First Class (9/19-9/23)

[cubicu]

OOC: I'm giving everyone a couple of days to interact in class and what not

BIC:
Sarah walked out of her office and headed down the hall towards the Transfiguration classroom. She walked in and went to the front of the class. She looked around and flicked her wand making a couple of chairs move back into position. She turned to her desk and put her folder down and began taking out her class outline. She put on her glasses and went around the desk and sat down while looking through her notes. She squinted trying to make out her own handwriting when she realized she had not opened the curtains.
"Silly me." She said to herself as she pointed to each window causing the curtains to open up letting the light shine through the windows lighting up the class room.
"There, that's better." She said smiling. She then turned to each torch that was unlit and began changing them into glass orbs with little blue and white lights floating inside casting a serene glow on the desks. She stood there for a second admiring her work, then sat back behind her desk and picked up her notes again going over them before the students came in.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah came in quietly, bearing a satchel filled with books. All of her school robes had been altered slightly, becoming quite austere. As it was, the plain black Hogwart's robe reached from just below her chin down to the ankles of a pair of simple black boots which themselves reached to her knees. The sleeves ended just past her wrists and her waist-length hair was tied back severely in a tight coif from which no escape was possible. Making her way to the front of the classroom, she took a seat in the first row, sinking into the chair with a single fluid movement. "Good day, Professor Spencer," she greeted with a polite nod of her head. Quietly, she extracted from her satchel a textbook and a notebook, already quite filled with notes, along with an inkpot and quill.

While she waited for class to begin she opened her textook to a page about two-thirds of the way through the book and continued her note-taking. Her quill scratched quietly across the parchment, producing neat, clipped handwriting which left a margin of exactly one inch around each sheaf of parchment in the notebook. She had always rather enjoyed Transfiguration, simply because it was one of the more difficult forms of magic, and thus, presented a bit more challenge than her other subjects. As usual, she was far ahead in her examination of the required text, preferring to be well-prepared for anything she might encounter in class.

[Susan Matthews]

Susan turned quickly into the Transfiguration classroom and stopped, trying to decide where to sit. For this class she chose a seat near the front, by D'rorah. She needed to pay attention to this class. At another time, Susan might have called out a "hello" to Dee, but the classroom was very quiet and D'rorah seemed very into her notes. Susan sat down, leaving her messenger bag on the floor by her feet.

Susan sat back for a moment, enjoying the quiet. Then deciding better, she got her supplies ready. She fished in her bag for the correct text book, an ink well, quill, and parchment for notes. She was ready for class to begin.

[Dylan Cooper]

Making his way to Transfiguration, Dylan was thoroughly excited. It was one of his favourite classes by far and as he reached the entranceway he saw only three occupants. The professor, whom he'd never had the pleasure of meeting before, Susan and... D'rorah. Smiling, he walked in and wondered where on Earth to sit. You'd think the decision wouldn't be too hard, all things considered, but his mind was being a bit silly lately. Something he really didn't altogether need, with classes just starting up. Some of the most important lessons were the early ones, afterall.

Finally deciding on taking a seat on the other side of Dee, considering Susan was on this side, he moved across to them and placed his bag on the desk. "Hey Susan," he said as he moved past her, before greeting the teacher. "Morning, Professor," he said in a quiet voice, unzipping his backpack and withdrawing several pieces of parchment, his favourite quill and some ink. Next came his Transfiguration textbook, slid gently onto the desk before his bag relocated to the floor beside his seat. "Hey, Dee," he said quietly, heading up his first bit of parchment with the name of the class and the date.

[katherinefrost]

Wide awake and ready for learning, Katherine entered the classroom briskly. In her rush to get to Transfiguration early, she hadn't had time to put her hair up. It currently fell in big luscious curls just at her shoulders. During class she liked to keep her hair up. She finds it distracting when she leans over her work, as she so often does. Katherine looked around the class to see the front row was already occupied by a few people.

Not wanting to cling, Katherine made for a nice middle seat. She sat down quietly, as to suit the volume of the room. Katherine smiled weakly at the teacher and proceeded to take out her notes that she had begun in her free time. Katherine could tell she was going to like Transfiguration. She had extremely enjoyed simply taking notes on the subject. Actually learning it was going to be far better. With everything ready for class, Katherine pulled a hair tie out of her pocked, leaned back and began to pull up her hair.

[xuilin]

Xiulin bounded into the room, excited that her sense of direction miraculously hadn't failed her and that she had made it to the classroom in one piece. Mind you, when we say bounded, we mean it quite literally.

