Chapter 19

Morphing Magic (Hermione)

            My name is Hermione Granger.

            Harry came back from detention sweating profusely. Blood trailed down his wrist from the cut in the back of his hand. I clucked my tongue sympathetically and pushed a bowl of the Soothing Solution towards him. "This'll help."

            "Thanks," he said, dipping his hand in it.

            Ron stretched and yawned. "I'm going to bed," he said, rising and scratching his side. I shrugged. He trailed off to bed and disappeared into the dormitory, leaving Harry and me alone in the common room.

            Harry looked around the room, double-checking that we were alone. He stood quickly and dragged me off my armchair. I squeaked in surprise and protest. He put a finger to his lips and brought me to a dark corner.

            "Hermione," he began, "I have to tell you something."

            "What is it? Does it have to do with Voldemort?" I demanded.

            He shook his head. "The Animorphs—"

            "What'd they do?"

            "Nothing. Well, something. Hermione, they gave me the power to morph."

            My mouth dropped open in disbelief. After a few moments of silence, I said, "Very funny."

            "I'm not kidding," he said. "Watch."

            He closed his eyes lightly. His skin rippled and sprouted ginger fur, making me cry out in shock. His eyes snapped open to reveal yellow, cat-like eyes. He clapped a hand to my mouth. The hand shifted and claws formed. His ears slid up the sides of his face and stretched. His nose turned pink and whiskers sprouted. His teeth grew large and sharp.

            The hand fell away when, with a loud cracking noise, he fell to all fours and shrunk. Within moments, he was an exact replica of Crookshanks.

            With a gasp, I staggered backward and fell into an armchair. Crookshanks—or rather, Harry—padded over to me. As I hope you can see, I'm not lying. he said.

            I touched my temples in the shock of hearing his voice in my head. He sat in front of me, tail twitching. It's thought-speak. I can talk to you with my mind.

            "Holy hippogriffs," I finally uttered.

            I could have sworn he smiled. I know. Now, we have to get down to the Chamber of Secrets. I think they're expecting me. Go get the cloak.

            I ran upstairs and fetched the Invisibility Cloak. C'mon, let's go, he said, and darted out when I opened the portrait hole.

            The Fat Lady squawked her indignation at being woken at such an hour. "Bad cat," she scolded Harry as he zipped down the hall, and I had to bite back a nervous laugh.

            Harry had all ready demorphed when I got to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and the Chamber was open. He took the cloak from me and dived down. I followed.

            He opened all those secret passageways that led to the Chamber itself. Inside, the Animorphs were all lying on the ground, sleeping.

            He nudged Jake awake with his foot. Jake was immediately awake, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "What's the matter?" he asked hoarsely.

            "Sorry about waking you up," Harry said, carefully hiding his blood-soaked sleeve behind his back, "It's just the only time I could come down."

            "As a matter of fact," Jake said, getting to his feet. He seemed not to have noticed me. "I needed to talk to you about these detentions Marco has been telling me about." He grabbed Harry's arm and took it out into view, examining the deep cut. The Soothing Solution had done a lot of good, for it was all ready healing over. "How could you let her do that to you?"

            "You don't understand," Harry said gruffly, "I can't. If I show her I've let this break my spirits, she'll think I'm weak. I can't go running to McGonagall, or Dumbledore. She'll only sack them."

            I stepped into the wand light. "It's true. Telling will only make it worse," I said. 

            Jake stared at me. "What are you doing here?" he asked, not unkindly.

            "Harry took me." I said feebly.

            He turned to Harry. "Why?"

            Harry took a deep breath. "I think we should give her the morphing power."

            No one said anything for a full three minutes.

            "Why should we?" asked a voice in the dark, nearly giving me a heart attack.

            Rachel slid into the light. She was tired and disheveled, and the long shadows thrown on her face didn't help. I couldn't help but shudder and put my hand on my wand.

