Disclaimer: If I wrote the Harry Potter series I would not be having such a hard time writing a term paper on Chemotherapy. (If anyone out there has some good information on chemo, hook me up.)
One For All
Natural Anthem
A/N: If you haven't noticed, I've got the memory of a goldfish. One chapter I forgot the disclaimer, another I forgot to include a beginning quote. I'll be going back to revise and fix all mistakes when this story is finished (which won't be for a while, I'm like a turtle: slow and steady.) Please let me know any mistakes you find or improvements I should make! Thanks!
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. Edward Everett Hale
Four padded feet were walking on him. Ouch. Right on the bladder. Not in his best interest. Harry heard a sound sounding similar to "moof," as the animal with four padded feet plopped down on top of him. He felt a wet tongue licking his face once and then his hand. Yuck.
He cracked open an eye. Big Giant Padfoot was sitting on him. At least he felt like Big Giant Padfoot instead of just Padfoot. Probably because dear old Padfoot had stepped on his bladder. Several times.
Harry could hear laughter. Well at least Remus was enjoying this.
"Good morning Sirius. If you don't get off of me in five seconds I will banish you off," Harry grumbled, annunciating each word.
Padfoot whined and licked his face again.
"Two seconds."
Padfoot just licked his face again. Or at least tried to. Harry looked him in the eyes and suddenly Padfoot was no longer in the room.
"Where did you send him?" asked Remus.
"Swimming."
Faraway, insulted barks rang out. Remus turned and looked out the window. Padfoot was trudging out of the lake. Sopping wet.
"I warned him," Harry said with a shrug. "It was his choice to temp me."
"Well I bet he won't be trying to wake you up like that again for a while. Or at least he will get off immediately," Remus said. The grin on his face grew when they heard the portrait slam shut and shouting float up the stairs.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER."
"Sirius," Harry paused and looked to Remus.
"Orion," said Remus.
"Black," Harry finished calmly.
Sirius stormed in, dripping all over. "Do you know how COLD the lake is!"
"Yes. Do you know how I warned you to get off me?"
"Yes."
"I mentioned that I make no empty threats right?"
"Well no."
"Well now you know."
"Well thanks."
"No problem."
"Harry?"
"Yes?"
"You remember I'm a Marauder right?"
"I believe it's been mentioned, yes."
"It's time for payback." Padfoot ran towards Harry as Harry became a dog identical to Sirius.
Remus laughed as he watched Sirius chase Harry around the room, then out of the room completely. It was a few moments until he could hear barks again. He looked out the window in the direction of the barks to see Sirius chasing Harry, or rather two black blobs running around the lake. Remus smiled and sighed slightly wistfully as the two ran back into the room within a few minutes.
Harry changed back into himself, turned around and got tackled by Padfoot. He was pinned to the floor by two paws that quickly became human hands again. Sirius grinned down at him.
"I win," Sirius proclaimed.
"Whatever you want to believe," Harry replied.
Sirius let Harry go and stood up straight. "I'd better go let Dumbledore know about our plans tonight. I'll see you two at breakfast."
"Ok," they both replied.
"Can we have a quick game of chess before breakfast?" asked Harry, looking at his watch. They had quite a while until they were due at breakfast.
"Sure."
As they played chess Harry's mind wandered. He dissected the events of the morning in his head, something felt odd. Within a few moments his mind snatched on to the look that Remus had worn when he and Sirius had come running back into the room. Remus had been smiling, but sadness was in his eyes.
Harry's mind set to work trying to find a clue to go on as to why Remus would look saddened. He had seen the look on Remus' face a few times before. It had been times when he and Sirius had chased each other in Animagi forms.
"Remus?" Harry asked, boldly deciding to see if his guess was right.
"Mmm?" Remus responded without looking up from the board.
"Can you become an Animagus?"
"Werewolves can not become Animagi," Remus looked up from the chessboard. Harry noticed the slightly saddened look that had come over Remus' face.
"If you could, would you become one?"
"Yes."
Harry shoveled around in the pile of information that was his mind. He had all these powers and abilities. There had to be a way he could fix Remus' problem. What good were huge powers unless they helped the people closest to them be happier.
"Can I see something?" Harry said. He had been going through his head trying to think of something he could do for nearly ten minutes. He had felt like he was in a big room full of filing cabinets. He had gone through each, looking for something useful. There was definitely a lot of information in his head he didn't know about. Harry figured most of it was probably all information that the bracelet had given to him. He touched the bracelet absentmindedly as he thought about it.
