Closed I'll Grow a Set of Wings and Free Fall

[Harper Alston]

Harper was sick of being scared. Her animagus training had ground to a halt, and she knew the only way she could move forward was if she got over her fear of transforming. It had taken her a few days to come up with a plan. The lessons with Professor Abberline weren't helping, and she wasn't foolish enough to practice on her own. But Harper thought she'd come up with a workaround. There were probably smarter ways of going about this, like working with a professional, but she had neither the time nor the desire to seek out the school counselor. In just a few weeks, Professor Abberline would leave, and she'd once again be left on her own.

The first step was to go back to the scene of the accident. Harper took a deep breath before entering the abandoned classroom. To her relief, she felt nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, she felt a little silly for worrying that somehow just being back here would trigger a flashback. So Harper decided to move on to step two: Force a transformation. Setting her bag on one of the desks, she took out a box of canary cremes.

Technically, this wasn't the first time she'd had to deal with a fear of transforming. Back in first year, Harper had been tricked into eating a canary creme — a rather distressing experience for a muggleborn who hadn't known it was possible for magic to turn people into animals. She'd eventually gotten over her fear, and one of the things that had helped was eating another canary creme on her own terms. Hopefully she could do something similar today.

Harper took out one of the biscuits and studied it, her heartbeat picking up. Even though she knew it was irrational, she could feel the chill of fear start to creep in. Harper didn't know what was driving this instinct, but she did know she wouldn't leave the room until she'd either numbed herself to it or gotten rid of it entirely. She popped the biscuit into her mouth, forced herself to chew, and with a small shudder, she transformed into a large canary.

 

[Felix Carnahan]

Felix was feeling a bit restless. The end of the year always made him feel like this. His quidditch season was over, there were no dances to look forward to. Everything was over except for exams which he didn't want to think about if he could avoid it. But he suddenly remembered his magic supplies that had been sitting in his trunk for weeks and decided he could use some practice. It had been a while after all but he needed somewhere private to work on some new tricks so he made his way to the abandoned classroom on the second floor which felt like the perfect place. But just before opening the door he stopped short when he thought he heard someone already inside.

Without a second thought he dropped to his knees and peered through the keyhole in the door. Felix couldn't see much but he saw blonde hair and realized it was Harper from Sawyer's year. What was she doing down here? He didn't know much about her besides the fact she was a prefect but he suddenly remember that he had also heard she was training to be an animagus. With renewed excitement he looked again just in time for her to transform into a canary. Felix gasped and opened the door and nearly fell inside. "That's so cool!" he said excitedly. "You can actually do it!"

 

[Harper Alston]

Even though she had known what would happen, Harper still felt a flutter of panic as she shrank down into a canary. She didn't have time to focus on those feelings, however. The door flew open, causing her to wave her wings and let out a startled chirp. She squinted at the newcomer, and it took her a second to realise it was Sawyer's little brother, though he definitely didn't look little from this angle. His words sent a pang through her, and she tried to fly up onto the desk where the canary cremes were. But she only made it a foot off the ground before she fell back down.

After a minute, the feathers fell away, and Harper transformed back into her normal self. She gave Felix an apologetic smile. "Sorry to disappoint, but that was just a canary creme. Not me." Harper pushed the box of biscuits towards him. "Want one? It doesn't hurt or anything," she assured him in case he'd never tried one before. Canary cremes were part of the fourth year Transfiguration curriculum, but she couldn't quite remember what year Felix was in.

 

[Felix Carnahan]

Felix instantly regretted his sudden entrance as Harper, in bird form, chirped like he had startled her, which he probably had. He shot her an apologetic grimace as she fluttered around for a minute more before she turned back into human Harper. “Maybe later.” he said when she offered him one of the biscuits. He had seen them in the prank shop in Brightstone but he had never seen anyone eat one before. It was a pretty convincing transformation. Thinking about it now he was shocked his dad hadn't tried tricking them with canary cremes before. He imagined his siblings flying around the house as birds and tried not to laugh. “But you are training to be an animagus right?” he asked, realizing he should probably say something and to make sure that the rumors he had heard were actually correct. “Is this part of your training?”

