1Chapter 8: Squall's Transfiguration
Note: This chapter's kind of long.
The weekend passed by quickly. Most of the seventh years were busy in the library or their common rooms with various essays, as a lot of them had NEWT classes. This left the others, especially in their first or second years, to gape and awe around the newcomers. The girls took this as an opportunity to ask them a lot of questions to help with the project research, but Zell, Irvine, and Squall had a tougher time looking for something to do. Ron and Harry were not only busy with Monday's homework but Ron refused to speak to Irvine, and it seemed, Squall. Because Zell was too lazy to ask and had pretty much forgotten what his job was, none of them knew when any of the houses held their quidditch practices, so Zell couldn't do any research. Irvine was too focused on the girls who kept swarming him to remember about the project, and Squall spent most of his time in the dormitory avoiding the endless questions. On Sunday night, Hermione approached him after dinner as he lay in one of his melancholy states on his four-poster.
"Um... Squall? Can I come in?" She asked from the door. He sat up. He really hadn't been expecting anybody.
"Yeah. What do you need?"
"McGonagall's given me your class schedules," Hermione said as she came closer and he stood up straight. She looked almost nervous as she held out a piece of parchment to him. "You start tomorrow."
Squall took the parchment and looked it over. He'd never heard of things like "Transfiguration" or "Herbology", but they were on the list.
"Are you able to understand it?" Hermione asked.
"What are these things? What's transfiguration? What's Muggle Studies?" Squall asked, somewhat frustrated. As stated before, he didn't like feeling stupid.
Hermione came around and stood by his side. She looked over the piece of parchment with him. "Transfiguration is where you take an object and turn it into something else. Muggle Studies is, what else, the study of Muggles. Let's see, in Potions you mix ingredients to make different concoctions. In Herbology, you'll study the plants we use to make the potions from. Astronomy should be interesting. I'm sure you have stars back home, right?"
Squall nodded, taking a sideways glance at her. Hermione really was very smart. No wonder Dumbledore had her explain all this stuff to them. "Looks like you covered it," he said to her, placing the parchment on his bed. "Thank you."
Hermione looked up at him, her cheeks slightly pink. "You're welcome," she replied. She turned away. "Well, I have to go give the others their schedules. Coming down?"
Squall shook his head. "I think I'll stay here. But thanks anyway."
Hermione nodded, but hesitated before leaving. She glanced at the bed next to Squall's. "Has Ron been ignoring you because of Ginny?"
Squall was taken back. He wondered how many people knew of the incident on Friday night. "Yeah," he answered.
Hermione came closer to him again. "It's stupid, really" she continued. "I mean, you had nothing to do with it. And Ginny did it by herself. Ron needs to know that she's sixteen now... it's not even as if Irvine's that much older then her."
Squall nodded in agreement. She talked as though she and Ginny were pretty close. "It doesn't seem like that much of a loss for me," he said.
"Ron's a good person when he's not like this. But if he's going to act immature about it, you're probably right in staying away from him."
They were both quiet for a moment. Squall noticed how soft Hermione's facial features were. He felt a lurch in his stomach and hoped that Irvine wouldn't notice anything about her. "You should probably get going," he said.
"You're right," Hermione agreed, and she left. Squall loafed back onto his bed, forgetting all about tomorrow's schedule.
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Quistis felt quite frazzled as she quickly walked down the hall, no one in sight. She had never been late for anything in her life, and to sleep through the beginning of her first day at Hogwarts! What an embarrassment. It didn't help that she had no idea where she was going, and that those stairs kept changing on her.
She traveled a little farther until seeing a sign for a girls bathroom. Thinking she might find somebody in there to help find her way to Transfiguration, she decided to give it a shot and pop in there for a second. As soon as she opened the door, she was greeted with a loud bawling. "Hello?" she asked. "Is anyone in here?"
"Go away!" came a young girl's voice from one of the back stalls. Quistis came in and shut the door behind her.
"Please, if you can just help me... I'm a little lost," she called hopefully toward the stalls.
"It's all about you, isn't it? What about me? Can't you see I'm distressed?" the voice replied with harshness, and then continued its crying.
"I can. But, please... I'm kind of new here and don't know where to go."
Suddenly the door of the last stall flung itself open and a white blur zoomed out, screeching. Quistis screamed and jumped back against the door as the blur approached her and took shape into a girl who couldn't have been more then thirteen, with pig tails and a look to kill on her pale face. The girl screamed shrilly.
"Ack! I'm sorry!" Quistis said, feeling as though she were begging. "Please! I was just looking for the transfiguration classroom. I'm sorry to have disturbed you."
Quistis left the bathroom quickly and gladly slammed the door shut behind her, hoping that the ghost wouldn't follow her through the door. Coming down the hall was a tall boy with red hair. Finally, an actual person, Quistis thought as she approached him.
