Class Six - N.E.W.T.

''I shall, professor'', Arthur said. He approached Mariana, before going to the maze. ''Good job, Mariana.'', he said with a smile and headed forth. Since he had already practiced this part of the exam and he even taught these spells once, this would be no problem for him.

He pointed his wand at the quill and it transformed into a mouse. ''Imperio'', he said. The mouse fell under the spell and he started moving it. The mouse passed the first tube without a problem. It then reached the secodn tube, which was actually an aquarium. Arthur concentrated and transformed the mouse into a frog. The frog jumped into the water and swam to the next tube. This was really easy. As the frog stood at the beginning of the third tube, Arthur transfigured it into a mole. The mole started digging through the mud and, in about a minute or two, reached the end. A beaver or something else? Yes, he knew what he was going to produce. He transformed the mole into a snake, a beautiful reptile. The snake crawled through the pieces of wood and in about a minute reached the final, vertical tube. Arthur transfigured the snake into a pretty little hummingbird and guided it to the cage at the end of the maze. ''It seems that I am finished, professor.'', he said.

Alester looked at the maze with intrepidation; he was pretty adept with nonverbals, but he had never had to transfigure several things at once from an initial object. He watched the first student attentatively; noticing what she did, and how she performed. He always watched people to learn from them; and this was better than he had expected havign others to watch and learn from. The next person, a boy whom the professor had called Poe was very confident and performed flawlessly. Alester nodded sanguinely and stepped up to take his turn, he figured the better to get this over with now.

He paused to think each transformation through as he approached the maze; and his silvery turquoise eyes shifted black as he grew serious. He pulled out the magician from his deck knowing that to use several different tasks he needed the versatility of the resonating energy from all four minor arcana suits which combined in the card in his hand. He looked at the tube, lay his snow white quill inside the tube and thought about the form he wanted, in his mind he commanded the quill to transform into a pure white rat snake, it began to move towards the maze before he commanded it with the iImperious charm, but he quickly remedied this error whispering imperio before it could slither away from him. It fought his control as it neared the water and he changed the figure in his mind and commanded the second transfiguration. As the snake slid out of the first tube and into the water it morphed into a shiny white shelled turtle. It stretched its long neck out and swam across the water easily reaching the other side. As the turtle reached the end of the tube Alester changed thought again commanding another shift. The turtle morphed into a small white chipmunk which struggled through the mud. Alester had been required to use the imperio again to control the fidgiting creature to make it go through the mud, it had wanted to bolt around the water tank looking for an easier escape. He had hoped he wouldn't lose points for miscontrol of his animal as he stopped it against the glass and forced it to dig...

But once under the imperious the shipmunk dug diligently, his progress took a little longer than Alester had thought, and he considered that he might have chosen a better digger for this part of the test. At least the transformations had gone smoothly thus far. On the other side of the earthen tank Alester was required to concentrate as he worked to transfigure the small mammel into an arachnid. He had chosen a tarantula for the next section, thinking it would scurry through the wood without destroying it for the next student. His tarantula was very white, and exceptionally hairy. He scowled at the less than perfect change but watched as it made its way through the wooden obstacles and perched on the top of the pile triumphantly raising its forelegs as if in salute. Black eyes glinted as Alester once again commanded the transformation to occur, this time a pearly white cockatiel sat atop the wood and preened its feathers momentarily before making its way up the tube into the birdcage. It settled onto the perch before disappearing into a plume of feathers from which Alester walked over and retrieved his quill.

His eyes darted again to the professor, as he had not meant to cause the bird to transform into feathers, and it had been another error in his performance; albeit a showy way to end his exam plucking his quill from among the drifting plumes of snow white which settled into the bottom of the cage. He cleaned his mess quickly, accioing the queen of pentacles and casting an evenesco, before resuming his readjusted place against the wall from when the professor had removed the desks. He shook his head so his long bangs hid his face making him feel more confident and hidden from view. He had completed the task fairly well and was relieved, though he had a slight headache from clenching his jaw firmly shut to remain silent and from furrowing his brow so deeply in concentration. When he chanced to peer through the fringe of hair his eyes had resumed their silvery turquoise sheen again.

''Good, thank you Arthur and Alester. Arthur, brilliant, swift, precise. An O and 50 points for Gryffindor. Alaster, you have also done your job extremely well. And, although I would not agree with all your choices for those transfigurations... I have to give you an O and 50 points for Slytherin. Now, who's next?'', he asked

(DEADLINE: Tomorrow night)

Alester was more than pleased with his grade; he bowed respectfully as he had been taught Thank you, Professor McCoy, I tried to use creatures I was familiar with and I thought could complete each task. Though I admit I am not terribly skilled with creatures, and a chipmunk is not exactly magical... he grinned at his admittance of ineptitude; it was a very unusual thing for him to acknowledge weakness-- especially in himself. But his performance had been acceptable, and he had learned a few points to consider working on in solitary practice, all in all a good class as far as he was concerned.

''Good, class dismissed.'', McCoy said, shortly, sitting at his desk to write the grades down.