Harry Potter woke up with a start in his Gryffindor prefect's room. His
wake up charm had failed and it was very late. Harry glanced at his
schedule. The first two blocks of the bright paper had dimmed, and the
third section, labeled "Transfiguration" was glowing sharply. That meant he
had already missed the first two classes, and was probably late for
Transfiguration as well. Professor McGonagall was going to kill him. Why
had the charm failed? He would worry about that later though. He ran down
the stairs, pulled his wand out of his waist belt, and uttered a very hasty
"Accio Supplies". (Harry had enchanted all of his school items to respond
to one name, so that he could summon them all at once.) His books, quills,
parchment, and robe rushed out of his dorm room towards him. Without
another word, Harry sprinted to Transfiguration class, with his supplies
following closely behind in the air still madly trying to catch him.
"Decorum", he said as he pointed the wand to the clothes behind him.
Harry's robes began to unfold and pick up speed. Harry raced around a
corner and stopped at the closed door to his classroom. He could hear
Professor McGonagall lecturing loudly inside about advanced properties of
matter. Harry's robe caught up with him a moment later and draped itself
over his shoulders. The quills shot around the corner like guided arrows
and slid themselves into his pocket, the books found their way into his
hand and the parchment rolled itself neatly under Harry's arm. Harry
gulped, and opened the door.
"HARRY POTTER, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" came a loud shrill voice.
Harry saw a gigantic bear glaring down at him. He was completely shocked. It must be McGonagall, but how could she be a bear. He knew that an animagi could only transform into one thing...and one thing only. Hadn't Professor McGonagall chosen a cat? So how was this possible? He replied in a weak voice, "Professor, I was late. Please forgive me."
Draco Malfoy's voice came from the left. "A prefect? Late? Why...they never should have picked you Potter. You're giving all of usss other prefecths a bad name. I believe he should be ssseverrely punished. Issn't that right professssorr?"
Harry turned, and was even more shocked than before. In the place where Malfoy usually sat, stood a large black cobra hissing smugly and staring straight at him. Then he noticed, the rest of the class was also different. Each student had become an animal...except for of course, Neville Longbottom, whose head seemed to be sticking out of the body of an unusually large and deformed goat. Harry was extremely confused. "Had everyone become an animagi?" the wondered. He quickly reasoned, "No...that's impossible. Sirius said that it was extremely difficult and a very restricted ability. McGonagall couldn't possibly be teaching it to sixth years at Hogwarts. Even most graduates can't do it!"
McGonagall cut off his train of thought. "Harry, can you explain to the class WHY you are late?"
Harry told the truth. "My alarm charm failed, Professor. I don't know why. It had never failed before."
"Mussst be losssing your touch, Potterr. Even firsst yearsss can do alarm charrmss. I'm sssure Flitwick will be most pleasssed when I tell him about thisss," the cobra spat. A large crab, (Harry guessed it must be Crabbe) and a monstrous gargoyle (Harry guessed Goyle) in the back began snickering. It hardly seemed appropriate for crabs and gargoyles to snicker...anatomically impossible actually, but whatever.
"Silence, Malfoy," McGonagall began, "Harry, you know the penalty for tardiness. You are to serve one hour of detention and also make up what you missed this class in your free time. That is all. Now take your seat."
Harry still had a question, "Professor, are we learning to become animagi today?"
"Nonsense, Harry!" McGonagall's frown changed into a small smile, "We are simply transfiguring clothing into very realistic costumes. It is a difficult task, to create an animal like form that is hollow inside, because you have to get creative. Custom transfiguration is one of the most difficult things you will learn here at Hogwarts. I'm impressed that almost everyone in the class has even achieved it in one class period."
"Everyone exsssept Longbottomm," Malfoy hissed.
Neville turned red and shrank lower into his goat skin.
"Draco! Ten points from Slytherin for that remark." McGonagall snapped. She turned kindly to Neville, "Don't be discouraged, Neville. You can stay after and receive some extra help until you get it right. Remember, it IS a difficult task. I'll write you a pass" She turned to the class, "OK, revert back to your original forms."
Harry sat down between Ron, formerly a leopard, and Hermione formerly an owl. "So," he asked them, "why didn't any of you go looking for me when you noticed I wasn't there at breakfast."
"We thought you left early for the prefect meeting" said Hermione. "Remember? All prefects are to meet in the Main Hall to discuss school matters? Periods 1 and 2. First Monday of every month. Then, during the meeting, I didn't see you there so I began to wonder. But what did you expect me to do? Leave the meeting to go looking for you? I'm not your babysitter Harry."
Harry felt slightly better. Yes, he had missed the meeting, but he could get details later. At least he had an excuse for not showing up to his first class, and absolutely anything was better than trudging up to Snape and trying to explain why he had cut "Advanced Potions V".
