It was nearing the end of twilight as Alex soared, or did her best to soar, above the grounds of Hogwarts. Soaring, with its minimal wing movement, should theoretically be easy, but in practice it was not. Flying with wings was still better than flying with a broom, of course, but when she compared her difficulties with flying to the ease with which the others had adapted to their animal forms, it was… aggravating. And, although she didn’t like to admit it, embarrassing.

Thus, her solitary practice. But she was wary of taking too long; the transformation was bad enough by itself but when coupled with the physical exertion of flying it became exhausting. And there was still an essay to be completed, and notes to be revised.

She circled the tower spire once more before she began to descend, trying to do so as elegantly as possible. When it came to windows, however, it was better to simply fly through one and then land inside. She’d left one in an empty classroom open earlier. This late in the year, there was some chance that it might be occupied by a student who shunned the library as a place for study (if the other common rooms were anything like the Ravenclaw one, there was no chance of studying there), but Alex would take her chances.

The window was still open, and not without difficulty she flew through, hitting a wing against the wall as she went. Drat. Landing on the floor, she tried to turn it around to see it. It wasn’t too painful, but her feathers were askew. It would make more sense to check in human form, although she had been studying she was more familiar with human anatomy, and human aches and pains, and pain

her back was screaming in agony. She hopped away without thinking, but there was another hiss of air and she felt claws rake across her back again. This time, she let out a loud shriek, flapping her wings urgently. In the air, she was safe. The cat attempted to follow her, but she slashed with her claws. She wasn’t a finch to be eaten so easily.

The cat didn’t seem aware of this, and lest it think to attack her again, she swooped downwards sharply, ignoring the protest of her body and dragging her claws over the cat’s back as it attempted to turn, rising upwards before it could chase after her. There was only one place she could hide – the light hanging, a circle of metal with places for candles at regular intervals; the ungainly brother of a chandelier. With her attention elsewhere, she was flying far more naturally than she had been able to manage before, even with her injured back, and she landed almost gracefully, the chandelier rocking under her weight.

Safe from the cat, at least for the present, Alex considered her frankly awful options. The best thing to do would be to turn back and take the fall, she’d suffered worse during Quidditch training and the cat was staring at her malevolently. Her back was making it hard to concentrate, but she had to be able to do it. Being stuck as a bird didn’t bear thinking about; nor did the response of Raine and Gracie if they ever found out about this incident. A cat.

"Beauregard!" Verity hissed, and wondered where her cat could have gotten off to now, though the nightly search for her pet was becoming far too common for her liking. Especially once the rumors about a demon cat preying on wayward first years began to circulate, and the Hufflepuff knew that they weren't talking about the caretaker.

She plodded down the corridor, peaking into classrooms she passed and apologized profusely whenever she accidentally interrupted a snogging session. That last couple couldn't have been older than third years. How do they even know about snogging? Verity lamented the decline of innocence, and blamed it on Witch Weekly and their increasingly salacious articles. As she continued along, she heard a positively feral yowl, and ran towards the sound, all the while hoping that her cat wasn't mauling some hapless 11-year-old. Not even that little Gryffindor boy, Linus, and she still hadn't completely forgiven him for giving her hexed chocolates.

Verity burst into the classroom, and saw Beauregard snarling at a falcon on the chandelier, both of the animals bleeding rather profusely from their backs. She snatched up her cat and did a quick healing charm that had the added benefit of mildly sedating the beast. The Hufflepuff looked up at the bird, and saw a human intelligence within the raptor's eyes. Having trained with Animagi over the year, Verity wasn't unaccustomed to the ability, and she grimaced apologetically to whoever it was seeking refuge from Beauregard on the chandelier.

"It's safe to come down now. You look pretty banged up, the least I can do is help with the bleeding," Verity offered, and glared at the cat in her arms who had a far too smug expression on his face.

