Work Text:
The problem was that Allie, wonder-child and proud Slytherin, had underestimated her abilities.
She didn't think for a moment that she would be able to transform so soon and, above all, she didn't think that the transformation would be so well executed that she wouldn’t be able to return to her human form.
"Don't panic" she thought, panicking.
Certainly Hogwarts couldn’t be defined as a cheap structure in terms of grandeur, yet now everything around her appeared immensely bigger and infinitely more majestic. She turned around and watched her own tail wag furiously behind her. Cats do that when they're nervous, right? She didn't know. She wasn't a cat expert whatsoever, for the only ones she had to deal with were the ones that roamed the castle. And now, herself.
A wave of delusion swept over her. It couldn't have been worse. Of all the animals she could turn into, a cat? Such a common animal? Her Slytherin pride was more than slightly hurt. Peering through some reflective surfaces, she managed to take a glimpse of her appearances: short gray fur, slender paws and deep aquamarine eyes. She wasn't just some common breed, at least. What was it called? A russian blue? Perhaps. Although there weren't traces of blue whatsoever.
The girl-prodigy (that's how some people called her) tried and retried several times to return to her normal form. She failed. A Slytherin who couldn't revert back a spell? What would her housemates say? What would her professors say? And after everything she had accomplished the year before! Defeated goblins, dragons, dark wizards… yet now the obstacle was herself.
She sneaked out of the girls' bathroom where she had been practicing until a few minutes ago and attempted to interact with the other students. Maybe someone would recognize her?
Misplaced hopes. Everyone mistook her for an ordinary cat, one of the many that occupied the school. Only a tiny less friendly, as she hissed and quickly sprang away whenever someone tried to pet her.
"Merlin's beard, why is this castle so big?!" she thought more and more irritated. She had no idea what to do. The worst thing? She could involuntarily transform back any time and end up naked in the corridors. In front of everyone. No. She would rather remain a cat forever.
"Of course, the wand! I'm an idiot, I could have brought it with me. Maybe showing it to someone will make them realize it's me."
She went back, not without getting lost a couple of times. Her sense of direction, now that she was seeing everything from a different perspective, had definitely worsened. The bathrooms were empty, and the room in which she had changed was still locked from the inside. With difficulty, she slipped again under the wooden doors and found her wand submerged by the clothes. She took the wand with her mouth, but she couldn’t manage to make it pass through the small gap under the door. She wasn’t used to her feline body yet and everything felt like learning to walk for the first time. Her mouth felt stuck and the wand abnormally heavy. From bad to worse, no one would have noticed her clothes because from the outside it would have looked like an occupied bathroom.
She got an idea. She headed to Professor Onai's divination classroom, hoping to run into Natty. As the only Animagus she knew, the Gryffindor girl was aware of her attempts to become one. But so far every attempt had been unsuccessfull. Until that day.
She arrived at the entrance of the classroom, but realized she had forgotten an important detail: the ladder in front of her. She would have never been able to climb it, not in this form. She started meowing wildly, hoping someone would hear. It worked. Professor Onai, perhaps annoyed by that cry (which in her hindsight sounded more like a cat about to vomit), looked out from the upper entrance with a soft smile.
"You can't stay here, little one. Class is about to start. Shoo!"
And that was that. The teacher disappeared and the girl (cat) stood there, looking up, as if expecting divine help. She cursed (meowing).
The lesson would last a long time, she didn't have time to wait. She had to do something.
If Natty wasn't available, there were only two options left.
She wasn't too proud of it, but in two years at Hogwarts she hadn't managed to make that many friends. Despite everything she'd done to save the school? Well... yes. But perhaps it was her fault, as she’d never been the reincarnation of friendship and affection, as much as she tried. Only Ominis Gaunt and Sebastian Sallow could define themselves as “companions”, at the moment. A direct consequence of sharing a deadly adventure that ends in tragedy. Natty and Poppy? Good company, surely, but they didn't have many occasions to meet, being from different houses and all.
It had now been a year since Sebastian's uncle died, and he still hadn't been able to forgive himself. He smiled and joked around much less than before. Everyone noticed that. Ominis, for his part, took a long time to accept things as they were, but when he realized that Sebastian needed friends, now more than ever, he decided that regret was better than anger. The three had become even more close, and they seldom left each other’s side. Although the topic was left untouched and a tense atmosphere was palpable everytime someone received a letter from their relatives.
