[Professor McGonagall]

Entry 18

"I’m telling you, Minerva, this chess set you have in mind is not transfiguration!" "And I am telling you, Filius, that it most certainly is!" McGonagall replied, her nostrils beginning to flare. "Might I remind you that under Hocus’s Law of –" "Oh, hocus pocus,' Flitwick pouted. "He couldn’t tell a hex from a jinx. I think it is quite clear that making nonhuman objects mimic life is most definitely a charm." "A charm that transfigures an inanimate object to an animate one!" McGonagall retorted. "Transfiguration changes one object into another, Filius, which also includes changing an object from one state into another!" "But wouldn’t you agree, Minerva, that charms enchant an object to act in a way that is abnormal for the said object?" "Yes, but –" "And wouldn’t you agree that making a chess piece mimic human life is enchanting it to act abnormally?" "Yes, but –" "So you agree that your idea of 'transfiguring,'" Filius raised his fingers in quotation marks, "chessmen to replicate life is actually charming them, not transfiguring them?" "No!" McGonagall exclaimed so loudly that Flitwick almost spilled his cherry syrup and soda. "Transfiguration changes the nature of an object, Filius –" "And so do charms!" "So I am transfiguring these chessmen to act like people," McGonagall finished, talking louder than normal to drown out Flitwick’s objections. "I think you can claim almost anything is a charm, Filius. It is such a general branch of magic." "Minerva! How could you say –" Flitwick squawked in outrage. "But transfiguration is the more accurate terminology and magic for my plans!" McGonagall continued. "Minerva, if you had even opened that copy of Quintessence: A Quest I had given you –" But McGonagall had had enough. She moved her wand around in a circle, and then – Pop! Professor Flitwick was gone, with a pawn from a chess set standing where he just was. Only, the pawn was not a usual pawn; it had Flitwick’s head where the pawn’s normally was. "This is incomplete transfiguration, Minerva!" Flitwick’s head squeaked in outrage. "Set me free this instant!" "Transfiguration, Filius, exactly," Minerva said quietly, a slight grin on her face. "But now for some…decoration." McGonagall waved her wand again and a star-patterned, purple collar appeared under Flitwick’s head. "That," McGonagall said, "is a charm." And she left the giant chessboard. *** "My dear old chap," Flitwick said to the knight standing behind him. "You don’t think you could help me, do you?" The knight was silent. "Oh well," Flitwick sighed. There was a pause. "'Oh, come and stir my cauldron, and if you do it right…'"

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Steps: 1. Pasted pawn picture onto Paint 2. Pasted Flitwick picture onto Paint 3. Resized Flitwick picture 4. Cropped Flitwick picture, leaving only his head 5. Edited Flitwick picture with Photobucket.com to make more opaque 6. Pasted modified Flitwick picture onto Paint 7. Erased residue around Flitwick’s head with Paint’s eraser tool 8. Moved Flitwick’s head onto the pawn’s head 9. Colored pawn’s “collar” purple using Paint’s brush tool 10. Added yellow stars onto the purple collar using Paint’s pencil tool 11. Resized picture to conform to size regulations Original image of used Flitwick picture: