Author: Got a review for this story, decided to poke at Medivh again, and this is what comes of it, especially given what Khadgar can turn into in-game now...

Disclaimer: I'd already have my grad school loans paid off if I owned WoW.

Raven

Medivh laughed.

He knew it was the exact opposite reaction his apprentice had hoped for, but, in all honesty, there was nothing else that he could do.

"Oh, Young Trust, I was wondering how long it would take for something like this to happen."

The raven that had just finished fighting its way out of now-useless clothes gave Medivh a sullen look.

"So, how do you plan on fixing this?" Medivh asked and propped his staff against the wall before he walked over to the table where Khadgar's notes were and shuffled through them.

"Very tricky," Medivh murmured approvingly. "Attempting to develop this. You do know that shapeshifiting tends to be something that very few manage to accomplish? Not many people are willing to give up their own form for that of another. Most are simply not so…fluid. They're too static, too self-centered, too attached and obsessed with their own appearance. No, it's not that you're vain," Medivh said to Khadgar, whose feathers had ruffled in annoyance. "No, not at all. That you managed to change your form says that you paid at least some attention to what I've been teaching you."

Medivh frowned as he stroked his beard idly as he read a few lines of Khadgar's spell. "Well, well. A rather unique way to go about it. But, I think that here you are falling into the trap of over-thinking. Shapeshifting isn't as hard as you're making it out to be."

A shadow fell over the papers Medivh was looking at and he looked over to see Khadgar standing there awkwardly, tilting his head back and forth in an attempt to read his notes.

"I would suggest that you figure a way back to your human form soon, Young Trust," Medivh said. "Which is, admittedly, much harder than doing the reverse."

Medivh gestured his staff to him and lightly tapped raven-Khadgar on the top of the head, which made the boy-turned-bird squawk at him. "I'll be kind and help you with this one. You have to remember who Khadgar is. No, don't give me that look."

Medivh tapped a line on the parchment with his finger. "Here you're trying to lay out what exactly changing your form entails. What you have here is a child's version, a messy, inelegant one—that, apparently, works well enough to achieve the desired effect. Now, the thing is—did you bring your magic with you?"

Khadgar hopped back and forth, his discomfort obvious.

"If you didn't bring your magic with you, you won't be able to change back into a human."

Khadgar let out a shriek of disbelief.

"Although that you can understand me says that you brought at least a tiny bit with you. If you hadn't brought any at all, you wouldn't be able to think. You would have become an animal and I would be without an apprentice."

Medivh carefully laid out the pages in order for Khadgar and said, "That is all the help I'm giving you, Young Trust. Remember who you are as Khadgar. It will be more than physical form, too." Medivh paused before asking, "Although, why a raven? I would have thought you would identify with some other form more."

Unless the resultant animal was…unintentional, Medivh thought and looked at the carved raven that sat perched on the end of his staff.

From how Khadgar had gone to intently studying his work told Medivh more than the boy probably wanted him to know.

Medivh sat down in a nearby chair and called his own work to him, Council business mostly.

The quiet avian vocalizations coming from Khadgar were both irritating and amusing to Medivh. It was obvious the young man was trapped in the form—which made it a purely physical problem. He would simply have to rebuild Khadgar.

Which takes a more intimate knowledge of one's self than I think he realizes. And I can't help him rebuild himself because I would be making the Khadgar I perceive and not the Khadgar that he actually is.

Medivh smiled tightly and scrolled through The Song of Aegwynn to the first mention of the being that owned his soul and marked it off as the start of cipher.

He was working on the third correspondence (non-Council business, although equally inane) when a raven's caw transformed abruptly into the shocked vocalization of a young human male.

Medivh looked up to laugh again at his apprentice's discomfiture. The young man was pushing himself up into a sitting position, a hand going to his head with a wince. All the papers he had written his spell on were crumpled beneath him, and the books were flopped over onto the floor, his writing utensils squashed beneath the hand propping him up.

Khadgar was also stark naked, which amused Medivh perhaps more than it should have.

"Congratulations," Medivh drawled as he rolled up the scroll containing the epic poem describing his mother's pseudo-defeat of Sargeras. "It only took you a few hours to remember your Self. I'm sure some master mages I know would still be puzzling out their own names."

Khadgar looked over to him, swallowed a few times, coughed, then said, "Yes, well."

Medivh noted idly that the young man's voice was a little deeper, had a timber that was just slightly off, but not enough to be terribly remarkable.

But, Medivh knew his influence when he heard it. He saw it in the decreased presence of the skunk-stripe that had once characterized Khadgar's hair, as well.

Then do we define ourselves, in part, through others? Medivh mused as he tapped his fingers against his staff. Interesting. Does that mean, then, that I in part define myself by Sargeras?

It was an uncomfortable notion.

Khadgar was about to say something before his nakedness dawned on him. The young man flushed scarlet, and Medivh managed to scrap together enough kindness to not laugh again at his apprentice's discomfort.

Khadgar grabbed his clothes and scowled at the table; Medivh knew, however, that the true thing he wanted to be glowering at was he.

But he respects—fears—me enough to not turn what embarrassed ire he may have on me.

"I think you gave yourself a more toned physique than you actually possessed," Medivh said languidly as he looked back at the parchment. "But, the young don't have the same static view of themselves as those older. Your magic will force you back to your original form soon enough."

"I assume you can shapeshift."

"Your assumption would be correct."

Medivh looked back up to see Khadgar pulling his clothes back on, although the motions were absent-minded, his apprentice's mind obviously more on the problem the spell presented than his physical appearance.

Truly becoming a mage, Medivh thought ruefully. The pursuit of knowledge above all else. A pursuit for truth. A pursuit that will kill me.

"I think I know where I went wrong!" Khadgar exclaimed and began to search through his papers, still only half-dressed.

Medivh put down his quill and stood up, leaving his staff beside the table he had claimed. He walked over to where Khadgar's tunic lay in a pile on the floor and picked up the simple raiment. He could feel that Khadgar's signature had seeped into the very fabric.

It should have been able to transform with him, Medivh thought as he rubbed the cloth between his fingers. I suppose he simply didn't think of it. I must teach him to think of all variables and possibilities.

"Young Trust."

"Yes, Master?" Khadgar answered, pulling his attention away from furious scribbling to look at his teacher.

"Enough of your magic has saturated the fabric of the clothes that there is no reason you should not still be in them," he said and held the cloth out to his apprentice, who flushed in embarrassment and quickly took it and pulled it on.

"A person can shapeshift and still maintain their clothes before and after the change? How?"

"How indeed? I leave you to puzzle that out, Young Trust," Medivh said and patted the young man on the shoulder. "I have business to attend to."

"Out-of-Tower business?"

Yes and no. "Yes," he answered aloud as he retrieved A'teish. "I will be back when I am back."

Khadgar didn't bother to constrain a sigh. "Very well, Master."

"Keep your work going, my apprentice, and one day you might actually make a mage of yourself," Medivh said cheerfully before he vanished into the depths of Karazhan.