Fine fin fail on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

December 24, 2016 7:01 AM

Intermediates: progressing at a snail's pace by Professor Skies

“Welcome back,” Selina greeted the intermediate class. Now that they were this side of midterm, the possibility of CATS was probably seeming a lot more real and pressing to her fifth years. At least, she hoped it was. Whilst she didn’t want to scare any of her students, the exams were important, and took a lot of preparation. This was why the fifth years had been set a holiday essay, which she now prompted them to turn in.

“Today, we are going to be practising inanimate to animate transfigurations, and all of you will be attempting this,” this was a fairly broad category of work, and had formed the bulk of the intermediate studies so far for the fourth and fifth years. The third years had largely concentrated on the opposite process but now they were in a new term, it was time for things to be stepped up a gear. Alongside this, Selina had been teaching theory. There were conflicting views when it came to transfiguring on living objects, and she touched on both sides, as arguing conflicting points of view was bound to come up in the CATS theory papers. However, it was clear which side her personal belief lay, and that was in the Theory of Vanishing Space. This held that, as nothing could cease to exist, vanished objects had to go somewhere. This space came into practise for all other Transfigurations. Rather than altering things at a molecular level, one pushed parts of the item, or creature, out into Vanishing Space, and drew something else forth to replace it. This meant that though the parts of the animal could become disjointed or separated, you were ultimately sort of joining the whole thing back together by the time you had finished, just somewhere else than here. There was a lot of complicated maths that one could learn, should they pursue theoretical transfiguration beyond degree level, but for now it was simply explained as a place where things could go. Sometimes, of course, students did produce less than savoury looking results from their transfigurations. Creatures who were twisted or damaged. Vanishing Space’s answer to that was simply that it was a case of mind over matter; Transfiguration relied heavily on visualisation, a student who was worried about harming the things involved was much more likely to bring forth something that was harmed in the process. It was the realisation of their subconscious mental picture of what would happen. Which, of course, didn’t make it less distressing or unpleasant, but it was something they had to learn to overcome.

“You’re all going to start with rubber balls, and third years you will be trying to make something nice and simple - a slug, or a snail if you feel like really challenging yourselves. Fourth years, please attempt snails, and I think you can guess where the potential for extra credit comes in,” almost all Transfigurations included some kind of design element, and snail shells would be a good way to differentiate between their work. As usual, the shelves at the back were stocked with relevant nature books - detailed did not always have to mean unrealistic, as Mother Nature was usually quite the artist, even when it came to such simple things as the humble snail.

“Fifth years, you’ll have noticed that your balls are being provided in a bowl of water,” she added, as she began sending one to each desk occupied by a CATS student with a wave of her wand. “No points for guessing that you will be working on fish.

“The spell for third and fourth years will both be gastropoda - your visualisations will be the key factor in making the difference, alongside wand movements. For slugs you need a slow straight movement, whilst snails need a slow spiral. Fifth years, you will be using the spell piscis and a small flicking motion.” Selina demonstrated all three spells, producing a snail with a black and white shell, and a shimmering blue fish.

“You may chat quietly with your neighbours, and please try to help each other out. If you have any questions or dilemmas, see me. You may begin.”

Subthreads:

Fine fin fail by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw with Gia Donovan (Pecari)

I hope I survive this year. by Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren with Laila Kennedy, Crotalus

I wanna lick it (Tag Ben) by Kyte Collindale, Pecari with Ben Pierce, Pecari

Not really (Tag Daniel) by Kira Spaulding, Crotalus with Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus

How realistic does my snail have to be? by Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus

Well, a bit faster than that by Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus with Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari

13 Professor Skies Intermediates: progressing at a snail's pace 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw

December 28, 2016 4:10 PM

Fine fin fail by Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw

Ginger was pretty sure this was her last year of Transfiguration. She did not expect to need to do much more the basic inanimate to inanimate transfigurations in her adult life, and the theory was already getting way beyond what her brain could process at a mere intermediate level of instruction. She was reasonably decent at visualizing and harnessing her magic, so her practical work remained at E quality most of the time, but her written exams and essays were starting to see failing marks even when she went in to office hours for extra help.

Overall, she still thought she was going to pass her CATS, but if she did better than an A she would definitely need to send presents of gratitude to all of her friends who had ever helped her struggle through a homework assignment.

Today was a practical lesson, though, and she smiled in relief. Dropping right back into theory after a couple weeks away could have very well made her head explode, and it was morale building to start with an inflated semester grade from a first lesson in practical work. It would drop, of course, after the first theory essay, but it would be nice to have an E or even an O for a day or two.

She smiled at her submerged rubber ball, mentally going through a transfiguration table though she no longer bothered to write one out. She went to the back for a field guide on fish, and picked out a pretty one with a lot of flourishes. She read about its habitat, community structure, development cycle, and mating habits and so forth, not because any of that was likely to come into play, but she liked to have a full picture of the kind of creature she was working with. It might not make any difference at all, but she thought it helped her understand and empathize with the animal better and she could therefore get a more solid grasp of their essence, which in turn helped her fabricate a new existence out of an inanimate object easier.

It could be wholly in her mind, but a lot of transfiguration was in a person's mind, so it worked for her.

So she read the three pages about Siamese Fighting Fish, or Bettas, thoroughly, then readied her wand. She pictured the brightly colored fish and its arrays of ribbony fins. She used a warming charm to heat the water in the bowl so a tropical fish would be comfortable there. She adjust the bowl shape to increase the size of the surface water, since bettas needed air to breathe.

Then she flicked her wand and cast, "Piscis!"

The betta fish that took the rubber ball's place was not as delicately finned as she had been hoping, and he seemed to be a bit lopsided, but he was vibrantly colored and swimming toward the surface to seek food (albeit not entirely gracefully given his thicker than normal fins and an uneven weight distribution), so it was a pretty good job for her first transfiguration since December if she did say so herself.

Glancing over at her neighbor, she asked curiously, "How's yours going?"

