Tina was in a pretty good mood so far today, in spite of the dreary weather. The cold didn't bother her, and besides, it wasn't as if she couldn't find anything to do indoors! She made her way down the hall to the transfiguration classroom with an uncharacteristic spring in her step, pausing for a moment to make sure her tie was straight. She didn't want to get on Professor Darlington's bad side, especially not before the lesson even started!

A small smile spread across her face as she walked into the classroom-turned-outdoors. She liked transfiguration well enough - one of the least chaotic classes at Hogwarts - but this looked like her kind of lesson! "Good morning, Professor Darlington," Tina greeted politely, giving the professor a nod of acknowledgement as she passed. She stood near the rest of the group, her dark eyes dsrting around the area. She didn't know what impressed her more - the scenery itself or the spellwork that must've been used to create it!

When it seemed the last of the students had arrived, Joyce finally uncrossed her arms and had a quick peek at the delicate watch on her wrist. It was time to get this show on the road. With a subtle flick of her wand and a non-verbal spell, the classroom door snapped shut. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any late stragglers today. If there were, she’d deal with them.

“Right then class,” she started, turning to face the group. “As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, this isn’t the usual classroom setting today. If you hadn’t noticed, I think a trip to the Healer to have your eyes tested is in order.” She paused, narrowing her own green eyes at the group for a moment before continuing. “Now! To start things off, I want you all to take a moment to take in and study your surroundings,” she gestured at the… well, the nothingness around them. “Study your surroundings and based on your findings tell me, what do you suppose it is we’ll be learning today?” She hadn’t really given them much to work with as there was nothing to be seen besides the very plain grass patch where they all stood and the clear sky. But this was the perfect way to get their brains kick started.

OOC: Thanks everyone! Class has begun so unless you want your character to face the IC consequences, just go ahead and jump on in like you’ve been here all along. To start things off, Joyce wants you to have a guess at what you think the class is about. Remember, no answer is a wrong answer so let’s see what you’ve got! We’ll be moving on in another 24 hours.

If there was one thing Abra had been doing since entering the... well... the here, it was taking in his surroundings. And sort of studying them, he supposed. But, you know, he wasn't going to point that out, because that would probably come across as kind of disrespectful, which Abra was not and did not wish to be seen as.

So, he looked around the ... room? ... again, musing over the question. What could they possibly need an environment like this for to aid their learning? Unless what they were learning was to create an environment like this?

Uhhh. Uhhhhhhhh.

Hesitantly, and after a pause, Abra raised his hand. "Is it maybe... conjuring birds, or other animals?" He supposed it would be make slightly more sense to try that outside than in a classroom. Probably. Maybe.

"Only marred by the fact that it is not real," Chloe answered with a solemn expression and a mischievous glimmer in her eye. She definitely admired the handiwork and had to admit that it was absolutely perfect as far as spellwork went. But the real outdoors was, well, real, and so this was missing that one slight detail.

"Professor," Chloe would suggest what she'd like to learn, at least. "Are we learning how to transfigure our surroundings?"

"Hey Maddie," Hanna said, giving her friend a big smile. She wanted to ask Maddie how she was doing, and catch up but decided they could do that after class maybe. Not right now... at least, not unless they had an activity together.


Hanna pulled her attention to Professor Darlington as she started the lesson, and looked around again. Something to do with transfiguration, obviously. That was why they were there. To learn how to transfigure things. But what about their surroundings were they going to be transfiguring? Surroundings? Animals? Hanna nodded along with Abra and Chloe, thinking they were two pretty good suggestions. Hanna raised her hand and said "Are we learning how to transfigure the... weather?"

Nodding, as she looked around the second year decided that she liked these transfigurations. “Professor? Is this like the transfiguration or charms or spells on the Great Hall ceiling?” Perhaps not the place for the question, especially since she didn’t actually know how the enchantments were done on the roof - but she was curious about it anyway and the others had still been arriving.

Though, looking up at the sky and walking in a circle probably hadn’t been clever considering when the Professor started the class back up and Holly looked towards her, everything was spinning- why were there two Professors? Blinking, and standing utterly still until everything merged back into themselves, Holly listened. And she didn’t look back up to the sky. Bad. Distracting sky. Bad.

… but there was nothing here Professor Darlington??? What were they meant to be looking at? All she could see were her classmates.

Then she gasped and put her hand straight up in the air. ”!! Are we going to be transfiguring each other???!” Her eyes were wide, horrified at the thought. She wasn’t good enough at magic yet! No way would she manage that! “Please say no? I don’t want to do that. I don’t think I’d do it right.” She looked worried. Very worried.

