So : I decided to made a new and updated Author Note, cause obviously, now that we are on the fourth chapter... Yeah, the story is ON. Still not too sure about how I'm going to manage finishing it (still am a super lazy person, with a goldfish attention-span... And now about 2 or three new plot bunnies in my head, demanding my attention too...). But I'm going to give it my best shot ! And hope you're going to like it.
Now, a few warnings :
I'm not really a native english-speaker, so if there are any problems (grammatical or otherwise), do not hate me for it : not my fault ! If you have corrections to propose (to make the story a bit more understandable, a bit more fluid, whatever), you're welcome to propose them, but I may or may not accept them : Depending of the part, I just might prefer my bad english to a good one.
It's also my very very first fanfic, so bear with the clumsiness.
The sound of multiple pairs of pounding feet invading a too small area was the main reason she woke up. Or maybe the woman who was ushering all those feet around the table, grumbling in a totally audible way about children lazing around and cleaning that doesn't make itself done, or maybe the so-not-silent giggles mixed with various kitchenery noises and whispers just barely too low to be understandable… Anyway… She wasn't asleep anymore… No matter how tired she felt, she wasn't going back to sleep with so much noise around… Plus, she was quite uncomfortable. I mean, come on, that pillow was so damn hard, she could as well have fallen asleep on a cauldron… Wait…
Opening her eyes was harder than usual, despite being clearly awake -yes, she was awake, thanks to all those noisy people around, totally awake, not at all fighting against giant rabbit-like cotton-clouds to get her brains to work thank you very much, brains- giant-rabbit-like-cotton-clouds doen't exist anyway, any witches could tell you that… - Oh yeah, totally awake… No more consecutive all-nighters keeping an eye on the DOM, no matter how important : Order or no Order, auror or no auror, she agreed to risk her life, not to die of sheer exhaustion in the middle of breakfast… Right, breakfast… Clearly, she DID fall asleep against an actual cauldron, on the kitchen table, and no wonder all the kids were trying (and failing) to keep their laugh in check : she must have a very SPECIAL pillowmark on her cheek, right now…
Fred and Georges clearly thought that with her being awake now, they didn't need to even try to be discreet, anymore, and giggles became all out laughter, while Ron and Ginny were trying their best not to do the same. Hermione was the only one actually trying (quite miserably) to regain some composure. And Mrs Weasley was still grumbling about whatever cleaning of the house she had planned for today and how everyone had better eat something before starting the hostilities or else…
"Dear, I really think you should go to bed, right now : you're clearly exhausted, and I'm sure Ginny or Hermione wouldn't mind letting you borrow their bed until you're rested enough to go back to your own place…"
"Uh ? Oh, no, I'm good Molly, that little nap already made wonders ! Uhm… I guess Arthur took Harry to his hearing, then ? I really wanted to tag along for a bit, but looks like I missed them…"
"Actually, you were there, but clearly half asleep through the entire conversation, if you don't remember it at all…"
"Well, I think I actually remember a bit more, now that you remind me… YES ! Arthur proposed to take the next night-shift ! Wonderful man you've got yourself, and a life-saver, a total life-saver…"
"How is he doing ?" asked Hermione, and by the sudden absence of laughter and giggles, it was clear the others were worried about that too.
"As well as can be expected, he's stressed, but we all made sure he knows there is no reasons for him not to be cleared, given the situation," Mrs Weasley answered, but given her sudden concentration on buttering some already done toast, it wasn't all that reassuring for the children, Tonks supposed…
"No worries, guys : he's going to make it, that's for sure : if not, Sirius promised to take care of Madam Bones himself, plus Arthur made sure he's there in advance, and Molly here even tried to straighten up his hair : with him being so smart, punctual, and the threat of a no-mass-murderer, if things does go wrong, it's going to be some serious presage : probably the harbinger of the coming of age of the Cristal-ball-eating blue ant."
Her comment left the entire kitchen gobsmacked, and with the cotton-rabbits still waging war in her head, the reason as for why was a bit tricky to figure out…
"What, now that I'm awake, I DO remember the conversations we had this morning, just because I'm tired…"
"I think our surprise has more to do with cristal ball eating blue ant than anything… I mean, where does that EVEN come from ?" asked Hermione, with an air of being totally out of her depth on this one, which was quite unusual on her usually well-versed face.
