Long Queue Times For Inspiration

Linette stared down at the floor and tried not to tap her feet impatiently. This was taking far too long and she had places to go. People to see. A neighbour to rescue from babysitting her daughter. The last was especially important now that young Mignon was getting more and more unruly. Questioning everything and everyone. Where had she gone wrong?

"I should have brought a book," she grumbled. Why hadn't she done that? She always brought a book wherever she went. "Have you got any reading material on you I can borrow," she asked the person behind her. The line moved and Linette shuffled forward. Not far forward enough. "What do you think is taking them so long? A shortage of carts for the vaults? Extra scrutiny of our wands?" Maybe she should write an article about how long it took to get service at the bank. "Are the goblins as efficient these days as they were in the past?" Now there was an article which could cause controversy. Almost as much as the questioning of keeping house-elves in enslavement she wrote last month? Boy had that caused some fiery word exchanges in the letters to the editor.

Aidan was broke for the fourth or fifth time this month. Luckily, that was about to change. How did he make it three months into the school year without learning about his scholarship? If he knew that the school was going to fund him, he'd have come here way earlier! The line wasn't really going anywhere, however. He was more or less prepared for that, however, as he brought his transfiguration homework with him. So... Uhm... Avifors is used for... He really wished Ursula or Stephanie or even Isobel or Apollo were nearby. He was the worst at it. Ursula somehow managed to transform her arm into a bear paw and back, but he was still stuck on the match to needle thing... He looked up as someone talked to him.

"Oh... I'm sorry. You could help me with my Transfiguration homework if you're really that desperate, but I hope you're not. And I have no idea. I've never been here before, but I sure wish I did... Did you know they just hand out scholarships at Beauxbatons? Uhm... You wouldn't know what you'd use Avifors on, do you?"

The line moved a little, so Aidan moved with it. He looked how much longer it would take... He sat down.

"You brought your homework with you?" Linette asked.  "Or are you just thinking about it?  And why do you hope I'm not desperate enough to help you?  That sounds like an odd thing to say if you're having trouble."  This wasn't quite as interesting as the speculation regarding the goblins but it would do for now whilst the line was help up yet again by another difficult customer. "They do?  I wish I'd know that back when I was a student.  My father could have done with some help paying for my books."  It was a miracle she managed to have all the books she needed with the low incomes both her parents earned along with three children to put through Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

She grinned. "That's an easy one. It's transforming an object into a flock of birds." Linette scanned the bank and her eyes lit upon a likely target. "See that old lady's hat over there.  It looks rather ugly but imagine it turning into a flock of birds by simply pointing your wand at it and using the incantation.  I'd demonstrate but that sort of thing can get you arrested in here."  

She looked down at the seated boy. "Not much point staying there. You'll have to stand up again shortly. Much more energy is used in that way."

"I have it here. A half a page essay on one spell we reviewed this trimester. It's going slow, to put it softly. So, birds? Great, thanks! Uhm... Add some more words here... Maybe a little more space between words here? Yeah, that would work... And I didn't mean it that way. I just hope that you have something better to do than helping a barely passing student with his Transfiguration exam. I'm really a hopeless case on this thing. But seriously. When am I ever going to need to change something into a flock of birds? As far as I've seen, there's nothing a simple charm can't fix. Now that's something I can find myself in! Need to get something? Something getting a little too close for comfort? Nearly drowning? That's my jam. But turning hats into birds? Really? You said it yourself, you can get arrested for even doing it. And then that Walker dude... Man, he's so unchill."

The line moved along. Aidan sighed. Guess it really was pointless to sit down... He stood up. The line looked like it wasn't shrinking at all... He did hope he could get back to school before the dorms were closed off, so he could at least let Stephanie check his work...

Linette looked down the queue and back at the boy. "We're not exactly moving very fast here are we? Thus I've plenty of time to help out a barely passing Transfiguration boy." She gave the question some thought. "Well say the lady in the hat attacked you. it'd be a great defensive spell because she'd have to deal with the birds attacking her. Did you know you can also use it change and object into bats? It's much harder but it can be done." She grinned at his questioning. "You never know when you have to transfigure something into something else. And you can't get arrested for it in other places. It's just this place with its security and paranoia about people throwing spells around in a bank."

She raised her eyebrows. "Professor Walker is still teaching Transfiguration? I would have thought he'd go back to America by now. I'd better make sure my daughter has learnt her manners around adults by the time she's old enough to attend Beauxbatons. If she answers him back she'll be spending seven years in detention." If there was one failing as a mother, besides getting her daughter to answer to her real name, it was failing to teach her how to respect others.

