Tremulously, Bubona approaches Murph. Since she's started changing into a person, it's been much harder to see her as an animal. "Murph, I have a dress here for you. Would you like to go shopping with Vesta and myself for more appropriate clothing for a young witch?"
Murph looks at Vesta who smiles and nods, then looks back to Bubona, "Yes, want." Murph then disappears with a pop, before reappearing a moment later holding a leather bag in her hand. She then holds the bag out to Bubona, who takes it and looks inside to see the glittering surface of Galleons. There must be a weeks wages in there.
"Where did you get this?"
"Arry." – Murph points at Vesta – "Want."
"Ok. Vesta, will you help me get Murph into a dress?"
"Yes Mum, this will be so much fun Murph."
"Fun."
After much struggling, an accidentally ripped seam that was caught on a claw, and an epic argument over underwear. Murph is finally dressed, and Bubona takes both of them to the Farmers Market on the Knight Bus. During the journey, Murph changes back into her natural form in order to get a better grip. Fortunately for Bubona's sanity, her clothes come back when she changes back. To the sound of a muttered, "Familiars get weird and weirder every year." the three of the disembark.
Once they enter the market, Murph sniffs and starts to drawl, "Want snack, want snack."
Bubona flicks out her wand to cast a reins spell on Murph, but she's just too late, as Murph runs off towards the smell. Vesta obviously following as well. Despite herself, Bubona starts to smile as Murph trips over again and again. First it's her tail, then it's her feet, then she stands on her dress. It allows her to catch up and put the reins spell on both children, followed by a quick scourgify to clean Murph off. She then takes them to the snack stall.
"Hello Bubona, here for your weekly shop already?"
"Good afternoon Jim. No, clothes shopping for this one."
"I didn't know you had another kid."
"I don't, she made friends with Vesta at her birthday party, and I've ended up her permanent babysitter."
"I'm surprised you let a kid with such obvious features in the house."
Bubona is about to respond, when she realises that she no longer knows how to explain it without also denigrating her own daughter. "Hmm, can we have two locust sprinkles please?"
"Sure. Honey?"
Vesta bounces, "Yay." And Murph copies her.
"I think that's a yes."
Once the two of them have their sticks, Murph tries to stick the whole thing in her mouth, and Vesta laughs, "No silly, like this."
With the two of them munching happily, Bubona is able to steer them around the seamstresses in the market and see the styles that catch Murph's eyes the most. Wistfully she looks back at the days when Vesta would chatter happily and exhaust herself enough to make standing still for being measured easy. Just think, that was only a month or so ago, since she learnt to transform, she seems to have endless energy.
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"Master, they have declared a room on the third floor off limits to those who do not wish to die a painful death."
"I know you imbecile, I was there when Snape told you."
"What are we going to do?"
"We obviously aren't being invited to participate in the defences. Which is a genius move if she suspects us, or incomprehensible if she doesn't. Either way, I want you to place these enchantments in the corridor."
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Minerva looks over at the children for the end of term feast, "Good evening. I know that most of you are going home tomorrow morning. Remember that you don't need to take your trunks, though you should ensure that they are packed and locked so that your belongings are secure. This is also the time I need to warn you all about the statute of secrecy. This is a law that codified the separation of the Magical and Mundane worlds in 1682. The reasons behind this separation are many and oft argued over by historians, so I will suggest you bother Master Pince or Professor Binns if you want to know more. What matters for you, the students, is that in 1905 camera started to become more convenient to carry around, and it was harder to tell if someone had a camera with them. In 1983 after several students were caught on film without noticing, the Ministry implemented the Reasonable Restriction on Underage Magic. This states that you are not allowed to use wands anywhere that may endanger the statute of secrecy. Due to the way the statute of secrecy is enforced, any magic performed outside of known magical areas or households is attended to by obliviators, who remove the memory of the event, and then a warning is sent out. As school policy, none of you are allowed to practice your wand magic or demonstrate what you have learnt. Failure to comply will lead to Detentions and point deductions for the first offence, and the confiscation of your wand, to only be returned for class usages for a second offense. This applies to all of you, not just the muggleborn. There will be no third offence as you will be held to the same standard as if you had been detected by the DMLE."
