After Blaise shut the door I took a moment to collect myself. Flying was harder than I had thought. I was going to need to practice. Though, if you think about it, even birds have to learn to fly. I can't very well expect to be an expert on my first day. Crookshanks who had been asleep by the window barely spared me any notice, he simply raised his big head, looked at me for a moment and went back to sleep.
Hmph, so sorry to bore you, I thought.
Alright, so down to the business of changing back. Everything I had read said that changing back was the easy part.
All you have to do is picture yourself in your human form and desire to be that and once you find your Animagus form that's all it takes to move between the two.
The hard part is the first transformation before you know what your animal form is and how it feels to be that animal.
Alright so deep breath and picture my human self, concentrate and want to be that.
It took me by surprise when suddenly I felt myself changing back. I hadn't expected it to happen so quickly. Before I knew it I was a girl again and stark naked in the middle of the day!
Wait a minute. Not stark naked, I still have my socks and shoes on. So I transformed and left all of my clothes behind, except my sock's and shoes? That's bizarre. This is going to take a lot of practice, I thought as I jumped up and quickly found my clothes. I may not be in class today but I still had to wear my robes on week days like everyone else.
So I found one and got it on quickly. I couldn't wait to talk to the others, I wanted them to do it too, I didn't want to be the only one. This was just too brilliant to keep all to myself.
XXXX
I exited my room in a rush. I couldn't wait to get downstairs. Blaise and Draco were waiting and they had been joined by Millie.
This was perfect, I couldn't wait to tell her all about it.
"Did you see me? I did it! Can you believe it Millie? I did it! I'm an owl." I practically sang with joy.
Blaise and Draco were grinning and Millie was smiling down at me.
"Why am I not surprised?" She said.
That confused me. "Why do you say that? " I asked her.
Millie gave me a quizzical look and said. "Aren't owls the symbol of wisdom? Forgive me if I'm wrong here but haven't you spent most of your life with your head stuck in a book?"
That stopped me in my tracks, "I hadn't thought of that." I said. I should have kept my mouth shut after that. I should have just left it there but no, not me. Before I could stop myself I blurted out. "I just thought it was neat I could deliver my own mail."
All three hardened Slytherins burst out laughing and it didn't take long and they were leaning over, holding their sides, with tears in their eyes.
I really should have kept my mouth shut.
"It wasn't that funny." I told them crossly.
I really need to just give up speaking all together I thought. I hate being laughed at and these three were really starting to get on my nerves. Why did I even want to tell them anything anyway? I thought and so I announced in my most superior and disgusted tone of voice.
"I'm going to lunch."
I turned on my heel, grabbed my wand of the table where someone had moved it to and left the chuckle heads. They could laugh their fool heads off and I wouldn't care.
XXXX
I made the walk to the Great Hall in no time and I was waved over to the Gryffindor table by Ginny.
I started to walk over to her when Lavender stepped into my path. Speaking in a hushed voice she said with all the venom she could muster.
"You're not wanted here, you little, snake faced, tramp. This is the Gryffindor table. Go sit with your own kind. We wouldn't want you to have another accident now would we?"
I was shocked she had the nerve to confront me at all, let alone in the Great Hall but I suppose she thought I couldn't hex her here.
I returned her death glare and said in my sweetest voice "That's rich coming from the school broom. Also since you, seem to have forgotten, I am the Head Girl and I can sit wherever I please. Now get out of my way before I start taking house points Lav,Lav"
She was glaring daggers at me and I glared right back. No second rate closet hostess was going to intimidate me. Finally I just had to push past her
"Ten Points From Gryffindor for being a pathetic nuisance." I told her and went to my seat next to Ginny.
It was then that I noticed Blaise, Draco and Millie had just walked in to the Great Hall. Had they seen that? Well no one heard it, at least I was reasonably sure of that.
"What was that about?" Ginny asked me as I sat down.
Harry Ron and Neville leaned in to hear my answer. I told them the short version of what had just happened.
"We have to do something about this." Ginny said angrily.
The boys agreed. Though I noticed Ron looked a little uncomfortable at the suggestion. So I leaned in and whispered making sure no one else heard me.
"Don't worry about it I already have something in mind. I was saving it for Pansy but I think Lavender could use it more."
