"Yeah sure lets go for it!" Ray said as h elooked at the ravenclaw boy.

Leaning back in his chair Nico nodded, "There is more to harm than simply feeling pain. What if we get to the point where someone says 'we don't need animals; we are much smarter, we will do a better job as animals than the creatures themselves.' and as for animals not noticing, have you ever seen a creature reacting to pheromones? What if in a transfigured form; not understanding the nature of the creature, one lets off the wrong pheromones, communicating that a certain territory is off limits- eliminating food sources and nesting areas?"

"But see when it is transformed into a cup for example it will feel as a cup does it. When it does turn back it is very unlikly to remember the transfigered period and if it does well what difference does it make to us?" asked Barry

Tancred smiled at Cale when he said that he'd take the apposing view. The seventh year was hoping that he would, seeming he himself saw no harm with transforming animals into some other object. "Sounds good," he said, nodding his head in agreement. Then he leaned forward a bit and whispered, "Are we going to have to debate each other? I'm so not in that mood right now."

But that wasn't exactly what was on his mind of all things he should've been thinking about. His mind had wandered really quickly when he remembered what had happened that evening with the spare locker room incident. Should he ask? Or ... was he just going to get that poor 'Prefect meeting' excuse? He might as well give it a go. Not like Richardson was paying any attention. "So ... what exactly was going on in the spare locker room? Were you can Anna ... well ... snogging?"

"Ideally, yes it would; however have we any proof that consciousness is eliminated during such a transfiguration? Have you ever been a cup, Barry? How do you think you would like someone to drink out of you; and what if you were filled with some very hot liquid?"

Nicholai toyed with the idea of turning Barry into a conscious cup before merely shrugging and waiting for his response.

"Alright." he said, making his way over to Ray. He was surprised he had agreed so easily compared to other classes where finding a partner had been a nightmare. "So, I guess I'll take the negative point of view? Or would you rather have it?"

.Darien looked up lazily from his spot at his desk, "5 points from Hufflepuff for being late." he yawned. "How are you all coming along?" he asked in a distracted manner.

Nicholai looked around the class; it seemed only himself and Barry had actually started the 'debating'. He wasn't planning on drawing attention to that fact- he didn't want the entire class to turn on him if the Professor decided to deduct points.

He raised his hand; just in case.

"Fine, Sir."

Maddox listened and then said, "But with legilimency, we could see what they are feeling, as long as we are careful and dont scare the little buggers."

Jason nodded. "That's probably true, but can we be sure that we are reading is 100% accurate? Animals are different from us. I just worry about the chance that something might go wrong with the transfiguration."

"Debating is stupid," Cale said simply. Well, it was. What was the point when no one ever really WON the argument? Sure, there was a winner and a loser, but did they ever accomplish anything? No. They just said, "Oh, this side won, good job!" and you just went on your way. It was a load of rubbish, that was what it was. "I really don't know what to say."

He raised an eyebrow. He should have known that Tanc would bring up the whole locker room incident. "What? Snogging? No!" he chuckled, as if that were the strangest thing he had ever heard of. "Please, Tanc, we aren't animals," he added with a wink. "No, it really was a meeting," he told him. Ok, he never said PREFECT this time, but a meeting was a meeting, even if the people who had met there weren't really prefects.

"Tell me about it," Tancred agreed, taking a quick glance to make sure Richardson wasn't looking over at them. They technically weren't getting a whole lot done. They had only just decided which sides they'd take. Boring. boring, boring. "Yeah. I really don't know what to say anyway. If people didn't want animals to have transfigurations spells casted on them, then there wouldn't be such spells and it clearly wouldn't be allowed if it actually harmed the creature." He shrugged. This was a pointless debate - like Professor Richardson. Completely pointless.

Tancred had expected Cale to just snap when he had mentioned the word 'snogging'. Luckily for the seventh year, the Gryffindor Prefect took it in quite a better way that was like he had expected something about the whole locker room incident to be mention. "Oh. Well, I - as well with Mia - had expected that ... well ... we only heard your voice and Anna's. So ... you kind of get the picture that ... well," he said, feeling guilty for asking right out of the blue if he had snogged Anna in the locker room. Then Cale said something about a meeting. "A meeting? What sort of a meeting?"

Cale rolled his eyes. "Well, um...how's this...animals cannot speak for themselves. For all we know, we could be hurting them when we transfigure them, just like it hurts us wizards when we transform into other forms. Therefore, we should just not allow transformation on animals at all, to be safe," he said. Wow, that was a load of rubbish. He had just thought it up on the spot. Not nearly enough to support himself in a real debate.

He had had a feeling that Tanc wouldn't let this go. Hmmm, maybe he should get around to telling him the actual truth. Why not now while they were planning these pointless debates. "Well, erm, ok...it wasn't exactly a prefect meeting. You see, I got an owl a few weeks ago from something called the Order of the Mane, and it sent me a riddle and said it needed my help getting some treasure," he explained, casting a glance back at the professor, who seemed to be paying attention to something else, "And then I found out that other people got those letters too. So, that's who was meeting in the locker room." he finished. He knew that the Hufflepuff would likely ask him more questions, but he wanted to see how he would react at first. Shocked? Annoyed that he hadn't told him sooner?