He quickly wrote down "Can be used to transform item into bats too by an experienced wizard, though it requires vigorous training." He gave her example some thought.

"Well, yeah, but wouldn't something like "Petrificus Totalus" render her attack useless as well? I hear people can't really do much when they get paralyzed completely. Also, you could make her trip, reflect or deflect her spells, disarm, just plainly stupify, set her clothing ablaze, forcing her to waste time extinguishing the flames... I just don't see a scenario where transforming her hat into some birds would be the only option to save my life. It's not that I don't think it's cool that you can do so much with magic, but I just think a lot of it isn't that useful. Also, wouldn't it be way more useful to transform her hat in something like... I don't know, snakes? I feel like snakes would do a better job at fending off an attacker than birds." He finished his rant. "Looks like you know Walker a bit too much as well. I'm guessing you went to Beauxbatons too? Can I guess what you got NEWTS in? I'm thinking... Hmm... You look like you had Charms, Potions and Herbology. Right?"

They set a few more steps towards the bankers. Maybe we'll get there before dawn...

"Yes. Yes," Linette replied waving away his suggestion, "but think about it. Which is better? What's expected or the element of surprise? Make them loose concentration and then hit them with spells like the one you suggested. It's much harder for them to deflect it if they have to fight off a flock of birds at the same time." She raised her eyebrows at his comparison between snakes and birds. "Have you ever noticed how sharp beaks and talons can be? Those things are dangerous if around your face and eyes."

She laughed at his guess and shook her head. "I did go to Beauxbatons but I didn't have too much trouble in Walker's class. And you're way off base with the potions and herbology guesses. I did neither of those subjects in NEWTS. Indeed I doubt I would be allowed back in the Potions classroom despite the fact I did pass in the OWL exams. History of Magic, Ancient Runes, Muggle Studies, and Astronomy for me. Charms was correct."

Linette looked to see how much more time they would have to wait. "Hmm. About ten people in front of us now do you think?"

She did have a point there. If there was one thing he learned from DADA, it was that surprise is either your best friend or your worst enemy. He wasn't just going to admit that to her, however. "OK, that may very well be, but there are plenty of stunts you can pull off with simple charms, too. Say I used a summoning charm on her left shoe and a banishing charm on her right one, I bet you she'd be perplex too. Or if I set fire to her dress and then..." He noticed the old lady was looking at them. Don't take it personally, miss. We're only discussing self-defence here. 

Aidan was genuinely surprised. She had NEWTS in all the theoretical classes... "So you're a bit like a walking encyclopedia, if I understand right. Man, how much did you have to cram for all that? Also, you're going to have to tell me your secret on how to survive Walker. I can't figure it out for the life of me. Everytime I think I got it, I try out the spell and, well, in the best case, nothing happens. I'm not exactly his favourite. I think he's beginning to get tired of me making stuff "Unstable and unfit for existence" in his classroom. I did manage to turn a plastic cup into a glass prism, though. We had to turn it into a pack of tissues, but hey, at least it was pretty to look at. So what does an encyclopedia do for a living? No, no, let me guess. Uhm... You are..." Aidan thought of the most flattering thing he could say with those NEWTS. "Vice-minister of Magic? That would be amazing."

"True but there's also a lot you can do with the spell you have to learn about," Linette returned. "I just can't think of anything else right now. No. Wait. I can. Childhood discipline. Perfect for stopping your kid in their tracks if their favourite toy suddenly sprouted several sets of wings. No more tantrum because they'd be in shock." She was going to have to consider trying that spell the next time Mignon decided to play up or answer back. "Of course that'd be forever away for you but you never know if a need for a flock of birds is called for."

Linette laughed at the description of herself. "No-one's ever called me that before though it is possible they might have thought it." Though considering she only took one spell casting class in her final year at Beauxbatons it was not surprising he came up that. "I read a lot. I loved to read and so it was easy for me to cram. All I did was read my textbooks and library books needed for the essays. I read a lot of those in my final year. My key to surviving was keeping my mouth shut which was a real challenge for me. I'm not so sure that'll work in your case if you're transfiguring objects into an object he didn't want. Did you focus on the box of tissues in your head whilst looking at the plastic cup?"

Another laugh escaped with his wild guess at her career. "Not at all though that'd be a pretty cool career to have. If I were vice-minister I could have nudged the minister to actually make decisions instead of umming and ahhing over suggestions people have to improve the ministry. I'm actually a reporter for the Wizarding World Weekly. I have no idea why it's called weekly when we get the news out daily."