"TRANSFORM"

TRANSFORM: make a marked change in form, nature or appearance; Lorelei Black had had an eventful few days to say the least, her detentions with Umbridge had become so frequent that it was almost everyday and her right hand was completely trashed, yet she couldn't do anything about it because she didn't want to get anyone from the school in trouble after sacking Trelawny, who's been at the school for almost sixteen years — Lorelei wasn't sure at what height that little toad would go to feed her ego, and act like she's doing something to help the school and isn't just here to suck the life out of students, teachers and literally all the animals present.

Lorelei and Regan had told Sirene about Freya and watching the smile drop from her face was one of the worst feelings in the world, the thing is — Sirene had bought that owl when she had turned seventeen and buying that owl was sort of her first independent purchase that wasn't overruled by her parents — she loved Freya to death and losing that owl wasn't like losing an animal — it was so much worse, when you spend so much time loving an animal and it loves you back even at your worst, there's really no comparison of the grief and pain caused by a human death and an animal death.

And as of right now? Lorelei's making her way to the Gryffindor common room once again to meet up with Hope and go with her to the full moon, it was hard to sneak around with Umbridge, but Lorelei was determined and she would do it even if it meant having to do detention with that bitch for the rest of the year.

Lorelei reached the portrait hole and looked around, the Fat Lady raised her eyebrows at her — Lorelei didn't know the password, stupid Hope with her stupid house pride and loyalty so she just waited until there was a student in sight, she could hear loud cheers and applause from inside which meant only one thing — George and Fred were doing something. Lorelei looked around once again, and she could make out the figure of a girl walking up and she immediately knew who that was — Birdie Potter, the brunette came up to the portrait hole joining Lorelei. Lorelei looked around awkwardly, the two hadn't really talked much...or at all lately.

"Hey" said Lorelei while looking at anyone but her, she cleared her throat, "How are you?" Lorelei never assumed it would come to this day where Lorelei would have to ask Birdie this questions.

"Good" Birdie said dryly, though her tone held a bit of an awkwardness to it too, "Do you know the password?"

"No" Lorelei told her and Birdie nodded, the two looked around again and then an awkward silence followed by.

"Oh, hey, guys" Angelina smiled at the two and Birdie and Lorelei released a breath of relief, "Did you need to come in?"

"Yeah" Lorelei and Birdie said together, immediately shutting up afterwards, Angelina said the password and Birdie rushed in and Lorelei waited until Birdie was out of sight, but as soon as she walked in she was met with the sight of George Weasley projectile vomiting right as she was in view, Lorelei immediately jumped back, but then watched George take a dramatic bow, shaking her head with a smile on her face El made her way up to the redhead.

"Oh, hey, Bubbles!" George said with a smile, he jumped down from the couch he was standing on to join Lorelei, "Come to watch my show, have you?" he put his arm around Lorelei's shoulders.

"Your show?" Lorelei raised her eyebrows at the redhead, "Surely you don't mean the puke situation back there?"

"That is exactly what I mean" George told her and the two sat down on the couch, George knew Lorelei was waiting for Hope, he'd watched her do the same previous year too, he reached inside his pocket and pulled out a two-colored licorice looking stick, "This is a vomit one from the skiving snackbox, if you bite the orange end — you can puke buckets, and as soon as you swallow the purple end of the stick — you're perfectly fine" George explained to the brunette who looked at him with interest, "I got a few for you, you can use these to get out of detention with Umbridge..." he pulled out five other sticks.

"Oh, Weaselbee," Lorelei said, she took it from him and reached inside her cloak pocket and George immediately took a hold of her hands, she gave him a confused look, "What?"

"You're not paying me for them" he said in a firm voice, he unclenched her hand and put the sticks in them, "Consider them a gift"

"Consider this an investment in the business then" Lorelei put down three galleons and jumped out of the way before George could say anything, he looped her arm around Hope's and with one last wink directed towards the redhead, Hope, Lorelei and Birdie were out of the common room.

