Sirius had been gone for three days and James was getting worried, "Where did he have to go for those books, China?"

"Actually James, China is pretty close, it wouldn't take this long to go there and back." Remus pointed out.

"It's a sarcastic expression." James rolled his eyes.

"I know." Remus chuckled, "But it just doesn't hold as much weight here as it does in England."

Sirius had just walked in and asked, "What weights more in England."

"Your ego." James turned on him, "Where in the…. world have you been." Lily smirked, she'd been working on his bad language.

"London."

"Serious?" Remus asked.

"Yes I am. And I mean that as a pun and as a statement." Sirius laughed.

"How did you travel, where you followed?" James asked.

"Portkey and no." Sirius answered, "I went to the Australian Ministry and wrote a note that asked them to make a portkey to send my dog to my vacation home I wanted to travel by muggle means. I taped a few galleons to it and Padfoot was given a bone to China."

"Ha, I told you he went to China." James said. Remus just rolled his eyes.

Sirius ignored them and continued, "From there a hunch backed old wizard got a port key to Germany. Then a young, good looking, blond wizard needed one for London. That same good looking wizard contacted Frank at the ministry. Then Frank decided he needed to visit Albus Dumbledore with his son's newest pet."

James was impressed, "And what did you ask our esteemed professor?"

"Professors." Sirius said, "I told Albi and Minnie that we had ran across a man who could transform into several different animals and asked if they had heard of anything like that." Sirius stopped and was looking through his bag.

"And?" James asked.

"They both said the only person they had ever heard of who could do that was Merlin." Sirius answered, "So who ever this was had to be an extremely powerful wizard. Then they suggested several books on Merlin and animagus transformations for us to read."

"Us?" Lily asked.

"They actually said for you and Remus to read but I plan on doing some reading too." Sirius grinned, "I'll just leave the biggest most boring books to you two."

"What about coming back?" James asked.

"Frank got Padfoot a bone to France." Sirius said, "Then a young muggle caught a train to Turkey. Then a middle eastern wizard got a portkey to China. Finally an elderly wizard came to Australia, and I apperated here after checking for stowaways."

They group studied the books sent but couldn't find any more than what the professors had already told them. Harry could readily change into his puppy or fawn form at will even during play. During hide and seek the fawn was his favorite if he held really still they couldn't find him in the grass for a long time. Sometimes they even had to use magic to find him.

One day a few weeks later James and Harry were laying on the floor in the living room looking at a child's book of animals. When they got to the page with dogs Harry decided to change into a puppy, but instead of the black puppy he had changed into before he changed into one that looked like the dogs in the book.

James was shocked for a moment then scratched him behind the ears and told him what a good boy he was. Sirius walked in and stopped, "Is that Harry?"

James answered without looking, "Yes, evidentially he can change into whatever kind of dog he wants. We were looking at this animal book and he just changed into the dog on the page."

Sirius lay down beside them and said, "What else can you do?" So they proceeded to turn the page and then looked at Harry. Harry cocked his head, looking at the book and transformed into the animal. It was a muggle book and included farm animals, when Harry turned into a calf and mooed at them they couldn't help it they were rolling on the floor laughing.

Harry knew that game so he changed into his dog and rolled with them. Lily heard the noise and came into the room, "What's going on."

When they calmed down James said, "Harry and I were looking at the animal book and when we got to the dogs he transformed into one of the dogs in the book, not his black dog. So Sirius got the idea to show him every animal and see if he could do them all, which he could. But when he got to the cow it was so cute then he mooed and we lost it."

Sirius touched Harry and he quit rolling and looked at him, "Show Mummy this one." So Harry transformed into his cow and mooed at his Mum.

"That is so cute Harry, good boy." Lily laughed.

Remus had seen it to but instead of laughing he was thinking. He summoned a book from the study and called to Harry, "Come outside and we'll play with another animal book."

Harry changed into his human form and followed Remus outside. The others followed wondering what Remus was up to. He lay on his stomach in the dirt and had Harry lay down in front of him. The others gathered not too far behind them sitting on the ground. Remus looked through the book for a moment and then showed a picture to Harry. Harry looked at it for a few minutes and then transformed into a beautiful unicorn.

"Well done Harry." He then picked up the book and started flipping pages again. Harry let out a snort and Remus said, "Just a second I'm finding another one."

Harry got tired of waiting and he summoned the book, it fell open to a page of dragons and Harry transformed.

Remus grabbed the book back and said in a gruff voice, "Enough Harry transform back." Harry did as told and Remus scolded him lightly, "If you want to continue to look through the book and transform you have to be patient. I'm looking for animals that are safe. You could have hurt me if you had breathed fire in your dragon form. Any more taking it like that and we won't look through it with you and I will charm it not to come to you do you understand."

Harry lowered his head and nodded. Remus gave him a hug and they went back to the book. Later when Harry was out having his nightly roll in the dirt with Sirius, James and Lily talked with Remus,

"Well done this afternoon with Harry. We'll have to make sure he is well behaved or he won't be able to be around other kids, it will be too dangerous." James grimaced.

"We'll have to hold any visits back home until he can understand when to change and when not to." Lily agreed, "I never even thought of magical animals. What made you think of it?"

"When I was a kid my magical animal book was my favorite." Remus said, "I just wanted to see if anything would happen. I never even thought about dangerous animals."

James patted him on the back, "Well it's good to know anyway. What if he had been looking at the book with Neville? I wonder how long it will be before he understands not to change."

Sirius had just entered the room and handed Harry to Lily, "My cousin Nymphadora is a metamorph and she was four before she could understand and control it. Harry already has control over it so he just needs to understand."

"You know we're forgetting something." Remus added, "Harry summoned that book from me, he used magic in his animagus form. Neither of you can do that can you?"

Both shook their heads and Sirius made a suggestion, "Maybe it's only magical animals he can use magic with. We'll have to test it."

"Yes, but let's wait a while before we test that." James agreed, "I think he needs to understand first then try magic second."