Chapter Eight
The next morning at breakfast, Ronnie happily pointed out to Harry that Severus and Hermione had apparently made up. Harry screwed up his nose as he watched the two professors spoon feed each other, and quickly went back to staring at Draco, and attempting not to drool overly much.
Over at the Slytherin table, Crabbe noticed Harry staring at The Boss and grunted in irritation. Draco followed his henchman's line of sight to gaze directly into Harry's brilliant green eyes. His heart fluttered within his chest, but Draco forced his delicate features into a look of aloof calmness. He was just considering winking at the other boy when Harry received a large parcel and broke his gaze.
'I have to write a poem about this,' Draco thought to himself, 'and maybe, just maybe, I'll even send it to him…'
Draco paused to shudder slightly. 'Merlin knows I've improved since Second Year, at least. Eyes as green as a fresh pickled toad … what was I thinking?'
Harry cocked his head to the side as he examined the parcel he had been sent. Ronnie paused from shovelling food into her mouth for long enough to poke him.
"Are you going to unwrap it, or just stare at it?" asked the red-head, surprisingly coherent.
Ronnie poured them both another glass of pumpkin juice as Harry began to rip off the bright red wrapping paper.
"Wow!" said Ronnie. "An extra large box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans!"
"There's a card," said Harry, "it says "I'm very sorry for what I have done"."
The dark hair boy turned to his friend. "Who could have sent it?"
Ronnie shrugged. "No idea."
Harry watched as first year Klaus Baudelaire walked over from Ravenclaw and started talking to Neville/Alex.
"Probably doesn't matter," said Harry, finally turning his attention back to this beans, "but I'll do a contaminants check on them, just in case."
"Can I do it?!" called Gill Grissom from across the room.
Harry raised an eyebrow at the excited first year.
"Ah, it's ok, I can do it myself, thanks."
Harry drew his wand and muttered a quick spell. The beans stayed their normal colours, a sign that they weren't contaminated.
Harry's pumpkin juice, however, was now glowing a brilliant blue.
"Oh, shit," he said, as he gazed around the Great Hall to confirm that, yes, all the pumpkin juice had been contaminated by something …
"Oh, Harry, what's wrong/ your face seems too long," sung Ronnie.
"Something has been put in these drinks/ something that makes me think/ it's a prank because/ whatever it was/ this singing's going to cause a stink!" he replied.
The morning went by very slowly; people were soon very sick of speaking in rhymes and they were stunned to discover that everyone was forced to write in song form also.
Thankfully, by noon the affects of the prank had mostly worn off, and people would only rhyme occasionally. The House-Elves were slightly confused, however, as to why nobody drunk any pumpkin juice during Lunch.
"Whoever is pulling these pranks is pretty good," said Ronnie, as Lunch came to an end, "even Fred and George would be impressed!"
Louise Frost walked past them, looking very pleased with herself.
The food-filled plates suddenly disappeared, as was the custom at the end of meals. Harry and Ronnie reluctantly gathered their things and headed off to Advanced Transfiguration.
"I still don't know why I put down for Advanced," grumbled Ronnie, "it's sure to be terribly difficult."
"Advanced Transfiguration," announced Professor McGonagall, "is terribly difficult."
Ronnie groaned and sunk further down into her seat.
"However," continued their teacher, "it can also be very rewarding, if you put in the appropriate effort. We will be beginning with the Animagus Transformation."
The small, mixed class suddenly looked much more excited.
"It is a difficult and time consuming process," said McGonagall, "but because it relies on inert, inner magic, it is a common predecessor to other forms of human transfiguration, which are much more difficult to master."
She waved her wand, seemingly carelessly, and detailed notes on Magical Theory appeared on the blackboard, which stood at the front of the class.
"After you have copied these down, we may begin."
The students hastened to obey, all seven of them glad that the class was held in a double period, and thus much longer than a standard class. When the scratching of quills on parchment finally stopped, Professor McGonagall stood up from behind her desk, where she had been marking essays, and continued to teach.
