Harry looked at Hermione sitting across from him, intermittently brushing back stray curls of brown hair and flipping pages as she read. He felt an unfamiliar twinge as he gazed at her face and quickly looked down at his own book. The author was talking about how a person's animal form, if indeed they were one of the few wizards to have one, would reflect in some way the strongest personality traits or desires of the person. Harry hoped he was a bird, it would be fun to fly without a broom.
They had been reading for hours now and Harry was beginning to get an idea of how an animagus transformation was supposed to work. Hermione's book focused on the practical requirements and thus had explained a step by step process which seemed fairly straightforward. There was a complicated potion that required a couple of weeks to prepare and a lot of rare ingredients, but the book gave detailed instructions. It also laid out numerous spells that had to be cast in a specific order, at a specific time, some of which you could cast on yourself, but some that only someone else could cast. Harry had gone and fetched Ron so that Hermione could explain to him everything that he would need to do. They all agreed hoped that Remus would be able to cast the spells that they needed or else they'd have to go to Dumbledore again and Harry wasn't confident that he would take a direct hand in law breaking.
The three stood up and hid the books in one of the cluttered shelves in the study. As Harry stretched awkwardly he was painfully reminded that he had been sitting down all day.
"I don't know where we're going to find all these items," Hermione said anxiously as she waved the potion instructions under Harry's nose, "but we need them soon, we've only got a few weeks until the next term starts and the potion is only the midpoint of the process."
"We'll ask Remus, after all Dumbledore said I should get his help," Harry said as they walked into the kitchen. Dinner was almost over, though there was still plenty of food left. Moody, Shacklebolt, and Remus were still there, but they had already finished eating. Moody had his eye out in a small soup bowl and was poking it with his wand whilst muttering something foul under his breath. Shacklebolt was leaning back against a corner and appeared to be asleep. Remus was sitting with a copy of the Daily Prophet and chatting amiably to Molly over some article he was reading.
"Harry, its good to see you again," Remus said cheerfully when he noticed them enter the room.
"Its good to see you too," Harry responded, but he had a feeling that Remus was not as cheerful as he was pretending to be. With a sharp pang Harry realized that Sirius' death must have hit Remus particularly hard.
Moody growled something unintelligible as Molly passed out clean plates to them. Harry heard an irritated meow as Molly nearly stepped on a sleeping Crookshanks. He idly wondered where the big ginger colored cat had been all day. Probably helping Ginny with the cleaning or something.
"Dark creatures are growing more restless according to this article," Remus said as he jabbed his finger at something in the paper and pushed it towards Moody.
"The nastiest of them have probably already made a pact with You-Know-Who, just like the Dementors," said Moody as he gave his magical eye another poke.
"Mad-Eye, how many times do I have to tell you, not at the table when people are trying to eat!" Molly exclaimed as the eye made a squelching noise and spun around in the bowl.
"That's ok mum," Ron said after taking a big swallow.
"Nothing could put you off eating," Harry said.
Hermione snorted and said something that sounded like spiders. Ron gave a little choking noise and shot her a glare as Harry tried to suppress a chuckle.
"Professor Lupin, we found a book we'd like to ask you about, if you're not busy," Harry said after he had finished eating.
"Sure, what is it?" he asked.
"Its back in the study," Hermione said quickly, "do you have time to go see it right now."
"Er," he began, then saw the looks on their faces, "sure, I've got a while before I have to go on duty."
"I'm not done eating yet," Ron complained.
"That's ok Ron, we'll fill you in on anything you miss later," Harry said.
Ron shrugged before nodding as Harry and Hermione led Lupin out of the room. Once they were safely in the hallway they stopped.
"I take it this isn't about a book," he said.
"Well, not entirely, we want to ask you about the animagus transformation," Harry said.
"That's very dangerous and difficult," Remus said, "Have you talked to Dumbledore about attempting such a thing, since that's what I'm assuming you want to do."
"Yes, I did, Dumbledore said he would be very disappointed if we went to you for instructions on how the transformation works," Harry said with a smirk.
"Well then, we wouldn't want to disappoint him," Remus laughed, his eyes twinkling in genuine mirth.
"We already have a good idea about how it works," Hermione said, "but we don't know where we can get all the potion ingredients that we need."
Remus took the list she had produced and glanced over it. He recognized most of the ingredients and instructions from when the Marauders had performed them all those years ago back at Hogwarts, but since he didn't actually participate himself he was a little fuzzy on some of it.
"Well, I suspect that you already have most if not all of these ingredients," he said after he finished reading the list.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"The library wasn't the only hidden room in this house. There is a rather large storage room down in the dungeon that was used for the manufacture of potions. Sirius showed it to me a while back. I suspect it will have most of the things you need and if not I can pick them up somewhere." Remus said.
Remus ushered them down the main hall quietly to avoid waking up the painting of Mrs. Black. They took an odd turn that Harry realized hadn't been there before and were confronted by a black metallic door with thin silver stripes making a series of cross hatches across it. Harry immediately notice that there was no door knob and opened his mouth to ask how they were supposed to get through it, but before he could make a sound Remus pushed one of the sections and the door swung inward. Just like in the library many wall-mounted torches sprang to life to illuminate a long narrow stone staircase that plunged downward in a tight spiral. Remus strode briskly down the stairs without hesitation and so the two teens hurried along behind him as they peered apprehensively into the dark narrow space ahead.
They realized that the stairs were not very long when after only a few turns they stepped into a long wide corridor. Remus still knew exactly where he was going apparently since he marched without hesitation to a smaller passageway that connected with the main one and led them down it. The doors were all smooth and metallic like the one they had encountered earlier. At the third door down they stopped and watched carefully as Remus pushed a section to open the door.
"Be careful of what you touch," Remus warned as he held the door for them to walk inside.
Torches flared up and Harry realized that this room was magically expanded too, just like the library, although not quite that big. There were some shelves lining the walls, but mostly there were small bins mounted at angles into the walls. Different sized cauldrons hung from hooks that dangled down from the ceiling. At the far end of the room opposite the door was a pit with a cauldron hanging over it.
"Ok, here is the list, lets gather everything and put it over by the cauldron," Hermione said, taking charge. "Professor Lupin, could you clean the cauldrons please, we're still not allowed to do magic."
"Of course," he replied as he took out his wand, "and please, both of you, call me Remus. I'm not your teacher anymore. Indeed, this is where my help likely ends. I was never much for making potions."
"Didn't you help the other Marauders with their transformations?" Harry asked, thinking of Dumbledore's suggestion that he enlist Remus' aid.
"Er, well," Remus stammered, "James and Sirius were the brains of the group after all, and since I could already transform, unfortunately, I didn't pay as close attention as I could have."
"Don't worry Remus," Hermione said, seeing his obvious discomfort, "I'm sure we'll be able to manage just fine. These instructions really are detailed."
"We do need you to cast the required spells during the transformation process," Harry said.
"Ah, that I can do," Remus said, "I was quite adept at transfiguration during my time."
The three scoured the storeroom gathering up the potion ingredients. Hermione inspected each one closely to make sure it was still suitable, but fortunately nothing fresh was required.
"Oh no!" she exclaimed suddenly.
"What is it Hermione?" Harry asked anxiously.
"It says here that different stages of the potion have to be heated at different rates. This pit is just to contain the fire, we'll have no way to actually control it," she said.
"I can help you there too," Remus said.
He went over to one of the cupboards and rummaged around through its dust-covered contents before producing several large glass containers. After sitting them down in a row he took out his wand again and put various intensities of blue bell flame into each container.
"There now, all you have to do is switch these containers to control the rate of heating. I've put a freezing charm on the glass so you can safely handle them and those flames will last as long as you need them to," he said.
Harry and Hermione set to work making the potion with Hermione doing most of the actual potion making while Harry tried to learn by watching her. Harry sorted the various ingredients while Hermione prepared them and began adding them to the cauldron. Harry watched her work, spell bound as she carefully consulted her notes before adding an ingredient or turning the ladle. He felt his heart swell with pride as her flawless, expert efforts caused the first stage of the potion to take shape. Harry leaned in closer so that he would be sure not to miss anything.
"Harry, not so close," Hermione said, "I can't concentrate with you there."
"Sorry," he whispered as he got up and stood back. Remus gave him a wink and grinned when they made eye contact, but when Harry didn't respond he stopped smiling.
Harry turned back to Hermione's crouched figure as she continued to stir in one direction and then another. He didn't know how long he watched her as she scrunched up her face in concentration but before he knew it she was standing up and announcing that the first part was finished.
"We'll need to return tomorrow evening for the next stage," she said.
"That was some brilliant potion making," Harry said admiringly as they were climbing up the stairs back to the main part of the house.
"Thanks," Hermione said, her face heating from the compliment.
They made their way back to the study and found Ron sitting lazily in one of the chairs reading a magazine about Quiddich. He glanced at them sheepishly and put it down as Hermione began explaining the main points of the process that Ron would need to know. Harry could tell that Ron earnestly wanted to learn what he needed to know because he kept asking her to explain things. When they discussed the spells Remus would break in and add a point from time to time.
"Ok, ok, I think I get the point," Ron said quickly as Remus started to launch into another explanation of the finishing spell, "besides, you're going to be casting the spell so what do I need to know it for."
"You never know when you might need to do it again yourself someday," Remus said, "I wish now that I had paid more attention back when James and Sirius were explaining these things. I would be a lot more useful now."
Ron looked unconvinced, but he shrugged and nodded anyway.
"I don't know about you all, but I'm beat," he said. Remus and Hermione nodded, so Harry said he was tired too. Hermione headed downstairs to her room she shared with Ginny while the boys headed to their respective rooms. Harry laid down on his bed after tending to Hedwig, but he didn't really feel tired, he was still haunted by images of Sirius falling through the veil and Hermione's lifeless eyes staring up at him. He waited a while until he heard Ron's heavy breathing before sneaking out of their room and heading for the library.