Thank you my loyal reviewers! Long reviewers, I love you and you'll get private responses!
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I officially got an offer to drop out of school to work on this fic. Well, if you pay my Whole Foods and apartment tab, I'll consider it! Someone wants a one-shot of Sirius high. (Yes that would be hilarious, but I unfortunately, or well fortunately, have no knowledge to make an accurate scene like that - unless I came up with magical pot which then could let me do anything I wanted with Sirius. Hmmm…) I had an attempted bribery with a Flighty plushie toy -giggle- and someone begged for Harry to be an Ostrich or a Turkey. (If someone draws that, with the other Marauders looking on, I will post the link here and include one requested plot idea!) Everyone loved the hair nuzzling - totally came on the fly when I had Lily enter. And for those with a good eye - yes, Harry did nuzzle everyone who was or would parent him, including Remus. And the last line.
To doubters: Youko's Befuddled Fox backed up that family groups PREEN AND GROOM EACH OTHER - so there!
Hiekomi - Yup, I'm trying to show the characters well-rounded. I like 'em that way. And I will put in some clues to be realized 'too little, too late.'
Best imagery: Batfan7 - "I could just see Harry leaning over the edge of a 7th floor stair case with James and Sirius hauling back on his 'leash' while Peter wrung his hands and Remus waved his wand."
I probably should've warned - no animals were harmed in the making of this fic!
By popular demand, I added something, see if you can spot it! The next chapter actually will be up within the next week - this is more filler and annoying to write. But I actually have lots of time now with exams almost over - and the next chapter is half-written.
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As graceful as a…
Losing a day was unsettling.
Harry hadn't much thought about it, even after finding that fuzz under his fingernails, until one of the suits of armor tripped him on his way to dinner and Remus had tried to reassure him that he'd just had a little altercation with it (a suit of armor? - he didn't ask why).
It wasn't until a little later that he realized just how much he'd 'missed' during his day as a bird hopeful.
Harry leafed through another page, keeping an ear out for any sounds of success.
Apparation practice was starting to pick up now, with the test at the end of January. Even though it was still early December, nervous students had pushed for an additional optional evening class during the week. And since the Marauders had skipped the weekend practice for Harry's beast-run, they'd opted to attend this week - though Sirius and James both scorned the idea of needing additional practice.
Harry sat at the side, ostensibly studying for their midterms, but actually scanning a graphic-laden book on birds. The guys had said the book wouldn't help - you didn't visualize yourself physically as an animal, but rather projected yourself in animal form. (Harry had asked how the potion helped then, since he couldn't remember the experience at all. Remus said it could help focus your projection - "Blackmail material" was Sirius' answer.)
Physical dimensions or appearance was beside the point and Sirius had dismissed "all birds look the same anyway." (Looking through Boromie's Book of Birds, Harry could now argue with this, but honestly he just couldn't get over the thought he was actually going to become one.)
"And put your left hand in-" Harry looked up, only to smile wryly. James had decided that making a dance would help the apparating process and Sirius was gamely giving it a try. So far it seemed to be a mix of disco with a wide variety of children's songs - as James proceeded to 'do the hokey pokey', Harry really hoped he was just doing his regular show-boating and not under the illusion this was actually what constituted good dances.
The two boys then spun, clapped, did a disco down-up arm slash - and disappeared.
Harry's jaw dropped - and they flickered back into view.
"Disco!" they both cheered at the top of their voices, grinning at their audience.
James raised an eyebrow when no one clapped, only stared. "What?"
Remus put a hand over his face as Wilkie Tycross, the instructor, began to nasally explain that Mr. Potter and Mr. Black had just demonstrated why you have to really concentrate on a place rather than just disappearing. They were dismissed a few minutes later and Remus had to explain to a confused Sirius and James, not to mention a wide-eyed Peter, what had happened.
Distracted, Harry didn't notice Lily's approach until she was upon him. Kneeling down, she helped him collect his books, biting her lip.
