"Wake up"

Lisa rolled over in bed and pulled the covers past her head.

"WAKE UP!"

"No," a small voice she thought was her own answered.

"WAKE UP" the voice insisted.

"But, I don-"

"WAKE UP!" Lisa was now completely awake, or she thought she was. The room was fuzzy and she had an odd floating feeling. Somewhere another voice was screaming at her. Older, female, trying desperately to get her attention. The louder voice told her to ignore the smaller one. She found she couldn't ignore it, so she simply tried to tune it out as best she could. The voice became a constant buzz in the back of her skull. It was like a bee had gotten caught there and was tickling her mind as it flew around trying to escape. She got out of bed and walked down the stairs to the common room.

"Miss Green," a voice said. Lisa turned and saw professor McGonagall looking at her. The voice in her head hissed and disappeared. The buzzing voice went silent in a moment of what felt like shock, then shouted triumphantly. Then the louder voice began screaming at her in words she could not understand and Lisa felt slightly dizzy. The smaller voice was fading and now shouting desperately. Lisa's head began to pound.

Suddenly Lisa was in the common room. Professor McGonagall was there for some reason. Lisa was dressed for bed and couldn't remember how she'd gotten  down the steps

"Are you all right?" McGonagall asked her.

"I, uh, I think so. Was I sleep walking?" she asked.

"Yes I think so,"

"oh, I'll go back to bed. I'm not in any trouble am I?"

"Not for sleep walking. Back to bed with you."

"G'night Professor,"

Minerva watched Green climb the tower steps and wondered. The poor girl had been overexerting herself trying to pull her transfiguration off and had met with no success. Poppy had gotten absolutely nothing from delving her. Usually she'd get something when she delved one of her patients, but the girl was a completely blank slate according to Poppy. Minerva herself couldn't think of why the girl couldn't transform. Green had, had the appropriate papers and Minserva's owl had indeed gotten conformation from the international registrar that Green indeed had her student's license for Animagi transfigurations. Minerva sighed and shook her head. Usually stress caused deep sleep not sleepwalking.

The girl really had looked like she was sleepwalking though. The glazed, unfocused expression was definitely not an act. She'd caught the Weasley twins faking sleep walking many times and knew the difference quite well. In fact she was up this evening to stop a particularly nasty prank she'd gotten wind of them plotting.

"Poor girl," she thought, "She's taking not being terribly successful with her transformation very hard," McGonagall shook her head and then put her hands on her hips. "Just a moment if you will, Fred, George," She said without turning around. Behind her, George and Fred looked at her slack jawed for a moment before hastily stuffing their bag of mayhem under the nearest couch.

"What?" George asked, scratching his head, "What? Fred, how'd we get here?"

"Why are you in my dream George?" Fred asked.

"Why, we haven't been sleep-walking again have we, Professor?"

"Boys, back to bed,"

"Thanks for waking us Professor, who knows what might have happened if you hadn't been here."

"Indeed,"

Under her watchful eye the twins made their way back to their beds all the while making a large show of being sleepy. When they got to their room, Fred turned to George and muttered "Geez, she's almost as good as Mum," his brother nodded and they immediately began planning on how to get around her next time.

"I must be dreaming," Hermione said as she slid into the Gryffindor table for breakfast. Ron looked up from his book for a moment and shot her a glare before turning back to it.

"I have to read this if I want to become an Animagus," He told her loftily then turned the page. Hermione looked on with interest as words spilled across the blank page.

"I don't think I have seen that book before," Hermione's eyes had an almost hungry look in them.

"Professor McGonagall gave it to me yesterday. She got it from her book shelf. It's called Animagus, and it has a lot of helpful tips on transfiguring things. Right now I am reading a sort of history of Animagus spells," Ron said absently and turned the page once more. Hermione's mouth formed into a surprised 'O' and she watched Ron read. Harry smirked. Hermione looked like she wanted to race to McGonagall and get a copy of the book for herself.

"So, have you given more thought to what you'd like to become?" Harry asked Ron.

"Some," said Ron, still reading. He reached up and buttered a piece of toast without looking and began eating it, careful not to get any crumbs on the pages.

"Who is he and what has he done with Ron," Hermione hissed at Harry who shrugged.

