A note from McGonagall came later that same week, requesting Hermione to meet her at the top of the Astronomy tower at ten o'clock Thursday night. With the summons came a sinking feeling in Hermione's stomach she easily recognised as nerves. It wasn't as though this was an exam. There would be no grades, no test, nothing she could really study for and yet if things didn't go to plan Hermione would still blame herself and would feel she had failed her professor.
They had prepared everything down to the last detail, even Hermione's excuse to get out of classes the following morning in case anything went wrong or she needed a little time to recover.
The storm clouds had already started rolling in late on Thursday afternoon. Students overcrowded the halls during morning break and lunch with nobody exactly wanting to go outside in the downpour.
Harry and Ginny were sat together in the great hall when Hermione arrived from Ancient Runes for lunch. She met Harry's eyes as she took her seat and an almost imperceptible shake of his head told Hermione he still hadn't spoken to Ginny. 'Hey,' she said breezily to them both.
'Hermione, have you finished our transfiguration essay yet?'
She almost nodded but caught herself, 'I have some of it finished but I need to speak to McGonagall about a few things I came across in the library. I'm going to go find her later.' Step one completed, she thought, establish the alibi.
'I don't even know where to start with it.. the only thing I think I'll be able to conjure at this rate is a migraine,' Harry sighed
'I'll be finished with mine before the weekend if you want to borrow it? It's not due until Tuesday anyway, plenty of time.' She offered and he smiled thankfully at her.
Ginny was looking around at their table, 'Anyone seen my brother today?' she asked distractedly.
Hermione had. He had been pacing nervously on his free period earlier that morning, debating whether to go down to the pitch for some early practice before the Gryffindor Quidditch try-outs on Saturday morning.
She had pointed out that going outside in this weather probably wasn't the best idea and he had seemed half relieved for an excuse to return to their cosy, dry common room and play chess with Seamus.
'Probably still upstairs,' Hermione guessed.
'He's been acting a little off since we got back, has anyone noticed?' Ginny asked, pouring herself a hot drink and taking an apple from the fruit platter while Harry and Hermione each grabbed a sandwich from the trays.
'Off?' Harry probed, 'How do you mean?'
'Not off like milk or anything, I don't think he's ready to expire just yet,' she joked, 'Just seem a bit goofier than usual, even for Ron..' Harry looked Hermione's way but neither of them said anything. 'This morning he spilled orange juice everywhere at breakfast - it bloody drenched my books and then yesterday he walked into a statue on our way up after dinner. I mean I know he's not the most co-ordinated person but he's getting weirdly clumsy all of a sudden..'
'Do you think he maybe might just be a bit nervous about the try outs this weekend?' said Hermione. 'I've said I'll come watch but I don't know if more people there would just make him more nervous...''
'He seemed excited about it before, we talked about next season most of the way up on the train - I'm sure it's not that..' Ginny trailed off.
'Maybe it's all those Nargles in his brain now?' Harry ventured, Ginny's eyes narrowed thinking he wasn't taking her concern seriously but then the two of them soon burst into laughter.
While Harry and Ginny continued their joking Hermione glanced around the hall, her eyes drifted across to the Slytherins and was surprised to see Pansy, who usually had a gaggle of minions around her, sitting alone at the far end of her table. Her eyes were cast down as she read the paper in front of her, her plate of barely-touched lunch had been pushed away. Hermione wasn't used to seeing any expression on Pansy's face other than the dirty looks she had continuously shot her way since first year, so it was possible this was just how she looked when she wasn't bullying someone. Still, if she had to guess, she would say Pansy looked upset.
Hermione's eyebrows knitted together, something seemed off about this picture. Why was one of the most popular girls in Slytherin sat alone looking like someone had died?
Pansy had looked a little lost following the boys in on the first day as well, Hermione remembered.
Her eyes scanned the rest of the Slytherin table. She saw Crabbe and Goyle in the middle their faces almost touching their plates as they ate their lunch like pigs, Nott and Zambini were talking at the other far end, but there was no sign of Malfoy anywhere.
'Hermione, who are you looking for?' Ginny voice brought her back to their table.
'Oh, nobody I just...' Hermione looked up to see Ginny's brow raised doubtfully.
She had a split second to decide how far she wanted to lie. She was not going to mention a word about Draco in front of Harry or Ron, she had decided already. It wouldn't do for Harry to have anything more to worry about right now, his focus was on Voldemort and McGonagall had made it clear she was to leave her best friends out of this. So Hermione had planned to make a point of not mentioning Draco's name to them, that way she wouldn't slip up.
