Part two of final exams!

This time I'll write about transfiguration, with a few bits and bobs after. Then we'll be on to Defense against the Dark Arts.

I would be including more history and Muggle studies, but I didn't really cover any of those classes in the chapters thus far. There will be mentions of herbology, but that is a special case

You'll see why.

In the next book, there will be more classes to cover, including muggle studies and history.

How I have the school system set up is as follows.

First years attend basic core classes as an introduction into magical study. Second years are given the option of their first elective, while also continuing the core classes.

The electives are as follows: arithmancy, divination (Somewhat), and a subclass for transfiguration: alteration.

I know, normally divination isn't mentioned until third year. I have more that will come into play for the third year, when more electives will be available.

There will also be more extracurricular activities, but we'll get back to that.

For now, let's do transfiguration.

—0—

"So? How'd it go?"

Draco slumped as he walked out of McGonagalls office. "I think I failed…"

Ron patted Draco's shoulder. "Come on now! You can't say that for certain!"

The blonde boy sighed. "I can't tell you about it because you haven't gone yet…"

Ron shrugged. "Fine by me. I've got the five areas of Gamps law memorized. Practically speaking, this should be a breeze."

"Where was all of that confidence before the muggle studies exam?" Draco raised an eyebrow. "You were sure that you wouldn't get above the fifth scorer."

"Yeah, well that was before our muggle studies test was on the function of a toothbrush."

Draco blinked. "It was a toothbrush?"

Ron sweatdropped. "You know what? Forget I said anything."

Draco held his face in his hands. "I said it was for brushing under your toenails!"

"Hey, you got pretty close." Ron tried to smile, but it was more of a grimace. "Besides, your dad won't care either way."

"Hey Weasley, did you just say that the object in the muggle studies exam was a toothbrush?"

Ron turned to see a Hufflepuff witch, who Draco quickly reintroduced as Susan Bones.

"Yeah, muggles don't have teeth cleaning charms, so they scrub off any grime with a toothbrush."

"Scortwit uses one to bathe her rat…" Susan huffed. "I was certain it was a pet grooming tool."

An image of Scortwits rat scrubbing its back in the shower by way of a pink and purple toothbrush flashed through Ron's imagination, causing him to snort.

"Is my failure really that funny?" The girl poured.

"What? No." Ron shook his head. "Scortwit really bathes her rat by hand?"

"Explains why it's a handsome rat." Draco nodded.

"Are we talking about Scortwit's rat?" Another first year joined in. "That little guy is such a cute familiar!"

"Did you know that he actually survived an encounter with Filch and his cat?"

"Is that why Miss Norris has only one eye?"

"Brave little guy, he must be!" Everyone was talking about Despereaux by that point. Ron chuckled as the stories flew around, eventually to be cut short by a cough.

Everyone turned to see Merlot sitting in the corner of the room. "So I take it I need to have a talk with my rat?"

Several students laughed and Merlot rolled her eyes. "Seems that he gets into quite a bit of trouble."

"Oh, but he's so cute! And he's incredibly loyal." One of the Patil twins nodded.

"A perfect example of a Hufflepuff." Hannah smiled.

"He's also brave, and quite sneaky." Another student piped in.

"Is he wise?"

Merlot shrugged. "He can say a few words. He also knows his way around herbs."

By this point, Merlot could have said Despereaux knew each and every use of dragon's blood, and everyone would believe her.

A squeak snapped them all from the conversation. Professor McGonagall stood in the door of her office.

"Ronald Weasley?"

Ron stood up and hurried into the woman's office. A quick glance showed him that Draco was giving thumbs up. That was before the door snapped shut, and Aron was on his own.

The office was quite cluttered today. There were tables that held different items, some which held parchment, and a few dressing forms scattered here and there. Ron took in some of the results of other exams, which lay before him. He could tell inherently, after additional classes, that each was the product of transfiguration. The materials were each unique to their own ends.