1 Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw Fine fin fail 302 Ginger Pierce, Teppenpaw 0 5

Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren

December 28, 2016 7:20 PM

I hope I survive this year. by Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren

Ever since Sutton had sent that candygram to John, Aislinn had avoided him. It was fairly easy since they weren’t in the same classes. Being in the same House was a little more difficult, however, she had managed it by mostly staying in her room and studying, which was actually a positive since CATS were coming up. She had to focus on theory and spells. There was no telling what would be asked and she had no intention of falling behind, because she hadn’t learned or worked as hard as she possibly could. Since she had gotten back to school, she had turned her room (thankfully, she didn’t share with anyone) into a mini-library. She had stacks of books and notes everywhere. Every lesson became an opportunity to add to said mini-library.

Today would be no exception since they were working on the spell to turn an inanimate object into a fish. It was made more difficult that it was a ball. A ball really had no similarity to a fish, which made the spell more difficult. When they had initially begun learning transfiguration, they did inanimate to inanimate objects, which had some form of similarity such as both objects were thin and long or both were similar items, such both were bags. Then, they learned more difficult forms like inanimate to animate, but there were still more similarities. Now, it was becoming more and more difficult as they continued on in their studies. She could only imagine what next year would bring. This, of course, was on the basis that she actually passed CATS with a high enough grade to be accepted to the next level. If she weren’t, Aislinn didn’t know what she would do, because it would throw her entire life plan off. She needed Transfiguration if she planned on getting early admission into a prestige university biology program. From there, she would concentrate on the courses she needed to get into med school and eventually, she would work in her family’s hospital. That was the plan and she couldn’t let one lesson be the failure of all that.

Aislinn looked down at the rubber ball sitting in a bowl of water. She wasn’t a fan of fish, so she didn’t know many different types of fish, which made it a little difficult to find one to concentrate on. For some reason, she kept thinking of the movie Finding Dory, which featured a blue fish, but she had no idea what the fish was actually called. She hadn’t even gone to see the movie, but had seen the commercials advertising the movie. There were other kinds of fish, though, right? She sat there stumped. Why couldn’t she think of any other types of fish? No, no, no! This was not going to work. She was already feeling like she was failing. Just because she wasn’t interested in something didn’t mean that she shouldn’t know about it. What if this was the question on the CATS? What if she had to turn a ball into a particular fish? What if she didn’t even know what kind of fish it was or worse, yet, what if she didn’t know it was a fish at all? She gripped the sides of the desk and closed her eyes for a moment. She was becoming absolutely neurotic. If she didn’t calm down, she was going to end up giving herself a nervous breakdown.

’You’re an Aladren.’ She told herself. ’You’re an Aladren. Aladrens are logical. What’s the most logical thing to do?’ The most logical thing to do was to get a reference book from the back. She could look up different kinds of fish and be able to transfigure the ball into one of them. Though, she should at some point practicing transfiguring a ball into any number of fish, if only to make sure that she had every detail right. Going to the back, she started looking through the shelves. There were all sorts of books, but she needed ones that was particular about fish. Unfortunately, the couple she needed was too high for her. Spotting someone taller nearby, she asked, “Would you be able to get those couple of books for me, please?” She pointed towards the ones she needed.

0 Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren I hope I survive this year. 297 Aislinn Nicolls, Aladren 0 5

Gia Donovan (Pecari)

December 30, 2016 3:48 PM

Seems to be the trend by Gia Donovan (Pecari)

Gia was a good student. She received top marks, she studied every day, she did her homework without complaint, and she always participated in class. However, she had not been all too happy to be assigned work while on holiday with her mother. She wanted to keep herself free so that she could spend as much time with her mother and her friends as she could. She found that the professors who assigned out work over break were merciless. Thankfully, she and Jax were able to finish all of their homework their first evening home while their mother cooked their dinner and they caught up on everything.

She handed her completed essay to Professor Skies when it was requested and then took her seat. It had been a nice time off with her mother and with Phoebe. Eventually, Gia knew that she would have to come clean about things, especially with her friends. But the fear of letting that part of her known while a part of Jax had to remain hidden felt wrong to her. She knew her brother would tell her that she was being silly if she thought that keeping her feelings secret was in any way helping him, but the rest of the school only thought the Donovans had one weird kid in the family, that was less pressure on the both of them in the long run.

Gia focused her attention onto the Professor and did her best to get back into the mind frame of school. She wasn’t sure if Transfiguration was going to be a part of her future or not, but it was just one of those classes that she didn’t quite understand. She did well in it only because she studied hard and practiced. But she saw no reason for her to ever need to transfigure anything into a fish. What she wanted to learn was how to make an object appear out of thin air. In order to learn that, she needed to continue with the lessons, but she hated to do so.

Her blue eyes focused on the ball and bowl in front of her. What sort of fish was she supposed to transfigure this into? Gia had to think for a minute as to what type of fish she would want to create and whether it would matter in the long run if she chose a more sophisticated fish or a more simplistic fish? In the end, she felt that any fish that had multiple colors and various parts about it might be a little too difficult for her on a first try but something that she could strive for when she and her brother worked together after class. Instead, she would work on a fish that had one color, but was a beautiful one. She remembered seeing this betta fish at her neighbor’s apartment over the summer when they were over for lunch one afternoon. It was a beautiful red with its tail all flowing around it.

Gia pictured the fish as best as she could, remember the beauty of it that had struck her when she had first seen it. “Picis” She spoke firmly and repeated the wand movement that the Professor had shown. The ball wiggled and expanded, a tail forming and fins appearing. There was a definite face and scales and the color was correct, but the fins and tail weren’t quite right. For a first try it seemed to be alright, so she took that as a positive sign.

Her neighbor asked how she was getting on and Gia turned to see Ginger sitting next to her. She glanced down at Ginger’s bowl and lit up when she realized they had done the same type of fish. “Oh, we did the same fish!” Gia smiled at her, “My neighbor has this fish and it was the only one I could think of.”

