School Year: Professor

However, I would like this to count as her Year 6 ability.

Link to your encyclopedia thread: Here!

Roleplay:

Reducio

Tala Takagi had always loved cats.

She had grown up with three of them, after all - Huckleberry, Kerfuffle, and Travis, respectively a fluffy white Norwegian forest, a sleek black Bombay, and a gray Scottish fold. She hadn't brought any of them to Hogwarts upon arrival during her first year, or any year after that, for that matter; they were her family's cats, not hers, and plus, her classmates of what would eventually be the Hogwarts Class of 2011 had plenty of the furry beasts to go around. Between that and Care of Magical Creatures, Tala was always happy with the amount of animal love she recieved.

When she learned that being a witch meant that she may someday be able to turn into one, though, whilst in Transfiguration class during her third year, that was it for Tala. An ultimate goal. Something to work towards. As soon as that class had ended, she had turned to her desk-mate and said, "I'm going to be one of those Animagus people someday, you know."

"Sure you will, Takagi," the desk-mate had responded with a presumptuous eye-roll.

But she had her mind set on it from then on. And somehow, in the back of her brain, Tala just knew she was going to be a cat. Her love for them was far too great; despite not having a cat of her own at Hogwarts, her clothes were almost always covered in cat hair, causing her more allergic classmates to sneeze whenever she was around (and then subsequently avoid her). The idea of being able to patrol the Hogwarts grounds as a lovely silver Siberian or silly little red tabby was irresistible for the little Gryffindor, and from then on, she worked towards being able to become an Animagus.

She tried once to hold the mandrake leaf in her mouth for the required month during her fifth year, but with O.W.L. exams rapidly coming up, she found that it was incredibly difficult to work collaboratively to study with her friends if she was staying silent. She only lasted two weeks, nearly swallowing it thrice during this time period, before giving up... plus, it was always hard for Tala to stay quiet, anyway.

The month before she returned to school as a sixth-year, though, Tala's stubbornness reignited, the dark-haired sixteen-year-old determined once again to become an Animagus. It was easier to stay quiet at home, especially with her mother's frequent headaches, and so at the full moon of August 6, 2009, Tala placed another mandrake leaf into her mouth and stayed almost completely silent for the next month. It was odd not to cheer for the newly Sorted Gryffindors during that year's Sorting Ceremony, but she just clapped extra hard to make up for it, pounding on the table in an excited drumroll whenever a new lion was Sorted. Three days later, on the 4th of September, the next full moon rolled around, and under guidance from the Gryffindor Head of House and the Transfiguration professor, both different from current ones at the time, Tala thanked her lucky stars that the night of September 4th was clear as she took to the moonlit grounds and spit the foul-tasting leaf into a phial in full view of the silvery light from above. Finally, she could talk again, and the first step of the process was over.

There were more ingredients to add to the phial, too - but Tala was ready. During her month of silence, she had been preparing - purchasing the chrysalis of a death's-head hawkmoth from a somewhat sketchy Muggle insect store while in London to buy her books from Diagon Alley, collecting dewdrops from her family's backyard at night and storing the resulting silver teaspoons (she'd collected three of them, just in case of contamination by sunlight or, somehow, feet) in a locked dark box, and, of course, she reached up to her scalp and yanked out a hair with a sharp pluck. All of these ingredients joined the soggy mandrake leaf in the moonlit phial, and Tala carefully turned over the potion to her Head of House, who stored it in a locked drawer in their office for her.

For three months, Tala rose before the sun every day. As a girl who loved to sleep, this was difficult for her, of course - but her love for a good catnap in the sun was outshone any day by her tenacity, and so every dawn, she held the tip of her cherrywood wand to her heart and recited, "Amato Amino Animato Animagus." The tongue-twister was difficult to not mess up, but Tala took it slow every time, ensuring that she wouldn't trip over it and ruin her months of hard work. To do this at sunset was always a little easier, seeing as how she was already awake and didn't have to rise specifically for it, and for these three months, she never missed a dawn or dusk incantation recitation.

By the time Tala's seventeenth birthday rolled around on December 10, 2009, she was beginning to lose hope. How long would she have to recite this damned incantation, day and night, every day? But the world had something in mind for Tala, and as a birthday gift from Mother Earth herself, an electrical storm hit Hogwarts during dinner that night. Tala locked eyes with the Gryffindor Head of House from where she sat at the lion table, held their gaze for a moment, and then leapt up from her seat to dash in a wild run through the corridors to their office. The potion was easily retrieved, having sat quietly in the drawer collecting dust for the past few months, and there, in the seclusion of the quiet Head of House office, Tala recited "Amato Amino Animato Animagus!" one last time, then lifted the phial to her lips and chugged the whole, disgusting thing.

Despite the fact that the office was very dimly lit, suddenly she could see better. Her form began to change, orange-and-black fur rippling out from her tanned skin; she could feel her face shifting wider, her nose moving downwards and flattening out, her eyes growing round. A tail sprouting from the base of her spine, even as the spine itself changed. Four legs, rather than two. Teeth sharpening, claws sprouting from her knuckles.

Tala landed on the floor of the Head of House's office as a large, striped tiger.

In fairness, she had been right all along. It was a cat. Just not a house-sized one.

WC: 1,086/500

Ministry of Magic File

1. Wizard Name: Tala Takagi
2. Animal: Malayan tiger (Panthera tigris jacksoni)
3. Description: Large, striped, and orange with a slight tinge of regal brown, the Malayan tiger is always a beautiful creature, but Tala loves her Animagus form in particular. With amber eyes that are far lighter than Tala's in human form, tigress-Tala is sort of a rusty orange at most parts, though every once in a while when her fur catches the sun, it's the brilliant kind of sunny orange one usually expects from a tiger. Her black stripes are also thinner than most, extending everywhere down her body (including tail, hind legs, and face) with the following stripe-less exceptions: the fronts of her forelegs, her nose, and her feet. She also has white patches like all Malayan tigers, including covering her stomach, the backsides of her legs, the underside of her long tail, the bottom of her face in an almost beard-like fashion (including a tuft of longer white fur at the bottom of her chin, like her whiskers, but shorter and lower), the insides of her roundish ears, and finally, in two flame-shaped patches surrounding her eyes.

As for size, Malayan tigers tend to be the smallest of the different subspecies of land-based tigers, and the females of course even smaller than the males. Fully grown female Malayan tigers can be anywhere from 170 to 240 pounds, with average lengths (from nose to tail) of 7 feet and 10 inches and heights (from feet to ears) of anywhere from 1 foot 11 inches to 3 feet 5 in. Tigress-Tala is on the smaller side, weighing only 180 pounds, with a length of 7 feet and 2 inches, and with a height of 2 feet and 7 inches. Easy to remember as the digits are just simply switched!

Reducio

Tala's Animagus faceclaim is Azul, a Malayan tigress currently at the Woodland Park Zoo. Tigress-Tala's weight and description are all based off of Azul's.
Look at this adorable baby and tell me you don't love her!!!

4. Distinctive Marking: In human form, Tala has a vaguely heart-shaped port wine stain on the side of her left thigh. This birthmark translates to an identically shaped darker orangeish-red spot on the side of her left haunch when she is in tiger form. Additionally, Tala has scars raking down her back from a recent attack by a Griffin shortly before her arrival at Hogwarts that caused her to retire from being a Magizoologist; these scars are visible while in tigress form as well, whitish claw lines spreading across her back hackles in what almost looks like lightning.

☼

Building Animagus Form

1. Size: Large
2. Skills: Claws 2, Bite
3. Stat Allocation: 9 points left over for stats = 45 stat points

Wisdom: 8
Stamina: 14
Strength: 16
Accuracy: 5
Evasion: 2

4. Total points used: 13 (adult)
5. Explanation: As a tiger, Tala would be big, strong, and tough, hence the high points in Stamina and Strength. This would, of course, also mean that she's a little easy to hit - big, striped, and orange is basically a giant target, hence the low Evasion. Tigers are also known to be fairly smart, hence the 8 in wisdom; they have one of the longest short-term memories of any animal. Average accuracy; smaller things would be able to escape from her pretty easily, but tigers can catch prey quite well in the wild. I also chose Bite because, well, tigers have bitin' teeth, and Claws 2 because tigers can have claws of up to 4 inches in length, and Malayan tigers specifically use their claws often to mark territory as they can leave their scent with just their claws.

