— A strange quiet settled over Hogwarts the moment the curse broke, a stillness so unnatural that the portraits stopped pretending to sleep. One breath later, the entire castle echoed with startled voices that came from bodies no one expected to have. Students stumbled through corridors in the shapes of their Patronuses, tails swishing, wings fluttering, paws tapping stone floors. Even the professors found themselves transformed, their voices unchanged but their forms undeniably animal. Filch paced the entrance hall in grumbling confusion. Minerva tried to maintain order despite the fact that she could no longer glare over her spectacles. Flitwick squeaked in protest at the height difference he had never asked for.

Amid it all, Severus stood near the foot of the Grand Staircase, staring at his reflection in a suit of armor. What stared back was not a doe, not the quiet silver shape he had carried in his heart for decades. Seeing another creature entirely unsettled him so deeply that he momentarily forgot to speak. He felt something in his chest twist, something old and private. The doe had been a symbol of loyalty, of grief, of love. Losing it now felt like losing a piece of himself he had never been ready to let go.

Yet the castle did not wait for him to understand. Students were stumbling about, some frightened, some delighted, some unable to walk in straight lines. Severus forced himself to step away from his reflection, pushing aside the rising confusion. He began gathering students with curt instructions, his tone clipped but steady. The staff converged in the corridor, each in an unfamiliar body, each doing their best to look authoritative despite whiskers, feathers, or hooves.