Ominous feeling... Check.

Aaron remained silent while everyone else spoke around him. He was here, but not really here. Nighttime was not his friend lately, and that typically meant he wasn't getting great sleep. And Aaron was not someone who functioned well on so little sleep. It was becoming a thing.

.....At least he hadn't forgotten his object?

Rifling around in his bag, Aaron breathed a relieved sigh when his fingers finally brushed across the large ornate key. It didn't unlock anything he had access to, but he'd had it with him for many years. Like a family keepsake. The head of the key was twisted and forged into an elaborate heart design. Because hearts were pretty, and it made him happy to look at it. At the moment, he was running his fingers over the key, getting reacquainted with the texture and material. It was cooler to his touch... Probably because it had been stashed in his bag since the last Transfiguration lesson, so he wouldn't forget.

Quote:

Aaron Botros
Sixth Year Hufflepuff

Item: Ornate key

Characteristics:
• The key is approximately the size of my ring finger in length, but thinner.
• It is an older object, made of heavy, solid brass. It has recently been polished.
• There are ridges, and a protrusion at the end that is the actual key part. Meant for unlocking.

The metal was slowly heating up from his hands, but still as firm.

The Slytherin shifted around uncomfortably in her seat. It was one thing to be sat next to Eloise, but it was another to be next to both Eloise and Celine. They were stealing her attention away from the lesson, not only was it incredibly distracting but she felt very, very uncomfortable. If class hadn't already started, she would have moved somewhere else. But it was far too late now and if she decided to move she would draw attention to herself, which was the last thing she wanted to do in this moment. So instead, she sat. Uncomfortably.

Her focus on Eloise's whispered words instead of on her Professor. She tried very hard not to react, but her cheeks did flush red as she tried not to shiver.

Ultimately she felt incredibly distracted when they were tasked with the first activity. While her classmates were scribbling down their observations about their items of choice, Nina's mind wandered elsewhere. Namely to the diary that Eloise had read cover to cover. Her knee shook nervously under her desk as she struggled to come up with words to write down on her parchment. Instead of giving the activity any real in-depth thought, the way she normally would have, Nina jotted down incomplete, disjointed thoughts. It was very much unlike her.

Quote:

Box, Rectangle, big, pretty, empty

Oh, she had actually said something that was right. That was a pleasant surprise. Usually she had the sort of answers that just got her strange looks from the professors. Cordelia smiled a little bit when Professor Barlow said her answer was a good one. Secretly she liked the way that having a right answer made her feel smart, but she didn’t want anyone to start thinking that she was really smart because then they were going to expect her to have a good answer for everything and she wasn’t that smart. The second year Gryffindor wanted to do well enough in academics to pass classes so they wouldn’t kick her off the quidditch team but she didn’t want to do so well that everyone would want her to help with stupid, boring homework. She wasn’t good enough that people would want her help for that anyway, but still she wouldn’t want anyone getting any ideas. Okay, she needed to write a description of her gross bottom of the bag garbage. ”My, uh, item is composed of multiple items stuck together so, uh, will that affect how the switching spell works?” Why hadn’t she just remembered to bring a real item?

Quote:

Originally Posted by notes

Cordelia Winklebleck
Item: Lollipop, kind of. More like a sticky ball of used blood sugar test strips on a stick.

Characteristics
1. The top part is spherical and sticky. Appears to be orange and green. Unable to determine which one was the original color.
2. There are at least 5 used blood sugar test strips with my blood on them stuck to the central lollipop mass. The strips are small white rectangles, one end which receives blood and the other end which goes in the meter when I test.
3. I think the stick is some sort of paper... or was. It’s kind of disintegrating.

Switching spells? Hopefully, no one else's object would be involved, because that was practically asking disaster to happen. Not for her, since she was enough herself now to laugh it off, but some of her classmates took things way too seriously.

Anyway, she examined her shirt, wondering what more she could really learn about it. I mean, it was a typical uniform shirt. Nothing more, nothing less. Nothing particularly special about it.

Quote:

Archer Calrissian
Seventh Year
Hufflepuff

Object: A simple white button-down shirt

Characteristics:

• White in color
• Buttons match the shirt in color
• Made of cotton according to the tag
• A few sizes too small for me now

And that was about all there was to know....

Drewett had been there all along, keeping mostly to himself and his notes. He'd even brought the most Drewett thing anyone would expect him to bring to class. A Rubik's Cube. What else could he possibly bring?

...Okay, well, there was a list of thing he could have brought with him but the cube would work just fine. Professor Barlow did say anything. On another note, he was casually glancing and eyeing Eloise and Céline sitting beside Nina. That...would definitely end up in a disaster. He didn't like disasters.

