Bear With Me PV Ami Closed

For all her asinine recklessness, Ami at least knew to steer clear of prefects when doing something in the gray area between right and wrong. Exhibit A: equipping Bear Mode in the corridors. Exhibit B: using said Bear Mode to attempt to sniff out where on earth she had left her schoolbag. Well, neither exhibit had actually happened yet, but considering that her bag wasn't in her dorm or the common room or the Great Hall or with Scott or Cecily or— well, you get the gist. Ami was running out of options, and turning into her bear form was slowly becoming plan A.

That is, until Ami suffered an assassination attempt. As her life flashed before her eyes, she wondered who would attend her funeral, and who would write her obituary. Could she convince Benedict to sing a little ditty at the service? But slowly, she realized that she was still breathing. In fact, she was still standing. Ami's gaze flitted down, down, and even further down... "Oh, hey Dealla," she said with an equally toothy grin, awkwardly patting the Ravenclaw prefect on the head, unsure of what to do with her hands. The Hufflepuff beater towered a full foot and some change above Dealla, so the effect was akin to a child clinging to their parent at a grocery store. "Y'aight there?"

Ah yes, being late— something Ami was all too familiar with. She nodded sagely, slowly detaching herself from Dealla's bear hug. Even the best of students were late on occasion, but clearly Dealla was a prefect on a mission that couldn't afford any tardiness. What to do, what to do?

"Well, there's an easy solution to this," Ami said with a shrug. "Why d'you think Muggles use cars so much? Riding is much faster than walking, or even running. Why don't I just take you over to your patrol spot?" Whether or not Dealla actually knew about Ami's animagus form, it was hard to keep track of her train of thought. She had a bad habit of forgetting that people couldn't read her mind, which made following her thought process a little difficult at times. "You can guide me like Remy, from Ratatouille— y'know, just tug on my fur in the direction you need me to go. Just make sure you hold on real tight. We can't risk giving Ravenclaw's star prefect a concussion now, can we?" And with a saucy little wink, Ami stepped back from Dealla and cracked her neck.

Transforming always gave Ami a rush of adrenaline unlike anything else, even Quidditch. As she shook her hair back from her face, her fiery red locks darkened into a warm brown and shortened considerably, growing thicker and coarser. She rolled her shoulders back as her arms grew thick, muscular, and hairy, before dropping onto all fours. Her nose, which could usually be described as pointed and freckled, morphed into the wet, black nose of a bear. But aside from the entirely hairless patches of scars that stretched from shoulder blade to shoulder blade on her back, Ami looked like a pretty average bear. On all fours, the playing field was fairly even, as she was now only a few inches taller than Dealla. If she were to stand up, however, she would tower over the prefect at 6'6".

Ami gently nudged Dealla with her big ol' nose, before laying her front legs flat on the ground and bending her back legs to allow the prefect to climb atop her back more easily. She huffed a bear-y little huff, indicating to Dealla that they would need to move quickly in order to get to her patrol spot in a semi-timely manner.

Ami had all the solidity of a wall and seemed accordingly unfazed by five foot of Ravenclaw prefect running into her, which was really for the best. Dealing with a crying first year after running them over wouldn't have fit into her schedule right now at all.

Dee's smile wavered just a touch when Ami called her Dealla, and she used the unusual proximity to poke Ami's stomach with her finger in revenge. Ow, what the hell. Were stomachs supposed to be this hard? Hers certainly wasn't. "It's Dee," she reminded the Hufflepuff, then took a step back so she didn't have to look up that far anymore, and tugged on her robes to straighten them. "Yep, I'm fine! My mum always says my head is harder than rocks, so maybe I should be asking if you're okay." She gave Ami a critical once-over. "You look okay," she decided.

Except with every passing second, Dealla was getting closer to not being okay. She was about to point that out and then resume her mad dash down the corridor, but Ami offered a different option. Dee blinked. Riding? As in, Ami was offering to carry her? While she assumed that would be fun, she kind of doubted it would be faster than herself running, even if Ami's legs were much longer than her own. Although skinny, she wasn't that light.

