Chapter 11

Disguises and Discussions

Malfoy watched the werewolf from the shadows near the entryway of the bank as an old woman walked past him. It had been almost an hour since Potter had disappeared beneath the bank, more than enough time for his mother to alert his father and a few other trustworthy Death Eaters. Now he just had to wait for Potter to exit the bank, then they would kill the mangy half-breed, along with the half-blood slut and grab Potter and Bones. Then the Dark Lord would welcome him into the inner circle with open arms.

Another ten minutes passed, with no one else leaving the vault carts before anything else happened. A silver wolf came rushing through the bank, stopping before the werewolf and opening its mouth before dissipating into silver fog. Draco watched as Lupin nodded and turned, walking quickly towards the exit. 'Good,' he thought to himself, 'with the werewolf gone, this will be even easier,' he settled into his hiding spot, hardly daring to blink as he watched the track down to the vaults. Draco was so focused on the mine cart that he didn't notice his former professor glance his way and grin.

OoOoO

Harry and Susan followed closely behind the old lady, careful not to brush into anyone as they hurried down the alley, before ducking in between two shops. He pulled his invisibility cloak off them as the old woman shifted back into Tonks and removed the glamor from her robes that had made them look old and worn, before pulling them off to reveal the muggle attire beneath. Harry looked over at Susan who had quickly followed suit, before removing the robes Tonks had picked up for him yesterday, leaving him in a t-shirt and jeans.

Tonks quickly moved to the corner of the building and stuck her head around it, watching people walk past for a couple minutes before returning to the others and sending off a quick patronus to let Remus know they were fine and it was safe for him to return to headquarters, "Well it doesn't look like we were followed," she said grinning, "that was a pretty good idea Jimmy."

Harry grinned, "Well I couldn't risk dragging a pair of such beautiful women into a fight, now could I?"

Tonks smiled at him for a moment before a confused look crossed her face, "Wait, you dragged me into a fight two days ago," she replied, looking at him crossly while Susan watched them with a smile.

Harry considered that for a moment before he responded, "Okay, well maybe I can't risk getting into a fight today because of just one beautiful- OW!" Harry clutched his arm where Tonks had driven her fist into it, "It was a joke, Merlin, you'd think after I spent two weeks staring at your ass every morning you wouldn't be so self conscious..."

"Well you'd think that after two weeks of getting beat up, you would be able to take a punch," she retorted, rolling her eyes as she lead them from the alleyway. "So where to first?" she asked, looking over at her two companions, one giggling at the byplay between the two, while the other rubbed his shoulder.

Harry was the first to respond, "Well, I think we should head to Eyelops. If I don't get some owl treats soon, my life may become forfeit," he said, only half joking.

Tonks laughed, "I swear, that bird has you whipped," she said, shaking her head as she turned and led the way to the owl emporium, for which Harry was grateful. Now he just needed to give his purchases to his familiar to gain himself a stay of execution.

The second stop of the afternoon was to buy a new trunk, seeing as his had been destroyed along with the rest of his possessions. They quickly found one that would be perfect. It had three magically expanded compartments, each about three times the size of the trunk itself. One of the compartments even contained a large book shelf that he was certain Hermione would first be jealous of and then commandeer to house her always expanding personal library.

Their next stop was Madam Malkins, which turned out to be even more embarrassing than when he had gone shopping for muggle clothes with Tonks, seeing as he now had to deal with not one, but two shameless witches ogling him. They took him to a private room and removed his disguise, before forcing him to try on half the robes in the shop, constantly commenting on what would bring out his eyes, or show off his arms or his butt. By the time they finished he wasn't sure whether or not his dignity would ever recover. He was thankful to be finished nonetheless, as it gave him a chance to rest while Susan tried on a some clothes to hold her over until they could pick up her things. Harry could only groan softly as she walked out of the changing room to show Tonks a few of the more revealing ones and curse Hogwarts for it's bulky robes.

Once they finished at Madam Malkins they hurried across the street to buy Harry his first new pair of glasses since he was 7 years old, complete with charms to adjust to his eyesight, repel dirt and water and resist scratching. He exited the store, seeing the world in a whole new light, as everything came into focus. He grinned widely as he imagined the coming Quidditch season and how badly he was going to embarrass Malfoy this year.

They continued on, buying the rest of the school supplies he would need, including a cauldron and potion ingredients. He had initially balked at the idea, as he had no intention of subjecting himself to Snape's 'teaching', but had agreed once Tonks pointed out that just because he wasn't taking the class, didn't mean he wouldn't need to brew a potion at some point during the year.