Harry whispered. "What are you going to do? Can we help?"
"Thanks but no, the fewer people that know about it the better." I told him, though nobody looked quite convinced.
I spent most of the rest of my lunch listening to Neville apologize for dropping me. He felt so bad I ended up consoling him.
No matter how many times I told him it wasn't his fault he just didn't quite believe me.
I finished my lunch and decided if I was really going to do this I had to get started. This plan would require a potion and with my day off I had enough time to brew it. All the rest of my free time was already set aside for some much needed NEWT revision, so it was today or never.
I said my goodbyes to my friends and with one quick glance at the Slytherin table I saw that they were pretending not to be watching me and I slipped out and headed back to my Common Room. Everyone else had class so I would have a few hours of peace to get my evil potion made.
I set up in the Common Room where there was a lot more room and I dug out all of my personal supplies and my extra caldron. You never know when you're going to need something and I found its best to be prepared for any and everything.
The Potion was fairly simple and didn't require anything exotic. I had found the brewing instructions last month in a very small, old potions book in the library. It was on a top shelf and had slipped behind all the other books. Judging by the large amount of dust and cobwebs it had on it, I think it's safe to say it hadn't been seen, let alone read in a very long time.
That should ensure that once this was done, there would be very little chance she would ever be able to reverse it. It should only take about half an hour to brew. So I set to work prepping my ingredients most were fairly standard but it was the active ingredients that gave away the sinister nature of this potion , Troll back hair, shredded dragon hide, talon of a harpy, sweat of a dead man, three toad warts, and two drops of giants blood.
After thirty minutes of careful brewing it was done. The color and consistency was just like the book described. It was perfect. I just had to see that she drank it. A proper dose of the amber colored potion was only a fourth of a standard vile. So it would be easy enough to hide in pumpkin juice.
As a bonus I had enough left over for three more doses. If Pansy gave me anymore trouble I would be ready I thought with a little smile. Pleased with myself, I bottled my potion in the proper dose size and labeled it before cleaning up. I still had a few hours before dinner, so I decided to put it to good use. I ran down to the library and checked out a few books I needed and a few that just looked good and made it back to the Common Room and got an early start on my studying.
XXXX
My study time was up far before I was ready, or maybe I was just getting nervous, either way I wasn't chickening out. I grabbed the one vile of potion I hadn't labeled and I headed to the Gryffindor common room. I was a little early so I could be sure and catch Ginny. For once I had perfect luck. I spotted her on her way to the common room.
"Oi, Ginny!" I waved her over to me.
"Hey Abby, what's up?" She asked me.
"I have a way to get back at Lavender but I'll need your help Gin."
"Sure what do you need?" She asked.
I handed her the vile of potion. "I need you to put this in Lavenders pumpkin juice at dinner." I told her.
"A potion? What is it?" She asked.
"It's nothing too bad. Besides, if I don't tell you what it does, you will be telling the truth when you tell people you don't know anything about it." I explained.
"It won't hurt her and it will take two weeks to fully take affect, so she won't have any idea when it happened. Gin I just need you to give it to her. Please? "I asked in my whiniest voice.
Ginny was looking a little nervous but finally she looked at me and said. "All right if you promise it won't actually hurt her."
"It won't, I promise. Thanks Gin you're the best." I hugged her and told her I would see her downstairs.
"Oh, and Gin,"
"Yes?"
"Could you not tell Ron? You know he still sort of likes her and you know he won't be able to it a keep a secret."
"No problem, I understand." She said and gave me a quick wave goodbye.
This was perfect if anyone could pull this off it was Ginny, she was as sneaky as the twins. I couldn't help but feel a little nervous. This was possibly the meanest prank I'd ever pulled but in all fairness, the nutter broke my leg. What was that? You know what that is? That's a line. That's a line you just don't cross and she crossed it and now. Well now I cannot be held accountable, she brought this on herself. I told myself firmly, as I made my way to the Great Hall.
XXXX
When I made it to the Great Hall I took my normal seat at the Slytherin table. It afforded me a perfect view of the Gryffindor table. Everyone else was already there. Millie told me she wanted to speak to me after dinner and I agreed but I was distracted because just then Ginny walked in.
I made a show of preparing my plate but I was really watching Ginny.
