A/N: I own nothing, JKR owns the characters and everything else but the idea

A/N: It's only b/c of the reviews that I'm still trying to write during the workweek.

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CH19 Amazing Animagus

"Mom?"

Dumbledore shook his head slowly, "No Harry, not exactly. Look at the rest of your body."

Harry had already seen the rest of the creature that he had become. He WAS beautiful. He knew what he was and he couldn't imagine anything better to transform into. He was beautiful and although he didn't yet know all of his new abilities, he knew that he had become a very powerful magical creature.

He had the body and tail of a lion. He had wings that grew out of his torso. And he had the shoulders and head of a beautiful woman, not just any woman but his mother --- Lily Potter.

Harry had seen this creature once last year during the third task so immediately knew that he was a sphinx. He remembered that even back then he was almost in awe of the creature. Now here he was, one of them.

Wow --- he wanted to say wow but he still couldn't speak. Dumbledore broke into his train of thought.

"Harry, it's time to continue your lessons. You should transform back now." The three men all looked on as Harry shook his head in disagreement. His eyes never left the reflection in the mirror.

Dumbledore continued, "Harry, don't worry. You'll be able to transform into your creature any time you want. Come on now, we must continue your training."

Grudgingly, Harry nodded his acceptance at the idea. He tore his eyes away and walked back over to them. Lupin administered the rest of the potion.

It didn't take hardly any time for Harry to transform back into his normal self. However it did take enough time for Sirius to regain his composure. He ran up to Harry and hugged him.

"Harry, that was so magnificent. You know that I'm always proud of you but --- Yikes --- what else can I say?"

"Lunch is waiting for all of us up in my office. Shall we all retire there for now and talk about what we saw this morning?" Everyone nodded and followed Dumbledore to his office. Sirius kept his arm around his godson the entire way there.

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Each person was buried in his own deep thoughts. Finally it was Harry who broke the silence.

"Professor Dumbledore, how did you know that I would become a sphinx with my mother's head?"

"We're also wondering that Dumbledore," Sirius said while Lupin nodded his head in agreement.

"It made sense. We all knew he was going to be chosen by an extremely powerful magical creature because he's such a special young man. We also could have guessed that his creature would be able to fly because of his prowess on the quidditch pitch. As for the rest, well you all know that I can't reveal all my secrets now don't you?"

"And my mother's face???"

"Yes that is extraordinary isn't it? We'll talk more about that later. Now tell me, can you guess what your last few lessons will cover?"

Harry was getting far enough along into his teenage years that he wondered why Dumbledore wouldn't answer his questions while demanding that Harry answered the ones he posed to him. He knew that this was no time for an argument though; Harry wanted to continue this particular lesson. "Well, I couldn't talk in my sphinx form so hopefully I'll learn how to do that. And whether or not it's required I know I want to read everything I can about this creature. I don't know that much about it."

"That's exactly right Harry. I believe I've got just the book you need. Any book that would have enough information on the sphinx to be useful to you would be extremely difficult to find; they're very rare. I need you to stay in here for a while and read up on your other self, so to speak. I still don't want anyone else to know what you can do. Sirius and Remus will be back later to help you with some of your studies."

The adults arose to leave for another meeting. "Oh and Harry, I don't want you trying to transform back until I give you the go-ahead."

DRAT! Harry was obviously disappointed by this last restriction. He desperately wanted to see his mother's face again. He also wanted to hear the voice again, if he could manage to talk again. Was that his mother's voice? The headmaster could see his distress.

"Harry, it won't be that long at all before you transform back. It might even be this weekend depending on how much you read today. But I must insist that you abide by my wishes on this." He waited for Harry to nod his consent before leading Sirius and Lupin out.

His head was once again swirling. He had seen (and possibly heard) his mother today. He had often wondered about her. He knew that he looked like his dad. He had befriended some of his dad's friends. His patronus was his dad's animagus form. Although he loved finding out things about his dad, he had wondered more than once why he hadn't found out very much about his mother. As much as he wanted to sit here and reflect on what he had seen this morning, Dumbledore's words were still echoing in his ears. 'Harry, it won't be that long at all before you transform back. It might even be this weekend depending on how much you read today.' He was going to do everything in his power to ensure that he could see his mother again this very weekend.

He picked up the book Dumbledore gave him. "101 Important Facts About the Sphinx" Harry wanted to know all he could about his animagus form. He also wanted to do whatever it took for the headmaster to let him transform again. He hated that he had to have Dumbledore's permission to transform again but he knew that he would never have succeeded or even dreamed of trying in the first place if not for the headmaster. He had to force himself to concentrate and eventually he was able to remember some of what he was reading.

He continued on in this half aware state until reaching page 48. "Chapter 4: Why the Sphinx Only Talks in Rhymes and Riddles." SON OF A GUN! It hit him like a truck. He felt so incredibly stupid. That's why he couldn't talk except when he repeated the phrase Dumbledore gave him. He felt so stupid and also angry with himself for doubting his headmaster; that man knew everything and had only ever been kind to him.

Besides answering one of his most pressing questions, this revelation also impressed upon him how little he knew about his animagus form and how important it was for him to finish reading this book. He was so enrapt in the book that he didn't hear Lupin come in.

"Studying hard Harry?"

"Yeah, at least this is more interesting than trying to memorize the ingredients required for a forgetfulness potion." Lupin chuckled. "Dumbledore sent me up to tell you that he and Sirius would be delayed for a little while. I was left behind to help you work on your transformation some more."

"Left behind? Where did they go?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that. Besides Harry, you should be focusing on the task before you. Now let's get back to work. Have you learned how to speak in your animal form yet?"

