So, he had done the mini activity, all the while wondering what exactly this had to do with Transfiguration. But, he wasn't about to question the professor's method, unlike certain Ravenclaws. Still, he did wait for a response before answering the question.

Another question he had was what on Earth did creatures have to do with Transfiguration? Don't get him wrong, he had nothing against creatures, but he wasn't quite as enthusiastic about them as others in the school were. In fact, he was pretty much over the whole subject, since they had been covered in Divination, used in DADA, and of course CoMC classes. O-ver.

Everyone who needed help seemed to have found it already. Then Shay turned toward the professor when she began to speak again. It was time for questions and it seemed that they would have several to choose from. The aquarium. That was the topic of the moment and Shay raised her hand to contribute to the discussion.

Since the "What is an aquarium?" question had already been answered, Shay decided to go personal. "I can't speak for everyone, but I kept fish in an aquarium as pets. They were pretty much the only animals we were allowed to have in our apartment. There was something about the aquarium and the fish inside that relaxed me.......no matter how stressed out I was. The aquarium definitely helped me and I like to think that the fish benefited from me caring for them." So were they going to get fish, turtles, something today?

Pushing some of his hair locks back, Kirk glanced around to see how others were doing. The classmates closer to his age were making about the same progress, and helping the younger ones. He didn't see anyone else needing assistance that wasn't already being taken care, so he went back to attempting to duplicate the skull-like decoration.

"Geminio." Kirk flicked his wand sharply towards the object, full focus as he took note of each craving, facial feature, imperfections, etc into the making of it as the familiar warmth escaped from his wand to duplicate it at last. The double vision returned but he didn't let it stop him as eventually the vision cleared up again with a near identical decoration. Cool. He went on ahead to place the decoration into his tank as the lesson progressed.

Kirk listened to some of the questions toward the Professor and responses regarding what they were doing. He was somewhat surprised that the duplicating was also considered for the Transfiguration criteria for the lesson. He personally assumed that this would be just the setup for the real deal. But perhaps he was mistaken, otherwise Jessa seemed to have spoke some of his own thoughts. Sure, Charms and Transfiguration had their shared aspects but the latter always seemed to have a significant difference. Morphing.

But there was no need to repeat it, so Kirk instead focused on the question. "Aquariums are suppose to make the fish or other swimming creatures feel more comfortable residing in a smaller tub of water with the decorations. I think it's more to our benefit though, we can sit and watch them in a cool-looking environment as pets learning how to keep them living as comfortable as possible."

Emmeline blinked down at the leaf that she'd duplicated earlier with a bit of surprise; to be honest, after even MORE failed attempts at mastering this spell, she'd tooootally forgotten about it sort of working. The sight of the leaf and Miss Olivia calling it progress brought a smile to the girl's face, 'cause this was TOTALLY a sign that the dumb spell was about to submit to her or something, mhm.

She listened very carefully to what Miss Olivia was saying and gave the older girl a biiig smile after she'd duplicated the pretty blue plant. Soo picture the WHOLE plant in her mind this time, right. Emmeline cleared her throat and stared at the small plant in front of her, trying hard to commit the details to memory. Then she closed her eyes and pictured the looong stem-ish thing with its many connecting branches that had pretty flowers and leaves sprouting from them. As soon as she thought she had a very clear picture in her mind, Emmeline snapped her eyes open, flicked her wand at the plant and cast: "Gemino!" This time, the spell actually worked! The Gryffindor now had THREE pretty blue plants on the desk in front of her -- which, of course, had been her goal alll along. She BEAMED up at Miss Olivia and sort of jumped at the older girl and wrapped her arms around Miss Olivia at the saame time, so that she had the older girl encased in a biiig hug, and muttered: "Thank you!!!!" Emmeline was still beaming as she stepped back from the older girl and was about to say something else when she was distracted by Derf's question, and then Jessa's talking and stuff.

