AN: Sorry for the delay, I've had real life things to do. However, the chapter is here (yay!), and I hope you guys like it. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to the Wizengamot meeting, but that will definitely be in the next chapter, if not the focus of it, so don't think things are going too slowly! I would, of course, love any advice you guys could give me for how I should do things, any niggling details that I should add in, or any things that I should avoid, you know, stuff like that.
Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN
Chapter 13 – First Day of Lessons
The next day, as was usual, Loki and Harry got up incredibly early. What wasn't as usual was Isis getting up then too, though she didn't do it with half the grace the two males did, yawning and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, stumbling about the place as she had yet to properly wake up.
Harry watched silently as his first two familiars prepared themselves for the day and left the room, his mind quickly going over everything he'd noticed. From the way Loki held himself, to the way his hand strayed to Fenrir, his device, in its standby form, it was quite easy to tell that the two were going to be sparring.
~I thought that Isis wasn't really fond of sparring too often, what's gotten into her?~ Harry mentally asked Reinforce.
~She's probably worried about everything that's going on. She might normally avoid fighting, but when it comes to you, she is quite... motivated.~ Reinforce replied to him.
"Ain't that the truth." Harry muttered, before checking the time once more. "Still, breakfast won't be for another two hours, what should I do until then?"
~ Are you done with designing your newest golem?~ Reinforce asked. ~I know you want to let Septima and Beth have a look beforehand, it is rather magically... strange after all, so you can do that at lunch. There's nothing stopping you from creating your other Siegfried golems though, is there?~
"I suppose not." Harry agreed, thinking things over. He could create three more Siegfried style golems pretty easily, and quickly too. His experience with golem creation had improved both the speed with which he could create them, as well as the quality, most especially due to a better understanding of them.
Heck, he'd already made several minor alterations to some of them to improve them. The Beelzebub wasps had been made more aerodynamic, and the spell-work on them improved to increase their speed slightly, as well as their manoeuvrability. The reloading mechanism on Dante the cannon had been made more efficient for a faster rate of fire, the barrel had been enchanted to increase the velocity of the projectiles, and he'd even been able to improve the aim slightly.
Vritra the serpent, however, was simultaneously the easiest and hardest golem to improve. It was easy in the sense the organic materials it was crafted from, the basilisk's skeleton, had absorbed the spells and enchantments with ease. It was difficult because it reacted differently to enchantments compared to metal, stone, and earth, making it more finicky to get right.
"Hm?" Harry, feeling a tug on his shirt, turned to see a sleepy Bast blinking herself awake. It seemed that she was joining them in being up early, or maybe they'd accidentally woken her up, one of the two. "Was there something you wanted, Bast?"
"Spar." She mumbled sleepily. "With you."
"You want to spar with me?" Harry asked, earning himself a dry look from Bast, or as much of a one as she could give him through her yawn.
"Loki and Isis are busy, I'll be your opponent today." She told him.
"Sure thing then." Harry agreed. "I'll give you a few minutes to wake up and get ready first though."
Bast nodded, before shuffling off to get herself sorted, leaving Harry to waste a little time. He chose to spend the few minutes he had trying to wiggle his Occlumency to work with his magic clones better, but that was going to take a while to properly sort out.
On the other hand, it seemed to be working so far!
xxxxx
Lily Potter had not had the best night's sleep ever, she hadn't for a while now.
It should come as no surprise then that she'd become something of an early riser recently. It was far better to be up and doing something than simply lying in bed, because then her mind might be distracted by something other than the current situation that she and her family were in.
She was down in the Great Hall for breakfast before the house elves had even gotten it ready, though only by ten minutes or so.
Like before, she sat at the staff table, as she was a guest of the headmaster. She wasn't alone in the hall though, there were a few ghosts scattered around, and two members of staff seemed to be early risers as well. Aurora Sinistra, the astronomy professor, actually looked like she hadn't gone to sleep yet. Flitwick was also awake, and Severus soon entered the Great Hall too.
Lily bit her lip as she saw Severus falter slightly in his steps – it was almost unnoticeable, but Lily had been Severus' best friend, his only friend actually – before the man got to the staff table. He did not look at her, at least she didn't see him looking, and his face was completely blank of any expression.
She wondered if she should approach him. Before... that incident, the two had been close, very close in fact, but afterwards their friendship had been torn in two, and Lily regretted how harsh she had been with him. True, mudblood was a highly offensive insult, but she had overreacted to it. Severus had just been the victim of the Marauders' attention after all, and he had probably spoken without thinking.
