Author's Note: Ok, sorry this has taken so long to get up but I was on vacation and then my brain died. In any case, hope you like it and thanks to those who have reviewed.
chapter 19: Improvisation - fist of the dragon
A minute before the bell rang, the door to the Transfiguration classroom flew open and Ron Weasley skittered inside, dashed over to his seat and flung himself down in the chair. Malfoy, his unwilling partner in the class, looked over at him and curled his lip in contempt. "What, do you have some weird disability that keeps you from being on time, Weasley?" he said under his breath as McGonagall strode into the room. Ron just scowled at him quickly before turning his attention back to the head of the class. Just because McGonagall was the head of his house didn't mean she would hesitate to take away points if she caught him arguing with Malfoy during class.
"Ok, class," McGonagall began, speaking loudly, "Today's lesson will cover transfiguring portions of the anatomy. I assume that you have all read chapter three in your text and so are familiar with the basic principals to keep in mind." Ron glanced over at Hermione and saw that she was looking at him disapprovingly. She had tried to drill the chapter into his head that morning at breakfast but he hadn't been paying very much attention. Harry sat next to her, trying to shuffle discreetly through his notes.
"Now," McGonagall continued, "Today you will be working with your partners to transfigure his or her hand into a dragon's paw." There were a of couple excited and or nervous whispers at this and Neville looked like he was about to faint but, at a raised eyebrow from the professor, the class quieted down. "This exersise is particularly touchy so I would like a student to come up for a demonstration." McGonagall looked apraisingly around the room before settling on her chosen victim. "Mr. Zabini." Blaise Zabini was sitting behind Hermione and had obviously been taunting her. He jumped when his name was called. "Come to the front of the room, please."
Blaise stood slowly, a cocky sneer twisting his mouth, and slowly sauntered to the front of the class. McGonagall merely watched, sternly disapproving, as he approached. "All right, now hold out your hand and keep it still," she said when he finally stood before her. "We want to do everything we can to ensure a good aim." The smile she bestowed on Zabini was less than pleasant and he quickly dropped his smirk.
"Manus Draca Mutare," Professor McGonagall pronounced solemnly, her wand tip pointed steadily at Blaise's outstretched hand. An eerie yellowish-green light shot from the end of her wand, engulfing Blaise's hand and arm in a sickly glow. He flinched and pulled his hand back, his face twisting in a grimace of pain. Before everyone's eyes his hand began to twist and warp, slowly changing so that the fingers gnarled over into sharp talons and black scales spread their way across his skin, extending all the way up to his elbow. When the transformation was complete Blaise held up his 'hand', examining it closely and grinning wickedly at the sharp, dagger-like claws.
"Very well." McGonagall still managed to look disapproving despite the obvious success of her spell. "As you can all see, the transformation shouldn't extend past the elbow. If you see it extending further you are to call me over immediately. This spell was not meant for full-body transformations and there can be serious side-effects if it gets out of hand." McGonagall paused to look sharply about the room before reversing the transformation on Blaise's hand. "Manus Bonus." With much less fanfare than the initial transformation, Blaise's hand quickly melted back into its proper shape. Zabini looked disappointed.
"Ok, class. I'll be monitering you all closely." Professor McGonagall shooed Blaise back to his seat. "You are to take turns with your partner, one of you performing the transfiguration, then reversing it before your partner has a go. Is that clear?"
There was a murmured assent throughout the classroom and Ron stood for the lesson, praying that he could keep in mind everything he needed to know. He looked back over towards Hermione to see if she might be trying to communicate any last minute tips to him. No such luck. As he watched, Zabini walked by Hermione on his way back to his seat, bumping into her as she was standing. "Watch it, mudblood," he snarled, turning to give her an dark scowl.
Ron heard Malfoy behind him snicker at the exchange and turned around frowning. "I can't believe you get that much pleasure out of name calling, Malfoy." He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and was feeling grumpy. A long class period of trying to work with Malfoy was not sounding too appealing at the moment.
