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Metamorphmagi


Lily was sitting at the table by the window, waiting, when James returned from the bathroom. “Are you alright?” she asked, looking up as he returned. He looked rather nervous. “James?”

“Yeah, I’m alright.” But he looked pale.

Lily leaned over, intending to feel his forehead, but he ducked as though he thought she might hit him. The motion surprised her. “Sorry,” she said, “I just was trying to see if your forehead was warm… Are you ill? Do you need to see a mediwizard?”

“No… no, I just…” James looked about as the door jangled a witch came in, patting her palms together to warm up and looking up at the hot drinks menu over the counter. “I just need some air. Do you wanna go for a walk?”

“Um, okay.” Lily stood up as James did and he headed for the door. She glanced over her shoulder, hoping to spot Jasper, but the woman was just standing at the counter without anyone helping her still. “Where did Jasper g--”

“Probably outback or something for supplies or something,” James said. He pulled her out the door and onto the cold street.

There was a bit of snow on the ground, but not loads, just a dusting, really. James shoved his hands in his pockets and he walked and Lily walked uncertainly beside him. Something was really wrong with him.

While she’d been sitting and waiting for him to return, she’d started thinking about how disoriented he seemed, and how many things he didn’t seem to remember… like his favorite ice cream flavor or the fact that he’d ruined her blouse last time they’d come to Florean Fortescue’s. Or when he had first woken up in the infirmary he’d acted like he’d not seen her in absolute ages at first. Could the cut on his head been more severe than it seemed? Could it be that James Potter was suffering some sort of amnesia or something? She considered this a moment and decided to test him.

She slid her hand into his. It was sweatier than it had been the night of the Yule Ball, and it didn’t fit quite as perfectly as it had then, either. She squeezed his fingers. “So when’s the next match?” she asked. Quidditch would get him talking.

James stared straight ahead through his glasses, “Oh.. um. Sometime after we get back to Hogwarts. Late January, maybe.”

Okay, true.

“Ravenclaw, we’re playing, yeah?”

“Hufflepuff,” James answered.

Also true. But they always played Hufflepuff around the start of the second term so that wasn’t really evidence of anything. “Have you been thinking of any new plays?” she asked.

“Oh… yeah… loads.”

Lily smiled. “Tell me about them?”

James stared at her.

Suddenly, there was quite a lot of commotion down the street… a woman, frantically screaming for a missing child...




"Reg, look at that little girl."

Regulus followed Maryrose's pointing finger. Down the road was a little girl outside of Eeylop's pointing at the owls in the window, her hair turning from bright yellow to hot pink to neon green to dark blue to black to orange... Her excitement had triggered her metamorphmagus capabilities.

He laughed. “She’s cute.”

Maryrose smiled at the girl with an understanding expression as her Mother took her by the hand and pulled her away from the creature-filled window. "Put your hair back to it's natural," commanded the mother, her hand about the girl's wrist. "You know the rules, Nymphadora."

The little girl frowned and looked longingly back over her shoulder as her mum tugged her away... her hair colour slowly melting back to brown. It was the saddest thing, like watching her excitement drain with the colour.

"Poor thing," Maryrose muttered, “They aren’t letting her look how she wants.”

Regulus frowned after the girl at the tone of Maryrose’s voice, so sad for her, and then a thought occurred to him and he turned to her. “Maryrose,” Regulus's eyes lit up with interest as he asked, "Did you do that when you were small? Change colours when you were excited?"

Maryrose laughed at the expression on his face - so eager. "Yeah. Mine was a lot shorter than that little one's hair was though. My parents kept it cut because they hoped I would be a boy."

The moment the words were out of her mouth, she turned rather red and looked at him nervously, her hair paling just a little bit from it’s vibrant teal.

Regulus had stopped walking. "Come again?"

