So her ideas on the subject and most of her fellow students who had answered seemed to have the right thought. Aquariums and their various types of inhabits had their uses, a point rounded out by Professor Stewart as she spoke once more to move them on. Moss has been her guess which had turned out right despite her not choosing to voice her answer to the last set of questions. Moss was interesting enough, but the balls were to be much more than normal plant content as they were named the items they would be transfiguring for the lesson.

Awesome.

Moss to fish…betta fish to be exact, the photo posted on the board giving a good example of what they were supposed to look like. Cassie listened attentively as the instructions were given for their project. Spell and visualization. Male and female rules of habitation. No mixed tanks…got it. And with that the sixth year moved to get up to her feet, following her classmates to the table that held the moss jars. One…two…three they were supposed to take to try and work with. With three in her possession, she returned to her space to think on what she wanted to do. Or at least plan for in her visualization and spell work.

Two females…or one male.

They were transfiguring fish? Really? Eddie looked around the room and rolled his eyes. Of course, his sister seemed excited. She'd probably try to put a male and female together just to have baby fish swimming around. He really didn't want to do this and thought about just sitting like he didn't know how, but he knew that would never work. The Professor would be over to help him if he said he didn't know how or one of those meddling badges.


Getting up he went over to grab a jar and take it back to his seat. Now they were supposed to do what? Looking at the moss ball he studied it for a second and then pulled his wand. He could do this easy,

"Piscifors"


Or not...

Tapping his wand against the moss ball that clearly didn't change he glared and made sure no one had seen him not do it. He didn't want to look dumb or weak. No, Eddie Blaze would never show weakness in magic.

What Skylar really wanted was one male fish and one female fish. Because they were both kind of pretty. Maybe she could just keep them in separate jars, since the professor seemed adamant that magicked fish would mate and produce baby fish. Something that Skylar, truth be told, was skeptical about.

"Piscifors," Skylar said, visualizing the female betta fish first in all its purple and blue glory. At first, Skylar wasn't sure if it worked, but a moment later, the moss ball began changing and morphing, well sort of.

It had a fish tail. So could she say it again to get the rest of the fish?

"Piscifors," Skylar said, visualizing the whole fish again and hoping not for two fish tails.

He was going to do this now and he was going to get it right.
Stupid moss ball was probably designed that way. Edward Jay Blaze did not fail at things and so that had to be a faulty ball and it was there to make him look dumb. He was on to you professor. He eyed her a minute before he looked back at the moss thing.

"Piscifors"

This time the ting turned half fish and half ball, it looked a bit freaky, but he was kind of enjoy the experimenting of it. The head was there, but the body was a flopping moss ball. Doing a quick finite he looked at the ball again. It was time to actually do this.


"Piscifors"

That time a male fish started swimming in the jar.

It didn't take long for Jessa to run out of plants to vanish. For all her deliberately slow movements, she knew the spell like the back of her hand and couldn't for the life of her go any slower. It was disappointing to say the least and left the young girl with a choice.

Her bag was sat there next to her on the floor and the door was much closer than it'd been when she was back at her seat. She still very much wanted to leave but had been instructed against it. She was upset, of course she was, but the problem was....Jessa had never been a deliberately willful child--not in such large ways at least. It presented a bit of a struggle for her. On the one hand, she had a burning in her chest, one that fueled her indignation toward this whole thing, but on the other hand....she had never gone so against an instruction, typically falling into whatever was expected of her.

That was perhaps the worst of it. Sitting there, she already knew what her choice would be and it had her shaking. At the moment, the biggest disappointment laid with herself.

If only she DID have the guts to just walk out after being directly told not to. Her sister wouldn't have cared. She bet no one in her family would have cared. They'd have glided right on out and here she was, unable to reclaim her bag and continue in the direction she was headed. The thought alone was enough to frustrate her but she didn't know how much until the first set of hot tears streamed down her cheeks.

Of course. Of course that was all she'd really be able to do when it boiled down to it. The young girl lowered her head, trying to focus her attention on the tip of her wand while she tried to blink everything away before it got any worse--today had already taken on a trend of getting worse. She had to get up. There had to be something she could do.

