Second Years, Lesson One

Second Years, Lesson One: Animate to Inanimate Transfiguration
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Edward stood at the front of the Transfigurations class with a smile on his face as the second year students began to file into the classroom. "Good morning and welcome back to Transfiguration." He said cheerfully once the class was settled. "My name is Professor Edward Pirrip, but if you’d rather keep it short, Professor P works just fine with me. I'll be your teacher from now until you complete your fourth year. Now let us get started." He introduced, pointing his wand at the blackboard to make one of the chalks near it start writing. "This year we'll be focusing on Animate to Inanimate transfiguration, which is slightly more complex than what you've practiced last year. Looking at the lot of you though, I'm sure you won't have too much trouble getting the hang of it." 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 would have gone 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." Edward 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, emphasising 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."

Edward glanced around, glad he wasn't sitting on his own chair at the moment. 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 part of the 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." Edward 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. Some would say we now have a less cruel system in place, but I'm not sure it's necessarily preferable." He waved his wand toward the board, the brush moving up to erase the words. "Now that brings us nicely to the end of the lesson. For homework, I’d like you to write a short essay to help me get to know you better. You can write about anything, your hobbies, your friends and family, or even how you found Transfiguration last year. The choice is yours, you have complete creative freedom. Class dismissed."

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Homework: RP attendance! Tag @Professor Edward Pirrip if you would like me to interact with your character! For extra credit, complete the homework, just a 2-3 sentences will do

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Keep it short? Lumos thought as he realised they had a new professor this year. He didn't blame Odegard for wanting to jump out early. Teaching seemed like a very difficult career to get into and he certainly didn't want to get into it. Professor Pirrip was short enough if they went to Professor P they would eventually probably get to PP because what would really be the point in the whole first word at that point. And he didn't really think the professor wanted to be known as PP, but then he dind' know the guy, so maybe that was his secret dream, what did Lumos know. He took his seat at the front of the class, and listened as they were introduced to the new topics, his quill scratching across his parchment as he jotted down every word about Animate to Inanimate transfiguration. He liked the idea of turning one thing into another thing for fun, but using it for medieval punishments sent a chill down his spine. Honestly something about that didn't surprise him, maybe the fact that almost everyitng he'd ever heard about the era tells him he would never survive there. Honestly, they didn't even have plumbing. How could live without plumbing. Lumos couldn't help but glance at the chair beneath him, suddenly wondering if it might have once been something - or someone - else. He got ready to write his essay as he was leaving the class, laughing to himself.​

"or even how you found Transfiguration last year" ~ Professor Pirrip

It was in the same place it is now sir, the fifth floor corridor. Not that hard to find.

 

[Jasper Beese]

Jasper arrived for Transfiguration feeling a little nervous, he found the subject tricky last year and had not received a very good grade as a result. He listened to the new professor cover the different types of transfigurations and Jasper worked hard to keep up with the notes as he spoke. His interest piqued when the professor mentioned that transfiguration had once been used as a punishment. The idea of someone being turned into a statue as punishment was both fascinating and slightly terrifying. After jotting down the homework, Jasper left the classroom feeling not so nervous as he had when he first arrived.

Spoiler: Homework

Hi, I'm Jasper Beese and my hobby is playing gobstones. My friend Tori, who loves gobstones just as much as I do, and I are planning to set up a gobstones club this year to get more people playing.

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

She'd had a very rushed morning, she didn't mean to have a rushed morning but sometimes these things just happened. Her birthday had been on Monday, but she hadn't done anything for it. She had letters both from her mum and her brother, but she hadn't read them, and she hadn't told anyone it was her birthday either. She was thirteen three days ago and somehow everything just felt like it was falling apart. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with it, but, she supposed that was the point. She'd have to figure something out eventually, but not today. Today she would just sit and be quiet. She perked up when Professor Pirrip introduced himself—she liked his easygoing demeanour and the nickname “Professor P.” As he explained more about animate to inanimate transfigurations, she felt a bit of unease creep up into her chest at the thought of turning a living creature into an object. She had to assume it was illegal to do that to a person right? She knew there were laws because they'd gone over them last year. She scribbled more notes down, the regulations from the ministry causing her to make another note to look that up later and learn more about it. Turning dark wizards into statues seemed... like maybe something they didn't want to be doing again. She wasn't sure how dark wizards could learn a lesson and change their ways if they were turned into statues. Her quill faltered briefly when he mentioned sitting on a human-chair—how bizarre! She wasn't sure if it was a joke or not, but it was a little unsettling. She found herself wondering through out if this was any relationship to Teddy. She was going to have to ask him. She quickly packed up and left.​

I'm Tori - Jasper is my best friend.

