JK Rowling has stolen all my jokes.
A week later, Harry sat at the only table in the Shrieking Shack, diligently completing his homework. Hermione had threatened him with an invisibility cloak ban if he failed to hand all his homework in time, and so Harry had been forced to work, or lose his fathers heirloom. He trusted Hermione with the cloak, but that didn't stop him from needing it.
Harry had been much more book-happy since first finding the Guide. Maybe it was because of his Animagus form, or maybe simply because he no longer felt like Ron judged him for it. Either way, that new quality, along with his inability to measure his work against others' (he couldn't exactly go to class as a spider), led him to advance faster in his studies than most people his age. Far faster.
Long story short, the homework was boring. That was the problem with going too fast, you didn't learn anything from the work set. This made it boring, and Harry, already tired with sitting in a single room, almost snapped his quill in frustration. The he had an idea. It would probably get him a T, or in detention or something, but it would be so worth it.
The staffroom was silent, except for the voice of Professor McGonagall. "I don't know what to do, Filius," she sighed, "Harry's homework was just sitting on my desk when I got to my classroom."
"I don't see how that's so much of a problem, Minerva," the charms teacher chuckled. "It may simply mean that one of Harry's friends told him the homework assignment."
"I am certain there is a rational explanation, but why would Harry not attend school, but still do his homework?" She shook her head, not waiting for an answer, and continued. "Filius, I would like you to check the parchment for any curses. You know how terrible I am at detection spells, but Professor Dumbledore is busy and will not return for a long while."
The head of ravenclaw nodded, pulled out his wand, and swished it over the parchment. He frowned a little as he muttered an incantation and pass the wand over again. "Well, Minerva, everything seems to be fine. Would you like to open it now?" McGonagall sighed, and pulled the red ribbon off Harry's homework. She stopped dead.
"Dear Professor McGonagall. Please read this with Professor Flitwick, as I have included my Charms assignment on this parchment. That will teach me to not check before I write," she read in shock. Harry, of course, hadn't botched the assignment by accident, but neither teacher knew that.
"What assignment did you set Harry's class, Filius?"
The small man chuckled lightly. "Why, the proper method of casting spells activated by external stimuli, of course!"
"I set the basics of elasticating flexible materials and hardening liquids, so the essay shouldn't be this long, surely!" The bun-haired teacher glanced down to the next line, and the next. She lost track of the length of the essay, and every single word was correct. And this was just the transfiguration part!
"Well I never," the charms teacher exclaimed. He always had been the faster reader, but McGonagall sped through the last word-perfect paragraph, and onto the standalone line on the bottom of the page.
'Professor Flitwick, please tell the parchment to "Begin animation".'
"Begin animation," Filius stated, and the ink came to life. The short man squealed in delight, and the two Professors pulled the entirety of the parchment onto a conveniently long desk nearby, goggling at the intricacy of the spells.
Letters of black ink rose from the paper, forming the outline of an envelope in the air, and McGonagall understood. "He's showing off!" She huffed a little, but eventually summoned a nearby chair and sat back to enjoy the show, Flitwick following shortly after, standing on his instead. They almost missed the writing that the outlines had formed.
'Dear Professors McGonagall and Flitwick,'
The envelope dissolved as McGonagall finished reading, and she started. "It seems Mr Potter is testing his abilities," the charms Professor stated. "I rather think that was set to change when we had both read it fully."
McGonagall gaped. "But that's easily NEWT level work! He was barely scraping an A in previous assignments!" Her rant came to a halt as another shape appeared, this one in the likeness of a certain Mr Potter and written in a far smaller font.
'As you can see, I have been working overtime on my spells and such. The reason for this is a certain book titled 'A Marauder's Guide to Magicks', or the Guide for short. This book Shifted my life off course the moment I first read it. You may be wondering where I am right now, but this will explain everything.'
The lettering seemed to bulge, and the white space around it was filled, forming a perfect three dimensional silhouette of Harry. A box made from the parchment stretched around the model, and both Professors leaned back to examine the full picture. Which happened to be a perfect scale replica of the Hogwarts express, which puffed inky steam and even made a similar sound to the original. The wall and ceiling of a carriage near the back opened, revealing four silhouettes with names above them.
On the right sat Harry, Ron and Hermione, who seemed to be chatting, unheard by the sleeping Professor Lupin. This was explained a moment later; a small transparent sphere, almost like a bubble in appearance and labelled 'Muffliato', appeared over the three students. Harry held a small piece of parchment, which McGonagall supposed represented the so called 'Guide'. Tiny wisps of ink separated into four colours, and danced across the page, then Harry stood up.