Slytherins are very perceptive people and it didn't take my little group long to notice I was watching for something and so they started to watch as well. The action didn't take much longer after that. Ginny was sitting on Lavenders right when a pitcher of juice tipped over to Lavenders left. When she moved to help right the pitcher Ginny made her move. No one but the four watching Slytherins saw a thing other than what looked like Ginny trying to be helpful. We all continued to watch the Gryffindor table until we saw Lavender drink all of her juice and refill her glass. When Draco leaned over and asked the question everyone was thinking.
"So, are you going to tell us what was in her juice?"
"Later." was all I said.
We all finished our meal and went back to the Heads Dorm.
XXXX
The minute we were safely inside the Common Room and the portrait was shut all three turned on me. Millie spoke for the group.
"What did the She Weasel put in Brown's juice?"
"Well I think you should know first that she had it coming." I said and I filled them in on what Lavender had done to deserve her fate.
"Ok." said Millie. "So we have established that she deserved it. What did you do to her?" She asked.
I was feeling a little less confidant now. But I screwed up all my courage and blurted it out.
"I gave her man feet." I said, with a barely contained giggle.
Silence….
They were just staring at me. "Huh?" was all Millie finally said.
"Man feet! It's a potion I found it in the library. It will give her big, hairy, bad smelling feet with wart's and nasty yellow toenails.
That's when the laughing started, again.
"That's it?" asked Millie. "The way you were acting I thought you had done something really bad."
"Why didn't you just hex her bald or something? If you needed help, you should have asked us. We would have come up with something good for you." Millie said with tears in her eyes.
"I did, do something really bad. You clearly don't get it." I told them, as I paced back and forth wringing my hands.
"I gave her big, hairy, wart covered feet, with ghastly toe nails. Every time she takes her shoes off it's going to smell like someone died for the rest, of her life! She will never be able to wear sandals ever again. She will NEVER, be able to walk into a woman's shoe store and just pick out a cute pair of shoes. She will have to special order every time she need's a new pair. Plus! What boy wants to date a girl with nasty feet, that are bigger than his?" I finished.
"Wow, you are evil." Millie said in a dead pan voice, while she tried not to start laughing again.
Blaise and Draco were laughing so hard it was silent. I was getting frustrated so I added.
"What, like hexing her hair off is a good idea? For one, those hexes have a high rate of rebounding on the castor, everyone knows that and for two, everyone would know it was me that did it and for three, she could just go to Madam Pomfrey and get it put right in just a few minutes. So what good would it do?"
"My plan is much, more evil. My plan has a very low chance of being reversed. My plan is pretty much permanent. Therefore my plan is extremely evil!" I finished defensively. Why I was being defensive about being evil was beyond me but it seemed like the right thing to do, so I was going with it.
XXXX
Finally Blaise was the one to speak. "Alright so I think that Abby has proven she can take care of herself, even if she is a little off the beaten path in her methods. So I think we can safely move on. I for one would like to talk about the Animagus transformation that Abby successfully completed today. For starter's I would like to hear how she did it, what it felt like and if she has any tips, or insights for us, because I am tired of waiting. I want to do this." He said.
The other's quickly agreed and we all sat down as I went over every detail. We discussed all of my thoughts about possibly directing the path of the change and any other little thing I could think of that might help them. I was a little surprised when they all said that they were ready to try it tonight. I hadn't expected that. I thought they would have wanted more time to think over everything I had told them but they were sure they wanted to try it tonight.
So we started by moving the furniture and getting the mirror. We went over the instructions again just so they were fresh in there minds and then we all settled in cross legged on the floor.
I had to remind myself that they had been practicing for this a while now. So if they felt they were ready, then it wasn't my place to tell them no.
As they were getting comfortable, I couldn't help but remember what I had overheard earlier today and an evil thought crept into my mind.
I suppose you could say I was being petty, or immature but I was still mad at Draco for kissing me just to mess with my head and then laughing about it with Blaise afterward. In my opinion that was just mean and I wanted to get them back or at least at Draco since it was mostly him at fault. So as they were settling in and getting comfortable, about to start the concentration phase I whispered in Draco's ear.
"Whatever you do, just try not to think about what it felt like being a ferret."
He opened his eyes wide and hissed at me "Shoo, you annoying little pixie fart!"