Ah, switching spells. Drewett could use a refresher on this lesson because what if these showed up in his OWLs, y'know? It was a possibility, and the Ravenclaw scribbled some more notes on his parchment as he listened to Barlow. He took his rubic's cube in hand and turned it around to examine. It was currently half-way finished and incompletely solved, so perhaps this lesson would be interesting. Not that he couldn't solve it right now without the use of magic. He could, but that defeated the purpose of this lesson.

Quote:

Drewett P. Gunter
Ravenclaw, fifth year

Item: Unsolved 3x3 Rubik's Cube

Characteristics:
1. It is colourful with six colours.
2. There are six sides.
3. The surface is hard and smooth, not including the gaps between squares.
4. It is a cube.

Normally, Avalon enjoyed Transfiguration. She found the subject fascinating and complex - the two most important aspects for a class, in her opinion. But for some reason, she didn't feel quite herself today. The first year felt sleepier than usual and had a bizarre, noticeable lack of motivation for learning. Perhaps it had something to do with everything happening around the castle. Or maybe it was that they were covering switching spells, which was something that Avalon didn't quite understand. Why would you ever need to give one object the characteristics of another? It just seemed silly.

She ran her fingers absentmindedly over her object (a fashionable neckerchief scarf) as she tried to focus on Professor Barlow's lecture. At least the first activity was pretty straightforward. She wouldn't have to exert too much energy to come up with some characteristics for her scarf. Avalon pulled out a piece of parchment and her quill to write down a few of her thoughts.

......... Oh. Right. Yeah. The items didn't need conjuring. He'd forgotten about that. Feeling sheepish, Lucas glanced down at the elephant in front of him, half-wishing she was still animated so it would help distract him. Maybe he really should ask Sissay about that charm she used.

When Barlow started speaking again, he looked up and....... furrowed his eyebrows at him. Switching spells? But...... that...... he had an elephant. An ELEPHANT. What if he accidentally gave it a trumpet for a trunk? Or bicycle wheels for legs? What then??

Though, bicycle wheels for legs would be really amusing to see if it was animated.

But first, he had some notes to make. Even if he knew what the object was like, he still picked it up and looked at it closely. There was a lot he could say about the elephant, like the fact that it had two tusks and had a name and was only with him because Sissay said so. But there was even more he didn't know - was it a baby elephant or an adult one? - so he was going to stick with the basic facts.

Quote:

Lucas Dakest
Gryffindor
Third Year


Item: Dani, the toy elephant

Characteristics:
1. Grey-brown in colour
2. Made of plastic, I bet. I dunno. It feels tough
3. Rough, probably because of the texture of the skin
4. Even though elephants are big, this one can sit on my hand

When the kiddos got to work (if you could call that from some of them anyway), Barlow hopped off the desk and did his usual classroom rounds. He wasn’t completely invasive, there wasn’t too much snooping over shoulders but he lingered long enough to take a peek at their parchment to ensure they were on the right track.

“Daisy… Rosie… good work from the both of you.”

And ohhh, look at that! Aaron had a key! It was quite fancy looking and he found himself briefly wondering what it unlocked. He sent the Hufflepuff Prefect a nod of approval.

Next, he came across Nina and well…. her notes were compact to say the least. “Be careful, Miss Castillo,” he offered in warning, “if you don’t know your item well enough, splicing may occur and it’d be a shame to ruin such a pretty box.” The splicing was fixable, but he kept that information to himself for now.

Cleanliness wasn’t his top priority. A glance at his grubby looking robes was enough proof of that, but Cordelia’s object was still enough to give him the heebie jeebies. “It’s not ideal,” he admitted in response, wrinkling his nose. “I urge you to use the lollipop for the switching and not the …… other bits. So it’ll require a tad bit more concentration, that’s all.” And should it not work out, he always had spare items she could borrow.

“Good job, Archer….” Her item was a simple one but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t be effective! “And you too, Mr Slinkhard.” Gunter, who? “I expect colourful results from you!”

And then there was Avalon and Lucas, both of whom seemed to be familiar enough with their items to clearly list a few defining features he was glad to note. All good, all good! Hopefully that would mean no disasters. “Great stuff!” He encouraged, giving them both a thumbs up before making his way back to the front of the classroom.

“Time to put this into practice! And to do that, I’ve set us up a little obstacle course of sorts!” A quick flick of his wand lifted the disillusionment charm that had been placed on the practice area at the very back of the classroom where there were three workstations. “At the first workstation, you’ll find feathers…” Swept up fresh from the owlery this morning so beware of any poop. “At the second station, you’ll find fluffy stuffed animals.” Yes, they were very cute. “And at the final station, you’ll take turns on the mannequin.” Which he’d borrowed from the duelling arena. “You can’t move onto the next until you’ve been successful at the workstation that precedes it and if you can, I expect you to ‘switch’ a different defining characteristic from your item with all three of these items.” He took a breather, once again making sure they were all following.

