*** Author's Note-I was very pleased and astonished to see all the reviews yesterday. Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I felt very inspired to continue my editing so here is the next installment. Enjoy.
Ch 14: Dealing with New Powers
Moving quickly to Hermione's unconscious form, Harry wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up.
"What the hell happened?" exclaimed Ron, looking very concerned.
"I don't know for sure, but I don't think Hermione is just an ordinary owl."
"What do you mean?" asked Ron.
"Well, for one thing, she is telepathic when she is in her owl form."
"She's what?!?!" exclaimed Fred and George.
"Can she read our minds?" asked Ron, looking a little frightened.
"I'm not sure exactly how it works. I know she could talk to me, and I could talk back to her. I don't know what else she can do," replied Harry.
"Well what happened when she finished the spell? I mean she did it correctly, we all heard her."
"I think the problem is that she is still telepathic when she returns to her human form."
"What? How do you know that?"
"I suspect that like me, her alternate form is some sort of magical creature as well. And I think if your alternate form is a magical creature, then the wizard or witch retains some of those abilities even in human form. And the reason I know is that I can already tell that I have some of the abilities of the dragon form I have. Didn't you wonder why I'm not wearing my glasses? When I transformed back, I thought I had gone blind for a minute. Then I realized that my eyesight was perfect, better than perfect. I don't know how well a dragon can see for sure, but I have a feeling I'm going to find out soon," replied Harry.
"Really? What else can you do?" asked Ron, as his eyes grew rounder.
"Well, I think I can breathe fire," and he coughed very loudly on Ron, who jumped back about ten feet. Harry and the twins broke out laughing.
"Just kidding, mate. I don't think I can. Well, not yet anyways."
Ron still looked very upset.
"I'm sorry, Ron. Bad joke. Anyways, I think Hermione still has her telepathic ability, but is unable to control it. Let's take her inside and try and make her comfortable and try and keep everyone away from her. The closer someone is to her, the stronger and louder the mental voices. I think that's what caused her all that pain."
Perfectly willing to follow Harry's lead, the twins and Ron led Harry, still carrying Hermione, out of the tent. The twins apparated into their rooms and Ron unfolded the Invisibility Cloak over the remaining three.
"It's getting a little crowded under here, isn't it?" whispered Ron.
"If someone would stop eating so much every chance he gets," replied Harry.
"Can't help it, I'm a growing boy."
As they left the tent, Harry staggered and nearly fell. His mind reeled momentarily as a multitude of sounds and smells and sights bombarded him. Focusing intently on blocking out everything but simply putting one foot in front of the other, he regained his equilibrium and kept following Ron. They continued in silence as they reached the house and went up the stairs. Ron went to the room they shared while Harry went and placed Hermione on her bed. Back in his own room, he grabbed his copy of the Magical Animal Encyclopedia and a couple of other books and headed back to Hermione's room. He wanted to be there in case she woke up. Seated comfortably in a chair, he started flipping through the encyclopedia, paying particular attention to any entries about owls and dragons.
When Hermione woke up the next morning, the first thing she saw was Harry slumped in a chair next to her bed with a huge book resting in his lap. Her head still ached, but she couldn't hear any voices right now. "What happened last night?"she asked herself.
All she could remember was the confusion of the different voices and then a terrible pain and then nothing. Wait, there was something. The voices and the pain had been similar to when she made the initial transformation to the owl. She had been momentarily confused by several different voices, but then had focused on Harry's alone. "So why would it happen to her in her human form? Would it happen every time she transformed?" She fervently hoped not.
With a sudden realization she opened her eyes. "Harry? Can you hear me Harry?" she thought.
"Who? Hermione? Are you OK?" Harry leaped from his chair, sending the book flying.
Hermione ducked and thought. "Yes, now calm down. And quit yelling. I can hear you just fine."
Turning, Harry apologized. "We were pretty worried about you. Are you feeling any better?"
"My head still throbs, but other than that, yeah, I feel better. But how can we be talking telepathically if I'm not in my owl form? And why could I talk telepathically at all as an owl?"
"Well, I don't think your owl form is a normal animal form. I think your owl form is a magical creature, like my dragon. That's why you were telepathic when you were an owl. And I think the fact that your animal form is magical explains why you maintained the telepathic ability when you reverted to your human form. You may notice that you have other special abilities or enhanced senses in time."
"What? How do you know this, Harry?"
"Well, much of it is just speculation, but part of it is because some of my own senses and abilities have been enhanced. For example, I don't need my glasses, my eyesight is now perfect, probably better than perfect for a human, if that's possible. It's probably closer to dragonsight. I have a feeling it might take us a couple of days at least to get used to some of these changes. Here, I want to show you something." In his encyclopedia, Harry turned to a section titled `Owls of Athena, or Athenian Owls' and gave it to Hermione to read.
"Extremely rare, Athenian Owls are highly prized for their extremely high intellect and mental abilities in addition to their highly acute senses of sight, hearing, and smell. Originally used by priestesses of Athena in ancient Greece, these highly intelligent owls possess powerful telepathic abilities as well as the ability to translate and converse in every known language. Obviously, they are highly sought after for the help they can offer in a variety of intellectual studies and interpersonal relations. They have aided wizards and witches of the past greatly in such varied areas as diplomatic relations, gathering information, magical research, the courts of justice, and negotiations.~
~Wow. You think this is what my owl form is, Harry? It does explain quite a bit.~
~I think that's why we've both been getting such terrible headaches. Our bodies have been trying to adjust to some of the magical changes. Remember how the Weasleys thought they were splitting in two? Well, in a sense they were. And our bodies, well, mostly our minds, have been trying to adapt to the changes brought about by having a magical animal as our animal form.~
~Have you figured out what kind of dragon you are yet?"
"I think I'm a Prince Dragon. Here, let me read it to you. `Prince Dragon, Dragon-Princeling, or most commonly the mini dragon. While similar in proportion to larger dragons, this small dragon usually only measures between two and four feet. Its scales are usually of a metallic hue, either copper, silver, or gold in color. While not endowed with the offensive weapons of its larger cousins, the mini dragon has impressive defensive abilities, including a very high resistance to magical effects, an ability to camouflage itself so well as to render itself invisible like a Disillusionment Charm, and an ability to teleport itself from place to place similar to an Apparation Spell. It's extremely high intellect and magical resistance also provide it with very strong mental defenses against telepathic or other types of mind attacks. It can attack with its four claws and a sharp spike on its tail, but due to its small size, they do not inflict much damage. It can and will bite, and the two large fangs can inject a potent poison that will cause the victim to sleep for anywhere from one hour to twelve hours, depending upon the size of the victim. In addition, it can breathe a stinging cloud of gas that is not fatal, but will cause those within the cloud to experience severe tearing in the eyes as well as coughing and choking. Extremely rare…"
Hermione looked with wide eyes at Harry. "Can you do any of those things yet?"
"Well, I really haven't tried. Well, I did try breathing fire on Ron, but…"
Hermione started laughing and Harry joined in.
"Yeah, you should have seen him jump. Ask the twins about it sometime. The other things, I don't know yet. I haven't figured out a way to test and see if I can do them or anything yet. Maybe I'll just wake up one day and know how to do them instinctively, or maybe I won't be able to do much at all. I don't know. But there was something else I wanted to tell you, though it might be easier to show you. Dumbledore has been teaching me a lot of different exercises to help strengthen my mental concentration and focus. I think they might help you to learn how to focus and more importantly, filter out unwanted stimuli. Moody once explained to me that with that magic glass eye of his, he can't see everything at once or he'd go mad. He has to filter it most of the time, but he can regulate how much and how he sees with it. I've been doing the same thing since last night, but then I've been doing a lot of practicing over the last couple of weeks. That's why I think you passed out last night. Your brain was receiving too much information and it just shut down."
~But I'm fine now. It's not bothering me at all.~
"That's because I put some spells around your room to sort of sanitize it. Can you smell anything at all? Or hear anything outside of this room? Did you notice the curtains are still closed?"
"Well, no."
"What I want you to do is what you tried to do last night. Go back into my mind, and I will help you find where the exercises are and I can show them to you. I think it will save weeks of instruction."
"But Harry, I don't want to intrude. I don't want to…"
"Don't worry. I trust you. I don't think you could go anywhere I didn't let you anyways. But I think I can help. Please try it."
"OK." They locked gazes and once again, Hermione envisioned herself in a large labyrinth.
"Hermione? Here, come over here. This way." She felt a gentle push and moved down one corridor after another. "Just behind this door here, I think." She pushed gently and entered. Her mind was suddenly flooded with images of various mental exercises and practices. Shocked at first, she regained control and slowed them down so that she could make sense of them for herself. She then blinked and found herself still staring into Harry's eyes.
"Wow! That was incredible! How long were we like that?"
Glancing at his watch, Harry thought "Since you only woke up about five minutes ago and we were talking-errr-telepathing, teletalking, I don't know, what should we call it, whatever most of the time, I would say less than a minute, I'm not sure."
"How about mindspeaking?"
"That sounds good, and just about right, too. Well, I think I'll go downstairs and tell Molly you'll probably be sick in bed all day. That will give you some time to practice the exercises."
"I think I will be fine, Harry, if you don't mind."
"Uhh, I wouldn't if I were you. I really think you'd be better off in here until you can build up some mental strength to filter out all of the stimuli you're going to experience."
"If it's all the same to you, Harry. I think I'll make up my own mind."
Realizing she was going to do whatever she wanted, Harry simply got up and followed her to the door. As soon as she turned the handle, she looked at Harry and smiled smugly. But as soon as she took one step beyond the doorway, she was bombarded by a thousand smells and a roar of conversations, both spoken and mental. Falling to her knees she threw her hands over her ears as Harry reached down, pulled her up gently, and guided her back into the room. He shut the door softly and led her back to her bed. In the silence, she whimpered softly on her bed.
"Thank you, Harry. And thanks for not saying I told you so," she whispered in a quiet voice.
"I wouldn't have dreamed it," he replied sincerely. "Why don't you rest for a while-I'll come back and check on you later, OK?"
"OK," she mumbled as she fell back asleep. Looking at her sleep, it pained him to see how vulnerable she looked. He turned and left the room quietly.
As he reached the bottom of the stairs, his head was spinning from the sounds and smells he was experiencing. He couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Hermione. As he walked into the kitchen, he cringed as Molly turned and shouted "Good Morning!"
Walking over to Molly, he whispered, "Mrs. Weasley, Hermione is feeling pretty sick and told me she would be staying in her bed all day today. She said it's some sort of stomach flu."
"Well, I better go see what I can do for her."
"No, she said she didn't feel like visitors today. And she just fell back asleep after I checked on her."
"Well, OK, but you don't look so good yourself, Harry. Where are your glasses?
"I think I left them in my room."
"Are you feeling sick as well?"
"A little. I think I'll grab a quick bite and then get some more rest." Harry turned back to the table but just about gagged when he saw the eggs and bacon. Grabbing a piece of toast, he practically ran from the room and back up to his bedroom. Still feeling nauseous, he went to Hermione's room and let himself in and locked the door. Finishing his toast, he went over to the overstuffed chair and quickly fell asleep.
Later that afternoon, both Hermione and Harry felt much better, but very hungry. Harry snuck down to the kitchen and brought up some bread and plain water. They thought it tasted delicious. Then they spent the next couple of hours practicing the exercises Dumbledore had taught Harry. Later that evening they practiced shapechanging between their animal and human forms, trying to discover any new talents or how to use their suspected magical abilities in their human form.
Tired after a long day of practice, Harry turned to Hermione and asked, "Do you know a spell that could change my glasses to normal glass? I can't use them like they are now, and it might raise too many questions if I just stopped wearing them."
Hermione thought for a moment, then grabbed her wand, pointed and said, "Occulis reformo."
"What would I do without you, Hermione? Thanks." Stifling a yawn, Harry got up and left.
When Harry returned to his room, he continued practicing the exercises until he fell asleep. When he woke up the next morning, it was nearly nine-thirty. He changed quickly and went and checked quickly on Hermione, who was still asleep. He then hurried downstairs, grabbed half a dozen pieces of toast and ate several on the way back to her room. He left a couple of slices on the table by her bed and went back downstairs to wait for Dumbledore.
Luckily his senses didn't seem as out of control today. As he sat waiting in the study, he experimented with his senses, trying to determine if he could focus on one sense or a certain smell or sound. For example he found that he could distinguish between different books on the shelf with his sense of smell based on the age of the paper, the material of the cover, the type of binding it had, and the kind of ink that had been used. Listening to Molly clean up breakfast in the kitchen, he thought he could discern a difference between knives, spoons, and forks being put away, though he wasn't sure which metallic clang corresponded with which utensil. "I'll have to practice more with this, this could be very useful," he concluded.
The lesson with Dumbledore began as usual, though Dumbledore seemed surprised at something during Occlumency. When they moved on to the mental practices, he again seemed surprised and introduced several new exercises as well as the reading and studying techniques he had promised. At the end of the lesson, Dumbledore commented, "This was an excellent session today Harry. Your hard work is paying off immensely." Dumbledore looked extremely pleased. "Looking forward to classes starting next week?"
