Harry Potter and The Fate We Make

Chapter 15: Animagi (Take Two) and Antics

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter. The date of this chapter is NOT a typo. This is what Harry and company are up to while Augusta and Septimus are having so much fun in the Wizengamot.

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July 19, 1995

Harry got rousted out of bed ... for the second day in a row ... by an excited shout from one of his friends.

"I saw it! I saw it!"

Harry, half-asleep, identified it as one of the twins. He shook off the sleepiness as the words penetrated. There could only be one thing that would have one of the twins in such transports of joy. Rubbing his eyes, he padded into the hallway ... and nearly fell over laughing.

One of the twins was capering up and down the hallway, dancing a demented jig, whooping and hollering in glee. The other twin was nowhere in sight, though how he could be asleep still with all this racket Harry would never know. Ron, Hermione and Ginny were standing in the doors of their rooms, watching the twin with amused exasperation. Remus poked his head out of his door, peered at the twin, then glanced at Harry with an amused grin before withdrawing again and leaving them to it.

Harry finally took his life into his hands and darted into the hall in an attempt to corral the twin. "Fred! George! Take a breath mate. You're killing us with the suspense!"

Fred, or was it George? Harry still couldn't tell without the aid of the map. Anyway, they finally settled just a bit. "I." He said, grinning hugely. "Am a ferret. Not like the one Malfoy got turned into last year, though. This one's got colored markings. All red, of course!"

Hermione grinned widely. "Ferrets are known as mischief-makers, so it is rather fitting." She said.

"Oi!" The twin objected, then rubbed his hands together. "This is going to be brilliant."

Harry snickered. It did not surprise him in the least that one of the twins was among the first to discover their animagus form, given their devotion to (and near worship of) the Marauders. The big surprise had been that Neville had been the first, just the night before, as a matter of fact. Especially given that he'd started a couple days after everyone else. Neville's form both had and had not been a surprise. He was a brown bear. Harry'd been half-expecting something smaller for Neville, honestly, given how shy he tended to be, and how much he tried to fade into the woodwork. Neville hadn't been able to figure out what the 'marking' was for his bear form, at least not from the dream-vision, but Sirius had said that sometimes the marking wasn't real obvious ... his was, apparently, the black fur of his dog form. Either that or his eye color.

Harry himself had had no luck discovering his form, but it didn't really surprise him. Disappoint him, oh yes. Surprise him, not so much. He'd had so much to do and so much on his mind aside from learning to duel and the animagus meditations (and in the case of the twins, inventing mayhem with the Marauders) that most nights he'd collapsed into bed and fallen straight to sleep without managing any meditating first. Together, they trooped into the twins' room and dragged the remaining twin (evidently it was George, but Harry was taking that with a grain of salt, given the twins' propensity for answering to each other's name) out of bed and convened in the library amidst much laughter and chatter.

"So, so far we've got a big bruiser that'll really be able to bring the pain for anyone stupid enough to try to take him on." Ron said with an anticipatory grin and a mock-bow at Neville. "And something little that'll be able to get in practically anywhere."

There wasa mass amount of anticipatory glee on Fred's face. "We need to think of names." He said. "I mean, the New Marauders is a no-brainer for the groups as a whole, but individually, we're gonna need names."

Harry sighed. "We'll have to wait for most of us, but I'm sure we can bounce ideas around for you and Neville."

"Squeaker!" Was Ron's contribution.

He immediately got tackled by the twins, who proceeded to try to tickle him and get him into a headlock. Laughing, Harry leapt to Ron's defense, and in very short order the floor of the library was a confusion of limbs and laughter that managed to drag even Hermione into its midst. It felt good to let loose for a bit ... to just goof around and be silly. For the moment, there was no Voldemort, no war. Just a group of teenagers in high spirits. Eventually, they wore themselves out and, sprawled about on the floor, returned to the original conversation.

"So we've a bear to name and a ferret." Harry said, contemplating. "I'm half-tempted to name the ferret Malfoy, just so we can say 'It was Malfoy!' with a straight face when teachers ask who was behind a prank."

This idea met with general hilarity, but was duly rejected on the strength of none of them wanting to be referred to by that name (which Harry completely understood).

