Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any such franchises. The only ideas that I own are my own that I write down here for you all to enjoy. And unfortunately, I've yet to make any money off of these ideas of mine. (T.T)
Author's Note time! So, it's not even been a day and I've already had a person message me with a correct guess on what Harry's animagus form will be. So, congrats to wsneadup for the first successful guess.
Now time to answer a review or two.
DS2010- What's not to love about the big good? Sirius is easily one of my favorite characters in the Harry Potter series. He didn't get nearly enough time in the books or the movies and I'm gonna change that. Sirius is gonna have a good bit more screen time in my story, that's for sure.
ultron0901- Chapter 1 was meant to be a partial summary of the changes that have happened so far in the world. It isn't a total copy of the story canon, but the first few years are almost entirely the same. The chapters from here on out will be proper chapters, maybe a flashback or two. As for the basilisk venom and phoenix tears, who said that the effects would be seen immediately? Not only is the mix going to contribute to making his animagus form magical rather than ordinary, but it also will be giving Harry a variety of boosts in the future of the story.
It was also pointed out to me that I calculated the ages wrong. To rectify that, entry to Hogwarts in this story is at thirteen not twelve. The age by the start of fourth year will still be sixteen.
And now, onto A Tale of Wings and Fangs.
Chapter 2
Harry's pursuit of his animagus training had been almost single minded since getting the book from Sirius. Outside of doing the necessary homework that had been assigned by the various professors, almost all of Harry's time had been devoted to meditation and focusing on his 'inner animal' as the book claimed.
It was, unfortunately, slow going for Harry as three weeks dragged on with very little progress. The bright side of his daily meditation was that Harry had been thinking more clearly day by day. He was able to focus with more ease and clear his mind within seconds. Compared to the hour it took to clear his mind properly at the beginning of his daily meditation, a few seconds was a massive improvement. Especially impressive for an almost sixteen-year-old boy.
Another thing of note was that the strange dreams hadn't stopped. If anything, they had increased in frequency until Harry was dreaming of flying and roaming through the dense forests almost every night. It had even gotten to the point that Harry could smell the surroundings of the forests and feel the air rushing past him in each of his dreams.
"Those dreams... What do they even mean?" Asking himself the question didn't do Harry much, but something about the dreams kept consuming his thoughts. They were always incredibly vibrant and life-like. It was vibrant enough that Harry could perfectly remember every moment of the dreams long after waking up. They were more like visions than any sort of normal dreams.
"Wait... Dreams!" Almost immediately as the thought struck him, Harry realized what had been bugging him so much about his nightly dreams. Moving quick, he rushed to grab the book of Native American style animagi. Harry skimmed through the pages until he found the section that he had been thinking about, the small bit of information that had been bugging him.
"Often when one's inner animal is strong enough, they can cause the wizard or witch to have dreams from the perspective of the animal's eyes. It is a sign of a connection forming to the animal spirit inside and a way of revealing the true form one's spirit takes." Harry read aloud, a wide grin splitting his lips as he realized that he'd had some success with the animagus process the entire time.
With the success high on his mind, Harry flipped a few more pages until he found the next step of the process that he would need. Despite having read through the book three times from cover to cover, the boy wanted to make sure that he had all of the steps correct and done properly. The process detailed in the American book was far different than the process that Remus had given Harry when explaining what James and Sirius had gone through. Rather than attempting to use a potion to forcefully shift into one's animagus form, the book instead suggested an alternate method. Slow, partial changes done repeatedly until the body was ready for the more extreme change that was the full animagus form would be the way to go.
Considering that Harry hadn't even been able to see the full form of his inner animal, a partial change was by far the better option available at the time. There weren't many choices on what to experiment with either. The only things that he'd been able to focus on during his dreams were the striking sensation of flying, which likely meant wings of some sort, and the bright yellow eyes he saw reflected in the lake over and over. More than once Harry considered the possibility of having two animal forms, but he found no information in the book that hinted at anyone ever having had two animal forms as an animagus.
With his summer work already done, Harry didn't have much else to do for the time being other than attempt to further practice the partial animagus transformation.
Finally! Finally, he'd had some success!
As Harry gazed into the window of his room, he couldn't keep the grin off of his face. Instead of the normal emerald green gems his eyes normally looked like, Harry was greeted by a pair of golden colored orbs as they stared back through the window. They eyes were far from that of a normal human, more angular and sharp. The most striking feature, other than the bright yellow coloration, was the vertical, slit-like pupil that had replaced the normal circular pupils.
