Freddie was asleep, deeply asleep, but something was nagging on the edge of her consciousness. Someone was trying to wake her up.
"Le'me'lone," she mumbled, squirming in her bed. She had thought someone was poking her, maybe Ziggy or one of her dorm mates, but when she moved the feeling didn't stop. She fought her way to awareness and opened her eyes. Ziggy was laying on her chest, but that wasn't what she'd felt.
Wake up, Winifred, said Snape's voice in her head.
"Ugh," she said aloud, rubbing a hand over her face. "What time is it? What day is it?"
Ziggy let out an inquisitive 'mrrrowp?' and stepped off her chest to sit beside her.
"It's lunchtime," said a voice that wasn't Snape's. Freddie turned her head to see Maggie across the room, digging through her trunk for something. "And Saturday, last time I checked. Amelia wanted to wake you, but the way you were snoring – and the fact that you're still dressed – we figured you had a late night and needed the sleep."
"Uh-huh," she said, closing her eyes again. She'd been having a good dream she couldn't quite remember, but thought if she could just get back to it...
Wake up!
She jolted awake and sat up in bed with a groan.
"You okay?" Maggie asked. "You want some lunch?"
"Yeah. And no. Or maybe. I don't know. I'm sore all over."
"Maybe you should go to the nurse. You could be getting sick. I heard there was some kind of flu going around."
"Yeah, maybe," she mumbled, staring down at her feet. She still had her boots on.
No, said Snape's voice. Come here.
Why? She thought, sounding whiny even in her own head. Why can't I just sleep?
Just come to my office. Short. Impatient. Then his presence was gone and she was alone in her head.
She groaned and again and pushed herself to the edge of the bed. Maggie found the book she'd been looking for and left the dormitory. Freddie stared at her feet a moment longer, then stretched, feeling every single one of her muscles scream in protest.
"I hope it doesn't hurt this bad every time," she muttered to Ziggy and he blinked slowly at her. "Surely it gets easier with practice?"
He meowed loudly and she wasn't sure if that was a 'yes' or a 'no' or if he was just hungry. She forced herself up and got a can of Ziggy's food from her trunk. She popped the top on it and set it down for him to eat.
"I've got to shower and change clothes. I'm covered in mud," she told Ziggy, then repeated it in her head in case Snape was listening.
When she arrived at Snape's office a half an hour later she was freshly showered, and dressed in clean black fleece leggings and a soft long-sleeved gray dress. Her hair was still damp and pulled into a sloppy ponytail. She hadn't wanted to waste time drying it, since Snape seemed impatient. And really she was too sore to hold her wand up to her head for that long.
"You look terrible," Snape said once she'd shut the door behind herself. She scoffed as she flopped into her usual chair and Ziggy leapt into the chair next to her.
"How are you even awake right now?" she groaned, rubbing her eyes.
"I drink strong tea," he said, pushing a cup across the desk towards her. "I've been up for hours."
"I don't feel good. I want to go back to sleep," she said, wincing as she reached for the cup of tea. He raised an eyebrow at her and she felt her cheeks grow warm. She knew complaining wasn't attractive but dammit she was tired.
"Drink your tea," he ordered softly. She did as she was told out of habit more than anything. As the tea reached her stomach she felt her soreness start to ebb away and she moaned in relief.
"Brew 19," she said as he smirked across the desk at her moan. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he said with a nod. "I thought you'd like to know what I've been doing this morning – for you, by the way."
"Making tea?" she guessed, joking now that she was starting to feel better.
"Communicating with the Ministry of Magic, via owl."
"Why?" she asked, a frown crinkling her face.
"So you don't go to Azkaban," he said dryly. "You have to register your Animagus status with the Ministry."
"Oh yeah. That was the last thing on my list." The list of steps in the Animagus process was on her bedside table and she hadn't looked at it since before dinner the night before. "So, how do I do that?"
"You will have to take a trip to the Ministry. I've been in contact with Charles Dearing in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement – Dumbledore put me in touch with him, he's a former student of his – and he has agreed to meet with you this afternoon. Since you're a student I told him it was unrealistic for you to come during business hours on a weekday. Luckily he was very intrigued as to how someone so young managed to become an Animagus. He's anxious to meet you."
Freddie made a face, then sipped some more tea. She wished she didn't have to register, to be subjected to some sort of inspection by a stranger...but it was far preferable to Azkaban.
"What time?" she asked, putting down her empty cup so she could stretch again. This time her muscles moved much more easily.
"4 o'clock this afternoon."
"Will you be going with me?" she asked hopefully.
"Well you are still a student and therefore require an escort, so, yes," he said as if it should be obvious. Then he smiled slightly. "I thought we could have dinner afterwards."
"With Dearing?" she teased.
"Definitely not," he said and she grinned at him.
"So, 4 o'clock," she said, leaning back in her chair. "That means you could've let me sleep at least two more hours."
"I did not want to be responsible if you needed time to do your hair or makeup or whatever it is that women do," he said, his eyes straying to her sloppy ponytail. She scowled at him, daring him to say something about her hair. "Besides, you shouldn't sleep all afternoon. You would be awake all night again if you did."
"Fair enough," she agreed.
"And," he said, refilling her cup from the glowing pot of tea on his desk. "I thought you may want to use the time to practice transforming...with your clothes on."
"Oh God. You're right. I can't let some old man see me naked!" she declared, mortified at the thought.
"Only this old man," he said with a smirk. He pushed the tea cup back to her. "I suspect you will need more of this."
"Thanks," she said again. She drank half the cup, then set it aside. "So, where should I practice? Here?"