"Calm down, Weasel." Draco gave him a look that was almost exasperated and Ron had to work to keep his expression neutral. "I wasn't laughing at Granger. I was laughing at Zabini. Probably trying to cop a feel, though why he would want to is truly beyond me." Ron found himself caught between anger and confusion. Did Malfoy just make a joke? Was it possibly funny? Apparently he looked pretty baffled at this because Draco got a strange look on his face before turning to get out his wand and prepare for the lesson.
When Malfoy turned back, wand in hand, he looked so prepared and determined it made Ron feel a little nervous. "Ok, Weasel. I'm going first. I think you could use the extra demonstration anyway," Draco sneered. Ron made a face but held out his hand obligingly. Ron hated to admit it but Malfoy was probably right, anyway.
Malfoy got an intense look of concentration on his face before gesturing carefully with his wand and clearly enunciating the words of the spell. Ron flinched as the yellowish-green fire hit his hand and engulfed it, beginning to spread up his arm. It brought with it a terrible burning sensation and Ron felt an awful twisting, wrenching in his bones as his hand slowly began to take on the form of a dragon's paw.
Despite the pain, Ron had to admit that it looked pretty cool when it was done. Creepy but cool. He now sported five long, black talons that looked sharp enough to skin something with and the scales covering his hand and forearm glittered a cruel green. Ron flexed his 'fingers' and admired the strength that he could feel in his hand, the way the light glinted dangerously across his claws. He and Malfoy both stood there studying the hand intently for a few minutes. Ron found that he was fascinated by the similarities and differences he saw between this paw and his normal hand and Draco appeared equally interested.
"Wait, let me try something." Malfoy frowned and lifted his wand, preparing for another spell. Something in the back of Ron's mind said that he should be worried that Malfoy wanted to "try something" on his hand, but he just held himself still as Draco carefully positioned his wand and said quietly, "Valitudine Erroris." For a moment Ron was disappointed with this experiment, not expecting anything to happen, but after a moment his 'hand' began to go fuzzy and soon it smoothed itself into the lines of his normal hand. Ron lifted his eyebrows in surprise. He flexed his fingers again, seeing regular human fingers curl open and closed but he could feel that his hand still wasn't normal. If he wasn't careful, he could probably cut someone or something with his claws. "Wicked." Malfoy grabbed at the ends of Ron's fingers and smiled as he noted the effects of the glamour. He cursed though when he snagged one of the claw tips and scratched his finger.
Ron was confused though. "But why didn't it do this before? The glamour was still in place yesterday and we didn't have to refresh it." Ron kept his voice low, not wanting to alert McGonagall.
Draco frowned, looking thoughtful. "Maybe it has to do with the intent when the spell is cast."
"But it's just a glamour to give the appearance of health. Why would it work on this then?"
"Maybe it defines health as the most normal state?" Draco offered, but shrugged. "Still, it's a cool way to hide a weapon."
Ron gave Malfoy a dubious look before looking past his shoulder and seeing that McGonagall was coming their way to check on their progress. "Quick. Take off the glamour. McGonagall's coming."
Draco brought his wand up quickly, whispering "Finite Incantatem." The glamour rapidly dissolved away, leaving the dragon's paw once again visible and just in time for McGonagall's arrival.
"Everything going well over here, boys?" McGonagall's voice held a trace of doubt that this could be possible.
"Fine." Ron held up his 'hand,' waggling the claws back and forth.
Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Very good, Mister Malfoy. Just be sure that you put as much concentration into changing it back as you did for the initial transfiguration." With that she turned and strode off to the other side of the room where it appeared that Pansy Parkinson and Milicent Balstrode were have trouble with the transfiguration. If Ron wasn't mistaken, Pansy was missing her thumb.
"Oh shit. I'm glad she didn't notice that."
"What?" Ron turned back to Malfoy and looked, as he was, down at his arm. "Shit," he muttered, hastily wiping away the drop of blood that had oozed out from a crack inbetween two of the scales on his forearm. "Quick, change it back." Malfoy quickly complied and the two boys surveyed the results of of the transfiguration and that hasty Finite Incantatem. The bite marks were once again visible on Ron's arm and some of them appeared to have torn open in the transfiguration as they were bleeding slightly.
