Her first spells! Gwen was ready to jump in delight, but she contained herself, because none of the other students looked that thrilled. She walked up to the front to collect her things, and not being able to help herself, skipped back to her seat. She held her precious wand carefully. It was time to make some magic!

"Lingum Navicula!" she tapped the wood. It was moving!! Her wood seemed to thing about transfiguring for a moment, but didn't make it all the way. Okay, so it was a sort of misshapen piece of wood, but she, Gwenhwyfar Rose Jensen, had just made something change shape by pointing a wand at it. She was so living in a fairy tale.

Now to try the vine. "Vinea funiculus" She said the words slowly, trying her hardest to pronounce the latin correctly. And nothing happened. "Vinea funiculus!" Gwen tried again with more gusto. The vine flopped for a second, stiffened a little, and then nothing. Except maybe it was a little bit more brown than it had been a second ago?

Why was this not working? Gwen's early elation at having done something was quickly disappearing. She couldn't do it the right way. Maybe it was a mistake and she wasn't magic enough. Maybe because neither of her parents were magic, it was a total fluke and Gwen had gotten a drop of magic, but not enough to make cool things happen?

She looked around at the other students, disgruntled now. How come they could do it and she couldn't?

Bellaire was leaving.

Alec's eyes widened a little as he looked around the classroom. She wasn't leaving anyone in charge, was she? Were they meant to look over things or...? But she said that she'll be back shortly. Shortly. Nothing would go wrong in that amount of time, yeah? Awesome. And if it did, he would... figure that out if the time called for it.

Nodding to himself, the boy looked between the two items on his desk. Wood or vine first? Wood? Vine? ... Vine. Turning that into rope sounded a lot easier than turning wood into a boat. He set the chunk of wood off to one side before taking out his wand and clearing his throat. Was he ready? Nearly. First... he needed to practice.

He glanced over at the board and the spells written on there. Vinea Funiculus. "Vinea... Funiculus... Vin-e-a... Vin-e-a... Vinea..." Vinea was easy to pronounce. "Funiculus... Fu-ni-cu-lus... Fu-ni-cu-lus... Funiculus..." That hadn't been bad, right? "Vinea Funiculus." And the wand movement? Just pointing right? That was simple enough. He could point his wand at the vine. Point.

Kace was intrigued. So they were making boats using the spell. Ahhh he could deal with that. He copied down the notes to make sure he got his spells right, the ones the professor mentioned.



Once he had those basics down, he heard the professor instruct them to move on. He grinned and knew this is what he was waiting for. He wanted to start pronouncing the spells first since the wand movement was simple enough.

Alright first spell....

"Lingnum Navicula.....Ling-num Nav-ic-ula.....Ling-num Nav-ic-ula.......Ling-num Nav-ic-ula....Lingnum Navicula." he said getting the hang out of. Now this one was for the wood to turn into a boat.

Then he tried the vine spell. "Vin-ea Fun-ic-u-lus....Vin-ea Fun-ic-u-lus.....Vin-ea Fun-ic-u-lus....Vin-ea Fun-ic-u-lus....Vinea Funiculus!" he smiled getting the hang out this spell. Now to put it all together yeah?

Adi looked up as the Professor announced she was going to be leaving for now. What if they needed help? He looked down at his small progress and decided he would aim to least transfigure the rope before she returned. The small progress was most motivating. After using Reverto to return the vine to its original appearance, he got to work again.

''Vinea funiculus!'' Point wand. The vine was changing and this time it was starting form the middle. Yes! Adi focused on concentrating as the vine changed some more, forming thicker and sturdier. And then as usual, it all suddenly stopped. The second year slowly exhaled the breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. He really needed to practice more.

Robin looked down at her log and vine with a determined glare. She would get this no matter how long it took. All she had to do was point her wand right? She took a deep breath, ajusted the wand in her and and pointed at the log first.
"Lignum Navicula!" she said firmly
...nothing happened
"Lignum Navicula!!" she said with a bit more confidence, could she have been imagining it or did the middle of the wood hollow a bit? She sighed in exasperation- she was saying the words right and pointing at them was there anything else? She tried the vine, maybe it would work on that. She pointed her wand and almost yelled
"Vinea Funiculus!" a leaf on the vine turned into a piece of straw. It was better than nothing at least.. She was getting frustrated- was something wrong with her? She looked around, calming down.
It's okay, it's your first time , you'll get it... she chanted in her head. Maybe if she watched the others she would see something she was missing.