Rylee smiled brightly at the Professor. There was no reason at all to not be in a great mood this morning. Everything was perfect.

While Professor Darlington spoke she was already having a very good look at her surroundings. Not that there was all that much to see. They were currently standing in a large open clearing, the sky above was nice and clear as well. Having a good look around didn't leave didn't give away any hints as to what would be happening during this mornings lesson.

Which seemed to be the point. Rylee, still bouncing on the balls of her feet, raised her hand to take a guess, "Are we transfiguring each other or something else into creatures?" Now that would be pretty cool. Chances were they wouldn't be transfiguring someone else but it would be interesting to see.

Patrick kept standing after Professor Darington told one of the other students to stay standing for the lesson. He looked around the room and realized that there was literally nothing in the room aside form the grass. He started to think of things they would bring into the room. "I agree with Abra, birds, maybe trees."

He didn't figure they were going to transfigure people. That seemed really advance for this early in the term. He figured that would come after the Christmas break if at all.

There was a little disappointed with the not flying thing, but she knew they wouldn't be. It was wishful thinking though. So she just listened to everyone as they came in before the professor started.

Her eyes moved around the area of the room or well the outside when the professor had said to take it in. What was there that she hadn't looked at yet? Grass, trees, outdoors, was there a bird or squirrel in a tree she could be missing? The sky was clear and pretty, it felt warm. This was a perfect day really and she wished the real outside was like this.

Raising her hand after awhile she looked towards the professor when her name was called, "Could we be learning how to transfigure what we want in a room, something like a daydream charm, but with transfiguration?"

Ha ha ha, eyes tested, how funny. Józef refrained from rolling his eyes as he looked around at the rest of the class, wondering if any of them did actually need to be told it was not a classroom today.

If they did, he was judging them. When the Professor asked the first question, his hand stayed by his side. People had already said everything he was thinking (conjuring animals, transfiguring surrounds, transfiguring each other - and he really hoped it was the later, because HOW COOL would that be?!) so he didn't feel the need to add his voice to the crowd.

He also didn't really care that much. Unless they were transfiguring each other.

Then he CARED.

In all honesty, he wasn't really sure what to make of this Professor. She was kind of mean looking. As instructed, Max took a look around but... what exactly was it they were even supposed to be looking at? Or for...?

Again, why couldn't they just have a NORMAL LESSON FOR ONCE??

He boredly scuffed his shoe against the grass and that's when the Slytherin had a lightbulb moment.

"Professor," he tentatively raised a hand in the air. "We're not gonna turn the floor into lava, are we?" Please say no. Because he really wasn't into that game.

DID SOMEBODY SAY, "THE FLOOR IS LAVA!!"

Because Zoryn instantly threw off her robe and made it a safety for her feet to land on. Circumstances were not ideal. There was not a lot to work with. But this Gryffindor would be a survivor. Everyone else had to fend for themselves.

Funny business, who?

Also, what was the question again? Had there been a question at all? Let's be real.

This was.....interesting.

Standing near Max, Cameron had already taken in his surroundings SUFFICIENTLY - this was Hogwarts after all: constant vigilance wasn't just a fancy slogan but rather a mantra to actually live by if you wanted to make it out of here alive. So yes, Cam was already very much aware of the fact that....there was nothing here.

At least nothing he could SEE.

"Maybe there's something we can't see right now?" Would they be practicing Revelio? But that was a Charm so maybe they would-

Before he could add anything else, however, Zoryn happened. "What?" Really? HERE? They didn't even have desks. Or chairs. Or ANYTHING really. But seeing as this was his last year and Zoryn was his friend and he was trying to be supportive and all that, Cameron dropped the empty piece of parchment he'd been holding and moved to stand on that.

Everyone knew, parchment was the perfect protection against LAVA after all.

Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no.

Flushing, Lucas scrambled up again and stood there, looking sheepish in the process. He fiddled with his hands while mumbling some kind of apology very quietly, mostly to himself. This was embarrassing, yeah? Yeah. But he silently hoped she wasn't like a few other professors he'd had the chance to, uh, not follow rules for.

Her voice broke through his thoughts, something he was very glad about because there were a lot of things that were better than his current thoughts. Study his surroundings? He looked up and around, trying to take a good look at all the magic in there. It was..... beautiful, wasn't it? Really nice. He still wished there was food and some time to camp but they couldn't have everything so......

........

There was a question wasn't there? What they were learning about today? If he was completely 100% honest with himself, he didn't know. People had mentioned conjuring things and doing magic on your surroundings and both of them sounded VERY cool but he had no idea.

So, he was agreeing with the others. Yeah.

