Transfiguration Lesson 2 (Years 1-4)

Grayson felt like he was getting the hang of his new job. Perhaps he wasn't the best teacher in the world, but he was at least enjoying himself, especially with the younger years. They were much more enthusiastic than his older class, which made it feel more rewarding. He hoped as they got older, they wouldn't lose that spark. He'd come to care for his students over the last few months, and he felt personally invested in each of their futures.

Today was all about mastering theory. Turning a matchstick into a needle was the most basic transfiguration exercise in the book, and it had very little practical use, except that it enabled students to practise the motions without hurting anything. The concept of changing one object into another remained the same no matter what objects were involved, so starting small was the gateway to the entire branch of magic.

As the class got settled, Grayson greeted them briefly before jumping right in. They'd appreciate as much time as they could get. On each desk sat a single matchstick, and most of the students already had their wands out in preparation. He gestured for them to set their wands aside for now.

"Transfiguration," Grayson began, "is a mental challenge. The most important part of casting a transfiguration spell is to focus. You cannot afford to be distracted. Transfiguration is a process, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. With other branches of magic, ceasing to focus simply stops the spell. With transfiguration, stopping too early results in an incomplete transformation, which can be extremely dangerous, especially once you start working with animals. You must continue to concentrate until the entire process is complete. Close your eyes."

He waited for the class to do as he said. "I want you to focus only on your own breathing. Keep every other thought at bay. This is, essentially, meditation. Before you even touch the matchstick in front of you, I want you to think of nothing but the rhythm of your breath for an entire minute. If you can manage that, you're well on your way to achieving the level of focus necessary for this spell. When you've done it, look up at me."

(OoC: I am so sorry for the delay. I meant to have this up earlier, but I'm in the midst of finals at the moment and have been busier than expected with make up work :/)

Seeing as Transfiguration had been extremely fun in the fall term, Mimosa had signed up for it once more in the winter session. Because Christmas was time for fun, and after what seemed like ages, she would be going home. Despite getting multiple invitations from the palace to be at their Christmas ball and new year greeting to the masses, Mimosa had chosen to go back to Carmel. It felt like she hadn't seen her actual home in ages, almost as if Grandpa and Clara were trying to keep her away.

But that was silly, no one would ever do that. And they had been perfectly happy when she'd stubbornly insisted on going to her own room for Christmas. Clara had quickly hung up and said she was off to make preparations and Mimosa knew why. She was the smartest witch ever after all, she knew Clara was getting her hundreds of thousands of presents and decorating the house all up the way Mimosa liked it. Even Hogwarts decorated itself near Christmas because it knew Mimosa liked the season so much.

"Hiya Mister Hughes," the child greeted brightly as she entered the classroom, for once not bothered with the crowd that constantly followed her everywhere. The source of her happiness though was not simply that she would be going home soon, it was also the absence of Squid Boy (who had gone home early to be with his dad) and Ji Hyun (who was out with the cold). Without the boys, everything was just really better in the young witch's opinion. "I'm going back home for the holidays, are you going home too?" she asked in way of greeting before taking her seat near the front. As always, Bushrah settled in beside Mimosa while Seema grudgingly took a seat to the Slytherin's other side.

When the tall wizard began to describe what they would be doing today, Mimosa found herself grinning. Close her eyes? She could totally do that. She did that all the time. She was so going to ace this class. And the next part about cleansing her mind couldn't be that hard either right?

When Professor Hughes had finished, Mimosa hurried to do as he said. The witch closed her eyes, and tried not to think of the matchstick in front of ehr. Though it was kind of hard because all she wanted to so was examine the matchstick more closely. It was a real live matchstick, Mimosa had never seen one before. All the cookers at her home ran on magic or electricity. In fact, the only reason the little witch knew this thing created fire was because she had seen it in one of Gaspard's history books.

And now she was thinking about Gaspard, and how much she missed him. With all that had been going on around ehr lately, she hadn't been able to go see him and it really bothered her. Though what bothered her even more was that he hadn't tried to see her. He couldn't have just forgotten she existed right?

Right?

And now she was angry at Gaspard, which wasn't really helping her clear her mind.

But at least she was doing great at the closing eyes portion of the lesson!

Mimosa - to no one's surprise of course - was really good at Transfiguration. She kept her eyes closed and she thought about needles, kind of. Well she thought a little about needles and matchsticks but she mostly thought about Gaspard. But maybe Gaspard and needles were the same because when she opened her eyes, the matchstick on her desk looked rather sharp. The witch slowly reached for it, touching it lightly and yes, the tip did feel sharp, it was probably sharp enough to use as a needle which was the whole point of he practice right? If it could be used as a needle, it was a needle. Good job Mimosa!

She was just about to rise her hand to show off her work to Professor Hughes when the racket from the back distracted her. Turning around, the witch noticed Squid Boy of all people, trying to find something on the floor. "Squid Boy!" she cried out, her face a mixture of smug and confused. On one hand, she didn't know why he was here since he was supposed to go meet his dad. On the other, she wanted to show him how smart she was with the matchstick.

As the teacher moved to help, Mimosa bounced up from her seat. 'I got this, sir," she offered flying to the back of the class and scooting down beside Squid Boy under the pretense of helping him collect his stuff off the floor. "Hey, you came back. Did you miss me that much? What's the plan now? Are we sneaking out tonight again?" Everyone worth knowing knew Squid Boy was aware of more secret passages out of the school than most people, and sneaking out was always on Mimosa's agenda.

As the students closed their eyes, Grayson scanned their faces somewhat amusedly. Some of them had their brows furrowed in concentration, some seemed bored, and one Nikolai Kessler looked as though he was falling asleep. He watched the boy's head droop as he nodded off, and wondered what to do.

As a minute passed and students started opening their eyes, Grayson doubted that many of them had managed to actually clear their minds, but he decided to take them at their words. He nodded to each one, motioning for them to move on to the exercise as quietly as possible so as not to distract the others who were still trying to meditate.

Suddenly, a crash broke through the silence. Grayson, startled, began to rise from his seat to see if the boy was okay - it seemed the dozing Mr. Kessler had gotten a rude awakening. Mimosa Harrington was already rushing over to help, so Grayson paused, watching the commotion unfold. He raised his eyebrows at the scene, but the noise died down soon enough. Grayson debated the pros and cons of creating more noise by asking Mimosa to return to her seat, and finally decided against it. She seemed determined to help her friend with the activity.

With a sigh, he sat back down, and continued watching as his students moved on to the second part of the lesson. Some seemed to have the hang of it, but as he suspected, others were still having trouble concentrating. When the class finally came to a close, he stood and traversed the room, checking their progress. Only a couple students had shiny, silver needles on their desks. The rest were in various stages of transformation - a little pointy, a little shiny, a little grey - but most had at least managed to partially transfigure the matchstick, so he didn't consider it a failure. They would just need to continue working on concentration in the future.

The bell rang, and he dismissed the class, assigning a couple more concentration exercises as homework.



House points:
Mimosa Harrington: 10 for attendance + 10 for participation = 20 points
Nikolai Kessler: 10 for attendance + 10 for participation = 20 points
Lilith Westlocke: 10 for attendance + 10 for participation = 20 points

Total:
Gryffindor: 20
Slytherin: 40
Hufflepuff: 0
Ravenclaw: 0