She immediately thought of Ominis. He was the more conscientious of the two, the one with common sense, some would say, and he would have certainly uncovered her transformation if it wasn’t for a small... technical problem. He would simply hear her meowing madly and he would, rightfully so, ignore her, as he did with most of the cats. Although Sebastian admitted he caught the Gaunt boy secretly feeding them a couple of times.
And Sebastian? Well, let's just say she had been trying to avoid him lately. Not out of malice, but due to the effect that the boy's presence was having on her stomach. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but at the same time it was kinda fuzzy. And that scared her. She was scared that this feeling had a name. After all, who would ever consider someone like her that way? Sebastian was smart, charismatic and charming, traits that certainly didn't went unnoticed by fellow Slytherin (or not) gals. At the same time, he exuded this unapproachable aura that seemed to scare his suitors away. Although some would say it was due to his close friendship with Ominis Gaunt.
But at the moment she had no choice. Burying useless emotions inside, she knew where Sebastian was, for they roamed together so often now that she had learned their schedules. She made her way to the Defense Against the Dark Arts tower and luckily, she spotted Sebastian walking out of the classroom. She waited until he was isolated from the other students and tried to get his attention. She waddled towards him and began meowing at his legs.
Sebastian! It's me!
"Hello there, small one. Are you looking for attention?" said the boy, kneeling at the height of the feline. His scottish accent sounded more pronounced with her feline ears.
NO! I mean, yes, but not in that way!
"How precocious. Are you hungry?"
No! I mean, I kinda am now that I think about it... but that's not important now!
She tried everything: she rolled, jumped, scratched his shoes (which caused a gasp of disappointment) and even tried to stand on two legs. All of which only contributed to the "hungry cat" image that Sebastian already had. Other than making her own head spin.
"I'm sorry, I don't have any food for you" Sebastian shook his head in amusement and started to walk away, but Allie, desperate, followed him. A few minutes later Ominis showed up, wand in hand.
"What’s going on?" he asked, probably having heard the miserable cry from afar.
"I don’t know, this cat seems to be mad at me. It's been following me since I left the classroom."
Then ask yourself some questions!
Ominis raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe it's hungry. Or in heat."
OMINIS!
The two laughed and simply left her there.
Come back, you buffoons!
"Shall we go to the Undercroft? Allie should join us soon."
Of course! Only the three of them knew about that place. If she showed that she knew, somehow, maybe they would finally put two and two together. Besides, if she was late, they would get suspicious. She was never late for anything. Of course, except that time she managed to be late for her sorting ceremony, but that was a special case out of her control.
She ran away, under Sebastian's perplexed gaze, and preceded them towards the entrance to the Undercroft, a gothic clock meticulously decorated by blue and gold hues, an elegant design that recalled the starry sky.
The only positive thing about the situation was that she got there before them, thanks to her four legs.
When Sebastian noticed her, he didn't hide a surprised grin. It didn't happen often, but the freckles on the boy's face seemed to stand out even more. She liked that expression a lot and, for a second, thought it was kinda cute.
"What the..."
Ominis lowered his wand.
"What are you doing here?"Sebastian remarked more and more confused.
"Did it follow us?"
"I'm positive it got here before us."
"Well, it's a cat… it wouldn't surprise me if it knew this place better than we do."
Ominis, you and your logic, shut up for once!
Sebastian abandoned himself to a slight smirk.
"Well, I don't think a cat might blurt out anything about this place. If it wants to come, let it come."
After her meow of approval, Sebastian walked over and bent down to pick her up. Normally she would have wriggled herself free if it was anyone else. But Sebastian wasn't anyone else. She relaxed and the floor moved far from of her view, making her feel slightly dizzy. She may have been a cat, but she’d been one for less than an hour.
Sebastian snuggled her into his arms and her heart went crazy, leaping into her throat.
"It's purring" Ominis noted, hinting a smile.
"And here I thought you hated me" Sebastian joked with his typical flirty tone.
I want to dig a hole and bury myself in.
