Mischief, Mayhem, and Chaos
The past month has been tough. Right after Avi had made plans to invite the twins and Lee Jourdan to his lessons with McGonagall, he had gone to breakfast the next morning to invite Terry as well. But Terry never showed up at breakfast. It wasn’t until after classes that day that his father pulled him and the tins aside to tell them the grim news.
Terry had been found in the north end of Ravenclaw Tower. That corridor is rarely used as the Muggle Studies teacher was on sabbatical this year and Dubledore cut the Magical Arts program because of funding issues. There was no reason for anyone to be in that wing of the castle, but when Terry never showed up to his first two classes Professor Flitwick was notified and went to search for his missing student. Terry was found just outside the abandoned Painting Studio. He had been attacked by the monster and had to be rushed to St. Mungo's hospital. He was in a magically induced coma and in critical condition for a week, before his parents took him home to recover.
With all the panic about the continued attacks, Avi had been grateful to have something to do to get his mind off things. McGonagall had agreed to include Avi’s friends in the lessons as long as they could get parental permission. The twin’s dad had agreed quickly (Avi thought that the twins had probably asked their dad instead of their mom for a reason), but Lee’s parents were not so easily persuaded.
Now though, Avi only had two weeks until Yule break to make his deadline for the bet with his dad over his animagus transformation. When he had told Professor McGonagal about his dad’s mystery animagus form and the deal they had made about Avi transforming before Christmas to get to see it the Gyfindor matriarch had gotten an odd gleam in her eyes. She hadn’t said anything outright about wanting to find out the secret as well, but she had become quite the task master at getting him and his friends prepared in time for him to win the bet. Avi shook his head. Everyone knew what people said about curiosity and the cat. It seemed his professor was no exception. It had been a lot of grueling work, but Avi and his friends were now ready.
Fred, George, and Avi sat in a circle on the floor in Mcgonagall’s private study. Avi had already finished his potion, but had decided to wait until the twins were done ‘marinating’ their mandrake leaves for their own potions so they could find out their forms together.
McGonagal clapped her hands together, “Alright boys, let's do one last meditation exercise. It is very important that you have your animal counterpart as visualized as possible before you have your first transformation. I know getting a good read on your inner animagus can be very difficult especially at such a young age, but it is very important. Especially at such a young age. The reason no one has managed the transformation at such a young age before, is because an unfocused transformation can lead to mutations. Werewolves are actually the result of an animagus transformation gone wrong and mistakes can be permanent if not properly treated.”
She watched them all squirm in trepidation at the regular speech. “But even with that taken into account, I think you are all ready. And if there are any complications Madam Pomfry is trained to handle any mistakes. My seventh year NEWT students always have at least one mishap with this unit every year. Some have been quite memorable, but Madam Pomfry has always been able to straighten them out.”
The trio nodded their heads, their eyes determined. It was easy for them all to fall into the routine of closing their eyes and clearing their minds. It took Avi a long time to get this down. His brain had a hard time relaxing because he was too busy trying to not think of anything, but McGonagall was experienced in teaching difficult techniques to students and she was able to help him realize that it was not avoiding thinking, but visualizing something without distractions. First Avi thought of the environment that seemed the most safe. He focused on the cool green of a forest far away from people like the Dursleys. He focused on the five senses just like McGonagll had said. The smell of the distant rain on the gentle breeze. The sound of the leaves high overhead rustling in the wind. The taste of the cool, clear water in the stream by his den. He thought of the blades of grass tickling his paws. He could even picture the stark black fur over his paws, but he had yet to actually see his animagu’s reflection in the water.
None of them had been able to see their true forms yet, just bits and pieces of their forms. Avi could visualize black paws and a white tipped tail and had settled on a cat like McGonagall as his most likely form. Fred and George could only see thick red and grey fur and feel sharp teeth in their mouths. Their theory was that they would be identical red wolves, but Avi didn’t feel like that quite fit. At least he didn’t agree that they would be identical. Their personalities were far more different than they liked to admit. It was like their wands. They both had dogwood wands with very similar looks. They were long and simple, the only decoration being a raised ridge that wrapped around the handle in a slightly darker wood. Avi had noticed though that George’s wand’s carving spiraled down the handle clockwise, while Fred’s wrapped around the handle counterclockwise. But despite the nearly identical wand exteriors, George’s had a core of dragon heartstrings, while Freds had a phoenix feather core.