The hall erupts in cries of consternation and objections, that she allows to continue for a few minutes.
"If official enforcement of this law changes, then the school policy will change too."
The head boy stands up, "Dumbledore never implemented anything like this. It will surely negatively affect students ability to do their holiday homework and catch up on the things they've had trouble with."
"You're right it will. It will put those of you under the age of majority on an equal footing with your muggle born classmates, and those magic born with a non-magical parent, and can't have the protections put on their homes that the rest of you enjoy."
"That still seems unfair."
Hermione is unable to bite her tongue anymore and stands up, "That's only because you're used to having the privilege of being able to cast magic at home because the rules weren't applied equally. So now that they are, it feels like something has been taken away. You should be taking comfort in the fact that we are now all in this together, and so there is an opportunity to get the rules made more fair for everyone."
As she sits back down, applause erupts along the Hufflepuff table.
"Thanks for your help with the words Mum."
"You're welcome pudding."
"Mum! You know I hate that name. How's dad doing?"
"Not good, the changes are starting to affect his hormone levels and causing problems. I'm currently getting training in Transsexual diagnosis and care to help him. We may be able to get him Testosterone injections to counteract the fact his body is starting to produce Estrogen."
"I can't say I understand that, but he'll still be my Daddy."
"Glad to hear it. He's getting a blood test tomorrow morning to check his testosterone levels, and hopefully, they'll just assume that it's an undiagnosed medical condition and prescribe him Testosterone anyway."
"I hope it goes well, when will you have a result?"
"It's Christmas, so probably early Janurary, you should be paying attention to the school not me."
"Sorry, see you tomorrow."
"Love you, and I'll be at the station."
Hermione comes back to the sounds of a rather furious debate with the Slytherin's on one side, and Hufflepuff's on the other.
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"Professor?"
Pomona looks up from her paperwork as one of her badgers speaks. Leaning against the doorframe with only 1 leg is Sally-Anne, "Yes Miss Perks?"
"The restriction on magic use, does that apply to our animagus forms?"
Pomona feels genuinely sad, "I'm afraid so, especially your animagus form as you can't blend in and pretend to be a new pet or a visiting wild animal."
Sally-Anne visibly wilts in disappointment, "Oh. It's just, this is the first time my stump hasn't hurt I can remember."
"I'm sorry to hear that, as it's not something you should have ever experienced. I can try to put a cushioning charm on it, and anchor it to last most of the holidays if you think that would help."
"Thank you, I'm not sure what I'll do over the summer though."
Pomona hesitates for a moment, "Why, what's the problem?"
Sally-Anne starts to cry, "Do you have any idea what it's like to be able to run around and play with the other children? Of not having to worry about stairs or even how fast other people are going, because your ankles just work. If it wasn't for my animagus form, I'd have probably dropped out already, not because of the work but because my body just couldn't take it."
Pomona conjures a couch and pulls Sally-Anne down into a hug while she cries. She isn't the first muggleborn to have quality of life problems with returning to the non-magical world. But she's the first one that Pomona's had in nearly a decade.
"There's nothing stopping you from writing to your classmates, or even visiting for a week or two. There's also nothing stopping you from talking about your friends and adventures to your parents, and other family that live with you."
"Sniff. What if I wake up in my animagus form?"
"Has that happened before?"
Sally-Anne sniffs again, then nods, "When I dream of running in the forest. I sometimes dream that I'm a xenomorph that can turn into a disabled human."
"I think that would come under accidental magic, and now that we know about the School Pensive, I'm sure that they'd let you submit a memory to prove it. Though I can't say I've had that particular dream, though I have plenty of nightmares these days. Usually finding new and unique ways to bring down prey so that they can be used as hosts for xenomorphs. I am seriously considering talking Miner… the Head Master into teaching me how to become an animagus, as she doesn't seem to have those nightmares."
