Chapter 3

For Harry, Hermione, and Hedwig the next few weeks were both the strangest and the most fun filled weeks of their lives so far. Both their magic, and physical form had changed allowing them to do much more than it could before. Their new bodies held so much potential for them, and they were excited to find out just what they could do.

The first thing they worked on though, was just learning how to walk around. Changing from a human's long foot, to a unicorns cloven narrow hooved feet meant balance was much harder for Harry and Hermione, and nearly impossible for Hedwig, who used to have the gripping clawed feet of an owl. This loss of control led to more than a couple bruise and cuts before anyone of them began getting the hang of it.

The next thing they worked on, was the use of their large wings. Like Maleficent's own, theirs were massive, and powerful, one wing along held enough strength in its muscles to break a small tree in half. That was of course if they had been in full working order. Harry's and Hermione's though lacked much of the needed strength to last more than a few moments in the air, and that was only once they had gotten into the air.

Hedwig on the other hand was finding other difficulties in flying. Without her normal streamline body, or tail to help her control her movements through the air, she found herself losing control far faster than Harry or Hermione once she was in the air. Maleficent though was quick to point out, that without her feathered tail she would and the others would have to rely much more on their own magic to keep them stable in the air.

Which lead them right to the next issue, using magic. Wizards and Witches were the only known creatures to ever regularly use a medium to control it, wands, staffs, or even runes; and had forbad any other creature from using most of these things. Not that it really mattered as most any other magical creature was able to use magic without any sort of aid. It was only a few times when such an item was needed, and this was normally when the creature wanted to cast a spell it was normally unable to by just itself and had far reaching effects.

For Harry, Hermione and indeed Hedwig, this was proving to be a bit of a problem. Harry and Hermione had never really done magic without a wand before. Harry had only done so when she had been rather emotionally distressed, while Hermione's own had always been without thinking but still on accident. Hedwig had magic of her own, but it was not used for flying, but rather it gave her more strength for longer flights, as well as the ability to locate anyone to deliver them their mail.

But still they moved onward, working hard as they could to master these new skills even if they would not be able to master most of them anytime soon. Harry found, one day when they did some gliding by using a large cliff to jump off, the wind blowing through her hair, over her body, and under her powerful wings to be just as thrilling as when she flew about on her broom. She wanted to spend hours in the air training, till she could fly for hours on end.

But as much as Harry wished for this, and the others to master their own skills, Hermione wandless magic, and Hedwig to flying alongside Harry. There was a limit on just how long they could go before they would have to stop for the day and rest. Or risk being hurt by their wings cramping up, or other such thing.

None the less their wish to progress was showing actual progress. By the end of the second week Harry, Hermione and Hedwig were able to hover in the air, and land without risk of injury, and their abilities in wandless magic had finally begun to show.

Still though there were other things to work on. Harry had become a female, and her body was much different form a normal humans. With her longer hair, wings and horn, plus now lacking need for glasses to make out details lead to her spending hours looking at herself in a mirror. She most of the time did not recognize herself in the mirror at first glance. Hermione on the other hand, was the closely one to how she originally looked, though her wings and horn still gave her a few moments pause.

For Hedwig, nothing about herself looked or felt the same at all. She was relearning nearly everything about herself, not she was about to complain though. Harry and Hermione were more than willing to help her anytime she needed it. It was this fact that they had the others to worry about, not just themselves, that kept them from sliding into feeling sorry for themselves.

Though the one thing that really did bugged Hedwig more than the others, her lacking speech. She was trying, but a hard beak and stiff tongue, was nothing compared to the soft lips, and flexible tongue of her new body. This alone made it hard for her begin talking. There were so many ways to move her new face she was not sure if she would ever figure out all the different faces she could make. Harry could not help but laugh when Hedwig would stop in front of a mirror and make a weird face, just to see if she could. But none the less she was dead set on mastering the ability to talk.

So one day, still a few weeks later as the group of three were sitting down to eat lunch did something happen that they had not expected. Someone came into the cabin they had not expected. They did not look up right away, as Maleficent had more than a few different fairies stop by to keep an eye on them while she was out and about, so someone stopping by was not different. But the sound of hard leather boots on the floor did catch their attention, as all others did not normally wear any sort of foot wear.

Turning around the three of them spotted the last person anyone of them had expected, or hoped to see. Albus Dumbledore, his long white beard, long blue robe, and half-moon spectacles had just entered into the house and was looking at them. There was not any sign on realizing who they were yet, but Harry doubted that would last long.

"Hello there," Hermione was the first to speak, having gotten over her shock first, "who are you?"

