Harry began telling Ron and Hermione about his chat with Sirius as soon as they stepped out of the Gryffindor common room. By the time they had approached the great hall, Hermione was buzzing with excitement.
"Oh, I want to learn as well, Harry! I'd love to become an animagus," she said as loudly as she dared in the busy corridor. "Do you think I can come along and talk to, er, Snuffles tonight as well?"
"What? What about all your subjects, Hermione?" said Ron. "Didn't you take every elective? When'll you find the time?"
But Hermione would hear none of it. Harry had no objections. If anything, he felt that Hermione might help him if he had trouble learning.
The planning had to be shelved during breakfast. First, there were the Slytherins – Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, most of all – loudly making fun of Harry for fainting on the train. Fred and George did their best to reassure Harry, telling him how Draco himself had run into their compartment during the dementor's inspection of the train, how even their father had been shaken by his visit to Azkaban, and finally distracting him with quidditch talk. Then George gave them their new schedules. Harry began to examine his while helping himself to some breakfast, but was interrupted as an unknown owl flew over their heads and delivered a package to Hermione.
"It's the Daily Prophet," she explained to the curious boys. "I decided to get a subscription this summer. You know, in case there's any unexpected news, unexplained events, and so on." She raised her eyebrows suggestively.
"Oh, you mean about, er, Scabbers," said Harry, catching on.
He and Ron nodded in approval, while Hermione packed the newspaper away to read later, instead taking a look at her own schedule.
"Hermione," said Ron, frowning as he looked over her shoulder, "they've messed up your timetable. Look, this morning – nine o'clock, divination, and underneath that, arithmancy, nine o'clock!"
"I'll manage. I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."
"I know you're good, Hermione," said Ron, laughing, "but no one's that good. How're you supposed to be in two classes at once?"
"Hermione," Harry said pointedly. They had talked about it the evening before, and he had insisted they had to tell Ron about the time-turner, while she had been indecisive.
Hagrid's appearance just then saved her yet again from making up her mind. He was swinging a dead polecat from one enormous hand and grinned broadly at them as he passed them on his way to the head table.
"All righ'?" he said eagerly. "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five getting' everythin' ready… hope it's okay… me, a teacher hones'ly…"
They said goodbye to Fred and George and headed to their first class of the year. The divination classroom was apparently at the top of the North Tower, a good ten minutes' walk from the great hall. But Hermione and Harry also had arithmancy at the same time.
"Which one first?" asked Harry, once they were out of everyone else's earshot.
"Arithmancy, I think," said Hermione.
"So, wait," said Ron, looking disappointed. "You two aren't coming to divination?"
"No, we are." Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron's comically exaggerated frown, and Harry's eye roll. "Oh, alright. We'll explain how – even though Professor McGonagall made us promise to keep it a secret. But after classes – it's a, er, delicate matter."
Ron's eyebrows had climbed up his forehead, but he agreed to wait for the explanation.
They had never been to the North Tower before and the journey through the castle to get there was a long one. Hermione grabbed Harry's arm once they had reached the seventh floor, and made sure they would stay behind a bit. As soon as Ron had gone around a corner, she rushed him in the opposite direction.
"That's where we'll rejoin him after arithmancy," she decided. "The arithmancy classroom is on the seventh floor, and should be somewhere nearby…"
It was not difficult to find. Several students from their year were already waiting in front of the classroom when they got there. A large fraction of them were Ravenclaw students. While each of the other three houses was also represented, none of the Gryffindor students were ones that Harry interacted with much – except for Hermione. Malfoy, unfortunately, was also there, though without any of his gaggle of cronies and hangers-on.
At exactly nine o'clock, Professor Vector, the arithmancy teacher, opened the door and they streamed in. She herself was a nondescript, middle-aged woman dressed in plain brown robes. The classroom was reminiscent of a cinema theatre, with the rows of seats going up in height, and all the focus on the blackboard, which took up the entire front wall of the room. This was not going to be a practical class.
"Welcome to your first ever arithmancy class," said Professor Vector. "Though as some of you may already know, you've already encountered arithmancy in several other subjects in your previous years of schooling."
Harry did know this from Sirius and it served to reassure him. Hermione, sitting next to him, was instead becoming agitated, already beginning to mutter about formulas they had learned in transfiguration. She got to name them a moment later, when Professor Vector asked the class if they could give examples of where they had come across arithmancy. Professor Vector picked a number of students – but only those who had raised their hands – and let Hermione answer more than once, to name formulas from their theoretical transfiguration and charms classes, as well as the bits of theory that usually preceded the potions classes.