“The incantation you need is Mutatis Mutandi!” As he spoke it, the words appeared on the blackboard. “And the wand action is a quick upwards motion followed by a sideways flick!” Which he quickly demonstrated before cracking a wide grin. “Remember, when performing this spell, you're switching the components from two objects. Visualisation is important! Lack of concentration and you won't get the desired results. Let’s get to it!!”

OOC: Woah, sorry for the giant post. This is the main activity, guys! You have until the 26th for this activity but keep an eye out for Question 2. Like always, any questions feel free to ask Barlow IC or hit me up! <3

It was getting even better now that Celine was here. Which she got a Hiya and just like she expected Nina wasn't going to get up and find a different spot. Which would be hilarious to Eloise if she did. Even got her to not pay attention completly in class. Tho it gets a little bit more awkward since she hasnt shared or going to share that she read nina's diary with Celine. See a tiny bit "nice".

Oh back to class and writing down

Quote:

Eloise's Amazing Notes

item: broken mp3 player

touch screen smooth but cracked right down the middle
square ish
back is still good and smooth and well black
dont weigh that much
even has a headphone jack which was amazing honestly

ok that was done and back to Nina.

"I think you and Calyx would be good for each-other from what i read. Im serious. You must really liiiike him like i like Navid"

She whispered to her "best friend" Nina Castillo while practicing the wand motions to this spell. Really all she wanted was for her to acknowledge it and talk and day was day. Instead of her ignoring them or whatever Nina does. And she just added the navid part to mess with her. Even if it was true Eloise liked Navid but also liked Calyx. It was messed up. Mutatis Mutandi sounded like mutate which they were kind of doing to the object.

Gunnar hadn't brought anything of exceptional value to class today as he wasn't completely sure what they'd be doing with it. Still, he didn't want to bring anything generic like an extra quill, so he settled on a pair of lucky Quidditch socks that he always wore when he played in a match. And, since it would be unlikely that he'd be playing anytime soon, he thought he'd put them to use in class.

Even if he was having a difficult time focusing lately, he took diligent notes on his chosen item as well as switching spells. He was quiet, but he was listening and participating, even if it was in a relatively passive way.

SPOILER!!: notes

Object: Lucky Quidditch socks

Characteristics:

1. Made of a soft fabric, likely cotton or polyester
2. Mostly green in color
3. All-over pattern featuring golden snitches

Switching Spell
- swaps one characteristic of an item with that of another item so that both objects take on the physical traits of one another
- visualization and concentration is important

Incantation: Mutatis Mutandi

Wand Movement: a quick upwards motion followed by a sideways flick

Once he was finished jotting down his notes, he looked up then turned his head to observe the back of the classroom. Three stations. He had been half paying attention as he wrote, but he got the gist of it. Picking up his socks, Gunnar headed to the first station with the feathers.

Feathers. From the owlery, he'd guess, and he felt a tiny twinge of sadness thinking about Gretchen. Pushing that thought out of his head, he set about the task at hand. He grabbed one of the larger feathers and set it down in front of him next to one of his socks. Okay then, what would he visualize for this to work? What characteristics would each or either take on?

Pausing a moment to consider this, he eventually got a picture in mind and concentrate on the spell. "Mutatis Mutandi!" And a swish and a flick of his wand. His socks looked like they were made of feathers and... well, where was the feather? Uh. "Reverto." Maybe try again.

Time to put it into practice?

Lucas looked behind him and felt his stomach drop slightly. Seeing the items that were there almost made him wish he'd chosen something other than Dani the elephant to bring along. Something that he didn't really care about and could easily use this spell on. Because what if he destroyed her forever? What then??

Merlin.

Picking up the elephant, he wandered over to the first station, shooting it an apologetic look as he went. Maybe this will be fine. Maybe. Maybe he could nicely ask Barlow to change her back after he was done. It wasn't as if the man hated him, right? Right??

No. Concentration. He needed to concentrate on this spell and the first workstation which included...... feathers? And was that poop?! UH. He wrinkled his nose as he looked behind him at the professor and then back again. Did Barlow collect these himself? Because this was a little weird. And if this was where they were starting, he didn't even want to know what else followed.

Concentrate.

