At it once again

[Felix Parkinson I]

Felix sat idly against a tree mid way between the Castle and the Lake. He had a few hours before his next class and had decided to enjoy the last few fall days at Hogwarts before winter came, -and always the Ravenclaw- get some studying in. Strewn about him were a few odd cages of various sizes. There was one that was small and held a rat inside, another slightly larger with a yellow blue bird, and one quite a bit larger which had a badger in it. Felix had found the badger just on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, and though he mean it no harm he really hoped a Huffelpuff didn't happen by.They were all relatively small which Felix thought might be best to practice Transfiguration on.

Sitting patiently Felix hummed quietly to himself. He'd arranged to meet @Lynette Maroc a few days back so that they could practice morphing animals into other things. He hoped nothing as horrible as what happened to the Etiquette Professor would happen, but even that would be better than one of them making a mistake while trying to transfigure them selves as an Anamagui.

The problem was that Lynette had seemed quite distant lately and perhaps a little less welcoming in her demeanor than before. It was only the first few weeks of school but even thought they were housemates and yearmates he'd barely seen her. He found him self quietly wondering if perhaps he'd offended her in some way, or likely as not she'd just had a rough summer and most of them had.

  

[Lynette Maroc]

Lynette was still rather unsure as to why exactly she had agreed to meet Felix. There was some history between them studying animagi together and he was a nice enough young man but that didn't change the hatred she felt for all men. And regardless of their past relationship, she wouldn't be able to look at him the same way she had before. But for whatever reason she had agreed to meet with him. Somehow the want to be an animagi far outweighed that of having to actually work with a member of the opposite sex. If she could accomplish the feat, then she could transform during any hard time around a gentleman and not have to deal with him. At least, that is what the seventh year Ravenclaw hoped.

With a sigh, she pushed the big front doors of the castle open and headed down the steps and headed in the direction of the lake. Felix has said he'd be between the castle and the lake waiting so that was the direction she went. It didn't take long to see her fellow classmate with his arrangement of different creatures for them to practice transfiguring. She slowed her pace as she drew closer, having to mentally prepare herself for working with him, to remind herself that Felix was not him.

"Hello," she said softly once she was close enough for him to hear, "Shall we begin?" Straight to the point. Lynette had always been one to get straight to the point and work but it seemed to be even more intense this school year.

  

[Felix Parkinson I]

A slight smile crossed Felix's lips as Miss. Maroc approached. It was still early in the year but with Quidditch and everything going on they had hardly seen each other. In part Felix felt as if his fellow housemate was avoiding him but he decided it was best not to jump to conclusion and just assume that being 7th years they both had plenty to occupy their time.

"Hello Miss. Maroc, its good to see you" He said almost laugh at how eager she seemed to be to start. Though to be fair Felix could understand her desire to get on with it. He was determined to be able to become an anamigus before he turned 18th which meant he had less than a year to prepare.

"Yes, lets see what we can do. I brought a few animals that I thought we could practice turning into objects... or other animals" He said waving a hand at the creatures in the cages.

  

[Lynette Maroc]

Lynette's dark eyes watched Felix almost warily as he smiled slightly at her approach. She wasn't sure what to think of him really and with the events of her summer, she was rather wary of any gentleman smiling in her direction. It wasn't their fault but the young woman could never be too cautious. And being at school didn't really change her worries and fears. A part of her had become rather reclusive and paranoid, convinced there was a way around barriers and restrictions to where someone could still possibly hurt her. She just hoped that he would remain in Italy.

She blinked her eyes at him as he explained what he had planned for them, snapping back to reality and away from her dreaded thoughts. "Yes, lovely," she said rather abruptly, clearly having been caught off guard though simply because she hadn't been paying attention while lost in thought.

Slowly sliding her wand from a pocket, she turned her attention to the animals in the cages. "Did you want to go first or shall I?" she asked, clearly back into business mode. She needed a distraction before her thoughts could get the better of her once again. Or worse, before Felix started asking questions she didn't think she could answer.

