Transfiguration Lesson 1: TBA

[MadMadamMalfoy]

It's a chilly mid-December afternoon outside, but one wouldn't know it by walking into the Great Hall. The hall is illuminated by several floating candles that give off an air of cozy warmth. The only indication of the weather outside is the gray, overcast sky reflected in the ceiling.

Students arriving for today's transfiguration lesson will notice that the Great Hall looks a bit different than usual. Several tall pine trees stand at the front of the hall, and all of the house tables have been pushed against the walls. In their place are cushions in festive holiday colors, arranged in a semi circle in front of the staff table. Professor Carton stands leaning against the staff table, seemingly lost in thought.

In case the cushions' presence isn't self-explanatory, a note on the chalkboard beside the professor instructs, Please sit on the cushions and wait for class to begin.

OOC: Welcome to the first OOC transfiguration lesson of the term. Class will start in 24-28 HOURS has started.

Lesson Progression
Q1: Name a winter holiday tradition
Q2: What spells could be used for holiday deocrating?
Main Activity: Crystallus decus & Mediocris luminaria
Mini Activity: Tree decorating

[FearlessLeader19]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MadMadamMalfoy

Changing directions, he saw that Blackthorne and Blaze had paired up and were making progress. “Excellent work, ladies,” he said. He started to turn away but stopped as he noticed Blackthorne’s hand in the air. “Yes, Miss Blackthorne?”

Claudine forced a smile at the compliment. She idly tapped her wand on the table. “Um… professor? I also have a question. No fairies were hurt to acquire these wings, right? You’re certain?” Her gaze flicked to Violet, silently apologising for stealing Carton’s attention. But the question had been bugging at her. Not that she doubted Carton… not fully, anyway. Claudine just needed to hear it again for reassurance. Creatures were, after all, very important to her. And unknowing to her, it was also important to Violet.

[astrocat]

Ash figured that she should probably stop making ornaments now... oh good, they were decorating! Some of her ornaments were weird-looking, but most of them were good. So she scooped up a bunch of good ornaments and carried them over to the nearest tree. It took her a while to decorate, because she wanted to find the BEST spot for each ornament. She couldn’t just put them wherever! Hmmm... she decided to hang these ornaments in diagonal strings, like streamers or fairy lights. It looked cool. Ash was very impressed with herself and looked over to the professor to make sure he could see how good she was at this. Then she got another handful of ornaments... walked over to a different tree, and yeah. These ones were going to be placed to look random. She picked up the first ornament. A phoenix. Hmmm, where to put it?

[MadMadamMalfoy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Claudine forced a smile at the compliment. She idly tapped her wand on the table. “Um… professor? I also have a question. No fairies were hurt to acquire these wings, right? You’re certain?” Her gaze flicked to Violet, silently apologising for stealing Carton’s attention. But the question had been bugging at her. Not that she doubted Carton… not fully, anyway. Claudine just needed to hear it again for reassurance. Creatures were, after all, very important to her. And unknowing to her, it was also important to Violet.

Norman waited to hear Blackthorne’s question, but Blaze spoke up first. He supposed he should’ve seen that question coming. Frankly he was surprised no one else had asked it first. He knew there were quite a few animal lovers in this school… part of the reason he’d acquired the fairy wings in the way he did.

Technically, no, he could never be 100% sure that no fairies were harmed in the process, but he had bought ingredients from the same supplier before and had no reason to believe they would lie to him. “I’m certain.” he replied with a slight nod. “I bought these from a supplier who only harvests potion ingredients from creatures that have died from natural causes.” Did that reassure her? Come to think of it, what was Blackthorne going to say? He shot the other girl a look, as if to ask if she had anything to add.


Having finished covering one section of a tree with lights and ice flowers, Norman moved to another side. As he did so, he caught Fox’s look out of the corner of his eye, and he noticed her decorations. That looked rather pretty! “Nice job, Miss Fox,” he said with a slight smile. Elsewhere, he saw Nam hanging fairy lights and gave the boy similar words of encouragement. “You too, Mr. Nam. Good work!”

As he continued decorating, he glanced at his watch to see that time was winding down. “You have about ten minutes left!” he announced to the class.

OOC: I’m allowing a little extra time for this activity. You have ABOUT 8-12 HOURS left.

[FearlessLeader19]

A sudden wave of sadness washed over her but the thought of fairies dying was just… heartbreaking. Claudine squinted at Carton briefly as though attempting to see through any lies he may be telling. It seemed she saw nothing of the sort for she simply nodded then went back to creating all the things for the decorating. “Mediocris luminaria… Mediocris luminaria…” The muttering of the incantation was done until it seemed to roll flawlessly off of her tongue. As an artist, tracing out a lightbulb shape was pretty easy for her so soon enough, Claudine felt ready for the actual thing.