Note: Xiulin was not a morning person and would never be a morning person. There was something to say about the power of adrenaline. "Morning!" she said happily to no one in particular as she scanned the room for an empty seat. Empty seats weren't exactly hard to find. It was actually a surprise that there were vacant seats in the first row; that hardly ever happened at her old school.

Well, it was a novelty that she would leave to be wasted as she decided to be oddly antisocial and took a random seat in the middle and on the far side of the room. She pulled out her shiny text book and ran over the lettering with her fingers, smiling. It had been a long time since she had read a textbook completely in English. She pulled a quill and some parchment from her bag and looked around, her eyes widening when she saw that people had pages of notes.

Had she missed some important memo? Oh well, nothing she could do about it now.

[Keaira O'Connell]

Keaira was not in a bad mood as she slowly made her way to the transfiguration room. She had however, been very stressed and worried through out the past few days. Her plans were already started, the beginning stages already set in to motion, but there was still a lot to remain. She had been nervously awaiting a response from her friend, knowing that a large portion of plans relied on him.

As she entered the classroom she quickly scanned the room. She wasn’t sure why but she had hopped to see Alessandro, or Wysteria, but to her dismay it seemed that nither was here yet. Keaira did however find that D’rorah was in class and that made her a bit happier. As she entered the classroom, she moved to be with in talking distance of D’rorah, sitting down in a chair behind her. Keaira gently placed her book bag on the floor, and pulled out a few key items. Quill, different colored inks, parchment, and her wand; she placed each item in a row, organizing them for best access.

When all was ready she whispered up to D’rorah, “After class can we talk somewhere?”

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah had been busily working away when Dylan's voice made its way into her thoughts. She looked up briefly and gave him a small good morning smile before turning her attention back to her notebook. She could hear the sounds of students entering the classroom all around her as she continued to work and knew, without bothering to look at the time, that class would soon begin. Her quill stumbled briefly as Keaira whispered up to her, and decided not to raise her voice to answer.

Of course, Miss O'Connell, she thought back, her quill resuming its stroll across her parchment. Did you have a question regarding your training? she added, being certain to sufficiently direct the thought so that it would not be intercepted by any unintended party. From all outward appearances, she had not even bothered to answer Keaira, which wasn't entirely unbelievable, considering that she was not considered to be a social person in any sense of the word.

[Keaira O'Connell]

As Keaira began to prepare her papers for notes she mentally heard D’rorah’s response. Keaira felt a little dumb due to the fact that she herself had not thought to use telepathy to converse with D’rorah, although Keaira had not wanted to intrude in to D’rorah’s mind with out any permission. After all the Dee certainly had gone through a lot of that. As she listened to her response Keaira mentally nodded, as she wrote transfiguration and the date at the top of her notes.

“Yes, a few, also I wish to discuss plans.”

Keaira let it be at that, some time after the class she would continue with the conversation, hopefully getting the answers she needed. After all, how would she know how to find him? Where in china would she ned to go? How long would she be away. So many questions were just at the edge of her mental wall. Waiting for the proper time to be pulled out.

[gatsoldier]

Gat came in the door quickly, once again hoping he was not late. He walked up to the Professor.

"Good day Professor." He said politly as he often did. Then he walked down the side of the class to the back corner. There was a free seat beside him he noticed. He noticed Keaira and D'rorah. 'Great, a telepath.' He thought to himself. He used to his best ability, his occlumency. Putting any barriers in his mind he could. He could not afford to have her enter his mind again.

[cubicu]

Sarah greeted each of the students as they walked in. She sat and waited for everyone to enter and take their seats.
"Ah, I believe everyone is here. We will now begin Transfiguration. The first thing I need everyone to do is to take out their books and open to page 25. Seeing as there are more higher grade levels here, we will begin with something a little more fun."
She flicked her wand and a piece of chalk flew up and drew the diagram that was in to book.
"As you can see here, we will be turning gravy boats into birds."
She pointed her wand at a cabinet that flew open and out floated gravy boats that set themselves in front of each student and one in front of Sarah.
"Now if you look closely at the diagram, the proper way to do this is to take your wand, give it a small twirl, and a very precise jab and then a flick."
She demonstrated it by giving her wand a small twirl, the jab, then the slight flick. Instantly the gravy boat sprouted wings, legs and a head and then turned into a bird on the flick. The bird gave a chirp and hopped around on the desk.
"Now, of course you don't want your bird to be the color of your gravy boat, so with a simple circle around it, while saying the desired color, it should change."
She made a circle aound the bird with her wand while saying "pink." The bird's color changed to a light pink.
"Now, everyone try it."
She put the bird in the cage in the front of the class and began walking around watching the other students practice.