"I don't know how they could be nightmares, dreaming of hunting deer is amazing."
Pomona laughs good naturedly, "Well, once I've learnt my own animagus transformation, you'll have to show me how to do that then."
Sally-Anne smiles, "I will, it will be great."
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Minerva looks up from the endless parchment work that comes with being the Head Master, "Arry, thank you for coming. We found a family heirloom of yours while sorting out the previous Head Master's stuff."
"Erm, thanks? What's an heirloom?"
"It's like your ancestral memories, only something physical that's passed down, usually to the first born of the appropriate gender."
"Oh, cool, what is it?"
"It's an invisibility cloak."
"Huh? Why would I want one of those?"
"It doesn't really matter if you want them or not. If you ever choose to have a child the human way, you'll be able to pass it down to them."
"True. I suppose it would also be polite to ask how you're doing rather than just checking."
Minerva smiles, "Thank you, and I'm doing well. With Priya's help, my workload is actually less than it was as deputy and head of Gryffindor."
"I'm glad to hear that. How's she adjusting to..."
"It's been hard, she was hoping to one day get married and have a family. However she feels like that's no longer an option, and not because of you. She's worried about accidentally killing any partners she might have."
"Eww, I'm so not ready to know that."
"You've grown a lot over the last 3 months, when we met you wouldn't have batted an eye lid about discussing that."
Arry thinks for a moment, "I think it's having Hermione in the hive, she's given the rest of us a reference point that we were lacking. Yautja females go into season, and then it's a battle royal for breeding rights. They really don't have a concept of sex for pleasure. We, that is xenomorphs, no longer need males unless we want to join two hives together through a new Queen. Krizror and Brugroch are too young to know their own species mating preferences. So a lot of our views on that subject are being informed by her, with the adults like yourself and Vivian filling in too many details if we look too closely. I know a lot of my hive are watching Murph closely to see if it's worth learning how to human or not."
"What are your plans for Christmas?"
"I'm going to spend a week at home, as I've got an idea of something I want to do, but I can't work it out here as there's too many distractions. I'll send T'o-Ba'sall back while I'm gone."
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"Susan Anne Bones, Hannah Jody Abbott, get down here this instant!"
"Shit, do you think your Aunt knows we used our animagus forms?"
Susan looks down from the 8 foot chimney stack on the end of the Bones Mansion, "No, but I think she has a fair guess, and I honestly don't think we can get down without them."
"What about one of the windows over there?"
"We always keep them locked, brooms you understand."
"Susan, Hannah, Don't make me get my broom!"
Susan winces, "We better go, it will be worse if she has to come and get us."
The two of them jump, bounce, slide and climb to the ground where Amelia Bones, Head of the DMLE and single mother through circumstance sternly walks up to them, "Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"
Sheepishly, Susan turns human again, "I'm sorry Auntie, we're just used to changing most of the day between classes. Sally-Anne doesn't have one of her legs, so she uses her animagus form to get around the school, and all of us girls and Wayne change with her so she doesn't feel singled out. Unfortunately, the other boys either can't or don't want to change, it's about 50/50 either way. Oh, and Ne'stbei can't either, but she's Yautja, so she keeps up anyway. Both her and Ce'jaun say that navigating the school is great training."
"That is not a reason, it's an excuse and you know it. Changing while you're asleep is one thing, but you can't just accidentally change into a whatever and climb up to the chimney without knowing you're doing it."
Susan goes bright red, "You've seen that?"
"So has Madam Abbott." – Hannah goes crimson too – "Well, come on, we're off to the DMLE so you can both get your warnings."
"But Auntie, we weren't endangering the statute."
"Susan, our protections don't hide the house, only the magic on the grounds. They only go up to the roof, you know this."
"But Auntie!"
"No Susan, you know it doesn't work like that for us, the law says may expose, not will or has. If there were any muggles nearby they could have seen you climb onto the chimney and turn back to human. Also, I'm a witch that's not the head of a house, in a traditionally male job, I cannot be seen to show any favouritism whatsoever. While we're there we'll get your animagus forms registered. Do any of the other children change in their sleep?"
