Hello all. I am adding this little blurb to come out and announce that I have a P@treon. Some of you may be aware that I have had one for a while now but I was hesitant to advertise it in my actual chapters.
So here it is, I have P@treon at p@treon.com/user?u=81303534. Please subscribe to one of the three tiers I have available. If more people join then I can cut back on my other jobs and spend more time writing.
I have so many ideas but not enough time to write them all down. Currently there are ten advanced chapters and a few new voting opportunities, one for each tier. One of which lets you pick a bonus chapter I will publish once a month.
Today we made it to class with plenty of time to spare, in fact we probably didn't even have to run. As we were one of the first ones to make it to class we chose two seats near the front. Dumbledore was sitting at his desk doing some paperwork, but he looked up and smiled when we came in and then went back to his paperwork right after. The rest of our classmates trickled in as the clock inched closer to the beginning of class and the last student squeezed in as the bell was tolling. Once the last echo of the bell petered out Dumbledore put his quill down before walking around to stand in front of his desk, "Now then, I suppose you all would like to perform some spells today.? After all, most of your teachers have started to do so." He pauses here like the troll he sometimes likes to be, "I don't know… we could go over the arthritic formula for inanimate to inanimate transfiguration first." The students groaned at that and while I was actually a little interested in seeing that I was eager to perform my first manipulation of matter.
Dumbledore sighed and his shoulders slumped, "Alright fine, I suppose we can save that for another time." He squared his shoulders and puffed out his chest as if he was marching out to battle, some of the children behind me had smoother giggles at his over the top dramatics. "Today you will be performing your first transfiguration, but before you start. Can anyone tell me the four things to keep in mind when transfiguring an object?" Dumbledore looked around the classroom and called on one of the students behind me. Like in the rest of my classes I would not raise my hand to answer a question unless no one else could answer it, I wasn't Hermione after all. "What the object is, what you want the object to be, how the object needs to change, and…" The student struggled with the last one and ended up lowering their head in shame when they couldn't remember it.
Dumbledore gave them a smile and nod of encouragement, "Very good Mr. Gribble, 5 points to Gryffindor. Can anyone else tell me the last one?" This time when Marie raised her hand he pointed at her, "The complexity sir." His smile widened and he nodded, "5 points to Ravenclaw, the complexity is, forgive the pun, the most complex aspect of transfiguration. It not only involves the change the object has to go through during the transfiguration to reach its desired result but both the magic that may already be affecting the object and how the spell will affect the object. As you have no doubt learned during your potion lessons, magical regents can have interesting reactions when exposed to other kinds of magic, or more of the same kind of magic as well." I smiled at his attempt at a joke, Dumbledore never failed to try and engage his students, that sometimes caused him to come off as awkward but it was the thought that counted.
Dumbledore took out his wand and gave it a little flick, a bundle of sticks rose from a bin behind his desk and separating in the air before one stick floated down to land in front of each student. "Like most magic, visualization is key, so I want each of you to look at this stick. Pick it up, twirl it, taste it if you must, but try not to poke anyone's eye out. The school mediwitch may be able to fix you up but I'd rather avoid being the subject of her wrath." He gave a shutter and got a few laughs before getting back on track. "Today we will be working on the form change spell, that means the wood will stay wood but the shapes you can make are only limited by your imagination. There is no wand movement needed as those are only needed when a spell becomes more complex. Now for the spell, we will practice a few times so repeat after me, forma." The class echoed the word a few times before he was satisfied and set us loose.
Once he finished explaining he started to walk around the classroom as the students started to try and cast the spell, even Marie tried a few times, but unlike the others she at least got slight changes. A ripple here and a slight bend there. I took a different approach and actually followed Dumbledore's advice. He told us to examine the wood before telling us what the spell was, I assumed that was for a reason. So I looked at the stick, but I was kind of stumped. What exactly was I supposed to see? It looked like every other stick I had seen laying in the grass or even still attached to a tree. But as I brought it closer to my face I could see the individual grains of wood from where they peaked through the patches of missing bark. I felt the rough texture of the bark on my hand and tried to find the center of gravity by balancing it on the tip of my finger.
When I smelled it didn't really smell like anything, it just kind of smelled like wood. Not like a campfire or sap, it was just one of those smells that were around you every day and you never really noticed. It was the same sort of thing as going from a high pollution area to a low pollution area, the air would smell cleaner. And once you spent time in the high pollution you wouldn't even notice anymore, at least until you went back. I enjoyed the clean air here at Hogwarts and was actually dreading going back to the orphanage for that reason. Well, not just that reason… but it was a big one! I shook my head to get off that train of thought and looked at the stock before deciding that tasting it was not something I wanted to try and placed the stick back onto my desk instead. Then I looked around to see how my classmates were doing, maybe I could learn something from them. Almost as soon as I looked up I knew that wouldn't help much.