            "I trust her," Harry said, "I know we can trust her. She's loyal, and clever, and brave. She knows all kinds of useful spells and potions. I know she'd die for me. I would for her." He glowered at them, daring them to argue.

            A felt a flush spread onto my cheeks. I don't think I was embarrassed… At least, I didn't feel embarrassed. I actually felt… pleased.

            "Well, I guess if Harry thinks she's okay…" Jake began, faltering. "I think I need to talk to the others about this."

            "There's no need," Marco said, stepping into the light, grinning. "I know Bird-Boy and Ax-man are definitely awake. I know I am, because my back hurts too much for this to be a dream. In fact, all of me hurts too much. I'm pretty sure Cassie's awake, too. Aaah! Rachel, my darling, aren't you looking radiant this evening?"

            Rachel growled deep in his throat like Sirius does when he's a dog. I backed up a pace.

            There was a clip-clopping sound and Ax appeared with Tobias on his shoulder. You are correct in assuming Tobias and I are awake. he said.

            Cassie did too, looking ashamed at herself. I guess she doesn't like eavesdropping on people.

            "Should we accept her as an Animorph?" Jake asked thoughtfully.

            "I—I think we should," Cassie volunteered, voice quavering.

            Jake looked as if he didn't doubt her, for which I was grateful.

            "Then I am too," Rachel said, rubbing her eyes.

            Ax turned his head toward Jake, who nodded. Tobias did the same. Though I couldn't hear what was being said, I could tell they were talking.

            Marco sidled over to Jake and whispered in his ear, looking me up and down.

            Well, this was it. The votes were in.

            Jake closed his eyes and thought for a long while. Then he opened them and looked at me. "The most of us are in favor of letting Hermione get the morphing power," he said finally.

            Harry grinned but quickly hid it. "To Hogsmead, then!" he cheered.

            "Hogsmead? Why Hogsmead?" I asked, totally lost.

            He grinned even wider and shook his head. "And I thought you were the one to quote Hogwarts, a History! Technology doesn't work at Hogwarts!"

            I beamed. "You've finally gotten it. Now, I'm not sure about Ron, but you've gotten it!"

            Marco coughed. "Can we get going? It's really late out, and we all have school tomorrow."

            I gasped. "School! I hadn't even thought—"

            "Let's just get this over with," Rachel growled.

            The next thing I knew, I was in the cellar of Honeydukes. I don't know how long it took, but we were there.

            Jake took a cube out of his backpack and held it on the flat of his palm. It glowed faintly in the dark cellar. Unfamiliar writing that I haven't even learned in Ancient Runes yet was all over its sides.

            "Put your hand on the side," Jake said, and I did.

            At once, I felt a tingling sensation in every part of my body. I couldn't feel my fingers or my toes. My head pounded and my ears rang. I suddenly couldn't see as my eyes slid out of focus. My jaw slackened. I half-closed my eyes.

            "Hermione!" Harry called in a very far-away voice. He shook me by the shoulders, which made me come to.

            I squeaked. "Was that supposed to happen?" I shrilled.

            A thud from upstairs made us all freeze. "I think there's someone down there!" a female voice said.

            Quickly and quietly, we all darted back into the secret passageway. As we ran back, laughing with our relief of not getting caught, I came to realize that this was not just a dream. This was really happening. This was reality, however strange it seemed.

            I could become any animal I touched!

A/N: Hobey-ho! Sorry this took so long! I've been working on another story, "The Book of Adventures", which is really fun. Please, please, please, PLEASE read it and review! It's a Harry Potter story. Most likely, if you like this, you'll like that one. Remember: "The Book of Adventures" by Hyper-HpGrl. Got that? Good!

Anywho, to answer a question asked, yes, all magical creatures can talk. Mind you, only magical creatures. Not regular ones. Stick around for my next chapter, "Chapter 20: School Crushes (Rachel)" ::cackles evilly:: Can you even begin to guess what that's about?