Something about rising from the dead? on Transfiguration

Professor Skies

April 21, 2019 8:25 AM

Beginners - Easter Eggs by Professor Skies

“Good morning,” Professor Skies greeted the beginners’ class. The weather outside was shifting - both in the sense of that particular morning, which had begun with overcast skies and a spot of rain but which looked like it might clear into a nice day by lunchtime - and in the broader sense, with the general pattern of the weather across days. Yes, there were abrupt and unexpected cold days, contrasted with startlingly warm ones, but overall it was shifting into being milder and warmer, if also somewhat wetter, and unmistakably, spring was in the air.

“Today, we are going to be having a fun little challenge in class, in celebration of the season and of Easter. You are going to be working to make foil-wrapped eggs. Now, you will not be creating chocolate today - can anyone tell me why?” she asked. Gamp’s Law was covered in more depth later on in their studies, but those who had grown up in a magical household or who had gone ahead in their reading might well have been able to tell her the answer.

“Instead, you are going to be using a hard-boiled egg, and your aim is to turn the shell into pretty, colourful foil. You will be exercising two skills by doing this. The first is, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, design-work,” the fact that making their projects prettier or more intricate would always earn extra credit had been a mainstay of class since their first day. During the first half of the year, this had mainly been asked of the second years, as a way to up the challenge for themselves whilst first years still got to grips with the basics, but since Midterm, the first years had received encouragement to start making their mark.

“The second skill you’re working on is your degree of control. You are to transfigure only the shell of the egg - whilst it may seem easier to transfigure only a smaller amount of an item, it does require a greater degree of precision that you’ve been using up until now. I will be unwrapping each of your eggs at the end to determine how well you’ve done with this.

“To give you some added incentive, and to celebrate the holiday season, the two prettiest eggs - one from each year group - will win a large chocolate egg,” she indicated the brightly wrapped prizes on her desk, “Everyone else will receive a small egg for their efforts,” she added.

“The spell for this is aluminus, and you will need to make a smooth sweeping wand motion around your egg,” she demonstrated, producing a pretty wrapper in graded shades of blue with differing swirls or circles on each band.

“Before beginning, you should make notes on the similarities and differences between what you’re starting with and what you’re aiming for to help you with the visualisation process. You may also want to sketch out your design - for some people that helps with their visualisations.

“You may talk quietly to your neighbours. Raise your hand if you need my help. You may begin.”

OOC OOC - welcome to Transfiguration. Posting here can earn you house points! Posts should be a minimum of 200 words and will be graded on length, realism, relevance (how well you deal with the class content) and creativity.

Posts are marked out of character, based on the quality of the writing, so a character who says they are doing badly but does so in a well-written and detailed way can still score full points. You are now part way through this term, so first years should consistently get some results on their first try unless something is very wrong, but no one is likely to get it perfect on the first go.

You are being supervised, so if things are going wrong, Selina would step in before anything got terribly out of hand. Please tag me in the subject line if there’s something that needs my attention.

Have fun, have a go, if you’re unsure about anything, ask on the OOC or in chatzy.

Subthreads:

Something about rising from the dead? by Evelyn Stones, Pecari with Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari

I could do this wrong in my sleep! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw with Jessica Hayles, Crotalus

Cracks by Sophia Priory, Aladren

I really hate competing by Allegra Brockert, Crotalus with Isabella Harrington, Aladren

I actually have a chance by Bridget Ferguson,Teppenpaw

13 Professor Skies Beginners - Easter Eggs 26 Professor Skies 1 5

Evelyn Stones, Pecari

April 22, 2019 4:50 PM

Something about rising from the dead? by Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Evelyn was determined to . . . basically just to not suck. She had been doing her best to study with Ness and take a leaf out of the Aladren's book (of which there were many, figuratively and literally) in terms of academic and magical success. Transfiguration was certainly not a skill Evelyn had developed, despite great leaps in progress in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Charms. Somehow, Transfiguration just didn't sit with her.

She liked Professor Skies a great deal, particularly after the woman had been so instrumental in saving her entire life (a favor which was hard to forget), and Evelyn wanted very badly to please her. Beyond that, she liked the idea of Transfiguration, and the Easter season seemed fitting. Although the holiday was situated firmly in Judeo-Christian faiths, there was some beauty in the story of a deity sending their offspring to take on the form of their subjects and die to save them. And then rising from the dead? That was sort of a transfiguration, right? Of course, "the transfiguration of Christ" was an event all on its own, but whatever.

Putting thoughts of religious doctrine and eschatology aside, Evelyn focused on her egg. It was sort of cute in a weird way. She'd always liked the idea of little babies hanging out inside an egg until they were deemed ready and then they came popping out of their shell. Talk about entering with a bang. Or crunch and shatter as the case may be.

