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Mythic Alliance

Chapter 4

Life continued with nothing changing to outwards appearances. Snape still took points from Gryffindor as a whole and Harry in particular with a firm disregard for words such as fair. As well as without the slightest care for whose fault it actually happened to be. Draco still routinely insulted Harry and his friends. Ron still tried to hex the blonde for his remarks about himself and Hermione, but only occasionally did he stand up for Harry, too caught up in his new romance with the bushy haired girl to consider what that might be saying to his best male friend.

Harry was still in detention. However, for Harry, those detentions were turning out to be some of the best times of his day. He was actually *learning* potions! He would never be a master; he didn't have the patience for one thing. That had been a shock. Finding out that under certain circumstances, Snape could be the most patient person in the world. Even Draco had unexpected stores of patience.

One day Harry asked a question that changed everything. "What do you think my Animagus form would be?"

Draco looked up from the potion he was stirring. "What brought that up?" he asked distractedly. He suddenly stopped stirring waited ten seconds and stirred in the other direction twice. He checked the time as he pulled out the spoon and then turned his attention to his... friend?

Harry shrugged. "I was just thinking about what Professor Snape said." He ignored the sotto voce'd "That's new," from said professor. "All the animagi I know are normal animals. Professor McGonagall's a cat, my godfather's a dog, my dad was a stag, Wormtail," he almost snarled that name, "is a rat... and in more than just body, and Rita Skeeter's a beetle. All of them kind of match their personalities, you know? I'd just like to know what I would be."

"So find out," Draco suggested.

"It's illegal," Harry reminded him.

"When has that ever stopped you?" Severus remarked from above his own cauldron. "Any more than it stopped your father."

"You almost sound like you *want* me to do it," Harry said slowly.

Severus was silent for a moment. "I believe it could be... prudent... for you to have such an ability," Severus finally admitted.

Draco spoke up. "If he gets to learn it, I should as well," he mock pouted.

"Do you have an animagus form, professor?" Harry asked.

"It is not something I've ever had the inclination or time to learn," he allowed.

"Then you can learn with us," Harry said brightly. As Snape started to protest the waste of his time, Harry stared at him seriously. "It might be a... prudent... thing for you to know as well."

Severus slowly nodded. "Perhaps you are correct. However, since you are the one that wishes to know this, I expect you to find the necessary information so that we might learn it."

Harry agreed and immediately after he left, dashed up to the owlrey to send a letter to his godfather. It was three very impatient days later that Harry finally received a reply. He frowned in confusion. What did a book called 'The Magical Musical Mysteries of Miles Mandolin' have to do with anything?

"What's that?" Ron asked while stuffing a piece of bacon in his mouth.

"It's a book Snuffles suggested," Harry replied. "I'm just not sure why."

"Are you going to read it?" Hermione asked.

"I might as well," Harry answered. "He must have had a reason for it."

"Tell me if it's any good," the bushy haired girl commanded. "I haven't read that one yet."

"Sure," Harry agreed easily.

"Are you going to be in the Common Room tonight?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. "Nope, I've got detention."

Ron frowned. "You haven't done anything lately to get detention."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Really, Ron! I've had detention almost every day for the past three weeks!"

"What?" Ron yelped. "That's not right! Just because of that accident?"

"Actually, I think it had more to do with the yelling at him I did in his office," Harry admitted.

"You shouldn't have done that," Hermione scolded. "Still, three weeks does seem a little excessive. Perhaps you should talk to Dumbledore about it."

Harry shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It's not so bad."

Harry left them staring after him in confusion as he ran to the library to pick up the recommended book. During a break, he found some time to look through it. It looked like a very boring book. However, there was something that seemed *off* about it, yet in a very familiar way. His eyes flew open as he realized what it felt like. Making sure he was unobserved, he pulled his wand and tapped the book. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

The printing changed. He quickly checked the cover. 'How to Become an Animagus in 10 Easy Steps.' With a grin, he opened to the first chapter. 'Learning to Meditate.'

Once the break was over, he headed back to class, 'The Magical Musical Mysteries of Miles Mandolin' carefully cradled in his arms and a thoughtful expression on his face.

That night Ron and Hermione snuck down to the dungeons with the aid of Harry's cloak. Ron was worried that Snape was doing something to Harry. Hermione had tried to talk her boyfriend out of it, sure Harry was fine. When she couldn't dissuade him, she followed along, hoping to keep the hot headed young man from doing anything stupid.

They slowly, carefully pushed open the potions classroom door. They snuck in, sure they'd managed to remain unobserved, and listened to the conversation going full force between Harry, Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy.

"What's he doing here?" Ron hissed.

Hermione elbowed him in the side to get him to shut up.

"But you need a wand to do magic!" Draco was saying.

