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~ 8am

Sometimes the pains of life had a way of turning around and being for the best.  In the case of the Cocoa pod that had left a nasty bruise on Morrigan’s shoulder for several days it had led to a bit of inspiration for revamping one if her classes.  When life gave you lemons she had always been told to make lemonade and for once she was doing just that…or at least she hoped so.

One pod sat on her desk still completely intact for display purposes.  That had been the one that had hit her, a small trophy for traipsing through the Amazon jungle after Isaac and several students.  She had grown up camping, but of course it had never been anywhere nearly as exotic nor had those trips ever been so…eventful.  She was quite certain the gossip mill was running wild at this point about her relationship with Kendall and she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the student body discussing her personal life.  Perhaps that was part of the reason it seemed the staff at schools like Hogwarts never married…

As the students filed in one by one they found on their desks a single cocoa bean that had been extracted from some of the other pods she had brought back.  Usually she used something like a button for this lesson, however she had felt the need to shake things up a bit more in her standard syllabus.  Her plans had grown a bit stagnant and she hoped this might help.

“Let’s find our seats so we can begin,” she called, standing at her podium.

As expected most of them did so quickly.  Despite the rumors she still could count on her reputation alone for something.  She told herself she was not going soft just because she had reached forty.  It didn’t mean anything that she had made the decision not to go running to Isaac immediately after the incident with Sasha and her desk and demand that he be removed from any possible further extra credit work in the Amazon.

“Some of you might be able to recognize the pod on my desk or the beans in front of you,” she began, picking up the pod.  “For those who don’t this is a Cocoa pod and beans like the ones you’ll be using today can be found inside.  Cocoa is of course the main ingredient in chocolate but is also sometimes used in soaps and cosmetic products.”

Setting the pod back on the desk she continued, “For today, we will be focusing on the physical aspects of the beans.  As they are roughly the same size and shape as a pendent I thought they might be a more interesting choice for today’s assignment then the same boring buttons, marbles, or other standard items I tend to make use of.”

Pulling out her wand, she demonstrated the spell to be used.  The bean in front of her transformed from the dark blob-like mass to a perfectly rounded golden pendent.  A ruby sat in the center.  It was simple and elegant, but somewhat challenging considering the differences in the regularity of the beans shape in comparison to the pendant and the change of the color.

“As always I’ll be around to help and answer questions,” she said.

((OOC: Alrighty folks, I think you all know what to do.  I’m not really putting a time limit on this, but I want to wrap it up by the next time line shift.  If you have an idea and want to run something by my please drop me a note.))

Xavier had been on his best behaviour for the past week. He was waiting for an attack by the faculty. During the dance he had received strong words from both Madame Nagde the healer and Professor Mainwaring, the Defense against the Dark Arts Professor and Head of Hufflepuff but neither had followed through with a punishment. Xavier wasn't naive enough to think that that would be it and he'd get away scot free. No doubt they had gone right to the top of the food chain and put it to Headmistress Snark to dole out his punishment.

Xavier had been on time for class with his uniform perfectly pressed and all of his attention on Professor Ramsey. He had a scroll of parchment and his quill and ink bottle out along with his wand and examined the small bean sitting on his desk. Admittedly Xavier had never seen a bean like this before, he never had any reason to know where chocolate had come from. He picked up the bean and started twirling it around in his fingers until Professor Ramsey gave an explanation for their lesson.

Xavier placed the bean back on his desk picked up his wand and stared at the bean for a moment longer thinking of the spell over and over in his mind. He was actually really good at transfiguration, possibly even the best in the class, afterall he did manage to turn himself into a Centaur for the Halloween dance. How hard could it be to turn a cocoa bean into a pendant. He swished his wand, twirled as he brought it down on the bean and scowled. The bean had become the right shape and texture of the pendant and even seemed to sparkle more in the center where the ruby was supposed to be but it was still very much made of bean.

Magic, itself, had been his primary focus Sasha's first year.  The wand had been an after though.  He remembered not giving it much of a second thought when he took that old, faded (piece of pine so he now knew) and waggled it for the first time.  He now understood his old wand had never wanted him - perhaps it was still bonded to the witch or wizard that originally lost it.  There'd been no connection, no spark, nothing.  He might as well have picked up a pencil for all the magical excitement that moment had produced. 

