Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
He glanced out of the window, and waved at his family as the train slowly left the station. The twins, Fabio and Fiona, waved back vigorously. The movement caused Fiona's black hair to whip around wildly, smacking Fabio in the face a few times. His father stood behind, a smile upon his face, grey eyes shining with a light that could even be seen from the large distance separating the two. It was a shame that his mother couldn't be here too. Sadly, Platform 9¾ didn't allow muggles to pass the barrier. She really would have loved to see the train.
As the train picked up speed and his family faded into tiny specks at the station, Felix Fortescue leaned back in his seat closing his eyes and mentally preparing himself for the upcoming year. Still, the fond memories he had acquired over the summer still played in his mind leaving him with a small smile.
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Dear Dad.
I'm fifteen this year. OWL's are going to be a pain, a huge terrible pain that will leave me half dead. I think I'm too young to die, but what is the opinion of a teen in larger scale of things?
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"Class, before you leave, please turn over your essays on the Summoning Charm."
The assembled group of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors let out a collective groan. Professor Flitwick chuckled merrily as he watched the children pull out the parchments from their bags and pass it towards the front. Soon, the children were walking out chattering, as teenagers were wont to do.
Felix was a lone exception, as he walked out in slow measured steps, deep in thought. A few strands of wavy, black hair fell over his eyes, and he grunted in annoyance, sweeping them backwards to clear his vision in a manner that suggested years of practice.
He was broken out of his reverie by two loud familiar voices.
"Felix!"
"Just the man we were looking for!"
"How fare thee this wondrous day?"
Felix felt his lips curling up into a smile, but quickly forced it down into a forced scowl.
"My wondrous day just happened to get significantly less wondrous."
The twins gasped.
"Felix! How could you?" Fred asked, placing a hand over his eyes and turning away dramatically, as if the very words that Felix spoke had offended his grandmother.
"You wound me! You words pierce my soul and mutilate it beyond my worst nightmares! Oh! The pain!" George continued, grasping his heart in mock pain.
"The torture!"
"The agony!"
They both stumbled into Felix's shoulders, knocking him a bit off balance and he too staggered a few steps before standing up right and glancing back at the Weasley's.
"We shall never be the same again!" they wailed. Felix's lips twitched, as he felt the chuckles churning deep within his gut, pushing and squirming and yelling to be let out. And so he did, them rushing out in a few second's of sniggers.
Both shot him an annoyed look, and Fred elbowed him in the gut.
George sniffed. "How dare you make light of our pain."
"Methinks, we should not invite him with us to Zonko's next Hogsmeade weekend."
Felix raised an eyebrow, eyeing the two and the glanced at him inquisitively. "Saturday? Four 'o' clock?"
They shrugged.
"Meet us at the Hog's Head by then!" George yelled as he scampered away, hurrying for their next class.
"Don't get killed by Sirius Black!" Fred added helpfully, tailing after his brother. Felix watched them rush off, and amused smile playing on his lips before he realised that he had to be in Transfiguration class five minutes ago.
He gulped, as images of his impending doom played before his eyes and he broke into a sprint, hoping that he wouldn't be scolded too much.
Professor McGonagall would not be pleased.
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Fred and George are still annoying, but Hogwarts. It's a shame they weren't in Hufflepuff. Or I wasn't in Gryffindor, but maybe it is for the best. Put us together for too long and the chaos unleashed may be too much for anyone.
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He slipped into the Hufflepuff common room as quietly as he could, careful to make a sound. Who knew if there was anyone up this late? His grey eyes scanned the common room, searching for any students that were up for a late night cram session. None were, although he wasn't quite expecting the Cedric sitting in the armchair, waiting for him, fingers tips touching each other in the classical 'I am a stereotypical plotting villain' way before his face. The firelight from the dying embers in the fireplace lit up only half of Diggory's face, making the super-villain image that mush more prominent in his head.
"You do realize that it is past eleven. Curfew is at ten."
Felix shuffled, looking guiltily at his feet. Cedric raised an eyebrow as he read between the lines. With an exasperated groan he cradled his head in his hands before peeking from between his fingers.
