Chapter Ten: Exams and Animagi

Harry and Hermione woke up on the Monday that signalled the start of exam week, feeling refreshed and ready for whatever the exams would throw at them. While the rest of the first year Gryffindors rushed round complaining about not being ready, the two of them walked down to breakfast, and had eggs, bacon, hash browns and pancakes all with a couple of glasses of orange juice. Ron was looking pale and sick, he apparently hadn't started studying until the week before the exams and now he wasn't prepared. Harry didn't have very much sympathy for him; instead he pulled out his exam schedule.

"Hey Mione, look, the Quidditch Cup game is the day after exams," he said. Thanks to his Seeking skills, Gryffindor were in the final for the Cup against Slytherin. Hermione looked up from her own schedule, which was the same as Harry's and sniffed slightly, although she went to the games to support Harry, she didn't like it all that much.

"Have you been practicing?" she asked.

Harry groaned and said in a whisper "Wood is a maniac, if it weren't for the fact that we all had exams to study for, we might have been out on the pitch all day every day last week. I don't know how I fit in all that study around practices, thanks for helping me."

Hermione smiled and hugged him, not anywhere near as shy as Harry was about expressing her affection for him. "Let's get to the first exam now that we've had breakfast. And don't fall asleep in History, this is the exam, not the class," she laughed. Ron huffed as they walked by while Gred and Forge winked at them.

Two hours later the first year Gryffindors exited the History of Magic exam feeling as though their brains had been wrung out. "Uggh", Harry groaned, "I never want to hear about another Goblin Rebellion again." Hermione looked at him sympathetically, Harry really didn't like History, but in order to keep her happy, he paid attention in the class, and it should have paid off for him. The rest of the first year Gryffindor boys were looking positively ill at the prospect of Transfiguration, while Harry seemed to brighten up at it. The group of Gryffindors walked to the Transfiguration exam room, where, two hours later, the two first year Demons walked out feeling like they'd aced it while everyone else was glaring at them for daring to be so cheerful.

After lunch, they had a free afternoon so Harry and Hermione met up with Fred and George at the Den, where they went over notes for Potions and Herbology. That done, they spent the rest of the time before dinner relaxing; with Fred and George on the floor and Harry and Hermione on the couch.

Hedwig chose that moment to drop a letter, and a parcel on Harry's head. With an exclamation of annoyance, Harry reached up and took them down. He opened the letter first, and it was lucky that he did for it told him what was in the parcel.

To the Gryffindor Demons (the letter ran)

The parcel contains four doses of Animagus Revelo potion, one for each of you. Come by my office tonight at seven pm and we will discover your forms.

Minerva McGonagall

They all looked at each other, and as one they said "YES".

Later that evening: At precisely seven pm, Fred, George, Harry and Hermione knocked on Professor McGonagall's office door. The door swung open, only to reveal that the only occupant was a cat. The four students were surprised for a moment before Harry stretched out with the Force and directed his senses towards the cat. He grinned for a moment before walking up to the animal and, as he rubbed it behind the ears, he said

"Good evening Professor." The cat got up, nudged Harry's hand before jumping off the desk and transforming back into Professor McGonagall.

"Good evening Mr Potter, Miss Granger, Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley" she said. "Mr Potter, how did you know it was me?" Harry looked confused for a moment before answering.

"When I used the Force and directed it towards your animagus form, I could sense that it was you. An animagus doesn't have quite the same sense in the Force as a true animal does, there's still a sense of the human form beneath the animal one. That's how I knew". McGonagall regarded him for a few moments before stepping past him and shutting the door before locking it. She then returned and sat down on her desk.

"You all know how the potion works, correct?" she asked. Seeing nods of agreement she then cleared a space in the middle of the room. "Sit down and drink the potion in one go. You will turn into your animal form for about two minutes and then return. When out of your animal form, go into the trance I taught you and find that animal again. Once you have found your animal it will disappear and have become part of you. When that happens, you will be ready to start learning how to transform into it, although you won't be doing those lessons until the summer. Begin"

Fred and George went first. After drinking the potion, they shivered slightly before turning into two (identical) red foxes. Harry and Hermione each leaned forward and patted them on the head before they turned back. The twins then went into the meditative trance for about five minutes and then came back, signalling that it was done.