6 Gia Donovan (Pecari) Seems to be the trend 308 Gia Donovan (Pecari) 0 5

Kyte Collindale, Pecari

January 04, 2017 3:25 PM

I wanna lick it (Tag Ben) by Kyte Collindale, Pecari

Intermediate wasn’t like… the worst. It wasn’t as much of a drag as Kyte had assumed it would be, mostly because they were just… kinda there. Like, they had fifth years in their class, who were waaaay old, and had big exams and stuff, so most of the time everyone was going “CATS-this” and “CATS-that” and he could just tune out. It was like a five minute rest break every class. It was actually kind of brilliant.

Apparently they were doing a thing today. With stuff. The words had gone in and the information processed, but Kyte’s thoughts didn’t work in words unless they were forced to, although plenty of them certainly came out of his mouth, at almost all times that he wasn’t required by a rule to be silent. He took a ball as the box came round, and idly began bouncing it on the desk. Bounce, bounce, bounce. The feel of it was nice. He rolled it experimentally around on the back of his hand, managing to make the most basic contact juggling pass, back of hand to palm of hand, and back and forth and back and forth. He loved contact juggling. It looked so cool. But it took so much patience and he’d never got beyond the basics. He was pretty good at this pass, but it was always tricky with a new ball, and the ones Professor Skies had handed out didn’t have the same weight as usual contact balls, so it pretty quickly slipped from his fingers onto the floor. He had learnt that it was probably a bad idea to get up while the teacher was still talking, so sadly resigned himself to his ball being on the floor for the rest of Professor Skies’ introduction talk. Once she’d finished, he retrieved it, throwing it high and catching it a few times.

“I want to juggle,” he lamented to Ben, who was in the seat next to him. “I’m going to do juggling practise at lunch,” he decided. “Want to join?” He often invited his room-mates and friends to practise with him, although he wasn’t much of a natural teacher, his mind tending to wander rather than having a structured idea to follow through (the parallels between this and his mother’s idea of a home curriculum were largely the reasons that local officials had felt her unqualified in teaching her children, and insisted they be sent to school). He was kind though, and enthusiastic. People usually laughed a lot round him. He thought that was a good way to learn. He certainly missed his mother’s style of teaching, even though he’d sort of adapted to Sonora - he could do it, he could get by, he just didn’t always really like it much.

Finally, having vaguely brought his mind back round to class, he started to think about slugs and snails.

“Did you know,” he began to Ben, “That there’s probably more snails in the Amazon rainforest than like… already discovered in the rest of the world. Or something,” Kyte tended to have fun, if broadly tangential, anecdotal and possibly largely misremembered facts about most subjects, which he would present without prompting as they occurred to him. “They reckon that the cure for cancer is probably somewhere in the Amazon rainforest but we’ll probably destroy it before we find it. Isn’t that sad? Oh, and if you lick some of them they make you see cool stuff. Or that might be frogs. Or frogs and snails. Or frogs, snails, and plants. I think a lot of stuff in the rainforest can get you pretty high. It’s a neat place. I should have joined the Brazil group….” He could always visit it at the fair, he guessed. Though they probably wouldn’t have lickable frogs. It probably wasn’t allowed.

“I’m going to make my slug really bright yellow,” he decided, “There’s probably one somewhere that is.” He wondered whether he could also make it hallucinogenic by wanting to, whether Transfiguring stuff like… made it like BE the thing, or just… be like the thing. Like… was he really making it be all the things a slug was, or just to look like one? And how much of a risk would it be to lick what he had made?

“How about you?" he asked. Once he and Ben had discussed slugs, and all tangential thoughts he had about them, to his satisfaction, he turned his attention to his work.

”Gastropoda,” he cast. In Kyte’s corner were the fact that he was good at visualising and pretty good at picking up the small details of movements and copying them well. He couldn’t always get the words right, or remember them if it had been a long time between practices, he was highly distractible and he got pretty bored if he didn’t get results quickly. It all kind of averaged out, in terms of his grades, though they were generally dragged down by his less than adequate theory work. Today, he’d been thinking a lot about the subject, which was a good start for him, even if thoughts were tangential and a bit bizarre. His bouncy ball stretched out and turned yellow. It had two large eyes - very large - and swirling patterns that he hadn’t imagined on the slug but were more a representation of his subconscious ideas of hallucinogenic states. It didn’t really look alive or like it was moving, but then he hadn’t been thinking much about that….

“It’s a start but I doubt it’s got many magical powers yet,” he sighed.

13 Kyte Collindale, Pecari I wanna lick it (Tag Ben) 335 Kyte Collindale, Pecari 0 5

Laila Kennedy, Crotalus

January 11, 2017 12:03 AM

Hey, it's not the most embarrassing thing that could happen! by Laila Kennedy, Crotalus

For most of her life, Laila Kennedy had been on the smaller side. She could still remember those photographs in elementary school where the class lined up according to height and then filed onto risers to take class photos. In kindergarden she had been in the front row with her legs crisscross applesauce and by the the time she was in fifth grade she was still in the front row only because they were fifth graders they had been upgraded to standing. The next year she had gone to Sonora and because Sonora did not take these class photos, she had kind of lost track of how tall she was in comparison to her classmates and just kind of forgot about the height thing.

So she didn’t really notice it when some of her classmates stopped growing but she didn’t and at fourteen was now quite a few inches over five foot so it kind of surprised her when Aislinn Nicolls, a girl who Laila had always thought of as being the same height as her, asked if Laila could pass her a book. They were in the back of the Transfiguration classroom, Laila who was a fourth year was looking for a book on snails to help in her assignment for the day while Aislinn, a year older, was after once of the fish books which were located on a higher shelf.

Laila started, a little startled and blinked a couple times in confusion. “I mean, I could try,” she wanted to say. “But I don’t really think I’ll be able to reach it any more than you can.” “Sure,” she said instead, handing Aislinn a couple of rolled up parchments she had found, antique French book plates with detailed drawings of various shells. Some were only snails while others were a mixture of fresh and saltwater creatures snails among them. “Just hold these for me, please?”

