"Hey, you... Weaselette. Wake up!"
Ginny groaned, stretching her body as the soft, though insistent, voice penetrated her sleep cycle. She yawned, rolling over onto her back before blinking open soft brown eyes and coming face to face with a white wolf. "Squeak!" She tumbled off the bed she had been sleeping in and picked herself up onto all fours before giving the wolf a slightly timid glare. "What happened to you?"
The wolf shrugged slightly, the gesture odd on his body. "Same thing that happened to all of us. Snape's cure."
His mouth didn't move in words, but a series of soft growls and wuffs when he spoke overlapped with Draco's voice. Ginny found that just a bit strange. "So... Why did you wake me up?"
"I'm lonely and your Gryffindork friends are insane." The wolf turned to narrow his silver eyes at the others.
Following his gaze, Ginny felt her eyes widen even as she jumped back up onto the hospital bed. She didn't seem aware that she was currently in a rather small otter body as she watched the scene.
A tiger twin, Ginny couldn't tell which one, had a cougar pinned down beneath his larger frame. His head was thrown back and there was an odd, evil laugh coming from the tiger even as the cougar snarled vicious curses at him. The cougar's voice, which sounded just like Hermione, overlapped the feline snarl giving the scene an odd effect. Though as Ginny twitched her little ears, she could hear Fred's laugh coming from over the tiger's chuff sounds. That wasn't even the strangest part... A stunning black pegasus was standing over the felines, the light glinting off silver markings and snorting with a cross between irritation and amusement. The voice from the pegasus was unmistakably Harry's and he was trying to calm Hermione down. Apparently she had attacked the twins again and she was being pinned down for their safety.
Giving a shake of her head, Ginny turned to see where a couple of hospital beds had been turned over as another tiger, this one George, ran in circles. He wasn't speaking, but seemed to be enjoying chasing his own tail at a very dangerous speed. Perched on a privacy screen, a regal reddish gold eagle was squawking and making strange click-chirp sounds over which she heard Ron's voice encouraging George to go faster! From the looks of that scene, they were seeing how long it would take until George keeled over or puked.
Ginny blinked once before turning to look at the wolf that spoke with Draco's voice. "You're right. They are insane." She calmly agreed.
The silvery white wolf rolled his eyes. "Just so you know, you squeak and chatter like a squirrel when you talk." Draco jumped up onto the bed and sat next to Ginny.
Scooting over a bit so that the larger wolf could have more room, Ginny nodded her head in agreement. "It's really strange how we seem to have two voices... Have any of the professors come in yet?"
"No, but the doors are closed and none of us can open them as we are." Draco looked at Ginny's little otter paws. "You might be able to open the door, but there was a note asking us to wait here."
As Ginny pondered over the pack mentality that caused Draco to be nicer than usual, she found herself in the awkward situation of scratching her ear... With her foot. She covered her eyes with her paws when she realized what she was doing.
Draco smirked, it somehow wasn't surprising that even as a big white wolf he could still smirk... "Don't worry. We've all already done things like that. And yes, the only reason I'm being nice is because for some reason you Gryffindors are my pack..." He growled at the admission.
As Ginny was thinking of a reply to that, the door opened and in walked Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. The professors paused to take in the interesting scene before closing the door and blocking off the view of some curious students.
Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling and a smile in place, cleared his throat to get their attention. "Well, it seems we've had a bit of a set back in the curing process..."
"Gee, well isn't that an understatement of the obvious." The annoyed voice of Hermione Granger snarled across the room.
Eyes now twinkling madly, Dumbledore's smile grew. "Did we disturb you and Mr Weasley at a bad time, Miss Granger? I'm afraid in your present forms that pose does appear rather compromising..."
A mortified screech from a cougar and an amused sounding yowl from the tiger sounded as Hermione and Fred jumped away from each other. If her face hadn't been covered in tawny golden brown fur and his with orange, white and black fur, their flaming blushes would have cracked everyone up. As it was, the horror stricken look of mortification on the face of a cougar and the embarrassed look of amusement on a tiger face were enough to cause more than a few snorts of stifled mirth. Even from Professor Snape!
Clearing his throat, eyes still possessing that insane amount of twinkling that he gets when terribly amused, Dumbledore seated himself on one of the beds. "Now, as I have just learned, it would seem that you are still able to communicate. A sort of limited telepathic ability, it appears." Dumbledore nodded, reaching into his pocket and fishing out a sherbert lemon for himself. "It doesn't seem to be a mind reading ability, just allows you to project your thoughts through normal animal communication when you wish to be heard."
Harry flicked his long tail, looking rather nervous. "That's... Er, nice, Professor... But is there any way to get us back? At least the half-breed forms were more useful than being stuck as animals..."