Derf was holding his Marimo ball in the palm of his hand, idly rolling it while he repeated the incantation over and over to it as though it were a lullaby. "Piscifors," he hummed. "Piiiiiiiiiscifors..." Which he knew the latter chant would end in disaster but he was mostly entertaining himself and enjoying the way the spell rolled off his tongue. He...thought that maybe he had it down enough that he could maybe give the spell an actual go now...

Clearing his throat, Derf pointed his wand at the moss ball and spoke as clearly as possible. "Piscifors!" he chirped, eyes widening in delight as a jolt of bright light came forth from his wand and engulfed the green mass in his hand. His eyes only widened MORE when eh saw SOMETHING happened...

...but when the glow was gone...all the Hufflepuff was left with was a slightly elongated mass of green with two fishy eyeballs in places they ought not to be. He...SUPPOSED that things sorta looked more like scales too...but for all intents and purposes...he had failed.

Unsurprisingly.

Glancing around and spotting Jessa STILL on the floor, Derf opted to join her on the floor without a second thought and opted not to draw attention to the fact that she was ... well ... it hurt to see best friend like this. "Hey...Jessa? Can you...help me?" he asked as he held up his Marimo that also had a lopsided fish mouth that was opening and closing. "....again?"

She didn't acknowledge him sitting there at first. In fact, it took several silent moments of staring down at her wand's tip before Jessa finally reached a hand up to fully dry at her eyes then meet his gaze.

He needed help which meant she couldn't sit here on the floor being completely useless to not only herself but him. The Ravenclaw gave a small nod, taking the marimo as he'd called it and raised her wand to cast a simple "reverto". Once it was back to it's original form, sans the eyes and wide mouth she could begin. It was easier working with a blank canvas than trying to fix one that'd already gone wrong. That would take a whole other type of restructuring that she didn't currently have the mind for.

"Will you get the tank?" She asked, her voice not rising very high. They would put it down here and do the work down here.

Jessa pointed her wand at it. "Piscifors." She watched the marimo begin to stretch and shift, her mind set on what she wanted. Very clearly, she could see the colours in her mind and she could see the behaviour she was essentially programming into the magicked object. When it came out in full form it began to thrash in violent fashion in her grasp....much in the way she'd intended. "You can make the girl."

Alas, it appeared to be Kirk's minds were within the clouds as he stared into the moss ball. Something that resembled a large tennis ball. Luckily note taking wasn't a necessity here, as he glanced back at the next set of instructions. Fish. Hmm, more pets for him he guessed.

Kirk decided to make one male Betta fish, they looked pretty cool and if he liked them he could transfigure a mate for him later on he supposed. Getting up, he went over and took three of the jars as instructed before emptying one jar out into the tank. Now he had to transfigure the moss ball..

After staring at the photo of the male Betta fish, Kirk kept that image in his mind before turning over to the moss ball. Taking his wand he aimed right at object with the image of the fish in mind before saying, "Piscifors.." expecting a good replication of one.

A grin might have been forming on the boy's face as he saw the fish form. The male Betta swam around in the jar and he watched it. He looked up to see what the others were doing and how many fish they had created. He saw some and then others working still, but were they paying attention? Was the professor? Could he get another one made in this jar, because a fight could be fun and he was just experimenting?


Moving his wand at the jar he made it into a moss ball again. This time he thought about two male fish and did the wand movement, "Piscifors" Watching he glared into the jar when the moss ball changed and went straight to the bottom and the boy stared at the two-headed fish. The heads flopped a little, but without a body, there was no swimming.


Well that wasn't what he wanted.

Kyle leaned against the desk and stared at the moss ball. He was supposed to turn this thing into a fish. He hated exercises with live animals. They never seemed to turn out right. Okay. He could do this. He really could. But... he liked the moss ball just the way it was. The betta were really pretty. And he wanted a dark red one like what he saw in the store before. But... was this really the way to get it? Deep breath. Two. Okay. Might as well give it a try. He pointed his wand at the moss ball and thought of everything needed to cast a spell. Then, "Piscifors!"

It was red at least. And scaley. But it was still a ball. He sighed. "Finite."