"Herr… Sorry about that… When I'm tired, I just start making up stuff that clearly doesn't make much sense. Maybe I SHOULD go to bed before those damn rabbits make me say more non-sense…"
"Rabbits…" Georges asked with a look that seemed equally worried and excited.
"Brain-rabbit-clouds… Making it harder to concentrate… Whatever, I'm not on the job, I can afford to be a bit nonsensical at the moment…"
"Please, keep going !" said Fred, clearly delighted by the turn of conversation.
"We wouldn't dream of depriving you of a well-deserved nonsensical episode," added Georges.
"Boys ! That's enough ! I'm going to make sure a bed is ready for you, I'll be back soon," declared Mrs Weasley – Molly, she asked to be called during the first order meeting, Molly, not Mrs Weasley…
As soon as Mrs… Molly had left the room, the twins immediately rallied to keep asking questions about the dangers of the crystal ball eating blue ant, the origins of the brains-rabbits, what she remembered about other exhaustion-induced nonsensical moments, and how badly the straightening up of Harry's hair had gone.
Trying to focus on the less future-ridicule inducing subject, she choose to concentrate (go away damn rabbits !) on Harry's indomitable hair, explaining how little effect the attempt had got, and how it was even more of a bird-nest after than it was before, only lacking a few eggs to be honest.
"Actually, at that point, it's quite obvious no comb will ever manage that feat. It would be much more effective to simply cut it all extremely short : in that case, no one will see how messy it get, too short to point in every directions, or on the contrary, to let it grow until it's long enough to use braids, or I don't know what to keep it at least apparently tamed…"
"No way", snorted Ron,"Not even that would work, I'm sure : his hair totally seems to have a mind of its own : I mean, I never saw him cut it, but it doesn't grow longer anyway, so that's for the braids – good one, by the way, I have to remember to think about what Harry would look like with braids – and he told us about how his aunt tried to cut his hair, once, and it grow back during the night : so no way the shorter version is going to work either."
The rabbits seemed to be suddenly much quieter.
"What do you mean, it grow back during the night ?"
"Well, I guess it was some kind of accidental magic, at the time, except that it must have been seriously powerful to keep working today. I bet his aunt is a seriously catastrophic hairdresser…"
The rabbits were actually walking on egg-shell, right now…
"Do you have any idea how old he was when that happened ?"
"He didn't really say, he wasn't too sure of the details (apparently, it's one of the first bout of accidental magic he remembers more or less clearly) but I think I remember him saying his aunt wanted to cut his hair for the beginning of school, so if it was the beginning of primary school, he would have been about six year old", answered Hermione, " it's quite interesting, actually, because now that I think about it, spells to cut hair are pretty straight-forward, but to regrow them, they are much more complicated, not mentioning keeping them at the same length for such a long time : I don't think I heard of a spell that can do that yet, because a spell that can stop the growth of hair would be very interesting to study to see if it could be applied to others area, maybe against growing old, especially… It's incredible how some things apparently possible to do instinctively are supposedly impossible as soon as we try to get an actual understanding of HOW it's actually working…"
The rabbits were now totally silent : no clouds in her head. Everything suddenly had a crystal clear appearance. She knew it was the calm before the hurricane, that she would soon lose this clarity that came from the nearly impossible combination of exhaustion and awareness, that she had to write her suspicions down as quickly as possible, before she lost the reasoning behind said suspicions in her excitement / incredulity / wonder and everything else she was going to feel at the same time as soon as that unnatural clarity would be gone. But she also knew that she would need find more clues before letting anyone into her revelation : it was too big to share with the class before being absolutely certain. And even then, it was too personal a matter to bring it up unless Harry agreed with it… If she was right… Which she was pretty sure was the case… She seriously needed to ask a few questions to her mom… But if she was right… Harry very well could be a metamorphmagus !
"Tonks dear, Ginny's bed is ready, are you sure you're awake enough to find it on your own ?"