"Hope, El, Birdie, wait!" the three girls turned around to see Hermione running up to them, her bushy hair bouncing as she did so, she caught up to them and pulled out a cloak, "This might help you sneak around safely with Umbridge here, I don't want you getting caught"

Hope frowned, "We're just going to the kitchens, 'Mione—"

"I know, Hope" Hermione told her with a small smile, "I've know since my first year here and I've always made sure no one found you even if you knew or not, I just want you to be safe, ok? I also have this potion that should help you with the headaches after the full moon morning you spend in the hospital wing, don't tell Madam Pomfrey I gave you this, she's extremely against strong potions, but you need it" she handed Hope a small vial of shining blue potion.

"Well, aren't you the poster prefect" Hope chuckled pulling the younger girl into a hug, she squeezed her shoulders as she let go, "Thank you..." Hermione nodded.

🫐

"IS IT JUST ME OR DID THIS PLACE GET CREEPIER?" Lorelei asked Birdie as they hid behind the bushes waiting for Madam Pomfrey to come out of the shrieking shack so they could walk in and transform into their animagus forms, Birdie nodded and Lorelei sighed irritably, she wasn't sure why the girl wouldn't just talk it out with her — it's the longest they've been apart and Lorelei doesn't like it one bit.

The two watched carefully as Madam Pomfrey looked around and walked away from the tree, taking it as a signal to put the cloak back on themselves and walk up the tree, Lorelei and Birdie anticipated for the worst as always as they made their way to touch the root, and the tree stopped moving with one nod to each other they set the cloak after folding it down on the rock and transformed into their animagus form — Lorelei was a red fox, and Birdie was a stoat.

The two animals made their way up the tree into the house and looked around for the brunette, they were met by the sight of a shivering Hope covered in blankets with cold sweat on her forehead, she curled into a ball but as soon as the moonlight was strong enough to peak through the windows, Hope's screams started, Vixen(Lorelei) and Paws(Birdie) watched as their Lowe(Hope) came into view, but at the cost of their friend Hope going away with excruciating pain.

Vixen nudged her nose at the werewolf who growled but let her stay anyway, and soon the stoat joined in as the three went around exploring the forest.

Hope hated transformations with every fiber of her being, but her friends made it a little bearable.

🫐

"WAIT, SIT STILL, WEASLEY!" Lorelei told George with a camera in her hand that she'd borrowed from Regan who'd borrowed it from Sirene who'd bought it back in the seventies so it was a real vintage camera, Lorelei looked through the little hole that showed what the picture would look like and right now it was a laughing George who kept throwing his head back as he stared at the picture of Lorelei that he'd taken present in his hands, it was her waking up from a confused nap on the kitchen floor — it wasn't the fact that she looked bad or something, she could never look bad, it was the fact that she actually flinched that George found funny for some reason, "Fine, I'll just click a picture of you laughing like a hyena"

George shrugged, and Lorelei took the picture as it popped out she saw the smile on his face grow as soon as he looked down at the picture of El until he was wheezing and the camera had caught all that, Lorelei wasn't going to lie, even though the Weasley wasn't posing for the picture in any way — he looked ok.

"I'm sorry, but the way you flinch just gets me" George spoke through tears in his eyes from laughing too hard, "Your eyes go all wide and you almost drop the bowl of cookies on the counter on you head — it's not funny, but it is?"

Lorelei gave him a look, "Ha ha" she said dryly, taking her place with him on the floor, "Should've never brought this camera down to take a picture of those cookies I baked — they taste like literal shit"

"I like them" George said with furrowed brows, he took one cookie from the bowl and bit into it trying to prevent himself from gagging, "See? Yum" he spoke in a pained voice.

El rolled her eyes, she grabbed a tissue and handed it to George, "Spit it out, George you don't have to eat them just to spare my feelings, I'm a big girl — I can handle it"

"No" George gulped hard, "I actually do like them, why would I just eat them to spare your feelings? For that I'd actually have to care about you" Lorelei smacked the back of his head with a smile that George returned, he was eating those cookies to spare her feelings and he could eat a thousand more if it meant seeing her smile at his failing attempts.