Breathing exercises [sixth and seventh years!] on Transfiguration

Professor Lilac Brockert

February 06, 2012 9:31 PM

Breathing exercises [sixth and seventh years!] by Professor Lilac Brockert

There was nothing on the desks. That in itself should have been an indicator for the sixth and seventh years as they entered the classroom, their ears brushed with hellos and how are you?s from their smiling professor. Lilac always enjoyed seeing the (less than) bright and (occasionally) smiling faces of her students, even if the feeling wasn’t always reciprocated.

In any case, the empty desks should have tipped them off to the nature of the class: human transfiguration. In the past, the grey-eyed professor had been a bit weary of letting her class experiment on each other, but she felt comfortable enough in the situation now to try a few somewhat risky spells with the advanced class.

“Welcome, class,” Lilac started once everyone was settled. “Let’s begin by partnering up, shall we? Be sure to get with someone you trust.” There wasn’t a lot of risk in today’s spell, but it was a possibility that it could go wrong. Then again, there was that possibility for every spell, and warning about specifics would only make the students unnecessarily anxious.

“Now that we’re all in pairs”--or triples, depending on if there were any absences--“I think we can start. The spell we’re using today is Branchiam.” The incantation appeared behind her on the board. “To demonstrate, I need a volunteer. It‘s perfectly safe, I promise.” Her level of experience made it completely harmless.

Eventually a student was produced. “Excellent, now watch closely.” To the student, she added, “You fight feel your neck go cold, then warm. That’s perfectly normal.” Lilac aimed her wand. “Branchiam.” A soft red light flowed from the tip. The next moment, the student had a fine pair of gills sprouting from their neck. “Now, if you could please hold your breath, you will find that the gills will do your breathing for you.”

With the flick of her wrist, the spell ceased, and the student’s neck returned to its normal shape. “Thank you for your cooperation.” She smiled to the person, then the glance. “Well, that’s it right there. Not much more can be said. I’ll be walking about inspecting and Untransfiguring as need be, so feel free to begin.”

OOC: Welcome to Transfig. Let’s see some nice, long posts. Don’t godmod, be descriptive, all that good stuff. Tag if needed. I think you know the drill. Happy posting!

Subthreads:

Sounds easy enough by Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw with Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus

That is entirely misleading... by Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

Class is closed (nm) by Prof. B.

0 Professor Lilac Brockert Breathing exercises [sixth and seventh years!] 0 Professor Lilac Brockert 1 5

Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

February 11, 2012 12:03 PM

Sounds easy enough by Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw

Andrew was distracted as he arrived at the transfigurations classroom. This was not entirely uncommon of him since returning from break, that was when he had learned that his parents had been awfully close to having a second child. His mental state had been sent for a loop, but he had been slowly recovering from the news. He had finally accepted that he would be a big brother and was working on coming to terms will all the ramifications there of. At least he thought he was. Then he got the letter this morning from his aunt. It was very hastily written but the contents were clear, Mom had her baby last night, he now officially had a little sister.

He had arrived early and the classroom was still mostly empty. He tried to focus on class. He smiled and greeted Professor Cros... Brockert now as he found a seat. Marissa wasn't here yet, he hoped she would sit with him if they got to partner up today. Between the dating and the tutoring he guessed that she would, but you never knew if Jose or Edmond or someone might get to class first and decide to work with him instead. Most of them should know about him and Marissa at this point, it was no great secret, but unfortunately he was to much a Teppenpaw to tell them to 'get lost' if they tried to take Marissa's spot. So, he would just have to hope for the best.

Andrew raised his hand when Professor C... Brockert asked for a volunteer. He wasn't quite sure what they would be doing, he hadn't run across this particular transfiguration yet, but hopefully having it done to him first would help cement his understanding. He stood obediently in the front of the class, watched her movements and listened to her pronunciation. His neck did shift in temperature as she described, and he could feel something happening. It was strange, they had done some human transfiguations before, but most of those had been on the aesthetic level. They were just adjustments in size, shape, or something new added. He held his breath as instructed and could feel the gills on his neck drawing dissolved air into his system from the moisture covering them. It was really weird. This was different than those aesthetic changes, this was functional. The gills vanished at the professor's command and he returned to his seat.

