“Good morning class,” Isolde said thickly around the mandrake leaf in her mouth as she eyed the group of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw students. She carefully tucked it into the pocket of her left cheek, in an imitation of a squirrel to prevent herself from destroying her hard work thus far. The students of her Transfiguration class were used to the display by now, for this was her third attempt to complete the first part of the Animagus ritual. The memory of their professor heatedly scolding Peeves the Poltergeist just two month prior for causing her to swallow the leaf was fresh in their minds. Isolde’s face had gone quite red and she had looked positively bear-like in her rage.
“As it is Valentine’s Day, I do not doubt that your heads are in the clouds,” Isolde rapped on the desk suddenly with her knuckles. “Miss Fischer, I think you will find my class is not the place to be passing notes.” She fixed a pointed gaze on the first year girl who grew quite pink about the ears and hurriedly crumpled up the parchment in her hands. “Now, where was I… Ah yes, Valentine’s Day. I have prepared a lesson for you.”
Isolde reached behind her desk and pulled out a large jar. Inside the jar crawled several jewel colored beetles whose exoskeletons glittered prettily as they squirmed over one another. She smiled to herself as she saw a few students recoil from the bugs and without a moment’s hesitation, Isolde unscrewed the jar and reached in. She scooped out a single emerald colored beetle and placed it onto her desk.
“I should hope you find today’s lesson easier than our mice into snuffboxes… Watch closely now,” she said in an amused tone. In an instant Isolde had pulled out her wand and waved it precisely over the beetle. With a loud pop and golden sparkles, the beetle transformed into a small golden locket in the shape of a heart with a tiny emerald in the center. There was a collective gasp from the front row.
Isolde picked up the locket and ran a string through the hoop on the top, before sliding it over her head. “Pretty,” she mused. “Now I will pass out your beetles and notes for this spell. Points will be awarded for elegance of design.” With the jar in one arm and a stack of parchment in her right hand she began to distribute the material to her students. Isolde stopped at the seat of a redheaded boy who slightly resembled her and quirked her eyebrow at him.
“I expect this one to be fully transfigured by the end of class, Lugh. I do not wish to see legs on this locket.”
The boy, Lugh, frowned, but nodded at his aunt. He wasn’t allowed to call her aunt in class and she certainly did not give him any special treatment in class, in fact he felt she graded him harder than his peers. “Yes, Professor Sweetwater,” he conceded. His aunt was perhaps one of his least favorite teachers, but much to his predicament, one of his favorite people.
Isolde spent the rest of the class assisting her students when they had questions and watching them figure out the spell. By the end of class she had a handful of pretty lockets, top marks being awarded to Rosenberry of Ravenclaw and O’Donnel of Gryffindor. “Lovely attempts today, students,” she cheered. “I expect a detailed write up by next class about today’s lesson, enjoy your holiday!”
With a sigh, Isolde watched the students clear out of her classroom and set about grading and untrasfiguring her students work. ‘Ah to experience the puppy love of youth again,’ she thought pointedly avoiding thoughts of the dark gentleman she had met over the summer. Isolde rolled the Mandrake leaf over her tongue, ignoring the warmth she could feel in her cheeks. She had work to do and soon her second years would be filing in.