(Arcane Tinker) Chapter 16: The Art of Change

AN: Like the other AT chapters so far, this isn’t part of the weekly schedule. Tomorrow will be an AWM (EM Vol. 2) chapter, like you guys chose in the last poll.

Chapter 16: The Art of Change

2nd September 1991, Hogwarts

And just like that, he left, probably to prepare for his own classes, not that he thought about it. Dean ignored Ron, calling the prefect a prat beneath his voice and decided to get his bag and take it down to the Great Hall, Harry following him.

Their journey to the transfiguration classroom was a quick one. Dean wished he would have said that it was because of their newfound familiarity to the castle, or their new maps, but he had to admit that it mostly had to do with the fact that the prefects obviously had classes of their own, and they essentially hurried them to their destination before disappearing without being late.

As a result, they found themselves about fifteen minutes early for their class, with nothing really to do. The transfiguration classroom was massive, far bigger than anything Dean had been expecting. The ceiling was pretty high with floating lamps lighting up the room. They must have used a lot of expansion charms to make the room that big.

There were long, polished desks in neat rows, each one able to fit two or three students, and they curved slightly toward the centre, where a raised platform stood with a single, worn professor’s desk at the front.

Behind the desk was a large blackboard that took up almost half the entire wall, covered in strange, tightly written diagrams and symbols that Dean didn’t recognise despite having read his entire schoolbooks.

Dean took a seat near the middle, setting his bag down and pulling out his notebook. He did his best to stay away from Neville Longbottom’s seat, which was quickly swarmed by half his classmates. Even Sally-Anne decided to sit near him, but she was probably pushed by Parvati Patil, who kept staring at him like the boy would explode.

From what Dean could remember of their previous night, Neville seemed like an alright boy. He was a bit full of himself, but he’d hopefully grow out of it in time. No, Harry stayed away because Theory classes were held for all students in each year, meaning that Draco Malfoy would eventually come. Given what happened before the sorting, Dean had no interest in being involved and stayed away from it all.

Thankfully, Harry followed his lead and joined him and whispered to him, “Dad told me that transfiguration is one of the hardest classes we’ll take and that McGonagall is strict. He said she was his favourite professor, though I’m not sure how. He normally doesn’t like stuffy people.”

Well, that ought to be a good description of the professor. She almost seemed to radiate strictness the night prior. Yet Dean decided to reserve judgment on his teacher, “I guess we’ll see that soon.”

More students slowly trickled in, some yawning, others wide-eyed. Dean stiffened slightly as he noticed a familiar girl sitting at the desk next to him. “So, Dean, how’s the Lion’s den?”

Lisa Turpin was giving him a smug look, and beside her was a familiar-looking girl of Indian descent. He first thought that it was Parvati, but she was wearing a blue tie. This must be Padma then. He gave her a smile, “Pretty nice. They’re a lively bunch, I guess. The Weasley Twins blew up fireworks and everything. What about you? I heard that the Ravenclaws had a special library for them up in their tower, with the secrets of Rowena Ravenclaw in them, of course.”

She rolled her eyes, “It isn’t a special library or anything. Some rich Ravenclaw bought copies of the most commonly used book to avoid going up and down the stairs every time. After graduating, he didn’t want to sell them and made a small library in the common room from all of the books. It pretty much became a custom after that for people to donate their books after leaving, and it sort of grew over time. It’s nice since we don’t have to leave the common room to find most reference books and stuff, especially since the library is over five flights of stairs down. We’re not allowed to take them too far from the library, though. There’s an enchantment and everything.”

Dean thought that it was a good idea. He didn’t know much about their lessons yet, but a repository of useful books so close would be pretty handy.

Lisa brightened up suddenly, “Oh, right. I didn’t introduce you. Guys, this is Padma Patil. She is in Ravenclaw with me and has a twin in Gryffindor, I think. Padma, this is Dean Thomas. He’s with me in Willowbrook, and this is Harry Potter. We met on the Hogwarts Express.”

While it was nice to see that Lisa wasn’t hiding her origin, Dean felt a bit irritated by the pitying look that Padma gave him, “It’s very nice to meet you all,” she knelt down with a mischievous glint in her eyes and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, “Was she always like this?”

Dean heard the irritated squawk that Lisa released and smiled, “Unfortunately. We even have a nickname for her. Hurricane Lisa.”

“That is not my nickname,” the girl in question protested.

“Sure, it is. If you have a problem, Jack is the one who came with it.”

She grumbled about traitors and punishing him later, and Harry stopped her rant, “By the way, have you spoken with him since we came here? The most I got was a wave during breakfast.”

“Not really,” she answered thoughtfully, “We didn’t exactly have the time, with the sorting, the feast, and everything. We were mostly at our house tables, and since he’s in Hufflepuff, I guess we never really had the chance to catch up. He’s also a year above us, so we won’t see him in classes. We should corner him during dinner. I want the prat to pay for not telling me that we got sorted by a hat.”

Dean nodded, understanding her point, but he didn’t feel reassured. Jack McKinnon had been his rock during his first few weeks in the orphanage. He told him how to navigate the place, and how to do it, and he’d just disappeared from the moment they sat in the Hogwarts Express. It wasn’t exactly concerning, but there was something in the way he just left them all completely alone that didn’t make sense, given what he knew of the boy.

His train of thought was interrupted by Lisa asking him a question, “So, how’s Sally-Anne?”

