transmutation of the s o u l {open}

[astoria greengrass]

Astoria was early to the advanced class. It was a late Friday afternoon, shortly after the Professor's first year class had ended, and the Professor was still off doing whatever it was that Professors did after classes. Astoria didn't really care or mind, though, that there wasn't anyone else in the room with her yet. The long rows of tables and chairs were neatly pushed together, though bits and pieces of leftovers from the last class were strewn about the floor. The professor's desk was at the head of the class, as always, covered in papers from students and notes were scribbled on the sides of the parchment. The professor's desk was tidy, of course, but still covered... Astoria had to wonder how she got anything done at all.

She sat on top of one of the desks, something that she had been scolded for in the past but rightly still didn't care about. Her legs swung out from under her, back and forth, in rhythm with a song in her head, but there was no noise in the room except for her shallow breathing. Her wand lay beside her, and while her mind raced around all the cool things she could twist at the moment, she knew that the part of the professor's lessons for her included discipline, which she apparently lacked in abundance. Astoria couldn't see how she lacked discipline, or patience for that matter; she simply loved to transfigure things and the rush she got from it was simply exhilarating. Almost everything was something to be transformed, changed, or perhaps even just vanished. She had mastered Vanishing spells a long time ago, and now could vanish even the smallest things. Talk about control... it was a challenge to not vanish whatever what attached to whatever small thing you were vanishing. For example, her first try to vanish a button succeeded in the whole desk vanishing. Not good, but no longer. Now she could vanish fleas if she wanted to, which she didn't.

Now her foot was banging against the leg of the chair in impatience. It was ten after half past, and the professor should have been there; at the very least, McGonagall had mentioned the possibility of another student joining them for lessons. What could they be doing that was so much more important? In three years she had never forgotten a lesson, and had rarely been late. Something was keeping the professor, that was for sure... probably the Weasley brat or something. It wouldn't surprise Astoria in the least bit, since the ginger was always getting into trouble with something. Or maybe she was stopped by another professor in the halls about a student. That wouldn't be too shocking either.

A sigh escaped from her throat and she hopped off the desk, wandering over to the cabinet on the far wall that was filled with practice materials. She would have to at least make it look like she had been working on something relevant to the lessons. Oftentimes the lessons blurred together, so that as the weeks progressed one thing became another. McGonagall had said it was something to do with how Transfiguration is about the smooth progression of things turning into other things so that you can barely notice the change until you're done. That was all fine and well, but really Astoria wanted to get on with it already. When the term had started they were working on adding extremely fine details into platters (that were once books), and admittedly Astoria had struggled with it, but only at first. Soon she was using the words from the pages to sculpt wonderful patterns, and her imagination let her run wild with the colors and scenery. After the plates had come small lectures in the laws of transfiguration, how you could do this but not that, and why. Like, you couldn't materialize food out of thin air; you had to change something to make food, or simply rematerialize food from one place to another.

After that they had started working on making the plates faster with finer details, and then adding bits of food and then enjoying whatever was created (though in some cases not) with a steaming cup of tea. Astoria had always been good at changing one food to another, but not changing say, a walnut shell into cucumber sandwiches. She loved how the professor seemed to know just how far she was getting on her own and then took what she already knew and made it into something she could learn from. Perhaps that was why Astoria had that bizzare fondness for the woman, and why she tried to be well-behaved. Students who told her how cold and calculating she was in potions noted a remarkable difference when the transfiguration block was coming up. Then again, maybe it was just her love of transfiguration that made her mind so still, but either way, she loved the lessons and wouldn't trade them for anything.

Her hands wrapped around a tea cup and she brought it back to the table she had been sitting on. Her wand was in her hand moments later and she was off trying to turn the cup into a saucer and then back into a cup as quickly as she could. The pale blue and white cup wobbled a bit as it clanged to the table as a rosy white plate with blue flowers, and it didn't have time to stop wiggling before Astoria had moved her wand hand and brought the cup back to its original form. Speed transfiguration was a hobby to her, and she loved doing everything fast. Maybe she was impatient a little... transfiguration certainly didn't progress at the speed of light, after all.