Mod note: Please add your character's full name to your Ministry of Magic File so I can approve you.

Tala note: Oops! Fixed.

Status: Approved - Polonius, 2022-12-27

Mod note: updates belong in the update thread. YOu cannot retrospectively remove the abilities you have picked.

Ministry of Magic File

STATUS: Approved, Opeila 27/12

School Year: Graduated *Fifth Year Ability*
Link to your encyclopedia thread: Here

Roleplay:

Reducio

It has been months since Nancy had even began attempting to become an Animagus, even with the help of a few professors. There may have been a few restarts, most of them being Nancy being unable to keep the Mandrake leaf in her mouth. Who would have thought it would be one of the hardest parts of the process to become an Animagus. The first attempt, Nancy had not paid attention to the lunar cycle and did not realize until the next full moon had already passed. The second and third attempts, Nancy had accidently spit out or swallowed the leaf. The fourth attempt seemed to be going perfect.

The whole thing started with Nancy talking to her Transfiguration professor about the process, then going to the Herbology professor about the mandrake leaves. The girl ended up hating the taste of the leaf, but put up with it in the end. It was rather difficult to continue with the process, being a talkative person she ended up finding a way to communicate with her friends while still having the leaf in her mouth. It only took a few months before she was able to successfully spit the leaf into a phial in view of the moon's rays.

The next part of the process was not as hard as Nancy would have thought. Her hair was easy to add to the phial, something that she was constantly complaining about as it was always in her face. The dew was a bit harder to collect though. There was a quiet spot behind the castle near the greenhouses that people almost never went. The chances of there being dew there, untouched by sunlight and human feet were higher, although not zero, so she hoped it would work. Anyone would have thought the girl to be strange, sneaking around the greenhouses in the middle of the night collecting dew.

The chrysalis of a death's-head hawkmoth was the hardest of the things to collect. It was something Nancy had to search for earlier in the process as she had no idea what a death's-head hawkmoth was in the first place. She had learned from one of her textbooks what they were, spending nearly three hours attempting to figure out where the little creature would be at, and in a chrysalis at that. Luckily, the girl had found on near the forbidden forest. Safely kept her her robe pocket, the girl slipped it out and added it to the phial.

Keeping the potion in a dark, quiet place was not something that was too difficult. Nancy's dormmates were rather quiet people, everyone sticking to themselves rather than jump around the room like she had heard other houses did sometimes. The potion would sit under Nancy's bed, placed almost perfectly in the middle in a shoebox where it would not be disturbed until the next electrical storm. While waiting for the electrical storm, the fifth year would repeat 'Amato Amino Animato Animagus' at dawn and sunset, everyday like clockwork even if it annoyed and confused her dormmates to no end, especially with her wand pointed at her heart.

It was during the next electrical storm that caused the girl to become fearful. What if she had done something in the process wrong, she would have to start over and she did not have time for that with the school year ending. Leaving her dorm, potion and wand clutched in her hands, Nancy made her way to the Room of Requirement. It was the most secluded place the girl could think of without having to actually go outside in the storm. The girl shook with excitement and nerves as she entered the room and nearly immediately pointed her wand at her heart, repeating 'Amato Amino Animato Animagus' one final time before downing the potion in one go, scrunching her face up in discomfort.

Feeling slightly dizzy, the Ravenclaw dropped herself to the ground not wanting to get hurt if she were to faint for some reason. She was unsure of whether this was how the process was supposed to go or not, but she hoped it was correct. Only seconds later the girl shook her head in slight discomfort as the dizziness went away. Blinking slowly, she fell back with a squeak...well what was supposed to have been a squeak. As quickly as her now short body could go, Nancy raced to a mirror that had appeared in the room when she entered. The spell had definitely worked as a small duck gazed back at Nancy through the mirror.

Nancy was able to identify what she was almost immediately. A Eurasian Wigeon, something Nancy interacted with nearly every weekend when she would go on walks through the woods with her grandmother as a child. It was not uncommon for the pair to sit along the water and feed corn and crackers to the ducks as they talked about their day or stories of the past. The girl was not surprised, Eurasian Wigeons were one of the many animals that Nancy adored as a child and bonded with along with her grandmother.

Ministry of Magic File

1. Wizard Name: Nancy McLoughlin
2. Animal: Eurasian Wigeon (Mareca penelope)
3. Description:
Weighs around 1.04 pounds, 18 inches in length, and has a wingspan of 28 inches. Mostly brown feathers with speckles of black, white, and lighter brown on the wing and tail feathers. Brown and black speckled feathers cover the head, neck, and chest. The bill of the Eurasian Wigeon is normally light to dark grey with a black tip and their eyes are normally black.
4. Distinctive Marking: Nancy has a pale, creamy white bill rather than the grey bill of a normal Eurasian Wigeon. Instead of the small, beady black eyes, hers are tinted blue appearing almost navy blue when in sunlight.

Building Animagus Form

1. Size: Small [1]
2. Skills: Flight [2]
3. Stat Allocation: 10 points left (50 stats)
Wisdom: 15
Stamina: 12
Strength: 5
Accuracy: 8
Evasion: 10
4. Total points used: 13 points
5. Explanation: Being a small, migratory bird, Wisdom and Stamina are higher as they need to be able to fly for long periods of time while also using their surroundings to guide them. Accuracy and Strength are much lower, as being a type of duck, Eurasian Wigeons are rather small and do not have a lot of strength. Evasion is at 10 as they are able to fly away if in danger or swim away if in water.

STATUS: Approved, Opeila 27/12

School Year | Graduated (can it count as year five ability?)
Link to Encyclopedia | Accio

Roleplay |

Reducio

What had always entranced Sabine about magic was the ability to change. To shift into a body so different from that of your own, a body that was never meant for human experience. She’d always been completely enamored with the idea of animagi (and animals in general), but it was not until the year 2020 that she decided to go through with the lengthy ritual that begged for her attention. So, on the morning of March 5, 2020, Sabine Blumenthal embarked on her journey. Up into a secluded hut in Vietnam belonging to an old friend, sitting in the depths of the forest, Sabine stayed. For the four days leading up to the full moon on March 9, Sabine spent her time and efforts obtaining the necessary materials for her transformation. Along the Mekong delta, Sabine harvested an abundance of mangrove leaves. Both for research and her own use, Sabine kept these leaves safe in her hut. Then, on March 9, 2020, she stuck a single mangrove leaf into her mouth. Here it would stay until April 7, 2020, the next full moon.

On March 31, Sabine spent dark morning hours with a silver teaspoon on the grass outside the hut, morning dew soaking the front of her garments as she attempted to spoon dew into the cup of the utensil. Successful, she covered the spoon with her palm and made the slow, careful trek back inside. Once successful, the spoon was set inside a cupboard, level by many a household trinket. Sabine set about locating a phial and the chrysalis of a death’s-head hawkmoth. She found a phial at a local market, and the chrysalis she bought off a trader for a handsome price. She headed home.

On the night of April 7, with the moon’s bright rays shining down onto the open glade that Sabine stood in, she spat the mangrove leaf into the phial. In went a strand of dark, curly hair. In went the teaspoon of dew. In went the chrysalis.

The potion, containing the secret of a hopeful transformation, was set in the cupboard that had been previously designated for the spoonful of dew.

For one painstaking month, Sabine spent time outside, observing the weather. The heat, the effect on the plants surrounding, the world around her. Every dusk and dawn, ”Amato Amino Animato Animagus,” waiting for an electrical storm. It came after one month, and Rhiannon sensed the change in the atmosphere immediately. She tripped over her own feet in anticipation, racing to the glade, about to reach the epicenter of the storm. The clouds billowed in the sky and thunder roared as she ran, water coursing down the plane of her face. She reached the center, sank down on her knees with her potion and wand. ”Amato Amino Animato Animagus,” Sabine closed her eyes and drank. The bitter taste was nothing compared to the surprise of opening her eyes yards below where she should have been sitting.

Where Sabine Blumenthal had rested now sat a beautiful cat, water beading on its whiskers and running off in a gentle show of nature. The fur of the cat was wet with rainwater, but she didn’t dare move should she break the illusion or ruin the moment.

