Susan wakes with a yawn and opens her eyes, as the light in the girls dorm brightened up to mimic the sun. Looking out of her partition she sees a massive xenomorph, curled up in a ball and sleeping on the floor. Rubbing her eyes she lays back down to bed. Obviously she must be dreaming. When Hermione's voice calls over the dividing partition, "Hey Susan, sleep well?" her brain starts to wonder if she is actually dreaming.
A scream forces the cobwebs out of her brain and she bolts from the partition in her nightdress. From her partition, opposite the entrance to the dorm, Megan Jones has frozen in fear, and the xenomorph is stretching languidly. The other girls all, apart from Ne'stbei, come out from their own partitions, and watch open mouthed as it stands up, and has to bow its head under the ceiling. It then pads out of the dorm towards the common room.
Finally, Ne'stbei comes out of her own partition, "Hey Hermione, is it me or did she look Hungry?"
"Nope, not you. I'm just glad I'm her vassal, just about any other human would probably be breakfast."
"Did you hear that the girl that Murph hangs around with can turn into a xenomorph?"
"I did, she's the second one. The first was Luna Lovegood."
Susan looks between the two of them, absolutely certain that they were priming the room for something, but unable to help herself as she became more and more scared with each sentence. Suddenly there's a scream as an acromantula runs into the dorm followed by the monstrous xenomorph. When the xenomorph pounces on the acromantula, Susan screams and vaguely realises that it was the acromantula that was screaming initially. She stares frozen to the spot as it crunches its way through the poor thing, as thoughts of the same thing happening to her flit through her mind. As it gulps the last mouthful down, Megan tries to run, and its head whips round. With a sudden leap, it jumps at Megan and, with a scream, she disappears, in her place is another xenomorph, much smaller than the monstrosity that jumped at her. It then turns and leaps at another girl, then another, and another. Not even Sally-Anne Perks is spared, even though she's left her leg behind. Finally, it turns to her, and all thought about the fact this must be Arry, and Arry wouldn't hurt her, flies out the window. As her vision goes dark, she hears Arry laughing, "Got you all!"
Ne'stbei is also laughing too, though Hermione sounds annoyed, "Arry, if I didn't know you wouldn't harm them, I wouldn't have played along. But it's not actually that funny."
"But it is Ermione, but it is. Don't you see? Every single one of them has done an animagus transformation, with a little psychic pressure from me, and being primed into it. Look at Minva's memories and how hard she had to work to achieve hers."
Susan feels confused, Animagus transformation? "What, neugh, m ongue"
"Xenomorphs don't talk, we're psychic, your mouth works differently. Try thinking about talking but without talking."
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"
"Just like that actually."
"Hey, I've got my leg back.", That must be Sally-Anne.
"Xenomorphs can regrow just about every limb, I don't know if it will carry over though."
"A…Are we part of your hive now?"
"No Hannah, you're not part of my hive. You're not part of any hive. Well, grab your book bags and let's go to breakfast. Just remember not to change back until you're back here, even if you work out how."
Someone Susan thinks is Alice Tolipan says, "But we can't see."
"That's because you're expecting things to be like a human. You're not human at the moment, you're not related to any creature native to earth. Hmm, this might be uncomfortable as you're not part of my hive, but try to accept this from me."
Susan drops to the floor, as a massive presence steps onto her mind, and seems to hold out a parcel. Struggling to rise, physically and mentally, she manages to take the parcel and her mind is flooded with alien sensations and instincts. As she writhes on the floor, she gradually becomes aware of the room around her, the sound of the boys talking in their dorms, and the smell of the kitchens nearby. Unsteadily she gets to her feet, only to find that she has perfect balance and proprioception.
"What did you just do?"
"Hmm… Oh, I just sent you all the memories of a scout, before it had left the hive for the first time. It was only a couple of days memories so I hope it doesn't affect your personality. Now can everyone see properly now?"
There's a chorus of affirmative thoughts.
"Good, now let's play follow the leader, do your best to keep up everyone."
Susan follows Arry and the others through the common room and out into the school, to the sound of screams and swearing. She only becomes aware of the fact that they are running on walls, and ceilings, as often as the floor, after they've been doing it for a few minutes, when she 'sees' some students standing on the ceiling and wonders why they're up there. Eventually, they all stream into the great hall, where Hermione and Ne'stbei have already sat down, and there is an array of appetising scents coming from the platters in the centre of the table. She, like the others, dives straight in, until the Queen says, "Everyone, sit back, sit down and remember your manners. You're students not animals."
Abruptly she scoots off the table and takes a seat, the shock of the statement allowing her to regain her wits, reaching out she takes a serving of what ever was in the centre of the table and places it on her plate.
"mmm, this is good, what is it?"
Hermione responds, "Acromantula. Freshly caught this morning."