"Yes, it must be dreadfully distressing. Which is why I have brought Minerva and..." Professor Dumbledore looked around as if someone were missing. "Oh dear, where did he get off to..." He stood and went back to the door. Opening it, which caused curious students to scatter, Dumbledore whistled. After a moment, a large black dog bounded into the room.
"Now, as I was saying... That is why I have brought Minerva and... Snuffles here. They will be assisting you. I am hoping that since you are now possessed of full animal bodies that you can escape them the same way that an animagus resumes his or her human form." Smiling, Dumbledore headed for the door once more. "I'm sure you won't mind sharing the control lessons with Remus in this way..." And with that, Dumbledore was gone.
Snape, who had been consulting with Madam Pomfrey, now stepped forward. "I need to get several samples from each of you before you head out to your lesson. We have to work something up in case your new animagi lessons don't help." Annoyed at the students, as if it were their faults that the cure hadn't worked, he patiently took them each aside to take several fur samples as well as claw clippings and a bit of saliva. Once he was done, Snape swooped out of the hospital wing to begin testing.
"You know..." The familiar voice of Ron was thoughtful. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was enjoying the challenge of finding a cure for us..."
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Somewhere along the line, between the first accident and waking up in the bodies of full animals, the twins had decided that keeping Hermione in check was their responsibility. This could, perhaps, have been because they were the only two who had been given a species and size that could outmatch the intelligent young woman. Or perhaps it was just because all three of them had somehow been gifted with feline mutations. In any event, when the newly dubbed Animalities walked along behind McGonagall and Snuffles through the castle and toward the clearing where they met with Remus Lupin, Hermione could be found flanked on either side by a large tiger.
The whole scene was enough to draw an audience as Minerva McGonagall, prim as ever, lead the way with a bear-like black dog beside her. The dog's presence made some of the more gullible Hufflepuffs watching shriek in fear of The Grim and only helped with the rumors flying around of Trelawny's absence.
Following the dog and Professor was a majestic pegasus stallion. The pegasus was mostly a deep black with cloven silver hooves. His mane and tail were a salt and pepper mix of black and silver and a silver lightning bolt blaze shimmered on his forehead. His silver feathers on his great wings were edged with black, softening the glimmer of reflected light on the pure silvery mass. The pegasus had bright emerald eyes that seemed to glow even when he walked through a shadow.
Sitting casually upon the back of the pegasus, holding locks of his almost shaggy mane in her delicate paws, a cute auburn colored otter could be found. When the pegasus walked through the light it would catch in her auburn fur and seem to burn like a smoldering flame. She had soft brown eyes that sparkled with amusement and was chirping and squeaking softly to the pegasus. Every now and then, the pegasus would nod or whicker softly at whatever the otter was saying.
Next came an equally entrancing sight. A sleek white wolf with the bearing of royalty walked gracefully in the wake of the pegasus and otter. He was large, though not as large as the black dog and his pure white fur shimmered silvery in the shadow while being blindingly bright in the light. His silver eyes held a calculating look as he paused a moment, eying some watching Slytherins in passing and causing them to take a step back just by his presence and bearing. The wolf smirked to himself before continuing after the others.
While the wolf drew the eye with his pure silvery appeal, his 'walking' partner attracted as many looks for his golden appearance. Gliding slowly, seeming to be pacing himself with the wolf, turning his wings to circle over head from time to time, a large red-gold eagle flew. If he were a lion, he would be in perfect Gryffindor spirit. As he glided with the silvery wolf in the shadows, he seemed more red, the shadows allowing his wickedly curving talons and sharp beak to be more easily seen. And then he would hit the light. When passing through the light, the gold highlights on his plummage sparkled incandescently. The burnished gold shimmer never failed to draw the eyes of both the wolf and the pegasus ahead as if they were trained to seek out such golden sparkles.
Bringing up the rear was undoubtedly the most dangerous part of the group; the three massive felines. Two tigers, identical almost to the last stripe, walked with sinewy grace. Muscles rippled beneath the orange, black and white fur that shimmered with good health. As one of the tigers yawned, displaying the long, sharp teeth, some of the students that had stopped to watch the procession marveled at how the smaller animals in front refrained from fleeing. Both tigers seemed bored, their golden eyes half-lidded as they tried to keep themselves awake while walking.
Nearly hidden between the larger bodies of the twin tigers, the sleeker and more agile cougar didn't glimmer quite as much as the other animals. While her golden brown fur was still slightly glossy, it had a tawny, almost fluffy appearance that, while softer than the others', wasn't as shiny. The tips of her ears and tail were a darker, almost chocolate brown in color. Like the tigers, her coat rippled with every movement as the sleek, solid muscles slid with unconscious fluidity with every movement. Her amber eyes sparkled with intelligence and quite a bit of barely restrained fury... Fury that was quite possibly a result of being escorted between the two larger felines. While not as large as the tigers, her smaller build made her much more dangerous as she was more agile and able to fit in smaller places than the larger cats.