Lucas set the elephant down and started picking out a feather. Carefully. One that, he hoped, didn't have a lot of poop on it. Picking out a very small, white feather, he held it up towards the elephant. What could he swap it with? Maybe the trunk? Or the tail? Yeah, the tail was going to have to do. Whatever he swapped it with was going to look weird anyways.

Now. Mutatis Mutandi. He spent some time chanting "Mutatis Mutandi...... Mutatis Mutandi...... Muuuuuuutatis Muuutandi....." under his breath. It didn't sound like a difficult spell to him - and he was starting to have more and more fun saying it - but there was a reason Barlow had mentioned concentrating so much which didn't sit well with him. Not at all.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and tried to focus on the feather and the elephant. Specifically the elephant's tail. There was going to be a feather there. There had to be a feather there. "Mutatis Mutandi!" he called, moving his wand upwards and then giving it a sideways flick.

...........

Uhhhh.

Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked between the feather and the tail that..... uh. Well. The tail that now had wisps of feather coming out of it. But the tail was still the same grey-brown colour in the middle, it just had white fluffy parts as well. Picking up the elephant, he stared at it and then at the single, thin bit of white, uh, middle of a feather that lay on the workstation.

So was this a success?

Her Professor's words were concerning, yes, but they hardly did anything to readjust her focus. Focus. It was something Nina Castillo never had an issue with. Concentrating on one task at a time came rather easily to the young girl, despite her constant analyzation over thoughts and patterns. She attributed her ease of concentration to maturity. That's why Celine and Eloise had the attention spans of goldfish. However in this moment, the harder she worked to concentrate on the task, the more difficult the task seemed to be.

Especially because Eloise kept whispering in her ear every time Professor Barlow turned around. The fourth year tried very hard not to react, but it was very difficult. Her words sent a shiver down Nina's entire body. Her only saving grace was the fact that Eloise wasn't being loud enough for the rest of the class to hear. But still. The words. Hearing both Calyx and Navid's names. Nina's blood was starting to boil.

She picked up her jewelry box and walked over to the first station almost robotically. Eloise was getting to her. She may have been physically present, but mentally... Nina was long checked out. She had decided against practicing the incantation and movement at her desk, as she was ready to move at the first opportunity. So she began practicing when she reached the first work station instead. "Mutatis Mutandi... Mutatis Mutandi... Mutatis Mutandi," her voice lacked any real sense of conviction and she absently moved her wand before giving it a flick, repeating the movement a few times without really focusing.

She looked at her box, and then at the feathers before giving her wand a flick, "Mutatis Mutandi." Unsurprisingly, the spell had yielded no result whatsoever.

The Ravenclaw finished up writing down his examinations of his personal object that he had gotten from his grandfather for his thirteenth birthday and turned his head to look at the obstacle course that had been set up at the back of the classroom. While he listened to the instructions, he re-opened his notebook and wrote down the incantation together with the wand movement for future reference. He read his notes one last time before he grabbed his compass



Rolling up the sleeves on his robe, Dorian stood up from his seat walked over to the first station while taking his acacia wand out of his pocket. Once he reached it and stood before it, he examined the feathers and he made a face when he realised that a feather actually had some poop on it. He shook his head. Being extra careful to pick out a good feather, Dorian decided on a feather that he recognized from it coming from a brown owl. Cause it was brown. Genius he was. He took in the details as much as possible as visualisation was key in performing this transfiguration successfull.

He concentrated on the shape of the feather, it had short white fluffy feathers on the bottom and light brown spots over the rest. He looked back at his compass which he held in his hand now and made the choice of changing the small black arrow that pointed the right direction with a brown feather. He moved his wand upwards with a quick motion and flicked it sideways as he said the incantation "Mutatis Mutandi" while he concentrated on switching the components. Immediately, he saw that the black arrow started to change in to a brownish color but that was all that happened. There was no feather shape or any of the other characteristics it was supposed to have except for that it turned brown.A difference that only he would be able to notice.

He sighed and moment he lost concentration the brown color transformed back in to its original state. He was used with failing at the first try after six years though but he still did not like it. He concentrated again, visualizing the small arrow switching with the feather. He flicked his wand again with a "Mutatis Mutandi" and watched as the arrow changed shape in front of him. Where the arrow once was was now an owl feather. The problem was. The feather was black instead of brown and it was pointy... Scratching his head, Dorian looked around to see if this was acceptable enough. They couldn't all succeed in one day right?

Daisy grabbed her notebook and quill and wrote down some notes.

When she had completed her notetaking, Daisy practiced the incantation's pronunciation under her breath, sans wand, followed by practicing the wand movement alone until she felt ready to attempt the "obstacle course".

Daisy headed for the first workstation with her bracelet in her hand and carefully selected a tawny brown feather that wasn't covered in anything disgusting. She then placed it away from the pile of feathers and sat her bracelet next to it.

