Carr looked around the classroom a little warily, not sure who would partner with her in the Transfiguration experiment. She didn't really want to approach any of the older students herself, since she didn't really know any of them and she was still a little enamored by the concept of magic in general. She held her wand a little tightly on one hand, the thought of interacting with strangers making her a little anxious, and she wished desparately that Rory was in this class with her.

Oh, you're being ridiculous, her internal voice told her. Summoning all of her willpower, she walked over to a taller student and, deciding not to tug on her sleeve like a child, cleared her throat and asked, "Excuse me? Do you have a partner for this exercise?"

Be quite dramatic? Kiri was not good at dramatic. She stared hard at her wand as she repeated the motion again more forcefully, but it still wasn't quite as excessive as the professor's. She gave up. She'd have to try harder when it came to the actual transfiguration.
Which was, she thought worriedly, shaping up to be very difficult indeed. She was the older student in this pairing, so she would have to transform part of herself, and Lyra would watch and then perform the reverse spell.

A fox's ears or a fox's tail, then? The professor had pointed at his leg, so maybe just transforming the ears would be easier than somehow... growing a tail. So she would try the ears. Trying very hard to imagine a fox and, even more so, its ears, Kiri turned to Lyra. "Erm, alright, so I will try and transform my ears..." she said sceptically.

´a simple swish of the wand?...yea right´ Lyra looked at the professor and then at her own wand which she was holding in her hand again. She then looked up to kiri trying to read her expressions. "you want the ears too?" she asked thinking about a fox in her head "you go first" she said resolutly.

Turning to Willow, Issy pursed her lips. Too bad they weren't casting the spells on each other. Had that been the case, Issy might've given Willow a big, beautiful fairy wing, rather than her left arm. Nevertheless, perhaps Willow would let her practice on her later if she so needed. Heh heh heh.

"Alright then, Willow," said the younger girl. "Whatchu gonna transfigure, huh?" A tail would be cool. OOOH. Issy wanted a tail now! Wiggle wiggle. She was going to have a LEMUR TAIL!

Lemur.

Oh.

Issy winced. Lemurs. Juni. Juni would have loved this. Pinching her eyes closed, Issy pursed her lips, shaking the creeping feeling away before it could bring tears to her eyes. She'd have to send a letter to her best friend later.

Homini. Homini. Homini.

See... it was getting easier to get her mind off of... Ju- homini. Homini. Homini.

Turning to Jack and Celandine, Daphne twirled her wand with a blink of her eyes. "Jack, you're the oldest aren't you?" Although the Professor had said the oldest would perform the actual transfiguring spell, Miss Hopton had no doubt in her mind she'd probably feel a whole lot less nervous (if any) if Celandine did it.

But instructions were instructions.

Gulp. Daphne was right--he WAS the older student out of the three of them. EEP! Now that they had gone over the spell, Jack wasn't sure if he was all that ready to try it...what if he messed up and was stuck with hairy, clawed arms FOREVER?!?? Or what if he did something wrong and ended up with--wings or something weird like that?

He hoped Cela and Daphne were good at reversing the spell.

He looked around--everyone else seemed a bit nervous about practicing it too. He bit his lip and then took in a deep breath. "Well, here goes nothing--don't forget to untransfigure me! My life may be in your very hands," he joked nervously before taking his wand in his right hand.

Maybe it would be best to just try with the one arm first? That way, if he didn't do something right, he'd at least be able to GRIP his wand (or did koalas have posable thumbs? He wasn't sure) and try to do some reversal spell if Daphne and Cela couldn't do it. Gulping audibly, he aimed and his arm and gave his wand a swish.

"Bestiar Arm" he muttered, concentrating on having the arms of big, cuddly koala bear. A big, fluffy, clawed arm that...

He felt a sort of tingly sensation in his arm, and when he looked down, he gasped. EEEEEEEEP! HE HAD A KOALA ARM! From his shoulder all the way down to his hands (which had COOL CLAWS!) he was covered in grayish fur. He must have looked incredibly odd at the moment--one arm of a koala and the body of a normal, boring Gryffindor. He felt like some weird super hero...MARSUPIAL MAN!

