Third Years, Lesson One

Third Years, Lesson One: The Limits of Transfiguration
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The door to the Transfiguration classroom was wide open with a notice written on the board which read: "Welcome back third years. Please take a seat and Professor Pirrip will be with you shortly." Sat at the front of the class was a boarder collie panting gently and keenly watching the students enter one by one to take their seats. Once satisfied that everyone was present, the dog took a deliberate step forward, and in a seamless motion, it shifted back into its human form, this man standing tall was Professor Edward Pirrip.

Edward stood at the front of the Transfigurations class in his human form with a smile on his face. "Good morning and welcome back to Transfiguration." He said cheerfully once the class was settled. "As you can see, I've had a busy break. But more on that later, for now let us get started with what you'll be covering this semester." With a flick of his wand, the writing on the board cleared and a piece of chalk sprang to life and wrote out:

Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration: Limitations​

"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 nodded his head as some of the kids looked shocked. Apparently it was not common knowledge, which was unsurprising given the house elves rarely worked in the open or mingled with the students. "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 ourselves, 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!"

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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.

 

[Susie Lagowski]

Susie, who'd heard rumours that Professor Pirrip was training to become an animagus, knew better than to pet the dog, although it was very tempting. That was what the lisp thing had been about, apparently - part of the training. She grinned as she thought about poor Freddie calling the professor a good boy. If Susie were an animagus, she'd have loved to be a fly on the wall for that one.

When she finally stopped giggling to herself, she opened her notebook, flipped to a fresh page, and titled it 'GAMP'S LAWS'. In some ways, she was relieved to discover there was no way to magic knowledge into your brain. If there were, she'd have been annoyed that they'd waited until her third year to tell her about it. She made some bullet-points, feeling it was all mostly quite logical - apart from the bit about Circe. If pigs were particularly unmagical, did that make some animals more magical than others, she wondered? How did a frog compare to a cow, for example?

After the lesson ended, Susie approached Professor Pirrip. There was something else on her mind, and she couldn't think of a better person - or time - to ask. It was kind of on topic, right? He wouldn't think it was weird. "Professor," she said, "what's the difference between love and infatuation?" No, no, that definitely did sound weird. "Um - my friend was wondering." Better.
​

@Professor Edward Pirrip

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith was happy that it was finally time for Transfiguration, her favourite class. She walked to the classroom expecting to find their Professor but instead what she saw was a dog. Her brows furrowed in confusion and she looked at the animals with keen interest. It was cute, but she knew better than to go pet a dog she didn't know or whose owner wasn't there to confirm they could be pat. Instead the third year settled giving the dog a smile and a quick "Good morning Sir," she almost added a or ma'am in case the dog was a lady but decided against it eventually. After her brief greeting to the dog Lilith found a place at the front and sat down.

As the lesson was about to begin and the dog turned into Professor Pirrip Lilith felt her cheeks redden at the realisation she'd spoken to the Professor like a dog ALMOST CALLED HIM MA'AM. However the shame of that quickly subsided as she realized she was staring now at an actual Animagus. There was a spark of interest she felt at the thought of meeting one. As he began talking the Ravenclaw had to snap out of her trance and focus on the lesson. She took up plenty of notes, loving the theory side just as much as she did the practical of the subject.

As the Professor was explaining about what could and couldn't be created with magic Lilith grimaced at the mention of food, simply because it reminded her of the end of year feast last year. How those Gryffindor kids had started the wasting of the food, it hadn't been just magically created. Someone had worked on it and Lilith had known it but the reminder of it made her feel even worse about the situation. She hadn't taken part in it but she still felt bad for the house elves that had worked on the food only for it to be wasted on such tomfoolery.