"Okay. I give. What are the Weasley's doing tomorrow?"
Felix shot him a hesitant smile. "It's a secret, but I can divulge that you should avoid the hallway outside the Great Hall at half past seven tomorrow." Cedric did not look impressed. Gulping, Felix ventured out with a bit more information. "Also, on a totally unrelated note, the weather can be extremely unpredictable nowadays. It might start raining cats and dogs."
Cedric raised an inquisitive eyebrow, removing his hands from his face.
"Tomorrow?"
Felix shrugged non-committally. Cedric gave another exasperated groan. "Go to your room. It's nearly twelve and I have a headache."
Felix perked up. No removing points from Hufflepuff? He resisted the urge to whoop, instead settling for a nonchalant swagger as he approached the stairs. "Thanks Cedric! You're the best!" And then he blew a kiss to Cedric, before picking up the pace and galloping up the stairs. He felt a smirk tugging on his lips as the sounds of Cedric choking and sputtering followed.
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Cedric still is a stick in the mud at times, but he is improving. I'm pretty sure that before he leaves Hogwarts, he'll be having a killer sense of humour. But for now, I suppose I'll have to be content with him turning a blind eye to my involvement.
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"This cat is very cute."
Felix raised an eyebrow at the blonde second year before him. In her arms was shimmering and glistening pale blue cat with silvery blue eyes. He cocked his head to the side, wondering why she was telling him that. He studied the cat again, before realizing it was actually transparent. Understanding dawned upon him.
The girl continued. "I asked Professor Flitwick who charmed them, and he referred me to you. He also told me to pass on the message that even though he frowns upon pranks, you don't need to submit your essay on animating liquids. Your charm-work showed your mastery over that particular aspect."
He inclined his head in acknowledgement. Fred and George were mostly responsible for making it rain. It was Felix's stroke of genius to charm the water puddles to form various animals. He internally debated if Cedric tried pulling out his hair when he realized that 'raining cats and dogs' comment was more than just an expression.
The girl was still looking up at him with her large silvery blue eyes, and Felix felt mildly bemused. Their staring completion until she spoke up again.
"Bubbles."
Felix blinked.
"What?"
"Bubbles" she repeated, and then looked down at the cat. "I was thinking of naming him Bubbles."
Felix blinked again. Why was she naming the cat?
"You do know that the cat will turn back to water in a few hours right?"
She furrowed his eyebrows and looked at him like he had just said something stupid. Felix scrunched his eyebrows as tried to figure out what stupidity lay in his sentence.
"Of course I know that, but I might as well enjoy her while she lasts." She paused, as if thinking about adding something, but thought the better of it. "Thank you for making Bubbles." She gave him a nod and walked past him, the cat in her arms still squirming, until it broke free and landed on the ground and ran away to freedom. She seemed a bit upset, but made no move to chase after him. Instead, she turned around to look at him.
Felix raised another eyebrow at the girl. He realized he never got her name. As if reading his mind, she called out "Luna Lovegood!" and waved at him daintily, before turning around and skipping away, leaving an utterly bemused Felix in her wake.
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You remember how you used to ask me to meet more people? Well, this year I've made a total of two new acquaintances. One is Luna Lovegood, a second year Ravenclaw. She's a bit odd at times, but she sometimes slips me free copies of the Quibbler when I'm particularly low on Sickles. I sometimes wish you'd just gone to her father and told him to stop searching for those Crumple Horned Snorkacks. I'm pretty sure he'd understand that they are an extremely endangered species. It would have probably saved a lot of effort moving the ranch every time he came in the vicinity.
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Felix growled and fell onto the floor, his hand turned into a wriggling tentacle riddled with tan brown scales. Sirius Black immediately yelped, and ran over, shouting out the counter-charm to turn Felix's hand back. It wriggled, and shivered and slowly deformed, like melting candle wax, as it turned slowly into what his arm normally looked like.
Felix lay on his back, staring up into empty space, as Sirius plopped down beside him. The two simply lay there one panting for breath, the other looking down at his partner in concern.
