Chapter Fifteen: An ANIMAzing Transfiguration Class
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
When Reagan woke up, it wasn't due to a dream. She blinked, taking in her darkened room, realizing it wasn't morning yet.
"Harry, be careful," she heard her mother's voice say. Reagan shook her head, thinking it was a memory.
"Don't worry, Ginny," her father replied. Reagan saw a light go on in the hallway, illuminating her doorway. She heard footsteps creep past her door, and then down the stairs. The front door opened and closed silently, only those awake could have heard it. And then a sob came from down the hall.
Reagan crept out of bed, and edged her door open. The hall was dark again, though basked in moonlight. Reagan's eyes quickly adjusted to the new light and she crept silently towards her parents room.
"Mum?" Reagan asked, pushing the door open slowly.
"Reagan?" her mother asked. "What are you doing awake?"
"I heard voices," Reagan replied, walking closer to her parent's bed. "Where's Dad?"
"He had to go," Ginny said, wiping her eyes. "He was called, and he had to go."
"Where did he go?" Reagan asked.
"I don't know," Ginny replied. "Off to save the world, I guess."
Reagan laughed a little, but it didn't calm her fears. Her father rarely would have to slip off in the middle of the night. She searched her mind for him, their connection freely open but in control. She could feel him, she knew he was alive, and she could feel his presence. But he wasn't allowing her access to the information she needed to know.
"Go back to bed, Reagan," Ginny said, smoothing her daughter's hair. "He'll be all right. You don't want to be tired for the trip back tomorrow."
"All right," Reagan replied. "Good night."
Reagan slipped out of the room and back into her own before letting her own tears fall from her eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Did your father leave last night?" Josie asked as the boarded the train the next morning. Reagan nodded, pulling her trunk along as they looked for a compartment.
"Did yours?"
"Yeah, last night, in the dead of night too," Josie said. "What's with that? Why do they always leave at the worst possible times? They can't be called in around noon can they?"
Reagan shrugged, not wanting to talk about her father leaving. Having a father as an Auror was cool, well if you didn't have a magical connection that tied father and daughter together. If her father died, Reagan knew that she wouldn't have long to live after.
"Here's one," Josie said opening the door. They stored their trunks and caught Cal as he came by looking for them. Josie and Cal fell asleep against one another as soon as the train pulled out of Kings Cross, but Reagan was wide awake. Stroking Eclipse, she watched the white scenery go by quickly, wondering where her father was. She still could not penetrate his mind, which was usually as easy at cutting butter. She could sense him; she knew he was alive, but he wasn't letting her into anything.
"Any treats miss?"
Reagan turned around to the witch with the treat trolly, and paid for some juice. Neither Cal or Josie moved, and Reagan didn't wake them.
She stared at her friend wondering when she should tell them about her Connection. Trevor knew, she had trusted him enough to tell him. So why was she so afraid to tell Josie and Cal?
She resorted to looking back out the window, wishing she could transform into a dog and sleep soundly on the floor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As Reagan walked into the Transfiguration class room the next morning, something caught her eye. Sitting next to the desk was a large cat. Next the him was a rat, a peacock, a tabby cat, a snake and a wolf. She recognized the large cat, the tabby cat and the wolf at once.
"Now, settle down, settle down," Professor Lupin said as they came into the room, eyeing the array of animals before them. "Today is going to be a little different. Normally, the Gryffindors would have this class with the Hufflepuffs, but today all four houses as we have been learning, using the knowledge of Transfiguration a witch or wizard can learn to transform into an animal at will. Here before us we have eight animals. Three of them are really animals, Three of them are witches or wizards in their Animagus form. Now can anyone tell me how you can tell the difference?" Several hand shot into the air, but Reagan's was faster.
"Miss Potter."
"Animagus have some sort of marking on them, signifying that they really human."
"Wonderful, five points," Professor Lupin said. "Now, I want each of you to walk along before these animals and observe them. As a house I want you to write down and decide which four are animals and which are Animagi." He went along and named what each animal was, smiling as he walked past the ocelot.