How different would things have been if she had not reacted as badly as she had? What if, after arguing, shouting, and yelling at each other for a few weeks, they had made up? For one, James and Sirius would probably have continued to target him as they had always done with their pranks, which had actually eased up a bit after her falling out with him.
Lily was distracted as two more people came through the doors into the Great Hall. This time it was... Harry, and one of those strange familiars of his, the cat girl. She couldn't remember their names off the top of her head, but that wasn't her primary concern right then.
She wasn't thinking about how 'Harry' was supposed to be possessed by the Dark Lord Voldemort either, or how Harry really should be dead and not wandering around anywhere. No what really caught her attention was how they were leaning against each other and limping slightly. The content expressions on their faces just made everything more surreal, especially with how dishevelled they looked.
Flitwick chuckled slightly as he saw the two himself. It wasn't exactly a massive secret that Harry and his familiars tended to train early in the morning or later in the evening most days. It was usually Harry and Loki however, rather than him and Bast. An indrawn breath further along the staff table drew his attention away from the two, and he turned to see Lily Potter sat with her mouth hanging open and her face red with... embarrassment?
"Is there a problem, Miss Potter?" He asked neutrally.
"A p-problem?" Lily stuttered. "Can't you see those two?"
"I can, is there an issue?" Flitwick wondered what it was that the woman was so shocked about.
"I should think so." Lily responded. "Doing something like... like that, and being so blatant about it. He's far too young for that sort thing."
Flitwick was at a loss as to what Lily was talking about for a few moments. He then realised that, without knowing what they had been up to, what it could look like to someone else. He couldn't help but laugh at that honestly. The Potters had cast Harry out of their family, and his 'mother' was concerned about him having sex?
"They weren't being intimate, Miss Potter." Flitwick told her. "Mr Ritter and his familiars have a habit of waking early in the morning and doing muggle exercise and sparring. It's not exactly a secret, though you aren't the first to think he's been doing other things."
Flitwick answered a few more questions that Lily Potter asked, his mind on other things. Primarily, he was thinking of his students who'd asked about a Merlin Orb, a device that measured one's capacity for mana, and if he had one they could use.
He wondered if Harry was the cause of their curiosity.
xxxxx
Harry saw Bast's ears flick and her eyes narrow slightly, both signs that she had heard something that annoyed her. Of course, not having hearing as good as his feline familiar – or his equine one either – Harry didn't know what it was that had irritated her, and gave Bast a curious look.
Seeing his expression, Bast let him know what the red-haired woman had assumed they'd been up to, also adding in how... blank and flat Flitwick's own words had been. It was that latter point that Harry found intriguing, as he knew Lily Potter had been a favourite of Flitwick's when she'd been a student.
Harry was aware that, if it came down to him versus the Potters, both Sep and Beth would be on his side of things. He also knew that Mcgonagall had a massive soft spot for James Potter, and a smaller one for Lily Evans, now Potter, too. He wondered where the other staff members of the school would fall.
Harry sighed. "Never mind her for now, let's just eat and get to lessons. Are you going to remain like that or take your animal form while you accompany me today?"
Bast seemed to consider it for a moment, before deciding on a response. "Like this, easier to respond if you're threatened, greater reach too."
Harry nodded, accepting her reasoning. He knew all of his familiars were ridiculously protective of him, like they thought he was made out of glass or something, and would shatter if they looked the other way. He'd managed before he'd had them, dammit, he was not fragile!
It was perhaps the only thing about them that he found aggravating.
"What lessons do you have today?" Harry glanced sideways as Fate slid down to sit next to him, on the opposite side of him to Bast, and asked her question.
"I've got Potions, Runes, and Transfiguration. You'll be in my first and last classes, but instead of Runes, you'll have... what were your electives again?" Harry paused, having forgotten what Fate had chosen to study as her optional courses.
"We all chose Arithmancy, and I also picked Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. I have Divination today." Fate answered him. "Do you know where the Divination classroom is? I don't remembering you showing us it yesterday when you were showing us around."
"The... North tower, isn't it?" Harry thought about it for a moment. "I don't think I've ever actually been there, there's simply nothing there worth going up all of those stairs for aside from the Divination classroom itself." Harry glanced around, before beckoning Helena over, the ghost looking curious as she drifted their way.