She was shooting for two female bettas. That was what Cassie had decided and it made sense in a sort of Ravenclaw theme with their blue coloring. So that was what she had to focus on and visualize as she went about trying out the spell they were learning today. "Piscifors." And a tap. That what was also neded for the pellwork to work. “Piscifors… Piscifors… Piscifors… Piscifors… Piscifors” the fifth year practiced without the wand work as she got herself acclimated to the way the incantation was supposed to come off as.

When she was satisfied, Cassie took up her wand and glanced back up at the pictures on the board. She wanted the more simple-looking blue fish rather than the flashier red fish. “Piscifors!” she finally cast, pointing at the first jar with a moss ball. It was a slow, gradual change but as the Ravenclaw kept her focus, she was rewarded by the results. One female betta fish to go in her tank when ready. “Piscifors!” she repeated on another moss ball, this time the changes were more quick.

Deciding to go with a male beta fish because of the fanning out of the tail, Ronan closed his eyes for a moment to really focus on what his fish should look like. The picture in his mind, he pointed his wand at the fish in one of the jars. "Pisicifors!" At first, nothing happened, and he thought he'd messed up somehow. But then, as he was about to try again, the ball changed into a beautiful scarlet male beta fish with a golden yellow at the end of it's tail. Ronan carefully dumped the fish and water into his aquarium. Now, what did they do with the extra ball? Did it go in the aquarium too?

The moss balls weren’t particularly interesting to Stasya, still trying to get her tank all set up. She’d just barely managed to duplicate her plant, after all, and the first plant still had the mutated additional flower from her first try anyhow. Actually, she kind of liked it. It added more pink to her tank after all, and she was determined to make her tank as pretty as possible for whatever was going to go inside it. Because obviously something had to go inside the tank or why were they decorating them? That was just silly. She’d find something to live in her tank no matter what. More pets was always good, and she figured this one would have to be little so it wouldn’t be a problem. The tank was little so obviously she couldn’t find a big creature. She couldn’t put a mermaid in there or anything, even if she wanted to.

Her attention was piqued when people guessed they’d be transfiguring fish, but whatever excitement she had was distracted when she noticed just how much Jessa seemed to be having a problem with everything Professor Stewart was saying. The idea that the lesson was just wrong bothered her, or at least the fact it bothered Jessa bothered her. But she also wanted a fish or two to live in her tank, so she’d quietly gone up to collect her three jars and dumped the contents of one into her tank. Moss ball, water and everything. That and the whole not wanting baby fish was disappointing. Maybe she could talk one of her friends into helping her get more fish. Without duplicating them because she still wasn’t comfortable with that spell, if it even would work on living things in the first place.

Obviously she couldn’t take her other moss balls out of their jars, or maybe she could. Sort of. Instead, she emptied all three jars into her tank and then stared at the moss balls as she decided what she wanted to do. The boy fishes were obviously prettier, but she had plenty of boy pets already. So she’d try for girl fishes, and besides, she thought maybe that’d be easier since the fishes were less decorative.

“Piscifors,” she said softly a few times, practicing like she always did before actually trying new spells. That and she thought about what she wanted her fishes to look like. Pink, of course, but she thought of a couple of different ideas before she decided to try the spell.

Taking her wand out, finally, she pointed it at one of the moss balls in her tank. “Piscifors.”

Well, it wasn’t the colors she wanted. It looked like a fish, but it was still all green and mossy looking.

Marimo moss balls.. interesting AND they would be transfiguring fish. Well, that was even more interesting or maybe not. Etta had honestly expected a more exciting activity? But, it didn’t matter really. Maybe this spell would be of use at some point. She noted down the incantation and the wand movement before getting up to fetch the jars. Once she was back at her desk, the girl poured the contents of one jar, water and the ball, into the aquarium as instructed.

Next, she stared at the large picture on the board, carefully studying the fish. The male betta fish, to be more specific. Once she could clearly picture the fish in her mind, with the colour patterns, the girl focused on the spell next. What was it again? Piscifors. ”Piscifors.” She kept repeating the spell for practice reasons before pulling out her wand and pointing it at the ball inside one of the two remaining jars.

