Unofficial Portkey Archive

A/N: Hey guys! Yet another update for y'all! I think most of you should quite enjoy this one. Please let me know what you think of it, including the process I came up with for their transformations. Just so you know, their actual transformations take place in the next chapter…this is their prep for it.

Thanks to Happy, Bexis, justduck, and EmmaRadcliffe for your reviews!

Chapter 21: The Iumentum Elixir

Harry stepped gratefully into the cool corridor on the seventh floor, feeling intensely high-strung as he made his way down the deserted hall. Almost a full month had passed since he and Hermione had started their plans to become Animagi, and he was quite anxious to begin the actual process.

When Harry had greeted Hermione in the Room of Requirement a week after her birthday, he had not expected the news she had told him: to become an Animagus, a potion was required that was similar in composition to the Polyjuice Potion - but even more difficult to create.

According to Hermione, the potion, known as the Iumentum Elixir, would essentially alter their chemical makeup in a more permanent and drastic way than the Polyjuice Potion, enabling them to transform. She had spent the three weeks since then brewing the complicated mixture, and, to Harry's pleasure, it would be ready tonight.

He quickly paced the familiar tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy, thinking of the desired room, and the highly polished door sprang into view. When he entered the room, he saw Hermione sitting cross-legged before two bubbling cauldrons, dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and jeans (similar to his own attire).

"How's it going?" he said without preamble, sitting down next to her as she added a fistful of fluxweed to each cauldron.

"Only a few more ingredients," she murmured, brow furrowed as she measured out essence of belladonna. She carefully added equal doses to each potion.

"Could you pass me those vials next to you?" she said, stirring in the belladonna in a counter-clockwise rotation.

"Sure," Harry replied, picking up two small crystal bottles sitting on a table beside him. One looked as though it contained a clear sparkly fluid; the other was filled with blood.

"Thanks," she said, taking the vials. "Diluted unicorn horn and dragon's blood. They're only used in the most powerful potions." She held both vials over one of the cauldrons and tipped them over carefully, allowing one drop from each to fall simultaneously into the elixir. She repeated the step with the second cauldron and then dusted her hands off satisfactorily.

"Done," she said. "Well, at least as much as I can do. The rest of the steps are personalized."

"Okay. What do we do?"

"There's a three step process to complete the potion," Hermione said knowledgeably. "Each step requires a part of the person who will drink the potion and an incantation. After each step, the potion will change to a shade that characterizes a certain aspect of the person's personality and a moonstone of that particular shade should be added." She paused, gesturing to a small pile of smooth stones in a large variety of shades on the floor behind her. "Moonstones are used for emotional balance, so I presume they ensure that we keep our human emotions when we transform."

Harry scratched the back of his head. "That's not complicated at all," he said sarcastically.

"Piece of cake," Hermione said, smiling. She pulled a large tome onto her lap and flipped it open to a marked page. "Okay," she said, trailing her finger down the page. "The first step requires…" Her eyes searched the book. `"The hair of the future Animagus.'"

"Easy enough," Harry replied, reaching over and plucking a strand from Hermione's head.

"Ow!" she yelped, and promptly snatched a hair from Harry's head as well, resulting in a similar bark of pain. Smiling gratifyingly, she dropped Harry's hair into the cauldron nearest him; Harry did the same with Hermione's. She then produced her wand and pointed it at her own potion.

"Amitto Humanus!" she said, and immediately repeated the spell over Harry's potion. The mixtures emitted a soft glow, and then proceeded to change colors: Hermione's to a soft sky blue, Harry's to the purest gold.

"Pretty," Harry noted dryly.

Hermione giggled, bending over her book once more.

"Alright, let's see," she said. "Blue…blue…it's says here that this shade of blue indicates `peacefulness, clarity and communication, truthfulness, and intuitiveness.'"

"I'd say that's accurate," Harry said. "Well, maybe not the peaceful part." Hermione slapped him in the arm.

"You're just proving my point, you know," he said, grinning as he rubbed his arm. "Anyway, what's the gold mean?"

A small pause. "Gold… `the color of enlightenment and divine protection. When seen within the aura, it says that the person is being guided by their highest good.'"

Harry scowled. "That's just great. Even my potions fawn over me."

"You know it's right, though," she said, searching the moonstones for the appropriate colors. When she found them, she tossed them into the potions, causing them to pop loudly.

She referred to the book once more. "It says the next part requires blood."

