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It was the first class of the morning, and Morrigan was still nursing a much needed cup of coffee.  Monday mornings were never good.  Some seemed too great the morning and the new week with excitement and anticipation…Morrigan Ramsay was not one of those people.  As the students settled into their seats she set the coffee down, coming to the lecture stand next to the desk.

In front of each student sat a cage with a common song bird inside.  She began to wonder as the birds sang to each other why exactly she had chosen such noisy creatures for this particular transfiguration exercise.  At the time it had been the simple irony of the assignment, but now she wasn’t so sure it was worth it.  With a sigh she prepared herself, hoping the noise would soon lessen as the students began their excitement.

“Morning class,” she said, leaving out the good.  There was nothing good about eight o’clock on a Monday morning.  “As you know we are currently focusing on Cross-Species Transfiguration.  In the past few weeks we have talked about the basic principles and famous examples.  Today you will be putting it into practice although it will not be as exciting as Circe turning sailors into pigs.”

“Today your assignment is to turn these common birds into a cat,” she continued as she pulled out her wand, a bird sitting on her own desk in a cage.  “Avis felinus.”

Gone was the bird and in its place was a small grey kitten.  It meowed slightly, and Morrigan smirked remembering another kitten from over the summer who tried to get her attention on a fateful shopping trip.  Like that other kitten, this one would not become a permanent fixture in her life either.

“You will have until the end of class,” she said.  “If you have questions please raise your hands.”

Please RP coming into class and attempting the assignment.  You may post more then once, but the first post much be made before January 8th.  If you would like my help in the RP please PM me and let me know as I will be out of town for a few days.

[[Uniform]]

Wow, Ramsay sure spoke fast. Beatrix took in their assignment real quickly and looked over at the happy bird in the cage next to her, whistling its little song. Oh, the irony of turning the poor thing into the monster that eats it. But, on the other hand, Beatrix LOVED kittens. She squealed with delight as the Professor transfigured her bird into the small cat. Oh, this should be fun. Beatrix had turned a toad into a hat before, she was sure she could turn a bird into a cat.

Then again, a cat isn't really something one wears on their head.

"Avis felinus. Avis felinus. Avis felinus." Beatrix murmured to herself, before turning to the bird and raising her wand towards it. Ohh... Its eyes stared back at her, as if saying "Why would you do this to me, you awful pink-haired girl?" Beatrix slowly raised a hand to her bright locks and then shouted "DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, GEORGIE!" She even named the thing. She was just making this harder and harder for herself.

But, then, "Avis felinus!" the bird shifted and turned into a small, white Turkish Angora. How cute! But then the cat began to whistle the same tune the bird had before. Beatrix slumped down. Oh boy. Not only that, within a few moments the cat began to grow feathers and slowly shift back into its old birdy form that it was before.

Beatrix straightened up, concentrating hard "Avis felinus." The bird shifted again, and the cat finally began to meow. Another second, it turned back. She grumbled to herself and stared into the bird's eyes, as if trying to read its mind. Her pink hair was flickering red as she continued the same process, each time the bird staying a cat a little bit longer than before. By the end of class, Beatrix would surely get it to stay as a fluffy kitten. "Work with me, Georgie." She sighed, still fixated on the bird.

Freya clumped in miserably as usual, tossing her things down.  The professor didn't take long to announce the assignment, and it was a difficult one for so early in the year: trans-species, meaning transfiguring one living thing into another living thing, unlike turning serpents into saucers and turtles into teacups.  Freya sighed, much suffering, especially when the odd, pink-haired girl's shouting disrupted her own concentration.

She waved her wand at her own bird, repeating the incantation, "Avis Felinus," getting the inflection wrong and huffing irritably.  The pink girl succeeded in a transformation, despite the continued warbling, further adding to Freya's irritation.

She tried thinking of the bird as a "canary," since alliteration did seem to be a constant theme in Transfiguration, if the objects were dissimilar.  One could turn a pine needle into a darning needle fairly simply, and a needle into a necktie, but turning a needle into a haystack was more difficult.

With the thought that it would be simpler to view the transformation as "canary into cat,"  her bird sprouted whiskers and sharpened teeth as it ought, but remained a small bird while turning a sickly shade of yellow, as it oughtn't.

It also looked as if it would rather like to eat itself as a light snack, which worried Freya as she was quite certain she wouldn't get a second bird if hers went cannibal before she managed the full transformation,

^Clothes

Maddie was between a rock and a hard place. One one hand, she liked Professor Ramsey as a person and felt that she was an excellent educator, so therefore she wanted to do well in her class. On the other, she abhorred transfiguration and her own personal ethics waged war within her every time she had to make a living thing into an inanimate object. It was a lie, she was making a LIE, and Maddie's obsession with the truth had a hard time swallowing this fact. Just walking into the Transfiguration classroom caused bile to raise in her throat.

