Transfiguration 4.1 & 5.1

[Tamis Raynor]

Rumor already had it that Devin Brady had showed up for the first day of classes looking like he had tried to single-handedly take on a three-headed dog… in the muggle fashion. While the Professor had quite the reputation – expelled from the auror corps for fighting the currently employed Alfonz Jedynak, getting thrown unconscious into a closet during the invasion, and then later accusing the before mentioned Jedynak of being a Deva member – he had always remained pristine and polished in appearance. In fact, one usually could count on it. Despite their personal dispute, Raynor never could deny that Devin was not without his own class and maintained his integrity quite well. Therefore to have found the said man in such desperate need of bath and bed this morning, it was safe to say the Headmistress had been appalled.

This is why, debateably much to their chagrin, the students would not find their usual Transfiguration instructor at the front of the classroom, but Tamis Raynor herself. And she did not look happy to be there.

It was not that she was unqualified to teach the given subject. On the contrary, Transfiguration had been her best subject at school and remained such to this day. But she had never attempted its instruction… and she had conveniently forgotten to ask Brady what was on the syllabus for today. No doubt, she could find a lesson plan somewhere in his desk, but she was weary of searching. Devin was an ex-auror and from personal experience Raynor knew that aurors tended to be paranoid… and given the invasion still fresh in their minds… There were a number of nasty, cryptic traps the Headmistress could find; all of which she was in no hurry to decipher.

No, Transfiguration was an enthralling subject, but it was not Defense. She had no instructional experience in it. She had no plan of attack. Well, thank Merlin for improvising. Leaning against Brady’s desk with her arms folded, the Headmistress might have been the epiphany of cool and collected, but mentally her mind was reeling with a lot of last minute improvising.

Cliché to her own teaching style, the student desks at the very least had been cleared away and were stacked on the far wall. At her feet was a large cage full of fluffy white bunnies some of the fourth and fifth years would recognize as the hapless subjects their spellwork had been tested on in their third year… well… the fifth years would anyhow. There had not been a third year defense curriculum last year, or any defense curriculum.

Yes, on top of everything, substituting for another class was like rubbing salt into a still open wound.

[Tianne Webster-Barrett]

Tianne was in a particularly good mood when it came to her Transfiguration lesson. This was the one wand class that the girl enjoyed, as she was quite good at it. When it came to her future career, as Tianne already had a few things in mind, she actually wished to return back to the school, and teach this very subject. That is, if she scored the grades for it, which she was hoping, as along with potions, it was her best subject. Tianne knew that this year, for her OWLs, she would have to buckle down to study even more than she had the previous years, and that she would really have to pay attention in class. No more mucking about with Mr. Collins and Mr. Callahan.

Tianne took her off track pants and slipped into her school skirt. She flattened her blouse, and did up her cardigan. The girl's legs were warmed by her stockings, black in color, and her outfit decorated with her shiny blue prefect badge and her tie. Tianne always felt so comfortable in her school uniform, even if there were a couple of adjustments needed here and there. Tianne left the Eagles common room, and found her way to the Fourth Floor, where she would be taking her class.

The young girl stumbled through the door, looking at her feet. She glanced at the tables, all pushed away to the far wall, and there was no other students there. Nope, it was just Tianne. The girl wandered in, and stood in the middle, wondering what on Earth was going on. She spun around, so see the teacher, finding that it wasn't Brady, but Raynor. "Uh. Headmistress... I think I have the wrong classroom..." Tianne said, in a panicky sort of voice. The girl swung her bag over her shoulder, and turned her body to face the door. She really didn't want to get into trouble for going into a class where she was not meant to be, especially not by the Headmistress.

[Matilda Wentworth]

Transfiguration. Difficult, though interesting, and testing. Matty had enjoyed this class since her second year, when the classes began to test just how far she could push herself. How accurate she could transform each subject. Matty loved to see product from lessons, and Transfiguration had proved to get her results often enough. Last year she had relaxed a bit on the perfection matter, but this year, due to OWL, Matty knew that it was time to pick back up on her game. And like most of her year, including Tianne, she knew the pressure was going to be put back into gear again.

The Hufflepuff had taken a quick trip to the Library, to pick up a book she had forgotten to buy, and thus had to borrow, before making her way to class. She was aware that allot of her classes this year were going to be combine with the Fourth years, and yet, the girl didn't mind in the slightest. Not only would she have her three strongest best friends with her, but also, Emeric, a boy she was still trying to get to know better, would join her in these. That gave Matty another thing to smile about these days. The Hufflepuff Captain rushed up the last staircase, before opening the door. Her green eyes expected to see Brady, an ex-auror whom she had met on the grounds one evening, before he was a Professor that is.

Instead, she saw the Headmistress herself. Matty's mouth dried up, and her jaw dropped. She glanced at another student, who funnily enough her Ravenclaw best friend, with a shocked expression on her face. Matty closed the door, and took a step inside. She surveyed the classroom, and the changed it had undergone. "Um, are we in the right class, Headmistress?" she asked, not previously hearing what the Ravenclaw prefect had said. Matty turned to 'Professor' Raynor, smiling slightly.

[jacquelynchaput]

Her pants were ironed as were her shirt, sweater, tie and so on. She looked pretty snazzy that day, and her smile was as brilliant as ever. Why wouldn’t it be? Snake was in most of her classes that year, and frankly, she’d have it no other way. Now, if Snake was there, that’d be another matter to attend to, however, the young Raven planned on seeing the Gryffindor that night any ways, so either way there was reason to look snazzy.