"How much?" Harry said warily, his mind flashing back to the use of his blood for Voldmort's return.

"Just a drop," she said. "We need a knife, though."

"Right next to you," Harry said, amused by the mysterious powers of the room.

Hermione picked up the small dagger and gave her index finger the smallest prick. Harry followed suit, watching as a small amount of blood beaded over the cut. They held their hands over the cauldrons, and after a few moments a single drop thumped heavily into the potions.

Pinching her bleeding finger, Hermione once again pointed her wand to each cauldron.

"Novo Bestia!"

The colors began to shift. After a moment, the sky blue had become bright yellow and the gold had turned into a clear red.

"Gryffindor through and through," Harry said proudly.

"We'll see about that," Hermione said, poring over the book. "The Sorting Hat may have been having an off-day. Red's characteristics are… `powerful, energetic, competitive -'"

She stopped abruptly, cheeks reddening slightly before speaking again. "…sexual, and passionate."

Harry laughed after a moment. "Spot on if you ask me!" he said cheekily.

But Hermione had already turned to her book, still blushing.

"Yellow," she said distractedly. "Um, creative…intelligent…detail-oriented and a perfectionist. Obvious, really."

She told Harry to find the appropriate moonstones as she flipped back a few pages to read the next step. When he had found them, he tossed them into their respective potions.

"Consciousness is the last bit," she said as the elixirs popped again. "A piece of your mind. The book says it's the most important part of the potion."

"How do we put a piece of our consciousness in there?" Harry asked, intrigued.

Hermione laid the book aside a twisted herself slightly to face Harry. "It's just like a Pensieve, really. Except you're not picking a specific memory. Instead of bringing a memory to the front of your mind, you have to clear it."

"I guess that makes sense," Harry mused. "You or me first?"

"Close your eyes," Hermione said. "I'll go next."

Harry acquiesced, allowing his eyelids to droop over his eyes. He breathed deeply through his nose, and released them through his mouth. He willed himself to think of nothing, and his mind soon became an empty void. His Occlumency training, though predominantly unsuccessful, had at least given Harry a small amount of efficiency in clearing his thoughts.

He barely felt the tip of Hermione's wand being pressed gently into his skull or acknowledged the sensation as a piece of his consciousness was separated from his mind.

"You can open your eyes now."

His eyes flitted open in time to see Hermione deposit the silvery strands into his potion. The red became deeper, darker.

"Now you get my thoughts," Hermione said. "It's easier to keep your mind clear when you don't have to get them yourself."

"Alright," Harry said. Hermione shut her eyes. He watched, amused, as her forehead wrinkled in concentration. She bit her lip, her eyes scrunching more tightly. He waited a few moments, watching her face curiously, wondering what she was working so hard to banish from her mind. Eventually her face began to relax, though. Her face was soon smooth and content, and Harry placed his wand gently near her hairline. When he pulled his wand away, wispy strands of consciousness clung to its tip.

"Done," Harry said, and she opened her eyes. He tapped his wand against the edge of her cauldron and her consciousness floated gently into the sunny brew. As expected, a soft glow emanated from the potion, and then it shifted colors and became green. A bright, emerald green.

Harry glanced over at Hermione, who suddenly looked rather nervous for some reason and didn't meet his eyes. He assumed she was becoming anxious about the accuracy of the potions.

"What do these colors mean?" he said, hoping to distract her from her apprehension as he searched for the correctly colored moonstones.

"Oh, right," she said. "Deep red means that you are -- grounded, realistic, active, ambitious and strong-willed. The green… it says greens are `extremely bright, efficient, and strong-willed. They love to set goals and are determined to achieve them. Green represents growth and balance and most of all...something that leads to change.'"

Harry dropped the final moonstones into the cauldrons. Hermione had an unreadable expression on her face.

"What do you reckon that last bit means?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Hermione said, still not looking at him. "Guess I wouldn't know until it happened." She snapped the book shut.

"There's only one other spell," she said. "But it's supposed to be directed at the Animagus after he drinks the potion. The spell activates it. And I think it would be best if we took it one at a time. The book doesn't detail the immediate effects of the potion, and if something goes wrong one of us needs to be able to deal with it."

Harry nodded. "I'll go first, then."

Hermione seemed uncertain about this. "Are you sure? After all, if something goes wrong it'll be my fault."

"Doesn't matter. If something wrong does happen, at least it's not going to happen to you," Harry said. "Plus, you're the one who made the potions - there's absolutely no way there could be anything wrong with them."

Hermione couldn't suppress the smile that crossed her face. But she still didn't look at him. At least directly. She seemed to be focusing on a fixed point just beyond his shoulder anytime she faced him.

"Well," he said, filling a tumbler with the dark red liquid. "Bottoms up."

He pressed the glass to his lips and tipped it upwards, feeling the elixir slide down his throat, warm and surprisingly tasteless. He set down the glass and stood up.

Hermione stood up as well. They walked a few paces from the cauldron and then stood facing each other. She raised her wand and pointed it to his chest, looking extremely focused.

"Tandum Coadunatio!" she cried, and a white light shot towards his chest. As it collided with his body, Harry realized he hadn't been at all prepared for the sensation that was flooding through him.

The sheer amount of pain was almost unbearable.

The moment Hermione's spell had connected, his skin began burning furiously. The blood pumping through his veins was like liquid fire. He couldn't think or process his surroundings at all - his head was pounding too fiercely against his skull. He barely acknowledged that he had clawed at his shirt in a desperate attempt to escape the heat, causing the buttons to pop away from him, barely felt himself fall hard to his knees, bent double and clutching his head as if it were about to explode.

And all he could do was wait until the terrible fire inside him stopped.

**************

Hermione watched helplessly as Harry fell, the pain evident by his contorted expression. She gripped her hands tightly, forcing herself to stay still as he ground his teeth together, eyes shut tightly.

When he had been ripping frenziedly at his shirt, she had been on the verge of running to him and shoving a bezoar down his throat in hopes of canceling the potion's effects, but was stopped when she saw that his chest still bore the disfiguring, bruise-like mark that she had first seen so many months ago. The mark, though it seemed slightly smaller than before, was just as dark and permanent as ever. She ached with curiosity and concern as he thrashed around, and she felt tears well in her eyes as his convulsions became worse.

But just as his shaking reached an all-time high, his body seemed to almost collapse into itself in exhaustion. His face relaxed, and his shoulders slumped.

Then he stood up.

Feeling deeply relieved, she began to approach him, glad that the potion's effects had lasted such a short time (chronically, at least - emotionally it had felt much longer). But something about his stance made her freeze.

His breaths came rapidly, deep and calculated. A thin film of sweat coated his face and chest, the shirt he had torn off laying forgotten on the floor. He began to walk toward her slowly, his expression unreadable. Just before he reached her, her eyes finally met his, expecting to see the eyes she had tried to avoid, those eyes of the exact emerald green as her potion.

However, nothing of his emerald irises could be seen just now. His pupils were dilated to the point that all Hermione could see was black; his eyes were unusually bright and undeniably…feral. Her instincts were telling her to move, but something in his gaze held her in position. She felt her breath catch as he stared intensely into her eyes, her heart beating more rapidly with each step he took towards her.

And suddenly, his lips were pressed forcefully upon hers.

Hermione felt herself go rigid, too startled to do anything as Harry kissed her. `What in the world is he doing!?' she thought to herself frantically, uncomfortably aware of his bare chest pressed against her. She had thought of him kissing her countless times, but this wasn't quite what she had in mind.

He pushed her roughly against the nearest wall, snapping her out of her initial shock and proceeded to attack her neck hungrily. A moan fell unwarranted from Hermione's lips, but was cut off as Harry recaptured her mouth once more.

Still bewildered (and very reluctant), Hermione finally managed to tear her face from his. She quickly ducked below Harry's arm and dashed across the room, but before she could glance over her shoulder he had overtaken her once more. They fell to the floor together, and Harry pinned her to the ground, beginning to kiss her with renewed vigor.

His hands slid up her arms, until one was behind her neck, holding her face closer to his. His other hand remained on her shoulder, and she gave a squeak of surprise as she felt the collar of her shirt rip.

"Harry!" she squealed, muffled by his lips. "What are you doing!?"

But Harry was far too gone to hear her. His most primal instincts were at the forefront of his mind, and no human hesitations slowed him down.

Pulling her arm free from Harry's weight, she felt around madly around the floor for her wand, which had fallen from her hand as she had been knocked down. Thankfully, her hand connected with the smooth wooden handle after a moment and she yanked it towards her. She jabbed it forcefully into Harry's side, causing him to jerk away from her slightly.