"Does it hurt?" Ron looked up in surprise to see that Malfoy had a slightly worried look on his face. In fact, his expression was very intent and some of what was there Ron couldn't read. Malfoy even looked a little paler than usual.
"It's fine, Malfoy," Ron said in a low voice, then hissed, "Now put the glamour back. Quick, before anyone sees."
This seemed to snap Draco out of it for he quickly lifted his wand saying, "Valitudine Erroris," once again, back to his cool, calm self. "Your turn, Weasley," he said then, and Ron couldn't tell if the upward twisting of his lips was intended to be a smile or a sneer.
Despite the burdensome task of trying to calm Neville down so that they could get to work on the exercise, Hermione was simultaneously trying to keep an eye on Ron. Anything that had Malfoy in a position to use magic on Ron didn't sound like a good idea and she had little faith that the two of them would be able to work through this exersise without incident.
She and Neville were actually quite close to where Ron and Malfoy were working but still Hermione was having a hard time keeping an eye on them. Blaise Zabini had been standing uncomfortably close the entire class period and kept making loud references to his partner that were obviously meant to be directed at her. It was starting to get on her nerves.
She finally calmed Neville to the point where he was able to hold his hand still enough for her to transfigure it, and managed to catch a look toward Ron. She was surprised to see both he and Draco hunched over, intently studying Ron's hand. Then McGonagall swept towards them, blocking her view and she looked back to see Neville, white as a sheet, staring in near shock at his new clawed and blue-scaled hand. "Can you change it back now, Hermione?" he asked in a small voice. Hermione pursed her lips, holding back the 'Oh, honestly' on the tip of her tongue, and flicked her wand toward Neville's 'hand,' saying "Manus Bonus."
As Neville's hand changed back into its normal form, Hermione glanced again towards Ron and saw that he and Malfoy were now both frowning at something. Then Malfoy suddenly pulled out his wand once more and performed a quick spell. If the strangeness of the situation hadn't caught Hermione's attention she would never have caught which spell he used, but as it was her concentration was so focused that she just barely managed to make out that it sounded as though the first word began with a 'v' and the second word was 'error'-something. Hermione frowned before turning back to Neville. She couldn't think of any spells that fit that description. She mentally filed it away as something to check up on later.
chapter 19: Improvisation - fist of the dragon
A minute before the bell rang, the door to the Transfiguration classroom flew open and Ron Weasley skittered inside, dashed over to his seat and flung himself down in the chair. Malfoy, his unwilling partner in the class, looked over at him and curled his lip in contempt. "What, do you have some weird disability that keeps you from being on time, Weasley?" he said under his breath as McGonagall strode into the room. Ron just scowled at him quickly before turning his attention back to the head of the class. Just because McGonagall was the head of his house didn't mean she would hesitate to take away points if she caught him arguing with Malfoy during class.
"Ok, class," McGonagall began, speaking loudly, "Today's lesson will cover transfiguring portions of the anatomy. I assume that you have all read chapter three in your text and so are familiar with the basic principals to keep in mind." Ron glanced over at Hermione and saw that she was looking at him disapprovingly. She had tried to drill the chapter into his head that morning at breakfast but he hadn't been paying very much attention. Harry sat next to her, trying to shuffle discreetly through his notes.
"Now," McGonagall continued, "Today you will be working with your partners to transfigure his or her hand into a dragon's paw." There were a of couple excited and or nervous whispers at this and Neville looked like he was about to faint but, at a raised eyebrow from the professor, the class quieted down. "This exersise is particularly touchy so I would like a student to come up for a demonstration." McGonagall looked apraisingly around the room before settling on her chosen victim. "Mr. Zabini." Blaise Zabini was sitting behind Hermione and had obviously been taunting her. He jumped when his name was called. "Come to the front of the room, please."
Blaise stood slowly, a cocky sneer twisting his mouth, and slowly sauntered to the front of the class. McGonagall merely watched, sternly disapproving, as he approached. "All right, now hold out your hand and keep it still," she said when he finally stood before her. "We want to do everything we can to ensure a good aim." The smile she bestowed on Zabini was less than pleasant and he quickly dropped his smirk.