Fallen logs into boats...vines into rope.

Hearing the translation, Ben looked down at the written spells trying to see them fit. He's have to wait until later though to test out the latin for Professor Bellaire still speaking explaining more of what was going on, including the prospects for later on in the class. Boats and rope...would they be heading out on the Black Lake?

Taking down what was said into his notes, the Gryffindor was glad as he heard there were no special wand movements. All the more easier to accomplish the task at hand and better chance not to accidentally so it wrong and get a whole another reaction to his spell. It certainly seemed simple enough as the professor demonstrated each of the spells in front of the classroom so they could see what to do and what to expect. Getting up from his seat, Ben followed the rest of the class to the front, taking a piece of wood and a piece of vine for his use before returning to his desk.

Settling back down, Benjamin noticed a few students already were taking turns on the spell. Could they really start? Had they gotten permission? Maybe not at first but as Bellaire made a circuit of the room, she gave them the go to start. That time he had heard it and knew to obey. Thinking it best to start small, he opted to start with the vine into rope. "Vinea Funiculus." he cast, pointing at the vine. Nothing appeared to be happening at first."Vinea Funiculus." he repeated with a touch more conviction. Come on....come on....there!

The one end had definitely changed.

He could hear his stomach growl as he listened to the Professor speak. He was hungry despite having eaten a lot of breakfast before he came here. Remembering he had some candy in his bag, the kid heard the announcement that the Professor was leaving for a bit and he grinned.

His hand lowered to his bag as he zipped it up, he paused as she looked back and then grabbed a Sugar quill from inside and placed it in his mouth. With the quill in his mouth, he moved to the front to grab some wood and vines and moved back to his place.

Grabbing his wand with the Sugar quill in still in his mouth, he pointed it at the piece of wood and said the incantation. Nothing happened. It was because of the quill that he could not speak correctly so with a sigh , he took the candy out of his mouth with his left hand and tried again.

"Lignum Navicula" he said as he pointed his wand at the wood and then tapped it. It began to shift, his two different colored eyes blinked in curiousity and then it stopped. The piece of wood back to a piece of wood. He bit on the quill and decided to try again
"Lignum Navicula!" He spoke more clearly and as he pointed and tapped his wand on the wood and ...nothing except for the wood twitching a little.

Okay he was bored again. Maybe he should try the vines first?

Sander smiled. He always appreciated the practical portion of a Transfiguration lesson and was glad when the Transfiguration Professor gave them the go ahead to start.

He first reviewed his notes in his journal.



First practice makes perfect, so Sander first practiced pronouncing the words to the each spell.

"Lignum.....lignum....lignum.....Navicula....navicu la....navicula...Vinea....Vinea....vinea....Funicu lus....funiculus...funiculus."

He allowed the words to roll off his tongue, making sure that he was enunciating the words correctly. Once he was sure that he had that down pat, Sander moved on to the wand movements.

Without verbalizing the spells, he just connected each wand movement with each spell.

For Lignum Navicula the wand movement was a tap on the wood. For the vines, he was just supposed to point at it....and of course concentrate on the spell and what he wanted it to do.

Now it was time to actually try casting the spell. Placing the wood on the ground in front of him, Sander looked at the wood while concentrating on what he wanted that piece of wood to transform into. He formed an image in his mind and he held onto that image as he tapped his wand on the piece of wood and said the incantation.

"Lignum Navicula" he called out. A beam of light streamed out from his wand and enveloped the piece of wood and when the light disappeared, there lay in front of him a wooden boat which he picked up with his hand!!

It was a toy wooden boat!!

Well the Professor didn't say what size it had to be, but he suspected that it had to be big enough for at least half of his body...if not his entire body, to be able to get into. So back to basics for him. Taking out his wand, Sander pointed it at the toy boat and said,"Reverto' changing it back to its former wood state.

Boats and ropes. Cool. Ella smiled a little and wrote down the incantations as well as the simple movements, eager to get on with the practical portion of the lesson. That was the best part, after all. Then, when they were given the okay, the blonde went up and collected the small piece of wood and a vine.



And then Bellaire was leaving them. Ella was sure that she still had eyes and ears on them somehow but she did glance over at the head boy boyfriend, smiling nervously. Nobody better do anything too crazy or they'd have to lay down the law...or something. Oh gosh.

Anyway, best to get practicing. Incantations first.