The only one who had made progress was Marie and she had seen me experimenting with the wood before starting to do the same. I raised an eyebrow when our eyes met and her cheeks pinked a little, "I figured you must have a reason to do that, you are kind of good at magic if you hadn't noticed. Except Herbology." I puffed up a bit when she admitted the first part but her following barb took the air right out of me, so I did the mature thing and stuck out my tongue before huffing and turning back to my stick. Now that I learned a little more about my stick I picked up my wand and pointed it at the stick, keeping in mind the first step all the while. The observations I had made a minute ago, what needed to change about the stick to reach the end result, and the result I wanted, but I was stuck with the complexity. What was complex about a stick?
I didn't think it was conjured or Dumbledore would have just conjured them instead of floating them out from behind his desk. As for the magic of the spell, I knew how to pronounce it and there wasn't any movement I needed to make. Anything deeper than that would need Arithmancy and I wasn't going to touch that until I had a firm grasp of what could go wrong. All of our teachers, except Bins of course, had repeatedly warned us about experimenting with spells and potions without supervision and I was sure there would be a reason for that. As for the steps of the transfiguration, that only really applies when you need to change one part of something before you can change another part. It had a bigger role when we are going to start animate to inanimate transfiguration and we needed to protect the consciousness. And last but not least, why would Dumbledore put charms or enchantments on a bunch of sticks? I don't think he would do so just to make it harder, so what was complex?
"Is there a problem Mr. Riddle?" I was snapped out of my spiraling thoughts by the professor himself, he had a concerned look on his face as he stood beside my desk. I shook my head, "Not really professor, I am just having a hard time figuring out the complexity of this transfiguration." A small smile appeared behind his short beard before he spoke, "Well my boy, that is an easy problem to fix, the complexity is the spell itself. Just because the fourth aspect is called complexity does not mean it has to be complex. It can, in fact, be quite simple, and in this case it is. Now why don't you give it a try, I have heard your other teachers praise your ability to use magic and I am rather eager to see for myself." I gulped, I had performed well in my other classes but it was still pretty daunting to have Dumbledore watching when I tried my first transfiguration spell. But I took a deep breath to lower my anxiety and then closed my eyes, concentrating again before I opened my eyes and pointed my wand at the stick "Forma."
There was no jet of light or a sudden feeling of connection to the stick; it just wiggled for a second then it bent and tied itself into a pretzel. I wanted to try something easy first, but now that I knew I could do it I was too excited and didn't even look up before trying again "Forma". This time the change was more drastic as the pretzel squished and compressed like it was made of playdoh instead of wood until it settled as a small egg. When it stopped changing I was surprised how beautiful it looked. I thought the bark and wood mixing together would be sort of like Frankenstein's monster, instead the bark caused an almost marbling effect. It sliced through the egg in unpredictable patterns, "Very good my boy, take 15 points for Ravenclaw." My head shot up and I saw that Dumbledore had a proud smile on his face, I blushed a little from the praise and turned away. It was kind of embarrassing that I had forgotten he was there in my excitement.
But when I turned away I saw my classmates looking at me in awe, and my blush grew worse as my eyes focused back on my desk instead. But before Dumbledore could walk away I forced out a question that had occurred to me, "Professor Dubledore, why does my transfiguration look like that? I mean, I imagined an egg but why does it look so… nice?" My words were so rushed they came out almost as a squeak that petered off by the end as my embarrassment grew. But once I got it out I chanced a look out of the corner of my eye anyway, only to see that proud smile stretched across his face. My eyes focused on my desk as a warm feeling emanated from my chest and I suppressed a strange feeling of either wanting to smile or cry, or perhaps both? "Well Mr. Riddle you have stumbled upon a question that many have asked before you. Though the ones who usually ask such a question are a fair bit older. Unfortunately this question has never had a definitive answer so I am unable to tell you what you wish to know."
My curiosity finally overpowered my embarrassment and my head rose until I was able to see him looking at something that wasn't in the classroom with us. "However, I can tell you a few theories that people have presented as an answer over the years. But keep in mind they could all be incorrect… or at least incomplete. Or they could all be right at the same time, magic is funny that way. The first theory to come about was that people cannot imagine every aspect in a transfiguration so magic takes over and fills the gaps. That is why accidental magic tends to be overpowered and only responds to intense emotions. The emotional overload resonates with your magic and the sudden influx of excess magic bypasses the need for a wand or spell. You will explore the second theory in Arthrimancy, and it basically says that specific numbers appear in nature frequently. Over time we have found that those numbers have certain predictable effects on magic, such as the number three adding a stabilizing effect on magic. But I am getting off point, you may learn more about that another time."