 

[Harper Alston]

Felix's apprehension was understandable since Harper doubted she'd come across as very calm while in canary form. She nodded and pulled the box back, smiling, albeit a little sadly, at his question. "I am." Technically, her training had been put on pause, and there was no guarantee she would ever be able to pick it back up again. But Felix didn't need to know that. At his next question, Harper paused. "Kind of. But it's more like mental training. The cremes don't actually teach me to transform or anything like that. It's a completely different type of transfiguration," she explained, not wanting Felix to get the wrong idea, though she didn't doubt there was a wizard out there somewhere who had tried gorging on canary cremes to learn to become an animagus. "Do you want to become one?" she asked, remembering his earlier excitement.

 

[Felix Carnahan]

"That's so cool." Felix said, impressed. He hadn't talked to anyone, well besides Professor Summers, who was an animagus. Or at least anyone he knew was an animagus. He was a little disappointed when she said that the cremes weren't part of her real training. If all he had to do to get better was eat some cookies he would have this whole transformation thing down in no time. But he nodded a long as she explained. Transfiguration did take a lot of mental work so he guessed it made sense. Felix perked up when she asked him if he wanted to be one and he nodded. "Oh yeah, I do." he said and realized he hadn't told anyone about it yet. It was a thought that he kept to himself most of the time. It was something that he was scared to want sometimes. If he failed or couldn't do it the only one he'd have to blame is himself and that was a lot of pressure. So it stayed an inside thought, well until now.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper didn't think she deserved the compliment, but she forced a smile and resisted the urge to downplay her training (or lack of it). Her smile turned genuine when Felix said he wanted to be an animagus. "That's great! You should definitely talk to one of the Transfiguration professors about starting training. I know Abberline does animagus lessons." Maybe she shouldn't have been volunteering Professor Abberline's time on his behalf, but she also knew he had room to take on another student since he wasn't currently training her. "I started my training in fourth year." It had been a rocky process, and part of her wondered if she should qualify her encouragement with a warning or two, especially given her recent accident. But Harper couldn't bring herself to dampen Felix's enthusiasm. Plus, she knew that the first few years of training was mostly theory, so it wasn't like he would be doing anything dangerous soon. And by the time he made it through all the theory, he'd have a good idea of the risks involved with becoming an animagus.

 

[Felix Carnahan]

Felix felt relieved when Harper seemed excited about the idea. He hadn't realized how much he needed to hear that until he did. He didn't have Professor Abberline yet but hoped he might take him on as a student too. "I've been working hard to keep up my grades." he said as if she was the one he needed to convince in order to get lessons. "Well at least my transfiguration grade." he admitted. The rest of his grades weren't awful but he could be trying a bit harder. He nodded thoughtfully when she said she started training in fourth year. He swallowed hard when he realized that's where he would be next year. Felix looked a sheepish as he considered his next question. "So are you trying to be a bird?" he asked. "How do you figure out what animal to chose? Do you even choose?" he asked in a rush.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper smiled encouragingly as Felix tried to justify why he deserved lessons. She remembered feeling that same nervous urge while talking to Professor Summers. "Transfiguration is the one that matters the most, so it sounds like you're on track," she said kindly. It helped of course to be good at spellcasting in general, but having a solid grasp of transfiguration theory was definitely the most important prerequisite. Judging by the look on Felix's face, it seemed she had been right in guessing that he was around fourth year. "I am. But you can't choose your form." It was probably the most common misconception about becoming an animagus. "Your personality determines your form. So someone who's brave might become a lion, for example." Given everything that had happened recently, it was no surprise to Harper that her own form wasn't a lion, despite her house. She also felt a little silly for ever thinking her form might be an owl.