The Beginning of Normalcy

Summary:Harry has always wanted to be normal. But when he finally gets his wish, is it really what he wanted?

Thanks to all my reviewers... Reviews make me try to write more... and with school that says something

Chapter 5

First Day

Harry woke up in the middle of the night sweating. He couldn't remember his dream, but he could remember the pain and fear in it. He could still hear someone screaming. He hoped he hadn't woken anyone up. Harry rolled over and checked the clock beside his bed. 4:45, wow new record, though tHarry wryly as he rolled over and got out of bed. He didn't need his glasses because Dumbledore had put a charm on his eyes that allowed him to see clearly without glasses or contacts for forty-eight hours. The forty-eight hours would be up around about one today, but his contacts were supposed to have come in by now, so that wouldn't be a problem.

Harry slowly got dressed and sat on his bed to wait. He didn't want to get out his snitch, partly because it would make a lot of noise and partly because Harry didn't want to do much. Instead Harry got out the animagi book and turned on the lamp.

Chapter 1

Introduction to Becoming an Animagi

Becoming an Animagus is a very difficult accomplishment. Only a few fully fledged have accomplished this skill. Harry read.

Harry kept reading until he heard a knock on his door.

"Ryan, time to get up." Came the gentle voice from the other side.

"I'm up." Said Harry putting down the book and walking over to the door. Harry smiled as he opened the door.

"Wow, you're an early riser." Said Sarah before turning and walking down the hall.

Harry smiled wryly and walked down the stairs towards the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen he found that breakfast was already made. On the table were eggs, bacon, toast, grits and hash browns. Harry grinned again. It would be nice not to have to make the meals for once. Harry sat down and glanced at the clock before eating. It was 6:30. Sarah had obviously thought it might take him a while to get up, because it wouldn't take that long to eat and get dressed before 7.

Harry finished eating and went back upstairs. Once upstairs he sat on his bed and waited until about 6:50. He then went back downstairs to the fireplace where he found Mark waiting for him.

"Ah! There you are. If you hadn't shown up in a few minutes I would have gone upstairs to get you." Said Mark smiling and reaching up onto the mantle for a flowerpot. "Now take a pinch and… What am I saying? You know how to use floo powder! Dumbledore asked that you go to his office. So just say 'Hogwart's Headmaster's office.' We'll see you when you get back." Said Mark.Harry nodded and took a pinch of the sparkling green powder. Throwing it in the fire, he was gone in a swirl of color.

Harry stumbled out of the fireplace and blink several times. He had to be imagining things. In Dumbledore's office sitting in two of the three chairs (not including Dumbledore's normal chair, which he was sitting in) were two familiar heads, one red the other bushy and brown. The two people turned around briefly then turned back to their conversation.Harry swallowed his surprise and took the other available seat across from Dumbledore.

"Ah… Ryan, right on time. Ron, Hermione, this is Ryan. Ryan, this is Ron and Hermione." Said Dumbledore his eyes twinkling. "Today we will be starting your animagi training, and dueling training. As you were told before, you will be leaving via portkey at 10. Later on this week, you three will be learning how to duel with swords. Tonks, Remus, Moody and Severus will be helping me teach you lot. Now let's get outside and get started." Dumbledore stood up and started towards the door followed closely by Hermione and Ron with Harry bringing up the rear.

Dumbledore lead the trio down the halls and out the double doors. The whole time they were walking Ron and Hermione whispered to each other and kept throwing glances at Harry. It got quite annoying and frustrating for Harry as he could hear parts of what they were saying. His two best friends wondered who he was and why he was here training with them. Again Harry had his hands full trying not to yell out who he really was.

Once outside Dumbledore walked over to a lone woman standing next to the steps.

"Tonks, this is Ryan the other one I mentioned to you." Said Dumbledore. "I'll leave you to your job." With this Dumbledore walked off.

"Well, get started." Said Tonks.

"With what?" asked Ron.

"With your laps." Said Tonks as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Laps?" said Hermione in a slightly higher pitched voice.

"Yes. Did Dumbledore not tell you?" When they shook their heads, Tonks continued. "At the beginning of each training session, we will be working on our strength and stamina. To warm-up, you will run three laps around the lake. Eventually it will be around the whole castle." At this Ron groaned. "After that you will see me for the rest of your strength training. Begin."

