Harry was walking down the corridor on his way to transfiguration when,
turning a corner, he crashed into someone, knocking his glasses off in the
process. He blinked and looked up to see a blurry figure standing in front
of him.
"Oh my! I'm so sorry," The blur said in a woman's voice. "Let me get those for you, dear," As she bent down to retrieve his glasses Harry realized that she had an American accent. Felling his glasses being pressed into his hands, Harry replaced them, and the world came into focus. Standing in front of him was a woman, about the same height as himself, with gray eyes and short black hair. Despite her grandmotherly tone of voice she could not have been more than twenty-five, Harry supposed. But the thing that stood out the most, what Harry was having trouble not staring at, was her clothes. She was wearing sneakers, faded blue jeans, and a gray sweatshirt that said "Old Navy" across the front; muggle clothes.
"Terribly sorry I bumped into you, um, Harry isn't it?" The woman said, without even glancing at his forehead.
"Er..." Said Harry, "Yeah. Um, sorry, but have I met you before?"
She laughed, "Oh, how rude of me. No, Dumbeldore pointed you out to me when I first came to Hogwarts,"
"Ah," Harry said, feeling as if this did not explain things much.
"My name is Nora," She said, sticking out her hand. Harry shook it.
"Are you, er, a student?" Harry asked doubtfully. Nora laughed again, and then frowned suddenly. She pulled something out of her pocket and examined it.
"Best you get to your class, Harry," She smiled at him "At this rate we're both going to be late" She started to pass him, and then called over her shoulder.
"I'll be seeing you later on today, Harry!" And with that she strode down the corridor and out of sight, leaving him dumbfoundedly scratching his head.
When he reached transfiguration, moments later, he saw that he was not late after all. Many students were still showing up, and there was no sign of Professor McGonagall. Ron and Hermione were there, pulling books out of their bags.
"Harry!" Ron said, "There you are! Sit down." Beckoning, he gestured to the desk next to him. Harry dropped into his seat and began methodically pulling out his own books, starting with 'Understanding Animagus' and 'Famous Animagus Throughout History'.
"Notice the curriculum this year?" Harry said as he added 'Finding your inner Animal' to the stack. "Should be fun."
"Well, of course," Hermione said, "Fifth year is when you begin seriously studying self transfiguration. They want to get to you early, in case you are an Animagus, so that you can register at the ministry as soon as possible."
"Did you hear there's a new teacher?" Ron asked suddenly. He seemed to have been waiting for Hermione to finish her speech.
"A new teacher?" Harry said. His mind jumped to the woman he had met in the corridor. But surely she was too young to be a teacher... then again Gilderoy Lockhart had been a teacher; not much of a teacher, but he had been nonetheless. And he had been fairly young. Harry remembered also that he had been rather good looking, and he almost brought the subject up to remind Hermione of the enormous crush she had had on him.
Ron was nodding.
"Yeah, I heard about him this morning in herbology... seems the Hufflepuffs think him rather... unpredictable."
Him. So it couldn't be Nora.
"What subject does he teach?" Harry asked, but before Ron could answer, the door burst open with a loud BANG. The whole class jumped and several books fell to the floor. There was silence for a moment as the students craned their necks to look out the door.
"Peeves maybe?" Ron said quietly. But, it wasn't Peeves, it was a lion. A few of the girls screamed, Hermione gasped. It LOOKED like a lion, anyway, at least somewhat. It was red, with a shimmering golden mane, long gold whiskers and gold hooves which had the classroom reflected in them. Its eyes were bright blue, and its mane seemed to flow and shift as if the creature were underwater. The creature strode forward and stood in front of McGonagall's desk, the door slowly glided shut on it's own. Before anyone could react (Hermione whispered something about getting Dumbledore under her breath) the creature's face split into what could only be a grin, baring dozens of perfectly white, very sharp teeth.
"Good morning, Gryffindors!" The beast said in a deep, but very human sounding, voice. Lavender Brown swooned and nearly fainted to the floor; she had to grip the edge of her desk to stay upright. The creature lifted one of his front gold hooves and flicked it in the direction of the chalkboard; a piece of chalk leapt up and started to write something.