It sounded like people were debating whether Gemino was a charm or transfiguration. Emmeline sort of thought it was a charm as well -- wasn't it in their textbook? -- but she didn't see how that really mattered. There wasn't any rule at Hogwarts that said you couldn't use charms in other subjects too. She was only half-listening to all of the talking and debating, though, so maybe she'd missed something. Whatever; Cami would know the answer, mhm. Still, the second year was also kind of proud of her friends for being all geniuses at magical theory and stuff. But this duplicating spell wasn't for the main activity, which is when Emmeline would really expect to be learning the Transfiguration bits of the lesson anyways. She didn't see Cami teaching them a charm for this other part as a big deal, really, and made a mental note to sidle over to Cami and give her guardian a biiig hug as soon as everyone else wasn't looking.

That biiig hug would have to wait, though, 'cause Cami soon called the lesson back to order and started asking questions about aquariums. Which made Emmeline super curious about what they'd actually be doing and what creatures it might involve and stuff. She raised her hand and added her answer to the others': "You have to clean aquariums allll the time, and check the water levels and stuff. We use them to make the creatures that live in them feel more comfortable and stuff, so they can live in people's houses as pets." She paused briefly before going on, "But you might need a HUUUUGE aquarium to realllly have enough space for some creatures to be okay in. 'Cause you don't want to get an aquarium that's too small or feels more like a CAGE for the creatures, mhm. They're supposed to be like little houses for the creatures that live in them." The creature's health and stuff was the most important thing here. Emmeline wasn't entirely sure how she felt about keeping things in aquariums, though she supposed that a small fish would probably have a niiice, comfy life in an aquarium just as much as it would wherever it normally lived. Plus, fish being kept in aquariums would be taken good care of and wouldn't have to worry about being eaten or anything. Sooo, she supposed that as long as aquariums were the right size and were all nice and kept up with, they weren't really a bad thing -- but she sort of thought it would depend on what kind of creature a person was going to keep in there too.

Hopeful that Emmeline would get the spell or at least make some more progress, Olivia paused and even held her breath for a moment. Please get this... Please, please, please. She bit her lip and then waited. And then she got it! Vi beamed and was about to cry out with a happy cheer for the young girl. "Awesome! You DID it, Emmeline!" she grinned. Though she wasn't expecting Emmeline to fling and jump on her. She smiled and then happily returned the lioness' hug. "Of course. You did all the work." Olivia had only assisted really.

Before anything more could be said, Professor Stewart was speaking again. She offered them plenty of questions, so Vi focused on the proper care of an aquarium. "To take care of an aquarium, you need to make sure that the water has the correct acidity... the pH but you also need to make sure that the aquarium stays properly cleaned. Tidy up the plants and clean away build up."

When Etta was finally satisfied with the way her tank looked, she turned her attention towards the professor who asked them a long list of questions. Huh. She waited until a few of her classmates answered, her gaze shifting towards her tank every now and then to make sure it seemed nice enough. She wasn’t sure why it actually mattered so much but aaaanyway. Back to the questions. She raised a hand to answer.

“Well, aquariams are an enclosed area of space with transparent sides where water dwelling animals or plants are kept.. and people have aquariams to connect with the marine environment, perhaps? I’ve heard they help reduce stress too.. but I don’t know if that’s true.”

To be honest Hattie had never had an aquarium. She didn't really want one either. She didn't really like the idea of keeping living creatures locked up, and not free to swim where they liked. She did think that other people might have a differing opinion though, so she wasn't going to be too annoyed. Not everyone could have the same opinion, and if they didn't it would be a very boring world. But she needed to think about her answer to the question. She didn't want to repeat what others were saying. Hattie liked being a unique person. So she needed to have a unique question.

She raised her hand a few minutes later once she had an answer. "I don't really like the idea of aquariums. I like creatures being able to swim and be free. But I can also see why people would like them, I mean big ones at sealife centres might be good for conservation, but overall I'm not a big lover of keeping fish locked up in a box on the counter"

SPOILER!!: professooooooor & Jessa

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kolyander

Moving down the next row of desks, Cami stopped turning around when she heard what sounded like gravel spilling. Which wasn't odd since the activity called for the students to add gravel into the tanks. However she was being spoken to and this was what had her move back a few desks to where Derf was sat. "Gemino is actually known as the Gemino Curse. When duplicating an item you're basically conjuring up a copy." Did this make any sense at all to him? "There are different branches of Transfiguration and this one falls under Conjuration." All his questions were always good ones. "Changing the material of an item will be taught in another lesson." She smiled at him. Always taking mental notes of what interested the students.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

The set up of the aquarium she'd chosen only moments ago had already been discarded in favour of an entirely new one. It was the hardest thing to make your mind up at this age and what looked good before shifting in the seat could suddenly look like a disaster waiting to happen for whatever ended up being placed in here.

