| Details for A Class in Transfiguration |
| Summary: | Class for fifth years. |
| Date: | November 21, 1938 |
| Location: | Transfiguration Classroom, Hogwarts |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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Artemis comes to class early, giving herself plenty of time to travel upstairs to the classroom. She’s puffing, out of breath, when she enters, looking around the room. “Oh, good,” she says breathily. Not that she was in any danger of being late. She strolls towards one of the two person desks, closer to the front than the back, and sets down her bag. She begins unloading the books she’ll need, her wand, notebook, setting them up all very neatly.
The Hufflepuff is all prepared as the start of class comes closer, sitting in her seat with her notebook opened, already leaning over to write the title of a new page in her well tabbed book.
Artemis isn't the only one who arrives at class out of breath. Noalan was the unlucky prefect tapped to escort the troublesome Ravenclaw boy to his next class. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't have to pick him up from Transfiguration drop him off in potions and then get back up to Transfigurations before the bell. The Slytherin looks absolutely exhausted as he walks between the desks to take up a place near Emi. He doesn’t say anything as he works on catching his breath.
She hadn't arrived out of breath, and she wasn't early or late. Elspeth took her seat quietly next to Artemis, and laid out her book and quill, keeping most loose things like note parchment in her bookbag until needed. She glances up as Lan arrives from escort duty, and gives him a little smile, but otherwise concentrates up front for class to start.
What a day. Domestics club meeting gone terribly.. horrid. Myrus Lowe enters the class the moment after the bell chimes for class to begin. The only open seat?
The very front of the room.
He walks forward with his satchel on his side and he gets looks. Some dirty ones. All the way up to the front as he sits down at the table by himself. Thank goodness. Some peace and quiet, hopefully.
He removes his transfiguration tome from his satchel and sets it on the desk, removing his wand from his sleeve and setting it next to it, quill, ink, parchment. Everything ready, keeping still to his half of the desk though in case someone was later than he unexpectedly.
From mid-classroom, a Slytherin with slicked-to-the-side jet black hair utters as Myrus walks by his table, "Watch out ladies, Lecher Lowe coming through!"
Cue laughter from around that table.
Her neatly titled page is all ready for note-taking. Her hands clasp together on top of her book, and her bright blue eyes dart around the room. “Hi!” she greets Noalan as he chooses a nearby desk. She regards him with a tilt of her head, blinking, and then lifts her fingers to press against her lips as she stifles a giggle. “Goodness, Noalan, did you actually /rush/ to class?”
When Elspeth arrives, Artemis smiles brightly to her friend as she sits next to her. “Hi!” she says cheerfully. In fact, every time her eyes drift towards the door when someone arrives, she sweeps up a hand to wave. So Myrus, too, gets a friendly wave, and when he sits just a the desk in front of her, she smiles and leans forward so she can greet softly, “Hi.” Artemis doesn’t approve of rumours; she doesn’t believe half the stuff spread around the school. In fact, she looks around the room disapprovingly at the voice, and then is once again leaning over the desk to say something softly to Myrus, “Just ignore them.”
The class chatter cuts down quite a bit when Dumbledore arrives and class starts. On the black board, words begin to write themselves, titled ‘Evanesco.’ Artemis eyes the blackboard, and her head immediately lowers, writing down the spell in her notebook in neat writing. Soon enough, the lecture starts, after briefly asking the class if they know what the spell is.
Elspeth frowns slightly at the jab at Myrus, her fingers twitching on her book. When Artemis offers the boy encouragement, she gives a nod in agreement. Then Dumbledore is there, and there's writing to be done. Reaching into her satchel, she now draws forth the parchment to begin writing, looking up when the class is asked to define the spell. She doesn't raise her hand, but the expectant gaze follows the professor waiting for someone to be called on to answer.
Noalan rests his forehead on the cool surface of the desk until the lecture actually starts. He only begins unpacking his stuff once Dumbledore starts talking. He halfheartedly jots down some notes, filling the rest of his parchment with rather bad doodles, biding his time for the practical portion.
Artemis has read up on the spell, and she’s one of the ones who raises her arm. Being near the front, she’s the one who answers. “The Vanishing spell, the complexity of the spell depends on how simple the object is.” Or, in her case, probably all around complicated. Her eyes lower to her notebook, writing notes and occasionally looking up to the blackboard before flicking them back down. She’s attentive, listening to the professor. She blinks as her eyes travel to one such student as he complains in whispers to another about some gossip, and Artemis frowns, shaking her head as she looks back ahead.