"I have a koala arm!" he exclaimed in delight. This was SOOO cool!

Daphne watched as Jack worked quietly, not willing to distract him or break his concentration. The last thing she wanted was for Jack Fritzera to end up with malformed arms. That wouldn't be attractive at all and then what was she supposed to ever so discreetly ogle from her position? "Well done!" cheered Daphne and clapped her hands excitedly before reaching into her robes.

Flicking her wand out, her wrist snapping dramatically with her actions, as if charging a weapon, Daphne inhaled through her nose. "Homi--" Oh. "Do you want to do the other arm too?"

Then they could practice hugs?

Jack blinked when she caught him off guard by not doing the other arm...hmmm, that made sense to do it to both of the arms, yes? The only issue was holding the wand in his now clawlike hands...Marsupial Man was not really used to them yet.

But, he'd give it a shot.

He tried to pick up his wand with the claw like hand he now possessed, but when that didn't succeed, he picked it up with his good hand and placed it in the grasp of his clawed one. EEEP that felt WEIRD! He felt like he was going to drop it! Don't drop it, don't drop it, don't drop it...

Swishing the wand and doing his best not to drop his wand, he muttered "Bestiar Arm" towards his right arm now, hoping that even though he was right handed, doing it with his left arm would work fine. He concentrated on having BOTH of his arms all fluffy and snuggly, closing his eyes to get the full mental picture.

There was that tingly feeling again, and when he opened his eyes he saw that he now had TWO koala arms! YAYYYY! He held out his arms wide for Daphne and Cela. "What do you think? Should I make the change permanent?" he asked with a grin.

Although his arms looked warm and snuggle, Daphne shrugged slightly, a secretive smile on her lips. "Ohhh," she hummed, leaning to the side slightly dreamy with her own thoughts. "Maybe not permanent."

His Quidditch arms were way better. Again, she flicked her wand out, wrist snapping in a dramatic fashion. Her breath went in through her nostrils and: "Homini!"

Nice Quidditch Arms.

"Mmm, I'll try the ears first," Kiri said. Not that she wanted to - human transfiguration, even only of parts, sounded much too difficult for a third year. But her classmates were already getting started. Gripping her wand tightly, she imagined a fox. Vulpes vulpes. Hmm... Sleek, reddish fur. Bushy tail. A small knob of a nose.
And large ears. Acute ears. Those, she focused on as hard as she could. It didn't come easy. Kiri found herself checking so often whether she was thinking about fox ears that, after a few seconds, she realised in frustration that she hadn't spent any time doing that at all.

She tried again. She closed her eyes and saw a fox. Slowly, she blended out all the parts of it that weren't ears until they were clearly in her mind. More so than before, anyway. Taking a deep breath, she pointed her wand at her right ear, flicked it in the motion the professor had demonstrated and said loudly, "Bestiar ear!"
Kiri hissed in pain and nearly dropped her wand. She knew instantly that something had gone wrong. Her ear felt as if someone had shoved a nail through it. With an alarmed look, she raised her hand and touched it carefully.

The transfiguration hadn't gone completely wrong. Her ear was still human-shaped, but, and here things got strange, it was now very hairy. Fox-fur hairy, in fact. She felt the long, soft hairs for a moment.
Something else also seemed to have worked. Maybe Kiri was only imagining it, but she fancied she was able to hear things more acutely. A few metres away from her, another pair of students was deep in concentration. They didn't speak, but - Kiri's eyes widened in amazement - she could hear their slow breaths.
Still, the ear was supposed to look like a fox's, not only work like one. She turned to Lyra. Shoving her own hair aside to let her see the botched transfiguration (it had to be look very weird), she smiled a little self-consciously and said, "I, er, don't think it quite worked. Try the Homini spell, and I'll give it another go. Maybe I didn't concentrate hard enough."

