Diamond blinked. “Come again?”
“What happened to me?” Draco asked again, the not-his-voice coinciding with the not-his-body it was coming out of.
Diamond blinked again. “Um… Okay. What’s your name?”
The hopeful balloon in his chest seemed to pop. He averted his gaze- he couldn’t bear to lie to her, with how nice she had been to him before… yet in order to not lie, he’d have to reveal himself.
“D- Draco.”
“Really? Pretty sure Draco was a boy.”
“It’s really me,” he practically begged. “I… I climbed the wrong stairs by accident, and then…” He glanced down at himself again.
She stepped forwards, putting her hands on his shoulders. This was the first time she’d ever laid a hand on him- and he could feel her massive strength, expertly restrained. “Okay then, missy. Look into my eyes, and say that again.”
He did. Her eyes had an almost impossible depth to them, that he found mesmerising. He felt suddenly intimidated. “I-!” He gulped. “I… I am Draco.”
Diamond accepted it, her unwavering gaze breaking away from his first with a nod as she released him. “Alright, I believe you. Sorry about that. So, um… Do you want to talk about it, or…?”
“Ahh, sure,” he muttered. “In…” He glanced around briefly.
She nodded, grinning, and took his hand in hers. “C’mon, this way.” She pulled him- gently- back the way she’d come.
He followed.
She led him through a sequence of doors, like she knew exactly where she was going, and waved to a couple of other girls that happened to be in the other door-rooms… until she led him through the fourth door, into a normal dormitory. He winced as he entered, and she closed the door behind them… then he realized that four of the beds in the room weren’t just empty, they were completely unused. “What the-?”
Diamond shrugged. “What? They gave us so many of these rooms there’s twelve thousand beds up here. I’m just one of the many that chose to have an entire dormitory to herself.”
He blinked. “Meaning…”
She nodded, grinning. “Meaning, for all intents and purposes, this is my bedroom. But that’s irrelevant. Now then.” She stepped forward, sitting on the foot of the bed in the middle. Only the one on the far left, on the opposite side of the room as the door to the bathroom, had the curtains drawn around it, a trunk at its foot, and other personal effects set about.
“Ahh,” he muttered, looking up and down the room.
She raised an eyebrow. “What? Would you rather we use my bed?”
He was sure he blushed at that, and moved quickly to sit next to her. “S-Sorry, I…”
“Never been inside a girl’s bedroom?” she asked.
He nodded meekly.
She shrugged. “As you can see, it’s really no different from a boy’s room. Anyways, when do you think you… changed?” She gestured towards him.
He blinked. “I… On the way up, I think. Why?”
“Because that’s a clue for what the trigger was. You feel anything strange?”
He scowled, thinking back. “I… I was approaching the top when I thought I felt something shift inside of me, but didn’t think anything of it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So, it clearly wasn’t the anti-boy wards… suggesting that you’re legitimately female now. Well, um…” She tilted her head. “Anything you were thinking about when that happened?”
“I…” He paused for a few seconds. “Down in the Common Room, some Aethrs stole my hat, and it got destroyed when Crabbe and Goyle-” he took a certain personal satisfaction from how she wrinkled her nose at their names- “tried to reclaim it, so I headed upstairs to get a fresh one.” He looked at the door out of her… room. “And, apparently, got the wrong stairs. When I did…” He tapped his hair, still hanging over his shoulder and down his front. “I was praying they’d see blonde hair, rather than this. That… That shift happened about when I stopped.”
“Rather than that?”
He nodded. “Yeah. My hair has looked like this- and been impossible to cut- since before I first left the Hospital Wing.”
“Hmm,” she mumbled, rubbing her chin. “Try… Try concentrating on having blonde hair.”
He blinked. “Why…?”
“Lyra’s been talking about some kind of ‘animagus magic’ that British wizards have. She thinks it’s a major reason your reaction to her spellwork was so strong- apparently, it gives you a self-transfiguration ability. Which, if you’re legitimately female now, as the stairs letting you up suggests, then your male form must have been provided by that ‘animagus magic’... and somehow, concentrating on your old blonde hair- or something related to it- must have triggered it.”
He blinked. “... Okay.” He closed his eyes, and concentrated. Blonde hair…
He could tell when he succeeded- something shifted within him. He couldn’t tell what it was.
“Well, that worked,” Diamond muttered.
He opened his eyes, letting his concentration fall, and looked down… in time for his black robes to be replaced by the flashy clothes. “What-!?” He took a deep breath. “It… It came back as soon as I stopped.”
“Really? Interesting… Try concentrating on being your old self, but with this hair.”
“Oh… Okay.” He shuddered, but did that- and was rewarded with the third shift in a row. Nothing reverted when he relaxed his concentration.
“Huh,” Diamond mused. “All stable?”
He nodded.
“Well, you seem to have blond hair, and your hat.”
“Huh?” He raised one hand to feel it, then sighed. “Oh. It’s… It’s a modified wig, under the hat.”
“Ahh,” she nodded. “Alright. So, we now know that you can change yourself at will. There’s still the problem of getting you out of the girl’s dormitories without being seen coming out as a boy.”
He winced. “How… How would we do that?”
