- Text Size +
The S.S.E.A.W. Pledge


Basically, Transfiguration is a form of magic that suspends the action of the electron that holds the nucleus of the atoms of our matter together. Suspending the action of the electron allows the protron and neutron within the nucleus to reform and create a new and altogether different atom. The magic then releases the electron, allowing the changed neutron to be held together once again. By altering the atom in this way, Transfiguration allows us to alter the appearance of any given object into the appearance of any other given object - for example a mouse into a teacup or else a pineapple into a duck.
While the proton, neutron, and electron that make up the elements are tiny, they can make big changes in the way a thing appears. Everything in the world is made up of these elements - it just takes the right combination of them, arranged just the right way, to make anything at all. The spell which we cast in Transfiguration is a sort of road map for the atoms - instructions, if you will - telling the electron to stop and the particles how to reform.
Anything is capable of being something else. Anyone is capable of being somebody else. We are ever changing as a species, as a universe, and the electrons are like the spellotape which holds us all together. Nothing is fixed and stagnant. Nothing is permanent.
Just as a mouse can become a teacup, so, too, can someone who is dark become light… someone who nobody expects anything from can become great. They just need the right instructions.


Professor McGonagall put down Sirius’s paper and sighed.

Her classroom door opened and in trooped three of her sixth years - Remus Lupin, James Potter, and Lily Evans. She stood up and looked at them over her spectacles. She cleared her throat. “Mr. Lupin,” she called.

Remus looked up, “Professor?”

“Where is Sirius Black?”

“On his way upstairs, Professor,” Remus replied. “He’s a free period right now.”

She pursed her lips. “Go and fetch Mr. Black and tell him that you regret to inform him that his free period has been cancelled as he has achieved an Outstanding on his O.W.L.”

Remus’s eyes danced as his mouth curved into a smile, “Seriously, Professor?”

“Now is not the time for name puns, Mr. Lupin,” she said and James laughed so abruptly that he choked a little and Remus leaped up from his seat and bolted for the door as Lily looked about at them - having not heard about the drama with Sirius’s O.W.L., she looked rather clueless, yet still excited on principle. As Remus reached the door of the classroom, McGonagall called, “And Mr. Lupin?”

“Yes, Professor?” he asked from the doorway.

“Do be sure to draw it out a bit. It’s much more fun that way.” She smirked.

James grinned, “Minnie, that is why we bleedin’ love ya!”

McGonagall looked at him and shook her head as though exasperated, but turned about as she cleared her throat and said, “As for the rest of you, please open your textbooks to page twenty-three, skipping the introduction as it is a load of tosh we won’t be needing to learn, and please read the first three paragraphs while we wait for our tie-wearing rebel to join us…” She lifted her textbook and flipped through the pages herself to keep distracted from the smirking grin dancing across James Potter’s face. She knew if she saw it that she would break out into a grin as well and that was certainly not appropriate!




Sirius was in the alcove off the Trophey Room Passageway when Remus found him. He stood before the wall, rifling through the notes and photos that had been spellotaped up with a fascination previously unfounded.

He found the photo of the young Minerva McGonagall standing with what looked like James and it took him a moment to realize that it must be Charlus when he was their age and it made Sirius Black grin to see the man he considered his father so young and happy as he was in the photo, waving away merrily. The wizarding photos were black and white, but they still waved - a bit more jerky than the newer wizarding photographs did, but they moved none the less. He squinted and noticed for the first time the small round badge on Minerva McGonagall’s robes that read S.S.E.A.W. and how her arm was around Charlus Potter’s shoulders. They both wore quidditch robes - Charlus wore the protective gear of a Keeper as well and Minnie had a pair of Seeker’s goggles resting upon her head. She grinned and held up the fluttering snitch in her gloved fist... He moved on to another photo and there were photos of other students - loads of them that he didn’t recognize - and some that seemed somewhat familiar - ones he knew he knew but who must’ve aged differently enough that they were unrecognizable… There was Professor Flitwick, though, he was easy to recognize with his stature and already wearing those silver wire frames, being levitated by a laughing boy with shaggy black hair and a strong jaw… and he kept digging through photos labelled with names - Florean, 1949 or Hermes & Mona, 1948 or CONSTANT VIG-AL-ANCE! (That one must’ve been Alastor Moody, he realized, snickering) - but none labelled Mia Black.

He frowned.

In fact, the only evidence of Mia Black was a tight signature on the bottom of a long scroll of parchment that had a pledge written upon it. He read over the pledge with interest:

We believe in the EQUALITY OF ALL LIVING PERSONS
with and without MAGICAL ABILITIES,
regardless of BLOOD, HERITAGE, and ALLIANCES,
whether they are of PUREBLOOD,
HALFBLOOD, or even MUGGLE-BORN.
We believe a MAGICAL EDUCATION should be given FREELY, as a RIGHT and should not be considered an exclusive privilege. We believe in the FAIR and EQUAL treatment of ALL WIZARDS AND WITCHES, and will ALWAYS
stand up for the RIGHTS of the DOWNTRODDEN
of EVERY SPECIES, CLASS, SKINTONE,
or otherwise DIFFERENT THAN US.


“Fucking brilliant,” Sirius whispered.

There was a noise and he looked up to see Remus standing there in the doorway, his wandtip glowing.

“What’re you doing?” Sirius demanded, “Minnie’s class can’t possibly have ended already?”

Remus said in a slightly breathless voice, “No, mate… it’s just… gods, I hate to be the one to tell you this.”

“What? What’s the matter?” Sirius asked, and he dropped the parchment so it hung back against the wall, turning with a bit of worry in his eyes. “Is Minnie alright?”

Remus said, “It’s you who isn’t alright!” he replied, “You’re in very big trouble, I’m afraid, and you’ve got to come right away.”

“What? For what?”

“For skivving class!”

“Skivving class?”

“Yes! Bloody hell, Padfoot, your free period’s been cancelled, see, and if you don’t get your arse down to Minnie’s classroom, she’s bound to give you a detention.”

He stared at Remus for a long moment.

Remus couldn’t take it anymore. “Mate. You’ve gotten an outstanding on your Transfiguration O.W.L.”

Sirius’s eyes softened. “I… have?”

“Yes,” Remus answered. “You’re back in the class.”

Sirius’s face clearly took several long seconds to process the information he was being given and then he let out a loud yowl of excitement that seemed to echo off the very walls of the passageway, and he hurried to the door of the little alcove, “YESSSSSSSSS YES YES YES YES YESYESYESYESYESYSEYSEYSYESYESYES!!” He ran off down the passage, disappearing into the dark ahead of Remus by several meters before shouting, “LUMOS! HURRY UP REY! I DON’T WANNA BE LATE!” Then there was a scrabble as he stopped short - his boots squealching on the floor, “Fuck, forgot my tie!” and he ran back past Remus into the alcove, snatched it up from the back of the chair and ran back into the dark as Remus laughed and trotted after him, his knees slowing him down.

“Wait up, you barmy idiot,” Remus called, snickering as Sirius’s wandtip disappeared ‘round the bends in the passageway ahead of him.