Maryrose hesitated. "Metamorphmagi are born with a choice. Most wizarding families choose their metamorphmagi's gender early on and sort of enforce it during their formative years... it's never really questioned by most of them. But now and again, there are parents who will chose wrong or they'll let the choice be their kid’s... Most everyone’s made up their mind by the time they hit puberty either way, though. Some people stay sort of fluid about it, but it’s less common. Like they wake up and kind of decide what they want to be if that makes sense? It’s hard to explain."

Regulus stared at her. "So... you used to be a boy?" He looked confused.

Maryrose shrugged, "No, not really. I never really questioned it myself, I always felt like a girl but my father wanted a boy. They already had a girl, and so when the mediwizard told him that having a metamorphmagi for a child meant he got to choose, he decided I’d be a boy. So he treated me like I was a boy until I was ten and I told my parents that I’d made my choice and I was a girl." She shrugged. “Pandora, my sister, she was the first one to really accept me being whatever I wanted, then mum. Dad came around eventually. It took him the longest though.”

"So you can just... be... whatever you want? It's not just your hair and eyes you can change?" He asked, amazed. “What else can you be?”

Maryrose laughed at the nervous tone to his voice. "To be clear, I can make myself look like anything in the entire world and not BE that thing. I could make myself look like a dragon but I can’t be a dragon. I could give myself upholstery patterned skin and cushions for a lap and look like a chair and but I cannot BE a chair." She paused. "I could give myself short blonde hair and a penis and not BE a boy. I’m a girl.” She shrugged. “But there are some metamorphmagi that have to see how they feel day by day. It’s very confusing, waking up and not being entirely sure who you are. Hell, even I wake up sometimes and see myself in the mirror and my hair’s a different colour than I expected or my nose is a different shape and for a minute I don’t know me.”

“Weird,” Regulus whispered, thinking about it.

Regulus started walking again. He supposed this wasn't any stranger than how he used to be evil until he made his choice not to be. He could have the a Dark Mark and not be a Death Eater. He looked over at her.

"Are you freaked out by me now?" Maryrose asked, nervous. "Metamorphmagi don't really talk about it much, usually. It’s scary telling someone something like that... most people don't understand because what's natural and normal for me isn't what's natural and normal for them." She looked up at him, “I mean, the fact that I just told you this… it’s because I trust you a whole lot and I really, really like you Regulus and I’d really hate it if you were uncomfortable about me now. Are you okay?” He nodded. “Are you sure?”

Regulus nodded again. "You're perfect, Maryrose."

She smiled.

He leaned forward, intending to kiss her, when there was a sudden scream directly behind them. He turned about to see what the commotion was and there was a woman, frantically looking around, “NYMPHADORA?” she screamed, “NYMPHADORA?”

Maryrose looked at Regulus. “Isn’t that the woman that just had that little girl?” she asked.

Regulus's eyes widened. "Wait. That's my cousin. Andromeda. I've only met her a few times when I was really young, before she got blast off the family tree... but... that's definitely her!"

People were staring at the woman, but nobody seemed to be helping her…

Regulus drew his wand and ran forward to help.




Andromeda Tonks turned frantically about. Diagon Alley suddenly seemed so huge, so crowded, so frighteningly exposed. She’d just had her eyes on Nymphadora, just a second ago. She’d been looking at Eelyops, her nose pressed to the glass, fogging it up with her nose. She’d been pointing to owls and rabbit and rats and cats and now she was gone. Andromeda had turned her back fro but a moment, a blink of the eye....

“My daughter, she’s missing, have you seen her?” she implored random people on the street, grappling with lapels and grabbing arms, ducking to check for little ones, listening for cries or screams or calls… The street was more crowded than usual - Hogwarts out for the holidays, people going shopping for their friends and families… all jostling about, trying to get in this door or that door or to this cart or that cart… none watching where they were going, only the spare few pausing to listen to the frantic woman screaming the funny name. “NYMPHADORA! Have you seen my daughter? She was just here!”

“What’s she look like?” asked one man.

“I don’t know!” Andromeda answered truthfully. “A minute ago she had brown hair and blue eyes but she could look completely different now!”

He gave her a funny look and hurried away.

“NYMPHADORA!”