The first year Slytherin watched Kiri as she began to think very hard. Concentration was written all over her face. No doubt she was trying to think about fox ears. Lyra wondered if it would go well, Kiri was a third year so not that experienced but at the same time she knew alot more about magic than a 11 year old Lyra Riddle. Lyra turned her eyes away from Kiri and placed her wand back in her right wrist holster , her ears suddenly hearing Kiri say the spell and looked up just in time to hear her hiss in pain.
"a-are you OK?" she asked stuttering slightly, her eyes filled with a mixture of concern and joy. Grabbing her wand yet again she looked at Kiri's ears which she was showing now. "no they aren't like fox ears, but you can hear like a fox can't you?" she asked her voice filled with curiousity, she had noticed that Kiri had been looking around after her transfiguration and Lyra just knew she could hear like a fox. Pointing her wand at Kiri, not really knowing where to aim so she pointed it at her head, between her eyes and said "Homini!"
"you want to give it another try or should i try it? "

As Daphne waved her wand, Jack was admiring his koala arms when suddenly he heard her say the incantation. But wait, she had done it wrong, didn't she? Weren't you supposed to say ARMS too? He was pretty sure you were...

"Daphne, I think you--" but it was too late. She had finished the charm and when he looked at his arms, he gasped. His arms were COMPLETELY hairless, not even any of his human hair was left on them, and his skin was GRAY! Just like the koala!

"AHHHH! My arms are gray! And I'm hairless! I feel like, like...A MERPERSON!" he exclaimed, going immediately into panic mood. "My arms are cold, change it back...pleaseeeeee!" he said, hoping that Daphne wouldn't freak out as much as he was right now. Then they'd be in REAL trouble.

Oh dear.

"You know, Jack, hairless isn't such a bad thing," assured Daphne even as she stepped closer to him, bottom lip viciously being maltreated by her teeth. EEEP! "Gray...isn't so bad either," continued to say the blond with a firm nod as she patted his hairless gray arm.

She better do something and bring those Quidditch arms back! Or she'd never forgive herself. Taking a deep breath, Daphne closed her eyes to concentrate briefly.

Hoptons did not panic. Hoptons also didn't turn their crushes into hairless koalas. Except it was hard to concentrate when he kept panicking! "Stop! Stop Jack! Your deep voice is terribly distracting! Have some consideration for a poor girl, please."

Sigh. Did he not know it was bad enough that he existed? His mere existence was distracting. "Now," she hummed tapping her lips with her wand, even as Jack was still losing his mind over his arms. "Finite Incantatum? Or...Homini Arms?"

That was a toughie.

Well, time to transfigure herself a nice pair of owl wings. Maybe they'd even turn out to be snowy white just like Charlotte's wings! Anna had always admired the beauty of Charlotte's snow white color. She closed her eyes for a moment and first pictured her owl. She pictured the way she looked when she spread her long, white wings far out in order to flap her way to the sky. She pictured the way Charlotte looked as she soared away, usually carrying a letter in her talons to be delivered to one of Anna's friends.

Then she pictured how she would look with those same wings. How she would look flapping them and then soaring off into the sky. She opened her eyes and raised her wand, giving it a rather dramatic swish before flicking it towards her arm. "Bestiar Arm!" she called out. At first, she thought nothing would happen. A few moments later, though, the skin on her arm began to tingle, and a few feathers starting popping out her skin. She wrinkled her face in disgust at first, but when those feathers grew into wings---long, snowy white wings---her expression changed into a rather happy one. "Dem! I did it! They're snowy white, too," she said, in awe over the transfiguration.

Well, there was some truth in that statement--hairless wasn't SUCH a bad thing. Jack was already far too hairy in his own opinion, but that wasn't what was making him panic at the moment. He looked like he had been cross bred with a Pogrebin! "Ok, calm, I'm calmmmmmmmmmmmm," he said, trying to take a deep breath so he could stop this little panic attack that had arrisen so suddenly.

Calm, happy thoughts. That was all he had to think about. After all, this wasn't SO bad right? Long sleeves would cover this, yes? And his Quidditch robes--it wouldn't be TOO bad if he got stuck like this...

