Advanced - True Crime on Transfiguration

Selina Skies

September 13, 2021 9:36 AM

Advanced - True Crime by Selina Skies

OOC: CW - brief, non-grisly mention of murder BIC:

“Good afternoon,” Selina greeted the advanced class as they took their seats. “Today, we are going to be continuing to look at Transfiguration in the workplace, seeing how Transfiguration can, and cannot, be traced in instances of crime. I’ll warn you now, this class contains some disturbing details. If at any point you wish to leave, you may do so without needing to seek permission, and come back in when you are ready.

“The most common interaction between detective work and transfiguration is identifying cases of fraud and deceptions - forgery through transfiguration is common, as is stock that appears to be one thing but changes or disappears after it has been purchased.

“Slightly more complex are transfigurations that are triggered by natural phenomenon, such as light or water. Of particular note, was the art thief nicknamed The Great Rocko, who would transfigure her agents into stone in order to more easily disguise them in museums. She would set them up in a gallery, casting the spell when no one was present, leaving them to be passed off as statues. The effects would last for as long as sunlight fell on them, meaning that they wore off after the museum was closed for the night.

“On a much darker note, transfiguration has been known to interfere with the due process of murder cases. During the late nineteen eighties, there was a series of dark ritualistic magical cults which sprung up in Europe. One of the major difficulties in tracing and bringing to justice the leaders of any of these cults was the fact that followers were often transfigured after their deaths, making their remains harder to locate. In almost all countries, there are strict laws on the transfiguring of human remains. Of course, if you’re dealing with criminals, they’re not following the law, so a rule against it doesn’t always help much. Many of the untransfigurating spells, and magical detection spells we have today, stem from the need to prove in a criminal case whether an object was more than what it appeared to be.

“Those are the types of spells you will be researching and discussing today. You will be given a file of a real, historical criminal case. They vary from art theft, to forgery, to more grisly things like murders - those ones are colour-coded red, in case you prefer to avoid them. The file will detail the cases and what evidence was found, but not how it was found or the subsequent examinations of it that took place. Using chapter twenty-two of your book, I would like you to make some reasonable guesses about the answers to those two questions.

“In all these cases, there are a few common solutions that can be applied… To sweep the area for signs of magic, to test the object that you suspect a spell has been cast on, and to check the caster. Of course, those options may be limited by what you know and who you have access to in any given case. Where there is a known pattern of illegal magical use, a government has choices about whether it wants to set wards and traces to pick up whenever that magic is used. Whether a government legally can do so varies from country to country, depending on what its constitution lays down about adults’ right not to be traced. For homework, you will research the laws of the country where your case took place, and one other, and answer the question as to whether it would have made a difference to how the case was handled had it happened elsewhere.

“If there are any questions, please ask me. Otherwise, you may begin. You will each work on a single case, but you may discuss ideas with your neighbours.”

OOC: Okay folks, I thought I'd try something a bit different and out there for class. Whilst I am interested in the magical detective work element, I'd also really love to see some detail on the cases. Gimme your best 'true crime' style stories within your post, showing off what's in the case file your student gets.

Subthreads:

Oooooh crime! by Sophia Priory

13 Selina Skies Advanced - True Crime 26 1 5

Sophia Priory

October 29, 2021 12:10 AM

Oooooh crime! by Sophia Priory

OOC: CW-More non-grisly murder mentions. BIC:

When it came to classes, talking about career related matters didn't particularly interest Sophia. She understood why professors did have those kinds of lessons though since it was relevent to most students, just not for upper class pureblood girls like the Aladren. Generally, she could see how it was a way of showing students why they might need whatever lesson was being taught, because to most people, when they learned something, they wanted to know why they'd ever have to use it. Since career related stuff didn't pertain to Sophia, she was glad that she was an Aladren who liked learning for learning's sake.

Still, she couldn't help but feel at times that it was a value judgement against those who didn't have careers or weren't going to have them. Which was often the rich pureblood girls, but not always. Honestly, for all that people said that pureblood society was judgemental-and, of course, it could be at times-the Aladren felt more judged by those who weren't part of it. Not her friends, of course, but like...well, some of the people who weren't. Some of them made her feel like absolutely everything she did was wrong or that she should feel bad about who she was, as if it was somehow her fault that she had it easier in some ways than some people did.

And when it came to not having a career specifically , it felt like there was this idea that there was something wrong with not wanting one. Like if you preferred to get married and have children rather than work, you were terribly old-fashioned and backwards, at least if you were female. Honestly, the only problem was when women were forced to stay home and have kids when they didn't want to. As far as Sophia was concerned, people should be able to do what they wanted as long as they didn't hurt anyone else.

It worked both ways too, men shouldn't have to have careers if they didn't want to. Like her cousin Beau, who had no desire whatsoever to work. Why should he have to do something that made him miserable? Granted, he was pretty much exactly the lazy entitled stereotype of what people thought those who didn't want jobs were, but still, why should he be unhappy?

Anyway, regardless of how Sophia felt about things in general, she perked right up when Professor Skies mentioned crime. She had no desire to be a detective but she was fascinated by the topic. Especially when the Transfig professor mentioned murder and ritualistic cults. Once they were released to do their work for the day, Sophia walked right over and picked up one of the red-coded files. "Want to work on this murder case with me?" She asked someone, with way more enthusiasm than she should have or that was generally typical of the seventh year.

11 Sophia Priory Oooooh crime! 1447 0 5