Tancred couldn't help but laugh. This whole debate thing was pointless. This school was pointless. With another Ministry freak teaching a normal class, that automatically made the class pointless. Now, what was the point of coming back for an education when they weren't really taught about anything? He sighed and said, "Oh. Sorry. I wasn't laughing at what you said. It makes sense. But this class now ... it's just rubbish. I mean ... come on? Debates?" He rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. "Might as well make them happy though. ... Well, what really is the point of not transfiguring them? I mean, there's plenty of their own kind out there. So it's not like you're taking down their entire breed population by tranfiguring a few animals here and there. And about their feelings. I'm sure that there are magical properties that make them feel like the object they're being transfigured to and not notice a thing when they're back to their good old selves." He rolled his eyes again. This was a load of rubbish.

"Oh. I see," Tancred said, not quite expecting there being a secret Order thing - much less a secret letter and meeting. "So ... what expactly does the Order of Mane do?"

Cale tried to think of something else to say in response to what Tanc had just said. Gah. His head hurt. There was no way he could take this seriously. "Umm, but how can we be certain they don't feel anything? Has anyone ever talked to an animal and taken their feelings into consideration?"

Ok. It was official. Cale had just completely given up hope on this lesson.

Glancing at the professor again, he looked back at him and lowered his voice. "I can't say anything else here. I've probably said too much with this Ministry bloke in earshot. I'll tell you after class," he promised. He knew it wouldn't do him any good to run his mouth in front of Richardson--what if they tried to stop them? What if they prevented the return of Hogwarts? Well, everyone would hate him, that was for sure.

Tancred's head started to hurt. What load of rubbish he and Cale were 'debating' really didn't matter. Surely someone would've had some excuse to why it was alright for tranformation spells to be casted on animals. But who really thought about that? Transforming animals was a common sight to see, and it had been for centuries. Who. Really. Cares. "I 'thought' that might come up somewhere down the line. I belive that it goes the same with animals as it does with humans. Humans have been tranfigured on just as much as animals an they've turned out alright in the end. Sure, there's the whole size issue there - but it's still the same concept." Merlin! This is complete nonscense.

The seventh year merely shook his head and left it at that. He needed to find out more about this Order of Mane now that Cale had told him the true story with what happened down in the locker room. He would wait. That was no problem having to wait after class to get filled in. What if this has something to do with bringing back Hogwarts? I mean, the last Order that was around was an army against Lord Voldything. Then there was Dumbledore's Army from way back when. ... Maybe....

Cale chuckled at the completely ridiculous debate that he and Tanc were coming up with at the moment. "But some animals have totally different anatomical structures compared to humans--there could be unknown risks that we have yet to discover. And has anyone cared to look into these possible dangers? No, because they're animals and no one seems to care about their feelings," he countered. Goodness, if they were going to be seriously graded on this, he and Tanc were going to fail. Big time.

"Maybe the Courtyard after this class or something," he added with a nodd, looking at Richardson once more. That man had been awfully quiet for the whole lesson.

The seventh year couldn't help but smile. Why did he even bother coming to Transfiguration class if all they were going to do was debate? I mean, come on! Debating was for Ministry of Magic employees who had no life at all. Even though he was sure that they would be graded somehow on how well or not so well their debate was going. So far, the two of them had made some really good points. Hopefully that was enough to get them out of that Troll grade. Not that it mattered of course. Richardson had no idea what he was doing. If only Professor Pierce were here instead and there was no school separation deal ...

"That's the thing with you people! You don't see the point!" Tancred said, trying hard to sound like he was really into this whole debating thing. He winked at Cale and tried to hold back the laughter that was just dying to burst out of him. "The unknown risks have been thought about. Why else do you think that animal transfiguration is allowed to this very day? It clearly does not harm the animal being casted on. Tests have shown that the animal in question comes back just the same as it had before and had shown no signs that it was in any danger at all. ... Really! What is the point in having a class called Transfiguration when you'd have nothing but simple objects to work with? Clearly the animal wouldn't be in any danger if the transfiguration spell has been casted correctly by a person who knows what they are doing - and those who don't know what they're doing shouldn't be in such a class or know how to do such magic if they can't take the responsiblilty to be safe and care for the animal." Pointless debate. I'm telling you ... completly pointless.

"Alright," Tancred whispered. "After class in the courtyard. Sounds like a good place to talk about this Order." He nodded his head and also looked at Richardson. Looks to be like a little someone's a little bored.

Barry listened as hard as he could he heard random words like secret...meeting...order...mane... courtyard ah couldn`t the boys talk louder so he could know whats going on who was this other boy he was just a hufflepuff.

He hen looked at Nico "Um continue"

"fine sir" replied Jose.

"Continue? Its a debate for Merlin's sake- you are supposed to debate what I just said!" Nico looked at the younger student and frowned, "Why are you so eager to listen to those two?"

Sighing Nico shook his head, "Maybe I should turn you into a conscious cup." he mused out loud.

"I`m not he`s just my freind" said Barry "Um what did you say oh yes maybe the animals don`t remember the time that they are transformed" he didn`t actually want to debate he then whispered "Whats your sisters name?"

"ok and I will take the positive point so what are your ideas on the subject?" Ray asked.

James took a second to think this over.
"Ok," he began. "I'll start with the fact that these animals have no say whatsoever as to if they want to be transfigured in the first place. Who are we to alter the structure of an innocent creature without it's knowledge?"

He grinned. He was actually a great fan of these incantations. It was interesting to think like someone from the Muggle E.P.A.

Darien pointed to Tancred and Cale, "You two, I dont hear any debating going on." he said with a slight yawn. After a few more moments, Darien Richardson was asleep in his chair.