Word Count: 541

Ministry of Magic File

Name | Sabine Imani Blumenthal
Animal | Ragamuffin cat (Felis catus)
Appearance | Sabine’s animagus form is a fluffy cat, with long, luxurious fur just like Sabine’s characteristically long hair. She has small ears and a round body, with large, soft paws. The ragamuffin form is a dilute calico, with sandy, cinnamon, and white splotches around it. Sabine’s cat has dark eyes and long whiskers, with a long, fluffy tail.

Reducio

Distinctive Mark | In human form, Sabine has a large scar on her lower back from an accident with a dragon. This scar is reflected in her cat form. Furthermore, she wears horn-rimmed reading glasses reflected in tabby markings around the cat’s eyes.

Building Animagus Form

Size | Small (1 point)
Abilities | Bite (1 point), claws 2 (2 points)
Stats | Wisdom: 13 | Stamina: 11 | Strength: 3 | Accuracy: 7 | Evasion: 11
Explanation | The ragamuffin is especially balanced. They are quick, smart, and have heightened stamina because they preserve their energy. However, they are small animals without much strength; most of their size is due to the masses of fluffy fur. As for bite--cats bite when provoked and value their space. They will defend their personal space and comfort tooth and claw (literally).

Total points used: 13 (adult)

Status: Approved, Polonius 2023-01-18

School Year: 6th year (when he got it)
Link to your encyclopedia thread: Here

Roleplay: (replaced with old system, moving to new, per index team. So, it's not RP, it's description)

Sebas is a pure blood wizard with a long history of magic in his family of various specialties. His time at Hogwarts taught him that being unnoticed at times was more valuable than any spell. Turning into a cat was the perfect way to escape notice and go study alone or get into trouble. As a mischievious wizard, this fits Sebastián perfectly. (purrrr-fectly?). Someone's pet cat spilling ink on a rival's homework could not be blamed on innocent Sebastián. Convincing other cats to help him prank students was always the most fun.

By the time Sebas graduated, many knew that whenever a cat was involved in mischief, they should blame the Spaniard. His career as a Curse-breaker was ideal for a cat animagus as well. Being able to slip in and out gracefully came in handy more than once. Gringott's bank favored him as the one to get the job done in tight spaces because of this ability. It also came in handy when trying not to be seen among muggles. He could simply become a cat instead of trying to dress differently. No one questioned a cute cat with a bow tie walking around like they did someone in full wizard robes.

Once Sebas became a professor at Hogwarts, though, the true fit became evident. Mischievous Professor Cazarez loved to trick his students and fellow staff. Much like Mrs Norris of the past, Cazarez roamed the halls and could catch students being out late or being somewhere restricted. Cats truly make the best spies and as a sneaky slytherin graduate, he was in heaven. Various issues plagued Sebas' life after taking positions at Hogwarts, but he always loved his time there the most. As a cat he could watch the school, prank people, and walk among them just like before.

Sebas as an animagus makes a lot of sense based on who he is and what his "roles" have been/will be. He also has no other "special abilities" or races right now, so nothing is in the way or overpowered. Not that he is going to be fighting people most likely.

Ministry of Magic File:

1. Wizard Name: Sebastián Cazarez
2. Animal: - Norwegian Forest
3. Description:

A black and white cat. He has grey eyebrows and a black colored top of the body, while his neck and belly are white.
4. Distinctive Marking: Thick gray eyebrows.

Sebas the

Size: Small (1 point)
Modifiers: Claws (1 point)
Bite (1 point)
Stats:
Stamina 18 (3.5 points)
Wisdom 0 (0 points)
Strength 2 (0.5 points)
Accuracy 5 (1 points)
Evasion 25 (5 points)

Points Spent: 13

STATUS: Pending, Opeila 04/06
As an adult you have 13 points to spend but you have only used 10.
(Note to mods- this ability has been approved, so I am leaving the RP portion untouched. This is only for stat points.)

STATUS: Approved, Opeila 05/06

School Year: 5th Year
Link to your encyclopedia thread: Here

Roleplay:

Reducio

Ever since he had found out about animagi, Jack knew that learning to become one would take a long time. So, like with all of his other studies and lessons, he started early by taking the initiative to seek out information himself instead of waiting for it to be taught to him. He had joined Pericles Dralt’s club called the League of Aspirant Animagi toward that end, but he also wanted to get ahead of the game so he could help others in the club if he needed to, so he started his preparations as soon as he could manage.

The first thing he did in his preparation to become an animagus was to gather as many books as he could to study and research everything he could about animagi. This included books with titles like ‘Everything You Didn’t Know About Animagi’ and ‘Guide to Becoming an Animagus’. He compared the instructions and processes he read between different books in order to clarify certain steps and to make sure he could get everything exactly right and to do so during his first attempt. He was quite a perfectionist, after all.

The next thing he did was make a list of everything he would need and just how much he would need of each, including time. Then he wrote himself instructions as precise and detailed as he could think of based on the compilation of the ones he found in the books he had read. These instructions included the prep work before starting on the actual process such as scouting out a suitable place to witness a full moon without any obstructions. After a long period of drafting, writing, re-writing, and finalizing, Jack finally had a complete list of the things he needed and a set of accurate instructions.

Things Needed to Become an Animagus:

One wand
A knowledge of Transfiguration and Potions (at least to the level of a Fifth Year)
One mandrake leaf
At least one month (from full moon to full moon)
One broom (optional - to see the full moon from up high in order to avoid obstructions)
One location that is easy to see the full moon without any obstructions
A full moon’s pure rays of moonlight
One small crystal phial
One hair from one’s own head
One silver teaspoon
A teaspoon of dew from a place that hasn't been exposed to sunlight or human feet for a full seven days (a full week)
One chrysalis cocoon of an African Death's-head hawkmoth
One dark, quiet place that isn’t ever exposed to sunlight
An electrical storm (also known as a thunderstorm or a lightning storm)
One safe place to transform into an animal

Instructions to Become an Animagus:

Step 1: Find the necessary ingredients, locations, weather conditions, and time necessary in order to become an animagus.

The first step seemed like it was going to be the most difficult, but the sooner he got the harder things done out of the way, the easier it would make the steps that came after. He already had a wand, so that was taken care of. He also had quite an extensive knowledge of transfiguration and potions, if he did say so himself. Then there was the matter of a mandrake leaf. The best place he could think to get one was from the Herbology greenhouse since they had a lot of mandrakes there. Plucking a single leaf from one of the mandrake plants during Herbology class was fairly simple. He figured no one would miss one single mandrake leaf and it wasn’t like the mandrakes would care or at least say anything about it, comfy and cozy in their warm, dark beds of soil.

Next was finding a location where it would be easy to see the full moon on a clear night and have access to its rays. With his trusty broom, this was especially easy because he could fly up to the top of any building or even just a tree and conduct his business there. Eventually Jack chose a particularly tall tree on the school grounds away from everything else where he could sit in its uppermost branches and not worry about falling due to their sturdiness.

A small crystal phial was a bit trickier to obtain than he thought it’d be because he had to owl several apothecary shops and shops that sold magical containers in order to find one. Eventually, he managed to special-order one from Potage's Cauldron Shop in Diagon Alley because they usually only had glass phials in stock, but they agreed to sell him a crystal phial for a higher price. Jack wondered if he could get back his money later - or at least some of it - by selling the phial to an aspiring animagi in the future once he was done with it. Otherwise it would have been a shame if it only ended up seeing use once.

With a crystal phial in his possession, plucking a hair from his own head was nothing. Getting a silver teaspoon was as easy as talking to the house elves that worked in the kitchens whom he managed to track down by talking to a number of other house elves. Once he told them he needed to borrow the silverware and what he needed it for, they were more than happy to lend him one provided he brought it back once he was finished using it. With that gathered, the harder ingredients for the necessary potion were next.

For the teaspoon of dew from a place that hasn't been exposed to sunlight or human feet for a full week, he had to do a bit more research. First he read a few muggle books (sent to him by his father upon request) on how to collect dew as drinking water to survive in the wilderness because he wanted to find the technique of maximum efficiency. Jack also decided to find out what defined ‘dew’, exactly, and discovered that it was considered to be ‘any drops of water that form on cool surfaces at night, when atmospheric vapor condenses’. That meant he just had to make his own cool surface outdoors where atmospheric vapor could condense and collect it from there before sunlight reached it the next day. After all, no one had said that the surface the dew collected on had to be at the same place for seven days; just that it couldn’t have touched sunlight or human feet for seven days.