She leaned up, shifting her weight forward onto her tiptoes to reach and was rather surprised when she found that she hadn’t needed to go on tip-toe after all. “Oh,” she said, the surprise clear on her face. “That wasn’t as high as I expected at all.” She stepped back, still a little stunned and held the books out for Aislinn. “There you go, trade ya!” Laila took the rolls of parchment back from the Aladren and gave a sheepish laugh.

“I guess I grew without realising it,” she said by way of explanation so Aislinn didn’t think her particularly stupid. “I’m used to being the short one.”

OOC: Laila is probably about 5’4” or 5’5” at this point? And will be having a growth spurt within the next year so it probably slowly getting a bit taller as it is anyway.

10 Laila Kennedy, Crotalus Hey, it's not the most embarrassing thing that could happen! 318 Laila Kennedy, Crotalus 0 5

Kira Spaulding, Crotalus

January 11, 2017 10:48 PM

Not really (Tag Daniel) by Kira Spaulding, Crotalus

One might think Kira would get bored in her classes what with getting even the hard lessons really quickly especially given she'd gone ahead and worked on spells above grade level. Quite the contrary, it gave her a thrill. She rarely got to feel good about herself, and any wand based class gave her a chance to shine.

It wasn't without drawbacks. Kira was constantly afraid that if she attempted the harder lesson, like if she were to do what the fifth years did, others would think she was showing off and resent her. It didn't matter that there were others with a genuinely high opinion of themselves who didn't seem to mind showing how they were better than others and nobody seemed to care. If it was her, they'd assume the worst. Kira didn't know how or why it worked that way, but it did. Some people could get away with murder while others, like herself, would always be thought the worst about.

Unfortunately, today that meant she was going to have to give her snail an elaborate pattern since just making one was no big deal and she truly-unsurprisingly-wasn't all that artistic. Kira honestly would have rather tried the fish, but as a fourth year, she didn't feel she had a right to do so unless Professor Skies specifically gave her permission, something she'd never of course even have the nerve to ask.

Otherwise, if she took it upon herself to do the fifth year lesson, she might appear arrogant and make people feel bad. She didn't like being on the receiving end of that so she didn't want to do it to anyone else. Plus, they'd hate her and Kira felt like she didn't really have any wiggle room when it came this area. Though it would be immensely satisfying to be better than Kelsey, she felt she had to walk a fine line between doing what she knew she could do and not showing off. She longed to do the former, to feel she was capable of something, feel she wasn't the worst,inferior but she was terrified of the social consequences.

The best thing to do was to work with one of the third years. She could be better than they were without looking like she was showing off as older students were supposed to do better than younger ones. Of course, Kira still thought she'd be able to manage a snail better than some fifth years could manage a fish. Snails were obviously easier but the fact of the matter was, she was possibly the best Transfig student since Ryan.

She pushed that thought aside because it seemed too arrogant and she of all people had no right to be. Kira had literally three things going for her in life and two of them were things that either didn't matter to some people-she very much doubted the reason Sammy Meeks gave her a candy gram and seemed to want to talk to her on the wagon to and from Sonora had to do with her money and last name-or the ones they mattered to also had them and therefore, other than the fact that the line of heirs went through her immediate family and her mother was a Brockert,it didn't give her much of advantage with people like Caelia or the Fintocs-and especially not over Kelsey.

Still, that didn't mean she didn't want to be friends with them. For some reason, Caelia, Chuck and Daniel seemed to like her fine. Even though Caelia and Chuck liked others better. Daniel probably did too, she just didn't know what specific person he liked more.

Still, the other Crotalus was a third year so Kira sat next to him. First though, she took a look at her ball. It was plain red and obviously spherical. That wasn't too hard to figure out, it just needed to be flatter, more circular, but not too much so. After all snails were not...flat. So Kira visualized the snails she saw on the beach of St. Berylla's every year. The patterns on their shells were not necessarily what a muggle might see on a snail because this particular snail was native only to St. Berylla's and Livilia, all magical environments found on no muggle map. This sort of snail had patterns of swirling emerald green and sapphire blue applied daintily to it, as if painted but it occured perfectly natural. And on the plus side, the patterns were never complete duplicates, instead they were like finger prints, marking each snail as an individual, therefore her design couldn't be wrong.

Kira made the swirling motions with her wand, keeping in mind the snail she wanted to make. " Gastropoda " The lines weren't as vibrant as the Crotalus would have liked , but they were definitely spread throughout the snail's shell.

Satisfied with her results, she turned to Daniel. "How is yours coming along?" Kira asked.

11 Kira Spaulding, Crotalus Not really (Tag Daniel) 320 Kira Spaulding, Crotalus 0 5

Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus

January 12, 2017 9:30 PM

How realistic does my snail have to be? by Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus

Shell designs.

For what wasn't the first time since he started taking Transfiguration, Arne kind of felt like he should have been paying more attention in some of the other lessons. He knew he had the ability to do well, he just didn't care enough to. After all, he knew what it was he wanted to do. He wanted to be a metal charmer. And his O in Charms class certainly proved he had the ability if he so desired.

However the assignment Professor Skies had given them for the day, to make a really intricate pattern on a transfigured snail shell after having transfigured a rubber ball into said snail, was really exciting to the fourth year. Design work was important when it came to pleasing the customer, especially in his family. The Reinhardts had only become so famous because they were detail orientated craftsmen who worked tirelessly to please their customers. His brains were already full to bursting with ideas for his snail shell.

Just as he was imagining a wonderfully detailed Haida inspired design which came to him as he remembered some of the dancers at the last pow wow he had attended, another, dreadful thought came to him and he leaned over, worry present in his wrinkled forehead as he whispered to his neighbor "just how realistic do you think these shells need to be?"

