"Hey Harry! You came to the burrow last night. Why didn't you tell us?" asked Ron as he came into the kitchen. He stopped abruptly and stared at Harry while he ate. Ginny, who had been running behind her brother, crashed into him, nearly knocking Ron onto the floor. She straitened up swiftly as Hermione walked over to them.
"Why are you just standing there? Move!" she instructed, but Ron didn't move a muscle. He stood with his mouth open wide. Hermione cast him aside and walked forward with Ginny. The redhead stared too, but Hermione came over to Harry, who was looking quite amused.
"Harry!" she said and hugged him. When Ginny got over her shock, she too ran over to him. She hugged him tightly and he smiled.
"Ron? Hey Ron? You can sit down, now. I'm not poisonous, you know!" Harry said grinning. Ron nodded and walked over to the table so slowly, a turtle could have easily outstripped him.
"Harry," he said weakly. Harry raised an eyebrow and shoveled eggs into his mouth. "What was your summer like?" Ron asked trying to create conversation.
"Alright, I guess. Yours?"
"Good." Ron hesitated before asking, "What did you do?"
"Nothing much," Harry said grinning at his friend. Now Ron raised an eyebrow at him looking uncertain.
"Harry, you look really different. What happened?" Ron asked. Harry looked uncomfortable and Hermione immediately realized this.
"He can tell us later, Ron."
"No, it's okay. I'll tell you when you finish eating." The others finished eating quickly and followed him into the sitting room.
"Well, I went to Godric's Hallow, already."
"You did? Did you find anything?" Hermione asked him. Ron glanced at Ginny but Harry shook his head.
"I told Ginny. She has a right to know." Ron nodded. "Anyways, I visited my parents' grave and I ran into a couple of Death Eaters. And Voldemort." Hermione gasped. "But I managed to get away. I fell out of a window, actually. Everyone was so surprised, that nobody did anything."
"Is that how you got that?" Ginny asked Harry indicating a long, dark scar on his right arm. It went from his wrist to right below his elbow.
"No, that was from Voldemort. I managed to heal it, but it still scared. I tried your bat bogey hex by the way, but he blocked it. He blocked most of my spells and curses. I got him a couple of times, though."
"But what's with the muscles?" Ron asked timidly. Harry had been away for six weeks, yet in that time, he had become very muscular. His arms and legs were like steel, and so was his chest. Ginny ran her fingers over his arm, realizing how strong and wonderful it was.
"Well, after I met Voldemort, I figured that I had to step up my game. I became stronger, and not only learned wandless magic, but I am also a trained Occlumanist. I can teach you, because I can do legilimency. Oh, and my animagus is almost perfect," Harry said quietly. He didn't want to brag, but he needed to tell them eventually, so why not now?
"You did all that?!" Hermione exclaimed after nearly five minutes of silence. They were all shocked. Who wouldn't be? "Wandless magic is almost impossible, and it takes years to become an animagus. And how did you learn legilimency and Occlumency by yourself? You meet him, what two weeks ago, and you did all this in that time!"
"It was actually easy and I had nothing better to do."
"Harry! You might be a natural at some of this, but not all of it! That's impossible!" The three of them looked at Harry as if he had four heads.
"I'll prove it to you," he said. He pointed his wand at Hermione and muttered something. He saw memories of her riding a bike, hugging him at the Triwizard tournament, and cheering at a Quidditch game.
"Wow," said Hermione when he took his eyes away from her. The others knew that Harry had succeeded and had seen Hermione's memories.
"But what about everything else?" Ron asked and Ginny nodded.
"Look," he commanded. He gave his wand to Hermione and suddenly a stunning spell shot at Ron by pointing his hand at him. He relieved him after a moment, still without his wand. The others backed away from him, a bit afraid. Harry was really powerful.
Finally Harry asked for his wand and stuck it in his pocket. He thought for a moment and then he was gone. In his place stood a beautiful stag. Hermione and Ginny smiled and pat him. After a minute or so, Harry changed back.
"You can do an animagus completely."
"Yeah, it's only the second time, though," he replied modestly.
"Harry, this is amazing. Can you teach us how to do it before we go?" Hermione asked.
"I'll try."
"Let's start tomorrow," Ginny said.
"Why not now? Mum's coming and we can go and practice in my bedroom," Ron offered. Harry nodded.
"We should start. The sooner the better!" The girls sighed as they knew not what to expect and the four of them walked up to Ron's bedroom.
"I think we should start with Occlumency. I don't have enough time to teach you legilimency, but you don't really need to know it. I'll test each of you in turn. Try your best to block me from looking at your memories. I'll start with Hermione and then go to Ron and Ginny." Hermione walked over to sit on Ron's bed and Harry sat in a chair.
Harry tried three times, each time getting deeper into Hermione's mind.
"Now I know why you had trouble learning. It's not easy," Hermione said standing up. Harry tried the others, but they weren't any better.
"We have a problem," Harry said. They looked at him. "We don't have very long and I'm afraid that I can't teach you wandless magic or how to be an animagus in time. Hermione is right, it's natural for me."
"Can we still try?" Hermione asked looked utterly disappointed that she was correct.
"Yeah, but as far as we know, there are only 10 animagi around, including me, and one out of every million wizard or witch can perform wandless magic accurately. Out of the other million, two or three hundred can do it, but only at random times after childhood. Small things happen, when least intended and you can't ask for the spell that you want to happen."
"It's still worth a try," Hermione said, but she knew she was wrong.