A/N: This is the Chudley Cannons Keeper checking in for Round 4 of Season 6 of the QLFC.

Prompts: Write about someone turning into a household pet (by choice or otherwise) and living as one for a while.

Word count (before A/N): 3,000 words exactly

"Shh!" Rose giggled as her brother, his boyfriend, and her best friend slipped into an empty classroom lit only by floating candlelight. It was pleasantly warm for one in the morning, she noticed. As a prefect, Rose knew what they were doing wasn't exactly "following the rules," but as a seventh year with one month left of school, to hell with the rules.

Once the door closed behind her with a satisfying click, she looked at her audience of three. Hugo, his glowing red hair and freckled face screwed up in confusion. August, his eyes still blinking back sleep, his right hand instinctively lacing with Hugo's left. And Sadie, dressed in an over-sized Gryffindor sweatshirt.

Her willing test subjects.

"What's it this time, Rosie?" Hugo asked, a glimmer of excitement in his voice.

"It better not be the Mermaid 2.0 or whatever you called it," Sadie crossed her arms over her chest, her brown skin shining in the candlelight. "I was sick for days after that one."

August, still tired, turned green at the thought of Rose's failed potion and nodded his agreement.

"Mermaid 2.0 had it flaws, I know. I'm back to the drawing board there. But tonight," Rose smiled, her blue eyes glinting, "tonight I have something even better."

She produced a vial of blue-green liquid from her pocket. "Behold, Animag-me!"

"Ana-what?" Sadie cocked her head to the side. Rose rolled her eyes.

Ever since the school year began, Rose had been attempting to create the next best product for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. She had always known she would one day join the ranks of her favorite uncle and dad as the wizarding world's greatest pranksters.

So far, she had created a potion that allowed the drinker to communicate with mermaids on land—her Mermaid 2.0—and a body spray that made hair grow wherever it was sprayed. Unfortunately, they both had their side effects, which Rose was diligently working the kinks out of. But just because the other ideas weren't complete didn't mean she couldn't keep creating.

"Animag-me. This elixir will awaken within the drinker their Animagus form."

"But none of us are an Animigus," Hugo said, slight disappointment creeping onto his face. Out of everyone, Hugo believed in Rose unfalteringly.

"A lot of wizards are Animagi, they just don't realize it," Rose smiled. "I read about it while I was researching mermaids and other animals for my Mermaid 2.0. There are hundreds of wizards and witches walking around with untapped potential. A lot of us have the ability to become an Animagus, but we aren't taught how to tap into that part of us, and so we never discover our animal selves."

"And you think you've captured it in here?" Sadie took the vial from Rose's still outstretched hand, peering at the shiny liquid.

"I think it sounds pretty neat," August added, his purple eyes locked on the vial.

"Well," she said, "I think it will work. I mean, I took it earlier and I didn't get sick. Of course, I didn't turn into anything either, so I know I'm not an Animagus. But maybe one of you will be…"

"Okay, but if I retch even once, this is the last time I'm testing one of your potions," Sadie said, popping off the rubber stopper and taking a sip. The rest watched, waiting, but nothing happened other than a tiny burp escaping Sadie's mouth.

"My turn." August grabbed the vial and took a small sip, allowing the liquid to sit in his mouth before swallowing. Again, nothing.

He offered Hugo the vial.

Rose's brother took it tentatively. He sniffed at the contents first, then his bright brown eyes locked on to his sister's.

"Wolfsbane," she smiled, knowing Hugo wanted to know what was in the potion. "Eye of newt, essence of dung beetle, some thistle, and a little cream."

"Cream?" he asked.

"It was a highly acidic potion before that, so I wanted to tone it down for taste."

Hugo squinted his eyes at her again, then drank the remaining liquid. Rose watched as Hugo's face, so much like their dad's, puckered up. He closed his eyes tight.

When he opened them, he sighed. "Sorry, Rosie. I don't think I'm an Animagus. But maybe you could try again with our cousins tomorrow."

"I guess," Rose felt a weight rising in her stomach. Another failed test. Another three months wasted in the Potions classroom after hours. She really thought she hit the mark on this one, too. "I'll brew some more tomorrow. Hopefully that'll work."

00000

"Rose!"

Rose jolted up in bed, her heart slamming against her ribcage. At the foot of her bed stood a disheveled looking August, his brown hair standing up wildly, his shirt buttons looped through the wrong holes.

About a thousand different words caught in her throat. Rose settled with, "Wha-"

"You need to come. Now."

He didn't give her a chance to respond, instead slamming her bedroom door as he left. Sadie wasn't in her bed, and the other girls' beds were already made. Rose had slept in, but that didn't explain August waking her up in her dorm.

She decided to get dressed. See what was going on. As she pulled her shirt over her head, she couldn't help but think her elixir had landed one of them in the hospital wing… again. Rose's stomach flopped.

Downstairs in the Common Room, no one seemed surprised to find a Slytherin in their midst.

"How did you get in?" Rose asked. August frowned at her.

"Come on, we have to go," he grabbed her hand and started dragging her toward the portrait hole.

