The Summer Holidays of Her Second Year

A new quest had been triggered, so Evita planned to return to Dorset for the summer holidays of her second year and learn to become an Animagus.

The three-story house had been without its owner for two whole years, yet it was still clean and tidy, and the garden looked just as she remembered. That was thanks to Tina and Newt, both of whom had keys to Evita's house.

She pushed open the door to find a spacious living room furnished with a matching sofa set and a carpet covering the entire floor. Beyond it were an open-plan kitchen and dining room, a guest bedroom, and several utility areas.

Upstairs, the entire second floor was taken up by bedrooms. Evita let the animals out, patted each one on the head, and went up to the third floor alone. It had a fully equipped Potions Room, a herbology room, a study, and a place to practice magic.

Although the Ministry of Magic forbade underage wizards from using magic outside school, there were ways around every rule. The wand she had bought at Ollivander's wand shop had the Trace registered to it, but the wand Adele had given her did not.

Of course, if there were adult wizards in the house, a young wizard could also sneak in a little magic without being discovered.

Evita went downstairs to the basement, where there was one of the vaults Adele had filled through years of effort, a storeroom packed with ingredients that needed to be kept cold, and an enormous storage room for items that were seldom used.

She entered the storage room and found the Mandrake leaves, staring intently at the little bottle before her.

This was a common antidote, and also... the first step to becoming an Animagus.

From one full moon to the next, she had to keep a single Mandrake leaf in her mouth at all times.

And tonight, as it happened, was a full moon.

Evita looked through the window. The full moon hung in the sky, its light spilling gently over the flowers swaying in the breeze in the garden.

Her gaze slowly shifted to the little transparent glass bottle. She licked her lips, picked through the leaves for a while, and placed a smaller Mandrake leaf in her mouth.

She could neither swallow it nor take it out, so she decided to drink only porridge and not speak for the next month.

It was a difficult task, but Evita still had pen and paper, as well as tremendous perseverance and determination. She was certain she could do it.

But as the saying went, the more you dreaded something, the more likely it was to happen.

The next day, Queenie and Jacob came to visit. Jacob had enthusiastically baked a great deal of bread in adorable shapes, and it looked absolutely delicious.

Tears of sorrow rolled down Evita's face. Queenie wiped them away, saying, "Oh, there, there, don't cry, don't cry," while stuffing two pieces of bread into her own mouth.

Evita, who could only look and not eat, heartbrokenly drank two large bowls of porridge. Then inspiration struck, and she soaked some bread in the porridge. When Tina asked her what was wrong, she answered firmly, "I've caught a cold!"

To the four elderly people, whose average age was over eighty, especially Queenie, that was no different from saying, "I'm lying." Still, they indulgently let their doubts pass.

Exhausted after the meal, Evita collapsed spread-eagle on the carpet. The three Kneazles, Hobby, Milly, and Moler, lay beside her, mocking her mercilessly: "Not being able to eat bread is so boring, not being able to eat bread is so boring-oh! Poor Evita!"

The three of them meowed up a storm.

Unable to retort, Evita felt anger well up inside her. She made straight for the three Kneazles' little den, quickly reached in and felt around twice, and found their secret stash of dried fish. With a cold laugh, she gobbled the fish down, then beat her chest with her hand when she choked. Hobby and the other two were so shocked they failed to outrun her.

Tina: ?

Newt: !

Jacob: "..."

Queenie broke the silence. "Has Hogwarts changed its curriculum?"

Newt hesitated. "I don't think so... probably?"

Still, those neighbors of Evita's they had met at King's Cross Station two years ago had all seemed to be Gryffindor students... Gryffindor was terrifying indeed.

Tina remembered that before Evita moved to Godric's Hollow, she had gotten into a fight with Hobby and the others. Furious that she hadn't won, she had meowed at the top of her lungs, and Newt had struggled to calm all four of them down.

Of course, what had actually happened was that the three Kneazles were happy once they had dried fish. Evita was the truly difficult one: she had still been meowing nonstop when they pulled her away. It was hard to tell who the cat was. The commotion only died down when Hobby, their leader, offered himself to the girl as a pillow.

Tina smiled a little helplessly. Perhaps it had been so long since she had properly seen Evita that she had nearly forgotten the girl was an exceptionally lively child to begin with.

Meanwhile, Evita, who had acted so rashly in the heat of the moment, hurried away from the scene. Fortunately, the Mandrake leaf was still in her mouth.

She patted the table and decided to calm down a little, so that her next steps would go smoothly.

Sure enough, once a person calmed down, the sky grew bluer and the water greener. The weather was clear on the final day, and no dark clouds obscured the moon.

Evita filled a small crystal vial with saliva, soaked the leaf in it, and set it facing the moon. Then she added a strand of hair and a silver teaspoon of dew.

The dew had been collected from a place untouched by sunlight or humans for seven whole days: a small tree in the garden, sheltered by other enormous trees.

Finally, Evita added a Death's-head Hawkmoth Pupa and placed the vial in the underground vault to await a night of thunder and lightning.

The wait was tedious, because every day at sunrise and sunset she had to point the tip of her wand at her heart and recite the incantation: "Amato, animo, animato, animagus."

A little over two weeks passed. As she repeated the incantation and gesture, she suddenly felt another heartbeat, sometimes stronger than her own and sometimes weaker. That meant this step had succeeded as well.

Overjoyed, Evita pressed her palms together. Not knowing whom to pray to, she settled for a hasty prayer that there would be thunder and lightning that night.

Fortunately, the heavens favored her. The moment lightning split the sky, she immediately headed for the underground vault and retrieved the little crystal vial. Inside, there should have been a mouthful of blood-red potion.

But...

Evita frowned and leaned closer to examine the little crystal vial. Naturally, she hoped to succeed while she was at home, since she had to try to answer questions and earn points for Hufflepuff at school. But was this really blood-red?

Inspiration struck her again, and she took a knife and cut her arm.

Blood gradually flowed out. Evita compared the two repeatedly for a while and confirmed that it was a success. So she first cast Episkey on the wound, then stood in the garden, pointed the tip of her wand at her heart, and softly recited, "Amato, animo, animato, animagus." Finally, she drank all the potion.