All Aboard the Struggle Bus PV: Shae Winters

Willow had actually started to pack up and give up for the day and do some fun reading when Shae introduced herself. She was surprised that anyone would come over in the first place with how much of a mess the situation appeared to be. She started to quickly arrange her things in what she hoped were organized piles to make room for the Ravenclaw. She actually hadn't gotten the chance to really get to know anyone from that house surprisingly. But then she remembered they were supposed to be super smart... maybe she could help in transfiguration?

"Hi Shae! I'm Willow. Sorry for the mess, but yes feel free to join me!" She put some stuff away that she was actually done with, and just hadn't taken the time to deal with which made the space seem cleaner than it was. She would have to organize her life later tonight. "I know you literally just sat down, and you're probably not looking to tutor anyone right now. But, would you happen to be good at transfiguration? If you are just looking to study that's totally fine, I'm just.." She motioned to the table, "Struggling, as you can probably tell." She smiled shyly, feeling embarrassed that this was their first meeting.

Willow sighed a huge relief when Shae agreed to help her, pushing over the current notes she was working on. “You’re a lifesaver. I really want to do well to make my family proud.” Her parents never really put pressure on her to do well, obviously they didn’t want her to fail, but getting less than perfect was never considered failure. She did feel pressure being a first generation Hogwarts witch in her family to succeed.

Willow listened intently as Shae started to ramble about transfiguration. Taking down a couple notes while she talked. “It seems like you’re being humble about how good you are at it.” She giggled, before returning to a serious attitude, which could be quite hard for her. “So, I’m a muggle as some would call me. But at home I did practice meditation, visualization, all that fun stuff. Which seems like exactly what skill set you would need for this.” She took a deep breath, barely leaving space for breathing while she was talking, “But... things can transform. You can turn things into other things without sleight of hand like magicians.” She paused, seeming to blow her own mind “Are magicians actually wizards?” She shook her head, dismissing the thought for now but she wrote that down to think about later. “I can’t picture turning anything into anything, out of everything I’ve learned for some reason this is the first truly unbelievable thing I feel like I’ve encountered.” She out her head on the table in defeat “At this rate I’m never going to be a real witch.”

Willow raised her eyebrow in response to her having not thought of it before. It seemed like it was a given to consider. "My family spends a lot of time in the outdoors, building a connection with Mother Nature so it's only natural for me to think about that aspect. I'm surprised no one else was concerned, they all jumped in. In class I just played with the mouse. I have the spell incantation and wand movement down. That's usually the least of my issues, it's the actual casting of it. I just don't know how to not be scared, with inanimate objects it's easy because I'm not worried about hurting a match and turning into a needle." It just didn't feel right doing this to an innocent creature. "Is this spell required to pass? Can I just opt out of animal spells? I know the professor's are there but I don't want to need their intervention in the first place. It's hard! Because I want to prove that I'm good enough to be here, and that I can excel but at the same time this is such a hard mental block to get over. Do you have any ideas for visualization? Like how do you imagine a mouse turning into a snuffbox?"