Emboldened by the fact that there had not been a wrong answer yet, Harry also raised his hand. "Er, astronomy?" he said, when he was called.
"Care to be more specific, Mr Potter?"
Harry felt his face heat, especially when Hermione's hand shot into the air next to him. "Calculating orbits?" he tried again.
"Yes, that's right," said Professor Vector and then moved on to the next student, much to Harry's relief.
Someone even said muggle mathematics. This caused a backlash, as other students – Malfoy most of all – answered out of turn that arithmancy was completely different. Professor Vector refuted them, agreed that mathematics was indeed the mundane part of arithmancy, and even decided to demonstrate. She wrote a calculation on the blackboard, which rearranged itself as magical calculations tended to do. Then she began again, writing the calculation in muggle terms Harry was mostly familiar with from his primary school, which grew and grew in length and took up a large part of the blackboard, until it arrived at the same result as before.
"Somewhat unwieldy, as you can see, but muggles have found more than one fascinating bypass around their lack of magic." She turned back to the class. "Is everyone finished copying so I can erase this?"
Harry was not the only one who reached frantically for some parchment and quill, amid disapproving glances from Hermione, who had indeed been copying down the calculation and was done a moment later.
"You may all be familiar with perhaps the best-known application of arithmancy – predicting future events. However, you'll – hopefully – see in this class that it is used in a myriad of ways, and is an essential tool for studying other areas of magic," Professor Vector began to lecture while they were writing. "Arithmancy is – broadly speaking – a systematic study of quantity, structure, space and change. The sorts of formulas you've been learning for transfiguration and charms – and to a lesser extent for potions, as well – fall into that last category – the study of change. You've encountered some arithmantic study of space in your astronomy lessons. The study of quantity and structure you've probably seen less of – though most of you were probably taught some basics of the former before coming to Hogwarts. Arithmantic structures, on the other hand, tend to be mostly unknown to new students – and can seem rather different."
Professor Vector was eager to move on, and began erasing part of the board so she could write more. Before Harry was done writing down the first calculation, there was more writing appearing to be copied down, at astonishing speed.
"Let's see if you remember learning this in your transfiguration class," said Professor Vector. "Professor McGonagall does like to derive the formulas you use for computations, doesn't she? For the most part, in your other subjects, you can just remember the formulas you're taught. You can use them without really understanding the arithmancy behind them. Here in this class, of course, we'll focus on how such formulas are derived – are shown to hold true…"
Harry's wrist was beginning to cramp by the time he had caught up to copying down the calculation. He vaguely remembered it from his second year transfiguration classes, but could not actually focus on it – most of his attention was taken up by writing at top speed.
Professor Vector finally stepped away from the blackboard, chalk still in hand pointing to what she had written. "As you can see here, arithmancy is an important tool in understanding – and describing – the change due to magical and mundane forces.
"This year, we'll be focusing on beginning to understand the mysterious arithmantic structures underlying words. Our magic is worked with words – spells. Yet, this is a topic which is still only partially understood. We will begin to investigate how different words bound magical forces in different ways, how the actions of a word are determined, and how we can determine if we have arrived at a stable spell. Please open your books, Numerology and Grammatica…"
It was a long lesson. Knowing that he would actually be repeating that one hour, only to learn something new, suddenly sounded less fun to Harry. He followed slowly behind Hermione, who was excited to share with him how much she had liked the lesson. Harry was more ambivalent, but let his friend bask in her enjoyment.
They went to the corner where they had parted with Ron. Hermione pulled at the chain of the time-turner, which she wore around her neck, under her robes. "We still have four-and-a-half minutes before I turn back the time," she said.
The waiting itself was boring – made more so by the excitement Harry felt at using the time-turner for the first time. Once Hermione deemed it the right moment, she threw the thin, gold chain around Harry's neck, too, and turned the hourglass once.
The corridor dissolved. Harry had the sensation that he was flying very fast, backwards. A blur of colours and shapes rushed past him, his ears were pounding, he tried to yell but could not hear his own voice – and then he felt solid ground beneath his feet, and everything came into focus again. He was standing next to Hermione, still in the same corridor.
"Let's have a look at the map," said Hermione. "I'm so glad we have it. Can you imagine having to do all the things Professor McGonagall was telling us last night, just so no one would see us?"
