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Who: James Potter and Emma Swan
What: James is stuck as a deer and looking for someone to help him out
When: Nowish
Where: Outside Emma's door.
Rating: PG?

There are a few things you just happen to expect when you grow up in a magical household. Unexpected, magical changes are one of them. However, one of the (many) things that James thought he had pretty good control over was his animagus form. Admittedly he hadn't gotten around to going stag while at the castle. He hadn't had a real reason for it, and had no reason to think something was wrong with his powers. Admittedly, he also hadn't figured out what his loss was yet.

So when he was meandering through the lobby towards the kitchen and suddenly found himself with some extra hoofs he didn't remember having a few moments ago, he wasn't completely surprised. A little alarmed that it had happened without him wanting it to, but still not alarming like it would be for most people that suddenly find themselves stuck in the body of a deer.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to change back. So instead of standing around awkwardly and drawing attention to himself, he'd managed to charge up a flight of stairs, away from sight. He wasn't really sure where he was planning on going, considering wandering around the hallways stuck like this wasn't a lot better than standing in the lobby stuck like this.

It was by pure luck he manage to stumble across a room with the name "Emma Swan" printed on it. Less luck, however, when a good sharp kick to the door produced the loud "knock" he wanted it to.

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The knock is enough to make Emma jump, eyes wide with shock and suspicion. Two months and nothing necessarily bad has happened, impromptu camping and fake family reunions aside. So she can't help but the time finally came and something terrible has happened, doesn't help that Henry isn't here right now. Likely spending time with his grandparents or finding some sort of tree to climb.

"Coming!" Could be nothing, could be something. Could be Henry with a arm full of god knows what.

Or it could be a deer as she discovers when she opens the door. Suspicion flees in favor of pure confusion and she frowns. A deer. Seriously? And here she was expecting something different, something a little more threatening. "...Hey?"

Deer can be threatening! Trust him, he wouldn't pick any old form, and those hooves are sharp! If she'd take a minute to look at her door, she might notice some pretty nasty gouges he placed in it with that kick. Not to mention the antlers. You really don't want a full grown stag putting those anywhere near you.

Okay, pride isn't the issue right now, even if it is an overarching issue for him in general. Right now, he just needs some help, maybe somewhere to recoop for a minute while he figures out what's going on.

He bows his head down in greeting, before turning it to look over his shoulder, and then back at her. Lifts one foreleg and brings it down with a clack onto the stone floor, wondering if she'll be letting him in. He could really do with getting out of the hallway for a minute or two.

The gouges on her door aren't nearly as important as the deer that is standing outside her door as if it knows her. She stares at it for a moment before shaking her head.

"You've got to be kidding me." Either someone let their pet deer run wild or this is... one of the residents. Honestly Emma isn't all that sure how she feels about the latter of the two.

For the moment she decides to work on the former, as that is less headache inducing than the other option. And thus she doesn't open the door wider or let it him. Because it's a deer. And Emma isn't in the market for pets.

"Sorry buddy, there's no room for any deer in here."

Great, just what he didn't need right now. James lets out an exasperated snort, dropping his head down a little lower, trying to look her in the eyes. Right now this is one of the last things he needs. Well, the last thing he needed was to get stuck in stag form with no way of turning back, but since that had already happened, this whole unhelpful routine was making its way up the list pretty fast.

He shifts how he's standing, trying to decide what he could to to make Emma understand it's him. It's not like he could write like this to let her know, well... he could attempt, but it wouldn't do much good. And magic? That's right out of the question, Emma didn't ever know he was a wizard in the first place.

He's pretty sure there's no good way to signify you used to be someone's brother-in-law (sort of) either, so he has to resort doing his best to look like a sulking teenager. She wants a pout? Well dammit, here's a pout for her.

Today Emma has learnt something she never knew before. Today she learned that deers... can pout. Or well look like they are. Or something.

The pout stops her from just closing the door on it, that and for some reason she recognizes that pout. Recognition takes a few moments to finally settle in and when it does she almost laughs. Almost.

"James?" No, it couldn't be right?

Head up, ears perked. Now she's getting it! God, and here he was thinking he was going to have to go through more ridiculous charades, and a heck of a lot more door kicking to get anything close to a real response from her.

He stomps his hoof down onto the floor again with another loud clack. If she can get this, they can probably at least work out an easy yes or no system with this. Still limits conversation a bit, but considering he wasn't exactly an expert in legilimency, nor did he have any desire to ever be one having some disdain for that sort of magic, this would have to do.

"Oh my god."