He was fairly confident in his ability to create the design once the main part of transfiguration work had been finished, it was just the ball turning into a snail part which concerned him. Design work was like Charms, or at least that how Arne thought about it. Design work was a peace of cake.

10 Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus How realistic does my snail have to be? 319 Arne Reinhardt, Crotalus 0 5

Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

January 13, 2017 9:00 PM

Well, a bit faster than that by Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus

It was that time for Kelsey to think seriously about the future. Not that she never did that before, she had planning for her future her whole life, what with making sure she was the ideal pureblood lady. Not that it took much effort for her. Honestly she didn't know how anyone could struggle with it. It was born into her and should have been to every other pureblood female.

Of course, she didn't have to worry about a career, just finding a good husband which after midterm, she was certain would be no problem. Still, her CATS were coming up and she expected to get nothing less than Es. Just because Kelsey was a proper lady with no need for higher education or a career, that didn't mean it was okay to fail, to appear less intelligent. Doing well on magic was what made one a witch or wizard. If she couldn't do that adequately, she might as well be a Muggle .

She gave an involuntary shudder. Perish the thought! Kelsey would literally rather die than be stripped of her natural magic powers whether it meant her wand being snapped-unlikely given she would never ever take a chance on that happening-or them just plain disappearing. Of course, that too was an impossibility but the thought of not having magical abilities was a horrifying one.

Of course, her magical abilities were not in any sort of doubt and neither was her theoretical work. Ninety-nine percent of the time Kelsey received Os. And CATS were coming up, she had to do well on those. While she wasn't to make her future husband look stupid, certainly few men would want a woman of lower quality, which included brains as well as propriety and breeding, even though those other two things took precedence.

So she sat primly,her posture perfect as usual, in Transfiguration as she handed in her essay-done the day she'd returned home, Kelsey didn't like to procrastinate-and awaited today's instructions.

Headmistress Skies sent a bowl of water with a ball in it the way of all fifth years, Kelsey included. She gazed at it. While the Crotalus' mother had been a Brockert and there she shared said genetics and therefore had a true issue with Transfiguring, visualization wasn't her best thing. Truth be told, Kelsey didn't have much imagination, preferring to deal in reality, facts. After all she had no reason to pretend things were anything that they weren't or wish they were different when she had it pretty good. Plus, it was just foolish to wish for things that couldn't be.

However, her grades were important to her so she visualized her ball turning into a goldfish. The ball began to change, it's body elongated and it turned a realistic shade of orange. It even had eyes. Unfortunately,on a more close inspection it seemed to be that half the fins were missing. Kelsey sighed and decided to try again. After all she couldn't be the perfect lady if she messed up.

She was about to give it another go when someone approached. "Excuse me, can I help you with something?" Kelsey asked.

11 Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus Well, a bit faster than that 305 Kelsey Atwater, Crotalus 0 5

Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari

January 15, 2017 3:47 AM

Hopefully this will be over soon by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari

Hmm. Ball snail. Ingrid clasped her fingers in her lap to keep herself from drumming them on the table, which would have been pretty rude to Professor Skies, even if her lesson did sound kind of boring and pointless. Ingrid wasn’t the biggest fan of Transfiguration. It was complicated, and the spells were never as fun or as useful as the ones they learnt in Charms and DADA.

She took a ball when they came round, again holding it in her lap and rolling it around between her palms. She didn’t think she could not fidget altogether, and so the best option seemed to be to do it discreetly and reasonably out of sight. She heard a series of small thuds behind her that indicated someone else had been too tempted to play and had dropped their ball.

Once they were set to do their work, she took a few moments of doodling out different snails, although she couldn’t really see how they could be that interesting, and as she wasn’t great at Transfiguration, she figured she should just make your average garden snail, do it well and forgo the extra credit.

“Gastropoda,” she cast, trying to picture a snail as clearly as possible, and making the spiral with her wand which mimicked the shape of the creature’s shell. There was something snail-like on her desk when she opened her eyes, and its eyes up on their little stalks even wiggled a bit - they’d been doing that very clearly in her mind’s eye, whereas the rest of the snail’s animated-ness was quite hard to visualise, given that they weren’t the most active creatures. The shell didn’t look right though. She reached out, tentatively, to touch it. It still felt like rubber. She picked the snail up - at which point it retracted inside the not quite shell - and dropped it on her desk. It bounced. In fact, it bounced, rolled and went under someone else’s desk. Ingrid moved round, her heart sinking as she saw whose desk it had gone under. Kelsey Atwater’s. She knew Kelsey was society, and so she was supposed to like her. At the very least, she was supposed to feel equal to her, and not put off or intimidated. But Kelsey was just so… by the book. Perfect lady, perfect Crotalus, to the point where it seemed like she verged on a little snooty. Ingrid wasn’t sure she had a sense of humour, much less would see the funny side of a half transfigured snail having bounced under her desk.

”Excuse me, can I help you with something?”

She had obviously noticed Ingrid’s approach. She felt her temper flair a little at Kelsey’s implication that she was an unwelcome intrusion. They were supposed to be equals. But it wouldn’t do any good to get mad at the other girl.

“I believe my snail has bounced under your desk,” she replied, using the tone she usually reserved for greeting people at parties, and trying to maintain as much dignity as she could muster whilst using it to utter such ridiculous phrases. “It still seems to be part rubber, you see. Might I retrieve it, please?”

13 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari Hopefully this will be over soon 322 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Pecari 0 5

Aislinn

January 17, 2017 7:38 PM

True, I suppose. by Aislinn

Aislinn found herself loaded down suddenly with the materials that Laila had been holding. She was curious to see what the other girl had come across, but didn’t really have a chance to peek at them before she was handing them back over in place of the book she had asked for. “Thank you,” she said with a smile of gratitude.

The Aladren chuckled when Laila mentioned how she hadn’t even realized she had grown. “I wish I could grow more. I always feel like I’m looking up to everyone else. But sadly, I think I’m finished.” Neither she nor Sutton had grown anymore in the last couple of years. If she were hopeful, maybe she would grow another inch or two, but it was doubtful. She remembered when they were younger and everyone seemed to be the same height. They were all short and they all looked up to everyone. It continued like that for awhile until changes started happening.