Harry smirked, as they studied the map. Their past selves and Ron were walking towards them.
"Here, that's where we can hide," Hermione pointed out an alcove. "As soon as our past selves turn around, we can join Ron."
They watched the map, to time it exactly. As far as Harry could tell, Ron did not notice a thing, focused as he was on finding the way. They followed him across an unfamiliar landing, where there was nothing but a large painting of a bare stretch of grass hanging on the stone wall. Before Ron and Hermione could disagree on which way to turn next, the main inhabitant of the painting – a short, squat knight called Sir Cadogan – returned. Strange as he was, he showed himself willing to lead them to the North Tower, running along the paintings in the corridor. They hurried after him, to a narrow spiral staircase, and from there to a tiny landing, where most of the other students were already assembled.
Harry soon discovered that having to climb a ladder let down from a trapdoor to get to the classroom was by far not the strangest thing about the divination class. The overheated, darkened attic room, covered in too much chintzy fabric was filled with at least twenty round tables that would have fit better into an old-fashioned tea shop. As for the teacher herself – once she had finally stepped into view – Harry thought Professor Trelawney resembled a large, glittering insect: very thin, wearing over-large glasses and an abundance of jewellery and floaty fabric.
Harry suddenly understood what McGonagall had meant when she said arithmancy and divination were an unusual combination.
In bewilderment, he listened to Trelawney make prediction after prediction concerning the students in the room – from asking Neville if his grandmother was well, to telling Lavender that what she feared most would happen on October 15th. He kept an open mind, liking the fact that many of the Gryffindors he interacted with were there, and that Malfoy was absent from this class. He shared a grin with Ron at Hermione's put-out expression, when they were told books would not take them very far in this class without inborn talent. He tried his best to do as instructed, looking at the dregs in Ron's cup, and comparing them to the symbols to be found in his textbook.
Then Harry made the mistake of laughing. Ron was looking at Harry's cup, trying to decide what the dregs resembled the most – alternating between a hippo and a sheep.
Professor Trelawney was not amused. She snatched the cup from Ron's hands and proclaimed for everyone to hear to be seeing a falcon – a symbol of a deadly enemy.
Hermione, to Harry's astonishment, said in a loud whisper, "But everybody knows about Harry and You-know-who." She would not back down under Trelawney's stare, much to her friends' admiration, who had never seen her talk to a teacher in such a fashion.
Trelawney, instead of reacting to her, went back to Harry's cup, making more unpleasant predictions, ending with a scream. "My dear boy – my poor dear boy – no don't ask me…" But with all the attention on her, she went on to say, her eyes opened dramatically, "My dear, you have the grim."
"What?" Harry was taken aback, barely registering the horror spread over the faces of many of his classmates. His mind immediately went to Sirius, suddenly worried if Trelawney could tell that there really was a connection—
"The grim, my dear, the grim!" cried Professor Trelawney, who looked shocked that Harry had not understood. "The giant, spectral dog that haunts churchyards! My dear boy, it is an omen – the worst omen – of death!"
Harry felt anger rise in him. "Well, I think the grim is misunderstood!"
Harry did not know how his answer would have been taken, but thankfully, Hermione distracted everyone by looking at Harry's cup and then loudly stating that the dregs did not look like a grim at all. Trelawney, with mounting dislike, dismissed her words, but the whole episode had put an end to the strange class. They were dismissed early.
Harry chose a seat at the very back of the transfiguration classroom, to avoid the stares. Apparently, the gossip from the divination students had spread quickly through the entire class. He wanted to focus on what McGonagall was telling them about animagi, excited to learn as much as he could about the topic. Everyone else's attention seemed to be on him, however – even when McGonagall transformed into a tabby cat in front of their eyes.
Hermione had to explain the situation to their preplexed teacher, who grew obviously angry, though she tried not to let it show. McGonagall told them directly that it was Trelawney's habit to predict the death of a student every year, making Hermione laugh. Harry breathed a sigh of relief, less worried now that Trelawney could guess anything dangerous about Sirius.
"Ron, cheer up," Hermione said at lunchtime. "You heard what Professor McGonagall said."
"Harry," Ron said in a low, serious voice, looking concerned. "You think she was talking about Snuffles?"
Hermione turned to him, surprised, but recovered quickly. "I don't think so. She was very sure it was an omen of death – which, clearly, Snuffles is not."
