Post by Deleted on Jul 24, 2020 5:58:19 GMT -7
Mid-October 2025
The day Aura overheard during breakfast in the Great Hall that it was expected to storm all night – well, she knew the twins would have to be ready. It had been a month and a half since she and Silver had agreed during the start-of-term feast that they were going to do everything in their power to become animagi. It was advanced magic, more complicated than anything the twins had ever attempted before in their life. But they were model Ravenclaws – clever and curious and willing to bend a rule or two in the pursuit of knowledge. And Transfiguration was their passion – co-captains of the club and absolutely obsessed with it in their free time.She hadn’t been expecting them to get it right on the first try, but Aura was determined to try. It seemed possible with the right guidance – she’d heard in other schools animagi were permitted at even younger ages than they were now, and the twins hadn’t been completely alone in this. They’d started with the first full moon in September, and October’s had already passed because they were waiting for the perfect storm. By that point, thank Merlin, the leaf was out and the potion was stored and ready.
Aura was fully prepared to be done– she’d made enough sacrifices for it already. After some deliberation, she’d quit the Transfiguration club. All her free time needed to be dedicated to mastering the potion and preparing for the storm. And she’d barely spoken in class, only the bare minimum when a professor directly addressed her. It was unthinkable not to participate, and in their OWL year too! But she couldn’t give away that she had a leaf in her mouth, nor could she risk accidentally swallowing it to restart the process. That was why she’d been skipping Quidditch practice since tryouts. It had been intensely painful, but she’d purposefully gotten herself into repeated detention, and she’d been using it to avoid flying a broomstick while working on the potion. She didn’t think she’d be kicked off the team for attending detention instead, but it was a serious fear of hers -- all she could hope was that after they finished the process, she’d return to practice and be a model team member (and beg to stay on if necessary).
But the day that promised a storm, Aura knew all those sacrifices meant she’d be ready. She elbowed Silver to show him the weather forecast, and that evening it began to rain and thunder. They’d decided to finish the process near the Forbidden Forest to ensure maximum privacy, and being prefects meant they weren’t questioned for being out after curfew. The twins stood in the middle of the storm, vials in hand, and chanted together, ”Amato Animo Animato Animagus!” They’d been whispering it every morning and evening, so by now they knew it by heart. Aura clinked her vial against Silver’s in a mock ‘cheers’ then drank it.
She felt the effects immediately as she began to shrink and she stretched her new wings experimentally (before nearly falling over and having to frantically flap to stay upright). Although she couldn’t see herself, she knew what she must look like – a barn owl of light brown color (one might even say gold) and spots on her face that resembled her freckles in human form. She hooted in surprise as she took in her brother’s transformation, before she spread her wings and felt herself fly.
