Harry Potter and The Fate We Make

Chapter 9: Animagi and Arrangements

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter.

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July 6, 1995

The next day brough an unexpected surprise. Hermione arrived just before lunch. They spent lunch catching her up on everything, doing more talking than eating (well, except for Ron). After dinner, they all trooped up to Harry's room so they could talk without Molly overhearing them. She was having problems enough with her children learning offensive spells and being kept up on the news in the Order.

"Researching this 'power' is going to be tricky." Hermione said. "I looked at some things at school before we left, but I sincerely doubt that there'll be anything to find there ... he did go to school at Hogwarts, after all, which means he had access to those books."

Harry was mildly surprised that Hermione had admitted that a library didn't hold the answer. "Talk to Sirius. He'n Remus have been dealing with the library here, getting rid of hexed books and the like. They might be able to point you at some possibilities ... and us too for that matter."

Hermione nodded. "What did Neville say?"

"Neville?" Harry's face scrunched for a moment, and then he slapped his forehead. "I forgot! Things got so nuts ... " He headed for his desk and started scribbling on a scrap of parchment quickly. "Thanks for reminding me, Hermione."

"You're welcome." She said with a grin.

Note written, Harry called for Dobby. "Take this to Neville Longbottom, please, Dobby."

"Of course Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby squeaked, then popped away.

"So, we've got dueling practice, research ... what else?" Ron wanted to know.

"Well, Sirius offered to teach me to be an animagus." Harry said. "I'm sure he'd be just as happy to teach you guys."

Fred and George looked like they'd gotten their Christmas and birthday presents all in one go and early to boot. "SWEET!"

Ron and Ginny were only marginally less excited. Hermione, though, looked troubled. "But becoming an animagus is supposed to be frightfully difficult!" She pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "My dad and Sirius managed it when they were our age, and with no help at all. If they can do it, we can." Insofar as Harry was concerned, Pettigrew did not exist as a Marauder, so he didn't mention him in conjunction with them. "Let's go see if they're busy."

And so the entire group trooped towards the library. Partway there, they heard Remus's voice, sounding amused, exasperated, and tolerant all at once. "Padfoot ... "

Harry poked his head in and snickered. Sirius had, evidently, gotten bored with book sorting, and opted to see how many of them he could juggle, by hand rather than magic, at once. "Was he like this in school?" He called to Remus, startling Sirius into dropping several of the books, which made Hermione cry out in protest. Remus just laughed.

"Worse, actually. What's up?"

"Looks like we showed up just in time. We were gonna steal Sirius if he wasn't busy."

Sirius, mock-grumbled as he put the books where he'd got them from. "You startle me like that and then expect me to go quietly?"

"Well, I was hoping we could work on the animagus thing, but if you're not interesting in teaching the next generation of Marauders ... " Harry said, and made as if to walk away. He was tempted to try and pout, but wasn't sure he could pull it off.

Sirius squawked. "Hey! I never said that! Where you want to do this?"

"My room? I really don't want to be interrupted, and I think we will be if we do this anywhere on the main floor." Harry said.

Sirius nodded. "Good point kiddo. All right, let's go."

Everyone trooped back to Harry's room and found spots to sit. Sirius looked bemused for a moment when the entire group filed in, then grinned hugely. "All of you? Brilliant!"

"Now." He said. "The first thing you need to know, is that you need to completely ignore everything you think you know about becoming an animagus. You've doubtlessly heard it's incredibly difficult, and that only a select few people have the capability to become one, right?" Everyone nodded. "That's a bunch of hokum. Y'see, in the process of learning to do this ourselves, James and I got to thinking. If even the rat, who was completely pathetic at nearly everything, was able to learn this ... " Sirius shrugged. "After a while, James and I developed a theory ... that magic has more, much more, to do with intent and determination than with anything else. It's the only thing that makes sense. Considering that in most cases, witches and wizards can learn to cast spells without saying the incantations, it can't be the words themselves that accomplish the required result. Oh, the wand movements and words give us a framework to work with, but really, it's whether you want it bad enough or not that does the trick. And that explains why there aren't more animagi. Most folks don't have a burning need to become an animagus, so the process gets drawn out and complicated."

That made a certain amount of sense to Harry. He had, after all, pulled some rather incredible spells, like the patronus. Supposedly, a thirteen year old couldn't do it. But he'd had a real, driving need to be able to do that spell, and so he had. "But then, wouldn't everyone be able to do all spells?" He asked. "And why just you and dad coming up with this? Didn't Remus agree?"

Sirius grimaced. "Power does still have an effect." He admitted. "Some witches and wizards are unquestionably stronger than others, and so are able to pull off high-powered spells that their less-powerful fellows can't. But put those less-powerful wizards in a situation where doing the spell is vital to life and limb, and their chances of doing the spell increase exponentially." Then he chuckled. "Remus never really got into the debates, since they mostly happened when we were practicing, which we tried to hide from him as long as we could, so it would be a surprise for him."

