A/N- this was my fav chapter to write, hopefully you'll enjoy reading it just as much
Christmas passed, the castle filled again with students, snow still covered the grounds, and Regina took great solace in being back. She couldn't help the wide smile that overtook her features when she walked through the entrance to the Great Hall for the first time after break. Unlike the first train of the school year, after break trains arrived at the castle every few hours. Regina was on the last train of the day, arriving just in time for dinner. She came through the main doors of the castle to be greeted by warm lights, the smell of a great feast, and the high spirits of friends reuniting. All around were students hugging and talking and for a moment Regina let herself get lost in this feeling of belonging.
Before she knew it, she was swept up into a strong hug and spun around in a circle. She was laughing when she was finally placed back on the ground, "Good to see you too, Daniel."
"How are you? I want to hear every single detail about you break." He demanded, keeping an arm around her shoulders and steering her into the Great Hall. He tried to lead her to the Hufflepuff table but she took hold of his arm and brought him to her usual spot at the Slytherin table.
It was a small thing the two of them did, Daniel always tried to get Regina to sit at the Hufflepuff table, and throughout their seven years she had never sat anywhere but the Slytherin one.
She smiled cordially to Zelena and her other friends as they sat and had dinner, Kathryn slid in beside them just as the main course vanished and desert appeared on the table.
"Overslept." Was the only explanation she gave as she sheepishly plated herself a hefty couple of slices of pie.
After dinner was a brief Prefect's meeting to go over the schedule for the new term and break into pairs to patrol the castle in pairs just as they had done on the first night. This time though, Regina made her move. She read off the pairs she had preassigned, Mills and Swan were last, and she pretended that it didn't hurt when Emma's expression was one of trepidation at the assignment.
They walked in relative silence towards the Astronomy tower where their patrol was to start. Regina took a second, reminding herself of her commitment to not hold back with this anymore, "How was your holiday?"
"Good, I stayed at the castle. It was enjoyable."
"Nice." Regina nodded stalling out.
"How was yours?"
"Good." Regina mentally kicked herself. This was terribly awkward. She knows how to talk to people, why was this going so badly?
Emma grasped her wand by the tip and tossed it in the air,catching it and repeating, "How did it go, telling uh- telling you family?"
"Better than expected actually." Regina watched the blonde's wand spinning end over end in the air before she caught it and tossed it up again, "My mother was less than pleased, but my father was supportive. It might have been the first time in their marriage that he actually showed his disagreement with her. And despite what I thought, my mother didn't disown me."
"Oh." Emma prompted her to continue.
"Apparently the public image of an estranged child is worse than that of a deviant one." Regina said, her voice laced with contempt, "Now she looks like a goddamn saint for not turning me out. She's turned herself into a fucking martyr. Brilliant actually."
She regretted her words instantly, though Emma hadn't stopped throwing her wand, but Regina knew that the mood had shifted.
"Anyway, still not my worst holiday." Regina smiled, trying to shift some attention off herself.
Emma smiled reassuringly back at her, "I'm so happy for you." She said genuinely.
Regina blushed, this was too much, too personal, she had been back at the castle for less than eight hours and here she was spilling her guts to the object of her affection, "So anyway, what do you think of your chances at finally beating Slytherin out for the quidditch cup?"
Emma chuckled, "Hey we won my first two years!"
"Yeah, that's because our incompetent captain had me playing beater."
"That certainly was an interesting line up."
"Yeah." Regina laughed, "You think I take out players as a chaser, you should have seen me as a beater."
"Oh, I remember! You knocked me off my broom in my first ever match!"
Regina chuckled, she had forgotten about that. She was a third year and still pissed off that she was playing as a beater while she knew she was a better chaser. But she was not petty, she did her very best, competing to be the beater who removed the most players from the game- she won that title both years she played as a beater.
This game was the first of the season and her captain had egged her on to assert her dominance over the new Gryffindor players. In the first fifteen minutes she had hit bludgers that knocked Emma and Ruby off their brooms (the only new players on the Gryffindor team).
"I had completely forgotten that was you." Regina smirked.
"Ruby still talks about it sometimes."
"Is that why she dislikes me so much?"
They laughed together, and Regina couldn't ignore how good this felt, how right. How the light flickering off the torch on the wall beside them cast the most daring shadows across Emma's face, how Regina wanted nothing more than to kiss her. But she wouldn't, that was the beginning of the end last time. Regina was certain, she wanted the next time she kissed Emma to be in the sunlight, the rays warming their skin, no thoughts of hiding.
They finished their patrol at the entrance to Gryffindor tower and the portrait of the Fat Lady eyed Regina warily, apparently not yet having forgotten the brunette's desperate move last time they were here.
