A/N: Wow, I managed to finish this chapter and publish from the middle of a rainforest. As I type this, I can see lightening, a bat, the tip of an active volcano, and twenty five bites on my leg. Thank you Face of Boe's Child (who says she wants a new name) for beta-ing this. Please review. It would be really cool to get back to real internet in two weeks and find like...30 new reviews. I think I'd cry. Happily.
Enjoy!
After a half hour of watching Harry's bird-glare intensify as he tried to turn himself back into a human, Minerva swatted out at him with one of her paws in frustration. Once she got his attention she nodded her head in the direction of the castle. She was right. Maybe they could find what they'd overlooked in the books.
Harry nodded in resignation and cast an eye over the provisions they'd brought. There was no way he wanted to carry all of the stuff back to the castle. Instead, he fished around in his pile of discarded clothes to find his auror bag. He gripped that in one clawed foot, and picked up his wand in the other before taking off. Minerva grabbed her wand with her mouth, careful not to scratch the polished wood with her sharp teeth. They set off, leaving the blanket and most of the supplies. Minerva bounded along the cluttered forest floor nimbly, and Harry flew low over the ground, careful not to run into branches as he slowed his pace to match Minerva's. Soon, the trees became less dense and dark, though the sun had set almost an hour before.
They reached the lawns and bounded up to the castle. Their first problem was that the front doors were shut. Minerva growled in frustration and pushed herself against the door, but it wouldn't budge. Harry did some tricky flying and positioned himself with his back against the door and then beat his massive wings.
Suddenly the door gave way and Harry shot backwards into the entry hall.
"I'll just nip out to the...er... carriage to pick up the rest of the instruments. You can start setting up the—"
The man was cut off as Harry's bag hit him in the face. Minerva scampered around the man's legs into the entry hall. Harry realized what had happened before the man did and quickly flew to the top of the staircase, out of reach of any curses that might come his way. None did, though.
"What the hell was that?" asked a young man-no more than fifteen years old- carrying what looked like a muggle musical amplifier. Harry assumed that the amps must be magical to work inside Hogwarts.
"It looked like some sort of bird carrying a bag," said the man Harry'd knocked with his bag, who only looked a little older than the other.
"That was one big bird," said the first man, shaking his bowl-shaped hair out of his eyes. "Did you see where it went? It shouldn't be flying around in here-or maybe it should. I'm starting to think there's something a little odd about this place."
"Yeah, I'm sure they have people for that. You should tell that McGonagall woman if she ever shows up, though."The man grinned.
"You still haven't seen her? She was supposed to be in charge today, right? That bloke Dumbledore's not back?"
"Yessir, captain, sir. Some woman named McGonagall was supposed to be in charge. I'd be complaining-but, ho, ho, look at this place! And what they're paying us? For a school gig? I wonder how come I've never heard of this school. Can you believe this? This could be our discovery!" The man cackled gleefully. "There we are, playing in a liverpool pub, some wiggy old man asks us about our band, and the next thing you know it..." he clicked his fingers "we're here! In...god knows where playing for a real gig! And in a castle! Ho, ho! I can feel it. There's something magical about today, old boy."
The two musicians were talking like muggles, completely unaware of their surroundings.
"Did you see that room yet? The one where we're preforming? That's some light show!"
"Yeah, I saw it. Did you show George?"
Harry groaned (which, out of his beak, sounded more like a balloon deflating). He and Minerva were stuck as animals, and at least three random muggle musicians were wandering around the ground floor and grounds unsupervised. Harry wondered what possible reason Dumbledore could have had to commission a muggle band for the Halloween party. Perhaps the statute of secrecy hadn't been implemented yet...? Had he just picked up some random group he'd heard while traveling? Liverpool? What sort of dragon-blood conventions were in Liverpool?
Pamona Sprout appeared at the doors to the Great Hall and the younger man with the amps turned to her. "Where would I find an electrical plug for these?" he asked her.
"An electrical plug?" asked Pamona. She smiled. "I'm afraid we don't have any. Can you manage without them?"
"If you want a very quiet concert," stage whispered the older boy before disappearing out the front doors, grinning.
"Oh, I can fix that," said Pamona. "Just put all of your things in there by the stage. What did you say your band was called, again?" she said.
Harry turned to look at Minerva in exasperation, but she was gone, bounding down the corridor towards the next staircase. Harry took off and followed her, catching up when they reached the third floor. Minerva kept running. She tore up the next few flights of stairs, and before Harry knew it, they were beneath his own chambers. Minerva looked pointedly up at the trapdoor.
