Minerva took a deep breath. No times for nerves now Min. "Co-vah-dium" She said. "Is that right?"

Rosalie walked into the Transfiguration practice room to practice her new spells. She set down her stuff down on on table and pulled her wand out. Time for a new hair style
"Fel-in-tas!" She tapped her head once and focused on layers. Rosalie looked a in mirror and was amazed by the the layers she had produced it was kind of intense it was so choppy and unorganized, it looked like a four year old took a scissors to her hair.
"Oh well, Int-ar-is!" Tap twice on the head and focus on normal hair style and length. "What hair color should I do next? Oh yes!" "Ris-TAR-is!" With extra emphesis on tar, one tap with her wand on her head. She focused on the color she wanted. She looked in the mirror and it turned out! A lovely rich purple color took the place of her blonde locks. "Yes! And on the first time!"
"Int-ar-is!" She tapped her head with her wand twice and focused on her natural blonde hair. Making sure that her hair was back to its normal color and style she practiced a couple more time and then left the room. She was pretty excited that she finally had it down.

Willow looked across at the sound of her name and saw the Gryffindor Prefect standing in the middle of the room. Perfect! Now if I stuff up, I won't have to go to the hospital wing! she thought.
"Hey Kurumi!" Willow grinned at her. How are you? I was going to practice the hair changing spells we learnt today, if I'm not interupting anything?" She looked around the room and saw many other students in there too! No pressure!

"Sounds good," Kurumi nodded. "Just remember to keep the tone neutral. Too much excitement and emphasis and you might melt the wrapper." Kurumi laughed. She was speaking from personal experience after all.

"The wand movement is simple enough, just a swish to the left and gently tap the item," Kurumi explained as she rummaged through her pockets for something to demonstrate with. All she found was a wonky looking paperclip. Maybe she could transfigure it into a hair pin? Kurumi set the paper clip on her hand and held her wand above it.
...but just as she was about to perform the spell, her fellow Gryffindor spoke. "I actually just finished, erm, practicing the spell with Jenny," Kurumi said nodding in the direction of her Ravenclaw friend. If you could really call her using her abilities as practicing that is. "I was just about to show Minerva another spell, one that Professor Magnus taught us two terms back."

Minerva was excited for a new spell. She followed Kurumi's words to the T.

Kurumi returned her attention back to the Hufflepuff. Where was she... "So, in my hand I have a paperclip," she said. Obvious enough, right? "I can turn this into a hair clip or something else of similar size, but I won't be able to turn it into a table." At least not with her level of magic. Perhaps more mature wizards would be able to draw from other things to create something bigger. "So...you need to create a strong image in your head of what you want to make. Magic is all about intent and then concentration."

Kurumi paused for a moment to concentrate on an image in her mind. She then swished to the left and tapped the paperclip. "Covahdium." She now held a small hair clip in her.

Kourtney stepped into the room, glancing around at the other students who were practicing a number of spells. She was simply here to practice the spells learned in Transfiguration.

Taking a spot in the corner, she waved at Kurumi before removing her wand. Okay...so, changing the hairstyle.

That was Felintas...and a tap to the top of the head while envisioning the hairstyle. She had done a short, spiky, punk-rock style in class, so she decided to do otherwise.

Raising her wand, she tapped the top of her head once. "Felintas!" She intoned, feeling the tingle that indicated the change in style. She picked up her mirror and held it away from her, turning her head from side to side. Her normally dark, curly hair was now piled atop of her head with two tendrils hanging on the sides of her face. Pretty!

With a grin, she tapped her head twice "Intaris." Her hair slowly relaxed to its original state.

Now...to change the color of her hair. She had done red...but she didn't want to do anything too drastic....maybe bleach blonde?

Concentrating on how her hair would look blonde, she raised her wand and tapped her head once while speaking the incantation.

Ugh. This spell was one of the ones giving her difficulty. It was a bit strange to picture a different hair color for herself.

Just try again. Tapping her head once, she intoned "Ristaris."

Peering into the mirror, her eyes widened in surprise. Now this wasn't good. Half was dark brown, half was blonde.

Frowning, she concentrated on her original hair color and tapped twice. "Intaris." Thankfully, the spell did as it was supposed to and she was back to brown.

"That was amazing!" Minerva was very impressed. She looked at the wrapper. "Sooooo What would be the best thing to try to change this wrapper into?"

Feeling that someone could have been watching her, Aiden takes a quick glance behind. No one? Was that only her being paranoid again? Don't thing so. She better finishes this quickly.

Now, she taps her wand twice on her head. "Intaris," she mutters as her hair darkens, changing to its original colour before it lengthens back to the original length. Then, she runs for the door leaving the other students with Kurumi. Aiden won't spending a long time fooling around with those spells. She still has much unfinished assignments.