Dumbledore did not reply right away as he fixed Hermione with his blue eyes, staring at her for a few moments. Hermione's feeling of being x-rayed translated lightly over the bond they had, but as Dumbledore looked about the building one more time he spoke.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore Headmaster at the nearby school, Hogwarts. I am looking for a boy named Harry Potter, would you happen to know his location?" Dumbledore asked, looking over at the group.

Harry was sitting at the table actually facing towards Dumbledore currently. Hermione were sitting on either side, their wings blocking much of their facial features from his view. This was probably a very good thing as it meant the most recognizable of the group, Hermione, was much harder to recognize. But that did not mean it was impossible for Dumbledore to realize who Harry was, he was a very smart man after all.

"No I cannot say I do," Hermione said, as she began to peel an apple.

"I see, well my sources have directed me towards this cottage as his last known location," Dumbledore explained.

"Really, here near the edge of the Great Moors," Hermione said as if she was surprised, "Humans have not been this deep into the Moors for hundreds of years. Even witches and wizards rarely come this deep, you are the first in nearly two hundred years."

"I see," Dumbledore said frowning some.

Harry was getting the distinct impression that Dumbledore was not believing Hermione's answer. But what could they really do, it was not as if they could tell him the truth. Well at least not yet. Not one of them currently trusted anyone, even sadly enough Hagrid, at Hogwarts. And Albus Dumbledore was at the top of the list of people they could not trust.

"Why do you think he is out here?" Harry then asked, trying to not give Dumbledore enough time to think to long about their group.

"I have a few items that help me track students when they travel outside the normal school wards," Dumbledore replied.

"And you had one such tracker on this boy Harry," Harry asked, carefully keeping her tone as level as she could.

"Yes, it went dead a day after he had gone missing. But it was not until recently I was able to get the spell on my tracker to at least point me in the last direction he had been in from it," Dumbledore explained.

"Why did you have one on him, if I may ask," Hermione asked, noticing Harry was looking a little annoyed.

"It is standard practice to do so if a student should be heading into what most call the Forbidden Forest," Dumbledore explained.

Harry doubted that to be true. For one none of them had had a tracking spell placed on them before they had left the school on that night nearly a month ago. Flitch, nor Hagrid had done it as Flitch had only taken them from the castle done to Hagrid's hut. And Hagrid had only been able to track down Draco's group because of sparks being sent skyward, or when Draco had run off for help. So it was more than likely the spell had been placed on Harry, or something she had owned long before then.

That did not matter now though. Maleficent and Diaval had retrieved more than a few of their things, but all clothes had been left up at the castle. This was not because the clothes were bad, but rather with their new bodies they would not fit correctly. So rather than trying to refit the clothes to Harry and Hermione, Maleficent had shown them, and helped them make new clothes for them to wear. Their old clothes had been put to use as spell targets for their wandless magic training.

"I see, well we cannot help you still. But we shall keep our eyes and ears open," Harry replied.

"I understand. I shall be off then, I have more places to search," Dumbledore said before leaving the cottage.

Harry and the others wait a few moments after the door closes before hurrying over to the windows and carefully peered out to see if Dumbledore had truly gone. It took them a while but after a few moments they were pretty sure he had left. Walking back over to the chairs they sat down for a few moments, calming down after that rather tense few moments.

"That was to close," Harry said, still glancing at the windows every now and again.

"I agree, do you think he believed us," Hermione asked.

Hedwig shook her head as Harry spoke, "he might have been suspicious, but he did not have enough evidence to know for sure. He might have felt it would be better to move on, and at least wait for more information before angering the fairies of the Moors."

"You think he is worried about the fairies?" Hermione asked.

"Of all people to understand the danger a place holds, I bet anything he would understand it the best. I mean the Forbidden Forest is call that for a reason," Harry pointed out.

"Makes sense. Though that means if he thinks we are lying he will come back sometime, maybe even uncover the truth," Hermione said looking a little worried.

"Then it would be best if we found a different location to live soon, only question would be where that should be," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Well, one thing we could do would be to head back to Hogwarts," Hermione said, earning a looking of stunned shock from both Hedwig and Harry.

"Go back to Hogwarts?! Are you sure that last fall you had did not knock some sense out of you?" Harry asked a little more serious that normal.

"I am just fine, nor am I going crazy," Hermione said, in a level tone.

"Okay, then explain this non-crazy plan to me," Harry said in a rather blunt tone.

"Well, if we use this summer to master our magical skills we could return to Hogwarts and hide our new forms from everyone. From there, we can work to learn why Dumbledore, or whoever it is, is trying to control you. Once we find out that, we can then make a decision to stay at Hogwarts or come back here," Hermione said.

"Hide our real forms," Harry said, looking over Hermione's wings, and Hedwig's new form, "I am not sure how well that would work. Dumbledore seems to make it his business to known what is going on around the school, big or small things. So hiding this from him would be almost impossible."

