Chapter 3 – Transfiguration class
Hermione, Ron and Neville left the Dungeons with Harry, heading towards Transfiguration class.
"What do you think Professor McGonnagall will teach us this year?" Hermione wondered aloud, "We should be doing some really advanced transfiguration this year!"
"Oh, great, I can't wait!" replied Ron sarcastically.
"You've got nothing to worry about Ron," Neville added, then in response to a look from Ron, "Compared to me! Did you see me last year when we were transforming owls into chairs. My owl shrunk, replaced it's legs with chair legs and grew a trunk!"
They all burst into fits of laughter and spent the rest of the journey to the Transfiguration classrooms discussing different mistakes they'd all made in Transfiguration.
They arrived just in time, and almost straight after they had got their things out and sat down, McGonnagall walked in and they had to stand back up.
"Good morning class, and welcome to a new term and a new year at Hogwarts school.
I am very pleased to see you all safely back this year.
I do hope that this year you will learn things that will enable you to get the jobs you want and above all to protect yourself.
"However, I regret to inform you that I am not taking you this lesson. Professor Flitwick has kindly stepped in to cover this lesson for me. He will be taking you through the details of the work you'll be doing this year, and I have asked him to set you some work from the textbooks as homework."
There was a slight groan at this last comment but the rest was listened to intently.
Following the end of Professor McGonnagall's welcome, Professor Flitwick trundled in, holding a large pile of books.
"Hello Professor," greeted Flitwick.
"Hello Flitwick, thanks again for agreeing to cover this lesson."
"Not at all Minerva, not at all, it's the least I can do."
"Oh, just before you start, Harry Potter, can I speak to you in my office?"
"Yes, of course Professor." Harry replied, packing up his bag and whispering Goodbye to his friends.
Harry left the classroom and followed Professor McGonnagall down the corridor to her office.
He had been here before and it had not changed much. A password had been installed though, which had not been there before.
"Calculus" whispered McGonnagall.
Harry followed her into her office. She took a seat behind a large walnut table and beckoned him to sit opposite.
"Harry, you may be wondering why I asked you to come here," Professor McGonnagall began, Harry sensed it was a rhetorical question and didn't answer.
"As you know, in the summer, letters were delivered by owl post to every student that would be attending Hogwarts this year, informing them that Hogwarts would not be closed." Harry nodded. "I got a reply from you, informing me that you were not going to return to Hogwarts, but in fact, to go in search of the other "horcruxes" (she whispered this word)
"However, just before term started, I received news from you that you had destroyed 'enough' of the horcruxes to 'justify' yourself coming back to Hogwarts."
"Yes Professor."
"Which ones did you destroy exactly?"
"Well," he began, "As I'm sure you know, there were 6 to begin with (plus Voldemort himself to make 7). The first, his diary was destroyed in my second year. Dumbledore destroyed one himself last year, and we went together to destroy a third.
"Over the summer I set out to destroy the remaining two."
"There should have been four left, minus his soul, leaving you with seven." Professor McGonnagall interrupted.
"Yes Professor, however as I'm sure Dumbledore told you, his theory is that the 6th horcrux is in Nagini, Voldemort's treasured snake. I decided that if I were to attempt to kill Nagini, Voldemort would surely come to kill me straight after. It therefore made sense, to leave killing Nagini until I was properly ready for a fight against Voldemort."
"Very wise Mr Potter, so did you complete the task you set for yourself of destroying the other two horcruxes?"
"I am sorry to say 'No'. I did manage to locate and destroy one of them, the artefact from the Hogwarts founder, Ravenclaw. It was a glove, a gold glove with jewels encrusted on it."
"Well done, well done." McGonnagall congratulated, "May I ask how you went about finding it?"
"Well, Professor, I talked to the head of Ravenclaw house, Professor Flitwick, by owl over the summer. He informed me that one artefact had 'gone missing' roughly 20 years ago. He told me it was a 'jewelled glove' made of gold.
"I presumed that this must be the item that had been made into a horcrux. However at this point I had no idea where to look for it. That is until I received a letter."
"A letter?" Professor McGonnagall looked surprised and curious.
"Yes, I received it by owl, an owl I did not recognise. It had my name on it but there was no address."
"Have you got it with you?" McGonnagall asked.
Harry pulled an old envelope out of his pocket and opened it up to reveal a neat piece of parchment. He handed it to her. She carefully unfolded the paper and then raised it towards her eyes to read it.
It read as follows.