Upon reading in one of his muggle books how to create a dew trap, Jack constructed one from a few things he had and collected around the school grounds as well as a few things sent from home such as plastic wrap. Only once he constructed the dew trap did he realize that the ‘place’ the dew had to come from might not have referred to the surface the dew could be found on, but the geographical location it was found at instead. Maybe it even meant both. So, to be safe, he deconstructed the dew trap and sent it to his family back in Wales, asking his father to find a cave that sunlight didn’t reach because he knew of no such caves at or near Hogwarts. He also asked his father to keep the deconstructed dew trap away from sunlight or human feet for a week before setting it up in the cave. Once his father had collected the dew using the trap, he was to send it in a flask by nightfall back to Hogwarts and to Jack who would keep it safe in a dark place (a locked trunk under his bed) until the time came to use it. It took more time than Jack had predicted it would, but eventually his father sent the flask by owl, the container’s material solid and opaque to keep out any sunlight just in case.

Then came the chrysalis of a Death's-head hawkmoth. This was a source of great difficulty for Jack; even more so than the dew. He read that there were three types of Death’s-head hawkmoth and that the one in the British Isles that he was most likely to find was the African Death’s-head hawkmoth. The thing was that their larvae didn’t create chrysalides to pupate - they created cocoons. Moreover, they didn’t just make them on plants out in the open like butterflies made their chrysalides but instead burrowed underground which would make them even harder to find.

Jack spent a great deal of time digging around areas he had read were the hawkmoths’ natural habitat and the host plants they laid their eggs on. He even considered raising one himself from a larva stage in a terrarium of sorts but eventually decided it would probably take just as long to find an egg or larva as a cocoon. He tried to use the summoning spell ‘Accio African Death’s-head hawkmoth,’ but as he couldn’t see where to aim or concentrate his spell underground and he was pretty sure the spell had a limited range from which it could bring the mentioned creature, this failed time and time again. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity of searching likely places, Jack finally found a cocoon he was able to identify as an African Death’s-head hawkmoth’s. At last, he had the last physical ingredient he needed. Now all he required were more certain locations and weather conditions.

The dark, quiet place that wasn’t exposed to sunlight was the locked trunk under his bed where he kept his most precious possessions. He would have to be careful only to take it out at night during the process of becoming an animagus because even in the dungeons under the lake, sunlight could filter down through the water and their windows into their Slytherin dorm rooms. If he could help it, he would try to avoid taking it out at all during the necessary length of time.

As for the safe place to transform into an animal, Jack picked a place near the edge of the Forbidden Forest but far away enough from it and the school that neither other students nor creatures would be interested in coming to investigate him or what he was doing. He had initially considered using the Room of Requirement for his safe place, but he hadn’t been entirely sure if he needed to be outdoors during the electrical storm which was the final weather condition he needed for his goal. Besides, he thought, it would have been much better to be outdoors as an animal if all went well and he successfully managed to transform into one.

And with that settled, Jack had everything he needed in order to start his process and the next step of his instructions.

Step 2: Keep a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a full month starting from a night of a full moon and ending on a night of a visible full moon.

On the first full moon night after he had finished all his preparations, the redhead carefully washed the mandrake leaf and stuck it in his mouth. He had prepared himself ahead of time by practicing with an ordinary (non-poisonous) leaf of about the same size beforehand and discovered that by keeping it stuck to the roof of his mouth or in one of his cheeks when he was eating or talking, he could keep it from falling out of his mouth or accidentally swallowing it. Sometimes he found it best to even keep it under his tongue, especially when he was sleeping so he didn’t end up swallowing it by mistake. With the aid of these techniques, he was able to finish the tedious step of keeping the leaf in his mouth until the next full moon. Then it was time to move on to the next step - or several, actually.

Step 3: At the next visible full moon, take the mandrake leaf from your mouth and put it in a small crystal phial within range of the full moon's pure rays of moonlight.

Step 4: Add one of your own hairs to the crystal phial.

Step 5: Use a silver teaspoon to measure out a teaspoon of dew from a place that neither sunlight nor human feet have touched for a full week and add it to the crystal phial.

Step 6: Add the chrysalis of a Death's-head hawkmoth to the crystal phial.

Step 7: Put the crystal phial with the mixture in a quiet, dark place that isn't ever exposed to sunlight.

Once the full moon was up, Jack was pleased to find that it wasn’t raining, storming, snowing, or even cloudy that night which he was glad about because one thing he couldn’t have predicted or prepared for ahead of time was the weather. Getting on his broom, he flew with his satchel of ingredients to the top of his designated tree and made sure he was in a place where no branches, leaves, or twigs would get in the way of the moon’s rays. Taking out his small crystal phial, he opened it and held it up to the moon, removing the mandrake leaf from his mouth with his other hand and slipping it into the phial within range of the moonlight. Once that was finished, he plucked a hair from his head and added that to the phial as well.

Then, setting the phial down in his lap and propping it up between his thighs, he pulled out the silver teaspoon and flask of dew in order to measure the dew into the teaspoon. From there, he poured the teaspoon of dew into the phial and then put the flask and teaspoon away again. Finally, he retrieved the Death’s-head hawkmoth cocoon and slipped that into the phial along with everything else. At last, he was able to cork the phial and put it away into his satchel. Later, after returning the spoon to the kitchen house elves, he placed the phial in the trunk from under his bed, re-locked it, and stowed it away again. He was determined not to touch it or take it out until the next electrical storm.

Step 8: At sunrise and sunset of every day after until an electrical storm, place your wand tip over your heart and speak the incantation, 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus'. Ignore any sensation of a second heartbeat that may be sensed with the touch of the wand-tip to the chest.

Every sunrise and every sunset after that, the Welsh boy dutifully placed his wand tip over his heart and spoke the incantation, 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus'. He had practiced saying it even before he had first put the mandrake leaf in his mouth to make sure he didn’t mispronounce or stumble over the tongue-twister of a phrase, so he was prepared to recite it perfectly every time. The more he said it, the better he got at it. Once or twice, he thought he felt a second heartbeat, but as instructed, he ignored it. This went on for quite a while, but not as long as he had expected it to take. Eventually, one night, there was a rumble of thunder in the distance and Jack knew the lighting was to follow.

Step 9: When the first strike of lightning from an electrical storm appears, retrieve the crystal phial. There should be a mouthful of blood-red potion inside it.

The avid boy immediately ran downstairs toward the dungeons and his dorm room to fetch the trunk under his bed, unlock it, and retrieve the blood-red potion inside. How it had managed to turn into such a mixture without being mixed, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t too concerned about finding out. His thoughts lay with what would happen after he drank it.

Step 10: Move somewhere safe where you won't alarm anyone or put yourself in physical danger during a transformation.

Hurrying outside with his list of instructions, his wand, and the crystal phial of potion, he ran toward the spot he had deemed as his ‘safe place’ to transform. Once there, he waited for lightning to appear in the sky. When it did, he re-read his instructions, set them down, and placed his wand tip over his heart as he had for the past several sunsets and sunrises.

Step 11: Place your wand tip over your heart and speak the incantation, 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus'.

"Amato Animo Animato Animagus," Jack spoke loud and clear, the thunder not loud enough to drown him out just yet. He glanced down at his instructions again, as if for reassurance, but by then he had practically memorized them.

Step 12: Drink the potion. You will feel fiery pain and an intense double heartbeat. The shape of the creature into which you will transform will appear in your mind before you transform.

Uncorking the crystal phial, Jack downed its contents in one gulp, trying not to taste it or to think of what went into it. The fiery pain that followed was more than enough to distract him from those thoughts, however, and he shut his eyes with clenched teeth as he doubled over, eventually falling to his knees. The double heartbeat he had been warned about seemed to pound throughout his entire body, especially in his ears. Setting the phial aside with his instructions, he tried to breathe deeply through the pain as the form of a familiar animal took shape in his mind. In spite of himself, he grinned once it had fully taken shape and he had a complete picture of what he was to become. Of course. How ironic.

Jack hadn't hoped to become nay particular animal as he didn't have any real attachment to animals and thus no preference of them. He believed there were pros and cons to any animal shape. However, he had always admired and loved tricksters and the Trickster archetype from stories and strived to be like them. As there were many animal tricksters - coyote, rabbit, raven, monkey, etc. - he was intrigued by them all and would have been happy to turn into any one of them. One of the most prominent animal trickster characters, however, happened to be a fox.