Daisy closed her eyes for the briefest of moments as she visualised the characteristics of her bracelet with the features of the feather she had selected. After opening her eyes, she moved her wand quickly upwards and finishing with a sideways flick as she said clearly, "Mutatis Mutandi!"

She looked at her bracelet and saw that one of her dark purple butterflies had turned into a tawny brown feather and that the feather was now a soft dark purple butterfly. Daisy grinned inwardly as she moved to the next workstation.

Barlow was oblivious at the best of times, but when it came to drama…. specifically teenage girl drama, he was the most oblivious. A brief glance at the Slytherin girls and all he saw, in his eyes, was them having a gossip. Y’know, typical teen stuff.

“I don’t mind you chatting with your friends, Miss Fairfield,” see, he was a cool professor. “As long as you’re working hard at the task as well.”

He was glad to see Nina prioritising the task over the gossip at least, and stood back to observe her first attempt. Well then. “Remember, Miss Castillo. Concentration and focus. Give it another go.” Or several.



Gunnar’s attempts seemed to be more successful. Well, the socks definitely looked somewhat feathery at least. Barlow nodded his approval. “That’s it, make sure you visualise the end result of the feather too.” Which would be what? A feather made of cotton? Interesting.



He wasn’t really sure what Lucas had been visualising to achieve such a switch but hey, it was something! And something was always better than nothing in his professional opinion.

“A simple reverto charm will have it back to its original state if you want to give it another go,” he offered kindly, “you’re almost there! Try to clear your mind of any other distractions. Did you eat enough at lunch?” A random question maybe, but there was a reason he’d scheduled this class for after lunch. It was hard concentrating on an empty tummy.



It was a pretty good attempt as far as he was concerned, and Barlow offered the Ravenclaw boy his best most encouraging smile. “You’re definitely on the right track! When switching, you’re essentially moving particles from one object to the other and vice versa so it can be tricky getting the hang of doing it simultaneously to begin with.” But definitely on the right track! “Good job.”



He expected the seventh years to be able to the master switching the feather at the first workstation without much difficulty, and Daisy went ahead and did just that. “The next object is a bit larger so it will require more concentration but keep up the great work, Miss Swann!”

Good stuff, good stuff. He liked what he was seeing! Even from those who hadn’t quite mastered it yet. Rome wasn’t built in a day, was it?

“Keep it up everyone, we’ve got about thirty minutes of this task left.” Plenty of time to get moving through those workstations but he also had another question to keep them busy. “Being able to switch objects in this manner is a useful skill to have. How would you use this in every day life? What scenarios would it be handy to use in?”

OOC: You guys are awesome, thanks for still playing along! <3 Question 2 is in this post and you’ve still got until the 26th until we wrap everything up! (:

Rosie nods at the professor and smiles while looking at her item. She placed it on the center of her table and awaited for the activity. The professor was walking around and making sure that everyone was doing the task correctly. Rosie just wonders how or what they will transform their objects into. The thought itself made her excited with it.

Mutatis Mutandi!

So that's why they needed to make sure that they know the items very well. Rosie watched the professor's hand gesture for the spell. Rosie does need practice on that but she's good at learning by watching. So, hopefully that would be an advantage to her. She looked back when the professor gestured. She takes a deep breath and went closer to the first item, which is the feather. That's the first task they will be doing for this activity.

Seems hard.
For a thirteen year old.

Rosie concentrated and drew out her wand. She keeps repeating the spell in her head just so she won't forget it. Taking a deep breath and moved her hand in an upwards motion then sideways flick "Mutatis Mutandi." she uttered.

Hmmmm....

Well, not that she's completely failed. It did turn out similar, sort of. It looks like the feather just with a longer end and the color is slightly different shade of grey. She stared at the other students. Is this okay-okay?

How would you use this in every day life?

Honestly? Even Rosie does not know if she would ever find herself using this in the future but who knows. Trying her best to think about it, it would mostly be when you're trying to hide something, right?

Daisy thanked Professor Barlow when he praised her worked and informed her of the difficulty of the next workstation as she made her way to it. She thought about the question Professor Barlow had just asked and raised her hand. "I am not sure if this is a correct answer. Say you are wearing a short-sleeved shirt and the weather turns a bit cooler. You could use a Switching Spell to change the short-sleeved shirt for one with long sleeves."

When she had given her answer, the seventeen-year-old placed her bracelet down next to the pile of stuffed animals and selected a green frog. Concentrating on the colour of the frog and her bracelet, she moved her wand upwards and ended it with a sideways flick, saying, "Mutatis Mutandi!" a bit louder than she did when she was at the first workstation. Nothing happened so she really concentrated and again said, "Mutatis Mutandi!". This time the frog was silver and the bracelet's main part was green in colour.

