Week 2, Task 2 - A Little Studying

[Prof. Kendra Givens]

We know that McGonagall was very passionate about and dedicated to the craft of transfiguration. She wanted to make sure that her students learned it well and practiced it diligently. I would also imagine that the art of transfiguration requires a lot math if you're going to be changing the physical composition of matter - no? So, let's take some time to practice a bit of math by solving the Kakuro puzzle below.

To solve a Kakuro puzzle, you must fill each cell with numbers 1 through 9, ensuring that the sum of the numbers in each horizontal and vertical block equals the clue number provided at the top of a column or to the left of a row, while not repeating any number within that block. For example, in a row adding up to 23 with 3 cells available, the numbers would have to be 6,8, and 9.



Send your solution to me in a private message by December 31st at 11:59pm HOL time to earn 10 sapphires/beans. Remember that if you complete all four of this week's tasks by Saturday, December 14th at 11:59pm HOL time, you will be sent a scrambled transfiguration spell to solve for an additional 10 sapphires/beans!

Alternatively, write 100 words describing a time when you struggled with a transfiguration spell in class and had to work hard to perfect it. What spell did you struggle with? What did you have to do to figure it out?

[Galena May]

I was struggling with the transfiguration spell Vera Verto which converts an animal (in my case, a mouse) to a goblet. I was getting the incantation and its pronunciation right, I was doing the correct wand movement, and I was focused on the spell, yet instead of the crystal clear mist that indicated that the spell was cast right, a greenish beam shot from my wand each time. No matter what I did, the inside of my goblet had fur, and the outside had a tail. Vera Verto is a moderately difficult spell taught to second years at Hogwarts, and the last time I heard it go wrong was when Ron Weasley performed it with a broken wand. It turned out that I was revolted against the idea of drinking from a mouse's back, and that's why the inside kept having fur. My teacher told me that if I was very afraid of something, that something would happen during casting a spell. I was very afraid of drinking from a mouse's back, and therefore the mouse retained its characteristics because that was the exact picture that was cropping up in my mind each time and making me feel revolted. I decided to take a deep breath and drink water from a normal cup. As I sipped and relaxed, I told my mind that it wasn't a mouse in front of me that I was turning into a goblet, but a goblet itself (which was in essence true, because in transfiguration you essentially use the same thing to make another thing that just looks different, just like everything in the universe is one, therefore the mouse IS a goblet). I kept telling myself that the mouse is already a goblet, and forced my brain to imagine a beautiful silver goblet. I also tried to make myself feel less revolted about the idea of using a mouse to drink, by telling myself that everything, even myself, is made of the same basic energy as the mouse. Reinforcing this thought and recasting the spell again and again finally led me to a level of comfort that made the spell work, a crystal clear smoke shot from my wand and I successfully transfigured the mouse into a proper silver goblet with no tail or fur.