36 The Transfiguration

Bokuboy

Harry's first class after lunch was Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. He was both looking forward to it and dreading it, considering the way things had been happening between them. He also expected a stern talking to when he entered the class, because of him pushing the history teacher ghost away.

To his surprise, he took his seat beside Hermione and the professor didn't say anything to him. In fact, it wasn't until the classroom was filled that the professor spoke.

“Class, I would like to apologize to a select few that may have been mistreated upon their entering of the castle.” Minvera said and that got everyone's attention. “A few students have little knowledge of the things going on at the castle and I should have given a short speech to explain things before leaving you to prepare the Great Hall.”

The whole class was stunned, especially Harry. He had expected more detention and losing a lot more points, and instead he was getting an apology.

“I cannot remove or counter previously given punishments, since at the time, they were justified.” Minerva said and a few students had to laugh. “However, I will grant a little leeway from now on. That will only last a short while, however.” She said and looked directly at Harry, whose face flushed red. “I will give that speech near the end of class and for each class I have this week. Hopefully, it will ease your minds and let you not be so surprised by the things that the rest of us accept as normal every day occurrences.”

Harry actually relaxed with that statement and he promised himself to not overreact the next time something startled him. Of course, he was still going to push the ghosts away. He didn't care if it was acceptable to have dead things floating around or not. He didn't want them near him or Hermione. He didn't ask her why she was scared of them and it didn't matter.

Seeing a whitish and slightly transparent spirit floating around was scary enough; but, knowing they were 'alive' and could speak, was just too terrifying to take. Not to mention that they could affect things around them by cooling the area and give people shivers. No, he definitely didn't want to have ghosts as a normal thing in his life. At all.

“On to the lesson.” Minerva said. “Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts.” She gave everyone a stern glare. “Anyone caught messing around in my class will leave and not come back.” She couldn't help but look at Harry. “You have been warned.”

After that, they spent half the class taking complicated notes about their subject.

“Transfiguration is a very systematic and exact magical discipline. It works best for a well ordered mind and is deemed to be very hard work to achieve.” Minerva said. “When performing the various spells you will learn over the course of the year, it is very important to make very firm and decisive wand movements. Do not wiggle or move your wand unnecessarily, because that will cause your transfiguration attempt to fail.”

They were each given a match and it sat in the middle of their desks. Harry knew what was going to happen, thanks to Bertha's coaching. She had warned him that it might be different this year and he was glad that it was the same lesson as when Bertha had started school.

“Our first transfiguration example will be changing this match into a needle. It is the same size as what we need to change it to and appropriately sized objects makes it much easier to change them into other objects.” Minerva said. “The spell is the simplest one that you will ever use in my class. It is called, Mutatio Acus, and loosely translated into English, it means 'change into a needle'.”

The professor showed them the simple wand movement and changed the match she had into a needle.

“Please concentrate, read over the notes I have given you, and try your best to change the match.” Minerva said. “If you have any questions, please ask. I will assist you as much as I can.”

Harry knew what a needle looked like, since he had used them a lot at home, so imagining the match was a needle was ridiculously easy. He didn't have to read over the notes, since they only complicated the process in his mind, and he did the precise wand movement.

“Mutatio Acus.” Harry said and watched happily as the match seemed to shrink thinner, turn silver, and the match head became the part where the eye of the needle was. Hermione gasped at the instant transformation and stared at it.

Professor McGonagall heard her, even over everyone attempting to cast the spell, and came right over. She looked down at the perfect needle in front of Harry and looked at his face.

“Have you performed the spell before?” Minvera asked.

“Nope!” Harry said with a big smile. “It's not in the transfiguration textbook.”

“I only use the book as a guide.” Minvera said and picked up the needle. “It has all the proper principles needed and I expand on it, because of the various requirements that more complicated spells need.” She said. “Plus, I can gauge how students are learning the craft if they haven't seen a particular spell before.”

Hermione let out a soft sigh and Minerva gave her shoulder a pat.

“It's all right, Miss Granger. The spells in the text book are still used and needed for the class, as well as for the tests.”

“That's a relief.” Hermione said.