...but he didn't WANT to get stuck like this. EEEEP! Resume panic attack. He bit his lip to stop himself from yelling "AHHHHHH DO SOMETHING!" and "HURRY!" and a number of other panicky phrases that were leaping in his brain. If he messed her up, he could end up with something wayyy worse than gray skin.

"The Homini one! Try that one!" he insisted, now bouncing up and down on his toes as he spoke.

"Very well," she announced, clearing her throat dramatically as she flicked her robes back. Oooh, she imagined she looked rather impressive. Was Jack Fritzera impressed? Sigh. Probably not, by the way she always caught him looking at Reese in the common room.

C'est la vie! "However, be it known, you owe me one," declared Daphne Hopton as if the entire mistake had been his fault from the beginning. To Daphne it entirely was! Jack was far too distracting to be paired up with. She'd just have to stick to Celandine from now on.

At least his arms didn't make her feel all wobbly. Flicking out her wrist, the fourth year Gryffindor chanted the proper incantation: "Homini Arm!" And moved on to the other arm. "Homini Arm!"

HUUUUUUG?

"Ok, I owe you one, just please change me back!" Jack squeaked. Oh Merlin, this was embarrassing. He was pleading like a little girl--but now, his arms had started to itch. Like he was becoming allergic to his own skin. Therefore, he had reason to panic just a bit.

With a swish of her wand, his arms thankfully returned back to normal, just as pale and just as hairy as they had been before. WOOOOT! He wasn't really sure if he wanted to experiment with any more transformations after this (particularly animal transformation) but whatever--his arms were normal again.

"Thank you! You saved me!" Jack exclaimed, bending down and giving the tiny blonde a big hug. Ok, sure, she hadn't really SAVED him--gray skin wasn't life threatening as far as he knew--but she had saved his ARMS!

Distracted, Daphne didn't see Jack coming as she was looking down at her own robes wondering if it would be a good time to transfigure her coccyx and give herself a cat tail. It was when she heard his voice dangerously close to her person that a squeak escaped her!

And then, she was trapped in Jack Fritzera's arms.


Jack Fritzera's Quidditch Arms.


Jack Fritzera's NICE Quidditch Arms.

Holding her breath, she allowed her body to go slightly numb, cheeks, nose and tips of her ears turning a beautiful crimson to match her Gryffindor tie. Jack. Was. In. Her. Personal. Bubble!

In her bubble! Touching her! Hugging Her! "Contact!" she managed to exclaim, unable to contain her butterflies from making her undoubtedly nervous. "You--You're hugging me!"

Never mind that Jack Fritzera' was quite aware of that.

Jack heard her give a little squeak and he thought maybe he had squeezed her too hard--after all, she was tiny and he was really REALLY tall--so he let go of her after a few moments and chuckled.

"Oh, sorry--didn't think about avoiding your personal space," he said with a sheepish grin. "I was excited that my arms were back to normal and I got carried away," he added, to explain his mad behavior.

He backed away to be sure he was giving her her space again, and then he pulled out his wand. "Is it your turn to practice now? Or do I have to...uh...go again?" he asked, unable to hide the nervousness in his voice. He didn't want to get stuck with claws or a furry face or something else that was equally catastrophic again.

"No, it's fine! It's just--" Daphne left it at that, losing her voice. There was no need to explain to him that there had been a happy blank buzz filling her ears for a few seconds before common sense was telling her it was best to keep a separation of the sexes.

Social reputation and all that; And Reese. Who was a Slytherin and could probably destroy her if she wanted to. Then he was mentioning work. Work? Really? Really? "Are we allowed to?"

Do we have to?

"I thought--younger students would do the counter charm!" Homini. Homini. Homini. "And...I'm not entirely sure I'd be good and transfiguring my entire skeleton to one of a cat." Flexibility is what they had agreed on, besides her favored tail.