"We should name Neville's form Baloo." Hermione proposed. This got her blank looks from everyone in the room, including Harry, whose exposure to children's books had been minimal at best. "It's a bear from a muggle book ... The Jungle Book. I can get a hold of a copy easily enough, so you can read about him." This met with approval.

"The ferret's going to be a bit harder. I can't think of any ferrets in stories or movies, offhand." Hermione said. "And they don't really lend themselves to an obvious name, like Harry's dad's form."

There was quiet for a few minutes as everyone contemplated a name for Fred's form. Then Neville perked up. "Rascal!"

This was greeted with a round of grins and immediate agreement. It fit, perfectly.

"Ok, that's settled. We just need to get the rest of us figured out." Harry sighed. "Thankfully, I think I'm going to be able to put more effort into it now ... there's been so much to deal with!" He sat forward. "Speaking of ... you find anything in the books, Hermione?"

Hermione sighed. "It's not whether I found anything or not, Harry ... it's figuring out what might be of use, that we can learn fast enough. I don't think we have the time to learn some of the more difficult or really esoteric magics."

To that, Harry agreed. Voldemort seemed to be anything but eager to keep a low profile. He'd taken about a two week break, and now seemed to have hit the ground running.

"The good news is that the Hogwarts elves have agreed to keep a watch on the known muggleborns that aren't old enough for Hogwarts yet." Hermione said. "So at least they'll have a chance to make it to school, since Voldemort seems to want to wipe them all out."

Harry nodded. "Yeah. And Remus said that most of the werewolves were willing to hear him out, with the exception of somebody called Fenrir Greyback and the werewolves that run with him." Mention of Remus had a thought occurring to Harry and he got to his feet and peered out the door. After making sure no adults were in immediate evidence, Harry closed the door firmly, then returned to the others. "You know, a thought occurred to me. If we're really going to be the New Marauders ... we need to prank the old ones. Prove we have the stuff."

The twins' eyes glittered with an almost unholy light at the thought of competing with their idols, and Ron just grinned widely. Hermione and Neville were a bit less enthusiastic, but still willing.

"It'd have to be something really sneaky. I mean, Padfoot's not going to fall for easy stuff, and even if Moony's a bit quieter, he's still a Marauder." Ron said. "But what can we do?"

"Itching powder's always good." Ginny offered.

"Too predictable. This is the Marauders we're talking about." George pointed out. "Something in their food?"

"No, they'd be on their guard against that, since they know it's your preferred method of delivery." Harry pointed out.

"But would they be on their guard if they thought the other Marauder had done it?" Hermione asked, her voice somewhat hesitant, like she was halfway to coming up with an idea but hadn't worked out the details yet.

"What do you mean?" That had Fred's undivided interest.

"Well." Hermione said. "They're pranksters themselves. And I sincerely doubt they never once pranked each other. So if we could manage to do something in such a way that it would look like one of the two had done it ... "

"That means targeting Remus." Harry said. "Sirius always seems to be the one to start trouble, in their stories."

There were nods around the room. "Right, ok, so we target Remus ... but how?"

"Well ... " Harry said slowly. "They did seem to favor pranks involving color changes."

"Something in his shampoo?" Fred immediately proposed. "Maybe something time-delayed or that gets triggered only under certain conditions?"

"If we could come up with something that uses Whimsies, it'd be based on his mood." Neville offered.

This started an intense discussion between the twins, who were by far the best potioneers among them. While they debated the finer points of the proposed potion, the rest of the group considered how to get the results into Remus' shampoo.

"It'll have to be me." Harry said. "I go into his room sometimes, looking for him or to get him for Sirius. Anyone else, and he might pick up on them." He tapped his nose, reminding them of Remus' enhanced senses.

"Oh, bollocks. We forgot about that!" the twins said in unison, and the discussion of the potion got even more heated as they considered how to achieve their aims and NOT have a potion that reeked to high heavens.

"You do realize, of course, that this is likely to start a prank war." Hermione pointed out.

Harry grinned. "Exactly. It'll give everyone a chance to blow off some steam. I just hope Snape drops by while it's going."

"I don't think the house would survive the results if he did, mate." Ron pointed out, though he was grinning hugely at the thought of watching Snape get pranked. It'd almost be worth the aftermath. Almost.

