Effie stood at the front of the room, leaning against her desk, hands folded together as she took a deep breath. She had survived the First Years! That was a positive sign, though it had all been a bit chaotic so she really hadn't had time to reflect on the fact that she had just taught her first lesson in the exact same room she had been taught to love this subject so very much. After the kerfuffle in the Staff Room, the petite professor had felt off whatever game it was she had. Now that she was waiting for the second wave of students to arrive she could take a deep breath and really take it all in; how exactly the same the light in the room felt twenty years after she had first walked through those doors.

The lesson she had planned for the students was mostly review. She wanted to get a good idea of where they were and what they were capable of. She'd be revisiting one of her favorite lessons from her own second year; Beetle Buttons. She had double checked Sandusky's notes but she hadn't found any mention of having done the exercise with the students. It was a good, fairly easy place to start them off with after a quick Q & A to see what they remembered from the previous year. She could do this, it was much easier to feel sure of herself when she was not staring down a mass of vacant eyed students waiting for her to wow them with her talent.

As the children began to trickle in she smiled brightly, "Good Morning," her greeting was bright and cheerful as she gave them each a little wave, waiting for them to take their seats. She cleared her throat carefully, "For those of you who don't remember from the feast last night I am Professor Finnigan. And I cannot wait to get started with you lot. Now if you'll just take your seats as soon as everyone has arrived we're going to play a little question and answer game; so I can get to know each of you and you can get to know a bit about me as well, does that sound alright"? It wasn't really actually a question, she was just doing that thing she hated; asking questions a student couldn't actually  say no to. Ah well, they'd get on with it soon enough.

If there was an award for Most Vacant Eyed student, it was a wonder it had never been awarded to Heliotrope yet. She had the eyes for it.

Dropping her bag[1] on a desk she sat, taking on the features of the room. Then turned her head further, taking in the appearance of everybody as they came in. The different professor hadn't yet seemed to register with her but Heliotrope knew something was off.

Returning to a forward facing position, she looked towards her left at the other green highlighted girl in her dorm. "She's not here."

Obderedria had a blank expression.

"The Gryffindor Girl who runs into class ahead of us."

"Who??"

1.	mermaid's purse

Obderedria was feeling something akin to deja vu but she was sure she had never experienced something like this before. Right?

Sometimes her mind had played tricks on her within the Transfiguration classroom, allusions to game shows--because of Prof Sandusky's showmanship with rewarding housepoints--and disgustingly topped pizzas not withstanding. Then she remembered that pizza transfiguration had been an actual lesson.

Truth be told Obderedria couldn't say she remembered the professor from last night because, plainly, she had been distracted by the feast. As if the sensations of smell and taste had overloaded her sense of hearing to any important term start announcements. Already she was missing the taste of overly sweet tea and buttery cookies.[1]

"She's not here."

Obderedria looked to Helio with a blank expression.

"The Gryffindor Girl who runs into class ahead of us."

"Who??"

"She's not here," Helio repeated.

Obderedria tried to think about who Helio was talking about. "You can't mean Mairead?" Mai was never the kind to run into class before anybody, though she was always the first outside when they had to exit the castle. Helio shook her head. "Hannah Harper?"

"Not her."

"I don't know who you're talking about," Obderedria said, turning away from Helio as she got out her textbook and writing utensils, all Sugar Quills.

1.	reference to When You Need Someone to Talk To - Sept 8

Dahlia took her place next to her fellow Hufflepuffs, though her green blue eyes were scanning the collected students for the familiar shapes of her favourite Gryffindors. The holidays had been fun enough. Their parents had been called away to other business. Their mother was front lining a fashion show in Paris and their father had top secret Ministry work to deal with back home so the twins had been shunted off to their friend's houses while Ayla had stayed in Knockturn with Lexus.