"Helena, can you guide Fate here to Divination later, please?" Harry asked her politely. "I have Runes then, and the two classrooms are nowhere near each other."
"Sure, I can." Helena agreed. "However, in return, I want you to agree to allow me to follow you when outside of Hogwarts."
"Weren't you already stalking me?" Harry blandly replied.
"Yes, but now I'll be doing it openly, deal?" Harry nodded his agreement. "I've already learned everything I'm ever likely to in this castle, I want to know more, to see more, to experience more." Helena's eyes shone with almost predatory hunger, despite her incorporeal state, and Harry had to suppress a shudder at the sight of it.
Harry turned back to Fate. "If you need me at all, you can contact me with telepathy. If you need to find me, I'll be spending my free periods in the infirmary, and my evenings in that old classroom I showed you yesterday, the one where we hold those 'study sessions'. If you need Loki or Isis, they're spending the day sparring in the Chamber of Secrets, and you'll need a parselmouth to get in there, me in other words."
"I'll let the others know." Fate said.
"If that's what you want to do." Harry agreed, before returning to his breakfast.
xxxxx
Severus Snape stood silently in front of his class, his eyes sweeping over the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff third years. This year he would finally be able to move on beyond the most basic of basic potion skills. Granted, third to fifth year potions were only of intermediate level, but it was better than the mind-numbingly boring things brewed in the two previous years.
He almost paused as his gaze fell on four particular students. The blonde Ravenclaw with red eyes, Harlaown, was partnered with the cheerful-looking Hufflepuff, Takamachi, while the other new Hufflepuff, Yagami, was paired up with Pott- no, his name was Ritter now.
Ritter felt Snape's eyes pause on him, and matched the older male's gaze with his own mismatched eyes. Snape knew Legilimency wasn't going to work on the boy, but that didn't stop him wondering what hid behind the Ravenclaw's impassive orbs.
"You have returned for a third year at Hogwarts, and I'm sure many of you are... excited to start your electives. However, do not let the novelty of these new lessons distract you while in my classroom." Snape spoke to his class. "Your first two years got you acclimatised to common ingredients and potions, and I refuse to hold your hand one step further. This year we will delve deeper into the intricacies of potions, exploring some of the more uncommon ingredients that can be used, and brewing some of the more volatile mixtures that can be brewed. You have... survived so far, let's see if any of you idiots are capable of killing yourselves off this year."
Snape flicked his wand. "The instructions are on the board. If you are even slightly competent, you will have the potion finished no later than five minutes before the end of this double period. Begin, and try not to mess it up." He snapped at them.
Snape let his attention slide back to the four he was observing before. Ritter already had that book of his open, likely checking if the instructions Snape had given them matched up with what was recorded in there. He almost raised an eyebrow at the other three, all of the new transfers were copying the instructions down into notebooks instead of immediately fetching ingredients like the rest of the class was.
Perhaps there was some hope for them.
xxxxx
Once potions had finished, Harry stored his spare potion away in his 'potion box', an simple expanded box with a few charms on it to prevent any jostling of the box affecting the potions he'd stored inside of it under preservation charms. Snape had only required one vial of potion for marking after all, and Harry saw no reason to waste the rest of it.
Fate, Nanoha, and Hayate had copied him, filling several vials each with the general antidote for uncommon poisons. A useful potion, but one they hoped they'd never need to use. Harry promised to make them each a box like his later, though he'd probably put at least a few doses each of the more advanced medical potions he could brew in there as well.
It was with this in mind that he set off to the hospital wing. He doubted that anyone had really gotten injured yet, though that would change in a few days. Once everyone got settled into the castle, there would inevitably be 'skirmishes' between groups of students, usually Gryffindor and Slytherin, and he and Madam Pomfrey would have to deal with them.
When he arrived, he found Madam Pomfrey behind her desk, going through what appeared to be a check-list and muttering something under her breath. She looked up when Harry entered, noting that it was Bast, and Bast alone, who followed him in, and not Isis.
"The unicorn not joining you today?" Poppy asked conversationally.
"She's currently focusing on more... combative magic at present, rather than healing spells and potions." Harry replied with a shrug. "Bast is following me around to, in Loki's words, 'drag me out of whatever trouble I will end up in'."
"I'm not surprised." Poppy huffed. "She'll be worried about you, especially with your tendency to wander where you're not supposed to go, and poke your nose into anything that catches your eye."
"I'm not that bad, am I?" Harry muttered.