"Repello!" she yelled frantically.

Harry was blasted across the room by the force of the spell, where he slammed into the wall before landing in a heap on the floor. Unfazed, he immediately sprang up, but Hermione was too quick for him.

"Incarcerous!"

Ropes sprang towards him, and swiftly wrapped their way around his body. With his legs strapped together, he fell to the ground once more. He began to struggle the instant he collided with the stone floor, his arms flexed and tense as he strained to remove them from his sides.

After he had struggled fruitlessly for a few moments, growling in frustration at his predicament, he fixed Hermione with another intense stare as he continued to fight viciously against his restraints. Veins stood out in his neck from his savage thrashing, and his hair was damp with sweat.

Hermione sat down shakily and leaned against the wall opposite from Harry, staring down at her lap as she waited for his struggles to cease. Ten minutes passed before she noticed his movements growing weaker and weaker, and he eventually lay quite still.

Still shivering from Harry's advances, she approached his prone form cautiously, stopping when she was a few feet from him.

"Harry?" she said, twiddling her wand in her hand. "Are you okay?"

Harry turned his head towards her, and Hermione was relieved to see that his eyes had returned to their beautiful emerald state. He was still breathing deeply, but more from fatigue than anything else.

"Are you okay?" Harry questioned back weakly.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked as she released the binding spell, hoping against hope that he didn't realize the effects of the potion.

"Hermione, don't play innocent with me. I know something just happened. I don't know the exact details, but I know something happened."

"What exactly do you remember?" Hermione said, skirting around the issue.

"I remember burning. I felt like I was on fire, and then it went all fuzzy. And then I come to, tied up and rather sore on the ground clear across the room from you - who I must say looks pretty damn flustered."

Hermione remained silent, and Harry surveyed her closely. His eyes fell on her ripped shirt.

"Wait a second - what happened to your clothes?" Harry asked, startled. "Did I - did I attack you?"

Hermione turned her face so Harry wouldn't see her smiling at the irony in his statement.

"Something like that," she said.

"What do you mean `something like that'?" Harry asked. "Either I attacked you or I didn't. Tell me."

Hermione sighed, resigning herself, and began speaking in a rush.

"Well, first-you-collapsed-on-the-floor-and-you-seemed-to-be-in-a-lot-of-pain-then-you-tore-off-your-shirt-and-after-a-few-minutes-you-stopped-struggling-and-kissed-me-and-then-you-"

"WOAH, wait a second!" Harry sputtered as he pulled himself into a sitting position, looking aghast. If he had been sitting in a chair Hermione was sure he would have fallen out of it. "I kissed you!?"

Hermione gave a curt nod.

Harry's eyes were wide. "I… I…I never…I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't…"

"It's okay," Hermione said quickly, cutting him off. "You couldn't control yourself -- you didn't realize what you were doing."

Harry slumped against the wall, stricken. "No wonder you blasted me across the room."

Hermione smiled at his distress, but the smile faded as her eyes fell once more to his blemished chest.

"Harry…" she said, "why didn't you tell me that that mark wasn't going away?"

Harry seemed confused for a moment, and then glanced at his bare torso.

"Oh," he said. He looked up at her. "Well, it has been going away."

Hermione glared at him.

"Okay," he conceded, "so maybe it hasn't been healing at quite the rate I was expecting."

"You think?" she said sarcastically, finally sitting down on the floor in front of him. "It looks almost the same way it did a few months ago." Her eyes flicked down to the mark again, and she paused, confused. "Actually…it does seems to have gotten smaller…"

"I told you," Harry said. "It's just taking a while."

"No," Hermione replied. "It looks smaller than it did when you first ripped off your shirt -- half an hour ago."

He shook his head. "That's impossible."

Hermione seemed unsure. "Maybe..."

"Do you have my shirt?" Harry said, ignoring her uncertainty. Hermione flicked her wand and the shirt flew across the room. She caught it and held it out to him.

Harry frowned as he observed the tattered article of clothing. He allowed his head to flop back against the wall. "Shame, really. I ruined two shirts within the span of an hour. Nice shirts, too."

Hermione fingered the seam of her ripped blouse, her thoughts turning unwillingly to the second phase of Harry's potion. `Very red, indeed,' she thought to herself, her cheeks reddening furiously for what felt like the hundredth time that night.

***********

A/N: Next chapter, Hermione takes her own elixir, and their Animagus forms are revealed!

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