Chapter Eleven: O.W.L.S.'s, a Puma, an Ocelot and a Werewolf



Disclaimer: Basically, if you don't recognize I won it, and if you do recognize it then it belongs to Ms. J.K. Rowling. Isn't she amazing?

A/N: Something about Harry and James is revealed in this chapter that has not been mentioned before. I had this planned out from the beginning, but it hasn't needed to be mention until now. So I swear it will go with the rest of the story. Trust me.






"Remus!" Harry exclaimed. "What on Earth are you doing here?!"

"Surprising you of course." Remus responded and gave Harry a hug. "Ginny thought it might be nice to have me for a while, and since she found out that it was possible to-er- accommodate me, I booked a Distance Jumper and came on over!" Remus gave a boyish grin and continued. "You've got quite a wife there, Harry."

"Yeah, I like to think so." he replied, grinning madly at Ginny.

"Julie met me at the Station and here I am!" Remus beamed.

"Uncle Remus!" Reagan cried, coming into the room. James and Darenn came in, wearing the same expression she had.

"Hey!" Remus cried, hugging them.

"Thanks." Harry said to Julie.

"No problem." Julie replied and smiled.

"James, I have something of dire importance for you." Remus said, his facing suddenly going serious. He pulled out an envelope. It had James' name on the front in loopy green writing that Harry recognized immediately as being from Hogwarts.

"My O.W.L.'s!!" James cried, jumping for it.

"Ah, ah, ah." Remus taunted. "You should be thankful I thought to bring this along with me. You would have had to wait until you got home to see your results. But I grabbed it before they owls were sent off."

"Thank you so much Prof, I mean Uncle Remus!" James cried. Harry laughed at his son's slip up as Remus handed him his letter. James read it through, staring wide eyed at the paper.

"James?" Ginny asked.

"I, I, I.." James stammered looking in disbelief. "I got thirteen."

"Thirteen!!" Ginny squealed. "That's wonderful!" Beaming, she threw her arms around her eldest son and Harry took the letter from him. He read his son's scores, beaming with pride.

"You gave him a good score in Transfiguration, Remus." Harry commented.

"Well, he was good at Transfiguration and he did well on his test." Remus answered, as if it weren't already obvious.

"That's so wonderful!" Hermione cried as she gave her nephew a hug. Harry remembered when they had gotten their O.W.L.'s back. Hermione shrieked with joy when she opened her letter, revealing she had received thirteen O.W.L.'s. But she was even more surprised when Harry had gotten thirteen as well, and Ron had gotten twelve. Harry remembered Ron grumbling something about messing up a potion because Snape had been breathing down his neck, but he stopped complaining after he realized that he had done as well as Percy and Bill. Harry smiled at the memory and tuned his attention back to his son. Angela and Ben had come in and were instantly introduced to Remus and informed of James' academic success. During the commotion, Julie slipped away with Remus and took him up to a room to allow him to settled in. Remus had two days until he had to start brewing the Wolfbane Potion. Julie, Angela and Ben were the only American Potters to know about Remus' being a werewolf.

"You want to accompany me to the village?" Remus asked Harry upon returning to the kitchen, and Harry nodded. Remus and Sirius had been like his father's brothers at school, and Harry could tell that his uncle wanted to talk to him about something.






Harry's father and Sirius had become Animagi to keep Remus company during his transformations and to keep him under control. Harry had the idea of becoming an Animagus during Christmas of his Fifth year, and had fully succeeded towards the end of his Seventh. No one had known then, not even Ginny, Ron or Hermione. Just after his Ceremony, Harry had told his Godfather, and his friends. Sirius had been so happy and so excited. Harry was able to only to transform once with Sirius before he died. After, Harry had always felt obligation towards Remus, and he had always enjoyed his time spent with Remus. Only Harry, Ginny, Remus, Ron and Hermione knew that Harry was an Animagus.

