Transfiguration (All houses and years)

[Charles Driscoll H7]

Charles entered the class in a bit of a hurry and plopped down beside Ivy, giving her a smile and saying a breathless "Hi" as he took his seat. Thankfully he was just on time and the class had yet to start. He had been early for class and then remembered that he forgotten his scarf at the last minute, and the weather was quite cold and Charles was skinny so he had no body fat to keep him warm. He had wrapped the scarf so that it covered more than his neck; in fact he was covered from the nose down but unaware of it in his hurry to get to class. He looked quite funny with only that part of his face showing and his rather untidy hair covering his forehead so that only his eyes and nose were showing. Ivy had probably not even seen his smile but he wasn't aware of that.

Professor McGonagall had just asked a question, and Charles waited to hear the answer from one of the other students. The only time he remembered working with animals in class was when they had been transfiguring beetles into plants, but he doubted transfiguring the canaries would be of the same difficulty. Transfiguration was a hard subject, and not one he felt he was getting better at with time. There always seemed to be something new to learn: a new way to hold your wand, to focus, or to say the incantation. A Gryffindor was answering the question right now, but Ivy had her hand raised so she might have something to add. He hoped she did as she might them some points and Hufflepuff hadn't won the House Cup in years.

[liz]

Liz smiled brightly as Faith sat down next to her: “Hey, Faith, how are you? It’s good to see you here today. I think we are about to do some animal transfigurations. I’m excited about it, but a little bit scared as well. What if I completely mess up?” Liz asked – she liked Transfiguration and was rather good in it. And professor McGonagall was fair to everyone, but Liz wanted to do well.
Just then class started right on minute as Liz noticed when she bent to put her books and other things back into her bag.

Liz listened as a girl- Karissa Chiff – from Gryffindor answered professor McGonagalls question. She seemed to be correct enough and Liz glanced towards professor McGonagalls desk with a small smile – she loved animals and canaries would be no exception. Suddenly a thought occurred to Liz. They were transfiguring living creatures – wouldn’t it hurt the animals? Knowing she wouldn’t be able to transform the little bird, if she didn’t know the answer, Liz couldn’t help but blurted the question out: “But aren’t the animals hurt, when we transfigure them?”<br>Suddenly realizing what she had done – spoken out loud without professor McGonagalls approval. Slapping her hand over her mouth, Liz blushed crimson and sinked lower in her desk, whispering meekly: “I’m sorry professor, didn’t mean to blurt it out like that.”<br>Liz lowered her eyes to the desk in front of her, hoping fervently that professor wouldn’t take points from Gryffindor. But Liz just hadn’t been able to stand the thought of hurting a harmless creature, who couldn’t protect itself. Liz couldn’t stand seeing people or animals hurt – maybe that was why she was almost certainly already she would want to be a healer one day.

[Corina]

Corina pulled her black dress over her head and tied her Ravenclaw tie in a flurry of activity. She put her hair up in two buns on either side of her head held there by two navy blue silk ribbons. She grabbed her wand and books and raced down to Transfiguration class. She entered silently and no one paid any notice. She sat down next to a girl who later Professor McGonagall asked a question. Corina put her books away and waved her wand as she listened to the Professor. She took a quill out and her notebook and began to draw. She was oblivious to the sound of people putting away books and quills and scrap pieces of parchment. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opned them wide and put her stuff away.

Corina started to pay attention to the Professor as she seemed to draw the attention of all students to her.

[Chelle]

Kari turned around as Liz Connely spoke out about animals. She smiled in a way that she hoped said "It's okay, I'm a little worried, too". Kari smiled and then turned her attention back to the front. She agreed with Liz, wouldn't the canaries be harmed in some way? She knew that fifth years learnt how to Vanish animals, like kittens, and Kari cringed at the thought. Didn't it hurt the kittens? And wouldn't turning a canary into a quill hurt it? It would be better if they transfigured quills into canaires. It wouldn't hurt the quill or the canary, unless the spell went horribly wrong.