She hadn't been paying much attention to the feast the previous night, repeating the activity she was currently doing - scanning the Gryffindors. If anyone had asked she would simply say she was keeping on eye on her msichievious twin brother but she in reality she was just hoping to catch a good look at a certain red headed trouble maker that had become her boyfriend (for lack of a better word). Dahlia was tutoring Keegan in his studies and he was 'teaching' her how to kiss.

Once her quarry was spotted she turned her attention to the best friends sitting next to her, "who's Helio talking about?"

Tynan came into class early – rather to his annoyance. The rather showy and flowery old man was gone, replaced by a…a rather fetching young Lady (female professors were always Ladies, as his Gran had long since pounded into his head) who was, rather to his silent pleasure, shorter than him.

He knew he had to be growing up when adults were getting shorter than him! Progress.

Tynan found a seat quickly enough, taking his usual haunt of the seats in the far back of the classroom – the baleful gaze he trained on all who came near making it extremely clear the seats around him were reserved for whenever Mairead turned up. Thankfully, most of their classmates had learned not to sit too close to them by now.

He crossed his arms on the deck, chin resting atop them and his grey eye watching the Professor carefully. She seemed bubbly, which he hoped was a good thing – bubbly professors were easy to dupe, if the need arose.

Not that he’d dream of doing that to a Lady, of course – he did have manners. But Mairead often came before his manners, these days. And, well - she frequently had to dupe their professors. He just had to hope that didn’t come up with this one.

The girls up front were talking, and Tynan rolled his eyes before speaking in a drawl. “Naebody e’er knows whit she’s bletherin’ on aboot, Dahlia,[1]” He said in his thick Scots, in reply to the Hufflepuff’s query.

1.	’Nobody ever knows what she’s talking about.’

New teachers were normally greeted with suspicion, but Noriko liked the look of Professor Finnigan.  She was short, which meant that she wasn't nearly as scary as someone like Professor Trishna, and she had smiled as the students had come into the room.  As long as she didn't start shouting or try to have them transfigure their bums into inflatable balloons, Noriko had already decided that she would take to this new professor.

She took her seat in the classroom with the others, right up near the front, but on the side closest to the door in case Professor Finnigan did turn out to be an infiltrating witch-eating Muggle and she had to make a quick escape.  Pulling out her parchment and quill, she sat eagerly poised to take notes.  If she impressed their new teacher, maybe she could win extra points for Slytherin.

The normal chatter had already started behind her.  Drea and Heliotrope; she liked Drea alright, but she normally ignored Helio, who smelled like seaweed and occasionally left a puddle on the floor that threatened to leak over and muss Noriko's shoes.

"Naebody e’er knows whit she’s bletherin’ on aboot, Dahlia.”

"Heliotrope doesn't blether," she hissed at Tynan, and then gave a little huff.  Noriko had never felt particularly fond of Heliotrope, nor did she even have the slightest idea of what blethering was, but the way that Tynan said it made it sound not very nice.  Honestly.  Gryffindors.  Sometimes she didn't know why anyone had high expectations for them.

Trailing towards the back of the pack of students, Mairead was amongst the last of the second years to enter the classroom.  She cast a quick, curious glance towards their new professor, scowled in confusion at new professor's friendly wave and dropped into an empty seat next to Tynan.  It was a Monday morning.  The first day of term and there was still an unbelievably long stretch of time between now and their first quidditch practice of the term. 

With a dull thud, Mairead's tattered, second-hand bag landed on the floor and the girl leaned over, resting her head on the desktop.  She'd been up far too late the night before, trying to sneak past the prefects after hours so she could plant a young mandrake on the floor right outside the passage to Slytherin dorm, strategically placed where it could easily be kicked or stepped on by an exiting Slytherin who wasn't looking down.  Unfortunately, it had been far too late when one of the Hufflepuff prefects had confiscated the mandrake and sent her back up to bed, task incomplete.

There was always tonight, though.