When this was over, she was going to cast Oblivion on everyone, she thought. They crossed the rusty gate and, once inside, Sebastian left her on the ground. The poor teen (cat), still panicking and probably thinking about a spell for grave-digging, didn't move for a couple of minutes.
"It could keep us company, as long as we are careful not to cast spells on him by mistake" Sebastian suggested, taking off his robe and placing it on the ground in a corner. He took out his wand and twirled it with his wrist, as if practicing movements.
"Are you sure it’s a him?"
"I don’t know."
"I've heard that females have a smaller head compared to males."
Sebastian looked closely at her, who was now sitting next to them. If any other cat saw her right now, they would have probably stayed kilometers away from her.
"I frankly can't tell... if nothing else, I almost have the impression that it can understand what we're saying."
I do in fact, and yet you're just spouting nonsense!
She meowed in disapproval and two heads whipped towards her.
"See?" said the brunette.
"It is kinda bizarre" Ominis confirmed, perplexed.
"Maybe it belongs to someone and it got lost. We should take it to the professors later."
You two are definitely not Ravenclaw.
The two spoke no more. Sebastian practiced with the training dummies while Ominis read a book in braille.
She had run out of ideas. She had tried everything, and the two seemed to ask the right questions, but not enough. So she just lay there, taking everything in for once, admiring her friends. Maybe it was the new point of view, but Sebastian definitely got taller, compared to last year. Taller and sturdier, although his complexion remained the perfect mix of soft and manly features. Ominis didn't change much, but bis cheekbones were more prominent and slightly higher, framing a tad more mature face. On the other hand, she remained exactly as she's always been, if not with increased dark circles and puffiness under her eyes.
An hour later Sebastian realized something was wrong.
"She's late" he observed, leaning against a big box and taking a breath. "How many times has it happened so far?"
"In two years? Never," Ominis confirmed, "Except that time she was held by Professor Garlick for being bitten on the ear by a chomping cabbage."
"That was actually rather funny. It was the first time I saw Allie spill some tears."
That didn't count as running late.
At the mention of her name (and trying really hard to ignore what he’d just said), she got up and leapt at Sebastian's legs, meowing so wildly that from afar it would have sounded like someone was torturing a stray cat.
This attracted Ominis' attention, who took his hands away from the book and placed it at his feet. He was getting suspicious.
Sebastian knelt down and inquisitively looked into her light eyes. She reciprocated, but that strange feeling in her stomach didn't take long to manifest.
"Here’s the thing… " he began, tilting his head towards Ominis with his eyes half closed. "Didn't Allie say she was training to become an Animagus?"
Ominis knew immediately what he was implying. "For some months, yes."
"Did she ever succeed?"
"Not as far as I know."
She meowed again and spun around.
Sebastian's eyes seemed to light up for a moment.
"Could it be... is that you, Allie?"
At last! Honour your name, Mr Sallow!
She meowed and jumped, twice.
Sebastian took his wand, pointed it at the animal and spelt "Revelio!".
Nothing happened.
Sebastian sighed. "Maybe I'm reading too much into it..."
At this, before Ominis could intervene, she lost her patience and grabbed his trousers with her pointed teeth, biting his skin in the process.
"Ouch! Okay, wait, let me try again! What was the spell... I read it once in a book of transfiguration…"
He thought about it for a moment, until he snapped his fingers in ecstasy. He cast a spell she had never heard before and a blue light enveloped her body. For a moment she felt nothing. Then she sensed that her body began to change. Without thinking twice, she ran over to the robe Sebastian had set down earlier and mentally thanked him for doing so.
The transformation was undone and Allie found herself with Sebastian's robe wrapped around her body.
"Finally! Everything is at its right height. That was horrible!" she cried, stretching and shrinking in order to feel her bones again.
Perhaps from the effect of the spell, or perhaps from the sudden cold of the dungeons, she sneezed.
"Merlin!" Sebastian exclaimed, and turned away uneasy with eyes wide open.
"Allie? It's you?" Ominis asked, turning towards her, and for once she was thankful that he couldn't see.
Sebastian was looking at the wall. "What the heck happened?"
"I wish I knew! I was practicing the whole Animagus thing in the bathrooms, when suddenly it worked, and I..."
"You were practicing?" Sebastian repeated.
She arches an eyebrow. "Yes."
