A/N: I'd just like to thank Laurel Elven for giving me such a nice review! Watch out all those people who read but don't review my story; she'll kick you if she finds you! Bwahahahahaha!
Chapter 6: The Trouble with Steely Tones
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After a cheerful lunch with Lupin where they decided to meet in the Room of Requirement for Animagus lessons on Friday after dinner, Hermione and Harry headed toward N.E.W.T. Transfiguration while Ron headed off to his new Muggle Studies class ("About time, too!" huffed Hermione), seperating on the second floor.
Professor McGonagall started off with her usual speech about it being a difficult class and immediately gave them notes and set them to turning a raccoon into a sitting stool. Hermione and, to everyone's surprise, Harry managed to get it on their fourth try earning Gryffindor 10 points each and didn't have a homework.
"Well, Harry, I'm impressed," said Hermione as they waited for Ron to go down to dinner. "If you apply yourself like that all the time, you wouldn't always have to put homework off to the last!"
"I don't know," Harry mused. "Ever since I recovered, I've felt wired with magical energy.. I think I might look into it."
Ron came down the stairs beaming, and as they walked into the Great Hall, he told them all about his Muggle Studies class. "I can't believe it, Harry!" he said, spearing a fried potato and chewing happily."Electricity and magic really are rather alike aren't they? I can see why dad finds Muggles so fascinating!" Both Hermione and Harry laughed at Ron's enthusiasm about things they grew up around.
After a thorough dinner, they climbed into the Gryffindor common room and began on practicing that Cut Healing spell after Harry and Hermione helped Ron with his homework ("What is the function of a light bulb?"). Realizing with shock that they didn't have any other homework, Harry and Ron began a game of Wizard Chess while Hermione watched discussig Friday and how they wished the week would just fly by.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
And how the week flew by indeed. Tuesday started off with Charms. Charms which was a very interesting class in itself, not including the highly energetic Professor Cal who had a pet Runespoor. The Runespoor named 'Mr Kiss Kiss' was much like its owner, slithering around the classroom making innappropriate comments about the students. Harry found himself laughing along with Professor Cal who Harry discovered to be a Parselmouth, too. After asking him a few shaky sentences in Parseltongue, Cal told him he just needed to practice the language a bit and had them work on a Freezing charm, causing a very noisy classroom as a few people aimed improperly and hit a fellow student. Harry and Hermione thought it would be an excellent spell to use against offending wizards and witches if it should come to that; Ron was currently being thawed by Cal while Neville blushed and apologized profusely.
While the other two had a break period, Harry went to his new class of Ancient Runes thinking it was bound to come in useful sometime. He noticed runes were often used on several wizarding things such as pensieves and could greatly help him with what he was planning to do when by himself.
Wednesday, they had another round of Transfiguration along with Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid hugged them all hello when they showed up and gave Harry a teary smile. When class commenced, Hagrid said they'd be covering more complex creatures the first term, such as the giant squid and merpeople.
"Then," Hagrid proposed," for second term, you can pick a creature tha' ' ya want to learn mor' about." (A/N: sorry if that doesnt sound like how Hagrid talks but his speech is hard to write!)
Harry, Hermione, and Ron decided that they didn't need to decide right then as they had a whole term ahead of them, though they were leaning heavily toward a Hippogriff. After all, they knew more than they ever wanted to about Skrewts.
Thursday was Charms along with Ancient Runes for Harry, and Friday was devoted to an entire day of Defence Against the Dark Arts for the D.A.
Harry found that Lupin had several garden snakes for everyone to practice with, and while people were sitting down they watched Harry interested, as he warmed up by talking to all the snakes. Lupin cleared his throat and the whole class looked excited.
"Before I begin, I need to have Harry tell the snakes what we expect them to do. Harry, could you please tell them to advance upon the student until they say 'stop' in Parseltongue?"
"Sure," said Harry, and he hissed the plan to the snakes, who to the class' amusement, nodded their heads when Harry finished speaking.
"Now we cannot expect to master how to do this in one lesson. After all, this is not a learned tongue; you are born with it. Harry will provide us with the enunciation for 'stop' and come around and correct you before we begin. Harry?"
Harry did an odd hiss and spit to the class, and when they tried to say it back to him, calling out everything from 'FIRE HYDRANT" to "SOD OFF", he knew he was going to spend some time on this. He went around to every person, working with them until they had a distinguishable 'stop'. Lupin then cleared the desks to the walls and had the students line up across from the snakes. The snakes were released on to the ground by Harry, who told them to stay until he gave the word.
