Feryn Silverhorn did not become the ambitious Slytherin that the Sorting Hat had foreseen until her final years at Hogwarts. When the hunger to thrive hit, however, it hit with such magnitude that the entire staff was shocked by her newfound passion. She'd always been a talented young witch, to be sure, with a natural knack for nearly every subject in the curriculum. By the time that Feryn was a seventh year, she'd narrowed her potential career choices down to either astronomy or transfiguration. Professor McGonagall, to her own surprise, found herself fighting in favor of the latter.
Our story opens on a cold evening in December when Feryn was assisting Professor McGonagall with the grading of written work. This task was not for punishment, but instead a training tactic that the old professor began to use on Feryn when she learned of her interest in employment at Hogwarts.
"I assume that you will want to retire early tonight?" McGonagall inquired, placing her tea cup down on the saucer with a tiny 'clink'.
Feryn hardly looked up from her work. "I can stay as late as you need me to." She replied with her soft, almost musical Irish brogue.
"That would mean keeping you away from the festivities."
It is true that this was the evening of the Yule Ball, and although Feryn was set to graduate in the Spring, she'd decided against attending. When she noticed her young protégée shaking off the comment, McGonagall assumed that Feryn had not been asked to attend and dropped the subject altogether.
Now, Feryn was not an unattractive witch by any stretch of the imagination; but her appearance could certainly be described as peculiar. Her fellow students scarcely shied away from making fun of her peculiarities- her tall and lanky build being their favorite subject of ridicule.
As early as Feryn's third year, she towered over nearly the entire student body and did not stop growing until the age of fifteen when she reached a healthy five feet and eleven inches. Since most of the young wizards in her class were roughly her height or shorter, McGonagall inevitably wagered that Feryn's height factored into their disinterest.
Furthermore, there had been much speculation from students and professors alike about her height- why, even old Hagrid himself had suggested to Dumbledore that she might possess some semblance of giant's blood in her veins. Her height was not the only thing that made her the spectacle that she was. For while she was tall as a mountain, she was also as thin as a rail.
During recent years, she'd developed an aesthetic all her own and was often seen clothed entirely in black with her pale blonde lengths of hair piled into a haphazard bun atop her narrow little forehead. This gave her a professorial air and the brass telescope hoisted over her back, often alongside a plethora of rolled parchment with star coordinates only made her look all the more immersed in her work and therefore- unapproachable.
Silence fell between the two witches as they both proceeded with their work. At around 7:30 or so, McGonagall spoke again.
"My presence will be needed in the Great Hall before too long. I can bring you some punch, if you'd like."
A smile found its way to Feryn's reluctant lips and she moved, slightly in her seat. As she did so, the piece of parchment that she'd been working on sliced deeply into her finger. "Ack" She muttered, lifting the severed finger to her mouth. "I need to be more careful. Anyway, you go ahead and enjoy yourself, Professor. Rest assured when you return, there will be no more papers left to grade this year!"
This was exactly why Feryn was the perfect assistant. In several months' time, she'd grown to crave the keen satisfaction of ticking tasks off of a large to-do list, almost as much as McGonagall enjoyed giving them to her! Furthermore, Dumbledore had been thrilled to learn that Feryn's idle hands had been put to good use. However, as Professor McGonagall looked across the room to bid farewell to the young witch, she noticed something unusual about Feryn's injury- something that would surely land her in trouble.
Something else happened in this moment. Something important. Before the professor could inquire, Feryn's black owl, Postman tapped the window. I should note that Feryn's receiving mail while at work annoyed McGonagall during the first couple of months, but given the long hours that she had her assistant working, she'd mellowed out about Postman's evening visits. That was, of course, on the evenings when the peculiar little owl didn't thrust the letters across her office once the window was open. Sadly, this wasn't one of those evenings. The window was open, the letters went flying and Postman was gone before he could receive a single reprimand.
"I'm sorry." Feryn muttered, closing the window. She had all but forgotten about the cut on her finger and the secret that it would surely reveal.
"You've been practicing prohibited magic." Said Professor McGonagall, rather plainly.
"Excuse me?"
"Within the last twenty-four hours, by the looks of it." She continued. "It isn't only you who will be in trouble, you know. Seeing as I was the one who taught you about-"
"As an Animagus yourself, Professor," Feryn began, stopping herself.
"What? Do I understand the temptation? Absolutely, I do. But seeing as you take on a very rare form-" She reached out and seized Feryn's hand. The undeniably chrome blood was beginning to dry and crust beside her fingernail. "Where did you go to transform?"
"I went to the forest. Professor Sinistra gave the staff a notice of my permission to visit Castle Rock earlier in the year. I thought I'd study transfiguration and astronomy in one trip."
"Unicorns," McGonagall began, carefully, "unicorns have been gravely injured in our forest. They were keeping dragons for the tournament just a couple of months ago, if you remember. Could you imagine our grief if one of them…" She couldn't bring herself to say what was on her mind. "Besides, who needs Castle Rock when you have a perfectly good astronomy tower at your disposal?"