[Professor Minerva McGonagall]

Professor McGonagall listened to ms. Chiff’s answer and turned to look at the fourth year in her own house who blurted out a question about whether it hurt the animals or not.
Luckily she seemed ashamed enough for her outburst, so McGonagall decided not to take points from her.
“I hope I don’t have to see such kind of behavior from you again in my class, ms. Connely,” McGonagall stated sternly. It wasn’t very often that someone was worried about the animals, but there were some. In professor McGonagalls opinion they were the ones who would be great as healers one day, so she made a mental note to offer that possibility to ms. Connely in a year or two when she was offering career advice, “However to answer your question – no, the birds aren’t hurt in any way. We only morph their outward appearance – like ms.Chiff put it – change their life-force. The mind of the bird just seems to slow down. About to the rate where one second seems like a year.”<br>
Picking up one of the canaries professor McGonagall placed the bird on a podium where the whole class could see it and pulled out her wand: “Observe. Berraverte!” McGonagall tapped the canary, that had squeeked once, but didn’t move with her once and watched as t turned into a luxurious quill – it was long, gracefully arced and a seemed s if it had came from a golden eagle with three dark-blue stripes crossing it in a bit of a V-shape. Quills like that were extremely expensive- up to a couple of galleons.
“Now I want you all to try your best with the transfiguration. I do now expect it to work for everyone, but I do except you try your best,” McGonagall looked at the class sternly as if saying that she would know, if they didn’t try their best, before turning her eyes on the young Slytherin who had been late for class, “Mr. Blackfire, would give each student one of the canaries, so you could completely settle into class, which you didn’t have the fortune to do, as you were late.”<br>
Watching the Slytherin sternly as he divided the small birds McGonagall stepped back to let the students practice for a couple of times, before she would see their progress and add or take points.

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

"wha..?" Pyro jumped slightly as he heard his name being called. After McGonagall called on someone to answer the question he had droped his hand and stared at the wall, not really paying much attention. He had kept half an ear still on her just incase she called on him. even though it was his name he was listening for it still surprised him. He looked at McGonagall and listened to what she said. He glanced at the Canaries, than back at McGonagall and gave her a 'are you kidding?' Look.

One look at the look McGonagalll was giving him told him she wasnt joking. Groaning silently he sliped out of his seat and walked to the canarie cage. taking them out one by one and setting them on his arm. He piled as many as he could onto his arm and than walked back towards the desk. He steped up to each students desk and placed a Canarie on the their table. When he ran out of canaries he went back to the cage to collect more.

Once every student had a canarie he took one for himself and made his way back to his desk. he set the bird down and than sat down pulling out his wand. "ok, what was that word again?..Perra?...Burra...." He muttered to himself, than snaped his fingers. "Oh yea, Berraverte!" He taped the bird and watched as it began to change. His victorious laugh was cut short as the bird flattened, taking on a quill shape and size, but still having all the bird like features. The birds eye rolled around and looked about the room in its new body. "...errr.....thats not right....."

[AmeliaBlack]

Amelia set her book bag down and smiled at Ivy yet again. She looked to the front of the class, waiting for Professor McGonagall to continue with the class.

[Chelle]

Kari listened silently to Professor McGonagall as she instructed the class what to do. Where was James? He should have been here by now, she thouight as she took her canary from Pyro as he passed them out. Kari took her wand and tapped the chubby little bird as she whispered Berraverte. She watched with glee as it stretched out into a quill shape, then began to finish the morphing. The eyes dissapeared slowly and eventually it turned into a white owl quill with black stripes here and there. She pcked it up but immediately dropped it as it let out a loud squawk. She groaned and started over.

"Berraverte!" she said, over and over again. The quill just kept squawking and squawking. She was suddenly very aware as the eyes of some students who had managed to perfect the transformation turning their attention to her. She concentrated hard on the quill she wanted it to look like, and sound like for that matter, and tapped it as she muttered "Berraverte!" once more. Finally, the little canary-turned-quill began to stop and lay on the table like an ordinary quill.

"Yay!" she said as she picked up the quill and stroked the one feather. It was a perfect transformation, at last, and Kari tried again. This time, she changed it back into a canary with ease and then repeated the transformation into a quill. It was easy after you got the hang of it and managed to do it properly the first time.

[kaitlynrobbins]

Katie swallowed, picking up her wand. Just because she did not care much for transfiguration did not mean that she was going to just give up. If she did, well then she just wouldn't be Kaitlyn Marie Robbins. Holding her wand steadily out in front of her she thought to herself of what the spell was. 'Berraverte, berraverte, berraverte . . .' she thought to herself over and over again, each time in her mind picturing the canary turning into a quill. When Katie felt that she was ready she cleared her throat and spoke, "Berraverte."