"I nearly had it." Felix finally said, breaking the silence. "I could feel it, my body changing. I panicked and lost focus." Sirius nodded sagely, as if he understood perfectly what Felix was going on about, which was probably true, considering the fact that he was an Animagus too.
After a few seconds more of pensive silence, Sirius ventured out "Once more?" Felix groaned, but began to stagger back onto his feet. When he looked up, Sirius was already, ready, his wand out.
"Remember, once you have fully transformed, your instincts will begin to take over, if it's an herbivore, you will try to run away. If it's a carnivore, you might try to attack me. The thing is you must try to control it. Master your instincts; don't let it control you. I'll try to help you, but I'm not much of a Legimens."
Felix gave a grim smile, having a vague image as to what his instincts might be. He let out a small sardonic laugh. Maybe all the reptiles his father brought home to show him did leave their mark.
Pushing idle thoughts aside, he let his mind still, focusing on the image he had in mind. He imagined his arms shrivelling away this time, his body elongating, his head deforming into something more coffin shaped (obviously not quite as big.)
He felt the changes take over, but he paid them no heed, and let them continue unabated. He felt his body shift and change shape, elongating and turning into a lean and sleek animal.
When the transformation was done, he began to think that maybe it wasn't so bad, and then the instincts kicked in.
His eyesight was considerably weaker, its hearing dimmed, but it's smell? It was overwhelming. It wasn't so much smell, as taste. His long forked tongue flitted out to taste the air, and he could taste the musk of rotting wood in the foundations of the shack, the smell of Sirius's sweat and confusion and fear.
And with his dulled vision he could see Sirius cautiously approaching, and his mind started to yell, to attack the aggressor, clamp down on his calf, inject it with its venom and rip the meat off. And to Felix's horror, his body listened, his stubby feet propelling him forwards at a rate he thought he wouldn't be able to move at.
Sirius gave a startled yell, jumped back, and pointed the wand straight at Felix and yelled out something unintelligible, and his mind was filled with a foreign presence, trying to suppressing his instincts, but to no avail. Even with Felix's jumbled help, the instincts still won.
And then, Felix had a spark of inspiration. ":Stop!:" he spoke, his Parsletongue coming out scratchy in his mind, but doing the trick. His instincts shut down momentarily, and those few seconds of inaction, were enough for Felix to regain control and begin turning back into a human.
The instincts quelled, and he could feel his bones, shift, break and rejoin, turning into an extremely deformed human skeleton, and then grow to regain his original proportions. He collapsed into a heap once more, blood and adrenaline pumping though his veins.
"Bloody hell." he whispered to himself. His face showing the sheer wonder and exhilaration he felt. "I did it."
Sirius cleared his throat. "I suppose congratulations are in order. Also, what the bleeding hell was that?"
"A Komodo Dragon, I think. They're the largest lizards on the planet." Felix replied automatically, years of listening to his father's stories of the creatures he helped preserve, non-magical and magical, helped Felix in compiling an entire encyclopaedia about animals in his head.
Sirius scowled. "Not that. I'm talking about the weird hissing in your head. The one that suppressed your instincts."
Felix blinked. 'Oh. That.'
"Parseltongue. My dad taught me how to speak it. He works a lot with animals, mostly reptiles, so you sort of pick it up."
Sirius looked at Felix funny. "A Parselmouth." He ignored Felix's protests "An Animagus form that's a reptile. Remind me once more why you are put in Hufflepuff?"
Felix scowled. Ever since he heard the Sorting Hat's song, he'd wanted to be in Slytherin, the Lair of the Cunning. He would have settled for Ravenclaw, but Slytherin was where he really wanted to be. And then the Hat put him in Hufflepuff.
'And if they aren't brave hearts,
Or cunning, or wise.
Hand them over to me.
And I'll treasure them like a valuable prize.'
Why was he dumped with all those that were left over again? He felt a surge of resentment for the Hat. Also, all the cryptic comments the hat left with him didn't help either. But after the events of last year, Felix was more at peace with Hufflepuff as his house. Giving a long suffering sigh, Felix turned to Sirius.
"It's probably because they wouldn't be able to handle my greatness."