As the strange procession made it's way out of the castle, students lining the hallways to watch curiously, one of the tigers paused mid-step. Turning his golden eyes to a small group of first year Ravenclaws, the tiger's eyes seemed to sparkle with something a moment before he pounced! Two loud roars and several terrified screams later, the tiger was lying on his back while the cougar snarled at it as if scolding while the first years ran for the far reaches of the castle.
McGonagall's irritated shout came from further down the hall. "Mr Weasley! Would you kindly control yourself and come along!"
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"So let me get this straight... Snape's cure, made it worse... And now you're going to try animagi lessons to see if you can turn human again?" Remus stood, his curious gaze turning from one animal to another.
Draco had been sworn to complete secrecy, his pack's Alpha Female demanding compliance while the two that confused him for Alpha Male position stood on either side of him. He had been shocked but, just knowing what The Golden Trio really did on their secret missions made him feel a bit better about being around them. The particular secret he had been sworn to: his cousin Sirius Black.
Sirius was in his human form, sprawled out between Harry and Remus while they all watched McGonagall change from her tabby cat to her human body. After changing, she turned on her best teacher mode and started telling them the process. Occasionally Sirius would phrase something differently so that the students that didn't have Professor level IQ's could follow the lecture.
As the lecture grew longer, only Remus, Draco and Hermione seemed to be paying attention. Ron was using a talon to scratch an elaborate tic-tac-toe game in the dirt that both Ginny and Sirius were playing with him. George had fallen asleep behind Sirius who was absentmindedly using the tiger as a pillow while playing the game. Harry was preening his feathers while watching Fred out of the corner of his eye. Fred was apparently working on a dance routine that he had seen some white tigers doing for some 'magic' show on the telly last summer. All in all, everyone seemed to be as normal as they could be all things considered.
Until...
"Oh my God! I just realized that all your robes fell off down in the dungeons when you changed! If you transform now you'll be naked!" Sirius exclaimed loudly!
At the near-shout, everyone's attention jerked toward Sirius, eyes wide with either shock, horror, amusement or irritation.
"How does that work, anyway?" Hermione's rumbly growl was drowned out by her sending. "I remember the Shrieking Shack... Were Pettigrew's clothes melted into his skin for twelve years as he hid as Scabbers? But then when he transformed to escape, he left his clothes lying there on the ground. So did his clothes vanish and he regained new ones when he transformed or what? Are we truly nude right now? I've seen you change to Snuffles and back, and McGonagall to her cat form and back... What happens to the clothing?"
No one seemed to understand much of what Hermione was asking, she tended to think fast when trying to work something out, and that didn't mix well at all with their new way of speaking. One thing hit their brains clearly and that was three little words: Nude. Right. Now.
Like switches being flicked, the light-bulbs in their brains turned on. The animal sides of their minds had overridden their human side on most things and they hadn't really noticed. But now that it had been pointed out for them...
"Eeeeek!" Ginny shrieked and dove over, hiding her smaller form as best she could behind McGonagall's robes.
Ron and Harry seemed to be doing their best to cover themselves with their wings.
George continued to sleep, blissfully unaware of things.
Draco seemed to be doing the equivalent of a wolfish blush and had curled up, his fluffy tail covering his face from view.
Hermione was startled out of her train of thought at the shrieking otter and stared at Ginny with surprise.
Remus had covered his face and was trying not to laugh out loud.
Sirius didn't even try to contain himself and laughed loud enough to cause George to stir from sleep.
A muscle near McGonagall's eye started twitching...
"We're naked! Wicked!" Fred stopped his dancing long enough to actually admire himself. He posed, the epitome of feline power and grace. "So... How can you tell if you have an impressi.."
Whatever Fred had been about to ask was cut off by a rather urgent whicker from Harry and everyone looked at the uncomfortably squirming pegasus. "Er... This might be a bad time... But... How are we supposed to use the lavatories?"
There was a scattering of snickers and concerned looks at the reminder. The twitch in the eye muscle increased and suddenly, Minerva McGonagall decided there were some things she just wasn't cut out to teach.
"That's it. I quit!" And Professor McGonagall walked primly back to the castle.
A/N: I don't know how many pay attention to my user page and see that I post information on current projects there, but I had commented I was going to take a break before starting this chapter. Well, about twenty minutes after deciding I needed a break, this came to mind and most of it was written an hour later. Hopefully the rest of the story comes to mind as easily. Once again, thank you to all my reviewers and I hope you continue to enjoy the story!