Chapter 17
Success and Failure
The following morning Harry woke early, as had become his habit and he was restless. He badly missed his fencing with Remus; he felt like he had too much energy trapped in him. Deciding to do something about it, he got up, dressed, put his fencing jerkin in his empty book bag, and quietly left the Gryffindor house. He knew the security patrols lasted all night and right up to morning and he had a feeling they had been staying onsite somewhere in the little used North Wing of the castle, which made that his first port of call. It didn't take him long to reach the North Wing as he knew a very handy short cut from his memory of the Marauders Map. He was just walking down a corridor when he heard voices coming from the other end and decided to duck behind a large statue of a gargoyle to check who it was; after all, maybe he could follow them to the Aurors' quarters. Harry waited and soon realised not only was it a pair of security patrollers, it was, if anything, the two people he most wanted it to be, Remus and Tonks. Tonks was chatting in her usual animated style while Remus was walking along with a surprising amount of grace; indeed, Harry noticed he was perfectly balanced.
"I can't believe I've been here a whole week and we haven't caught anyone out of bed or sneaking somewhere, I thought at least one of Harry's friends would be out and about after what I heard happened in the first week."
"I think you have Harry to blame for that, he's imposing extra punishments on Gryffindors who get caught. Funny thing is James, his father, used to do the same thing but even fewer people argue with Harry than did with James."
The opportunity was too good to miss and would certainly liven up Tonks's first week, so he crept out of his hiding place round behind the two patrolling adults and stated loudly: "Just because you haven't caught anyone doesn't mean we're not out here."
Tonks jumped and spun around in a low crouch, wand out. Remus likewise had his wand ready but had moved to the cover of a doorway on the right side of the corridor. Harry, meanwhile, was almost falling over with laughter, just managing to get a few words out in-between. "You're a bit jumpy aren't you?"
Tonks and Remus smiled at him, as the young female Auror said "Well, I would put a tickling charm on him for that but there doesn't seem much point."
"What're you up to Harry? Why are you hiding behind statues?" asked Remus, still smiling.
Harry sobered slightly. "I miss fencing in the morning and I came looking for you."
"There is nowhere really suitable in the castle for fencing Harry." replied his old fencing teacher.
"Yeah there is! The Room of Requirement; it's good for everything."
"Hang on a minute then, I would like a bit of sparing before breakfast. You want to watch Tonks?"
"Sure, I'll grab that package for you too Harry."
"Yeah, great, thanks" he replied as both his summer mentors vanished through a tapestry. When they reappeared a short while later, Tonks handed the wrapped package to Harry who swapped it for his jerkin in his bag and led the small group to the 7th floor room. Opening the door, he focused on somewhere to practice fencing with an audience. They all entered the room and Remus and Tonks were slightly taken aback; the walls were soft coloured limestone, while a duelling platform ran down the centre of the room and against the far wall was a row of comfortable sofas.
"How long have you been preparing this for?" asked Remus.
"Oh about five seconds..." replied Harry. "It's called the Room of Requirement because it produces a suitable environment for whatever you require. Dobby showed me it last year; we used it for the DA Society meetings."
"I'll have to remember the way to this place, it's quite handy." said Tonks, a glint in her eye.
"Oh... sorry but you wouldn't be able to get in."
"How come? What's stopping anyone using it?"
Harry laughed "Well it's magic, only three people can open the door and in a few months it may become only two."
By now Remus was wearing his jerkin too, not that either of them needed it for protection. They would never allow the other to break their guard, so evenly were they matched, and even if it did happen both would pull the blow instantly, such was their control. The werewolf tossed Harry a sword, hilt first, and he caught it deftly as Tonks took a seat. Remus, quite obviously to Harry, was showing off, he waved his sword around in an exaggerated double arc and Harry smiled and said "Let's dance!" lunging at him. What followed was twenty minutes of thrust, parry, cut, lung, block and dodge, blades flashing through the air, sparks flying from the razor sharp edges as they met, both man and boy smiling gleefully and complimenting or taunting their opponent, all to the great entertainment of Tonks, who sat watching in awe.
As the pair began to tire, they called a halt to the sparing so as not to accidentally injure either themselves or the other person. They collected towels from a rack on the wall and sat in sofas next to Tonks who applauded as they stepped from the platform. "You two are quite impressive. I've never seen anything like that, I couldn't see the swords half the time, I thought you where going to kill each other."
"That's just playing" replied Remus "There is no intent to hurt your opponent, it's really just agility and speed training, just a little bit more enjoyable because the swords require a higher level of concentration."