Although Evelyn was excited about this project, particularly since she tended to be a detail person more than a big picture person and thought she might have an advantage there in terms of separating the shell of the egg from the contents of the egg, she wasn't sure about the creative side of things. What sort of design did she want to make? She thought about it while she took notes on the similarities and differences of the eggs she was working to transfigure.

Differences: The egg is currently all one color, whereas when I'm done it will be different on the outside than the inside.

She liked Fabergé eggs, but was completely sure she wasn't going to be able to create that.

Similarities: Both eggs will have a distinct inside and outside, regardless.

What about something closer to home? She thought of some of the sports teams from Oregon, but decided that she didn't care enough to do those any justice.

Similarities: The new egg and the old egg will have the same density of shell, as I'm only changing the appearance, not the material.

What about even closer to home? The thought came to her as she was brushing her hair out of her face. It was simple, but blue, pink, and purple streaks to match her hair seemed easy enough, and it was definitely a color scheme she had spent a lot of time thinking about for all sorts of reasons recently. That was a whole separate issue, that she hoped wouldn't influence her egg to break or something. Maybe the strength of her feelings about the bi-flag would help her, instead? She was prone to magical outbursts when she was emotional. Yay.

She took a moment to write out a few more differences and similarities and sketched a basic design: blue, pink, and purple streaks, with triangles outlined in white in a sort of repeating geometric design. It seemed fitting, considering what bi was, and what she . . . well it seemed fitting.

Evelyn was surprised to find a deep sense of irritation as she worked. Why was this something that was on her mind so much recently? Why couldn't she just focus on her studies and not be so worried about things that shouldn't matter right now anyway? She pulled out her wand, gripping it hard, and took a deep breath.

Relocating her egg so that it was on top of her paper, next to the design she was working from, Evelyn took another deep breath. "Aluminus," she whispered, doing her best to copy the motion that Professor Skies had used. Then she groaned.

Turning to her neighbor, she held up her piece of paper, now bright pink, with white lettering. It shimmered, a hint of foil plain in the new coloring. "Does this count for half credit do you think?" she asked.

22 Evelyn Stones, Pecari Something about rising from the dead? 1422 Evelyn Stones, Pecari 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari

May 02, 2019 4:33 PM

That would help; I think I may be killing us all by Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari

Hilda entered the transfiguration room with little expectation of having a good day. She had gotten rained on when walking over to breakfast, and she was of the opinion that might actually be the morning’s highlight. Charms had not disabused her of the notion and she had little reason to think Transfiguration would be any different. The weather - rain notwithstanding - was getting nicer now and being stuck all day in classrooms and being talked at in English was getting old. It was still months away, but Hilda was totally ready for summer to start right now.

Unfortunately, the calendar insisted it was still spring, and Hilda was more than a little mad at it for that. Stupid thing didn’t even have ducks on it this month, just little chicks.

She slumped into a seat and did not hide her grumpiness at being stuck inside. From her look out the window, it looked like the rain had stopped and it might be thinking of clearing up entirely. She thought she might skip lunch if it did, get outside, try to shake some of this cabin fever.

First though, she had to get through another transfiguration lesson. As usual, she didn’t understand most of the lecture, but she recognized the word ‘chocolate’ and she was sure she heard ‘grumps’ in somebody’s response to a question, and Professor Skies seemed happy with that answer, which made her wonder if the classroom consensus was that the winter had been too long and chocolate was necessary to combat the months of being cooped up indoors.

Quidditch practice in bitter cold weather did not count as a reprieve.

The flow of English from the front of the room ended, only to be picked up by a quieter onslaught of English from her peers. Lecture was over. Classwork had begun.

Fortunately, she had picked up on the important cues that told her what she should be doing even without understanding a word of the lecture. Professor Skies had demonstrated turning an egg into a foil wrapped candy, and she had an egg sitting in front of her, so obviously that was what they were supposed to be doing.

Letters on the board informed her of the incantation, and Transfiguration was all about visualization, so it was a bit more forgiving than Charms if she didn’t get the incantation just right. Sure, there might be some side effects like a bad smell or a small fire, but usually the transfiguration itself still worked, more or less.

Hilda pulled out a sheet of parchment and filled out a transfiguration table - in German, of course - which noted that the shape and size would remain unchanged, but the shell would become foil and the inside chocolate. She decided to keep things simple and not try to fill it with caramel or anything fancy like that.