Harry prayed that he'd left it unlocked. He rocketed himself upwards and slammed into the door. To his immense relief, the door swung up and open, and Harry flew into his room. After a lap around it, he dove back down through the trapdoor and landed next to Minerva. He gestured up with his head. She shook her head no. He waved one of his talons at her, offering to carry her up. She shook her head more vigorously. Harry squawked indignantly and flew back up through the door. He looked around and his eyes landed on a particularly thick scarf laying on his bed. That gave him an idea. He grabbed the scarf, and flew back down to Minerva.
Once there, he gripped and un-gripped the scarf pointedly, showing her that she could grab onto the scarf and let him pull her up. She growled at him, but hesitantly sunk her claws into the scarf anyway. She nodded when she was ready.
Harry took off, slowly lifting Minerva off the ground. Minerva, for her part, seemed to be doing all she could not to make undignified noises. Finally, they made it through the trapdoor (after a few tries, because Harry had more difficulty fitting his two-meter wingspan through the door whilst going slowly). Harry deposited the scarf and Minerva carefully on the ground, and Minerva de-tangled herself.
Harry hopped over to the bookshelf and, with difficulty, pulled out the how-to guide for anamagi. Minerva joined him, and together they managed to get it open with their claws. They flipped to the table of contents, and found the section about "Changing Back" on page 689. They hurriedly flipped to it, tearing more than one page with their claws as they went.
The truth was that Harry hadn't read this chapter yet. He'd expected to have to wait several months before attempting to actually change into the forms, let alone changing back. He felt like an idiot, and a little miffed that he wasn't quite as magically omniscient as he thought he was. But really, who would have thought that changing back would be the hard part?
The two animals started skimming the chapter. It was really very straightforward.
"As mentioned in the previous chapter, entitled 'Changing Into Animal Form,' once a witch or wizard has changed a part of their body to the animal and back, they will never forget how to do it. The process of learning to change back into a human is connected to the process of learning to change into the animal, and the two cannot be learned separately. To change into animal form, the prospective animagus must have completed the Animal Trance and have first-hand knowledge of what it feels like to occupy their animal of choice. To transform back, the animagus needs to have the knowledge of what it feels like to be human. Because animals do not have the emotions or cognitive abilities of humans, they cannot simulate the sensation of being human. This means that an animagus in complete animal form will not be able to summon the sensations of humanity and change back. This problem can be easily circumnavigated, however, by the process described in the previous chapter. To reiterate, the prospective animagus should transform pieces of them self at a time. In this way, he or she might learn what it feels like to transform and un-transform each part of his or her body (which he or she will not forget) without the risk of getting stuck in the animal form, unable to remember the sensations of humanity. The head, of course, should be the last to transform. The heart and the head should not be transformed at the same time on the first try..."
Harry groaned, which, again, sounded like a balloon deflating. How could he have been so stupid? He couldn't use his powers because animals didn't use magic. Transforming back would have nothing to do with his powers. Minerva growled at him. Harry felt that her blame was unjust; she was the one who'd wanted to transform early.
He looked back down at the book. On the next page, there was a note.
"In the case of unintentional premature entire transformations, the animagus should visit a healer (though very few healers know how to solve this problem), seek assistance from a powerful witch or wizard acquainted with the aura arts, or read up on his or her animal's preferred diet and migratory habits."
Harry tried to swear, but squawked instead. Minerva's growl grew louder and she rounded on Harry who looked back at her apologetically. It made all of the sense in the world that he, Harry, was the only person Harry knew to be acquainted with the "aura arts."
He jabbed a talon at the first option: find a healer. Minerva shrugged and trotted off. She came back a moment later with a large roll of parchment and a quill in her mouth. She left and came back again with a pot of ink. Harry, meanwhile, unrolled the parchment and put things on it to lay it flat.
When Minerva came back, she tried dipping the quill into the ink with her mouth, and bringing it to the paper. She drew long lines along the paper that, unfortunately, had very little resemblance to the letters she was trying to make. Next, she tried pinning the quill between her two front paws while sitting on her haunches. After two strokes, the quill slid out of her grasp and she toppled over, her right paw landing in the pot of ink. She made to wipe off the ink on the parchment, but her claws had extended in her frustration, and, instead of a paw print, she drew a neat line from the claw on her first toe.
Harry crooned in appreciation, and Minerva meowed in surprise. She poised herself over the paper, and, after a look at Harry, tried writing with her claw. The progress was painfully slow.
"Minerva"
Harry rolled his eyes, but had to admit that it was legible.
Minerva moved a bit down the paper and started a new line.
"Dear Healer," she wrote.
