He got a basic circle shape out of it, and the colors changed just as they should, but there was no wick at all and he was pretty sure nobody else would be able to identify that it was supposed to be a baseball yet (assuming they knew what a baseball was in the first place) since the red stitching was all wrong, though the number 13 came out clearly enough.

"Well, it's a start," he remarked out loud and glanced over to see how his neighbor was doing. "How's yours going?"

1 Ben Pierce This is not my subject 339 Ben Pierce 0 5

Natalie Varth, Tepp

August 03, 2016 11:34 PM

Making an appearance by Natalie Varth, Tepp

The thing about planning to do something, though an important first step towards getting something done, was that often it tended to be the longest step. This was currently the case. Natalie had heard Gabe speak about his cousin, Ari, on several occasions ever since the news that she had also found herself possessing a penchant for magic. As fellow muggleborns, the news was exciting, almost equally exciting to Nat as it probably was for Gabe despite not knowing the girl. Ari was Gabe’s cousin- in her mind this was grounds for becoming a support and close friend of hers. It was practically a downright necessity.

Nat was conscious of the fact that this “downright necessity” business was in part due to her being unable to do for her siblings what she could for Arianna. During this year’s opening feast she and Gabe had awaited the young witch’s sorting with rapt attention. Nat, despite Gabe’s earlier doubts about Ari’s being sorted into Teppenpaw, had held out hope that the girl might still share their house. A selfish wish, really, and not terribly more convenient as being a year apart the two girls wouldn’t have actually been roommates. The common room was nice but Nat didn’t frequent it for long durations. Really the only thing that houses would factor into was Quidditch, and Nat hadn’t known if Ari was even going to be interested. Again, she held out hope she would.

Ari had been sorted into Aladren, which was a shame, but she had shown an interest in Quidditch. And really, that was the more important thing, wasn’t it? Unfortunately, what should have been common ground for them, an easy thing for them to bond over, was reduced to a mere meet and greet before Ari took to the pitch. Natalie had really only spoken to her long enough to re-introduce herself (just to make sure Ari didn’t think she was some stranger) and wish her luck. Several times she’d thought of joining her in class, but often the assignments were different for the two beginner levels or she had already found a partner. Today, though, Gabe looked as if he was elsewhere and Ari was alone. Resolving to speak to Gabe later and make sure everything was okay, she took the opportunity to move over to where Ari was sitting.

“Hey, Ari!” Nat beamed at the younger witch, still seated. “How’re you?” Nat looked down at the empty stool next to the young Valenti and quickly pulled it out. She situated herself and turned her immediate, full attention to Ari. “Wow, you picked a really pretty crayon,” Nat commented. Nat had picked a pencil with a plastic wrapping, stars and moons on a dark blue background for herself. Transfiguration was now Nat’s favorite indoor subject. Transfiguring her trunk last year into a small table had been a lot of work but had also been very rewarding to have perfected. Since then she saw everything as potential materials to which she could transfigure into something of equal value. Beginning the spell, she first exclaimed “Well! Here goes nothing!”

7 Natalie Varth, Tepp Making an appearance 331 Natalie Varth, Tepp 0 5

Madeleine Dautin, Aladren

August 08, 2016 7:56 PM

Semi-surreptitious Snooping by Madeleine Dautin, Aladren

Madeleine watched as Jozua Sparks (talk about a pretty cool last name) worked on his candle. She was so absorbed in watching his candle making that she quite forgot that she was supposed to be doing her own. When Professor Skies had given them the assignment, she had known immediately what she would do. Something with gold—gold was a really fabulous colour and Madeleine felt that it properly reflected her status in society. She thought gold looked best with blue and so planned a swirling montage of the colours, similar to a wonderful painting she had once seen in a museum back in Paris.

Jozua’s candle was rather nice but kind of crude in a childlike manner. She tilted her head slightly at the little stick figures holding hands. It was…cute in a way, she supposed, but nothing as beautiful as her candle was. Well, once she got around to actually making her candle, Madeleine thought with a blush and turned back in her seat to focus on her own crayon which was a ghastly shade of pink. The sort that salopes liked to colour their cheeks and lips with and not the kind that Maman or Myrtille did. She was just getting prepared to start work on her candle—she rather thought that having some sparkling stars on it all would perfectly round out what was already sure to be a fabulous candle, when Jozua handed her his candle.

