/SCREAMING: MORE ADORABLE ART!!!! /o\ Aaaah, I LIVE FOR the way the bunny emotes with its entire body, and its expressions of suffering are just <3<3<3
@silverink58 I don’t know how long I can keep this up either but the answer is at least one more time, lol:
The first time is a surprise.
Lan Zhan’s brother has just asked him to assist with an experimental potion in the evening when there’s a shout of “FAIRY, NO!” from behind them, followed by increasingly loud barking and then suddenly the familiar weight on Lan Zhan’s shoulder has shot down his robes and up his shirt.
When he looks down, Jin Rulan’s familiar is sitting in front of him, attention trained on the shivering lump at the front of Lan Zhan’s clothing.
“Jin Rulan,” his brother says to the sheepish boy who skids to a halt behind it. “This is not the first, nor even the second time you’ve lost control of your familiar.”
“I’m sorry, Headmaster,” Jin Rulan apologises, “Professor Wangji.” He dips a small half-bow, grabs his dog by the collar and drags it away, his scolding echoing all the way down the hall.
The dog itself is unrepentant, turning every few metres to look back at Lan Zhan, ears still alert with interest.
Lan Zhan taps his wand against his collar, and, when the first three fastenings come undone, peers down his shirt at the dark shape inside.
“It’s gone. Are you ready to come out now?”
The rabbit looks at him and then curls back into a tight ball.
Well, Lan Zhan thinks, refastening his shirt and shaking his head in response to his brother’s silent question. He doesn’t have classes this morning. The rabbit can stay in there a while longer.
The second time, the dog doesn’t even have time to bark before the rabbit is hidden in Lan Zhan’s clothing and trembling.
They’re outside on the school grounds, so it’s not unreasonable for Fairy to be roaming free, given that the Academy rules permit familiars free rein over the grounds, so long as they present no danger to the house elves, teachers or other students.
Fairy trots to a halt in front of him and sits, tongue lolling and tail wagging, eyes once again fixed on the small, shifting lump.
“I don’t think she means you harm,” Lan Zhan says, placing a comforting hand on the outside of his robes and giving the rabbit a few reassuring pats. The rabbit’s only reply is to press itself more tightly against his stomach, so Lan Zhan doesn’t push further, just motions to Fairy and goes in search of her owner, who’ll presumably be able to restrain her until Lan Zhan makes his way back inside.
The third time, the rabbit tries to take a stand. Instead of following its usual route up Lan Zhan’s shirt, it clambers onto the top of his head and leans down to chatter angrily.
Its heroism is short-lived; Fairy barks once, twice, rears up onto her hind legs to place two eager paws on Lan Zhan’s thighs, and the rabbit promptly dissolves into a shivering mess, clinging to Lan Zhan’s scalp and crying piteously.
Lan Zhan instructs Fairy to sit and waits for Jin Rulan’s small, angry figure to reach them, wondering how difficult it will be to extract the rabbit from his hair.
He’s not sure why he thinks it will stop once Wei Ying has revealed himself as an animagus.
“-magical practice is cross-disciplinary, right?” Wei Ying - Professor Wuxian, now - is saying on their way to the dining hall. “So I was thinking, what if we ran combination classes, let’s say once a month? Just think, Lan Zhan, we could combine geomancy and talisman-design, astrology and - AH!”
He cuts himself off with a shriek and a crack! of displaced air.
And Lan Zhan finds himself with a small bundle down the front of his robes again, a group of students and a dog looking between it and the space where Professor Wuxian used to be, and no idea how to begin explaining.