  

[Felix Parkinson I]

"By all means, Ladies first" Felix said politely stepping away from the cages of animals and gesturing at them with open hand. To be honest he was a little nervous to start transfiguring animals, sure he had done it in the class room on a few occasion but that was also with the guidance of a Professor, and undoubtedly something also went wrong. Felix had never made and horrible mistakes but he'd seen a few of the less scholarly students completely botch up their calculations and spells and it was never a pretty sight. However, those were the risks of becoming an Anamagi or so he told himself.

He noticed that Miss. Maroc seemed a little distant or ... curt but it didn't bother him much. Perhaps she was just a little nervous like he was, or preoccupied by NEWTS.

  

[Lynette Maroc]

Lynette nodded, the faintest glimmer of a smile on her lips when he allowed her to go first. Calmly, she took in a deep breath and stepped forward. Big brown eyes focused solely on the rat for now. Before she waved her wand, she idly tucked a stray curl that had fallen loose behind her ear then brought the wand up and spoke the proper spell that would hopefully morph the fat rat into a hedgehog instead.

She took a step back, head tilted slightly to the side as she watched the furry creature begin to change. The strands of fur seemed to be elongating and sharpening much like the quills of a hedgehog. The rat's tail shriveled up and disappeared before their eyes as the rest of the creature began to morph into just what she had wanted. The only thing that didn't change was the color. Instead of becoming something of a black and white mottled hedgehog, it held its pure gray coloring like that rat had had. It was definitely better than it sprouting feathers instead.

The success was still worth noting, at least in Lynette's opinion and for once, in a very long time, a true smile broke free of the cold and icy demeanor the girl had shown up for her seventh year with. She nearly turned and hugged Felix then but managed to hold herself back from any sort of physical touch though she did look at him with a beaming smile. He was perhaps the first to be on the receiving end of such a thing from her in quite some time.

  

[Felix Parkinson I]

"Nicely done! " Felix said with a clap of his hands and a laugh. It was certainly encouraging to see that that his study buddy had done so well, perhaps there was hope for them after all despite what the Professors might have them believe. Sure the color of the hedgerat had stayed the same but the two of them had almost another whole semester to practice together after Christmas.

"At this rate I think weve got a pretty good shot! " He declared stepping up to a small grey squirrl and pulled out his wand.

"Here we go" He said under his breath has he raised the wand up high mentally doing some calculations about the squirrels weight and the weight of and dimensions of a frog. Then muttering the incantation he cast the transfiguration spell. The Squirrel started to shrink and stretch in odd ways and its skin went from a light grey to a dark green. Its eyes suddenly buldged and its mouth grew many times. However, Felix noted with a bit of disappointment that the ugly green frog looked rather freakish with a large bushy grey tail.

"Well thats something at least" He said with an amused chuckle, at least he hadn't made the poor creature explode or something

  

[Lynette Maroc]

That smile remained as Felix complimented her on the results she'd managed. It was rather exciting to be able to change a live animal into another live animal. She'd won a dueling tournament the previous year pretty much solely on her Transfiguration skills. She'd been turning inanimate objects into animals then though. It was quite easier to do than changing the entire composition of an animal to another type though. If they continued on the path, they should have a fair chance of attaining their goal. Though, Lynette really was no longer in that big of a hurry.

Still smiling, she watched as Felix took his turn. She couldn't help but to laugh lightly as he chuckled at his own results. He had still done a good job but the idea of an ugly toad with a squirrel's bushy tail was rather humorous. "It is!" she exclaimed though with a smile that was starting to fade some from the previous excitement, "Congratulations on a tailed toad." Perhaps by the time they were done, they would have created their own various breeds of animals.

Lynette cleared her throat and turned her attentions to the yellow bird in one of the cages. With her focus entirely on the feathered creature, she spoke the incantation with the hopes of turning the bird into a scaled serpent instead. It didn't take long for the feathers to disappear and the puffy animal to transform into a long and round snake. Again it maintained its bright yellow coloring but otherwise looked like a snake just as one would expect. It looked as though she had it down when changing the shape and size but was clearly struggling with the color. It resulted in a somewhat frustrated look on her face as she gave a small shrug and motioned to Felix for his turn.

