Merlin could only stare. His magic must be itching to get out after his overlong nap. The rest of the class seemed to notice the interruption in the atmosphere and turned to the cause of it. Professor McGonagal looked like she was barely keeping herself from having a heart attack.
"Well, Mr. Emerson," She began shakily. "This is a very lovely egg you have created here. Have you had any formal training on Transfiguration?"
Merlin shook his head. "No. I guess I just have a very active imagination." He could feel the tips of his (admittedly large) ears turn red.
McGonagal didn't seem to buy it. "But I have seen nothing like this in all of my years of teaching. I doubt I myself could have made something so intricately detailed."
"No, I just lived in an environment were I used magic often to help with daily tasks..." Merlin trailed off as he remembered all of the 'daily tasks' he had saved Camelot from. He shook himself out of his memories before his lapse in attention was noticed. "I just picked up a few things along the way."
"I see." She didn't quite seem to believe him, but she just went with it. "Do you mind if I keep this? It would make a good example and quite frankly I do not think something like this should be returned to a simple egg." Professor McGonagal asked.
Merlin grinned at her. "Of course!" He waved his stick and cast a spell over the egg to preserve the transfiguration. "Be my guest."
She picked the egg up gingerly and set it on some shelving behind her desk. It gleamed in the light. Some of Merlin's fellow students sat up straighter in their seats to see it. McGonagal turned back to the class after one final look. "This is a prime example of what I am looking for from you this year. Now will the rest of you please continue with the first test. Do not hesitate to ask questions. You are here to learn."
The class continued on. The rest of the students got their eggs transfigured soon after Merlin, but none held the same beauty as his. Draco had created a lovely Slytherin egg though. Once all of the eggs had been transfigured back to their original form (the exception being Merlin's, of course) McGonagal set the stage for the second test.
"You will be transfiguring liquids next. Your next challange is to turn a cup of water into salt water, then into salt, then back into water." She placed a quill onto each of their desks. "There is, however, a catch. You will be transfiguring the quill into the goblet of water. They are each filled with neverending ink. You will transfigure the ink into water and the quill into a goblet and then complete the test. This is to see how far your transfigurations can stretch before breaking. Once you are done, you will turn the goblet of water into a bird of your choice and return it to me. That is if you finish all of the tasks before that. I do not expect you to do it perfectly. I do not even expect you to be able to complete this. I only ask that you try to the best of your ability. Once again, do not hesitate to ask questions. You may begin."
Merlin's head was struggling to take in all of the information. He raised his hand.
"Yes Emerson? Do you have a question?" McGonagal seemed curious what this brilliant boy would have a question about.
"Well, would you mind writing a list on the board? I'm afraid I didn't quite catch all of that." He smiled sheepishly.
"Of course." She waved her wand and a helpful list appeared on both of the boards at the front of the room. Most of the Ravenclaws breathed a sigh of relief, having tried to write down all of what the Professor said and failed.
Once Merlin had read through the list a few times and actually understood the point of the assignment, he began to picture a goblet in his head. He once again waved his stick-wand and transfigured the quill into a silver goblet and the ink inside into clear sparkling water. The goblet had the engraving of mermaids at the base, but the top was the main attraction. It was almost as though the bottom half of the goblet was the lake, and the top was land. Standing halfway out of the water was Freya holding Excalibur. It was as well detailed as the egg before it; in the fact that you could clearly see the details in Freya's hair and dress and the sharp edge of Excalibur. Merlin took a long look at his lost love's face before continuing on with the task at hand.
He found turning the water to salt water was slightly difficult, but after a few minor hiccups he was onto the next line on the list. The salt was easier and it only took him one try. Then it was back to the water. He knew instantly what bird he was going to turn his goblet to, so he sat back and observed the rest of the class as they worked. Most of the Ravenclaws and some Slytherins were in the process of turning the water to salt water, and the rest were still trying to get ink out of their water or feathers off of their goblet. Draco was working on the salt water. Merlin decided to help him out a little bit.
"Hey, picture the taste of salt when you try next time. It might help." Merlin said to his friend as he struggled.
Draco took a minute and closed his eyes before waving his wand and sniffing his goblet. He reeled back at the smell of pure saltwater. He turned to Merlin with an unfamiliar emotion in his eyes. "Thanks. How did you really make the egg earlier." As soon as the emotion was there it was gone; it was snapped behind an almost instinctual mask.
"I told everyone earlier. That's basically it." Merlin said apologetically.
Draco nodded at him. "Okay."
So, here we go! Next Chapter we finish with the second and third tasks (sounding familiar yet?) and maybe head into some new classes. What do you think Merlin's bird is going to be? It may or may not be fairly obvious. Happy guessing!