She wasn’t entirely sure if she knew how to transfigure taste, but doubted Professor Skies would be testing that part too much. As long as it looked and felt like chocolate it would probably be fine. Besides, Gamp’s Law meant it would still essentially be a hardboiled egg for all nutritious purposes. You can’t create food with magic, after all.

She kind of wished she had the English to raise her hand and ask if this would work to turn broccoli into chocolate so it could taste good but still have all the nutritional benefits of a vegetable.

Maybe Heinrich would know. She’d ask him later.

For her foil design - being extra creative in decorative flourishes was a grade saver that did not make up for how badly she did on in class tests and quizzes where she couldn’t ask for translation help but it did at least mitigate the damage - she decided on swirly pattern of pastel colors, which she sketched out in the box for appearance differences.

She was still working on the finer details when the girl next to her said something in English. She was holding up a paper that had turned to foil instead of her egg. Hilda covered her mouth as a small involuntary giggle escaped. “You get small points?” she guessed, hoping she was correctly translating the older girl’s expression and tone of mixed dismay and hope, if not her words. “I try.”

She looked over her notes one more time, then lifted her wand over her egg and attempted the spell. There was immediately a puff of yellow smoke and the horrible sulfuric stench of rotten egg.

Hilda waved her hand rapidly in front of her nose and gagged a little. “Ugh! Das ist schrecklich!”

OOC: For anyone trying to find ‘grumps’ in Selina’s lecture, Hilda misheard ‘Gamp’s’. Also google translate tells me ‘das ist schrecklich!’ means ‘that is awful!’

1 Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari That would help; I think I may be killing us all 1433 Hilda Hexenmeister, Pecari 0 5

Evelyn Stones

May 02, 2019 8:29 PM

Nooooo by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn felt instantly dumb for her initial comment to her classmate when she realized which classmate she'd spoken to. She was usually so thoughtful about the students in her classes that didn't speak English as a first language, and made a point of not rambling off nonsensically when she said hi to them. She wondered, now, whether that meant she was obsessing over the very things they were trying to put aside, but she'd seen Hilda with her little card deck out before, advertising that she didn't speak English much, and few people were so blatantly stubborn as this girl. So Evelyn pushed aside her worries.

"It smells like egg, though!" Evelyn said when an obnoxious smell erupted from the younger student's attempt. "I think you aged it."

When the air cleared, partly due to her hand waving, Evelyn smiled. "I'm terrible at transfiguration," she told her partner in a low voice. "Honestly, I'm the worst. At least we don't have to change the whole egg. If it weren't impossible anyway, I'm sure we'd have to try."

Leaning forward to look at Hilda's design, Evelyn again held up her foiled paper. "I like that," she said. "I'd show you mine, but . . . you know."

22 Evelyn Stones Nooooo 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

May 07, 2019 1:05 AM

I could do this wrong in my sleep! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

Johana Leonie wasn't entirely sure what they were doing in class, but she was pretty sure she could do it. The thought was a bit intimidating, as she was well aware that she wasn't really supposed to be able to do much of anything, but this was something she'd seen done and even practiced a little at home when her parents weren't looking. There was nothing so formal as this then, and of course, they didn't use the Latin incantation, but it was a spell she was vaguely familiar with. Beyond that, she liked it.

The Easter Tree, full of decorated eggs, was a yearly tradition at the Zauberhexen home, and Johana Leonie and Friederike Albert had spent a lot of time together decorating eggs for their patients to enjoy whilst bedridden. Of course, their parents could do fun things like make the eggs change every so often, and somehow the patients always thought they'd just blinked and missed a new detail or something. Still, Johana Leonie and Friederike Albert had made a contest of painting and clearing the prettiest eggs, and sometimes their designs even managed to include a little magic. Accidentally having experienced this before was good enough, right?

She wasn't sure why the professor's was so shiny, and thought it was perhaps just a design choice, but she wrote it down just in case. She was almost definitely missing something, which made everything that much harder. She took a few more minutes to write some notes, trying to fill herself with homemade memories as she thought of her own design.

At first, she tried the spell with no results. Frustrated, she put her wand down and thought about what she and Friederike Albert had always done at home: surprised each other. She was pretty sure she couldn't do anything fancy without her wand now that she'd started to control her magic that way, but maybe she could still use her hands a little too. That was, after all, the way of German hedgemagic, and the Zauberhexens were nothing if not a little unorthodox.

Picking up her egg and clutching it in one hand, covering as much of it as possible and closing her eyes, Johana Leonie waved her wand and murmured as close to the incantation as she could manage. She thought of the last egg she'd seen Friederike Albert make: a pretty yellow flower with pink roses. Of course, he'd actually only managed to drop the egg and it had picked up the print from the table cloth, but still. It was magic, and that's what counted.

