I own nothing. Except all three Lord of the Rings movies on DVD. Harry Potter belongs to JKR, WB, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Raincoast etc.
Guide: Narrative
"Dialogue"
'written'
Thoughts
S Parceltongue s
W wolf's thoughts W
………………….
Chapter 13 Harry's Birthday
Harry woke up the next morning stiff. He had fallen asleep sitting at his desk watching James. The baby in question was just starting to stir. James lifted his head and gave Harry a sloppy smile.
Guess he isn't holding last night against me. Wonder if he can even remember what happened.
Harry picked up his son and cuddled him to his chest. He felt that every squeeze was an apology. He knew he was probably blowing it out of proportion but he felt really guilty for making the baby cry himself to sleep.
"Hey James, it's Daddy's birthday today. Not that it means that much but I don't turn sixteen everyday. Probably won't get any presents or cards since owls can't get in here. Doesn't really matter, I know my friends are thinking about me and that's what really counts." Harry continued to talk to his son for a while. He even told the story of Hagrid giving him his Hogwarts letter and giving Dudley a pig tale.
Once James went down for a nap, Harry left the trunk to set up for the Ut Eximo ritual to unbind his powers. He brewed a quick and easy potion in the sixth compartment of his trunk. The potion was required to release the binding. Harry got nervous when he noticed the pain dulling components of the brew, such as distilled willow bark.
Harry also drew a large diagram on the stone floor of the chamber of secrets. He had to use a point me spell to find north and then draw two triangles in the shape of an hourglass, north and south. Once the triangles were completed, he put vials, each containing 10 drops of his own blood, inside the triangles, before standing at the point where they met. He drank the potion and felt it burn its way down his throat. Once he felt the warmth of it spreading to his whole body, he chanted, three times, "absentis vir in north , solvo tutela. absentis mulier in meridianus , solvo redimio."
Harry fell to his knees as a wave of pain came upon him. It felt like every artery in his body was being forced to expand very quickly. He gasped for ten seconds before the potion took the feeling down to a dull ache. It didn't compare to the Cruciatus curse but it certainly was unpleasant. Harry just knelt there for several minutes until the pain completely went away. It was replaced by a different feeling. It tingled under his skin. It was almost itchy, but it felt complete, like he was somehow more whole than he had been before. It was a great feeling.
Harry decided to test his power out. He pulled his wand and cast wingardium leviosa on a rock. It zoomed up and hit the ceiling.
I guess that was too much power. I'm going to have to practice pulling it back.
Harry then spent an hour learning how to control just the levitating charm. The biggest problem was just figuring out how to pull back. He managed every other first year spell within the hour after that. He was just starting on second year Transfiguration when James woke up.
A few hours later, Harry was setting up for his second ritual of the day. This one would increase his reading and comprehension. Harry thought this would compliment the Mind Arts ability that had been listed on his fateor.
This ritual called for a circle to be drawn and a half a litre of his own blood to be used as a sacrifice. The magic in this kind of ritual required a price. Since blood was the source of life, it was ideal. In the unbinding ritual the blood had been a stand in for his parents, since they almost certainly the ones to do the binding. Any blood relative of theirs would have worked but since they didn't have any magical relatives other than Harry, blood had to be used.
The reading ritual did not cause Harry any pain, but it did alter his perception. To test the effectiveness of this spell he read every book he had on rituals in under an hour. He was pretty much limited by the speed he could turn the pages and he could quote the books verbatim.
Harry was slightly embarrassed when he realized both the rituals he had done were considered dark magic by the Ministry. They classified anything involving blood as dark. Harry didn't really agree with this definition. No one was hurt by his rituals. He would have called a spell that required an animal sacrifice dark but something involving consensual bleeding, not. There were also rituals that required a human sacrifice and Harry definitely disagreed with those.
Harry sat down to supper with this debate running through his head. He realized that he couldn't rely on any one or group to tell him what was right and wrong. He needed to decide for himself in any given situation. He had to come up with a baseline though. He did think that he was wrong to have attempted to cast the Cruciatus curse on Bellatrix Lestrange after Sirius had died. If he had been doing it to prevent someone on his side from being hurt, it might have been acceptable but he had acted out of revenge and that didn't excuse it. A better thing would have been to try to cast a cutting spell on her wand arm so that she wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else magically ever again.
Harry was distracted all evening by these thoughts. He did remember to thank Dobby for the small birthday cake the elf had brought. Harry wished his friends were here to share it with him but, for now, he had to chose being with his friends or his son and the baby won the contest hands down.
Harry spent his evening reading. He was paging through his Transfiguration texts when he saw a reference to Animagi and remembered Sirius's note. He got it out and activated it.
'Mister Padfoot presents the Marauder's guide to becoming an animagus.
Have you completed the Ut Eximo ritual?'
Harry, with his wand on the parchment said, "Yes."
'Have you researched your forms?'
"I completely did the wolf but I am not ready for the other two yet."