Minerva had to smile slightly and looked back at Harry as she put the needle down. “Five points to Griffindor.” She said and then tilted her head. “I suppose you know the counter-spell.”

“Chapter eight, how to undo full and partial transfigurations.” Harry said and pointed his wand at the match. “Reparifarge.” He said and the needle morphed back into a match.

Minerva picked it up and flicked it with her thumb. The match head burst into flame and she nodded. “Five more points for Griffindor.” She said and blew the match out. “Do it again.”

“But...” Harry looked at the spent and slightly burned match.

“Go ahead. I'm waiting.” Minvera said with a stern expression.

Harry took a deep breath and let it out, then cast the first spell again. The needle appeared again, except that the head was charred black like the top of the match had been.

“Ah, I see.” Minerva said and picked up the needle. “Mister Potter, you took what you saw and converted it into what you thought it would look like if the original was damaged.”

“Yeah.” Harry said.

“Why?” Minerva asked.

“Well, I thought that the original wasn't perfect, the transfigured one shouldn't be, either.”

“Doing that is both correct and incorrect.” Minerva said, to his and Hermione's confusion. “You don't have to take the original's condition into account. It can be very useful and essential in more complicated spells... however, this is just a match.” She said and cast the reversion spell.

To everyone's surprise, the needle became a perfectly intact match.

“Small things like this are not exempt from Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration and can be recreated.” Minerva said and cast a silent spell to create another match and put both down on Harry's desk.

“You said not exempt.” Hermione said, confused. “What does it mean when things are?”

“When things that are exempt from the law, it means that they cannot be created or conjured from nothing.” Minerva explained. “Before you ask, it means things like food, blood, and in most cases, life itself.”

“Most cases?” Harry asked and Minerva chuckled.

“I won't get into that subject for several months, where we compare natural animals and conjured animals.”

“We can create animals?” One of the other Griffindors exclaimed loudly.

“Calmly, Miss Brown.” Minerva said. “It is a complicated subject, which also delves into philosophy and animal behavior, among other things. That is why I said I will be discussing that much later.” She walked back to the front of the class. “Now, back to practice. I hope to see at least some change in a few of your matches.”

Hermione looked over at Harry and then leaned in close to whisper. “Harry, how did you do it?”

“I've used needles a lot to sew everything in the house.” Harry said, a bit exaggeratedly. It definitely felt like he had sewn everything in the house to fix them as he was growing up. The repairing spell is wonderful. He thought with relief, because he hadn't had to do anything like manual labour all summer. “I have no problem imagining what a needle looks like and can be used for.”

“Can you show me?” Hermione asked.

“Sure.” Harry said and cast the spell again to make one of the matches into a needle. “I think having one to look at for a minute might help you.”

“Harry! Do one for me, too!” Ron said loudly and everyone in the class turned to look at them.

“Mister Potter.” Minerva said and Harry looked at her.

“He overheard me telling Hermione that looking at a needle would help.” Harry said as an explanation.

Minerva opened her mouth to say that visualizing it in your mind was the whole point of the exercise, then looked at the rest of the class. She could see that they all thought that having a visual cue was much better than trying to only imagine it, then she sighed.

“All right.” Minerva said and changed her match stick into a needle, made enough duplicates for the rest of the class, then handed them out. “Try your best to make your match look like these needles.”

“Thanks, professor.” Several of them said as they accepted the needles.

To the professor's surprise, six of her students that included Hermione and Ron, had changed their matches into needles by the end of the class. She had only had one or two students do it before in previous years. This time, there were many more and the rest had made significant progress. There were metal matches, matches with eye holes, and even very pointed matches. She was very pleased with the progress.

After she made a short speech to explain some things to the students about Hogwarts and what to expect from certain parts of the castle, she implored them to make sure that they knew to ask the Prefects of their House or her if they had or have any problems. She let that sink in for several moments, then she tapped her desk with her knuckle to get everyone's attention once more.

“Excellent class work, everyone.” Professor McGonagall said and she saw everyone smile at her. “We will continue this in tomorrow afternoon's class. Good day.”

“Bye, professor.” The students said, almost as one, then they all packed their things and left.