I was disappointed that he didn't expand on that as explaining the importance of numbers sounded like an interesting lecture, but I suppose I could just ask him later. "The patterns appearing on this egg are the numbers exerting their influence in reality. If you knew the right equations you could even predict where each pattern would form and what they would look like." I could help but interrupt here, "But if you can predict where the patterns will show up then shouldn't we have our answer?" He shook his head, "Because that is not always the case, sometimes the patterns will follow to rhyme or reason. They will form pictures or even words, and that is where the next theory comes into play. Some people believe it is your mind that projects the patterns, if you are thinking about a long lost friend then their form will be expressed. If your emotions are heightened then the patterns will change depending on whatever you are experiencing."
"The last theory we will go over today is the opposite of predictable, the patterns that form can tell you about yourself. Anything from traits your magic may have, answers to questions you haven't asked yet, and they could even predict the future. People tend to fall on one side or the other much like the fields these theories come from, if arthrimancy is applying numbers and logic to understand the universe then divination is using emotions and perspective to interpret what your magic tells you." My eyes widened at that last one and I looked down at the egg, trying to see if there was anything hidden and I just wasn't looking hard enough before. Dumbledore left to wander the classroom after he left one final comment or warning depending on how you look at it. "Magic is a wonderful thing Mr. Riddle, full of secrets that you may never fully understand. But that is alright, some things are more beautiful when you simply observe them instead of trying to dig out their secrets."
His words failed to leave an impact as I was too busy studying my eeg, though a few years from now I would have wished I had paid more attention to his words. Instead I looked at the egg until I was sure no secrets could be found, then I changed the shape once again. Making sure to try and find any hidden messages before moving onto the next shape. One after another I started to change the wood into more intricate forms. A cube, cylinder, and pyramid were the first but I found nothing hidden in those shapes. Next I tried objects, a bow tie, dagger, and a certain shield that I was fairly certain hadn't even been made yet. I was hoping by making something from the future I would have a better chance at something appearing, but no such luck. When the shapes themselves became a little too easy I also tried to manipulate the bark separately from the wood, the bow tie's knot became bark while the wood were the wings. The dagger had a hilt of bark while the miniature shield had the edge and star made of bark.
The first one took a few tries to get just right but the more shapes I made the better the bark would flow how I wanted it to. And now that the bark wasn't making random patterns I had to pay attention to how the grain of wood twisted and swirled for those messages. But I still wasn't having any luck, frankly it was beginning to frustrate me so I decided to take a break and look around the classroom again. Most of the students were focusing on their own wood but a few of them glanced over at me from time to time. Everyone was trying to copy my progression, and once again Marie was making the most progress. While the others were still trying to make the pretzel she was trying to make a perfect cube, it was a little deformed and didn't even have two matching sides, but it was a good start. I watched a little longer as my frustration cooled before deciding to just practice transfiguration for today.
Rome wasn't built in a day and I didn't even know what I was looking for. So why should I annoy myself flailing in the dark, trying to find something when I didn't even know what that something was? I was already going to have my magic tested soon enough and I'm sure the Tower of Forethought would be able to tell me much more than I could guess on my own anyway. So I stopped trying to reach for the stars in a single step and spent the rest of the lesson just making more complex transfigurations. It didn't take me long before I was trying to make animals, they still needed some work as the details were a little rough and they looked more like they were made of clay than by magic. I wanted to get to the point where I would be able to make a cat with fur, claws, and even each individual whisker. But class ended before I could get that far, "Alright you made some impressive progress today and I want you to know that I have never had a class that had every student progress as much as you have in one class."
That got some cheers and he waited until they quieted down before he finished speaking, "We will continue practicing the same spell next class. I imagine if you keep the same rate of progress we will be ready to move onto the next spell in about a week, a quarter of the time it usually takes. For homework I want four inches on what you have tried today and what you will try differently next time from every one of you." When the students started to pack up Dumbledore walked over to my desk and gave me some advice. "Mr. Riddle, I would recommend you try landscapes next instead of every detail of any animal. The different aspects you have to keep in mind along with the different points of view you have to keep in mind when shaping the scene will help you take that final step in visualizing every detail of your creations." I nodded and finished packing up my things with the rest of the students, once I was done I joined Marie and we walked to lunch together.
We did not have much time before our next class so we decided to skip heading to the Garden even though I would rather spend my time there then in Herbology. Marie teased me a little as we walked but lunch was spent eating quickly before heading to class, practicing magic always worked up a healthy appetite. I figured it was because the energy had to come from somewhere, but at the same time I was a little skeptical that transforming the nature of matter could be fueled by a hearty meal. I dragged my feet as we walked to class, this was the only one so far that I was reluctant to go to. Even Astronomy was better, the things we could see in that class blew away anything I had seen or even heard about in my old world. Of course the jibes coming from the peanut gallery didn't help, but I let it go as I teased her plenty during the mornings we spent together. Return fire was fair play after all.