Note: I did not invent the creatures in this chapter. They are from "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", a tiny little book published by Scholastic, Inc. If there are any who don't understand the creatures I used (mostly familiar ones, hopefully) then I'll type up their descriptions in a separate story, but only by request, so don't be afraid to ask.

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Chapter 31, Animagus Time

Harry was running through the castle, wandless, being chased by a very large troll. It couldn't see him, he was invisible, but apparently it could smell him. Harry came across a classroom and ran in it, slamming the door behind him, locking it. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, but it was hard with the pounding of the troll's club on the door. Harry pictured the aviary on the other side of the castle in his mind's eye, and when he opened his real eyes, he was there. Harry peeked around the corner out the door and, seeing it was clear, walked out.

There were things prowling the castle. There was no other way to describe it. Things were running loose in Hogwarts and Harry was being forced to remove them. Hagrid had brought various creatures from the forest and elsewhere, and they had even gotten a very large, very upset troll.

Harry had run across a swarm of angry, electric blue pixies, some very large scorpion-thing that tried to blow him up (a 'Blast-Ended Skrewt'? he thought), and small, mad little stick men called 'bowtruckles' that seemed to be desperately searching for their tree homes, to mention a few. And of course, the troll, which was, he knew, prowling the castle looking for him.

The boy peeked around a corner and caught sight of some of the pixies. He concentrated and, one by one, they fell to the floor, petrified. Harry let loose a small sigh of relief and walked over, picking them up and throwing them in a little bag. He concentrated and the bag disappeared, exiled to outside the castle walls.

In its stead, to his surprise, was a note, apparently from one of his tormentors.

Banish the Doxies in the Transfiguration classroom in twenty minutes, or we unleash the Billywigs.

The writing was clearly Albus Dumbledore's loopy scrawl.

Harry frowned. It was a good thing they had told him to study a Care of Magical Creatures book before setting him to clear the castle, otherwise he'd be very confused by the strange names.

He teleported himself to the Transfiguration room quickly, knowing how difficult Doxies can be. Though he was a little worried. He had left the troll around here.

Shrugging the thought away, he looked around the room for the Doxy infestation. Even with a quick glance, he could tell that the curtains on the windows were alive with activity and buzzing. He groaned inwardly and inched over, trying not to alert the hairy creatures of his presence.

As soon as he wrestled the first one out of the drapes, a clock appeared, hovering next to him, on a twenty minute countdown. Wary of the effects a Billywig sting would have on his hunting, Harry bit his lip and pushed forward with ridding Professor McGonagall's window curtains of Doxies.

Twenty minutes later the clock started sounding an obnoxious beeping sound. Harry looked at it, watching as it suddenly transformed into another note with a 'poof!'. He snatched it out of thin air and read another of the Headmaster's notes.

The Billywigs have been released. Good luck.

Harry read it again, frowning, until all of the sudden more words appeared.

(By the way, try 'inflavi' on the Doxies; it efficiently stuns them.)

Harry frowned at the first part, then smiled to himself. "Giving hints, sir. Do the other professors know that you're cheating?"

Another note appeared.

No, it read, and I would appreciate it if they never did.

Harry laughed and set to finish off the Doxies. Dumbledore was correct, of course. The Blow spell caused the little creatures to fly into the window or the wall, effectively stunning them. Harry then shoved them into a bag. When they were all trapped, he sealed the bag and teleported it outside the castle, letting out a sigh of relief and leaning against the wall next to the now Doxy-less drapes.

A note fluttered into sight, and he grabbed it.

Tired already, child? Why, you still have far to go…. I do believe there's a Fwooper in the Astronomy tower…. I don't believe it's been silenced. Oh, yes, and, beware of the Billywigs. They are quite spread out by now, I assume.

Harry narrowed his eyes at the paper. "Ugh. I do believe you are spying on my, Professors," he said to any who were listening. "Probably Hagrid, too."

Another note came. Dumbledore's writing read:

Correct, child.

Then the writing switched to Snape's tiny, cramped script, and it read:

Yes, Harry, we're spying on you. Now would you please take care of the Niffler in my office!

Then it switched to McGonagall's for the rest of the note.

Ignore him, Harry, she had written, take care of the one in my office. It's closer. Now, hurry! There are a lot of animals in that castle!

Harry could just imagine the Headmaster's chuckling as he read the Heads of House's pleas. Shrugging, Harry moved to McGonagall's office. It clicked open, and he could see that a Niffler had already decided to trash the place.

He stunned it quickly, then put it in a bag and teleported it from the castle. "Not hard," he said aloud, before the flutter of paper told him of another note.

"I thought I was de-thingitizing this castle without interference!" he yelled at the note before grasping it from the air.

Good, McGonagall's writing said, now pick my office back up!

Scowling, Harry placed things back where they belonged, casting a few 'reparo's on his professor's items.

After finishing, he quickly teleported himself to Snape's office to get rid of that Niffler. It looked up when he appeared, giving him the opportunity to stun it. It squealed strangely and slid out of the way. He glared at it, narrowing the bright emerald green eyes.