It was going to take a long time. In the mean time, Harry flipped back and forth through the book, trying to find any clues that would help him get back to his human form, but found none. He took to hopping from one piece of furniture to another until Minerva turned and hissed at him. Then he settled himself on Fawkes's perch and looked out the window at the darkening night.
Finally, after what must have been at least an hour, Minerva meowed at him from the floor. The letter was done. Harry swooped down from the perch and read the letter. The words were neither neat nor consistent. They rather resembled the work of a seven-year-old, but were legible enough and correctly spelled.
Dear Healer,
My friend Harry Crockett (the bird who delivered this) and I have accidentally completed our animagus transformations the first time we tried. We have found ourselves stuck because we did not do the transformation piece by piece the first time. According to our reference books, we should consult a healer or someone acquainted with the aura arts to try to change back. I am still at Hogwarts, as I am lacking transportation to your premises, but both of us would appreciate any assistance you may offer.
Thank you.
-Minerva McGonagall (Tabby Cat)
Harry could see why it would have taken an hour to write. He could also see that it had taken Minerva a lot of word-smithing not to sound desperate and hopeless.
Together they ripped off the soiled pieces of parchment on the top of the scroll and the unused parchment on the bottom, and rolled up the letter. Harry grasped it in his talons and was almost to the window when Minerva meowed loudly again. Harry turned back around to see Minerva writing something on the parchment. He landed, careful not to squash the letter. He read what Minerva was writing.
"Please don't leave."
Harry looked at her questioningly. She hesitated.
"It's dark."
Harry wasn't sure what she meant by that. Minerva hesitated for a minute, and started writing again.
"I don't want you to get lost," she wrote.
He frowned, confused, but realized that it was probably a better idea to wait until morning. He'd just...thought Minerva would want to get changed back as soon as possible. He shrugged and flew back up to the perch.
Something caught his eye, shining on one of his shelves and he flew over to it. It was the watch he'd found in the vault-the future Albus's pocket watch. He flew over to it, grabbed it by its chain, and landed on his bed with it. After some fiddling, he opened it. To his dismay, he could not understand what the hands and planets around the edges meant. He'd been able to understand it as a human but...
He wondered what time it was. He flew down to Minerva and tapped the watch. She understood. He flew towards the trapdoor and Minerva followed him. She stopped and latched herself onto the scarf as she had before. Harry grasped the scarf in one clawed foot, and had the watch still dangling in the other as he lowered Minerva to the ground below the tower room. They left the scarf under his trapdoor and took off back towards the stairs.
Students flooded the halls, dressed up in their Halloween attire. Harry and Minerva's progress downstairs was slowed, and they reached the grand marble staircase as the last of the students were funneling down. As they reached the top of the stairs, however, they realized that they needn't have gone all the way down at all. The great clock began to chime...one...two...Minerva stopped and put her paws over her ears because the chimes were so loud. Harry perched beside her at the top of the stairs. Three...four...Harry gazed down the marble staircase into the Entry Hall as the last students in costume walked by them down the stairs and into the Great Hall. No one noticed Harry and Minerva-or nobody bothered them, anyway. The clock chimed five...six...The crowd of students was thinning. The last few scampered into the through the doors and the Entrance Hall was quiet except for the sound of the clock striking seven...and finally eight.
The front doors to the castle boomed open.
A man strode through the doors. His robes and cape swished behind him, blood-red with swirls of what looked like gold leaf. His long auburn hair was streaked with the same shining gold, and the mask he wore was plumed with red and gold feathers.
The doors swung shut behind him, and he swept across towards the Great Hall. Half way there, when he was in the middle of the Entry Hall, right beneath the marble staircase, he stopped. He turned and looked up the stairs. His stoic, masked gaze landed on Harry. He looked to Minerva and back to Harry again. He paused for a moment, eying the two animals, then he turned back towards the Great Hall and continued on his way into the party.
Harry and Minerva sat stock still for a beat after Albus disappeared. Then they looked at each other and bolted down the stairs after him. Harry shot through the doors right before they slammed shut, but Minerva was locked out. Harry didn't want to draw attention to himself by trying to open the doors, so he continued his flight into the room.
The atmosphere in the Great Hall was completely different than the Entrance Hall, and completely different from its normal state. As Harry'd expected, the large house tables and the faculty table were missing. In the place of the faculty table was a stage on which a band was set up. Harry recognized two of the four musicians from earlier; their guitars were facing in opposite directions, and they were sharing a microphone. Another man was playing guitar, and the fourth was on drums. All four were gazing around in awe at the Great Hall, which was extra spectacular that night even to wizards. Besides the usual live bats and floating jack-o-lanterns, there was a sizable dance floor in front of the stage, and around the edge of the stage were an assortment of walking skeletons serving drinks.