Poppy rolled her eyes. "Your ability to find trouble is only matched by your ability to get out of it." She told him. "Now, I've already checked over the potion cabinet, and nothing needs replacing right now, but we're running a little low on some of the common ones. If you could start on a batch of the standard grade two stuff, that should do for now."
"Grade two?" Harry quickly recalled what that was. "So wound cleansing, flesh-knitting, painkiller, and general antidotes then." Grade one was the simple stuff, used for cuts, minor burns, and the like. Grade two was a step above that, and Grade three was things like skele-gro, blood replenishing, more potent antidotes, and the most powerful stuff that could be legally stocked in the Hogwarts infirmary. Grade four was specialist stuff.
"You don't mind if I brew a few potions myself, Poppy?" He asked, heading towards her office, where the cauldrons were probably already set up.
"If you've got the ingredients on you, go right ahead." She replied, not looking up. "I also have a handful of new diagnostic and treatment spells for you as well. I'll add them to your tome in just a minute, and you can practise on some of the analogues I'll set up for you some time next week."
"Understood." Harry agreed, before starting to brew the batch of potions he'd been tasked with, and the others he was making for the Uminari group.
Once they were bubbling away, he opened the window and summoned a thick branch from the direction of the Forbidden Forest. Using a cutting curse to get three chunks of wood, roughly the size of a pocket jewellery box. After a moment's thought, he cut one more that was the size of a small toolbox.
He began shaping the wood into boxes, the three small ones for Hayate, Fate, and Nanoha, to hold some emergency potions and other medical supplies if the ever got hurt, and one for Shamal, as Harry knew she would love such a thing, and as she wasn't much of an active combatant, it didn't need to be as small and unobtrusive as the others.
xxxxx
Once his 'free' period was over, Harry left a quickly created ice golem – created from tap water - to watch over the potions until they were finished while he headed off to his single period of Runes. While walking through the corridors, he ignored the whispers and pointing he got from other students, though Bast did glare at some of them, he was simply too focused on other things to really pay them much attention.
When he arrived at the Runes classroom and went in, he found that his classmates were giving him curious looks. Not outright hostile ones, not that he'd expected any, as he liked to think he'd 'bonded' somewhat with this particular class. He'd originally stood out the previous year, being only a second year in a third year class, but they'd gotten past that, and as the entire class was rather like-minded and focused on the subject, they'd all... sort of come together really.
The lesson turned out fairly well all told. They didn't do anything practical, Beth having given them a small quiz on stuff they'd covered the previous year to make sure no one had forgotten anything, before going over what they were going to be doing this year, what was expected of them, and what they might want to look up beforehand.
Once the lesson was over, only Harry and the Professor didn't get up to head to lunch. That was nothing new though, everyone in the class was aware that Harry usually took meals in the classroom with the Runes and Arithmancy professors. Thankfully, that wasn't something that had spilled out into the rest of the school, goodness knows what the rumour mill would do with that.
"Are Loki and Isis not joining us?" Beth asked, after greeting Bast and Harry more familiarly once the last student had left the room.
"They've been sparring since early this morning, and I don't think they're going to stop until tonight." Harry sighed, explaining their absence once again. "I know Loki took a large basket of food with them, so they're not going to suffer from a missed meal at least."
"And Reinforce?" Septima added curiously. Both professors having been made aware of how Reinforce was always with him over the summer, as well as a few things regarding 'other' places, though they didn't know everything about the likes of the TSAB and administrated worlds. Perhaps someday they would though.
"She doesn't want to risk discovery, at all. She does say 'thanks for the thought' though." Harry replied. "Now, I've got something I was hoping you two would take a look at, my newest golem design actually." He said, placing the paper on the table and unrolling it for them to examine.
"A spell-caster type?" Sep asked in surprise. "You do know it's considered a joke, don't you? You know, 'we're no closer to such and such than we are self-spelling wands?' and all that." She traced a part of the diagram. "Still, I can see how you're trying to do this. A jewel 'core' in the torso of the golem to store mana, and pathways connecting that mana source to the palms of the golems' hands."
Beth nodded. "The numerous rune arrays on their hands, one per spell, is a rather crude way of pulling it off though, however it would probably be rather effective." She paused. "I have another idea, if you're willing to listen to it?"
"Of course." Harry agreed easily. "You two are the experts."