"My name is Byron Kindle," It said as the chalk was dotting the 'i' in 'Kindle' "And I am your substitute transfiguration teacher," He smiled again, and looked around at the classroom, taking in each student in turn; when his eyes fell on Harry, they lingered there for a moment.
"Now then," he said at last, "That is WHO I am... can anyone tell me WHAT I am?"
Dead silence.
Lavender swayed slightly from side to side, Harry noticed Ron's mouth was hanging open. Byron Kindles smile drooped.
"... Anyone at all? Anyone care to guess?"
A slight movement to his left caught Harry's eye. Hermione was slowly lifting her trembling hand. The creature beamed.
"Yes, in the back, Miss..."
"Granger, sir. Um, are you a-a Qilin?"
"Excellent!" Professor Kindle boomed, the whole class jumped again, and then a few students smiled nervously. He closed his eyes and, slowly, began to change. His mane shrunk into a head of dark brown hair and the red fur turned into a flowing green robe. Byron Kindle was a young man, with fair skin and a long face; it seemed that the only thing that connected him to his animal alter ego were his bright blue eyes. Those eyes seemed to light up the classroom, and Harry was reminded strongly of Professor Dumbledore. Lavender Browns demeanor seemed to have changed drastically; she was blinking at Professor Kindle, a glowing blush creeping up her face. He smiled at them all once more, showing again a mouthful of perfectly white, but this time not sharp, teeth.
"Miss Granger," He said, turning his smile to Hermione, "Can you tell your fellow students exactly what a Qilin is?"
Hermione was quiet for a few moments; the words seemed to have caught in her throat.
"A..." She started, "A Qilin is something like a Chinese unicorn, and also a mix of other creatures such as a lion and a stag; very magical and rare..." Professor Kindle cut her off.
"Magical," He said spreading his arms wide, "Precisely," There was a murmuring through the classroom as the students initial shock faded away and their interest began to grow; Ron was clasping the sides of his desk and leaning forward, his eyes wide.
"Transfiguration is, perhaps, the most difficult of magical practices, as you have no doubt already learned," Professor Kindle leaned back against the desk and continued, "Transfiguring oneself, even more so. I am here to teach you about a very special breed of Self-Transfiguration: The ability to become a MAGICAL creature..." He paused here to allow several of the students to "ooh" and "ah" at this statement.
"But first!" Professor Kindle continued, raising his hand in the air. "Who can point out the other thing that sets my transfiguration apart?" Rons hand shot up into the air.
"Yes, right there next to Miss Granger... Mr.?"
"Weasley, Professor. Ron Weasley."
"And what caught your attention Mr. Weasley?" Kindles eyes were aglow.
"You were talking!" Ron said in astonishment.
"Right you are, Ron!" There was a murmur of excitement through the class. "Talking in your Transfigured form," Kindle continued, addressing all of the students, "Is another difficult thing to learn, something that is nearly impossible for those Animagus whose animal forms are not magical." He lifted himself up to sit on the desk. "Now, I'm sure you all know that Animagus have to register with the Ministry of Magic; giving your markings, etc. There are four classes and they are as follows: Class A is the most common- Professor McGonagall is in this class- wizards and witches who can transfigure into fairly everyday animals. Class B is Animagus like myself, who can become magical creatures, mythical in the Muggle world. This class requires a very extensive registration process. Class C- perhaps the rarest- can transform into multiple animals. And the final class, Class D, are Animagus who are dark wizards and witches. Now, these classes can be mixed and matched. For example, a dark wizard who can transform into multiple animals would be..." He looked at the class expectantly.
"Class D-C?" They chorused.
"Very good!"
They spent the remainder of the class reading through 'Famous Animagus Throughout History' and discussing their various classes. Harry particularly enjoyed reading about Gryndilar Gadfrie (Class B) a wizard that lived in the late fourteen hundreds, who could transfigure himself into an eight headed dragon. Seven different knights chopped off seven heads before old Gryndilar decided never to transfigure himself again.
