#inconsequentixl

          steals one of the fries from his plate without any shame. “ i should not be eating this but i have no self control anymore and i feel like i deserve it after the week i had ” steals another one, looking up to him through blonde locks, bangs falling on her eyes. “ what are your plans for the weekend? please tell me you’re doing something fun ”

@bonezone @bastard--wolf @cartaphilus @psychoticrooster @unquietgraves @bloodintolerant @inconsequentixl

metas. || always accepting.

nice!! i do love talking about her animagus.

i’ve written several posts on her animagus in general - relevant to this question is this post on why she became an animagus, and this post on why her animagus is a cat.

but since i’ve never explicitly discussed it before, i think i’ll use this as a chance to talk about the process itself that she went through.

my headcanon (though i’m flexible about this when it comes to rping with dumbledores) is that she first approached dumbledore about becoming an animagus in her fourth year, when she was fifteen. (reminder that she was born in october, so, like hermione, she’s older than most of her class - fifteen for most of fourth year, sixteen for most of fifth year, etc.) she’d been excelling in class and had already learned pretty much all of the o.w.l. curriculum, and wanted a challenge. after learning about animagi the year before, and reading up on it on her own time, she’d decided that she wanted to become one herself, because damn if there was any field of transfiguration that minerva mcgonagall wouldn’t master. and, because everything said that it was very rare for anyone underage to become animagi, and because minerva is innately and ridiculously competitive, she decided she didn’t want to wait until she graduated.

so she went to dumbledore to make her case. he was impressed by her drive, and of course knew her talent, but worried that her eagerness would make her brash, and knew that most disastrous animagus attempts were the fault of impatience with the long process, so he told her to ask him again once she was sixteen. minerva was disappointed, but as she had half-expected him to refuse outright, she didn’t argue.

a year later, she asked him again, and this time he agreed to teach her. he’d already contacted the ministry and gotten permission - much like giving a student a time-turner, it’s the sort of thing that shouldn’t be done without procuring the right paperwork first. they went over the theory together, and dumbledore helped her procure the proper supplies, and she agreed that she would check in with him at every step of the procedure.

i should note, by the way, that minerva told very few people she was working on becoming an animagus. she wasn’t sworn to secrecy, the way hermione was with her time-turner, but she was encouraged to keep it fairly quiet - because if students knew that someone else was doing it, they might be more likely to try it on their own, which would be disastrous. and minerva herself had little desire to boast about it anyway, partly because there was always the chance she would fail, and partly because it was something she was doing for her own benefit, not for the sake of impressing students.

so let’s go through the process:

1. for the space of one entire month (from full moon to full moon), a single leaf from a mandrake must be carried constantly in the mouth. the leaf must not be swallowed or taken out from the mouth at any point. if the leaf is removed from the mouth, the process must be started again.

this one took minerva a few tries. the first time, she accidentally swallowed it while she was eating. the second time, she lost it during a dive at the end of a quidditch match. (her teammates thought that she stormed off after the match because she was angry that they had lost - actually, she was just furious that she had to start the month over again.) 

2. remove the leaf at the full moon and place it, steeped in your saliva, in a small crystal phial that receives the pure rays of the moon (if the night is cloudy, you will have to find a new mandrake leaf and begin the whole process again). to the moon-struck crystal phial, add one of your own hairs, a silver teaspoon of dew collected from a place that neither sunlight nor human feet have touched for a full seven days, and the chrysalis of a death’s-head hawk moth. put this mixture in a quiet, dark place, and do not disturb it until the next electrical storm.

as luck would have it, the first time minerva successfully kept the mandrake leaf in her mouth for a month, the full moon was a rainy night. she stayed up all night with dumbledore in the hopes that the moon would come out, but it didn’t. so she had to start the entire process again.

(she nearly set the nearest cupboard on fire from sheer wandless frustration.)

the next time was a clear night, so she followed the steps - with dew collected from deep in the forbidden forest and a moth chrysalis courtesy of professor slughorn - and placed the phial in a small box, put protective and quieting charms around the box so ensure it would remain undisturbed, and stowed it in the bottom of her trunk. 

it was several weeks before the next electrical storm. in that time, it was only minerva’s cast-iron will that kept her from looking at the phial, which was constantly in the back of her mind; her curiosity and worry, the need to check it and be sure nothing had gone wrong, was an incessant urge she had to suppress. 

3. while waiting for the storm, the following procedure should be followed at sunrise and sundown. the tip of the wand should be placed over the heart and the following incantation spoken: ‘amato animo animato animagus.’

