Of Silver and Green

Ch. 11 Scorched!

Only two people, to her knowledge, knew she had this ability: her mother and father. She assumed Professor Dumbledore knew. Being Hogwarts' headmaster, he seemed to know everything that went on under his roof. So that was three adults, two of which were the ones who had taught her. But never had she shown any of her peers, for fear of implicating her parents. She had no idea how Draco would react to this. Undoubtedly it would come as a shock. She hoped he wouldn't be too mad.

She began to focus. She had to ignore his closeness if she were going to achieve the concentration necessary to make the change. She became aware of each and every cell, individually willing them all to transform. She felt herself shrink, arms and legs shortening, joints changing shape, face becoming more angular as her features rearranged themselves. There was an itchy sensation as hair began to sprout all over her body. Her ears, which were now situated at the top of her head, twitched lightly as she listened to his heartbeat quicken. She felt as her tail stopped lengthening and shook it experimentally. It had been so long since her last transformation. She relished the liberation it always seemed to bring. The change took less than a minute to perform, but for her it always seem to take forever. As the transformation ceased, she slipped easily from Draco's arms and sat next to him, sharp eyes watching him closely.

Draco could not believe what had just transpired. Brynne had transfigured right before his eyes. Now he found himself transfixed, staring in awe at the animal seated beside him, her bright green eyes sparkling mischieviously as she awaited his reaction. "Brynne?" he sputtered. "Is that you?"

She nodded, licking her lips (if you could call them lips) and revealing her sharp white teeth. She didn't want him to ask her questions; they could wait until after she was able to talk again! She wanted him to touch her, to feel how silky her fur was, to scratch her behind her ears, damnit!

As if sensing her thoughts, Draco tentatively stretched out his hand and began to run his long fingers through her fur. Most of it was reddish-orange, the same shade as her hair normally was. She was rather large as foxes go, nearly the size of a coyote. But that wasn't the most unusual thing about her (besides the fact that she was a fox in the first place). It was the fact that all the places a red fox was supposed to white, Brynne had black fur. There were also streaks of black running all through the red-orange fur.

Then Brynne remembered why she had transfigured in the first place. She stepped away and jumped down lightly from the bed. She then changed back to her human form. "Meet Scorch," she said quietly. Then, noticing he hadn't moved, her face took on an impatient look. "Are you going to get up or not?" she demanded. "We've got fifteen minutes to get to McGonagall's class!" She then rushed out, before Draco could answer, or even pick his jaw up off the floor. When she returned to him, her book bag slung over her shoulder, she found to her dismay that he was in the same position she had left him, looking completely awestruck. "C'mon you git!" she exclaimed. "We're going to be late! Don't bother getting your books; you can share mine. Just get out of bed! Now!" she shouted, losing what patience she had left.

"Just answer me one question," Draco said, finally scrambling off his bed and attempting to straighten his clothes.

"Fine," Brynne answered, exasperated.

"You were just a fox, weren't you? That wasn't a dream or anything?" Draco picked up his wand and a comb as he left his room. He used the comb to pull his hair back from his face, and then muttered a holding charm to keep the hair in place. Pity it only lasted twenty-four hours.

"Yes, I was," she answered. "But you mustn't tell anyone, or talk about it in public. I'm not registered and my parents could get into a lot of trouble for teaching me. Only one of them is even registered."

"Of course I won't," he assured her, looking straight into her eyes. "There is something I would ask, however, although your answer will not change my decision to protect you."

"Yes?"

"Could you teach me?"

Brynne faltered, she hadn't been expecting this. "Maybe. But it would require your full attention. I would require at least four hours of each day starting tonight until I think you've completed the necessary training. It may take as long as a month. Are you prepared to surrender that much time to this?"

"Were you going to come to an actual catch at some point? I've nothing better to do," he stated, wearing a sly smile as he tried to keep up with her as she stalked quickly down the hall.

"Alright then, tonight. Your room. After dinner. HA! We made it!" she said triumphantly. Draco looked at her, startled, until he realized they were standing outside McGonagall's classroom.

Brynne walked in, noting they were the last to arrive. But as long as they weren't late, she couldn't care less. She took the last empty desk in the back, and Draco sat beside her, just as McGonagall stepped into the room, looking remarkably cat-like.

"Alright class," she said after shifting almost instantaneously back into her human shape, "today we'll be transfiguring books into pillows."

Brynne rolled her eyes. This should be her favorite class, considering what she was, but it was just too easy. Once you mastered transfiguring yourself, everything else just seemed pretty pathetic in comparison.

She felt eyes upon her and looked up to see a pair of green eyes that were a rival to her own in their brilliance. They were presumably trying to catch her attention. She narrowed her own emerald eyes and glanced at Draco. He hadn't noticed. Good. She looked back at Potter, who was still focused on her, fixing him with her most malevolent glare. "What do you want?" she mouthed silently.

"We want to talk to you," he mouthed back.

She shook her head. "Just you," she replied. He didn't question why and she didn't explain. He just nodded and turned back to his friends. She absolutely refused to have anything resembling a civilized conversation with Granger. Granted, she had never had any kind of conversation with the Gryffindor, but that was beside the point. But she couldn't talk to Weasley either. Not if it was Draco they wanted to discuss. Talking to Potter would be a huge betrayal as it was, but to tell Weasley anything would be much worse. So it would be Potter, and only Potter. But how to arrange a meeting without having to lie to Draco? This could be a problem...