Fleeing was terribly undignified. But when one had a cackling hag in one direction and the stone bastion of Hogwarts in the other, it was definitely the only way to go.

Landis skidded to a stop, shoes sliding around under suddenly dainty feet, and collapsed against a tree. Panting for breath she raked the fine blonde hair away from her face, revealing an expression that was definitely cloudy with a chance of murder. Her clothing, so well-suited to her previous form, was now nothing more than a nuisance in the form of too-tight tailoring and flapping sleeves, the shirt straining in the bust but empty-shouldered, the trousers too loose around her slender waist. After a moment she raised a glare that could fell armies towards her unfortunate equine coworker.

"Fantastic idea, Trishna," she snarled, furiously cinching her belt tighter. "We should have petrified her first, not tried your damned diplomacy! As you are now aware, diplomacy does not work on hags!"

Especially not ones who saw the upcoming Tournament as a sort of rare banquet feast, who refused to leave their inconveniently-placed homes, and who had always wanted a pony, apparently. Relocation would have been much easier if Trishna hadn't given her time to act. Oh, this was awful, this was absolute bollocks. All she had to show for the morning were entirely new anatomical additions, seething irritation, and a headache. And a small winged horse, which was another sort of headache all in its own right. But as annoying as all these extra jiggly bits were, Landis really had the better end of things. At least she still had opposable thumbs.

After all, she might face some untoward comments, but sniggerers could be easily eviscerated. Trishna, on the other hand, was disgusting adorable. They were headed into the one place with the highest concentration of girls in Europe and with any luck he'd be mobbed. This thought was the only thing that brought her any joy on this thoroughly miserable morning.

The wings were coming in handy; they were really the only things keeping him from falling over in a heap. He was clumsy enough on two legs; four was just too damn much!

Not that that was his primary concern - though it probably should have been. He was somehow able to talk but the horse-tongue in his mouth was odd and awkward and he was smaller than he'd been in 20 years. But all this - the legs, the tongue, the smallness, the branches and dirt hitting his belly and the wings...all of it paled to the sheer cloud of annoyance he charged though.

Bloody stupid hag! And bloody stupid blonde fairy-brained snobbish pureblood uptight arsehole librarian!

They were clear of the forest, and Landis stopped to yell at him. He lanced his ears back, and tried to shout back and just made some sounds that were only barely identifiable as speech. Diplomacy, he was trying to say, works best on people when you act bleedin' diplomatic! Apparently Landis didn't even know how to act civilized towards things that could hex his bits off. Or in this case, switch them for different ones.

Tapendra gave up and settled for headbutting Landis in the thigh hard enough to knock him over.

Tappy garbled something angry in return; Landis sneered. Trishna might be unnaturally tall in his normal form but intimidating a pony was not, especially one that looked like a reject from the Pegasus farms. Then, to her great surprise, the plush toy charged her.

Landis landed on her arse in the hard dirt, a surprise victory for the normally so pacifistic Astronomy professor. Immediately, she saw red. What an absolutely unbearable smug little beast! Not even human for a quarter of an hour and already reverting to physical violence like the crass animal he was! Unbelievable. If Landis wasn't allowed to attack fellow staff members, Tappy shouldn't be able to either.

She collected herself, drawing her legs up under her rather than immediately rising. Then she leaned forward in one smooth movement, hands braced on her thighs and eyes slitted. "Don't start with me," she warned Tappy, in a tone that might have been more threatening had she still been 6'2. "I'm the only one here who can still hold a wand."

Seeing Landis fall was totally and utterly worth it. The blonde man...woman? Whatever. The blond woman got to her feet and glared death at Tapendra, who just bore his teeth and returned the glare with his ears laced back against his head and his legs spread slightly as he adopted an aggressive stance.

Of course, the fact he was several heads shorter than Landis did nothing to help.

"Save it," he managed, word still garbled by his new mouth. "Gotta - Tulojow would know how to fix this. We need to  - need to go and find her. She can-"

The school's bell, still distant in the hills above, rang out over the landscape. It rang for the end of lunch and Tapendra perked up and listened, wings spreading automatically as his anger vanished into mild panic.

