Third Years, Lesson Two

Third Years, Lesson Two: Learning Locusta (frog into grasshopper)​

Professor Edward Pirrip stood at the front of the class, inspecting a glass tank taking up a large portion of his desk. He scanned the frogs inside, making sure they were all happy. Then once all the students had arrived, he turned his attention to the class and spoke cheerfully. "Welcome back! Right, this lesson might not be for everyone, but absolutely essential if you ever want to master Transfiguration." He said, scanning the room for reactions. "Today we'll be starting on Animate to Animate Transfiguration for the first time. Hence the frogs." Edward grinned, nodding towards the large tank that took up almost all of his desk space. "Animate to Animate Transfiguration is going to prove more difficult than the other Transfiguration you've attempted thus far, so I hope you're all up for a challenge." He explained. He watched his students closely, looking for any signs of hesitation. Animate to Animate Transfiguration was known to be a bit tricky, and he wanted to make sure they were all on board before proceeding.

"Today, we're going to turn these frogs into grasshoppers." He gave them a second to process that. "Now, I like I said, some of you might feel a bit iffy about transforming living creatures, but I assure you, it’s not painful for the animal, and I would not be here teaching you if it was. Nothing to worry about, even if you make a mistake. Just give it your best shot. We’re all here to learn, after all."

"What we’ll be doing today is Cross-Species Transfiguration. A little terminology for you. Write that down please," He told them with a wink. "This type of transformation requires more concentration and visualisation than what we've covered so far. So, really focus. It’ll take more than just the right words. Make sure you're giving it your full attention." He paused for a second to make sure his class was paying attention to what he was saying. Mistakes could happen, but he'd rather they didn't.

"Now, for the practical part." Edward stepped back over to the tank and lifted out a large frog, setting it down on what little free space was left on his desk. It hopped around a little, but didn't seem too keen on actually jumping off the desk. "The wand movement for this spell is simple, just straighten your arm and point your wand directly at the frog." He stated, demonstrating what he was telling them. "These buggers will move, so make sure you adjust your aim accordingly. Once you're sure you've got good aim. Locusta!" He watched the frog shift into a bright green grasshopper. In comparison to the frog though, the grasshopper didn't seem as reluctant and jumped right off his desk before hopping towards the centre of the classroom. "Whoops, looks like we have a runner!" He chuckled, waving his wand to freeze the grasshopper in mid-air so one of his students could easily bring it back to him. "Anyways. Make sure to keep track of your frog. Or grasshopper. Whichever species it is at the time."

"Now, I'd like you all to come up to my desk, get a frog and return to your seat, I'd be grateful if one of you could also bring back that frozen grasshopper, thank you. There will be no leaving your seats after that. Chances of one of these creatures hopping off the desk are high and we don't want anyone stepping on one of them now, would we? Alright, that's about all. Let's get to it!" Edward smiled, waving his wand to make the incantation appear on the board to remind the students, and handing out frogs as they came up to his desk. "Remember, focus and patience. Let's get started!"

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Homework: Roleplay successfully turning a frog into a grasshopper for full marks! Tag @Professor Edward Pirrip if you would like me to interact with your character! For extra credit, one student may retrieve the grasshopper Professor Pirrip froze and return it to him.

 

[Lilith Ilves]

Lilith arrived to Transfiguration with a smile. It was easy to smile when when you got to attend a lesson you loved. It was still lost on Lilith what had made the subject tick into place but she was glad it had. There was no other class that the third year waited quite like she did for Transfiguration. Perhaps it had started when the professor had been rather cute in her first year, but there had also always been something more to it too. She settled into her usual place in the classroom, ready to take notes as the Professor began. Lilith straightened up further in her seat at the mention of this lesson being essential if one wanted to master the art of Transfiguration. The Ravenclaw hadn't put too much thought into it other than she wanted to learn everything there was to learn about the subject and so she made sure to write down every single detail.

Lilith nodded in time with everything the man was saying, it all made perfect sense to her. that transforming animate to animate would be trickier than the other ways they'd done before. However there was an underlying sense of excitement at the thought of challenging herself. As the first frog got transformed into a grasshopper and it launched into air Lilith's eyes widened. It was flying at her at the speed of a bludger, thankfully the Professor stopped it in time and the poor thing fell into her hands she'd just about managed to outstretch to catch it. Lilith took the bug with her as she went to get her frog. "Here's your escapist, sir." She said with a smile as she handed the hopper over. Placing her frog on the desk she stared at it for a bit. The Ravenclaw felt a tiny bit bad about what she was going to do to the frog, but Professor Pirrip had said it wouldn't hurt it. Right. "Alright little guy, I promise to try and make this as fast and smooth for you as possible, okay?" She said quietly to the frog that just stared at her. Not a thought behind those eyes. Alright then, she could do it. Lilith stared at the frog and then aimed her wand at it. She adjusted her aim a few times until she found a moment where it was perfectly pointed at the slimy blob and the slimy blob was still. Focusing every part of her mind to the spell she cast it. "Locusta!" Then she watched the blob turn into a grasshopper, quite seamlessly if she said so herself. With a smile Lilith made a leap to catch the grasshopper before it jumped away, thankfully she was able to catch it.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ Transfiguration: Year III, Lesson II ☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙​ ✧ Animate to Animate Transfiguration is more complex than Animate to Inanimate or Inanimate to Animate or Inanimate to Inanimate have bee. ✧ Cross-Species Transfiguration: Term used for Transfiguring say frog to grasshopper ✧ Frog to grasshopper transfiguration spell incantation: Locusta. Wand movement: Simple just aim your wand straight at the frog. ✧ This type of transfiguration is painless for the animals but it requires your full attention.

