Quote:

Originally Posted by MeredithRodneyMcKay

Having put the pieces of card on each individual desk, Isabelle had arranged them in a semi-circular fashion, for now at least. Depending on what they would be doing later on, they could be moved. It was easy enough. Having placed several boxes of bits and bobs on the large wall length table behind her desk, she was now leaning against her desk, arms crossed and a smile of greeting on her face.

As well as the professor, the first thing you see upon entering is the large blackboard behind her right shoulder. Upon it was a message for the incoming students.

Charley had taken a seat near the back of the class. It was not her usual spot, but this year was already most certainly a year for trying new things.
The small card that Professor Magnus had left on the desk was at its crown, with the requested details in Charley's expressive handwriting:
Charley (proper name Charlotte) Kelley, Ravenclaw, First-Year.
She had set her bag next to her and a roll of parchment, her inkwell, and her wand on the desk, and now was simply sitting in her seat and remaining attentive. Everyone she knew seemed to think she'd be wonderful at Transfiguration, so she was significantly more relaxed than she had been in her other lessons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeredithRodneyMcKay

Right, now to get onto the lesson.

"For this first lesson I have decided to let you choose what you learn." Issy's eyes took in all their faces before she continued. "This is why I asked you to prepare to be creative. Imagine for a moment," cue the walking around the room "that you could perform magic infront of muggles, and even use it to help them. I would like you to provide to me a situation where you think a muggle might need assistance, and which spell you would use to help them. Be it transfiguring something, conjuring something - I'm going to let you decide. I will list them on the board behind, then we shall have a vote on which one we learn in the second half of this lesson."

Isabelle stopped at the front of the room and folded her hands in front of her. She kept quiet for a few seconds to let what she had said sink in. Hopefully they would come up with something good. They looked like they might. "Bear in mind what you cannot do, as per the five exceptions behind me. Please let your imaginations go. Fire away!"

OOC: Just be creative here. Have it from your charries point of view as well, so if they don't know much about muggles - it might mean they come up with something weird. Also if you don't know the name of a spell, or it has no incantation, just tell Isabelle what it does and she'll go with that.

Having been sitting up straight, Charley leaned to the back of the chair, bewildered, continuing, however, to somehow transcribe the notes from the blackboard.
Oh, goodness....I certainly did not expect that.
What about something I would do with Dad's family? They're muggles...but what have they ever needed help with? she pondered as she spun her thumbs around each other nervously.
Suddently, after a couple of moments, her eyes lit up. My spell book! I'll look through it and see what different spells do, and think about if it is something a muggle might need assistance with! She reached down into her bag and retrieved the text.
All right now, let's start at the beginning.... she flipped through the pages at the front of the book until she reached the start of the list. As she began contemplating situations, she tapped her quill on her bottom lip and tried to not completely drown out her classmates' suggestions. They all had some pretty interesting ideas.

Emily only just realised the card that was sitting on her desk... as she peered around the classroom she noticed that other students were writing on them. Emily took up her quill and wrote down her details:
Emily Browne
Ravenclaw
Seventh Year

Emily then pondered the Professor's question. She wasn't sure if she liked how the class was unfolding. Emily liked direction, guidance and routine. She wasn't used to telling teachers what she wanted to learn.
Emily raised her hand. "Professor... would it be possible... say for example if one of those airplane things muggles use to travel... well if one began to fall from the sky- as they do... would it be possible to conjure a pool of jelly or a matress large enough to cusion its fall? Therefore saving the muggles' lives?" she asked... then she had a better though, " Or transfigure it into a bird until it landed safely?" she added. Emily felt a bit embarassed by her question... it seemed a strange and weird thing to do when really to help muggles travel more efficiently we could help them by apparating them where they need to go.

Alice was too absorbed into thinking about what she could do for the Muggles and writing the laws down that she almost forgot to fill the card placed on the table. She sighed and quickly scribbled in the content.

Quote:

Name: Alice Stewart
Year: 1st Year
House: Hufflepuff

Alice moved it to the front of her desk then continued to brainstorm. So far she couldn't think of anything besides using the aquamenti to put fire out so that the muggles wouldn't have to wait for assistance. The house would probably be destroyed by the time help arrives. Alice wrote down her thoughts on the piece of paper, if only Jaina was here she'll probably have a whole list of things to write down.