"What?"
"Hold still, well you don't have to hold still, but don't hit me or anything," said Harry, he placed his hand on Remus' shoulder and closed his eyes.
Remus raised his eyebrows. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for something. Shh."
Inside Harry's head he could see Remus' magical body. He could see his capabilities and limitations. It was a like a large office building. It was blue, white and silver everywhere. When he had touched Remus' shoulder he had opened the door into his mind. Harry found himself in a lobby. Ignoring the oddity that Remus' mind had a lobby; Harry walked to a large spiral staircase and began to climb. As he went there were landings for floors. He looked up; the staircase seemed to go on forever.
Fantastic, Harry thought sarcastically. Remus just had to be brilliant.
After getting tired of the stairs Harry walked onto a floor that looked promising. Ok, so it didn't look any different from any of the other floors but to Harry it looked like a place that wasn't stairs. And any place that wasn't stairs looked great.
He walked through the hallways and opened doors. The rooms held filing cabinets, wall to wall. Well, his metaphor about his head being filled with filing cabinets had apparently been true.
Harry walked over to a filing cabinet. He read several drawer labels. Of course Remus' mind was extremely organized, how could he expect otherwise of his extremely intelligent friend. Harry sniggered at the thought that this place was probably fairly close to how Hermione's would look.
The labels varied but mainly stated what powers and abilities they held. Harry opted not to open any cabinets. He had no idea what would happen if he did, and didn't really feel up to finding out. It could cause Remus to use the spell or whatever he opened while Harry was in his mind or erase the information. Either way Harry was quite all right not knowing.
Harry shivered as he closed the door. There was a claw mark on the door. Every once and a while he came across claw marks on the walls when Harry looked down the hall. That wonderful sense of foreboding hit Harry hard. So naturally, Harry kept walking.
He came across a door with a large X in claw marks on it. He opened it. In the center of the room stood a large clear black bubble. Inside the bubble was a black and silver wolf. Harry looked closely at it. It didn't look like Moony. Moony was brown. Or at least Sirius had told him Moony was brown. Harry touched the ball. It stung slightly. He heard a growl. Moony was locking Remus' Animagus capability. If he broke the casing around the black wolf Remus could become an Animagus.
He thought deeply. If he broke the ball around the wolf, would Moony get mad and attack Remus? He finally placed both hands on the ball. He pushed energy into it. In a burst of dark light the ball broke and the black wolf was free. It began roaming around the room contently. It came next to Harry and Harry ran a hand on its fur.
Harry turned when he heard a low growl. A brown wolf walked slowly towards Harry through the open door.
"Hello Harry," the words came out of the wolf's mouth. It just figured the wolf could talk. Nothing ever normal did seem to happen to Harry. Not that anything about his current situation was normal anyway.
"Moony?" asked Harry.
"Yes. I am Moony. I am the wolf, which lives within Remus. You have broken a barrier that I put up. You will pay." Well, the wolf did get right to the point at least. No beating around the bush for him.
Moony ran towards him. Harry only put out a hand and placed it on Moony's head. The wolf stopped. Harry was silently very thankful that had worked. He was rather fond of having two hands. The opposable thumbs were especially great.
"You are very powerful young one," the wolf walked backwards slightly.
"Er. Yes. Yes I am," said Harry with fake courage in his voice, trying to keep the wolf under control.
"I can not harm you. I will serve you."
"Er. Ok. Can you leave Remus?" Harry liked to be blunt.
"No. I will be in him forever and I will always be what I am. It is impossible for a wolf to leave the werewolf without killing both parties."
"Will you not harm Remus?"
"That I can do."
"Will Remus be able to become an Animagus now?"
"Yes. But he will still be a werewolf."
"Ok," said Harry. Oddly Harry wondered if he was supposed to shake hands with the wolf. It sounded like a business deal.
"I believe Remus is trying to wake you up now."
The place where Harry was blurred and Harry was on the Gryffindor room couch. Sirius and Remus were trying to wake him up. "Harry! What happened?"
"I talked to Moony."
"That's right, you are talking to Moony and Padfoot," said Sirius, worry glazing his eyes at Harry's last, very odd statement.
"I found your magical energy and unleashed your ability to become an Animagus. Moony had locked it up. Now you can become an Animagus. Moony came, he found out what I did. He charged at me and I put my hand on his head. He told me I had a lot of power and said he would serve me. I asked him to leave you, and he said he could not. He said he would allow you to become an Animagus but he would still control you every full moon." Harry stopped talking. That was quite enough to prove him crazy. Apparently neither adult noticed.
