Alright! on Transfiguration

Selina Skies

May 25, 2021 1:01 AM

Intermediates - Detect Magic by Selina Skies

“Good morning,” Selina greeted the intermediate group. “Today we’ll be taking a practical look at one of the most popular written questions on the CATS papers – that is, we’ll be doing some hands on, practical investigation to help you know what sort of information you need to provide in your answer.” As well as being more accessible to students who were different learner types, and reducing the language load for EAL students, it was just a more fun, practical way to access the information.

“A common CATS type question is this,” she gestured to the board behind her, reading out the question that appeared there. “For his birthday, Demonious receives a toy from his grandmother. It is a top hat, which when turned in a particular way, causes a rabbit plushie to appear inside the hat. The plushie can be made to vanish again by repeating the movements in reverse. State what spells are likely to be acting on the toy, being as specific as possible. “ Underneath this was a helpful animated picture depicted the effect described.

“Firstly, does anyone want to suggest what they think is the answer to this?” It was quite a straightforward question, as compared to some of the longer essay-based questions. She called on anyone who felt brave enough to suggest an answer, until they’d cracked it.

“Today’s lesson will have three parts. You can choose to do them in any order, depending on what you think will be most helpful for you, but you should complete all three of them by the time class is over.

“On this table, we have some worksheets with a page of questions similar to the one on the board. Task one is to complete them, task two is to set two questions of your own using a similar format and test them on your classmates. On the other table, we have some objects similar to the ones mentioned, made by the advanced class during term one. I would like you to examine the objects, and state what spells you think are in action on them. Remember, this is transfiguration, so they all use at least one transfiguration spell. They were allowed to use charms as well if it helped achieve the effects they wanted.” As with all of transfiguration, there really were only four broad categories – changing, switching, vanishing, and conjuring – though the more specific they could get in explaining exactly what type of spell or how it had been used, the better. They would also have to name any charms they thought were present for full credit.

Specialis revelio might have come in handy, but she had checked with Grayson, and, whilst some of the fifth years might have been capable, it was typically only taught in advanced classes. In the interests of giving a level playing field, and not having them firing an unfamiliar charm at the advance class’s hard work from last term, she wasn’t going to suggest it. Their eyes and brains would have to do the work, which was what they’d have available to them in their exams after all.

OOC: Mentions of class levels approved by Gray's author.

As usual, points are awarded based on relevance, length, realism and creativity. You are free to invent objects that may have been created by the advanced class, so long as they are fairly mainstream in nature (i.e. fit the idea that 'anyone could have made that'). If you are stuck for object ideas, feel free to ask other authors what their character would have made but then credit them in the OOC notes. You will get more points for coming up with your own objects.

Subthreads:

I like it! by Theo Spurn with Jezebel Reed-Fischer

I know that spell! by Valentine Duell with Sadie-Lake Chalmers

I kind of feel like this doesn't apply to me? by Philippe Delachene with Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alright! by Quincy Wright with Ellie Alperton

*rocks back and forth* by Sapphire Brockert

13 Selina Skies Intermediates - Detect Magic 26 1 5

Theo Spurn

May 25, 2021 1:02 AM

I like it! by Theo Spurn

Theo tumbled into transifuguration and took a seat. He liked school, and was mostly glad to be back in it. He loved home, but right now it was time for school, so here was where he was supposed to be. He had freshly sewn velvet in the cuffs of his sleeves, which helped him feel good about anything which didn't feel good all by itself.

He listened to Professor Skies, frowning in confusion at the example she put on the board, and raising his hand when it was everyone else's turn to speak.

"Why does he want to make it disappear?" he asked when called on. Professor Skies said something about that not really being the point of the discussion, which he thought was rude but noted down as a good response for when people asked him questions he didn't like or pulled the conversation away from what he was talking about. He had raised his hand and waited his turn, which were the rules he was meant to follow.

Anyway, people were moving now. There was a table with papers and a table with things. He went to the thing table because that was far more interesting. He touched all the things, turning them over and having a good look, until he got to one that held his attention for longer. It had a little figure standing in painted scenery. A small fake sun hung in the air above them. When Theo turned a handle on the side, the sun moved through the sky and the scene gradually darkened. At a certain point, the sun changed into a moon, and at that point, the figure beneath shifted to become a wolf. It looked good and friendly, like it had taken its potion. Theo turned the handle a few more times, watching the transformation.