Once they all reached their inner beast forms, they each reached for their potions. Avi drank his bitter concoction down at the same time as the other. It tasted like something sour and gritty, but was thick like pudding. He could feel it working immediately. The second heartbeat in his chest sped up with excitement along with his own, at that speed it did not take long for them to fall into sync and then he felt like he was falling. He opened his eyes to watch in astonishment as the world around him grew. He knew a cat would be tiny, but the feeling was very disorienting and the size difference of everything looked intimidating.
He took a deep breath, and immediately felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of scent in the air. He turned his head, trying to maintain his balance through the dizzying sensation, to look at Professor McGonagall. She was huge! “Ah, well based on your description this is not what I would have expected, Mr.Snape, but everything you described still fits.” Wait, was he not a cat? The Professor turned to the twins, “Neither are your transformations, Messrs.Weasley. However, young Mr. Snape’s prediction of you both not being the same animal seems to have held true.”
Avi stumbled slightly as he struggled to turn around on four paws to look at his friends. He was too disoriented at the moment to remember which twin had been sitting in which spot, but they both looked remarkably similar, yet were distinctly different species. They were not red wolves like they had predicted, but they were both canid creatures. Avi wasn’t sure what they were, but they looked similar to a coyote.
However, before any of them had time to process what they were seeing the potions wore off and all three boys reverted to their original forms sprawled out on the floor. Avi groaned along with the twins, everything ached. McGonagall warned them that not having a proper visualization of their forms could lead to side effects, but aching muscles was one of the more mild outcomes. They must have at least been visualized correctly, but just misinterpreted what they saw. Well it was a better outcome than not being able to properly control the transformation and ending up as some kind of half animal mutation and possibly creating a new wizarding disease like Lycanthropy.
“Well that was unexpected,” muttered the professor. “In all my years of teaching I have never had students that had that accurate of a visualization and yet been so completely wrong about their inner creatures. Maybe being so young affected it somehow.”
The twins looked confused. “Well Avi was obviously off base, but we definitely looked like red wolves,” said Fred.
George looked a little less certain as he said, “We were a little smaller than I thought a wolf would be and had a big black patch on our backs, but we definitely looked like wolves to me.”
Fred looked at his brother in confusion, “You didn’t have a black patch on your back. Maybe Avi was right about us having different markings.”
Avi rolled his eyes at their shared looks of consternation. “It’s ok for you guys to not be identical all the time!”
“But people will be able to tell us apart!” they cried in unison.
McGonagall chuckled, “They’re not just marked differently, they’re entirely different species. It’s possible that you just haven’t interacted with the world enough to encounter or read about the animals you resonate with and therefore were unable to make an accurate prediction. I will have to write and submit a thesis…”
Mcgonagall walked over to her shelves and pulled down a couple of books. Once she found the entries that she was looking for she copied them with a spell onto a few bits of spare parchment. She handed one two each of the twins. “You Mr. Weasley are a Golden Jackal. The golden jackal is similar to the red wolf but is distinguished by its smaller size, lighter weight, more elongated torso, less-prominent forehead, shorter legs and tail, and a muzzle that is narrower and more pointed. The golden jackal fills much the same ecological niche in Eurasia as the coyote does in North America. It is both a predator and a scavenger, and an omnivorous and opportunistic forager with a diet that varies according to its environment, making it a very adaptable animal.”
George looked at the parchment with awe, “Adaptability does sound a little more like me than a regal wolf.”
Then she turned to Fred. “You on the other hand Mr. Weasley are a Black-Backed Jackal. The black-backed jackal is a fox-like canid with a slender body, long legs, and large ears. It is similar to the closely related side-striped jackal and more distantly related to the golden jackal. The base colour is reddish brown to tan, which is particularly pronounced on the flanks and legs. A black saddle intermixed with silvery hair extends from the shoulders to the base of the tail. The black-backed jackal is a monogamous and territorial animal, whose social organization greatly resembles that of the golden jackal. However, the assistance of elder offspring in helping raise the pups of their parents has a greater bearing on pup survival rates than in the golden jackal species.”
