Directions:

This is a practical examination.  Students should choose one of the spells from the list provided for their year and perform the transfiguration.  Students will take their turn privately and it should be roleplayed like any other class interaction.

I would like to see a little of how the student feels about taking the midterm.  Are they nervous?  Are they confident that they can successfully perform the spell under Morrigan’s scrutiny?  What did they do to prepare for the exam?

Please have them roleplay entering and performing the spell.  You may also have them exit if you choose.  Have fun and really try to get into your characters head and see what they’re thinking about the entire experience.  I will insert a blurb as Morrigan into each post in a different color so I won’t disrupt all of the posting or hold anyone up.

If you have any questions or would like to try a different spell please send me a PM.


First Years:
~ Match into a Needle
~ Feather into a Flower

Third Years:
~ Teapot into a Tortoise
~ Pin cushion into a Hedgehog

Fifth Years:
~ Bird into a Cat
~ Demonstrate a Vanishing Spell with a Hermit Crab

Seventh Years:
~ Owl into Opera Glasses
~ Partial Transfiguration into an animal (not Animagus transfiguration) 

It had taken Erin no longer than normal to get to the classroom.  In other words, despite getting sidetracked several times by magical portraits, passageways and stairways that moved, and suits of armor pointing in various directions, she had (somehow) managed to make it to her transfiguration class on time.  Though Erin had studied for this exam, she knew she would not be making an O this time.  Or probably the next time either.  There were entirely too many cute objects and half-finished transfigurations that would inevitably capture her attention.  Fortunately for her, this was a practical test so it did not take too much time to cast a spell and complete the transfiguration. 

Realizing that she should probably go first before someone or something distracted her, she walked towards the front of the class.  Not really knowing or caring if she had cut in front of several of her fellow students, she grabbed a pin cushion.  Visualizing the insectivore in her mind, she started to cast.  Unfortunately, half-way through the transfiguration she started thinking about she was wearing.  Though she had managed to giver herself a bright pink scarf, she was wearing standard Slytherin Robes and wanted a bit more colour in her outfit.  Wishing she could change the colour of her robes to a fluorescent green, she was completely unaware that she had transfigured the pincushion into a bioluminescent, though otherwise normal hedgehog. 

Taking a glance at the green glowing insectivore, she then looked at her transfiguration professor.  Erin was happy that her creation was near perfect with the exception of its colour.  Erin wanted to keep the cute creature.  After all, she read somewhere that hedgehogs ate bugs, and even though they were in the middle of a Scottish winter, Erin could have sworn that the creepy crawlies had some sort of intelligence network telling roaches and spiders that she was a source of warmth.  The accursed beings did tend to show up a lot in the girls dormitory, and she had no idea why.  Thinking that a glowing hedgehog would make her less likely to be bugged, she addressed her professor.

“It is so cute!  Ooh- Do I get extra points for house colours?  Can you make the transfiguration permanent?” she gushed at her professor. 

Glancing between the hedgehog and the professor, Erin executed the dreaded puppy-dog eye attack with the help of her furry little creature, in an effort to make the professor complete (or at least verify) that the transfiguration was permanent.  Not really knowing what the odds were of that blatantly obvious manipulation working, Erin awaited for her professor to respond.  Erin had already thought of several other questions to ask the professor, but doubted she would get a chance to.  She did realize that there were other people around, even if they were not as important as her.  Unfortunately, it had already been all of fifteen seconds since Erin had completed the transfiguration, so she was getting antsy.  Erin did not want to leave the room until Professor Ramsey dismissed her, so she was petting the hedgehog, trying to keep herself occupied.

Mid terms were the worst, but at least transfiguration was a class that Callum knew that he was skilled at. His wand work was by far his strongest part of magic, and he had made an impressive pendant in class already before so Ramsay ought to be expecting big things from him- at least, that was how he saw it.

He'd been studying his ass off. Going to the library, reading, practicing- he'd even opted out of snogging sessions with Maeve to ensure that he was going to get the best grade he possibly could. But would it be worth it? Callum hoped so, or he'd be sorely disappointed in himself. It had been a hectic week, having to deal with other class mid terms and that stupid egg that he'd had to work with Beatrix on. He loathed Beatrix Dark, and part of the rules were that they couldn't yell in front of the egg. Stupid.

Callum took a deep breath when he was in front of the door- early for class, which was rather unlike him. He came into the classroom to perform his test, and his nose wrinkled at the mention of vanishing... That was a spell he had problems with all semester, no matter how hard he had worked to master it. Turning a bird into a cat, however, was totally different. That was something he could do with his eyes closed. Confidence was key, he had learned, when dealing with magic so he did his best to keep his thoughts positive as he approached the professor's desk.

