Lesson One (First Years)

Richard walked into the classroom with a blank expression, waving his wand to set matches all along the tables in the classroom. Sitting behind his desk he waited, perfectly still, for his class to arrive.

A bit nervous and scared, she walked inside the classroom and greeted the professor as politely as possible. It was her first year here and she must keep a clean reputation as much as possible. And to prevent chaos, she'd look down and avoid the eyes of others, as to not read their minds unintentionally.

She quietly took a seat and waited patiently for the other students to arrive.

J. J. stopped at the door of the Transfiguration classroom for a moment, the teacher at the front of the room seemed perfectly still and completely intimidating. She mentally reminded herself not to mess around in this class room.
Taking in this fact, and the empty room, she went and sat at a desk a few rows back from the front, and made sure she was ready for what might lay ahead.

Seth arrived to class and it seemed to be early as there were only two students there. One from Gryffindor who he had not met yet and a Hufflepuff he had seen but not met yet as well. He said "Hello Professor." as he found a seat and set his materials down on his desk.

Damian walked into Transfiguration class. He recognized the professor as being the Head of Slytherin House. The man looked stern. That was fine, though. Damian would just work all the harder to do well. He wasn't afraid of hard work. He was going to prove himself, no matter what.

Moving to a seat near the front, he sat down and pulled out his textbook, quietly waiting for class to begin.

Genevieve walked into the Transfiguration classroom and paused at the door looking at the people already in the room. The Professor was her Head of House Professor Romain and there were three Huffles and a Gryff as well. Momentarily weighing her options Genevieve took a seat down the front next to one of the male Hufflepuffs.
"Genevieve" she introduced politely before unpacking her bag of her textbook, some parchment, a quill and a bottle of ink.

Richard smiled faintly at his class, opening his arms to welcome them as he stepped in front of the class,

"Welcome to transfiguration." he greeted them quietly, his voice soft, "This is your first taste of transfiguration and your first lesson in perhaps the most powerful branch of magic in existence."

He looked over his class,

"How many of you thought this subject was a bit of a boring choice?" he smiled a little more, encouragingly, "Go on... be honest."

Waving it off dismissively, Richard smiled at them again,

"Well if you thought that you were wrong." he told them, his voice becoming cold, "With transfiguration you can turn a chair into bamboo spikes to impale a person with their own weight. With transfiguration a coat's buttons are deadly black widow spiders. With transfiguration the floor stones are a river of blood. With transfiguration the human body becomes a weapon. With transfiguration curses and hexes are rendered useless. With transfiguration... you can create, you can build, you can warp, twist, mold and control all things."

He shrugged a little,

"A master of transfiguration is as close to the creator as you will ever see."

Shaking his head he pointed to the match,

"You're turning matches into needles. Not very interesting I'll admit but you have to start small." he jabbed at a match, "Twitheto. A jab of the wand and... Twitheto."

Damian listened raptly to Professor Romain's lecture. A boring choice? The boy was incredulous. Turning something into another thing was marvelous - how could it possibly be boring?

As the man continued speaking, the boy became even more determined to master the art.

"Oh," Damian said quietly, turning to the girl who had sat next to him as he belatedly realized she had introduced herself. "Damian."

Turning back to his matchstick, he gave it a determined jab with his wand. "Twitheto!"

Hmmm... this might prove a bit harder than he anticipated. Undeterred by his failure, Damian tried again.

A boring choice? How could it be...

Scarlet shook her head. She faced her matchstick and took her wand out. "Twitheto!" she said with a jab of her wand.

She looked at her Professor with an ashamed face, as she turned the matchstick into... a twig.

"Professor?" she said shyly, "May I have another matchstick?"

