Professor Singh smiled happily at the second years.
"Good morning second years." Professor Singh said. He was wearing lovely deep red robes. They had gold stitches of dragonflies. They fluttered slowly. "Today we will learn how to turn beetles into buttons. I will demonstrate for you now." Professor Singh dropped a big black beetle on a student's desk. "Brupestus Globuli." He moved his wand in a tight spiral. He touched the beetle. Its legs shrank away. The shell changed into a big black shiny button. Professor Singh smiled. He pointed his wand at the blackboard. The spell appeared in big letters. Then the chalk drew the wand movement. "I will bring you all a beetle." He said. "The best efforts will win house points." Maybe more if they were Gryffindor!

Harri liked Transfiguration and she certainly liked Professor Singh. Her head of House was a sweet guy and was never too hard on her whenever she got in trouble. He always seemed to have a sort of 'kids will be kids' mentality to him. Which often made learning much easier for her. Not to mention this was a class she was allowed to use her wand in!

Harri bounced in her seat as he came around and handed out the beetles. Once hers was placed on her desk, she sized it up. It was rather big, she didn't know what type it was (who knew the different species of beetles anyway?) but it was trying to flee her desk. That just wouldn't do. Harri plucked the beetle and gently placed it back into the middle of her desk, only this time on it's back. She watched it's many legs wiggle as it tried to catch purchase on any sort of surface before swishing her wand. She didn't want to seem cruel or anything, she just wanted it to stay in place while she worked.

As she spoke the spell and finished her waving her wand around, the rather large beetle stopped wiggling. It's hard shell flattened and widened out some, taking on the appearance of one of those large fancy coat buttons (The kind that would be found on Grandma Petunia's Pea Coat) Unfortunately it still had legs and started wiggling them once more, this time a little more vigorously, "Bullocks."

Akira appeared very happy to be in the lesson, Transfiguration was of course her favourite subject, the amount of possibilities one had to turn things into other things. They could turn a human into an animal, a suit of armour into a tuxedo, allow you to become an animagus and of course the most important. Creating buttons. I mean who didn't have a few buttons spare around the house? Atleast with this though you can get the right one, as they're never the right one at home. So thats a positive Akira thought. She watched the demonstration eagerly although she seemed uncomfortable being in the same lesson as the professor. Despite him being fine with it and with it apparently not being that uncommon...Akira still remembered when she created her own cat ears and couldn't get it reversed. It just felt awkward to her that something the teacher did so easily was causing her so much distress. Of course it was her fault for not going sooner but thats another matter for another time.

She stared at the beetle with slight disgust before she sighed and waved her wand, praying the spell worked as she cast it. To her surprise it worked! Sort of.  The beetle flattened yes, it was circular? Definitely. Did it look like a cartoon character that had a 10 tonne weight dropped on it? Obviously. With a groan she started muttering. "Atleast there isn't any beetlejuice. For if there was any beetlejuice and I said beetlejui-" She stopped at the last word and seemed seriously concerned. If magic is real...could that movie of been real? She wasn't willing to find out and resumed attention to the beetle. "Stupid bug." She groaned, looking over to the Harri. "I thought it was pronounced like Bowl. Not bull?" She tried to joke with an awkward but also nervous smile and eyes pleading not to be hexed, she didn't know if there was a reputation for it with the person, but she did know she tried correcting a Gryffindor.

Professor Singh particularly liked teaching the second years. They were so enthusiastic about his subject! They made him smile. He very much liked seeing his students get things right.

"Brupestus Globuli." The Professor said and said it slower "Brew-peyst-us Gloh-buli." He turned another beetle into a button. He switched it back. "Keep trying. Imagine the shiny button. When you get it you will see." He smiled.

Akira nodded as the teacher spoke, then returned to her beetle. She had this, just needed to do as told. She pictured it in her head, pointed her wand, took a breath. "Bluepeskus Globuieye." She snapped her eyes open immediately realizing her mistake. And stared at the beetle angrily as it seemed to mock her. "Uuugh....why do we have to speak...doesn't this make anyone with a lisp incapable of using magic?"

She placed her head on the table and moved her arms so that it rested on them. "If its so required to use these words, how do other languages use them? Maybe I should take my mothers advice...learn a second language..." She shook her head and poked the bug with her wand. "Brupestus Globuli" She did the spiral motion with her wand half heartedly and watched the bugs legs as they popped away and it sat as a squashed bug with no legs.

Harri had to admit, Akira had a good point. What happened to wix' s that spoke other languages? Granted most spells were pretty much just Latin so it Wasn't like they were in English to begin with but what about those with accents? She Wasn't exactly posh speaking herself and plenty of her elementary teachers had called her lazy when she talked. She often slurred her words or used too much slang. What if someone had a Highlander accent? Those were nigh impossible to understand. Would they have difficulty performing spells?

Harri shook her head and tried to focus on the task at hand. She rolled the words over her tongue a few times, now far more self conscious of how she pronounced things before actually trying the spell again.

When she twirled her wand this time and put extra focus on her annunciation, the half beetle half button in front of her turned completely into a button. She let out a small wooo as her spell succeeded. Perhaps her classmate was onto something. She'd have to pay a little more attention to how she said her spells and not just how she moved her wand.

"Words help." Professor Singh said. "You will be expected to use non-verbal spells for your NEWTs." It was a common question. Some students who struggled to say the words learned to do it sooner. But they took a long time to perfect spells. "Visualize the button. Determination!" Professor Singh flicked his wand at Akira's bug. It transfigured into a shiny button. He switched it back.

"Well done Harri!" Professor Singh said. "You are nearly there. Keep up the good work." He smiled. He went to prepare a bigger challenge. And by bigger he meant bigger with legs!

Akira glared at the beetle as it was turned, then turned back. All her progress up to that point on turning it into a button had been undone. This will not do, she stared at the beetle which she swore was mocking her, she pointed her wand at it and as close as she can without touching it. "Brupestus Globuli." She whispered in a sharp tone and made a small spiral with the wand to barely give off any movement.

She smiled warmly as the beetle flattened, then spread out into a circle, followed by the legs disappearing and finally it got thicker as it formed into a black button for her cardigan. "Not like I'm going to use you, thats disgusting but oh well." She sighed and leaned back in her chair, sneaking a marshmallow from her bag and putting it into her mouth.

Harri was thoroughly proud of herself and beamed a little under the Professor's praise though there was something else he had said that completely stole her attention, "Whoa, whoa, Whoa, hold up." She turned in her seat to look at the Professor directly, "Did you just say we'll learn to do magic without saying the words?!"

This was one of the greatest things Harri had heard since coming to the magical school. While she had been completely thrown off by having to concentrate so hard on annunciating properly, the thought of silent magic blew her mind. There were so many more pranks she could get away with if she didn't have to yell out the spell each time.

"Why can't we learn that now?" She had a feeling she knew the answer he was going to give her but that didn't matter. She had been given a glimmer of hope that she was going to hold onto for dear life.