Aboli wanted to partner with her! With her! Mamie felt both relief and...overjoyed. Her board game buddy wasn't tired of her yet! Plus, was willing to endure an unskilled transfiguration attempt. That showed either excessive kindness, or excessive bravery. Mamie was leaning toward the kindness assumption for Aboli. And--double plus--Aboli had said she was smart and good at everything (in fewer words), so that meant Mamie was going to be transfigured into the most perfect ferret in the class. Except for maybe Bernadette.

"I'll try to do it right," she said quietly. She didn't want to put Aboli through the pain of a botched transfiguration. That was why they had professors, right? To make sure nobody got irreparably hurt while learning new spells.

She copied down the information from the blackboard, focusing hard on the pronunciation of the two spells. She knew it was important to put the emphasis on the right syllables, and these spells had a lot of syllables. "Mig...a...li...fors. Migalifors. Migalifors. Migalifors." Don't worry, Aboli. Mamie was getting all the mispronunciations out ahead of time.

Uh-huh. Ash tried to visualize Emmerson Cambridge as a ferret. Not so much for the spell, mostly just for comic effect. She smirked a little to herself and started practicing the movements for the spell. "Anyone wanna partner up? Swear I won't leave you as a ferret for too long. That would be wrong. In most situations anyway." If it were a younger student, they might accidentally not be able to turn her back. But that was part of the fun. "I'd be happy to team with almost anyone."

Phoebe would actually love to be changed into some sort of creature. And then she could run away and never come back and not have to deal with the professor who kept looking at her like she was ruining EVERYTHING when she was really just saying words. Actually, she'd just like to be a ferret and curl up in a furry little ball and take a nap. Was that allowed?

She poked at Atlas with the toe of her shoe, reaching out from her seat to bump his. "Hey, kiddo. Let's do this. All we're doing is practicing the motions and saying the words, okay? You can do that." Since he always looked a little afraid of his own shadow, she wanted to reassure him, but Phoebe knew very well that the kid was a Gryffindor. There was a fighting spirit in there somewhere. "Let's do dueling stances so we can do this the right way."

There was a small part of Kinsay that almost wished Bernie stayed a ferret. She looked a lot cuter that way, did she know? And ferrets couldn't accuse first years of being bad Gryffindors just because they cried sometimes. As for needing to partner up and practice the spell for themselves? Kinsay was VERY uncertain.

Transfiguration was difficult enough on any normal day, but um. This seemed like a way advanced spell. One that she knew she wouldn't be able to manage even if she tried. So she looked around the classroom, kind of hoping that one of her older friends would be in need of a partner and, um, feeling some sort of sad when she didn't see them. Phoebe was working with Atlas again. Why was she always working with him? It made her feel some envious sort of way that Kiz was totally unwilling to own up to.

She then noticed two people clearly in need of a partner: Quinn and Ashley. It was like the decision was already made up for her. She found herself slowly making her way up to the younger Ravenclaw. "Hi. Do you need a partner?"

Quinn had walked off, so now Eden had to look for a partner. She really didn't want to be turned into a ferret at all, but she'd do it in the name of learning a new spell.

She looked around for a partnerless person for all of four seconds before Ashley conveniently offered herself up for the job. "I do, Ash!"

Sorry in advance for how long it was going to take her to do the spells. Not exactly first year level stuff, was it?

For the first time in days Bella felt her mood lift at the professor's words. Her answer got credit for being out of the box even if it didn't mean house points. She really wanted to score her house some points, but it seemed hard with the Neo-Alliance presence at the school. With eagle-sharp attention Bella watched how Bernie got transformed into a ferret and back on the spot. She want to gasp out a 'wicked' but outbursts out of turn were frown upon. She had learned her lesson.

After jotting down the relevant instructions for the spells on a piece of parchment Bella rose in her seat, since she was short and raised her voice to bea heard. "Does anyone want to partner up with me? I know i'm just a first year but I promise to be a good partner and not leave you a ferret for too long." Or that was at least her hope.