Class didn’t start long after Caolan had arrived for which he was pretty grateful. All this standing around by yourself was getting pretty boring and it was a little disheartening that he hadn’t made that many friends yet and often found himself floating in between groups of older or younger students. It kinda made him miss his old school. But when you were learning cool things like this it made his old school life of mathematics and geography lessons seem a little inferior.

It took a lot of effort for him not to reply to the Professors first question with a sarcastic ‘Transfiguration’. That would’ve technically been the correct answer wouldn’t it? And at least he hoped that was what they were learning otherwise Caolan had turned up at completely the wrong lesson. He decided not to answer the question mainly because everyone else had said the answers that he was thinking and secondly because he couldn’t think of anything creative or witty enough to warrant putting his hand up. Transfiguration was a serious class, at least that was what he thought..

It didn’t take long for the tone to completely change and it wasn’t much of a surprise who the culprits were. Apparently the seventh years at this school had the mentality of a five year old.

Really?

Anyway.. this wasn’t fair. There wasn’t enough furniture to parkour across in this lesson and he wasn’t going to balance precariously on a pebble just to join in. They were on their own with this one.

Tina was already observing her surroundings before Professor Darlington instructed the class to do so. She didn't do well in distracting or chaotic environments, so she liked to get a feel for her lessons early on to weed ouy any potential problems. So far, this seemed fairly straightforward... grass, sky, not much else to see here.
But she was going to look again, just in case there was something she was missing.

There had to be a reason Professor Darlington had chosen this specific environment and why she'd held class here instead of in a real outdoor setting... but what? Tina thought as she listened to her classmates' answers. She agreed with the Head Girl.... something to do with transfiguring one's surroundings, but she didn't want to just repeat the same answer. That would be lazy, and she didn't want to be seen as a bad student! Maybe if she could figure out how the transfiguration was done... a spell to conjure an environment out of thin air? Maybe a switching spell that swapped the interior of the classroom for something outdoors? Was that even possible?

Before Tina could come up with an answer she felt confident enough to voice, that loud Gryffindor girl (Zoryn) distracted her by shouting about lava. Her experssion turned half shocked, half annoyed. Obviously the floor wasn't lava, otherwise they'd probably be dead by now!
That girl just wanted to cause chaos. Tina started to point that out and tell her off for disrupting the class, but she decided it wasn't worth her time. It would just get her into trouble too, and besides, she was sure Darlington could handle it on her own.

Tina was so caught off guard by all this lava nonsense that she completely forgot the answer she was going to give.
Sorry, Professor! She really was trying... maybe she'd get the next question.

“Thank you all for your input and ideas, class.” Joyce started, shooting the group the occasional glance as she paced back and forth in front of the black board. “You’ve all had some good ideas. The space I’ve created for us today would be useful for practicing a variety of different branches of Transfiguration but one of you did happen to touch upon the subject matter of today’s lesson.” She stopped pacing and sent a nod in Miss Newton’s direction.

“I’m sure you noticed on your way to class today, that the weather outside is quite bleak to say the least.” Typical Scottish weather for this time of year. “There’s a reason I made sure we had a clear day in here, and that’s because today, class, you’ll be conjuring your very own personal clouds.”

She took a pause to ensure that she still had the full attention of everyone. Specifically those who had chosen to stand amongst friends or on their personal belongings.

“Now, conjuring our own clouds can be done without too much effort and I expect everyone in here to at least be able to manage it competently before today’s lesson comes to an end.” Yes, even the younger years shouldn’t struggle with this section. Too much. Not by her expectations anyway.

With a flourish of her wand, the incantation and wand gesture appeared on the blackboard.

Quote:

Incantation: Nubecula! [noo•BEC•yu•LAH]
Wand movement: Point directly in the air above your head.

“The incantation required for the conjuration of clouds is ‘nubecula’ and all one needs to do is simply point directly at the area you wish for the cloud to be. In this case, above our heads. Like so.” She cleared her throat, pointed her wand directly above her own head and said the incantation loudly and clearly for the group to hear. From her wand, formed light wisps of visible air which swirled and took the shape of a mini cloud, about the size of a fully grown crup, above her head. Simple.

“But enough talking! What are you all waiting for? Find yourself a space, make yourself some room and give it a go.” Time to see what they’ve got.

OOC: Thanks again everyone! For this part, you’re gonna have about 48 hours or so. Like Joyce said, go ahead and post your charrie practicing conjuring their own clouds! Any questions, drop me a PM or have your charrie ask away!