"In the bathrooms?" Sebastian began to turn around to show his disappointment, but he realized the embarrassing situation she was in and changed his mind.
"Yes. I mean, no... wait, that doesn't matter! Contrary to my predictions, it worked, too well in fact, and I couldn't turn back. Took you long enough to notice!"
"How were we supposed to know?! You could have asked the professors!"
- Ask, how, exactly? All I could do was meow. And besides, admit to a professor that I failed such a simple thing after all I've been through? No way. It would have been humiliating!"
Sebastian didn't say anything more, as if he got the point.
"Well, for instance... you should put some clothes on."
She blushed furiously. "I would do it myself, but my wand was left in the bathroom along with everything else."
"It's fine" interrupted Ominis. "I'll go get them."
Probably understanding the situation better than Sebastian, Ominis offered himself to go retrieve everything. How, she didn't want to ask, but she trusted Ominis more than anyone.
"Thank you..."
Ominis went through the secret passage. Two of them were left.
She sighed, both tired and awkward about the whole situation. "I'm sorry for all this mess. I really didn't think it would work… it was honestly just for fun."
Sebastian sighed and seemed to realize the irony of the situation. He giggled. "It's all right. But I think you should stop underestimating yourself so much."
She slumped her shoulders. Maybe it was the tense situation, or maybe it was the fact that she felt naked for the first time in front of someone (metaphorically and physically). She felt like confiding in Sebastian. "You'd think that after all that happened last year I'd be more confident, but it's not easy."
Sebastian crouched, leaning against a stone wall, a leg bent over his chest, the other stretched on the cold floor. He turned to look into her eyes, feeling the discussion was getting serious.
"You guys had four years to practice magic, but I had just one year to catch up with you lots. And yet everyone has expectations from me. I have to prove myself, and I have to do it quickly. Otherwise-"
"I may as well turn back to my pitiful muggle life" she thought, but didn't say it out loud.
"I think you proved yourself enough" Sebastian admitted, not without a hint of irritation. "The goblins, the whole business with Anne and... my uncle. You've endured more than any Hogwarts student ever had. You should be proud of yourself."
"Only because I was not alone."
She was staring at him and he understood. He suddenly found his shoes more interesting than everything else in the room.
There had never been a real discussion after the events of the previous year. Perhaps out of fear, or shame, or both, but none of the three ever dared to press the subject. Therefore what she said next was like opening a forbidden box.
"I'm so sorry about your uncle."
He tightened his fists. "Yes, well... I've been living with regret all this time, and it's what I deserve. I haven’t heard from Anne since."
She looked at the ceiling and gripped the dark robe closer. " I won't tell you that with time she will change her mind and forgive you, because I don't know. But I think that it's never too late to redeem yourself."
"But how?" Sebastian asked, hiding a stutter.
"I don't know... Only time will tell."
Sebastian raised his head. He had those afflicted eyes that Allie couldn't stand to see. If she had some way to turn back time, she would do anything to stop Sebastian from casting that damned spell. If there was a dark magic spell that could help rewrite the past, she would cast it with no hesitation.
What a hypocrite I am.
She suddenly had this urge to get up and hug him, but she obviously couldn't. For multiple reasons.
Sensing her feelings, he simply said, "Thank you," and that was enough. The two smiled awkwardly at each other. After a while, he spoke again. "I have a question, if you don't mind. Have you been avoiding me lately?"
She swallowed. "What makes you think that?"
- I don't know... just a feeling."
"It is. I would never avoid you."
She didn't mean anything by it, especially because it was a lie, but for some reason such a simple sentence felt like it had a double meaning. Sebastian seemed to grasp it too, and he scratched the back of his neck.
Not much time later, Ominis came back with her clothing and wand. She changed herself with magic as quickly as she could.
"How did you get these in the girl's bathroom?" Sebastian asked warily.
"Let's not get into details."
After thanking Ominis multiple times, she left the Undercroft for Potion class, while the other two gathered their things and slowly made their way out.
"What did the two of you do while I was gone?"
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "We talked?"
-"About what?"
"Just small talk."
"Really."
Silence.
"You held her in your arms. And she purred."
Sebastian cheeks flushed and he was glad that Ominis couldn't see.
"Don't you start again, Ominis."