That final night at Castle Bellarose, a still partially engorged moon rose to reflect over the glassy biodome and soggy medieval brickwork under barrage by a crackling thunderstorm.

Pale fingers of ghostly light refracted off the sheen of rainwater clinging in desperate film to every conceivable surface, filling every conceivable crack - ultimately producing the luminous possibility of endless tiny mirrors here and there.

Below the transparent dome, Ottilie The Odd paused trampling for the first time in years to crack his rotted neck back, sending his one remaining, somewhat in-tact eyeball to the stars in a mindless, drooling gaze. If anyone had noticed the act they might ponder that some morsel of his sentience braved lingering in that disintegrating cask, curiously considering planets far beyond reach.

Within the castle walls a girl buried in thick hair attempted to drift back asleep despite a jolting postal delivery, and a very uncomfortable sensation deriving from an additional heartbeat below her silky night slip.

Seven days had so dented the month of February, all of which had been preoccupied by a creeping, dystopian reminder that a new magical form was emerging in glorious triumph. And whilst this was a sure sign that the extremely meticulous animagus process was coming to divine fruition, Audette found the presence of that second heartbeat to be wholly discomforting.

It had begun first as a flutter, dismissed intentionally as a mild case of arrhythmia she knew not to be true.

Yet inevitably by the fourth day it was as if her rib cage were hosting a confused organ which had divided itself into two versions, only to battle for space with it's offbeat evil twin.

There simply did not seem to be enough room for both the original and the burgeoning animagus heart. Not only did she find herself gasping uncomfortably, but her ribs ached from the resulting flare, and she felt nauseated on the regular.

Up to her ears in lavish bedding she clutched at her portly little Consciaur all curled up on an adjacent pillow within her palm, his subconscious mutterings so faint they were practically oozy snores in her ears.

As Think-Think inhaled and wheezed mindless advice to no one in particular, Audette's eyes flickered back and forth behind forcibly shut lids, begging her body to match his comatose energy.

Sleep...Sleep...

Please oh please, go back to rest you silly old corpse...

The onset of the thunderstorm meant only one thing; it had come time to finally transform.

This fearful reality was emphasized by the warbled ringing of Draco's gifted elemenbral on her dresser at the far end of the room, producing within it's glassy confinement a microcosmic blitz to match the weather erupting outside.

As quick as the lightning striking the terrain, Montgomery had taken it upon himself to enthusiastically rejoice at the coincidental timing...as if a thunderstorm in the north of Ireland were unusual at all.

It rained cats and dogs ninety percent of the year over that mossen plate of rugged land - it was practically guaranteed that an electrical event might unravel on the seventh day proceeding all required components to the noxious animagus brew Audette had since buried in a secret place within the biodome.

By all regards he'd gone and done the worst - the revered Lord Bellarose - sending golden winged owls in every direction post-haste to deliver private invites for a spastically scheduled morning ceremony.

And one of those trademark Bellarose owls had flown straight to the ominous brooding sore that was the Malfoy Manor, jutting out in the English countryside like a big blackened tooth.

The absolute backstabber, the absolute...

Audette was left miffed beyond control by this curious betrayal.

As if she were not already scared blind by the very vulnerable upcoming metamorphosis, she now would be required to entertain a dozen judgmental onlookers.

And speaking of ill-begotten behavior: Draco's curt letter of warning had burned like an unwarranted bee sting.

He had written to her as if she were childish for feeling upset with him, of the evident assumption that she might instigate some ridiculous scene in front of both of their parents during the inauguration simply due to his attendance.

His signature cocktail of blatant narcissism was astoundingly effective in throwing her off every single time.

Another toss, another sheet of waves tickling her cheeks mercilessly...

She could only imagine why Draco despised the endless accumulation of contrasting golden locks in his raven bedsheets, having to sleep next to none other than Cousin It.

Toss. Spitting out strands. Toss again.

Lightning flashing...

Shadows, stretching towards her bed in cursed suggestion of sharp fingernails...

Had Narcissa been behind that last part, scolding both of them to behave? Because it had sounded an awful lot like her wistful wording in Draco's letter;...not focus on any petty qualms which may divert from this critical achievement...

Stress about the morning ritual to come poured out of every cell within her body.

Toss, toss, toss...

There occurred a half-minded fling of an overheated cushion digging into her shoulder blades from behind, however this violent action did little to supply stress relief.

Although it did successfully knock off the elemenbral. Upon pinging off her flooring, the orb then greedily rolled out of view directly below her shocking engagement party dress, which had been mounted to a very creepy mannequin that Audette was convinced watched her relentlessly in the dark.

She rammed a new pillow victim straight over her head.

Uggggghhhh...

During the most monumental moment of her life Draco was slated to be there, to witness everything with those fierce blue eyes of his.

Almost worse, Lucius Malfoy and his clucking harassment had also been malevolently petitioned into solemnizing.

If she dared evolve into a chicken she stood zero chance of emotionally recovering.

Oh how fondly did her robustly bifurcated heart pummel within it's confining limitations at just the unsightly mental conception, determined to wreak havoc and prevent a wink of shut eye.

As it turns out, it is nearly impossible to dissolve wakedness with one's blood pulsing wickedly just below the surface of the skin.

And yet she somehow went from being curled up in her plushy bed to being curled up within a caboose at the back end of the Hogwarts Express.

Audette's Adventures In Wonderland

The first clue that something was stupidly askew was the total absence of literally any other soul aside from herself.

She woke in a myoclonic jerk to the breathy exude of a steam trumpet blaring, head banging against the cloudy double pane of a well-worn veneer.

The slam of her skull against the glass was instantly associated with a rather signature march of rotating wheels and jogging coupling rods in dire need of greasing - only to find that she was alone on the whizzing steam train.

Audette blinked in confusion down at the Slytherin uniform she was now darning in place of the comely blue night slip she'd put herself to bed in. Knee length green and silver socks, check, white dress shirt, check, matching tie, skirt and serpentine robes to boot - yes, it was all there, the whole shebang, check check check.

Unraveling her bent knees from the booth, she peered around a vertical metal pole cornering the large, open concept caboose which typically hosted the vicious Slytherin crowd.

It was silent, aside of course from the menacing growl of the antiquated train itself.

Okay...

Audette was not one to lucid dream, ergo she arrived at a worrying and irrational conclusion that she had thus come down with a concerning case of dementia and was somehow on her way to Hogwarts for her dreaded ninth year.

She stood and rubbed her eyes. Even if that scenario were true, none of it explained the universal vacancy of the area.

Had something unavoidably intriguing kicked off at the nose of the train, of which everyone had rushed to inspect?

Where was her precious bequeathed? Her friends? Had Draco and Guy simply got up and left her there sleeping like a loser?

Audette stumbled to a bug-smattered window and smushed her face to the pane, heeding that the train was approaching a pitch black tunnel she had never before documented on the well worn route.

There was no time to react - or to do anything for that matter - as the mismanaged caravan blasted into the mysterious mountain and within seconds doused the interior in total terrifying blackness.

Then much like a rollercoaster it dove downwards at bullet speed, and Audette lost her grip on the nearest pole, careening towards what was surely going to be a sickening crack against the partition wall below.

As her last sweaty finger unpeeled from the slick surface and the sensation of falling shot up her spine, she braced for a disfiguring impact...

...yet nothing happened.

Instead her green skirt puffed out like a tiny parachute as she floated against the constructs of known gravity, until without question, Audette grew convinced she was no longer on the fake Hogwarts Express.

A light! A light had just passed by in the shadows! A light in the form of a skeletal arm holding up a fiery torch!

Yes she recognized that grisly torch mount, from the abandoned dungeon kitchens where the Slytherins had been forced to practice dancing for the Yule ball with the displaced Parisians.

More torches of varying mounting styles found within the castle popped up at unreasonable spacings - some blazing in impossibly sideways bowls. Slowly the passage she was floating through came alive with brightness refracting off of familiar forms.

Jutting stone pillars constructed at unusual masonry angles began to stab at her as she descended through a Hogwarts Castle-themed tunnel in dreamy repose.

It was as if she'd found herself in the transverse colon of some megalithic beast which had swallowed the fortress whole, discovering recognizable elements in twisted, partially digested form.

Embedded in the messy confines of the corridor were respectable paintings all crying in ghoulish angst, segments of marble staircases leading into crumbling brick, and ghosts drifting with listless verve.

She barely managed to press herself defensively away from those characteristically swinging staircases, which were operating in the narrow space with very little consideration for her journey through.

It was an absolute minefield. There was also animated suits of armor, reaching for her accoutrement like beggary, deformed beings. Horrified, Audette swatted their fingers away, losing swatches of her robe and skirt to powerful metallic clutches.

When she finally reached the bottom of the passageway and her feet were firmly planted on solid pavers, she spun to the only option forward; a ninety-degree turn in the corridor leading off into what would appear to be the school she had attended for eight years, only warped, and adumbral.

It was only a dream...only a dream...

Tepidly, in those unlawfully chunky Hogwarts boots all students were required to wear, Audette picked her way down that ominous egress, pressing one shoulder into the brickwork, hands planting against the grainy surface of the interior cladding one after the other in preventative measure should Newton's Law decided to reconfigure it's standards once more.

Then out of the depths of abysmal gloom ahead another lantern lit all of it's own accord, and below the protracted mount stood none other than Theodore Beniamino Nott.

The White Rabbit, And A Sordid Trifle With Horology

Well...it was Theodore Nott alright...with a set of rather stiff, ivory bunny ears popping out from his luscious brown locks in rigid configuration.

He was leaning against the wall in a vintage pearly waistcoat, analyzing that humming time turner strung from his neck on a delightful chain of gold. Below his arm sat tucked a luxurious promenade umbrella, and above the bridge of his suddenly pinkened nose his rectangular reading glasses were fastened sharply in place.

"I'm late...I'm far too late...for a very important...date..," he kept whispering on barely audible repeat, "I'm late...I'm too late..."

"T-Teddy? Is that...really you?" Audette asked in frazzled shock, gaze frolicking up and down his agonized aura and inhuman fuzzy ears. She began to ring her tie nervously.

Said austere bunny ears swiveled in her direction as soon as the ambiance was shattered.

Dark, tormented blue eyes shot to hers thoughtfully, filled with water and despair, then back to the grinding, malfunctioning time turner within his white gloves. It's clackety clicking was wildly out of tune and harassing to say in the least; a strong insinuation of just how fritzed the apparatus was.

In a strange gasp he pressed off of the wall and buried the faulty time turner within his collar, clearly meaning to randomly depart without so much as a basic greeting, "I'm late! I must save her!"

He bolted like a spooked bunny into the void, and Audette followed in reactive panic, screaming out, "Wait Teddy! Wait! Please Teddy, don't go! Who is it you must save?"

