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Transfiguration Lesson: Do the Monster Mash It’s a sleepy October afternoon at Hogwarts, but not just any October afternoon. Today is the day before Halloween. If the holiday slipped your mind, one look into the transfiguration classroom will instantly remind you. The desks are arranged in their usual rows, but that’s the only thing normal about the classroom’s appearance. Posters of classic movie monsters adorn the walls ( 1 2 3 4 5 6), and there are several dummies of varying heights and skin tones lined up along the back of the room. A large trunk sits at the front where Professor Carton’s desk would normally be. What’s inside? Supplies for a costume party, perhaps? Even the professor himself has gotten in on the act with a “costume” of sorts. A large brown dog with bluish-green eyes sits calmly beside the trunk, in the exact spot where Professor Carton would usually stand. If the hair and eye color don’t make it obvious that the dog is the professor in animagus form, its behavior will. The dog!professor watches the door for students, and with each new arrival, it jerks its head toward the chalkboard where the following message is written: Quote:
Lesson Progression: Q1: How can one use transfiguration to disguise their appearance? Q2: what are some advantages/disadvantages to changing one's physical characteristics with transfiguration? When is it useful? When would another method of disguise work better? Spell Practice: Ristaris, Crinis Muto & Tirinum Main Activity: Monster Makeover |
It was a pity they had to wear their school uniforms instead of dressing up for this lesson. Charlie positively adored Halloween, you see. The Swedish boy loved dressing up in costumes and attending spooky, haunting parties with his friends. That was why he was pleasantly surprised when he turned up at the Transfiguration classroom and saw the posters. It was quite true that he recognised a few characters. A quick look at the dummies happened before he honed in on the dog. “Hallå, Professor.” {Hello, Professor.} Char had heard all about Carton’s Animagus form so the man was easy to recognise even in this form. Greetings out of the way, he made his way to the back of the class to take a seat. |
Damien walked into the classroom, excited. And maybe a little disappointed. He'd been hoping to be able to wear a costume for a Halloween class, but alas, this was how he was stuck: In uniform. Oh well. His eyes went wide at the posters around the classroom, and he almost jumped when he saw a live dog sitting in the room. Oh, it was the professor. "Hi Professor!" he grinned. |
Daniel had progressed from nearly understanding what Transfiguration was to now reading advanced theory books during his seven years at Hogwarts. He'd even go so far as to say that this was one of his top three favorite classes. Unlike some of the other students who were disappointed that they couldn't wear their Halloween costumes, Daniel was relieved that he had to wear his uniform. Every year around Halloween, he was reminded of his Cinderella costume, which Lisa had persuaded him to wear to match her. It was a memory he'd like to Obliviate. (or so he says) The Hufflepuff entered the classroom, his textbook clutched to his chest, and the first thing that drew his attention was the dog standing where the professor usually stood, motioning toward the blackboard. An Animagus. This was the professor. Daniel greeted him with a nod and moved to a seat at the front. He leaned back in his chair and looked at the movie posters on the wall as he finished setting up his desk. |
Dressed in his newly washed claw blue uniform William entered the Transfiguration classroom, stopping on the threshold to take in all the monster posters. His eyes lingered a bit longer on the female frankenstein than on the others. It was something about her that got his attention. Shaking his head Will realized that he was blocking the entrance and thus with a slight flush to his face he hurried over to settle down in one of the vacant seats next to Charlie mouthing out a short "Hello Char!". It was when he had pulled up his textbook, and parchments on his desk that Will noticed the dog up front which caused him to smile in greeting "Hello professor C!" before his attention was caught by the dummies lining the walls. Were they going to transfigure the dummies into monsters? It was after all halloween tomorrow. |
Keighley didn't necessarily mind not being able to dress up for lessons but she did think it would've been nice to have a party or something for Halloween at some point. Dressing up with fun. So was hanging around with her friends but first she had a class to attend. Stepping into the room it wasn't the posters that caught her attention at all. It was of course the large dog that was sat in front of the professors desk. The dog that had the professors same shade of hair as his fur and same color eyes. It had to be him. "Good afternoon, Professor." Keigh smiled warmly as she always did. Moving to take her usual seat beside Charlie in the back of the room flashing him an even brighter smile as she got herself settled for the lesson. |