“I think she gets along well enough with the Gryffindor girls. She’s back there with them.”

Lisa looked back and saw the girl in question sitting at the desk next to Neville, and she snorted in amusement, “Who would have thought, huh? Shy Sally-Anne sitting so close to Neville Longbottom.”

Dean raised an eyebrow, “You’re one to talk. I remember a certain person having a certain book about a certain boy-hero.”

The Ravenclaw jumped and muffled him, with a glare that promised retribution, “Don’t you dare!”

He snorted in amusement and gently removed her hand. “Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

That was, of course, when a cat that Dean hadn’t noticed was there jumped from the professor’s desk, and turned in mid-air into Professor McGonagall, “Good morning, everyone.”

Ah, yes, she was an Animagus, wasn’t she? Dean had almost forgotten that. Being able to turn into an animal at will looked like a pretty convenient thing, but he didn’t know if it was some sort of personal magic or something else, given the fact that the woman did it without a wand. Nevertheless, it was a good enough trick to silence the entire class, other than the awed gasps and so on, “Now, why don’t you all sit down, so that we could begin our lesson.”

She was looking near the back, and Dean turned to see where she was looking, only to suppress a roll of his eyes. It was Malfoy and Neville again. The young Slytherin seemed to stand in front of Neville, obviously trying to taunt him for one reason or another, with two large boys at his back. The rest of the Slytherins had taken a seat at the front, obviously not wanting to be involved as well.

The blond boy blushed slightly at the professor’s look and walked towards the front to sit down. The professor's face then, for some reason, became more severe, and she started to speak, “Welcome to your first theoretical class on the fascinating subject of transfiguration, but before we can start, I must lay a few ground rules and warnings. One of the biggest rules that will be shared across all of your classes is that you will not be allowed to use magic outside the classroom for your first year. Magic is dangerous, and untrained magic doubly so. The risk of an accident occurring is quite high for first years, but you will be allowed to do without supervision, with transfiguration being extremely dangerous, for yourself and the people around you. Anyone who is caught will result in detention, suspension, or even expulsion from Hogwarts altogether.”

“When are we supposed to practice magic, then?” A Hufflepuff girl with golden hair asked.

“You can do it in class under the supervision of your professors. You will have enough practical lessons for you to hone your craft without severe dangers. In the second half of the year, you will be allowed to ask permission to reserve a practice room, a very warded room with detection charms in case of misfire. These rooms are mostly prioritised for fifth and seventh years, given their exams, but you can have a chance if you ask for a room in enough time ahead, and it will cost you points to book a room as well. You can also practice magic during club meetings, should you join one, as well, but the magic must be specific to that club. But that is not relevant to my original topic, which I feel I must reiterate. You are not allowed to practice magic outside supervised environments. Am I clear?”

“Yes, professor,” the class quickly answered.

“Good,” she spoke up, “Onto the lesson then. Transfiguration is a branch of magic that focuses on the alteration of the form or appearance of an object, animal or person. That is the official definition, of course. I like to call it the Art of Change, even if it is not limited to that. But we’ll get to that later. While today it is often deemed a necessary tool that every wizard or witch must be familiar with, the Art of Transfiguration was not a very well-known branch of magic in the past. It is a precise form of magic, one that rarely appeared except in personal magics, and only then, it was often quite limited compared to what we can do now. It wasn’t under the Merlinean Magical revolution, which resulted in the system of magical wand-based magic that we use today. Merlin, whose genius made him often considered the greatest mage to ever exist, was able to use mathematics as a basis for magical use, which we now know as Arithmancy, which I severely encourage you to take as an elective during your third year. Until then, your classes will have a small amount of Arithmancy included to prepare you, but Transfiguration often necessitate more Arithmancy than other classes like Charms or even Defence Against the Dark Arts.”

She turned to the blackboard, her wand tapping once against its frame, and the scrawled diagrams rearranged themselves with sharp precision, reforming into a simpler chart that still looked like gibberish to Dean, even if he could make a few parallels to what he had read in his textbook.

“This,” she continued, “is the core formula for the simplest form of Transfiguration: the change of a matchstick into a needle. You will not be attempting this for several weeks, of course. Your first practical lessons will involve basic shape and material changes, not something this drastic. Before casting this spell, I want you to truly understand intimately this formula. Your personal magic often expressed itself as a form of will-power, desire, or emotion. This is not the case for Transfiguration. It is law. It is precision. You may want the matchstick to become a needle, you may beg it to become one, but it will not unless every condition is correct, every element accounted for. Now, let’s start with this basic formula. Start by opening your required textbooks to page twelve. What you’ll see now is the structures of basic inanimate to inanimate transfiguration, or to make it simpler, turning one normal object into another, without any living being involved.”

Dean straightened in his seat, his quill already scratching notes before he realised it. He could feel it already; this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk like he expected. This actually looked somewhat challenging, the professor seemed to explain things very clearly. He could tell why people would find this class to be too hard, but as the explanations continued, Dean couldn’t help but feel drawn in.

How curious. The Art of Change. He could work with that. After all, he was always good at art.

AN: Like I said above, this isn’t part of the weekly schedule. Tomorrow will be an AWM (EM Vol. 2) chapter, like you guys chose in the last poll.

As for this chapter, I always like to play with magical lore, and it was fun playing with transfiguration a bit. I know it wasn’t exactly eventful, but I liked writing it. Things should pick up soon, though. As usual, I don’t mind rewriting this depending on your feedback, so please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.