Noalan pauses his sketching of some stick figures with stick weapons to glance up as Emi answers the question. His gaze slides back down to his paper and just writes 'complexity' down up near the notes before adding some explosions to his drawing.
The encouraging words get a halfhearted smile, and a low "Trying," when Artemis tells him to ignore the encroaching insult. The supporting nod is enough to make his smile a full one if but only for a moment.
Professor Dumbledore arrived, and Myrus grabs a piece of parchment. It's a little bit before he starts writing things down in his own unique way.
Evanesco, the spell of the day,
makes things disappear,
from sight they go away.
from small to big
the size that changes
with each level
of difficulty ranges.
He's not a great poet, but a unique style of taking notes as the rest become a little muddled on the paper, but at least he got everything. He's quiet still, looking up and at the question, he didn't even flinch as he was writing the name nor even look up from his parchment to avoid eye contact with the Professor.
Her notes are neat and elaborate, and occasionally she pulls up a tab to flip a page, reading from another section of her notebook. A soft, “Hmm,” escapes her as she’s satisfied, and is back to her current note-taking page, pursing her lips. She shoots disapproving looks at anyone whispering amongst themselves, because they should be listening to Dumbledore, and occasionally she’ll lift a hand to ask a question. Even as the practical part of the class is announced, Artemis is still writing. She does lift her head to watch the demonstration though, and she marvels as the bird disappears upon the professor’s desk.
But the students won’t be practicing on an animal. No, they have something simpler to learn the spell. A simple stone, in fact – the box is set on top of the professor’s desk. Noalan and Myrus are asked to hand out the stones to the students.
Noalan lets out a nearly inaudible groan. Of course Dumbledore picks on him. Already blaming Dumbledore for his trip up and down and up a dozen flights of stairs, he grudgingly gets up to pass out stones to the students. "You'd think he could just wave a wand and make stone appear on everyone's desks." He complains to Myrus as he moves around handing out stones.
Evelyn was fairly, if not completely, quiet for practically the entire lesson for her, sitting near the back of the class. This isn't entirely unusual for her, of course. Usually she keeps away from the spotlight, not wishing to bring any attention to herself. As the rocks are passed out, she signs -Thank you- to Noalan, offering a tiny smile to Myrus as well.
Myrus grabs his wand when asked to get the box of stones to pass out to everyone with Noalan. Swish, flick. "WingArdium LeviOsa." And he'd hold his wand towards the box that begins to float, so Noalan would be able to not have to lift it the entire way around the classroom, hopefully making this go faster.
Artemis is still finishing up her notes as the stones are being handed out, making references to another page, keeping things understandable, at least to her. She looks up when a stone is placed on top of her desk, and she smiles brightly. “Thank you!” she says warmly, her blue eyes sparkling. After her stone is received, Artemis sets down her quill and her eyes follow the two boys handing out stones.
The slick-haired Slytherin would reach for the box, but instead of reaching in to take a stone instead of being handed one. 'Accidentally' hitting the side of the box, "Oh dear, I'm such a clutz, at least it wasn't a -blouse-. Eh Grope-us?" Snickering to the reference of Myrus' mishap with Elizabeth in the entry hall, and another nickname he's earned.
Guess that's one way to do it. "Thanks. That box was a pain." Noalan says as the charmed box floats. Hands free now, he uses both hands to pick out stones and place them on desks. He gives his cousin a quick -you're welcome-, back and a momentary grin. At Emi and Elsbeth's desk he says a quick, "You get to escort Gage next week. That round trip is a killer." Lan notices the Slytherins antics, but it gets a sort of halfhearted, "Hey now, no call for that." out of him "Not in front of the professor at least." After a minute or so he returns to his own desk, and extracts his own wand from his sleeve.
Returning the grin to her cousin, Evelyn then looks at her own stone. It's just her and the stone for now. After a moment, she looks up from the stone and watches the others, to see how they do. Slowly, she gets out her wand, but doesn't attempt the spell on it just as yet. As far as the Slytherin's antics, she says, as per the norm, nothing. She doesn't want to draw his antics toward her, after all.