"Wake me for lunch, ya?" Mairead instructed Tynan.  Tynan and an assortment of other girls seemed to be deep in conversation about the Hufflepuffs' ability to speak sensibly but Mairead was content to leave them to it.  The sooner she fell asleep, the sooner the class would be over.  Somewhere in the back of her head, she vaguely remembered a New Year's resolution involving paying attention and passing grades but such things were much easier to agree to adhere to outside the confines of the classroom.

Effie watched as the students filed passed, most seemingly disinterested in her arrival. Perhaps even as second years Hogwarts had had such a high turnover rate that seeing a new face had long ago quit impacting them. She didn't exactly know how to feel about this; but she did silently groan to herself when the second year she'd spotted from the night before passed by and was even taller than she had first guessed. It was a good thing she didn't believe in intimidation tactics because she had a feeling it would fail miserably on this group.

Clapping her hands, her voice came out clear and strong, though it retained its friendly tone, "Alright, heads up, eyes up. Here is how this is going to work," she paused for a moment to be sure she had their attention, looking around the room expectantly, "Miss. ó Fearghail is going to hop right out of her seat and come up to the front of the classroom to do me a little favor while the rest of you listen," she didn't wait for the sleepy looking Gryffindor to actually follow through on the instructions before continuing, "My name is Effie Finnigan, that's the first thing you need to know about me. Thing two; my job is not to make you miserable it is to make sure that should the need ever arise in your life you can turn a tortoise into a teapot".

She moved back behind her desk, producing a large box filled with a dozen smaller boxes, and in each of those was a beetle[1], "But before we tackle the Tortoise we have'ta think a wee bit smaller; we'll have a bit of review while Mairead does me the grand favor of passing these little buggers out". She looked expectantly at the Gryffindor (Effie may have done a little snooping as to who her trouble makers might be in year two, best tactic was to keep them busy) before turning back to the class, "Transfiguration is one of the most difficult branches of magic to master; and while I am sure you've heard that from every single one of your professors about their subject at one time or another it actually happens to be true about mine. Now we can have a fun productive lesson but for that to work I need your cooperation. It is a choice of course".

Boosting herself onto the edge of her desk and delicately crossing her ankles, hands folding and resting on her knees as she cheerily continued, "If you choose not to participate then you are also choosing to march yourself right down to Headmistress McGonagall's office and explain to her why you don't think the subject she spent a good deal of her life teaching is important enough for you to pay attention to," it was best to lay ground rules down, that every single one of them had a choice but all choices came with consequence. "Now, who can tell me the first rule of Transfiguration, or alternately the five factors that make up the transformation formula? First to answer either might just get a shiny little reward". She could resort to bribery her first lesson, they were second years, incentive to pay attention was important! Besides, it was a first year question[2].

1.	The boxes are magically sealed, students may try to open them but it won't work yet.
2.	Though the lesson has started feel free to write your student as though they had already arrived, or late if you like. Each student is allowed one late start per-term without point deduction, but once it's used Effie starts taking points. Also feel free to field either question as though you had been called upon.

Remi wasn't exactly late, he just felt that way. When he walked in he knew that their was a new teacher, it was announced at supper after all. Since she was knew he thought it best to lay low, under the radar. If he was going to have any fun, he would have get to know her first before she started "getting to know students." He always hated when professors did that.

After sitting and the daily gossip ending, Remi was waiting for what the professor had for class today. He enjoyed learning and studying due to the lack of having friends to talk to, but something was gnawing at him. It was probably nothing.

With the lesson staring Remi began to get out his books and writing utensils. but he paused, this was her first day. That means that there usually isn't any work to do. As much as he enjoyed the silence besides the professors talking he was relived for once. His mind was still a little blah from break.