With a shrug Susan goes back to eating, though there's a gagging sound from further down the table. Just as she's finishing her second acromantula the Head Master's assistant comes over to the table.
"Erm, Miss Bones?"
Susan looks up, "yes?"
"The Head Master would like to see you in her office, it's about the incident on the train."
"Should Hannah come too she was in the cabin."
"Certainly, if you'll both follow me."
As she leaves, she hears whispers of, "That's Bones and Abbott? Weren't they different last night? How did the Head Masters aide understand them?"
It takes a frustratingly long time for them to reach the office. Long enough that Susan and Hannah start to play stalk the assistant, by seeing how close and quietly they could get to Priya before she notices. Admittedly, this also slows them down, as she turns around every 20 seconds or so, to check they're still following her because they're so quiet. On one occasion even calling out for them when they were both hiding on the wall above her. After that, they both agreed between each other that they'd keep inside her sight lines.
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As Priya comes back in, Amelia looks over at the door, and every instinct tells her to run as two creatures prowl in, radiating menace from their every movement. Then one of them looks up at her and leaps towards her.
Minerva's whip crack voice calls out, "Miss Bones, stop that this instant. Your aunt isn't accustomed to your animagus form, and you don't yet know how fragile humans are. Now approach like a proper witch."
To Amelia's surprise, the creature tumbles over itself and sprawls on the floor before somehow looking contrite as it stands up and slowly walks over to hug her. Awkwardly she hugs it back.
In a more normal tone, Minerva says, "Thank you Priya, I take it the other one is Miss Abbott."
"She is Head Mistress… Master, sorry."
"Thank you, over to you Madam Bones."
"Um, thank you. Susan, Hannah, I'm here officially, so could you change back to the girls I know please?"
When nothing happens for a minute or two, Minerva sighs before saying, "Imagine who you are, and just push yourself into that form. Some people like to imagine looking at their reflection in a mirror, and then stepping into it. I have to say, I never realised it was possible to scare someone into being an animagus."
After a little more coaching, Susan and Hannah are both standing in the office, wearing their night dresses, looking a little disorientated. Stepping out of her official role for a moment, Amelia says, "Sue, are you alright?"
"I, yes. I'm ok, the world just seems somehow less like this. I… couldn't see. I mean I could but not like this. Unless they spoke I couldn't tell which frames had paintings in them and which didn't. It was so easy to move as well, and communication…"
Hannah nods vehemently, "It was so easy to talk to each other, but it wasn't with words. We could… I don't know how to explain it."
Amelia looks at them both seriously, "I'm proud of both of you achieving this at such a young age. However, I want you to promise me that you're take care and try not to lose yourselves to the other form. I know many witches and wizards don't register, but the registry was set up to save lives. Every few years you hear of an animagus going native, I don't want that for you."
Minerva nods, "It's a danger I don't normally need to explain to people until their doing their NEWT's. I'll make sure all the Hufflepuff girls get the lessons, and are registered." – with a sigh she adds – "I may also know of a way to prevent that entirely, but that's going to be a personal decision they have to make after they've got all the facts. However, I believe you were here on business."
"Yes, thank you. Yesterday, Madam McGonagall visited the DMLE to report an altercation on the train. You were both named as witnesses. The Head Master has volunteered the use of the school pensive so that I can see first hand what happened. I have with me a pensive camera on loan from the Department of Mysteries. It will allow me to record a transcript of what transpires as well as take photos of the event. If you consent, the Head Master will aid you in retrieving the memory for me to view, and will then return them to you. Do you have any questions?"
Both girls shake their heads.
While the process of extracting the memories is fairly slow due to their inexperience, it is done quickly enough. After an hour Amelia comes out of the pensive sour faced, "I can't say that I'm surprised at the response. If it was Lucius that said that to me, it would have been a duelling offence. I have no doubt that when Mr Malfoy was told that statement, his father had no idea it was the Lady Potter he was talking about. It's also telling that Malfoy didn't ask for introductions from the non-humans before speaking either. I have no doubt that I will be receiving a visit from his parents. Thank you for allowing me to view your memories, it has made my job far easier than it would have been otherwise. Thank you for your time Head Master, I will take my leave."
After Amelia leaves, the memories are quickly restored, and Minerva talks the two through returning to their animagus forms without being scared out of their minds.
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Sat on the ceiling outside the great hall, Hannah says, "Sue."
"Yes Hannah?"
"Is this ok?"
"What do you mean?"
"This, we're sitting on the ceiling, well gripping the ceiling and holding ourselves up, we ate acromantula as if it was the tastiest thing ever, that person down there looks tasty, and I just want to run."
"I do too. But I don't think it's any different for other animagus."
Arry's voice says, "Don't move, I'm just coming to see you. I've had this chat three times already, so what's a 4th?"