Okay. It was Eden. Hopefully she had good spellwork. Ash practiced the spell several times. "You can go first, if you want. I give you permission." Hopefully the girl wouldn't leave her as a ferret for too long. "Just don't kill me or anything."

Quinn turned to Kinsay. When he saw her, all he could think about was the slug pit, but... she was still nice, so... "Uh... yes, I still need a partner. You wanted to be mine..?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cassirin

Phoebe would actually love to be changed into some sort of creature. And then she could run away and never come back and not have to deal with the professor who kept looking at her like she was ruining EVERYTHING when she was really just saying words. Actually, she'd just like to be a ferret and curl up in a furry little ball and take a nap. Was that allowed?

She poked at Atlas with the toe of her shoe, reaching out from her seat to bump his. "Hey, kiddo. Let's do this. All we're doing is practicing the motions and saying the words, okay? You can do that." Since he always looked a little afraid of his own shadow, she wanted to reassure him, but Phoebe knew very well that the kid was a Gryffindor. There was a fighting spirit in there somewhere. "Let's do dueling stances so we can do this the right way."

For the RECORD...Atlas was not afraid of his own shadow. The shadows cast by The Hoods™, however, was another matter entirely. He couldn't help but be an overt nervous wreck considering conditions! Still, the poke to his foot did cause him to jump a little but only because he hadn't happened to be looking in her direction. The blush was instant and he kind of hated himself for it. He needed a new unrequited crush fast because Phoebe's little sister had mortified him and their future nuptials just could not survive that. Such was life.

But, er, right. Back to her offering to partner with him and his feeling like his face was about to go all supernova.

"Oooo--okay," he nodded, a little too eagerly as he got his wand out properly and clutched it with both of his hands. "Why is a dueling stance the right way?" Just curious...and also he wasn't entirely sure what a dueling stance even was. Atlas, to no one's shock, would not make for a very good dueler. "Do you think we'll both be blonde ferrets, or at least pale in fur color, because we're blonde...or...say I were to picture a dark colored ferret when trying to cast...would you turn into that because it's my intent?"

Why did any of this matter? To be honest it didn't...but he was stalling.

Dahlia listened to every single word that came out of Professor Carton's mouth. The second the man had began to speak, her quill was in her hand taking down as much of what he had said as she could. Please don't let her miss something important! This was one of the most interesting topics in Transfiguration... changing something into a creature, changing a creature into something else. Yes, please. She wanted to learn it all. Especially this.

Blue eyes watched in amazement as Carton turned Bernie into a ferret. Lia had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from squealing at the cuteness.. even if Bernie didn't seem to pleased by it afterwards.

Yep, yep, yep. She was writing this ALLLLLLL down. Wand movement, incantation, counter incantation. All of it. She was ready. It didn't even matter who her partner was. An older student, friend, someone she didn't know, another firstie like herself. Actually... another firstie might be fun. If she got stuck being a ferret for awhile she was A-okay with that!

Glancing around she noticed that several of her friends were already partnered up. Not to worry. There was still plenty of others she could partner with. Like that other firstie who was asking for a partner. "I will. If you don't mind working with another first year," Dahlia offered with a small grin.

Kizzy nodded feeling a little embarrassed. ”I need one too.” She admitted, looking down at her feet for a few seconds before looking back up to him and nodding again. So yes, please. ”Are you good at transfiguration?” Because in truth, Kinsay wasn’t trying to practice the spell. She was trying to stall for time so that they WOULDN’T have to practice it. That way no one would see how bad at magic she was.

Besides, she didn’t want to be a ferret anyway. She’d much rather be turned into an otter or a shark! Sharks were the best.

SPOILER!!: Nem & Bernie

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felixir

This guy.

So, never mind, it was starting to be more of a personal thing after all.