Her voice registered as if she were shouting underwater - distorted, much like singing into a plastic fan on a sweltering summer day.

Was it his mother he felt compelled to save beyond hope - Electra Nott - who had vanished due to her risky delving into interdimensional magic?

Or was it Audette, the very girl he was disregarding as he pelted into the obsidian limits of her dream?

Blindly, she followed his figure into nothingness with barely the tail of his pristine navy jacket in view, lanterns upon the wall lighting and dousing as he passed by, until they reached what was presumably the Great Hall based on a set of familiar double doors hanging out of position by the clasp of amuck vines.

Theo pried one door open with the weedy strength of a professional nerd, then forced his way through the awkward crack provided.

Inside she spotted him dodging benches and tables strewn in unruly fashion, fighting his way into a stringy wall of grey bush hanging where the professor's dining table once stood, still crying aloud, "I'm late! I'm late! Time is running out!"

With Audette in tow he pressed deeper and deeper into the vegetation until all visual of the pretentious genius turned part-rabbit terminated abruptly.

She halted mistrustfully at the precipice of the bizarre silver foliage which sported absolutely no leaves, appearing more like a set of barren electrical wires if anything.

Her nose continued up and up, until she was met with the elderly grin of Headmaster Dumbledore himself, towering to the height of the vaulted ceiling at an unnatural scale - and that was saying quite a lot, because the ceiling itself had stretched a good three times it's normal height.

Why, it was not vegetation at all, it was the filthy mop that had been growing from the chin of their Headmaster for what was likely a hot century.

Dumbledoor, And The Wall Of Unaccommodating Fuzz

Had Theodore just scarpered below Dumbledore's robes?

Cue credit to Draco Malfoy for constantly reminding her that she was Wonderland to him. Yes, this was undoubtedly another line item she might add to his list of things to apologize for.

"Professor Dumbledore?" Audette queried in a petite voice filled with disbelief. She felt she already knew the answer, that this was in fact, not the Professor Dumbledore that she knew.

He smiled, raspy voice gentle as a spring breeze, "Miss Bellarose, I believe you may have me confused with someone else. You see, I'm not Professor Dumbledore, I'm Professor Dumbledoor."

Right...Fitting...

Should her account of Lewis Carroll's original piece bare any merit, it might suggest that the Headmaster in this world was in fact emulating the cheeky and unhelpful doorknob character.

"If you don't mind...I was just following-" Audette played mildly into the classic rigmarole, awkwardly digging around through the beard, only to find that it was dreadfully tangled - so tangled in fact that passage through was suddenly quite a joke where it had seemed but a feathery dance for Theodore Nott, the White Rabbit who was late for...something.

She stepped out in frustration, glaring up at Dumbledoor's innocently mocking smile, "Well now honestly, have you ever heard of a comb? I was just following Teddy but this won't do, I can't possibly get through this itchy mess."

To further set a fire below her rump, Audette noticed that the enchanted ceiling above Dumbledoor's hat had begun to rumble and gather weighty gray storm clouds, promising to unleash an unholy thunderstorm that no doubt would flood the room much like an oversized weeping girl might do.

The elderly man closed his eyes sweetly, perhaps falling asleep in an upright position, "Nothing is impossible - impassible yes, but not impossible. However I believe you possess the key, right there in your hands might I add. Any time you find yourself feeling powerless to your environment, recall that you alone wield this key."

"What key?" Audette glanced at her barren palms as thick raindrops began to smatter the Great Hall in droves, expecting some elaborate key to pop into existence there on par with the ridiculousness.

"Not all keys are keys, you see," Dumbledoor cryptically blathered - as if that were the sort of inane clarity she was seeking.

When nothing appeared and the water level had managed to reach her knees at a perverse velocity, it struck her; oh yes, she was a wandless witch, a very unique wandless witch at that.

Hot red hands held out as destructive irons, Audette proceeded to rudely burn segments of Dumbledoor's precious ratty locks. The stench of sizzling bristle, while positively revolting, represented the sole downside as she soon arrived at a familiar moldy wall.

As it were, they were not in a world operating within material logic, and of course Audette found herself deposited directly at the toe of the Slytherin common room entrance. In some relieving manner she was glad to see it instead of finding out what sort of drawers Dumbledore fancies.

Now up to her elbows in water, her spine commenced tingling in disgust below the rooty beard system.

Trapped there in those foul conditions, Audette surmised this must be what it feels like to wade through the everglades, caged in by weedy mangroves and questionable creatures swirling around below the surface of the water.

It was likely flooded spoons and forks picking at her ankles, but...

Alright that was the limit.

In a soaked fit she banged closed fists off of the chiseled frontage preventing her from pressing onwards, resorting to belting out any and every historical password that crossed her harried mind;

Principatus (the current password of their eighth year)

Pureblood

Pureblood

Pureblood (a classic offence throughout the past ten centuries)

Mopsus Potion

Swooping Evil

Ophiuchus

Ronald Weasley's Morbidly Obese Rat

That last one had been quite the kicker in second year.

In defeat she pressed her forehead against the wall, sucking in heaving breaths of burning air. The waterline had now reached her chin, and disgusting tendrils of oily Dumbledoor beard were wavering around her waist below the surface.

Think...think...what was the intuitive lesson meant to be discovered within the dream? What was the reason behind her mind spurning this nightmare fuel into imagination?

Oh how handy Think-Think would be in that situation, yet he was busy snoozing away on her pillow like Dinah the cat, enjoying a much earned break from Audette's madness for the evening.

"Animagus..." she took one final stab at it, just about choking on water welling up to her ears.

To her shock the wall grated across permissibly, sucking out all of the accumulated rain and Audette in a whirlwind spate.

The resulting frenzy was akin to jumping over the edge of a waterfall imbedded with jagged boulders at the base; rushing bubbles, crashing waves, exploding sprays off of cherry wood boned furniture that had been preoccupying the common room...

Oh the bruises would be hideous if this were a real life scenario.

After the momentum died down Audette coughed violently, left on the sodden carpet as fluid aggressively projected from within her airway, fingers digging into the fibers below for any semblance of anchorage.

Tweedledweeb, Tweedledumb, And Snape The Snake

Dancing around her head was suddenly two filthy pairs of those chunky Hogwarts issued boots, pockmarked with globs of icing and chocolate from routine gluttonous activities. They were attached to none other than Greggory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe, sporting matching green golf caps as they reiterated rubbish tunes from months prior that she had thought were finally forgotten.

Talk about Tweedledweeb and Tweedledumb.

The noxious singing went on and on in loops as she recovered from her disgraceful entry, both of them nearly stomping all over her as they danced about in klutzy circles.

"Aud-ette Bell-arose - she'll make you sweat through fits she throws! Invite her to bed, and all you'll get, is corsets, ribbons and bows!"

"Aud-ette...Aud-ette...Bella-arose..."

"Aud-ette...Aud-ette...Bella-arose..."

"Now that is quite en...ough..," her furious snap faded as soon as she digested the unusual state of the common room, blinking through their prancing jumpsuits encircling her.

In place of pillars there were thick tree trunks, in place of concave brick ceilings there was leafy canopies and tangled mats of vines, and below her dirty nails was not carpeting as she had expected...no, it was forest underground, soggy and verdant.

The gigantic, black leather couches remained in their classic orientation, however now they were encircling a colossal cauldron. And wrapped all around the exterior of that active cauldron was the scaly bodice of a black snake...with the uncanny facial features of Severus Snape.

Oh god, it was repulsive. R E P U L S I V E.

Audette's subconscious mind had spared not a drop of mercy when redeveloping the caterpillar character into something referencing from her own life.

Apparently it was the parallel sinuous and prolonged cadence, as well as a keen interest in chemicals, shared by both the caterpillar and Snape that had resulted in this unholy abomination.

The suspect Snape Snake was merrily busying itself dumping all sorts of colorful potions into the cauldron, producing rainbow plumes in thick rings which dissipated in the tree branches above.

And somewhere up there, someone was not too pleased about all the raging pollution.

Audette had just clambered to her soggy feet and plucked a golden dining fork from her dripping hair when the most ear-piercing shrieking unfolded, "Serrrrrpent! Serpent! Serp-ent!"

Tweedledweeb and Tweedledumb paused their chanting, peering alongside Audette to where a bright pink and white nest of checkered cloth had been constructed in the leaves above.

There in plain sight was an Umbridge-style pigeon peering over the side of the unnatural fortification, looking wildly harrowing as usual. She had even strung up a slew of framed proclamations on strings, dangling like Christmas ornaments from the branches, all glittering in the cauldron's glow.

"Serpent, I say again!" she pipped in clinical outrage, glaring at the state of her precious proclamations - all of who's glass frontages were rapidly accumulating stinking soot.

"Keep...your...temper..." drawled the Snape Snake dispassionately, continuing to mix the mystery elixir in bold expression of how little he cared for her balderdash.

"As if it wasn't trouble enough hatching together these proclamations," seethed the Umbridge pigeon, climbing out of her personalized hell hole to flit about obnoxiously.

It looked just like a classic pigeon...if one were able to get around the bright pink feathers and stupid curly hair on it's head. To no surprise she went on to wail spectacularly, "I must be on the lookout for serpents night and day! Serpents, all of you! I haven't had a wink of sleep! Serrrrpents!"

"But we're not all serpents. That is a blatant generalization!" Audette defended reflexively, crossing her arms.

Tweedledweeb and Tweedledumb seemed to concur, nodding their heads at her side - although this action meant very little indeed, due to their cumulative intelligence registering far below the average.

"What are you lot then, if not a batch of inconsiderate vipers?" asked the hybridized pigeon, emitting a sharp pip with each flit to a new branch, "I really do hate serpents."

Well there was no time for negotiation apparently, seeing as the Snape Snake lost it's battle with patience and so flicked it's long tail into the air, pelting the Umbridge pigeon far out of sight or sound.

After sending the bird careening, the uncomfortably serpentine version of Snape paused only briefly to narrow it's already slit eyes at Audette, "And exactly whooo...are...you? WHAT...are you?"

She fumbled with her crisp skirt, batting her eyes in consternation as both the Crabbe and Goyle clones eyed her down with nearby judgement, "Well I-I hardly know, sir...that is-I-I'm in the process of deciding that. And I've only until tomorrow morning to figure it out. It's an emergency, you see - my sense of identification."

"Hmmm...I do not see..." the Snape Snake hummed coolly, attending to the burbling cauldron via a glass stirring rod ensnared within his conically provided teeth.

Audette felt rather put at a disadvantage by his carelessness, peering around the overwhelming forest background with no indication of where to go next, "Well to be frank; I require some sort of input from you in order to move forward in this numbskullery play. That is how it works afterall."

"So...you are...Frank?" asked the Snape Snake inelegantly. She was now convinced he was listening with but half an ear hole.

