Template:A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration - Introduction

Introduction by Minerva McGonogall, Hogwarts Professor of Transfiguration, MMA, PhThaumD

Whilst Professor Emeric Switch's excellent work remains the bedrock on which any reasonable endeavours in our demanding field must be based, it has, sadly but rightly, been said that "times change", even for those of us with a wand and a will to do something about that. So, I myself have undertaken a liberty and perhaps even impertinence I would not advocate to any student of mine, to tamper with the original text, at least to a degree.

Transfiguration is both a puissant and a precise discipline, a science and an art at once, and like a fluctation between those two states, it frequently defies absolute labelling, or exact categorisation. It offers, to the skilled and self-controlled practitioner, an unending armoury, a constant catalogue of options in practically any conceivable scenario - and even, as I know to my cost, a few inconceivable ones. It is the transformation, the movement between states of objects, or even people, and as such requires complete concentration and unwavering determination to ensure that the result is only and wholly what was sought.

In the chapters and sections to follow, you will encounter many "situational truths", verities which apply to the case at hand, but may not necessarily be extrapolated to other, seemingly similar, scenarios. All I can say is, "Tough luck". I have never hung a sign on my classroom door which said, "Welcome to a doodle of a lesson", and I have no intention of starting at this late stage in my career.

Minerva McGonagall