The Magician glanced at the troupe of performers. and at his audience. Even if he was literally bound to do this, he still had professionalism as an entertainer. He saw the troupe was almost entirely made of ladies. There needed to be a bit more GENDER balance in that regard.
He did sense there was a boy in the audience who had a crush on Chelly and still had a crush on her, who the magician sensed would make an excellent tiger lad fire dancer/breather/eater/jumper. He had just the props for that transformation.
But first things first, there were rules he was bound to, and one of those rules said a magician needed an assistant. And gender contrast was a time honored tradition among stage magicians and their helpers. There were rules even he couldn't break.
He admitted, even if he was the only one who remembered, having to say, "And my next trick will require help from the audience," it could get a little weary. But at least he was able to shake things up.
Contrary to what some outside observer might think, the changes were neither arbitrary nor completely to his whims. If he had a different audience and participants, the transformations would be as different as they were.
"You there lad!" He pointed at a pudgy, plain looking boy with short black hair, wearing a white sweater and red scarf. In spite being perhaps the oldest boy in the audience, he wasn't that tall at all.
He looked around confused, certain the Magician meant someone else. "Yes you! Please come on stage!" The other children giggled. And the poor lad made his way on stage.
"What's your name my fine young man?"
"... Harry." He boy said unsure.
"What do you wish to be when you grow up?"
"Uh... A magician."
"Your parents approve?"
"... No. They want me to go into banking."
"Your classmates support you I assume."
"No, they think it's stupid and I'm stupid."
"Well! I don't think you're stupid Harry, Harry, like Harry Houdini. Would you like to take over my magic show some day?"
"R-really?" The boy looked up.
"Well, I don't plan to be around for forever. Even if I've been around already longer than I look. You shouldn't give up your dream. But for right now, the show itself needs an assistant and I need an apprentice. Would you be willing to help me with a magic trick, and maybe be my apprentice afterwards? Is it what YOU want?"
"Y-yes."
"Are you sure?"
"YES!" Harry didn't know if the magician was joking or not, but he went along.
The Magician clapped. "Alright then!" He took out a standard issue magician's velvet hat. "We're going to start with the most simple trick any magician knows! And you'll be participating in it Harry!" The wizard knew his audience would only remember the end of this trick, but he wasn't going to be cheap about it, even for this most basic of tricks.
"Hold still Harry." The Magician stretched out the hat, like a one size fits all, until it was bigger than Harry himself. He then slammed the hat down on Harry, and then before the audience's eyes, the hat shrank back down to normal size. The Magician picked up the hat, tapped the top, and showed the empty inside.
There was oohs and awes from the entire audience at this. Katie and Nate knew it had to be a trap door, but they did wonder how he got the hat to become so big and so small in the first place. Was a picture of a giant hat projected on smoke or something?
The Magician put the hat on a prop table, and reached in with his arms, going all the way up to his shoulder. The audience assumed it was a false bottom with a trap in the table, but the the Magician lifted the hat off the table with his arm still inside. The audience owed and awed even more than before!
"Hold on everyone! I think I've got them! There we go! And out they come!"
And out they did come, long white ears first, their body stretched out and expanding like a balloon as they were pulled out of the small opening of the hat.
She was obviously much older than the rest of the troupe, clearly being a woman, or rather, doe. She was covered head to toe in white fur. Long curly blond hair rolled behind her back. Red eyes blinked at the audience. A little pink nose with whisker twitched. Her feet had three toes and were big and long. A white cotton tail was above her shapely rear. Her chest a pair of stunning, but not comically-impossible pair of breasts. She wore a pair of white gloves that blended with her fur with a gold button, and eyeshadow. That aside, the only thing the rabbit woman wore was a red scarf. She was tall, beautiful, and athletic. And like any good magician's assistant, she drew the audience's attention like a magnet!
Striking a stunning pose, she blew a kiss at the audience.
"Let's hear it for my apprentice and assistant, O'Hara!"
The children clapped at the magic act.
'Inside' the hat, Harry had been faced with an endless hall of mirror, with a white light at the end of the tunnel. As he went down the hallway, he'd seen himself change a bit every step, and felt a new set of memories appear in his head, but was AWARE he had new memories.
Harry for a bit was scared, scared at losing himself, scared at no longer being Harry. But ONLY FOR A BIT! He had practically broken into a run as memories of boring lessons on economics were overlapped with lessons on stage magic, and some basic lessons on real magic. Most of his clothes vanishing except for his beloved scarf didn't really register. And the bouncing weight on his chest as he grew taller mattered even less to him. Instead of being alone, he remembered all the good times with Penny, Tott, Em, Paul, Chelly, and Rosewood. He couldn't run fast enough.
Then she'd been pulled out of the hat, O'Hara couldn't have been more excited.
She thought for a brief moment about the life that was no longer hers for a moment, and, and what? She looked back on Harry's life. No friends. Family who treated him as an business investment. No future except what had been chosen for him. Even who he would have ended up marrying would have been chosen for him. To become O'Hara was perhaps the first real choice harry had ever made, and O'Hara was grateful for it.
She also sensed she was going to be around for a long long time, so 'skipping' Harry's teenage years wasn't an loss. Not she'd really call it 'skipping.'
And like the Magician, she was now bound to the same duty as he was. Except, she admitted to liking it a whole lot more! In the new reality, she remembered having many conversations with him on the subjects. She was excited to add the rest of the audience to the their growing troupe, to their family, even if only she and the Magician could appreciate the changes in reality.