"I guess we'll just have to wait a few weeks and see who comes out on top." Emma challenge, referring to the next meeting between their houses on the quidditch pitch.
"Suppose so." Regina smiled, "Hey, would you maybe like to go grab a cup of coffee or something sometime?" Regina cringed internally, really, that was her best move?
"I'm not sure."
"What can I do to convince you?"
Emma looked down in contemplation, "I don't know, I'm just afraid that the same thing will happen again. I don't want to be someone's secret, show me that you're ready for something real."
Regina's eyebrows furrowed. How in the hell was she supposed to do that? But she hadn't gotten a direct no, and she wasn't about to push beyond that.
"Okay, sleep well."
Emma smiled in something like relief, "Thank you, good night."
Regina nodded a bit awkwardly and turned on her heel to head back to her own common room. How was she going to show Emma that she was serious this time?
…
The next few days were easy, the regular rhythm of school picked back up and Regina fell into a comfortable schedule though Emma's words weighed in the back of her mind. She would figure out some way to convince the blonde she was serious and she wasn't hiding, she just had to figure out how.
She knew that dwelling upon it would do no good. So she found something else to dwell on. She redoubled her efforts, spending more time in the library researching, and finally she was ready to try again.
It was the middle of the night and she was standing in her room trying to screw up her courage to try again. Finally with a little mental kick and a deep breath she focused her energy and tried again.
All Regina could feel was white hot pain, searing through her body, from the very tips of her toes to the top of her scalp. A moment of blinding pain before everything started moving, her bones shifted, some growing and others shrinking. She felt her muscles getting taught and strong, hair covering her body. And in an instant it was over. The transformation was complete, Regina took a moment to try and take stock of herself.
She was short, well shorter, she was now eye level with her bedside table, about three feet tall. Turning in a small circle she ascertained that she was in the form of a four legged creature with a tail and a snout, her fur was a dark brown to match her hair color, longer and shaggier than the fur of a big cat.
Regina wished she had thought to put a mirror down on the floor so she could see herself in this shape. Her only mirror was up on top of her dresser. With little effort, Regina jumped up, her front feet- paws?- landing on the top of her dresser and she reached up her neck to peek at her reflection, when she saw herself she fell over.
A high whine escaped her mouth- snout?- as she landed on the floor. She rolled over in a motion that felt all too natural and leapt up again, staring at her reflection. A large wolf stared back.
She admired her face in her animagus form, pleasantly surprised at the form she had taken after reading stories of people who turned into bugs or sea animals when they changed. Not that being able to transform into a killer whale wasn't awesome, just difficult when you learn about it for the first time in a landlocked space.
Regina had expected to take the form of a crow, it was her patronus afterall, and she knew it was rather common for wizards to take the form of their patronus.
As she was examining herself still, her door banged open. Regina leapt back down onto four feet and turned to face the intrusion, her hackles raised and teeth bared instinctively. Emma stood in her doorway, one hand outstretched, the other reaching back to pull out her wand. Regina scared, not wanting Emma to hex her in this state, she tried to jump forward to stop the blonde but it just made her whip out her wand faster, "No, stay back!" Emma shouted. Regina wanted to change back, she was trying but her pulse was too accelerated, she was too scared from being caught and now having a wand pointed between her eyes she couldn't focus enough. She recalled an account she had read of a young wizard who died after transforming for the first time- his animagus was a bull shark and he couldn't calm his heart enough to get his focus to turn back into a human and he suffocated. Regina was panicking.
For the first time it crossed Regina's mind that Emma had no idea that it was her, that the blonde was probably freaked out too by walking into a dorm room and finding a wolf. The thought made Regina laugh, her laugh though came out as a hoarse pant. Trying not to scare Emma further, Regina laid down, putting her head in her front paws and looking up at Emma with her mouth open and tongue lolling.
"Good doggy." Emma breathed out shakily, her hand still up in front of her.
Involuntarily Regina let out a fierce snarl at being called 'doggy'. She chastised herself when she saw Emma jump and she tried to calm herself again. She needed to be focused if she were going to transform back.
Closing her eyes, Regina took a deep breath, centering in on her heartbeat and on forcing it to slow down. Finally when she felt in control once again, Regina tried to change back. She knew that she had it right when she heard Emma yell, "Oh fuck, Regina."
Acutely aware of how the slight breeze in her room blew across her naked skin, Regina turned her back on the blonde and pulled on her robe, "What can I do for you, Swan?" Regina asked.
"I was um-" Emma stuttered out before losing focus entirely, "Holy fuck Regina. are you an animagus?"