Nothing happened. Unless of course you count the idiotic bird's incessant squawking grow louder. Katie closed her eyes making sure she was absolutely focused on the task at hand. She could do it. Absolutely, she could. She was Katie Robbins. Of course she could do it. Opening her eyes Katie once again pointed her wand at the bird and concentrated very carefully. "Berraverte!" she spoke, and watched in amazement as the bird slowly but surely transformed into a quill. It was not a fancy quill like Professor McGonagall's, but it was a quill none the less and Katie was extremely proud of her achievement. She hoped the professor felt the same way.

[bellatrixlestrange]

Faith couldn't help but smile as next to her, Liz blurted out her comment on the birds' welfare; it was a very Liz like thing to say, but Faith's amusement turned quickly into anxiety as she realised who's class she was in. Thankfully, though, a look at Liz's face (which had turned pink with the embarasssment of speaking out of turn) and McGonagall semmed to dicount the taking of any points. The class went on and a Slytherin, that Faith quickly picked out as Pyro Blackfire, was sent around the class, handing out canaries. As one was placed on her desk Faith, first sending a thankful smile upto Pyro, stared at it and then at her wand with the usual determindness that came upon her face when challenged with a new task.

"This should be intersting," She said to Liz with a grin, picking her wand up off the desk and rolling up her black sleeves, "Alright then - Berraverte."

Faith twirled her wand in a rather over-complicated fashion and stared blankly at the canary. At first inspection it seemed identical to its self before the spell but, looking closer Faith realised, with triumph that it's feet had gone, replaced with a sharpened nib. The canary didn't seem too happy with its new body parts and squeaked at Faith irritably, flapping it's wings and attempting to fly off.

"Alright, alright," Faith said, taking up her wand that she had discarded on her inspection of the bird, "Stay still will you and I'll try and sort you out. Berraverte!"

The canary gave an even more annoyed twitter as a plume started to grow out of its head, simular to the one that ended Faith's own quill, which was lying on the wooden top of the desk next to the canary.

"Berraverte! Berraverte!" Faith tried again, sounding slightly exasperated. Her prayers seemed to be answered though, as the bird, however slowly, began to transform, it's features dissappeared and it's whole body lengthened, it's two nib feet blending into one tip, until it bore no resembelance to it's former self attall, except for it's brightly coloured feathers. A happy and victorious smile spread across Faith's tanned face as she looked at the quill from all angles, admiring her handi-work. She saw nothing wrong with it, okay the feathers were ruffled in a slightly canary-like fashion and it was no way near as fine as the elegant writing-tool that McGonagall had transfigured her bird into, but apart from that it was fine. Faith let out a content laugh and went to pick up the quill. As she said though a familiar furied twittering was heard, emitting from the quill.

Faith sighed but shrugged to Liz.

"Nearly there."

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy shuffled uncomfortably in her seat as Charles came to sit near her as well. She wasn't good at group conversations, but they probably wouldn't have much time for conversation in today's lesson anyway. So she smiled at Charles slightly, who looked more like a mere bundle of clothing in the number of layers he was wrapped up in, before turning her attention back to the girl, who looked her age, who was answering the question. She said about what Ivy would have said, if not in the same way. Ivy put her hand down, not wishing to merely repeat what the other girl had said.

She frowned as the Professor transformed the canary into a quill, thinking of the fact that she was about to have to attempt that. Ivy took a canary tentatively from the Slytherin that gave her one, although worried that he would abhor her for taking anything that he had been holding. That seemed to be the way most Slytherins thought. Ivy looked around nervously, before looking back to the front desk again, where Professor McGonagall's pen lay. Meanwhile, her canary decided to stage an escape attempt. Ivy caught it quickly, and brought it back to the desk, drawing her wand as she did so.

Ivy held the canary gently, clearing her throat. "Barreverte," she said, frowining unhappily as nothing happened. She rechecked the word she had scribbled down, and realised that she was supposed to be pronouncing the word as 'Berraverte'. She restrained her canary slightly as it made another bid for freedom and looked around the room, repeating the incantation to herself in her head. She was unfortunate enough to notice someone who she had not noticed before - one of the Slytherins, the one actually. She turned away quickly, not wishing to be noticed herself, and stared down at her canary, feeling a few tears sting her eyes at the mere memory. She tried not to be distracted and continued to repeat the words to herself in her head.

"Berraverte," she said finally, and smiled in relief as she felt a slight flex in her wand and the canary transformed into a quill. It was a fairly ordinary quill, of medium length, with a a slightly yellowish tinge to it. It sported one lonely feather, bright yellow, which Ivy smoothed down with her finger and thumb. She twirled it around in her hand, and pretended to write with it on her piece of paper. She thought she detected a slight squeak, but it was barely audible and she could have imagined it. She looked sideways to her friends, hoping once again that she had not been noticed by the Slytherin.