"Class! Have to get to - " he said, and flapped his wings desperately; this only succeeded in lifting him off his feet for a few moments and then he swerved sideways, falling into a bush.

In the distance the class bells rang. Landis blinked, mouth twisting into the unhappy line of realization.

"Students," she moaned, in something surprisingly like despair. "My reputation. My girlfriend. Shite."

Landis had forgotten about Juliette. The idea was simultaneously more and less horrifying than facing the students. If she got so upset over little things like kidnapping and false pretenses, Landis couldn't imagine how she'd react to discovering her lover was no longer equipped in the expected manner. Although a very male part of Landis did wonder - well, she was French - so it was only natural that he... hm. Maybe Landis could propose something to her later. After she stopped laughing.

Gloomily, Landis watched as Tappy propelled himself into a bush. "What a remarkable work ethic you have," she remarked critically. "Truly, I'm inspired. Can you perhaps learn to fly a little faster?" Her tone dripped sweetly sarcastic. "I could carry you instead if you like. Your little legs must tire quickly, and I'm rather in a hurry to be cured." Privately Landis had her doubts as to whether Nagde was the right person to see. The Transfiguration professor might be of more help. But she didn't mention this to Tappy, or at least not yet. Seeing the pony's face screwed up in righteous determination was surprisingly fetching. Landis rather found herself wanting to see if Tappy could actually fly.

Tapendra struggled out of the bush, finding himself unable to break free to until a branch of it finally broke and he flew free, falling to the forest floor. When he got back to his feet - after a few tries - his mane and tail had leaves stuck in them, and he was covered in pine needles.

He tried to shake them off, without success. "Oh, shut up," he told Landis as he walked back to the Librarian's side, head down slightly. He let his breath out and then started flapping his wings again, the wind this generated flapping Landis's clothes and hair as he struggled into the air, eventually managing something resembling a hover.

It didn't last too long; he started forward and hit the ground again, but this time managed to instead turn it into a series of hops, lengthened by his beating wings.

This quickly carried him quite some distance from Landis, where he stopped to hover before suddenly doubling back. He hovered near Landis - just out of reach - and frowned.

"Want a ride?" He asked, with undisguised sarcasm.

She smiled when Tappy came trailing back to her side, head down, covered in pine needles and dirt. Poor, sad pony. Despite her irritation Landis was still capable of appreciating the finer things in life, like fine wine and other people's suffering. If anything her capacity for the latter had been sharpened.

However, she was unappreciative of such displays of frivolous clothes-ruffling. Landis hoped those wings would be so helpful when it came time to pick up a fork.  "Do I want a ride on you? No." What an unappealing walk back this would be. Bending she removed her shoes, dangling them lightly from two fingers and ignoring Tappy's newly-discovered joy of hovering. Socked feet were better than tripping every other step, and it was grass almost all the way back up the castle.

"Trishna," she said, reminding herself that the hag was the enemy here, not her fellow staff: "Perhaps it would be easier for you to fly if you could see. Less catapulting yourself into bushes, more straight lines. Yes?"

"Hmph." He hadn't meant on him - but he also had had no intention of actually providing such assistance to...well - even if he could, it's not like it would work, now would it?

He landed again when Landis removed her - his? - shoes, standing there awkwardly. Yes, he could leave and leave Landis behind, but as tempting as the idea was, it wouldn't be professional. Or chivalrous. Tapendra tried to restrain his mind from making fun of Landis's state - there was nothing wrong with being female, after all. At least in Tapendra's mind. But poking fun at Landis was a rare treat. Something not to be wasted -

He blinked dumbly at Landis as she mentioned seeing. His glasses had been with him, perched precariously on his nose, and then -

"Oh no!" he said, suddenly a flurry of movement. "My glasses! They're - did you see where they went? I don't have any other pairs - where are they - do something!" The last comment was more of a plea than a command, as the small pony professor fluttered around Landis in a circle, trying to spot a gleam of gold on the forest floor.

