transfiguration

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"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."
  -- Minerva McGonagall, first lecture to the first years.

Transfiguration is magic which changes one object into another. It is possible to change inanimate objects into animate ones and vice versa. Some Transfiguration spells alter a part of something, such as changing a person's ears from normal into rabbit ears. At Hogwarts, Transfiguration is taught by Professor McGonagall. Fifty years ago, albus Dumbledore was the Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts.

Transfiguration spells were cast in ancient times as well. Circe, a witch who lived in the Greek island of Aeaea, was famous for turning lost sailors into pigs .

The opposite of Transfiguration is Untransfiguration, which would be returning something to its proper form.

Transfiguration is subject to rules, such as Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, which has five Principal Exceptions, of which food is one, which means that food cannot be produced out of thin air. Food can be moved from one place to another by magic, or changed, but not created out of nothing