"Cool, well I'll see you round!" Willow waved and left the practice room. She didn't really want an audience, just in case she ended up embarrasing herself..

Raven entered the practice room. She wanted to practice the spell that Professor Magnus taught at the first lesson.


"Ristaris!" she tapped her wand to her hair. Man! her hair became brick red now! She saw herself in the mirror. I'm so silly to have hair like this. Ristaris!" then her hair became black. Not too bad, but I still love my white hair. she thought. "Intaris!" then her hair returned to be white again.

Oh, no. The prefect noticed Janice as she fell to the floor.
"He--Hello," she said uncomfortably. She turned her head just in time to see another Gryffindor who apparantly is called Willow that bumped into her. "It's okay, I sometimes do that too.." she said.

Trying to look normal, Janice stood up. She saw the Prefect teaching them some Transfiguration spells. That looks cool, she thought.

Ira saw that the prefect was teaching some spells...She wandered over near her trying to learn some Transfiguration spells. She had not paid any attention in the Transfiguration lecture!

"Hmm do you think I can change the wrapper into a small rock. Is that ok?" Minerva didn't want to get anything wrong or do anything that could get her into trouble. She made a note to reread her books on the rules and guidelines of transfiguration.

"Er...was that two years ago or last year?" Jenny blinked. If it was a lesson from last year, then Jenny wouldn't have remembered at all because of Australia. Jenny gave a huge sigh; she really did miss out on a lot during her year gone, hasn't she?

Soon, Jenny noticed that more people were coming up to Kurumi for Transfiguration lessons. She's popular, alright. Jenny thought to herself. Suddenly, an idea popped up.

Nah...that was a mean idea. No need to push her curiosity about Kurumi that far.

Deciding she should leave, Jenny took out from her bag a box of assorted sushi. She quickly offered the box to the people in the vicinity...including Kurumi (who would have been the victim of a very pointless, Slytherin-wannabe prank). "Anyone want sushi?" She smiled sweetly.

Ira was offered sushi by a Ravenclaw girl. But it seemed a little strange...Ira felt like this girl was smiling too sweetly!
"No, thanks but I really don't like sushi much, but maybe others would have it..."

Keefer skipped on in to the Transfiguration Practice room, intent on practicing the spells they had learned last lesson here first. After all, that's what the practice room is for, isn't it? Messing up and trying again. He noticed a mirror that he suspected had been set up specifically for practicing these two most recent spells.

Alright, now what were those spells again? He was drawing a blank. Merlin, my notes are back in the common room, too. Since he was running a bit late, he pointed his wand down and to the right in the direction of his backpack. "Accio Transfiguration notes," he said. The Summoning spell was one of his favorites. A few seconds later, he heard a whooshing sound and deftly grabbed his notes. "Ah, that's right. Felintas and Ristaris." He mentally berated himself for his memory slip.

Which to practice first? Maybe the length and style one. That seemed less... permanent if messed up.

Thinking of the cooler weather that was sure to come, he decided to lengthen his hair, even if it looked shaggy afterwards. "I can always cut off what I don't want if I can't put it right," he muttered.

Concentrating, he pictured himself with shoulder-length hair, raised his wand above his head, and brought it down gently on his head, saying "Felintas."

A peculiar sensation of itchy tingling came over his scalp. Looking in the mirror, he saw his hair lengthening... and lengthening... and still lengthening. It's not going to stop! he thought. "Finite!" he said hurriedly, putting and end to the growth. He shook his head ruefully as he saw hair longer than knee-length. Great.

Belatedly, he remembered the importance of the mental picture. He gathered a picture in his mind of a Keefer with short hair, at least compared to his current state. After about ten seconds of letting this thought fill him, he whispered "Felintas," again. After a few seconds of prickling scalp, he saw hair much closer to what he expected. Brilliant!

He checked his watch and saw it was time to go to Astronomy. He didn't dare try the counterspell and have it go terribly wrong, so he headed off to class with the longer hair.

Ariadne wondered if it would have been possible to use Wingardium Leviosa to carry the trunk, but didn't ask that out loud, fearing that she could've embarrassed herself in front of her housemate. Instead, she just focused on what Kurumi was saying. Ah, yes, baking, her favourite activity, as far as Ari knew. 'That's a brilliant idea, I'm sure you'll manage. What would you like to bake today?' Something delicious, no doubt...The young lioness already started to feel hungry. Not good.

'Yes, the size correlation makes sense. I'll try to turn this into a cup.' Ariadne said, just to show that she understood. She practiced the wand movement on her own for a while, and eventually added the incantation, Covadium, but didn't think enough about the transformation. Without intent, nothing happened. 'What am I doing wrong?' she asked, looking up at Kurumi.