Walking out of the common room, smoothing out invisible wrinkles and making sure there was no lint on her clothing, she walked all the way into the class and sat down before even realizing the two standing fifth years and the professor was not exactly of the right gender. A face of dumbfounded-ness came over the fourth year, as she tilted her head looking at not only the Head Mistress, but also the turning her head to look at her classmates.

She hadn’t heard any of the discussion walking in a few minutes after the two that were already there, but one could see that they were about to leave. Didn’t the Head Mistress teach them DADA? “I thought Defense Against the Dark Arts was canceled…” Jax said mostly to herself as she turned her head, incredibly slowly and suspiciously back toward Raynor. “And on the second floor…” she gave a bit of a funny look and smirked. “Aw, right! This is soooo awesome!” she exclaimed, not actually realizing that she was in fact going to be learning transfigurations, which was just as cool cause she got to use her wand…but still, not as cool.

[Tamis Raynor]

It was like having a bad case of Déjà vu; except the same phrase kept on repeating from different mouths with only the slightest bit variation. First was the not exactly graceful entrance of one of the Ravenclaw Prefects. The Eagle’s eyes took in the desks, the empty room, and finally settled on the Headmistress. Face lit with alarm, she headed right back for the door, but before Raynor could form the words to stop her, Matty Wentworth floated in, expression a more expressive mirror image of the Ravenclaws. They both looked like mice cornered by a raging dragon. Mouth opened again –

-- and was thwarted by the appearance of another Ravenclaw and new Quidditch Captain, Jax Chaput. While her statement was a little more original, it did very little to improve the Headmistress’ mood. However, it was no foul against the fourth year. The comment had been innocent enough, but that did not stop the corner of her lip from giving a hearty annoyed twitch. Yes, she would much rather be instructing a class she was more known for.

“Yes, I would say regrettably for all of us, all of you are in the correct classroom.” Another twitch of the lip. “And no, Miss Chaput, I’m afraid this is still Transfiguration. Defense Against the Dark Arts is no longer on the Hogwarts curriculum.” And her expression told them just how estatic she was about that – and theirs told her just how confused they were. “Professor Brady is feeling a little under the weather. I will be instructing you today.”

And, in case she was still greeted with blank expressions, “well, come along then.” She tried to encourage them further into the room. “My bite is not that vicious.”

[Emeric Troy III]

The day continued to go on until it was time for Transfiguration. An exciting class usually, one that Emeric did well in on a regular basis. His academics came easily to him without much effort or attention to them. As he entered the class to find not the usual Professor Brady but Headmistress Raynor, he was a little surprised. What was she doing here? He heard the excitement in the Ravenclaw girl’s voice as she asked if Defense was back. Could it be? The idea was shot down and Emeric sighed quietly to himself. Of course, it figured his second favorite class had to be taken away from the curriculum… And just as it was getting interesting for them.

He made his way into the room and finally took notice of the fact that the desks were to the side and that Raynor had a cage of rabbits in front of her. They were to transfigure rabbits? That didn’t sound too hard to the Slytherin forth year.

Emeric gave a half shrug as leaned against one of the walls despite Raynor’s wanting them to come further into the room. ‘ My bite is not that vicious. ‘ Her bite might not have been vicious, but a bite was a bite all the same. Emeric accepted her answer that Brady was feeling under the weather, but still was hesitant. What had happened for the ex-auror to feel ‘under the weather?’

[Karina Morandi]

Kari was in her own little world, her body on auto pilot as she climbed up to the fourth floor for Transfigurations. The subject was a tad difficult, but nothing hard work couldn't help. Besides it was interesting enough to make the effort worth it. But when the Gryffindor approached the door she almost ran into Matty by the door. In fact, everyone who had showed up was standing pretty close to the doorway. Why was everyone so hesitant to enter? The answer was right before her. Their Headmistress was in the room instead of Brady. Alright, not something that happened everyday but the whole thing about her bite not being that vicious wasn't all that comforting.

Well, Raynor was going to be their professor for today nothing any of them could do about it. Stepping further inside Kari picked a seat and put her things down.

[Abigail Scott]

Transfiguration was something that Abby was actually looking forward to. It was one of those classes that actually stuck out in her mind. It was a fun class, it was more hands-on than some of the others and that was what Abby liked. She had been expecting to see Professor Brady when she entered the classroom (and wasn't going to lie because she did think he was cute) but there was a surprise waiting for her when she got there. No Brady. Instead, it was Raynor.

"Uh oh," Abby muttered to herself, coming into the room. She smiled at Raynor when she came in but didn't speak to the Headmistress. There was just something about the woman that, well...scared the life out of her. Taking a seat quickly, Abby took out her things and sat quietly, away from the rest of the students that were in there.

[callahan]

Ryan hated Transfiguration. Not the subject, per se, but more the professor that taught it. Okay, so he didn't hate professor Brady, it was just that he didn't really like people that gave him work. And the fact that he knew a lot of girls liked him, as they thought he was cute. "Pfft, you think he's cute?" would usually be the comeback that Ryan used, (falshing them a wink, and flexing his muscles) when he heard girls gossiping about him. Brady was pretty cool though, although Ryan would never admit it.

Walking into the room, Ryan began to say in his unenthusiastic voice, "Heeellooo Proofessssoor Braa- Raynor?" He said, a confused tone for the lst word uttered. "I mean, Hello Professor?" Ryan continued, hoping tat the headmistress would just laugh it off. Glancing around the room, Ryan saw Matty and Tianne andgiving them a small wave, took a seat next to Abby. Another thing that he was never going to admit; he thought she was cute.