Looking into the reflection of his changed eyes, Harry's mind drifted back to his second year at Hogwarts. Back when Malfoy had summoned a snake during the time in the dueling club and Harry had been outed as a Parselmouth. The eyes Harry stared at reminded him greatly of when he was staring down the same snake Malfoy had conjured up. At least, before the fraud Lockhart screwed things up again.
But as he looked around, things grew blurrier. "Ugh..." The beginnings of a headache could be felt and Harry pulled his glasses off and laid down. Gently massaging his forehead for a minute, he slowly opened his eyes as the headache abated. As his eyes opened again, the room looked far sharper than it ever had before. Even when wearing glasses things hadn't ever looked as clear as they did for Harry at that moment.
It took about ten minutes of testing before Harry had more or less come to a solid conclusion of what had happened. While normally his eyesight was very poor, the eyes of his animagus form apparently suffered none of the same vision problems Harry himself suffered. His vision was sharper and clearer, and he could see much further away than he'd ever been able to before. Even with his glasses, it was rather clear that his animal form was one that had far superior vision, both close and at range.
The reptilian eyes seemed to be a benefit in Harry's mind, but on the other hand his glasses had also become a small problem. Looking through his glasses with his eyes changed caused his vision to be blurry and unfocused. If he kept them on for too long the blur would even cause Harry a headache which could get rather intense. While it was an issue, the successful change wasn't without its positives. Having broken and lost his glasses multiple times before, the golden eyes presented a way around anymore repeats of those events in the future. He would be able to have his eyes changed for however long it would take to get his glasses back or get them repaired.
The good moments weren't going to last, though. Harry had been focusing fully on the results of his animagus practice, disregarding and even forgetting about the world around him. And unfortunately, that slip up was going to cost him.
"Boy! Where is my food you damned freak?"
The voice caused Harry to jump and he lost focus, his eyes fading back to the same lustrous emerald green as normal. Shaken from his thoughts, the sound of his uncle yelling in rage instinctively caused the boy to flinch. It didn't take long to figure out what was wrong, just a quick glance at the clock revealed the issue. The numbers read out eight o'clock, and he was late. As it had been for years, Harry was to have breakfast made and on the table for the Dursleys at no later than eight in the morning.
Moving fast, Harry rushed down the stairs, not wanting to incite any more of Vernon's inevitable rage. But by the time he got down to the kitchen, the sight of the obese whale of a man's bright red face was enough to let Harry know that he was in a great deal of trouble. Following the trend that usually happened whenever his uncle got mad, Harry was likely in for some punishment.
"I'm sorry Uncle Vernon I was-" Harry's attempts at damage control were cut off before he could even give a proper excuse as the larger man got in his face. The boy's arm was roughly grabbed by Vernon, the grip tight enough to make Harry wince in pain. But beneath the pain there was something building up, something roused from its sleep.
"I don't care what you thought you were doing, you freak! You're lucky we even tolerate you being in this house despite all your freakishness. If it was my choice, I would have dumped you in a gutter somewhere that night. This whole family would have been better off if you'd just died with your whore of a mother and deadbeat father!" Vernon yelled, mere inches from Harry's face. Normally Harry would just take the abuse, his head hung low and not trying to anger his uncle any further. But there was something different about Harry that the patriarch of the Dursley family was about to find out. As the obese man hurled his abuse at him, Harry's hands curled into fists as he felt an almost bestial anger deep inside of him boiling over. Who was this thing to think that he could challenge him?
"Now you're going to go and-" It was Vernon's turn to be interrupted next as Harry finally snapped. His head, hung low the entire time, whipped up to give a fierce glare to the older man.
"Don't you dare talk about my parents like that again. And don't touch me." Harry didn't yell. He didn't even raise his voice a bit. But the sharp, almost growled out words were still enough to make Vernon and the Dursley family freeze up.
Vernon immediately let go of Harry's arm, stumbling back wide eyed with what Harry identified as fear. A quick glance over at his aunt and Dudley had both of them flinching at his gaze and shying away. As Harry turned back to look towards his uncle, he caught sight of a small mirror hung on the wall. Harry's eyes weren't the usual vibrant, lively emerald that the family was used to. Instead, they were being glared down by a pair of animalistic, dangerous golden eyes that Harry had achieved less than an hour earlier. Somehow Harry had instinctively triggered a partial transformation when Vernon had made him mad. It confused Harry, but it also did mean that doing so again wouldn't be that difficult.
Vernon's shaky voice managed to successfully pull Harry out of his thoughts and bring his attention back to the walrus of a man. Yo-You can't do that freakishness around here! You'll get kicked out of that school of yours for doing this!" He blustered, trying to get his courage back while the dark-haired wizard stared him down. Despite his anger, size, and violent tendencies, Vernon was a bully. He was also incredibly terrified of anything magical. And Harry, as the man fully knew, had more than enough reason to use magic.