As the subject of Love, true love at that, was spoken and it being something you couldn't artificially make. Not with even magic, Lilith found herself glancing towards Eoghan. A small smile formed on her face just looking at him. Before any nosy students saw she quickly refocused on the lesson, the smile and hint of rosy cheeks never faltering for the rest of it.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ Transfiguration: Year III, Lesson I ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙ Gamp's Laws of Elemental Transfiguration: Limitations​ Magic cannot do: ✧ You cannot reverse death with magic. You may be able to predict it and/or prolong it but once life is over, it is final and not even magic can undo that. ✧ Create food from nothing, it can be conjured if you know where it already is but you cannot create it from thin air. ✧ Love, while there are love potions, magic cannot create true love. It can create infatuation and resemblances of love, but it will never be true love.​ ​

 

[Primrose Kaster]

Prim didn’t mind transfiguration but it wasn’t the kind of class she was a big fan of really. She doubted she was doing particularly well in it either, given she wasn’t very good at it, but she was trying. She had barely made it through the doors of the classroom when she spotted the collie at the front and immediately crouched near it. She loved dogs, always had, she didn’t know the professor had a dog though! He should have brought it to class every day, she might have paid better attention. “Oh, you’re so cute,” just as she was about to head closer to pet it, the dog seamlessly became their professor and she blushed red. “Oh - oh. Right. That tracks.” she quickly scrambled back to her feet and rushed to her desk, picking up her textbook to hide her face behind it. Yep, she was never coming back to this class ever again ever. She barely even paid attention she was way too embarrassed and by the time the lesson was over and she was allowed to leave, she’d not written a single note, too preoccupied with the fact she’d just called her professor cute - she thought he was a dog at the time, but that didn’t matter to her, she was way too embarrassed to ever show her face ever again.

@Professor Edward Pirrip​

 

[Nox Walden-Cade]

A random dog in the transfiguration classroom was suspicious, but Nox still didn’t expect it to turn out to be Professor Pirrip. That was pretty cool. Could he learn to do that one day? Having demonstrated his new trick to the class, Professor Pirrip got to work with the main subject of their lesson, the limits of transfiguration. Boo, Nox hated hearing about the limts of something, it sounded so boring. With a big sigh, Nox reached for his quill and ink along with a roll of blank parchment so he could take notes on the theory-heavy lecture they were about to receive. He knew Transfiguration was cool, but there was so much theory involved that it often took most of the fun out of it. He spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on the various limitations of Transfiguration that Professor Pirrip went through with them. The more limits he discussed, the less cool it all sounded, but he kinda still wanted to turn into a dog if he could. Once the lesson was over Nox packed up the notes he had taken and made his way out of the classroom.

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

Jonah trudged into Transfiguration classroom, it was a bit weird this year to have all houses in his classes which meant that Jonah would be sharing his classes possibly with all his siblings in the same year at some point. Still, he made his way to class alone, Eurydice had told him that she'd dropped the class and a lot of others. He almost dropped Transfiguration too really, but the talk with Professor Pirrip had gone okay, so he'd decided that for the moment, he would finish his classes with the man. Which meant two more years of Transfiguration. Jonah spotted the dog as soon as he walked through the door, and he perked up. He had a fondness for animals and creatures alike though his mother hadn't allowed them pets which was a shame really. Though he supposed their house was chaotic enough without adding animals into the mix. "Hi," he said shyly as he crouched beside the dog and eventually end up sat on the floor. "I don't have treats for you but maybe next time," he whispered before a hand tentatively reached to pet the dog and give a good scratch. "Maybe we'll ask the professor if we can go for a walk after class yeah?" Eventually though, Eli had pulled him off of the floor lest the professor arrives with Jonah still sitting with the dog.

