InsaneJournal

RP: Zacharias
Who: Zacharias Smith (and open if anyone wants to join but it works as a stand alone, too)
What: Experimenting/Practising
Where: Monument Alley
When::Tuesday, 16 December, 2004. Night some time.
Rating: SFW



Zacharias wasn't used to transforming from one species to another. He'd only recently accomplished it, and it was still an entirely new process to him. That meant he still had some trouble transforming from human to animal and from animal to human. He'd only successfully done it a few times, but he was a hard worker. He might not have been some genius who easily accomplished anything he set his mind to with ease, but that didn't stop him from working toward something he really wanted. Of course, failure could be a set back for him; however, it also let him know what he was doing wrong and where. Sometimes, of course, he thought failure was life's way of telling him to stop. He hadn't taken his failures in this endevour as a sign to stop, though that was partially because he had no desire to show up at St. Mungo's with a tail or pointed ears and then explain why he had a tail or pointed ears. He hadn't wanted that on any kind of record, especially if he never did manage to change from human to animal.

Last week, he'd managed to change from a human to an animal.

And then he realised he didn't know what animal it was, outside of one that was considerably shorter than he normally was.

After some thought, Zacharias had managed to set up a few cameras to take photos of the process. He was curious about what it looked like (sure, he'd seen Professor McGonagall transform from cat to human before, but he reasoned it wasn't the same when it was someone else), but he was also curious about what he'd transformed into. He'd gotten an impression of the animal -- small, quadruped, tail, ears that swiveled and turned and were far more sensitive to sound than his human ears, very good night vision, and fur -- but the animal didn't understand what it was the same way Zacharias could if he could see what he'd become. He appreciated that there were certain instincts, that he didn't have to learn everything as if he were a child learning everything from the start. But he still had a lot to learn. Including what he turned into.

It'd been a little embarrassing, but he'd had to take a photo to a pet shop to have someone put a name to the cream coloured squirrel-like creature he turned into. Sugar glider, he'd been told. And then he'd gone to a bookstore and a library to see what he could find out about sugar gliders. If his animagus form was a sugar glider, he wanted to know as much as he could about the creature, including habitat, diet, and behaviour, even if it didn't come off immediately as a particularly interesting and braggable form. Apparently being a sugar glider also included the ability to glide (admittedly not as cool as flying, but he could see the advantages none the less), going into a torpor state (he'd had to look that up), and being an adept climber (which he thought was a lot more interesting than it sounded, especially once he'd given it a try himself). A sugar glider would not have been his first choice, but it wasn't a bad form to take, he'd concluded.

The only problem with the form was Zacharias couldn't transform as seamlessly as more experienced animagi could. But that could be solved with practise.

He may not have been a genius, but Zacharias spent the last few days practising changing from human to sugar glider and back again. Initially, he'd done this at home, but after a mishap with one of the cats, he decided to take it to the building he'd inherited in Monument Alley. He hadn't been sure why his great aunt had willed it to him, but he still suspected it had something to do with its associations with Knockturn Alley and not wanting to go through the process of cleaning it out herself. Despite having taken a long time to clean up, he found it made a great space to study, research, and practise charms for the Committee, as well as a decent place to act as an office of sorts when not at home or at work. Anything of real importance and privacy stayed at his office at home, but the three story building suited his needs rather well. And it helped that it was situated in the wizarding part of London, which meant no worries about Muggle neighbours, Muggle authorities, or accidentally breaking laws. And there were no curious kittens batting at him, trying to figure out what he was and what he'd done with his human self.

The strangest part, he discovered, was not shrinking or growing a tail but trying to figure what happened to his clothes when he transformed from a human to a sugar glider. He never emerged in a pile of robes or naked, and Professor McGonagall hadn't been too clear on that, either. They had to go somewhere, but, so far, they always seemed to show back up on his person when he turned back into a human, which was a relief. Losing his clothes was not something that appealed to Zacharias, especially not when he was in Monument Alley, even if he were in the safety of his own building.

Being in the safety of his own building didn't last long that night. He was too curious about what this animal body could do. He cracked open a window on the first floor, and, after transforming from a human to a sugar glider, he climbed up onto the ledge. Although one of the bits of information he'd read measured the gliding distance of a sugar glider as up to ninety metres, Zacharias doubted it was quite that far between his building and the next. Despite that, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to try to make that leap. Not yet, anyway. Instead, he shifted his little body and began climbing down the wall, moving slowly, letting the little claws of his paws find purchase wherever they could. He didn't rush himself, and soon he found himself level with the ground floor. He scampered over to a window ledge and situated himself, looking again at the building next door.

Go, he thought, but his body didn't move. He paced from one side of the ledge to the other, then looked again.

Go, he repeated to himself, and, this time, he obeyed. His little legs stretched out, the patagium catching the wind, his tail working to direct his path like a rudder on a boat. It was not the same as flying on a broom or what he assumed flying as a bird might be like, but it thrilled Zacharias none the less. As soon as he'd gripped the stone of the neighbouring building, he let out a sound that he'd read was chattering and made when sugar gliders were happy or excited.

Zacharias inched to the corner of the building, holding on and peeking out. He couldn't see or hear anybody too close, so he moved around the building's corner to the front, clinging to another window sill. He didn't plan to go far from his own building, but the sight of the nearby bench had him wanting to try one more glide. He hurried to the other side of the ledge, then up the building a bit -- not too high -- then turned around, staring down. If he didn't think too hard, he knew he could make it. The sugar glider's body had instincts. It knew what to do. He let those instincts take over as he launched himself off the building, gliding down toward the bench.

His claws gripped to the wooden back, catching himself so he didn't slide down, and, once again, he let out another string of chatter.

A sugar glider wasn't a bad form to take at all.