Author's Notes:
As always, the world of Harry Potter does not belong to me but J.K. Rowling
Chapter Thirteen
To everyone's great excitement the lesson they had all been looking forward to finally arrived, Harry was starting to teach them how to cast the Patronus charm. He did his best to make clear the difficulty of it, even of casting a non-corporeal one, but most of the D.A. were too excited to listen. As an example, Harry raised his wand at the beginning of the lesson and cried "Expecto Patronum!"
Out of the tip of his wand erupted a large silvery shape, which sprang away and circled the room, looking for a dementor to drive away. Everyone, especially the girls, oohed and awed as it made its way around them, so no one noticed the look of pure shock on Harry's face, that is except for Hermione. She was the only person, besides Lupin and Dudley, who had ever actually seen his patronus and she saw what he saw immediately. Instead of the majestic stag that had been the form Harry's patronus had taken since he'd first been able to summon one, a graceful doe now stood there. It came to stop in front of its master, as if asking for orders.
With a wave of his wand Harry dismissed it, letting it fade away. In order to cover how he was feeling he set them all to work attempting it. As everyone left that night, still in high sprits despite none of them having made much headway on casting a patronus, Harry walked with Ron and Hermione back to the tower. Ron, it seemed hadn't noticed anything, probably mistaking the doe for a stag. Harry tried to get Hermione alone so he could ask her about what had just happened, but tonight was her night for patrolling the castle until curfew.
Lost in thought Harry sat on his bed mulling over things. First the map had changed to show his new name, and now his patronus. It both exhilarated him and terrified him, knowing that his magic seemed to be acknowledging his new identity, and also feeling overwhelmed at how fast it seemed to be happening. He longed to be able to talk to Hermione, to get some sort of reassurance. Then it dawned on him, he had someone he could talk to, Sirius.
With almost an hour until he had to be back in his dormitory, he pulled the mirror from his bedside table and shoved it into Heather's bag. Ron was busy with Fred and George in a corner and didn't notice him dash across the common room and make his way out of the portrait hole. With hurried steps Harry reached the door to the Room of Requirement and was soon back inside, this time in his haven. Instantly her mindset shifted back to its correct orientation, even though she wasn't dressed as Heather. She set the bag down on a chair and pulled the mirror from it, rereading the instructions that were on the back.
"Sirius Black" she said aloud to the mirror.
The glass went dark and suddenly there filling it was the image of his godfather.
"You know, I was starting to wonder when you were going to open that present." He said by way of hello, a grin on his face.
"Yeah, sorry. I've been so busy I forgot about it."
"That's alright," Sirius said, "What's going on? Snape treating you alright?"
"No worse than usual."
"How's Occlumency going?" Sirius asked, looking closely at Heather
"It's alright, it makes my head hurt but I think I'm starting to get a handle on it."
That was partly correct. She was now almost always able to hold Snape back from entering her mind instantly when she was focused, but if caught unawares it took her a while to be able to marshal a defense. It also didn't seem to be stopping her from dreaming about the long hallway to the Department of Mysteries. Most nights she had at lest one dream that involved her trying to open the door.
"Well, that's good at least" said Sirius. "So, what's up?"
"Can patronuses change?" asked Heather, blurting out her question without any preamble.
"Yes, they can. It's not common but it's known to happen. Why?" Sirius asked, a slight look of concern on his face.
"Because mine has always been a stag, but tonight during the D.A. when I cast it, it had changed into a doe."
Sirius seemed to consider this information for a moment, then chose his words carefully. "Well, that was your mother's patronus. Did you know that?"
"No, I didn't." said Heather.
"Oh yes, she learned to cast one when we joined the Order during the last war. James had a stag, like his Animagus form, and Lily had a doe. I also remember James telling me once that his mother's patronus was a doe as well."
"So, mine changed because of Heather?" Heather asked
"That's what I have to assume, yes. Patronuses change when someone goes through an emotional upheaval or, it's been rumored, fall in love. Seeing as you haven't told me about any boy, I'm guessing when you realized you were a girl it changed."
"My name has also changed on the map." Heather said, ignoring Sirius's comment about a boy.
"Then that all but confirms it, Heather. Your magic must be realigning itself to accommodate your new self." Sirius said, smiling.
"What else is going to change?" she asked
"I'm not entirely sure. But nothing that shouldn't be right for you. A person's magic never does anything to harm them. It changes as we grow, but always for our benefit."
Heather felt reassured at her godfather's words. "Sirius, would you like to see me as Heather?" she asked, the idea springing suddenly into her mind.
"I would love to" he said immediately, filling her with warmth.
"Ok, I'll call you back in a little bit then." She said and severed the connection.