Once they had acquired a cauldron, they headed over to Flourish and Blotts, where they bought a copy of every book he had used throughout his first five years at Hogwarts, with the obvious exceptions of the DADA book from the previous year and all of Lockhart's garbage, replacing them with some books Tonks had used or heard of during Auror training, before heading towards the Leaky Cauldron to pick up some take out for dinner. After exiting the Cauldron, they quickly apparated away, landing in the sitting room to find Remus lounging on one of the couches reading a book.

"So how did it go?" he asked, looking up from his book.

Tonks was the first to respond, "Great, we got everything we were looking for and didn't attract a second glance."

Remus stood and walked over to her, giving her a quick kiss before looking her up and down, "Well that I find hard to believe," he said.

Tonks' eyes widened and face flushed at the straightforwardness of the old Marauder, before cracking into a smile and pulling him down for a longer kiss, "Well aren't you just a flatterer? Did one of my rants finally get through to you?"

Remus laughed, "Actually you can thank Harry here. He reminded me that there are some people that can look past my furry little problem and that I should hang on to those people."

Tonks walked over to Harry and gave him a tight hug, squeezing the air out of his lungs, "Thanks Harry, for knocking some sense into him."

"You're welcome Tonks. It was a lot of work trying to knock sense into someone that thick-" Harry teased.

"HEY!" Remus said, looking affronted.

"-headed, but I'm sure you'll find a way to make it worth my while," he finished, giving her a lecherous grin and wiggling his eyebrows at her for a moment before breaking into a run up the stairs, an angry werewolf in hot pursuit.

The two girls just laughed and shook their heads as the boys ran up the stairs, before Tonks handed their bag of food to Susan, "Here, why don't you bring this into the kitchen and grab some plates and cutlery. I'm going to bring Harry's trunk up for him and make sure Remus doesn't hurt him too badly."

Susan made her way into the kitchen and got things ready for dinner. She didn't have to wait long for the others, as they came in a minute later, Remus and Tonks wearing matching smiles as Harry followed them, his head covered in long bubblegum pink hair. Susan couldn't help but break into laughs, causing both Remus and Tonks to do the same.

Harry glared at them, grumbling under his breath about 'mangy werewolves,' before turning away from the others and walking over to the corner where his owl rested on top of the cabinets, "Hey girl, got anything for me?" Hedwig opened one eye and looked at him for a moment, before turning her back on him and returning to her snooze, "Oh come on girl, don't be like that. I got something for you too," he said as he pulled three owl treats out of his pocket. Hedwig looked back at him and seeing the owl treats swooped down, landing on his shoulder. She quickly ate all three before giving him an affectionate nip on the finger, letting him know he was forgiven and offering her leg for him to remove the letter attached. Recognizing the handwriting, he quickly stuffed it into his pocket and joining the others at the table to eat, before racing up to his room to open his letter in private.

OoOoO

"Hello Professor McGonagall," Harry said as he stumbled out of the green flames.

"Hello Mr. Potter," replied the professor, looking up from her desk, "The recipe for the Animagus revealer potion is on the table over there," she said pointing to a table in the corner of the room. "I trust you brought everything you will require?"

"Yes Professor, I actually brought-" he cut off and turned as the fire turned green again, catching the falling metamorphmagus out of habit, stopping her from falling on her face as she tumbled from the fireplace.

"Sorry Harry," she said, brushing the soot off her clothes before turning to the professor and giving her a small wave, "Wotcher Minnie," she said cheerfully.

"Ms. Tonks," she replied dryly, "I didn't realize Mr. Potter had told you of our lessons."

Harry snorted, "If by told, you mean she read about them when she pulled your letter out of my hand, then yes."

McGonagall glared at the metamorph disapprovingly, "I did not realize that my handwriting was so poor that you could confuse Mr. Potters name for your own Ms. Tonks."

Tonks had the good grace to blush, "Well, I didn't know it was yours, I thought it was a love letter from a certain bushy-haired bookworm."

"Tonks I've told you, Hermione and I aren't dating, we're just friends," he replied, easily suppressing a small blush. It wasn't the first time she had tried to tease him about his best friend and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

"Yet," she said slyly, as Professor McGonagall looked on with a raised eyebrow and a slight smile, causing Harry to roll his eyes. "Besides, you should be happy I found out. You never would have been able to keep this a secret from-," she stopped and threw a hand over her mouth as Harry glared at her.

"To keep this from Mr. Lupin to avoid him finding out you were coming here to learn to become Animagi in order to keep him company during full moons?" supplied McGonagall.