 

[Rose Edogawa]

This year had already started a little differently. She hadn't expected really to be making a friend and now she sort of had. She headed into he class a little earlier than she would normally because she wanted to save her new friend a seat. She saw him walking just in front of her sister and sat up a little straighter. "Amory, over here," it was the seat she normally saved for Sayuri, but she knew her sister would understand, after all, she would want her to have a friend, right? And she'd been sitting with her all last year, so it was okay to have a friend for a little while, right? She smiled warmly at Amory before returning her attention to their new professor for the rest of the lesson. The mention of turning a hamster into a rock made her stifle a laugh, but her face quickly turned serious as he described the rules and ethics of their lesson. She wasn't sure how she felt about the essay, she wasn't a fan of them and so she didn't know what to say. As she left she looked at Amory with a soft smile before she went off in search of her sister.
@Amory Raven​

My name is Rose. I really like flying. Transfiguration was pretty cool, but I preferred Professor Potter, so you have big shoes to fill.​

 

[Amory Raven]

Amory wasn't sure what to expect of his second year of Transfiguration as he walked into the classroom, though a new professor surely wasn't it. He was going to sit next to Lumos when a voice called out to him and a soft smile crept over his face as he recognized the voice. Taking a look at Rose and the empty seat next to her it didn't take any convincing for him to stalk over and take the seat. "New professor then, yeah?" He stated the obvious, just wanting to say anything. The rest of the lesson went between trying to focus on what was being said and on the fact that he was now sat next to Rose. Rose who up until just a few days ago was little more than a name and a face he had noticed, but now? Now she had offered him a seat. A seat that was probably meant to her sister, at least judging by the constant feeling of someone glaring at him. When the lesson ended and Rose smiled at him it was worth the glaring, for that smile he'd take all rest of his years of it.

Well, my name is Amory a pretty girl called Rose offered me a seat next to her. I would say my lessons will be set to be amazing, of course I look very much forward to your teaching too.

@Rose Edogawa

 

[Winnie Calida]

Winnie was determined to do better. The question would be how much better could a person do when they’d already achieved O’s in the classes, but she knew she needed to do better. She needed to work harder, smarter. She needed to be better, her parents hadn’t been completely disappointed, but they also just hadn’t really been pleased with her. She knew she had to do better, in whatever way she could. Winnie was working hard already as the first week was just starting. She grabbed her books and notes and put them into her bag and then headed out of the dorm room and to her first class of the day.

Winnie walked into the transfiguration classroom and was surprised to see that the professor had changed, she had thought that their transfiguration professor wouldn’t switch until they were in fifth year, but it seemed she was wrong about it. It had switched and she made a note to try and meet with the professor later. The slytherin just took out her notes and books and placed them down in front of her as the professor got started. He introduced himself to them, and then moved on, beginning to tell them about what they’d be covering in this semester of the class. She wrote down a few other pieces as the professor told them about azkaban and the punishments for breaking the rules. The lesson was wrapped up and winnie did the homework before heading out of the room.

Spoiler

I'm Winnie, I enjoyed transfiguration last year, I'm sure you'll do a great job guiding up in this year.

 

[Kanako Kurosawa]

Kanako thought out of all the classes transfiguration suffered from being too wordy. And that was saying something when you considered classes like history of magic (ugh). Plus it looked like Tori was in her class for it so it automatically lost points for that. Still, Kanako showed up, taking a seat and looking on at the new professor with a bored expression. She didn't take notes until the very end (okay, transfiguring people into statues was actually kind of interesting) and left quickly once she was allowed to leave. Hopefully they'd start doing some actual spellwork - Kanako liked showing off her beautiful and powerful wand very much.

Spoiler: Homework

My name is Kanako Kurosawa, if you know my brother you don't know me so don't act like you do. I'm good at baking and taiko (which is traditional Japanese drumming, in case you didn't know). My uncle works here too, he teaches upper astronomy. He's okay, for a grownup.

 

[Sayuri Edogawa]

Sayuri walked into the Transfiguration classroom, glad that she was taking this class with Rose. Classes with Rose or Eli tended to be a lot quieter than classes with the Hufflepuffs. Somehow, Jonah kept on finding himself in unfortunate situations with teachers that it wasn't even funny anymore. She nodded politely to the new professor as she caught sight of her sister and made a beeline for her... only to have her housemate sit down on her seat. Because her sister called him to. Her calm mood turned sour quite fast as she glared at this housemate who dared to make gooey eyes at Rose. She stalked away from the pair and found a seat next to a Zhefarovich boy she'd been talking to lately, her glare barely leaving the Raven boy until the professor began the lesson. It had been an interesting introduction even when the discussion turned more serious—about the moral implications and historical use of transfiguration as punishment. When Professor Pirrip announced the homework assignment, Sayuri immediately began to write. The sooner she could leave this class, the better. Once she was done and class was dismissed, she threw one last dirty look at the Raven boy before leaving.​

You seem competent. Don't cast spells on my siblings and don't call us darlings.
- Sayuri E.

 

[Esme Styx-Cade]

Esme had liked Professor Odegard so she was a little disappointed when she arrived and saw a new man standing at the front waiting to address them. She settled into her seat and listened as the man introduced himself as Professor Pirrip, the name rang a bell but she couldn’t put her finger on why. It didn’t matter if she did or didn’t recognise the name as the professor soon moved onto to discussing what they would be learning about, animate to inanimate transfiguration, the act of turning something living into a non living object which she very much didn’t like the sound of but she would have to do it.

The lesson was quite a heavy one and there were a lot of discussion of ethics and ministry regulations, which made sense for such a complicated and difficult area of magic. People couldn’t and shouldn’t be turning living beings into objects willy nilly. She didn’t much like the idea of being turned into a chair, and hoped there wouldn’t be any demonstrations in future lessons. Once it was over, Esme packed up the notes she had made during the lesson and then made her way out of the classroom.