But, now he knew better.  It was his first class on his first day back - it was like the first day all over again.  And, this time, it was with a new wand that was his.  All of his classmates were well beyond the initial wand-infatuation stage but Sasha was just starting his. 

He was glad everyone had turned to their own assignment so no one was watching as he set the shiny new display box on his desk in a rather ritualistic fashion and opened it up.  The marbled black and white length of wood lay nestled in the smooth velvet.  German made - it had been Jacoba's idea.  Aleron had recommended a wandmaker and through the wonders of flooing, they'd spent an afternoon enjoying schweinwurst and pretzels and beer before exploring the main wizarding neighborhood of Munich. 

Taking the wand in hand, he set the box aside and rested the cocoa bean in the center of his desk.  With an exaggerated and overly forceful swish (he was still used to a wand that needed extra coaxing), he cast the incantation at the bean. 

Like a stone skipping across water, the bean ricocheted off Sasha's desk and flew like a meteor across the room.  He ducked his head almost immediately in the hopes the bean's origin would be untraceable but was immediately aware he was now the only beanless student.  "Sorry," he murmured to no one in particular, simply covering his bases.  If he was lucky, the bean wouldn't have hit anyone.  If he was unlucky, the bean would have hit the wrong person.

Xavier showing up on time and Shasha's return to Hogwarts weren't the only surprises in Transfiguration. Like Xavier, Bellatrix had been minding herself as well for the previous fortnight and no one, except perhaps Erin Harper, hadn't the foggiest idea why. Her own twin had surely been surprised by Bellatrix's attempts to be attentive towards her academics. Attentive, naturally, did not mean 'interested' nor was it anything similar.

There sat Bellatrix in her usual spot of the back row glaring at her cocoa bean. She'd always wondered what made chocolate and to discover that it came from a bean would be fascinating if the Slytherin had honestly cared. All she wanted to do, from now on, was get through the year without having to go through another two days and sleepless night of playing catch-up with her homework. Failing her classes, no matter how tedious and ridiculous she deemed them, was no longer an option. The night she played the role of Insomniac was reason enough for her to never again get behind in homework; she took an oath to do better in class.

"Brilliant," she grumbled to herself quietly, "now we have to turn beans into pendants. What next? Toads into marshmallows?"

The whole idea of transfiguration seemed stupid sometimes. Why would anyone need to learn how to transform a cocoa bean into a pendant? The bright side, which Bellatrix had to force herself to see frequently, was that Professor Morrigan didn't waste every class like this. Someday, the class would study human transformations into animals and that would certainly be a lesson that Bellatrix wouldn't miss for all of Honeyduke's Sweet Shop! It was a shame, honestly, that Beatrix was a Metamorphmagus while Bellatrix hadn't inherited such a trait. But there was some good that came out of it: Bellatrix was excellent at transfiguration and aspired to be an Animagus.

Inspiration hit her. If she did well in transfiguration class and got at least an O in Transfiguration on her O.W.L.s, perhaps she would be able to take advanced Transfiguration classes in her 6th and 7th years and then she could become an Animagus! What an ingenious idea! Improbable, but not impossible. With a new goal to set her mind to for this class, Bellatrix sat up straight and aimed her wand at her cocoa bean. A swish, a flick, and POP!

A cocoa bean knocked her upside the head and distracted her, causing the cocoa bean to dissolve into a brown puddle that slowly ate through her desk. She frowned and looked in the direction of where the bean had come from.

"Sorry."

Shasha! That Ravenclaw Prefect! From across the room, Bellatrix scowled at him and hissed at a volume low enough that he could hear and, hopefully, Professor Morrigan could not.

"That hurt, Prefect."

Bellatrix stole a bean from a nearby student's desk and raised her wand over it. The plan was to shoot the bean at Sasha at a very painful speed, but her hand began to shake. Something was holding her back. Something deep down in her conscience that kept telling Bella "don't do it, don't do it" which royally infuriated the Slytherin fifth year. How desperately she wanted to pay Sasha back. The cocoa bean was shoved out of her mind and instead, her wand was pointed at the Ravenclaw Prefect. Still, no incantation. The jinx was never fired.