"Let's get the easy part out of the way first, eh?" he commented with what he hoped was a charming smile. Callum knew if he could perform the transifiguration with ease then he would feel a lot better about the vanishing spell. "Is there a preference for cat breed?" Callum's tone was obviously cocky. He knew he could do better than a typical tabby cat that found in the walls of Hogwarts. When Professor Morrigan said the more exotic the better, he grinned. "I don't think we should go too exotic, I'd hate to make a lion out of the bird and it go wild in the classroom. I'm sure that's against Hogwarts rules one way or another."

The stern look that was returned to him made Callum swallow. "Right, on to it then," he commented to himself with a less confident smile. He aimed his wand carefully at the bird, considering for moment what he should transfigure it into it. Callum took his time, clearly picturing the cat of choice in his mind. He imagined the bird turning into it, then imagine the new cat eating the other birds in the cages. Once Callum felt confident that he had clearly envisioned the end result, he cast the spell. Callum watched as the bird slowly began to transform. It was not as smooth as he had hoped, and although it did take a while longer than he had expected, when it had stopped transforming, an ocelot sat perched upon Ramsay's desk.

It was smaller than what the breed typically was- and he hoped she wouldn't dock points for that. He had tried, damnit. "Good lookin' cat, if I say so myself." And then, just to show off a little, (and prevent the wild cat from pouncing), Callum said the incantation to turn the animal back into the bird that was previously sitting there. "Didn't want to take any chances- ocelots not being domesticated and all," he explained.

There. That had gone smoothly. So next was the vanishing. He eyed the hermit crab that was on the table, and sighed heavily. He'd really been practicing this one- and his hard work was only half paying off. When Callum tried it on his own, things seemed to half disappear or pop out of existence and pop right back in a few moments later. He would smash the crab if it didn't disappear, he decided, as he carefully pointed his wand. After focusing all of his energy and saying the spell, he couldn't help the curse that escaped when the shell was still on the table.

"Sorry!" he blurted quickly. "Didn't mean to offend!" Callum reached forward to pick up the hermit crab- as though to assure himself he had truly failed the spell entirely- and noticed that the shell was empty. Then he grinned. "Look- the crab's gone!" he exclaimed. "And technically the shell isn't a part of the crab," he informed the professor. "They steal them from other sea creatures- don't make their own. Out grow it and find a new one, that's what they do. So technically I did vanish the crab. Just not it's habitat..."

Another awkward grin and then he stepped back. "Right, I'll be going then..." Callum hurried out of the room, hoping he hadn't botched it up too badly by not managing to vanish the shell with the crab.

Transfiguration was one of the exams that Noriko had been dreading.  This wasn't so much because of the subject matter - compared to Flying, which involved broomsticks, or Defense Against the Dark Arts, which involved hexing and had quickly become the most terrifying subject that she had to take - but because Professor Morrigan absolutely terrified her.  Even though the American professor had been at the school for eternity, or so she had heard, she was still suspicious that she might be part of the group of monsters that was infiltrating the staff ranks at Hogwarts.  Noriko left each Transfiguration class relieved that she hadn't been eaten or turned into a bookshelf.

But turn a match into a needle?  Noriko could do this!  In fact, it had been one of the first spells that she had actually gotten right!  The aftermath had been a little scary - she'd been so excited that she'd gotten something right that she'd squeaked and accidentally hit the table, sending her newly transfigured needle flying through the air and almost put out her eye! - but it was still magic that she almost felt comfortable with.  She had expected something much more difficult, like turning a magpie into a Muggle or something involving plaid.

Pulling her wand out, she gulped and concentrated on the match.  The important thing with transfiguration was focus.  It had to be sharp...pointy...sharp and pointy...

Holding the two words in her mind, she cast the spell.  It took a moment, and then the match began to transform, its end tapering until it rather resembled a wooden toothpick with a red bit on one pointy end. 

Noriko felt the color flooding from her face.  What had she done wrong?!  That didn't look like a needle at all!  Horrified, she gulped again and tried to figure out what was missing.  Gray!  It was supposed to be gray!  Cheeks reddening, she whispered the spell and waved her wand.  The object drained of color, but even with its hue fixed, it still didn't look much like a needle - it wasn't nearly shiny enough.

The young Slytherin wracked her brain trying to figure out what else was missing, but she couldn't think of anything.  Sharp.  Pointy.  Gray.  It was close.  Maybe it would be all right if it wasn't a particularly shiny needle? 

Stowing her wand, she whispered that she was done, and then raced out of the room as quickly as she was allowed to exit.

 As he entered the Transfiguration classroom, ready for his practical exam, Fergie tried to ignore the tiny knot of anxiety sitting in his stomach, doing its best to undermine his confidence. There was no reason, the Slytherin told himself, to be nervous about this. He'd worked hard to prepare for his midterm, and he was going to do well. That was all there was to it.