"I'm. I'm an Animagus?" asked Remus, shock and happiness beginning to take over his face.
"Yes. A black and silver wolf if what I saw was correct."
"Wow."
Sirius suddenly engulfed him in a huge hug. "Don't do that Harry!"
"Do what? Help Remus?"
"Scare me!"
"Oh, that. Well I can't promise anything. Honestly Sirius, you scare pretty easily," said Harry as he returned the hug. Sirius knocked Harry's head gently with his hand. Once Sirius let go of him Remus took over and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you Harry. So much."
"We should probably go tell Dumbledore. Teachers might freak if they think Moony got loose in the castle and its really just you."
"Good point."
Harry was having a lot of fun surprising Dumbledore so much. Usually Dumbledore always seemed to know everything that went on with everyone or have Ôsuspected' it. Dumbledore hadn't seen this one coming.
"Have you tried to transform yet Remus?" asked Dumbledore, after Harry had explained his meeting with Moony.
"No sir," replied Remus.
"Are you sure this will be safe Harry?" asked Dumbledore.
"If anything goes wrong, I will have myself another little chat with Moony," said Harry, cracking his knuckles by pushing one fist into his other hand. Of course he only talked to the wolf, not wrestled it. Making his fist gesture unnecessary.
"Why don't you go ahead and try to transform Remus, you know quite a lot about Animagi already, I remember you doing quite a lot of research about it around fourth year. The year after I believe three of the Marauders became Animagi oddly enough," said Dumbledore, annoying sparkle of knowledge back in his eyes.
Remus closed his eyes and within five minutes a black and silver wolf was standing in his place. It looked around with an odd expression for a wolf. Amazement.
Harry walked over to it and knelt down. The wolf put its head on Harry's shoulder and Harry hugged it around the neck. He whispered, "You did it," into the wolf's ear.
Padfoot appeared next to Harry and nudged the wolf with its nose. The two animals were soon tackling each other. Harry and Dumbledore laughed when Remus triumphantly pinned Sirius to the floor and gave a wolfish smile. All Padfoot did was bark.
"Harry, would you please describe your experience in Remus' mind in more detail for me? I have never heard of anything like this," asked Dumbledore, giving Harry his full attention.
"It was like walking into a muggle office building. When I touched Remus' shoulder with the intent of entering his mind it felt like I opened a door. I entered through a lobby and found a huge spiral staircase. I went up several flights and when I looked up to see where the stairs ended I couldn't see an end. I walked into a hallway and into a room. All the rooms were filled with filing cabinets. Each of the filing cabinets were filled with information about something. I think Remus' mind was like this because he is so organized. I'm not sure, for instance, what Sirius' mind would look like," the twinkle in Dumbledore's eye shone with amusement.
"I went into a another room and found a black clear bubble encasing Remus' Animagus. I used my energy to free it and Moony came. From there you know what happened," said Harry.
"Thank you Harry. I do believe we should be getting down to dinner. We are running a bit late. We should probably announce this news to the others so that they are not walking around the halls late at night encountering what they believe is a werewolf," said Dumbledore.
Sirius smiled. "But it could be so much fun."
"But Severus' reaction to a werewolf would not turn out so well for the wolf."
"Good point."
The four were the last to arrive at dinner that evening.
"I have an announcement to make," Dumbledore said, reaching the table. "If you meet a black and silver wolf in the halls do not harm it, it is not a werewolf. It is Remus."
"How? Werewolves cannot become Animagi," said McGonagall.
"Ah. Normally they cannot. Harry was able to go inside Remus' magical energy and unleash the Animagus form. He had a slight run in with the werewolf, but was able to overpower him into letting Remus be an Animagus. Quite an achievement for the both of them I believe."
The teachers looked impressed towards Harry. Everyone went back into their own conversations within a few minutes. Harry glanced up to where Dumbledore and Snape sat next to each other. Well, Snape had yet to look in Harry's direction, which Harry took as a good sign. Usually there was much scowling to be had.
After a delicious meal, Harry, Sirius and Remus began to walk towards the Whomping Willow.
"Harry are you sure you want to come? You can still back out if you'd like to. I won't hold it against you," said Remus.
"I'm coming," said Harry, looking across the lake at the setting sun.
"Ok."
Harry transformed into a tiny black hamster, deciding he definitely did not want to transform into a rat. Hamster Harry scrambled over the roots of the Whomping Willow to tap the knot that stilled the tree. Harry became human again and the three disappeared into the tunnel.