Hannah nods reluctantly, "We all do."
"I'll instruct Mafalda that all animagus use must be investigated and use the two of you as examples. Come along then, don't dally."
The two girls dutifully follow along.
"Mafalda."
Mafalda jumps where she was doing the crossword in the prophet, "Yes boss!"
"I need you to write these two up for underage magic."
"You know you don't need to do that, your house is protected."
"They climbed above the protections."
"But still, we've always turned a blind eye to that sort of thing in the past."
"We have?"
"Er, yes?"
"That stops right now. The wording of the law was brought to my attention by a rather irate Fudge last month. The law is created equally, and will be applied equally. Do you understand?"
"But…" Mafalda glances at the map where the underage trace is linked, and all the little pins that denote magical households that have protections.
"No buts. Also, most of the first year Hufflepuffs are Animagi, and are so familiar with their forms they change accidentally in their sleep. You'll need to investigate any such occurrences and withdraw any penalties you've already sent out if they were indeed accidental."
Mafalda looks mournfully at her outbox and reluctantly moves the entire stack to her inbox. Her crossword time is at an end it seems. "Yes boss, I'll just get the first-time warning forms."
Amelia picks up the stack of parchment, and flicks through it, "Mafalda, why are there three warnings for Miss Perks here?"
"Um, because she used magic 3 times?"
"Where's her interview transcript for her second warning?"
"It's not necessary is it, she's only a muggleborn."
"Robards! Get in here!"
A black Auror runs in at full tilt, "Yes Director!"
"Take Mafalda into custody for gross dereliction of duty and get someone to check on the Perks, if Miss Perks has already had her magic bound and memories wiped, add Murder by death of personality to the list."
"Simmons!"
"Yes Director!"
"Go through all of the files here, find all the 3 strike files where an interview transcript isn't available and put it on my desk. Then find all the two strike files without an interview transcript and send out an invitation for interview." – Amelia glances over at Susan and Hannah who have both shrunk down into their animagus forms, their tails waving ominously in their air behind them – "Also, get the person from records that deals with animagi to come here, as I have a feeling that it's not safe for me to take them anywhere they might see an obliviator. Susan, Hannah, I need you both to try and calm down. Merlin you're both scary like that."
When they don't change back, but instead start to advance on her, Amelia carefully moves around the room to the floo, before throwing a pinch of floo powder into the fireplace, "Hogwarts Headmasters office."
While she's waiting for the fire to turn green, she summons a dictaquill and parchment, then dictates a message, 'Need help, animagus trouble at DMLE. Amelia Bones."
As soon as the fire changes, she throws the letter through and hopes the response is quick, as Susan or Hannah has just noticed the door is unguarded. A flick of her wand and the door closes and seals shut, then the two of them turn back to her.
Experimentally she fires a stinging hex at one of them, to see if she'd have time to cast the reversal spell. They both scatter faster than she'd have thought possible, and the fastest spell in her repertoire is dodged like it was going in slow motion, then take to the walls. While she's hopeful that neither of them actually want to hurt her, she's not willing to take that chance.
When one of them lunges at her, Amelia dives over the desk and comes up with a shield up just in time to catch the other one, but still takes a slice to her leg as it's tail whips around her shield. The door is blasted off its hinges as Mad-eye steps into the doorway then sidesteps while swearing.
"Shit, Raka, Bludgeoners and Stunners only! We do not want to make them bleed otherwise things become ten times worse."
"Mad-eye, it's Susan and Hannah."
"You could have told me 5 seconds ago!"
"Why?"
"I wouldn't have used poxy English."
One of them jumps at him and he rolls out the way, trying to bring his wand to bear, however it seems to do an impossible twist in the air to keep him from tracking. At the same time its tail latches onto the ceiling allowing it to change direction. While the door is unguarded, the other one also leaves the room and the two of them start making their way towards the exit.