For about two seconds Landis watched Tappy's frantic prancing dance. Then with a shake of her head she turned to face the direction from whence they'd come and gave an elegant flick of her wand. "Accio Trishna's glasses!" Her voice rang with the authority it might take to summon the things all the way from the hag's clearing. Who knew where they had fallen? She cast a sideways glance back at Tappy, pale eyes narrowing in sudden thought. "Did you at least manage to hang onto your wand?" 

A flash of gold grabbed her attention; she turned in time to instinctively throw up a hand and catch the glasses before they pelted her in the chest. Gingerly she unfolded her hand, checking to make sure the frames weren't bent. She knew she'd made the summons strong, but Merlin. They must have been a lot closer than she'd thought. How had they stayed on Trishna's face for so long? 

It was a good thing Landis mentioned the wand; Tapendra had been about to increase his flurry pf frustrated fluttering as he realized he didn't have his wand, either. The panic was obvious on his features. No wand! He couldn't even do magic without hands, but - but - but having your wand was just - he had to have it!

"Summon it, Morgan!" He said, voice only just above a pathetic plea. "It must be - it has to be in the clearing still. If she takes it apart I'll never get it repaired, that crystal is delicate-"

His glasses arrived, Landis snatching the elegant specs out of the air and examining them. Tapendra fluttered up to the blonde, looking at the glasses in Landis's hand. They seemed undamaged, though a bit dirty.

"Here, hand them to - I mean, um..." He looked at his hooves and sighed, his lack of concentration meaning he fell to the forest floor with a thump. He got back to his feet and shook himself off.

"I don't suppose you could...make them fit?" He asked, sheepishly.

Landis didn't roll her eyes, but it was a very near thing.

"Accio Trishna's wand!" she said, with considerably less force than the first time. She stayed poised for a second, sharp eyes scanning the trees - she'd seen Trishna's wand, wickedly pointed as it was, and she wasn't about to let her guard down. Getting stabbed with that as it came rushing back would possibly be fatal, and the only thing that would be more embarrassing at this point than being a woman was dying as one. Accordingly, she'd softened the command.

But the wand didn't come back. After a few minutes, Landis actually began to feel a bit sorry for Tappy. Even if he couldn't use it with those hooves, wands were... well, wands were personal. For many wizards, and certainly for Landis, the loss of a wand would be like the loss of an arm. New ones were expensive and required time to rebuild the bond. She didn't know what core comprised Tappy's, but it'd looked unique and difficult to replace. She began to move back in the direction they'd come, willing to backtrack a little and try again, but had barely gotten more than a dozen steps before it too came streaking up. With her own wand she slowed it, gathering it up. An assessing glance back at Tappy, and then she tucked it in her blazer pocket. She'd carry it back to the castle, as she was the only one here with either pockets or hands.

"Here, hand them to - I mean, um...I don't suppose you could...make them fit?"

Landis sighed and knelt. A quick sticking charm, a hand under Tappy's head to keep him steady, and once more Trishna could see. Well, probably not, since horses didn't have binocular vision, but at least his glasses were now perched jauntily on the end of what Landis was disturbed to realize was a soft and velvety nose. She let go quickly. She preferred not to notice her colleague's more adorable new aspects.

A thought occurred to her, sparked by the similarity of the situation to the last time she'd had to attend to Trishna's needs (when he was momentarily pregnant at St. Mungo's, and she'd had to administer eye drops to fix his also momentary blindness. These things just tended to happen, didn't they? Trishna must be cursed.)

"I estimate we'll have about twenty-four hours before Darian hears of this," she drawled, with the nonchalance of one who'd already had her moment of despairing resignation in the privacy of her own head. "I suppose I should warn you. He might try to sneak into the school."

