The Animal Inside

[Prudence Armstead]

Nervous was no longer within Prudence's conscious vocabulary, and so as she knocked on the wooden door in front of her the curly haired Gryffindor was confident. Since Professor Kin had to attend to other duties her learning had been switched to a professor she'd already met before, having already had her first lesson in his class. Professor Summers seemed nice enough as it was. She was unsure if he would be a good private tutor though - and the thought of having a new one was almost concerning. She had little time to think much more on this though as the door before her opened.

"Good morning!" She spoke in a chipper tone, waiting to be invited in.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Lounging back in the comfort of his armchair, which had been transfigured to his own tastes, Aeon awaited for the arrival of one of his older students. The fireplace crackled quietly behind him and his bright eyes watched the clock face overhead, it's many arms ticking away at the runes that encircled it. The man was feeling an odd sense of uncertainty, not quite nervousness but a minor doubt. He had never trained another student in the art of being an animagus in his few years of being a professor, and wasn't too sure of what to expect, or how capable he was at providing the required training. He'd been trained himself during his years at Hogwarts, of course, but that had been a long time ago.

A knock at his door alerted Summers to the presence of whom he assumed was the student in question he'd be teaching, Prudence Armstead. Thankfully, the girl had already undergone the start of her training with Ava, though that did leave him with no idea as to where her progress was. He gestured briefly with his wand and the door unlocked itself with a soft click, before swinging open to reveal the Gryffindor. "Hey! Come on in, take a seat." He greeted her, indicating with his other hand toward the two armchairs on the other side of his desk.

 

[Prudence Armstead]

Once the door swung open and she was invited in, Prudence grinned. "How are you this morning, professor?" She inquired politely of the blonde before her. The chairs seemed comfortable enough, and taking a seat Prue truly could have fallen asleep in them. They were probably the most comfortable seats in the school.

Between the professor and herself there fell a silence for a moment. Prudence had only had one lesson with Aeon Summers at this point and knew very little about his teaching styles, or if he'd ever done this. For a moment she thought to bombard him with questions but instead just smiled and said, "So where do we begin?" Allowing the professor to take the reins on her training.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Summers smiled as the girl entered and took her seat, gesturing with his wand towards the door once more. It swung shut and locked itself again. He wasn't about to let his cousin, or any student try and barge in during a training session. Once it had clicked into place, he turned to her. "I'm alright, nothing to complain about." It was just like any old day. Nothing too exciting happening, but nothing too dull either. "Sorry to hear about the curfew you guys have. It's not very fair, is it? Kingsley's a bit of a b- strict woman." He coughed, almost letting his language slip. He'd been a Gryffindor, and wasn't too pleased on how they were being treated now.

After a moment he waited for the girl, wondering if she'd tell him anything about how far she'd come and at what point she was at, but she questioned him on where to begin. He wasn't sure. "Well, what have you done with Professor King? I don't know where you are in terms of progress and skill. I'm not sure what she's taught you until this point, so I need to pick up where she left off." He explained, not having really spoken to the Headmistress since she resigned from teaching. He assumed the student would be able to answer instead.

 

[Prudence Armstead]

Prudence couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as the man nearly let slip a rather "adult" word. The woman laughed slightly. "I can't complain about it, because I'm smart enough not to get caught. I mean, I don't sneak out." His slip up versus hers, wasn't too much of an issue in her mind letting things slip like that outside of class. He couldn't remove points without catching her, right? Besides everyone hated the curfew, even professors were protesting the unfairness of the hormonal woman.

The thoughts of the woman had left the two of them in silence for a bit to long, and as the man interrupted her thought with questions, she laughed. "We went over a lot of different elements to transfiguration." At first her words were vague as she really thought hard to give specifics. "She showed me a lot of what she did in transformations, how she concentrated, and told me a lot about what she did when she was in training. I suppose it was a lot of theory. I'd like to try myself, but I've been told I can't transform until I'm of legal wizarding age."

 

[Aeon Summers]

The wizard grinned as the girl corrected herself. He'd stirred trouble when he was young too, sometimes to extreme measures, from little pranks to stunning and framing a prefect who'd caught him tagging a wall with paint. There had even been that ridiculous sins group he'd joined for a short time. But they'd never been punished as harshly as the Gryffindors were now. He shook his head and listened as she went on to explain what she had learned with Ava.

"Alright, so you've gone over the very basics. That's...not so bad." Summers said aloud, thinking about it for a moment. "But what you've been told is also wrong. It's not that you can't transform until of legal age, it's that you likely won't be able to transform completely, at will, with no serious issues by then. During the course of your training you will be able to partially change as you progress, and toward the end of your training, completely shift into your animagus form. But this will occur a few times without you being able to immediately reproduce the change immediately after. Imagine it's like shooting hoops, either Quidditch or muggle. At first you'll miss, but after a while you'll be getting every few shoots into the hoop, and after enough training you'll find that you make it every time. It's much the same, it's just training to that point. So yes, while you study here you will be able to transform, but it's not until your last year that hopefully, you'll be skilled enough to do so at will. At that point, you'll need to register with the Ministry to legally transfigure yourself outside of school." He finished explaining and tilted his head to one side, hoping she'd managed to keep up with him. "Did you understand all of that?"

 

[Prudence Armstead]

Prudence listened intently to everything the professor said, hanging on every word. within moments she was hugging cknees to her chest and looking at him with wide eyes. If she worked hard enough she might be able to transform before the age of seventeen. She could imagine herself running free as a horse, soaring high as a bird - oh the things she could do. Even if she were a fish she could swim underwater for hours. The woman wanted to bounce around the room and get started, but she knew that she'd first have to know what to do.

As the lecture finished she nodded with glee. "Every word. I'm so excited for this!" She spoke with a tone that could have exploded into confetti. "When will I know what I'll be? Can we try transforming now?" She asked with eager bounces, standing up as if ready to morph at any second. Hopefully it wasn't as uncomfortable as eating those canary sweets.

 

[Aeon Summers]

Summers smiled as the girl showed her enthusiasm for the training to come. Naturally, anyone would be thrilled to be capable of transforming into an animal, but only those dedicated enough would ever make the slightest progress towards it. Becoming an animagus was not an easy road, and it needed every ounce of passion. No one could do it solely by wanting to change into a creature, it required extensive training and study into all branches of Transfiguration itself. "You'll begin to get an idea as we progress throughout the next few years. It all depends on you and how serious you are about this. If you study hard and train frequently, it should not be long before we get an impression of what you'll become. All I can say now is that it's probably not a snake." He said with a grin. "Unfortunately, there's no way you could really attempt transformation now, not without straining and injuring yourself, but we can begin your training immediately." The professor finished, rising to his feet. He strode to the side of the room, clearing a space for himself to transform and teach her the aspects of the ability she strove to achieve. "Let's get started."