Myrus and Noalan currently are handing out stones in transfiguration class. Well, they -were-, until some slicked-to-the-side black-haired Slytherin knocked the box over 'on accident', which Myrus was successfully leviosa'ing around the room so Noalan could hand out the stones to be practice targets for the students for the Evanesco spell. The dissappearing spell.
Just before that, Myrus was saying to Noalan, "No problem-" but is cut off by stones being spilled everywhere and his charm is lost with the loss of concentration and the jarring by the Slytherin boy, who's laughing with some of his friends. A Goyle of some far cousin of some others that are seen around.
"Sorry Goyle, I guess a box is too complicated for you to successfully utilize properly. Let your prefect handle it for you."
The laughing stops immediately after his statement, and Myrus is already down starting to collect the stones from the floor like it really was an accident. A snicker or two at his method of retaliation.
Esther seems a little bit sleepy from all the hard, hard classwork. She's yawning cutely, too, trying to fight the boredom that Transfiguration is so like to bring out in her. Otherwise, she sits at attention as best she can, wand in one hand, waiting for a rock to come. She's not even giving Myrus a smile today.
“Hmm,” escapes Artemis as she watches the ‘accident.’ “Oh,” she lets out breathily and rises to her feet, immediately hopping over to where Myrus is. “I can help you with that, Lowe.” She leaves her desk, her stone simply lying on the desk above her notebook, and crouches by Myrus to help pick up the rest the stones.
"Why not kill two birds with one… stone…" Noalan starts, only noticing the pun when too far into the saying to stop. He goes on anyways before someone throws something at him, "and vanish the stones." Ya he's not offering to help, Emi's clearly got it covered. "Why don't you help too?" He recommends to the Slytherins, "Maybe you can gain some house points rather than losing some." He says, part carrot part stick.
Evelyn eyes her cousin's words from afar. She'll possibly make fun of him for the pun later. After all, what's the use of being silent now when you can't make fun of your family later…right? A tiny smile crosses her lips as her attention goes back to the rock. She eyes it, poking it with her wand. She knows she should be making it disappear.
Myrus was quick to gather them up with all the help. "Thank you," he said to Artemis when she comes to help him.
The Slytherins half-heartedly come to terms with what Noalan says, and a few of the closer ones move over and slowly pick up as few rocks as possible.
Myrus looks at them, and his side of the 'falling rocks' zone cleared, he moves over to that side. "Thank you, Goyle." He sounds genuine enough.
Goyle snorts at Myrus, Snakes returning to their seats, and Myrus helps Noalan pass out the rest by holding the box for him, only a look to Esther with a strained look of very hidden shame in his face at his older cousin. Afterwards he'd return the empty (or nearly empty) box to Professor Dumbledore’s desk, and returning to his own, setting down the stone on the empty part of his desk, grabbing his wand, and giving it a go. "Evanesco." He says at the rock.
Esther takes her rock, giving Myrus a somewhat quizzical look, before she turns to her rock and tries something similar. She's quiet, her wand movement almost languid, a little bit lazy. "Evanesco." She states simply, watching her wand-tip - Hoping she doesn't end up watching a rock.
Just like that. The golden girl succeeds, in her own quiet way.
Artemis offers Myrus a smile, tilting her head a bit to the side. “No problem,” she replies. Once she’s back at her desk and sitting down, the girl lets out a heavy sigh, staring intently at the rock for several seconds. Combing her fingers through her honey blonde tresses, sweeping it around to hang over one shoulder, she reads her notes, nodding her head. Sure, she understands, but as she picks up her wand, as she sweeps and flicks, she says, “Evanesco,” with the right pronunciation. But the intent isn’t completely there and nothing happens with the rock. So Artemis returns her eyes to the book, trailing a finger along the words she’d written, studying the text.
Noalan never really understood the complexity of some spells. As it goes, vanishing something seems to be a rather basic concept compared to some stuff they did even in their first year. In practice it seems bad to let a first year delete something from existence, but seems easier than turning something into a bird or creating a snake. "Evanesco." He says, flicking his wand. With little fuss, the stone is no longer on his desk.
Esther seems mildly happy that she's made her rock disappear. She even pokes at the space-time it had occupied gently, with her wand-tip. Her mind wanders though, imagining just what kind of fun this spell would be on, say, a certain Slytherin who had been giving her problems lately. Her eyes eventually travel to Myrus, lingering on her younger cousin as she gently waves her wand back and forth through the lack of rock. Smokey grey boring into his skull.
