Disclaimer: this work borrows from the world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books; some plot elements, characters, and concepts are hers.
Chapter 7: Drunk
Luna stepped out of the Floo, and into Mrs. Figg's house, and moved away from the fire to make room for the older witch, who stepped out right behind her.
"Right." Mrs. Figg said briskly "Go get your things settled in the spare room, you know where it is. After that we can get started." She continued as she moved over to the stove and set a kettle on to make some tea "As you know, while you're here I'll be teaching you to do magic silently, wandlessly, and without motions."
"Mrs. Figg?" Luna interjected "Could you teach me to become an Animagus? After all, it fits the criteria of being wandless, and silent, and there are no needed hand motions."
Mrs. Figg looked at Luna for a moment "Luna, as you know, an Animagus is a wizard or witch who can turn into an animal at will, they are also legally required to register with the ministry of magic, indicating what form they can take, and of course taxed by the ministry for being an Animagus, supposedly to offset the cost of running the office that maintains the Animagus records. Of course, this is also the reason that the ministry gives for the rather costly fee to register in the first place, and one would imagine that the cost of registering combined with the 50 galleon Animagus tax that the ministry charged Animagi retroactively from their date of birth to the date of registration should be somewhat less than 1500 galleons, or 7500 British pounds for a 20-year-old witch or wizard who was registering for the first time."
Mrs. Figg continued, doing her best to use imitate Professor Binns, the ghost at Hogwarts who taught magical history, if you could stay awake in his class anyway.
"To which, of course, any ministry official would respond that you were not looking at the big picture, and the exorbitant costs were really a necessity, but I digress." She continued.
"Incidentally, the penalty for not registering as an Animagus is 10 years in a wizarding prison. It is also interesting to note that it is illegal for a person to register as an Animagus before they reach the age of 17, and furthermore, if a minor is found to be an Animagus they are still subject to the 10-year prison sentence, but again, I digress."
Luna nodded "So basically the gits in the Ministry are doing everything they can to prevent people from becoming Animagi, meaning that it is definitely something I should learn, right?"
Mrs. Figg's lips twitched, as she tried to hold back her laughter. "I would never say that about the ministry…" she said evenly.
"But you'll teach me anyway, right?" Luna said with a sly smile.
Mrs. Figg returned Luna's smile with one of her own. "Of course, now go get unpacked."
Over the course of the next ten days Luna learned a lot of magical theory, and had some success in casting spells wandlessly, it was more difficult, and she had a hard time controlling it, as her magical core performed best with a wand, but she was able to do it, which she knew could come in very handy in a pinch.
She had also started the meditation process to get in touch with her animal form, something that Mrs. Figg told her that everyone had, whether they were able to become an Animagus or not.
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Jacob came to get Harry, and after they tended the plants in the greenhouse for a bit, they went up to Jacob's room to try using their magic again. Though the results were much less spectacular than last time they tried, neither of them were able to control it nearly as well as they could have a week before.
"Jake" Harry said a worried look on his face. "Let's wait a while longer. If we push it, we could damage our magic, and then we would never get it back"
Jacob sighed. "Let's go for a walk. I don't want to sit around here all day." He said after a few moments of contemplative silence.
The two left number 7, and headed down the street.
After a block or so, they turned down Wisteria Walk, simply enjoying the bright sunlight and the fresh air.
Luna snapped out of her trance. She had been meditating, trying to connect with the animal instincts inside her mind, which had to be done before she could become an Animagus. She felt something, or someone, approaching, and whoever or whatever it was, it was radiating a lot of magical power. She looked up at Mrs. Figg, who had a tense expression on your face. "You feel it too?" She asked Luna, who nodded silently, and drew her wand.
They crept silently to the front door, and Mrs. Figg cast a charm to allow them to see through it, without allowing anyone outside to see in.
They watched the two boys passed, and Luna had just heaved a sigh of relief, figuring it was just Harry Potter, when the air around her seemed to grow tense, crackling with magic, and she heard Mrs. Figg growl in anger..
She burst out of the door, and strode quickly down the walk; Harry saw the movement from the corner of his eye, and turned.
"Mrs. Figg! How are you? I haven't seen you in a while." He said pleasantly.
"Harold James Potter" She hissed, her eyes glowing bright green, reminding Harry of a cat's eyes when looking into a bright light.
"Just what have you been doing to become magically drunk young man?" she asked angrily.
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It was closing time at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, the new joke shop in Diagon alley, and just as Fred Weasley was closing the shop, a man of medium height and build walked up to the shop. He had grey eyes and tawny hair, sprinkled with grey. His robes were worn, patched in many places.
Fred quickly allowed the man inside, then quickly closed and locked the door, casting a couple of privacy charms on it as well
"Thanks for agreeing to meet with me Fred" The man said
"No problem Remus" He replied. He still didn't understand how Remus could tell him and his identical twin apart.
Fred and George had a talent for pranks and jokes, and had recently opened a new shop so that they could do what they loved for a living, and that was to make inventions to prank people.
They had employed Remus to do odd jobs and run errands, they wanted to have him do more, but having a known werewolf in the shop with the customers around hurt business, which would mean that they would all be going hungry if they had Remus do more than pick up supplies and run errands outside of the store.
"Where's George?" Remus asked, looking around.
"I'm here Remus." George said, coming out of the back room of the shop.
"Now Remus-"
"What did-"
"You want-"
"To see us about?" the two said, finishing the sentence in unison as they ushered Remus out of the room and up the stairs to their small flat above the store.
"Well, before I tell you, I'd like your word that one way or another, what I tell you tonight will be confidential."
Fred and George exchanged a look. "Are you becoming a death eater?" Fred asked.
"Or a dark wizard?" George continued.
"Or a blood supremacist?" Fred finished
Remus sighed "No, No, and No." he said calmly, as he sat down in one of the chairs in Fred and George's living room.
"Then on my magic, I swear that I will not knowingly betray the secret that you are about to tell us" the twins said in unison.
Remus smiled. "I'd like you boys to work with me for a secret organization?"
"The order?" Fred asked
Remus snorted. "Work for old Dumbledore and his band of loyal followers as they watch the world get torn apart by the next Hitler?" he asked, shaking his head. "I think not. No, I want you two to help me and the rest of the Department of Mysteries" he said, looking at the two steadily.
Fred and George exchanged a look.
"So, after Mum screaming at us for years-"
"-Percy and Snape insulting us-"
"-Dumbledore refusing to use our ideas and inventions"
"-the Ministry of Magic only buying a hundred of our hats when they need at least a thousand-"
"-not to mention barely covering the cost of the materials-"
"-and the rest of the world treating us like sodding fools-"
"-except for Harry Potter of course-"
"-you offer us a chance to prank the world-"
"-by working for the DOM-"
"-older than merlin-"
"-more powerful than the Vatican-"
"-rumored to have been founded by Imhotep himself?"
"We're listening." They said in unison.