J. J. looked shyly at the rest of the class after the Professor changed his match stick into a needle.
It looked like they were trying the spell themselves, and to her immense relief they weren't all doing it flawlessly. The Professor had made it look so easy that she was nervous she was about to make a fool of herself, but the other students seemed to find it a bit more difficult. One boy sitting at the front frustrated that nothing seemed to be happening and another girl turned hers into a twig.
J. J. took a deep breath as she held her wand carefully. Ok J. J., she told herself as a pep talk, let's do this.
"Twitheto," J. J. jabbed her wand too far and instead of casting a spell, she knocked the match on the floor. She blushed and scrambled down on the floor to go get it.
Well that went well, she thought sarcastically. She looked around the room, but she was sure everyone had seen that anyways.
She was now determined to get this. She was going to make up for that one.
Taking a deep breath, she focused on not only the match, but what she wanted to turn it in to as well.
Slowly, she jabbed her wand at the match, "Twitheto."
The match shook, and for a moment J. J. thought she might have done it - at least she thought it might change into something. It however settled back on to the table, same as it was.
But it was a start.
Suddenly J. J. was more determined than ever to get this spell.

"Twitheto."

By the sixth time, Damian's matchstick had taken on a silver hue. By the eighth, it appeared a bit pointier.

This was the dozenth time, and still, it looked like a bizarre crossbreed of match stick and needle.

He raised his hand.

"Professor," he asked. "Is there a special trick to it?"

Richard watched the students as they attempted and, mostly, failed to achieve any significant change. It was to be expected of course. But when the hufflepuff boy asked him if there was a special trick to it he smirked,

"Well done Mr Gray. Five points to hufflepuff." he announced, still smirking, "To fire a spell you need only the word and the motion. To change something in transfiguration you need concentration."

He waved his hand and all of the matches in the class turned back to perfect matches. Moving forwards he picked up Damian's match and held it up for the entire class to see,

"This is what you start by focusing on." he made sure everyone could see it, "This is the start point. You have to keep this in mind."

The match began to glow but not too brightly. From the bottom it began to gradually turn silver and metallic,

"This is the second thing. You must visualize this step even while it's happening." he showed them the slowly changing match, "Keep this process in mind."

Finally the match finished glowing, now a perfect sowing needle,

"And this is the last thing. The end product." he showed them the needle, "You must visualize the end product until you're finished."

He smiled and hide the needle in his hand. When it fell out onto Damian's desk it was a wooden match again,

"You must visualize the match going from the first thing... to the second... to the third."

Damian smiled, nodding his understanding before turning his attention back to the match. Focusing as the professor had explained, he jabbed at it again.

"Twitheto!"

It took the boy a few more attempts before he was finally rewarded with success. He practically jumped in his chair, having to bite back a cry of triumph. A broad grin spread across his face. He had done it!

... now, what?

Damian's hand met the air again. "Is it the same spell to change it back, sir?" he was curious to know.

"Twitheto" Genevieve announced calmly undettered by her not having done it right by her 20th try, her sister had told her of her first lesson and not being able to do it so she wasn't worried.
"Twitheto" she tried again focusing on the match turning silver and pointy at one end, which it slowly did as she concentrated. After another few attempts the match was a needle even though one end was lightly tinted red.

Scarlet listened attentively while occasionally taking a glimpse at her matchstick. After the lecture, she faced it completely, and practiced the phases mentally. She blew a sigh and said "Twitheto!" along with the wand motion and her imagination. It took quite some time for the matchstick to transform but nevertheless, she did it.

She kept staring at the needle, afraid that one second it might turn back into a matchstick.

J. J. nodded at the professors instructions. Visualizing the transformation made sense.
Taking a deep breath she tried her hand at it, and excitement once more raised in her as she though her match stick looked slightly more silver.
But it didn't change completely.
Well, she told herself you're just going to have to get better at visualizing, now aren't you?
J. J. wasn't about to be deterred.
She kept at it, but was startled out of her concentration when the Hufflepuff boy at the front looked ready to jump out of his seat, and the proceeded to ask the professor how to change it back.
So it seemed at least one of her fellow classmates had managed it. She looked around the room and saw the Gryffindor girl she sat beside in Defense against the Dark arts staring at her desk. She must have changed it too.
J. J. wasn't deterred by this. In fact it made her more determined. If they could do it, than so could she.
Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, really getting into the visualizing. She saw her match, then she saw it go silver, and point, the eye of the needle appear where the red wick thing had been, then she saw perfect and small a needle lying on her desk.
She kept running this series through her head as she readied her wand.
"Twitheto."
She opened her eyes and let out an 'oh' of surprise before clapping her hands over her mouth. This was probably a 'no talking' class.
But she couldn't help herself.
On her desk as a bright shiny needle.
She had done a spell, she had done magic.
For the first time she really didn't doubt it.
She was a witch.

