Lesson Two: Third and Fourth Years on Transfiguration

Professor Baer

February 23, 2009 7:05 PM

Lesson Two: Third and Fourth Years by Professor Baer

In the classroom that Caleb found as near to home as he could get within the mansion of Sonora Academy, not that the place and (most of) the people weren't absolutely lovely, rows of items were displayed on shelves on either side of the professor's desk for his third and fourth years. A stuffed rabbit sat beside a stuffed monkey on the actual desktop in front of the picture frames and calendar and other things that littered the desk. Those would be for examples. He smiled at his daughter's old stuffed animal before she grew and found new interests. One day it was stuffed animals, the next it was painting, and who knew what would come after that? Boys? Girls?

Caleb shook his head with a chuckle just as his students began arriving.

"Hello everyone," he greeted when the third and fourth years were in their seats and properly settled and wondering what they would be asked of that involved the haphazzardly chosen simple items. "Let's get started." He held one stuffed animal in each hand. Lifting the rabbit, he said, "This is Mr. Flop Top and this," he held the monkey forward, "is Ookie. They used to be my daughter's, but she's grown out of stuffed animals and said it was fine for me to borrow them for today's lesson, which is..."

Caleb put the animals down and went to the blank board. He tapped it and the title of the lesson appeared.

"Switching spells. A little more challenging, but I have confidence in you all. You need to pay attention or you may get the wrong things switched up. The incantation," he tapped his board again and the word was spaced out and marked where emphasis was needed over the 'ta', "is mutarus. You'll aim at the object you want to switch while concentrating on what you want to switch it with. The motion is a jab into semi-circle." He tapped the board once more where a moving visual similar to the one in the book appeared and then he demonstrated himself. "Now lets see if we can't mix-and-match Mr. Flop Top and Ookie."

His students needed to pay careful attention to what they did in Transfiguration, but that didn't mean they couldn't have a little fun. His class wasn't meant to be a daunting learning environment. He wanted his students as comfortable as possible. There was enough to worry about with the tricky subject. One less strain should be whether or not Professor Baer is going to bite their heads off.

Caleb lifted the plush dolls and considered the two animals in his hands. Then he put them on the desk in view of his students. He aimed his wand and cast the incantation a few times. The rabbit had a longer, thinner tail, one shorter ear, a twiggier arm and half his whiskers missing. The monkey's appearance was mismatched with the replaced rabbit parts. Caleb smiled at his Franken-plushies and adjusted them so they were fully displayed again.

"That's the general idea. Switching an object in place of another. That's what you'll be focusing on today. I have a number of things for you to pair up and switch to your hearts' content. If anyone wants to practice on Mr. Flop Top and Ookie to untangle them, feel free. Questions, comments, concerns? I'm up here to help or you can ask your friends or check your text. That's all right by me. Let's see some good work, folks."

Caleb let the students come up to pick what they needed to get to work. He went back to grading essays and answering owls and other business from home. He could admit he was just a bit homesick for Terry and Noa, but he would see them in a few short months.

0 Professor Baer Lesson Two: Third and Fourth Years 0 Professor Baer 1 5

Laurie Cider

February 27, 2009 4:20 PM

This lesson is a bit creepy, yes? by Laurie Cider

Professor Baer reminded Laurie of her father. Perhaps it was this that endeared her toward considering Transfiguration- one of her least favored classes- with a new eye. It wasn't so much the mechanics of it that bothered her; she wasn't awful or anything at the subject. She performed on the passable side of well, and her mind had a logical, organized tilt to it that lent itself toward the study. Rather, it was less tangible aspects of the class that bothered her. And unfortunately, her professor's current choice of test subjects was not helping her good intentions.

Mr. Flop Top glared at her from its perch at the front, its once cute face completely undone by the patchwork monkey parts; Laurie's stomach turned and the familiar considerations voiced themselves. If a Mr. Flop Top could so easily turn into an Ookie, was it really ever Mr. Flop Top? And if it was changed in substance, was the spirit changed as well? Laurie didn't think a stuffed animal had a soul or anything along those lines; but what about the animals they turned into teapots? Or the stones they transfigured into mice? If a rock was a mouse, then what was a mouse and what was a rock? What was a Laurie for that matter? Was her identity just as easily lost by the flick and swish of a wand, or would she still be Laurie even as a rock or a mouse or a disfigured stuffed monkey-rabbit creature?

It was enough to force a headache on, and since most of her Transfiguration lessons consisted of such internal wonderings, Laurie spent her lessons with her shoulders set in exasperated confusion and her lips frowned.

Somewhat glumly, Laurie retrieved her two practise objects: a model car and a one-armed doll. She sat the two on her desk and then lowered her chin to rest level with their heights. Sure, she could picture where a wheel might substitute for a foot, or an eye for a rear-view mirror, but did she really want to turn the two old toys into mutant degenerates? With a sigh, she pushed back from her desk and turned to her neighbor, her expression clearly wearied.

"You mind if I just watch you go at it for a bit? I'm not quite up to disfiguring yet."

