Full Name: Grayson Ephraim Hughes
Position: Professor of Transfiguration
Qualifications & Previous Education: Studied/interned at Uagadou, a school which has a reputation for excellence in the area of transfiguration. He is well-read, and has plenty of practical experience doing odd-jobs and field studies in many areas.
Activity: I try to be on every day. Unless something unexpected comes up, I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to keep up with classes. I will be in Thailand for two weeks at the end of May/beginning of June, but hopefully I'll have decent WiFi so it shouldn't be a problem.
Roleplay Example:
Grayson stood at the back of his new classroom and surveyed his work with a critical eye. It was strange, having his own classroom. It gave him a certain sense of freedom: it was his own room; he could do whatever he liked with it. So he had.
It had taken a lot of work, but it was his first day on the job and, well, he wanted to make an impression. When he was in school, his favourite teachers were the ones who made him care about their subjects. He didn’t just want his students to learn transfiguration; he wanted them to learn to love transfiguration. It was one of the most difficult subjects to master, and if he wanted them to put in the necessary effort, he had to give them sufficient motivation.
So here he was, waiting on his first students to arrive, and pushing down his nerves as he hoped everything would go according to plan. His first class was the beginner class, and he had planned accordingly, knowing the younger students were most likely to appreciate what he had in store.
He glanced at the clock as he strolled down the aisle through the rows of desks until he got to his own. They’d be here any minute now. He pulled out a book and sat down behind his desk, propping his feet up on top of it and leaning back in his chair. He opened his book and pretended to read to himself as he waited, hoping to exude a casual air. The classroom looked exceedingly normal.
He glanced up as the first students began to trickle in, and nodded politely at them. Most of them were first years. They looked a bit cautious, as if they didn’t know what to expect. That was good; it was meant to be a surprise. He had gotten a few of the seventh years to help him on a few things, but held them to their word that they wouldn’t let anything slip to the younger students.
The class soon filled up, but Grayson took his time waiting for the wide-eyed eleven-year-olds to settle down and calm their nervous rustling. There was nothing written on the board behind him. He noticed a few of them take out textbooks, and others look around uncertainly, waiting for instructions. Finally, he closed his book and swung his legs off his desk, standing slowly and deliberately.
“Hello,” he said to the class with a friendly smile. He got a few murmured greetings in response. Moving around to the front of his desk, he held his book loosely in his hands and looked around the room, casually leaning back against the desk. “Welcome to transfiguration. Before we start, I want you to look around this classroom, and tell me what you see. No need to raise hands, just shout out whatever comes to mind.”
He got a couple of confused looks, and watched as the students started turning their heads around to see if they were missing something. After a few moments of silence, a girl said, “It’s a classroom.”
Grayson nodded. “Go on.”
“There are desks,” someone said.
“And chairs,” someone else added.
“There’s a blackboard.”
“There are walls.”
“There’s a floor.”
“There are bookshelves.”
“And books.”
“There are people!”
Grayson grinned as they started pointing things out, happy that they’d decided to participate. He nodded and held his hand up for silence.
“You see all those things? Really?” He asked. They stared back at him suspiciously. He looked around thoughtfully. “What if I told you most of you are wrong?”
They glanced at each other, then back to him. He had their attention. Holding back a smile, he glanced down at the book he was holding, examining it for a moment before holding it up.
“What is this?”
They stared at him like he was crazy. He kept a straight face.
“A book,” someone finally stated. “A transfiguration textbook.”
“It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?” he nodded. “Here, catch.”
He tossed the book underhanded towards the boy who had spoken, and the boy reflexively put his hands up and caught it. Only, it wasn’t a book anymore. He stared down at the quaffle in his hands and let out a surprised laugh, the transformation having happened seamlessly in the air. Grayson spread his hands as if to say “See?” and smiled softly at his class. A couple students applauded quietly.
“What’s this?” his pointed to a student’s empty desk. “Any guesses?”
The students had caught on, and were now chattering excitedly about what it could be.
“A plant!”
“A rhino!”
“A snake!”
“A lamp!”
Grayson reached out and tapped the desk with a slight flourish, and it collapsed into a mattress. He heard a few giggles. He pointed to another desk. “Any bets on this one?”
“A shoe!”
“A puppy!”
“A brick!”
He tapped it and it burst into a shower of feathers. The class grew louder and more excited as everyone turned in their seats to follow his path around the room. Another desk became a flurry of papers, a student’s chair became a pile of pillows, a bookshelf turned into an armchair.
Ten minutes later, he stood in the middle of a sea of random clutter. Most of his students were either standing, or lounging on softer surfaces like cushions and blankets. All were bursting with glee, and he grinned as he walked back to his own desk, the only thing in the room that hadn’t been touched. His students noticed.
“What’s that?”
“Hm?” Grayson turned back to face them, unsure what they were referring to.
“Your desk,” someone else said. “What is it really?”
All the students looked up at him expectantly. Grayson glanced at his desk. Truth be told, it was just a desk. All of the other items in the room had been random objects which he had transfigured into desks and chairs beforehand, since it was easier to reverse a transformation than it was to perform one on the spot. His desk was the only thing that had already been in the room to begin with, and he hadn’t planned to include it in the demonstration.
As he gazed around the room at the children’s eager faces, he began to realize they were expecting a grand finale. He looked at the desk. There wasn’t anything on it--he kept all of his things in his office. And how hard could it be to replace? He turned back to the class with a knowing smile, as if he’d planned this all along. Moving his hand in a quick figure-eight motion behind his back, and saying avifors in his head, the desk behind him burst into a flock of birds. His eyes twinkled as he heard several gasps and cheers around the room, and the class applauded.
As the birds flew off and settled somewhere else, he waited for the class to quiet down. When they eventually did, he clasped his hands in front of him and addressed them as they were, scattered about the room.
“I must apologize for the lack of furniture. You’ll have some next time, I promise,” he began. “And now that that’s over with...good morning, my name is Professor Hughes. And this class will be an introduction to transfiguration. One day, perhaps not too far from now, you’ll be able to do all this and more. But first, the basics.” He smiled warmly as they scrambled to collect their notebooks from the wreckage of the room and looked for hard surfaces to lean on. He was rather enjoying himself. Perhaps he could get used to this teaching thing.
by 