The Slytherin couldn't contain the proud little smirk the grew on her face, "Yes, I've been training for a while but this was actually the first time I've had a complete transformation."
"Shit wow, that's uh that's really impressive Regina."
"Thanks."
"Wait, are you registered?"
"Not the point, Emma. Not that I don't welcome the intrusion, what are you doing here?"
"We um, we had an issue during patrol tonight and thought it was best to get you and Daniel to consult on it." Emma explained, still clearly distracted by her new discovery, "Did someone mentor you, how did you-"
Regina chuckled a bit, "No, I did some independent study. I'll get dressed and be down in a moment."
"Is this what you were doing that day I walked in on you in the Prefect's bathroom?"
"Yes." She went to her wardrobe and pulled out a sweater and a pair of shorts, "Any more questions?"
Emma blushed, "No, uh I'll meet you in the common room."
Regina waited until Emma left before she let out a full throaty laugh, well Emma had seen her naked again. Not quite under the circumstances she had been hoping, but nevertheless- she really would have to figure out a charm so her clothes wouldn't burst off of her when she shifted. But she had done it. She had transformed completely, she saw her animagus form.
That in itself was the greatest victory she had single handedly achieved. She did that for herself, not for her mother, or for some exam, or because she was told to.
She trained herself to become an animagus.
…
Regina had thought long and hard, and she had her plan. It had taken about a week to put together and she was pulling out all the stops. Emma wanted to know she was serious, that it wasn't going to be like the last time, and Regina was going to show her. She chose dinner, arriving early and sitting in wait at the Slytherin table, Kathryn and Daniel both knew what she was planning to do and they were sitting across from her, smiling in moral support.
Regina nervously twirled her wand around her fingers, every so often stopping and tapping it against the table, making small green sparks fly out. Kathryn watched with a smirk then laid her hand over Regina's, "It's going to be fine, you've practiced it plenty, you know this is going to work. Don't stress out over this too much."
Regina gave her a weak smile in return.
Her attention was pulled when she saw Emma and her usual gang of Gryffindors enter the Great Hall. Regina took a breath and gripped her wand tightly, she smoothed down her hair once before standing.
"You got this Gina!" Daniel cheered, smacking her ass as she passed.
She glared at him shortly and he shrugged, "Isn't that supposed to be a good luck thing with jocks?"
Kathryn laughed and shook her head, "Oh Danny boy."
Regina did her best to ignore the words of her friends as she walked to the end of her table. She raised her wand up, pointing it directly above her at the ceiling and flicked it in an intricate swirl pattern. The other students took notice, whispering and pointing and to Regina's great relief the stars on the ceiling began to swirl as well. They were in a state of chaos for a moment before distinct letters spelled themselves out-
'Emma Swan,
Will you date me?
-Regina Mills'
The brunette let her arm fall to her side, breathing a sigh of relief that the charm worked. It had taken her a bit to figure out how to bypass the enchantment on the felony which made it reflect the current weather patterns, but once she had it was just a simple spell to rearrange the stars how she needed them.
Now she stood waiting, all eyes flitting between where she was standing in the middle of the Great Hall and Emma.
Emma sitting frozen at the Gryffindor table, her gaze on the ceiling, a drumstick in front of her mouth from where she must have paused about to take a bite. For the first time ever, Regina thanked the gods for Ruby as the brunette sharply elbowed her friend and nodded over to where Regina was waiting. The blonde dropped her chicken leg and wiped her hands and mouth with her napkin hastily before standing and walking quickly towards Regina. A wide grin had betrayed itself on her face and her pace quickened as she got closer to the brunette. Emma didn't pause when she reached Regina, rather she flung her arms around the brunette and hugged her close. Regina pulled away with a laugh, "Can I take that as a yes?"
Emma blushed a bit, "Yes, I would love to go out with you."
Regina's grin was blinding as she rocked up on her toes to kiss her soundly. Emma responded enthusiastically and they were brought back to the present when Daniel let out a large whoop from the Slytherin table, Kathryn joined his cheering and soon the entire hall was applauding and hollering.
"Have a seat and kindly return our ceiling to its original state Miss Mills!" Professor McGonagall yelled over the ruckus. Reluctantly, Regina stepped away from Emma and waved her wand at the ceiling, dispelling the stars from their message and scattering them once more. She waved her wand again, producing a bouquet of flowers from the tip that she handed to Emma with a wink.
"That is so cheesy." The blonde accused.
"I think it's sweet." Regina quipped.
A/N- I thought the wolf fit Regina, territorial, badass, powerful, loyal, pack mentality. As for her patronus of a crow, it's one of the most intelligent animals, and I always like associating the freedom of a bird with Regina