Re: The Transfiguration Classroom

[James Potter]

James nods, celebrating inside his head that they're sort of staying here. "Alright. Mind if I borrow your book while we sit here? Moony's still got mine since Padfoot sort of, well, chewed on his... He refuses to touch it until it's cleaned, which of course Sirius doesn't want to do. Wormtail keeps offering but Moony says it's got to be Sirius to do it." James laughed, opening her book again to the next chapter, flipping through and past it, and finally settling on a page about conjuring items, a N.E.W.T. level bit of transfiguration that had actually been giving him trouble lately, though he was able to conjure at some inanimate things without difficulty. It was the animals that were giving him issue, and the end of the chapter said he should be able to conjure a mouse or a small hare to pass examination.

[Lily Evans]

Lily tilts her head to the side and furrows her brow slightly, giving James a look of mingled horror and amusement. She chuckles uncertainly, as if she's not quite sure that's even possible. "What? That's disgusting. You really ought to do something about Sirius, you know," she informs him, shaking her head. "Take him to a vet or something because that kind of behaviour's just not normal." She waves her hand at him as if to say 'yeah, go ahead, but if my book gets gnawed on you'll never have kids' and tucks her hair back behind her ear. She presses her hand flat against the table and trains her wand and her mind on the nails, trying to get them all to grow in unison. It's haphazard at best, still, Lily huffs and tries twice more with the same results.

[James Potter]

James shrugs it off. "You can't expect my best friend to behave normally. Then I'd lead a boring life and what kind of life is that? Boring. Boring is no fun. Boring is... boring." Very eloquently spoken, James. He returns his attention to his, well, to her book. Trying his best to ignore her frustrated huffs and mediocre attempts at transfiguring her nails, he leans a bit closer to the books pages. He's determined not to offer to help her, lest she take it as him still digging at her transfiguration skills and need of practice. He pulled out his own wand and took a breath, trying to concentrate and create a mouse on the table. Circling his wand, his hopes went up as something small, round, and furry appeared. Once the conjuring was complete however, James's shoulders slumped and he put his cheek on his fist with his elbow on the table, flicking a rather large brown lint ball across the room. "At least it had a tail that time."

[Lily Evans]

"Indubitably," Lily deadpans, arching an eyebrow. She returns her attention to her nails, redoubling her efforts. She's determined to get this right by the time she leaves today and, stubbornly, she's determined not to ask Potter for help even though it would be the perfect time to do so with no witnesses and he apparently trying to be on his best behaviour. Lily bites her lip, trying to keep the huffing to a minimum because it's a bit of a giveaway that things aren't going as smoothly as she'd like, but it only results in the air coming from her nose in a long whoosh instead. Before she can do anything rash, like swear at her nails and hack them all off in a rage, Potter's voice draws her attention. Her eyes flicker over the lint ball that goes sailing across the room, curious. "You're raising an army of furballs?"

[James Potter]

"Oh, yes. They're very effective little warriors and I'm planning on taking over Hogwarts with them, and then the world. You'll be my queen of course," he laughed, shaking his head and continuing before she could protest to the assumption. "Conjuring is harder than I thought it would be. I can do glasses," he conjured an empty cup on the table, "buttons," a black button appeared beside the cup, "even a shoelace, or a flower," a long, somewhat dirty, shoelace fell into being from the tip of his wand, followed by a little cluster of daisies, "but animals are hard. And that was meant to be a mouse, which you saw, it wasn't." He crinkled his brows together and tried again, with much the same results, though this one had an ear. "One ear. Just one bloody ear. And still not a living breathing little creature either. Maybe I should just carry some in my pocket and drop them out of my sleeve onto the table instead. Y'know, muggle magic tricks?" He laughed, flicking the second failed mouse across the room to join its brother.

[Lily Evans]

"Suppose it'll be easier to overthrow you from that position," Lily mutters with a smirk. She falls silent and watches as he conjures a string of inanimate objects that ends with a little cluster of flowers and despite herself, her eyebrows arch. She is impressed. She picks up the shoelace and fiddles absently with it.
"Well it is more complex, creating a living creature," she allows after a moment of silence. "Maybe..." She hesitates, biting her lip, then dives in again. "Maybe it's got something to do with what you're visualising. It's alright when you're doing these simple things because there's nothing internal that you need to worry. There's really no inner workings of a button," she theorizes, thinking aloud. "With a living creature, there's more to it than just what you see at the end. Maybe you've got to factor that in, somehow. I don't know, I've not looked at that level of conjuring yet," she adds. It's well and truly advanced NEWT work.