Daisy took in a small breath and exhaled as she made her way to the final workstation. She had to admit that she was rather nervous about this one. After carefully inspecting the mannequin's attributes, Daisy set her bracelet next to it and took a minute or so to visualise. "Mutatis Mutandi!" she said as she moved her wand upwards, finishing with the sideways flick. To her slight frustration, nothing happened. "Mutatis Mutandi!" Daisy repeated, her eyes narrowed in concentration. The mannequin's left hand was now metallic like it had a gauntlet on, whereas the bracelet resembled a wooden circle.

"How was that, Professor?"

The answer? It wasn't a success.

Lucas jumped slightly when he heard a voice talking to him and turned his attention to Barlow. Reverto. Oh. So it was simple, then? And he needed to clear his mind of distractions, which was a good tip, even if it was very hard to do right now. Thoughts were distracting, y'know? That was his biggest problem: thoughts.

But all of that was driven away when Barlow asked if..... he had lunch?? Lucas furrowed his eyebrows, clearly confused. What did lunch have to do with Transfiguration? "Uh, I think so? I just grabbed something small and ate it somewhere else because..... reasons." Those being that the common room was too crowded and it made him feel more anxious than he already was.

But, you know, he wasn't going to say that.

Now. How could they use this spell in everyday life? The clothes answer was a really good one, and he half wished he'd thought of that sooner. But another way of using the spell? The Gryffindor started looking around, at the walls and the tables and all the books that-

Oh.

His hand shot up in the air. "What if you bring the wrong book to class? I mean, if I was coming to Transfiguration and brought my Charms book by accident, I could just swap the two, right?" Pause. "Do you think it's very tricky to do the further apart the objects are?" He certainly thought so.

Dorian listened to the Professor as he came to look at his work. Personally, he did not think he had done a good job because the feather was still black and pointy like an arrow but he guessed that for a first try, it looked good enough. Did that mean he could go to the next station? Holding on to the feather, Dorian walked over to the next station which held fluffy stuffed animals. But before he could choose one, he turned his gaze away from the station to the Professor. He thought for a moment and a scenario came to mind he had been in before. "What if you're alone in the bathroom and no one is around and you realise that the toilet paper is out? You can use the switching spell to switch any random object with a roll" anyone who said they had never been in a situation like that before was a liar.

Lowering his arm after answering, he grinned when he looked over the station table and saw a duck plushy between them all and picked it up. He knew his father had an obsession with ducks when he had been a student and although it had calmed down now, he noticed that his eyes still seemed to shine whenever he saw one. Only now he didn't act upon his feelings of going 'alkfwgklhawgio'. Personally, he did not see the fascination about ducks. Seriously, they were just....ducks....what was so special about them?

Deciding on using the duck plushy mainly because this was probably the only chance he'd get to transfigure a duck no matter if it was a stuffed animal,Dorian immediately pointed his wand at it because he knew that he wanted to change the beak of the duck with that he was currently visualising. He concentrated on the shape of the chain on his antique compass, fake gold . He moved his wand upwards with a quick motion and flicked it sideways as he said the incantation "Mutatis Mutandi" while he concentrated on switching the components. Immediately, the orange beak started to change in to a golden color and the chain on the compass turned orange.

He frowned as this was not the desired result he had planned and reversed the spell, placing it back in order. He tried a couple of times more and at the seventh try, he was able to change half of the beak of the duck in to a chain and he looked down at the compass on the table and saw that the end of the chain had a small plushy beak. It looked weird.

"Or, you know, just switch the empty roll for a full one," she spoke up while scourgifying some poop from the owl feathers. Because, while her shirt was a lost cause for wearing, she could still make a pillowcase or a purse out of it. And who wanted owl poo on their pillowcase? Anyway, once the poop was gone, she imagined the feathers taking the place of the buttons. "Mutatis Mutandi." Ooops. Only pieces of the buttons were replaced with feathers. One look caused her to laugh at her mistake. It looked funny, okay?

She fixed her mistake quickly and tried again. "Mutatis Mutandi." This time, the whole buttons were switched with the feathers, the buttons laying where the feathers had been and the feathers had taken their places. Good. She reversed the spell and moved on to the next station.

After he answered, Lucas decided to turn back to the workstation, this time changing his elephant's tail back to what it was with a simple "Reverto!" He was going to give it another go, and follow Barlow's advice of clearing his mind of distractions. Which, by the way, was easier said than done.