Alfie was excited for Halloween. Dressing up in fun costumes, hanging out with friends, eating candy and sweets. What wasn't there to love? He'd had a little trouble concentrating in his morning class because he was looking forward to the next day. But he was really doing his best. He normally liked Transfiguration, so this class shouldn't be too bad. When he entered the room he glanced around, looking for Professor Carton. He wasn't there, but there was a dog at the front of the room. Alfie's first instinct was to pet it, but he stopped himself for two reasons. One, you shouldn't pet a random dog. And two, after only a few moments of observation he realized that it was not a random dog but Professor Carton's animagus form. Good thing he didn't try to pet him, that would have been awkward. He gave him a wave in greeting instead. Alfie turned to find a seat, scanning the room for one of his friends. Two of his dormmates were already there, but sat far apart from each other. Daniel in the front and Charlie in the back. Alfie considered for a moment, and decided he didn't necessarily want to sit right in the front. He gave Daniel a smile, but headed toward the back and took a seat right in front of Charlie. "Hey Charlie," he greeted cheerfully. There were people in the seats on either side of him already, and he gave them cheerful smiles too. "Hi Keighley, hi William." He looked around the room, studying each of the posters with interest. |
Brandon liked Halloween. He hadn't really been allowed to do it when he was younger, so he made sure to celebrate at Hogwarts. Last year he was Nick from Heartstopper. This year, he was thinking he might want to be an astronaut. Upon entering the classroom, Brandon looked around at the posters. In particular, the one of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He walked right up to it and stared, immediately identifying it as the scariest and most dangerous monster in the room (the kind of monster that only showed its face sometimes). Disturbed, he took a seat on the opposite side of the room from it. "Hi Professor Carton," he said, waving to dog!Professor Carton. He thought it was cool that the professor had an animagus form. He could tell it was the professor in disguise because only Professor Carton sat and watched just like the professor always did. |
Question 1 SPOILER!!: individual replies ^_^ When the steady stream of students filing into the room had stopped, Norman transformed back into his human form and glanced at his watch. Time to start. He flicked his wand toward the door, and it closed with a soft click. “Good afternoon and happy almost Halloween, everyone,” he greeted the class. “We have a lot to do today, so let’s get started.” He paused a few moments to allow time for the students to focus on him before continuing, “Here’s a question to get your minds going. How can transfiguration be used to disguise one’s appearance? I just showed you one example with my animagus form. Give me another.” OOC: Class has officially started! Feel free to jump in at any time; just pretend your student has been here the whole time unless you want IC consequences for a late arrival. We’ll move on again in 22-24 HOURS. ^_^ |
Charlie had busied himself getting his materials out for the lesson. By the time Will made an appearance, the Hufflepuff’s notebook, textbook and writing apparatus were out. He threw his younger friend a lazy grin and mounted back, “Hey, Will!’’ but in Swedish. William was one of the few persons he could actually converse with in the language. Then Keighley made her appearance, taking another seat beside him. All Char was missing now was one Dennis Walles, and he’d have been surrounded by the persons closest to him. “Hi, Keigh! Hi, Alfie!” Char noticed his roommate checking out the posters. “Some are rather spooky, don’t you think?” Suddenly Carton was standing before them all. Human Carton, that is. Happy almost-Halloween to you too, Professor. While the man’s dog form seemed to have had nothing to do with Halloween, it did with disguising one’s appearance. “Another method is by changing one’s hair. The texture, the colour, even the style. I could take up a green mohawk, for example.’’ He looked over at Keighley, wondering what his girlfriend would think of that look. |
Remy had, of course, been here all along. In fact, one of the very first to arrive at her absolute favourite class. She had been distracted by the Halloween themed posters and thought they were just positively awesome, and almost completely missed Professor Carton in his animagus form. The first question was easy. She WAS going to choose her favourite form of appearance altering transfiguration, the hair changing spell, but someone - CHARLIE - got there first. Her smile faded, but thankfully Remy had back up answers. “The Multicorfors Spell, Professor.” She said simply. “It’s spell designed to change colour and style of the target, or your own, outfit. Perfect for making a quick disguise.” She would be happy to demonstrate, of course. |
When she'd entered with the rest of the student, Vera had had to keep her head down and hurry to a seat when she'd noticed Carton in his dog form. Something told her that petting an animagi Professor was probably frowned upon and she wasn't looking to risk it and get into detention Thankfully she didn't have to contemplate going up and touching the dog anyways, as class began and there stood Carton in his fully human form - already encouraging them to think so early in the lesson. What did Hogwarts teachers have against jumping straight to lectures so she could zone out? But.. at least she had an answer. Hand shot up and she waited to be called on. "Canary creams are a type of transfiguration and a candy that can momentarily turn the person who eats it into a bird." Which was arguably useless, but there were other type of transfiguration spells she didn't know the names of that did much of the similar. |