"I don't think I'll go with the Manticore anymore," Ron told them, "I've been thinking of a griffin, but that's a magical creature and those are difficult. You actually gain a little bit of what you turn into so theoretically I'd gain from griffin powers. Those can complicate changes and I am not entirely sure I'd do well with six limbs. On the other hand if I became a hawk I don't know what I'd do without hands. Griffins have hand-paws and can pick things up. They also have the ability to speak human languages which could be a real bonus. How ever if I wanted a form I could sneak around in, that would be a bad one. Cats are very popular. The first Animagi were Egyptian wizards. I think I heard that when we took the trip to Egypt," Ron informed his friends. Hermione and Harry were having a hard time not laughing. This was the first time they'd seen their friend so engrossed in anything remotely related to academics.

"Er, you did remember to do your normal transfiguration homework, right Ron?" Harry asked. They'd been assigned reading about turning desks into pigs, a trick McGonagall had done during their very first transfiguration class. Ron grunted what Harry thought could possibly be a yes and shrugged at Hermione who was shaking her head.

The class stood behind their desks and McGonagall was going around the room, watching each student attempt the transfiguration, and marking notes on apiece of parchment. Neville's desk had squealed and run out of the classroom at a high gallop. McGonagall had pinched the bridge of her nose and had wordlessly pointed out the door. Neville gave a little squeak and chased after his desk. McGonagall next went to Lavender Brown. Lavender was bleary eyed from staying out too late to watch the planets align in some configuration or other and she made a very lovely wooden pig carving out of her desk. Harry managed to turn his desk into a wooden pig that moved so he got a few more points than Lavender had. Hermione diligently turned her desk into a pig and back again. She, of course, got full points. Dean Thomas managed to make his desk into a pig, but its fur pattern still looked like wood grain.

Finally it was Ron's turn. McGonagall cleared her throat and Ron looked up from his book somewhat sheepishly. To everyone's great surprise McGonagall didn't chew him out. In fact she actually wore a bemused smile. Ron put his book safely down on another desk and rolled back his sleeves and stared at his desk. He then quite suddenly and authoritatively flicked his wand and said: "Volutabrum!" Ron's desk turned into a large boar with a small "pop." The boar looked around with some confusion. Neville walked in the door after having caught his desk. The boar stared at Neville, Neville stared at the boar. Neville squeaked just as a boar let out an aggressive grunt. Ron acted quickly and turned the boar back into his desk. Neville exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Excellent Mr. Weasley!" McGonagall praised and gave him full marks. Ron grinned sheepishly.

"That was awesome Ron!" Harry said. Many other students in the class were congratulating him as well. Ron's face grew red and he ran a hand through his hair. "This book is really great! It's taught me a lot of hints on how to approach transfiguration," he said. Hermione was looking at Ron, mouth slightly agape.

"You'll catch flies if you leave it open to long," Harry told her quietly. She shut her mouth and looked from Ron to Harry and back again. She smiled slightly.

"Who would've though Ron was so good at transfiguration," she said. Harry shrugged. They helped move the desks back into their proper order and they all sat down. McGonagall walked by Ron's desk, took his book, put the page marker in it and placed it on her desk. She smiled at him then began the next topic. Ron sighed, looked longingly at the book (to Harry and Hermione's amusement) and then began paying rapt attention to the lecture. When it was over, McGonagall handed the book back to Ron and he accepted it eagerly with a quick thanks.

"So, what really is in that book that suddenly you are a fantastic transfiguration student. Last week you only could manage a block of stone that looked like a carved frog in stead of a real frog." Hermione asked Ron. She'd placed her hand in front of what he was reading (as Ron had done many times, Harry noted with much amusement) to get his attention. They stopped in the hallway and the rest of the students flowed around them like water flows around a boulder in the middle of a stream.

"Well the first part has some really interesting stuff you can think about when you're going to transfigure something. The first chapter is called "Physics and How to Ignore it" and it gives a few mental model type things. They've really helped me. I could never really wrap my brain around how suddenly an object could be a boulder one minute and then a chicken or something the next," Ron said. The three looked around and noticed the hallways were emptying.

"Oh crap! We have to get to Divination Ron!" Harry said. Hermione squeaked as she realized she'd be late for Arithramancy.

"Can I look at the book later?" Hermione asked over her shoulder and she began to speed walk down the hall.

"I guess," Ron called back. The boys raced down the hall towards the staircase to the north tower. They jumped over Peeves who was lying on the floor like some sort of vaporous hurdle. He was apparently asleep and that was fine with Ron and Harry. The poltergeist was terribly annoying while he was awake. They sprinted up the staircase and then scrambled up the ladder through the round trap door.