[liz]

Liz sent a grateful smile towards professor McGonagall, when she didn’t take points. However the professor didn’t seem to notice that smile as she had already picked up a canary and transfigured into a luxurious quill. Liz couldn’t help but admire it as well as the concentration that had shown on McGonagall’s face for the briefest of moments, making Liz wish she had had a pencil and paper near to capture it on paper.

Thanking the Slytherin boy who handed her a canary with a brief smile, Liz sighed and took firm hold of her wand. Muttering the spell a couple of times to get a hang of it, Liz softly petted the birds head for a moment and then tapped it with her wand while clearly stating: “Berraverte!”<br>For a moment it seemed as if nothing had changed, before the canary slowly started to change into a quill. It was a rather plain quill, but would have looked alright… if it hadn’t been sprouting wings and trying to fly around like mad with them and ended up on the table with the Hufflepuffs sitting in front of them in the process.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Liz muttered with her cheeks blushing again as she jumped up to grab the quill and sat back down, holding it in a firm grasp.

Hearing the noise form the quill Faith was holding Liz giggled as well and showed her own quill, which she had managed to catch: “At least yours isn’t flying around like mad!” Letting out a small chuckle Liz tried again: “Berraverte! Berraverte!” Nothing stiil changed, so Liz shook her head: “Never could guess that Transfiguration was one of my best subjects after Herbology and Potions by looking at this.”<br>Closing her eyes for a moment Liz concentrated and tapped the quill-like bird… or should it be called bird-like quill? With her wand again, this time getting rid of the wings even though the quill still jumped a little from time to time.

[Cassandra Blackfire G7]

Cass took the bird from Pyro with a shy smile. She stared at the bird for a moment. She really hated doing this. The poor thing was so innocent, and cute. She placed the creature on the table, and exhaled.

She hated being in McGonagall's classroom. She so wanted the Professor to think she was talanted. Of course, that was hard to prove to any professor.

She pushed the hair out of her eyes, and silently said a prayer. Making the exact same swishing movement that McGonagall had made, she commanded " Berraverte!"

She watched the animal transform. It was really hard for her to watch the animal twist and contort into another object. Finally, after all was said and done, a wooden quill, almost matching the one she brought to class, laid on her desk. The white feathers stood out on the little sliver of wood. Cass squealed with excitement.

[Professor Minerva McGonagall]

Having given the students enough time to try casting the charm professor McGonagall started to go and see if any of them required help and to see their progress.
“You are right, this is not correct. Concentrate while you say the incantation. Try again, mr.Blackfire,” professor McGonagall informed the young student calmly before moving on to the next student, who was a Hufflepuff fifth year.
McGonagall picked up the quill she had made and gave ms. Robbins a tight-lipped smile: “Very good, ms. Robbins, you have managed it nicely. 5 points to Hufflepuff.”<br>
After that professor McGonagall moved on to a table where two young Gryffindors were seated – ms. Oraco and ms. Connely. Giving ms.Connely one more stern look – professor McGonagall hadn’t forgotten her outburst earlier, even though she hadn’t taken points. Looking at the quills the girls had made, professor McGonagall nodded sternly: “You are getting there, but you need to practice some more, ms.Oraco, ms.Connely.”<br>Nodding to the girls once more professors McGonagall moved over to the next person and observed how ms. Tunstall performed the transfiguration and succeded, earning one more tight-lipped smile and a nod from McGonagall: “Very good work, ms. Tunstall. 5 points to Hufflepuff.”<br>
One more student seemed to be more or less ready with her transfiguration, so professor McGonagall moved to observe the work of ms. Logton. Seeing a quill laying on the table in front of her as well, McGonagall nodded once again: “Another sample of good work. 5 points to Gryffindor.”<br>Looking around to see if any other students were ready, professor McGonagall started towards the next table to see the progress there.

[keirramcdonnell]

Keirra had been completely dazed and had not even noticed a Hufflepuff third year sit next and had started speaking, nor did she notice that they were supposed to be working on turning their canaries into quills. With a sudden apologetic smile, she held up her wand and quickly said the incantation, "barreverte."

After a moment, the canary twittered and began an oddly yellow colored quill that seemed as though it was trying to fly. Again smiling at the Hufflepuff, she attempted reversing the effect with a flick of her wand. This time the quill sprouted two orange bird legs and began to hobble about on the table. With a small chuckle she said, "well, maybe you should give it a try."