It was clear early on, the theme of this lesson, but Nem had somehow not expected that this Carton guy would try to teach Human Transfiguration to a class with such varied ages and abilities as this one. It didn't really matter, in the end; they decided long before Carton was done talking that they were not putting themselves in the path of a wand for something like this, in this environment. Nem trusted nobody with a spell like this, and had no plans of being stuck in the form of a ferret for life if it went wrong. The Big Man wouldn't be too impressed either.

The fact that Carton had gone out of his way to ask Grantham permission to cast on her, though... that might be beneficial - speaking of which, it would have been entertaining to grab Grantham as a partner and re-ferret her, but hey, what can you do.

As soon as the activity was started, Nem raised a hand. "Sir. I do not give my consent for anyone to cast a transfiguration spell on or at me." Just to be crystal clear on the matter. Cover all bases. Nem was on top of Transfiguration anyway. Ahead, even. "May I leave and study in the library instead." It was a request, but the total lack of inflection had it sounding more like a statement.

It just seemed unlikely that any part of the lesson would be of much use to them, if they were starting with this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BanaBatGirl

Bernadette was once again being misunderstood, but she wasn't in the worst mood today, so she didn't mind. Silly professor. Bernie shook her head, still at this point (clearly, this class was pre-portrait-fiasco) fully confident that the staff could take on Rosier (and win!). When she had said you could sneak up on someone and use transfiguration on them... she hadn't been using the pronoun in a vague sense. She also hadn't meant that a student could (or should) take on the stupid imposter. When she had said could someone really advanced at Transfiguration....eliminate the threat.... with Transfiguration? she had been trying to encourage him, Carton, to do just that.

Eliminate the threat. Protect the children, at all costs. Do your job. Was there anyone else more advanced at Transfiguration in this castle than the Transfiguration professor who had just shown himself to be an animagus?

No?

But she let the idea go, for now, because she had to, the class was moving on. Anyway, Bernie was currently wearing a small smile because she was thinking that perhaps she would go to Carton's office after class and tell him just that. You know, the new teachers around here often had to be told how to do their jobs, just like she'd done with Schmoe so many years ag---

Oh, she was being selected for some demo? Bernie blinked a few times, pulled out of her thoughts as it were, but stepped up to the front of the room. She wasn't the best at always paying attention and definitely had a tendency to provided loaded answers to innocuous questions, but she'd do her best to help the new guy out. Of the kindness of her heart. And not because she thought he made a good dog or anything like that. Maybe he could make HER a dog too? Or better yet, turn her into a cat!!!!

She nodded along to her thoughts, apparently also nodding along as the professor talked. Oh....... oh it was going to be a ferret making spell? Well, she was already up here, might as well consent.... Bernie nodded again in the affirmative, and then, like, right away....

...she wasn't nodding anymore. She was on the ground, squeaking and shaking and freaking out and not at all feeling herself. She felt about two inches tall (even though she may have been, what six inches off the ground? how tall are ferrets anyway?). She also felt a panic coming on because this was SO UNEXPECTED and EVERYONE and EVERYTHING WAS HUGE NOW and ALL THEIR HUGE EYES WERE ON HER. Bernie WOULD have taken off at a run, such was the ferret tendency, when suddenly she was back on the ground again. On her two feet.

Two feet. She had two feet. JUST two feet. Two legs. Bernie patted those shaking legs, leaving the panic, surprise, and existential anguish evident upon her face. She felt lightheaded, felt so nervous that that might happen again... she might just barf.

Legs still shaking, Bernie slipped back into her seat. She felt a bit better than standing, but then started feeling worse again when the professor said they had to do the spell on each other again. She didn't want to do this again. Please, not again. One time as a ferret was bad enough.

"May I also be excused?" she managed to pipe up, nervous hand half-raised. Her voice sounded all weird too. Did she still have ferret ears? Did she-- "I don't feel well... mmmaybe Nem could walk me to the nurse on his way to the library..."