Piscifors. She cast the spell non-verbally.. and waited. Just when she thought that maybe it hadn’t worked, she watched the ball change into a beautiful male betta fish. It looked exactly like the picture on the board. HEH. Etta carefully poured the contents of this jar, fish and water, into the aquarium. Since the professor had mentioned that it should be either one male or two females, she didn’t know what to do with remaining jar. Did they have to dump it’s contents into the aquarium too?

So Shay was right. They would be transfiguring something into fish. That something just happened to be a Marimo Moss Ball. The seventh year was rather excited. She would have more pets to keep her company at school, that is if they were allowed to keep the fish. She hoped that this would be the case. Shay looked at the board and then copied the information onto her parchment.

Well the moss balls weren't going to transfigure themselves, so Shay got to work. She went up to the front of the room and got her three moss ball jars. Then she returned to her seat and arranged the jars near her tank. Shay opened the first jar and poured its entire contents into her tank.

Before she attempted the spell, Shay figured that a little practice was called for. Since the wand movement was a simple point, she did not feel the need to practice that part. The incantation was another matter. A few repetitions wouldn't hurt. "Pis-ci-fors, Piscifors, Pscifors." After Shay felt comfortable saying the words, she was ready to give the spell a try for real. First though, she added an extra moss ball into the tank. Shay felt that it was easier that way. She'd decided on having two female fish and wouldn't want to have to add the second ball once the first fish was transfigured. Everything was ready to go. It was time to make some fish.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

She didn't acknowledge him sitting there at first. In fact, it took several silent moments of staring down at her wand's tip before Jessa finally reached a hand up to fully dry at her eyes then meet his gaze.

He needed help which meant she couldn't sit here on the floor being completely useless to not only herself but him. The Ravenclaw gave a small nod, taking the marimo as he'd called it and raised her wand to cast a simple "reverto". Once it was back to it's original form, sans the eyes and wide mouth she could begin. It was easier working with a blank canvas than trying to fix one that'd already gone wrong. That would take a whole other type of restructuring that she didn't currently have the mind for.

"Will you get the tank?" She asked, her voice not rising very high. They would put it down here and do the work down here.

Jessa pointed her wand at it. "Piscifors." She watched the marimo begin to stretch and shift, her mind set on what she wanted. Very clearly, she could see the colours in her mind and she could see the behaviour she was essentially programming into the magicked object. When it came out in full form it began to thrash in violent fashion in her grasp....much in the way she'd intended. "You can make the girl."

Derf had been HOPING that the distraction of helping him would be enough to pull Jessa out of her spiral, even if only a little. It was one of the benefits of his rubbish with practical execution of spells, you know? Jessa could always rely on being helpful to him. Always.

"Sure," he chirped with a nod as he hopped up to his feet and went to retrieve the tank from his desk - the one with the green lid - and returned to their spot on the floor just in time to watch his Ravenclaw friend perform the spell. He was always in awe at the ease at which she seemed to perform. "Huh?" he blinked, coming out of his daze and refocusing on Jessa. Her fish was...er...it looked kinda aggressive...or lively he supposed. Lively. He was going to call it lively. "Right. I can...do that...probably..." he nodded as he readied his wand once again. First to his mouth, Derf coughed into it and cleared his throat. Yes. Okay. He could do this. "Piscifors," he said with a bit more control in his tone than before.

The marimo began to glow like before...only THIS time he actually managed to transfigure it into a proper female fish like Jessa had instructed. Only...it was kinda considerably smaller than it SHOULD have been - a reflection of his timidness with the casting, no doubt, and was only about a third of the size as it should have been - and it just sorta was THERE and not doing much...mostly because the Hufflepuff hadn't been thinking about anything nor giving it any sort of real intent while casting. Just, you know, wanting to actually get the spell right and transfigure a beta fish.

Tada! In any case...he was grinning at her.

Jessa thanked him for getting the tank, her grip still firm on the fish that seemed so intent on getting away. His struggle against her was testament to the effect intent could have on the object you transfigured. Contrary to what the Professor may have so wrongly believed, these did not have a mind of their own and wouldn't fight or..."reproduce" (rubbish) on their own.

