Lesson one: Animate to Inanimate Transfiguration
The door to the Transfiguration classroom was wide open, with Leif leaning against the wall right next to it. He had decided to wait for his younger students outside, his arms crossed as he greeted them with a smile. When he was sure most of them had taken their seats he moved into the classroom as well, leaving the door open just a crack in case anyone was late. That way they could enter the room without disturbing the lesson too much.
"Goodmorning and welcome back to Transfiguration." He now formally greeted the students as he leaned against his desk. "My name's Professor Leif Odegard and I'll be your teacher from now on. Let's dive right into it, yeah?" He started, pointing his wand at the blackboard to make one of the chalks near it start writing. "This year we'll be focussing on Animate to Inanimate transfiguration, which is slightly more complex than what you've practiced last year. I'm sure most of you won't have too much trouble with this though." He added with a wink, glancing around the room to observe their reactions which could tell him a lot about their confidence in their own abilities.
"Now last year you went over the different types of transfiguration and their meanings. Should your memory fail you though, let me offer you a quick reminder: Animate to Inanimate means transfiguring something living into something that is not. Like a hamster into a rock or a flamingo into a lawn flamingo." Professor Odegard explained. "However, Animate to Inanimate trasfiguration should not be taken lightly. Turning an animal into something non-living indefinitely is usually against Ministry regulations. What we will be learning this year is for educational purposes and all transfigurations will be reversed." He added, emphasizing his words to make sure his students understood the importance of this information.
"Moving on, some people have difficulty understanding how Animate to Inanimate transfiguration works. We don't take the life away from animals, we simply.. push a pause button in a way. They still have a small agree of awareness and thought but will be incapable of movement, speech, seeing and hearing. If you were to turn a person into a chair they essentially are a chair for that period of time. Barely aware if you were to sit on them and unable to do anything but provide you with comfort."
Leif glanced around, glad he wasn't sitting on his own chair at the moment. Surely this talk about turning people into chairs would've made him uncomfortable and he wondered if he had made any of his students feel like that. The reality was that anything around them could have been a human transfigured into something else without their knowledge. Which brought him to the next step in their lesson. "This might be surprising information but there was once a time where Transfiguration was used to punish dark wizards and witches. Or any other rule-breakers. Before Azkaban, wizarding authorities had limited space to hold wizards and witches and thus resorted to turning them into stationary figures. Statues, if you will. Their bodies were turned to stone and became their own prisons." Leif told his students, his face far more serious than it usually was. The idea of this type of punishment wasn't a pleasant one. "This method has not been used in a long time though. Thankfully now, we have a less cruel system in place. Which brings us to.." He waved his wand toward the board, the brush moving up to erase the words he had gotten the chalk to write on there during the lesson. "The end of our lesson! Class dismissed."