Please. Please excuse her from this.

What the students thought of Norman was irrelevant, as long as they were learning. Like it or not, there was a reason behind the assignment. Still, he knew it was only a matter of time until someone tried to get out of it, but he would’ve expected that more from the younger students, not a fifth year. Norman’s blue-blue green eyes turned to Upstead, sizing up this Nemesis the same way he would any other as he considered their request. This kid… he didn’t believe for one second that their intention was to simply study in the library. How did he know they wouldn’t sneak off to hiss in Rosier’s ear and make trouble for everyone? Plus the fact remained that if he let one student go to the library, he would have to let everybody do it.

Nope, the library was out of the question, but Norman knew this was a delicate situation. Anything he said could (and most likely would) be used against him. If he tried to make Upstead participate after they stated so explicitly that they don’t consent to being transfigured, they could play the victim card. “No,” he replied flatly. “If I let you go to the library, that opens the door for others to follow, and I can’t have half my class absent from the lesson. Since you don’t consent to be transfigured, you may sit on the bench and practice the incantations and wand movements for the spells on the board by yourself.” The kid could still do something pertinent to the lesson without being transfigured.

There wasn’t time to argue about it. Another student needed Norman’s attention. While he was suspicious of Upstead’s motives, he believed Grantham. She looked a bit...off, and for a moment, he felt the tiniest pang of guilt for transfiguring her. He wouldn’t coddle the children, but he wasn’t heartless! “Okay, sit here and take some time to recover,” he said, bending down to get a better look at her. “Don’t worry about any spells now. I’d like you to stay in class if possible, but if you’re not feeling better in a few minutes, someone will escort you to the healer.”

Still worried about both these kids (although for very different reasons), Norman stuck close by them as he observed the rest of the class. Assess the situation, identify any possible problems, and change tactics if needed; that was how he operated. So far it seemed that most were off to a good start. It looked like Blackthorne and Blaze might be partnering up, as had Kingsley and the younger James, Fox and Tilly, and Connolly and Donovan. Song and Turov were off to a good start with the incantations, and the pair received a nod and a very slight encouraging smile. Another encouraging smile went to the elder James and Flamsteed as Norman overheard the latter’s questions. “Good points, Mr. Flamsteed,” he said. “To answer your question, the appearance of the creature is determined by the caster’s intent, so you could turn a blond-haired person into a dark-furred ferret. However, most people prefer to keep the target’s hair and eye color the same throughout the transformation because it makes the visualization process easier. Either will work; it’s just a matter of personal choice.”

So far, so good. Norman didn’t see any major problems yet, but he felt a change in tactics may be in order out of an abundance of caution. “You have about ten minutes until we move on!” he announced. “Since we’re short on time, don’t worry about casting yet if you don’t feel confident. We can come back to that after we move on. For now, focus on the incantations, wand movements, and visualization. You can try describing to your partner what you think they would look like as a ferret if it helps you get a clearer picture.”

OOC: You still have ABOUT 26-28 HOURS left for the mini activity.

Quinn considered for a moment. "W-well, I wouldn't say I'm bad at it, but I'm not, like... excellent?" He thought for a moment longer. "Uh, my wand is apparently supposed to be good for transfiguration, and I haven't been falling behind in class, but this spell will probably still be a bit hard to master. So... yeah."

"Um..." Quinn started, but then thought it would be a pretty weird thing to say, but then it would be weird if he said nothing, right? "Do... do you think you'll be able to actually, fully transfigure me into a ferret? Because... I think it'll be kind of neat..!" he asked with hope filled eyes.

.....Right.

Aboli regretted her decision, but she couldn't go back on it now. "It's okay if you don't. This seems like difficult magic anyway. But the only way you grow is by making mistakes. Or something." Whatever it was people said to make themselves feel better when they did something wrong. Aboli used it all the time.