When she was done, the egg felt much much heavier than she thought it was probably supposed to. While her design had appeared on the surface as she'd intended, it was more embossed than painted, as the egg had become solidly metal. Or at least . . . she was pretty sure that's what happened. She set it down on the desk in front of her and stared at it, her mouth open in surprise.

"Das ist nicht richtig... " Johana Leonie turned to the nearest student and pointed at her egg. She realized that she didn't have most of the right words for what she wanted to ask, and found herself frustrated by that. At least she'd be learning more than one thing today. "The spell, that is for the making . . . the mirror rock? Das Metall?"

She flicked her egg with her nail, resulting in a solid plink plink! which helped her make her point. She was pretty sure the German and English words for metal were similar anyway. "Is not correct what I did."

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw I could do this wrong in my sleep! 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw 0 5

Jessica Hayles, Crotalus

May 08, 2019 8:29 PM

Do wrong, right. by Jessica Hayles, Crotalus

"There's nothing like an early sky
Lit up before the dew is dry
It casts a gentle spell on me
In its pastel majesty

None of sunset's orange is there
Peach and rose fill the bright cool air
And stretch up, up, up, into silver and blue
As clouds thin, and the firmament breaks through

The moon hovers on, a silver round,
Even as the horizon becomes sun-crowned
Apollo and Artemis are joined for an hour
And fraternal joy gives them a brief common power

Happy is the house where siblings live in harmony!
Perhaps this is why the dawn always ensnares me.
Heavy is my head, grainy is my eye,
But at these lustrous sights, I forget to sigh

The spell must break all too directly
The sun must surge above the pine tree
Warm amber must turn to molten gold
The moon must leave the family fold -

But for a single narrow hour
The sky alone has the power
To wake up happiness in me
And inspire poetry..

Jessica was not happy with the poem. Its images were all tired, overused. Its rhymes were simple. Its lines were too uneven. It seemed to move at random between the high-flung and old-fashioned and the pedestrian - it bordered on bathos, but wasn't amusing enough to make the leap. There were lines in the second stanza which she liked, but overall, it was trash.

It was, however, a complete poem - the first she had written in almost two months. She also thought of it more as a diary entry more than a true poem, though it had gone through two drafts - the first had been scrawled while watching the sun come up outside her window, the second over breakfast, improving on a few of its flaws with better words. She also had several other pages clipped into her binder - two were covered, front and back, with neat copies of the fragments and false starts she had made since her abilities had briefly failed her, and on one, she had started trying to organize these and fill in gaps between them - she had half a thought about trying to compose them all together into a sort of stream-of-consciousness narrative poem about losing one's mind. There were good lines among them, after all, and she thought the result might form something like modern verse - something she had never really understood or gotten the hang of. Perhaps, she thought in her present good humor, she had simply needed to go mad first; perhaps that was the key to it all.

It was amazing, she thought as she looked over her manuscripts, what having a purpose in life could do for one's outlook on said life.

As she looked at Professor Skies, she had to struggle not to smile. Skies had probably noticed that Jessica was finally making a focused, determined effort to be a good witch, but she was sure the woman didn't expect smiles from her, not yet. Jessica would have to progress further before the hag was likely to believe her truly brainwashed, a good little cultist who could be trusted.

Easter. The word brought up associations which made it easier not to smile, memories of home and her family - this was the first year since she was born that she supposed she wouldn't have an Easter dress. While she had never, at least since she was about seven or eight, been sure about whether or not she believed in God, she had also always enjoyed the ceremonies and services surrounding Easter in the Methodist church she had also attended every Easter (plus most general Sundays, before All This) since she was born. Plus egg hunts, and chocolate, and the teas and luncheons and dinner parties and china, and the flowers -

Perhaps she could write about that later. Perhaps. She had thought late last year that writing about her feelings helped, but now she thought that perhaps it had helped drag her down to that point where she hadn't been able to write anything for a while. It wasn't something she could do now, though, anyway. A problem for another time.

For now, her mind was engrossed with another problem - specifically, whether or not this task might actually have a point, specifically, whether it made sense to think that this task meant it was theoretically possible to turn Skies' skin into metal someday, trapping her in a conscious, frozen living hell with no possibility of anyone paying any attention to her distaste for the position.

It would be appropriately, horrifically gruesome if it could be done, but Jessica wasn't sure. When they peeled boiled eggs at home, they seemed to have a membrane between the egg and the shell; would that correspond to the lower levels of the skin? If so, could the transformation be accomplished on a living subject, in such a way it didn't kill the patient outright? She remembered the delicate, layered models of human insides - the organs and veins and vessels - they had made in school. The skin had to have blood to live, and the layers were joined up, so would turning even some epidermis to metal lead to the whole system collapsing over a short period of time, or to metal poisoning or something?