Daisy gave herself some room in order to practice the spell. She first began to go through the pronunciation in her mind. "noo-BEC-yu-LAH," she repeated in her mind about three times in order to get the pronunciation correct. She didn't bother with the wand movement due to the lack of complexity. She did grab her notebook and quill and wrote down her notes as always.

Once she had done that, Daisy retrieved her wand from her holster and held it above her head as she firmly and loudly said, "Nubecula!" Much to Daisy delight, her own personal cloud had been conjured. She performed the spell two more times but this time she said the incantation in her mind. The spell worked just the same.

Oh, clouds. That was dead useful for making rain in a garden or cloud cover on a sunny day or just annoying her siblings by following them around with a cloud when they were in the mood for sun.

Chloe settled a good distance from her neighbors so she could have plenty of elbow room if the spellcasting got dicey. When it got dicey, actually. She flicked her wand heavenward a few times as she mouthed the incantation before giving pause. "Professor? Can we cast a raincloud with this spell?"

Valencia grinned excitedly. They were making their own clouds? How cool was that? She was curious if she could also get them to make shapes. Maybe she could make a cloud teddy bear? How fun would that be?!

She repeated the incantation to herself over and over again under her breath. Nubecula. noo-BEC-yu-LAH.

"....yes, Professor." Even though, he WAS setting a good example no? He was showing some LOYALTY. Even if playing the floor is lava HERE was not the best idea Zoryn had ever had. There was really hardly anything to stand on, let alone move forward with. Was he supposed to use more pieces of parchment? What was the plan here, ZORYN?

At least Professor Darlington hadn't told him to get off the parchment.

After a quick look around, however, Cameron had to realize that he was the only one playing though. Could you play this game with just two people? He glanced over at Zoryn and gave her a questioning look. Were they still doing this? Yes? No? Was she going to share her robe if they did?

Okay but for now...back to the lesson.

Clouds? They were making CLOUDS? That was kind of...anticlimactic, wasn't it? What was the point of knowing how to make clouds unless you worked as a climate controller or something like that? Hm. Drawing his wand, Cameron first practiced the incantation a few times. "Nubecula! Nubecula." Seemed easy enough. It wasn't a particularly complicated word. Nubecula.

Rylee's bright sunny smile faltered only for a split second as Professor Darlington stated they wouldn't be working on transfiguring anyone into creatures. 'At least not today' were the woman's words. Which meant that they would indeed be doing this someday. Sooner rather than later hopefully. Human transfiguration was something she was more than excited to work on.

Sadly that wouldn't be the case today and she would just have to keep waiting. Clouds. Not exactly what she would prefer to be learning today but there wasn't much she could do about that. Kneeling down in the grass she pulled a sheet of parchment and a quill from her bag. The lessons notes were quickly jotted down in a pretty purple writing. Putting the parchment and quill back into her bag and once more rising to her feet, the fourth year walked away from everyone else to find an empty space to work alone.

"Nebecula, Nubecula," Rylee repeated several times to get a really good feel for the incantation. Pulling her wand from its holster she aimed it straight upwards above her own head. "Nebecula!" she cast clearly and firmly, strands of wispy white forming together to form a small delicate fluffy looking cloud. Easy enough. Not to mention it looked really soft like a cotton ball!

Oh… Whoops. With a slight smile, she shrugged a little. “Sorry, Professor. Gymnast.” She didn’t get dizzy unless it was something really intense - but she knew that other people found that weird so she stopped and stood still, paying attention.

So you could transfigure humans??? Huh. And it was important… “Sorry, Professor… Just don’t want to injure anyone.” Cue the small, embarrassed smile she gave the Professor.

Oh!!! They weren’t doing it today though. PHEW. Maybe in a few years time? When she knew that her wand would do what she wanted and she wouldn’t end up hurting her classmates. That would be good. Yes, thank you Professor!


Without a desk, it wasn’t like she could take notes on what her classmates were suggesting… but it was interesting regardless. The variety of things they were all coming up with, that was. However… Max mentioned lava (thankfully, this time she didn’t think her face went bright red)... and then a girl stood on her cloak… and CAMERON??? stood on his parchment???

????????????????

If he’d looked at her in that moment, her face would have only shown her brother confusion.

What. On. Earth??? Had the three of them eaten something that was poisoned? Were they hallucinating?? Did they SEE lava?? …… Either way, Holly was still very confused.


… Holly may have been confused but that didn’t mean that she liked seeing Cameron being told off. The confused look turned more into a scowl. Partly at her brother for being silly (and for eating something that was obviously poisoned) and partly for the Professor for saying he wasn’t setting a good example.

It was only parchment… he hadn’t hurt anyone! It wasn’t like it actually disrupted anything!! Why was she being mean? They were just having some FUN! When did that become so illegal???