Kurumi smiled as she returned to her parchment to write down some notes about the discussion going on in class. One could never have too many notes concerning Hesper Gamp and his theories on Transfiguration...or something like that.

Imagine she could perform magic in front of non-magical people? It's easy if she tried.

*ahem*

Kurumi leaned back in her seat for a moment with her quill tickling her nose as she moved it against it. Being able to perform magic in front of her family was a big enough dream for her to wrap her head around. Doing so in front of the entire non-magical population would probably kill her from shock. Doing so, even in her own home, would mean she would be free. She wouldn’t have to hide, lie, deny who she really was.

What sort of Transfiguration would she like to perform in front of non-magical people? Was everything and anything an appropriate answer? If she was going to perform magic in front of non-magicals, Kurumi would like to do something that showed that she was harmless and do something that could make people smile. Perhaps even entertain.

“Professor, I have always been interested in animal transfiguration,” Kurumi said with her hand raised. “For example, Lapifors or,” he mind wandered into things that could actually be helpful. “…perhaps Incarcifors. It could be useful in catching all those rabbits that you transfigured or other things…” Like demon rocks.

Jenny pondered as the professor stopped talking. Performing magic in front of muggles? Like those cheesy muggle tricks with a hat and a rabbit? Jenny never went to those much, even though her father liked them a lot. Jenny was still in thought when her eyes suddenly wandered off to the desk next to her. The name card was filled in, and the card in front of hers...whoops. Why did Jenny never seem to notice the darn name cards? Quickly she filled hers in.

"Um..." Jenny said as she looked up. "Well, say a muggle started sneezing while hiking in the middle of the forest all of a sudden. Maybe there could be a spell where you can pick up the nearest rock or plant and transfigure it into a handkerchief? I don't think muggles in general like sniffing in their noses all day."

Caroline listened to Professor Magnus as she explained what the lesson was about. She realized that she had not filled out her card. She quickly wrote:
Caroline put it at the top of her desk as if it had been there the whole time. phewww that was close. She sat back I listen to the rest of the professor's speech.

She had know idea what to say. She nornally had a pretty good imagintion. The only muggles she knew was her neighborhood, but that was a long time ago and the muggleborns that she knew from here. Then Caroline had an idea, She rasied her hand. "Say a muggle gets locked out of the house or what is that thing they call a car or something, right?" Oh for snakes sakes. She don't know much about muggles."Anyway you could use Alohomora to unlock the door for them or transfigure a key that can open it up" The whole muggle thing had messed up her train of thought, and imagination.

SPOILER!!: name card

" Michael White,
Hufflepuff
second year

Thinking well if you going top help Muggles you should help as many as you can
"Well my dad is a Muggle Paramedic and he is on a disaster relief team for things like hurricans ,so we could help in Repairing things useing Reparo or provideing shelter to those who lost every thing or just in "

Jaina was sitting with Belle behind Alice. She was guessing that Alice hadn't seen them. "So what do you guys think?" she asked. "I know we could transfigure stuff into blankets so the needy could keep warm. We could also maybe get them some water so they can have something to drink. I would transfigure a pen if I lost mine. I do that a lot at home!" She giggled a bit. She probably could go on forever with things that she would do. As long as she was helping someone in the process, she didn't care.

*Raising a hand Matty thought of something that would work best.*
"For the muggles in the 3rd worlds who have poor water. You could transfigure things into water or even help clean the water for them. Poor water is a big problem."

OOC: Can I please pretend I've been here all the time? I missed the start because of the time here and I really don't want to lose points.


Helena entered the room and smiled to the professor. "Hello, professor," she said, smiling, and went to sit down somewhere. She noticed a card, took it and scribbled on it.


Transfiguration? she thought. She raised her hand slowly. "Transfiguration is the art of changing the form of... something into another," she said. "Isn't it?"


Anything we want?

Helena raised her hand. "I've heard of a spell that helps up transfigure something into small birds. That would be nice! I mean... I was thinking about entertaining muggles in a special way, or something like that."

Salander tilted his head, recalling what they had to do for Potions class. Hmm... help Muggles. Again. Whatever happened to help Wizards Too?