Almost since his first interaction with other students at Hogwarts, he was likened to a fox, with Selim Faust nicknaming him 'Fox' and Thomas Lestrange nicknaming him 'Chatter Fox'. This was presumably due to his red hair which was similar to the red fur of the Red Fox. Furthermore, he has presumably been likened to a fox by others due to his way of thinking, his slyness, and his supposed cunning (as well as his foolishness, boldness, impudence, and complacency at times). So, it wasn't much surprise to him when the animal he pictured in his mind at that crucial moment was a Red Fox.

Jack could feel his bones shorten or stretch and his muscles and organs reposition themselves as the change began. During the transformation, he kept his eyes closed tight, not wishing to see how his body must have been changing. He was sure it couldn’t have been pretty, but he was determined to see it through to the end. He just hoped it didn’t hurt that much to transform into an animal and back again every time. Finally, after everything that had happened, the pain stopped. The transformation was complete. His journey to become an animagus was complete. He was finally an animal in every physical way.

Step 13: To return to your human form, visualize your human self as clearly as you can.

The redhead spent the whole rest of the night frolicking and barking and making murder noises only foxes could make without even bothering to try turning back into a human. After all, foxes were mostly nocturnal and Jack enjoyed being able to see fairly well in the dark. Once the sun came up and he started to get hungry, he picked up his wand, instructions, and phial in his mouth and trotted back toward the castle only to find he couldn’t open the castle door to go in. With a sigh, he set down his things, closed his eyes, and tried to visualize himself as a human again. Like with many of his other endeavors as a perfectionist, the transformation went off without a hitch. Picking up his things again, he opened the door to head inside, thinking about how grateful he was that animagi could transform with their clothing still on both before and after they turned into animals.

(Word count: 3430)

Ministry of Magic File:
1. Wizard Name: Jack Robin Burnett
2. Animal: The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa. Apart from its large size, the red fox is distinguished from other fox species by its ability to adapt quickly to new environments. The species has a long history of association with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for many centuries, as well as being represented in human folklore and mythology. Too small to pose a threat to humans, it has extensively benefited from the presence of human habitation, and has successfully colonised many suburban and urban areas. (Taken pretty much word-for-word from Wikipedia)
3. Description:

Jack's red fox animagus form would have a reddish-brown coat with blonde and brown highlights in his fur. His lower jaw, throat, front of his chest, underside, inside of his ears, and tip of his tail are pale. The backs of his ears and his lower legs are dark. He is of average size and weight for a juvenile fox equivalent to his human age. His fox eyes are hazel - the same color as his human eyes - but hazel eyes are not unusual for a fox.

4. Distinctive Marking: Jack's brown and blonde highlights in his red hair as a human is retained in his red fox fur. This would be distinctive from usual red foxes that have solidly red fur covering the majority of their bodies.

Building Animagus Form
1. Size: Small (1)
2. Skills: Claws 2 (2), Bite (1)
3. Stat Allocation: (6 points/30 stats to allocate)
- Stamina: 5
- Wisdom: 10
- Strength: 3
- Accuracy: 5
- Evasion: 7
4. Total points used: 10 for year 5
5. Explanation: As a fox, he has average stamina and accuracy, but his strength isn't very high as foxes aren't generally known for their muscles or power. His evasion and wisdom are high because of the tendency of foxes to be stealthy, adaptive, and to flee quickly and efficiently when being hunted.

STATUS: Approved, Opeila 16/06

School Year: Fifth
Link to your encyclopedia thread: Accio
Roleplay:

Reducio

WC: 546/500
Pericles' path towards Animagus-hood began with founding the League of Aspirant Animagi. The club was coordinated in an effort to learn about, and prepare for, the daunting transformation. Studying animals great and small, exchanging theories and observing creatures in the wild, they grew as a group in wait of their fifth year. It would come as no surprise when the founder's breath always smelled of mandrake at the end of his fourth year, from one full moon to the next.

On a moonlit night near graduation, Pericles spat the leaf into a phial, fondly reflecting on when he harvested it from his mother's garden. He combined it with one of his hairs, and used a silvery spoon to add a portion of untouched dew, which he had painstakingly collected with a dropper one early morning, fresh from the leaves of a flourishing ivy. The concoction was given an eerie edge by the addition of a deceased death's-head hawkmoth, captured and gifted by an aunt. At that, the potion was ready for incubation, and Peri stored it somewhere dark and quiet to stew. It was kept closed away until their mentoring began in Year Five. Now, the ghostly guy had a penchant for strange and unusual rituals. It was common to see him knocking on trees or doing some sort of sun salutation on the day of a duel. Yet his latest was generally disliked by a number of others in the Ravenclaw Booted Eagle dorm: whispering to himself. Every day at dawn and dusk, he could be seen speaking softly with his wand to his heart. Most equated this to typical Peri shenanigans, until eventually someone passed close enough to catch the words: Amato Amino Animato Animagus.

When at last an electrical storm arrived, the Ravenclaw set out for somewhere secluded, enacting the ritual under the watchful eye of a mentor. The fateful incantation was repeated. Pericles tossed back the potion with one quick gulp, letting the process envelop him. The experience rocked his foundation, frightened him even, but it was one he endured with courage. All of his studies had prepared him for this moment. He knew not to fight the transformation, letting it carry him to the creature closest to his soul. Peri had wondered if he might become a tarantula. He had a collection of them, after all, and was known to be keen on the creepy crawlies. When at last the dust settled however, his end result managed to make far more sense.

The white-bellied sea eagle was an animal close to his heart. Peri's grandmother, Tamasa, had owned one while teaching him falconry for the first time. Those memories were clear and dear despite how young the boy was at the time. He remembered how graceful the bird had been, swooping from Mamo's arm down the cliffside, plucking a shiny fish from the waters. It had been so formidable a bird to look upon, yet jarringly docile. The clever eagle brought back each catch, content to take praise and a portion as reward, reasonable as it was deadly. Peri recalled wondering over the feathers it shed, collecting them into a box of trinkets through the day. Now the transformed warlock saw its same sharp, intellectual eyes staring back at him in the mirror.

Ministry of Magic File
1. Wizard Name: Pericles Pontius Dralt
2. Animal: White-Bellied Sea Eagle

3. Description: The white-bellied sea-eagle is recognized by its contrasting plumage, with a crisp white body and ashy-grey wings. Cream-colored legs and feet end in wickedly sharp black talons. Its beak is like a blade: steely, curved and cutting. His body is two and a half feet long, with a wingspan of nearly six feet. What sets Pericles' animagus form apart from the average eagle is its distinctive marking: soft gray "freckle" spots across his cheek feathers. Pericles first witnessed one of these brilliant birds as a young boy. His grandmother trained one in the arts of falconry, inspiring an inexplicable stir in his soul when he watched the sea-eagle in flight.

4. Distinctive Marking: "Freckle" spot marks across its cheek feathers

Building Animagus Form
1. Size: Small (1)

2. Skills: Flight (2) | Claws (1)

3. Stat Allocation: 6 points = 30
Wisdom - 0
Stamina - 5
Strength - 8
Accuracy - 7
Evasion - 10

4. Total points used: 10

5. Explanation: The Sea-Eagle has a broad wingspan (Flight) and powerful talons (Claws) used to capture its prey. It attacks with its feet forward, then snatches its catch by drawing back with a beat of its wings, lifting upwards. Eagles are skillful hunters with powerful grips (Strength) and keen eyes (Accuracy), moving with a graceful, agile flight pattern (Evasion). Eagles have extraordinary energy and are known to fly an average of 4-6 hours (Stamina). Dumped (Wisdom) stat as a bird cannot cast magic!

(If approved, no need to add it to trunk now, will add in my coding for the Ency Update App)

STATUS: Pending, Opeila, 19/06
Please write how you obtained the ingredients you used (mandrake leaf, dew, the moth)

STATUS: Approved, Opeila 28/06

School Year: 5
Link to your encyclopedia thread: viewtopic.php?f=169&t=7848

Roleplay:
WC: 569

Reducio

Transformation was no easy task. It had taken weeks to assemble all the requisite materials - he knew he had to get this out of the way early or it would need to wait until sixth year, as there was no way he was spending his time running around collecting moon-touched dew with OWLs on the horizon. He ticked off each item on the checklist as he took stock. Mandrake leaves (several), sourced from Herbology. A collection of vials, teaspoons, as well as a little bundle of his own hair. The most exotic of the items, and the only one of which there was a single one, was the chrysalis of the death's-head hawkmoth. After corresponding with several wizards via owl post, he finally managed to locate a source for the bizarre ingredient - spending a pretty penny for its procurement and safe shipping to Hogwarts. If this wasn't a real hawkmoth chrysalis, the rest of his summer would be dedicated to hunting down and killing the wizard that scammed him.

