In retrospect, the first thing that should have tipped Harry off was the massive package of chocolate that arrived with the morning's mail. It was so big that two owls had to carry it in, dipping and bobbing in the air as the tips of their wings almost bumped into each other with each beat. Harry was no stranger to gifts with mysterious origins after the war. For months after, he was nearly buried by the veritable mountain of Honeydukes' chocolates, Quidditch tickets, social invitations, and fan letters which arrived each morning.

Harry had checked it over for the usual hexes, jinxes, malicious spellwork, and love potions. There was no card or note of any kind attached, which Hermione proclaimed to be a tad fishy, but it also didn't seem to contain anything more suspicious than a cockroach cluster or two. (Harry gave those to Ron after Hermione did a few more tests for poisons and such). Everything seemed to suggest that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the box. It seemed to just be a box of high-end chocolates, sent by an admirer of some sort too shy to write their name.

That is, until Harry woke up furry.

"Well shit." Harry thought to himself as he looked at his paws. They were nice paws, covered with a thick layer of soft black fur, but they were not his hands. Humans did not have paws. Harry was a human. But Harry had paws. Logical conclusion: Harry was no longer a human.

Oh no.

"Stay calm." Harry thought to himself as he felt himself beginning to panic.

If this had happened any time in the past seven or so years, it would have been perfectly okay. Well, as okay as waking up to discover you've switched species could be. Harry would have:

1) Woke Ron up by making increasingly louder sounds. (He wouldn't have even needed to leave his bed for that. He could yell loudly enough if he tried.)

2) Somehow managed to communicate his identity to Ron.

3) Gotten Ron to find Hermione.

4) And Hermione would have pulled some piece of information out from a textbook written 1800 years or so ago and saved the day. Simple

However… this year, the eighth year. The dormitory system had mostly been abolished, to pave the way for more house unity. As such, Harry's room in what was previously the Slytherin dorms was far too far from the "Gryffindor" rooms where Ron had been assigned, and still pretty far from the "Hufflepuff" dorms which Hermione was. Would Harry, a male, even be allowed into the girls' rooms? He was technically human, so that would seem to indicate a no. However, he was in an animal form, so maybe he'd be allowed in? Urg.

"Better not chance it." Harry thought as he leapt off his bed. "I'll just find Ron and figure something out from there."

The first obstacle was the door, of course. Harry managed to grab the handle with two front paws and tug it down with his body weight. The door opened.

Harry tentatively made his way down the hall. It was early, he noted. Not a single student seemed to be awake at that hour. Harry padded over to the common room. Nobody was there. Harry's eye was drawn to a snitch toy that someone had left on a shelf.

"If I can carry that to Ron, maybe it'll make it easier for him to recognise who I am." Harry thought. He jumped onto an armchair, then onto a windowsill. Then, shuffling backwards a little, Harry made a massive leap onto the shelf, knocking off a book which thunked onto the ground, its pages splayed and its spine bent.

Harry winced. "Sorry, Hermione."

He edged forward towards the toy, being a lot more careful of where he put his paws. He wove around a brass globe, an old Gobstones set, and he was just about to step over a pile of exploding snap cards when the door to the common room slammed open.

A/N: I was so tempted to make the sofa a closet instead, so Harry would literally be "coming out of the closet"

Allow me to ramble a bit here. Law of conservation of mass: matter can neither be created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction. Is not life just energy? Nuclear reactions the only type that allow for the conversion of mass into energy, right? If so, are animal transformations in the Harry Potter world literally nuclear reactions?

Also, I have a bit of the next chapter written already but this whole fic is horribly self-indulgent so I don't really know where I'm going with this. I should really be working on The Boy Who Wasn't (my other fic) but anyyyway... hehe. If you have an idea for a direction this fic could go, feel free to let me know!