Lesson 4 - N.E.W.T. Level

Another school year, another bunch of new and old students... Every year the same, but every one of those years he enters these classrooms with a smile on his face and joy in his heart because of the classes and the opportunity to teach new wizards and witches what he knows. The lesson plan and the working methods are still the same, the classroom is still empty... but the latter will soon change. Professor McCoy took his seat at the front desk and waited, scrolling through papers.

As Transfiguration was Amelia's first class after lunch, she was nearly always early for it. She had no reason to stay at the Ravenclaw table to socialize because... well... she had no one to socialize with. Lately, she had been seeing Peter further down the table, sitting with a few of his Beauxbaton's classmates, and although she had occasionally felt some small urge to make conversation with him, she had never known just how to approach him, and had thus perpetuated her habit of eating alone and then heading off to class.

Arriving in the classroom, Amelia took her usual seat in the second row and reached for a book she had been reading at lunch. This was a book on muggle chemistry, which she found fascinating, although mistaken in some regards, and she had found it helpful in her understanding of potions, which was only an added bonus. The Ravenclaw girl was quick to disappear behind its pages and did not show signs of resurfacing again any time soon.

Brienne came into class. She seemed more at peace than usual. More at peace meant that she'd be better off than not. She'd be happier, and much more....mellow. She chose her seat and sunk down in it a little bit. So much was going through her mind at the same time, as if it were something that she couldn't control. Something really bad was going to happen to her soon, but she was trying to forget that feeling. Forgetting would be the best thing for her right now. Not that people would want her to, but she did. She didn't want to think of the bad things happening. She only wanted to relax.

She opened her book, and found that she was unable to concentrate on the writing inside. It seemed blurry to her. In her mind and eyes. All she could think about was asking why this was happening to her. She was feeling quite sick and shouldn't have come to class.

Oh yeah. That class Angelique sometimes went to. Last week she'd been busy testing out her healing powers on some first year, so hadn't turned up to class. It was probably a good thing after the whole Vampire Mosp incident.

So she was once again in the most boring of all boring classes. Oh, no, wait. That was Defence. This was only the second most boring one. Not that the order mattered, since almost everything at Hogwarts was mind-numbing. The only interesting thing that had happened since the beginning of the year was the tri-wizard tournament. Not that Angelique had been picked for it or anything; it was probably rigged.

"Hi Brienne,"

She sat down next to the werewolf. How embarrassing; you'd think she'd at least get surgery or something for the ears and tail. The people at St Mungos probably knew a couple of spells that would fix it right up. Besides, it made her look like...

This lesson mightn't be so boring after all.

"You should do something about your, um, you know."

Angelique put her hands up on either side of her head, mimicking the look of Brienne's ears.

"There are freaks who would totally get off on how you look. You know, the ones who're into beastiality. Although, when you think about it, that's kinda what made you that way, huh?" she said cheerfully.

''Good day to you all, although I can't applaud you for attending. Miss Pyrites, I thought I ordered you not to come to my classes after that little incident? Despite the fact that you might have avoided that... speech of mine, I am now, repeating what I have said, and, once again, ordering you to get out and not come back. I am not going to tolerate such behavior here, and whatever your background may be, do be sure that there is no one that can influence this decision. Now, please, do be so kind and leave quietly and peacefully'', McCoy said, drawing his wand out, just in case.

''Now, as for the two that are willing to work. What is Non-Verbal Transfiguration?'', he asked.

Jack walked into class late, though she kept her head held high. She knew, unfortunately, that people would look to her to be some sort of role model now that she was champion- a fact that she found sort of laughable, her a role model- and that while favor had been won for her, being tardy would be even more unacceptable. So she had to offset it.

"Sorry Professor, no lame excuses. Only answers." She took her seat and continued on to say, "Nonverbal transfiguration is the act of performing a transfiguration spell without saying the incantation out loud." she let her bag drop to the ground on her side and smiled up at the professor.

"I wouldn't know what happened, since I wasn't there at that point," Angelique reminded him. "If you didn't want me coming here, you should've told me. The school owls are good for that sort of thing, you know."

She flashed a smile at McCoy before picking up her bag and walking to the door.

Well, that was fun!


"You kids enjoy yourselves now!" she told the rest of the class, waving goodbye to them.

''And you are correct, Jack. I do hope you will use some of that Transfiguration knowledge in your tasks.'', he said with a smile. '' As this is our first class dealing with non-verbal transfiguration, I shall have to warn you that mistakes and errors can happen. What you need to do is concentrate and channel all your magical energy towards transforming that small wooden box you have on your desk into a white mouse. It has to be white in the end, not brown, like the box, or grey, but white. If you make a mistake, which is natural, do call upon me and I shall return it into its initial state so that you can give it another go'', McCoy said.

Brienne's thoughts went to the small box on the desk before her. White mouse! White mouse white mouse white mouse! She concentrated and thought hard at the box. Probably she'd have a stroke by the end of this. Well, not literally, but it damn well felt like it. The small box started to blanch, each inch turning white. Soon, it was as white as fresh snow. Then, fur started sprouting up like little blades of uncolored grass, through the "snow", "covering" itself. Brienne stroked it, it felt soft like down on a newborn and dried chick. The box then grew four legs, each with a fleshy paw on the end. Each paw had slender-ish "fingers" with clear claws at the end. Much like a rodent. Little white ears popped up next, as well as eyes, and a complete snout. However, now the thing had no tail and the general shape of a box, still. That was fixed in a hurry when she concentrated more on what the mouse should look like. The mouse's rear-end rounded out, but included a bump indicating it was of the male gender, and the tail slithered just above the bump. The body rounded out more, narrowed at the neck, then widened a little at the head. Brienne marveled at the little guy. He looked like a real mouse, in fact she deemed him a real mouse. The little white creature crawled up on her hand and onto her shoulder.

She raised her hand, then stated "This is fun, I wish I had another box so I can do this again, but with different colors".

Jack grabbed one of the boxes and brought it to her own space, thinking about the task ahead at the professor's mention. She wondered if the professors knew the task, to make sure all the champions were on the same academic level so there were not any advantages. She doubted it, but if it were true, that could be a clue. Should she start reading up on transfiguration?

Jack was not the best at nonverbal, since she was a rather verbal person, but she had improved very much over the summer since she had learned the virtues of silence. She stared at the box and raised her wand beginning to concentrate- crap. She needed to find out now if the professors did know. Maybe Adam or Peter had heard something-

She heard a squeak and realized she was in the midst of transforming her box into a great grey mouse with brown whiskers. She cursed and stopped the spell and returned it back to a box, holding up a hand to acknowledge McCoy and let him know she had made a mistake but she had fixed it. She forced all thoughts of the task out of her mind and tried again, with better success. She walked over and held out a hand and the white mouse climbed aboard.