She had seen the note that Lily had thrown at her neighbour earlier and, being someone entirely absorbed in the affairs of others, she had been dying to know what it was about. Now seemed to be her chance. “Of course,” she replied, turning fully in her chair so that Jozua couldn’t see her as she handed off the candle to the next person. Her quick eyes read ‘For a little while, I gue—’ before her neighbour on the other side took the candle away and she smiled awkwardly when her fingers tugged it back so that she could finish reading it. “Sorry,” she muttered quietly to them. “Finger stuck to the, erm…” She frowned, trying to remember the word. “Wax…”

Madeleine turned back to Jozua rather quickly, face blushing from being caught snooping, mind racing with all the possibilities that message could have been about. It had never before occurred to her to ask rather than to spy but for now it seemed like a rather golden opportunity to do so. “What was that all about?” she asked conversationally, planning to do her classwork while they conversed. She already had a pretty good candle idea, she just wanted to make sure it was perfect before starting anything.

10 Madeleine Dautin, Aladren Semi-surreptitious Snooping 340 Madeleine Dautin, Aladren 0 5

Arianna

August 12, 2016 3:32 AM

Keeping up mine by Arianna

Arianna could only blink at the bundle of energy that was Natalie Varth. She recognized the older girl, of course, as the blond that always seemed to be hanging out with her cousin, Gabriel. She would be certain that they were an item if she weren’t even more certain that her cousin was totally oblivious to that sort of thing. And she would have dismissed Natalie as a total and complete dork, if she wasn’t uncertain that this would be a safe choice.

Because, as a close friend of Gabriel’s, it was quite possible that Natalie knew things about Arianna, the sorts of things she didn’t necessarily want getting out to the entire Sonora student body. Like, how Arianna purposely told people she lived in New York City, and failed to specify which burough. The fact that the older girl called Arianna by her nickname, instead of her full name, was proof enough that the first year would need to proceed with caution. Natalie Varth had information. Arianna placed her wand down on the desk.

“I’m good,” she smiled carefully at the other girl, “Gone flying recently?” This seemed like a relatively safe topic, as Natalie appeared to be just as Quidditch-obsessed as Gabriel. Arianna felt she could keep up with the basics without appearing foolish, which hopefully wouldn’t matter, because Natalie would do most of the talking anyway. But then Natalie turned the subject of the conversation to Arianna’s crayon.

She glanced back at the object in question, wondering if Natalie had just issued a challenge. Was she saying that Arianna had a head start on today’s assignment, given that the first year had not chosen a totally unfortunate color? The Aladren was never one to take the easy route, outside of talking her classmates into handling the disgusting parts of Potions. But that was just being prudent, who actually wanted to touch a flobberworm?

“Thanks,” she nodded, smoothly adding, “I want to transfigure it to a darker, indigo shade, I think that would have a nice glow.” Yes, that had in fact been the plan all along. Obviously. She tossed her dark curls over her shoulder.

She was going to turn back to her notebook, to make additional notes of her plan for the soon-to-be candle, when Natalie appeared ready to jump ahead. Curious to see if the other girl was very confident or else simply reckless, Arianna looked up from her book to watch Natalie’s progress instead.

0 Arianna Keeping up mine 343 Arianna 0 5

Jozua

August 17, 2016 3:00 PM

Conversation quick-play by Jozua

Jozua watched as Madeleine passed the candle down the row, but before it reached its destination, she turned back to him to ask what was going on. He lost sight of the candle as he addressed his neighbor, defensiveness rising immediately as he realized there were witnesses to this mess.

"Oh, um, well - I was getting to it! I was going to ask her this weekend! I just didn't want to do it in class, you know? But," he stopped abruptly, crossing his arms, and slouched, huffing a bit in irritation. He'd had a plan, and now he had ... this. "Girls," he grumped.

To which Madeleine blinked, seeming a bit confused because Jozua apparently never clarified what 'it' was about. "It?" she questioned.

There was only one it. Wasn't it self-evident? Jozua threw up his hands in exasperation. "The ball! She asked me to the ball! What's the point of avoiding a girl if she's gonna ask you to it anyway?"

"Well you can't expect a girl to wait around forever," Madeleine said pointedly, thinking of how Bastien had just assumed she wouldn't get a date so had waited much too long, in her humble opinion, though, of course, Jozua had no idea about any of that.

Jozua just knew he was being criticized and he defended himself with a protest at her hyperbole. "I wasn't waiting forever. I was waiting until a weekend she wasn't playing Quidditch!"

ooc: conversation hashed out in Chatzy with Madeleine's author

1 Jozua Conversation quick-play 348 Jozua 0 5