"I'm totally awake right now, Molly, don't worry, actually, I'm going to have to pass on your offer, I just remembered that I have an urgent appointment that I really, really can't afford to miss. I'm on my way", she said standing up suddenly, surprising everyone again," See you soon everyone !"
"Wait you're planning to travel by floo right now ? It's dangerous, Tonks, what if you mispronounce your destination, you could end up pretty much anywhere !"
"Good thing I'm not planning to use the floo, then", she continued, grabing her coat and exiting in the corridor.
"Muggles way could be far worse Tonks, please, you're really exhausted, it's asking for bad luck to strike, just rest a few hours, everything will be much more clear…"
"No way, I don't think my thoughts have ever been clearer, which is good, given that I don't have the time for muggle ways either, so I'll have to apparate. But I promise I'll be careful and go to sleep very soon"
She managed to cross the corridor without tripping a single time, not even on that stupid umbrella stand (quite an accomplishment, that), while avoiding Molly, and exited on the front porch, where she immediately focused on her parents garden, to pop-out hearing Molly almost begging for her to stay, and apparate next to the apple-tree her dad had planted when she was born.
Well, normally, she would have listened, but the strange clarity was already starting to crumble under various emotions she really didn't care analyzing, right now. She had to write down the clues, development, conclusions, and the questions which would allow her to dig deeper in her brand new discovery, then and only then would she allow herself to crash on her bed and sleep for a week, which was one of the reasons she came back to her parents' home, and not her little apartment on Diagon Alley : she didn't shop for any food those last few days and wouldn't last long, plus here, she would be able to ask her questions to her mother immediately after waking up. Maybe her father could come up with some answers too.
After a good-morning kiss to her mother and mumbling something about a tiring day at work, she got to her old room and started listing the various points building her theory :
1 : accidental magic only ever provoke things that actually can be done with a non-accidental spell (even if sometimes, the spell in question hasn't been discovered yet)
2 : No matter how many people tried to study way to change one's appearance with magic, spell by themselves are NOT able to modify said appearance for longer than a few hours at best : any longer effect need potions, enchanted object to keep the spell powered (but in that case, said object don't really need the spell : it just need to be enchanted to modify the person appearance), or some kind of other form of magic anyway.
3 : Harry Potter, at age 6 (presumably), did "accidental magic" that resulted in a change of appearance still in effect (to the point no one seems to notice anything special about that)
4 : Metamorphmagus' magic is completely different from the one used to cast spells, which is totally obvious, given how little metamorphmagus there are : 2 in Britain in total, and the other being an old bat completely nuts, at the very least a century and a half old… And she can keep her appearance unmoving for days, if she concentrates enough (tiring, to focus so much for NOT changing, and totally boring, yes, but definitely possible)
Questions :
When did SHE manifested metamophmagus ability for the first time ? What prompted it ? How did she control it (or not) at the beginning ?
What of others metamorphmagus ? Are there different "level" of metamorphmagus ability, where one could change everything about herself within the same general volume and weight, when another could only change his hair, and even, only its length ?
There was some serious digging into it to do… But first, she needed to finally sleep… Never doing more than the one all-nighter at the time : it's a killer… And apparently, the brain-cotton-rabbit-cloud decided it was a good time to come back and dance with crystal-ball eating blue ants so seriously, it was such a good time to let go and sleep for, like, a year…
Again, a little Author Note : If that chapter provoke some big realisation on your part, and you decide to make your own story from this point on, I have no problem letting anyone use it as some kind of prompt : I've always wanted a story with a good reason for Harry to be a metamorphmagus, so please, go ahead (and don't hesitate to mp-me and give me a link to your own story : i'm interested)
On a totally different note : Most review are welcome, all are read, and I do my best to answer. They certainly help my ego confort. But if you don't feel like leaving any, I completely understand too : I know myself to be a terrible reviewer (I must have given a grand total of 5 review since I found this website), so I completely understand my readers' right to be shy and/or lazy : after all : that's exactly my own problem !
Now, I hope you liked this chapter, and that you will keep liking the next ones, even if they obviously won't be the same : Among other thing, Tonks won't be half-asleep in most of them... Too bad...
