A/N: So I am guessing everyone has assumed I abandoned this! More like I allowed life to get in the way, lost time for fan fiction, forgot about this story, and only recently stumbled back. I am super sorry for anyone who was eagerly awaiting the next chapter that never seemed to come. I do plan on finishing this though, I put too much effort into it and want to see it through to the end. So here we go!
Chapter Twenty One
Once the two witches were both fed and watered, they moved into the lounge room to train. Hermione could feel butterflies in her stomach, from nerves of knowing she could potentially be a fully trained Animagus within a couple hours. As the Headmaster and Minerva would be taking her to the Ministry tomorrow to complete the guardianship papers, she wanted to sign the Animagus registry at the same time.
"Don't forget to breathe," Minerva said, taking a seat opposite Hermione, who stood in the middle of the floor. She inhaled, and then slowly breathed out to demonstrate, and Hermione mimicked the action several times. Hermione then closed her eyes to fully concentrate on the transformation, and Minerva used this moment to critically study the girl's form.
"You're too tense. Loosen your muscles, but draw your stomach muscles in. Remember, you're drawing on your magic from deep inside. Tap into all your strength to push forth your form," Minerva instructed. She received no reply; however the younger girl corrected her posture and attempted to do as she was instructed.
Although it was clear that Hermione was trying her hardest, the final transformation just wouldn't push through. Minerva patiently coached; spending around half an hour guiding her, before realising another tactic might help.
Slowly rising to her feet, Minerva got out of her chair and made her way over to Hermione. The younger witch had her eyes closed, and was therefore startled when Minerva placed a soft hand on her arm.
"God, Minerva," Hermione breathed, her heart racing in her chest. The touch had caught her completely off guard. "Don't scare me like that!"
"I'm sorry, I knew how hard you were concentrating, I should have spoken first," Minerva apologised. "But this isn't working too well, so I want to try something different. Do you mind?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, go ahead. Whatever I need to do to become an Animagus, I'll do."
Minerva removed her hand from Hermione's arm, however brought it down to rest gently on Hermione's abdomen. She pressed lightly, noting the taut muscles beneath her palm.
"Can you feel your abdominal muscles here? At the pit of your belly?" Minerva asked, feeling the muscles twitch slightly. Hermione nodded, and she continued. "Okay. I want you to picture that just here, where my hand is, is where your magic is stored. You need to use all of your inner strength to draw that magic right out."
Minerva's hand was warm on her stomach, and Hermione used this comforting sensation to steady herself. She closed her eyes again, hoping to rely only on her mind, and the touch on her stomach. Slowly drawing in a deep breath, she imagined the warmth of her abdomen to be her magical core, and attempted to draw from it. She pictured her magic to be a seed, slowly pushing its way up and growing stronger, until it was all through her.
Suddenly, without warning, Hermione disappeared, to be replaced by her cat Animagus form. The cat stood, somewhat startled, and looked up at Minerva with bright round eyes. Minerva grinned, and scooped the cat up. She scratched behind her ears, chuckling when Hermione started to purr, then set her back down.
"Okay Hermione, can you change back for me?" Minerva asked, stepping back a little to provide her student with enough room to transform back.
The kitten closed its eyes, as if in deep concentration, and suddenly morphed back into a shocked sixteen year old girl.
"Did I just do it?" Hermione asked disbelievingly. Her eyes were wide and unsure as she looked at Minerva, however there were slight flickers of excitement in their depths.
Minerva grinned. "Yes, you did it sweetheart. You have just completed your training – you are now an Animagus!" She moved forward and pulled Hermione into a big hug, more proud of her protégé than ever.
Hermione was speechless; it took her a moment to allow Minerva's words to sink in. She had achieved her goal! She could now transform at will into a feline – all the hard work and effort she had put into her training had finally paid off. All that training, finished – the thought made her feel a little overwhelmed. Unbeknown to Hermione, she had started to sway a little, and Minerva did not hesitate to step forward and gently pull her to the couch to sit.
"It's a big thing you've just accomplished. Take a moment, take a few breaths," the professor instructed gently as she studied the young woman's face. She could practically see the mind ticking over, processing the transformation.
"Why does it take so much effort to transform?" Hermione asked after a moment. "It only takes you a blink of an eye and you're suddenly a cat. How much practice does it take to become that smooth at transforming?"