 "Good morning," the Slytherin greeted the Transfiguration professor with a smile far more cheerful than the occasion called for. Not even professors, he was certain, were fond of midterms. And Professor Ramsey wasn't exactly his favorite faculty member, at the moment. It was her fault Sasha'd been suspended and subsequently gone missing, after all. He still didn't understand how anyone could suspect Sasha Schlagenweit, of all people, of cheating. Professor Ramsey must have had a screw loose or something.

 But while he didn't think sucking up to Ramsey would get him a higher grade, it couldn't hurt, either. And if he acted confident, he would eventually feel confident, right? Right. He hoped. "Are you looking forward to the winter holidays? I know I am," he prattled on, reaching up to smooth his hair down before proceeding to straighten his tie, and eventually draw his wand. Fergie was out of small talk, and he just wanted to get this over with so he could move on with his life and have one less thing to worry about.

 "I'll be doing the cat-into-bird thing," he informed her, pushing up his sleeves, and then shaking his head as he realized his mistake. "I mean, the bird-into-cat thing. Sorry." But, just because he'd gotten the animals backward didn't mean he wasn't going to get this spell right. He'd put in too many hours studying and practicing to get this wrong. And Ferguson Amherst was nothing if not determined. The dark haired boy aimed his wand at the bird, took a deep breath, and focused. "Avis felinus!" He called out clearly, making the appropriate accompanying wand movements and watching the bird carefully for any signs of change.

 For a second, he thought he'd failed and the anxious knot tightened. But then fur sprouted where feathers once grew, and presently the animal sitting in front of him went from decidedly avian to decidedly feline. Fergie exhaled slowly and allowed a relieved grin to spread across his face as he examined the small tabby house cat. Well it looked all right to him.  He couldn't see any feathers or anything, and it didn't like...have a beak or anything. Okay, the meow it gave was sort of half meow, half chirp, but... cats made weird noises all the time. That shouldn't harm his grade too much. "Um, so that's it, right?" He asked the professor, already pocketing his wand and moving towards the door. Now that he knew he'd done well (or...thought he knew, anyway), he was even more eager to get out of there.

Grace Eddy's fascination with the concept of anamagus transformation had grown with each passing day since the class where she had her seventh year classmates had debated the ethics of the ability. Once her interest had been piqued, she had been consumed with knowing every possible detail about it. In her spare time (not that she needed another project or activity to cram into what little time was not already occupied), she had compiled an extensive reading list and had attacked it with vigor until she had exhausted all the literature and resources attributed to the field's foremost experts.

All of this interest, all of the studying and all of the extra work that had only been known to herself, was now going to be translated into something constructive. Grace was determined that she was going to master Anamagus Transformation by the end of the semester. She knew it was an ambitious goal, even as all of her readings suggested that mastering the it could be a long and arduous process, only fit for the very powerful and skilled wizards. That hardly diminished her conviction to do so. Surely because she wanted it so badly, it was going to happen at a much swifter pace, right? And wouldn't it come easier to a person who had worked so hard to do what was needed?

Grace was about to find out  as the Transfiguration midterm marked the first leg of a journey of continuous exploration of the skill. This was the all important first step in showing Professor Ramsey that she was serious about the task at hand.

Grace stepped inside the classroom when it was her turn and sat down at her usual spot for class. She felt a nervous confidence that she was going to succeed, mainly because of the pressure that she put on herself to do well. She sat in silence for a moment and closed her eyes, visualizing the transformation that she was going to do--partially changing herself into a swan.

Opening her eyes, she glanced at Professor Ramsey before she set her lips in a firm line and proceeded.

Withdrawing her wand from her jacket's inside breast pocket, Grace held it firmly in her hand. She moistened her lips and focused her attention on her head and upper body. With a crisp wand movement, she attempted the incantation. Nothing happened at first and she immediately realized why. She had not said it with enough conviction.

But Grace was not going to be discouraged quite so easily. Furrowing her brow, she attempted again, this time clearly incanting, "Cygnusfors!"

It didn't take long for the changes in her appearance to be seen. Her rusty colored hair took on the likeness of a swan's beak, while her black eye shadow, mascara and the hat that she wore became the border that separated the swan's beak from its stark white feathers. Grace's pale skin seamlessly transformed into them beautifully.

Without fully knowing what she looked like, but being able to guess at the splendor, Grace turned her dark eyes to her professor with the hope that her performance was acceptable on more than one level.

Unlike many of her classmates Dahlia was actually excited for her mid terms (well except for flying which was easily her worst subject) it was a chance to show all of her Professors just how well she had learned under their tutelage and Professor Ramsey was no exception. Transfiguration was one of her best classes and she was going to show just how good she was at it. Afterall  her non stop studying over the past few weeks had kept her from thinking about the horrible fight she had with Ayla and she was more than just prepared for her exams.

