Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

A Change of Identity

Chapter 26: Caught in the Act

Professor Potter stood at his classroom door as the class filed in. His hair was no longer flashing but had faded to a dull red with dabs of yellow here and there and the odd patch of its original black beginning to show through. In short, it looked a mess but he seemed perfectly relaxed as he told the students to settle down.

'Right,' he began once they were all seated. 'I am sure you are all aware that I had a little "mishap" this morning. You may be wondering why I did not repair the damage at once with a simple reversal rather than go around all day looking ridiculous. Well, it so happens that I was planning on teaching you lot about the endurance of different types of spells and magic. As you can see, although it took a relatively weak accident to cause my hair to go haywire the effect has lasted several hours. On the other hand, sometimes a spell which requires much more power behind it will not last nearly so long. Harry, would you oblige me by coming up to my desk please?'

Trying not to appear nervous, Harry left his seat and approached his father. He knew what was going to happen. His father was going to use him to demonstrate his point. Risking a glance at his face he saw that him smiling smugly before raising his wand. The next thing Harry knew his head was much closer to the ground than it had been and he seemed to be standing on all fours.

'Up you come.' His father lifted him and placed him on his desk. To Harry's great embarrassment there was a sudden chorus of 'Ahh, isn't he cute?' from the female population of the class and Dean Thomas shouted out,

'Makes a great puppy, doesn't he?'

That confused Harry. From what he could see of himself he could swear he was some sort of feline. He lifted his head to look at his father but the man's face was unreadable.

'Quieten down now class,' he said. 'You sit down and stay where you are, Harry. Now as you can see, I have performed a rather powerful spell on Harry. But as you shall see, the effects will end quite suddenly after about an hour. This is in sharp contrast to the gradually diminishing effects of…'

Professor Potter spent the lesson lecturing on the subject of spell endurance, quoting various examples and answering the many questions Hermione Granger seemed to come up with. Harry could see his classmates writing furiously in an effort to take down everything their teacher said. He realised he'd have a job remembering it all himself when it came to writing up his own notes and scowled. There was a burst of laughter from the class. Evidently a puppy scowling was quite amusing. At long last the lesson came to an end. Just before the bell rang Harry felt himself change back into a boy. The class gave a round of applause.

'Right, before you go, homework.' There was a collective groan. Professor Potter smiled and went on, 'Research two different spells with different lengths of endurance. Compare them and try and come up with reasons for the difference. No less than sixteen inches please. Miss Granger, would you bring your notes up here a minute please?'

Hermione looked confused but approached the teacher's desk. Professor Potter took her notes, tapped them with his wand and produced a duplicate set and handed the original back.

'Thank you,' he said, handing the copy to Harry. 'Class dismissed. Harry, stay for a moment please.'

Harry's father waited until the last student exited the room before locking the door and casting an imperturbable charm. Then Harry asked the question that had been plaguing him all lesson.

'Why did they think I was a puppy? I thought I was a cat of some kind.'

'A Scottish wildcat, I'd say' said his father calmly. 'I did in fact cast two spells on you. The second was an advanced type of illusory charm which affects neither the caster nor subject.'

'But what was the point?' asked Harry.

'If you think I'm going to answer that, think again. I've spent most of the day with a highly embarrassing hair colour. You have had a mere hour of looking like a puppy to your peers. The rest of your punishment is to be driven mad not knowing why I did what I did.'

'That's not fair. You could have just reversed what I did. It's not as if I meant it.'

Harry's father continued to look at him calmly.

'And you could at least have apologised rather than trying to escape punishment by running away. Any other teacher would have taken points or given you a detention. Think yourself lucky.'

He had a point but Harry was unwilling to concede defeat.

'Suppose I try to find out what you were doing?'

'You are of course free to do that if you can wish.'

The tone clearly implied, 'But I don't believe you can.' Harry decided that he'd do it if he possibly could and turned to go.

'Just a moment, Harry. Talking about detentions, you are still to serve one. I trust you are prepared to cooperate now?'

To be perfectly honest, Harry wasn't in the mood to agree, feeling that his father had been making a fool of him. But remembering Lupin's letter he nodded reluctantly.

'Good.' His father smiled. Seven o' clock tonight then. Off you go.'

Harry went, feeling rather confused by the turn of events. Although his father had technically "punished" Harry he hadn't really acted like a teacher. He'd acted more like, well, a father. It was almost as if he'd been pleased that Harry had caused some trouble that was relatively harmless and was consequently able to treat Harry in a much more familiar manner than previously. Likewise, Harry hadn't felt as awkward with his father as he normally did. Life seemed to be improving.