Harry considered that, and Snape's utter hatred for Sirius, and only marginally less so for Remus. "You have a point." He admitted. "And there's also the fact that I sincerely doubt he'd step foot in the house if he got wind of pranks happening. He /did/ go to school with the Marauders, after all."

"Point." Ron agreed, looking a bit sad at the lost opportunity.

The twins' discussion seemed to be winding down, not that Harry had understood the half of it. Though, in his defense, they were using a verbal shorthand that made it all but impossible to follow what they were saying. "Right. We think we know what to do." Fred said.

"But we're going to need a sample of Moony's shampoo to work with." George said. "To ensure there aren't any ... unforeseen ... reactions."

"Right. I can get that for you yet today." Harry said. "It'll have to be later, though, once he gets busy."

The others nodded at this. "And we're going to have to be careful to not look like we're up to no good." Hermione pointed out. "Otherwise, they'll pick up on it."

"Right. So. Research? That way if they pop in here wanting to know what we're up to ... " Harry proposed.

They immediately dragged a variety of books out ... and none too soon. Within ten minutes, Remus was poking his head in the door to see what was going on.

"Ah." He said. "Doing a bit of research this morning?"

Harry nodded. "We've kind of been letting it go by the wayside a bit, with all the dueling practice we've been doing." He glowered at the book in his hands. "The problem being, we can't even begin to figure out what this supposed power is. It's getting annoying."

Remus came in and sat down in the chair nearest Harry. "You may not figure it out ahead of time, Harry. It's entirely possible the power is something that only comes out under duress, and that you have little or no control over."

Harry made a face. "Maybe. With my luck, probably. But I can hope, can't I?"

Remus chuckled. "Of course you can. And even if you don't stumble across your 'power', you're bound to run across a thing or ten that might be good to know."

"Very true." Harry agreed. "As much as we've been finding in these books, it's kind of scary thinking that there's more ... and worse ... in the books you and Sirius destroyed."

Remus shuddered. "Don't remind me. Some of those books were downright horrific. And that's just the protections woven into them to keep them out of the hands of anyone not a Black, nevermind their actual contents."

"You should really study ancient runes, Harry." Hermione said. "That's something I could see Voldemort using. There's a lot of power in runes. There's nowhere near enough time to teach you to learn to read them properly, but if you could learn to spot key runes by sight, you'd be forewarned of trouble."

Harry nodded. "That's a good idea. At least that way I'd know something was set up, even if I didn't know exactly what. I'd just have to hope that if I saw them, I'd be in a situation I could yell for someone who can read them better."

Hermione glared at him. "You'd better not be off running around on your own!" She scolded.

Harry rolled his eyes. "It's not like I really want to, Hermione, but sometimes I don't have a choice about it!" Like the third task.

Hermione looked contrite. "Sorry, Harry. Let me go get my notes ... we can use those to study from." She hurried out, and came back a few moments later with her bookbag in hand.

Within minutes, Harry and Hermione were deep in learning runes. Hermione settled on a certain range ... anything that mentioned blood, death, or pain. That cut down on the sheer number of runes Harry would need to learn to recognize on sight (even if he didn't know what particular brand of rune they were, or what, exactly, the rune signified beyond 'you really don't want to mess with me'), but there were still quite a number.

Shortly after that, Remus left them to it, and just before lunch, Harry broke away from his studying with Hermione to sneak into Remus' room and snitch some of his shampoo for the twins to work with. They nodded their thanks.

"We'll start fussing with it tonight, in our room." They said. "Can't do it in the potions lab. Padfoot and Moony would see."

After lunch, they opted to do more dueling training. Flitwick greeted them with news.

"Since everyone seems to be doing quite well so far, I think it is time to introduce you all to silent casting. This means thinking the words in your mind, but not saying them. In a fight, it has the advantage of not advertising what you intend to do to your opponent. Virtually all spells can be done silently. The only ones I've ever known to not be performed silently are the Unforgivables, but considering I've heard those spells performed by perhaps a dozen witches and wizards, it's hardly a conclusive statement."