"Well Professor," Salander started "... Muggles have ways of doing stuff for themselves, so really if us Wizards have to give them a hand with anything...." anything that wont have them dragging us out and hanging us by the gallows "....its probably for something thats way over their heads-- like some kind of disaster." What Conan said about gas reminded him of something "There was this nasty oil spill about 50-60 years ago along the Gulf of Mexico-- an oil rig blew up so the oil well that it was connected to underwater was gushing outta control. It took 3 months for the Muggles to seal it back up. Took even longer just to clean up the oil spill which at that point has spread over thousands of miles-- in the water, along the shoreline, on the sea floor. Pretty much everything was either coated in crude oil or was already dead due to poisoning or suffocation."

"So maybe..... we could help them transfigure all that oil that would've sealed the leak quickly. And collect the rest of the oil spill thats mixed in with the water and the soil by transfiguring them into something that easier to handle or more useful.... like rubber duckies or beach balls, or floating pool loungers."

Well, if they are helping out with an oil spill by the shore, might as well have a party to go with it right? Right!

Alice jumped when she heard Jaina's voice. She was there all along?! How could Alice not have seen that? She turned to face Jaina then smiled. "Hehe. Hello Jaina. Sorry I was too into this lesson. You know how much I love Transfiguration class" she smiled then looked at Jaina's sheet of paper. It had many ideas as she thought, though it wasn't surprising to Alice since Jaina was muggleborn. She could do this in her sleep if she wanted. "Jaina. What are those red cars called? The one that puts fire out..I don't exactly know that it's called. Haha" she laughed at herself in the end for not knowing.

Hugo thought about the question. His general idea was helping at huge explosions, plane and car crashes, and such stuff. Then he shook his head mentally. Think smaller. He could use the episky spell on hurt muggles. But that isn't transfiguration. "Professor, do you know about those muggle vehicles, cars? It has it's on system with gasoline. But what if muggles run out of gasoline in the middle of a desert? If there would be a wizard with them-" Which wasn't very likely, "We could transfigure something useless into that," he told the professor. Would that work?

After scribbling notes on her parchment, Mia looked up when the Professor spoke again and she chewed on her bottom lip while she thought of a way that would help muggles out.

After a few moments of thought, she raised her hand in the air. "Well back in the year 2011. Towns in the state of Queensland, Australia were hit by an inland tsunami and thousands of houses were flooded and families were left stranded. I think it would be good if we were able conjure a huge wall or something to that affect that would stop the water from overflowing and running into these towns."

Thankfully that had been before her time but the elders of her commune were forever reminiscing over those terrible times of the great floods.

Cedric listlessly scribbled on his card, filling the things that needed to be filled, and hoping that they would now proceed to the lesson proper.

And as if by chance, as soon as he finished writing, the lesson practically started; the professor told them their first work or task. And their first work rather entailed them to be insightful. From what the woman said and by pureply trusting his instincts, he could tell she had fascination toward muggles. Just like his parents. But how high the intensity her fascination was, Cedric could not really tell. Ced was rather disposed towards the other-worldly beings.

"We could and should help them in simple ways, I think," he started with a smile, "that are really unnoticeable yet helpful and all... so that we wouldn't need to just imagine that we could perform magic in front of them and use it to help them." Had it been said in a bad, careless way, Cedric knew he would sound rude and ill-mannered. What he truly wanted the professor to notice was his point. Hopefully she would. He surely hoped so.

Lucy was all dreaming in the class, not noticed as to what was going on. She saw some writing their names and year in a note. She didn't want to miss that, so she quickly took her quill and wrote:

She then noticed that the class has already started and now it's time to stop dreaming. She heard Professor asking a question on helping muggles. Anyways was should she use her magic in front of the muggles and get caught?? This question was really banging the brains. It's not that she didn't like helping out, it’s that she didn't want to get caught and end up going to Azkaban. So she asked Professor "Professor isn't helping muggles get us into trouble of going to Azkaban??" she asked confusingly, she didn't know if that was actually right.

Anyway she had an answer for Professor's question and said "Professor, could we help them in getting money, if that they really need it, like in case if they get rubbed or something?" she asked.

That's what her card said. Listening to the Professor, Di thought of ways wizards and witches alike could help muggles in their daily lives. There were a lot of possibilities but she reminded herself of GAMP's 5 laws. Now that made her think harder.

"Um.. Maybe we can help those muggles who cannot see. If their about to choose between something and is about to pick the wrong one we can use the switching spell so that instead they will be picking up the right object..." she suggested.