"Lignum...Lignum...Navicula...Navicula..." Not too hard to say. "Lignum Navicula...Lignum Navicula...Lignum Navicula..." Nailed it. And now for the vine one. "Vinea...vinea...vinea...funiculus...funiculus...f uniculus." Funiculus was fun to say. It WAS. "Vinea funiculus...vinea funiculus...vinea funiculus."

Awesome.

After trying out the words a few more times, Ian felt ready to give the first spell a go. He tapped on the wood as he spoke the words Lignum Navicula! Nothing really seemed to happen. He still had a stupid piece of wood before him. He looked around at the other student to see how they were faring. Some had more and some had similar experiences to him. It made him feel a little better so he kept trying. It was a couple more times before he was able to smile at the small boat he now had before him.

Now it was time to tackle the wand movement and words. He practiced the words a few times. Vee-nay-a Foo-nee-koo-lus! Vin-e-a Fin-u-culus. Vinea Finiculus. He allowed his gaze to travel some more as he built up the courage to give this one a go.

The Professor.. was leaving?

No. No, she was gone. Rhodes stared at the door where the woman had just walked out of for a good long while, before turning back towards the things on her desk. She wasn't really all that bothered about being left alone like that, since it meant she didn't have to try too hard to get the wood and the vine to change into the things they were supposed to change into. But it would have been just a little bit nice to have her there with them.

In case anyone decided to blow themselves up.

But, those people weren't really her concern, were they? So, picking up her wand, and straightening herself back up in her seat, Rhodes gave the vine a tap with its tip. She thought the vine would be easier. And if the classroom suddenly filled up with a million pieces of rope, it would be easier to escape than having the room fill with a million boats. Really? Was the room big enough for that!?

She supposed that wasn't her problem either. She gave the vine another tap, because she decided the first one was for practice and took her time in pronouncing the incantation. "Vinea Funiculus."

Erm..

Tap, tap, tap, tap tap tap tap tap tap. "Vinea Funiculus!" She picked herself out a stupid vine, obviously.

After grabbing the wood and vine went back to his desk. After listening to what the Professor wanted to do Tag looked around his classmates some. As soon as he realized what everyone was doing the boy got to work.

So he just had to tap his wand on the wood. But first he needed to practice the incantation first. "Lignum Navicula. Lignum Navicula. Lig-num Navi-cula." Soon as he got that down he put his wand on top of the wood and said "Lignum Navicula." and tapped it with the wand. Nothing happened. Again, tap the wood and he said, "Lignum Navicula." Finally the wood turned into a small boat.

When Tag looked around some more he realized that Bellaire had left. He furrowed his eyebrows and had a urge to stand up on his desk and scream that they should have a party. But, yeah, no, that wasn't a good idea, unfortunately. Shrugging the boy continued with the vines. Now what was the incantation for this? "Vinea Funiculus." He simply said looking at the board and everyone else. Vine on the desk Tag simply pointed his wand at it and said, "Vinea Funiculus. Vinea funiculus. Vinea funiculus." Several times before the vine slowly transformed into a rope. A rather messy rope with material spiking out, but a rope nonetheless.

Asher was surprised that Bellaire just up and left like that. What kind of Professor did that? Huh? It was good that he found this lesson to be interesting. Otherwise he could have found away to take this lesson interesting while Bellaire was gone. Hehe

He looked around the room and watched her leave. He looked around the room again. Was everyone going to be good some he could focus on rope and boat making here. He squinted they better. Or they'd be tried with a rope to a boat and set on the black lake. So yeah don't try anything kids.

He looked at his notes then his vine and wood. He decided on starting out with vine first. It seemed easier. Rope, vine didn't look hard to transfigure right? Right.

Vinea Funiculus

"Vin-ea Fun-ic-u-lus." He pronounced it slowing the first time Then again normal speed. "Vinea Funiculus."

Then pointed at the vine again "Vinea Funiculus" It changed to a rope..... alright a rope with viney leaves. He shook his head at himself. Fail. Epic.Fail. At least it was a usable rope..... WITH LEAVES.

Alright time to put the spells to the test. He was excited. He heard the professor say that for part two of the lesson they were gonna make the boat bigger. He was excited. He looked at his notes one more time before he put his plan into action.



He pointed his wand at the wood and said...."Lingnum Vavicula..." and nothing happened. He wondered what went wrong and he probably said it wrong. It was kind of like a tongue twister. He tried it again and said, "Lignum Navicula!" and then he noticed the wood was turning into a small wooden boat. Awesome!! He smiled and was glad he did it.

