This feat gives a wizard or witch the ability to transform into a non-magical beast of challenge rating 4 or less whenever they wish. You get the abilities of said beast you chooses, but your hit points transfer over to the new form. Once you choose a beast form, you can not choose a new one ever again. First they must follow these steps:
Step 1: Do your homework…
…in Transfiguration and Potions at least. Becoming an Animagus requires a witch or wizard to be skilled in both these areas in order to stand a chance of achieving such a complex transformation.
Step 2: Carry a single Mandrake leaf in your mouth…
…for an entire month – from full moon to full moon to be precise. Yes, we’re serious. If you swallow the leaf or remove it from your mouth at any point, you have to start the whole thing again (no-one likes to see that happen). You then have to find a ‘small crystal phial that receives the pure rays of the moon’, put your saliva-filled leaf inside, and add one of your own hairs.
Step 3: Add a silver teaspoon of dew from a place that neither sunlight nor human feet have touched…
…for a full seven days. And if that wasn’t hard enough, you then have to add the chrysalis of a Death’s-head Hawk Moth to the crystal phial as well. Then put ‘this mixture in a quiet, dark place’ and leave it alone until the next electrical storm. And really leave it alone – don’t even look at it. Don’t even think about looking at it.
Step 4: While waiting for the transfiguration to begin, you must place your wand tip over your heart…
…every sunrise and sundown and speak the following incantation: ‘Amato Animo Animato Animagus’. If you keep repeating your incantation, ‘there will come a time when, with the touch of the wand-tip to the chest, a second heartbeat may be sensed.’ Don’t change anything! Keep going. Keep waiting for that storm!
Step 5: As soon as lightning appears in the sky, go to the place where…
…you’ve hidden your crystal phial. At last! If you’ve done everything right then you will ‘discover a mouthful of blood-red potion inside it.’ Then move somewhere where you aren’t going to alarm anyone or place yourself in physical danger during your transformation. An Animagus transformation party is definitely a bad idea.
Step 6: Place your wand-tip against your heart and speak…
…the incantation ‘Amato Animo Animato Animagus’ and drink the potion. You will then feel fiery pain – lucky you – and an intense double heartbeat.
Step 7: The shape of the creature into which you will shortly transform will appear…
…in your mind. The instructions then warn: ‘You must show no fear/ It is too late now, to escape the change you have willed’. Yikes!
Step 8: When your transformation is complete you are strongly advised to pick up your wand…
…and hide it somewhere safe, so you can find it post-transformation. To return to human form, visualise your human self as clearly as you can. Don’t worry if you don’t change back immediately, ‘with practice, you will be able to slip in and out of your animal form at will, simply by visualising the creature’. Once you’re an advanced Animagus, you should be able to transform without your wand.
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