She settled on a half lie. 'Just with you saying Ron's been acting a bit odd lately, I've noticed someone else is too..' She looked back over to the Slytherin's and Ginny followed her gaze. 'Pansy seems to have have a personality transplant over summer. Why is she sat alone looking like she's had the worst news of her life?'
Harry laughed between bites of his sandwich, gesturing to Ginny. 'Tell her what you told me this morning,' Ginny's eyes lit up with the tell-tale glow of someone who had gossip to share.
'They had a massive fight after the first day back - Draco and Pansy,' she said, drip feeding the gossip to build the drama up as she spoke. 'A few girls in my year were sat near them on the train and apparently you could have cut the tension with a knife.' Ginny smirked. 'Nobody knows what it was about but apparently they were both shouting when they got back to school and then Draco practically threw her out of his dorm the next night, two guesses what she was doing in there in the first place...'
Harry looked at Ginny and rolled his eyes. 'Please, nobody loves Malfoy more than Malfoy. Somehow I don't see him as the romantic type,' he made a queasy expression that made Ginny chuckle. 'Besides, it's me who needs to ''watch my back'' with him - not Parkinson.'
Hermione froze, her eyes wide. 'What do you mean by that?'
'End of last term, he came up to me before we left, basically said I've got a target on my back now - he'll be getting revenge for his father blah blah...' He started nervously laughing but quickly stopped when he saw Hermione's face. 'It's fine Hermione really, I'm not going to sit here worried about what someone as pathetic as Malfoy might do to me.'
She sighed with exasperation at how flippant he was being. She had to tread carefully with how she responded now. She didn't want Harry to underestimate Malfoy but likewise it wouldn't help things if she gave him a reason to go digging any deeper into the threat either.
'Harry, I won't say watch yourself because, for one thing, I know you won't and secondly he doesn't deserve a minute of your time,' Hermione paused, hoping she wouldn't sound preaching, 'Maybe just steer clear of him, you know? He'll be looking for any reason to cause trouble for you, just keep your distance.'
Harry shook his head, 'Hermione, I don't generally make it a habit to go out looking for trouble you know..'
'It just always comes to find you does it?' Ginny laughed, sinking her teeth into her apple and appraising Harry with a look that told him not to bite back.
At exactly ten o'clock that night Hermione headed up to the tower, carrying in her bag the box containing the remaining ingredients she had kept safe since picking them up from Slughorn's stores a few days before.
The moon was full in the sky as she climbed the stairs. A heavy, urgent wind whipped around her cloak and her fingers tugged to try keep it close to her body. She could feel the chill that signalled the start of the colder end of the year fast approaching.
Approaching black clouds in the distance announced the heart of the storm moving in on them. The air hummed with a crackle of energy as distant thunder sounded beyond the mountains all around the castle.
The rain had taken a reprieve and a small patch of clear night sky stretched out above the school, allowing the moon time to gaze down on them with it's blueish, silvery glow.
McGonagall was already waiting at the top when she arrived. She nodded in greeting and gestured for Hermione to stand beside her.
'Timing will be of the essence here Miss Granger.'
McGonagall cast a reversal charm, causing the mandrake leaf in Hermione's mouth to grow back to it's original size. She spluttered and tried to hold her lips together while she readied the phial out of her bag, the feel of the leaf in her mouth made her want to gag. She brought the little bottle close to her lips and carefully spat it out, watching it sink to the bottom of it's temporary new home. They walked over to the edge of the tower looking down on the lake. At McGonagall's signal Hermione added a strand of her hair and the dew.
The chrysalis was last, they had been extremely lucky Snape had one in storage and luckier still that Slughorn had kept it safe for them in the right conditions. Hermione plucked it quickly from it's bag and dropped it in, trying not to touch it a second longer than she had too. It felt odd between her fingers, life and death somehow wrapped up as one.
She waited for a few moments but nothing further happened.
'Shouldn't it be doing something now professor?' she asked, tilting the phial this was and that, waiting but finding it hadn't yet changed at all.
McGonagall shook her head, 'Not until the first lightning strikes.. Which should be any minute' She turned her gaze towards where the rumbling was growing louder, Hermione followed her line of sight.
A current that flashed a harsh, stark white began to electrify the distant clouds, blanketing the sky in a frenzied dance between nature and power. The rain returned with a vengeance and, despite her tightly fastened cloak and the professor's charm shielding them from the downpour, Hermione's shoulders shook against the force of the wind from the height they were at.