This was what occupied the 14 year old, until her friend's question. Curious blue eyes lifted to the Hufflepuff and she readied herself to explain that the charm was simply a means to an end in this Transfiguration lesson, so they could appropriately accommodate whatever they were transfiguring--as this was what she'd thought--....but then the Professor said that.....and suddenly the Ravenclaw was confused. Had the Professor meant for this to be the spell taught for today?

How...curious.

Jessa raised her hand, brows knitted in obvious confusion. "But Professor..." She began, albeit a little hesitantly as she tried to figure out what exactly was happening here. "Gemino doesn't conjure anything and wouldn't fall under the branch of Transfiguration that does such a thing. It causes an object to duplicate itself. It influences the behaviour of that object to make it multiply--charms infleunce how things work and behave. Conjuration deals with making things out of nothing. In this case we've got the materials, we didn't make these from thin air." None of her charms texts had ever mentioned Gemino making something where there was nothing. "I don't suspect it's transformation either because we haven't changed their properties to make them something else."

The question about the tanks were all but forgotten in the young girl's confusion and admitted distress. "Curses fall under the category of dark charms." Still charms, so she still didn't understand. "And our Charms Textbooks always list it as the doubling charm. It's on the curriculum for Charms, I've already learned it."

So...this charm was a means to an end in this lesson. They would be getting to the actual Transfiguration and until that happened, the child would settle down and not have both Derf's question and the Professor's response rattling her brains too much. She did still wants a response though.........because Gemino was very much a charm. Perhaps Professor Stewart was yanking their legs to see who'd been paying attention. It was an exceedingly clever way of keeping them on their toes. Jessa was glad she'd caught on.

No way the woman would be serious about something like this. Settle down Cambridge.

Derf had made his way back over to his tank and had set his things down, poking at the packets of gravel and eyeing his little plastic plant. At least the incantation was an easy one and the wand movement nothing TOO challenging...but the Hufflepuff was still very much afraid of what HE could make go WRONG with this particular bit of magic. At least he had no malice intent, so his casting wouldn't produce a curse...

But as Professor Stewart began addressing his question, his brow knotted and he became increasingly confused. He may be a bit rubbish at practical applications of magic, but he felt rather strong with the theory so it was all the third year could do at present but to blink at the woman as she spoke. A curse...but NOT a charm? How did that --- oh, there was Jessa. Blue eyes turning to look at his friend Derf found himself nodding along as she spoke before his mind started spiraling off in every which direction.

Yes, the Hufflepuff conspiracy theorist was at it again.

Was this a WARNING? She had placed emphasis on it being a CURSE and not a standard spell and CURSES meant there was an intent of causing harm or even DEATH! Death like what was involved in the eagle drawn in blood. THINGS WERE PILING UP!

Speaking of which...

While Jessa spoke, the third year decided to give the spell a proper go on his iridescent orange plastic plant. "Geminio!" he chirped a bit distractedly - because he WAS still listening to Jessa and WATCHING the professor like a ha---okay, he needed to come up with a different creature than a bird of prey there because REASONS - as he flicked his wand at the plant. At first nothing seemed to happen, which made the Hufflepuff's face fall, but as he reached forward to give it a poke with his wand...another orange plastic plant when tumbling seemingly out of the first one and to the floor.

OH? Oh? OOOOOOOOOOOH?

Looking up with a GRIN, he was about to poke Jessa to show her that he had DONE it...when another orange plant tumbled out and to the floor. Although this one looked a bit wonky - like it had been under a heating charm for too long.

And then another came.

And another.

There was a progressively wonky looking pile of bright orange plastic trees now accumulating at his feet.

Uuuuuuuuuuum....

Quote:

Originally Posted by professssssssssoor

"Those of you that are still working on setting up your tanks you have a few more minutes to complete that. Those of you that are finished we'll be moving on." Leaning against her desk and crossing her arms she looked around to see that most everyone was finished and others appeared to be almost done. "What is an aquarium? Why do people people keep them inside their homes? How would you care for one properly? How do aquarium's help us or the creatures that live inside them?"