So much to learn before she could know. Perhaps she would write some lines about an iron woman to make sure she didn't forget - she had so much to take into consideration, after all. Now that she paid attention to it, she could see that this world was just brimming with things that could be used to Make It Pay.

However, she was a long way from being able to do that. She was still struggling with these small tasks. Sighing, she picked up her magic stick and began another round of practice.

Unintelligible sound caught her ear, and she looked up at her neighbor - one of the German girls. Her eyes widened as they took in what her classmate had produced, even as her brain filed away the phrase 'mirror rock' and something more creative than anything she could have produced.

"It's like a Faberge egg," she said in her soft accent, saying the first thing that came to mind, before she realized what German Girl (Jessica had not bothered learning one from the other before Christmas) was saying. "Yes, it's metal - it looks like metal." Jessica suppressed a flash of jealousy at the girl's obviously superior skills. "We were supposed to..."

She couldn't say what they were supposed to have done exactly - if German Girl could understand, she would have understood it when Skies had said it.

"The outside of the egg should be...thin metal," she said, hoping thin made sense. "Like a metal blanket around the egg. Does that make sense?"

16 Jessica Hayles, Crotalus Do wrong, right. 1442 Jessica Hayles, Crotalus 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

May 09, 2019 1:39 AM

But then who does right, wrong? by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

Johana Leonie beamed at the girl and her luck. Seriously, was everyone at Sonora just the nicest person ever? Well . . . she knew that wasn't true. Still, this girl was nice!

Johana Leonie chuckled softly and waved a hand at the comment about Faberge eggs. That would've been wonderful, but she'd already given up on wanting it to look like that. "You have much nice," she told the girl, blushing a little. "But mein egg is not right. Thin." She emphasized the last with her fingers up close to each other to show that she understood, and then shook her head sadly.

She glanced at the girl's binder on the desk in front of her and raised her eyebrows. "You have thinking? About egg? The spell . . ." She waved her finger around mimicking the wand movement they were using. "That made metal egg? Oder that made pretty egg? Do spell always make metal?" She couldn't figure out any better way to say what she wanted, and looked around the room for a moment to see if she could find Hilda. Not immediately spotting her friend, and worrying it was rude to be looking around when she had such a lovely conversation partner right here, Johana Leonie smiled sheepishly. "My English is not good, but I have learning."

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw But then who does right, wrong? 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw 0 5

Jessica

May 09, 2019 6:59 PM

Probably more people than you'd expect. by Jessica

Jessica blushed, too, when she was told she had 'much nice.' That was not one of the compliments she was accustomed to, at least not from someone her own age, and it made her feel guilty about not even knowing the other girl's name properly.

"I understand you," she said when the girl uttered the disclaimer about her English. "The spell is supposed to make some pretty metal - " knowing the girl knew the word pretty made this conversation so much easier than she suspected it might have been otherwise - "which is wrapped around the egg."

Wrapped might, she realized, be a problem word. She opened her binder, flipped past her poems, and took out a sheet of blue-lined paper. "Like this," she said, trying to wrap the paper around her egg with only moderate success. "Only better," she added judiciously. Since she had noticed the other girl looking at her binder before asking if she had thoughts on the egg, she also added, "these aren't about the egg, they're just what I was thinking while the sun was rising this morning. I write poetry."

She said this without any embarrassment over the topic itself, but did think, a moment later, that she wasn't sure how much of what she'd said which her new acquaintance would understand. In Spanish, 'poetry' was poesía, but Spanish was a romance language and German was something entirely different. Of course, English was more closely related to German than to Latin or Spanish, but that didn't tell her anything about where English had picked it up from. It could be something entirely different in German.

"I don't know how to describe that...something like this," she said, turning a page back and pointing to the stanzas she had written before class. Surely most people would at least recognize the shape of a poem even if they couldn't read the words.

16 Jessica Probably more people than you'd expect. 1442 Jessica 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

May 10, 2019 3:42 PM

Oh, good. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie couldn't help appreciating that Jessica didn't say the same thing everyone said: Oh, your English is fine! You're go great! She was actually not doing great and her English was severely subpar. Saying otherwise wasn't helpful to anyone and Johana Leonie found it difficult to know whether she was actually ever doing okay when no one told her whether she was or not.

"Thank you," Johana Leonie said gratefully. "Much people not understanding."

She thought she was halfway following Jessica's explanation, but the demonstration helped tremendously and Johana Leonie's face lit up with excitement as she understood. "Spell not wrong? Metal right? Only not all metal?"

