First Transfiguration Class Open Closed

Cam walked into Transfiguration with the other students, on time for once. He sat down at a random desk and listened to the Professor as they instructed the class. He spaced off after a minute, becoming bored. He tapped his fingers on my desk, looking around the room. He no longer heard to Professor's voice and looked up, seeing that the Professor had gone back to their desk and everyone around him was getting to work. He panicked for a second, not knowing what he was supposed to be doing. He looked over at the blonde girl next to him who was reading something from our Transfiguration book, then tapping the matchstick in front of her. He furrowed his brow and turned to his own Transfiguration book. He flipped through the book before coming across a section that taught how to turn a matchstick into a lollipop, but he didn't think that was the right thing. He glanced around at his fellow students again and saw that some of their matchsticks were turning into needles. So that's what we have to do, he thought. He flipped to the right section in his textbook and started reading. Then, he concentrated hard on turning his matchbox into a needle. He tried over and over again, and finally got it, the brown stick turning into a shiny silver needle. He smiled triumphantly, just as the blonde girl next to him asked him a question. "Nice to meet you Lilac, I'm Cam." he smiled. "Yeah, I can help. Did you read the textbook on how to do it?"

As the first week of Transfiguration class began, Aubrey was surprised to see no equation or mathmatical problem was written on the board, nor was there any theory’s listed- instead the board had nothing on it except three words ‘ Match to Needle’. The rest of the students started to realize that today’s lesson would include using magic, and Aubrey started to get excited for the oncoming lesson. As the professor finished speaking Aubrey stared at the match that was placed in front of her. A feeling of fleeting panic started to rise in her as she came to the realization that she might not be able to complete the task; she didn’t like the feeling of failure, and she was determined to succeed. She closed her eyes and for a moment just stayed in the moment, she cleared all thoughts out of her mind before reopening her eyes and holding the match out in front of her. She might have been a silly sight to watch, but she didn’t care. She thought if she could be capable of transforming a match to a needle, then she had a chance in this class, and if she couldn’t- well she didn’t want to think about failure. Aubrey took a deep breath before she whispered the incantation.



“Flintifors.” She said, her lips barely moving and her voice bare audible. The match didn’t change. Aubrey kept calm, she did not panic and she remained focused. She remembered how much the textbook emphasized on concentration, and she didn’t let anything enter her mind. She visualized in extreme detail what she wanted, what she saw; now she just wanted to make it happen. The match stretched, thinning out slowly before it stopped changing. Aubrey sighed disappointed.



“How did you do that?!” exclaimed one student who was looking over at Aubrey. Aubrey turned surprised at the sudden voice, she had forgotten that people were around her. She glanced back at her matchstick, it was odd looking and very thin- it resembled a toothpick more than a matchstick.



“I concentrated and just saw it.” Aubrey said struggling to explain her actions in detail. She shrugged and give a soft smile of satisfaction as she looked back at the toothpick in front of her. “I guess an success is still a success.” Aubrey said quietly to herself. She was glowing now, and although she probably would not use the spell other than for her own personal amusement, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride start to rise inside her.

Hugo stared at the room, amazed. He was never much exposed to magic, living with his Muggle father, and so far, everything was exhilarating. As class started, Hugo was left standing, staring, as if he expected something strange to happen. When he realized that it wasn’t, he quickly jumped into the closest seat and the lesson began.

Match to needle... Well, it couldn’t be that hard. As far as he knew, Hugo had a gift for transfiguration, his first encounter with magic including him using it. He looked at the class, watching people failing, trying, succeeding, and failing some more. Moving his hand through the book, he took in the smell of the book. That new book smell always put him in a state of euphoria. Remembering he was supposed to be doing magic, he opened his eyes and took out his wand. Skimming through the material, he practiced the movement of the wand a few times, then put a match on the table, sighed, and uttered the spell.

“Flintifors.” He swung the wand, and the match seemed to shake a tiny bit, then morph slowly into- wait, no. It was turning back. Why was it turning back?

“Um, did I do something wrong?” He asked himself out loud. Scratching his head, he flipped the book open once again, staring at the words. Turns out he didn’t have a gift for transfiguration.