Third Years, Lesson One: The Limits of Transfiguration
Edward stood at the front of his desk as his new third year students trickled in. He greeted each one with a nod or a quick greeting. Once the last student had taken their seat, he used his wand to close the door. Then he directed his wand toward a piece of chalk resting near the blackboard. The chalk began writing words across the board as he turned to address the class.
Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration: Limitations |
"Good morning, third years. My name is Professor Edward Pirrip and I am your new Transfiguration professor. I will be your Transfiguration professor until you enter fifth year so we should spend the first few minutes getting acquainted, I'm going to call your name off the register and I would like you to let yourself be known and just tell me something about yourself, doesn't have to be long." He said, calling out names one by one. Once that was done, he moved on. "Okay moving on, today's lesson is going to be heavy on writing and theory, but its absolutely one of the most important Transfiguration topics you will ever cover. I encourage you to work as hard as you can because it'll all be worth it when you get to the practical work." He said because they needed to learn the theory before they'd truly master Transfiguration. "So, let's get started. Today we'll be looking at limitations within Transfiguration. What can't we do? Well, there's five specific categories: Food, Wealth, Knowledge, Love, and Life. These are known as Gamps' Laws."
"I'm sure by now you're all aware that, while magic makes it seem like we are capable of doing anything, magic too has its limits. Like how magic is not capable of bringing back the death. We can foresee death and perhaps even prolong it, but nothing can reverse death, sadly not even Transfiguration." He stopped, glancing at the students faces to find some were dismayed, whereas others knew this already. It could be a bit of a heavy topic for young students.
"This next one is a bit obvious." Edward continued, wanting to move on from the subject. He couldn't have their thoughts lingering on it for too long, that wouldn't be good for them. "You cannot use magic to gain knowledge. There's no way to pluck something out of a book or thin air and embed it into your brain. Knowledge, I'm afraid, will have to be gained the old-fashioned way. Which is why all of your professors probably push you to start studying for your exams on time." He informed them with a wink, sure some of his students would be disappointed by this information.
"Next on our list may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you, but food is unable to be created. You can summon it if you know where it is, and are able to duplicate existing food, but creating it from nothing is impossible. Your meals every day don't simply appear out of thin air. It's all prepared by the house elves and summoned to your plates." Edward explained,. "Imitations of food can be conjured, objects that look or smell similar to what you'd expect it to, but lacks any nutritional value. It will never truly feed your body."
"Another commonly surprising fact of limitation is the inability to create Love. That is, true love. You've all heard of love potions, I'm sure. However, a love potion does not create love. It creates an intense infatuation which is very far from what genuine love would feel like. Someone under the influence of a love potion would do anything for the person they're infatuated with, but they'd never truly love them. Love potions are unhealthy and dangerous."
"And lastly, we are unable to gain wealth or quality possessions by magic. Gold, for example, is nearly impossible to create without the use of external influences, such as a Philosopher's Stone, which alchemizes rather than transfigures. Even then, we know very little about it." He explained, "It's not impossible to turn metals such as lead into gold, muggles can even do it with a particle accelerator and billions of dollars. However, this process is less efficient than using a Philosopher's Stone, the creation of which Nicolas Flamel took to the grave."
"Certain things are resistant to transformative magics. For instance, Circe was well known for transfiguring sailors into swine. Pigs, being so unmagical, are difficult to transfigure, which makes Circe's abilities particularly impressive. It is theorised that gold particles are similar in this respect." He added, pausing to allow students to make their notes. "Like food, you could duplicate galleons fairly easily. However, magical systems are in place to detect whether any money used in shops or the like is real or an imitation, so I wouldn't waste time bothering with that. We also can't simply lavishly furnish our homes with magic. If we could, we wouldn't have much use for money in the first place. This isn't to say it's impossible to conjure something out of nothing, but the things you conjure are never permanent."
Edward took a breath, almost tired of talking. He was sure his students had gotten tired of listening too, hoping they had at least managed to write down the most important aspects of what he was saying. "So. Some of you might think, what can you do? With Transfiguration, we can change what we already have, living or not. As for the rest of its capabilities, that's simply something you'll need to find out as the course progresses, so stay tuned. See you next week!"
Homework: RP attendance! Tag @Professor Edward Pirrip if you would like me to interact with your character! For extra credit, have your character take notes on the lesson, bonus points if you make Edward laugh in the introductions.