She's torn between laughing and looking surprised. She heard about losses that turn people into animals but... well it is one thing to hear about it, it's another to actually see it. "That was a yes, wasn't it?" She's talking to a bloody deer, a deer she got tricked into thinking was her brother-in-law.

Her day just got a whole lot more interesting.

Surprise he can understand, laughter less so. There's nothing funny to him about being an animagus, nothing serious about it either really. He just feels like if people are going to know (and he's really hoping that no one besides her finds out, considering the legal complications that go along with the whole... never having registered thing) then they should at least be impressed with the amount of effort he put into learning how to do it in the first place!

Either way he strikes his foot against the floor again, just once, another yes. And in case she doesn't get it, he does his bed to nod his head, but it looks pretty doofy to see a deer bobbing it's head up and down like that. Also vaguely dangerous what with the antlers and all.

She's sorry, or at least she will be later. But right now this is amusing. In her head she thinks this is clearly some sort of loss. What else could it be? It's not like James could turn into a stag from the get go.

"Right." She opens the door further to let him inside. "Come on."

He's not sure if he wants to correct her on that point or not. It's not like he really at right now anyways, so instead of worrying about whether she understands how amazingly talented he really is (and he really is) he quickly hustles his way into her room.

He has to say, he's pleasantly surprised to see she keeps the room neater than he does his own. Admittedly that isn't hard to do, but it does make it a lot easier to walk around when your floor is half chocked with quidditch equipment and various books and potions ingredients.

Emma's never been a really messy person. She hasn't had enough stuff at any point in time for her honestly to be messy. And Henry is a clean kid, thank whatever god there may be, so it makes keeping everything tidy pretty easy.

She closes the door once he's inside, stepping around him to move further into the room. Well... what now?

That's an excellent question, Emma! Right now mostly James is going to find himself a nice, wide section of floor to walk over to and awkwardly lay himself down, legs tucked under him. He looks up at her, then looks over to her desk, them back at her.

If she's got some paper and quill... well... maybe a muggle pen instead, because a quill would be hard to grip in his mouth at the moment. It's not like he'll have much of skill in writing, but he can probably draw out a few letters.

The look isn't lost on her but it takes her a moment to actually figure out what he is... sort of suggesting. "Paper?" Yeah alright, she can do this. As ridiculous as the very concept sounds Emma heads over to the desk and grabs some spare paper and a pen.

Here James have some paper and a pen, that she is going to hold out for you.

"Hope you know what you're doing with this."

He doesn't have a clue, but he's not about to give up so soon. If this doesn't work out, he can at least say he tried. Well, say being objective here. He doesn't know when's the next chance he'll have to say anything if he can't figure out a way to turn back into himself.

He grabs the paper out of her hand first, taking a small chunk out of it with his teeth and lets it flutter to the ground in front of his feet... Good enough. He spits out the little bit of paper in his mouth and grabs the pen next.

Now he just has to... uh... that is... hmmm. Well this is going to be a lot harder than it looks. Moving the pen about in his mouth until the inky end is held out the side of it, he lowers his head down towards the paper, and tries to drag it along. He makes one large line and the paper starts shifting.

... Damn.

She has to stop herself from laughing at the image before her. A stag, trying to write with a pen. If only she had a camera she'd be half tempted to record this, only half.

"Hang on."

Being the ever nice person that she is Emma gets down on her knees, holding down the piece of paper for him. To stop it shifting. Don't say she's never done anything for you James.

He appreciated that she wasn't doing that. It's humiliating enough that he lost control of his ability to transform in the first place, the last thing he wanted was in caught on video. Plus there would be this whole set of questions on James' part about how her video recorder even worked, and he couldn't really asked any of those when he was like this. Especially considering he couldn't even seem to write at the moment.

He let out long suffering sigh, but looked up at her, dipping his head down once to thank her for helping out here. He didn't mind getting help from time to time, but it was a little frustrating how little he can do for himself at the moment.

Still with her holding down the paper he tried again. Dragging the pen slowly across the paper, trying to fit all the words onto one page.

Sad when you considered once he was done with is writing all he had managed to write out was one word "THANKS" in large, messy letters.

She'd argue that it is more than any other deer has ever been able to do, but that would be distasteful. Maybe. Instead she manages a smile before reaching over to give him a little scratch behind the ear.

Deers like that right?

"You're welcome."

Deers don't generally let people close enough to let people give them a scratch behind the ear, but James doesn't seem to mind all that much. He's not typical the type that likes to be petted, but not being the one to turn into the dog out of his friends he wasn't the one people put their hands on. Best to say he's ambivalent to it.

He nods his head a little, and drops the pen out of his mouth. He might want to write later, but there's no point keeping it there when writing is as much of a hassle as it is.

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