"Now don't worry, all of the animals will behave and you are not in any harm." The students walked along the line of animals. Reagan got in line behind Lane and when she reached the large cat, an ocelot, she reached her hand towards him, pulling it back when he growled. She smirked and walked back to the table with the other Gryffindors.
"I have no clue," Lane stated, plopping down in the chair.
"The ocelot and the tabby cat are Animagi," Reagan said not looking up from her book.
"How do you know that?" Bolton asked.
Reagan looked at him. "I just do."
"Reagan, could you explain why this is?" Katie asked.
Reagan sighed and looked back at the larger cat. "Come on, I'll show you."
The other Gryffindors followed her to the front of the room where they had to wait a few moments for the Hufflepuffs to finish.
"See, the tabby car has markings around her eyes?" Reagan whispered to her house mates. "It looks as if she were wearing glasses? Most cats don't have that type of marking. And the cat is sitting extremely stiffly too." Reagan pointed to the cat and stroked her back. She knew that this particular cat was their Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, she had heard so many stories about her. She moved on to the ocelot.
"See, the ocelot has a cowlick," Reagan said pointing to the animals head. "Its ok," she cooed to it as she moved her hand forward. The ocelot stared at her but allowed her to touch him.
"It rare to see an animal with a cowlick, especially one with such a prominent fur pattern."
"So, if these are Animagi, then which one if the third?" Bolton asked.
"Well, lets look," Reagan said. She moved away from the larger cat and walked along the row of animals. She paused at each one smiling at them one by one. In her experience, the easiest and quickest way to determine an Animagus was to smile at them and see if they smiled back.
"What about this one?" Hayden Thorns asked, stopping at the rat. Reagan glared at it. She despised rats and always had. She looked closer at it.
"Professor Lupin?" Reagan asked, turning around. He was walking amongst the groups of students and looked over at her. "Can we pick up the animals?"
Professor Lupin glanced at the rat and then at her. A thin smiled crossed his face.
"If you are very careful," he said. Reagan turned back to the rat and carefully picked it up. The rat wiggled as she picked it up.
"I don't think this is one," Reagan said. "Its too scared of us. If it really were one, then it would know that we werenÕt going to harm it.
"Thats true," Caitlin agreed. Reagan put the rat back down and they moved along.
"What about the wolf?" Cal suggested. "She seems to be very realxed." Reagan nodded in agreement. Cal reached out and pat the wolf on her head. "Her fur is also very neat, most wolves don't have fur like this."
Reagan ran her hand down the back of the wolf and smiled.
"I think he's right," Reagan said. She stood up and smiled at him. Reagan followed her house mates back to the table, resisting the unfamiliar urge to stop at the snake and ask it its name. Reagan shook her head as she sat down next to Cal. The Gryffindors sat and chatted amongst themselves for the remainder of the class.
"Miss Potter?" Professor Lupin asked, coming up to their table. He motioned for her to follow him and he lead her outside of the room.
"Since you already know the three Animagi, I don't see it necessary to put the wards on you."
"Professor, what sort of ward are you putting on the students?" Reagan asked.
"Well, as you know, there are two unregistered Animagi in that room. So when they transform back to their human state, the ward will prevent the students from recognizing, or acknowledging who they are. They will be unable to recall later what each looked like and will not be able to point them out in anyway." Professor Lupin smiled and left the her in the hall.
She stood for a few moments, waiting for Professor Lupin to allow her back into the room.
"Could there be anything worse than Umbridge?" a tall red headed boy said, walking with a dark haired boy. They were both misty and slightly translucent, a bit like ghosts, and neither of them realized that Reagan was standing there.
"Being banned from Quidditch, that's that's... just mean!" Reagan rolled her eyes at her uncle Ron's fifteen year old voice.
"At least Hermione isn't looking at me like I deserved it." Reagan shook her head and the voices faded as the two boys walked past her.
"There's still nothing worse than Umbridge."
"Who's Umbridge?" Reagan wondered out loud.