The suggestion became even more absurd (and more fun sounding) when Ami told her to just tug on her fur (hair?) to direct her, and Dee snorted, then giggled at the mental image. "Ami, as much fun as that sou-uuuh." The word dragged out and then cut off when something very much unexpected happened, that also made the idea of riding an unreasonably tall Hufflepuff a lot more feasible. More precisely, Ami turned into a bear.

Yes, a bear. A full-grown, fluffy looking brown bear. It was huge. Part of Dee wanted to hug it. Her? "Son of a flobberworm!" she exclaimed, for a moment frozen between her fight and flight instincts, then instead of doing either, she burst out into surprised giggles when the bear nudged her with a very wet nose. "I didn't know you could do that, that's so cool?!" Hesitant, she reached out to touch the bear's face. It became more confident after a moment of not getting eaten (hopefully), and she scratched behind Ami's ear, grinning. "I bet you give the best bear hugs. Sorry. That was too obvious, I'll come up with a better joke when I'm less surprised."

Dealla would have almost certainly kept standing there, petting Ami - her fur was just as fluffy as it looked, she probably had the best kempt coat of any bear out there - was that due to her human hair being soft? She'd have to touch and find out - and completely forgotten she had other places to be. Thankfully, Ami reminded her by bending down, offering easier access to her back. "You're sure?" Dee asked, lighting up with excitement like a miniature sun. She didn't like horses, but riding a bear? Yes, any day. The question was also only pretense, because she was already scrambling up the bear's back, another laugh bubbling up her throat while she got settled. It took a moment of trying to find a good position with her legs, her fingers buried in the fur on Ami's neck. There was a slight pause, curious fingers trailing across the scars on the broad back in front of her, then she tightened her grip, bending down slightly. More certainty in her voice than the situation likely warranted, she called, "Let's go!"

@Ami Procoppio

The seconds ticked on by as Ami the Bear, as pantsless as Winnie the Pooh, endured Dealla's initial amazement and delight (son of a flobberworm? that was a new one). The amazement gave way to a truly grizzly pun, which Ami groaned loudly at, the sound unbearably loud coming out of her grizzly maw. But despite the grumbling, she appreciated Dealla's amazement and reaction to her alternate form. It had taken a lot of work and dedication to be able to turn into a bear at will, more time and effort than she had ever put into anything else, and it was nice for it to be recognized.

The younger Ravenclaw clambered onto her back after a socially acceptable amount of hesitation (most people liked to ask some version of "are you sure?" in response to an offer; what was up with that?), her hands grasping at Ami's fur in an effort to find a stable and safe place to sit. Ami huffed as Dee seemed to take her sweet time with finding a suitable enough position, but was otherwise quiet as she let the younger girl adjust to the sensation of bear riding.

The call to charge jarred Ami back to reality from a daydream about eating honey under the shade of a tree on the Great Lawn, and she roared the quietest roar one could roar (if a roarer could roar... wood? no, that was a different saying) before taking off through the corridors at a healthy clip. Her paws pounded into the stone floor rhythmically, almost like a horse's gallop, as her tongue lolled out of her mouth. One could compare her to a golden retriever chasing down a tennis ball at the dog park, except she was a bear and there was no tennis ball, just one Ravenclaw prefect clinging to her back.

Trusting Dealla to guide her through the twists and turns of the castle, Ami instead locked in on her breathing and the feeling of her paws hitting the ground. She was athletic. She ran all the time. Dealla would not be late because she wasn't fast enough, absolutely not. She would not let her down, not today, not ever. If anything, it would be because the other prefects were early. Time was subjective and completely made up by humans, so why did they have to abide by its nonsensical rules?

Anyway.

Ami slowed as she approached an intersection of two perpendicular corridors, unsure of where to go next. She turned to glance at Dealla astride her back, huffing at the prefect. Where to now?

Dee jumped a little, then grinned widely when Ami groaned (growled?) at her terrible pun, but didn't let the noise stop her from scampering up Ami's back. Really, there wasn't much that would have stopped her from taking the opportunity. "Sorry," she repeated unapologetically, not a trace of remorse in her voice. "But can you blame me? It's not everyday someone turns into a bear without warning. I'll stock up on good puns for next time."