Sadly, the only option that he had for a mentor through the process was Caradoc Browne. The traitorous professor had left their house behind before... but he was still the only adult he trusted to do the process with. The transfig professor was a weirdo, the Headmaster was probably a mind-controlled puppet of menacing foreign forces, and the other Heads of House were just strange. Aside from Magdalena, but her departure from Hufflepuff had left George sore, and he did not want to speak to her just yet.

Supervision was minimal for the first step. George took a deep breath and jammed a mandrake leaf against the roof of his mouth. The light of the full moon shone through his window. He wouldn't be able to take it out until the next one. At least the taste wasn't entirely foul, though it did make eating a bit of a chore. At the end of the lunar cycle, George walked outside to ensure the moon got a good look as he spat out the soggy leaf into a phial. He winced as he added a silvered teaspoon of dew - he had collected it from the grounds two weeks ago - aged in a dark place, as well as one of his own hairs... what sort of foul alchemy was this? He'd have to drink this...

The potion was kept in the care of Caradoc to ensure it would be undisturbed as George began the daily ritual , repeating the chant of 'Amato Amino Animato Animagus' every dawn and dusk prior to brushing his teeth. Until finally, the day came - an electrical storm! He needed his potion! Rushing to Caradoc, George essentially kicked in the man's door, demanding the potion so that he could proceed with the ritual.

And with the potion in hand, he moved out into a wide open field, all alone... "Amato amino animato animagus!" he chanted, then he guzzled down a mushy leaf, water, and hair. The sound of his retch morphed into the cry of a new creature as he took on his new form - a little raven. Mischievous, clever, and prone to holding grudges, the form suited him more than he wished to admit, even if he had been expecting some kind of cute rodent. Oh well - this would do! Now to go find Caradoc and figure out how to transform back...

Ministry of Magic File:
1. Wizard Name: George Henry
2. Animal: Common Raven (Corvus corax principalis)
3. Description: A raven of slightly larger stature, with a glossy coat of black plumage covering the full length of his body. This one has dark, almost black, eyes. There is very little that sets him apart from other ravens except the distinctive mark on his face - the feathers around his eyes. His feathers are dark all over, smooth and glossy down his back and ending in wedge shaped tail feathers. The ruffle of feathers around his throat is a bit fluffier.
4. Distinctive Marking: Around his eyes, there is a small ring of white feathers that mimic the appearance of winged eye makeup (or the goggles he wears during broom flight).

Building Animagus Form
1. Size: Small (1)
2. Skills: Flight (2)
3. Stats (7 pts x 5 = 35)
Stamina - 4
Wisdom - 10
Strength - 0
Accuracy - 7
Evasion - 14
4. Total Points Used: 10
5. Explanation: George as a raven is not very durable (Low Stamina), but is quite observant (Wisdom) and quick in flight and on his feet (Acc / Eva). His accuracy is a bit low but could improve over time as he gets used to flying. His strength is zero because he only has 3 strength as a human and he doesn't get any stronger when he becomes a bird. As for abilities, birds are small and can fly. This can be observed by going outside and looking up.

STATUS: Approved, Opeila 06/08

Year: Fifth
Encyclopedia: Ta!

Roleplay: 3,575 Words, [All mentions of @Gregor Aarden Collaborated on & Permitted]

Reducio

As early as his first year, Piérre Marchonné had been enthralled with the idea of becoming an animagus someday. The process was one that he had taken extensive notes in whenever he had had the chance to ask questions on it... and truth be told he had initially wanted to become an "illegal" animagus. As one will discover in this record, however, such a fate was not in mind for the boy...

Each ingredient had taken at least some notable time to collect, but he had spread them out over time (particularly during his third and fourth year whenever he had free periods) and had been careful to keep them nice and preserved in his dark trunk where nobody (not even he himself) touched them.

The easiest of these that he had managed to get his hands on had, oddly enough, been the morning dew. Though likely to be considered the hardest among the required ingredients to collect, he had collected it over the course of his fourth year summer when he had awoken early before the sun rose in the coolness of the nice July weather. This had been stored in one of the vials that the boy had thanks to having smuggled it away from Mathilda when she had locked everything magical that the twins had away in the attic. The phial was still sitting in his trunk inside a black velvet bag; Piérre very much believed that it had thoroughly achieved its requisite of existing for at least a week without the exposure of natural light or to human feet.

It was, as a matter of fact, the matter of finding and collecting the Death's Head Hawkmoth's chrysalis that proved itself more of a hassle. This was the ingredient that he had spent more free hours throughout his third and fourth year searching for both on the castle grounds and nearby the Forbidden Forest than he would have liked to admit. The boy had drug his feet through the long grass and had gently brushed branches and reeds aside on the grounds and on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest in his search for the ground-located cocoon. This continued throughout a lot of September… until the boy had had the good luck of stumbling across an adult Death’s Head Hawk Moth beginning to emerge from its cement-like enclosure near the roots of a hawthorn in the middle months of October. Directly following its virgin flight into the skies, Piérre took into both hands that cement-like mud shelter that the rejected cocoon was inside, and gently broke it open until he uncovered the remains of that brownish chitinous matter. Potion ingredient number two in hand!

And now... Ah yes, the notorious one month of having a mandrake leaf in his mouth without altering its state or losing it in some unfortunate fashion.

Eating became a brand new challenge for the Britalian, and because of this he was finding that the best way to ensure that the (quickly becoming mushy) mandrake leaf was to do something not terribly unakin to those who liked to work with tobacco; in the end he ended up packing it into his cheek. This prevented the worst of the mandrake leaf's disintegration, and it also allowed the boy to imbibe foods like soup and soft meals that didn't require much chewing. Brushing his teeth was a similar, careful manner, but he still managed to keep himself without cavities and immense yellowing. In his classes, Piérre simply tried to stay out of sight and out of mind. He didn't want to tip too much of his hand, didn't want anyone to get in his way of trying to become that ever tabooed 'illegal animagus' that could... well...

Why was it so illegal, again?

Piérre would discover the several reasons and the punishments that would come with it in the form of his current Transfiguration professor Gregor Aarden. Lovingly referred to as "Professor Aardvark" by the boy himself, Piérre thought that he had been so clever holding his cheek in his hand to pretend that there wasn't a wad of gross mandrake leaf there and yet still having this faraway look in his eye as he kept getting distracted by the unusual tactile feeling on the side of his tongue whenever he idly rolled it around his mouth. It either looked like he was sucking on a toffee or chewing a collection of gum. Well, no matter what it had happened to look like, Piérre did end up getting called out on his bluff in the middle of May, right smack dab in the middle of the first half of the Animagus ritual.

"... not to mention the sentence to Azkaban that would be coming down on your head when you are discovered." Impatient, perhaps, but not really fully severe in the ears of Piérre, to be honest were the words that came as Phillip's scales gleamed like sunlight on gold. "And a young boy like you shouldn't be having to deal with jail time before you graduate. Ruins the rest of your life."

"Then I wouldn't get caught. Nobody has to know I'm an animagus unless it's an emergency..." A little bit garbled was his speech, but the sentiment was there. "I don't suppose that you think that the statistics of animagi are flawed?"

His eyes sparkled with amusement as he looked Mr. Aardvark in the eyes again with all the joy of a child simply delighted by the prospect of life and sheer curiosity; he loved asking silly questions like these that would make him far too cheeky for a typical starch-collared individual. "What if there are hundreds of unregistered animagi?" Was it a real question that the boy was asking or was it simply a theoretical question? That would be a question that Gregor would have likely have to answer for himself, as the boy elaborated no further. Yet, he had still been busted. His game was up, and if the professor was at all worth his salt, this activity would be reported if Piérre gave an indication that he still intended to continue with the process of becoming an Animagus without explicit support.

