Occlumency
Harry heard Professor McGonagall gasp and he opened his eyes. Professor McGonagall's eyes were open wide and her mouth hung open. She noticed Harry looking at her and she regained her composure, then she smiled.
"Well, it's not a complete transformation, Mr. Potter. But it is better than most ever do on their first try."
"Do you have a mirror, Professor?"
"Yes, here you go," Professor McGonagall handed Harry a small mirror from her desk.
Harry looked held the mirror up and looked in it. The reflection looking back at him made him laugh. He had furry, black, pointed ears, and long whiskers coming out of his cheeks. Now that Harry paid attention he realized that he could hear much better than ever. He then felt something hit him on the leg and he looked down to see a bushy red tail that was tipped with white. Harry looked his body over and saw that everything else was still completely human.
"Bestia ut Vir," Professor McGonagall spoke the words as she flicked her wand at Harry.
Harry could tell he had changed back to his complete human form, he no longer could hear people in far away corridors and his tail had quit hitting his leg. Harry was excited, he was one step closer to being a true Animagus.
"Professor, can I practice away from here? Like with my friends? I'd like to get done as soon as possible so that I have more free time for my classes."
"Ordinarily I would say no, Mr. Potter, but knowing who your friends are I know there shouldn't be much problem changing you back if you can't do it. Here, practice on me first. First you say the spell, Bestia ut Vir, then do one single flick with your wand aimed at the animal you wish to transform back to their human form."
Professor McGonagall then transformed herself into a cat and jumped up onto the desk. When she was ready she nodded her head and waited.
"Bestia ut Vir," Red sparks came out the tip of his wand but there was no change. "Bestia ut Vir," Same results. "Bestia ut Vir." On his third attempt the spell worked and Professor McGonagall instantly transformed back into her self.
"Very good, Mr. Potter. You can do this spell on your self, providing you can speak and hold a wand. If not your friends will have to help you. Of course the other way to transform back would be to picture yourself in current state you are in at the time and then change the image to human. But never try to do two human to animal transformations if the first failed. It will lead to disastrous results."
"Yes, Professor," Harry said smiling, "thanks for your help, Professor."
"You are welcome, Harry," Minerva had a smile on her face, "It is dinner time now, go meet with your friends."
Harry left Professor McGonagall's office and walked as fast as possible to the Great Hall. When he arrived he saw that Ron, Ginny and Hermione were just sitting down to the table. Harry walked over to them with a large smile on his face and gave Ginny an equally large hug. Ginny smiled back and giggled as Harry spun her around.
"I have got to show you something after dinner, all of you," Harry said quietly as he set Ginny back on the ground.
"Well it seems your lesson went well," Ginny said between giggles.
"Very," Harry said putting a ham sandwich onto his plate, "Professor McGonagall said I have done better than most people have ever done on their first try. And she says I can practice outside of lessons as long as one of you are around to help."
The group ate their dinner faster than normal and left the Great Hall. Harry led the way up the Grand Staircase and to the Room of Requirement. When they opened the door they found a room full of pictures of red foxes and four chairs, and a full size mirror on the wall.
"Ok, first I'm going to teach you the spell to reverse my transformation if I can't. It is Bestia ut Vir and one flick of the wand," Harry demonstrated the flick for them and then they all practiced, "It is a fairly simple spell so I'm not too worried."
Harry stood in the center of the room while the other three sat in chairs facing him. Harry got the image of his body in his mind and focused on it. When that was all he wasfocused on he slowly began transforming the image to a fox. The image stopped part way and he opened his eyes. He looked at his three friends and smiled, all of them had the exact look on their faces as Professor McGonagall. Harry walked over to the wall and could see that along with his ears and whiskers from before a long muzzle began to form where his nose was. Harry also had the tail and most of his skin was covered in red or white fur. Harry concentrated on how he was right now and imagined it going back to human. After a few seconds he transformed back to being completely human.
"That's wicked, Harry," Ron said with a smile, "can you teach us?"
"Actually, Ron," Harry replied, "I think that Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall expect me to. They never told me not to teach you. But I think to be safe we should wait until I have mastered it."
"I agree with Harry," Hermione spoke, "they never teach Animagus in school. That is something that is learned at the Ministry. I don't think that they plan on having you register, Harry. So you are probably right about them wanting you to teach us."
Ron and Ginny beamed at this news, Hermione actually agreed to breaking a wizarding law and become an unregistered Animagus. The four left the Room of Requirement and began heading back to the Gryffindor tower. As they walked Harry took Ginny's hand and held it in his. Ron saw this and smiled, then he put his arm around Hermione's shoulders.