For once in her life, Bellatrix Dark lowered her wand peacefully and raised her hand instead. How embarrassing it was to no longer have the nerve to jinx someone and all because she was failing!

"I'd like another bean, Professor. Mine ate my desk."

She bit her tongue to keep from making a nasty remark towards anyone in the room who dared to whisper a word about her. Bellatrix couldn't have her reputation eaten away like her cocoa bean did to the desk. She couldn't allow other students to think she'd gone soft. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at Sasha: she'd have to make a big scene out of jinxing him later.

Having been on time, Megan had been sitting at her desk on the side quietly before class began. She already had her parchment out, along with a quill and an ink well. Her wand was positioned on her desk next to the piece of parchment. Despite the recent festivities, she had to get back to her work. After all, their OWLs were fastly approaching for the end of the school year. Thankfully, they hadn't been blanketed by homework yet, but that could all change soon enough.

So, Meg knew that doing well in her classes was a priority. By far, Transfiguration wasn't her best class, which meant that she would need to try harder to do well. She looked up to the front of the room as Professor Ramsay began class. She jotted down notes as the Professor explained the bean and the plant to the class. After finishing up, she looked at the bean that was on her desk. While she did not know too much on how muggle foods were processed, she recalled seeing beans like the ones that they were given sold at muggle stores. She wondered if Professor Ramsay just went into a muggle store to buy those beans, or it there was really some magical equivalent. Turning the bean in all different directions, she saw nothing that stood out to her to actually make the bean magical.

Shrugging to herself, Meg turned her attention back to the front of the classroom as Professor Ramsay showed the class the spell to use to turn the bean into a shiny pendent. It was surely a break from their usual transformations of rather useless objects. Of course, even this one was useless as well, but at least it made something that she found interesting. It definitely would be a funny sight for anyone to see her transforming cocoa beens in a store while in the muggle world. Then, for sure, people would think that she was crazy.

After writing down the incantation on her parchment, Meg practiced saying the actual spell before performing it, and replaying the wand motions in her head. It didn't appear to her that spell casting was really that hard when she first watched it as a first year. However, she quickly began to learn that casting spells required a clear mind, and a clear picture on what she was to accomplish with the spell. So, with some noise from around the classroom, she looked over at Bellatrix, who somehow caused her bean to destroy her desk...if that was even possible. And, then, there was Sasha who was apologizing for something that she had no idea about.

Giving a sympathetic look to Bellatrix, Meg looked back to her own bean, hoping not to destroy school property like Bellatrix managed. After replaying the incantation in her head one last time, she picked up her want. She pointed it at the bean, and performed the spell, expecting some climatic response from the bean, especially what already happened in the class. But, her heart fell at the sight that her bean did nothing. No change in shape, no motion, no nothing. Sighing quietly to herself, she tried to think of what she managed to do wrong.

Josh had turned up on time, as usual, and had listened to what the Professor asked. Turning a Cocoa bean into a pendant. Should be interesting. Having seen his fellow student's efforts, he pointed his wand at the bean, muttered the incantation and the bean promptly blasted off the desk like a rocket, right into his face, then fell down back onto the desk. It had narrowly missed his right eye.  Rubbing the spot where the bean had hit, he prepared to try again. This time, he said the incantation clearly, but with a frustrated edge to his tone. This time, two things happened. The Cocoa bean turned into a pendant.
Then, the ink bottle he had out in case it was needed exploded violently. So violently, in fact, that he had to shut his eyes quickly to avoid them getting ink in. This rather precluded him from checking to see if anyone else had been hit.  Pointing his wand roughly in his face’s direction, he muttered “scourgify”, managing to clean the ink off of everywhere on his head above his mouth. Looking down, he could see rather clearly what the damage was to his clothes.  All of his clothes on his torso had been hit, most soaked through. “What in the name of merlin happened there?” Josh said, clearly still shocked. Muttering  “scourgify” again, he cleaned off his clothes. “Was anyone else hit by that ink explosion?” he called out, hoping no-one else was hit. It was embarrassing enough to have blown up his ink-bottle accidentally, to have hit someone else would have been even worse.

“Let’s focus, people,” Morrigan said, trying not to sigh as she walked around the room her eyes constantly scanning the work of all the students.

