Welcome To The Wild Side
"Good afternoon, students." Professor Nora Court, teacher for 5th year Transfigurations, greeted her class.
She was one of the more neutral faculty of Hogwarts when it came to the social divide. In other words she judged both sides equally, in and out of the room. Didn't mean she was a well liked teacher, she was cold and detached but never cruel. She was respected, not loved.
"Today will be an interesting lesson. For it I have requested the aid. Try to remain calm." Just as the professor finishes her statement she flicks her wand and the doors to the room open.
Striding in, claws clicking on stone, was a large black wolf with white fur under its muzzle, down his chest and stomach to the underside of his tail. The class froze, others scooting back and few actually readying their wands. Caitlyn was on edge but more apprehensive than aggressive. The Wick children? Oh they had the widest fucking smiles. Noticing this, Caitlyn gently tugs Vi's sleeve.
"Vi? Do you know the wolf?" She whispered.
Vi was visibly fighting back the urge to laugh. "Yes and you do too." She replied.
The wolf strode up to the front to stand by Professor Court. It held its head high as its predatory gray eyes scanned the room.
"Now if your required theatrics are done, I wish to continue with the lesson." Court looked down at the wolf who huffed in reply but nodded.
"Today we will be discussing animagi."
Now that sends the class into murmurs of excitement. Caitlyn stared at the wolf and the connection between the Wick's joy, Vi's words, and the days topic was instant.
"An Animagus is a witch or wizard who can transform themselves into an animal and back again at will. It was a learned skill, unlike the hereditary skill of a Metamorphmagus." Court explained.
"We have one faculty member who has gone through said training. The Black Wolf of London."
The moment his Auror title was announced the wolf morphed from its animagus form into its original form and the class gasped. There stood Professor Vander, a mischievous smile on his face. Several jaws in the room dropped while others were simply impressed. The Wicks were beaming with pride, this body language screaming 'THAT'S OUR DAD!'
"Thank you for allowing my yearly theatrics, Professor Court." Vander gave his senior a small head bow.
Court simply nodded then continued speaking. "It takes skill, practice and patience to become an animagus. The process of it is long and arduous, and has the potential to backfire and cause the transformation to go horribly wrong."
"It took me a full year for the conditions to do it successfully. One student who was training with me now has permanent fox ears and tail, he gave up before it got worse- good news is he makes quite the extra living as a muggle furry icon." Vander chuckled and so did those cultured students.
"Now all animagi are registered by the ministry along with their identifying mark. All animagi have it, something that carries over from their human form that makes them unique. Those with glasses often have spectacle-like markings around their eyes."
"Mine are my eyes. Normal wolves have yellow, orange, hazel, light brown, or green eyes but mine stay gray." Vander points to his eyes.
The rest of the lesson carried on as usual. Vander's casual attitude clashing with Court's in a fun way that had the class enraptured. Vander with morph a few more times as demonstration before the end of the class.
Later that day Vi was in the library with Caitlyn, writing a paper on significant animagi with Caitlyn. Half way through she had a thought.
"Hey, hey Cupcake." Vi gently poked Caitlyn's shoulder.
The bluenette turned her attention away from the parchment to look at Vi curiously. "Yes?"
"Do you want to become animagi?" Vi grinned.
Caitlyn paused for a moment before matching Vi's grin with her own. "Let's."
They waited till their next DADA class was done and the class had filed out before approaching Vander.
Already skeptical of the pair's approach Vander braced himself. "Alright, what do you two chaos magnets want today?" He asked with a light hearted jibe.
"Can you teach us to be animagi?" Vi blurted out.
Okay that wasn't what Vander was expecting though he definitely should have. The two were determined, curious, and down to try near everything.
"You do know it can take years to learn it, right? And there are risks? You'd be better off learning something different." This wasn't the first time Vander had been asked to teach the process of becoming an animagi but so many back out not long into the process.
"We know, Professor. We still want to try." Caitlyn answered with finality.
Vanders stress spiked. "Girls you don't know what you're getting into."
"Yes, because you haven't told us." Vi snarks, causing Caitlyn to giggle.
Between Caitlyn's pleading stare, and Vi's puppy dog eyes, Vander relented and explained the process. They of course told the Headmistress who surprisingly agreed to allow Caitlyn to attempt this… though it did come with the threat of bodily harm to everyone involved if anything went wrong.