Minerva smiled. "Why don't you transform again and see?"
Hermione knitted her brow slightly, but compiled. Within seconds, a furry brown kitten was perched daintily on the sofa. Minerva couldn't help but take note that the fluffy fur had a slight resemblance to Hermione's naturally bushy hair. She chuckled softly as the kitten ambled over to her and bumped her head against Minerva's hand, clearly indicating that she wanted to be petted. Minerva compiled and gave her a scratch behind the ear, knowing from personal experience how relaxing that was to a cat.
Hermione gracefully leapt down to the floor, and then popped back into her human form. "I understand now, that was much easier! It was almost like the cat is just a glamour or something, it hardly took any effort to change!"
"It's always effort to master the final transformation. Once you manage that, transforming just comes naturally, and you managed that brilliantly. Well done, Hermione!"
"Mrow?" came a third voice, and the two women glanced to the entry way of the lounge room to see Crookshanks meandering into the room. He sniffed the air, and eyed the two women warily.
"He can smell that the feline you were just in the room, I think it's confused him," Minerva explained with a smile. She called out to Crookshanks, who surprisingly compiled and padded across the room to her. Hermione bent down to pet him, and then changed to her cat form with a short pop.
'Ah, so you did it,' Crookshanks said to her, although to her surprise it was as if she heard his words in her mind. 'As long as this means you're not going to start hogging all the cat toys. But I might share with you that the window in the library allows for an excellent sun patch to relax in during the afternoons.'
Hermione was delighted that she was able to communicate with her cat. 'Thanks, Crookshanks, you old softie,' she replied to him, butting her head against his. She then popped back to her human form, and pulled him into her lap as she took a seat on the sofa. The ginger cat began to purr as she stroked his fur gently.
"See what I mean now, about communicating with him?" Minerva asked. Hermione grinned as she nodded in response.
"Alright, well I'd say this moment calls for a celebration! You have, after all, just achieved a monumental achievement in magic before you've even started your sixth year," Minerva said with a smile. She disappeared into the kitchen, and returned a moment later with a bottle of wine and two glasses.
"Now, I know you are several months underage, and I'm technically not your guardian for another day," she said as she poured wine into the glasses, "but I figure it's a special occasion, and there's no harm in only one glass. Besides, what Albus doesn't know can't hurt him, right?" She winked as she handed a glass to the younger witch. "Cheers, Hermione. Here's to a wonderful achievement, and a future magical career with many more successes!"
The two witches toasted, and Hermione took a slow sip of her wine. She had tried wine before, at one of the many parties her parents had thrown, despite that the muggle drinking age was eighteen. Ron would be proud of her for that!
Crookshanks, whom was still in her lap, reached a paw out to tap against the side of the wine glass. Hermione chuckled, and stroked him with her spare hand. "Sorry mister, alcohol isn't for cats. I don't think you would like this!"
"If that's what you think, then I'm assuming you didn't know that Sirius would occasionally leave out a bowl of milk for Crookshanks, and spike it with a little whiskey. I might have fallen for that once last summer, whilst I was in and out of Grimmauld Place with Order business all the time," the professor replied, a soft smile gracing her lips as she remembered her student. "Never an amount to harm a cat, mind you, but just a little to taste. Crookshanks does enjoy that, to be honest."
Hermione raised her eyebrows at this piece of new information, and grinned. "That sounds like something Sirius would do."
Minerva began sharing stories about Sirius from his school days, and Hermione listened with great attention. She was constantly torn at being appalled by some of the tricks the man had gotten up to with James, and being impressed with how clever and well thought out some ideas were.
The two women talked for a good hour, before noting the time. They moved to the kitchen to prepare dinner together, chatting and laughing, and retired to the library after their meal. Minerva wanted a quiet evening, considering they were going to be spending the next day at the Ministry, so she spent a few hours getting some correspondence written that she had been neglecting, whilst Hermione made good use of the variety of texts Minerva had to offer in her library.
The following morning, Hermione awoke in her bed just shy of five. She was well aware that it was far too early to get up, as they wouldn't be leaving for the Ministry for several more hours at the earliest, yet she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep anymore. Today was the day that she was going to not only register to be an Animagus, but also have Minerva register to become her new legal guardian. It was a lot for her mind, and nerves, to take.