Or maybe not, he thought as he wearily stumbled through the Fat Lady's portrait late that night. His father had drilled him relentlessly for over four hours in both Charms and Transfiguration. Each time Harry failed to perform a spell adequately his father quizzed him on the theory of it, giving a brief lecture on it if Harry couldn't answer. By the time he was freed Harry was mentally exhausted though at least he knew that his new wand was indeed as good as his old one.

'Ahh, our little puppy dog looks tired.' 'Typical,' thought Harry hearing the Weasley twins' teasing. 'Everyone knows.' But he found he didn't really mind.

'You'd be tired too if you'd spent over four hours with a slave driver,' he said as he disappeared towards his dormitory, ignoring the laughter of those still in the common room.

Actually, as he realised the next day, the story of his father's revenge had remained strictly confined to the Gryffindors. Harry was reminded of something his father had told him, way back at the beginning of second year. Gryffindors stick together. It seemed that it was true and that Harry was now accepted as a true member of the house. That didn't stop him from spending a great deal of time on his own. He did after all have that little private project to get on with. He spent as much of his free time as he could in the library, trying to find out what spell his father could have cast on him that he wouldn't want the others to see the result of. Unfortunately he was none the wiser after nearly two weeks.

It was when he returned to the common room after yet another fruitless research session that he found Hermione Granger in tears and Ron Weasley looking none too happy either. Apparently Hagrid had failed to get a reprieve for his beloved hippogriff and Buckbeak was due to be executed that Saturday.

'Steal him.' Harry looked incredulously at Fred and George.

'It's not that ridiculous an idea,' said George. 'All we need to do is sneak out Friday night, fly Buckbeak up to the astronomy tower and some outsider can take him away to safety.'

'And who are you going to find that's willing and able to do that?' asked Ron.

'Ah well, that's the one minor problem we haven't managed to work out yet,' said Fred. It was clear that they'd spent some time trying to think of a solution.

'I know who might do it if you ask him,' said Harry slowly.

'Who?' This came from both the twins.

'Sirius Black.' Harry remembered when his godfather had been teaching at Hogwarts and Snape had been forever telling Harry how he and Potter had never kept any rules. Harry still didn't know Sirius too well but he knew he liked a bit of mischief. He also knew he didn't like injustice and Buckbeak certainly didn't deserve to die.

The result of this was that Fred and George stealthily stole Buckbeak and delivered him to the astronomy tower at midnight on Friday. Then Sirius Black took over and on Saturday morning Hagrid went out to give his pet a final breakfast to find him gone. Fred and George dragged Harry into an empty classroom.

'We think you deserve a reward for helping rescue a hippogriff in distress,' they told him. 'How about a trip to Hogsmeade?' Harry had known it was another Hogsmeade day but hadn't thought about it much since he couldn't go.

'Dumbledore banned me for this year,' he said.

'Well we know that,' said Fred.

'But with this little artefact and that wonderful cloak of you have, nothing is impossible. George produced an old piece of parchment with a flourish. The twins then proceeded to show Harry how it revealed itself as a map of Hogwarts by tapping it and reciting the words 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good.' Then they drew Harry's attention to a secret passage to Honeydukes which was concealed behind a statue of a one eyed humpbacked witch. It seemed too good an opportunity to waste and Harry decided to go.

He successfully managed to make his way to the sweet shop and made himself known to Fred and George who were only too pleased to make his purchases for him since Harry could hardly buy anything whilst wearing an invisibility cloak. The twins then led him to Zonko's, the joke shop, where Harry spent more of his money. Then Harry went off to explore on his own. He discovered a ruined shack away from other buildings which was boarded up. It seemed to be something of an attraction because Draco Malfoy was there with his friends Crabbe and Goyle. Harry couldn't resist it. He scooped up a handful of mud and flung it, hitting Malfoy squarely in the face. Malfoy screamed and turned and ran, crashing into Professor Potter who seemed to be patrolling the village. Harry heard him start to complain about being attacked by a ghost and decided it was time he went back to the school. He ran as fast as he could, sneaked into the cellar at Honeydukes and scrambled up the passageway as fast as he could manage, intending to get back to Gryffindor tower before anyone knew he'd left the school.

His plan failed. The moment he opened the door to exit the passageway, an arm reached in and dragged him out. The invisibility cloak was pulled off him and he was roughly manhandled along corridors and up and down stairs until he was pushed into Professor Potter's private quarters where, for the first time in his life, Harry was to face full blown parental fury at its very worst.