As Sasha’s bean shot off his desk she felt herself flinch a bit as he ducked his head, obviously hoping for the best and expecting the worst.  As upset as she still was over the desk incident, she felt a little pang of sympathy for him.  It seemed adjusting to having a wand that might actually cooperate with him and work for him would be more difficult then he probably anticipated.

She didn’t get to see any of the aftermath of the been incident though as another student exploded his ink bottle directly next to her.  She shook her head slightly, taking out her wand and cleaning the ink off of her own clothing.  She was suddenly rethinking trying to make a few creative substitutions in her lesson plans.  At least buttons tended to be more likely to stay firmly in place on the desks.

“Mr. Tawse,” she said, starting with Xavier as she made her way around offering more specific advice, “try to see the finished pendant clearly in your head.  It doesn’t have to look exactly like mine.”

From her pocket she took two fresh beans, placing one in front of Bellatrix and another before Sasha.  She was sure offering the young man advice would probably result in a bout of blushing, as she had noticed he was apt to do.  Yet, knowing he was working with a brand new wand she felt the need to linger for a moment.

“You shouldn’t have to use quite as much power in the actual physical movement of the wand,” she offered as gently as she could manage.  “Try it again.”

Xavier had been staring at his shiny bean pendant wondering what he had done wrong. Perhaps he was too focused on doing well that he wasn't concentrating enough on the actual process he was using. He had his tongue stuck out the side of his mouth and clamped between his teeth in a look of concentration but was soon distracted by everything else going on in the classroom. He had first been distracted by a bean whizzing by his head nearly missing his ear. He looked up to see where it had come from and quickly suppressed the anger that threatened to boil up. Since the dance he had been putting a stronger effort into keeping his anger at bay. He couldn't afford another explosion and since Sasha's bean didn't actually hit him he didn't feel the need to chew the Ravenclaw out.

Not long after Sasha's bean went flying he heard Bella ask for another one. His cool grey blue eyes lingered on her figure a moment longer than he was expecting. He knew she was crazy, his encounter with her at the dance was enough to tell him that but he couldn't help feeling drawn to her. He gave her a slight wink when she looked around daring anyone to make fun of her bean turned acid. He held back a chuckle not wanting to tempt the blonde haired femme fatale into jinxing him . . . again.

Xavier was ready to go back to his work when an ink bottle exploded across the room. Thankfully he wasn't within it's line of fire and let out a bit of a chuckle. He gave Josh a bit of a sympathetic grin. He had nothing against the Gryffindor and didn't want Harcroft to think he was making fun of him. it had just been a natural response to the look of both Harcroft and Ramsey covered in ink.

As the Professor approached Xavier gave her his full attention and nodded at her suggestion, "Thank you Professor."  Turning back to his bean pendant he closed his eyes and envisioned the pendant. At first it was just sitting there in a bit of empty space sparkling and slowly the more he focused on it the pendant was suddenly sitting just below a pale collarbone flanked by blonde and black hair. Xavier opened his eyes before his mind finished the image and with an almost reflexive swish of his wand and clear incantation Xavier's bean pendant was transformed into a fair replica of the one Professor Ramsey had made.

Xavier cocked his head to the side as he surveyed the ruby nestled in the middle. He thought of the vision his mind had created for him and with another swish of his wand and the ruby turned into a sparkling Emerald.

The ricocheting bean was mortifying, the singed hole in Bellatrix Dark's desk was even worse.  The angry glance the girl gave him was just the salt in his wounds.  The blood that joined the color already there deepened and he let out a long, (and what he hoped was a) calming sigh. 

Then, it had to get worse.  He heard the footsteps near the side of his desk that had to be no other than Professor Ramsey's.  He hated the feeling - hated it!  Guilt and humiliation flared inside and he couldn't look up at her.  Which was ridiculous!  He had nothing to be humiliated about (except for the wayward bean - wand incompetence was something he knew well)!  He certainly didn't have anything to be guilty for!  He hadn't done anything wrong!  Yet the woman looking down at him had stood in front of him not eighteen hours ago and told him she believed he'd cheated. 

No - he couldn't look at her.  Not without wanting to yell, 'really?  Are you kidding?  Me?  Cheat?  And what idiot said I had?'.  Or, perhaps, just crying.  Or a nice combination of the two.  He might have done the later if her voice had had its typical edge.  Or, even worse, a hit of disapproval. 

