Animal I've Become
Chapter 6
Training
A/N: From now on whenever Harry or Johnny is transformed and they speak, it will be Bold and Italic.
Throughout his five years at Hogwarts, Harry believed he'd seen it all when it came to teachers and their methods. He was sorely mistaken when it came to what Johnny had in mind for his training. Almost immediately the following morning after breakfast, Johnny led Harry to a large spacious room on the first floor, opposite the drawing room. Peeling emerald wallpaper adorned with black snakes adorned the walls and it was evident that Sirius hadn't gotten to that room yet in order to remodel it.
"Alright Harry, this is where we will do our training. Now I know you've got summer work to do, so I've decided to set up a schedule. We will train here three days a week starting today."
Seeing the look on Harry's face, Johnny added "Alternating each day of course so since we're starting today, we won't train again till the day after tomorrow".
"Oh okay sounds reasonable" Harry said.
"Alright we'll begin with something basic, Change into the Rider" Johnny instructed.
"Um how? Is there like a phrase I have to say or something like that?" Harry asked, feeling slightly perplexed.
"Not exactly, at night, when you're in the presence of evil, the Rider takes over; however I want you to focus on what you were feeling before you first turned. Focus on the anger and all the pent up aggression at what Umbridge did to not only you and the Creevey brothers, but the entire school as a whole" Johnny instructed.
Harry nodded and closed his eyes before he began letting himself become filled with the anger and other emotions that he had directed to, or linked with what Umbridge had done throughout the school year. In his mind, Harry watched as his memories of the ending school year flew by and it seemed only one seemed to really stick in his mind.
~*Flashback*~
It was the first Defense Against The Dark Arts class of the year and everybody was talking quietly waiting for Umbridge to appear. Harry was sitting between Hermione and Ron making small talk when they heard that sickening sweet cough from the start-of-term-feast. Umbridge had arrived at last.
"Good morning class" Umbridge said smiling sweetly at everyone.
When nobody said anything, Umbridge clicked her tongue disapprovingly before saying "Oh this isn't good. When a teacher says good morning class, it is custom for the students to say Good morning back, now let's try that again shall we? Good morning class".
"Good morning Professor Umbridge" rang through the classroom.
"That's better" Umbridge said before she began to lay down how things were going to go in her classroom and how she was going to prepare them for their O.W.L.S.
When it became apparent that they wouldn't be actually practicing any spells, that's when the shit hit the proverbial fan so to speak. Many of the students began to ask questions as to why they couldn't use magic, and practice the spells that would for sure be on their exams. It was only when Harry mentioned the need to use magic in order to properly defend themselves from Voldemort did Umbridge begin to lose her cool.
"He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named is dead and won't be attacking children like yourselves while you're in my class" Umbridge said cooly.
"He's not dead, he's alive, and I fought him at the end of last year!" Harry said, anger rising into his voice.
The whole class watched with baited breath as Harry and Umbridge had their vocal sparring match.
"So according to you and your beloved Minister, Cedric Diggory died of his own accord did he?" Harry's voice filled with anger as he felt his blood begin to boil in his veins.
"Cedric Diggory's death is being investigated by the highest authority at the Ministry of Magic, now please Potter sit down and begin reading Basics for Beginners" Umbridge said, that sickly sweet note back in her voice.
Harry simply arched an eyebrow as he asked, "Investigated, Really all it would take to find out the truth about what happened, was to ask for my memory, something that your precious Minister failed to even ask for when I woke up in the hospital wing".
Umbridge's eyes threatened to pop out of her skull as the students began whispering amongst themselves, like them Harry was curious as well as to why Fudge had refused to ask to see Harry's memory which would have cleared things up at once.
"Cornelius didn't ask to see your memory because he, like me believes that you'd tampered with it" Umbridge said simply.
"Why the fuck would I tamper with my memory when what happened, really did happened?" Harry said, glaring at Umbridge.
"Well to cover up the fact that you had in fact murdered Cedric Diggory of course" Umbridge says.
~*End Flashback*~
When Harry opened his eyes, he wasn't surprised to see a ball of gold flickering flames dancing in the palm of his hand. Turning to Johnny, Harry saw that it was hard not to miss the grin on Johnny's face.
Harry couldn't help but smile as well, the ball of gold flames traveling down his arm and across his body. Within no time, Harry had transformed into the rider, golden flames dancing in his hollow eye sockets.
"Excellent Harry, now earlier Professor Dumbledore came and dropped something off for you. He seemed to agree with Sirius's proposition on training with muggle weapons like a knife, or a sword. However the sword he dropped off isn't just any sword, in fact it doesn't even belong to a muggle" Johnny said while placing the case that Dumbledore had left onto the small end table.