Whispers in the corridors occasionally equated Mitsuki to having a Halloween aesthetic every day. While she was fond of the holiday, this was quite the narrowminded conclusion based on ignorance. It bothered her little (read: on occasionally quite a lot but the people who mattered did not draw such conclusions) but she did make a little effort to accentuate her style more so than she would usually. With some quick wand work, the fifth her had given herself a set of ram horns adorned with blue roses. The roses were, somewhat, in homage to the floral crown gift Peeves had bestowed upon her a couple of terms ago but mostly because she had acquired a certain fondness for them recently. She would have chosen daffodils, but they were a bit too vibrant a contract to her Ravenclaw robes. Should there be other festivities, and Mercer wished to attend, then she could make the appropriate changes. She hadn't so much as flinched at Professor Carlton's reveal seeing as she had grown quite accustomed to professors seeming to wish to ensure that students knew about their ability and had simply settled into her seat to organize her things. She did fuss a little with her bangs, a simple attempt to fluff them somewhat, as the professor began the lesson and...well...she was quite literally a walking example of ways in which one could use transfiguration for cosmetic purposes. The same sort of result could be produced with a Dark charm too, however. "Switching spells," she offered upon raising her hand. "One could switch a part of their body with that of a creature to alter their appearance." Or as a defensive measure if used on an opponent, which is what her mother's dueling technique had been so she had heard. |
An Animagus transformation was always fascinating to watch, no matter how many times she had seen it before. Becoming one was something Kayla had tossed around in her mind a few times, but never too seriously. However, it always became a more intriguing idea whenever she got to see it in person. Perhaps... But she wouldn't let that thought distract her right now. She needed to suggest something else as an answer. "I suppose the Melofors Jinx could work," she said, after raising her hand. "Encasing your head in a pumpkin isn't particularly subtle, but it will cover up your face." Not particularly useful unless you were planning to hide in a pumpkin patch, or perhaps among autumn decorations in general. But it was an option, however narrow its use. |
How exciting, transfig- before Halloween. Folake filed in hidden amongst the older kids and greeted the big dog with a toothy grin. Clearly, their professor was having some Halloween fun -her mother would not approve and her father would goodnaturedly laugh it off but ultimately think the man was a bit of a show-off- and fitted herself neatly at the front of the class, unloading her quills (the favourite with ostrich feather and the backup, a flamingo pink), ink and her transfiguration notebook, a multicoloured thing chosen to represent the class. She wanted to put her best foot forward for her first year and had been sitting at the front of every single class, often sneaking around her peers to get to prime spots before they could sit- resulting in them sitting on her lap in shock. Her tutors impressed upon her that making a good first impression was the most important thing for Hogwarts students and her father had hired the best British wizards to teach her what she needed to know about British culture. Professor Carton asked his first question and Folake's quill went to work writing down his question and a few of the answers she thought best answered the question -some of her classmates didn't actually answer his question and were clearly showing off knowledge he didn't actually ask for. Yea, we get it, you're a seventh-year and still can't do as you're asked. Folake rolled her eyes, scratching the quill across the page. She would ignore those the professor didn't cosign. She was prone to taking unnecessary notes, often writing exactly what her professors said, word for word. She had the best notes in that regard. |
Scared? Brandon wasn't scared. He didn't get scared of things. Especially not posters... It took Brandon a really long time to formulate his answer. Which was hard, because people said answers while he was thinking and then he had to come up with new answers. Eventually, he found one that he thought was good. "Horace Slughorn turned himself into an armchair to hide from death eaters. I don't understand how he got back." But it was definitely transfiguration. Perhaps a more depressing answer than some of the others... but it was transfiguration, so it worked. Now Brandon was off in his own little world. He was thinking about death eaters, and then he was thinking about the war, and then he was thinking about other things that were his own business. He was a little zoned out. |
Darn ... the Professor had mentioned animagus already - so there went that idea. It was really the best idea ... really. "I suppose you could transigure into things besides animals right? Like he said" She pointed at Brandon though she didn't know the boys name. "So you could transfigure into anything to hide." |
Damien had to give that one some thought. "Changing clothes, I suppose." Though he didn't actually know the spell to do it. "Oh! Could you transfigure something into a mask! Like for masquerade balls!" He did love those back at the encampment. |
Question 2 SPOILER!!: Individual replies ^_^ Seeing no more hands in the air, Norman took that as his cue to move on. “Good job, everyone,” he addressed the group. “You’ve provided some examples of disguises, which we can separate into five basic categories…” With a wave of his wand, the following list appeared on the board behind him: Quote:
OOC: So sorry for the delay! Work & Peeves put me way behind schedule. >_< For question 2, your student may answer any or all of the three questions Carton asked. You’ll have ABOUT 24 HOURS for this one. ^_^ |
Char was always impressed with the many ideas tossed out by students at Hogwarts. Not that this wasn’t the case at Durmstrang; it was just that sometimes his ex classmates could get a little dark with their answers. He made some jottings as his current classmates gave their answers though his mind was still very much on that green mohawk. Also… yes. He did write the incantation of the spell down since Carton mentioned it. How exciting it was that they were focusing on physical appearance changes today. Char actually had a bit of experience with that back at Durmstrang but his spellwork might be a little rusty. Up went Char’s hand. “A disadvantage would be in the case where the transfiguration goes wrong. One can become stuck with whatever aspect went incorrectly. At least temporarily, yes, professor?” |
Alfie's gaze snapped away from the posters on the walls when Professor Carton transformed back into a person. That was so cool. He thought it would be really cool to be an animagus, but he also knew it was pretty difficult to accomplish and he wasn't sure if he was up for it. Something to think about, maybe. Later, though. For now he brought his thoughts back to class to concentrate. How to use transfiguration to change your appearance? His classmates had some pretty good ideas. Alfie liked what that first year said about transfiguring something into a mask, or some other clothes to disguise yourself. He supposed you could also transfigure something into a hiding place. Other than that, his mind was blank though. He thought his classmates had some pretty good ideas and couldn't think of anything to add, so he decided to stay quiet this time. They were going to be learning about changing physical characteristics though, which he thought was really cool. He could think of some situations where that might not be helpful, though, so he raised his hand. "That would be helpful if you're trying to go somewhere where you're not supposed to go, but someone else can be. But if you're trying to sneak into somewhere nobody is supposed to be, for example, then it still wouldn't help but something like animal transformation probably would." |
From the get-go the talking of disguising oneself had gotten Nads attention. After all, covering up who you were was definitely a way to try and stay out of trouble. As such she had gotten so absorbed in scribbling down everyone else’s thoughts as they came up that she hadn’t ventured into her own thoughts to answer out loud. The use of an animangus form as well as the canary creams reminded her of her parents, the former definitely something she wanted to see if she could do…when she got older. Older was something she had a hard time trying to be patient enough to look forward to. Nadia was drawn back to the class at hand when Professor Carton spoke up once more, adding notes onto the board that she eagerly copied into her notes under everything else. Before she could speak up with her staying out of trouble train of thought, an older Hufflepuff beat her to it. So, it was back to the drawing board as the second year Gryffindor bit her lip. “Being mistaken for someone else, especially if you haven’t thought the characteristics through carefully enough.” |
It was pleasant to find professors displaying an appreciation for their subject. The well of knowledge not running dry, as her uncle had described it. However, she was likely to disappoint the man since her example and what she currently donned were not entirely synonymous. "Not this time, professor," Mitsuki replied with a small shake of the head. The following series of questions where offered in such rapid succession that it was difficult for her to focus entirely on one and instead they turned into a big of a hodgepodge of responses. It was, perhaps, time that she committed her attention to her rather sparse parchment. The margins were calling to her to decorate and she now had a certain fascination and focus on various animal horns. She did, at the very least, offer a suggestion for the usefulness of transfiguring one's appearance. Usefulness and disadvantage depending on whose perspective you were considering. Photos!: parchment |
Maxine was pointing at him? Did he do something wrong? Oh... someone was agreeing with him! And the professor was glad he brought it up. He couldn't help but sit a little taller in his chair, slightly pleased with himself. For the next question, Brandon's mind immediately went to changing features that a person didn't like about themself. It made him sad to think about. But that wasn't really the point of this discussion, or was it? He decided to focus on something else. "If you don't change your features enough, or if you have all the same mannerisms, observant people might still know it's you. And that defeats the point of disguise." He shivered, hoping that would never happen to him |
Brandon gave her a strange look - she was just agreeing with the boy. But anyway moving on. "Well if is just a transfiguration spell an advantage is that it wouldn't be permanent change to your apperance. Could easliy go back to your own look." At least she didn't think it would be permanent ... maybe if the spell went wrong it would be. "Unless the spell went wrong, which in that case would make it a disadvantage." There killed two birds with one stone! |
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