This was going to be difficult, he wondered if this was actually going to be harder for him than some of the other students. He generally did okay in this class because he could hold the mental images of what he had and what he wanted then make the changes. He rarely put much trust in the magic to determine what changes would be necessary. This was not only creating a functional respiratory system, it was also a matter of integrating it into his existing respiratory system. He wasn't a biology expert and he was either going to have to figure out this system integration, or trust in the spell to know what it is doing and make the changes it needs to do. He turned to his partner, "So, how much do you trust me?"

2 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw Sounds easy enough 145 Andrew Duell, Teppenpaw 0 5

Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus

February 17, 2012 3:12 PM

Right, of course.... by Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus

Whether or not she was in the class voluntarily was something of a point of contention between Marissa and her mother – one of them remembered her talking herself into it, the other remembered being very pointedly talked into it by the first – but either way, it still seemed likely to be one of the least smart decisions she had ever made in her life. There were days when things went reasonably well, but one glance around at the bare desks let her know that today would not be one of them.

A lifetime of Crotalus caution plus the absence of any real reason, this late in the game, to feel fully compelled to please a teacher combined to make Marissa’s hands remain firmly in her lap when there was a request for volunteers for the human Transfiguration. She was sure, of course, that Professor Brockert was capable of performing the spell without permanent damage to the person involved, but even more sure that it would not be very pleasant and that she would rather not go through it twice today. Though as soon as she thought that, it occurred to her that she might want to know how it felt when it was done right so she could pull the plug if it went wrong when it was attempted on her, but by then, her boyfriend had already decided to put his neck on the line instead. And do so very nearly literally.

Marissa couldn’t help it. She cringed, touching the sides of her own neck in sympathy before sympathy was crowded out by dawning horror at the thought that she wasn’t just going to be sympathetic the whole lesson occurred to her again. The usefulness of this spell was apparent, there were times when being able to breathe underwater might be useful, but she just didn’t like human Transfiguration, and she especially didn’t like the thought of the sides of her neck opening up in any way, or of being responsible for opening someone else’s up. Anatomy wasn’t one of the subjects she was her very best at, but she knew there were lots of major veins and arteries, or something like that, there.

Don’t be stupid, she tried telling herself. You’ve been thinking someone was going to die in here for years and no one ever has. No one is going to die today, either.

Jugular, she responded to herself morosely. Carotid. Anne Boleyn.

When Andrew, to her surprise, didn’t bolt for the nearest seat that wasn’t beside hers when they were sent to work and asked how much she trusted him, then, she couldn’t help but laugh – not at him, just at the idea of her being the one with something to worry about, at least in that respect. Them working together today worked perfectly for her, since he was probably (whether she was biased or not) the best in the class, or very close to it.

“Far, far more than you should trust me,” she replied, covering her mouth for a second out of habit as she stopped laughing. “At least when it comes to – “ slashing people’s necks open – “this.” She bit her lip, summoned up her willpower, and decided to be the sort of person who put those close to her ahead of her own needs and desires even when doing so was much more difficult than usual. “If you want to work with someone else, I’ll understand completely.”

16 Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus Right, of course.... 147 Marissa Stephenson, Crotalus 0 5

Andrew Duell

February 19, 2012 6:58 PM

Just close your eyes and believe by Andrew Duell

Andrew did his best to pretend to look hurt by her words, "What? Abandon my girl and throw her to the wolves... err... fishes?" He then gave her his best reassuring grin and looked her straight in the eyes. "There is no one in this room I trust more than you." Breaking eye contact he looked around the room at the rest of the students, "Although... that may not be saying much. Maybe Jose, but after what he did to me in the Quidditch game I don't know anymore..." He regarded his friend for a moment, "I may need your help thinking of some way to exact some sort of revenge upon him before the year is out. Sic my own cousin on me will he... he doesn't know who he is dealing with..." He began muttering before turning back to Marissa.