"You want to play hard ball? I'm game," he stated. Watching the black ball of fur dart around the room, destroying everything it could without slowing down, he, grinning evilly, performed 'cataracta'. The fur ball was surprised enough by the sudden downfall of water over its long-snouted head that it let its guard down. Harry stunned it and banished it from the castle, smirking.

Then Harry teleported himself to the Astronomy tower to take care of the Fwooper before he could get a letter from Snape telling him to pick up and dry the office.

The weird-looking bird was perched on a telescope, standing out brightly in the dark room. It was bright lime green!

As Harry looked at it it began to sing. Harry started to move towards the Fwooper, but stopped to listen to the song.

After a minute a note appeared. In cramped but very readable bright red the words clearly stated:

YOU BLOODY IDIOT!!!

Harry remembered what bird he was listening to and laughed, casting 'silencio' on the puffy creature. He walked up to it, stroking the its back for a second before stunning it. He gently plucked one of its feathers for a quill, then put it in a bag and teleported it from the castle.

He put the feather in the pocket of his robes for later and exited the tower.

A Billywig approached him before he had even finished climbing down the steps to the tower. He wouldn't have noticed it unless he was on edge, looking for it. He attempted to stun it, but the spell missed and merely annoyed the vivid blue insect.

It darted around him at full speed. Unfortunately, as hard as he tried, the creature was as fast if not faster than a Snitch, and he couldn't keep his eye on it. After two minutes of cat-and-mouse, Harry, for once being the mouse, was stung.

He groaned. He knew the side affects, and knew how difficult it would make his hunting. Eventually he petrified the Billywig and stuffed it into the bag, feeling light-headed.

After ten minutes Harry was feeling very giddy, though had managed to get rid of a couple more of the Billywigs.

"How many of these bloody things are there?" he asked the caste. A note appeared.

Five, Mr. Potter, read Flitwick's handwriting. Therefore, three down, two to go.

By now he was levitating through the castle, having mild difficulties making himself go the way he wanted to. The Billywig's sting was really sinking in.

Harry spent another half hour gathering round the other Billywigs, petrifying them with his mind and banishing them outside the castle, before he found the troll again. He smelled and heard it before he saw it. It seemed to be coming up from the dungeons.

Harry turned and watched it come up the stairs, planning while shaking mildly. The troll saw him when it reached the top of the stairs. Harry threw a mental 'delegavi' at it, but it broke free of the binds with brute force. It quickly swung at Harry's head with the club for retaliation, but Harry managed, with difficulty, to float out of the way, already foreseeing the attack. Harry levitated the troll's club and threw it down the hall out of the creature's reach, causing it to yell with frustration. Harry tried 'stupefy' on the beast, but it deflected off, and the troll raised it arms in the hair and yelled. Finally, with the last of Harry's strength, he tried 'marmoreum'. It worked.

Four professors and Hagrid appeared coming down the hall. They were the only ones left in the castle over the summer, so they were the ones training Harry. They looked positively gleeful (except Snape, who was, as usual, smirking).

"Bravo, Harry," Dumbledore said, twinkles in his old blue eyes as he looked up to where the boy was hovering. He cast a charm that brought Harry back to the ground somehow, but ge was still light-headed and giddy. "Now, we only found one real problem."

Harry frowned. "What's that?"

Dumbledore looked pointedly at the troll, who was now a large marble figure, two times the size of Hagrid, in the middle of the hallway, arms stretched towards the ceiling, mouth open in it's yell of fury while his head was thrown back. If it had not been a troll it would have been almost heavenly. "Now we have a large marble troll statue and nothing to do with it."

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Harry grinned, also turning to look at the hideous thing. "It would work well in the Great Hall. You could put it right behind the staff table; intimidate the first years."

Fully recovered from the Billywig sting, Harry ate breakfast with Professor Snape in their quarters the next morning, getting extreme entertainment about feeding himself with no hands or fork, just levitating the small bites of egg to his mouth individually. Severus had asked him what he was doing after the first few bites, but resigned himself to watching with mild amusement after Harry said "exercising" rather cheerfully.

After that, Snape left for the lab to continue his secret research project, and Harry took to innocently prowling the castle. Because Madame Pince was gone for the summer holidays, Harry was given free reign of the Restricted Section of the library by Dumbledore. Harry had taken to looking up useful curses and countercurses and spells and jinxes whenever he wasn't training.

He was reading a book on Dark Rituals after dinner when Dumbledore summoned him to the Headmaster's office. Harry shrugged, closing the book, and made his way to Dumbledore's office, where McGonagall and the Headmaster were waiting for him.

Harry frowned when he saw them. "Did I do something wrong? If you don't want me reading up on rituals of the dark arts, I won't. I was just reading—"

"Don't worry, boy, we didn't call you up here to yell at you."

Harry breathed a small breath of relief and sat down across from the two Professors.