George laughed at his younger twin, “You always have been a bit of a mother hen to our younger siblings, not to mention Avi here.”
Avi couldn't help but giggle as Fred turned as red as his hair. “What are you laughing at,” Fred grumbled. “You didn’t do any better at your predictions than we did.”
George snickered, “Yeah. You were way off mate.”
“No way! I was tiny compared to you two. What else of that size has black paws and a white tipped tail?”
“A fox,” they answered together.
“Not just any fox,” interrupted McGonagall. “Instead of the traditional red/orange fur color, your’s was distinctly golden. You were much smaller than the average fox, but that could have been due to your young age. No one has ever become an animagus this young before. The youngest before today was recorded at the age of fourteen. But besides the coloring and size, your animagus also had quite long tails for a fox.”
“Tails? Like more than one?” asked Avi, turning around as if he could still see them.
“Yes. You had two white tipped gold tails. I would have said it was probably some sort of odd mutation from an improper transformation, but paired with your other anomalies I have another theory.” She handed him the last parchment. It was by far the longest of the three.
Kitsune- The fox spirit is known throughout the magical world, but has fallen to myth in most countries as it is believed to have gone extinct. Kitsune are temperamental creatures that walk the line between life and death. They have often been revered as gods in ancient times and the stories have many conflicting facts. Kitsune are often presented as tricksters, with motives that vary from mischief to malevolence. Stories tell of kitsune playing tricks on overly proud samurai, greedy merchants, and boastful commoners, while the crueler ones abuse poor tradesmen and farmers or devout Buddhist monks. However, other stories portray them as wise healers and protectors of the spiritual realm. It is a common belief that they help lost souls cross over to the other side.
Famous Magizoologist Newt Scimander claimed that Kitsune were born neutral and observed the world around them. They were born in times of conflict to judge the people of the world. Depending on what they see or how they are treated they take on the energy of those around them to take on one of two forms. The first and most common being that of a Spirit of Chaos, known for being mischievous or even malicious. These spirits are known for bringing destruction and chaos, but this usually brings the world back into balance by cleansing the land of the evils that have caused the disturbance in the first place. They have been known to bring the end of wars as well as wipe out entire civilizations. The second and most rare form is that of the Arcadian. This rare form uses wisdom and healing to guide the world onto a better path.
Kitsune are born with no tail, but as they age they are naturally drawn to sources of chaos or imbalance. This naturally puts the life of the fox spirit at risk. When a kitsune is injured and on the brink of death, the kitsune can use the ambient magic of the spirit realm to heal themselves. When this happens the kitsune develops a new tail to signify their brush with death. A kitsune can develop up to nine tails, strengthening its magical connection to the afterlife and gaining new powers with each. It is widely believed that once a kitsune acquires its ninth tail it becomes immortal. However, this is very rare as most kitsune die young due to their increasing involvement in dangerous situations leading to them perishing before their innate magic is able to heal them.
Avi stared at the parchment in shock. “I thought you said that animagus transformations could only be non magical animals?”
“It is possible that your form is just the result of a mutation due to your inexperience. Either way I would recommend registering your form as such. Registering as a kitsune could lead to poachers and potioniers trying to capture you for their own gains…” McGonagall turned away, making a show of putting the books back. “You should have Severus do the same layered confundus and compulsion charms on your registration as he did on his own.”
“Wait. How do you know he warded his animagus registration?” asked Avi. Was his animagus form really that embarrassing? Or was this something having to do with his spy work?
McGonagall covered her mouth and coughed to try to cover her blush. “When you told me about your deal with Severus I was shocked to find out that he had an animagus form. He really should have informed me of his studies as he was still a student of Hogwarts at the time, so I went to see the registry, but none of the secretaries could find it. I finally went back myself, but anytime I touched the file I would forget what I was looking for and leave the office. I tried several times, but could never get past the wards. I really should add his information to the school records, so you will have to inform me what he is when you find out. You are still well with in the time limit of the deal you made with your father, so you shouldn’t have any trouble getting the secret out of him.”
Avi smirked, “I’ll see what I can do.”