Myrus stands there and looks at his rock, then the desk, then his lap, and takes a deep breath. His head nodded in a rhythm about ten times as his eyes closed. He opens them, and points his wand at them again, "Evanesco," he says a bit louder. The rock disappears slowly about the sides of itself at first, then quickly and all of a sudden the rest of it disappears from off of his desk. A sigh of relief.
With all the disappearing stones throughout the class, Evelyn figures she can't hold off on performing the spell forever. She brings her wand up, aims at the stone, and performs the proper movements while saying, "Evanesco." The stone, thusly, disappears.
Artemis reads, looking over her thorough notes. She lifts her head to glance around the room, tilting her head as she looks from one student to the next as a few manage to make their rocks disappear. Picking up her wand again, she looks at her friends, but deciding that they’re busy glances to another. She regards Esther as she succeeds nicely, and then trails her gaze onto Evelyn, then turning to look in front of her at Myrus. She gestures to either of them, asking for help. “Anyone able to offer help?”
Esther manages another smile when Myrus succeeds, but otherwise she keeps from drawing attention to herself. It's still good to know that almost everyone has managed to cast successfully. Except for poor Artemis… And so Esther gets up, almost unconsciously, and wanders over to Artemis' desk. "You've got the intonation just right, Artemis, but remember that you need to get the intention right too. No pressure. Try again." She encourages, dropping to one knee beside the other girls desk, and watching up close. "Just you. And the rock."
Myrus looks back when he hears Esther's voice at the table behind him. He sees her helping out Artemis, and he smiles a little quizzically, tilting his head at her getting down on her knees to get a better look, but he moves to sit back down at his own desk and start writing some stuff that he looks like he's trying to hide. Or maybe he just holds his hand that way when he writes really small. Either way, he's writing something. It's really just some notes on the spell.
Seeming pleased enough with herself at her progress, Evelyn is nearly caught off guard when Artemis is looking for help on her own rock. She nods along to what Esther tells the other girl. "Wha…what um…what Lowe said." She manages to say, loud enough for the others two to hear from her position. "You've um…well…you've got to just let your mind not think or focus on anything um…anything else. Just the rock and you."
Artemis’ eyes move onto Esther as she steps up, and she offers her a bright smile. Watching her as she speaks, listening, she nods. But before she tries again, she picks up her quill, murmuring softly, “One second.” And she adds to her notes, connecting some of Esther’s helpful words to the web of notes already on the page. Then the quill is set back down, drawing her wand up once again. “Okay,” she says, adding a determined nod as she slides her gaze onto the rock. Her other hand raises, just hovering a little in an unconscious gesture while she holds her wand in front. “Evanesco,” she says, her wand motioning. The rock jumps, flickers, and doesn’t fade from sight. Artemis lets out a sigh as her cheeks colour. “I- I think I was putting too much thought into it,” she admits, pursing her lips.
Myrus watches the two behind him for another few moments. He then stands up, and goes to grab another rock so he can try it again. "Evanesco," he says to three stones lined up on his desk now nice and neat. First one gets it first. He pointed his wand at the first of the three, and attempts to cast the spell one more time.
Esther watches, her eyes full of confidence, kneeling beside the other girl and conveying all the happy thoughts she can. The rock jumps, and fails to do exactly what it's supposed to. "You are." She pouts a little for the girl, and demonstrates with her wand, but without casting. "You're overthinking it. Your mind will tell you that vanishing a rock is impossible." She sighs, as she explains. "If that thought exists in your mind, you'll never vanish it. So push it aside. Focus. Evanesco."
Evelyn sits, now, quietly at her desk once again. Dipping her quill into ink once more, she makes herself a few more notes, scratching out some thoughts for herself on the spell.
Artemis returns her gaze onto Esther to listen to her, nodding her head, but as she listens she doesn’t possess the confidence. She looks towards the desk where the professor is, and then back to her classmate helping her. “I’ll try it again,” she announces. At least she doesn’t give up, holding the wand up before the stone. But failing, well, it causes her to lose her confidence, and a complicated spell like this one, well… “Evanesco,” she says again, moving her arm to move her wand through the necessary swish and flick. And absolutely nothing happens. She closes her eyes. “I don’t think I’m going to get this during class,” she sighs softly. “I’m just no Slytherin.” She glances to her side, back to Esther, smiling softly. “That was really impressive, getting it on your first try.” Her eyes wander towards where Noalan was and then back. “There are some really talented students in your House.”
