Harry rubbed his eyes. He and Ron had been working on their Transfiguration homework for the past hour, and making very little progress. It turns out, turning dog food into cheesecake was much harder than Harry would have initially thought. When he tried, the dog food on his plate sort of exploded, splattering a very bemused Professor McGonnagal's glasses. Ron was even more nervous when it was his turn, Harry having lost Griffindor 5 points with his performance, and his dog food gave an odd shiver and turned into a gloopy white mess. Hermione, of course, performed the spell perfectly on her first try. "Mutatios" she said confidently, tapping the plate firmly. The dog food gave a wobble and instantly transformed into a delicious looking raspberry cheesecake. "Excellent work Miss Granger" said Professor McGonnagal. Harry and Ron were given homework to write a 12 inch essay on where their respective attempts went wrong.
"Do you have any idea what we're meant to be writing?" said Ron, who had so far only managed an introduction, and was doodling on his parchment for the past 20 minutes. Harry flicked through Transfiguration Today for some inspiration. "Dunno. Where's Hermione?" he said, just as the portrait hole opened and Hermione climbed in, carrying a pile of books and looking very bad tempered. "I cannot believe Professor Victor won't let me correct the mistake I made in the last Arithmancy test. I realised it right after I handed him my paper, but he won't allow me to change it! It's so unfair. He's given me an Exceeds Expectations instead." "That doesn't sound so bad" said Ron wearily. "Oh Ron! It makes all the difference if I'm going to become a healer! Don't you know you have to get like 12 Outstandings?!" said Hermione crossly. Ron gave Harry a look that plainly said "There's no point trying to comfort her". Harry knew better than to try, so he changed the subject.
"Listen, Hermione, do you know how to become an Animagus?" Hermione eyed him in surprise. "It's seriously difficult Harry, it takes a lot of time and dedication, not to mention it can go seriously wrong and there's no cure if you're stuck in a half transformed state! What on earth makes you ask?"
"Because" Harry said, "If I could become a fly or a bug, I could sneak into the ministry and find out what Voldemort is planning." Ron cringed at the name. Harry ignored him. "Think how useful it would be to sneak into places unseen like that, Rita got around as a beetle for years, surely I can manage it if she could…" Ron and Hermione exchanged uncertain looks. "I don't know mate, sounds like a big risk to me." said Ron. "There must be another way to find out what's going on at the ministry. What about one of those muggle listening devices?" "How many times do I have to tell you Ron?" said Hermione exasperatedly. "Muggle devices don't work in highly magical places like Hogwarts or the ministry. But I still think this is a reckless plan!"
"It'll be alright" Harry assured her. "You know what to do and you'll be there to help me! Just like with the polyjuice potion. If you could do that in our second year, Hermione, I definitely think you can help me pull this off now. You're the best in our year!" Hermione looked flattered and less oppositional. "Well, I suppose I can look into it further, but I'm not promising anything!" she said. Harry and Ron grinned at each other. Coming from Hermione, that was as good as a "yes".