Cael shuddered as he entered the practice room. He really didn't want to have to suffer the humiliation of looking like a clown again, but alas, he had to get these spells down before the next lesson started.

He figured he might as well start with the length spell. "Felintas!" he cried, tapping his head. Urgh, what a horrible sensation to feel all of your hair receding into your scalp. Pulling out a hand mirror, he grimaced when his once beautiful head of curly hair now resembled a blonde buzz cut with a small faux-hawk. Hideous.

"Intaris," he tapped quickly, returning it to its original length.

"Well well.... nice job Cael!" Jayden complimented him as she walked up behind him. "We missed you at the lake today..." She added as she pulled out her wand to practice with him.

"Felintas!" She muttered, tapping her head, allowing her hair to grow far past her hip bone.

Jenny turned to see a much younger Gryffindor girl respond. "Aw, you don't like sushi?" She looked around to notice that not everyone was willing to try out some sushi either. Then she turned back to the girl, only to notice the look on her face. She seemed...frightened. Then her jaws started aching for smiling too long. Oh...so that's why.

Jenny cleared her throat and straightened her mouth. "Yeah, not a lot of people like sushi here...I'm thinking of trying to cook food from different cultures actually." Not really. The idea just came to her right now, but she was considering it. "Sorry about that." Jenny gave another smile this time, except it was a somber and grim one. She offered a hand for a handshake. "I'm Jenny, by the way."

"If I can manage to transfigure an oven," Kurumi said with a slight sigh to her tone. "I think I am just going to make a simple sugar cookie. Nothing too fancy until I get the oven properly." She bent down and reached into her bag. What she pulled out was a medium sized ball of cookie dough wrapped up tightly to keep fresh.

Kurumi leaned over a bit as Ari began to practice the spell. A small smile crept across her face. The fourth year hardly expected the second to get the spell on the first try. It had taken her at least three tries her first go. Ari was already a step head of her, she hadn't melted her object. Still, Kurumi furrowed her brow and scrutinized the situation. The fact that NOTHING happened was very telling. "Hmm...you really have to have a strong visual in your mind of what you want to make, otherwise the spell won't work." Kurumi rested her chin on her hand as she stood thinking for a moment. "Size, color, shape, weight, everything plays into it. It is probably best to go with a cup that you are familiar with. Maybe one that you use back home." Kurumi certainly had such a cup in her mind at the moment. "Once you have that, the spell should do the rest for you... Covadium," Kurumi said, waving her wand appropriately. Within a few moments, a cup sat on Ari's hand. "It's the cup my father always uses to drink his morning coffee." With another wave of her wand, Kurumi cast Reverto and the cup was no more.

"Give it another go and try to think of something familiar to you."

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

"Thank you," Kurumi blushed. But, it really wasn't all that amazing, She was sure that Minerva would be able to transfigure something equally as interesting - perhaps more. The minds of the first years this term were always surprising her.
But before she could try and answer the Hufflepuff's next question, she had thrown out an idea of her own. "If you have a strong enough image in your mind, I don't see why not."

And then her fellow Gryffindor was heading out, perhaps to the common room. "See you around Willow! I am sure if you want to practice at the study tables there will be someone there to practice with you."

MERLIN! Kurumi hadn't meant to make the girl fall over! o_____________O Perhaps there had been something slippery on the floor?

"Oh my stars! Are you alright?" Kurumi squeaked skipping over towards the girl.

And yet another Gryffindor had entered the practice room. "Hello Ira," Kurumi waved, calling the younger lion over.

"Right. Professor Magnus wasn't here last term...instead we had Shaw." No professor, just Shaw and the man had been bloody insane. Honestly, what sort of professor started off a lesson by carving their name into the blackboard WITH A CHAINSAW?

Kurumi eyed the sushi, wishing that she hadn't eaten a rather large lunch before coming to the training room. "No thank you," she frowned. "Been practicing I see. Looks much better than first year's sushi!"

"Well let me try then. Minerva looked at the wrapper and thought of a stone. She swished to the left and taped the wrapper while saying "Covahdium" She watched, but nothing happened.

"Thanks," he spun around with a smile. He hadn't heard her come in...
Snickering, he sent a well-aimed Ristaris her way changing her hair to a brilliant fushia.

"Oh? I didn't know I was supposed to meet at the lake..." he hummed, tapping the end of his wand against his chin in thought. "How's everyone doing?"

"Hmmm, try describing the stone to me," Kurumi said with a small nod. "The more detail the better. As I have been told countless times by professors, the key to performing spells is intent. Waver even the slightest and you will have completely different results."