Harry Potter and the Gem of the Oracle
KyleGranger342
Chapter Six
Dome of Spirits
Harry awoke the next morning to the crisp wind flowing through an open window. Ron, Dean, Neville, and Seamus were not awake yet, so Harry quickly got dressed into a tee shirt and jeans and ran downstairs to the Common room. Today they didn't have classes due to the fact they did not know their classes yet. He found Hermione who was staring into a book.
"Morning, Hermione," Harry said.
"Morning Harry," she replied. For some odd reason, she had a very big smile on her face.
"What?" Harry said. "Is something wrong?"
"Why didn't you tell me you and Ginny were going out?" she asked.
"It happened yesterday," he said, "I figured you'd figure it out fast."
"No. Ginny told me, but I completely suspected it when you served her breakfast that one day."
Harry grinned. "Speaking of breakfast, did you already go down?"
"No not yet. You wanna go?" she asked. He nodded. She got up and put the book back on one of the many bookshelves and departed for the Great Hall.
Nearly an hour went by, the Great Hall was now packed with students eating. Soon owls began flying around the ceiling of the Great Hall, one for each student. They dropped the envelope containing their class schedules to the spot they were sitting than quickly departed back for the owlery.
Harry quickly snatched the one Hedwig dropped for him and ripped it open. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all put theirs side by side to compare them. They had a few with Ginny. The trio had all of them together, except for Ron and Hermione's apparation class and Ron and Harry's Divination class. A block was colored a shade of yellow and labeled Animagi on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It must have reserved the spot for if you were an animagi.
For the day, the four students were out on the grounds. They paid Hagrid a visit. He was busy with his lesson plans that he had forgotten to finish over break. Then they ran over to the Quidditch pitch so they could fly around for a bit. Many first years were in the stands watching the older students fly on their broomsticks.
That evening in the common room, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all huddled together with their new messaging notebooks. They trusted Hermione to read the directions and instruct them on what to do.
"Okay, it says here that on the upper left hand corner on each page, we would have to write the name of a person that we will be sending things to, but before that we have to write our name on the back cover of the book," she said. She gave the instructions weird looks. "Why would you do that?"
"This is Fred and George were talking about," Ron stated.
"True." The four of them did as they were instructed. They then reached the point of assigning each person a page. After the four of them had done that, Ron's quill dropped a drop of ink onto Ginny's page. The ink soaked into the page and appeared in Ginny's notebook.
"Whoa," Ginny said.
"Well, at least now we now it works," Harry said.
"It says here that when the book it closed and someone has sent you a message, the ribbon-bookmark will turn the opposite of its original color," Hermione said.
"That's good to know," Ginny said. "Well to tell you the truth, I think Fred and George actually made a good product." The grouped laughed.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm really beat. It's sad to say this, but I'm gonna go up to bed," Ron said.
"I think I am going to too," Harry said. Harry and Ron rose with their notebooks in their hands. Ginny got up as well. Harry pecked her on the cheek once again and then quickly walked up to him dorm room. Ron quickly followed trying to catch up to him.
"What was that all about?" Ron said loudly.
"Your sister and I are . . . are . . . going out," Harry said slowly.
"Your serious?" Ron asked. Harry nodded. They both changed into their pajamas discussing him going out with Ginny and got into bed.
"Goodnight Ron," Harry said.
"Night Harry," Ron said falling asleep.
Harry and Ron woke up later the next day. They rushed downstairs to the Great Hall to find Hermione who was reading about Animagi.
"I can tell you excited too," Ron said.
"I want to find out now," Hermione said. "Only ten minutes till we do. We have Transfiguration first"
"Ten minutes?" Harry said. Harry and Ron sat down and began eating rather quickly.
"Slow down! You're going to get a stomach ache."
The ten minutes went by really slow. The arrived right on time. The other houses had already been seated and were also excited for their training. Professor McGonagall was up at her desk filling out some paperwork. She got up and walked around to the front of her desk.
"As most of you know, today we will be determining if you are to began you animagi training. That will only happen if your spirit animal is ready for you," she said with her usual lecture tone. "If it is, we will be getting you registered sometime this week and you will be learning how to transform today. If your spirit animal is not ready, you can come back anytime and we will see if it is. Now if you please follow me."
The students got up and followed their teacher out the door. She led them down to the corridor where the picture of the fruit basket leading to the house-elves was located. There was a picture a couple portraits down of an old woman that looked very much like Professor Tralawney. The woman noticed McGonagall and rose to her feet.
"The dome, Minerva?" the woman said.
"Please and thank you, Beatrice," McGonagall said. The woman began walking a few portraits down to an empty picture of a chair with a rope next to it. The woman pulled down on the rope very hard. The brick floor before them rose to hide the portrait and reveal a hidden staircase leading down under the school.
The students began filing down, lighting their wands to provide light. It seemed like they had been walking forever. Soon they arrived at a very ancient looking door. Above the door was a message saying 'Dôme des Spiritueux' carved into the door's beautiful frame.
