alchemical blurb

[mswoods]

The following day, Sadde has Transfiguration in the morning.

She is all over it at lunch.

"Okay, so, Transfig is just about the coolest thing," she says first thing to the Ravenclaws as soon as she sits at the table.

Comments

[chanuphis]

"Aha."

[mrwoods]

"You do think in a rather Slytherin way, though, don't you?"

[chanuphis]

"Well, this was a Slytherin who hit you, right?"

[mrwoods]

"Naturally, otherwise I'd probably not have heard of the unfortunate underwear mishap."

[chanuphis]

"Heard of. Right."

[mrwoods]

"Yep. I couldn't possibly have done it myself; as you might know, the girls' dorm doesn't allow any boys in."

[chanuphis]

"How many people in your dorm still don't know?"

[mrwoods]

"I think none of the girls do, and most of the older boys don't either. I know Jacob knows, but he acts like he doesn't. We also don't talk in public anymore, he's quick to learn. The others, I think they're not sure yet, I haven't been feeling very girly this week so they haven't really noticed how much I change."

[chanuphis]

"There are so few students in the class, you'd think they must notice that there was a girl in some of their lessons and she's vanished..."

[pleating]

"What is it even like to 'feel girly'?"

[mrwoods]

He shrugs. "Maybe they're just really dense? Or maybe they actually did notice but are keeping quiet for some unfathomable reason. Maybe they're more Slytherin than I imagine. Or maybe they think it's just the work of makeup and that since I'm not really a girl it doesn't matter. Or something."

He looks at Karen and says, "Well, it's... I mean, it's like itself? Like, some days I just feel like I'm a girl, and some days I feel like I'm a boy. Some days I don't feel like either of those so I just go with whatever I was before."

[pleating]

"But what do you mean, you feel like you're a girl, or feel like you're a boy, why would that feel like something."

[mrwoods]

"Well... It's not really like anything else. I think maybe people with, like, phantom limbs probably fell something similar? Some days I feel like my body should be like so and that people should call me this instead of that, and that I shouldn't have this but should have that other thing instead.

"I mean, imagine tomorrow you woke up as a boy. What do you think you would feel and want to do about it?"

[pleating]

"I don't want to be a boy! I'd be in the wrong room and all my robes would be cut wrong and it'd be weird!"

[mrwoods]

"...right," Sadde giggles. "So, some days I wake up feeling kinda like that, and it gets better when I morph."

[pleating]

"But don't you sleep in the same room all the time...? And do you have different sets of robes, I wasn't paying attention."

[mrwoods]

"I do. Anyway, that's why I said it's kinda like that, but it's not really related to anything practical like robes or rooms, it's just..." Who'da thunk, Sadde at a loss for words. "It's itself," he sighs. "It's just feeling like my body should be a certain way and I should be seen a certain way and, erm, yeah. I don't have anything better than this." Shrug.

[pleating]

"I wonder if a lot of metamorphmagi feel like that?"

[mrwoods]

"Wouldn't know, never met one. My childhood would've been very different if I had."

[chanuphis]

"Because they would have told you about magic in general?"

[mrwoods]

"Yes. Or, at least, I hope they would."

[msmaxwell]

"You never know, maybe your neighbour's a metamorph spy. They could be anyone!"

[chanuphis]

"Why would there be a metamorph spying on Sadde?"

[msmaxwell]

"Clearly to see if he's fit to be a part of their giant conspiracy to take over the world by impersonating all of the world's rulers."

[chanuphis]

"I think you might need to do more than look like the rulers to successfully impersonate them for long."