"Aguamenti." The Ravenclaw filled the tank with water, not because the fish would be needing it--they were magic, they didn't depend on water, they didn't depend on anything but the magic that drove them.

The lively little bugger was dropped into the water where he immediately took off, zipping this way and that in obvious agitation...almost as if the 14 year old had transferred her frustration to him. "Alright, brilliant." Blue eyes lifted to the........fish, in Derf's hand. She could tell he was proud of his work and in her own way, she was proud he'd made this much progress too. It was more than two eyes and a mouth, it was to be applauded. Unfortunately, his progress would not be rewarded today.

"Go ahead and drop her in." Gonna debunk everything in one go. That was an efficient experiment if she ever saw one.

A part of her would feel bad for Derf, but the greater part of her was keen to see what happened next.

Nope, nothing happened when she repeated the spell on her moss ball with a fish tail. Perhaps she needed to start over again? "Reverto," she quietly whispered, focusing on starting fresh and wiping any magic away that she'd inadvertently and wrongly cast. Perfect, clean slate which was exactly what she was going for. Skylar glanced over at Stasya's tank and noticed the mossy fish she had managed to transfigure and offered an encouraging smile at the younger girl. At least she got a fish; all Sky got was a moss ball with a tail.

But she could do this, yes, she just needed to focus and visualize the fish in her mind. "Piscifors," she repeated again, flicking her wand at the moss ball. This time clear visualizations in mind of the purple and blue female Betta fish. And just as she knew she could do it, the moss ball slowly transformed itself. Perfect she thought, as the transfigured fish seemed to be almost an exact replica of the female fish in the picture.

Dumping the fish into her aquarium, the Slytherin then deliberated on what to do with her second moss ball. She could do a second female betta fish like the Professor specified, but a part of her wanted the male, with that fanned tail, it just looked so cool. But male and female was something that Professor Stewart had said no to, because apparently magicked baby fishies were a possibility? Decisions, decisions... and despite her better judgment, her focus was on the red male.

Camilla remained beside her desk as the students got up and made their way to the table to get the needed jars for the activity. As they all returned to their seats and got started she slowly made her way up and the rows of desks. She would pause for a moment or two at a random desk silently watching as the spell was given a go. It honestly surprised her just how many of her students were able to little to no trouble at all with this spell.

When she came to both Jessa and Derf sitting on the floor she almost told them to sit back in their seats. However she changed her mind being as to how they were working on the activity which was much better than the young girl having walked out of the room. So with a small nod of her head she continued around them moving onto the next desk. It was a little odd how not even one student was asking for help this afternoon. Perhaps they were all just that determined to get this one right on their own.

Making her way back to the front of the room she clapped her hands once as per usual for her lessons to gather everyone's attention. "You're all doing absolutely amazing! I'm just loving the colors you are all using for your Betta's and the items in your tanks. However there is only about ten more minutes left for our lesson today. So please finish up if your still working. You're all welcome to keep the tank and fish for yourselves or leave them here should you not be into caring for a fish." It was up to them what they wanted to do with them.

"If you're already done then you're welcome to leave now if you like. If you're taking the fish with you please take one of the small containers of Betta food from my desk." She smiled warmly, picking up a box from behind her desk and setting it on top of the desk, inside were the containers of food. Any fish left behind would be returned to their original state.


OOC: That's the end of our lesson! Thank you all for coming! I'll leave the thread open for a few more hours for anyone that wants to finish the activity or just to post your kids leaving! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Jessa thanked him for getting the tank, her grip still firm on the fish that seemed so intent on getting away. His struggle against her was testament to the effect intent could have on the object you transfigured. Contrary to what the Professor may have so wrongly believed, these did not have a mind of their own and wouldn't fight or..."reproduce" (rubbish) on their own.

"Aguamenti." The Ravenclaw filled the tank with water, not because the fish would be needing it--they were magic, they didn't depend on water, they didn't depend on anything but the magic that drove them.

