Transfiguration Lesson Two (All Years)

The fall term had gone remarkably well in Grayson's opinion. It seemed his students were more engaged than they had been last year, and more curious than ever. It was not uncommon for students to find him in the library and ask him questions, both about transfiguration, and about other subjects that utilized the same concepts. Nothing made him prouder than students making connections on their own - it showed that some of them actually thought about his class in their free time.

With the winter term, he decided to go back to the basics, in the hopes that some of these connections might strike home. Grayson had always believed that one major failing of the education system as a whole was that it emphasized information more than critical thinking. Information could always be found in a book - or in modern times, on the Internet - but skills like pattern recognition had to be developed by a person in order to be of any use.

On each student's desk sat an ordinary rock - small to mid-sized, and completely unremarkable. Any object would have done, but rocks were easy to come by, and he figured it would be best to give each student the same object to start with so that the variety at the end of the lesson would be more apparent. At the top of the board were the words, "The Language of Spells," but most of the board was left blank so he would have room to write on it later.

He sat in his usual spot behind his desk, twirling a stick of chalk between his fingers as he waited for his students to arrive.

Transfiguration! Finally, a subject she excelled in. It helped that Ilvermorny was somewhat ahead in it, rather than behind, as they were in Care of Magical Creature, and Potions. She just found herself to be rather awful in Runes for some reason, but she couldn't seem to pinpoint why. But when it came to Transfiguration, Charms, and Arithmancy Lyra had always excelled. So when her schedule read that she had Transfiguration that day, nothing could wipe the smile off her face.

Her step was extra bouncy that day as she entered the classroom. Yes, it was almost Mimosa worthy in fact, and the thought made her giggle to herself quietly. She chose a seat at the front of the class, setting her things down quickly before heading to the only desk that was quite obviously not for students, giving the man behind it a wide smile. She had yet to meet him as far as she knew, and was determined to make a good impression for her first class of the new year with him.

"Mister Hughes?" She asked, hoping she wasn't interrupting him. She had quite literally memorized all her teachers' last names from her schedule, determined to remember them. She offered the man a hand for him to shake with a bright, friendly smile. "My name is Lyra Fletcher, I don't know that I ever quite introduced myself. I just moved here before the break, and wanted to introduce myself. I've always loved Transfiguration! Your class is by far one of my favorites. I'd love to catch you sometime to make sure I'm all caught up on everything you've covered so far if you're available?" She exchanged a few pleasantries with the man before returning to her seat, her smile even larger by this time as she examines the rock on her desk, turning it over in her hand to see it from every angle as she waits for the class to start.

The morning had been a particularly good one for Mimosa Harrington, having woken up a full half an hour later than everyone and still found the showers empty and clean. Clearly the girls she was forced to share a dorm room with had learned a thing or two in their two and a half years with the American model. After a leisurely shower and an equally leisurely amount time getting dressed and running a wand through her hair to make them all soft and wavy like Loni had shown her, the young Slytherin made her way to the common room where only a few people remained. Ji Hyun had been kind enough to wait for her, missing the larger part of breakfast at her behest. Not that it mattered though.

"Hey Mimosa, your looks look pretty," the boy complimented with an awkward grin, making the younger Slytherin smile. She couldn't argue with facts like these though, so she merely replied.

"Thanks, it always does."

Ji Hyun must have interpreted her smile as something more though because after he'd given her a hand in getting out of the common room, he didn't let go. In fact, Mimosa only noticed that he hand't let go when they were almost to the Great Hall to join the rest of the Slytherins coming out for breakfast and getting ready to head into transfiguration.

It was weird to say the least, saying hello to everyone one handed but when Mimosa tried to gently release her hand from the boy's grasp, his grip grew a little more firm. Though when she looked at him, similarly greeting their friends, he looked so engrossed Mimosa supposed she must have imagined it. Oh well, he wasn't doing any harm. And it wasn't like Mercy was here. If the older witch had been present, Mimosa would have directly asked Ji Hyun to let her go.

And yet by the time they were interring the classroom, the redhead was decidedly uncomfortable because she felt everyone's eyes somehow on their joined hands. Usually one to deserve and enjoy everyone's attention (really, how could they help themselves when she was the most beautiful person in the world? Her Jacques said so!), Mimosa nonetheless felt this was... weird. or a feelings eh couldn't quite place. The girl internally breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Professor Hughes, shaking her hand out of Ji Hyun's in an excuse to go say high to the librarian.

"Good morning Sir," she spoke, her high chirrup-y voice back in place and the hand incident all but forgotten. "How are you? I'm great! Though I didn't have breakfast! Can we have a food related lesson today, I'm hungry! Pleeeeeeease." In her first year, the child recalled Professor Hughes teaching a cooking class. Maybe he could do that again.

Sadly that was not the case, and the witch was informed that they would be working with rocks today. Mimosa turned to look at all the rocks on the tables, her blue gaze completely sweeping over Ji Hyun as he waited with a chair pulled out for her, and landed on Lyra!.

"Ashley!! Hiiiiiii!" she screeched, making her way to the Hufflepuff. Soon enough, she had pulled up the chair beside the fourth year, talking rapidly about her morning and how she had missed breakfast and how their rocks were the prettiest. Yes, in under five minutes, Mimosa Harrington was back to normal - much to everyone's joy.

