Hmm... well, as of last chapter, a plot is emerging. Kind of kicks off properly with this chapter. Hopefully it doesn't seem too contrived...

Thanks to the people that did bother reviewing...

CHEERS JIM!

"Today, you will be studying Fatum Numen. It is a potion that for centuries, possibly millennia, people have been trying to successfully concoct. All who tried have failed. The true results of digesting such a potion are as yet unknown. Does anybody know the common name for this potion?"

Hermione's hand was up before he'd even finished asking the question.

"Anybody?" Snape sneered, blatantly ignoring her. "Does nobody know?" he turned his glare onto Harry. "Mr. Antares, have you not picked up the textbook at all this term?"

"It's not in the textbook, sir," he replied quietly, having spent a good amount of time while at Snape's manor reading the textbook. The Potions Master sneered at him, and finally turned to Hermione.

"Yes? What is it?" he snapped irritably.

"It's known as Nectar of the Gods, sir, and is most famous in pure-blood families. Is it said to give the drinker the powers of a god, and if taken while –"

"I asked for its name, Miss Granger, not its entire history," Snape sneered. "Five points for not deliberately not answering the question correctly."

Hermione flushed and lowered her head. Ernie patted her on the hand.

"Now, today you will be attempting to brew this potion. I highly doubt that any of you will be successful, but as a precaution I absolutely forbid that any of you ingest what you produce. The results could be catastrophic." His piercing gaze stopped on Harry. "Is that understood?"

The class murmured their assent, Harry glaring furiously at Snape, and he set them to work.

"This is one of the most complex potions I've ever seen," Draco bit his lip as he studied the list. "Look at this – bat lacewings, pig intestines, Hinkypunk teeth, dragon blood, boomslang, gillyweed, redwood sap, phoenix feathers… half of this stuff isn't even in the store cupboard."

"Plus you have to have something that represents the type of God you want to become," Harry pointed out. Draco put his hand up.

"Sir, are we going to be adding that part – the one that decides what god we're going to be?"

"Of course. I'll leave that up to you to decide."

After nearly an hour of working over the hot cauldrons, he and Draco were finally ready to add the final ingredients. Their potion was an inky black, blacker than night, sucking all light in. According to the textbook, this was the correct colour, to Harry's relief. He peered around the room. Hermione and Ernie's was a dark grey; Pansy and Boot's was a muddy brown; Zabini and Padma's was a vivid pink.

"We need to separate them off into two separate containers." Draco said, nose buried into the book. He pulled out his standard pewter cauldron (they had used Harry's silver one, as usual) and tipped half of the potion into it. He glanced up at Harry. "What are you going to put in?"

Harry glanced over the list of things that were commonly used when people attempted the potion. Draco snorted when he saw Harry looking.

"Oh come one," he said derisively. "You're not going to use something standard, are you?"

Harry glanced down at his hand, and saw that he was holding a small crystal vial of something. He opened his fist, and Harry could see the viscous, green fluid moving within in. He narrowed his eyes.

"You want to be the God of Snakes?" he asked sceptically. Draco shrugged.

"It's something different."

Harry sighed and forced his hands in his pockets. Since the episode with Ron and the broom cupboard, he had taken to carrying a vial of phoenix tears around with him, just in case. Draco nodded his approval.

"The God of Phoenixes."

"Not quite. Just something different."

The tipped the liquids into their separate potions at the same time, and ducked as both started fizzing violently. People around them stopped brewing to watch the potion. The changed colour – Draco's to a viscous, dark green, Harry's to pearly white. The same consistency and colour of the extra ingredients. They straightened and cast nervous glances at Snape, who was regarding them thoughtfully.

"Have your samples collected and ready in five minutes," he called out. "Then don't touch your cauldrons. I shall come and dispose of that which is remaining."

"Not likely," Draco whispered, and while Snape's back was turned, he and Harry filled a few small vials with their respective potions, then each filling a flask to present to Snape.

"We can try them tonight,"

"No, not tonight. We've got the Animagus thingy to go to," Harry reminded him. "Have you got a free tomorrow morning?"

"Yes, first thing."

"Then we'll do it then."

"I am going to cast a spell on our. In your mind's eye, a picture should be projected. This is what your Animagus shall be. Now, I shall do this in alphabetical order, so Mr. Antares first, if you please."

Harry walked up to Lupin – he had replaced McGonagall in their Animagus training sessions..

"Close your eyes and relax. Be prepared for your Animagus form." Harry closed his eyes and relaxed his mind. "Pateo!"

