Chapter 49

Allen finished the third and last Occlumency shield, and it was time to practice the mindscape, he still was unsure of what form he should give it, but, seeing how he would spend the next seven years in Hogwarts, he thought it would be better to use it, even if every British wizard in the world knew the layout of it.

But that could wait, it was a daunting task and he feared he might mess up if he didn't time it right, so, he would start building it when they get back from winter holidays.

In the meanwhile, he decided to spend more time with his friends, they didn't need as much help as before with their homework but that didn't mean that they can't do it all together in a small group.

"So, are we supposed to just use fire on a plant?" Asked William dumbfounded.

"Yes, that's correct, it's the only way to get away from a Devil's Snare," Answered Elsie.

They were talking about one of their previous assignments from Herbology, Allen, however, had a pensive look on his face.

"Only fire works? What about a strong flash of light?" He asked.

"Well… It can work a bit, but Professor Sprout did say that it's better to go all the way with this plant instead of halfway.

"Hmm… But… Why does that plant exists?"

"Pardon?" Elsie looked at him perplexed.

"Yes, why does that plant exists. It doesn't seem useful, it's actually quite dangerous if you don't know how to protect yourself from it.

Can we use it for potions or something?" Allen wondered aloud.

"I… I don't know actually. But, not all of the plants and animals in the world serve a purpose, do they?"

This time, it was Allen's turn to think about it. She was right, not everything had to have a purpose.

"You are right Elsie."

"Right?!" She answered excitedly.

After that they went back to finish the rest of their homework.

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They went out of the library, walking towards a small classroom where they could talk about their plans without being heard by other students. On the way there, Sophia asked them again for their answer regarding her invitation to her house over the holidays.

"Yeah, I'll go! My parents let me stay at your place, only if I can use your floo to go back on the twenty-fifth of December to at least spend some time together." Exclaimed William.

"In my case… father didn't really like the idea, but mother gave me the okay, so he had to agree while grinding his teeth." Said Armand amused, remembering the letter he received from his parents. "I too, will need to leave a bit earlier to spend the rest of winter vacations with my family, but we can at least hang around in the first week."

Then, Sophia turned her head around towards Elsie, expecting her to answer.

"What? You know my family and I always spent the holidays with your family, no need to ask."

"We- Well! It doesn't hurt to ask just to be safe!" Sophia said, turning a bit red on the face.

She cleared her throat before speaking again. "What about you Allen? Will you come?"

"Yeah, of course. Specially since Armand has something planned for the holidays which involve all of us." He turned towards his friend, giving him a smug smile.

When Allen directed the attention back to his friend again, he let out a small chuckle before speaking.

"Right, well, I didn't want to say it before making sure I got everything in order to try it but… Remember when we talked about animagus?" At the mention of that, their ears perked up, excited to hear what he was going to say.

"I've sent Dobby to gather all the ingredients for me and I asked my father to contact someone from Uagadou. Someone that can teach us how to become animagus." He finished with a smug smile.

"Are you serious? That's incredible mate! I thought we would need to do it on our own!" William cried.

"And he is willing to teach all of us?" Sophia asked a bit skeptical.

"Yes, of course, my family will provide him the payment of five students and even give him a place to stay with three meals a day.

The only thing we need is the approval of your family so he can go back and forth each day we are in your place." He finished, asking for Sophia's help.

She puffed out her chest and put her hands on her waist. "Don't worry, my parents haven't said no to anything I've asked of them, so I'm sure they will agree!"

"So when are we starting?" Asked Elsie with a tinge of excitement in her voice.

Armand let out a small laugh before answering. "On 23 November, I asked the professor, we need to put the mandrake leaf in our mouth all the way to 23 December.

I know it sounds like a lot of time but the professor said that we can use sticking charms on the leaf on top of our gums so it doesn't interfere with our daily life."

"Wait! That easy? For real?" Asked Sophia a bit surprised.

"Yeah, the thing is, you need to be the one to apply the charm, otherwise it might interfere with your magic, and also, we need to make sure to not get hexed with something that can make us puke or something similar." Armand explained the rest of what the professor told him regarding the transfiguration.

After Armand explained, Allen decided to ask something that bothered him since the beginning. "But… doesn't that mean that… it's fairly easy to become an animagus? If you can just enchant the leaf to stay in your mouth… why don't more people do it to become animagus?"

Armand shrugged, not really sure of the answer either. "A lot of the wizarding population from Africa are animagus, so it is an easy process, you just need to put the time on it, I guess."

"Hmm, I guess so."

"So you have the leafs already?!" William asked excitedly.

"Yes, indeed, but the professor said that first we need to practice our sticking charms if we want to use it for the leaf, so that's what we will be doing for the rest of the day.

He did send me a book that he graciously translated to English from his mother language to us." Armand took out a spell book out of his backpack. 

"It's about sticking charms, more specifically, how to use them in the first step of becoming an animagus." He smiled at them while showing off the book.

The four of them had shocked faces. They were surprised at how prepared Armand came. It became clear that he really wanted to become an animagus.