It was very frustrating that she couldn't get anything out the way she wanted to, but it wasn't all bad either. At least she wasn't doing terribly, and there was very little need to express deep personal concepts in transfiguration, so her academic vocabulary would do for now.

Johana Leonie had heard of poetry but never actually seen much of it before. It wasn't a focus of her education and the only poetry she'd seen was the French poetry she'd read from some of their international patients. As a result, she wasn't actually sure how it all even worked. This was the first time she'd seen any in English, too.

"The sun rising this morning," Johana Leonie repeated. "I think that it would be funny that a poetry would be about a egg," she giggled. "Do you put magic in the poetry? Make the rising sun have a metal?"

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Oh, good. 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Sophia Priory, Aladren

May 10, 2019 7:02 PM

Cracks by Sophia Priory, Aladren

Sophia liked school a lot more than she did home. Yes, she knew she didn't have it as bad as some people did. She wasn't poor or abused or anything like that. It was just that here she didn't have to cater to anyone. Nor did she have to take care of anyone or be responsible for anyone but herself. The Aladren got to do what she wanted, for the most part. Sure, Bridget-who she somewhat had to cater to along with Lydia-was here but the other first year had never really been the one to ask Sophia to do so.

hInstead it was her mother saying to be nice to Bridget because her mom was sick or Lydia because she was little or delicate or whatever the adjective of the day was. It all boiled down to Sophia should do what her sister wanted or play with her when the Aladren would rather read or do her own thing.

It wasn't as if she had totally hated what her sister liked-when she had been younger. The Aladren was five years older than her sister so everything that Lydia liked seemed so babyish to her. By the time her sister was interested in something, Sophia had outgrown it. Plus, Lydia cried easily and it was like walking on eggshells with her. Bridget didn't cry nearly as much as the six year old did-presumably because she was older- and she had good reason to.

Bridget was also more fun for Sophia to hang out with than Lydia was, possibly because they were the same age. Then again, her classmates were the same age as her too, and some of them didn't seem like people she thought would be fun. And the Teppenpaw had wanted to play strange things growing up, like bar, but that was to be expected. She hadn't grown up in a normal environment.

The thing was that sometimes, Sophia just wanted to be alone. Now she had that option.

Another thing she liked about Sonora was her classes. She very much preferred learning magic to princess tea parties with Lydia.

And Transfiguration was one of her best subjects too. Of course, she wasn't crazy about the fact that "prettier" design got better grades. True, it made sense that something that was more of a challenge would be rewarded-and Sophia was perfectly capable of doing it- but it just so.... superficial . And it encouraged that quality in the students. Shouldn't professor being encouraging more positive values?

Plus, well, it was sort of unfair to the boys in the class. Not that boys were incapable of making pretty things but they...probably didn't want to risk making something all frilly and fanciful and be called names or worse. Which meant they wouldn't win.

Not to mention beauty was in the eye of the beholder and what Professor Skies thought beautiful wasn't necessarily the same as what Sophia would. Also, it was kind of a difficult lesson, just changing the shell and leaving the egg part....eggy, so to make them fancy as well was a little much.

She scribbled down a few notes about the similarities and differences between the hard shell and foil. The shell was natural and fragile while foil was man-made and easy to crumple. So each could easily be destroyed. Foil was shinier than an eggshell. Both were thin.

Sophia visualized a crinkly foil wrapping of gold with polka dots of different sizes and colors.
" Aluminus " The shell of her egg turned shiny gold metallic with faint imprints of polka dots on it. The first year tapped it to check and see if the texture was different, only for the egg to crack. She turned to her neighbor and asked "Do you think reparo would work to fix it?"

11 Sophia Priory, Aladren Cracks 1447 Sophia Priory, Aladren 0 5

Allegra Brockert, Crotalus

May 17, 2019 12:38 AM

I really hate competing by Allegra Brockert, Crotalus

Allegra was a big sister again. Which was a funny way to put it since she was still a big sister to Esme, Isla and Olaf. She had never stopped being one to them which saying she was a big sister "again" made it sound like.

Anyway, Mother had given birth to the long expected baby U. Her ~~little~~ er, younger brother, Uriah Mortimer Brockert who there was nothing little about. He was-literally-a big baby. His birth weight was a whopping ten pounds, fifteen ounces. Allegra looked forward to seeing him. She loved each and every one of her siblings and she would love him too. She really already did.

Topaz, however, seemed interested in the fact that Uriah was so big. Like he was a prized pig at a state fair. Or a specimen for her. This made Allegra's protective big sister instincts flair up, but she knew she was weak and powerless against her cousin. She hated herself because of that.