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"Today, students, we will be transfiguring statues into people."
The class whispered excitedly. Squall couldn't believe this. So this is what these kids did all day? Performed magic tricks? How was this supposed to help them in the world? At least at Garden you learned the basics like math and language.
"Now, don't get too excited. Although we can transfigure them into anybody we like, they won't be able to talk and can only do what the person who transfigures them wills them to do," Professor McGonagall continued. Squall caught a devilish grin from Seamus to Neville.
"Professor, what affect has this had on the war against Voldemort?" Hermione suddenly asked. "Surely he's used these dummies to his ability?"
"Excellent question, Miss Granger. By ancient magicks put into place thousands of years ago, this spell prevents the transfigured dummies from bringing harm to anybody, whether it be physically or magically. So Voldemort, as far as the ministry's best Aurors know, hasn't found a way to use them yet."
"So what's their use, Professor?" Hermione questioned.
"Well, I might say they are rather good at housework and performing errands. More useful for witches then wizards, it seems."
"Useful in different ways," Seamus muttered, and the boys around him snickered.
McGonagall separated them into pairs to begin working. Because they were visitors and didn't have any wands, Squall, Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine (who were all together because this was a Gryffindor/Ravenclaw class) were each paired with Harry, Parvati, Hermione, and Ron, respectively. But...
"Where has Mr. Weasley gotten himself?" McGonagall asked sharply, noting that Ron had yet to come back from the supposed bathroom. "And where's the fifth of you? Another girl is supposed to be here, right?"
Suddenly the door to the classroom opened and in walked in a terrified looking Quistis and a casual Ron. "Here we are," he said. McGonagall glared at them.
"Might I inquire where you two have been?" she said to Ron, seeming much more angry with him then Quistis.
"You see, Professor, Quistis was lost, so she went into the first floor girls' bathroom looking for someone to ask about directions. But of course, you know who's in there..."
McGonagall, although her lips were clasped so tight they disappeared, gave a stiff nod.
"So, she got scared but thankfully ran into me on her way out," Ron finished explaining, looking very pleased with himself. Quistis still looked scared, but Squall was sure it was more for disturbing a teacher then because of whatever was in the bathroom. Both she and Ron were excused and put with their partners. Ron didn't bother hiding his groan when he saw who he was paired up with.
"Harry, wanna swap?" he immediately asked.
"No switching, Mr. Weasley! This is a rather complicated spell and I want to keep everything organized," McGonagall interrupted the transaction.
Things seemed to go pretty quietly after that. Each pair was given a small statuette of either a toad, cat, or owl. Within minutes, Hermione and Rinoa had transfigured their cat statuette into a silent replica of Rinoa's mother. Squall recognized her from the dreams of the past he had experienced during the fight against Galbadia. It was quite an amazing thing to watch as the cat grew tall and shone bright until it turned into the frail-looking Julia, who was dressed fancy as though she were about to perform her famous "Eyes on Me". Rinoa gaped and couldn't seem to say anything. Hermione looked quite proud of herself. The class looked in awe before going back to trying their own transfigurations, seeming more determined then before.
Squall continued watching as Rinoa reached out and touched her "mom"'s arm. The woman simply smiled back at her, and then brought her arm up and put it around Rinoa. Rinoa started crying. Squall thought this was too private to watch, so he turned back to Harry, who was also watching Rinoa and her transfigured mother. "Do you know who that lady is?" he asked Squall.
"Yeah. That's her mom. She died a long time ago, though."
Harry's emerald eyes suddenly grew wide. "Did she?"
Little did Squall know what Harry was thinking of doing.
"McGonagall said we can transfigure the statue into whoever we want, right?"
"Yeah, I guess," Squall replied. He had an idea what Harry was getting at. He really hoped Harry wouldn't be getting as emotional as Rinoa. Harry's eyes scanned the page the spell was on in his book wildly.
"Okay! Bollocks... the person who we'd want to make appear can only be thought of by the person holding the object to be transfigured in both hands. That means you'd have to hold onto the statue and imagine the person you want to appear while I cast the spell. So this is why we needed partners..."
Harry looked thoughtful for a moment, and even cast a glance at Ron. Squall knew Harry wished they weren't here so he could have his friend as his partner. "Who is it you want to see, anyway?"
"Someone," was all Harry said. "Hmm... well... I guess you'll have to think of somebody."
Squall was lost. Who did he really want to appear? Everyone he gave anything about was here. He really didn't miss Laguna that much, even though he'd figured out that was his dad. He couldn't even remember his mother, who Ellone told him was Raine. He didn't feel like seeing Ellone either. Then he wondered something. Could he make a double of someone who was in the room right now?
