"Exactly. And your abundant grace."

Hee.

She laughs. "I bet Professor Reynolds or McGonagall know stuff about how to figure out your Animagus shape..."

"Do you want to go ask now?"

"Sure."

And off to ask Professor Reynolds about Animagi.

She's not in her office, but they can ask the portraits where she is and get directed to a small lounge - really more of a nook - she's apparently claimed to curl up with a book, Scarlet sprawled over her lap.

"Good afternoon," she says, smiling.

"Hello Professor. Have you got time to talk?"

"I do right now. What can I help you with?"

"We were wondering about the Animagus transformation. How do you tell what animal you're going to be?"

She hums. "That's usually held to be impossible, at least to be sure. People do ever manage to guess - usually if they already feel an extreme affinity for one animal - and people don't become animals they'd feel revulsion at becoming."

"Did you have any idea what yours would be?"

She hums. "I've always felt a deep affinity with cats - sometimes other animals, but always predators, and always circling back to feeling as if I am, in some sense, feline. I felt most drawn to - and fascinated by - big cats... Though I didn't get to see them very often. I found it - really distressing, even just to look at them in the sort of zoos we had when I was a kid. I found it upsetting when other animals were being held in too small enclosures, but... I didn't see myself in them."

"I assumed I'd probably be a cat - and if not that, a bird - and was right, there."

Nod nod.

Anathema hums. "I haven't been to a zoo... But yeah. Cats feel me-ish."

"Modern zoos are a lot nicer than they were thirty or forty years ago, at least."

"That's good. Animals should live in nice places."

She nods, firmly. To Ellie, "Do you have any animals that you feel really connected to?"

"I dunno about connection really, but dragons are really cool."

"They are. Sadly, I don't know of any case of an animagus form being a magical animal..."

"Aw."

"Some people have managed to effectively bootstrap - it's impossible to use wands in your animal form, but you can use many other magical techniques. Some magical creatures are definitively descended from common animals that developed magic, spontaneously or through exposure - and people whose animagus form is the base animal can eventually develop the abilities and even the form of any derived magical creature."

"That's really cool."

Smile. "It really is. We're not sure where dragons came from, though - they're old as a group, and very few wizards are interested in paleontology - so it's unclear if that'd be possible for becoming a dragon..."

"...Maybe they're magical dinosaurs."