Transfiguration (class)

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

- Professor McGonagall introducing Transfiguration to her new students

Transfiguration is a subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It teaches the art of changing of the form and appearance of an object. This type of magic is commonly referred to as "Transfiguration." There are limits to transfiguration, which are governed by Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. There are also many branches of Transfiguration, including Cross-Species Transfiguration and Human Transfiguration.



Class information
Transfiguration is a required subject for all first year students, with the option of a N.E.W.T. course in the sixth and seventh years. Minerva McGonagall was the Transfiguration Professor from 1956 until 1998, the year in which she became Headmistress of the school. Before her, Albus Dumbledore taught Transfiguration.

It is unknown who became Transfiguration professor after McGonagall became Headmistress of Hogwarts. McGonagall believes Transfiguration to be more elegant and superior to other types of magic.

Like Charm work, Transfiguration is achieved through concentration, precise wand movements, and the proper pronunciation of an incantation. However it is generally more difficult than Charms and it requires great effort.

Students practise actual transfigurations during Transfiguration classes. Accidents sometimes result in partial transfigurations. Hermione is one of the best students in Transfiguration; therefore, she is a favourite of Professor McGonagall.

Known Professors

 * Albus Dumbledore
 * Minerva McGonagall (also an animagus)

Textbooks



 * A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, by Emeric Switch, used by First years.
 * Guide to Advanced Transfiguration
 * Intermediate Transfiguration

Known O.W.L.s

 * Albus Dumbledore
 * Barty Crouch Jr.
 * Bill Weasley
 * Dean Thomas
 * Draco Malfoy
 * Harry Potter
 * Hermione Granger
 * Katie Bell
 * Lavender Brown
 * Minerva McGonagall
 * Neville Longbottom (did not qualify for N.E.W.T. level)
 * Parvati Patil
 * Percy Weasley
 * Ron Weasley
 * Seamus Finnigan

Animagus Transfigurations

 * McGonagall's Animagus Transfiguration.
 * Animagus transfigurations of the Marauders.
 * Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) transfigured into a rat.
 * Padfoot (Sirius Black) transfigured into a black dog.
 * Prongs (James Potter) transfigured into a stag.
 * Rita Skeeter revealed as an unregistered Animagus.

Transfigurations outside of Hogwarts

 * Hagrid tries to change Dudley into a pig.
 * Testimonial of a man able to turn his wife into a yak after a Kwikspell course.
 * Fat white rabbit changing into a top silk hat and back in the Magical Menagerie.
 * Fred and George change Percy's badge to read 'Bighead Boy'.
 * Healing requires at least an E on a student's Transfiguration O.W.L.
 * After Mad-Eye Moody's death, Harry imagines that he was probably "transfigured [and] stuffed".
 * Slughorn transfigured himself into an armchair.
 * Cornelius Fudge transfigured a teacup into a gerbil, while trying to prove to the British Prime Minister that he was a wizard.
 * Hermione trying to transfigure the mold off bread when on the run in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
 * When he was alive, Nearly-Headless Nick accidentally transfigured Lady Grieve's broken tooth into a tusk.
 * Gwenog Jones had a habit of turning people who disagreed with her into wood lice.

Transfigurations during class

 * McGonagall changes her desk into a pig.
 * Students learn how to turn a turtle into a teapot.
 * Students try to change match into a needle.
 * Hermione earning House points in class for knowing about Switching Spells.
 * Students trying to turn a mouse into a snuffbox for their end of term Transfiguration practical - extra points for how pretty the snuffbox was, points off if it still has whiskers.
 * Students turning a beetle into a button.
 * Students turning pairs of white rabbits into slippers (maybe you have to be familiar with bunny slippers to think this is funny).
 * Student accidentally changes his friend into a badger in class.
 * McGonagall's first lecture on Animagi, with demonstration.
 * Transfiguration practical: transforming a teapot into a tortoise, concerned over whether they had spouts for tails, breathed steam, or still had willow-patterned shells.
 * Changing a hedgehog into a pincushion.
 * Students learn how to turn an owl into opera glasses.
 * Transfiguring oneself to acquire extra powers (post-O.W.L. level).
 * Students changing guinea fowl into guinea pigs.
 * Cross-species switches.
 * Learning human transfiguration in the sixth year at Hogwarts.
 * Vanishing Spells, among the most difficult O.W.L. material - working on invertebrates (snails).
 * Conjuring Spells mentioned as N.E.W.T. level.
 * Long essay for McGonagall on the Inanimatus Conjurus spell.
 * Vanishing Spells, starting on vertebrates.
 * Hannah Abott accidentally transfigured her ferret into a flock of flamingos during her O.W.L. examination.
 * Ron Weasley accidentally mutated his dinner plate into a mushroom during his O.W.L. examination.
 * Students had to turn a porcupine into a pincusion by their third year.

Transfigurations at Hogwarts

 * McGonagall Transfigured the chessmen guarding the Philosopher's Stone to make them 'come alive'.
 * Dumbledore may have transfigured the Slytherin banners in the Great Hall to become Gryffindor banners when he awarded Gryffindor last minute points.
 * Gargoyle statues outside Dumbledore's office 'coming to life' when password is spoken.
 * 'Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret'.
 * Harry considered using Switching Spells to change a dragon's teeth into wine-gums.
 * Cedric Transfigures a rock into a Labrador retriever to distract the Swedish Short-Snout.
 * Harry wished to become an Animagus in order to breathe underwater as a goldfish or as a frog.
 * Krum's partial Transfiguration into a shark.
 * Crouch having been transfigured into a bone.
 * Lupin studying for Transfiguration O.W.L.
 * Snape Transfigures McGonagall's fire into a black serpent.
 * McGonagall turned snape's black snake to smoke and the transformed the smoke to daggers.
 * McGonagall transfigures dozens of desks and suits of armor to help defend Hogwarts.
 * Percy Weasley transfigured Pius Thicknesse into some form of a sea urchin during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Behind the scenes

 * In Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, one of the spells is a Transfiguration spell that turns victims into a toad or a rat.

Branches of Transfiguration

 * Animagus
 * Animate to Inanimate Transfiguration
 * Cross-Species Transfiguration
 * Conjuration
 * Inanimate to Animate Transfiguration
 * Human Transfiguration
 * Transfiguration
 * Untransfiguration

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4

Métamorphose