Blaise and Millie must have overheard the exchange because they were both snickering quietly.
After that rude remark I wasn't feeling any guilt over my little act of sabotage anymore and settled in for the wait.
XXXX
Thirty minutes went by and then forty and still nothing. It was different when you're the one watching. Finally, fifty five minutes in I saw change in Blaise. It was minor at first and a little slow but then it took hold and happened quickly. He was shrinking and changing, he had fur and then like me, he was lost in his clothes, well most of them anyway.
I waited until I was sure it was over before I moved or said anything. I looked at the others, seeing no signs of transformation in them yet, I yelled. "You did it!"
I ran to help Blaise out of the tangle of school robes, the others were up and at my side in an instant. When we finally got a look at him we were stunned by what we saw.
"What is he?" I asked.
Draco answered. "Blaise mate you're a lynx."
To the rest of us Draco said "They have them in the Italian alps. I've heard of them but I'd never seen one in person, they're really rare."
He was a beautiful brown cat with black spots and black ear tuft's, he was about four feet long from his head to his little, bob tail and had big, yellow eyes.
He was checking himself out in the mirror walking back and forth just looking, he was big. He took off suddenly like a shot, running all over the common room like a crazy, house cat. We couldn't help but laugh at the very, un-Blaise like behavior, as he raced all over the furniture, before racing back to us.
Draco spoke with a smile. "Ok I don't know about the rest of you but I'm going back to focusing, I have to do this."
Millie agreed and they both went back to their places and started again while Lynx Blaise and I took up our watch from the sofa.
Twenty minutes later we were yelling in joy for Millie, she had even managed to change with all but her shoes but when we got to her we realized something strange.
None of us had any idea what she was. She was the size of a fox but she looked like a raccoon! We were stumped and so we told her to try making noises hoping that it would give us a hint but that just proved to confuse us more, because all the sounds she made sounded like a dog. Very strange, in the end we decided we were going to have to do some research to figure it out.
Draco was starting to look a little frustrated. I don't think he liked being the last one and I think that made him all the more determined to get it tonight. So it wasn't long and he was back in his place, trying again. So now Lynx Blaise and weird, whatever Millie was, and I, all took our places on the sofa to wait. Twenty minutes then thirty, I was starting to get bored but I had to watch. Even if it was dead boring it's not like witches and wizards transform into Animagus for the first time everyday. You have to watch!
Forty five minutes in finally there was something, it was minor and then it was gone, another five minutes past and we saw it again but then it was gone again.
Finally! A full hour later, Draco changed and it happened quickly, faster than the rest of us by far, he even managed to change with all his clothes. I was the only person left to yell and jump up and down, so I felt I needed to make up for the others.
Draco was a bird. Some kind of bird of prey, he was good sized and all gray on top but he was white and gray spotted on the underside. I told them to hold on I had a book on birds I'd gotten it to read up on little owls. I just needed to find it. It only took me a few minutes of looking while Draco checked himself out in the mirror.
I ran back to them with the book and began looking in the birds of prey section and I found him right away. I cleared my throat and began to read.
"Draco, you are Peregrine Falcon, size ranges from 15 to 20 inches long with a wing span of three and a half feet. You are the most wide ranging bird of prey in the world and can be found on every continent in the world except the arctic regions. You are the fastest animal on earth. Peregrine Falcons have been known to dive at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour in pursuit of prey."
I closed the book and just looked at him before I said. "You just had to top me didn't you? I'm a bird, so you had to be a bigger, fancier bird than me."
I was a little put out but they could see I wasn't really mad. It was a little irksome though to be outdone. After all, it had been my idea in the first place.
I decided that since everyone else was transformed now I might as well join them. So I took a deep breath and concentrated with all my might and this time my transformation was perfect. If anyone had walked in to our common room at that moment they would've thought we were starting a zoo. We didn't care though. We spent the rest of the night enjoying being or new selves.
XXXX
Ok so like I told you last chapter the facts on there animals are correct. Also Millie's animal is a real thing I learned about them when I was researching for this story I will tell more about them in the next chapter.
Thank you to pixiepetals for being my betta. and for one of the idea's I used in this chapter. Oh an Allen I got your idea in there to. I hope you all enjoyed it.