Moving his tank in front of the plastic plant that was still duplicating itself, the gravel dumped into the bottom of it obscuring the magic from view - although by this point his trees were looking more like flattened straws than trees - Derf considered the question at hand...but was soon distracted by the words of Hattie. If it were possible, the third year would be making heart eyes at her.

But...as it were...he instead found himself trying to cover up all the orange plastic at his feet.

"Finite...Finite...Fi-ni-te," he pleaded, waving his wand at the original plant a bit frantically.

Yeah, Cassie had certainly been curious about those tables, as well as the purpose for the tanks in front of them all. Her own a light shade of purple. Oooo the first table was revealed, its surface covered with various items that Professor Stewart was describing. Gravel…plants…tank decorations. And the duplication spell to help things along. She was definitely getting the idea for the first progression of things at least. A move from her seat and a couple of spell castings later, “Geminio…Geminio,” and she had a bag of gravel, a blue-tipped purple plant and a green one too, and finally a ship and a hut underneath a palm tree.

Just in time for Professor Stewart to move them on.

Now those questions she could answer, her brother having insisted on having one in his bedroom. “An aquarium is a glass or plastic tank that’s filled with water to house fish or amphibians.” Grayson’s aquarium had an array of fish. “You have to have a way to clean the tank and the water. “That was question two. Cassie had to think of an answer for the third and final one posed to the class. “I suppose it provides a home for the creatures and allows us a better understanding of them outside of larger bodies of water.”

Junia, while less interested in the information on caring for aquariums and keeping them in tip-top shape, did consider the stuff about them being stress relievers. "I think having animals in general is a good idea so that you can learn responsibility and have companionship, even if your pet of choice is a fish." She shrugged. "Though other animals can live in aquariums, too. Amphibians and Reptiles..." Among other ones.

With the last students reply added onto the board it was time to move on. "You all gave some wonderful answers and some different ways of looking at things. Aquariums are kept for a variety of different reasons by many people." Once they were finished with the days lesson the students were welcome to keep their tanks should they like to do so.

"Let's move on now. I have just a few more questions before we get to the main focus of today's lesson." With a wave of her wand the white sheet that was once covering the other long table was gone. Lining the table were jars upon jars each containing water and what appeared to be one soggy green ball.

"Who knows that these are? What they are typically used for inside aquariums or most importantly what we might be using them for today?" Right after this they would be moving on to the main activity of the lesson!


OOC: So last round of questions before our main activity! Once again if your kid doesn't know have them take a guess at it! I'm sorry for the wait on this as I was quite sick yesterday and just couldn't get myself to post, so thank you all for understanding. I will be moving us forward again in roughly 24 hours!

Plant life in water would be for... what? At least, it looked like there was plant life on the ball. Kyle tilted his head as he stared at the thing for a while. Then he finally raised his hand. "It looks planty." Was that even a word? "And plants make oxygen. So does the ball put oxygen into the water?" Maybe that was a herbologist's answer, but it seemed right to him.

He was fast losing his interest in this class, since it didn't seem like they would be doing anything interesting with the aquariums. Buuuut, points. Points that would keep him in the top point earners for Gryffindor. So, he had to try. "Will we be transfiguring them into fish?" That seemed to be the most logical guess, since this was Transfiguration and he was of the school of thought that Charms should be left to Charms class.

Please let them be making fish.

By the time Kitty got everything she needed (and after kindly replicating everything like the professor had asked) nearly everyone else was finished too, so she went back to her seat and listened to the first question and answer. She would have answered, but many others answered at the same time and she felt like she'd just be repeating - not that anything was wrong with that!

She looked at the green ball quizzically, mouth slightly ajar as she wondered it was. Quickly she closed her mouth. "I don't really know what that is," she admitted, before venturing on to make some guesses. "But it resembles some sort of sponge, maybe a living sponge?"

What was the green ball...? She bit her lip and then paused, eyeing the green ball in the jar. After a moment, she raised her hand and ventured a guess. "Some sort of algae?" she offered with a raise of her brow. By why was it balled up like that? It reminded her of moth balls that her grandparents used to speak about.