As Selina was in Transfiguration she was listening to the Professor's questions. The more she spoke the quicker her phoenix feather pen wrote down her notes and comments. This class seemed to be moving at a much faster pace than her previous classes. Selina tried to keep up with everything and still keep her head.

Then Violet began to write her notes and her swan quill kept brushing her nose. She turned her head to the side and sneezed, "Excue me."

Turning back to the lesson Selina answered the teacher's question, "Well, to assist Muggles? I guess we could be in a situation where someone's child was kidnapped or misplaced. We could transfigure a dog and try to assist them in finding that child. Or we could be at a wedding and transguire doves to fly out when the bride and groom kissed."

"Professor, I grew up with muggles. I know a little girl who lost a leg. Would it be possible for us to use tranfiguration to give her a new one?" Rowan asked. Funny, she hadn't thought about the kids in the orphanage since she left there at the beginning of term. Maybe a silly question but it seems like a worthwhile use, she thought to herself.

Magic for Muggle's benefit?

It seemed the school was gripped in a wave of Pro-muggle dealings. Which Patroclus thought was a lovely thing, he had no quams with muggles, none at all.

"Professor, I would use magic, to help those in Third world countries. Starting off with the multiplication of food, I would generate countless stores of longlasting, and eduring foodstuffs. So to avoid the deaths caused by malnutrion, plus I would create lots and lots of comfortable living spaces for people who have nothing but a tin shed for their home." Patroclus mind ticked back to the sad images he had seen in the slums of Indian, and the starving children in Africa.

It was not right that some people should have so much, and others so little....or even nothing at all.

Hmm, this was a tough situation. First, the Slytherin was allllll excited about the idea of choosing what she wanted to learn instead of learning just what was being told...but then...then Professor ManIcan'trememberyourname had to go and say something horrid like that.

Helping muggles?

Frowning in confusion, her expression turned to one of disgust more and more as she heard some of these people's answers. Especially Sierra's. Why would she want to help some muggle's chores when she didn't even want to do her own? But then...Lexi...

...

"I for one think it would be a rather horrid idea to perform magic in front of muggles." she said, raising a brow before looking towards the Professor. "We all know what happened the last time." And if they didn't, then they better look it up! "Regardless if the person is in danger or not, I think it'd be more suitable to find a muggle way to help them, and to keep our magical ways to ourselves." Hmm, yes it was rather difficult to say all that as pleasantly as she could.

Helping a muggle. That would mean she'd have to be near a muggle to do that. Merlin help her the day that ever came. Hiding in the bushes and observing didn't count either.

Mmmhhhg in what situations could muggle need help?Weeeeel, think Fee. There were so many situations."What if they get lost and need something to drink but the bottle is empty?",the blonde said,"as witch i could use Aguamenti or transform something else into water for example."Yuuuopp, what if they ot lost on their way? How did those cars even work?

Audrey raised her hand, "Professor, I would probably conjure some food for poor and hungry Muggles and also clean water for those who have none. I also think conjuring books would be a good idea."

Charlotte had always imagined what Transfiguration would be like. She absolutely loved the idea of change. It was a fascinating concept. To her, it meant being a given second chance. A chance to prove others wrong, to challenge ill-conceived notions and spiteful accusations.

She mulled over her professor's question. Young as she may be, she was already aware of the many situations some Muggles were forced to endure. She also knew the impact of magic into their lives. That is, if they actually knew about its existence. Raising her hand tentatively, she voiced out her opinion.

"Professor, I believe that we can use magic in order to transform the lives of some people. A lot of Muggles suffer from injustices and false claims. In fact, many criminals actually get locked up behind bars even if they are completely innocent. Many assumptions are made without sufficient evidence or proof. I guess we just usually go with what everyone else says."

She bit her lip. "Perhaps, we can find a way on how to determine if they're telling the truth or not. Once we're certain, we can alter their looks and features. I know that this sounds really far-fetched... But, I really like the idea of giving each person another opportunity to be a productive member of society. I've noticed that a great number of Muggles have difficulty in forgiving others' mistakes and shortcomings. The bad things usually overpower all of the good that they've done throughout their lives. And so, I'd like to use magic as a way to bring justice to those who really deserve it. The disheartened would no longer have to worry about being shunned by narrow-minded fools."

She let out a deep breath. Charlotte hoped her explanation made sense.

'Wow' thought Audrey 'That is a really good idea.'