  

[Felix Parkinson I]

Felix noticed that there was an instant change in Lynette's mood when the transfiguration began. It seemed as if her troubles had left her and she was actually enjoying her self, which caused Felix to smile broadly while she wasn't looking. Though it seemed that the change was fleeting and would not remain for long. Felix found himself quietly wondering what had changed over the summer, though he knew it could have been anything what with the plague and then the quarantine.

Felix had to admit that he was quite impressed with Lynette's performance so as he stepped up he promised himself to do better. He felt a little bad about the Toad and the tail so decided it would be best to turn it back. Already having done the original conversions in his head he quietly reversed them but made sure to correct any previous errors.

This time as he cast his spell the toad transfigured back into its original form almost perfectly, though its eyes seemed to stayed a tiny bit larger than they had before.

"It's no wonder some people never try to become Animagus" Felix said lightly

  

[Lynette Maroc]

Lynette frowned slightly as she watched Felix change his toad back into its original form. Not because it was poorly done, but because she hadn't thought to do the same to the newly created hedgehog. She would have to correct it once he was finished. She waited patiently though, watching him as he did his own spellwork. It didn't take him long to finish it and she turned a smile to him as he finished it up. It was almost exactly back to normal and she doubted most would even notice the slightly buggy eyed squirrel.

"It definitely isn't easy," she said, still faintly smiling, "Definitely not for those who aren't up to a challenge. I'm pretty sure we can both accomplish it though." It was something of a compliment, though not an overly obvious one. Her attentions were quickly focused elsewhere though, intending to not really allow for much free time for chatter. She wasn't much of a talker, especially after her summer where the only time she wasn't alone she was being, well, tortured.

With a serious focus, she looked to her gray hedgehog and spoke the incantation to change the creature back. She watched as the quills started to shrink and shrivel up and be replaced with the gray fur of a rat. The transformation went much quicker the second time around. A rat sat before them now though missing one rather distinct trait of a rat. The tail on the creature was just a small stub, having maintained the tiny bit of tail a hedgehog usually had. Her lips pursed and her brow creased in frustration. "Well that was less than satisfactory," she mumbled under her breath as she stared at the creature instead of looking back to Felix.

  

[Felix Parkinson I]

"I do hope so" Felix confessed staring down at the large eyes of the creature, missing any compliment there might have been

"Well luckily for both of us we've still got almost a term and a half to practice! " Felix declared biting his bottom lip in though. It was still early Autumn and the snow had yet to set in at Hogwarts so he was fairly confident in the time they would have to practice. He was determined to become an Anamagius shortly after graduation, though he really didn't know why he couldn't wait, there were plenty of people who became one years after leaving Hogwarts. For Felix though, there was just something about the achievement he felt he had to accomplish, and soon.

"So what do you think, should we go another round or call it a day?" He asked glancing at Miss. Maroc

  

[Lynette Maroc]

Lynette nodded, biting her lip, as he mentioned they had a whole term to practice. A whole term where she was relatively safe from him. She couldn't even bear to think of his name anymore, not without it making her overly anxious and paranoid. It was just best to avoid any thoughts of him. Unfortunately, it wasn't always that easy.

She gasped slightly when she realized Felix was asking her a question and she had drifted off into thought once again. "Sorry," she mumbled before nodding once more, "Perhaps best to call it a night. We can do more again another time. I'm feeling tired." The last part was true though she was more emotionally tired than anything. He didn't exactly need to know that though.

A faint smile was offered to him before another small nod was given and she turned to walk away. "I'll see you around," she said softly and then was on her way. She didn't want to give him the chance to offer walking her back. It was just better if she went alone.

  

[Felix Parkinson I]

Felix watched curiously as Lynette raced off with as little idle chit chat as possible. Though Felix was no expert at women he couldn't help but think his classmate was behaving a little odd. There seemed to be a tension between them that he couldn't quite figure out. Between Lynette and Anette he figured he'd never be able to figure girls out, they were ... rather complex and he was starting to think he knew why his brother Orpheus had waited so long to get married.

With a shrug of his shoulder Felix set up collecting the cages of the animals. He'd return them all to their proper homes none the worse - or so he hoped- but before he did he'd have to thank them all for their help, as silly as that might be it only seemed right.