A/N: This is probably the last update before Theoli (Rusty Nail) goes off on her jollies on top of some remote cliff somewhere in the Lake District. UU Woe. Updates may come a little slower from now on due to that fact, and also since I have to go do some job hunting. UU Double!woe. The story will most certainly not be abandoned, since my love of the HP world multiplied after having seen Order of the Phoenix. -Cried her eyes out-

EDIT: So I added another section to the chapter, which I completely forgot about, because I am stupid. This is basically where the pairings start to become apparent. ;D

Disclaimer: Nothing from the Harry Potter series belongs to me; it all belongs to the wonderful J. K. Rowling. Isaviel Bates, Theoli Runkle, Sethoz Anatolia and Deazy Allcock are all self-insert original characters who belong to their respective real life counterparts.

So Sue Me: A Tale of Two Self-Inserts

Chapter Eleven: The First-ish Change

I.

"You're a what?!"

Isaviel clamped her hand over Theoli's mouth, giving those around them apologetic smiles; perhaps the library wasn't the best place to tell someone that you may be an Animagus. She took her hand from Theoli's mouth when she was certain the other wouldn't make much fuss. "An Animagus," she said, glancing around to make sure that nobody could overhear. "Or so Dumbledore says."

"Dumbledore? Dumbledore knows?"

"Yes, keep your bloody voice down," Isaviel hissed. "And I'm sure you knew this."

"Sorry," Theoli muttered, before opening her mouth to speak again, though she made no sound. Closing her mouth, she thought on that for a minute. "Wait. I did? No, I did. Of course I did," she muttered to herself as Isaviel continued to sketch out some ideas for the ball. Theoli blinked. "I'm one too. We practised together, remember?"

"I do," she nodded. "I just don't know why we did it."

Theoli shrugged. "You know what you are?"

"No, can't remember."

"Me neither. For me, I mean. I reckon we should try it and see what happens."

Isaviel gave her a look. "...'see what happens'? What if something bad happens?"

"Which it won't."

"But-"

"You," Theoli said, crossing her arms over her chest, "are far too immersed in what-ifs to enjoy the moment. Sometimes you just have to trust your instinct, you know?"

"There's nothing wrong with being prepared," Isaviel sniffed. "I just don't want to end up some half-human, half-animal hybrid freak."

Theoli rolled her eyes. "That won't happen and you know it. Come on, please?"

"Oh, fine. As long as we get done what we need to get done for the ball." Isaviel tapped on a well-scribbled on piece of parchment, raising an eyebrow. "We still need a theme, and also to think of the décor for the hall before the day's out since we have to have invites out by tomorrow lunchtime at the very latest."

In the past four days the two (with the help of their friends, of course) had sorted a great deal of things for the ball: letting people know it was actually going ahead; working out how to change the appearance of the hall and its contents; hired some dancers (yes, dancers); sorted costumes and outfits for said dancers; and also spoken to the house elves about meals (they'd been pretty spastic about the witches being there and were overly polite, especially when they were thanked, but the girls liked them). Some of the more important things, however, still needed sorting.

"Theme, theme, theme," Theoli mumbled. "How hard is it to think of a damn Yule Ball theme?"

"Something interesting-"

"-yet unique-"

"-and original."

The girls looked at each other, then gave a synchronised sigh. Theoli waded through the various pieces of parchment before taking out a long list that had already been crossed through. "Let's start again... The Snowman movie-"

"Too muggle."

"Santa's Grotto-"

She grimaced. "Too creepy."

"North Pole?"

"Cheerful, much?"

"Snow."

"Boring."

"A cozy Christmas."

Isaviel grimaced. "No."

Theoli set the parchment down. "How about... freedom from school?"

"Too short-lived and really, what could we do with that?"

"Err... always Coca Cola?"

Isaviel snorted, then put her head onto the desk in front of her and thumped it a few times.

Theoli clicked her fingers. "Ooh, I've got it! How about an ice palace?" Theoli turned over a piece of parchment and began scribbling ideas. "The hall will be the ice-palace itself and we could charm the ceiling so it snows, obviously having countercharms so people didn't get frostbite-"

Isaviel, forehead now bright red and slightly swollen, sat upright, grinning. "Brilliant! Everything will be made of ice, with the possible exception of food."

"The ground needs to not be ice, too."

"Well yeah." Isaviel gasped, "Ice sculptures!"

"YES!"

It's a pretty good thing the library was empty at the time, because the girls were talking quite loudly in their excitement, earning a few glares from the librarian now and again. Looks like the ball would shape up pretty nicely, and even the girls were starting to have faith in themselves.

II.

Much to Isaviel's disappointment Theoli had not forgotten about their earlier deal about trying out their Animagus skills if they got their day's checklist all crossed off, and had dragged her friend to the astronomy tower. Isaviel looked worriedly at her friend. "Are you sure this is safe? What if someone comes in?"

"Then you hide, and I get rid of them," Theoli said, matter-of-factly. "We try changing one at a time for that reason."

"Why do I have to go first? You're the one who wanted to do this."

"Stop whining and do it," Theoli snapped.

"Oh, fine."