Sirius snorted.
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The second is Sirius Black. Yes, the one the Prophet calls a mass-murderer. Turns out he isn't. Neither is he a Death Eater. He's actually a very nice person who is helping me out quite a bit with Transfiguration. Who'd have thunk it?
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It was January, and Felix was in the Hufflepuff common room, Cedric helping Felix with his OWL preparations, when Professor Sprout walked in, tense lines drawn around her face.
"Felix Fortescue?"
Felix threw her an inquisitive look, wondering what had gotten the cheery Herbology professor in such a twist. She locked eyes with me and nodded curtly.
"Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with you."
Felix shot a baffled look at Cedric, who simply shrugged, before standing up and following Professor Sprout. Before long, they were outside Professor Dumbledore's office. Without sparing the gargoyle a glance, Professor Sprout uttered a curt "Chocolate Fudge." and the gargoyle swept open.
Felix entered the office and looked around. The office was tidy, yet cluttered at the same time, trinkets and objects of unknown origin filled the room, and in the middle was a desk, with a wizened old man at it.
Professor Dumbledore raised his eyes to meet Felix, the usual cheery charm they held was replaced by an uncharacteristic sombre look.
"Felix, I'm sorry to disturb you, but the matter is rather urgent. It's about your father."
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It's still difficult to accept the fact that you're gone. Mum misses you. The twins miss you.
I miss you.
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Felix was standing in front of the grave. It was a beautifully carved tombstone reading 'Francis Fortescue (1952-1994)'. The tombstone wasn't extremely ornate, it was rather plain, as compared to the some of the more extravagant tombstones, but it still was the most humbling according to Felix.
A great tomb for a great man.
A loud crack was heard by the teen, but he paid it no mind.
"I've been looking for you." the old man said, walking up to Felix and standing besides the boy, gazing at the tomb stone with a wistful look. "Your mother is getting quite worried."
Felix said nothing, completely ignoring his uncle. The two stood there for a few minutes, one paying respect to his now-dead brother, the other lost in his thoughts.
"It is understandable that you miss him, Felix," Florean Fortescue tried again "-but your family needs you. Your twins need a guiding figure, and your mother needs your help." A wry smile crossed the older man's face "Merlin above, the twins are a real handful at their worst."
This brought a small twitch to the Felix's lips.
They stood in silence for a few moments, before it was broken again, by Felix, this time. "Does it ever stop hurting?"
His voice was raw and cracking, from misuse for a long time. Florean gave his nephew a searching look, his expression thoughtful.
"I suppose it doesn't." he finally answered "but it does hurt less with time. You'll stop drowning in the pain and look back to those memories of him with fondness, given time." He clasped the boy's shoulder, slowly turning him so that their eyes met. "But for that to happen, you need to learn to accept it, move on."
Felix met his uncle's gaze with a hollow stare, and the older man had to swallow, before continuing. "It will hurt. But remember, your dad is always keeping an eye on you. The point is, don't think of your father as...dead...but, just gone away for a long time." He was silent for a few seconds, as he watched his nephew take in the information. "What do you do when the two of you are separated?"
Felix was quiet for some time, before replying with a dead "Write to each other."
Florean nodded, smiling a bit. "So write letters to your father. Tell him how your day is. I'm sure he'll want to hear about it." After a small pause, "You think you can do that for him?"
Felix was motionless for some time, before giving his uncle a small nod. This seemed to brighten up the older Fortescue.
"Wonderful. So shall we get back? I'm pretty sure your mother is calling the Muggle police about your disappearance."
At this, Felix gave a small grateful grin to his uncle before replying with a quiet "Sure,"
Florean smiled at his nephew, took his hand, and with a loud crack, they disappeared.
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I hope you are happy, wherever you are. I hope I can be a person you can be proud of.
Most of all, I hope you are watching over me.
Your son,
Felix.
Well, here we are. Another plot bunny attack. It is not my fault. Also, this will also have a lot of emotion in the start so it may be a bit rough. Please don't kill me.
Hope you peeps enjoyed.
Let me know what you thought.
-ProdigyPsycho