She wasn’t a biased little witch at all.

Silently fuming as she glared at the Professor, thoughts full of what she would (very much) like to say about the way she was picking on her brother, she didn’t see the spark of fire that leaped from her wand towards the green grass at her feet.

Who did Professor Darlington think she was???

She didn’t smell, feel or sense the fire that was slowly spreading over the grass … At least not until she looked back down at the parchment that Cameron was standing on and it was in her direct line of sight.

…….. “F-fi-fire!” She broke out, stumbling backwards - away from the slowly moving fire, the Professor and separating herself from further from Cameron.

Whoops… had she just spoken over the Professor giving her feedback? Yes. Yes she had… but it was for a perfectly good reason. Didn’t they know how dangerous fire was?? But… where had it even come from?? It hadn’t been there when they walked in…

Completely distracted from glaring at the Professor and standing closer to the back of the room, Holly tried to pay attention to what they were being told about this lesson… but she did fully watch the fire on the grass.



Oh oh clouds. Okay. Clouds could hold water. Water could put the fire out! Yes. This is good. Rolling her wand handle between her fingers, she wondered if she would get into trouble for doing non-class related magic… but then thought she’d change tactics. “Professor? Do these clouds have the ability to rain? ‘Cause either a water charm or rain would be good…” Although the patch of fire didn’t seem to have grown any larger, it also hadn’t shrunk and she wouldn’t let it make her uncautious. Nope, cautious was her middle name when fire was around.

“I think there is a water charm.. But I’ve never tried it, could… someone maybe…” She motioned to the fire just happily flickering between the students. “Please?” If it disappeared she’d be able to concentrate and get on with her transfiguration work.

………

And once the first was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief as the tension seeped out of her body and she closed her eyes. It was gone. Thankfully.

Okay… Clouds… Nubecula. Right. Point to the Sky and Nubecula.

Phew. What a lesson already.

“Nu-beck-u-lah. New-bec-you-law. Nuubecula. No… Nu-bec-u-lah.” That sounded better anyway, muttered under her breath as it was.

Maxie was unimpressed. This lesson was actually interesting and fun and of course something mental was happeningggg. In this case it was fire. actual fire and not the 'floor is lava kind' and that girl- Holly, he believed - was just casually asking the professor to fix it only to carry on like it wasn't happening. It was happening all right. Very much. Maxie didn't even bother trying to do the spell work because the very flammable grass was on fire.

He waved his arms and hands- he pointed too- did everyone see this? Could someone do something about it real quick before they possibly died? Was he overdoing it? No, no, Maxie did not believe so. HE'D SEEN FIRES. THEY STARTED OUT SMALL AND ENDED UP BIG. HELLO.

In the midst of his silent waving and point, Maxie made sure to send Holly a look- what kind of look, you ask? Not the nice kind.

She was glad to see they got on with the task without much deliberation and when they got to work, Joyce started pacing amongst the students. She watched them like a hawk, ready to offer advice and constructive criticism if and when necessary.

“Good work, Miss Swann.” She nodded her approval on the way past. “You’ll need to say the incantation clearer than that, Miss Phillips,” she commented after watching the first year Ravenclaw for a moment. “And don’t forget your wand movement. Just aim and point above your head.”

It seemed the Head Girl had a question and Joyce offered the girl a raised eyebrow and the slightest indication of a smile. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Miss Kettleburn. Patience, please.”

And then there was Mr. Tamesis, still standing on a piece of parchment. What an incredibly peculiar boy. “Good pronunciation, Mr. Tamesis.”

Her pacing then took her in the direction of one of the Gryffindor students and Joyce stopped to observe. “Excellent, Miss Prichard. Very well done. Your cloud has wonderful form.”

She didn’t require the frantic waving around from young Mr. Anderson-Belfort to know something was amiss. She had already smelt the singed grass before she saw the flames.

It was commonplace for younger children to lose control of their magic, but Joyce wasn’t expecting it to happen right here, right now in the midst of what was supposed to be quite a simple task. “Miss Tamesis!” Joyce scowled, making her way over to the mayhem and dousing the flames with a flick of her wrist and a quick charm. “The task is conjuring clouds, not flames!” And as for her pronunciation? Well, it could do with some improvement. “Clear and concise please. Listen to how your brother says it.”

With a tsk tsk, Joyce checked her watch once more before turning her attention back to the class at large. “Keep practicing everyone, we’ll be moving on in five minutes.” And it was imperative they master this section lest they want to suffer during the next……

“FIVE! MINUTES!”


OOC: Hey guys! Just a heads up that your kiddos have got about 24 hours to keep practicing <3