Closed Picking up the pace

[Rosemarie Chatwin]

Rose had one goal left at Hogwarts and that was to finish her animagus training. It had been difficult to find someone that could guide her in the proces. So far she had done it mostly alone. The current Transfiguration Professor was helping her succeed, but since she had a rough start she needed to pick up the pace fast. Rose was pretty good at transfiguring her body, but it wasn't like you could pick the animal. The animal shape basically picked you. So Rose had practiced transfiguring fur and feathers on her arm. The fur came easier to her and Rose figured that her form was going to be furry. Currently Rose was ransacking the library for the book that the Transfiguration Professor told her about.

A couple of books were sprawled around the table she was sitting at. With various papers, parchments and old essays covering the rest of the table. Rose was going hard and was trying to get back the time she had wasted without anyone to guide her. She wanted this desperately. Currently she was covering her left arm with orange fur and then removing it again. She needed the practice, so that was what she was going to do.
@Harper Alston

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper was well-acquainted with the Transfiguration theory section of the library. For the first two years of her animagus training, Professor Summers had given her extensive weekly reading lists, and she had consequently read just about every book here — as well as a few others that the library didn't stock. Today, however, Harper wasn't here because of an assignment. Instead, she was looking for reassurance. The botched transformation had completely shaken Harper's conviction that animagus training was for her. Were the risks really worth it? There weren't any animagi at the school who she could talk to, so she had come here instead, hoping to find some first-hand accounts from other animagi.

It hadn't taken long to accumulate a decent stack of books, and Harper glanced around for an open table. The closest one was occupied by Rosemarie, and Harper's gaze nearly skipped over the Hufflepuff when she noticed the girl's arm. Harper almost dropped her books. Grimacing, she readjusted her grip and carefully made her way to the opposite side of the table. Interrupting Rosemarie mid-transformation could be dangerous, so she waited until the Hufflepuff had made the fur disappear before speaking. "Hey Rosemarie," she greeted, forcing a smile as she set her books on the table. "Practicing the fur growing spell?" She nodded towards the girl's left arm.

 

[Rosemarie Chatwin]

When Rose was done vanishing the reddish hairs on her arm she looked up and saw Harper. The Gryffindor with whom she shared some classes. ''Hey Harper'' Rose returned while putting down her wand. ''I am practicing to become an animagus, every since the second year of Hogwarts.'' Rose answered the question Harper asked. ''Every time I try anything I get some type of short hairy furry coat appear so I guess I can cross of birds and insects of the list.'' Rose said while smiling. I guess you could never know anything, becoming an Animagus was a long and troubling road. It wasn't easy and there were various ways to do it and not everyone was sure what the right way was. ''Becoming an animal and be closer to nature sounds like a great idea to me'' Rose didn't care what type of animal she was going to be, even a honey bee would be great.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper had to suppress a sigh when Rosemarie confirmed what she'd suspected: The Hufflepuff was practicing animagus transformations. She smiled tightly as the girl continued to explain what she'd been doing. Harper was a little surprised that the Hufflepuff was able to achieve even a partial transformation without knowing her form. It was so different from the technique she'd learned from Professor Summers, and she wondered if Rosemarie had been teaching herself all these years.

"Do any of the professors know that you've been studying?" Harper asked, figuring it was best not to make assumptions. She wasn't sure how to say the next part without sounding patronizing, so she decided to just say it. "You shouldn't be practicing self-transfigurations without supervision," she said as gently as she could. "It's dangerous, and the professors will punish you if they catch you." Despite having the prefect badge for over a semester now, Harper still wasn't used to admonishing students. It was even harder when the person you were admonishing was someone who had been prefect longer than you. But Harper figured she could at least warn Rosemarie before the girl caught the attention of a professor and ended up with a semester's worth of detentions.

 

[Rosemarie Chatwin]

Rose smiled when Harper went into prefect mode. ''Yeah, the current Transfiguration Professor is aware.'' Rose answered, he wasn't aware that she was actually practicing and not just reading. Harper didn't need to know the fine print as of yet. ''I know the rules, but then again we learned self transfiguration this year in the transfiguration lessons if anyone is interested I am just studying for my exams'' Rose said with a wink. They did learn changing their hair colour or the colour of your eyebrow. Rose just went a bit further and explored the various worlds of fur. ''I guess that even if I get punished for it, the punishment is worth it.'' She laughed, not thinking someone would punish her for it anyway.