"Uh Harry?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yes," he turned to her, giving her full attention.
"The guys didn't," she cleared her throat, "I mean, you didn't try anything this weekend, did you? I know a lot of kids try them, but," her lips pursed in distaste. Harry tried to follow, he really did.
"Them?" he asked, eye brows fusing.
Lily took a deep breath. "You don't take drugs, do you?" Harry's jaw dropped.
"What?! No!" Lily gave a decisive nod.
"Good, but still, just to be safe-" she said, "don't let the guys pressure you into taking something strange, okay?"
With wide eyes, Harry watched her flip her hair and walk off. She never heard Harry's outcry a minute later, after the Marauders clustered back around Harry.
"I did what?!"
The next few weeks passed in a blur. The weather had turned dismal, cold with driving rain and sleet rather than snow. Forced indoors, the Castle bustled with students preparing for midterms and group projects. There was apparently a whole emphasis on demonstrating knowledge teaching fad going on and the guys had told Harry that a number of the teachers had taken the fad to heart. (Though Remus had the suspicion that Slughorne was using the group projects to stock up on his hardest-to-make potions.) The Marauders had tried to convince Binns that history presentations would be educational (they planned on re-enacting the Goblin Rebellion), but Binns had just stared at them before stating he didn't see any reason to change his usual way of teaching. ("Well yeah," Sirius said, "of course he doesn't. He even died and didn't change anything!")
Beyond studying (and a little bad weather-pranking - the Slytherins had found their common room turned into a swampy winter wonderland while the entirety of Ravenclaw 7th Year found themselves stuck for a day with dangly earrings that clanged when someone thought about sex, supposedly), Harry found himself practicing meditation. Remus went through the paces with him, deep breathing and mind cleansing, saying he'd learned it as a way to deal with his wolfish anxiety.
Occasionally, one of the others would join them. Peter tried a few times, but after he claimed sucking on candies helped him concentrate (and probably did), the sucking noises got too annoying and he was politely kicked out. Sirius was even worse, he just kept twitching until even the basically pacifist Remus wanted to thump him. (The one time he actually did succeed in sitting still, they were impressed until he started snoring.) James was the best, actually managing to usually sit still, except he mumbled Lily once under his breath and Harry had a rather icky feeling that James was meditating on quite something else than cleansing his mind.
So most of the time, it was just Remus and him after they'd managed to shoo the other guys out of the dorm room (thus leading to the Slytherin swamp). The Marauders never could stand to be bored.
Remus told Harry to concentrate on what he felt inside. To let him mind wonder and let his senses take over. Despite the others' poor meditating skills, Remus assured Harry that they had benefited from the exercise, learning to rely on their senses and relaxing their grip on how humanly to use them.
It took a few days - cleansing his mind was hard for Harry, things he'd tried to avoid thinking about the last few months vying for his attention. But finally, he learned to lock those in a box and just let himself calm, close his eyes and let his senses take over. By the end of term in December, he could feel them start to change until he was roused by Remus with a pleased look.
"Your face was starting to change there a little," Remus said.
"Huh?" For some reason, Harry's tongue felt abnormally large, the bottom of his face heavy. He felt a little drugged and wondered, just for a brief second…
"You know what that means!" James said happily, jerking Harry back to normal. He hadn't realized the others had come back. James took out his wand and twirled it. "Time for transfiguration!"
Harry recognized that grin - usually found right before a big prank or a particularly 'brilliant' idea of James'. He inched back a little, sending Remus a 'Should I be afraid?' look.
Remus grimaced just a little and Harry knew his answer.
Be very afraid.
He paled and Sirius patted him on the shoulder. "It's not that bad, Flighty me mate!" (Sirius had watched a new pirate movie a week ago with Rainee, a younger year Hufflepuff, and had been calling them 'me mates' or 'matey' ever since. Remus and James were this close to cursing his mouth to glue shut every time he started to say it.) "It's not like anyone got stuck in another form permanently."
"Permanently?" he gulped.
