Author's Note: This story is dedicated to 'Rachel' and her love of Hogwarts and chocolate. ;)

"Professor!"
The panicked squeak had Kenna reaching for her wand even before she turned, which was fortunate as she was met with the sight of a wide-eyed boy facing a decidedly angry skunk. With a flick of her wrist, she turned it back into a feather duster just in time. There was an audible sigh of relief from all the students in his general vicinity and disappointed whispers of "what happened?" from those who had been focused on something else. She raised an eyebrow at the now-cowering first year in front of her, struggling to keep all amusement form her face and voice.
"Will, how did you do that?"
"Dunno, Professor."
"You don't know what you said or how you moved your wand?"
"No, Professor, just sort of happened and there was the skunk."
Kenna nodded and ruffled his hair.
"All right, Will. Please try something different this time. I don't want to smell for the rest of the day."
Laughter sounded from the rest of the class and even Will gave her a weak grin. She smiled back before returning to help Meredith.

"Will?"
He'd been hurrying to get out ahead of everyone else - no doubt to avoid precisely this situation - but, at Kenna's voice, he jumped and several quills clattered out of his bag while a roll of parchment bounced along the floor to her feet. Sighing lightly, she knelt to sweep them up and help him stuff them back in. Then she placed a hand on his shoulder until he looked at her.
"Will. I know that you get frustrated with yourself when you do something that you didn't mean to, but you're very good at transfiguration - you just need to learn to work a bit backward."
He wrinkled his nose in confusion as he looked up at her. "What d'you mean, work backward?"
"I mean that you need to pay better attention to what you're doing so that when you have a skunk sat on your desk you can remember the steps that you took to make it get there. Most people learn spells to do something but you usually end up with the something first and just need to be able to learn the spell after. Does that make sense?"
Slowly, he nodded, his face still screwed up in thought. Kenna smiled.
"Do you have any questions?"
"D'you know how I made the skunk?"
"There are a few ways that you could have done it but I don't know exactly what you did."
"What about the dragon that I made from my steam engine last week?"
She couldn't keep her jaw from dropping.
"You made a dragon?!"
"Well only a toy dragon, but it was bigger than her and it breathed steam just like a real one or I suppose like my engine."
Kenna was feeling slightly lightheaded. 'What - where did you make that?"
"In my dormitory."
"What did you do with it?"
His eyes widened and his lips pursed together, as if he'd just realized that perhaps he shouldn't be telling a professor this. Finally, however, he sighed.
"Jonny Devereaux got rid of it."
She made a mental note to speak with Jonny about not telling her when one of the first years made a dragon.
"Well… I don't know how you did that either, Will. But maybe stop experimenting with transfiguration in your dormitory and try not to make any real dragons anywhere in the castle, all right? Probably best to stick to things that wouldn't eat you."
He giggled and she grinned and ruffled his hair.
"Go on now, you'll be late for your next class."
"Yes Professor."

Peering into the Great Hall, Kenna looked along the row of teachers until she found Rachel's ginger hair. Today was one of the days when the last thing she wanted to do was sit at the head of the crowded hall with hundreds of people, but if she had her to talk to it wasn't as bad. And the hot meal would undoubtedly be better than the snacks hidden in her classroom and she felt even less like cooking. She ducked through the archway and dropped into the seat beside her closest friend at Hogwarts.
"Hi."
She looked up and grinned. "What did Will make today?"
"A skunk. Which, compared to the dragon that he apparently made in his dormitory, is fairly small news."
"What?!"
"Oh, don't worry, even though it was bigger than him, it was only a toy dragon and Jonny Devereaux 'got rid of it.' I guess you didn't hear anything."
"I certainly did not."
She narrowed her eyes at the black-haired seventh year in question at the Hufflepuff table. As if he felt her gaze, he glanced up and his grin faltered for a moment when he saw both of them looking at him. Rachel shook her head, but his goofy grin just widened and he held his hands up in an 'I don't know what I did' gesture before turning back to his friends. Rachel sighed. "I'll talk to him with you."
"Great."
Kenna sighed too and leaned back in her chair, trying not to groan.
"I'm so sore."
Rachel mimicked her, voice lowering.
"Speaking of that -"
"Don't say it."
"he sent an owl."
"Of course he did."
Kenna huffed, trying to disguise the scowl from her face by taking a bite of the delicious meat pie in front of her. Rachel chuckled. "Come on, you love it."
"I do love it. But we've had seven missions in the past twelve days and it's getting harder to focus."
She pointed her fork at her friend, as if it were her fault. "I fell asleep on my desk today and if Marianne Pickworthy hadn't been early, I'm fairly certain that Ryan O'Learey would have 'let' me sleep through the entire fifth year double and taught for me."
Rachel laughed and shook her head and they lapsed into silence. As Kenna ate, a small blonde head bobbing down one of the aisles caught her attention. Will clambered onto the bench between two of the other boys in his dormitory and immediately set about eating with gusto.
"I'm going to need to give him private lessons."
Rachel nodded, not even looking up from her food. "He's a bit - unpredictable."
"Oh but he's so talented. I've never seen anyone with so much aptitude for transfiguration - ever. With just a bit of coaching I think he'd beat nearly every seventh year I've ever taught. I don't want him to get discouraged because he can't predict what's going to happen."
Rachel grinned at the clear envy in Kenna's voice. "Don't tell that to your seventh years. But you're right. It would be a good investment of time."
Kenna nodded decidedly. Now that she'd thought of it, she couldn't think why it was only just now occurring to her. As people finished eating, they trickled out gradually. Rachel was talking with Rupert - the Divination professor - who kept glancing over her shoulder at Kenna, a bit confused since they were usually the first out of the Hall after meals. But tonight she was wasting time, and Rachel knew it; although she was just as tired Kenna didn't feel too bad. Finally though, as Rupert said goodnight, she glanced over.
"Ready?"
Kenna nodded, waved to Rupert, and they made their way out the huge double doors and around the lawn to the little stone door in the base of the Ravenclaw tower. At a tap from Kenna's wand it clicked thoughtfully for a moment before swinging open. Wordlessly, they turned to their own rooms, exchanged school robes for nondescript black and books and parchment for small satchels, and stepped back into the common room at almost the same moment. Rachel tapped the door as it closed behind her and silently they slipped around the building until they could dart the short distance to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Once nothing was visible behind them except trees, they stopped, listening intently for a moment. But there was nothing, so Kenna met her friend's eyes, excitement starting to overtake the annoyance and exhaustion.
"Ready?"
"I suppose."
As she raised her arms, they became wings and suddenly there was a raven hovering where she'd stood. Kenna grinned; neither of them were quite used to being Animagi yet.
"Very graceful."
Rachel swept one wing to the side and dipped her head in an imitation of a bow in midair and Kenna chuckled as she dove forward, her hands hitting the ground as paws. She stretched and rolled her shoulders to readjust her bag before looking up. Rachel was looking at her from a branch above her head and Kenna knew what she was thinking - her light-coloured fur was as stealthy as they would have liked. She rolled her eyes and whipped her tail.
Yes, I know. It's not like I chose it.
She gave a laughing caw and raised her wings again, swooping into the night. Grinning, Kenna broke into a run, staying close beneath her as they plunged deeper into the forest.