Ron exclaimed "You should have seen the look on Snape. He was so happy when he called your name and you were absent. He rushed to mark you down as a cut, until I reminded him you were at a meeting. I never saw anyone's mood change so fast. Who knew you were still sleeping like a baby in your room?" "Well, thanks for covering for me, Ron," said Harry graciously.
"I got ten points taken off though, for talking out of line," Ron smirked.
~~~***----- Usual Disclaimer ----***~~~
This is purely non-profit fan fiction...
Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, and whatever recognizable characters, terms, and places you see here are owned by J.K. Rowling, absolutely one of the best authors I have ever read...
I am not affiliated with J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros. or whatever other companies that may own rights of any sort to Harry Potter. I do not claim to be affiliated with them...and so on and so forth. You know the drill.
"HARRY POTTER, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" came a loud shrill voice.
Harry saw a gigantic bear glaring down at him. He was completely shocked. It must be McGonagall, but how could she be a bear. He knew that an animagi could only transform into one thing...and one thing only. Hadn't Professor McGonagall chosen a cat? So how was this possible? He replied in a weak voice, "Professor, I was late. Please forgive me."
Draco Malfoy's voice came from the left. "A prefect? Late? Why...they never should have picked you Potter. You're giving all of usss other prefecths a bad name. I believe he should be ssseverrely punished. Issn't that right professssorr?"
Harry turned, and was even more shocked than before. In the place where Malfoy usually sat, stood a large black cobra hissing smugly and staring straight at him. Then he noticed, the rest of the class was also different. Each student had become an animal...except for of course, Neville Longbottom, whose head seemed to be sticking out of the body of an unusually large and deformed goat. Harry was extremely confused. "Had everyone become an animagi?" the wondered. He quickly reasoned, "No...that's impossible. Sirius said that it was extremely difficult and a very restricted ability. McGonagall couldn't possibly be teaching it to sixth years at Hogwarts. Even most graduates can't do it!"
McGonagall cut off his train of thought. "Harry, can you explain to the class WHY you are late?"
Harry told the truth. "My alarm charm failed, Professor. I don't know why. It had never failed before."
"Mussst be losssing your touch, Potterr. Even firsst yearsss can do alarm charrmss. I'm sssure Flitwick will be most pleasssed when I tell him about thisss," the cobra spat. A large crab, (Harry guessed it must be Crabbe) and a monstrous gargoyle (Harry guessed Goyle) in the back began snickering. It hardly seemed appropriate for crabs and gargoyles to snicker...anatomically impossible actually, but whatever.
"Silence, Malfoy," McGonagall began, "Harry, you know the penalty for tardiness. You are to serve one hour of detention and also make up what you missed this class in your free time. That is all. Now take your seat."
Harry still had a question, "Professor, are we learning to become animagi today?"
"Nonsense, Harry!" McGonagall's frown changed into a small smile, "We are simply transfiguring clothing into very realistic costumes. It is a difficult task, to create an animal like form that is hollow inside, because you have to get creative. Custom transfiguration is one of the most difficult things you will learn here at Hogwarts. I'm impressed that almost everyone in the class has even achieved it in one class period."
"Everyone exsssept Longbottomm," Malfoy hissed.
Neville turned red and shrank lower into his goat skin.
"Draco! Ten points from Slytherin for that remark." McGonagall snapped. She turned kindly to Neville, "Don't be discouraged, Neville. You can stay after and receive some extra help until you get it right. Remember, it IS a difficult task. I'll write you a pass" She turned to the class, "OK, revert back to your original forms."
Harry sat down between Ron, formerly a leopard, and Hermione formerly an owl. "So," he asked them, "why didn't any of you go looking for me when you noticed I wasn't there at breakfast."
"We thought you left early for the prefect meeting" said Hermione. "Remember? All prefects are to meet in the Main Hall to discuss school matters? Periods 1 and 2. First Monday of every month. Then, during the meeting, I didn't see you there so I began to wonder. But what did you expect me to do? Leave the meeting to go looking for you? I'm not your babysitter Harry."
Harry felt slightly better. Yes, he had missed the meeting, but he could get details later. At least he had an excuse for not showing up to his first class, and absolutely anything was better than trudging up to Snape and trying to explain why he had cut "Advanced Potions V".
Ron exclaimed "You should have seen the look on Snape. He was so happy when he called your name and you were absent. He rushed to mark you down as a cut, until I reminded him you were at a meeting. I never saw anyone's mood change so fast. Who knew you were still sleeping like a baby in your room?" "Well, thanks for covering for me, Ron," said Harry graciously.
"I got ten points taken off though, for talking out of line," Ron smirked.
~~~***----- Usual Disclaimer ----***~~~
This is purely non-profit fan fiction...
Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, and whatever recognizable characters, terms, and places you see here are owned by J.K. Rowling, absolutely one of the best authors I have ever read...
I am not affiliated with J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros. or whatever other companies that may own rights of any sort to Harry Potter. I do not claim to be affiliated with them...and so on and so forth. You know the drill.