"I like this one," he stated confidently to his neighbour, continuing to wind.

13 Theo Spurn I like it! 1476 0 5

Valentine Duell

May 26, 2021 6:18 PM

I know that spell! by Valentine Duell

Valentine sat in class early as usual. Unfortunately for her, this was transfigurations. As such, instead of having her gaming notebook open, and plotting out terrible things to do to her bestest friends, she was staring at her transfiguration notes and book. This class was hard, and despite everything that Professor Skies, Bonabelle, Alexander, and everyone else was doing to help her (for which she was eternally grateful)... she was barely scraping by. She was determined not to let all of those people down by not doing everything she could do to pass. She still found this studying thing worked better when she could study with someone though.

When Professor Skies started class, Val looked up at her a bit bleary eyed from staring at the book. She shook it off to pay attention and take good notes. There was a crushing feeling somewhere in her soul when Professor Skies said the word 'practical'. That usually meant it was not going to be a good class for her. As the professor went on though, she thought it might not be to bad... maybe? Not daring to venture any answers to the Professor's question, she did note down the question and the answers the other students were giving as well as the professor's comments about those answers. Hopefully they would shed some light on how this worked.

Of the three options set before her, Valentine was torn. She really wanted to make up questions so she could interact with someone else. But, before doing that she thought she should do the worksheet to get a better idea on what a wider variety of these questions could look like. But... she wasn't sure she could stand to do more paperwork by herself anymore. The object would give her some ideas and let her look at something that wasn't paper for a bit. But... if she picked up the worksheet, her and her partner could discuss the types of questions while they formulated their own to ask each other... she did like that idea.

Going to the front of the room, Val acquired the worksheet and glanced at the table of objects while she was in the neighborhood. They certainly looked interesting. Well, she would have to get to them eventually. First things first, get worksheet, check. Next, find someone to partner with, easy. With a smooth, gliding motion she moved up to one of her classmates. "Hi! Do you want to work on making up some questions?" She asked cheerily while holding up the worksheet, "I've got lots of examples we can work from."

2 Valentine Duell I know that spell! 1490 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

May 28, 2021 9:05 PM

I don't by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Sadie took a seat in Transfiguration. It seemed that CATS were going to be the subject of the day, as they so often were right now, and she shot Dathan a sympathetic look. Her only thoughts on the puzzle that Professor Skies presented were that wizard names were often seriously hecking weird, in a whole other way than the particular brand of awful her own mother had gone with. Still, luckily for Demonious, he was presumably entirely fictional, whereas she had to live with her mother’s choices.

The class sounded kind of hard, and like one of those where she felt like her background would count against her. She was getting more and more used to thinking like a witch (like when she was at home and she had to actually move her whole entire body to put something back in its place instead of just flicking her wand, or had to wait for flowers to dry by hanging them up or pressing them in heavy books – she missed magic at those times). But that was with spells that she already knew. She still didn’t think she could look at the magical world and see what was happening rather than just seeing magic as a whole, unexplainable, sometimes wondrous, sometimes baffling thing. Unfortunately, that appeared to be the task for the day.

She might have gravitated towards the toys first – seeing a thing was usually clearer than reading an explanation of a thing, at least for her, and anyway, they hadn’t been promised any explanations, only further questions. However, Theo was at the toys, and Valentine was heading to the papers. She didn’t know either of them well, but in the case of Theo, that had been a conscious choice on her part. He was weird, loud, and constantly attracted awkward attention, none of which were high on her list of things to get involved with. Valentine had been nice to her previously, and even though she often attracted a lot of attention too, most of it seemed positive. Things worked out well, when Valentine seemed to have the same idea, and slid over to where Sadie was hovering. She wasn’t sure whether Valentine had noticed and understood her hovering with intent, or whether it was just a happy coincidence.