It was that sort of thing that made life complicated. She wished that she could just pack up all of those sorts of things and not have to worry about it. She wished she could change being attracted to who she was attracted to. Not because she found anything wrong with him. No, she found him quite admirable, but it was simply that if she didn’t have these feelings, then there would be no complication. She would simply be able to have a conversation with anyone, which would be absolutely fantastic. Really, people would just be able to talk to other people and there would be no wondering if they felt the same way or having that odd talk of being friends or the even more dreadful breakup moment.

Of course, Aislinn wasn’t fortunate enough to not have moment like that. Instead, she had awkwardness of Book Club, where she couldn’t avoid John, as much as she wished to, because if she did drop out of the club, it could just signal so many things like that she really did like him or that she didn’t like him or that she was embarrassed, which she was, but no one else needed to know that, or that was the other possibility, people would figure out how she felt. She didn’t actually think John would mention it to anyone since she had come to think that the candygram had been insignificant and rightly so, since he could have anyone he wanted.

“I started reading the Blood Moon Rising series that you had recommended in book club,” Aislinn continued. “It’s rather interesting. Though, I can’t imagine having her problem of so many…suitors.” She thought that was the best phrasing for the moment.

0 Aislinn True, I suppose. 297 Aislinn 0 5

Ben Pierce, Pecari

January 19, 2017 12:40 PM

Red Sox Slugger by Ben Pierce, Pecari

Ben sat next to Kyte today in transfiguration. As such, he didn't really expect to be able to listen to the whole lecture before his roommate started going off on a tangent, but it was a few classes since he last sat next to Kyte, so he figured he'd catch enough to be able to do the lesson. And Kyte's tangents were always more interesting to listen to than the lecture material was.

Kyte actually managed to make it all the way through this time before speaking up, and even then it seemed prompted by the ball he retrieved from the floor rather than whatever thoughts were flying around his brain. Ben had been a bit distracted by watching him contact juggle earlier, before he'd dropped it, but Ben felt he'd caught most of what Skies had been saying.

"Totally in," he promised in regards to the juggling practice proposed for later. After two and a half years of living with and being friends with a bona fide circus performer, Ben could manage a basic three ball juggle now for a good thirty seconds, but he was hoping to hit a full minute at least once before summer.

There it was. Ben smiled and nodded acceptance of the factoid that the Amazon had more kinds of slugs than had already been discovered everywhere else. This meshed with his understanding that rainforests had loads of undiscovered species so he didn't question it. He also accepted the cure for cancer was going to be destroyed by clear-cutters and expressed his dismay at the short sightedness of Evil Polluters.

"Really?" he asked, as the idea of licking slugs was a new one for him, but willing to accept Kyte's experiences were probably more well rounded than his own on the subject of hallucinogenic frogs, slugs, and plants. "You'd think that would keep people from cutting them down," he suggested, his tone deep with derision for the planet destroying actions of Bad People.

"You do that," Ben agreed to Kyte's decision to make his slug bright yellow. "Mine's gonna be red," he decided, because he liked red and if there was a yellow slug out there somewhere, there was probably a red one, too. "It's probably poisonous though," he concluded, "because most red things are, so you probably shouldn't lick mine."

He cast his spell. He was quite good at mimicking wand motions, as his interests in sports had developed a good eye hand coordination for him, and his pronunciation was usually decent, if somewhat impaired by his Boston accent. He was getting better at pronouncing his Rs though. He hit the one in Gastropoda just right (the ones at the end of syllables were harder) and his ball flattened and elongated. It had no eyes at all, in contrast to Kyte's, but it had the two stalks extending out of the one side, indicating that end was its head.

The head lifted and turned about, stalks feeling about as it was most likely blind without eyes. It was a satisfying red, with a white underbelly, and could easily pass for a Red Sox inspired slug, had God been a Sox fan and had the slug existed in real life.

Ben nudged at it, and it turned its head toward his finger but didn't try to creep away. In fact, the head seemed to be the only part of his slug moving at all. "Not bad," he decided, "but I'm not sure it can walk." He looked over at Kyte's, "Oh, that's a cool pattern."

1 Ben Pierce, Pecari Red Sox Slugger 339 Ben Pierce, Pecari 0 5

Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus

January 21, 2017 7:32 PM

Cocky, are we? by Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus

Transfiguration was not the easiest subject. It required a lot of brainpower and concentration. Daniel put a lot of effort into his studies and it paid off more often than not, but sometimes no matter how much you read or how prompt you were with your homework, things didn’t go the way they were supposed to.

Before coming to Sonora, Dan had believed that he had the brains to achieve great things. At home he was the smart one, the one they’d all predicted to be sorted into Aladren, but here he wasn’t at the very top of the class (or his year group). Daniel was likely among the top of the class but he had to fight to be there. He worked very hard to achieve the grades he wanted, and even then he was sometimes a little disappointed (although he knew many people would be envious of his grades). He was smart, he could do it, but it wasn’t ever easy and he was a fool for ever thinking that it would be. It could have been easy, if he was the sort to be satisfied with “decent” grades but Daniel had aspirations and was aiming for the top. He had to push for that.

Chuck told him that he took it all far too seriously, which Dan didn’t appreciate at all. He recognised that he was a few years off CATS yet but that didn’t mean that he could slack off along the way. The things he was learning now would all contribute to his CATS, so it was better to make use of the practising opportunities given to him so that he was as prepared as he possibly could be when the time came for things to really matter.

It was funny though, that he in his third year seemed to work so much harder and take things much more seriously than Chuck, who was facing his CATS at the end of the school term. But at the end of the day he supposed that Chuck didn’t need to do anything he didn’t want to. Chuck already seemed to have everything he wanted, whereas Daniel didn’t know exactly what it was he wanted. All he knew was that he needed to be successful so that he could really go places when he graduated. There was no way that he could spend the rest of his life living in Chuck’s big fat shadow.