Ron disagreed, getting angry, and Hermione answered by dismissing Trelawney and divination altogether as guesswork, getting angry in turn when Ron reminded her how Trelawney had claimed Hermione did not have talent for the subject. She began a heated reply, unfavourably comparing divination to arithmancy, looking to Harry to agree with her.
"I just," Harry began slowly, "I'm still hoping we'll get to learn more about prophecies in divination."
His quiet reply settled Hermione's ire to a sulky, put-out expression, while Ron looked somewhat cheered.
"Wait, when did you two have arithmancy?" asked Ron a moment later.
Hermione looked like she would not reply, but then she relented, letting go of her anger. "I told you, we'll explain after classes," she near-whispered.
There was one more unpleasant surprise in store for them before the lessons for the day were finished. They had care of magical creatures after lunch, and Hagrid had prepared something special for their first lesson – he introduced them to hippogriffs. Not wanting Hagrid's class to be a failure, Harry reluctantly agreed to be the first student to approach the strange beasts, amid the jeers from Malfoy and his cronies – who were unfortunately taking care for magical creatures as well – and the frightened comments of Parvati and Lavender, cautioning him against danger because of Trelawney's predictions.
Harry did well enough, managed to get the hippogriff named Buckbeak to bow back to him, and even flew on the hippogriff's back around the paddock.
Then it was everyone else's turn, and Malfoy, arrogant and jealous of Harry's success, managed to insult Buckbeak until the hippogriff sliced through his arm with his talons. That put an end to the lesson. The class followed behind Hagrid, who carried Malfoy to the hospital wing. The Slytherins were all shouting about Hagrid, Pansy Parkinson demanding that he be sacked.
Harry, Ron and Hermione went to the Gryffindor Tower, worried for their friend, and nervously debating what would happen.
Hermione got out her newspaper and opened it to a small article at at the very end. "I wonder what Malfoy's father will make of it," she said to the boys. "Look!"
It was an article in the gossip column, about Lucius Malfoy donating a lot of money to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies. It talked about Malfoy seeking a new social function, after having been sacked from his position as a Hogwarts school governor under suspicious circumstances.
"You think he'll go after Hagrid because we lost him his position on the board of governors?" asked Ron. He sounded chagrined, and very much interested in his friend's opinion again.
Hermione nodded, looking worried.
"But it was Malfoy's fault!" said Harry. "They can't fire Hagrid because Malfoy refused to listen – and anyway, he wasn't hurt all that badly. Madam Pomfrey would've healed him in an instant!"
They decided to shelve their worry until dinnertime, after they had seen how Hagrid was doing.
"So… about that arithmancy class – what did you two want to tell me?" Ron then asked.
Reluctantly, Hermione followed the boys out of the common room, and into an empty classroom. She pulled the time-turner out from under her robes, to show to Ron, and then told him what it was.
"That's brilliant!" said Ron, clearly envious. "Think of all the things you can do with it—"
"We're only supposed to use it to attend classes!" Hermione said at once.
"Oh, come on! You can't tell me you're not tempted. Hey, maybe we could even use it to help Hagrid! What if we go back and stop Malfoy from being an idiot—"
"Weren't you listening!" hissed Hermione angrily. "You'd be breaking every rule about time-turners—"
"Who cares about rules, it's Hagrid's future on the line," Ron replied hotly.
"I thought it couldn't be done?" said Harry, recalling what McGonagall had explained to them the night before.
"Exactly!" Hermione agreed. "You can't undo what's already been done! That'd violate fundamental laws of magic. And if you try, horrible accidents can happen – to your future self. The past will still remain unchanged."
"That's what most of those rules are for," Harry explained to a disappointed Ron. "To keep such accidents from happening. You can't undo the past. McGonagall explained that it's best to simply think of the time-turner as something that'll let you be in two places at once—"
"Yes, that's right," said Hermione. "Time-turners are only given to very responsible people for a reason. Like healers at St Mungo's, when they have to treat more than one patient who needs urgent care, and so the specialist healers need to be in two places at once—"
"But when you use the time-turner, one copy of you knows exactly what the other's doing," said Ron. "And if you plan things well, you could still do a fair few things with another version of you running around."
Harry considered this before nodding slowly, despite Hermione's put-out expression.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were among the first to reach the great hall at dinnertime, but Hagrid was not there. At the Slytherin table, meanwhile, a large group of students were huddled together ominously. Harry was sure they were cooking up their own version of how Malfoy had been injured.