There was a fierce burst of light in his mind, and he winced. Then out of the darkness that had formed, a massive black panther came prowling. The light reflected off its blue/black fur, powerful muscles rippling beneath as it moved forward. It broke into a run, and Harry barely had time to react before it pounced, teeth bared in a growl, heading straight for him…

His eyes snapped open and he lurched forward, stumbling into the desk. His breath was coming in ragged gasps, and he was fully aware of everyone watching him. Lupin gave him a moment to collect himself.

"Did it work?"

"I think so." Harry said, coughing. Lupin nodded.

"Don't tell us what it is. We'll see in a moment." He raised his voice. "Miss Granger,"

Harry watched as Lupin cast the spell on Hermione. She stood still for a while before lurching forward in the same way that Harry. The same thing happened to both Draco and Zabini as they were called up. Once done, Lupin beamed at them all.

"Now, I want you all to focus your Animagus in your mind. Don't think of anything, just two things – your Animagus form, and being your Animagus. Don't worry about the incantation for the time being, I'll be in charge of that. Now, close your eyes and concentrate as hard as you can. Be ready to change, and keep a hold on the animal's natural instincts. Brace yourselves now. Permutare!

Harry felt something akin to taking the Polyjuice potion. His insides squirmed about, his bones reconfigured, and he could feel his face rearranging itself. Suddenly there was an explosion out of the bottom of his spine and he fell to all fours, his legs shrinking, muscles packing them out. His feet and hands turned into paws, steady against the unbalance of the rest of his changing body…

Then, as quickly as it had started, it was over. He opened his eyes.

Before him was a wolf, a salamander, and a fox. The wolf walked around him and sniffed his rear end. He jumped as the cold, wet nose touched his arse and moved sharply, growling fiercely. He wasn't worried – after all, he was more powerful than all the others were, he was at the top of this particular food chain – but it didn't harm to be cautious. He padded over to the salamander and poked it with one large paw. It hissed and snapped at him. In retaliation, he smacked it with his paw, sending it flying across the room with a snarl. He turned on the fox, which quivered in its place. He was about to reach it when he heard something, his extra-sensitive hearing picking up the whisper.

"Pateo!"

He shuddered as his body shifted back to its human shape, and looked up. Hermione was cowering before him. Zabini was lying on the far side of the room, Lupin bent over him. Draco was eyeing him, amused.

"You have an interesting smell." He remarked, and Harry flushed.

"You could warn me next time you try and stick your nose up my arse."

"Forgive me, but I wasn't aware that wolves had vocal chords."

"Git."

"Prat."

"James!"

Harry looked up at Lupin.

"Yes sir?"

"Do you see what I mean by the animal's natural instincts? Would everybody please share with the rest of us what their Animagus' natural reactions were? Hermione?"

"I was terrified." She answered truthfully. "The fox is a vulnerable creature, and could have been attacked by any of the others very easily. I felt threatened."

"Blaise?"

"I felt fine with Granger, I was a bit wary with Malfoy, and I honestly scared of Antares. I wasn't terrified though, but very defensive."

"Draco?"

"I wasn't the least bit worried about Granger or Zabini, but I was a bit wary of James."

"James?"

"I was just interested by the others. I guess I'm the top of this little kingdom in terms of predatory instincts," he mused.

"Indeed. Now, I would rather like each of you to have a go at the incantation yourselves. As none of you had any problems when transforming first time around, you will probably be able to manage it. The incantation is Permutare. Concentrate, now."

Harry visualised his panther in his mind's eye, what it felt like to be the panther, and kept repeating the incantation over and over in his head. Once he had repeated it about ten times, he felt the change begin. It was much slower than before, but then again, that was what these lessons were for. It took much longer, but was over within the minute. He opened his eyes. Zabini hadn't managed it, but the other two had. On impulse, Harry stepped around the back of Draco and sniffed his arse. The wolf yelped and whipped around to face an almost grinning panther. It was getting easier to control the instincts.

"Change back now, please." Lupin interrupted. "The word is Pateo."

Harry forced an image of himself into his mind, and was about to start the change back when he realised that he was picturing Harry Potter, not Jams Antares. Shaken by his almost revelation, it took him a while to get back to his human self.

"Excellent. Well, that's enough for one night. I'll see you back here he same time next week." Lupin said jovially.

Harry brought Draco up to his dorm the next morning after breakfast under the Invisibility Cloak. Ron and Seamus had lessons all morning, and Neville and Dean were in Herbology for the first period, meaning they had an hour and a half to take the potion.

"Cicatrix, if anything goes wrong, you have to cry on both of us to heal what you can, then go straight to Dumbledore. He'll know what to do," he told his phoenix. Cicatrix let out a low note of agreement, and settled on his perch. Harry locked the door, added a silencing spell, and turned to Draco, who was lying on his bed. "Is there anything else we need to do?"

