Lesson Three (First Years)

Richard yawned a little as he sat down on the edge of his desk to wait for his class. Each table had a small collection of matches on them. Six matches for each student, no more and no less. With these six matches, Richard was going to teach them the next most important stange of transfiguration.

Tess walked into the classroom and found herself surprisingly being the first student. She saw the Professor in front of her, and she let out a small smile. She had been doing the reading, but found herself still not done with the book.

She sat down in the very first row and took her books out. She noticed that this atmosphere was more casual, and that did make her somewhat more relaxed as well.

Alice was reeling with the fact that she had gone to her decidedly two favorite classes today already. She was curious about the next one that she had, Transfiguration.

She walked into the room and found that at the front stood the Professor. He was rather dark looking, a little bit on the pale side, and he was waiting with an unnerving patience.

Next, Alice noticed that Tess was sitting at a table and that she was by herself. The Gryffindor was pleased to see that the classroom was not divided by house. With gusto she went and sat by her Slytherin friend. She threw her satchel on the table with a bang and plunged into the chair. "Hey Tess. Long time, no talk. Finally a class we can sit together in!"

Alice opened her satchel and pulled out the necessary books.

She smiled widely seeing her friend there. She was distracted from her thoughts about the Patronus, as soon as she saw her.

"So true! I'm so glad we can!" she said.

She felt nervous about talking, especially since Professor Romaine was so close, so she simply sat there looking at her book and gripping her hand lightly.

Airen peered into the classroom. When he found that there were only two other students in the classroom he made his way to sit at the front. He'd missed last lesson due to an...unexpected situation.

Taking out his quill, he nodded at Professor Romain and poised his hand to take the necessary notes.

Charlotte hurried into her class, she didn't want to be late for Uncle Richards class! That just wouldn't do at all! She was also excited for this class because it was one of the ones that she knew there was no seating assignment and although she did enjoy sitting with her friends Tess and Pyxis, Charlotte missed Airen.

Seeing that nobody was sitting next to him she smiled warmly at her other friends from Slytherin before slipping into the seat beside him with a happy sort of smile on her face.

"Hey Airen, do you mind if I sit here?"

Richard looked out over his class a few more times as they all settled into their places. He raised an eyebrow at the way some of them acted and rolled his eyes a little bit. Some of these children were just going to talk his lesson away, he just knew it. Clapping his hands once, with a wandless amplification charm to make the sound louder, Richard stood in front of his class,

"In the last few lessons you have been working on non-organic transfiguration. Non-organic to non-organic and so on." he paused before gesturing to six matches on his desk, "That ends today. Today you will be learning non-organic to organic. And living."

He pointed his wand at the small pile of wooden matches on his desk,

"Botain." he declared loudly so that all of his students could hear him. The six matches began to merge together, as if liquid, before they arranged themselves into the shape of a slowly twitching stick insect. He picked up the small creature and it scurried around in the palm of his hand, "You shall turn your matches into a stick insect with that incantation."

He closed his hand, as if to squash the bug, but before he had even half closed his fist it had returned to being matches, which dropped onto his desk ready to be used again. Richard turned back to his class,

"The wand movements are simple." he instructed them firmly, "One clockwise turn and then a simple flick downwards. You must speak the incantation clearly and firmly. Why? Because it is very similar to this spell."

He pointed his wand at the matches,

"Butain." he said firmly. The matches glowed white for a second before popping into pieces of confetti, "Incorrect... Boo-Tain. Correct... Boe-Tain. You may begin."

She was nervous, for she had missed the first two lessons. Nonetheless she paid attention, especially because she respected him all so much. Not because he was a professor, but he was also helping her in her goal and she appreciated that.

"The wand movements are simple." he instructed them firmly, "One clockwise turn and then a simple flick downwards. You must speak the incantation clearly and firmly. Why? Because it is very similar to this spell."

She heard his words and took out her wand. She didn't even try to say the word, because in her opinion her wand movements needed to be accurate enough to try and then she would work on the word. Her dark wooden wand and she began to swish her wand. She practiced it trice especially the flicking.

