They do the ritual exactly right - studious as they are. The potion, the thunderstorm, the moonlight, and the incantation. The books warn against the pain, of course, but this level of bone splitting agony is...difficult to describe in text.

As she transforms, she tries to pray for a large, threatening animal, hoping to see herself as indeed a bear, or even a wildcat. But when it's all over, what stands in a pile of her robes - later, she'll learn how to transform with them still on - is a very large cat.

"Mrowr."