His wand wasn't turning up. His wand wasn't turning up. His wand wasn't turning-

He was starting to hyperventilate, sucking breath loudly and annoyingly through flaring nostrils, when his wand finally arrived, streaking through the air with the sharp tip scything towards Landis. Landis, thankfully, remembered to slow down the rather dangerously pointed object. Tapendra almost protested it being tucked away, but his good sense overcame thing urge and he put up with it quietly.

He jerked when Landis gripped his face, eyes bugging out for a moment and nose wiggling as the sticking charm took effect. It... worked, more or less. He wiggled his nose again, trying to get used to the sensation of their presence. At least they'd stay on his head now. He fluttered off the ground again...only to come thumping back down.

Darian. Whatever his...his feelings in regards to that man were, he didn't want him to see him like this or find out about it. But did he have a choice? No. Darian was the sort to get into anywhere, he was sure. The man knew things.

 He groaned softly, looking up at the blue sky for a moment before he shook his head. "If he does, I'll kick him off the bloody tower," he muttered. He looked at Landis. "It's you who should be worried. He'll probably try to dress you."

"Darian has been trying to dress me since he got old enough to reach the clothes racks," Landis said with a sniff. "I'm sure you're newer and more exciting."

This was not, strictly speaking, true. Oh, the bit about having to fend Darian off since childhood was true - for a man so prissy and vain, his chosen career hadn't exactly been a surprise - but Landis did not think herself so lucky nor Trishna's new form so interesting as to be spared the lion's share of irritation. His favorite cousin, suddenly a woman? She could hear the cackling already. Undoubtedly Darian would be thrilled with her new look and new measurements and try to clothe her. Landis would have to remind him that she had no desire to bare her chest last week, and no desire to do so now - that dresses were absolutely out of the question - that makeup was unthinkable and castration always a viable option if he kept bringing out the taffeta and lace. And of course what visit with Darian would be complete without a little attempted Welsh stereotype? The man was a walking embarrassment. She was literally going to have to beat him off with a broomstick, but Trishna didn't need to know that.

She preferred to bring the matter back to him instead. Darian seemed to have developed an interest in the Astronomy professor and had been pressing Landis lately for information - it followed that he'd been making his interest known to Tappy as well. Like her schadenfreude at Tappy's winged state, Landis rather enjoyed seeing someone else suffer in the spotlight of Darian's attention. Even better, Trishna's reaction would be telling.

"You should probably check your room for cameras, just in case," she said thoughtfully; Trishna as a pony was surprisingly easy to tease.

Tapendra, who'd been watching Landis attentively as she spoe, seemed to freeze at Landis's last suggestion. He didn't blink or seem confused; instead his body slowly tensed, while staying utterly still.

Darian - would - wouldn't - would put cameras, would he?! Tucked into the bathroom at interesting heights too, he wouldn't doubt! And - in the classroom, too. If he'd seen what Tappy did when he thought he was alone, he'd...Tapendra could barely think of what that would be like. It was a terrifying thought. Humiliating! And it...Darian would do that, he felt. Especially since Landis said it so seriously...!

As he tensed his mouth opened slightly, exposing his teeth, and his use blue eyes bugged out. His wings went out and up, tensing, and he started to shake minutely.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" he said. It wasn't a word so much as a rising tone of distress, loaded with horror and terror. "Eeeegh!"

Tappy froze like a prey creature while Landis smirked. It was amusing at first, but his distressed keening quickly began to grate on the ears.

She snapped fingers in front of his face, scowling. "Stop that. It's obnoxious in the extreme." She folded her arms and eyed him critically. Darian was irritating, but she hadn't thought of him as capable of inspiring such panic. Obviously he had progressed further on Trishna than she'd thought. "Oh, for Merlin's sake. If he puts cameras in your room, threaten him with a celibacy spell. Easy." Easier than breaking into his shop and destroying one article of clothing for every camera found, which was Landis' next suggestion. Then again, Trishna had just come back from Egypt - perhaps he'd learned how to disarm traps.

She turned her head towards the Hospital hut, gaze flickering between that and the castle. "You wanted to see the nurse?" she drawled, although she hardly thought Nadge the expert on hag behavior.