Ron, Hermione and Harry reluctantly began jogging around the lake. To their surprise, Tonks took off around the castle.

"We're – not – even – half – around - the - lake - and - I'm – already - tired." Panted Ron. Harry just rolled his eyes as did Hermione, but neither said anything they too out of breath. Tonks had finished two laps around the castle and was waiting on the steps for them before they were halfway around on their third lap and when the trio finally jogged over to her, all of them were too out of breath to do anything, but pant.

"Well, that wasn't so great." Said Tonks bluntly. "You'll just have to run again before you leave today." Harry, Ron and Hermione all groaned in unison at this. "Now we will go work out. We won't be using any real weights today. We'll only be doing pushups, for at least today. I will warn you though that this will be easy compared to what's coming." Tonks led the way into the castle. She turned a few times and they ended up in a hallway thatHarry had not beendown before.

"Serendipity." Said Tonks stopping in front of a portrait of a weight lifter who was bench pressing what looked to be a hundred pounds at least. The weight lifter nodded without stopping and the portrait opened.

On the other side of the portrait was an enormous room filled with tons of different machines. Some Harry recognized from muggle television commercials, others he didn't recognize at all. Along one wall were lots of mirrors with tons of squishy looking mats in front of it along with a trampoline and a strip of raised carpet.

Tonks walked over to the raised carpet and motioned for the three to take off their shoes and follow.

"Drop and give me fifty!" said Tonks as soon as they had gotten to the mats. Harry, Ron and Hermione stared at her. "Sorry, I just had to say that, but seriously give me fifty pushups. In increments of no less than 15."

Harry got down on his hands and feet and started doing his pushups.

"Boy pushups, Hermione." Said Tonks. Harry glanced over and saw Hermione with her knees on the ground and feet in the air.Harry shook his head.

"For once Hermione isn't right; too bad Harry isn't here to see it." Mumbled Ron under his breath next to Harry. Harry bit his lips and sat back. He had managed to make 25 pushups without stopping and without dying although his arms burned badly.

"So you two are coming over later to play quidditch, right?" asked Harry in what he hoped was a casual tone.

"You're staying with the Johnston's?" said Hermione. Harry nodded.

"Yes we are. Are you playing?" said Ron rolling his eyes.

"Hey! No chit chat!" said Tonks looking up from the stack of barbells and grinning. "Unless you want more conditioning."

Harry hastily went back to his last 25 pushups and got through them relatively well. Ron had done really well on the pushups, but Hermione had struggled a lot.

"Come over here and grab a set of five pound weights when you're done. (A/n: I know it's supposed to be kilograms or something, but this is easier.)" said Tonks. Harry, Hermione and Ron got up reluctantly and each grabbed a set of five-pound weights.

"Okay, I want fifty normal curls, fifty like this," Tonks demonstrated a curl with the end of the weight towards her shoulder. "And fifty like this." Said Tonks as she demonstrated a normal curl then raised her hands straight above her head when she got to the top of the normal curl. She then lowered her arms in front of her with her arms straight. "You may do them in increments of no less than ten. In between each set you may have a minute to talk and rest your arms. Begin."

Harry, Ron and Hermione began. Good grief! She's not feeling very merciful today, thought Harry as he finished his last five curls of his first set about a minute later. Harry stopped after ten and bent over to set down his weights. Ron had finished his first set about ten seconds before Harry, but Hermione was still working on hers.

"You never got to answer my question earlier. Will you be playing?" asked Ron.

"Yes." Said Harry.

"What position will you be playing?"

"Seeker and you play keeper, right?"

"Yes, How did you know that?"Harry shrugged.

"Everyone knows that Harry's best friend plays keeper and is scared of spiders whilehis best girl friend is a book worm." Said Harry nonchalantly.

"I don't know about everyone." Said Ron blushing furiously and picking up his weights. Harry grinned to himself as he bent over to pick up his weights as well.

This set was harder and Harry had to stop at five for a few seconds. Tonks, fortunately was on the other side of the room on a weight machine. Otherwise, Harry would have at least gotten told off for stopping.

Ten minutes later, they were done and Tonks led them back to the Entrance Hall where Remus, Moody and Dumbledore were waiting.

"All right, you three?" asked Remus grinning at us.

"We're surviving for now, I think." Said Harry glancing at the others who just smiled slightly.