"Manus Draca Mutare," Professor McGonagall pronounced solemnly, her wand tip pointed steadily at Blaise's outstretched hand. An eerie yellowish-green light shot from the end of her wand, engulfing Blaise's hand and arm in a sickly glow. He flinched and pulled his hand back, his face twisting in a grimace of pain. Before everyone's eyes his hand began to twist and warp, slowly changing so that the fingers gnarled over into sharp talons and black scales spread their way across his skin, extending all the way up to his elbow. When the transformation was complete Blaise held up his 'hand', examining it closely and grinning wickedly at the sharp, dagger-like claws.
"Very well." McGonagall still managed to look disapproving despite the obvious success of her spell. "As you can all see, the transformation shouldn't extend past the elbow. If you see it extending further you are to call me over immediately. This spell was not meant for full-body transformations and there can be serious side-effects if it gets out of hand." McGonagall paused to look sharply about the room before reversing the transformation on Blaise's hand. "Manus Bonus." With much less fanfare than the initial transformation, Blaise's hand quickly melted back into its proper shape. Zabini looked disappointed.
"Ok, class. I'll be monitering you all closely." Professor McGonagall shooed Blaise back to his seat. "You are to take turns with your partner, one of you performing the transfiguration, then reversing it before your partner has a go. Is that clear?"
There was a murmured assent throughout the classroom and Ron stood for the lesson, praying that he could keep in mind everything he needed to know. He looked back over towards Hermione to see if she might be trying to communicate any last minute tips to him. No such luck. As he watched, Zabini walked by Hermione on his way back to his seat, bumping into her as she was standing. "Watch it, mudblood," he snarled, turning to give her an dark scowl.
Ron heard Malfoy behind him snicker at the exchange and turned around frowning. "I can't believe you get that much pleasure out of name calling, Malfoy." He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and was feeling grumpy. A long class period of trying to work with Malfoy was not sounding too appealing at the moment.
"Calm down, Weasel." Draco gave him a look that was almost exasperated and Ron had to work to keep his expression neutral. "I wasn't laughing at Granger. I was laughing at Zabini. Probably trying to cop a feel, though why he would want to is truly beyond me." Ron found himself caught between anger and confusion. Did Malfoy just make a joke? Was it possibly funny? Apparently he looked pretty baffled at this because Draco got a strange look on his face before turning to get out his wand and prepare for the lesson.
When Malfoy turned back, wand in hand, he looked so prepared and determined it made Ron feel a little nervous. "Ok, Weasel. I'm going first. I think you could use the extra demonstration anyway," Draco sneered. Ron made a face but held out his hand obligingly. Ron hated to admit it but Malfoy was probably right, anyway.
Malfoy got an intense look of concentration on his face before gesturing carefully with his wand and clearly enunciating the words of the spell. Ron flinched as the yellowish-green fire hit his hand and engulfed it, beginning to spread up his arm. It brought with it a terrible burning sensation and Ron felt an awful twisting, wrenching in his bones as his hand slowly began to take on the form of a dragon's paw.
Despite the pain, Ron had to admit that it looked pretty cool when it was done. Creepy but cool. He now sported five long, black talons that looked sharp enough to skin something with and the scales covering his hand and forearm glittered a cruel green. Ron flexed his 'fingers' and admired the strength that he could feel in his hand, the way the light glinted dangerously across his claws. He and Malfoy both stood there studying the hand intently for a few minutes. Ron found that he was fascinated by the similarities and differences he saw between this paw and his normal hand and Draco appeared equally interested.
"Wait, let me try something." Malfoy frowned and lifted his wand, preparing for another spell. Something in the back of Ron's mind said that he should be worried that Malfoy wanted to "try something" on his hand, but he just held himself still as Draco carefully positioned his wand and said quietly, "Valitudine Erroris." For a moment Ron was disappointed with this experiment, not expecting anything to happen, but after a moment his 'hand' began to go fuzzy and soon it smoothed itself into the lines of his normal hand. Ron lifted his eyebrows in surprise. He flexed his fingers again, seeing regular human fingers curl open and closed but he could feel that his hand still wasn't normal. If he wasn't careful, he could probably cut someone or something with his claws. "Wicked." Malfoy grabbed at the ends of Ron's fingers and smiled as he noted the effects of the glamour. He cursed though when he snagged one of the claw tips and scratched his finger.