[aislinnfindlow]

Aislinn tried to stifle her laughter at the sight of their walking quill, but put a serious look onto her face before clearing her throat and picking up her wand. "I will most certainly try but I'm not sure I can do any better."

Her blue eyes flickered before she concentrated completely on turning the strange example of a quill into a luxurious one. "Barreverte!"

Suddenly the yellow quill that was hopping around - it had even began to sing, poorly at that - turned into a pristine white quill with only the slightest hint of yellow. Thankfully, its legs had disappeared and its horrible attempt at singing had subsided.

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro groaned as he looked down at his Bird-Quill. He taped it with his wand. "Berraverte". He breathed a sigh of relief as the bird transformed back into its original form. "Ok," He said to himself. "lets do this again.." he shut his eyes and concentrated. Picturing the bird transforming into a quill. He took in a deep breath and realeased it to relax his body.

"Berraverte." he said tapping the bird. It began to change again and pyro held his breath. "Ha ha!" He gave out a short laugh of triumph as the bird transformed into a Quill. The quill wasnt very extravigent, just a plain black quill. But it was a quill none the less.

[Professor Minerva McGonagall]

"There is no time for foolish behavior in my class, ms. McDonnell, get to work,” McGonagall stated sharply before turning her attention to the next girl who had managed the transformation, “Very good work, ms. Findlow. 5 points to Hufflepuff.”<br>McGonagall observed some other students and nodded with a tight-lipped smile to mr. Blackfire: “Very good work. 5 points to Slytherin.”<br>
Noticing that class would end any minute McGonagall moved back to in front of the class and addressed all pupils: “Very good work all of you. Now, I won’t leave you any homework this time besides the little fact that you have to practice this transfiguration until you get it done correctly. You are free to go now.” McGonagall stated just as the bell rang signaling the end of the class.

((Thank you everybody who showed up))

[Pyro Blackfire S5]

Pyro smirked as he was awarded 5 points. Things had finally started to pick up again. He changed the quill back to a canarie and returned it to the cage. he walked back to his desk and grabed his bag. "Well professor, wonderful class as always." he said leing through his teeth. He turned and headed out of the room, wondering if he should even bother to practice the spell.

[drakeemerald]

Drake walked into the class expecting the best. In addition to reading a lot about potions he had also studied the art of transfiguration. He knew that it was an art of the mind and the wrist. As you said the spell you need to perform the correct hand movement and have heart in the words. Drake knew that he would have no problem having the heart. He enjoyed magic. Yes, he loved potion making more that anything, but he really did like all of the forms of magic.

Drake knew that he might get points taken off because he had come into class late, but it really wasn’t his fault. His father had made him miss the first week or so of classes because he was in the process of selling their house. In order to stay out of trouble he tried to not draw any attention to him, and to only remember his will to succeed in magic.

As he received his bird he placed it in the center of his table. He had closely watched the professor’s hand movement and knew that it was quite advanced, so he kept it in his mind that he was going to try his best.

Drake reached into the pocket of his robe and withdrew his wand. He practiced his wand movement in the air without saying the spell. At first it looked as if he were trying to hard, but as he practiced he developed a nice little movement that looked quite elegant, and he hoped that it would work for the spell.

After practicing this, he placed his wand back in his pocket and he practiced saying the spell. He didn’t want to accidentally pronounce it wrong and make a fool of himself.

“Berraverte.” He said with pride and confidence. It sounded like he pronounced it correctly, but when performing the actual spell he would need to put more passion in it if he wanted it to work out correctly.

Drake once again withdrew his wand and placed it over the bird. He breathed in.

“Concentrate Drake.” He mumbled

As Drake once again repeated his wand movement he proceeded with the spell. “Berraverte.” As the spell escaped from Drakes lips he felt his chest get heavy and his head get light. Suddenly the bird in front of him began to change shapes.

It was amazing. He always loved the feeling of correctly performing a spell. The newly formed quill in front of him looked beautiful in his eyes, It was long and silver. It wasn’t a shiny silver, but it was still silver. It had red markings on the tip of each strand of feather. He liked it.

He picked it up and looked at it. He then proceeded to poke it to make sure that it wasnt going to squeel and to his relief it didn't a smile spread across his face as he laid the quill back on the desk.

Drake then realized that his grade didn’t depend on if he liked it or not. It was up to the professor. So Drake just sat in his chair and looked around the room trying not to call any attention to himself or his quill.