When I speak I cross my fingers
Will you know you've been deceived?
I find a need to be the demon
A demon cannot be hurt

1st August, 1890 — 12 Grimmauld Place

Holding a mandrake leaf in her mouth had been as unpleasant as Elladora had expected but it was a necessity for the potion. Allegedly. Privately she wasn’t entirely convinced that whoever had written this particular tome on animagus transformations wasn’t attempting to pull the leg of the reader for their own amusement but she refused to ask Evalina at the risk of seeming utterly foolish.

The rest had been easy enough. Finding a cold, dark spot in Grimmauld Place was a remarkably achievable task and Elladora had let it be known to the house elves that any disturbance in her rooms would land them a spot on the wall forevermore – dusty her living space might be but nestled underneath the floorboards was a potion she had taken every pain to get right.

Now the waiting game commenced. Each morning she chanted the incantation and each night she seethed to see another clear sky. The days had turned balmy and pleasant – useless – until quite suddenly the temperature sparked dramatically and Elladora began to have hope. Nights spent staring out of the window were not conducive to concentration though and by mid-afternoon Elladora was dozing on the chaise in the drawing room, having successfully found a patch of the room with a breeze.

A bang woke her.*

“Was that lightning?” She asked, voice raspy with sleep and hair askew, eyes searching the room for Ursula who had hopefully been paying attention.

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Ursula Black

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*Not that kind Olive.

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   Ursula Black

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Reclined on the sofa, a book in one hand and a fan waving warm air languidly at her face in the other. Ursula was deeply uncomfortable. The air was stifling and it had even sent Elladora to sleep, or else the spinster had quietly died from heatstroke but the sound of her breathing was plenty audible enough for that thought to have never crossed her mind. While the older woman had been asleep, Ursula had discreetly unbuttoned the top few buttons of her dress and later, upon finding it largely ineffective, had worked up a sweat rummaging around her own bosom to unhook the top clasp of her corset. It was similarly anticlimactic but being sprawled as she was, refastening it was simply impossible unless she stood up.

Ursula had been staring at the same page in her book for a good 20 minutes, unable to concentrate feeling as warm as she did. She too was starting to fall asleep when the loud noise gave her enough of an adrenaline rush to reinvigorate her. Apparently it had roused Elladora too.

"Perhaps..." she replied, not entirely certain and not caring enough to devote any thought to it. "This is vile." The slightest movement and she could feel how sweaty she was. Disgusting. Surely it wasn't this warm in the colonies, how could anyone invade anything in this humidity?

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   Elladora Black

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It was utterly atrocious and there was no denying it but Elladora was far too accomplished at the stoicism of spinster aunts everywhere to admit defeat in the face of something as trifling as the weather. Eventually it would break and the rain would come again – and hopefully the electrical storm she required would not be far behind it. Surely it couldn’t be long now? The humidity in London had fair reached breaking point and she didn’t even have the energy to raise an eyebrow at Ursula’s state of semi-disrobement.

Instead she pushed herself off the chaise, grimacing when the back of her blouse peeled itself away from her clammy back, and crossed to the window. The sun blazed through, hurting her sleep-addled eyes and she drew the curtain against the garden with a huff.

“It was the neighbours,” she said darkly. The gardener had been taken ill several weeks ago with dropsy and in the interim their neighbours – the muggles - had apparently taken up lawn tennis at which they were awful. The urge, ever-present, to silence them for good filled her to the brim. “Proof positive that muggle constitutions are considerably less advanced. What kind of savage would want to be outdoors in this?”

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"Come away," she whined, reaching out half-heartedly towards her and ultimately just flapping her wrist limply in the air. The sun that was now streaming in was deeply unpleasant and only added to her overall discomfort.

There was a dull 'thud' as Ursula's book very literally slipped from her sweaty fingers and hit the floor. She groaned and made no move to retrieve it. The book was dead to her now. Similarly her wand was on the table and leaning to grab it would be an adventure in unnecessary perspiration. "Let the muggles alone - the heat is sickening enough on its own." Ursula grimaced as she caught herself rhyming unintentionally.

"Would you be a dear and fetch my book whilst you're up?" She'd lost her place now and her will to live but it'd be nice to have the option to resume if she so pleased without having to get it herself.

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   Elladora Black

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Elladora retrieved the book – she had definitely become more malleable towards her sister-in-law since nearly losing her at the New Year – but placed it carefully on the side-table rather than hand it over. Ursula would only damage it anyway and Ella highly doubted she was reading it.

“I could make a cooling draught,” Ella speculated idly, pushing a stray strand of hair out of her eyes and grimacing at how damp the roots were. Dear Merlin, this was intolerable! “I would have to send the elves out for the ingredients of course.”