Transfiguration seemed to go by quite quickly that day, and before they all knew it, Professor Kindle was handing out their assignments: Read the first four chapters of 'Finding your Inner Animal', and then follow the exercise on page sixty-nine.
Professor Kindle ended the class by changing back into the Ki Ren, leaping onto the desk, and smiling broadly at them as they passed, asking each of them their names. Lavender Brown looked as if her growing crush on Professor Kindle and her fear of his animal form were threatening to cancel each other out.
Once in the corridor, Ron exploded.
"That was brilliant!" He practically yelled. A passing group of Ravenclaw first years jumped and stared at him.
"Ron, please!" Hermione hissed. "Honestly, you'd think you had never seen a transfiguration before!" Ron rolled his eyes at her.
"This was different," He said, his voice quivering with excitement. "I don't know... Professor Kindle is just..." Hermione cut him off.
"Not the boring old Professor McGonagall that has been teaching us transfiguration for the past four years... quite tirelessly, I might add."
Ron threw his hands up defensively. "All right, all right," He said, "It's probably just because he's new... but that was the best transfiguration class in ages!"
Harry, meanwhile, had been reading the exercise on page sixty-nine.
"Listen to this:" He said, and read them the first paragraph. "'Many wizards and witches who do not possess the talent of self Transfiguration may still be able to find out something about themselves in regards to their inner animal. By following this simple exercise, one may be able to discover their most likely animal personality,'" He looked up at them. Even Hermione now looked as if she was quivering with excitement. Harry checked the time.
"Still twenty minutes till our next class..." He said. Hermione was shaking her head as she read her copy of the assignment.
"It says you need at least an hour. I'd hate to rush through it and muss the whole thing up," She put her paper away and adjusted her book bag on her shoulder, eyeing Harry and Ron in a suspicious sort of way, "Besides, I've got to get to the library and finish a paper for Professor Flitwick... And I don't think I'm the only one..."
"All right then," Ron said resignedly, "You win, let's get to the library."
A few minutes later they were sitting at a table in the library, hastily scrawling on parchment and flipping through books. It was about ten minutes till their next class (care of magical creatures) when Harry made his third new acquaintance of the day. He had just stood up to put a large book back on the shelf when he saw her, a girl, just coming out of the restricted section of the library.
She was beautiful. Tall and fair, her long reddish brown hair done up in a braid that fell nearly to the floor. She was wearing a plain black robe, like all students at Hogwarts, but there was no sign of house colors anywhere on her. She was carrying a stack of books in her arms. Harry thought that she must have been a seventh year- sixth at the very least- and he knew he had never seen her in Gryffindor before... if he could only think up some reason to talk to her. She was so intriguing.
Just then, as he was staring at her, she looked up at him. Harry's heart skipped a beat, and he was sure his face must have been as red as Ron's hair, as she walked up to him smiling.
"Harry, right?" She said. Her teeth were brilliantly white, like professor Kindles fangs.
"Uh-huh," Harry managed to choke, "H-Harry's me, Harry is my name, that is to say... I'm Harry," The girls smile grew warmer, if possible.
"I'm Maggie," She said, shifting her stack of books to one arm so they could shake hands. "Pleased to meet you." As they shook hands, Harry noticed the title of the book on top: 'The Darkness Within, a comprehensive study on the nature of dark wizardry.'
"Having your friends sneak books out of the restricted section for you, Potter?" said a cold voice from behind.
Harry turned to see Professor Snape gliding out from behind a bookcase. "I have to admit, that is a low attempt, even for you"
"Professor, I was just-" Harry started to say.
"Hello Professor Snape," Maggie interrupted.
Snape waved a dismissive hand at her, "I am not speaking to you, I am speaking to Po-" He looked in Maggie's direction and seemed to notice her for the first time.
"It's good to see you again," She offered him her free hand. Harry was shocked at the sincerity in her voice when she said this. Snape stared at her hand for a moment, wide-eyed, then he looked back up. He shook her hand, tentatively, and it appeared as though his face actually colored. At the very least it became less pale than usual.