It was not her worst fear, or even really a fear, but being discovered by a student was certainly not at all desirable. She knew the Hufflepuff, but that did not mean that they were close – Alex wouldn’t even consider their relationship friendly, truth be told, it was simply an indifference born of six years living in the same building, attending many of the same classes, and never forging a relationship beyond that. She did hold the other girl in slightly higher regard than the majority, but it didn’t mean she wanted her to know that Alex was an illegally unregistered animagus.

She shuffled around the ring, although since it lacked the ornate trappings of a chandelier, this did almost nothing to obscure her from view and really only made her back ache worse. That blasted cat.

"It's safe to come down now. You look pretty banged up, the least I can do is help with the bleeding."

The promise of healing was tempting, and although Alex would have been inclined to distrust it, as for reasons unknown there was very little in the way of healing magic taught at Hogwarts, Bell had proved herself with the cat.

Truth be told, she wasn’t sure she could transform back, thanks to the pain dulling her mind. She’d had practice at focusing on specific things with tenacity bordering on rabid thanks to occlumency training, but the pain was a constant, wearing ache that refused to be ignored. She might have managed it, before the offer of healing had been made and it had been the only option short of struggling across to Gryffindor tower and getting Raine to help her, but now she doubted it.

She flopped forward in a spectacularly graceless manner, using her wings to glide downwards in a spiral, dropping the last foot when she realised she’d misjudged the distance and staring up at the cat in Verity’s arms distrustfully. It looked, although Alex didn’t know it, somewhat ridiculous, her relatively small and huddled form making her look pathetic, the glare levelled at the girl and her cat an ineffective threat.

Verity was worried for a moment that she was wrong in her assumption that the falcon was an Animagus, and that she was just talking to a bird like some crazy person. But then she wondered if the hesitance was borne out of something else, maybe it was some criminal who was on the run from aurors. The Hufflepuff had a tendency to imagine the most dramatic scenarios possible. Most likely it was some student who didn't trust her. And with students from three other schools residing at Hogwarts, that was quite plausible.

She waited patiently, and eventually the falcon plummeted to the ground in a clumsy spiral causing Verity to gasp, worried that they might injure themselves further. She kneeled down and arched an eyebrow at the bird that appeared to be glaring at her. Shooing away Beauregard, she knelt over the injured falcon, and cast a healing charm. Having Zel as a friend for all of these years, Verity had taken it upon herself to learn several healing spells as calling the boy accident prone would be an understatement. The blue light enveloped the bird, knitting together flesh, and Verity smiled at her success.

Once the healing spell was completed, the falcon shifted her form back into that of a girl. One who Verity recognized, though she couldn't recall ever having an actual conversation with the snarky Ravenclaw. Part of her was surprised that she even stuck around after Verity fixed her wounds, as she expected her to just fly off immediately after, leaving Verity eternally curious at to the identity of the person.

"Alex?" Verity questioned, completely dumbfounded by the revelation. "How long have you been an Animagus?"

She wondered who she was training with, as she surely would have known if Professor Hughes was teaching someone else, right?

During the healing, the pain was constant; altered somewhat but still there, burning and relentless. It was only when the healing stopped that problems arose, the sudden loss of pain becoming a high of adrenaline. The rush of relief was a heady feeling – too much so, because with the loss of control it had caused she had made a terrible mistake, and now there was the unmistakeable feeling of her body shifting, dark feathers turning into skin – or perhaps into her robes, Alex wasn’t entirely sure how that worked but she’d always returned to human form in the clothes she’d been wearing beforehand – and wings becoming arms in a far more sensible exchange.

It was the first time Alex had managed to make the shift unintentionally and with the worst possible timing, too nervous about the possible consequences should she try to reverse the change to stop it, pushing it onwards until she was sat in an undignified manner on the floor. There wasn’t much she could do, not now the Hufflepuff had seen her and recognised her. This was a nightmare made real, she had been too bold, not made sufficient precautions, and now… well.