And no doubt they would dawdle or bring the wrong thing entirely. Honestly, having sub-human servants was a nuisance at times like these. At least a maid could follow a list correctly!

“If only the Sanditon were more exclusive we might have had some relief from the ocean.”

Not that she could swim of course. It was impossible to know what form she would take once the Animagi transformation took hold but Elladora was reasonably sure no one had ever become a sea creature so in all likelihood the skill would never be something she needed to master.

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She looked on in vague annoyance as her sister-in-law put the book down on the side-table and well out of her reach. Typical Elladora. It was simply too uncomfortably hot to begrudge her for it.

A cooling draught sounded lovely, standing over a cauldron to brew it, on the other hand, did not. Although if Elladora was going to be the one brewing it then that would be her problem. "We do have a house on the coast." Why hadn't she thought of it sooner? Granted she hadn't been back since recovering and doubted she'd be able to stomach a night in that room without a drastic overhaul of the decor but that was a minor inconvenience in this heat. "We could sea bathe in complete privacy." It sounded delightful, Ursula was convincing herself if nothing else. She'd never actually gone swimming but she'd felt the cool sea water on her bare feet and that was enough to sell it.

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Elladora, unlike her sister-in-law, had thought of the other house but decamping there would mean abandoning her laboriously crafted potion and the centre of London would have to turn into an unstoppable fireball before she considered that eventuality. It had taken far too bloody long to get to this stage and she was most definitely not spending another month grudgingly explaining to people why she had something in her mouth.

“Apart from the children of course,” Ella replied as she returned to her chaise and resisted the urge to immediately lie back down. “It would be rather unkind to leave them behind to suffer.”

Almost unconsciously Elladora began to unfasten the top buttons of her blouse – it was, after all, stifling, and Ursula would not mind – however no sooner had she started her fingers came to a halt. She and Ursula had scarcely mentioned the events of last winter, including the madness that had come before the labours afterwards.

Briskly she patted down her collars.

“With your luck you would likely drown and I would have to save you.”

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Ursula's expression soured a little at the unexpected compassion for the children. Children hardly cared what temperature it was, surely? The amount of noise they made seemed to suggest as much anyway. Except for Belvina, she was a perfect angel and ought to be spared the unpleasantness of the heat and her brothers. Sirius was, of course, a good boy but he wasn't in the nursery anymore so he hardly counted amongst the rabble of his younger brothers. Merlin's beard there were too many of them, thank god there would be no more.

She hadn't seen her sister-in-law unbutton anything and so watched on in bemusement as she patted at herself. Then she spotted the context. Ursula looked away hastily and cleared her throat. "Well we could leave all but Sirius and Belle behind, they're hardly burdensome." At least not as far as children were concerned, all children were burdensome to some degree. "And I have no intention of drowning so that wouldn't be necessary." The last part was said a little snippily, although she had no reason to be for Ursula couldn't swim and so it was entirely possible that she might drown, if not likely.

"Oh do lets go," Ursula whined, "my body not intended for such extents of... perspiration, it really is too much!"

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Elladora had been on the verge on agreeing – subtly of course – that those were the children she herself would have opted to save from the fireball London had become, but she was swiftly stopped in her tracks by Ursula’s further protests. If any body had been designed for perspiration then it was her sister-in-law’s, whether it was a result of childbirth or…well, the other thing that Elladora knew Ursula was altogether familiar with.

Did she become this flushed with Phineas when they were abed? It was hardly a thought Ella wanted to dwell on but it persisted in her mind, making her more uncomfortable than the weather could ever manage. It also seemed unlikely – if Phineas were a little more enthusiastic there would not be a bastard child hidden away in an orphanage after all.

“You have endured worse,” she replied, softening like an abject fool, almost smiling as she heard Ursula’s complaints. “I must confess it is-” Elladora paused. Was it a joy? Certainly, but that was perhaps a little effusive. A pleasure? But that was certainly suggestive of other things. A happy fact? A balm to her heart? “An improvement to see you with flushed cheeks after everything. For a while I did not think you would be here to endure London in the summer with me.”

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Had her cheeks not already been flushed as Elladora so readily pointed out, they surely would have been afterwards. Ursula was caught off-guard by her candor and the sudden change in tone which did much to put an end to her urge to whine. "This is the first I'm hearing of it." She had aimed for levity but the sudden discomfit she felt ruined the effect and resulted in something off and slightly jarring instead.