She observed Mamie try to say the words correctly. "Migalifors. Let it glide from your tongue, Mamie," she said gently, encouragingly. Professor spoke...jeeze...where had all the time gone?! She sighed. "Go ahead and try it. Just...do it," she said simply.

Claudine shrugged in reply to Carton. Really, he could tell her when not to use the spells on bullies but that didn’t mean she’d listen. Ain’t nobody was going to pick on her or someone she cared about and she’d let them get away. Still, Carton was forgiven. He didn’t know what she was like. The Snakette quietly continued to make her notes. In her opinion, human Transfiguration sounded scary and she didn’t trust anyone enough, except Heath… maybe Aboli and Curtis. Claudine could already see where the lesson was headed.

She had mixed feelings about the ex best friend as a ferret. The greater part of her thought the Gryffindor was better off as a ferret. Then again, she’d probably go off making trouble in ferret form too. Oh well. Carton made the whole demonstration seem so easy. Claudine was quite sure it wasn’t going to even be a fraction of that for her.

Resigned to the fact that she’d have to partner up, the fifth year set about muttering the incantations and afterwards, the wand movements. That was the east part. The hard part was finding a partner she wanted to work with. Luckily, someone found her. “Hi, Violet,’’ she greeted the third year. “Sure. Why not?’’ Dark eyes shot towards Carton. She trusted that he’d be able to help her out if she got stuck as a half human, half ferret.

“Shall we get started then?” Claudine stood up and led Violet a bit away from the crowd. “How about I kick things off?’’ The dragon heartstring wand was raised to point at the younger Snakette. “Migalifors.’’ Cue the orange light shooting in the general direction of the pointed wand.

Okay. Here goes nothing right? Eden tried giving herself a little mental pep talk - Transfiguration was one of her stronger subjects! She had this!

Annnd they were running out of time already? Dang.

"I promise not to kill you," Eden assured her. The first year took a good moment to really visualize a ferret - Bernie's ferret, in particular, as it was the one she remembered best.

She pointed her wand at her older housemate. "Migalifors!" A reassuringly-orange beam of light headed towards Ashley.

Oh well. Ash was a ferret now, at least. But she didn't look like her! SHe looked like Bernie! Maybe Eden had visualized Bernie as a ferret, which sorta made sense if she wanted to make the spell easier. The only distinguishing thing showing this ferret as Ash was the body language! Ew. Ash would rather be herself. This was weird. But hey, the spell worked. She did a victory lap around Eden's feet, before looking at her expectantly. She knew the counterspell, right?

Aboli was just ssoooooo nice. Mamie nodded, glad that the older girl was being so understanding that mistakes could happen. But she was going to try to make no mistakes! She would try to turn the Slytherin into a good ferret. So she had to get the incantation right.

"Migali...ffffors," Mamie repeated. Glide from her tongue. Right. Such great advice. She tried to imagine the word with all its syllables floating in a pot of soup, and she just had to gently pour all the soupy letters out. "Mmmmmigalifors. Migalifors. Migalifors, migalifors, migalifors." Hah! She got the pronunciation.

She glanced at Aboli. She...she really wanted her to go ahead and cast the spell? Well...okay... Mamie was a little nervous about going first, so she studied Aboli for a moment. She thought the older girl would probably have sort of speckled brown fur and brown eyes. The cutest of ferrets, if Mamie managed to do the spell correctly. "Alright...here goes..."

She lifted her wand to point it at the former prefect. "Migalifors," she said firmly. Pleeeeease turn into a cute li'l ferret and not a terrifying half-ferret/half-human abomination, please Aboli, please please please.

Blink. Ashley was a ferret! WHAT THE HECK!

"Woah!!! Neat! You're a pretty cute ferret, Ash."

She really did look just like Bernie, though. Eden made a mental note to imagine people as the ferrets they were meant to be instead of Bernie clones.

