Allen woke up feeling a rush of adrenaline flow through him. The moment he stood up out of his bed, he ran towards the bathroom, even though he could still feel it, he wanted to make sure.
He pulled his lips out of the way, showing his teeth and gums, there, he saw a small, dark green leaf, stuck to the side of his gums with a sticking charm. He let out a relieved sigh after looking at the leaf.
It became a ritual of some sorts, to check every morning if he still had the leaf in his mouth, sometimes he would check with his tongue, but there wasn't anything than made him feel safer than actually looking at the leaf still in the position where he applied the sticking charm.
Not only him, but Armand, William, even Sophia and Elsie would do the same every morning after waking up, and after seeing the leaf still in place, they would reapply the sticking charm again.
This became a routine in their lives after the first week of November, they would all gather in front of the Great Hall and show off their leaves still in their mouth before heading inside, feeling satisfied with themselves and happy for each other.
Of course, they tried to talk the less amount of time, even more so in Professor McGonagall's class, out of fear of being found out by her.
They weren't doing anything illegal per se, but they didn't want their professor to find out what they were doing, specially after she warned them of the dangers of the transfiguration.
They had a teacher that didn't discriminate them for their age, and who would guide them through every step of the process, except for the first one, the easiest of them all, but he would check their leaves thoroughly and decide if they were fit to advance to the next step or to stop, being the easiest but also the more troublesome to do.
The following days passed in a flash, and Allen was grateful that he was able to do magic without any incantation now more than ever. He could tell his friends were having a difficult time in class were they needed to cast spells or talk in general, so he would step out and help them as much as he could.
There were some up and downs, but on the final day, 23 December, they were finally done with the process. They all gathered at the top of the Astronomy tower, glass vials on hands. The five of them sat down and in the middle of them spitting out the leaves in the glass phials, the moon was covered by massive clouds, surprising the five of them.
Fear showed on all of his friend's faces the moment the moon was hidden behind the clouds.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Armand exclaimed alarmed, looking at the now covered moon.
"Calm down mate!" William stood up and grabbed Armand from his shoulders.
"Yes Armand, calm down, it happened right after we spat out the leaves, so it should be okay." Allen tried to reassure him but for some reason, he felt like they were a step too late.
The usual bright colour that usually shone on the leaves whenever he looked at them was now muddled and almost non-existent, meaning, that luck was probably not on their side, but Allen didn't want to ruin it for Armand, seeing how he reacted. 'It's not like we can't try it again, it's just going to take time since we need to time it with the next full moon and the next vacation.'
Allen let out a long sigh, this time it was perfectly timed for them to actually manage to finish the first step, to then have a professor explain and guide them through the whole process, yet, apparently, it was not meant to be.
"Come on Armand, it's not the end of the world, we can try again later IF we did fail." He emphasized the 'if' to make sure Armand didn't felt bad about it.
"Allen is right, you can't be acting like this just because we might have failed, it's not like you." Sophia reprimanded him, crossing her arms as she spoke.
Elsie nodded her head, agreeing with her friend. "Besides, even students from Uagadou only manage the transfiguration when they are fourteen years old, and we are eleven, I'm sure even they have an abundance of mistakes before they can manage to do it, so let's try it again if it turns out that we did fail, alright?"
Armand nodded his head as he stood up, he inhaled a big puff of air and exhaled it, calming himself down. "Sorry for my behavior, I guess… I really wanted us to succeed at our first try."
"Ah, come on! We still don't know if we failed or not! Don't be such a downer." William cried, putting his arm around Armand.
"Hmm, he's right, let's continue with the rest of the process, then, we can tell the professor what happened, I'm sure he would be able to tell if the leaves work or not." Said Allen, pulling a hair out of his head and putting it inside his phial, then, his friends proceeded to do the same, putting each of their hairs on their own phial.
Armand took out the last two ingredients that Dobby procured him, a silver teaspoon that had not seen the sunlight, and the chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk moth, giving one of each to his friends.
After that, he took out a box of infinite darkness which the professor he hired gave to him, enchanted to fit at least ten phials, enough space for the five of them. Before putting them inside, they put a small tag with their name to differentiate them, and to be extra safe, a sticking charm, just to be sure.
Armand closed the box after that, and all of them stood up, excitement showing on their faces, but also worry, it would be nice if it worked, but if it didn't, it was okay as well, they had time to try again after all.
