Animagus

[Belle Carter]

Belle was moving out onto the pier, which made its own way half way out into the middle of the lake. She had done this as a ritual every Friday afternoon in an effort to stay in top shape. She would be taking her animagus test in a few short weeks and wanted to be sure she was capable of doing it. Her lessons had been rather subdued since one of her classmates managed to turn into something half Grindylow half human, ‘an abomination’ the teacher had called it. And so many of the students were worried about doing the same thing, that it had hit their confidence hard.

“Not me,” she muttered to herself though for the moment she was quite alone. She reached the end of the pier in a short time and pulled her robes off. She was wearing a shrink and expand capable swimsuit, which would mould to her shape when she transformed. She knew she was not capable of transforming her clothing as well as her body at the moment, and so relied on this magical swimming tunic to keep her safely covered.

She then focused, and tried the transfer, closing her eyes as she thought hard on it. But to no avail, she heard footsteps coming along the pier and was distracted to the point of halting altogether. Who could this be?

[Alex Zander]

Alex had found himself with no class on the Friday afternoon, and as such, he also found himself rather bored by the time the rest of the students were out of class. He knew he should have gone to the library, completed some of the homework that was piling up on the desk in his bedroom, but he couldn’t do it. He was very fidgety and he knew he had all weekend to consider considering doing it, and besides, it was such a nice day outside it would be a betrayal to his blood and energy to not be outside doing something. Anything that got him out of homework at the very least.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted the Emerindyl girl from the year below him, he had seen her around quite a bit, being in the same house sort of lead to that sort of stud happening. He smiled warmly and took a seat near her on the pier without waiting for an invitation. They were in the same house, it was not as if they were strangers or anything, as far as Alex was concerned, they were practically related, just… not really.

”Lovely day,” he said flicking a piece of bread he had brought out to the pier with him. He watched the piece of bread sinking slowly seeping into the water, when quite suddenly there was a splash and the piece of bread disappeared entirely.

[Belle Carter]

’What a curious fellow,’ Belle thought to herself when the boy sat down. She didn’t know him at all, and for him to just sit by her like that made he a little uncomfortable. All the same though, she knew she needed to branch out a little. She had been expecting her friend Bailey, though she had been around so scarcely lately Belle wondered if they were even still friends. She watched the boy curiously. He was almost definitely a senior; he looked like one, and not a bad looking senior at that. She found herself smiling before long, though she forgot to introduce herself.

“Hi,” she replied after a moment of trying to collect her thoughts. She still didn’t know his name, though she thought since he didn’t know her name, then it was ok. “Yeah, its not bad,” she said as she looked out across the water. The sun was beginning to set as the evening thought about coming along, and a tinge of pink reflected from the sky above. Belle knew that if she was going to get on with the transformation, she needed to do it soon before the light failed her.

“I’m sorry,” she began to apologise, thinking of telling him she was quite busy and he needed to leave her be, but all the same, he was nice company, “actually, you’re a senior aren’t you? Maybe you could help me? I am trying to transform into a Grindylow?”

[Alex Zander]

Alex watched the girl with some interest, she was a little quieter then he had expected her to be, and he even remembered that she was to be on the Emerindyl Quidditch team. All the same though he was happy to help her, though he did not kn0ow what sort of a teacher he might be. He had no issues with showing her how he did it, but he could think of plenty more qualified students to be showing the young ones how to transform. He didn’t even quite get it until everyone else in his grade had.

He thought about that though and supposed that in this he might have a bit more wisdom on the subject. His friend Godric had done it without a hassle, Elouise had gotten it somewhere among the first in her year also, so it didn’t surprise Alex that both of them had described their experiences as ’nothing to it’

“Well, the sun is setting so we don’t have a whole lot of time, so I think you and I should get a wriggle on,” he smile standing again, he gestured for her to do the same and then stood as if he was wearing soggy pants. He knew this might look odd to her, but though to explain it just in case, “See I had a bit of trouble doing this when I first tried, and I found that it became easier, in the first place, if I did as much of the transformation as I could before applying magic, Grindylow’s don’t have particularly good posture, so that is why I stand like this, eventually you wont need to do this, but in the beginning, it is not a bad place to start… which is usually what happens in the beginning,”

“Next, you have to focus on the shape you want to be, its like apparating, you have to focus on where you want to be, and then will yourself to fill that space, not that you would know anything about apparating, what am I talking about,” he shook his head and looked at the ground, not feeling that his training lesson was going at all like he planned, “Well anyway, focus on the shape of a Grindylow, you have to be pretty imaginative because the shape will need to be as perfect as you can make it, and make sure you add gills, or you wont be able to breath,”

He smiled at this point as his skin started to glow, “Then sort of just move into it,” a moment passed and a Grindylow now stood where Alex had been, “Now you try,”

[Belle Carter]

Belle had watched and listened intently, though she still was not sure that she had it down. Theory was all well and good but how did anyone expect anyone else to be capable of something just by studying the theory of the thing. She watched him move into the shape of a grindylow with a lot of self loathing and much more jealousy then she would let on. She wished she could do it so much, and so she knew that at the very least it was not that she wasn’t focusing. It just seemed so much easier the way he had described it. Though she was worried about how difficult she would find it, and how she would look if she failed at the attempt yet again.

She nodded when she listened to the command he gave her. She wondered how much he actually expected her to be capable of. Though then knew that she should perhaps try to clear her mind. She did so and took a few breaths. The immediate thought popped into her head that she sounded like she was trying to blow herself up like a balloon. She pushed that thought from her mind as well as she proceeded with the instructions he had given her.

She constructed the image of a Grindylow in her head. It seemed to look like a grindylow. She was about to start focusing on the image and moving into it when she remembered what Alex had said about gills and quickly moved to attach them to the grindylow when she realized she was not entirely sure where the gills were on a grindylow. This threw her of entirely and her eyes popped open just as she topped off the pier and fell into the water with a splash.

She resurfaced coughing and choking on lake weed. She did not feel very good after this mistake. Not only had she fallen off the pier, but she had done so in front of Alex Zander. The sixth year quidditch player a lot of the girls in her house swooned over. ’Well done Belle, you’re an idiot’ she told herself in her mind as she reached up to pull herself out of the water.