"Yes, I'm okay, don't worry," said Kiri, rubbing her hairy ear. She could hear, very clearly, her fingernails scraping across her skin as she did so. Human-shaped and odd-looking as it was now, she heard things much more accurately. She turned in a complete circle once to get a feeling for the ear's listening capabilities, then looked at Lyra, who had a look of amazement on her face.

"Well, I don't know how a fox hears, really," she said. "But it's, er, different now. It's difficult to put into words, I think." This was raising fairly complex metaphysical issues, in fact! How did a fox experience its own sense of hearing? Or any sense, for that matter. Kiri's brain was still human, after all. She waited patiently as Lyra pointed her wand at her and said the counter-spell. Her ear became very warm for a moment, and she felt an odd tickling feeling as the hairs disappeared, but when she raised her hand and touched it, her ear was back to normal.

Her hearing was, too, apparently. It seemed to have lost clarity and range in comparison to the fox's ear. What an interesting experience.
She smiled at Lyra. "You look so excited, why don't you give it a try?" she said kindly. "I'm... not sure though if it will work, I think we're both a bit too young for this."

"Yes sir. I'm sorry." she apologized once again. Dem gave a sigh of relief that he didn't give her detention or worse.....take away points. She didn't know how she would be able to handle it if he took-......wait, did he say it was done successfully? On her first try? A grin flew across Demetria's face. Yes! She had done something right on her first try! Whoo hoo! Ok time to calm down. She didn't want the professor to think she was happy she had gotten away with doing the spell. That definatly was not her intention.

Demetria looked around and watched as the other students performed the spell, including Anna. "Good job, Anna! Your wings look awesome!" she smiled. Well, Professor Svensson said she had to just watch, but that was for the "bestiar" incantation. He had also said the younger students had to perform the reverse spell on the older students. Was she allowed to do that? "Erm....professor?" she raised her hand. "I know you said I was only allowed to watch the other students perform 'bestiar', but what about 'homini'? I'm Anna's partner, and she's already turned her arms into wings....." she said a bit shyly. Dem didn't want to make him anymore mad at her then he already was.

Jack shrugged. Were they allowed to switch off? Or did he have to go through the entire process again? The first experience had been bad enough--he wasn't necessarily looking forward to doing it AGAIN.

"Yeah, you're right--that might not work out too well," Jack said with a little chuckle. Her entire SKELETON? That sounded like way dangerous territory, and an instant trip to the hospital wing. Gulp. "I'll--I'll do it again. Just remember to say arms this time!" he added with a grin.

He pointed his wand at his arms and decided to give both of them a try at the same time. "Bestiar Arms!" he muttered, swooshing his wand about. There came the tingly feeling again, and a moment later, he had koala arms again.

Still amazed at her snowy white wings, Anna flapped them up and down...up and down. Her wand fell from her hands---or, well, her wings---, but she managed to stop it from rolling away by placing her foot on top of it. She continued to flap, flap, flap, until she suddenly had the feeling she just might flap away. She better not try anything of that sort right now, especially considering the fact that she really wasn't armed with a wand.

She glanced up at Dem, ready for her to perform the reverse spell, but the younger girl was deep in conversation with the professor. Blink. Had she just said that she was only allowed to watch the rest of the class perform the spell? So she wasn't allowed to reverse Anna's wings back into arms? At least there was a large number of other students in the classroom who could still reverse the wings---and the professor was here, too. That in mind, Anna continued to admire the wings she'd transfigured onto her body. This was really a rather unique spell.

"I'll remember," stated Daphne simply, hands behind her back as she watched Jack. The more she looked at him, the more she realized he was really quite a normal guy. Except, he had a wonderful smile that sort of made your brain functions fizzle and a deep voice that demanded attention whenever spoken.

Unless, of course, he was going on about Astronomy. Miss Hopton liked to tune him out then. Clapping again as he finished the spell, Daphne approached him. "Fuzzy!" chirped the blond tugging slightly at the fur on his arms, before running her palm across the fur repeatedly. It made her skin tingle. "Don't you feel hot? The weather is kind of warm already."