"That and boys like imagining they are knights." Tonks retorted smiling. "You know it looks like dancing."
Harry laughed. "I can't dance a step, I remember I had to lead a dance at the Tri-wizard Yule Ball, I got dragged around the floor till I could beat a hasty retreat."
"From the way you move, that's not a rhythm problem, just a lack of teaching. I might have to correct that."
Harry groaned and Remus chuckled, saying "You had to go and mention you weren't good at something, and now you have another set of lessons on your plate."
"Well you want to be able to dance with a girl at any future balls, and you seem to have energy to burn. After all, dancing's good exercise" retorted Tonks
"Alright, alright. Anything for a quiet life." laughed Harry. He really didn't mind the idea of dancing lessons; it was something he had been slightly embarrassed about at the Yule Ball and he enjoyed the company of the young Auror. It couldn't be that bad, not after learning to fence, at least he wouldn't have to learn how to fall again.
"We're going to have to go to breakfast Harry, I'm starving. I've been walking round the corridors for four hours and the sparing has completely done me in." said Remus grinning at him still and Harry nodded and let them out of the room. He intended to stay and try a full transformation, then go and see Professor McGonagall to get his wand back.
Before he did anything he walked out of the room and returned, changing the interior to suit his next task. He sealed the door and sat on the floor, meditating for a little while. He was feeling so much more awake thanks to the exercise that the meditating was necessary to calm him down. After about half an hour meditating, Harry stood and checked his watch; it was still only quarter to nine.
For a further ten minutes Harry stood motionless, eyes closed, mind focused on his transformation remembering every little detail of his progress and every tiny difference between humans and lions. He concentrated particularly on the torso and legs and hind paws. He saw pictures of Godric in his head: the massively powerful shoulders and haunches; he remembered the bone structure from books detailing feline anatomy. Finally he felt ready and quickly progressed through the stages of the transformation he already had down, then onto the final changes: forelegs, massively muscled chest and shoulders, changing the shape of his rib cage into a more cylindrical form, then the enormous hind legs, similar in length to a humans just more than five times the volume, capable of allowing the lion to jump up to thirteen feet vertically and two or three times that horizontally. Each step was accompanied by massive amounts of concentration and not a small amount of pain, but Harry had learnt from the tail transformation and the time concentrating was well spent, as transforming slowly only prolonged the pain.
Then he was done; he walked forward, stretched new muscles, purring, then looked at himself in the mirror on the far wall. He had done it! He looked at the reflection of the lion in the mirror, it was huge, easily as big as Godric, maybe bigger. He stretched his claws, revealing the razor points from their sheaths. The pain of the transformation had already left his new body as he experimented with moving in this unfamiliar form. It wasn't a perfect transformation, he still had black rings round his eyes and he noticed subtle differences in his form from Godric's, but he was unmistakably a lion. It had taken him a full fifteen minutes from beginning to concentrate to reaching this stage, but he knew this would improve in time and with practice he would transform as freely as his Godfather had.
He remained a lion for a full twenty minutes before he snapped back to his human shape, which briefly felt unnatural and small and rather frail. Then, overjoyed with his success, he felt a desire to tell someone and he knew who he wanted to tell. Gathering up his bag, he opened the door to the room and left, striding confidently to the Great Hall where he knew everyone would be having breakfast. Entering, he looked up the table for the familiar long dark red hair, and saw that Ginny sat with a group of friends from her year. He walked over to his best friend's sister, listening for a break in the conversation, which concerned a particularly nasty tactic they had been studying in DADA and had to write an assignment on, before he interrupted, asking if he could have a word with her. She responded 'yeah sure' and they walked a little away from the table before Harry told her, "I've done it. It's not perfect, and it takes me ages but I changed this morning."
The reaction he got was a little more than he expected but closely emulated the way he felt so he didn't mind at all; in fact, when Ginny threw her arms around him and hugged him he intentionally started purring and she broke away giggling asking "When can I see?"
"Well I study in the library till mid afternoon so if you come and find me about two o'clock I'll show you then if you like." said Harry happily, never noticing the funny looks he was getting from a few people in the hall, in particular a small group of Slytherins who spoke to each other in low whispers and one particular Gryffindor. Harry walked over and joined Ron and Hermione, "Hey you two, how has your morning been?"
"What?" questioned Ron. "It hasn't started yet. I only got up forty minutes ago."
Harry sat down opposite the pair, still in a state of semi-euphoria.
"What's that you're wearing Harry?" asked Hermione, looking at his torso.