"Now," she said crisply, "we will perform the indication spell. This is by far the easiest part of the Transformation Process, though it does use up a significant amount of Magical Energy. This is one of the reasons why many weaker Wizards and Witches find the Process a difficult one."
Susan Bones began to look slightly nervous.
"Take out a fresh piece of parchment," instructed the professor, "write your name in the centre and then intone 'ostendo bestia in mihi'."
The excited sixth years quickly began to prepare their parchments.
"Do we use our full names, Professor?" asked Justin Finch-Fletchley.
McGonagall nodded.
'Harry James Potter,' wrote Harry, and then turned to look at his friend's sheet.
'Ronald Billius Lance Princely Ivan Weasley,' said Ronnie's page.
She caught Harry looking and shrugged.
"Old Wizarding TraditionTM," she explained.
Harry nodded and returned to staring at his parchment. Taking a deep breath, he said the incantation.
The effect was instantaneous. The words glowed gold and flickered once, as if lit from behind, then dimmed once more. They grew larger and smaller in quick succession and then began to run, as if no longer contained by the outlines of Harry's name. Ink spread itself all over the page, running here and there as if chased by a mysterious force. Harry watched, in amazement, as the ink which had once spelt his name behind to form itself into a magnificent, if slightly scribbly, Phoenix.
Beside him, Ronnie groaned.
"Seamus is going to have a field day over this," she said, and held up her parchment for Harry to see.
Harry grinned. There, in the centre of Ronnie's page, was a small Weasel.
Ronnie peered over to look at Harry's page.
"A Phoenix!" she exclaimed. "Some people get all the luck."
Harry grinned again and turned to listen to the rest of the class discuss their animals.
"A Peacock?" Justin was saying. "Why on earth did I get a peacock?"
Rachel Grey and Louise Frost sniggered loudly from their table at the back of the class.
Justin scowled. "Well, what did you get then?"
The two exchange students held up their parchments to display a Bat and an Owl, respectively.
Justin's scowl became even more pronounced. Neville/Alex grinned.
"All you birds better watch out," he said, displaying his parchment, which showed a cat stalking about the page, "especially you, Peacock Boy."
"What did you get, Susan?" said Justin, trying to change the subject.
"A Turtle," said Susan miserably.
The Hufflepuff girl looked around the class, expecting the other students to tease her, as they had done to Justin.
"Oh, that's a good one!" said Louise Frost. "Inconspicuous, armoured and small enough to sneak into places – nice!"
Susan looked surprised, but she smiled nonetheless.
McGonagall cleared her throat to get the attention of her class.
"Now you have discovered which form you will take," she said, "you will need to research the biological and physiological aspects of your animal, and concentrate on channelling the aspects of your personality which directed you to this creature. The notes you have already made should help you with this."
Ronnie drew her gaze from her parchment, where her Weasel was currently running around in circles, to look at her friend's page. What she saw astonished her. Instead of showing the solitary Phoenix that she expected to see, Harry's parchment was covered in thousands of little ink creatures. Birds flew and dived about the heads of Horses, who galloped past packs made up hundreds of different breeds of Dogs, who barked at Cats, who simply stretched out and ignored them. Insects crawled along the bottom of the parchment and a great Lion yawned as it paced the length of the page. Ronnie's eyes widened as she watched a huge Hungarian Horntail swooped along side the original Phoenix and then disappeared out of sight.
"Harry," she hissed, "Harry!"
"Do you have something to share with the class, Miss Weasley?" said McGonagall sternly.
"Look at Harry's parchment!" Ronnie said, pointing to the offending piece of paper.
McGonagall took the parchment and examined it.
"Harry Potter," she said, breathless with excitement, "you appear to be a Meta-animagus."
Harry frowned. "Does this mean I get extra homework?"
Harry and Ronnie walked slowly to their last class of the day, Defence Against The Dark Arts, reluctant to attend another lesson in which copious amounts of homework were likely to be given.