"No, I am certainly not," Audette griped immediately at the ludicrous comment intended to deride, stamping her boot into the slippery earth. She had gone into the response with sharp confidence, and suddenly she had a hair's width of assurance coming out the other end, "I'm-I'm...I'm..."

What was she again?

"You are...?" pausing in place, the Snape Snake expressed absolute nihilism, raising one eyebrow to drive home the embarrassment, "Youuuu...are what? What are you, in the morn to come?"

"I don't know what I'll be," she swept her wrist across now rainy eyes that had come out of nowhere to aggravate the circumstances, "That is the very conundrum. I don't know what animagus I should pick and it's all falling to bits. Five weeks of work all for nothing, and Draco is surely going to laugh at me, and my father...oh my father will lock me in that tower for the rest of my life."

Tweedledweeb and Tweedlebumb glanced at one another regretfully.

Curse this cruel dream. Curse this perfect opportunity for her mind to pick on her while she was already down and out.

Snape's dark interjection brought her back to the current nightmare at hand, somehow mixing the labyrinthine potion with adroit craftiness despite his recent lack of hands, "What size do you wish to be?"

It was a very simple question, related to a not-so-simple problem.

Audette met eyes with Greggory Goyle and his silly green cap before losing her chill and batting it clean off his dirty brown curls.

What size would she like to be? That was an unusual approach to the question, however it did put things into perspective.

"I-I would like to be as large as I can. I would like to feel strong...for once," she pondered aloud, wringing yet again her poor school uniform. At least the Umbridge pigeon had been removed before it could admonish her cringey presentation.

"And is that all?" she was prodded by the snake to keep thinking, now that they were finally getting somewhere and the wheels of thought were spinning, "Perhaps you should consider a serpent, before you go snidely judging what you know nothing of being."

"Does everyone else in this world feel confident in their new species? Is it so easy for everyone but myself?" Audette shook her head sharply, noticing that the Snape Snake was now lining up two potions at her toes with his tail.

Conveniently, the shimmering fluid within both vials had come out a lovely ivory swatch. If there was any difference between their functions, it would be holy impossible to know without blindly trying them out.

In envy, she thought back to Teddy and his funny rabbit ears and pinkened nose, she thought of the pigeon and it's immaculate suitability for Umbridge, and even here, this gigantic snake certainly made a lot of sensibility for Severus Snape, the brooding Head of Slytherin House.

"You'll get used to it...in time. You've only just begun," the cauldron was hence allowed to die down, as the Snape Snake unraveled it's monolithic form in silent suggestion that it's job was complete.

To her disgust it began to molt right there in front of the two Tweedles and herself, first pushing it's face out of a cask of dry skin, then wriggling about to peel off the rest of it's length in one big vacant carapace.

As Audette plucked up the two seemingly identical potions she squinted for any labels, any indication whatsoever as to what their effects might be, "Get used to what?"

"Being yourself," stated the snake matter-of-factly, as if she were rather daft for asking so many questions. Without any clear guidance, it completed it's chrysalis and slithered away into the trees, "One shall make you larger, and the other smaller."

Right.

Audette pocketed the mysterious Aesculapian units in her robe pockets, one on either side, prepared only to utilize them when no other options forward were obvious.

She left the Tweedles dancing behind in the awry common room area, picking her way into the thick treeline.

It was not long before she was stupidly lost in the shadows once again - as lost as she still was as to what animagus would express her identity best.

The forest was spooky, and only becoming spookier with each step. The bark had all gone black as if an ancient fire had torn through the underbrush, and there was silver carpeting running between all of the trees as if to supply an endless zigzag of possible pathway options.

Audette sneezed in surprise; the air had grown unnaturally spicy...now where had she smelled that scent of signature pine before?

She was shocked when a huge Eurasian owl sporting orange orbs soared at her face, hooting with it's ferocious claws out towards her hairline.

And this was not the only airborne threat; undead crows with glowing red eyes were perched and squawking all over the place, sending chills straight up her back.

Where was that gaudy obsidian wallpaper from, that was wrapped around boulders like big jagged presents?

She pawed in anxious prospect after her robe pockets, intending to fidget with the potions...only to find that her Slytherin uniform had been replaced with Narcissa Black Malfoy's Victorian gown.

A big grin spread across her face then, because someone particularly important to her that she had been hoping to find in that nightmare Wonderland was surely about to pop out next.

A Tail In A Tuxedo

She heard the humming well before he appeared in plain sight - some charming lilt following along to that infamously nonsensical rhyme about 'outgrabe momeraths.'

Audette stopped next to a terrifying grandfather clock that seemed to be carved straight into the raven trunk of a living tree, it's round face presenting with strangely human qualities.

Where could he be, this customary version of the Cheshire cat?

She knew precisely who it was based on his familiar sly tone, and now her heart was palpitating in greedy anticipation, searching every tree canopy.

"Uh...lose something? Someone, perhaps? Easy enough to lose oneself out here, I'm certainly not all there myself," the humming broke only to be replaced by his luxurious voice and conniving snicker.

Her eyes shot up to a tree to discover that the whitest smile she'd ever seen had just materialized in thin air, clearly directed down at her.

Beginning with very rigid white stripes that soon revealed into a pin-striped tuxedo, the rest of Draco manifested on a large tree branch, one long leg swinging down lazily while he tossed something up and down in a white glove.

Guiltily, despite knowing she aught to be incensed with him beyond salvage, Audette's heart flooded at the sight of his familiar features and impetuous energy.

Her brain exploded with an unfathomable waterfall of gushing serotonin as he leapt expertly from the branch, exactly how she'd seen the tree-dwelling menace do one thousand times in the Hogwarts courtyard.

Such glee made it quite unthinkable to prevent an outburst of giggles upon spotting his revised features, especially when he licked his glove and swept it back through his long straight locks.

She covered her nose in blistering amusement, "Why, why Draco you're a cat!"

"Me-ooww," he whispered and winked at her teasingly.

The childish whiskers drawn onto his pale cheeks promised to send her clean off the deep end, as if he'd just returned from a face painting at the local town fair.

She inspected his design, all of which only inflated the hysterics. A pair of black, fuzzy ears were poking out from his pearly hair, and his shockingly handsome smile seemed to be slightly too wide in phenotypical mimic of the original fairytale creature he was embodying.

He was naturally manipulative, playful and circumspective, and by all standards he was the best fit for the chagrin role of pointing out which way to wander on.

Yet another person who had flawlessly taken on a new species, making the task seem almost mockingly simplistic.

Audette smiled at her estranged fiancé, biting her bottom lip helplessly, "You're my Cheshire cat! Oh I can't tell you how happy I am to see you."

"Try again," he popped his eyebrows vaguely down at her, pocketing the thing he'd been tossing. Before it was gone Audette thought she noticed the limp tail of a mouse he might've been mauling in characteristic feline throng.

"Are you-are you planning to eat that?" she darted concerned eyes down to his bulging pocket where the miniature marsupial had just vanished. Maybe kissing him could wait until the morning.

He shrugged coyly, "Don't be absurd - they're only good for mauling. Then I suspect I shall abandon it for other priorities. Your priority should be getting my name correct, my patience is waning evermore."

Audette was quite certain the mouse was already mauled to death, but back to business as not only his patience was waning, but so too was his visibility - one pin-stripe at a time.

Draco waited silently, still grinning in a slightly creepy manner as seconds transpired between them.

Finally the analogy clicked, explaining the ivory bowtie, white gloves and fancy black and white accoutrement, "Are you...a tuxedo cat, because of how chronically stylish you are?"

Draco purred encouragingly, plucking up her mitten in his fingers for a gentle kiss, dragging those daggers for eyes all over her reaction, "Here to help my sweet little stray kitten."

She certainly did not mind this Draco at all, instantly blushing.

"Oh my god, just look at your glorious tail!" Audette found herself crippling and weeping as a giggle fit of epic magnitude broke out from her throat. Within moments her lungs were burning from the resulting wheezing, mopping at her salty face, "Oh it's so long and pretty, isn't it?"

Draco joined her in laughing, holding up his shadowy tail which had a delightful little white tip to it, protruding from the back of his tailored outfit, "Don't you body shame me, love. This is your dream and entirely your doing. Although I will note it is rather handy for balance."

"Oh, oh this is far too delicious. I simply must pet it! Come here then pussycat, don't fuss!" Audette was now choking on phlegm, pawing maliciously after his tail but Draco leapt backwards defensively outside of her reach, his hot blue eyes flaring in disapproval.

Then just as quickly they drooped snobbishly, and for a moment he looked much like his real self again.

"No, I think not - you aught to know better than to touch a cat without permission," he sneered the sentence in a suspiciously telltale growl, swatting at her shoulder with a bizarre cat-like jab.

Audette felt instantly afraid that he was going to vanish due to the silly mistake, "I'm quite sorry Draco, please don't abandon me here."

But then his freaky smile returned in full aspiration as if struck in the face with dementia, tilting his head down at her, "Alright, I've changed my mind, I would like to be touched - only because it is on my terms."

"Well now that truly is just mad thinking," she propped her hands on her waist.

Her face was now red and warm, and her chest uplifted from this unexpected visitation with him, no matter if it was all a fleeting dream of the most irrational theme, "Speaking of which, I aught to be a lot more mad with you right this instant."

The words were spoken in vain as she failed miserably to defer his arms wrapping around her waist to tug her in, his pointy nose digging around in her neck as he hummed to mirror purring.

"Why?" he asked in a singsong hush, planting soft kisses on her cheeks.

"Why?" she gulped rhetorically, twisting her hands in his suit, "Because you're a dirty, rotten cheater, that's why. You've betrayed me. I'm still waiting for several explanations from you."

"Who has betrayed you?" he asked quizzically, "Certainly not me, not in this world I haven't, my beautiful duchess. You're thinking of someone else - a cat is always loyal to it's duchess here."

Oh it was wonderful, his smell, his touch, his breath in her ear...

She cuddled up to his neck and reveled in his tight hug, wishing she might stay there in that warm place until the very second she would be required to wake up. She sighed and pulled him into kisses which were thankfully still minty and not mouse-flavored.

"Would you tell me, please, which way I aught to walk from here, Tuxedo Puss?" she asked when they broke apart.

"Well that all depends on where you want to go, or who it is you're searching for," he grinned at her with that very big smile, tucking her hair behind her ears affectionately.

"Well I was...I was first following the White Rabbit, you see, and-" Audette's mindless mumbling was cut off by Draco stepping back from her with blackness filling his vision.

He stared at her in fervent hostility for an eternal moment, before he stepped far too passionately towards her and vanished in a cloud of smoke around either side.

She heard him continue to speak to her from some distant dimension, witnessing his shoeprints divide around her in the thick silver carpeting, "Why would you chase after him? Have you betrayed me perchance, duchess? Because you cannot have both a cat and some mangy, ungrateful rabbit. You'll have to pick just one pet."