"Yes, ma'am," he offered quietly, his eyes flickering to the bean when a new one was presented to him.  Not as much power - not as much movement.  That made sense (kind of).  His wand had the ability to be robust, according to the maker.  The black and white ebony was a rigid conduit.  The cores favored the element of water, the fluidity of power through it was more like electricity across water than a wire. 

He repeated the exercise, his motions slightly smaller, his voice slightly lower.  The beans continued their occasional orbits around the room until, finally, on the fifth try, it merely spun in place.  He tried again, the gesture just a flick of his wrist.  The bean grew shinier, rounder, more dense.  It wasn't quite a pendant but it was different.  A moment later, it roughened back up to a bean.

Pendant

Callum did not particularly enjoy most classes, even though he was good at most of them. He studied, he did his work, he showed up, and he performed well. The only problem that Callum had with Transfiguration was not with the professor, his classmates, or anyone else. The problem that he had was with the fact it was so early in the morning. Sleep was very important to the boy, and having to wake up to go to class so early had never sat well with him. He'd thought, as he got older, they'd cut the upper years a break... This wasn't the case.

He took up his usual desk around the middle of the room and inspected the bean on his desk, paying close attention to the directions. Turning a bean into a pendant sounded odd, but at least it was interesting. Maybe if he was successful enough, he could make one that was pretty enough to give to Maeve. Girls liked jewelry he had learned, and she had enjoyed the necklace he gave her before the Halloween Ball. He wasn't sure what they were at this point, but he liked to think that they were romantically linked. Especially since she was older.

He looked up as he heard someone apologize, and noticed that Schlagenweit looked a little put off and that the bean was missing from his desk. Mudbloods never would be any good at magic, and the Ravenclaw prefect did nothing to held disprove that fact. He wanted to say something, but he knew that the classroom was not the place to do it. Getting in trouble with a professor over harassing Schalgenweit wasn't worth it. He had his reputation to uphold. Even though teachers knew he could be troublesome, they also knew that he did his work and made good grades. He was a bully, but he was the rare kind- the kind with a brain.

Callum thought for a moment about a pendant, and what kind Maeve might like. It also mattered to him that whatever he made was more ornate than what others made. Showing off was incredibly important in classes like this. Teachers would be impressed if you made something above and beyond what was expected. At least, it seemed to make sense in reference to transfiguration. Maybe a nice serpent pendant, one that showed house pride and would be a nice present. Something with glowing, emerald eyes and a few nice stones dotting it to make it shiny.

Girls liked shiny, so Callum decided that was a good idea. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused on the image in his mind. He wasn't really a jewelry designer, but he was very confident that his image would be successful. Callum took a full two minutes to get the image in his mind, clearly imagining every small detail before attempting to transfigure his bean.

The Slytherin watched as it slowly took shape, starting with the head of the snake and its body, and then the circle that wrapped around the lower half of the body. It was hard, to focus, to channel all of that energy. Jewels popped up on the head and spread back, and the large space for the eye slowly bean to fill in with an emerald. The color was dull, and then the bean shook a few times and stopped changing. He was impressed with his first attempt, and smiled to himself.

The whole body had taken shape, and so had the head. There were even fangs. The only thing missing were the rest of the jewels. He had imagined the circle to be sparkling, and nicely arranged diamond like stones dotting the body on the way down. Apart from the head the rest was clealy metal, it was shiny, but there were no jewels. It was a partial success at the very least. He let one figer linger on the emerald eye, and decided to take a short break to breathe and renew the image before trying again to finish off the small details.

There was little time for her to brood. Professor Ramsay gave her a new bean which allowed her to finish the task she had started before that Prefect had hit her with his. All around the room, students were slowly beginning to get it right. Transfiguration was her best class with DADA and CoMC both tied at second. Unfortunately, she had been failing all of her classes as of late because she had been so far behind in homework and was more worried about he reputation than her grades. Sadly, it was her own fault and this only seemed to make Bellatrix more infuriated.