At least this time it is a living creature to another living creature... She reminded herself as she stared down at the poor defenseless bird that had done nothing to deserve being manhandled, torn apart and reassembled like some Frankenstein atrocity. Her attempt to relieve some of the pressure on her conscious failed, as she reminded herself that messing with a living creatures genetics was as good as murder. Putting her wand on her desk, she raised her hand and, like many times before, blurted out bluntly "Professor, is this actually going to be covered in the OWLS? Transfiguring living creatures against their will is unethical and cruel. Besides, what practical use is there in transforming a bird into a cat anyways?"

Figaro rolled his eyes so hard, that his head and shoulders moved up and down in a long arc and he ended up slumped over his desk.

"Shuuuut up, Maddie!" he moaned.  She seemed to do this every time.  Sure, he liked Maddie a lot.  They'd been through Hogwarts together since their first year.  But she had a way of thinking about things too much, making things too complicated.  Made his brain hurt sometimes.  (And sometimes, his heart, but he'd never admit that.) 

Figaro hadn't even started working with his sparrow before Maddie started in.  He draped over the desk, somewhat happy for the distraction.  Even the ever-energetic Figaro Sellaphix was having a hard time getting focused for the new week. 

He wanted to try and explain to her that it didn't hurt animals to transfigure them.  Even he knew that.  They didn't feel it, it didn't hurt.  And Professor Ramsay always seemed to treat them nice and punish anyone who was unkind to their test subjects.  But he just didn't want to hear it today.

"Just leave it, Maddie.  She's told you before - it's all on the O.W.L.s," he begged, still slumped over the edge of his desk tiredly.

A light peep escaped the small, yellow-fronted bird as it hopped anxiously on the small perch in the confines of its cage.  Once in the middle of the cage, it spread its wings and flapped them a few times before picking at the soft feathers on its breast.  Despite being in an entirely different part of the country and part of an entirely different type of curriculum, Sasha couldn't help but notice the startling similar feeling between what he felt sitting here, watching this bird and what he'd felt while staring at the wide-eyed frog in his muggle science class.

The practical hands-on aspect of magic had never been his strong suit.  History of Magic, potions, ancient runes and all those other highly analytical subjects that relied on logic came almost as second nature to him.  He made excellent grades in the other classes but they took considerably more effort.  His first year had been particularly rough and he had improved some over the years.  But, his essays and examinations still frequently made up for lost points in the practical evaluation. 

This particular assignment was going to prove a complicated one.  Even before he raised his wand, he was well aware of what his weaknesses would be.  He could only imagine what a half- or botched-transfiguration must feel like to the bird (or cat - depending on how close to success the person got).  He wanted - even needed to get the exercise right the first time.  His already high expectation of himself was even more elevated.  The hesitancy and lack of confidence was going to prove to be a particularly formidable hurdle in this class' lesson. 

Slowly, Sasha raised his smooth, well-worn wand gaze from it to the bird.  The poor bird.  He glanced sideways in Madeline's direction, grateful she had the guts to ask the reasonable question.  But, he knew it was unlikely the professor would have given them a pointless exercise.  It was just on him to try his hardest to make sure he got it right the first time. 

The bird fluttered against his cage, again, and Sasha turned back to it.  He'd practice the exercise in his head - envision himself doing it.  Envision himself doing it right.  Waving the wand in just the right pattern.  Saying the command.  Avis Felinus, he thought to himself.  Avis Felinus.  He hoisted the wand and practiced the gesture - trying to envision himself doing it.  Perfectly.  And a little kitten crawling in the cage where the bird once had been. 

Looking at the bird in the cage in front of her, Meg listened as Professor Ramsay spoke to the class. Certainly, this Professor seemed to talk fast during their lectures. And, at so early in the morning, she hoped to hear it all. Thankfully, she was able to hear every word uttered, including the spell that was needed for the day's Transfiguration. It included changing the cute bird into a cat, another cute animal. This would certainly be easier than turning the bird into a solid object, like a hat. However, Transfiguration wasn't exactly her best class, and she usually had trouble with this sort of magic.

