TNFG-301 Lessons

 I Am Fire, I Am Death

Welcome
Professor Mitchell was already standing at the front of the classroom as the Third Years filed in.  On her desk sat about 40 small stone statues of various shapes.  When all the students had taken their seats, the professor began the lecture.

Introduction
Is it really Lesson Eight already? This year has just flown by, but we’re not quite done yet! Today will be your final inanimate to animate transformation and next lesson we will discuss some of the history of transfiguration, including some notable figures and events, so be sure to bring your quills and parchment. For now though, let’s get into magical creatures and Draconifors.

Magical Creatures
As I briefly mentioned last week, there are magical creatures that fall under every other animal class. You have Billywigs representing the insects, Plimpies for the fish, Phoenixes for the birds, salamanders for the amphibians, dragons for the reptiles, and gnomes for the mammals.  Of course, these are all just one example for each class and there are many, many more.  You will be discussing all of these creatures at some point in your Care of Magical Creatures class and some in your Defence Against the Dark Arts class.

The thing that defines magical creatures is, obviously, the presence of some inherent magical power. This can be anything from a mere affinity for sensing magic to the ability to perform some minor spell-like enchantments.  Like all other magic, we don’t know exactly where these powers come from or why only some animals possess them while many others don’t.  What we do know, however, is that many magical creatures put their magic to use, whether it be for self defense, such is the case with Demiguise, to protect their home, like the Bowtruckles, or simply as a way of life, such as the pranking imp.

When it comes to transfiguration and inanimate to animate transformations, Gamp’s Law tells us that we cannot create a creature that has the ability to produce its own magic.  We can, however, still create creatures that look and act like their magical counterparts.  For example, we could transfigure a Bowtruckle that may look like a small stick figure with long, sharp fingers, but it will not be able to identify a wand wood producing tree.

An additional constraint when considering magical creatures is that as of right now, no one has been able to create any creature not classified as a “beast.” There is no inanimate to animate spell, or conjuration, for that matter, capable of producing a being or spirit, though many in the past have tried. Creatures with no definitive form, such as the Boggart, are also on the list of non-transformable entities.

The Transformation
The Draconifors transformation turns a small statue into a small model dragon, about the size of the statue. Your goal for the day is to get your dragon to exhale smoke. In order to accomplish this, you must make sure to concentrate on the dragon’s respiratory system and how the smoke needs to be created in its lungs. When you believe you are ready to begin, come grab a statue off my desk and follow the spell block on the board.

For this spell, a few things could potentially go wrong.  One of these is that you merely turn your statue into a dragon shaped statue.  A slightly more serious backfire, however, involves the spontaneous combustion of your statue.  If this happens, please call me over immediately so I can put out any fires and ensure no one needs to be sent to the hospital wing.

This spell is very finicky when it comes to the size of statue that you can cast it on.  There have not been many successes on statues larger than about the size of a shoe.  While many transformations we have discussed have size limitations, this one is a little more curious, as the resultant creature is not life-size itself. Due to the awe surrounding dragons, many have attempted to make a life-size imitation, intending to use it as a home security system, a weapon, or even just a “pet” to show off.  If you take Transfiguration through to the N.E.W.T. level, we will be discussing the limits of transfiguration more in depth in Year Seven, but it should still be something you consider with every new spell you learn.

Where did this come from? Why do I care?
Draconifors was invented by Tansia Tuft along with Alan Simon in 1899.  Mr. Simon wanted to see if he could create a dragon whose scales could be used in potions and Miss Tuft agreed to help, hoping that creating a transformation spell to transfigure dragons could be used to help educate more wizards on these amazing creatures.  Though they succeeded in creating model dragons, Mr. Simon was disappointed as their scales are not useful in potions.

This spell is often used as a novelty spell, creating model dragons for children and adults alike to play with without fear of the aggression that comes with a full-scale dragon.  It is also a helpful spell when control is taken, as it can fly and get into hard to reach places.  It was also used historically during the Triwizard Tournament of 1994 to show the contestants which dragons they would be battling for the first task.

Flexibility of Animate Transformations
Some of you may have noticed that the transformations this year have involved more general starting objects.  The reason for this lies in the nature of inanimate to animate transformations and the objects they concern.  Given the complexity that must go into creating a moving, animate thing, the physical differences between that and basically any inanimate object are going to be strongly overshadowed.  In other words, the difference of animacy is a million times larger than any other physical difference, meaning those physical differences are negligible in comparison.  This also means that variations with the starting objects of these transformations (when there is a defined object) are much easier, and you can stretch them just a little more than you could with inanimate to inanimate transformations.

Conclusion
You guys just have an essay and a quiz for today, but don’t forget to study for your final next week! As always, it will cover every lesson of the year, up to and including Lesson Nine. Until then!

*Magical creatures image credit: http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/*

DISCLAIMER: This lesson makes a reference to an adjustment that has been made to the Year One content that has not yet been published on site.  For the sake of this lesson,  the fifth exception to Gamp's Law is magical energy, rather than money.