"Right then." Beth drew her wand and conjured two thin wooden discs. She then pulled out a pencil and drew marks on the two, dividing each disc into eights. She then scribbled a single word or two into each section, before using a piercing hex to put a hole in the middle of both discs and then poking a conjured bit of dowel rod into them. "There, can you see my solution now?" She asked as she handed the completed model to Harry, grinning at him as she did so.
Harry took a look at one disc, more specifically what Beth had scribbled in the sections. There words there were 'water', 'earth', 'air', 'fire', 'lightning', 'ice', 'force/mana', and 'light/dark'. The other disc had different words on it; 'shield', 'chain', 'orb', 'stream', 'whip', 'blade', 'javelin', and 'trap'.
Harry span the two discs around the dowel for a moment, realising what Beth's idea was. If he had a magical 'pathway' go through the two discs, then the 'spell' that came out of the other end would depend on the two discs it went through. You could have a shield of ice, a stream of fire, an orb of light, a lightning whip, or any combination of attribute and effect.
"That's absolutely genius." Harry couldn't help but tell Beth, whose eyes gleamed with pride at that comment.
"It simplifies things, doesn't it?" She smugly commented. "Instead of an array for each and every spell, you only need to make complementary ones, and considering the natural overlap between form and type, that should be fairly easy."
"It's also small enough that I could put one, say, in each wrist or forearm, letting my golem cast two different 'spells' at once, something that I'd imagine wouldn't exactly be expected and would throw someone off quite a bit." Harry added.
"Glad to be of help." Beth smiled.
"It's greatly appreciated." Harry responded. "I admit, I wasn't looking forward to etching that many arrays into them, especially with how small I'd have to make them, and also because I'm planning on making seven of them."
"A strong magical number is seven." Septima nodded. "It's considered the magical number, seeing how zero is difficult to work with in most circumstances."
Harry made a noise of agreement, already making notes on how to incorporate Beth's idea into his golem's form, and how to craft and assemble it most easily. This golem was the one with the most separate pieces that needed putting together after all, which added an extra level of difficulty and complication to it. He thought it would be worth it though.
Beth's eyes slid to the mostly silent cat familiar. "So, how have things been so far? You've spent an entire day in the castle with the Potters, and as far as I know, no fight has broken out yet."
"We haven't come across the adults." Bast was the one to answer her. "The children seem reasonable and willing to listen, though they are rather nervous." She frowned for a moment. "The only thing close to interaction we've had with the adults so far is hearing the woman's words this morning. Seeing our state of disarray after our spar, she assumed we'd been engaging in sexual intercourse."
Septima seemed to think about that for a moment. "Yeah, I can see how she would think that. You and Isis are both very close to Harry, and while you're rather quiet, Isis is rather vocal about her desires. Seeing you turn up dishevelled really wouldn't make it look any better, especially with teenage hormones starting to muddle things up."
"Yeah, and magical puberty can either be the most blissful and gentle thing ever, or it can be rather... unpleasant." Beth grimaced. "If you think muggle teenagers are bad with their mood swings, tempers, and all of that, a witch or wizard can be many times worse, especially the powerful ones. They sometimes suffer accidental magic well into their teen years, and it tends to be far more volatile and vicious because of it."
"Was that a warning or..." Harry trailed off, not sure how to finish his question.
"Just something to keep in mind." Beth assured him.
Harry mentally filed it away, intending to look up magical puberty later, and changed the topic. The four of them, with occasional input from Reinforce, spent a pleasant lunch break chatting together.
xxxxx
Brian reflected on his day as he headed to Transfiguration, a class he shared with Ravenclaw according to his timetable. Getting down to the Great Hall for breakfast hadn't been too difficult, as apart from Harry showing him around the previous day, he could also follow the rest of his house down there, though Gryffindor students didn't seem to be early risers for the most part.
At breakfast, he'd eaten at the Gryffindor table, but he'd looked across at the others as well. The quietest table had been the Slytherin one, most of the students there either simply eating or conversing in low voices. The Ravenclaw table was the next quietest, and he'd seen Harry and Fate sat together. The Hufflepuff table wasn't loud, as such, but their was a cheerful feel about them, and they looked to be chatting happily, catching up with each other.
The Gryffindors, when they got to the table were... loud. They called up and down the table to each other, laughed uproariously, and yet they all seemed to revel in it. There were small pockets where people weren't being so loud, like a girl with bushy brown hair that was eating with one hand, not taking her eyes off the book she held in the other hand. There was also three girls, older than him, who were chatting with each other happily.
