User:Bond em7/Sandbox/Karith Black's NEWT Transfiguration Test

Assignment
Karith Black

Bond_em7

7th Year Slytherin

16:13, February 16, 2012 (UTC)

NEWT Transfiguration Test

An Animagus (pl. Animagi) is a witch or wizard who can morph him or herself into an animal at will. It is a learned, rather than hereditary skill, unlike those of a Metamorphmagus. It is a form of transfiguration as the user is changing themselves, and transfiguration literally means to change one thing into another. However, it is also technically not a typicaly transfiguration spell as all transfiguration spells require wands and a verbal component, and changing into an an animagi does not require either after the process is learned. It requires a powerful and skilled wizard to suceed in this process. It is done by focusing on your magic, and imaging your animal. This is a difficult process to learn, as you have to discover what your animal is before you can attempt it. The change is different for each person, because your animal form is a reflection of your personality, and as people have different personalities, they also have different animagi forms. The differences between an animagi, a metamorphmagi and a werewolf are multiple. Metamorphmagi and animagi can both choose to transform, while werewoves cannot, only changing into their wolf form during the full moon. Metamorphmagi also can only change their general appearance, and not the function of their bodies, while werewolves and animagi both gain the abilities of their altered forms. Metamorhpmagi can also not change their size or general shape of their body, while being in animagi or werewolf form does change these things. For example, a metamorphmagi could change their arms into wings, however they could not fly while if an animagi had a bird form, they could. Animagi also can still think while in animal form, though their emotions are simpler depending on their animal form. Also, metamorphmagi are born with the ability, werewolves are created through being bitten by another werewolf, and animagi is a magicaly ability that anyone with the proper focus, training, and magical ability can learn.

Human Transfiguration is a sub- branch of Transfiguration in which one Transfigures human body parts or an entire human being into another form. It is more difficult than other forms of Transfiguration as you have to focus on what your changing, it's current funtion, and the function you wish for it to gain. Human Transfiguration can be used to essentially replicate the natural abilities of Metamorphmagi, allowing the practitioner or the subject to take on an entirely different form, or make various individual changes to their appearance, such as growing or changing the colour of one's hair or taking on individual animal body parts. In fact, it also has more versatility than being a metamorphmagi as using human transfiguration you can create working animal parts, such as a long prehensile tail. However, while human Transfiguration can presumably be performed by any wizard who's skilled enough, on themselves as well as on others, a Metamorphmagus is born with the ability to make such changes to their own bodies with little to no effort, and without the use of a wand. Although it is possible to Transfigure humans into inanimate objects, it is unknown how someone someone Self-Transfiguring into an object would be able to Untransfigure without the intervention of another witch or wizard. All human transfiguration is done silently, however you have to visualize what the current object looks like, how it needs to be changed, and it's new funtion. You use a jabbing wand motion and what you're transfiguring, and the more you understand what your transfiguring and how you're changing it, the easier the transfiguration is. An example in the real worl would be to transfigure a battle oppoent into something less threatening, like an armchair. The opponent would have difficultly transforming back without being able to hold their wand. However, this sort of transfiguration in the middle of a battle is very difficult as it's hard to concentrate on this sort of magic, and all the target has to do to resist is attack with a simple spell to break your concentration. Still, if you immobolize them beforehand, it might be possible.

Untransfiguration is a type of counter-spell that is the exact opposite of Transfiguration i.e. it returns something to its proper form, reversing the effects of a transfiguration. It's the most difficult type of transfiguration because you have to have an idea of what the object you're transfiguring was to change it back. One does not need to know very specific details about what the object was before Transfiguration, just what it was. If you saw a clock, you would have to have an idea of what it had been to change it back. You could look at the clock for signs of what it had been, like candle wax indicating it had been a candlestick. You could also look around the room to see if anything is missing, such as dust or other signs of where something had been, and find out what it had been that way. Wand movement for untransfiguring is a normal flick and swish, followed by a jab at whatever you're untransfiguring. I'm not sure you could untransfigure something in battle as it takes concentration and knowledge of what the target was that's hard to get during battle. However, and example of how you could use un-transfiguration would be to change a spider into a chicken so you can have chicken for dinner.

Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration is a law governing the magical world. There are five Principle Exceptions to Gamp's Law; the only one explicitly stated is food - however, there are a number of possible candidates for the remaining four. The one staed explicitly is that food cannot be created from nothing. It should be noted that whilst food cannot be outright created from nothing, it can be multiplied if one already has some food to multiply, it can also be enlarged by using the Engorgement Charm, or the food can be summoned if one knows the rough location and is fairly sure the food will still be there. Food cannot be created; but since animals can be conjured or transfigured, one may theoretically take meat from the animal, which would supposedly allow the indirect conjuration of food. However, nothing conjured ever lasts so the food and its constituents "conjured" in this way would disappear soon enough, meanign the food would be useless. For the other principals, I think the most likely are life, precious metals, counters to drak magic, and temperature. It is firmly known that life which has already ended is impossible to be restored Hence, pre-existing life is impossible to conjure and therefore may be one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law. Precious Metals cannot be created, as their structure is very complex, and they break down when trying to transfigure something else into one. The Philosopher's Stone is also reminiscent of the exception to the rule relating to food in that it only transforms other metals into gold but cannot create it (like how food can be transformed but not created). Likewise, Leprechauns may create objects that look like gold or money, but which will, in time, change back to dead leaves or dirt; it is merely an illusion or transfiguration (once again similar to the allowance of transformation but not creation). Similarly, the Geminio Curse allows one to multiply (but not conjure from nothing) the desired object (in this case something made from gold), which reminds one of the exception to the food rule allowing multiplication but not outright creation. All sorts of body parts can be repaired and even conjured from scratch (like the regrowing of bones). But these same body parts—and the entire body, in the case of the Killing Curse—cannot be replaced or repaired if Dark Arts was involved, no matter how skilled the healer. This also includes body parts cursed off with a spell like Sectumsempra. The conjuring of heat or cold or the transfiguring of something warm into something cold (and vice versa) is alos a possible problem due to Gamp's Law. Although wizards can produce water and can emit steam from their wands through the hot-air charm—steam that lightly melts objects like snow or dries objects like sopping-wet clothing—wizards cannot raise or lower the temperature of the air, stop rain or snow from falling, slow or speed the wind, or heat or cool large bodies of water. The Law limits what you can do with transfiguration as it clearly spells out the limits of what can be transfigured and what cannot. Technically the Law doesn't keep you from doing these transfigurations, it just spells out how the laws of magic work with transfiguration.