Chapter 83
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That sunday was the winter soltice and the day before was a lighting storm.
Sirius found them a secure and hidden place, which was a snow filled field closed off from society by large, looming trees.
Pansy wasn't looking forward to drinking the now bright red potion. Because Rebekah knew Pansy would complain the most and loudest, the Potter Witch just shoved the potion down Pansy's throat and placed her hand over her mouth and nose. Pansy had to swallow it before Rebekah would let her breath.
Sirius and Rebekah helped her through the transformation with words.
The first thing that went non human was her voice, cawing instead of letting words come out of her moth. Her black hair was no longer hair, turning to feathers as these new black feaher over took her body and encased her. Her clothes disappeard as she shrunk down, turning into a common raven.
She cawed and padded around on the snow, leaving tiny impression of her claws.
They guided her back to being human before going onto the next person.
Blaise's tranformation was interesting to watch because he grew in size, feet and hands suddenly having claws before thick, brown fur sprouted out of his skin as he growled once and got back onto all fours. He was a brown bear, fearsome and large. He didn't need help shifting back.
Astoria's was the cutest form. She shrunk down to the size of a palm, sprouting fur and a tail before she hurried off of the snow and onto her sister's leg. She clung to the trousers, hugging them in her finger monkey form.
Astoria didn't stop hugging her sister's leg as the elder Greengrass suddenly became a Piebald mare. Little finger monkey Astoria climbed until she sat in Daphne's black and white mane, playing around it in before they were both advised to shift back to human to make sure they both could.
Without any prompting or help, the Crown found themselves with a bright orange fox bouncing around them. Tracey trilled and jumped around, leaving huge holes in the snow as it clung to her fur before she shook it off as she turned back to human and then again to fox.
"Where's Theo?" Logan asked, turning around to look for his boyfriend only to find a bright yellow lizard on the snow. He picked him up. "You're a crested gecko. Guess you're a little cute like this."
Theo gave him the most expresivistic look they had ever seen on a lizard before, biting Logan's thumb gently before scurrying up his arm and blowing air into his ear. Theo jumped off quickly, knowing Logan would chuck him off anyway.
"Well, let's see what form you take if you think you're so cool?" Theo narrowed his eyes playfully at him as Logan stuck his tongue out.
Out of all things Logan could have become, he became a moose and it had Theo on the ground with stitches because he couldn't stop laughing. It forced Logan to make a noise disapproval before standing over Theo and suddenly laying down, bearing all of his moose weight onto him.
He stopped laughing after that.
"Uh, guys," Draco said, uncertain of his limbs now. His hands taking on fur… and feathers. "A little help needed, Black."
"Shit," Sirius said but he was calm. "Imagine the form, don't force it. Let it come to you."
"Let the image come to you, Draco," Rebekah said, everyone else suddenly turning back to human because they were concerned. She repeated what McGongall told her. "Take it and push your will into wanting to be that creature. Don't force it but allow your Magic to transfigure your body. Your body is not permanent but your mind is."
"I don't know what I'm seeing!" Draco said, his voice laced with panic. He tried to brush off his hands, trying to stop the shift but it didn't work and made him panic more.
Rebekah grabbed his hands to stop him. She clasped them in hers, feeling the semi sprouted fur on her skin.
"Close your eyes and imagine." She said, getting his attention. "Feets. What are they?"
"Paws. Large paws, like a feline."
"Hands?"
"Paws too. But there's something on my back."
"What is that something made of?"
"Feathers. The feathers go from my head to my back. They're… wings? I've got wings."
"What is your body? How are you standing?" Rebekah crouched, letting his paws touch the snow.
"Like a lion. I'm on all fours."
"And your face?"
"I have a beak," Draco suddenly opened his eyes, finding that he was much closer to the ground than before.
"You're a griffin, Malfoy," Sirius snickered. "How ironic."
It was a lot easier for Draco to shift back to human now.
Sirius left them in the field now, letting them mess around in the snow for a while. He had to inform Petunia of their Animagus forms, and the Ministry but that was less important.
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"We are watching the Labyrinth regardless," Rebekah grinned fiercely. "It's my favourite movie."
That's how they ended up in Rebekah's room, dancing around as music poured from a vinyle player she recieved from Sirius for her last birthday. A couple beers of low content alcohol were within reach and they had already their dinner. This allowed Petunia a late night watching whatever she wanted on the TV.