She wondered too, if her little brother would be compared with Aunt Madeleine's new baby who would be a year behind him in school, but still fairly close in age like her and Topaz. Being compared to Topaz wasn't something that Allegra particularly enjoyed though sometimes-often- it was favorably.

And that would, apparently, be happening today too, as Professor Skies had them competing for chocolate eggs. Allegra felt a pit in her stomach at this. She hated competition. Especially against her cousin, because it was pretty much a no win situation for her, regardless of how she did in the contest itself. If she did better than Topaz, Topaz resented her for it and made her miserable. If Topaz did better, she gloated and rubbed Allegra's nose in it....and made her miserable.

At least, though, this was better than the athletic competition they'd had in flying lessons last year. Allegra was actually good at Transfiguration, so she had a chance and wouldn't humiliate herself. And to be honest, she had more of an eye for beauty than her cousin did. Though Allegra thought Katerina might beat her there because she was more creative than the Crotalus was. At least according to the yearbook.

When Professor Skies finished talking, Allegra took out a sheet of parchment, she was going to sketch her design so she could more easily picture it when she had to put it on her egg. Since her artistic focus was on quilting, she began to sketch a quilt pattern, a daisy quilt that was pink and white.

When she was satisfied, she turned to her neighbor and asked "What do you think of my pattern, is it ok?"

OOC-The pattern looks something like this https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1128/8192/products/DOO_DA_DAISY_Pink_and_White_1024x1024.jpg?v%3D1455230216&imgrefurl=https://www.amybradleydesigns.com/products/doo-da-daisy-quilt-pattern&h=1024&w=796&tbnid=UGgWlG0HvveUDM&q=Daisy+Quilt+Patterns&tbnh=150&tbnw=117&usg=AI4_-kSWpiHEuI_O4vT4nn9RV167AGvNjA&vet=1&docid=-jbSgR1Sk1ansM&itg=1&client=firefox-b-1-d&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjA4s6I3qHiAhVJ1qwKHVwYC8UQ_h0wE3oECAsQBA

Credit goes to the original designer of that.

11 Allegra Brockert, Crotalus I really hate competing 1426 Allegra Brockert, Crotalus 0 5

Isabella Harrington, Aladren

May 22, 2019 3:02 PM

I, on the other hand, love it. by Isabella Harrington, Aladren

Bella liked Transfiguration. It could be complicated, difficult and challenging and the young first year liked the feeling of satisfaction it brought when she was able to execute the spells well. In a lot of ways, she figured it was rather like dancing - there were many steps and they all had to be executed in perfect order, in perfect time and in perfect rhythm or the performance - or in the case of Transfiguration, the spell - would fall flat.

The task put before the class today was interesting, though Bella had no interest in the chocolate eggs that were on offer - chocolate had no place in her diet. Her motivation lay solely in not being the worst in the class and, preferably, in being the best.

Her design had to be pretty - perhaps pastel colours? They were spring-like and Easter themed Something floral seemed like a good idea as flowers weren't particularly too complicated to visualise, with few details. She could make the background white, which wouldn't be too far a leap from the current egg shell colour. Bella pursed her lips slightly in thought, tapping her quill lightly on her rolled out piece of parchment. Could she come up with something that was simple but looked complicated?

She blinked as her desk neighbour asked her a question and for a moment, Bella was silent as she replayed it in her mind. Then, she looked down at the other girl's pattern and frowned slightly. Floral, cute colours, simple and yet looked somewhat complicated...

I'll have to think of something else...

"It looks lovely," she told her before looking at her own piece of parchment and internally sighing. She couldn't have something that looked similar, it would look like she was copying and being a copycat certainly didn't make her the best.

"I'm not sure what to do myself," she confessed quietly.

20 Isabella Harrington, Aladren I, on the other hand, love it. 1435 Isabella Harrington, Aladren 0 5

Allegra

May 23, 2019 4:06 AM

Well you don't have to compete against the Cousin From Hell by Allegra

Allegra didn't quite relax when Bella told her that her pattern was lovely. Not that she didn't believe the younger girl, even though she had zero reason to do so. It could have been just that the first year was being polite but the Crotalus was taking her word for it.

But it still didn't set Allegra's mind at ease. She didn't know what Topaz's design would look like and whether or not it was prettier than hers. Or rather prettier in the opinion of Professor Skies. She knew Topaz's opinion of what was "beautiful" very much differed from that of most people and her own quilting design would likely be more to the professor's taste.