After Professor Ramsay announced the spell, Meg quickly wrote it on a piece of parchment that she had laid out on her desk. Taking out her wand, she couldn't help but hear the chirping from the bird that she would attempt to transfigure. It was such a nice tune to her ears, that she decided to wait until the bird stopped singing before she tried to transfigure it. She certainly hoped that the bird would stop, otherwise she wouldn't get a good grade in the class if she failed to transfigure the bird.

After a few moments of wasting time, Meg heard a sound of protest from some of her fellow classmates. Maddie questioned if the transfiguration would be on the OWLs, and Figaro was trying to calm her question. She smiled briefly to Maddie. Wouldn't it be a lot easier for it not to be on the OWLs. Yet, this was Hogwarts, and usually the hardest work would be on an exam. Or, at least, that was what she seemed to notice more often than not.

Meg looked back down at the bird that she was assigned to. Since the bird stopped chirping, she pointed her wand at the bird. "Avis Felnus. The bird did not change at all. With a frown, she sighed lightly at her result, quickly noticing that she miss-pronounced the spell. Pointing her wand again, she casted the spell, "Avis Felinus." This time, the bird changed into a cat, but it still maintained a beak, instead of a regular cat nose. Sighing, she watched as the cat changed back into a bird.

The bird was hopping on its perch with such happy energy, and all Adrienna could do was watch as it cocked its head a bit and chirped at her.  If birds could talk it would probably be saying, ‘Please turn me in a cat so I can eat by ex-nestmate.  He was such a prick.’  Adrienna laughed at herself.  Her imagination was out of control this morning, which maybe was a good thing considering it made everything so much more interesting.

She picked her wand up from its place on her desk and chanted the spell in her head to memorize it.  She had picked up the habit ever since some poor girl in her third year had mispronounced a spell that had landed in Saint Mungo’s for three months.  Adrienna decided she did not want to cast herself a large nose or ten more fingers or something so after repeating ‘avis felinus’ about four dozen times, she said it aloud, aiming the spell at the tiny little bird.

The bird changed quickly, one moment a tiny songbird the next a… tiny cat.  Okay so that didn’t work out the way she had intended.  She thought she heard a barely audible mew escape it’s miniscule mouth before it transformed back into the bird.  Professor Ramsay had apparently (and thankfully) made a provision and charmed the birds to return to their original form if the spell was cast incorrectly.  This was good considering Adrienna wasn’t sure she could have done so on her own.

She tried once more, shooting the spell at the innocent bird, and this time, the cage rattled as a furball exploded inside it.  For a moment all Adrienna saw was white fur and claws protruding from the birdcage, but soon, the transformation was finished and in her cage was a small white kitten, blinking at her with tiny green eyes.  How cute, she thought as she sat back in her chair.

"Professor, is this actually going to be covered in the OWLS? Transfiguring living creatures against their will is unethical and cruel. Besides, what practical use is there in transforming a bird into a cat anyways?"

Beatrix picked her head up after having a strange stare down with her bird and nodded her head, violently. "I agree with Maddie. Georgie has feelings, and I'm pretty sure he feels shivered out of his timbers!" Beatrix began with the worst argument ever, "A bird doesn't want to be a cat, if they wanted to be a cat then a little kitten would have popped out of that shell and eaten all of the other baby chicks." What was she trying to say again? When Beatrix thought over what she just said, it pretty much was what she meant to say. Cats eat birds. Birds should not be turned into cats.

Before Beatrix could retry her spell again, she looked down and saw the bird/cat trying to eat its fluffy tail. "No, Georgie! NO!" The bird changed back and began chirping once more and Beatrix looked like she was about to cry after witnessing such an abomination. She might as well call the bird FrankenGeorgie once she's done with him, because he would be a monster and no one loves a monster. "I love you, FrankenGeorgie." Beatrix murmured, picking her wand up again.

Of course, that Hufflepuff boy was trying to get Maddie to be quiet. The one with the loud mouth that made Beatrix hiss every time she heard it. Bea stiffly turned to Fig and glared at him, "We're all welcome to our opinions, Mr. Sellaphix," What she meant to say was: Shut up! "Just like your opinion is that everyone can transfigure a bird and it won't be wrong, because you have no soul." Beatrix continued to give the boy a stern glare before turning back to her Robin.

"Avis Felinus," Beatrix muttered, expecting the bird to be a mutant freak like before... But, instead, there was a black kitten staring up at her, meowing for attention. "You're so cuuute." Beatrix cooed quietly and stuck her small finger through the bars, petting the freaky bird/cat. Perhaps FrankenGeorgie was a little too harsh for such a cute little guy.