" You remind me of the babe, power of voodoo." They sang. "You remind me of the babe."
"What babe?" Rebekah echoed before they all sang.
"The babe with the power! The power of voodoo."
"Who do?"
"You do!"
"Remind me of the babe," Logan sang, watching Theo's narrowed eyes but he could tell he found this hilrious. "I saw my baby, Crying hard as babe could cry. What could I do? My baby's love had gone, And left my baby blue, Nobody knew."
Pansy had Astoria by the hands, swinging each other around. "What kind of magic spell to use? What kind of magic spell to use?"
"Thunder or lightning?" Astoria laughed.
Pansy grinned before gesturing to Theo, "Then baby said—"
Theo glared at them all before letting the smile crack his face. He did a little shimmy as Blaise shoved him into Loga. "Dance magic, dance!"
"Dance magic, dance."
"Dance magic, dance!"
"Dance magic, dance."
"Put that baby's spell on me!"
They were having fun with this Muggle music player.
Though Rebekah and Tracey could explain as much as they wanted, the others had trouble understand how it actually worked and just dubbed it magic. The movies they watched were great entertainment. They think they spent most of the week watching the TV and simple movies to enternain themselves
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Knowing that the racket was quieting because they fell asleep, Petunia climbed up the stairs until she reached Rebekah's little section of the house. Her head peaked over the open trapdoor, shaking her head as she looked into the bedroom. The teens had shifted, now sleeping in their Animagus forms as Rebekah called it. All of them were huddled together in the middle of the floor with empty beer bottles put together on the desk.
Their variously diffenently limbs were tangles together. Daphne and Logan were used as pillows the most, letting everyone curl up between them. Blaise was the matress and Rebekah and Draco were blankets. Tracey had Pansy between her paws, the raven snoring away. Astoria was in Draco's feathers, curled around his neck where it was warmest. Theo was annoying Logan by sleeping in Rebekah's paws.
Petunia snuck back downstairs, going to grab the camera before coming back. Using the polaroid camera, she shook the photo until it developed and looked at it. Petunia smiled softly, sneaking back out to the small box of memorable keepsakes. She made an extra for Sirius because she knew he would want one too.
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The mindscape was calm and quiet.
Rebekah and Tom just sat before the fireplace of the room, a Muggle chessboard between the seats. They both had hot cups of chocolate within their hands. They could tatse it but it didn't give them any nutrituion.
They had started playing chess as a way to cope with the large ammount of time they spent together. There were nights when nothing was said and yet they needed to fill the silence with something. The moves of a chess game was loud enough.
Between them, they were evenly matched at chess. They won as they lost, never gaining more than a game or two more than the other.
It was Rebekah's turn to start on white.
She moved the Queen's pawn forward two spaces.
"How was the Animagus tranformations?" Tom asked, moving his pawn to Queen four.
She put her pawn to Queen Bishop four. "It went better than I thought it would have gone."
"Why? Did you think it should have gone badly?" He declined the Queen's gambit she tried to start, moving his pawn to King four.
"To a certain degree, I would have thought it would go unpleasntly for all involved." She said. "I was in pain when I first shifted, enough that I couldn't stand well."
He moved a bishop. "Well, you are a control freak, are you not?" He smiled at her. "You don't like things to be out of your control and you believed the first shift would be the same as not having control."
"Most likely," She agreed. "After I stopped trying to force the change, that was when the change happened. I loved it, I still remember the freedom I felt. It was amazing."
"I never had the desire to become an Animagus," He said. "There wasn't an appeal for turning into anything that was less than human."
"Your loss," Rebekah said, taking one of his pawns.
Each move was calculated, slowly decided but quickly made. There was not really a need for thought for either of them. Minds sharp enough to cut diamonds, they could see what move needed to be made quickly.
It took them several more moves before they decided to pause, needing a few moments where they didn't need to think as they stared off into the fire.
The final few moves took longer to consider.
They didn't time anything, they had forever in this mindscape because Rebekah could leave whenever she wanted.
Eyes sweeping across the board, they made a few more swift moves before pausing again to think. Rebekah calmly took a gulp of the hot chocolate, tasting the almost too sweet sugary goodness before running her tongue against her lips.
She moved her final piece.
"I win."
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