A bubble appeared over Harry. Both Professors reacted wildly; McGonagall leapt from her seat and left to... Do what, exactly, she asked herself, and sat back down, feeling rather faint. Flitwick stumbled back a little, and collided with the back of his chair, tipping it and narrowly saving himself with a cushioning charm. After the shock wore off a little, they turned back to the scene, which had been paused in the commotion.
'Partial Animagus Transformation: Acromantula.'
That the form was magical wasn't lost on either Professor, but the bubble vanished too quickly to leave time for thought, and the scene played on. Harry sat down, while Hermione stepped forward and another bubble surrounded her.
'Partial Animagus Transformation: Tawny Owl.'
Ron's bubble didn't surprise the Professors as much as the first two had, but the caption was another story.
'Partial Animagus Transformation: Some bloody horse-sized black dragon with bouncy purple fireballs.'
Flitwick chuckled weakly at that, but McGonagall blanched. "An Egyptian Flamefury," she whispered in a voice reminiscent of a certain divination professor. "Merlin have mercy on their enemies."
The tone of the scene shifted; the parchment darkened, the ink lost its shine, and inky breath was visible from the four models. The Harry model collapsed, and Minerva remembered the news of the frozen Potter on the first day of school. The door slid open, and a dementor model glided in. The forms of Ron and Hermione, who were busy saving Harry, cowered in fright as the creature floated closer.
'Partial Animagus Transformation: Patronus Charm.'
McGonagall hadn't thought anything could surprise her any more, but she was blown out of the water by this. Harry had two magical forms? One of which was a charm?! This was getting ridiculous! She glanced at Filius, who wore a similar expression of shock and had once again saved his chair with a quick charm, then turned back to the scene, which was gone.
Instead, the very staffroom they currently sat in had been recreated from stretched parchment, brighter than before, and with one addition: a closed wardrobe, which wobbled violently. The room had been flooded with faceless students, but Lupin and the three friends stuck out like a sore thumb. After a moment's wait, a large bubble surrounded the class. 'Riddikulus.'
The model Harry stumbled in pain, and the parts clicked into place. "He's a boggart," she whimpered, and Flitwick nodded numbly. Although McGonagall was amazed that Harry had figured this out from such sporadic clues, she had to admit it did make sense. He had been feared as a dark wizard, the heir of slytherin, and a muggleborn hater before, after all.
This time the teachers saw the transition between scenes. The parchment sunk back into itself and the ink fell apart and landed on the parchment in droplets, before the reforming into the Harry Potter model. A bubble formed around him, and another piece of the puzzle was formed.
'Boggart Transformation: Lord Voldemoron.'
Both Professors gazed fearfully at Harry's nickname for the most evil man ever, but the bubble had already dissolved, and another scene stood. Lupin's classroom, if Minerva remembered correctly, Lupin apparently talking to the Voldified Harry. A stretched bubble over the two, labelled 'Riddikulus', and He-who-shall-not-be-named wore some kind of helmet.
Some writing appeared over Lupin's head, and McGonagall guessed (correctly) that Harry hadn't been able to express the speech using only silent figures. 'Who are you? Where's Harry?'
'I'm Shift, and Harry's fine, etc etc.'
'He best be back by tomorrow.'
'Okay.'
The scene melted away once more, rebuilding itself into a clock made from ink, which ticked through 24 hours at supersonic speed and dissolved.
The scene changed again, into a similar classroom and the corridor outside. The ink-Lupin dragged the three students into the room, and several bubbles appeared in quick succession, saying 'Riddikulus', 'Glamour charm', 'Finite Incantatem' and 'Boggart transformation: Harry Potter'. The two teachers watched with baited breath as the students turned, and the three were hit by more bubbles, Harry transforming into a small sphere and being carried off, while Ron and Hermione lay petrified on the floor.
McGonagall exchanged looks with Flitwick, and could tell he was as shaken as she was. They turned once more to the parchment, which had returned to normal, except a small message.
'The rest is easier to explain in words than pictures. Of course, so was everything before now, but I was bored. Anyway, Professor Lupin locked the boggart (me) into a certain wardrobe, enchanted it and took it to the labyrinth under the school. I had to transform into my half-Acromantula form to get out, but because Ron wasn't there to fear spiders for me, I botched the transformation and can't change back.
Basically, I can't come to school because I'm half spider.
Yours sincerely,
Harry Potter. Or Shift. Whichever, really.'
The text unraveled into squiggles, then reformed into a charms essay, word perfect and longer than even Hermione's piece. Filius skimmed through at the speed of sound, and chuckled. "Looks like he'll need more of a challenge in the future!"
Harry has become a transfiguration/charms god!
I'm going to say that Harry still isn't OP, if only because this kind of spell would take him hours to set up.
Stay frosty! (Never writing that again)