"Incorrect... Boo-Tain. Correct... Boe-Tain. You may begin."

"Boo-teen" she whispered and frowned seeing it fail.

She murmured the word in different ways.

"Bewtain, boo-teen, bewtain, bewtain, boe-tain"

She nodded to herself at the last pronunciation and tried once more.

"Botain" she murmured.

The matches began to shake and began to move around, but because of her murmuring it was enunciated enough and it fell on the table once more.

Alice was concentrating hardest on her matches. However, she couldn't quite figure out which way clockwise was. She twirled her wand several times and let out a frustrated groan. Once she got the circular motion down she pronounced the words.

"Boe-tain" She said.

But the matches remained on the table.

Alice let out another groan.

"Boe-TAIN" She said circling and jabbing her wand toward the matches.

They remained on the table in their straight row, as if mocking Alice. Alice ran a hand through her hair in frustration. This was going to be a long day.

Airen looked at Charlotte. He hadn't seen her in awhile. He nodded in agreement with a warm smile on face. He patted the seat next to him.

He listened closely to Professor Romain. He watched the movements closely with calculating eyes. When the Professor finished, Airen had written down the correct pronunciation and wand movements. He placed the notes in between Charlotte and him. He practiced the wand movement a few times. Satisfied, he closed his eyes and said, "Botian."

When he thought he got it correct, he tried the spell. The sticks shuddered, but they didn't change. Confused, he checked the notes again. Noticing that he forgot the flick downward, he tried again.

"Botain," he said. The sticks shuddered, then they seemed to be drawn together by a magnetic force. They melted and merged into the shape of the insect, then they solidified. The creature was still for a moment before it began to walk. The long, slender body moved slowly. Airen gently placed his hand in front of the insect, and it walked on top of his hand. Smiling at the ticklish feeling it the gave him, he lifted his hand off the table and let the walking stick walk on his hand as he turned it over. He set it back down on the table and watched as it walked on his desk.

While peeking into the room seeing the other students already at work, he slipped in the room, trying to sneak in, completely fed up with being late. He really hoped that as he settled in he'd be on time more often.

He took a seat in the back, next to Pxyis so he could ask her what they were doing, but stayed quiet a moment, looking around at the other students to try to catch on himself what they were doing.

He gave an embarrassed nod, thankful for her ability to be able to just go on explaining everything to him without having to ask.

He watched as she tried to do the spell again, smiling brightly when she managed to do it correctly. Any bit of magic he'd seen done was amazing to him, the struggle it took for him and his classmates to get some spells mastered made it all the more, knowing how hard they had to work to do some things.

He took out his wand, straightening in his seat, pointing his wand at the matchsticks, staring at them intently. He really wanted to get it right. He cleared his throat, taking a breath, firmly saying "Butain!" as he did the wand movement. He paused a moment, nothing happening.

More firmly he repeated, "Boo-tain!" The matches glowed bright a brief moment, popping loudly into confetti in his face, blowing his hair back slightly.

He sank down in his chair a bit, a bit disappointed but thinking that even if he didn't get the right spell he did get something.

She sighed seeing more and more students succeed. So, she decided not to try, she couldn't look bad in front of everyone. She she took a deep breath and began the motions again, and finally found the courage to say:

"Boe-tain!"

She was smiling as she saw them begin to swirl around and form into the walking stick. She jumped up and down in excitement, that soon disappeared seeing that it was still a bug. While her Transfiguration was possible, she didn't like bugs and looked at it wide-eyed trying not to cry out or do anything embarrassing.

She'd rather it had turn into confetti like the boy, whom she'd never seen before till now. Slytherin too at that.

He was still a bit startled from having the confetti blow up in his face and glanced around as Pxyis got some of it out of his hair, noticing another slytherin girl that had gotten the spell right. He sat up again, running his hands through his hair to shake out the rest of any confetti left in his hair. "Hopefully I don't do that again..."

He looked over at the stick bug on Pxyis' book, reaching his hand out and letting it crawl on. "I actually like bugs, so..." he trailed off, not thinking she'd really be interested, as he allowed the stick insect to crawl up his arm. "But, it's okay. My fault for being late."