Chapter 7
What was usually one giant rush to get things ready, turned out to be quite the opposite when Harry and the others were preparing to leave Grimuland place. Having packed all his things the night before Harry was just sat lazily eating his breakfast in the kitchen with Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Tonks. Tonks was no longer Tonks anymore but Kyla Trent, the new sixth year transfer student who would be going to Hogwarts. Harry was shocked when he had first seen her. Tonks had made herself slightly smaller, with straight black hair and a pretty face. Her body was very similar to Tonks' and Harry was disappointed that it was well covered by her new robes. Tonks hade made herself more pretty than most of the girls at Hogwarts and Harry couldn't help but keep smiling at his girlfriend.
They were escorted to kings cross by Moody and Arthur Weasley. Remus wasn't around when Harry had got up and assumed he was on Order business. Harry said his goodbyes to Moody and Mr. Weasley and got onto the train with the others to find a carriage. They all sat down, Kyla, aka Tonks, next to Harry and Ron, Hermione and Ginny opposite them. Harry was annoyed because he knew he wasn't supposed to let it appear that he and Tonks were a couple and it took all his willpower not to put his arm around her or kiss her.
They started to talk about the upcoming year and Kyla couldn't hide her excitement. Hermione had to keep nudging Ron because he kept staring at Kyla. Harry was slightly perturbed that Ron found his girlfriend attractive but was also slightly happy that he obviously had a pretty sexy girlfriend. Kyla didn't notice any of this because she only had eyes for Harry and it was going to be hard pretending not to be a couple even it was only for a couple of days.
Half way through the journey Ginny got up and left saying that she was going to see some of her own year, but secretly she just couldn't stomach seeing Harry and Tonks look at each other like that.
"What's her problem?" Ron asked.
"Just girl stuff." Hermione said quickly, looking at her watch. "Ron we have to go to the prefects carriage for a meeting now. We'll see you two later." She said motioning to Harry and Kyla. As soon as she left, Kyla pointed her wand at the door and cast a locking charm on the door and then started kissing Harry. "Now no one can walk in on us." She said mischievously.
"Yeah but if people find the door locked then they'll know what's going on."
"Oh well, as long as they don't know it's us." Harry couldn't help but agree and he pulled Tonks into his lap and they continued to kiss. It was by far the best train journey Harry had ever had and he was reluctant to get off when the train pulled into Hogwarts station. He and Kyla got into a carriage with Neville and Luna as Hermione and Ron were helping with the new first years. Harry introduced Kyla to them as a transfer student from America. Her excuse for not having an American accent was that her mum and dad were British, which Neville and Luna accepted without question. They chatted amicably for the carriage journey, both Neville and Luna asking Kyla questions about wizarding schools in America. She came up with quick answers and Harry decided that she must have prepared a story. When they reached Hogwarts, Kyla went to stand with the new first years so she could be sorted. Harry hoped Dumbledore had fixed it so that she would be in Gryffindor. He sat down with Ron and Hermione at the house table and waited for the feast to start. After a few minutes, Professor McGonagall stood up and addressed the hall.
"If I could have your attention please." She said, quietening the great hall. "As you all know, not long ago the Minister for Magic was assassinated in Diagon Alley. Due to this, Professor Dumbledore is needed at the ministry and will not be at Hogwarts until Christmas. I will act as headmistress in his place and school will continue as normal. Now for the sorting." There was murmuring going on in the great hall as people couldn't believe Dumbledore would be away for that long. It meant Hogwarts was vulnerable. The great hall was silent again when the sorting hat was brought into the centre of the hall and it started to sing.
With another year another class arrives,
'Tis my burden to sort each class,
This year brings with it another trial,
Fear not for a hero will rise,
For this hero will it be one of you,
If it is Slytherin,
Then cunning and power he prides,
For true to Hufflepuff,
Then loyalty and equality will rise,
Into Ravenclaw,
Only a sharp mind and books are prized,
Or is it Gryffindor,
Where brazen courage can't hide,
In order to survive then this hero decides,
For he belongs not in one house or two,
It may be a boy or a girl of truth,
For warnings of the past were not heeded,
The dark days are here,
Within the dark a light will appear,
It will be bright for all hopes to fill,
Remember now a hero will rise.
By him the darkness will fall,
Come and be called to witness the scene,
For the sorting is done for one and all.
Harry couldn't believe what the sorting hat had just said. He was eternally thankful that no one in the hall was looking directly at him and were instead looking amongst each other to see who the 'hero' could be. Not even Hermione or Ron looked at Harry for he hadn't mentioned the prophecy to them. The sorting hat's song helped Harry come to a decision; he needed to prepare, for more than his life was at risk. The whole wizarding world was hanging in the balance.