Harry and Tonks both looked at her slack jawed for a moment, "Wait, how did you-?"

Professor McGonagall arched an eyebrow at him, "Mr. Potter, not only have I been teaching for decades, but I have taught both you and your parents. Did you really think you could fool me so easily?"

Harry was taken aback for a moment, "Well, when you say it like that, I guess not," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Why did you agree to teach me then?" he asked.

"I can think of no better reason to teach you to become an Animagus than to comfort a friend in their time of need Mr. Potter. And as I assume Ms. Tonks is here for the same reason," she paused, looking at Tonks who nodded in confirmation, "I am more than happy to teach her as well. In any case, as I am sure you would make the attempt with or without my help, I thought it would be safer if I were to instruct you," she said, giving Harry a stern glare.

Harry looked away, refusing to meet her eyes. It was scary how his Transfiguration professor always seemed to know what he was up to. "Thank you again Professor. We just need to decide what to tell Remus so that he doesn't start wondering why we disappear every couple days to spend time with you."

"See, I told you you'd never be able to keep this a secret," Tonks teased.

"And you can?" he asked.

Tonks gave him a smug look, "Of course I can Harry. In fact it's already taken care of."

Harry looked at her quizzically, "Really, how?"

"I told him we were going to talk to Minnie about making the DA an approved school club."

Harry thought about it for a moment before he shook his head, "I know this is supposed to be a surprise, but I don't want to lie to Remus. We'll have to think of something else."

"It doesn't need to be a lie Mr. Potter. That was actually something I wished to speak to you about," said Professor McGonagall.

Harry looked over at his head of house, "What do you mean professor?"

McGonagall arched an eyebrow at him, "Do you mean to tell me you have not considered continuing your defense club Mr. Potter?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders non-noncommittally, "I don't know, I figured that now that everyone knows that Voldemort is back we'd get a decent Defense professor, so I didn't really think anyone would be interested."

McGonagall snorted in amusement, "Mr. Potter, I spoke with some of the members of your club at the end of the year. Every single one of them spoke highly of your teaching abilities. I'm certain that most, if not all, would leap at the chance of joining your study group again." She stopped and seemed to consider something for a moment before continuing, "I'm not supposed to tell you this Mr. Potter, but your year set three records for OWLs last year, would you like to guess what two of those records are?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know Professor."

"The first is for most O's in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Every single student in your group managed either an Exceeding Expectations or an Outstanding on their Defense OWLs. The second record is for the amount of Dreadful and Troll grades, as most of the students not lucky enough to be a part of your group failed horribly."

Harry's jaw dropped at this information. He had known that most of his students had done fairly well, as many of them had thanked him after their exams and he had assumed that most of the rest had struggled, having never cast any of the spells they were being tested on, but he had no idea they had set any sort of record.

"What was the third record?" Tonks asked.

Harry looked at the professor curiously, "I'm sorry, but that will have to wait until the results are delivered." Tonks looked disappointed, but Harry nodded understandingly, he wouldn't want anyone sharing his personal information. "So you see Mr. Potter, it may very well be in everyone's best interest that the DA continue, especially with You-Know-Who having returned."

Harry thought about it for a moment before he nodded, "Well I suppose it couldn't hurt. If no one is interested we could always cancel."

"I don't think that will be a problem Mr. Potter," McGonagall said dryly. "We can begin planning at the beginning of each lesson," she looked at her watch, "but for now I believe we should return to our original agenda for the evening. Did you bring enough ingredients for the both of you?" Harry nodded and pulled them out of his bag, "Well then, perhaps we should get started."

OoOoO

Two hours later, Harry looked at the bubbling surface of his cauldron as it turned from white to green as a single drop of his blood fell into it. He quickly stirred it once counter-clockwise before taking the cauldron off the small fire and filling a vial. He almost quivered with excitement as he looked at Tonks, "Cheers," he said, lifting his vial towards her.

Tonks grinned, almost bouncing with her own excitement, "Cheers," she said, returning the gesture, before they both drained their vials.

Harry waited for a moment before looking at Tonks confused, "Isn't something supposed to happen?" he asked.

Tonks shrugged, "Maybe we did something wrong," she said disappointed, "Professor wasn't the vision was supposed to start as soon as-" she cut off as her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she fell backwards, landing softly on a pile of pillows conjured as she fell by Professor McGonagall. Harry hardly had time to register his surprise, before he felt his eyes roll back in his head and he knew no more.

A/N So what do you guys think? Any suggestions for Animagus forms?