“Sure,” she agreed, settling into the seat next to her. Immediately jumping into posing each other theory questions wasn’t exactly top of her wish list, but obviously it was bound to come up because that was what they were here for. And she was the older student. Eep. Hopefully Valentine wasn’t going to expect her to know how to guide them, was she? Sadie was pretty sure the other girl knew that she knew more about magic than Sadie did. “Did you have any ideas?” she asked.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers I don't 1480 0 5

Valentine Duell

June 04, 2021 6:13 PM

It should be a cantrip, but sometimes it isn't. by Valentine Duell

This was one of the best things about being in the intermediate classes, she got to work with her old friends again from her first year at the school! Another was the fact that she could take her aunt's class finally. Also they were learning bigger and more fun magic. Intermediates also... okay, there were a bunch of things that were the best about being in the intermediate class. It should also be noted that Valentine considered everyone her friend, unless they specifically stated otherwise. Even in that one case, they still technically wanted to be 'friends'. She hadn't done so well on that front though, and despite all of the nice, sensible, rational, logical things that Bonabelle had said... she really felt like she should try to be 'friends' again at least.

But now she got to work with Sadie again! Valentine's ever-present smile increased a notch or two as the older girl agreed to work with her. This was going to be great! She splayed out the papers on the table in front of them and bobbled her head in a non-committal way to Sadie's question. "Maybe," she responded cheerfully. "I'm terrible at the practical parts of this class, I just can't see the things in my head that we are supposed to be doing." She grinned and winked at her partner, "However, to help make up for that Professor Skies, Bonabelle, and some others have been helping to pound as much theory into my head as possible. Some of it even sticks!" Val giggled.

Pulling one of the worksheets in front of her Val glanced over it, "I'm hoping that should help makes some sense of this." She paused for a moment the jabbed her finger at one of the questions. "Like this for instance, 'Sihnion is a clumsy witch and has made a pot that changes into a mouse when she spills something solid and a tiny elephant when she spills a liquid. The creature finds the spill, ingests it and returns to pot form. At which point she can examine the spilled material to see if it is yet salvageable.'"

"We were doing the mouse transformation earlier, remember?" That has to be one of the spells that..." Val paused and looked back at the sheet, "Sihnion had used, right?" She passed the sheet over to Sadie, "Do you know anything about a tiny elephant?"

2 Valentine Duell It should be a cantrip, but sometimes it isn't. 1490 0 5

Philippe Delachene

June 05, 2021 7:17 PM

I kind of feel like this doesn't apply to me? by Philippe Delachene

Philippe was a third year. He had ages to go yet before he needed to worry about CATS. He thought it was kind of silly that he already needed to be doing practice questions for the test. Obviously it was important for Anya and Freddie, who would be taking it soon, but he was barely half a year into Intermediates. He knew that vanishing charms existed, but his Transfigurations skills included Inanimate to Inanimate (simple to complex was still kind of hard but he was getting it most of the time now) and he was newly able to cast some Animate to Inanimate transfigurations, but figuring out what spells from all the spells being taught to CATS level students from a description of what a toy did? Philippe did not envy Anya and Freddie and he wondered if he'd be that much smarter in two years or if his sister and boyfriend were looking at this question with the same level of Oh-Merlin-Where-Do-I-Even-Start? that Philippe was.

Of the three parts of today's tasks, the second sounded like the easiest, so he figured he'd start there. He read a bunch of the other questions, and wrote two more on a fresh sheet.

PD1) For Easter, Daniel gave his favorite nephew a new toy. This toy is a shaped like a rabbit. Daniel tells his favorite nephew that he needs to close his eyes and count to ten. When his nephew does this, and then opens them again, the toy is nowhere to be seen. Daniel tells him to find the toy. It has left a sparkly trail behind that abruptly stops. When Daniel's favorite nephew pokes the spot where the trail ends, the toy reappears and plays music! What spells are acting on this toy? Be as specific as possible.

He wasn't actually sure what spells this toy used, but it was an actual toy his uncle Daniel had given him when he was pretty small, so they had to be real spells.

PD2) ~~Jasmine~~ Aladdin is a recent graduate who wants to impress ~~her~~ his new boyfriend.

Philippe belatedly decided to change the name on his question to protect the guilty, as some people here might actually know his sister. The protection was blatantly flimsy and easy to see through, but you'd need to know Disney to understand it, and already suspect it was Jasmine he was writing about. He debated using the erasing charm on the last word and replacing it with its opposite gender as well, but decided to leave it as it was. Representation, go!

Aladdin makes his boyfriend a handkerchief that is decorated with valiant steeds that charge across the fabric and when it is folded just so, it cleans itself. What spells are likely to be acting on this handkerchief? Be as specific as possible.