Harry looked down. He was still wearing his jerkin, the weeks of training and regularly oiling the leather garment had left it flexible and supple and he was so used to wearing it that it felt like a second skin. "It's a jerkin." replied Harry, matter-of-factly.
"What're you wearing that for? Is it some other fashion I don't know about?" asked Ron remembering back to Hermione's comment the previous day.
Harry laughed. "No it's for fencing; I just forgot to take it off." said Harry more quietly so they weren't overheard.
"That explains a lot." stated Hermione knowledgeably.
"What does it explain?" asked Ron, still in the dark.
"Ron, the other thing most of the girls were talking about apart from Harry's clothes was his physique. Apart from Quidditch, which is mostly on brooms anyway, wizards tend to frown on physical activity in general, apart from one."
"Oh." said Ron, the knowledge dawning on him. "Except for fencing, 'cause of Godric Gryffindor."
"Well done Ron, you weren't always asleep in History of Magic after all."
"Actually it's on his Famous Witches and Wizard Card from Chocolate Frogs" said Ron smiling at her as she frowned. "So, who you been sword fighting with, Harry?"
"It's not fighting, just sparing. We would never intentionally try and land a blow. I was working with Moony this summer, but I was all restless this morning when I woke up so I went and found him so we could let off some steam. It's like meditation; sometimes it's very relaxing" Harry said, trying to explain; but, he thought, you could never really put into words the way you seemed to completely remove yourself from everything round you.
His friends asked him a few more questions as he ate a hearty breakfast, which he tried to answer, but it was hard to explain some of the answers especially to Ron, like 'why Harry had to learn to fall for several hours when he seemed to do it quite naturally before.'
After breakfast Harry returned to the dorms to change his clothes and collect his books then headed to the library to meet Hannah. He stopped on the way at Professor McGonagall's to pick up his wand and while he was there he told her of his progress with his transformation. Interestingly, she was not surprised, stating she had expected his forced break to have that sort of effect and observing that she looked forward to Monday afternoon to see for herself. Harry met Hannah in their usual spot; she was already surrounded by books and greeted him with a smile, "Morning Harry, ready to get started?"
"Definitely, so it's more potion substitutions then? Should I raid the restricted section again?"
"Where would we be without that pass of yours? You certainly do have your uses" she laughed.
"Being used for my library pass, what is the world coming to?" Harry retorted, laughing as well, but having to stifle it quickly as Madame Prince 'shushed' him, which was amusing in itself: they were the only three people in the library on that Saturday morning. The potions assignment went well and they finished within an hour or so. They checked the spelling on each other's work, re-reading them to check they had successfully understood some of the rather archaic text from the older books. They now tended to be so far ahead of NEWT standard that if they progressed any further, they would have to start six month research projects. Being so far ahead of the other students, especially the Slytherins worried Harry sometimes; he couldn't see where their energy was going. Apart from one or two little run-ins he had had, and a scuffle or two which were reported to him, the Slytherins were very quiet this term and they obviously weren't studying, so something had to be up. He was puzzling this through while he worked, but he lost his train of thought when Hermione entered the library practically dragging Ron; apparently he was being forced to do some extra work.
"Hiya Hannah." said his other female friend.
"Alright 'Mione still trying to force 'em to learn stuff?" she nodded at the half-struggling Ron.
"Well if I don't do it now, he'll want me to do it a week before exams when I should be revising; you know what these boys are like."
"Well, personally your other boy seems to be doing pretty well; our potions maestro here has managed to earn Gryffindor six whole points so far."
"I think that's just his library Card" replied Hermione, grinning at Harry.
"When the two old women are done talking about 'us boys' like we aren't standing here, I think it's time to get on with the charms assignment and Ron, Hermione's right, you didn't do too well in the last Charms Assignment. If you don't do better in this one you may be in line for extra work." he added winking at Hermione who smiled back. "You staying Hannah?" he asked politely.
"Sure, might be nice to get the best marks in two classes and working with you seems to guarantee that at the moment."
"You're kidding right? The only time I ever beat Hermione was when she was petrified; she would come to class and use her dying breath to answer any questions."
"Right let's get started then" said Ron, resigned to having to work on Saturday morning. "If you're done patting each other on the back, that is."
"Okay King Weasley" replied Hannah with a mischievous grin.