Now she needed to change her back. This wasn't Eden's strong suit. She focused and pointed her wand at Ashley before giving it an upward swish. "Reparifarge!"

Let's see what happens!

Yay. Ash was back, no trauma. It had just taken a little extra time for the spell to work, which was slightly scary. "I feel like a ferret. Short. And also energetic. And I do make a great ferret, even if I look completely different." She smiled. "That was fun. Your turn, right?" It felt kinda unethical to turn her friend into a ferret, even with consent. It would have been easier to visualize someone she hated as a ferret. But she didn't want to make her friend look like someone she didn't like, so she just took a deep breath and uttered a careful "Migalifors" after she was given the okay.

At first, Eden was scared the spell hadn't worked. But here Ashley was, in one whole piece in front of her!

Aaaaaaaand now she was a ferret, too! Yikes! She did not like this! Eden was used to being short, but now she was shoe-level with the whole class. She was a ginger ferret, just like she was a ginger human - did ginger ferrets exist in the wild? Anyway, could she be a human again????? She remained frozen in place, afraid to get squished.

Well, okay, the spell had worked... could they put Eden back PLEASE? "Reparifarge." Hopefully, nothing would go wrong, but you never knew with transfiguration. "Nice job at being a ferret. I could tell it was you." Especially because of the hair.

Then it was decided. Kizzy already knew she wouldn’t be trying out the spell before she had even partnered up with Quinn, but she definitely wouldn’t be trying it now. What if he could do it and she couldn’t? Then she’d look so silly because he was only a first year and she was nearly THIRTEEN! It would be so embarrassing and everyone would think she’s stupid and and and. It’d be awful. She couldn’t risk it.

”Maybe,” she said in reply to his question. Though she had a feeling she wouldn’t be able turn Quinn into a ferret, it wasn’t lying because there was still a chance that it could work. Sometimes her magic was temperamental like that. Kinsay James was not a liar. ”What do you think you’d look like as a ferret?”

Stalling. She was great at that.

Quinn put a finger on his chin in thought. "Well... I'd be blonde, with grey eyes... and.... very.... ferret-y..?" He wasn't exactly sure how a ferret would be described besides that. A ferret was a ferret, right? Anyway, all she needed to do was envision him and say the spell for it to work, so now that she knew what he would look like, there was nothing stopping her! He held his arms out. "Well, do you wanna give it a go, then?"

So she was two for two with her answers.....sort of. Camryn was feeling good about that. She had her quill out and was dutifully taking notes as her classmates and professor spoke. Her writing came to a sudden halt when the professor dropped the bomb. They were going to be turning each other into ferrets. She should have seen that coming, but this was definitely not good.

How was a first year who was still learning the most basic of spells supposed to master something as hard as human tranfiguration? If that wasn’t bad enough, she had to test her skills on someone else. Camryn felt the anxiety creeping up on her. Her calm, easy feeling was gone. Well, it was good while it lasted.

The Gryffindor watched as the professor demonstrated the spell on one of her housemates. Yeah, that was easy......for him. Cam wrote down the details of the spell, making sure to get it right. Now came the hard part. Who was going to want to be partners with a first year? Probably no one. Nevertheless, she took a chance. “Does anybody need a partner?” Considering the fact that almost everyone seemed to be partnered up and working already, she was not feeling hopeful.

In the meantime, Camryn figured she should start practicing the spells. First things first. Checking her notes, she practiced saying the first incantation. “Migalifors, Migalifors, Migalifors, Migalifors”. The wand movement was pretty self explanatory. She just had to point her wand. The trick was going to be visualizing the ferret, putting it all together and making it work.

Now it was time to practice the spell to reverse everything. “Reparifarge, Reparifarge, Reparifarge, Reparifarge”. When she felt like she could say the word with no trouble, Cam took her wand and gave it a gentle upward flick. After repeating the task several times, the first year looked around in a last ditch effort to find a partner.