"Now, each of you will be approached by a snake that will stop if you manage to tell it so. I figure we'd make a little game out of this with the winner getting a bag of Bertie Bott's Beans. If the snake reaches you, you are out and will sit down in one of the desks, and we will keep going by rounds until we have a winner. Everyone clear?"
As class ended with Dennis Creevey being the winner, Professor Lupin had Harry help him round up the snakes into their cage, Ron and Hermione waiting for Harry at the door. They promised to meet right after dinner, and the four of them walked down to dinner together talking about their first week of classes. When Harry talked about Charms, Lupin blushed.
"Why does that guy hang on you anyway, Professor?" asked Ron arriving in the entrance hall and opening the doors to the Great Hall.
"When Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail, and I went to school, Professor Cal went to school with us. He was the same year as us in Slytherin, and he... uh... had a crush on me," said Lupin rushing through the last five words and hurrying to the teacher's table before they could ask him anymore. Hermione blushed furiously, Ron looked as though he was about to vomit, and Harry was chuckling. The two looked at him for an explanation, to which Harry said simply with another chortle,"Could you imagine the teasing he put up with from Prongs and Padfoot?"
And, laughing, they sat down for dinner, eager for their first lesson in becoming Animagus.
----------------------------------------------------------------
When dinner was done and they saw Lupin getting up from the staff table, the three decided to walk up to the corridor that housed the Room of Requirement. Meeting Lupin there five minutes later, they let Lupin walk past the wall three times as they didn't know what would be needed. The door appeared, and they stepped in.
The room was smaller than it had been for D.A. and there were only a few things in the room. A couch sat against one of the walls with a table and chair next to it, and the wall perpindicular was covered in full- length mirrors. Harry noticed a small book in Professor Lupin's hand as they sat down on the couch together.
"Now, I think that I should tell you something before you get started. According to my friends who put their own experiences in here" - he lightly gestured the boook in his left hand- "the first time you transform, you will not be yourselves for the first couple of minutes. It's a period when your own mind is clashing with the creature's instincts, and I will be ready to take precautionary measures once you find out your animal and you transform later.
You can always tell a person who is capable of being an Animagus from everyone else because they always carry a very strong trait of some kind. I could tell you three were capable back in third year while in the Shrieking Shack. Ron has a strong trait for standing up for his friends and family. Hermione, you have a strong trait for rationalizing before action. Harry, you have a trait of courage and emotional strength like... like Sirius."
Harry, who'd been grinning at his blushing friends, switched to being serious. He had decided something over the summer while laying in his cupboard he had told no one. He no longer wanted to be like his father; he wanted to be like Sirius more than anything. Remus saying he was like Sirius filled him with pride.
Lupin spoke again. "Now, let's get started. The first step in 'Three Easy Steps to Become an Animagus' - I wish James had used a different title- is to find out what your animal is. Now, spread yourselves out on the floor and find a position comfortable for you. It doesn't matter whether you're sitting, standing, or simply laying down. After you do this, begin to think about your strongest emotion and how you came about to that one being most important. When you concentrate on this and focus only on this, an image of your animal will appear in your head. This will leave you slightly drained, but you will be fine. Now, go about it."
Ron sat in the middle of the floor, Hermione stood next to ther door, and Harry layed down next to the mirror wall. They were very silent, focusing, focusing....
They were in those positions for nearly an hour before they snapped up as one, rushing over to Lupin who was grading papers on the table. He smiled up at them.
"Well, that certainly didn't take long. I expected at least four sessions before everyone found out what they were. You children must be more in touch with yourselves than the dear Marauders were." At this, he laughed and continued. "So, what did each of you see?"
Hermione went first, thoroughly beaming. "I'm a wolf! A wolf with the same coloured hair as mine!"
Lupin looked slightly shaken at this, but smiled again and turned to Ron. "What about you?"
"There must be some mistake..." uttered Ron. He looked thoroughly terrified. "I saw a red spider, size of a bloody dinner plate!"
"Well, that would make sense," said Lupin. "The creature an Animagus becomes is the creature they are most frightened of. That's why I could never be an Animagus as I transform into that animal once a month. And you, Harry?"
Harry was looking very dark, his eyes had acquired a steely tone to them, looking oddly silver. "I'd prefer to keep mine to myself for a bit."
