Third Year Transfiguration: Lesson One

Malory walked out of her office and into her classroom, looking around with a smile. She remembered her own days of learning Transfiguration in this very room, and she cast a reminiscent glance at the seat which used to be hers. Now she would be taking the seat at the front of the classroom.

She walked towards her desk and put down her notes for her third year lesson before turning towards the board behind her. Wordlessly and wandlessly, she charmed the piece of chalk to write
Professor Wells
Third Year
Transfiguration
Professor Wells. It looked so... strange! She knew it would be even stranger to hear the students address her as such. Thinking of the students, she suddenly wondered whether any of them would remember seeing anything about her in the media back when she was singing and modelling for a career. Hopefully any students with Muggle heritage wouldn't have seen the Muggle papers featuring her. She squashed these worries quickly, realizing that they were only third years. Maybe the older students would remember, but she was fairly sure she wouldn't have to worry with this class.

She turned and sat in the chair behind her desk, waiting for her first class of students to arrive.

Hazel hurried to Transfiguration, her books and wand clutched in her arms. She arrived at the room, surprisingly early, and dropped her stuff on a desk in the middle row. She swung into the desk and tapped her fingers quietly on the textbook, waiting for the others to arrive. She looked around the room and at their new teacher. She seemed vaguely familiar but Hazel couldn't place from where.

Lizzie arrived just moments after her friend and took a seat next to her, placing her wand and textbook on the desk. She glanced next at the board, and grinned excitedly. She loved Transfiguration! She was about to turn back to Hazel and begin talking while they waited for the rest of the class, but just as she started turning, she caught sight of the new Transfiguration Professor. She looked familiar. Lizzie frowned and looked again at the board. Professor Wells... Wells... where did she know the name from? She shook her head and turned to Hazel, flicking her eyes over to the Professor to silently ask her friend whether she had any idea why the Professor seemed so familiar.

Soon enough, the class had entered the room and Malory stood, ready to begin the lesson. First of all, though, she had to check who was here. She called out the names in alphabetical order, doing her best to remember where each student was.
"Hazel Davis?"
"Elizabeth King?"

Once all students had been called and either marked present or absent, Malory looked around. She was briefly aware of two Ravenclaw girls having looked at her curiously, and a few other students had also seemed to think her familiar, but so far no one had said anything. She was glad.

"Right, class. Today you will be learning how to transfigure a cauldron into a sieve." With a wave of her hand, a stock of standard cauldrons flew out of a cupboard and began to land in front of each student. She remembered her own Transfiguration Professor having provided them with cauldrons for this spell, and he had said it was so each student was working with the same type of cauldron. He had later told them that it made no difference, that the spell worked the same no matter what the cauldron was made of, but it stopped students complaining that 'so-and-so can only do it because their cauldron is different to mine' and other such similar complaints.

"The incantation you need for this spell is Tamisium." She informed the class, waving her hand again so that the chalk wrote the incantation on the board behind her. She really should start doing things by hand, but it was too much bother to turn around and take her attention away from the class. Who knew what they could get up to if her back was turned for even a moment? She knew what things were like back when she was a student, and that was only a few years ago.

Noticing that all students now had a cauldron in front of them, Malory summoned the last one to her desk so she could demonstrate the spell. She pointed her wand at the cauldron, and spoke the incantation. Immediately, the cauldron became a sieve.

"Now, I would like you all to have a go. If you need help, please do not be afraid to ask." She smiled, knowing herself how awkward she had felt the rare times she had needed to ask a teacher for help. She had definitely been one of those students who try to struggle through on their own before asking for any assistance. She hoped she came off friendly enough that her students wouldn't fear asking her for help.

"Hazel Davis?"

Hazel waved, still feeling that she'd seen their teacher before but she didn't know where. One of her father or step-mother's friends? That didn't seem right. She missed most of Professor Wells's speech and only managed to remember to tune in the hear the very end.

Their teacher preformed a spell, transforming the cauldron in front of her into a sieve. Hazel smiled but inside was worried. What was the spell that they needed? She was about to ask Elizabeth, stepping forward, when she almost fell on her face, tripping over a quite inconviently placed cauldron. She managed to stop herself in time, though, blushing.

"Now, I would like you all to have a go. If you need help, please do not be afraid to ask."

Hazel had to bite her lip to stop herself from laughing. As if. And admit that she wasn't paying attention. She would have to be out of her mind. She instead, carefully, leaned towards Lizzie and whispered, "What's the spell?"

The familiarity of the young new Professor ceased to bother Lizzie as the class began. Transfiguration was definitely her favourite subject, and without tooting her own horn she was rather skilled in the subject. She grinned as she watched the Professor turn a cauldron into a sieve and hoped that she would be able to do it too.

"What's the spell?"

Lizzie turned to Hazel just after the Professor told them to have a go. She smiled at her friend who had clearly been thinking of other things. "Tamisium." She replied, and then pointed at the board behind the Professor where the spell had been written up. She didn't mind helping Hazel, though. After all, what were friends for?

Turning back to her own cauldron, she picked up her wand and pointed it at the cauldron. "Tamisium" she muttered, and was thrilled when the cauldron turned into a sieve.

"Excellent, Miss King! Five points to Ravenclaw!"
Malory smiled as she saw one of the young Ravenclaw students succeed in transforming her cauldron into a sieve on the first attempt. Obviously she was talented in the subject, and Malory was looking forward to seeing just how talented she was.

She glanced around the rest of the class, pleased to notice several other students managing to transform their cauldron into a sieve in few attempts. It really was rewarding to see them getting the hang of something she taught them, even if it was a relatively simple transfiguration. She couldn't wait until they got onto the trickier spells!