In the corner of the room, one of the envelopes that Postman delivered earlier could be seen, levitating. They hadn't noticed it in the heat of their discussion. It had a telltale green stripe across the bottom- from the ministry. They both feared it was for Feryn's improper use of an Animagus form. In which case, the consequences would be regretful.
The little envelope sprouted two hollow eyes and a pair of fuchsia lips and began to speak. "To Miss Feryn Silverhorn: In the wake of the Ministry's new marriage law, you have been summoned for a mandatory examination this coming Thursday, December 27th. If you are unable to attend, please contact the Ministry's new department of Muggle Born's Health within 24 hours to reschedule. Failure to do so will result in your incarceration. Wishing you a merry and joyous holiday season."
Before Feryn could open her mouth to protest, the letter shredded itself into a hundred tiny pieces and fell to the floor like snow.
"Marriage Law?" Feryn asked, genuinely confused. "I thought that was just talk! And even so, it shouldn't apply to students!"
"No. No, it shouldn't. But come this summer, Miss Silverhorn, you will no longer be a student." Professor McGonagall said blankly, her eyes on the shredded paper on the floor.
"This must be brought to Dumbledore's attention. It's practically baiting." Feryn returned to her seat as McGonagall headed for the door. She felt badly for Feryn, of course and still possessed a disciplinarian's urge to proceed with her interrogation about her use of forbidden magic- but this seemed to be punishment enough.
"I must be-"
"I know." Feryn interrupted. " We can continue our discussion tomorrow evening."
"Try not to do anything rash, Miss Silverhorn." McGonagall requested before leaving. "And don't think for a moment that you are off the hook."
While the marriage law that the letter had spoken about was still something of an enigma to the wizarding world, Feryn knew several things about it. The first and most important of these being that this examination would determine her childbearing abilities. Since she was a halfblooded witch, she, among other halfbloods and muggle borns, would be married off to a pureblooded wizard.
To Feryn and those who knew her and her family, it had always been assumed that she was pureblooded. Her birth father, Arcangelo Silverhorn was well respected amongst the purist community and her two younger half-sisters, Clara and Cora Silverhorn were beginning to successfully mingle with the Slytherin elite at Hogwarts. My point being this, whoever Feryn was to be married off to, her family more than likely had some sort of ties to them. Maybe, just maybe, she could use those ties to get out of the arranged marriage altogether.
On December the 27th and by the permission of the staff, Feryn traveled through the floo network to a spacious stone fireplace in the ministry building. Ever the overachiever, she'd arrived thirty minutes ahead of her appointment and decided to use the spare time to read up on the Animagus guidelines.
As always, the massive building was severely congested- spilling over with every sort of magical folk imaginable. She did not bring her aforementioned brass telescope today so it was easier for Feryn to navigate through the foot traffic. Before she could reach her destination, she spotted her father who was engaged in what appeared to be a heated conversation with Lucius Malfoy. The two wizards were on cordial terms for many years. Although, her father had accused Mr. Malfoy on numerous occasions to be ignorant, even cruel towards magical beasts. Feryn didn't care for him in the slightest. Several incidents of hexing that dreadful son of his had cost her the title of Prefect just two months into her fourth year and as such, dashed her hopes of being Head Girl entirely.
She continued on her way, knowing that her father could hold his own in any argument. The Malfoys were, after all, more bark than bite, anyway.
By the time that Feryn actually found the office that she'd been searching for, she realized that her appointment was fast approaching and abandoned her mission altogether.
The nurse burst into the room and handed Feryn a small wooden chest. She raised the lid and looked in. Inside, there were two rows of seven identical vials that were filled halfway with a colorless liquid.
"You'll be able to refill those next July. The two pearlescent ones are less powerful. It's recommended that you use one of them during your mandatory meeting in…" a quick glance to the levitating clipboard that had followed her into the room "... April. Don't worry, we'll provide a note to get you out of class that day." The nurse said, scribbling her signature on what appeared to be a small prescription slip on said clipboard and placing it in between two of the vials.
"I'm assuming this means that I've passed your little examination." Feryn said, sarcastically. She reached for a vial and popped it open. A familiar aroma ascended from within- namely, that of the beverage known in the muggle world as root beer laced elegantly with all of the undernotes of a summer evening at her beloved Dark Sky Reserve in Ireland. "I can brew my own love potions if that is what this is." She continued, unaffected by the memory.
"There's a bit more to them than your common love potion. You can read all about them in the enclosed pamphlet." Was the petite nurse's matter-of-factly reply.
"I can hardly wait to enlighten myself." She closed the lid and placed it on the countertop. "I do have one question, though. And I'd be lying if I said that I'm not afraid to ask it."
"Hm. You're curious about your assignment, aren't you? As I said, you will be required to meet beforehand. While the assignment is set in stone, it will do you well to get to know one another." The nurse explained, flipping through the paperwork. Her eyes moved over the page and Feryn could tell that she was hunting for his name. Her eyes stopped. Although she fought to conceal it, Feryn sensed a great deal of concern on the portly nurse's face.
"What?"
There was no reply. Only an extension of the folder to Feryn. Once it was in her possession, she gave it a long, hard look. There in bold ink was the name, "Lucius Malfoy".