"Well come to the Dome of Spirits," Professor McGonagall spoke. "Once you walk into the room, do not speak a single word. You see something that looks like a cauldron in the center. Create a circle around it and space yourselves out." She opened the door and students followed her in and did as they were told.
There was a gold glow to the room. The walls were made of bricks and all that was in there was the odd looking cauldron, which was the source of the gold glow. Harry, Ron and Hermione lined up together. The circle of many students formed rather quickly. Surprisingly, no one spoke, not even Draco, Crabbe, or Goyle who were looking very anxious on the other side of the room.
"Now, to see if your spirit animal is ready for you, you will have to look deep inside yourselves," McGonagall said. Since they had to look within themselves for many tactics in the wizarding world, all the students did as they were told. With their eyes hardly open, they could make out that the golden glow grew. You could now tell where people were and could make out other hidden features of the room.
"Now open your eyes," McGonagall said softly. At first the light blinded them, but then they adjusted to it and noticed little figures flying around in the cauldron.
The figures burst out of the cauldron with a faint pop. Cats and dogs, rats and birds, and many other animals made up the golden miniature figures. One was coming at Harry; its wings spread out. It began circling him. Harry looked around the room at the other people. Many of them had spirit animals. Harry then focused on the winged creature flying around him. It was indeed an owl.
The owl rose up into the air and rushed down at Harry. When it hit him, Harry felt a tickling sensation within his body. The owl had sealed itself in Harry's heart.
The cauldron in the center's glow faded slightly and all the golden creatures were within their partners.
"Lumos," Professor McGonagall said softly as her wand lit revealing the room. "By a show of hands, who here has a spirit animal?" Hands rose in the room. These people included: Ron, Hermione, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Justin, Lavender, Seamus, and Luna. Some of the people who did not have their hand raised were Pansy, Neville, Dean, Parvati, and Cho.
"Looks like a good amount of you do. Now remember, people that don't have theirs yet, can always come to my office and I will take you down here when you want to check," she said. "Now, you know what you are, but I don't. Each of you will show me your forms. To do so, it's quite easy, believe that you are that animal. Make yourself that animal." She took a quill and piece of parchment out of her robes and prepared herself to write down each persons form. "Let's begin here with you Miss Brown." Lavender nodded and took a moment to prepare herself. She soon shrunk down to a tiny hummingbird. She was sitting on the ground making small peeps here and there.
"To change back, all you have to do is think the opposite of what you just thought." After a moment or two, Lavender was back to her human self. "Lavender Brown, Hummingbird." She continued around the line in a clockwise way. She had already done most of the students before reaching Seamus.
"Seamus, ferret. Luna, rabbit. Justin, squirrel. Draco, snake. Gregory, rat. Vincent, spider," she said going down the row. Its was no surprise to Harry that Draco was to be a snake. It completely suited him. Harry did notice Ron shutter when Crabbe changed into his form. It was now Hermione's turn. She concentrated very hard. The hair on her head began spreading over her clothes as she shrunk down to a cat. She looked very identical to Crookshanks, only with shorter hair.
"Hermione, Cat," McGonagall said moving over to Ron. He concentrated very hard and soon the red hair on his head over took his body as he shrunk to a sly fox. "Ronald, Fox."
She moved on down in front of Harry. He felt very nervous. He took a deep breath and focus on his owl form in his mind. The room began to grow before his eyes. Everybody appeared to be getting taller. He turned his head completely around and looked at his snowy white tail and hooted.
"Harry, Owl." Harry then transformed back into himself. "Okay then. Now, on your schedules, for you who can transform, the yellow shaded block is now not shaded and you must now attend that class. It isn't as long as your regular classes, so there is no need to complain. Tonight, I would like each of you to practice tranforming to and from your forms. I would also like you to begin walking around very, very slowly. You still have to get use to your animal muscles. For some of you, it may even hurt. For all you flyers, I would like you to practice spreading out your wings. I must tell you that it will be most difficult for you and will hurt without a doubt. Until next class, you are dismissed."
Harry, Ron and Hermione departed from the Dome and began there way to the common room to practice till next class.
"This is so exciting," Hermione said.
"I know. I cant wait to write to mum and dad," Ron said.
"I cant wait till I learn to fly," Harry said. "Hedwig will freak out when she sees my form."
"Oh, same here with Crookshanks," Hermione said.
"Same here," Ron said.
"What? Why?" Hermione asked.
"Cause I know for sure that Pig will think I will eat him or something," Ron laughed.
"Did anyone happen to see what Draco's snake form looked like?" Harry asked.
"No," Ron said.
"Yes, he is a green garden snake. Pretty big for a garden snake I think. Garden snakes are usually pretty small and barely noticeable. But Dracos' is quite large. Why do you ask, Harry?" Hermione said.
"Well with his father being a Death Eater, he may have to do some snooping or something, and I just wanna start keeping an eye out for him for now on," Harry said. "Don't want him to tell Voldemort anything I don't want him to find out."
Hope you liked the chapter. I really like this one. I thought their animals really went with the characters . . . for the most part. The next chapter introduces the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Please Review. I want to know how I could write this better.