"Your father's Defense Against the Dark Arts professor during his fifth year," Professor Lupin answered from behind her.
"Was she bad?" Reagan asked.
Professor Lupin grinned. "Bad is an understatement."
Reagan nodded and followed him into the classroom, taking her seat beside Josie.
"Now, I have every house's paper, right?" Professor Lupin asked moving along the side of the room. "Good, now, on the count of three, the four animagus will transform to back into their human state. One... two... three!" Reagan watched as her brother grew straight upward, his feline fur disappearing into his skin. James brushed off his robes and tried to flatten his hair as Professor McGonagall was straightening her hat. Reagan looked beyond her Headmistress to where the wolf had stood and in its spot stood Erika Caldwell.
"All right, excellent class today, as for homework, I want an summary of the Animagus chapter in your textbooks, thats Chapter Eighteen, and an essay on what animal you choose to be if you could be an Animagus." Reagan stood up and followed the rest of the students out of the door, careful not to wave at her brother of his girlfriend. She didn't want anyone to think she knew who they were.
"That was really cool," Josie said. "I wonder why Professor Lupin didn't have you--"
"Josie!" Reagan said to stop her from completing her sentence.
"Oops," Josie said. "Sorry."
"I was wondering that too," Cal said.
"Well, I don't know," Reagan said. "Probably because someone would have noticed if I wasn't in class."
"Oh," Josie said as if the answer had been obvious. "Well, did you finish your History of Magic essay?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two days later, Reagan walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts and again noticed something different. In the front of the room was the absence of a their tall blond haired professor. Instead was a square witch staring at them behind half moon glasses. Her hair was a strawberry blond and she had a sour look on her face.
Reagan set her book bag down onto her chair before approaching the new teacher.
"Good afternoon, ma'am," Reagan said. "I was wondering where Professor Lockhart was."
"Well, Miss Potter," the new professor began. "You'll be wondering until I tell you and the rest of the class when the rest of the class is here."
"Thank you, ma'am," Reagan replied and took her seat as Josie and Cal came into the room.
"Who's that?"
"Dunno," Reagan replied. "She wouldn't tell me."
"Quiet down, class, lets all take our seats," the new teacher said. "Quickly now, quickly, we haven't got all day!" The class sat down rather quickly after this, looking at their new teacher in wonder.
"My name is Professor Elierson," the new teach said. "Professor Lockhart has been called into duty and I will be filling for him until he returns. Now, the last thing you studied was--yes Miss Potter?"
Reagan looked around, wondering why Professor Elierson had called on her.
"I didn't have my hand up, Professor," Reagan said.
"But you wanted to ask a question," Professor Elierson replied. "Did you not?"
Stunned, Reagan replied, "I was wondering what Professor Lockhart had been called to duty for. I was going to ask Professor Lupin about it later."
"It would do you well not to run to your surrogate uncle every time you have a question," Professor Elierson said. "It makes you seem needy. Professor Lockhart is an Auror and he has been called to duty, much like your father has. Now keep your thoughts to yourself. I have enough noise in my head without your voice wondering things all the time."
Still stunned, and a bit hurt, Reagan busied herself with reading the chapter Professor Elierson assigned, wondering who this new woman was and how she could read what Reagan was thinking.
A/N: So sorry about the long delay, and for the short chapter. And unfortunately there will be another long delay, probably about two weeks. Too much is happening: my fiancee is coming home tonight (he's in the Marines for those of you who don't know), we have family coming in, we're getting married on July 26th, I'm packing and we're moving to San Diego and school starts. So please be patient, I will be writing (hopefully!) throughout all of this as its the only way I stay sane. This fic is about half over, and the third and final is in planning.
The dialogue about Professor Umbridge is not from Order of the Phoenix. Its just something I made up, although it is likely that something of the sorts would have been said between Harry and Ron. Also, Professor Elierson was planned before Order of the Phoenix was released, and it was lucky that Professor Umbridge was so horrid because my made up quote fits nicely.
Review please!!!
Love, ~Erica Evans