He reappeared much farther down the way leaning on a trunk which had pictures of his family tree ironically painted all up the side, the putrid contortion of his upper lip outlining how disconcerted the mention of Teddy Nott had made him feel.

He was definitely going to vanish now, now that she'd gone and done it.

The deceased marsupial was promptly removed for an angry toss, which ended in him sending her a dangerous frown as he used his thumb to revoltingly snap it's spine in the loudest possible manner.

He dropped it to the carpeting in a lifeless thunk, not once breaking eye contact.

"I choose you," Audette reached for him apologetically, recalling that Draco was a death eater afterall with a Gemini tendency to ping-pong between incredible romanticism and murderous rage, "I choose you...I whole-heartedly choose you. I recognize that I shouldn't chase after him anymore, but there exists this unimaginable feeling of unfinished business."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Well finish it, or I'll finish him," he hissed in an exorcist tone, stepping his shoe down onto the carcass of the mouse to squash it into a pile of bloody fur. Her mouth dropped at the show of threatening gore.

Flashbacks to the carriage ride home on the evening of the Yule Ball blasted across her brain. Then there was the foul discussion he'd had with Montgomery Bellarose on the artificial beach.

"An inconsequential tragedy," Montgomery had pleasantly strolled away in his peach suit, evidently contented by the agenda update.

Audette crossed her arms awkwardly, dropping her face to her stockings in the carpeting as Draco watched her bitterly, "Well, perhaps you've got a suggestion as to which animagus to select in the morning."

Again, Draco's energy switched from cold to warm at an irrational rate.

Pressing off of the tree he came back to her in a sly saunter, and tilted her face by her chin, "Well there's always the Mad Hatter and the March Whore to consult. Positively mad, but they do host an unanimagus inauguration every day."

She blinked up at him, assuming her ears had misheard, "The March Whore? Don't you mean the March Hare?"

"I hardly ever mean what I don't mean. I'm not speaking for my health," he rolled his eyes.

He pointed over his shoulder through the woods, where suddenly a golden glow began to hum between the vertical elements of the landscape, exposing where beyond a great big flowering field was basking below a hot summer sun.

It was a wildflower meadow in Ireland nearby to the elderly hamlet that Guy lived in with his muggle parents.

She had gone with him many times to that field to smoke strange things out of pipes, search for gnomes to bully and sip coveted rum from his mother's loaded cabinet.

It was a quaint sort of place, a tiny freckle in the world occupied by crumbling brick walls, messy front gardens, pot-holed dirt laneways and adorable cottages - and it was surrounded on all sides by rolling green hills just like that.

Audette grabbed up Draco's gloves and pushed onto her toes to kiss at his sharp chin gratefully, "And you'll come with me, right?"

He smirked down at her, "Not this time. Let's not distract from this monumental achievement you must earn on your own. But should you require my aide again, you only need call my name. Don't forget it now."

"I won't, I couldn't possibly," she pressed her lips together in mild sadness that he refused to come along.

He had already begun to disappear again, and before she knew it he was gone.

She stood there rooted like a stump, pulling on her long locks and batting her eyelashes. After fanning her face like a ridiculously lovesick damsel, she took off towards the sunlight, excited for the next visitor.

The Mad Hatter, The March Whore, The Walrus and The Bore

Audette had begun to bolt through the trees in anticipation of her best friend's appearance, popping out into the sunshine with a great big sigh as the warmth tickled her nose.

There in that world, in her own special world, there was no need for parasols or frumpy sunhats all weighed down with fresh flower clippings that drew in the bees...because in her world there was no such thing as befreckling.

She had emerged in such a pretty blue tea gown with swirling white embellishments, and proper pearls wrapped around her neck. She eagerly picked up the hem to dash towards the randomly arranged white-picket fencing in the center of the field, situated around a classic Irish fairy tree.

And in the center of that, god forbid, was a huge table dotted with tons of piping hot tea kettles and smoking apparatuses, melting chocolate deserts, and decorated tea cups and mugs all in mismatching saucers.

It was the perfect Cosmos concoction of drugs and sweets, and all things sticky and crazy.

As Audette pulled open the swinging gate she was already giddy, mainly because the first thing that she had noticed was a huge walrus in a fancy dress. It was obviously poor Millicent Bulstrode, plucking away at a whole plate of prepared oysters who were trying to flee from the savage scene.

At one end of the dining bonanza sat Pansy Parkinson in a dastardly slutty outfit, almost as if she'd purchased a tacky Halloween costume intended for a nineteenth century gentleman. She had very long, sleek black ears falling softly down the back of her bob, her sultry boots were up on the table, and she was swigging rather avidly at some sort of steaming red drink.

Ah yes, the March Whore - Pansy being born in March with serial killer instincts in the dating scene.

At the other end sat Guy Cosmos with a laughable amount of top hats all stacked one on top of the other. The risky tower of clearly homemade headpieces was swaying around in the breeze, promising to obliterate all of the liquids on the table when it came crashing down.

In the middle of the table was an extremely petite template of Daphne Greengrass with little dormouse ears and a pin-point tail around her tiny dress, snoozing away on a plush pillow. Daphne was a well known sleep addict, and even in this world Guy was managing to keep her up with his shenanigans.

How controversial it felt for Audette to spot that helpless marsupial, given what she'd just seen Draco do in the Malfoy woods.

Probably for the best he hadn't strung along afterall.

"You're late! There's no more room!" Guy called enthusiastically as soon as he spotted Audette picking her way between disregarded cups all left to chip and bust in the grassy area, "I would get up, but unfortunately my head is far too weighed down to leave my chair. Do you like all of my creations?"

She sat next to him, remarking that his eyes were about the glassiest she'd ever seen them. He placed a campy blue top hat onto her hair, which had all sorts of lollies poking out from shoddy holes in the fabric.

Audette let it happen begrudgingly, noting that the hat smelled somewhat like her musty grandmother, "They're all quite lovely, Cozzy, but take a few off surely. I don't even want to think about if you've been pissing in your pants again because you're stuck in this armchair."

"I'll piss in your cup if you mention my bed wetting again, on my unanimagus inauguration of all days," Guy turned his nose up to the clouds, and somehow against all logic the string of top hats clung to their positions despite the horizontal incline.

"So are you the duchess who owns the grinning cat?" asked the Bulstrode Walrus, holding out with one of it's slippery fins the platter of screaming oysters in mannerly effort.

"I suppose I am," Audette chewed on her tongue bashfully, careful to reject the smelly snack without causing insult.

The March Whore raised her eyebrows languidly, "Lucky you."

Audette registered the unfriendly attitude as Pansy plucked at her nail beds, "Have some wine then. Take anything you want, that's what you do best, isn't it duchess? Take, take, take."

She had suggested this on purpose - the wicked wench - knowing full well that Audette would easily be thrown off by the blood red liquid in all of the jiggling cups, each spilling wildly due to Guy constantly banging into the table.

After a quick mouthful she spat it out, picking a soggy lump off of her tongue. It was the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk Moth, prompting Audette to just about retch into the largest cup in reach, "Oh you phenomenal bitch, there's no wine at this table."

Pansy slipped her boots off the tablecloth and smacked her hand down sharply, her hare's ears swirling around in an eerie manner, "That's correct, there isn't any."

"Well than it was not very civil of you to have offered it," glared back Audette.

"It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being invited," Pansy bared her new rabbity teeth angrily.

"I hadn't realized that this was your table, there are a great many seats available," Audette pushed all of the animagus brews away from her nose in disgust.

Ironically, as the last word left her mouth the swinging gate opened once more, and in blundered Tweedledweeb and Tweedledumb to take up two more of the spots.

The March Whore stood, twisting around one of her floppy ears in frustration, "And I hadn't realized that the grinning cat was your cat - until you kidnapped him, stuck a collar around his neck and made him soft and doughy. He's a wild creature who shouldn't be tamed, and you're...well, you're...that."

Audette jumped to her slippers too, trying to ignore the mastication melody now erupting across the way where the Tweedles were messily vacuuming up Guy's selection of treats, "And I am what exactly? What sort of creature do I look like to you?"

Pansy remained unhelpfully vague by all standards, "You should have decided that already. Haven't you had eighteen years of unanimagus inaugurations to prepare?"

Well it couldn't be argued, and Audette fell temporarily silenced in embarrassment. She sent Crabbe and Goyle a breathless look of disbelief, "Would you two stop pigging out like that?"

"The pepper, milady," Guy nonchalantly held out a pepper grinder the size of a troll's club that had been clearly modified into a weapon. He waved his rings towards the Tweedles, "Aim for the nose. Piggies despise pepper to the nose."

Audette peered through the eyepiece mounted to the hull of the contraption, aimed at Crabbe's face, and bam, a huge blast of pepper shot from the end like spicy confetti.

A round of suiting applause took off, even from the boring Daphne dormouse who continued to visibly sleep through the entire affair.

Audette tittered naughtily, shooting it off once more over all of their heads and into the drinks, "That is good fun! I think I'll hang onto this."

Guy chirped up, rubbing his hand's together, "Oh, I'd nearly forgotten - what is the date?"

They all began to bicker in gibberish, shouting out dates such as February the forty-ninth, and Undecember the fifth, until finally Audette had had it, "No, it's February the eighth, to be precise. I aught to know - it's my animagus inauguration in the morning and I haven't the foggiest of what to do."

Each person at the table gasped in shock. Apparently the news was shocking enough even to pause Crabbe and Goyle's nauseating consumption.

Guy gradually rose from the table, proving that he in fact could stand and had been lying out of laziness. The motion caused all of his hats to hysterically slant forwards and push down his forehead into his eyes, "I don't believe it. Every morning we wake up hoping for an animagus inauguration day and it's never so! We must celebrate, it's a very merry animagus inauguration!"

He sat down theatrically, and accidentally dipped both patched elbows into abandoned animagus brews.

The Millicent Walrus clapped it's fins, speaking with a mild speech impediment due to her huge yellow tusks, "We must celebrate with jam! And the best of butters!"

"The best of butters?" Audette giggled and pointed the pepper cannon at her slimy face, releasing another unjustified explosion like a batty brat, "I'm afraid I don't have time to celebrate, I simply must pick a creature and now."

A slam, and the picket gate nearly broke off of it's rusty hinges as Theodore Nott barreled uninvited into the garden party with panic in his eyes, holding out the busted time turner, "Time? There's no time. None at all. It might even be too late to save her!"

"The White Rabbit!" Audette was instantly transfixed, dropping the pepper grinder onto Millicent's long ugly tail.

Theo made the unfortunate mistake of circling past Guy who reached up and grabbed ahold of the time turner chain to choke it clean off of his neck, leaving behind a brutal red slash on Theodore's skin whilst almost tearing his head clean off, "Let's have a look then at this silly contraption you're obsessed with."