Dan had been curious and had a peek at the essay that Chuck had been set to do over the midterm break but it was CATS standard, which he had to admit was two years too advanced for him. So instead Aunt Karen had set him an essay to write for her. Chuck had laughed at him for that. But then Gwen asked Aunt Karen to set her one as well, which had kind of shut Chuck up, and made Dan feel less silly. Dan and Gwen had always taken their tutoring so much more seriously than the rest of the Fintoc kids and it was nice to be able to do some work for Aunt Karen again over the holidays and show her how much they’d learnt at Sonora.

Daniel greeted Kira briefly when she sat down next to him, before turning his attention to Professor Skies as she began the class. He was keen to get on with the task, now that he felt quite practised and confident in turning animate objects into inanimate objects. Doing it the other way around was the next step up and Daniel looked forward to the challenge.

That was, until he remembered that Kira Spaulding was sitting next to him. Suddenly it was less about learning a new skill and more about how he’d look in front of her. What should he do? Go for the slug first because that was more likely to turn out right? Or go for the snail because that was the more challenging, impressive option?

Daniel stared at his ball, before closing his eyes for a brief moment. He needed to get his head straight. This was stupid. Kira didn’t care whether he transfigured the ball into a slug or a snail, right? He wasn’t used to having a crush on someone he shared classes with so the idea of them judging him on his academic ability was new to him. But Daniel was here to learn and right now he was overthinking things and jeopardizing his own education.

“Gastropoda,” Daniel muttered, sounding a little annoyed, as he pointed his wand at the ball. Instead of turning into a slug, the ball now presented itself as a misshapen rubbery blob. The Crotalus sighed.

Kira interrupted his miserable thoughts by asking him how he was getting along. Daniel poked the blob of rubber with his wand, lifting it off the desk to show her. “Not great,” he said with a rueful smile.

He glanced at Kira’s work and did a little double take. Okay, so she’d done a snail and given it a nice patterned shell. “Oh wow, nice job,” he commented.

“I- I’m not usually this terrible,” Daniel told her hastily, jabbing the rubber blob again with his wand. “I guess I’m just a bit distracted today.” Why did he say that?

“So, you, uh, like Transfiguration?” he asked, making a lame attempt to change the subject quickly in case she might enquire as to why he was so distracted.

Way to go Dan.

8 Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus Cocky, are we? 333 Daniel Fintoc, Crotalus 0 5

Kyte

January 27, 2017 9:00 AM

I see what you did there by Kyte

“Yeah, but they’re too obsessed with making money to bother with fun stuff like that,” Kyte explained when Ben mentioned how the presence of hallucinogenic slugs should have been a deterrent to destroying the rainforests. ‘They’ featured heavily in Kyte’s disparagements, although any specific detail as to who ‘they’ were was usually omitted. In general, ‘they’ seemed to encapsulate the establishment, in forms ranging from official agents of MACUSA to anyone who had to habitually wear a suit or was motivated by turning a large profit at the expense of some basic value like love, nature or puppies. Or hallucinogenic slugs. “If they’d just try it, they’d probably lighten up a bunch.” The world would, in Kyte’s view, be a much better place, if people just spent more time chilling out, and perhaps ingesting questionable substances.

“That’s cool,” he nodded, about Ben’s slug being red. To Kyte, red was a deeply mixed bag of things, symbolising as it did passion - a force which could be positive or negative - along with blood and power. It was a strong colour. A bold colour, that symbolised the basic needs of human instinct. It could be the driving force of a pioneer or brutal rage. He also knew, that to Ben, it mostly represented his sports team. Kyte didn’t really get sport, or why Ben - or anyone else, for that matter - allowed the fate of a small group of men wearing a jersey with the name of his town on it to dictate his prevailing mood at any given time. He thought he might almost understand it if those people actually came from there. He didn’t really have a home town, but he got that it was a thing that most people did and that maybe, if you really liked yours, you’d be proud by extension of what the other people from it did, the same way he could be proud of Raine or his cousins. But in professional sports, the players came from all over. It was just about which team could buy in the best. However, even without really knowing why Ben cared so enthusiastically about the subject, Kyte knew that he did, and he always made the appropriate celebratory or consoling remarks whenever news of the Red Sox’s fate was reported to him because that was what friends did. Even if he didn’t have a personal emotional reaction to it, Ben did, and he could be happy or sad about Ben’s feelings without having to understand why he felt them.

“Duly noted,” he nodded, when Ben warned him it might be poisonous, “You can lick mine if you want,” he offered. First though, he had to finish it.

“Thanks. It was kind of accidental but maybe I’ll keep it,” he smiled, when Ben complemented his slug’s pattern. He returned it to its previous state. It seemed like he needed to focus on its… aliveness more. He tried to bring that into his mental picture, even though it wasn’t a very visible characteristic but more… a sense. Alive things had a vitality that you could feel.

”Gastropoda,” he cast. This time was better. It retained its previous slug-like qualities and had definitely lost at least some if not all of the rubbery look. He wasn’t sure it was one-hundred percent an alive slug, although it was quite hard to tell.

“Hey, how do we know when we’re done?” he asked Ben. “I mean… it’s not like they do a lot.”

13 Kyte I see what you did there 335 Kyte 0 5

Kira

February 02, 2017 1:57 PM

Sure. And Kelsey absolutely loves Muggles. by Kira

Kira blushed when Daniel complimented her on her work. Praise was not something she was too accustomed to. What she was accustomed to was standing by ignored while others-mostly Kelsey- were complimented and honored. She gave a shy smile as she replied "Thank you."

She was sorry to see that it wasn't going well for him though and she didn't know quite what to say. Kira wasn't usually the one comforting other and honestly, she hadn't grown up being comforted. Her parents way of doing so was to tell her she didn't have to do what she wasn't good at. Well, for the most part anyway, there were still some things she had to do that she was awful at like ballroom dancing.

