| Selkie
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 36,512
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Eliza Bellerose
Slytherin Second Year
  x1
|  Hiss!Roar!Growl!Caw! | Hermione's Double | The Little Three | Alecate
Text Cut: ArianaBlack Quote:
Originally Posted by ArianaBlack  Alright, it was exactly time and James Draper waited for no one. With one final glance at his watch, he uncrossed his arms and took a few steps forward to center himself in front of the students. ”Hello and welcome to another lesson,” he nodded. ”If you haven’t been paying attention,” there were always a few oblivious ones, ”For today's lesson you'll be working with Professor Hirsch and Professor Ichihara, along with myself.” They knew who was who by now, yes? Because James couldn’t bother to clarify for those who were too daft to figure it out by now.
Moving on, ”Today’s lesson will include quite a bit of theory to start us off, so I suggest everyone take out something to record notes on,” this statement was then followed by a short pause to allow everyone time to take out some parchment if they hadn’t already. It was important.
Everyone had their notes out, yes? Great. Because James was about to start and he’d wait for no one. Eh, maybe he’d wait if it was entirely necessary, but they were on a tight schedule here. ”To start us off, I want to talk a little bit about a muggle myth.” But this isn’t muggle studies, he was sure they’d say. But before anyone had time to chirp in with their smart mouths, James continued because yes this was all relevant if they gave him the time to explain.
”Muggles have had a record of creating myths about creatures we know to exist. Take unicorns, for example.” The muggle kind were similar to the actual creatures, but there were differences, yes? ”The myth we’ll be discussing right now originates in parts of Asia, more specifically in China.” James would know, he spent a lot of time there. ”Where the muggles believe to be a legendary mountain with a cascading waterfall, called Dragon’s Gate, that can be reached via a river. The muggle myth says that Carps swim upstream against the river’s current and those fish that can make the jump over the waterfall at the end of the river will transform into a powerful dragon.” He waited for the notetakers to jot things down, in case.
”My question for you all is, do you think a transformation of this caliber is possible through magic?” he looked around. ”And If so, by what branch of magic?” Welcome to class, everyone.
[/COLOR]
OOC: Hello everyone and welcome! This post marks the OFFICIAL START of the lesson. Any arrivals posted from this point forward will face IC consequences, so just pretend you've been here all along!
Yeah...Muggles DID have a tendency to make up fairy tales about magic. They thought everything was the Cinderella-type magic and that it only consisted of pumpkins being changed into fairies and things like that. Plus, they thought Mermaids were super pretty and sweet, and...THOSE THINGS WERE FREAKY!
She started jotting down notes about what he was saying, nodding along as he spoke.
Did she think this kind of thing was possible via THEIR magic? No, but...probably YES, because why else would he start off the whole class with an introduction like that if he didn't plan to teach it?
So, YES. Ariadne was going with YES. Text Cut: nicole black Quote:
Originally Posted by nicole black Nana paused to give anyone else who might like to answer a chance to do so, when it seemed no further questions were coming she uncrossed her arms. “As many of you correctly guessed in your answers this particular branch of magic would in fact be Transfiguration.” A bit obvious considering she was here, but that in no way made the students accuracy any less accurate. “Many of you expressed doubt that a larger and very foreign creature could be Transfigured from a smaller, dimmer one, but as I mentioned this is not the case. Transfiguration at it’s core is a sister science to alchemy in that it works on almost an atomic level, which is why some Animagi can shift their forms into varied species of animal and not simply mammals. Now many creatures that we know to be magical were or are believed to be mundane by Muggles. The Dodo, is a prime example of this… as is.. To an extent the Lochness Monster, which we know with certainty to be in actuality a Kelpie much fond of changing it’s form to appear as a sea serpent.” That was a hint, students. ”The Kelpie, like our carps have learned through natural evolution to Transfigure themselves without aid of a wand or wizard into any shape they so choose… Though most do tend toward horses. Our creature, which is where the chinese muggle myth originated, is an Echinokarp. A creature that when swimming along is as harmless as any river carp, but when threatened transforms into a fearsome, quilled creature that is impossibly dangerous to say the least.” Did she have their attention now?
“These quills are something the Echinokarp even before it’s transformation, but they are much more potent in the post-change form causing the victim of the quills to fall into a deep, deep sleep much like the one experience after ingesting dreamless sleep potion. The quills themselves are used for their potent sleep-inducing toxins to enhance their strength.” But more would be said on that subject when it was Hirsch’s turn at the bat, for now it was time to get into the messy parts of this explanation. ”The Echinokarp is a product of what we call Evolutionary Transfiguration or Natural Transfiguration. The concept is no different from an Iguana changing it’s color to blend in with the surrounding territory. It is a reflex, much like the reflex to put your hands out when you take a tumble. A survival instinct that for Echinokarp and many other magical creatures enables them to temporarily change their forms to flee, intimidate or even kill their predators.” there was of course, much more to evolutionary transfiguration than these simpler aspects, but that was for a more advanced lesson as the concepts were quite tricky to follow even for the best of wizards.
“Now.” Nana said, clapping her hands together. “what other creatures do we know that use this same defensive tactic to hide, protect themselves or even hunt? There are quite a few that employ this particular tactic.”
And that was how you taught a subject, gentlemen.
Okay, so yeah...it was possible.
Ariadne jotted this down in her notes, too. Then she looked up at the professor and nodded along as she described in detail all about the Lochness Monster and then the Enchinokarp. Her facial expressions matched the professor's words, too. First her eyes were just attentive, and then they were wide, and finally her eyebrows were arched upward in surprise. A fearsome, quilled creature that is impossibly dangerous?! MERLIN.
Then there was a question. What other creature used something similar? Hmm... She raised her hand. "Definitely the Blast-Ended Skrewt!" she said, remembering those stories she'd heard about them on the school's bridge. "They use their blasts of sparks to throw themselves at their enemies."
__________________  |