Ch 10: Metamorphmagus
During a break in DADA class one afternoon, Harry and Tonks were resting after an intense session of dueling. Lupin and Moody were off on Order business, so it was just the two of them.
"Tonks, I have a question," started Harry as he tried to catch his breath.
"Go ahead," encouraged Tonks.
"Last year, when you picked me up at my house, you said that Metamorphmagi were born, not made. How did you know you could do what you do?"
"Oh, uhh-well. If you promise not to tell anyone else, I'll tell you." Confused, Harry quickly promised. Looking around to make sure nobody could hear, which was silly, they were the only two in the room, she whispered, "When I was little, I had really big ears. Really big. Other kids used to laugh and tease me. I remember looking in the mirror one day, I was probably about six or so, just hating how my ears looked. I closed my eyes and wished as hard as I could that they were different, that they were like my mum's. When I opened my eyes, my ears were different, they were like my mum's only a little smaller." Tonk smiled as she remembered.
"Hmmm," muttered Harry as he thought to himself. "I've wished this scar would disappear a million times, but it never seemed to happen." Out loud he asked, "Tonks, can you change the length of your hair? I mean, in addition to its color?"
"Of course, why?"
"Well, I remember a time when I was little, I don't remember how old exactly, but I was old enough to go to school. Anyways, my aunt gave me this horrible haircut because she was tired of it sticking up everywhere…kind of like it is now…anyways, I hid in my closet I was so mad. I didn't want to go to school the next day, because my haircut looked so bad. It was like she intentionally botched it just to make me look bad. Anyways, when I woke up the next morning, my hair had grown back to its normal length, just like before she had cut it."
"Really?" gasped Tonks. "Wotcher Harry! That's…Come here, Harry. Let's try something." Harry moved over and sat in front of Tonks. "Now, when you try to change a personal feature, it's not enough to just wish the feature was gone, or different. You really have to focus on how you want it to look after it's changed. Otherwise nothing will happen. Understand?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"OK. If you could change something about your appearance, what would it be?" At Harry's questioning smirk she continued. "Right. Think about your scar. Now think about it being gone, disappeared, erased. Now think about how your forehead will look without the scar on it. Concentrate."
Harry's face screwed up tight in concentration. Letting out his breath and opening his eyes, he looked up at Tonks and saw her frown.
"Hmmm. Maybe that was too hard. Or maybe because it's a magical scar. Let's try something else, like changing your eye color. Think about your green eyes. Pick a color that you'd like to change your eyes to."
"Brown," came the instant response.
"Fine. Brown then. Now concentrate on how your eyes would look if they were brown. Concentrate."
Once again Harry thought hard. He pictured himself with deep brown eyes instead of bright green ones. Opening his eyes, he looked again at Tonks. This time she smiled.
"What? What happened? Did I do it?" he demanded.
In response, she conjured a mirror and handed it to him. Looking in the mirror, he realized his eyes were almost completely brown. There were a few flecks of green in them, but they were definitely brown in color. "Wow. So what does this mean?"
"It means Harry, that with additional practice, you might be able to change your appearance as well."
"Cool. So I could like make myself six and a half feet tall and strong as an ox?" he asked, thinking of some of the Quidditch players he had seen at the World Cup tournament.
"In a word, no. If a Metamorphmagus could do that, why would I have a face and a figure like this?"
Turning red, Harry stuttered trying to say something halfway intelligent.
"If a Metamorphmagus could assume any shape they wanted, wouldn't we all be famous models or actors or athletes or something? No, it doesn't work like that. We can really only affect our appearance, not our actual physical makeup. You might be able to make it appear as if you had huge muscles, but you actually wouldn't have the strength. For example, if I got injured by a spell, I couldn't just envision a healthy body and heal my body that way. I might be able to project an image of a healthy body, but actually I would still be wounded by the spell. As I told you before, Metamorphmagi are very rare, and those that can change their entire physical appearance for more than a few hours at a time are very, very few in number. I can only do it for about an hour before I'm completely exhausted."
