Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter 22: Animagus

After Harry's little "incident" with the Iumentum Elixir, Hermione thought it would be best if she took her own potion in private.

Harry silently agreed, though he did not speak his apprehensions out loud. It was one thing to have kissed Hermione and not been aware of it; it was quite another to be on the receiving end of such behavior.

Though he had brushed off his earlier actions as nonchalantly as possible in Hermione's presence, he was secretly reeling from the thought. He had kissed his best friend - and clearly not in the mildest of manners.

Hermione appeared generally normal aside from that initial shock he had registered on her face when he'd first woken up, but Harry couldn't help but feel slightly ashamed of himself. After all, he wasn't really an animal, even if the potion had made him behave like one.

Hermione now ladled her emerald concoction into another tumbler.

"I suppose you should leave now," she said, swirling her glass around and eying its contents nervously.

"You don't need me to perform the spell?" Harry said.

"No," Hermione said. "It would be simpler that way, but I don't know if the effects of the potion will have the same timing as yours."

"I don't know…" he said uncertainly, remembering the intense pain from the elixir. "Maybe I should stay until the first bit stops…"

"No," Hermione said, more firmly this time. "I know if you're in here at the beginning you'll want to try to spare me some of the pain. Which you can't." She paused at the continued look of worry on Harry's face. "Perhaps the pain won't be as bad for me, anyway. I doubt the symptoms will be completely the same."

Harry knew she was saying this more for his benefit than anything, but he nodded mutely.

"Alright, then. You'll just wait outside in the corridor until the elixir subsides. Yours lasted less than half an hour, so mine shouldn't vary too much," Hermione explained. "I won't be able to get out. And under no circumstances will you open this door until that half hour is up. Understand?"

Harry nodded once more, curious at the adamancy in her tone, and reluctantly left the room. He saw Hermione raise the potion to her lips just before the door snapped shut, trapping her inside the room.

He noted the time on his watch, and sat down to wait, pressing his back against the wall opposite the Room of Requirement.

However, a moment later a terrible, drawn-out scream erupted from within the room. Harry restrained himself from leaping up and running into the room as the scream echoed in his ears, making his blood run cold. Unwillingly, Harry's thoughts jumped to that dreadful night in Malfoy Manor, as Hermione was tortured…her cries were frighteningly similar and still cut through him like physical pain.

Hermione screamed again, and Harry buried his face in his hands, trying to drown out the noise. But quickly the yells subsided.

He did, however, hear a soft voice calling his name from within the room. Relieved, Harry stood up and placed his hand on the doorknob.

"Harry."

He paused, hand frozen in place, as he heard his name again. Inexplicably, Harry felt the urge to check his watch. Less than fifteen minutes in. But surely the process was finished?

"Harry."

Harry pressed his ear against the door, hearing Hermione's voice just beyond it. She must have been next to the door as well, because he heard her words quite clearly.

"Harry," came Hermione's voice softly once more. "Please open the door."

Hermione's voice had an oddly silky quality to it, a sweet tone that fell on Harry's ears like music. He suddenly found it very difficult to concentrate.

"You said to wait half an hour," he said blankly. "It's hasn't even been fifteen minutes."

"That doesn't matter," Hermione purred. "I told you that the timing would vary, didn't I?"

"Yes," Harry admitted, "but you also said -"

"Forget about that. Obviously it's done - I'm speaking to you coherently, aren't I? You can let me out."

Harry stubbornly leaned against the door, suddenly forgetting why he couldn't let her out but feeling that it was of some importance.

"I can't let you out," he said. "I'm sorry."

"Oh," came Hermione's sad reply, "I understand. You're only doing what I said, after all." She sounded close to tears. Harry felt intensely sorry for her.

There was silence for a moment. But then she spoke again, this time sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Oh! I've just thought of something!" she said brightly. Harry could practically see her beaming in the other room. "Since you can't let me out, why don't you come in here?"

Now there was an idea! Harry felt quite enthusiastic about this plan, because he did desperately want to get inside the Room of Requirement. Why hadn't he thought of this?

"It must be awfully chilly out there in the corridor," added Hermione silkily. "It's really quite pleasant in here. So warm and cozy…"

Harry suddenly felt very cold despite the thick sweater the Room had provided him. Since when had the corridors become so drafty? Surely it would be warmer in there. Hermione had told him so, after all.

But something still held Harry back.

"I don't know…" he said uncertainly.

Hermione's voice came tenderly through the door, making Harry shiver as if she were breathing the words into his ear instead of through four inches of wood.

"I do wish you would come in here."

Harry's fingers itched on the handle, which hadn't budged since Hermione had begun to speak to him. He turned the knob slowly, his eyes feeling rather heavy-lidded. Such an enchanting voice…

Suddenly Hermione's voice, the real Hermione's voice, came blaring back into Harry's mind: "And under no circumstances will you open this door until that half hour is up. Understand?"