Almost the instant the tip of the first bolt touched down on the floor, miles off in the distance, the potion she clasped in her hand turned the most fearing shade of blood red.
'It's time.' McGonagall said with an air of finality. In the air between them hung an unspoken choice.
This was her last out and, should she want it, this would be the last point at which to turn back.
The raging night storm fed Hermione an animalistic kind of courage. Innate and instinctive. No, she thought. She would not turn back now. She was going to see this through.
She raised the phial in a mock toast before finally chanting aloud the words to seal her fate, 'Amato Animo Animato Animagus!'
Hermione fell hard onto her knees. The shock of the fiery pain that burned through her body had taken the breath out of her lungs and her legs had gave way. She groaned in pain, clutching at her chest because, although she felt the hurt everywhere, her heart seemed to be its frontier. It pumped the pressure around her body, heat and pain building steadily in rising waves with each relentless beat of her heart.
Closing her eyes, she tried to steady her breathing. She had been warned to expect this but it still surpassed what she had been prepared for making Hermione wonder briefly if time had dulled McGonagall's memory of her first transformation.
She had described a feeling of 'discomfort and warmth' but what Hermione felt as the potion took its hold over her was more like torture and fire.
'Do not be afraid to relinquish your control Miss Granger,' McGonagall's voice sounded like it was echoing through a long tunnel, 'Accept and embrace the change, let the potion carry the magic through your bones.'
Hermione didn't seem to have any choice in the matter, the flaming pain ached as it spread viciously through her body, twisting and turning her insides into something new.
Something more than human.
At some point her skin began to feel unnatural, like a heavy coat on a hot summer day that she urged to shake off. It suffocated her with its sheer weight. Her hands reached in front of her and began slowly grinding into the floor, her fingers scratching at the hard stone.
One moment she knew who and where she was, knew why they were doing this and what was happening to her and then the next a feral confusion overtook her mind. Her own thoughts were no longer recognisable. Instead feelings, colours and noise all swam through her head and she recognised nothing. It was as though her mind was taking its first steps all over again, it experienced without understanding, like reading the text of a new language for the first time.
McGonagall knelt down in front of her and with gentle authority she placed her hands over Hermione's until her palms lay still against the floor. 'Do not be afraid Miss Granger. You won't be able to make sense of anything right now so do not try to. Let you thoughts be clear, formless. You are safe inside your own mind, it is a haven not a prison. Retreat there and have patience..'
The pain continued on and though it certainly was not lessening as time went by, Hermione found she had grown capable of bearing through it without succumbing to the sheer panic she had first felt.
Mentally, she refrained from trying to understand what was happening to her and focused on switching her mind off, letting go of the controls and taking a back seat in her own body.
As her mind emptied and a soft welcoming darkness took told inside her head, Hermione felt herself still. It could have been seconds, minutes or hours that she had knelt there, time wasn't something she had even been comprehending whilst she suffered.
The fire began to retreat back through her body and she felt it leave every limb in turn until only a hot blaze in her chest remained. She tentatively lifted one hand towards her, placing it softly over her heart where she felt the last throes of the potion pool before vanishing completely. In its wake she could do nothing but wait, her breath held and hand laid flat on her chest whilst a cool acceptance settled through her body. Her skin relaxed around her form and began to feel like it belonged to her again.
Then, one by one her senses slowly started to fall back into place. She felt the cold wind still eddying around her, could taste the dampness in the air as she breathed. Her eyes opened for the first time since she had swallowed the potion and she saw McGonagall still kneeling down alongside her, the professor's usual stern expression replaced with something very much approaching concern. The beating of her blood in her ears had gone and she could once again hear the soft rustling of the trees far below them and the rumbling thunder as the storm made its way further north.
She shifted her weight back onto her heels and knelt upright. Leaving her hands over her heart she looked into McGonagall's face expectantly and her professor looked back at her with much the same anticipation.
After a moment's pause, Hermione began to feel the persistent, demanding thrum of a second heartbeat beneath her hand.
A/N: Shorter chapter this time around but the next one is going to be a fairly long one.
I do know that the process for the potion usually involves the chant being done every sun up and sun down however my logic with this is that since the chanting is done between the brewing and the drinking of the potion, basically the in-between days assuming there is some waiting around for the next storm, it wouldn't be needed if the days were planned well enough.
I like to think that Since Dumbledore trained McGonagall the two of them would have found a way to refine the process over time, and in this version the potion being ready the same night of the storm was, I think, how it would make the most sense to brew.
Thanks again for reading, I appreciate every one of you :)