The lively little bugger was dropped into the water where he immediately took off, zipping this way and that in obvious agitation...almost as if the 14 year old had transferred her frustration to him. "Alright, brilliant." Blue eyes lifted to the........fish, in Derf's hand. She could tell he was proud of his work and in her own way, she was proud he'd made this much progress too. It was more than two eyes and a mouth, it was to be applauded. Unfortunately, his progress would not be rewarded today.

"Go ahead and drop her in." Gonna debunk everything in one go. That was an efficient experiment if she ever saw one.

A part of her would feel bad for Derf, but the greater part of her was keen to see what happened next.

Derf wasn't REALLY thinking as Jessa went about preparing the tank to simulate a real life fish situation, nor was he entirely putting together what ulterior motives were behind his Ravenclaw friend's eyes as she released her fish into the water. Although suspicions were raised SLIGHTLY when she did very little to praise his accomplishment. Had she not seen the mess she had fixed for him earlier? Ruffling his hair in mild disappointment, the third year nodded and dropped his beta fish (a lively peacock blue color, by the way) into the water where it...just sorta floated there.

"....oops," he murmured, ruffling his hair a bit more. He shoulda focused some more while casting...oh well. Live and learn! "At least my second attempt made a fish though, yeah?" he grinned toward the fourth year - who seemed a little TOO keen on watching the tank. "Are...you gonna make yours do tricks? I reckon I need a do over to make mine do anything..." he asked with a slight tilt of the head. Since Jessa had already poured more intent into her casting than he had, unsurprisingly.

But then the professor was ending the class and....instructing them to bring beta food with them if they were keeping their fish? Now the Hufflepuff was keening blinking at the woman and forgetting that unnerving gleam in Jessa's eyes temporarily.

The shape of the fins, the colors decorating the design of the male Betta fish. It had to be perfect as Kirk felt the familiar warmth through his wand escaping out from the spell he uttered earlier.

Eventually, a copy did emerge at the price of a few temporarily lines forming on his head from the effort. It wasn't a perfect copy with parts of the fin mishaped and a missing eye.. but it was alive and swimming fine. Kirk decided it was a keeper. The class was ending however, before he could consider making another fish. Well.. maybe he still could. He packed up the tank before accepting a spare food for the fish. "Thanks Professor.." He uttered. Deciding to wait until nearly everyone departed before leaving as well.

Shay took a moment to focus on what she wanted her fish to look like. She envisioned a beautiful blue female fish. Keeping that picture in her mind, she pointed her wand at the moss ball, took a deep breath and said, "Piscifors" Much to her dismay, the moss ball remained a moss ball. She had hoped to get it right on the first try, but that was not to be. If at first you don't succeed......... Trying to concentrate even harder on her desired outcome, Shay pointed her wand at the green ball again. Piscifors", she repeated. This time the result was better. In her aquarium was one green moss ball and one turquoise female Betta fish. Sighing with relief, Shay focused her attention on the second moss ball.

This time, her mental picture changed somewhat. While the second fish was also,a female, its color was different. Shay pictured an orange fish this time. Hoping that she had gotten the knack of things, the seventh year took another deep breath. "Piscifors", she said while pointing at the moss ball. Third time was the charm because Shay's second fish appeared before her eyes. It wasn't exactly the color she'd expected, but it was close enough. She'd done it and she was very glad of that. Just as Shay holstered her wand, the professor called an end to the class. She had completed the task not a minute too soon.

Then Shay got the news she was hoping to hear. They could keep the aquarium and the fish. "You hear that guys? You get to come home with me." Following instructions, Shay went over and got a box of food. This should keep the fish going for a while. Shay cleaned up her work area and gathered up her new pets. Addressing the professor, she said, "I really enjoyed today's lesson." "Thanks for the aquarium and the fish. I'll take good care of them." With her new friends in tow, Shay left the room and headed for her dorm.

Eddie was looking at the two-headed fish when the professor talked again. Doing amazing? He looked at that thing at the bottom and snorted a bit. It wasn't good at all. He waved his wand and turned it back into a moss ball. He was done and glad the class was over. He took the jar and placed it right back on the professor's desk.


Giving another look to the professor he headed out the door. So fish were not his thing, good to know.