"Isn't Potions wandless magic?" Harry asked, his eyes flicking to where he was sure his friends were hiding. None of them had missed the silent opening of the door, although their conversation hadn't so much as faltered.

"Technically, both yes and no," Snape replied. "Although there is no wand... as such, the ingredients might be considered used in lieu of a wand."

"See," Draco smirked.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he concentrated on the visage in front of him and started imagining it, and the body attached to it, several feet higher than the space they were currently occupying. "Wingardium Leviosa!" he commanded.

Draco squawked as he rose off the ground.

Once sure he had gotten the idea, Harry let the blond boy back down. "See? There is such a thing as wandless magic," Harry gloated.

He suddenly yelped as he abruptly found himself headed towards the ceiling. He looked down to see Professor Snape staring intently at him. "It does no good to learn how to do magic without a wand if you call out what you're doing," the professor remarked as he held him up with no hint of strain.

Harry frowned at him, then started using his magic to try to push himself down. He knew he could have distracted the older man, but he didn't want to do that. He wanted to test himself against the Death Eater, magic to magic.

The two were caught up in their struggle, ignoring everything else. Their faces grew tight with strain, sweat creeping down their foreheads as they strained against each other.

Finally, the tension got to be too much... for Ron. Without warning he burst from under the invisibility cloak, wand out. "Let him go!" he yelled.

Draco showed his excellent reflexes. His wand was out before the first word was out of Ron's mouth. However, he only pointed it at Ron for a second before turning it towards Harry.

Hermione pulled her wand but didn't step out from under the cloak. She was ready to defend her friend, but was utterly mystified when the blond boy just stopped Harry's fall.

"Mr. Weasley! What is the meaning of pulling a wand on your teacher? Fifty points from Gryffindor!" Snape roared.

"You were trying to hurt Harry!" Ron yelled back.

"Ron!" Harry rushed over. "What do you think you were doing?"

Ron's wand dropped as he gaped at his best friend. "He was trying to hurt you," he tried to explain.

"With 'Wingardium Leviosa'? I assure you, Mr. Weasley, if I were as tempted to hex Potter as I currently am to hex you, I would not be using 'Wingardium Leviosa'. And Ms. Granger, it would behoove you to put the wand away and show yourself now."

Hermione never could ignore an order from a teacher, especially as he was staring right at her, invisibility cloak or no.

"Since you two seemed so interested in Mr. Potter's detention, you may serve your own. Mr. Filch will be happy to assist you. Ms. Granger, you may join him tomorrow at eight and Mr. Weasley, he will be expecting you every night for the next week."

"Come on, Professor, he just thought he was protecting me." Harry spoke up even knowing it probably wasn't a good idea.

"Talking back to me Potter? That's another week on your own detention."

"With Filch, right?" Ron put in, still hoping to get Harry away from the evil professor. Especially since it was obvious the greasy git was brainwashing his friend.

"Unlike yourself, Mr. Potter is not that lucky," Snape responded. He glared at the two of them. "Now, out! Every minute you stay is another five points I take from your House," he warned.

Hermione grabbed Ron's hand and started to pull him out of the room. The last sight the red haired boy glimpsed was the infuriating smirk on Malfoy's face and Harry turning away.

"I don't get it, 'Mione! It was like he was actually enjoying himself! With Malfoy and Snape! And he actually took their side against us. That's just wrong!"

"I'm sure there's a good reason for it," Hermione tried to assure him. "Maybe Dumbledore ordered Snape to teach Harry and they just say it's detention in order to keep anyone from finding out."

"But Malfoy can know," Ron scoffed. "You don't think..."

"Don't even *think* of finishing that sentence Ronald Weasley!" Hermione said sharply. "We agreed we were going to support him no matter what. Remember?"

Ron sighed. "I just didn't expect that to include him being nice to Snape and Malfoy."

Hermione glared at her boyfriend. "No matter what *means* no matter what! We turned away from him once, it's not going to happen again." She slowed down and looked at the floor. "Even if it already has."

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Think about it! He's had detention for three weeks and today was the first we knew about it. What does that say about the kinds of friends we are being? We promised we wouldn't make him deal with things on his own, and yet we've been too caught up in each other to pay attention to him."

"That's no reason for him to be friendly with Malfoy," Ron complained, though the bushy haired girl knew through his blush that he understood her. "I mean, if he's not a Death Eater, he probably will be soon."

Hermione shook her head thoughtfully. "I don't think so," she murmured. "Think about it. Which do you think is more likely to happen, Malfoy convincing Harry to become a Death Eater, or Harry convincing Malfoy not to?"

Ron opened and closed his mouth. He couldn't imagine either of those outcomes.

"They knew we were there, Ron," Hermione said softly. "Think about it. None of them were surprised when you jumped out, and they knew exactly where I was standing. They wanted us to see that. We just need to figure out why."