"Yes, he is the biggest obstacle we are currently facing," Hermione agreed, before nodding at Hedwig, "That and we need to know what you want to do. If we go, you will have to become a student, or stay here."

Hedwig nodded in understanding. They had been learning a little bit about the transformation magic of the fairy kind. They ability allowed them to change anyone they wished into any form they wished, but spell had its limits. The first being depending on the amount of magic their target held, the spell would only last for so long. That was unless they were adding magic to the spell as to keep it running.

The second big thing being their ability to cast the spell, and for that matter cast it on themselves. Maleficent had pointed out, they if they wished to change their bodies, they could only change into the different forms that made up their bodies different parts. In this case a Unicorn, Human, or Owl, but it was likely that anyone of these forms would feel very unnatural to them after a short while. And keeping them in their other forms would be very tiring thanks to their young age. So it meant they would have to find a different spell.

Hedwig sighed, she did not want to head back to the school, and it was unsafe for anyone of them. But Hermione had a point, the best thing to do would be to hide in plain sight, and let things happen to figure out just what was going on. But where did that leave her.

Hedwig was not fool enough to think she had the needed magical powers to use a wand. Her magical core, as Maleficent explained was much smaller than Harry's or Hermione's own, even if it would grow over time to better match her new body. Plus, if she was completely honest with herself, she was just plain scared.

Before it had been simple, be the best pet she could be. Deliver letters, steal bacon when possible, and in general keep her owner safe. Hedwig was sure if life had been allowed to go on like it had been she would have come to more than love her life as an owl. Harry was a great owner, and seemed to care for her greatly in spite of getting her less than a year ago.

But then this happened, and everything that had happened, everything that could happen was now something that would directly affect her. She could no longer stand off to the side and let Harry lead. She had to be able to take charger if need be, and make her own decisions. Not that was not a bad thing, but she had never done it before.

Though the reward was going to be a lot better than she could have hoped, Harry had proven very quickly that he cared for her. Even when just an owl she knew he would do most anything for her. And now, Harry probably would do anything for her if needed. That was not to say she would not have done the same for him, but well it just felt different now.

As she looked Hermione then Harry, both of which were patiently waiting for some sort of answer from her. She could not help but feel she might as well stay with them, and face whatever they were facing, together as a human. Hedwig then looked at Harry smiling and nodding. Though she had not spoken, because of the small bond they shared, Harry knew that she wished to stay with them no matter what came up next.

Hermione grinned at this, "Well then at least we know the group is not splitting up, but how should we do this. If we head into the school without some sort of game plan, then we will be caught in Dumbledore's trap quickly."

As such for the rest of the day, outside when they went out to practice the use of their wings, and magic. It when Maleficent returned closer to the days end did they let her know what had happened. Maleficent was unhappy and annoyed to say the least.

"You should have come and found me sooner, or sent one of the other fairies to alert me." Maleficent said, her tone held no anger, but they could see it hidden just behind her eyes.

"We did not know where you had gone, besides he did not seem to be to set on just grabbing and running," Harry said, "We felt it would be okay to wait till you returned."

"I guess you have a point, but you still should have let me know as soon as you could of. It is not good to know a human, wizard or not, that can get this far into the Moors without being found out," Maleficent said, as she paced back and forth in the kitchen.

"But you did not known we were in the forest when you first spotted us," Hermione pointed out.

"True, but that is nearest we will venture normally when heading towards the school. The border we keep an eye on is only a couple hundred feet away from where the attack took place," Maleficent explained, before adding, "Had you passed that I, or one of the Guardians of the Moor would have been told at once."

"How is the Unicorn doing by the way," Harry asked.

"She is doing just fine, the marks from the attack have disappeared," Maleficent said with a small smile.

"That is good," Harry said happily.

"Yes I agree, but now we must talk to you about something else. We are planning on returning to the school at the beginning of next year. This incident with Dumbledore made me realize we still don't know why he was trying to control us. And to be honest I rather return the castle on our own terms than his," Hermione said, her wings closing around her body.

"That is probably a good point, plus I doubt your parents will want for you to lose at the young age of twelves," Maleficent said smiling.

"Yes, I hope we can see them some as well," Hermione admitted.

It was thanks to Hedwig, as Harry had been letting her borrow her after Halloween, and now Diaval that Hermione had been able to stay in contact with her parents. They were not happy to say the least about Hermione's latest adventures and its outcome. But there was not much either of them could do about it. But it did help that Hermione did at least try and stay in contact with them.

"Yes. So what do you have planned for your return to Hogwarts?" Maleficent asked.