"No, no, no," Theodore pawed after the watch chain as Guy turned his back to inspect it in the sunlight, simultaneously driving Theo backwards with the assaulting hat tower glued to his scalp.

"I see what's wrong with it, it's two years off. You're late by two years to save her, you'd might as well give up," Guy cracked open the face of the device on the table top as Pansy scurried around to stand by his side with a menacing grin.

First Guy poured an entire cup of animagus brew straight into the grinding gears, then he began to crush up some of his valuable psychedelics and add the powder on top. As Theo fought with Pansy to get by, Guy grabbed up a fork and started to rip out the innards of the time turner, "So many wheels and springs, no wonder it's fecking dysfunctional!"

"But-but-but-" Theodore's rabbit ears had gone pin straight in fright.

"Butter! Of course, how mad of me to forget," Guy reached rudely in front of Audette to grab the butter dish from Millicent, who had moved on to eating it by the spoonful.

Theodore managed to get one arm past Pansy's blockade, but he still could not reach the time turner that was being actively destroyed, "You'll get crumbs in it!"

Guy snickered destructively, "Ah but this is the very best butter! Not the crumb butter, silly."

"It is the best," Millicent stole it back greedily.

Audette watched from between concerned fingers as Guy devastated the time turner with sugar and chocolate drizzle, vodka, and finally when it could not bare any more foul additions, he shut the face of it.

Liquid oozed out the sides of the trembling gadget as it was returned to it's distressed owner.

Theodore's watery blue eyes widened in alarm as the largest hand of the watch began to spin rapidly. The effects of the time turner spread at lightning speed, causing everyone at the tea party to grow into younger and older versions of themselves as the years bounced back and forth chaotically.

Audette was very grateful that there were no mirrors there, because when Crabbe grew into an elderly blob in front of her the sight was positively demonic.

Of course, Guy spent the entirety of the calamity laughing his arse off.

"Tuxedo Puss! Help us!" Audette wailed dejection.

During this madness Draco did arrive as promised. They were all approximately nine years old then, including himself. He leapt over the fence without bothering to open the gate, bolted towards Theo, and snagged the broken time turner.

Before Theodore could do anything to stop him Draco had raised one of Guy's filthy bongs and slammed it's base down onto the watch, razing it for good. An old-timey spluttering sound released from the mess of metal components, signifying it's death.

As is customary luck in dream worlds, he had eliminated the time spin exactly as they had arrived back to their eighteen year old selves.

Puffing and furious, the Tuxedo Puss growled at the White Rabbit, "There. Now you will always be too late to save her, no sense in perseveration. Her fate is decided - the duchess belongs to the shadows forever more."

Theodore wriggled his bright pink nose in rabbity objection, before he made for the gate in a half jog, "The duchess belongs to the light, you will see. I will not be late in the end."

Audette tip toed to the gate with hidden sadness, wishing she might follow him and knowing full well that with the Tuxedo Puss there it would not be wise.

So it was her that he wished to save, however he was acting as if she were invisible. She supposed that was not unlike how he was treating her in the real world as well.

"He's mad as a hatter!" Guy called out in pure lunacy, still tittering in his arm chair. It was no longer a question in Audette's mind that he had peed his pants after all that brew and sniggering.

As Theo stormed away from the tea party Audette noted the March Whore approaching Draco slyly, leaning against the table cloth with an offering of the animagus brew, "So is it all hares that you despise, Tuxedo Cat, or just that one?"

At the mention of the name cat Daphne blew off of her cushion in a frenzy, screaming in a pipsqueak voice, "Cat? Cat! Cat! Cat! Cat!"

"Cat?" Guy asked in matching horror, as if he hadn't noticed Draco standing there all along.

Draco's pupils dilated into two black holes as he caught sight of the marsupial dashing for her life amongst the clutter, and it was a matter of seconds before he was up on the table manically clawing after the dormouse, long tail flicking in predatory excitement.

This encouraged Guy and Pansy to also claw after the dormouse in order to save her from the crazed feline in a fancy suit, absolutely tearing up the place.

"You maniac, not the mustard!" Guy bemoaned, picking up a kettle to smash it off of Draco's white locks after he stepped down on a bottle and sprayed Guy's entire front with the jaundiced substance.

The cat seemed undiluted by the pottery attack. Daphne had scrambled into a funnel of cloth and Draco sat back on his ankles with a crazy sparkle in his eyes, squeezing her upwards like a tube of toothpaste.

If anything at all were left intact afterwards it would be the work of some higher being, and it was at this point Audette decided they had best not overstay their welcome.

With all of the energy she had in her small body, she managed to tug the Tuxedo Puss out of the gate and into the field where he began to breathe somewhat normally again.

They followed a dirt trail towards another wooded expanse that Theodore had taken, Draco grooming himself by licking his hand and flattening his hair, "I wanted that dormouse, duchess, and I always get what I want."

"I will never let you kill anything, you know that," Audette held her chin high, although she found herself swallowing down a lump. She really did not appreciate being reminded that Draco's innocence was on a mystery timer, and that it was inevitable he would kill someone.

Thankfully he did not disappear this time. He even held her hand as they waltzed between the trees, and Audette was quite hopeful that he was going to lead her right to the answer she was seeking, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

However, having a romantic relationship with the Cheshire Cat character apparently did not afford one a shortcut that easily.

After fifteen minutes of walking around in the aromatic woods she grew impatient, turning to him, "Draco. Sorry, Tuxedo Puss, why are we running around in circles avoidantly? I've spotted that patch of periwinkle three times now."

"How do you run from what is inside your head? Is that what you're doing?" he grinned at her with that unsettling grin.

"No," Audette glowered at him, "I was following you - I expected you to know the way."

He seemed to be losing interest, showing off just how short his pussycat attention span was by turning around to climb up a tree, "Only a few find the way, some don't recognize it when they do – some...don't ever want to. Besides, that right there is your problem - you keep permitting everyone else to dictate your life, you'll never find out what you truly are. This is your mind, not mine."

"But...aren't you objectively an extension of my mind, seeing as I have produced this place and all within? So technically I'm asking myself where to go next, and myself is playing difficult," she considered his words as he swung completely upside down in front of her by the crook of his knees.

White strands fanned out from his skull as that gigantic grin reinstated, hanging there like a monkey, "Yourself is forcing you to question yourself. You want to know what you always do, however you are now realizing it's best to do the very opposite."

"What is it, that I always do? I cannot do the very opposite unless I recognize what the opposite of that is," she shut her eyes and pressed her forehead against his in frustration.

She heard him laugh lightly above, "You always follow his way. Then again, everything is his way, in here and out there."

"Who's way do you mean?" she cringed. She knew deep down who the final boss would be already, but she was clinging to a tiny sliver of hope that it might be anyone else.

Draco kissed her forehead softly, whispering, "The Emerald King's way, naturally."

The sliver of hope vanished as he sat up on the branch and pulled down on another smaller one, revealing a trap door in the bark before her. It opened up directly onto the colorful flagstone paving located at the biodome precipice.

The King of Emeralds

A big bowling ball formed in Audette's tummy, pouting up at Draco perched on the branch, "I still don't feel ready. Will you come this time?"

"I will, I've been invited you know," he rocketed to the dirt before her toes, and bent down on his haunches, "Climb on, I'll take you personally."

She had tricked her own mind into giving away the shortcut, and so off they went into the biodome.

Audette clung to his piggyback eagerly, dropping her face next to his. Her perspective on Draco attending in the morning had taken a total one-eighty, and now she was grateful he would be there - even though Draco Malfoy and the invented Tuxedo Puss were arguably two different people.

He walked them through several habitats, including House Elf Hamlet at the center, and once they were in the popular Polar Habitat he began to ascend up Siber Mountain towards the Yeti village.

It had always been a perilous slope which usually made for a goofy good time for the bolder guests who chose to attempt it, and so by the time they had reached the intricately carved ice pillars and ice block buildings at the top they were both laughing at the awkward slips and jerks performed by Draco's smooth loafers.

And then the bubbly mood popped as they entered the center of the mountain, where the carving ice shows were performed on the daily and warming hot toddies were passed out.

The cavern was absolutely magical, with dripping glacial stalactite formations. Carved in a semi-circle of frozen ice was the spectator's stands, all facing towards a central podium with a fresh rectangular block of ice, ready for configuration.

At the far end of the room sat two large green thrones, where her mother and father - the Emerald King and Queen - were perched in verdant robes which spilled down in sheets of silk to the floor. Of course, Eloise was dimorphically much smaller than Montgomery, symbolically indicating her total lack of power in the relationship.

The White Rabbit was standing in brooding sulk next to Montgomery, peering in dread at a roll of parchment before his dark blue eyes. He appeared to Audette like a prisoner there, frightened and overwhelmed.

Then in the stands to the left sat all of the acquaintances Audette had met along the way, and even a few she had yet to; there was the Mad Hatter and the March Whore who had somehow beaten them there, and the Daphne dormouse snoozing on Pansy's lap.

There was the Bulstrode Walrus who had brought along the butter dish for a snack, the two Tweedles wrestling with each other brutishly, the huge Snape Snake taking up half the space, the irritating Umbridge Pigeon, and what appeared to be Professor Trelawny who's binocular spectacles had fused integral to her face, showcasing a big yellow beak over her mouth and nose region.

She was a nervous wreck, mumbling a sentence Audette had heard her once mention in a Divination class, fingers trembling in her lap, "Dreams are a form of the beyond, dreams are a form of the beyond..."

Audette and Draco sat beside Blaise, who's lovely mocha skin had taken on a scaly appearance. Based on his black overalls Audette imagined he must have assumed the role of the chimney cleaning lizard. He was of course, the one who went about cleaning up other people's messes quite frequently.

On the stand to the right of the commanding King and Queen sat the jurors (otherwise known as the people who had been invited by Montgomery to observe her morning inauguration). They were comprised of the Simulation Architect, Professor Minerva McGonagall, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, the Trunchbull...and Draco?

Audette spun to notice he had vanished from beside her, only to reappear on that side traitorously.

Waiting patiently on the center podium was Kyimors, the largest Yeti in the village who as a right possessed the sharpest claws. He, and he alone, was permitted to perform public acts of carving to foreigners.

"Read the accusation," the King rotated that blistering monocle to point it in Theodore's flushed face.

Theo swallowed apprehensively, eyeing down the parchment. His rabbit ears drooped in evident sorrow, "The accusation before today's court of justice; a fraud lives amongst us. Someone present has failed to identify themself."

Pointless murmuring broke out across the entire cave between the half-human, half animal inhabitants.

Audette guiltily shrunk into the golden Edwardian gown she had at some point been swapped into without her knowledge, noticing that a corset had been instated to make it all the more difficult for her to respire. She felt sweaty even though the room was freezing, and was trying with all her might to ignore the chimney lizard boring his accusatory brown eyes into her from a mere foot away.