Harry's jerked back his hand from the doorknob as though it had burned him.

"No!" he said rather loudly. "I won't let you out!

Hermione gave a shout of anger from the next room. "Fine!" she growled furiously. "See if I ever help you again, you infuriating son of a-"

But exactly what Harry was a son of, he never found out, because she suddenly gave a strangled cry and a small thud sounded from the room.

Harry, knowing that Hermione's side effects were finally over, quickly entered the Room of Requirement.

However, he didn't see her anywhere when he opened the door. He glanced around, bewildered, and turned just in time to see Hermione darting out of the door.

"Damnit!" Harry muttered to himself, and sprinted after her. "Hermione, COME BACK!"

But Hermione didn't spare a single glance over her shoulder as she flew along the corridor. Harry, however, was too quick for her, and overtook her just as she was about to hurtle down the stairs to the next floor. He had the oddest feeling that she was headed for the Forbidden Forest.

He slammed into her, feeling a sense of déjà vu for some reason as he pinned her against the wall.

But Hermione didn't answer as she thrashed about, her dark eyes flitting every which way as she tried to escape him.

"Hermione!" Harry shouted, struggling against her furious efforts. "Hermione, will you just CALM DOWN!?"

She finally stood still at his tone, and fixed her eyes on him. She licked her lips, almost imperceptibly, and Harry found himself drawn to her mouth. Before he could pull himself together, she lunged at Harry, planting a kiss on his very surprised lips.

`Oh, Merlin!' Harry thought, mentally kicking himself for opening the door. In an effort that took a surprising amount of strength, he pushed himself away from her and quickly ran back towards the Room of Requirement. Glancing behind him, Harry was relieved to see that Hermione was following him eagerly.

She launched herself at him again when he slid to a stop next to the room, but had barely managed to attach her lips to his before he had shoved her rather forcibly through the door. He slammed it shut and leaned against the wood, breathing deeply.

He checked his watch yet again. Twenty-five minutes. Only five minutes more and all this would be over.

A loud crash suddenly came from the room, as though Hermione had just chucked their cauldrons into the wall.

`On second thought, better make that ten,' Harry thought nervously.

********

To say the least, Hermione wasn't too pleased to hear that Harry had opened the door during her Iumentum trance; she was even less pleased to hear that she was a seductive, flighty tramp while in said trance. Harry relayed all the details as soon as she had recovered, now rather amused by Hermione's irrational desire to be freed from the room (when rationally she should have realized that she was only required to be there for half an hour).

Whenever the entire Iumentum process was over, it was well past midnight. Harry and Hermione, both extremely exhausted, quickly reviewed the remaining steps for Animagus transformation and agreed to continue to meet on Saturdays until they transformed.

The entirety of the remaining stage, to Hermione's surprise, had very little to do with magic at all. Rigorous meditation was required to first accomplish the transformation, and the two soon found out that this was not nearly as simple as it sounded.

To become Animagi, they needed to focus their minds on all of their energies, and allow themselves to be taken over by this animal being that now resided within each of them. Harry and Hermione both spent every spare moment of privacy in deep concentration, but the Christmas holidays had come and gone before they began to make even the slightest progress on becoming animals.

While in meditation, both began to get the oddest sensations: Harry had unmistakably heard Hermione muttering to herself about a Charms essay - while she had been climbing the stairs two corridors away - and he had also been astonished to have smelt her strawberry-scented shampoo from this distance as well.

Hermione, in turn, claimed that she was staying up unusually late, and found herself sneaking down to the kitchens for a midnight snack with increasing frequency.

By the time March rolled around, Harry was intensely agitated that neither he nor Hermione had made a breakthrough. He was aware that it had taken his father and godfather three years to complete the transformation, but surely it wouldn't take he and Hermione so long. After all, James and Sirius had been practicing illegally and with limited help and resources, not to mention the fact that they had begun at the age of thirteen.

Harry and Hermione, being eighteen and nineteen respectively, quite magically adept, and following the process legally, felt that it could certainly not take nearly so much time.

He stormed into the Room of Requirement with just these thoughts zipping through his head and found Hermione in much the same state he had greeted her in for almost half a year's worth of Saturdays. She sat cross-legged on a rich purple pillow, her eyes closed and hands entwined in her lap.

Harry stomped across the room, agitated, and flopped himself as noisily as possible on another pillow near her. One of Hermione's eyes opened narrowly and fixed him with an equally irritated glare.

"This really is difficult enough without you stomping around in here."

Harry didn't answer, fidgeting to become more comfortable.