Hermione was gazing at Harry in slight fright at his voice, which was deeper than normal and slightly morose.
"That's perfectly fine Harry," Lupin replied, putting his papers in his bag. "Your father was the same way. Well, that was a very good session. At this rate you could be able to turn into your animal by the third lesson. I think we should leave it here for tonight, however. You need to get some sleep. Oh, Harry, I have something for you!"
Harry turned back around and walked back to Lupin. "You guys can go back to the Tower, I'll catch you up." The two left, and Harry turned back to Lupin who pulled out a wrapped package and gave it to Harry.
"When I was cleaning the house, I found this in Sirius' room. He had us buy it for your birthday present after you spoke to us about your father. Open it."
Harry, hands shaking, opened the surprisingly heavy package and gasped. Inside was a pensieve. While the same size as Dumbledore's, the basin was made of black pearl and the runes around the edges were engraved in what looked like real silver. Harry looked up at Lupin, smiling, and asked,"But why a pensieve?"
Lupin smiled, and poked at the silver inside the basin with his wand. A picture of a teenage Sirius appeared, laughing at James whose head was stuck inside a hole behind a portrait. "Sirius had the feeling that you should know more about us and your father so you'd never hold a wrong impression. He and I sat down for a whole afternoon putting our favorite memories of the Marauders adventures in here so you could view them at your leisure. Of course, you can put any of your own memories in here. Once you put them in the basin, you will only be able to slightly recall the memory without viewing it. To get out of a memory, simply think about leaving the pensieve. However, I warn you. People will still be able to access these memories by touching the memory. They cannot leave the pensieve by themselves and will be stuck unless you go in and get them. Therefore, you might want to check daily to see if anyone has gotten stuck. Well, that's about it. Any questions?"
"No."
"Well, off to bed little Prongs."
"Goodnight Moony, and thanks."
And Harry, holding the pensieve as though it were the world, headed up to the tower to view how his father got his head stuck in that hole.
_________________________________________
A/N: Just so you'd know, James was most afraid of a stag because when he was little, he visited his uncle's house which had a stuffed deer head on the wall. It really scared him; I mean, those things are kinda creepy. Sirius was afraid of the dog because he saw a Grim when he was little, and Wormtail... well, he's just a little girl who was scared of rats. He doesn't deserve an explanation.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and come back when I update! Bye!
Chapter 6: The Trouble with Steely Tones
----------
After a cheerful lunch with Lupin where they decided to meet in the Room of Requirement for Animagus lessons on Friday after dinner, Hermione and Harry headed toward N.E.W.T. Transfiguration while Ron headed off to his new Muggle Studies class ("About time, too!" huffed Hermione), seperating on the second floor.
Professor McGonagall started off with her usual speech about it being a difficult class and immediately gave them notes and set them to turning a raccoon into a sitting stool. Hermione and, to everyone's surprise, Harry managed to get it on their fourth try earning Gryffindor 10 points each and didn't have a homework.
"Well, Harry, I'm impressed," said Hermione as they waited for Ron to go down to dinner. "If you apply yourself like that all the time, you wouldn't always have to put homework off to the last!"
"I don't know," Harry mused. "Ever since I recovered, I've felt wired with magical energy.. I think I might look into it."
Ron came down the stairs beaming, and as they walked into the Great Hall, he told them all about his Muggle Studies class. "I can't believe it, Harry!" he said, spearing a fried potato and chewing happily."Electricity and magic really are rather alike aren't they? I can see why dad finds Muggles so fascinating!" Both Hermione and Harry laughed at Ron's enthusiasm about things they grew up around.
After a thorough dinner, they climbed into the Gryffindor common room and began on practicing that Cut Healing spell after Harry and Hermione helped Ron with his homework ("What is the function of a light bulb?"). Realizing with shock that they didn't have any other homework, Harry and Ron began a game of Wizard Chess while Hermione watched discussig Friday and how they wished the week would just fly by.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
And how the week flew by indeed. Tuesday started off with Charms. Charms which was a very interesting class in itself, not including the highly energetic Professor Cal who had a pet Runespoor. The Runespoor named 'Mr Kiss Kiss' was much like its owner, slithering around the classroom making innappropriate comments about the students. Harry found himself laughing along with Professor Cal who Harry discovered to be a Parselmouth, too. After asking him a few shaky sentences in Parseltongue, Cal told him he just needed to practice the language a bit and had them work on a Freezing charm, causing a very noisy classroom as a few people aimed improperly and hit a fellow student. Harry and Hermione thought it would be an excellent spell to use against offending wizards and witches if it should come to that; Ron was currently being thawed by Cal while Neville blushed and apologized profusely.