"Everyone has talents, Artemis." Esther manages to remember the Hufflepuff's name, smiling kindly to her. She's normally the quiet achiever, it's unusual to see her this… Helpful. "Slytherin or no. If you'd like, I have nothing planned after class, perhaps we could go to the library and practice there?" Her plan B is of course, to go there by herself. It's probably why she's so proficient. A small, curious glance is shot at Myrus, inexplicable. "We all have stumbling blocks; we'll just find the best way through this one."
Artemis nods her head, a smile touching her lips, even as she lets out a sigh. “I’m not sure mine is with magic,” she admits. Sure, she can remember practically anything about history though. The blonde haired girl rests her wand on top of her notebook, with the other hand gentle over top of the wood, looking down at one of the bubbles she wrote in. “Oh!” she says delightedly when she turns her eyes onto Esther. “That would be really amazing of you, if you can spare the time. Thank you!” A soft sigh escapes her as she sighs. “Niko and Alphard are always so busy with N.E.W.T classes and their clubs I haven’t managed to grab them for extra lessons.”
Taking out a small piece of scrap paper. Evelyn scratches out a little note on it and waves her wand over it, whispering, "Wingardium Leviosa." Which the proper pronunciation, of course. The paper floats up and she blows on it so that it floats more easily toward Artemis' desk. As it floats over the Hufflepuff's desk, Evelyn lets the spell go, which allows the note to fall gently to the desk.
The note reads: "It's okay if you have a hard time with this spell. I have hard times with spells all the time too. They're not easy. I'm sure you'll get the spell figured out soon. –Evelyn”
Alphard. The mention of her other cousin lights a fire deep in Esther's normally smokescreen stare. "Really? Alphard is quite a busy man, so I can understand that." The girl smirks a little. Once again, another piece just falls into place… It's uncanny how well things are turning out for Esther. A gentle tap upon the desk. "You're welcome." She smiles, getting to her feet - Her delightful, wild tumble of hair bouncing a little bit, as she turns and walks back to her desk, gently toying with her wand. How fortuitous, indeed.
Artemis blinks as a piece of parchment flutters down her line of vision. Huh? The girl reaches out, taking it out of the air. She falls silent as she reads, tilting her head, and then glances around the classroom until she’s looking over to Evelyn. A bright smile is offered over at her, and she mouths, “Thank you,” before she looks to Esther. “Oh, he really is, isn’t he? I’m so impressed at how well he keeps up with all his classes and the clubs put together. Auror,” she murmurs. “That’s so amazing.” A splash of colour rise into her cheeks as she speaks, and she quickly cuts off as she realizes she’s starting to babble. “Sorry,” she says quickly, and then adds in before Esther heads back to her seat, “Thanks so much for your help. It’s very much appreciated.”
Foolish girl. Esther can't blame her though, not so long ago she might have thought the same. The grip on her wand increases noticeably, the girls heart rate climbing as she thinks of her dear, sweet cousin. She makes it back to her desk, slowly exhaling, the cute young woman withdrawing her quill and a small scrap of parchment, noting something down. The class passes mostly in peace, with Myrus only managing to humiliate himself one more time before the time comes to depart. True to her word, Esther waits for Artemis to put her books away, before she rises from her chair. tapping her quill dry and then tucking it behind one ear - The phoenix feather teasing its way into her wild hairnest. "Ready?"
Artemis, well, she sets her wand aside and returns to writing a few more notes. At least she’ll remember the spell, how it’s supposed to work, but as for practical? Well, maybe with a little help? She falls silent when Dumbledore speaks again close to the end of class, and then she’s neatly gathering up her things. Everything has its place in her bag, along with her wand in an outer pocket on her bag. She’s pulling the strap over her head to her other shoulder when she’s turning to Esther, and she gives her a beaming smile and a nod. “Yes. On our way.”
Esther's wand is left in her hand, the delicate tip touched against the desk almost rhythmically as she thinks, and thinks, and thinks. Artemis is given a nod, and the eccentric girl lifts from her seat, and shoulders her bookbag. "Away with us." She agrees, leading the way out of the classroom and into the Library. They have time during lunch, after all - Although this is probably how Esther ended up so thin.