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As the Praetorian of her hive, T'o-Ba'sall appears inside an office of some description filled with witches and wizards trying, and failing, to hit to of the human Xenomorphs from the allied hive. When one of them throws a coloured light at her she contemptuously decapitates them while dodging the clumsy shot.
Forcing her will on the two xenomorphs and bringing their flight to a sudden halt, T'o-Ba'sall stalks over to them, dispatching anyone that tries to attack her or them, "Little ones, why are you fighting humans?"
Susan manages to squeeze out, "Our hive member is in danger, and we are trying to reach her."
"Show me your hive member as you know them."
Susan and Hannah both struggle to do what T'o-Ba'sall asked them to, but after a few minutes where the witches and wizards circle around them, though they've stopped attacking, she is able to get the full feeling of Sally's mind.
Once she has the pattern, she casts her mind out looking for something similar and familiar. She only has a fraction of the range of her Queen, but that just means that only gets most of the country rather than all of it and Europe. A flare of fire, and the three of them are standing in front of a screaming human that's missing a limb, and two of the magical humans, who are rapidly back pedalling.
T'o-Ba'sall is aware of the two younglings guarding her flanks as she inspects the screaming human as she tries to escape. Flowing down to her normal form, she grabs the child and gently lifts her to eye level, where she uses the trick her Queen used to force a hive connection on the child. There's so much missing that she probably barely remembers her own name.
"Your hive-mates mind is damaged, I will take er to my Queen to see if she can be ealed. If you wish to accompany me, touch my legs. And if either of you oomans try to attack me, know I can kill you faster than you can wave your sticks. I am a blooded hunter and neither of you are fit enough to be worthy prey."
All 4 of them disappear in a flash of fire, leaving the two aurors and confused parents.
"Who are you people and where did that thing take my daughter?"
"Raywood?"
Raywood sighs and sends out a couple of stunners, "Check the mother, I'll get the father. If their memories have just been papered over, we'll take them to St Mungo's to have the obliviation removed. Otherwise, we'll remove the last 5 minutes."
"But the girl?"
"Look, this was done illegally because proper procedure wasn't followed. The director was on the warpath when I dragged you out of there. Do you want to explain that you did another illegal obliviation if it turns out those things are able to fix the girls mind?"
"What do you mean?"
"I did a gentle probe when we arrived, and who ever did the girls mind did a hatchet job of it. There was no way that we were going to be able to get those memories back. Swiss cheese has less holes than her mind did. Ok, the father is salvageable, though he'll have gaps, most of them should be fixable."
"I'm not that good at this, I can't tell."
Raywood sighs again, "Get the father to St Mungo's and explain why you've brought a muggle in. I'll have a look at the mother."
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Arry is staring at an egg thoughtfully in her human form when T'o-Ba'sall, Susan, and Hannah all flame in, along with someone that seems like it might be Sally. As T'o-Ba'sall lets the last person go, she crawls along the floor to hide behind Arry.
"Please Miss, don't let them eat me."
"Sally?"
"How do you know my name?"
Susan and Hannah both change back into their human forms, "Arry, they obliviated her and bound her magic. She didn't even get her second warning properly. Can you fix it, please?"
More concerned, Arry turns around to look at Sally, "Sally, look at me please, this is likely to feel uncomfortable."
Arry briefly forces Sally into her hive and examines her mind, "I don't think these have healed over yet, so if we can get her into her xenomorph form she'll be fine."
"What are you talking about, you're crazy and this is just a bad dream."
With a sad look in her eyes, Arry says, "Open wide, and good night."
While Sally tries to scramble back again, a face hugger crawls up behind her before leaping under Arry's direction. In seconds she's asleep.
"You two will either need to do the same, or head home. It's not safe for you here any other way."
Susan and Hannah both go over to the unconscious Sally and sit down, "We're staying."
With a smile, Arry hands both of them a face hugger, and soon enough they're both sitting next to Sally with a face hugger around their faces.
A couple of hours later, Sally falls into a natural sleep and changes into a xenomorph.