When the Roses Bloom Again by TheBlack'sResurgence

Chapter 3

I'll Get By

"You're making excellent progress," Dumbledore praised.

"It doesn't feel like I'm making any," Minerva yawned. "Nothing is happening."

Before the sun had risen, she found herself in the transfiguration classroom with the overly chipper man working diligently to make strides in their current project.

Her professor was an excellent practitioner of transfiguration, a brilliant wizard overall in truth, but even Minerva had her limits at five am when she should still be resting.

"Nothing that you would pay attention to, my dear," he countered with a chuckle, "but I believe I would be right in saying that the hair on your arms is longer than when you arrived."

Minerva scowled at the growth.

She thought that learning to be an animagus would be a fun process, but thus far, all she had done is spent her free time removing rogue hair from her arms, legs, and even her feet.

If this was progress, then she wanted no part of it.

"Patience, Minerva," Dumbledore urged. "This is one of the most complex forms of transfiguration to master, but when you do, it will all be worth it."

Minerva nodded.

The project had been her idea, after all, and knew that it would not be simple. It was a very dangerous undertaking, and in truth, she should be grateful that there had been no mishaps.

It was not as though she had completed a partial transformation that she had been stuck with.

Not yet anyway.

"I know," she sighed.

Dumbledore offered her an encouraging smile.

"This could take several years of work to complete, but you are well on your way towards it. Stay positive, you will get there."

"And I will just have to tolerate the additional hair growth along the way?" she said dryly.

Dumbledore chuckled.

"Indeed, but it could be worse. You could be a fish and have to descale yourself instead."

Minerva grimaced at the thought.

"Why did you never do it, professor? Become an animagus," she asked.

Dumbledore hummed at the question and nodded.

"I considered it many times, but my attention was always turned towards other ventures. I apprenticed under Nicholas for my studies in Alchemy, and forgive me a moment of immodesty, but I did not have such a proficient instructor to hand. I exceeded the capabilities of my own Professor before I finished my fourth year."

Minerva nodded her understanding.

For all his quirks and whimsical ways, Dumbledore was already perhaps one of the best transfiguration practitioners who had ever lived.