Disclaimer: In chapter one

AN: Please review.

Ginny woke in Harry's arms. He was still sleeping and his hold on her hadn't lessened at all. She snuggled further into his chest but only succeeded in awakening him. He stretched and nearly dropped her over the edge of the bed. He looked down at her with concern. "Are you ok?" he asked her. She nodded into his chest, stretching as she did with a slight yawn. She rolled up and out of the bed and went to check on the children. Harry followed.

Blinky was reading to Lily a story about King Arthur which James was listening in to while he coloured a dragon bright red. Albus was on the other side of the room playing with one of Lily's plush unicorns. Lily was the first to notice them. She shot up off the sofa and gripped her mother in a tight hug. "Are you better now mummy?" She asked.

"Of course I am Lily." Ginny replied. Albus looked up from his collection of Lily's toys. He remembered that his dad had told him about his head hurting a lot when he was little. Apparently it meant the bad man was nearby. Albus looked about.

"Is your head hurting daddy?" he asked. Harry shook his head.

"I'm fine Albus." Albus nodded and went back to his toys.

"The time is just past two in the afternoon Mr and Mrs Potter. If you are feeling well you could be going to your lessons?" Harry's first transfiguration lesson was the last lesson of the day and he'd been rather interested in the subject. Both he and Ginny had felt that becoming animagi would be fun, even if it took a lot of transfiguration study to master, so he was excited for the lesson. Ginny and the children in the meantime would be working with Mr Hagrid in the forest looking after some of the animals. Harry and Ginny decided to attend lessons that afternoon.

While Ginny and the children were walking to Mr Hagrid's house, Albus pulled on her robe. "Did the bad man try to hurt daddy?" He asked. Ginny was confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Daddy told me that when he was littler his head hurt when the bad man was trying to catch him." Harry and Ginny were shocked. A bad man? They had no idea what was going on.

"Who's the bad man?"

"Daddy says he's called Tom. He says Tom hurt you a lot. Did the bad man hurt you when we were swimming?" Albus looked worried.

"I'm fine now Albus. You don't need to worry." She tried to reassure him. "I'm sure Tom won't be able to hurt us here, especially not with brave Professor Blinky here." Albus giggled softly at his mother's antics before running ahead to catch up with James who was regaling Lily with tales of times that Harry had gone into the Forbidden Forest.

Meanwhile Harry had arrived at his first transfiguration lesson to find no one there except a brown tabby cat. He sat down in a seat near the door and pulled out his textbook. Still no one came. He supposed the bell hadn't rang for the fourth lesson yet. The cat was staring at him now. Then it clicked. The cat must be an animagus. Surely the transfiguration professor would have mastered the most amazing and difficult transfiguration.

"Hello professor." Harry called out. "I'm sorry if I'm early, should I wait outside?" The cat regarded him with some confusion. It glanced around before jumping down from the desk. Professor McGonagall stood before him.

"That won't be necessary Mr Potter." The bell rang as she paused. "Your father was a master at transfiguration, I should hope you have inherited his ability." She seemed to be looking into his soul, he resisted the urge to squirm and to roll his eyes at Ginny rolling hers. Ginny giggled. The stern witch returned to her desk as the class entered. "Stay behind afterwards Mr Potter, I'd like to discuss your absence from Professor Sprout's class." Harry nodded and flushed slightly.

Ginny and the children arrived at the small wooden hut that Mr Hagrid lived in. He opened the door. He was massive. "Hi Professor Hagrid!" The children called. Lily gave one of Mr Hagrid's legs a hug. Mr Hagrid looked surprised.

"Professor, no that ain't right. I'm not a professor." Ginny stifled a giggle at his confused expression.

"Don't worry Mr Hagrid, you don't need to worry about that, you are teaching us to look after animals today anyway." Mr Hagrid nodded.

"Yes I suppose I am. Come along then, stay on the path with me." He strode out of the hut, a large black boarhound leapt out after him. James and Albus walked beside Mr Hagrid as best as they could while Lily talked to the boarhound. Ginny followed along after.

The transfiguration lesson was on the spell to turn a matchstick into a needle. Professor McGonagall told them that while the spell wasn't the most useful or flashy, it would help them to learn to control their magic since transfiguration was exceptionally dangerous if it was poorly controlled. Harry was having some difficulty making the spell work. Hermione's match had gone silver and the end was less blunt. His own match seemed to be unchanged. Ron had snapped his match twice and had to ask for two more.

Ginny tripped on a tree root, Harry put his hands out in front of him to stop his fall and the match became a needle. Harry bent down to pick up the wand that he had dropped. He was shocked that he had changed the match even more so that it had only worked without the spell and without his wand. Ginny however was rather glad that at the same time as Harry's match changed she'd suddenly found her footing and kept herself from falling.

She and the children were looking after some unicorn foals as the unicorns wouldn't allow Mr Hagrid to tend to their foals but did allow them to. Something Ginny thought was less than intelligent, surely Mr Hagrid would be better than James and Albus at healing sick foals. She glance over at Lily, the two foals that she had been feeding medicine to were already dashing about leaving Lily with fits of laughter as their tail hairs tickled her.

James and Albus were, for once, rather serious. They were discussing one young foal's hurt hoof and, despite not understanding what they themselves were saying, sounded just like two mediwizards. Ginny would have to save that foal from them after she got this one to drink the strengthening potion.

Harry tried the spell with his wand again. The match did nothing. He looked around. No one was watching him. He tried it without his wand. Nothing happened. He glanced around again. He pointed at the match without his wand and didn't say the spell. He imagined the match becoming a needle. When he next looked at the match it was silver and sharp with perfectly round eye. He picked it up. He'd made a needle. But why couldn't he do it with his wand?

After having rescued the foal from James and Albus and Lily from laughing herself unconscious Ginny led the group back to where Mr Hagrid and Fang the boarhound were. They followed Mr Hagrid back to the castle and waited for Harry to come down for dinner.

Harry explained to Professor McGonagall that he and Ginny had suffered from a sudden and extreme head pain and that Blinky, who had been leading Ginny's lesson at the time, had directed them to bed. After talking his way out of a trip to the hospital wing he was preparing to leave when Professor McGonagall surprised him. "Is there a problem with your wand Mr Potter?" His head snapped around to look at her.

"No Professor, not at all." The professor pulled out a match.

"Could you change this into a needle please?" She put it on the desk. Harry hesitated. He pointed his wand and spoke the incantation all the while imagining the change. Nothing happened. He glanced at the stern witch, she was frowning. Harry put one of his fingers along the length of the wand so that it was pointing the same way as the wand was. He tried again. He had produced another perfect needle. Professor McGonagall regarded him with some suspicion. "You may leave Mr Potter, it is dinnertime now." Harry nodded and left the room.

Ginny gave him a hug when he arrived in the entrance hall. "She noticed you know." Ginny told him. He nodded. She took his hand and led him into the great hall.