[James Potter]

James stared at her intently as she thought out loud, taking it all in and working it over. "I think you're right. It's more than the fur and ears and tail I suppose, which would explain why I keep getting furry balls occasionally with tails or a spare ear or whiskers." His forehead furrowed in extreme concentration as he lifted his wand again, trying to imagine what made a mouse work. A heart, little lungs, a digestive system too, and veins and a little brain and all those sorts of things, right? He flicked the end of his wand toward the table, and a little furry shape appeared once again. This one gave a twitch, but it had no face. It was still just a little ball with a tail and two ears, but it did seem to be quite a bit more living than the others. It rolled itself across the table a small distance, squirming grossly in its limblessness. James's eyes widened and he snatched it before it rolled close to Lily. "Sorry. That's a little disturbing without the face. But you're right. There's a lot more to think about besides the surface stuff. I hadn't realized." Hiding the wriggling ball of fur under the table in his hand, he met her eyes. "Thanks."

[Lily Evans]

Lily pulls her chin in, tucking her hair behind her ear and averting her eyes a little as James responds to her ideas. His stare is intense, she notices. Sometimes, when he looks at her, it's almost like he believes there's nobody else left in the world. She bites her lip, watching with deep curiosity and, strangely enough, hope as he tries the conjuring spell again. It's just because it's her theory. Obviously. That's all, no other reason she wants it to succeed. Before Lily's eyes, the monstrous bal of living fluff appears and wriggles about the table. Her breath rushes out in a heavy 'ugh' of disgust, her nose screwing up. As Potter scoops it up and hides it under the desk, she shakes her head frantically. "No, vanish him! Quick, Potter - he could be in pain!" she blurts, green eyes filled with concern. Whatever that thing is, if it's actually living as it seems to be, it can't move properly, or see, or make any noise to show its distress, and maybe even can't breathe. Lily doesn't much mind the gross look of it, but she can't stand the thought of anything having to endure that kind of horror.

[James Potter]

"Oh!" James acted quickly, tapping it with his wand beneath the table. He lifted his now empty hand and showed her it was gone. "Now I'm almost nervous to try again after that thing." Regardless, he could never turn down a challenge. It was part of who he was. The harder something seemed, the more he wanted to prove himself capable. He concentrated again, which unfortunately meant prying his eyes away from Lily, but he thought more thoroughly about the mouse and everything it needed, both inside and out. After what felt like ages of thinking and focusing, he drew his wand in a careful, slow circle, watching with baited breath as fur appeared on the table, taking shape. When it was done, he stared at it a few moments, waiting. It was still for a second, frozen as if terrified, but then it was looking around, scurrying toward the daisies to sniff them, and that meant at least three good things he had forgotten last time: eyes, feet, and nose. "Ha!!" James celebrated a little. The mouse seemed alright. "I think he's only missing a tail, which is strange because even the lint ball versions got those." His eyes flickered up to Lily's, and somewhat without realizing it, he was waiting desperately for her approval.

[Lily Evans]

Lily lets out the breath she hadn't realised she's been holding, visibly relaxing once she sees that the failed mouse is no more. "Well-" she began, intending to theorize further and suggest he needs to focus on both the insides and the outsides, but she sees the look of concentration on his face and falls silent so she's not a distraction. Her hands twist in her lap; she doesn't want to see another poor creature like the last. "Oh!" A smile full of delighted surprise graces Lily's face. She chuckles mostly in relief and reaches out to jiggle the daisies gently, tempting the mouse to play with them and nibble on them. The broad smile has not faded from Lily's face by the time she looks up from the mouse, catching James' gaze. "Oh, who cares? Tell people there was an incident with a meat cleaver and he's really self-conscious about it so if they could kindly shut up about the tail, that'd be great," she shrugs. The mouse starts to scurry around the table, it gets too close to the edge and skids off but Lily is ready to scoop it up and deposit it gently back in the centre. "Uhm, he doesn't have much of a sense of self-preservation, though."