After the song, McGonagall got up and addressed the school again. "Before we sort the new first years, I would like to introduce a transfer student who has come from America to continue her schooling at Hogwarts. I hope you will accept her and treat her like everyone else. Her name is Kyla Trent." Kyla stepped forward and virtually all the boys in the hall were goggling at her whereas all the girls were shooting daggers at her for being so pretty. McGonagall motioned for her to put on the sorting hat and she did. Virtually as soon as she put the hat on it shouted, "Gryffindor!" the Gryffindor table erupted in applause and Kyla came over and took a seat opposite Harry who smiled flirtatiously at her and she did the same back. Everyone picked up on this exchange and already all the boys were jealous of Harry and all the girls were jealous of Kyla as Harry was probably the best catch in Hogwarts.
The sorting of the new first years commenced and afterwards everyone was allowed to tuck into their meals. All the Gryffindors attempted to engage Kyla in conversation and she answered their questions politely but spent most of her time talking to Harry. At the end of the feast Harry gave Kyla a quick wink and Hermione took her up to the girls' dormitories to show her around.
Harry woke early the next morning in the comfort of his dorm room and ambled down to breakfast by himself hoping to talk to professor McGonagall before everyone arrived. When he got to the common room he saw Kyla sat on the couch in front of the fire, she turned round as he came in and smiled broadly. "Morning," she said. "I thought you might get up early."
"Well you thought right," he said grinning. "Shall we go to Breakfast?" she nodded and they headed down to the great hall. The great hall was virtually empty apart from a few staff. Harry walked into the great hall laughing with Kyla and he told her he was just going to speak to professor McGonagall so she sat down and started to eat without him. He walked up to the staff table where McGonagall was eating.
"Professor, can I have a word?" he asked politely.
"Of course Mr. Potter. It's nice to see you so friendly with our new transfer student."
"Just trying to make her feel welcome," he said casually.
"Of course Mr. Potter. Now what can I do for you?"
"I was just wondering who would be helping me with my training this year?" he asked.
"Oh, you will find out soon enough Mr. Potter. Now go and eat your breakfast, you left our new transfer student all alone." Harry went to sit down pondering who his new teacher would be. Shortly after eating breakfast Harry's time table appeared in front of him. Obviously he had all the same classes as Kyla and this morning he had free periods until after lunch when he had defence against the dark arts with the new professor.
"What do you fancy doing during our free period?" Kyla asked seductively. Her meaning was clear but Harry didn't want to risk anything like that just yet.
"How about we practice some dueling in the room of requirement? There are some spells I want to learn."
"Ok, but by the end of this week Mr. Potter you will be mine and everyone will know." She said with a mock evil grin.
After breakfast they headed to the room of requirement via the Gryffindor tower because Harry wanted to pick up the spell book he had gotten from his parents vault.
"I was thinking that you could help me with some Auror spells." He said. "I don't know whether my new teacher will show me them."
"I don't see why not." She said. "What did you have in mind?" he tossed the book at her and she gasped. "Where did you get this?" she asked incredulously.
"In my parents vault." Harry said bemused.
"Harry these spells stopped being written down almost a century ago because non-Aurors were just walking around and picking up these books. Now they are only passed on to new Aurors by word of mouth. This book must be worth a fortune." She said gazing at it.
"So can we get on with the spells now?" Harry asked impatiently.
"Ok, but first lets practice your charms. I want you to conjure a dummy for you to practice on."
"That's advanced charms work. We haven't done it yet." Harry said.
"Well you will now. Watch and learn." She waved her wand and muttered and incantation making a dummy appear. "Now do what I just did." She said as though it were easy. It took Harry a few tries to get it and found that after a while it was easy so Tonks thought of other things for him to try and conjure telling him to focus his mind on what he wanted to conjure and it should appear. It was tough work and by the time Harry could conjure virtually anything he wanted he was too tired to practice dueling. He was however impressed with himself. Boy was he going to impress Professor Flitwick next time he had charms. Before leaving Kyla explained the benefit of being able to conjure things at will saying that it helped in a battle to distract the opponent, especially if you conjured a brick wall that could prevent the opponent form seeing you completely.
Heading into the great hall for lunch they noticed that it wasn't nearly as empty as it had been at breakfast and everyone saw Harry and Kyla enter together and sit down next to Ron and Hermione.