She was simply not accustomed to such sentimental talk from Elladora away from her deathbed was all, she told herself, and the heat was clearly frying her brain and causing her considerable confusion. "But I'd much rather endure it with you by the sea instead." She hadn't meant for that hint of defensiveness to sneak in there but at least she sounded more composed this time. "At least with an ocean breeze my cheeks might be flushed with pleasure instead of calenture!" The word 'pleasure' echoed around in her head as soon as she realized it had left her mouth. Ursula stared at the back of the sofa instead of allowing her sister-in-law to lurk in her periphery a moment longer. Her nose was so close to the fabric that she could feel her own warm exhalation bouncing back at her; it was making her even more uncomfortable but it was better than the alternative.

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After so many years Ursula’s whining had reached such a point with Elladora that it was soothing – rather like tropical fish – and she settled back into the settee. How could she convince Ursula that leaving the city was a bad idea when, quite evidently, it wasn’t? She hadn’t told her sister-in-law about her attempt to achieve an animagus transformation but perhaps she had been a little too presumptive about whether Ursula would understand?

“I can’t leave London. Not until we have a storm at least and when the weather breaks the city might be tolerable again.”

Raising herself up on her elbows Elladora raised an amused eyebrow at Ursula and the fact her cheeks were becoming pinker from her own warm breath being blown back upon them.

“Did you really not notice that I was carrying a mandrake leaf in my mouth for a whole month?”

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Ursula was caught up on Elladora's insistence that she allegedly couldn't leave London, trying to fathom what could possibly be holding the spinster back besides some selfish masochistic desire to torture herself with the heat. Could she not be bothered to pack her things, was that it? Perhaps she preferred her room in London and was reluctant to leave it? What business did she have having inflexible commitments outside of the household, it was incredibly audacious and very inconvenient of her! Who could have a greater claim to Elladora's time than her? What was going on that she couldn't floo or apparate?

Fortunately she didn't get the chance to embarrass herself with an indignant onslaught of questions that would probably just offend the other woman.

"What?!" She went to the great effort of turning back towards Elladora and propping herself up a little so that the other woman could witness the disgust and surprise that were present in equal measure in Ursula's expression as well as her voice. "You're making no sense, I think the heat has gone to your head! It sounded as though you said you kept a leaf in your mouth for an entire month which is terribly abnormal of you! Why the devil would you do such a thing? What nonsense!" Had she not been expecting the sort of answer that would rile her up she would have been more measured in her response. "Now look, Ella, why would you say such a thing you've caused me to overexert myself I feel as though I'm perspiring from my eyeballs, good god!" It would also have helped if Ursula was more familiar with animagus transformation process. "We can't go to the country house because of a leaf?!"

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Elladora’s laughter was a rare thing, and likely more inclined to unnerve people than induce them to share her mirth, but it was undeniably laughter than spilled from her lips as Ursula pouted and complained without seeming to stop for air. If she didn’t know any better she would believe Ursula had been at the spirits such was her confused fervour.

It was perhaps a little unfair of her to assume the other woman might know about the use of a mandrake leaf. She only knew herself through questioning Evalina after all, though she had perhaps been a little less bamboozled by the revelation than Ursula clearly was.

“I am attempting to master becoming an animagus, Ursula.” There. She had said it. She had kept it to herself before for fear of having to admit to failure should the worst happen (failure, of course, being considerably worse than any physical ailments that getting it wrong might have led to) but now it was out in the world.

“And I do not believe it possible to perspire from your eyeballs so do calm down.”

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Ursula blinked for a moment unsure she had heard properly even though there was no mistaking it. Well that was a surprise. A soft "Oh," of surprise seemed all she could muster for a few moments.

Finally, after a little more thought and with restored composure, she asked, "Can't you do it in the country?" Clearly Elladora was reluctant or thought she couldn't or something, but damn it was hot and Ursula really wanted to leave London. As to the matter of Elladora becoming an animagus... It hadn't properly sunk in yet and although transfiguration had been one of Ursula's NEWT classes, she hadn't really looked a great deal into the process. She briefly had her interest piqued by the thought but the risks did not seem worth it to Ursula, especially at the time when she had had an unreliable wand.

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In hindsight the country might have been a better option – though Elladora was not so far gone as to imagine that opinion wasn’t entirely borne of the current temperature – but there was nothing to be done about it now other than suffer. It would pass eventually and until then she could endure it.

“No.” She replied bluntly, sitting up with more effort than it really ought to have taken and immediately undoing the buttons that constricted her throat. “It’s a delicate endeavour and cannot be interrupted once begun so go to the country if you must but I shall remain here.”

And when, as she hoped, she had mastered the ability and turned into the free flying bird she sensed she would then she would never have this trouble again.

“In the meantime I think I shall try a cool bath. Or perhaps it would be quicker to conjure a pond to take a dip.”

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