"I know who I want to try making," Squall said suddenly. He didn't feel ashamed of who he wanted to appear. He kind of just wanted to do it to get her mind off her mom.
"Alright. Take hold of the statue. Let's see if I can do this."
Harry looked as though he were concentrating really hard as he said something in Latin. The toad statue Squall held shook and glowed a little but nothing happened. Harry consulted his book again before saying, "You have to concentrate harder. Really think about how you want to see the person, not just about them. What do you want them to wear, blah blah. Let's try again."
Squall thought about Rinoa. He tried thinking of a memory when she was really beautiful. His mind instantly went back to the time they first met, at the SeeD party. He thought of the way she smiled as she came over to him, about how cute she crinkled her nose, about how she basically led him around the dance floor. Meanwhile he heard Harry recite the incantation again and this time the stone toad shook even harder, so hard that Squall had to let go of it. But he forced his mind to stay on his image of Rinoa. The frog grew larger and glowed so bright he and Harry had to look away. When the brightness dimmed a little, a carbon copy of Rinoa in her cream-colored dress appeared before them. She looked at Squall and crinkled her nose, smiling. Squall couldn't help but smile back. "Yes!" Harry exclaimed. "I'm usually no good at these things."
The occurrence of another transfiguration had drawn the attention of the rest of the class, including the real Rinoa, who gasped. "What?" she said. She glared at Squall.
"Excellent, Mr. Potter!" McGonagall cried, rushing over. "Ten points to Gryffindor for you and Hermione!"
McGonagall looked from the transfigured Rinoa to the real Rinoa. "And she looks so real! Five more points!"
Suddenly another pair transfigured someone else so McGonagall, and everyone else, turned their attention to that. The real Rinoa continued to stare at Squall, as did the others from Balamb. She stormed over. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked, fuming.
"I needed to think of someone," Squall replied coolly. "You were the first person I saw."
Rinoa looked half-satisfied with this answer but said nothing. Instead she turned her attention to her copy. "I really did wear a nice outfit that night... why wouldn't you have wanted to dance with me?" she said softly. She looked like she wanted to touch it to see how real the image of herself was but looked too shy. Squall, knowing that since he conjured her he could have her do whatever he wanted, imagined the Rinoa-copy putting her hands on the shoulders of the real Rinoa. So she did. Rinoa let out a little scream and pushed the copy's hands off her. Squall chortled. "You're horrible, Squall!" Rinoa said, turning away to go back to Hermione and "Julia".
Harry watched her go before saying, "I don't blame you for wanting two of her around. Why is she dressed like this, anyway?"
The copy looked at both of them before smiling and crinkling her nose. "And why does she keep doing that?"
Squall didn't want to explain, but since Harry had helped this happen, he knew he should. "We met at a party that celebrated me, Selphie, Zell, and this other kid becoming SeeDs." (Squall had explained all about SeeDs and Gardens over the weekend to the other boys in the dormitory) "Well, she was there to discuss something with the Headmaster, and this song came on, and she asked me dance with her. This is the dress she was wearing. And, she keeps crinkling her nose because... I really liked it when she did that."
Squall tried to keep himself from blushing. He'd never admitted that to anyone before, even Rinoa. Harry didn't laugh or anything, though. He looked as if he were thinking about something, or someone, else. "I know what you mean," he said. Squall remembered what Ron had said about Ginny. Maybe Harry was thinking of her. He turned his attention back to the copy. She really did come out perfect.
"Arrgh!" came a yell from the table next to them. Squall spun around to see a half- stone toad, half- Selphie thing with Irvine next to it. Ron was flaming again. "You weren't concentrating enough! We can't even reverse it!"
Irvine looked like he felt like he was the dumbest person in the world. The half-Selphie copy reached out her normal arm and put it on him. "Oh, Irvy!" came Selphie's happy exclamation from the other side of the room. "You thought of me!"
"Calm down, Mr. Weasley. It won't affect your grade. And because of this spell's complexity, it only lasts for half an hour," McGonagall said, which calmed his nerves a little bit, but Squall knew he just wanted a reason to be mad at Irvine.
Over the last twenty or so minutes of class, most people were able to transfigure something. Quistis and her partner made a Xu, Selphie and Lavender an Irvine, and, one which was most memorable for Squall because of the humor in it, a nude Britney Spears for Seamus and Dean. At this, McGonagall quickly changed her back into a statue and assigned Seamus and Dean a week's worth of detentions. Squall couldn't help laughing with Irvine as they left their first class of the day, heading off for Potions next, leaving all their copies behind, who were now turning back into small garden statues.
A/N: Sorry if this chapter was a little OOC for Squall, but I have to say it was fun to write. I hope you're enjoying the story so far! And yes, there will be more development with the story line. Thanks to all who have reviewed! Keep it up! Constructive criticism is always welcome.