Harry could hardly believe his eyes, he realized he must have been gaping at the spectacle, but he seemed transfixed. Snape broke his trance when he said quietly:
"Good to see you as well, Miss Dumbledore"
"Oh my! I'm so sorry," The blur said in a woman's voice. "Let me get those for you, dear," As she bent down to retrieve his glasses Harry realized that she had an American accent. Felling his glasses being pressed into his hands, Harry replaced them, and the world came into focus. Standing in front of him was a woman, about the same height as himself, with gray eyes and short black hair. Despite her grandmotherly tone of voice she could not have been more than twenty-five, Harry supposed. But the thing that stood out the most, what Harry was having trouble not staring at, was her clothes. She was wearing sneakers, faded blue jeans, and a gray sweatshirt that said "Old Navy" across the front; muggle clothes.
"Terribly sorry I bumped into you, um, Harry isn't it?" The woman said, without even glancing at his forehead.
"Er..." Said Harry, "Yeah. Um, sorry, but have I met you before?"
She laughed, "Oh, how rude of me. No, Dumbeldore pointed you out to me when I first came to Hogwarts,"
"Ah," Harry said, feeling as if this did not explain things much.
"My name is Nora," She said, sticking out her hand. Harry shook it.
"Are you, er, a student?" Harry asked doubtfully. Nora laughed again, and then frowned suddenly. She pulled something out of her pocket and examined it.
"Best you get to your class, Harry," She smiled at him "At this rate we're both going to be late" She started to pass him, and then called over her shoulder.
"I'll be seeing you later on today, Harry!" And with that she strode down the corridor and out of sight, leaving him dumbfoundedly scratching his head.
When he reached transfiguration, moments later, he saw that he was not late after all. Many students were still showing up, and there was no sign of Professor McGonagall. Ron and Hermione were there, pulling books out of their bags.
"Harry!" Ron said, "There you are! Sit down." Beckoning, he gestured to the desk next to him. Harry dropped into his seat and began methodically pulling out his own books, starting with 'Understanding Animagus' and 'Famous Animagus Throughout History'.
"Notice the curriculum this year?" Harry said as he added 'Finding your inner Animal' to the stack. "Should be fun."
"Well, of course," Hermione said, "Fifth year is when you begin seriously studying self transfiguration. They want to get to you early, in case you are an Animagus, so that you can register at the ministry as soon as possible."
"Did you hear there's a new teacher?" Ron asked suddenly. He seemed to have been waiting for Hermione to finish her speech.
"A new teacher?" Harry said. His mind jumped to the woman he had met in the corridor. But surely she was too young to be a teacher... then again Gilderoy Lockhart had been a teacher; not much of a teacher, but he had been nonetheless. And he had been fairly young. Harry remembered also that he had been rather good looking, and he almost brought the subject up to remind Hermione of the enormous crush she had had on him.
Ron was nodding.
"Yeah, I heard about him this morning in herbology... seems the Hufflepuffs think him rather... unpredictable."
Him. So it couldn't be Nora.
"What subject does he teach?" Harry asked, but before Ron could answer, the door burst open with a loud BANG. The whole class jumped and several books fell to the floor. There was silence for a moment as the students craned their necks to look out the door.
"Peeves maybe?" Ron said quietly. But, it wasn't Peeves, it was a lion. A few of the girls screamed, Hermione gasped. It LOOKED like a lion, anyway, at least somewhat. It was red, with a shimmering golden mane, long gold whiskers and gold hooves which had the classroom reflected in them. Its eyes were bright blue, and its mane seemed to flow and shift as if the creature were underwater. The creature strode forward and stood in front of McGonagall's desk, the door slowly glided shut on it's own. Before anyone could react (Hermione whispered something about getting Dumbledore under her breath) the creature's face split into what could only be a grin, baring dozens of perfectly white, very sharp teeth.
"Good morning, Gryffindors!" The beast said in a deep, but very human sounding, voice. Lavender Brown swooned and nearly fainted to the floor; she had to grip the edge of her desk to stay upright. The creature lifted one of his front gold hooves and flicked it in the direction of the chalkboard; a piece of chalk leapt up and started to write something.