Montgomery held up a glove in a closed fist to silence the gibberish, "Silence. Rabbit, call upon the first defendant."

Theodore cleared his throat, "The Mad Hatter, if you would kindly step forward."

Stepping forward was already asking too much of a very tipsy Guy; tipsy due to the drunken tea party, and also because of the wavering tower of fiercely unnecessary top hats. As such he tripped and slid on his bum the entire way down all six levels of the amphitheatrical stand, giggling like a goose.

The slick ice delivered him in a whirlwind to a spot directly at the base of the thrones, and immediately Kyimors began to sculp Guy's form into the ice block.

"Remove your hat," the King boomed without hesitation, his handlebar moustache taught with criticism.

Guy reached up and in some jenga miracle managed to remove the third top hat from the bottom and only this one, tossing it aside. The King was displeased with the sass, and the monocle grew laser red, "Remove all of them, at once."

Oh god.

Guy made a strange face reflecting stubbornness, melting a little donut into the icy floor with his bony bum, "But I'm a poor man, you see. I haven't much in this world but my hats and my friends. I am terribly addicted to fashion, and..."

"That is not important, do not write that down. Off with his head!" the King demanded impatiently, and Audette gasped painfully fast. She reached for the pepper grinder machine gun but it had vanished with her last gown.

One of the sideline Yeti's stepped forward wielding a barbarous torch and took a good swing at Guy, however all this accomplished was to knock off all fifteen remaining hats save for the one glued to his straw yellow locks.

Guy sat there snickering in amusement, wiping at his eyes, "You know, that reminds me of what the March Whore had to say-"

"I didn't!" Pansy stood in peculiar protest from the spectator stand, "I deny it!"

"You did too!" Guy pointed a sticky finger at her from the floor, and everyone glanced back and forth in confusion.

At this point the Yeti was on the finishing touches of Guy's sculpture, working on finalizing his messy boots and untied laces with pristine detailing.

"He is who he claims to be; a buffoon. He knows nothing. You may have a seat, call the next defendant," the King seemed satisfied, although nothing of importance had been established. Audette knew this could not be her real father, because her real father was far too smart for this sort of numbskullery.

A fresh block of ice was placed upon the podium as the weird sculpture of Guy was pushed off to the side.

Theodore peered through his reading glasses at the list of names before him. Suddenly his eyes bulged and he inhaled jaggedly, "Audette...Bellarose..."

Numbly, she wobbled to a stand as they all inspected her.

She could not help locking eyes with Theodore, who watched her with great pity as she positioned herself before her father's throne.

It was at this moment Audette thought that it might be wise to try one of the potions in her pocket, because her father appeared to be monstrous in scale from where she was on the ground, and so she plucked out one of the vials and chugged it back.

A pink cloud of curiosity was swirling around in the circular glass pane resting upon his cheek, "And, what do you know of this business regarding identity?"

Audette sighed heavily, and shut her eyes. There would be no beating around the bush or hiding in that sort of nonsensical environment, "Nothing, apparently."

Serrrr-pent!" the Umbridge Pigeon cruelly screeched.

"Nothing, darling?" the Queen asked with slight sympathy in her itsy voice.

Audette fervently shook her head, "Nothing, sadly."

Unfortunately, she had consumed the wrong potion, because now along with all confidence, she was shrinking in her father's looming shadow, disappearing under his petrifying glare.

She felt so tiny there.

Montgomery grinned insidiously in the direction of the stern jurymen to the right, "That's very important. Consider your verdict."

"No not yet!" the White Rabbit spoke up loudly, stepping forward to bravely face the King from an angle, "I-I mean, your majesty, apologies for my lofty outburst, however there is more to be uncovered yet."

While Audette appreciated Theo's limitless attempts to save her, this time it felt hopeless. She was not some sort of fruit-at-the-bottom yogurt, where if one never gives up digging they will strike sugary gold eventually.

In fact she was now so small that she hardly cleared the height of his socks, and little ice shavings from her sculpture being carved behind were landing on her head and soaking her to the bone.

Having nothing left to lose she took the other potion discretely, and faced her father only to discover that the Tuxedo Puss had decided to perch on the top of Montgomery's throne with a devilish smirk.

He had two fingers held up behind the King's crown to insinuate mocking bunny ears.

Audette let slip one short giggle before suppressing herself, and the King narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Then tell us, what is it you identify as? So that we may be certain you possess an identity, and thus rule you out."

Audette meant to respond, but she was fervently distracted now by both the rate at which she was growing, and the fact that Draco had magically plucked off Montgomery's moustache without detection and placed it on his own lip, making all sorts of grumpy and serious expressions that were impossible not to laugh at.

She rose and rose above Theodore, above the thrones, above the fifteen foot tall Yeti carving her features, until the pointed dome of the cave threatened to collide with her head and snap her neck.

Audette decided then that she was far too large for the cave, and turned to carelessly ambulate out of the entrance on all fours before her chance had expired to squeeze through.

"She is escaping! Off with her head!" the King's furious cry could be heard from within, and soon a mad deluge of beings poured out behind her, forcing Audette to climb up to the tippy top of the mountain to escape.

"No! Leave me alone! I don't want to know who I am! I don't care!" she kicked down at the little things picking at her ankles.

If only she could reach the top of the dome, maybe she could break free...

I simply must get out of this cage...I simply must...

But the glass of the biodome was all matted with Dumbledoor beard, blocking out the sunlight, blocking out access to the glass...

In her gigantic form she balanced atop of the mountain on one slipper, however she had stopped growing, and her fingertips were only grazing the ugly gray wires.

"Audette! Audette!" the angry Wonderland creatures fumed as they closed in on the treacherous slope.

"Audette! Audette! Audette! Wake up you silly girl, it's time," Aine's blunt voice recoiled in Audette's brain as she transitioned back to reality, lines of silver hair slowly fading into her own golden strands draped across her nose.

She sat up in a clammy disaster, hair plastered to her forehead.

To the side her Consciaur stood on a rumpled pillow with his wrists bent on his hips, glaring at her for the undoubtedly disruptive evening. He somehow was managing to appear totally menacing in his bright yellow sleeping snuggy.

That very unique tone of luminous blue belonging to dawn hour preoccupied the sky beyond one shivering, open curtain, and because she had stupidly left that particular window acrack the room was dreadfully frozen explaining the ending of her dream. Sweat began to instantly ice onto her cheeks.

"My goodness, what is the hour?" Audette gaped in bitterness that she had been awoken well before breakfast - perhaps even before the sun had bore the chance to dance with the notion of rising.

This time it was Tierney who took responsibility for yanking back and tying up all the copious pretty draperies, "Why it's half past six, milady. No time to waste, says our good Lord. He's quite eager: isn't that charming, his fatherly support?"

If you'd dare to call anything Montgomery Bellarose did fatherly support, then yes, darling by all regards.

"How did you sleep, your grace?" Aine asked skeptically as she tepidly peeled the heavy bedding away from Audette's damp night slip. She was paralyzed in place with her arms wrapped tightly around her shaky knees.

The question might as well be rhetorical.

Audette could not help that inescapable human reflex to mentally paw after the disintegrating dream, perilously attempting to log any and every little bizarre detail in long term memory.

With a frown she glanced at Aine as if the lovely lady were some sort of enemy for interrupting the critical process, "How should I know that? I was asleep."

Audette felt as though she were eighty years old when her bare feet pressed against the cool wooden flooring, wincing in exhaustion, convinced that she must have spent the entirety of her nightmare sleepwalking.

Not a bone felt rested, her muscles ached from exercise that could not have possibly occurred, and her eyeballs were as parched as the Trunchbull's devoid sense of humour.

A splitting headache boiled in her brain while the two governesses bathed her in quietude up in that blustery tower, and Audette fought all the while not to drift back to sleep in the soothing warm bubbles.

"It must be Windsday," Tierney quoted A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh in a rather frivolous tone, as toiletries blundered about in animated uplift, all of their hair swirling in the jetting wind making it's way between the large brick cracks of the antiquated architecture.

The lightning squall pelting down upon the castle had not given up but a centigrade of hatred since she'd fallen asleep mere hours prior.

"More like Mopesday," Audette played along in a pissy tone, scooping up water only to pour it out of her palm in moody digest. It was a Monday afterall, might as well get the alliteration on point.

Of course this animagus atrocity would land on a stormy Monday.

Wrapped up in estate towels shortly afterwards, hair being wrung dry by the unhelpfully clamorous hands of Tierney, Audette balked from an awkward angle at the extremely simple white gown presented before her in the fingers of Aine, "I beg your pardon - that's servants wear. Surely that's the most primary layer and not the whole bit."

Aine shrugged and batted her lashes, holding offwards the plain ivory dress with long sleeves as if she too were spotting it's uncomplicated model for the first time, "This was delivered with exact instructions, my Lady. Apparently it is ceremonial rite to darn a pure and unremarkable outfit for the inauguration."

Audette was not in the slightest spark pleased, cringing as her scalp was torn from it's roots by Tierney's ungraceful touch, "But Draco shall be there, and his parents. Surely...urrgh curse this day."

As they tugged the light cloth over her head and adjusted it in place before her floor to ceiling mirror she scowled horrendously, noting that she felt nearly naked and ridiculous, as if she were about to be sent on her way to the property coop for collection of fresh morning eggs.

"Well why don't you slap on an apron while you're at it and equip me with a carrot peeler - at least give me some bulwark to hide behind," she fumed immaturely while they ironed out the long hem, tied up a constricting bow in the back, brushed her hair, trimmed her nails, and powdered her cheeks with a light pink dust she had not requested be administered and which caused her to sneeze.

She hadn't been provided a structural corset so much as a bra in order to face the distinguished crowd gathering below, and the urge to cross her arms defensively across her curves installed itself immediately, "This is inelegant to state in the least."

Tierney huffed in hilarity, smiling at Audette where she was actively dragging a silver brush through sheets of soft wet gold, "You needn't be like that. To be fair, milady, I do wonder if the gown will survive the transformation at all. Wouldn't want to wreck your best garb, now would we? And speaking of that devastating Lord Malfoy - we passed by him on our way up here. He was askin' about yah."

"He's arrived already?" Audette's stubborn scrunch flattened as her cheeks swelled with a curious tickling heat that humbled her drastically.

"Aye, and looking proper brisk, as usual," Tierney giggled at Audette's undeniably rouge reaction, her eyes coy and girlish in the reflection, "There's a face excited, eh miss?"

Audette twirled a damp strand of locks within her pointer finger by her chin, staring down at her toes in contemplation.

She was...

Well she was all sorts of things, mainly stupendously nervous...

Excited did not exactly brim to mind...

But the mention of Draco did surface something that might be considered elation.