Isaviel closed her eyes and concentrated very hard. Since it was expected, the change wasn't totally unpleasant though it was one of the strangest things she had - and probably would ever - experience in her life. She could feel her bone and muscle shifting to new positions, the odd sensation of her teeth changing inside her mouth, her height becoming drastically reduced. When she could feel nothing more, she opened her eyes, not really understanding, but being aware. Apparently it was done, judging by the gasp from Theoli, who had been looking through the keyhole to make sure nobody was around whilst the change had taken place.

"Holy shit," Theoli breathed, taking tentative steps towards the creature before her. "Dude, you're a fucking wolf."

She cocked her head to the side, then padded over to a mirror at the back of the room. What faced her was a large-ish wolf with fur that was white-grey across her body apart from her two front paws and the tips of her ears and tail, which were a darker shade of grey. Her eyes had changed from their normally rather sedate blue to a much more piercing and vibrant shade. What was most unique about this wolf - apart from the fact that it was really a witch - was the fact that it had lavish markings around its neck; weaving lines of deep grey that reached down to what looked like a symbol, a marking with no exact meaning. It was like the necklace had remained around her neck as she had transformed.

A sound from the other side of the door drew her attention as she quickly ran to the nearest desk to change back. She resurfaced just as the door opened and Professor Sterling entered. She looked slightly bewildered when she saw the girls. "What are you two doing here? I don't have you now, do I?"

"No," Theoli said, thinking on her feet. "We needed some help for, err, the ball preparations."

The astronomy teacher's face lit up. "Oh yes?"

"Well, we were wondering, umm... We were wondering what constellations would be visible on Christmas night? We may want to have those instead of the normal ceiling to make it more... Christmassy?" Both girls knew this was quite a flimsy excuse, but Professor Sterling seemed to lap up anything that meant she could talk about constellations.

"Well," she said, taking out a notebook. "Let's see now..."

Isaviel gave Theoli a desperate look as the professor began her lengthy explanation into each and every start that would be visible that night.

III.

"Next time we do that, we need a better excuse," Theoli groaned, head on the table in the Great Hall at lunchtime.

"At least we have any night skyscape sorted?" Isaviel offered. She had zoned out part of the way through the explanation, but thankfully the professor had said she would sort out the ceiling and give us the command to change it if and when we needed it. The girls had felt a little bitter that they'd had to endure the whole explanation and then been told that they didn't really need to remember it all but were grateful for the help.

"I guess so. What do we have left to sort, anyway?"

"Specifics, what food, what drink and what music."

"Music, eh?" Theoli looked at Isaviel with a grin. "How about we ask Thoz for a little help?"

"How?"

"Well, I seem to remember her saying she needed to charge her MP3 player..."

"Oh my god, seriously?" Isaviel gave a gleeful giggle. "But wait... wouldn't that be sort of... wrong?"

"Wrong?"

"Well, they'll know songs that haven't even been written yet," Isaviel looked sad. "It'd cause more problems than we need, I think."

"Unless we try and find some sort of memory charm that makes them think they heard something else, or would just not remember the songs at all?"

"Worth a try, I suppose. Except..."

"What?"

"No Backstreet Boys."

IV.

The two girls were on their way to dinner when Sirius caught up with them.

"Hey, Theo, can I have a word, maybe?"

Isaviel waved without looking backwards as she kept walking into the dining hall, heading to the Slytherin table and taking a seat beside Severus. She wondered what Sirius had wanted to talk to Theoli about and for the few minutes before the two joined the feast she worried that there was something wrong; why were they taking so long? When the two eventually came in, Sirius headed to the Gryffindor table but Theoli sped towards her, power-walking, grabbing Isaviel, then physically dragging her out of the hall.

Isaviel clung to the wall to keep from falling over after her backwards-walk, when Theoli had suddenly let go to take a quick glance into the Hall.

"What is wrong with-"

"Heaskedmetotheball."

"Wait... what?"

"Heaskedmetotheball!" Theoli was flailing, looking slightly distressed, as if she didn't really know what to do with herself.

Isaviel didn't have a clue what she was saying, she was speaking so fast. "CB, breathe, slow down. One word at a time please."

Theoli took a deep breath. "He, asked, me, to, the, ball."

Isaviel blinked. "Sirius?"

"Yes."

"Asked you to the ball?"

"Yes!"

"Just now?"

"YES!"

Isaviel burst out laughing, finding Theoli's frantic reaction the funniest thing in the world. Theo, however, was less than amused, and had her arms folded over her chest as she waited for her friend to stop mocking her. "Are you quite finished."

"I think so," she said, heaving. "So, what did you say?"

"I said I'd think about it."

Isaviel blinked. "...you said what? Why?"

"I didn't know what to say! You saw me! When I try and talk to him seriously I seize up!"

Isaviel shook her head. "You'll have to start soon, if you want to say yes. Wait, you do want to say yes, right?"

"Well, yes."

"I still don't see it. He got you almost killed."

"But he made an adorable duck. Can you tell him?"

"What?! Why me? You're going to be sitting with him!"

"But-"

"No buts," she said, grabbing Theoli by the shoulders and pushing her back into the Hall and towards the Gryffindor table. "You tell him," she whispered, then sped off back to her own house table.

Severus gave her a curious look. "What was that all about?"

Not yet replying to the question, Isaviel watched as Theoli sat beside Sirius and, red-faced, seemed to mutter something to him, which seemed to cheer him right up as he had a grin that went from ear to ear.

Grinning, Isaviel filled Severus in.