After he'd eaten, Brian had headed off to his first class of the day, Herbology. He'd rather enjoyed the lesson actually, Professor Sprout was an advocate of practical teaching over theory, and so while she demonstrated what he was going to have them do that lesson, she gave a quick lecture of all the important points. She'd then set them off to practising on the plants themselves.
Once Herbology was over with, Brian headed off to Potions with the Slytherins. That had been... unpleasant, to say the least. All of the Gryffindors seemed to hate the professor, and he seemed to 'strongly dislike' them as well. His father had talked about 'Snivellus', and told Brian that if he ever gave him trouble to remind him that he owed James, though why he owed him something, his father never said.
Thankfully, Brian hadn't messed up his potion, and so the professor had nothing to pounce on. It was still an uncomfortable lesson with the intimidating man hovering over them all, and he was glad to get out of the classroom as fast as he could, and headed off to library to look some things up, as Snape had already given them homework to complete.
He spent an hour there, before heading off to lunch. He looked around the Great Hall, before taking a seat next to his sister and asking her how her lessons had gone so far that day. Apparently she'd had Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology so far, with Charms that afternoon.
The two of them had wondered where Harry was, as they couldn't see him in the Great Hall, and he didn't turn up at all through the lunch hour. They asked one of the nearby Gryffindors about it, one of those that weren't going gaga over the two of them. The boy, Neville Longbottom by name, told them that Harry sometimes spent his lunch breaks in the hospital wing, and when he wasn't there, he still didn't have his lunch in the Great Hall, but where he actually was, Neville didn't know.
Brian found that weird, as it seemed everyone took all of their meals in the Great Hall. He could understand the school healer staying in the hospital wing, and he supposed if Harry helped her out he would stay too sometimes, but where else did he go when he wasn't there? Did he go to the kitchens or something?
Rose just gave him on odd look when he mentioned that idea. She asked her brother if he was becoming obsessed with Harry, and Brian had the uncomfortable feeling that he was. He just couldn't shake the thought that it could so easily have been him in Harry's place, and how he would feel with all of this going on.
His sister had just given him a bit of a grin when he told her that. She agreed with him that everything was messed up, but she didn't really see anything they could do about it. Brian was only thirteen, and she was only eleven, there really wasn't much of anything they could do.
It was with these thoughts in mind that he headed to Transfiguration with Neville, joining up with the others who were waiting outside the classroom door. He saw Harry leaning against the wall with an open book in his hands, his cat-girl beside him, and decided to approach his twin again.
xxxxx
Harry looked up when he felt Bast shift beside him.
"Hello." Brian greeted him, which Harry returned. "Do you have any idea what we'll be learning in Transfiguration this year?"
Harry thought about it for a moment, before replying. "The first two years we learned spells that would get us familiar with using our magic a certain way. The most simple transfiguration is inanimate to inanimate, but even first years move onto animate to inanimate, which is continued in second year. I think we'll be doing some of that, along with edging into more general inanimate into animate. None of it should be too difficult, and Mcgonagall is a good teacher, she knows what she's doing."
"Thanks." Brian grinned at Harry. "What are you reading, if you don't mind me asking?"
"This?" Harry indicated the book in his hands, his Tome of Shadows. "Right now I'm looking up a few things on wand lore and magical theory, it's to do with an independent project of mine that I'm working on. It's not important. Are you settling down well into Hogwarts?"
"It feels weird, but I guess I'm just getting used to how things are done here." Brian replied. "I mean, back in Canada, we went to a day school and came home every afternoon. Mum and Dad used to help me with my homework, and it was just so different. We had this really old guy teaching us transfiguration, and he was constantly coughing and wheezing, we thought he was going to keel over any minute."
"Sounds interesting." Harry commented. "Right now though, it looks like it's time for lesson." He pointed behind Brian, where the transfiguration classroom door was now open.
Brian hurried into the classroom, while Harry and Bast followed at a more sedate pace, both pausing in the doorway as they saw someone they didn't expect to see there. James Potter was stood beside professor Mcgonagall, gracing the room with a broad, friendly grin.
~I'm not seeing things, am I, Rein?~ Harry couldn't help but ask.
~No, he's really there, Harry, be careful.~ Reinforce warned him.
Harry took a seat with Bast at his side, warily eyeing James Potter as he did so, but when Mcgonagall began speaking, he gave her his attention.
