Chapter 13
Jinx barreled into Severus’s office, the door slamming open with a loud bang as she skidded to a halt just short of colliding with his desk. She was breathing hard, her hair windswept and wild from her full-speed sprint through the castle.
Severus, who had been calmly grading a particularly disastrous batch of essays, barely flinched at the intrusion. Instead, he exhaled through his nose, slowly and with great restraint, before setting his quill down with deliberate care.
Then, with the weariness of a man who had long since lost the ability to be surprised, he pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, “What now?”
Jinx, still trying to catch her breath, yanked open her bag and slammed it onto his desk with a thud.
It squawked.
Severus’s hand stilled where it had been rubbing at his temple. He blinked slowly, staring at the bag as if waiting for it to explain itself.
“…Excuse me?” he said at last, his tone caught somewhere between confusion and dread.
Jinx, looking far too guilty for his liking, pointed at the bag. “Okay, so… don’t be mad.”
Severus’s expression immediately darkened. “That is rarely a promising start.”
Jinx licked her lips, hesitating, before launching into her usual defense mechanism, rambling and bad jokes.
“Well, you see, Sevvy,” she began, leaning against the desk in what she clearly thought was a casual manner but really just made her look even guiltier, “I was just curious about something.”
Severus arched a brow but didn’t interrupt.
“You know how Wixen can fly?” she continued, fiddling with the strap of her bag as she spoke.
Severus frowned. “Wizards do not naturally-”
“Right, right, semantics.” Jinx waved a hand. “Broomsticks. Floating. Magic. Same thing.”
His frown deepened. “It is most certainly not the same-”
“So anyway,” she cut in, grinning nervously, “I just wanted to see how it worked, you know? How do they do it?What’s the, uh… secret?”
Severus gave her a long, unimpressed stare. “Jinx,” he said slowly, “what did you do?”
Jinx winced. She shifted on her feet, staring at his desk as if hoping the wood grain would provide an escape route.
“…I may have,” she said carefully, “kicked Harry off the Astronomy Tower.”
For a second, there was only dead silence.
Then...
Severus shot to his feet so fast his chair scraped across the stone floor. “YOU DID WHAT?!”
He was already whirling around his desk, robes billowing, reaching for a cabinet full of healing potions and emergency supplies. His hands darted over vials at lightning speed, Blood-Replenishing Potion, Bone Mending Elixir, Essence of Dittany,
Jinx panicked and shoved her bag toward him.
“WAIT, WAIT!” she yelped. “It’s fine, it’s fine! Look!”
And with that, she thrust the bag into his arms, the force nearly making him stumble back.
The bag squawked again.
Severus froze. Slowly, as if fearing what fresh nightmare awaited him, he looked down,
Just as a very ruffled, very irritated, very much-alive black bird popped its head out.
Severus stared.
Jinx gave him a weak smile.
“…So,” she said, voice a little too high-pitched. “Harry’s a bird now. And he can’t change back.”
Severus closed his eyes and exhaled sharply through his nose, pinching the bridge of it as if warding off an oncoming migraine. He held that position for a moment, clearly contemplating every life decision that had led him to this exact moment before finally dropping his hand and fixing Jinx with a look that screamed pure exhaustion.
“Continue,” he said flatly, already regretting it.
Jinx brightened slightly, taking that as permission to keep talking. “Okay, so,” she started, rocking on her heels, “he fell, right?”
Severus’s eye twitched. “Yes, I gathered as much.”
“And then, bam! Mid-air, he just-” She made a whooshing motion with her hands. “Poof! No more Harry. Just a tiny, flappy, very confused bird.”
Severus groaned quietly, pressing his fingers into his temples as if trying to massage away the absurdity of what he was hearing. “Of course,” he muttered. “Because nothing involving Potter can ever be simple.”
Harry, still perched awkwardly in Jinx’s bag, flapped his wings irritably and let out a sharp, indignant chirp.
Severus barely spared him a glance. “Oh, don’t start, Potter,” he said dryly. “This is hardly the most ridiculous thing that has happened to you.”
The bird huffed, fluffing up indignantly.
Severus sighed again, moving around to his bookshelf. “Give me a moment,” he muttered, scanning the spines of several dusty tomes. “Unlike certain rule-breaking Gryffindors, I have not spent my free time studying illegal Animagus transformations.”
Jinx snorted. “Oh, yeah, that’s more of a niche thing, isn’t it?”
Severus’s hand tightened around the book he had just pulled. His eye twitched again.
Harry, still in his bird form, fluttered irritably, clearly unimpressed.
Severus ignored him. “This will take time,” he said, flipping through the pages. “Whatever this is, it does not follow standard magical law. Which, I suppose, should be expected-”
He shut the book with a sharp snap, looking back at them with a tired glare.
“-because nothing involving Potter ever does.”
Severus sighed heavily, rubbing his temple before gesturing towards the door. “Jinx, go back to bed.”
Jinx pouted, crossing her arms. “But-”
“No.” His tone left no room for argument. “You have already done enough damage for one evening.”
She huffed, but relented, giving Harry a final glance before turning to leave. As she reached the door, Severus added dryly, “And do try not to send any more students plummeting from towers on your way back.”
Jinx grinned cheekily over her shoulder. “No promises.”
With that, she slipped out, shutting the door behind her, leaving Severus alone with a very irritated, very feathery Harry Potter.
Severus sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose before turning to his bookshelves. He muttered under his breath as he began pulling out volumes, stacking them on his desk with practiced efficiency.
Harry, still in his bird form, fluffed up irritably and let out a small, indignant squawk.
Severus didn’t even look up. “Oh, hush. You are fortunate I am handling this instead of leaving you in the hallway to be discovered by Filch’s mangy cat.”
He plucked another book from the shelf, flipping it open with one hand while flicking his wand to summon parchment and a quill. He made a small, absent-minded note to himself that he might have considered dropping Harry off with his adopted parents, Viktor and Jayce, but, given Jinx’s rather dramatic entrance earlier, it was probably best to leave them in peace.
Merlin knew that Jayce needed all the luck he could get if he was finally going to confess.
Jayce stood up abruptly.
Viktor, seated at his desk and calmly grading papers, barely glanced up. “Hmm?”
Jayce opened his mouth, then immediately snapped it shut, his hands twitching at his sides. He could feel Viktor’s gaze on him, curious, patient, utterly oblivious, and panic flared in his chest.
Instead of speaking, he pivoted sharply and grabbed a book off the nearest shelf, flipping through it with such intensitythat one might think he had just discovered the meaning of life within its pages.
Viktor blinked at him, then returned to his grading.
Jayce tried again. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and turned,
Viktor looked up.
Jayce whipped back around so fast he nearly gave himself whiplash, suddenly very interested in adjusting the angle of a chair.
This pattern continued. Every time Jayce worked up the nerve to speak, Viktor would glance at him with mild curiosity, and Jayce would immediately redirect his energy into some other pointless task, straightening a quill, inspecting the ceiling, dramatically flipping through papers he had no intention of reading.
At one point, he made the grave mistake of attempting a casual stroll across the room.
He tripped over his own feet.
Viktor looked up fully this time, brow furrowing. “Jayce?”
“I’m fine!” Jayce yelped from where he had half-collapsed against a chair, scrambling upright with wildly unnecessary speed. “Totally fine. Just… uh… testing gravity. Still works. Great. Love that for us.”
Viktor tilted his head, clearly trying to decide if he should be concerned or amused.
Jayce laughed nervously, brushing himself off, before deciding that maybe now was not the time to confess.