Philippe doubted there was actually any transfiguration going on in the item, because Jasmine made it, and Jasmine was far better at charms, but maybe there were transfiguration spells with similar effects.

He showed his paper to his neighbor and asked, "How do you think these are? I don't know the answers but I can ask questions."

1 Philippe Delachene I kind of feel like this doesn't apply to me? 1489 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

June 05, 2021 11:38 PM

I thought that once, too. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

This whole world was still mostly upside down and backwards to Alexander Pierce-Beales, but it was a world that had finally accepted Alexander Pierce-Beales. At least, a classmate-turned-sister and a foster-mother-turned-adoptive-mother and a foster-sister's-mother-turned-adoptive-mother had accepted him and even in his own head, Alexander Pierce-Beales couldn't help reveling over his new name by thinking it of himself over and over and over again. He'd written to Nathaniel immediately to share the good news (although it very awkwardly negated the initials on the box the older boy had given him, and he'd also written in part just to be sure that Nathaniel wouldn't be upset that he'd given up on trying to make any good of his old name and instead taken to forming something good with a new name) and now he just wanted to share it with himself. He and Mab were on the roster beside each other now (assuming it was in order by last name), and they were officially siblings on all the documentation that meant anything. It was a new life.

This world also involved some straight up craziness, like tests named after animals and intensive test preparation years in advance. Still, if Alexander had learned anything at Sonora, it was to go with it because not going with it usually just made everything harder. So he went with it, getting a piece of paper when Professor Skies suggested it and glancing over the list of questions before setting his mind to which task he'd complete. The question-answering seemed like it would be the most useful since that's what he'd be doing on the actual test, and it seemed more up his alley since he could draw it out, take his time, and maybe find someone to discuss it with, but it may be helpful to start thinking about his own questions as an exercise in thinking them through before he began. Maybe. He wasn't entirely sure; there was a reason he wasn't an Aladren after all and he didn't find any of this sort of decision-making enjoyable. The only thing he was sure about was that he wasn't going to start with the practical part of things.

Lucky for him, the student next to him - a fellow Teppenpaw a year below - spoke up and already seemed to have made up his mind to do the second activity first. Alexander breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, agreeing to the boy's unasked question of whether they could work together.

"Hang on," he said, "I had some ideas but hadn't written them down yet." It was mostly true since the ideas were only half formed, but he didn't want to make an exchange empty-handed so he figured it was best to at least try. Transfiguration was one of his better subjects but he thought everything that immediately came to mind was a bit obvious and his hesitation showed in the way his quill lingered over the paper for a moment before he began. Still, he was an artist, so a moment's thought before setting ink to the page wasn't unreasonable in his mind. Finally, he managed the following:

Miles has outgrown his costume and asks Aunt Mae to make the changes. When he gets the costume back, the spider design on the front is now able to move around the outfit freely and even make small comments to Miles when he wears it. What spells are at work here?

Clark has been misplacing his glasses, coat, and briefcase in the phonebooths he frequents after work. He decides to modify his bag so that he can store his items within it and store those items in the phonebooth. Has he transfigured the bag, the belongings, or the phonebooths? What spells might he have used on whichever you think it is?

Mostly just curious whether those things were even possible, Alexander passed his work to his classmate with a grimace. "I'm not even sure if I'm on the right track," he admitted before looking at the work that he'd been handed as well. "Yours make way more sense. I feel like I should know the answers off the top of my head but... working backwards like this is hard for me. What do you think?" he added, glancing back at his own sheet and feeling even more self-conscious than he had done a moment before.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales I thought that once, too. 1475 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

June 08, 2021 5:44 AM

Is this how they found me? I don't know if I like it. by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel had always been a meticulous notetaker, a well-prepared student, and a fast learner but if she wasn't anxious about the upcoming tests she'd have to take, then she wasn't anything at all. Martin had been kind and very helpful when she'd needed to study and he'd taken the tests already which helped, but it wasn't quite enough to make Jezebel feel really truly ready and she was still mostly a ball of panicked energy these days. Classes like this, which were blatantly designed to prepare them for the tests, helped and hampered all at once.