One For All
Natural Anthem
A/N: If you haven't noticed, I've got the memory of a goldfish. One chapter I forgot the disclaimer, another I forgot to include a beginning quote. I'll be going back to revise and fix all mistakes when this story is finished (which won't be for a while, I'm like a turtle: slow and steady.) Please let me know any mistakes you find or improvements I should make! Thanks!
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. Edward Everett Hale
Four padded feet were walking on him. Ouch. Right on the bladder. Not in his best interest. Harry heard a sound sounding similar to "moof," as the animal with four padded feet plopped down on top of him. He felt a wet tongue licking his face once and then his hand. Yuck.
He cracked open an eye. Big Giant Padfoot was sitting on him. At least he felt like Big Giant Padfoot instead of just Padfoot. Probably because dear old Padfoot had stepped on his bladder. Several times.
Harry could hear laughter. Well at least Remus was enjoying this.
"Good morning Sirius. If you don't get off of me in five seconds I will banish you off," Harry grumbled, annunciating each word.
Padfoot whined and licked his face again.
"Two seconds."
Padfoot just licked his face again. Or at least tried to. Harry looked him in the eyes and suddenly Padfoot was no longer in the room.
"Where did you send him?" asked Remus.
"Swimming."
Faraway, insulted barks rang out. Remus turned and looked out the window. Padfoot was trudging out of the lake. Sopping wet.
"I warned him," Harry said with a shrug. "It was his choice to temp me."
"Well I bet he won't be trying to wake you up like that again for a while. Or at least he will get off immediately," Remus said. The grin on his face grew when they heard the portrait slam shut and shouting float up the stairs.
"HARRY JAMES POTTER."
"Sirius," Harry paused and looked to Remus.
"Orion," said Remus.
"Black," Harry finished calmly.
Sirius stormed in, dripping all over. "Do you know how COLD the lake is!"
"Yes. Do you know how I warned you to get off me?"
"Yes."
"I mentioned that I make no empty threats right?"
"Well no."
"Well now you know."
"Well thanks."
"No problem."
"Harry?"
"Yes?"
"You remember I'm a Marauder right?"
"I believe it's been mentioned, yes."
"It's time for payback." Padfoot ran towards Harry as Harry became a dog identical to Sirius.
Remus laughed as he watched Sirius chase Harry around the room, then out of the room completely. It was a few moments until he could hear barks again. He looked out the window in the direction of the barks to see Sirius chasing Harry, or rather two black blobs running around the lake. Remus smiled and sighed slightly wistfully as the two ran back into the room within a few minutes.
Harry changed back into himself, turned around and got tackled by Padfoot. He was pinned to the floor by two paws that quickly became human hands again. Sirius grinned down at him.
"I win," Sirius proclaimed.
"Whatever you want to believe," Harry replied.
Sirius let Harry go and stood up straight. "I'd better go let Dumbledore know about our plans tonight. I'll see you two at breakfast."
"Ok," they both replied.
"Can we have a quick game of chess before breakfast?" asked Harry, looking at his watch. They had quite a while until they were due at breakfast.
"Sure."
As they played chess Harry's mind wandered. He dissected the events of the morning in his head, something felt odd. Within a few moments his mind snatched on to the look that Remus had worn when he and Sirius had come running back into the room. Remus had been smiling, but sadness was in his eyes.
Harry's mind set to work trying to find a clue to go on as to why Remus would look saddened. He had seen the look on Remus' face a few times before. It had been times when he and Sirius had chased each other in Animagi forms.
"Remus?" Harry asked, boldly deciding to see if his guess was right.
"Mmm?" Remus responded without looking up from the board.
"Can you become an Animagus?"
"Werewolves can not become Animagi," Remus looked up from the chessboard. Harry noticed the slightly saddened look that had come over Remus' face.
"If you could, would you become one?"
"Yes."
Harry shoveled around in the pile of information that was his mind. He had all these powers and abilities. There had to be a way he could fix Remus' problem. What good were huge powers unless they helped the people closest to them be happier.
"Can I see something?" Harry said. He had been going through his head trying to think of something he could do for nearly ten minutes. He had felt like he was in a big room full of filing cabinets. He had gone through each, looking for something useful. There was definitely a lot of information in his head he didn't know about. Harry figured most of it was probably all information that the bracelet had given to him. He touched the bracelet absentmindedly as he thought about it.
"What?"