"Do you know what Professor McGonagall is, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

The soon-to-be second year furrowed his brows. Was this a trick question? "Of course. She's a female Transfiguration Professor at and Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"No, no, child, that's not what I meant. I was asking if you knew of her animagus form."

Harry nodded. "A cat, yes, I am aware."

"Do you know what it takes to become an animagus, Harry?"

The boy shook his head.

"You're father was one. A stag, if I remember correctly. It takes a powerful wizard to be an animagus. Usually people don't even try until they are older, as it is a bit dangerous if it goes awry."

Harry nodded. "That's interesting, but unless you want me to become an animagus, it's irrelevant, isn't it?"

"See, that's the thing, Harry, we think that you may be even more powerful, overwhelming as you are already, were you an animagus."

"That's if I survive the transformation."

"There is no doubt in my mind that you will survive the transformation. It may be a bit painful, but I know you will survive."

"It's always painful the first time," Minerva stated. "Your bones and body changes shape for the first time, changing everything. It's odd."

"I don't understand how it happens."

McGonagall changed into a tabby cat and back. "It's the concentration lesson all over again, Harry. Concentrate on becoming an animal, and you do. It isn't difficult for those of us willing and able to do it. But you must concentrate every fiber of your being into becoming that animal. And you must have a significant amount of power. If a normal wizard were to concentrate on becoming an animal, he may have a mistransformation or nothing might happen at all."

"How do I concentrate on becoming an animal if I don't know what animal I'm becoming?"

"Difficult to explain." McGonagall turned to Dumbledore. "Do you want him to try?"

Albus nodded. "Let's see this."

Harry stood and concentrated. Albus and Minerva watched. He sat and focused on being an animal, and his mind flitted over each animal he thought he could become. His father was a stag, so he was thinking he might become something like that, but then he thought of his Parseltongue, and figured he may become a snake. Finally, after concentrating for what seemed like hours, he felt pain like he'd never felt before. It felt like his bones were shifting, and he figured they were. Then, as abruptly as it had started, it stopped.

He opened his eyes and realized he was in the fetal position on the floor. The two Professors were watching him, and he looked at himself. He hadn't changed.

"What happened?"

"You stopped concentrating when everything began to shift. You have to keep control, Harry," McGonagall said.

"But it hurts!"

"Of course it hurts, your bones are shifting."

"How am I supposed to concentrate on this animal thing when this searing pain is consuming every part of my body?"

"That's why we're going to have to try again, Harry," Dumbledore said.

Harry stood up, wincing, and sat in the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk.. "Not today."

Albus shook his head. "No, not today."

Harry concentrated and conjured a cold, wet, washcloth out of midair. He held it to his forehead and sat back. "Better."

Dumbledore smiled. "Go back to your rooms or the library and rest. We'll try again after lunch tomorrow."

"Yes, sir." Harry left.

He picked up the Dark Rituals book from the library and made his way to the dungeons. Snape was drinking from a glass tumbler while watching the fire burn and crackle.

"Hello, Harry," he said.

Harry nodded to him and sat on a lounge chair.

"What did you do today?"

"Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore want me to become an animagus."

"That's hard work."

"Not so much hard as painful." Harry shifted in his seat, remembering the feeling.

"So I've heard." Snape called a house elf and ordered a refill for his tumbler.

"How is your research?" Harry asked, yawning.

"It's… going well."

Harry nodded. "Still can't tell me, then."

"Of course."

"Am I allowed to know why?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's private."

"Oh. So basically you don't want anyone to know about it because you'll probably fail."

"Very good. "

Harry gave a small smile and leaned back in the chair. "Where's Vitesse?"

"Your bedroom."

Harry yawned and nodded. "Good night," he said, standing. "I have more training tomorrow."

"Good, you get some sleep, and I'll stay here and get drunk."

Harry paused. "Is your research going that badly?"

Snape nodded and downed the tumbler. "It's all right. I've a hangover potion."

Harry shook his head and went to bed.

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"Keep concentrating through the pain this time. With your dedication, you should be able to do it. Just focus."

Harry gritted his teeth. "It's not as easy as you make it out to be."

Snape was there this time, having decided to let his potion simmer in the lab. "Can't be worse than the Crucious, Harry."

"I've never been under the Crucious, but this hurts."

Dumbledore sighed. "Are you up to trying again, Harry?"

He stood up and moved behind his chair. "Yes, sir."

Harry focused. Once again he tried to concentrate on becoming an animal, still finding it difficult because he didn't know what animal he was becoming. The pain came sooner this time, and he tried to work through it, focusing on being an animal. Any animal.

Then it stopped. He stood from where he had fallen. McGonagall's eyes looked ready to bulge out of her head and her mouth had fallen open, her hand going over it with her gasp. Dumbledore was more surprised than any of the three others in the room had ever seen him. And Snape was wearing the infamous goldfish look, a very rare happening.

Clearly none of them had expected Harry to become what he had.

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Author's Note: One hundred million points to anyone who can guess what he becomes. And I'll mail you twenty dollars. That's how much I don't think you'll get it.

Good luck!