 

[Mason Warrick]

Mason was glad to be getting to practice Transfiguration, between starting a new school and a week of introduction lessons, it felt like a lifetime since he had actually learned to cast a spell. He placed his wand on his desk and listened to Professor Pirrip as he talked about animate to animate Transfiguration and gave them the information they needed to start practising their first attempt at cross-species transfiguration. After watching the demonstration, Mason went up to Professor Pirrip’s desk and collected a frog and took it back to his own. He held out his wand, pointing the tip at the front and said firmly, “Locusta.” The frog turned into a grasshopper on his desk, and then it became a challenge to keep the little thing in place. He managed to catch it long enough to take it back to Professor Pirrip for grading. Once the lesson was over he packed up and made his way out of the classroom.

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

Eli wasn’t exactly afraid of animals, but he did like them to stay where they were from, which usually meant outside. And when they couldn’t be outside he liked them to not be with him. Which meant he was a little weary as he approached the tank, looking at the frogs as though they were all about to jump out and try to sit on him. He’d seen it happen, no one was hurt, because they were frogs, but he didn’t care about that, he cared about the fact that some of them were poisonous, though maybe not these ones. He didn’t love the idea of having to touch them, but this was his favourite class and he had to learn at some point, right? He nodded to himself and carefully selected one of the frogs, pulling it out and taking it to his desk. “Sorry in advance dude,” he whispered to it, looking up to see Lilith working with her frog as well. He gave her a wave before moving back to concentrate. He tried to picture it in his mind, the frog elongating and becoming a grasshopper, and it was a very strange thing to see happen in his minds eye. “Locusta,” he started, a little hesitant at first. Nothing happened of course because he didn’t have the confidence behind it that he knew a spell needed to work, especially the more complicated ones. “Locusta!” He tried again and this time the frog shimmered slightly, and with a small pop there was a grasshopper where the frog has just been sitting. He quickly jumped to catch it in his hands when it made to jump off of the table. “No you don’t!” Before signalling to Professor Pirrip to come and see, before the little thing got loose.​

 

[Susie Lagowski]

Susie was feeling apprehensive as she sat down at her desk that morning. Animate to animate transfiguration was meant to be pretty hard, she’d heard, and after completely fudging a simple locking charm, she didn’t have very much faith in herself. The fact they were working on frogs didn't help much. If she hesitated for too long, the thing would just nose-dive off her desk, and she certainly wasn’t touching it to keep it still. Freddie might have, but, well, he was a weirdo.

She took out her wand. Imagine a grasshopper. Okay, she knew what a grasshopper looked like… sort of. It had those long legs and it was green and it probably had wings. The frog was already making a break for freedom. Susie leaned across her desk, trying to point her wand at it. “Locusta!” she said.

The frog said, “Ribbit,” and jumped.

Several attempts and quite a few summoning charms later, the frog finally turned into something resembling an insect. It was missing a couple of important parts - legs, for instance - but if you didn’t look too closely, it was basically a grasshopper. She cringed as she handed it in. Not her best work.​

 

[Lumos Walden-Cade]

Lumos looked at the frog with a mix of disgust and also interest. Working with live animals he wasn’t sure how he felt about it honestly. Maybe this was why he wasn’t bothering to do care of magical creatures this year - well not entirely, because he was probably going to take it next year and see how he felt about it, he could avoid the flobberworms he hoped (he’d read ahead in the syllabus). “No offense, mate. You’re about to be a grasshopper.” he took the poor thing back to his desk and worked on thinking about it becoming a Grasshopper. He practiced a couple of times with the spell before turning his wand on the frog - yeah, this wasn’t bad. he nodded to himself and watched as the frog slowly turned into a grasshopper. The class ended soon after and Lumos headed back out again.​

 

[Esme Styx-Cade]

Esme knew Transfiguration was only going to get more difficult and that animate to animate Transfiguration in particular would be the most difficult type of magic she had ever attempted, but she was looking forward to the challenge. She sat and listened to Professor Pirrip talk about turning frogs into grasshoppers. The spell would be hard enough, but doing it on two creatures that could jump was going to be nearly impossible. She paid close attention to the incantation and the wand method used to cast the spell, and once it was her turn to try, she took her wand out of her robe and got to work. She took a couple of attempts to get anything happening, partially because keeping her frog still was a challenge in itself. Eventually, however, the frog on her desk was no more and had been replaced by a grasshopper. She signed in relief at having completed the spell successfully.