When they walked into the common room it was deserted so they sat down on their favorite chairs in front of the fire and talked. Eventually the conversation came to the topic of Quidditch tryouts. Ron and Ginny said that their schedules were pretty flexible so it was really up to Harry.
"Well," Harry said scratching his head, "I'd like to do it as soon as possible so we can get practices in. I think we should hold them this Sunday and post the decision on Monday."
"Ok, that sounds good," Ron gave his approval, "when will our practices be?"
"My best days for right now would be any but Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. So I should hurry and master all of my special courses," Harry said this last part with a laugh.
"How does practice on Saturday's with a shorter practice on Tuesday nights sound?" Ginny asked the question.
"Sounds good," Harry answered, "now, what about the D.A.? When should we have those meetings?"
"Well," Hermione spoke for the first time, "no one will want to meet on Friday nights, so that really only leaves Sunday."
"Ok, Sunday it is then," Harry said with a depressed look, "For now, when I don't have to spend three nights a week with special lessons we will go back to changing it up."
A couple hours later Ginny had fallen asleep with her head on Harry's shoulder and Ron looked about ready to pass out, they decided it was time to turn in for bed. As Harry lay down in bed he smiled, today had been a great day for him. Then he remembered about tomorrow's lesson with Snape, and he began to clear his mind. Five minutes later his mind was clear of all thoughts and emotion and he fell asleep.
The next night after dinner Harry went up to his dorm and pulled his Pensieve out of his trunk. He read over the instructions twice before he took his wand and put it to his temple. Then he thought of when he asked Ginny to the dance, he pulled the tip of the wand away from his head and a long silver thread came out. He put it into the Pensieve and then repeated the process. The second time he thought of Ginny falling asleep on his shoulder, the third memory that Harry wanted to hold onto the longest before letting go was the first time he and Ginny kissed. The fourth and fifth memories were the hardest to let go of, watching Sirius and Tonks be murdered. He wouldn't be able to handle it if Snape saw those memories. Harry then carefully put his Pensieve back into his trunk and locked it. Harry looked at his watch and saw that he was going to be late so he ran out of the room.
Harry ran all the way to Snape's office and knocked politely and waited to hear Snape call him in.
"Enter," Snape's cold voice came from the other side of the door. "You're late, that will be five points from Gryffindor, and I distinctly heard the sound of running, that is another five points from Gryffindor."
Harry fought to keep his anger in check, "Yes sir, sorry, Professor."
"Well, lets just see how much you practiced this summer," Snape said with a snarl on his face. Harry had worked on clearing his head the whole way to Snape's office so when Snape said "Legilimens" Harry was ready.
Harry didn't cast Protego or any other spells, he let Snape come into his mind. Snape now seemed to be in a golden room with red trim. Then he saw Harry walking towards him a smile on his face.
"Hello, Professor," Harry said to Snape, "how do you like my mind?"
"How? This isn't possible!"
"Have a seat, sir," the image of Harry waved his hand and a large red chair appeared behind Snape, "make yourself comfortable, sir, would you like a refreshment?" A table covered in butterbeer bottles and cookies appeared, "From now on Professor this is as far as you get, you are no longer welcome in my mind."
"I don't know how you did this Potter but I want you to stop and let me go!"
"You are free to go Professor, I am not keeping you here." A door appeared behind Snape that had the word Exit printed on it. Snape turned on his heels and walked straight out the door.
Harry had a smile on his face as he looked at his potions teacher, "Care for another try, sir?"
"No, Potter, you may go."
Harry turned to leave when he felt something trying to work its way into his mind. He stopped walking and shook his head.
"Hello again, Professor," the image of Harry spoke as he sat in a chair, "do you like my company this much?"
"No I do not enjoy your company at all, Mr. Potter," Snape snapped at him, "I was testing you to see how you would do against an unknown attack. I must say, Potter, I am impressed you actually practiced instead of assuming you were the greatest at Occlumency already. I think I can say you have passed this test." Snape turned and walked back out the exit door.
"Potter," Snape said for once without sounding like it made him sick, "well done. I am pleased to say you won't have to continue disturbing me with your presence for these lessons. You have become an accomplished Occlumens."
Harry nodded his head and left the office. Harry walked quickly back to the Gryffindor tower to share his news with his friends. When Harry got back to the common room his three friends were sitting in front of the fire again doing homework, he said hi and then ran upstairs to retrieve his memories. When he was done he returned to the common room and explained the whole lesson with his friends.
"Harry," Ginny began, "That's wonderful! We have some bad news though. Lucius Malfoy escaped from Azkaban tonight."