Now onto the vine portion. He pointed his wand at the boat and said, "Vinea Funiculus!!" and then did a point and tap and the vines wrapped around the boat and he did it right. Wooaahhh....he stared down at his wand and knew this wand was awesome. He really approved.

Time to turn her wood into a small boat. She could totally do this. Totally.

Ella positioned the small piece of wood on the center of her desk and observed it carefully before pointing her wand. Concentration was important, yeah? And following the instructions exactly. Luckily, they weren't too hard.

"Lignum Navicula!" TAP.

Oh hey, a boat! That..was actually pretty cool. Cooler, of course, if it were bigger BUT they'd be doing that in the future.

The blonde returned the boat to it's original state and decided to try again, knowing practice was always a good thing.

"Lignum Navicula!" TAP.

BEAM! ...Could she change the color too?

*Right... Now to get started. Pulling over the bit of wood he tapped it and said "Lingum Navicula". Nothing... Hmm let's try that again. Saying "Lingum Navicula" the bit of wood turned into a small boat. He smiled looking the boat over. Cool... Next the vines. Moving the boat back a bit he got started on making some rope for his brand new little boat. Tapping the vines with his wand he said "Vinea Funiculus". This time the vines changed into ropes on the first try. Not bad. Smiling he looked down at his work. Looking back up he noticed that the professor had left. Now to sit and wait.*

Laura was not happy, not happy one bit. The Professor had just said she had been lying okay so it was the truth but well she could have said it nicer though of course she didn't say anything to the professor about this she just nodded when she said about the end of the class and looked at Tessa, she had better help her out of this situation that she had got her into.

Laura took the wood and then listened to the spells that they were going to use. They seemed okay and Laura couldn't wait to see what she would be able to do. She had come a long way since the first lesson in her first year when she changed something into a tree. Oh how she was missing Minnie and Kurumi.

Laura decided to practice one of the spell first without her wand of cause, she needed to make sure she remember and said it correctly. "Lingnum Vavicula." Laura realised that she had the saying right and so the next thing she had to do was make the boat. She took out her wand and tapped on the wood. "Lingnum Vavicula!" she smiled as she realised it was a boat, how cool was that.

Either he could pick off the leaves. Tah dah. Rope! Or he could finally turn this Viney rope into a rope-rope. Vinea Funiculus

"Vinea Funiculus."Point. And one perfectly good rope with no leaves. Not one.

He was demended more than ever to get the boat the first time. He was a seventh year for crying out loud. He should have gotten the rope the first time. He sat the rope in his lap and moved the wood right in the middle of his desk.

Okay now he was ready. He wasn't going to focus as much on the pronunciation of the spell this time. He just said it and focused on what the boat the wood would be. Be the wood, transform into a boat. "Lignum Navicula" Tap.

Hey. There a small boat. On his desk. Hello.

After updating her notes, Haruka got the wood and vine off of the Professor's desk and brought in back to her seat. Deciding to start with the wood, she mumbled the spell to herself a few times before actually trying it. When she was sure she was pronouncing it right, she picked up her wand and tapped the wood as she said, "Lignum Navicula!" She watched as the piece of wood turned into a small boat. That was pretty cool. She wondered if she could turn the wood into something other than a boat by changing the word. Gotta remember that for later.

Haruka moved the boat out of the way and replaced it with the vine. After mumbling the new spell to herself like she did the last one, she pointed her wand at the vine and spoke. "Vinea Funiculus!" She smiled as the vine turned into a piece of thick, brown rope. She looked around the classroom and noticed that the Professor was no longer there. Not sure what to do, Haruka fiddled with the rope in her hands and waited.

Bri took a deep breathe before pointing at the piece of wood and saying the spell "Lignum Navicula", but nothing happen. So she tried again, and to her frustration, nothing happen again. She looked over her notes, and groan.... this spell you need to tap the wood, not point. So, clearing her throat, Bri tried again. "Lignum Navicula" Bri said while tapping the wood. The wood transfigured, not into the nicest boat she has ever seen, but at least it look some what like a boat.

Next she tried to change the vine. She looked over her notes before pointing her wand at the vine and said Vineal Funicules , but nothing happen. Bri groaned when she realized that she pronounced wrong. "Maybe this was a little harder than I first thought" The first year said quietly to herself. She shook her head before trying again. Pointing her wand at the vine she called out "Vinea Funiculus". She smiled when the vine was transformed into a rope, which looked a lot better than the boat.