Then it was Hermione's turn. She shivered slightly before turning into a beautiful wolf, with dark brown fur and a bushy tail. She had chocolate brown eyes. She too went into the trance before coming back out of it.

All eyes turned to Harry. He picked up his dose, raised it to everyone, then said "Cheers" and drank. He shivered before falling into thick grey fog. Animals started roaming past him, some stopped to sniff him, others didn't. The first to stop and lay down was a wolf. He was a beautiful, strong and powerful animal, with jet black fur and green eyes. A lightning bolt scar was just visible in a white patch of fur on his forehead. Harry stroked the wolf's fur for a minute before settling back to see if anything else stopped. A python stopped briefly, before slithering on. After a few minute it became obvious that only the wolf was going to stay. Harry then felt himself change. His muscles and bones started moving, his ears went up onto the top of his head, his tailbone popped as a tail grew out, his legs reversed direction, as he fell forward onto his front legs. When he opened his eyes, he saw the world in various shades of grey. Fred and George looked impressed, McGonagall looked quite proud but Hermione was looking very teary, and then she threw her arms round his furry neck and sobbed into his fur. Harry pulled back slightly and licked her face before he changed back.

Hermione was now laughing as she wiped her face clean. "Eww Harry, gross," she laughed. Harry smiled before falling easily into the trance and locating his wolf self. The wolf came and bit his arm lightly as he received an image of himself and Hermione as wolves. The two were lying in the sun together. What caught Harry's attention was the black furred, chocolate-eyed wolf cubs running around. One of the cubs came up to him. This cub was different from the rest; it had chocolate coloured fur and green eyes. The vision vanished and Harry returned to the classroom. He looked at his friends and at the teacher before getting up and walking around to stretch out his limbs.

After making plans to see Professor McGonagall, the twins, and Hermione at Sanctuary during the summer, they parted ways, McGonagall to grade exams, the twins to the Tower while Hermione and Harry went to the Den. Once inside, they faced each other nervously.

"Hermione," Harry whispered, "did you have a vision during the animagus session tonight?"

Hermione blushed as she answered softly "Yes, I saw our wolf forms with a litter of black furred brown eyed cubs and one brown furred, green eyed cub. What did it mean?"

Harry frowned before answering. "I'm not sure, but whatever it means, we don't have to worry about it at the moment, we're only first years after all. No matter what happens we'll always be friends even if that vision suggested us becoming more than that. We're only eleven, we have plenty of time to figure things out and we have exams tomorrow. Let's go to bed, and rest, and after Herbology and Potions tomorrow, we can think of names."

Hermione looked at him, shocked. "Names for the cubs?" she asked.

Harry looked shocked, and then he blushed. "No. Names for us; for our animal forms. If you want to name the cubs as well then by all means do so but I was thinking just us at the moment."

Hermione looked thoughtful, then said teasingly, "I wonder what would happen if two animagi mated while in animal form?"

Harry jumped, went extremely red and started stuttering. Hermione giggled before hugging him lightly and then both of then headed back to Gryffindor Tower, eager for the next day to be over.

After the potions exam the next afternoon, Harry was tired. He was very tired. So tired in fact that he didn't notice that his master had decided to pay him a surprise visit, and therefore walked right into her outside Gryffindor Tower.

"Padawan, are you all right?" he heard. He had to consciously engage his brain, but once he realised who was speaking to him he made an effort to wake up.

"Yes Master I'm fine, just a bit tired from exams. I have two more exams to go and then I'm finished." He looked around before adding in a low tone "I can take you to the Den once I drop off my books if that's OK?" Kiara looked at him with some concern before agreeing.

While the Jedi Master waited outside Gryffindor Tower, Hermione and the twins came up. The twins, having never met Kiara before, stopped while Hermione smiled and said hello. Kiara nodded and said hello back and the twins were just going to introduce themselves when Harry came back out the portrait hole. He looked at the group before leading the way to the Den.

Opening the entrance, which had been charmed by the twins, and also Harry and Hermione, with a special password (Demons Forever), they went inside where Harry promptly flopped onto the couch. Hermione joined him while Fred, George and Kiara eyed each other uncertainly for a few moments. Harry roused himself enough to make introductions.

"Fred, George, this is my master, Kiara Lyn. She's also my surrogate mother. Master, these two chaps are Fred and George Weasley, third year Gryffindors, pranksters to the bone and the other two members of the Demons. Gred, Forge, my master here is the founder of the original Demons. The Demons were the Marauders of the Jedi."

