Transfiguration question/ Was: Identifying with Muggles in Potterver

[career advisor]

No: HPFGUIDX 158225

Zanooda2 said:

<<At the beginning of the "Sectumsempra" chapter kids are supposed to
 turn vinegar into wine at their Charms lesson. This scene confuses me,
 because I always assumed that it was Transfiguration where they learn
 how to turn something into something else. Please, if someone
 remembers whether it was discussed before, or just knows the answer, I
 would appreciate any idea.>>>

Zanooda2

Vinegar and Wine are really the same thing.  The difference is only in the fermentation period. Making Vinegar from Wine is a magic even muggles could do, but to reverse the process and make Wine from Vinegar would require true magic. 

This pafe from Wikipedia explains about vinegar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinegar

The charm spells that we see in hogwarts are the closest thing to illusion in the magic world. I always though they work by charming the mind into believing something. So maybe the vinegar is not transfered but the drinkers tastebuds are made to believe that it is wine?  

Zanooda2 also said: <<I had hard time
 accepting that Vanishing and Conjuring belong in Transfiguration, but
 after thinking it over really well I kind of saw the light.>>

I can understand that. Vanishing and conjuring didn't make much sense to me either until I thought abou tit this way. Transfiguration is not changing but transfering.   
 
Transfiguration spells seem to work by transfering something. For instance the  
 turing teacups into mice requires that a whole mouse be swapped through space and with a teacup. Notice in transfiguration you generally need similar size items to swap. This is why for instance transfiguration is hard to use on large creatures such as a dragon or Giant. You'd hap to swap them with a whale or a skyscrapper and that takes a lot of power.
 
 If your partially transfigure something it still is attached to it other half but it must be through some sort of tunneling effect through space otherwise the partially transformed mouse would die and we don;t see that happening.

DA Jones

 




  
 		
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