Er...it seemed no one was keen on helping him with his mess...so...er...maybe he could just stuff some of it into his tank? The professor's words to him, while sincere, went right over his head for the most part. It wasn't a lack of focus...but a lack of ability. It was why he always tended to prefer theoretical unless he could work with his HANDS. Why creatures was so appealing. He really didn't need to use magic as a crutch or anything other than himself. It was...comforting.

So...Derf just sorta of tried to hide the pile of bright orange mess at his feet as the professor moved things along - he had more questions about what she had said to Jessa...but mostly the Hufflepuff's attention was on his Ravenclaw best friend and how she would react to it. In all honesty...Derf was worried she was going to try and walk out and then it would be on him to try and stop her. Which he knew would be pointless because Jessa had the stubborn streak of a Gryffindor.

But soon enough his attention was drawn elsewhere. To the green ball of moss specifically and his hand shot RIGHT up. "That's a marimo moss ball, professor," he chirped - much to the surprise of many, surely, that he knew something about plants. Dad's forte was aquatic plants. "They are WICKED useful in aquariums and almost indestructible. Like...with proper care they can last for over a century, dad says. They act kinda like little filters...sucking up nitrates and ammonia and phosphates and small amounts of debris. Also give oxygen! Shrimp and frogs like them too...and they are safe for snails..."

STARE.

Her ears were ringing, in the worst sort of way. The way they did when you’d just gone through some form of horrible trauma that rendered your senses unable to fully function. Accompanying it was the feeling of everything suddenly moving very slowly around her, as if someone had hit the slow button on the tape of her life and she was now forced to sit and watch it all occur. The noises all around her began to fade, that same remote that slowed everything seeming to turn the volume down while it was at it.

In the back of her mind, she was aware of Derf’s plight and would naturally go to help him but first.....she had to sit here staring with some amount of horror and agitation at the woman who smiled so warmly at her after further butchering information she knew to not be accurate—there were firsties in this class, you know. They were gonna end up believing it because the person set in charge of their education was determined not to be right.

It was a large blow to the Ravenclaw who sat motionless for several moments. She didn’t care what the colourful things were. At all. ”It doesn’t conjure anything.” She repeated quite more stubbornly than most would’ve been used to before slinging her bag over her shoulder and rising from her seat. It wasn’t a conjuring. The decorations duplicated themselves. It wasn’t out of thin air.

Jessa turned on her heels and made for the door, unwilling to sit through anymore for fear everything else would be wrong. Suffice to say the Ravenclaw would rather educate herself.

That was when spotted a large, orange pile of plants under Derf’s table. It jogged her memory, he’d had a plight earlier and everyone was too busy absorbing the wrong thing like sheep or cattle to help. The Ravenclaw lowered the bag from her shoulder, taking a seat on the floor cross legged by his desk and began to vanish them one by one. Her face was set in that defiantly stubborn way, one that spoke to a tide ebbing inside her—a hurricane out at sea. Why would the Professor say such a thing when it wasn’t true? Didn’t she know people would believe her? Some had OWLs and NEWTs, they couldn’t afford to be getting such wrong information even if it wasn’t the focus of the lesson. It wasn’t an excuse.

She was here only til the plants were all gone, then she would go ask a second opinion on this matter.

Shay listened as her classmates gave their various answers. It was interesting to hear the different responses . There could be as many different answers as there were students. But she could not linger on the answers for long because it was time for the next question.

When the professor pulled the sheet away and uncovered what was on the table, Shay was unsure. At first it looked like one of those foam items that muggle florists stuck flowers into. Upon further inspection, she knew that that was not correct. Her second guess was some kind of seaweed ball. Shay was just about to raise her hand to respond, when Derf gave his answer. She thought about it for a minute. After giving it more thought, she discretely lowered her partially raised hand. His answer seemed to make sense, so she remained silent......for now.

Finally, she decided to go with the thought she had at the beginning of class. She raised her hand, this time all the way up. "Are we going to transfigure those into actual fish or aquarium creatures?". It was just a guess, but why not throw it out there?