He was well aware that this was not Marissa's favorite class. He was also well aware that he might be a good part of the reason that she was in this class, so her success in this class was a high priority for him. If he was one of the reasons that she was here, he had to do all he could to see her through it. This assignment was going to be difficult, so step one was to get her to relax a little bit. She wasn't going to be doing anyone any favors by being tense and over-analytical about this. This one the magic was going to have to do the heavy lifting and detail work because there was no way on earth they could fuse a set of gills into an already existing respiratory system manually.

"Okay, this one should be interesting. Do you remember all that stuff I've been saying about picturing what you've got and what you want and guiding the magic to do the changes? Forget all that, at least on the detail level. There is no way we'll be able to imagine all the tiny little changes and linkages we'd have to make combine the gills into our respiratory systems." He began flipping through his book to see what else he could dig up on this particular spell. "So, we'll just have to let the spell itself do what it needs to do and focus more on the bigger picture. I think we should be able to work together on this one instead of taking turns, it might make it easier. I should be able to focus on my own neck. What do you think?"

2 Andrew Duell Just close your eyes and believe 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

February 22, 2012 7:14 PM

That is entirely misleading... by Alessa Hinckley, Aladren

Although Transfiguration was one of Alessa's better classes, she didn't really feel like being there today. It was that point in the school year where she was tired of it all. The Aladren didn't want to be in a class with a bunch of people and a way too peppy teacher. She didn't feel like having to do what someone else told her to do right now and wanted to do her own thing instead. Alessa simply wasn't in the mood.

Still, she supposed it could be worse. Perky as Professor Brockert could be at least she wasn't, well, sadistic, like say, Professor Light. Merlin, did the sixth year loathe that man. He had, after all, put them in a situation where they could have drowned. The guy was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Alessa had written to her father, asking if she could drop the class but he'd refused, saying Charms was important branch of magic for all witches and wizards to learn, but that he'd write to the board and make sure that they kept an eye on Professor Light.

Still, as Alessa thought that the Charms professor was a pureblood, she wasn't counting on anything really happening. She sighed and forced herself to pay attention to her Transfiguration professor instead. Even though her mind kept going elsewhere. It was near impossible for Alessa to stop thinking about whatever she was obsessing about at a given moment and pay attention to what she was supposed to. It was harder yet to get her to be able to pay attention in a group. In private lessons, Alessa had always felt that it was her duty to be respectful of the person teaching her specifically. Plus, there were not the distractions of others being around.

Once she heard what the lesson was, Alessa, who usually tried not to express emotion, couldn't help but. She had no qualms about not being able to breathe like in Charms last semester because the example made it perfectly clear that they wouldn't. It was simply that the Aladren didn't trust her classmates. Not even Tawny. Especially not Tawny whose morality (and sanity) Alessa was beginning to question. The sixth year never knew quite what her elder cousin was capable of. Especially given the Aladren probably knew too much and the Pecari might decide she wanted Alessa out of the way.

So she avoided looking in her cousin's direction as she searched the room for a partner. Honestly, she just wished she could do this to herself! She'd never really formed close bonds with most of her classmates and some didn't even strike her as the most capable. Alessa noted that it would probably be best to work with a relative, given the Brockert family's nature tendency towards the subject, but that left Tawny, whom she was quite obviously avoiding and Nina, whom Tawny would give her a hard time for working with. That was no win situation.

However, before Alessa could make up her mind about whom it would be safe to work with someone approached her.

11 Alessa Hinckley, Aladren That is entirely misleading... 150 Alessa Hinckley, Aladren 0 5