Dahlia came to the front of the class with a determined smile. She nodded to Professor Ramsey before grabbing a feather out of the collection. She had picked out a beautifully elaborate Peacock feather. Dahlia had heard that there were now packs of feral peafowl in Britain and figured that's where the feather had come from. She had picked it because of it's complicated colour pattern. It would be easier to show how well she performed if she completed the spell on something more complicated than on say a pheasant or swallow feather.

With the peacock feather positioned properly in front of her, Dahlia drew her wand and took a deep breath imagining the flower she'd turn it into. Once she got the perfect image in her head she twirled her wand and clearly spoke the incantation needed. A wide grin crossed the young Canadians face as her peacock feather turned into a flawless looking Blue Passion Flower. With obvious pride on her face Dahlia nodded to Professor Ramsey again before bowing back and letting other students step forward.

With everything that had been happening lately it was safe to say that Ayla was not ready for her midterms. The only thing that made her feel better about how unprepared she was, was the fact that this wasn't a big exam year for her. She would have been freaking out ten times worse if this was an OWL year. As it were she was still freaking out and it didn't help matters to see her little sister, a mere first year preform a spectacularly perfect spell.

Once it was her turn Ayla made her way to the front of the class and picked up a nice china teapot. The kind that you always thought of when you thought of a tea pot. White with a floral pattern around it's middle, the spout coming up like an elephant trunk. Ayla glanced nervously at Professor Ramsey before swishing her maple wand speaking the incantation for the spell as clearly as she could. It was odd though, she always thought that magic spells sounded better, more magical somehow when they were spoken with a British accent.

The teapot shuttered and hopped a few steps before flattening out. The spout retracted and was soon replaced with a fleshy little head. Four little feet poked their way out as well along with a pointy little tail. The only thing that didn't look like a tortoise was the shell. The large boxed shell was still made of white china with that same classic looking floral pattern.

Ayla's shoulders fell, deflated. She had screwed up, in front of the Professor and on her exam. With an apologetic look she picked up her china shell tortoise and backed away from the front desk. She briefly wondered if Professor Ramsey would let her keep it before joining the rest of the students that hadn't bolted after performing the practical.

Midterms, right. Those were important. She knew that were important because Ruby had been on her back for the last two weeks pushing her to study harder. It was like having some psychotic version of their mother with her all the time, only Ramona never nagged so much. Grades were important, that was stressed at home, but her sister had gone a little fanatical in her last year as she prepped to head out into the real world and felt the need to foist her insecurity about running out of time onto her poor unsuspecting little sister Sophie. The stress was enough to make the normally flighty fifth year snap - which simply didn’t happen.

Ruby had actually gone so far as to set her clock ahead one hour so she’d be sure to be on time. She had all but marched little Miss Sophie into the bloody classroom. The last thing her sister had said to her was not Good Luck or You’ll be fine it was Don’t bloody dawdle Soph! C'est la vie, such was her life. She stood in the hall watching the stream of students move like the tide, in and then right back out as fast as their feet could carry them. She spotted Fergie and decided he looked too peaky to try and talk to, though she offered a small wiggling finger wave.

Far too quickly she found herself at the front of the line. Swallowing hard she reminded herself that she had done a Tarot reading before hand and the cards had been favorable. It might have been cheating given her special talent but sometimes a girl just needed to be reassured she would not fall flat on her face. Smoothing her skirt she bit the inside of her cheek before offering Professor Ramsay a small smile. She could do this. She knew she could. It was all a matter of confidence. Sophie’s main problem was being so naturally gifted in Divination made her question her ability concerning things she actually had to work for.

It wasn’t that she didn’t know how to work hard, it was a fear that no matter how hard she worked because she was gifted in one thing nothing else she ever did would quite measure up. She simply had to put those ideas out of her mind. As much as her sister had harped on how important this was… it was just a grade. A midterm, something to show her where she stood in the grand scheme of things. Taking one of the hermit crabs she placed it on the floor at her feet. This would be harder than the snails that moved slowly, obviously because the crab tried to pinch and skitter out of her hand before she could put it down.

Taking a deep breath she raised her wand, keeping both eyes open as they followed the zig-zaging path it made. She kept both eyes open, her posture a little stiff as she raised her wand, she could do this she knew she could. Swish, flick, “Evanesco!” Her voice came out strong and sure.. followed by a small scream of joy as the crustacean disappeared. “I did it! I actually did it, did you see?”  She couldn’t help jumping up and down and clapping. Of course when she realized exactly what she was doing she paused mid clap, cheeks flushing crimson. “Ah. Right…I’ll be going then,” she gave a small curtsy and then beelined for the door without looking over her shoulder. Well…at least it was over.