Transfiguration (and conjuration for that mater) being temporary is my excuse for why the wizarding world actually has anything resembling an economy and why the Weasleys being poor is actually a notable plot point in the early books of the series.It's always bugged me when fic authors treat transfiguration as impermanent. Transfiguration in HP is permanent already, so much so that transfigurations can lead to entirely new species being created.
I'd run with the idea that valuable materials have metaphysical weight to them - it's harder to transfigure something into steel than it is into wood, it's harder to turn a mushroom into a metal pen than it is to turn it into a wooden doorknob*, and turning things into precious metals or gemstones is insanely difficult unless you're doing a minor upgrade, like turning silver into gold (in which case it's "just" the kind of thing you need multiple degrees to know how to do).Transfiguration (and conjuration for that mater) being temporary is my excuse for why the wizarding world actually has anything resembling an economy and why the Weasleys being poor is actually a notable plot point in the early books of the series.
If you have a line in the series where its explicitly stated or directly implied that transfiguration is permanent please let me know where it is and I'll revise the quests metaphysics. Otherwise I'm going to stick with the inferred temporary nature so I can keep conservation of matter/energy as a universal law.
Magic in Harry Potter - WikipediaIf you have a line in the series where its explicitly stated or directly implied that transfiguration is permanent please let me know where it is and I'll revise the quests metaphysics.
Relevant Portion said:(Food) is the only exception mentioned explicitly in the series. However, Rowling herself has stated once in an interview that money is something wizards cannot simply materialise out of thin air,[8] or the economic system of the wizarding world would then be gravely flawed and disrupted. While the Philosopher's Stone does permit alchemy, this is portrayed as an extremely rare, even unique, object, whose owner does not exploit its powers.
There's quintapeds, for one.Transfiguration (and conjuration for that mater) being temporary is my excuse for why the wizarding world actually has anything resembling an economy and why the Weasleys being poor is actually a notable plot point in the early books of the series.
If you have a line in the series where its explicitly stated or directly implied that transfiguration is permanent please let me know where it is and I'll revise the quests metaphysics. Otherwise I'm going to stick with the inferred temporary nature so I can keep conservation of matter/energy as a universal law.
Which also means that if you start trying to get rich turning pebbles into gold in your basement, then eventually some of that gold gets into goblin hands, they immediately recognize that some/all of the gold in the object they're holding is "counterfeit", and then they go on the warpath.Edit: I forgot to add - While transfiguration is permanent, it's only permanent in the sense that it requires no additional magic from the caster to maintain the transfigured state. It can be transfigured back, if you know what it was originally, and, as Dumbledore said in Book 6, "Magic always leaves traces".
Harry: What are you talking about Hermione? Of course transfigurations wear off if they didn't they would be transmutations. Sure you can make them last for a long time but you cant just ignore the law of equivalence.
Technically speaking a transmutation is just a transfiguration that is permanent. There is a good deal of overlap but transmutation have special requirements. The big ones are that you have to obey equivalence and cant produce precious metals, living things or some other stuff via transmutation unless you have a philosopher's stone.
I love FMA and there has to be some reason that wizards even have an economy instead of just transfiguring everything.
Yes though transfiguring something inanimate into a living thing takes a lot of power and tends to not last very long.
It varies. Some versions, namely the vanishing cabinet, are modified apparition and sends the target from point A to point B. If the target is a conjured object it cancels the conjuration. The final version makes the object disappear for a few minutes they then reappear exactly where they were before only to find the earth kept moving so its now in space.
Also Gamps Law is one of those bits that I'm dropping because it makes absolutely no sense. I will say that conjured food is nutritionally worthless and transfigured food can be dangerous but if you transmute a block of carbon into a cheeseburger you get a god damned cheeseburger. I'm basing this on scenes where Mrs. Weasley conjures food while Harry watches in the books. IIRC she only conjures sauces but that bypasses the nutritional worthlessness because the sauce is mainly for flavor anyway. SRSly Rowling stop contradicting yourself...
Conjuration isn't permanent and neither is transfiguration (some exceptions apply with transfiguration though). There's technically nothing stopping someone from conjuring up a five course meal but it would be nutritionally worthless.
Theoretically if you could meet the energy requirement for E=MC^2 you could preform a permanent conjuration but good luck with that. You can also cheat by using the Philosopher's Stone. This has been mentioned previously in the thread.
There was also a point in 2015 when people were going on about transfiguring uranium and introducing Riddle Manor to instant sunshine. Good times those.1- Yes. You can take something and divide it into chunks and/or reshape it as long as the total mass remains unchanged and of the original element. Theoretically she could mix materials via magic but, other than basic alloys, she doesn't have the control or knowledge to do so effectively.
Hrm, consider the Wizarding economy.There's quintapeds, for one.
You can have the kind of economy we see in canon still exist alongside permanent transfiguration. Besides, most people aren't transfiguration savants, and you really need to be to abuse transfiguration in the way you're thinking. Most things can be transfigured, but not food, and conjured items explicitly fade...
Anyway, for all that the Weasleys are poor, they aren't exactly in poverty.
Edit: I forgot to add - While transfiguration is permanent, it's only permanent in the sense that it requires no additional magic from the caster to maintain the transfigured state. It can be transfigured back, if you know what it was originally, and, as Dumbledore said in Book 6, "Magic always leaves traces".
I could buy transmutation as the magical way of making a transfigured item "permanent" in the sense that it makes the transfigured item mundane.
Still bad at social situations but getting better.You're tempted to try some of the "small talk" you keep hearing about but your attempt just leads to Mandy yelling at you for interrupting her concentration.
You take the hint
So now for a different social challenge.You're telling them about the wonders of arithmancy and how two plus two equals eleven on alternate Thursdays when you cross through the barrier back to the mundane part of the station and see your mother... She looks stressed and worried...