 Gryffindor for life Notorious Niffler
The professor hadn't liked her answers this time, because she hadn't even responded to her. That was okay with Emmeline, because they weren't her best answers anyway, and besides, Professor Stewart had a cruppy in a kennel near Sirius. So the first year was willing to forgive the professor for a LOT worse than ignoring an answer.
As the whole class practiced the incantation, Emmeline joined them: " FUH-moos LAWH-meen-ah." She actually muttered it under her breath a few more times, to make super doubly sure that she had it down. Turning smoke into a dagger was a really cool spell, and she wanted to be able to do it! The first year practiced the wand movement separately a few times too, even though it was just a circle. New spells in Transfiguration were usually even harder than new spells in Charms, so everything had to be perfect before she tried the spell.
Once she was sure that she could both say the incantation and do the wand movement correctly, Emmeline aimed for a relatively thick (for this magical stuff) patch of smoke. She envisioned an even prettier dagger than the one the professor had passed around, with rubies and diamonds and other stuff she could take off and give to the nifflers in the barn. She kept that shiny picture in her mind and muttered: [b]"Fumus Lamina!"/[b]
Nope. After five more attempts at the spell, the Gryffindor decided that maybe detachable gem stones on her sheath was too much to ask of the smoke. It would be really fancy after all, and maybe the smoke didn't want to work that hard.
Her next potential dagger was about the same length as the professor's but much simpler, with a plain golden handle and a simple red sheath. That wouldn't overwhelm the smoke, right? Time to find out: "Fumus Lamina!" Emmeline focused realllllly hard on the dagger in her mind as she said the incantation and drew the circle around her patch of smoke. To her delight, the smoke was definitely solidifying! What looked like a dagger fell into the first year's outstretched hand and Emmeline was about to be thrilled with every inch of it, except --
There was only half a dagger in her hand! The handle and the red leather sheath looked okay, except that the blade (and the sheath with it) randomly ended about half way down. There wasn't a point at the end or anything, it just stopped. This dagger definitely wouldn't be stabbing any vampires. Emmeline tossed it aside in disappointment. But this spell had been made famous by Minerva McGonagall, Derf had said so! McGonagall had been a Great Witch AND a Gryffindor, so she and Hermione Granger-Weasley had become a sort of role model in the first year's eyes. Which meant she had to master this spell!
Emmeline took a few deep breaths before she tried again. This time she thought of a smaller dagger with a plain, bronze handle and an even plainer, black sheath to cover it. The first year stared and stared at the smoke she was using for at least ten minutes as she practiced imagining how the dagger would come to life. Finally sure that she could visualize this better than she had on her last attempt, Emmeline picked up her wand again and drew a circle around her patch of smoke once more: "Fumus Lamina!" She pictured the smoke slowly coming together and forming each part of her dagger from the smoke. The image got clearer and clearer as Emmeline stared at the smoke, until finally a small dagger dropped into her hand. This time, the dagger matched her mental image exactly! Except that it was smaller than she'd meant for it to be. Emmeline thought it would still work against a crazed vampire, though.
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