Honestly, Emmeline felt a little conflicted. She wanted her guardian to be right about everything in class and stuff, but at the same time she still sort of...found it easier to believe kids about things than adults. So she was inclined to agree with Jessa, even if that tugged at her heartstrings a little bit. She was also sad to see the Ravenclaw getting up to leave, but at least the older girl was stopping to help Derf first. Emmeline would've offered her hell but, well....she wasn't all that great at the vanishing spell and stuff. She was also kind of hoping that maybe Jessa would decide to stay while she was vanishing things.

She had noo idea what that green ball thing was, and was only a little bit surprised that Derf knew loads about it, since it was a plant and all. She raised her hand and asked, "Are we gonna change it into something else? Or conjure more stuff that the creatures need for the aquariums?"

"Everyone's guesses have been totally on point today! These little balls here are known as Marimo Moss Balls. They are a sponge like type of algae ball and they will be used in our tanks today to help keep our tanks clean and healthy. We will also be transfiguring them into fish." Yes, fish.

"When I say so I want everyone to come up and collect three jars that way you have three moss balls total. One of the moss balls will go right into your tank, water included. You can use the water from the jars as I already have those set for the aquariums. The other two will be used to today's transfiguration part of the lesson." As she spoke she collected herself three jars, one of which she carefully poured into the tank she had set up on her desk.

Taking a large photo off her desk she stuck it up on the board so that it would be seen easily. "Now you can either transfigure one male Betta fish or two female Betta fish. Do NOT do one of each as we do not want baby fish. We also do NOT want to males in the same tank as they will fight one another. The small fish is the female and the one with the much larger fanned out tail is the male." She pointed at each one on the photo with her wand.

"When preforming this transfiguration process keep in mind the gender of the Betta as well as the color pattern. The incantation is Piscifors and all you have to do is aim your wand at the target." Professor Stewart walked back to her desk and aimed her wand at the moss ball inside one of the jars. "Piscifors!" she cast clearly the moss ball slowly transforming into a beautiful male Betta fish, the body being a blue color and it's tail and fins a bright vibrant red.

With a wave of her wand under the picture of the Betta's appeared the information for the spell.

"Go on and get your jars and get started. I will be walking around should anyone need some assistance."


OOC: It's time for the main activity! They will be using Piscifors to turn moss balls into either male or female Betta fish! Two or three posts for this activity should be fine but you're welcome to have more then that if you like! Get creative with this and have some fun! You have about 72 hours!

Yay, sort of. There was still the problem of this involving creatures, which was a subject he still wasn't interested in. But, at least they weren't learning about the fish as much as learning to transfigure something into them. Though, Ronan wouldn't put it past someone to ask.

Anyway, he fetched three of the moss ball containing jars and returned to his seat. He carefully dumped the contents of one of the jars into his aquarium, moss ball and all, before stopping. Stopping, of course, to practice the spell. "Piscifors, piscifors...." It was reminding him of the zodiac sign, Pisces. Which was fitting, since that was the fish (though it wasn't his sign. no, he was a Sagittarius, thanks for asking).

Once he was sure he was saying it right, he started thinking of the color scheme for his fish. Hmm.

Miranda had for the most part stayed quiet during this lesson...
Feeling it was more necessary to take notes and listen to the answers of others and glean what information she could.. She did make sure to pay close attention to everything that Professor Stewart was explaining.

Oooh! This should be fun... They were shown how to transfigure a little moss ball into a fish!.. A wee little fish... Okay, now she understood the need for the tank..


So after watching her teacher and practicing the incantation, Piscifors.

Oooooooh...Jessa was NOT happy. He could literally see the wheels in his best friend's head turning and working overtime...in like...a really bad way. He was almost expecting steam to come out of her ears at this point. Or her nostrils because of rage. Actually...the latter would be kinda neat...

Or not. No. Not neat.

Derf was ABOUT to pretest the whole "just called moss balls" because that implied ANY sort of moss ball but THESE were SPECIAL moss balls...but the third year decided to drop it. Mostly because Jessa was helping him clean up his mess and also because, well, the professor did not seem to be on her game today. Maybe it was the Board person in the room making her nervous?

Why WERE there so many of them in lessons? He had conveniently forgotten all about the Headmistress' speech at the moment.

"Thanks," he whispered to her. "Ice cream...after?" To...talk or something? Or just eat because Derf was okay with that too. But then something ELSE caught his attention that the professor had said. BABY FISHES?