Ron was confused though. "But why didn't it do this before? The glamour was still in place yesterday and we didn't have to refresh it." Ron kept his voice low, not wanting to alert McGonagall.
Draco frowned, looking thoughtful. "Maybe it has to do with the intent when the spell is cast."
"But it's just a glamour to give the appearance of health. Why would it work on this then?"
"Maybe it defines health as the most normal state?" Draco offered, but shrugged. "Still, it's a cool way to hide a weapon."
Ron gave Malfoy a dubious look before looking past his shoulder and seeing that McGonagall was coming their way to check on their progress. "Quick. Take off the glamour. McGonagall's coming."
Draco brought his wand up quickly, whispering "Finite Incantatem." The glamour rapidly dissolved away, leaving the dragon's paw once again visible and just in time for McGonagall's arrival.
"Everything going well over here, boys?" McGonagall's voice held a trace of doubt that this could be possible.
"Fine." Ron held up his 'hand,' waggling the claws back and forth.
Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Very good, Mister Malfoy. Just be sure that you put as much concentration into changing it back as you did for the initial transfiguration." With that she turned and strode off to the other side of the room where it appeared that Pansy Parkinson and Milicent Balstrode were have trouble with the transfiguration. If Ron wasn't mistaken, Pansy was missing her thumb.
"Oh shit. I'm glad she didn't notice that."
"What?" Ron turned back to Malfoy and looked, as he was, down at his arm. "Shit," he muttered, hastily wiping away the drop of blood that had oozed out from a crack inbetween two of the scales on his forearm. "Quick, change it back." Malfoy quickly complied and the two boys surveyed the results of of the transfiguration and that hasty Finite Incantatem. The bite marks were once again visible on Ron's arm and some of them appeared to have torn open in the transfiguration as they were bleeding slightly.
"Does it hurt?" Ron looked up in surprise to see that Malfoy had a slightly worried look on his face. In fact, his expression was very intent and some of what was there Ron couldn't read. Malfoy even looked a little paler than usual.
"It's fine, Malfoy," Ron said in a low voice, then hissed, "Now put the glamour back. Quick, before anyone sees."
This seemed to snap Draco out of it for he quickly lifted his wand saying, "Valitudine Erroris," once again, back to his cool, calm self. "Your turn, Weasley," he said then, and Ron couldn't tell if the upward twisting of his lips was intended to be a smile or a sneer.
Despite the burdensome task of trying to calm Neville down so that they could get to work on the exercise, Hermione was simultaneously trying to keep an eye on Ron. Anything that had Malfoy in a position to use magic on Ron didn't sound like a good idea and she had little faith that the two of them would be able to work through this exersise without incident.
She and Neville were actually quite close to where Ron and Malfoy were working but still Hermione was having a hard time keeping an eye on them. Blaise Zabini had been standing uncomfortably close the entire class period and kept making loud references to his partner that were obviously meant to be directed at her. It was starting to get on her nerves.
She finally calmed Neville to the point where he was able to hold his hand still enough for her to transfigure it, and managed to catch a look toward Ron. She was surprised to see both he and Draco hunched over, intently studying Ron's hand. Then McGonagall swept towards them, blocking her view and she looked back to see Neville, white as a sheet, staring in near shock at his new clawed and blue-scaled hand. "Can you change it back now, Hermione?" he asked in a small voice. Hermione pursed her lips, holding back the 'Oh, honestly' on the tip of her tongue, and flicked her wand toward Neville's 'hand,' saying "Manus Bonus."
As Neville's hand changed back into its normal form, Hermione glanced again towards Ron and saw that he and Malfoy were now both frowning at something. Then Malfoy suddenly pulled out his wand once more and performed a quick spell. If the strangeness of the situation hadn't caught Hermione's attention she would never have caught which spell he used, but as it was her concentration was so focused that she just barely managed to make out that it sounded as though the first word began with a 'v' and the second word was 'error'-something. Hermione frowned before turning back to Neville. She couldn't think of any spells that fit that description. She mentally filed it away as something to check up on later.