The four worked well together; Hermione and Hannah were pretty friendly, they seemed to have a similar work ethic and had obviously seen each other regularly in the library in previous years. When they had finally finished it was close to one o'clock so they walked as a group to the Great Hall before finally parting company, Harry telling his friend he'd see her at the DA study group tomorrow evening and she waved and joined the Hufflepuff table. The trio had a pleasant lunch together and Harry excused himself to return to the library to do some reading before meeting Ginny. When she arrived Harry could tell something was wrong, the sparkle from their encounter that morning was gone from her eyes and the smile looked forced as she strode to him quickly, "You ready to go?"
As soon as he packed his book bag still containing the package for Ginny, she lead the way out of the library and up to the Room of Requirement which Harry opened and stepped away to allow her to enter. She sat on a sofa at the far end of the room, but Harry couldn't concentrate and had to sit opposite her. "What's wrong Ginny?" he asked quietly.
"I'm sorry Harry I know you're excited, but I've had a really bad morning and I'm upsetting you."
"Don't be silly, I've been working on this for a while, and it's not finished yet; what's the matter? Anything I can help you with?"
"Well, actually, you were the problem. Neville broke up with me this morning, and, well, he said he thought we got on better as friends; we didn't act like we were seeing each other. He saw me hug you and said I wasn't that affectionate with him, so it obviously wasn't going to work. I know I didn't really fancy him, but I really liked him and I liked being with him; it was very comfortable and he made me feel safe."
"I'm sorry Ginny, I really didn't want that to happen. I feel guilty, like I have done something I shouldn't."
"You didn't do anything wrong Harry it was my fault and I'm going to need a little space to figure out what I want; I mean, you know I like you?" she said, more a question than anything.
"I'd hoped" replied Harry honestly.
"I'm sorry, it doesn't feel right at the moment. I don't really know what to say, I'm a bit confused. I didn't think I would be so unhappy to be single again."
"You don't have to say sorry; I can't say I know everything I'm thinking half the time, everything always seems so busy. Look, I like you and we're friends; I wouldn't want you to do anything you aren't ready for."
"Thank you Harry" she said forcing a little smile "So are you going to show me then?"
"If you like; but you'll have to give me a while." Harry stood and walked to the centre of the room. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard for six or seven minutes before he transformed, finding it considerably easier than the morning and a brief moment later he felt his paws on the floor, his big eyes taking in every little detail of the room and seeing the pretty red head with a look of awe in her eyes. Harry padded over beside her, sitting down and putting his head on the side of the sofa next to her.
"You're beautiful." she said and he purred at her in response. "I'm so proud of you Harry, I read everything I could after you told me and I can't believe you did it so quickly. You look just like a lion, apart from the eyes, you've still got your eyes. Did you know you're only the second ever lion Animagus that anyone knows of?" She ran her hand along his forehead and over his ears and Harry realised why Godric enjoyed that so much, it was a very pleasurable experience and he purred even louder. "You like that do you?" and she continued to stroke his head absently as he just sat there with her; she talked to him a little more freely when he was a lion and he was quite content, sitting with her quietly listening, as she scratched him behind the ears. After about an hour of just being together, albeit as girl and lion, she stopped and rose. Harry transformed back to his human form and moved back leaning his back against the front of the other sofa, "I better go, everyone will wonder where I am, would you not tell everyone we were here together?"
"I'm going to stay and read for a while and I wouldn't have told anyone; it's none of their business. I'm sorry about all the trouble with Neville Ginny, I wanted you to be happy but ended up doing the opposite..."
"Don't Harry, this isn't your fault and you haven't done a thing wrong; you've been too good to me and you're lovely company. I feel much better, thank you." With that she flipped her hair over her shoulder with the back of her hand and left the Room of Requirement. Harry settled down in one of the sofas and read until early evening, his mind half on the situation and half on the book. It was all so complicated, Harry thought. Now they knew that they liked each other but they wouldn't be together, at least not right away. While this was a little frustrating, he wanted her to be happy and knew trying to push her wasn't the right thing to do. Harry laughed to himself, 'you couldn't push Ginny with anything but an Imperious Curse and even then I reckon you have to be pretty good at it'.
*****
A/N: I told you my beta was good I only sent this a few hours ago. So I'll make up for the delay on the last one and post this now. Thanks for everyone who keeps coming back and reviewing (you know who you are) it's much appreciated. I know ppl are hurrying me along to get relationships going, but if you check out the dates, it's still only late september. I must admit I probably have made Harry a bit too insightful, what can I say, this is the new improved Harry, at least he didn't just become a God overnight.
Anyhows better get back to writing chapter 29 is coming along (slowly) so you lot still have plenty to read yet.
