Jim put his hand up slowly before answering. "Well, vanishing spells are transfiguration spells, and there are always things to get rid of, like rubbish or whatever. Sometimes vanishing something is the safest way to dispose of a thing." He suggested casually.

Patroclus was stroking his scarf as he listened to Professor Kingsley......the Lion really like this teacher and subject!

Moving his head from person to person, as student's answered, Patroclus wondered about an answer from himself. "Professor, transfiguration can also help with the movement of objects, for exmaple you could transfigure a large solid rock chest, into a mtach box and move it with ease!" Patroclus had seen this before, Pollux had moved the sarcophagus of a death Wizard to reveal the magic texts that were buried beneath!

Patroclus had never thought till now, I wonder if Kingsley know's my Mother......he made a plan to ask after class.

Sophia raised her hand. "You can transform normal robes into dress robes if necesarry." she said. Like if you forgot your dress robes for Yule Ball, with a flick of a wand, one could make a beautiful pair of dress robes.

Rae quickly shot up her hand. Oh, she strongly disagreed with what the professor had said about the chicken/pillow not being for daily use. "Giant chicken means entertainment. I would definitely use that daily! Who wouldn't?" Because Rae was being so reasonable, she didn't see how she could possibly be wrong. Yeah Rae, you got this.

SPOILER!!: JEREMIE!YAY.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmbiguouslyMe

"Welcome to Transfiguration! Let's begin!"

Preston Kingsley clapped his hands sharply once, to draw attention to the front of the room.

"I am Professor Kingsley and I will be your instructor. Some of you have written rather interesting things on your parchments, and, returning students, I must remind you that Gamp's Laws have not ceased to exist since last term. Please remember that when you are hypothesizing about possible transfigurations."

Clasping his hands behind his back, he continued. "New students, some of you have great imagination, but unfortunately some of what you suggested is not possible. I won't lecture today on Gamp or the Principle Exceptions, but do remember than you cannot create food. You can only multiply it once you have some. You cannot create or duplicate money. You cannot create love. You cannot create life or reverse death. You cannot create items with magical properties."

Flicking his wand at the board, the list of things you cannot do with Transfiguration wrote themselves on the board.

"That said, today we will be focusing on what you can do." He began to pace. "I had a different series of courses planned over the summer, but the events of the Triwizard Tournament have altered my plans some."

Stopping at the top of the circle of desks, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. "It was suggested to me that Transfiguration was not a practical discipline mostly. After all, why would you need to turn a matchstick into a needle? Or a rat into a water goblet? Or a chicken into a pillow?"

"What might be some everyday useful applications of transfiguration? How can transfiguration make your life easier?"

HEH. Fletcher knew better than to try to transfigure something into food. Silly children. Trix are for kids! And the Triwizard Tournament was only for awesome folk like himself! Awesome folk who totally knew the answer to this question.

"Proooooofesssa," Fletcher answered with the tone of a very patient, wise guru explaining the key to happiness, "transfiguration is quite possibly the most useful subject. Ever. It can be used for everything, from the moment you wake up and put on the wrong shaped or colored sock. Transfigure it and boom, you're on your way. Perhaps your desk chair isn't comfortable enough in your office. Transfigure it. Boom. All's better.

"And as my classmates have said... perhaps you're bored, sitting in a meeting at the Ministry. Transfigure two plain ole briefcases sitting on the desk and BOOM, you're the office hero for entertaining everyone with a giant chicken fight. Transfiguration is TOTALLY a useful, practical subject."

(ooc post: I have not forgotten about you, my dears. My internet is misbehaving wildly and will not let me quote you / respond to you more than a few lines. *Scolds it* I shall work it out but it might be morning my time before I can reply.

Continue class discussion, but please, no wild chattiness, etc, and no OOC posts from you all.)

Hmm.. everyday benefit? Well Louisa could do without Transfiguration at all but let's see if she could use it wisely. She listened to her classmates answers and eyes the board that had the stuff she can't transfigure or create. Hmm money would've been awesome.

"Can we use it to change leaves of trees into books? Not written... just empty books..?" Might be weird but the girl was a bookworm and she'd use some empty books to fill them out. Heh. Louisa waited in her seat and a weary smile on her face, she didn't want the Professor to remember her from the food fight trouble. Better to have that memory erased and prove herself as a good girl ^__^

Or..

She could cling to that memory and prove herself as a good girl who learnt from her mistakes. Yeah. That sounded mature and better. A big smile now was drawn upon the girl's face.

Jenny pondered. When is transfiguration good for everyday life? She never thought of it before; her parents must have done a lot right in front of her face and she never even knew what spell it would be.