He stood there, eyes closed and breathing deeply. Clear his mind of distractions. Clear it. Anyone watching might be confused why he was standing there with his eyes closed and his wand in his hand - he certainly would be - but he was silently hoping that they were too busy with their own spells to really pay attention to him. But that was asking for more distractions so.....

Breathe.

He didn't know how long he was standing there - a minute? two minutes? five? - but after a while, he opened his eyes and pointed his wand at the objects. "Mutatis Mutandi!" he called, moving his wand upwards and then giving it a sideways flick. Feather for a tail. Feather for a tail.

.........

FEATHER FOR A TAIL! HE DID IT!

Lucas physically punched the air while letting out a small "YES!" as he went. It was probably the weirdest looking elephant but hey, it had a feather for a tail now.

Switching spells! For the first time in a VERY long time, Nettie was practically giddy in class. She'd read about these spells before, and she hadn't really gotten a chance to try them. Transfiguration was becoming one of her best subjects, so the fact that she FINALLY got to try out one of the spells she'd been dying to try? Yes, she was ONE happy Ravenclaw at the moment. It almost made her completely forget that there was an ominous mist outside the castle, waiting to strike and send them all in to a fear induced spiral.

The object Nettie had brought with was her snitch necklace - but not the one she'd been wearing recently. No, she was using her original one, the one Royland had gotten her that she'd duplicated during the infamous Locket Incident of her second year. She hadn't worn it in almost a year though, since she had a better one now. So it was the perfect item to use for this class. Just in case anything bad happened, she wouldn't be THAT heartbroken. It was also fitting in a weird sort of way that the object she'd first successfully used a transfiguration spell on was being used for this as well. It was all coming full circle.

She'd written out the description of her item, and had just finished when the professor announced they were moving on. FINALLY. Enough talking about it, she was ready to start DOING.

Quote:

Item: Snitch Locket

1. Round locket with metal wing attachments so it looks like a snitch
2. Long chain
3. Shiny, a little bit of wear on the chain

The easiest thing to do for the first station would be, of course, to envision the feathers taking the place of the wings. She closed her eyes and focused on the locket having REAL feather wings - that would actually be super cool! She moved her wand upwards and then flicked it sideways, muttering "Mutatis Mutandi!" She looked down at her locket, and noticed that the wings were decidedly more...feather like, but not QUITE there yet. She reached forward and ran a finger along the wings - they FELT a little less metal-y and a bit softer. There was lots of room for improvement, though. She cleared her throat and attempted to try again - so engrossed in practicing, she didn't even notice the next question. Whoops.

FRIENDS? Ha. There were many words for what Nina Castillo and Eloise Fairfield were to one another, but friends was not and would never be one of them. Especially if this particular Slytherin had anything to say about it. Nina Castillo would not be friends with Eloise Fairfield even if hell froze over and she was the last person left on the planet. Not even then.

But never mind that, there was a task at hand. One that she was very much failing out. Quite glad Professor Barlow pointed that out too. Thanks. Not that she minded that people knew because that was her goal, but this time she wasn't failing on purpose and that made things a little different. It was fine failing when that was her intention, when she wanted to fail. But when she genuinely couldn't get the spell to work? It was frustrating and upsetting and very, very NOT ideal.

Ignoring her Professor's next question, the Slytherin looked at her jewlry box and tried concentrating as hard as she could. Which meant that the harder she tried to focus, the less she could muster. This was all Eloise's fault. The task was simple and straight forward. Swap qualities of a feather with her box. There were only two factors involved. It wasn't seventh year spellwork. It should have come to her naturally. "Mutatis Mutandi," then why couldn't she get it to work right?????

In all her frustration, Nina felt like crying. In fact, tears had even managed to pool up in her eyes. ""Mutatis Mutandi!" she tried again, just as frustrated, blinking back tears. She hadn't managed to swap the characteristics on either object, but she did manage to singe the feather. This was horrible.

See, Nina even Professor Barlow thinks we are friends. You really need to actually talk to either confirm or deny these things. Huh, well damn guess her whispering wasnt as good as she thought. Eloise sighed and guess she had to talk to Professor Barlow now.

"Sorry Professor and Nina hates me to much for us to be friends. She is just too much of a coward to ever say it out-loud. But back to work"

But she should probably get up and over to another station and get this spell started. But yeah she needed to pratice saying it first since she got the incantation down and all

A pink flush rose to Tina's cheeks as Professor Barlow said she hit the nail on the head. She didn't expect her answer to be correct - at least not in the sense of guessing the person's subject anyway! She was just trying to think of something to do with a wide assortment of objects that wasn't vanishing. Oh, okay, so they were swapping out characteristics, not the whole objects themselves. That made perfect sense. She listened intently to Barlow's explanation, taking a few notes, and prepared for the activity.