Grayson sat up as students began to file in. A girl approached his desk, and he vaguely recognized her as the new student who had transferred shortly before break. He smiled as she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Fletcher. I'm glad to hear it! My official office hours are after class on Wednesdays and Fridays, but you can find me in the library anytime, so long as I don't have a class. I'd be happy to help you catch up."

As Lyra took her seat, Grayson's attention was captured by one Mimosa Harrington, her excitement infectious. He chuckled. "Unfortunately, it's a bit dangerous to ingest transfigured food, so we won't be working with that today. Perhaps you can stop by the kitchens before your next class."

As the class filled up, Grayson rose and made his way to the chalkboard, standing in front of it while he surveyed the room. As the class slowly quieted down, he cleared his throat.

"So," he began, "Welcome back. I hope you all enjoyed your holidays."

He hoped he had their attention today. The beginning of this class was entirely theoretical, but the faster they could get through it, the sooner they could get to the practical portion, which most students usually found more enjoyable. He glanced behind him at the board, then back to the class.

"By now, you've all been learning magic for a while. You know a lot of spells. Some of you have maybe even begun to notice some patterns."

As he spoke, the chalk rose from his hand and began to write on the board.


"Here are a few spells that follow a pattern. Can anyone tell me some things they all have in common?"

While disappointed slightly that they wouldn't be consuming food in lieu of this week's lesson, Mimosa nonetheless found herself cheered up when she sat down with Ashley and the two began to talk. Fortunately, Ji Hyjn had gotten the hint and sat down somewhere, and the boy was safely out of her mind over the next few minutes.

In fact, most boys were out of her mind until the very last student trickled in. The blonde head and tiny stature bobbed annoyingly into view , taking her seat beside Squid Boy and making Mimosa realize... oh, she was sitting with Ashley.

But that didn't mean her usual place by the lanky boy was up for grabs. Perhaps Lilac Capulet needed a reminder.

Thankfully she was saved from reading teh spells on the rboad when Ashley spoke hem out under her breath. And perhaps agitated by the young blonde's appearance, Mimosa's hand was the first in the air.

"They're pretty spells, they make birds and bunnies fly out of wands. I saw some at the opening of some of my shows." Though this was transfiguration, so perhaps they didn't randomly appear. "Or maybe they change something into bunnies and birds. But I don't know what."

Lyra beamed at the pleasant response from the man, already mentally going over some things to ask him as she nods quickly. "That would be perfect, thank you sir!" She returns to her seat a second later, making sure to look over her rock and practically memorize every bit of it.

Of course, her thoughts were torn from the rock at the sound of Mimosa's voice, her head swiveling towards the girl at the sound of her nickname. "Mary-Kate!" She listened to the girl's chatter for a while, though half of her attention eventually started drifting back towards her rock in front of her, trying to figure out what they'd be turning it into. She didn't even have time to talk about her own morning before the class started, not that it mattered much to her.

Her attention was fully on Professor Hughes as the class started, intent on showing him that she would be a good student. She looked over the three spells, murmuring them under her breath for Mimosa, and raised her hand quickly. She waited patiently to be called on before speaking quickly.

"Well, I for one see two patterns in those spells. First of all, they all have the same suffix, which I'm sure links to the second point which is that they are all used to turn an object into an animal. Avifors is for a bird or birds, or I think if I remember correctly that it can used to turn something into bats as well? Lapifors turns something into a rabbit. Piscifors turns something into a fish!"

Grayson smiled encouragingly at Mimosa's answer. It was surface-level and not particularly well-informed, but she had tried, and it was clear she had made some connections in her mind. And since making connections was the entire point of the exercise, he felt she deserved some credit for her answer.

"Right you are, Mimosa. Some of these spells do change things into rabbits and birds. Three points."

As the newest student explained her own answer, Grayson nodded, impressed. "You're onto something, Miss Fletcher. Well said. We'll come back to that later, but five points to Hufflepuff."

He nodded again at Nikolai Kessler's contribution, awarding him three points as well. A couple more people provided other answers, but none were quite as spot on as Lyra's when it came to his plan for today's lesson. He turned back to the board.

"As Miss Fletcher pointed out, all three of these spells have the same suffix: -fors, from the Latin 'formare' meaning 'to form' or 'to shape.' From that, we can gather that each spell shapes one object into another. This is a common theme in transfiguration spells, and there are many more that end with the same suffix, such as 'flintifors' and 'scribblifors.'"

On the right side of the board, above the list of spells, his chalk wrote the word Formare.

"As many of you also noticed, these particular spells all turn objects into animals. The animals in questions can be determined from each prefix, also derived from Latin. 'Avis,' the Latin word for 'bird,' 'lepus,' the Latin word for 'rabbit,' and 'piscis,' the Latin word for 'fish.'" As he spoke, the words wrote themselves on the left side of the board.

"While there are many irregular spells that don't exactly follow this pattern - 'ducklifors' for example, which uses the English word instead of Latin - this is the basic structure of a great many transfiguration incantations, all with the purpose of turning one thing into something else."

Below the words already written on the left side of the board, new words began to appear:


"All of these are Latin words that can be used as prefixes. Pick one, and see if you can guess what it does when you fit it into the transfiguration structure. When you think you have it, come tell me, and I'll let you know if you can test it on your rock."