He started them working ... and almost immediately, there were problems. From the start, the twins and Neville (and to a lesser extent Ginny) had been lagging behind in learning to perform spells properly. Now, in the face of having to attempt to do the spells silently, they were completely stymied. By the end of the day, under Flitwick's intense tutelage, Harry, Hermione, and Ron had managed to make their feathers (he started them on Wingardium Leviosa) at least wobble in a way that was clearly not from a random gust of air. Hermione's had actually lifted an inch for a second or two.

Ginny managed to get her feather to move, maybe. It wasn't really clear if it was her or a gust of air. The twins and Neville ... not so much as a twitch, despite all three of them getting very red in the face repeatedly with the effort they put into getting the spell to work.

Flitwick finally called a halt to the session. "Misters and Miss Weasley and Mister Longbottom, might I see your wands, please?" The four of them showed him their wands, though all four looked mildly confused. Flitwick sighed. "It is as I thought. These wands are clearly old. I suppose they belonged to someone in your families?" Neville went pale, but nodded. The Weasleys just looked sheepish. "Then they are not, in fact, your wands. I really must encourage you all to get new wands, ones that choose you. While a witch or wizard can, at need, use any wand, you will not get as good of results as with a wand suited to you ... and in many cases, a non-fitting wand will prove incapable of performing some spells, simply because it cannot properly channel your magical energy."

The Weasleys were all starting to blush, well aware that three new wands were beyond their limited means. There was no lucky windfall to defray the cost this time, as there had been for Ron's new wand. Neville looked nervous, but then, he would have to tackle Augusta about a new wand, and given how intimidated Neville was of his grandmother, that was going to be a problem. Harry looked at the Weasleys.

"Guys, I'll loan you the money for the wands. You can pay me back later, when you get the chance." He told them. He had, of course, no intention of collecting the debt, but at least this way it would avoid sounding like charity.

"Nonsense!" Fred sputtered. "We can use some of our winnings from the World Cup."

"But I thought ... " Ron started.

"We got him to pay up." George explained.

This was, Harry knew, wholly a lie. He knew they meant to use the Triwiz money he'd given them. Well, so long as it got done, it hardly mattered how.

"Right, that works. So ... shopping trip tomorrow? For you guys, at least. Wouldn't be a good idea for me to tag along. I might be able to walk around Diagon Alley bold as brass in my disguise when I'm alone, but everyone knows I'm close to you guys, and some unknown guy hanging out with you would be given close scrutiny." Harry said.

The others agreed to that, and the shopping trip was planned. That it would allow the twins a chance to buy some supplies they needed for their pending prank was just so much gravy as far as everyone was concerned.

They proposed the trip at dinner, and, with a bit of well-timed sleight-of-hand, managed to get Molly to agree to the outing to the Alley, though she insisted they have adults with them. The twins immediately begged Tonks to go with them. Who turned to Remus and invited him along with.

Which had Harry snickering. He'd noticed (as had the rest of the New Marauders) that Tonks was spending an inordinate amount of time in Remus' immediate vicinity. Very immediate. Pretty much every chance she got to invade his personal space, she took. At first, Remus had either been oblivious or was ignoring it, but he was starting to get a slightly hunted look in his eyes. He declined to attend the trip, much to the Weasley's relief. Having Remus with them would have complicated prank preparations no end.

For once not driven to exhaustion, Harry was able to settle in and attempt to meditate that night. He got a vision, all right. Just not the one he'd been hoping for.

The room was large and poorly lit. Death Eaters were gathered in a neat semi-circle, hooded and masked. Voldemort paced back and forth, his rage incandescent.

"How? How are they anticipating us? Everywhere we turn, that old fool and his followers arrive within seconds!" And then, in a voice filled with malice. "Severus, you have failed me. You are my spy in their midst. You claim the old fool trusts you. And yet, you do not bring me news of this change in their efforts? CRUCIO!"

Half a breath later, one of the Death Eaters closest to Voldemort went down, writhing in agony under the curse. Eventually, Voldemort let the curse lapse.

"Go, Severus. And when you return, you will have news for me."

Though the words were not said, it was rather clear that 'you will have the news I desire or you'd better not return at all unless you want to die an agonizing death' was tagged at the end of that sentence. Somehow, Snape got to his feet, though he looked none too steady. He gave Voldemort a shaky bow. "As you command, my lord." And then he slowly withdrew.