See you all again soon... Toodles
~~Jonny
Success and Failure
The following morning Harry woke early, as had become his habit and he was restless. He badly missed his fencing with Remus; he felt like he had too much energy trapped in him. Deciding to do something about it, he got up, dressed, put his fencing jerkin in his empty book bag, and quietly left the Gryffindor house. He knew the security patrols lasted all night and right up to morning and he had a feeling they had been staying onsite somewhere in the little used North Wing of the castle, which made that his first port of call. It didn't take him long to reach the North Wing as he knew a very handy short cut from his memory of the Marauders Map. He was just walking down a corridor when he heard voices coming from the other end and decided to duck behind a large statue of a gargoyle to check who it was; after all, maybe he could follow them to the Aurors' quarters. Harry waited and soon realised not only was it a pair of security patrollers, it was, if anything, the two people he most wanted it to be, Remus and Tonks. Tonks was chatting in her usual animated style while Remus was walking along with a surprising amount of grace; indeed, Harry noticed he was perfectly balanced.
"I can't believe I've been here a whole week and we haven't caught anyone out of bed or sneaking somewhere, I thought at least one of Harry's friends would be out and about after what I heard happened in the first week."
"I think you have Harry to blame for that, he's imposing extra punishments on Gryffindors who get caught. Funny thing is James, his father, used to do the same thing but even fewer people argue with Harry than did with James."
The opportunity was too good to miss and would certainly liven up Tonks's first week, so he crept out of his hiding place round behind the two patrolling adults and stated loudly: "Just because you haven't caught anyone doesn't mean we're not out here."
Tonks jumped and spun around in a low crouch, wand out. Remus likewise had his wand ready but had moved to the cover of a doorway on the right side of the corridor. Harry, meanwhile, was almost falling over with laughter, just managing to get a few words out in-between. "You're a bit jumpy aren't you?"
Tonks and Remus smiled at him, as the young female Auror said "Well, I would put a tickling charm on him for that but there doesn't seem much point."
"What're you up to Harry? Why are you hiding behind statues?" asked Remus, still smiling.
Harry sobered slightly. "I miss fencing in the morning and I came looking for you."
"There is nowhere really suitable in the castle for fencing Harry." replied his old fencing teacher.
"Yeah there is! The Room of Requirement; it's good for everything."
"Hang on a minute then, I would like a bit of sparing before breakfast. You want to watch Tonks?"
"Sure, I'll grab that package for you too Harry."
"Yeah, great, thanks" he replied as both his summer mentors vanished through a tapestry. When they reappeared a short while later, Tonks handed the wrapped package to Harry who swapped it for his jerkin in his bag and led the small group to the 7th floor room. Opening the door, he focused on somewhere to practice fencing with an audience. They all entered the room and Remus and Tonks were slightly taken aback; the walls were soft coloured limestone, while a duelling platform ran down the centre of the room and against the far wall was a row of comfortable sofas.
"How long have you been preparing this for?" asked Remus.
"Oh about five seconds..." replied Harry. "It's called the Room of Requirement because it produces a suitable environment for whatever you require. Dobby showed me it last year; we used it for the DA Society meetings."
"I'll have to remember the way to this place, it's quite handy." said Tonks, a glint in her eye.
"Oh... sorry but you wouldn't be able to get in."
"How come? What's stopping anyone using it?"
Harry laughed "Well it's magic, only three people can open the door and in a few months it may become only two."
By now Remus was wearing his jerkin too, not that either of them needed it for protection. They would never allow the other to break their guard, so evenly were they matched, and even if it did happen both would pull the blow instantly, such was their control. The werewolf tossed Harry a sword, hilt first, and he caught it deftly as Tonks took a seat. Remus, quite obviously to Harry, was showing off, he waved his sword around in an exaggerated double arc and Harry smiled and said "Let's dance!" lunging at him. What followed was twenty minutes of thrust, parry, cut, lung, block and dodge, blades flashing through the air, sparks flying from the razor sharp edges as they met, both man and boy smiling gleefully and complimenting or taunting their opponent, all to the great entertainment of Tonks, who sat watching in awe.
As the pair began to tire, they called a halt to the sparing so as not to accidentally injure either themselves or the other person. They collected towels from a rack on the wall and sat in sofas next to Tonks who applauded as they stepped from the platform. "You two are quite impressive. I've never seen anything like that, I couldn't see the swords half the time, I thought you where going to kill each other."
"That's just playing" replied Remus "There is no intent to hurt your opponent, it's really just agility and speed training, just a little bit more enjoyable because the swords require a higher level of concentration."
