In Case of Magical Disaster: Use Reparifarge PV Makaio Kāne

Makaio had just finished class and was cleaning up his room. Some students stayed after to ask questions about the lesson and without really thinking about it, the Transfiguration professor grabbed a watch that had been transfigured from a whistle and stuffed it into his pocket, a task from a previous lesson the day before.

Gathering up the rest of the books and parchment as he bid the last of his students farewell, he made his way out of class, down the stairs, and out into the courtyard. He never really stayed in the castle longer than he had to, preferring to be outdoors most of his time. He had the mind to go visit the greenhouses again and learn more about the plants being kept by the herbology professor but with all his books he decided to go back to camp first.

It was at this point, out of the corner of his eye he spotted one of his first year students - Ms. Laren, hunched over a book on a bench. Curiosity getting the better of him, Makaio made his way over and caught a bit of the words - it was her transfiguration text. “Ms. Laren. What seems to be the issue? Perhaps I might be of some service?” Makaio greeted in his gruff manner, waving a friendly hand. “Studying up on transfiguration?”

@Graci Laren

Graci's head shot up out of her book, not surprised exactly, just figuring it was better to converse when ones voice wasn't muffled by a book.

"I'm not so much studying as wondering how well I'd have to do to not fail as well as bemoaning the fact that I'm probably going to fail, but. I'm just struggling with Repifarge. It seems rather straight forward but... sorry, I'm just rather helpless with all of this."

Graci hadn't really ever talked to professor Kāne, but he didn't seem all that bad. Maybe a little intimidating, but not rude or anything. Though, he did like Transfiguration so... you could never be too sure. Mental, transfiguration people are. I really don't understand how they do it.

"I mean, I kind of understand the theory, but the normal Transfiguration is hard for me so trying to undo something that I already had a hard time doing. I dunno."

Hm, it probably seems stupid to him because he understands it. That's how mum was with me and math. Though, she didn't think it was stupid. She just didn't know how to teach. But then again, this guy is a teacher and probably better equipped... I'm really just going in circles, aren't I.

Makaio listened patiently as his student, to her credit unfazed, went on a bit of a word slurry about not really studying yet…somehow still studying? He thought it best not to get into the finer points of Graci’s response to his question. She seemed really quite flustered, as did most the students here, over a subject that was perhaps even the pinnacle of magic itself. Conjuring things from nothing, changing things to other things, and making them disappear, all seemed be the actual point of magic. Transfiguration did take the most imagination, it wasn’t as straightforward as the other subjects, but it seemed to be the only subject, at least to it’s professor, worth studying.

His attention back on his student, she seemed to be fretting over the use of the untransfiguration spell, Reparifarge, which, ironically, was the spell that required the least amount of work to function properly. “Well, Ms. Laren,” Makaio started, his voice rough but still somehow soft. “Let’s see what we can do about this, shall we?” He put his hands in his pocket and suddenly remembered the watch that he had grabbed, quite without reason, and pulled it out of his pocket.

“I have just the thing!” He said, his voice and eyebrows both elevated as he handed her the watch. “You should already know the Whistle to Watch transfiguration. Let’s start there. I want you to untransfigure this, if you will, Ms. Laren.” Makaio remained standing while waiting for her to take the watch. This would be a good teaching moment for his young student. Perhaps it would also gain her interest in his subject.

@Graci Laren

Graci took the watch from his outstretched hand. hoping, praying that she wouldn't have to perform Repifarge in front of the teacher. She knew she would, but... Oh, how embarrassing- it would be if I did it wrong. And my hand has been spasm-ing a lot more today... Oh dear.

She turned it over in her hand a few times, thinking back to the lesson where they turned whistles into watches. Every time a breeze went through the class hers had still made a noise, but it still vaguely resembled a watch so she didn't mind.

That was... rather annoying, but at least it worked. Being bad at something is always so annoying. I should turn it into spiteful studying. Then I might actually get an 'O' in the class. For once.

Sighing, Graci picked up her wand, holding the watch in her hand.

"Reparifarge.{Reh-PAR-i-farj}"

She was a little shocked when it worked. Her previous attempts hadn't. Well, it didn't quite work, the now-whistle was still ticking slightly but a win was a win. At least when it was non-life-threatening.

Could be better. Should be better. Could be far worse. By far an 'Exceeds expectations' but not outstanding.

Graci didn't know what she was supposed to do after, a spell was a spell and she was just glad that it hadn't gone terribly wrong.

Graci silently took the watch from Makaio’s hand. Her lack of a chatty response raised his eyebrows. He was expecting some commentary about the use of the spell or her experience in the classroom but chose not to say anything. “Go on,” Makaio said encouragingly as she held it in her hand and looked at it. It was indeed a watch.

She seemed to think at it more than about it though as she decided to finally cast the spell. Again, Makaio’s animated eyebrows raised at how exact her pronunciation was. She seemed really hyper-focused on making sure the pronunciation was exactly right. That seemed like something one ought to do before performing magic, he thought wryly.

Nonetheless, her wand seemed to respond well to the command. It did as it’s owner bade and turned the watch into a whistle. Makaio was about to congratulate her but the watch-turned-whistle still had a tick. Instead, the professor nodded. “Thought so,” he remarked as he watched Graci’s look of apparent consternation - again mute for all but casting the spell.