Hermione's eye closed once more. "Have you spoken to Ron this week?" she asked calmly.

"Yes," Harry replied, now shutting his own eyes. "I sent him his birthday present earlier this week." He peeked over at her. "I still don't understand why you don't want to tell him about these lessons."

"I just don't think he'd be too pleased by the fact that he wasn't included in this," Hermione said indifferently. "It's nothing against him - I'd just rather not tell him until after we manage to transform. And it's not like you've told Ginny."

"That's different! If I told Ginny that I've been coming into the castle every Saturday -"

"She'd be just as peeved as Ron."

Harry couldn't argue against that.

"Well, I think Ron's getting suspicious about where I go every Saturday night. Probably thinks I'm falling into a bad crowd, drinking constantly, doing drugs and the sort. Or that I'm hanging out with Mitch."

Hermione smirked, thinking of Ron's newfound jealousy of Harry's Auror friend. "I think he'd prefer the first option."

"Better for me to be corrupted by a gang of shady warlocks than thinking he's been replaced by an American bloke."

Hermione giggled, and then silence fell over them as it usually did.

Harry inhaled deeply, trying to make his breathing as regular as possible. He let the silence wash over him, calming his emotions, stilling his thoughts. The minutes slid by.

He felt his heart beat sluggishly in his chest.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

The sound became louder and louder in his ears, and soon drowned out his breaths.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Gradually, his heart rate began to climb, so gradually that Harry didn't notice until it beat against his chest like a drum.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.

Harry became suddenly and acutely aware of a tingling against his skin, a tingling that soon permeated his muscles and sank into his very bones. He felt as if vibrations were coming from his very core.

The tremors gave way to a horrible pain in his shoulders and hips as he felt the joints realign themselves - his fingers and toes suddenly felt numb - he felt as if someone was molding his face like clay, and then a warmth spread through him that seemed to radiate from everywhere -

Harry's eyes shot open, and he was startled as he gazed around the room, which had somehow become rather color distorted. He shook his head, confused, before his gaze fell on Hermione, who stood watching him in astonishment. She bent down slightly, and her face broke out in a huge grin as she surveyed him.

"You've done it, Harry! You've done it!" she said happily, and her voice was strangely magnified as they reached his ears.

Now feeling rather astonished himself, Harry trotted up to a large mirror that had appeared on the nearest wall. He reared back in surprise as he came into its view.

A large grey wolf was looking back at him from the mirror, bewilderment evident in its features.

***********

Hermione stood behind Harry-the-wolf as he surveyed himself in the mirror. She was quite amused as he sat down, peering at himself closely and cocking his head from side to side.

Eventually Harry glanced over at her, an undeniably smug look on his wolfish face.

"Oh, don't gloat!" Hermione told him. "Come over here. I want a better look at you."

Harry obediently stood up and turned towards her, standing at attention so she could examine him.

Hermione walked slowly around him, taking in Harry's beautiful coat, varying in shades of grey, silver, tan, and the familiar jet-black of Harry's real hair. She ran her hand gently along the soft fur, studying the triangular pointed ears and elegantly shaped head.

She traced a finger along the wolf's forehead, where the faintest darkening of fur in the shape of a lightning bolt was the only indication of Harry's scar. She doubted she would have even noticed it if she hadn't been looking for it. And then she reached his eyes.

Harry's emerald green eyes stared at her, and Hermione blinked several times as she took in the sight. She was quite used to seeing Harry with such brilliant irises, but it was another matter entirely to see them in the eyes of a wolf.

She knelt in front of Harry and scratched him behind the ears. His tail began to wag wildly. He whimpered pathetically when she removed her hand.

"Don't be such a baby, Harry," she said as the wolf's tail drooped sadly. "You've done really well. I'm so proud of you!"

His ears pricked up happily, and he placed a large paw on her knee. The gesture clearly stated, Couldn't have done it without you, though.

Hermione smiled and gave Harry a final pat on the head before standing up. "Okay, now transform back. It should be much easier now."

Wolf-Harry gave a nod, and was about to mutate back when Hermione gave an alarmed squeak.

"Wait!" she said hurriedly, and pointed quickly toward a sofa. "Behind there."

The wolf obeyed immediately and loped behind the couch. Within moments a fully-grown human Harry stood up, looking down at his bare torso.

"Ah," he said thoughtfully. "I forgot about the whole clothes issue."

Hermione nodded somewhat bashfully. "Me too. I just so happened to notice your shirt and jeans right before you turned. I'm pretty sure there's a charm that allows you to transform with your clothes." She bent and picked up said articles of clothes and tossed them towards Harry.

She averted her eyes as Harry slipped on his clothes. She really had seen Harry's chest with far too much frequency recently, and was quite frustrated by the fact that she didn't mind in the slightest.

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