Skeletons in the Closet

Together

Months passed, and I became more adept at magic. I mean, everyone did, but my knowledge and abilities grew until I was the champion of the schools dueling league. No one could even come close to bringing me down. With my skill at wand magic at its peak, I began to branch out. First trying non-verbal magic. Most don't attempt this until their 6th year, but it took me a little while to master. Soon, I began to move onto wand-less magic. This was so advanced, that it wasn't even taught at school. Some of the most skilled wizards in history couldn't perform wand-less magic. It took me quite a bit to master. I still wasn't very good at it by the time the school year ended, and I still am not, but instead, I had set my sights on something new.

Early in the year, we had learned about Animagi in transfiguration. It had to be one of the hardest and most complex pieces of magic out there, so I set it as my goal. No one was exaggerating when they said it would be hard. One of the steps involved holding a leaf of mandrake in your mouth for a whole month, while using it for a potion and a spell. Not at the same time of course. I actually didn't get it the first try. Several months, I had to start over, because I forgot I had the leaf. Obviously, Charles and Echo knew what I was up to, and took the utmost pleasure in doing their best to mess me up. Yelling loudly in corridors at me. Sending me howlers during dinner. I would have been more than happy to curse them, but they knew my intentions, and only came near me during class times. It may seem odd, but their constant teasing made it bearable for me. Finally, after months and months of trying, late one night, I had finished. Not wanting to test anything out when no one would find me, should I have failed, I instead went to sleep, eager to test my new abilities. Charles and Echo accompanied me to the main courtyard, along with Miss Alice, and the school healer. At last l, I begin the transformation. It seemed like hours, but when I finally opened my eyes, I was closer to the ground. My body felt strange. I lifted up my arm, and saw a wing. I looked down at my body, and I was covered in feathers. I had turned into a sparrow! I transformed back, and Alice told me that an official would come by later and register me. We all went back inside. Charles and Echo couldn't stop. talking about it.

"What's it like to transform?"
"How does it feel?"
"What does it look like through the eyes of a bird?"
"Can you fly?"  I had answered all their questions, but this one gave me pause. Could I fly? I mean, it wouldn't make sense for a bird not to, but I hadn't tried it. I was only transformed for a short time, so I didn't have much time to test anything.

Just as Alice said, the next day, someone came from The Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA for short), came and evaluated me. He asked me my name, my age, and to transform for him. My white hair carried over from my human form to here, and the entire upper 3rd of my body was white while transformed. At least it was obvious. Satisfied with my abilities for now, I decided to test some new techniques with dueling. Casting using a wand, and simultaneously casting without one from my other hand, using two wands (I quickly abandoned the prospect of using this in a duel as all my spells were significantly weakened), even attempting to cast while in bird form (it didn't work at all). I instead decided to hone my skills at flying. I often flew up high, transformed, then transformed again, just to see if I could catch myself. I worked on more and more complex maneuvers, and I had the flying teacher help me with that. I took pride in being the youngest Animagus in the world, at only 12.  I had finally gotten it, around Christmas of my second year. My birthday had indeed passed months before, and I could remember Charles and Echo both came from their homes and celebrated with me. The start of my second year, was a boring one, and I still had yet to master wand-less magic, but after all my adventure and excitement in my life, it was a welcome change.