Quote:
Originally Posted by
Shaw 
"Alllllll righty then. Let's see." Shaw got up to his feet, put his hands to the small of his back and surveyed their list for a long, long time. Then he scratched his stubble for an equally long time. When he finally turned back around again, he was startled to see so many KIDS looking at him.
"Uhhh right then there. Well some of you know and some of you don't. That's alright, you'll learn probably. You can't conjure food, so if you put food up there go ahead and pretend it wasn't you but your friend that wrote it." Sound advice. "And you can't conjure up OR transfigure something into a real person, so all you wanting friends and professors..." yeah, no. He wasn't offended at all.
The scratching began again. "Basically, if I can't carry it in my hand then you can't transfigure it. Yall know that? Why'd someone write happiness? You know where we are?" It sort of sounded like Shaw didn't know himself.
Right then. Shaw went back to the board, studied the chalk, then erased about half of the answers. He occasionally threw nervous glances over his shoulder and during the middle of his erasing and writing, he retrieved his alligator cloak and re-donned it. When he finally finished, the board read:
"There. There we go. There we go now. I put them there together like that. Makes sense. We'll get to that. First I need to know how do we go about transfiguring things? Magic words? Wand movements? Right? Where's them come from? Who makes up the words? What are the words? Why'd I'd make them there groups you think?" He pointed to the grouped words on the board.
Selina flinched when he went up to the board afraid that he may draw his chainsaw on the unsuspecting students again. When he didn't she let out a sigh of relief, she was safe... for now. He reorganized all of their answers and she smiled when she saw her suggestion was on the board- shield. She was the only one who had written that answer, although it was more for protection against the lunatic.
When he asked where all of the magical incantations came from Selina rose her hand, "Some of them are Latin roots, sir. Although some are completely random or Greek roots. However, the majority relate to a lot of Latin." This was one thing she knew well being that Selina spoke Latin and was very well versed in the ancient language of the Romans, "You also put the groups in order of the houses... or the colors that you see... which are houses."
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Shaw There were like two, maybe three really smart people in this room. They "GOT IT". "You got it, you! You're 'gettin' it' is good! Usually them fancy words we use are from some other fancy word. Latin, they call it. Like .... who wanted a poodle? You'd probably use some version of Fera Verto."
Shaw looked at the students, SMILED with all his teeth, and then scratched. "You know why? What's them words mean? Fera Verto? Them's Latin."
Selina, being the Latin nerd she was, rose her hand and said, "Fero Verto comes from the Latin word ferus and the Latin word vertere. It literally means
to bring on wild animal, however, in a magical sense it brings on a change in an animal into a cup. So you can see the similarity between the translation and the spell."
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Shaw "Aren't we doing stuff now?" Weren't they? Shaw was almost sure they were. Almost. "You probably know best. Let's get into groups. Yall like groups? Brilliant stuff comes out of groups."
"So let's you yellow wearing people work together. Then the ones wearing red work together. Blues with blues and greens with greens. If you don't know what I'm on about you can get in that there last group that I labeled," Shaw had to turn and see what he'd labeled it as," Err Everyone else?. Or work alone if you're into that."
Shaw stared at the board, then back to the class. "Right there. Your job is to come up with them there fancy words, Latin words, that you can use to change your stuff into well....other stuff. No promises they'll work, but understanding the ROOT before you grow flowers is always best, I say. Same for transfiguration. So go on now. Use your text books. Find them fancy words. Shaw will try out the ones I think will work best at the end."
Okay? Shaw looked confused and ate another bite of cup.
Selina looked around for all of the Gryffindors to get together. The assignment was simple... and Selina knew Latin.