Freya scowled as her concentration was broken.  Her bird lost its carnivorous teeth and the hungry gleam in its beady eye as she looked away from it, toward the distractions.  "Don't be stupid," she snapped, half to herself and half to the students who were questioning the assignment.  They were here to learn.  She flicked her wand at the bird again irritably without looking directly.  It suddenly exploded into a monstrous, furry bird-- the size of a Maine Coon, round and fluffy, and very pissed off.  With a sound between a plaintive meow and a squawk, it protested.  "See?" she hissed... again, mainly to herself, angry that she'd let herself be distracted.  "Engorgio!"  Last year's stuff: the cage doubled in size, the cat/canary ruffled its feather/fur, cheeped almost gratefully then with a pop! went back to normal.

Seeing its avenue of escape (the wires of the cage were now doubled in gaps, as well as size,) it launched itself at the bars, caught them with its claws, struggled to squeeze between them.

Freya poked at its head with a fingertip.  "Nuh-uh.  Avis Felinus. "  Piff.  And now she had a scarred old tomcat, one ear poking between the bars, eying her with his one good eye.  He weighed some twenty pounds, looked as if he should have been a grey tabby except his long fur was dusty and unkempt, looking more grey than tabby.  What should have been a fluffy tail ended in mats.  The ear not poking through the cage had a divot removed from the tip as if it had been chewed off in battle.  His gaze was definitely accusatory.  "Well, that worked... I think," Freya said, sitting back smugly in her chair and eying the tomcat right back again.  He was cute, in a pissy-old-man way.  She stretched an arm out and scratched his forehead between the bars.  He relented minutely, losing his glare but definitely still intending she stand judgment for her crimes... right after she fed him tuna and called him a handsome boy.  Which she would... if she could figure out how to smuggle him from the class...

Outfit

The first class this morning was Transfiguration.  Had it been something else, Mystique Ketteridge might not have been able to actually get herself up in the morning. She’d always enjoyed it, as it was always exciting to learn to turn one thing into another.  It was also probably the only book she’d read during the summer for school.  And so far, she’d quite enjoyed the lessons.  And another good thing was that since Mysti had decided to masquerade as a lady for a prank, she only had to go up one floor for the classroom in her heels.  Although, she had learned to walk in them considerably better since she’d started.

Walking into the classroom, possibly sounding like Neely because of the heels, Mysti decided to take a seat in the middle-front of the classroom.  Setting her bookbag down, she observed something.  There was a cage with a bird in front of her, and she wondered what she’d have to turn the poor fellow into.  Soon enough, Professor Ramsay revealed their task, which was to turn the bird into a cat.  This was more difficult than what they’d done in the past, but Mysti decided she’d be able to.  Having transfigured the previous items relatively fast, she hoped this time would be no different.

Avis felinus. Mysti repeated the words over in her head a few times. She took a look around and noticed that some of the other students had already started working on their transfigurations. 

Pulling out her wand, she used the techniques she’d learned already. Wand position, movement, etc.

“Avis felinus.” Mysti said, pointing her wand at the bird in front of her. With a small sound, the bird transformed into a cat.... kind of.  At first Mysti thought she’d done the task on the first try. Until she looked to the rear of the snow white fluffball. Instead of a long fluffy tail to match the rest, was a small stub of feathers.

“Whoops... Avis felinus!” Mysti once again said, thinking of the cat. Then with the same sound as before, the stub of feathers turned into the tail she’d expected the first time.

The poofy cat let out a small mewl and Mysti gave it a scratch behind the ears through the cage.  It’s eyes closed and it started purring happily. Well, at least it’s happy to be a cat now. Mysti smiled as the cat smiled in it’s own way. She then looked around at a few others who had successfully turned their birds into cats. Mysti thought hers was the cutest though, with it’s big fluffy tail and fur.

Half a dozen times, Sasha pictured himself waving his wand in just the right way.  Another half dozen times, he muttered the incantation under his breath.  Avis felinus.  The incantation was based in Latin.  Bird to cat.  Avis to Felis.  Avis felinus.  For almost a dozen times, Sasha held the wand (pointed securely away from the bird), muttered the incantation as he gave the wand a swish and visualized the small, yellow-breasted bird morphing into a small kitten. 

If only it could go as smoothly in reality as it did in his mind.  He knew it was unlikely he'd be so lucky but at least it was safe to say there was nothing more he could do to make sure the spell would work right the first time. 

He turned towards the bird and lifted his wand again.  "I'm sorry," he muttered to the trapped creature.  He was glad there was no one nearby to remind him he apologized too much. 