"My name is Byron Kindle," It said as the chalk was dotting the 'i' in 'Kindle' "And I am your substitute transfiguration teacher," He smiled again, and looked around at the classroom, taking in each student in turn; when his eyes fell on Harry, they lingered there for a moment.
"Now then," he said at last, "That is WHO I am... can anyone tell me WHAT I am?"
Dead silence.
Lavender swayed slightly from side to side, Harry noticed Ron's mouth was hanging open. Byron Kindles smile drooped.
"... Anyone at all? Anyone care to guess?"
A slight movement to his left caught Harry's eye. Hermione was slowly lifting her trembling hand. The creature beamed.
"Yes, in the back, Miss..."
"Granger, sir. Um, are you a-a Qilin?"
"Excellent!" Professor Kindle boomed, the whole class jumped again, and then a few students smiled nervously. He closed his eyes and, slowly, began to change. His mane shrunk into a head of dark brown hair and the red fur turned into a flowing green robe. Byron Kindle was a young man, with fair skin and a long face; it seemed that the only thing that connected him to his animal alter ego were his bright blue eyes. Those eyes seemed to light up the classroom, and Harry was reminded strongly of Professor Dumbledore. Lavender Browns demeanor seemed to have changed drastically; she was blinking at Professor Kindle, a glowing blush creeping up her face. He smiled at them all once more, showing again a mouthful of perfectly white, but this time not sharp, teeth.
"Miss Granger," He said, turning his smile to Hermione, "Can you tell your fellow students exactly what a Qilin is?"
Hermione was quiet for a few moments; the words seemed to have caught in her throat.
"A..." She started, "A Qilin is something like a Chinese unicorn, and also a mix of other creatures such as a lion and a stag; very magical and rare..." Professor Kindle cut her off.
"Magical," He said spreading his arms wide, "Precisely," There was a murmuring through the classroom as the students initial shock faded away and their interest began to grow; Ron was clasping the sides of his desk and leaning forward, his eyes wide.
"Transfiguration is, perhaps, the most difficult of magical practices, as you have no doubt already learned," Professor Kindle leaned back against the desk and continued, "Transfiguring oneself, even more so. I am here to teach you about a very special breed of Self-Transfiguration: The ability to become a MAGICAL creature..." He paused here to allow several of the students to "ooh" and "ah" at this statement.
"But first!" Professor Kindle continued, raising his hand in the air. "Who can point out the other thing that sets my transfiguration apart?" Rons hand shot up into the air.
"Yes, right there next to Miss Granger... Mr.?"
"Weasley, Professor. Ron Weasley."
"And what caught your attention Mr. Weasley?" Kindles eyes were aglow.
"You were talking!" Ron said in astonishment.
"Right you are, Ron!" There was a murmur of excitement through the class. "Talking in your Transfigured form," Kindle continued, addressing all of the students, "Is another difficult thing to learn, something that is nearly impossible for those Animagus whose animal forms are not magical." He lifted himself up to sit on the desk. "Now, I'm sure you all know that Animagus have to register with the Ministry of Magic; giving your markings, etc. There are four classes and they are as follows: Class A is the most common- Professor McGonagall is in this class- wizards and witches who can transfigure into fairly everyday animals. Class B is Animagus like myself, who can become magical creatures, mythical in the Muggle world. This class requires a very extensive registration process. Class C- perhaps the rarest- can transform into multiple animals. And the final class, Class D, are Animagus who are dark wizards and witches. Now, these classes can be mixed and matched. For example, a dark wizard who can transform into multiple animals would be..." He looked at the class expectantly.
"Class D-C?" They chorused.
"Very good!"
They spent the remainder of the class reading through 'Famous Animagus Throughout History' and discussing their various classes. Harry particularly enjoyed reading about Gryndilar Gadfrie (Class B) a wizard that lived in the late fourteen hundreds, who could transfigure himself into an eight headed dragon. Seven different knights chopped off seven heads before old Gryndilar decided never to transfigure himself again.
Transfiguration seemed to go by quite quickly that day, and before they all knew it, Professor Kindle was handing out their assignments: Read the first four chapters of 'Finding your Inner Animal', and then follow the exercise on page sixty-nine.