Would it be the best though? Allegra didn't get the impression that they were being ranked after first place. So, hopefully, someone else would win-but not Ness McLeod, because then Topaz would be irritated too and possibly take it out on her. Though it was more likely that her cousin would do something to the chocolate egg. Anyway, Allegra was genuinely rooting for Katerina at this point.

"Well, that's why I sketched mine out." She told Bella. "I figured if I did that, it would be easier to visualize on the egg." Allegra paused, wanting to be helpful. "I think Professor Skies likes things to be rather intricate. Intricate things get more points because they're more difficult. I do quilting, so I went with a quilt pattern." One that wasn't too fancy or that had too many colors both because it would be easier and because she didn't actually want to win.

Allegra continued "Also, I'm sure accuracy is a factor." Really, she wanted to give Bella all the advice she wasn't quite going to take herself, though she was fairly sure she that she could do a pretty accurate job, as this was Transfig and she was a Brockert. . As far as she knew though, Bella didn't have an super vicious relative who attempted to dominate and torment her at every turn in her class or even if there were any first years who had it in for the Aladren.

11 Allegra Well you don't have to compete against the Cousin From Hell 1426 Allegra 0 5

Jessica

May 30, 2019 4:00 PM

Now let's talk literature. by Jessica

“That’s right,” said Jessica, assuming she understood what Johana Leonie was saying about how the spell was supposed to work. “Only the surface should be metal. Thin metal.”

She had to smile at the idea of eggs in poetry. “I know at least one famous poem about an egg,” she said. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. And all the king’s horses, and all the king’s men, couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again. The poem itself didn’t say anything about what Humpty was made of, but the illustrations Jessica had seen had always included an egg with a face, and usually a pair of trousers. “But I’ve never written one. Or put...magic in one of my poems.”

She hated to admit it, but she had to wonder about what that could mean. How could spells be worked into poetry? Could one create illusions that brought the poem to life, at least in cases like her sunrise poem? What would happen with more abstract poems? Or highly structured ones that took a shape on the page? She knew moving pictures in books were a thing, so clearly, there was a place where magic and images crossed over….

Would that actually be a thing she’d want to do, though? Poetry was different to everyone who read it. Doing anything else would reduce a reader’s ability to interpret it. That would be wrong. Poems meant what the author wanted them to, but also meant what was read into it.

“Do a lot of poems...here have magic in them?” she asked. “I don’t know anything about wizard poetry.”

16 Jessica Now let's talk literature. 1442 Jessica 0 5

Bridget Ferguson,Teppenpaw

June 13, 2019 6:01 PM

I actually have a chance by Bridget Ferguson,Teppenpaw

Transfiguration was generally one of Bridget's two favorite classes, the other one being Potions. She was very good at both and they generally took her mind off things in a way other classes did not. It wasn't as if she wanted to be disrespectful to the other professors, particularly Professor Xavier as he was her Head of House and so incredibly nice, it was just that Bridget wasn't as interested in those classes or as good at them.

Professor Skies started the lesson and the first year focused in. As soon as the word competition was brought up, Bridget flinched. She had never been particularly competitive, associating it with both a desire for superiority and being cutthroat and with athletics. She had never been particularly good at them, Sophia was a much better flyer than she was even though the Aladren thought Quidditch was stupid-not that people who played it necessarily were but the game itself was- and Bridget was kind of clumsy and awkward.

Sometimes, she really did envy her cousin. It seemed Sophia just had it all around better than she did. Sophia was prettier and smarter and a better flyer than the Teppenpaw was and most importantly, she had a more normal family. Kaylie had back problems but she wasn't constantly on death's door so Sophia didn't have to constantly worry. Plus, Ian despite being anxious was at least aware enough, which Bridget's father often wasn't.

And she felt guilty about this too. Because she really did love her parents and Sophia was basically her best friend.

Anyway, she realized that this was a transfiguration contest. Which meant she actually had a shot. Even though she was competing with Sophia, Bridget felt she was as good-or honestly possibly better-than her cousin at this class.

Bridget received her egg and thought about what she wanted to do with the pattern. She was not entirely sure what Professor Skies would think was beautiful. After all, beauty was in the eye of the beholder-most of the time, some people were just universally attractive-and it was in this case, what the professor found pretty and not what Bridget would.

She supposed she could ask someone who might have a better idea of Professor Skies' taste, but then said person could sabotage her so she'd lose. No she was just going to have to do this on her own. Bridget settled on a pattern of cherries, as she'd always liked clothing with either those or strawberries on them. " Aluminus "

The result was a foil shell with bright red blotches all over it. Bridget decided to try again.

11 Bridget Ferguson,Teppenpaw I actually have a chance 1448 Bridget Ferguson,Teppenpaw 0 5