"Hold still, well you don't have to hold still, but don't hit me or anything," said Harry, he placed his hand on Remus' shoulder and closed his eyes.
Remus raised his eyebrows. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for something. Shh."
Inside Harry's head he could see Remus' magical body. He could see his capabilities and limitations. It was a like a large office building. It was blue, white and silver everywhere. When he had touched Remus' shoulder he had opened the door into his mind. Harry found himself in a lobby. Ignoring the oddity that Remus' mind had a lobby; Harry walked to a large spiral staircase and began to climb. As he went there were landings for floors. He looked up; the staircase seemed to go on forever.
Fantastic, Harry thought sarcastically. Remus just had to be brilliant.
After getting tired of the stairs Harry walked onto a floor that looked promising. Ok, so it didn't look any different from any of the other floors but to Harry it looked like a place that wasn't stairs. And any place that wasn't stairs looked great.
He walked through the hallways and opened doors. The rooms held filing cabinets, wall to wall. Well, his metaphor about his head being filled with filing cabinets had apparently been true.
Harry walked over to a filing cabinet. He read several drawer labels. Of course Remus' mind was extremely organized, how could he expect otherwise of his extremely intelligent friend. Harry sniggered at the thought that this place was probably fairly close to how Hermione's would look.
The labels varied but mainly stated what powers and abilities they held. Harry opted not to open any cabinets. He had no idea what would happen if he did, and didn't really feel up to finding out. It could cause Remus to use the spell or whatever he opened while Harry was in his mind or erase the information. Either way Harry was quite all right not knowing.
Harry shivered as he closed the door. There was a claw mark on the door. Every once and a while he came across claw marks on the walls when Harry looked down the hall. That wonderful sense of foreboding hit Harry hard. So naturally, Harry kept walking.
He came across a door with a large X in claw marks on it. He opened it. In the center of the room stood a large clear black bubble. Inside the bubble was a black and silver wolf. Harry looked closely at it. It didn't look like Moony. Moony was brown. Or at least Sirius had told him Moony was brown. Harry touched the ball. It stung slightly. He heard a growl. Moony was locking Remus' Animagus capability. If he broke the casing around the black wolf Remus could become an Animagus.
He thought deeply. If he broke the ball around the wolf, would Moony get mad and attack Remus? He finally placed both hands on the ball. He pushed energy into it. In a burst of dark light the ball broke and the black wolf was free. It began roaming around the room contently. It came next to Harry and Harry ran a hand on its fur.
Harry turned when he heard a low growl. A brown wolf walked slowly towards Harry through the open door.
"Hello Harry," the words came out of the wolf's mouth. It just figured the wolf could talk. Nothing ever normal did seem to happen to Harry. Not that anything about his current situation was normal anyway.
"Moony?" asked Harry.
"Yes. I am Moony. I am the wolf, which lives within Remus. You have broken a barrier that I put up. You will pay." Well, the wolf did get right to the point at least. No beating around the bush for him.
Moony ran towards him. Harry only put out a hand and placed it on Moony's head. The wolf stopped. Harry was silently very thankful that had worked. He was rather fond of having two hands. The opposable thumbs were especially great.
"You are very powerful young one," the wolf walked backwards slightly.
"Er. Yes. Yes I am," said Harry with fake courage in his voice, trying to keep the wolf under control.
"I can not harm you. I will serve you."
"Er. Ok. Can you leave Remus?" Harry liked to be blunt.
"No. I will be in him forever and I will always be what I am. It is impossible for a wolf to leave the werewolf without killing both parties."
"Will you not harm Remus?"
"That I can do."
"Will Remus be able to become an Animagus now?"
"Yes. But he will still be a werewolf."
"Ok," said Harry. Oddly Harry wondered if he was supposed to shake hands with the wolf. It sounded like a business deal.
"I believe Remus is trying to wake you up now."
The place where Harry was blurred and Harry was on the Gryffindor room couch. Sirius and Remus were trying to wake him up. "Harry! What happened?"
"I talked to Moony."
"That's right, you are talking to Moony and Padfoot," said Sirius, worry glazing his eyes at Harry's last, very odd statement.
"I found your magical energy and unleashed your ability to become an Animagus. Moony had locked it up. Now you can become an Animagus. Moony came, he found out what I did. He charged at me and I put my hand on his head. He told me I had a lot of power and said he would serve me. I asked him to leave you, and he said he could not. He said he would allow you to become an Animagus but he would still control you every full moon." Harry stopped talking. That was quite enough to prove him crazy. Apparently neither adult noticed.