“Mediocris luminaria.” As usual, her tone of voice was commanding. Her level of focus was really up there since the girl was determined to have the same immediate success as she had with the first spell. The yellow light happened and she watched happily as the fairy wing before her went into a chain of fairy lights. Claudine had imagined them to be multi coloured lights and hoped this would be the case when she placed them on the tree and lit the small bulbs up.

She decided to recreate the same small bulbs, only this time the lights would be bright pink. “Mediocris luminaria.” Claudine moved her wand in that lightbulb shape and soon enough she had an identical length of fairy lights before her. Honestly, this had to be one of the best Transfiguration lessons ever.

Next steps? To decorate. Claudine motioned for Violet to follow her. “The important thing is to have fun so I would advise you to decorate however you see fit. A colour blast just catches everyone's eyes. Meaning, there’s no wrong way to decorate a tree.” Creativity was great on most occasions. Saying so, the older Snakette got to work. Using a basic Levitating Charm, the kitten ornament was directed to the top of the tree. Not to the exact top where a star would be in place but just below there. The same went for the hippogriff. Once they were hung, Claudine stood back to admire the shimmering, transparent beauties.

Now for the lights. Yet again, the girl used magic to drape the lights, starting with the multicoloured lights. Next went the pink lights. Um… did they light the lights up now, so that the bulbs could be checked to ensure they were working? Where was Carton so that Claudine could ask?

[Chelliephone]

Professor Carton got another "Thank you, sir" as he continued to levitate his fairy lights to the top of his tree and down until he could reach to do it manually when it neared the bottom. Once lights were all done, he could hear Professor Carton mention the class time was almost over so he quickly took his ornaments and levitated a few towards the top - the king chess piece he'd created near where the star would be, and then all of the pawns and knights closer down towards the bottom where he could reach. Once he'd gotten everything on, he looked at the tree again before grabbing another couple of quick snowballs. "Crystallus decus" he envisioned a raven first, hook already attached, and a snake second. If he had time, he'd do a lion and a badger as well, but he wanted the current Nam houses represented first.

[Stefan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by siriusblackliveson

Charlie smiled as Noah moved closer with his assortment of ornaments. She smiled and laughed a bit watching him a few seconds longer. "Honestly it would probably help if I didn't get distracted watching other people." her laugh left her chest before she could think about containing it. But it was what it was.

Glancing back at all of his ornaments, "How'd you get the big one to look so good even after enlarging it?" she was extremely curious now. He had done a good job. Hearing their professor ask about making the big one move she was curious about what he was going to do with it.

Oh. Oh. Grin.

Noah matched Charlie's smile with his own, as he continued with his work. "And here I thought you needed my help." The Gryffindor collected all of his ornaments, and began multiplying them to fill up his chosen tree, practising as much charm work as well to perfect his skill.

"Oh this one?" Noah turned to his BB8 ornament and showed it to Charlie. "It's all about visualizing, and not getting distracted as it doubles its size. I sort of, keep a clear image in my mind as I do it." it sounded like a walk in the park, and it was for Noah considering his natural gift for the subject. But he, likewise, understood that not everyone found it easy.

Turning his attention back to Professor Carton, "Thanks, Professor. I can try." though he wasn't confident, he was game to give it a go. "Visualize and execute." he told himself out loud, breathing in slowly and out, eyes fixed on his snow droid. "Piertotum Locomotor!" at first, it looked like nothing happened, but then it started to roll around in place, the head piece wobbling in the opposite direction, counter-acting its own body. "I think I got that one okay...but no beeps." Huh. Maybe he missed out on that detail while picturing the droid moving?

"Excuse us one sec, Charlie." Noah got up from his spot and moved towards one of the trees. "Come, BB8." he too summoned his now moving snow droid and began to levitate and fix his ornaments and lights on the tree. He will be keeping his BB8 for now. Maybe Heath would like to adopt it?

[MadMadamMalfoy]

Norman eyed Blaze for a moment, gauging her reaction. He half-expected more questions to follow, but none came. He watched her attempt the fairy wings to fairy lights spell, and he efforts earned a slight smile. "Nicely done, Miss Blaze," he said.

He resumed decorating the tree for the final few minutes of class. Each string of lights, each icy flower he placed brought back memories of all he'd lost until he had to stop. Instead he focused his attention on the students decorating, and he saw Blaze and Nam making progress with their decorations. "Nice work, you two," he said. But it was Mordaunt's droid that stole the show! He watched with a small smile as the boy tried and ultimately succeeded in animating it. "More than okay, I'd say," he replied. "Well done, Mr. Mordaunt!"

By the time he checked his watch again, class was over. "Alright, looks like our time is up. Class dismissed!" He announced to the class - and not a moment too soon as far as he was concerned! He was so eager to put all thoughts of the holidays behind him that he nearly forgot to give the homework. "Your homework: practice Crystallus decus and decorate something with the ornaments you create, be it something here at Hogwarts or at home over the holiday break."

OOC: Thank you all for coming! I'll leave the thread open a few more hours for those who want to wrap up/post their character leaving.