4. the wait for a storm may take weeks, months, or even years. during this time, the crystal phial should remain completely undisturbed and untouched by sunlight. contamination by sunlight gives rise to the worst mutations. resist the temptation to look at your potion until lightning occurs. if you continue to repeat your incantation at sunrise and sunset there will come a time when, with the touch of the wand-tip to the chest, a second heartbeat may be sensed, sometimes more powerful than the first, sometimes less so. nothing should be changed. the incantation should be uttered without fail at the correct times, never omitting a single occasion.

during the weeks that she waited for the storm, minerva’s worst fear was that she would miss an incantation and be forced to start over again. she had to pay close attention to when the sun rose and set, and sometimes jump through hoops to be sure she performed the incantation at the right times. she was always an early riser, but now she began rising with the dawn every day, even weekends, which she explained away to her roommates by claiming she was using the time to study for the o.w.l.s (which, to be fair, she was). if she had a late class, or dinner, or quidditch practice, she always had to be sure she could get away to say the incantation during sunset.

it took over two weeks before she felt the second heartbeat, and was thoroughly startled when she did - subtle but clearly there, another beat in her chest, quicker and fainter than her own. the first time it happened, she ran to tell dumbledore, who told her she was doing well, and the beat likely meant her animagus would be something rather small. (she had not, as yet, learned how to cast a patronus, so she didn’t already know what form it would take.)

5. immediately upon the appearance of lightning in the sky, proceed directly to the place where your crystal phial is hidden. if you have followed all the preceding steps correctly, you will discover a mouthful of blood-red potion inside it.

6. it is essential to move, at once, to a large, secure place where your transformation cannot cause alarm or place you in physical danger. place your wand-tip against your heart, speak the incantation ‘amato, animo, animato, animagus’ and then drink the potion.

it was late in the evening when lightning first struck. when minerva saw it through the window of gryffindor tower, she raced to her room, retrieved the phial, and tore through the castle to find dumbledore. together they went to a large room dumbledore had prepared, he cast protective spells around the area, and then told her to drink the potion.

7. if all has gone correctly, you will feel a fiery pain and an intense double heartbeat. into your mind will come the shape of the creature into which you are shortly to transform. you must show no fear. it is too late, now, to escape the change you have willed.

8. the first transformation is usually uncomfortable and frightening. clothing and items such as glasses or jewelry meld to the skin and become one with fur, scales, or spikes. do not resist and do not panic or the animal mind may gain the ascendancy and you could do something foolish, such as try to escape through a window or charge a wall. 

there was pain. and minerva was frightened, for all that she had been told not to show fear. it was far more disorienting than she might have guessed, and far quicker - the heartbeats filled her ears, the pain blurred her awareness of her surroundings, she was no longer aware of the room or of dumbledore standing by, only that her heart hurt and there was a shape in her head, silver fur and bright yellow eyes –

and then she was changing, and it was horrible, she could feel herself changing, her glasses were suddenly part of her face, and she couldn’t hold her wand anymore - afterwards she could realize that it wasn’t nearly as painful as she might have expected, merely uncomfortable and alarming, but at the time all she could think was that maybe this had been a terrible idea–

and then she was suddenly very low to the ground, and her senses were sharper, but she was too alarmed to make sense of them. the silver tabby cat jumped back, shaking and lashing its tail, claws sliding out, and dumbledore had to say her name several times before minerva quite came back to herself.

9. when your transformation is complete you should find yourself physically comfortable. you are strongly advised to pick up your wand at once and hide it in a place of safekeeping, where you will be able to find it when you regain a human form.

10. to return to a human form, visualize your human self as clearly as you can. this should be sufficient, but do not panic if the transformation does not occur immediately. with practice, you will be able to slip in and out of your animal form at will, simply by visualizing the creature. advanced animagi can transform without wands.

once she had calmed down, she found that she was comfortable - the body felt, if not precisely natural, then at least oddly normal. she didn’t have to learn how to move or sense as a cat; the instincts were already there, as if they’d been waiting for her. she purred with delight and bounded forward to meet dumbledore, who chuckled as he pet her.

there was a point of alarm when she tried to turn back and, initially, had difficulty, but she managed it after a minute (and was relieved to find her clothes properly returned to being) - and then, surprising herself, she actually hugged dumbledore, practically launched herself at him, in sheer delight. (she was embarrassed about this afterwards, but at least he hugged her back.) 

That isn't getting in the way of education. That's horrible. You should organize a protest!

stckhlmr

as a teacher i can only say that this is ridicilous. a student should be able to have their hair/facial hair the way they want! it's a part of their identity as a whole and the council for this school should sit down and take a chillpill! this is absolutely rubbish!!

neverforgiiven

that's ridiculous i just ? ? ? why ? ? ? don't make the kids shave  their facial hair or cut their hair short like  ? ? how does someone's appearance keep you from learning ? ? i'm so  ? ? ? what ? ?

inconsequentixl

that's ???? literally the dumbest thing i've ever heard wtf

thank you all honestly, i’ve been raging over this myself. this school has so many restricting rules against our appearances (from disallowing “unnatural” hair colours to not allowing any jewellery at all (they tried to get my friends sister to remove her red cross bracelet for her heart condition, and didn’t stop until her parents came in?). it’s ridiculous.

          “ is it possible you could help me with something? i can’t seem to get this spell right... no idea what i’m doing wrong, either. “      he’d spent the previous night poring over notes, scratching his head while trying to get everything right. unfortunately, he still struggling with pronouncing a few spells, though he was sure he’d been saying this one properly. whatever, though. it never hurt to ask for a little assistance.      

          “ i have some money to spare in case you’re looking for something in return, too. “