Gunpowder & Cinnamon {Fred Weasley}

Chapter Ninety Five

Nixie and Sirius weren't lying when they claimed the Mandrakes leaves process would not be an easy one. The bitter tasting leaf left the three completely nauseous, because no matter what, everything they ate had a taste of the leaf in their mouths. Not to mention, kissing wasn't that pleasant either for Fred and Eleanor or Judith and George leaving the four frustrated. Verity and Lee had noticed the irritation the leaves caused as the three worked in the shop.

The twins didn't talk as much trying to keep their mouth movement as limited as possible for the leaf would remain tucked in place. Eleanor busied herself with her knitted line but grew frustrated easily when she missed a stitch. It was obvious that the final part of the Animagus Process was definitely the most frustrating part.

However, with only less than a week to go after suffering the time with the leaf, Eleanor began to feel sick to her stomach late at night. The taste and the smell of the leaf was driving the urge for her to vomit at any given moment, but she stuck it out, refusing to vomit and lose the leaf so close to the end.

Resting in bed after a long day in the shop, Eleanor had her hands over her stomach with her eyes closed trying to focus her attention on not feeling so horrible.

"May I interest you in some soup or something else for dinner?"

She opened her eyes and lifted her head a bit to see Fred looking at her with a slightly worried look on his face.

She smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm alright. I don't want to eat anything with this thing in my mouth, everything just taste disgusting."

"Well, you got to eat something love. That's not good for you." Fred said.

"Everything I eat just makes me want to vomit and I swear if I vomit and lose this leaf I'm going to kill someone because that will be nearly an entire month wasted."

Fred walked over and sat beside her on the bed with a grin before pulling her into his side.

"You'll make yourself sick if you don't eat something."

Eleanor giggled looking away from him to try and hide it.

"What?" Fred said. "What's so funny? I want to laugh to."

"Sorry, you just sounded like your mother for a moment." she teased him.

"Thanks. Thanks a lot for that."

"Oh it's not a bad thing to sound like your mother. Molly is amazing and at some point all of her children have sounded like her. It's a good thing." She said resting into him and closing her eyes.

A very good thing."

Sleeping was another challenge for the three, as they had to position themselves to sleep on their sides or their stomachs so that they didn't swallow the leaf during the night. But it made sleeping just another challenge during the process that the three hated.

One night, Fred slammed his face into his pillow to let out a frustrated yell while Eleanor watched him.

"This better work or I swear...this is the greatest prank in history."

Eleanor shook her head. "Of course, you would see it that way."

As promised, Nixie and Sirius met with the young adults in Hogsmeade once the month was up and from there moved to the outskirts of the village to have some privacy for the end of the process results.

"It was horrible wasn't it?" Sirius laughed heartily. "Whew, I remember how awful it was. But hey, you all should be incredibly proud of yourselves. You three actually only needed one leaf each and you went through it like champions. Pat yourselves on the back."

The three of them just stared at the man.

"What? What did I say?" Sirius asked looking to Nixie.

"Nothing, dear, but I think they just want to get the leaf out of their mouths as soon as possible."

"Yes, please!" George called out. "This leaf has been nothing but a bloody menace!"

"Alright," Nixie smiled at them. "Who wants to go first?"

The three looked around at each other, before the twins looked directly at Eleanor.

"You should go first, love." Fred told her. "After all, this is what you wanted the most. You wanted to do this to keep your father company. So let's see if all your hard work paid off."

Eleanor nodded her head. "Right, I'll go first."

"Now before we get started," Nixie said, " I want you three to know that once the process takes place fully, you will be registered under the Ministry. It's bad enough I was an accomplice to three unregistered Animagi, I'm not getting caught up with another three.The only thing left to know before we place in the registration is what animals you'll be and your distinct markings."

"Our markings?" Eleanor asked.

"Everyone has a distinctive marking that will appear once they become animagi." Nixie said. "Such as the lovely Sirius here, can be identified by his birthmark, once you part his fur enough. Blemishes and markings that you have on your body now...even missing limbs.., will show up on your animagus form."

Eleanor swallowed before lifting her jumping and revealing the scar on her abdomen that hadn't fully ever disappeared from where Artemis struck her to save her life. George raised a hand to his missing ear while Fred tried to figure out what his was going to be.

"Alright, Eleanor, you're up." Nixie smiled at her. "Are you ready?"

"Ready as I'm ever going to be."

"Good, now just remember to relax and go through what you learned in your head. Don't freak out if it doesn't happen right away." she reassured Eleanor. "It's going to be alright, I have faith in all of you."

"Okay." Eleanor sighed. "I can do this."

Fred watched from where he stood beside George as Eleanor closed her eyes to focus. A couple of minutes passed of pure silence as everyone watched patiently, waiting for her to transform. Nixie looked slightly nervous, hoping it would all work out.

Just as Fred went to frown, Eleanor's body jolted and began to morph.

"She's doing it!" he said happily to himself as Eleanor's animal form began to take.

The process of turning to the animal, was the weirdest things Eleanor had ever felt in her entire life. It wasn't painful, but awkward feeling, as she felt bones shifting and moving in her body to take form of her chosen animal. To find herself lower to the ground when she opened her eyes, was odd as well as she looked up to the group.

"Oh my," Sirius was the first to speak with a bright smile. "What's black and white, and adorable all over?!"