And unfortunately, this fell in the category of things Daniel had to do. She couldn't very well tell him not to do an assignment! Plus, Transfiguration was an important part of magic.

Still, the younger Crotalus was her friend and she didn't want him to feel bad. It was not a pleasant feeling and Kira wouldn't wish that on anyone. "It's not that bad. I mean, yeah it's not a slug but at least you got some results. I can't imagine most people are doing better than that."

She gave an encouraging smile. "Like, try envisioning a slug. I mean, it's not that easy if you haven't really looked at slugs and what reason would you have for looking at slugs in depth? I mean, I'm not even sure the pattern on mine is accurate and I think it's usually a bit brighter on the actual snails." Maybe if Daniel didn't think hers were perfect, he wouldn't feel so bad. Being next to perfection and coming up short was a truly awful feeling.

"And, think of similarities and differences between the ball and slug...."Kira trailed off, her face growing hot. She was suddenly aware that she was babbling and being awkward again. And what if Daniel thought she was being bossy. "Sorry, I'm just trying to help, I'm not trying to like, order you around or anything."

Kira took a breath and sat back. "Yes, I guess I do really like it. It's my favorite class. I like Charms too. Just wand work in general." She didn't add that it was because she was good at it because that sounded like bragging and arrogance was not an appealing trait in a person.

11 Kira Sure. And Kelsey absolutely loves Muggles. 320 Kira 0 5

Daniel

February 03, 2017 1:12 PM

I wouldn't advise that. by Daniel

Daniel didn’t like being told how to do things by a girl and it was especially humiliating because it was Kira. It was patronizing but he knew she didn’t mean it like that. She was just trying to make him feel better so he should probably suck it up and smile, because at least she was giving him the time of day. That had to mean she cared at least a little bit, right?

The young Crotalus refrained from snorting when she inferred that he might not know what slugs looked like. He lived on a ranch back home so it was impossible to go through life without finding some slugs on a bucket that got left out or something. But again, that wasn’t the point and he shouldn’t be applying his normal reactions to things to this situation. This was different because it was Kira and he didn’t want her to think he got grumpy every time things didn’t go his way.

Daniel didn’t think he’d directed his irritation about his failings at Kira but he couldn’t help worrying that it had come across that way because she went rather pink and started apologising for giving advice. He was mortified, although at the same time Kira being a bit embarrassing was kind of cute (not that Dan wished embarrassment upon her of course).

“It’s okay,” Dan said hastily. “It’s helpful, honestly. It’s good to know you believe in me.”

There he was again! What an idiot. Did he just want to come right out and tell her how he felt already? Well, yes he kind of did but he for some reason he just couldn’t. It took a lot of guts to do something like that and he had no reason to believe that the feelings would be mutual.

“I like Charms too,” he smiled at her. It was his favourite subject, which she might be surprised by given his current practical disaster. “I think Transfiguration theory is really interesting though,” he added. Kira had specified that she liked wand work but Dan thought sharing his interest in theory would make him sound more intelligent. Intelligence was attractive. Daniel knew that he, for one, had always ranked it very highly. He didn’t need to be sorted into Aladren to continue to appreciate it.

The third year returned to glaring at the blob he had created. He would never admit to needing the help but Kira’s words of advice did echo in his mind and got his head back in the game somewhat. It wasn’t that he didn’t know what to do but he’d been unfocused so needed someone to prompt him to concentrate on what he was trying to achieve.

“Gastropoda,” Daniel tried again, pointing his wand at the object he was trying to transfigure and picturing the slug he wanted to turn it into.

And sure enough, the rubber blob transfigured into a bog standard brown slug. Not very creative but that didn’t matter right now. He’d done it, he could breathe again. Daniel turned to Kira again with a smile. “There. Check you out, professor,” he said teasingly.

8 Daniel I wouldn't advise that. 333 Daniel 0 5

Laila

February 13, 2017 1:59 PM

Thatta girl, keep your head up ;) by Laila

“Well, you never know,” Laila joked. “Your bones might surprise you and decide to jump you up a couple inches.” She adjusted the rolled-up parchments in her hand so she could look down at herself better as though calculating her height just from looking at her legs. “I’m not sure how I feel about growing. It means getting rid of some dresses I was really fond of.” I couldn’t save them even if I wanted to, she thought to herself. Mamma would probably call me a tart.

“I mean at least I can reach more places without a guy though. Maybe if I grow even more I won’t ever need one. Wouldn’t that be lovely?” For anyone who knew Laila, they knew she leaned towards the boy-crazy side of things. She didn’t run around professing her love for anyone, but she always seemed to have a different boy in her mind and she frequently commented on so-and-so’s appearances to her friends. However, alongside the boy-crazyness Laila also liked to be a bit self-derisive which meant acknowledging that even though boys were amazingly cute and funny and talented and everything good there was about anything, they were also a lot stupider than girls too (mainly because they didn’t pay her the attention she wanted from them) which meant from time to time she decided boys weren’t worth it at all. Today was one of those days.

Besides, recently she had thought to set her sights higher than a mere-boy and she was starting to realize the benefits.

Laila laughed. “No, I can’t imagine that either, but it’s fun to think about isn’t it?” Sometimes Laila dreamed of a world where three different guys wanted her attention. Maybe if she hadn’t been a witch she would have at least two, but as it was she was a Muggleborn who went to a school where half the guys wouldn’t even look her way because of society limits despite how pretty she was. “I mean, I know it’s not amazing writing and certainly John would never enjoy them (even if it was funny to see his face when I suggested the series) but it’s so addicting and fun to read!”

She leaned in conspiratorially. “Sometimes I wish there was a vampire or werewolf at Sonora who was so in love with me he stayed away because he was afraid of hurting me. I mean a werewolf would be so passionate but a vampire…” Laila trailed off and pretended to fan herself. “H-O-T.” She grinned. “Don’t you think?”

10 Laila Thatta girl, keep your head up ;) 318 Laila 0 5