"Uh --- yes."

"Ok great. We can only continue working on your lessons if we can communicate while you're transformed. It's very important that you be able to talk to us. This, Harry, will be the fun part. Are you ready?"

"Yes please." And with that Lupin led Harry out of the office. Harry noticed that Lupin turned the wrong way and so he stopped following him.

"Harry come on, what are you waiting for?"

"Professor Lupin, the classroom is this way."

"Ah, Harry we are not going back to the classroom. It's too confining for what you need to do now. We're going to the quidditch pitch."

"What? But everyone will see."

"Dumbledore thought of that. When he realized this morning that you were going to succeed in your task, he went to charm the pitch. I think he said he put repelling and cloudiness charms on it. Come on."

Although Harry started walking again he still didn't understand how those two charms would keep his secret. He asked Lupin to explain.

"The repelling charm will prevent anyone, except the people Dumbledore exempted, from being able to enter the area. Some people will decide it's too cold, others will suddenly remember something they're supposed to do, students will decide to study, professors will decide to prepare lessons and so forth. The cloudiness charm prevents anyone from being able to see inside. It looks to everyone like fog."

As they were getting nearer, Harry was growing more and more excited. More than anything he wanted to see his mom's face again. And he also wanted to learn more about his abilities. It was even more perfect because he was going to his favorite place to be able to work on this. He hoped Lupin would conjure another mirror for him to be able to look in.

"Am I going to be able to see my --- er --- my reflection our here?"

Lupin smiled down at him. "Of course."

They finally got down to the quidditch pitch and they went straight to the middle. Lupin turned the area into one big mirror room. Each of the four boundaries where Dumbledore had cast the two spells is where the mirrors appeared. It looked more like an indoor arena now then anything else. Lupin explained to Harry that the spells went up high enough that Harry didn't have to worry about the upper boundary and that he could go as high as he wanted.

"Ok Harry. I just have one last thing and then you can go ahead and transform and we'll begin. The very first thing I want you to do is talk to me. Don't go anywhere or try to do anything without being sure that you can talk to me. Got it?"

Harry nodded anxious to get started.

"Alright Harry, go ahead and transform."

Harry just continued to look at Lupin. "What do you mean transform? Where's the potion."

"Hmmmm. You should already know the answer to that. Skipped a few pages in your early readings did you? Well I guess it's ok, after all you've obviously studied enough since we've seen you transform. Harry, the potion only works the first time. You can use it once to transform and once to transform back. After that it has no effect. To transform from now on, its going to have to be on your own powers, but you already know that you can do it so you can stop looking so worried."

He didn't know how Lupin could think that he wouldn't be worried. Last time it took him one and a half hours to transform and that was with the help of the potion. This was terrible. He wasn't worried about not being able to transform back. He was worried that he'd never again be able to see his mother's face. He couldn't believe that he didn't know the potion was for one time use. Now what?

"Harry," Lupin's voice shook Harry from his thoughts. "Harry, you can do this, just begin with the basics. Step 1: Clear your mind."

Yeah, ok. He could do this. He sat down on the grass and started to clear his mind.

This time it only took about an hour for him to completely transform. He realized that over half that time was spent calming himself down and convincing himself that he could do it without Snape's potion. He knew that from now on it would take no more than thirty minutes. He wanted to be able to transform as quickly as his godfather before Christmas vacation.

"Harry! Answer me." Lupin's voice once again brought Harry back from his thoughts. Lupin repeated, "Can you hear me?"

Harry responded with a nod.

"Remember what I said. You're not to do anything before we can be sure that you can talk to me."

Harry thought for a minute. He could only speak in rhymes or riddles. Well there was a greater chance of Harry bowing to Malfoy's greatness than there was that Harry was going to come up with a clever riddle to pose to Lupin so he started working on a rhyme. Hermione would be much better at this than he was going to be. If he ever was allowed to tell her, he was going to have her develop some phrases that he could memorize. He started trying to form a rhyme with which he could speak to Lupin.

\\ How are you? I'm a zoo.// No no that didn't make any sense.

\\ Hello. I'm jello.// Nope, if it was possible that made even less sense than calling himself a zoo. This was going to be more difficult than he thought. He had to talk to Lupin so he could start working on his new abilities. Finally he said ---

"This is great. I can't wait." It was not the most clever thing he had ever said but at least he had been able to say something.

Lupin smiled. "Very good Harry. Very good. Now go ahead."

Harry wasn't sure what Lupin meant. He thought that perhaps Lupin was purposely vague just to ensure that Harry could talk. He started trying to formulate his next question. \\ What do you mean? Please explain.// No that didn't quite rhyme. \\ What comes now? Let's get up and go.// He knew that wasn't even close. He thought some more.

"Now go ahead? Is that what you said?" Lupin smiled again. "Perfect Harry. Do forgive me but I had to be sure --- it was for your own safety. Now just think of this as recess. I just want you to play around and develop some of your abilities."

Just as Harry was starting to learn a thing or two about his new form he saw Dumbledore come into the area. He was alone. He went over to him. Harry wanted to know where his godfather was. He couldn't open his mouth. He remembered he could only speak in rhymes and riddles. He was getting more and more frustrated and realized he wouldn't be able to think of a rhyme. He did the only other thing he could think of, he transformed back. Somehow, it took under a minute for him to regain his normal appearance.

"Where's Sirius?"

The headmaster looked grave. "Harry, this is going to be difficult for you to hear. I'm afraid I have some bad news."

A/N: So who expected Harry to become a sphinx?