"First we need to send a letter to Hogwarts explaining some sort of story. With luck we should be able to get us all into Hogwarts, and into the same year as well without to many questions. From there we need to work making it look like we are casting spells with our wand, or find a good explanation behind our ability to use wandless magic," Hermione explained.

"Not bad, what about your wings and feet?" Maleficent asked.

"Well, we will have to hide them with some sort of illusion, or learn to control our forms better. Once we have that, and our wandless ability figured, and are back at school, we can then work on finding out what Dumbledore wants from us, or at least form Harry," Hermione said, explaining the rest.

"Seems like a good plan, what would you do if or more likely when your found out," Maleficent asked.

"Not sure yet, I mean we still have to send the letter and begin setting things up. Plus there is the fact we might have to reveal what we are anyway before going. Harry at the very least will have to reveal some of her changes," Hermione said.

"So you're taking a wait and see approach to your escape plan," Maleficent said frowning a little bit, "Not a very good idea."

"Don't have that much of a choice," Hermione pointed out, "I mean it is not like we can hide out here forever till we known what is going on. Nor do any of us want to hide from everyone forever. Dumbledore will return and I doubt he will be so easy to persuade to leave next time, or give up so easily either."

"I agree," Harry said.

It was then that Hermione spoke the thing that had been on Harry's, Hermione's and Hedwig's mind but they had not spoken about yet though, "Maleficent, what would happen if Dumbledore tried to change us back, or break the bond we now shared?"

"He would find it hard to keep your bodies, or the bond from reforming. Fairy magic, especially those of powerful magic creatures, such as unicorns, is hard to control at the best at times. In the case of your being Changelings, one misstep on his part and he or others would be caught in the magical backlash of his spells failing, and with three of you bond together memory charms will be much harder to apply let alone make last," Maleficent explained.

"Interesting," Hermione said thoughtfully, thinking about how to use this in the letter she would soon be writing.

"Maleficent, how do you know all this stuff about Changelings, you never told us before," Harry said.

"Well I am a Changeling myself. I am part dragon," Maleficent said, suppressing a small grin at the others faces.

"A dragon!" Harry and Hermione said in stunned shock.

"Yes, a dragon, it happened when I was a baby. There was an attack on my village, and another fairy saved my life and her own, by using the magic within the dragon's fire. I changed because my magical core was still forming at the time, and took in some of this magic, leading to my own change. Or so I have been told, as I was too young to remember the events," Maleficent explained.

"I take it you were raised by the fairies then," Harry guessed, still in awe of the fact of Maleficent being a Dragon based Changeling.

"Yes, it was not until I was a good deal older did I learn about my rather unusually background. In fact, out of all the Changelings I have met over the years, the only ones that actually have a more unusually creature providing them magic for their change, would be your three," Maleficent said smiling at them, "You see, most creatures that have as much power as a Unicorn or a dragon when placed in a human body it normally leads to their death. That is why drinking Unicorn blood is so dangerous."

"I thought it just lead to be you being cursed," Harry said.

"Well no, you see it goes along the lines of too much of a good thing is bad for you. The magic in a Unicorns blood, will save your life, but it then begins to burn away your own magical core. As the magic is in the blood it is hundreds of times more potent then released normally through the horn," Maleficent explained.

Harry could not help but shiver slightly as what this would have meant for her, if she had gotten any of the Unicorns blood into her body, rather than just through the horn.

"What would have happened if I had gotten a few drops of blood in my mouth by accident back when I was helping the unicorn? Instead of just being touched by the magic?" Harry could not help but ask.

"In all honest, even if I had bound you like I did now, you would all still likely almost completely turned into a unicorn," Maleficent explained.

Harry as well as the others suppressed a shiver this time. Harry had been scared of become a Unicorn, but she did not realize just how close she really been to that point of no return. What was worse, she might have ended up dragging Hermione and Hedwig along as well. Hermione and possibly Hedwig would have tried anything to save her, and in the end would likely shared Harry's fate.

"Well at least that did not happen," Harry said, looking down at her hands.

"Yes, the magic in you has stabilized a good deal, so any more changes are highly unlikely. Not impossible though," Maleficent added the last part.

"Well I can deal with more change, as long as it is not full body," Harry said smiling, and getting a nod of agreement form the others.

"I would agree, but for now we must worry about other things," Maleficent said drawing their attention back to the matter at hand.

"Yes," Hermione said.

With that they began working out the details of the letter that would soon be sent to both Dumbledore and McGonagall. It took a good long while to write them out, not from lack of supplies, but rather making sure they worded the letters correctly. If they gave to much information, or to little it could cause them problems. Hermione fretted about the letters for more than a day. But finally both were done and off for delivery, and now all they could do was sit and wait for a reply.