"No, don't think so." He pulled both their vials out of his pocket, and grimaced. "They went back to black overnight. You can tell which is which by smelling them though. Mine's sort of acidic. A really sharp sort of smell. Yours smells sweet."

"Let's do it then, and Draco handed him his vial. He sat down on the bed beside Draco and unstopped it, raising it in a mock toast. "To being gods!" he said jokingly. Draco grinned and clicked his own vial against Harry's.

"To being gods," he echoed, and they drunk at the same time.

Harry felt the magic run through his body the moment the potion went down his throat and it occurred to him that if felt incredibly like the first time that he had touched Draco when they sealed the agreement. He looked blearily at Draco and vaguely registered that he was in the same state. He reached out and grabbed for him.

Harry's legs went first and he sank towards the floor followed quickly by Draco who could not support his weight in his current state. The magic was coursing through him and Harry knew it would do no good to resist it. He knew they were both collapsing onto the floor but there was nothing he could do to stop it and the best he could manage was keeping a hold on Draco. He absently noted that the stone was cold and then his conscious brain shut down.

"James?"

Harry's eyes snapped open at the sound of Dumbledore's voice above him. He sat up sharply. Draco was lying beside him, still unconscious. Snape was hovering in the doorway, looking both anxious and furious at the same time.

"What time is it?"

"Half past nine."

"Oh that's all right then."

"Would you care to tell the Headmaster and I exactly what you thought you were doing, ingesting a practically unknown potion, with no idea what the side effects would be?" Snape growled, moving into the room and slamming the door shut. Harry winced.

"We didn't think it was going to work. I told Cicatrix to heal us as well as he could if things went wrong, and go get Professor Dumbledore…"

"The fact remains, Potter, that you did something irresponsible and dangerous without a second thought to others. Who knows what you had to do to make Mr. Malfoy drink that potion…"

"I didn't make him do anything!" Harry objected, glaring at Snape. He turned to Dumbledore. "Do you know if anything's happened to us?"

"I'm afraid I don't. The potion is so rare that nobody has any idea ho it works or what the side effects are. We will simply have to wait and see."

"Would you care to tell me exactly what the extra ingredients were, Potter?"

"Mine was phoenix tears, Draco's was Basilisk venom."

"Basilisk venom."

"Yes. We've got a whole flask full. Draco was going to give you the rest of it."

"And where, pray tell, did you get the Basilisk venom from?"

"The Chamber of Secrets?" Harry winced as Snape scowled, but fortunately said nothing.

"Harry, we will need to discuss your punishment with Professor Lupin who, by the way, is stepping up to fill the position of Head of Gryffindor House. In the meantime, I suggest that you make a note of any unusual occurrences." He pointed his wand at Draco. "Enervate."

Draco mumbled something and rolled over up against Harry. The Gryffindor prodded his ribs, and he giggled.

"Don't tickle me," he muttered, face buried in Harry's knee.

"Wake up, we have company." Harry said jovially, prodding him again. Draco raised his white-blond head out of Harry's knee and looked around, blushing furiously when he saw Dumbledore and Snape, one of who twinkled, the other of whom scowled.

"Hello, Professors," he said weakly, attempting a smile, which withered under Snape's glare.

"You should know better," the Potions Master admonished. Draco cowered.

"You said it wouldn't work anyway," he protested.

"I said I highly doubted that it would work. There's a difference."

"Sorry sir," he said meekly, and bowed his head. Snape sighed.

"I suppose all we can do now is wait and see what will happen. I trust that you still have the containers for your potions?"

Harry and Draco looked down, and saw that their vials were surprisingly still clutched in their hands. They offered them to the Potions Master, who labelled them. With a curt nod to the Headmaster and another piercing glare at the two boys, he billowed out of the room. Harry stared at the spot from which he'd disappeared and asked Dumbledore a question he'd been wondering about for a long time.

"Does Professor Snape use a charm to make his robes move like that?"

"You know, I think he might," Dumbledore twinkled. "I certainly have never been able to make my robes billow in such a threatening manner."

He stood gracefully and walked over to the door, pausing before he left to turn to Draco.

"Don't forget, Mr. Malfoy. You have Muggle Studies to attend in less than half an hour."

Harry stood up as Dumbledore left, and helped Draco to his feet.

Yeah... the subject of Snape's robes has always intrigued me...

See! Plot!

It kind of annoys me when people pick really stupid Animagus forms for Harry, so hopefully a panther isn't too cliché...

Oh yeah... and someone has asked me if I'm American.

NO!

British born and bred and bloody proud of it. Have none of you Americans noticed the wonderful language of the Brits floating around here?

Reviews are nice. Hits are too, but I'm the only one who can see them so it doesn't really count. I have about 2338, just in case anyone wondered...:P

smokey

likes trees