"Now, who can tell me the first rule of Transfiguration, or alternately the five factors that make up the transformation formula? First to answer either might just get a shiny little reward" Bribery really, although Remi did like prizes this was beginning to get annoying. He much more mature than to take "shiny little rewards"  from answering a dumb question. He knew the answer and so did everyone else. If it had been a potion or a something that didn't sound like a star that said "Good Job!" he would have probably answered. Either she was treating them like little children or she was hiding something.

It was just her luck that the sound of her name caught the Gryffindor's attention before sleep could fully pull it away.  Reluctantly, Mairead opened her eyes and rolled them before lifting her head with a heaving, put-upon sigh. 

"I don't hop," the Gryffindor murmured as she rose to her feet and made her way towards the front of the class, 'accidentally' bumping the elbow of Slytherin or Ravenclaw as she passed.[1]  Mairead reached the boxes on the professor's desk and peaked inside one of the topmost boxes.  It was, indeed, filled with a little scurrying bugger.  Bugs. 

Fantastic. 

The Gryffindor took the collection of little boxes and started handing them out.  In a few rare cases (usually with fellow Gryffies), Mairead placed the box carefully on the student's desk.  Most of the time, however, Mairead was less attentive and made little effort to ensure the boxes landed upright.

1.	Feel free to have your character be bumped or not bumped!

Obderedria nervously twiddled a Sugar Quill in her fingers. She brought the fluff under her nose and smelled the sugar.

"I'm not sure," Obderedria said to Dahlia. She admittedly didn't know of all the people in their year in the different houses, so there were Ravenclaws or Slytherins or Gryffindors she didn't know but she didn't understand why Heliotrope was commenting about the absence of one she hadn't met before.

“Naebody e’er knows whit she’s bletherin’ on aboot, Dahlia,” said Tynan MacFusty. Obderedria felt her skin grow clammy and the Sugar Quill in hand quivered.

"That's," Obderedria began in the last minutes before the professor started class, "rude!" Had she been braver, Obderedria might have added 'Nobody can understand what you're blathering about through that accent of yours' but her throat lumped just thinking it. But she remained focused on defending Heliotrope. Surprisingly Noriko Wakahisa spoke up against Tynan too. Obderedria knew she was one of Pax Wintergreen's friends, so she was nicer than most Slytherins.

"Who's you to say she's talking nonsense. You're a Gryffindor, you might know the girl in question."[1] Obderedria had to stop there. She returned to looking forward in her desk as the professor began the class. Her skin felt like she had been baked in an oven. Or a microwave, like that Siccari charm the American Headmaster had taught her to help Helio out of temperature based lethargies.

Obderedria nursed the end of her quill to calm herself down as she began thinking about the question the professor asked them as Mairead was passing out boxes. What was the most important thing about Transfiguration? Professor Sandusky had told her at times out of class and during lectures, of course, but Obderedria couldn't remember all the specifics. She was always rubbish at Transfiguration, even having her wand patched hadn't helped.

"There's," Obderedria tried sounding it out, "well, in any transfiguration you need to know what it is your transfiguring, your subject, and the target for you want to transfigure all of it into. That needs--" Formula. That meant there was math involved. She barely remembered a ratio full of little letters that meant different things. The x's had looked like noses and the parentheses were either side of the head, so Obderedria had thought it looked like two little faces staring at her with a's and w's for eyes. All represented important things in transfiguration.

"--that is, you need to know," Obderedria continued, "the weight of the subject? Its size maybe? So you know how much stuff is there to transfigure with?"

1.	Reference to Emilia Báthory, deceased NPC

Effie kept one eye on Mairead, her tone light as she cautioned, "Mind your elbows Miss ó Fearghail, I'd hate to start handing out detentions before the first lesson is even fully underway". People often mistakenly took Effie for a pushover because she was petite and had a sweet smile, while it was true she devoted a lot to her students and would do nearly anything to help them excel she had a low tolerance for people who didn't even seem to want to try; and an even lower tolerance for people who seemed to have little regard for other's personal space. She looked at the group expectantly when at last Drea spoke up. Effie's brow furrowed, did they really not know the basic formula or rules for the subject? This was more troubling than she had thought.