She glanced over at Xavier Tawse when Professor Ramsay had given him some advice. Actually, it was really good advice and she intended to follow it. She found herself watching him just as he had been watching her and caught his wink. Inside, her stomach flipped and brought a scowl to her face. She didn't like that feeling; it made her uneasy. Stomach flipping at the sight of a boy... What nonsense! The next thing she knew, she'd be giggling in front of him like a silly--well, she was a school girl, but not the giddy kind! After her menacing glare towards him, Bellatrix turned her eyes away from him to stare at her new cocoa bean.

'Imagine the image in your head,' she told herself. 'Well, of course I'm going to imagine the image in my head! I know what to do, y'know!'

There was an inaudible hiss that escaped her before she took her own advice, suppressing the urge to fight the secondary voice in her head whose identity was assumed to be her subconscious. One flick of her wand, the image began to appear. Two flicks, details. A well-executed swish gave it color and sparkle. Her magic and talent for Transfiguration combined with the image to gradually transform the cocoa bean into a dazzling copy of the pendant shown in Professor Ramsay's demonstration. Proudly, Bellatrix sat up straight and looked around expecting people to admire her handiwork.

That was when her eyes caught sight of Callum Knight's pendant. Her smile dropped instantly at the shiny, gem-less pendant on his desk. It was original, not a clone of Professor Ramsay's, and it made Bellatrix suddenly feel...inferior in her talent. Bellatrix was astonished by the emotion she was feeling and perhaps that's what spurred her to actually pout. It was as if no matter what she did nowadays, nothing was ever enough. Her communication skills with her peers wasn't enough to make friends, the stacks of homework she spent sleepless nights working on still didn't get turned in on time, and now for all the hard work she was finally putting forth towards her classes, her grades weren't coming up as far as she had hoped and now her skills were becoming inferior to others'!

Bellatrix found it extremely difficult not to cry in this situation, though the tears were beginning to burn her eyes and tingle her nose. Hopefully, no one saw her put her head on her arms for the rest of the class as if she was sleeping; she made sure the pendant was in plain view for Professor Ramsay beside her.

[I shall pretend that Bea was always here. xD]
[Uniform]

Though Beatrix enjoyed Transfiguration, she took her seat next to her sister out of pure habit. If she really wanted to, however, she would had sat next to Sasha. But habit was habit. Once Ramsay was done with the example of turning a, uh, cocoa bean...? Into a pendent? Strange, but original. Beatrix smiled at the sight of Ramsay's example and she turned her attention to her own bean. She was able to turn a bird into a cat... She'd be able to change a bean into jewelery.

"That hurt, Prefect."

It wasn't often that Beatrix witnessed Sasha fail at something... Of course, not everyone was perfect. Beatrix jumped when the bean flung right through the desk and her panicked eyes quickly turned to Ramsay, who was already talking to Sasha about what he did wrong. The poor thing... He was such an innocent boy. Of course, her sister was already sending glares his way and muttering to him. Was Prefect even an insult? Beatrix glanced down at her badge and over to Bellatrix... She didn't want to admit it, but Bella was really ticking her off. First the whole Harper deal and now intimidating poor Sasha...

"Bellatrix, leave 'im alone," Beatrix warned, but still played as if she was happy to be around Bella. Even though Beatrix never called Bellatrix anything other than 'Bells', she maintained her happy demeanor and turned her attention to her own bean. What could she do with it? She thought of marvelous little heart pendants or cats or... Oh, a flower! Maybe she could make some sort of necklace out of it if Ramsay let her keep it...

Her eyes flicked back over towards Bellatrix and she noticed her pendant looked exactly like Ramsay's... It wasn't often that her sister were to be unoriginal. Was something wrong with her? She followed Bella's gaze over to Callum and leaned over. Well, his pendant was marvelous, Beatrix couldn't deny it... "Oh, Callum! That's really nice!" She beamed, "Is it for your mum?" Beatrix gave him a cutesy head tilt to show she was messing with him and went back to her own bean.

What was she going to do again...? Oh, yes, a flower. With a flick of the Ravenclaw's wand, the bean transformed into some strange looking, wilted flower... No good. Another few flicks of her wand and the bean was then a flower with different colored petals. The older Dark then giggled with glee and sat back. It wasn't over the top, but it was still perfect for Beatrix. She stole another glance at her sister and saw she was lying her head down... Typical Bellatrix, always sleeping through class. Bea bit her lip and internally swore at herself for insulting her own twin.