"I suppose that is the best option," he said slowly. "It would not do to have you walking naked around the forest in broad daylight. Or in your Common Room or the study hall."
"Right," she said, looking around the room. "...What if someone comes in?"
"They will knock first," he said. "And I can place the wards on the door. That will keep out all but the most powerful of wizards."
For a moment Freddie imagined Dumbledore barging into Snape's office and finding her naked on the floor. She shuddered slightly and pushed the image from her mind. There's no reason for Dumbledore to come down here, she told herself. I haven't seen him down here in ages and he always knocks. He isn't one to be rude...Besides, you've been imagining being naked in Snape's office for years, now you finally have the chance.
"Don't remind me how many years," Snape said aloud with a grimace.
"No one asked you to be in my head," she said, rolling her eyes at him. She sighed and got to her feet. Her muscles no longer hurt at all but she had the feeling that was about to change. "Alright, I guess I'm ready."
"Wait a moment," he said, drawing his wand and crossing the room. He placed a number of enchantments on the door. She noticed a few extra that weren't part of his normal security. He saw her curious expression and explained. "A Proximity Charm. If anyone comes within 3 feet of my door I will get an alert before they knock. Not much of an advance warning, but it could make a difference."
"What if a student is just walking by?"
"No one just 'walks by' my office. And if they do they hug the far wall as if I'll come out and curse them if they get too close," he said and she smiled. He was right, of course. She'd seen them do it, the younger students in particular. Even the older ones walked quicker if they had to pass by Snape's office or classroom door.
"You wouldn't really curse them, would you?"
"Today I might," he said, glancing down the neckline of her dress. He smiled at what he saw, then returned to his desk. He sat with his hands steepled in front of him, watching her expectantly.
"Um, are you going to watch me the whole time?" she asked, feeling slightly nervous with his dark eyes on her. What if she couldn't transform back into a kneazle? What if last night had been a fluke, a one time thing?
"I watched you last night, it did not concern you then."
"I was more, um, focused last night," she said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"So be focused now," he said in a cool, commanding tone.
She rolled her wand between her thumb and forefinger, trying to imagine herself as a kneazle once more. She felt a trickle of sweat roll down the back of her neck. Ziggy leapt off the chair to go groom himself in front of the fireplace, distracting her.
"Concentrate," Snape said, his voice soft but the order was there nonetheless, laced with authority. The dangerous sort of tone that sent a shiver through her and made her wet. "Concentrate or I will make you."
She exhaled shakily and tried to push all thoughts of just how he could make her concentrate. How he could make her do whatever he wanted, and she would enjoy it... She bit her lip and forced the thoughts and emotions down with her Occlumency. She felt a wall go up between them, felt his absence from her consciousness when she hadn't even noticed he was still in her mind.
Focus, she thought, closing her eyes so he wouldn't distract her. Picture yourself in your Animagus form... But she couldn't do that. She had no idea what she really looked like as a kneazle, she hadn't had a mirror last night. She only knew that her legs were mottled gray. She decided to try another approach.
She imagined how it had felt to change last night, focusing on the way her limbs had shrunk and contorted. How her skin had burned and itched as the fur erupted from her pores. And as she remembered it, it started to happen again. Before she knew it she was a kneazle again, sitting on the stone floor of Snape's office. His scent overwhelmed her senses, and the comforting familiar scents of herbs, potion ingredients, even the metallic scent of the pewter cauldron in the lab. She was purring as she realized she could identify each scent by focusing on it – dittany, knotgrass, wolfsbane, asphodel...even less cheerful smells like armadillo bile, the fiery scent of ashwinder eggs that burned her nose slightly, and rat spleens and tails that made her feel hungry.
Ew, she thought, her whiskers crinkling in a feline expression of disgust. I am not going to eat a rat!
"Your clothes are on the floor," Snape said and she looked up to see him watching her intently. "That means they are not on you, not part of the enchantment. You need to try again."
Freddie felt a flicker of annoyance and her tail twitched. She just got to be a kneazle again and now he wanted her to change back?
"There will be time to enjoy this new form when you've mastered it completely," he said, either guessing her thoughts or reading them. She sighed but it came out a soft hiss. She closed her eyes and pictured her human reflection in a mirror. A few moments of pain and she was human again, sitting with her bare butt on the floor. She got up ruefully and quickly pulled her clothes back on.
"Again," he instructed. "And while you're at it, you might want to figure out how to land on your feet when you change back. Falling on your butt is not very graceful."
"I don't care about graceful," she said, not bothering to put her boots back on. "One thing at a time."
"Hmm. I suppose Mr Dearing will not expect your transformation to be graceful right off the bat. I imagine most new Animagi are clumsy and awkward," he said silkily.
She scowled at him. She didn't want to be clumsy and awkward in front of the Ministry man, she wanted to be flawless. She realized it wasn't just her emotions she was feeling, but Snape's too. He wanted her to be elegant.
"Why?" she asked.
"Why what? Why are new Animagi ungainly? It takes practice, like most things."
"No, why do you want me to be graceful in front of the Ministry man?"
"Ah...I am... proud of you," he acknowledged. "I want you to do well and to impress Mr Dearing. According to Minerva you are the youngest Animagus in over a century."
"Really? I didn't know that. She didn't tell me that."
"She did not want to discourage your attempts. I do not believe she actually thought you would succeed so quickly. And now I can rub it in her face – one of my students is the youngest Animagus in a century, my Potions apprentice no less," he said smugly and Freddie flushed with pride. She wanted to do this, she would do this. She would be graceful and clothed by the time she transformed for Mr Dearing in his office. She would be perfect.