Back in the crowded Gryffindor common room after dinner, Hermione half-heartedly suggested doing the transfiguration homework, while they waited until it was late enough to safely call Sirius. The boys agreed, but were distracted with their worry for Hagrid, stealing glances out of the window towards the grounds.
"There's a light on in Hagrid's window," Harry said suddenly.
His friends agreed to go visit him. Hagrid was, unsurprisingly, in a state. He had obviously been drinking, and when prompted, told them that Malfoy was claiming his arm was still causing him a great deal of pain – even though Madam Pomfrey had healed the cut immediately.
"He's faking it," said Harry at once.
Hagrid then told them that the school governors had been informed, who apparently thought that hippogriffs should not have been introduced to the third-years so early on.
"It's all Malfoy's fault, Hagrid!" said Hermione earnestly.
"We're witnesses," said Harry. "You said hippogriffs attack if you insult them. It's Malfoy's problem that he wasn't listening. We'll tell Dumbledore what really happened."
"Yeah, don't worry, Hagrid, we'll back you up," said Ron.
Hagrid hugged both boys, agreed to stop drinking and did his best to sober up, by dunking his head in a water barrel. Much to the boy's annoyance, he then remembered that Harry was supposed to be in danger from Sirius, and shouted at the three of them for wandering the grounds after dark, before escorting them back to the castle.
~HP~
Harry left his dorm room armed with map, mirror and invisibility cloak. Hermione was holding some parchment and quill, when he rejoined her in the still crowded common room.
"Wait," said Ron, before they left. "I – Can I come along?" he mumbled.
Harry shrugged, looked around to reassure himself that no one was paying them too much attention, and then led his friends to another empty classroom. His friends gathered around him, pushing chairs closer. Hermione laid out the parchment on the nearest desk, already prepared to take notes.
Sirius laughed at the sight of them. "Ah, so the two of you have decided to become animagi as well, I take it?"
Ron grew red as his friends' gazes landed on him. He had not said anything to them about wanting to join them in learning the animagus transformation. "What? At least I'll have a bit more time," he said defensively. "I don't have quidditch practice, and I don't have nearly as many classes as you, Hermione. Besides, if Pettigrew could do it…"
"Then so can you," Sirius agreed immediately. "As long as you're willing to put in the work. It'll be more fun this way. You can all work on it together."
Hermione was itching to start asking questions, but Harry forestalled her. "Sirius, where are you?" he asked, looking with some astonishment at the background he could see in the mirror.
"Ah, yes, that." Sirius' face dimmed. "I suppose I should explain…"
The background shifted, as Sirius swivelled his mirror around, to show more of the room he was in. With some surprise, Harry realised it was a dusty, old library, grandly decorated once upon a time, but now fallen into disrepair.
"This is the inside of my parents' house," said Sirius. "It now technically belongs to me, because they've passed away—"
"But isn't it really dangerous for you to be there?" Hermione asked at once. "Wouldn't that be the first place the aurors would look for you?"
"They can try – it's heavily warded against intruders. Besides, it's known that I hated my family – that I hate this place—"
"But you're there right now!" Hermione said, frowning.
"And the wards are still holding," said Sirius firmly. "And have done so for a while. This is not the first time I've come here. I spent part of last year here as well – especially the winter. It's also where I got my wand—" He held it in front of the mirror. "It's my first wand, actually, which got left behind here when I ran away. A bit odd to have it back…
"Anyway, back to the business at hand. I've come back here because of the library. You didn't think I could teach you about the animagus transformation entirely from memory, did you? We'll be needing a fair few books. Not all of them are here, but there's enough to get us started." He showed them a stack of books he had set aside on the ground.
"Hey, maybe we can meet up, so you can give us the books!" Harry said immediately.
"We might have to do that eventually," agreed Sirius, and Hermione closed her mouth, swallowing her objections. "For now, though, let me explain what I can. So, the animagus transformation. It's a fairly involved process, that'll require you to create individual spells to help you transform into your animagus forms—"
"How do we find out what our animagus forms are?" asked Ron.
"By creating the spell. You don't get to find out beforehand." Sirius smirked at their disappointed faces. "Though you can discover aspects of it if you choose to learn the transformation with each word you find." He frowned. "Maybe I should start from the beginning. So. There are three stages to the animagus transformation. The first is learning the animagus spell that puts you into the animagus mindset. It's Amato Animo Animato Animagus, and I'll explain how it's cast in a little while. As for its effect, it's designed to help you find the words that'll become part of your individual spell. Once you've found the words, you'll need to calculate their numerological value—"
"Oh, we've heard about that in our arithmancy class, haven't we, Harry?" said Hermione excitedly.