Wait...wait...waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait...

But these weren't....REAL fishes...COULD they mate? Why hadn't dragonologists used Draconifors to help with some of the endangered species problems...or ANY endangered species for that matter?! Derf's little noggin was spinning out of control and he now wanted DESPERATELY to run down to another certain professor's office to ask about ten billion and five questions about this.

Maybe he and Jessa could leave together then and he could go ask now?
No, stop Derf, not okay. You were already in enough hot water with your Head of House as it was.

"......Piscifors," he said to himself, practicing the incantation first...and being quite distracted as he did.

And then the lesson was continuing on, as Skylar had just about got her fish tank set up and arranged nicely, with Professor Stewart asking them about the green plant thingy in jars. Moss, yes, she knew that and its use in keeping a clean fish tank.

Huh? Why were they transfiguring moss balls into fish? Had she missed something? Hadn't the Professor just said they were useful in keeping a clean environment for the tanks? Also, did transfigured fish even have the ability to mate???? So many questions in the fifth year's brain right now, but then again, half of it went with the territory of just confusion in general about mating and growing up. Also, was it even a big deal if they did mate? Because then they'd have more fishies and wouldn't that be a GOOD thing? And did using moss balls to make their fishies mean that the fish would clean the fish tank? Because she was pretty sure there was a fish variety that helped keep fish tanks clean? And did they have to add water to their fish tanks before or after transfiguration? Because Professor Stewart hadn't mentioned anything about water. Oh, wait, use the water from the jars, which didn't seem like enough?

So after rearranging the three plants she now had, with two on either side of one of the rock stone things, and one next to the other stone, the fifth year focused on the water conjuration spell for a moment. She felt terribly behind in her inabilities thus far in casting nonverbal spells, but something as basic as a water conjuration spell she could do, right?! Aquamenti, she thought desperately, flicking her wand. Nothing. She could focus just fine with verbal spells, but when it came to nonverbal spells, it seemed as if she was doing something wrong. "Aquamenti," she whispered, a gentle stream flowing from her wand as her fish tank filled up halfway, before she cast finite.

Collecting the three jars from the front, Skylar returned to her desk and dumped one of the moss balls right into her fish tank. Perfect. She watched it settle to the bottom before turning her attention on the two remain moss balls, as she deliberated on what fish to turn it into. Two females, or just one male, but what did she do with the extra moss ball if she had one male?? The female fish was kind of prettier...

"Piscifors," she practiced of the incantation first... as she deliberated still what she wanted.

...

.....

..........

It was going to get worse from here, just like she'd thought. Jessa KNEW when she'd first picked her bag up to leave that staying would expose her to more inaccuracies. It was a strong feeling in her bones and she now had to sit and listen to it come true.

First Emmeline asking if they'd be conjuring more things; hadn't she been listening? Didn't she hear that they hadn't been conjuring things in the first place?? This was the problem right here. People were believing the Professor. In the next few years, Hogwarts would be graduating a herd of students that wouldn't know the difference between Charms and Transfiguration spells and who didn't truly know what spells did or how they worked. She could only imagine how their lives would end up.

Cloaked in ignorance was a good guess.

Jessa barely nodded at Derf's gratitude and offer of ice-cream, determined to keep her gaze fixed on the plants she vanished. She had to hurry before it got even wor--

There it was. The worse she'd been running from.

If her heart sank any further it was likely to end up in her toes. These fish wouldn't reproduce. They wouldn't fight unless instructed to. They were made with magic, they did not have a mind of their own but were controlled by the caster's intent. What honestly was with Professor Stewart today? Had she woken up this morning with the intention of leaving the 14 year old with the worst headache in history? These didn't have free will. They couldn't learn, they weren't capable of independent thought or anything else that came with actual life. Magic couldn't make actual life and magic things couldn't just go reproduce other magic things unless charmed to do so.

The Ravenclaw remained on the floor where she sat absolutely seething. Her frustration and the feeling of helplessness were hard to shake and were getting harder with each sentence. The pile of plants was getting smaller but she wasn't growing any calmer and didn't want to participate in such a misinformed activity.

This woman was dangerous, as was anyone who insisted on passing on false knowledge to those who didn't know better.