Fred and George now looked less uncomfortable and more eager to discuss pranks, now that they knew that the Jedi Master, while still an authority figure, loved pranks as much as they did. Kiara on the other hand was scanning Harry for any illness or injury that might explain his extreme tiredness.

"Master I'm fine, I just had a very stressful exam day, plus we all took the animagi potion last night and Hermione and I had the same vision but we don't know if it means what we think it means."

"And what was this vision?" Kiara asked. Upon learning what it was she smiled. "What do you two think it means?" she queried. The two students in question looked at her before they blushed and looked away.

"We think it means that we're going to get married and have several kids someday," they whispered, not entirely comfortable with the idea.

Kiara smiled. "I think so too, but you're only eleven and you don't have to be together if you each find someone else you're interested in. Just have it in the back of your mind as a possibility but don't dwell on it." she advised. Harry and Hermione looked much more comfortable now that it had been explained like that and Hermione reached over and began running her fingers down Harry's Padawan braid which by now was down to his shoulder. Kiara looked at her and smiled. She then looked at the state of Harry's braid and frowned. Getting up she pulled Hermione aside. "Do you want to rebraid it for him? I would but he might object to me doing it in front of you, whereas he would accept you doing it in front of me. Besides which he has apparently been chewing the end during exams so I need to trim the chewed bits." Hermione nodded and while Kiara got a small pair of scissors out of her boot, Hermione sat back down on the couch and took Harry's braid in her hands.

Harry had heard the whispered conversation and submitted to first having the end of his braid trimmed by his Master, and then he leaned against her while Hermione deftly unbraided and then rebraided the length of hair. Tying it off at the end she examined her work, satisfied. Fred and George had been silent throughout this process but now came to life, enquiring about names for their animal forms. When Kiara heard about the forms she laughed, and suggested Stealth and Cunning for the two foxes. The wolves she didn't have names for.

The four students looked at her, rather shocked, at which point she held her hands up in defeat. She then left after promising not to tell where the Den was (she looked at Harry and Hermione as she said the name), and went to talk to McGonagall about animagi lessons of her own while the four young Demons discussed names. About an hour or so later they had agreed on the names.

Fred was Rusty

George was Blaze

Hermione was Tawny and

Harry was Jet. (as in Jet-black)

Names decided they set up their notes and did some studying before heading down to dinner. Harry noticed that his master was seated at the Head table with the rest of the staff, right next to Quirrell. He looked at her and smiled when she nodded at him. Dinner passed peacefully and the four Demons were heading back to their Den when Harry collapsed with a small cry as his scar started burning fiercely.

Vision:

A shadowy figure was standing before a mirror, and was apparently talking to someone, though Harry couldn't see anyone else in the room. This continued for several minutes before the figure turned to face him. There was a high pitched laugh, and a flash of green light.

Harry awoke from the vision, feeling cold. He remembered having a similar vision when he was younger, although the only thing he could remember from that one was the same laugh and flash of light. He also remembered crawling into bed with his master for comfort from the nightmare, although he always woke up back in his own bed.

Flashback:

Five-year-old Harry sat up in bed, with a cry, hugging himself tightly. Getting out of bed he made his way to his master's room, opening the door quietly. Kiara sat up, worried that Harry might be sick.

"What is it, Harry?" she enquired gently.

Harry sniffled before replying softly "there was a bad man, he shot green light at me, it hurt," before dissolving in tears again. He felt himself be picked up, and settled down in his master's bed. Kiara wrapped her arms firmly around him, whispering that it was just a dream, that nothing bad was going to happen and that she would protect him. Harry sighed, and snuggled down, feeling safe and secure within Kiara's arms. Kiara on the other hand was worried. 'This nightmare must be a memory of that Halloween', she thought. 'He's so young; he shouldn't have to remember the night his parents died!' Looking down, she saw that Harry was now sound asleep. She gently wiped the remaining tears off his face, causing Harry to snuggle even tighter against her, before getting up and carrying him back to his own room. Harry didn't wake as she placed him back in his bed and covered him up. Pressing a kiss to his forehead, where his scar was, she turned his nightlight down to low and then left, turning in the doorway for one last look at him. Turning to go back to her bed she fervently hoped that there would be no more nightmares that night.

End Flashback.