He stopped for a moment, looking at the dress form closest to McGonagall's desk. Upon it was a blue dress, with an embroidery of feathers marching down its one shoulder, across its front, to the opposite hip. Next to it sat a second dress form, which held a cloak that was not as visually stunning, and yet it seemed to be quite on par with the dress.

"The top scorers so far." Minerva nodded. "Miss Abbot created the dress. I believe that the embroidery is a nice touch. Don't you?"

Ron nodded. "Then the other one…"

McGonagall walked over to the form and ran a hand down the piece of clothing. "Velvet and wool… it may appear bland, but-"

"Velvet? As well as wool?"

McGonagall nodded. "She is quite the prodigy, it would seem."

"Another top mark for Scortwit then…" Ron nodded.

McGonagall smiled, before sitting down at her desk. "How do you feel today, Mr. Weasley?"

Ron gave a quick bow. "Quite well professor. I am ready to begin when you are."

McGonagall nodded. "Very well. Your first task is to decipher which of these objects is transfigured, and return it to normal."

Ron raised an eyebrow. There upon the table was a quill, a handful of six sided board game dice, and a wooden model of a cat.

Ron looked over the wooden cat first. It had weight to it. Enough to convince him that it was really wood. The stain and the seal of the figure was also real, meaning that the item was authentic.

The redhead nodded and set the cat down, quickly turning to the quill. He picked it up and turned it in his hands. Light as a feather, stiff. From an owl perhaps? Ron locked the nib of the quill and dragged it over his hand, nodding as it scratched cleanly across his skin.

Finally, Ron turned to the dice. He knew that they were the transfigured item the moment they were revealed. Each one was simply too perfectly measured. With a wave of his wand, and a quiet murmur of Latin, the dice rolled back by one face, becoming sugar cubes.

McGonagall nodded. "Well done. Next, you will turn one of the remaining items into a teacup."

That was easy. Beginner transfiguration theory stated that an item had to have similar mass to what it was transfigured into. The feather would not work as a teacup, but the wooden cat definitely would.

Ron muttered the incantation under his breath and gave a confident swish towards the statuette. It morphed smoothly into a porcelain teacup, with a pattern of paw prints around the rim.

"A good touch." McGonagall nodded. "Wood to porcelain as well, I am glad the extra work has paid off."

Ron nodded. "Is there anything else you would have me do, Professor?"

McGonnagal nodded and conjured some water to fill the teacup. "Prepare me a drink please."

Ron nodded and looked at the cup. It was worth noting that everything to transfigure a cup of tea was before him. Still, Ron had not yet used the quill for anything.

With a nod, he picked up the feather and tore away a few pieces, before transfiguring them into dried saffron and sweet sumac. With another incantation, the water in the teacup became hot, and Ton levitated the leaves into the steaming container.

After a few minutes passed, Ron levitated two cubes of sugar into the tea and had them stir around until dissolved.

"Care for tea, Professor?"

The woman smirked and took a delicate sip, before letting out a deep sigh of pleasure.

"I am so happy that I had this to look forward to… an actual candidate for personal study…" Minerva smiled. "Return to your peers Mr Weasley, please act as if you messed up very badly, and were yelled at by myself."

Ron gawked. "Wait, does that mean that Draco-"

"I'm certain I have no idea what you are implying, Mr Weasley. Transfiguration is a difficult art and many have trouble with it."

Ron blinked, before his eyes softened in understanding. "Okay professor… I'll make sure to tell everyone else to be braver than I was…"

McGonagall chuckled a bit as Ron put on the crocodile tears and left.

"So far… the top five spots have been cemented."

—0—

Merlot rubbed her temples as she sat in the library. She had wanted to go and speak to Professor Quirrell before the final exam today, but every time she got close to his classroom, she was wracked by a horrible headache.

After leaving the corridor that led to his classroom, the headache had subsided, and so she had tried again, but to no avail. The closer she got to his door, the worse her headache became, and so she eventually gave up and got an early start on her last minute transfiguration studying.

