With Love, || N.B.

𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆

"I need your help," Narcissa pleaded.

Eleonora scoffed. "And why should I help you?"

__________

October 1972

"Nora!" she cried tauntingly.

"I told you, Black," Eleonora sighed, rolling her eyes indignantly. "Don't call me that."

Narcissa leaned against the stonewall of the courtyard, a snarky grin tugging on her sharp features. An evening autumn sun shone down on them, illuminating her dark eyes as she spoke. "Not very nice for a Hufflepuff. I thought that was your whole spiel? Treat others with kindness, love."

"That's rich coming from you," Eleonora scoffed. "Why don't you and your pureblood arrogance run back to Lucius?"

Narcissa's face fell and she mumbled. "Whatever..."

Eleonora's eyes followed her steadily as Narcissa walked back into the castle, green and black robes trailing behind her. The tiniest smirk pulled on Eleonora's lips as she felt the satisfaction of Narcissa Black doing her bidding.

"Why were you talking to her?" Eleonora's closest friend, Finch, came up behind her, setting his bags down beside her on the stone bench.

"You know how they are, Finch," she responded, looking back down at her book. "Boasting about their wealth and blood purity."

"Of course," Finch rolled his eyes, an amused smile cracking on his lips as he took a seat beside Eleonora.

__________

Eleonora sat at her desk in Transfiguration, her head resting heavily in her hand as she dozed off. A tiny drop of drool rested in the corner of her hung open mouth as she breathed slowly.

The rap of a wand on her desk jolted her from a dreamless sleep, the dark eyes of Professor McGonagall peering down at her. "Is my lecture so boring you feel the need to sleep through it all, Miss Murphy?"

Eleonora panicked, not knowing how to respond. "Erm--no--sorry--I--"

"Pay attention. You'll need this for your NEWTs," McGonagall responded sternly, turning to walk back to her desk.

Behind Eleonora, snickering sounded. She turned her head to see the culprit, groaning internally when she saw Narcissa holding her hand over her perfect mouth, her face reddening as she bit back a laugh.

'Of course,' Eleonora thought. 'I should've known.'

Eleonora turned back around to watch Professor McGonagall. "Now," McGonagall began, "we will be starting our unit on human transfiguration." Murmurs of confusion bounced around the classroom. She walked up to the blackboard, picking up a piece of chalk and writing. "As many of you probably know, human transfiguration is the hardest unit we'll be covering. Many things can go wrong if you perform poorly." She turned around from the board and behind her were names of students in the class. "These will be your partners for our remaining unit. Please find them and flip to page three hundred. There, you will find the information to perform the hair color charm."

Chairs scraped against the stone floor as students moved to the board. Eleonora rose from her chair to look over heads. She squinted, looking for her name. She could've sworn she saw her name beside Finch's before there was a tap on her shoulder.

"Looks like we're partners."

Eleonora was met with the arched brows and sharp features of Narcissa Black. She sighed, trying her best to be excited. "...Yay!"

"Oh, don't act like that," Narcissa sighed, slumping her shoulders. "We both know neither of us wanna be partners."

"Oh good," Eleonora mumbled. "Glad we already got that out of the way."

As the pair took a seat (after minutes of arguing whose desk to sit at) Eleonora, defeated, pulled out her Transfiguration textbook and flipped it to the page. "Alright," she sighed, "it looks like the charm is...'pullus'?. Sounds simple enough." She turned to Narcissa. "Do you wanna try first?"

"...Sure," Narcissa responded, a hint of amusement on her features. She pulled her wand from her robe pocket, steadying it. "You ready, Nora?" she asked.

Eleonora, her eyes held shut, cringed. "I told you, don't call me that."

Narcissa snickered to herself as she positioned her wand in front of Eleonora. "Alright, Nora--"

Eleonora's eyes flew open, her cheeks reddening in frustration. "I told you! Don't call me--"

But instead of her name coming from her mouth a loud honk! sounded instead as Narcissa flicked her wand. An eruption of laughter filled the classroom as a particularly feathery Eleonora Murphy flapped her gray wings, her orange beak snapping at Narcissa who fell to the floor in a fit of giggles.

"Oh Merlin, Nora!" Narcissa laughed. "You sure are a...silly goose!"

As Narcissa wiped her tears away, trying her best to compose herself, the classroom fell silent, the sound of heels on the stone floor.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Narcissa looked up and met the cold glare of Professor McGonagall. Her jaw was clenched and her fist wrapped around her wand.

"Professor, I--"

Narcissa was interrupted by a cacophony of honk! honk! that never seemed to end as Eleonora flapped her large wings quickly, jumping onto the desk.

McGonagall shot a look at Eleonora, the panicked honking stopping. "Now, Miss Murphy, that is quite enough...honking from you." She turned back to Narcissa who was biting back her laughter. "As for you, Miss Black. Explain this situation immediately."

"Well, you see, Professor," Narcissa began, "Eleonora here has gone all...loosey goosey on us!" As she held back laughter (and failed), she continued with a disapproving glare from McGonagall. "In my humble defense, Professor McGonagall, Nora told me the spell to cast the charm was 'Pullus' and that is what I used."

McGonagall turned to Eleonora. "Miss...Murphy, is this story correct?"

The goose that sat before McGonagall dropped its head, giving a quite pitiful honk in response. As every student with brightly colored hair in the class bit their tongues for fear of detention, McGonagall pursed her lips. "Very well..." McGonagall's grip relaxed on her wand as she pointed it at Eleonora. With a silent incantation, she was turned back into a human, feathers falling from her hair.

As the bell to dismiss the students rang, Eleonora hurried back to her desk, textbook in hand as she piled all of her supplies into her bag. As she held back tears of embarrassment (for we all know this would be the talk of the lunch table by noon), she slung her bag over her shoulder, leaving the room with silent tears falling down her flushed cheeks.

A/N: Heeyyyy...long time no see! So sorry this chapter was so late, and I'm so sorry (not really) for the goose puns this chapter! I just couldn't resist them!