Disclaimer: See previous chapters.

A/N: Thank you, my single reviewer! Glad you like the tale so far, Shorty McGee. )

It wasn't until three days later that the students involved in the incident had begun to awaken. For nearly the entire first day, all seven had been in such pain that even with Dreamless Sleep potions they had tossed and turned on the cots in the hospital wing. Each cot was surrounded by dividers and all gifts from well-wishers had been filtered first through Madam Pomfrey. No visitors, save for most of the professors, were allowed to visit the students lying on the cots and hidden behind privacy curtains.

Ron was the first one to wake.

"Urgh. What the... Ow! Bloody hell... Happened?" He groaned as he lifted a hand to his aching head. Ron pushed himself up, for he had been lying on his stomach, and rubbed at his eyes in an effort to wake himself up. He felt strangely heavy, tired, and there was a strange breeze in the room that tickled along his back. "Where am I?"

An amused sounding huff came from somewhere nearby. "Honestly, Mr Weasley! How many other rooms in this castle are decorated like this?" The voice belonged to Madam Pomfrey.

Slowly, feeling every muscle of his body aching in protest, Ron stood only to promptly lose his balance and fall back down onto his cot just as Madam Pomfrey came around the privacy curtain. She paused, taking in the scene of Ron placing a hand to his head, eyes closed. "Now did I say you were well enough to get up yet?"

Her crisp inquiry was accompanied by a vial of headache remedy which Ron gratefully gulped without complaint. Giving the mediwitch a lopsided smile, Ron frowned slightly. "You know... I never noticed just how chipped the paint was in this place."

"I'm sure it is." Pomfrey agreed calmly, despite the fact that there was nothing at all wrong with the paint that she could see. "Now lay back down...No, on your stomach! And rest there while I check on the others." She kept her eyes on the boy as she backed out of the privacy curtains and into another section of the infirmary.

"Wait a minute!" It took nearly ten minutes before Ron realized that he was actually in the hospital wing. Despite having been told and knowing who Madam Pomfrey was, his brain wasn't quite up to par. "Why am I in the hospital wing?" He demanded, placing his taloned hands down on the mattress and pushing up once more.

Pause... Talons?

Ron stared at his hands, seeming to be lightly golden and missing most of the freckles. The tip of each finger had seemingly been replaced with a sharp talon. "Madam Pomfrey!" He shouted, springing up from the cot and dashing out past the privacy curtains and into the bright late morning sunlight streaming through the windows. Or at least he tried to dash. He more or less made it four feet out of the curtains before tripping over his own feet. "What happened to my... Feet!"

Sure enough, Ron's feet were different as well. They weren't like his hands, it seemed more as if someone had taken his feet and replaced them with an owl's! Short feathery tufts covered the tops and around his ankles, his feet hard and talons clicking sharply against the floor. Experimentally, he sent a thought down to curl one of his toes and the long, avian style digit responded appropriately. Ron screeched!

The sound that came from Ronald Weasley's throat was not in the slightest bit human. The panicked screech was shrill, breaking some of the nearer glass objects as Madam Pomfrey rushed over before he could do any more damage.

"Mr Weasley, please calm yourself before you break everything!" She reached down to help him to his feet. Ron was surprised that she seemed taller than he remembered. Sensing what he wanted, Pomfrey led him over to a large mirror that Professor Flitwick had brought up to the hospital wing for when the students awoke. "Now please, let me finish checking on the others. Assuming your screeching didn't wake them already!" She huffed and flounced off to attend to the others as Ron stared into the mirror.

The first thing he noticed was that he was actually shorter than before. No wonder Madam Pomfrey had seemed taller! Second, he was almost completely the pale golden color he had noticed on his hands. Only a few of his freckles had survived the golden transformation. The third thing was that his features were sharper, more bird-like. Next he stared at his piercing blue eyes. They seemed mostly unchanged, but he could see tiny flecks of grey and even green in his own eyes that he had never noticed before. After a moment of admiration for what he decided was an attractive eye color, Ron's gaze traveled upward, taking in his hair... Or at least what used to be his hair.

Sleeked backwards, neat despite just waking after what was at least a night since the sun was brightly shining, a myriad of feathers both long and short were atop Ron's head. The feathers were a nearly the same red his hair had been, though they held a shimmer that gleamed golden in the light. As his surprise grew, the feathers lifted along his head, cresting into a feathery mohawk. Squawking softly, Ron stumbled back, unconsciously lifting wings to steady himself... Wings!

Eyes as large as saucers, Ron twisted this way and that in the mirror. The new feathered appendages seemed to react like any other limb of his body. The feathers adorning his wings were the opposite of his hair, golden and glimmering with a reddish hue in the light. Each wing appeared to be about as long as he now was tall, around five feet and eight inches, he guessed. Spreading the wings, he looked at himself in the mirror. He flapped the wings experimentally, his mind for a moment wondering if he could actually fly. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"I'm a ruddy bird!"

"We already knew that, Weasel. About time you admitted it."

Spinning around at the familiar drawl, Ron glared into the silver eyes of Draco Malfoy. A Draco Malfoy that was covered from head to toe in short white fur that glimmered like freshly fallen snow. His usual sneer looked positively vicious on the small muzzle Draco seemed to have grown and the wolfish tail coming swishing behind him almost like an excited puppy caused Ron to laugh.

"Brilliant! I knew you were a ferret, I just didn't know you were a mangy mutt as well!" Ron's laugh was a bit high pitched and caused Draco to wince slightly and reach up to rub his pointed fuzzy ears.

Pausing at the feel of his ears, Draco stormed unsteadily over to the mirror and shoved Ron aside. His expression remained unchanged as he took in the white fur, fur that was longer and thicker on the tail that protruded from a hole neatly sliced in the back of the white hospital pants. His feet were more like paws, black claws on his toes. His hands looked the same, save for the white fuzz covering them. It was his face that had changed the most. Draco's nose and jaw had drawn out to create what could only be a stubby version of some kind of canine's muzzle. And his nose pad, yes, his nose was now like a dog's, was a soft grey color that went nicely with the white fuzz on his face.

Draco sneered at his reflection, lip curling easily up and showing off sharp fangs. Another pause and he opened his muzzle wide, examining the sparkling fangs and the rather long tongue. His eyes narrowed as he heard the Weasel still laughing. Draco whirled, a snarl deep in his throat. "Better watch yourself, bird-brain. Or I'll be making sure that they're serving giant chicken for dinner tonight."

Whatever reply Ron could have made was broken off as he gulped. A semi-frightened look came over his avian features as Draco suddenly felt two hands clamp down on his shoulders, two very large hands. Draco spun away from the touch, sneer falling away and eyes growing wide in horror as he tilted his head upward.

"Play nicely ferret, or they'll be serving puppy surprise instead of chicken..."

Next time: Who was it that warned Draco? Which students wake up next? Stay tuned and find out. )

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