"But I thought…"
"This is how I would normally look, except for my ears and the color of my hair. Neither of those take much energy to maintain. And the effects go away when you sleep. So I have to redo the effects every morning, or after a nap." Tonks laughed. "There is no such thing as a permanent magical effect, Harry, at least as far as Megamorphmagi are concerned. I could tell when you found out that I was a Megamorphmagus that you thought it was a very simple and powerful thing. But few things are as simple, or as powerful as they might appear at first. There are many uses for my skills and the skills you seem to share, but they are not all powerful. Though most magical defenses cannot detect the illusions we might use to disguise ourselves with through our Megamorphmagus powers, there are some that will. And it is usually in those situations, against those enemies that we might most need those powers that they might fail us and allow us to be detected. That's when we have to use the other skills that we have developed as well. That's why the training for an Auror is so well rounded. It is very dangerous to become too dependent on any one skill or spell-no matter how powerful the talent. There is always a price to be paid for the most powerful magics that are performed." Harry simply listened quietly.
"But enough of that for now. Let's change your eyes back before class is over." Harry closed his eyes again and concentrated. Opening his eyes, he stared in the mirror again. His eyes were green again, but there were still flecks of brown floating in them.
"Well, that's pretty good for a first try. It will take a lot more practice to get the hang of it."
"How long will my eyes stay like that?"
"Well, unless you want to keep trying to change them back, until you sleep tonight. Like I said, it doesn't take very much energy to maintain your eye color, so it probably won't wear off on its own," explained Tonks.
Harry tried a couple of more times without much success. "Tonks, can we just keep this between us for now?"
"Sure, Harry. We can practice it during our DADA sessions when it's just us if you like."
"Yeah, that would be great. Thanks, Tonks."
As Harry turned to leave the room, Tonks watched him leave. "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, he is Harry Potter after all," she thought. "I wonder how many more surprises he has in store for us."
Sitting down at dinner later, Harry happened to sit across the table from Hermione.
"What happened to your eyes, Harry? Since when did you have brown flecks in them?" asked Hermione curiously.
With a quick glance at Tonks, Harry muttered, "Uhh-it must just be the light. They sometimes change color a little bit like that."
"That's funny, I never noticed that before," replied Hermione.
Dumbledore, who had stopped by earlier on Order business and stayed for dinner seemed to be watching the discussion intently, though he said nothing.
"So are you the local expert on Harry's eyes now?" teased Fred.
"How many shades of color do my eyes normally have?" added George.
"Are you two sure you really want to continue this discussion?" asked Hermione in a quiet, dangerous voice. Leaning across the table so that only the twins and Harry could hear, she hissed, "You two wouldn't want to end up as a pair of flobberworms would you?"
Paling slightly they replied, "You wouldn't…" Seeing the set tone of her face and her stern look without a hint of a smile, they decided they didn't really want to continue the conversation and quickly changed the subject.
"Hey Ron, how about we do some flying after dinner?"
Harry looked back at Hermione and said, "Good one. That was pretty funny."
Still looking quite serious, Hermione responded, "Do I look like I'm joking?"
Unable to answer for sure one way or the other, Harry decided to change the subject as well and asked her about some of her latest reading. He was glad there were no more questions about his eye color.
Dumbledore raised his glass and tried to hide his smile behind it as he drank slowly, thinking about the exchanges he had just witnessed.
Hermione suddenly turned to Dumbledore and asked, "Professor, do you know when we'll be getting our OWL results back? We're already into the first week of July and we haven't been notified yet."
Over the groans of Harry and Ron, Dumbledore replied, "I believe they will probably be later this year than normal, with everything else that has been happening this summer. But do not worry, I am confident you will receive them in time to schedule your classes for this fall." Dumbledore smiled again as he viewed the students.
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