It was quite an interesting feeling getting ready to, in a way, meet her godfather for the first time. While she was doing her hair, she kept fussing over small wisps of it that escaped her braid. She decided to keep it simple and dressed in her Hogwarts uniform and the necklace that Hermione had given her. Once ready, she sat back in the chair and took a deep, calming breath.
For a second time Heather said Sirius's name into the glass, watching it mist as her breath reached it. When his face reappeared in it, Sirius just smiled. She had done a light layer of make up to try and remove the slight boy-ishness of her face and had braided a strand of hair on each side of her head back until it met at the back of her neck and intertwined.
"You're just as beautiful as your mother was, Heather" Sirius said, looking fondly at her from the mirror. "I'd never noticed before but it's not just your eyes that look like her."
Heather didn't really know how to respond to that. A lump had formed in her chest at his words, imagining the pictures he had of his mother. She had been beautiful so the thought that Heather might be as beautiful as her left her choked up. In true form, Sirius knew how to break the mood of a moment in the best possible way, "So, do I have to give you the talk about boys, young lady?"
Heather blushed, "No!" she cried, laughing.
"Because I can only imagine that a gorgeous girl like you is turning heads right a left." He continued mercilessly.
"Sirius, stop!" Heather almost squealed in embarrassment, which did nothing but make Sirius grin even more.
"Well just remember that any boy you bring home is going to get the whole 'mass murderer, scarier than death itself' routine from me."
Heather just rolled her eyes, but in her mind, she pictured the idea of bringing a boy home to meet Sirius, hopefully once he'd been cleared of the crime he hadn't committed.
From then on whenever Harry cast his patronus during D.A. lessons, the sight of his new doe filled him with happiness. This in turn cause the spectral animal to glow brighter, radiating his own feelings. As he had learned however, anytime he reached a point of real happiness this year, Umbridge found a way to ruin it. Cho Chang's friend Marietta Edgecombe betrayed the D.A. to Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad.
During what would be their last meeting, the door was flung open by Dobby, who came scurrying into the room to warn Harry that Umbridge was coming. He was too late, however. People fled the room as best as they could, trying to get as far away as possible, but as Harry was sprinting down the corridor, his feet tripped on thin air and he crashed to the ground.
"Trip jinx, Potter" gloated Malfoy, who had been hiding behind a suit of armor for someone to come by.
"Professor, I've got him!" he cried back up the passageway and hurried feet could be heard coming this way.
With a horribly gleeful expression on her face, Dolores Umbridge walked into Harry's line of sight and gazed down at him. "Excellent Draco," she said in her sweetest, more chilling voice, "ten points to Slytherin. Up you get Mr. Potter, we're going to see the headmaster."
As he stood, Harry let his mind consider his chances of being able to fight off the three of them. As he turned to follow Umbridge however he saw they'd been joined by at least four other members of the Inquisitorial Squad. Even if he could fight all of them off and escape, there was no way he's be able to avoid the expulsion that he would get for attacking a teacher.
In Dumbledore's office, quite a group had assembled. Behind his desk sat the headmaster, looking alert but relaxed, as if this were an exciting show he was waiting to take in. Cornelius Fudge paced like a caged animal in front of two aurors, Kingsley Shacklebolt being one of them. Over to the side in a chair sat a girl with her face in her robes and Professor McGonagall standing behind her with a hand on the girl's shoulder. Lastly, to Harry's disgust, was Percy Weasley, a look of absolute smug superiority on his pale face.
Umbridge laid out the facts quickly, that Harry had been caught leading a group of students in learning defensive magic, in violation of ministry decrees, and as her ace in the hole, produced the roster that they had all signed months ago in the Hog's Head.
"Dumbledore's Army!" cried Fudge, reading the large words at the top of the page, his worst fear seeming to be confirmed.
"Yes, Minister."
What truly amazed Harry was how Dumbledore who, to Harry's knowledge, had never heard of his army before tonight, played out the series of events in a way that laid the blame for it squarely on his wizened shoulders. Seeing what was happening, Harry tried to argue, to take the blame and defiantly stand against Fudge, but Dumbledore shut him down. Fudge too ignored Harry, thrilled at the idea of being able to imprison Dumbledore for attempting to overthrow him.
Fudge's dream however came crashing down as the old wizard calmly told him that he had no intention of "coming quietly" to Azkaban. Sputtering with indignation, Fudge, with Umbridge and the two aurors behind him closed in on the desk. He never stood a change. The moment his foot reached the top step in front of the desk, a streak of silver filled the room, a bang like a gunshot went off, and all of them fell back stunned. Glass tables and portraits fell, and dust flew everywhere.
"Harry, Harry listen to me" came an urgent voice from beside him as Harry tried to cough out the dust he had just inhaled, 'You must practice Occlumency as hard as you can. Nothing is more important than that." Before Harry could say anything, Dumbledore reached up and grasped the tail of Fawkes. One brilliant flash of fire, and both of them were gone.