"Avis felinus," Sasha said, firmly, giving his wand a wave.  The first time, nothing happened - not that it was a surprise.  It was rare that Sasha managed a charm on the first try.  He gave the wand another waggle and repeated, more firmly, "Avis felinus."  The bird hopped and tweeted and, if Sasha looked closely, he could have sworn the feathers had grown slimmer and finer in appearance.  But, within seconds, the bird was normal again. 

Around him, his classmates were pointing their wands at birds and then gaping at the strange chimeras that resulted.  Beatrix piped up to agree with Maddie, but Figaro just rolled his eyes again.  Because eventually Bea had a snuggly little black kitty and her complaint seemed to be gone. 

There were some good looking cats around the room.  Well, Freya's was clearly a cat, but it looked more like a savage wolverine or something.  There were a whole lot more cats with feather and birds with whiskers though.  It seemed the only unharassed birds at the moment was Sasha's finch and Figaro's sparrow.

Sasha'd been trying at it to no avail.  And Figaro was just not interested in the brain strain.  Transfiguration was so rutting hard.  It required so much concentration, so much precision that he expected his next grade report would be Dreadful.  But that just wouldn't do, so he pulled himself up off the desk and found his wand.

Sighing deeply he mumbled the spell over a few times.  "Avis Felinus, avis felinus, avis felinus." 

When he finally had a proper attempt at it, all he managed to get were a pair of triangle ears in spotty brown.  The little sparrow seemed unfluffed, hopping about on its stick and pointing his ears at the voices he heard.

"Professor, is this actually going to be covered in the OWLS? Transfiguring living creatures against their will is unethical and cruel. Besides, what practical use is there in transforming a bird into a cat anyways?"

Morrigan had been moving around the room, watching various attempts at the spell when Maddie's question reached her ears.  She quirked an eyebrow and was about to respond when a few students seemed all to eager to chime in for her.  Giving a single clap to recall their attention she gave them all a less then pleased look.

"I have never been known to waste the time of a student, or anyone else for that matter." she said, her tone leaving little room for argument.  "The birds will in no way be harmed by this spell.  Once you are done for the day any successfully transfigured specimens will be returned to their original states.  As many of you may have already discovered unsuccessful attempts will merely lead to the little birds returning to their original states.  Now, continue with your work please."

A few of them were succeeding, and she stopped next to Sasha who seemed to not be having any real luck with the spell.  She heard him mutter an apology and fought the urge to roll her eyes.  Sometimes the students were way to caught up in the thought of injuring a creature.

"Try to forget about the idea that we are casting the spell on a living creature," she told him a little more gently.  "As I said, the birds will not be harmed.  They will not feel any pain.  See if that helps a bit."

Moving away she glanced at Figaro's work just as the bird's newly transfigured ears began to fade away.  To him as added, "Keep trying Mr. Sellaphix."

The practical side of magic - the 'magical laboratory' classes as Sasha used to think of them during his first and second year - had always been a challenge.  Sasha felt no surprise when his first handful of attempts were met with minimal to non-existent results.  He'd spent a lot of time, in his first few years, wondering why it took him so much longer to master a charm than his classmates. 

But, Sasha had grown to just accept the inevitable.  He could learn the spells - he could make the charms work for him, it just took a little more hard work.  That was something he was good at. 

He tried to make sure it didn't matter that most of the birds in the room were sporting some degree of feline characteristics.  A quick glance around the room revealed that some of trapped birds had sprouted ears - a few twitched some whiskers.  A few of the students were even looking at complete, fuzzy little kittens in the cages.  True to Professor Ramsey's reassurances, none of the feline-avian creatures seemed particularly distressed about their respective states of transfigurations. 

Figaro, it seemed, was sharing some of his difficulties and was, likewise, sneaking a peak at their classmates' progress.  When the Hufflepuff took note of Sasha's quite attractive though very persistently bird-like finch, Sasha offered him a sheepish grin and shrugged his shoulders.  But, at the professor's urging, Sasha turned his attention back to the cage on his desk. 

"Avis felinus," Sasha said, clearly, the rich, warm, rosy age- and used-worn wand flicking in front of the metal cage grills.  If there had been any changes to the bird, they were subtle enough to not be readily recognizable by the casual observer.  With a deep-rooted patience after five years of working with his wand, Sasha gave his wrist what felt like the fifteenth flick and, finally, the tail feathers melted into each other into a furry lilac-tipped tail.  In the blink of an eye, the tail returned to it's original feathered state.  With another flick of the wrist, tiny lilac paws sprouted at the tips of the wings.  Then the beak softened into a velvet-tipped nose.