Figaro arrived late and in a slouchy mood.  He skulked past Professor Ramsay's desk and dropped the wadded up late slip on her books.   He did his best not to give any sly looks at the desk, even though he wanted to see if she'd been able to repair the drawer completely.   The class was doing something with what looked like little brown beans.  Josh Harcroft was covered in ink, as so was the Professor.  Bella had a smoking hole in her desk.  And he caught Xavier Tawse checking Bella's bum out. 

He didn't look at Sasha, but instead took the empty seat behind Xavier Tawse. As he unpacked for class, someone handed him a bean.  He let it roll into the inkwell indentation in the desk, completely distracted by something more important than Transfiguration.  He kept is head low and his voice at a whisper.

"Tawse. Hey, Xav," he said, leaning forward to get his attention.  "I want to do it.  This weekend.  I'm sick of not knowing what's going on.  My mum's not letting me visit and the letters are full of 'Do good in school' all that.  I can't bloody t-"

He shushed then, promptly because he thought he saw Professor Ramsay looking at them.

He hissed at Xavier again. "So are you still in? Are we doing this?"

Xavier admired the emerald pendant, letting his mind wander back to the image he had created the pendant from. Once his mind finished creating the image of Bellatrix wearing the pendant that sat on his desk in front of him he glanced over to his fellow Slytherin just in time to catch the disappointed look on her face before she buried it into her arms.

Xavier's brow furrowed and he turned all of his attention to the Darker of the Dark sisters. Her own pendant was laid purposely out on her desk so that Professor Ramsey could assess her work. Xavier saw absolutely nothing wrong with it. She had completed the task put in front of her perfectly, it looked exactly like Professor Ramsay's example pendant which was more than he could say for Bea's pendant. Xavier wasn't surprised to see that Bea had taken her own personal twist on the assignment and had made herself an odd looking flower instead of the pendant they were supposed to be making. He wondered if her sister's flair for originality was why she had looked so upset.

Before Xavier could ponder the matter any further he heard a familiar voice sound behind him. He briefly glanced over his shoulder to see Figaro, he hadn't even noticed his friend enter the class. He turned his attention back to his pendant and placed a very large self satisfied smile upon his lips. He then made a flourish of putting his hands behind his head and leaning back on the hind legs of his chair so that the back of it touched Figaro's desk.

"I'm in." Xavier said without looking at him, "I'll make all thee arrangements. We'll go Saturday night."

Megan shook her head lightly, and concentrated on the bean in front of her. She tried to imagine a pendant that it could actually transform into. Pointing her wand at the bean, she muttered the incantation. This time, the bean started to change. It was turning rounder, and shinier. However, it quickly reverted back to its normal shape. 'Still not correct,' she thought to herself.

Sighing, Meg looked up to see how her classmates were doing. Josh had managed to cause an ink explosion. She had no idea how he managed to do that, but magic was strange at times, so she figured that it wasn't entirely impossible. Her limited mind made her think that way, but that did not necessarily mean that it could not happen. After all, Bella managed to melt her desk with that very same spell. She gave Josh a sympathetic look.

Meg noticed that Sasha did not change his yet. 'At least I'm not the only one,' she thought to herself. But, that feeling sank quickly as she noticed that Xavier, Callum, Bea, and even Bella, all managed to transfigure their beans. She frowned at that realization. Of course, she could blame her lack of achievement on the fact that she was a muggleborn, but that wouldn't really cut it in her book. After all, she managed to do other magical things, despite being a muggle. She was slightly glad to notice that Figaro didn't seem to even begin his transfiguration work.

Looking back at her own bean, Meg tried to clear the thoughts of the others' success from her mind. Being jealous wouldn't help her transfigure the bean, unless it was Neely, and she was trying to transfigure her into book. Then, yes, jealousy would work. But, certainly not over a pendant. She shook her head, as the thoughts left her mind, and she concentrated at actually forming a pendant.

Finally deciding on a design that she saw in a store once, Meg pointed her wand at the bean once more. She closed her eyes, and muttered the incantation. The spell hit the bean, and she heard a pop noise. She was afraid to open her eyes, fearing that the pop sound only meant that the pendant changed back into a bean. Slowly opening up her eyes, she spotted the pendant, and smiled as she was able to transfigure it, and into a different shape than what Professor Ramsey wanted.