"You have all managed to pass your second year exams, and many of you with good grades." Mcgonagall spoke to her class, much like Snape had done earlier, but with less invective than the potions master. "Let's try and keep those grades high, shall we? Regardless, this year we will further your knowledge and skill with transfiguration, and eventually, some of you may be able to accomplish something like this."
With that, Mcgonagall shifted into her animagus form of a cat, before shifting back into a human to polite applause. "Thank you, now can anyone tell me the difference between an animagus transformation and transfiguring yourself or others into animals?"
She looked around the room, before choosing Harry, who had not actually had his hand up. He answered anyway though.
"An animagus transformation is a purely internal magic, physically reshaping the body to match the animal you have the greatest compatibility with when you first begin to attempt the transformation. No wand is required, and it is considered to be one of the most difficult branches of transfiguration." Harry told her.
"Turning someone into an animal, however, is an external magic. It requires quite a bit of power and will, as you must force the body to take on a shape not natural to it. It's also common for those who have been transfigured to be overwhelmed by the instincts of their animal form, and few can maintain their own minds in such a state, unlike the animagus transformation, where one is fully cognizant. This type of transformation is cast with a wand, and while it can be difficult, it is far easier to accomplish than an animagus transformation." He finished.
"A thorough and completely correct answer, Mr Pott- Ritter, take ten points for Ravenclaw." She then addressed the class in general. "Now, I don't expect you to learn to become animagi this year, that was just an example of what you might be able to do some day, as well as an example of the sort of question that often turns up in an OWL exam, so it's best to be aware of it at least."
"Now, if someone could come up here and collect the animal you will be practising transfiguration on today?" She asked, indicating a cage filled with turtles. "We will be attempting to turn these turtles into teapots. We will also be doing the same with tortoises another day. The differences between the two should help you pick up on some of the subtler aspects of transfiguration and make your own spells more efficient."
Once the turtles had been placed on the desks in front of the students, Mcgonagall spoke up again. "Now, if you are having any difficulties, don't hesitate to ask for help. Both myself and Mr. Potter here are available to assist you, as he and his wife have graciously offered assistance in their specialities. You should see Mrs. Potter in your charms lessons."
Harry narrowed his eyes at that. Was that something the Potters had decided to do themselves, or was Dumbledore behind it? Either way, it was a very intelligent and crafty move on their part. As they were only guests, they had no obligation to help, but were doing so anyway, yet they retained a lot of freedom of movement and were able to leave the castle whenever they wanted.
Harry let Bast focus on James Potter, but she did so out of the corner of her eye, while Harry got on with the lesson, breaking down the transfiguration and comparing it to alchemy, another subject that dealt with physical transformations, albeit in a different manner.
In alchemy, there were three stages; Analysis, Deconstruction, and Reconstruction. The first stage let you know what you had to work with, and in what quantities. The second stage took the material(s) apart. The third stage recombined them in the desired manner. In alchemy, you could only get out what you put in, much like muggle chemistry.
In transfiguration, you could gain or lose matter with the transformation, and unlike alchemy, the transformation would reverse when conditions were met. Usually, those conditions were along the lines of 'running out of mana to sustain the transformation' or the subject dying. An animagus, when killed, for example, will return to human form.
Transfiguration worked by placing an 'image' of the desired result 'over' the current object and forcing it into that shape. The greater the dissonance between the two, the harder the transformation was, and the easier it was to break. It helped immensely if you knew both the start and end of the transformation, as that reinforced it.
Harry tapped the turtle with his wand, casting a medical diagnostic on it to get a mental picture of its skeletal structure. He copied this several more times with several different diagnostic spells, building up a mental picture bit by bit. He added the muscles, the nervous system, the internal organs, and then the external ones to his mental image.
Harry then called up everything he knew about teapots and the materials they were made of. Deciding that shape would do for now, however, Harry transfigured his turtle into a teapot made of bone. Another tap of his wand and a muttered incantation later, and he had turned the bone teapot into a plain porcelain one, and one final spell gave it a rather nice pattern.
Harry cancelled the spells then, returning the teapot back into a turtle that looked none the worse for wear. He then mentally combined the three stages of transformation into one, shape, material, and design, and cast the spell one more time.
He was quite happy with the result he got, just perfect.
Judging from James Potter's tightly clenched fists though, which Harry could see through a few strands of his hair, it didn't seem like everyone was as happy with his success as he was.