Alicius Longbottom was named for his deceased grandmother, Alice and while having a feminine root name was an issue, being the son of a professor who just happened to be a hero of the last wizarding war helped squash any ribbing he would get about it. Indeed, for the first time in his life, he actually used the nickname Alice with a measure of pride, rather than the derision with which it was used in the muggle world. But there were quite a few other differences between he and his father besides Neville having a more proper male name.
Alice was sorted into Ravenclaw, and while he had wanted to be in Gryffindor like his father, his mother Hannah had been in Hufflepuff. But before heading off on the Express, his father had warned him to accept what the hat said, and Alicius had shown such cunning and intellect, that his father even said he thought he might wind up in Ravenclaw. And so he did, more than three years ago when sorted by the hat.
Now, Alice is in fourth year, and one of the best students in his class, at least in academic areas. Having his dad for Herbology was a novel experience, but it was also a bit frustrating as it was one of his worst classes. Worst, in this case meant that once he got two questions wrong on the same exam. But when it came to transfiguration, Alice had gotten nothing wrong ever. In all four years. In fact, it was a foregone conclusion he would get the McGonagall award for the best transfiguration student, and the ministry had even preemptively given him the necessary paperwork to file as an animagus. He would be the lead prefect if not for the fact he was almost rubbish at anything physical. Quidditch was a mystery for him, his broom skills were second rate at best (he did not count his abysmal broom work as an academic failure since the class was simply pass/fail).
Alice didn't care about that, and truthfully, he had found that pouring himself into his transfiguration studies could give him access to physical skills, if he was of a mind to do so. He used the room of requirement as his study hall, especially since so few in Ravenclaw knew of its existence. Furthermore, Alicius had surmised that the room of requirement could also, in essence, multiply, so there was a special one, only he could access. Those other students who knew of it, either from their parents or such legends as they were able to parse, could never get into his room. And it was there Alice perfected transfiguration to a level even his professors could not imagine.
So it was today, Alice was alone in the room, and practicing skills he had mastered, but as the old muggle saying went" practice makes perfect. Setting his wand down, stepping back from it, he closes his eyes and concentrates. Suddenly Alicius is a real Alice, slim build, blonde hair, blue eyes and a very definitively feminine body. The newly gendered SHE smiles and looks at herself in a mirror, approvingly. Her soft voice is smooth, whereas his normal voice is a little warbly, uneven. "Nice, human transfiguration without polyjuice potion, AND without a wand. The ministry would likely pass all sorts of regulation if they found out a wizard could do this, but that is why Alice practices here, in the room of requirement, alone. She sits down, crosslegged and closes her eyes, concentrating once more.
When she opens her eyes, he is a cat, meows and rubs along the surface of the mirror as he checks himself. Though she is back to male, so he is himself once more. Alice heard McGonagall was a cat animagus and he considers registering this form with the ministry, but... feline eyes close and wolf eyes open, as he turns into a wolf. There has never been a polymagus animagi with the ministry, and Alice would actually like to be the first, but still there is more. The depths to which he has explored the realm of transfiguration defies what are sometimes considered to be the boundaries of magic, but Alicius Longbottom is the first wizard to perfect self transfiguration without a wand, for ANY form. Animagi can master one animate form, but Alice, well. The wolf pads over before the mirror, closing his eyes....
It's not so much that he opens his eyes, since he no longer has any, but rather he allows his vision to focus. The room is empty of people, of animals, just the mirror he keeps in here to check his work. And the coat-rack standing before it. Alice has struggled with inanimate transfiguration of himself on more than one occasion. Primarily because there is obviously no chance to use a wand to restore oneself, but also because having a living soul inside an inanimate object is so unnatural. It was reading from a banned book, the accounts of Voldemort and his horcruxes that made Alice realize it was possible, and even how to do it. Not that he murdered someone. Or rather, someone else. But in the process of transfiguration into an object, just before altering the matter of his body, he kills it, he dies, allowing his soul to inhabit his now nonliving form. Restoration is a bit tricky, but basically its a form of mental CPR, as the muggles call it, but it worked. So now, Alice can turn into anything at all, and when an inanimate form, the same sort of magical protections extend to him as did to horcruxes, making him vary hard to destroy, harder still to detect, and even able to subtly influence people who comes into possession of whatever he is. The coat-rack turns back into Alicius who sighs. The time has come to really test this, not in the room of requirement, but out in the real world. Break starts tomorrow, and if he turns into something, he will have months to exist as it, out in the real world, all anonymously. And then in the fall, he can decide what job to take, how to approach the ministry with what he can do. But what to become?
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