0 Laurie Cider This lesson is a bit creepy, yes? 0 Laurie Cider 0 5

Holly Greer

March 03, 2009 1:12 PM

Just this lesson? Most of the stuff we learn is creepy. by Holly Greer

If it hadn't been for the Ladies of the Third Year Court (and Alexis, since Alexis seemed to think she wasn't a Lady any more), and the prospect of going to a Flying Horse Ranch, and the relative calm of Charms (as opposed to DADA, Potions, Flatt's interpretation of History, the more unpleasant creatures of CoMC, and the proximity of small rodents in some Transfiguration lessons), Holly would have written magic off as a bad idea and demanded her parents send her back to North Hollywood Preparatory Academy.

Of all the core classes aside from Charms, Holly generally counted on Transfiguration to be tolerable most of the time. In truth, she considered any lesson that did not involve mice or insects as a good one (it didn't matter if they were transfiguring from or to those states - she just didn't like mice or insects). Rabbits were okay. Birds were mostly all right. But insects were creepy and mice were nasty. Fortunately, they hadn't had to deal with snakes so far and she really hoped it stayed that way, else her classmates were going to hear exactly how high pitched her scream could get. Holding it back was hard enough with the mice.

Today should have been a good day. There were no insects, no mice, no snakes, and not even any birds or rabbits (aside from Mr. Flop Top who didn't quite qualify). But there was something truly disturbing about the patchwork half-creatures that Mr. Flop Top and Ookie had become. She took a sip of her anti-anxiety potion to calm the vague sense of disquiet and unease that just looking at the former toys instilled. They made her of think something out of a horror movie (not that she'd ever been allowed to watch one, but she had a good imagination that Flatt had not helped at all), and she half expected them to come to life and start killing people for what had been done to them.

Upon the instruction to begin, Holly immediately went up to the front of the room to collect the Flop Top and Ookie and brought them back to her desk, her heart pounding at nearly twice its normal rate as she handled the monstrosities. She dropped them onto her desk, telling them quickly, "Don't worry, I'll get you set right as quickly as I can." She glanced aside at her nearest neighbor and hoped Laurie didn't think she was utterly crazy. But she'd been the crazy girl in school before and Flop Top and Ookie needed the reassurance more than Holly needed people to think she was sane.

Her wand hand shook as she held it over the two mangled stuffed animals, so she took another, larger, gulp of her anti-anxiety potion. She had to fix the Franken-bunny-monkey before somebody died.

She looked aside at Laurie again as the other girl apparently found the conscience to leave the car and handicapped doll in front of her in their intact forms. Holly nodded. "You can maybe help me fix these," she invited, her voice shaking very slightly with nerves. She didn't like being this close to them, but an attempt to correct the wrongness that was Mr. Ook Top and Floppie was much preferable to creating her own Frankenstein monster which would only turn on her with even greater vengeance.

She saw no problem with turning one thing into another, but there seemed to her to be an indescribable cruelty to go only half way and stop. She still half believed toys came alive during the dead of night, like in Toy Story, and she was sure Ookie and Mr. Flop Top would not appreciate this at all.

Her hand still trembled very slightly as she made the wand motion, and her voice hadn't steadied any as she spoke the incantation, but her concentration was pure and focused. This was far too important a matter to give anything less than her all. She breathed out a sigh of relief and a tiny portion of her apprehension fell away as the whiskers righted themselves.

"You want to have a go?" she asked Laurie, needing a moment to recenter herself before she could even think of moving onto another, more difficult swap. If she'd tried anything more difficult than the whiskers, she thought the wobble in her voice would have rendered the spell useless. She had to get herself under control. It was a matter of life and death.

1 Holly Greer Just this lesson? Most of the stuff we learn is creepy. 123 Holly Greer 0 5

Laurie Cider

March 11, 2009 12:50 PM

This is too true. I blame the writers. by Laurie Cider

Laurie released a not-so-quiet sigh of relief. "You, Holly, are brilliant." It hadn't occurred to her that she could set aside the internal questions of identity in the quest to right the purposeful wrongs of the class's lesson. She watched as Holly set about returning the whiskers to the rightful owner.

"I understand how this spell can be rather practical," she continued moments later, her voice somewhat hushed as she considered the daunting prospects of switching back the tails. The stuff bunny was reminding her more and more of her own two pet rabbits and the idea of them suddenly spawning monkey tails was enough to turn her stomach sour. "But what I don't get is why have us practise on cute stuffed animals and toys? I have a hard enough time dealing with this class as it is. . ."

Laurie bit down on her lip and hesitantly, her mind ordered but still rather unwilling despite the different view point, lifted her wand toward the two disfigured plushies. The requisite ta skittered unfortunately past her lips and Mr. Flop Top found himself only halfway back to a normal tail. "Shoot-" Somehow the result was even worse now with the half cotton puff and half curlicue tail. "Okay then, again. Mu-TA-rus!"

She didn't believe that toys were alive or anything, but both Mr. Flop Top and Ookie seemed particularly happier with their properly placed tails and whiskers. There were still the ears and arms to go, though. Laurie pushed back from the desk resolutely. "I really really hope this spell isn't actually ever used on live animals. That'd be just too horrible to stand."

While she still had two more years to go before she would need to settle on her core subjects, Laurie was having the ever growing conviction that Transfiguration would be the first class dropped. She honestly didn't think she

0 Laurie Cider This is too true. I blame the writers. 0 Laurie Cider 0 5