"I'm. I'm an Animagus?" asked Remus, shock and happiness beginning to take over his face.
"Yes. A black and silver wolf if what I saw was correct."
"Wow."
Sirius suddenly engulfed him in a huge hug. "Don't do that Harry!"
"Do what? Help Remus?"
"Scare me!"
"Oh, that. Well I can't promise anything. Honestly Sirius, you scare pretty easily," said Harry as he returned the hug. Sirius knocked Harry's head gently with his hand. Once Sirius let go of him Remus took over and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you Harry. So much."
"We should probably go tell Dumbledore. Teachers might freak if they think Moony got loose in the castle and its really just you."
"Good point."
Harry was having a lot of fun surprising Dumbledore so much. Usually Dumbledore always seemed to know everything that went on with everyone or have Ôsuspected' it. Dumbledore hadn't seen this one coming.
"Have you tried to transform yet Remus?" asked Dumbledore, after Harry had explained his meeting with Moony.
"No sir," replied Remus.
"Are you sure this will be safe Harry?" asked Dumbledore.
"If anything goes wrong, I will have myself another little chat with Moony," said Harry, cracking his knuckles by pushing one fist into his other hand. Of course he only talked to the wolf, not wrestled it. Making his fist gesture unnecessary.
"Why don't you go ahead and try to transform Remus, you know quite a lot about Animagi already, I remember you doing quite a lot of research about it around fourth year. The year after I believe three of the Marauders became Animagi oddly enough," said Dumbledore, annoying sparkle of knowledge back in his eyes.
Remus closed his eyes and within five minutes a black and silver wolf was standing in his place. It looked around with an odd expression for a wolf. Amazement.
Harry walked over to it and knelt down. The wolf put its head on Harry's shoulder and Harry hugged it around the neck. He whispered, "You did it," into the wolf's ear.
Padfoot appeared next to Harry and nudged the wolf with its nose. The two animals were soon tackling each other. Harry and Dumbledore laughed when Remus triumphantly pinned Sirius to the floor and gave a wolfish smile. All Padfoot did was bark.
"Harry, would you please describe your experience in Remus' mind in more detail for me? I have never heard of anything like this," asked Dumbledore, giving Harry his full attention.
"It was like walking into a muggle office building. When I touched Remus' shoulder with the intent of entering his mind it felt like I opened a door. I entered through a lobby and found a huge spiral staircase. I went up several flights and when I looked up to see where the stairs ended I couldn't see an end. I walked into a hallway and into a room. All the rooms were filled with filing cabinets. Each of the filing cabinets were filled with information about something. I think Remus' mind was like this because he is so organized. I'm not sure, for instance, what Sirius' mind would look like," the twinkle in Dumbledore's eye shone with amusement.
"I went into a another room and found a black clear bubble encasing Remus' Animagus. I used my energy to free it and Moony came. From there you know what happened," said Harry.
"Thank you Harry. I do believe we should be getting down to dinner. We are running a bit late. We should probably announce this news to the others so that they are not walking around the halls late at night encountering what they believe is a werewolf," said Dumbledore.
Sirius smiled. "But it could be so much fun."
"But Severus' reaction to a werewolf would not turn out so well for the wolf."
"Good point."
The four were the last to arrive at dinner that evening.
"I have an announcement to make," Dumbledore said, reaching the table. "If you meet a black and silver wolf in the halls do not harm it, it is not a werewolf. It is Remus."
"How? Werewolves cannot become Animagi," said McGonagall.
"Ah. Normally they cannot. Harry was able to go inside Remus' magical energy and unleash the Animagus form. He had a slight run in with the werewolf, but was able to overpower him into letting Remus be an Animagus. Quite an achievement for the both of them I believe."
The teachers looked impressed towards Harry. Everyone went back into their own conversations within a few minutes. Harry glanced up to where Dumbledore and Snape sat next to each other. Well, Snape had yet to look in Harry's direction, which Harry took as a good sign. Usually there was much scowling to be had.
After a delicious meal, Harry, Sirius and Remus began to walk towards the Whomping Willow.
"Harry are you sure you want to come? You can still back out if you'd like to. I won't hold it against you," said Remus.
"I'm coming," said Harry, looking across the lake at the setting sun.
"Ok."
Harry transformed into a tiny black hamster, deciding he definitely did not want to transform into a rat. Hamster Harry scrambled over the roots of the Whomping Willow to tap the knot that stilled the tree. Harry became human again and the three disappeared into the tunnel.