He somehow knew that his inner animal spirit had done this; it was marking territory, marking the boundaries of its kingdom. His eyes scanned the surroundings, hoping to find more evidence of his animal.
...
This was the first clue to what his animagus form actually was, beyond the environment he found himself in. There were only so many non-magical animals in the world with such large claws, even fewer who lived in such extreme conditions. His instincts and mind were both telling him that he was a feline, and a big one at that… if these claw marks were anything to judge by.
After making this conclusion, his mind went into overdrive creating a mental list of all the known felines that he knew lived in such harsh conditions. 'Perhaps a mountain lion, no, snow leopard, no, wildcat, no, too small… Tiger maybe?' he finally asked, his magic seemingly answered by stirring, and he felt a rush of excitement at receiving the answer to his long struggle.
He didn't argue with his gut, he knew it was right, and he now knew what to expect, causing him to push deeper into the snow-covered forest while ignoring his protesting legs and the cold freezing his limbs. "I'll find you," he told the snow-covered woods as he pushed himself forward, looking for any sign of the tiger.
He didn't know how long he had been hiking, how long he had battled through the knee-deep snow, or how long he had ignored the cold biting into his face, draining his energy. He just forced himself to keep going… this was all in his mind after all, just an illusion, a mental construct.
Continuing to follow his gut, his instincts, he eventually found a set of faded tracks in the deep snow. The large padded paw tracks led westwards. He now had a trail to follow. He would need to move fast before the snow buried the tracks, his energy returning in his excitement at a tangible goal.
Every step he took felt like he was growing closer to his goal, even if he was quickly tiring, his legs fiercely protesting the strain… of course this really made no logical sense, considering he was actually sitting in a lotus position on top of his bed in his Ravenclaw dorm room.
All of this was only in his own mind. He pushed on anyway before he lost the quarry that he desperately wanted to meet. Unfortunately, luck was most certainly not on his side as he was forcefully ejected from his mindscape and slowly started to regain the senses of his body in the real world. He felt another forceful shake of his shoulder.
Opening his eyes, his irritation on the tip of his tongue as he looked up at the source of the disturbance when he had been so close. "What!" he spat, his eyes taking in both Penny and Padma's worried faces, idly noticing that they were in their school uniforms. 'That's odd, why wear their uniform during the weekend?' he mentally pondered as the pair suddenly looked at each other after noticing his irritation.
"We were worried about you, Harry! We haven't seen you in days and you actually missed DADA today," Padma offered in explanation.
'DADA? But it's Saturday?' he thought, still trying to process what he was being told. "It's Monday?" he asked uncertainly as things started to click in his mind. He tried to get to his feet at this realization but immediately fell over as he dropped to the hard floor, the dark blue rug doing little to soften the fall. 'Dead legs' he noted, his legs stiff and cold and dead of feeling after sitting for days in the same position. Doing a sit-up, he started to rub his legs, trying to get the life back into them as he looked at his friends.
"Yeah, it's Monday," Penny confirmed, looking down at him with slight confusion, and offering him a hand up.
He accepted her hand. "Damn, you are freezing, Harry," Penny expressed in alarm, pulling him upright as he struggled to reach the edge of his bed, and quickly cast a warming charm at him.
Silently thanking his friend for the warming charm, he looked over in the direction of his windows, finding them still shut tight. Even if Serenity had come and gone, the window would have only opened briefly and closed immediately thereafter, so the cold wasn't due to that. He also didn't leave the window open prior to meditating either. Was this cold he felt a manifestation of what he experienced in his mind? Did his magic make it real? Shaking his head, he tried to come up with a more fitting explanation, but it was the only explanation that made any sense. His stomach chose the next moment to rumble ominously loud.
"You okay, Harry?" Padma asked, distracting him from his thoughts.
He chose to give her a reassuring smile. "Yes, I'm fine, just very hungry," he answered as he got up on his still shaking legs and walked over to his well-stocked fruit bowl and took several pieces of fruit before getting some chocolate frogs out of his bedside drawer. "Want one?" he offered, holding up a chocolate frog to the girls as Penny pressed the back of her hand against his forehead, catching him off guard and otherwise ignoring his offer before frowning with obvious disapproval.
"I think you need to go to the hospital wing, Harry," the elder girl stressed, her features laced with concern as he bit quickly into the sweet chocolate to restore a bit of energy. "You're awfully cold."
"I'll be fine," he offered to reassure them again, his smile clearly failing as exhaustion started to register on his body. "But I think I might need a nap."
"Harry, what were you doing anyhow?" Padma enquired as he started to eat a second chocolate frog to subdue his rumbling stomach.
"Meditating. I simply lost track of time," he offered back, a tad embarrassed about the whole situation.
He watched with trepidation as Penny's arms crossed over her bountiful chest, her stance shifting to clearly indicate that she was not accepting this answer at face value. "For two and a half days!" Penny challenged, giving him a stern look.
He did not want to argue or outright lie to his friend. "Indeed." At this he crashed back onto his bed, his eyes already closing involuntarily at the softness of the mattress.
"Harry, you can't sleep now, you'll miss Herbology," Padma scolded, trying to pull him out of bed, but he was like a dead weight to her. "You've already missed one lesson today, you can't afford to miss another."
'What did one lesson matter? He was already so far ahead of his peers; 99% of the lessons this year had been nothing but recapping material he already knew from the previous school year, not to mention his intense extra study of DADA. He was well into fifth-year spells in that subject thanks to his cousin's efforts.'
"Fine…" he sighed before rolling off his ever-so-comfortable bed and opening his trunk to retrieve a spare pepper-up potion, rather than having to deal with both girls nagging him and his head of house on his backside.
"I wanted to save this," he mumbled in regret as he quickly downed the bright red potion, steam immediately erupting from his ears like an old-fashioned pressure kettle, creating a whistling sound. Almost at once the potion's effects were felt, energy flowing through his system. At this influx, his mind cleared whilst his eyes grew less heavy, becoming more focused.
Reaching into his wardrobe to retrieve his school uniform, he tidily laid them out on his bed, already stripping down to his tight boxer briefs as he walked into the bathroom to have a quick shower, not caring what the pair of girls saw. His body was in excellent shape after all, and would only get better if he carried on with his efforts.
He absently caught their shock at his brazen actions, both already going bright red in embarrassment, yet neither really looking away from him. Shutting the bathroom door, he didn't bother with casting a locking charm as it would be pointless, both girls knew the counter-charm and he seriously doubted the pair would sneak a peek.
...
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