Sixth Years: Lesson Four

Professor Styx had no patience to turn the desks into fancy vanity mirrors for the students for this spell. Others had done it like that, but he was not the type to have 'fun' and 'enjoyable' lessons. The sixth years and other years of Transfiguration would no longer endure such happy lessons from him. He'd do everything he could to change it. He leaned against the desk as the sixth years filed in their desks, and soon enough, everyone was accounted for. He waved his gloved hand toward the door to shut it. He then took out his wand and waved it to conjure folders, which dropped on the students' desk. They were all white. "You will be doing some nonverbal magic today, and this will be challenging despite how simple the spell might sound."

Styx reached behind him and held up the Transfiguration textbook. He tapped it with his wand three times and changed the color of the book to a dark green. "Color changing spells sound simple, but like all nonverbal magic, it can take time and effort to master. The previous professors had you all change your hair color, but since I don't want anyone's hair to explode, this is a safer option." Styx demonstrated the color change again from a dark green to a bright blue, and then finally, returned it to the normal color. "The spell will succeed if you concentrate and picture the object changing to the color you want. More details is better. You absolutely cannot be distracted, otherwise you will fail. Second, you want to picture the object, in this case, the white folder, changing to the color you want. Third, the motion of the wand is the generic three tap method."

The former Death Eater motioned with his hand toward the students' desks. "Now, start changing the color of the folder. Do this with three different colors, and then you will be done. If you set your folder on fire or do something drastic with it, I'll come and fix your mistake. If you want to change the color of anything else, you may. Do your hair on your own time because I'm not fixing that if you screw up." Styx was firm on it, since he didn't want to be a hairdresser, or have his wand around their hair at all. That he could not do wandless. Once everyone was done, he motioned to the door and it closed behind them since he did not issue homework for that night.

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Assignment: RP the lesson.

 

[Elio Boneheart]

With Brightstone weekend over, Elio felt a lot more refreshed. His plans with Mikael that he had been nervous about had gone off without a hitch and he really needn't have been so nervous about it all. Their fight in the library during the break almost didn't even matter anymore, and as long as he and Mikael could continue to listen to each other and communicate, it shouldn't really have mattered, but sometimes things had a way of coming up again even if you didn't want them to. He supposed that was one of the good things about Mikael, Elio might have dwelled on everything, but Mikael just seemed to always let it go. Not when it came to things like grudges, he held those very well, but things that Elio considered might be a problem didn't ever really seem to register with Mikael and that was probably a good thing, because it meant that he didn't have to worry that Mikael was suddenly going to hate him for getting nervous or anxious about something. Since the whole family knew about them now, and he had to assume that Conan would have told Ai and Taylor, so he could probably expect something akin to the Spanish Inquisition when he finished up school in June. He didn't even know what he was going to do when he graduated yet, so he was trying to focus on his NEWTs for the next year and what he would be taking.

He took a steadying breath as Styx finished his instructions, that familiar tightness in the chest settling in whenever he listened to the man speak. The nonverbal spells were interesting, but he was worried he wouldn't have the ability to utilise that sort of magic. He watched the demonstration intently, the man clearly had a lot of power, and had been doing this for a long time. He'd been teaching his mother after all, and Mikael's family too. There was so much precision. He took several deep breaths, trying to wrap his head around all of it. He could do a colour change easy enough, he'd been doing them since the first years of his schooling, but to do it non-verbally? That was different. He placed his wand over the plain white folder, focusing on turning it green. The shades were specific, he wanted it to look a certain way. A folder for all his notes from this year that he could give to Kael for next year. He visualised the shades filling each inch of the folder, from corner to corner, before giving it practiced three taps. To his surprise, the folder shifted to a slightly lighter shade than he had imagined, but still green - a decent first attempt. He continued to practice the spell, concentrating on getting it the way he wanted, which somehow worked eventually. When the class ended, he rushed out to tell his friends of his success.​