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On the train back home, they were discussing what animal they would prefer to become. Sophia wanted to become an eagle or any type of bird really, since her dream is to fly without the use of a broom.
Elsie was of the same mind, but William wanted to become into a big animal that could intimidate people, a big dog, or some kind of feline.
"So, are you coming straight away to my house or do you have something to do beforehand?"Asked Sophia, and even if she didn't want it to show, excitement was apparent on her face.
"I'll need to go over to the Malfoy manor first before anything else, pick up a couple of things and also our professor." Armand answered.
"Me too, I need to go back home first. It's been ages since I've seen my parents, and besides, Leah will go with us, since she just finished teaching her first term at Hogwarts, we all want to hear about it." William said to Sophia.
"Leah? Ah! Professor Baker! You are right, I forgot about her being your cousin." Elsie exclaimed. "I'll go with you, I already told my parents about it, so they are going to pick us up with yours."
Sophia nodded her head, excited for having so many friends over at her house. Before she started the term she couldn't have imagined people would even want to get close to her, and yet, here they are. Even if they are boys from Slytherin, in her mind they are better than anyone else.
She turned towards Allen, looking for his answer.
"I.. am not sure." He said doubtfully. "I don't remember if I told you, but I have… far removed aunt, aunt and uncle, they have a daughter, apparently she is going to start Hogwarts in a couple of years, so they moved back in to England after the war."
He stopped for a moment before continuing.
"Anyways, long story short, they are moving back because of my cousin, they gave me a gift on my birthday, which are Gringotts' vault keys and I want to check it out before anything, but these family members want to accompany me. To get closer or something, I'm not really sure."
He scratched his head in frustration.
His friends stayed silent for a minute, taking in all the information. Even if they didn't ask him, they knew from their parents about his situation. But of course, they didn't want to pressure him into talking about something he didn't want.
It was the same as with his last name, he spoke with them about it after a while. So in a silent agreement, they decided to not ask of him anything, unless he spoke about it first. That's also what caused the little problem with his eyes when he used to be all day using them.
In this case, since he finally spoke about his family, Sophia took in to start asking questions first.
"Do you want to meet them?"
Allen shrugged his shoulders to the question. "Instead of 'want' I think I'm more curious to see who they are, and how they are.
"I see, does that mean you will go with them before coming to my house?" Sophia asked, a bit of sadness showing on her face.
"I'm not sure." He sighed, and turned his head towards the window, looking at the scenery pass through.
"I did receive a letter from her, telling me that they would wait for me at the station, but I was free to decide what I wanted to do. They just wanted to see me."
They looked at each other, then William spoke. "Then, what did you decide?"
Allen sighed again. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to just see them, then, I can go with you Sophia and Elsie, if it's okay with you to wait for me a bit?"
"Of course it is, what's more, we can go with you if you want!" Sophia cried, and Elsie nodded her head, agreeing with her.
"That's right, we can go with you in case they try something!" William exclaimed, showing off his wand.
As he looked at his friends who were trying to protect him from his family, he couldn't help it but laugh at the situation. A loud laugh reverberated the compartment, and his friends laughed with him.
He wiped a small tear that formed in the corner of his eye. "Thank you guys, but I think I can do it well on my own, you can just watch from afar."
His friends looked at him, worry showing on their faces but decided to accept it for the time being.
The rest of the journey back to England was fairly normal besides the previous talk.
The topic of the animagus transfiguration came up again, but Armand tried to divert their attention to another topic, apparently he was too nervous about the process with the mandrake's leaves failing that he wanted to ask the professor first thing the moment he arrived from at London.
After a couple of hours the train finally arrived at the station. They all picked up their trunks and carried them away from the compartment.
Nervousness could be seen in Allen's body language, he was trembling all around, without even meaning to. His breathing was haggard, and as much as he wanted to avoid doing magic outside of Hogwarts, he felt like he couldn't.
He quickly put his free hand on top of his chest and a green light shone brightly only to his eyes, calming him down. He let out a short breath before he continued walking forward.
His friends were worried about him, but they would support him from the back and interfere if something happened, they had their parents with them after all.
And they all have told them about their new friends and their dynamics.
Armand put his hand on top of Allen's shoulder, encouraging him, and William did the same, grabbing his free shoulder, giving him a warm smile.