Figuring that she could do a lot of the on-paper preparation in her own time if necessary, Jezebel decided to start with the hands-on part of today's activity. She examined one or two of the items they were meant to be working with before needing to count her breathes to make herself calm down and, when she had finally managed that, she had come to a puzzle type box that reminded her of wooden children's toys. It was the sort where one door was always open and if you pushed a button or knob, another would open. Except in this case, instead of just doors opening and buttons moving, the colors on the box also changed and flowers bloomed out of the newly opened doorways before curling back inside when a new door was opened. Reopening the same door twice revealed the same flower, which Jezebel thought was probably an important clue in figuring out what spells had been used on the box.

She was admiring the work, both for its surprisingly relaxing beauty and for the actual spellwork that must have gone into it (something she hated to admire but couldn't quite help herself doing), when the student next to her spoke up. She wasn't well acquainted with Theo Spurn but it was basically impossible not to know who he was. In this case, he seemed to be simmering instead of boiling and Jezebel hoped he stayed that way because he seemed fun and stuff but she definitely didn't have the mental capacity to bring him back down if he got too excited about stuff. She looked at the item he was manipulating in response to his commentary on it and nodded.

"That's really beautiful," she agreed, bending over a bit to peer more closely at the wolf. It creeped her out a lot that werewolves and vampires and stuff were real because she was pretty sure that magic was from fairytales and magical creatures were from horror movies and combining them into the real world was super not cool with her. Still, Theo seemed to enjoy it so she wasn't about to freak out about anything. Keep the boy calm. That was her goal. "And really complicated," she added, not sure how the thing darkened like that. The figurine transforming made more sense in a transfiguration class, but how the heck did the rest work? She doubted it was as simple and mechanical as a crank turn the way a non-magical version would have been. "Do you want to work together?" she asked a bit tightly.

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Is this how they found me? I don't know if I like it. 1454 0 5

Quincy Wright

June 08, 2021 8:47 AM

Alright! by Quincy Wright

As Quincy got older and classes got harder, he had to appreciate the change in direction to more theory-based study of magic. Still lots of practical learning of course, but he could appreciate that as well. Still, his favorite was learning the theory and the why behind magic. Professor Skies rarely disappointed in that regard, although Professor Wright had to be the winner, both for his name and for the fact that he leaned so heavily into magic theory in class. It made all the wand waiving stuff a little more interesting to learn. It was all stuff Quincy wanted to be able to do, of course, but learning it was much less interesting than looking in a microscope or something most of the time. Today wasn't a theory lesson, which naturally disappointed him, but he was still intrigued because it was basically about puzzles.

If he knew anyone who liked puzzles, it was his roommate, and he looked around automatically for Bertie when it was time to get started. Truth be told, the biggest puzzle to him was why everyone wasn't as excited about that kind of thing as the two of them were. Not only was today a puzzle solving day, but also it was a chance to start getting ready for the first of two huge tests they'd be taking in the coming years. Getting started on that now, with years of prep time ahead of him, was a boon to Quincy.

Leaving the practical stuff to later - it was usually best to understand the theory before diving in in his opinion - Quincy gathered a blank piece of paper beside the paper with the example questions on it. That was arguably the most interesting part and he was eager to get to try these puzzles out on a classmate before coming up with his own and seeing how it went. He didn't want to make up his own until he knew who he was working with though, since people like Bertie could definitely handle a bigger curveball than others of his classmates, so he figured he'd start by finding a partner first. He was looking around when someone approached.

OOC: This is open to Bertie or anyone else.

22 Quincy Wright Alright! 1495 0 5

Sapphire Brockert

June 11, 2021 11:28 AM

rocks back and forth by Sapphire Brockert

Now that it was the second half of Sapphire's fifth year, she was increasingly aware about CATS coming up. A fact that was possibly more terrifying than anything else she found terrifying that didn't involve Topaz directly, such as some of the stuff they had to deal with during the Challenges. The Crotalus was completely anxious that she was going to fail her exams miserably.

What if she flunked out of school? That would shame her entire family, not just herself! What if it not only made people not want to marry her but not want to marry her remaining siblings? Or at least not marry Jasper or Amethyst, since there were legitimate reasons for men not to marry Topaz that had nothing to do with Sapphire's ability to perform well on a test.

Or what if her parents decided to either lock her up in the attic or shove her into an institution under an assumed name and wash their hands of her? That was assuming Topaz didn't kill her outright. Which was a very real possibility. Although she supposed it would be one even if she got perfect scores. After all, in that exceedingly unlikely situation, the Aladren might resent Sapphire doing as well as she had. Topaz did not like the implication that anyone was as good or better than her.