Undoing the latch on the case, Johnny lifted the lid to reveal a silver long sword with egg sized rubies placed in the hilt. It was the sword of Godric Gryffindor, the same sword that Harry himself had used to kill the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets in his second year.
Striding forward, Harry picked up the sword from the case, which disentergrated having been touched by the gold flames. Gryffindor's sword however did not melt or even show signs that the gold flames were making any sort of impact on it at all. Instead the flames coated the blade, covering it in gold fire.
Once Harry had gotten a feel for the sword, Johnny grinned at Harry before he himself changed into the Rider. Every detail was exactly the same with Johnny except his flames were not golden.
"Great Job Potter, Now let's see how your sword fairs against my weapon of choice" Johnny said, producing his trademark biker chain from around his biker jacket. As soon as Johnny's fingers had touched the chain, much like the sword in Harry's hands, the chain became enveloped in hellfire.
"What about this room? Won't we like set it on fire with our duel?" Harry asked, the now infused sword of Gryffindor clutched tightly in his hand.
"No need to worry about that, Sirius, Remus, and Dumbledore placed specific spells and enchantments on the room so nothing will happen, the magic bubble if you wish to think of this room as being, will absorb the impacts and dissipate it slowly" Johnny explained.
Harry nodded before bringing the sword up in a wide arc aiming at Johnny's head. Johnny simply side-stepped at the last moment, which sent Harry stumbling forward with the momentum of his swing.
Days and hours seemed to pass but to Harry it neither matter nor bother him. Sword and chain met, their owners desperately trying to outmaneuver the other. At one point, Johnny had almost been victorious. He had swung the chain around and wrapped it around the sword and was just about to pull the golden flame infused sword out of Harry's hand when the young man threw himself at Johnny knocking him down onto the floor.
"Good Harry, Good I think we're done for the day" Johnny said before he and Harry changed back to themselves and went their separate ways.
...
Daphne Greengrass was beyond bored out of her mind. She had already finished her holiday work, much to the not so surprise of her sister Astoria and her parents, Logan and Emma. It had been a few days since Daphne had received a letter from Harry and she was slightly worried. She knew she shouldn't be worried, for in his very first letter to her, Harry mentioned about wanting to take his studies seriously this upcoming year so he was most likely working on his summer work.
Sighing to herself, Daphne got out of bed and went to take a cool shower. Upon finishing, Daphne entered her room wearing velvet emerald and silver bathrobe. Her drying hair wrapped up in a towel. She was just finishing painting her fingernails when Astoria came running into her room.
"You have a letter" Astoria said, thrusting forward Daphne's letter into her chest.
Glancing down, Daphne saw that it was her O.W.L. results. Instantly she felt her chest tighten and a wave of coldness wash over her. Hands shaking, Daphne slowly slit open her letter and pulled out the first piece of parchment. Like Harry's this first piece said that when her letter came with her school list near the end of August, it would hold a list of classes that she could choose to replace with her current electives.
Chewing her bottom lip, Daphne pulled out the piece of parchment that held her O.W.L.S. and looked down at it.
Astronomy-Exceeds Expectations
Herbology-Outstanding
Potions-Outstanding
Transfiguration-Outstanding
Defense Against The Dark Arts-Exceeds Expectations
History of Magic-Exceeds Expectations
Divination-Acceptable
Arithmancy-Outstanding
Charms-Outstanding
Daphne slowly released the breath she was unaware that she was holding. She had done it. A small smile crossed her lips as she went to show her parents.
...
Logan Greengrass was in his study, vigorously working on the latest case to come before the Wizengamot. He rubbed his eyes before taking a sip from the goblet of red wine that rested on his desk. He was shaken from his thoughts on the case when there was a soft knock on the door to his study.
"Enter" Logan said looking up when the door opened and Daphne walked inside wearing the bathrobe he had gotten her a few birthdays before.
"Hi Daddy, I got my O.W.L. results and I thought you'd want to see them" Daphne said walking over to the polished mahogany desk.
"Hmm let's see em" Logan said, his hazel eyes shining with amusement.
Daphne passed the letter to her father who read through the list, his eyes lighting up as he went through them.
"This is excellent Daphne, I'm extremely proud of you and of the work you've done these past five years at school."
"I'm glad that you're proud of me Daddy and I have a small request to ask of you" Daphne said.
Almost at once, Logan arched an eyebrow and asked "And what is this request exactly? If it's to ask if Tracey can come over, not until the weekend".
Daphne fought the urge to roll her eyes, before saying "I know Daddy and no that's not my request, and if it helps, think of this as a reward for doing so good on my O.W.L.S."
"That would depend on what exactly you want" Logan says, his lips crinkling into a smile.
Daphne took a breath before saying softly "I want to go visit Harry Potter".
A/N: End of Chapter 6! Please Read and Review!