"Follow us, then and we'll finish today's session." Said Dumbledore walking off.

Harry started to follow him, but was held back by Remus. Moody and Tonks didn't give Remus and Harry a second glance but followed Dumbledore. Ron and Hermione, however, looked at them kind of funny, but followed Dumbledore anyway.

"Harry." Said Remus softly as soon as the others were out of earshot causing Harry to jump.

"How'd you figure it out so quickly?" asked Harry grinning.

"Well, Dumbledore wouldn't let you go without the same training if not more than Ron and Hermione, so of course it had to be you unless Dumbledore was training you on his own, which I highly doubt. Plus Dumbledore told me to tell you not to cast a true patronus and that's the only reason I can think of as to why you shouldn't cast a true patronus."

"True. Do Tonks and Moody know?"

"If they don't now, they'll figure it out soon. We'd better get to Dumbledore before Ron and Hermione get too suspicious." Said Remus glancing down the hall. "Oh, and if they ask what I stopped you for I asked you for more information on Tonk's workout session."

Harry nodded and grinned as he followed Remus down the hall and outside. Remus stopped in front of the group who were all standing near a brick wall with a door in it that Harry had never seen before.

"Ah, Remus, Ryan, so good of you to join us. I was just telling Ron and Hermione that you three would be running an obstacle course filled with surprises to see how well you do and what we need to work on. One person at a time, however. The other two will be watching with us. Do not think that going last will help you any, the course will change after each person finishes. No Unforgivable curses and no other harmful ones either. If you get into trouble shoot red sparks into the air and someone will find you. Now this is the entrance to the course. Have fun and try not to get hurt." Said Dumbledore cheerily, his eyes twinkling merrily.

Ron,Harry and Hermione decided after a quick debate (mostly between Ron and Hermione, they seemed to be ignoring Harry) that they'd draw sticks as to who went first. Of course, Harry drew the short stick.

"Well, here goes." Said Harry opening the door and shutting it behind him.

Once inside, Harry glanced around and drew out his new wand. His old one was in its holster in his sleeve. All he had to do was move his arm just right and he'd have his old one in his hand. In front of him was a three-way fork in a hallway. The hallways were lined with torches, which lit the halls. The ceiling and walls were made of bricks as well as the floor. Harry turned and walked into the hall on his right with his in hand, by his side. Suddenly the torches went out.

Harry stopped. "Lumos Maximus."he said and the hall was instantly lit again. Harry wished it wasn't. In front of him was a chamber. Inside the chamber was a humongous spider. The spider was about eight feet tall and six feet wide. The chamber was large with huge spider webs all over it. Ron must be having fun watching this, though tHarry wryly. Harry quickly thought up two different plans. Plan 1: face the spider face to face and hope it isn't immune to most spells or plan 2: distract it and try to sneak through the door on the other side. Harry opted for plan 2 and blasted apart a web in a far corner of the chamber. The spider was attracted to the destroyed web as Harry had hoped it would be and Harry quickly ran to the other side and through the door. Breathing a sigh of relief,Harry continued on. Down the hall, Harry could see a green light what it was, he couldn't tell.Harry kept walking, however. The only other choice he really had was to go back to the giant spider, which he didn't really want to do.

As Harry got closer, the green light became clearer. When he was about five feet away, he could tell that it was many beams of light going from one wall to the next blocking the hall.

The beams of light, Harry guessed, were lasers. Maybe just stunning ones, but lasers none the less and to make matters worse, the lasers didn't just go horizontally, they went all directions, so it wasn't like he could just duck under them or step over them. He'd have to weave his way through as there was no spell to his knowledge that would deactivate them. Harry took a deep breath and began.

The first laser was separated a bit from the rest. Harry dropped to the floor and crawled under it on his belly. The next two were in an x shape going from corner to corner with a vertical laser in the middle. Harry walked towards the wall and pressed his back against the wall. Harry slid closer to the laser and stepped over it easily. For the next few feet of the hallway were vertical beams that were space about one and a half feet apart. The lasers were positioned so that he couldn't walk straight through, but had to zigzag his way through avoiding the laser "walls" that were sprinkled about the hall. Harry turned sideways and slid in. left, forward, right, U-turn around one, Harry worked his way through slowly but surely. Another foot and the lasers thinned out a bit. Harry slipped through the denser lasers without any difficulty. Harry stopped for a second to catch his breath. Zing! A laser shot down from the ceiling landing a few centimeters from Harry's shoe.