"All that aside." Sirius said. "There is a definite process required to becoming an animagus. It involves a lot of meditating. You can't choose your animagus form, and before you ask, as far as I know, becoming a magical creature isn't a possibility. The first step is getting in touch with your inner animal. You'll know when it makes itself known." He grinned. "Once you've figured out what you'll turn into, you have to start the process of actually becoming that animal ... which involved getting rather intimate with your magic and magical core while concentrating on becoming the animal. At some point, you'll start sprouting fur or feathers or whatnot, then paws, hooves, or wings and then the final jump is the complete transformation. First couple of times twinges a bit, and feels very strange, but after a half dozen or so transformations it's pretty much effortless and totally painless, and stops feeling so bizarre. Now, I don't want any of you attempting the transformations without me, Remus, or Professor McGonagall, once you get to school, in attendance. It's not unknown to get stuck from time to time. James had problems with his antlers for weeks." Sirius grinned at the memory. "And we'll be able to force you back if that happens."

"So we meditate at night until we figure out what we'll be, and then go from there?" Harry clarified.

Sirius nodded. "Yep, that's the plan."

"Cool."

Just then, Dobby popped back in, a bit hunched, and his ears flattened against his head. Harry frowned.

"Dobby? What's wrong? What happened?"

Dobby handed over a note. "Theys be lots of yelling, Harry Potter sir." He said.

"At you?" Harry didn't think for a second that Neville would do such a thing, but he didn't know Neville's grandmother to know if she would.

"No, Harry Potter sir. Just yellings."

"Huh." Harry opened the letter.

Harry

Well, your letter certainly livened up the day! I showed it to Gran, and she's not stopped yelling since. She's not been overly fond of the Headmaster since the end of the first war, and finding out that the last Potter has no idea of his station, duties, or privileges has her in quite the state. I'm half expecting her to send him a Howler!

At any rate, she'll be more than happy to teach you everything, and you'll probably be getting an official letter by owl to that effect tonight or tomorrow morning, once she calms down. I'll probably be seeing you sometime in the next few days. Tell Ron and Hermione hi for me!

Harry snickered. "Apparently, Neville's grandmother is quite upset I never got the training I should've." He told Sirius.

Sirius grimaced. "Augusta Longbottom is a force to be reckoned with, pup. She's going to be on the warpath about this, mark my words. She takes being from an ancient and noble house very seriously."

Since there was nothing much else to do that day, they all helped sort and organize the rather stunning array of junk that had accumulated in the house. There was always an adult with them, Sirius mostly, though Molly and Arthur both took turns. Remus, it seemed, was quite content to huddle amongst the books and deal with them, and everyone was happy to leave him to it. At first, Kreacher, whom Harry hadn't even seen since the day they arrived, threw a tantrum at them 'getting rid' of things, but Sirius snapped at him and sent him away. Less than ten minutes later, Dobby caught Kreacher trying to smuggle things from another room into hiding. The resultant fight had everyone in the house converging on the room thinking they'd somehow been invaded.

By that point, Sirius was in a foul mood. They were caught between a rock and a hard place. They couldn't free Kreacher, because they had absolutely no illusions as to what he'd do if they did that. On the other hand, Sirius refused point blank to kill the elf, both because he found doing so abhorrent (threats aside) and because the cretin would see it as a reward. Sirius finally resorted to sentencing Kreacher to his 'room', telling him he could only come out to get food when he got hungry. That made Harry cringe, as it was far, far, far too close to being locked in the broom cupboard for his comfort, but he admitted they really didn't have a choice. Even Hermione couldn't find anything redeemable about Kreacher.

By the time they got that straightened out, it was time for another Order meeting. This time, Harry was able to put more names to faces ... and it quickly became clear even to him that sides were being taken. Evidently his presence (and confrontation) at the last meeting had been talked about among the various members (or they'd stewed over it individually), because when Harry sat down, that side of the table quickly filled. Sirius, Remus, Moody, Tonks, McGonagall, and Flitwick all took places on his side of the table and greeted him with, at the very least, amiability. Arabella Figg and Snape seemed to be taking the middle ground along with a few others, like Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mundungus Fletcher (who reminded Harry very strongly of Pettigrew, and Harry resolved to keep a very sharp eye on the man). The rest of the Order seemed to dislike his presence, led by Molly (And Harry wasn't about to pretend that that didn't hurt, even if he did understand she wanted to protect him), who had a pinch-faced expression of disapproval on her face and frowned at Harry every time she glanced his way. Dumbledore, when he arrived ... well, who knew or cared what he thought. It was kind of a moot point. He needed Harry, and would therefore put up with Harry's demands ... whether he liked it or not, though Harry suspected he'd try something at some future point. For now, he seemed content to let be.

It was another quiet meeting, spent discussing alliances, allies, and organizing duty rotas so that there would be Order members on standby in case of an attack. Which there hadn't been yet, but everyone allowed as it was early days yet. Voldemort was still getting his feet under him ... possibly literally. He'd seemed ok during the whole resurrection fiasco, but who knew whether that would have lasted, especially given how the duel'd gone. He, apparently, hadn't even called Snape to him yet. At least, not that Snape mentioned in the general meeting, though it was possible he had been called and Dumbledore informed privately. Given Dumbledore's penchant for hoarding information, that scenario was entirely too likely.

When the meeting broke up, Harry told the others what little he'd learned that was any use.

"Frankly, this waiting is going to drive me crazy." Harry admitted to the others. "Much as I wish it would, the quiet won't last for long, and I'm afraid that the longer it takes, the bigger the bang will be when he does do something."

That was a sentiment the others agreed with, and they all eventually broke up and headed for bed.