"Wait, August. How did you get in?"

"A first year let me in."

"But how did you get-"

"No time," he said over his shoulder, "just come."

She let the fifth year drag her out of Gryffindor Tower, down the hall, and toward the opposite side of the castle. She was rather confused when they bypassed the hospital wing, instead veering off toward the Astronomy Tower.

When they reached the bottom of the tower, Sadie was waiting, her black eyes wide and her face flushed as she paced the length of the hall.

"This is so bad, Rose," Sadie wrung her hands.

"What is?"

"Up there!" Sadie pointed. "It's bad. Bad, bad, bad."

"What could…" but Rose didn't wait to hear what they had to say. She raced up the stairs, winding up and up, until just the last bit. Then she stopped, the little hairs on her arms standing on end. For a brief moment, she felt as if she were still asleep, dreaming in her bed, this strange and frankly rude awakening a mirage. But when she rounded the final corner, her heart nearly dropped back down to the bottom of the tower.

"Ahh!" Rose screamed, her throat unable to express the real terror she felt. She turned to run, but her entourage had followed closely behind and stopped her in her tracks.

"It's a tiger!" she motioned to the beast standing before them. Not even an arm's length away stood a huge Bengal tiger with thick orange and black fur. It growled, bearing large white fangs that dipped over its blackish-blue lips like sharp, angry rocks. It's nails, as long as a Snitch's wings, dug into the floor.

Rose's heart froze inside her mouth. Yet no one else in her audience seemed to feel the need to panic. Then an even scarier thought crossed her mind. "Hugo?"

The tiger growled again, digging its nails deeper into the floor.

"We went to bed as people," August said, his voice coming from somewhere far off in the distance. "Imagine my surprise when I woke up in the arms of a, uh, a tiger."

"What did I do?" Rose half-whispered, half-screamed into her hands, burying her face. Then, she perked up, her ears finally hearing August's words in full.

"What do you mean 'woke up in the arms of a tiger?'" she asked, her brain unable to comprehend the animal in front of her just yet. "You shouldn't be sleeping in Ravenclaw's dorms."

"What?"

"Ten points from Slytherin," Rose said, just the hint of hysteria leaking into her voice. The tiger growled at her, swatting her with his tail.

"And you!" she rounded on him. "Ten points from Ravenclaw!"

"What? That's not fair! We were only out of bed in the first place because of you," August spat back.

"Fine!" Rose's voice hit an octave so high, she felt like she was breathing helium. "Twenty points from Gryffindor!"

"What?!" Sadie chimed in. "Why?"

"Well, you and I were out of bed, too!" Rose countered, her heart pounding in her chest faster than a bullet train.

"That's not the point!" Sadie yelled. "Hugo's a bloody tiger, Rose!"

Which, Rose knew, was the real issue at hand, though saying it out loud didn't make her feel any less panicked. She was still holding on to that last string of hope that this was all a dream.

She turned to Hugo, his brown eyes staring up at her from fluffy black and orange stripes.

"But, this is a good thing, right?" she wanted to convince herself more than anything. "Because my elixir worked."

She laid a hand on Hugo's wet, black nose. "He's an Animagus… now all Hugo needs to do is change back so I can take notes."

No one spoke, but it was all they needed to say.

Rose fell to her knees and grabbed Hugo's furry face on both sides, pulling the beast right up to her own eyes.

"Change back," she demanded.

It was August who broke the news.

"He can't."

Rose's pulse pounded in her ears, trying to drown everything out. She closed her eyes, pretended she couldn't hear the tears in August's voice. Pretended her own hot tears weren't pushing against her eyes. She had to take in a few slow breaths to steady her mind before answering.

"We should give the elixir some time to run its course," she said slowly, the words sounding hollow in the large Astronomy Tower. "I'm sure Hugo'll be back to normal once it goes through his system."

But even she knew her potions were never that simple. Hugo mewled at her and sank to the ground, a look of utter dejection on his furry face.

00000

To say her first summer out of Hogwarts was uneventful would be lying. Rose was neck deep in research and failed remedies. They didn't wait long to tell Headmistress McGonagall about her little Animagus mishap, which in turn led to a very long, very tearful talk with her mum and dad.

The tears, however, did not last long.

For the better part of the summer months, Rose's mum refused to speak with her. She was livid that Hugo had to leave term early, because the school wasn't licensed to teach tigers. (A ridiculous rule from the Ministry, if Rose ever heard of one, but still an actual rule.)

Hugo, on the other hand, was grateful to be away from the students, or at least that's what it seemed like. Communicating with him had been rather difficult at first.

The family did their best to act like everything was normal, but when Hugo accidentally used the living room carpet as his personal bathroom because no one realized they needed to open the door for him, the dynamic changed a bit.

Rose spent a good portion of her days looking for something to reverse the effects of her elixir; she wasn't allowed to do much else. Healers and Ministry officials had tried, but her elixir had been too potent a brew to reverse.

Hugo, on the other hand, had ended up in St. Mungo's after trying to transform into a human again. Since he never actually learned how to morph into his tiger form, he had no way of knowing how to go back.