Dear Mr. PotterWord has reached me that you have gone in search of Voldemort's horcruxes in order to destroy them.
I have some information for you that might help. I know where the jewelled glove from Hufflepuff is hidden. It is hidden on the site of the Dark Lord's first murder. It is in an underground chamber. I do not know what the Dark Lord has buried with it to protect it but I urge you to go and find it and destroy it.
"Very curious, do you have an ideas as to who it is from?"
"I think it might be from the same person who destroyed the original locket me and Dumbledore went to destroy last year." Harry replied.
"Good, good, I agree," McGonnagall responded. "So did you find it?"
"Yes. I researched and found out where his first murder had been committed. I then travelled to that place. The final obstacle was that it was sealed, just about one centimetre around the outside with a lilac coloured liquid. If touched it was white hot, but when I hit it against the wall it clung like glue. I tried numerous spells but none worked. Then Hermione,"
"Hold on, you took Hermione?" McGonnagall questioned.
"I didn't mean to, Ron and her followed me and refused to leave. I was very glad to have them there. I couldn't have done it without them."
"Very well, I shall talk to them later to congratulate them. Go on."
"Right, yes, Hermione said she had read about the substance. She said the way to get rid of it was to burn it. Me and Ron were very sceptical but she insisted.
"She made a fire and, using the corner of her robe, threw the glove into it. After a long wait the substance around the glove solidified. We put out the fire and took out the glove, it was no longer hot to the touch. We tried hitting it against the wall again and the solid fell off like old paint."
"Well done, what did you do with the glove?"
"I took it to Lupin, Moody and some of the other members of the Order. They sorted it."
"Good, well I'm glad to hear that that is 4 of the seven out of the way. However, you said Mr Potter that you returned to Hogwarts having dealt with a sufficient number of horcruxes to 'justify' you coming back."
"Yes I did say that, and I did nearly not return to go in search of the fifth horcrux. However I realised that I had only managed to get the glove with the help of Ron and Hermione. If I went on to search for the fifth whilst they went back to school I would be sure to fail.
"I have decided then to stay at school but also keep searching for the fifth horcrux. If Dumbledore's assumptions were correct, it is Hufflepuff's cup that will be the fifth horcrux. I just need to find out where it is hidden."
"Yes, of course. I myself will be ready to help you whenever you need my help, and although I cannot speak for the other teachers, I am sure they would say the same. I must urge you though to also keep onto of your school work. This year will determine what jobs you can get in the future, and also, better arm you for any future battles with Voldemort."
"I'll do my best professor, and thank you for your support. Should I return to my class now?"
"No, class will be over in 10 minutes, I'm sure your friend Hermione will be able to fill you in on what you missed. I will ask you though, not to talk about the horcruxes to more than your closest friends, although it is not a secret, I don't want the students not involved to be worried."
"Yes Professor."
"Now. Feel free to go to the Great Hall and start an early lunch. I'll tell your friends to meet you there."
"Thank you, Professor, good bye."
Harry closed the door to McGonnagall's office behind him and walked down to the Great Hall. While Harry had been in her office he had had an idea, maybe it would be wise to restart the D.A. . It would prepare them all, in case the did have to do anymore fighting, like they had had to last year, and also, it might help some of the students to feel less scared about Voldemort having come back to power.
Harry did not have to wait long in the Great Hall before Ron and Hermione joined him there. He put his idea to them straight away.
"I was thinking, we should restart the D.A."
Harry had expected Hermione to be sceptical, and to at some point mention the amount of work they would have this year, but to his surprise she was not.
"Yeah that's a good idea, which age group should we open it for?"
"Well, how about just Year 6 and 7" Ron suggested.
"But we fought off Voldemort in our first year, and a troll! Surely all the years could cope with it." Harry protested.
"Well, how about we have two. One for years 5-7, one for years 1-4?" Hermione suggested smartly.
"How are we going to find the time?" Ron jumped in. "How are we supposed to have time to run to D.A. meetings a week, plus homework, revision, and searching for the horcruxes."
"Well, we can ask for volunteers at the older one to help us lead the younger one, and then if we can't do it some weeks, they can take over. How's that?" reasoned Harry.
"Yes," answered Ron and Hermione in unison.
"That's sorted, I'll see if McGonnagall can get a notice put up in the common rooms, then we can hold a meeting to see who is interested.
Harry then told his two friends about his meeting with their head of house.
After lunch they went to Double Charms. This was just like any other class with nothing out of the ordinary. Harry went to see Professor McGonnagall at the end of the day about the D.A. .