That muddled sensation was only about to inflate as she traipsed for the very first time in her life down the winding egress from her tower with nothing on but the thinnest of undercoats - a night slip at best of the loveliest pearl.

A marching band of governesses followed suit, producing with their oiled boots the harassing acoustic of a ticking time bomb in the narrow vertical tunnel; left right left right left right left...

As such, Audette was caught wholly off guard when Adelheid materialized at the base of the gritty treads - as if they had travelled back to a time when she was effectively mute and his services were still necessary. She had not seen him there for almost a week, jumping in fright at the ambush.

His striking verdant eyes delivered like gentle leaves in the morning candlelight, holding out a classic red glove in complimentary fashion, "Congratulations, my dear princess, on today's undeniable success."

Audette took one look at the leather seams running along the indentations of his fingers, and at the sweet expression on his face before she grabbed his hand in a firm shake, "My dear knight Magnussen, I haven't achieved a thing yet. Although how kind of you to call upon my status. I had assumed you were long gone."

He nodded down at her, remarking in his attractive Swedish brogue, "It is a pleasure to finally hear your voice. Like a glassy lake, exactly how I imagined it."

Hmmm...

She focused on one trailing bare toe, tracing the outline of an ancient French tile, "I shall truly miss you, Adelheid - you made this past month substantially better for me."

Under some natural urge they hugged, and Audette dropped her cheek against his bicep with a blissful grin. Her heart continued to pound wildly, but suddenly it all felt possible to overcome.

She stepped back and smirked up at him, still clinging to his forearms, "Will you be observing this natural catastrophe alongside everyone else in my life? Honestly at this point we'd might as well broadcast it live to the continent."

Just then she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the Malfoy family was lingering around the entryway to the biodome, far at the end of the magnificent pillared corridor - yet not far enough that Draco's hard blue stare rendered illegible.

Hands jammed into the lining of a fancy black suit, he was watching them embrace with a blank face that struck Audette as disturbing. His typically jealous snarl was no where to be seen, and perhaps even a trace of inexplicable pity permeated from behind those hooded orbs.

Next to the stately Malfoy's milled others in conversational flim-flummery; Professor McGonagall - the woman who had privately tutored Audette through the animagus process, the Trunchbull with an iron affront, Casper Magnussen the Simulation Architect, and her mother and father both in flattering pastel purple tones.

Sticking out like a sore thumb was also a strange stout man with a mousey snout, a giant clipboard, and a quirky fedora who seemed to be constantly expelled from the topic at hand like the undesirable runt of the pack.

A golden 'M' emblemized to his lapel suggested that this was Audette's Ministry appointed evaluator, sent to confirm her transformation and register her legally as an animagus.

They all were holding bubbly flutes of champaign despite the squinty hour - save for Draco who looked just about as tense as a steel rod - probably of the impression that he would get in trouble for being there against Audette's wishes.

Although he did seem to be keeping himself mildly entertained by constantly shifting in front of the stumpy Ministry evaluator in order to block him out of the social circle, causing the poor man to scatter around in desperation for inclusion. By the time he would successfully locate a new opening Draco would take two large strides and immaturely plug it up once more with his tall silhouette.

In sharp contrast to her elementary ensemble each person present was dripping in designer rigging, save for the Ministry man who was swimming in blue collar robes that were notably worn in.

Adelheid shook his head, watching as Lord Bellarose went off on a zealous rant of some sort, "No, your grace, I will not observe unfortunately. Lord Bellarose has instructed that all remain outside of the biodome this morning, save for those with V.I.P. invitations."

"Write to me, please," she blurted out instinctually, searching his gaze hopefully. Again, there was no other explanation for desiring his company, just that she did forevermore, "And please don't call me your grace or princess a second longer; Audette will do just fine."

He beamed at her kindly, "Audette then - postage will not be necessary. My father has permitted my stay at Hogwarts for the remaining duration of the school year, so I may watch the last trials. You will soon get sick of me, if anything."

Brimming with peace of mind she nodded at him, taking careful steps backwards, whispering, "Perfect."

Then said peace of mind began to chip away one puzzle piece at a time as she trod towards the weighty gathering of very important persons watching her approach, all collected there on her account.

All along the egress bright flashes of lightning from outside drove chills up her spine, followed shortly by ominous grumbles of rolling thunder. Through the ancient fenestrations the scent of rainwater and moss, toads and muck proliferated the air in ripe reminder of the elemental onslaught occurring overhead.

Once she was within a few yards her father boomed, gesturing to Audette with his tinted flute, "Ah yes, our guest of honor has arrived. Mr. Grossweiner, if you would please meet my daughter, Audette Bellarose, promised to the Malfoy family joining us this fine morning."

Mr. Grossweiner was still stuck somewhere on the other side of the pack, scuttling about in a helpless flurry. He squeezed himself dramatically through a hostile sliver between Draco and McGonagall, setting himself up to be taken out by a rather pointy black loafer which swiftly repositioned itself in his path.

"Careful not to trip on your gross weiner," Draco snickered inappropriately under his breath.

McGonagall's eyebrows rose straight into her pointy hat at the absurd comment she'd regrettably overheard.

The clipboard and quill flew sky high as the lumpy man hardly managed to prevent a full blown face plant at Audette's bare toes, who promptly clapped a hand across her lips to prevent a giggle fest.

"Be-have," Narcissa mouthed warningly at her troublemaking son. One catch of Audette's wide gaze and he shrugged his shoulders, perhaps attempting to lighten the intensity of the morning for her through dumb shenanigans.

It would seem that the meddlesome tuxedo puss had returned in real life to support her afterall.

"Now you let me know if any of this information is incorrect, young lady," Mr. Grossweiner propped up his octagonal glasses for a closer inspection of the latest specimen at the mercy of the governmental institution, getting a head start on jogging down criticizing notes, "Audette Fiadh Bellarose. Citizenship: Irish. Birthdate: July 15, 1980. Female, Caucasian, blond hair, green eyes, hmmm...angsty disposition..."

Angsty disposition?

He stuck his fingers between his bucky teeth and whistled, and soon enough a seemingly sentient measuring tape with crispy, cracking edges hovered off his belt and unspun itself to measure her dimensions.

The tape unraveled from her brow to her bare toes in a slick clack clack clack, then wrapped itself every which way around her midriff and limbs intrusively.

The mousey man crooned, scribbling dimensions onto his parchment, "Five foot, two inches, one-hundred and twelve pounds...correction...seven point nine six stone, which equates to...to one-hundred and eleven point five pounds..."

Lucius Malfoy's nasty gaze hovered on Audette's figure for a prolonged second before he turned away in a pointy smirk, reacting as if she aught to be ashamed of the perfectly normal measurements being read aloud.

Draco quirked his eyebrows, radiating entertainment in lieu of the nitty gritty assessment, "Really? Point five pounds? Are we planning on counting her hair follicles next, because we'll be here for the whole week."

"Now really, Mr. Malfoy...do find it within yourself to wisely hold your tongue," Minerva pursed her lips in disapproval, speaking to him without craning her neck in his direction, "There is only so much impetuous discord one can strive to delegate before seven in the morning."

Over the fedora partially blocking her view, Audette watched Narcissa sharply grab Draco by the elbow, twisting him towards her for a private seethe, "Another disruptive act, and all that will be left of you will be point five pounds. Is that quite clear?"

He ripped his arm free in defiance with a rather grumpy growl, although the scolding seemed to do the trick as he kept to himself from there on out.

"Is that your wizarding identification number, Miss Bellarose?" the Ministry evaluator held up his clipboard before her eyes, his thumb hovering next to a bold string of maroon numbers in the top right hand corner. She confirmed with a wordless nod.

When the primary registration was completed after Audette's photograph had been snapped and her fingerprints had been taken, Mr. Grossweiner tucked the clipboard below his arm with a deep breath. There was only one blank section left at the very bottom, headlined by the apocalyptic title Creature of Transformation.

And below that block sat an empty square where he would add his professional stamp of approval.

She was thus prompted ahead through the intricate archway, "On with you then, lest the rainstorm cease and we will have to start over another day. Lead us to your hidden animagus brew, child."

In prickly horror Audette sucked air in as she passed by her father's intense monocle and into the biodome which had been closed to the public for the day.

His expectations were higher than ever before, and she felt entirely powerless to please him this time.

Before, it had been a matter of dressing properly, upkeeping decorum and manners, and staying virtually out of his sight.

Then it had recently escalated to securing a stainless aristocratic match, which she had done through Draco Malfoy.

But this latest task did not come with a handbook or clear cut instructions.

Each step over soft landscape and cobbled pavers left her feeling increasingly detached from her body, plucking her way towards certain doom in the cool mist of the morning habitats.

She recalled that she had hidden her animagus brew just below a gargantuan gnarled oak in a forested sector pockmarked by small open meadows.

Below this tree she had used to languish in her adolescence where wildflowers blossomed in droves, and it was the very oak she'd been loitering against that fateful day Draco had been introduced to her.

In the background, casual dialogue persisted as if they were all on a jaunt through the park.

"Think of an animagus inauguration as a litmus test for the soul. There could not be any better expression of the person found within," Mr. Grossweiner's stringy tone interrupted the quietude.

It was apparently Eloise whom he was speaking to, and Audette did not have to glance back over her shoulder to imagine her mother's catastrophically delightful excitement from the pep in her voice, "Ohhh I do believe I know precisely what you mean. We've been so awaiting this day - ever since Audette was a little babe, you know. I imagine a swan, or a posh little gazelle - something elegant and sophisticated."

Ugh...

If Audette could roll her eyes any more theatrically, then all of the rectus muscles holding them into their sockets would surely get tangled into an unforgivable knot.

Directly at her heels Lucius hummed in a handsome sort of snarl to Montgomery, "So I hear through the Ministry vine that you are planning a trip to the equator in March, Bellarose. Are you not already over encumbered between heading the department and overseeing the handling of the trial beasts?"

There was a very calm and cool pause, as Montgomery no doubt elected to stare in hubris before responding, "Are you not underworked in the Department of Mysteries, Malfoy? It seems that your primary preoccupation there is nothing more than to stir the political pot these days. Yes, it is true. I shall follow a critical lead to Africa, where I intend to obtain the forbidden giant gallinipper. It will bring certain attention to our Desert Habitat."

How he planned to keep a mosquito the size of a football field in that already crammed biodome remained at large to Audette, however that was what magic was for.

"Gethsemane Prickle will seek to have you reprimanded for the leave of absence - I hear she is vying after your position," Lucius trilled antagonistically.

"She may seek whatever she wishes, that is no concern of mine. My incomparable contributions in both scholarly and fiscal regard have solidified my tenure ubiquitously, and I should dare say managing an already well-oiled department from across the globe poses no crux, Malfoy. Not of course, that you might know anything about that grade of responsibility."

Audette was floored in the front, eavesdropping helplessly. In comparison to Montgomery, Lucius seemed like nothing more than a buzzing nat.