She picked up her broken beater bat, feeling its weight and hardness as she laid it across her desk. She turned it over a couple of times, closely examining from all angles. Her fingers ran along its smooth surface, stopping short of the broken top part. Now she felt she had enough information to write down some characteristics. She gently scooted the bat toward the edge of her desk to make room to write and picked up her quill. She jotted down:

Text Cut: characteristics

Tina Dantes
6th year Ravenclaw

Object: broken beater bat

1. The bat is made of wood, dark brown in color. It is heavy and solid.

2. It has a sort of oblong shape and is about half the length of my arm.

3. Its surface is smooth and solid, with the exception of the top. The broken top is rough and splintery

Tina finished writing just as Professor Barlow started speaking again. The more she heard about the next activity, the more pleasantly surprised she was. When she heard they were doing switching spells. she thought for sure the activity would involve partnering off and switching a characteristic of one's object with someone else's. She was so glad that turned out not to be the case! There was too much uncertainty involved with group work, and besides, she got things done faster on her own. Tina paid careful attention to the spell demonstration, copying down the incantation written on the board, then set to work practicing the individual components of the spell before combining them. The wand movement was pretty straightforward, but the pronunciation would take a bit of work. "Mutatis Mutandi," she mumbled under her breath to practice the spell's pronunciation. "Mutatis Mutandi…"

Okay, that was enough practicing. Time to try actually casting the spell! She picked up her beater bat and headed to the first station: feathers. She eyed the feathers for a moment, debating which characteristic she should swap with her bat. Then it came to her! The feathers were light, and her bat was heavy. She'd try making her bat as light as a feather. Focusing her attention on the cleanest looking feather she saw, she visualized that feather becoming heavier and heavier while her bat became lighter. "Mutatis Mutandi!" she said, making the upward motion and sideways flick with her wand. The bat felt like air in her hand, but had the spell worked on the feather too? There was only one way to find out. She gingerly picked up the feather between two fingers, but the change in weight caught her off guard and she nearly dropped it. Merlin, that was weird! But at least she knew her spell had worked.

Pleased with her success so far, Tina moved on to the next station, the stuffed animals. Her dark eyes landed on a little black cat that strangely reminded her of a matagot, and she knew instantly that was the animal she wanted to use. At first, she thought she'd switch the color of the plush with her bat, but the dark brown shade of her bat wasn't much lighter than the cat. It would be too hard to see a change in color. She had a better idea. What if she made her bat furry? That might work! Visualizing her bat covered in plush fur, she cast, "Mutatis Mutandi!" She felt the change in texture almost immediately. the bat felt and looked like a big wooly caterpillar in her hand, and when she looked back at the cat, she saw it had turned hard and wooden.

Two down, just one more station to go, and this one looked a lot harder than the others. For the first two stations, Tina had a pretty clear idea of which attributes to switch with her bat, but this time she had no idea! Her eyes raked up and down the mannequin, closely examining it as she waited her turn to use it. She'd already done weight and texture. What else could she try? As she caught sight of the mannequin's fingers, it came to her. Length! She could try switching the bat's length with the length of one of the fingers. It'd be weird, but it was worth a try. "Mutatis Mutandi!" she said, visualizing the length of the mannequin's thumb as she made the wand movement, and… nothing happened.

Tina gave a quiet sigh of frustration. What went wrong? She had the incantation and the wand movement right; maybe her concentration was off. That was the only thing she could think of. Okay, let's try that again! Concentrating with all her might, she imagined her bat becoming shorter until it was the length of the mannequin's thumb. "Mutatis Mutandi!" When she looked down, the bat was now resting in the palm of her hand, and the mannequin had a freakishly long thumb the exact length that her bat had once been. She smiled to herself, biting back a laugh. That looked pretty funny!

Tina had been so absorbed in the task that she nearly missed Professor Barlow's question. A scenario where switching spells could be useful… was that what he said? She thought for a minute. Several scenarios came to mind, but everything she thought of could be solved more easily with another spell. What if you had to get dressed in a hurry and noticed on your way out the door that your socks don't match? Colorvaria would be a simpler fix for that. What if you were moving heavy furniture? A switching spell could be used to make it lighter… but so could a feather-light charm. Hmm… maybe if you were falling, you could soften the landing by switching the ground with a pillow or something? No, that was what a cushioning charm was for! She remained silent for now, still trying to come up with a situation where a switching spell would be the best option, but she had nothing. She supposed she shouldn't be surprised. Both of her parental figures were former charms professors, after all, and it seemed their knowledge had rubbed off in her!