It paid off, of course. She was now top of the class in every class. Even muggle studies. Professor Burbage was quite knowledgeable about many muggle machines and appliances, but the odd few that she didn't now made her seem quite batty to those who had lived with muggles. And, even though it made her stomach churn, she definitely remembered the proper way to use a toaster, the settings one needed for the perfect toast, which would make any normal, perfect muggle man happy.

Transfiguration went off without a hitch, as if there was any doubt of that. She and Hannah knew that they would be the top scorers, even if it damaged Hermione Granger's permanent second place. It wasn't a competition, Merlot knew, but Hermione just wouldn't let go.

Her practical test from McGonagall had been centered around fabric transfigurations. She had been given a few materials to use. A roll of parchment, a coil of leather, some pressed leaves. All mundane items. She had burned the leaves, and combined the ashes into a paste of charcoal. She had turned half of the parchment to wool, and the other half to velvet, before anchoring the transfigurations to the charcoal paste, which she used to dye the items. Part of the leather became thread, which she stitched together the two bits of cloth with, before tying it all together with the leather cording, making sure that the cloak would have a tie. It wasn't a high end cloak, like the ones she could purchase in diagon alley. But it was sturdy, and would keep its form as long as the dye remained within it, which would be forever. Finally, she had taken a pot of ink from the desk drawer- which wasn't specified to be off limits, much to her amusement and the amusement of the professor- and turned it white, using ut to inscribe a circle of runes upon the inner collar of the piece, making sure it regulated the temperature to be perfect for whoever wore it.

The display of semi permanent transfiguration, as a loophole, had netted her top marks for the practical. Her piece wasn't as flashy as Hannah's dress, or Hermione's silver statue, but it would last. Their charms would eventually fade away, and hers would not.

"How's your head?"

Merlot looked up to see Hannah, carrying a stack of books. "What are all of those for?"

"Professor Quirrell pushed back our final another two hours. I'm getting some last minute cramming in."

Merlot nodded. 'I wonder why…'

"Something the matter?"

"Hm? Oh no." Merlot shook her head. "Just wondering what I should do with the time."

Hannah shrugged. "You could study?"

"Already did. I'm pretty much guaranteed top marks for his exam." Merlot sighed.

"Hm… work on your rune stuff?"

Merlot shook her head. "I finished the book on my work with three dimensional arrays. Twenty chapters, already spell checked and everything. I even added diagrams for some of the chapters, and sketches for people who can't read."

"Wow… okay. Um…" Hannah sat down and rubbed her temples. "At the beginning of the year, you were looking for information on phoenix ashes, right?"

Merlot blinked. "I've looked every Friday…"

"You could use this time to look again?"

Merlot nodded and stood up. "It's better than sitting around doing nothing. Okay, I'll be back in a jiffy."

Hannah nodded and opened her first book as Merlot disappeared into the bookshelves. "Let's see, stunning. Yeah, that would be on the practical…"

Merlot walked in and out of the rows of bookshelves, looking for anything on phoenixes. She recognized many of the books from her last searches, but there didn't seem to be anything new.

As the young witch found herself at the end of the eighth row, she heard the squeak of a cart being pushed across the floor.

"Oh! Hello dear, are you finding anything okay?"

Madam Pince, the librarian, stood at the end of the ninth row, shelving books from a rather large cart. Looking into it, Merlot could see that there was an expansion charm placed upon the cart, and it contained hundreds of books that she had never seen.

"Oh, I'm just browsing, thanks." Merlot nodded. "New books?"

The librarian nodded. "New to this section. Every year, the Hogwarts library gets updated. Newer works are purchased, thanks to a fund put in place by Rowena Ravenclaw. The updated list of restricted works from the board of governors comes in, so I tend to move many of the books around."

Merlot nodded. "Is there anything particularly interesting on the list this year?"

The librarian shelved the book in her hand, before reaching down and plucking a scroll from the top of her cart.