"Good start Miss. Pienas, but not exactly what I was looking for," she waited a moment or two more before hopping off her desk and heading behind it, pulling a large crystal container from one of the drawers. It was filled with various candies, neatly labeled glass vials, as well as several little pockets of coins - mostly Knuts with a few Sickles thrown in for good measure. "Alright, obviously the promise of something isn't going to motivate you. So I'll lay it out for you - this is the prize jar, beyond what you can see there are also vouchers that are a little like get out of Azkaban free cards; they can be turned in in place of an assignment, to have your lowest graded assignment thrown out, as well as to erase unexcused absence or late arrival, or if you're keen on it personal one on one lessons in more advanced Transfiguration with me".


She looked around the room to each of the students, trying to gauge their reactions and pick out any problems that might be nesting before she continued in the same sunny tone, "Now I realize it's is the first day back and I'm a new Professor so it might be very tempting to try to shirk as much responsibility as possible; but I can assure you this is not a blow off class and I am not someone you want to be on the wrong side of". It wasn't a threat, she didn't sound angry, it was a simple statement of facts. If they couldn't handle first year questions that she'd lobbed up the middle to them...well, then they were in for a rude awakening and she had a lot of work to do. "Now, as Miss. Pienas said part of what you have to take into account is what you're altering, and the size of it - but there is more to the formula. The first person who can give me the exact listing of components that impact Transfiguration gets a 15 second go at the prize jar; if no one attempts to answer I'll assign reading and a four foot long essay which will only get longer as the lesson continues if you don't cooperate," coming back around to the front of her desk she gave them a bright smile "As I said, this can be a fun lesson or not - it's all up to you".

Already, Noriko found herself liking Professor Finnigan.  She had already single-handedly gotten Mairead to cooperate -- well, sort of cooperate -- which usually took an act of bribery or Professor Storm, and Noriko now found herself staring at the crystal container in her teacher's hands with wide eyes.  A Prize Jar!  She stole a hurried look around the room.  All kinds of wonderful things had to be inside it!  And even if Professor Finnigan hadn't specifically listed house points as one of the potential offerings, surely the chance to dig into the promised rewards would earn Slytherin some glory.

Noriko's hand shot up in the air almost before Professor Finnigan had gotten the question out.  It took her a second to realize that that meant she would need to know the answer to the question.

"Um..."  She shrank back in her chair.  Transfiguration was not one of the classes that she did passably in, mostly because she usually panicked halfway through the spell, but Professor Finnigan wasn't asking her to turn a needle into a porcupine quill again.  This was just theory.  She knew this!

Noriko's face wrinkled, giving the distinct impression that she was thinking hard about her answer.  What affected Transfiguration?  What did she have to think about every time she tried to transfigure something?

The first was easy.  "Viciousness!" she said quickly.  "And then concentration, your wand power, um, how much the object weighs... Um..."  She bit her lip, looking increasingly anxious as she tried to remember the last.  "And...Z?" she guessed, looking nervously at the Professor.  "That's the last one, isn't it?"

After hearing the others respond Remi did a small sigh,"Why me?" After hearing about the prize jar he knew that there was now "motivation" involved to either get a few seconds at some lame prizes or write a paper. As much as Remi wanted to choose the second option, due to being a really slow week, he knew his classmates were not.

Someone beat him to it, he heard one of the girls start.  "Viciousness!"   "And then concentration, your wand power, um, how much the object weighs... Um..." "And...Z?"  "That's the last one, isn't it?" Well that was that, perhaps her response will shut the professor up with her childish teachings. However, Remi was tempted to see what the prizes were. He felt as though he was a child, giving in to "prizes" but if they were worth something, maybe they would be worth obtaining.

A moment after Noriko responded, Remi's hand shot up "Do you want the mathematical equation too?"