The room was fairly dark and crowded with people, so Harry had trouble spotting Albus right away. Some students had large and unwieldy costumes (Harry thought he saw someone dressed up like the Fat Lady, frame and all), and others were taking the opportunity to dress as scantily as possible.
The whole room was packed, including the dance floor. Harry had trouble flying because of all of the jack-o-lanterns, so he landed on a bracket for a torch along the wall farthest from the door. From there, he surveyed the room. Albus seemed to have vanished. How hard could it be to spot someone wearing red and gold...? He thought about going back up to his room to get the letter to show Albus. He had the feeling that flapping his wings in Albus's face wasn't going to get him anywhere. He took off and flew low across the room back to the door, but the door was shut. He'd have to wait until someone came or went. He perched on a torch bracket near the door and continued his surveillance of the room.
His double take was so violent when he finally caught sight of Albus that he almost fell off his perch. He didn't know how he hadn't spotted him before, but Albus was standing just to the right of the bracket Harry was on. The gold on his robes and feathers, and in his hair glittered even though there was no direct light on him.
Harry suddenly felt very foolish. There he was, stuck as a bird, unable to do magic, and it was all his fault. On top of that, he hadn't gotten a very good start on fixing the crisis either. He hadn't even remembered that Albus was "acquainted with the aura arts." And there was Albus, looking like the proudest and most glorious of phoenixes...
The letter felt foolish too, Harry thought. How could he have thought that showing Albus the letter would be a good idea? It made Harry look like the idiot he'd been. Besides, how could he be sure that Albus wasn't still furious at him? He'd tried not to think about it, but Albus had left very angry about something, and Harry'd never figured out what.
Someone opened the door. Harry could have left the Great Hall to get the letter, or to get away from Albus, but he didn't. He saw Minerva slink into the room as the door was shutting, but she didn't see Albus or Harry. She trotted around the edge of the room in the other direction.
Harry had to do something, or Minerva would be angry with him for wasting time. For lack of any better ideas, he called out. His piercing cry was audible over the electric guitars and four part harmony of the muggle band, but only Albus turned to look. He spotted Harry immediately and walked calmly under the bracket to look up at him.
"A red kite," he mused quietly. "How did you get in here?" he asked rhetorically.
Harry crooned again in response, trying to show that it was him. Anything.
"I'm going to take you back outside before one of the students sends a curse at you for sport," said Albus. "Come along." He held out his arm.
Harry called out again, this time a little frustrated. If he'd been a little less upset, he might have been planning to make fun of Albus for having a conversation with a mute animal, but he was getting more upset by the second.
Albus contemplated Harry a moment through his mask. "That was not a suggestion," he said. "Despite my costume, this is a place for people, not for birds."
Harry was exasperated, but had no choice but to hop down to Albus's arm, careful not to pierce it with his talons.
"That wasn't so difficult, was it?" asked Albus. He opened the door out of the Great Hall with one hand, and held Harry with the other arm. They crossed the Entrance Hall, and Harry became more and more distraught. His feathers ruffled and unruffled as he breathed his exasperation.
"Are you uncomfortable? Perhaps my shoulder," said Albus. With impressive strength, as Harry was no small bird, Albus lifted Harry to his shoulder.
They exited the castle. Harry made a distressed noise.
"It is very loud, isn't it? I do like that band. I think they have some potential. I had a friend who would know if they'll ever make it anywhere, but I'm afraid I may have lost him, in more than one sense of the word..."
Harry froze. Surely that referred to him. He willed Albus to continue talking about him, but he did not. In fact, he stopped walking, too. They were on the lawn, half way between the castle and the forbidden forest. Albus reached up and stroked Harry's feathered head with a curled finger. "And now, my bird friend, it is time to part. May your hunting be profitable, and may you keep your friends close."
Harry shifted his talons, hesitant to leave.
"Would it be easier for you to take off from my arm?" asked Albus. Were Harry's emotions and body human, he would be fighting the lump in his throat and the mist in his eyes. Albus lifted Harry from his shoulder to his arm, but then stopped, fiddling with something by Harry's talons. He was quiet for a moment.
Harry looked down and saw that Albus had found the pocket watch dangling from Harry's foot. He helped Albus detach it. Once it was free, Albus brought it under his gaze. He popped it open in the hand not holding Harry, and the twelve clock hands and planets were clear and visible in the darkness. Albus frowned, looking at the watch. He looked up at Harry, back down to the watch, and back up to Harry for what seemed like an age. Harry didn't breathe as Albus's eyes searched his.
"Harry?" whispered Albus.
A/N: Review, please!