"Multiple wrongs would not make a right, even if those statistics are false." Ah, the well-rounded answer. "Don't do it just because someone else did it." It was a classic argument even if it held its water-weight in salt. "The punishment would not be the action itself, but what comes when convicted of it."

"You probably think I'm ignorant... I probably am. I'm a big idiot too, big fool." He nodded emphatically in emphasis of his words. "But a life lived without risk, without life exposure, is so boring. Even jail is an experience, and I think we both know that if I did become an illegal animagus it would not make me an evil person. I would simply be a felon." It was so strange just how uptight the law was over seemingly silly things. "I am not a villain. I'm certainly a good deal more harmless than aspiring dark wizards or dark lords. I'm more harmless that most of the things that creep in the underbelly of this very school."

Green eyes fixated intently on the professor. "And I'm smart enough to know when I'm in a fight I can't win. So... if I can't beat them, I'll join 'em; or find some other way to negotiate the trial, as the case may be. Apparently I'm supposed to get an instructor to help me through the process. You wanna help me so that I don't end up going to jail someday?" And there was the fool once more. Twisting the situation away from being serious and potentially taboo and into something more fun-loving and unusually playful so quickly that it could give a listener whiplash.

"Some experiences are better off unexperienced. As much as I enjoy speaking of breaking of laws in the sense of magic and physics, I will not allow a student to break any ministry laws or rules." The Professor actually seemed stern and serious at this point of speaking with Piérre, but swiftly after a small bubble rose from his pet's fish tank; "What do you mean... well... I suppose that is only fair Phillip, rules are meant to be bent not broken." The Britalian's keen emerald eyes tracked to the tank as well, curious of what crazy nonsense the Professor heard from his disillusion of a talking fish. I mean, Piérre wasn't a stranger to talking to animals; on the contrary he talked to his cat all the time. "Yet, if it prevents you from going off on this foolish errand and landing you in more trouble than having a simple conversation with me, I will teach you the right and wrong way to continue your process. I observed the mandrake leaf, I assume that you began it on May's full moon on the fifth?" Queried the silvery Transfiguration professor.

A smile flicked across Piérre's face once as he tore his gaze from the splendid little fishbowl and met the eyes of the man, before his brow furrowed as he tried to remember for sure that his calendar had been right... and he replied with a tad of uncertainty. "Nnnnnno... I think I did it on the 6th... I was too busy on Friday, I had homework to do and I fell asleep. I was sort of... well... I was sort of hoping that it was close enough, the moon looked pretty full that day. B-but I've been meticulous other than that! I already have everything that I need. This has been one of the few things that I've been taking seriously in the past few years."

As it turned out, starting the Mandrake leaf even as little as one day late was not good enough; it would most certainly be enough to cause the ritual backfire, as the boy was schooled by the wiser Transfiguration professor and then informed that they would have to wait until the next full moon in at least June to try again. But... of course there were more complications, as since those were the 'final weeks' Piérre would need to make sure that he could incant and speak properly for the purposes of his practical exams. In the end, the date decided would be the summer month of July; this would be the month that Piérre would attempt to do the mandrake process, and then with some further instructions on the night of the potion-making and then notification to Piérre's guardian Mathilda oversee the process from there.

Still, in the interim Piérre was cheerful and polite for the rest of the time that he took with Professor Aardvark and Phillip the Goldfish (not before rambling on and on about his own experiences with Philipe the Mosp, of course) preparing for an eventual full moon and trying his best to take the advice that was bequeathed to him. Every time he met with his "Animagus Sponsor", Piérre couldn't help but giggle whenever the professor kept his goldfish close either in the bowl in the classroom or in the 'fishpack' as Piérre had taken to calling the portable fishbowl that could be easily carried for the means of mobility.

Before he knew it, as he graduated his classes as he always seemed to do by some good fortune or by just barely being able to remember the things that were most important to remember in that year's classes, July third did roll around and Piérre did begin the first day of trying to re-soak the leaf. With prior practice, the methodology of the way he held it in a 'cheek pouch' was well-refined; enough so that even if he wasn't trying the kid was able to manipulate the soggy leaf and ensure that the thing never got away from him or even got in the way of his speech (or at least... it made him somewhat intelligible).

The next full moon would be on the 30th if it was not to be August 2nd, so the boy wavered back and forth as he sat in the front yard, looking for his moment of opportunity. It only had to be a few seconds, just long enough to get all the ingredients into one bottle and to then squirrel it away to its dark and quiet place.

Lo and behold, there was the moon in her full-bosomed glory, her silvery rays blessing the ground. He had such a small window of opportunity with all the thin and wimpy clouds whistling by. Perhaps only a minute or two in order to make his act of potioneering count. With a larger phial in hand, the Death's Head Hawk Moth cocoon and the phial of dew in the other, and the mandrake leaf in mouth (as well as hair from himself, duh), Piérre quickly assembled the potion.

First the mandrake leaf, the tobacco-like chew-looking object which dripped from his lips in the mess of a month's duress in the boy's mouth and plopped heavily into the empty phial in the full view of Luna. Second was one of his hairs, which with a small grimace Piérre plucked from his nape and then sprinkled into the potion. Short duckfluff that it was, it floated delicately on the saliva pre-existing. Now there was the dew, which seemed to sparkle as it went into the phial along with its previous counterparts. Finally the cocoon, which was the most chitinous of them all and had admittedly been a little crushed up from being held so tightly in the boy's hand in the anxious hope that tonight would not disappoint him by being overcast.

From that point on until the lightning storm was due to occur, the potion lived in Piérre's clothes-lined drawers inside of a t-shirt in the dark and soundproof (via use of the t-shirt itself) quiet. It was instead the need to awaken right when the sun started to crest the horizon that would become the more pressing matter of the boy. In order to make sure that he wouldn't forget to recite the incantation, he had requested the help of old veteran to early mornings Mathilda Wendigo herself to wake him up at the crack of dawn and help to keep him responsible.

Just in case Maddie did happen to forget to wake Piérre up on one day or another, the kid did the only thing that was rational and had trained his cat Figaro to wake him up every morning whenever that familiar noticed the sun beginning to rise. Being crepuscular, Figaro was perfectly suited for the job and most certainly did his catlike do diligence to ensure that his human brother was awoken exactly five minutes before the sun would fully flood the grounds and the interior rooms of the London household.

It quickly became a tedious ritual; swiping his wand from its place on the bedstand beside him (this was indeed the very first summer in which Mathilda had actually permitted one of the boys to keep their magical implement for magical purposes) reciting that very specific incantation that he had learned in his third year and that he had kept on a shred of paper that he had laminated and had never let leave his possession (so that he wouldn't forget which words went where or what they were; at least there was one way that he could ensure he wouldn't botch the final parts of this process).

"Amato Amino Animato Animagus!" He would whisper to the quiet outdoors before replacing the wand and then going back to sleep for a few more hours of shuteye if he could manage it. Doing the same at nighttime right before the moon came up from the east was much easier, and it was only whenever time got cut close that Figaro would have to bump Piérre and leap up on the windowsill to remind the boy that he had to incant the spell.

After nearly a month of waiting after concocting the potion the he would have to imbibe, thunder and lightning finally came in late August. It was on the 26th of that eighth month in the late afternoon almost at dinnertime that would be the day in which Piérre would shed the coil of humanity for the first time and take on his animal form, the cacophonous cry of thunder and lightning marking the baptism of that moment. Like many great storms that always seemed to be much less than they would eventually become, it started small and with the same foggy and misty skies of London growing dark and heavy with the telltale signs of rain and the smell of ozone. Except now they began to darken ever so slightly and unveiled dark nimbus clouds that streaked the grey skies and began to rumble softly with consternation and turbulation.

Stubbornly, no light permitted itself to be revealed: it was nearing five o'clock. After around ten more minutes there was finally a flash of forked white light that leapt from one cloud to the other in a bolt of blue as heavier rain began to fall with the first cacophonous blast of thunder.

Rain immediately doused the boy from head to toe as he rushed into the yard and the boy shivered with a mixture of chill and anticipation, feeling his skin immediately turn clammy from the cold humidity that surrounded him on all sides.

Closing his eyes briefly, he listened to the sounds; the sounds of thunder and lightning that would notoriously help him to sleep even on the most troubled of nights. There was a pop of light; that would be the lightning, wouldn't it be? Good.