'The wolf will be the easiest, as it came first on your abilities list. You should do them one a time. The next step is to go into a trance and meet your animal. You will see all three but focus on the wolf and ignore the others for now. The key to the trance is to focus on your magical core. The animals are attached to it. Return to this parchment when you have finished.'
So Harry took the parchment and moved into the sixth compartment of his trunk. He wasn't entirely sure what would happen and he wanted as much protection as possible. The entire room was warded against magical and physical damage and was completely separate from the nursery.
Harry sat in the middle of the room and closed his eyes. He searched himself for his magical core. Because of the unbinding ritual, he had felt it that morning. He knew it was in his chest between his heart and spine, at least that is where the swelling had spread from that morning. He found a big elongated mass of light. It was swirling colors of mostly yellow with swirls of red and green mixed in. He focused on it and was suddenly thrown into a dream.
He sat in the middle of a big field of grass. The sky was clear and open. He could see a bird circling and diving above him. He looked around. There was a raccoon darting around, trying to hide in the grass. But closer by there was a big black wolf pacing. He followed Padfoot's advice and focused on it. As his attention grew, the wolf came closer. It was menacing as it stalked smoothly. Harry wasn't worried about it hurting him, since he knew it was a part of himself. Harry saw its markings; it was solid black except for its green eyes and a white lightning bolt on its muzzle. It seemed he couldn't get away from his scar even as an animal. Harry studied how it moved and its mannerisms. It eventually came to a stop directly in from of him and sat to look him directly in the eyes. Harry instinctively knew what to do.
He cast Legilimens on the wolf. He got flashes of its thoughts. The wolf seemed to focus on those around him as 'pack' or 'enemies.' He had very strong thoughts of James as 'pup.' The wolf himself didn't really have any sense of right and wrong. He lived for his pack. If it helped the pack, it was what should be done.
Once Harry understood the wolf, he ended the spell. The wolf laid down and licked Harry's hand. Harry left the dream and returned to his body. He checked his watch. About 20 minutes had passed, but it had seemed like a lot longer.
Harry returned to Padfoot's guide and told it that he had met the wolf.
'Can you picture him clearly in your head? And are you positive that you will be able to force your will over his mind? This is where the biggest danger in Animagus transformation is. You have to be able to overpower the animal in order to return to being a human.'
"I am sure I can control the wolf."
'Then stand up and wandlessly and silently cast Abeo. This will take a lot of willpower. You will have to focus intently.'
Harry stood, set the parchment out of the way and focused his magic and mind into the spell and thought Abeo. At once his body started changing. His arms and legs shortened while his torso lengthened. His hipbone changed so that he was forced onto all fours. His body grew a coat of back fur. Once everything stopped moving Harry took a breath. It was then he realized that he wasn't in control of his body. The wolf had made him start pacing. It definitely did not like being in a confined area and was getting more agitated by the minute.
Harry spent a couple of minutes forcefully trying to take control of the wolf's body. It was unsuccessful. He then realized where his strength over the wolf was. The mind.
It will be better for our pack if I control our body.
W Pack? W
Yes, and I need to be in control to take care of our pup.
W Our pup?W
Yes. Will you agree to let me be in control of our body from now on so that I can take care of our pack and our pup.
The wolf didn't think anything to Harry for a minute. Then it thought to him, W Yes, you take care of our pack and pup. I will watch. W.
With that the wolf let go of control of the animal body. Harry took over. He made sure that he was comfortably able to move the wolf around before casting Abeo again to return to his human form.
Harry stood up and took a deep breath. He had nearly panicked when he couldn't control the wolf. Harry returned to Sirius's guide and told it that he had completed the transformation into the wolf.
'Congratulations. You will need to come up with a Marauder name for each of you forms once you have become them. Return here when you are ready to become the next animal.'
Harry shut down the map and returned to the nursery. The biggest shock of the night was when Harry looked at James, he heard a voice in the back of his head.
W Pup. W
…………………….
A/N
Translation absentis vir in north , solvo tutela, absentis mulier in meridianus , solvo redimio: means missing man in the north, release protection, missing woman in the south, release binding
Abeo: change
Randomness: the potion I mentioned would have the effects I wrote: Willow bark contains Salicylic Acid, which is the active metabolite of Aspirin. It would also burn like crazy, since it is a fairly strong acid. Trivia: Aspirin was synthesized because the natural willow bark tea burned a hole in the esophagus if drunk regularly.
Okay I need Marauder names for Harry's forms. I have an idea for the wolf but no clue for the others. If I hear something I like better for the wolf I will use it. So this is the challenge: Suggest Marauder names for a wolf, a red kite, and a raccoon. If I use the name you suggest I will credit you at the start of the chapter that it first appears in.
Random Fic Rec: Harry Potter and the Dimensional Trunk by Ophiucus is in my top 5 all time fics. Great 6th year story. You can probably see a lot of influences from it on this story.
Tally: 24000 words, 13 chapters, 90 reviews, 12134 hits, 8 c2s, 31 favs, 82 alerts
May you live as long as you want,
And never want as long as you live.
Apothecary in Training