"That and boys like imagining they are knights." Tonks retorted smiling. "You know it looks like dancing."
Harry laughed. "I can't dance a step, I remember I had to lead a dance at the Tri-wizard Yule Ball, I got dragged around the floor till I could beat a hasty retreat."
"From the way you move, that's not a rhythm problem, just a lack of teaching. I might have to correct that."
Harry groaned and Remus chuckled, saying "You had to go and mention you weren't good at something, and now you have another set of lessons on your plate."
"Well you want to be able to dance with a girl at any future balls, and you seem to have energy to burn. After all, dancing's good exercise" retorted Tonks
"Alright, alright. Anything for a quiet life." laughed Harry. He really didn't mind the idea of dancing lessons; it was something he had been slightly embarrassed about at the Yule Ball and he enjoyed the company of the young Auror. It couldn't be that bad, not after learning to fence, at least he wouldn't have to learn how to fall again.
"We're going to have to go to breakfast Harry, I'm starving. I've been walking round the corridors for four hours and the sparing has completely done me in." said Remus grinning at him still and Harry nodded and let them out of the room. He intended to stay and try a full transformation, then go and see Professor McGonagall to get his wand back.
Before he did anything he walked out of the room and returned, changing the interior to suit his next task. He sealed the door and sat on the floor, meditating for a little while. He was feeling so much more awake thanks to the exercise that the meditating was necessary to calm him down. After about half an hour meditating, Harry stood and checked his watch; it was still only quarter to nine.
For a further ten minutes Harry stood motionless, eyes closed, mind focused on his transformation remembering every little detail of his progress and every tiny difference between humans and lions. He concentrated particularly on the torso and legs and hind paws. He saw pictures of Godric in his head: the massively powerful shoulders and haunches; he remembered the bone structure from books detailing feline anatomy. Finally he felt ready and quickly progressed through the stages of the transformation he already had down, then onto the final changes: forelegs, massively muscled chest and shoulders, changing the shape of his rib cage into a more cylindrical form, then the enormous hind legs, similar in length to a humans just more than five times the volume, capable of allowing the lion to jump up to thirteen feet vertically and two or three times that horizontally. Each step was accompanied by massive amounts of concentration and not a small amount of pain, but Harry had learnt from the tail transformation and the time concentrating was well spent, as transforming slowly only prolonged the pain.
Then he was done; he walked forward, stretched new muscles, purring, then looked at himself in the mirror on the far wall. He had done it! He looked at the reflection of the lion in the mirror, it was huge, easily as big as Godric, maybe bigger. He stretched his claws, revealing the razor points from their sheaths. The pain of the transformation had already left his new body as he experimented with moving in this unfamiliar form. It wasn't a perfect transformation, he still had black rings round his eyes and he noticed subtle differences in his form from Godric's, but he was unmistakably a lion. It had taken him a full fifteen minutes from beginning to concentrate to reaching this stage, but he knew this would improve in time and with practice he would transform as freely as his Godfather had.
He remained a lion for a full twenty minutes before he snapped back to his human shape, which briefly felt unnatural and small and rather frail. Then, overjoyed with his success, he felt a desire to tell someone and he knew who he wanted to tell. Gathering up his bag, he opened the door to the room and left, striding confidently to the Great Hall where he knew everyone would be having breakfast. Entering, he looked up the table for the familiar long dark red hair, and saw that Ginny sat with a group of friends from her year. He walked over to his best friend's sister, listening for a break in the conversation, which concerned a particularly nasty tactic they had been studying in DADA and had to write an assignment on, before he interrupted, asking if he could have a word with her. She responded 'yeah sure' and they walked a little away from the table before Harry told her, "I've done it. It's not perfect, and it takes me ages but I changed this morning."
The reaction he got was a little more than he expected but closely emulated the way he felt so he didn't mind at all; in fact, when Ginny threw her arms around him and hugged him he intentionally started purring and she broke away giggling asking "When can I see?"
"Well I study in the library till mid afternoon so if you come and find me about two o'clock I'll show you then if you like." said Harry happily, never noticing the funny looks he was getting from a few people in the hall, in particular a small group of Slytherins who spoke to each other in low whispers and one particular Gryffindor. Harry walked over and joined Ron and Hermione, "Hey you two, how has your morning been?"
"What?" questioned Ron. "It hasn't started yet. I only got up forty minutes ago."
Harry sat down opposite the pair, still in a state of semi-euphoria.
"What's that you're wearing Harry?" asked Hermione, looking at his torso.
