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Originally Posted by
SlytherinSistah 
"It helps me." He confirmed the idea of visualization first, realizing that he'd done that to his own practice wood. He wouldn't have given that as a tip if Tobias hadn't brought that to his attention. Was Tobias the observant type? "You know what else would help, Tempus? For you not to be so anxious." His glance carried down towards the tapping foot, and his hand reached out and pressed against Toby's knee in an effort to stop the leg and thus the foot.
No, Toby wasn't observant. Not overly so, anyway. He would've noticed this manifestation of his own nervousness and tried to stop it. Or so Cutty thought. Why would anyone want to let anyone know what one was really feeling?
He slowly removed his hand from Toby's knee and picked up the boy's boat. "It's not bad, really. It's not. Reverto!" He changed the boat back into it's original form and held it up examining it this way and that, looking for the most boat-like shape in it. "Think of a boat you know really, really well. Noah's ark, maybe? Picture it! Hold the image in your head and use the heavier part of your wood as the bottom half of the boat. Work with what you have and make it what you want. That's a big part of Transfiguration." At least it was for Cutty.
"Reverto!" He said hitting his own boat with the spell and started again. "I think you might be on the right track with this, though. Keep it more simple." Cutty re-examined his wood and pictured a Greecian war boat. "Lignum Navicula!" He tried again and his wood stretched and formed the single-masted ship in miniature. But it was not that detailed and so Cutty was unhappy with it.
Blink. Blinkblink. "I'm not anxious,"Tobias found himself saying, looking up at Cutty with a nonplussed expression which then turned to amusement. The foot on the leg that Cutty had more or less held down had stopped, but the other one was still going, as were his tapping fingers. Tobias simply didn't stay still.
But still, homework. That was the point of this meeting, after all. Toby kept himself quiet and listened to what Cutty was saying, but inwardly he kept his mind on the simple rowboats that pulled first years across the lake on their first night at Hogwarts. He'd managed that boat in the lesson, after all. He'd start with that, and maybe work his way up. At least until he could successfully cast the spell even after taking a long break.
Tobias took his block of wood back from Cutty and observed as the boy transfigured another boat. He, of course, didn't realise that Cutty was unhappy with his boat, because Toby thought it looked pretty good.
"Nice one."
Aaaaaaand back to his own.
Deciding to repeat the method he used in class, Tobias sat facing the lake and closed his eyes. It was a lot easier to visualise now that they were here, right in front of the water that the boats went across. He held in his mind a picture of what the boats looked like, just as he had in class, focusing on just a single one at the moment; the one he'd ridden in on his first night.
It only took a few moments to get the image firmly in his head, and once it was there, Tobias suddenly snapped his eyes back open and looked at the block of wood again.
"Lignum Navicula!" he cast at once, tapping the wood with his wand.
Almost at once, he knew the spell was going to work out well. The rippling in the block was quicker and more insistent than before, and Toby figured his confidence in the magic was being mirrored by the actions of the spell. Before long, he was left with an all but perfect replica of the rowboat from that first night. Right down to the peculiar nicks all down the left edge. He held it up at eye level.
"This is the one I was practicing in class," he explained, glancing over a Cutty for a second as he turned the boat over in his hands to look at all of it. It was good. Would probably even float. But too simple. He wanted to make a boat that had some kind of shelter in it, and maybe even a mast for a sail. Something
impressive. Of course, if he couldn't manage that, then the rowboat would still be sufficient in an emergency.
But this was time for improving.
"Reverto."
Tobias turned it back into a block of wood, ready to try and step it up a gear.