Speaking of her parents, Jenny's thoughts went back to her dad and how he would constantly turn anything nearby into something else to help him with his cooking.

"Maybe you could turn a cutting board into a mixing bowl if you need to mix ingredients you just cut up." Then her stomach grumbled.

Darn, Jenny shouldn't have mentioned that. Now all she could think of was food.

Kurumi giggled at Jenny's growling stomach. "Or, maybe you could transfigure your cooking untensils into whatever it is you needed. I mean, if you start with a spoon, but then need something else, you could just do it right there on the spot with no dirty dishes to wash!"

"And if you need to clean up some spills on yourself, you can transfigure whatever you're holding into a handkerchief." Jenny nodded. Then she heard another small grumble. Stupid stomach. Hopefully Kurumi didn't hear that one.

Now Kurumi was starting to get hungry hearing how much Jenny's stomach was growling...and the kitchen was just next door where all her cooking supplies and friendly house elves were. *frown*

"If you were good at Conjuration, perhaps you could make a trash can appear to put all your dirty handkerchiefs in!" or...a telephone to order some food...

"uh...I'm sure transfiguring statues into ducks could be of use to someone..." Cass said uncertainly as she played with the end of her scarf.

Then she ducked (ooc: no pun intended) her head down and remembered to write on the parchment on her table.

Name: Ara Cassandra Prewett
House and Year: First Year Slytherin
An example of a practical use of transfiguration:Turning rats into water goblets.

Dianna raised her hand, "If you need to change something into a useful item or defend yourself by means of transfiguring the person into a stone or something, that's were transfiguration comes in use. I guess in life..Ermm.I can change let's say my sock into a stuff teddy bear instead.." she said with a smile as she lowered her hand. Sock to Teddy bear? Really?

Jaxon raised his hand and said, "If one person is well versed in the art of Transfiguration, he or she can make use of a single object and transform it to different things. Like for example you are traveling, you can carry a small amount of stuff you have and just transform some regular things into things that you really need." he said with a smile

Preston smiled. "Well, those first questions were rhetorical - about the match sticks and chickens. Examples of questions individuals have raised. But I'll address your comments in turn."

"Quite true," Preston said in response. "Though, some times for convenience, and not absolute necessity?"

Preston stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps. You could certainly animate a rabbit statue or create a rabbit, but controlling it would require other spellwork."

Preston nodded appreciatively. "Indeed. If you found yourself wanting a nap in a hen house, you would be well equipped."

"Yes, thank you Miss Hollingberry. Transfiguration, when creatively applied can save your life." Preston paused and surveyed the room. "We'll be getting to that shortly."

Professor Kingsley crossed his arms in front of his chest. "While it is true you can transfigure yourself, if you are not an animagus, transforming yourself into an animal will leave you stuck until someone else transfigures you back. Risky business, that."

"Yes, good example."

"Yes, thank you. But please, socialize after my class and not during." Preston looked at her pointedly.

"Excellent exposition, Miss Malik, thank you. I do think I may have been vague, though, in my request. I wasn't looking for practical versus theoretical, though your answer was correct. I was more looking for practical versus impractical. Meaning, what is useful and not superfluous about the field."

"Creative, thank you."

"Excellent, thank you. With regards to the summoning spell, sometimes, the spell that makes the most sense eludes our memory when we need it."

"Perhaps not the most efficient weed removal, but yes, thank you."


"Yes, Mister Wilkes, thank you. Vanishing is indeed included and occasionally overlooked when considering applicable transfiguration spells."

"Wonderful, yes. Ease of transportation. Moving house is certainly simpler when you can fit the majority of your belongings in a trunk."

"Yes, though, you'll want to be careful not to do so unless you're certain the spell won't wear off in the meantime. Delicate work, that."

Preston smiled. "While I appreciate your enthusiasm, that is much of what the criticism is. Such folly is seen as impractical and superficial, however entertaining."

"I appreciate your enthusiasm as well, Mister Fletcher, though having worked at the Ministry in my youth, I'd hesitate to try that unless I were keen on being fired."

"Perhaps. I'd have to think on that some. There's not reason it shouldn't be possible, though potentially time-consuming."

"Good, though you'll want to be careful not to hit the food with the spell."

"Again, yes, rather convenient, though not necessary. After all, you might not need to worry about dishes if you manage a good cleaning spell."

Preston did not hear the rumbling stomachs, and if he had, wouldn't have cared. There was a no food rule in the classroom and he was sticking to that.

"You could also conjure a handkerchief. Remembering, conjuration is a form of transfiguration as well."