Harry looked down. He was still wearing his jerkin, the weeks of training and regularly oiling the leather garment had left it flexible and supple and he was so used to wearing it that it felt like a second skin. "It's a jerkin." replied Harry, matter-of-factly.
"What're you wearing that for? Is it some other fashion I don't know about?" asked Ron remembering back to Hermione's comment the previous day.
Harry laughed. "No it's for fencing; I just forgot to take it off." said Harry more quietly so they weren't overheard.
"That explains a lot." stated Hermione knowledgeably.
"What does it explain?" asked Ron, still in the dark.
"Ron, the other thing most of the girls were talking about apart from Harry's clothes was his physique. Apart from Quidditch, which is mostly on brooms anyway, wizards tend to frown on physical activity in general, apart from one."
"Oh." said Ron, the knowledge dawning on him. "Except for fencing, 'cause of Godric Gryffindor."
"Well done Ron, you weren't always asleep in History of Magic after all."
"Actually it's on his Famous Witches and Wizard Card from Chocolate Frogs" said Ron smiling at her as she frowned. "So, who you been sword fighting with, Harry?"
"It's not fighting, just sparing. We would never intentionally try and land a blow. I was working with Moony this summer, but I was all restless this morning when I woke up so I went and found him so we could let off some steam. It's like meditation; sometimes it's very relaxing" Harry said, trying to explain; but, he thought, you could never really put into words the way you seemed to completely remove yourself from everything round you.
His friends asked him a few more questions as he ate a hearty breakfast, which he tried to answer, but it was hard to explain some of the answers especially to Ron, like 'why Harry had to learn to fall for several hours when he seemed to do it quite naturally before.'
After breakfast Harry returned to the dorms to change his clothes and collect his books then headed to the library to meet Hannah. He stopped on the way at Professor McGonagall's to pick up his wand and while he was there he told her of his progress with his transformation. Interestingly, she was not surprised, stating she had expected his forced break to have that sort of effect and observing that she looked forward to Monday afternoon to see for herself. Harry met Hannah in their usual spot; she was already surrounded by books and greeted him with a smile, "Morning Harry, ready to get started?"
"Definitely, so it's more potion substitutions then? Should I raid the restricted section again?"
"Where would we be without that pass of yours? You certainly do have your uses" she laughed.
"Being used for my library pass, what is the world coming to?" Harry retorted, laughing as well, but having to stifle it quickly as Madame Prince 'shushed' him, which was amusing in itself: they were the only three people in the library on that Saturday morning. The potions assignment went well and they finished within an hour or so. They checked the spelling on each other's work, re-reading them to check they had successfully understood some of the rather archaic text from the older books. They now tended to be so far ahead of NEWT standard that if they progressed any further, they would have to start six month research projects. Being so far ahead of the other students, especially the Slytherins worried Harry sometimes; he couldn't see where their energy was going. Apart from one or two little run-ins he had had, and a scuffle or two which were reported to him, the Slytherins were very quiet this term and they obviously weren't studying, so something had to be up. He was puzzling this through while he worked, but he lost his train of thought when Hermione entered the library practically dragging Ron; apparently he was being forced to do some extra work.
"Hiya Hannah." said his other female friend.
"Alright 'Mione still trying to force 'em to learn stuff?" she nodded at the half-struggling Ron.
"Well if I don't do it now, he'll want me to do it a week before exams when I should be revising; you know what these boys are like."
"Well, personally your other boy seems to be doing pretty well; our potions maestro here has managed to earn Gryffindor six whole points so far."
"I think that's just his library Card" replied Hermione, grinning at Harry.
"When the two old women are done talking about 'us boys' like we aren't standing here, I think it's time to get on with the charms assignment and Ron, Hermione's right, you didn't do too well in the last Charms Assignment. If you don't do better in this one you may be in line for extra work." he added winking at Hermione who smiled back. "You staying Hannah?" he asked politely.
"Sure, might be nice to get the best marks in two classes and working with you seems to guarantee that at the moment."
"You're kidding right? The only time I ever beat Hermione was when she was petrified; she would come to class and use her dying breath to answer any questions."
"Right let's get started then" said Ron, resigned to having to work on Saturday morning. "If you're done patting each other on the back, that is."
"Okay King Weasley" replied Hannah with a mischievous grin.