"Scrub or do not scrub, there is no bleach," muttered a small, wrinkled House-Elf who was apparently leading the effort to ride the stone walls of graffiti which read, in huge green letters, 'Death Eaters Do It With Voldemort'.
Ronnie read the graffiti and shook her head.
"Not that that's not terrible amusing, but you'd think people would stop being so awful to those poor Death Eaters."
"Say what!?" said Harry.
"Oh, sorry," said Ronnie, "I forgot that you don't have time between drooling sessions to read the newspaper. All the Death Eaters were all under Imperius which forced them to act like they hated Muggles and Muggle-borns and Halfbloods and various other people, which, of course, they don't."
"Oh," said Harry, attempting to wrap his head around this piece of potentially ground breaking news, "that's good. Now I can be in love with Draco and not have to worry that his father is going to AK me."
Ronnie rolled her eyes.
"But what about Voldemort? What's he doing now that he's got no Death Eaters?"
Ronnie shrugged.
"No one knows."
"Oh," said Harry, "I guess that I better assume that I still have to kill him then?"
"Couldn't hurt," replied Ronnie.
"OOOOOKAY THEN!" said Professor Olaf. "First things first – I am not a redundant theatre actor who is currently in disguise in yet another attempt to steal the fortune of a first year Ravenclaw, ok?"
The class nodded.
"Second things second – I do not enjoy teaching, so you will spend the year working through A Dummies Guide To Defence Against The Dark Arts. Any questions?"
Seamus Finnigin raised his hand.
"Yes," said the Professor, "you with the blackened eye."
"What's a Dummie, Sir?" asked Seamus, inwardly cursing Hannah Abbott.
The tall, gangly professor raised one extremely bushy eyebrow and gazed at Seamus stonily.
The Irish boy began to get nervous.
"It is a Yiddish term," said the professor finally, "for ONE WHICH IS DUMB!"
"Oh," said Seamus, feeling vaguely insulted.
"Well?" said Olaf. "Get on with it!"
Harry opened his textbook to the first page.
1a. Who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?
a) Harry Potter
b) Steve Smith
c) Oscar Wilde
d) Trixie Tang
Harry groaned. It was going to be a long year.
At dinner that evening, Harry and Ronnie noticed a new addition to the Staff Table; a tall, old wizard with a long grey beard was seated beside Dumbledore.
"I wonder who he is?" said Ronnie, as she helped herself to Treacle Tart.
"I don't know," said Harry, "but he looks very similar to Dumbledore, doesn't he?"
As the plates cleared themselves away, Dumbledore rose and cleared his throat. The Hall was instantly silent.
"I have some short announcements to make," said the Headmaster, "Firstly, my identical twin brother, Gandalf, is going to be residing in the castle for a short period of time as he attempts to capture the creature which recently stole Professor Granger's engagement ring."
Hermione began to sob quietly.
"Secondly," continued Dumbledore, "you may have noticed the absence of our Care Of Magical Creatures professor, Rubeus Hagrid, who has recently retired in order to run a winged horse ranch in the French country-side. He will, of course, be missed, but I am happy to announce that he will be replaced by the recently un-dead, and completely innocent, Sirius Black!"
The Great Hall was immediately filled with tremendous applause.
Dumbledore held up a hand in order to call for silence.
"Professor Black wished for me to convey his regrets for not attending our feast tonight, as he is currently busy settling his family in their new home, located in place of Hagrid's cabin. He also mentioned something about 'christening the stairs', but I'm really not sure what he meant."
Ronnie and Harry looked at each other in horror.
Dumbledore gave a Level Three eye twinkle.
Several girls looked very disappointed at the news that Sirius wasn't single.
"And lastly," said Professor Dumbledore, "I am happy to announce that the first Inter-house Dance Off will be taking place two weeks from now, on Friday evening. The House Dance Off Teams are currently as were the House Quidditch Teams, but Houses may pick and choose members as they so please."
Dumbledore gave his students a quick Level One eye twinkle.
"Now," he said, "to bed!"