Ariella raised her hand, a stray piece of her ponytail coming loose as she did so. "I think the most important thing for the first years to know is the difference between charms and transfiguration, since people often confuse them. A charm is a spell that simply changes the properties of the object it is cast upon, while transfiguration changes the actual object into something different."

She paused for a minute, brushing her hair back off my face. "I also think they should know that not all charms are simple. There are several that are quite complex. It's important to know that without full concentration, even the simplest of charms could backfire." She gave a slight nod of her head to finish off her answer, grabbing her quill and jotting down a few of the things onto her parchment that her classmates were discussing.