When at home, though, he had become something of a pet, lounging around, letting Rose scratch behind his ears. He often found himself catching balls and garden gnomes in the back yard.

He slept at the foot of Rose's bed, despite the fact she'd gotten him into this mess in the first place. Rose herself was getting used to the giant cat. But, now, with only two weeks till school started up again, she needed to buckle down to save her brother from a life of permanent felineness. Hugo still had two years of school left, an extremely patient boyfriend to get back to, and his whole bloody life as a human to live. Since the Healers couldn't fix it, Rose had to.

She descended the stairs of her childhood home, her eyes landing on Hugo curled up beside the fireplace. He raised his head in greeting as his sister sat down beside him, rubbing slow circles on Hugo's back.

"I'm going to get this right. I promise. This time, I can feel it in my soul," she whispered. He nuzzled her face, a gesture she had learned to mean 'thank you.'

"I'm sorry it's taking so long. I-I'm trying." Tears welled up in her eyes for the millionth time, but Hugo used his paw to wipe them back. Rose hugged him close. "I have a remedy brewing upstairs," she said through hiccups. "Just a few more minutes and it'll be ready."

Her brother nudged her again, in a way telling her to go get the brew now. He was an eager test subject, that was certain.

When the timer went off upstairs, Rose rushed to grab a bowl to present it to her brother. Before he licked it up, he sniffed it. Then his bright brown eyes locked on to Rose's.

"Wolfsbane," she explained. "Rabbit's whiskers, essence of squid, and lemon."

Hugo's head tilted to the side in question.

"The squid scent was overpowering, so I added a few drops of lemon to mask it. Plus lemon brings out a few subtle qualities of the wolfsbane without changing its properties."

Hugo blinked in understanding, then lapped up the brew in his bowl. He shook his head violently and growled.

"Well," Rose took the bowl away. "It was either tell you it tasted terribly or let you discover that on your own. Last time I told you it would be bad, and you refused to drink it until I forced it into your mouth like medicine."

The tiger simply snorted at his sister, curled up, and laid down to sleep again. Rose rolled her eyes and left the room.

Twenty minutes later, she heard a huge crash.

"Hugo?"

Rose ran back down the stairs only to find the living room quiet, no tiger to be seen. Another crash sounded throughout the house, this time above her. Rose ran right back up the stairs, her heart hammering in her chest like a hummingbird's wings.

The crashing sound came again, this time from inside Hugo's room.

Rose threw open the door. In front of her lay a mess of things—Quidditch posters and Sneakoscopes, Extendible Ears and notebooks—strewn across the floor. A very pale looking tiger was thrashing around, banging into the dresser, the bed, the dresser, the closet. Back and forth, back and forth.

"Hugo!"

The tiger roared at her, his eyes filled with distress.

"Oh god! Oh no!" Rose ran toward him, but then she noticed a tuft of orange hair, curlier than it ought to be for a tiger, sticking up from the crown of his head.

"Hugo?"

The tiger tried to roar again, but it came out as a yelp. Hugo crumpled to the floor, his fur fading away, his limbs growing pale and long. He stood up on two legs.

"Bloody hell, woman!" he shouted at her. "I love you, but what the hell was in that?"

Shocked, Rose threw her arms around his neck. She felt the tears catching in her lashes. "You're you! You're you!"

Hugo pushed back and looked down at himself.

"I'm me," he whispered, touching his face with the tips of his freckled fingers.

Rose was openly crying now. Hugo shouted. "I'm me!"

"Do you—should we call Mum?"

"Are you bloody kidding? I'm going to August's!" Hugo yelled back, a smile plastered across his face. "Then I'm going to owl McGonagall and tell her I'm coming back. And then," he pointed at Rose, "I'm going to write Uncle George and tell him how terrible it would be to not hire you."

"But, Hugo," Rose tried to grab the boy as he ran out the door and down the stairs to the kitchen, where their barn owl sat in his perch. "Hugo, I nearly destroyed your life!"

Her words were lost on her brother. "That was a brilliant elixir, Rose. It really, truly worked! With some tweaks, we could perfect it."

"We?"

Hugo began to scribble down his note to August. "Since there's a remedy available, we can keep trying it out on me," Hugo smiled. Rose didn't know if she should slap him or kiss him. "I would love to help. Though I think I need a break from being a tiger for a few months first. Then I can do it again."

"Hugo, I couldn't let you-"

"I want to. You're a genius, Rosie. This is a fascinating opportunity to learn how this works."

"But-"

"Will you relax?" Hugo stood up, ink already smudged on his fingers and cheeks. "I had a lot of time this summer to just sit and think about things. You wouldn't believe what a pet can pick up from conversations the humans have."

"You weren't a pet."

"I sort of was. But anyway, even Dad said this could be huge if you perfect it."

"He said that?" Rose asked.

"Yeah. And I want you to. Please let me help?"

Hugo's bright brown eyes, finally staring at Rose again through his freckles and pale skin, bore into her own.

"Okay," she smiled. "Okay. Let's do it!"