“Might I suggest, young Laren, that we focus more on the imagination and less on the pronunciation. You do a fine job with the word to be sure! But now that you have the word down, focus on visualizing that watch becoming a whistle, this might help!”

With a wave of his wand, Makaio said, “Tunc Sibilus” The mistransfigured whistle, despite it’s imperfections, turned back into the watch it had been moments earlier. “Why don’t you have another try? Remember, imagination!”

@Graci Laren

Graci's favourite word, or one of them, was usually imagination. But not in this particular situation. When she was in school there wasn't imagination involved except for in English. Some others too, but not really.

"That makes sense, yeah." It did not make sense. Well, it did a little bit, but Graci thought herself to be a rather stubborn person. Sometimes, that is. Ugh, fine, I'm not that stubborn.

Here goes nothing. Or my pride. Not that there's much left of it anyway.

"Reparifarge."

Doing magic always enthralled Graci. She had known it existed for her whole remembered life, but it always seemed a bit unreal. Like, how did she, of all people, have the chance to be magical? And then suck at it too. Or Transfiguration, at least.

She didn't know why Transfiguration was so hard for her. She wasn't close minded and she had imagination for days. Maybe the problem is that I don't actually use my imagination for this. Maybe I think it's just straight forward with all right answers.

Graci did as she was told, imagining the watch turning back into a whistle. For her, imagination meant making something happen in the weirdest of ways. Like gears under the face of the watch melting into the form of a whistle. Weird, but effective.

She looked back to her hand, zoning back in. And, to her delight, there was a whistle. Not ticking this time just... being a whistle.

Makaio watched politely as she took the watch back. She said it made sense but he wasn’t so sure that was the case. Before he gave any more pointers, he wanted to see if Graci could get the hang of the spell on her own. Everyone says they are bad at transfiguration, but in his experience so far at Hogwarts, people just misunderstand the subject. He had to admit the curriculum taught wasn’t exactly the most cohesive and that was probably part of why so many seemed to do quite poorly with it.

As anticipated, though, Graci was able to cast the spell exactly as he instructed. A little bit of imagination went a long way! “Well done, Ms. Laren. For someone worrying about failing, you seemed to have pulled that off well,” he praised warmly with a smile.

Taking out his wand, he spotted a pair of rocks several feet away from them on the cobbles of the courtyard. “Imagination is the most important part, and perhaps it’s why people struggle with it. It just takes seeing possibilities. For example, see those rocks?” He asked, his wand pointed right at it.

“Lapifors!” He commanded, using his spell spread ability, Makaio targeted both stones and turned them into a pair of rabbits. The spell allows for some amount of control over the target, and the professor had them hop all the way over to them. "Lepus Calceus” he commanded next, and the pair of rabbits transfigured into a pair of very fluffy white slippers. He picked them up and handed them to his student.

“In the right hands, Transfiguration can help transform the world around you. It just takes practice. You have great potential from what you’ve just shown me.”

@Graci Laren

Graci was still quite shocked that she had done it, pleasantly surprised.

"I mean, of course I'm a little scared of failing, who wouldn't be? It wasn't that much of a concern, but it's still viable.

Hm. Future possibilities. Sounds like anxiety's better cousin. One that doesn't so much worry, but still thinks of what ifs all day.

Graci had always envied those who's imagination was practical. Not weird foxes longing on rainbows with Norse gods. Hm, maybe I'm better suited to be a writer than some magic profession. I mean, I could do both in one. Write books on magic. But then again, I'd actually need to learn how to properly do magic first... and informational books aren't very fox-on-rainbow-god imaginative.

At that point her train of thought just... stopped. Awash in her stupidity, wondered if she'd eaten anything weird earlier that day. Maybe this is all a fever dream and I'll wake up, that would have me tripping for so long. Nah, definitely real.

Graci's eyes widened at Professor Kāne's transfiguration of the rocks to rabbits and then further into slippers.

"How on earth did you do that? I mean, obviously transfiguration, but that is so cool." Maybe she was simply more wowed at it because she didn't know how to do it, but it was still really cool.

His student, Ms. Laren, seemed to wake up out of her own thoughts at the sight of the bunnies and then the slippers. Makaio smiled widened as she seemed suitably impressed. He wasn’t done yet. “Avifors,” he said next and the slippers turned into two small little birds. Directing them with his wand, they sat on the seat next to her, chirping and looked up at her as if they wanted her to pet them.

With that little trick done, he continued his lesson, hopefully capitalizing on her excitement. “Transfiguration helps make our dreams a reality. It can be a very difficult subject. There are many older than you that couldn’t master the spell you just used, but use it you did. Someday you can also change your world to match those dreams.”

“However, I have one more task for you before I go,” he said as he point his wand at his hand “Matteo ‘matchstick’.” With the teleportation spell, he summoned one of the matchsticks laying on his office desk to appear in his hand. “Transfiguration can also be used to summon or vanish things at will! It’s very handy if you forget your notes!”

He handed her the matchstick. “Now, I’d like you to turn this into a needle and back into a matchstick, please.” He requested, hoping that their little lesson had encouraged her.

@Graci Laren