“Easy: You turn back into a girl. You can do that, right? Then, I have a ‘friend’ that can furnish you with new robes for said girl form.” The way she said ‘friend’ sounded off to him. “You put those on, then we head down together, disappear into the castle, and find someplace secluded for you to take your normal form in.” She shrugged. “Might not be a bad idea for you to get yourself an invisibility cloak or something, and store it on your person- say, in your girl form’s pockets, since Twilight said your clothes would come and go with each form- for in case this ever happens again.”
“Twilight-?” he began.
She nodded. “Yep. And no, she doesn’t know- I asked her a week ago what would happen if a wizard were to have an animagus form that happened to be another wizard.” She shrugged. “Just seems like you have two.”
“Okay,” he muttered.
Silence held for about a minute.
“Sooo,” she began. “Are you going to girl up, or…?”
He winced. “Do- Do I have to do that now?”
She shrugged. “Flexible Fabric can’t give you new robes if you’re not present, you know.”
“Oh. Then…” He took a deep breath, and concentrated. Moments later, he felt that shift again. He glanced down at himself- he was a girl again, as well. Then he blinked. “Wai-- er, Wait.” He stuttered over his female voice, but forced himself to work through it. “Her name is ‘Flexible Fabric’?”
Diamond nodded, standing. “Yeah. She hates it too. C’mon- fortunately, with the way they built these dormitories, she isn’t far.” She glanced at the clock. “And she won’t have gone downstairs yet, either. Oh- and don’t mind the lingo going around in here. A lot of the Equestrians are pretty… loose-lipped when they think they’re among their own kind.”
The walk to ‘Flexible Fabric’ was fairly short; they went out through three doors, then in two more, before Diamond knocked on a door with a 4 on it.
There was a thump inside, and an “Ow!”, before someone ran up to and answered the door.
It was another Equestrian girl, exactly as expected… however, she was only partially clothed. She was wearing a black skirt and matching bra… but no shirt. He determinedly kept his eyes up, on the girl’s hair.
“Geeze, Flex, get a shirt on,” Diamond retorted instantly.
The girl rolled her eyes. “Sorry, miss, but you knocked while I was getting dressed- and it’s not like we aren’t all mares in here anyways.”
Diamond rolled her eyes. “We aren’t,” she stated plainly. “I’m a filly.”
“... Oh, sorry. What’d you need?”
“Well, someone stole, ah, Silversong here’s clothes overnight, or something- she’s been running around in her initial outfit for the last hour or so trying to find it.”
Draco pretended the name wasn’t new.
“Or something?”
She shrugged. “All we know is that they weren’t where she put them last night when she got up this morning. And for some reason, they left her initial outfit, so…”
“Ahh,” the girl muttered. “Then…” She looked at Draco. “Full set?”
“Ahh,” Draco began, his mind occupied by not looking down.
Thankfully, Diamond saw his struggle, and stuck her head in front of him, blocking the girl’s gaze. “She’s a younger filly than me, Flex, you’re driving her crazy. And yes, a full set.”
“Hey, no need to be bossy.”
Diamond lowered her tone dangerously. “If you want me to be bossy, that’s my Cutie Mark talent.”
Draco took a worried step back, away from her.
“Ahh,” Flexible muttered, looking worried. “No need for that, sorry. I’ll get her clothes.” She looked at Draco.
Draco shivered as something caressed his form. It didn’t feel like a physical touch, but it touched parts he knew he didn’t normally have, and it made him cringe.
“Tribe?” Flexible asked.
Diamond looked at Draco, and looked to be about to answer for him when he spoke.
“Raeth.”
“Got it, be back in a minute,” Flexible muttered, and closed the door.
He didn’t miss how Diamond raised her eyebrow at him, but she stayed thankfully silent.
When the door opened again, Flexible Fabric had found herself a shirt, but hadn’t donned her full robes yet. “Here you go, Silversong,” she muttered, offering a stack of folded black fabric to him. “Sorry about the shirt. Don’t lose these, okay?”
Draco accepted the fabric; he could tell the item on top, at least, was a set of robes. “Th-Thank you.”
“Just doing a service to a fellow Equestrian in need,” Flexible smiled, bowing, before turning to Diamond. “Okay then. Do you need…?”
Diamond shook her head. “Nope, that’s all, thank you.”
“Alright then, have a good day.” Flexible closed the door.
Draco let out a sigh.
“Alright then,” Diamond smiled at him. “C’mon.” She led him right back to her room. “This should work- you can change into those robes in here.”
“Ahh…” He looked at the robes in his hands.
“Here,” she smiled, taking the stack from him and putting it on the bed. “I’ll go wait behind my bed, so you don’t have to be self-conscious.”
“Why?” he asked, lifting up one set of robes. “Don’t I just put it over my head?”
Diamond shook her head. “Nah. You’ll want to change your shirt and skirt as well- if you don’t, it’ll be visible. And as for the other two articles…” She gestured to the pile; when he looked, he saw what she was talking about, and looked away, blushing. It was the kind of thing no boy his age had any business laying eyes on, worn or not. “If that really is your initial outfit, the ones you’re wearing are not very comfortable, and will start to hurt the moment you start moving around very much. So, since there’s no telling how long it’ll be before we’re able to get you someplace suitable for transformation…” She shrugged. Then she looked at the articles still sitting on the bed. “You… do know how to put them on, right?”
“Ahh,” he muttered, looking back down at the foreign pieces of clothing.
He didn’t know.