Nowhere, but AFAIK JKR doesn't provide any significant information on transfiguration/conjuration at all.

 

She doesn't have to:

1. Animals can be conjured/transfigured
2. Food cannot be conjured/transfigured

C. Conjured/transfigured animals have no nutritional value.

Which raises another question: has a transfigured/conjured animal ever been 'killed' in canon? I know Cedric transfigured dogs, but they were torched by the dragon so there's no way of knowing what they were like on the inside...

 

That was kinda my point, JB. About it being poorly thought through, that is. She's shown that it's possible to transfigure animals, and in word of god has said that transfiguration changes things physically, not magically. Then she said that it's impossible to make food with magic, which doesn't mesh with the other two, but obviously has been present from the start or else there wouldn't be poor wizards.

Therefore, badly thought out lol.

Edit for Blaise:

The thing is, Hermione doesn't say that it's possible to create food with magic with no nutritional value. She says you can't make food full stop.

And sure, there's some debate over the word "good". But if you recall the context, the trio had plenty of nutritional value already - it was Ron complaining about flavour that caused Hermione to explain that food can't be created.

If it was possible to transfigure food that seemed like food but had no nutritional value, it would make sense to use it for flavour.

 

Unless it killed you to eat it.

But yeah, point.

 

It's possible transfigured animals turn back to what they were, once someone truly considers them food. When a butcher tries to slaughter a transfigured pig for example. This actually seems to work with everything we know from canon.

There are several Charms that react to the intent(ions) of people that didn't perform the spell, so maybe it can work that way with Transfiguration too. It's not like McGonagall considered the pig she made from her desk as food. Her intent was to create a pig as an example, not for it's nutritional value. You'd have to truly consider something as food though. You probably can't turn back a table into a rock by merely thinking "Oh, I'd like to eat that", but that might just actually happen if you're starved and delusional or something and it's the only thing in the room

This works if the dragon in GoF didn't consider the dog Cedric transfigured as food. Which is quite possible. Maybe it only eats fish or birds and simply saw the dog as nothing but a threat. It wanted to attack Cedric too, but that doesn't mean she saw him as food.

 

That's a pretty good point, and I've been curious about it myself. I don't think the other schools attended classes at Hogwarts, though I don't remember if it was ever mentioned in canon. At the same time, these schools didn't bring their own professors, and portkeying back and forth is really unlikely. So where and how will they be learning shit?

 

It's probably a plot hole on JKR's part. I'm sure Santi will think of an elegant, yet simple solution.

 

In canon, Harry was a fourth year for GoF. The other school's prospective champions were all sixth/seventh. Why the hell would we have EVER seen them in any class?

Also, we know that Dumbledore said something about the champion getting a free pass on end of year exams. If a seventh year got chosen, would that offer extend to NEWTs?

 

We probably wouldn't have, but it still would have been a nice detail. Maybe a comment from some minor character in a higher year?

NEWTs are mostly optional to begin with, if I remember correctly, but since it's such an important test, they may have to take it at the ministry later on. Then again, Dumbledore said it, and Dumbledore knew that only 6th and 7th years would get in. So it's entirely possible that in the case of the champion, they would just automatically get a pass.

 

IIRC, Santi said that the letter, where the Firebolt is mentioned, was not intended to be in the story, since it was an earlier idea that he didn't like, or something.

So no, Nathan doesn't have Firebolt.

 

If nathan does not have a international class racing broom, will Harry force Nathan to use parseltongue.

 

What? How are those two things related? What the hell does Nathan not having a Firebolt have to do with Harry forcing Nathan to use a language he despises? Are you trying to go with an idea that Harry will give Nathan his Firebolt if Nathan uses parseltongue? Conveniently forgetting that the broom is less than worthless right now since it's nowhere near the completely enchanted form it's sold at?

 

Krum was seen enough in the Library in cannon. If Harry is around Hogwarts will he get access to the restricted section? Different set of book for him to learn from and all that.

Come to think of it after first or second year we haven't seen Harry in many classes and it seems that most of what he is doing is self taught. Also as it is sixth and seventh years, won't some of the contingent actually finished certain classes? Surely someone in the upper years will have tested out of a class and thus there will be one less for him or her to learn from.

 

So then whatever is conjured/transfigured (C/T) is "edible," yet not food?

I guess that meshes well enough with how I pictured C/T animals being composed. Yes, they're physical objects as opposed to magical, but calling a C/T cow's muscle "meat" is like calling the filling within a time-turner "sand."

I honestly don't know why this hasn't replaced Captain Piccard's facepalm.

This is why I Nelson-laugh irl everytime the Ignore function is foiled. What a stupid feature.

Besides, the dumb posts aren't even a fraction as annoying as the retarded tags.

 

It just doesn't make sense for the top forty students to go without a year of learning from teachers. Only the Highmaster and his assistant are going, so how could they possibly cover for the various experts that handle the subjects at Durmstrang? Even with unlimited access to the Hogwarts library (which is unlikely, considering their rivalry), how can the students match the education they might receive from the professors?

If I was a parent of one of these 'top' students, I might forbid my child from participating. I'd rather they get a solid year of education from their professors rather than just self study (especially if I still have to pay the same tuition.) I remember this thread talking about the quality of competitor that Harry would be competing against - maybe this is why it's so spotty. The best students are more concerned with furthering their abilities/skills than 1000 galleons.

 

How is it a plot hole? It's not explained because it's not important at all. In canon, there's an age line and all the schools know about it. Ergo, they bring older students (6th and 7th years). There's nothing in canon to suggest the schools have substantially different curriculums. Thus the foreign students can easily share classes with the Hogwarts 6th/7th years. We don't hear about it because Harry's a 4th year and the story is about him.

No plot hole in sight. Believe it or not, every little thing that isn't spelled out doesn't mean it's a plot hole.

 

The thing about what Hermione said that doesn't make sense to me, is that ok, she said you can't transfigure food. But what does she mean food, exactly? Food according to who? Humans only? I mean, most everything can be eaten by some kind of animal.
Even if magic somehow makes it's laws around human appetites, the variety of things that can be counted as "food" in lack of a better meal is extremely big. Plants are food too, are they not? I mean, can a wizard conjure them, or for example honey?
If the change in Transfiguration is physical, does that mean that a rock transfigured into an apple actually has the substance of the apple, or is it just a rock with the shape and some physical properties of an apple?
This all is very confusing, because it wasn't really thought out.