Peter shuddered. "I don't care how long it actually was, you didn't have Mrs. Norris trying to eat you!"
"What?!"
Sirius had burst out laughing as James frowned. Remus smacked the back of Sirius' head though it didn't stop the laughter.
"Prongs got a little over-ambitious and tried to transfigure Peter into a rat, only he forgot about the size issue." Harry's eyes just got wider. "And unfortunately, because of the size issue, his spell reversal didn't really work. And because we tried it outside," Remus gave a somewhat helpless shrug. "Long story short, smuggling a giant rodent into the castle, even with an Invisibility Cloak, is not easy."
"Coulda been worse, matey!" Sirius slapped a sturdy arm across Peter's shoulders. "Lil' Missy Norris coulda caught yah!" Peter swatted away his arm, still scowling.
"Minor mistake," James waved off, though he avoided Peter's gaze guiltily. "I fixed it anyway, didn't I?"
"Must've been a surprise to Mrs. Norris."
Peter was in full sulk. "Followed me around for weeks," he muttered, "Filch was positive I'd drugged her or slipped her a love potion."
Harry bit his lip and valiantly swallowed his own laughter.
James cleared his throat. "We're not going to try the full transfiguration anyway, just partial."
"Like just wings?" Harry asked, intrigued despite himself.
Sirius straightened. "How about angel-boy?!"
Remus rolled his eyes as Harry unconsciously rubbed his shoulder, and moved next to James. "Not extra wings, er, the wings should just replace your arms," he instructed and James nodded, thankfully seeming to have finally gotten over his flight-envy.
Harry scrambled to his feet, feeling very unnerved having them standing over him, James grinning again, wand in hand.
"I don't know…"
"It won't hurt," Remus promised, though he still looked uneasy. James waved his wand airily.
"Just hold still."
Harry couldn't help it - he shut his eyes. His experience with danger was usually run from or run towards it, not just sit still and let it happen.
"Extendere penna alarum!"
It was itchy, terribly itchy, but with his eyes closed, he could feel the feathers sprout through his skin, even as his muscles ached as they stretched and flexed into a different shape. He suddenly had a lot more sympathy for ferret Malfoy.
It only took about a minute, but the sensation felt so strange - his arms, er wings, were so light - he was hesitant to open his eyes.
But Sirius had never been patient. "C'mon matey, open yer eyes."
"Padfoot, you say that word one more time and I will break your beater bat over your head!" Harry opened his eyes to see James' right eye twitch as he glared behind him.
He looked down, feeling really odd when his, er, wings reacted, lifting and the motion ruffled his feathers. It felt, so, so, well he couldn't really describe it.
Peter noticed his enrapture. "Just wait 'til you get a tail," he said.
Harry flexed his wings, fascinated when they drew up to his chest, no reaction to the thought of flexing his fingers. "Transfiguration is really helpful, because you think and process having an animal body." Harry nodded vaguely, examining his dark feathers then jumped when they turned bright green, nearly falling over at his change in balance.
Sirius smiled, showing up beside him. "Now isn't that better? Hard to brood in neon colors, yeah ma-, er, Flighty?" he caught himself in time as James' hand tightened on his wand.
Harry cocked his head, before carefully sitting back down, just to make sure he really didn't fall over. "Do you think I might be a parrot?"
He didn't see Sirius' smile widen, but Remus stopped him. "Doubtful; parrots aren't birds of prey."
"-Unless they suddenly developed a taste for squirrel," Sirius snickered. Harry ignored his own blush, very thankful he didn't remember that incident.
Remus ignored the backtalk and went to crack the window. "Besides, the spell is not species-specific, it's more general." At the sudden December chill that whistled into the room, there were protests, but Remus waved them off. "He needs to feel the wind under his feathers, unless any of you want to take him outside." That shut them up quick. At least it hadn't been raining the last time they ventured outside. "Now, some more meditation."