Somehow, which is still unknown, James had discovered his father's little secret. He had begged Harry to teach him, to help him become and Animagus. Harry had finally obliged (after endless begging and eventual threats from his son) and began to work with James. They started working the summer between James' Third and Fourth year, and Remus had helped him along during his Fourth year. James had finally managed it at the end of the summer between his Fourth and Fifth years. James had offered to keep Remus company while at school so Harry wouldn't have to Apparate into Hogsmead and walk up to the school each month.

So Harry and James switched off months where they would spend the full moon with Remus. Both father and son had become animals big enough to keep Remus in line if anything was to happen. If the Ministry found out that their Commander in Chief of the United British Auror Confederation (UBAC) and his underage son were unregistered Animagi, then they could both be in serious trouble. But to these two rule breakers, it was well worth the risk.

"Its about the transformation, Harry." Remus said. Harry had agreed to accompany Remus to the village and the two had just Apparated to the outskirts of the town. "Hermione owled me abut your Connection with Reagan."

"Remus, no, I'm not going to stop helping you." Harry said before he could continue. "It won't work."

"Harry, consider it. You and James are always in danger when you transform with me."

"No we're not." Harry defended. "James can't keep you in line on his own."

"He does at Hogwarts, during the school year." Remus said. Harry paused.

"He did it last month!" Harry wined. "Technically, its my turn."

Remus looked at Harry and was reminded again of how lunch he looked like his father. He and James both looked like the late James Potter and Remus sighed, knowing he was too tired to debate this anymore.

"Fine." Remus said. "But how are we going to get both of you out of the house without anyone noticing we're all gone?"

"We'll think of something. I'll say that James and I are.....are....uuhhh," Harry stammered but couldn't think of anything. "Well, we'll think of something. We have time."

Remus snorted. "Like that ever mattered. You procrastinate more now than you ever did in school."

"And you would know because?" Harry asked.

"I was your teacher once." Remus reminded him. "You think I can't tell when someone writes an essay at the last minute?" Harry gulped and turned to follow his uncle into the Apothecary.






But Harry didn't come up with a reason. He couldn't ask Ginny, she would do flips through the streets of London if she knew that Harry had helped their son become an unregistered Animagus, illegally, and that he had allowed him to transform while at school to run amuck with a werewolf in the Forbidden Forest. He couldn't ask Hermione or Ron because neither of them knew about James being able to transform into an animal at will. So that meant Harry had to rely on his own cleverness, as well as his son's.

"Dad, what if we went camping?" James asked.

"Camping?" Harry asked. Both he and James had been trying to come up with excuses. Remus' transformation was tonight and they were running out of time.

"James, I don't think wizards go camping."

"You do know what it is, Dad?"

Harry stared at his son, startled at the suggestion. "Um, yeah? Did I not grow up with Muggles?"

"Just wanted to make sure." James said. "What if we went flying?"

"At night?"

"How about a Quidditch match?"

"An not take Reagan or Darenn?"

"I don't know, Dad. I still think we should try the camping idea."

"And how would we do that? How do you expect to hold of camping gear by tonight?"

"Transfigure it." James stated. "Remus could do it, if we couldn't manage it."

Harry was again amazed by his son.

"Okay, so it could work."

"We could say that you wanted some son on father time with me, you know, for my birthday or something." James said. Harry wondered if James was trying to tell him something. It was true that Harry never did anything alone with James. Maybe he should do something with his son.

"That could work." Suddenly, Harry was excited about this. He hadn't seen and spent time with his son in a long time and he hadn't seen him transform in a year.

James flashed his father a smile that Harry recognized as his own and Harry stood up. The two walked down the stairs and fed Ginny their story. She bought it perfectly and even commented to Harry on how nice it was for him to do something with James. Proud of themselves, Harry and James went to tell Remus the good news. He seemed surprised, but Harry had said that they came up with it earlier than they actually had. And so it was set.






