Title: Anything You Can Do
Author: Grevola
Rating/Word Count: PG, 800 words
Notes: Don't own HP or GW. Sorting Hat Arc, year three. Hiiro learns that course descriptions are often misleading.
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In the opinion of Hirro Yui, his first lesson in Divination, if you could even call it that, had been bad enough. The teacher looked even more like a butterfly than the shrine maiden back in Japan, and she actually was a butterfly at times. And she went on and on about seeing the actual future, and making predictions left and right.
He remembered very clearly that one of the very first lessons Jei-sensei had beaten into him was that you could not foresee actual events. You could read stars and omens and know if a particular course of action was favored. And if you were very good, and knew some one was being advised by an onmyoji, you could guess what actions they would take based on which would be most favorable. But Jei-sensei would have thrown him out on his ear if he heard of him trying to read the future in tea leaves.
Tea leaves! As if leaves had any business at all in the bottom of a properly made cup of tea anyway! The entire class had been a complete waste of time, and Hiiro had already begun composing a carefully worded poem asking for permission to drop the damn class. Then he could pick up ancient runes or something possibly useful. Besides, the worst thing that seemed likely to happen to Harry in that tower was an overfull bladder from too much tea.
Hiiro was just trying to think if he could get that sentiment into seven syllables or less when the bell rang, signaling the beginning of Transfiguration. This was Hiiro's favorite class. Not only was it something he'd trained in before, not only was it something useful, but Hiiro was good at it. He'd spent hours back at the shrine turning paper cranes into living birds and back again, so making a pincushion into a hedgehog hadn't been a big stretch.
So it was that between his complete disinterest in anything Professor Trelawny moaned about, and his great love of transfiguration, Hiiro was just about the only student paying any attention when Professor McGonagall turned into a cat. He was so surprised he completely broke his aloof composure, and nearly fell out of his chair.
Sure, he'd heard of people turning into animals. Even muggles knew about that. But most often they were merely accounts of a wizard or onmyoji who had worn the illusion of an animal, as that was a much simpler spell. But to see such a transformation, a true transfiguration... That was wonderful magic indeed.
Once the rest of the class had been brought back to a reality where the odds of Harry Potter dropping dead in the next five minutes were remote (Hiiro was sitting right there after all), McGonagall gave an unusually lecture oriented lesson on the history and laws of animagi. Hiiro listened intently enough he made it look like Hermione Granger was daydreaming. Of course, it could also have been because she was still fuming over the Divination lesson.
So when the hour was nearly over and McGonagall was giving them their homework assignments to copy (eleven inches on laws governing the registration of animagi), Hiiro knew he had not missed one word of the lecture. He did something very unusual for him, and he raised his hand.
"Include at least half an inch each on the seven register- You have a question, Mr. Yui?"
"Professor McGonagall, when will begin training to become animagi?"
To the great surprise of Hiiro and much of the class McGonagall gave him a rather indulgent smile, "I'm afraid that is not something you will be learning in this class, Mr. Yui. However I have no doubt that if it is your deepest desire to become an animagus, you will be able to complete the training once you reach the age of majority. For now, focus on completing your homework in a timely manner." And with that the bell rang and class was over.
Hiiro felt an unusual sort of fury at Professor McGonagall. He felt like a child that had been shown a wonderful toy only to have it snatched away. But Hiiro was no child. He would not scream or cry or rage against the situation. Nor would he accept the professor's condescending refusal to help him. Hiiro would find out on his own. He would get Duo to make a distraction so he could sneak into the restricted section of the library and find the scrolls he needed. Jei would also be happy to send along some reading work for him- the old man was concerned he was getting too far behind as it was. Oh, he'd probably have to let Duo in on his plan, otherwise the other boy would never leave him alone long enough to see it through.
But really, how hard could turning into an animal be?