Of course, that was obviously an outcome that the fifth year wasn't worried about. Also, being killed outright by her older sister was something that had always been a thing she was worried about, for a lot longer than anyone in her immediate family had been thinking about CATS.

In theory, Transfiguration was her best class. Sapphire was really really good at the practical part, but the thing that made it only best class in theory was, well, theory . She downright loathed theory. The Crotalus knew that she was not going to understand it, especially if Professor Skies began talking about science. The minute that word came up, she completely blanked out.

However, regardless of her aversion to theory, Sapphire would have to continue this class after CATS. She wouldn't bomb them because the practical part would bring her score up. Same really with Charms, but in the case of Transfiguration, she had to keep taking it, because she was a Brockert.

And she'd probably have to keep taking Charms despite all the dreadful theory that Professor Wright brought into it, because she had trouble remembering all the steps in Potions and she hated DADA because of the more athletic and/or scary lessons despite the obvious fact that Sapphire probably needed the subject because Topaz was her sister.

That left Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. She was sort of okay with those, and she was considering the latter because she wasn't too terrible with animals. Of course, Advanced classes would probably deal with scary dangerous things that wanted to eat her. And she already had one scary dangerous thing in her life which was one more than she wanted. However, it seemed like Sadie was likely to take it, so there was that, the younger Crotalus being the only person not related to her that realized Sapphire existed.

And maybe Herbology wouldn't be so bad, since Professor Xavier was so nice though the subject itself wasn't her favorite.

Another problem was that, even though she was on medication that controlled her seizures fairly well most of the time, stress often brought them on more often. She was pretty sure that she'd been having them again.

Of course, Professor Skies was talking about the dreaded CATS again, Sapphire was beginning to develop a serious aversion to that word as well. To the point that she might very well start tensing up when people talked about cats, the animal, rather than CATS, the test. It made her feel a bit queasy. She probably could have gotten the actual question asked if she thought about it but every thing seemed like white noise right now.

Now they were being released and Sapphire knew she didn't want to come up with test questions. Maybe later she could work on that with Esme or Jasper or have Allegra help her. She headed over to the table filled with items and picked something up. Sapphire looked it over quickly and then turned to the person next to her. "So what do you think of this one?" She askd, in part so the other person would help her figure it out.

11 Sapphire Brockert *rocks back and forth* 1459 0 5

Ellie Alperton

June 11, 2021 8:16 PM

Not the Aladren you were expecting by Ellie Alperton

Ellie was not freaking out. She just wasn’t. She was an Aladren, and had always gotten good grades, both in non-magical school and even since having to suddenly switch to a whole new world where the basic rules that she’d learnt governed the universe just didn’t exist. For a while, the theory had made her brain protest, but she’d never had trouble understanding what was being said and how to make the connections involved, or repeat back even if – whilst she understood it – it had, for a time, made no sense whatsoever. So, she was fine. She would do fine on her exams, and there was no reason to think otherwise, and she was fine.

It was weird how much she missed her family right now. She had thought she was largely over the homesickness, but at times like this it really hit. Her parents would have helped her plan her studies, would have told her to take a break when she needed it. When it came with parental approval, a break didn’t make her feel guilty. Now she had to manage those things for herself. Well, that wasn’t totally true. Of course her teachers and Mr. Row would help, but it wasn’t the same. They weren’t going to bring her Oeros and apple juice when they knew she’d been getting buried in her books. They weren’t going to turn her flashcards into a game and play it with her. She was one student out of many, all of whom needed their help – some of them probably much more than she did.

She took a seat in transfiguration, and it didn’t take long for the subject of CATS to come up, making her stomach squirm. The task for the day was one she was relatively confident of. She’d been looking at CATS guides, and the fact that this type of question came up had been mentioned. It had come with a self-study activity which gave a list of factors and a column to write in all the charms and transfigurations that could be causing those effects.

She glanced around for a partner, and spotted Quincy making his way to one of the theory stations. It was the self-composition one, which wasn’t her preferred start point, as she just wanted to obsessively go over past test questions, but they did have to do all the tasks, and this did at least seem like it would go well with her list – they could use it as a basis for questions, and that would probably help her memorise it. Plus Quincy was an Aladren, but not himself sitting CATS this year, which probably meant he would be willing to explore the theory in detail and make their tasks suitably challenging but would not yet be panicking or need his own study needs accommodating as much. Not that she was panicking. She was fine.