[James Potter]

James grinned broadly, not daring to mention to her that she had just defended something he'd done. Laughing as she catches the little mouse and puts him back on the table, James circles his large hands around the little creature, scooping him up to further inspect. "Neither do I, apparently," he told her with a smirk. "Luckily you were there to save him though, and he was only just made a few moments ago. You can't expect him to understand things like gravity and falling off tables yet, can you? Guess that's why baby mice can't walk yet." Sitting the little guy back down on the table, James watches it scamper around between the flowers and shoelace, nibbling on the end of it, before the shiny button captured his attention and he picked it up to chew on an edge, probably hoping it was a cracker. "I think I'll keep him. Er, at least as long as I can. Conjured items don't last forever, and eventually they do just disappear back into nonbeing. But for now he makes a rather fine pet. I'll have to stock up on cheese for him. Though he does need a name first." He swept a large hand in front of the mouse before he could tumble off the other side of the table, nudging him back toward the middle instead.

[Lily Evans]

"Congratulations, Potter, you're discovering common ground with a mouse," Lily laughs. It's true, he does seem to have no sense of self-preservation. She shrugs. "He's a mouse, I don't imagine he'll ever understand gravity and tabletops and splattering to the ground. I guess that's why people keep them in cages. Uhm, you are planning on giving him a proper home along with a name and some cheese, right Potter?" she double checks, suddenly worried for the safety of the new creation. He's not exactly going into a nurturing environment. "You let him run loose in the dorm and he won't stand a chance. Can't imagine Remus letting vermin run free in the dorm anyway - he's got enough on his plate with you lot as it is!"

[James Potter]

"Of course, Evans, I'm not an idiot." James laughed warmly, stroking the little mouse on his head. "I'll make him a mansion out of a box and keep him safe in there up on my bunk and Padfoot won't be allowed to touch him and Wormtail can't either because he'll be jealous I have a pet and he doesn't, so he best not know. And I'll give him cheese and take care of him as long as he decides to stick around. Which, granted, probably won't be long. He's only my first successful mouse anyway, so the conjuring charm isn't terribly strong." He let the little mouse go again, and he scampered over to nibble gently at Lily's partly transfigured fingernails. "You can even babysit if you want. Joint-custody."

[Lily Evans]

Lily snorts softly, as if that was news to her. She presses her lips together, suppressing a smile as James babbles about the box mansion for his new pet with all the enthusiasm of a six-year-old. She hopes he remembers not to use a cardboard box, but as he insists he's not an idiot, she doesn't bother mentioning it. "There you go, you can call him Number One," she murmurs, eyes glued to the little animal as he approaches her and nibbles at her unfinished fingernails. She chuckles and runs her finger lightly down his back. It's a friendly little mouse, now that the shock of bursting into existence seems to have worn off. "Yeah, right. Tell you what, if he's still around by Christmas, I'll take him home for the holidays. Tuney will love that."

[James Potter]

James of course does not remember to use something other than a cardboard box, and so Lily may have to hear some sad news about the little creature escaping throw a chewed hole in his mansion. Unless of course he's a very well behaved mouse and enjoys his cheese dinners so thoroughly that he decides to stick around anyway. "Number One. And he shall be followed by several more," James laughed, "though perhaps in the future we should get more creative. I think Number two hundred and sixty four might feel a little like he's just another number to us, and not a blessed little mouse individual. Maybe he would like to be named Harry." James was fond of the name Harry. >.> "If he's around, he would love to go home for Christmas with you. And if he's not, I'm sure some of his brothers and sisters would like to come in his place. Your sister will be thrilled."

[Lily Evans]

Lily will be sad to hear that. Sad, but not surprised. She laughs and shakes her head. "Really? You don't think that by Number two hundred and sixty four you'll have grown tired of mice? I think Number two hundred and sixty four would be more worried about not being a rabbit, or a cat or something than just a number." She cocks her head the tiniest little bit, looking off into nothing in particular while she considers James' name choice. "Hmm. Harry. Not bad. I like it. It's simple, but a classic. Almost impressively normal for you Pureblooded lot," she concedes, turning back to smirk at the boy sitting opposite her.

[James Potter]

James looks almost surprised, but that was indeed something had looked over. Grinning, he shook it off. "Remember? Army of lint balls? Army of mice is much more effective. I'm looking into the thousands. Though rabbits would be far more effective. They're larger and have sharper teeth. And cats have the claws..." He pretended to contemplate on the idea for a moment. He leans back suddenly at her words. "You pureblooded lot? Hey, just because those cooky Black families like to name their kids after ridiculous ancestors doesn't mean we all do. James is perfectly normal, thank you very much. And besides, I don't think I look much like an Abraxas or Phineas anyway. Though those would make good rabbit names. I should start a list. Names for mice: Harry. Names for rabbits: Abraxas and Phineas. Or perhaps Phineas will be my first cat. It has a feline feel to it, no?" With a little burst of laughter, little Number One gets startled and twitches, trying to decide which direction to run. James scoops him up in his hand, scratching him on the back lightly.

