Transfiguration Lesson Two

Keith watched as the branch automatically turned into a branch with flowers on it. "Wow, you're a natural." He complimented, smiling. "This must just be your class." He said, half joking.

"Today's lesson will not be so difficult as you may have thought. The Transfiguration will be harder, yes, but the element, the actual core of the spell is the same. Let your energy flow through your wand until the first object becomes the second. We will begin with a feather." Professor Cygneplume waved her wand and feathers flew from her desktop to each of the students'. "We will be turning it into a flowering branch. An interesting quirk of this spell is that it tends to turn into the wood the caster is most attracted to; in other words your wand wood. Do not be disappointed if it takes the whole hour to succeed. Begin."

Lucy looked at her feather, it was white as snow.
Hmm, I guess it shouldn't be that hard, she thought to herself, as she had already managed to transform the match on her first try.

"Okay, here it goes." she said to herself. Getting her wand ready, she concentrated on the feather.She watched it turn from a simple white feather into a flowering Walnut branch, and it amazed her that she had also gotten this on her first try. Although the flowers were still small, it was a great start.

Despite the effort made by Professor Cygneplume to reassure them that the task was not as difficult as they expected, James still felt he would have trouble with it. Once the teacher had given them detailed instructions on what to do, he took out his wand from his pocket and glanced at the white feather lying on his desk.

The most challenging part of transformations, at least those they had learned so far, was the absence of incantation and wand movement, the vision of the outcome in the caster's mind being the only way to influence the spell. Concentrating on the branch he should obtain, James pointed his wand at the feather. The quill started changing bit by bit, its snowy tone slowly turning to a golden one and its body becoming more elongated and harder. After a few seconds, it had transformed into a branch-like object, but was still covered in a thin layer of soft white hairs with no sign of flowers.

The hours he spent practicing the first spell on his own seemed to have paid off, since his first attempt was more successful than last time, but he was still far from the desired result. Looking around to see if he was the only one having difficulties, he caught a glimpse of Lucy's desk, and lying on it, a beautiful flowering branch. Already? he thought, surprised. He admired his friend's skill, yet couldn't help feeling somewhat jealous at the same time.

Ella concentrated on the feather... She watched as everyone else tried, some succeeded while others didn't. She decided to try and watched as the feather grew longer and turned brown. Flowers began to bloom but they also grew eyes and mouths and began shrieking. Ella's eyes grew big and she covered her ears and stared.

"I think I did something wrong!" she yelled.

"Well, you did really well for your first time." Keith told Shah, smiling. "You can keep practicing if you want." He added, as he turned to the branch on his desk.

Aurora stared at her snowy feather. It would be so easy to burn... She looked furtively around the class and saw the others trying, with varied amounts of success, the spell. Putting thoughts of fire out of her mind, Aurora twirled her wand at the feather, which mockingly stayed a feather. Aurora prodded it gently, and the feather grew a large flower on its tip, but showed no signs of turning into the beautiful, multi-hued beech wood of her wand. I'm so bad at this, Aurora thought, seeing that James and Lucy had already made it quite far. She pointed her wand at the feather again and something seemed to happen: the rachis of the feather slowly transformed into something resembling beech, but the plume stayed, along with the single blooming flower. Contemplating the stupid-looking thing she had, Aurora leaned back in her chair, exhausted from her late-night excursion to see Professor Umbranox with James.

"Whoops, that's not right." mumbled Ella. She tried again and this time she watched as the feather successfully turned into a flowering branch. First it got longer, then it began to change colors and finally it began to grow beautiful flowers. Ella was satisfied.

Aurora waved her wand at the strange object in front of her, frustrated at her lack of success. Most of the other students were succeeding now, and Aurora felt pretty dumb not being able to do this apparently simple spell. The next time she tried, the downy plumes began to change into little twigs, which soon grew white flower buds on the tips. It wasn't really a branch, but Aurora was glad she had finally managed to do something.

After a few more tries, James took the object lying on his desk and brought it closer to his eyes in order to examine it. It now really resembled a branch, having a radiant golden tone, just like the pear wood of his wand. Fortunately, the thin layer of hairs remaining from the feather was now gone, making the surface of the object hard and rough, just as it should be. However, he still hadn't managed to make any flowers appear on it.

Raising his wand one last time, he pointed it at the twig and envisioned a blossom in his mind. A few moments later, a tiny bud appeared near its tip. Concentrating harder, he watched it slowly grow and finally open, transforming into a small, snow white flower, a barely visible pink tone colouring some of its petals. James instantly lowered his wand, and admired the pure, almost unreal beauty of the flower.

OOC: Sorry that I haven't been on in a while! My post will be a little rushed, since I'm trying to fit everything in.

Walking among the desks, Juliette was amazed at the skill her students had. Lucy managed to transform her branch exceedingly quickly, and Juliette nodded at her, a smile on her face. A knock on the door commanded her attention then. "Hello?" Juliette asked, opening the door. A small girl stood waiting outside. "Oh, come in, dear," she said. "You're not yet late." Guiding the girl to an empty chair, Juliette told her what they were doing (see earlier post, page two), then resumed her pacing of the classroom.

Suddenly, an eerie wailing filled the room, and Juliette looked around. One of the new students, Ella Fontayne, had made some strange faces appear in her wood. Bowtruckles, Juliette thought, remembering some of the things that could go wrong with the spell. But before she reached Ella, the girl got it under control.

Aurora, the girl who had summoned fire the past lesson, was having trouble again, but she was doing a little better this time, so Juliette left her alone. James, Shah, and Keith had all successfully completed the spell also.