[karinachan08]

Ariana was late to class and this was her first class too. She had over Sleep and was Running late. She had just reached the door and had to slow down to keep from running throw it. She slowly opened the Door and Walked in. She looked around a saw that class had already started. She saw that Gat, Xiulin, Susan, and Dylan were there. She saw an empty Sit next to Gat then looked at the Professor and said, "Sorry Professor Spencer, That I'm late" Before going to sit next to Gat. She saw that Gat had out His Transfiguration Book and pulled out hers as well. "Um what page do we need to be on?" She asked him Embassed that she was late for class.

[Dylan Cooper]

Hearing the professor begin the class, Dylan perked up significantly, eager to start. Promptly to page 25 in his textbook he smiled at today's task, having never tried it before. He had been afraid, that like with a lot of the other classes, they would start at the first year things. He'd been terribly disappointed about the Devil's Snare in Herbology, afterall. While revision wasn't a bad thing, he'd been expecting to learn something new and exciting.

A gravy boat settling in front of him, he grinned, withdrawing his wand from the inside of his robes. Looking rather smart today in his school robes, his hair was neat and tidy, for once, and the vast majority of it was tucked behind his ears. Watching the demonstration that Professor Spencer gave, and observing the chalk diagram, he moved his wand according to the movements required. Getting it right the first time around, he was rather glad that he was a fast learner as he then moved to try it on the gravy boat provided.

His wand twirling, jabbing and then flicking, all that happened was that his gravy boat lost its' handle. Frowning slightly, he tried once more. Twirl, jab, flick, all in quick succession, producing a little bird that fluttered for a moment and chirped at him, sending a rather reproachful look in his direction. Grimacing slightly, he circled his wand around the hopping specimen and muttered "blue", the bird immediately turning a delicate blue shade that made him smile. Smiling, he noticed that its' plumage was rather glorious.

[xuilin]

Xiulin opened her own book and stared, mystified, at the diagram. A gravy boat into a bird...her mind began to wander. What sort of bird? There were so many different species that it really wasn't a very specific project. She looked around at the others and watched as they twirled, jabbed, and flicked their wands.

"Not like home," she muttered to herself. Back home, there was no room for imagination. Back home, the type of bird would have been very specific. Her teacher would have told her to turn it into a...a....a monkey-eating eagle, or something like that.

Well, maybe monkey-eating eagle was a bit extreme.

She twirled, jabbed, and flicked her wand as she had been told and as the book instructed and a rather odd-looking bird appeared in its place, looking very disoriented. Needless to say, it looked nothing like the pink bird that sat in the front of the room. This, of course, coming from the girl whose hair was held in five different plaits by rainbow-colored strings.

Xiulin smiled, "Ni hao," she said to the little creature as it fluttered its wings frantically, still apparently disoriented. And then, Xiulin being the wonderfully tactful girl that she was, waved her hands frantically in the air. "Ariana, zao!" she greeted when she looked up and noticed the older girl.

Of course, she hadn't realized that her wand was still in her hand and the bird in front of her desk rapidly changed colors, squawking (rather than the gentle chirping of the other birds) in its distress.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

D'rorah listened to the instructions and practiced the wand movement a few times after Professor Spencer's demonstration. Turning to the appropriate page in the textbook and to the corresponding page in her own notes, she quickly read again the theory behind the transfiguration. Concentrating, she studied the gravy boat, picturing in her mind the process the boat would undergo to become a bird. When she had the thought firmly in mind, she gave her wand a small twirl, followed by a jab and a slight flick. On the first attempt, the boat became covered with feathers and began softly chirping.

Pursing her lips in displeasure, she read back over the theory. "Ah," she said, realizing a slight discrepancy in her own jabbing motion as she considered her attempt. Using the same motion, she changed the strange feathered creation back to a gravy boat, preferring to accomplish the spell all at once, rather than in bits and pieces.

She consulted her notes one last time before aiming her wand very carefully at the gravy boat and performing the precsribed movement. An instant later, her own boat had become a small sparrow, much like her animagus. Pleased, she made a small circle around the sparrow with her wand, saying 'blue' as she did so. The sparrow chirped happily and ruffled its wings as it changed to a light blue color. It looked at D'rorah and tilted its head this way and that before hopping up onto the end of her wand.

She looked up at the commotion coming from Xiulin just in time to see her bird rapidly shifting through the color spectrum like some sort of technicolor nightmare. Her own sparrow twittered balefully at the noise and fluttered its wings impatiently. D'rorah herself arched an eyebrow at the disturbance even as she held out a hand, which her sparrow dutifully hopped into.