Spring…

Spring had finally come to Hogwarts, the snow had melted away and the lake was unfrozen and free to swim in once again. Most students spent their time out and about, tending to the freshly bloomed flowers, enjoying the feel of the sun on their skin, or with its new resurgence, playing gobstones. One had made a different decision today, strolling passed everyone as he walked the path from the castle down towards the lake. A large majority didn’t get a second glance with a rare few getting a polite wave or even a brief conversation before he continued on his way.

He hadn’t been able to truly dive deep into the lake since before winter, an odd event making him miss those last few days before it froze. Stepping through the trees to a more secluded part of the lake, stepping onto the dock and looking at the swaying tides. The transformation was easy, instinctual, he had changed into his bestial shape hundreds of times by now. Today should be no different to any other, even if he hadn’t done so in awhile. Or so he thought…

A slow inhale, an even slower exhale. His body began its change with ease at first, but something felt wrong. He knew how it should feel, he understood his body better than any other, and this was not how it should feel. His entire being twisted together with this change, beginning to contort into a shape he had never taken. Panic began to take him, his heart beat quickly and heavily in his chest. That was not how it was supposed to go, he had never felt pain like that when he transformed.

His knees buckled, bringing the tall wizard to the wooden boards beneath him, hands grasping to the edge of the dock as he dry heaved towards the water. The moment was so quick that it almost didn’t register to him. The feeling of his tendons and bones twisting in an unnatural way for even that brief flash was agony. Not for his body, the pain ceased as quickly as it came, but for his mind. Everything about it felt wrong.

His green eyes looked down into the lake, staring into his own reflection. Each shifting wave made the reflected eyes look more or less serpent-like. A change he recognized, a change he had grown accustomed to over the past few months. This was new, his mind raced to try to figure out exactly what had happened, what was happening with him.

Every time he tried to think of what went wrong in his transformation, his body rejected it. Sweat formed on his brow as he finally got back on his feet, wiping it away with the sleeve of his shirt before he heard someone approach him. It seemed he wasn’t as careful as he thought and another student had seen him collapse, approaching him with a somewhat calmed swiftness. “Are you alright, Eoin?”

It took a moment for him to compose himself, calming his breathing before he finally responded, glancing down at them with only the slightest of smiles. “Yes, thank you. A loose board made me trip”. A lie, one that left his lips as smoothly as any truth would. The conversation paused, Eoin’s mind distracted by what had happened previously and the other could not tell if he should be believed or not.

That slight smile faded as Eoin began to walk back towards dry land, waving to the friendly student and heading back towards the castle. He needed to think, he needed time to experiment… Was that even the word he wanted to use? It was the only word his mind could think of. He needed to figure out what had changed and more importantly whether it was for the better or worse.