"Yes, it's one of the first things you'll learn. So no need to worry, Ron. Even though you're not learning arithmancy, this is not so complicated that I can't teach it to you once it's needed."
Ron nodded, looking a bit embarrassed.
"After that, there's obviously the transfiguration itself," Sirius went on. "Now, it's theoretically possible to create the entire spell first, and then learn to transform with it, but that's very difficult, because then you'll have no idea what you're transforming into. The other way to do it, is to try a partial transformation with every word that you discover. That was our preferred method – mine and James' and Pettigrew's – back when we learned it. This method is not without its own drawbacks, of course. Until you've created the entire spell, you can't tell if it's going to be stable, so the partial transformations can be somewhat dangerous—"
"What?" said a dismayed Harry. "So, what if you create a spell and it's not stable? Does that then mean that you can't become an animagus?"
"No, no. Maybe I'm not explaining this well." Sirius grimaced, looking frustrated. "I meant the word you found might not become part of the final spell after all—"
"But then what about the numerological values, and all that?" said Hermione.
"Yes, well, I guess that's one of the more difficult aspects of the animagus transformation. It's about you, the very essence of you, summarised in a few words. Many of us are uncomfortable with some aspects of ourselves, and refuse to acknowledge them. That won't do for the animagus transformation. To end up with a stable spell, you must be honest with yourselves—"
"But that's about leaving words out of your spell, isn't it, not words you've found being unusable—"
"Very good, Hermione. You're right. But it's a related problem. The words you find might be close enough in meaning to the one required. That'll give them a high numerological value. But you should know by now that some spells might only differ by a syllable, yet have completely different effects.
"The animagus mindset puts you in a kind of detached state, where you can take a step back and view yourself from an outside point of view. It allows you to get to know yourself – if you're willing to face what you find. It won't be easy – especially because you're still so young. You'll have to keep casting the spell whenever you feel like you're doing something significant. And it might take a while—"
"Could we be too young, then?" asked Hermione, looking like she dreaded the answer. "Our personalities may not be fully formed—"
"No, that's not a problem. If you're old enough to cast the animagus spell, then you're old enough to transform. We all change, all the time. Yet, the animagus form stays the same all our lives – though the nature of the animal you become can change over the years, to reflect your growth." Sirius thought about it. "Actually, it might make matters a little worse, being so young. It's difficult to really know yourselves. I was not a whole lot older when I transformed, and honestly, some parts of my spell did surprise me…"
"Is that really the only way to do it?" asked Ron. "I mean, I want to do it, I do. But isn't there an easier way? Can't we just go through a dictionary, or something, and just calculate the – what was it—"
"Numerological values," supplied Hermione.
"Yeah, can't we just calculate those?"
Harry perked up, liking Ron's idea, until Sirius shook his head.
"I'm afraid not," he said. "The words have to relate to a specific aspect of you. Take the word 'brave', for instance. Half the Gryffindors would probably have some version of it in their spell. But for it to help you transform, it has to relate to something specific you've thought, experienced, done. It has to be linked to some defining moment." Sirius regarded his listeners, who looked a little overwhelmed and even somewhat discouraged.
"Well, there is an alternative, actually," he said with a grimace. "There's also a potion, that puts you into a deep trance, and kind of forces you to face your inner self. But there are two problems with it. First, the potion is very difficult to brew, takes ages and there are some truly disgusting aspects to it. You'd have to chew on the same mandrake leaf for an entire month, day and night, without any interruptions. None of us chose that method, either, so I wouldn't be much help. Second, you'd have to construct the entire spell with the information gleaned from that one trance, rather than having time to think through every aspect of your personalities, and coming to terms with things you might not like."
"I don't want the potion," said Harry after only a moment's thought. "I can be honest with myself, I think. Besides, the potion does sound disgusting."
"Yeah," agreed Ron. "I don't want to wait for the potion. I want to get started now."
Hermione hesitated for a moment, but then shook her head. "Better not risk brewing another secret potion this year. We really couldn't afford to have this one be discovered."
"Alright, then," said Sirius. He grabbed one of the books from the stack on the floor and leafed through it. "Here's how you cast the spell…"