Sirius groaned, but for the next ten minutes or so, Harry got to meditate and adjust to the feeling of wings. Wings! He was going to be able to fly - the thought tightened his chest, but he carefully breathed in and out to temper his enthusiasm. After some quiet, Remus talked him through a range of motions with his wings.
Up. Down. Tuck in. Extend. Tilt. It was fascinating and Harry brushed off the thought of how it looked from the outside.
Unfortunately, James must've gotten bored because just as Harry was taking another deep breath, the bottom half of his face seemed to freeze. He opened his eyes to see a hooked beak, choked, tried to get up - and promptly fell on his face. Thankfully, the hard beak took the brunt, but he felt the vibrations go all the way into his neck.
Reflexively, he called out James' name, but all that came out was a strangled squawk.
"James!" A second later, a hand was on his shoulder and helping him back to sitting position. "You couldn't have warned him?"
Harry blinked quickly, in time for an innocent-looking James, sitting on his bed, to protest, "But you saw his face starting to shift during the meditation. I figured he was ready!"
Harry tried to scowl, but it felt really weird without a mobile mouth. He did notice though, that since he'd stopped thinking about it, he was breathing rather naturally through his beak - somehow.
Nevertheless, Remus coached him through this as well, Sirius dropping nonsensical hints throughout, though thankfully leaving the pirate talk behind.
Despite the lack of actual activity, Harry was relieved when Remus finally said that it was enough. Moving in a totally different way could be exhausting.
James waved his wand and within a few minutes, he was back to normal. He massaged his face, his fingers tingling at their return. Flying was going to be amazing, but he wondered how long it would take him to get used to the body. His thoughts must have been visible because James spoke.
"Oh, you'll get more used to it as you go along. It'll actually start to feel normal." Not even bothering to stand, James twirled his wand and pulled antlers out of his head, long enough to brush the bed's curtain.
"Show off," Sirius muttered, but sounded amused.
James grinned and stood.
Or tried, completely overlooking just how heavy a full set of antlers on a human body would be.
He nosedived straight into the floor.
"James!"
Sirius didn't even bother with the exclamation, abruptly at his shoulder. Remus charmed the floor to try to cushion his head and cursed - the official first time Harry had ever heard him do so. He swatted Sirius' hands away, "Don't touch him! He could have a neck injury, Merlin, James, can you move your toes?"
Harry had a momentary flash of fear - he might never be born…
"Bloody hell Moony, I'm tougher than that!" James proceeded to move both his hands and legs, bringing himself slowly off the floor and ignoring Remus' protestations not to.
"Yeah Moony, he's harder headed than that," Sirius joked, but Harry could see him gently keeping James' shoulders straight. Peter wrung his hands next to him. They jarred to a halt when James couldn't get up further.
Moving around, Remus groaned. "You stuck them into the floor."
"That's going to leave a mark," Sirius muttered.
"And cracked the bedpost," Harry said, looking behind them. James had to make the whole rack, didn't he? Well, he was Prongs… One prong was wedged on one side of the bedpost, a curled outgrowth nearly ground into the other side diagonally.
It took some tentative pulling and tugging, Remus fussing about head trauma, before Peter had the bright idea to get rid of the antlers altogether. Only Sirius' arm wrapped around James' shoulders prevented him from collapsing. Harry, now recovered himself, hastily moved to help, while Remus charmed the floor back to its solid form. Peter pitched in to help them roll James over and settle him back on the ground, keeping spine alignment, James protesting the whole way.
"I'm perfectly fine!" James said, the rest of the boys leaning over him. His eyes were crossed and Remus bit his lip, before muttering the diagnostic spell. Harry was starting to suspect they, or at least Remus, got a lot of use out of that spell.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Sirius thrust out his hand.
James blinked. "Three?"
He was holding up one. They looked at each other.
"Two?"
Remus sighed. "No spine damage."
Sirius shrugged. "Eh, he'll sleep it off."
Next chapter: James isn't feeling well - but there are group presentations! Looks like someone will have to walk James' talk, -rubs hands and cackles gleefully-.