While the other two had a break period, Harry went to his new class of Ancient Runes thinking it was bound to come in useful sometime. He noticed runes were often used on several wizarding things such as pensieves and could greatly help him with what he was planning to do when by himself.
Wednesday, they had another round of Transfiguration along with Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid hugged them all hello when they showed up and gave Harry a teary smile. When class commenced, Hagrid said they'd be covering more complex creatures the first term, such as the giant squid and merpeople.
"Then," Hagrid proposed," for second term, you can pick a creature tha' ' ya want to learn mor' about." (A/N: sorry if that doesnt sound like how Hagrid talks but his speech is hard to write!)
Harry, Hermione, and Ron decided that they didn't need to decide right then as they had a whole term ahead of them, though they were leaning heavily toward a Hippogriff. After all, they knew more than they ever wanted to about Skrewts.
Thursday was Charms along with Ancient Runes for Harry, and Friday was devoted to an entire day of Defence Against the Dark Arts for the D.A.
Harry found that Lupin had several garden snakes for everyone to practice with, and while people were sitting down they watched Harry interested, as he warmed up by talking to all the snakes. Lupin cleared his throat and the whole class looked excited.
"Before I begin, I need to have Harry tell the snakes what we expect them to do. Harry, could you please tell them to advance upon the student until they say 'stop' in Parseltongue?"
"Sure," said Harry, and he hissed the plan to the snakes, who to the class' amusement, nodded their heads when Harry finished speaking.
"Now we cannot expect to master how to do this in one lesson. After all, this is not a learned tongue; you are born with it. Harry will provide us with the enunciation for 'stop' and come around and correct you before we begin. Harry?"
Harry did an odd hiss and spit to the class, and when they tried to say it back to him, calling out everything from 'FIRE HYDRANT" to "SOD OFF", he knew he was going to spend some time on this. He went around to every person, working with them until they had a distinguishable 'stop'. Lupin then cleared the desks to the walls and had the students line up across from the snakes. The snakes were released on to the ground by Harry, who told them to stay until he gave the word.
"Now, each of you will be approached by a snake that will stop if you manage to tell it so. I figure we'd make a little game out of this with the winner getting a bag of Bertie Bott's Beans. If the snake reaches you, you are out and will sit down in one of the desks, and we will keep going by rounds until we have a winner. Everyone clear?"
As class ended with Dennis Creevey being the winner, Professor Lupin had Harry help him round up the snakes into their cage, Ron and Hermione waiting for Harry at the door. They promised to meet right after dinner, and the four of them walked down to dinner together talking about their first week of classes. When Harry talked about Charms, Lupin blushed.
"Why does that guy hang on you anyway, Professor?" asked Ron arriving in the entrance hall and opening the doors to the Great Hall.
"When Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail, and I went to school, Professor Cal went to school with us. He was the same year as us in Slytherin, and he... uh... had a crush on me," said Lupin rushing through the last five words and hurrying to the teacher's table before they could ask him anymore. Hermione blushed furiously, Ron looked as though he was about to vomit, and Harry was chuckling. The two looked at him for an explanation, to which Harry said simply with another chortle,"Could you imagine the teasing he put up with from Prongs and Padfoot?"
And, laughing, they sat down for dinner, eager for their first lesson in becoming Animagus.
----------------------------------------------------------------
When dinner was done and they saw Lupin getting up from the staff table, the three decided to walk up to the corridor that housed the Room of Requirement. Meeting Lupin there five minutes later, they let Lupin walk past the wall three times as they didn't know what would be needed. The door appeared, and they stepped in.
The room was smaller than it had been for D.A. and there were only a few things in the room. A couch sat against one of the walls with a table and chair next to it, and the wall perpindicular was covered in full- length mirrors. Harry noticed a small book in Professor Lupin's hand as they sat down on the couch together.
"Now, I think that I should tell you something before you get started. According to my friends who put their own experiences in here" - he lightly gestured the boook in his left hand- "the first time you transform, you will not be yourselves for the first couple of minutes. It's a period when your own mind is clashing with the creature's instincts, and I will be ready to take precautionary measures once you find out your animal and you transform later.