She had told Ami to go, but still floundered a little when the bear went galloping along the hallway, before she finally bent lower over her unusual mount's back and took two fistfuls of fur to keep herself steady, getting into the rhythm of Ami's long bounding steps. Once they'd found their stride, it suddenly became easy, and fun. Was it responsible of her to be riding a bear through the corridors of Hogwarts at breakneck speed? Definitely not. Was she going to do it again whenever Ami offered? Hell yeah. Also, no one could argue that this wasn't significantly faster than Dee herself running.

An obstacle approached in form of an intersection, and with it a small dilemma. On her own, Dee would be turning to the right, but the corridors there were a lot tighter, and she wasn't sure if the Ami bear would be able to maintain her speed. The left side would mean a detour, but easier running for them, which meant they wouldn't have to slow down. Well, putting it like that, the choice was rather easy, after all. "Left!" she yelled, unsure how loud she had to be for Ami to understand her. Headwind aside, a bear barrelling down a stone-floor corridor was not the quietest thing in the world. Maybe they should have come up with a better system for signalling turns. Oh... yeah, the solution was probably pretty easy. "Do you know Ratatouille?" Dee shouted, grinning.

The call to lean left was roared, not by the bear, but instead the tiny little girl astride the bear. Ami roared (albeit, quietly, as it was past curfew) back in acknowledgment before digging her claws in the floor, the shrieking sound of nails across stone ringing through the corridors as she drifted (could bears drift?) into a left turn.

But aside from strange fantasies of hitching a ride on a bear to her patrol, it appeared that Dealla also had a death wish. Ami halted to a stop when Dealla mentioned Ratatouille, nearly throwing the prefect off her back with the suddenness with which she stopped. Her bear form retreated and dissipated as her lanky, six-foot-and-a-little-change human form reappeared, Dealla likely still clinging to her, piggy-back style.

“Listen, young lady,” Ami sighed. “Just because I’m a redhead with a weakness for pretty, bossy women does not mean I like being compared to that lanky, cooking himbo. But yeah… just tug gently for which direction I should turn, I think that’ll work. For fuck’s sake, I can’t believe I’m the himbo from Ratatouille… Hang on tight.”

Without waiting for any sort of verbal confirmation from Dee, Ami once again morphed into her furrier form, allowing the Ravenclaw to reacclimate to her ride before taking off once more, paws thundering against the ground as she hauled ass through the corridors.

Dee winced at the sound of Ami's claws skirling across the stone floor - so maybe taking narrow corners at top speed wasn't the best idea in the books - then made an odd squawking sound herself as she was almost thrown off over the bear's head when they came to a (literal) screeching halt. "What-" she began, then yelped when Ami's body began changing shape beneath her. Suddenly afraid to just be dropped on the floor, Dee grabbed hold of what she could instinctively, legs tightening and arms wrapping around the beargirls neck to keep from sliding off backwards. Now clinging awkwardly to Ami's back, Dee considered that this position was much more comfortable in bear form. More fur and less pointy bones, plus the advantage of sitting comfortably rather than hang like a misshapen backpack.

Apparently her ride hadn't appreciated the indirect comparison with Linguini - Dee was rather pleased that she had understood both the reference and Dee's intention just from that question - but that didn't keep Ami from listing a few of the similarities they did have (frankly, Dee could see a couple more), which made her reproach perhaps funnier than intended. Dee's response was to burst out into delighted giggles, which wouldn't stop even while she tried to keep her balance when Ami shifted back into bear shape. "Sorry," she replied between breaths and reached out to pet Ami's head, somewhere behind her right ear, as that was about as far as Dee could reach without compromising her balance. "But hey, if it makes you feel better, that means I called myself a rat, doesn't it? Not sure if that's any better?"

The system did seem to have rather more merit than yelling at the top of her lungs though, and when they took off again, Dee did as instructed, tugging gently whenever there was a change in direction required. If it had been her running, it probably would have taken her ten to fifteen minutes to get to her destination. With Ami running, they were set to get there in less than five, making Dee just slightly so barely at all late. Not even worth mentioning, really. She wondered what it would be like outside, when Ami didn't have to slow down for sudden curves and there was no danger of crashing into walls. Perhaps she should ask her.

She tugged on the bear's fur again, this time without a direction, to get her to slow down. "You can let me down over there!" she called, a little disappointed that the adventure was over so quickly. "I'm meeting my patrol partner just up that stairs."

@Ami Procoppio