Professor Kindle ended the class by changing back into the Ki Ren, leaping onto the desk, and smiling broadly at them as they passed, asking each of them their names. Lavender Brown looked as if her growing crush on Professor Kindle and her fear of his animal form were threatening to cancel each other out.
Once in the corridor, Ron exploded.
"That was brilliant!" He practically yelled. A passing group of Ravenclaw first years jumped and stared at him.
"Ron, please!" Hermione hissed. "Honestly, you'd think you had never seen a transfiguration before!" Ron rolled his eyes at her.
"This was different," He said, his voice quivering with excitement. "I don't know... Professor Kindle is just..." Hermione cut him off.
"Not the boring old Professor McGonagall that has been teaching us transfiguration for the past four years... quite tirelessly, I might add."
Ron threw his hands up defensively. "All right, all right," He said, "It's probably just because he's new... but that was the best transfiguration class in ages!"
Harry, meanwhile, had been reading the exercise on page sixty-nine.
"Listen to this:" He said, and read them the first paragraph. "'Many wizards and witches who do not possess the talent of self Transfiguration may still be able to find out something about themselves in regards to their inner animal. By following this simple exercise, one may be able to discover their most likely animal personality,'" He looked up at them. Even Hermione now looked as if she was quivering with excitement. Harry checked the time.
"Still twenty minutes till our next class..." He said. Hermione was shaking her head as she read her copy of the assignment.
"It says you need at least an hour. I'd hate to rush through it and muss the whole thing up," She put her paper away and adjusted her book bag on her shoulder, eyeing Harry and Ron in a suspicious sort of way, "Besides, I've got to get to the library and finish a paper for Professor Flitwick... And I don't think I'm the only one..."
"All right then," Ron said resignedly, "You win, let's get to the library."
A few minutes later they were sitting at a table in the library, hastily scrawling on parchment and flipping through books. It was about ten minutes till their next class (care of magical creatures) when Harry made his third new acquaintance of the day. He had just stood up to put a large book back on the shelf when he saw her, a girl, just coming out of the restricted section of the library.
She was beautiful. Tall and fair, her long reddish brown hair done up in a braid that fell nearly to the floor. She was wearing a plain black robe, like all students at Hogwarts, but there was no sign of house colors anywhere on her. She was carrying a stack of books in her arms. Harry thought that she must have been a seventh year- sixth at the very least- and he knew he had never seen her in Gryffindor before... if he could only think up some reason to talk to her. She was so intriguing.
Just then, as he was staring at her, she looked up at him. Harry's heart skipped a beat, and he was sure his face must have been as red as Ron's hair, as she walked up to him smiling.
"Harry, right?" She said. Her teeth were brilliantly white, like professor Kindles fangs.
"Uh-huh," Harry managed to choke, "H-Harry's me, Harry is my name, that is to say... I'm Harry," The girls smile grew warmer, if possible.
"I'm Maggie," She said, shifting her stack of books to one arm so they could shake hands. "Pleased to meet you." As they shook hands, Harry noticed the title of the book on top: 'The Darkness Within, a comprehensive study on the nature of dark wizardry.'
"Having your friends sneak books out of the restricted section for you, Potter?" said a cold voice from behind.
Harry turned to see Professor Snape gliding out from behind a bookcase. "I have to admit, that is a low attempt, even for you"
"Professor, I was just-" Harry started to say.
"Hello Professor Snape," Maggie interrupted.
Snape waved a dismissive hand at her, "I am not speaking to you, I am speaking to Po-" He looked in Maggie's direction and seemed to notice her for the first time.
"It's good to see you again," She offered him her free hand. Harry was shocked at the sincerity in her voice when she said this. Snape stared at her hand for a moment, wide-eyed, then he looked back up. He shook her hand, tentatively, and it appeared as though his face actually colored. At the very least it became less pale than usual.
Harry could hardly believe his eyes, he realized he must have been gaping at the spectacle, but he seemed transfixed. Snape broke his trance when he said quietly:
"Good to see you as well, Miss Dumbledore"