Same disclaimer
Ch. 12 Padfoot's Surprise
"Harry and Hermione," Dumbledore's voice echoed down the corridor after them "please eat lunch in my office with me; we have much to talk about."
As they entered the pink office Harry blanched again. He had liked the regal blue of his first year and the homely green of his second year. This pink on the other hand was a bit too much of the eyes to take.
"Next year you should use purple sequined wall paper" Harry joked.
"Maybe I will have to consider that" mused Dumbledore with a bright shine to his eyes.
"For now though we have some business to attend to." Dumbledore turned to introduce them to a Witch they had not noticed when they had entered the room. "Miss Plato here is from the division of transfiguration. As you suspect they track animagi. Hermione here has mastered the art of her transformation. Would you show her your bear Miss Granger?"
Hermione promptly stood up and, after moving some of the chairs aside turned into the dire bear that Harry had seen the night before.
"Excellent Miss Granger" remarked Miss Plato. "Sign here if you would then list your full name, your age, the date, and your animagus form. Warebear right?"
"No Ma'm, Dire Bear" Hermione corrected.
"Sorry, my mistake, quite a good job there. You are currently the youngest registered animagus. James Potter and Sirius Black beat you, but they never registered, and we are still not able to prove that Sirius ever completely managed the process."
Harry smiled on the inside as he learned that the Ministry would never find his godfather if they didn't know he was an animagus or what it was for that matter.
"Aren't you going to make me register" asked Harry.
"Have you perfected your form yet" asked Dumbledore.
"Not quite" admitted Harry, "although I am working on it."
"Well maybe one day when you can actually do it we will see Miss Plato back here" said Dumbledore. "Miss Plato, I believe we are done here and I have further business with these two students so if you wouldn't mind showing yourself out that would be wonderful."
"Have a wonderful day" chirped Miss Plato as she disappeared down the staircase.
Harry almost exploded with rage at Dumbledore. "When I can actually do it? Maybe one day? What are you on about? You didn't have to humiliate me like that did you?"
"Harry, it would be better if you kept your animagus training under your hat for a while. I don't want Voldermort knowing what you can become. If you should happen to need to escape some day you will need this."
"Oh," said Harry "I wasn't thinking you were going to be helping me to break the law" he winked at Dumbledore.
"Harry, the law is a good thing, most of the time. Some times though it does not apply. If Hermione were dying you would be obliged to try anything to save her law or not. This is one of those times. Hermione's training is important, but she is a bit below the radar, if I used the muggle idiom correctly. Your godfather would probably like to see you right about now though. Sirius if you would please?"
A large black shaggy dog panted up and sat between Harry and Hermione. In a second the dog was now the man Harry knew as his godfather. Harry and Hermione jumped up and hugged him with all their might.
"Congratulations on the lovers you guys" said Sirius. "I remember when your da' and mum hooked up—they were quite the couple—there wasn't a broom closet safe when they were together. I hope you two will uphold their example" Sirius winked at both of them. "Now then, let's see how good you are at transfiguring."
"There isn't enough room down here. Can we go to the great hall" asked Harry.
"Excellent suggestion, I think we could all do with a bit of food."
The quartet walked into the great hall and with a flick of Dumbledore's wand all the tables were moved up against the walls.
"Alright then show offs, lets see what you can do" challenged Sirius.
Harry and Hermione stepped apart from each other so their animagus forms would not push each other over and with one accord both transfigured into their respective Firecorn and Dire Bear. Harry tried his first spell with his horn, which was pointed at Sirius. A golden jet shot from his horn and hit 2 inches from Sirius's shoes.
"Nicely done Harry and Hermione, this is very advanced work and you both seem to have been able to pull it off with out a hitch. Your da' would have been very proud of you Harry. You could have run with us any night. And Hermione, wow, you could have been a great help in controlling Lupin on those nights where he went—well, you know."
Harry and Hermione both appeared again in their human forms flushed with excitement after the high praise from Sirius. Dumbledore nodded his assent, which spoke even more to Harry than his godfather's comments.
Lunch was good and their afternoon with Moody was painful as always, but highly productive. They developed a schedule for the rest of the summer. They had transfiguration and animagus training with Professor McGonagall in the mornings and Defense against the Dark Arts in the afternoon, dinner with their particular Weasley then some snogging before studying and bed. Time passed very quickly and before they knew it school was going to start in a week. Sirius appeared one evening with some of the Weasleys, well, the important Weasleys to Harry and Hermione, and some packages in his hands.