Richard smiled,

"Well done class!" he told them happily, "You've succeeded in turning a match into a needle."

He chuckled,

"Now I want you to change it back into a match, same incantion and same wand movement." he told them before holding up a finger, "But! But I want the entire match to be made of a darker wood. Visualize it everyone."

Hmm Seth thought. It had taken forever just to turn the matchstick into the needle and now he wanted them to change it back AND have darker wood? "Twitheto!" Tobi said and tried to imagine a darker wood. All he got was the a matchstick with no color change. Tobi sighed and thought that it was good he got it to turn into a matchstick so quickly this time. "Twitheto!" he said again with no luck yet again. He concentrated as hard as he could and tried it another time "Twitheto!" and this time he got results. They weren't the ones the Professor was quite looking for as his stick was completely black not just a darker wood. "Well that was at least closer," he mumbled to himself before trying it one last time. "Twitheto!" and this time he got what he hoped the Professor was wanting; a darker wood but not too dark.

Scarlet rejoiced for a moment and then placed her concentration back to the needle. So basically, she'd have to visualize it backwards - but with darker wood? That was quite a challenge for her. She isn't good in visualizing but that will not falter her from doing well.

She focused on the needle, carefully imagining it turning back to a plain silver metal, to wood - but a darker one. She stared and stared until she mastered the look, and then yelled "Tiwtheto!" with the respective wand movement. The wood doesn't look as dark, and so she tried again. On her second try, the tone changed slightly. She reckoned it might work on her third, and so it did.

She clapped and smiled slightly.

J. J. bit her lip. A darker wood? That would mean she'd actually have to remember how dark the first match was so she could make it darker.
Which she didn't.
She looked at her needle for a moment, wondering what to do about this problem when an image flashed into her head.
The dark wood of her bed set at home.
The Professor hadn't said how much darker it had to be, just darker.
Well, then one mahogany matchstick coming up.
Like last time she closed her eyes to really get into her visualizing. To see the needle, then the change and then the match stick.
Nodding when she was ready, she jabbed her wand.
"Twitheto."
This time she gasped when she saw her matchstick once more, a deep, dark, reddish mahogany.
She bit her lip and raised her hand, waiting for some acknowledgment.
"Is this too dark, Professor?"

Damian focused on his needle, picturing on how it looked as a match, then imagining the wood being darker. He had a rather good imagination, having built it further with lots of reading of all kinds.

Jabbing the needle with his wand, he chanted, "Twitheto!" It took a few tries, but he finally succeeded in turning it back into a match made of darker wood.

Genevieve drew up a picture in her mind of a dark brown match and focused on it as hard as she could. "Twitheto!" She chanted quietly the first time the needle went from silver to the dark wood she had pictured in her mind.
The second time the end disapeared and left her with something tht vaguely resembled a tooth pick. On her third try however she managed to get the red part at the end and was left with a replica of the match it had originally been only with a darker wood.
Smiling slightly quite pleased with herself she slipped her wand back in its arm brace on her right arm and sat quietly waiting for further instruction from Proffesor Romain.

Richard nodded,

"All very good, very good..." he nodded before deciding to give them a task that was literally impossible, "Now I want you to turn it back into a needle but I want the metal to be gold."

Genevieve shrugged her shoulders and tried unsuccesfully a few times before a thought popped into her head and she put her hand up.
"Proffesor I'm sure I've read somewhere that it is impossible to turn things into gold without the use of a Philosophers stone. Am I wrong?" she asked quietly so only the Proffesor could hear.

Damian nodded his head. His hearing was rather sharp, even though his classmate had spoken quietly.

"I heard something similar," he said, then belatedly raised his hand. "But we should be able to make the needles gold-colored, just like we made the wood of the match sticks look darker. That's not what you told us to do, though. If you can just transfigure something into gold, I wouldn't think there'd need to be things like Philosopher's stones."