They both almost let go of the ceiling when they hear that, but a minute or so later the Queen is wedged in a dark corner near by.
"Ok, so you're feeling all sorts of strange feelings and urges yes?"
Both Susan and Hannah nod, "We are."
"Some of that is my fault, as I shoved memories at you, rather than letting you come to terms with your bodies, and learning what they can do. Some of it is your bodies instincts, as Xenomorphs are hunters, and are naturally animals. It's only because of magic that I'm not an animal. The same is true of you as well. The closeness that you're feeling, is the beginnings of a hive being built between you. At some point, one of you may get the urge to sacrifice themselves to lay an egg. If you ever feel like that, or one of the others feels like that, tell myself, Hermione, Minva, Pomona, or Peeya immediately and we'll ensure that they are brought into my hive."
"Why not do that now?"
"The more people I get in my hive, the less I like the idea of taking peoples choices away. You're welcome to join whenever you want, but I'm not going to force you into it."
"What was that this morning then?"
Arry laughs, "That, was me finding out that I really don't like the sound of screaming as it does funny things to my instincts. So, I ensured that you would all know what it was like to be me. That way we won't get any other repeats of this morning."
"But what about the other Hufflepuffs?"
"They're not going to wake me up with their screaming. Besides which, I only have genetic templates for female xenomorphs. Which will entail a gender swap for any men that get included in my hive."
"Why would that affect anything?"
"That's your instincts talking. To a xenomorph, not being a xenomorph is a nonsensical idea. Why would anything want to remain prey? If I'd told you that joining my hive would force you to be a wizard, you'd probably freak. Then if you felt the need to make an egg, freak even more until you just did it. It's a hard thing not being the right gender, and if you're forced out of your own gender, it takes a lot of help and support to even keep going. Talk to Wild Mask, that's the English translation of his name, as he's going through that right now. Anyhow, we should get back to the Dorm so that you can both get dressed. We're then going to explore the castle with the boys, as it's the weekend. Hermione has your timetables so don't worry about missing them. If you'd like later, we can go into the forest so that you can play in the trees."
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Amelia looks up at the expected arrival of Mr and Mrs Malfoy with a grimace. Smoothing out her face, she calls out, "Enter"
Lucius takes a seat in front of her desk, while his wife Narcissa looks at her for permission before sitting when she nods. "Madam Bones, I demand that you arrest Lady Potter for abducting the heir to house Malfoy."
Amelia shakes her head, "I'm afraid I can't do that, as I have investigated the matter and she was well within her rights as a Head of House to do worse."
"She had absolutely no right to kidnap my son."
"After he told her that she'd been prostituting herself in order to afford to go to Hogwarts? Are you really sure about that?"
"What ever do you mean? He has been brought up better than that."
"I have here a pensive derived transcript from the memories of two people that had a clear view of the entire situation. Mrs Malfoy if you would like to read this copy, Mr Malfoy here's the other."
The room goes silent while the two of them read, Narcissa, always being the more politically astute of the two even in school, blanches as she puts the pieces together. Lucius on the other hand explodes, "What? Draco asked me about some non-human harlot that was strutting around naked in Diagon Alley while he was being fitted for his robes."
"Lucius dear. I think you need to reconsider the article you were moaning about yesterday. The centre page spread."
"Morrigan take me, that was the same woman?" – Narcissa just nods – "I'd ask what the inhuman harlot was doing as the head of house Potter. But that's by the by. Is Draco alive?"
Amelia sighs, "I don't know. I know that he was, because wherever she took him was safer than here."
"Why not bring him here?"
"Mr Malfoy, they have access to a phoenix."
"Narcissa dear, I have an urgent appointment with Minister Fudge. Will you be able to finish up here?"
Once he's left, Amelia asks, "Why did you ever marry him?"
Narcissa shrugs, "He charmed my father, who then negotiated a favourable marriage contract. Did that for all three of us, Andy eloped and was stricken from the tree because of it."
"Well, he's going to have a very nasty surprise soon, as Fudge was here yesterday asking for advice. So I gave him some, and then explained the implications of going after someone who was as quick to violence as the Lady Potter seems to be, while also having access to phoenix travel. I'm sure you can already see the issues that could arise if you were seen to be the person that was trying to use the law to murder the head of a house."
"Is that a threat?"
"Not at all. I don't have access to a phoenix."
"What happened to the naive Hufflepuff that was a year ahead of me?"
"She grew up, fast. You may also want to inform your husband that his bigotry is likely to get him killed if he can't control it better. The Lady Potter has exceptional hearing."
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Arbitrator Thwau'tha-Than looks at the recording again, a Yautja that is part of a R'ka hive. How very interesting. He may have given up the hunt centuries ago, but this is interesting enough to investigate. He's also only a ¼ cycle from the clan ship in question.