Jonah couldn't help but blush as the dog morphed into the professor, though as the initial embarrassment receded, Jonah couldn't help but pout. It was sad that the professor didn't actually have a dog that Jonah could play with and hang out with - he thought that the professor might be nice enough to allow him to take the dog out sometimes if he asked nicely enough. With the distraction, it was even more difficult for Jonah to catch up on the lesson as he scribbled notes that barely made sense even to him since he was just writing down words he could easily scratch as he wrote. He supposed that what they studied today was essentially magic couldn't create or transform everything? The nitty gritty details, Jonah would just have to figure out himself. As for asking the professor about the walk... he walked up to the professor and asked, "D-don't you have an actual dog?" The professor had lots of animals after all - or so Jonah thought - maybe the professor wouldn't mind him borrowing just one?

@Professor Edward Pirrip ​

 

[William Potter-Cade]

Professor Pirrip was pretty cool, so William was looking forward to going back to Transfiguration. The man had a way of making even the densest theory lesson seem not only interesting but like something they needed to know. William walked into the classroom and saw the dog sitting where the professor usually was, and he just had a feeling that something was off. He ended up being right and the dog turned into Professor Pirrip, but not before poor Primrose and Jonah had gone to pet him, William tried, and failed, to suppress a laugh at the scene that had unfolded, poor Prim, poor Jonah, he'd never let his best friend live that one down.

After his demonstration, Professor Pirrip began talking about the limits of transfiguration, specifically Gamp’s law. It was a pretty heavy theory lesson, so William took out parchment to take notes, but Professor Pirrip still managed to keep him engaged and make it sound interesting. Or maybe he just liked Transfiguration, but that didn’t sound right. He followed the lecture, taking as many notes as he could, though his hand kept cramping and falling behind; he’d have to peer through Jonah’s notes at the end of the lesson to check anything he missed. Once the lesson was over, he packed up and made his way out of the classroom catching up to Jonah so he could begin the first of many teasing sessions.

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

Eli had suspected since last year that the professor had been training to become an animagus - personally Eli wasn’t all that surprised as he’d been more surprised to learn that there wasn’t one in the school. The professor had acted rather strangely in his opinion for at least a month of their classes, and it hadn’t taken him long to sort of see it correspond. Now there was a dog at the front of the room, so Eli was smart enough to put that together he thought. He took out his quill and parchment, sure this would be a bit of a lecture as he watched the dog transform into their professor. “Called it,” he muttered lightly under his breath. Once the subject was introduced, he knew for sure he would need to be taking notes, so he focused on that, scribbling it all down like he thought it might be on a quiz, and given the last couple of classes he would be surprised if it wasn’t more than he would be surprised if it was. The lesson soon ended and he left the room thinking about how despite all the power in magic, there were still a lot of restrictions on it, and he found himself wondering how those restrictions were enforced, and whether or not they could be overcome.
​

Gamp's Laws (five principal exceptions in magic)
Limits of Transfiguration magic

1. food can not be created from nothing
2. gold can't be created from nothing
3. knowledge cant be inserted magically
4. you can't make someone fall in love with you
5. magic can't bring back the dead

 

[Forrest Kaster]

Forrest wasn’t all that interested in Transfiguration, but it was an important subject, so he had to keep going with it. A dog was sitting at the front of the classroom when he arrived, and he almost went to pet it, but he thought better of it. Forrest loved animals, but he knew nothing was ever what it seemed at Hogwarts. His suspicion would prove correct as the dog soon transformed into Professor Pirrip. Unfortunately, Prim and her housemate Jonah weren’t so lucky, having gone to pet him. Forrest made a sympathetic face at his sister as she took her seat and the lesson got started.

It seemed Professor Pirrip just wanted to show off a new trick he’d picked up during the holidays because it had no bearing on the subject of the lesson. The lesson would be a long and boring lecture on the limits of Transfiguration. Forrest took out some parchment so he could take notes; he didn’t want to fall behind after all. Forrest made note of the different types of limitations put on Transfiguration outlined in Gamp’s laws; it was a shame food couldn’t be created, as that would have been quite useful. Once the lesson was over, Forrest packed up the notes he had made and left the classroom.