(1) Holding a Mandrake leaf under your tongue for a month
One month of constantly being hyper aware of the bitter leaf under your tongue needs to be listed as some sort of psychological torture. From eating to talking to the last couple seconds before falling asleep, Vi and Caitlyn were keenly aware of the leaf.
When they informed the rest of the group of their choice they were both impressed and mortified that they'd put themselves through that much for a skill most in the Wizarding world found useless or at least not worth the months of effort and possible permanent mutation at the smallest mistake.
Not to mention the incantation they had to chant perfectly day by day without fail.
Safe to say the duo were incredibly relieved when the month was over and the full moon shone down from a clear starry sky. Vander jokingly cursed their luck. It took him 3 tries to end on a clear full moon night.
(2) The animagus potion.
They were lucky that they had Vander and Silco helping them in this. When the leaves were ready they followed the brothers out behind the castle where they'd already prepared the phials and the rest of the ingredients for the animagus potion.
Under the light of the moon Vi and Caitlyn took a phial each. They spat the leaves directly into the container, followed by a strand of their hair, a teaspoon of dew untouched by sun or man for seven days, and the chrysalis of a death's-head hawk moth.
With that the potion was finished and simply had to sit undisturbed in the dark until the next lightning storm, whenever that might be. Silco prepared a place in his personal storage room for the phials.
(3) The transformation.
Vander would once again jokingly curse the gods for the luck of his daughter and future daughter-in-law (everyone was just waiting for the other shoe to drop) when a month later a lightning storm began. After class everyone gathered together in an empty DADA classroom with all the tables and chairs moved aside. Silco arriving last with the phials in hand.
Vi and Caitlyn stood in the middle of the room. Around them, at a safe distance, were the gang and the two teachers.
"You don't have to do this. It's dangerous and many things could go wrong." Vander reminded the duo.
"We've made it this far." Vi started.
"We're not backing down now." Caitlyn followed up.
They uncorked thier phials of blood red liquid and held them up.
"Cheers!" They chorused and downed the potion.
Vi felt the sudden pull into her own mindscape.
It was dark. A figure of silver and red mist circled around her before stopping in front of her. The figure solidified. Vi felt herself smile.
Caitlyn felt a rather smooth pull into her mindscape.
It was dark. A figure in shades of blue mist elegantly trotted around her before stopping in front of her. The figure began to solidify only to shimmer and morph into a different form. Caitlyn cursed the higher powers.
Vi opened her eyes first. Instantly everything was too much all at once. Her vision was so clear, the flashes of light from the lightning strikes irritated her eyes. The sounds were painful. The scent of everything around her burned nose and confused her. Her balance felt off, her footing unsure, her body felt both light and heavy but somehow natural. She tried to groan only to hear herself make a different noise. A whine.
Caitlyn opened her eyes but felt much calmer. The feeling was rather familiar. Her sight was sharp and clear. Though the sounds were loud she knew not to focus on it too much. Though to scents were near overwhelming she knew to pick and choose which to keep track of. She looked down at herself and recognized the view. Paws. Blue. Furred. Paws. She yowled in frustration, exposing her identifying mark, a gap between her upper front teeth.
"No way." Powder breathed as she watched the transformations.
Nothing could have prepared them for a past mishap to rear its head, but here it was. The return of Catcait the British-Balinese.
Vi on the other hand had settled into her form on unsteady paws. Taking a few disoriented steps to the side. She was a red wolf that was actually slightly more red than brown, her identifying mark was a small cut on her lip that carried over from her human form.
While Caitlyn was agitated but calm, Vi started to panic. In her new form she was incredibly sensitive and was likely becoming over-stimulated. She stumbled and growled and barked trying to get her bearings.
"Vi!" Vander attempted to approach her only to get snapped at.
Vander looked seconds from turning himself until everyone watched Caitlyn calmly pad over to Vi. Though the wolf towered over her she showed no fear, instead she meowed as if calling Vi's name. The wolf shook her head and turned to face the sound. Caitlyn slowly lifted a paw and Vi followed the action with her light brown eyes. As she lowered her paw Vi felt the overwhelming urge to lie down… so she did. They watched as Caitlyn rubbed herself against Vi's large head, the wolf's tail thumping on the ground from the strength of its wag.
"No matter what form they're in, Vi is an absolute simp for Caitlyn." Mylo stated and everyone nodded in affirmation.
When they'd turned back Vi apologized for freaking out and accepted the teasing that came along with the big bad wolf being tamed by a Catiecat. Though the fact Caitlyn turned into a cat instead of a doe brought everyone much joy.