She had to find out what Verity wanted. Then she would attempt to minimise damage. It was the only chance she had, since Bell had the leverage. Theo was the one who enjoyed this kind of thing, but Alex highly doubted he would be as amused as he usually was, were he in this situation. Standing and straightening her robes, Alex made certain that there was no lasting damage. Her fingers were still bruised from the collision with the window frame, and although her back thrummed a little, it wasn’t horrendously painful. Nothing like it had been. Did Bell want to become a healer? It was a career of some popularity among her peers, Alex gathered.

“A while,” she said shortly, when she was satisfied with her appearance, trying to maintain a level voice and a calm appearance. Surprisingly enough, she wasn’t enamoured on the idea of continuing this line of conversation – although if it would keep her quiet, she perhaps could, “not long enough, evidently, since I allowed your cat to sneak up on me.” It wasn’t an accusation, if anything the irritation in Alex’s voice was at herself for failing to notice the cat.

“How long have you had your cat?” As topic changes it was not the smoothest, but with minimal knowledge of the other’s character (she was, so far as Alex knew, an upstanding student and follower of rules, but then Theo also gave off that impression to those who paid little attention to reality) she was loathe to discuss her illegal activities as an animagus.

Truthfully, Verity didn't know the Ravenclaw girl very well, or really at all. Mostly because of the company she kept, as the Hufflepuff didn't trust Theo Whitman as far as she could throw him. And her upper body strength was far from something to boast about. But standing face-to-face with Alex now, she realized that she had no real frame of reference to gauge her reactions, something Verity focused on in every interaction, as a safety precaution.

"I'm dreadfully sorry about Beauregard. He used to have better manners..." She frowned slightly remembering what a sweet kitten he had been. "But that's well tidy about being an Animagus. I have been getting lessons from Professor Hughes, but it's slow going. How did you learn?"

Verity noticed the curtness in Alex's response and rapid topic change, but her curiosity made her act uncharacteristically forward. She reigned in her inquisitive nature, and thought back on when she got Beauregard.

"I got him during my third year when he was a kitten. My parents weren't sure if I was ready for the responsibility of caring for an animal before then... And evidenced by your near maiming, maybe I'm still not..." Verity smiled apologetically. "Are you feeling okay, though? That spell fixed Zel up when he practically split his head in two, so I figured it would work for you."

Alex had experience of deciphering slang, thanks to Phillip, but she didn’t recognise the phrase Bell was using. It was simple enough to extrapolate, however, and Alex might have been pleased at the comment, if she hadn’t already known that it was an impressive achievement and she cared for Bell’s opinion. Instead, the reminder that somebody else knew was – uncomfortable for her.

“Through practice,” keeping her answer so abrupt was possibly rude, and since she didn’t want to offend the Hufflepuff, she drew breath, continuing although she didn’t want to, “I worked with Raine.” Raine was widely known to be an animagus, and although perhaps she should have avoided all mention of the Nightshades, Raine was the only person she could have worked with, outside of Hughes, and that… wasn’t about to happen.

But if Verity thought she was practicing with Hughes, then presumably she thought that Alex was registered, which was fortunate.

“Cats are supposed to catch birds,” she pointed out, almost casual, a shade of a smile lifting her lips slightly, “Admittedly, not birds of prey, but it doesn’t make you a bad cat owner.” The less she shared about her animagus form, the better. Hopefully the Hufflepuff wasn’t a keen ornithologist, and wouldn’t be able to identify what species of bird she was. The less she knew, the happier Alex would be, “I’m sorry I scratched Beauregard.” She wasn’t.

“I’m fine.” She wouldn’t have admitted it if she hadn’t been, but she was – more or less. Nothing that wouldn’t fade in a few days, and a headache that was entirely normal. “That’s very impressive. Do you want to be a healer?” Her respect was genuine, healing spells were horribly absent from the Hogwarts curriculum and even if they were featured, they were difficult to master. When Alex healed cuts, they tended to open again later.

When Alex responded that she became an Animagi 'through practice', Verity nearly became indignant as she practiced quite frequently. But she did spend less time than probably recommended as she juggled both her Hogwarts course load and studying for the Muggle A-Levels (having to do a lot of catching up in math especially). But the Hufflepuff felt as if Alex would rather be doing anything other than talking to her, so she wondered why the other girl would continue the conversation at all. Unless... I wasn't supposed to find out. Verity knew that there were plenty of unregistered Animagi, but she didn't quite understand the need to police everyone with the ability, especially as one couldn't even choose the animal form, anymore than one could their Patronus.