 

[Sophie Shepherd]

Sophie wasn't sure if she had enjoyed transfiguration or not just yet. Though Sophie was someone who was always keen on learning something new. The Ravenclaw quickly packed the things she needed for the lesson before hurriedly making her way down to her transfiguration classroom. Once she arrived in her classroom, she immediately noticed a dog in front of the classroom. She thought that the dog was really adorable. Sophie took a seat in her usual spot, took out the thing she needed for the lesson and placed them on the desk in front of her.

Sophie moved her attention towards the dog again. But suddenly everything felt like it was in slow motion. The dog wasn't a dog anymore and it had transformed into... Professor Pirrip? Sophie gasped with amazement. "Woah!" Sophia whispered aloud, totally ignore the fact that she was called the professor's dog form adorable in her mind. She had to stop herself from clapping as she didn't want to spoil the class. The Ravenclaw quickly started taking notes as the professor spoke, not wanting to miss out on anything important. She nodded her head from time to time through out the lesson, showing the professor that she was understanding the content that was being told to them.

It wasn't long until the lesson had come to an end and they were dismissed. Sophie was glad that there was no homework. The Ravenclaw quickly packed up her things as well as tidied up her area. She then says a quick and appreciative thanks and goodbye to the professor before heading out of the classroom with her friends and the rest of her classmates, curiously wondering what they'd be learning next lesson.

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos didn’t care much for dogs honestly, so when he’d walked into the class and seen it, he’d steered well clear. He liked animals well enough he supposed, but he didn’t hardly want one as a pet. Least of all a dog - he truly didn’t think he would be able to adequately care for it, so it was best left wherever dogs went that weren’t with him. He wasn’t really that surprised to see the dog become their professor, he was well used to transformations in his time now, but it had been a little surprising to see it this year when it hadn’t happened last year - perhaps their professor was only a new animagus? Could be possible he supposed. The class went by quickly and he took as many notes as he could, he wasn’t surprised to see Eli take Jonah away - he was honestly getting a little annoyed that he couldn’t sit with Jonah in any of his classes and he was not enjoying it at all. When the lesson came to an end he quickly hurried after Jonah to try and catch him up. He wanted to spend at least some time with him after all - with quidditch training and now Lumos being vice president of the brotherhood (which meant he spent a lot of time trying to figure out things to help Teddy with) they didn’t ever see each other and he hated it.​

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Transfiguration was the only lesson Eoghan had taken because if he didn't, it would be the only class he didn't take this year. That was hardly fair, given it was Lilith's favourite, either. He'd taken a seat next to his girlfriend, not believing for one moment that the dog at the front of the class was anyone else besides their professor. This was a transfiguration class, and the man had been mumbling on weeds for months. Eoghan wasn't an Animagus but he wasn't blind.

At the mention of love, Eoghan could feel Lili's eyes on him, and the corners of his mouth lifted in response. Her own cheeks may have flushed at the thought of true love, but Eoghan remained somewhat composed surrounding the talks. He moved one arm around her waist, lightly pressing a kiss on her cheek if not just to show her that he understood, before focusing once more on the notes in front of him. He thought it was good to hear about the limitations in magic, and that perhaps more subjects should have included the information. At the end of the lesson he packed up his things and followed the others outside, glad that they weren't gaining a pet in the classroom on a permanent basis.

 

[Demi Zephyr]

For a girl that had grown up surrounded by magical creatures, Demi could take one look at the dog sat at the front of the class and immediately recognise that it wasn't a real dog. It was far too well behaved. She took a seat at the back of the lesson, having only taken this subject because she thought if she were to learn more about mechanical engineering, then the ability to transform parts into other parts as she required sounded more than just a little useful. She made some notes when the professor unsurprisingly made an appearance, although she had to admit this class seemed a little long winded with the amount of talking the professor did. At least this year he could speak properly. At the end of the lesson she packed up her things, and didn't wait for any of her classmates before disappearing out of the door.