At promptly seven o'clock, Harry and James put on their trunks they had transfigured into backpacks, containing parchment they had transfigured into tents, sleeping bags and cooking utensils and set off into the woods. Harry had assured Ginny that he would set up wards once they got to an appropriate camping site. She was more fearful that they would encounter Remus than anything else. These fears of her's were silly, though she believed that Remus was going to stay in the shed.

Harry and James bid their good byes. They hiked for twenty minutes or so, wrapping their cloak transfigured to thick coats around them tightly. The wind was particularly fierce, though there were no clouds. They set their gear down in a clearing and took out a blanket. It was an actual blanket, thankfully they didn't have to transfigure everything. The two sat down and waited for Remus.



An hour or so later, Remus came stumbling along, not looking so well.

"My, those relatives of yours certainly are....... plentiful." Remus said sitting down. "I never thought I'd get ot of there. I didn't think it would be so hard to keep things a secret, but bloody hell, they asked me a zillion questions about teaching and Hogwarts that I actually wanted to say 'Hey! I'm a werewolf, I've got to go transform now!' Told them I was off to bed, had to call it an early night." Remus sighed and glanced skyward. "You two gonna transform before or after I do?"

Harry looked at his son and replied, "After. We want to make sure it goes okay. Once you start we'll back off a few meters, then once you're done well transform as well."

"Sounds about right." Remus said and sighed again. "They sure do seem to like you, Harry."

"Who?"

"Your family. I could tell, because if they didn't like you, they wouldn't have been so excepting of me." Remus replied.

Harry thought about this for a moment but his thoughts were soon interrupted.

"Uh, Dad, we'd better get to the woods now." James replied looking at at his father and then Remus, who had slouched down against the rock and had begun to twitch slightly.

"Yep, lets go." Harry and James walked out of their little clearing and into the woods, but Remus was still visible.

Watching a werewolf change from human to wolf was a terrifying sight. It pained Harry to watch his father's friend go through the agony of the transformation, but modern medi-magic was no closer to finding a cure than they were fifty years ago.

Remus began his convulsions as his bones grew and changed form. His skin stretched as he fell onto all fours and deep thick hair grew, covering the wizard from head to toe. His skull changed shape from human to canine and his bushy tail shot out of his hind. He stretched back and let out a painful howl.

"Better now than never." Harry said to James. Each Potter took a step back and turned away from the other. Harry focused his attention on changing to his Animagus form. He felt his spine grow and he fell onto all fours, paws on dirt meeting with a familiar feeling. Harry stretched his limbs, from claws to tail and shook his soft golden fur. He turned to see his son standing behind him, on all fours, smiling at him. Harry smiled to himself that his son had transformed successfully, and was still amazed that James was able to accomplish it. The two viewed each other for a moment; neither son nor father had seen been seen by the other in their Animagus form since the previous summer and the familiar feelings were coming back to them. James took a step forward, the black streaks on his coat glistening in the moonlight.

~Shall we go?~ James asked. The words had been said in his head, but Harry was able to hear them as if they were spoken aloud.

~I believe we should.~ Harry replied and turned towards Remus. And as the puma and the ocelot stepped into the clearing to join the wolf, another predator sat far away, waiting for his moment to strike.







A/N: Okay, so if you want to know what a Puma and an Ocelot look like, you can CLICK HERE to go to my web page. There are pics on there of each animal. If the link doesn't work, the address is http://www.angelfire.com/co4/erica/index.htm. It took me forever to decide what to make Harry and James, I was torn between like five, and I must thank my best friend, Samara, for helping me along the way. The camping thing was her idea too, I was stumped at that one. Oh, and a BIG thank you to my roomate, "Paki". She knows zilch about Harry Potter and stares blankly at me when I tell her about this sory. Lauren, I love ya babe, and GO BEARS! Also, if you want more on James, you can read my other fic, 'Thoughts and Kisses.' Its about James at school and his opinions of Halloween. Its short. Okay, enough from me, I want to hear from you.......:)