With a giddy grin, Piérre uncorked the phial and pressed the tip of his leaf-crowned yew wand to his heart for the last time, the last time before he would have to imbibe the concoction that he had made. With a deep and shuddering breath to prepare him for what was going to come (the process and feelings of transformation that had been explained to him inside and out by Professor Aardvark during their counsellings), Piérre screamed into the wind. "Amato Amino Animato Animagus!"

A final trembling breath, the boy pressed the phial to his lips, ignored the tiniest niggling thought to turn back (a panic that would be crushed by the need for adventure to be had), and threw his head back to slug back and consume the draught in its entirety. Trying to ignore the taste (to be honest, Piérre couldn't tell if there was any to be had in it), now all that there was to do was to pray that everything had gone right, that everything had gone right and that there was an animal form that Piérre would become.

Noise and light were everywhere; the sound of the boy's heart in both ears pounding and only just barely cutting through the sound of thunder and rain slamming itself against him, swirling about him on all sides, and lightning by now splitting the skies in half as the storm rose to its zenith of force. Deep breaths echoed in his ears as the boy lowered the phial and then stood there expectantly in the midst of chaos and the wet and the cold.

A screaming arc of what felt almost like lightning itself flashed through his chest and caused him to double over as his heartbeat began to double in his ears. Feeling his temperature suddenly spike, Piérre sank to his knees in order to remedy the headache and the spinning that he began to feel all around. Even as he covered his ears to drown out the sounds of the thunder and the strange double-beating that he heard on all sides and within his own mind Piérre failed to realized that instead of the world was swiftly becoming bigger and bigger around him...

He was actually shrinking!

Shielding his eyes with his hands revealed to the boy that instead of arms there were multi-colored feathers that were attached to wings that were flailing and trapped as the boy was falling and falling into a dark, if warm, place. In the darkness, there were blurred flashes of beautiful color too quick to catch, flying here and there like shooting stars (with their tails trailing behind like twin strands) soaring through the subliminal night in the back of his mind blooming with vibrant flowers that caught these little meteorites and made them almost able to distinguished as he fell and fell and fell... After what felt like far too long to be a natural, survivable fall, the boy felt a soft and cushioned landing.

There was a good amount of scrambling thereafter, but ultimately the conclusion was this: Piérre had transformed into a tiny hummingbird as his animagus form (truly it did make sense for more than a few reasons, one being that he was so high energy and had such a flair for the flamboyant and dramatic, and another being that he was flighty at the worst and irrevocably curious at his best), had nearly drowned in his own clothes, and had had to be helped inside so that he didn't freeze or get crushed. Mathilda readied the paperwork necessary for official documentation purposes, and thus seven days before the school year was to start, Piérre Marchonné became an accomplished hummingbird animagus.

Ministry of Magic File:

Name: Piérre Luigi Marchonné
Animal: Marvelous Spatuletail Hummingbird (Loddigesia miribilis)
Description:

Reducio

Native only to the remote Utcubamba Valley in northern Peru in which it is a year-round native, these multicolored hummingbirds were first discovered by bird collector Andrew Matthew Loddiges in 1835. The marvellous spatuletail hummingbird is one of the rarest species of hummingbird in the world and is currently an endangered species due to both illegal woodcutting resulting in deforestation and the males of the species being hunted for both their tail feathers (spatules) and their hearts (which are believed by natives to have aphrodisiac properties).

Marvelous Spatuletails are medium sized hummingbirds, averaging between the lengths of 10-15 cm (if including the male's spatules) and weighing 5 grams (because even for hummingbirds that 'bulk up' for the purpose of migration no hummingbird exceeds 30 grams due to their necessity to be lightweight for flight and high metabolism). Its body is described as being 'about the size of a fluffy ping-pong ball'. Its plumage is usually white and green on its underbelly, and bronzy on top. Males possess blue crest feathers, a turquoise throat patch, and a black line cutting down a white chest and abdomen, whose side feathers are green. Its call is of a high melodic frequency described as "a repeated high-pitched buzzy metallic note...'tzzz...tzzz...' during its aerial display". Its calls include "an upslurred high-pitched sweet note 'tswee'" and "a more strident 'tsik'".

The most distinguishing feature of the male marvellous spatuletails are of course his spatules; two outermost tail feathers which are long, raquet-shaped, and possess indigo or violet-blue discs (spatules) capable of being flicked about independently. These feathers are not fully developed in juveniles, but they can grow up to three or four times the length of the bird's own body. They are used in mating rituals in which the male will flick his spatules independently in front of the female during a dance in which he takes a twig and hops forwards and backwards at high speeds (up to 14 times in 7 seconds), all while making snapping sounds with his beak.

Like many hummingbirds, Marvellous Spatuletails feed on the nectar of flowering shrubs. Similarly to other species of hummingbird, they even go so far as to memorize a regular and well-established personal route of known plants and flowers, a phenomenon among the birds referred to as 'trap-lining'. Highly territorial, males establish feeding territories where they chase away other male spatuletails and bumblebees who encroach on their defined feeding grounds. They can be easily subdued by larger and more aggressive hummingbirds, however. When the weather is too cold or if they need to rest for the night, hummingbirds have the ability to enter into a state of hibernation called 'Torpor' in order to conserve energy. In torpor, the body temperature of the hummingbird can lower so drastically that it seems to match the temperature of the environment, their heartbeat lowers to a rate only between 50-250 beats per minute, and their feet lock out on the branch that they perched on so that even if they fall off the branch they are still able to hold on and do not fall out of the tree. After being in torpor for between 5 to 10 hours, it can take a hummingbird between 20 to 60 minutes to shiver themselves back into a wakeful and energetic state again.

In this currently aged Animagus form (15 years old as of 2023), Piérre would be a petite 4 cm long (not including his juvenile tail feathers--as he is a male--which adds only an additional 8 cm), and a near weightless 4g.

Distinctive Marking(s):

Reducio

1. Unlike the typical blue crest and violet spatules of a mundane Marvellous Spatuletail, the spatules and crest color of Mr. Marchonné's animagus form instead carry a structural coloration that varies all over the spectrum; resulting in his color being of all chromatic hues dependent on the way the light hits his feathers (in such a way that while he possesses the Marvellous Spatuletail body, he also expresses the Fiery Throated Hummingbird's various iridescent colorations).
2. The head crest feathers of Mr. Marchonné's animagus form are slightly longer than an average Marvellous Spatuletail's and they seem to possess a slight curl like his human hair. This results in the formation of what can only be described as an ahoge of feathers that curls forwards over its head as if aiming towards the bill.

Building Hummingchonné: 10 points total (5th year)

Reducio

Size & Traits: 4/10 points
Size: Very Small (2)
Abilities: Flight (2)

Rationale:
Since this species of hummingbird's actual body is only a few centimeters long and its weight is nearly non-existent, it only makes sense that the size should be very small. A fast metabolism and a heart which beats about 1,260 times per minute and beats its wings 1,200-1,800 times per minute (for an amazing flight speed of 25mph/40kmh) requires a small body and LOTS of calories (which to me implies that Piérre would start squirreling away/keeping on him sugar water or soda if he changes form for extended periods of time). Hummingbirds are also flying animals, but with a special flight pattern; that of a figure 8 pattern, the importance of which will be explained in the statistics explanation.

Statistics: 6/10 points --> 30 total
Stamina 1 | Strength 1 | Evasion 18
Wisdom 1 | Accuracy 9

Rationale:

While Hummingbirds are not strong or stalwart, I like to imagine that such a small bird would need a little stamina to act as a cushion in case it flies into something (like a window or a tree). In addition to this, being small and high-energy implies that the bird has an incredible aptitude for evasion and avoidance. Because hummingbirds have their signature figure 8 flapping pattern (the sound of which results in the humming sound we know and love), hummingbirds have the ability to be highly mobile and able to change directions on a dime, resulting on high evasion and accuracy for dipping and dodging. This combined with a good accuracy will make it easier for Hummingchonné to avoid hitting things mid-flight and then reverting back into his human form to take potential overflow damage.

STATUS: Pending, Opeila 30/08
As pretty as that ministry of magic file is- it's supposed to go into your trunk. That means no tables, no special fonts and you can't have more than one image in your trunk.

Player Edit (30/08): I have edited the coding to make it encyclopedia-standardized

Status: Approved, Beatrice, 1 September