She chose to not divulge her suspicion, as she wasn't sure how Alex would react to the accusation, though she didn't think that it would lead to violence. At least, she hoped.

"Cats are supposed to catch birds. Admittedly, not birds of prey...

Verity laughed. "Beauregard may be a tad overzealous when it comes to his hunting duties. And thank you. No need to apologize for scratching him, though. He's a little bugger and hopefully that will cause him to have a healthy respect for other predatory animals. He has been behaving atrociously, and now he might realize that he isn't the apex predator."

The thought of being a healer had appealed to her, but Verity had become quite driven to completing her Psychology degree after Hogwarts and becoming a therapist. "I originally planned on working as a mediwitch after Hogwarts, but I actually plan on going to University in the Muggle world and becoming a psychologist. I've always been pretty good at reading people, and I feel that profession is much needed within the magical community. So many people are still very broken from the war years ago, and then there are people dealing with various afflictions like lycanthropy. I want to be able to help them." She realized that she went on a bit of a rant there at the end, and grimaced. "Sorry for talking your ear off. I am quite passionate about the subject. What do you wish to be after school?"

The casual insult made Alex’s eyebrows lift slightly. It was affectionate, she could see that, and she had occasionally been known to say insulting things about Alba – but Alba had scarred her, and she wouldn’t say something to a relative stranger. But Verity seemed not to hold any grudge for the incident, which was far more important. “A cat changing its behaviour?” she asked, “I’ll be surprised if that does happen.”

The comments on her chosen career were much more interesting. “Don’t be.” She wasn’t quite sure what to say about that. It sounded too similar to the counsellor’s job for Alex to be entirely comfortable with it. She didn’t understand how people could open up to strangers, or relative strangers, about something so personal. She had enough difficulty opening up to Phillip the people who were close to her without worrying about telling a stranger. She sought something polite to say, “that sounds very admirable. Pursuing muggle qualifications and wizarding qualifications at the same time must be very difficult.” She knew that Sasha was trying to do the same thing; it seemed ill-conceived.
 
“I’m an apprentice artificer.” It wasn’t something she often discussed with others. While the end product was interesting, there were few people who enjoyed discussing the particulars of heat expansion and how to account for it – or anything else to do with the actual mechanics of it. “It’s the magical version of muggle mechanics.” Alex thought it was the nearest equivalent, but it was always hard to tell. Books weren’t enough to impart culture, and it was hard for her to draw parallels to muggle sciences.

“Is the school counsellor a psychologist?” She had no idea if she was even a muggle born, but given what Veriy had said it seemed to be a similar line of work, if not the same – although of course dealing with the trauma of war was far grander than dealing with cantankerous teenagers.

Verity could tell that the Ravenclaw girl was uncomfortable with the idea of a psychologist, and she didn't hold that against her as many found it difficult to open up to other people. But Alex's acknowledgement of the difficulty pursuing both muggle and wizarding academics caused Verity to chuckle weakly, and tug at the ends of her hair in a vain attempt at stress relief. She really should've been studying Chemistry, but Beauregard put a slight halt to her plan of a quiet night in with her textbooks.

"Thank you," Verity smiled, and nodded her head slightly. "I definitely would probably try to talk someone else out of attempting to do both, but I don't really have a choice. There isn't some wizarding university that teaches the subject, and I think that Mai might be the only psychologist currently in the wizarding world."

Artificers were something Verity only had a passing knowledge of, unless one counted her sessions of D&D (and Verity had a strong suspicion that the two were vastly different). But she found the idea of magical constructs and artifacts to be fascinating.

"How did you become an apprentice artificer?" She questioned, and hoped that she wasn't prying. From their conversation, Verity had come to realize that Alex was rather tight-lipped about many topics.