The four worked well together; Hermione and Hannah were pretty friendly, they seemed to have a similar work ethic and had obviously seen each other regularly in the library in previous years. When they had finally finished it was close to one o'clock so they walked as a group to the Great Hall before finally parting company, Harry telling his friend he'd see her at the DA study group tomorrow evening and she waved and joined the Hufflepuff table. The trio had a pleasant lunch together and Harry excused himself to return to the library to do some reading before meeting Ginny. When she arrived Harry could tell something was wrong, the sparkle from their encounter that morning was gone from her eyes and the smile looked forced as she strode to him quickly, "You ready to go?"
As soon as he packed his book bag still containing the package for Ginny, she lead the way out of the library and up to the Room of Requirement which Harry opened and stepped away to allow her to enter. She sat on a sofa at the far end of the room, but Harry couldn't concentrate and had to sit opposite her. "What's wrong Ginny?" he asked quietly.
"I'm sorry Harry I know you're excited, but I've had a really bad morning and I'm upsetting you."
"Don't be silly, I've been working on this for a while, and it's not finished yet; what's the matter? Anything I can help you with?"
"Well, actually, you were the problem. Neville broke up with me this morning, and, well, he said he thought we got on better as friends; we didn't act like we were seeing each other. He saw me hug you and said I wasn't that affectionate with him, so it obviously wasn't going to work. I know I didn't really fancy him, but I really liked him and I liked being with him; it was very comfortable and he made me feel safe."
"I'm sorry Ginny, I really didn't want that to happen. I feel guilty, like I have done something I shouldn't."
"You didn't do anything wrong Harry it was my fault and I'm going to need a little space to figure out what I want; I mean, you know I like you?" she said, more a question than anything.
"I'd hoped" replied Harry honestly.
"I'm sorry, it doesn't feel right at the moment. I don't really know what to say, I'm a bit confused. I didn't think I would be so unhappy to be single again."
"You don't have to say sorry; I can't say I know everything I'm thinking half the time, everything always seems so busy. Look, I like you and we're friends; I wouldn't want you to do anything you aren't ready for."
"Thank you Harry" she said forcing a little smile "So are you going to show me then?"
"If you like; but you'll have to give me a while." Harry stood and walked to the centre of the room. He closed his eyes and concentrated hard for six or seven minutes before he transformed, finding it considerably easier than the morning and a brief moment later he felt his paws on the floor, his big eyes taking in every little detail of the room and seeing the pretty red head with a look of awe in her eyes. Harry padded over beside her, sitting down and putting his head on the side of the sofa next to her.
"You're beautiful." she said and he purred at her in response. "I'm so proud of you Harry, I read everything I could after you told me and I can't believe you did it so quickly. You look just like a lion, apart from the eyes, you've still got your eyes. Did you know you're only the second ever lion Animagus that anyone knows of?" She ran her hand along his forehead and over his ears and Harry realised why Godric enjoyed that so much, it was a very pleasurable experience and he purred even louder. "You like that do you?" and she continued to stroke his head absently as he just sat there with her; she talked to him a little more freely when he was a lion and he was quite content, sitting with her quietly listening, as she scratched him behind the ears. After about an hour of just being together, albeit as girl and lion, she stopped and rose. Harry transformed back to his human form and moved back leaning his back against the front of the other sofa, "I better go, everyone will wonder where I am, would you not tell everyone we were here together?"
"I'm going to stay and read for a while and I wouldn't have told anyone; it's none of their business. I'm sorry about all the trouble with Neville Ginny, I wanted you to be happy but ended up doing the opposite..."
"Don't Harry, this isn't your fault and you haven't done a thing wrong; you've been too good to me and you're lovely company. I feel much better, thank you." With that she flipped her hair over her shoulder with the back of her hand and left the Room of Requirement. Harry settled down in one of the sofas and read until early evening, his mind half on the situation and half on the book. It was all so complicated, Harry thought. Now they knew that they liked each other but they wouldn't be together, at least not right away. While this was a little frustrating, he wanted her to be happy and knew trying to push her wasn't the right thing to do. Harry laughed to himself, 'you couldn't push Ginny with anything but an Imperious Curse and even then I reckon you have to be pretty good at it'.
*****
A/N: I told you my beta was good I only sent this a few hours ago. So I'll make up for the delay on the last one and post this now. Thanks for everyone who keeps coming back and reviewing (you know who you are) it's much appreciated. I know ppl are hurrying me along to get relationships going, but if you check out the dates, it's still only late september. I must admit I probably have made Harry a bit too insightful, what can I say, this is the new improved Harry, at least he didn't just become a God overnight.
Anyhows better get back to writing chapter 29 is coming along (slowly) so you lot still have plenty to read yet.
See you all again soon... Toodles
~~Jonny