The Professor told them to begin transfiguring their objects and then she left the room. Was this a test? Alex could not imagine that Professor Bellaire did not have some way of monitoring her students' behavior while she was gone. Not that anyone would dare misbehave mind you.

Alex eyed her wood and vine, trying to decide which item to tackle first. She decided to transfigure the piece of wood first. Before attempting the spell for real, she practiced saying the words quietly to herself. She whispered,"Lig-num Na-vic-u-la", several times making sure to say the words clearly.

Finally, Alex felt ready to attempt the spell with her piece if wood. She tried very hard to focus on the wood. Saying, "Lignum Navicula", she lightly tapped the piece of wood with her wand. Well it kind of looked like a boat in an abstract sort of way. It looked like something a seven year old cub scout might have whittled on his first camping trip. Alex decided to practice this spell several more times before moving on to the vine.

Practical part Yes? The Ravenclaw Prefect had got up and retrieved the wood and vine. This is the fun part were you actually got to use magic. So it was Lignum Navicula and Vinea Funiculus. Sounded easy enough to say. "Lignum Navicula" Nigel said out loud. It never sounds the same in your head. Nigel tapped the piece of wood and said "Lignum Navicura"

Hmm.. didn't work. Might have said it wrong. Well that won't happen again. Nigel tapped the piece of wood again and said with emphasis "Lignum Navicula". It worked this time as Nigel thought. All he needed was a little emphasis and now he has a tiny boat. Now onto the vine/rope one. This one should be easier. Nigel pointed at the vine.

"Vinea Funiculus" And whala there was a rope. But swinging from a vine sounded a lot more fun than swinging from a rope. But some add ah noises of course.

Adelaide quickly took notes and then looked back at Bellaire. Huh. This was going to be a relatively easy lesson then. Basically all she was going to have to remember was the correct pronunciations for things.

She put down her quill and went up to the front to get her piece of wood and her vine. Once that was done, she took her seat again. Addi raised an eyebrow as Bellaire left the room. She just shrugged it off and went to work on transfiguring the objects.

Adelaide turned to the piece of wood first. She took a deep breath and pointed it at the wood. "Lignum Navicula." She said tapping it lightly. Nothing. It always took her a few times though. She went to do it once more...and surprisingly a tiny little boat sat in front of her. She smiled, quite proud at how quickly she'd gotten that.

Now onto the vines. She turned to it and pointed it at the vines. "Vinea Funiculus." And this time it worked on the first try. She smiled. Well, might as well keep practicing. She undid the transfiguration and kept working on doing the spell.

Elisabetta looked around at the class, noticing with no small amount of dismay that she was nowhere near to making as much progress as she was seeing from the other students.

"Vinea funiculus! Vin-e-a fun-i-cu-lus!" she exclaimed loudly, holding her wand a couple of inches from the vine. "What's wrong with this crazy vine?"
She glared at her wand, set the vine down, then picked up the piece of wood.
"Lignum navicula! Lignum nav--oh for heaven's sake, would you please change yourself, you stupid thing?"

That was all they would be doing? No fancy wand movement to master and she essentially just needed to remember the pronuncation? Okay. Easy enough. Sophie could appreciate this lesson, then. It seemed like a useful enough skill if she were to be lost in a jungle, but couldn't she just apparate out one day or something? Still, transfiguring a vine into a rope and a log into a boat could be cool party tricks or something some day.

Upon retrieving a vine and log, Sophie wiggled and got cozy at her desk before picking up her wand. She eyed the spells on the board and listened to the others around her have a go at pronouncing it before she murmured to herself, "Lignum Navicula. Lig-num Na-vi-cu-la. Liiiiig-num, easy enough, Nav-ic-u-la... Na-vi-cu-la... Nav-i-cu-la?" Huh. Bunch of options. "Na-vi-cu-la," she liked that one best. But... she listened around to what the other students were saying and observed what kind of results they got from it, just to be sure.

Wait, why was the professor leaving? She wasn't sure which one to say! Letting out a frustrated huff at the woman's exit, Sophie decided she would just practice various pronunciations till the woman came back. And if she didn't come back soon, she'd try the one that felt best to her, then.

"Vi-ne-a Fu-nic-u-lus... Vin-e-a... Fun-ic-u-lus... Fun-i-cu-lus... Vi-ne-a Fu-nic-u-lus..." That was the one she liked best for this one, but she listened to the others once again out of curiosity. Better to be safe than sorry, no?