"Well, I'm a little nervous about all the extra work, and managing my time, but yes, it will be great to be back at Hogwarts."
"Excellent. Keep practicing, Harry. You're doing far better and progressing much more quickly than I had ever imagined."
Feeling very good about himself, Harry ran back upstairs to check on Hermione after Dumbledore had left. He knocked softly and entered when he heard her voice telling him to come in.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Much better, thanks. And thanks for the toast."
"No problem. Do you feel up to trying to go downstairs?"
"Yeah, I think so. I can't hide up here forever."
"All right, let's go."
As they left the door, she focused on Harry and Harry alone. There was a dull roar in the background, but it wasn't painful. The overwhelming scents nearly made her gag for a moment though. After a moment, her stomach settled and she continued on, leaning on Harry's arm for support. As they arrived at the kitchen, she could hear Molly thinking thoughts of cooking before they even opened the door. She paused for a moment and Molly's voice died down. Opening the door, she quickly sat down with Harry's help and once again suppressed a gag at the powerful aromas of the soup that was boiling on the stove.
"Are you feeling any better dear?"
"A little, though my stomach is still queasy. And loud noises give me a terrible headache," answered Hermione quite truthfully.
"Well, sit down while I make you something plain that will go down and stay down. Are you feeling better, Harry?"
"Yes, thank you."
Hermione winced as the twins and Ron came barreling through the door. As soon as they saw Hermione, they fell quiet and she appeared more at ease.
"It'll just take a little time and some practice. I was feeling just like you yesterday, actually a little worse, but today I feel much better. Don't worry, you'll get through it," Harry thought to Hermione and gave her shoulder a little squeeze as he sat down beside her. Everyone ate quietly as they finished their lunch. The Weasley boys went back outside when they were done while Harry and Hermione went to the study and practiced their exercises.
Lupin and Moody both seemed so impressed with Harry's dueling performance that they assigned him two chapters instead of the usual one. After he finished his reading later that night in the study, Hermione asked him if he had been able to figure out whether he could use any of the other abilities from his dragon form.
"Apart from my heightened senses, I don't think so. Though I did do much better today in my classes. I think my concentration and focus is much better. I mean the exercises have been helping all along, but things seemed a lot easier today. I think even Dumbledore and the others noticed."
After reading for a little while longer, they practiced their mental exercises until it was time for bed. The next morning, Hermione was feeling much better, and didn't mind being around four or five people at a time. That evening, Harry and Hermione went outside to sit in the backyard for a while. At first, the sounds and smells of the outdoors overwhelmed both of them, but their constant practice enabled them to quickly put up a number of filters to limit the sensory input to tolerable levels. Then they took turns trying to identify a particular sound or smell by adjusting their mental filters.
Molly's voice rang clearly in the backyard, breaking the stillness. "Are you two still out here? Come inside, it's pitch black out here."
Surprised, Harry and Hermione looked at each other. Then they noticed there was no moon at all, but it still seemed like barely dusk to both of them.
"Umm, Hermione? How well can an owl see at night?" asked Harry.
"Probably about as well as a dragon, I imagine," chuckled Hermione.
"Yeah, that's about what I thought." Both of them then called out to Molly, "We'll be right in."
"All right, then," answered Molly and let the back door swing shut. Harry and Hermione then thought about adjusting the mental filters for their eyes and found they could adjust both the range and the clarity with which they saw. Thinking for a moment, Harry looked again.
"Hermione, can you see anything giving off heat? Can you see that orangish-reddish shape over there that looks like a field mouse?" asked Harry.
"Well, I can see the field mouse quite clearly, but I don't notice an orange or red color," she replied. Hermione closed her eyes and thought for a moment. When she opened them again, she looked around again. "No, I can't see anything giving off heat like that. You can?"
"Yeah, but it's really weird to see. I keep having to switch back and forth between the different types of vision to be able to tell what the heat shapes I am seeing really are."
"That's amazing Harry. But like everything else, it will probably just take lots of practice, Harry. Come on, we better get back inside. Molly will probably think we're up to something."
Harry was very glad she couldn't see him blush just then.
The next couple of days passed much the same as before their Animagus transformations with classes, reading, and mental practice taking up most of Harry's time. He also squeezed in time to practice shapeshifting and gaining better control of his senses. Classes were going to start next week and everyone was looking forward to a relaxing weekend before school started. Arthur and Ginny were coming back from visiting Charlie, and Hermione's parents were returning from a summer vacation to visit Hermione before she returned to school. Voldemort had other plans however.
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