Crap, Harry thought. This part must have heat triggered ones or something.

Zing! Another one narrowly missed Harry's other foot as he danced out of the way. Great, Harry thought. I don't know where or when they'll hit, the only chance I have is to keep moving and hope they don't hit me.

Harry started moving. First sliding to the right, then slipping forward, while turned sideways, he managed to not get hit by the heat-triggered lasers but just barely. Once again, Harry slipped quickly to the left and then forward again and he was out of the lasers. Harry took two steps and fell into a deep freezing cold pool of water.

Treading water to keep afloat, Harry lit his wand tip and shined it's light around him. The water stretched from wall to wall and from the end of the lasers to the beginning of moving lasers that were always on, but constantly moving. The pool was about ten feet long and six feet wide. Harry couldn't tell how deep it was, but it was obviously deep, because he couldn't touch the bottom. Harry took a deep breath and began swimming to the other side.

It didn't take him longer than five minutes to get to the other side, but it did take most of his strength that he had left from that morning's conditioning session with Tonks. Harry's freehand hit the edge and he pulled himself out of the water. Turning around, he shone the light from his wand into the water. Harry couldn't see anything; even with the light the water looked as black as night. What he didn't know was that if he hadn't lit his wand, he'd have seen the Grindylows that lurked in the pool of water.

"Whatever." Said Harry to himself shrugging as he turned around to face the next issue. Harry stood studying the lasers for the next five minutes. One laser was constantly still in the middle, but the others moved alternately for about half a minute, then stopped for a few seconds, hardly ever were two separate lasers still at the same time. This would take a lot of luck and still more luck if he was to get through it. Harry decided to try a slowing charm on each of the lasers. The lasers slowed a little, but not much.Harry sighed and began to weave his way through the web of moving lasers. Sliding to the right and jumping over a low laser, Harry seemed to not stop moving, he couldn't. Ducking and jumping Harry started to get into a rhythm pausing occasionally to wait for the chance to move without getting struck by the lasers. Harry dropped to his belly again and slid under a laser rising to a crouch on the other side. To his left was the still vertical laser and above him was a laser moving down, Harry rolled towards his right and landed sloppily near the wall. Harry stood and ducked under the laser, before sliding to his left and hopping over the next laser.

Hop, slide right, duck, run forwards two steps, stop… begin again jump left, duck one laser, jump again, pause, lean back, stand up, run jump and finally he was through the lasers. Harry leaned over panting trying to catch his breath. This had better be the right way about getting out of here, thought Harry. There is no way I am going back through all that crap. Harry stood up and walked on without a glance backwards.

After walking about ten feet forward, Harry came to a fork in the hall. This time there were only two choices, right or left. Harry chose right and walked in. He hadn't gone more than ten more feet when he felt a familiar chill.Harry shuddered but walked on remembering Remus' warning not to cast a true patronus. That didn't mean he couldn't cast one at all, it just meant he had to change it's form, which could be done it was just harderor use aweaker memory than normal.Harry soon came to the chamber that the chill was coming from. Taking another deep breath, Harry walked in. There was only one dementor in the chamber, but it still affected Harry. The screaming started and he shouted, "Expecto Patronum," while concentrating on a different form then normal.

To Harry's surprise, a huge shaggy dog came out and chased the dementor out the hall Harry had just entered through. Harry almost laughed as he recognized the form, but stopped when he remembered that everyone was watching.

Harry hurried on now eager to finish this test and get on with the rest of his training.

The next chamber was dark and silent, a bit too silent, Harry added. Harry lit the chamber and looked around. There were many statues of people with inscriptions in other languages on them that Harry couldn't read.

A loud cry of 'Expelliarimus' brought Harry out of his reverie and he ducked and rolled out of the way as several figures in black jumped out from behind the statues.

"Bloody hell." Swore Harry under his breath his attackers formed a semi-circle in front of him. Ducking and rolling,Harry quickly moved behind a statue of a lady with a stern expression on her face much like McGonagall's. Harry ducked as the statue's head was blasted off and hit the wall with a force so great the head shattered.

Dang, thought Harry. Time to fight I guess. Harry sighed and turned towards the side of the statue and stepped out, firing stunners and disarming charms as he ran to the next statue. Two of the figures in black were caught off guard by stunners while the others put up shields or dodged them easily.