''So what took you to the library?'' Rose asked the blond haired girl. The question itself was rather folly, what else would you do in a library except for study. Band practice or cooking an omelette was a pretty no go. Rose was just curious to learn more about her classmate.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper couldn't help but wonder if Rosemarie was lying. Considering that Professor Abberline was the very person who had punished her for practicing on her own, she very much doubted he would be fine with Rosemarie doing the same. She raised an eyebrow as the girl winked at her, surprised by her flippant attitude. It was pretty clear that she had no authority in this situation, and Harper wondered not for the first time why Professor Kingsley had made her a prefect. "They're not the same type of magic, you know." Changing the colour of one's eyebrows was vastly different from transfiguring skin to fur. Even the latter type of magic had varying shades to it, and a fur-growing spell was vastly different from an animagus transformation. There was a reason why animagi were considered the most complex and most dangerous branch of transfiguration.

Harper sighed, deciding to ignore Rosemarie's question. "I got caught practicing, and they gave me detention for the rest of the year, took away house points and threatened to take away my badge. It's really not worth it." She didn't mention it, but it was really the experience of getting stuck and the trauma of wondering if she'd live out her days as a transfiguration horror story that had really made the whole thing not worth it. If after hearing all that Rosemarie still decided to continue practicing on her own, well, there was nothing Harper could do for her.

 

[Rosemarie Chatwin]

Rose knew they weren't the same type of magic, but considering most people didn't follow Transfiguration it was easily passable as the same to them. Maybe not the Professors, but they never bothered with students. They usually kept to their own or were in their offices helping students. ''I know'' Rose smiled, she had explored the various worlds of transfiguration magic before. Some things were rather useful in normal life. The animagus branch was just pretty difficult and dangerous. She had heard stories of people getting stuck mid transition.

''That sounds awful'' Rose replied, the detention bit not the prefect part. She didn't mind the house points either. Not being a prefect meant she had more time for her club and her plants. Rose her curiosity was peaked though ''Were you also practicing to become an animagus?'' Rose asked Harper. She just wanted more time to practice and the Professor was pretty busy, there was no time to wait for others.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper felt slightly encouraged by Rosemarie's reaction to her warning — not because she needed the sympathy but because it suggested the Hufflepuff was finally taking her seriously. She only wished she could have gotten the point across without having to use herself as an example. But if her experience as a prefect so far had taught Harper anything, it was that she was not good at admonishing people. She nodded at Rosemarie's question. "I was. That's why I got the punishment I did." Harper doubted any of the professors would care if she was practicing normal transfiguration spells. "They take this stuff really seriously"

Her expression softened. "You should talk to the professors about more lessons if you want to practice." Harper knew Rosemarie had said that Professor Abberline was aware of her her training, but she still had her doubts as to whether the girl was telling the truth. Regardless, she could understand why Rosemarie would feel compelled to practice on her own. For much of her training, Harper had felt like she was falling behind even though she knew this was supposed to be a lengthy process.

 

[Rosemarie Chatwin]

When Harper said she had also been practicing without the Professor's supervision Rose her curiosity was peaked. Rose guessed that Harper was been farther along in the process. Although Rose had been trying and doing rituals for a while now. Detention for a whole year would suck, she needed to care for the Wild Patch and her own Hufflepuff Jungle she had been growing since first year. ''Yeah, I have heard stories of people getting stuck mid transition and then St Mungo has to fix them'' That didn't sound like fun. Of course there were spells, but people would mostly get panicked and most requires magic required focus which was impossible in a panicky state.

''I guess you are right'' Since Professor Abberline was a temp Professor Rose had no clue if he was here for their seventh year. ''He is a temp Professor right, whats the alternative for next year if he isn't here?'' Rose asked she was sure Harper knew the answer to that question.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper tried not to grimace at the mention of people getting stuck. "Yeah, I've heard similar stories," she said, deciding not to mention that she had almost become one of those stories. While Harper didn't embarrass easily, she definitely didn't want the world knowing about her botched transfiguration attempt. She couldn't recall if anyone else had been at the hospital wing when she'd gotten stuck, but she really hoped the only people who had seen her were the nurses and Professor Abberline.

Thankfully, it seemed Rosemarie planned on taking her advice. "Well Professor Styx is supposed to be back next year, and she does lessons too. I practiced with her last semester." Harper decided not to mention that none of those practice sessions had gone well since she was pretty sure that was mostly her fault, not Styx's. "If she doesn't return, then I guess the new upper-levels professor or Professor Cade will offer lessons." It was frustrating how little information Hogwarts gave its students about animagus training. After Styx had disappeared, Harper hadn't heard from anyone at the school about how she could continue her training. That's why she'd practiced on her own in the first place. That was also why she was willing to share as much information as possible with Rosemarie. She wanted to make this process a little easier, a little more transparent for the Hufflepuff.