"Let's see. No, no, not especially, I wouldn't think of that one… Lockheart? Ew. Hm, you enjoy pursuing the art of runecarving, correct?"

"I've had may fair share of it so far, yes." Merlot nodded.

"There's a few books on Egyptian hieroglyphs that are now unrestricted. One on old Kanji, although japanese runic circles tend to be quite complex…"

"I actually have been working primarily with the elder futhark of the Anglo Saxons." Merlot nodded. "And I'm going to have my own book on it published soon."

"Are you really?" Madam Pince blinked.

"Thanks to some help from the headmaster, yes. I am." Merlot smiled. "I wonder, are there any books on the list pertaining to magical creatures, or wandlore?"

The librarian chuckled. "I knew I'd have someone ask sooner or later. You're one of Olibvanders Grey children, aren't you."

"I believe he did call us that." Merlot nodded.

"I have a single book on unusual wand cores. It was in the restricted section for one single entry within it's pages."

"Just one?"

Madam Pince nodded. "Well, I say one. There is a second entry within it that is typically shied away from, but wands that use dementors' blood are rarely made. They tend to be avoided specifically because of the creatures themselves. Horrid creatures, Dementors."

Merlot blinked. "Then, what is the entry within this book that is so dangerous?"

The librarian waved her wand (A rather beautiful length of maple wood), summoning a tome from the depths of her cart and opening it. Merlot studied the cover, a golden wand with a magic circle drawn around it. Simple. Something that she herself would probably enjoy reading.

"Phoenix ashes." Madam Pince spoke, causing Merlot's eyes to widen.

"Sorry?"

"Phoenix ashes, a wand core that has never been wielded in history, simply because of the cost of the magic within it."

Merlot blinked as the woman passed the book to her. With a slight shake in her hand, she began to read aloud.

"Phoenix ashes, in their most powerful state, require the complete absorption of a phoenix's magic. The core made from phoenix ash suffering, rebirth, but above all, death. It holds the final remains of the bird that they were collected from. Unlike several other wands that require rare components, like blood. The phoenix ash wand is only known to function if the phoenix in question dies." Merlot shook her head. "But… then why-"

"A new discovery was made. It seems that Olivander himself recently crafted a wand that contained Phoenix ashes, from a burnt feather. The phoenix in question still lives, but yet the wand is one of the most powerful he has ever sold…" Madam Pince nodded. "Nobody knows the reason, but perhaps someone will eventually find out."

Merlot nodded. "Thank you ma'am… may I sign this book out?"

The woman waved her hand. "I'll write your name down. Make sure to return it before you leave the school for the summer holiday."

Merlot bowed and hurried away, stopping in between two bookshelves that were out of everyone's sight. With a greater shake in her hand, she drew her wand and looked at it.

"Death…"

The wand shuddered, a gentle tone played in the back of the girls mind.

"Why… why is it always Death…"

—0—

That's the chapter. More wandlore.

I know that I haven't been putting much in here, despite how important they are to the story. It may seem strange that Merlot only checks twice, but we only have twenty five to thirty chapters that cover the days at Hogwarts. We can infer that Merlot has looked more than once. (Every Friday)

The wandlore of the Phoenix ashes will come into play along the line. It has nothing to do with Fawkes, just so you know. He serves a different purpose.

Also, when it comes to wands. Before I get hate on mentioning the wands again, I wanted to put this out there. I made each wand for each character, so merlot isn't the only one with a unique wand. It makes her fit in a bit more, and allows me to give tiny glances into each character.

I used to like many Indy Harry Potter stories, but that was always a pet peeve that I had. Harry always has a unique wand while everyone else has unicorn hair, Phoenix feather, or dragon heartstring. That, or Harry goes and makes a wand that has eight cores and seven different woods.

No.

Dual cores serve a purpose in this story. For merlot, they help control the magic of two souls.

She is not the only one with dual cores. But that is for the future.

As always, leave a review. I am happy to see so many people coming back to review my writing on the regular. I hope you continue to read and enjoy.

Until next time, Adios.