"Alright then! Let's start practicing!" Allen pulled up his sleeves, taking out his wand out of his pocket. He would be lying if he said that he didn't want to become an animagus at such a young age.

'I would even beat the marauders to the youngest wizard animagus. Well, including my friends, of course'. He smiled involuntarily at the thought of the five of them having such advantage over their peers at school. They would need to keep it secret of course.

They gave the book a read, taking turns to read it out loud to each other, to make sure they all understood what was necessary to perform the charm correctly. They did skip a bit about the story of the charm and whatnot, much to Allen's dismay since he did want to know where it originated and how it came to be, but he could always borrow it from Armand later to read it thoroughly.

"You memorized the incantation?" Armand asked the four of them, to which they nodded.

"Alright then, we have these leaves the professor sent me, they are normal leaves, so it won't affect the process when we try with the real thing."

First, we will stick them to the wall and see how long it last, after that, we will each pick one and put it in our mouths to practice not only the spell, but also to get used to having a leaf inside our mouths."

They nodded again and casted the charm pointing their wands to the wall where they were holding the leaf with their other hand.

It took Elsie, Sophia and William a bit of time before they managed to master the charm, on the other hand, Allen and Armand managed to do it on their first try, since after the first leaf they kept on sticking more and more leaves to the wall as if they were possessed. Of course they gave pointers to their friends here and there, but what made them master the charm was their determination.

When they finally finished practicing, the wall of the classroom was covered in leaves.

"I think we can end it for today." Armand said looking at the wall.

"Right, remember, this is not a permanent charm, so we would need to cast it continuously in case you feel the leaf falling off from your mouth. I think that to be sure we should cast the charm every time we go to sleep, just to be safe." Allen said, making all of the leaves on the wall fall down using his wand, then levitating them with his right hand and putting them in the same basket they were before.

While they were too tired to be impressed, they were still a bit shocked how Allen still had energy to do more magic.

Before they could even say anything, Allen casted the scourgify charm on the bundle of leaves, since he didn't know if the wall were they stuck them was dirty or not. And they would put at least one of them in their mouths so he didn't want to put a dirty leaf inside of his mouth.

'I should've done this to the wall first instead, dammit.'

His friends looked at him, surprised even more now that they saw him use a fourth year spell. "So, are we ready?" He asked, picking up a random leaf from the bunch he gathered.

They nodded and picked each a leaf as well, then, at the same time, they all put the leaf in their mouth, then proceeded to cast the sticking charm on the leaf.

After that, they all smiled as big as they could to show the leaf inside of their mouth, which made them laugh.

They all went back to their dormitories, feeling the weird sensation of a foreign object inside of their mouths.

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In the following days leading up to the start of winter holidays, William was unable to keep the leaf in his mouth for more than a week, while Elsie managed to hold on all the way through. In Sophia's case… even with the help of the sticking charm, for some reason the leaf kept falling off her mouth. In the end, she managed to hold it for at least five days.

Regarding Allen and Armand's case, both kept the leaf inside of their mouth for the duration of the days leading up to the 23 of November.

They met up after dinner, Armand carried a bag full of mandrakes leaves, even if they just needed one, he felt like having more than necessary was better in the end.

After a bit of running around, they reached the Astronomy tower, where the full moon was at it brightest point, there, Armand took out the leaves and put them on a cloth he also carried with him.

The moment he did so, Allen felt a weird wave of magic coming from the leaves, something he didn't really felt before. Confused by the situation, he used his eyes to look at the leaves.

His friends flinched a bit, but decided to keep quiet to see what he was going to say.

What he saw was a dim silver light covering each of the leaves, which in turn enhanced the natural magic of the leaves. Even then, some had muted colours in comparison to others.

"Would you guys let me pick each leaf for you?" He asked, still looking at the bundle of mandrake leaves.

They looked at each other and agreed almost immediately.

"Sure thing mate! Actually, I would feel safer if you did it." William said scratching his head.

"I guess, if you really want to." Sophia added, a bit prideful but still letting him nonetheless.

"Go ahead Allen, I trust you." Elsie smiled warmly at him.

And Armand nodded his head in agreement to Allen's request.

He examined a bunch of leaves until only five were left, the rest were returned to the small sack Armand carried them.

Each leave had a shine to it that was indescribable to Allen, even then, the only thing he could think about was that this was the correct thing to do.

They all had the same silver light that shone almost as bright as a first year's dantian.

After he picked up the five leaves and was about to put each on his friend's hand, an intrusive though entered his mind. 'What if I use the Wand-Raising Charm on them?'

He shook his head getting rid of such thoughts. 'No! If something goes wrong with the process, the transfiguration will be permanent, no messing around!' He reprimanded himself then distributed each leaf to each of his friends.

Then, almost as if they were drinking, they all picked up their leaf and bumped them to each others. "Cheers!" They said at the same time before putting the leaf inside of their mouths, after that, every one of them casted the sticking charm to the leaf.

Even if they didn't managed to become animagus, it didn't mean that they couldn't try it again, and even then, the whole process brought them closer so he was grateful for that.

Now, it was time for an excruciating time of being self aware of having something in their mouth for a whole month.