"Yes, thank you."

Preston nodded before continuing on.

"Human to inanimate object is tricky and can be dangerous, but yes, possible. If you're defending yourself against an attacker and not just an annoying sibling, it could be quite useful."

"Yes, indeed. It's quite helpful in that manner. By way of an example, I traveled abroad with my sister this summer and through a combination of charms and transfiguration, managed to bring most of my library with me."

----

Preston walked to the chalkboard and turned to face the class once more.

"Most of what you've named is convenience. Not wanting to carry things or fixing the fact that you mismatched your socks that morning - though pattern changing or color changing would be more charm work than anything else. Are their situations, like was mentioned with switching spells, where transfiguration isn't just convenient but a means of survival?"

Preston paused and looked over the class.

"The events of the Triwizard Tournament have troubled me, because the tournament itself demands the creative applications of all disciplines. It is that application we will study this term."

Haha. Hen house. That was something Treyen thought would never happen, but it should apply to any house, no? Like...the Abraxan stables, and the animal collective, all of those things that Saylen now owned. Haha. Awesome!

Then his eyes got a bit more wide. He'd have to ask Professor Kingsley how he managed to get almost his entire library along with him, and where exactly did he go to that required most of his books.

Aha! Thinking time. Eaaasy!

Treyen's hand was up in the air again, and he didn't set it down until he was done speaking. It was odd that this was the only class he felt the need to keep his hand up. Very odd. "But that is easy, let's say you have a cookie, but you want no one to eat it... yes, people here liked to eat other people's food, or at least ask if they could eat it, "...then you could just transfigure it into something else until you want to eat it, therefore, you're stretching the survival time of the cookie" it could also be applied to one's survival, but the cookie seemed more important at the moment.

Danika nodded. This must be, if not the only one, the most brilliant Professor at Hogwarts. Well, the second one if one took Lafay into account. Then again, weren't all Transfiguration Professors brilliant?

And she wasn't going to say anything else, but there was a thought in her mind, "If you vere in the middle of a duel, and someone casts...let's say, arrows at you, then you simply transfigure them into something softer if you do not mean to deflect the spell" like cotton balls, or something else. She should've done that when dueling with Sabel and his arrows, no idea as to why she didn't think of that at the moment.

The arrows will eventually have to be vanished, because the spell wouldn't last forever.

Amy raised her hand "An example of when you'd need transfiguration for survival is that, if you were camping in the woods and you wanted to protect your food from wild animals or something you could turn them into something else, like a tree or a rock, then when you were hungry you could change it back." She played with the end of her scarf

"Well, this is a very muggle-like example, but if there's a time bomb of some sort... You could transform it into a rock or something," Hugo nodded. But maybe the rock would then explode. That wouldn't be good.

"Yes professor, my apoligies" She said she was only trying to help another student who hadn't bought a scarf for said reasons

"Some survival situations might be if you were being attacked you could transform your surroundings as a wall to protect yourself." She said

Hmmm, what?

The Slytherin had been too busy fixing her name tag, what with the last name and everything, that she now finally registered that they were talking. Right. Survival. Spells to help with survival? Or Transfiguration stuff to help with it. Uh huuuhh...

"I suppose if you're falling from a million feet in the air, you could transfigure something into one of those parasheet things." That's what it was called right?

Simon tried to think about what could possibly happen in the Tasks that would make using transfiguration beneficial to survival. From the stories that had circulated from the first one he had a few ideas running through his mind and finally raised his hand to answer.

"Couldn't a transfiguration spell be used to help you escape or move somewhere you needed to go?" he questioned. "Like say you come across a stream or something else wet and soft and you need to cross it, making ut something solid would help".

Lara was listening to the thoughts of her classmates then she raised her hand and said “Maybe if a person was in a dangerous situation and needs a weapon other than the wand , and he found something that can be transfigure to a weapon so it could save his life” Lara finished ”Erm.. could it be Professor…?” , she added as she was thinking that she has said so much , so she smiled at the professor and hoped that he won’t think her an idiot.

Fee listened to her classmates as she thoight of an own example.

"Couldnt a transfiguration spell be used if a wizard or witch was in handcuffs for example", she suggested,"he or she could change them into something soft, to get out."

Alice thought for a moment. "Well could you transform yourself into something? For example if you are trying to hide from someone coming after you or a dangerous situation, you could transform yourself into an animal or something smaller to hide." Alice wasn't sure if only animagis could do that or if anyone could do it. Perhaps it was only animagis. "Or you could transfer an object into something that could be used to help defend yourself if dueling spells are not enough."