Again the statue Harry was hiding behind was hit with a spell and Harry ran out from behind it firing at the figures. Two more fell while the others dodged and shot back at him. Harry dodged as he ran, narrowly missing getting hit by a stunner. Harry quickly ducked behind the next statue and tried to catch his breath. The figures in black were not giving up easily and were very organized. Harry knew that he couldn't beat them by himself, but maybe he could get out of this chamber and into the next without them noticing if he tried the new spellhe had read about the night before. It was called an illusion spell and it would give the illusion that there was one or two more of whatever the caster wanted it to. Harry decided to give it a go as the statue was once again blown into smithereens.Harry ran firing a few stunners at the figures and managing to take down three more, before ducking behind a statue and casting the illusion on himself. His illusion self rolled out from behind the statue and ran towards the hallway that Harry had entered from. Harry got up and ran from statue to statue towards the other door careful to stay out of sight as much as possible. All his efforts were in vain however as one of the figures' spells went right through the illusion just as Harry was running to the next statue and whirled around. The figure spotted Harry and fired three quick stunners straight at him.Harry was caught off guard, but managed to dodge the first two, while thethird one hit him square in the chest. The last thing that crossed through Harry's mind as the blackness took over was 'Almost got there.'

A fewminutes later, Harry awoke to Remus standing over him in a room that Harry hadn't seen before.

"Where are we?" asked Harry sitting up on the floor.

"We're in another of the practice rooms that Dumbledore had added on to thecastle specially for you three to train. This room is going to be used as a dueling room, martial arts, and animagi training room."

"Okay… so what are we doing here? Shouldn't we be watching Ron and Hermione run the course?" asked Harry a bit confused.

"No, we won't be watching them run the course, just as they didn't get to watch you.-"

"So I bothered to try and change my patronus form for nothing!"

"Not for nothing. They might get to see the tape later at the meeting while we decide what you three need to learn thanks to some new product of the resident pranksters call x-ray goggles."

"Okay, so what are we doing here?"

"You'll be finding out what your animagus form is." Said Remus getting up and walking over to a table.

"Really?" Seeing Remus' nod, Harry quickly got up and walked over towards Remus. On the table was a small goblet filled with a steaming blue potion and three pieces of parchment. Remus quickly took two of the parchments off of the table and hid them from Harry's sight. Harry frowned, but didn't say anything.

"All you have to do is put a hair, fingernail clipping or a drop of blood in the potion and let it dissolve. After it dissolves, I'll put a drop of the potion on the parchment and we'll wait for it to tell us the results. For some people it only takes a matter of minutes, but for others it could take all night." Harry nodded and plucked a hair from his head and added it to thepotion in the goblet. The hair dissolved quickly and Remus put a drop on the parchment using a dropper that had been on the table beside the goblet.

"What do you think my form will be?" asked Harry as he stared at the parchment. Remus chuckled.

"I don't know. An animagus' form comes from the person's personality. Occasionally, someone will have two forms that best fit their personality and they become dual animagi, but that is very rare. Even rarer are people with magical forms and animorphagi. Animorphagi can shape shift much like a metamorphagus, but only into animal forms not human."

"Has anyone else found out their form without Dumbledore knowing?" asked Harry with a sly grin on his face.

"No! of course not! Why would I do something like that?" said Remus with mock indignation and a grin.

"Of course not… but then who would you help? And why?" asked Harry still grinning. "Maybe a little redhead asked you sweetly or her older brother 'persuaded' you to let her train to be an animagus too?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" exclaimed Remus still grinning.

"Sure… and pigs fly." Said Harry dryly. "What's her form?" Remus stopped grinning at this.

"I can't tell you that. She doesn't want anyone to know yet, only Hermione and I know." There was a brief pause then Remus said, "Let's go see if the results have appeared yet," and got up to go look at the parchment.

Harry stayed sitting on the couch while Remus got up. So Ginny was an animagus, but Remus wasn't going to tell him what she was because Ginny- at this Harry' thoughts were broken off by a gasp from Remus.

"What's wrong Remus? Am I not an animagus?" asked Harry getting up from the couch to join Remus at the table.

"Oh, you're an animagus all right."

Sorry, Cliffie! just had to do it. i'll update soon though... if you review :-)