*Discontinued* No Longer

Animagus Anomaly

He tucked the leaf carefully into the pouch of his cheek and swallowed the magical sage enriched saliva. Immediately, he felt it traveling through his system faster than it would ordinarily, and since it was more potent than it would have been had he done the ritual the traditional way, he could also feel it the moment it hit his bloodstream.

A strange sensation of. . . expansion? began inside of him. It was like he was growing, and shrinking, and aging, and rejuvenating, and changing, and getting hotter and colder all at once. It would have been unpleasant, he supposed, had there not also been a curious buzzing sensation in his mind at the same time, which made him feel a million miles away from what was happening.

When the leaf had reached the same level of deterioration it would have had it been in his mouth for two months, he spat it out into a small dish and stood still as the sensations continued to riot chaotically inside of his system.

There were times when it felt intense, along with intervals he felt as if the alterations had ceased entirely, and then the in between moments when it was at neither extreme. It took an indeterminate amount of time before it truly stopped, and Harry was certain by the end of it that there was a reason why wizards went through the far more subtle changes over the course of two months, rather than spread over a few minutes.

He turned into his invisible ghostly self and floated right out of Ravenclaw Tower and into the open air. It was somewhat odd to go from a warm bedroom into the brisk breeze of a September evening, but he grew accustomed to it quickly and made his way over to the quidditch pitch.

Harry settled himself comfortably on the ground under the light of the full moon, which cast everything beneath it as silhouettes and slightly different shades of dark. The grass beneath him, he could vaguely tell was green, but just barely.

Closing his eyes, he tried to still his mind and release the burden of thought. Knowledge of his predicament kept trying to force its way to the very forefront of his thoughts, but with more strength of will than he knew he possessed, he restrained it to the point where his mind was near perfectly blank. 

When one had as many thoughts as he, this was no simple feat, but he made himself do it. He placed a drop of the Vicary potion on his tongue and swallowed, a faint taste of mold remaining stagnant in his mouth. 

He didn't really feel anything as it coursed through him, so he waited a half an hour before deciding to attempt the transformation, just to be safe. Harry focused on his intent to transform, as well as the traces of the sage leaf in his bloodstream, imagining them like a web all throughout his body that would allow his to shift forms.

Holding his wand in his right hand, he spoke the words to the incantation, "Volo mutare in animali!"

Nothing happened.

Harry frowned, closed his eyes, and focused on the magic in his blood, wishing for every aspect of him to transform into his soul animal. He spoke the incantation again, concentrating with as much force of will as he could muster.

A strange tingling sensation spread all throughout his system, and he began to feel excited. This is it. His vision went suddenly white, though the edges began immediately to darken into gray. This had never been described in the books, and he knew with a determined sort of certainty that whatever was going on, it was not the animagus transformation.

A riot of colors appeared distantly in the center of the whiteness of his vision. Lashing tongues of gold, black, silver, orange, yellow, blue, and every other color under the sun were churning together in ever changing patterns. He immediately recognized who it was of course.

"Aren, what are you doing here?"

"I've come to see you, of course, dear."

"Why?"