Excitement, however, was the foremost emotion she was experiencing. Whilst not necessarily looking forward to being at the Ministry, she was looking forward to getting the registry signed, and the guardian papers taken care of. The latter, particularly, was something that meant a lot to her. Whilst the need to have a guardian at first seemed pointless, considering she would be of age in just a few months, she was still a student for another two years. She knew enough to know she couldn't support herself until graduation, and she would be eternally grateful to Minerva for being willing to do this.
Despite the early hour, Hermione got out of bed, showered, and dressed. She walked out into the hallway, paused, and then changed into her cat form. She bounded down the staircase, raced into the kitchen, and gracefully leapt up onto one of the stools at the counter as she changed back to her human form.
"Oh, that was fun," she grinned to herself, taking a moment to catch her breath. "Think I definitely will be getting to know my feline form a fair bit this summer!"
She began to prepare some coffee, and was just trying to decide what would be a good option for breakfast when Minerva entered the room, dressed in a robe and yawning.
"Good morning, Hermione. I thought you'd be up already," she greeted the younger witch, as she pulled another mug down and sat it next to Hermione's mug by the coffee maker.
"Good morning, Minerva. I couldn't sleep in, so I thought I might as well make an early start on the day," Hermione replied. She poured coffee into both cups, added sugar and milk, and brought them over to the table. Minerva joined her, and there was a few moments of peace as the two witches sipped their coffee.
"Well, since we're both up early, how about we head out early, and go into London before the Ministry?" Minerva asked. "Perhaps we could have breakfast in one of the muggle café's, near Diagon Alley. I do have a quick errand or two to run in the Alley, and then we could floo to the Ministry via the Leaky Cauldron. How does that sound?"
"Oh, that would be wonderful!" Hermione replied delightedly.
"Good. We will also be meeting Albus at nine at the Leaky Cauldron; he will be escorting us to the Ministry. You might remember him saying so the other day. It's not the most trustworthy place to be these days, particularly for ourselves."
"Why so?" Hermione asked curiously.
Minerva sighed. "You being the best friend of Harry Potter, as well as one of the students who was nearly killed by You-Know-Who, means that…how should I phrase this…of interest, to the Death Eaters. It's not exactly a secret that you're the brains of the Golden Trio. Not to mention that I was almost killed by a Ministry employee, they'd not be too fond of me after that bungle. Albus feels it's in our best interests for him to come along, and I trust his judgement so I'm not going to complain," she explained. Hermione nodded, and they finished their coffee in companionable silence.
"It's nearly six now," Minerva said as she arose to place her empty cup in the sink. "I still need to get showered and ready, how about we aim to leave at seven? I dare say you can find some books in the library to keep you occupied until then," she added with a wink.
Hermione smiled, and nodded. As her professor left the room, Hermione gave the cups a rinse out, left them on the draining rack to dry and made her way to the library.
Feeling much more rejuvenated after a hot shower, Minerva got dressed into a nice pair of muggle trousers and light blouse. She also shrunk one of her robes and placed it into her handbag, as she wasn't particularly willing to go to the Ministry in muggle attire.
Making her way downstairs, she called out to Hermione.
"Ready to go?" Minerva asked as the younger witch entered the hall.
"Uh, I am, but you're not," Hermione replied as she eyed her professor. "I don't see your walking stick anywhere?"
Minerva frowned, and was about to protest, however remembered the promise she had made to the girl several days before, about taking the walking stick when she left the house. Sighing, she decided to not bother argue, and simply summoned it from her bedroom. It came flying down the staircase, and she caught it deftly.
"Happy now?" she asked sarcastically, although with a small smile to show she wasn't upset.
"Extremely," Hermione replied with a grin. "Now, how are we getting to muggle London?"
"By floo, to Leaky, and then we can head out from there. It's the easiest way, particularly as I know how apparition isn't your most favourite method of magical transport."
The two witches headed into the living room, and with a quick flick of Minerva's wand, a fire was blazing merrily. Taking the pot of green powder from the mantle, she offered it first to the younger witch, who was soon gone in a flash of flame. Minerva tossed her own pinch into the fire, and quickly followed Hermione.
Yes, not quite over yet – one final chapter to come, I think, and possibly an epilogue. I hope you all liked this chapter, only two and a half years late.