Eloise was clamoring on again, this time to Narcissa, "...picked it all out. We'll circulate the invitations next week, gilded with gold of course. Oh they are just such a stunning match, it'll be all the rage in the court for the full year I suspect!"

"Let us hope for the sake of both of our families that Draco plans to pack his manners then, because the nature of that annuated gossip could grow seriously sour," Narcissa spoke in gothic drawl, putting a pin right in Eloise's engagement ball balloon. She was likely scowling at him at that very moment.

Audette spotted the tree, climbed below the low branches, and dug around in the mossen cavity which had formed near the base of the specimen. When she emerged with the vial she swayed on the spot before the semi-circle of spectators, so light-headed it was a miracle she did not flatline then and there.

This wasn't happening...this wasn't happening...

Oh but it was, and she was rapidly pelted with a reminder of the trial she'd endured the night before in her nightmare wonderland, where each of these people had sat and judged her mercilessly in similar regard.

The Ministry man held out his hand, and Audette passed him the vial for inspection. While this step seemed unnecessary, he popped off the cork and sent one beady eyeball down the scope, humming, "Hmmm, yes, red as a scorpionfish scale. A perfect outcome. Proceed with the incantation."

With lightning flashing overhead through the glass dome, Audette began to tremble uncontrollably, sloshing the brew as it was returned to her.

It was reflexive, the way she tripped towards Draco's bright blue eyes and threw her arms around his neck, burying herself in his neck.

Thank goodness she did not pour the valuable fluid down the nape of his collar because breathing did not seem natural in the slightest with the double heartbeat madness occurring in her chest. Her vision was swimming with little grey sparks as she hyperventilated, whispering, "I can't do this Draco. I can't do this."

He hugged her against him, hushing back to her through her hair, "Yes you can."

"I'm so scared," she failed to resist tears now that she was in her safe place within his embrace.

Eloise puffed out air somewhere nearby in appreciation, "Awh, puppy love. Isn't it so adorable? To think they met right here in this very place. I'm practically beside myself."

"If only you were..." Narcissa quietly griped.

Draco pressed Audette backwards by her hips, placing his hands on each cheek. His attention kept darting back and forth between her harried gaze and to where Montgomery was situated at the opposite end of the gathering, "You can do this, and..."

The rest of the sentence, whatever it was, did not register with Audette, because he was simultaneously and quite sneakily utilizing Legilimency to speak to her through telepathy.

They locked eyes as Audette heard his voice ringing in her mind, "This is your best chance to gain freedom, Audette. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Dropping back down to the balls of her feet, she nodded.

Now she was trembling not with fear but with fortitude, with determination, and perhaps even a little anger for the eighteen years of suppression she had been subjected to. If she had learned anything from her dream, it was that she aught to do the very opposite of what she had always done.

Kneeling at the base of the tree, she placed her wand against her heart and recited for the final time, "Amato Animo Animato Animagus."

The ceremony had begun, and the biodome had never been so silent. Not a chirp from a bird, not a snapping stick from a leaden paw...not even the mindless scratching of the ever-inscribing Carver Sloth dared to punctuate the air.

Sucking back the potion in one swoop Audette nearly sprayed the vile concoction all over the place, especially suffering when the chrysalis of the moth just about lodged itself in her throat. One might describe the taste as pure fire, surely comprised of sheer acid.

She gasped in agony, scratching at her throat where a chemical tracheostomy had to be forming; it felt like her esophagus was melting away.

Unable to stand seeing their reactions, Audette shut her eyes and dug her fingernails into her plain gown at her knees, urging herself to bare through the painful sensations erupting globally throughout her body.

Her ribs had to have cracked, had to have. That second heartbeat was so loud and proud that it pounded in a rhythmic feud within her eardrums, as if the creature within was banging on the doorway of her mind, demanding to be set free once and for all.

What was occurring within her mind was impossible to describe. Her thoughts had split into one hundred individual bumper cars, taking off in all directions, ramming into one another senselessly.

She thought of the wonderland she had ran off to in her mind in order to escape from her daunting reality. But the truth was, the grass was not greener on the other side, the tea was not sweeter, the hats were not better...it was not about escaping anymore, it was about taking control in her real wonderland.

She thought of the swan her mother hoped for her daughter to become, the swan she had been grooming her into for eighteen unnatural years.

Her fingers clenched in hatred for all of the hair pulling, the nail painting...all of the stupid bows and ribbons which had only made her into a spectacle for her peers to mock...all of the breathless moments where she'd been pressed against a partition wall and forced to squint at the pink flowers painted there as they ripped her thinner with each tug of a corset.

No. No swans, nothing of the sort.

Certainty began to soar with each colliding bumper car.

She thought of the boys she had assigned her limitless Cancer love to, only to be wronged and left brokenhearted time and time over.

Her fingers clenched even tighter - oddly enough it was the emotion of anger fueling her assurance and clarifying the path forward. Those lovers had made her feel like an ostrich, tempting her to run away from the agony of their crimes against her heart or, worse yet, to bury her head in the sand and avoid the situation entirely.

She thought then of her father who had ensured that Audette felt as tiny as an ant her entire life. But she wanted to be big, and free. He had kept her locked in a cage like a flightless bird with it's wings clipped, but she was not a flightless bird.

No, she would not be made into anything by anyone else ever again. She would not be a swan or an ostrich, or a flightless bird, because she would fly free.

Now, Audette had been taught by Professor McGonagall that during this transitory period, the most successful and smooth animagus adventurers tended to picture in their mind, with perfect clarity, the creature they intended to embody.

Unfortunately, given all of the ramming bumper cars, Audette was not following this educated format.

Instead she was allowing emotions to dictate logic, and when the scald of the potion had seeped into every cell and fiber of her body, she really had no clear image of what she was turning into.

Perhaps she would open her eyes to some Frankenstein horror creation, baring all the bits and bobs of an ant, an ostrich, a flightless bird, a gazelle and a swan. Throw in some chicken legs and you've got yourself a scene which would result in Lucius Malfoy laughing at her for an eternity.

Bigger. Stronger. Free.

Bigger...

Yes, she was rising upwards, and the sound of that Oak tree crashing over resounded.

STRONGER.

Claws ripped out and dug into the soft earth below.

F R E E

Audette opened her new eyes, noting that they were incredibly acute and honed in the form of vertical, parietal slits.

She was far off the ground now, perhaps two stories higher. In fact she could see well over the tops of most trees, barely clearing one of the maintenance catwalks with her head.

And down below an absolute ruckus was unfolding. People were screaming and scattering for their lives within the proximity of her razor sharp claws.

Many of the stately individuals simply backed up rapidly in awe as lightning lit up their wide gazes.

However the Ministry evaluator apparently could not contain his overwhelming fear and in the blink of an eye he shrunk into his tacky robes. Out popped a cowardly Australian quokka from within the collapsed fabric, scampering away to safety into the surrounding foliage.

Running in scintillating rivers down her arms were mesmerizing, prismatic white feathers which terminated in some seriously vicious pink claws grinding into the soil. One sweep of a gigantic tail which had come out of nowhere knocked down multiple more trees and almost cut in half the astonished Simulation Architect.

The burn in her throat had evolved into roseate flames, which shot from between her fangs to collect and sizzle the groundcover at the feet of the people which had made her life hell for so long.

Audette was no longer thinking as a human does; in fact her thoughts were so foreign and erratic that all of her actions were feral, animalistic if anything.

Professor McGonagall had mentioned that the first few transformations would likely be out of her control, and Audette would be required to train the ascending brain of her animagus to align with her humanity.

One person had hardly flinched in place; Montgomery Bellarose.

Contrary to all expectations he was grinning rather psychotically up at her, the monocle on his eye glowing the most aureate gold Audette had ever observed - indicating extreme contentment, "A feathered Opal Dragon. She is magnificent."

Draco was shaking only a few feet behind him, gaping as if the moon had just imploded before his diamond blue eyes, "I thought they were extinct."

Montgomery did not so much as blink, as if she might devolve back into his disappointing daughter should he look away, "Not...anymore..."

When Eloise stepped out from behind a tree trunk she had been shielding herself behind he swiftly held out an arm in a defensive gesture, "Everyone stand back, she shall be deranged and detached from her human conscience in the primary transformation."

Rightly so, because Audette's dragon form could not contain it's urges to swipe insidiously at the irritating flesh blobs besprinkled at the base of it's talons, causing them all to scramble in their designer outfits once again.

Freedom.

That singular familiar word visited her new powerful mind, and in a surge of ecstasy all of the blood below those silky feathers rushed to the surface. In some alien prowess, the pads of her paws pressed into the ground, sending more trees off kilter from the resulting microquake.

The megalithic wings along her arms unfolded in a fabulous display of strength as she took off, and no more was she a flightless little bird in a cage.

Fuck the glittery dresses, fuck aristocratic romance, and fuck the cage.

A beautiful growl roared from her chest as she flew straight towards the sky...and broke through the glass ceiling in an explosion of translucent shards.

The elation of flying was incredible, and all of the years she had spent in scorn of broomsticks suddenly seemed ridiculous, and were effectively null and void.

She was never meant to fly on a broomstick, however she now had renewed appreciation for the romantic sensation of such swift articulation as she circled the spired roofs protruding from Castle Bellarose.

In a cloud of apparition Draco appeared on one of the parapet walls occupied by stunned Ministry aurors, all of them craning their necks up to the wild white dragon which had just burst from within the biodome to pitch rosy flames off of the brick and mortar.

In athletic boyish style Draco held up his fist in excitement and whooped, his eyes trailing after her.

The raindrops on her wings ran down to her skin in cool relief as she cast a monstrous shadow onto the landscape below, reveling at the sight of aurors disapparating in terror that one of Montgomery's beasts had broken free.

All of the swans in the frigid lake scuttled to the shoreline and hid themselves from view, obviously not in the mood to become a roasted dinner either.

Eager for more Audette belted out the delicate cry of an animal that had been extinct for centuries, then flew higher and higher, until miraculously she cleared the dreadful film of storm clouds which had been encircling the cursed castle for months and into the freezing sunshine above.

She hung there in peace. Freedom. Sunshine on her feathery face. Silence. Peace.

Time seemed to pass differently as a dragon, and even more notably her memories categorized bizarrely. How long she flew, nor how far she traversed made any sense, however it must have been quite the expedition, because she came to in a bed of melted, impressed snow; naked, weak and shivering.

The last thing she recalled from that day was the glint of sunlight off a monocle as she was scooped from the mountaintop she had fallen asleep on as a dragon, and awoken as a girl.

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Credit: Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. J.H. Sears & Company. Inc, 1923.

Disclaimer: Refer to original work by Lewis Carroll - this novel is written satirically and I do not claim any original concepts from Alice's Adventures In Wonderland