For a short moment Harry panicked, worried that he would actually get in trouble for what he'd done. But then he remembered something Remus had explained during the multiple lessons about animagi. There were only certain spells that could even detect and animagus. The art wasn't like traditional transfiguration, and it wasn't the type of magic that used a wand or could be detected by the trace. Realizing that he wouldn't be getting punished at all for the small bit of self-transfiguration magic, Harry tried something that he'd never thought of doing before with his relatives. He bluffed.
"Oh no, I won't be getting into trouble for this. I've found some very freakish magic at school. I don't need a want to do this magic either and I won't get in trouble for doing it. So, I'm going to make some breakfast for myself, and you all are going to leave me alone for the rest of the summer. If you don't, I can happily show you all the fun magic I can do to you." Harry shot back with a surprising amount of malice in his voice. Normally he would have never tried to do anything so bold or daring, but something inside of him was encouraging Harry onward. A part of his mind wanted to see the ones who had abused him so much squirming in fear before the bigger predator.
Thankfully for the young boy-who-lived, the display of magic was enough to thoroughly cow Vernon. And with Vernon backing down in fear, so did Petunia and Dudley. The room fell silent for a few moments before Harry moved into the kitchen and towards the stove. He was feeling hungry, and he was going to make some food for breakfast and leave before something went wrong.
The following minutes passed by in silence as the Dursley family watched Harry's back as the boy cooked his food. After making up a simple breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage, and toast, Harry grabbed a plate and moved out of the room. "If you need any chores done from now on, have Dudley do it. As long as you all leave me alone, I won't use my freakish magic to mess with all of your perfect little lives." He warned, standing in the doorway and giving his relatives one last harsh glare before exiting the room.
As soon as Harry had gotten to his room, he set the plate down on his bedside table and consciously pulled the magic from his eyes and let them become the normal green hue before a headache could set in. Talking back to Vernon had been a rush unlike anything he'd felt since confronting the basilisk in his second year. It was the first time ever doing so, and somehow he'd actually succeeded and bluffed his way into intimidating his uncle. As long as his relatives listened to him, the rest of the summer could actually be the best he'd had while stuck in the Dursley home.
After eating the simple breakfast that he'd prepared, Harry was happy to lay on the cheap bed in his room and process what he'd just done. With the adrenaline fading from his system, he was able to focus his thoughts and reevaluate what had happened. It often took a good deal to get Harry truly angry, but something had set him off as Vernon insulted his dead parents. But it wasn't anything new, since the man often made similar comments. But somehow, things were different as Harry had felt the anger inside of him boiling over, his mind demanding he snap at the man. And then there was the prideful glee he'd felt upon seeing the fear in the eyes of his three relatives. It wasn't something he'd ever felt before and it left Harry both confused and a bit worried.
Reaching towards the book once more, Harry's mind was running through various ideas. "Is this because of my animagus form? I think the book did mention something about the instincts of whatever animal I have transferring over and having to deal with that..."
A sharp tapping noise interrupted Harry's thoughts and caused him to abandon the book in favor for following the source of the noise. Outside the window he could see an aged, tired looking owl. It only took a few moments to realize that it was the Weasley's owl, which likely meant that Ron had sent him message. Opening up the window Harry grabbed the letter that had been attached to the owl's leg. Before he could even offer any treats, the older owl sluggishly flew off back towards the Burrow.
Tearing open the letter with some excitement, Harry smiled as he read through the usual rants from one of his two best friends. As usual a good portion of Ron's letter was about the various Quidditch teams and who had won and lost. Harry didn't care too much for the professional teams, but he did enjoy the sport itself. Towards the end of the letter, he found the usual questions of how he was doing and what Ron had been doing for the summer. But the most interesting part of the letter came at the very end when Ron mentioned a particular event his family would be going to.
"The Quidditch World Cup, huh?"
And Chapter 2 is done!
I may or may not have been feeling very excited about this story. So, since I got the ideas stuck in my head and they won't leave me be, I've decided to continue to write up some more and put the ideas down on paper. Hopefully you all enjoy the reading and I'll keep pumping out more when I can.
The comments are more than welcome and appreciated. I'm just happy to find that other people actually enjoy reading my mediocre attempts at writing.
I will note in advance that this story isn't your classic Harry Potter story. The world isn't fully canon, even if some events happen the same as they did in the original series. I plan to change certain events; some things won't happen while others will. In the end I want to take the story in a direction of my choosing and I have a faint idea of what that will be.
A big thanks to everyone for reading this story attempt of mine. I can't promise when, but I'll try to have the next chapter out soon. Stay tuned for more from me.