"Hey guys," Ron said. "Where have you two been?" he asked grinning.
"Just doing a bit of training in the room of requirement." Harry said, not elaborating on what they had accomplished wanting to surprise them at a later date.
"And you didn't invite us?" Hermione said sounding upset.
"Sorry, Dumbledore wants me to train alone." he lied. He didn't want to get Hermione and Ron in trouble for learning spells that they shouldn't. At least Harry could get away with it because of the prophecy.
"Oh ok." Hermione said. "So we find out who our new defence teacher is this afternoon." Hermione said changing the subject.
"I hope they're not as bad as that Umbridge bitch." Ron said.
"Ron!" Hermione said. "Don't talk like that."
"Why not? She was awful. You know what she did to Harry."
"What did she do to Harry?" Kyla asked inquisitively
"Nothing." Harry lied.
"She only used a blood letting quill on him for about a month!" Ron said angrily.
"She what?" Kyla said. "Wait until I'm next at the ministry, I'll get her." She said anrily. She was so angry some of her features began to return back to normal
"Tonks- I mean Kyla calm down. Your face is changing." Harry said quietly and seriously. Tonks took a deep breath and her features returned to that of Kyla.
"That was a close call." Harry said.
"Sorry Harry, I just got frustrated at that cow."
It was at times like this that Harry usually hugged Tonks and kissed her but all he could do was lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder and smile. "Don't worry, let's just go to class shall we?" she nodded and the four of them headed to defence against the dark arts.
Harry knocked on the door of the defence classroom and a voice said for them to enter. He did and when he saw the teacher his mouth dropped open in shock. "Moony!"
"Yes Harry?" he said grinning.
"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" Harry said.
"Didn't want to ruin the surprise." He replied.
They both smiled at each other and took their seats in the class. Shortly after the rest of the class filed in and all of them looked surprised to see who their new teacher was. Lupin got up and addressed the class.
"Good afternoon class." He started. "Some of you may remember me from your third year. I am professor Lupin and I will be you defence against the dark arts teacher from now on. Let's get straight to business shall we? Firstly you all know that lord Voldemort has returned so I will do my best to impart my knowledge onto you. I will not be teaching dangerous spells but I will educate you in the ways of dueling. Today I would like to recap some of the things you should already know. So if I write a list of spells on the board I expect you all to be able to come to the front and demonstrate them to me."
The rest of the lesson was just going over the spells Lupin had written down which was no trouble for most people. "I see you have no trouble with these spells so in the next couple of lessons I will show you a few new spells then afterwards we shall commence with the dueling. Class dismissed. Harry if you could stay behind please?" he asked. The class walked out and left Harry with Lupin. Kyla said she'd wait outside for him and Harry nodded.
"Made a new friend Harry?" Lupin asked innocently.
"She's a transfer student." Harry said avoiding the question.
"I see." Remus said. "Just don't get too friendly, I'm sure Tonks wouldn't like that." Harry wondered what Lupin's face would look like if he knew that Kyla was Tonks in disguise. He had to think of an excuse because he was going to be dating Kyla in a couple of days and he couldn't tell Remus the truth. Could he? He didn't want Lupin to have a bad opinion of him for moving on too fast so he decided that the truth would be best.
"Remus, Kyla is Tonks."
"Excuse me?" Remus said.
"Tonks is posing as a student so we can be together this year. Dumbledore sorted all this out ages ago."
Remus looked disappointed at being left out of the loop but then his frown twisted into a smile. "That is clever." He said.
Harry grinned, "So what did you want to talk to me about?" Harry asked.
"It's about your training. I'll be training you every week night in dueling and sword fighting." He said.
"Every night!" Harry asked incredulously.
"Yes, Dumbledore feels it is necessary for you to make fast progression."
"And die of exhaustion." Harry added cynically but agreed anyway.
"See you tonight then, in the room of requirement at about 8." Lupin said.
"You know about the room of requirement?" Harry asked.
"The marauders were the ones who found it." He said proudly.
"Eight it is then." Harry said.
The rest of the day passed and Harry just sat in the common room with Ron, Hermione and Kyla. People were getting used to seeing her with Harry and knew it was only a matter of time before they got together. Harry decided that he would take his book on Animagus down to talk to Remus about becoming one. He hadn't mentionedit to anyone yet and decided to take his dad's advice and only ask a marauder for help. Eight o'clock came round quickly and Harry headed to meet Remus.
"Harry walked into the room of requirement which now had padded walls and a giant dueling circle in the middle. Apart from that it was completely bare. Remus sat on the floor in the middle clutching two swords.