[Lily Evans]

"Good luck to you then," Lily says, and rolls her eyes. She shakes her head. "No, let's get this straight. James is a perfectly normal name. James" -she points a long-and-orange-nailed finger at him- "is most definitely not normal. No, you actually don't like like an Abraxas or Phineas, that much is true," she concedes. She grins and rolls her eyes once more as James bursts into laughter, entirely too amused by his little wordplay. "Definitely not normal," she decides.

[James Potter]

"Like I said before, Lily Evans," he leans forward, clasping his hands together and placing them on the desk in front of him in a very businesslike manner, "normal is boring, and boring is boring, and no one wants boring. Like today... you could have studied in here by yourself and gotten bored of turning your fingernails funny colors after about ten minutes. Instead, let's take a look at what we've accomplished, shall we?" He leaned back in his chair again, shifting it up on two legs as he counted out on his fingers. "Studied about animagus forms and had several little in depth conversations pertaining to that, including deciding that I would be a lion and you would be a pallas cat with the claws, and that we're going to try out that charm to 'test' animagus phases later, and then you got mad but you stayed and we resumed lovely conversation and then I made a mouse and we named him Number One but agreed a later one would be named Harry because it's nice and normal and I'm not a Phineas. Which is a cat name." James had run out of fingers to count on but was too busy gesturing happily to really notice. "Much better than just playing with your nails if you ask me."

[Lily Evans]

Lily bites her lip. He makes very good points, although he has run out of fingers to count on and is flailing rather than counting anymore. But Lily cannot admit that. It's just too far for one day. "True, maybe," she concedes, and shrugs. Then she holds up her hand to show that her nails, while improved, are certainly not perfect. "But here we are, the afternoon all but gone, and I've still not done what I set out to do, have I?" She pauses for a long moment, just looking back at him as he stares at her with that impossible combination of seriousness and glee. Then she realises what she's doing and hastily stands up. Number One, who had been inching closer to her, whiskers twitching in hopes of food, squeaks and scurries back at the sudden movement. Lily stuffs her wand into her robe pocket, scoops up the bag she packed in her previous attempt to flee, and holds out her hand for her textbook once more. "I have to go. My book?" she prompts, not unkindly.

[James Potter]

"Original goal maybe not, but lots of other things instead isn't too bad, right?" James grins at her before glancing down at little Number One again. He catches the little mouse with one hand as he scurries back in fright, and once the little creature is safely held in his hand, he looks up at Lily questioningly. Noticing she was packing up again, he wondered what he did wrong this time, but couldn't think of anything. His confusion came through in his expression, but he wiped it away with a sigh, picking up her book and slowly passing it to her. "So soon?" Letting go of her book once she took it, he stood up as well, pushing his chair back under the desk it belonged with. "I could walk you back to the common room, or wherever you're going," though as he says it, he would bet almost anything she would deny him the offers, "you know, if you wanted."

[apologies on the wait, my life sort of exploded.]

[Lily Evans]

[No worries, it's all good. XD]

Lily clutches the book to her chest once James hands it to her. She opens and closes her mouth for a few seconds, lost for words. "Oh, erm, meeting a friend. I forgot. Really, got to run." She pushes her hair back behind her ear, wondering what in the name of Merlin is wrong with her that she suddenly feels so wrong-footed and flustered and awkward. Lily has no idea what's happening, but she's overcome with the feeling that she just can't stand to be here like this another minute. "Uhm, Number One just left a number two on your hand, by the way." She feels the heat rising in her, threatening to stain her cheeks with a blush, and makes a break for the door before it can betray her sudden discomfort.

[James Potter]

"Awww," James says disappointedly and also in disgust, setting the mouse down and dumping the little droppings on the floor, shaking his hand off as well as if it would fling the germs away. Unfortunately in his distraction in dealing with his little mouse friend, Lily had bolted for the door and was leaving through it. "Bye!" he shouted after her, but figured she didn't even hear. With a groan he sat down and quietly chastised the little mouse for pooping in his hand, but petted him nicely on the head and back the whole time, so it couldn't have been very threatening. Eventually he picked up the little furball and made his way from the room, wandering the castle halls somewhat aimlessly before heading back to the common room to create a little home for Number One.

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