“Hi!” she said, with a little too much intensity. “Can we pair up? I have a really useful list from some CATS revision that I was doing where there was a list of effects and I had to come up with possible spells.” She pulled out the list. Down one side were words like ‘Disappearing’ ‘Appearing’ ‘Change of appearance.’ Three columns followed, labelled ‘transfigurations’ ‘charms’ and ‘notes.’ The line next to disappearing was filled in with ‘vanishment’ for transfiguration and ‘cloaking/invisibility’ for charms. In ‘notes’ it was stated that the object would still be physically present if cloaked, and so to look for clues in the questions such as bumps, bulges or tangibility. “It could be a good basis for coming up with some questions,” she stated, offering the list to him.

OOC: It is only Ellie's assumption that Mr. Row wouldn't bring her Oeros and apple juice or make her flashcards into games. I do not wish to cast aspersions on the lengths he is willing to go to.

13 Ellie Alperton Not the Aladren you were expecting 1456 0 5

Quincy Wright

June 11, 2021 8:37 PM

I don't hate this turn of events though. by Quincy Wright

Quincy jumped a little when an older Aladren approached and was just super excited to work with him. He knew Ellie from being in the same House but he also knew her because he'd met her little brother the previous year. Seth had been pretty cool but Quincy wasn't about to assume that meant it ran in the family; his own sister was way less cool than he was. Still, he nodded to agree to work together and then nodded more enthusiastically when she went on.

"This is amazing," he said, genuinely awestruck as he took the paper she offered him and let his eyes ravage it for information. "Can I copy this sometime?" he asked, only barely realizing this wasn't the time or place to start taking notes on her notes. He'd have to get someone to help him if he wanted to use a copying charm on it but it was better to do it by hand for sake of learning the material anyway. Reluctantly, he passed the paper back to her.

"How do you want to begin?" he asked, still trying not to push his ideas of how he would've done things with Bertie too hard on this girl. Being an Aladren was points in her favor, as was being Seth's sister, but it wasn't the end all be all for being a cool person. Besides, he had blank paper and the prep questions ready if she really wanted to start with what they already had. He supposed she had more to gain from that sort of thing than he did right now since she was studying more actively for CATS.

22 Quincy Wright I don't hate this turn of events though. 1495 0 5

Ellie Alperton

June 12, 2021 1:18 AM

Oh good by Ellie Alperton

She seemed to have surprised him, but the paper of well laid out knowledge worked easily to smooth over the situation, and she smiled at his enthusiasm.

“Sure,” she nodded, always glad to help out someone interested in learning (especially if they were in a different year group and therefore not in direct competition for grades). “I got the exercise from a book called ‘Domesticating the CATS.’ It’s got a lot of really good study exercises.” She hoped that that didn’t sound too much like she needed help, but she was pretty sure that everyone revised for major exams, and having a well-rounded plan of attack made you look more academic rather than less. People crammed like heck for the SATS, and this was only one letter out, after all…

“Well, if you want to use that as a basis to make up some questions, you’re more than welcome,” she nodded at the paper. That would definitely help her get the list into her head, as would making up her own. It was a little odd, trying to work it backwards, and trying to come up with a question to go with an answer. But hey, what were all those afternoons watching ‘Jeopardy!’ for if not this? She felt a little stuck trying to invent questions because she had limited knowledge of the magical world. It was one thing to analyse something that already existed, another to invent those things yourself. She tried to think of her own toys – Barbies which could grow their hair, baby bottles where the milk seemed to really disappear when you tilted it. Presumably, hers had all been achieved with cleverly hidden pieces, unless magical people were sneaking into the non-magical world for some very mundane purposes (or to foster a belief in tiny little bits of magic in people like her, so that this came as less of a shock? But probably it was just hidden compartments and the like…). Still, maybe imagining the magical equivalents of her own toys would help her get on the right track.

“Did you grow up with stuff like this?” she gestured to the table behind her. “I didn’t,” she clarified, in case Quincy worried about why she was asking.

13 Ellie Alperton Oh good 1456 0 5