"Hi Harry, ready to begin?"
"Sure am." He said getting excited about his training.
"What's with the book?" Remus asked. Harry tossed the book to him and a slight grin appeared on Remus' face. "You want me to help don't you?" he asked.
"You mean you will?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Of course I will. James wouldn't have it any other way. But we'll talk about it when we've done some training. Lets start with a standard duel to see how good you are." They took their places at opposite ends of the circle and drew their wands. Harry's appeared in his hands out of his holster.
"I see you have your father's wand holster." Lupin said. "Got your second want yet?"
"It's on order." Harry replied.
"Shame," Lupin said. "at the moment you need two wands to beat me." He grinned evily and shot a stunning spell at Harry.
"Protego!" Harry shouted and a shield popped up deflecting the spell. Lupin sent another stunning spell at him and then a flipendo curse. The shield stopped the stunner but collapsed afterwards and Harry had to dive out of the way of the knock back curse. As he dove he shouted "Expelliarmus!" forcing remus to dodge out of its way giving Harry enough time to regain his balance and shout "Impedimenta!" the slow curse caught Lupin's left arm and Harry fired another disarming curse but Lupin got his shield up just in time. Lupin was shocked that Harry was doing so well. Remus decided to end it but Harry had a few more tricks up his sleeve. As remus fired three stunners at once Harry conjured a brick wall that stopped the curses, and ran around the right side of the wall and fired a disarming curse at Lupin. Lupin was caught off guard and his wand flew out of his hand.
Harry pointed his wand at Lupin, "Looks like I won." Harry said nonchalantly. Lupin still had a look of shock on his face but quickly regained his composure.
"Harry that was truly amazing. Your reflexes were incredible and you did some pretty advanced conjuration there as well. Where did you learn that?"
"Tonks taught it me before." He said casually.
"You learnt how to conjure a brick wall in one day? I'm impressed. But that doesn't explain your reflexes though."
Harry glanced down at the rings on his fingers but didn't say anything.
"Well I guess that's enough dueling for one night, why don't we move onto sword fighting? I know I'll beat you at that."
Lupin was right, first time he dispatched Harry easily. He showed Harry basic blocking and parrying moves to start with until he could block a lot of Lupin's attacks and then showed him a few attacking moves. By the end of their session Lupin could still get rid of Harry reasonably quickly but he was making fast progress. Harry was exhausted from the strenuous workout and was pleased that Lupin was at least sweating a bit.
"Well done for tonight Harry. Now lets relax for a bit and discuss you wanting to become an Animagus." He conjured two comfy chairs for them both and they sat down.
"The first thing you need to know about becoming an Animagus is that it is illegal for to become one without ministry permission, but as I don't think the ministry is likely to give you permission then we will overlook that point." He smiled wickedly and continued. "Now, usually becoming an Animagus takes years, but your father, Sirius and peter managed to do it in just over one. But I think, in your case, because you have me helping you then we can do it in a few short months."
"But how can we cut the time down that much?" Harry asked.
"It's just a case of adding a few extra ingredients to speed up the brewing of potions so instead of taking months, they only take days. Hopefully by Christmas you will be animagus."
"Wow," Harry said. "I wonder what form I'll take."
"I wonder about that too. For now just give me a few days to get the first set of ingredients and we'll be able to start by the end of the week. Now it's time for you to return to your common room. See you tomorrow night Harry."
"Goodnight Lupin." He said and headed back up to the common room where he saw Kyla sat on the couch alone. "Where are Ron and Hermione he asked?"
"Prefect duty." She replied. "So how was training?"
"Great," Harry said. "I beat Remus in a duel." He said proudly.
"How did you do that?" she asked questioningly.
"Conjured a brick wall." Harry said and Kyla looked at him adoringly.
"Told you it would work." Harry told her about the rest of the duel and the sword fighting but missed out the part about becoming an Animagus. He wanted to surprise people. They talked by the fire for a while just happy to be in each others company until they realized it was late and decided to go up to bed. It was weird for both of them, they were used to sleeping with each other for the whole summer and now they were alone again.
"Night Harry," Kyla said.
"Night Kyla." He replied sleepily. Harry slept peacefully that night until the sound of an owl scratching against his window woke him up early the next morning. He let the owl in and it dropped a newspaper on his bed with a note attached. He pulled off the attached note.
Potter, I thought I'd be the first one to let you see this. Enjoy.
Harry didn't recognize the handwriting but when he saw the headline on the newspaper he knew straight away who it was from.
"Oh no." he said.