You can always tell a person who is capable of being an Animagus from everyone else because they always carry a very strong trait of some kind. I could tell you three were capable back in third year while in the Shrieking Shack. Ron has a strong trait for standing up for his friends and family. Hermione, you have a strong trait for rationalizing before action. Harry, you have a trait of courage and emotional strength like... like Sirius."
Harry, who'd been grinning at his blushing friends, switched to being serious. He had decided something over the summer while laying in his cupboard he had told no one. He no longer wanted to be like his father; he wanted to be like Sirius more than anything. Remus saying he was like Sirius filled him with pride.
Lupin spoke again. "Now, let's get started. The first step in 'Three Easy Steps to Become an Animagus' - I wish James had used a different title- is to find out what your animal is. Now, spread yourselves out on the floor and find a position comfortable for you. It doesn't matter whether you're sitting, standing, or simply laying down. After you do this, begin to think about your strongest emotion and how you came about to that one being most important. When you concentrate on this and focus only on this, an image of your animal will appear in your head. This will leave you slightly drained, but you will be fine. Now, go about it."
Ron sat in the middle of the floor, Hermione stood next to ther door, and Harry layed down next to the mirror wall. They were very silent, focusing, focusing....
They were in those positions for nearly an hour before they snapped up as one, rushing over to Lupin who was grading papers on the table. He smiled up at them.
"Well, that certainly didn't take long. I expected at least four sessions before everyone found out what they were. You children must be more in touch with yourselves than the dear Marauders were." At this, he laughed and continued. "So, what did each of you see?"
Hermione went first, thoroughly beaming. "I'm a wolf! A wolf with the same coloured hair as mine!"
Lupin looked slightly shaken at this, but smiled again and turned to Ron. "What about you?"
"There must be some mistake..." uttered Ron. He looked thoroughly terrified. "I saw a red spider, size of a bloody dinner plate!"
"Well, that would make sense," said Lupin. "The creature an Animagus becomes is the creature they are most frightened of. That's why I could never be an Animagus as I transform into that animal once a month. And you, Harry?"
Harry was looking very dark, his eyes had acquired a steely tone to them, looking oddly silver. "I'd prefer to keep mine to myself for a bit."
Hermione was gazing at Harry in slight fright at his voice, which was deeper than normal and slightly morose.
"That's perfectly fine Harry," Lupin replied, putting his papers in his bag. "Your father was the same way. Well, that was a very good session. At this rate you could be able to turn into your animal by the third lesson. I think we should leave it here for tonight, however. You need to get some sleep. Oh, Harry, I have something for you!"
Harry turned back around and walked back to Lupin. "You guys can go back to the Tower, I'll catch you up." The two left, and Harry turned back to Lupin who pulled out a wrapped package and gave it to Harry.
"When I was cleaning the house, I found this in Sirius' room. He had us buy it for your birthday present after you spoke to us about your father. Open it."
Harry, hands shaking, opened the surprisingly heavy package and gasped. Inside was a pensieve. While the same size as Dumbledore's, the basin was made of black pearl and the runes around the edges were engraved in what looked like real silver. Harry looked up at Lupin, smiling, and asked,"But why a pensieve?"
Lupin smiled, and poked at the silver inside the basin with his wand. A picture of a teenage Sirius appeared, laughing at James whose head was stuck inside a hole behind a portrait. "Sirius had the feeling that you should know more about us and your father so you'd never hold a wrong impression. He and I sat down for a whole afternoon putting our favorite memories of the Marauders adventures in here so you could view them at your leisure. Of course, you can put any of your own memories in here. Once you put them in the basin, you will only be able to slightly recall the memory without viewing it. To get out of a memory, simply think about leaving the pensieve. However, I warn you. People will still be able to access these memories by touching the memory. They cannot leave the pensieve by themselves and will be stuck unless you go in and get them. Therefore, you might want to check daily to see if anyone has gotten stuck. Well, that's about it. Any questions?"
"No."
"Well, off to bed little Prongs."
"Goodnight Moony, and thanks."
And Harry, holding the pensieve as though it were the world, headed up to the tower to view how his father got his head stuck in that hole.
_________________________________________
A/N: Just so you'd know, James was most afraid of a stag because when he was little, he visited his uncle's house which had a stuffed deer head on the wall. It really scared him; I mean, those things are kinda creepy. Sirius was afraid of the dog because he saw a Grim when he was little, and Wormtail... well, he's just a little girl who was scared of rats. He doesn't deserve an explanation.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and come back when I update! Bye!